Characters / Elden Ring: Main Characters

Elden Ring Main Character Index
Main Characters | Roundtable Hold | Secondary Characters (Renowned Ashes) | Outer Gods | Demigods (Godfrey's Lineage | Radagon's Lineage (Malenia)) | Enemies and Bosses (Dragons | Liurnia of the Lakes | Recurring Enemies and Bosses | Tarnished Invaders and Targets)

This page details the Tarnished and other major characters in Elden Ring.

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The Tarnished

The Tarnished

Rise, Tarnished... in search of the Elden Ring...^note Classes, clockwise from top left: Vagabond, Hero, Warrior, Prisoner, Bandit, Prophet, Wretch, Samurai, Confessor, Astrologer

Voiced by: ^(English) Wayne Forester, Gary Martin, Ben Norris, Ben Fox, Andrew Williams, Jack Meyers (Type A) / Rachel Atkins, Clare Corbett, Naomi McDonald, Alison Dowling, Kezia Burrows, Lorraine Bruce (Type B)

A Tarnished of no renown.
Cross the fog, to the Lands Between.
To stand before the Elden Ring.
And become the Elden Lord.

The Player Character and a member of the Tarnished, a group of exiles and their descendants who were stripped of the golden grace of the Erdtree and banished from the Lands Between long ago. However, with the shattering of the Elden Ring, grace has once again blessed some of these Tarnished with Resurrective Immortality and drawn them back to the Lands Between to forge the Elden Ring anew.

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• Action Survivor: Zig-zagged. Par for the course in a Soulsborne game, the Tarnished is at the bottom of the totem pole and has to claw their way up against insurmountable odds. However, several of the backgrounds indicate that they are a skilled warrior, such as the Vagabond, Samurai, Warrior, and Hero. Others, like the Astrologer, Prisoner, and Prophet, indicate that they aren't very experienced in battle and have to learn how to fight. The most extreme case is the Wretch, who starts with nothing but a club and their underwear.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Played for Laughs. During one fight with Patches, he will say he'll spare the Tarnished if they grovel. Sure enough, the game actually gives the player the option to beg for mercy, and if they do Patches will keep his word and stop attacking.
• Ambiguously Related: To Godfrey. There are several hints that indicate that the Tarnished is a direct descendant of his, though it's never confirmed. It's worth mentioning that the Tarnished seen in trailers, promotional art, and on the box cover happens to have white hair like Godfrey's.
• Ambition Is Evil: Zigzagged. About the only explicit detail the game gives you about your character's motivation is their indomitable ambition to reforge the Elden Ring and become the new Elden Lord, which is treated as a heroic goal. However, most other beings in the Lands Between see the "flame of ambition" that the Tarnished carries with them as a negative thing since it drives you to go against the established order of the world. While ambition isn't necessarily evil to you, to everyone else it is. In addition, this trope can be played entirely straight if you become Lord of the Frenzied Flame, in which case your character's thirst for power causes them to become a force of destruction that burns down the entire world.
• An Adventurer Is You: Downplayed — your starting class determines your initial equipment and stats, but it doesn't restrict what you can use in the long run. Given enough time and with the right stats, any player can use any piece of equipment or spell.
• The Antichrist: If they don't heed Melina's warning about not messing with the Three Fingers and the Frenzied Flame and opens their prison, they will be branded by the Three Fingers as the chosen one of the Outer God of the Flame of Frenzy. Once you've beaten the final boss and are inside the Erdtree, Elden Ring at hand's reach, the Tarnished's head will fall off and be replaced with a glowing orb of Frenzied Flame, and from within the now burned-out husk of the tree they'll begin purging all life in the world. Unless you do a very specific, cryptic and out of the way sidequest to complete Miquella's Needle, going this path will lock you out of any other ending; your Tarnished is doomed to become the Lord of Chaos.
• Anti Anti Christ: If they follow the Miquella's Needle sidequest after inheriting the Frenzied Flame, they can purge the Outer God's influence from their body and screw the Three Fingers and their eldritch master out of their Lord of Chaos - and since the Three Fingers dissapeared after granting its power to the Tarnished, it's implied the Tarnished has essentially become the living seal of one of the most malevolent entities in the setting. Mind you, this still won't mend your unrepairable relation with Melina, who will never come back should the Tarnished free the Three Fingers in the first place, but it will allow the player to not be locked out of the other endings.
• Anti-Hero: Your quest may be to bring stability back to a fallen world, but you will likely commit several questionable acts to get there, such as killing non-malevolent demigods and monsters, partaking in assassinations to gain an audience with one such demigod, and even commit a cardinal sin by burning down the Erdtree (unless you see this as a case of Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!). What type of Anti-Hero you are depends on your actions. This shifts into Villain Protagonist territory if you choose to help the Dung Eater or become the Lord of Frenzied Flame.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: The Tarnished has a bit of a problem with actually following through on their victories. Several mid-fight cutscenes have them poised to kill their target, only to get distracted by something happening elsewhere, initiating the second phase of the battle.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Your quest to become Elden Lord will inevitably result in besting all of the greatest warriors in the Lands Between.
• Back from the Dead: The opening cutscene shows them lying dead in a sarcophagus before a spark of Grace from the Erdtree resurrects them.
• Bad Powers, Good People: There's nothing to stop a player Tarnished from using evil forms of magic, explicitly tied to malevolent forces (Frenzied Flame Incantations, Destined Death, Blackflame, Giantsflame, etc), while still serving the Golden Order or any of the other somewhat good endings.
• Body Motifs: There is an emphasis on the Tarnished's hands. In the intro, the grace falls on their hand and Torrent also touches it when it finds the Tarnished dead. Both Hyetta and Jar-Bairn comment on the Tarnished's hands being rough and firm compared to the other hands they felt or sought. It contrasts with other characters who use schemes and proxies to get to the Elden Ring while the Tarnished throw hands with everything and everyone.
• Breaking Old Trends: Heavily downplayed. Like other Souslike protagonists in a FromSoftware game, the Tarnished doesn't speak outside of grunts and cries of pain. On the other hand, they are not a Silent Protagonist as they can speak using specific gestures such as 'Wave'.
• Came Back Strong: Invoked. According to Melina's reciting of Marika's words, the Tarnished warriors who traveled with Lord Godfrey were intended to fight, live, become stronger, and die. Then Marika would revive them and bring them back to the Lands Between to fight and acquire the Elden Ring.
• The Champion: A lot of characters see the Tarnished as the next Elden Lord and bet according to it. Torrent being the first, but as the Tarnished collects Great Runes most believe they are destined to it.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Even before gaining Super-Empowering, a starting Tarnished will perform blatantly superhuman feats of speed, strength, and durability as a matter of course, apparently just because they're a trained warrior (even if their specialty is non-physical). This appears to be standard in the Elden Ring setting as even the basic Lordsworn Soldiers of the various factions are low-level superhumans,^note Launching people several meters with their strikes, slicing through plate armor, loading crossbows in under a second, swinging blades bigger than any real sword far easier than a real man would swing a real sword, jumping eight feet in the air, racking large ballistae single-handedly in a few seconds, and so on. though it should be noted that a starter Tarnished is still both mechanically and narratively far enough above them that one constitutes a joke and Zero-Effort Boss in the tutorial. Their ability to parry enemies is also not tied to their Strength stat, so you can have your scrawny sorcerer knock back the strike of a massive glaive with enough force to launch a ten-foot armored knight off his elephant-sized horse before stabbing right through said knight's incredibly thick breastplate with a dagger.
• The Chosen One: Well, one of. The Player Character is just one of the many Tarnished guided by grace to become the new Elden Lord. As the story progresses, they're the closest to achieving this goal once they've acquired the necessary Great Runes to reforge the Elden Ring. Even certain NPCs they've met and befriended such as Boc or Sellen believe the Tarnished PC will be Elden Lord.
• Combat Pragmatist: One way the Tarnished deals with their enemies. Why fight your opponents head-on when you can inflict them with poison, death, or Scarlet Rot? This can also apply for their reasons in joining the recusants, since they're the only ones who know anything about where to find Rykard. The existence of the Spirit Ash system also lets the Tarnished summon disposable minions against bosses, including other minibosses or a direct clone of themselves, a level of cheapness that previous protagonists could never reach. A lot of the main bosses also have specific in-universe cheese strategies to beat them^note Examples: using Margit's Shackle on Morgott can let you pretty much entirely bypass his first phase, using Mohg's Shackle and the Purifying Crystal Tear on Mohg can let you do the same to him, summoning a gang of other warriors for Radahn trivializes his fight and he can also be insta-killed by baiting him into falling off a nearby waterlogged cliff, using the Blasphemous Claw can completely negate Maliketh's Black Blade and paralyze him, using an upgraded Serpent Hunter on Rykard takes out an otherwise extremely tough boss in a minute or two, using Lord's Divine Fortification plus a talisman and armor set with decent Holy resistance can you make you almost entirely immune to the Elden Beast's attacks. that the player is encouraged to exploit. With how much stronger and faster the bosses are than in previous games, the Tarnished needs every advantage they can find.
• Cutscene Incompetence: During certain major fights, the Tarnished just stands there if a cutscene occurs mid-fight. For instance, against Godrick, they do nothing as he cuts off his own arm and replaces it with a dragon's head. Subverted a bit during the Rennala fight, as you see the Tarnished approaching her as she lies on the ground after finishing phase 1, but the appearance of Ranni's magic clearly takes them off guard and they become more focused on it than her.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Almost all of the backgrounds imply that your character has been put through absolute hell even before coming to the Lands Between. Special mention goes to the Prophet and Prisoner backgrounds, in which your character explicitly starts off as a social pariah who has been thrown out of their homeland, with your starting armor including manacles and a blindfold for the Prophet, and a very uncomfortable-looking iron mask for the Prisoner.
• Deity of Human Origin: Or some variation of "human" if choosing backgrounds such as dragonkin, nightfolk, or numen. Every playthrough ends with the Tarnished becoming a god (or goddess) of some sort. The Elden Lord and Age of the Stars endings cement this for the Tarnished once they are wed to Marika or Ranni, much like Godfrey and Radagon before them. There's also the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending where the Tarnished becomes a Humanoid Abomination made of Frenzied Flame and ends the world.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Malenia is the best warrior of the setting bar none, with the closest she ever got to being defeated was her duel with General Radahn (that ended in a draw). Gideon first introduces her as "the undefeated swordswoman". But the Tarnished can push her to invoke the Rot again out of desperation and then defeat her at the very height of her power. Her death quote has her apologize to her missing brother and stating she finally met her match. Also killing the Elden Beast, which Gideon went mad at the thought of doing it since killing a god can't be done by mortals, counts as such.
• Determinator: Unlike most other Tarnished who were discouraged from being defeated by the dangers in the Lands Between, the player's character has the ambition and drive to claim the title of Elden Lord no matter what challenges stand in their path, regardless of how many times they must die along the way. That determination is implied to be the only reason that they retain their Grace while nearly all other Tarnished have explicitly lost theirs.
  • Taken to extremes after the fight with Morgott, whereupon you find out that the Erdtree, and by extension the Greater Will itself, are denying you from becoming Elden Lord. Your solution? Set the Erdtree on fire, travel to a place beyond time, kill this universe’s equivalent to the Grim Reaper in order to gain entry to the Erdtree, and finally kill the spirit of the Erdtree itself in order to repair the Elden Ring.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Though most of the endings have them becoming part of a sort of divine Arranged Marriage with either Marika or Ranni, a potentially Perfectly Arranged Marriage in the latter's case, they spend far more time traveling and talking with Melina, who either performs a Heroic Sacrifice to burn open a path to the Elden Ring for them, or leaves them in disgust after they embrace the Frenzied Flame, even if they only did so to prevent her sacrifice and manage to purge it afterwards.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Tarnished starts with the quest of killing the remaining Demigods in the Lands Between, and from then on kill all kinds of eldritch, demonic creatures along the way, culminating in the Final Boss: The Elden Beast, a divine being and the incarnation of Order that looks like if you twisted a supercluster into a vaguely draconic astral body.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: The Tarnished is capable of embracing the Frenzied Flame, which wants them to burn the entirety of the Lands Between to ash, using it to open a path to the center of the Erdtree, and disposing of it afterwards.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Starting as the Wretch class. Like its Souls series predecessor the Deprived, the Wretch starts at Level 1, all stats are 10, and has no items or equipment besides a club and whatever you pick as your starting gift. The blank slate, however, allows players to mold the Tarnished into a terrifying force.
• The Drifter: The Seafarer background imply this for the Tarnished, traveling across the seas and looking for their home in the Lands Between.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: In the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending, the Tarnished strides around the burning Erdtree with their arms outstretched in exaltation, the only time your character ever expresses emotion through body language. The implication is that, having fully been possessed by the Flame of Frenzy, you're overwhelmed with joy and pride at the destruction your newfound power has unleashed.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Zigzagged. When they first arrive at the Roundtable Hold, Gideon treats them coldly and states that they haven't become a proper member and considers them a "house guest". Even Godrick, when he kills them during his first phase, considers them unfit to graft. This mainly stems from other Tarnished who've come to the Roundtable Hold over the years all but giving up their intended purpose. Once they've obtained their first Great Rune, Gideon acts somewhat more amicably and points them in the direction of the other shardbearers. Other characters give the Tarnished a warmer reception, or at the very least give them a modicum of respect for their determination, such as Sorceress Sellen.
• Evil Overlord: In two different flavors, no less.
  • In the "Lord of Frenzied Flame" ending, the Tarnished becomes the Lord of Chaos — a Humanoid Abomination made of living fire, and reduces the Lands Between to a nightmarish hellscape.
  • The Elden Lord ending variant "Blessing of Despair" sees the Tarnished willingly make the Loathsome Dung Eater's ideology into reality by repairing the Elden Ring with the Mending Rune of the Fell Curse, spreading the Seedbed Curse to everyone and preventing them and future generations from being reincarnated.
• Experienced Protagonist: Some of the potential backgrounds and starting classes of the Tarnished imply this.
  • A Warrior background Tarnished is described as having a common face, with the flavor text reading "they were all warriors once".
  • The Reedlander background (and by extension the Samurai starting class) hails from the Land of Reeds, which is Elden Ring's version of a Sengoku-era Japan where "blood is a common sight" and supposedly filled with monsters and demons of all kinds. The description of the Land of Reeds armor even says the Land of Reeds has devolved into blood-soaked madness.
  • The Seafarer background describes the Tarnished as being a drifter who wanders the seas in search of their home in the Lands Between.
  • The Confessor starting class is a Tarnished that served as an agent to the Two Fingers, either sent to spy on potential threats or quietly eliminate any the Fingers deemed a threat to the Lands Between.
• The Exile: Like all Tarnished, those who were exiled from the Lands Between due to having lost their connection to Grace (which basically means losing their connection to the Erdtree itself), they just so happened to have regained that connection and thus seek to return to the Lands Between and seek their birthright. Though ambition can lead to greater outcomes...
• Expy: A Tarnished aligned with the Frenzied Flame of Chaos becomes this for Surtr, being a Humanoid Abomination Beast of the Apocalypse wreathed in primordial flame who burns down the World Tree and ravages the land with torrents of never-ending Hellfire.
• Fallen Hero: As the Lord of Chaos, much to Melina's disappointment, as she had hoped the Tarnished would become the Elden Lord and bring prosperity and order back to the Lands Between.
• Fantastic Racism: On the receiving end. The Player Character is just one of the many people in the Lands Between who lost the Erdtree's blessing and became one of the Tarnished, and is treated like dirt and looked upon because of it. That said, some characters still treat them with respect, or at the very least are willing to give them a chance to prove themselves.
• Fantasy Character Classes: The starting classes, while not set in stone, dictate the preferred playstyle.
  • The Vagabond is something of a Mighty Glacier, possessing the highest starting Vigor, decent weapons (a longsword and halberd), a full-damage reduction shield, and half-plate armor. Unfortunately, they start with a heavy equip load due to this.
  • The Hero is something of a Lightning Bruiser, with the highest starting Strength and second-highest vitality. While not encumbered, sacrifices finesse and will struggle to use magic in general due to their low Intelligence and Faith.
  • The Warrior is the first Fragile Speedster class. They have the highest Dexterity and come with a pair of scimitars but are garbed in blue robes topped with a leather breastplate.
  • The Prisoner is a prison rags clad Magic Knight that begins play with an estoc, small shield, and a single sorcery spell in their repertoire.
  • The Bandit is the second Fragile Speedster class, filling the role of the typical Rogue. They are equipped with a shortbow for quick long-ranged attacks and a dagger that trades power and reach for speed and a Bleed effect that deals a burst of damage once enough hits land. Their high Arcane means this class is more likely to get some desirable loot for later. They also possess the buckler, which has a very generous parrying window compared to other shields.
  • The Prophet is the White Mage, though possesses decent strength and dexterity. They start with an offensive incantation and a support one. However, they have lighter starting armor compared to other classes, making them more susceptible to damage, and their low endurance makes it difficult to equip stronger armor without sacrificing maneuverability.
  • The Wretch is a Master of None, with stats all at ten and starting level at one. They start with absolutely nothing besides a club, making them the hardest class to start with but the most malleable due to the extra levels allowing them to more easily move into different builds.
  • The Samurai is the game's equivalent of a Ranger, their katana and longbow serving for a versatile start at both close combat and at range.
  • The Confessor is a paladin with well-rounded stats, geared initially towards Faith. They start at the highest level of 10, have a weaker but quicker heal than the Prophet, and an incantation to make stealthy backstabs easier and falling down greater heights less painful, and come with a well-rounded sword and a full-damage reduction shield. However, the higher starting level gives them less room to adjust their build before level-ups start becoming more and more expensive.
  • The Astrologer is the Black Mage, all about using sorcery to destroy enemies from afar. They're also Squishy Wizards to a fault.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The Tarnished is at the bottom of the barrel in terms of social class as far as the rest of the world and Marika's demigod children are concerned, yet they can rise to become the new Elden Lord and usher in a new age. If you want a straighter, exaggerated version, they go from lowly Tarnished to the Lord of Chaos, where they unleash the Frenzied Flame upon the world and scorch the Lands Between in unholy fire as part of their "crowning ceremony".
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The "guidance of grace" isn't just a fancy turn of phrase for some variant of a manifest destiny. The bonfire equivalent in this game are referred to as Sites of Grace, and the thin golden lines that some of them give off to show the critical path aren't able to be seen by every Tarnished; some like Rogier used to be able to see it but lost the ability, while others like Blackguard Big Boggart and Roderika were never able to see it despite being Tarnished. The player's ability to follow the critical path is woven into their nature as a Tarnished that can still see the guidance of grace.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Very minor case. While in the lore your status as Tarnished is given away by you not having the gold eyes that mark one as graced by the Erdtree, in game it's perfectly possible to give your character gold eyes during character creation.
  • According to the game's lore, anyone who uses Dragon Communing usually ends up either as flightless, pale imitations of dragons like the Magma Wyrms or become decrepit knockoffs like the Dragonkin Soldiers. The Tarnished can learn dozens of Dragon incantation spells and use them however they please with no negative side-effects at all.
• Gay Option: An unusual use of the trope as there is only one (well, two technically) Romance Quest with Ranni being the only romanceable NPC, meaning your ability to have a gay romance or not depends entirely on what gender you choose during character creation before you even start the game.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Embracing the Three Fingers will give your eyes a permanent yellow glow unless you purge the Frenzied Flame with the Unalloyed Gold Needle.
• God of Evil: While most of the game's endings are bittersweet at worst, if the player wishes they can go on a quest which ends with the Tarnished ascending as the Lord of Chaos and destroying the world.
• Good Is Not Soft: Well, obviously, since the game revolves around you killing things or acting pragmatically to achieve your goals. Even the most heroic of Tarnished can side with Volcano Manor and become a recusant — if only so they may be granted audience with Praetor Rykard and take his great rune. Special mentions go to the Confessor starting class, whose armor description reveals they were an agent of the Two Fingers, serving as both their spies and personal hitmen.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The name of the Tarnished is chosen by the player at the start of the game. They will only ever be referred to by their title, however, as their name has been lost to time.
• Heroic Mime: Averted, unlike in Soulsborne. Aside from the occasional cries of pain when suffering a powerful attack from an enemy, the Tarnished speaks in emotes.
• Horseback Heroism: The Tarnished is bequeathed with a Spectral Steed called Torrent by Melina, enabling them to ride around the Lands Between on horseback, even dueling other mounted enemies.
• Humanoid Abomination: As the Lord of Chaos/Frenzied Flame. After meeting with the Three Fingers and accepting their "blessing", the player's body essentially becomes an organic source of the power. Once Radagon and the Elden Beast are defeated, the Tarnished takes their true shape: their head is completely gone, replaced by an orb of flame with a black core that's burning everything around them. Your mere presence inside the Erdtree seems to trigger the Frenzied Flame, and kickstarts the apocalypse.
• I Will Find You: After giving Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade, she will leave for parts unknown and states it's a path she must travel alone. Despite this, the Tarnished can seek her out. Ranni herself is rather flabbergasted by the fact the Tarnished would go to such lengths to find her, though given she gives them a key that opens a chest containing what is essentially a wedding ring, she's touched by the gesture.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Among the innumerable Tarnished who have lost the guidance of Grace, why does this one still see it so clearly even as they turn against Greater Will and set the Erdtree aflame? It's possible that it was Marika rather than the Will that restored the Tarnished's Grace, yet the Tarnished can decide to become the host of the Frenzied Flame, an Outer God even worse then the Golden Order she opposes, without their Resurrective Immortality ever once faltering. The most likely explanation is simply that, in typical fashion for a From Software protagonist, the Tarnished just never gives up.
• Informed Attribute: Many characters praise the Tarnished as a kind and charismatic person, yet, should the player will it, they can do some pretty horrible things. One such example being trying to give Nepheli Loux amber draught.
• Kill the God: The Tarnished is expected to slay multiple Demigods on their journey. Finishing the game will require you to fight and kill Radagon and the Elden Beast, both of whom are fully fledged gods, and it is indicated that Marika's entire plan was for the Tarnished to kill them.
• The Last DJ: The player Tarnished is noted to be a rare new face in the lands, and is pretty much the only remaining Tarnished still actively pursuing their quest to become Elden Lord (besides Gideon, who could be described as your senior in the Roundtable, and even he loses the will near the end, even actively trying to stop you). Other Tarnished long ago lost the power to see the guidance of Grace that points you towards your next destination, and are mostly concerned with doing their own thing. Some even scoff at the thought of a Tarnished becoming Elden Lord, claiming it to be impossible. But you determinedly carry on your task regardless. When it is revealed that the Erdtree itself is rejecting anyone from becoming the Elden Lord, your superiors, the Two Fingers, straight up abandon you. Despite this, you are undeterred, and set out to burn the Erdtree to complete your task of reaching the Elden Ring and reforming the entire world. Even if it means committing the greatest cardinal sin to the Golden Order.
• Licked by the Dog: The plot gets kicked off when Torrent takes a liking to you, leading Melina to save you.
• Lovable Coward: The Tarnished is perfectly capable, and in fact is encouraged, to simply run away from fights that may be a bit too high-level for them, but for the most part, they are held in considerable regard by those they help. They could just as easily be a Dirty Coward if their actions are more depraved and vile.
• Magic Knight: While possible in all of From's Soulslike games, the Tarnished is especially suited to this fighting style due to the Spirit Ashes and Ashes of War systems. Even a pure Strength or Dexterity build (or Quality) will inevitably make use of them. The former lets you use magic to summon disposable spirit minions for a minor FP cost (and has no relation to your Intelligence or Faith skills), while the latter allows you to attach spells to weapons without meeting any of their skill requirements. A lot of these spells, like all the fire-based (Flame of the Redmanes, Flaming Strike, etc.) and storm-based ones (Storm Blade, Stormcaller, Storm Assault, etc.) scale directly to Strength or Dexterity instead of Intelligence or Faith, further encouraging this playstyle. Some of the Ash of War spells are considered straight-up better than their dedicated sorcery/incantation equivalents, albeit with the disadvantage that you can only have one Ash on a weapon at a time. This is even further encouraged for Faith builds, as one of the seals (Clawmark) scales with Strength.
• Magnetic Hero: A couple of characters comment that the Tarnished has this trait. Roderika entrusts them with the Spirit Jellyfish Ashes, because the spirits look rather fondly upon them. Sorcerer Rogier indicates that the Tarnished has what it takes to become one of Ranni's vassals, because people want to trust them. Progressing through certain questlines such as Sorceress Sellen and Seamster Boc even believe that the Tarnished will become Elden Lord, no ifs, ands, or buts.
• Multiple-Choice Past: The game's various character classes and appearance bases each come with their own backstories and histories, though these have no impact on the course of the game's story. Most backgrounds depict them as a native of the Lands Between in some nature or another, whereas two other backgrounds paint them as a traveler (Seafarer) or hailing from the Land of Reeds (Reedlander).
• Mysterious Past: Tying partially into Multiple-Choice Past above. Some starting classes and backgrounds imply the Tarnished is a low-tier Experienced Protagonist who's gone on adventures prior to arriving at the Lands Between. The Seafarer and Reedlander backgrounds state they've been wandering in search of a home and fought in a land wrought in "blood-soaked madness" respectively whereas the Prophet and Prisoner starting classes paint them as being a Hero with Bad Publicity for having done something to warrant their imprisonment and labeled a pariah by the inhabitants. In any case, their past has no bearing on the overall plot.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: In the opening cutscene of the game, the narrator lists off the prominent Tarnished who have been received by long-lost grace, which include the likes of Hoarah Loux, chieftain of the badlands and former Elden Lord, the Ever-Brilliant Goldmask, and the Loathsome Dung Eater. When speaking of the Player Character, however, the narrator lists them as a Tarnished of no renown and speaks of them as though they're an afterthought. This doesn't stop them from becoming one of the most accomplished Tarnished among their kind, regardless of whether they become Elden Lord or the feared Lord of Frenzied Flame.
• Necessarily Evil: This is one way to view the player's choice to join Volcano Manor. The most explicit way to reach Rykard and subsequently claim his Shard is to infiltrate the Manor and rise through the ranks enough that Tanith agrees to grant you an "audience" with the God Devouring Serpent. You'll have to dirty your hands with the blood of several (presumably) innocent Tarnished, but the end result is that a budding Evil Overlord is removed from the Lands Between. However, a bit of knowledge or trial and error allows you to find an extremely hidden illusory wall in Volcano Manor that allows access to the rest of the dungeon without having to assassinate anyone or even enter Leyndell, thus subverting this.
• Not So Stoic: The Tarnished, befitting a Silent Protagonist, generally keeps a pretty stoic demeanor, but there are a few moments where they show emotion through body-language. When Varré asks to touch their finger, the Tarnished's movement is notably hesitant and nervous, clearly expecting something uncomfortable to happen.
• One-Man Army: Most players will have killed literally thousands of enemies by the end of their journey in the Lands Between, including a dozen-odd deities. To wit, there are over 300 bosses/minibosses alone in the game (including 238 with full-on boss health bars) and you'll probably kill dozens of regular enemies for every one of those. A Tarnished on a completionist run can easily have a kill count going in to the quintuple digits. Though, probably with a few hundred of their own deaths sprinkled in.
• Omnicidal Maniac: If the Tarnished becomes the Lord of the Frenzied Flame, they will begin to burn down everything in the Lands Between, starting with the Erdtree.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The Tarnished is normally quite reserved with their body language in cutscenes, as all Soulsborne protagonists tend to be when not being controlled by the player, which makes their general gestures of adulation in the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending all the more concerning. Either the Frenzied Flame has fully taken over your physical form and is expressing its joy at succeeding through you, or the Tarnished is truly delighted by the destruction and insanity that they have just unleashed upon the world.
• Pet the Dog: Even if you play the Tarnished as an NPC murdering maniac who gleefully slaughters innocents, they'll still spare Rennala after her boss fight and will not even swing their weapons while in that room to avoid harming her - whether that is a case of pragmatism, as Rennala's powers of rebirth are immensely useful, or taking mercy on a broken woman is up to you to interpret.
• Playing with Fire: Fire incantations can be used, but have a certain malevolent undertone with their use. Upgrades into Pyromaniac as the Lord of Chaos, where just existing is enough to not only set the area ablaze, but also scorch everything surrounding the Erdtree, split it in half, and spewing fire into the sky!
• Pragmatic Hero: A "good" Tarnished will be this. Your goal starts as self-serving, you will inevitably kill some more-or-less innocent people, and your actions will always unavoidably result in great collateral damage^note Most notably, burning the Erdtree buries 99% of Leyndell in ash, almost certainly killing any remaining citizen and soldier — but at the same time, you ultimately do fix the world and save most of the people remaining, and you can also get a lot of Pet the Dog moments by helping friendly NPCs and avoiding unnecessary fights against those who don't deserve it.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: While this can certainly be invoked in the character editor, a more deliberate example is for those who join The Bloody Lord's order, where the eyes become bloodshot. As is it a cosmetic change, this can be turned on and off when changing cosmetics without consequence.
• Reformed Criminal: If the Bandit class is taken and then one of the more benevolent endings are chosen. Possibly the Prisoner class too, although the Man in the Iron Mask symbolism suggests they may have been unjustly imprisoned.
• Resurrected for a Job: While dying doesn't seem to be a requirement to become a Tarnished (just being spurned by Grace at one point), all Tarnished in the game (including you) have died at some point. After the Shattering, the Tarnished were resurrected by the same Grace that had once spurned them, and given a job: "Stand before the Elden Ring, and become the Elden Lord."
• Resurrective Immortality: As long as they remain determined enough to keep trying, the Tarnished will retain their Grace and be revived from death as many times as it takes for them become a Lord. By the time of the game, nearly all Tarnished aside from the protagonist have lost their Grace and returned to mortality as they either abandoned or refused the goal of becoming Elden Lord.
• Riches to Rags: The Aristocrat Tarnished was once a member of nobility. While unknown where in the noble hierarchy they were, it ultimately doesn't matter since they became a Tarnished and are summarily exiled after losing the Erdtree's grace. This is implied to be reversed into Rags to Riches by becoming Elden Lord, essentially the king of the Lands Between.
• Royal Blood: Though not outright stated, it is implied that the Tarnished has some very faint connection to Marika's bloodline, possibly through Godfrey being a distant ancestor. They are also repeatedly described as possessing "warrior's blood", with Margit himself commenting on it during his boss battle with them near Stormveil Castle. For a downplayed variant, the aristocrat background implies that the Tarnished was originally from a noble house before the loss of the Erdtree's blessing turned them Tarnished.
• Scars Are Forever: It's possible to give yourself a number of facial scars in character creation. In addition, embracing the Three Fingers will leave permanent burns all over your body that persist even if you manage to purge the Flame of Frenzy from your body.
• Screw Destiny:
  • It's later revealed that the Erdtree is rejecting virtually any Tarnished who tries to approach it and become the new Elden Lord, implying the Golden Order and Marika do not want them succeeding Radagon. The Tarnished, with Melina's help, couldn't care less about any of that and can become Elden Lord regardless.
  • And the Tarnished can really put the screws to destiny if they decide to free the imprisoned Three Fingers and take the Frenzied Flame into their body. Why follow the Two Fingers' instructions and become an Elden Lord when you can become the Lord of Frenzied Flame instead and literally burn everything to the ground? And then after that, they can immediately backstab the Three Fingers by obtaining Miquella's Needle, sacrificing themselves in Melina's place, and then using said needle to sever their bond to the Frenzied Flame, allowing them to explicitly cheat fate and burn the Erdtree without killing Melina or dooming the world.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Goes along with Melina's plan to commit what is considered a cardinal sin and burn the Erdtree so they can remove the thorns preventing them from entering it and becoming the new Elden Lord.
• Self-Duplication: Among the many ash spirits the Tarnished can use in battle, one legendary Ash Spirit is The Mimic Tear. It allows the Tarnished to summon a copy that, at max level, while not able to put out the same amount of damage, is far tankier than their template, complete with whatever equipment that the player currently has.
• Ship Tease: With Ranni, whose questline spans almost the entire game. It's to the point her questline may as well be a Romance Sidequest, given that the Tarnished can marry her. That said, exactly how close Ranni and the Tarnished become, and how she views them, depends on how much of her dialogue is exhausted.
• Super-Strength: A universal trait of Souls protagonists to even be able to swing the weapons they do and hurt the bosses they kill, but the Tarnished is definitely the most blatant about it. Even a skinny waif sorcerer can swing around weapons literally hundreds of times larger than their real-world equivalents (like the Giant Smasher) with superhuman velocity and greater ease than a real man would handle something 1% the weight (though they do less damage with it than a Strength-focused character). The first "real" fight in the game will likely see the Tarnished dodge point-blank crossbow bolts before cutting through multiple men in unrealistically-thick steel plate armor with single slices of their sword, and one of the first quests has them punting a truck-sized jar man with enough force to launch him twenty feet and dislodge him from a rocky floor he was stuck in. It just escalates from there. The visual style of Elden Ring also puts more emphasis on this than in prior Souls games as the weapons are bigger and faster you'll often see large enemies sent flying by knockback from your heavier strikes; even smacking rocky walls/floors with your standard weapons will produce rather exaggerated "breaking rock" particle effects. The Ash of War techniques go especially over-the-top in their presentation with the Tarnished being able to basically cause bomb blasts by striking the floor, stick their weapons straight through multiple feet of stone, loose spear-sized arrows at a high enough velocity to generate a vapor cone (using a bow bigger than them), and so on.
• Superior Successor: Twofold to Vyke, Knight of the Roundtable. Before the Player Character, Vyke was the Tarnished closest to becoming Elden Lord. The only reason he wasn't able to was because of the Erdtree's thorns and the fact that his maiden would have to sacrifice herself to open the way forward. Vyke was also a chosen champion to the Three Fingers, and therefore a potential candidate for the position of 'Lord of Chaos'. Much like his previous endeavor, Vyke failed in this regard, as he's imprisoned in a gaol and can potentially be killed by the Tarnished. The Tarnished can succeed where Vyke failed, both by becoming an Elden Lord and potentially creating a new age through a Mending Rune or their wedding with Ranni, or become the Lord of Chaos and burn the world to cinders with the Frenzied Flame.
• Token Heroic Orc: If players choose one of the non-human backgrounds, such as Numen or Dragonkin. The Numen is especially noteworthy because the Black Knives, the assassins responsible for murdering Godwyn, are comprised entirely of Numen.
• Token Human: The Tarnished is this after joining Ranni's inner circle (aside from Seluvis). Said inner circle consisting of a disembodied spirit of a demigod inhabiting a doll, a wolf man, a gigantic troll blacksmith, and a literal dragon. And then Seluvis is revealed to actually be just a puppet controlled by the Albinauric servant Pidia, putting this trope fully in effect.
• Übermensch: The ending has the Tarnished essentially buck the old world order in favor of a new one by defying the Golden Order and Marika by becoming Elden Lord. It's especially prominent when they use a Mending Rune to create a new age, such as the Duskborn where they allow Those Who Live in Death, considered an affront to the natural order, to become part of the new world order. A more poignant example is if the Tarnished allies with Ranni and helps her usurp Queen Marika and usher the Age of the Stars.
• The Unchosen One: The Tarnished was one of many called to the Lands Between as a potential candidate to become a lord. While others like Gideon, Fia, and even the Dung Eater all had various notoriety and accomplishments in life that made them somewhat qualified, the player's Tarnished was a complete nobody in their first life who just happened to gain the smallest mote of Grace to revive them after death. They died again immediately after returning and their intended Finger Maiden guide was killed at some point before even that, leaving them with even less chance of success than the countless other Tarnished that preceded them. Despite this, their sheer determination allowed them to hold on to their tiny sliver of Grace and the intervention of Melina granted a guide not beholden to the tenants of the Golden Order. These tiny advantages made the player the only Tarnished remaining with even a remote chance of taking the throne, even if it requires them to defy the Greater Will itself.
• Ungrateful Bastard: A Tarnished working for Volcano Manor will end up assassinating Old Knight Istvan as their very first target, who they may have summoned for help with the Dual Boss of Coastal Cave much earlier in the game. They can also optionally assassinate Great Horned Tragoth, who they may have summoned for help with Magma Wyrm Makar, almost definitely summoned during the Radahn Festival (along with about 10 other NPCs), and is actually the closest thing Elden Ring has to a genuine Sunbro in that he made it his life's work to help fellow Tarnished in need. In addition, they can summon Millicent for any number of the bosses she is available for (which is quite a few), then betray her at the end of her questline on Gowry's orders. A fine way to thank people who helped you beat difficult bosses, isn't it?
• Villain Protagonist: Following the path of the Frenzied Flame will make you one of the most evil characters in FromSoft history (yes, on a similar or greater level to Shura Sekiro), as you become an Omnicidal Maniac who covers the Lands Between in fire. Potentially even worse, you can help the Dung Eater create a world of never-ending torture, which denies the world of even the quick death brought about by the Frenzied Flame.
• Virtual Paper Doll: The appearance of the Tarnished can be fully customized, with even more options available to customize their wardrobe. Players can even revamp their character's appearance at any time with the mirror in the Roundtable Hold or by speaking with Rennala.
• Weak, but Skilled: As is tradition, the Tarnished begins as a competent, but unexceptional fighter tasked with defeating giants, demigods, dragons, and thousands of enemies in-between equipped with little more than a basic weapon and the clothes on their backs. While many of the strongest foes are severely degraded from their primes, they are still more than a match for single lowly Tarnished. Despite everything, they somehow manage to battle their way through all opposition to stand at the throne. They even defeat both of their Elden Lord predecessors and the Elden Beast itself.
• World's Best Warrior: They certainly don't start out this way but should the player go out of their way then they can defeat Morgott, one of the most powerful commanders of the Shattering, Rykard, and therefore the World-Eating Serpent, the Dragonlord Placidusax, Maliketh the Black Blade, Malenia, the Blade of Miquella, Godfrey and finally the Elden Beast something not even Marika could even hope to beat.

Aseo

Aseo in Caelid

The Tarnished protagonist of the Road to the Erdtree manga, standing in for the blank slate player character. He has no memory of his past, and is rather frustrated at how everyone keeps talking about grandiose things and dumping new nouns on him.

See here for his character page

Torrent

Torrent, the Spectral Steed

A Spectral Steed bound to the Tarnished, gifted to them by Melina.

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• Adaptational Dumbass: While Torrent in the game is, well, a horse, and thus rather lacking in intelligent dialogue, the Road to the Erdtree manga turns him into a Horrible Judge of Character. Not only is the Tarnished, Aseo, horribly qualified for anything, but he accepts food from Varré of all people.
• Automaton Horses: Torrent can run just about anywhere without the need for rest or food. What food he does eat is mainly to heal him. Justified as Torrent is explicitly a ghost horse who has no real needs even in physical form.
• The Chooser of the One: The reason why Melina chooses to aid the Tarnished and gives them the spectral steed whistle is because Torrent chose the Tarnished to be his new rider.
• Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": Torrent has horns, but is referred to as a horse in-game.
• Cloudcuckoolander: In the Road to the Erdtree comedy manga, Torrent picked Aseo to be his rider because he has a great ass, which is technically important for horses.
• Cool Horse: Torrent mostly resembles a horse, though he has bull-like horns that set him apart from the regular horses — and other, more monstrous mounts.
• Double Jump: Torrent is able to double-jump by forming rings of spectral energy under his hooves.
• Excellent Judge of Character: Melina mentions that Torrent recognized the Tarnished's potential from the very beginning.
• Fragile Speedster: Torrent is extremely fast and agile, enabling reliable hit-and-run tactics and letting the Tarnished keep up with speedy bosses like Radahn and the Tree Sentinels. The tradeoff is that attacks are limited and not nearly as damaging than on-foot, with Weapon Arts not even available while mounted. While Torrent himself has high HP, his posture can be broken rather easily, knocking the Tarnished off the horse and locking them into a lengthy, un-cancellable animation that leaves them wide open for attacks.
• Horrible Judge of Character: In the manga. He chooses Aseo as his master solely because he likes the look of Aseo's butt. 'Firm haunches' is apparently a very important criterion for horses.
• In a Single Bound: Torrent can leap to massive heights using Spiritsprings, updraft wellsprings that can be found throughout the map.
• The Immune: Presumably thanks to his ghostly nature, Torrent is completely unaffected by both poison and the Scarlet Rot, allowing the Tarnished to safely traverse areas filled with both while riding him.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: Torrent doesn't speak in any way the player can understand, but is intelligent and Melina and, in the manga, Aseo have no problem understanding his neighing
• Resurrective Immortality: Torrent can be slain in combat, but can be re-summoned using the Spectral Steed Whistle. However, if Torrent's actually killed, it will require a Crimson Tear charge to bring him back to the fight.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Rowa Raisins, with special emphasis on Sweet Raisins and Frozen Raisin (he apparently likes crunching on them).
• Undying Loyalty: Will follow the Tarnished regardless of whatever path they follow. This also includes the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending, which leaves Torrent's fate ambiguous as the ring used to summon him is destroyed.

Melina

Melina

"Greetings, traveler from beyond the fog... I am Melina. I offer you an accord."

^{Click to see Melina in the "Lord of Frenzied Flame" ending}

Voiced by: Martha Mackintosh

A mysterious young woman who strikes a deal with the Tarnished to serve as their Finger Maiden in exchange for bringing them to the foot of the Erdtree.

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• Action Girl: If summoned for Morgott's boss fight, she'll demonstrate significant martial skill and powerful incantations, both to heal the Tarnished and hurt the boss. Close inspection of her moveset shows it to be nearly identical to that of the Black Knife Assassins. This makes her promise to kill a Chaos Lord Tarnished in the "Lord of Frenzied Flame" ending feel like more of a threat.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the Road to the Erdtree manga, she's a lot more blunt and aloof, if not downright condescending towards her companion Aseo, who is the manga's version of the Player Character Tarnished. It's mostly Played for Laughs since the manga has an emphasis on comedy, though her irritation with Aseo is partially rooted in his strange behavior and considers him The Poorly Chosen One; the only reason Torrent picked Aseo to be his master is because he apparently has a great ass. No, we are not kidding.
• All for Nothing: Her hope of seeing a new Elden Lord rise goes out the window along with much of the Lands Between should the Tarnished become the Lord of Frenzied Flame.
• Ambiguously Related:
  • It's implied that Melina is related to Marika in some manner. For starters, she mentions she was born in the Erdtree, where Marika herself currently resides, and her name begins with the letter 'M', following the naming convention of some of her children (Malenia, Morgott, Mohg, Miquella). There's also the fact that Melina recounts some of Marika's spoken echoes in certain places, such as her churches. Rule of Three and Theme Naming,^note Godfrey/Marika produced three children (Godwyn, Morgott, Mohg), Radagon/Rennala produced three (Ranni, Rykard, Radahn), but only two known children were produced by Marika/Radagon (Malenia and Miquella); Melina would complete the set. as well as her red hair and connection to Ranni, would additionally imply that her father is Radagon. Such a connection is further hinted at by the fact that you find Melina's clothing set in Elphael, right outside of Malenia's boss room, and said set's description states that it's "worn by young women who set off into the world to confront their fate." Additionally there are three butterflies within the game: the Aeonian Butterfly, the Nascent Butterfly and the Smouldering Butterfly. The Aeonian Butterfly represents Malenia as it has strong ties to the scarlet rot being said to originate from the wings of the Goddess of Rot, Malenia's second form, while the Nascent Butterfly represents Miquella as it's said to look like it has recently emerged from its cocoon for its entire life, referring to Miquella's curse of eternal youth; it's likely the Smouldering Butterfly represents a third child of Marika and Radagon like the other two, likely Melina as its description calls it an eternally burning butterfly used as kindling, which may be referring to Melina's purpose to use herself as kindling in the kiln of the giants to set the Erdtree aflame. Finally, her combat moveset is that of the Black Knives, who are said to be kin of Marika. The preview image for Shadow of the Erdtree further hints at their connection as Miquella is shown to have been the master of Torrent once, and Torrent is a companion of Melina by the time the game begins.
  • While their exact relationship is unknown at present, Melina is acquainted with Ranni in some manner, having told her about the Tarnished and Torrent. Further muddying the waters is Ranni having a closed eye at the opposite side of her face, but the Ranni we meet is in a puppet body (which, it should be noted, is based off the body of her mentor Renna).
  • Her relation with the powers of Death, and Destined Death itself, seems to point her towards being related to the Gloam-Eyed Queen, an ancient Empyrean who took in the power of Destined Death and started the cult of the Godskin. Considering Melina talks like her mother and Marika are separate entities and never conflates the two, it's possible her mother may be the Gloam-Eyed Queen herself. Also, in the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending, she opens her left eye to reveal that it is purple, which is the color of dusk - otherwise known as gloam.
• Arch-Enemy: Should the Tarnished take up the Frenzied Flame, Melina tells them outright that she will have to kill them if they rise as the Lord of Chaos, and that doing so is her duty. If the Tarnished follows through with the Lord of Chaos ending, she will reappear amid the ashes of the Lands Between and reiterate her intent to bring the Tarnished the Destined Death they deserve.
• Aside Glance: Melina looks directly at the camera three times in the game. While the first two are probably her looking at the Tarnished, the third is following the Frenzied Flame ending, with no one around. Melina is looking directly at the player to give her threat.
• Badass Adorable: Melina is a very beautiful young woman, and as shown by summoning her to fight against Morgott, she is absolutely no slouch in battle, and should the Tarnished become the Lord of Frenzied Flame, she vows to find them and destroy them.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Aside from the singed hair and blinded right eye, Melina comes out mostly unharmed after the Tarnished becomes Lord of Chaos and sets the Lands Between ablaze. That said, you can subtly see that she already has some form of burn scarring on her hands and likely more hidden under her clothing.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She's nothing short of helpful towards the Tarnished, between acting as their maiden and increasing their power and offering them information and council when they need it. She also knows powerful incantations and significant skill in battle, and should the Tarnished seek out the Three Fingers and inherit the Frenzied Flame, she will promise to kill them the next time they meet.
• Break Her Heart to Save Her: If the player wants to save her, they have to inherit the Frenzied Flame and then defeat Malenia in order to gain Miquella’s needle. Doing so allows them to purge the Frenzied Flame's influence, meaning they can spare Melina from her Heroic Sacrifice without dooming the world. Unfortunately, she'll leave regardless due to her belief that the Tarnished has become a monster no longer fit for the throne and there's no chance at a reconciliation between the two.
• Devious Daggers: The weapon she uses while summoned for Morgott's boss fight is a unique dagger named the Blade of Calling, which possesses the same moveset as the Black Knife, with its unique skill basically being a version of the Blade of Death that doesn't have the special HP-reducing debuff.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: After talking to Shabriri, she has a discussion with you at the site of grace that basically amounts to saying she won't let you use saving her from sacrificing herself as an excuse to inherit the Frenzied Flame.
• Eye Scream: Melina's left eye is always closed and implied to be missing. The Lord of Frenzied Flame ending reveals that this is subverted, as she opens it when the Tarnished becomes the Lord of Chaos, revealing it to be a shade of blue and glows with power as the cutscene fades to black. In the same ending, however, her right eye seems to have been damaged, with it now being a mostly cloudy white.
• Facial Markings: Melina has black tattoo-like markings in the shape of a three-fingered claw around her left eye, indicated to be the result of her being burnt. In the "Lord of the Frenzied Flame" ending, the marking has faded away to nearly nothing, implying it was some kind of seal.
• Foil: One to Ranni, as a fellow main female character in Elden Ring:
  • Both are mentioned to be "bodiless", but Melina maintained the ability to shift between spectral and corporeal form similar to Torrent, while Ranni relies entirely on inhabiting her doll body. Melina prefers simple, hardy travelling clothes with dark, sombre colors with a hood to cover her face, while Ranni always wears the regal and white-themed Snow Witch Set, which has a large hat to do the same job.
  • Melina is synonymous with light, fire, and the Erdtree, symbolized by her proximity to the various Sites of Graces and her light-based, Magic Knight fighting style. Ranni personifies the night's darkness, ice, and the Dark Moon, while fighting only with illusions, long-range and large-scale sorceries... plus One-Hit Kill curses aimed at you should you attempt to drug her.
  • Melina acts as your supporting crew member throughout your journey, while Ranni tasks you with supporting her in her complicated plans to overthrow the established order.
  • Melina serves as your most constant companion throughout your journey and is arguably the character you spend the most time around yet, little is known about her own past and personal thoughts on certain matters within the Lands Between and its current state. Meanwhile, Ranni is someone who goes out of her way to make herself scarce around the Player Character and others due to her current circumstances but is very willing to reveal her motivations and plans for the future, including why she's doing what she's doing due to her history.
  • Their "death" scenes are opposites of each other. Melina does so in the open, witnessed and accompanied by the Tarnished, setting herself and the Erdtree's thorns ablaze. Ranni chose a secluded, dark, and cold final resting place, with no one around her and her companions having either died, been killed, or sent away (you) prior to the Final Duel, with her corpse lying in already-cold blood.
• God Was My Copilot: Assuming she is indeed one of Marika's children, Melina is a demi-god herself and is actively helping the Tarnished in becoming Elden Lord.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Melina's hands are covered in burn scars.
• The Heart: In a cruel setting filled with monsters, insanity, and curses, Melina never stops believing that the world is beautiful and worth fighting to protect. And in many endings, she dies for its sake.
• Hero of Another Story: Despite being this game's iteration of the Maiden, Melina remains a very mysterious character. But from what we do know, she's a very capable warrior, is the true owner of Torrent, related somehow to the Queen Marika in a way that no other character can claim to be, and has a will and desire of her own independent of the Player Character.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the "Elden Lord" and "Age of the Stars" routes, once the Tarnished reaches the base of the Erdtree, Melina tasks them with bringing her to a massive flame-filled Lord Vessel-esque stone bowl on a mountaintop, where she effectively sacrifices herself to set the Erdtree ablaze, rendering the Tarnished Maidenless once more. It is possible for her to avoid doing this if the Tarnished has inherited the Frenzied Flame from the Three Fingers, though this will cause her to leave out of disgust. You later learn that Melina sacrificing herself was also the task given to her by her mother in order to crown a new Elden Lord and is apparently a requirement of all Maidens assigned to Tarnished.
• Honor Before Reason: After talking with Shabiri at the Mountaintops of the Giants, he makes it very clear what Melina will have to do once you reach the Forge, while also offering a way to save her from said fate. When you next talk to Melina, she lets you know in no uncertain terms that she decided to sacrifice herself on her own and that no one, not even you, will speak ill of it.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Not that this is uncommon in Elden Ring, but in the manga she pulls a massive Great Stars with a head the size of her torso out of her cloak like it's nothing, and Aseo specifically asks where the hell she was carrying that.
• In the Hood: She wears a black cloak over a gray dress, with the voluminous hood covering most of her face when she first manifests before the Tarnished, adding to her mysterious air. The cloak is also completely unique, as you can acquire her entire outfit aside from it.
• I Call It "Vera": The weapon she uses while summoned for Morgott's boss fight is a unique dagger named the Blade of Calling, which possesses the same moveset as the Black Knife, with its unique skill basically being a holy version of the Blade of Death.
• Implied Death Threat: In the manga, when Aseo is trying to find an excuse to avoid facing Radahn, Alexander hands him a lion-engraved shield and mentions a one-eyed woman asked him to give it to him. Aseo picks up on the implied message easily; "Fight Radahn, or else."
• I Will Find You: In the "Lord of Frenzied Flame" Ending, Melina vows to hunt down the Tarnished and deliver them what they're owed: Destined Death.
• Light 'em Up: Melina is able to conjure a sword of golden light and wields it with superhuman speed and agility.
• Like Mother, Unlike Daughter: Assuming Marika is her mother as is implied, the apple fell quite far from the tree. Even the most generous interpretation of Marika's actions still places her as utterly ruthless, perfectly willing to use anyone and anything to further her mysterious goals, and ruling over a brutal expansionist empire that oppressed groups like the demihumans. By contrast, Melina is fully heroic and supportive of the Tarnished, has empthy for even a lowly demihuman like Boc, has strong moral principles that even outweigh her loyalty to the Tarnished should they go too far, and ultimately sacrifices herself for the greater good. The manga subverts this slightly by showing that Melina can be just as ruthless and pragmatic as her presumed mother, however.
• Long Lost Sibling: Strongly implied be one to Malenia and Miquella as Marika's third child as a Truly Single Parent. Having been birthed by the goddess within the Erdtree as a desperate last attempt to guide a Tarnished to slaying the Elden Beast.
• Mystical Waif: She's a seemingly one-eyed young woman with tattoos on her face who saves the Tarnished after their first death, and later appears out of thin air to offer to aid them in their journey by acting as their Maiden.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If players aim for the Lord of Frenzied Flame ending, Melina realizes she herself is ultimately responsible for allowing the Tarnished to become the Lord of Chaos by helping them throughout their journey, even though she abandons them when their goal is within reach.
• The Not-Love Interest: Melina initially plays the role of the Tarnished's Maiden, accompanying them in spectral form for most of their journey and teaching them how to use runes to augment themselves. However, she's not one of the game's love interests — sacrificing herself so that the Tarnished can reach Queen Marika in the "Elden Lord" and "Age of the Stars" endings and swearing to hunt down and kill them in the "Lord of Frenzied Flame" ending.
• Odd Friendship: The 'friendship' part is only implied in the lore, but her relationship with Ranni is certainly 'odd'. Despite all the aforementioned points in Foil above, both of them are well-acquainted with each other and fond of Torrent (and potentially you, should you progress both their quests enough), have identical markings on opposite eyes, and neither goes against the other's final designs on what the next age should be (Ranni's "Age of Stars" is the only other Outer God-based ending Melina will still support). Technically, they're also the remaining active demigods who are on good terms with each other, if Melina's implied connections to Marika are true.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Normally near-emotionless and supportive of whatever path the Tarnished may take, but her voice trembles as she pleads with them not to claim the Frenzied Flame. It's one of many, many hints that taking the Flame is a very bad idea.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: It's very ambiguous as to what exactly she is, but she refers to herself as "burned and bodiless" and apparently relies upon you to get around until you reach a certain point in Leyndell. It's implied that her original body was burned somehow, leaving her as a spirit being.
• Out of Focus: Once the Tarnished leaves Limgrave, Melina's role diminishes greatly and will only appear to inform them of Marika's echoes. She comes back into focus once they reach Leyndell and she and the Tarnished decide to burn the Erdtree so the latter can reach the Elden Ring.
• Outside-Context Problem: She's this to the Finger Maidens, and most likely all the factions still standing in the Lands Between. While Melina introduces herself as a regular maiden and claims to act on behalf of the Two Fingers eventually when she urges you to head towards the Mountaintops of the Giants, the Finger Reader Crone you meet along the way reacts with utter dread to the prospect of you heading towards the Giants Flame. She begs you not to go forward and asks who would send even send you there. This means that not only is Melina not acting on behalf of the Fingers, but that all the actual servants thereof have no idea what this force is that's truly guiding the player character towards these forbidden realms. Remember no one but you notices her, excluding Torrent who also has a connection to Ranni. Indeed, the only other character who acknowledges her existence is Shabriri who is also an Outside-Context Problem as he is a disembodied spirit latching onto the corpses of characters you've met in your journey. This is yet another layer of the deep mystery surrounding her character.
• Recurring Element:
  • Melina fills the role of the Maiden in Black from Demon's Souls, the Firekeepers and Emerald Herald from the Dark Souls series, and the Doll from Bloodborne, converting the Runes the Tarnished collects into power to make them stronger.
  • More specifically to Dark Souls, Melina is heavily associated with Fire across the events of the game. Like the firekeepers, she helps the Tarnished level up, and in your shared quest to burn the Erdtree, Melina takes the roll of 'kindling' and 'one who envisions fire', just as the numerous Undead who link the First Flame. Indeed, the way Melina sets herself aflame to burn the Erdtree is visually almost identical to the various 'Link the Fire' endings of the Dark Souls games.
  • She also fills the role of Emma the Gentle Blade, as the player’s central assistance who later directly opposes the player if they decide to selfishly covet monstrous power for themselves (Shura and Lord of the Frenzied Flame, respectively).
• Riddle for the Ages: The exact nature of the mark on her left eye is never explained, nor is there any explanation as to why it's opened in the "Lord of Frenzied" Flame ending. Not helping matters is that Ranni, who she is associated with in some manner, also sports the same marking, albeit on the opposite eye that is coincidentally closed shut as well.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If the Tarnished meets with the Three Fingers and inherits the Frenzied Flame, Melina will leave them out of disgust, stating they are no longer worthy of becoming Elden Lord and that she will kill them the next time they meet.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: She wants a new Elden Lord to rule over the Lands Between and chooses to support the Player Character, believing them to be the most suited. She even states she will defy the Golden Order to crown them, which may be quite literal if you take Gideon's words near the end of the game as truth. There's also the fact that her plan to sacrifice herself to burn the Erdtree to open the path to the Elden Ring is considered the "first cardinal sin" by the Two Fingers' translator and therefore unforgivable in the eyes of the Golden Order, but Melina could not care less if it means a new Elden Lord can be crowned.
• Semi-Divine: She's heavily implied to be a demigod herself, fitting the naming conventions of Marika's children and reciting the Queen's words at her churches. She's even referred to as MaricaOfDaughter in the game's files. Melina herself also claims she received her purpose from her mother within the Erdtree, and considering the only occupant within the Erdtree is Marika herself...
• Spirit Advisor: Melina says she no longer has a body of her own so she accompanies the Tarnished as a semi-tangible spirit. She acts as a substitute for their Maiden, grants them passage to the Roundtable Hold, and offers guidance throughout the journey. When the Tarnished finds their path to the Erdree blocked by impassible thorns, Melina is the one who comes up with the plan to use the Giants' Flame and Rune of Death to burn the Erdtree to open the way.
• Super-Empowering: Melina converts the Runes collected by the Tarnished into power, enabling them to grow stronger. When she temporarily leaves their side upon arriving in the capital, she leaves them with the power to turn runes into strength so they can still level up.
• Sword Beam: When summoned to help fight a boss, Melina can fire arcs of golden light from her sword.
• Take Up My Sword: In the "Lord of Frenzied Flame" ending, she vows to deliver unto the Tarnished, now the newly christened Lord of Chaos, Destined Death, the implication being she will take up Maliketh's mantle as the Black Blade for the sole purpose of killing the Tarnished.
• Tranquil Fury: The "Lord of Frenzied Flame" ending has Melina swear to hunt down and destroy the Tarnished, and while her voice remains cold, her immense rage is there.
• Undying Loyalty: To the Tarnished Player Character. So long as they become the Elden Lord, anyway. She'll still follow you if you pursue the "Age of the Stars" Ending, since you still become Elden Lord (albeit married to Ranni rather than Marika). Melina will refuse to follow a Tarnished who's accepted the Frenzied Flame and vows to kill them one day.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: It is entirely possible to have her sacrifice herself for you and then become the Lord of Frenzied Flame anyway, destroying the world with no one to stop you.
• Wham Line: Should the player Tarnished accept Melina's offer of sharing spoken echoes of Queen Marika after Morgott's boss fight, she will reveal some details about Marika/Radagon.
  Melina: In Marika's own words. "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."
• What the Hell, Hero?: She really does not approve of you seeking out the Frenzied Flame. If you succeed in inheriting it and become the Lord of Chaos, she will leave you in disgust and tell you she will kill you the next time you meet.
• World Half Full: As opposed to the Frenzied Flame supporters, who see the world as having irrevocably crossed the Despair Event Horizon, Melina still sees potential in it and begs that the Tarnished to "deny not the lives, the new births of this world" when she warns them against meeting the Three Fingers.

The Two Fingers

The Fingers with their reader Enia

A species of strange creatures (or perhaps pairs of strange creatures) worshipped throughout the Lands Between as the voice of the Greater Will. One resides in and rules the Roundtable Hold, whom the Tarnished must gain an audience by acquiring one of the Great Runes to continue their quest.

Tropes applying to all Two Fingers

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• Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": While they do carry some resemblance to a pair of human fingers, it's very clear that that's not what they really are, being far too large and apparently capable of thinking and acting on their own.
• Casting a Shadow: While they have some association with light (like their healing magic and language), they are also associated with darkness. They have the ability to manipulate darkness and grant it to their Tarnished assassins who act 'in the dark' without the guidance of grace. Also, both the one in the Roundtable Hold and Ranni's one dwell in a very dark chamber. They also have the power to create Shadowbound Beasts and force them to kill their Empyreans.
• The Chooser of the One: The Two Fingers were the ones responsible for choosing Marika to bear the Elden Ring, and the Two Fingers in the Roundtable Hold in particular has been looking for a Tarnished capable of fixing the Elden Ring. Later revelations also reveal the Two Fingers have been choosing Empyreans — candidates to bear the Elden Ring — on the Greater Will's behalf in ages past. They have the ability to alter the fates of their chosen so they have no choice but to accept their guidance, and it is for this reason Ranni kills her own physical body to escape the influence of the Two Fingers in the Cathedral of Manus Celes who chose her, and also why she needs to kill it to be truly free of her fate.
• Control Freak: According to Ranni, they are able to force Empyreans and their shadow beasts to do their bidding under threat of force, and the Confessor's backstory also implies they have been killing people that could be a problem to the Golden Order. While Ranni's Two Fingers indeed goes to great lengths to punish her, the Two Fingers at the Roundtable is rather passive and doesn't seem to care what the Tarnished are doing so long as one of them is trying to mend the Elden Ring.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: While it's easy to assume "Two Fingers" is a title, it turns out that they very much do resemble two human fingers on a disembodied hand.
• Fingore: They're fingers that happen to have visible wounds and appear to also be decaying. Difficult to not be this trope.
• Good Counterpart: Presents itself as this trope compared to the Three Fingers. The Two Fingers want to crown a new Elden Lord and reforge the Elden Ring, whereas the Three Fingers want to destroy the already screwed up order of the world even further with their Frenzied Flame, hoping to bless a champion to burn the world to cinders. However, it becomes apparent that the Two Fingers have their own objectives and will go to extreme lengths to see them done. One of them created Blaidd to serve as a noble protector for Ranni, but only as long as Ranni is fulfilling their will. The moment she turns against them, Blaidd will go unwillingly insane and attempt to kill her. The Roundtable Hold Two Fingers also ultimately abandon the Tarnished when it is revealed that the Erdtree is rejecting all who attempt to approach it. Having said all that though, they're still comparatively preferable to the world-destroying, madness-inducing evil of the hellish Three Fingers whose end goal is to kill everyone.
• Healing Hands: The Incantations which the Fingers can teach notably contain a number of healing arts to remedy injuries, cure poison, and alleviate blood loss and sleep.
• It Can Think: They seem to barely move and act primarily as a way to communicate with the Greater Will, but it eventually becomes clear they are fully sapient and can act outside of the Greater Will's control. The one in the Roundtable Hold only thinks it's following the Greater Will's will, and Ranni's one has launched its own continent-spanning campaign to track down and murder her.
• Language of Magic: The Fingers are stated to communicate in "a language of light", a formless sequence of ciphers they draw by wriggling that can only be translated to English with the aid of a Finger Reader. These "Ciphers" can take the form of glowing letters suspended in the air and can function as a weapon. Two weapons they have bestowed onto the Tarnished (the Cipher Pata and the Coded Sword) have blades made of these sigils that can pass through almost any defence.
• Last of Their Kind: By the start of the game the only member of the Two Fingers species left alive is the one in the Roundtable Hold who is trying to find a Tarnished that can mend the Elden Ring and become Elden Lord. Every other Two Fingers you find in the Divine Towers are (presumably) dead, slumped over, cradling each Great Rune between their knuckles and utterly unresponsive. In truth Ranni's Two Fingers were also alive in the Cathedral of Manus Celes, but progressing her questline far enough gives her the means to slay her Fingers personally so that she can carve her own fate separate from their intentions for her. Additionally, successfully igniting the Erdtree with the Giant's Flame of Ruin and unshackling Destined Death sets the Roundtable Hold ablaze as well, and given that the Two Fingers in the Hold are currently engaging in a millennia-long communion with the Greater Will, they presumably won't be beating a hasty retreat from the burning Hold and could very well perish in there (if the Flame of Ruin would be enough to kill them).
• Minored In Ass Kicking: Their preference for handing out quests rather than acting directly and their bizarre forms appearing impractical for combat might make the Fingers seem helpless without their Nigh-Invulnerability. But one set was able to pull off a Mutual Kill against Ranni, even while she was equipped with a Fingerslayer Blade, implying that they can be extremely fearsome opponents when needed.
• Mouth of Sauron: Their kind are noted to be heralds and mouthpieces for the Greater Will, and serve as means of communication between inhabitants of the Lands Between and the divine being. Though, it’s heavily implied that they no longer serve as this ever since the Shattering, as it’s noted by several characters and even the narration itself that the Greater Will has abandoned the realm. The Two Fingers instead carry out what they believe to be Greater Will’s intentions — restore the Golden Order at any cost. Given that they don’t figure out that the Erdtree has been rejecting all potential Elden Lords until after that fact is made known to the Roundtable Hold (while Morgott already knew long before the Two Fingers), it’s made clear that the Fingers don’t know anything about Marika’s intentions either.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: All of the Two Fingers are impossible to damage as a blessing from the Greater Will. However, that does not mean they are invulnerable, as corpses of their kind can be found around the world, suggesting there are ways to bypass their defenses, presumably essences of outer gods or by destined death. In addition, the Eternal Cities were sentenced to high treason and buried beneath the earth because they had invented a weapon capable of harming the Two Fingers: the Fingerslayer Blade.
• Our Angels Are Different: While they have a church of their own, their servitude to the Greater Will puts them as angels. And by Marika are they different, not even vaguely resembling any form of angels ever conceived.
• Planet of Steves: There are many of them, but they're all simply called The Two Fingers.
• Recurring Element: As an inhuman emissary for the supposed Greater-Scope Paragon who hangs out in the hub area and guides the player character towards fulfilling some grand destiny that involves becoming a divine Lord, the Two Fingers has much the same role as Kingseeker Frampt from Dark Souls. And, much like Frampt, the Fingers' intentions turn out to not be as benevolent as they would have you believe.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Upon learning that the Erdtree is refusing the Tarnished, their translator Enia tells the Player Character that they are silent and "conversing" with the Greater Will to find out where to go from here.
• Stealth Expert: Two Finger Incantations notably include the Darkness and Assassin's Approach, the former conjuring a mist of darkness to ward off enemy sight and the latter silencing footsteps in addition to reducing fall damage. The Two Fingers are also noted to employ assassins to do their dirty work, both to hunt the Tarnished who had strayed from the guidance of grace and Empyreans who managed to escape their fate, like Ranni.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Ranni states that every Empyrean has their own Two Fingers, as well as their own Shadow beasts. Ranni and Marika's are accounted for, but no mention is made of Malenia and Miquella's. Presumably, Malenia killed both Shadow beasts and both pairs of Fingers when she and Miquella abandoned the Golden Order (as Ranni had to do to advance her own plan), but it's never clarified.
• Winds of Destiny, Change!: Their main powers as the Greater Will's heralds, weaving the fates of individuals of their choosing, metaphorically "grasping" them on behalf of the Greater Will.

Tropes applying to the Two Fingers in the Roundtable Hold

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• Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear whether they really are communicating with the Greater Will or if it's just an excuse to leave the Tarnished. Though, the fact that they don't react to Enia and the Tarnished plotting to commit two cardinal sins about five feet away from them does imply they aren't in a normal mental state anymore.
• Big Good: They want a Tarnished to become the Elden Lord and restore the Elden Ring, which of course puts them at odds with the demigods. They stop being this though when they all but abandon the Tarnished when it's discovered the Erdtree is refusing anyone to become Elden Lord. After that, Enia starts being the one mainly guiding the Tarnished to complete their quest.
• Kingmaker Scenario: Following the Shattering and Marika's absence, the Two Fingers elect to put a Tarnished on the throne since they're guided by grace, thus they stand the best chance of repairing the Elden Ring. That said, they're quick to abandon them once it becomes clear the situation is much more complicated if the Erdtree is refusing to allow anyone, be it Tarnished or even one of Marika's own children, from entering and repairing the Elden Ring.
• Last of Their Kind: The Tarnished can find the corpses of other Two Fingers around the world, but the ones in Roundtable Hold are the only ones known that are still alive. It's shown there is another one hiding in the Cathedral of Manus Celes, whom Ranni slays at the end of her quest in a Mutual Kill. The death of this Two Fingers doesn't affect Enia's reading of the Fingers in Roundtable Hold, meaning they are two different entities.
• Not So Omniscient After All: Despite being emissaries of the Greater Will, they turn out to be as much in the dark as you about what is going on with the Erdtree refusing a new Elden Lord.
• Unwitting Pawn: Despite their supposed wisdom, they are not immune to this: They are under the impression that grace was extended to the Tarnished, potentially by the Greater Will itself, in a last-ditch effort to repair the Elden Ring and restore the Golden Order and the Age of the Erdtree, and so offer guidance to the Tarnished, as well as access to the Roundtable Hold and various Incantations in the hope that at least one will succeed in that effort. They don't seem to be aware at all of the real reason behind the existence of the Tarnished, the goal given to the Roundtable's blacksmith to craft a God-slaying weapon, and Marika's overall plan, and ultimately the player will have to kill the Elden Beast, the divine incarnation of the Golden Order, to finish the game, meaning the Two Fingers' guidance accidentally aids the destruction of the Order they wanted to preserve.

Tropes applying to Ranni's Two Fingers

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• Arc Villain: This Two Fingers is the Big Bad of Ranni's questline, as everything she does is an attempt to escape their will.
• Evil Counterpart: To the Roundtable Hold's Two Fingers. While the one in the Roundtable Hold is very pragmatic to the point of letting the Shattering last thousands of years more rather than go against the Greater Will, it is at least one of the very few characters left trying to eventually end the Shattering. Meanwhile, Ranni's Two Fingers doesn't appear to have any coherent goal other than punish and kill her for daring to defy them.
• Hero Killer: They kill Ranni who slays them as well.
• Kryptonite Factor: The only weapon which can harm them is the Fingerslayer Blade, which Ranni sends the player to acquire. Once she gets her hands on it, she tracks them down and slays them.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After they murder almost her entire faction, Ranni tracks them down and kills them.
• Mutual Kill: They and Ranni kill each other in the darkness of their cathedral. Unfortunately for them, Ranni has the Tarnished who possesses the means of restoring her.

Queen Marika the Eternal

Queen Marika the Eternal

"I divest each of thee of thy grace."

^{Click here to see her trapped inside the Erdtree}

Chosen of the Erdtree and God-Queen of the Lands Between, Marika was the ruler of an empire spanning the entire continent. The shattering of the Elden Ring and her disappearance in the aftermath directly led to the Shattering, a Succession Crisis of her demigod children that tore the land asunder.

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• Abusive Parents: There's a fair bit of evidence that suggests she was at least emotionally abusive to her demigod kids. It's also worth noting that not a single one of her children so much as mention their bond with her in either their dialogues or item descriptions, as is the case for all of the other parents of demigods (for example, Radahn idolizing Godfrey, Rennala leading Ranni to find the Dark Moon, and Miquella exchanging Fundamentalist incantations with Radagon).
  • According to the flavor text for the Regal Omen Bairn, Omen children born of the royal family don't have their horns cut off (which often kills them) and are instead imprisoned underneath the capital. Considering both Morgott and Mohg both had shackles and never had their horns cut off, it's heavily implied that this was their fate.
  • When talking to one of the spirits in the Weeping Peninsula, he will refer to one of the demigods in the wandering mausoleum as "[her] unwanted child".
  • Hewg also reveals that part of the purpose in calling back the Tarnished was to have them kill her children, implicitly because they failed to succeed in slaying the Elden Beast and mending the Ring.
    Hewg: Oh, finally! It's complete! I've done it! A weapon to slay a god! Oh, you have my deepest gratitude. Thanks to you, my wish is granted. Now wield it, and kill them. The demigods. And their god. Queen Marika herself wishes it so.
• Action Girl: Implied. It's stated in the backstory that Marika personally fought and killed the Fell God of the Fire Giants during their cataclysmic war with the Golden Order. Additionally, she has an association with warhammers and even has one named after her. Otherwise though, it seems she left most of the fighting to her other self.
• Allegorical Character: Marika represents early religion or at least its leading figures, and its struggles and failings. She is the vehicle through which the Greater Will receives most of its worship, succeeding numerous lapsed belief structures, who in-turn succeeded the role of the Dragons (representing the faithful's fear and awe of natural phenomena being their source of divine inspiration). She is empowered through her position and essentially nothing else, capable of being replaced by a more-suitable structure should one arise. Arising from fear-based worship, Marika holds an adversarial view of her God; as a lesser threat than the Gods of rival peoples, but still a being to ultimately be either used, appealed to for favor, or confronted at one's peril. Godfrey, being an early worshipper of hers, shares in this belief. Since conquest and oppression can only go so far in ensuring her survival, Marika changes tenets of her faith over time to avoid being replaced; molding a cheerier afterlife or a form of life eternal (through removing the Rune of Death), adopting syncretic beliefs of a more-esoteric faith (through allying with the Dark Moon and adopting Rennala's children), adding a Satan from another faith (through warring with and sparing the Fell God of the Fire Giants at the same time as a backup option for controlling the Greater Will), and even intellectualizing (through replacing Godfrey with Radagon). These actions that attempt to keep Marika relevant eventually delegitimize her for much of the Lands Between, causing a schism that results in many spin-offs and upstarts (her children and stepchildren, some of whom have different Gods entirely) fighting for the right to replace her: the Shattering.
• Ambiguously Evil: How evil she is, or even if she's evil, depends entirely on how the player interprets information about her overall motives that is deliberately left quite vague.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: A certain reveal putting a lot of implications as to who Marika and Radagon are muddies who exactly Marika is. If they were always one entity, it's unclear as to whether who really was who, or if they even cared for it to begin with.
• Badass in Distress: Has personally led the conquest of the Lands Between, winning multiple battles and wars against foes of all shapes and sizes. She is currently hanging in imprisoned within the Erdtree by the Elden Beast.
• Barbarian Hero: Implied; Godfrey, her first husband, was absolutely one of these, and given that he is implied to have been her co-conspirator in her plan to shatter the Elden Ring, she presumably had the same sort of predilections towards this mindset. Notably, she was quite war-like against the enemies of the Erdtree, such as the extermination of the Fire Giants, she has a certain level of disdain for the Outer God that was actively granting her power, and her own weapon is a brutal cudgel made from stone rather than a more refined weapon that would be expected of either a woman or a god. Further, if Gideon's revelation about Marika's intentions for the Tarnished is accurate, she doesn't care about anyone becoming Elden Lord; she just wants the Tarnished to fight and wage war unto eternity.^note Exactly how accurate Gideon's assessment of her was is debatable, as he was in the middle of a despair induced breakdown at the revelation that Marika's final task would be to fight the Elden Beast, something he deemed impossible and thus reasoned that Marika didn't intend for the Tarnished to be able to win
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: She's topless at the end of the game and only wearing a very loose cloth, meaning it's fairly easy to see that she has no nipples or genitals. Given how many other people this trope also applies to in-game, it's not clear if this is supposed to be diegetic, though an image in the Artbook shows her explicitly topless and nipple-less even though the Goddess of Rot gets nipples, so Marika is one of the more likely characters to actually have no genitals.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted Trope. From what little we see of her from different angles, she was once fairly attractive. However, the backlash from the destruction of the Elden Ring as well as her centuries-long punishment beneath the Erdtree has caused whatever beauty she once had to crumble away to near-nothingness by the time the Tarnished meets her in the current day.
• Big Good: Played with. This is what the people of the Lands Between see her as, and evidence points to Marika being responsible for the existence of the many Tarnished along with directing them to brandish the Elden Ring and inherit a new age, which is the only thing that can fix the damage of the Shattering. But interactions with certain NPCs and item flavor texts suggest that she wasn't as benevolent as people believed her to be, and she was the one who shattered the Elden Ring in the first place.
• Broken Angel: Once, Marika was the majestic goddess-queen of the Lands Between with power and knowledge beyond measure. That was long ago, before she shattered the Elden Ring, the source of her divinity, and was punished by the Greater Will for her defiance. By the time she's seen in-game, she's an immobile, completely unresponsive crumbling stone statue crucified on a giant Rune Arc. Whatever beauty, dignity, power, or even personality she originally had were stripped from her long ago, leaving nothing but a hollowed-out container for the remains of the Elden Ring. The only indication that she's still "alive" in any sense is that the Elden Ring is visible within the giant hole in her torso. After the final battle with the Elden Beast, there's barely enough of Marika's body left to be recognizable.
• Brutal Honesty: Her echoes at the 'Outer Wall Battlegrounds' site of grace address the Demigods as "my children beloved" and urges them to seek whatever they desire of themselves, even lordship or godhood, but then goes on to plainly state that those that fail would be forsaken and written off as 'sacrifices'.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Downplayed, but if Blackguard Big Boggart is of any indication, apparently her breasts were notable enough that "Marika's tits!" became an expletive used by low-life types within the Lands Between.
• The Chains of Commanding: It is heavily implied that the pressure of ruling over the Lands Between, being the Greater Will's chosen vassal, and having to deal many other issues in her life has taken a great toll upon her, eventually causing Marika to snap and shatter the Elden Ring to be free of the hold it has over her.
  Marika's Scarseal/Soreseal Description: These seals represent the lifelong duty of those chosen by the gods. Solemn duty weighs upon the one beholden; not unlike a gnawing curse from which there is no deliverance.
• The Chessmaster: It's gradually revealed that Marika's plot to destroy the current order goes back many years and involved a plethora of moving parts and back-up plans. In short, she stuck with the Greater Will as a loyal servant up until a time where she could cultivate two separate classes of powerful warriors (her demigod children and the Tarnished) outside of its influence. When her warriors were sufficiently far along and Ranni and Rykard conspired with their own plot, Marika made her move: she weakened the Elden Beast by shattering the ring its power derives from, saw some of the shards of said ring claimed by her children (further increasing their relative power vis a vis the Greater Will), and set said children against the Elden Beast by inviting them to claim the throne. When the situation devolved into a Forever War instead due to their conflicting end goals for the Lands Between, she activated Plan B by reviving the Tarnished, who had grown more powerful in their wars overseas, inviting them back to the Lands Between and granting them the guidance of grace to both literally and figuratively lead them to fight the Beast, knowing that they couldn't resist the draw to lordship. To increase their chances, she provided them a Portal Network, an untouchable hideout in Roundtable Hold, and brainwashed the blacksmith Hewg to craft the strongest of them "a god-slaying weapon". If all of them failed, she always had Godfrey, who was both the strongest person she knew when she started the plan and her only known co-conspirator.
• The Chosen One: Marika was chosen by the Greater Will to be the god-queen of the Lands Between, serving as its speaker and ruling in its place. By breaking the Elden Ring, she seems to have defied this fate.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: To Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight. Gwyn's defining characteristic was his stubborn inability to let the Age of Fire pass, to the point that he inadvertently created the Curse of Undeath and the cycle of light and dark that plagued his world. Marika by contrast seemingly wants her age of unquestioned Golden Order fundamentalism to end, and actively brought the Tarnished back to life in the hopes that one of them would usher in a new age.
• Crucified Hero Shot: This is the state she's seen in both the intro and by the time the player encounters her in the game, crucified upon the Elden Ring (or what remains of it).
• Dark Messiah: While intentionally presented as a Messianic Archetype through various imagery and is seen as such by followers of the Golden Order, the player finds evidence via the various actions she took to take over the Lands Between paints her as someone who falls more in line with this.
• Decomposite Character: Elements of Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight are represented in Elden Ring through two characters. One of them, obviously, is Marika, who acts as a widely revered god figure who has gone missing since before the start of the game, while the other is her second husband Radagon, who inherits Gwyn's combat prowess and status as an endgame boss — he even comes packing a few variants of Gwyn's Sunlight Spear. Unusually for this trope, Marika and Radagon are actually the same person. She also serves to contrast Lord Gwyn, as while he tried to mantain the present order of the world through a complex Thanatos Gambit, Marika did everything possible to break the order she herself started.
• Deity of Human Origin: The Numen's Rune reveals that Marika was originally a woman of the Numen race, who was chosen as an Empyrean by the Greater Will and thereby ascended to godhood.
• The Dreaded: Some items indicate that the people of the Lands Between in general revered her for dispensing the Erdtree's blessings, but those outside of the Order seemed to have a different impression, consistently describing her as a terrifying presence. Hewg says he likes to smith because "it helps me forget the sheer terror of her," the cruel and callous Gideon "shuddered in fear" when he "glimpsed [Marika's] will", the Fire Giant would rather rip off its limbs in an attempt to kill you than incur her wrath again by breaking his duty to defend the flame, and one of the Finger Readers can be heard screaming in fear about "the curse of Queen Marika."
• Driven to Suicide: An interpretation of her shattering of the Elden Ring. She clearly knew that the destruction of the Elden Ring meant the destruction of herself, as the Ring was embedded in her own soul, so it's possible she believed death was a preferable alternative to serving the Greater Will any longer. Even in the "best" endings, there's little indication that Marika's shattered husk is even still alive.
• Dub Name Change: The Latin American Spanish translation changes her name to Marida, because Marika happens to sound exactly like "marica", a homophobic slur.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Marika is present as early as the first trailer, and the opening cutscene in the game proper. She's the person hammering at the Elden Ring, at least until it subtly switches over to Radagon trying to mend it.
• Expy: As a Top God associated with both wisdom and war seeking to Screw Destiny by any means necessary and implied to act through many disguises, she's roughly analogous to Odin. In particular, her crucifixion seems to reference one of his most famous stories. She’s hung on the remains of the Elden Ring and impaled through the torso with a spear as part of her quest to "search the deepest depths of the Order" (i.e. the Elden Ring she tried to change), while Odin allowed himself to be hung from Yggdrasil and impaled with a spear for nine days and nine nights in order to gain knowledge of other worlds and be able to understand the runes.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While her relationships with the Demigods and Radagon appeared to have been very cold, it’s implied Marika genuinely liked and had faith in her first husband Godfrey. He was the only person she ever trusted with her plan to shatter the Elden Ring, and right before his bossfight the guidance of grace (controlled by Marika) points from him to the Tarnished; hinting that she would have strongly preferred him to enter the Erdtree rather than the player.
• Fan Disservice: It's apparent from the various paintings of Marika that she was a beautiful woman, who tended to mostly wear a simple dark blue-and-gold dress. When she's actually encountered in-game, she's topless and reveals herself to be surprisingly well-endowed... but she's also crucified, has a spear stuck in her body, parts of her torso are missing and her skin is seemingly made out of stone.
• Fantastic Racism: While her personal feelings on the matter are never given in much detail, she definitely presided over a highly racist kingdom that discriminated against those the Erdtree did not favor. Under her, the Golden Order drove the Fire Giants to extinction, nearly did the same to the Dragons (sparing them was Godwyn's idea), enslaved the Misbegotten and Trolls, literally buried the people of the Great Caravan alive, killed or imprisoned every Omen, and treated the Albinaurics so terribly that they seek to make a journey across the continent and through the Forbidden Lands just to have a chance at a better future (in Miquella and Malenia's Haligtree). One of her lines of dialogues remembered by Melina indicates that, at the absolute least, she publicly approved of said persecution.
  Melina: In Marika's own words. "The Erdtree governs all. The choice is thine. Become one with the Order. Or divest thyself of it. To wallow at the fringes; a powerless upstart."
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her hair is generally portrayed as held in two asymmetrical braids; the right one reaches down to her knees, while the left one just reaches her chest. Her body in the Erdtree appears to have her hair in a single loose braid.
• Fusion Dance: In one of her few pieces of dialogue recounted by Melina, Marika tells Radagon that they have not yet become one, implying that they started out separate and merged together through some sort of process. Alternatively, this means that Radagon is choosing to be different from Marika, therefore not one with her mindset.
• Gender Bender: In Radagon's boss cutscene, Marika's feminine body is transformed into Radagon's masculine one, her blonde hair turning red and dark essence emblazoned with runes filling in the cracks and missing pieces.
• The Ghost: Marika is stated to have disappeared at some point during the Shattering, and any information the Tarnished learns about her comes from Melina or other parties. She makes an appearance at the end of the game, but she has little to no interaction with the Tarnished at all, leaving her own motivations and actions for starting the Shattering up to interpretation.
• God-Emperor: Rules the Lands Between and is worshipped as a god in countless churches throughout the land. She is also an actual divine being on top of that.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Every now and then, you'll hear characters mutter about "Marika's curse". They specifically blame her disappearance and seeming refusal to rein in her children during the Shattering, which is an understandable reason to fear and curse her name. Becomes more blatant after it's revealed she actually enacted the whole chain of events by Shattering the Elden Ring.
• God Was My Copilot: The Tarnished can resurrect at Marika's statues instead of lost graces, implying that she gives them some kind of patronage. Assuming Gideon's words are correct, she wants them to continue fighting "unto eternity".
  • Her echoes confirm she is the one responsible for returning Grace to all of the Tarnished after their deaths, and she urges them to grow strong and brandish the Elden Ring.
• Good Is Not Soft: While Marika's motives are admittedly incredibly vague, a reading of her as a heroic figure still involves her waging several wars of conquest, condemning the last giant to a Fate Worse than Death, using her brother as a tool, telling her children that they have to prove themselves or die, and kicking off the Shattering.
• Good Stepmother: Several demigods are actually lord Radagon's children from his previous marriage with Rennala, but Marika nevertheless elevated them to demigod status. This may be foreshadowing that Marika and Radagon are in fact one being.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The events of the game and everything that's transpired in the Lands Between, including the Shattering and glorified pissing match/family feud between her children, can be traced back to her. She's implied to have had some sort of role in Godwyn's assassination since she has some sort of relationship with the Numen, of which the Black Knives are entirely comprised of (though it's equally possible the Two Fingers are responsible as well, as it's noted that the Black Knives answer to them). Even discounting that, she kicked off the whole event by breaking the Elden Ring and forged a brutal empire in the Lands Between that inspired resentment from many.
• Has a Type: She's implied to have a thing for powerful warrior types. Both her first husband Godfrey and second husband Radagon were tribal warriors that became Elden Lords by proving themselves in battle. Her 'other self' Radagon seems to partially share this, as Radagon married Rennala, a powerful sorceress he met on the battlefield, before 'marrying' Marika. Given that Marika'd been planning on overthrowing the Elden Beast since at least before Godfrey's exile (as Melina recalls words from her where she tells Godfrey to get stronger and come back) and that she was initially expecting one of her children to become Lord or God, a task that would require killing it (in another recollection, Marika tells her children to try to claim the throne themselves), it is heavily implied that she was trying to cultivate a sufficiently powerful heir through Superpowerful Genetics.
• Hero of Another Story: Given the fact that she was basically The Chosen One of the Greater Will and went on to wage a successful war of conquest all across the Lands Between in its name, Marika definitely has an epic story worthy of its own game or two.
• Hidden Agenda Hero: Or Hidden Agenda Villain, depending on who you ask. A good deal of Marika's motives, goals, and personal qualities are left undisclosed, so we can only speculate on what she was really after or why.
• Human Alien: Queen Marika is a Numen, an ancient race of otherworldly people who come from "outside the Lands Between."
• Immortality Bisexuality: In an Ambiguously Bi sense. Since Marika has very little dialogue, it's hard to know her personal feelings about women, but Gender Is No Object when it comes to who can become Elden Lord (Marika's consort), and female Tarnished are treated as just as valid candidates as male tarnished, so there is at least presedent for Marika being interested in both genders. Depending on how one interprets Radagon, it's also possible that Marika was married to a woman long enough to sire three children. Of course, this is Marika, ruthless pragmatist supreme, so it's equally likely that the gender of her spouse is less important than how beneficial the marriage is for her plans.
• Jerkass God: Despite all the crucifixion imagery and her radiant beauty, very little indicates that Marika was a merciful goddess: beyond the several wars waged in the name of the Golden Order and the Erdtree, she engaged and encouraged the persecution of those not blessed by the grace of gold, and openly mocked those who lived outside of the order as "powerless upstarts". Several characters who have met her in person describe her as a terrifying presence as well. Regardless of her motivation on the matter, her shattering of the Elden Ring threw the Lands Between into a spiral of death, torment and chaos that would claim the lives and minds of not just her subjects, but all her children as well; something that she not only wasn't concerned about, but actively planned for prior to the act.
• Keeping the Enemy Close: A possible interpretation for her interaction with Radagon. As her faith in the Greater Will faltered, Radagon remained loyal to the Greater Will. Now she permanently has an eye on him, and he can't fix the Elden Ring himself or confront the Tarnished too early.
• Kingmaker Scenario: Not to the same extent as the Two Fingers, who back the Tarnished in the hopes that one among their number will reforge the Elden Ring, but she is responsible for reviving prominent Tarnished such as Hoarah Loux and even the Player Character. It should also be worth noting that she gave grace to the Tarnished so that one of them may potentially succeed her husband Radagon.
• Lost in Translation: The Mimic Veil being known as Marika's Mischief / マリカの戯れ. In Japanese, the word used for "mischief" is a double entendre that can also mean "flirtation" or "dalliance", implying that she (as many figures from myth) disguised herself for that purpose (albeit that the in-game Mimic's Veil wouldn't be useful for that, unless she met someone who found statues and pottery really sexy). Which may explain why at least one dead demigod (the one in the Weeping Peninsula's Walking Mausoleum) is called Marika's "unwanted child" (outright "bastard child" in Japanese). In hindsight this can also be interpreted as foreshadowing Radagon's nature, given his marriage to Rennala.
• Married to the Job: Implied. Her bedchamber consisted of a large stone bed surrounded by piles of stone tablets and scrolls all over the place.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Marika's name is an Eastern European iteration of "Mary/Maria". One possible translation of that name is "rebellious" which reflects her role in shattering the Elden Ring. Another translation of that name is "beloved", which she was during her tenure as the God-Emperor of the Lands Between.
  • Regarding her people, the Numen; on top of sounding like “new men” as something above normal mortals (which Marika decidedly is), Numen is a Latin word referring to a spirit or divine presence that watches over a specific location (which, as the God-Emperor of the Lands Between, Marika does). This implies that the Numen as a whole might be pre-ordained for roles relating to leadership under divinities like the Greater Will. The Japanese name for her race is 'marebito' (稀人), a type of divine being of Japanese myth that comes from faraway places to gift people wisdom or happiness, similiarly to how Marika arrived to the Lands Between from outside of it to establish the Golden Order and grant the blessing of gold to its people.
• Metallic Motifs: Mercury, also part of her Mythical Motifs.
• Mythical Motifs: The alchemical White Queen, representing femininity, the moon, water, and the element mercury for its stability, in contrast to Radagon as the Red King. Though an ironic one considering she rules over the Erdtree which has supplanted the sun in the Lands Between and was the instigator of the Shattering.
• Mythology Gag: On top of being a Decomposite Character of Gwyn, Marika bears an uncanny resemblance to Queen Nashandra of all characters. Both are blonde, tall queens married to powerful, bearded warrior-kings that waged war against a race of giants. They also, directly and indirectly, prod the player character to succeed the previous ruler and become monarchs of some kind. And although she lacks Nashandra's overt malice, Marika is also the direct cause of the entire game's plot, as her breaking of the Elden Ring was part of a likely centuries old plan to destroy the Elden Beast. Also, like Nashandra she shapeshifts into a different form than the one she is shown as normally in the Final Boss fight, and the first half of the fight involves battling her alternate form on top of a stone platform surrounded by darkness. And finally, like Nashandra she originated from outside the continent the game takes place in.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Marika is definetly treated as the Top God of the Golden Order, and by all intents and purposes she is one of the most powerful entities in the Lands Between - however, as the game goes on it also becomes increasingly she's also way below in the hierarchy that she would have you believe, as despite being the older of the Elden Ring, she has no power over the Outer Gods and their influence, and compared to the Greater Will that chose her she is a mere pawn to be discarded and replaced if she becomes inconvenient.
• Our Gods Are Different: There does seem to be an abstract higher power in the universe of Elden Ring which governs the world through Marika. However, the mouthpiece of this same higher power claims that, as the one chosen to bear the power of the Elden Ring and the Erdtree, Marika was 'a god in truth', and is treated as such throughout the land. Numerous churches and chapels are scattered throughout the Lands Between in her honor, as well as several characters making prayers beseeching her blessings and salvation.
• Parental Favoritism: While she had a cold relationship with her children (to the point that she explicitly summoned the Tarnished to kill them), even Marika apparently had her favorites.
  • To Godwyn. According to the story trailer, she "was driven to the brink" after the Night of Black Knives that killed him.
  • It's implied that she had this towards Miquella, as when he went missing due to Mohg's machinations, she was greatly upset. Incidentally, her "other self" Radagon also seemed to favor Miquella, further implying their connection.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: As the one chosen by The Greater Will to bear the Elden Ring, Marika is essentially the embodiment of the Golden Order itself, or its vassal. Yet details slowly revealed suggest that she grew to question the very order she ruled.
  "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?"
• Pragmatic Hero: "Hero" is a strong word, but if there is one thing that can be said of Marika, it is that she's pragmatic. Despite ruling over a theocratic empire with strict definitions of what is holy and what is heretical, she frequently made use of and incorporated heretical concepts when they were beneficial to her plans, and everything that's known about her interpersonal relationships paints a picture of a ruthlessly pragmatic woman who had no issue using even her children to further her goals.
• Reduced to Dust: Her body dissolves into golden dust in the Age of Stars ending. If the Tarnished becomes Lord of the Frenzied Flame, she also crumbles away into nothingness.
• Sculpted Physique: She and Radagon (who seemingly share a body) have an idealized body that's seemingly sculpted from stone. Though the backlash from shattering the Elden Ring has left her body fractured, missing half her face and almost the entire left half of her upper torso.
• Screw Yourself: Maybe. It's not really clear what she and Radagon are but they supposedly had two children together. The afflictions Miquella and Malenia have are said to be because they come from the same god.
• She Is the King: While her official title is Queen, she's also consistently referred to as a god, never a goddess.
• Shirtless Captives: She is hanged up topless but with Barbie Doll Anatomy inside the Erdtree.
• Statuesque Stunner: Almost literally, since her physical body appears to be made of stone, but when she is finally seen in person, she's just under nine and a half feet tall◊ (slightly shorter than Radagon), and despite her current state of catatonia and decrepitude, she was an angelically beautiful woman in her prime.
• Truly Single Parent: As Marika and Radagon might actually be either the same entity, or one being who split themselves into separate entities, she is this trope to the children resulting from their "marriage" if either case is true. Malenia's remembrance describes her and her brother as being the children of "a single god", further implying this. Whether this means that Marika bore Malenia and Miquella as regular children or she just poofed them into existence is left unexplained. In either case, their afflictions are blamed on such parenthood, like a supernatural form of inbreeding.
• Top God: Of the King Of the Gods variety. Marika was the primary deity worshiped in the Lands Between, with only the abstract Greater Will above her, which her followers do not consider a god. Her commanding Hewg to forge a god-slaying weapon implies that at least part of her motivation was to kill the one being identified as a god that was above her, the Elden Beast. In fact, her powerful consorts and children being mere "demigods" seems to be Insistent Terminology on her part; according to Brother Corhyn, the Golden Order is founded on the belief that there is only one true god: Marika herself.
• Toplessness from the Back: She's seen like this in the reveal trailer for the game, with cracks already beginning to spread across her back presumably due to her shattering the Elden Ring.
• The Worf Effect: While the true extent of Marika's prowess in battle is unknown, and she's implied to be more of a scholar than a fighter ^note Her soreseal talisman only boosts mental stats her divine power would presumably make her a spellcaster more fearsome than even Rennala. This didn't stop the Elden Beast from mutilating and crucifying her, setting itself as above her both in power and divine hierarchy.
• You Have Failed Me: She tasked her children with becoming Lords or Gods during the Shattering, which would require taking the Lands Between and slaying the Elden Beast. When their conflict instead devolved into a Forever War with no victor, Marika activated her back-up plan in the Tarnished, who exist for the sole purpose of killing her children and the Beast.
  Marika: Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord. Be it a God. But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to sacrifices...
  Hewg: Are you having second thoughts? Might I have a word, then? Your kind are meant to challenge them. To slay them. The demigods. And their god.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: With the knowledge that the Tarnished's grace comes from her, it's heavily implied that she's attempting to pull this on you during Godfrey's boss fight. The guidance of grace ceases to guide you, and instead directs Godfrey at you. Since Godfrey is her loyal lackey while the Tarnished in most endings will screw her over, it makes sense as to why she'd try to dispose of you for Godfrey after you fulfill your role in setting the Erdtree alight. It’s also possible that this is just a final test to see who is more worthy of the throne however.

This character is a spoiler for late-game events in Elden Ring. You Have Been Warned!

Radagon of the Golden Order (UNMARKED SPOILERS!)

The Second Elden Lord

Former husband of Queen Rennala, Radagon parted ways with his wife to become Queen Marika's champion after Godfrey's exile and to become the Second Elden Lord who subsequently fathered several demigods with her. After Queen Marika's disappearance following the Shattering, Radagon likewise went missing.

In reality, Radagon is Queen Marika's 'other self', a male counterpart with his own distinct personality and will. Despite this revelation, much of Radagon's very nature remains shrouded in ambiguity and mystery.

Given the important revelations which come with the character's introduction during the game, Radagon is a Walking Spoiler, so all spoilers are unmarked.

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• Achilles' Heel: Any and all Incantations, equipment or Talismans that boost one's resistance to Holy damage are magnificently effective in his fight due to all of his attacks being charged with or inflicting damage with the element.
  • Also downplayed in that he is not technically weak to it, but he is fairly resistant to every type of elemental damage except Fire, which he simply has no resistance toward.
• Alternate Personality Punishment: It's revealed that while Marika was attempting to shatter the Elden Ring, Radagon was in equal measure attempting to repair it, his attempts being in vain as Marika succeeded in the end. However, despite his efforts to prevent the Shattering from happening, as he was sharing a body with Marika he was forced to share in her punishment at the hands of the Greater Will, trapped beneath the Erdtree, impaled and bound by his wrists above the ground by the remnants of the ring.
• Always Second Best: For all of Radagon's accomplishments, he pales in comparison to his predecessor Godfrey. While the most Radagon did was merge Caria as part of the Golden Order (and messed it up by returning to Marika to be the next Elden Lord), Godfrey's been the one who had a major part in shaping Marika's empire, having waged more wars and subjugated more people. It's also worth noting that Godfrey's rule was described as "just and fair", while there's nothing that describes Radagon's tenure as Elden Lord. It's telling that Radahn, his own son, looks up to Godfrey more than his old man. Hell, the fact that, story-wise, he's fought straight after Godfrey highlights this, since whilst Godfrey clearly wields both his tempered and unleashed might whilst looking at perfect health, Radagon looks little more than a literal shell of his former self and could very well be the Elden Beast's puppet by this point.
• Ambiguously Related: The description of the Winged Misbegotten Ashes refer to the Misbegotten as "Radagon's chimeras" in the 1.0 version of the game. The game files also refer to the Misbegotten as Radagon's children, and one of them has Radagon's own Golden Order Greatsword. Their exact connection is as of yet unknown.
• Ambiguously Human: When the player first learns of him, they're led to believe that he was a completely normal human (by the standards of the setting) that somehow managed to become the Second Elden Lord; however, as he's secretly, somehow, the male half of Marika, this would actually make him a Numen... and then there's his ambiguous relation with the Fire Giants whom he shares his red hair with, and the ambiguously canonical relationship he has with the Misbegotten of all races. To say Radagon's character is steeped in ambiguity would be an understatement.
• Ambiguous Situation: The king of this trope. All we know about Radagon is scattered lore references and comments about him (often by those who have reason to be biased), and unlike Marika, we have no quotes directly from Radagon himself. All we know for certain is that he is (somehow) Marika, he fought Rennala, married her, and later divorced her, he was super loyal to the Golden Order, he was The Red Mage, had red hair but hated it, was Elden Lord after Godfrey, favored Miquella, and liked sewing.
  • It's not clear if Radagon was originally a separate being that physically merged with Marika, if he was always a part of her that was separated from her body for a time, or if they were always one entity that could transform their shared body to reflect either personality when necessary. Radagon was stated to be Queen Marika's second husband, having left his first wife Rennala to become the second Elden Lord. His boss cutscene, however, shows Queen Marika's fractured body transforming into Radagon, implying they were a singular entity all along. A Freeze-Frame Bonus in the opening cutscene foreshadows this fact as well, as it shows Marika briefly turning into Radagon as she hammers the Elden Ring. Melina recounting Marika's words about Radagon not yet being her and being her other self doesn't clear things up, and further confusing things is the fact Radagon and Marika, even when combined, can apparently disagree on things. Radagon is shown trying to repair the Elden Ring Marika shattered, showing they weren't in agreement on the act. One thing we know for sure though is that Radagon absolutely was not a god like Marika and didn't have her power, as Rykard's Great Rune states that his children only became demigods after Marika adopted them and Melina recalls Marika telling Radagon "thou art yet to become me, yet to become a god" right before the Shattering. By the end of the Shattering he apparently has become one (going by Corhyn's dialogue and the Sacred Relic Sword description), albeit presumably of a lesser degree than Marika ever was given that he's stuck with a mere fragment of the Elden Ring rather than being the vessel of the whole thing.
  • While fans tend to assume they have separate wills, nothing in the game's text goes against the idea that Radagon isn't literally just Marika wearing a "costume" and using an alias (meaning her "conversation" with Radagon is just her castigating herself for her failed plans), much like her children are prone to do (e.g. "Margit", "Renna", and "Trina"). This is implied by Goldmask being able to immediately draw conclusions from no words other than "Radagon is Marika", from which he includes that Marika is in fact "fickle", i.e., that she can change her mind. The one bit of evidence cited in favor of the interpretation that they're two people, that Marika broke the ring while Radagon tried to repair it, is put into doubt by a line from Melina at the Church of the Pilgrimage, which reveals that Marika wanted the ring to be mended after she broke it ("Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring. Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord. Lord Godfrey."). And while Radagon sealing the roots with his Rune is commonly interpreted as him not wanting the Ring to be fixed by the Tarnished, it should be noted that the only effect this actually has is preventing the ardent Golden Order loyalist Morgott from repairing the Ring, which would supposedly be in Radagon's interests. Aside from that, the seal also forces the Tarnished to burn the Erdtree and release Destined Death.^note This is consistent with Radagon's characterization in the 1.0 release of the game, where he was stated on Loretta's armor set to have supported the reformist Miquella as the inheritor of the throne. Without Radagon's intervention the player would just have just entered the tree and restored the Golden Order just as the Two Fingers told them to, and Destined Death would stay sealed (as the Mending Rune of the Duskborn states, "a state of affairs where Destined Death is sealed" is essentially what the Golden Order is). At the very least, the game establishes early on that Marika likes to use disguises (she owns a Mimic Veil which the people have nicknamed "Marika's Mischief", otherwise a Red Herring) and Radagon is confirmed to have been Marika as far back as his marriage to Rennala at least, going by the Mask of Confidence and Miriel's dialogue. Indeed, the entire point of the "Radagon is Marika" reveal seems to be aimed at undermining what the player thought they knew about Marika, as Radagon was otherwise characterized as her more merciful and thoughtful foil, only for the game to reveal that their actions were those of one person with one plan. Finally, her Japanese dialogue has Marika call Radagon "my [other] half of my body" in a very directly physical sense rather than the more vague "mine other self" she uses in English, which is dialogue more fitting for Radagon just being... well, her other body, rather than a different person.
    • The internal AI name of his character model is also "MaricaOfDistorted."
  • Just how self-aware is Radagon by the time of the final battle? Not only does he not say a single word throughout the entire fight, not even grunting when hit, but he doesn't bleed at all, his body is visibly broken and hollow, his movements are almost robotic in how stiff they are, and he barely uses any magic despite being extremely well versed in both glintstone sorceries and incantations. It's quite possible that Radagon has been reduced to an Empty Shell being maneuvered by the Elden Beast like a puppet, which is supported by the fact that the symbol of the Erdtree is seen glowing in his hollow body.
  • Just like the above, it's incredibly ambiguous how much he is to blame for the seal on the Erdtree. It clearly bears his signature rune, but the why or when is never explained. It could be that Radagon personally sealed the Erdtree after the Elden Ring was shattered, it could be that the Elden Beast merely used his body as a vessel to create that seal for its own purposes, that Radagon might have initially created the seal but the Elden Beast usurped his body to maintain it, or that all of these answers are wrong.
  • In general, how many of Radagon's decisions throughout his existence were his own becomes difficult to decipher. Was him marrying Rennala a genuine act of penance and love, or a cynical act of manipulation engineered by Marika to exploit a political and religious rival? Was his abandonment of Rennala and his return to Leyndell an act of stubborn loyalty to his god-queen, or was he metaphysically forced by his other self to do that? He attempted to repair the Elden Ring when Marika tried to destroy it, showing that he at least had the will to defy her at that moment, but then it becomes difficult to say where his will and that of the Elden Beast differ, if they do at all. Depending on your interpretation, Radagon can be a ruthless sociopathic dogmatist, a flawed man who made some major mistakes, or a tragic puppet without agency who has always had his strings pulled by uncaring beings.
• Animal Motifs: He has a small one with hounds. The first time the player is likely to encounter his name is with the Red Wolf of Radagon, a literal dog, and one of Marika's few lines of spoken dialogue refers to him as "leal hound." Despite his marriage to Rennala, he returned to Leyndell the second Marika called him, showing that at the end of the day Radagon was little more than Marika's dog. In a quote on his helmet's description, Radahn also distinguishes himself from his father by claiming that he started as Radagon's son but grew up to become Godfrey's lion, i.e. a cat.
• Anti-Magic: He can dissipate any Sorcery or Incantation thrown at him by striking it with his artificial left arm, similar to the Golden Retaliation skill used by the Tree Sentinels.
• Appearance Angst: Based on the Giant's Red Braid description, Radagon hated his red hair as he attributed it to the giants.
• The Archmage: Radagon has magical prowess sufficient to invent at least one incantation, Radagon's Rings of Light, which requires high ratings in both Intelligence and Faith to use. He is implied to have created the Litany of Proper Death incantation too, as using it produces a glyph identical to the pattern on his Rune (seen on his scarseal/soreseal and all his statues), and you have to take his iconic T-stance to cast it. Further, it is stated that Radagon learned glintstone sorcery during his marriage to Rennala. In his boss fight, he proves to be quite possibly the most potent mage in the game, as he doesn't even need to focus, use complex body motions, or use a Sacred Seal to effortlessly throw out fast, highly damaging Holy blasts with little wind-up. He's so overflowing with power that even when performing unrelated actions like jumping, stomping, slamming his hammer and teleporting (itself a feat only magic users verging on the level of reality warpers can use in the setting), he passively creates large explosions as a side effect, and each burst is significantly more powerful than what most other holy incantation users including the player can cast with dedicated offensive spells. His super move is three powerful blasts chained consecutively that cover nearly the entire arena and throw up dozens of stones with each casting. However, by the time the Tarnished can fight him, it's unclear how much of this power is his own prowess, a recent power-up from the Elden Ring now being housed inside his body, or the Elden Beast puppeteering him from within.
• Badass Bookworm: Radagon is mentioned to have extensively studied Sorceries, before moving on to Golden Order Fundamentalism Incantations, both of which requiring extensive intelligence to learn.
• Barbarian Hero: He led a primitive Barbarian Tribe of warriors who worshipped the Erdtree, and was said to war with everyone near them, which led to him meeting Rennala on the battlefield.
• BFS: His weapon is stated to be the Golden Order Greatsword, but as it was somehow stolen by a Misbegotten from the Consecrated Snowfields, he's forced to make do with Marika's Hammer when the Tarnished confronts him inside the Erdtree.
• Big Bad: The closest character to an overarching antagonist the game has, as he (or perhaps the Elden Beast acting through him as a vessel, it's ambiguous) sealed off the Erdtree, preventing anyone from repairing the Elden Ring, and is thus at least partially at fault for the stasis the Lands Between are placed in. He, alongside the Elden Beast, have to be destroyed to allow a new age to begin. Even then, however, Radagon doesn't even come close to being the most evil character, even assuming his actions were of his own free will.
• Blind Obedience: He's loyal to the Golden Order to a fault, to the point even Marika called him a "leal (loyal) hound".
• Body Horror: His body's been terribly mutilated by the time the Tarnished finds him. His skin is very visibly cracking apart as he moves, and large chunks of his body look like they've simply crumbled away, crudely replaced by a shadowy substance generated from the Elden Ring. His torso, in particular, is so badly damaged that it exposes the inside of his chest cavity, where his organs should be — and they're missing. It gets worse after his defeat, the Elden Beast deforms his corpse into a sword it uses to fight the Tarnished.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution: While the bolts of golden light he sends out aren't actual lightning (like what the Ancient Dragons use), they do very much harken the ancient depiction of lighting as the wrath of a angry god.
• Braids of Barbarism: He wears his hair in a long braid and once lead a barbarian tribe.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Various item and spell descriptions mention Radagon, while his biography and marriage to Rennala and then Marika are discussed by several characters, but his fate during the Shattering is not spoken much, nor is he even mentioned by the demigods. It's suggested he also went missing along with Marika — only for him to be revealed as one half of Queen Marika herself in the Elden Throne.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: He's immune to Bleed, Sleep, Madness, and Deathblight and is highly resistant to Poison and Rot. Also naturally for someone who's the closest to the Golden Order, he's highly resistant to Holy damage.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Humanoid final bosses in past Soulsborne games are often somber fights against an elderly being and with Sad Battle Music playing in the background - in contrast, Radagon, while shattered, retains the appearance of an adult man in peak physical condition and the battle theme is epic and choral, evoking both the power of a living god and that you're extremely close in achieving your goal.
• Closest Thing We Got: With Marika actively rebelling against its control, Radagon appears to be serving as the Elden Ring’s vessel in her stead to keep the damaged Golden Order from fracturing any further.
• The Dragon: He acts as this for the Elden Beast, serving as its last line of defense and to enforce its will.
• Dead All Along: It's strongly implied the Radagon fought in the game's climax is nothing more than his long-dead corpse, animated as a puppet by the Elden Beast.
• Decomposite Character: Of Lord Gwyn. While Marika mirrors Gwyn's divinity and status as ruler of the land, Radagon takes after Gwyn's battle prowess, including Lightning Spear-like bolts of holy power, and fervent belief in the status quo, and like Gwyn attempted to maintain it at any cost; but unlike the Lord of Sunlight, he failed.
• Discard and Draw: According to the Radagon's Icon talisman, he first learned Carian sorcery while married to Rennala, though he cast it aside in favour of the incantations of the Golden Order when he was recalled to rejoin Marika.
• Dub Personality Change: A subtle one that can nonetheless wildly change one's interpretation of Radagon's character: in English, the description of the Golden Order Greatsword almost outright states that the sword is a reforged Dark Moon Greatsword, Rennala's wedding gift to him, to be more in line with his new role as Elden Lord, painting him as callous and apathetic to his past relationship with Rennala at best. However, in Japanese, the wording is ambiguous as to whether the sword is the same one he was given by Rennala or merely resembles the Dark Moon Greatsword; in this case, it can instead be interpreted that he had a new sword made to resemble his past wedding gift as a reminder of the love he was forced to abandon.
• Fantasy Counterpart Myth: As a tall, incredibly muscular, long-haired, redhead warrior god who wields a hammer charged with supernatural lightning and has a strong association with sacred trees and an adversarial relationship with the Giants,^note The Giant's Red Braid item description notes that Radagon despised his hair color for its link to the Fire Giants, and he likely faced lesser giants/Trolls (who Rennala refers to as "oathsworn giants" in her boss fight) in battle during the Liurnian Wars. he's a solid one to Thor, keeping with the game's Norse elements. He can also throw lightning bolts with his offhand and is the lover of a golden-haired goddess associated with the earth, with whom he fathered several children, including a valkyrie said to bear a strong resemblance to him. Even the fact the Tarnished first encounters him in female form could be a stealthy reference to The Lay of Thrym, where Thor disguises himself as Freyja. His design seems heavily inspired by the Record of Ragnarok version in particular, being a clean-shaven and oft-shirtless Long-Haired Pretty Boy with golden eyes and black sclera (as seen on his portraits).
• Fan Disservice: A Female Gaze version. His statues depict a very handsome Walking Shirtless Scene of a man, but when he appears in person, his body is quite literally broken and barely held together by the Elden Beast. The sex appeal of toned muscles is kinda diminished when they've crumbled away to nearly nothing.
• Fiery Redhead: A truly ferocious warrior who sports a long mane of red hair. Interestingly, it's implied to be connected to some sort of "curse" left by the decimated Fire Giants and Radagon himself hated his red hair.
• The Fundamentalist: Radagon very closely studies a school of Incantations called Golden Order Fundamentalism. They require high amounts of Faith and Intelligence to cast and focuses on expanding one's comprehension of the Order's nature and how to bend it to your will; Radagon might have advanced Fundamentalism using the sorcery prowess he acquired while married to Rennala.
• Fusion Dance: At some point before, or just as Marika attempted to Shatter the Elden Ring, Radagon fused his body with hers, effectively becoming "a single god" as they both attempt to shatter and repair the Elden Ring, respectively.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: He's a powerful mage in the final battle, but all his spells are yellow-gold pure Faith spells; he doesn't use INT-based glintstone sorceries or INT/Faith hybrid Golden Order Fundamentalist incantations (indicated by their white-gold color) despite canonically knowing them. Fitting, as you can see on his broken character model that he literally lacks a brain.
• Go Seduce My Archnemesis: Radagon's marriage to Rennala may have been a scheme by Queen Marika and/or the Greater Will to destabilize the Carian royalty from within while stealing their sorcery knowledge for themselves.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: While he wields a hammer in his boss fight, the hammer is distinguished as belonging to Marika, and his actual weapon was the Golden Order Greatsword found in the hands of the Misbegotten Crusader.
• Hero of Another Story: While being the second Elden Lord in of itself implies quite the adventurous life, the game gives hints to his life before gaining that position: from his connection to the Giants, to the war campaign he waged against Caria, Radagon certainly wasn't idle.
• Hidden Depths: One might be tempted to think of Radagon as a religious fanatic given him prosecuting the wars against Liurnia and swearing his life to the Order, but he's quite the opposite. As a Fundamentalist he was essentially a rationalist and a physicist in an otherwise mystical setting: Fundamentalists are stated to study mathematics and natural laws in their version of the faith, and as shown by the Pulley Bow and Pulley Crossbow, their mathematics skills are directly transferable to conventional mechanical engineering (unlike the "Intelligence" based sorceries of Raya Lucaria, the skills of which are apparently useless for anything outside of drawing on the power of glintstone). His marriage of Rennala resulted in Carian practices being integrated into the Order rather than stamped out, and he made a point to study and learn their ways (his portrait in the Roundtable Hold even has him wearing the robes and crown of a Carian king). Per the Ritual Sword Talisman, he also closed down the colosseums where gladiators killed each other in ritual combat to honor the Erdtree, apparently finding bloodsport and human sacrifice distasteful (notably, his son Radahn brought the practice back in his own territory after Radagon went missing - presumably due his own admiration for Godfrey and explicitly characterizing himself as having grown past Radagon and into Godfrey's successor). It's implied he came into existence around the time that Marika declared her intent to study the depths of the Order rather than go with blind faith. The 1.0 version of the game also states outright that Radagon supported Miquella and his attempts to revise the Order through Unalloyed Gold and its ultimate expression (the Haligtree), sending Carian Knights to defend it.
• Hollywood Genetics: Interestingly, two of his children are redheads (which is possible, if slightly unlikely since his former wife was a brunette), while the third, Rykard, was a blonde, implying that Radagon can somehow pass on Marika's traits to his children.
• Huge Girl, Tiny Guy: Radagon is heavily built and measures in at 9'8, but Rennala is noticeably taller than him because she's about 10'6 even without her very tall crown.◊^note Rennala is 3.2 meters tall at mm = m scale.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Radagon is barely holding himself together after the backlash of the Elden Ring's destruction, but the remains of a surprisingly◊ fair-faced man are evident beneath all the fracturing.
• Legendary Weapon:
  • The Golden Order Greatsword is one of the nine legendary armaments scattered throughout the Lands Between. It is said to have been crafted by Radagon via light as his way of memorizing the teachings of the Golden Order. That said, he doesn't wield the sword, having been lost and picked up by a Misbegotten Crusader that must be fought in the Cave of the Forlorn if the Tarnished desires to retrieve it. True to the nature and classification of the weapon, it boasts good strength and holy stats.
  • While not classified as a legendary armament, Marika's Hammer can count, given its historical importance to the Shattering and Radagon using said hammer both in a vain attempt to repair the Elden Ring as well as weaponizing it against the Tarnished when they finally come on the cusp of becoming Elden Lord. In addition to having good stats on strength and holy attributes, it also boasts a powerful AoE attack in a weapon skill called Gold Breaker.
• Logical Weakness: Being the champion of the Golden Order, and thus the Erdtree, fire is the only attribute he has zero resistance in, especially the black flames of the Godskin Cultists incantations. He is, however, completely immune to Hemorrhage, because his body is made up of stone and black smoke; he has no blood to spill.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Downplayed somewhat, as Radagon is still a gigantic demigod with (literally) sculpted muscles, but his overall figure is relatively thin and his long straight hair and clean shaven face contrast greatly with Marika's previous husband Godfrey, who is much more traditionally masculine in looks and figure. Paintings of him, such as the one in the Roundtable Hold, can cause people to mistake him for a particularly masculine woman. Of course, as he's Marika's 'other self', this vague androgyny may be more than coincidental.
• Magic Knight: Originally, Radagon seemed to be a purely physical fighter; the Radagon Icon noted that he only studied sorceries and incantations after he married Rennala and Marika respectively, both events happening well after he'd earned all of his battlefield glory in the Liurnian Wars, and his associated talismans only boost physical skills. But since he aspired to "become complete", he eventually became very good at magic too. In his boss battle he makes use of scintillating bolts and waves of golden light along powerful hammer strikes in seemless tandem. This is actually one of the indications implying Radagon is no longer totally himself, as these bolts don't look anything like the spells of the Golden Order Fundamentalism school he was known to use and more closely resemble the projectiles used by the Elden Beast.
• Metallic Motifs: Sulphur, also part of his Mythical Motifs.
• Mythical Motifs: The alchemical Red King, in contrast to Queen Marika as the White Queen. Represents sulfur, volatility, and masculinity. Though an ironic one; Radagon may be a warrior but his artifact is a sewing needle, he married Rennala to end a war and is the one who's trying to repair the Golden Order's Elden Ring.
• Mysterious Past: Despite being the Second Elden Lord and a well known figure in the Lands Between, no one really seems to know much about him. As Miriel describes it he just popped out of nowhere one day leading a Golden Order army before marrying Rennala and later Marika. The fact he is Marika and no record of him exists before this point (which was well into Marika's rule) implies that "he" didn't exist until Marika decided to create his persona.
• The Paladin: The purest example of a paladin-like character in the entire game, as a holy warrior with great loyalty towards the very concept of Order. Even without his personal armament, the light-based Golden Order Greatsword, his combat style still evokes the imagery of a paladin, with heavy hammer strikes mixed in with powerful holy spells.
• Parental Abandonment: Radagon divorced his first wife, Rennala, and left her to join Marika, contributing to Rennala's descent into insanity. It's implied this had an impact on the three children he had with Rennala, as Ranni is close to her birth mother and stepmother but doesn't mention her birth father, Radahn idolizes someone else over his birth father despite Radagon being a warrior as well, and Rykard hates the Golden Order Fundamentalism that Radagon abandoned his mother over.
• Physical God: Due to essentially becoming the emergency vessel for the Elden Ring, he ascended to godhood to equal Marika - although with diminished powers due to the Elden Ring itself missing a lot of Great Runes.
• Power Echoes: What few battle voiceclips he has have a reverberating echo meant to amplify his current state, for better or worse.
• Pre-Final Boss: Radagon is the first part of the game's final boss fight, confronting you inside the Erdtree. Upon his defeat, he is immediately followed by the Final Boss, the Elden Beast, with no checkpoints or chances to recover your strength.
• Real Men Wear Pink: As revealed by the Gold Sewing Needle's description, Radagon was a tailor in addition to being a warrior.
• The Red Mage: By this game's standards, anyway; he may not make actual use of healing techniques, but his magic is perfectly split between Incantations and Sorcery, and he's a proficient wielder of hammers. This is in large part why he is a difficult opponent; previous bosses generally kept to a certain theme or 'build' that overall focused somewhat either in melee or magical might, meaning that while Mohg, for example, could use his massive weapon to harm his foes, he'd typically stick to Blood Incantations. The battle with Radagon, meanwhile, changes drastically on how the player approaches him, as he'll almost entirely keep to spellcasting if the player assaults him with magic or arrows from mid-to-long range, and will focus entirely on melee might if the player tries to lock him down with physical strikes. As a proficient user in both methods of combat, he can hardly be considered a pushover no matter how he's tackled.
• Reforged Blade: His Golden Order Greatsword, which he forged once he became Marika's second King Consort and the second Elden Lord, was originally the Full Moon Greatsword that Rennala bequeathed him when they got married.
• Rule of Symbolism: As described under Undying Loyalty below, Radagon was loyal to the Golden Order to a massive fault. When he falls at the hands of the Tarnished, his body is taken by the Elden Beast and reforged as the hilt of the sword it wields (shown by the visible lower body as the handle and his ribcage/arms as the guard). Even beyond his actual lifespan, Radagon is nothing more than a tool.^note In both the metaphorical sense as someone who's being used for the ends of others, and literally as a tool of destruction.
• Scarred Equipment: Marika's Hammer was severely damaged during her attempt to shatter the Elden Ring, with fragments of the Ring itself having been embedded into the hammer's cracks.
• Schmuck Bait: Like many bosses, Radagon can be parried, but don't be fooled, not only does it take 3 parries to break his stance for a critical attack, Radagon will immediately attempt to grab you if the parry didn't open him up.
• Sculpted Physique: His and Marika's body looks as if it were sculpted from stone, even shattering like a statue when wounded. It's not clear if they always looked that way or if it's a side-effect of the shattering of the Elden Ring.
• Sharing a Body: It's not clear why. But prior to his boss fight, Queen Marika's fractured body becomes Radagon's — reshaping itself into a masculine physique, her blonde hair turning red, and dark essence with golden runes filling the cracks and missing pieces.
• Shockwave Stomp: One of his most basic moves is to stomp on the player. After losing a quarter of his health, this stomp will be accompanied by a large blast of Holy energy.
• Spell Blade: His hammer is constantly wreathed with golden light, which allows its attack range to change depending on how much light is being channeled into it.
• Sketchy Successor: Radagon certainly expanded Marika's kingdom and advanced the teachings of the Golden Order, but Godfrey simply achieved far more during his reign. As consort, Godfrey is implied to be a knowing participant in Marika's plan to shatter the Elden Ring; she gave no such knowledge to Radagon, leading to him to try fixing the shattered Elden Ring, and, by barring entrance into the heart of the Erdtree, he is the reason the entire kingdom must fall through the Erdtree's burning.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He looks exactly like a male version of his daughter Malenia, with very similar heights, builds, hair, and facial features.
• Took a Level in Badass: From (supposedly) a humble Leyndell knight like any other, to a powerful sorcerer taught by Queen Renalla herself, to the divinely empowered second Elden Lord and master of Golden Order Fundamentalism. And after the Shattering and his mysterious fusion with Marika, he’s seemingly usurped what’s left of her godly power (in one spoken echo, she mocks him for being "yet to become me, yet to become a god" on the eve of the Shattering) and her position as vessel of the Elden Ring, though whether the latter was done by his own will or forced on him by the Elden Beast is vague.
• Truly Single Parent: If Marika and Radagon have always been a single entity, then he’s this to Miquella and Malenia.
• Undying Loyalty: A negative version. He married Queen Rennala, sired three children with her, then straight-up abandons his wife without a second thought when Marika recalls him to join her. He even discards the magic he learned from Rennala in favor of Golden Order Fundamentalism, and reforges the Carian sword he received as a wedding gift into a weapon more befitting of his station as Elden Lord. The reveal that he's Marika's male half does nothing to justify his loyalty to her and her empire as his actions not only directly contributed to Rennala's fall into despairing insanity, but also irreparably damaged his relationships with his three children, who speak little to nil about him; in Radahn's case, he admires and looks up to Godfrey, who isn't even related to him or his siblings, over his birth father. When he returns and either merges/rejoins with Marika, his loyalty to the Golden Order is so strong that when Marika shattered the Elden Ring, he not only tried to remake it, but actively barred the way to it, and himself/Marika, which made things worse. He's such a loyal follower of the Golden Order that the world itself falling into ruin seems to mean nothing to him.
• Uncertain Doom: It's already vague if his "other self" Marika survives past the Elden Beast's defeat, but it's even less clear if what the Tarnished fights beforehand even is Radagon anymore. He's completely mute, makes no use of any of the Golden Order Fundamentalism Incantations he’s famous for (implying he's lost the faculty to do so), and while he does seem to groan and reach out to something as he's killed, the shadowy smoke holding his body together flows out and turns into the Elden Beast, implying it might have subjected him to a Death of Personality and is now controlling his body from within. Melina refers to the person blocking the Erdtree's entrance (Radagon, as his seal is on the roots) as "a husk of the Erdtree's being", essentially confirming this.
• Undying Loyalty: To the Golden Order, to the point where it's his boss title. He left his wife Rennala when the Order (i.e. Marika) commanded him, she calls him a "leal hound" (Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe for "loyal dog") of the Golden Order, and his seal blocks anyone from replacing the Golden Order... and fixing the Elden Ring, but details.
• The Un-Favourite: An Inverted Trope. None of his children from Rennala seem to think too highly of him, probably due to the circumstances of his divorce with their mother, Queen Rennala. While Radahn does respect him (the name of the Redmane Knights and his red plumed helmet are out of respect for Radagon), Radahn idolizes Godfrey more; Ranni is very close with Rennala but has nothing to say, positive or negative, about her father. Rykard's opinion of Radagon as an individual is more obscure, but he clearly thinks little of the Golden Order Radagon dedicated himself to.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: Well, enemy-exclusive spells, but he's notably one of the few magical-focused bosses who has several spells you just cannot use either through spell scrolls or weapon abilities. These include:
  • A holy-version of Lightning Bolt that sticks to the ground and explodes.
  • A point-blank shotgun blast of holy bolts (essentially a holy version of Crystal Burst)
  • A spell that has him stab the ground with a holy spear, creating a lingering circular area that deals damage if you step in it.
• The Voiceless: Unlike every other demigod boss, who usually proudly introduces themselves to the player before giving them a beatdown, Radagon doesn't speak a word, just like Marika. It's implied this is because he's practically long dead, and the Radagon we see is simply a zombified corpse being puppetted by the Elden Beast/Greater Will.
• Walking Spoiler: Not so much for his existence as much as it is for what happened to him after the Shattering. Additionally, his Ambiguous Situation involving his status as Queen Marika's half casts a large shadow on the truth behind the Shattering.
• Warrior vs. Sorcerer: Radagon is the warrior to Marika's sorcerer. His soreseal boosts vigor, endurance, strength, and dexterity, while Marika's boosts mind, intelligence, faith, and arcane. While Marika was much more powerful than him regardless of their specialties due to being the bearer of the Elden Ring while he was not before the Shattering, it should be noted that when the Elden Ring (in the form of the Beast) had a choice about which one to possess for straight physical combat with the Tarnished, it chooses Radagon's masculine body over Marika's feminine one.
• Worf Had the Flu: Though Radagon's body being fused with his god-half Marika and infused with the Elden Ring (the same one the Elden Beast pops out of when he dies) would logically make him more powerful than he ever was before, the fact the Elden Ring itself has been Shattered long ago means he still isn't as powerful as he would have been if the Ring was intact; his body is literally breaking apart as a visual reminder of this. In addition, the fact he is not using any known incantation he is supposed to be a master of (Golden Order and possibly also Erdtree incantations) suggests Radagon might not be all there, if he is even alive at all.

The Greater Will (Unmarked Spoilers)

The Erdtree, seat of its power

The Greater Will is an abstract, divine entity of great power responsible for the creation of the Elden Ring and the Golden Order of the Erdtree. It elevated Queen Marika to godhood, while sending the Two Fingers as emissaries of its will.

Due to the mysterious and confusing nature of the Greater Will that ties into the greater lore, all spoilers are unmarked.

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• Above the Gods: How the Golden Order views the Greater Will. Queen Marika is the one true God that the faith recognizes, but there is little doubt that the Greater Will is perceived as being superior to her, and by extension the Outer Gods, insofar as they were recognized at all. Given the state of things in the Lands Between and the VERY real danger that the Outer Gods pose to the Golden Order, this is probably an exaggeration.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Has the Greater Will truly abandoned the world, or not? The narrator of the trailers and several characters in the game definitely seems to think so, but the Two Fingers, explicit messengers of the Greater Will, specify that it has not forsaken the world, just the wicked demigods who took part in the Shattering. By the time the player reaches the Erdtree, it becomes obvious that the Two Fingers are not as omniscient as they seem, and their line of contact with the Greater Will isn't as direct as it first appeared. The Elden Beast, the highest-ranked vassal of the Greater Will, also seems to act in a way that goes against the actions of the Two Fingers by closing the way to the Erdtree, leaving it ambiguous if they're both acting individually by doing what they think the Greater Will wants, or if the Elden Beast is the one fulfilling the true wishes of their god. Even by the end of the game, it's left unknown how much influence the Greater Will still has on the world. Out-of-universe sources have confirmed that the Guidance of Grace does come from it, yet the game itself heavily implies that it's Marika who controls it, but why and how and whether it is intentional remain genuine questions, given how it closed off the Erdtree that said Guidance leads to.
  • Furthermore, what exactly is the Greater Will? Some fans assume it's an Outer God, but no item description or dialogue has ever called it that, or even called the Greater Will a god in the first place. In fact, its own adherents deny its godhood, with Corhyn saying that "the Golden Order is founded on the principle that Marika is the one true god." If anything, it could be that outer gods are outer specifically because they're not the Greater Will (Miquella wards off their meddling with Unalloyed Gold, which via color association would logically be pure Greater Will influence). Hyetta also says that the Greater Will is the creator of all life in the Lands Between. Given that Hyetta is speaking on behalf of the Greater Will's main enemy she's probably telling the truth as it would be strange for her to say a lie that makes the Greater Will look better. It might just be that the Greater Will is more of a cosmic force. However, the official strategy guide hints it is indeed an Outer God but doesn't confirm it outright. It certainly is a similar entity at the very least.
  • How much influence does it even still have? Given the revelation that Marika is currently trapped within the base of the tree and that she was (ostensibly) the executor of its will, did it deliberately abandon the Lands Between, or did it simply lose control of its primary method of communication?
  • It's implied that before choosing Marika, in the age before the Erdtree as we knew it, the Ancient Dragons were the Greater Will's preferred race and that Dragonlord Placidusax was the lord of that age. The Dragons are associated with Gold by the Golden Order (which is why the cult of dragons is accepted for them), and most importantly Dragonlord Placidusax is explicitly called a past Elden Lord, a title only given to the consorts of the vessel-god chosen by the Greater Will; none of the chosen champions of the Outer Gods are called Elden Lords, and they have other titles such as Lord of Blood for the Formless Mother and Lord of Chaos for the Frenzied Flame. Though if this is the case, it raises even more questions: why did it abandon the Dragons? Placidusax is explicitly stated to still be waiting for the deity he served to this day, and his meditating pose is similar to that of the Two Fingers when attempting to communicate with the Greater Will, so it seems unlikely it was due to a betrayal. Moreover, was the Greater Will choosing a Numen (and humans as a whole) as its new preferred race the reason why the Dragons attacked Leyndell? Adding to the confusion is the fact that while the Greater Will's gold is associated with life and permanence, Placidusax's golden scales (and Miquella's Unalloyed Gold, which is related) instead hold power over the fabric of time itself, indicating a similar, yet fundamentally different source of power.
  • Did it truly forsake the Lands Between, or did it allow the Elden Ring to be broken as a kind of mass Secret Test of Character, hoping that the Tarnished would make the right choice and restore order and peace to the Lands Between?
• Ambiguously Evil: The Greater Will is generally associated with benevolent and positive aspects like light, life, and healing, but the Golden Order that it is ultimately the highest authority was an oppressive and warmongering regime. The Greater Will is indicated to be fairly hands-off when it came to actually ruling the Lands Between but did have the power to punish Marika for defying its will, as shown when she shattered the Elden Ring. So, how culpable is the Greater Will in the various less-than-savory actions and policies of the Golden Order? With how little we know about the relationship between Marika and the Greater Will, it's as plausible that the Greater Will ordered Marika into carrying out such deeds as it is Marika did them of her own volition while the Greater Will disapproved or didn't notice or care.
• Berserk Button: Trying to harm it or its vassals seems to be the only thing that truly pisses the Greater Will off: the Nox were explicitly stated to have brought the ire of the Greater Will due to wanting to harm it and its fingers and banished them underground, possibly even sent them the Naturalborn of the Void at a later time, which is the only time the Greater Will is stated to have involved itself in the world's affairs directly. And when Marika destroyed the Elden Ring and harmed the Elden Beast, its prime servant, the Greater Will completely cut off ties with the Lands Between.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Implied, as despite being associated with things like healing and the curing of sickness, there's nothing to indicate that the Greater Will has any antagonistic relationship with the Scarlet Rot. In general, it's clear that while the Will's moral priorities are broadly and vaguely compatible with the continued existence of humanity, they're otherwise so alien that this seems more like a pleasant coincidence than anything else. The Three Fingers also claim that it created individuality and life, and while the Golden Order is based around Marika as the one true god, it seemingly has no objection to her creating an oppressive and war-mongering empire with the power it granted her. Though, that might just be Might Makes Right.
• Body Motifs: Fingers. Its messengers are creatures that resemble two fingers; Dragonlord Placidusax, a past Elden Lord, takes the shape of two fingers outstretched when meditating (and previously had five heads); the interpreters of the Two Fingers are called finger readers, the women chosen to accompany the Tarnished are called finger maidens, and so on. It notably shares this motif with the Frenzied Flame with its Three Fingers herald and also having a finger reader/maiden in the form of Hyetta, implying a deeper connection between the two compared to other Outer Gods.
• The Chooser of the One: Through the Two Fingers as its heralds, the Greater Will is responsible for choosing Empyreans — candidates of individuals who may bear the Elden Ring and thus, become an extension of its will. Prior to the Shattering, it had chosen Miquella, Malenia, and Ranni, among Marika's Godkin to succeed Marika. Various texts also claim prior to Marika being chosen (prior to the Age of the Erdtree), it has been choosing Empyreans for untold ages ever since it first sent the Elden Star to the Lands Between.
• Color Motif: Gold. The Elden Ring and its Great Runes are all glowing bright golden, and the Erdtree is a giant tree that radiates with the gold essence of Grace. The Greater Will is also heavily associated with a bright light which gold tends to reflect, invoking White and Gold are Divine.
• Cosmic Entity: Even more so than the other Outer Gods, who at least inhabit the Lands Between in some form; meanwhile, the Greater Will is implied to be cosmically distant from the Lands Between, enough so that establishing communications between it and its Finger vassals can take hundreds of years. The only being that comes nearly as close is the Dark Moon, which, if it is the literal moon seen at some points during the game, would still make it significantly closer to the world than the Greater Will. Its power is closely associated with the cosmos, with the Elden Ring it created capable of manipulating the stars themselves, and its vassal Elden Beast looks like a living galactic supercluster.
• Cosmic Motifs: Stars — not the meteors which the inhabitants of Lands Between also oftentimes refer to as stars, but actual stars which make up star clusters and galaxies as modern science defines it. The Elden Ring is said to be powered by the very stars, and can even dictate their positions in the vast universe. And the Elden Beast has the same motifs in spades, emphasizing its status as its servant.
• Demiurge Archetype: Some of the entities in the game (such as Deathbirds and Ancestor Spirits) are able to influence the concepts of life and death in a similar way that the Erbtree do, but are claimed to exist outside of its realm and even predate the Erdtree. This suggests that the Greater Will is simply supplanting the natural cycles of the world in order to control everything in the Lands Between, which would explain why "in the beginning, everything was in opposition to the Erdtree". That said, the Frenzy Flame also claims that the Greater Will created all life and individuality, and since it also considers it an error that must be corrected, it is unlikely to be lying.
• Eldritch Abomination: It could be an Outer God, but the game never outright says so. It's never called a god; the Golden Order is based on worshipping Marika and the Greater Will is only acknowledged as an abstract force which bestowed the Elden Ring. However, there are strong signs pointing out to it being an Outer God, namely the fact it is served by lesser Eldritch Abominations (the Two Fingers and Elden Beast, the latter of which is explicitly called a god), and the fact it sent both the Elden Ring and the Elden Beast as a meteor (showing a connection to outer space) to the Lands Between in the distant past. Assuming it is indeed an Outer God, it's one of the less malevolent ones. The official strategy guide hints it is an Outer God but doesn't confirm it outright.
• Fantasy Aliens: It came from somewhere outside the Lands Between. The official strategy guide lists it in the same section as the Outer Gods but whether or not it is one is unclear.
• Fertility God: The Greater Will can be considered an extremely abstract version of a fertility god. Its main association comes with a gigantic, golden tree, and its dominion over 'gold' is associated with life and healing to the point that various plants of the Lands Between use the Erdtree to grow and sustain themselves, and the healing flasks that the Tarnished uses are infused with the Erdtree's restorative sap. According to its nemesis the Frenzied Flame, it actually created individual life in the first place by shattering the mysterious One Great.
• God: Albeit not quite the Abrahamic variant, the Greater Will is the only entity in-setting that even approaches the capital-G variant. Its ostensibly peerless status, strong association with order, its White-And-Gold motif, its lacking a proper name, and its employment of the "angelic" fingers certainly echoes the image.
• God of Order: The Greater Will is the true source of the Golden Order and its laws that govern reality itself, structuring the world into a rigid hierarchy of its vessel-god Marika, demigods, nobility, normal humans, and underneath them all those 'spurned by grace' like the Omens and Tarnished. Being an abstract entity beyond human understanding, the Order of the Greater Will can be seen as strange, tyrannical, or even flawed, which causes Goldmask, a saint of the Golden Order, to attempt to fix the Order so that the fickle gods no longer hold power.
• God Is Flawed: The Golden Order established by the Greater Will is suggested to be seriously flawed; the Goldmask deduces that it has been rendered "unstable" by the fickleness of gods and should not be followed with blind faith. This sentiment is shared by, of all people, Marika herself, who speaks in her echoes against the dangers of following the Golden Order without question, which is likely what eventually led to her decision to shatter the Elden Ring. This can be fixed and restore the Golden Order to its "ideal" state by going for the Age of Order ending, but it's ambiguous whether the Greater Will approves of this intervention or if it does not recognize the Golden Order's flaws and the various obstacles the player faces near the endgame are its way of trying to preserve the existing Order at all costs.
• God Is Neutral: With a hint of Blue-and-Orange Morality; ultimately, the Greater Will seems just interested in spreading the concept of light and life across the cosmos regardless of what forms they take and is very hands-off when it comes to controlling the world(s?) it has seeded, mostly sending vassals like the Two Fingers to act as messengers. One interpretation why it abandons the Lands Between after the Shattering starts and does nothing to end the conflict is because it might just genuinely not care, and the Lands Between are ultimately just a small insignificant world in a vast cosmos.
• The Ghost: The Greater Will's existence is never even remotely debated in-universe, but it never makes a direct appearance, fittingly for its godly status. Though it might have also straight-up abandoned the Lands Between — and the world at large — out of disgust for Marika and her children's behavior.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: Various descriptions, particularly one about the Elden Star, posits the Greater Will as the one who sent a star which would become the Elden Ring to Lands Between. It also elevated Marika into godhood as the Ring's bearer and through both her and her Godkin, it effectively established the Age of the Erdtree, which prior to the Shattering was said to be a golden age to the Lands Between.
• Have You Seen My God?: The opening narration states that the Greater Will has abandoned the Lands Between following the Shattering, but the Twin Fingers claim that, while disappointed, it is willing to help repair the damage, albeit from a distance. Double Subverted when it becomes clear that this was, at best, wishful thinking on part of the Fingers, as the Erdtree is rejecting all would-be Elden Lords and the Greater Will has indeed gone silent.
• Horrible Judge of Character: The three most recent individuals chosen by the Greater Will as Empyreans and thus potential heirs to Marika as it's main servant in the world namely Miquella, Malenia and Ranni have all rejected the Greater Will. All three have also ended up as central figures in the doings of Outer Gods (albeit unwillingly in Miquella and Malenia's case). Also, while it took a while, Marika also turned on the Greater Will.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Or at least, a lighter shade of blue. The Greater Will is without a doubt the most positive to humanity of all the Outer Gods, with the only possible exclusion of the Dark Moon mostly due to lack of information, and its domains revolve around concepts that are seen as mostly positive like life and order, while other Outer Gods have mostly negative domains like chaos, death, disease and bloodshed. Even then, the Greater Will established its influence through countless wars and genocides, and the society it sponsored to create was brutally dogmatic and cruel to those 'without grace' (though those dogmas are mainly implied to have been Marika's ideas).
• Light Is Good: The Greater Will and everything associated with it; the Erdtree, the Two Fingers, the Golden Order, and Marika herself, are associated with light and the in-game Holy element, and most of the inhabitants of the Lands Between certainly believe the Greater Will to be a benevolent entity. Its ultimate abandonment of the world during the Shattering throws some doubts into that belief. That being said, the Greater Will is shown to not have a particularly corrupting or destructive influence on the world and its people — unlike the far more malevolent Outer Gods — and human civilization can grow and thrive in relative freedom under its rule. It seems to just care about begetting Life and Order without particularly caring what form those concepts take.
• The Maker: It's credited with the creation of life and souls in the Lands Between, and potentially the cosmos as a whole; though according to the Three Fingers and the Frenzied Flame, this creation was not from nothing and was done by fracturing the 'One Great' which contained "all that there is".
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Not the Greater Will itself (though it likely also applies), but its Erdtree: even its vines and thorns are completely impossible for even the strongest mortal weapons to cut through, and it takes the power of the flame of the Fell God and the rune of death (aka. destined death), to burn it enough to open a way inside, and then using the Flame of Frenzied to destroy it completely.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: It's heavily implied to have abandoned the Lands Between to its fate after Marika destroyed the Elden Ring and triggered the Shattering.
• Sentient Cosmic Force: Described as something along these lines by both the Two Fingers and Ranni.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Never shows up, has no dialogue, and is only mentioned by a handful of characters and item descriptions - despite this, the Greater Will is one of the most important beings in the universe of the game, due to being the creator of all life and the Elden Ring, the one who chose Marika and sits above her in the celestial hierarchy, and its lack of presence is what allows beings like the Outer Gods to start affecting the Lands Between in a struggle for power.
• Time Abyss: It has existed for a long, long time, having possibly created all known life at the dawn of everything and subsequently sent the Elden Ring, which passed hands several times (one of them being Dragonlord Placidusax, himself an impossibly ancient entity) before eventually reaching Marika. Concrete timeframes are never given, but considering the abundance of ancient civilizations in the Lands Between, and that the Greater Will is older than all of them, should put things into perspective.
• There Is Another: If the Greater Will is indeed an Outer God, it has any number of equals in the cosmos — it's just the one who’s held the most sway the longest in this one particular world, and even then it by no means has complete control over the world.
• Token Heroic Orc: For a given definition of 'heroic', but it's this to the Outer Gods, assuming it even is one. While labelling the other Outer Gods as 'evil' might be a bit of a misnomer, they nonetheless tend to have rather deleterious effects on humanity and life in general (the Scarlet Rot subjects creatures to a Fate Worse than Death, the Frenzied Flame is an Omnicidal Maniac, the Formless Mother revels in pain and suffering). The Fell God, while not as Obviously Evil as the previous entries, is still shown to be very dangerous, and if the Fire Giants enmity with the Dragons and the people of Zamor is anything to go by, may have been genuinely malevolent to a certain degree. Even the Dark Moon is shown to be potentially very dangerous, as it's the origin of the StarSpawn, it's glintstones can turn people to rock through prolonged exposure, and those who try and perceive its true nature tend to be utterly ruined in both mind and body. The Greater Will, by contrast, doesn't seem to have any overtly negative effects associated with it, quite the opposite, most of the spells and items associated tend to be associated with positive concepts such as healing, the curing of ailments, and defense. Even the few offensive ones associated with it being geared towards dealing with beings like the Undead, and don't tend to have the sort of often painful and debilitating status effects associated with many other forms of magic.
• Top God: Of the God of Gods variety. While Marika might be the terrestrial Top God of the Golden Order, the Greater Will is the actual top of the chain. It's implied to be this even compared to the similarly eldritch and powerful Outer Gods even if through sheer feats alone: it created life and individuality, created the Elden Ring that can control the very laws of the world, and is the master of several minor gods like Marika herself, the Fingers, and the Elden Beast - it's implied that it cutting ties with the Lands Between is the reason why the Outer Gods (or at least the Scarlet Rot, Frenzied Flame and Formless Mother) spread their influence in the Shattering significantly, all vying to create their own gods and lords to supplant the Greater Will's order and fill the power vacuum that was created by it leaving.
• World Tree: Another motif which is associated with the Greater Will. The Erdtree with which Marika imposes her will and Golden Order symbolizes its claim of dominion over the Lands Between. Additionally, despite its heavy Cosmic Motifs, the Elden Beast also has a clear tree-like silhouette. The Greater Will's tree-like nature might be why it is utterly incompatible with Outer Gods associated with flames, as trees and fire don’t coexist.

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