Main Characters | Roundtable Hold | Secondary Characters (Renowned Ashes) | Outer Gods | Demigods (Godfrey's Lineage | Radagon's Lineage (Malenia)) | Enemies and Bosses (Dragons | Liurnia of the Lakes | Recurring Enemies and Bosses | Tarnished Invaders and Targets)
This page details the demigods who rule over the Lands Between.
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In General
- Abusive Parents: To varying degrees, their parentage have been rather poor. Rennala appears to have been a decent parent to Ranni, Rykard, and Radahn but is currently completely mentally checked out and absent from their lives. Godfrey is somewhere in the middle, showing some concern for his son, but otherwise appears to have gone along with Marika, who is undoubtedly the worst, showing little concern over the potential deaths of most of her children in what little dialogue we have from her, with the exception of Miquella, who's disappearance is stated to have greatly upset her. Radagon's relationship to his children is mostly unknown, with the exception of Miquella, who he's stated to have a fair amount of affection towards.
- Alliterative Family: The demigods all have names that denote their heritage:
- Godfrey's descendants with Marika, known as the Golden Lineage, have names starting with G: Godwyn, Godrick, and Godefroy.
- Radagon and Rennala's children are Radahn, Ranni, and Rykard.
- Both pairs of twins born from Marika have M names instead: twin prodigies Miquella & Malenia; the Fell Twins Morgott & Mohg. This naming convention also applies to Marika's so-called half-brother Maliketh, and Malenia's daughters — Millicent in particular.
- On a meta-level, the gods and demigods all have names starting from the initials of George R. R. Martin, who created a huge amount of the lore.
- Always a Bigger Fish: All the demigods fear their uncle Maliketh, Marika's half-brother, the current holder of Destined Death and the only one with the undisputable power to slay them all.
- The Archmage: More than a few of them are undisputed masters of magic, be it the intelligence-scaling sorceries or the faith-scaling incantations.
- Those with relations to Queen Rennala, who was the most powerful sorceress in her prime, are all extremely potent sorcerers. Her husband Radagon created at least one incantation in the Golden Order Fundamentalism (which utilizes intelligence in addition to faith), and her children Rykard, Ranni, and Radahn, are all skilled in different categories of sorcery, with Radahn in particular being a Magic Knight on top of being a prodigious sorcerer.
- Mohg is supremely talented in blood and bloodflame incantation, to the extent that with the sole exception of the two Aberrant sorceries and the Seppuku Ash of War, he is directly responsible for every form of blood magic that can be found in the Lands Between, and uses many in his boss fight.note His affinity for the art comes from the bargain he's made with an Outer God.
- Miquella, Marika's son through Radagon, also counts. He was a master of Golden Order Fundamentalism even as a child, to the point where he and Radagon would exchange Golden Order incantations as gifts (Miquella creating the Discus of Light and Triple Rings of Light). When the Golden Order proved unable to cure Malenia's Scarlet Rot, he abandoned it to invent Unalloyed Gold, which did succeed to an extent (Malenia's prosthetics are made of the substance), is behind the Bewitching Branches (which Miquella invented as an extension of his naturally charming personality), and his Unalloyed Gold is powerful enough to even affect the game's endings, as his needle can purge the Frenzied Flame. He was also able to create an alternate Erdtree in the Haligtree.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Hoo boy. Considering George R. R. Martin was behind their conception, it shouldn't be surprising, but with winners such as Classical Mythology and Norse Mythology being stated inspirations, it's no surprise the Demigods are a supremely fucked-up family unit. Even before the world went to hell, almost everyone competed with each other for attention and patronage of their parents, with endless infighting and abandonment. And then there's Mohg, who lusted after his half-brother Miquella (who had the body of a child), and Ranni, who conspired to usurp the throne even before Marika vanished. Then the Shattering happened, alongside the disappearance of their mother, which didn't unite them. Instead, most of them claimed shards of the Elden Ring and started openly warring with each other to become the next Elden Lord.
- Cain and Abel: With the exception of Godrick who's implied to be one of Godwyn's children or grandchildren,note they are all full siblings, half-siblings, or step-siblings who have clashed for years in the Shattering ever since their mother's disappearance, and want to kill each other. Particular focus is given to the feud between Radahn and Malenia, who not only clashed personally on the battlefield due to their ambitions but said rivalry unleashed the Scarlet Rot. The only one who stayed out of the conflict was Ranni, but even then she played no small part in the events leading to the Shattering and is merely quietly biding her time until the opportunity comes for her to seize the throne.
- On the other hand, fractious family dynamics only appears to be between half- and step- siblings. Between the full-blooded siblings, Miquella and Malenia were inseperable, Ranni, Rykard, and Radahn displayed no hostilities towards each other and maintain neutral relations through their subordinates note , and Morgott respects Mohg enough not to label him as a traitor and cooperate in preventing anyone from reaching the Three Fingers.
- Color-Coded Armies: Each of the major Demigods and their armies fly signature colors, which are displayed in the colors of their banners, flags and the surcoats worn by knights and foot soldiers.
- Godrick's army is themed around green.
- The Raya Lucarian army is themed around blue.
- Radahn's army is themed around red.
- Morgott's army is themed around gold/white, likely to signify their proximity to the Erdtree. This is enhanced by the gold-colored incantations many of them use.
- Rykard's army, when he still had one, was themed around black.
- Miquella and Malenia's army is themed around either white/gold (Lordsworn) or crimson/gold (Cleanrots), signifying their tie to their own separate Haligtree. Like Morgott's army, they also use gold-colored incantations.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: The Demigods encountered as bosses are comparable to the Lords of Dark Souls, the Bearers of the Great Souls in Dark Souls II, and the Lords of Cinders of Dark Souls III in their role in the story and gameplay; however, none of the Lords and Bearers bar Prince Lothric had any lines of dialogue, leaving their morality, motivations, and sanity open to speculation. Here, only Radahn has no lines, due to having completely lost his mind from the Scarlet Rot, and even he gets his situation spelled out by a third party in a cutscene. Their much clearer motivations makes them much more easily judged, in one way or another.
- Deity of Human Origin: Both Marika and Elden Lords are described along these lines; the mortal bearer of the Elden Ring is considered a full-on god, while her consorts become immortal Lords and demigods via Super-Empowering. To a lesser extent, Radagon's children with Rennala were when he was still human, but Rykard, Ranni, and Radahn were elevated to Demigod status when their father became Elden Lord. Or at least that's the official story. As Radagon is Marika's other half, they might have been demigods all along and the "elevation" was merely ceremonial.
- Divine Parentage: They are all descended to varying degrees from Queen Marika, the Top God of the Lands Between. Unusually, being related by blood seems to be more or less optional, and it's enough to have some familial relationship to the queen. Marika's stepchildren from Radagon's first marriage are also considered demigods. Because technically speaking, Radagon IS Marika.
- Divine Parental Issues: Their mother is the God-Queen Marika, and the fact that none of them even speak of their relationship to her speaks rather poorly to the family idyll.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: The twin prodigies Miquella and Malenia were cursed from birth with horrific afflictions because they are born from the same god using two bodies to conceive them. In spite of this:
- Malenia managed to become the World's Best Warrior even after the Scarlet Rot rendered her a blind triple amputee while constantly eating away at her mind, and earned the ironclad loyalty of a large army of noble powerful warriors who she led on a semi-successful cross-continental conquest. She managed to inspire such loyalty in spite of the fact that prolonged contact with her literally killed them, something they were fully aware of.
- Miquella, while never able to reach his true godly power due to being cursed with eternal childhood, built up an entire kingdom of outcasts essentially from scratch, inspired undying loyalty in his subjects, could potentially replace the Erdtree, and figured out how to halt Scarlet Rot progression on someone — which means repelling the influence of an Outer God — and mass-produce the crafts which would allow him to do so on a large scale (Unalloyed Gold series, gifted to all his soldiers).
- Seeing how close they came to success as-is, if the twins hadn't been so terribly screwed over by the cosmic order, they likely would have had no trouble in solving the plot: Malenia would be even stronger and more magnetic and Miquella's powers might have been fully expressed as a true god.
- Elemental Motifs: Most of them are heavily associated with one or two elements that permeates their respective environments and combat movesets: Godrick has wind, Ranni has ice and moonlight, Radahn has gravity, Rykard has lava, Morgott and Radagon share golden light, Mohg has blood, Godwyn has lightning and later became associated with the deep sea as Prince of Death, Miquella has plant life, and Malenia has the Scarlet Rot.
- Freudian Excuse: Most of them have this to varying degrees, ranging from entirely sympathetic to Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse. Given the implication that Marika only had children because she wanted someone who could kill the Elden Beast as part of her rebellion against the Greater Will, their endless feuding can also in part be blamed on Marika's less-than-stellar parenting.
- Hates Their Parent: Implied with Ranni, Radahn, and Rykard, the biological children of Queen Rennala. Their birth father is Radagon, but their familial relationship with him is next to nil — Ranni loved her birth mother and stepmother more, Radahn idolized someone else (which is Godfrey) over his birth father, and Rykard hated the Golden Order Fundamentalism that Radagon was loyal to. This might stem from how Radagon essentially abandoned Rennala and left her nothing but his wolf and a Great Rune, directly contributing to Rennala's fall into insanity.
- Heroic Build: Radagon, Malenia, and Godwyn all have idealized, athletic, muscular builds. Godfrey is considerably bulkier than them, but otherwise fits the trope. The portraits of Radahn in the intro and in Rykard's manor imply he was also built like this, but by the time he dueled Malenia, his proportions had become too inhuman and unnatural to really qualify. Mohg and Morgott are also very muscular underneath their robes, but their Omen curse gives them almost apelike proportions.
- Immune to Mind Control: Not totally immune, but very highly resistant. Seluvis specializes in making magical droughts which turn people into mindless puppets that must obey his commands, and they're shown to work on superhuman warriors, powerful sorcerers, and the Humanoid Abomination that is the Dung Eater. They do not, however, work on demigods, which is why he asks you to retrieve the Amber Starlight item (which can control a demigod's very fate) so he can make a special one that can, though you never find out if it'll actually work because Ranni already has his number and won't take the potion. Like most bosses, all the demigods are also immune to the Bewitching Branch item which can turn normal enemies non-hostile (even disembodied spirits aren't immune, by contrast).
- Jerkass Gods: On a spectrum. Godwyn and Miquella were the closest to white morality, being beloved by all who knew them and never doing anything questionable we know of. The grayer ones (Morgott, Radahn, Malenia, Ranni, Godfrey, possibly Radagon if he still has free will when trying to prevent the Tarnished from mending the Ring) are Well-Intentioned Extremist types with many noble attributes who nonetheless still cause tons of collateral damage in pursuit of their goals. Finally the morally black ones are purely power-hungry butchers with no higher goal than personal gain, and are completely unapologetic about it (Godrick, Rykard, Mohg).
- Large and in Charge: In Soulsborne tradition, the demigods tend to be huge. The exceptions were Miquella, who was cursed with the body of a child, and Melina, who's full grown but the size of a normal woman. The rest mostly vary from 8 to 14 feet tall. Radagon and Marika are right in
◊ the middle of that range◊ at 9'8 and 9'5 respectively. Radahn is a big outlier at 27 feet, but he wasn't always that big and his gigantism is accompanied by several other odd features like grey skin and thoroughly inhuman proportions, so he likely was around his mom and dad's height before his unknown transformation. - No Name Given: The ones depicted on the page, barring Godefroy and Godrick, are the Queen's own children (however, the ones entombed in the Walking Mausoleums are heavily implied to also be Marika's children); there was said to also be a very large number of lesser Demigods (the children, grandchildren, and descendants of the main grouping), the majority of which were killed in the Night of the Black Knives or in the subsequent Shattering, with their bodies being housed in the Walking Mausoleums the player stumbles across. It's also possible that some of these lesser Demigods fell victim to the Godskin Cultists. The descriptions of the items that drop off of Grafted Scions also imply that they're (very) distant descendants of the Golden Lineage.
- Only One Name: The family doesn't appear to use last names in any fashion, the closest being their epithets (Godrick's former title of "the Golden" seems to be shared with Godwyn for being one of his descendants). Only Godfrey somewhat breaks the pattern (having once been known as Hoarah Loux), and even then he cast the title aside upon becoming Marika's consort.
- The Paragon Always Rebels: The three Empyreans were selected to succeed Marika by the Two Fingers owing to their virtue and potential. However, all of them went on to oppose the Golden Order for ideological reasons during the Shattering: Malenia and Miquella focused their efforts on growing the Haligtree to replace the current Erdtree, while Ranni was involved with the Night of the Black Knives which kickstarted the whole conflict. Ironically, it was the shunned and abused Morgott who ended up as the Golden Order's only true champion.
- Personality Powers: According to the description of Mohg's Great Rune, the demigods' Great Runes reflect their owners, and are influenced by them.
- Godrick's Great Rune is said to be the anchor rune found in the center of the Elden Ring, with the other runes branching off it. He presumably inherited it from Godwyn, who was The Heart of the Leyndell faction, and whose death was one of the major factors leading to the civil war. In Godrick's hands it's more representative of his hobby of literally grafting other peoples' body parts on to himself; you can even see the points on the sides of the Great Rune where the others would fit. Appropriately it boosts every stat equally.
- Radahn's Great Rune by the time you find it is rotting and set alight to resist the encroachment of decay, reflecting Radahn's war-hungry Hot-Blooded warrior persona and raw physical might (and, incidentally, the fact that his soldiers' main magical damage element is fire, though Radahn himself only uses fire for one move in-game). It boosts health and FP.
- Rykard's Great Rune looks like a non-rotted version of his brother Radahn's, except the lefthand part is coiled like a snake and partly blue, representing his rebellion against the Erdtree (the same part of Golden Order loyalist Radahn's rune is straight and gold), his scheming, ruthless, deceptive, serpentine demeanor, and the fact that he's literally a snake by the time you get it. It lets you replenish health after every kill, in reference to Rykard's own plan to grow stronger by literally devouring other people, both enemies and allies. His sword has the same effect.
- Morgott's Great Rune is said to be another anchor rune (and glows bright gold unlike the other ones), except at the base of the Elden Ring instead of the center; it's also said to prove irrefutably that Morgott is both King of Leyndell and a member of the Golden Lineage. Morgott is defined by stasis, wanting to keep everything in place and trying in vain to hold the Golden Order together as its era comes to an end. To this end he zealously defended the capital, the base of the Erdtree, from all contenders. His rune boosts health alone.
- Malenia's Great Rune is half-rotted with what looks like mold growing on it, but the description says that without the rot, it actually would've been the most sacred rune of them all. The parallel here is pretty obvious. Effects-wise it's unique in that the flavor text actually says that the rune itself grants no power, rather it's a nerf that degrades healing ability (the only Great Rune in the entire game with a negative effect); the positive effect it grants is instead said to be due to "the infusion of Malenia's spirit of resistance." It lets you regain health by landing hits on enemies in specific time increments.
- Mohg's Great Rune resembles his brother Morgott's in shape, but his corruptive influence has made it appear like a ring of cursed blood instead of a golden anchor (it actually resembles the Eye of Sauron, the symbol of another setting's Satanic Archetype). Uniquely it doesn't boost the player themselves, but rather grants Phantom Great Runes to boost enemies during invasions. Mohg himself is heavily associated with ghosts, teleportation, and spectres both literally (spawning an apparition in Leyndell's sewers, giving his Pureblood Knights a teleporting medal, teleporting in from a pool of blood in his opening cutscene, his Sanguine Nobles doing the same whenever they enter combat) and thematically (as a mysterious hidden figure whose name Gideon doesn't even know), and differs from his Warrior Prince siblings and parents by mostly sitting out the Shattering and just sending minions in his stead. Plus, he's either the one who invented the invasion mechanic, or at very least the one who makes the most use out of it (the Recusants have their own invasion item, but they may have copied the idea from Mohg, and unrelated invaders might just be using Festering Bloody Fingers).
- Physical God: All of them are worshiped as gods and possess powers varying from straightforward to esoteric, and don't seem to be affected by things like hunger, non-supernatural disease or natural causes of death, but it's made clear they are still flesh and blood and can be killed.
- Plant People: They're mostly (extremely tall and powerful) humans, but some also display plant-like attributes to emphasize their connections to the Erdtree. Godrick, Godefroy, and presumably the others are capable of grafting body parts on themselves like plants, and in cut dialogue Godrick even explicitly compares it to grafting branches to a tree. Godwyn turns into a Botanical Abomination upon death that has branches growing out of it. Miquella embeds himself in the Haligtree to grow it, and in the process seems to grow a new body within it made of its wood. Malenia turns into a flower after she "dies" while awaiting resurrection at the end of her boss fight, and she can spawn clone-children from buds that can do the same (Millicent even speculates that she's an "offshoot" of Malenia; aside from the obvious meaning that she was part of Malenia and now separate, it could also be a reference to offshoots of a plant). After Marika shatters the Elden Ring, Radagon's body seems to transform from human-like flesh to petrified wood, with golden amber visible in his body in the place of blood (he also takes extra damage from fire).
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: As living, breathing gods, it should come as no shock that the demigods are all the most capable fighters in the factions they head.
- Semi-Divine: As they're demigods, they all have at least one mortal parent, and are related to Marika in some way. This ranges from being her direct offspring to distant descendants, to even stepchildren. However, the direct sons and daughters of Marika are all technically fully divine as the Elden Lord is a Deity of Human Origin (as was Marika herself), just one who used to be mortal. As in many Japanese works, godhood is more of a job and status than something inherent.
- Shared Family Quirks:
- All of them except Malenia, Mohg, Rykard, and Radahn speak in Flowery Elizabethan English.
- Malenia and Radahn and Ranni, before she killed herself and discarded her original body inherited Radagon's red hair and fighting skills. Meanwhile, Godwyn and Miquella share their hair color with their mother, while Morgott shares his hair color with his father, Godfrey.
- Skippable Boss: In order to access the city of Leyndell, you need two Great Runes, meaning you have to defeat any two of Godrick, Renalla, Radahn, Rykard, or Mohg (if you happen to feel like torturing yourself by going up against a Superboss in early to mid game). That said, Rennala provides access to the respec mechanic, while Radahn is important to unlocking Nokron, the Eternal City, which is mandatory for the "Age of the Stars" route.
- Summon Bigger Fish: A few of them deal with esoteric forces such as Outer Gods to achieve their goals without the Greater Will's backing, as their demi divinity is not enough to oppose the Erdtree.
- Ranni was taught by the Snow Witch and chose the Dark Moon as a hands off sponsor as she disagrees with the Greater Will and the Two Fingers' dogma. She's one of only two characters in the game that has a Full Moon spell associated with her (the other being her mom).
- Malenia was chosen by the Scarlet Rot and her blooming in Caelid helped its followers into finding a new messiah. She is not happy about that turn of events.
- Mohg is an Unwitting Pawn to the Formless Mother and introduced Blood Magic in the Lands Between to bolster his Bloody Fingers and acolytes into dangerous maniacs.
- Rykard got himself swallowed by a Great Serpent that dreams of devouring the world.
- Radahn learned gravity magic from Alabaster Lords, an alien race, for his war against the stars. Gravity magic itself draws its power entirely from glintstone (being a subset of glintstone sorcery), which Sellen calls "the vitality of the stars".
- Malenia has a downplayed variant; her association with the Scarlet Rot is entirely unwilling on her part and she has abandoned her position as Goddess of Rot, but she'll still draw on it to power her second phase once you've backed her into a corner.
- Super-Empowering: All of the Demigods who participated in the Shattering claimed a fragment of the Elden Ring itself as Great Runes at one point or another, adding to their abilities. If the Runes' (far lesser) effect on the Tarnished is accurate, some of them gave the demigods special abilities but otherwise kept them physically normal (Rykard gaining strength from eating people, Mohg calling upon and empowering phantoms, Rennala's Perfect Rebirth), while others simply provided big all-around boosts to physical ability (Godrick's moderate boosts to every stat, Morgott's percent-based increase to Vigor, and Radahn's percent-based increase to Vigor and Endurance).
- Superpower Lottery: All of them have Super-Strength and Super-Toughness rivaling the strongest beings in the setting (even Morgott, in his held-back form as Margit, can shatter stone structures with his blows and leap hundreds of feet into the air despite probably massing more than a ton) at minimum, plus an assortment of magical powers and more esoteric abilities, including:
- Godrick and Godefroy can make themselves stronger by grafting other beings' parts to their bodies, somehow letting those appendages act as if they were still attached to their original owners. They also use the wind-based magic abilities common to the knights of Stormveil, with which they can launch themselves through the air, generate small cyclones around their bodies, and throw powerful air-based projectiles.
- Ranni can recreate a simile of her mother Rennala's magic prowess, including powerful moon lasers, homing glinstone missile spam, and brief spirit summons of a dragon and an oath bound giant. Beyond that, she supposedly has a vast array of frost magic spells at her disposal, but she never manifests any of it, and, save when she is acting in Rennala's stead, the only magic Ranni is shown using is instantly killing the player if they attempt to betray her on Seluvis's behalf.
- Radahn's gravity magic mostly manifests as powerful telekinesis and effective flight which he uses to augment his physical strength.
- Rykard can channel lava, magma, and other fire-based spells to great effect. After merging with the God-Devouring Serpent, he's also got all of its abilities, including poison, and some degree of immortality.
- Morgott can generate Hard Light weapons and energy blasts, throw up large barriers via seal spells, and project himself through a host body to exert a certain percentage of his original power in projection form, even from the other side of the Lands Between. Unleashing his cursed blood also gives him bloodflame-based moves like his brother.
- Mohg can spawn and manipulate bloodflames, fly, drain life force of others to himself via a curse, take the form of blood, corrupt and mutate people into his minions, and create lifelike physical projections of himself from great distances away, though they are considerably weaker than himself.
- Malenia, on top of generally being extremely strong and fast even by godly standards, is a Walking Wasteland as she was chosen by the Scarlet Rot, a permanent toxin that can rapidly kill most anything infected by it and mutate anything that survives, turning them into twisted, crazed beasts. She also has some measure of Resurrective Immortality, judging by how she was able to recuperate after 'blooming' against Radahn and enters a similar state during and after her boss battle.
- Miquella can compel the affection of others (though he doesn't always have to do so to keep the loyalty of his subjects), has the ability to influence the growth of plants (or at least his own Haligtree), and possesses a prodigious affinity for holy magic.
- Systematic Villain Takedown: Though not all are strictly required to be defeated, at least two demigods must be defeated to restore the Elden Ring, as you need two Great Runes to get into Leyndell (one can be claimed from Renalla, who isn't a demigod), and in Leyndell you have to defeat Morgott to progress to the Mountaintops of the Giants.
- On a meta level, the demigods and their parents all seem to have initials of either G, R, or M. Organize at least four of them in a certain way, and you get GRRM... which is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek meta reason for why everything is messed up. This pattern is better observed with their parents, however (Godfrey, Radagon, Rennala, Marika). That said, Martin himself finally mentioned it was purely coincidental.
- Those with the letter M tend to have something gone wrong for them, whether it is Morgott and his brother Mohg, who were born Omens and were thus scorned for it, or Malenia and Miquella, where the former suffered from a highly debilitating disease and having been chosen to be an avatar for the Scarlet Rot, the manifestation of an outer god, from birth, the latter suffered from permanent youth. The two pairs are also twins of each other. Mohg, however, is the only one who is an utter monster in both appearance and personality: Morgott is actually a genuinely noble-hearted and loyal, if very bitter man, Miquella is explicitly a messiah for the downtrodden, and Malenia is a noble warrior who understands the value of mercy and commands loyalty from her allies and whose most acutely destructive act, the blighting of Caelid, was unintentional.
- Those with the letter R tend to be associated with the supernatural, magic, and transformation. Owing to their heritage as children of Radagon (a god and the male half of Marika) and Queen Rennala, Rykard, Radahn, and Ranni are all powerful magic users, with Radahn being a supreme fighter and general on top of it. Of the three, however, Rykard and Radahn became Fallen Heroes who were corrupted into monsters, whereas Ranni lost her original body and ended up in a puppet created in the likeliness of her mentor, Renna. Rennala underwent a transformation on a mental scale after undergoing a Trauma Conga Line, turning her from a regal Queen and the mightiest sorceress she was in her prime to an addled woman barely aware of her surroundings. As for Radagon, it's implied either he and Marika were once the same being but split apart or had undergone some kind of Fusion Dance ritual.
- While this is an open-world game, you are almost certain to kill the demigods in a certain order due to their strength level and ease of reach. The first will be the incredibly weak Godrick, then you will fight, Ranni(pretending to be Rennala), then Radahn and finally Rykard. Then you will head for the capital and take on Morgott, afterwhich the easiest to reach and kill is Mohg. Finally you will fight Malenia, who is by far the strongest of the demigods. GRRM, indeed.
- On a meta level, the demigods and their parents all seem to have initials of either G, R, or M. Organize at least four of them in a certain way, and you get GRRM... which is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek meta reason for why everything is messed up. This pattern is better observed with their parents, however (Godfrey, Radagon, Rennala, Marika). That said, Martin himself finally mentioned it was purely coincidental
- Thicker Than Water: Despite their constrasting goals, schemes, and military maneuvers, the members of the Godly family universally make exceptions to their aggression when dealing with their full-blooded siblings. This is probably due to their shared upbringing and adversities: Mohg and Morgott were effectively isolated and abused from the rest of their family and had to rely on each other surviving in the sewers, the children of Radagon and Rennala went through their father's messy departure and their mother's subsequent despair, and Miquella and Malenia were both cursed in such a way that Miquella's genius was Malenia's main source of support against the Rot, and Malenia's unmatched combat prowess made up for Miquella's childish frame and physical weakness.
- Tiny-Headed Behemoth: While it's by far the most noticeable in the case of Radahn, close inspection reveals that all of the demigods have small heads in proportion to the rest of their bodies.
- Truly Single Parent: Seemingly a common ability of the Empyreans. The Gloam-Eyed Queen was implied to have birthed all of the Godskins alone (at least, no father is ever mentioned or alluded to). Malenia spawned at least five daughters after "blooming" in Caelid. Miquella is said by Mohg to be able to sire a dynasty with him despite both being male, meaning Miquella would have to do it alone. And Marika created Malenia, Miquella, and likely Melina through unknown means with Radagon, who is actually an aspect of herself that shares the same body. Though as the children of Godfrey and Rennala show, Empyreans are also capable of reproducing the normal way with humans. This might be a godly ability in general too, as the God-Devouring Serpent that Rykard fused with (referred to as a deity in some item descriptions) also spawned Man-Serpents alone, and the Elden Beast (called a god in its defeat message) is basically the consciousness of the Elden Ring, and thus the origin of life in the setting.
- Unknown Character: There are, or were, far more demigods than the ones the story explores, with at least 9 and most likely more known to exist:
- There are 7 Wandering Mausoleums, each housing a soul-killed demigod. One of these, in the Weeping Peninsula, might be Messmer, but this is unconfirmed.
- Enia says that she's seen two Great Runes together once before you, meaning that a Tarnished killed two demigods. Since she doesn't say this after your first Great Rune, this implies that multiple Tarnished were able to get one Great Rune, but only you and one other Tarnished have actually claimed two.
- Vyke, Bernahl, and Gideon are implied, with varying levels of strength, to have killed at least one demigod; Enia's comment about two great runes together compares you to Gideon (who also notably won't respect the player until they've earned their first Great Rune, implying that doing so puts you on the same level as him), Vyke was said to be the closest Tarnished to obtaining Lordship (and can be found in the Mountaintops of the Giants, which require getting two Great Runes and going through Leyndell for the player to reach), and Bernahl got close enough to lordship to see his maiden try to sacrifice herself to the Forge of the Giants. Any one of these three could be the other Tarnished with two Great Runes that Enia mentions.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Unusually, the player can never get access to any of the Holy incantations that Morgott (weapon conjuring) and Radagon (holy spears) use. Radagon's 'Elden Shattering' attack (the one where he combos three hammer hits into an AOE that looks like the Elden Ring) is also unavailable; the Ash of War on his hammer is Gold Breaker.
- Warrior Prince: With the exception of Miquella, the demigods are all both royalty and potent combatants who led armies during wars.
Major Demigods
Godfrey's Lineage
For Demigods belonging to Godfrey's Lineage, visit here.Radagon's Lineage
For Demigods belonging to Radagon's Lineage, visit here.???
Messmer the Impaler
- Ambiguously Related:
- It's clear he's related to the royal families of the Lands Between, but where and how he falls into them is currently unclear. In an interview with Miyazaki, he states Messmer is a "child of Marika", and his red hair implies he's from her marriage with Radagon, though given that they're the same person and most of Radagon's kids with Rennala have his red hair, it's entirely possible he's a Bastard Bastard.
- Possibly also to the Cleanrot Knights. As this post points out, his overall posture, the appearance of his helmet, and some of his attacks, bear a striking similarity to them, implying they might share some possible connection.
- And while we're speculating, the Drake Knights. His armor bears a certain resemblance to the Drake Knight set, and his eye seems to indicate he's partaken in Dragon Communion.
- Ascended Extra: He seems to be the nameless "unwanted child" of Marika mentioned once by a ghost in the Weeping Peninsula.
- Destroyer Deity: Possibly, as he wields flames; in the lore of Elden Ring, fire of any kind is anathema to the Golden Order and universally a force of indiscriminate destruction, and a tweet states that "those stripped of gold will meet death by Messmer's flames", implying that he might've initially had a role within Marika's empire of eliminating threats from those who the Golden Order had spurned.
- Expy: Given George R. R. Martin's love of historical references, it's easy to see him as one to Vlad the Impaler. Aside from the obvious bit that they have the same epithet, both Messmer and Vlad had notable draconic motifs, with 'Dracula' meaning 'son of the dragon', because Vlad's father was called Vlad Dracul. For his own part, Messmer's helm is shaped to look like a dragon head, he has Dragon Communion eyes, his snake has dragon wings, and his armor bears a startling resemblance to the Drake Knight set.
- Facial Markings: It's rather hard to see, but Messmer has the same claw-like symbol over one permanently shut eye as Melina (and Ranni, who has it on the opposite eye).
- Fantastic Racism: A line in the trailer indicates he doesn't have a particularly high opinion of those who don't have the Grace of Gold, Tarnished or otherwise:"Mother, wouldst thou truly Lordship sanction, in one so bereft of light?"
- Fiery Redhead: Has red hair and an evident reputation for brutality in war.
- Hates Their Parent: Seems to not like Marika all that much, since the trailer shows a (blurry and small, admittedly) picture of a statue of Marika in what seems to be his palace, but it's headless. Of course, given that this is Marika we're talking about and none of her kids have any real bond with her (except maybe Miquella & Godwyn), it's not surprising and it's hard to blame him.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The basis of his epithet.
- Lean and Mean: He has incredibly lanky body proportions, with very long and skinny arms and legs, and what we know of him so far points at him being an ominous and antagonistic figure.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: People generally don't get called 'Impaler' for being kind or merciful. Messmer is also one letter off from "messer", the German word for knife.
- Obviously Evil: His character design is essentially a checklist of everything the player has been warned is evil or at least bad news:
- He has Radagon's cherry-red hair, which lore says is associated with Fire Giants and gameplay has associated with three very tough boss fights (Radahn, Radagon, Malenia).
- He has what looks like a two-headed snake coiled around him. The lore of the Duelist armor says that snakes are considered "traitors to the Erdtree", and in-game snakes are associated with Volcano Manor and Rykard.
- His good eye is bright yellow with a slitted pupil, looking remarkably like the player's eyes if they perform Dragon Communion. Dragon Communion is, in lore, a terrible deed that inevitably (for everyone but the player) results in going mad with power and turning into a Magma Wyrm.
- He wields Red and Black and Evil All Over fire magic. Fire of any source is considered forbidden at best and downright evil at worst, with its main-game sources being primarily Destined Death, the Fell God, and the Frenzied Flame. That being said, his flames don't particularly resemble any of these (they aren't the black with white/red trim of Blackflame/Destined Death, the natural-looking flames of the Fell God, or the searingly yellow with orange trim of the Frenzied Flame) and instead look a good deal like a combination of the aura around Dragon Communion spells and the "blood star" Aberrant sorceries discovered by the guilty and hated by Raya Lucaria.
- His epithet is 'the Impaler', which in the real world is famously refers to a certain nobleman known for his terror tactics and extreme bloodthirstiness.
- Playing with Fire: He's shown using black-and-red fire magic, referred to only as "Messmer's Flame", against the Tarnished in the trailer.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: His fire spells have a hellish red mixed with deep black color scheme.
- Saved for the Sequel: Saved For The DLC in his case. Messmer is one of the demigods created by George R. R. Martin, but for whom the developers were unable to find a place in the game (aside from a few sneaky references, such as the Impaler's Catacombs). So instead, they put him in the DLC.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Has what appears to be a snake familiar coiled around him. Curious, given that snakes are regarded as "traitors to the Erdtree" and the only other snake-associated character is Rykard.
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: The gameplay reveal trailer has him show off a move where he stabs his spear into the ground and a mass of black copies erupt from the ground around him to skewer the player.
- The Unfavorite: Assuming he's Marika's "unwanted child" mentioned by the ghost. Not that this means much when Marika is his mother.
- Unperson: Is never explicitly mentioned in the base game, and the only potential implication of him is his epithet "The Impaler" being the same as the Impaler's Catacombs on the Weeping Peninsula, where a ghost exposits about an unwanted child of Marika. Miyazaki asserts that no new lore was created for the DLC by George Martin or anyone else and it merely reuses left-out aspects of the initial founding mythology they had to leave out of the base game, with a likely in-universe explanation being that Marika has covered up much of Messmer's existence, given that he is mentioned as being involved with a "unsung" battle and is festooned with snake-iconography, a symbol of treason that the people of the Lands Between grew to enjoy seeing subjected to violence.
- Weapon Specialization: Spears; in case his title wasn't enough of a clue, his weapon of choice is an ornate spear that is longer than even his lanky frame is tall, and can summon spectral versions of it as an AOE attack.
