Marika and Radagon are Melina, Daedicar and Shabriri as the bringer of the Dawn and Dusk: Lina
dichotomy
division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.
As a mirror the final boss we fight is ourselves.
We, (betrothed) destined to be mothers, now become tarnished. (Nos, destinatae matribus, nunc fiunt turpes.) We have lamented and we have shed tears but no one consoles us. (Ploarvimus lacrimavimusque sed nemo nos consolatur.) Golden One, at whom you were angry? (Aureum, cui irascebaris?)
SILVER TEAR HUSK
The Silver Tear makes mockery of life, reborn again and again into imitation. Perhaps, one day, it will be reborn a lord…
The silver tear — it is always easily tied back to Marika and therefore Radagon, through item descriptions and connections. Look into it if you aren’t sure, I’ll take this as the founding assumption here which means if you don’t agree with that then the theory won’t work very well.
If this is true it is a consistent rule — as consistent as any other Fromsoft game element — Marika reflects what she encounters — she takes it into herself — her hair turns red when she curses the giant, she takes into herself the masculine red-haired beasts of the world.
This means that if Marika does something significant involving another she must’ve reflected them — this forms a paradox with the other paradox we know about Marika, she is Radagon. This also means that when Radagon drank the celestial dew Marika drank it and lost whoever she was aggressive with which was, in all likelihood, the red-haired enemies she fought against and she would have also lost her ‘aggro’ with herself too, as she had absorbed the appearance of her enemies and gained shame which probably influenced the Order’s shame-based ideology.
So, any lore deep-dive must attempt to answer to the riddle ‘how can Marika and Radagon be one person? Especially if one is fixing the ring and the other shattering it? If one is destroying the Order and the other defending it?’ We will get there, I promise you that.
Well when she splits with Radagon she encounters him — she encounters herself — this is a logical contradiction on the face of it and this moment tracks well in the very spotty history we are given in dialogue, mostly by Melina. Marika was an Order follower or leader who changed her mind after searching the depths of the Order. She concludes that;
O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order. Thou’rt yet to become me. Thou’rt yet to become a god. Let us be shattered, both. Mine other self.
Marika splits with Radagon — they reflect each other and recognize that they must search the depths — Marika searches the depths of the Order while Radagon searches the depths of Raya Lucaria.
More Marika quotes:
I declare mine intent, to search the depths of the Golden Order.
With thine eyes dimmed, ye will be driven from the Lands Between. Ye will wage war in a land afar, where ye will live, and die.
Well? Perhaps that might serve you in lieu of a maiden’s guidance.
Marika plans to send the Tarnished away so they lose the mind control or thirst for power that grace seems to incur in the beings of the lands between — also, without a maiden to guide them they won’t be led by the whims of the two-fingers.
I declare mine intent, to search the depths of the Golden Order. Through understanding of the proper way, our faith, our grace, is increased. Those blissful early days of blind belief are long past. My comrades; why must ye falter?
This is placed near the end of the game but it it more chronologically early in the narrative we understand about her — it is a key. What makes it one? Well, she uses the word ‘confine the flame’ — confine it. Marika and Melina’s goals are different approaches to the same goal — Melina’s only enemy is the Frenzied Flame — seemingly the very same yellow flame which Marika sought to confine.
‘Confine’ is an interesting choice of word — Melina was confined — it’s a strangely ignored aspect of her character — she has a jail cell where we find her weapon.
Dagger given to one who set out on a journey to fulfill her duty long ago. The power of its former owner, the kindling maiden, is still apparent. The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death.
Sellen was also confined. Malenia and Miquella are both, in essence, confined. Melina was confined. As we’ll see the plant metaphor as well as the reflection on life-as-tragedy metaphor work together here hand-in-hand. Plants confine light and water in themselves to grow. Tears and truth in the lands between allow it to grow.
The most significant problem facing this iteration of the Lands Between is confinement — blame — guilt and revenge. Marika herself feels guilt about her red-hair. It reminds her of her enemy.
All things which are contained in Marika’s proclamation that we must confine the flame atop the mount — this is also a pun, most likely, the player is a flame as well and they are also atop a mount — torrent.
Following where we’ll go next, towards plant analogies and abstract concepts, we will find that Marika’s will, her desire, is a reflection of the desires of the living part of the Lands Between. From a straight-forward plant analogy point of view a plant wants to avoid fire generally speaking. However if the flame atop the mount represents metabolism as well as civilisation, the mind and the body, life affirmation and nihilism, well my friends, this is going to get complicated.
Immortality, another promise by Marika and therefore the desire of the beings of the land most likely, also do not serve plants very well. Cancer cells are immortal.
But Marika is promising a different kind of immortality; the one gained from procreation. The beings of the land feel tricked because they do not want to die. Why must ye falter?
Life seduces us to work for it and is immortal but we are sacrificed for its immortality as part of the natural cycle. The spirits desire for immortality, ascension, is young and naïve, it is not yet ready for such a thing. These themes are present in Bloodborne as well, the body and the mind as a tension parallel with the people who make up a society and the ideological desires of the society as well as their constituent parts, typically war and knowledge.
“You’ve taken an apprenticeship with Sellen? Well, that is something. Sellen was well known. The most promising sorceress in the history of the academy. I followed her at school, but there may as well have been an ocean between us. But Sellen was expelled from the academy. Accused of unthinkable treatment of certain sorcerers, under the name of the Graven Witch. I still don’t believe the accusations. The illustrious Sellen would never do such things…”
Anyway, Mogh was confined for his ‘inherent sin’ of being a twin, that is he represents division which in the plant analogy is tied to growth but also to a splintering of the main stem. But psychologically, as a character, he is born into guilt unfairly, this turned him into a selfish person who essentially causes the next cycle to continue to have problems.
The ‘ever jails’ present everywhere in the game become much more important because they relate directly to Marika’s mistake in attempting to confine the flame using ideological control over the population. The flame, symbolically, representing the spirit of the people which ended in tragedy, but is also a spiritual representation of the sun and metabolic processes of the organism. Marika, however, cannot be blamed here, the fault lies with a disease at a more fundamental level.
Consider the idea that the Lands Between is expanding and isn’t just a normal island but is temporal and Caelid is the earliest point in time with The Mountaintops of the Giants being the last point in time. Melina’s choice ‘against her mothers wishes’ is to use the flame, not confine it, Melina, as Radagon and Marika as one in spirit not just body makes the decision to sacrifice herself.
Marika’s reflection logic, the silver tear quality, occurs here — if she confines the flame she confines herself — the paradox is unveiled with Miquella and Malenia — Marika is a reflection of life — when mankind confine the flame they confine themselves, when they release it destructively they destroy themselves.
So the question to ask is: if Marika only reflects others to decide on her actions who did she initially reflect who wanted to confine the flame and in-act the Order?
This is a lot. I’ll try to get to the logic here through a more labyrinthian approach. At this point I’ll acknowledge that my own views of the game become increasingly abstract as I juggle the plant metaphor and the very conceptual historical-myth-tragedy part of the game. I will do this and try to deduce the logical properties of the deities, chronologically, and their capture something about their relations to each other and the games setting as matters of perspective.
So from a purely symbolic and poetic view the lands above are confining spirit into a singular entity, the Elden Beast, and confining characters like Sellen who practice blue-light magic. Blood is everywhere. The Order proclaims that some blood is cursed and fire is sinful, the Formless Mother is evil, this reverberates with the idea that Marika is the one who shattered the Elden Ring whereas Radagon is fixing it even though they are the same person. The beings of the land are choosing to believe that the female aspect of the God is the evil one, this is a reflection of the ancient shift in real-life mythology where women came to be portrayed as evil, starting as early as Heisod’s Theogeny which itself is a key reference point for Elden Ring’s symbolism.
Below ground tears are everywhere, silver-tears ooze out of the walls. Stone creatures are everywhere. Blood is contained inside of a stone seal. This is soil and roots and stem. Tears, suffering, death, is the water of this land.
Until it comes out it will cause her to suffer and lose herself — just like the beings of the land. This is ‘rot’, confined ‘blood’ which burns. Marika made a mistake.
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.
What does this all mean for the plot of the Nox and the goals of the Order? I’ll leave that as an open question, why did Marika’s Eternal City scion girlfriends try to completely kill Godwyn?
It could be that Marika’s goal was to make sure that the night returned — that she realized she couldn’t confine the flame — but upon reflection she decided to do something else — ruin the whole project, shatter what she was collecting into the Erdtree and in doing so creating Melina who is a reflection of Marika and Radagon’s will — she is the one who Marika sought to confine but like the giant when she tried to confine the flame she was cursed with blood, she became organic, represented by the red-hair. Yes, it brings to mind Pinocchio — Marika — an artifically created known liar — became a real boy. Melina cannot lie but like Ranni their honesty is such that they avoid having to say the truth — in her toy form Ranni has trouble keeping her mouth shut –
Let us speak of the past, a while. I was once an Empyrean. Of the demigods, only I, Miquella, and Malenia could claim that title. Each of us was chosen by our own Two Fingers, as a candidate to succeed Queen Marika, to become the new god of the coming age. Which is when I received Blaidd. In the form of a vassal tailored for an Empyrean. But I would not acquiesce to the Two Fingers. I stole the Rune of Death, slew mine own Empyrean flesh, casting it away. I would not be controlled by that thing. The Two Fingers and I have been cursing each other ever since… And the Baleful Shadows… are their assassins. I turned my back on the Two Fingers and we each have been cursing the other since. The Baleful Shadows… are their assassins.
Ranni is the natural Pinocchio-type character so Melina is tied to Ranni in her ending, for many reasons, Melina — who is Marika and Radagon — is also a Pinocchio type character.
Zoraya’s story resembles Melina’s and Ranni is tied to Melina then how does Ranni’s story work with Melina’s?
Well Marika also slew her Empyrean flesh and she had Destined Death hidden away by Malkeith. But how is Marika being cursed and hunted by the Baleful Shadow? What is the Baleful Shadow? Blaidd uses a frost imbuement not destined death; the Baleful Shadow is weak to frost even.
It’s not Blaidd — it’s something else — a wolf-man whose weapon is imbued with destined death. I think at this point resemblances mean more than just coincidence, hopefully, the Baleful Shadow then is like Malkeith.
But not just Malkeith — we have ‘Baleful Shadows’ as well — the little guys who also use destined death against us.
All of this in mind, Ranni’s betrayal by PRECEPTOR SELUVIS who wants to control her by filling her with
AMBER DRAUGHT
A Small flask received from Preceptor Seluvis containing a gleaming amber draught for use in a scheme. “Give it to Ranni and ensure she drinks it. And we’ll be in a position to claim the very finest puppet ever crafted.”
Recall the Primal Glintstone and the red-glintstone in Lenne’s rise as well as Sellen’s discussion of amber;
Our powers draw upon the powers embedded in glintstone, but what is the nature of such power? Glintstone is the amber of the cosmos, golden amber contains the remnants of ancient life and houses its vitality, while Glintstone contains residual life. And thus, the vitality of the stars. It should not be forgotten that glintstone sorcery is the study of the stars and the life therin.
Golden amber — something which isn’t quite red — contains ancient life — recall that artificial life, those with white flesh from the sea who are associated with Miquella through color and purity as well as through the goals of his tree. Recall that Marika, prior to what she did to the Fire Giant, was also devoid of the inking of red — she was ‘pure’. Red and blue together, red and white together are interesting metaphors for the games world. For instance the slugs and snails in the game mirror this idea about spirits inhabiting objects, shells, and molten slugs drop white flesh and smoldering butterflies. This itself, in that fractal way (like a shell), ties back into the idea that the previous cycle was simply a smaller world to this one as the smoldering butterflies might be small but are essentially mini-Malenia’s. Eternally burning. Malenia burning forever requires that rot be connected back to the formless mother as blood which is confined because her blood is what burns well.
(Ultimately this connection is formed by reading into Mogh’s symbolism a connection from the oneness to threeness (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hlbvnnwKus which is somewhat outdated and https://medium.com/@rubywren/elden-rings-hidden-map-game-and-possible-historical-references-c9c2f606b85d). My plan is to do a formal write-up about this connection.)
This ties back to the very idea of a kindling maiden and it is what makes Melina special, she has no blood, she is bodiless. What she burns is spiritual in nature.
So if Seluvis manages to imbue Ranni with amber he has succeeded in cursing her not unlike how Marika transformed into a red-haired real boy, apparently, when confronting the Fire Giant. But this is a metaphor which becomes imbued with magical properties, a myth, what she is doing is no better than what the Fire Giant did.
The Erdtree…is close. Only a little further till the foot of the Erdtree, and the accord is fulfilled. It takes me back. I was born at the foot of the Erdtree. Where mother gave me my purpose. Though now, everything is lost to me. I…have to ascertain for myself. The reason for which I live, burned and bodiless.
Why do I say this? Well lets follow the logic here: why would Marika want to confine the flame? And if Marika is part of Melina then Melina’s mother (who has no form or appearance or tangibility, making her the formless mother as a matter of relatively simple poetic connection) had a desire which does not align with Melina’s actions and what actions is this: using the Erdtree as kindling, releasing the flame that was to be confined.
Your seamster, Boc… I see him crying, from time to time. I think he misses his mother. He wants someone to tell him he’s beautiful. Does being born of a mother… Mean one behaves in such a manner?
Melina had a mother but wasn’t born. This is the CENTRAL PUZZLE of the narrative. Who is her mother?
As a silver tear we can see there might be a poetic answer; tears come from mothers but they are not born of a mother they are produced by suffering. Or more accurately, they are produced by life and death and loss and birth.
Anyway, in order for this narrative to work Marika had to originally be seeking to confine the flame. But then something changed. Note that confine being an interesting word when discussing Melina as she is located originally in a prison which mirrors the notion of a soul-prison in Sellen’s quest. A tear withheld in a prison during an age of ruthless fanatacism, violence and intentional ignorance of reality? (I’m talking about the Lands Between, of course.)
Starting to see the poetry narrative come together more than any lore one?
So my theory is this;
Marika, as a being who is partially a silver-tear with tears being connected to lamentation which is connected to motherhood via the song the feminine-coded creatures sing to masculine-coded creatures throughout the land;
We, (betrothed) destined to be mothers, now become tarnished. (Nos, destinatae matribus, nunc fiunt turpes.) We have lamented and we have shed tears but no one consoles us. (Ploarvimus lacrimavimusque sed nemo nos consolatur.) Golden One, at whom you were angry? (Aureum, cui irascebaris?)
Marika, a silver-tear type trickster, ends up reflecting both dichotomies in the lands between by the end of her campaign which is represented by her blonde and the red hair , the masculine and the feminine body and so on, and in doing so she becomes the spirit of the One when she encounters herself containing the other half of the dichotomy. So to speak a bit mystically.
What this means is that when she, as Radagon, goes to meet Rennala she reflects her, essentially becomes her using the silver-tear property, the alternative is that because she is Radagon she used empathy to ‘mimic’ Rennala and this completed her ascension into Godhood.
She had already physically reflected Horah using her silver-tear powers. And we’ll get into why. Horah and Rennala represent the two warring factions of the land, one represents ancient masculine warrior culture and the other the feminine (using words instead of physical power, essentially) culture of art and science. This is an ancient dichotomy reinforced by ages of mythology not one I am ‘advocating for’, of course.
The isolated results of her mixing, reflecting or simply procreating with these two dichotomies, represented by the Sun and Moon allegiance creates the demi-Gods who have qualities which act as puzzle pieces. For each of her little ‘productions’ with the Moon Queen or Sun King we get two fail-sons and a success (or one we can assume was going to be a success, Godwyn).
So hopefully you can see how much fruit can start to bear when we take the suggestions that Marika is silver-tear based or has properties of silver-tears.
Horah represents the relationship that this whiteness, which is coded in Elden Ring as purity (historically associated with Aryanism) has with the noble Sun warriors of the land — it takes the form of a white lion — something which can hold back the power within. Serosh is noble, white, restraining — Mogh and Morgott follows in their chosen parents’s footsteps. The power of ascetism which is restraining the power instinct to serve a greater otherworldly or philosophical purpose is seen with Morgott and the desire for power and dynasty with Mogh whose rune is feminine coded whereas Morgott’s is male coded.
This would mean that Marika, at the point of being with Godfrey, had intentions closer to the formless mother. Whereas Horah had intentions close with the ‘greater will’, the father.
Notice that in this case the terms make a lot of sense. Marika, if an artifical silvertear creature, is not really a mother, she isn’t anything but reflections. She is empty, in a sense. Horah is not like this, he has a presence which does not depend on reflections or magical space goo.
Now the logic here is following the idea that the twins parallels each other closely, and I ask you accept this for now and let me unravel the idea more.
So the reason this is the case, again thinking symbolically, isn’t because Mogh is female. It’s not because the establishment of a dynasty is a feminine thing to do. Equally ascetism is not inherently a masculine activity and we see this clearly in the game with the Nox who are feminine-coded and are interested in knowledge over physical power.
What this means, I think, is that Mogh and Morgott are using the dichotomy which exists at a fundamental level in The Lands Between. Mogh is more obvious in this matter, and this is a recurring theme — one of the mirror images (such as one of the twins) is easier to read than the other — he is more obvious because he is using or being used by the formless mother to establish his dynasty. We know a few things about her: she craves a wound and is the ‘mother of truth’.
This would mean that whoever Morgott is using, or rather being used by, is a father. The ‘Greater Will’.
So yes what I’m saying is that SHABRIRI, masculine symbolism, the Greater Will, is the father to the mother who is DAEDICAR, feminine symbolism, the formless mother. Or more abstractly; there are two figures in this game and the third is breaking their conflict.
This dichotomy poses a few problems: what about the gender ambiguous characters or characters who it is implied in my reasoning above contain metaphors which point to both Shabriri and Daedicar such as Malenia, a warrior with red-hair who is blind and losing her ability to act freely as well as is nurturing, not insane, and cares about another person on top of being feminine in appearance.
Well, the ambiguous ones are in some sense, the third element and the one element. They are, by exclusion, not male-female nor Greater Will-Formless Mother. If you lined them up next to the two elements they would look like the third element.
So apart from the logic inherent to Marika as a silver-tear the logic of Elden Ring’s One becomes Two becomes One has a hidden element, from the perspective of the Two the One looks like a Third element, or pure chaos.
Now I want to hammer home that this isn’t really that easy to understand at first pass so please do think about it a bit, it requires first of all an acceptance that the way the games story works is based on a kind of riddle which is completely self-contained i.e. there is no missing information to figure out the story. Secondly, without taking into account all the ways one, two, three is used in the game we cannot make much sense of my claim.
To start with lets look for some actual symbols.
Here we see that larger elements are growing directly over smaller ones. These plants are described as ‘Exeedingly rare to find.’
That is, threeness is considered rare.
The map has a curve as well, we can actually think of it as a spiral which is growing outward, like a shell pattern, meaning that the Beastial Sanctum in Caelid is the ‘starting point’ which grows outward into the Mountaintops. Notable about this central symbol, the map, is that it is one self-contained object which ‘grows out of’ two objects, the Weeping Penninsula and Caelid. This requires some abstract thinking but recall Miyazaki saying he wants to focus more on abstract fantasy.
Another very important thing about this is that the map, if it is connected with growth, is chronological and spatial. What I mean is we are travelling through time by walking from the Beastial Sanctum to the Great Flame but it is traversable. It is time-travelling in the same sense that the you time-travel by running your fingers over the rings of a tree.
The map is easily tied to plant stems and leaves apart from its appearance, a green object full of water (Liurnia of lakes) pops out from soil, Caelid, and from water, the tears of Weeping Peninsula, soil and water produces something green. We grow outward as one object and ultimately we fruit at the location of the Erdtree before dying in the Mountaintop of the Giants.
This means the the Haligtree is either another stem or is the seedling of the Lands Between itself.
Additionally we see that Miquella is tied closely with water and Malenia with soil. With the central needs of the plant being water, symbolically related to suffering, reflection and intelligence, and we need soil, good normal soil, too bad there isn’t much of that around.
We have a lot of red soil. Blood and soil in Caelid did not mix well with the water of the Weeping Peninsula. The connotations of Nazism and genocide are intentional I think.
What the map points to is also three but it is a different kind: two becoming one. The games story is a puzzle where we have to essentially be constantly asking the question ‘how is a raven like a writing desk?’
We have three ‘weapons’ born of a corpse: Sacred Relic Sword, Miqella’s needle and the Finger-slayer blade. The weapons represent the same thing as the map, two becoming one. That is, these weapons are intrinsic to transforming two things into one thing unless we look at it in a reversal and see One thing become Two and then Three. The absolutely necessary question for understanding Elden Ring’s story is how does each one accomplish this and in which direction are we reading the symbol (or ask ‘does it work both ways?’)
First we can think about the GODSLAYER’S GREATSWORD a bit. This is symbolically connected to the prior age, one lets assume was an age of the night. Well this makes perfect sense actually, like a puzzle fitting perfectly in place, given the above information. The prior age did not have the dichotomies of the current age, perhaps all was one and ruled by a purely singular-based entity unlike Marika, who is two. It is notable that the handle is evocative of a horizon.
Next we can think about how each of the ‘death-borne’ weapons mentioned above fulfil the idea of two becoming one.
Please bear in mind I can be wrong about details but hopefully the strength of the connections here will help people further unpack the narrative.
First the easy one: the Sacred Relic Sword. Marika and Radagon, as two wills in one shared body, shatter themselves and become, I argue, one will, a spirit, Melina or if you don’t buy that then at the very least the two-ness of the God is nullified by Marika’s shattering. So the weapon being lodged in their corpse which is devoid of their spirit represents their action to become one. In the opposite direction the best interpretation I have is this; from the Oneness, the crucible, the original state of the world (the point of the sword) to the Twoness, dichotomies, life and death, Being and Nothingness, Marika and Radagon (the middle double-helix of the sword), ending in Threeness where each point goes in a completely divergent direction.
Threeness is also the result of the Fingerslayer Blade when read this way.
This can be read as potentially indicating the these items tell us something about the way two-ness relates to three-ness, i.e, that they are part of a continuous process of growth where first we have One then Two then Three.
This might well be the cycle the world is trapped in.
Also, given the plant metaphor, by ‘shattering’, read:exploding, she is essentially spreading the seed around which is something plants do.
Following the plant metaphor further we can see why Marika needs Rennala and Horah; reproductive success. She is essentially looking for the correct genetic molecules to copy over. So now hopefully this ties into the mother/father dichotomy a bit better. With the plant metaphor what went wrong was soil and water wasn’t great and the flower became diseased and died, basically, with one seedling surviving.
Second: Miquella’s needle, this weapon, like the Sacred Relic sword, is tied to the theme of self-sacrifice through a willing participant only and not one who is forced (cit. Milicent’s questline). This is a central concept: sacrifice, the difference between choosing it (like Millicent) and being forced (like the beings in the Lands Between) isn’t a ‘mere’ theme or interpretation, which are not evil words, it is the text of Elden Ring.
It is no surprise, then, that Miquella’s needle ends with Five points, a significant number given that we have a dichotomy set up between a Two Fingered entity and a Three Fingered entity which is a false dichotomy, as we will see. This, through a rather basic assumption, suggests that Miquella’s needle might restore what was the Hand of Fate whereas the result of the Fingerslayer Blade, and its original cause, as well as the Sacred Relic Sword, and its original cause, will end up with Three again. Three being tied to undifferentiated pure becoming i.e. the formless mother.
What this would mean is that, ultimately, the goal is to create or restore a God which fits with the characterization of Miquella. Now the elements which make up this interpretation are so prominent that I might not need to mention them, given the hand imagery everywhere and Miquella being considered a last hope of sorts as well as the Dragonlord originally having Five heads and what not… but let’s dig deeper.
That ‘undifferentiated becoming’ will be hard to parse as it’s dealing with complex concepts. Just think what about happens at the end of Akira or Evangelion, it is a return to the primordial state of the universe where everything is just different levels of energy i.e. the stuff inside of the crucible. This is seemingly the Frenzied Flame ending and it is, given Melina’s dialouge, the one outcome that she cannot abide. But is there something missing here?
The third weapon is interesting: a small curved weapon, which following the pattern in the lilies indicates the earliest stage of growth.
Thus I’d argue that the symbolism here is pointing to, not yet confirming, a few things:
- The eternal city scene with the giant and the Finger slayer blade indicates that the giant had the same intent as Marika, self-sacrifice to bring about oneness, had this intent somehow before Marika herself realized the truth and shattered herself to become one. Or the Fingerslayer blade and the Sacred Relic Sword is a reversal in which One becomes Two becomes Three (the handle). The Sacred Relic Sword’s handle looks like the 3-pointing Order T-pose stance. This means that there is a signifigance for Miquella’s needle having Five be the outcome of the two-becoming-one. This fits with the fact that the needle can only be used in the Dragonlord’s chamber; he is (or was) a 5-coded being, having had 5 heads.
- The Lands Between is in a cyclical pattern of night and day, one and two and life and un-life.
This suggests that Marika had a naivety about her which lines up with her being created at the base of the Erdtree out of a silver-tear and other elements and not understanding the truth until she had reflected on everything, magically and as a character.
My theory about this is as follows;
Marika shattering herself gives Radagon free will, a spirit, to act of his own accordance as Melina.
The eye symbolism means this on first pass: The Two left-most talons are born out of the Third talon which goes through them at their middle point. The One they came from appears to be a Third but is actually the One and it impales them in their centres. Seemingly. This would fit with an interpretation that her eye tattoo represents the development of the Lands Between.
Interpretation 1:
One Talon is being split into two. It succeeds. But for whatever reason it must become one again but cannot by itself so the One Talon which split in the past returns and pierces the two separate talons, bridging them together. Making the total count of Talons Three.
The eye mark works in both directions. This is the cycle of Melina returning to the beginning after being a bridge between the two separate dichotomies, Marika and Radagon, Shabriri and Daedicar. This is the cycle the world is stuck in. One becomes Two and the One, paradoxically returns to connect the Two and then returns to the begining. The return to the begining motion is clear in the Talon which is bridging the Two.
The left-most bone-like part of the tattoo is the starting point, one (the age of oneness, the formless mother sealed into a singular container) becomes two talons after splitting.
This is represented in the story in the form of Marika and Radagon seperating and re-joining, but in a different capacity, through Melina.
Interpretation 2:
The previous intrepretation even if correct is causing the infinite cycle of suffering we see in the world. So in this interpretation the curse mark indicates an upwards growth pattern like Trina’s lily. The two left-most talons are actually leaves. This implies that at the largest growth there is a return downward which pierces both of the lower layers and it implies that at this growth there is a splintering off which is exactly what we see with the Haligtree, it moves in a separate direction to the spiral movement of the Lands Between. The tattoo isn’t just a cyclical pattern of Melina’s task as she is trapped watching over the Lands Between become One then Two then Three it is the cycle of life and death of some kind of plant.
This makes sense considering in my view Melina is present for essentially all of the stages of the world we see. The splitting we see towards the left is actually the begining of some kind of growth.
Ghost Glovewort shares a similar theme but implies something like an earlier stage to Trina’s lily. If we follow the strange logic here if the trajectory of the spirit in the left-most outgrowth of the Glovewort continues it could very well go through the two outgrowths on the right.
What does this mean? Well Miquella/Malenia, Marika/Radagon, Melina, are growing things and if the growth fails they return to the origin point. Maybe.
The main takeaway is that this is a good direction for further investigation. These items are describing a growth progress and their names and descriptions have implications about this.
Another important fact about this theory is that it add up with virtually any item.
Oneness, the first event. Twoness, the second event. Threeness the third event.
My theory fits with these items, and I am willing to put forward any item in the game. How? Well the venomous fang represents either darkness coming out of stone or stone coming out of darkness which following the cosmological implication that Elden Ring is a cyclical narrative would point to Malenia as most likley the cause of the next cycle. This means that the cycle starts with a heavy theme of posion, or ‘rot’, and a stone seal. This is essentially the origin story for how the ‘rot god’ was sealed away.
The two-taloned claw represents the age of the death-birds, which is a part of the previous cycle where the One become the Two.
The three talon claw is interesting, it causes blood-loss. Which following the allegory here implies an opening of the seal, the one implied elsewhere in the narrative but also the one implied in the venomous fang.
Now the Bloodhound claws are interesting as like the Fingerslayer blade they have a curve which implies the ability to ‘slip through ones guard’. The curve has a downward trajectory which follows Melina’s eye tattoo and Trina’s lily. What that means is a part of the greater overall puzzle. If I had to guess, it is essentially suggesting that the curvature of the lily is death, it is a faltering flower, which allows one to slip through the enemy’s guard which I suppose is a bit harder to define.
The splintering off of the Halgitree occurring after the collision with Farum Azuela suggests to me that the Lands Between was seeded by something. Which means its time for it to give birth and then die naturally. It is as nihilistic as Shabriri’s goals to deny this event, birth, the growth of the Haglitree, from happening by seeking immortality and I think that’s one of the major ‘morals’ of the story if you can call it that. Nietzschean life affirmation against the state!
I think it is likely, then, that Melina’s eye tattoo implies that ultimately something from the previous stages is piercing the two stages above it or something from the final stage is returning to an older stage.
This theme, of growth and sacrifice working against the tendency to desire immortality and dominance, has a deep history with Fromsoft going back to Evergrace (a game they made in 2000 with Elden Ring themes and characters who are similar to Melina and the Finger Maidens as well as having a Mother Will who wants the cycle to continue).
So, and I know this is complicated already, but to add to this complexity we must see that all the actions which lead up to the double-helix type weapon existing is because of a selfless action. The only selfless action we do not understand is the one which results in the Fingerslayer blade. But we can assume that it was done selflessly which means that the idea that it was used as a plot to take over in order to hold power forever is unlikely. It is more likely meant to stop this from happening. However, and I will back this up in the rest of this article, the Nox did not respect this desire and sought to give themselves power instead i.e. instead of bring about Oneness they wanted to keep Twoness but with a new leadership.
Notice also that the double-helix is also easily connected to DNA given the plant analogy. The formation of one from two parents.
What this implies about Melina’s actions towards the end of the game, then, is the act of birth itself. Perhaps specifically a birth which results in the death of the mother. The tragedy of loss implicate in the, that’s right, very origin of the Lands Between, the soil is red with the blood of someone who died in the process of it coming to be.
Now given what I think is the central theme; allowing people to choose their own fate and not forcing people to do things then Melina’s and Marika’s actions do not cause a repetition of the cycle unless the fact that they chose to die is forgotten and remembered as a tragedy which permanently taints the worldview of the beings ending, naturally, in nihilism.
One last note before moving on, the eye which Melina is closing, which I am saying represents what Marika becomes is purple as far as I recall, purple is a rare colour in the game, the developers even removed purple items to make it rarer. Purple is on the opposite side of the colour wheel as yellow and yellow is not rare in Elden Ring, it is prominent as we are all aware, but even the map itself has higher levels of the colour yellow than a map normally would. Purple in this way represents something polar to what yellow does, and yellow represents, I think, pure spirituality and pure knowledge i.e. ‘truth’. This does not mean that purple and by extension Marika is ‘untruth’ but it is pure physicality, it is what we see the formless mother is, a very un-chatty cycle of the Lands Between.
So to move onto something a bit more concrete;
Perhaps Seluvis can give more credence to this theory.
Procure it for me. The rather unique starlight shard that glistens with amber. With that, my special draught will gleam with nectar-sweetness. And even a demigod would be slave to its charms…
Glintstone is typically blue-tinted, red-tinted glintstone is rare, it is crystalized life not crystalized memory and mourning. And to what ends does Seluvis — a man tied to the knowledge-based magic school in Liurnia want to do with Ranni? Well, use her to his own ends. Is this not perhaps the key to the question; what did the Nox wish to accomplish originally with the Order? Assuming they had some hand in its current state intentionally.
If you get the amber draught for him he says;
Well, well, you managed to lay your hands on it! The blessed day is finally upon us… Goodness gracious, the way it glistens…utterly enchanting. To think, this was once a demigod’s very fate…[Gives Magic Scorpion Charm] Now, just you wait. The merriment is soon to begin. The scheme I promised is to be revealed very shortly…
(Talk again without reloading the area)
You’ll be flabbergasted, I can assure you. The secret* I promised is to be revealed very shortly… *He says “The secret” here, yet the subtitles repeat “The scheme” as in the previous line.
MAGIC SCORPION CHARM:
A talisman carried by assassins who strike unseen. Patterned on a scorpion freshly shed of its exoskeleton, its claws seizing a heart that shimmers with magic.
This charm is like the one Gowry drops (see this video for details https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hlbvnnwKus, warning some outdated ideas) in terms of its importance and symbolism although it is an item with copies. It looks like a Ying and Yang but the story it tells is the story of the Lands Between — the scorpion below loses its heart of magic to the scorpion above — its different variations tell similar stories, the one above the other steals power for itself.
Compared to the lilies this is a cycle which repeats not a developmental growth where the previous iterations remain below you. It is stagnate.
Now finding where the stagnation occurs the most in a Fromsoft game is like finding the secret key which can unlock the secret box but we need to find the box first. Spoilers: the solution to the stagnation of an endless cycle of domination over others is growth, the acceptance and welcoming of death and sacrifice not just of the body but of the spirit as well, release of the iron grip we have on power. Anti-fascism, basically, Miyazaki and G.R.R.M don’t like fascism.
Continuing with Seluvis.
Good, I’ve been waiting for you. It’s finally complete. The perfection of my draught, gleaming nectar-sweet. Give it to Ranni and ensure she drinks it. [Gives Amber Draught] The dead-eyed doll lets down her guard in your presence, rather remarkably. Though she might dip her hands in the dirt, and feign that icy persona…she’s a frail, gentle girl at heart.
Note ‘nectar-sweet’ paralleling Melina’s name, which fits with my description of her origin stemming from the Eternal City plot to insert redness into the world again i.e. break the seal holding back the formless mother, and the fanatical Order followers love of ‘honeyed rays of gold’. which most notably D screams about after throwing a hissy fit in front of Fia’s dead corpse.
It doesn’t work on Ranni if you give it to her;
Well, this is a most unpleasant awakening. The depths of wickedness never fail to surprise me. I am saddened. That thou wouldst succumb to such depravity. Led astray by Seluvis, with devious tonic in hand. Didst thou think to have thy way with me? Be gone. Hapless scum.
This ties back to Marika and her complicated plot — Marika did not avoid the injection of the red substance, red-hair with all of its connotations of physicality, into her like Ranni does, suggesting that there is a potential origin to what her plan was prior to this event where she attempts to confine the great fire, fails, and ends up cursing herself with the redness — what is the suggestion?
First of all if Ranni is ‘pure spirit’ then giving her a red-tonic, given ALL we know about the red-hair and red-colored symbolism in the game, is essentially giving her blood, or, a physicality. Symbolically, Seluvis is trying to make Ranni a real boy, like Pinocchio, because he can control living creatures.
But if this quest is essentially a repetition of the main events of the game what is it representing? The Nox wanted to create a God they could control i.e. they wanted to govern fate itself.
Secondly, Marika does what Seluvis tries to do to Ranni but to herself as a tragic consequence of trying to confine the flame — because she is a mirror of the lands between, she is part mimic tear. Ainsel river. Tilting at wind-mills. This is all something she did; it’s something the people of the land did. Marika suffers the same self-consuming curse that the Fire Giant does. But she later, as Melina, through self-sacrifice (you could say actualization) chooses to die and release the flame instead of tragically fail to confine it.
Seluvis does represent something given the array of symbols being juggled here, apart from being a Harry Potter reference he is the Moon which is selfish — a false Moon — while Gideon is the False Sun — the false light — which is lost. A selfish moon is an oxymoron in a Fromsoft game — the Moon is tied to Motherhood, to care and love, and the lost Sun is also an oxymoron — the light is tied to truth. They both have parallels with the other characters who parallel this central dichotomy and herein lies the difficultly with uncovering the games narrative: there is no Gods just a cycle of one becoming two, or the cells becoming bodies, the undifferentiated becoming differentiated. The process of this cycle involves the generation of two out of one, or division, and this division threatens to become a permanent state due to, essentially, war and strife. The sides in the war transform the state of twoness into permanent dichotomies and this makes them false.
Selvuis’ basement is full of puppets — we can ask — as always what does this resemble? Well beneath The Lands Between are also stationary beings, the giants which do not move in their stone chairs. The eyes of Selivus’ puppets track the camera — they are watching you.
NEPHELI LOUX PUPPET:
Puppet of a warrior who was betrayed by her pure heart. Wields a Stormhawk Axe in both hands and uses the Thunderstorm skill.
Pure heart. Pure physicality of warriors. Loux has black hair, black as the origin point beyond the color wheels cycle. This connects to the Warhawk birds who are blinded and have their talons forcibly replaced with weapons which connects to the two-as-one concept. Three talons becomes one and that one acts as a weapon which can open up and release objects which contain ‘rot’, like the Elden Beast. Yes I am being metaphorical here.
DOLORES THE SLEEPING ARROW PUPPET:
Spirit of a handsome archer who dressed in the style of a man. Called the Silent Hunter by some, she fires St. Trina’s arrows from her shortbow. Dolores once belonged to the Roundtable Hold, where she was both a critic and a friend of Gideon the All-Knowing. It was because of her that he and Seluvis went their separate ways.
Cleary tied to Miquella, the Greater Will and the Blue Dancer. Who is a silent hunter, the water which can only reflect — trying to find Malenia — he interacts with the Lands Between through puppetry — I’ll get to this.
DUNG EATER PUPPET:
One of Seluvis’s puppets. Use to summon the spirit of the Dung Eater. Spirit of a man who murdered thousands and defiled their corpses with the Seedbed Curse. Wields a spine greatsword and hurls curses. The Dung Eater despaired at how he met his end. How hideous and sinister this puppet is, and yet, its utter despair invites one to care for it.
Says something about Dung Eater, perhaps he is best seen as being tragedy itself — this description insinuates that Elden Ring’s relationship to tragedy is not pessimistic.
JARWIGHT PUPPET
One of Seluvis’ puppets. Use to summon the spirit of a jarwight. Spirit of a man who wished to become the innards of a livingjar. A jar-hurling specialist who throws all manner of pots and jars. The warrior jar once told the nameless man this: “You are not yet ready to join the warriors inside. No, you must apply yourself! Better yourself, and one day I will return for you.”
So this is actually a bit on the nose as the quote here mimics Marika’s proclamation that the Horah Loux’s people need to leave and get stronger before they can come back. Loux’s family, coded as ‘tribal’ people, have pure heart and wish to be the innards of a jar, they wish to be sacrificed, this is essentially an Evergrace (2000) tie-in, that is a Fromsoft game about tree-worshippers who sacrifice themselves as part of a natural and continuous cycle of life but are interrupted by a scientist who seeks immortality. G.R.R.M didn’t even need to be in the room for that one.
FINGER MAIDEN THEROLINA PUPPET
One of Seluvis’s puppets. Use to summon the spirit of the Finger Maiden Therolina. Spirit of Finger Maiden who never met the Tarnished she was meant to guide. Uses healing incantations and Holy Water Pots, but she is not a fighter by nature and is ill-suited to battle. A Maiden without a Tarnished. A Tarnished without a Maiden. And yet no guide to bring them together.
Your maiden who never was.
And yet no guide to bring them together.
That is a joke.
What does the joke mean? Well look how much abstract-connections are needed before we can connect Therolina back to the Tarnished. There is literally no guide to understanding the narrative as you have to depend on abstract connections and comparative analysis.
- We need to connect Marika to Melina and Marika’s plan necessitating that the Tarnished not be given a normal finger maiden.
- We need to understand that non-sense names in the game are disguises meaning that if its not a real name it has a hidden name within it. There are many characters in the game who give you false names, its a part of the tapestry of the games puzzles.
- We need to connect Seluvis’ basement to the Eternal City and therefore Therolina to the unnamed Giant who is on top of the Fingerslayer blade.
So, this sounds pretty insane, I know. First of all I go into more (too much) detail here (https://medium.com/@rubywren/elden-rings-hidden-map-game-and-possible-historical-references-c9c2f606b85d).
Melina’s true name comes as a consequence of names in Elden Ring being puzzles which is tied to the cast of deceptive characters. Melina means honey, basically, Lina means light. There are many characters whose names take on meaning which is relevant to their characters when you remove parts of the name. Such as:
Radagon — a part of a deceptive plot and therefore in a disguise, meaning law, Dagon, a male father of the Gods. Dagon is more fitting.
Ranni— Like Iji, is name which sounds more Japanese then Western, に (‘ni’) means something like ‘from/to/to the’ which is appropriate given her connections to distance. Lani. This is Ranni’s real name meaning ‘sky’, she is not a celestial body, she is space itself.
Melina — Ultimately a part of a deceptive plot but now has to double-cross her own previous scheme. This involves her not telling you who she actually is like Gowry, but like Ranni, she might not be lying or forgetting at all. But this would be a result of her other half, Radagon, gaining agency.
Melina means honey which is tied to gold, this gold acted as a false light which led the followers of the Order and Frenzied flame into a double-bind.
Lina on the other hand means light, a more fitting name for what this character represents as the one who aids in the growth and birth of living things. Therolina is interesting, thero can mean ‘old’, so it would be ‘old light’, which is a poetic way of saying energy taken into a plant by the sun. New light is what allows plants to grow. It fits, it is quite abstract though.
What this could mean for the most abstract reading I can imagine is that because Marika and Radagon are mirrors they act to enhance light which means that they effectively are brought into aid the growth of the land. However this can accidentally burn everything down.
This makes sense because, together as one, even though they are artificial they still form Melina, actual light. Therefore Melina is as important as she seems, being the light of the sun with the darkness-eye closed, she was just brought about through essentially a mirror reflecting the sun towards the plant world. When the perfect mirror faces itself some kind of physics thing happens and you get a laser.
This sort-of makes the fact that the Frenzied Flame and Melina are the only ones who can utilize the great flame. Both are born out of reflection (Melina, literal, the Frenzied Flame, conceptually, ideologically and psychologically in the nihilism of Shabriri) and only one seeks fulfillment of free will, Melina.
And this ties in with her giant laser moment when she burns the Erdtree. Which is a reference to Old Venus’ ending, but that is a story for another day I think.
Miquella — A fake name. The boy version Miquel means ‘Who resembles God’. This doesn’t give us much and in fact ties the male version of his name to deception as he has believers, which as we see with the Order indicates a deception, at least from my point of view.
Quella should have meaning relating to Miquella. As yet undiscovered for me. ‘Dogfish’ does do some legwork considering the association between white flesh, Miquella is tied to whiteness, and sea-creatures and that the game plays around with the nobility of physical creatures as either being dogs or lions or in-between.
Malenia — Millenium. Nia means purpose. Male purpose for the Eternal city plot. To be sacrificed and placed inside of a ‘jar’, Malenia. Enia is the name of the main finger reader we talk to in the game. Mal being the missing piece, which tends to mean evil or crazy. This does not indicate that Malenia is an evil Enia, quite the opposite, given that her name is deceptive.
Characters like the finger readers and trolls look shriveled up. With the above in mind, including the ideas about blood and not having it, it seems to indicate that they are people who were once larger but were drained of their blood.
Malenia contains the maleness within herself, Miquella has his femaleness outside himself.
The name and identity puzzle is more complex than this and will be the subject of another article. Main takeway from this is that there is a name puzzle or at least a potential one and that Therolina and Melina, if name puzzles exist, are absolutely connected. Importantly it also means that characters like Enia know what they know because they have essentially been through it before. There is an avenue for a further look here, the puzzle remains incomplete.
Certain jokes stick out more once the connection to the characters taken for granted are applied back to main ‘God’s:
“Nah, don’t read too much into it. I’ve no grudge against you.
My being a prisoner is no fault of yours. Besides, I don’t mind smithing.
Despite my differences, the weapons get stronger, all the same.
Given time, technique never fails. Besides, it helps me forget. The sheer terror of her…”
Don’t read too much into it is another joke. This is precisely where we should be reading more into. Hewg’s relationship to Marika is one of terror and fear, imagine that this is the response the Weeping Peninsula dog-people had to whatever nightmare had come before if Daedicar and Shabbiri’s characterizations are any indication there was a lot of tragedy. He is forced to do something by her, forced to act, in some ways he is like Radagon symbolically. Roderika, on the other hand, essentially in control of spirits but not in any malicious way, she is a consensual spirit tamer whereas Marika, and her origins, did not have consent in mind.
The problem is that the cycle of two-becoming one becoming-two, or nothing becoming something, or the night into the day causes these central characters to forget who they are.
Who are you? Oh, I must be a blacksmith. Now, let’s get smithing…
Could you tell me what happened? Why is the Roundtable burning, in ruins?
Why does that girl weep for me? Have I forgotten something of dire importance?
Have I forgotten something of dire importance?
Yes. That you chose to serve her.
The warriors who become the blood inside of jars, the blacksmiths who labor for the sake of the mother-earth, they all choose willingly to do it.
Why does that girl weep for me?
These are the silver tears, the mothers lamentation, they are crying because Hewg has forgotten them, abandoned them. Hewg’s name is not disguised, it is misremembered: he is clearly representative of H₂éwsōs in terms of his forgetfulness.
From Wikipedia:
h₂éwsōs or haéusōs (PIE: *h₂éusōs, *haéusōs and other variants; lit. ‘the dawn’) is the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European name of the dawn goddess in the Proto-Indo-European mythology.[1]
h₂éwsōs is believed to have been one of the most important deities worshipped by Proto-Indo-European speakers due to the consistency of her characterization in subsequent traditions as well as the importance of the goddess Uṣas in the Rigveda.[2][3][4]
Her attributes have not only been mixed with those of solar goddesses in some later traditions, most notably the Baltic sun-deity Saulė, but have subsequently expanded and influenced female deities in other mythologies.
Poetically this ties into the idea that at night we are scared of the dark and on some level must always have faith that the Sun will rise again, the God itself has been forgotten by Europeans. Hewg also resembles Hephaestus.
From Wikpedia:
According to Homer, Hephaestus built automatons of metal to work for him or others. This included tripods with golden wheels, able to move at his wish in and out the assembly hall of the celestials;[16] and servant “handmaidens wrought of gold in the semblance of living maids”, in them was “understanding in their hearts, and speech and strength”, gift of the gods. They moved to support Hephaestus while walking.[17] And golden and silver lions and dogs at the entrance of the palace of Alkinoos in such a way that they could bite the invaders, guard dogs that didn’t age nor perish.[18]
A similar golden dog (Κυων Χρυσεος) was set by Rhea to guard the infant Zeus and his nurse, the goat Amaltheia, on the island of Krete. Later Tantalus was said to have stolen the automata when it guarded Zeus’ temple, or to have persuaded Pandareos to steal it for him. Later texts attempt to replace the automaton with the idea that the golden dog was actually Rhea, transformed in that way by Hephaestus.[19]
But Hewg is a slave monster who barely has any part of the plot, well, this is why the connections between the characters is so important. Hewg creates a weapon which is meant to kill a God and usually in the process of doing so, following most players choice to crown themselves Lord, installs a new God into power (see the above about the scorpion charm). He has to be forced to kill the new God because he is meant to help kill the night God, as he is the dawn.
Making a weapon out of a multiplicity of beings and using it to stab the worryingly immortality-desiring Gods. But you have to get the multiplicity to work with you to make the weapon and they are following the immortality-desiring Gods. Again Melina’s eye tatto implies something akin to the forming of a weapon or bridge.
Additionally, regardless of Hewg’s connection the tie-in with the silver-tears and lamentation towards the dual-gender creator deity makes a lot of sense, they are artificial beings created for a purpose which he has forgotten.
Why? Well it seems they rebelled given the hands cut in half and all of the desires to control fate. Why? Because they didn’t want to go turn back into clay again, so to speak.
In an archaic story,[a][20][21] Hephaestus gained revenge against Hera for rejecting him by making her a magical golden throne, which, when she sat on it, did not allow her to stand up again.[b] The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go, but he refused, saying “I have no mother”.[21]
It was Ares who undertook the task of fetching Hephaestus at first, but he was threatened by the fire god with torches.[22] At last, Dionysus, the god of wine, fetched him, intoxicated him with wine, and took the subdued smith back to Olympus on the back of a mule accompanied by revelers — a scene that sometimes appears on painted pottery of Attica and of Corinth.[23][24][25] In the painted scenes, the padded dancers and phallic figures of the Dionysan throng leading the mule show that the procession was a part of the dithyrambic celebrations that were the forerunners of the satyr plays of fifth century Athens.[26][27]
Intoxication and trickery is needed to get the God of creation back in the seat and free the mother goddess from her trap. This is a mythological theme that is present not just in Greek myth, but importantly, in Japanese myth as well.
Amaterasu was the Sun goddess of the oldest Japanese religion called Shinto. When her brother Susanowo treated her badly, she hid in the cave of heaven and closed the entrance with an enormous stone. This made the world dark, and evil spirits came out of their hiding places.
In despair, a conference of the gods decided to trick Amaterasu into coming out by having a party near the cave. They put a big mirror in front of the cave and beautiful jewels on a tree. Uzume, the goddess of laughter, began a dance accompanied by loud music.
Hearing the music and laughter, Amaterasu was so curious that she took a look outside to find out what was going on. She was so fascinated by her own brilliant reflection in the mirror that she came out of the cave. Finally, the light covered and colored the world.
The doubling of myth is a common theme in Elden Ring. The Fire Giant, for instance, is both a reference to Si-Te-Cah and Balor, as well as be extension the various myths which connect to these two myths.
But the point is that in the Amaterasu story it is her own reflection which convinces her to return instead of intoxicating force.
This parallels the story in Elden Ring. It is quite a masterful piece of poetic historical artwork.
The tears Hewg talks about, the silver-tears we see in the game, act as reflections, the tragic tale of loss as a story forms the ability for others to recognize themselves in the reflection of tears.
This all culminates in Marika upon seeing Radagon return from his trip to meet Rennala sees herself in him and remembers herself. Firstly this occurs because of the reflection logic of silver-tears, they mimic what they see but they themselves are organic in nature.
Given this simple logic:
Marika is Radagon.
Marika is silver-tear based.
Marika can split into two, one can control their body but has no memory and the other has control over their memory and can retain it but has no body.
Radagon takes into himself Rennala, possibily not through silver-tear magic. Radagon was ‘cursed’ in his campaign to create demi-Gods with Rennala when he took in the Celestial Dew, got married, learned how to do magic and made friends. He enforced a vow of silence and this creates ambiguouity as to what his intent was and when it changed.
This mirrors the event where Marika is ‘cursed’ by the Fire Giant, in actuality her properties as a silver-tear means she merely reflected her enemy into her body.
Which means. Yes. Radagon reflected Rennala into his mind or if this isn’t the case simply reflected her as Marika did with the Fire Giant.
There is more emotional resonance if Radagon does not merely physically reflect Rennala, and there is no indication his appearance changed after they met, but mentally through old-fashioned empathy and learning.
In either case the logic concludes like this:
Radagon contains Rennala’s spirit within himself after he gets into her culture and magic.
Marika contains The Fire Giant’s body within herself when she encountered him and reflected him physically due to her silver-tear magic.
When Marika and Radagon re-unite, they are essentially a reflection of everything, all knowledge and all physicality, mother and father as one. Hence they immediately realize that:
Their body is a jail cell housing the beings of the land so that they can be forcibly sacrificed to bring about either the Nox’s plot or an insane broken version of themselves desire (the Hand of Fate) to destroy everything through singularity as Oneness or total Chaos.
They remember their, the two giants undergrounds, original plan to remove the power singularity forming within the ‘Fire Giant’, the most important unnamed character in the game. They became the hand, so to speak.
An important side note is that if the reflection logic holds strongly then when Marika split from Radagon then they would have reflected each other at this point as well. Whereas the reflection which occurs when Radagon is Rennala-fied clearly ends in the shattering this reflection, which must have occurred, does not have a signifigant event. But it does have one potentially; the birth of the twins. The twins reflect Marika and Radagon but in an inverted manner in terms of their gender.
Additionally following the growth analogy then Malenia and Miquella are a part of the third outgrowth we see with Trina’s lily, the one which will blossom. This means that, apart from having the power to reflect, Marika has within herself the doubling ability, cell division.
However we must keep in mind that Marika is an outside force and that their designs, following the symbolism of the Glovewort as well as Miquella’s and Marika’s actions, indicate that they are helpers with growth not the thing which grows. They are spirit tuners.
Malenia, on the other hand, is the container of a new outgrowth, if this is not the third outgrowth than that means that she is a seed for a new plant.
Anyway this is getting a bit lost in the … weeds.
The plant growth analogy is by far, I think, the strongest analogy in the game but it of course is not the only one which does a lot of leg work.
As we’ve formulated earlier the mother is tied to formlessness, darkness, and so on, Malenia is a ‘masculine’ woman as a cold-killer warrior who contains everything within her. Miquella is a ‘childish’ boy who wants to grow. The twins are living embodiments of Daedicar and Shabriri’s views of each other.
The naivety of spirit and intelligence, its youth relative to the literal organism in its entirety as a body first and foremost.
The cold-ruthless body which contains within it all the potential of a future but merely holds it and suffers from it remaining faithful for a savior one day.
But the poetic beauty and emotional resonance here is enormous, these two parents even though they hate each other and wish to take the others power out of their desire for domination form two beings who actually can be friends and care about each other. These beings live with their parents desires as embodied curses. It’s an allegory for trauma. And to be clear by ‘parents’ we can also see that it isn’t merely referencing literal parents but also the ‘origins’ of people, nature and civilization. Body and mind. Art and identity.
It makes sense then that Marika wanted to ‘confine the flame’ as this is what the night, formless mother, wishes to do, stop the burning. She is weak to fire as we see with her blood burning easily and her connection to rot is simple enough as rot is blood which has not been released from a container. Rot-type beings take more fire damage for this reason.
The night era brings about an actual night, not the permanent summer which is connected to the myth of Balor and by extension the Fire Giant, but a permanent night might have been the goal of Daedicar hence the poetic irony of sealing her away.
A big open question is whether or not Daedicar, and therefore the formless mother, is actually desiring anything as concrete as a plot for an eternal night when in actuality her goals seem to be to open up her container (she craves a wound in the seal). What this means, very importantly, is that in all likelihood it is her followers who project certain things onto what appears to be a continuous and natural process which does not actually contain any dichotomies whatsoever. However, if the formless mother opens up the seal then the metaphorical plant that is the Lands Between will die and its innards will go back into the ground to grow something new. Which ultimately aligns her goals with anyone who desires to overthrow the currently established blossoming leaf, because to do so is to kill the plant.
This is important:
It makes even more sense following the symbolism of Trina’s lily that the formless mother, as the darkness which was contained in the seal, as the black poison which went into the stone snake or, alternatively came out of it, is actually what makes the stem of the plant. Which means that the era of twoness I talked about, represented by the two leaves, is the era of the death-birds and the splitting of the identity of the stem into two dichotomies who either worship Daedicar, the soil, or Shabiri, the light. The two things which allow the plant to grow.
This changes everything but ultimately reveals the perspectivism inherent to the games narrative, not just deception and mistaken identity but the very reality of a plurality of perspectives. Death-birds, two wings above us. Two leaves above the soil. The container which contains the majority of the energy of the lands between, is it a seed or a parasite or a cancer. Figuring out which it is; this is the challenge of the innards of a organism.
This ties Radagon and Malenia to the beings of the land, as a symbol of their future, and hence it is his visage we fight against before seeing the true ‘enemy’, the energy of the dead beings of the land, the ‘national spirit’.
If Melina is Radagon primarily with Marika in the backseat, her eye is closed, then this Radagon is Marika primarily with Radagon elsewhere. She is a dead puppet animated by the desires of the masses for something.
Further proof that Radagon represents the spirit of the people is that when you choose the Frenzied Flame ending, Melina, the spirit of Marika and Radagon as One, never dies. But her previously open eye is now closed and her eye, with its symbolic tattoo representing the endless cycle wherein the previous one penetrates the two but is considered as the third, opens.
This is Marika’s duty originating in front of our eyes, Melina must confine, snuff out, quell, lay to sleep, the flame.
The light-purple flame induces sleep.
This is the Elden Ring, this is the cycle, it is a kind of time-paradox. Where did the desire to confine the flame come from in Marika? Melina was born with the task set by her mother, her formless mother, a mother which we don’t know much about, intangible.
It comes from Dark Melina’s (name puzzle results pending) drive to confine the Frenzied Flame. It’s Ying and Yang stuff to be simplistic about it.
But the special difference here we realize with Melina is that she desires that the player, the stand in for the beings of the land, chooses what to do. Her only job, therefore, is to bring about the night or the day when things are stuck. This makes her have the dual symbolic meaning of dusk and dawn.
Note that it is a sculptor who realizes that Marika and Radagon are the same person, he did this how? Well by doing what I’m doing, comparative assessment, and not in order to get the desired singular truth which is implied in the Law of Regression.
Quite the digression, remember we were talking about Selivus’ quest.
NIGHTMAIDEN & SWORDSTRESS PUPPETS
An old puppet crafted in the Eternal City. Use to summon the spirits of a nightmaiden and a swordstress. These sisters, members of a cold-blooded race who wield flowing weapons, became puppets of their own volition.
The two-sisters idea is complicated — Miquella’s femininity adds a layer of complexity which is hard to track well — but it is important to see here that ‘becoming a puppet of their own volition’ describes what happened to the Nox well. Their desire for a night lord means they want to be puppets of their own will — which is paradoxical that would be like being a puppet with no strings — ah, well yes it would, it would be like being Ranni who is fate itself as she truly reflected the sky within herself.
It also ties into the fact that the central unnamed baddie wished as well to be a puppet of his own volition, i.e. become a God. In either myth, Balor or Si-Te-Cah, the Fire Giant’s violence is turned back on himself — he eats’ himself for power —
Sacrificing Maidens, who as mentioned before represent dusk and dawn as the point in which the day transitions to night or vice-versa, is a part of this worlds system — Enia even has a title for Melina ‘a kindling maiden’ — bones are being used to keep the fire going. Marika, being aligned to the mothers, makes sense because she is attempting to confine the flame which they are losing their children to.
Blood burns, bones burn, spirits burn, a person can be kindling. Blood which burns.. hmm where have we seen this before?
Trident of Mohg, Lord of Blood. A sacred spear that will come to symbolize his dynasty. As well as serving as a weapon, it is an instrument of communion with an outer god who bestows power upon accursed blood. The mother of truth desires a wound.
Who is the mother of truth who desires a wound? I call her Daedicar.
Disturbing likeness of a woman whose skin was flayed. She smiles with a serene tenderness. Increases damage taken. It is said that this woman, named Daedicar, indulged in every form of adultery and wicked pleasure imaginable, giving birth to a myriad of grotesque children.
Which makes Shabriri, naturally, the Father of Truth,
Disturbing likeness of a man whose eyes have been gouged out. The corners of his mouth are upturned in an almost flirtatious manner. Constantly attracts enemies’ aggression. It is said that the man, named Shabriri, had his eyes gouged out as punishment for the crime of slander, and, with time, the blight of the flame of frenzy came to dwell in the empty sockets.
A father who cannot see and a mother who cannot speak. The ‘Greater Will’, the Formless Father, and the Formless Mother. Note here that ‘Greater’ essentially in this cosmology just means ‘above’, its whatever sky deity is in the sky at a time.
But note the tie in back with Melina’s tattoo and the lily, there is a singular thing which holds these symbols together, the stem. It’s as if the leaves below the final iteration in the lily merely believe that they have been split into two. Just try to see it from their perspective. If you were the first leaf it would seem as if to you your body has split into two.
In any case. These two leaves, or two parental figures, as hidden deities which are worshipped through others, as dichotomies which lack recognition of the other form pejoratives and accusations at each other which inform a lot of the way items are named, they lose something with time and begin to seem like simple facts, this is a curse, this is evil, fire is evil, and so on, like actual history. But they are not singular entities, a part of them is uncorrupted, their reflection, their tears, their children, the third element which can blossom into a flower.
Daedicar, the first leaf, the ‘mother of Shabriri’, the second leaf, seems like the parents from the point of view of the third blossoming leaf. Meaning that the formless mother, Daedicar, seems to be the mother of truth as a matter of perspective.
They both failed to blossom, they both seek to stop the third from blossoming i.e. cutting of the head of the plant. Heads are also sometimes associated with containers not unlike the pot-guys such as with the pumpkin heads. Essentially the blossoming flower contains life-force. I haven’t looked deeply enough into the lone warrior symbolism yet but it’s interesting and pops up often.
Very heavy and very hard. Reduces damage from headshots and impacts. The inside of the helm is pitch black, keeping the crazed warrior within from panicking.
Perhaps its rather roomy interior also helps alleviate feelings of pressure and claustrophobia.
Now this is a somewhat interesting line to follow because it opens up most items and characters to being understood in allegorical terms which satisfy a garden and society analogy, two not very foreign concepts to Miyazaki and G.R.R.M.
This means that the true challenge in this narrative is unpacking the perspectives of each character and by doing so understanding who is behind what in the item descriptions, character dialogue and character actions.
This circles back to the problem with my first video, Miquella being Gowry is challenging because Gowry seems to lose his mind throughout the quest — he starts by condemning the rot pests as annoying, he speaks highly of Miquella — a bit too highly — he is surprised that he is finally aging — but by the end of the quest he is pretending to or has simply lost his mind — he acts as if he is a rot pest, he cries for no reason, he goes on about a non-existent God — the rot-God — he sounds like Shabriri — in fact when we kill Gowry at the end of his question he doesn’t say ‘that was just one of many’ like he does when we kill him at earlier points. No. He just dies. He was replaced with a rot pest when originally he was using them to pretend to be someone else who is pretending to be someone else.
Yeah. I know. Sounds insane. But effectively it is the story I have just described above being referenced in a side quest, essentially. (See here, I keep quoting my own video which is pretty crass but yeah, again note its a bit outdated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hlbvnnwKus).
As an alternative to this idea about the formless mother it could be that she is essentially just a womb as her mind is gone. This is why Mogh stealing Miquella, a sperm basically, makes some sense and this could be the essence of the logic which causes the cycle to repeat without something new occurring. It also acts as the tragic cause of the Weeping Peninsula, a mother losing her child. This also adds to the depravity of Mogh, he is stealing his own brother-from-another-mother and artificially putting him into the past, into his grandmother. I’m not going to try to unpick the chronology of that but it does add up with my Miquella is Gowry theory. But I will say this: it implies that Malenia, after having lost Miquella and therefore her spirit tuner, goes insane and becomes Caelid but Mogh, having stolen Miquella, gives Malenia back her spirit tuner in the future where she has become the formless mother, together they conspire to attempt to correct the problem using Gowry and Milicient using Miquella’s charm-magic and Malenia’s blood by sending one of their children on a suicide mission so that the Tarnished can put the needle inside of Malenia and thereby abort the spiritless, as Miquella was removed, mass of red-energy which would become Caelid.
Anyway.
Malenia loses her seal, her skin which holds back the red-tide; she gives birth to grotesque children — all of the beings of the land. Daedicar does not speak, she does not go mad like Shabriri, she is merely punished by his insanity — hence the mothers lamentation. She is silent, she holds within her the next era after the current one. She looks like the ‘Third’ but she is the previous Talon returning and piercing the two dichotomies. This is why all of the plants die, a cycle of imprisonment and release.
The ‘golden one’ abandoned her, Miquella ‘abandoned her’, he was stolen and realized I’m sure quite quickly who the formless mother was. This interpretation portrays Mogh sacreligious action as far, far, far worse than anyone imagined. Basically Miquella and Malenia are siblings who together would have formed the basis of a new tree, one of them is the spirit and the other the body. But Mogh steals Miquella and tries to put him into the formless mother who is genetically related to Miquella if not simply being Malenia in a cyclical sense. This could well be the origin of the sickliness of the land, Miquella grows up through the underground area, breaching the ‘leaf’ above it, which is also it’s own time cycle, meaning Melina’s eye tattoo takes on a very different meaning, the singular talon which penetrates the two talons is the Erdtree.
Now what this would mean is the fact that the result of the Erdtree is Miquella and Malenia makes sense from the plant biology metaphor, these are DNA strand people, there is no reason for either of them to be different if Miquella is being birthed by Malenia or however it works. Additionally, Shabriri being the spirit-tuner of the land, and a bad one, makes sense considering what has happened. Miquella would have lost his sympathy for life having to essentially be trapped forever in a time loop where his mindless sister gives birth to him or, at least, acts as the blood from which he grows. He basically goes insane and becomes an ever present potential consequence of Mogh’s actions. Yes this is a bit of a reach but it’s kinda cool, right? And what little desire remains of Malenia would sensibly be towards the end of this situation as well but on a more instinctive level, like the pumpkin head she wants space, it feels claustrophobic.
I think though, at the same time, we can look at characters like Sellen and Jerren and see that, actually, Malenia and Miquella are doing just fine.
*cough*
Soooo.
When I made a video about how Miquella is Gowry I never thought I’d end up saying that everyone is Miquella or Malenia because they are DNA and the beings of the Lands Between are cells. But that kinda is what I’m saying.
Yeah. Anyway.
Silence is tied to the formless mother, the three fingers, and Radagon. The silence of the body itself. The two-fingers, on the other hand, is outspoken and deeply ideological and language-centric in its methods.
Shabriri then is trying to murder, or more aptly, abort the future as a means to avoid Caelid again and Daedicar’s suffering is being used as poison to achieve it. In the sense that she , as representing life, does not deserve to suffer and die so Shabriri is a classic nihilist, life is not worth the struggle and should end.
Daedicar is trying to carry through with creation, regardless of suffering, by using the spirit which is tied to Shabriri and the day era and spiritual drives by using Mogh — essentially by doing the exact same thing as Shabriri, use him as poison to achieve it. The Order was a plan to forcibly intoxicate the beings of the land using the spirit in order to bring about the spread of, well, more containers containing red-gunk. This means this plot ultimately serves the cycle, which is a good thing unless she wanted a permanent endless amount of red-gunk life, which is exactly the vibe the developers were going for, so much life that it is horrible and strange, which seems somewhat likely given the Eternal Cities permanent night is meant to hold something at bay, that is, the formless mother. She enacts this plot at the expense of enslaving its beings, which is a bad thing likely fooling the two underground giants or the Fire Giant into attempting some kind of plot.
The crux of her failing is a perfect mirror conceptually of Si-Te-Cah, the myth about a clan destroying another clan of red cannibalistic giants and gaining their traits.
So who is pulling the strings is down to the Formless Mother or the Greater Will Father. The Mother benefits from the trees spreading each one acting as a life bomb, the Father benefits from the singularity of spiritual energy in the Erdtree because it can be used as a fire bomb. Neither want anything particularly good. I think from here an investigation into the Hand of Fate being split into two is worthwhile and relates to Daedicar, Shabriri, the Greater Will and the Formless Mother.
Anyway, this entire idea around the formless mother is why Mogh’s rune is feminine and he is associated with the Mother whereas Morgott’s rune is masculine and associated with the Father.
And this is why Melina preferring free will and going ‘against her mothers wishes’ makes perfect sense.
Confining the flame makes sense for Daedicar to do because she cannot really exist when fire is just consuming everything she makes. Containing everything inside of it in order to release it and either permanently live without containment makes sense although I see it as most likely that the Order arose naturally to try to ascend the beings of the land by bringing their spirits into a container but this was corrupted by both Shabiri and Daedicar who exist in parallel to this goal, hence the ultimate symbol of the narrative being Trina’s lily.
Alternatively, because Shabriri needs to use the energy of the spirits of the land in the Elden Beast to achieve his goal Daedicar, the formless mother, needs to open up the spirit container in order to destroy him, she craves a wound in the Erdtree itself.
In any case this would mean that the ‘frenzied flame’ is the spirit and ‘scarlet rot’ is the body. The entire thing may well be a dual analogy of pregnancy and horticulture from the perspective of cells, i.e., the ‘frenzied flame’ is the desire to utilize energy from the sun, that is it is the life-organizing ‘will’, and the ‘scarlet rot’ is the organisms organization within a body. This adds a very nice metaphorical layer to the pessimistic philosophy of the frenzied flame followers. It is death, blood and pain which fuels the spiritual flame of life.
This philosophical reading complicates (in a good way) the plant metaphor reading. The actual energy the plant is using is from the sun, the Melina we meet in game, is light, she is legit. The misguided spiritual ‘flame’ of life, which dictates what its metabolic energy is directed to, is currently not legit. It is self-destructive. Seeking immortality is life-denying.
This then grafts well onto the ‘immortality desire’ theme running throughout the souls series with a Nietzschean update, the origin of this desire for immortality and the end of life is born out from life’s drive to growth itself.
In this way the most difficult comparative analysis can be done; sure we can see that there are dichotomies and they are false and we can assume the process is actually a continous natural growing and dieing proces gone haywire but if the dichotomies are false then how is the most central dichotomy, the Mother and Father, scarlet rot and the frenzied flame, chaos and order, false?
Dagger fashioned from a great scorpion’s tail, glistening with scarlet rot. A ceremonial tool used by heretics, crafted from the relic of a sealed outer god.
The scorpion is connected to scarlet rot, its stinger is using it and yet at the same time it is connected to the Frenzied Flame and the Giant’s Flame with the SCORPION KITE SHIELD
Emblazoned with a yellow scorpion, a warning of surprise attacks and sudden strikes.
It has eight limbs and one stinger, 9 total points of significance, just like the 9 irises in the Fire Giant’s eye. Recall the scorpion charm which is tied to Selivus implying a cycle of stealing power. These two scorpions are the ones stealing power from each other, the spirit and the body. A classic Fromsoft theme. This is, of course, a false dichotomy. The mind and body are one.
FAITHFUL’S CANVAS TALISMAN
A talisman bearing an icon that depicts a group of masked figures. Raises potency of incantations. The figures represent the flock at prayer, their firm belief in the intangible inspiring even the solitary founder of their religion. What is faith if not an affirmation?
This is similar to flocks talisman but the number of people in the icon is different. There are 8 people staring upwards at the intangible one — the supposed ‘outer God’- nothingness.
(Intentional sudden shift in perspective incoming…) Selivus the one who wants to give pure spirit the red blood, like Mogh, would bring ruin again, that much is clear — but what of Ranni’s other friends? Who are they? Iji and Blaidd. Iji says this after you unlock the path to the Fingerslayer blade by killing Rahdan.
(Side note on Blaidd: dogs are important. Malkeith is likely to have the key to the symbolism involving the colour black as well as what Malenia represents. Keith meaning wood or kith meaning friend, makes sense for a dog. Anyway)
Now the festival is over, and General Radahn is defeated… Jerren’s duties are finally fulfilled. Though we served different masters, I could see he was truly adept in his role. Now the time has come to remind him of an old promise made. With the starts of fate set into motion, a certain sorceress is dispossessed of her immortality… Finally, we can be rid of a longstanding Carian weed…
He’s talking about Sellen when he mentions a ‘certain sorceress’ — he’s suggesting that Jerren — who is basically a Gael reference and Rahdan’s solider — made a promise to kill her.
Like everything else in this game this is connected to Marika and Radagon, Malenia and Miquella, Mogh and the Blue Dancer.
Ah, well met. I hardly expected to see the champion of the festival here of all places. You didn’t … know Sellen did you? Well, whatever the case, she’s dead now. Just put it behind you. She was known as the graven witch Obsessed by the primeval current, countless sorcerers fell to her hands. The most dangerous mage in the entire history of Raya Lucaria’s Academy It is strange through. The woman, she was like a husk, her soul already fled. I suspect Sellen lives on, elsewhere. I’m sure she’ll turn up eventually, in another body. A sickening thought, but one that won’t stop gnawing at me.
Naturally Jerren, as a red-coded character, isn’t impressed with blue-coded magicians and, unsurprisingly blames them for the suffering of the world — this is essentially the Weeping Peninsulas mise en scene returning as dialogue. Red-coded characters, through blame or desire for power, tend to confine blue-or-white coded characters for their own gain, intentional or not. This just hurts everyone involved, in the philosophical sense that when the will does not align with the body we have situations which end in life-denial.
“Sellen, Graven Witch, enemy of Caria. I vow this time to crush both your frame and your primal glintstone. I am Jerren, bringer of your death. Do not forget.”
Almost sounds Malenia-esque.
Jerren, bringer of my death. You have my gratitude. For freeing me from my shackles. But I am afraid your work is done. Join the school. To reflect on your mistake.
The closest resemblance here that I can think of is Radagon leaving Marika to study Carian magic. Radagon being the red-haired beast which sought to bring death to Marika as an individual and the kindling maidens, collectively -
Ahh, my apprentice. You’ve saved my skin once again. Do you see this? The Queen of Caria is no more. With the bodies of Masters Azur and Lusat returned, the academy can hone the primeval current. So that we, fallen children of the stars, shall beam with brilliance once again. My apprentice. Will you stay with us, here at the academy? Oh, I know it’s not possible. You have your own calling. To be the next Elden Lord. But do think of me. Of your teacher. On the eve of your crowning. You will always be my darling pupil. Rest assured that I… No, the entire academy, will swear allegiance to the new monarch. My apprentice.
Become Elden Lord. Hmm. Perhaps I’m jumping ahead, but here is a symbol of my allegiance, and the academy’s. (gives Glintstone Kris) Do you recall what I once told you? That glintstone is the amber of the cosmos, and sorcery is the study of the stars, and the life therein. When you become Elden Lord, please illuminate me. Lay bare the secrets of life which course the Elden Ring. Next time, I will be your student. Oh, one last thing. If you fail to claim your throne, you can always pay me a visit. Oh, don’t fret. Even my dullest pupils will always have a place here.
Iji is a very important character if you consider his appearance — he is a giant whose head is covered with mirrors which reflect. He sits near an anvil — which is tied to Mjolnir at later points in the games chiral narrative — and despite being a black-smith — which is stereotypically not a job which requires reading he is reading a book. All of these characteristics match Radagon well — so it makes sense that he is connected to Jerren — Radagon, the vessel we find anyway, is seen as a blacksmith — he is hammering away at something — but recall that he is Merika which means he wanted to create a God slaying weapon — perhaps in the trailer what we see isn’t Radagon attempting to restore the Elden Ring but Radagon attempting to forge a God-slaying weapon.
Radagon/Marika, like Iji, is also interested in learning more things — he studies the Order and the Carian royal family. And they both have red hair -
“Every giant is red of hair, and Radagon was said to have despised his own red locks. Perhaps that was a curse of their kind”
Of course, because Marika is tied to silver tears and mimicry the fact that Iji’s face covering is a collection of mirrors should be unsurprising but I bet some of you are still a bit surprised.
Helm fashioned from a crystal looking-glass, said to have never left War Counselor Iji’s head. Easily broken and weak against striking attacks. Worn by those committed to high treason, it wards off the intervention of the Greater Will and its vassal Fingers. Iji was afraid. Terrified of his own treachery.
This maps perfectly well to Marika who is strongly associated with treachery, additionally we find he is burned with destined death by the Black Knife assassins — while Marika was not assassinated by other Black Knife assassins she was killed by a scion of the Eternal city using destined death — herself.
It also potentially frames Marika’s shame about her red-hair as not just directly shame towards what redness represents — life, birth and death — but fear about her own treachery.
If Iji is Marika/Radagon, he is their representative — why he is antagonistic with Sellen? Sellen, by this point, is clearly representative of Marika/Radagon as well given her Primal Glintsone being both red and blue, her being trapped in the Weeping Peninsula just like Melina was confined.
Well, Iji, like Jerren, is tilting at windmills, which is referenced directly in the game with actual windmills sprining up chronologically, if the map is chronological like I suggest, just prior to the establishment of Leyndell — they are attacking imaginary enemies.
Sellen, on the other hand, is like the little fairy in the story of Ainsel — the little boy calls himself ‘my own self’ so that when he hurts the fairy the fairy blames ‘my own self’- the mother of the fairy has to intervene which causes the little boy to become afraid — to learn a lesson.
The game isn’t based on Ainsel, it grafts it onto other stories such as the story of the cannibalistic red-haired giants the Se-te-cah — the story comes to have its own meaning from many overlapping elements.
Iji and Jerren aren’t just attacking imaginary enemies they are attacking themselves.
Iji being Marika/Radagon makes Blaidd’s connection to Malkeith stronger — meaning this quote;
Oh, it’s you… It’s me, Blaidd. Old Iji trapped me here. Told me I’d bring nought but bale to Lady Ranni. But there’s no chance that could happen. I’m part of her being. Her very shadow… I thought old Iji knew as much… Honestly, I don’t know what’s going on anymore… [Open the evergaol] My thanks, friend. I’m going to see mistress Ranni, now. I don’t know what came over old Iji, but even if the odds are slim, I need to check the mistress is safe. Now, Ranni can finally set in motion the fight against her fate she’s dreamt of for so long.
…
Blaidd, Selrius, Iji these three characters form the three moments of history captured in the map — it is the relationship with the other as it develops throughout history — Blaidd is the age of the beast, the dog and his master — he is loyal but can be driven to madness — he is the weeping peninsula and Caelid — Selrius is the age of Liurnia and the Eternal Cities — the desire to puppet fate itself, to control the other — Iji is the age of the Leyndell and the Mountaintops of the giants — the tragedy being that his own fear stops him, his inability to see himself fully — he can only reflect others — his death is a question but it is one with mise en scene elements as clues.
The narrative in Elden Ring works like this; the literal portion of any game element usually comes with a more conceptual portion to it — (i.e. Radagon — remove ‘ra’ you get Dagon, a real deity from mythology) and what we do after this is we find out what pieces fit where by superimposing elements on top of each other under various transformations. This is consistent, it is not an open-ended ‘whatever you think it means, maybe, it’s your theory’ — we can only get to the open-ended element of the narrative if we understand the rudimentary parts of it — which most of us don’t. The point is to figure out who is who in a game full of masked characters, disguises, false names, forgotten names, forgotten tasks. In the process of figuring it out we have no choice but to confront the more abstract and conceptual nature of the characters.
It is really only after all of this thinking and reflection that I can see how the main riddle can be answered: how can Radagon and Marika be the same person if Radagon is fixing the Elden Ring and Marika is shattering it? Well, by this point we can see that Radagon is really the red-haired beings of the land reflected within Marika meaning that he is as driven as they are to pursue the project of the Order which by this point we understand is misguided. This implies that Marika’s plan involves sending the Tarnished off because neither her nor the beings of the land can overcome the magical and ideological brainwashing.
I think the paradox and solution to the riddle is this: Marika is able to shatter the ring because by doing so she can fix the ring which means that by shattering it she is fixing it and therefore Radagon is fixing the Elden Ring by shattering it. This retains the fact that they are the same person and not two separate entities.
This also suggests that in essence, just like Miquella, Marika acts as the spirit-tuner like entity with Radagon as her body. Now if their remains, which we fight as the last boss, still contain the reflective properties of the silver tear this means we fight ourselves, possibly rather than fighting the spirits of the land in the Erdtree, because recall that the player character is full of ‘runes’ which are essentially souls.
This can be further elaborated on and tweaked but generally I think this is my best theory.
Yes the game is open-ended but unless you see Iji represents something about Marika, something about reflection and the inability to reflect yourself, then you don’t see that the open-ended element of the game comes from the players relation to this character.
The point of the puzzle is not to find out boring information dumps, the point is we get to give life to the seemingly empty main characters — Radagon and Merika, Malkeith, are all given really interesting personalities through their respective resemblances instead of the basically lifeless monster-versions of them we encounter.
(Side note: With all of this in mind I predict the DLC will include: difficult to understand metaphors relating to plant care, such as making sure it is fed, protected and maybe even gets a new pot. If Miquella is in it then Malenia, in some capacity, should be as well at least in a kind of obvious absence. He needs to prepare the soil, which is Godwyn since the head of the plant got cut off, before he plants Malenia or a new Malenia, the soil is bad and needs fixin’. Malenia, or whatever becomes of her after blossoming, will forget who Miquella is and probably be an enemy or the source of enemies at least at first. Godwyn’s spirit is in the same place as Ranni’s body which means Godwyn should make an appearance and the land will be Ranni’s body, which will be present in the DLC, whatever that implies. As a final alternative Miquella is now in the barren lands, basically the area surrounding the plant that was being grown and simply needs to fix the soil under it somehow which is going to be full of spirit-less creatures and red-monsters, a primordial state, maybe the direction of the metaphors will lean towards cells and proteins instead of gardens and animals).
More articles on this topic to come.
tl;dr: Melina is actually the light and the darkness but with only the lights on, and she is used as a laser-beam enhanced by a mirror named Marika that gardeners are using to help grow the lands between by killing off cancerous growths that won’t die but this has risked accidentally burning everything they’ve been growing so far into nothingness.