Queen Marika's Grand Betrayal - Elden Ring Lore

This is almost a quick dive into the recent history of the Lands Between... And while I'm not covering various wars and other important historical stuff, I hope I cover that what is most relevant to Queen Marika in enough detail :)

#EldenRing #Lore

[maureenbouterse]

I love how many smaller creators are getting the time to shine when it comes to Elden Ring lore. So many different perspectives on offer.

[jonnymario]

There is one detail that I noticed.
When you kill radagon, the elden beast kinda emerges from the floor and then grabs radagon/marika with its right hand
And then we see it with a double bladed coiled sword in the same hand.
For me he turned them into a weapon, a tool.
Not many conclusions for that but its kinda cool.

[hawkwood]

this video is STILL the best explanation of Marika's betrayal

[lexiani]

Hi, just wanted to say I miss you and hope you'll get back to doing videos as and when you can! Thanks!

[DonPetexX]

One thing to note is that in the lord of chaos ending, Melina swears to give us destined death. She herself is related to the black knives somehow since her moveset is the same as them.

[house]

Very good write up!

Marika's motives have been the hardest one for me to get a clear grasp on. depending on whom you believe in the game, she can range from being a fickle and insatiable despot who rigged the laws for immortality, yet broke down at the first sign of betrayal in Godwyn's death, someone who shut herself away out of fear of being replaced by a new empyrean, into being a 5D Chess masterplan genius.

What hasn't made sense yet are the chains of events in the endgame. Why was the tarnished sent to Farum Azula, and why did Godfrey only show up in that moment. One theory states that Maliketh was to stall/stop you while Godfrey returns uninterrupted as Elden Lord. Another is that you were sent to Farum Azula to retrieve the Rune of Death so Godfrey can take it from you and slay the Elden Beast himself. Yet Godfrey apparently had none of the outer gods' favour, and reinstating him as Elden Lord will only serve to restore Marika's rule, but now without the Greater Will's interference (maybe that's the goal all along?)

...idk anymore haha Marika is the toughest character to crack

[anthonylateano]

also dont forget that hewg prays to marika once, speaking of a promise he made to make a godslaying weapon, so whats up with the roundtable hold and how its clearly connected to the erd tree. so many things to discover

[scottydottyduuuud]

Legit one of the best takes I've seen. See you haven't uploaded in 11 months and you're in Russia. I hope you're safe and thank you for the content

[kingkangiv]

I am probably wrong, but I thought the spear was Radagon, who has red hair and no spear once he manifests.

[MenrvaS]

Marika should not be the one who orchestrated the Night of the Black Knife as the one who stole the Rune of Death was Ranni.

Maliketh also punished by Marika to ever hunger for Deathroots which are the product of his failure to protect the Rune of Death. You can actually hear Gurranq lamenting about this.

I think Marika is actually trying to stall the succession and trying to free herself from Greater Will. Why? Because the Full Elden Ring actually have the Rune of Death as a part of it. It was taken out by Marika before the creation of the Golden Order. Also, the shard that pierces her, is probably be the work of the Two Fingers by Black Knife Assassins as her punishment for shattering the Elden Ring.

One speculation, Marika is the vessel of the Elden Ring, this can only means one thing. She was trying to destroy herself. This is why her body is half destroyed and close to fall apart. Radagon tried to fix it but to no avail, so they was held together by the Rune Arc and pierced by the shard to stop Marika from trying to destroy herself again. This is because they cannot find a successor anymore and try to rule through an Elden Lord.

Holy shit this might actually be true, Marika is trying to shatter the Elden Ring WHICH IS HERSELF. This makes alot of sense because she used the hammer in her right hand and smash her left hand which makes the left part of her body gone.

[doctorkobayashi]

Love your take on ER lore. It's probably the most unique i have seen so far and still one of the best established. Especially your take on empirions is interesting and as much as you speculated on Marikas motivation in this video, the explanation of empirions you made could make it pretty clear cut.
She didn't want her family to experience death, so she took the rune of death from the Elden ring. But if she found out that her empirian children were destined to wage war between them for the next great order everyone bound to different outer god (or what is the term) she would want to prevent that. Making her betrayal aimed not only at the Greater will but at the rule of outer gods as a whole so her children wouldn't have to compete and die for them.
Recently I also saw a video about mistranslations in Ranni's ending that claimed that it's not about a new age of stars, dark moon or whatever but about taking the great oreder away from the Lands between. So if Ranni and Marika conspired together to this end, it would also align nicely.

[javax]

The thorn in Marika's body could be Amber Starlight "If the stars command our fates, then amber-hued stars must command the fates of the gods"

[GreyMASTA]

About the thorn in Marika: Bruh the Elden Beast grab attack literaly hangs you to the rune arc and pierces you with like 30 of those thorns. Exactly what it did to Marika to punish her. No need to look any further.

[lostgirl.]

I have to say I think you could be my new favourite Elden Ring lore video creator/narrator and ive watched alot of lore videos 🙈🥸. But your take on the lore, the pace, your choice of imagery and music is on point. Please keep up the amazing work 🙏 👏⭐️

[galaxyburnk]

I think there's one part that's being missed here: Morgot and Mogh. So, you're Queen Marika, a god, married to a great warrior, with a perfect son in Godwyn. Then, you have two children who are born cursed, who you have to either kill through de-horning or banish to the sewers. You did everything right, you served the Greater Will, but now that same Greater Will is telling you that you don't get to love your children and it can't protect you from the Omen curse. So you start to have questions - surely there's a reason for all of this? But there isn't - there's just this cosmic parasite that goes from planet to planet hoovering up souls, and everyone around you (even your literal and figurative other half) believes that it's still a benevolent god. Then you start to come up with a plan to cut this god off from its food source by removing 'Destined Death' (where a person is given to the Erdtree to be consumed) and corrupting the Erdtree. Perhaps Godwyn was even a willing participant in this - maybe he even orchestrated his own death without his mother's knowledge in order to free her and his brothers.

[MidnightatMidian]

The thorn piercing Marika seems to be made of Blood. Maybe related to Mohg??? And I believe the scar on the belly of the Elden Beast was an indication that it has been fought before and seriously damaged once at least. Just my opinion thought. I'm pretty confident we will have more clues in futures DLC's.

[HeavensRipper-hesz]

This video is CRAZY good. It connects a TONNE of otherwise unexplained events. And it connects them in very well-written ways, that I'm honestly inclined to be believe were the canon intentions of the writers.

[hanstelgotto]

Excellent, this makes it abundantly clear why Radagon left Renalla as well, seeing it as the best option to secure the continued prosperity of the Golden Order

I'm sure some finer details will get ironed out with time, but the broad strokes here all seem to make total sense

[loucas]

How do we kill the other demigods if the rune of death is not in the elden ring? This part has me confused

[faultyserotonin]

Wow. Great original take. I really like your theories! Keep the videos coming