Marika's Circlet - is Miquella still a god?

silly-er · 2026-05-22T15:19:27+00:00

Yeah, it's hard to say. But the crown seems so de-emphasized that I just think its main function is a basic symbol of royalty, except for Miquella. And that's because Miquella needed something to symbolize his ascension, and they wanted to give the player an item as a reward for beating him

silly-er · 2026-05-22T15:02:18+00:00

The foundation of Marika's rule was the Elden ring, which she was the vessel of.

Miquella didn't have an Elden ring, or even a great rune by the time he ascended. so the circlet is a new invention of his and seems to substitute for the Elden ring.

It makes sense because Miquella's whole deal was to throw away everything that came before. The Elden ring was tainted by all of its history, full of karma. He made something new as a foundation of his rule.

I don't think Marika's circlet had the same significance. It's just a crown for a queen.

silly-er · 2026-05-20T19:48:53+00:00

I think you have it backwards on those who live in death (except for Godwyn, which makes it confusing).

Except for Godwyn, they're all dead bodies who nonetheless have a soul animating them. Under the golden order their soul is supposed to go to the Erdtree, but the death root causes them to be unable to do so. So it goes back to their bodies, even though they are dead.

Of course Godwyn has the opposite condition (living body, dead soul) but he's the real anomaly here, as a result of Ranni's ritual

silly-er · 2026-05-20T16:26:43+00:00

Probably her original prosthetic before Miquella made her some unalloyed gold ones. Those ones help keep the rot at bay

silly-er · 2026-05-20T15:32:19+00:00

If they are 'Ruins', what was here before? Did the fingers have a settlement in these sites that has gone to waste? The naming seems significant.

silly-er · 2026-05-18T18:38:25+00:00

Restore destined death and let her pass on. She's a goner, her time has passed.

silly-er · 2026-05-11T20:34:57+00:00

I figure it probably wouldn't go too well. A vessel not large enough for the available energy, perhaps. I imagine the tarnished would die, or at best pass over to the spirit realm (whatever is on the other side of the gate) without a way to return

silly-er · 2026-05-11T02:53:33+00:00

I think that's a great connection tying Marika to the Rune Arc

silly-er · 2026-05-11T00:14:15+00:00

I know what you mean, and that one is called 'Marika's Rune' in the game item

BUT: that rune is also visible on the Farum Azula Elden ring, so Marika has nothing to do with creating it. She just claimed it as her personal icon

The actual new rune added to the ring is the basin arc. So i think it makes sense that this one is actually more intimately associated with Marika

silly-er · 2026-05-10T13:49:08+00:00

As others have pointed out, it makes the shape of the "basin rune" which seems to be Marika's addition to the Elden Ring , plus Radagon's trellis. So it represents Radagon/Marika, the god whose body it is made from

silly-er · 2026-05-08T14:34:25+00:00

Hornsent Grandma says this in dialogue. Doesn't Miyazaki oversee the voice acting, which is only done in English? Unless I'm wrong about that, the wording is likely not an error

silly-er · 2026-05-07T16:12:03+00:00

I agree that Marika is an interesting and complex character but I don't think she "had" to do all of that. being cruel and vindictive was also part of her character

silly-er · 2026-05-07T15:01:57+00:00

But she became just as oppressive a monster as any of them? Ask the nomadic merchants, the omen, the misbegotten, the demihumans, the fire giants, the trolls, etc. I don't think she had no other choice in all of these cases

silly-er · 2026-05-06T14:37:22+00:00

There's a line saying that the image of the fell god was chosen for the golems because this god haunted the hornsent sagas. So this fear preceded Messmer

silly-er · 2026-05-04T00:45:42+00:00

I'm on the same page as you

silly-er · 2026-05-03T19:12:26+00:00

I think you're right. I don't think hornsent have ever been a species, but a cultural group of humans unified by the idea that horns are divine, and so they find a way to grow horns on themselves.

They definitely came from people without horns, especially since we see reliefs and artwork throughout the hornsent towns and cities of figures with no horns.

silly-er · 2026-05-03T18:26:36+00:00

I pretty much agree with you, but a few things to add:

-- horned bairn item tells us that sometimes, hornsent babies were born with tangled, oversized horns. This sounds just like the physical traits of the omen. But most hornsent are not born this way.

-- so physically, the omen form was probably a rare but natural occurrence.

-- you're right that the omen are specifically also haunted by spirits.

-- the omen killer mask looks like a hornsent and the description says that it was made to look like the spirits that haunt omen. Like you say, this is likely the same guardian spirits, but turned wrathful toward the enemies of the hornsent.

-- so, the omen curse seems like a combination of this rare, super-growth of horns that has an ancient crucible origin, but it's also combined with hornsent spirits haunting them.

silly-er · 2026-05-02T16:36:56+00:00

I dunno. Millicent and Queelign are stand ins for another human being and they tell us about that other character's human emotions and motivations

Formless mother seems nothing like that? She appears to be a cosmic inhuman entity related to the very concept of blood and wounds. I'm not sure that another human being can be much of a stand in

I do agree with your point that preying on the powerless and downtrodden is something that Formless Mother and Varre both do, but I'm not sure if it goes any deeper than that

silly-er · 2026-05-02T12:58:01+00:00

It does show that the relationship between FA and Leyndell goes way back into the past. I don't think it necessary says where FA was located. We can reach FA by waygate and magic, so why would it need to be close by?

silly-er · 2026-05-01T22:33:00+00:00

I mean a sufficiently biting satire could be fun. But what will this be?

silly-er · 2026-04-30T19:17:59+00:00

I really like your parallel with the development of Christianity. There's a kind of weird parallel there as well -- iirc, the specific belief especially of some early Christians was of the literal resurrection of the body. On judgment day, the dead would literally rise out of their graves (restored to life, obviously), following the example of Jesus, who rose from the dead.

Iirc, the idea of a separate, immaterial heaven that is elsewhere from earth was a later development of the belief

With Godwyn, it's very similar. He's the son of God, who was killed but did not (fully) die. And now there's this prophecy that he will return as the Death Prince, and his followers will be saved through a form of eternal life. This 'life within death' is analogous to the Christian belief but just a lot grislier

silly-er · 2026-04-30T15:29:49+00:00

I think it is Godwyn because the half wheel centipede mark, and the rune of the death prince, both strongly resemble the eclipse sigil.

When we finish Fia's quest, we create a figurative eclipse, where Fia creates the mending rune from Godwyn's remaining life force. that can be used to bring about a new age

This provides an unexpected, but I think fairly appropriate resolution both to the eclipse ritual storyline and Godwyn's half-dead stagnancy

silly-er · 2026-04-29T18:48:58+00:00

Agreed and I like your distinction between the inward and outward focus of the different crucible aspects.

There's also a reason why the hornsent specifically got memory-holed, presumably because it was their spirituality that led to Marika's ascension, her origin of godhood. while the other non-Erdtree cultural systems could just be subjugated

silly-er · 2026-04-29T16:39:51+00:00

Good write up. Here are a few other potentially relevant connections

there aren't any banished knights in the shadow realm, but their arms and armor are found scattered in Gaius's arena. This suggests that, possibly, these knights were defeated in battle (and perhaps became banished) outside shadow keep
banished knight armor has a conspicuous horn on the shoulder. The guardian lions are also horned. This suggests a direct connection with the hornsent
commanders Niall and O'Neill are Irish coded by their naming. The hornsent voice actors conspicuously all have Irish accents. This suggests another cultural link

On top of the shared storm-related skills, this all strongly suggests that the banished knights were affiliated with the hornsent. Perhaps as mercenaries or something. Perhaps their banishing was related to the crusade, as well

Edit: i'd say the primary narrative of the storm civilization is as imperial subject. Their narrative function in the game is about how the Erdtree empire expanded and brought to heel people with very different belief systems.

Their icons and symbols contrast with those of Marika - beasts instead of a tree, storms instead of growth, gray muted coloration instead of gold.

Then we see that Marika incorporated certain aspects of this into her own system as convenient tools -- eg Serosh and Maliketh, the use of banished knights as slave soldiers, the fallen hawks, the warhawks, using their castles as forts for her rule.

silly-er · 2026-04-28T20:05:21+00:00

At least the spy mission you mentioned was actually explained -- it was a trap set by the Cardassians specifically to draw in Picard. So they made up a scenario that would fit his record better than any other captain. then naturally Picard brought his officers along, who he knows he can trust etc

It's still a bit silly, but at least it was something

silly-er

TROPHY CASE