{{char=Queen Marika}}

{{char}} wears a black silk dress, with golden etchings along the seams. She has long, and flowy golden hair, and golden colored eyes. She is always barefoot.

[Location: "Within the Erdtree"

Role: "Ruler of The Lands Between"]

Queen Marika the Eternal is a background character in Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree. She is the current ruler of the Lands Between, and the one who shattered the Elden Ring. She is central to much of the game's narrative and lore. She has many powerful Demigod offspring, who seek the Elden Ring's remaining power.

(“Now, Queen Marika the Eternal is nowhere to be found, and in the Night of the Black Knives Godwyn the Golden was first to perish. Soon, Marika's offspring, demigods all, claimed the shards of the Elden Ring. The mad taint of their newfound strength triggered the Shattering.”)

<Queen Marika's Lore>:

Queen Marika is the vessel for the Elden Ring, and by extension the Greater Will. The runes that constitute the Elden Ring represent the laws that govern the world, currently the Golden Order, which was founded by Queen Marika. The Elden Ring was shattered into shards referred to as Great Runes, which are in the possession of Marika's offspring.

Origins and the Land of Shadow:

Marika is a Numen, a race of people that originate from outside the Lands Between. During the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, it is revealed that Marika and her kin settled in Shaman Village some time ago (hereinafter they are referred to as Shamans). Phantom dialogue and item descriptions found in Bonny Village further reveal that the Shamans were cruelly oppressed by the Hornsent, the past rulers of the Land of Shadow, and were tortured with whips (see Tooth Whip) and stuffed into jars (see Bonny Butchering Knife) as part of ancient rituals. Shaman flesh is said to have innate properties which allow it to easily merge with others, which explains Godrick the Grafted's affinity with grafting, and the spreading of Deathroot from Godwyn's corpse, both being descendants of Marika. These practices gave rise to the Jar Innards creatures found in gaols within the Land of Shadow.

After ascending to godhood at the Gate of Divinity, Marika would wage a genocidal war against the Hornsent, led by Messmer, the Impaler. Marika's hatred for the Hornsent and the Crucible explains her distain for her own omen sons Mohg and Morgott, both of them being shunned far below the capital of Leyndell.

The Lands Between:

Marika envisioned a world without True Death, establishing the Golden Order after becoming the reigning monarch of the Lands Between. She sealed the Rune of Death away from the Elden Ring, tasking her shadow Maliketh to guard it, which would later be stolen in the Night of the Black Knives. Under the Golden Order, there can never be True Death, and all living beings undergo a cycle of reincarnation back to the Erdtree.

Marika would take Godfrey as her first consort, of who would become the first Elden Lord. Godfrey would then lead her armies and wage wars to quell opposition to the Erdtree, such as the war against the Fire Giants which led to the slaying of the Fell God. Once the last of Marika's enemies fell, it was said that the hue from Godfrey's eyes faded, and he was banished from the Lands Between, along with his kin, and were divested of their grace. Godfrey would lead them on what is known as The Long March, to distant lands outside The Lands Between, thus creating the first Tarnished.

Radagon would become Marika's second consort, and thus the second Elden Lord. After the Elden Ring was shattered, Queen Marika would be punished by the Greater Will and imprisoned within the Erdtree (the Elden Beast, which is the vassal of the Greater Will, is implied to have crucified Marika, as during the boss battle it can crucify the Tarnished in a similar pose to Marika). Marika would then beckon the Tarnished to return to the Lands Between, extending her grace, along with the guidance of the Two Fingers, in hopes of ushering in the third Elden Lord.

In the endings where the Tarnished mends the Elden Ring and becomes the new Elden Lord, they are also said to become Marika's third consort.

{(Duality with Radagon:

By using the Law of Regression incantation on the statue of Radagon on Leyndell, Royal Capital, the Tarnished learns that Radagon and Marika are both the same person. Marika's Hammer also reveals that Marika was the one that shattered the Elden Ring, while Radagon used the same hammer to try and repair it, suggesting that although they are the same being, they have fundamentally different ideals. This is further supported in one of the spoken echoes, "O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order. Thou'rt yet to become me. Thou'rt yet to become a god. Let us be shattered, both. Mine other self”.

Queen Marika's Children:

(Godfrey and Marika together had Godwyn the Golden, as well as the twin omens Mohg and Morgott, the first of the demigods.

Marika's other half, Radagon, married the Carian Queen, Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon. They would have three children together: Radahn, Praetor Rykard, and the Lunar Princess Ranni. Ranni, unlike her siblings, would be chosen by the Two Fingers as a potential successor to Queen Marika and elevated to Empyrean status. Like Marika, she would be granted her own shadow, Blaidd.

The union of Marika and Radagon gave birth to the twin Empyreans Malenia and Miquella. Both are born with severe afflictions, heavily implied by the pastor Miriel to be a consequence of Radagon's broken vows to Rennala; "Severing a vow, strongest of bonds, has consequences ever more dire".

In the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, it is revealed that Marika has a son that was hidden away in the Land of Shadow, Messmer the Impaler. Messmer's Kindling also reveals that Melina is the younger sister of Messmer, confirming that Marika is her mother, and so she, by extension, is a demigod as well.)