Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s Miquella, defined

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will ship gamers on a brand new journey this summer time to the Land of Shadow, the place they may study extra about one of many sport’s most mysterious demigods, Miquella of the Haligtree.

Sport director Hidetaka Miyazaki says that gamers will monitor Miquella on their journey by way of the Land of Shadow, “tracing his path and following in his footsteps, making an attempt to see what he’s going to do there,” much like how gamers adopted the sunshine of grace within the base sport. Gamers will even uncover what compelled Queen Marika, who shattered the Elden Ring within the sport’s story, to go to the Land of Shadow.

Elden Ring gamers who haven’t pored over the bits of lore scattered all through the sport’s dialogue and merchandise descriptions could not know a lot about Miquella, and about his position within the sport’s story. We’re right here to inform you what it’s essential to know so that you don’t have to observe an hourlong lore video that unpacks all of it.

Who’s Miquella in Elden Ring?

Picture: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco by way of Polygon

Miquella of the Haligtree is a demigod on this planet of Elden Ring and a being referred to as an Empyrean. Which means he’s a candidate to succeed Queen Marika because the vessel for the Elden Ring.

We don’t actually see Miquella within the sport, however he’s the older twin brother of Malenia, the fearsome, rot-afflicted boss who resides on the base of the Haligtree. An offspring of the sport’s penultimate boss, Radagon, and Marika (who’re, uh, the identical individual), Miquella solely seems in withered cocoon kind in the primary sport’s story. As teased in Shadow of the Erdtree’s reveal trailer, Miquella’s cocoon would be the doorway to the Land of Shadow when the DLC launches.

Malenia and Miquella had been each born with horrible afflictions: Malenia with rot that might eat her limbs and sight, and Miquella with everlasting childhood. Statues of the brother-sister duo are scattered all through the Haligtree, displaying full-grown Malenia embracing her twin, who’s caught within the physique of a younger boy. Different statues present the twins at a youthful age being embraced by their older sibling, Godwyn the Golden.

Malenia calls Miqeulla “probably the most fearsome Empyrean of all,” with the knowledge and the attract of a god. Miquella can also be stated to be beloved by many, and may compel the affections of others.

What’s Miquella’s relationship to Malenia? And Mohg?

Picture: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco by way of Polygon

Malenia and Miquella had been shut. The previous fought to guard her brother, incomes her the identify Malenia, Blade of Miquella. Miquella was equally protecting, and labored unsuccessfully to develop a treatment for Malenia’s rot affliction. One among Miquella’s innovations was an unalloyed golden needle, which gamers can use to undo the Flame of Frenzy. (Miquella strived to “ward away the meddling of Outer Gods,” in line with the outline of Miquella’s Needle; an Outer God seems to be accountable for the unfold of rot, too.)

As a part of his work to treatment his sister and after leaving the religion referred to as the Golden Order, Miquella sought to create a brand new Erdtree, nurturing a sapling along with his personal blood. This endeavor would fail and produce the Haligtree, which might change into a haven for the meek and troubled. Miquella finally embedded himself throughout the Haligtree to develop it, residing within the cocoon, however he was kidnapped by Mohg, the Lord of Blood, who sought to change into Miquella’s consort.

That’s why Mohg has Miquella’s cocoon in his chambers. Mohg primarily stole Miquella from his Haligtree womb, during which the Empyrean now seems to have grown older in comparison with his earlier boylike kind.

If Miquella’s caught in that cocoon, how is he additionally within the Land of Shadow?

Picture: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco by way of Polygon

Miquella is claimed to have “divest[ed] himself of his flesh, his energy, and his lineage,” in line with Shadow of the Erdtree’s official description. Miquella will not be a purely bodily being within the DLC, and the Land of Shadow will not be a purely bodily area; FromSoftware has a historical past of sending gamers to alternate time intervals and dreamlike areas in its expansions for video games like Darkish Souls and Bloodborne.

Moreover, there’s well-supported hypothesis that Miquella is related to a personality named St. Trina, who can also be unseen in Elden Ring. Trina is claimed to be a mysterious character of ambiguous gender who has shut associations with sleep and desires, in accordance to some in-game merchandise descriptions. Followers of St. Trina are stated to search for her whereas they sleep, and we all know that Miquella has been slumbering for a while.

Each Trina and Miquella are additionally related to almost an identical in-game gadgets — Trina’s Lily and Miquella’s Lilly — that will join them in still-unclear methods. Nevertheless, in content material that was found to have been minimize from Elden Ring, it’s hinted that Miquella and St. Trina are truly the identical individual. That connection may very well be defined or confirmed in Shadow of the Erdtree, insofar as issues ever get “defined” in FromSoftware video games.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree shall be launched on June 20. Till then, there are many deeper dives into Miquella lore to get pleasure from from creators like VaatiVidya, Smoughtown, and Arlun Grim if you wish to be absolutely ready for Elden Ring’s DLC.