Characters / Elden Ring: Malenia

Elden Ring Main Character Index
Main Characters (The Tarnished | Marika) | Roundtable Hold | Secondary Characters (Renowned Ashes) | Outer Gods | Demigods (Godfrey | Morgott | Mohg | Radahn | Rykard | Ranni the Witch | Malenia) | Enemies and Bosses (Dragons | Liurnia of the Lakes | Recurring Enemies and Bosses | Tarnished Invaders and Targets)

Malenia, Blade of Miquella

^{Click here to see her as "the Goddess of Rot"}

"I dreamt for so long... My flesh was dull gold... and my blood, rotted. Corpse after corpse, left in my wake. As I awaited his return."

Voiced by: Pippa Bennett-Warner

"...Heed my words. I am Malenia. Blade of Miquella. And I have never known defeat."

Also known as Malenia the Severed and the Goddess of Rot. One of Marika's children through Radagon and twin sister/bodyguard to Miquella. Along with her rival Radahn, she's famous across the Lands Between as one of the Golden Order's greatest warriors.

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A-G

• Achilles' Heel: Normally Malenia's Waterfowl Dance is an unstoppable death sentence barring a very precarious string of dodges or weapon art uses from mid-to-long range. Her using it at close range all but guarantees at least some damage... save for the fact her resistance to frostbite is extraordinarily low, such that even a single Freezing Pot at base stats will stagger her out of the startup of the attack even when conventional attacks can't. The minimal requirments to make such pots are also easily gathered in the southern forest of the Consecrated Snowfield, meaning running out of them is only a minor concern.
• Action Girl: Malenia is a deadly woman in combat who, according to her own words, has never known defeat in battle and will give the Tarnished a severely rough time with her swordsmanship and powers. Along with her brother Radahn, she is the most powerful and skilled fighter of Marika’s children, relying incredibly little on the powers of the Scarlet Rot.
• Advertised Extra: She's prominently featured in the marketing and receives a lot of references and hype throughout the game. Yet not only is encountering her in-person completely optional, said encounter ultimately amounts to one boss fight and less than a dozen lines. Contrast Morgott/Margit and Ranni.
• Amazonian Beauty: She's over eight feet tall (2.56 meters counting her helmet◊), has long red hair and classically attractive facial features, and her Full-Frontal Assault makes it clear that she has the sort of athletic good looks you'd expect of a preeminent Lady of War: long muscular legs, thick thighs, a flat toned stomach, and powerful shoulders paired with wide hips. She surely looked a lot better before most of her body got either covered in rotted skin or flat-out amputated, though.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Why did she invade Caelid and fight Radahn? The most obvious explanation would be that she was trying to claim his Great Rune, but if that was the case, it's extremely counterintuitive for her to do so. To even reach Caelid, she would have needed to cross the entire continent, and if her goal was to claim Great Runes, she would have had much easier targets along the way: namely, Queen Rennala, who has been rendered nearly helpless by her mental breakdown after Radagon left her; and Godrick, a cowardly upstart with a crumbling army whom she has unambiguously bested in combat before. Both are still in possession of their Runes, and there's no indication Malenia even touched Rennala's forces on their march. Her known motivations also give no indication that she desires power for herself. An alternate theory is that she undertook her campaign to rescue Miquella, which opens up its own can of worms. There's also a theory that she went to Caelid specifically to kill Radahn, as he was arresting the movement of the stars. Miquella was apparently trying to complete a ritual to revive Godwyn which required the moon to eclipse the sun, and if Radahn was arresting the movement of the stars, said ritual would never be completed. This would explain Malenia's seemingly spiteful final act of unleashing the Scarlet Rot on Caelid as a desperate move to finish him off, after impaling him "only" seemed to wound and paralyze instead of kill him.
  Castle Sol Ghost: Lord Miquella, I still cannot make pilgrimage to the Haligtree. Our glorious sun remains held in thrall.^note As established on the Eclipse Crest Greatshield, the sun is considered a star in Elden Ring - and is what wards off Destined Death.
  • The timeline of Miquella's abduction is extremely opaque. The obvious assumption would be that Mohg opportunistically kidnapped him while Malenia was away campaigning with the Haligtree's best forces, but a wrench is thrown into this by the fact that Mohg's fortress is located right beneath Caelid. Did she know roughly where he was, and assume that Radahn had taken him? Was she trying to attack Mohg directly, and due to a miscommunication wind up in conflict with Radahn? Did she not know where he was at all, but wage a Roaring Rampage of Rescue across the continent that Radahn ended in Caelid? Or was she in Caelid for other reasons and the first assumption is correct? All that we can be certain of is that she knew of Miquella's disappearance prior to her first◊ Scarlet Bloom, as when we find her it's implied that it's the first time she's awakened since the Battle of Aeonia, and she explicitly mentions awaiting for her brother to return. Her armor description also mentions that Miquella made a promise to her before he mysteriously disappeared (presumably, to cure and heal her), and that she's maintaining her vigil because she's confident that he'll keep it (acting as probably the game's most obvious DLC tie-in).
• Ambiguously Human: Or rather, Ambiguously Demigod, as her father Radagon might have been a full deity as Marika’s other half. The fact Malenia was "blessed" with Scarlet Rot even since in the womb might also mean she is fully divine in body, unlike the other demigods. Biologically, Radagon and Marika being the same person would also make Malenia and Miquella purely Numen, unlike the half-human children of Godfrey and Rennala.
• Ambiguously Related: Millicent, Sage Gowry's adopted daughter, claims she is related to her, though even she's not exactly sure what relationship they have. Gowry says Millicent is Malenia's daughter, though there's no mention of a father and she was found in the scarlet rot-infested swamps of Aeonia. Given Millicent is also worshipped by the Kindred of Rot, it's heavily implied Millicent was born from Malenia's Godzilla Threshold from when she fought General Radahn. Also, given that stabbing the Unalloyed Gold Needle coated in "dew" from Millicent's body is heavily implied by the item description and resulting trade to "restore [Malenia's] sense of self", it's implied Millicent is less her daughter and more a fragmented piece of Malenia herself. Millicent also speculates that she's an "offshoot" rather than a daughter.
• Animal Motif:
  • Cranes, as visually indicated by her disproportionately long legs, red hair, and winged helmet, which comes to a beak-like point. She balances on one leg after several of her attacks, most noticeably her kick and thrust, and briefly bends the other close to her body to mimic a crane's stance◊. Several item descriptions make reference to her metaphorical "wings" as symbols of her martial prowess, such as the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom stating "though born into the accursed rot, when the young girl encountered her mentor and his flowing blade, she gained wings of unparalleled strength." Her signature attack is also known as the Waterfowl Dance, and she hops on one leg in the middle of it.
  • Her Goddess of Rot form is instead associated with butterflies, perhaps symbolizing her gradual metamorphosis into something inhuman as she gives into the Scarlet Rot.
• Angelic Beauty: Her Goddess of Rot form is a twisted, Fan Disservice-filled parody of this trope. She's a nude Amazonian Beauty held aloft by massive, angelic wings who lays waste to her enemies with graceful swordplay and eerily beautiful divine magic, which would be fine except that she's, well, the Goddess of Rot. Her flesh is scarred and decayed, her wings are made up of a swarm of rotting butterflies, and her 'divine magic' is the manifestation of a horrifyingly vicious alien pathogen which withers away anything it touches.
• Anti-Villain: Combination of Woobie and In Name Only. Malenia was said to be a noble warrior who greatly valued the camaraderie she shared with her men, had immense loyalty to her brother, and understood the value of mercy, as she spared Godrick's craven life when he begged her. By the time events of the game begin Malenia isn't even active anymore, instead waiting in vain to reunite with her brother by the Haligtree. Alas, in her effort to defeat Radahn she is said to have cast aside the "dignity and sense of self" which allowed her to resist the scarlet rot. This unleashed a bloom that permanently transformed Caelid into a rotting nightmare and left her so hazardous that she inadvertently allowed the rot to infect the Haligtree from the roots up.
• Artificial Limbs: Her right arm, a third of her right leg, and most of her left leg are Unalloyed Gold prosthetics. And while her left is still organic, examining it closely reveal what seem to be small collections of black-and-gold stitching running down the limb. Though said stitching expands over her whole arm in the story trailer (when we can clearly see in-game that she still has skin there), so it seems to be wraps that go over her limbs rather than actually part of her flesh.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Her Scarlet Aeonia attack blankets a large area with Rot accompanied by a glowing "flower" in probably her flashiest move. But it takes a long time to charge with very obvious telegraphing and seems to take a lot out of her; her first use of it against Radahn knocked her unconscious, and while the uses against the player don't (presumably due to her having more control of the Rot as the flower is also much smaller and charges quicker), they do stun her for several seconds. Lore-wise it only worked against Radahn because she'd already stalemated him with physical prowess and rendered him paralyzed to the point that he just sat unmoving under her for twenty straight seconds; in any scenario other than the highly specific one they found themselves in (mutually impaled and stunned), he could've just thrown her off and she would've been better served by ordinary sword strokes. Against the player, if you can dodge the initial thrust she precedes it with, you'll find it to be a very convenient opportunity to inflict free damage, especially for a sorcery-heavy build. The player and Gideon's version is just as unwieldy while being far weaker and taking up three spell slots (one of only three spells in the game to do so along with Comet Azur and Placidusax's Ruin). It unsurprisingly sees little use.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Subverted. She's the chronologically youngest still-active demigod of her generation. However, she's also very mature, charismatic, level-headed, and down-to-earth compared to her siblings, with zero desire to take the throne despite being one of the three most eligible for it. She's also one of the, if not the most, feared and respected among the demigod siblings (and certainly your worst nightmare as a player).
• Badass Army: Malenia's army obtained battlefield success during the Shattering rivaled only by Morgott's, even though she had to project power across the length of nearly the entire continent to do anything (while Morgott was mostly defensive), and she had the smallest and newest fief to work with (a collection of outcasts in a city-tree). This bears out in gameplay as the Lordsworn and Cleanrots at the Haligtree are the strongest generic human opponents in the game, with sky-high stats paired with prowess in Holy incantations. On top of their combat prowess their lore also paints them as very devoted to Miquella and Malenia.
• Badass Boast:
  • She claims she's never known defeat and has the skills to back it up. She's not technically wrong either, as her fight with General Radahn ended in a draw.
  • She gets an even more impressive one when her second phase begins and she becomes the Goddess of Rot.
    Malenia: The scarlet bloom flowers once more. You will witness true horror. Now, rot!
• Badass Normal: By demigod standards, as Malenia is still an 8-foot tall warrior strong enough to hurl the player Tarnished into the air one-handed and swing around a sword as long as she is tall as if it weighed nothing, but as long as she's holding back the Scarlet Rot rather than giving in to it she seems to have none of the overtly supernatural abilities of her siblings. She isn't The Archmage, she's not a multi-ton giant with the strength and weight to shatter the earth, and she lacks specially enchanted armor or weapons^note her sword Hand of Malenia inflicts purely physical damage and doesn't deal particularly more than the starting katana when wielded by the player. She doesn't even have a fully healthy and intact body due to the Rot within ever since childhood. Yet Ranni states that she is mightier than any other demigod besides her brother Radahn, who had all of the above advantages (a master of gravity magic and the largest and strongest demigod, wearing full plate armor and wielding two heavily enchanted greatswords, and with no noted health issues) and still only managed to force a draw with her when she was holding back the Rot. Her sole advantages are her inhumanly good sword skills and extremely powerful will. Even her self-healing ability is stated in her Great Rune's description not to be a spell or incantation. Her sheer refusal to die is so powerful that she essentially wills additional hit points into existence.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Malenia is among the nobler of her fellow Demigods, being a warrior god who inspired admiration and reverence from her followers and choosing to support her twin's benevolent goals over attaining power for herself. Unfortunately, the Scarlet Rot is one of the most intrinsically vile powers one can possess in the setting, its presence within her acting as a constant strain on her body and mind that ultimately causes horrible devastation to Caelid when her will finally wavered and she (albeit reluctantly and in desperation) utilized the rot to turn the tides in the Battle of Aeonia.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: When she enters her second phase, she's completely nude, but lacks any genitalia or nipples, just white spots where they should be. The artbook◊ and texture file names indicate that those bits are actually just covered up by mold over her skin, which makes sense as the Rot often manifests as fungal growths. While harder to see, the same mold is also growing on her prosthetics and armor surface.
• The Beastmaster: After her first phase is beaten, she'll sprout a giant pair of wings comprised of thousands of Aeonian butterflies. In addition to giving her the ability to fly, Malenia can compel groups of insects to coalesce into humanoid shape and briefly fight alongside her.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Malenia is easily one of the nicest Demigods, being a noble warrior who inspires great loyalty from her followers and fights for the sake of creating a world where persecuted minorities like the Albinaurics and Misbegotten can live free from oppression. She's also indicated to be humble and honorable woman, based off her depictions in the Haligtree, and the fact that she congratulates you on your victory in her dialogue. She's also a terrifyingly powerful warrior and full-on LightningBruiser, and she's also the game's foremost Super Boss.
• BFS: Malenia has a sword which is attached to her prosthetic arm. In the story trailer, when General Radahn smashes her arm with his sword, she seamlessly transfers the blade to her other hand. It is both proportionally thick and longer than she is tall. Some◊ model-ripping◊ shows it's about 9 feet long and weighs nearly 160 pounds without counting the arm it's attached to,^note Volume is 0.003720 m^3 and it's made of enchanted gold with a density of 19,320 kg/m^3. sixty to seventy times the mass of the average historical katana or arming sword. She swings it superhumanly fast, as if it weighed nothing.
• Big Sister Instinct: Inverted as the subtitles in the Japanese version of the game has her refer to Miquella as "older brother" (兄様/nii-sama), confirming that she's the younger twin. As her title indicates, she's sworn her life to defending Miquella, her twin brother, and making his vision of the Lands Between a reality. In a sad irony, she's currently comatose and unable to help him as Mohg, her half-brother holds him hostage.
• Big Little Sister: She's much, much taller than Ranni (both her current artificial body which is 1.65 meters/5'5◊ and her original which is about seven and a half feet) and Miquella, who're chronologically older than her, and about the same height as her father, Radagon.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Her sword, fittingly called the Hand of Malenia, lacks a hilt and is instead directly attached to her prosthetic arm.
• Blessed with Suck: She's an Empyrean, meaning that she's a being capable of founding an entirely new order in the Lands Between with the direct patronage of an Outer God. Unfortunately for her and everyone else, the god that chose her was the Scarlet Rot, a deity of decay and rebirth that manifests as a horrendously virulent alien disease with her as its Patient Zero. As a result, she's dedicated her life to containing and hopefully getting rid of her patron rather than spreading its good news, and is desperately hoping that her cult will Stop Worshipping Me.
• Blind Weaponmaster: She lost her eyes to the Scarlet Rot, but it hasn't slowed her down one bit. She's implied to have learned under another one that who once slew a god of the Rot armed with nothing but a curved sword. Considering four of her five seen "daughters" are also wearing blindfolds despite their Rot not being nearly as bad as hers, she likely lost her sight fairly early in life.
• Bling of War: Her armor and prosthetics are made of unalloyed gold. Unlike most examples of this trope, Malenia does this for practicality rather than adornment: unalloyed gold is the only known substance capable of repelling the Scarlet Rot, so she has her prosthetics, helmet, and arm wraps made of the metal help her manage her Rot infection.
• Body Horror: The Scarlet Rot has done a number on her body, but you don't see the true extent until her second phase, which shows parts of her body decayed and cracked. She was already decaying by the time she fought Radahn (seen in the cinematic trailer). Decades later, when facing the Tarnished, the rot has gotten even worse (particularly noticeable around her face). A statue in the Haligtree of her out of her battle dress◊ shows it was nowhere near as bad prior to the Shattering — she still was missing her right arm, but her left arm and face were untouched and she still had her feet and eyes.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Defeating her earns you her Great Rune, which enables you to rally your yellow health back a la Bloodborne. However, having defeated Malenia, there's a good chance you're so overpowered that no enemy presents a challenge worthy of her Great Rune, or you don't need its power at all. Great runes also don't carry into NG+, and by the time you beat her, there's probably little left to fight anyway in your current playthrough. Also from an in-universe point of view there's little reason to kill her (unless you're determined to fulfil Millicent's Last Request and give her the Unalloyed Gold Needle, since you can only do that after her boss fight); the Tarnished only needs two Great Runes to succeed and there's five others whose holders are easier to defeat and in most cases far easier to get to- plus, unlike some she's not really doing any harm, just moping at the bottom of the Haligtree, as far out of everyone's way as it's possible for her to be.
• Brains and Brawn: Malenia serves as the brawn to her twin Miquella's brains, to the point that she openly refers to herself as his "Blade". She's intelligent and well-spoken in her own right, but her most prominent skill is her incredible prowess in battle, compared to the brilliant scholar and inventor Miquella.
• Broken Ace: Unquestionably lacks any equal in pure skill with the blade, and her qualities as an inspirational figure and military leader are also given great emphasis. But by the time the Tarnished finally confronts her; Malenia's ill-fated duel with Radahn has reduced the Haligtree she swore to defend with her life to a ruined husk.
• Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Her Animal Motif, being connected to the Rot, is butterflies, along with flowers and fungi.
• The Champion: Miquella's, as indicated by her title. Her actions exemplify this during the Shattering; despite being an Empyrean Malenia has no interest in achieving godhood for herself, and in fact could have apotheosized into a god at any point simply by giving into the Scarlet Rot, instead she's devoted to helping Miquella ascend.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: While Malenia is inherently superhuman as a demigod, her inhuman swordplay and Healing Factor aren't mystical blessings. The former is the result of intense training under a similarly skilled mentor, while the latter is her sheer refusal to quit allowing her to will her wounds away.
• Child Prodigy: Morgott briefly reminisces about Malenia (as well as her brother) being one before his boss fight. Though this appears to refer less to her aptitude for scholarly pursuits and more to her martial ability.
• The Chosen One:
  • Malenia is mentioned to be of the three Empyreans capable of succeeding Marika, the other two being her brother, Miquella, and Ranni.
  • A darker variant. Similar to the Greater Will with Marika, an Outer God chose Malenia to be its vessel, which resulted in her being afflicted with the Scarlet Rot.
• Combat Aestheticist: The Winged Sword Insignia describes her blade work as "beautiful", while a ghost in Aeonia Swamp begs in awe to the now-absent warrior to "see it, if only one last time; your splendid blade dancing amidst the rot."
• Combo Platter Powers: By default, her only superpowers are extreme levels of super strength, speed, and toughness. As the Goddess of Rot she gains a plethora of new abilities, including flight, resurrective immortality, clone spawning, the ability to manipulate Aeonian Butterflies, the ability to cause large explosions, and of course, the ability to infect enemies with a supernatural plague (that can even kill or control things like spirit projections and alien golems made of crystal) via various Rot incantations.
• Contralto of Strength: Fitting for a warrior goddess, her voice is quite deep, yet invariably smooth and calm even when making threats.
• The Corruption: She is afflicted with the Scarlet Rot, having infected General Radahn and the land of Caelid with it during their duel, and weaponizes this during the second phase of her boss fight. It runs strong enough through her veins that she can become a Walking Wasteland if she doesn't keep it under control, even having her weapons and armor consecrated with Unalloyed Gold to resist it. The rot itself is implied to have a will of its own that actively wants to spread itself.
• Cursed with Awesome: Zig-Zagged. While Malenia's current situation with the Scarlet Rot can't be called anything but Blessed with Suck. Sage Gowry and the description for the Scarlet Aeonia spell state that (similarly to how some victims of the Rot mutate into new beings instead of just perishing) if Malenia were to ever give herself to the disease fully, then she would she "bloom" into a being not only immune to its negative effects, but capable wielding the Rot's power as she pleased. All that said, Gowry isn't the most trustworthy.
• Cyborg: An Alchemy Is Magic variant. Malenia's right arm and both legs have been replaced by unalloyed gold prosthetics created by Miquella, doubling as a Restraining Bolt that helps her keep the Rot under control and letting her move around normally.
• Dance Battler: More subtle than most (partly because she's still an 8'5 demigod swinging a 165-pound sword like a toothpick), but her fighting style resembles dancing. She apparently learned this style from her mentor, the Blind Swordsman, who is referred to as both a swordsman and a dancer - himself having taken inspiration from a fairy.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Malenia packs a combined 33,251 HP across her two phases (18,473 in the first + 14,778 in the second) — one of the highest health totals in the game, beaten only by Rykard^note A Puzzle Boss who will be dispatched much more quickly than his health would indicate. and the Fire Giant.^note The Final Boss fight also technically has more health than her, but it's split into two encounters, and both Radagon (~13,000 HP) and the Elden Beast (~22,000 HP) don't come anywhere near her total on their own Additionally, Malenia has a potent healing ability attached to all of her attacks; playing badly against her means the player has to punch through even more HP. The only saving grace is she has low poise, making it slightly easier to combo hits together and stagger her.
• Deity of Human Origin: When her scarlet flower blooms, Malenia temporarily ascends into the Goddess of Rot, which comprises the second stage of her boss fight. Her Remembrance states if she unleashed her full power a third time, her apotheosis would be permanent.
• Delicate and Sickly: Zig-zagged. The Scarlet Rot has done a real number on her; three of her limbs are prosthetic and the remaining arm is badly scarred, she's blind, and when you meet her has just come out of a coma, but she's such a Determinator that she took the World's Strongest Woman position despite her illness.
• Destroyer Deity: Fits the role as The Goddess of Rot, though this is very much against her will.
• Determinator: Malenia's defining feature, often referenced in dialogue and item descriptions relating to her, is her determination. She managed to become one of world's greatest warriors, if not the greatest, despite being afflicted with a disease that killed everyone else in far less time than she's had it, and aside from one lapse (two if the Tarnished beats her), has even managed to maintain her mind amidst an Outer God's assault. Even with one arm and no eyes she's utterly unyielding when facing her enemies.
  Winged Sword Insignia: The wings symbolize Malenia and her undefeated prowess. Though she never knew relief from the accursed rot she was born into, her blade was forever beautiful - and relentless.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: A single strike from her Waterfowl Dance doesn't really do that much damage, especially compared to her lunge and grab attacks which can easily take 80% of a high levelled character's health in one go - however, the strikes come so quickly that getting caught in it is like being put in a high-speed blender.
• Desperation Attack: Millicent states Malenia unleashed her Rot in this regard, she saw no other way to beat General Radahn and did this as a final resort. Before that (as shown by this piece of concept art storyboarding) she grievously injured herself impaling him on her sword.
• Disabled Deity: Though she is the Empyrean vessel of the Scarlet Rot and the potential successor of Marika as the Goddess of Rot, she is not immune to the Rot's effects herself: the disease claimed her eyes, an arm, and both of her legs.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Malenia and her brother both suffer from physical problems. Scarlet rot on her end, inability to grow up on her brother's. Their parents are one and the same person. In other words they're both essentially products of incest.
• Dramatic Irony: She asserted that only Miquella was worthy of the throne because he's the closest of the demigods to an actual god, with her armor description containing a quote from her to this effect. She presumably would still keep this attitude even if Miquella succeeded in curing her of the rot. But reading her armor description also requires you to defeat her and obtain her Great Rune, the description of which heavily implies that absent the rot, Malenia was the most divine of the demigods, not her brother.
• Elemental Motifs: Water. Her personality is calm and cool, her signature technique is called the Waterfowl Dance, the swordmaster who taught her how to fight patterned his own style after flowing water, his Blue Cloth Set alludes to her with its description that "just as still waters turn foul, stagnation leads to decay; warriors must remain everdrifting" (Malenia is found more rotted than ever after a coma but heals herself by movement via combat), her clone-offspring's first and last appearances both take place near rotted ponds, resolving her quest requires giving Malenia a needle inexplicably covered in dew, her boss arena is reached through a drainage channel and dominated by an ankle-deep pond sprouting flowers,^note Which actually affects the gameplay: she takes reduced damage from fire and increased damage from lightning in most of the space. and her whole fight takes place underneath a waterfall which purifies the rotted water above it.
• Eye Scream: The Scarlet Rot has either severely affected the flesh around her eyes or eaten them entirely.
• Fan Disservice: She's a Statuesque Stunner, and during her second phase, she sheds off her clothing and fights in the nude. However, you can see the Rot taking a heavy toll on her body, with much of her skin cracked and decayed: along with her lack of eyes, her nudity comes off as more tragic and eerie than sexually appealing.
• Fallen Hero: Not just yet, but Malenia is very clearly nearing the end of her rope fighting the Rot's control. Since the Aeonia, she's been leaking Rot all over the Haligtree despite her continued efforts to contain it; killing her will cause her to revive and temporarily apotheosize into the Goddess of Rot where she consciously wields her curse's power in a desperate attempt to kill the Tarnished. She seems to embrace the Rot's warped mindset, as whenever she kills the Tarnished in this phase, she tells them to let the Scarlet Rot consume their flesh. Only Miquella could help her now by finding a real cure or crafting another Unalloyed Gold Needle to restore her mind (as it does Millicent's) for a stopgap, but Mohg abducted him long ago.^note By completing Millicent's quest, the Tarnished can "Return the Unalloyed Gold Needle", now infused with Millicent's essence, and it is implied through the description that this will restore her "sense of self" when she wakes up. Additionally, you can open the way to Farum Azula, where use of the needles can permanently purge an Outer God's influence, but no follow-up on that exists in the game itself as this is the last on-screen interaction you can have.
• Fatal Flaw: Averted, in that unlike many of the other Demigods, her troubles do not stem from any specific personal failing or character flaw on her part. She isn't motivated by Pride or Ambition in the way that characters like Godrick, Rykard, or even Radahn are, nor is she a Blood Knight who seeks ever-greater battles (which is the case for both Radahn and Godfrey). She doesn't display cruelty or resentment towards others, she doesn't even suffer from any more minor character flaws, whereas even Morgott is shown to be a Broken-System Dogmatist. Tragically, in a similar vein to Frodo and the One Ring, she's simply in a situation where it's fundamentally impossible to win, as the Scarlet Rot is a force that cannot be overcome or resisted by any mortal being in the setting without external intervention.
• Fiery Redhead: A notable aversion and arguably outright inverted. She inherited her father's flowing red locks, but far from being Hot-Blooded or emotional, she's very much The Stoic, being by far and away the least emotive out of all the Demigods we meet. To further drive the point home, her primary ElementalMotif isn't fire like her hair color would suggest, but water
• Fights Like a Normal:
  • Malenia is not only working with a single arm, but she seems to lack any of the sorcerous powers of her siblings and parents. The only power she uses is the minimum of superhuman strength/speed needed to facilitate her fighting style and drive her sword through any target. Yet she manages to be a contender for the World's Best Warrior and the game's toughest boss just because of her inhumanly good skills. According to the Sword Memorial in Caelid, before releasing the Rot, she was locked in an indecisive stalemate with Radahn, who is many times her size and a master of Gravity Magic. When her will frays and she manifests the Scarlet Rot, she gains magical attacks, but she makes every effort to keep the Rot contained if she can help it. She only fights that way for any duration if the Tarnished finds her and forces her into her second phase.
  • Applies on a mechanical level as well. Malenia's first phase is the single most straightforward major boss in Elden Ring, with no real gimmicks other than a relatively weak Healing Factor.^note She heals 300-400 points her hit, yet her attacks deal anywhere from 500 to 1,200+ in a game where even a high-Vigor player will never have much more than 2,000 health, so she can't recover as much of her 33,000+ hit points as you'd think.. Her challenge comes entirely from her being a pure Lightning Bruiser with a complex, dynamic, purely physical move set that you have to thoroughly learn to properly counter (as most attacks have different dodge patterns and she chains multiple individual attacks together for her combos instead of having preset ones like some other bosses), and also cannot be affected by any cheese strategy. Even her second phase's extra danger is mostly because of her greater aggression; her only real AOE attack is highly telegraphed, while her Rot build-up barely factors into the fight as chances are, her regular damage will kill you first.
• Flash Step: She's scripted to open her first fight by quickly dashing at the player for her opening slash, and will occasionally do a similar dash as part of her regular move set (with the tell that she sticks her arm out to the side first). She isn't actually teleporting but she accelerates so quickly over such a low distance (hitting over 30 m/s in three frames at 60 FPS) that it appears she does unless you take a video of her dashes frame by frame. Her "step forward and throw four hits" move also involves her dashing at about◊ 40 m/s◊ (~90 mph), again reaching that speed within three frames, whereas her thrust is about twice as fast as that.
• Flower Motifs: Paeonia, via her curse. Her "bloom" attack creates a giant red version that inflicts Rot, and it is even called the Scarlet Aeonia (in-universe named for the location of Aeonia in Caelid, out of universe obviously named for the flower). She even unwittingly created "buds" that mostly like resulted in the birth of Millicent and her sisters.
• Flying Brick: When she temporarily becomes the Goddess of Rot, she gains wings granting her full-on flight, which she uses in combination with various Rot-based powers to augment her supernatural blade and massive physical strength. By default, she also possesses the ability to temporarily hover and autonomously propel herself through the air during her Waterfowl Dance, but this doesn't appear to be true flight.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Her dashing thrust attacks function as such, as they're actually two different attacks◊ with different IDs and hitboxes - the thrust itself (hitbox is her sword) and a two hundred mile-per-hour body slam (hitbox covers her entire body). Any summons in her path when she does this will be blasted out of the way by her momentum without her slowing.
• Foil:
  • To Radahn. They're both demigod children of Radagon and supremely accomplished warriors and contenders for World's Strongest Man, along with being charismatic generals who command Undying Loyalty from their followers. Other than that though, the two are almost diametric opposites in many ways. Where Radahn is the largest demigod (unless you count Rykard after he fused with the God-Devouring Serpent), Malenia is one of the smallest. Radahn is The Arch Mage whose entire fighting-style is heavily reliant on magic, while Malenia is a Magically Inept Fighter whose solely reliant on physical prowess. While Malenia is generally associated with water as her Elemental Motifs, Radahn tends to be associated with fire, which is reflected in their demeanors. Whereas Radahn is Hot-blooded and spends much of his fight roaring and growling, Malenia is calm and collected, and does not make any vocalizations during her fight except when she speaks. Lastly, whereas Radahn continuously became more powerful throughout his life up until the Battle of Aeonia (learning gravity magic, growing massively in size), Malenia has been slowly wasting away as a result of the Scarlet Rot eating away at her body and mind.
  • To Godrick. They're both among the youngest demigods who both split off from the Golden Order. Other than that, they're complete opposites in almost every way. Godrick is a pathetic wealking who has to steal strength from others through Grafting to pose any semblance of a threat, and even with that, he's still by far the weakest of the Demigods. Malenia is reliant solely on her strength and skill, which is continuously being chipped away by the Scarlet Rot, yet is one of the, if not the, mightiest of the Demigods, to the point of being a contender for World's Strongest Man. Godrick's grafting has left him with dozens of additional limbs and appendages that leave him a lumbering, ungainly, brute while Malenia has lost all but one of her original limbs yet still fights with extreme poise and finesse. Where Godrick is shown to be a hideous man even underneath his grafted body parts, Malenia, even after being ravaged by the Scarlet Rot, is still very beautful despite her deformities. Godrick is a General Failure who's military ventures end in abject failure, while Malenia is an extremely successful commander, who led an undefeated campaign against all multitude of foes even while under a number of disadvantages. Godrick is The Caligula and Hated by All, with even his own followers despising him and lacking any sort of respect for him, as evidenced by Gostoc repeatedly insulting him and stomping on his corpse. Malenia is a Magnetic Hero who commands Undying Loyalty from her followers, to the point they're willing to fight alongside and support her even knowing it will inevitably lead to them to suffer agonizingly painful deaths. Godrick leads an Army of Thieves and Whores who are by far the weakest and most ineffectual of all the major factions in the Shattering, whereas Malenia's troops are among the best of them all, with her Cleanrot Knights in particular, explicitly being described as "the strongest in the Shattering". Lastly, whereas Godrick broke off from the Golden Order purely for the sake of glory, power, and the desire to prove himself "worthy" of his legacy, Malenia does so in order to support her brother Miquella, to the point of explicitly describing herself as his blade, and willingly gives up her chance at attaining the Elden Throne for herself in order to advance her brother's agenda, which is among the most selfless of all the Demigods.
• Four-Star Badass: While her generalship is never given much focus, environmental clues, certain Sword Memorials, and a few item descriptions (most notably the Cleanrot Armor's label of her knights as "celebrated for their undefeated campaign") indicate that she was quite successful as a commander during the Shattering, rivaled only by Morgott. She marched her army from one side of the continent to the other while still maintaining its discipline (much harder than it sounds), marched (and almost certainly fought) through the Academy/Cuckoo-held territories of Liurnia to reach Limgrave,^note Sword Memorial West Liurnia: "This marks Malenia's southward march. The Blade of Miquella and her Cleanrot Knights. Grant her wings never to be clipped." Also, you find a Cleanrot Knight in a mine near this memorial, and a bunch of Miquella's Lilies in the northwest, east of Carian Manor. crushed Godrick's faction so hard while she was there that Godrick himself was reduced to begging on his knees,^note Sword Memorial West Limgrave: "Godrick the Golden, humiliated Having tasted defeat by the Blade of Miquella. Now on his knees, begging for mercy." smashed Radahn's famed Redmanes thoroughly enough in Caelid to push up to the eastern coast,^note Radahn's arena (the Wailing Dunes) is there, far from the Aeonia Swamp where Radahn and Malenia had their fateful duel. There was a massive battle between their forces at that location judging by all the corpses and weapons strewn about the desert. To the north of that are the War-Dead Catacombs, where Radahn and Malenia's troops continue another battle as spirits (said catacombs also having been the sign of a battle while they were alive, and meant to bury the Redmane dead as a result of it). There are also signs of battle in Sellia, the town of sorcery, with discarded weapons and memorials sprewn about over all areas of the town and the walls and certain structures clearly having been deliberately reduced by a now-absent assaulting force. Finally, you find Miquella's Lilies, said to signify allegiance to the Haligtree and dropped solely by Haligtree troops in-game, in the ruins of many of Caelid's towns and forts (most notably, again, Sellia). You can also find St. Trina's Sword in the Forsaken Ruins near the entrance to Caelid. Given that the Cleanrots were "undefeated" and clearly penetrating deep into the fiefdom, that leaves only one possible result for all of these battles. and was only fought to a stalemate at the Battle of Aeonia when Radahn showed up personally with his best. Even then, both armies seemed to have beaten each other to near-death before the battle was over,^note The release trailer has Radahn and Malenia engaging each other seemingly alone on a field full of bodies. despite the Redmanes having a home field advantage and Malenia having to project power across an entire continent, and as of the present her troops are still occupying parts of Caelid (including mines) even with most having retreated and the remainder being just as ravaged by the Rot as the Redmanes.
• Frontline General: As Miquella's champion Malenia was a warrior above all else, and personally fought alongside her troops in battle. During the war she personally fought Godrick and Radahn.
• Full-Frontal Assault: The second blooming of the rot within during her duel with the Tarnished burns away her clothes.
• A God I Am Not: Implied. Her Remembrance states she would turn into a "true goddess" if she unleashed the Scarlet Rot again. Considering how deadly Scarlet Rot is even to demigods, and how she ended up devastating an entire land to defeat her own brother, General Radahn, she has more than enough reason not to do it. There's also how she rejected Sage Gowry and the Order of Rot for worshiping her as a goddess of rot.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The game spends a good deal of time hyping up Malenia as likely the strongest remaining entity in the setting, having not waned in strength as much as the likes of Radahn. And with her mechanically being one of, if not the single, hardest FromSoftware bosses it is a well-earned position, both in-universe and out-of. She has the highest scaling in the game at 21, and if set against other bosses, the only ones with a chance of taking her down are Radahn (if she starts far away from him like the Tarnished does- if she starts near him, she wins easily- and even then, she's more likely to win than not) and Maliketh (if he's given Home Field Advantage).
• Godzilla Threshold: On her own, she couldn't surmount General Radahn, merely locking the two in unending combat. However, she could give in to the rot to give her the power capable to end her stalemate with him in her favor (it's not explicitly said there was a winner in their duel, but it could be argued Caelid and Radahn came out of the conflict with greater losses) emerging from the transformation as quite possibly the strongest force in the setting. However, the effect is only temporary the first two times she uses it, and extended use of the power reduced an entire fiefdom and the preeminent town of sorcery to a blasted hellscape answerable only with contempt, horror, and fire bombs. She effectively becomes a Walking Wasteland, and it's heavily implied it strongly suppresses the mercy and honor she was known for. Using it three times would make her a goddess who can't turn it off, explaining why Malenia is so apprehensive about utilizing her full power. Unfortunately for the player, she decides it's acceptable to use the rot a second time to overcome the Tarnished, even if it risks her precious brother's Haligtree, which causes her to transition into her second phase, regain a good eighty percent of her HP, and hit even harder.
• Graceful Loser: She commends the Tarnished's strength when they finally strike her down, stating it's the strength worthy of an Elden Lord, only apologizing to her brother for losing. Inserting Millicent's dew-soaked Unalloyed Gold Needle into her "body" (the flower she leaves after she's beaten) will also cause it to give you a different needle (Miquella's Needle) and an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone in return. Combined with the Unalloyed Gold Needle's item description after Millicent's death and the statement that Malenia will be "reborn" from the flower, it heavily implies that the trade amounts to a slumbering Malenia rewarding you for helping her by restoring her "sense of self", even though this requires beating her first. That the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone is both a hint on how to use Miquella's Needle (which can purge the influence of outer gods, but only in the ancient Dragonlord's chamber) and a necessary component to craft a "weapon capable of slaying a god" (which you need to do to complete the game and claim the throne) also implies that in giving these gifts she was commending you for both your strength and your compassion, especially since this trade immediately follows her telling you that you're fit to be Elden Lord.
  Malenia: "Your strength, extraordinary... The mark... of a true lord... Oh, dear Miquella... Oh, dearest Miquella, my brother... I'm sorry. I finally met my match..."

H-Y

• Handicapped Badass: She's missing an arm, both her feet and her eyes, and first confronts the Tarnished having just awoken from a decades-long coma. None of this seems to slow her down in the slightest. The statues of her in the Haligtree and the description of the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom indicate while she used to have intact feet and eyes and an unmarred left arm, her status as an amputee with a missing right arm goes back to her childhood. As the chosen of the Scarlet Rot, it's strongly implied that she can be nothing other than this trope - to properly embody decay and rebirth, she must always be both horribly crippled and incredibly powerful - and, indeed, she seems to have shaped a significant part of her fighting style around her disabilities and the prosthetics she uses to compensate for them (such as delivering a flying roundhouse kick to the head with her solid gold feet or shortening the effective length of her sword for a series of swift swiping attacks by detaching it from the arm and grabbing it in the midsection with her metal hand that won't get cut by the edge).
• Have a Nice Death:
  Phase 1: I am Malenia, Blade of Miquella...
  Phase 2: Let your flesh be consumed. By the scarlet rot.
• Healing Factor: If Malenia lands a blow on the Tarnished, she'll regain health regardless whether or not she actually dealt damage. The description of her Great Rune (which grants the same ability to a lesser degree in exchange for reducing the effect of the Flask of Crimson Tears) states this is because her "spirit of resistance" is so great that she can greatly reduce the severity of her wounds. This is also why she doesn't heal from any attacks that inflict Rot like the Scarlet Aeonia or her clones, as letting that power loose represents her ceasing said resistance.
• Hero Antagonist: Despite technically being an opponent of the Tarnished, and even then only if they actively seek her out, Malenia is by far one of the most noble characters in the setting. She fights for an unambiguously good cause (creating a new order where oppressed minorities such as the Albinaurics and Misbegotten can live free from persecution), is intensely loyal to Miquella, who's probably the closest thing the setting has to a Big Good, and is shown to be a humble and honorable warrior who doesn't seek out conflict for the sake of glory or thrill. Pretty much the only things that could be considered remotely villainous about her can mostly be attributed to the Scarlet Rot forcing her.
• Heroic RRoD: As revealed by the Sword Memorial in Caelid, Malenia had Radahn evenly matched without relying on the Scarlet Rot's power, and calling upon the rot broke the stalemate in her favor. She was unable to follow through on this by killing Radahn, however, as she collapsed into catatonia afterward, presumably due to the strain of releasing the rot for the first time.
• Heroic Host: It's implied that the Outer God that created the Scarlet Rot is trying to force Malenia to become its vassal. Malenia is able to keep it from escaping her body through sheer will, but she's fighting a losing battle as it will eventually either rot her body to death or erode her will enough to force her to become the Goddess of Rot.
• Heroic Willpower: Millicent states it was Malenia's "will", "dignity", and "sense of self" which allowed her to resist the Scarlet Rot for so long, before she lost it in her duel with Radahn. While anyone else infested with the Rot dies or degenerates into a puppet or beast fairly quickly (her "daughter" Millicent is encountered as an invader before you meet her as an NPC, and even a strong-willed and prideful warrior like Radahn succumbed to it and became a feral beast in the time between Aeonia and the Tarnished's revival), and Malenia would bloom into a "true god" if she gave into it, Malenia still managed to keep it contained for her entire long life despite the enormous mental stress involved, her being its designated vessel, and it reducing her to a dying triple amputee. She even keeps it down during the majority of her long duel with Radahn. Unfortunately her will frays at the end of the duel, leading to her first "blooming." She suppresses it again during the battle, to the point Finlay carrying her all the way back to the Haligtree leaves no infection in the lands she travels through, but it potentially comes out again after the Tarnished pushes her to the brink of death in her boss fight. This is also the reason given in her Great Rune's description for why she heals whenever she hits you — her body is literally rotting away (hence why her rotted Rune reduces the effects of healing items), yet her "spirit of resistance" means seeing her enemy bleed drives her ever forward.

  Hand of Malenia: Malenia's war prosthesis symbolized her victories. Some claim to have seen wings when the weapon was raised aloft; wings of fierce determination that have never known defeat.

• Humble Hero: Malenia is an Empyrean fully capable of claiming the Elden Throne herself, and could easily become a goddess by giving in to the Rot. She does neither, and instead supports her brother Miquella's claim as his Blade. She does not appear to seek Great Runes, as she spared Godrick's life despite him being a Shardbearer. Her statues in the Haligtree show her without her prostheses and wearing simple clothes, hugging her brother, instead of celebrating her own victories.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: At the very beginning of her duel with the Tarnished, either due to underestimating them or having just stepped out of a coma, Malenia begins only with basic strikes and dashes. Once she's down to 80% of her first health bar she'll jump into her first Waterfowl Dance, after which all bets are off.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Averted; she and Miquella are mix-gendered twins, as they have different hair colors. Malenia is also a Scarlet Rot-infested woman who lost entire limbs and her eyes to the disease, while Miquella was cursed to eternally remain a child until Mohg's actions broke the curse, but apparently left him a decrepit old man.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In the story trailer, she inflicts this on Radahn by plunging most of the length of her sword through his shoulder and neck into his incredibly thick torso, but also forces the tang partially into her own shoulder as she'd propped the rear of the blade against her body to maximize the force due to the blade lacking a proper handle and her missing an arm. They're both rendered paralyzed and she unleashes a Scarlet Aeonia on him fifteen seconds later. In-game she has several powerful thrust attacks, most notably her grab (which has her throwing the player up and catching them on her sword) and the opening of her Scarlet Aeonia, where she (just like in the trailer) plunges her sword into her target before releasing the spell, resulting in the sword embedding itself in the ground.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Her swordplay is so beautiful and refined that she's well-known in-universe for provoking this sort of reaction from those who see her in battle. Multiple NPCs speak of the sight with outright religious reverence.
• I Was Quite a Looker: The Scarlet Rot has ravaged her body to the point where her Full-Frontal Assault is pure Fan Disservice, but it's clear there's the remains of an exceptionally beautiful woman within all that decay.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: It's stated the Scarlet Rot (or rather, the Outer God responsible for it) chose Malenia as its vessel in a similar vein to Marika's status as the Greater Will's extension. As a result of this "blessing", Malenia's body is literally rotting from the inside out.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Her combat outfit is an otherwise simple dress adorned with unalloyed gold bits, implicitly to resist the Rot. Though she seems to wear gold chainmail underneath it. Extracting the model reveals that there are actually gold plates for her chest and thighs underneath the dress◊ (which use the same textures as the chain bits), explaining why the description refers to it as armor and why she has above-average physical resistances.
• Kick Chick: She can throw a few different kinds of kicks amidst her blade combos, which hurts a lot because of her strength and striking with a very heavy partially-prosthetic leg. Her kicks do less damage than strikes with her sword and come out more slowly, but they come with hyperarmor and knockback, making them useful for forcing the player to back up.
• Lady of War: Her movement throughout the battlefield is graceful and her swordsmanship is fluid and unmatched.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: She allowed Radahn take a full thirteen seconds to dramatically unsheathe and enchant his swords at the start of their duel despite being demonstrably capable of closing the distance between them and throwing dozens of strikes in less than half that time, implicitly out of gratitude for letting her put on her prosthetics first. When she "blooms" for the second time in her boss fight, she also first warns the Tarnished ("Wait!") instead of trying to ambush them.
• Lightning Bruiser: Good lord. As the game's Superboss, Malenia is extremely strong, lightning fast, and packs one of the highest HP pools in the game backed by a healing factor. In her second phase she taps into the power of the scarlet rot, further empowering her attacks and becoming relentlessly aggressive.
• Logical Weakness:
  • Due to flames being an immensely effective ward against scarlet rot, Malenia lacks any fire resistance. Related to that, while she's incredibly resistant to any poison or other scarlet rot build up, the same can't be said for bleed and frostbite, since it doesn't change the fact that her body was ravaged by rot and susceptible to other things that may affect her condition.
  • As the foremost and most skillful swordswoman in the game, perfect parries completely throw her off her combos and knock her back without activating her healing. Of course, it's easier said than done, as it also takes three successful parries to stun her, when it takes only one for most other enemies and bosses. Her being parryable at all is what's notable, as many other late-game bosses like Mohg and Godfrey will smash through any parry attempts (Radagon and Malekith are the only ones that share this vulnerability).
  • She's a Magically Inept Fighter because magic in Elden Ring consumes one's entire attention (hence why it costs Focus Points to cast spells), and Malenia's focus is constantly split between doing whatever she's doing and holding back the Scarlet Rot. She can only make use of her magical potential when she stops paying attention to keeping the Rot imprisoned and allows it to overtake her, hence why the Goddess of Rot uses magic.
  • She's the only demigod boss who can be outright knocked over, which can be a big weakness if you take advantage of some weapon arts or spells. No matter how ridiculously strong she is, she's still not immune to the laws of physics and thus can be thrown off her feet, and the force required to do so is far lesser than it'd be for other beings in her strength class as she has nowhere near the sheer mass of someone like Godfrey or Radahn.
  • She has to take a split-second to adjust her heavy prosthetic arm before performing certain moves, and the sliding blade produces a noticeable spark whenever she does this. For example she locks her forearm and sword in place before thrusting to maximize the weight behind it, and ups her grip to about 1/3 the way up the blade before performing her "dash and throw four quick strikes" move so she can throw said strikes as quickly as possible. These adjustments give (very) brief pauses and tells for her otherwise lightning-fast attacks that she wouldn't have if her right arm was still organic. Same goes for her recoveries - most of the small delay between her attacks (windows where you can get hits in) is because she has to take a bit to readjust her prosthetic after a combo.
• Lost in Translation:
  • Her last few post-defeat lines. Malenia normally talks like a stoic warrior in both scripts and her dialogue is mostly notable just for having the least adornment and archaisms out of her family. But when apologizing to Miquella for losing, her speech abruptly changes to sound almost childish in a fairly jarring way, referring to herself in the third person (which would sound weird in English, but is stereotypical for young or cutesy characters in Japanese) and calling Miquella 兄様 (older brother), a young-sounding mix of respectful in the ending and familiar in the lack of an honorific prefix. This carries over to her quoted lines in her armor description, also talking about Miquella, ending the last sentence with 〜なのだから.
  • In the Japanese subtitles the line she says when she kills the player is actually a haiku, which Japanese players immediately noticed and made memes about.
• Made of Iron: With how many parts she's missing and how much of her remaining flesh is covered in lesions, Malenia shouldn't even be alive by the time she fights Radahn and the Tarnished, much less able to act as the toughest boss in the game. Especially since it's made clear that the Rot is incredibly painful, physically debilitating, and prevents restful sleep by inducing nightmares in those afflicted with. Mechanically, Malenia's potentially the single most durable entity in Elden Ring, with 33,000 hit points between her two phases backed by an ability that allows her to heal 300-400 more hit points on every hit - and she throws a lot of them.
• Male Might, Female Finesse: With her deft swordplay and Blade Spam, she's the finesse to Radahn's might.
• Magic Knight: While Malenia primarily Fights Like a Normal, giving into the Scarlet Rot during the second half of her deathmatch with the Tarnished grants Malenia several mystical abilities she wields in conjunction with her swordsmanship. The most notable are the ability to summon and manipulate a swarm of Aeonian butterflies that she can compel to take specific shapes; and a much smaller version of the "flower" she accidentally unleashed against Radahn.
• Magically Inept Fighter: Excluding her Goddess of Rot form, Malenia is the only fighter in the Haligtree faction (aside from the Misbegotten warriors) who incorporates no spells into their fighting style. Even the lowest grunts in the Haligtree use Holy incantations, as does every single one of her knights, while all of her named lieutenants use their own types (Holy incantations for Finlay, glintstone sorceries for Loretta, storm winds for O'Neil, and storm winds plus lightning for Niall).
• Magnetic Hero: While not a Charm Person like her brother, Malenia's ability to inspire admiration and loyalty bordered on superhuman. Her soldiers knew that long term contact with her would cause them horrible pain, disfigurement, and eventually death, yet all willingly followed her regardless. Special mention goes to Commander O'Neil and Finlay, the former remaining for years at the Rot-ridden battlefield of Aeonia as "the sole veteran who remembers this battle with pride" and the latter going so far as to carry an unconscious Malenia across the entire continent while slaying anything that got in her way, despite rotting away the whole time.
• Master Swordswoman:
  • Revered as the single most skilled swordswoman in all the Lands Between, and likely rivaled only by Isshin the Sword Saint as the greatest swordfighter in FROMSOFT’s entire library. Nearly all of her basic attacks require her to swing her Hand of Malenia faster then the naked eye can follow, and her “Waterfowl Dance” has her leap into air and deliver a massive flurry of swings so rapidly that it looks the air around her becomes flooded by hundreds of slicing blade. Her skills are especially ridiculous when you consider how screwed her weight balance and center of gravity are due to most of her limbs being several times as dense as the rest of her (rather thickly-built prosthetics stated to be made of solid gold). Her dexterity and balance should be borderline impossible no matter how strong she is. To emphasize the point, the smaller copy of her sword obtainable from her Remembrance has both a relatively high Strength requirement for its type and a minimum Dexterity requirement of 48; not only the highest in Elden Ring, but the highest Dexterity/Skill requirement of any weapon in any Souls game.^note The Frayed Blade from Dark Souls 3 and the Ivory Straightsword from Dark Souls 2 come the closest with 40 DEX a piece. Meanwhile the highest requirement in Demon's Souls is for the Blind curved sword (24), in Dark Souls 1 it's Ornstein's Dragonslayer Spear (24), and in Bloodborne it's Lady Maria's Rakuyo (20). And even if you meet it, you still can't use the faster and more complex moves that she does.
  • Two of Malenia's items (Millicent's Prosthesis^note Which is actually part of one of Malenia's old prosthetic arms. and the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom) also boost dexterity. Two other items related to her (the Winged Sword Insignia and the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia) boost damage after multiple attacks, a buff that works best with fast, dexterity-based weapons.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: One of the reasons why Malenia is almost universally considered the hardest boss in the game, is that while other bosses fight like they belong in Dark Souls, Malenia fights like she belongs in Sekiro. To add to that she has a stronger version of Bloodborne's rally mechanic to boot.
• Modest Royalty: Despite being a Physical God, the co-leader of her faction, and a princess by Marika, Malenia dresses in a rather understated fashion more befitting a warrior than a royal. Her dress is simple and practical, Her "throne" within the Haligtree's roots is a simple wooden chair with no adornments, and aside from her prosthetics (which are only gold because she needs them to be to resist the Rot), the only sign of her rank is the cape she wears bearing the Haligtree sigil. All of her knights have more elaborate armor than her, with even her iconic helmet being fairly modest compared to theirs. Her sword is an unadorned chunk of dull metal, contrasting the decorative ones used by the other Shardbearers. What's especially unusual is how she's depicted in her own fiefdom. The other demigods adorn their territory with statues and portraits of themselves in royal regalia or battle dress, often in dominant posture and bearing weapons. The images made of Malenia throughout the Lands Between (such as the painting of her at the Shaded Castle◊) generally follow this trend in keeping with her continent-wide reputation as the World's Best Warrior. But in the Haligtree, the only idols of Malenia present are statues depicting her unarmed (both literally and figuratively), garbed in a commoner's clothing, and kneeling on her knees to embrace her child-sized brother. Said statues notably make no effort to downplay Malenia's physical disabilities, as she's depicted with her prosthetic detached, exposing a nasty-looking shoulder wound where her right arm should be. Her followers can still be found kneeling in reverence to these statues, including the battle-hungry Misbegotten Warriors, which is pretty telling.
• Monstrosity Equals Weakness: Inverted. After an entire game where you've slain all manner of monstrous, gigantic foes with all sorts of flashy abilities, you'd expect the Super Boss to be similarly imposing, as was the case in previous entries with Laurence, Midir, and the Demon of Hatred. Yet when you finally make it to the roots of the Haligtree to confront the Super Boss of Elden Ring, you're faced with... a sick, fatigued woman. A very tall one, but less so than most of the other bosses, and otherwise possessing no inhuman traits. She's rather pretty, in fact, if you can ignore her blighted skin. Her introductory cutscene emphasizes her humanity with her initially looking quite vulnerable, passed out with her arm visibly missing, her remaining one vainly reaching at her brother's former resting place. When she gets up and readies herself for combat, she further distinguishes herself from the other bosses by speaking calmly and politely while making no ostentatious display of power, instead simply baring her sword. Then the fight starts, she flash steps across the arena and expertly swings said 165-pound sword as if it was a feather, and you immediately learn that she's far more dangerous than the archmages and giants you'd been fighting prior.
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya: She begins her boss battle by announcing her name and title with the quote at the top. As she also repeats it every time she kills the player in the first phase of her boss fight, you will be hearing it a lot. Given what the Rot does to its victims, it quite possibly doubles as a Survival Mantra.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: As detailled in this video, Malenia interacts with the stagger/poise/stance system in a way that no other enemy in the game (or even in the Entire soulsborne franchise) does. She can cancel her stagger animation to dodge away from the player (stagger animations are supposed to play in full before the entity can do anything else), some of her attacks outright make her immune to stance break during their animations to let her use them in full (when stance-breaking is supposed to superseed any "super armor" to stun), and she can even cancel her attack animations to let her block incoming blows as well (when the player has to finish their attack animations before being able to do so).
• Mythical Motifs:
  • As a valorous warrior deity with a missing arm, she's likely partially inspired by Týr from Norse Mythology. Her armor is also extremely reminiscent of modern depictions of a Valkyrie, and like a famous valkyrie she's first met asleep next to a holy tree.
  • Her War God status and the constant reference to her metaphorical "wings" as symbols of her undefeated battle record (e.g. on the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom, Winged Sword Insignia, Hand of Malenia), to the point that her enemies "claim to have seen wings when her weapon was raised aloft; wings of fierce determination that have never known defeat" is probably in reference to the Greek goddess Nike. She was a war deity like Athena, but was thought to represent specifically victory, including in battle but also in other competitions like art or athletics. She was usually depicted with large birdlike wings in her form of "Winged Victory."
• Mythology Gag:
  • Her Great Rune allows you a grace period after taking damage to regain that lost health by landing hits against your enemies, mirroring a core mechanic from Bloodborne.
  • When she stabs Radahn in the trailer, the vast majority of the blade ends up jammed through his chest and shoulder but the force of the blow and the fact that she braced it with her shoulder drives a bit of the tang into her own body, causing her to bleed. This might be a reference to the Hiltless in Demon's Souls, a powerful and long katana that had the drawback of hurting the user whenever they swung it due to the player having to hold it directly at the tang, much like Malenia does after losing her prosthetic arm. Thankfully, the version you transpose from her Remembrance doesn't hurt you when you use it, even with heavy thrusts.
  • She and Miquella, aside from their similarities to Wolf and Kuro respectively, also cover a lot of the same ground as the twin princes Lothric and Lorian in Dark Souls 3 as cursed twin siblings who reject their society's stagnating religion to strike out on their own and usher in a new age, with one being a physical powerhouse famed for their martial achievements but still presented as somewhat vulnerable due to their disabilities, and the other a mage who's frail and weak in body but potent in magic ability, who acts as their stronger sibling's caretaker. Both Lorian and Malenia also have the title of "Blade of [other sibling]."
• Neck Lift: Her command grab has her strangling the Tarnished with her (still-organic) arm, then tossing them a good thirty feet into the air before catching them on her sword.
• Nerf: Her first phase was weakened from v 1.0 to all subsequent versions, most notably by making her less aggressive and removing one of her "slashes faster than eyesight" combos. She also could spam her regular Waterfowl Dance more (and didn't have to go below 80% HP to use it), blocked a lot more, and had less-predictable combos that could border on RNG territory with the number of variations she had (while currently she's a lot more predictable). A mod restores her 1.0 AI and is reportedly much more difficult than the current version of the fight.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: As its name suggests, the Hand of Malenia is specifically designed to be wielded one-handed despite its colossal size. It's all blade and thus completely lacks a hilt; instead the tang plugs directly into her prosthetic arm, letting her lock it into place for extra leverage on particularly heavy swings. The implication is that she doesn't trust her one remaining flesh-and-blood arm's continued integrity enough to rely on it in combat (though she can still use it well enough to stab Radahn and overpower the Tarnished, meaning she can fight with it if need be, but prefers not to).^note It should be noted that her inferior clone "daughter" can fight just fine with her left hand, but improves significantly once you get a prosthetic to replace her missing right, and subsequently transfers her sword to that one instead.
• Parental Abandonment: A divine (and sympathetic) example. The Kindred of Rot created from her bloom think of her as their mother and call themselves her "abandoned" and "unwanted children." This is because a) Malenia created them completely by accident, b) they're part of the rot she never asked for and firmly rejected, and c) she was in a coma from the Battle of Aeonia to her boss fight and probably didn't even know they existed.
• Past Experience Nightmare: After Malenia first wakes she seemingly recalls dreaming about Miquella's disappearance, giving in to her curse at Aeonia, the state of her disease, and the loss of her limbs to it. Millicent mentions in her own quest that the Rot causes nightmares, which paired with how it takes over its hosts implies that the Rot was attempting to unleash itself by driving Malenia to her lowest possible point during her multi-year coma.
• Patient Zero: Malenia is the source of the Scarlet Rot plaguing Caelid and several other areas of the Lands Between. She was apparently born with it, and according to the Unalloyed Gold Needle's description, is gifted upon her by an outer god distinct from the Greater Will.
• Physical God: She 'blooms' into the Goddess of Rot in the 2nd phase of the fight, and it's not simply a badass title: it's implied that she becomes to the Scarlet Rot what Marika is to the Greater Will, just without the Elden Ring in her possession. Even then, she mostly uses her swordsmanship and only sometimes uses her immense control over the Scarlet Rot to attack. The description of the Scarlet Aeonia states that she would have become "a true goddess", with a third and proper bloom, implying she had yet to become an even greater deity; the only other being described as a god is the Elden Beast, via the GOD SLAIN announcement when it is killed, so Malenia could very well have become the Scarlet Rot's equivalent of the Beast.
• Polar Opposite Twins: To Miquella. She's a voluptuous tall redhead, inherited from her father, while he (or his previous self) has Marika's blonde locks and is stuck in the body of a child. Malenia is a celebrated warrior wielding very destructive innate powers, while Miquella is more renowned as an inventor whose creation (the "Unalloyed Gold" series) can resist the power of Rot ravaging his own sister, as well as serving as her and her trusted generals' prosthetics after they lost their limbs. Similarly, their personal areas are also opposite of one another: Malenia's is full of the deadly Scarlet Rot, while Miquella holds domain of the evergreen and lush tops of the Haligtree.
• Poisonous Person: In her second phase, Malenia will begin weaponizing the Scarlet Rot, causing build-up on every attack and packing a new attack called "Scarlet Aeonia", which creates a massive blossom of Rot to ruin your day.
• Power Gives You Wings: In her second phase, she grows massive wings made of butterflies and her own hair.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Her hair reaches just below her shoulders in her first phase but grows to insane lengths to support the Aeonian Butterflies making up her wings as the Goddess of Rot.
• Power Incontinence:
  • Even when she attempted to keep the Scarlet Rot suppressed, the description of the Cleanrot Knight armor shows it still risked infecting those close to her. Millicent speaks of her needing to maintain her "will" and "sense of self" to prevent the Rot from bursting forth, a will that had been fraying by the time she got to Caelid. Judging by Millicent's questline and the existence of creatures such as the Kindred, the Rot seems to be a sentient force in its own right, constantly fighting to be released.
  • This is implied to be the case in the first phase of her boss fight. She's still keeping the Rot held back at that point and, while still very fast when she bothers to attack, is a rather passive and reactive boss past the first few seconds; it's surprisingly easy to space out and get heals off in front of her. When the Rot fully overtakes her for her second phase she suddenly becomes hyper-aggressive and barely gives you room to breathe, possibly because she now has no mental distractions holding her back.
• Pyrrhic Victory: She could be said to have won the battle with Radahn back in Aeonia, but the desperate gambit of giving in to Rot to end the battle started a disastrous chain of events that saw everything she and her brother were trying accomplish left in ruins. In any case, the Redmane Knight Armor and Cleanrot Armor say that Radahn's army was defeated while Malenia's was undefeated respectively, and the second Future Press guide outright says on p. 228 that with her blooming Malenia achieved "a narrow victory over Radahn" after fighting his army (she "met fierce resistance from Radahn and his forces" beforehand).
• Recurring Element:
  • She shares a lot of similarities with Lady Maria, being a husky-voiced yet soft-spoken Lady of War who is first encountered slumbering in a chair, who is a tall and powerful Lightning Bruiser who fights with finesse and Implausible Fencing Powers. Also like Maria, she in desperation resorts to using her Dangerous Forbidden Technique in her second phase despite normally trying to keep it suppressed, and is responsible for one of the game's most dangerous areas getting to be that way.
  • Malenia is Elden Ring's rendition of the boss fight that takes place in a field of flowers accompanied by Sad Battle Music, like Sword Saint Isshin, Gehrman the First Hunter, and the Soul of Cinder.
• Red Baron: The Blade of Miquella, the Severed, the Undefeated Swordswoman, the Goddess of Rot. She was also variously called "the Red Queen", and "the Undefeated".
• Rule of Three: The first time she bloomed she lost control of the Rot and fell unconscious after it, the second time is her second phase where she has much more control of the Rot and does not exhaust herself from using the power alone and the game implies that if she blooms a third time whe will truly become the Goddess of Rot.
• Rule of Symbolism: Her boss arena is a field of flowers situated under a waterfall. The religious symbolism is likely no coincidence given the clear link of the outer god cursing her to the concept of kegare, the fact that the fighting style of her mentor (and thus her as well) is patterned off of flowing water, and that the location where you find it is literally called the Holy Tree. The waterfall is significant in-universe for two reasons: one, Malenia's boss arena is the cleanest place in the whole Haligtree with no signs of rot despite it presumably having emanated from her; you can actually see a nearby rot pond being purified as it flows into it. Two, it is at the top of this waterfall that Malenia's daughter/clone/"offshoot" Millicent dies while potentially restoring and leaving the dew-soaked anti-rot needle that you return to Malenia herself later at the bottom of the same waterfall. To clarify the symbolism, getting to the bottom of the waterfall involves going through a drainage channel (where the water is also clean) and a church.
• Sad Battle Music: Her theme is very somber, especially in her first phase which has a soft violin piece complemented by a One-Woman Wail.
• Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Manages to play both sides of this trope by herself. Malenia, Blade of Miquella (a noble knightess who just wants to support her brother) wears an understated and modest set of light armor (well, as light as something can be while being made of unalloyed gold). Malenia, Goddess of Rot (the personification of the Scarlet Rot, albeit a very desperate and reluctant one) is naked with her modesty only preserved by mold and rot scars. Unlike most examples, it’s played for Fan Disservice, highlighting how badly the Rot is slowly destroying her body.
• Series Mascot: Malenia featured heavily in Elden Ring's advertising, getting prominent shots in all the trailers and TV spots (her theme music was even used for the story trailer)^note Phase one of it plays over the siege of Leyndell while phase two plays during our brief glimpse of her battle with Radahn, continuing into Ranni's ending narration. and being plastered all over the physical marketing, including nearly to-scale statues in stores. The game's collector's edition◊ came in a box adorned with her heraldry (golden tree on a crimson field), and also included a 9-inch statue of her. The premium edition added a replica of her helmet, which George RR Martin posted a picture of himself wearing to promote it.
• Serial Prostheses: Going by her pre-Shattering depictions, she first lost her right arm, then most of her left leg, then the bottom third of her right leg, replacing all lost parts with unalloyed gold prosthetics. Judging from the lesions seen on her in her battle with Radahn and the gold wraps in the present, she was well on her way to losing her left arm before Miquella could use unalloyed gold to treat it. The same gold raps are seen at the very ends of what's left of her legs (including the part of her left thigh that is normally covered by the prosthetic and not visible without a model viewer), suggesting that's why the decay stopped where it did.
• Shields Are Useless: Against her, they are. Her lifesteal activates when she lands a hit, not when she damages an opponent, so even a completely blocked hit will set you 300-400 HP back in killing her.
• Signature Move: Two of them, both of which the player can obtain via her remembrance; Waterfowl Dance as the Ash of War on the Hand of Malenia, and Scarlet Aeonia as an incantation.
  • The "Waterfowl Dance"; a long series of sword swings consisting of three distinct combos chained together that Malenia can execute so rapidly that her sword arm is invisible to the naked eye, the tip of her sword exceeds the speed of sound, and it looks like the air around her is filled with hundreds of slicing blades (in mechanical terms, it's a rapidly repeating spherical hitbox about 8 meters in diameter that repeatedly hits anything caught in it). Notable in that, unlike some other cinematic attacks like Radahn's meteor, Morgott's sword rain, or Mohg's Bloodboon Ritual, Waterfowl Dance is not a limited-use super move, nor does it require any set-up. It's a standard part of her move set that she can jump into at any time during either of her phases (if the AI is feeling particularly sadistic, she can very well perform more Waterfowl Dance slashes than "standard" ones in any given match).
  • Her second phase adds another, Scarlet Aeonia. After her disastrous duel with Radahn, she became infamous throughout the Lands Between for this, a Servants of Rot Incantation that creates a gigantic glowing red "flower" (similar in appearance to the real world "Devil's Finger" Fungus) that sprays a massive cloud of Scarlet Rot onto the surroundings upon blooming. An entire region of Caelid is called Aeonia Swamp due to being the epicenter of her biggest ever Scarlet Aeonia which she used to bring her fight with Radahn to a stalemate and which permanently transformed Caelid into the rot-ravaged hellscape it is now.
• Simple, yet Awesome: Her first phase's move set in a nutshell. Unlike From Software's other sword masters like Isshin, Gael, Artorias, Maria, Gwyn, or Gehrman, Malenia doesn't have noticeable visual effects on her hits, nor does she have flashy choreography, nor does she dramatically telegraph heavy strikes by e.g. sheathing her sword or holding it over her head, nor does she complement her swordplay with gimmicks like area of effect, Sword Beam, or Razor Wind attacks, nor does she deal non-physical secondary damage like both them and every other Remembrance boss. She swings a huge (and relatively sanely proportioned) sword really fast and hard. But her insane speed, strength, and the aforementioned lack of telegraphing makes her far deadlier than them. Even in her second phase, 95% of the danger comes from her sword, with most of her Rot attacks being convenient punish opportunities. Even her flashiest physical technique and Signature Move is simply "swinging a huge sword even faster." It's particularly easy to notice if you mod bosses to fight each other; while most of them are telegraphing their showy techniques, Malenia will keep relentlessly throwing the same few quick combos (and occasional deflecting/dodging), landing many times as many hits and easily winning as a result.
• Sinister Nudity: Enters battle wearing a simple light armor set that appears entirely too modest for someone of her reputation, but when her first phase is defeated, she taps into the power of the Scarlet Rot that plagued her from birth, losing all of her clothes and armor in the ensuing transformation. It turns out, her affliction has caused large parts of her body to rot away, so despite once being an Amazonian Beauty, her nudity is much more horrifying than titillating now. Her dialogue even lampshades this as the camera pans across her naked form for the first time:
  "You will witness true horror. Now, rot!"
• Sinister Scimitar: As noted in Suave Sabre, the Hand of Malenia may be classed as a katana, but it's more closely related (both in and out of universe) to the shamshir, a Middle Eastern weapon that's the ancestor of sabres and scimitars. Once Malenia becomes the Goddess of Rot, her massive, exotic, and elegant weapon begins to seem less like a swashbuckling hero's blade and more like an otherworldly instrument of death, like the arc of the Grim Reaper's scythe.
• Small Role, Big Impact: She's only an Optional Boss at the end of the game, but Malenia is very important to the world. She was one of the chief belligerents in the Shattering and released the Scarlet Rot within herself to gain an advantage over Radahn during their stalemate, turning Caelid into a hellscape of nightmarish creatures and rotting landscapes and making Radahn into a wandering, zombified nightmare, which the player is required to Mercy Kill. Defeating her also allows you to trade needles with (probably) her comatose form inside the flower she leaves; in exchange for the Unalloyed Gold Needle you gain Miquella's Needle, the only thing that can permanently purge the Frenzied Flame.
• The Stoic: The Tarnished’s encounter with Malenia showcases a woman with the emotions of icy steel and an unflappable fortitude; even when angered she barely raises her voice to the Tarnished.
• Statuesque Stunner: She's over eight feet tall. With the Tarnished's head about level with her waist.
• Stop Worshipping Me: Absolutely can't stand being worshiped for the Scarlet Rot. The Kindred of Rot are called her "abandoned children" because they are by nature the Goddess of Rot's followers (being created by the Rot she spreads) and seek to spread the Rot, while Malenia wants to hold the Rot back and eventually be entirely rid of it. If you end Millicent's quest by helping her and return to Gowry, he will be lamenting how Malenia detests her followers in the Order of Rot.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She heavily resembles both of her parents◊, but is especially close to Radagon, being essentially a female version of him complete with the same hair, similar facial features, similar heights, and similar lean, muscular builds (Radagon is noticeably broader and taller than his daughter, but they're still by far the closest demigods to each other in size). Even their injuries (a severed arm, torso covered in cracks, both eyes lost) look somewhat similar, and both were caused by divine curses. They even have initially similar skill sets as adept warriors (Malenia is a Magically Inept Fighter by default who uses physical strength and skill alone, while Radagon started as a barbarian champion whose soreseal and scarseal both only boost vigor, endurance, strength, and dexterity; later he sought to become "complete" by learning incantations as well) wielding large golden swords, contrasting their partners/faction co-leaders who are instead powerful mages (Miquella goes without saying, and Marika's scarseal and soreseal in contrast to Radagon's boost mind, intelligence, faith, and arcane), whom they subordinate themselves to as their right hands and chief military commanders. You'd be forgiven for thinking of her as a female clone of Radagon, because she kind of is.
• Strong and Skilled: Malenia is terrifyingly strong, with enough power to meet the much-larger Radahn in a Blade Lock and thrust her sword with the energy of a tank shell, but her greatest asset is her superhuman martial arts prowess. On a gameplay level, she notably combines extremely high health and damage with dynamic and quick strikes, and has one of the only movesets that counters common cheese tactics like range spam (she dodges) and stunlocking (she can cancel out of staggers by deflecting, and has a great many moves with hyperarmor on them, which she can also cancel her stagger into at any time).
• Suave Sabre: While the game officially classes it as a katana, the Hand of Malenia more closely resembles a European sabre or Middle Eastern scimitar thanks to its sharply-pointed tip and the more pronounced, uneven curve on its blade. Considering that Malenia's mentor used a shamshir (the ancestor of both types of weapons), this makes a lot of sense. Whatever the case, though, it's an appropriately classy weapon for a dashing, honourable Lady of War.
• Superboss:
  • Malenia is this game's answer to the likes of Demon of Hatred, Laurence, and Midir, being an outrageously difficult boss who can only be accessed through obscure means and does not need to be fought to complete the game. In this case, you need to collect both halves of the Haligtree Medallion to be able to access the topmost part of the map. One trek through the Haligtree later, and you'll be met with a duel against Malenia herself, a tanky, lightning-fast swordfighter who is deliberately designed to be the toughest fight in Elden Ring. Her bag of tricks includes: regaining health on every hit (note she doesn't have to deal damage with these hits, blocking her attacks with your shield will still heal her all the same); lengthy attack patterns with tricky dodge-timings; one of the fastest grab attacks in the game; a minimum of three needed parries before she can be hit with a critical; attacks which inflict Scarlet Rot build-up in the second phase; and her signature move, Waterfowl Dance: Blade Spam incarnate which has 3 phases to it, is pretty much guaranteed instant death should any of those phases connect, and whose only consistent methods of dodging are either learning the move by rote to perfectly I-frame all of the flurries, or to bypass it using certain Ashes of War that grant de facto invincibility for a few seconds like Golden Vow or Bloodhound's Step (alternatively, using a Spirit Ash as a meatshield for it).
  • Bandai Namco released statistics revealing that Malenia is singularly responsible for over 6%^note She comprises 329 million out of 5.9 billion attempts (5.6%), and a boss who took many attempts like her loses proportionally less from excluding the one successful attempt from the total than bosses who only took one to a few. of all player boss deaths - in a game with about 200 bosses.^note The list covers 165 boss fights, but lot of them are dual or triple bosses. She killed over twice as many players as the final boss. This is particularly notable because A. Malenia is completely optional and semi-hidden, and B. Malenia is an endgame challenge who players face at the height of their experience and power - and she still takes dozens of attempts on average to clear.
• Super-Senses: In addition to fighting expertly without sight, she isn't at all affected if you use Crepus's Vial, which eliminates all sound you make while moving.
• Super-Speed: While all the demigods can move at superhuman speed, Malenia is the fastest by a good margin. Particularly noticeable with her Waterfowl Dance move where she throws several dozen swords strokes with her nine-foot blade in under five seconds, with her flurry being so fast that all but ten of the swings are invisible to the naked eye, with the last dozen even appearing to land after she has stopped moving. Even her basic thrust attack◊ has her accelerating at literally hundreds of times the rate of an Olympic sprinter. She's also one of the few bosses who can specifically dodge projectiles after they've been fired, including cannon balls, sound waves, and lightning bolts, making her one of the trickier encounters to tackle with a ranged build.
• Super-Strength: Even among the demigods, Malenia's strength is amazing. She's physically powerful enough to lock blades with the likes of Radahn, generate hundreds of tons of force with her legs whenever she dashes, and strike with the energy of a tank shell in each of her quick Waterfowl Dance slashes. Her grab animation also has her effortlessly overpowering the end-game Tarnished with one half-rotted arm. This is all reflected by her in-game stats as she hits extremely hard, with most of her slashes dealing around 600 damage and most of her thrusts in excess of 1,200; this is actually similar to Godfrey's axe strikes on a per-hit basis, except her strikes come out much faster than his.
• Tragic Villain: It's hard to describe her as villainous at all, but the Scarlet Rot which she's borne all her life makes her a threat to everyone in the Lands Between. The two times she allows it to bloom, it's treated as something she submits to out of desperation when she can't win by herself, and if the Tarnished didn't put her down the second time, she might have ended up covering the world in the Rot.
• Truly Single Parent: It is stated in the Rotten Winged Sword Insignia that Millicent and her four sisters were born from when Malenia unleashed the scarlet rot upon Caelid during her battle with General Radahn. It's implied that she spawned more children than those five, as Gowry seems oddly knowledgeable on the "blooming" process and a Scarlet Aeonia (much smaller than the one Malenia herself leaves upon defeat, but a perfect match for the one Millicent leaves one ending to her quest) with the Traveler's Set on it (which all of the sisters wear, including Millicent) can be found near Malenia's boss room.
• Uncertain Doom:
  • It's not made clear if she's actually dead at the end of her boss fight. Upon defeat she leaves a large flower instead of a corpse, which is a symbol of death and rebirth for the Scarlet Rot. In the bad ending to Millicent's quest, she leaves a near-identical (though much smaller) flower, and Gowry states that she will be "reborn" from it in due time. Malenia also noticeably continues to talk for several lines despite losing her body and Rune,^note With two exceptions, every other main boss is scripted to have their death speech stop after the "Great Rune and/or Remembrance acquired" message comes up, and even of those two, Morgott clearly does die when he is finished talking. The other exception? Rykard. and the Scarlet Aeonia obtained from her Remembrance describes her as if she's still alive and capable of "blooming" again. The Remembrance itself refers to her in the present tense, which isn't the case for any other character.^note E.g. "Miquella and Malenia are both the children of a single god" vs "It was the vassal beast of the Greater Will and living incarnation of the concept of Order" or "The Red Lion General wielded gravitational powers.
  • Then there's the business with the Unalloyed Gold Needle. If you interact with the flower Malenia leaves after her boss fight while holding it, you'll receive an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone and Miquella's Needle - the latter being a new needle[[note]]Close inspection reveals that the entire structure and construction is different and it's even spun of a new material with a distinct color and texture; it's not just a modified version of the one you already had. with a distinct design and purpose (countering the Frenzied Flame rather than the Scarlet Rot), and the former being a clue on how to properly use it (it's a scale of Dragonlord Placidusax, whose chamber in Farum Azula you need to enter for the Frenzied Flame to be permanently purged). Doing this costs you the Unalloyed Gold Needle, which you leave in the flower. The interaction amounts to a trade and a nonverbal hint, which may indicate that Malenia is still conscious. Notably, right before this option becomes available, the description for the Unalloyed Gold Needle also changes: it now ends with Millicent's quote about how she needs to "return to Malenia [her] dignity and sense of self"; in many quests including earlier in this one, reiterating quotes from other characters is used to give the player directions. And the prompt for the interaction with the flower? "Return the Unalloyed Gold Needle." Note also that this interaction only works with one specific version of the Unalloyed Gold Needle: the one soaked in the "dew" from Millicent's body, with Millcient herself being an "offshoot" of Malenia. The implication is that the Tarnished leaving the Unalloyed Gold Needle in the flower ensures that Malenia will still retain her mind and memories when she wakes up as a human, rather than being an amnesiac puppetted by the Rot like Millicent was when they first met. Additionally, with the path to Farum Azula opened by the burning of the Erdtree in all endings she theoretically could even be cured post-game. But since there's no further action from the flower past this point, it's impossible to know for sure what it all really means, and whether it's an Aborted Arc, Ambiguous Ending, or Sequel Hook for DLC.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • To Miquella, her twin brother. As her title would suggest she dedicated herself to being her physically frail brother's protector and champion, and willingly forgoes any path to attain power for herself in favor of supporting Miquella's vision. She speaks longingly about him, and how she waits steadfast at the base of the Haligtree in the hope of his return, before beginning her deathmatch with the Tarnished. When defeated her last words are an apology to him for losing.
  • Her followers had this to her in turn, much like Radahn's men; her Cleanrot knights fought fanatically at her side despite knowing full well that choosing to stand by her side meant death by Scarlet Rot one of the most horrifying fates imaginable, and one of her generals, Commander O'Neil, proudly still displays her and Miquella's banner and slays her enemies in Caelid decades after she's left. Residents of the Haligtree such as Misbegotten can also be seen fervently praying to statues of her in the Haligtree, most notably near the Haligtree Town Plaza.
• The Unreveal:
  • It's never fully explained why Malenia attacked Caelid in the first place. Her domain is almost on the opposite side of the Lands Between and she had to march all the way through Altus, Liurnia, and Limgrave to get there. It couldn't have been a desire for Great Runes or territory, as she completely disregarded the much easier and more valuable target of Liurnia (which was in a civil war and not led by a fellow powerful warrior-god), a larger, richer, and closer area 'led' by a nearly defenseless shardbearer (Rennala). She didn't even take Godrick's Great Rune after defeating him (and thus presumably subduing Limgrave, though she took no effort to leave an occupying force). Unlike Radahn, Godrick, and possibly Rykard, she didn't try to attack the capital at any point, despite her realm being the second closest to it. Radahn didn't seem to be threatening her either, as he had suffered a recent defeat against Morgott at Leyndell and apparently either wasn't even able to conquer Godrick's territory right next to him or didn't want to bother to do so. Seemingly the only reason she'd have to go there is Miquella was around that area (having been kidnapped and held by Mohg right underneath Caelid, an event implied to have happened before Malenia and Radahn's fight as the latter is shown after the former in the intro), though it's unknown whether she knew this. If the goal was to kill Radahn and retrieve Miquella or her having a reason to go after Radahn specifically, it's never given.
  • The description of her Great Rune notes that, were it not infected by the Rot, her Great Rune would be the most sacred of them all - and implicitly (as the Great Runes reflect their wielders), she'd be the most "sacred" of the demigods. While this might be referring to her status as an Empyrean, i.e. one of the three candidates capable of succeeding Marika, the description seems to indicate Malenia specifically. The reason for this is currently unexplained.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Infecting Radahn with her Rot caused it to spread through all of the Caelid Wilds, leaving it utterly wiped.
• Walking Wasteland: As a result of being cursed with the Scarlet Rot, Malenia would unwillingly spread said Rot around her despite her best intentions, laying waste to Caelid after her fight with Radahn. She finally willingly weaponizes her power as the Goddess of Rot against the Tarnished for the second phase of their fight. Her mere presence let the Rot infect the Haligtree, dooming it and the civilization surrounding it to a slow death.
• War God: Radahn's primary rival in this department, Malenia is both a deity and one of the setting's most formidable fighters, spoken of with reverence by both characters and item descriptions as a renowned and mighty warrior. Most in-game art of her, like her engraving on the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom or the portrait of her in the Shaded Castle, are consistent with this image. This directly contrasts her against her Non-Action Guy brother, the other deity of the Haligtree. Interestingly though, when you finally get to her domain, you don't see any depictions of her like this; instead her subjects are kneeling to statues of Malenia simply cradling her smaller brother◊, without her helm, armor, sword, or even prosthetics◊.
• Winged Humanoid: Metaphorically as the Blade of Miquella, literally as the Goddess of Rot. Her determination and martial prowess are often referred to as her "wings", such as in the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom, Winged Sword Insignia, and Hand of Malenia descriptions. As the Goddess of Rot, she grows a pair of massive moth-like wings made out of masses of Aeonian butterflies clinging to her hair, and uses them to fly out of reach, quickly reposition, and set up some of her attacks.
• Worf Had the Flu: Her body was barely holding itself together by the time she fought Radahn (going by the fact that her eyes are perpetually closed under her helmet she may have even already been blind by that point), yet still fought him to a draw. She has decayed even further by the time she meets the Tarnished, though presumably her going full Goddess of Rot more than made up for it. It is, however, greatly downplayed by the fact she still has no difficulty in beating the ever loving life out of the Tarnished, as many players can attest to when facing off against her as a Superboss.
• World's Best Warrior: One of the contenders for the title in the setting, with Ranni referring to her and Radahn as "the mightiest to remain" in the story trailer. Malenia is noted to be a superlative and undefeated warrior among her siblings, her closest bout being when she dueled Radahn, another candidate of this trope, to an inconclusive draw, after having already been injured◊ fighting through his army per Word of God. Even then, the Rot she marked him with reduced him to a feral shadow of his former self. She's indisputably the setting's best warrior by the time of her own boss fight. She was already strong enough to stalemate Radahn in an extended fight while specifically suppressing the Rot and even in that state (i.e. her first phase) is arguably already the game's toughest boss. But if you push her to phase 2, she'll actually utilize the Rot properly for the first time in her life and gain a huge power-up, effectively doubling her health, enhancing all of her attacks, and granting her several new ones including one move where she launches six duplicates of herself and another where she triggers a big explosion. Furthermore it's stated by the Incantation obtained from using her Remembrance, that if her scarlet flower bloomed a third time, Malenia would evolve into "a true god", which she apparently wasn't before. It's worth noting if the player does defeat her she drops 480,000 runes (runes being directly proportionate to someone's power in-universe), the highest of any entity in the game and nearly as much as the two final bosses combined.
• World's Strongest Woman: Ranni calls her and Radahn "the two mightiest" in the story trailer,^note She is even more straightforward in the Japanese script, calling them 最も強かった二人が or literally "the two strongest people." making Malenia the strongest woman in the Lands Between. Considering her insane damage output in-game, her matching Radahn swinging a building-sized sword at her with her own strike, and her ability to swing her 160-pound sword faster than the eye can track with one hand, it's believable. By the time of the game, her only rival in strength has decayed to the point that Blaidd◊ and Iji only say that he was the strongest, confirming that Malenia has surpassed him and is now not only the World's Strongest Woman, but the World's Strongest, period.
• Worthy Opponent: Regards the Tarnished as this after they defeat her, commenting on their strength and apologizing to her twin she's finally met her match. Notable as she and Godfrey are the only bosses in the entire game to regard the Tarnished this way, while all the others either completely disregard^note e.g. Rennala, Rykard, Mohg, Radagon. or actively look down on them.^note e.g. Godrick, Morgott, Maliketh. More subtly, she ends her intro cutscene with a saber salute and (in Japanese) uses a semi-archaic polite form of "you" right before doing so.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Malenia is more resistant to the effects of the Scarlet Rot than most others, even able to wield it to her advantage to an extent, but she is still not immune to the disease. The Rot gradually consumes her from within, especially without the Unalloyed Gold Needle her brother made to hold it at bay. This even applies on a mechanical level: Malenia's lifelong fight against the Rot has rendered her highly resistant to its effects and even regular poison,^note You need to inflict 1,481 points of Rot build-up for the effect to trigger, which is about four times what you need for other late-game bosses like Morgott, Godfrey, or Maliketh, or twice for especially resistant ones like Mohg or Fortissax. but she's still able to have it inflicted, and it will eventually kill her like anyone else. Miquella's main motivation for establishing the Haligtree was to subvert this trope by finding a cure for her Rot, but Mohg kidnapped him before he could. The player does find a cure that seemingly would work,^note Miquella's needles, which normally only hold back outer god influence, are capable of totally purging and reversing it if used in Farum Azula due to it being "outside time", tying into how the Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones can defy gods' wills enough to slay them due to being able to "lightly twist time." but there's no option to use it or even say a single word about it to her.

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