Marika is the driving force behind players' actions in Elden Ring. Her story is long and difficult to piece together at times, but her influence over the Lands Between is beyond measure, with statues and churches dedicated to her in every corner of the realm. Many of the main bosses the player must fight are her children — demigods who hold a shard of the fractured Elden Ring.
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Marika's motivations are shrouded in mystery, but hints throughout the base game and the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC tell parts of the story, leaving players to make connections and fill in the gaps with theories and speculation. Some information is well-known, including her marriages to Godfrey and Radagon, as well as her founding of the Golden Order, but a few details about her life are a bit more obscure for more casual players.
Spoiler Warning: this list contains story spoilers for Elden Ring and the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.
6 Marika's Numen Origins
Who Are Marika's People?
It is stated that the Numen likely originated from outside the Lands Between, and are of the same stock as Queen Marika. The Black Knife Assassins are implied to be Numen, though this is intentionally left unclear. It is also possible that they once lived in the underground eternal cities. This mysterious race is said to be long-lived and seldom born.
Marika has clear ties to the Shaman Village in the Shadow Lands. This region, now shrouded and hidden away by Marika herself, is home to an abandoned village containing evidence of Marika's former life there. This place is likely one of the areas where Numen settled in the Lands Between before a tragedy left it forsaken.
5 The Tragedy Of Shaman Village
What Happened To Marika's Home?
One of the major lore revelations of the Shadow of the Erdree DLC was the Shaman Village where Queen Marika was raised, hidden away in the Shadow Realm. Players uncovered how this place became abandoned after searching Bonny Village. Marika's people were stolen away and stuffed in jars as part of a barbaric Hornsent Ritual.
The Hornsent worshiped the Crucible, an ancient source of life in the Lands Between, and venerated those born with horns, tails, and other characteristics. Marika's persecution of the Hornsent, and later the Omen and Misbegotten, is cruel, but this knowledge helps players understand where her hatred came from.
4 Marika's Ascension To Godhood
Betrayal, Grafting, And The Golden Order
The age of the Erdtree may seem eternal, but this is not the case. It is said that Marika's ascension to godhood was an affair and a betrayal, but its nature is never clarified fully. She would remove the Rune of Death from the Elden Ring to establish her Age of Gold. This Rune was in the possession of an Empyrean named the Gloam-Eyed Queen, who was presumably the God of the previous Age.
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Marika annexed many rivals in her pursuit of power. The domination of the Hornsent was probably the first and undoubtedly one of the most brutal conquests — alongside that of the Giants. She grafted the Erdtree onto the base of the ancient Great Tree, home to the Crucible and a symbol of a previous age. The timeline of her reign is difficult to fully understand and leaves a lot of room for speculation.
3 Marika's Cursed Children
Cursed In The Face Of Her Perfect Order
Marika's brutal conquests left her with a list of enemies who would do anything to harm her, including Hornsent Grandam, a survivor revealed to be an Empyrean like Marika herself. The Hornsent Grandam exclaims that Marika's children will all be struck by the curse of the Omen. This could explain Mogh and Morgott's Omens status, Messmer's affliction by the Base Serpent, and Miquella's curse of eternal youth.
Marika surrendered her cursed children to different fates. Messmer was forgotten in the Realm of Shadow, and Mogh and Morgott were abandoned in the sewers beneath Leynell. Only Miquella was spared this, able to pursue his own goals of Godhood. It is unknown if Godwyn was subject to any curse from birth, but his cruel fate is possibly the worst of all her children.
2 Marika And Radagon
The Queen And Her Consort
Finding out that Marika and Radagon are two different souls sharing a body is confusing enough. Questions continue to pile up when considering the timeline of this affair. The identity of Messmer's father is never confirmed, but his red hair leads many players to speculate that it may indeed be Radagon. This theory throws previous timelines into question.
It was initially assumed that Marika and Radagon had no connection before their marriage, after Godfrey's banishment and Rennala's divorce. If Messmer's father was truly Radagon, they may have been together before Marika met Godfrey. This could explain why Radagon was able to abandon Rennala so easily. It is also worth noting that Messmer had a sister many fans believe is Melina, guide and maiden to the Tarnished.
1 The Greater Will
The Empyrean And The Fingers
Queen Marika's free will as an agent of the Greater Will and the Fingers is often debated. The influence of the Fingers over an Empyrean, those with the potential to reign as a god, is not always clear. Ranni's questline was all about breaking away from this influence, a task that required careful planning and great sacrifice.
Marika's shattering of the Elden Ring is supposedly what led to her imprisonment by the Greater Will, but what if this Outer God was never there to begin with? It is stated that the Greater Will has not spoken to the Fingers for eons, making the rule of Marika, the Fingers, and the entire Golden Order illegitimate. This also questions the role of the Elden Beast, originally seen as an envoy for the Greater Will.
Elden Ring
- Released
- February 25, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Publisher(s)
- Bandai Namco Entertainment, From Software
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
