Characters / Elden Ring: Demigods: Radagon's Lineage

aka: Elden Ring Radahn

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

Radagon's Lineage

Marika's second husband Radagon, as well as their children and stepchildren. Radahn, Rykard and Ranni are the children of Radagon and Queen Rennala who were elevated to demigodhood upon Radagon's ascendancy to the Elden Throne, whereas Malenia and Miquella are Radagon's children with Marika.

Radagon, Second Elden Lord (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

See Marika's folder

With Rennala

Starscourge Radahn

Starscourge Radahn

Voiced by: Pip Torrens

"I was born a champion's cub. Now I am the Lord of the Battlefield's lion."

Also known as the Conqueror of the Stars and the Red Lion. Son of Rennala and Radagon. Radahn is the Red Lion General, leader of Queen Marika's armies, and the most famous of the Demigods. During the Shattering War, Radahn lead his Red Lion army in conquest, before facing his half-sister Malenia in the disastrous Battle of Caelid, the final major battle of the war.

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• A Boy and His X: Radahn is so attached to his horse Leonard that, once he became too big and heavy to ride it, he learned gravity magic just so he could continue to do so. Even in his feral state, indiscriminately attacking anything which moves around him and devouring corpses that don't, he never tries to do the horse any harm.
• Achilles' Heel: As his body has already been ravaged by the Scarlet Rot before the festival-goes face off with him, Radahn is extremely susceptible to the Rot status ailment.
• Agony of the Feet: He's missing his feet when you fight him, even though he had them when fighting Malenia in the trailer. Either he (unsuccessfully) tried to stop the spread of the rot by amputating them, or they simply rotted and fell off on their own and there wasn't enough of him left mentally to care.
• Almighty Idiot: By the time he's battled in-game, Radahn is still an immensely powerful warrior and sorcerer, but he's so mentally degraded by the Scarlet Rot that he's barely more than a raging animal.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Unlike his parents and siblings, who mostly have natural skin tones, Radahn's skin was a dark bluish gray color even before he was infected by the Scarlet Rot. The portrait of him in Rykard's manor◊ indicates that, like his monstrous size and proportions, this was a recent development, possibly related to learning gravity magic from a similarly oddly-coloured Onyx Lord.
• Ambiguously Related:
  • Some context clues imply Radahn might have been a practitioner of Dragon Communion. Disproportionate gigantism, grey stone-like skin, and yellow eyes are all side-effects of consuming too many hearts, Caelid has the largest concentration of dragons in the Lands Between, and the Cathedral of Dragon Communion is just outside Redmane Castle. The dragonkin background in the character creation also has grey skin and yellow eyes, though not gigantism. His soldiers run the Gael Tunnel mine, which has a Magma Wyrm (a practicioner of Dragon Communion whose transformation went wrong) as the dungeon boss. On the other hand, neither he nor any of his knights utilize any Communion spells (though they do use fire spells), and Radahn's eyes lack the slit design possessed by other Dragonkin.
  • There are Blackflame Monks and a Godskin Apostle occupying Radahn's divine tower in Caelid alongside his Redmane soldiers. They're coded not to attack each other, and if you lure them into the same room they'll work together to kill you and go back to their respective guard positions after you're dead. The meaning of this is never clarified. It could be tied to his implicit alliance with Rykard, who also has Blackflame Monks and Godskins in his manor, and whose war machines fight alongside Radahn's men around Caelid. Radahn's Divine Tower also has a chest holding the Godslayer's Greatsword.
  • On top of the Blackflame Monks, both he and his brother Rykard have some undisclosed relation to the Fire Monks. Fire Monk Flame Chariots (confirmed as such by the Note: Flame Chariots item) operated by their members can be found patrolling alongside his troops in Caelid, as well as at Mount Gelmir and in the Fire Monks' own camps. The Fire Monks are dutybound to suppress the flame of the giants and there are giant corpses all around Radahn's territory of Caelid, so that might have something to do with it^note Cut dialogue from Enia also has her saying that Radahn is a "slayer of giants.", or Radahn's troops might have called the monks for help containing the rot after the Battle of Aeonia. The Visage Shield, bearing the face of a Fire Giant for the stated purpose of teaching its bearers to fear their power, is also found in Caelid.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Most of Radahn's actions, even in his feral state, are pretty understandable; Kill foes, eat foes, and protect his horse. But it is not really clear why he keeps howling at the sky, as Jerren insists on pointing out more than once if you talk to him before the fight. Is Radahn lamenting his fate? Or copying his idol Godfrey? Is he making sure the Redmanes know there's still fight in him? Is he calling out to Malenia for them to finish their battle? Or is it part of his perpetual crusade against the stars and the creatures that live among them? Or is it just his Scarlet Rot-induced madness forcing him to howl? No one can say, but Jerren and the Redmanes take it as a sign that he wants to be put out of his misery.
  • Exactly why Radahn "holds the stars in place" is never properly explained, barring that in doing so he "holds Sellia secure" and that he sealed Ranni's destiny in the process. The Telescope's item description implies he may have done it on behalf of the Golden Order to "fetter" different fates.^note "During the age of the Erdtree, Carian astrology withered on the vine. The fate once writ in the night skies had been fettered by the Golden Order.", alongside the fact he bears the symbol of the Erdtree on his cape and idolizes Godfrey, but the game never confirms or denies this.
• Animal Motifs: Lions, as can be seen in his armor's motifs, his greatbow being called the Lion Greatbow, his title as the Red Lion General, and the name of his associated knightly order, the Redmane Knights. He adopted this motif in deliberate imitation of his idol, Godfrey.
  • Elephants could also apply, with him being a colosssal, bluish-grey, tusked juggernaut who was beloved by his men and considered one of the more noble demigods. In addition, his stumps of feet resemble elephant's feet, and despite his mind deteriorating from the scarlet rot, he never forgot his love for his steed or his mastery over gravity sorcery.
• Anti-Villain: Radahn is one of the more noble demigods and has many heroic qualities (such as his good relationship with his troops and close ties to Leonard) despite having what's implied to be a rather self-centered motivation. His current state also makes him quite pitiable. Yet by claiming a shard despite having no valid right to the throne, and subsequently prosecuting his war as far as Leyndell to obtain said throne, he bears much of the responsibility for the scars left on the Lands Between.
• The Archmage: While he may not look like the type, Radahn is also one of the most powerful sorcerers in Lands Between, having mastered gravity magic. In fact, his renown as Starscourge was earned since his youth from "challenging the stars" and warring against star spawn beasts. During his youth he created a gravity well over Lands Between to arrest the cycles of constellations; blocking shooting stars off the world before falling to the land, and repulsing away the lights of distant stars (which is why the night in Lands Between has very few visible stars prior to his defeat) — all of which prevent Ranni from contacting the Dark Moon and become an Empyrean. Even after having been weakened by the Scarlet Rot and driven past the brink of insanity, he still has enough power and sanity left in him to maintain this gravity well, to the point after his defeat an entire meteor shower shows up, from all the shooting stars previously halted in place. Not only that, but the fight itself includes many spectacular displays of gravity magic, especially his infamous Dynamic Entry halfway through. All in all, these are incredible achievements for someone who originally learned magic just so he could keep riding his horse.
• Armor Is Useless: Unique among his siblings, Radahn wears full plate armor. This appears to be more for appearance than utility though since the trailer depicts Malenia plunging her sword through his chest (excusable as she's incredibly strong) and a Cleanrot knight shoving a spear through his stomach (less so, as they're mere Elite Mooks). You can see several spears sticking out of his model too. Gameplay-wise he actually has the fewest hit points of any demigod besides Godrick, even though half of them go into battle shirtless. Then again, the man is a shadow of who he once was.
• Ax-Crazy: His battle with Malenia left him infected with the Scarlet Rot, which slowly ate him from the inside and drove him insane to the point he is now just a feral, mindless beast who has wandered the desert of Caelid eating nothing but the corpses of his dead friends and enemies.
• Baby Of The Bunch: Again, it is unclear where the age gap is with Radagon's and Rennala's children as it is left ambigious. But several hints may point to Radahhn being the youngest. For one, of the three siblings, Radahn was the most steadfast loyal to the Golden Order and had a almost naive admiration of Godfrey. This suggests strongly that he was raised more in Leyndell rather than Caria, which would have been possible before the shattering, as this was when the influence of the Golden Order reached its height. His brother and sister, Rykard and Ranni, was far more suspicious of the Golden Order which would have only been possible if they were born right after the political marriage; where they spent most of their childhood in Caria and saw the aftereffects of their father's war on their own home. Likewise, another hint is that Caria itself is strongly matrilinial and it would benefit for a daughter to be born first. Ranni is the next in line to the Carian royal throne, putting her in status of crown princess which is confirmed by Iji who outright calls Ranni the First heir to the throne. Lastly, if Ranni and Rykard was indeed born right after the political marriage and Radahn much later on, the age gap would have been quite big between the oldest (Ranni) and the youngest (Radahn), potentially limiting any close sibling relationship of the two which is shown when Ranni helped Rykard once but outright dismissed Radahn as a hindrance.
• Badass Army: His Red Lion Army was one of the most hardened and skilled among the Lordsworn, and they won him victory after victory through his leadership during the Shattering. They are such badass soldiers, they've managed to contain most of the Rot in Caelid even after being decimated during the Shattering and losing their leader.
• Badass Boast: Despite being voiceless besides grunting and roaring by now, Radahn's Redmane Helmet attributes the page quote to him, which to be fair is one hell of a way to sell your prowess. It's implied he was fond of such boasts in general, but the page quote in particular sticks out as his father Radagon apparently saw his red hair as a Mark of Shame, whereas the same helmet reveals Radahn prided himself on the "heroic implications" of the red hair his father passed down to him, as it was considered a sign of a superhuman destiny in the age before the Erdtree.
• Badass Cape: He has a massive, embroidered one dyed a deep crimson, which trails behind him as he charges across the battlefield.
• Bash Brothers: Was one to Jerren, to the point Jerren put aside his duties to the Carians to work for Radahn as a commander during The Shattering war and the two even swore an oath together to grant each other an "honorable death" if one were ever to fall to madness.
• BFS: Radahn's swords are massive even compared to him, with one being larger than the Tarnsished's entire body. Later on in the fight, he will use his gravity magic to cover his swords in stone, causing them to become even bigger.
• Big Little Brother: If Ranni is the eldest sibling, then Radahn fits this trope to a comical degree as he absolutely towers over his sister, even in her original body.
• Blessed with Suck: It is stated in its description that his Great Rune (which enhances health, stamina, and mana when used by the player) is responsible for him surviving his duel with Malenia, due to the fact that it "burns, to resist the encroachment of the scarlet rot." He probably would've preferred that it didn't, as instead of quickly dying to a Worthy Opponent, his Rune's resistance ensured that he would be doomed to a slow, extremely painful, and thoroughly undignified death, spending his last days feasting on corpses like an animal while his body and mind both decay from the inside.
• Blood Knight: Radahn craved war, and, wanting to emulate his idol, grew obsessed with battle at a very young age.
• Bring It: In the Story Trailer, Radahn answers Malenia readying her prosthetic arm and accompanying sword by drawing his greatswords out of the the ground (as depicted in the page picture) with his Gravity Magic with enough force to create Chunky Updraft when combined with his roar.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Despite being more or less a rabid beast by now, Radahn will still go out of his way to gently stomp Leonard into the sands when he is doing particularly feral or wide-ranging attacks for it's own safety. Even stark raving mad, he is prioritizing his horse's safety over his own.
• Climax Boss: Several characters, quest lines, and incidental details found throughout the first half of the game mention Radahn, his conflict with Malenia in Caelid, and in particular the Redmane Festival being prepared in his name with a select few allies requesting your presence at the event, culminating in your participation as you lead a small army to take the mad demigod down. This is all accentuated with him being given a special introduction cutscene detailing his backstory and how he got reduced to his current state, all of which gives the battle with him a greater sense of gravitas compared to Godrick or Rennala.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To the Nameless King. Both are powerful and respected Magic Knight riders with ties to royalty who nonetheless have fallen from grace but in each and every way express those facts very differently. The King learned faith-based electrical magic derived from the sun but forsook his birthplace to live with the dragons his country fought while Radahn learned intelligence-based gravity magic to continue using his humble horse and became known as the Starscourge who serves his country and people unrelentingly. The King uses a single swordspear while Radahn is Dual Wielding swordsman who uses a Great Bow for ranged combat. The Nameless King is implied to be Lord Gwyn's firstborn who was unnamed and disowned for his actions whose existence was only hinted at in the first game and a very out of the way optional boss in the third while Radahn is still considered a demi-god beloved by his subjects even after becoming infected by the Scarlet Rot, and one of the very first characters revealed for Elden Ring. Mechanically the fight with the Nameless King tests your endurance across two endgame level bosses while Radahn can be fought at almost anytime and is implied by the story to be fought as essentially a raid boss whittling down his endurance through summoning multiple allies. And lastly the Nameless King rides a powerful storm drake called the King of the Storms that he sacrifices and absorbs for the second phase, while Radahn rides an emaciated horse that he never considers harming even after long since losing all other reason.
• Cool Sword: The Starscourge Greatswords, a pair of tremendous cleavers made from black steel and engraved with the sigil of Gravity Sorcery. Like the blades used by the Alabaster and Onyx Lords, Radahn's swords double as the stave he used to cast magic.
• Death Seeker: Jerren states the small part of Radahn still there wants an honorable end to his current state of misery.
• The Dreaded: As the Red Lion General and "the Shattering's strongest Demigod", Radahn was famed and feared throughout the land as an apex warrior, magician, and tactician as a General. Attempting to summon Patches to help you during the boss will result in Patches spawning in, taking one look at the thing you're fighting, and proceed to peace the fuck out instantly.
• Dual Wielding: His Starscourge Greatswords come in a pair, and both he and a Tarnished with the right stats can use them to great effect to tear foes assunder.
• Dynamic Entry: Halfway into the fight, Radahn gathers his strength and leaps high into the sky, beyond what you can see. The music fades out and the time advances to night... only for him to come barreling down on the battlefield from orbit, striking with the force of a meteor. A direct impact is a guaranteed death, no exceptions, while survival's possible from merely being grazed. Messing with the game to have bosses fight each other shows that if allowed to perform the move, it will often do damage in the thousands and swing fights he's losing (including instagibbing slow-moving bosses like Radagon, who numerically takes off half of Radahn's HP before they even make contact due to their powerful magic.)
• Elemental Motifs: Fire. He's a Hot-Blooded bloodthirsty warlord who screams and flails in battle, his army universally uses fire weapons and spells as their elemental damage of choice,^note and did so even prior to the rot's presence in Caelid, as their ghost versions do so as well. he lights himself on fire for his Meteor Move, his Great Rune (indicated by Mohg's to be influenced by their shardbearers) is described and shown as burning, the narrator in the (ambiguously canon) 2019 reveal trailer narrates how the sky is "burning" over a shot of him screaming at it, he's fought underneath a red sky amidst piles of skeletons,^note which also predates the rot's presence in Caelid, as it's still red at the start of his and Malenia's duel. his fiefdom is an arid desert with his boss arena being the driest part of it (pure sand dunes), and his hair is bright red (of a deeper shade than his half-sisters' and father), explicitly described as "flaming" in his helmet's description, and inexplicably stands up.
• Eye Scream: Close inspection of his textures reveals that mold is growing on his face and eyeballs.◊
• Face of a Thug: Radahn was a terrifying sight to behold with his almost demonic-looking face, intimidating armor, and giant build; his Scarlet Rot only made him look worse as a zombified giant. In reality, Radahn is described as being one of the noblest and most stalwart of his siblings, and was a stern but caring Father to His Men.
• Famed In-Story: All Demigods except Mohg has this to some degree, what with being royal family and sitting on thrones in Leyndell but Radahn is referred as the one that distinguished himself the most during the Shattering. On top of that while the other Demigods either disappeared or are staying in their stronghold Radahn maintains public attention thanks to the festival his followers advertise as an opportunity to put him out of his misery.
• Fatal Flaw: Ambition. Unlike many of his siblings, Radahn is not given a higher reason for his desire for the throne during the Shattering beyond seeking power and glory and his personal desire to emulate Godfrey. While Radahn might be far more noble, that's not a very dissimilar motivation to Godrick and Rykard's.
• Fate Worse than Death: Radahn was infected by Malenia's Rot at the end of their fateful duel. Normally, this would lead to a slow, painful death even for a demigod. Unfortunately for him, his innate resilience combined with his Great Rune prevented it from killing him, but did nothing to stop the spread. He spent centuries in constant agony as the Scarlet Rot devoured his mind and body. By the time the Tarnished encounters him, he's a decaying husk of his old self driven only by the urge to kill anyone who enters his territory.
• A Father to His Men: Radahn was said to greatly care for the men under his command and treasured his Red Lion army. In return, his soldiers cared about him so much, they came up with an elaborate plan to Mercy Kill him, unable to bear seeing him in the state he's in.
• Fiery Redhead: Radahn inherited Radagon's red hair and definitely fits the qualities for this trope. He sees his red hair as a symbol of pride that marks him as "the champion's cub" — heavily contrasting with his father's opinion on his own red locks, who saw it as a mark of shame.
• Flaming Meteor: Invoked; his second phase transition has him come crashing down onto the battlefield like a big flaming meteor.
• Four-Star Badass: Infamous and known throughout the land as the Red Lion General, Radahn was an extremely talented commander, being a master tactician on top of being one of the strongest warriors the land has seen. His leadership and charisma were such that even after the disastrous Battle of Aeonia, his Redmanes are still organized and disciplined enough to simultaneously contain the spread of Scarlet Rot to Caelid in a brutal Forever War and host the Radahn Festival to give the good general the honorable death he was denied against Malenia.
• Frontline General: Radahn was mightiest among his legions and so naturally led from the front, which resulted in him personally dueling at least two other demigods. He personally confronted Morgott (under his Margit persona) at the First Defense of Leyndell and evidently lost. Later, after growing much larger and stronger, he led his forces against Malenia's army at the Battle of Aeonia and personally killed countless Cleanrot Knights before dueling the Blade of Miquella herself to a mutually destructive draw that led to the ruin of Caelid.
• Genius Bruiser: Radahn was an utter monster in combat, having absolute mastery in swordsmanship, mounted combat, and archery, but he was also an accomplished academic, being a tactical genius and The Archmage of gravity magic.
• Glory Seeker: Implied. Radahn's reasoning for challenging the Starspawn is never stated, though implied to have something to do to protect Selia but given his idolization Godfrey, most famous for having lead Marika's army against the Fire Giants, it's possible Radahn also wished to emulate his war against primeval forces by challenging the stars and their spawns.
• A Good Way to Die: The point of the Radahn Festival. Radahn is dying anyway from Scarlet Rot, so rather than let him slowly waste away to nothing as a pathetic shadow of his former self, his men organize an army to let Radahn go out with the boss battle he deserves; fighting the greatest champions in the Lands Between with his bow, swords, and gravity magic.
• Gravity Master: Being the son of Rennala, Radahn possesses tremendous talent in sorcery, and he particularly specializes in gravity magic, having learned under an Alabaster Lord in his youth. And putting his skill to the test by conjuring a gravity barrier powerful enough to block falling stars and starlight from reaching Lands Between. Even in his feral state, General Radahn can still control gravity and conjure meteors on sheer instinct.
• Great Bow: His other weapon of choice aside from the Starscourge Greatswords is his Lion Greatbow, which he uses on his initial phase to snipe you from afar.
• Handicapped Badass: He lost his feet due to the Scarlet Rot and it doesn't inconvenience him. If the need arises, he will start slicing you to bits while crawling on his knees.
• Heroic Willpower: Even after facing down her army, and hours of personally dueling her, he fought on against Malenia until he got infected by the Scarlet Rot, and even then both he and his army still managed to stop the spread of the Rot to just Caelid. Even after decades of being in a state of frenzy and inhuman madness, he was still consciously holding onto a fragment of sanity, given he never considers devouring his horse Leonard despite ferally preying on everything else.
• Hero-Worshipper: Radahn utterly reveres Godfrey and his legendary prowess as a warrior, customizing his armour to be based on the Lord of the Battlefield's lion motifs and implicitly taking up the hunting of the Starspawn in the hopes of matching the first Elden Lord's famed war against the Fire Giants.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: As it turns out, the gravity magic Radahn uses to fight the starspawn creatures is probably inherent to them in the first place.
• Huge Rider, Tiny Mount: General Radahn is colossal, but rides a comparatively tiny emaciated horse with a too-long neck and legs. He's said to have learned how to control gravity specifically so he could keep on riding his small and weak steed as well. The Starscourge Heirloom shows that even in his youth he was oversized compared to his mount, but in that case it was a somewhat sane difference, equivalent to a big guy riding a pony. By the time of Aeonia he had skyrocketed in size for some reason so that now his horse's shoulder is about level with his kneecaps.
• Human Pincushion: This happened to him during his war against Malenia. Those giant arrows he shoots at you throughout the battle? Those are the spears that the Cleanrot Knights stabbed into him before he killed all of them, which he's pulled out of his body and is now using against you. You can still see a good dozen or so sticking out of his back during the battle.
• I'm a Humanitarian: After being driven insane, he began feasting on the corpses of allies and foes alike, and is even seen doing so in his intro cutscene.
• Human Resources: After his death, Alexander the Living Jar steals part of his corpse to try to claim some of his power.
• Improbable Weapon User: Ignoring the twin greatsword cleavers he swings around like they were kitchen knives, Radahn foregoes carrying a quiver for his bow by just yanking spears stuck in his back out and loading them with gravitational magic.
• Lamarck Was Right: His mom was a powerful witch and his dad a barbarian able to master advanced sorceries and even create high intellect incantation.
• The Last Dance: The Radahn Festival his troops are holding is an attempt to gather enough strong warriors to put Radahn down for good. His army laments the monster he's become and desire to find a way into both performing a Mercy Kill and honoring him one last time.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: During the start of their fight, Radahn can be seen patiently waiting for Malenia to arm her Valkyrie Prosthesis with his greatswords standing on their blade-ends on the ground, letting her ready herself for their duel, a very honorable gesture. She returns the gesture, letting Radahn slowly draw and enchant his swords and give her a Bring It! before she makes a move.
• Lightning Bruiser: Holy hell. Despite being supposedly reduced to nothing more than a rabid monster, Radahn's combat prowess is through the roof. The fight opens with him immediately becoming hostile and bombarding the Tarnished with great arrows from several hundred meters away. When they get close, he begins his greatswords and gravity magic to zip about the battlefield disconcertingly fast for a creature of his size (or rather, his horse moves him really fast). He even leaps into the sky and comes down like a meteor when he changes into his final phase.
• Living Legend: Blaidd calls him this verbatum after he's slain. Due to having been struck with madness and becoming solely a beast of action rather than a man of both action and words, Radahn is characterized entirely from context clues and his actions before falling to madness long ago, making him almost literally a living Tall Tale guaranteed everlasting fame for his larger-than-life actions even after losing all he once was to the Scarlet Rot.
• Lost in Translation: In the Japanese script Radahn's title is not "general," but "shogun" (将軍). While "general" is a valid way to translate it, and it presumably went through translation because it'd be weird for a warlord in a Medieval European Fantasy setting to have an obviously Japanese title, the implications of the two words are somewhat different. While "general" is a generic title for a military commander, "shogun" recalls a very specific historical rank in feudal Japan for de facto military dictators of the country, and is never used for modern military ranks. The title is a shortening of Sei-i Taishōgun, literally "Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force Against the Barbarians",^note Encyclopedia Britannica translates shogun as "barbarian-quelling generalissimo." having originally come into use in the context of the wars against the Emishi people. The fact that no one else in the game gets the title "shogun" while others are called by different titles that could also be translated as "general" is also lost in translation. This might contextualize seemingly inexplicable details about Radahn like why he was in charge of Caelid specifically, why his soldiers were not actually native to the land he ruled (as noted in the description of the Redmane Knight Armour),^note "Alas, dear home, I shan't see you again! For our duty is to remain here, a bulwark against the blight." why said land was sparsely populated even before it got rotted,^note Characters like Sellen, Gideon, and Millicent always refer to it as "the Caelid Wilds" in the past tense. "wilds" literally meaning "an area that is far from where people usually live" or "an uncultivated, uninhabited, or desolate region."
• Made of Iron: Radahn has already taken a ridiculous level of punishment before his battle with the Tarnished. With the untreated wounds from the Shattering War and the Rot afflicting his mind and body, the fact he can put up a fight at all is a testament to his resilience.
• Magic Knight: At first, Radahn fights with a mix of swordmanship enhanced by his impressive size and strength. He then unleashes a flurry of gravity spells on the Tarnished, hurling meteorites at them. Lore also states he also used his gravity sorcery to make himself lighter for his horse, but also in addition to holding the stars over the Lands Between. Appropriately enough, the player version of his greatswords have high strength requirements yet deal split-damage: physical and magic.
• Male Might, Female Finesse: With his giant greatswords and heavy sweeping strikes, he's the might to Malenia's lithe finesse.
• Master Archer: While he will draw his twin greatswords when anyone engages him in melee, Radahn is no slouch with the bow either given he can fire arrows loaded with gravity magic, making them fly at bullet-like speeds, with Radahn occasionally drawing several arrows for Rain of Arrows or a shotgun burst of several dozen arrows at once. The arrows — which are actually the spears of Malenia's Cleanrot Knights impaled into his back, evidently just giving him more ammo — are about the size of a small tree and will blast you right off of Torrent on a direct impact.
• Master of All: Let's see here: master of Mounted Combat, Master Archer, one of two contenders for the setting's World's Best Warrior in close combat, a prodigy sorcerer, an expert strategist and on top of all this, was such A Father to His Men his army had enough morale and sanity remaining in them to hold a festival in his name after decades spent in non-stop war against the horrors of Caelid. The man seems to have the ability to become the best at anything he puts his mind to, and, amazingly enough, retains enough of his skill to be a deceptively lethal to foes even after deteriorating in both mind and body from Malenia's Scarlet Rot.
• Master Swordsman: His swordsmanship is less flashy than Malenia's, but he handles his massive blades with enough speed, precision, and clever use of gravity magic to make his phenomenal skill clear, letting him carve through a small army of Tarnished heroes with disturbing grace even while near-mindless from the Scarlet Rot. It's all but stated that his swordplay was as refined as Malenia's when he was in his prime and not afflicted with the Rot, which speaks volumes of just how skilled Radahn was at his apex.
• Mercy Kill: The whole point of the boss fight with him is to put the poor guy out of his misery, courtesy of his own troops who can no longer stand to see him suffer. They've been trying to grant him an honorable death for so long that it had become a regular festival event by the time the Tarnished gets their turn.
• Meteor-Summoning Attack: In his second phase, Radahn will occasionally summon a series of four rock clusters with his gravity magic, and eventually he'll fire them at you like mini-meteors.
• Mounted Combat: The absolute master of this in-game; Despite weighing the same as a small freight train Radahn rides effortlessly around for long wound-up cavalry swings with so much grace he appears to be skateboarding across the desert sands, with Leonard turning on a dime to direct said enormous swings right at you or your summons. The sheer momentum on some of his attacks almost makes it look like his horse is Flash Stepping to make the swings accelerate as intended by Radahn.
• Mundane Utility: The original reason he learned gravity magic was so he would not have to give up riding his comparatively weak and scrawny horse after he grew too big and heavy for it to carry, just because he loved it so much. In combat, he also uses gravity magic to control the phenomenal momentum of him and his weapons, letting him move and strike with far more agility than should reasonably be possible.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Lord of the Battlefield's Lion, Starscourge, Conqueror of the Stars. This is a man who by reputation alone took "If the universe is so big, why won't it fight me?" literally, and succeeded.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Radahn is an outlier among the demigods and the rest of his family. He's 27 feet tall when most of them are 8 to 12 feet, inhumanly wide relative to his height, has dark grey skin, extremely short legs (the other demigods have proportionally long legs to emphasize their stature), almost ogre-like facial features, yellow eyes with black sclera, and more obviously inhuman proportions than the other demigods, especially in how extremely his design invokes Tiny-Headed Behemoth to the point that he probably can't see in an FOV wider than 20 degrees. He looked like this even before his duel with Malenia. It's not an effect of learning gravity magic, as Redmane Knight Ogha learned the same techniques alongside Radahn and doesn't appear to have any massive differences in his proportions compared to other knights. That said, his portrait in Rykard's manor depicts him with a human face and a much smaller body relative to his head, he's depicted as completely different in size on the Starscourge Heirloom, significantly shorter and more evenly-proportioned when fighting Morgott in the introductory cutscene (if that's meant to be representative rather than allegorical in-universe art), and the size of his throne in the capital indicates that while he was always very tall, he used to be in the same size range as his siblings.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: He's the spitting image of Alexander the Great of Macedon, being a Warrior Prince who (claimed in Alexander's case) has Semi-Divine status, is famous as a stern warrior and brilliant general, wears a gold helmet carved in the likeness of a Lion (with it as their Animal Motif), is a noted conqueror, is a Hero-Worshipper of Hercules (In Radahn's case an Expy of him in the form of Godfrey), is well-known for his relationship with his huge black horse (Leonard in Radahn's case, compared to Bucephalus for Alexander), and finally beloved and worshipped by their soldiers due to being such a A Father to His Men.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: The Festival grounds are noticeably dead quiet besides a choir of his soldiers chanting a slow somber song in Radahn's honor, and sure enough, they provide the highlight of Radahn's boss theme; In his first phase they provide a baritone marching song accompanied by heavy brass and drums as if to give their leader the same honors he went into battle with when he was sane. Radahn's shattering of the earth is even worked into the music, marking a noticeable shift in tempo into a more somber choir that provide Radahn with a funeral march.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: General Radahn dual-wields a pair of swords almost as big as he is, and considering he's a giant...
• One-Hit Kill: His meteor attack cannot be resisted even with the highest amount of Vigor, damage negation and Greatshields available. Depending on how (unfortunate) your position is, he can potentially OHKO multiple summons.
• One-Man Army:
  • So much so it's actually the main gimmick of his fight, using reusable summoning signs found in his arena to summon wave after wave of allied NPCs to keep him occupied and distracted... operative word being reusable, as he will slaughter these allies within seconds of contact with him. Furthermore, it's strongly implied by Jerren that there have been multiple Radahn Festivals, which can only mean that he massacred every previous group of warriors that tried to put him down.
  • The Starscourge Conflict was implied to have been fought solely by him. Per one Sword Memorial: "The Starscourge Conflict. Radahn alone holds Sellia secure. And stands tall, to shatter the stars."
• Our Giants Are Different: Radahn is massive even by demigod standards, about 27◊ feet tall◊ with a build fit for a strongman. No reason is given for why he's literally dozens of times larger than his parents. It seems to be a relatively recent development as he first learned gravity magic so as not to have to abandon his horse (who's supernaturally big, but still only about as big as the ones the Nightriders use and tiny compared to the full-grown Radahn), implying he was always a huge guy, but still somewhere around his siblings' size once.
• Pet the Dog: His whole reason for learning gravity magic? So his beloved horse would not have to deal with the strain of carrying him around.
• Rain of Arrows: One of his long-ranged attacks, called Radahn's Rain is shooting a massive volley of equally massive great arrows to the sky, and raining down into an impromptu wall of death. The fact it can actually home in on whoever is being targeted suggests there might also be some influence of his gravity magic.
• Rasputinian Death: Even after centuries of enduring untreated injuries from his battle with Malenia and her Cleanrot Knights, the Scarlet Rot ravaging his body and mind, wandering a desert with nothing but corpses for sustenance, and repeated attempts from warriors across the land, it still took the Tarnished working with a small army of some of the greatest fighters still alive to finally kill Radahn.
• Recurring Element: Radahn takes the reoccurring role of the great respected hero corrupted by the very power he was fighting. Whose final death is seen as a Mercy Kill by those who remembered him, like Artorias, Vendrick, Yhorm the Giant and Ludwig.
  • Both in terms of lore and gameplay, his boss fight is very similar to the Old Ivory King from Dark Souls II; a Fallen Hero who has been corrupted by a primordial evil and has to be put down with the help of his own men. Both of their boss fights are The War Sequence, with far more summons than are normally available to the player. In addition, both characters were well known for having a beloved animal companion: for the Ivory King it was his three tigers Aava, Lud, and Zallen; and for Radahn it was his loyal steed Leonard.
• Red Baron: The Conqueror of the Stars.
• Removing the Rival: After completing his training in gravity magic, Radahn used his powers to "arrest the cycles of constellations", blocking shooting stars and their glintstone and the light of distant stars. This prevents Ranni from reaching the stars which guide the Carian Royal Family's fates as well becoming an Empyrean on Dark Moon's behalf; as such she can't begin her full plans until the Tarnished defeats Radahn and frees her destiny. Whether or not this was intentional or not on Radahn's part is unclear.
• Secret A.I. Moves: Twofold- He can use both Cragblade and Starcaller's Cry skills with his Starscourge Greatswords, which is impossible for the Tarnished to perform since the Starscourge Greatswords they obtain from his Remembrance only has the Starcaller's Cry skill, and he can also cast Collapsing Stars without the need of a Glintstone Staff.
• Sigil Spam: Radahn's two swords are engraved with the symbol of Gravity Sorcery, the same sigil that appears whenever someone casts a Gravity spell.
• Spanner in the Works: His war with he stars ended with him putting a gravity well that hampers Ranni's power, stopping her plan until he is dead.
• Strong and Skilled: Jesus Christ. If his immense speed and strength weren't enough to deal with, his masterful swordplay with his dual BFS and his potent usage of gravity magic will make him a nightmare for mid-game players. The scariest part is that Radahn is currently a pale speck compared to what he once was due to his Scarlet Rot affliction: one can see why he was declared the mightiest of all Demigods in his prime.
• Super-Strength: While all of his siblings are blessed with inhuman strength, the added benefit of Radahn's great size has allowed him to outshine them all. By ripping his model◊ it can be determined one of Radahn's Starscourage Greatswords had a volume of 1.076 m^3 and therefore a mass of around 8.4 tons (as they're stated to be made of steel). Meaning Radahn can swing around what are essentially a pair of edged buses like they were twigs.
• Suspicious Videogame Generosity: The boss arena for Starscourge Radahn has numerous reusable Summons, totally up to nine NPCs help fight or, more accurately, distract Radahn. While this would make any other boss fight easier, it makes Radahn's tolerable due to him being extremely dangerous to those he has his attention to. On a related note, his fight is one of the few where Torrent can be summoned, making it easier to keep Radahn at a distance or get up close to him before Leonard zooms off out of range with Radahn in tow. This can also be a trap though, as Torrent staggers heavily and can't dodge-roll, while if you stick close to his legs on foot, most of his attacks will whiff.
• Top-Heavy Guy: His legs only make up about a third of his height.
• Tragic Monster: He was once a famed hero who was beloved by his soldiers. By the present day, he's succumbed to Scarlet Rot and become little more than a feral beast. His fate is lamented by his followers, who now try and gather as many strong warriors as possible to put him out of his misery during their regular Radahn Festivals.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Radahn was a master of inspiring this; his soldiers worshipped the ground he walked on, his commanders, like the Redmanes and Jerren, thought of him as a brother and would do anything he said, and even his horse, Leonard, refused to leave his side after he fell to madness. In turn, Radahn completely returned it, given he didn't once harm Leonard even decades into his rotting and feral state don't, still protects him from the player and his own sword swings.
  • He himself seems to have had this for his step-father, Godfrey. His page quote, after all, has him declaring himself to be the "Lord of the Battlefield's Lion"
• The Unreveal: Unlike most of his siblings, Radahn's motivations for participating in the Shattering aren't stated or even alluded to. Possible motives he could have had range from his obsession with battles or desire to elevate himself, but whatever it was, it earned him Morgott's contempt.
• War God: Rivaled only by Malenia; Radahn was hailed as the mightiest warrior of the Demigods in his prime and both he and most of his followers highly value warrior honour and martial skill.
• Warrior Prince: Though the son of Radagon, Radahn became inspired by Godfrey's fighting prowess, eventually earning the right to wear lion-themed armor similar to the first Elden Lord, and becoming a Challenge Seeker much like Godfrey, probably unaware that No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction was the death sentence of Godfrey's Grace.
• Whole Costume Reference: In terms of design, Radahn’s armor bears a strong resemblance to Emperor Gaiseric's in Berserk (himself probably inspired by the same person as Radahn), in keeping with From's many references to that manga. Specifically, he looks like Gaiseric as he's first depicted, with most of his helmet obscured by shadow◊; check out especially his helmet with the plume of his own hair trailing behind it.
  • His helmet, meanwhile, bears a strong resemblance to the one used by Raoh in Fist of the North Star.
• Worf Had the Flu: In his glory days, Radahn was considered the most powerful of the demigods, a match for Malenia herself even after being impaled by dozens of her knights AND holding back the stars during their final duel. By the time of the game, those days are long past. The Radahn faced by the Tarnished is downright decrepit; his legs have rotted off from below the knee, he's riddled with Scarlet Rot from being at the epicenter of Malenia's "blossoming", and he's been reduced to a howling beast perpetually wandering the sands of Caelid, eating corpses from The Shattering for sustenance. Even in such a miserable state, Radahn is still a force to be reckoned with, requiring the Tarnished and a small army of other warriors to be defeated, but he's only a pale shadow of his former self. Iji and Blaidd both note this in dialogue, the former saying "the General was blighted by scarlet rot and driven to madness, but not long ago he was hailed as the mightiest demigod of them all" and the latter◊ in multiple different lines◊ that Radahn was "once the strongest of the demigods", both indicating that he dropped enough in strength that he's no longer considered the mightiest. In-game this explains why Radahn is a mid-game boss of moderate difficulty for his place while his former peer is meant to be a post-endgame Super Boss, and also gives you a major exploitable weakness for his boss fight - having alien space flu means his status effect resistances (including to the Scarlet Rot itself) are very unimpressive, meaning that you can improve your odds by making a sick man even sicker.
• World's Strongest Man: One of the contenders for the title in this setting, with Ranni referring to him and Malenia as "the mightiest to remain" in the story trailer. Radahn dueled Malenia, another candidate for this trope, to an inconclusive draw when she was holding back the Rot and he was holding back the stars [[note]]The Aeonia Swamp Memorial states: "The Battle of Aeonia. Radahn and Malenia locked in a stalemate. Then, the Scarlet Rot blooms".^note Going by the very brief bit of the fight we get in the story trailer, the fight started with a straight clash of blades and ended with Malenia having lost her prosthetic arm and being impaled by the shoulder on the handle-end of her blade from driving it into Radahn using her own body, and with Radahn on all fours and reeling for a full fifteen seconds as he gives Malenia an intense Aside Glance before she "bloomed". The final blows they hit each other with were respectively Radahn chopping off Malenia's prosthetic arm and Malenia sinking nearly her entire nine-foot sword into Radahn's chest, which didn't seem to have affected him at all in the present, especially compared to the Rot. Even when the Rot came out, it still didn't manage to kill him. Even after the Rot crippled him over time, Radahn remains a threat who can potentially require multiple heroes working together to put down. Jerren and Blaidd, at least, both label him as "the mightiest demigod" in his prime. However he's shown losing to Morgott in the introductory cutscene, and is stated to have feared Maliketh just like the other demigods. While these three and possibly others can match him in a fight through skill, equipment, and/or circumstances, Radahn definitely has the greatest displays of raw power among his fellow warriors, from the huge blasts and boulders he's able to fling around with his magic to how every single one of his blows carries the mass of an 8-ton sword swung by a 10+ ton giant and was using magic on literal meteors he's been holding back for years on end.
• Worthy Opponent: Blaidd and Iji hold him in very high regard despite the fact Radahn made moves to oppose their liege-lord. It helps Iji was an Old Friend of Radahn's second, Jerren, who likewise respects and likes Ranni.

Radahn's Horse

Radahn's faithful steed, who continues to carry his master even after his derangement with the aid of Gravity Magic.

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• The Alleged Steed: Was described as "scrawny" even before being hit by the rot nuke. Now he looks emaciated and shriveled, somewhat like if horses pruned up like raisins.
• All There in the Script: The horse's name is never actually given in-game. Rather, it's in the game files which name him; more specifically, him and Radahn are a single NPC called "RadahnAndLeonard".
• Assist Character: Ever wondered why Radahn was able to zip around the battlefield so fast? This horse is why. Also, Leonard burrows under the player during the meteor attack, acting as Radahn's spotter by telling him where to land.
• Automaton Horses: Unless Radahn somehow found a good stable with fresh water and hay in the Wailing Dunes while the Scarlet Rot had reduced him to a bestial frenzy, then apparently he is one.
• Cool Horse: Radahn's horse seems underwhelming compared to his rider, being comparatively tiny and looking quite sickly. But he more than pulls his weight, and actually grants Radahn a huge advantage. While Radahn has to lighten himself with gravity magic so the horse can comfortably bear him, gravity has no effect on mass, which means he is still providing the impetus to accelerate dozens of tons (his own mass + Radahn's + his multitude of weapons and "arrows") of flesh and metal at very high speeds. Constantly, without as much as a whinny of complaint. Radahn doesn't seem capable of doing this himself outside of certain specialized techniques, due to his stumpy legs. This is doubly the case in the present, where his feet have rotted off; without his horse he's reduced to (relatively) slowly dragging himself along the ground, but his steed turns Radahn into a high-speed magic-throwing blender and with his Gravity magic they make for a concerningly agile dynamic duo. Note also that the horse is gigantic, some ten feet at the shoulder. He just looks small compared to the 27-foot Radahn. He's also incredibly durable, given how many times he's able to shrug off Radahn stomping on him hard enough to bury him entirely in the sand.
• The Determinator: Yes, the horse. The Scarlet Rot has done a number on him as much as his master, and unlike Radahn the horse doesn't have a Great Rune to resist it, but he still carries Radahn in battle and will even rear up and neigh in triumph in some of his animations.
• Meaningful Name: The horse's file name, Leonard, means "Brave Lion". It's still another indication of Radahn's admiration of the lion-motifed Godfrey.
• Morality Pet: Even deranged from the Scarlet Rot, Radahn never attacks his horse; at most, he'll (relatively) gently nudge it into the sands with his leg stumps to protect it from particularly wild attacks.
• Undying Loyalty: Still carries Radahn after the Rot has reduced him to a husk of himself.

Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy

Praetor Rykard / Lord of Blasphemy / The God-Devouring Serpent

Portrait of Praetor Rykard

^{The God-Devouring Serpent}

^{The Lord of Blasphemy (Click here to see Rykard in current events)}

Voiced by: Simon Gregor

"No one will hold me captive. A serpent never dies."

Formerly known as Praetor Rykard. Like Ranni and Radahn, he's a child of Radagon and Rennala who became Queen Marika's stepson when the former became the second Elden Lord. The Praetor was in charge of the Empire's religious State Sec, the Inquisition, before committing blasphemy against the Erdtree and becoming consumed by sin.

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• 0% Approval Rating: Let's just say that he's not very well liked. Even as Praetor, he was reviled for his "serpentine behavior," and his act of turning against the Erdtree and the Greater Will during the Shattering elevated him to becoming everyone's common enemy. Then he fed himself to the God-Devouring Serpent, becoming an omnigluttonous Animalistic Abomination which lead to his abandonment by his very own knights (with the added implication that even his underlings in the Inquisition turned tail). Even now, with nobody but the Volcano Manor on his side, the recusants either only work for him out of fear or because their goals aligned, with Bernahl declaring him as weak should he be slain by the Tarnished. That said, it's clear that his immediate family members — Radahn, Ranni, Tanith and his (adopted) daughter Zorayas — harbor a deal of respect for him, with the latter two especially loving him as husband and father, respectively.
  • Tellingly, during the Shattering Rykard's Gelmir dominion was the only place Morgott, who tried to hold the fort in Leyndell and mantained a defensive stance during most of the war, actually attempted to invade. From Gideon's own words, Rykard was an enemy never to be forgiven, and this was double so for someone like Morgott.
• Achilles' Heel: As powerful as merging with the God Devouring Serpent made him, it also made Rykard vulnerable to the Serpent-Hunter, a spear whose true power is unleashed when facing giant serpents.
• Ambiguous Situation: Ranni rewarded him with a blasphemous claw on "the night of the dire plot" when she stole the Rune of Death in case Malekith went after Rykard. Does that mean Rykard had a part in it? He has an agenda of his own that doesn't line with Ranni but Ranni has made stranger temporary allies than her brother and it's not like she has any greater love for the Golden Order or the Greater Will than Rykard and his Recusants.
• Ambiguously Related: There's a Godskin Noble and a Blackflame Monk seemingly guarding the path to his audience chamber in the Volcano Manor. Whether or not Rykard has some sort of alliance with the god-hunting cult is never clarified, but they do share similar goals so it's not a wild assumption to make.
• Ambition Is Evil: Zigzagged, actually. Rykard is said to be have been full of ambition since day one, but he was admired by many of his peers. His decision to commit blasphemy — that is, waging war against the Erdtree and the Greater Will — was even seen by his knights and the recusants of the Volcano Manor as a heroic act. Eventually, however, Rykard's ambitions deteriorated into simple greed, which ended up turning him into a mockery of what he once stood for and his own army abandoning him.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Essentially his Fighting Fingerprint both as a Praetor and as the Lord of Blasphemy: Earmark a group of people, systematically lure or abduct them, and then dispose of them in a way that disallows the possibility of death, such as what he accomplished with the Albinaurics who've been tortured for centuries in and about his manor. The souls of the champions Rykard has lured and eaten are stated to be still fully conscious and writhing in eternal agony.
  • He himself may or may not be in this state after the fight with the Tarnished. Even should his claim of being immortal and unkillable turns out to be true, all that remains of him is a giant, unresponsive severed head that is no longer a threat to anyone. Should you kill Tanith while she tries to eat his corpse in a mad attempt to bring him back, there'd be no one left in the Lands' Between willing to resurrect him, ending him for good.
• Animal Motifs: Snakes, which stands for deceit and betrayal, but also rebirth and immortality. Rykard was formerly a stern praetor who headed the empire's Inquisition, but in the wake of the Shattering, vice and ambition had wormed his way into his heart, and he betrayed his family. By the time the player finds him, he has transformed into a grotesque, snake-like abomination whose only thought and goal is devouring the gods. His monstrous form also resembles a giant centipede due to all the writhing limbs along its length, which is fitting as centipedes represent spiritual impurity in Japanese mythology.
• Animalistic Abomination: The God-Devouring Serpent, a primeval lifeform worshipped as a deity by ancient humans of Gelmir with Human Sacrifice, was already one by itself. But after consuming Rykard and his Great Rune, it went full Body Horror as the Lord of Blasphemy, growing a coating of writhing shadowy limbs (which belongs to the souls it's devoured), two bloated human arms, and Rykard's now gigantic face fused to the back of its skull. In addition to the ability to spew Hellfire and summon the souls of the dead in fiery storms. It's also implied it can go even further; if Rykard was allowed to continue consuming souls, and eventually the gods themselves, his power would grow to the point he could devour the very earth itself, as a towering cosmic snake writhing through space and time.
• The Anti-God: Presently attempting to turn himself into this as a way of taking Rage Against the Heavens to its logical extreme. He's chosen to merge himself with a god-devouring predator in order to become a god of blasphemy, a being that exists to gorge itself endlessly on all of creation and take its power for itself.
• Appropriated Appellation: Rykard is a hardcore blasphemer and he's damn proud of it, with even his own consort calling him such with no malice.
• Arch-Enemy: Morgott appears to consider him this. His invasion of Mount Gelmir is the only offensive action he's known to have undertaken during the Shattering, and judging by the number of forces committed and the unbelievable ferocity of the fighting, Morgott really, really wanted Rykard dead. Gideon labels the climactic battle of the campaign, the Siege of Volcano Manor, as the most harrowing event of the entire Shattering, which is really saying something. Also, while he lists the other demigods' names in a disappointed but still largely respectful tone, Morgott practically spits Rykard's name out during his monologue before his boss fight, indicating a special enmity between them. This likely stems from Rykard's gleeful embrace of blasphemy and omnicidal ambitions against the Erdtree.
• The Archmage: Although he's nowhere near as strong as his siblings, Ranni and Radahn, Rykard is a powerful sorcerer in his own right, having singlehandedly revived an entire lost family of primeval, magma-based sorceries.
• Assimilation Plot: Rykard letting himself be eaten by the God-Devouring Serpent, along with the whole of Volcano Manor, is an elaborate case of this. Everyone he consumes merges with him as "family" and gives him their strength, letting him grow larger and larger. The Volcano Manor exists to recruit powerful Tarnished and grow them in strength so that they can be eaten by Rykard to enhance his power until he is large enough to consume the entire world.
• Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Rykard's fight takes place in an arena with so many corpses that the entire floor is made of blackened cadavers of unknown depth and there are mountains of bodies and bones strewn about that he knocks over while trying to kill you. While it's by far at its worst in his personal chamber, this trope pretty much extends to the entirety of Mount Gelmir and its surroundings. There are corpse piles everywhere and seemingly no living people left in his fiefdom aside from his snake spawn, the ten or so Recusants, and a handful of zombified commoners and undying Albinaurics stuck to torture machines inside the mountain.
• Beard of Evil: In his current form, he's got a beard made out of encrusted scales, but he fell to depravity long before his transformation, and as a human he sported a full-chin beard, as seen in the Taker's Cameo talisman and in the portrait behind Tanith.
• BFS: Rykard wields the Blasphemous Blade, a gargantuan sword covered in the still-moving remains of his victims.
• Big Bad Wannabe: After you defeat Rykard most of his followers shrug it off as proof he wasn't strong enough yet to accomplish his task of devouring the world. The Great Serpent itself is a terrifying beast, but it doesn't seem to be a truly divine entity like Malenia, Placidusax, or the Elden Beast, and a spear was made to hunt it down in case it becomes a problem.
• Body Horror: Jesus. His transformation has left him a giant snake with long, peeling gashes along the scales, out of which writhe masses of tiny, blackened crimson arms and snake tongues (stated to be the souls of his many victims forever trapped in eternal agony as part of his 'family'). His real face is on the underside of the snake's neck: it's huge and flat, with no ears, bloodshot yellow eyes, and stretched out, ashen skin, with encrusted scales forming his crown, jowls, and beard. He's got two 'main' arms and legs (with too many fingers and toes) sticking out of some of the peeled slices on his scales, jostling for space as they crowd out the miniature arms.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: He's a vile, depraved being, but despite all he had done, he sincerely loved his wife Tanith and his adoptive daughter Rya. In the case of the latter, he brewed the Tonic of Forgetfulness so his daughter could live a normal life unburdened by the truth of her origins. Compare that to his birth father, Radagon, who forever alienated him and his two siblings by essentially abandoning their birth mother for another woman, his birth mother Rennala who seems to have been a good parent until she went mad from grief, and his stepmother Marika, who's... Well, she's Marika.
• Card-Carrying Villain: If the way he looks doesn't make it obvious, then his title; the Lord of Blasphemy (which he picked out himself) will probably do the trick.
• Chocolate Baby: Never explicitly adressed, but Rykard has◊ blonde hair^note The lighting in Volcano Manor makes it appear red, but taking the files for his portraits and looking at them in neutral lighting makes it obvious that he's a blonde. The intro cinematic also shows his decapitated head with light-coloured strands, and the dubiously canon manga likewise shows him with a full head of blonde hair while his parents are a redhead and a brunette respectively, and both his siblings inherited their father's red hair. It's implied that his haircolour is inherited from his father's other half, queen Marika, who famously has long blonde hair.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Feeding himself to the God-Devouring Serpent made him much tougher, but it also made him weak to the Serpent Hunter, and disgusted his followers enough that they sought out the Serpent Hunter and left it right next to him for the specific purpose of allowing somebody to more easily kill him.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Ludwig the Accursed. Both were once respected members of a religious order now transformed into hideous abominations, and both start their fight thrashing around like an animal before regaining intelligence and pulling out a sword for the second phase. However, while Ludwig's regaining of his senses is a heroic moment that restores him to the honourable swordsman he once was despite his current state, duelling you skillfully using the majestic Moonlight Greatsword, the return of Rykard's humanity only makes his serpent form look even more monstrous and unsettling, and he wildly swings at you with the disgusting Blasphemous Blade.
• Dark Is Evil: The God-Devouring Serpent has mostly black skin and its true identity, Rykard is one of the more malicious and terrifying of the demigods the Tarnished faces off against.
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Tanith claims Rykard is trying to kill the gods so nobody has to live under their heel anymore. Speaking with the ghost of a Gelmir Knight in the manor indicates this was Rykard's original plan, but merging with the God-Devouring Serpent has afflicted him with its bottomless hunger, leading him to abandon what few morals he had left.
• Defiant to the End: Declares no one will hold him captive after his boss fight — as the Serpent of Immortality, he would rise again.
• Didn't Think This Through: His gloating that he will never die kind of backfires as he is basically a decapitated head until Tanith manages to eat him whole, which is gonna take a while. He doesn't appear to have strength to talk back when you see him again.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: His last moment as he was eaten and merged with the God-Devouring Serpent was a vision of seeming clairvoyance — a vision of himself as the Lord of Blasphemy eating the entire earth.
• Drunk with Power: Merging himself with the God-Devouring Serpent granted him Immortality, massively enhanced his fire magic and gave him the ability to derive power and vitality from whatever he consumes. This much power, however, also succeeded in twisting his original ambitions into depraved, serpentine greed.
• Eaten Alive: Dying to the God-Devouring Serpent's grab attack triggers a special death animation where it proceeds to swallow you whole.
• Elite Man–Courtesan Romance: He's a Carian royal and one of the demigods of the realm, and yet the Consort Set's description says his paramour Tanith used to be a lowly dancer from a foreign land when they first met. They apparently fell in love soon after, and he soon made her his consort.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all of his monstrous depravity, all evidence with his wife Tanith and adoptive daughter Rya indicate he sincerely loves them both and wants only the best for them.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: It's not a coincidence that one of the nastiest Demigods is also the father of Magma Sorcery and lives in a volcano lair. All of the magic he used in his battle involve fire or magma to some degree.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: While Ranni is more enigmatic than benevolent, she does care about Rykard's well-being, even gifting him a fragment of Destined Death, which he could use to counter against Maliketh in the event he confronts Rykard at some point in the future.
• Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Rykard is an insane cannibal, but several hints are given that he dearly wants Rya to live the life of a normal girl rather than following in his footsteps. She's implied to be kept ignorant of the Volcano Manor's more nefarious goals, and his wife Tanith believes he brewed the Tonic of Forgetfulness so Zorayas wouldn't have to live with the knowledge of her unsettling true origins.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: Rykard's transformation seems to have mangled his vocal cords, he constantly struggles to get words out and constantly sounds like he's choking on something. Fittingly, he's also the most abhorrent of Radagon's children.
• Evil Virtues: Love. While Rykard has incredibly dark ambitions and is defined by such, his affection for Tanith and Rya is completely sincere and he simply wants the best for both of them. On that note, Loyalty and Camaraderie for those who genuinely side with Rykard as they have some respect for the Lord of Blasphemy and Rykard personally doesn't seem to mind that, even in his demented state.
• Evil Weapon: His signature Blasphemous Blade: a grotesque sword covered with viscera powered by the trapped souls of people Rykard devoured. If you look at it closely enough, you'll see writing fleshy hands along its surface reflecting the still-aware souls within struggling in vain to escape their horrible fate.
• Exact Words: His offer of We Can Rule Together is a sincere one, he just means it literally in that he plans to eat you and make you a part of himself. Can't get more "together" than that.
  Blasphemous Blade description: Remains of the countless heroes he has devoured writhe upon the surface of this blade. Now they share the same blood, bound together as family.
• Expy Coexistence: Rykard is a Satanic Archetype for the Lands Between. So is his stepbrother Mohg.
• Fantasy Counterpart Myth: Of Jörmungandr from Norse Mythology, being a nightmarish Animalistic Abomination snake, who at least dreams of devouring the entire world.
• Fallen Hero: Heavily Downplayed. Rykard was originally a stern praetor in charge of the continent's Inquisition, and although he was very much disliked by everyone else, his knights and the recusants very much saw him as a heroic figure, continuing to swear total fealty even after his decision to commit blasphemy. Unfortunately, his ambitions gave way to never-ending gluttony and depravity, turning him to a complete and utter monster of a man. His transformation lead to him being abandoned by his own knights.
  Gelmir Knight Apparition: "Praetor Rykard's ambitions, though blasphemous, marked him a worthy sovereign. But they were reduced to gluttonous depravity, once he gave himself to the serpent. Whatever that thing is, it is no longer Praetor Rykard. Someone must kill him. To spare him, and his ambitions, from further dishonour."
• Faux Affably Evil: Rykard talks big about how you'll join his "family" and devour the gods "together", but it's pretty obvious he's a power-hungry bastard only in it for himself.
• Flaming Skulls: One of Rykard's most theatrical attacks involves him summoning a large number of flaming skulls to fall onto the battlefield. They're slow enough to dodge with ease, but there's a lot of them, meaning the player needs to pay attention to avoid getting hit.
• Flaming Sword: While Rykard usually just swings and repeatedly stabs at the Tarnished with the Blasphemous Blade, one of his more noticeable attacks is when, if he hasn't been interrupted out of his Flaming Skulls attack, he'll channel the remaining fire in the sky into his raised sword and bring it crashing down with both hands in an explosion.
• Fusion Dance: When Rykard fed himself to the Serpent, his mind and body merged with its own, creating a monstrous creature of immense power and cruelty. While Rykard appears to be the dominant personality of the fusion, it's implied that the all-consuming gluttony that now drives him are the remnants of the Serpent's will.
• The Great Serpent: The God-Devouring Serpent is a massive coiled snake, the size of a large building. It was worshipped by ancient habitants of Mt. Gelmir, by offering up living sacrifices for it to devour. When Rykard re-discovered the Serpent, he sacrificed himself to it, thus gaining some measure of control over the Serpent's body.
• Heavy Sleeper: The way the battle transitions between phases heavily implies Rykard was sleeping the entire time the God-Devouring Serpent was attacking and trying to eat the Tarnished while in turn being struck back, and while twisting its upper body every which way in attacking and reeling from blows. Despite this, Rykard reacts to the serpent's head going down like he just woke up, complete with tired grunts and slowly opening his eyes as he looks over the Tarnished in his room with curiosity before drawing his sword.
• The Heretic: It's one thing for a Tarnished to harbor doubts about the Greater Will. It's another thing for a demigod, stepchild but in actuality the direct lineage of Queen Marika and head of the Church Militant State Sec – whose job was to punish heretics – to openly declare their blasphemous intentions and willingly feed themselves to The Great Serpent of Immortality in order to gain the power to act on their ambitions. In the words of Sir Gideon Ofnir, Rykard has "marked himself as an enemy, never to be forgiven."
• Hidden Depths: Despite his current insane desire to devour the very gods, it's implied Rykard at the very least was once on good relations with his siblings, as the Volcano Manor keeps a portrait of Radahn, and Ranni gave Rykard the Blasphemous Claw, rocks engraved with traces of the Rune of Death, so he may stand a chance against Maliketh should he ever challenge him.
• Hijacking Cthulhu: Rykard willingly fed himself to the God-Devouring Serpent to fuel his blasphemous ambitions. In doing so, Rykard gained some measure of control over the Serpent's body. It's not clear how he can do this, but it may be related to his Great Rune, which was devoured with him, and it's possible that, since he only starts talking after the God-Devouring Serpent is defeated, Rykard only gains full control after the Tarnished subdues the Serpent first.
• Hypocrite: Proudly so: He rose to prominence as praetor of the ''Inquisition'', upholding the Golden Order and dealing with its internal enemies real and imagined. Now it's hard to imagine a more knowingly blasphemous, heretical, or just plain evil character. The Blasphemous Claw implies he was a secret heretic even during his tenure as praetor — why else would Ranni trust the Golden Order’s lead inquisitor with not just knowledge of her plans, but also a blasphemous weapon for him to wield in her defense?
• Irony: Rykard is perhaps the demigod that is most directly opposed to Marika's Golden Order. Despite this, he's one of three demigods who actually has a Strong Family Resemblance with her, having inherited her blonde hair.
• Kaiju: The God-Devouring is, well, a gigantic snake whose titanic size nearly reaches the chandeliers of the room its fought in. By extension, Rykard counts as well, given how he's practically merged with the snake.
• Kill the Gods: His primary goal, before and after fusing with the God-Devouring Servent, was to grow powerful enough to kill the gods. It's never specified what kind of gods he was aiming for, but his minion Bernahl's Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the Greater Will indicates he could have been targeting Outer Gods.
• Legendary Weapon:
  • While he doesn't use the weapon itself, the Devourer's Scepter is the primary symbol of the God-Devouring Serpent and, by extension, Rykard. The weapon itself has its very top of it crafted after the vision that Rykard envisioned before he was devoured by the serpent.
  • The Blasphemous Blade is a Remembrance weapon and its description states the blade itself to be "sacred". Unlike most legendary weapons typical of this trope, this one has a rather infamous history behind it, namely that it is formed by the many beings that Rykard devoured, with whom he used their corpses and souls to be crafted into a hideous-looking blade.
• Leitmotif: God-Devouring Serpent.
• Life Drain: Unlike a certain other demigod, he can't do this himself during his boss fight, but pretty much every item associated with him and/or the God-Devouring Serpent can. His Great Rune, the Blasphemous Blade, the Serpent God's Curved Sword, and the Taker's Cameo talisman will each heal a small percentage of your health upon killing an enemy, while the weapon skills of the Blasphemous Blade and Devourer's Scepter provide healing on hit.
• Living Weapon: His sword writhes with hundreds of tiny crimson arms, said to be the souls of the countless people he's consumed.
• Magma Man: Rykard is the creator of an entire school of magma sorceries and is likely their most skilled practitioner. He displays numerous lava-based attacks during his boss fight, the most notable being a persistent pool of magma which follows him around. The player can even obtain his Blasphemous Blade from trading his Remembrance, which comes with high fire damage and a unique weapon art which launches a powerful shockwave of fire.
• Merging Mistake: His fusion with the God-Devouring Serpent clearly isn't as stable as he and Tanith believe it to be.
• Monster Progenitor: The Man-Serpent Ashes states that "the elder serpent that dwelled on Mt. Gelmir devoured a demigod, and the birth of the man-serpents followed", implying Rykard spawned all of the Man-Serpents currently manning his fortress.^note Also, the file name for Rykard is "KingGhoul", while the Man-Serpents are "GhoulChildren." It's also implied that one of Rykard's severed hands became the spawner of the Fingercreepers.
• Motive Decay: When Rykard originally rebelled against the Golden Order, his soldiers claim that he had "heroic" ambitions. After indulging in countless atrocities and feeding himself to the Great Serpent, any remnants of positive goals he once had were replaced with insane power lust and mindless gluttony. Now Rykard's only goal is to devour the bodies and souls of as many warriors as possible so that he may one day grow powerful enough to consume the world itself.
• Mythical Motifs: A god-eating serpent prophesied to help end the world? Rykard clearly took a bit of cues from Jormungandr.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Murdering Tarnished so the Golden Order can never be restored is already a debatable stance, but by the time Rykard fed himself to a giant Serpent in the name of power, it just became insanity.
• Obviously Evil: Rykard is a gigantic and horribly deformed snake who lives in a volcano lair, fights by shooting flaming skulls at you, and wields a sword covered in the still living remains of people he has eaten. Even if you just rush straight to his boss fight and miss his backstory, it's pretty hard to mistake him for a good guy.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Once he's "devoured the very gods" Rykard intends to extend his horrendous gluttony towards the world itself.
• One-Woman Wail: The God-Devouring Serpent's leitmotif employs these vocals during the midst of battle to emphasize the harrowing and ominous tone of fighting against a gigantic snake that holds a reputation of eating gods.
• Oxymoronic Being: A result of taking a quest to Rage Against the Heavens to its (il)logical extreme. He wants to become a god of blasphemy on a divine mission to consume and corrupt all that is holy. It's best expressed through his signature weapon, the Blasphemous Blade, a grotesque vampiric greatsword that scales with Faith and is one of the most sought-after armaments for a paladin build.
• Pet the Dog: Reading the flavor text for the Tonic of Forgetfulness reveals it was a gift from Rykard to Tanith. Tanith herself had no use for it, but if you progress far enough into Rya's sidequest, Tanith will give you the tonic to help Rya forget the terrible circumstances behind her birth. Talking to Tanith afterward has her muse this was likely the purpose of the gift all along.
• Physical God: The fusion between a demigod bearing a Great Rune, a divine immortal snake and countless mortal souls have clearly elevated Rykard beyond his fellow Shardbearers, indicated further by the fact that to even have a fair fight with him you have to use a weapon specifically built to kill said immortal snake. It's implied that had he feasted on more souls, he would have eventually become an unstoppable force of destruction that would eat the world itself. The description of the Serpent-God Curved Sword outright calls the God-Devouring Serpent a god, which is further indicated by the fact that it has its own temples and associated incantations.
• Planet Eater: His ultimate goal after abandoning his ambitions for depraved gluttony isn't simply to kill and devour the gods, but to devour the planet itself. Very good thing that the Tarnished was around to put a stop to his ambitions, once and for all.
  Devourer's Scepter: Scepter in the shape of a serpent devouring the world. This weapon will one day become the very symbol of the Lord of Blasphemy. A vision of the future briefly seen by Rykard in his final moments before being devoured by the great serpent..
• Puzzle Boss: Downplayed, as some measure of skill is still needed to beat him. Rykard, by default, is the tankiest boss in not only Elden Ring, but the entire FromSoftware RPG library, clocking in at an astronomical 89000 HP across his two phases — for reference, that's about nearly six times the health of Slave Knight Gael. More than that, he is perpetually surrounded by a pool of lava, making approaching him troublesome. The Puzzle aspect comes from the Serpent-Hunter Spear that's right near the entrance, a special weapon that deals colossal damage to this specific boss and does so from a distance, resolving both issues. There's even a secret NPC whose sole purpose is to inform the player of this weakness.
• Recurring Element:
  • Rykard is the third iteration of FromSoftware's "Storm Ruler" boss, (i.e.the Storm King and Yhorm the Giant). You are given the Serpent-Hunter right before the fight, an unremarkable greatspear with no stat requirements which, for this battle only, unleashes massive blades of light which deal hundreds of damage to the boss per swing. There are two key differences separating Rykard from the Storm King and Yhorm, however. The first is the Serpent-Hunter is considerably more versatile than the Storm Ruler, as all of its attacks are capable of doing insane damage, unlike the Storm Ruler which only had one slow attack that could do the job. The other difference is Rykard is a legitimate challenge and not a Zero-Effort Boss who dies in a few hits after you pick up the weapon — you actually need to be good at the game to beat him.
  • Like the Gaping Dragon, the Covetous Demon, and Aldrich before him, Rykard is associated with gluttony in terms of characterization. His motivation of "devouring the gods" is especially reminiscent of Aldrich, whose epithet was literally Devourer of Gods.
• Religion of Evil: He decides to kickstart his own cult as his declaration of opposing Leyndell, Morgott, and the Golden Order. The cult itself is based on an archaic, yet malevolent religion centered on the God-Devouring Serpent that Rykard uncovered and chose to restore and follow it upon, up to allowing himself to be devoured by and subsequently merging with said serpent so that he could become the religion's central figure.
• Samus Is a Girl: Not Rykard, but the God-Devouring Serpent itself. The Man-Serpent Ashes description says that the Man-Serpents were spawned from it, meaning it's either female or hermaphroditic.
• Satanic Archetype: Not as much as Mohg, but it's there. Rykard is a corrupt demigod who rebelled against the ruling deity of the Lands Between in a fit of pride and ego, lied and manipulated to convince many decent people to come with him and eventually sacrificed them all for his own power. He presides over a lava-strewn underground lair that is pretty reminiscent of modern Christian depictions of Hell, and it's populated solely by either daemon spawn or damned souls stuck in eternal torture. He even summons other damned souls as ammunition during his boss fight. His magma-based powers and association with snakes (even when he was still an Inquisitor) strengthen the Satanic imagery, as does his eventual transformation into a multi-headed serpent that seeks only to devour.
• Scaled Up: Rykard intentionally allowed himself to be devoured by the God-Devoruing Serpent in a bid to gain more power, enough to kill Tarnished warriors easily and take their bodies to further his own strength. The result is a mangled, absolutely hideous fusion where the serpent remains the dominant being in regard to physical appearance, and Rykard himself looks distorted upon revealing himself.
• Sequential Boss: The God-Devouring Serpent and Rykard share a body, but they're considered two distinct bosses with their own health bars and mostly different move sets. The Serpent mainly attacks with its mouth and poison, and killing it causes Rykard to assume control and fight with his sword and magma-based sorceries.
• Serpent of Immortality: As per his dialogue after the boss fight.
  "No one will hold me captive. A serpent never dies. Ha ha ha..."
• Shout-Out: The monstrous form Rykard has taken as the Lord of Blasphemy (a gigantic, deformed animal which has human features in strange places and was born from a human sacrificing their humanity and followers for power) is the spitting image of an Apostle.
• Signature Move: Taker's Flames, the massive flaming sword slam he always does to end his "rain of skulls" attack. It's the most outwardly impressive move in his arsenal, and is even the unique skill of his Remembrance Weapon, the Blasphemous Blade, allowing the player to use a greatly reduced version of it themselves.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Quite possibly the most overt example ever created. Rykard's personal heraldry was a serpent, and he likened himself to "an ambitious" serpent, who was the cruelest member of his family. And then he found his great rune, merged himself with the God-Devouring Serpent by letting it devour him, bred a race of cruel, torturing Snake People, and became a towering Animalistic Abomination Snake whose spent decades consuming the souls of hundreds, with his final goal being to eat the very gods, followed by the planet itself.
• Snake People: Downplayed; although Rykard and the God-Devouring serpent merge together after the former allows himself to be eaten by the latter, it's the serpent that takes up most of the appearance, with its main human features being that it possesses human limbs. Rykard's face is formed right underneath the serpent's neck and while it does remain humanoid, it's only in the most basic sense; disregarding his dark ambitions and insanity, he's more snake than he is a person.
• Sssssnake Talk: When he talks to the Tarnished, his voice patterns have long, drawn out slurs and moans, much like a snake's hiss. It showcases just how physically and mentally deformed and mangled Rykard is for merging with the God-Devouring Serpent.
• State Sec: Before the Shattering, Rykard was the head of the Inquisition whose job was to round out heretics and rebels before subjecting them to Cold-Blooded Torture. He was so good at this that his reputation as a demigod was second only to Mohg in how close it was to rock bottom. Curiously enough, the Inquisition seems to have all but disappeared in the wake of Rykard's transformation, leaving behind only one of their number and a few of their relics. It's possible that even they decided that enough was enough and turned tail on their former Praetor.
• Super-Toughness: This is why you absolutely, genuinely need the Serpent-Hunter for the fight against him regardless of your build. He's a Physical God with sky-high health and resistances, and it's your only realistic means of bringing him down outside of the most ludicrously busted endgame gear (and to be honest, it's more efficient against him than most of that). There's a reason the big guy is still alive - if incapacitated - even after you defeat him.
• Thicker Than Water: Despite his power-hungry nature, Rykard seems to be solidly allied with and protective of his full-blooded siblings and mother.
  • He has a portrait of Radahn prominently framed in his manor, and his war machines (most notably Abductor Virgins) can be found in Radahn's fiefdom and castle, Caria Manor, where Ranni has secluded herself, and Raya Lucaria's base and courtyard, right in front of the grand library Rennala resides. These machines are coded to be non-hostile to the forces defending the respective areas. Likewise, the entrance to Volcano Manor is defended by several squads of Raya Lucaria's marionette soldiers.
  • His subordinates and family, like Patches and Rya, also roam around Liurnia of the Lakes, potentially to deal with any Tarnished who might seek his mother or sister's Great Runes by tempting them to join the Volcano Manor or murdering them.
  • He was also entrusted with the Blasphemous Claw from Ranni, a dangerous item meant only to defend himself should Maliketh try to slay him. This means they seemingly cared enough about each other to never use their access to the Rune of Death against the other, even when Rykard succumbed to ravenous God-hunger and Ranni enacted her schemes in full.
• Token Evil Teammate: The only explicitly malevolent member of Radagon's lineage. Even before he became the monstrosity he is now, Rykard was implied to be the most merciless member of the family and used his position as Praetor of the Inquisition with cruel impunity – although this is Downplayed, as his subjects and immediate family seemingly held a high opinion of him even still.
• Torture Technician: All those nightmarish instruments on display in the secret basements of the manor? All inventions of his. Rykard was said to be an utter master at this, and the end results speak for themselves.
  Inquisitor's Girandole: Its numerous spikes pierce the flesh, then singe the wounds with flame. The smell of burnt blood induces despair in the victim. A candlestick conceived by a thorough mind.
• Übermensch: How his followers originally saw him; a strong figure willing to break with traditional morality and find his own path despite it being blasphemous, for which the Volcano Manor Apparition called him a "worthy sovereign." Post- Great Serpent it's thoroughly averted, as Rykard has become a baser being focused purely on gluttony. Now his old knights just want him dead to stop him from embarrassing the person he once was any further.
• Unholy Matrimony: Tanith is his consort. Evidence indicates that, despite them both being evil, they genuinely love each other. Tanith serves Rykard faithfully and is absolutely shattered upon his death, even consuming his head (which might or might not be still alive) in a desperate effort to bring him back. Rykard is a little more subtle about it, but he gave Tanith a gift with the specific purpose of protecting her adopted daughter from the truth of her birth, which is a surprisingly touching move on his part.
• Uncertain Doom: If the player returns to his boss arena after his defeat, his head can be found, with it seemingly still alive to an extent. Tanith tries to devour it so as to enable him to return through her, but combined with his statement that a "serpent never dies," it's left ambiguous if he is truly dead or not. In any case, he's not doing anything for a good long while.
• The Unintelligible: Downplayed. He's just barely understandable, but his voice is so slurred that the subtitles help a lot with understanding his full speech.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Rykard was one of the few Demigods to occupy a non-combat position prior to the Shattering, showing in how clumsy and unfocused all his strikes with the Blasphemous Blade are. He compensates by leaning heavily on his magma sorcery, constantly surrounding himself with a pool of lava to keep the Tarnished at a distance while throwing out projectiles like flaming skulls or the serpent's venom to distract you from preparing for his other attacks.
• Vestigial Empire: His fiefdom of Gelmir is effectively already gone by the time the game starts. While in his prime he had enough troops to go toe-to-toe with Morgott's Leyndell army in incredibly long and costly battles, by the time the Tarnished awakes he's basically just down to his manor and the immediate surroundings, with the rest of the Gelmir region occupied by the (severely stretched and malnourished) army of Morgott. Said remnant is also being held by an array of cultists and monsters because Rykard's actual army was either attrited to death in the preceding battles or tried to abandon Rykard's cause due to his questionable leadership. The few remnants presumably became the first members of Rykard's "family", judging by all the corpses in his arena.
• Villainous Glutton: This became his defining character trait after merging with the God-Devouring Serpent. As he is now, Rykard exists only to eat, and it's basically the only conscious thought he has left. Such is his insatiable gluttony that he won't stop at simply consuming more and more Tarnished – he seeks to devour the very gods, and once he's run out of them, the world itself. It's not hard to see why he became reviled by his very own knights, who had originally went with their lord down the path of blasphemy out of their own free will.
• Villainous Legacy: Should Zorayas's questline be concluded without giving her the Tonic of Forgetfulness or killing her, she will depart the Volcano Manor with the intent of starting it anew. Since Tanith's goals were entwined with Rykard's, she may be attempting to continue with his plans, though given she was ignorant of his goals and Tanith's role in them, Zorayas's exact intent is left ambiguous.
• We Can Rule Together: Tells the player Tarnished to join him, so as to devour the gods together. Quickly subverted as it becomes apparent that "joining him" refers to letting him devour them so he can take their power for himself.
• World's Strongest Man: Not exactly (he lags behind most other bosses in terms of damage and poise, and the actual title-holder is probably Malenia, pre-Rot Radahn, pre-Destined Death sealed Maliketh or Godfrey), but he's most certainly the World's Toughest Man/Entity/Abomination. Even his first phase has a little more HP than the next contender, the Fire Giant, and his second phase has even more. This toughness, along with his arena's lava pool, allows him to punch way above his weight class, and the only way the player Tarnished can make the fight even remotely fair is to use the Serpent-Hunter. This makes sense, since the reason he tried to take over the God-Devouring Serpent in the first place was to gain enough power to kill all the other demigods. If he'd enough time, and enough people to consume, his size would have increased enough to consume the entire planet and every other contender for the title with it. That is, had the Tarnished not gotten him.

Lunar Princess, Ranni the Witch

Lunar Princess, Ranni the Witch

"Mine will be an order not of gold, but the stars and moon of the chill night."

Voiced by: Aimee-Ffion Edwards

"Unless, of course, thou shouldst take the crown?"

A mysterious Demigod and princess of Caria, daughter to Queen Rennala and Queen Marika's stepdaughter. Unlike the other demigods, Ranni does not seem to have much overt interest in the civil war and succession crisis of the Shattering, instead plotting to pursue her own unknown agenda, one in which she is keen on having the Tarnished assist her...

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Beware of unmarked spoilers

• Action Girl: As shown by her fight with the Tarnished after they attempted to kill her mother, she is a powerful witch with an array of magical spells at her command. A notable display of her power is casting an illusion of her mother at her peak that is capable of fighting the Tarnished with powerful spells and summons. If the Tarnished helps her retrieve the Fingerslayer Blade, she manages to kill her Two Fingers in what's implied to be a pretty big fight between them offscreen. She can also One-Hit Kill the Tarnished regardless of stats should they attempt to trick her into taking Seluvis's potion. Though this is implied to be because of a trap specific to her tower, as she noticeably can't do this anywhere else; if you screw over her centuries-long plan by attacking her in the "wedding" for example, she only runs away and leaves you to do whatever you want. Even before the Shattering, she defeated the dragon Adula in single combat — a dragon infamous for devouring sorcerers like her.
• Adaptational Comic Relief: In the manga, Ranni's entire mystical and otherworldly ice witch persona is shown to be a lot more of an act, as she's actually a bit of a petulant Spoiled Brat who expects Aseo to immediately trust her with very little reason and loses her patience quickly when he doesn't. Also, whenever she fades into dust at the end of conversations she's actually just hiding in a bush.
• Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed, courtesy of Lost in Translation. In the English localization while her overall end goals are still the same, but the sheer vagueness of her intentions makes her come across as somewhat more sinister compared to her Japanese dialogue. Ranni's plans regarding her "Age of Stars" in the Japanese version has Ranni be a little clearer on the subject, specifying that she wants to do away with the Golden Order and all that came before it, essentially wiping the slate clean so as to allow everyone to determine their own fate free of interference.
• Affably Evil: 'Evil' is arguable, though she definitely doesn't have clean hands. But her affection for her compatriots and, if you progress her questline, the Tarnished, is completely genuine. She's also completely on the level with you, working for her won't result in her betraying you (unlike the Volcano Manor, where joining just gets you fed to Rykard after Tanith deems you strong enough), and she will never become hostile unless you attack first. If you exhaust her dialogue and then choose her ending, she'll call you her "dear consort", and if you betray her, she'll be utterly heartbroken.
• Affectionate Nickname: Ranni starts to address the Tarnished as her 'dear' once you progress into her questline far enough.
• Allegorical Character: Like several of the members of her family, Ranni represent a stage of the development of rulers throughout history. In particular she represents the inevitable rebellion that happens to all aristocratic states, that fight to free themselves of rulers "chosen by god" in favor of those chosen by the people or, as they are usuallly portrayed, a fight for freedom. Regardless if the fight will harm innocent people or not or if it will plunge their nation to war as it often happens in history.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The skin of the doll she's inhabiting has a faint blue tint to it. While it's unknown if the witch she modeled after also had this skintone, the doll's coloration strengthens her connection with her mother, Rennala, who specializes in light-blue colored glintstone magic.
• Ambiguously Evil: While there's an undeniably sinister and ruthless side to her, especially in regards to her role in the Shattering, Ranni seems to genuinely believe her cause will improve the Lands Between and free the people from the shackles of fate. It's up to the player to decide if her ideals and plans have genuine merit.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • While Ranni's role in stealing a portion of Destined Death from Maliketh cannot be disputed, and she definitely used it to kill her own flesh and blood body, it's her role in Night of the Black Knives and Godwyn's murder which remains a mystery. Sorcerer Rogier believes she commands the Black Knife assassins responsible, and defeating the Black Knife assassins in their catacombs drops the Black Knifeprint, which goes on to mention the one who stole the fragment of Death was also responsible for imbuing its power to the daggers used by Black Knife assassins. Meeting Ranni through following Rogier's questline has her openly admit she did so. However, Rogier is Entertainingly Wrong about both the origins of the assassins and Ranni's main objective (killing her own physical body), and it becomes apparent the Black Knife assassins answer only to Queen Marika and Golden Order, and in fact fiercely target Ranni and her followers for defying the Order. All of these details bring forth several questions: Did Ranni steal Death out of her own initiative, or did Queen Marika/her Two Fingers order her to so the Black Knife assassins can obtain a weapon to kill Godwyn? Did she know the assassins were after Godwyn beforehand? Did she intentionally divide the stolen portion of Death so the assassins would only have half its cursemark knowing it would not fully kill Godwyn? Or did she solely divide it just to get the half that would kill her in body?
  • If The Future Press guide is to be believed, it states she herself orchestrated Godwyn's murder◊.
• Ambiguously Related: While the extent of her relationship with Melina is unknown, they're close enough the latter informs her the Tarnished Player Character is Torrent's new master. The two also share the same claw-like tattoo, albeit on different eyes with Melina's mark on her left eye and Ranni's on her right. It should also be noted that Ranni's current body is modeled after her teacher Renna, which raises the question of whether the mark belongs to her or Renna.
• Animal Motif: Wolves. Her chief retainer is a Wolf Man, she has heavy Lunacy themes, her tower is surrounded by packs of Wolves, the mysterious and otherworldly white Direwolves prowl around her manor, and the Carian Royal Family symbol is a howling wolf.
• The Archmage: One of the most magically powerful demigods, and with the impairment of similarly-powerful sorcerers like Rennala, Radahn, Rykard, and Miquella, she's implied to be the best still-active magic wielder in the Lands Between. For example, her projection alone is a full sorcery-based boss battle. Then, unlike Fia, Mohg, Shabriri, and the Fire Giant, who require grave and countless sacrifices to draw some power from the Outer Gods they worship, she can instantly summon the Dark Moon and envelop the Lands Between in its influence by herself after dying a second time, once she's released from Radahn's virtual shackles.
• Badass Adorable: Very delicate and easy on the eyes, especially compared to many of her more monstrous siblings. But of course she's still a demigod and shouldn't be underestimated. The Tarnished gets a taste of this themselves when she steps in to fight in place of her mother. If you try to force Seluvis's potion on her she will also instant-kill the Tarnished regardless of their level, though this might be restricted to her tower as she does not do this anywhere else. After the stars are freed and with Fingerslayer Blade at hand, she slays a lone Two Fingers offscreen, albeit in a Mutual Kill.
• Badass Boast: Her line against the Tarnished before assuming the form of Rennala to strike them down.
  "Upon my name as Ranni the Witch, Mother's rich slumber shall not be disturbed by thee. Foul trespasser. Send word far and wide of the last Queen of Caria, Rennala of the Full Moon, and the majesty of the night she conjureth."
  • She gets another good one when you confront the Baleful Shadow in Ainsel River.
    "Tell the Two Fingers, that Ranni the Witch cometh to rend thy flesh. With a fateful wound, ne'er to heal."
• Bait-and-Switch: As her mother isn't really in any condition to fight the Tarnished, she does it in her stead.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Quite literally, in her case. Ranni's doll body appears to be a highly customized marionette soldier's body, given she has four arms not unlike them. Her clothes-less form seen in the Moonlight Altar completely lacks both primary and secondary sexual characteristics, with everything other than her head, neck, lower arms, and legs being a tangled mess of exposed cables and wires woven into a humanoid form beneath a simple, unadorned ceramic shell.
• Benevolent Boss: She's always very courteous to the Tarnished and cares greatly for Blaidd and Iji, seeing the latter two more as family than as her underlings.
• BFS: She doesn't use one as she relies on sorcery as seen in her boss fight as "Rennala", but the end of her questline sees her gift the Dark Moon Greatsword to the Tarnished. The Dark Moon Greatsword is the Moonlight Greatsword of Elden Ring, and according to its flavor text, it's given to the consort of Carian royalty, as is per tradition.
• Big Sister Instinct: A muddied example, as the birth order of Radagon and Rennala's children is ambiguous. But after stealing a fragment of the Rune of Death, she gave Rykard the Blasphemous Claw to protect him from Maliketh's wrath should he be hunted by him.
• Body Backup Drive: It is explicitly stated by Ranni herself the body the Tarnished converses with is not her true one, referred to by her as a "doll". Ranni killed her own physical body during the Night of the Black Knives, at the same time the Black Knives killed Godwyn, and her heavily-damaged corpse can be found at the top of Liurnia's Divine Tower.
• Body Horror: Her doll body is definitely not in the best of shape at the end of her questline, being horrifically cracked and broken away, revealing what seems to be twine stuffing underneath what's left of whatever counts as her skin. The corpse of her physical body is found at the top of Liurnia's Divine Tower, charred black from where she used the Rune of Death to destroy it.
• Breaking Old Trends: To the stereotypical female witch characters in FromSoftware's games past, particularly Yuria (Demon's Souls) and Karla (Dark Souls III):
  • Appearance wise, they always wear black, worn-out and tattered outfits, while Ranni wears the all-white and delicate Snow Witch Set. They're always presented sprawling and sitting down on the ground, while Ranni's seating position is always placed higher than the Player Character's eye level or simply standing about.
  • They're transported to their respective games' Hub Level after a simple find-and-talk requirement, while Ranni never enters the Roundtable Hold due to her feud with the Two Fingers, requiring the Tarnished to travel to her location instead. Gameplay-wise, they're dedicated sorcery teachers to the Player Character, with plenty of options for you to purchase and learn; Ranni doesn't teach you a shred of magic, and the skills she uses in combat are obtained from someone else or found in certain locations.
  • Lore-wise, they're traditional Sidequests which start and end shortly, with generally simple and short missions. Ranni's questline spans the entire game. Also, they're usually of humble background, while Ranni is a demigod and royalty. Learning from them is portrayed as 'mutual learning' with the Player Character as you bring them items, but while Ranni is clearly at the peak of her skill, Elden Ring dedicates the task of teaching you magic to other NPCs.
• Cain and Abel: She had her brother Godwyn murdered for unclear reasons. It's implied she needed another demigod to die at the same time as her so she could die only in flesh while her spirit remained in the Lands Between but why Godwyn was the one she chose to have killed is unknown.
• Character Tic: She's fond of tenting her upper arms' fingers together when she's speaking to anyone. The only time she doesn't do so is when she's confronting Marika in the Age of the Stars ending... as well as when she's presenting her hand to the Tarnished in marriage.
• Childhood Friends: With Blaidd, who had been by her side since they were children. They’re so close the Carians considered them siblings despite the lack of blood relation — Iji describes him as Ranni’s stepbrother, and Rennala calls Blaidd “my child” in cut dialogue for her boss fight.
• The Chosen One: She was one of the Empyreans, the three potential successors to Marika chosen by a Two Fingers as the future rulers of the Lands Between. She rejected her role as one by killing her original body with the Rune of Death's power.
• The Comically Serious: There's often a significant gap between her cold, regal demeanour and the goofy situations you find her in, like sitting on a stack of books to make herself taller or stuck underground inside a tiny, helpless doll. It helps to make her more endearing, befitting someone who's introduced to you as a sinister mastermind but can instead become a Romance Sidequest.
• Cute Witch: Compared to the other Demigods who consist mostly of towering and hardened warriors, Ranni is very petite and with few hard edges to her design, and her specialty is magic rather than physical prowess. The former makes her come off as much more cute and approachable a being in a world full of horrifying monsters, you know, assuming it's not just an act. It is implied that she was much more physically imposing when she was in her original body.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Dark Sun Gwyndolin. Both are powerful wizards associated with the moon and among the few members of the land's royalty to have not succumbed to raving madness. While Gwyndolin was abused for his affinity for lunar magic, upheld his father's doomed kingdom in an attempt to prove himself worthy of his family's love, and treated the members of his Covenant as a means to an end. Ranni was born into the revered position of an Empyrean, eventually grew disgusted with her stepmother's empire to the point she enabled the plot that brought about its destruction, and truly cherishes the small circle of allies who have sworn themselves to making her vision a reality.
• Daddy's Girl: Completely inverted. Ranni is deathly protective of her birth mother, Rennala, and judging from some lore implications, she and Marika are close enough to conspire the Rune of Death's theft together, marking Ranni as one of the few characters who knows parts of Marika's plan (the other being Maliketh, Radagon, Godfrey, and Melina). Even in the "Age of Stars" ending, when she supplants her stepmother as the next ruler, her treatment of Marika's broken body is nothing but tender. In contrast, her relationship with her father, Radagon, may as well be non-existent compared to her brothers, Radahn and Rykard.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Ranni is heavily associated with darkness, witchcraft, and the night in general, and the Outer God she's associated with is the Moon; despite this, she espouses the virtues of free will and champions freedoms, and her ending is one that Melina will support. This is heavily contrasted with the Light Is Not Good Frenzied Flame, whose ending Melina will not support.
• Darkhorse Victory: Following her questline will lead to her coming out on top of the entire Shattering, outliving potentially all of her siblings and overthrowing the Golden Order in favor of a new age headed by her and the Tarnished.
• Deep Sleep: After granting the first mission of her questline to the Tarnished, her doll body enters a slumbering state, leaving her unresponsive if the Tarnished tries to speak with her until her quest has progressed. Her dialogue implies that this is a regular occurrence as a side-effect of inhabiting her artificial body.
  "I shall soon enter my slumber. And it will be some time before I wake. This doll's body is not without its hindrances..."
• Defrosting Ice Queen: In varying degrees, depending on how you start and how you finish her quest. If you come to her with no ulterior motive and swear to serve her, she warms up to you rather quickly, sincerely thanking you after you give her the Fingerkiller blade and only becoming more impressed as you doggedly follow her through to the end of her destiny. If you come to her following Rogier's lead, however, she'll (perhaps rightfully) believe you are only serving her in return for the location of her death rune (though she doesn't say it's a bad thing); her goodbye after giving over the Fingerkiller blade is much more formal, as she believes you have your own opposing design for the Elden Ring, and will only really start to become fond of you after you kill the Baleful Shadow for her.
  • Regardless of how you start her quest, she will be fond of the Tarnished by the end of it. If you've spoken with her thoroughly, including a secret conversation in her tower's chamber at the end, she'll seem to be genuinely affectionate towards the Tarnished, referring to them as "dear" to her in the ending.
• Deity of Human Origin: She is the birth child of the sorceress-queen Rennala and Radagon, who later became an Elden Lord by marrying Queen Marika. When this occurred, Ranni was elevated to the status of a demigod and by the time of the story is no longer human — having killed her physical body and possessed a doll. She can become a God-Emperor herself and the new Top God by succeeding Marika in the "Age of the Stars" ending.
• Deuteragonist: Though you can complete the game without even meeting Ranni, she has the most involved sidequest in the entire game, is connected to several other NPCs, sends the Tarnished to the Nokron and Nokstella optional areas, has huge relevance to the games' lore, and even factors into her own, unique ending. To top it all off, she gifts the Dark Moon Greatsword at the end of her sidequest, Elden Ring's version of the Moonlight Greatsword.
• Disappointed in You: Beyond merely being furious and disgusted should you attempt to betray her by going along with Seluvis' scheme Ranni is genuinely surprised and saddened, having thought better of you.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: Through following Preceptor Seluvis' goal of trying to make Ranni their plaything she will notice what's going at the last second, before the Tarnished can ever succeed in administering the Amber Draught on her; by that point, Ranni will cut ties with them, ordering the Tarnished to leave her presence and never come back. However, if you make the Tarnished try to force a conversation with Ranni over and over again, not heeding her following warnings, she will have enough of it, killing the Tarnished instantly through unknown means.
• Dub Personality Change: The English version makes her ultimate goal sound far more sinister than it's originally written. In English, she makes it sound like her Order will be one where things like touch, faith and emotions would become, in her words 'impossibilities'. In actuality, as written in the original Japanese, Ranni wants to create an Order and raise herself to godhood so she can distance that Order, and herself, from the world, freeing it from the influence of the Greater Will and its divine law. In fact, this is how the previously mentioned line is directly translated from Japanese:
  Ranni: Even if life and souls are one with the order, it (the order) could be kept far away. If it was not possible to clearly see, feel, believe in, or touch the order… That would be better.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Ranni will likely be the first demigod encountered in the opening hours of the game, introducing herself under the name Renna, at the Church of Elleh if proper steps are taken. The full gravity and implications of this meeting — as well as her true identity — will not be made clear until much later in the game.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Should you follow her questline after beating Rennala, Ranni seems to treat the Tarnished attacking her mother unprovoked as a thing of the past. It's not made clear if the spell she casts to protect the Carian queen was a conscious decision or it was a trap she left that triggered without her input, meaning she might not even be aware it happened in the first place. The latter interpretation is supported by the fact that she won't even mention if you attack her mother after agreeing to work with her either.
  • Completely averted if you actually do end up betraying her, be it by attacking her at specific points in her questline where you're allowed to do it, or by helping Seluvis drug her, in which case she'll completely cut ties with you and the sidequest will become unavailable for that playthrough.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: While her overall morality is debatable there is no mistake Ranni clearly loves her birth-mother Rennala. When Rennala is defeated in her first phase, Ranni hijacks the fight and conjures an illusion of her mother in her prime to protect her.
• Everyone Has Standards: While Seluvis is part of her retinue, she clearly dislikes him, and he's only tolerated because his puppetry magic was necessary for her to create her doll body. And since giving Ranni the Fingerslayer Blade and allowing her to move forward with her plans triggers Seluvis's death, it's likely she disposed of him the moment he wasn't needed.
• The Evils of Free Will: Inverted, because she is all for them. Ranni's ultimate goal is to separate the "order" which governs the world, causality and all souls so it won't cast such a strong shadow on the destinies of all beings (the very fundamentals of Golden Order itself), which will allow everyone to be the master of their own fates. She acknowledges removing the Golden Order and giving all living souls agency will still cause suffering, as without the certainty from the guidance of a higher power, many will despair in the face of absolute uncertainty; but she believes it is better than the Age of the Erdtree as a whole.
• Extremely Protective Child: She won't let the Tarnished kill her mother and will fight them in her stead as Rennala's second phase, taking her mother's form.
• Eye Scream: Her right eye is always closed for unexplained reasons. It also has a similar claw-like mark Melina's left eye does.
• Facial Markings: Ranni has glowing blue tattoo-like markings under her right eye, which only appear while the spectral mirror of her face is "active". Curiously, it almost matches Melina's own, albeit on opposite eyes.
• Fan Disservice: She's shown naked during her "wedding" scene at the end of her quest line but it's not exactly an eroticized moment. Ranni's doll body is old, brittle, and cracked, with most of her torso and legs being exposed wire and twine, and even the design itself is an anatomically simple framework like a cheap wooden artist's mannequin that was clearly not designed to be visible outside the face and hands.
• Fiery Redhead: Inverted. Her doll body has blue hair and she's very stoic, or at least tries to do so. Her original body, which can still be found at the top of the Divine Tower of Liurnia, has been so ravaged by time and the elements you can barely tell she has any hair left. And yes, it was red, no doubt inherited from her father.
• Flowery Elizabethan English: Constantly speaks like this, including use of antiquated vocabulary like saying "ne'er" instead of "never".
• Foil: To Melina, as a fellow main female character in Elden Ring:
  • Both are mentioned to be "bodiless", but Melina maintained the ability to shift between spectral and corporeal form similar to Torrent, while Ranni relies entirely on inhabiting her doll body. Melina prefers simple, hardy travelling clothes with dark, sombre colors with a hood to cover her face, while Ranni always wears the regal and white-themed Snow Witch Set, which has a large hat to do the same job.
  • Melina is synonymous with light, fire, and the Erdtree, symbolized by her proximity to the various Sites of Graces and her light-based, Magic Knight fighting style. Ranni personifies the night's darkness, ice, and the Dark Moon, while "fighting" only with illusions, long-range and large-scale sorceries... plus One-Hit Kill spell traps aimed at you should you attempt to drug her.
  • Melina acts as your supporting crew member throughout your journey, while Ranni tasks you with supporting her in her complicated plans to overthrow the established order.
  • Melina strives to restore the Golden Order, willing to compromise with any acceptable method you choose (bar the "Frenzied Flame" ending) and sacrifice herself for the greater whole. Meanwhile, Ranni's questline is heavily-laden with shades of an ambitious, vengeful, and rebellious desire to smash apart the established rules and set her own, while her final sacrifice felt more like simply spiting the Two Fingers who'd controlled her whole life.
  • Melina serves as your most constant companion throughout your journey and is arguably the character you spend the most time around yet, little is known about her own past and personal thoughts on certain matters within the Lands Between and its current state. Meanwhile, Ranni is someone who goes out of her way to make herself scarce around the Player Character and others due to her current circumstances but is very willing to reveal her motivations and plans for the future, including why she's doing what she's doing due to her history.
  • Their "death" scenes are opposites of each other. Melina does so in the open, witnessed and accompanied by the Tarnished, setting herself and the Erdtree's thorns ablaze. Ranni chose a secluded, dark and cold final resting place, with no one around her and her companions having either died, been killed, or sent away (you) prior to the Final Duel, with her corpse lying in already-cold blood.
• Formerly Friendly Family: While Ranni loves her birth mother Rennala to death (and seemingly gets along with Marika well enough), she considers Blaidd and Iji to be her real family, instead of her brothers Rykard whose territory is directly north of Liurnia, or Radahn who's off campaigning in Caelid in the southeast. You can be the newest addition to her 'family', too, if you complete her questline.
• Gay Option: An odd case in which she, and technically Marika, are the only romance options, regardless of the Tarnished's gender. She does use slightly different dialogue depending on the Tarnished's gender, though her actual sexual preference is never elaborated upon.
• God-Emperor: Becomes this in the "Age of the Stars" ending by succeeding Marika and taking the Tarnished as her eternal consort.
• Godhood Seeker: While Ranni initially slew her own flesh-and-blood body to avoid walking "the Empyrean Path" chosen for her by the Two Fingers, she ends up walking it anyway in the "Age of the Stars" ending — albeit on her own terms, slaying the Two Fingers and usurping Marika's status as the divine ruler of the Lands Between.
• Happily Married: Depending on how close she becomes to the Tarnished, Ranni's interactions with the Tarnished vary from cordial to slightly warm if her entire sidequest and dialogue options are triggered and exhausted. The end of her questline sees the Tarnished slipping the Dark Moon Ring on her damaged doll body's finger, and she accepts the proposal. If the questline is completed without exhausting her dialogue and the "Age of the Stars" ending is picked, she refers to the Tarnished as her "fair consort", whereas exhausting her dialogue has her affectionately call them her "dear consort".
• Height Angst: It's subtly implied that she resents her doll body's average height compared to her far taller original body's. Both in when the player first encounters her at Kalé's church, and in her tower in Caria, she's sitting on things that make her look taller (a crumbled wall and a stack of books respectively)
• Hidden Depths: Ranni has a few moments showing she's not as cold or regal as she likes to present herself.
  • When she's in her Rise, closer look reveals she piles books on her chair as to appear taller than she really is, a quirk which was first hinted when you met her for the first time in the Church of Elleh where she sits on top of a broken section of the wall.
  • In Ainsel River, she sounds almost embarrassed when the Tarnished found her small doll form and kept talking to her even when she feigned silence. She also gets surprisingly talkative (you can practically talk to her in every new grace you found in Ainsel River), and at one point even ponders to include the Tarnished in her list of "really kind people" before hastily asking the Tarnished to forget she ever said that, blaming her loose lips on her current small form.
• Homosexual Reproduction: Sort of. As a demigod, she is considered a child of Marika, but she is also very close with her biological mother Rennala. With the reveal of Radagon and Marika sharing a body, it's possible both her mothers are in fact her biological parents.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Ranni's doll body is visibly shorter compared to everyone else in her service. While the height difference between her and the Tarnished and Seluvis (both of whom are in the 5.5-6 ft tall range) is more realistic, it becomes exaggerated when comparing her to Blaidd, who's around 8-9 feet in height, and Iji, who's about as tall as a two-story building... and let's not even get started about comparing her with Adulla. It doesn't stop there, as she gets even tinier once she shrinks down to the size of a doll which can fit neatly within the Tarnished's pocket. And while the corpse of her true body is noticeably taller than her doll form, in Morgott's cutscene, her designated throne is absolutely tiny when compared to all of her siblings, even to Miquella who's supposed to be cursed with eternal childhood.
  • Funnily enough, this trope also applies when comparing her with her immediate family members. Her mother is already twice as large as her, while her brothers, Radahn and Rykard, are even multiple times larger than that. It seems while she inherits her mother's talent in magic and association with the Dark Moon, Radagon only passed on his red hair and some degree of his martial prowess.
• An Ice Person: Ranni has an affinity for the cold, as shown by weapons and spells associated with her (chiefly among them the Dark Moon Greatsword) causing frost buildup and her attire being named the Snow Witch set.
• Identity Impersonator: Downplayed. If the Tarnished meets Ranni at the Church of Elleh at night, she'll introduce herself under the alias Renna. The flavor text for the Snow Witch armor reveals Ranni had a teacher of the same name, and her doll body was crafted in Renna's likeness rather than Ranni's original body; a curious thing to take note of, since the doll body was made by Seluvis and his puppets match the origin of the body flawlessly. She only uses her Renna alias once, as the next time the Tarnished runs into her she will give her actual name.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Ranni has made many decisions that are morally questionable at best in her quest to enact the Age of the Stars, but claims no remorse for them as she feels they were necessary to free the world from the Greater Will.
• Immune to Fate: Ranni's ultimate goal is to completely break free of the Golden Order so she can properly ascend as the Dark Moon's vassal. Killing her flesh-and-blood body (which was especially attuned to the Greater Will as one of Marika's children) and moving her soul to a doll has allowed her to accomplish this partially, but she needs to slay the set of Two Fingers who first marked her as an Empyrean to fully break the connection.
• Ineffectual Loner: Ranni tries to complete her journey alone twice with the Tarnished still lending a hand when she gets stuck. The first time she is quite annoyed by it, but the second time she implicitly left a way for the Tarnished to help her despite her saying the contrary.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ranni can come off initially as secretive and cold towards the Tarnished, treating them as a tool for her plans and eviscerating them for talking to her in miniature doll form, mainly stemming from the fact she was resolved to finish her journey by herself and the Tarnished doggedly followed her. However, throughout the course of her questline, she is shown to care a great deal for Blaidd, Iji, and potentially the Tarnished themself should they prove loyal to her. In spite of her Ambiguously Evil nature, she also seems to sincerely believe her plans will improve the lot of everyone, freeing them from the machinations of the Greater Will.
• Kick the Dog: Of all the Demigods, why she chose Godwyn to die on the Night of Black Knives is very unclear. Ranni never expresses any remorse for murdering her half-brother and condemning him to a horrifying Fate Worse than Death.
• Kill the God: Part of Ranni's endgame is to kill the Two Fingers, the divine emissaries of the Golden Order, and to this end she sends the Tarnished to obtain an Immortal Breaker weapon. The reason she stole part of the Death Rune was to kill her own Semi-Divine body in an attempt to sunder herself from the destiny the Two Fingers had chosen for her.
• Lady and Knight: Beginning her questline requires the Tarnished swear fealty to her, becoming the "Knight" to her Dark Lady. While the Tarnished might not literally be a Knight, the spirit of it remains.
  • And of course she already has this dynamic with Blaidd who proudly serves as her shadow.
  • Before the Tarnished came around, Glintstone Dragon Adulla also swore fealty to her as her knight, and even possesses their very own nifty spell as an emblem of said pledge.
• Large Runt: Her actual body is much taller than her doll one, easily dwarfing a normal human adult, but is among the shortest demigods, only surpassing Miquella in height. Even her (mostly) human mother Rennala was taller than she was in her original body.
• Leave No Witnesses: After orchestrating the Night of the Black Knives and handing the assassins the enchanted daggers, Ranni betrays them and has their ringleader, Alecto, locked up in an evergoal in a highly obscure spot that only Ranni can reach. It's never stated why, but the most likely reason is that, as the assassins' leader, Alecto would know the real identity of the plot's mastermind and could spill it if she were captured or simply decided to change sides. Ranni's whereabouts and involvement are supposed to be a secret, and she's seemingly trying to pass herself off as a victim of the assassins like Godwyn and the other targets (hence why she disguises herself as "Renna" to the Tarnished and adopts a doll body that looks nothing like her real one), so Alecto has to go.
• Little Big Sister: We aren't too sure how old Ranni is in relation to her brothers, but we do know she was lacking in the height department. Compared to all her siblings (full, half, and step), with the exception of Miquella, Ranni being a human-sized (and a short human at that, even the Tarnished is taller than her) doll is absolutely tiny, especially when compared to the likes of her full brothers Radahn and Rykard.
• Lost in Translation:
  • The Age of Stars ending. In the English version, Ranni's wording and description of her world order implies she wants to do away with Marika's Golden Order and wipe the slate clean, though without this context, her age of the stars, a "thousand year voyage into fear, doubt, and loneliness" makes it come off more sinister. In the Japanese version, Ranni's world order is more concrete and wants to free the world from the Golden Order's influence.
  • Rogier calls her "demigod and sister to General Radahn and Praetor Rykard." The Japanese subtitles specifically use the word for younger sister (妹), marking her as the youngest of the Carian siblings. Of course, given that Ranni is also called the first heir by Iji, caution must be taken. Caria might be matriarchal, but being called the first in the line of succession is incredibly specific even by their standards.
• Lunacy: Her title is the "Lunar Princess" and she's proficient with Glintstone magic, a style heavily associated with Cosmic Motifs. The second phase of her battle is steeped in lunar imagery, which is fitting since she's using the image of her mother, who's known as the Queen of the Full Moon.
• Mage Tower: Her main base of operations is Ranni's Rise, a large tower enveloped with glintstone, situated on the westernmost point of the Three Sisters.
• Magic Knight: Not onscreen unfortunately, but it's implied she hold some skill as a swordswoman on top of her vast sorcery prowess, having presumably both the Fingerslayer Blade and Glintstone Sorceries when she slew her Two Fingers.
• Man Behind the Man: It was her who stole a fragment of the Rune of Death from Maliketh and gifted it to the Black Knife Assassins, allowing them to slay Godwyn and beginning the Shattering.
• Marionette Master: The body she inhabits in front of the Tarnished is actually an advanced marionette animated by her soul, much like the Marionette soldi you encounter all over Liurnia.
• Meaningful Name: In Sanskrit, the name "Rani" means "queen". Ranni aims to ascend the throne, albeit on her own terms and not of the Golden Order's.
• Momma's Girl: She cares greatly for her mother Rennala, enough that she won't allow the Tarnished to battle Rennala, instead adopting her mother's appearance to fight in her place.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Her doll form has two sets of arms. As her original body displays only two, it's assumed that the additional limbs were another of the unusual traits that her witch mentor had.
• Mundane Utility: She's highly talented in Summon Magic, and one of the things she's shown using it for is to call spectral projections of her retainers to her tower to discuss strategy and host general meetings, such as when she introduces the player to her service.
• Mutual Kill: Her battle against her Two Fingers, Ranni ends up destroying her doll body in the last fight against her nemesis; presenting the Dark Moon Ring to Ranni by then is the only way to save her.
• Mythology Gag: Her appearance as a four-armed doll mirrors the Fool's Idol from Demon's Souls. But whereas the Fool's Idol was naught but a mindless puppet, Ranni is certainly in control of her own actions.
• Mythical Motifs:
  • Possibly more than any other character, Ranni is very close to her mythological inspiration, in this case Loki. She's a ruthless and conniving mage-god who champions chaos (in contrast to her overlord) and who seeks to overthrow the God of Order, and engineers the murder of the beloved god Godwyn (as Loki engineered the death of Baldr; both even did it the same way, enchanting a mundane object and giving it to another so they could kill the normally-immortal target). Both she and Loki cause their setting's version of Götterdämmerung in their scheming, leading to mass death. Both also have a loyal wolf as a family member (Loki's son Fenrir and Ranni's stepbrother Blaidd) who aids in their plots, work through false identities and forms, and rely on trickery partly because they're small and dainty compared to their more martial relatives.
  • Her character design - a four-armed, blue-skinned, robed deity who can take multiple avatars - might be in reference to the Hindu god Vishnu (known as Bichū-ten in Japanese Buddhism), especially since Ranni sounds quite similar to a Hindi name (रानी) that means "queen."
  • She also has some motifs of Kaguya-hime from Japanese mythology, a princess from the moon that descended onto the earth. The 'fake ending' to her questline, where she dissapears and orders the Tarnished not to follow her, as she must travel her path alone, is likely a reference to the ending of the myth in which Kaguya must bid goodbye to her lover to return to the moon. Unlike the myth, however, Ranni and the Tarnished can become eternally bonded and stay together in her ending.
• Nay-Theist: Despite being a demigod herself, Ranni seems to have little respect for any deity, with outright disdain for the Greater Will specifically. Her plan for her new age after ascending to full godhood is to remove the influence of herself and other gods from the Lands Between so that the people could be free to make their own choices.
• Necessary Drawback: She doesn't seem able to remain in control of her doll body at all times and needs to rest for long periods to recharge herself. A bit precarious given that her original body is dead. The doll is also implied to be much weaker and more fragile than her original body as shown by it seemingly "breaking", leaving her practically comatose after she used it to kill her set of Two Fingers.
• Necessarily Evil: Ranni is directly or indirectly responsible for some genuinely heinous crimes, from implicitly tolerating her minion Seluvis's monstrous "hobby" so long as he's useful to arming a dangerous assassin group with the Rune of Death and enabling to murder the beloved Godwyn. From her point of view, all of this is preferable to letting the Golden Order continue ruling the world.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Whatever you think about how she unchained herself from the Greater Will, Ranni probably did not plan for the black knives she enchanted to mutate Godwyn into an undying monstrosity whose presence warps the land and destabilizes the boundary between life and death.
• Not So Stoic: She loses her monotone demeanor during certain events, precisely those where she is slightly irritated. To note: when the Tarnished first chooses to talk with Ranni's miniature doll, Ranni will feign silence until the Tarnished insists well enough so Ranni responds, revealing her little doll is also her avatar, and Ranni will chastise them accusing the Tarnished of having a potential kink towards little dolls, but she is actually mad her cover was blown; also when Ranni opens herself about her troubles with the Two Fingers, she is noticeably angry when talking about them, and to finish it Ranni seems agitated too when she talks about what is her intention for the era she calls "Age of the Stars", encompassing the world in the cold of darkness, free of all current beliefs, showing clear disdain for how the world worked until the Shattering.
• Odd Friendship: The 'friendship' part is only implied in the lore, but her relationship with Melina is certainly 'odd'. Despite all the aforementioned points in Foil above, both of them are well-acquainted with each other and fond of Torrent (and potentially you, should you progress both their quests enough), have identical markings on opposite eyes, and neither goes against the other's final designs on what the next age should be (Ranni's "Age of Stars" is the only other Outer God-based ending Melina will still support). Technically, they're also the remaining active demigods who're on good terms with each other, if Melina's implied connections to Marika are true.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • She killed her Two Fingers with the blade you gave her in the basement of a church. We only see the aftermath, but from the looks of both combatants, it was a fierce battle.
  • Even more impressive is stealing the Rune of Death itself, which required her to somehow rob Maliketh the Black Blade, who is one of the most feared beings in the Lands Between and could have easily killed her if he detected her. How Ranni managed to accomplish such a feat is never even alluded to, though presumably her talents as a sorceress skilled in illusory magic were important to it. Queen Marika herself may have also assisted in the theft, if her connection to the Black Knife Assassins and plan to shatter the Elden Ring went to that extent.
• Order Versus Chaos: She's the Chaos to the Greater Will's Order. Her goal is to create an age free of the control of the Greater Will or any other Outer God, regardless of the cost.
• Patricide: If what we know about Marika and Radagon's true nature is correct, then Ranni's been planning on usurping her "father's" throne and killing him all these years. She will only succeed in the end with the Tarnished's assistance.
• Plot Armor: She's one of the very few characters that simply cannot be killed in any way at all, the others being gameplay-vital characters like Hewg, Rennala and Roderika, and the Roundtable's Two Fingers. The most you can do is attack her in specific points of her questline, after which she'll simply dissapear and consider you a dissapointment, before never reappearing again for that playthrough.
• Puppet Permutation: After killing herself, Ranni's spirit was imbued into a puppet made by Seluvis. Ironically, instead of the puppet looking like her original self, something Seluvis has been shown to be very good at doing, item descriptions for the Snow Witch outfit reveal her current body is tailored to look like Ranni's teacher, Renna.
• Reality Warper: Her 'illusion' magic is so strong it's technically this, completely transporting the player Tarnished into an endless body of water watched over closely by a gigantic moon, and the only 'illusory' thing about it is her control over which moon she's showing — Rennala's Full Moon or her personal Dark Moon spell. In fact, the only other entities who display a similar ability to her ability are the Elden Beast, who is an actual god; Placidussax, a dragon with similar status to Marika regarding his relationship with his Outer God; and Astel, the most powerful of all Naturalborns.
• The Reveal: Ranni outright proclaims herself as the one who stole Death prior to the Shattering when the Tarnished finds her again after their first meeting in her rise. If the Tarnished chooses to serve her, assisting her plot reveals Ranni was also one of three demigods chosen by the Two Fingers to be titled an Empyrean, a candidate for succeeding Marika, the other two being Miquella and Malenia.
• Robe and Wizard Hat: She wears the Snow Witch set, comprised of a regal skirted robe and a big pointed hat which both boost the effectiveness of ice magic. It's revealed to have once been her mentor's garb when you obtain it near the end of Ranni's questline.
• Romance Sidequest: Her questline in a nutshell. Of course, the results of which won't be apparent until the final steps of the quest are completed and the Age of the Stars ending is achieved, where Ranni declares the Tarnished her consort. More specifically how much Ranni seems to like the Tarnished can slightly vary depending on if you exhausted all of her dialogue options as a doll in the places allowing you so; without paying attention to that, she will merely dub the Tarnished her "fair consort eternal" when they marry, but total completion will have her say "dear consort eternal" instead. Even before the Tarnished puts the ring on her finger, she can affectionately refer to them as her "one and only Lord" when expositing her plan for the Age of the Stars.
• Satanic Archetype: Though not as blatant as Mohg and Rykard, Ranni's character is still very Luciferian, even if significantly more sympathetic than the other two examples. The biggest connection between the two is their refusal to bow down to God, with Ranni wanting to cut herself free from the fate the Fingers and the Greater Will created for her, defying its will and subverting its order in the Lands Between if her ending is chosen. Instead of being out of blind pride and superiority, Ranni seems to genuinely believe that the world would be better off without divine oversight and the laws of the Greater Will, as that would allow people to be truly free - even if she is willing to step over a lot of corpses to get there.
• Screw Destiny: In the end, Ranni's questline is about her taking her destiny into her own hands and no longer being a pawn to be used by the Two Fingers, Golden Order or Marika.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Casted aside her Great Rune and sealed herself in Caria Manor at the start of the Shattering, refusing to raise an army or wage war against the other demigods, and as of the present day not even Gideon knows where she's gone.
• Secret Test of Character: After slaying the Baleful Shadow, itself a task she only asked of the Tarnished because of their persistence, Ranni bids goodbye to the Tarnished "for the final time" once again, but leaves with them a key to the chest containing what is essentially her engagement ring and a breadcrumb trail to the place which will otherwise be her final resting place, where she commits a Mutual Kill on one of the Two Fingers... Unless "her lord" intervenes.
• Signature Headgear: Recognizable by her massive, white witch's hat.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Or woman. One of the primary reasons Ranni finds herself endeared to the Tarnished is because of their kindness.
  Ranni: Ah, should I add thee to the list? Another one, kind of heart. As kind of heart as [Iji and Blaidd].
• Starring Smurfette: She is both the leader of the Three Sisters faction and the only woman in the group. It turns into a case of Two Girls to a Team if a female Tarnished agrees to serve her.
• Summon Magic: While far from her only magical skill, Ranni seems to heavily favor summoning. She's the one who gifts the Tarnished the bell to call Spirit Ashes, and what's likely to be their first set of Ashes to go with it. When she "fights" in Rennala's second phase, it's by summoning an illusory copy of her mother, and said illusion takes it a step further by invoking Spirit Ashes of her own, including wolves, a troll, and a dragon. Ranni even uses summoning for regular business like calling meetings among her retainers.
• Supernatural Aid: 'Tis she who grants the Tarnished the Spirit Calling Bell, along with the Lone Wolf Ashes, one of the most important items in the player's kit. It also implies she was the original handler of Torrent. And furthermore, her stealing the Death Rune allowed for the creation of the Black Knives.
  (Giving you the Spirit Calling Bell)
  "'Tis a bell for calling forth spirits."
  "Summon them with it, from ash unreturned to the Erdtree."
  "The spirits will obey thine command but briefly, as they recall battles past."
  "Now it is thine. To do with as thou wishest."
• Thanatos Gambit: When talking to the miniature Ranni doll, she tells the Tarnished she slew her own physical body to free herself from the destiny the Two Fingers had chosen for her as an Empyrean. In order to do so she had to kill herself with a Black Knife at the same time as another Demigod, in this case Godwyn, is killed in the same way, so the Cursemark of Death would be metaphysically halved and one would "die in soul but not in body", which is what happened to Godwyn, and the other "die in body but not in soul", her wanted outcome.
• That Liar Lies: Should the Tarnished come across her as "Renna" after receiving Torrent, Ranni will ask if they are the bearer of a Spectral Steed called Torrent, and become rather annoyed if they answer no; revealing she is acquainted with Melina, who told her about them, and giving them a chance to change their response. Should the Tarnished persist in denying they have Torrent, Ranni calls them out on lying again but admits they're wise not to trust her.
• Token Heroic Orc: While by no means the most morally clean of Marika’s children, Ranni is the only Demigod who, aside from her hijacking the second phase of Rennala’s fight to protect her mother, is neutral to/on The Tarnished’s side and doesn’t attack them on sight. She’s even the Big Good if you pursue her ending.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Should the Tarnished attempt to administer Seluvis' Amber Draught, Ranni's voice never rises above a calm, harsh tone betraying her barely-restrained rage.
  • This is also her reaction when the Tarnished gets to the second phase of her boss fight, calling them a "foul trespasser" and taking up the fight in her mother's place.
• True Companions: She cares deeply for both Iji and Blaidd and one of the last things doll Ranni asks of you before she goes to fight the Two Fingers is to tell Iji and Blaidd she loves them. Depending on why they joined her, she'll develop either the same gratitude to the Tarnished or something more.
• Two-Faced: Ranni has a spectral mirror image of her head beside her, with the left side of its face superimposed over the right side of hers.
• Übermensch: Ranni's ultimate goal. Her Age of the Stars will do away with the Golden Order and everything pertaining to Queen Marika's rule, essentially creating a new world order.
• The Unfought: Played With; while Ranni does highjack her mother's second phase, you are fighting an illusion of Rennala at her peak, not Ranni herself. This makes Ranni technically the only demigod whom you interact with (Godwyn and Miquella are both kind of dead when you see them) you never directly fight. Even if you attack her or attempt to trick her, she will just state how Disappointed in You she is, kill you instantly if it is in her tower, then leave and never appear again.
• Unreliable Narrator: She narrates the game's story trailer, which has her audibly wondering who could have stolen the Rune of Death. In the game itself, not only does she know who stole it, she's the one who stole it!
• The Usurper: In the Age of the Stars ending, where she succeeds Queen Marika as God-Emperor and marries the Tarnished as her consort.
• Vague Age: The age difference among Rennala's children has been notoriously vague and contradictory, but Ranni possibly sufferred the worst case. As mentioned above, the Japanese translations put Ranni as youngest....which is immediately contradicted by Iji calling Ranni as first heir to the Carian throne. Now one can make semantic arguements that Caria, being matrilineal and matriarchal, would have an obvious bias towards females being put first no matter the age. But Iji's statements was incredibly specific. If he stated that Ranni was the next heir, the contradiction would have subsided. But being first strongly indicates a level of age seniority that would not be possible if Ranni was the youngest. As such, where Ranni sits is incredibly muddled.

  "Jerren. Now, that's a name I haven't heard for a while. Before taking up the banner of General Radahn, he was a guest of the Carian royal family. An expert swordsman, to be sure, but ever the eccentric. No surprise he'd get wrapped up in some festival. Oh, no, wait... How did I not see it before? I ought to retire as war counsellor for such a gross oversight! Let me explain. The fate of the Carian royal family is guided by the stars. As is the fate of Lady Ranni, first heir in the Carian royal line. But General Radahn is the conqueror of the stars. Who stood up to the swirling constellations, halting their movement in a smashing victory. And so, if General Radahn were defeated, the stars would once again resume their movement. As would Lady Ranni's destiny. Perhaps, even, revealing the elusive path. That leads to Nokron."

• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Against all normal reasoning, you can actually make the Tarnished attack Ranni at the very end of her questline, when bringing her doll body back to life, instead of talking to Ranni one last time before she teleports away to the "Age of the Stars" summon rune trigger; Ranni will sadly remark she should have seen it coming, believing no Tarnished would actually randomly appear to help her without ulterior motives or being just plain crazy. Ranni disappears after that unprovoked assault.
• Wave-Motion Gun: She uses Comet Azur when fighting on Rennala's behalf.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: She fully believes all the problems with the world can be linked back to the Greater Will and the Two Fingers, as she claims everything bad which had occurred was due to their influence. Going so far as to defy them is the only way she feels their hold can be broken.
• What the Hell, Hero?: During the second phase of Rennala's boss fight, Ranni calls the Tarnished a "foul trespasser" for attacking her mother and declares she'll fight them in her stead. If the Tarnished actually goes along with Preceptor Seluvis' plan of administering the Amber Drought on Ranni, she will be understandably enraged by your actions and soon have Seluvis killed and will completely cut ties with the Tarnished, threatening them to leave her presence forever.
• Worf Had the Flu: When you 'fought' her briefly, those powerful and annoying spells she was using to wipe the floor with you were actually weakened from her real ability, as she was working through a projection of her mother's visage (much like her brothers Mohg and Morgott/Margit are handicapped when having to fight in projection form rather than in-person). As she has lost her original body long ago and is now using a puppet body, it is also likely she was stronger prior to losing it as it was noted to possess the qualities to be an Empyrean, though the Dark Moon Ring seems able to restore them. She complains about the limitations her doll body place on her more than once in her dialogue, indicating that she is likely only operating at a fraction of the strength she had when she was still flesh and blood.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: A surprisingly sympathetic example, as the only one she does this to is Seluvis, who was planning to puppet her with the Amber Draught.

With Marika

Malenia, Blade of Miquella

See her page for more info

Miquella of the Haligtree

^{Click here to see his cocoon}

'"The Empyrean Miquella is loved by many people. Indeed, he has learned very well how to compel such affection."

"My brother will keep his promise; he has the wisdom, the allure of a god. He's the most fearsome empyrean of all."

— Malenia, Blade of Miquella

Also known as Miquella the Unalloyed. One of Marika's children through Radagon and twin brother to Malenia. An Empyrean with the potential to replace Marika as God of the Lands Between and vessel of the Elden Ring, Miquella attempted to grow his own Erdtree - the Haligtree - and create a new order for the world - before mysteriously vanishing.

---

• All Love Is Unrequited: A completely sympathetic example; Mohg has been trying to force Miquella into becoming the Formless Mother's vassal so he can become his consort. The young Empyrean understandably doesn't return these "affections".
• All-Loving Hero: Implied; part of the reason why he built the Haligtree is so he could provide a place that welcomed all people in the Lands Between, including races that were mistreated by the Golden Order's xenophobic doctrines like the Albinaurics, who were created as a Slave Race. Tragically, he never succeeded as Mohg kidnapped him with intent to turn him into his consort, dooming the Haligtree to rot and denying its residents their salvation.
• Ambiguously Human: Or rather, Ambiguously Demigod, as his father Radagon might have been a full deity as Marika’s other half. If the curse placed on him since birth was also a divine blessing of an unmentioned outer god, he might also have been a full god in body like his sister. Mohg’s machinations of attempting to turn him into a divine extension of the Formless Mother might also mean he is not a demigod anymore by any definition of the word. 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.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • The nature of Miquella's curse of eternal childhood. To be specific, who or what caused it — given it seems to be as incurable as Malenia’s Scarlet Rot, it might also be the curse of an outer god, but there is very little evidence to support or deny the idea. In addition, by the time the Tarnished sees him, they can see his arm hanging limply from his cocoon — and it's clearly an adult's, which raises a number of possibilities regarding whether or not Mohg’s efforts had broken his curse or not.
  • For that matter, there's good reason to believe that Miquella is still alive, albeit in a comatose state. What little you see of him would make him seem to be a withered corpse, and Mohg has explicitly been trying to "resurrect" him, but there's no indication Mohg actually killed Miquella and Gideon expresses the belief that he's still alive, just dreaming. It's entirely possible that Miquella put himself into this state to deny Mohg's plans, or that he was already in it when Mohg found him, as his painting in the intro cutscene shows him seemingly unconscious in Mohg's arms. The fact that his Great Rune is still unaccounted for would lend credence to this theory. The DLC confirms that he is alive, having sent his soul to the Land of Shadow, and the plot will hinge on finding him by following in his footsteps.
• The Archmage: Though not technically a sorcerer like his half-siblings from Queen Rennala's lineage, Miquella is a master in Golden Order Fundamentalism (i.e. holy magic), which utilizes Intelligence in addition to Faith (some Fundamentalist Incantations don't require Faith at all, close to pure Sorcery); so much so in his youth he was able to create new Incantations to gift his father Radagon with. Even after he abandoned Fundamentalism, his knowledge and research of the arcane are such he managed to discover the materials needed to craft Unalloyed Gold, which has the potential to replace Golden Order and ward off the influences of Outer Gods. He went as far as to create the Haligtree, a "tree of abundance" which also has the potential to replace the Erdtree.
• Ascended Extra: Downplayed. While an important character as far as lore is concerned, Miquella himself has little prominence in the main game. Shadow of the Erdtree brings him into the spotlight as a major character, as the goal of the DLC as stated in preview materials is to track him down and trace his footsteps in the Land of Shadow.
• Astral Projection: The "Shadow of the Erdtree" trailer reveals that he separated his soul from his body in order to reach the Land of Shadows.
• Bad Powers, Good People: It's stated multiple times that despite his childish appearance, Miquella was terrifying - and for good reason, he essentially had the power to effortlessly brainwash people into allies, worshippers and servants, a horrible power if it fell in the wrong hands. However, there's very little to indicate that Miquella was anything but a kind soul who wanted to create a better system than the one his mother had created and mantained.
• Barrier Maiden: As stated by Gideon, the Haligtree is sustained by the slumbering Empyrean's blood. Without him present the tree decays rather than coming into maturity as a proper Erdtree, leaving his outcast subjects without a home and the world without an alternative to the main Erdtree which flat-out rejected every attempt to fix things. For pragmatic as well as emotional reasons then, his sister and their followers would do anything to keep him safe. Unfortunately Mohg was (somehow) able to kidnap him and they weren't able to get him back (if they even knew it was Mohg), dooming the whole project. All they can do now is wait for his return.
  Haligtree Soldier Ashes: This was the bitter revelation discovered by the desperate soldiers who awaited the return of their lord to the rotted Haligtree. May the flash of our deaths guide Miquella's return.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Like Godwyn, a ghastly aversion. Miquella was well known for his cherubic beauty before the Shattering, but whatever Mohg did to him left him a lanky, desiccated, pockmarked corpse in the present. It's not quite as bad as the aforementioned Godwyn, but still quite grisly. This may, however, only apply to Miquella's body, as his spirit/consciousness glimpsed in the Shadow of the Erdtree trailer is still as youthful and beatific as he's been depicted in statuary and art scattered across the Lands Between.
• Big Brother Instinct: He created the Haligtree so he could help cure his younger twin Malenia of the Scarlet Rot. His reason for abandoning the Golden Order Fundamentalism after creating several of the fundamentalist incantations is that it was unable to stop her curse. In the Japanese text, Malenia usually refers to him as "older brother" (兄様/nii-sama) rather than by his name. In some cut dialogue he refers to Malenia as 愛する妹よ or literally "beloved younger sister."
• Body Horror: When you actually find him all you see is an unnaturally long, desiccated arm sticking out of a cocoon, which snaps down at an almost 90 degree angle with a Sickening "Crunch!" before issuing a stream of blood from which Mohg arises. Examining him in the model viewer will reveal him to be a tall, shriveled old man now, presumably as a result of whatever Mohg was doing to try and elevate him to godhood.
• Brains and Brawn: Miquella is the brain to his twin Malenia's brawn, being noted as a brilliant mind who mastered Golden Order Fundamentalism and invented the Unalloyed Gold. Since he's stuck in the body of a child, he doesn't engage in combat himself, instead allowing the martially-oriented Malenia to serve as his "Blade".
• Caring Gardener: Grew the Haligtree and allowed it to be used as a safe haven for outcasts across the Lands Between, such as Albinaurics and Misbegotten.
• Charm Person: Prior to his kidnapping, he was one of the most beloved demigods in part due to his natural charisma. He was also heavily implied to be the creator of the Bewitching Branch, a craftable item that can turn normal enemies into temporary allies, to magically compel affection from others in case his charisma failed him.
  "The Empyrean Miquella is loved by many people. Indeed, he has learned very well how to compel such affection."
• Child Prodigy: Implied; Morgott briefly reminisces Miquella and his twin sister Malenia as "the twin prodigies". The Bewitching Branch describes he was very charismatic to the point of being a Charm Person, and was loved by his subjects as a consequence. In his youth, he also invented incantations as gifts to his father Radagon, such as Triple Rings of Light.
• The Chosen One: One of the three Empyreans who can succeed Marika. In the 1.0 version of the game, Loretta's helmet even called him "the recipient of the Vision"; as the game contains lines like "Queen Marika is the vessel of the Elden Ring, carrier of its vision" and "even in shackles, she remains a god, and the vision's vessel", Miquella apparently was meant to be the new bearer of the Elden Ring originally, before Ranni, Marika, Rykard, and possibly others threw the land into war with their plots.
• Defector from Decadence:
  • In addition to his regular subjects and outcast refugees like the Misbegotten and Albinaurics, Miquella's Haligtree also contains a smattering of troops from other factions, most notably some Raya Lucarian Sorcerers (including Battle Mages) next to Loretta's boss room. The implication being that they, like Loretta, decided to leave the Academy for the Haligtree due to disagreeing with the Academy's treatment of the Albinaurics.
  • Despite his priviledged position in the Golden Order as both son of its most loyal member and its most brilliant mind, he abandoned it all when it became clear that Fundamentalism didn't have a way to cure Malenia, which opened up his eyes to a rabbit hole of all the things wrong with the Order as a whole.
• Deity of Human Origin: Invoked. After kidnapping Miquella, Mohg tried turning him into a true god bound to the Formless Mother, much like how Queen Marika was a goddess connected to the Greater Will, so he could take over the Lands Between and receive the power and authority that came with being a divine consort. Mohg seems to have succeeded, as Miquella is no longer physically a child, but whatever his half-brother did left him looking quite ghastly, as players only see an unnaturally long, desiccated arm sticking out of a cocoon.
• Deuteragonist: Of Shadow of the Erdtree. The premise is described as going into the Realm of Shadows in order to follow Miquella's footsteps and discover the reason why he entered the place. In a Famitsu interview, Miyazaki outright described Miquella as the main character of the expansion.
• The Dreaded: Malenia describes Miquella as the most fearsome of the Empyreans. Not for his strength, but for his charisma and his "divinity" — as in, he is a demigod who feels, thinks, and acts the closest to a true god. While he does have personal motives, such as to cure his sister of Scarlet Rot, his Unalloyed Gold crafts and Haligtree speak volumes about how far and all-encompassing Miquella’s goals are.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: His eternal childhood and long hair make him look very feminine to the point where it's hard to tell his gender if you don't know he's a boy.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Although he is very altruistic and offers salvation to many inhabitants of the Lands Between, his creation of the Golden Epitaph shows he dislikes Those Who Live In Death. This is likely due to either their connection with Godwyn. However, the description of the Golden Epitaph makes it sound more like he pities them rather than outright hates them, and that he views granting them true death to be a merciful act, unlike, say, the D twins, who simply view them as abominations to be exterminated.
• A Father to His Men: He blessed even his lowest foot soldiers with crowns of unalloyed gold, showing how much he valued them. His troops are fanatically devoted to him and his sister in turn to the point they pray to statues of him and are willing to suicide-bomb their enemies in the hope that the flash of the explosion will help guide him home.
  Sacred Crown Helm: Flanged iron cap adorned with a crown of unalloyed gold. Increases faith. Worn by foot soldiers sworn to the Haligtree. Who is it that Miquella shall bless, if not the low and the meek?
• Genius Loci: He was in the process of turning himself into one, as he fed the Haligtree with his own vitality and would have eventually become one with it if his plan had succeeded. Unfortunately, Mohg abducted him before it could come to fruition. In Malenia's boss arena at the roots of the tree, an outline of a young person's face can be seen in the roots above her, along with a huge cavity in the roots that looks like it was cut out, implying that Malenia is resting by the spot where Miquella was nestled in the tree before Mohg cut him out.
• Green Thumb: He's implied to have magical control over plants. He created the Bewitching Branch item to compel affection from others in case his natural charisma failed him, and he grew the Haligtree with intention to both replace the Erdtree and create a paradise for marginalized races. His original plan was to merge himself into the Haligtree, as shown with his former cocoon situated within its roots, but Mohg cut him out and kidnapped him for his own wicked plans. Also, for some reason, his blood is anathema to the forces of corruption; buds watered with his blood are the key material in crafting the Preserving Bolus item, the only item that can cure Scarlet Rot build-up.^note The Sacramental Buds required to craft it are said to "originate long ago from a strain of buds cultivated with youthful, sacramental blood", and those same buds are used to craft the Bewitching Branch, said (in the keepsake menu) to originate from Miquella. Indeed, this is why the Haligtree is in the wretched state it's in the present: he watered the Haligtree with his own blood, and since he was removed prematurely from it thanks to Mohg's kidnapping, the Haligtree failed to grow into an Erdtree and later became victim to the Scarlet Rot's corruption.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: The only other demigod to have blonde hair alongside Godwyn, and just as kindhearted and beloved as his eldest half brother. He's implied to had have compassion for the misbegotten and Albinaurics long before leaving Fundamentalism, and he opened his own Haligtree to offers to not only to them but also Crystalians and Raya Lucaria scholars.
• The Heart: Of both his faction and his family. The Haligtree is a band of exiles and outcasts largely bound together by his charisma, and he has the unique distinction of having positive relationships with both sides of his family. He and Malenia love each other and he was at least on good terms with his father Radagon (both gifting each other Fundamentalist incantations), yet he was also implied to be close with his half-brother by Godfrey, Godwyn,^note E.g. in the Golden Epitaph item description, and based on the fact that Godwyn's former general Niall (who carries a Stormveil banner and summons Banished Knights with dragon spells) joined Miquella's faction. and his mother Marika.^note Marika was said by Gideon to have experienced great sorrow when she learned what happened to Miquella, and there are statues of Marika in the Haligtree depicting her as a loving maternal figure to the twins. Also, there are several clues suggesting Miquella was quite possibly informed of Marika's plan as he seems unusually well-prepared for it.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Yes, he's a brilliant inventor and master of incantations. But what makes him the most "fearsome" of the demigods isn't his personal capabilities, it's the fact that he's an All-Loving Hero, and thus the most godlike of them. The DLC trailer repeats this idea.
  Pure and radiant, he wields love to shrive clean the hearts of men. There is nothing more terrifying.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Averted; he and Malenia 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.
• In the Blood: Of him and Malenia, he inherited Marika's long-term planning and manipulative tendencies. His goals were to build an Erdtree replacement that can house the downtrodden races that were mistreated by the xenophobic Golden Order, and to cure Malenia of the Scarlet Rot. The Unalloyed Needle and the Haligtree were the result of his efforts. He was also not above manipulating his subjects to achieve his goals — the Bewitching Branch's description seems to indicate that his charisma is magical by nature, and he specifically learned it so he could "compel" and keep his subjects' love and loyalty for him. While he is naturally compassionate and treated his subjects well, he still used questionable means to help cure his sister and save the Lands Between.
• Irony: Miquella's goal is to stop the meddling and control of outer gods on the people of the Lands Between and safeguard their free will and self-determination, no matter the fate they had in the eyes of the Golden Order; he himself is just below his parents in the hierarchy of the Golden Order, and has powers that can control and meddle with the free will of those he interacts with.
• I Was Quite a Looker: As indicated by the few statues of him, his former cocoon within the roots of the Haligtree, and a scene in the opening where he was being carried off by Mohg, he was a youthfully handsome boy with golden locks just like his mother. Thanks to Mohg's actions, however, he was transformed into a decrepit old man with a blackened, severely emaciated body; the arm sticking out of the cocoon in Mohg's bedchamber is his. Assuming this isn't just a case of reused assets that is, as Miquella in the cocoon is just an altered and scaled-up version of Morgott's model and may therefore not be representative of his actual appearance. However, it's also a scaled-up version of the soulless demigod cadavers in all of the mausoleums, which itself has interesting implications.
• King Incognito: He is implied to be the person behind the mysterious St. Trina, an enigmatic religious figure who spread a unique form of magic which granted "the sweet oblivion of sleep".
• Light Is Good: Like his half-brother Godwyn, Miquella is a widely-beloved god who is strongly associated with light via his gold-colored holy magic, blonde hair, and white clothing.
• Light Liege, Dark Defender: This is Miquella's relationship with his younger twin sister, Malenia. Miquella is one of three Empyreans most associated with light, goodness, and purity, and he is the nicest and most altruistic of the demigods. Unfortunately, he was cursed with eternal childhood, leaving him unable to grow into his full potential. Malenia is a stoic, unrelenting warrioress who suffers from the Scarlet Rot, but is fiercely loyal to Miquella and will do anything to see her brother's dream of a better world come true, even opposing her own half- and step-siblings. Fittingly, Miquella is a powerful sorcerer and Science Hero clad in white with flowing golden locks, while Malenia is a crimson-haired woman dressed like an avenging Valkyrie whose combat skills are nigh-unparalleled.
• MacGuffin Super-Person: Miquella is an Empyrean, meaning he is a potential candidate for succeeding Marika as Top God and elevating any prospective consort of his to Elden Lord. Unfortunately this led Mohg to covet him for the power and authority he could grant.
• Machiavelli Was Wrong: Miquella contrasts quite sharply with his mother. Marika is a brutal conqueror who rules by force and whose first response to opposition to smash the entire offending civilization into the dirt. Miquella's strengths are wisdom and charisma and he prefers a softer hand, welcoming followers into his proto-paradise with open arms and personally blessing even the lowest among them with his holy magic. In the opinion of his sister Malenia, herself a fearsome and powerful warlord, this actually makes him more formidable than any other Empyrean. This ties into the theme of societal advancement in Elden Ring: Marika represents a time where strength alone ruled the day, while her possible successor Miquella seems to take a more "modern" approach where might is instead derived from soft power and intelligence.
• Mature Younger Sibling: Tied with his twin Malenia as the youngest of the main demigods (and looks far younger than he already is), yet is the one with the most enlightened long-term plans.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: A Downplayed, non-romantic example with his sister. Malenia isn't particularly masculine in mannerism, but she's still a War God famed and feared throughout the lands for her skill with the blade. While Miquella is renowned for his kind, nurturing demeanour and has been mistaken for a young girl by some of his most devoted followers.
• Messianic Archetype: He's the closest equivalent to a Christ-figure in the Lands Between, being a radiant, altruistic son of the Top God who blessed the "low and meek" of the Lands Between and created a promised land for them. In a dark twist of this trope he's kidnapped by the setting's Satanic Archetype, denying his followers their salvation.
• Mirror Character: Curiously enough, Miquella shares many parallels to Mogh, of all people. Both are associated with love, blood, the aiding to the oppressed and rejected, and rebelling against the Golden Order; however, it's their differing approaches that really makes the difference:
  • While it's ambiguous if Miquella's usage of love is genuine or manipulative, it's clear he's very proficient in attracting followers by his outward compassion. Mogh also preaches love, but it's more outwardly cult-like and obsessive.
  • Miquella sheds his own blood in order to create items against the rot, and even his own Erdtree. Mogh however sheds the blood of other people in offering to his own outer god patron.
  • Both are cursed yet blessed. Miquella's curse of eternal youth prevents him from reaching his full potential but it's not enough to rid him of his empyrean status. Mogh is an omen, something once seen as a blessing of the Crucible but now it's considered a curse, and it's implied it played a part in his encounter with the Formless Mother.
  • Both of their factions are made of the exact same type of people: Albinaurics, pariahs of society and those that cannot live in the current order, and both accepted them with open arms.
• More than Mind Control: It's hard to tell how much of Miquella's charisma is the natural result of his compassion, and how much is magic like the Bewitching Branch.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Miquella has a lot of similarities to Kuro, a major character in the immediately preceding From Software game. Both are wise, compassionate, mystical child lords cursed with eternal youth who seek to avoid a cycle of rot and stagnation by purging the curses of themselves and their protectors, whom they are very close to. Both are incapable in a fight but have great power within them and are smart enough to create useful crafts, especially ones related to healing. Their potential also leads to both being targeted and kidnapped by The Heavy, who wants to forcefully harvest said power to ensure his victory in a kingdom-rupturing civil war. Miquella's protector being Malenia makes the parallel stronger as she's a very close expy of Sekiro himself. He also continues the motif of benevolent mystical divine children with powers tied to life and a formidable but worn-down warrior protector started by the Painter.
  • His name, eternal youth, association with a sacred tree that wraps around him, and his power over sleep and dreams all seem in reference to Quella, God of Dreams, a minor background character from Dark Souls 2.
• Mythical Motifs:
  • His story is a far darker take on Ganymede's from Classical Mythology lacking in any Values Dissonance to lessen its disturbingness; being a beautiful, golden-haired adolescent who was abducted by a much older god as his Lust Object, intent on making him his lover.
  • Miquella is From's latest version of the puer aeternus mythological archetype: an eternally-young child god who doubles as a god of vegetation and resurrection. He has a lot of aesthetic and thematic ties to the child-god Iacchus, whose domain is usually split into those of Dionysus (wine, vegetation, fertility) and Eros/Cupid (love). He symbolizes newness, potential for growth, and hope for the future, but is currently stunted and thus has to grow into a true hero to succeed in his goals.
  • In keeping with the game's alchemy references, Miquella is gold. In multiple alchemical traditions, gold is associated with eternal life, purity of soul, and perfection of all matter, probably because the material never rusts. Miquella is an eternally youthful god, the kindest and most benevolent of his kind, and seeks to fix his broken world by restoring the Erdtree's abundance and banishing the influence of the malignant outer gods, especially the ones associated with decay. He does this through both faith and scholarship, primarily with "unalloyed gold," which in-universe seems to refer to both a physical material (e.g. what Malenia's gear is made of) and a school of holy magic. This motif closely connects him to the Greater Will, a cosmic force whose influence is synonymous with gold.
• Nice Guy: Aside from using shady, manipulative tactics for his causes, Miquella has been shown to be immensely kindhearted with most of his actions being altruistic in nature. He gifted his father the Discus of Light incantation, crafted the Golden Epithet sword for his fallen half-brother Godwyn, and created the Unalloyed Gold in order to mitigate the effects of the Scarlet Rot and the Frenzied Flame. He also created the Haligtree as a refuge to the peoples of the Lands Between who were discriminated against by the Golden Order, such as Albinaurics and Misbegotten. They came to consider him a messianic figure as a result, with the Albinaurics calling the Haligtree the promised land. He is also shown to deeply love his sister Malenia as he desperately seeks to find a way to cure her Scarlet Rot.
• Non-Action Guy: Justifed. As he's stuck with the fairly unimposing body of a child, Miquella seems to leave any task that requires combat to his sister, who is more than capable of kicking ass for the both of them. Both of the status ailments tied to him, Sleep and Charm, are also meant to subdue enemies non-violently.
• Not Growing Up Sucks: Miquella was born with the affliction of eternal childhood, preventing him from reaching his full potential. Mohg's shenanigans apparently "broke" the curse, but he now has the body of a decrepit old man. However, according to some file digging, the model is just a reused asset of Morgott's model, though slightly thinner and lighter in color. With that in mind, it's unknown if this is really intended to be what Miquella should look like with his curse broken, or simply a filler for the boss cutscene.
• The One Guy: Between him, Malenia, Ranni, Marika, and the Gloam-Eyed Queen, Miquella is the sole male Empyrean.
• Parental Favoritism: He appears to be the one child of Radagon whom the second Elden Lord expressed some level of fondness for, given Radagon gifted Miquella with Golden Order incantations and (in 1.0's text) Carian Knights, while he is never hinted to have left anything for his other children besides red hair. In fact, given that Radagon hated his own red hair due to its association with Fire Giants, the fact that Miquella is the only one of his children who we know for sure isn't a redhead might be the entire reason for this favoritism. Miquella, for his part, shared in this affection, as he created Golden Order incantations to honor his father.
• Polar Opposite Twins: To Malenia. 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.
• Pure Is Not Good: Implied. Miquella is infamous for his cherubic beautiful and eternal youth, and all of his actions are with the goal of doing good to others around him. However, the DLC trailer begins with a phrase that describes him as "pure and radiant, he wields love to shrive clean the hearts" of others, but the voice concludes that "there's nothing more terrifying", as if Miquella's purity somehow brings fear alongside awe to those he encounters by forcing them to expose their hearts to him, leaving them vulnerable. It should be noted that the voice saying this is clearly the same one who later in the same trailer calls him "Kind Miquella" or straight-up "Miquella-sama" in the Japanese subtitles, so they almost certainly meant "terrifying" to be a compliment. From their perspective even being this pure really is good.
• Red Baron: He's called "Prodigy Twin" alongside his sister Malenia, and on his own he's called "Miquella the Unalloyed" and "Miquella of the Haligtree". The trailer for the DLC reveals he's also called "Kind Miquella" (the script capitalized the K, as in a title).
• Saved for the Sequel: Saved For The DLC in his case. Among the Shardbearers, Miquella has the least amount of involvement in the story despite being the object of Mohg's twisted affections and being responsible for the creation of the Haligtree. He has a much more prominent role in the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion as he's featured in the first teaser image and his presence in the Land of Shadow being one of the DLC's biggest mysteries.
• Science Hero: Miquella is a master of Golden Order Fundamentalism, which is scientific scholarship in all but name. It's possible that the reason he can act the most like a god out of all the demigods is because he understands the fundamental properties of the world better than his siblings. Gowry calls him "a true artisan; a meticulous, bold craftsman who grasps the essence of life."
• Shorter Means Smarter: As a demigod who is cursed with eternal childhood, he forever remained a youthful boy and thus was among the shortest of his biological, step-, and half-siblings. Despite his appearance, Malenia described him as "the most fearsome Empyrean" and it's not hard to see why — he grew the Haligtree to serve as a sanctuary for the oppressed and mistreated, was a master of Golden Order Fundamentalism and created a few spells for it, and after abandoning that school of magic, created a series of Unalloyed Gold artifacts that allowed users to resist the power of Outer Gods, like the one behind the Scarlet Rot. His goals and personality were also akin to that of a true god's in how encompassing and enlightened they were.
• Strong Family Resemblance: From the brief glimpses we get from his statues and the introductory slideshow, Miquella resembled his mother Marika if she were a young boy, and was even one of only two of her children (along with Godwyn) to inherit her long blonde hair. He also has a similar skill set to her as a powerful magician and inventor (Marika's soreseal and scarseal boost mind, intelligence, faith, arcane). And he basically ''is'' an opposite-sex clone of her.
• Tainted Veins: On close inspection, his statues spread around Ordina and the Haligtree show that he has a visible, nasty looking long vein in his left arm.
• Tragic Dream: He has two. All Miquella wanted to do in the Shattering was create a place where all beings in the Lands Between were welcomed and allowed to live fulfilling lives free of the Golden Order's prejudice, which led to him creating the Haligtree. On a more personal basis, he very much wanted to cure his beloved twin Malenia of the Scarlet Rot, leading to him creating the Unalloyed Gold Needle. Unfortunately, Mohg's machinations led to the ruin of both. Kidnapping Miquella deprived the Haligtree of its sustaining essence, causing it to start dying, and also prevented him from finishing his work on the Needle, causing Malenia's rot to progress unfettered. By the present day, the Haligtree is a husk infested with the Scarlet Rot, Misbegotten and Albinaurics are still slaves in most places, and Malenia is comatose with the Rot slowly eating away at her while futilely awaiting his return.
• Treetop Town: Miquella's Haligtree is a fiefdom in its own right with many settlements scattered throughout. The most notable, and the one the player visits, is the capital city of Elphael, seemingly to the Haligtree what Leyndell is to the Erdtree.
• Undying Loyalty: To his sister, Malenia. Miquella is a mysterious character with a lot of ongoing plots and implicit care for the world, but through them all he has exactly one explicitly-given motivation in the base game's text: helping his little sister. She's the entire reason he left the Golden Order in the first place to establish the Haligtree and Unalloyed Gold, willing to directly challenge the gods themselves to protect her. The Radagon's Rings of Light item description reveals that he'd choose her over his own father, and Malenia's armor description has her utterly convinced that the only reason Miquella could be absent was if he was trying to find a way to keep his promise to her.
• Universally Beloved Leader: Miquella, like Godwyn, is one of the most beloved demigods in the Lands Between. He was especially popular with the outcasts and those shunned by the Golden Order such as the misbegotten and Albinaurics. When speaking of his siblings, Morgott speaks of him and Malenia fondly in comparison to the contempt he shows the rest, implying that even he has an amount of respect and fondness for his half-brother despite the Haligtree's existence being in opposition of the Golden Order.
• Virtuous Character Copy: He shares similarities with Griffith, being a fair-faced, light-haired, charismatic young man who aspires to godhood and building his own kingdom. However, while Griffith sacrificed others to become a God of Evil and his dream was entirely self-serving, Miquella tried to become a God of Good by sacrificing his blood and body and his dream was entirely selfless. As a bonus point, the person they're most deeply connected to is an inhumanly tough, cursed warrior with a prosthetic arm.
• White and Gold are Divine: Miquella is most closely associated with white and gold; his knights and soldiers wear surcoats with these colors and his golden hair is typically accentuated by white clothing in pictures of him. Fittingly, he is an Empyrean and considered the closest of the demigods to true divinity, aside from potentially his younger sister, Malenia.