How much do we really know about Radagon, Marika, and the shattering of the Elden Ring? A theory
Before I get started, HUGE ELDEN RING SPOILERS! This post will include spoilers from pretty much the entire game and its plot, so if you don’t want to be spoiled then stop reading now. If you’re still here, let’s get started.
The revelation of Radagon and Marika being the same person is a central aspect in the lore of Elden Ring, supported by multiple points in the game and accepted as true by most players. Goldmask’s quest alludes to this secret of the Golden Order, and the statue of Marika in Leyndell reveals Radagon when you cast Law of Regression in front of it. Beyond that, the rest is vague. Countless theories have been written on the subject and debates have been had between players with differing opinions. Was Radagon always Marika, or did he become part of her later in the story? Were they two separate bodies, a single body with two consciousnesses, or both at different times? What was the nature of the conflict between them? And what of the Elden Ring/Elden Beast that they held within them?
The game has a recurring theme of doubles — twinned characters, offshoots of existing characters, and copies of enemies. Darien and Devin are “two bodies and two minds, but one single soul. Not once do they stand together; not one word do they speak to one another” (Twinned Armor). Malenia and Miquella are twins. Mohg and Margit are twins, and we fight both twice. Millicent describes herself as an “offshoot” of Malenia. Loretta is fought once in Caria Manor and once at the Haligtree. There are two fingers. Some people have hypothesised that there are links between Melina and Marika, Ranni and Melina, Godrick and Godefroy etc. Most importantly, Radagon and Marika are another example of this theme.
The origins of Radagon
By all accounts, Radagon first appeared leading the Golden Order’s army to Liurnia during a war with the Carians. Radagon was known for his red hair, similar to that of the Fire Giants. He was a great warrior but eventually married Rennala for peace. After having Ranni, Radahn and Rykard with Rennala, he left the Rune of the Unborn and amber egg with her and returned to Marika to be her consort. The rune and egg are used alongside larval tears to rebirth or change the player character’s attributes. I believe this technology was central to Marika’s creation of Radagon. the Rune of the Unborn is therefore a reflection of Radagon as he was created artificially i.e. unborn.
But why would Marika want to create a copy of herself? It could be due to any or all of the following reasons:
- Marika needed to be in two places at once. How could she lead her armies while also acting as a vessel for the Elden Beast in the Erdtree? By this time, Godfrey and his warriors might have already been divested of grace and exiled, leaving Marika the only one to head the Golden Host.
- Marika planned to achieve peace by marrying an aspect of herself to the Carian queen, enabling both cultures to live together with no threat to the Erdtree. Later on, Radagon leaving Rennala broke her mind, rendering her a threat no longer.
- Marika wanted to purge herself of unwanted attributes. Similar to how we can change our attributes in-game using the Rune of the Unborn, Marika underwent this process. But unlike our experience in game, she created another being from her rejected attributes (possibly faith and strength): Radagon. The removal of high faith from Marika’s attributes may have actually started her disillusionment regarding the Golden Order and desire to research deeper into the Greater Will. Alternatively, she needed to shed this part of herself in order to begin her journey investigating her faith from a more critical lens. This explains why Radagon is extremely devoted to the Golden Order and Elden Ring.
- Similar to the point above, Marika wanted to remove the Fire Giant’s curse she may have been afflicted with after the war with the giants. I have seen this theory before but I couldn’t find direct evidence to suggest she was cursed by the Fire Giants, despite the red hair of Radagon suggesting some relation to them.
Radagon as a creation of Marika
“Regression is the pull of meaning; that all things yearn eternally to converge” — Law of Regression
“Causality is the pull between meanings; that which links all things in a chain of relation” — Law of Casaulity
Golden Order fundamentalists believe that the order can be described through the Laws of Causality and Regression. Basically, all things are pulled apart and then yearn to be together again. Is this not similar to the relationship of Radagon and Marika — one entity separated into two, and then converged back into one again?
If Radagon were truly a copy of Marika, why were they in such conflict with one another? And were they really capable of being in two places at once, or did they inhabit the same body and shapeshift between the two?
Darian and Devin are two examples of different personalities that share the same consciousness while inhabiting different bodies, but Marika and Radagon’s situation also relates to the silver tears we find in Nox society. Silver tears, silver spheres, and mimic tears are all related and linked to Larval tears, which are used to change attributes with the Rune of the Unborn. Radagon is further linked to silver tears as he used Celestial Dew when marrying Rennala in the Church of Vows.
A cut quest involves a mimic tear, Asimi, who convinces the tarnished to consume them where they can act as a symbiote and make the player character stronger. They ask the tarnished to find them chalices to “become a perfect whole”, but end up trying to steal the fate of the tarnished and become Elden Lord. The player character defeats Asimi and this was when you were originally supposed to obtain the mimic tear ashes. The lore could have been changed and the quest cut because mimic tears no longer function in this way, but maybe it was cut because we have a similar story already unfolding in the case of Radagon and Marika.
The mimic tear ash of war states that “mimicry does not extend to imitating the summoner’s will” supporting Radagon’s eventual disagreements with Marika, and it also says that they were a creation of the Eternal Cities when they tried to create a lord. The cut quest dialogue about how Asimi wants to become a “complete whole” mirrors Radagon’s desire to learn both sorcery and incantations, aspiring to “be complete”.
Ultimately, I believe that Radagon was either a mimic tear or created with technology very similar to that of mimic tears. While he could merge with Marika and become one single entity, they could also split back into two again, and Radagon had his own thoughts and feelings separate to Marika.
The conflict
“O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order. Thou’rt yet to become me, thou’rt yet to become a god. Let us both be shattered, mine other half” — Marika
I believe that conflict was brewing between Radagon and Marika for a long time. He is described as loyal to the Golden Order, while Marika was becoming critical. Perhaps Radagon grew increasingly frustrated with living in Marika’s shadow, being her “leal hound” and ordered around for Marika’s benefit. Maybe he had other aspirations. While the next point requires a bit of tinfoil, it might even be that Radagon was the one responsible for conspiring with the others during the Night of the Black Knives, to kill Godwyn and remove one of Marika’s strongest allies with the power of the dragons on his side. Killing Godwyn before attempting to overthrow Marika would prevent her son from rising up against him. After all, the co-conspirator of the Night of the Black Knives was Radagon’s daughter, Ranni.
Regardless of whether you believe in the Godwyn theory above, I do think that this conflict between Radagon and Marika grew until he almost overthrew her. Marika, however, is not to be underestimated. She is incredibly cunning and shrewd throughout the game and had organised a lot of contingency plans should her godhood ever become threatened. She had already removed grace from Godfrey and his warriors so she could return it later on and have them fight for her. Melina may have been created to guide a tarnished, while Hewg was tasked with making a weapon capable of destroying a god.
The shattering of the ring was a last-ditch attempt at by Marika to separate herself from Radagon and stop him from trying to take over her body and consciousness. This is what the above “… Thou’rt yet to become me…” quote is referring to: Marika shattering the Elden Ring was her way of stopping Radagon from fully becoming her, becoming a god, and to get him out of her body. This action may have stopped Radagon from usurping her but damaged both of them, as well as the Elden Beast inside them. The events leading up to and the act of shattering the Elden Ring itself was a way for Marika to free herself of her own creation trying to steal her mind, body, soul, power, and status as a God.
Radagon attempted to repair the Elden Ring and this is what the crosshatch-shaped runes behind the elden ring show. He was also the one using thorns to stop the tarnished from entering the Erdtree. While he seems to be able to physically move around and fight, he seems zombified and almost entirely controlled by the Elden Beast. On the other hand, Marika is an unresponsive statuesque body that doesn’t move or talk, remaining motionless even when the tarnished is supposed to marry her. However, it seems that she still retains the power of grace and somewhat of an ability to influence things in the lands between.
The decline of Gods and once-magnificent beings
When you think about it, these ideas are characteristic of both George R. R. Martin’s and Hidetaka Miyazaki’s narratives. GRRM agrees that the “human heart in conflict with itself” is the only thing worth writing about. Miyazaki loves to portray magnificent if not eldritch characters, with dignified sorrow and “endless descent into ruin”. What if these two aspects were combined with each other — someone being torn apart by two different sides of themselves, but a literal tragic conflict between two aspects of the same entity.
The Elden Beast isn’t in top condition either — the final part of the boss fight feels less like a grand and honourable battle between a brave tarnished and ferocious beast, but more like a wounded animal defending itself. It repeatedly tries to run away from us before we eventually kill it. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen images of the Elden Beast before the shattering, so it’s hard to say whether it looks shattered or damaged.
Ultimately, Marika’s ambition to extend her reach throughout the Lands Between, or desire to purge unwanted aspects of herself, backfired and came back to haunt her. The creation of Radagon was the downfall of them both. Their appearance at the end of Elden Ring shows them as a shell of their former selves and at a fraction of their power. The Golden Order had already decayed when we return to The Lands Between at the start of the game.
In summary, I believe that Radagon was always Marika, albiet independent in mind and able to exist separately from her (not unlike a mimic tear). Marika created Radagon using silver tear technology and the Rune of the Unborn. Over time, they began to disagree with one another and this conflict eventually resulted in the shattering of the Elden Ring/Beast, degrading their power and leading to the events of the game that we all know well.
