I think Marika is a Saint created from the Jar Ritual. This is why Radagon is Marika as well. He was in the same jar as Marika.

I'm coming to the conclusion that we have completely misunderstood who, or what, Marika is. The biggest hint is the "Radagon is Marika" reveal. I think people do not understand what this actually means. The common interpretation is that Marika and Radagon are the same person, or inhabit the same body, or that they were once different and are becoming the same person due to Marika's dialog about how Radagon has not yet become her (a God). But what I think this really means is that Radagon IS Marika. As in the Marika we see depicted everywhere, is in fact Radagon in disguise. He's like her avatar, her hand in the world, something she created or cast off of herself to take her role. But then, who, or what, is Marika? It's simple - Marika is the Erdtree itself. Just like her grandmother in the Shaman village, she metamorphized into a tree. This is why Melina was born at the foot of the Erdtree, and says her mother is within the Erdtree, yet also says that she was not born of a mother. Because the Erdtree itself facilitates birth in the Lands Between. This explains both a lot of stuff from the base game, and a LOT of dialog in the DLC. Constantly, the Erdtree is described to have a will, to be doing things, people think that it's what bestows Grace. Leda in particular says that the player character is the aspiring Lord of the Erdtree, and that it was the Erdtree's desire for you to defeat Miquella. It's Miquella who makes this the most clear. People have already understood that his relationship to Trina is analogous to Marika and Radagon - But we have the roles reversed. Trina was supposed to be Miquella's fate until he divested himself of her, he was fated to become her. And what is Trina, literally? A plant. A flower which would have blossomed into the foundation of a new age, just like the Erdtree. This also recontextualizes Radagon within the Erdtree. While we already know that he was resisting Marika in order to try and repair the Elden Ring, all this would suggest that it was Marika herself who crucified Radagon within the tree, not the other way around.

The Shadow Lands only became the Shadow Lands after Marika severed it from the Lands Between, and that happened much later in the base storyline. After Renalla and Radagon had married thus the Carians and Golden Order had allied. We know this because Relanna, Renalla's sister, surrendered her royal station to follow Messmer in her war against the Hornsent. Additionally, item descriptions tell us that Messmer was like a brother to Radahn, so he clearly was not trapped in the Land of Shadows before Radahn's birth and growth into adulthood. It was during Messmer's war on the Hornsent, Marika severed the Land of Shadows from the Lands Between, stranding Messmer and his armies there. This means that Marika did not take vengeance upon the Horsent when she became a god. Instead, she let them be, and then some event drove her to send Messmer and his armies into what would become the Land of Shadows. My guess is that the Hornsent were caught backsliding into their abuse of the Numen/Shamen. I believe this because Marika visited the village of her youth to find everyone killed, left the minor Erdtree and a pair of Tree Sentinels behind to protect it. The fact that she had spare sentinels to leave behind to guard a sapling means she had enough power to spare two of her most honored soldier to guard a seedling. Marika then left the village realizing that the Hornsent were a lost cause, bent on horrific desiccation and murder, marshalled her forces, sent her son and armies to smite the Hornsent, and sealed the Land of Shadows off from the Lands Between. Lastly, we can visit the spacehip/coffins on the Cerulean Coast that brought the Numen to the Lands Between. Marika was likely among those that landed some 5,000 years ago, settled as a child in the Shaman Village, was eventually jar'd by the Horsent then reborn as a "saint" (and a Rebus), before finally being granted godhood via the Divine Pillars.

OH MY GOD. At first, I was disbelieving the whole "Marika is a silver tear" for so long that I almost clicked off. But what you explained with the false signal to the Greater Will absolutely convinced me. That is excellent. You have gained a new sub and I will be following your videos with great interest. Excellent editing and lore. You have mastered many elements that others take years to get right.

What an epic video on Marika and killer editing!! You knocked it way out of the park; really fantastic job and fresh new theory. ❤

I think marigon was always radika.

This video is a nice ensemble of the Elden Ring community. Great work!

this video goes hard, the editing with multiple voices and quotes makes it very pleasant to watch

Great stuff! Thanks for asking me to contribute. Can’t wait to see what you’re cooking up next

i’m so glad this video graced my feed! the editing and format is as fun and fresh as your theory!

This sort of editing and voice work is something I expect from the likes of well known and popular lore creators. Imagine my surprise when I see you're below 1000 subscribers! If this is your quality right out of the gates then I expect you will become popular very fast covering ER lore

Editing here was great, and good questions asked that loretubers often don’t attempt to discuss. Good work.

Numen are not from this world. They came in giant stone ships. Crashing down. FROM SPACE

I've long thought that it was radagon who was the mimic, as there are many connections between him and the eternal cities. He gifts rennala the amber egg, which requires larval tears, he atoned with celestial dew, and I believe his children might have been albinaurics, or something very similar. Radahn studied sorcery with his rival/friend Gaius, who is plainly stated to be an albinauric. Radahn is never seen without his horse, just like Gaius, Loretta, etc. He also has no feet. (The body of ranni also has no feet.) In earlier verisons Loretta was said to be given by the carians to Miquella, and it was stated that they created the albinaurics (literally white gold). I think radahn was sent to learn about this tech so Marika could have a child who was free from the influence of the gods. finally successful with Miquellas unalloyed gold. I don't think radagon actually fathered Marika's children, or rennalas. He simply helped create them. I believe the vow of Miquella was to grant radahn a true organic body, and in return he would serve as consort.

Excellent job with this one, I hope you continue to share your awesome theories with us all! Peace and Love!

This is awsome. Love the ... everything. Cuts, video cooperation, lore, voice, how it all feels togeather oooo this is a good one🥰

I have some issues with this theory. The first premise is that Marika corpse looks like a silver tear husk. This is very subjective and to be honest I don't really see it. She looks brittle and a husk, yes, but I wouldn't say silver tear is the first thing that came to my mind when I saw her. Also, and I might be wrong and misinformed here, but since when were the jars utilized by the hornsent to stuff the Shamans referres as "silver jars"? The jars look like any other jars previously seen in the lands between and none of them are silver so it feels like a long stretch. Another point were you contradicted yourself, we know by the minor ertree spell that Marika used said incantation to bathe the village in gold even though there was no one left to heal. You read this passage yourself, but later you used it as an argument for Marika to attempt to extend the life of said villagers and you changed the interpretation for "she knew it would be of no help", but that's not what's the description tells us. I don't argue that there's a duality in this game relative to silver and gold and I agree ther Marika would represent the Silver and Radagon the gold. But all of this has already been theorized and liked with alchemy by many other people awhile ago, so it's nothing new. Still, I think there is some validity to the Nokron wanting to create a lord out of silver and her kind, but I don't think it's as easy as "she's a silver tear" plus she was stuck in jars by hornsents and whatnot. Clearly there is something there, but I don't feel like this is it. Perhaps she was a product of the Nokron people and her, plus other at the village, the third generation of Albinaurics and the first to be successful? Maybe the Village was a refuge of some sort for said creations that manage to flee the Ethernal City? Or maybe a concentration camp for them to grow into possible Lords, like they wanted and the Hornsents were just another culture predent there at the time that hated on the Numens for being unnatural, like all Albinaurics, and thus wanted to exterminate her kind. But even this theory has holes...we know all Albinaurics were hunted down and hated in the Lands Between, if Marika was one of them, wouldn't she accept them like Mikela and Malenia did?

I'd like to think when Ymir said that we came from stardust, he was specifically talking about Numen. And I only believe that because the Numen are the only human race said to be not of this world

Nice video man! I happen to not believe any of this theory but it was so well put together that I watched till the end and stayed intrigued the whole time. Nice work live to see more like this from you!

When marika became radagon is they key to unlocking the lore

Came for the lore, stayed for the all star voice cast, subbed for the excellent video. Well done and thanks for putting it together. Great take on the lore! Although I think Radagon is a mimic, and every physical representation of Marika we see is “A” Mimic tear. I think we’re essentially witnessing the battle of the Mimic tears in Elden Ring. One was originally a Numen, came from outer space and everything, she was known as Marika. Marika becomes a god, and she takes a silver tear as a consort. That silver tear is Radagon. When Marika ascends to godhood, she must also divest herself of her flesh. We know this from Miquellas journey. We also know that a god in spirit form can inhabit a non-living thing. We learn this from Ranni as she ascends to godhood in the age of the stars ending, as a puppet/doll. My thoughts are that Marika as a god, inhabits a mimic tear, as a way to impose her own will on the lands between by conquering every other faction. The goal of the conquering by Marikas forces is to make the Erdtree en vogue, by force. She takes Godfrey as the first Elden Lord of the age of the Erdtree. This did NOT jive with the Greater Will… because the GW is looking for ORDER. It doesn’t matter what the order is, just that there is order and not chaos. Radagon, her consort, comes in and tries to make things right by establishing the golden order and essentially turning Marika into a religious symbol rather than a true god. When Marika (as a mimic) shatters the Erdtree, this poses a threat to end the golden order as that would undermine all their beliefs. So Radagon the consort Mimic starts to simply pose as Marika to keep things going. The problem? - Radagon was always a Mimic, he doesn’t have the juice of a true god, “thou are yet to become me”… THAT is how Radagon “tries to mend the Elden Ring” We even hear in one of “Marikas echoes” that she calls the lords of the land and followers of the golden order “my comrads” or something like that. - this is a huge clue that it is Radagon speaking at that stage and not the Marika puppet. So then what or where is Marika? Some people say Marika is actually the Erdtree itself. Which seems cool, and makes sense.

This actually makes so much sense. So it seems The Greater Will contacts through gold, which is why Ranni wanted to get rid of her body, because "gold DNA" was in it (cuz Ranni was a redhead, which was radagon's side, and we know radagon is all about gold). This also explains Ranni's obsession with the moon, because without gold, she is just silver, and like the video explains, silver is everything to do with the moon. Marika being a nox creations also makes a lot more sense to why she was aided by/associated with the Black Knives.

What an AWESOME collab! 😍🥰

So, as someone who has never played anything from Fromsoft, but knows that their games are well loved for their sparse, hidden-in-the-nooks-and-crannies lore, this was a lot to take in. I felt like to properly understand everything, I'd need a huge network with everyone's relationship to everything else, and would probably lose my mind halfway through... That said, I really liked the video. You posed all your evidence up front, and then slowly but surely started linking things together. Pulling info from item descriptions, context clues, interviews, and real-life, I like the way you draw your conclusions - they're well founded, and really treat the world as a world in and of itself. 10/10 good worldbuilding. I have to give it to the devs and designers for, as you said, only telling exactly how much is needed to piece together the complete picture, spread apart in many different forms, and for your perserverence in putting all the pieces back together again. Also, some of the earlier edits made me laugh, the rest were solid / very fitting, and it was cool to hear (and sometimes see!) all the different guest voices! A lot of the footage looks awesome, especially if those are rendered in-engine; clearly you've spent a lot of time with Elden Ring. It's also cool to have (what I'm assuming is) your character (and also others') "talking" about this diagetically. It really adds to the whole campfire-storytelling vibe. I look forward to future story-times with Banuune and friends! (0 v0)7

18:18 Or or or, omg why didnt i think about this earlier, Radagon was around but died, The vessel, in order for Marika to become a god she would need a lord and a vessel for that lord, Radagon, ok hear me out, when doing rhe final battle of the DLC doesn't it seem like their 2 people in one body, kinda like Marika and Radagon, i had it backwards i thought marika was dead or in a jar, but it was Radagon that was dead and Marika Revived him by using his body and soul as the vessel so she could become a god, that kinda makes sense to me

I’ve heard a similar theory that Marika is a jar. One that was successful. Which is why the failed ones all have her visage.

Such a well put together video 10/10

This is a fun reading. And really great production!!

I was at first puzzled by the idea that Marika is a silver tear but once you went into enormous amount of detail snd started to explain it in such a lovely way. I couldn’t help but agree more and more with you! Great job!!

oh i love this!! your theory massively brings into question the item called the blessed bone shard A bone fragment touched by the gold of the Scadutree, broken from the remains of the warriors who perished in the realm of shadow. A blessing such as this is said to be the greatest honor that can be granted to the dead. i am currently no thoughts head empty, but there's something about scadutree we've (or at least i've) not fully arrived at an understanding of.| this is very cool banuune! very eye opening 💛

The biggest evidence you have that supports you that she is etheral is that it rains ALWAYS when you kill margit and he becomes human. The rain is her tears. You are right, grace is her spirit, her humanity like dark souls. It guides us. She guides us.

13:33 Yes! I watch quite a few other lore masters and I haven't seen any of them put this forward. I think you are correct about her and the numen being silver tear entities.

Great vid cool edit 👍

I don’t believe this theory but it is interesting to see how people try and create their own interpretations of how things came to be.

I think you're on to something. I think it's all there. Roderika is Marika. Marika escaped from being a prisoner and it's just Radagon in there now but only a fraction of Marika got out, her divinity is still there as a god and that's the husk we find. The hornsent made the tarnished or at the very least it's the tarnished that Marika is a part of. It's Malenia and Milicent all the way down. Everyone's great runes are just pieces of Marika's godhood and represent an emphasis to her different personalities. Gold and Silver reflect the "good" and the "bad" in everyone and stand in contrast to each other but both are at the center of everything. On paper making a race of perfect beings sounds great but it would leave others as their prisoners and I think Ranni, someone who idealizes individuality would stand opposed to making EVERYONE the same altruistic person. Godwyn symbolized the best of everyone, pure gold. Ranni symbolized the moon and would have been pressured to marry Godwyn and become a vessel for the greater will to make all of the lands between in Godwyn's image. Marika who has escaped as grace inside the tarnished, being that flickering gold inside of everyone as she becomes slowly more and more distilled into being that little bit of "good" in everyone. Roderika is the story of Marika, destined to be grafted onto Godrick in the same way Marika would have been stuffed into a pot, and just like Marika, Roderika was saved by an old man who was a prisoner but found beauty in his own work. Marika who found Godfry, a gladiator for the hornsent, a prisoner to the colosseums. Now before you all start getting up, remember that names are mainly used to denote specific times and that reincarnation not only exists, but that GODFRY IS A TARNISHED. I think EVERYONE is tarnished and it has always been tarnished leading tarnished. I think Elden Ring at its core is a commentary on how environments shape people and how sometimes good people come out of bad scenarios but also that sometimes bad people come out of good scenarios. There's never going to be a perfect recipe to teach people the importance of suffering and the sense of value it adds to your perspective. I think what the Hornsent were trying to do was make a god of the Tarnished by melding the bodies of those that could reincarnate, with Marika/Radagon being their product. A Being with two souls entwined into one body in a perfect spiritual helix. This probably gave Marika and Radagon unparalleled power to be made in the image of the helix god's vision but obviously when Marika returned to her people after being promised that her pain and suffering was crucial in order to turn her into a god, she would instead find that everyone that she knew was gone or died, having become a part of herself. I think Marika chose the Erdtree to bath the lands between in an age of eternal gold and to let the people inside of her live their lives, but what she forgot was all of the pain and suffering that she contained. I think Marika betrayed the Hornsent by praying NOT FOR A HORNED OR FINGER GOD BUT FOR A GOD OF GOLD. She beckoned the Elden Beast and started her war on the Hornsent by giving birth to the demigods and usurping the cycle of life and death. And so, for giving them freedom, the tarnished worship Marika the one who gave everyone freedom and aspired to be their greatest, until one's own individuality came into question, of course. Regardless of what your head canon is, I think I will stick with everyone reincarnating, because the idea that Roderika is Marika's noble tarnished self reincarnated and Hewg is Godfry's prisoner self reincarnated, it just makes me happy thinking that they end the game together :)

My young padawan. You have made the best video on your channel yet. Excellent work.

Mind fucking boggling. well done

It is truly criminal that the story told in Elden Ring isn't in the form of a movie or novel or something. It's so ridiculously good, and most people will never actually experience it.

Not silver skin. Clay. Like the claymen

Awesome lore video

Makes a lot of sense with the factoid that the flesh of shamans melds well with the flesh of others

What an amazing video! Thanks for sharing, definitely my favorite take on this theory so far.

Nice refreshing art of lore content creation with the multiple speakers, especially the dialogues with kitetales and tim. Parallel to silver... The ember element is shown with big potential for creating life, too (renallas egg gifted by radagon). While living beings created from silver are in game defined as artificial, the creations by golden matter are "natural" or "more likely to god"? at least it is definitely more tolerated by order. Looking at nox to more simplify, golden is from above and silver from beneath. That's a bit trivial, but thinking of scadutree is beneath and the erdtree was created ontop.. And now the gold of erdtree is dripping down to the scadutree since the scattering. Above in the lands between there is the cycle due to the possibility to reborn at erdtree, but in the realm of shadow due to the cloaked connection by Marika, the beings in there have no option anymore for a recycle but rot and decay - to a soulless mass of putresence. And that's why so many hornsent climbed up to enir lim sticking there stretching to above the dark clouds.. Their hope of redemption... robbed by Marika. You find nothing silver things, even not at relannas castle (I don't count the lava - no mimics - they do never reform anything then drops and I think are just reused models there). And gold only rarely in imbued fragments of the tree and the liquid at the avatar. But no silver - or relanna s armor and herself beeing only a mimic of her older herself is maybe silver? The top/bottom gold/silver fits also to Sir D like Duality... The silver half was hunting in the deep while the golden half was hunting above... When D kills FIA it's only the silver half triumphing when the gold half died before only hanging over (rly cool artwork his armor). So, I don't think Marika mimicd radagon.. It's More likely the greater will transforms her to radagon as a puppet when it's needed... And because greater will likes puppetry renalla was a double match with house carias knowledge of puppetry. So artificial live is okay if it's fully under controll. So let's say silver has the same live potential as gold, but too much risk of loosing control.. That's also why the nox failed to create their leader without gold/order. Uh sry.. That went far too long...

Wow I really appreciate this video. Feels like a well needed breath of fresh air.

Amazing work. I"m not completely sure on Radagon just yet. As I think he is actually another person, the Greater Potentate who turned from the Hornsent. I think he is the one that helped free Marika and fathered both Mezmer and Melina. When she left the lands of shadow she betrayed him by having Mezmer burn Melina. And he was eventually merged into Marika once she realized that Hoarah Loux was not what she needed to defeat Renala. Because we heard nothing about Radagon before the fight with Raya Lucaria. The exact time she merged with him is unknown tho. Still love your idea, instant sub from me! Hope to see more great theories!

The most well written theory essay

Radagon is the elden beast she literally having kids with a star Her fusion with the elden beast/radagon is what made her a god. Half silver half gold The golden orders loyal hound. Look at the egg he gives rannis mom Looks just like the thing on astels back which could be eggs which would explain the baby astel down there A stars egg.

Mohg spear is oddly 50/50 silver and gold too, someone was saying Miquella was trying to blend gold and silver as well. Was kate and kite?

This is such a creative and fun video❤️

Ha I love this Especially when you're gloating about being right about Marika being from the shadow lands. The thing is you both are right. The land of shadow is a spiritual realm as form and shadow together make our reality Your mistake is taken the story as all literal history , which it's not You only have a fragment but you're right in that fragment. Gold and silver are both from the stars They both are pulled into place by the greater will The greater will is called the great attractor in astronomy It's the gravity or force that pulls the stars of the Milky Way into place That's why all life comes from the greater will. All you need to do is look at a picture of the laniakea star super cluster There was a sculptor named Miyazaki that hid a secret in the laniakea super cluster and the Pisces/ Perseus super cluster and you'll have it. If you learn the secret then you'll also understand the irony of godwyns death That dialogue is Marika asking radagon to shatter the Elden ring. You only have to look at Davincis virtues of man. This explains , Marika is the circular spiritual/ soul side Radagon is the physical body/ the nature , This is why, there are circular patterns behind the Marika statues and square ones behind radagon ❤

Great video

This theory is canon to me!💯

Interesting theory but it kind of fails to harmonize between Marika the mimic tear and Marika the shaman. Shaman were not made thru the Baptism of pot (If i may put it so) Shaman were stuffed into pots to become "Saints". It also kind of falling short in harmonizing the origin of Radagon whether the persona was mimic-ed by Marika or was from the get go "the Sun" to "her Moon".

I love this theory!

Hey @Banuune: First off, I'm only four seconds into the video and I've liked the video, subscribed to your channel, and am now commenting to support your content as much as I can on this website, given the algorithm. Yeah... I'm that guy; the kind of guy who needs you to know that I'm that kind of guy - THAT guy.

Nice ! SUBSCRIBED !

Marikaofdaughter her new permenant name for me

Silver. It would explain why Marika brings the age of the golden order, but it's Miquella who brings the age of unalloyed gold

Cool video!

Well done video and a genuine outlook. You sound intelligent and you obviously studied the lore. Fine job, ma'am... fine job. 😁🤙 liked and sub'd

So, in the story trailer, the threads she pulls out of that... Thing... Doesn't it look like the empty eye sockets of the facade of Godwyn beneath Stormveil? There's so much focus on eyes being tied to the outer gods. (Also, I find it a bit poetic that the first glimpse you get of a semi-divine soulless being doesn't have eyes... The windows to the soul...)

🔥🔥🔥🤌 you went full Batman.

wow what an interesting theory!!! great video!

Fantastic video! Keep up the good work. Really well put together.🎉

I’m not sure they separated after the shattering because we literally see her husk transform into the husk of Radagon.

Would I be out of line thinking that possibly the Marika Jar theory is mixed with the gold/ silver theory ypu explained. Marika may have betrayed Metyr by using the finger slayer blade to take golden strands from it (now it can no longer communicate with the greater will, theres also a huge gash in metyr's stomach) she's able to then meld with things very easily like the golden strands which would explain her Silver/Gold essence now. Skitzo theory lol

This whole idea reminds me of the greathood description. So this was the moon renalla found.

great ideas thx for sharing, you've given me some new ones.

What makes marika special???... id ask boggart, he knows whats up, lol.

Mind blown

We the Tarnished awake inside the Erdtree, maybe we are to Marika what Millicent is to Malenia? Marika couldnt transfer her soul via the haligtree *her sorrow at its failure* so instead she used her golden essence to create us and thats why we are the only Tarnished to become elden lord and why we see Grace and are the only Tarnished who can resurrect by it

It's not silver it's mercury.

Can't wait for the kitetales, Jack is a mimic, bandung, Kate the kind, bandit stream

I think this is wrong because the game is actually about the Oedipus complex. We wake up as one of the "soulless demigods" in the Walking Mausoleum (we can hear its bell and its steps in the opening cutscene), then we go to the great distance to deal with our other siblings and (in the Ashen Capital) with our elderly father to replace him and marry our mother, Marika. This theory disrespects our mother/wife.

I think we see Marika creating the veil in the cutscene were she's holding those golden string against the sky or the sun.

I'm still dying to know where my Tarnished is from. I get that if I choose the Samurai class it says I'm from The Land of Reeds, so where is that? Does anyone know where we are from in relation to The Lands Between?

I have been speculating for some time that the multiple giant ship/casket were the vehicles used by the Numen to come to the Land of Shadow once dead, similar to LOTR elves. It seams that the lands of shadow/lands between are some sort of death dimension, in fact there is a pillar in the center of the world that explicitly states that in that point all death converge. I dont know what to think about all of this, but is a interesting theory nonetheless

Idk, dlc bring light to marika's past and seems like it was well defined Imo marika and radagon was jar buds the first ans last living jar that was well suceed and became not only a saint, but a god, remodeling the old elden ring (we see in farum azula) to the new one, removing destined death and finding his revenge against hornsents Radagon is marika takes a complete different meaning after dlc

Whats with all of these trolls. I'm SO thankful for something other than the flood of hundreds of "OMG I JUST MADE IT TO BONNY VILLAGE FOR THE FIRST TIME AND FOUND TOOTH WHIP. LETS READ IT IM VAATI NOW" surface thinkers

Just so we're all on the same page Manus Metyr means "Measured Hand" in Latin. So the Cathedral of Manus Metyr is the "Cathedral of the Measured Hand".

I want to know why Marika was crumbling like concrete at the end of the game? Was she dead? What’s wrong with her

Numen “long lived, seldon born” are albrinauics?

I think too many people are making assumptions about Marika and the pots. If she was a mimic why would she go against her own people as well as her actions against the Giants, Misbegotten, Nox and Omen are nearly nonsensical. There is 1 particular game mechanic that really changes the discussion as well, only gold and horns provide order. Items that give multiple status boosts all require horns or gold. If Marika doesn't have horns she must have already been golden. Marikas mischief and her ability to deceive made me think she cound be a mimic as well. The best argument for both sides is Empereans are both Silver and Gold inherently but that's not well defined either.

I think what we see inside the Erdtree is pretty much real. We see Marika in stasis, imprisoned and shattered, then we witness Marika is Radagon as he takes over. Worth noting, the Elden Beast most likely releases Marika from her prison at this exact moment, which is why we see the run arc break precisely as we enter, because it gives Radagon the chance/command to defend the Elden Ring. And I think this is when Radagon either wakes up, or is commanded by Elden Beast, to neutrilize the threat, and we see the body transformation, and that he, too, is shattered but still faithful. As he does not speak, it's impossible to really talk about whether he had any more agency or awareness at this point than Marika did, as she too does not speak. I think they are broken wisps of what they used to be both, due to the shattering and imprisonment. But we do not fight Marika herself because she isn't loyal to the Elden Beast, whereas Radagon is. Then, as we defeat Radagon, his body is reconstituted into the greatsword of the Elden Beast, further used as a tool. This is a second transformation of Marika's body that we witness, speaking volumes about her dual nature as well as the Numen bodies and their properties, a topic explored in Shadow of the Erdtree. And here we can also see that even Elden Beast is shattered, cracked, innately tied to the Elden Ring. Once we defeat it, while we do not see it, I think simply the body goes back to its original form, which is Marika's, but in a much more ruined state than in just a few scenes prior, after the damage it endured as Radagon and maybe even Elden Beast's sword. And yet, it is in a gruesome way, still alive, and now quite literally the only remaining vestige of the Elden Ring present. I do believe Radagon has been slain, as well, permanently. Marika says, after all, that he never became a god, so she is able to survive all of this, and he perishes at our hand. So we try our best to pick the body back up, or its head, and are able to reconstitute the existence itself, using Marika as the vessel of the Elden Ring without Greater Will's input. After all, she still is divinity, and with unique properties. In the end, the Elden Ring and its metaphysical properties are no longer controlled in any capacity by the Fingers, the Greater Will, or Radagon's meddling. Marika is the sole vessel, and we reconstitute it; though there is the argument of whether she allows us to manipulate it as we see fit, or if she has no choice. Again, her agency in this is questionable. Some people claim that it is Marika who shows us the grace, and she indeed is the grace-giver of these lands, and the Elden Beast and Radagon do try to defeat us, so it makes sense that Marika would have been the one with some capacity to still guide the Tarnished into the Erdtree. And as Grace points to the Greater Runes, it makes sense; she sends us on a fetch quest before we make a delivery. And treats us as a warrior, as she planned and foresaw when she sent the Tarnished away originally. I do think she has agency, and that it was her plan all along. And it worked - whether she survives in any meaningful manner is a different topic, but she released herself from the bounds of the Greater Will, and Radagon. I like to think of Radagon as Marika's enemy, at least at this point. I don't think there was any 'deception' in that cutscene.

*pressing subscribe* 😁

they removed the line in Messmers kindling about melina being the younger sister. I think they gave away too much then retracted it xD

Ranalla is so obviously an albuneric imo. Same size as the women wolf riders, can't use legs, her child radahn is half and lost his leg use as well and had a bestie. Their legs fade. Hers are visible because she can be reborn with the rune, however it's an immovable fate.

the land of shadow is just like nokstella, its underneath the lands between.

the item description literally says that Marika is a Numen and we know how Numen look like, so no, she can't be a silver mimic.

Great editing, shit theory.

Nah sorry, pretty bad video. Even without the knowledge of DLC lore, everything you talk about are long reaches. Plus the presentation is pretty annoying