Melina's Full Story Explained (Elden Ring Theory)

Melina, your (not) Finger Maiden from Elden Ring, has perhaps the most vague backstory in a game full of vague backstories. Could the Gloam-Eyed Queen shed some light on her mystery?

Footage Credits:
Shirrako
Games from Mars
Indyrael
Gamerpillar
theRadBrad
(and meself)

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

#EldenRing #EldenRingStory #FromSoftware

[BanditGames]

What do you want to see most from Elden Ring's inevitable DLC content?

[fantomeduchateaux]

We need DLCs for
- Godskin Apostles/ Dusk eye Queen
- Miquella & Malenia
- The past eras of beast & Dragons

[StanleyG]

You forgot to mention that when you summon her for the Morgott boss fight, she has the same moveset as a Black Knife Assassin and uses the Blade of Calling as her weapon and also has Erdtree Healing incantations. It's also noteworthy how you can find her entire armor set in the Haligtree in a room right before the Malenia fight.

[ArlunGrim]

Thank you so much for the shoutout! I think you should still make those videos! I try to cover as much as I can but as many commenters have pointed out, I still miss so much, and your previous Ranni and Marika video were so good, I actually skipped both of them because I couldn't piece them together as well as you did.

[actualteddybear]

I really really hope we get to see more Melina. She's so pleasant to talk to.

Also, poor torrent. It broke my heart to see the whistle fade away in Melina's hand. I like to think he held on until he could tell her bye.

[handgun]

It's occuring to me now that based on the games starting location, the scion killing us, I can only assume we were a tarnished candidate to be grafted onto Godrick

[jtones]

If you look at the two tattoos on Ranni and Melina's face, it is almost like they are two halves of the same symbol. With Ranni having two crow fingers and Melina having three, it exactly mirrors the theory that the Two Fingers and the Three Fingers were one entity that split apart, kind of proving that they are two halves of the same person as well.

[ImusakHctividar]

What's also interesting is the fact that her tattoo is clearly faded in the Frenzied Flame ending, leaving behind a skin mark. To me, that seems like the tattoo may have been a seal. That eye is closed when the tattoo is there and open when it's not, after all.

[kanon]

as an artist, I LOVE HER DESIGN! its so simple silent quiet yet very elegant and memorable. her eyes i dont know what but something about it tells me a lot about her.

[stooge]

I was following until the eye mark thing led to the crow nonsequitur, when there's a much stronger and more relevant connection - her marks (and colour) match the Beast Eye Gurranq gives you, which responds to Deathroot. That is to say, Gurranq, or Maliketh, has Melina's original eye, and who is Maliketh's one confirmed kill? The GEQ, former holder of Destined Death. You could further point out that his title was Death of the Demigods, despite every known demigod being accounted for, Godwyn being the first to die in "recorded history" according to Rogier, and again, his only known casualty being the GEQ, suggesting GEQ is a demigod. And that lines up quite nicely with Melina being a hidden demigod, since she's born inside the Erdtree, and has a strong connection with Marika.

There's also an interesting timeline issue - there's a lot that suggests GEQ is an older figure; for one, she used Destined Death before Maliketh, and Maliketh was given Destined Death at the creation of the Golden Order, so GEQ must preceed the Golden Order, for another, the Noble Presence description describes it as a trophy of a god hunt, strongly implying the succesful killing of gods, but every post-Golden Order god or demigod is accounted for (Miquella notwithstanding). But she's also an empyrean chosen by her (two?) fingers, so she can't have preceeded the Elden Beast's coming, and if she did preceed Marika, then not by a lot (she'd be the only pre-Marika empyrean, yet we know of 3 post-Marika empyreans), and obviously she was still around in Marika and Maliketh's time. She certainly doesn't seem to belong to some forgotten age of dragons or deathbirds.

The way to create a cohesive picture of Melina is to see her as being both a demigod child of Marika, and the GEQ. Suddenly the timeline makes sense - as a child of Marika, of course she can be an empyrean. How can there have been successful god hunts? But of course there were, we literally know of at least one slain god - the Fell God of the giants. Therein we find a purpose she would have received at birth - to dole out Destined Death indiscriminate to competing gods, clearing the way for Marika to become the chief and only god. Why was her purpose lost? But of course it was - Maliketh could have only defeated her at the behest of Marika, which would be a betrayal of both Melina, and her given purpose. We know Marika is no stranger to betrayal, especially when it comes to the threat of Destined Death, after all, we're told she betrayed Maliketh without even explicitly understanding what said betrayal is. Maliketh's title as Death of the Demigods now makes sense - he killed the forgotten (possibly first?) demigod, Melina. Melina's actions ingame now make sense - empowering you to defeat the remaining demigods, and eventually even bringing death to the Erdtree, not to mention unleashing Destined Death.

Ranni's own actions also take on a completely different bend when viewed through this lens - shedding her empyrean flesh to live on burned and bodiless, channeling the rune of death to kill demigods, appearing in spectral form to guide the Tarnished, not only is she acting in defiance to the Golden Order, but also emulating her forgotten cousin Melina. Why does she know Torrent's former master - simple, she knew Melina, who IS Torrent's master, after all, literally the first we see of Melina is her riding Torrent. Also, the present from Torrent's former master she gives you isn't jus the spirit calling bell, but also the 3 wolf moon t-shirt ashes, remember the altar at the back of specifically Maliketh's arena depicting a girl with three wolves near her? The wolves that are associated with empyreans?

Marika's actions also suddenly have a more cohesive, and sinister form - imagine an early pre-Golden Order Marika waging war for the Erdtree, with Godfrey, Maliketh, Radagon and Melina leading her armies. Godfrey and Radagon to defeat her enemies, Maliketh to protect her as a loyal bodyguard, Melina to bring Destined Death to opposing gods. What happens after the wars are won? Godfrey is robbed of grace and sent on his long march, Maliketh is sent to defeat Melina and rob her of Destined Death, Radagon is recalled to be with Marika and make her whole again, and then as soon as the Golden Order is created, Maliketh is given the RoD and banished to Farum Azula. An image of Marika an calculating and paranoid very quickly emerges, not only betraying her comrades, but robbing them of their very purpose.

If we wanted to really go off the deep end and make the theory crazy I'd say we can look at potential connections between GEQ!Melina and either Ranni's snow witch master, or the idea of the Eternal Cities trying to make a lord (Lord of Night?) from the silver tears (which is a whole can of worms when you consider Marika might be just that - it would explain how Radagon can be both her and not, and how Melina can be her daughter without any implied father). But again, that's getting kinda out there. One thing that I think that's worth thinking about is what's up with the Flame of Ruin/Forge of Giants? Is there a Flame of Frenzy connection? After all, Melina has some connection to both, and if I'm right, also to the Fell God. Alternatively/as well, is there a connection to the crucible? The Forge is basically an open crucible after all, and Melina does seem pretty attached to life and birth, (and death of the destined and indiscriminate varieties) which seems to be the crucible's field. Anyway, I look forward to learning more in the second DLC because we're definitely getting Miquella first.

[PerryNecessary]

I always thought the “tattoo “ over the eye was a burn from a madness spell. Especially, since when you cast Flame of Frenzy, it comes out of the same eye.

[saber]

Look Bandit, as a theorist, don't worry about trying to cover stuff others haven't covered.

Just do what you want to do. Just because someone did it first doesn't mean you doing it is pointless.

Sincerely, Saber the (maidenless (F for Melina)) Tarnished Seeker.

[ragiukas]

16:20 pretty sure death spread through the erdtree's roots as a result of Godwyn's soulless body laying at the base of the erdtree deep underground. The mark of death got absorbed into the roots and that's how the duskborn came to be.

[Bounsingonbongos]

Becoming host of the flame of frenzy, burning the tree, then using Miquella's needle would mean that Melina survives and isn't pissed at you. Kinda wish we got to see her after that.

[kirby]

This lore leads me to believe that Ranni's Ending is the True Ending for Elden ring. Thanks for making this!

[TotemoGaijin]

Could it be that Melina is the embodiment of the great rune that Ranni "cast away"? Melina mentions being burned and bodiless, and when you find Ranni's real body, its also burned.

[anabenskywalker]

Dang. I always just assumed that Ranni and Melina were the same person. But this actually makes sense. I haven’t really delved into much of the Godskin Apostles’ lore because of I have grown to despise them after a particular boss that happens to come right before Maliketh. But after learning about them a bit more from this video, I can see this being a likely possibility

[jordanbauerly]

Elden ring is the only game in a few years that makes me genuinely want to know what happened to characters. Like when you come back expecting to buy something or bullshit and find a corpse, or worse waiting where your friend, or at least business partner was.

[Eladelia]

One correction to offer: The "Great Tree" is not the ErdTree. Check the Root Resin item description. It specifically says it's said that the Great Tree's roots were once entwined with the roots of the Erdtree. Having them both appear in the same description is a strong indicator that they're not the same thing with some kind of problem with the translation.

[jojulousd]

in regards to why melina might hate the lord of frenzy, i personally think that Tarnished(your character) wasn’t the first tarnished that she guided. I believe that Vyke, who was close to becoming the first tarnished elden lord, was a knight of the round table that was the main character before us.(an additional note: Vyke is the knight we see on the cover of the game kneeling down showing his downfall) i find this interesting because when you read the description of the fingerprint armour at the end of all of the set it reads “Did he make his choice for his maiden, or did some other force lure him with suggestion?” which might mean that vyke seeked help from the Three fingers so his maiden (which in this case could be melina) wouldn’t end up sacrificing herself and burn the erdtree. Vyke was probably too weak to wield the frenzied flame and probably died attempting to burn the erdtree, reason why melina warns you of the defiling nature of the frenzied flame. I’m not a theorist and never really made any theories so maybe some points didn’t really get across but i’d like to know any comments on this theory