Summary
- An Elden Ring player modeled their character after Queen Marika, shedding light on the mysterious god-queen's appearance.
- Shadow of the Erdtree DLC reveals the dark past of Marika, including the fate of Shamans, offering new insights for players.
- One player's recreation of Marika was praised by the community, hinting at connections between characters like Messmer and Miquella.
An Elden Ring player used the game's character creator to model their Tarnished after Queen Marika the Eternal. Marika is the reigning divine sovereign of Elden Ring's setting, the Lands Between.
While essentially a background character in Elden Ring, Queen Marika is undoubtedly the game's most important figure. The entire narrative of the critically acclaimed FromSoftware RPG revolves around the powerful monarch, her extensive bloodline, and the Golden Order movement that rules over the Lands Between. Despite her significance to the world of Elden Ring, Marika is largely shrouded in mystery and players only encounter a decaying version of her during the fight with
Radagon of the Golden Order, the consort and other half of Queen Marika. One gamer, however, has used Elden Ring’s character creator to turn their Tarnished into Marika, giving fans a glimpse of what the god-queen probably looked like when she was in her prime.
How Shadow of the Erdtree Lore Recontextualizes Elden Ring's Base Game
The story of Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC places both the events of the base game, and the player's role in it, in a brand new light.
In a recent Reddit post that has received more than 6,200 upvotes, user nouvlesse shared photos of their Elden Ring character that was modeled after Queen Marika. Nouvlesse, who provided the character sliders for her rendition of Marika, even dropped some interesting headcanon regarding the sovereign. Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, which was released in June, revealed many details about Queen Marika's dark past, including the tragic fate of her fellow Shamans.
Elden Ring Queen Marika Custom Character
Many community members praised nouvlesse's recreation of Marika, with one user even claiming that it was the best rendition of the monarch that they had ever seen. Another commenter claimed that nouvlesse's custom character made them realize that
Messmer the Impaler, Marika's son, actually resembled his Numen mother. Messmer is one of Shadow of the Erdtree's new bosses and players will have to defeat him in order to progress through the DLC's main questline.
The expansion also touched on the story of Miquella the Kind, another child of Marika. The demigod is the brother of
Malenia, Blade of Miquella, who is widely considered to be one of the hardest bosses in the vanilla Elden Ring experience. Like his mother, Miquella also has another half in the form of St. Trina, a mysterious figure that is associated with sleep.
Shadow of the Erdtree will be the only DLC for Elden Ring, according to the game’s director and FromSoftware CEO Hidetaka Miyazaki. The Japanese studio is expected to release an expansion for its mech-based action game, Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon. While not as popular as Elden Ring, the latest entry in the long-running Armored Core franchise has sold more than three million copies worldwide since launching in August.
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 95 /100 Critics Rec: 98%
- Released
- February 25, 2022
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Publisher(s)
- Bandai Namco Entertainment, From Software






ELDEN RING, developed by FromSoftware, Inc. And BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set within a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin. Danger and discovery lurk around every corner in FromSoftware’s largest game to date. Hidetaka Miyazaki - President and Game Director of FromSoftware Inc. Known for directing critically-acclaimed games in beloved franchises including Armored Core and Dark Souls.
George R.R. Martin is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the acclaimed series A Song of Ice and Fire - A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast For Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. As a writer-producer, he has worked on The Twilight Zone, Beauty and the Beast, and various feature films and pilots that were never made. He lives with the lovely Parris in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
- Engine
- Proprietary
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op, Online Multiplayer
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- How Long To Beat
- 58 Hours
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A