Elden Ring DLC Lore - How the DLC revealed the TRUTH about Radagon
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- Опубликовано: 30 июн 2024
- The mystery of RadMar is finally answered! The story of the Shadow Lands and Miquella's ascension explains the true origins of Radagon.
Thumbnail Credit: www.deviantart.com/skullker94... 
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1 point you may have forgotten that helps with your theory is that marika is a shaman, and that the shaman are said to have a unique trait that allows them to converge and bind together with others harmoniously.
Moment de bruh
The jarbeings have a seal on their forehead that look like radagon's and marika's soreseal overlapped, so they could be two different shamans that merged or unmerged at somepoint.
This is why Godrick can graft other body parts to himself.
@@joesaiditstrue you're right, and we do find jars in stormveil
@@pilebunker420except the shamans are only female
Bruh that overlaying showing the vetruvian man blew my fucking mind
I actually said “fuck off!” out of astonishment when I saw that image. 🤣
I’ve thought about da Vinci and elden for the longest this is the first video I’ve seen of someone mentioning it but mostly Mona Lisa being a self portrait of himself as a woman he was a follower of the divine feminine def worth a read on it!
Yo for real! Same here
Its that obvious thing thats been staring us in the face the entire time.
so simple yet now realize how it was there all along with marika crucifixion and radagon pose
Radagon’s Icon says “thus did the hero aspired to be complete.” If Radagon is the pieces of a once complete pre-godhood Marika, this completeness could be more overt, in that he literally wanted to complete his being.
*aspire
Marika was Marika first she came from the this other world. The Horned people native to this land capture women and turn them into Shamen who tend the Jars. The Jars are to torture and essentially reduce criminal into a paste and shove them into the Jars. It’s a spiritual belief of those that worship the crucible that all things are one and by combining many criminals into a single vessel they become better than they were. However making a Shamen is also a brutal affair as you need soft hands to tend the jars. So they whip the captured women until their skin becomes tenderized. Marika escapes them and becomes a God, escapes to The Lands Between where she finds a new religion counter to the Crucible. Fast Forward some time later and she returns to bring bloody vengeance upon the people that destroyed her village and tortured her for their cruel religious practices. It was labeled as a crusade but when you know what happened to her this was really just an excuse for Revenge.
Interesting take. It is more in line with the coalescence of the Hermetic Alchemical Marriage (centripetal), than the fission of the Monad into dualities (centrifugal).
@@Broomer52Oh no, it's even worse. The shamans, AKA the Numens, have a unique physiology that allows them to meld with the flesh of others, similar to how plants can easily accept grafts from other plants. So, the Hornsent began capturing and torturing these Numen with instruments like the Tooth Whip, leaving festering sores full of puss all across their bodies, then they'd cram them into great pots along with any other undesirables and seal them up. A spirit NPC outside Bonny Village next to the Tooth Whip says something to the effect of 'Get in the pot now. This is the lot of you shamans. Nigh-sainthood awaits you.' Either the Hornsent were trying to use the Numen to create a Saint, i.e. a powerful and divine being, or they were saying that they considered the Numens so lowly that the only way they could be redeemed in their eyes was by submitting to being crammed inside these pots and serving as jar-warriors.
The Greater Potentates of Bonny Village all carry Butcher Knives intended for human flesh, and they all wear the same headwear as the Hornsent NPC, implying that said Hornsent is a Greater Potentate, and that all Greater Potentates in Bonny Village are Hornsent as well, hence Marika's hatred of them leading to Messmer's war of extermination against the Hornsent and the Golden Order's rejection of the Omens.
@@Broomer52 Tarnished Instrumentality Project
Interesting theory... But, there's something worth thinking about: In the base game, when you fight Radagon. You clearly see Marika's corpse fall from the cross (the rune) and transform into Radagon's corpse being controlled by the Elden Beast. You see her hair turn from gold, to red, before you fight. I think this shows us that Marika never got rid of Radagon. She's always retained the ability to transform into him... even in death. They've always remained 1. The Elden Beast even uses this ability while controlling Marika's corpse.
Miquella, on the other hand, removed St. Trina from his physical form and dropped her into the fissure. I have no idea why St. Trina looks like a strangely, beheaded flower mutant. But with that, Miquella permanently removed a part of himself "love" that physically manifested into whatever it is St. Trina looks like. There's indication that this was a violent removal of part of his physical form as well. In order to find St Trina, you're literally following a trail of her blood (the blood manifests as purple flowers). The flowers are called the Nectarblood Burgeon.
Miquella has no physical form after he becomes a god, in his own way. He basically has to take Radahn's spirit, and Mogh's body, and control them through his charms.
Marika does still have her physical form after becoming a god. She marries and even has children with Godfrey and Renalla, before she... basically marries herself. Marika physically plays the role of the mother (when she's Marika married to Godfrey), and the father (when she's Radagon married to Renalla), in the act of giving birth on multiple occasions. You can't do that without a physical form. So Marika and Miquella's paths to godhood weren't identical. And the end results weren't identical.
Remember as well, Marika was also aided by the Fingers, who gave her the Erdtree seed. Miquella, was just doing his own thing through his charms. So, the results are different because the process is different.
A strange thing about Marika/Radagon... I don't recall anything that talks about them both being present at the same time. There's a church on the eastern side of Liurnia where you learn about the marriage ceremony between Radagon and Renalla. But there was no such ceremony between Marika and Radagon.
When Marika is sealed inside the Ertree, Radagon also vanishes. No one knows what happened to Radagon, until you enter the Erdtree and see Marika's corpse transform into him (controlled by the Elden Beast). This is why the "Marika IS Radagon" is such a plot twist in the base game. Just my 2 cents.
Yup, seems about right
I thought his point was that she did initially divest herself of Radagon, then Radagon eventually found her again? Maybe that is partially why Miquella left St. Trina in such a difficult place to escape?
I doubt that Marika could pull off a Bruce Wayne/Batman while she was with Godfrey and Radagon with Rennala, i think that she divided her body in 2 and when she was trpped in the Erdtree Radagon fused with her again
Radagon rune is what we see in the thorns preventing us from entering, that's part of why radagon hasn't been seen as well.
Radagon has always been a separate being from marika. No where in the dlc was radagon even mention. Some might argue with miquella but his case is different and much more special.
Unlike Marika, Miquella had already started his path to godhood with his haligtree. His initial plan for it was to allow him to break his curse of eternal youth and be reborn anew as a god/order of sorts and he succeeded. Many of the items of in the base game describing St.Trina mention her sudden appearance and disappearance as well as the fact she eventually became an adult, (St.Trina Torch). Mogh action of removing him from his tree and poisoning him with his blood kill him and he departed to the land of shadow. The land of shadow is the afterlife and to many items point to this fact.
@@MiguelSanchezDelVillar When Marika (in Radagon form) was with Renalla, there are these items... it's called the Mask of Confidence. It states:
"When Radagon married Rennala, he ordered the Carian magic preceptors to don these masks. To make it clear that all of their matters were to be kept strictly private."
It's not explicitly stated. But, I think that secret they had to keep was that Radagon IS Marika... or at least something along those lines. I don't think this was something Marika necessarily hid from Renalla, or Godfrey. This is just me assuming at this point, though.
The thing about Marika's ascension is that the trailer implies it went differently than expected. It speaks of a betrayal while she is pulling the golden threads from a corpse. The threads that she then seems to use to ascend to godhood. She also has no lord with her at the moment, which makes me wonder, if the creature she killed was supposed to be the god of the new age and she was to be the lord. In that case, Radagon would be the vessel corpse and she would be the soul. It still works with the theory that Radagon is the body and Marika is the spirit, but in a different way.
this is just a theory, but radagon didn't used to have red hair before the fire giants cursed him, maybe his hair color was blonde before which was the corpse marika pulled the golden hair out of? But that still doesn't explain if it's possible to have 2 consorts for as Godfrey is the first to become elden lord, or maybe she changed consorts after she went to the lands between.
@matterixo There's no confirmation he was cursed by the giants. If anything the Giants Red Braid hints he's part giant.
"Every Giant is red of hair, and Radagon is said to have hated his own red locks. Perhaps that was the curse of their kind."
To me that implies he's part giant, Not they they cursed him. If it said "from their kind" I'd agree with you.
Idk where the theory about him being cursed by giants with red hair comes from. Because if it's from the red Braid description... The theory doesn't make sense to me
The betrayal was talking about the fingers and Marika. The fingers were abandoned by their mother metyr who gained an obsession with communicating with the great will after thousands of years of silence, she broke down and left her children to fend for themselves and the fingers in turn gained an obsession with motherhood, they latch onto potential Empyreans for their own sake and they tricked Marika into thinking the greater will was active during this time, without realising that the Greater Will moved on after creation into who knows where and the outer gods were left fighting for rulership over it's creation, the fingers used this moment to bend history to whatever they wanted Marika was just too obsessed with her vengeance she didn't see the signs, the bitch only figured it out years later probably at a time when Radagon, Ranni or Miquella found out about the truth, since Marika helped Ranni kill Godwyn (most likely even Gidwyn knew of the ploy he was the favourite and with Miquella and Malenia knowing then yeah it's more likely he knew) a ploy to kill the fingers and the influence of the outer gods, they didn't have beef with the greater will cause it was never the greater will's fault and most of Ranni and Marika's anger were geared against the fingers; all of them were offsprings of the greater will it simply meant they had the same potential as Metyr and the Elden beast to ascend into that level of power which Ranni proved in her route.
It's possible that she had Godfrey at this point. In the black castle near the golden tree in the courtyard you find the Lord's Bestowal talisman, which is Godfrey accepting to be Marika's lord. Not sure if she asked this before or after her ascension, but Godfrey was present in these lands.
@@yamatonoryuujin4871 What exactly are the fingers doing anyway? Is the power of gold and thus grace originating from them? This is nagging so much in the back of mind, since Metyr doesn't have any "gold" powers and if I had to guess the gold powers originate from the crucible since they are similar. The only thing that hints towards the fingers having power over both, glintstone and gold, is the fact you can cast incants+sorceries with Metyr's staff.
Like before the dlc I just assumed the fingers were also the ones bestowing the power of gold and grace, but now I am not too sure anymore given their appearance and that they actually never had contact with the greater will at all.
This makes a lot of sense. Ranni divested herself of her flesh as well, inhabiting a puppet of the one she idolized, which was clearly an important step toward allowing her to rise to godhood under the full moon.
In before someone theorized that Godwyn is Ranni's other self....
@@jaredcullum117 i suppose she sacrificed he body with destined death also to not have a Radagon and Marika rebis situation or as with miquella and st Trina
She did so to sever her connection to the greater will. She explicitly says so during her quest. Miquella did so for the same reason, though it's more heavily implied than outright said like with Ranni.
Marika's accension was with connection to the greater will, and as such, she had no need to cast off her flesh. This theory doesn't work. It's never implied that it's a prereequisite for passing through the gate of divinity.
@@saint3614 Melina also lost her body under unspecified circumstances, and her ultimate purpose was to burn the Erdtree, pretty much the greatest act of betrayal to the Greater Will there can be. So yeah, the idea of casting away ones flesh seems to be exclusively tied to disconnecting oneself to whatever god they are bound to.
I'm sure she did it to avoid godhood and prevent the Greater Will from using her, essentially severing her connection with the Greater Will.
right after you said "she had suffered long enough" something falls off Marika's eye like a teardrop.
I noticed that too! A crazy coincidence
Radagon is just T-Posing his dominance
They just had bad time at the end of development. So the T pose was the move.
A person of culture!!
T-pose to assert godhood
Even Master Goldmask died while in the Pose of Power...it was just too much for him.
Saint Trina was miquella's love discarded, I'd imagine thats why marika abandoned Messmer because she discarded 'humanity' and didn't feel like a loving mother to him after becoming a god.
I’d agree with you if he didn’t have the Abyssal Serpent fused to his soul.
They tell you in game context that the reason she did that was because Messmer was born with the serpent within him and his crimson flame. He undertook Marika's wish to crusade throughout the shadow realm , but her new "perfect order" would've been threatened if Messmer stayed due to his "impurities". Marika acted as a human with the power of a God, flaws were going to be a given clearly
@@dillasoul2228 Marika wanted to create a pure world built on impure actions. The irony.
If she wasn't a loving mother than why would she shatter the elden ring after her son godwyn dies?
The shattering was before Godwyns death. Godwyn got his own Rune =Rune of the Death prince. And he only could be killed by stealing fragments of Malikeths Rune of Death. The Black Knife was Crafted by these fragments to kill him.Maliketh became Gurranq because of the shame he felt after Godwyns death.@@ramoraid
i LOVE the vitruvian man imagery i never even thought of that. makes so much sense.
Excellent video! I think you figured it out. This video really just unlocked a whole new understanding of Elden Ring for me. I have been theorizing that Radagon may have been her abandoned flesh and first consort but I couldn't determine why Marika would need that to be the case, but you figured it out! This video is going to be a huge inspiration for me moving forward.
My man Jack.
can't wait for your vid
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽!! I’ve waited years for this answer and stumbled across this video looking for arteia leaf farming spot 😅😅. To me this is the equivalent of finding that secret recipe grandma wouod never share.
The theory doesn't work. We know why Ranni, and subsequently Miquella divested themselves of their flesh- To sever their connection to the greater will/Marika's bloodline. Ranni is explicite about this reasoning, and Miquella is implied.
It is not implied to be required for the gate of divinity, and that's a pretty huge leap, that directly contradicts Ranni/Miquella's motivations for doing so.
Marika doesn't want Hewg to craft a weapon to kill her, she wants the tarnished to kill Radagon (her current consort). Rodrika mentions the weapon is for Marika, but remember: she's totally unaware that Radagon is Marika (as well as being her Consort). Here's the thing though, she sent the tarnished on this journey to become her consort before she was locked up in the erdtree. Meaning, killing Radagon isnt gonna save Marika, she's done at this point (the game kinda lets you know this when her head completely falls off). This is why the Elden Beast spawns after Radagon dies: The vassal of the Elden Ring has been released upon the death of Marika+Radagon
So, then do you think Hewg is aware that Radagon is Marika?
You are very much correct in this sense, and most fail to grasp that what remains of Marika and Radagon are not really people but basically empty husks. Though Radagon being second Elden Lord should have been known to everybody, including Rodrika
Does Marika want us to become her consort? She stays a broken, empty statue even after we re-head her. But Ranni promises her something different as her head disintegrates in the best ending. I think Marika realized she was a slave to the Greater Will, and wanted us to free her, the only way a vessel of the Golden Order could be freed.
Whether we are riding up to Ranni’s door or the Three Fingers’, Marika’s grace continues to point the way forward. No guidance points to the mending runes, though there is one nearby in Godwyn’s case.
Killing Radagon, kills Marika. They share a soul. This is evident after killing Miquella. If you go back to visit St Trina she is dead on the ground and leaves St Trina’s Blossom headgear.
So essentially Marika is guiding the tarnish back to her to kill Radagon and end her reign/imprisonment as a god
@@dodiswatchbobobo the dlc showed she wasn't a slave to anything. The greater will left before Marika became a god.
i do feel like a lot of elden ring lore content is lacking thematic analysis, which i get from your stuff! to me Elden Ring seems to be about the prison of godhood, the endless cycle of striving to achieve it, corrupting the world, and begging for release. In Miquella we see a parallel to Marika, and in St Trina we see the grieving, restless (ironically) conscience of Miquella, begging to be stopped from achieving godhood. To be freed from the responsibility and weight of it all. It's fitting, then, that we as a character are mostly stripped of agency - usually taking the role of the Elden Lord and ushering in another's aspirational vision for the next thousand year voyage. We are Tarnished, the catalyst of decay and destruction, the inciting agent of a new prison for a new god. The consort of whatever comes next. Our role is essentially Consort Radahn's role, and at the end of the DLC, in a sense, we fight an incarnation of our own purpose and futility. A mindless manifestation of war and violence.
this .. entirely threw all the souls games. At the end of it all, the final boss is you. A monster out for blood, to control the world, to host the dream, and be divinity, untill another tries to stop you, as your character did to end the last cycle.
This makes Ranni's achievement in the Age of Stars all the more amazing: she becomes goddess without giving up on her feelings. Yeah, she may had to leave everyone apnd everything behind but, at the end, she still holds her heart (aka her feelings) at the start of her voyage.
The night of black knives is her literally doing exactly what marika and miquella did to ascend, tho she yeeted her corporeal flesh
I dont buy that Marika had to divest herself same as miquella. After Messmer was born the FEAR of the abyssal snake in his eye made her secret him away. Miquella did all that to divide himself from the erdtree and the original sin. Marika failed at making the golden order exactly because she still had all this fears, doubt, fate(radagon). Yet even divesting himself of all this things doesnt help because as Yimir says, it because the mother is flawed. Trina mentions that godhood is a caged divinity and perhaps thats why a god needs a lord? to act as the hand outside the cage.
She didn't. Miquella (As with Ranni) does so to sever connection to the greater will. The motivation for Marika to do the same is entirely absent, and even contradictory to her goal at the time.
Miquella's journey reminds me of Inanna's descent into the Underworld, as interpreted in the light of Jungian psychology as a journey towards completion through a ritual death and rebirth. And I don't think divesting yourself of anything makes you more complete as such, but rather that through that journey you acquire the ability to re-integrate that which you divested yourself of, in order to achieve completion. The question is, did that journey fail for those who attempted it in this story? Godhood in this universe does not seem to be a desirable fate.
We don't know how many gods there were before. I'd say the process itself is still flawed and is missing something important, exactly what you said: after all of that they'd need to re-integrate what they sacrificed, but at that point I doubt any being would care or be capable of doing that.
Unfortunately, the descent of Inanna is misunderstood by most who use it as an example. It's a lesson in going too far. Inanna is rescued by her father who sends sexless beings to save her, and then she returns to punish her consort who did nothing to help her. She also made her consort stay in the Underworld for six months out of the year. It has nothing to do with re-integrating anything, and everything to do with having friends in high places who think outside the box to save your ass.
the Radahn and Miquella plot has Martin fingerprints all over it
Radahn confirmed powerbottom
Radagon conformed to be " woke ". 😂
@@elijahherstal776 imagine if its true. Its like a 10 year old trying to move a big couch all on its own.
Miquella is too much like Griffith, I think it's a lot more like Miyasaki's writing here. But godwyn would make more sense anyways
Was it the gay incest that gave it away?
I’ve been thinking about this for a long time…..I always thought due to how little history radagon had he was once part of Marika but they split and then became one again at a later point
wasn't that like common knowledge in the fucking entirety of the game ??? that marika and radagon were the same
Yes, but the point you seem to miss is whether they were one being to begin with who later split and then rejoined, or if they were always one being the whole time, never split, always like 2 sides of a coin, like Miquella and st. Trina
@@LHSPRIDE i haven’t played the dlc so i dont even know who is saint trina. So marica splitted after being shattered ? Only into radagon or in another pieces too ?
@@bomnitoperro9422 Yes, it is common knowledge that they are the same person/ sharing a body. What the original commenter meant, is that it was never clear if Radagon was always a part of marika, that she split off at some point - like miquella st. trina- to then reabsorb him later again, or if Radagon was an actual different person to marika before they fused together.
@@bomnitoperro9422 Saint Trina was referenced a ton in item descriptions in the base game, most lore youtubers figured out she was Miquella's other half similar to Marika/Radagon
I think the assassination of Godwyn was the breaking point for her and she realized that everything she’d done had led up to this point and she just wanted to end it all so in a fit of grief and sorrow she shattered the Elden Ring and commissioned Hewg to forge a weapon that could kill her. Not necessarily in that order.
Agreed
This wouldn't be the first story GRR Martin wrote where a character viewed as a villain turns out to be a more nuanced wreck and decides everything and everyone has to go along with her/him.
Cersei Lannister, Damon Julian, Royd Eris' mother, Edan Morse just from what I've read
What’s the weapon
@@naturalLin whatever weapon you fully upgrade would be my guess
I have a personal theory.
When Marika and Godfrey waged war against the Fire-Giants and the Fell-God, as well as the Gloam-Eyed Queen, Radagon is never mentioned, yet when Radagon does enter the story he loathes his red hair for its resemblance to the Fire Giants, and Marika has two children, Messmer and Melina, who both have red or reddish hair and an association with fire, while Messmer developed an association with the Abyssal Serpent and Melina supposedly developed an association with the Gloam-Eyed Queen based on the Frenzied Flame ending where she intends to deliver unto us Destined Death, which was previously the purview of the Gloam-Eyed Queen before Marika and Maliketh defeated her and claimed the Rune of Death for themselves.
My theory thus is that at some point, Marika picked up traces of these beings, and they manifested as Radagon, Messmer, and Melina. The birth of Messmer and Melina prompted Marika to separate those elements from herself in the form of Radagon, hence why Radagon and Godfrey are never identified as their father but Marika is undoubtedly their mother.
Radagon likewise purged himself of these influences by having children with Rennala, while also improving upon himself and the Golden Order by mastering Carian sorcery and incorporating it into the Golden Order's doctrine in accordance with the Law of Regression.
When Radagon and Marika joined together again, the Marika-Radagon Rebis was still impure and two distinct entities from one another, and so Miquella and Malenia were born to divest Marika-Radagon of those perceived flaws, yet Marika still considered Radagon to be imperfect; 'Thou art yet to become me. Thou art yet to become a god.' And thus did the two come into conflict after the Night of the Black Knives and the death of Godwyn, when Marika shattered the Elden Ring despite Radagon's attempts to stop her and mend it back together.
This is very good. Given the fluid nature of self and a person this is amazing and fills holes in my head canon.
let me poke some hole in your theory, how does malenia rot and miquella eneternal youth come into play? since both their "ailments" come from the god of rot, a god that we know marika never fought.
The fell god was clearly known way before messmer campaign(the fire golems lore) and the fire giant's never knew of it until the war against them was already underway.
@@ramoraid In the case of Malenia, it's mentioned she was born 'vulnerable' and the Outer God of Rot managed to take root inside her, which is probably similar to what happened with Messmer and Rykard; Marika and Radagon removed the influence of the Abyssal Serpent from themselves, but Rykard was still swayed by another serpent, the God-Devouring Serpent of Mt. Gelmir, which may be the true form of the Abyssal Serpent. So in that regard, the weakness of the 'Serpent' itself was purged, but the vulnerability to the influence of other gods like the Outer God of Rot was not, so when Malenia was born that vulnerability was purged with her and she suffered for it as the influence of the Outer God of Rot sealed in The Lands Between began to take root in her.
As for Miquella? I'd wager he represents something else, the purging of Marika and Radagon's childish qualities, namely their youthful innocence, dreams, kindness, and ability to charm and endear themselves to others with those qualities, hence why Miquella is cursed with eternal youth despite apparently not being claimed by an Outer God like Malenia and why his power is over the hearts of others. Put another way, Marika and Radagon were forcibly separating themselves from the things Miquella embodies that would hold them back, while simultaneously protecting those very qualities, hence why they were fond of Miquella and accepted him going off to do his own thing, even though Radagon should have objected with Miquella breaking away from the Golden Order and taking so many people with him.
On the topic of the Fell-God, the Fire Giants are ancient, and supposedly the art of smithing in The Lands Between traces its origins to them and their forge, which is fueled by the flames of the Fell-God. The giants as a race are also cursed by the Fell-God to act as its servants, with at least one giant always being forced to tend to the flames of the Fell-God and unable to leave. Breaking this covenant had dire consequences, as those giants who left the service of the Fell-God to side with the Carian Royal Family and the Golden Order had their chests hollowed out and they degenerated into trolls.
The Hornsent being aware of the Fell-God doesn't contradict this in any way, as the Hornsent and the Beastmen are also very old races that predate the Golden Order by quite a lot, so even if they never managed to interact with the Fire Giants directly, which seems unlikely given how there are apparently other ways to and from The Lands Between and the Land of Shadow, it's also distinctly possible that the Hornsent were simply aware of the existence of the Fell-God in some form.
In addition, we have little information about when exactly Messmer began his campaign in the Land of Shadow, but we know that Radahn's friend and childhood rival in the art of gravity magic, Commander Gaius, as well as Rennala's younger sister Rellana went with him, implying that Messmer was in The Lands Between with his family for some time before Marika sent him away, never to return, so realistically speaking Messmer would have left long after the war with the Fire Giants had concluded, and it's mentioned that Marika herself killed the Fell-God before she decreed that the last Fire Giant should be spared to tend the Forge and the Flame of the Fell-God for eternity, meaning whatever taint on her that the Fire Giants and the Fell-God might have left would have already been well and truly established.
Moreover, while they obviously don't have full control over them anymore, there are notes talking about the matter of maintaining and operating the Furnace Golems that seem to have been left by Messmer's soldiers, implying that they're the ones creating the Furnace Golems and using them to ravage the Hornsent. After all, Messmer's modus operandi is burning and impaling Hornsent en masse, so the Furnace Golems are the perfect weapon of war for him since they can be allowed to rampage freely across the Land of Shadow. It would also make even more sense if they were a creation of Messmer and his army, as undoubtedly there would be some veterans who had either fought the Fire Giants and the Fell-God during the war, or who heard stories of the war and managed to emulate the power and terror of the Fire Giants through the Furnace Golems. And if Messmer's war has been going on centuries, then the stories of the Hornsent about the Fell-God and the Furnace Golems supposedly crafted in its image could very well be regarded as ancient sagas.
So again, nothing about the Furnace Golems contradicts the notion that the Fire Giants and their pact with the Fell-God is not ancient. If anything, it actually further validates my theory as the entire reason Marika went to war with the Fire Giants in the first place was because they had access to the power of the Fell-God's fire, even if they weren't actively using it, which could burn down the Erdtree, the symbol of Marika's Golden Order. And the proof is that when Marika and Godfrey marched on the Mountaintop of the Giants, the Fire Giants used the Fell-God's power to fight back, meaning they had access to it and were ready to use it in the event of a war. There's also the matter of the ancient Astrologers that predated the Carian Royal Family and the Academy of Raya Lucaria were both aware of the Fire Giants and on friendly terms with them, while the ice-worshipping Zamor regularly came into conflict with the flame-worshipping giants, meaning the Fire Giants were recognized as such for centuries or even millennia before the arrival of Marika and Godfrey.
@@Brutalyte616wonderful tale, congratulations
@@onepiece666 I am uncertain if you're being genuine or condescendingly sarcastic.
So the only issue I've got is that the braid in the shaman village is golden kinda implying that Marika was born Marika and later became Radagon.
Yeah I don’t get this part. And also where does that put Radagon and Marika on the timeline? How does radagon bang rennala, while marika is riding godfrey? Its so confusing.
I think he's kind of off tbh
The Fire Giant Whip says that maybe Radagon's red hair comes from a curse of the fire giants, he could have been blonde at the begining
Radagon is an aspect of marika made manifest in a corporeal form very much like st. trina is an aspect of miquella that manifested itself and then was disconnected from the whole
Edit: although, the lore leaves it quite open for personal interpretation as it is somewhat implied that radagon was part giant (or somehow inherited the giant's Red hair)
Thats cuz Marika and Radagon share a soul and thats pretty much where the connection ends. For most of their existence they are two separate people, each with their own desires, agendas and personalities. The only point in which they were a single body was before they split and then within the erdtree as a punishment by the Elden Beast.
To me Marika and Radagon are a direct mirror to Cersei and Jamie Lannister, with the whole selfcest and everything (as Cersei and Jamie viewed eachother as one person).
In this scenario Godfrey would be the stand in for Robert Baratheon and its likely he knew Radagon from his time acting as the first elden lord, as Radagon was a champion of the erdtree and probably a retainer in Marika's house.
Now if Radagon ever loved Marika and vise versa, thats debatable. I believe he liked Rennala more than he did Marika, but they still had four children together. This too might reflect on Cersei and Jamie, where they share an almost supernatural connection due to their bond as a singular soul.
In summary: One soul, two people
We learn Marika is from the shaman village. An item description that makes me wonder
Tooth Whip
Whip bestrewn with rotting, misshapen teeth. Filthy and seething with disease, the teeth are embedded in the whip and dose the victim with deadly poison upon each strike.
As the wounds ripen they grow inflamed and ooze pus. The flesh of shamans was said to meld harmoniously with others.
Three words: Godrick the GRAFTED.
I'm pretty sure that the dlc story is based on the story of the Sumerian goddess's Inanna's decent into the Underworld. At each major point she has to leave something of value behind until she is naked in the end. There she is condemned to death by her sister but is resurrected after three days.
I might agree with this, except St. Trina is divested from Miquella in whole- if wilting -form, and Miquella does not want St. Trina back at all. Also, Melina's recital of the "not yet become me" tale is rather encompassing of Marika and Radagon's relationship prior to their merging. There's no mention of prior association between Radagon and Marika. Plus Miquella acquires Radahn as the physical manifestation of his order, which suggests that regression/convergence is not a prerequisite for the physical manifestation.
It's not IMPOSSIBLE that Radagon is Marika's original flesh, but that's a lot of layers of heritage (Radagon being descended from fire giants, Marika being the last of the shaman) to dig through, and I'm not sure it survives Occam's Razor.
Interesting theory though.
The only reason why radagon has red hair was because he was cursed by the fell giant outer god
Which is why he hates his red hair
I dont think he descended from them
The outer gods have cursed a ton of marika’s offspring, similar to the morgot brothers born with the fell omen curse,
With Messmer in the picture I have more doubt then ever that we should interpret the red hair association as some sort of hint radagon is a fire giant. It seems that they didnt like their red hair because giants also had red hair.
the description in the original Japanese seems to make it very clear that Radagon did not originally have red hair and this is in fact a curse from the giants against him, probably meaning that his son (Messmer) would be born cursed with fire aspects just like his younger sister
@@pockethugoodss That is not the reason he has red hair. The item that mentions radagon hair say it is a curse of their kind. not that they cursed radagon with red hair.
@@ramoraid it is my interpretation of the description
Seeing that all marika’s children have shaman lineage they are most likely better candidates for an outer god to thrive in but yeah mesmer shares more qualities with the fel god if anything
Your theory here revolving around the Vitruvian man is fantastic! There’s a very reasonable flow of logic that I can get behind. Great stuff!!
Really excellent video. Been waiting for someone to cover this. Succinct too. So many other Elden ring lore RUclipsrs are so hard to listen to and make wild speculation, but yours I great. Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is literally a wild, contradictory, speculation...
I think Miquella divested himself because he wanted completly a new era. That's why he had to get rid of from his golden flesh.
Also we can see St. Trina as physically. Miquella didn't divest Trina. He divested her from himself.
It was to this land that Miquella departed.
Divesting himself of his flesh, his strength, his lineage.
Of all things Golden.
Ranni also does same. She wants a new era, that's why she only kills her body. Because she didn't want to slave to Golden Order. Otherwise, she could easily reach to Godhood.
Lastly, I suppose Marika don't want to kill herself. She might ordered a weapon to kill a God for Radagon. Because in the end we kill Radagon not Marika. Marika stays as God and we became her lord.
Just as Marika wanted.
I’m not entirely sure Marika wanted us to become her lord. Ranni picks up her disintegrating head in the best ending and promises her that things will be different. I think Marika wanted to be freed from the Golden Order, too.
Killing Radagon, kills Marika. They share a soul. Just like when we kill Miquella, if you go back to St Trina she is dead on the ground. Because she shares a soul with Miquella
Umm. No. That's why our Tarnished is unique. The title of Elden Lord was given by the manifestaion of the greater will itself, the Elden Beast, not Marika. We ascend to godhood in a very strange way, no other like us before. We aren't a consort of someone else, no maiden. That's why the age of fractured is my headcanon. Because that's how the game supposed to end. We breaks the tradition. Even Ranni's ending, no matter how you think it, is very similar to Marika's way
@@chakravartin3356 …But the Age of Fracture is still an ending where you mend the Elden Ring and restore the Golden Order. You just don’t add an extra mending rune, so it’s even more of the old ways than the other endings. You don’t become a god, you become Marika’s consort, except she’s a broken statue who can’t rebel anymore, just like in all the endings except Ranni and Chaos. The Elden Beast doesn’t give you your title, that glowing stone statue does when you put its head back on.
In Ranni’s ending, the Elden Ring is dissolved, the Greater Will’s grip on the Lands Between is severed, and the Dark Moon, the Outer God that Ranni gives the Lands Between over to in the process of forging a new Ring and Order, leaves on a thousand year journey with Ranni and the Tarnished. Meaning the other Outer Gods will follow if they want to take that power for themselves. The Lands Between are safe and free from meddling. The people must find their own strength and make their own fates.
@@dodiswatchbobobo broken statue, not Marika. That's why it's unique. You like it or not, Ranni still use the same method with the previous gods. Just like Marika and Placidusax god who made him elden lord. The God need strength of physical form, and so the physical form become the elden lord. What i mean different is, We become the Elden Lord of nobody. We answer directly to the greater will, not through the god.
Beside, isn't that the greater will didn't intervene anything with the lands between, explained in the dlc? That makes Ranni's ending looks silly since she thought the greater will put too much influence 😂
I've been thinking about the Numen a lot too. I prepped a character to RP as a Numen for the DLC and after getting to shaman village and finding person in the tree, I feel so strongly that's a Numen. The shaman were also used to full the warrior jars, and if you look at the fleshy bloated enemies that fit in jars, their features are what I'd expect a Numen to look like. Food for thought anyways
Great video! I’ve been wondering about Ranni’s situation since more lore came out of the DLC, and the implications of her and Godwyn’s simultaneous deaths on her being as a whole and if the Tarnished chose to, her ascension to godhood!
I think something that’s not talked about enough is that heavenly beings are often depicted as androgynous and possessing no gender. I think it makes complete sense that the God of the lands between is both male and female because it shows how gods are only defined into a gender by human perception. So if marika did in fact become a god and was not always one, then it means she would have to integrate into herself the gender which she was not, or her other half. I loved the way Miyazaki explored the idea of how we as humans view divinity and how it intersects or doesn’t with our world. And I also love how the different endings mirror the change in human perception of how god or gods interact with our own world (fully active, destructive, guiding, or completely not present). I loved this video analysis because it really brought the symbolism littered through the story about what divinity is to people’s attention. We focus so much on the narrative we forget what it means to be a character such as a god, Demi-god, or outer god for that matter. But Elden Ring portrays this in such an incredibly immersive and captivating manner. What are gods? What does it truly mean to be divine? Questions I always find myself contemplating. Sorry for rambling. Loved the vid.
Radagon is Marika's physical self divested into many pieces. The mechanism to reclaim his remembrance would be the tarnished collecting runes, dying and repeating. The way to collect his body would be the warrior jars collecting any/every body part they find and returning them to the erd tree. Godfrey and the tarnished are used until Radagon is reformed and then theyre promptly divested of grace. Its a crack pot theory but that fits quite nicely.
Wasn't expecting a Tarnished Archeologist video. Earned yourself a subscriber.
I always thought the butterflies were fragments of Marika and Radagon "shattering" themselves to become one. The pieces left over became Miquella, Malenia, and Melina.
Now this makes me think Messmer and Melina could have been born from the fragments of Marika originally divesting herself and Radagon. While the other two Ms were born from the re-merger later on.
That's an interesting thought
That's a really interesting idea. I mean just look at how Malenia's scarlet bloom produced 5 daughters. Is it unreasonable to assume Marika could do something similar?
There are descriptions in shadows of the erdtree that talk about messmer’s sister that is almost certainly melina
deserves more subs - you have earned one from me - great analysis of what we've seen from this DLC
If I may be permitted to say so, and I mean no offense when I do, I don't think this theory holds much water in all honesty.
Miquella shed his flesh specifically to sever all ties to his old lineage and fate under The Golden Order. This get's established in talks with Ansbach while finding more of the crosses in the dlc, notably the one with his eye. Ranni as well very blatantly tells you, if you talk to her doll at the first grace in Nokstella, that she slew her Emperyan flesh cuz she wouldn't acquiesce to the will of her Two Fingers, and wanted to "No longer be controlled by that thing", likely referring to her Two Fingers, since part of her quest is to kill them.
Add to that the fact that there's just no evidence anywhere to even remotely hint that Marika performed the same process as Miquella, rather, as noted above, that Miquella is mostly unique in his actions to become a god. It seems more implied that he's trying to shed his "humanity", as it were, in an attempt to hopefully be better at godhood than his mother. Unbound by the flesh that likely was part of what made the previous god "no better than men" as suggested by Gold Mask's Rune.
So yeah while I do think the theory is an interesting one, I don't believe to be very strong in light of what's presented in game. There's arguably more evidence in the dlc I think to suggest the possibility that Radagon was merged with Marika as part of her ascension rather than discarded. a shaky theory itself, and based on a single statement from the tooth whip, but just enough to suggest the potential more so.
Apologies for the length.
Thanks for the comment! I see what you are saying but, the only way for us to deduce Marika’s ascension is by the actions taken by others who also ascended. I would find it incredibly hard to believe that both gods we see in game and their journey of discarding their flesh, is not something Marika would have had to do. Sure, they have their own reasons but if Ranni could have orchestrated the NoBK while being “controlled” by that thing. Certainly she could have killed her 2-fingers while in her body, no?
To be fair, there is no evidence anywhere of Marika really doing anything. The developers make it clear that if we want to understand Marika’s journey and past, we have to understand other characters in game.
Also, you kind of said it yourself, each god is stripping their flesh to severe their ties with the old and start a new age. Why wouldn’t Marika’s be the same? Was she the first god? Did she have to start from scratch or did she want something different something new and had to do the same thing the others did?
I love your politeness😁
I think it’s interesting that the Elden ring remains in her womb, and in the story trailer for shadow of the red tree we see Marika pulling golden strands from what looks like a womb. I’d like you to explore that!
This video blew my mind! Subbed! 😊
This is one of the most insightful videos I’ve seen of Elden Ring lore. Thanks!
You know what, you're elden lord now, congrats you got the job you start on Monday. Seriously this helped alot. I'm doing the DLC for the first time on NG++ and I'm dying out here. This is gonna help me survive lol
Would've been nice if we actually got more info about Radagon. The dlc fumbled so much in the lore department imo. Even the Gloam Eyed Queen was completely forgotten.
Probably cut content. The putrescent knight is called "gloam eyed knight" in the game files.
Great video!! Lots of parallel thinking as I've made a bunch of similar observations and come to similar conclusions. But dude! Very cool insight you added to the Vitruvian man observation! I hadn't been aware of that at all. And even if someone superimposed the images like you did I wouldn't have realized any significance other than an interesting cultural reference. Really cool insights and speculation you shared!
It occurred to me while watching that Marika's pose and imprisonment is pretty similar to Sellen's the Graven Witch. Perhaps there is some of Marika's story to infer from the events of Sellen's questline o.O
Did you notice the last petal/crumb when we put Marika's head back together? It looks like a tear
Honestly before this video I was so confused by the whole Marika = Radagon situation and couldn't physically comprehend it as it was so abstract of a concept but now it makes so much more sense. Thank you for the enlightenment and also for this video in general!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Its fascinating that the miquella pose makes radahn appear like a horned warrior and how miquella eventually is distilled down to a parasite existence like the elden beast
Age of Order, has always been my favorite, blocking changes to the Elden Ring means we (the Lord) essentially take over in whatever way see fit. Though I can see FS pushing for the Ranni ending to be canon. Not only do we see Grace guiding us towards it but also just the amount of extra work/effort they put into it shows that.
Also I wonder with Marika/Radagon's body being made of stone is that suggesting their age being 'ancient', seems to be a FS thing to show something ancient as having stone skin (looking at you ancient dragons and turtle Pope).
Age of Order is second best, imo, because you are only forestalling decline of the world
@@julesknight1511Ahh, what is to be human.
All endings are canon, you also get guided to the chaos flame ending, even to the dungeater ending
The red at the end of Marika's hair could just be from her walking and her hair touching the blood stained floor.
Mate
The super imposing of radagon and marika 🥰 10/10
I agree with Jack in regards to perspective changing lol you definitely have made it more difficult for me to picture Marika as traumatised queen capable of eating her babies like hamsters.
I have been trying to reconcile why messmers hair is red, either he was born of marika when her hair was red after being cursed by the giants and before radagons creation (which involves billion assumptions) or is radagons son (which requires a billion assumptions), and I feel like your "timeline" has kind of narrowed down things in my brain 😂
Well made, I enjoyed that 😁
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Yeah I believe that marika and ranni have been working together and were behind the shattering. Marika realized after becoming a god, it felt like a caged divinity (referencing st. trina's words). Thus, she conspired with Ranni to help her, who aspired to become a god too.
That's unlikely. Ranni's plan culminates in Marika's demise, why would she help Ranni? Also, the night of the black knives drove Marika insane.
She was a god, she had no reason to make her plans covert, just look at all the horrible things she did as ruler of the Golden Order, she shattered the Elden Ring knowing of the consequences and suffered them. She broke the logic of the world in a desperate attempt to save her son
@odd-eyes6363 They wrote Marika's god hood felt like a cage. You just answered your own question: *to be free.* Look at her history before "Marika the Eternal", why wouldn't she want it to end?
@@crazy13alex still, why Ranni? If she conspired with anyone it was with Godfrey, that much is clear, as she ensured his resurrection by sending him away. And the death of her son's very soul, which culminated in the shattering, clearly shook her to her core. Ranni destroyed the only good thing Marika had in her life and stripped away the hope of reunion even in death.
Ranni did not become a god in her ending
@@YamiAi she did. The whole purpose of her questline is that she wants the Lands in Between to be free of the influence of Gods and anybody's Order.
During the ending, she takes us with her to go far away. Why? She had to leave the Lands in Between to take out ALL influences of Gods and finish her mission because she is a God herself.
I don't think the saturation of Marika's hair in the trailer is a mistake. I think it's a FromSoft patented "leaving it vague" thing, where they put enough red in it that people could make that connection, but not enough for it to be obvious or overt.
I'm in awe. I never thought to analyze marikas pose vs radagons pose. there's always another layer
Agreed on all counts but one thing I think to add - the elden beast was inside Radagon/Merika (it makes up Radagon’s lost arm and emerges once defeated). Merika was a puppet of the elden beast and needed it needed to be killed for someone to kill her - thus the Tarnished
What a beautiful summary ❤
Some contributing evidence for this theory might be the stone figure in the hollow tree in the hinterland village.
The figure has the exact visage of radagon, radagons straight hair, a flat chest, and marikas signature braid. However, the figure is definitely feminine.
This is the first evidence that made me consider that marikas ascension involved this figure, and that maybe this is what marika was before her ascension.
One important part of the lore you forgot, is that during the War with the Giants, Marika fought and defeated their Fell God on her own.
Swing on the spiral
of our Divinity
And still be a human
-Tool
The Age of Maynard, true understanding of the errors of past ages.
Lateralus is a nice album, good taste
Excellent video, this makes so much sense
I thought on similar lines when discovering St.trina. Almost explaining the whole situation of if their one or two people. Thank you for diving in more then I i could
Wow this has helped me understand the story so much! It also explains the law if regression....everything Marika she'd is slowly coming back to her
Excellent points about casting off the unwanted self. But to your point at 7:34, I actually don't think Ranni Achieved Godhood in her ending. Ansbach states that the Gate of Dinvinity is used to become a God and Ranni never does this. She and the Tarnished start a new age, but she herself never states that they are going to rule or execute any grand plan.
Agreed, Ranni is in fact pretty openly about removing the direct influence of the gods/outer gods
You do consummate in a sense. She calls you her consort, as others have. She is corporeal and you flesh. She’s not a god as blessed by the golden order but a god nonetheless.
@@chadly211bucks this. If she wasn't a God, she didn't have to leave for her to finish her vision of the Lands in Between. Her choosing to leave means that she also became a God herself, the existence she didn't want meddling with the Land anymore.
@@RookeSpecs she leaves to be able to take the elden ring away from the lands between and together with the tarnished completely block the outergods from interacting with the lands between
Great video, as always! Do you have any thoughts on the parallels between Saint Trina and the Anima Archetype?
During my playthrough I couldn't help but notice so many Jungian themes about Trina and her associated bossfight and levels.
(In my POV it feels like an attempted split from the Anima that resulted in the Anima becoming depressed and wishing for the Self (Miquella) to be killed)
I think it's pretty ironic that Trina represents the sound and "awake" part of Miquella as she is fully aware that his plan is a form of a unattainable dream/delusion.
Pretty make sense too, since she's the grown up while Miquella remains eternal young, even though in the end she's the baby head and he grew to adulthood
Good job man. Keep going.
Before the fight with Radagon, Marika turns back to Radagon after falling back to the ground, to her physicality
- Marika follows the Greater Will. She "breaks" or "mixes" with Radagon (no clear confirmation). She becames one with Radagon at some point after being 2, but we don't know if they were one at the beginning.
- Miquella never mention following any Greater Entity. All we know is that he is cursed, and in this world most often that not that is tied with some entity (scarlet rot, horns and madness are tied to these eldrich beings from beyond). Unlike Marika, we know he somehow is St Trina and he removes her to became godlike.
- Rani follows the Moon, and only removes her body (on purpose or by accident, the intentions behind that event are still unclear)
- Mohg, follower of the Formless Mother only needed to have Miquella became adult to be godlike (that we know of), something that doesn't make sense if Miquella always need to strip himself of body and emotions.
So.... yeah most conclusions are speculations. There is not enough similarities between the 3 gods to get anything. If Miquella follows the Greater Will then we could infer that he needs to remove St. Trina and so did Marika with Radagon, but with Rani in the mix and no idea if there is a higher being behind Miquella is a wild guess.
I bet Mesmer is the fist son of Radagon and Marika, and the fist marika's ever child
Great theory, especially considering Radagon feeling compelled to become "complete."
They should make another dlc focused on Renna
Excellent theory! It makes me wonder if Marika had Miquella and Malenia thinking that, now that she and Radagon were complete, that the curse would be lifted. But then again, assuming Messmer is the son of a combined Radagon and Marika, she was never going to escape her curse...
13:41 if u look on her eye it looks like some sort of Ash/tear comes out or im just crazy 😂
Could it be that Radagon was the result of mimic tear ritual for Marika to be rid of the curse the Grandmother Hornsent Empyrean put on her?
Isn't it amazing when writers have fans do all the hard work to flesh out their lore
The idea that Radagon represents the flesh just completes the whole rejection of the crucible in favor of the erdtree
When Miquella divulged his love, it was specifically his love of self that died. He is still clearly able to love Radahn and showing compassion to an entire kingdom clearly communicates love. Saint Trina seeks to protect Miquella from the bondage of being a deity, that is self-love. Miquella had to let go of what was good for himself to obtain the power to serve everyone in his kingdom. Clearly he has sacrificed just as much as his flowers sacrificed to obtain compassion, leading by example.
Thematically, it makes more sense if it is love in general he divested himself off, thought. Simply because he is divesting himself of things in a general sense. Doubts, fear, flesh. It doesnt make sense that he only divests himself of a fraction of what makes love overall. He still wants the same thing he wanted in the beginning, an age of compassion, but he wants it on an intellectual sense. Also, we don't really know how Radahn feels about the whole thing. The man never speaks, and frankly, never looks very much there at all.
This guy right here understands what I've been thinking that Miqlliah is following in Merkias foot steps to ascend to godhood! LITTERLY THANK YOU!
You earned a subscriber with this one man
dude the vetruvian man has been staring us in the face this whole time wtf 🤣 also whats the track playing in the background? great vid man!
This is a great video. I'm not really a gamer, but i am playing elden ring at the moment and look forward to playing the DLC. However, I am writing you for another reason that may interest you and if not, no worries. Some of the insight you touched on is central to understanding the hermetic wisdom of the ancient world - the very same that inspired DaVinci; the mystery schools. It may be a subject that you would enjoy investigating...or not. Anyway, just wanted to say, great video! Keep it up!
Very well done.
oof, and the ending line with that shot of Marika. Hits hard.
I've never noticed that before.. I thought she was just crumbling. But they definitely deliberately made that look like a tear being shed.
To back up the topic of a spiritual god needing a physical vessel to exert his power, let's also notice that the Elden beast weapon is Radagon's body...
Great video! I think this means the Mending Rune of Perfect Order is best, since we get the Golden Order without a cursed god who decides who does and doesn’t get the blessing of grace.
Radagon is Ratigan confirmed
🐀
😎👍
I am puzzled, instead of having us speculate this much, why can't the creators just reveal the true lore behind it all? Yes, unraveling the story is fun and all but there seems to be so much confusion and guessing that I am seriously wondering how there has not been a serious in-depth book explaining it all.
I love this answer. It melds the game's clues together better than the body of a shaman.
What I'm still hung up on is the seeming absence of a timeline. How long did Marika have divinity until she wanted it to end? Marika had a humble beginning in the Shaman village. At what point did she have Mesmer/Melina? It would have to be after she became a god to justify Mesmer's curse, right? Then without Mesmer, how did she gain enough power to ascend to the gate of divinity? Was it something to do with Mesmer's father? Was this father Radagon? What did the fingers do to aid or guide her?
I don't know.
Radagon even after finishing the Dlc is still my most beloved and respected fromsoft Boss.
He was a true chad
As Miquella rebirthed Radahn, maybe Marika rebirthed Radagon in some way, like he was a shaman with red hair that she knew died
That thumbnail screams AI art
Edit: I checked the credit link, yep
Thank god for this video pullup in my recommendations
I have never play this game in my life. But I love the Lore from all these creators. What a passionate community.
My guess about the shattering is that she, the trauma event horizon, snaps with Godwin's death, the moment she tought she was free from the curse upon her progeny, so she went to shatter the elden ring and end it all, only for Radagon, her only remaining still rational piece, did all he could to stop or minimize the damage of her tantrum, puting all her backup plans in motion(us, hewg, the return of grace, I'm sure even Melina was in the plan, she is probably the one responsible for getting people in the round tablehold)
I think Godwyn's death is definitely what caused her to shatter the Elden Ring. I've read theories claiming otherwise but I really don't buy them
I think Radagon was 100% in control of himself, I don't think Marika had any control over him. His whole thing was being a loyal follower (Marika calls him essentially a loyal dog) of the Greater Will.
Marika wanted you to kill Radagon and take his place as her consort, but as we see in the ending: killing him kills her as well. Once you kill them, the ones who were responsible for the Elden Ring, that's when the vassal itself is summoned. It was the greater will's last hand of cards to regain some form of control. Once you kill the Elden Beast, you end up a supreme being: God+Vassal
Totally agree. Her entire life was built from trauma and Godwyn was the last straw. Her character is quite tragic - definitely a GRRM influence there.
You have to consider that Marika may no longer possess the ability to care for her children. She may have divested herself of love just as Miquella did. Very possible the black knives were used by Marika through Ranni.
@@jimbo2553 Not only that but the game, especially the DLC, talks about abandonment (almost exclusively childhood abandonment). What that does to the psychology of a person, god, entity, is very pervasive in the story. The lack of trust, lack of love, fears, making yourself needed, not just wanted, etc.
nice connecting mariaka n radagan statues with the vitruvian man i never thought of it that way
I really like your approach of analysing the lore through a broader cultural lens. Really sets you apart from other channels.
This is a really good video! One question though. How do we explain the physical body of Marika in the Erdtree that comes back after defeating the Elden Beast so you can put her head back on?
this video unironically changed my life
I think this explains why Radagon suddenly left Renalla. Marika was tired of being a god, so she called to her other self and forced him to come back to become one again
Huh. I havent noticed it before, but when you mend a ruin at the end and place Marikas head back to her body ashes walls from her eyes and it kinda looks like she is crying.
Has anyone else ever referenced the Vitruvian man when theorizing about Marika/Radagon?? This is outstanding.
I did 2 years ago :) but that video didn't take off like this one for some reason
Well congrats on the quick success of this one…you’ve got a new sub in me.
Is Vitruvius man intended by the game developers or is it coincidence? If it is the Vitruvius man reference means nothing.
I agree with you and I think it's even more than that. I think Marika was, at first, trying to birth a successor, a better god than she was, and that's why she made so many children.
The first children she made were Mesmer and Milena, one, the latter, who wasn't cursed, but both of which were not Empyreans, so couldn't be her successors.
Then she tried Godfrey and the only physically and mentally fit child she had with him, one who wasn't cursed, was Godwyn, but Godwyn wasn't an Empyrean. Then, as Radagon, she has three children with Rennala and, in Ranni, the first Empyrean, who was not only not cursed, so physically and mentally fit but also was able to succeed her.
After that, I think Marika believed that it was Radagon's flesh that was the answer to birth her successor, since Radagon was able to have children who weren't cursed. She didn't want Ranni as her successor because Ranni, albeit an Empyrean, wasn't officially of Marika's blood, since Marika hid the fact she was Radagon. So Marika reunites with Radagon and births two more children, both Empyreans, but, again, both cursed, and thus unable to become better gods than her.
I believe that when she realized Malenia and Miquella's imperfections she turned back to look upon Ranni and decided to make Ranni her successor after all, but with Godwyn as Ranni's Elden Lord, so that Ranni and Godwyn's children could then be Marika's solution to the curse and make divine progeny that was fully Marika's, and not cursed.
And thus it happened that, when Ranni rebelled and ruined Marika's plans by destroying Godwyn's soul and her own body, Marika decided to destroy the Elden Ring and imbue Hewg with the task to create a weapon able to destroy her divine being, because her own faith in the rightness of godhood was shattered.
Ranni tells us, to our face, that she refused to become a god. She killed her own body to refuse her fate because she doesn't believe anyone is fit to be a god. She doesn't accept that anyone should drive the fate of others. This is why her wish is to abandon the Lands Between with the Elden Ring's runes and go to the stars: to fight the Outer Gods and leave people to decide their own fate, with no gods or lords above them.
As for Radagon, as the physical side of Marika, he represents humanity's fear of death and of change. Radagon wants the Order to continue so that he will continue, something impossible if Marika dies.
Elden Ring's story is incredibly beautiful because it acknowledges that.
Miquella divested himself of more than his physical body, throughout the dlc we have people implying that he gave up everything to be born anew as a god, his body, emotions, the power he possessed currently. I think Radagon isnt just Marika's physical body and animallistic traits, but that as the lore says: he literally is Marika, the "everything" that marika left behind to be reborn as a new being. Also, with miquella its easy to see why he didnt have a body seing as how he divested himself of his flesh one piece at a time(though his body is kept eternaly young, each piece would die once disconnected to the source of their power like how a human hand would decay and rot after being cut off from a still living human body) however his power to charm and his love and compassion returned to him when he ascended because they cant really die. But just because we've only seen miquella do it this way doesn't mean its the only way, this is just speculation but as of now there's nothing saying that Marika could just have dievested herself of everything all at once, which would have left her divested "everything" as a whole without the need for a great rune of mending. And the maybe she used that divested everything as the host body for her lord but since it was perhaps already alive with some level of her consciousness she could join him in that body since that body was technically "her". Then she would have had godly power AND a body. Also her being a purely spirit raises many questions as to how her many, many children came to be conceived and delivered without a physical body. But that's just another theory i have to add to the crackpot, if ever they confirm it, we'll know then.
Good Job. This video will blow up.