Characters / Elden Ring: Marika

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

Queen Marika the Eternal

"I divest each of thee of thy grace."

^{Click here to see her trapped inside the Erdtree}

Chosen of the Erdtree and God-Queen of the Lands Between, Marika was the ruler of an empire spanning the entire continent. The shattering of the Elden Ring and her disappearance in the aftermath directly led to the Shattering, a Succession Crisis of her demigod children that tore the land asunder.

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Tropes Applying to Marika

• Abusive Parents: There's a fair bit of evidence that suggests she was at least emotionally abusive to her demigod kids. It's also worth noting that not a single one of her children so much as mention their bond with her in either their dialogues or item descriptions, as is the case for all of the other parents of demigods (for example, Radahn idolizing Godfrey, Rennala leading Ranni to find the Dark Moon, and Miquella exchanging Fundamentalist incantations with Radagon).
  • According to the flavor text for the Regal Omen Bairn, Omen children born of the royal family don't have their horns cut off (which often kills them) and are instead imprisoned underneath the capital. Considering both Morgott and Mohg both had shackles and never had their horns cut off, it's heavily implied that this was their fate.
  • When talking to one of the spirits in the Weeping Peninsula, he will refer to one of the demigods in the wandering mausoleum as "[her] unwanted child".
  • Hewg also reveals that part of the purpose in calling back the Tarnished was to have them kill her children, implicitly because they failed to succeed in slaying the Elden Beast and mending the Ring.
    Hewg: Oh, finally! It's complete! I've done it! A weapon to slay a god! Oh, you have my deepest gratitude. Thanks to you, my wish is granted. Now wield it, and kill them. The demigods. And their god. Queen Marika herself wishes it so.
• Action Girl: Implied. It's stated in the backstory that Marika personally fought and killed the Fell God of the Fire Giants during their cataclysmic war with the Golden Order. Additionally, she has an association with warhammers and even has one named after her. Otherwise though, it seems she left most of the fighting to her other self.
• Allegorical Character: Marika represents early religion or at least its leading figures, and its struggles and failings. She is the vehicle through which the Greater Will receives most of its worship, succeeding numerous lapsed belief structures, who in-turn succeeded the role of the Dragons (representing the faithful's fear and awe of natural phenomena being their source of divine inspiration). She is empowered through her position and essentially nothing else, capable of being replaced by a more-suitable structure should one arise. Arising from fear-based worship, Marika holds an adversarial view of her God; as a lesser threat than the Gods of rival peoples, but still a being to ultimately be either used, appealed to for favor, or confronted at one's peril. Godfrey, being an early worshipper of hers, shares in this belief. Since conquest and oppression can only go so far in ensuring her survival, Marika changes tenets of her faith over time to avoid being replaced; molding a cheerier afterlife or a form of life eternal (through removing the Rune of Death), adopting syncretic beliefs of a more-esoteric faith (through allying with the Dark Moon and adopting Rennala's children), adding a Satan from another faith (through warring with and sparing the Fell God of the Fire Giants at the same time as a backup option for controlling the Greater Will), and even intellectualizing (through replacing Godfrey with Radagon). These actions that attempt to keep Marika relevant eventually delegitimize her for much of the Lands Between, causing a schism that results in many spin-offs and upstarts (her children and stepchildren, some of whom have different Gods entirely) fighting for the right to replace her: the Shattering.
• Ambiguously Evil: How evil she is, or even if she's evil, depends entirely on how the player interprets information about her overall motives that is deliberately left quite vague.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: A certain reveal putting a lot of implications as to who Marika and Radagon are muddies who exactly Marika is. If they were always one entity, it's unclear as to whether who really was who, or if they even cared for it to begin with.
• Badass in Distress: Has personally led the conquest of the Lands Between, winning multiple battles and wars against foes of all shapes and sizes. She is currently hanging in imprisoned within the Erdtree by the Elden Beast.
• Barbarian Hero: Implied; Godfrey, her first husband, was absolutely one of these, and given that he is implied to have been her co-conspirator in her plan to shatter the Elden Ring, she presumably had the same sort of predilections towards this mindset. Notably, she was quite war-like against the enemies of the Erdtree, such as the extermination of the Fire Giants, she has a certain level of disdain for the Outer God that was actively granting her power, and her own weapon is a brutal cudgel made from stone rather than a more refined weapon that would be expected of either a woman or a god. Further, if Gideon's revelation about Marika's intentions for the Tarnished is accurate, she doesn't care about anyone becoming Elden Lord; she just wants the Tarnished to fight and wage war unto eternity.^note Exactly how accurate Gideon's assessment of her was is debatable, as he was in the middle of a despair induced breakdown at the revelation that Marika's final task would be to fight the Elden Beast, something he deemed impossible and thus reasoned that Marika didn't intend for the Tarnished to be able to win
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: She's topless at the end of the game and only wearing a very loose cloth, meaning it's fairly easy to see that she has no nipples or genitals. Given how many other people this trope also applies to in-game, it's not clear if this is supposed to be diegetic, though an image in the Artbook shows her explicitly topless and nipple-less even though the Goddess of Rot gets nipples, so Marika is one of the more likely characters to actually have no genitals.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted Trope. From what little we see of her from different angles, she was once fairly attractive. However, the backlash from the destruction of the Elden Ring as well as her centuries-long punishment beneath the Erdtree has caused whatever beauty she once had to crumble away to near-nothingness by the time the Tarnished meets her in the current day.
• Big Good: Played with. This is what the people of the Lands Between see her as, and evidence points to Marika being responsible for the existence of the many Tarnished along with directing them to brandish the Elden Ring and inherit a new age, which is the only thing that can fix the damage of the Shattering. But interactions with certain NPCs and item flavor texts suggest that she wasn't as benevolent as people believed her to be, and she was the one who shattered the Elden Ring in the first place.
• Broken Angel: Once, Marika was the majestic goddess-queen of the Lands Between with power and knowledge beyond measure. That was long ago, before she shattered the Elden Ring, the source of her divinity, and was punished by the Greater Will for her defiance. By the time she's seen in-game, she's an immobile, completely unresponsive crumbling stone statue crucified on a giant Rune Arc. Whatever beauty, dignity, power, or even personality she originally had were stripped from her long ago, leaving nothing but a hollowed-out container for the remains of the Elden Ring. The only indication that she's still "alive" in any sense is that the Elden Ring is visible within the giant hole in her torso. After the final battle with the Elden Beast, there's barely enough of Marika's body left to be recognizable.
• Brutal Honesty: Her echoes at the 'Outer Wall Battlegrounds' site of grace address the Demigods as "my children beloved" and urges them to seek whatever they desire of themselves, even lordship or godhood, but then goes on to plainly state that those that fail would be forsaken and written off as 'sacrifices'.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Downplayed, but if Blackguard Big Boggart is of any indication, apparently her breasts were notable enough that "Marika's tits!" became an expletive used by low-life types within the Lands Between.
• The Chains of Commanding: It is heavily implied that the pressure of ruling over the Lands Between, being the Greater Will's chosen vassal, and having to deal many other issues in her life has taken a great toll upon her, eventually causing Marika to snap and shatter the Elden Ring to be free of the hold it has over her.
  Marika's Scarseal/Soreseal Description: These seals represent the lifelong duty of those chosen by the gods. Solemn duty weighs upon the one beholden; not unlike a gnawing curse from which there is no deliverance.
• The Chessmaster: It's gradually revealed that Marika's plot to destroy the current order goes back many years and involved a plethora of moving parts and back-up plans. In short, she stuck with the Greater Will as a loyal servant up until a time where she could cultivate two separate classes of powerful warriors (her demigod children and the Tarnished) outside of its influence. When her warriors were sufficiently far along and Ranni and Rykard conspired with their own plot, Marika made her move: she weakened the Elden Beast by shattering the ring its power derives from, saw some of the shards of said ring claimed by her children (further increasing their relative power vis a vis the Greater Will), and set said children against the Elden Beast by inviting them to claim the throne. When the situation devolved into a Forever War instead due to their conflicting end goals for the Lands Between, she activated Plan B by reviving the Tarnished, who had grown more powerful in their wars overseas, inviting them back to the Lands Between and granting them the guidance of grace to both literally and figuratively lead them to fight the Beast, knowing that they couldn't resist the draw to lordship. To increase their chances, she provided them a Portal Network, an untouchable hideout in Roundtable Hold, and brainwashed the blacksmith Hewg to craft the strongest of them "a god-slaying weapon". If all of them failed, she always had Godfrey, who was both the strongest person she knew when she started the plan and her only known co-conspirator.
• The Chosen One: Marika was chosen by the Greater Will to be the god-queen of the Lands Between, serving as its speaker and ruling in its place. By breaking the Elden Ring, she seems to have defied this fate.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: To Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight. Gwyn's defining characteristic was his stubborn inability to let the Age of Fire pass, to the point that he inadvertently created the Curse of Undeath and the cycle of light and dark that plagued his world. Marika by contrast seemingly wants her age of unquestioned Golden Order fundamentalism to end, and actively brought the Tarnished back to life in the hopes that one of them would usher in a new age.
• Crucified Hero Shot: This is the state she's seen in both the intro and by the time the player encounters her in the game, crucified upon the Elden Ring (or what remains of it).
• Dark Messiah: While intentionally presented as a Messianic Archetype through various imagery and is seen as such by followers of the Golden Order, the player finds evidence via the various actions she took to take over the Lands Between paints her as someone who falls more in line with this.
• Decomposite Character: Elements of Gwyn, Lord of Sunlight are represented in Elden Ring through two characters. One of them, obviously, is Marika, who acts as a widely revered god figure who has gone missing since before the start of the game, while the other is her second husband Radagon, who inherits Gwyn's combat prowess and status as an endgame boss — he even comes packing a few variants of Gwyn's Sunlight Spear. Unusually for this trope, Marika and Radagon are actually the same person. She also serves to contrast Lord Gwyn, as while he tried to mantain the present order of the world through a complex Thanatos Gambit, Marika did everything possible to break the order she herself started.
• Deity of Human Origin: The Numen's Rune reveals that Marika was originally a woman of the Numen race, who was chosen as an Empyrean by the Greater Will and thereby ascended to godhood.
• The Dreaded: Some items indicate that the people of the Lands Between in general revered her for dispensing the Erdtree's blessings, but those outside of the Order seemed to have a different impression, consistently describing her as a terrifying presence. Hewg says he likes to smith because "it helps me forget the sheer terror of her," the cruel and callous Gideon "shuddered in fear" when he "glimpsed [Marika's] will", the Fire Giant would rather rip off its limbs in an attempt to kill you than incur her wrath again by breaking his duty to defend the flame, and one of the Finger Readers can be heard screaming in fear about "the curse of Queen Marika."
• Driven to Suicide: An interpretation of her shattering of the Elden Ring. She clearly knew that the destruction of the Elden Ring meant the destruction of herself, as the Ring was embedded in her own soul, so it's possible she believed death was a preferable alternative to serving the Greater Will any longer. Even in the "best" endings, there's little indication that Marika's shattered husk is even still alive.
• Dub Name Change: The Latin American Spanish translation changes her name to Marida, because Marika happens to sound exactly like "marica", a homophobic slur.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Marika is present as early as the first trailer, and the opening cutscene in the game proper. She's the person hammering at the Elden Ring, at least until it subtly switches over to Radagon trying to mend it.
• Expy: As a Top God associated with both wisdom and war seeking to Screw Destiny by any means necessary and implied to act through many disguises, she's roughly analogous to Odin. In particular, her crucifixion seems to reference one of his most famous stories. She’s hung on the remains of the Elden Ring and impaled through the torso with a spear as part of her quest to "search the deepest depths of the Order" (i.e. the Elden Ring she tried to change), while Odin allowed himself to be hung from Yggdrasil and impaled with a spear for nine days and nine nights in order to gain knowledge of other worlds and be able to understand the runes.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While her relationships with the Demigods and Radagon appeared to have been very cold, it’s implied Marika genuinely liked and had faith in her first husband Godfrey. He was the only person she ever trusted with her plan to shatter the Elden Ring, and right before his bossfight the guidance of grace (controlled by Marika) points from him to the Tarnished; hinting that she would have strongly preferred him to enter the Erdtree rather than the player.
• Fan Disservice: It's apparent from the various paintings of Marika that she was a beautiful woman, who tended to mostly wear a simple dark blue-and-gold dress. When she's actually encountered in-game, she's topless and reveals herself to be surprisingly well-endowed... but she's also crucified, has a spear stuck in her body, parts of her torso are missing and her skin is seemingly made out of stone.
• Fantastic Racism: While her personal feelings on the matter are never given in much detail, she definitely presided over a highly racist kingdom that discriminated against those the Erdtree did not favor. Under her, the Golden Order drove the Fire Giants to extinction, nearly did the same to the Dragons (sparing them was Godwyn's idea), enslaved the Misbegotten and Trolls, literally buried the people of the Great Caravan alive, killed or imprisoned every Omen, and treated the Albinaurics so terribly that they seek to make a journey across the continent and through the Forbidden Lands just to have a chance at a better future (in Miquella and Malenia's Haligtree). One of her lines of dialogues remembered by Melina indicates that, at the absolute least, she publicly approved of said persecution.
  Melina: In Marika's own words. "The Erdtree governs all. The choice is thine. Become one with the Order. Or divest thyself of it. To wallow at the fringes; a powerless upstart."
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her hair is generally portrayed as held in two asymmetrical braids; the right one reaches down to her knees, while the left one just reaches her chest. Her body in the Erdtree appears to have her hair in a single loose braid.
• Fusion Dance: In one of her few pieces of dialogue recounted by Melina, Marika tells Radagon that they have not yet become one, implying that they started out separate and merged together through some sort of process. Alternatively, this means that Radagon is choosing to be different from Marika, therefore not one with her mindset.
• Gender Bender: In Radagon's boss cutscene, Marika's feminine body is transformed into Radagon's masculine one, her blonde hair turning red and dark essence emblazoned with runes filling in the cracks and missing pieces.
• The Ghost: Marika is stated to have disappeared at some point during the Shattering, and any information the Tarnished learns about her comes from Melina or other parties. She makes an appearance at the end of the game, but she has little to no interaction with the Tarnished at all, leaving her own motivations and actions for starting the Shattering up to interpretation.
• God-Emperor: Rules the Lands Between and is worshipped as a god in countless churches throughout the land. She is also an actual divine being on top of that.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Every now and then, you'll hear characters mutter about "Marika's curse". They specifically blame her disappearance and seeming refusal to rein in her children during the Shattering, which is an understandable reason to fear and curse her name. Becomes more blatant after it's revealed she actually enacted the whole chain of events by Shattering the Elden Ring.
• God Was My Copilot: The Tarnished can resurrect at Marika's statues instead of lost graces, implying that she gives them some kind of patronage. Assuming Gideon's words are correct, she wants them to continue fighting "unto eternity".
  • Her echoes confirm she is the one responsible for returning Grace to all of the Tarnished after their deaths, and she urges them to grow strong and brandish the Elden Ring.
• Good Is Not Soft: While Marika's motives are admittedly incredibly vague, a reading of her as a heroic figure still involves her waging several wars of conquest, condemning the last giant to a Fate Worse than Death, using her brother as a tool, telling her children that they have to prove themselves or die, and kicking off the Shattering.
• Good Stepmother: Several demigods are actually lord Radagon's children from his previous marriage with Rennala, but Marika nevertheless elevated them to demigod status. This may be foreshadowing that Marika and Radagon are in fact one being.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The events of the game and everything that's transpired in the Lands Between, including the Shattering and glorified pissing match/family feud between her children, can be traced back to her. She's implied to have had some sort of role in Godwyn's assassination since she has some sort of relationship with the Numen, of which the Black Knives are entirely comprised of (though it's equally possible the Two Fingers are responsible as well, as it's noted that the Black Knives answer to them). Even discounting that, she kicked off the whole event by breaking the Elden Ring and forged a brutal empire in the Lands Between that inspired resentment from many.
• Has a Type: She's implied to have a thing for powerful warrior types. Both her first husband Godfrey and second husband Radagon were tribal warriors that became Elden Lords by proving themselves in battle. Her 'other self' Radagon seems to partially share this, as Radagon married Rennala, a powerful sorceress he met on the battlefield, before 'marrying' Marika. Given that Marika'd been planning on overthrowing the Elden Beast since at least before Godfrey's exile (as Melina recalls words from her where she tells Godfrey to get stronger and come back) and that she was initially expecting one of her children to become Lord or God, a task that would require killing it (in another recollection, Marika tells her children to try to claim the throne themselves), it is heavily implied that she was trying to cultivate a sufficiently powerful heir through Superpowerful Genetics.
• Hero of Another Story: Given the fact that she was basically The Chosen One of the Greater Will and went on to wage a successful war of conquest all across the Lands Between in its name, Marika definitely has an epic story worthy of its own game or two.
• Hidden Agenda Hero: Or Hidden Agenda Villain, depending on who you ask. A good deal of Marika's motives, goals, and personal qualities are left undisclosed, so we can only speculate on what she was really after or why.
• Human Alien: Queen Marika is a Numen, an ancient race of otherworldly people who come from "outside the Lands Between."
• Immortality Bisexuality: In an Ambiguously Bi sense. Since Marika has very little dialogue, it's hard to know her personal feelings about women, but Gender Is No Object when it comes to who can become Elden Lord (Marika's consort), and female Tarnished are treated as just as valid candidates as male tarnished, so there is at least presedent for Marika being interested in both genders. Depending on how one interprets Radagon, it's also possible that Marika was married to a woman long enough to sire three children. Of course, this is Marika, ruthless pragmatist supreme, so it's equally likely that the gender of her spouse is less important than how beneficial the marriage is for her plans.
• Jerkass God: Despite all the crucifixion imagery and her radiant beauty, very little indicates that Marika was a merciful goddess: beyond the several wars waged in the name of the Golden Order and the Erdtree, she engaged and encouraged the persecution of those not blessed by the grace of gold, and openly mocked those who lived outside of the order as "powerless upstarts". Several characters who have met her in person describe her as a terrifying presence as well. Regardless of her motivation on the matter, her shattering of the Elden Ring threw the Lands Between into a spiral of death, torment and chaos that would claim the lives and minds of not just her subjects, but all her children as well; something that she not only wasn't concerned about, but actively planned for prior to the act.
• Keeping the Enemy Close: A possible interpretation for her interaction with Radagon. As her faith in the Greater Will faltered, Radagon remained loyal to the Greater Will. Now she permanently has an eye on him, and he can't fix the Elden Ring himself or confront the Tarnished too early.
• Kingmaker Scenario: Not to the same extent as the Two Fingers, who back the Tarnished in the hopes that one among their number will reforge the Elden Ring, but she is responsible for reviving prominent Tarnished such as Hoarah Loux and even the Player Character. It should also be worth noting that she gave grace to the Tarnished so that one of them may potentially succeed her husband Radagon.
• Lost in Translation: The Mimic Veil being known as Marika's Mischief / マリカの戯れ. In Japanese, the word used for "mischief" is a double entendre that can also mean "flirtation" or "dalliance", implying that she (as many figures from myth) disguised herself for that purpose (albeit that the in-game Mimic's Veil wouldn't be useful for that, unless she met someone who found statues and pottery really sexy). Which may explain why at least one dead demigod (the one in the Weeping Peninsula's Walking Mausoleum) is called Marika's "unwanted child" (outright "bastard child" in Japanese). In hindsight this can also be interpreted as foreshadowing Radagon's nature, given his marriage to Rennala.
• Married to the Job: Implied. Her bedchamber consisted of a large stone bed surrounded by piles of stone tablets and scrolls all over the place.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Marika's name is an Eastern European iteration of "Mary/Maria". One possible translation of that name is "rebellious" which reflects her role in shattering the Elden Ring. Another translation of that name is "beloved", which she was during her tenure as the God-Emperor of the Lands Between.
  • Regarding her people, the Numen; on top of sounding like “new men” as something above normal mortals (which Marika decidedly is), Numen is a Latin word referring to a spirit or divine presence that watches over a specific location (which, as the God-Emperor of the Lands Between, Marika does). This implies that the Numen as a whole might be pre-ordained for roles relating to leadership under divinities like the Greater Will. The Japanese name for her race is 'marebito' (稀人), a type of divine being of Japanese myth that comes from faraway places to gift people wisdom or happiness, similiarly to how Marika arrived to the Lands Between from outside of it to establish the Golden Order and grant the blessing of gold to its people.
• Metallic Motifs: Mercury, also part of her Mythical Motifs.
• Mythical Motifs: The alchemical White Queen, representing femininity, the moon, water, and the element mercury for its stability, in contrast to Radagon as the Red King. Though an ironic one considering she rules over the Erdtree which has supplanted the sun in the Lands Between and was the instigator of the Shattering.
• Mythology Gag: On top of being a Decomposite Character of Gwyn, Marika bears an uncanny resemblance to Queen Nashandra of all characters. Both are blonde, tall queens married to powerful, bearded warrior-kings that waged war against a race of giants. They also, directly and indirectly, prod the player character to succeed the previous ruler and become monarchs of some kind. And although she lacks Nashandra's overt malice, Marika is also the direct cause of the entire game's plot, as her breaking of the Elden Ring was part of a likely centuries old plan to destroy the Elden Beast. Also, like Nashandra she shapeshifts into a different form than the one she is shown as normally in the Final Boss fight, and the first half of the fight involves battling her alternate form on top of a stone platform surrounded by darkness. And finally, like Nashandra she originated from outside the continent the game takes place in.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Marika is definetly treated as the Top God of the Golden Order, and by all intents and purposes she is one of the most powerful entities in the Lands Between - however, as the game goes on it also becomes increasingly she's also way below in the hierarchy that she would have you believe, as despite being the older of the Elden Ring, she has no power over the Outer Gods and their influence, and compared to the Greater Will that chose her she is a mere pawn to be discarded and replaced if she becomes inconvenient.
• Our Gods Are Different: There does seem to be an abstract higher power in the universe of Elden Ring which governs the world through Marika. However, the mouthpiece of this same higher power claims that, as the one chosen to bear the power of the Elden Ring and the Erdtree, Marika was 'a god in truth', and is treated as such throughout the land. Numerous churches and chapels are scattered throughout the Lands Between in her honor, as well as several characters making prayers beseeching her blessings and salvation.
• Parental Favoritism: While she had a cold relationship with her children (to the point that she explicitly summoned the Tarnished to kill them), even Marika apparently had her favorites.
  • To Godwyn. According to the story trailer, she "was driven to the brink" after the Night of Black Knives that killed him.
  • It's implied that she had this towards Miquella, as when he went missing due to Mohg's machinations, she was greatly upset. Incidentally, her "other self" Radagon also seemed to favor Miquella, further implying their connection.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: As the one chosen by The Greater Will to bear the Elden Ring, Marika is essentially the embodiment of the Golden Order itself, or its vassal. Yet details slowly revealed suggest that she grew to question the very order she ruled.
  "I declare mine intent, to search the depths of the Golden Order. Through understanding of the proper way, our faith, our grace, is increased. Those blissful early days of blind belief are long past. My comrades; why must ye falter?"
• Pragmatic Hero: "Hero" is a strong word, but if there is one thing that can be said of Marika, it is that she's pragmatic. Despite ruling over a theocratic empire with strict definitions of what is holy and what is heretical, she frequently made use of and incorporated heretical concepts when they were beneficial to her plans, and everything that's known about her interpersonal relationships paints a picture of a ruthlessly pragmatic woman who had no issue using even her children to further her goals.
• Reduced to Dust: Her body dissolves into golden dust in the Age of Stars ending. If the Tarnished becomes Lord of the Frenzied Flame, she also crumbles away into nothingness.
• Sculpted Physique: She and Radagon (who seemingly share a body) have an idealized body that's seemingly sculpted from stone. Though the backlash from shattering the Elden Ring has left her body fractured, missing half her face and almost the entire left half of her upper torso.
• Screw Yourself: Maybe. It's not really clear what she and Radagon are but they supposedly had two children together. The afflictions Miquella and Malenia have are said to be because they come from the same god.
• She Is the King: While her official title is Queen, she's also consistently referred to as a god, never a goddess.
• Shirtless Captives: She is hanged up topless but with Barbie Doll Anatomy inside the Erdtree.
• Statuesque Stunner: Almost literally, since her physical body appears to be made of stone, but when she is finally seen in person, she's just under nine and a half feet tall◊ (slightly shorter than Radagon), and despite her current state of catatonia and decrepitude, she was an angelically beautiful woman in her prime.
• Truly Single Parent: As Marika and Radagon might actually be either the same entity, or one being who split themselves into separate entities, she is this trope to the children resulting from their "marriage" if either case is true. Malenia's remembrance describes her and her brother as being the children of "a single god", further implying this. Whether this means that Marika bore Malenia and Miquella as regular children or she just poofed them into existence is left unexplained. In either case, their afflictions are blamed on such parenthood, like a supernatural form of inbreeding.
• Top God: Of the King Of the Gods variety. Marika was the primary deity worshiped in the Lands Between, with only the abstract Greater Will above her, which her followers do not consider a god. Her commanding Hewg to forge a god-slaying weapon implies that at least part of her motivation was to kill the one being identified as a god that was above her, the Elden Beast. In fact, her powerful consorts and children being mere "demigods" seems to be Insistent Terminology on her part; according to Brother Corhyn, the Golden Order is founded on the belief that there is only one true god: Marika herself.
• Toplessness from the Back: She's seen like this in the reveal trailer for the game, with cracks already beginning to spread across her back presumably due to her shattering the Elden Ring.
• The Worf Effect: While the true extent of Marika's prowess in battle is unknown, and she's implied to be more of a scholar than a fighter ^note Her soreseal talisman only boosts mental stats her divine power would presumably make her a spellcaster more fearsome than even Rennala. This didn't stop the Elden Beast from mutilating and crucifying her, setting itself as above her both in power and divine hierarchy.
• You Have Failed Me: She tasked her children with becoming Lords or Gods during the Shattering, which would require taking the Lands Between and slaying the Elden Beast. When their conflict instead devolved into a Forever War with no victor, Marika activated her back-up plan in the Tarnished, who exist for the sole purpose of killing her children and the Beast.
  Marika: Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord. Be it a God. But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to sacrifices...
  Hewg: Are you having second thoughts? Might I have a word, then? Your kind are meant to challenge them. To slay them. The demigods. And their god.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: With the knowledge that the Tarnished's grace comes from her, it's heavily implied that she's attempting to pull this on you during Godfrey's boss fight. The guidance of grace ceases to guide you, and instead directs Godfrey at you. Since Godfrey is her loyal lackey while the Tarnished in most endings will screw her over, it makes sense as to why she'd try to dispose of you for Godfrey after you fulfill your role in setting the Erdtree alight. It’s also possible that this is just a final test to see who is more worthy of the throne however.

Her Other Self (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Radagon of the Golden Order

The Second Elden Lord

Former husband of Queen Rennala, Radagon parted ways with his wife to become Queen Marika's champion after Godfrey's exile and to become the Second Elden Lord who subsequently fathered several demigods with her. After Queen Marika's disappearance following the Shattering, Radagon likewise went missing.

In reality, Radagon is Queen Marika's 'other self', a male counterpart with his own distinct personality and will. Despite this revelation, much of Radagon's very nature remains shrouded in ambiguity and mystery.

Given the important revelations which come with the character's introduction during the game, Radagon is a Walking Spoiler, so all spoilers are unmarked.

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• Achilles' Heel: Any and all Incantations, equipment or Talismans that boost one's resistance to Holy damage are magnificently effective in his fight due to all of his attacks being charged with or inflicting damage with the element.
  • Also downplayed in that he is not technically weak to it, but he is fairly resistant to every type of elemental damage except Fire, which he simply has no resistance toward.
• Alternate Personality Punishment: It's revealed that while Marika was attempting to shatter the Elden Ring, Radagon was in equal measure attempting to repair it, his attempts being in vain as Marika succeeded in the end. However, despite his efforts to prevent the Shattering from happening, as he was sharing a body with Marika he was forced to share in her punishment at the hands of the Greater Will, trapped beneath the Erdtree, impaled and bound by his wrists above the ground by the remnants of the ring.
• Always Second Best: For all of Radagon's accomplishments, he pales in comparison to his predecessor Godfrey. While the most Radagon did was merge Caria as part of the Golden Order (and messed it up by returning to Marika to be the next Elden Lord), Godfrey's been the one who had a major part in shaping Marika's empire, having waged more wars and subjugated more people. It's also worth noting that Godfrey's rule was described as "just and fair", while there's nothing that describes Radagon's tenure as Elden Lord. It's telling that Radahn, his own son, looks up to Godfrey more than his old man. Hell, the fact that, story-wise, he's fought straight after Godfrey highlights this, since whilst Godfrey clearly wields both his tempered and unleashed might whilst looking at perfect health, Radagon looks little more than a literal shell of his former self and could very well be the Elden Beast's puppet by this point.
• Ambiguously Related: The description of the Winged Misbegotten Ashes refer to the Misbegotten as "Radagon's chimeras" in the 1.0 version of the game. The game files also refer to the Misbegotten as Radagon's children, and one of them has Radagon's own Golden Order Greatsword. Their exact connection is as of yet unknown.
• Ambiguously Human: When the player first learns of him, they're led to believe that he was a completely normal human (by the standards of the setting) that somehow managed to become the Second Elden Lord; however, as he's secretly, somehow, the male half of Marika, this would actually make him a Numen... and then there's his ambiguous relation with the Fire Giants whom he shares his red hair with, and the ambiguously canonical relationship he has with the Misbegotten of all races. To say Radagon's character is steeped in ambiguity would be an understatement.
• Ambiguous Situation: The king of this trope. All we know about Radagon is scattered lore references and comments about him (often by those who have reason to be biased), and unlike Marika, we have no quotes directly from Radagon himself. All we know for certain is that he is (somehow) Marika, he fought Rennala, married her, and later divorced her, he was super loyal to the Golden Order, he was The Red Mage, had red hair but hated it, was Elden Lord after Godfrey, favored Miquella, and liked sewing.
  • It's not clear if Radagon was originally a separate being that physically merged with Marika, if he was always a part of her that was separated from her body for a time, or if they were always one entity that could transform their shared body to reflect either personality when necessary. Radagon was stated to be Queen Marika's second husband, having left his first wife Rennala to become the second Elden Lord. His boss cutscene, however, shows Queen Marika's fractured body transforming into Radagon, implying they were a singular entity all along. A Freeze-Frame Bonus in the opening cutscene foreshadows this fact as well, as it shows Marika briefly turning into Radagon as she hammers the Elden Ring. Melina recounting Marika's words about Radagon not yet being her and being her other self doesn't clear things up, and further confusing things is the fact Radagon and Marika, even when combined, can apparently disagree on things. Radagon is shown trying to repair the Elden Ring Marika shattered, showing they weren't in agreement on the act. One thing we know for sure though is that Radagon absolutely was not a god like Marika and didn't have her power, as Rykard's Great Rune states that his children only became demigods after Marika adopted them and Melina recalls Marika telling Radagon "thou art yet to become me, yet to become a god" right before the Shattering. By the end of the Shattering he apparently has become one (going by Corhyn's dialogue and the Sacred Relic Sword description), albeit presumably of a lesser degree than Marika ever was given that he's stuck with a mere fragment of the Elden Ring rather than being the vessel of the whole thing.
  • While fans tend to assume they have separate wills, nothing in the game's text goes against the idea that Radagon isn't literally just Marika wearing a "costume" and using an alias (meaning her "conversation" with Radagon is just her castigating herself for her failed plans), much like her children are prone to do (e.g. "Margit", "Renna", and "Trina"). This is implied by Goldmask being able to immediately draw conclusions from no words other than "Radagon is Marika", from which he includes that Marika is in fact "fickle", i.e., that she can change her mind. The one bit of evidence cited in favor of the interpretation that they're two people, that Marika broke the ring while Radagon tried to repair it, is put into doubt by a line from Melina at the Church of the Pilgrimage, which reveals that Marika wanted the ring to be mended after she broke it ("Return to the Lands Between, wage war, and brandish the Elden Ring. Grow strong in the face of death. Warriors of my lord. Lord Godfrey."). And while Radagon sealing the roots with his Rune is commonly interpreted as him not wanting the Ring to be fixed by the Tarnished, it should be noted that the only effect this actually has is preventing the ardent Golden Order loyalist Morgott from repairing the Ring, which would supposedly be in Radagon's interests. Aside from that, the seal also forces the Tarnished to burn the Erdtree and release Destined Death.^note This is consistent with Radagon's characterization in the 1.0 release of the game, where he was stated on Loretta's armor set to have supported the reformist Miquella as the inheritor of the throne. Without Radagon's intervention the player would just have just entered the tree and restored the Golden Order just as the Two Fingers told them to, and Destined Death would stay sealed (as the Mending Rune of the Duskborn states, "a state of affairs where Destined Death is sealed" is essentially what the Golden Order is). At the very least, the game establishes early on that Marika likes to use disguises (she owns a Mimic Veil which the people have nicknamed "Marika's Mischief", otherwise a Red Herring) and Radagon is confirmed to have been Marika as far back as his marriage to Rennala at least, going by the Mask of Confidence and Miriel's dialogue. Indeed, the entire point of the "Radagon is Marika" reveal seems to be aimed at undermining what the player thought they knew about Marika, as Radagon was otherwise characterized as her more merciful and thoughtful foil, only for the game to reveal that their actions were those of one person with one plan. Finally, her Japanese dialogue has Marika call Radagon "my [other] half of my body" in a very directly physical sense rather than the more vague "mine other self" she uses in English, which is dialogue more fitting for Radagon just being... well, her other body, rather than a different person.
    • The internal AI name of his character model is also "MaricaOfDistorted."
  • Just how self-aware is Radagon by the time of the final battle? Not only does he not say a single word throughout the entire fight, not even grunting when hit, but he doesn't bleed at all, his body is visibly broken and hollow, his movements are almost robotic in how stiff they are, and he barely uses any magic despite being extremely well versed in both glintstone sorceries and incantations. It's quite possible that Radagon has been reduced to an Empty Shell being maneuvered by the Elden Beast like a puppet, which is supported by the fact that the symbol of the Erdtree is seen glowing in his hollow body.
  • Just like the above, it's incredibly ambiguous how much he is to blame for the seal on the Erdtree. It clearly bears his signature rune, but the why or when is never explained. It could be that Radagon personally sealed the Erdtree after the Elden Ring was shattered, it could be that the Elden Beast merely used his body as a vessel to create that seal for its own purposes, that Radagon might have initially created the seal but the Elden Beast usurped his body to maintain it, or that all of these answers are wrong.
  • In general, how many of Radagon's decisions throughout his existence were his own becomes difficult to decipher. Was him marrying Rennala a genuine act of penance and love, or a cynical act of manipulation engineered by Marika to exploit a political and religious rival? Was his abandonment of Rennala and his return to Leyndell an act of stubborn loyalty to his god-queen, or was he metaphysically forced by his other self to do that? He attempted to repair the Elden Ring when Marika tried to destroy it, showing that he at least had the will to defy her at that moment, but then it becomes difficult to say where his will and that of the Elden Beast differ, if they do at all. Depending on your interpretation, Radagon can be a ruthless sociopathic dogmatist, a flawed man who made some major mistakes, or a tragic puppet without agency who has always had his strings pulled by uncaring beings.
• Animal Motifs: He has a small one with hounds. The first time the player is likely to encounter his name is with the Red Wolf of Radagon, a literal dog, and one of Marika's few lines of spoken dialogue refers to him as "leal hound." Despite his marriage to Rennala, he returned to Leyndell the second Marika called him, showing that at the end of the day Radagon was little more than Marika's dog. In a quote on his helmet's description, Radahn also distinguishes himself from his father by claiming that he started as Radagon's son but grew up to become Godfrey's lion, i.e. a cat.
• Anti-Magic: He can dissipate any Sorcery or Incantation thrown at him by striking it with his artificial left arm, similar to the Golden Retaliation skill used by the Tree Sentinels.
• Appearance Angst: Based on the Giant's Red Braid description, Radagon hated his red hair as he attributed it to the giants.
• The Archmage: Radagon has magical prowess sufficient to invent at least one incantation, Radagon's Rings of Light, which requires high ratings in both Intelligence and Faith to use. He is implied to have created the Litany of Proper Death incantation too, as using it produces a glyph identical to the pattern on his Rune (seen on his scarseal/soreseal and all his statues), and you have to take his iconic T-stance to cast it. Further, it is stated that Radagon learned glintstone sorcery during his marriage to Rennala. In his boss fight, he proves to be quite possibly the most potent mage in the game, as he doesn't even need to focus, use complex body motions, or use a Sacred Seal to effortlessly throw out fast, highly damaging Holy blasts with little wind-up. He's so overflowing with power that even when performing unrelated actions like jumping, stomping, slamming his hammer and teleporting (itself a feat only magic users verging on the level of reality warpers can use in the setting), he passively creates large explosions as a side effect, and each burst is significantly more powerful than what most other holy incantation users including the player can cast with dedicated offensive spells. His super move is three powerful blasts chained consecutively that cover nearly the entire arena and throw up dozens of stones with each casting. However, by the time the Tarnished can fight him, it's unclear how much of this power is his own prowess, a recent power-up from the Elden Ring now being housed inside his body, or the Elden Beast puppeteering him from within.
• Badass Bookworm: Radagon is mentioned to have extensively studied Sorceries, before moving on to Golden Order Fundamentalism Incantations, both of which requiring extensive intelligence to learn.
• Barbarian Hero: He led a primitive Barbarian Tribe of warriors who worshipped the Erdtree, and was said to war with everyone near them, which led to him meeting Rennala on the battlefield.
• BFS: His weapon is stated to be the Golden Order Greatsword, but as it was somehow stolen by a Misbegotten from the Consecrated Snowfields, he's forced to make do with Marika's Hammer when the Tarnished confronts him inside the Erdtree.
• Big Bad: The closest character to an overarching antagonist the game has, as he (or perhaps the Elden Beast acting through him as a vessel, it's ambiguous) sealed off the Erdtree, preventing anyone from repairing the Elden Ring, and is thus at least partially at fault for the stasis the Lands Between are placed in. He, alongside the Elden Beast, have to be destroyed to allow a new age to begin. Even then, however, Radagon doesn't even come close to being the most evil character, even assuming his actions were of his own free will.
• Blind Obedience: He's loyal to the Golden Order to a fault, to the point even Marika called him a "leal (loyal) hound".
• Body Horror: His body's been terribly mutilated by the time the Tarnished finds him. His skin is very visibly cracking apart as he moves, and large chunks of his body look like they've simply crumbled away, crudely replaced by a shadowy substance generated from the Elden Ring. His torso, in particular, is so badly damaged that it exposes the inside of his chest cavity, where his organs should be — and they're missing. It gets worse after his defeat, the Elden Beast deforms his corpse into a sword it uses to fight the Tarnished.
• Bolt of Divine Retribution: While the bolts of golden light he sends out aren't actual lightning (like what the Ancient Dragons use), they do very much harken the ancient depiction of lighting as the wrath of a angry god.
• Braids of Barbarism: He wears his hair in a long braid and once lead a barbarian tribe.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Various item and spell descriptions mention Radagon, while his biography and marriage to Rennala and then Marika are discussed by several characters, but his fate during the Shattering is not spoken much, nor is he even mentioned by the demigods. It's suggested he also went missing along with Marika — only for him to be revealed as one half of Queen Marika herself in the Elden Throne.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: He's immune to Bleed, Sleep, Madness, and Deathblight and is highly resistant to Poison and Rot. Also naturally for someone who's the closest to the Golden Order, he's highly resistant to Holy damage.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Humanoid final bosses in past Soulsborne games are often somber fights against an elderly being and with Sad Battle Music playing in the background - in contrast, Radagon, while shattered, retains the appearance of an adult man in peak physical condition and the battle theme is epic and choral, evoking both the power of a living god and that you're extremely close in achieving your goal.
• Closest Thing We Got: With Marika actively rebelling against its control, Radagon appears to be serving as the Elden Ring’s vessel in her stead to keep the damaged Golden Order from fracturing any further.
• The Dragon: He acts as this for the Elden Beast, serving as its last line of defense and to enforce its will.
• Dead All Along: It's strongly implied the Radagon fought in the game's climax is nothing more than his long-dead corpse, animated as a puppet by the Elden Beast.
• Decomposite Character: Of Lord Gwyn. While Marika mirrors Gwyn's divinity and status as ruler of the land, Radagon takes after Gwyn's battle prowess, including Lightning Spear-like bolts of holy power, and fervent belief in the status quo, and like Gwyn attempted to maintain it at any cost; but unlike the Lord of Sunlight, he failed.
• Discard and Draw: According to the Radagon's Icon talisman, he first learned Carian sorcery while married to Rennala, though he cast it aside in favour of the incantations of the Golden Order when he was recalled to rejoin Marika.
• Dub Personality Change: A subtle one that can nonetheless wildly change one's interpretation of Radagon's character: in English, the description of the Golden Order Greatsword almost outright states that the sword is a reforged Dark Moon Greatsword, Rennala's wedding gift to him, to be more in line with his new role as Elden Lord, painting him as callous and apathetic to his past relationship with Rennala at best. However, in Japanese, the wording is ambiguous as to whether the sword is the same one he was given by Rennala or merely resembles the Dark Moon Greatsword; in this case, it can instead be interpreted that he had a new sword made to resemble his past wedding gift as a reminder of the love he was forced to abandon.
• Fantasy Counterpart Myth: As a tall, incredibly muscular, long-haired, redhead warrior god who wields a hammer charged with supernatural lightning and has a strong association with sacred trees and an adversarial relationship with the Giants,^note The Giant's Red Braid item description notes that Radagon despised his hair color for its link to the Fire Giants, and he likely faced lesser giants/Trolls (who Rennala refers to as "oathsworn giants" in her boss fight) in battle during the Liurnian Wars. he's a solid one to Thor, keeping with the game's Norse elements. He can also throw lightning bolts with his offhand and is the lover of a golden-haired goddess associated with the earth, with whom he fathered several children, including a valkyrie said to bear a strong resemblance to him. Even the fact the Tarnished first encounters him in female form could be a stealthy reference to The Lay of Thrym, where Thor disguises himself as Freyja. His design seems heavily inspired by the Record of Ragnarok version in particular, being a clean-shaven and oft-shirtless Long-Haired Pretty Boy with golden eyes and black sclera (as seen on his portraits).
• Fan Disservice: A Female Gaze version. His statues depict a very handsome Walking Shirtless Scene of a man, but when he appears in person, his body is quite literally broken and barely held together by the Elden Beast. The sex appeal of toned muscles is kinda diminished when they've crumbled away to nearly nothing.
• Fiery Redhead: A truly ferocious warrior who sports a long mane of red hair. Interestingly, it's implied to be connected to some sort of "curse" left by the decimated Fire Giants and Radagon himself hated his red hair.
• The Fundamentalist: Radagon very closely studies a school of Incantations called Golden Order Fundamentalism. They require high amounts of Faith and Intelligence to cast and focuses on expanding one's comprehension of the Order's nature and how to bend it to your will; Radagon might have advanced Fundamentalism using the sorcery prowess he acquired while married to Rennala.
• Fusion Dance: At some point before, or just as Marika attempted to Shatter the Elden Ring, Radagon fused his body with hers, effectively becoming "a single god" as they both attempt to shatter and repair the Elden Ring, respectively.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: He's a powerful mage in the final battle, but all his spells are yellow-gold pure Faith spells; he doesn't use INT-based glintstone sorceries or INT/Faith hybrid Golden Order Fundamentalist incantations (indicated by their white-gold color) despite canonically knowing them. Fitting, as you can see on his broken character model that he literally lacks a brain.
• Go Seduce My Archnemesis: Radagon's marriage to Rennala may have been a scheme by Queen Marika and/or the Greater Will to destabilize the Carian royalty from within while stealing their sorcery knowledge for themselves.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: While he wields a hammer in his boss fight, the hammer is distinguished as belonging to Marika, and his actual weapon was the Golden Order Greatsword found in the hands of the Misbegotten Crusader.
• Hero of Another Story: While being the second Elden Lord in of itself implies quite the adventurous life, the game gives hints to his life before gaining that position: from his connection to the Giants, to the war campaign he waged against Caria, Radagon certainly wasn't idle.
• Hidden Depths: One might be tempted to think of Radagon as a religious fanatic given him prosecuting the wars against Liurnia and swearing his life to the Order, but he's quite the opposite. As a Fundamentalist he was essentially a rationalist and a physicist in an otherwise mystical setting: Fundamentalists are stated to study mathematics and natural laws in their version of the faith, and as shown by the Pulley Bow and Pulley Crossbow, their mathematics skills are directly transferable to conventional mechanical engineering (unlike the "Intelligence" based sorceries of Raya Lucaria, the skills of which are apparently useless for anything outside of drawing on the power of glintstone). His marriage of Rennala resulted in Carian practices being integrated into the Order rather than stamped out, and he made a point to study and learn their ways (his portrait in the Roundtable Hold even has him wearing the robes and crown of a Carian king). Per the Ritual Sword Talisman, he also closed down the colosseums where gladiators killed each other in ritual combat to honor the Erdtree, apparently finding bloodsport and human sacrifice distasteful (notably, his son Radahn brought the practice back in his own territory after Radagon went missing - presumably due his own admiration for Godfrey and explicitly characterizing himself as having grown past Radagon and into Godfrey's successor). It's implied he came into existence around the time that Marika declared her intent to study the depths of the Order rather than go with blind faith. The 1.0 version of the game also states outright that Radagon supported Miquella and his attempts to revise the Order through Unalloyed Gold and its ultimate expression (the Haligtree), sending Carian Knights to defend it.
• Hollywood Genetics: Interestingly, two of his children are redheads (which is possible, if slightly unlikely since his former wife was a brunette), while the third, Rykard, was a blonde, implying that Radagon can somehow pass on Marika's traits to his children.
• Huge Girl, Tiny Guy: Radagon is heavily built and measures in at 9'8, but Rennala is noticeably taller than him because she's about 10'6 even without her very tall crown.◊^note Rennala is 3.2 meters tall at mm = m scale.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Radagon is barely holding himself together after the backlash of the Elden Ring's destruction, but the remains of a surprisingly◊ fair-faced man are evident beneath all the fracturing.
• Legendary Weapon:
  • The Golden Order Greatsword is one of the nine legendary armaments scattered throughout the Lands Between. It is said to have been crafted by Radagon via light as his way of memorizing the teachings of the Golden Order. That said, he doesn't wield the sword, having been lost and picked up by a Misbegotten Crusader that must be fought in the Cave of the Forlorn if the Tarnished desires to retrieve it. True to the nature and classification of the weapon, it boasts good strength and holy stats.
  • While not classified as a legendary armament, Marika's Hammer can count, given its historical importance to the Shattering and Radagon using said hammer both in a vain attempt to repair the Elden Ring as well as weaponizing it against the Tarnished when they finally come on the cusp of becoming Elden Lord. In addition to having good stats on strength and holy attributes, it also boasts a powerful AoE attack in a weapon skill called Gold Breaker.
• Logical Weakness: Being the champion of the Golden Order, and thus the Erdtree, fire is the only attribute he has zero resistance in, especially the black flames of the Godskin Cultists incantations. He is, however, completely immune to Hemorrhage, because his body is made up of stone and black smoke; he has no blood to spill.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Downplayed somewhat, as Radagon is still a gigantic demigod with (literally) sculpted muscles, but his overall figure is relatively thin and his long straight hair and clean shaven face contrast greatly with Marika's previous husband Godfrey, who is much more traditionally masculine in looks and figure. Paintings of him, such as the one in the Roundtable Hold, can cause people to mistake him for a particularly masculine woman. Of course, as he's Marika's 'other self', this vague androgyny may be more than coincidental.
• Magic Knight: Originally, Radagon seemed to be a purely physical fighter; the Radagon Icon noted that he only studied sorceries and incantations after he married Rennala and Marika respectively, both events happening well after he'd earned all of his battlefield glory in the Liurnian Wars, and his associated talismans only boost physical skills. But since he aspired to "become complete", he eventually became very good at magic too. In his boss battle he makes use of scintillating bolts and waves of golden light along powerful hammer strikes in seemless tandem. This is actually one of the indications implying Radagon is no longer totally himself, as these bolts don't look anything like the spells of the Golden Order Fundamentalism school he was known to use and more closely resemble the projectiles used by the Elden Beast.
• Metallic Motifs: Sulphur, also part of his Mythical Motifs.
• Mythical Motifs: The alchemical Red King, in contrast to Queen Marika as the White Queen. Represents sulfur, volatility, and masculinity. Though an ironic one; Radagon may be a warrior but his artifact is a sewing needle, he married Rennala to end a war and is the one who's trying to repair the Golden Order's Elden Ring.
• Mysterious Past: Despite being the Second Elden Lord and a well known figure in the Lands Between, no one really seems to know much about him. As Miriel describes it he just popped out of nowhere one day leading a Golden Order army before marrying Rennala and later Marika. The fact he is Marika and no record of him exists before this point (which was well into Marika's rule) implies that "he" didn't exist until Marika decided to create his persona.
• The Paladin: The purest example of a paladin-like character in the entire game, as a holy warrior with great loyalty towards the very concept of Order. Even without his personal armament, the light-based Golden Order Greatsword, his combat style still evokes the imagery of a paladin, with heavy hammer strikes mixed in with powerful holy spells.
• Parental Abandonment: Radagon divorced his first wife, Rennala, and left her to join Marika, contributing to Rennala's descent into insanity. It's implied this had an impact on the three children he had with Rennala, as Ranni is close to her birth mother and stepmother but doesn't mention her birth father, Radahn idolizes someone else over his birth father despite Radagon being a warrior as well, and Rykard hates the Golden Order Fundamentalism that Radagon abandoned his mother over.
• Physical God: Due to essentially becoming the emergency vessel for the Elden Ring, he ascended to godhood to equal Marika - although with diminished powers due to the Elden Ring itself missing a lot of Great Runes.
• Power Echoes: What few battle voiceclips he has have a reverberating echo meant to amplify his current state, for better or worse.
• Pre-Final Boss: Radagon is the first part of the game's final boss fight, confronting you inside the Erdtree. Upon his defeat, he is immediately followed by the Final Boss, the Elden Beast, with no checkpoints or chances to recover your strength.
• Real Men Wear Pink: As revealed by the Gold Sewing Needle's description, Radagon was a tailor in addition to being a warrior.
• The Red Mage: By this game's standards, anyway; he may not make actual use of healing techniques, but his magic is perfectly split between Incantations and Sorcery, and he's a proficient wielder of hammers. This is in large part why he is a difficult opponent; previous bosses generally kept to a certain theme or 'build' that overall focused somewhat either in melee or magical might, meaning that while Mohg, for example, could use his massive weapon to harm his foes, he'd typically stick to Blood Incantations. The battle with Radagon, meanwhile, changes drastically on how the player approaches him, as he'll almost entirely keep to spellcasting if the player assaults him with magic or arrows from mid-to-long range, and will focus entirely on melee might if the player tries to lock him down with physical strikes. As a proficient user in both methods of combat, he can hardly be considered a pushover no matter how he's tackled.
• Reforged Blade: His Golden Order Greatsword, which he forged once he became Marika's second King Consort and the second Elden Lord, was originally the Full Moon Greatsword that Rennala bequeathed him when they got married.
• Rule of Symbolism: As described under Undying Loyalty below, Radagon was loyal to the Golden Order to a massive fault. When he falls at the hands of the Tarnished, his body is taken by the Elden Beast and reforged as the hilt of the sword it wields (shown by the visible lower body as the handle and his ribcage/arms as the guard). Even beyond his actual lifespan, Radagon is nothing more than a tool.^note In both the metaphorical sense as someone who's being used for the ends of others, and literally as a tool of destruction.
• Scarred Equipment: Marika's Hammer was severely damaged during her attempt to shatter the Elden Ring, with fragments of the Ring itself having been embedded into the hammer's cracks.
• Schmuck Bait: Like many bosses, Radagon can be parried, but don't be fooled, not only does it take 3 parries to break his stance for a critical attack, Radagon will immediately attempt to grab you if the parry didn't open him up.
• Sculpted Physique: His and Marika's body looks as if it were sculpted from stone, even shattering like a statue when wounded. It's not clear if they always looked that way or if it's a side-effect of the shattering of the Elden Ring.
• Sharing a Body: It's not clear why. But prior to his boss fight, Queen Marika's fractured body becomes Radagon's — reshaping itself into a masculine physique, her blonde hair turning red, and dark essence with golden runes filling the cracks and missing pieces.
• Shockwave Stomp: One of his most basic moves is to stomp on the player. After losing a quarter of his health, this stomp will be accompanied by a large blast of Holy energy.
• Spell Blade: His hammer is constantly wreathed with golden light, which allows its attack range to change depending on how much light is being channeled into it.
• Sketchy Successor: Radagon certainly expanded Marika's kingdom and advanced the teachings of the Golden Order, but Godfrey simply achieved far more during his reign. As consort, Godfrey is implied to be a knowing participant in Marika's plan to shatter the Elden Ring; she gave no such knowledge to Radagon, leading to him to try fixing the shattered Elden Ring, and, by barring entrance into the heart of the Erdtree, he is the reason the entire kingdom must fall through the Erdtree's burning.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He looks exactly like a male version of his daughter Malenia, with very similar heights, builds, hair, and facial features.
• Took a Level in Badass: From (supposedly) a humble Leyndell knight like any other, to a powerful sorcerer taught by Queen Renalla herself, to the divinely empowered second Elden Lord and master of Golden Order Fundamentalism. And after the Shattering and his mysterious fusion with Marika, he’s seemingly usurped what’s left of her godly power (in one spoken echo, she mocks him for being "yet to become me, yet to become a god" on the eve of the Shattering) and her position as vessel of the Elden Ring, though whether the latter was done by his own will or forced on him by the Elden Beast is vague.
• Truly Single Parent: If Marika and Radagon have always been a single entity, then he’s this to Miquella and Malenia.
• Undying Loyalty: A negative version. He married Queen Rennala, sired three children with her, then straight-up abandons his wife without a second thought when Marika recalls him to join her. He even discards the magic he learned from Rennala in favor of Golden Order Fundamentalism, and reforges the Carian sword he received as a wedding gift into a weapon more befitting of his station as Elden Lord. The reveal that he's Marika's male half does nothing to justify his loyalty to her and her empire as his actions not only directly contributed to Rennala's fall into despairing insanity, but also irreparably damaged his relationships with his three children, who speak little to nil about him; in Radahn's case, he admires and looks up to Godfrey, who isn't even related to him or his siblings, over his birth father. When he returns and either merges/rejoins with Marika, his loyalty to the Golden Order is so strong that when Marika shattered the Elden Ring, he not only tried to remake it, but actively barred the way to it, and himself/Marika, which made things worse. He's such a loyal follower of the Golden Order that the world itself falling into ruin seems to mean nothing to him.
• Uncertain Doom: It's already vague if his "other self" Marika survives past the Elden Beast's defeat, but it's even less clear if what the Tarnished fights beforehand even is Radagon anymore. He's completely mute, makes no use of any of the Golden Order Fundamentalism Incantations he’s famous for (implying he's lost the faculty to do so), and while he does seem to groan and reach out to something as he's killed, the shadowy smoke holding his body together flows out and turns into the Elden Beast, implying it might have subjected him to a Death of Personality and is now controlling his body from within. Melina refers to the person blocking the Erdtree's entrance (Radagon, as his seal is on the roots) as "a husk of the Erdtree's being", essentially confirming this.
• Undying Loyalty: To the Golden Order, to the point where it's his boss title. He left his wife Rennala when the Order (i.e. Marika) commanded him, she calls him a "leal hound" (Ye Olde Butcherede English for "loyal dog") of the Golden Order, and his seal blocks anyone from replacing the Golden Order... and fixing the Elden Ring, but details.
• The Un-Favourite: An Inverted Trope. None of his children from Rennala seem to think too highly of him, probably due to the circumstances of his divorce with their mother, Queen Rennala. While Radahn does respect him (the name of the Redmane Knights and his red plumed helmet are out of respect for Radagon), Radahn idolizes Godfrey more; Ranni is very close with Rennala but has nothing to say, positive or negative, about her father. Rykard's opinion of Radagon as an individual is more obscure, but he clearly thinks little of the Golden Order Radagon dedicated himself to.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: Well, enemy-exclusive spells, but he's notably one of the few magical-focused bosses who has several spells you just cannot use either through spell scrolls or weapon abilities. These include:
  • A holy-version of Lightning Bolt that sticks to the ground and explodes.
  • A point-blank shotgun blast of holy bolts (essentially a holy version of Crystal Burst)
  • A spell that has him stab the ground with a holy spear, creating a lingering circular area that deals damage if you step in it.
• The Voiceless: Unlike every other demigod boss, who usually proudly introduces themselves to the player before giving them a beatdown, Radagon doesn't speak a word, just like Marika. It's implied this is because he's practically long dead, and the Radagon we see is simply a zombified corpse being puppetted by the Elden Beast/Greater Will.
• Walking Spoiler: Not so much for his existence as much as it is for what happened to him after the Shattering. Additionally, his Ambiguous Situation involving his status as Queen Marika's half casts a large shadow on the truth behind the Shattering.
• Warrior vs. Sorcerer: Radagon is the warrior to Marika's sorcerer. His soreseal boosts vigor, endurance, strength, and dexterity, while Marika's boosts mind, intelligence, faith, and arcane. While Marika was much more powerful than him regardless of their specialties due to being the bearer of the Elden Ring while he was not before the Shattering, it should be noted that when the Elden Ring (in the form of the Beast) had a choice about which one to possess for straight physical combat with the Tarnished, it chooses Radagon's masculine body over Marika's feminine one.
• Worf Had the Flu: Though Radagon's body being fused with his god-half Marika and infused with the Elden Ring (the same one the Elden Beast pops out of when he dies) would logically make him more powerful than he ever was before, the fact the Elden Ring itself has been Shattered long ago means he still isn't as powerful as he would have been if the Ring was intact; his body is literally breaking apart as a visual reminder of this. In addition, the fact he is not using any known incantation he is supposed to be a master of (Golden Order and possibly also Erdtree incantations) suggests Radagon might not be all there, if he is even alive at all.

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