At first glance, Marika appears to be a loved and benevolent queen, protecting the people of The Lands Between before losing herself to grief from Godwyn’s death. This perspective slowly changes as players progress throughElden Ring, uncovering atrocities beyond reason and mountains of corpses that she left in her wake. She did it all in the name of herGolden Order.
Several acts are also revealed in theShadow of the ErdreeDLC, showcasing the extent of Marika’s hatred for her enemies and how far she goes to suppress her misdeeds. It also hints at why she turned out the way she did. By the time the Tarnished reaches her, she is a prisoner in the Erdtree, broken by the events that led to that point. This leads players to wonder: was it all worth it in the end?
10Ascending To Godhood
Usurping The Throne To Establish A Cruel Order
The truth about Marika’s rise to power remains shrouded in mystery. It is said that theGloam-Eyed Queenwas a fellow Empyrean guided by her own Two Fingers. As leader of the Godskins, she channeled the power of the Rune of Death through Black Flame incantations. Marika sent her shadow, Maliketh, to defeat her, an event which allowed her to form the Golden Order.
The death rune was plucked from the Elden Ring and sealed away, allowing Marika’s children and those blessed with the Grace of Gold to live eternally. This Order was meant to be perfect. It replaced the previous age’s rules and excluded everything and everyone that didn’t fit Marika’s vision.
9Leaving Messmer Behind
Abandoning Her Oldest Son In The Shadow Lands
Messmer was cursed by the Abyssal Serpent, which some believe is connected to an outer god. Marika replaced his eye with a magical Soreseal to quell the Serpent’s influence, but she couldn’t stop it, as seen by the snakes emerging from his body. His iconic flame may also be a part of this curse, or a separate curse entirely.
Marika saw her son as a fierce combatant, making him a symbol of terror to the Hornsent and likely the Giants as well. She used him to wage war, but when she cast a shroud over the Shadow Lands, she cast it over her firstborn son. He had no way of coming home, and his curse festered behind his golden eye. When fighting the Tarnished, Messmer shattered the Soreseal and gave in to the serpent’s power. Upon death, he cursed his mother’s name.
8Banishing Godfrey and the Tarnished
Stripping Them Of Grace And Sending Them To Die
Marika routinely exploited the people closest to her, only to cast them aside later. This is no different for Godfrey, her first husband, and father to three of her children. Born Hoarah Loux, he was a warrior renowned for his strength. This is likely why Marika selected him as Lord of her new Golden Order. He led many conquests for her, accompanied by his warriors and an order of elite Crucible Knights.
It is said that when his last foe was defeated, the golden hue faded from Godfrey’s eyes. Players learn that Marika stripped the Grace of Gold from Godfrey and his warriors, before exiling them to distant lands to wage war, live, and die as Tarnished. During this time, he returned to his former name, Hoarah Loux, Warrior.
7Bringing the Tarnished Warriors Back
Reviving The Tarnished To Fight Her Children
InElden Ring, the player is a Tarnished, one of Godfrey’s soldiers who was exiled with him. This cruel exile took place to make them deadlier warriors. Marika beckoned her first lord and the Tarnishedback to the Lands Betweento gather the scattered shards of the Elden Ring held by her many children and descendants.
By unleashing the Tarnished upon the Lands Between, Marika essentially signed the death sentence for every one of her children, both of her husbands, her faithful shadow Maliketh, and many others who would dare stand in the player’s way. She provides Grace as guidance, but this may not be enough. The Three Fingers, Ranni, Fia, and others have separate goals that the player can pursue.
6Sending Mohg, Morgott, and the Omen Underground
Leaving Her Children In Leyndell’s Sewers
Mohg, the OmenandMorgott, the Omen Kingwere born Omens, people with horns, tails, and otheraspects of the Crucible. Marika’s Golden Order considered these characteristics unholy and cursed. Most Omens are hunted and killed by Omenkillers, but those born of nobles and royalty are sent to the Subterranean Shunning Grounds below the capital.
For many, this may be a better fate than a life on the run, but living in this sewer system is filled with misery. Fans theorize that Godfrey may have established these Shunning Grounds to prevent Marika from executing or mutilating of his sons.
5Unleashing the Omenkillers
Killing Those Unworthy Of Grace
While some were permitted to live in hiding, most Omens would be hunted and killed at the hands of Marika’s Omenkillers. These twisted warriors wear masks designed toresemble the Omens' nightmaresand wield dual cleavers adorned with the horns of killed Omens. They are infamous for their cruelty.
The overall treatment of Omens in the Golden Order is tragic. Many die young when their horns and tails are cut. Those on the run throughout the Lands Between are sometimes seen trying to sleep through their nightmares. Their mistreatment is likely due to their similarities with the Hornsent, an old enemy of Marika.
4Imprisoning the Nomads
Leaving Them To Die For Their Beliefs
Wandering nomadic merchantsare found dotted around The Lands Between. Players can sometimes hear them playing a sad melody on their violin-like instruments. They were once a unified people known as the Great Caravan, before they were rounded up and left to rot in the Cathedral of the Forsaken, buried even deeper than the Subterranean Shunning Grounds.
With the majority left underground to decay, and the rest cursed to wander forever, these nomads are unfortunate victims of Marika’s intolerant Order. Their crime was worshiping the Three Fingers. While it’s unconfirmed if they were guilty of this beforehand, the imprisoned merchants would eventually call upon the Flame of Frenzied for salvation.
3Shattering the Elden Ring
Inciting Brutal Wars Of Succession
It is believed that Marika shattered the Elden Ring out of grief for her slain son Godwyn, the first of the Demigods to fall. Radagon attempted to repair the fractured Elden Ring and save the Golden Order, but it was too late. With the great runes of the Ring scattered between the Demigods, war for control was inevitable.
Despite sharing one body, Radagon couldn’t prevent Marika from doing what she did. The assassination of her favorite son is the primary cause for this event, but that may be the last in a long line of tragedies in her life, alongside her growing doubts about the Golden Order, the Fingers, andthe Greater Will. The Shattering would subject the Lands Between to corruption and endless war.
2Invading the Fire Giants
Slaying A Rival God, Eradicating The Giants
In her early years as queen, Marika faced many who threatened her rule, including the Giants, whose Flame of Ruin endangered the Erdtree. Traveling to the Mountaintops of the Giants, the player will see the aftermath of a dreadful war, with endless frozen Giant corpses impaled on the trees. Cruelly, Marika left one Giant alive to watch over the Flame of Ruin for eternity.
Little is known about the one-eyedFell Godthat the Giants followed. They are said to reside within each Giant, and the player can see this in the last remaining one, who has a great face with one eye on his torso. Marika’s forces marched into the mountains and destroyed a culture whose only real crime was proximity to the Golden Order.
1Purging the Hornsent
Shrouding Their Home In Shadow
Of all her wrongdoings, this is the closest to being justified. Marika waged war on the Hornsent for terrible crimes against her people. The brutal eradication ofShaman Villagelikely left her as the sole survivor, setting her journey to godhood in motion. She would unleash Messmer on the Hornsent, who would have Marika’s revenge ten times over.
The war would be a purge without honor, with Messmer’s Flame leveling most of the Hornsent’s population. Marika would then use her new strength as a god to place a veil of shadow over the entire region, shrouding it in obscurity, alongside her own son. This purge is the first and undoubtedly the ugliest of all known wars in the name of the Golden Order.
