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sellensand · 2 years

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One body, two beings

ELDEN RING SPOILERS AHEAD

I know I'm late to the Elden Ring lore party, but I've been meaning to share my personal theory on the whole "Radagon is Marika" business for a while. There's quite a heated debate around it, and obviously only Miyazaki and GRRM themselves know The Truth, but nonetheless here is my stupid take that nobody asked for.

After reading and watching approximately 37923764 theories about this topic, I’ve come to the conclusion that Radagon and Marika were always one single being capable of transforming from female to male (and vice versa), rather than two separate beings that later merged into one. Why, you ask?

Well. First things first. Since Elden Ring came out there have been multiple theories going around about the true nature of Marika and Radagon's relationship.

There are those who believe that M and R were always two distinct people that "fused" into one single being either during or after the Shattering, when Radagon was already Elden Lord. Their fusion may or may not have been consensual, but that's besides the point. There are several ways of understanding this "two becomes one" perspective:

1. The "lone Radagon" theory, in which Radagon was more or less a "random" champion of the Erdtree, with no previous connection to Marika, who eventually married Rennala (he may or may not have truly loved her, that's not important rn). He was later called into Leyndell once again to become the 2nd Elden Lord (consort to Marika) once Godfrey was out of the picture, leaving Rennala and their children behind. Since Radagon's background in this scenario is completely unknown, some players believe he may even have been related to the Fire Giants (see Giant's Braid description) or the Fire Monks (who are also pale dudes with red hair).

2. The "Marika's rib" theory, in which Radagon was created or "extracted" from Marika herself. How did this happen? Well, some players think Marika was "cursed" by the god of the Fire Giants during the war against them (Godfrey's last war as Elden Lord). Marika tried to "purge" herself from this curse and spiritually partitioned herself. That process resulted in the creation of a different being ("my other self", she calls him) with Fire Red hair, so this theory also ties well with the Giant’s Braid description. In this scenario, once they "become two from one", Radagon and Marika are their own separate people, they each have their own free will, even though he is "technically" her (or a part of her at least). A long time after the war against the Giants, Radagon married Rennala, and the rest is history.

3. The "golden mimic tear" theory, in which Radagon is a Numen/Nox alchemical creation. Marika is a Numen, a scion of another world, the civilization responsible for the construction of the Eternal Cities. She may or may not have been their Queen (giving the "Marika the Eternal" title a whole new meaning), which would kind of explain why she was chosen as an Empyrean and given a Shadow (Maliketh) in the first place. The Numen excelled at alchemy and magic (=science in ER's world): they invented puppets (later perfected by the Carian magic preceptors... more to come on the various Carian-Nox connections), they defied the Greater Will with the creation of the Fingerslayer Blade (a blade made from a corpse... you know... like the Elden Beast's... who knows what exactly they did to create their weird replica), they invented Night Sorceries (the dark blue spells from Sellia, a Nox settlement, which are all about stealth and invisibility), they are the people of the Black Knives (an all-female guild of assassin swordstresses that use Night Sorcery to become invisible)... But most importantly, they created artificial life, notably the dragonkin soldiers and the silver tears that pester the player while traversing the Eternal Cities (and maybe the albinaurics too?). It is stated that they were experimenting with the silver tears in an attempt to create "a Lord", their Lord of Night. What if they actually managed to create a lord? What if silver wasn't powerful enough and Queen Marika, their sister, the new god of the Erdtree, provided them with gold so she could create her lord (the Elden Lord)? I must say I love the idea of Marika creating her consort after her own image with help of the mimic technology in an "I don't need no man" way. Also, even though I don’t like to draw too many conclusions from cut content, I can’t help but think that they may have cut the Asimi questline because it gave too much away in this regard. That Melina encounter when she asks “is that...another person inside of you?... Hello, other you” is just gold, no pun intended lol

Now. I acknowledge that all of these theories are quite sound. I especially love the "golden mimic tear" one, although I don't think any of them are quite as plausible as the "one body, two beings" theory.

Why exactly am I more inclined to support this particular theory?

- The physical resemblance. I know this sounds basic, but hear me out. If Radagon was just some random dude, or a tiny Fire Giant, or a Fire Monk from who knows where... why would he look exactly like Marika (in a time before their fusion)? The paintings, the statues... They all depict him with a delicate, almost feminine face (his body is another story lol). They wear the exact same clothes only with a different "fit" (long dress vs. long skirt), they have a very similar hairstyle and hair length... Sure, he could have been “supplanting” her in the official iconography, that’s not uncommon in our own world’s history. But the similarity also applies to both Marika and Radagon's soreseal and scarseal talismans, which look exactly alike aside from the rune they each have engraved (by the way, whose eyes are those?). The seals also mirror each other: they raise the exact opposite stats. [I'm aware that all of these same points could also be made for the "mimic" theory].

- The Carian preceptors' “masks of confidence”. The seal over the masked preceptors' mouth is Radagon's seal. They were free to speak before his arrival as Rennala's husband. The masks were his idea. What was he so afraid of? What was it that the preceptors might have seen and shouldn't speak about? In my view, he was worried they might witness the transformation and spill the beans all over the Lands Between.

- The connection to alchemy. Given the alchemical themes of the game, it is fairly evident that Marika and Radagon are the alchemical Rebis, the divine hermaphrodite, the White Queen and the Red King, the male and female in a single body.

- The Red Wolf of Radagon. I'm personally inclined to believe that Radagon adopted a red wolf because he wanted his own Shadow beast. Marika had Maliketh, so Radagon felt a need for a furry companion (of his own choosing, this time) to serve and protect him. They also have the same hair color, how cute is that. [There is at least one red wolf around Nokron. That reinforces the Eternal Cities connection and rules out the "lone Radagon" theory imho].

- The golden tayloring tools found in the Church of Vows, where Radagon and Rennala got married. It is sadly true that needlework is a traditionally female labor (I know the only seamster in the game, Boc, is male, but his tayloring tools belonged to a female, his mother). I would say it is also very atypical for a male to contribute tayloring utensils as dowry in his own wedding. I believe he had them because he is literally Marika.

- The Mimic’s Veil, also known as “Marika’s Mischief”. From this item description alone, one could easily interpret that Marika was some kind of master of disguise. Did she ever... I don’t know... assume another identity? In order to escape (from) something? That’s what the Mimic’s Veil does for us players, it allows us to transform and go undetected (in theory at least lol).

- The relation to their son Miquella, who I believe is also capable of such metamorphosis: Miquella is also known as St.Trina. Sure, he may just be an androginous little boy with feminine traits who can easily pass for either sex... But what if he is a sort of Rebis himself? St. Trina’s lore is vague enough to allow this interpretation. There’s obviously a lot to speculate about what makes an Empyrean in the first place. If we think about all the Empyreans we know in the game, there is certainly something about “duality” and "femaleness" there... Do they need to somehow be "female" because they "give life" to other beings (I don't think the demigods are literally birthed by the way)? Does the close bond between Radagon and Miquella mean that Radagon knew about his own son's "duality" and supported him in his Empyrean claim? Did Radagon want for Miquella to succeed Marika, but she opposed because she wanted to be a Goddess-Queen forever? We do not know at this point and maybe we never will. And this whole Empyrean thing might as well need its own post lol

-The Law of Regression, the incantation needed to reveal the secret behind Radagon's statue in Leyndell. By its own definition, regression means "reverting to a previous state". When we apply the Law of Regression on Radagon's image, it "goes back" to what he once was: Marika. This particular incantation in the game "heals all negative statuses, dispels special effects, and reveals mimicry in all its forms". I might be overreaching here, but this might as well be another sign that Marika was sort of "disguising" herself as Radagon, but her transformed state could be reverted.

- And last, but not least... We see the transformation. It is explicitly shown to us in the cinematic before the last fight. We see Marika’s hair change color and her stony flesh become Radagon’s. We all may interpret it as we see fit... but it is there.

Finally, some things to consider:

- What about the Giant’s Red Braid item description? Well, it is ambiguous on purpose (just like virtually every single piece of lore in this game lol), so there are several different ways to interpret it. My personal view is that, since almost everything Red in the game is related to primordial gold, the fact that Marika's other self is a redhead is somehow related to the Crucible, the Erdtree's primal vital energies. Radagon might have hated his hair color for many reasons: maybe he hated the Giants because they were enemies of the Erdtree, or maybe it reminded him of the "impurity" of red tainted gold (closely associated with the Crucible).

- What about their mind/consciousness? Was Marika still herself when she transformed? Did she maintain her motivations as Radagon? Can they “choose” when to transform or does it require certain “triggers”? Did they know they were each other?? I honestly don’t have a definitive answer to any of these questions. We can assume that they weren’t always on the same page, since we are told that Marika shattered the Elden Ring but Radagon tried to repair it. But we don't really know why any of them did that anyway.

-How does the "one body, two beings" theory relate to the Golden Order Fundamentalism? Was Radagon a fundamentalist because he was Marika, and she needed to further her own agenda? I honestly don't have solid theory about it. I highly recommend SmoughTown's video on Golden Order Fundamentalism to understand what the Golden Order actually is.

- How do you explain that Radagon doesn’t seem to be around until the Liurnian wars, while Marika has always been there as Queen? Well, we don't know that. While Radagon seems to have earned his own fame as a warrior in the Liurnian wars, he may have been there before that, as part of Godfrey’s army. This is not stated anywhere of course, it's pure speculation. But there are a couple of things that keep me up at night... One is the Red Wolf of the Champion boss in Gelmir Hero’s Grave. A Red Wolf? All the way up there? Belonging to a war hero, a "champion"? (that’s exactly how Miriel calls Radagon) What champion? The other one is the Ancient Hero of Zamor (as enemies of the Fire Giants, the Knights of Zamor probably played a part in their defeat at the hands of the golden army) trapped in the Weeping Evergaol drops Radagon's Scarseal... It is also possible that Marika didn't really start "experimenting" with her male side until she needed to either win a war or pretend to have a consort.

- Did Rennala know? What about The Egg? I haven't given much thought to Rennala's knowledge of her husband's true nature. I do wonder though... if Marika was simply the woman who “stole” her husband, why would she be okay with her children being adoptive demigods (lmao) and made to be close to her instead of their own mother? I get that she was heartbroken and all, but still... Thus said, I’m not sure whether Ranni (or her brothers) ever knew the truth about their father. [Also, there is no way the mighty Hoarah Loux did not have any offspring from a previous relationship (I don’t want to say Nepheli because we don’t know where she fits in Godfrey’s timeline and family), so why didn’t Marika adopt any of his children? I’m going off the rails here but whatever]. And The Egg... I mean, it's made of Erdtree amber and it contains a Great Rune. How did Radagon have access to any of those things before becoming Elden Lord? He gifted The Egg to Rennala when he left for Leyndell. It is one hell of a god-like gift if you ask me... Are we supposed to believe that Rennala never questioned what The Egg was or how he obtained it? Maybe she knew more than we think.

- What about the "You are yet to become me. You are yet to become a god. Let us be shattered both, my other self" quote? I tend to believe that this is a "warning" more than anything. What Marika is saying, in my view, is "Hey man, you are not the god of this age. I am. I was the chosen Empyrean. You are just my consort here, even though you are me, but nobody else knows that. You don't get to decide what happens now. I'm going to shatter the Elden Ring and us both in the process, that is my decision, and I don't care what you think about it". As I said, I still don't have a clear idea of what Marika was trying to do by shattering the Elden Ring (and herself by extension) or why Radagon wanted to stop her. In the early days, many players believed that Marika was a victim of Radagon's own ambitions and wanted to either get rid of him or the Greater Will altogether, but right now I more inclined to believe that she is much more complex and conniving than we give her credit for.

In conclusion: this game is a nightmare and I love every second of it. I know I'm just repeating things that many others have said countless times before, but I really needed to get my thoughts together and vent for a moment.

I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. All of this is just my perspective of course, so feel free to share your own views on the matter in the comments.

(Wow, this was a LONG post. I need to take a 4-hour nap after this lmao)

#elden ring #elden ring lore #elden ring theory #elden ring spoilers #marika #radagon #marika and radagon #miquella #rennala #fromsoftware #fromsoft games #hidetaka miyazaki #george r r martin #grrm #myloreposting

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