Queen Marika's Full Story Explained (Elden Ring Theory)

Elden Ring's Queen Marika is quite the enigma - as is the mysterious Radagon, the second Elden Lord. Allow me to explain their story to you in this extensive part-lore, part-theory video.

P.S. I'm very grateful for you. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time.

#EldenRing #DarkSouls #EldenRingStory #EldenRingLore #BanditGames

[konstantinkachanovsky]

It's weird that you didn't mention the fact that Hewg, the blacksmith at the roundtable, mumbles to himself something like "Queen Marika, please forgive me, I haven't made a weapon that could kill God yet", which possibly hints to the fact that Marika was planning to overthrow the Greater Will and possibly other Outer Gods.

[Nostradankus]

Maybe the solution to why Godwyn was killed is rather simple: Ranni never meant to kill herself, she just wanted to shed her empyrean body. If she just used the black blade to end herself, she would have fully died. But by having Godwyn murdered at the same time, the cursemark of death was split and her spirit stayed alive. If this is the case then Godwyn might simply have been a sacrifice she was willing to make.

[pieromancer]

I do not believe that Marika is evil in any way; I believe quite the opposite. I think it's incredibly important to remember that, since she was chosen to house/hold/be the Elden Ring, she is no longer her own person. She is beholden to, and in many ways controlled or enslaved by the Greater Will (as is the world). I believe that a lot of the things you attribute directly to her in your video are actually actions of the Greater Will enacted through her, or things that she felt forced to do in order to free herself from it. As the game progresses, we see more and more indication that Marika rebelled against the Greater Will and tried to throw off her (and the world's) shackles. The most obvious example of this is her shattering of the Elden Ring (shattering herself). When the Two Fingers speak through Enia, they say "Marika's trespass demanded a heavy sentence. But even in shackles, she remains a god, and the vision's vessel." Her trespass was shattering the ring, and we find her shackled and impaled when we enter the Erd Tree. Still, however, the Greater Will controls the world through her. I believe her shattering the ring was an attempt to free humanity from the Greater Will's control. Her attempt failed, and she was sorely punished for it. Then, Marika concocted a new plan, one which had to be done much more covertly as she was now tightly controlled and monitored. This second plan is the one our character gets involved in, and is the focus of the game. I’ll go over the parts of the plan below, and it should go without saying that everything I'm about to say is purely my opinion and interpretation.

1. The Demigods: First, Marika had her children, the demigods, each take a part of the shattered Elden Ring. The Greater Will tells the player, through Enia, that "The Greater Will has long renounced the demigods. Tarnished, show no mercy. Have their heads. Take all they have left." I believe this was the Will trying to recover all of the pieces of the Ring back from the demigods so it could be reforged completely once again. Her children had quite a number of problems, too many to list. However, as long as they were busy fighting, hiding, and being willingly devoured by giant snakes, they would not come together to bring the runes back to the Greater Will's control.

2. Ranni: Marika relied upon her one child who was very much sane, intelligent, and against the Greater Will: Ranni. Given that Radagan is Marika (or at least part of her), Ranni is Marika's child. The game is pretty explicit that Ranni is the one who orchestrated the Night of the Black Knives, however, there are things late in the game that hint that it was, in fact, Marika who arranged everything through Ranni. One such hint is on The Remembrance of the Black Blade: "Maliketh was a shadowbound beast given to his Empyrean. Marika's sole need of her shadow was a vessel to lock away Destined Death. Even then, she betrayed him." This betrayal was her sending Ranni and the Black Knife Assassins to steal the rune of death from him. The Black Knife armor set descriptions all say "The assassins that carried out the deeds of the Night of the Black Knives were all women, and rumored to be Numen who had close ties with Marika herself." There are other hints. Take a good look at all of the descriptions from the last few areas of the game. If I am correct in my belief that everything in Elden Ring is the story of Marika trying to break the world free of the control of the Greater Will, then Ranni's ending would be exactly what Marika wants: humanity being far removed from the controlling influence of outer beings.

3. Death: Marika needs death to be back in the world. She realized after shattering herself and still being very much alive that she would never be free of the Greater Will unless she could truly die. There are multiple instances in the hub of the blacksmith explicitly stating that Marika herself asked him to create weapons that could slay a god. She wants to die. I do not know if Godwyn's death was part of this plan or just a tragic accidental byproduct.

4. The Tarnished: I believe the entire purpose of the "Tarnished" (the entire group of people, not just the PC) is to kill Marika. The first Tarnished was Marika's own husband, Godfrey. Melina repeats Marika's own words to us "My Lord, and thy warriors. I divest each of thee of thy grace. With thine eyes dimmed, ye will be driven from the Lands Between. Ye will wage war in a land afar, where ye will live, and die." I believe that Marika made him tarnished because she realized she could free him by doing so. By driving Godfrey away, Marika could send a very powerful leader to shepherd a new group of people who would grow in size and strength and be largely out of the Greater Will's direct sphere of influence. Since then, and from that group of people, numerous tarnished have come to the Lands Between. Most have not accomplished much, but Miyazaki's games are always about throwing a million Hollows at the problem until ONE finally gets past the Anor Londo Archers. Also, to repeat "Ye will wage war in a land afar, where ye will live, and die, " I don't believe "and die" is meant to be a curse. It's supposed to be a blessing. Anyway, Marika has little to no avenues of directly rebelling against the Two Fingers left to her. Her children cannot directly overthrow the Greater Will. Her only hope is to wait and pray that a Tarnished will prove strong enough to do the one thing no one else can do for her: kill her. This is why Melina is tasked with bringing us to the Roundtable Hold once we've proven ourselves by defeating a shardbearer. This is why Hewg was imprisoned in the Hold and tasked by Marika herself with forging a weapon that can slay a god. This is why Melina gives us Torrent. This is why Ranni appears at the Church of Elleh to give us the Spirit Calling Bell. All of these people have been awaiting a Tarnished to prove him/herself so they could provide the help that Marika wishes.

5. Melina: We see early on in the game that Melina is watching and testing us to see if we'll make it very far. When we do and we show a lot of promise, she gives us Torrent and starts to reveal to us that she has a purpose that she cannot quite remember. She was made for something very specific. She eventually disappears, after the Erd Tree refuses to let us enter, telling us that she needs to go and discover her purpose. We don't know exactly where she goes or what she does, but, when she returns with her purpose in tow, all she wants to do is burn the Tree. The Greater Will did not allow us into the tree because it is aware of what Marika wants. It is aware that there is now a legitimate danger to her, and, therefore, it. Melina now knows that she needs to burn the tree for us and then teleport us to Farum Azula so that we can get the death rune. All of this only serves one purpose: killing Marika. I do not believe that Melina is one of Marika’s children, but rather an aspect or avatar of Marika, created to serve a purpose. I think that we see the same thing in Millicent’s questline, in which Millicent is an aspect of Malenia. Melina is literally Marika guiding us to kill Marika.

6. The Radagon Problem: Radagon is and was meant to be confusing, and I am still working on how he fits into the whole equation. I believe that Radagon’s abandonment of Rennala and “marriage” to Marika were forced by the Greater Will. I also agree that Radagon probably is “order” in the Elden Ring. Let’s assume that Marika had already been chafing under the Greater Will’s control, and the Greater Will was aware of it. It would want a new, more malleable, less rebellious replacement for her. None of Marika and Godfrey’s children would do. The Greater Will may have forced the Radagon aspect of Marika back to the Tree in order to produce children that would be better suited toward being faithful ringbearers. Their children, of course, turned out to be quite imperfect. Perhaps this has something to do with what Radagon left in Rennala’s care when he left her. In any case, Radagon was used as a band aid to cover the broken, rebellious Marika. Since Marika’s attempt to shatter the ring, she and Radagon have been fighting with each other to break, mend, break, mend, etc. This is why, when the player character finally enters the Tree, it is Radagon that attacks us and tries to stop us. He is the aspect of Marika that wants to be controlled. Perhaps Radagon is simply Marika’s “Order” aspect, or perhaps he’s the part of her that is directly controlled by the Greater Will. Perhaps when Marika started to resist, the internal struggle between obedience and rebellion literally split her in two.

7. Endings: Ranni’s ending is the good one. It is the one that most fits what Marika wants: freedom. The endings in which the PC “mends” the Elden Ring are the bad endings, as they are nothing but the end of Marika’s rebellion and the solidification of the Greater Will’s subjugation of the world. Let the Elden Ring be shattered forever.

[zenfpal]

Something I noticed after watching your video, Radagon's Scarseal also has the criss-cross pattern!

[eWdHViZSBpcyBjZWzbJzaGlw]

The radagon being a split off Great rune with his own form caught me by surprise. I also didn't notice the pattern behind his statue and the pattern being the ER being the same.
Giants cursing radagon with red hair is a shocker too.
Subbed.

[jonnyvue]

My theory is that if you think about his name, "Radagon of the Golden Order", I think Radagon IS order. Radagon is possibly the Rune of Order. Marika possibly originally intended to create Radagon as a means to enforce order in the realm, that's why he was created. But since Marika is also a part of the Elden Ring, removing Order from herself is what led her to disorder and chaos. That's why she made her selfish decisions to shatter the Elden Ring.

[KingOfMilfgaard]

something in regards to Ranni's goal with her own Order I've been seeing a lot around, and I know you didn't cover it yourself in this video but I thought I'd mention it regardless. Once you've completed her full questline and go to the new site of grace in her room and speak with her doll she says this:

"...

I take it thou'st noticed? I shouldn't be surprised.

I thought I might expound a little further...

Upon the order I envision.

Mine will be an order not of gold, but the stars and moon of the chill night.

I would keep them far from the earth beneath our feet.

As it is now, life, and souls, and order are bound tightly together, but I would have them at a great remove.

And have the certainties of sight, emotion, faith, and touch...

All become impossibilities.

Which is why I would abandon this soil, with mine order.

Wouldst thou come to me, even now, my one and only Lord?"


I've been seeing people interpret this line "And have the certainties of sight, emotion, faith, and touch all become impossibilities." mainly to say that Ranni wants a cold dark world where everyone is reduced to a state of childlike blissful ignorance, unaware of the horrors as they exist in a blind and dumb stupor. But for me at least, this makes no sense. Ranni of all people, the one who slew the soul of her half brother and killed her own physical body using the Rune of Death she stole from her half-uncle, culminating in a final act where she slays the two fingers sent to control her destiny and ensure she take the role of a blind follower of its will, wants a world where everyone exists in blind ignorance? My interpretation of that line is this, as it is now with the golden order, all the things she listed as Certainties are things controlled by the greater will, and so what Ranni wants is a world with no certainty. One like our own in real life, where instead of having our fates controlled by a formless entity we are free to pursue whatever we wish. The souls of the Lands Between once flowed upwards to ascension among the moon and stars, but the Greater will has perverted this process and now our souls are poured into the Erdtree instead. Ranni wants to return things to how they were, a life of freedom, and ascension after death. It's why I cannot bring myself to oppose her no matter what I do in each run I have done of the game, as a human being who values free will and despises control it feels like the only true option to take. A life of golden slavery, or the freedom of the night sky.

[kscott]

The finger reader in Roundtable Hold said that Godrick is a distant descendant with diluted blood. I've seen many people say he's a son of Godfrey and Marika, but this seems contradicted in the game.

[benmilne]

Your theory about radar on being the embodiment of the rune of order is so far the only theory surrounding him I’ve seen that makes sense. Super comprehensive video, well done

[paperpand]

I have no desire to actually play this game (definitely not because I am garbage at them), but I am super fascinated in the lore and grapevine of characters! This was a great introduction to an apparently super convoluted and complex character, and you did phenomenally explaining it! I can’t wait for more explanation videos from you!

[marissabulso]

You could cover Elden Ring for ages and I’d keep coming back. It’s not the sort of game I’d like to play, but I love hearing about the story and lore! Thank you so much for piecing it together for us. This is clearly a complicated story. 😅

[anabenskywalker]

I’m so glad you’re making Elden Ring content. I just beat the game yesterday and it’s one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. The lore behind this game is amazing and either close to or at the level of Bloodborne’s

[kingdeplorables]

We know that Queen Marika is from the Age of the Dragons, before the Age of the Erdtree, and her original home was likely Farum Azula, at least sometime during the Dragon God and Dragonlord's reign, and well before the eternal city's destruction. This is implied by statues of a young girl and three wolves, which can be seen in the same area where the PC defeats Maliketh, Marika's beastly half-brother. Maliketh is obviously there because of familiarity and nostalgia's sake. It can also be assumed that she had two other beastly half-brothers. Further, the Fingers were likely already around before the destruction of Farum Azula. At some point, after the Dragon God abandoned the world and Dragonlord Placidusax withdrew to await his return, the Fingers chose Marika as the Elden Ring's successor and Maliketh as her shadow, just as they did with Ranni and Blaidd. This was seemingly done by the Fingers in service to the Greater Will, which suggests that even the Dragon God and Dragonlord were under their influence.

I think Marika and Ranni's stories are very similar, only Ranni actually got the ending Marika eventually came to desire. At least, there are some amazing parallels. We have the chosen Empyrean Marika, the fiercely loyal, beastly shadow Maliketh, and the aged Misbegotten smithing-master Hewg. We also have the chosen Empyrean Ranni, the fiercely loyal, Half-wolf shadow Blaidd, and the aged Troll smithing-master Iji.

It seems like the price Marika paid for becoming the embodiment of the Elden Ring, was the forfeiture of her autonomy to the Greater Will (which likely existed from a time even before the Age of the Dragons). Many of the decisions she made after becoming a goddess-queen, are likely to have been heavily influenced by the Greater Will. One example of this could be the decision to conquer the Lands Between and unite them under her rule, effectively the rule of the Greater Will. Another example is her giving Destined Death to Maliketh for safe-keeping, with the supposed intent being to end true death. And with death out of the picture, the Greater Will gained power over the flow of all life, eventually using it as nourishment for the Erdtree.

To satisfy the Greater Will and maintain her rule, I think Marika, just as she did with the Rune of Death, removed the Rune of Order from herself. With that rune, she, either with or without the help of the Greater Will, created Radagon, a male version of herself. I don't believe the revelation that Radagon is Marika, is to be taken as literal fact throughout the entirety of the story. For a very long period, the two were separate individuals with different desires. It's possible that the lack of influence from the Rune of Order caused Marika to become increasingly chaotic against the Greater Will. It was only much later, after Marika banished Godfrey, that Radagon, whether by the Greater Will's command or through his strict devotion to the Golden Order, returned to Leyndell to become King Consort. Sometime later, Marika, after possibly helping Ranni orchestrate the Night of the Black Knives, acts out one last time in defiance of the Greater Will, shattering the Elden Ring (essentially herself) and cursing everything. It forces the Greater Will to eventually rely on the Tarnished, which is how the PC eventually comes into the story.

[davidalonsosariego]

Considering Radagon was aligned with the Golden Order it's possible that Marika did not split him from herself willingly and it was the doings of the Greater Will in order to have someone as powerful as her under its control. There is also supposed to be some text in the game (I read it online but sadly don't have a source) where Marika talks about him as he was less than her that could make sense if she didn't created him

[Did_No_Wrong]

I love how well you explained what the Elden Ring was and queen Marika's role in the story. I would also love to hear your take on Ranni and her questline as her and Blaidde were some of my favorite npcs and npc questline in the game.

[galaxyplatinum]

Thanks Bandit, I've been looking for some good "Elden Ring explained" videos, and this is the best so far!

[soulmate]

There're some very interesting things Melina said in certain churches, in which she shares with the Tarnished Marika's own words. The lines you hear in the Church of Pilgrimage are these:
"Then, after thy death, I will give back what I once claimed. Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring. Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord. Lord Godfrey."
It seems that Marika intentionally banished Godfrey so that the Tarnished would return one day, instead of casting him away forever. And here she still addresses Godfrey as "my lord, " which implies that she actually still loves him.
The lines you hear in the Minor Erdtree Church are these:
"I declare mine intent, to search the depths of the Golden Order. Through understanding of the proper way, our faith, our grace, is increased. Those blissful early days of blind belief are long past. My comrades; why must ye falter?"
And then there's another line of Marika that she said to her demigod children (I forgot where she said it):
"Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord, Be it a God. But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to sacrifices..."
Then there're these lines you hear in her bedchamber after defeating Morgott:
"O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order. Thou'rt yet to become me, thou'rt yet to become a god. Let us both be shattered, my other half."
Radagon, instead of being open-minded, seems to be the origin of Golden Order fundamentalism, which is implied in many item descriptions (one of them being Radagon's Rings of Light, and then there's Golden Order Greatsword). The people who believe in Golden Order fundamentalism are, in Fia's words, "dogmatic brutes." The Goldmask also laments them being transformed from faithful apostles into mere fanatics. It seems that Marika shattered the Elden Ring because she realized that the Golden Order is imperfect, which caused her children to born as Omens (accursed blood) or afflicted with scarlet rot (which is some sort of outer god), and "blind belief" is not the way to make the world a better place. Radagon on the other hand, believes that the Golden Order is perfect and needs no changing, so he tried to defend it instead.

[rjenyawd]

This is awesome, and super helpful and informative! It makes so much sense that Radagon IS the Rune of Order! Especially with his desire to restore the order that Marikia shattered.
A few ponderances:
- Do the other demi-god children that Marikia gave the runes to, also represent the aspects of their runes the way Radagon does?

-Do you think the Elden Ring is a physical object gifted by the Greater Will? (Like the Triforce) ...or do you think the Elden Ring is an *aspect* of the greater Will?

-Where does the Erdtree fit into all this?

- (For a later video) What's up between Ranni and Melina? There HAS to be some kind of connection there, right?

[dominicbeller]

Excellent video. One thing I’m curious about is where you read Radagon was cursed to have red hair. Everything I’ve read implies he’s actually part giant and that’s the reason why he has it/is upset by it. It’s also implied the war with the giants happened while Radagon was married to Rennala, not after he leaves her to join Marika

[CephalonKet]

I've watched a few lore videos and this was the only one that started making things click in my head. So far I've been pretty much lost as to 95% of the story. It's very nice to finally be able to understand what I'm doing. Thanks!