Malenia - Blog Posts

blade of miquella.

butterfly tears

Quick texture experiment ft. Malenia!

Elden ring by 冯伟 Feng Wei（c12）

[Goddess of Rot]

I forgot tumblr existed again but hi ive been playing elden ring

'Malenia' by Yi.

Fanart is so cool.

Battle of Aeonia by nolan192

Malenia and Miquella

Me when all characters in a videogame are morally grey

Today I am regretting not making a joke about brainrot here.

Despite having taken a break from my current Elden Ring playthrough to play Clair Obscur, there's a part of my brain that has been growing increasingly feral over Malenia the last few days.

The rest of my brain fears where this may be going.

Despite having taken a break from my current Elden Ring playthrough to play Clair Obscur, there's a part of my brain that has been growing increasingly feral over Malenia the last few days.

The rest of my brain fears where this may be going.

I dreamt for so long

"I am Malenia. Blade of Miquella. And i have never known defeat"

The young princess and her father

Okay hear me out, there's something about twins who are trans in opposite directions, because I 1000% feel this way about Malenia and Miquella from Elden Ring

Like. Their curses could be read a lot of different ways, symbolically, but here's my personal reading:

Malenia was born with a god of rot inside her, something that gives her physical strength and power but also distorts and corrupts her body in ways she can't control- she dedicates her life to learning how to move through the world in ways that minimize its influence, but it keeps coming back to haunt her bc she doesn't have the tools available to be rid of it, and the tool she does have (the gold needle) she is forced to abandon when war breaks out and the rot is required from her to survive her fight against Radahn

Miquella is cursed to appear eternally youthful and feminine, often being confused with / identified as St Trina, a distinctly female saint of sleep (this identity is abandoned alongside his "doubts" in the DLC, wherein he also abandons his physical body on the journey towards godhood). He goes to great lengths to escape this curse, nursing the Haligtree with his own blood so he could be reborn within its womb, not to mention all the other stuff that happens in the DLC

My favourite part of this is how DEVOTED they are to helping each other become who they want to be.

Miquella abandoned the Golden Order when it became clear they couldn't help his sister. He learned the secrets of unalloyed gold and built a golden needle she could stab into her flesh to stave off the worst of the rot, and it WORKED- she only abandoned it when forced to in order to survive (re: Radahn fight), an action that had lasting consequences to her body and her health

Malenia devoted her life to being Miquella's blade, to protecting her brother, defending his Haligtree and his best hope at escaping his curse and not being eternally youthful and feminine anymore. In becoming the Blade of Miquella, she learned how to move like flowing water so the rot would not stagnate within her. Her devotion to her brother helped her learn who she could want to be.

It's also implied that Miquella helped create Malenia's armour / sword / prostheses, allowing his sister to reshape her own body when it changed too much for her to handle; and when she needed to reshape it to be the swordswoman she was devoted to being

so YEAH. it's a messy complicated nuanced metaphor (which makes me love it even more) but if the Rot is Malenia's T and dysphoria, the unalloyed gold is T-blockers, and Miquella's curse being his body which he goes to great lengths to change (and eventually abandons), then. ✨Trans Twin Prodigies✨

But more importantly, Malenia has TITS; this implies the Golden Order is capable of producing estrogen, but NOT t-blockers or testosterone, and they aren't that big, so probably not progesterone- NO, CMON, LET ME COOK, JUST ONE MORE PARAGRAPH, JUST ONE, I SWEAR-*gunshot*

Head-canon. Artemis and Apollo are both trans, just in the opposite direction.

My take on the promised consort.

I believe that Radahn held the stars in place when Ranni began fearing her fate. She never wanted to become a puppet to the two fingers, and Radahn knowing this attempted to hold off her destiny for as long as possible. Though he likely knew that it would be an inevitability. The only other two living empyreans were cursed afterall. 

There was no way that Miquella or Malenia would be able to take Marika’s place, the two fingers weren’t even the slightest bit interested in either of them. Malenia was already claimed by the God of Rot and Miquella was perpetually in a state of adolescence. Ranni seems to be the only one who was ever actively bothered by her fingers and I believe this is because they had an intense desire for her to be the next god, assuming Miquella and Malenia as lost causes due to their curse.

I think this is when Miquella came to Radahn with a proposition. He will be seeking godhood. Even if the two fingers had no interest in him, even if the world thought him too small and frail to ascend, he was going to find a way, no matter the consequences. He was determined to become the next God and lead the world into an era of abundance and peace. To fix the mistakes of the past.

He only had one simple request.

“Promise me, you’ll be my consort.”

If Miquella were to ascend then Ranni would be free of her duty. She’d be able to live in peace knowing that she’d never have to be controlled by another's will. She wouldn’t have to become a god, she wouldn’t have to succeed queen Marika. And to top it all off, Radahn would get to play the role of his hero Godfrey. Ushering in a new era alongside a new god.

It was perfect.

That was, until the night of the black knives. The night the world was thrown into chaos. The night that the first demigods fell. And the night that he lost his sister.

Radahn likely wouldn’t have known about Ranni’s plot and would have thought her dead alongside the other victims of the night. Ranni was gone, and with her, so too was Radahns need for Miquella’s age.

I believe Radahn, fueled by grief, rage and the mad taint of his greatrune, denounced Miquella and struck out on his own as a warrior of the shattering. He didn’t need peace, he didn’t need Miquella. All he wanted was to fight. All he wanted now was endless war.

Maybe that would be enough to dull the pain of his loss? Not only the loss of his sibling and father, but also the loss of his purpose.

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Now picture Miquella. Making the final preparations to begin his ascension. Only there’s one problem. His consort has abandoned him at the very last moment. As it turns out, it seems Radahn never really cared for Miquella or his visions for a new age, he was only really in it for his own gain. 

Imagine how devastated Miquella would be. Knowing that yet another one of his plans had fallen apart at the finish line. That the person he trusted to rule alongside him didn’t even hesitate to abandon him when it was no longer convenient for him.

His ascension to godhood would never happen. He would never be able to heal his sister. He would never be able to bring forth an age of compassion. He would never be able to right the wrongs of the past.

He had failed again.

Now imagine how furious this would make his people. How angry his followers and his sister would be to see Miquella rejected at such a pivotal moment. To see him mourning a consortship and an age that would never come to pass.

Is there really any wonder that they chose to march towards Caelid and deliver the promised consort by force?

I was talking to my friend a while back and he mentioned how it's possible that Miquella/St. Trina got into sleep magic to help Malenia because her condition would have made it near impossible for her to sleep properly and I think it makes so much sense. She almost definitely suffers from chronic pain and I can't even begin to imagine how difficult sleep would have been for her (especially since the scarlet rot seems to have mental influence as well). I can totally see Miquella studying sleep aid spells/recourses to help their sister.

people are currently freaking out over the elden ring lore book and what it has to say about promised consort Radahn, and I'd just like to point out that despite being an official piece of merchandise, they aren't exactly accurate to the source material.

Like, the very same set of lore books says that Malenia narrowly won the battle of Aionia (despite the game making it abundantly clear that no one won that fight), that Godfrey's banishment and war march happened after the shattering began (which is literally impossible) and that Romina "created the scarlet rot" (do I even have to say anything?).

I know promised consort Radahn is quite a controversial reveal but I honestly think it works really well. Miquella and Radahn were inherently tied together from the very beginning of the game's story, with Malenia and Radahn’s fight to the death. The game put so much emphasis on this battle over every other fight in the shattering that looking back now, knowing what we do, it’s kinda weird that not a lot of people really suspected that there was anything deeper behind the most influential battle in the shattering.

No one really stopped to ask why Melania, sister and blade of kindly and benevolent Miquella would be leading a war march across the entirety of the lands between to challenge Radahn. Why she was so desperate to defeat him that she was willing to release the scarlet rot and possibly destroy herself to take him down. Why the cleanrots and the redmanes hate each other to such a degree that even in death, they still continue to fight. Why Miquella was reaching upwards to the Aionian battle ground when we encountered his body.

I think there was always history between these 3 characters in the game. Not enough on its own to come to the conclusion that Radahn was Miquella’s desired consort, but certainly enough to get you wondering just what was up with them that caused the events to transpire the way they did.

"Miquella being alone in Caelid post battle of Aionia doesn't make any sense timeline wise"

Have people forgotten that half of this family can astral project?

Y'know, I've been thinking about the vow between Miquella and Radahn a lot recently, and I feel like I've come up with a possible explanation for why Radahn seemingly agreed at first but later backed out of the deal.

If Radahn truly did agree to become Miquella's consort, what are the chances that it was made under the pretense that he'd be the next elden lord in the golden order? Continuing the legacy and age of both his personal hero and father, alongside Miquella as the new god of the age, but things remaining overall the same.

Once Miquella became disillusioned with Marika's age and decided to do his own thing, and create his own age, Radahn probably lost interest in becoming his consort because he wouldn't be the lord of the age he loved anymore, infact he would be a major factor in it ending. Something that he historically does not stand for.

This probably lead to a disagreement between the two that lead to Malenia invading Selia. Miquella feeling betrayed because Radahn was now refusing to uphold his promise, and Radahn feeling betrayed because Miquella turned his back on the golden order he loved and was now trying to bring it to an end.

I'm genuinely shocked that so many people were blindsided by the reveal that Miquella was a bit fucked up to the point that some even think that it's a recon. Because honestly there were always signs that something was a bit off with him.

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First of all, and most obvious is that he took part in the shattering. Having Malenia go on a war path across the entirety of the lands between in his name. Even without the context of why this was done, it's still a pretty dubious thing to do.

There's also the fact that him and Malenia were the aggressors in the battle of Aionia. The fight happened just outside of Selia. Right outside of Radahn's home. She rocked up to the town he was protecting looking for a fight. A fight that, may I remind you, devastated Selia and other surrounding locations.

Miquella had done a copious amount of research into Malenia's affliction in search of a cure, I refuse to believe that he didn't have at least some sort of idea as to what could happen if she was pushed far enough. And he still allowed her to enter a battle to the death with radahn that ended up not only ruining both of them, but the entirety of Caelid too. All while he watched on from the sidelines.

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Moving on to a much shorter point, his power to compel affection. A power similar to the bewitching branches, an item that he may have also directly developed, which allows one to override the will of another person to such an extent that they'll turn on their allies and fight by your side.

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This point's something that I brought up in the past, and something that borderlines on headcanon but I think it's worth mentioning.

So, you know castle Sol. The castle in which Miquella attempted a ritual to revive Godwyn. The castle in which half of the key to his haligtree is guarded. The castle that watches directly over said haligtree. The castle in which Miquella definitely has very close ties to.

That castle Sol.

Did you ever notice that it contains a pretty sizeable albernuric torture chamber? One fitted with tools and contraptions that'd make Rykard proud, including the black dumpling.

Now there's no way to prove that Miquella had anything to do with this. He's been absent from castle Sol for decades. I just think it's notable that a castle so synonymous with him has a torture chamber full of the very people he's vowed to fight for.

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Now that's not quite everything. There's also a few more points, like how he's dubbed as the most fearsome empyrean and even some stuff with St. Trina like her cult that developed sleep inducing weaponry to forcibly spread her teachings (though there's no proof she endorsed this), but I think I've made my point. Miquella's always been kind of off. There was just enough ambiguity surrounding him to give his actions the benefit of the doubt. But those actions were still there.

Elden ring DLC ending spoilers.

I’ve seen a lot of contention surrounding the main twist regarding Miquella and Radahn in the DLC, primarily the lack of build up to it in the base game, and while I understand where these people are coming from, it's something I can personally forgive.

While it would have been nice to have some sort of hint to who Miquella’s chosen consort would be, or even that he had someone in mind at all in the base game, they did go to great lengths to rectify this in the DLC, and adequately hint at Miquella’s plans and who his consort will be.

Radahn does not in any way come out of nowhere by the end of the DLC. He only comes out of Nowhere if you’re not engaging in the questlines and talking with the characters, which still isn’t perfect mind you, especially with how easily they seem to be breaking at the moment, but this also isn’t a flaw exclusive to the DLC. The base game is just as, if not more guilty of this with its Marika/Radagon twist.

I also think it's a fine twist because it gives context to past events that we could only speculate on before. Mainly, why Radahn and Malenia fought. Despite being such a massive part of the games story, we previously had absolutely no idea why it took place. But now we do. We finally have context behind one of the most important historical battles in the lands between's history.

Even with the recent developments with Messmer, I personally still believe that the smouldering butterfly is supposed to represent Melina. The main reason is because of the butterfly's main use as kindling.

Messmer might have a lot of fire stuff going on, but Melina embodies the butterfly much more. Not only was she seemingly born burned and bodiless, much like the smouldering butterfly is born eternally burning, but she also acts as kindling to burn the erdtree in a similar way the butterfly does for crafting items.

The butterfly's represent the main curses of all 3 of the youngest siblings. Malenia's being rotted, Miquella's appearing eternally young and Melina's being burned and inevitably used as kindling.

I personally don't see the connection to Messmer other than the fact that they both share fire motifs. And even then, he's presumably not a part of Malenia and Miquella's sibling group as he's likely one of the oldest demigods, so it wouldn't make too much sense for him to be the third butterfly in the trinity.

Y’know, something peculiar I’ve noticed while looking through item descriptions is how absent Marika seems to be in all of her children's lives. Rennala, Radagon and Godfrey are all either outright mentioned in things revolving some of their children, or are heavily hinted at within other parts of the game

i.e Abductor virgin’s protecting Rya Lucaria academy, something Rykard likely chose to do to protect his mother. 

Rykard and Radahn both once having high standing positions in the golden order, likely due to Radagon.

Despite Radahn directly looking up to Godfrey he still wore his fathers red hair with incredible pride, even though it was something Radagon hated about himself.

Rennala was the one to introduce Ranni to the dark moon and other celestial entities.

Radagon and Miquella have both gifted each other incantations that they had developed for one another.

While brief, Godfrey holds Morgott in his arms as he fades into grace, being there for him in a way he was unable to when he was younger.

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But Marika… doesn’t seem to have anything. No comment of her doing anything or developing anything with any of her children, no small interactions that made it into item description flavour text. Even when it comes to her golden child Godwyn, there’s practically nothing.

For a while now I’ve wondered why this was. Why did Marika seem to be so absent in all of her children's lives? She has 9 direct descendants and not one seems to have a notable experience with her. But then after watching the new cinematic trailer, something dawned on me.

What if it was Messmer?

What if the things Messmer did in the name of Marika and her order during the shadow land war were so monstrous and unforgivable, to the point where the land of shadow was hidden away and he himself was erased from history that she just couldn’t bring herself to attempt a connection with the rest of her children?

Afterall, Marika seems to hate fire with a passion. Anything and everything in the lands between that has any connection to it is something she tries to snuff out. The giants and their forge, the crucible and their fire breathing abilities, the dragons, even the omens have bloodflame magic if Morgott and Mohg are anything to go off of. Even the phrase “flame of ambition” seeming to be a very negative term is something that’s throwing shade at the idea of fire.

And what is it that Messmer is so well known for?

His flame. Messmer's flame. The very same flame he used to purge the land of shadows.

This quote makes me think a lot of things...

If Miquella has removed all things golden from his very being, then I wonder if St trina and/or Messmer could be what remains of his respective halves.

If he removed everything "golden" (I assume erdtree/Marika/Golden order related) then how much of Miquella would actually remain? Would it be so little that it may as well be a different person entirely? I mean, Miquella is very golden. From his design, his lore, his lineage, his power and the very blood that runs through his veins, it all just screams "Golden." If Godwyn the golden hadn't already been born I'm half convinced Miquella would have been called "The golden".

After removing "everything golden" from himself would he even be "Miquella" anymore? Would he even want to be?

And what of the other half? Would that contain so much discarded contents that it itself could also be a new person? How would they feel or act knowing that they're merely the discarded, unwanted scraps of a larger, fiercely more powerful whole? Would they feel bitter? Wronged? Would they come to terms with it? Would they even care? They themselves were once part of the being that discarded them, so they may very well agree with what was done. Or they could despise the act and long for the day when the two could be reunited.

Malenia was able to (while likely accidentally) remove large portions of herself via her first aeonia bloom, which took the form of Millicent and her sisters, so what would happen if an Empyrean did the same with prior knowledge and full intent in what they were going to do?

I'd wager they'd be able to split themselves cleanly, and possibly become something entirely new in the process.

Messmer, Miquella's strength and flesh and lineage

And St. Trina, Miquella's other half and what remains of his ambitions and goals, but likely no means of carrying them out due to discarding their power.

ok first major thought about the trailer

If my theory that Melina and Ranni's closed eye/eye marking being the mark of an empyrean is correct then that means Messmer the Impaler could also be one as well due to his closed eye (he could also have a marking that's being obscured by the helmet in the trailer)

But the red hair also catches my eye, something that is extremely prevalent in Radagon's family, to the point where almost every descendant of his shares the same hair color. Except for Miquella, who's twisted form modelled by Mohg looks strikingly similar to Messmer's body.

It's really hard to get good shots of Messmer's body but I hope my observations are at least somewhat coming through. Now I'm not saying that Messmer is Miquella, but I do think he could be related in some way, possibly even being the personification of all the corruption from Mohg and the formless mother. We don't really know how Empyreans create offshoots of themselves but this sort of thing has happened before, mainly with Malenia and her daughters seemingly inheriting shards of her personality.

Anyway I definitely think Messmer is an Empyrean and possibly related to Radagon, but everything else is just a hypothesis at this point.

Just to add onto this, Messmer's name follow's the same naming conventions of the children of Marika (Mohg, Morgott, Malenia, Miquella, Melina and now Messmer)

One small part of elden ring I find really interesting is Millicent's prosthesis and how you go about getting it.

I find it incredibly interesting to have such a good item locked behind doing something horrible during a questline. It's an entirely needless act of evil as well. Millicent trusts you wholeheartedly and never gives you a reason to attack her. The only way to get this item is through actively betraying her completely unprovoked.

The game gives you a pretty interesting ultimatum. What's more important to you? An incredibly useful and powerful talisman? Or the life of one of the very few friendly faces throughout the lands between? Does the answer change knowing that she's doomed to fall either way?

It's also good that this time around, there isn't an achievement for collecting every talisman. Only the legendary ones. So there's not even an achievement based incentive for the talisman. If you want the talisman, you want it for entirely self imposed reasons, and you're going to have to go through Millicent to get it.

Screw Marika's motivations. I want to know what the fuck is up with Melina and Ranni. Why do they seem like 2 halves of the same whole?

Why are they so similar design wise? Why are they both "burned and bodiless"? Why are they the only characters that know torrent on a first name basis? Why do they both share the same closed eye aesthetic? Why do their faces complete eachother if you overlap them? Why do these two, seemingly completely unrelated characters have so much in common? What the fuck is going on?!

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Semi side rant incoming but what if those eye markings that Melina and Ranni have are markings of an Empyrean? I mean, other than Ranni have we ever actually seen the full, undamaged face of an Empyrean before? By the time we see Malenia, Marika and even to a certain extent Ranni’s own face they’re all damaged to the point where any marking would be long gone (and we just straight up never see Miquella’s face) and we conveniently also never see a proper painting or depiction of any of the Empyreans faces ever throughout the game. Sure there’s a couple statues here and there but I’d believe that tattoo/mark details would be left out of that sort of stuff.

Soooo that DLC announcement huh? Pretty cool. Very excited but oh my god that promotional image has so many implications.

Mainly, if that person riding torrent is in fact Miquella, which seems to be the running theory at the moment then it suggests that Miquella himself was very likely torrent's former master, which in turn implies a lot about certain character relations we didn’t know about until now.

The big one being that on top of Malenia, he was possibly also working closely with Melina and Ranni as well considering the two of them both have ties to torrents former master. Melina travelling with his old steed and Ranni being tasked with finding the steed’s new master and giving them the spirit calling bell.

It makes sense for Melina since she’s very very likely the secret, missing third child of Marika and Radagon, which could be a post all on its own, so her working with her two siblings isn’t that strange. (though I still wonder to what extent they’re related and possibly working together).

But the craziest thing to me is that this also implies that not only could Miquella and Ranni have been on good terms at some point in the past but also that they are still currently on good terms (even after what she did in the night of the black knives). At least good enough terms to trust her with the spirit calling bell.

Melina's possible connections to the black knives also makes this theory even stronger. If she was a part of the assassin squad then that means that Ranni stole the rune and Melina would have been one of the assassins that used it to kill Godwyn (and possibly other Demigods since he was only said to be the first to fall during that night). 

Hell if you wanna get real crazy we could say that Miquella helped to forge the black knife weapons, since he’d already done a lot of research into “anti god tools” with stuff like the golden needles. Who’s to say he couldn’t figure out a way to do it? But why would he do that? He’s about the only demigod who wouldn’t be ok with killing Godwyn but it’d explain why he was still on good terms with Ranni after the assassination. Could have been St. Trina for all I know.

until the end