With Radagon being part of the final boss of Elden Ring, and Marika being his "other half," some players may want to understand their connection.
With open-world games being as popular as they are now, it's almost expected that such vast lands designed for exploration deserve living, breathing characters that inhabit them. In Elden Ring, many players knew that this would be the case as FromSoftware is known for putting in as much lore and characterization as the developers can at every opportunity. Technically, one example of these well-written and developed characters are Radagon and Marika.
Queen Marika the Eternal and Radagon of the Golden Order are indeed two different characters, but they're also quite literally one and the same. This may surprise some players once its revealed, but that's only natural in a game like Elden Ring where most extra lore is optional and only found in specific quest lines and areas. There are some blanks with Radagon and Marika's stories still, but there's enough to see the full picture for those who want to seek it out.
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What Elden Ring Reveals about Marika and Radagon
Marika and Radagon's shared identity is one of Elden Ring's many twists, and as such, details about how and why they're the same person are left vague at best and unexplained at worst. This is particularly true about Radagon, who has no explained origin while Marika's history as a Numen and how she established the Golden Order are made clear to fans if they go and look for it.
Through this, it isn't entirely clear if Radagon and Marika's shared identity was known to them before they were wed, if Marika split herself on purpose or not, or if it was truly the "skeleton in Radagon's closet" in that once they found out, they kept it to themselves as best they could. It's likely that Marika and Radagon didn't understand what they had in common as the two have had other lovers and bore children with them. It's highly likely that Marika realized what Radagon was to her with her God-like powers, and thus, she called him to her.
As the story only insinuates and makes it clear that Radagon and Marika are the same person without explaining how, it's understandable if fans don't get how Radagon is Marika's "male other self" fully. One way to understand it is that they're soulmates in the sense that they are two halves of the same soul, born in different bodies. However, it's made perfectly clear that the two have different views, as Marika shattered the Elden Ring and Radagon worked to repair it after.
In terms of inspiration, Marika and Radagon are very much inspired by the alchemic concept of the Rebis; a being that was separated into a White Queen and a Red King that were destined to unify into a transcendent being "empowered by a dragon." The "dragon" for Marika and Radagon is most certainly the Elden Beast, the dragon that is born from deep within Radagon and serves as the true final boss.
There's still plenty of room in which to explore Marika, Radagon, and the fact that they're one and the same, so FromSoftware could either leave it all to fan interpretation or provide clearer answers in the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. Some fans believe that due to FromSoftware having a history of making DLC expansions that explore events in the past, Elden Ring could do the same. If that's the case, then the truth behind Queen Marika would be a great place to start.
However, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is likely still a ways away considering it wasn't shown off at Summer Game Fest or any other showcases as of late. This may kill the hype for some Elden Ring fans as lack of news doesn't help the speculation that the DLC won't be out until next year, but From Software will likely reveal more details when the time is right. Players will just need to keep an eye out to know more at a later date.
Elden Ring is currently available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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