Queen Marika the Eternal (2024)

Queen Marika the Eternal is the reigning divine sovereign of the Lands Between, and a vessel for the Elden Ring. Her offspring possess demigod status and are bearers of the Great Runes.

Overview[]

Queen Marika was originally of the same stock as the Numen people.^[1] She was an Empyrean who would ascend to godhood and become the vessel of the Elden Ring.^[2] As an Empyrean, she was gifted a shadow, her half-brother Maliketh.^[3] Desiring a world free of Destined Death, she removed the Rune of Death from the Elden Ring,^[4] and had her shadow Maliketh guard it, thus establishing the Golden Order.^[5]

Marika took a consort, Godfrey, who became the first Elden Lord. In the early days, everything was in opposition to the Erdtree,^[6] but with Godfrey at the head of her armies, Marika persevered and the Erdtree would reign supreme as the embodiment of the Golden Order itself.^[7]

One of these wars was waged against the Fire Giants,^[8] who met defeat when Marika slew their fell god. Unable to extinguish the Flame of Ruin atop the frigid northern mountains, a credible threat to the Erdtree, she cursed the last of the giants to forever tend to it.^[9] Fire Monks, who had fought on the side of the Erdtree during the war against the Fire Giants,^[10] were also left behind to watch over the flame, some of whom fell under the spell of the fire and began worshipping the Fire God.^[11]

With the Erdtree now supreme,^[12] Marika and Godfrey would rule together and have at least three children: Godwyn the Golden and the twins Morgott and Mohg. The twins were both born as accursed Omen, and were hidden in the depths below the capital. Even so, Godfrey, as well as his and Marika's offspring, would always be counted as the first of the demigods, and would forever be known as the "Golden Lineage".^[13]

With her rule secure, Marika announced her intention to search the depths of the Golden Order, declaring the early days of blind belief a thing long past.^[14] When Godfrey's last foe fell it was said the hue of his eyes had faded.^[15] Marika banished him and his kinfolk from the Lands Between, robbing them of their grace,^[16] thus creating the first Tarnished, all in the hope that they would grow stronger by waging war in lands outside her rule, dying, and then be revived and eventually brought back with their guidance of grace returned.^[17]

After Godfrey's banishment from the Lands Between, Marika took Radagon as second husband and King Consort, elevating him to become the second Elden Lord.^[18] Radagon already had three children with Queen Rennala of the Carian Royal Family, and after his union with Marika, she would raise her new step-children Radahn, Rykard and Ranni to demigod status.^[19]

Marika and Radagon would go on to have two children of their own, the twins Malenia and Miquella,^[20] who like Marika herself and Radagon's daughter Ranni, were Empyreans,^[21] and were thus potential successors to Marika. However, Radagon and Marika were in truth one and the same, in fact Radagon was described as Marika's male "other self".^[22] Thus the twins were the children of a single god, and they were both born afflicted: Malenia with rotting sickness and Miquella with eternal childhood.^[23]

Night of Black Knives[]

On the Night of Black Knives, a fragment of the Rune of Death was stolen from Maliketh.^[24] For a long time it was not known who was behind the plot,^[25] but it is finally revealed it was in fact Ranni who stole the fragment of the rune in order to forge godslaying black knives through a fearsome rite.^[26]

The Black Knife Assassins, Numen women purported to have close ties to Marika herself,^[27] used these knives to slay Godwyn the Golden, the first recorded death of a demigod in all history.^[28] Queen Marika is said to have been driven to the brink by this event,^[29] and some time later she shattered the Elden Ring using her hammer.^[30] She had already instructed her demigod children to fight for the positions of Elden Lord and that of godhood.^[31]

The Shattering[]

Fragments of the ring splintered into Great Runes and spread across the Lands Between, starting a conflict between her demigod children. War after war was fought, but there was no victor.^[32] For her part, Marika would be imprisoned inside the Erdtree,^[33] possibly by the Elden Beast or the Greater Will itself.^[34]

True to her promise to Godfrey and his warriors, the grace had been restored to the banished Tarnished.^[35] They would rise from their graves, and journey to the Lands Between to once again brandish the Elden Ring. The Tarnished formed the Roundtable Hold, where they worked to realize the goal given to them by Marika. They would be served by a Misbegotten blacksmith Hewg, whom Marika herself had charged with smithing a "god-slaying weapon" before his imprisonment in the Hold.^[36]

Eventually, a Tarnished champion manages to fight their way into the Erdtree, where the shattered Marika lay imprisoned. Marika is suddenly released from her bonds, with Radagon asserting control of their shared body and confronting the Tarnished. After defeating Radagon and the Elden Beast itself, the Tarnished may choose what to do with the fractured body of Marika. If the Elden Ring is mended, either by itself or with a Mending Rune, Marika's head is restored to her frame. If Ranni is summoned, she picks up Marika's head gently, which then peacefully dissipates along with the rest of her body. If the Tarnished is the Lord of Frenzied Flame, Marika's head breaks apart and crumbles into ash.

By choosing to go down the Elden Lord path, whether the regular one or using any of the three Mending Runes to fix the Elden Ring within Marika, the Tarnished champion ushers in a new age. They become the third Elden Lord and effectively Marika's new consort in every one of them,^[37] except in the Age of Stars (where they become consort to Ranni) and in the Lord of Frenzied Flame (where they make the whole world burn). However, Queen Marika remains in her shattered and unresponsive state, with only the Elden Ring itself shining brightly within her body.

Echoes of Marika[]

In certain sites of Grace, Melina can offer to share Marika's own words with the The Tarnished. These are compiled here.

Notes[]

• Marika's Rune can be seen in Marika's Scarseal and Marika's Soreseal and resembles the crowning arc of the Elden Ring, as well as her body crucified inside the Erdtree.
• When Marika's body changes into Radagon, her dress becomes his skirt.
• It is heavily implied that the Elden Beast was the being who imprisoned Marika inside the Erdtree based on one of its attacks where it attempts to grab the player and lift them up in the air to crucify them and then pierce them with a barrage of golden spears, similar to how Marika is seen crucified and pierced in the cutscene before the final boss battle.
• Marika is reminiscent of the alchemical concept of the White Queen. The White Queen is often depicted as one half of the Rebis (the other half being the Red King, referenced with Radagon), a single being possessing both male and female qualities, also sometimes referred to as the divine hermaphrodite. It is said that the Rebis hailed from one being that is separated into a male and female half until it is unified once again to form a transcendental being empowered by a dragon (corresponding to the Elden Beast).
• It is possible, but never confirmed in-game, that Melina is also a child of Marika. Her internal name in the game files is "MaricaOfDaughter", and most of the information about the Queen is gleaned from dialogue where Melina repeats Marika's own words at specific sites of grace.

Gallery[]

References[]