Malenia - Tumblr Posts
Passed the simping and all, do you guys ever wonder how utterly lonely Malenia must have felt as a child? Growing up having to keep people away because of a sickness that could very well kill people she wanted to get close to?
She probably wanted to be held, to be kissed, to be loved, but couldn't. She is told she's beautiful, but has probably never felt that a day in her life.
Do you ever wonder what a low blow that must have been for her? To spend her life never knowing a loving touch? Never getting to hold someone because they may as well already be so far away? Out of reach because she might hurt them so badly? Kill them even?
Do you wonder how she may have been cruel to be kind to people who genuinely wanted to be close to her to save them from herself? Maybe she loves so deeply, that's why she hurts them. Because them being alive and away from her is good enough. What choice does she have?
Crying because I can never be her
has there been any speculation about why marika/radagon appear to be made of stone? it doesn’t seem like this was always the case from depictions of them in paintings, i wonder if it happened post-shattering… if the cinematic is to be trusted they weren’t made of stone when the shattering happened. wonder what that’s about
Old malenia work that I never finished, will work on a new one soon. Maybe
this video just rewired my brain. queelag you will always be famous
Alright I have this theory about Miquella, Malenia and Trina that I need to float out there.
When we find her, Malenia specifically states that she was dreaming. She has in fact been dreaming.
I dreamt for so long. My flesh was dull gold... and my blood, rotted. Corpse after corpse, left in my wake as I awaited his return. ... Heed my words. I am Malenia. Blade of Miquella. And I have never known defeat.
It's hard to say whether or not Malenia was in communication with Miquella via dreams. I do think there's some meat to the theory that she split herself, however, very much the way Miquella and Marika did.
Malenia budded off daughters in Aeonia, and I think that in the same way Trina represents Miquella's love and Radagon might be Marika's sense of loyalty, Millicent could literally be Malenia's dignity.
There is something I must return to Malenia. The will that was once her own. The dignity, the sense of self, that allowed her to resist the call of the scarlet rot. The pride she abandoned, to meet Radahn's measure.
-Millicent
Considering how relatively willingly Malenia bloomed for us, I have to wonder if she did indeed literally lose her restraint.
And she had so many splits.
By the time we get to her, Malenia has rotted the entire Haligtree and she seems to be a hollow shell of herself, repeating who she is and what she stands for like a mantra until we make her desperate. She is frozen in time as that woman who bloomed in Caelid, I think, just a fragment made of raw determination to win at any cost.
It's also notable that the Scarlet Rot isn't just painful, it might actively cause nightmares.
Everything is as you said. Since inserting the needle, the scarlet rot has ceased to writhe. Even the nightmares have abated...
-Millicent
Malenia might've been experiencing Rot-induced nightmares for a few hundred years until we got to her.
Miquella's textual motivation for moving proverbial mountains all throughout his life was curing his sister. While he struggled to uproot it at the source, they did find several stopgap treatments: wearing Miquella's unalloyed gold, which conferred a limited amount of his own immunity onto the bearer; and the Sword Saint's flowing water techniques.
I think Trina, as Miquella's love and an aspect of his own affinity for forgetfulness/oblivion, might've become the saint of sleep specifically out of Miquella's urge to soothe his sister's unquiet dreams. She eventually expanded and gained more autonomy, moving on to the Cleanrot Knights, then the merchants and albinaurics. It's hard to say when the albinaurics were brought to her attention, but I think Miquella had a lot of dealings with Ranni, Rykard, and maybe even Iji.
(Side note: could the mirrorhelm have made Iji immune to Miquella's charm?)
Torrent's whistle in particular is delicate goldwork that I think is heavily implied to be Miquella's handiwork. Of the smiths and engineers in-game, I think Miquella's skill at making outright automail had to take at least some inspiration from Rykard's machinery, and a lot of the weapons associated with the Haligtree take inspiration from Carian weaponry. The Miquellan Knight's sword is basically a Carian sword with the glintstone switched out for Haligtree bloodstone amber. Why is that?
(Additional side note: I think Loretta might've been Radahn's teacher in the art of horsemanship and archery, considering she's the only other Carian character heavily associated with horses and archery. It'd provide a good reason for why her albinauric identity was a huge secret. And, once Radahn left for Sellia to learn gravity magic/get a new mentor, that gave her the free time she would need to champion the albinaurics and investigate the Haligtree.)
Either way, Trina would have had front row seats to the treatment of the albinaurics as servants and worse, and there's a chance that that was when she had her first encounter with the Flame of Frenzy.
Miquella's approach to excising gods was scientific, but I think Trina attacked the problem from an ideological angle. It's actually a pretty good idea, since the gods in Elden Ring seem to be ideologies made physical. Frenzy is despair- so those afflicted with Frenzy must be given hope, and they were given a "holy land" in the form of the Haligtree. And we can in fact still find their hope in the Apostate Derelict, Philia's promise of being able to birth albinaurics, in very close proximity to the largest amount of Trina's Lilies in the game.
Tl;dr: I think Trina is a saint of sleep specifically because Malenia was afflicted by Rot-nightmares, and Miquella wanted so badly to help her that he budded off an aspect of himself that could.
Here i present, toxic yuri that is not only toxic in the emotional sense, but also in a physical sense
Christian Angel Artorias vs Manus, Starscourge Radahn, Ranni the Witch, Malenia Blade of Miquella, Queen Marika The Eternal, Base Serpent Messmer The Impaler
It's speculation but I always got the impression motherhood was difficult to navigate for Marika. With what we learn from SOTE, it only confirms that in my mind. She could have had her children out of a desperate need for familial connection after losing her people. Then to have two of her first children remind her of those that killed her people, I'm sure that didn't set her off on a good note in terms of navigating motherhood. Also, considering her distaste for Radagon (though we don't know when that began) I think it makes sense she probably wouldn't have much attachment to Malenia and Miquella. Given how little either of them seem to care for TGO, I think that shows in their actions. Even though Miquella did follow in Radagon's stead for a little while at least, he didn't seem to have many qualms about turning his back on it. He cared about protecting his sister more than upholding his mother's (and father's) reign. Does make me wonder when exactly in the timeline Marika shifted to questioning TGO.
I feel like Marika probably wanted to be a good mother, but didn't know how, and had her own hangups, obligations and traumas that stopped her. The statue in Messmer's room implies she had some motherly instinct, but we don't know if that was just artistic choice rather than reality... I get the impression Marika might have had it made to sort of subdue Messmer, and have this looming reminder of essentially 'I'm your mother and you owe me.' I don't think she didn't care at all about her children, with what we learn from SOTE it seems to me that the Shattering was born from grief. But that doesn't mean she was a good mother. She is also evidently pretty ruthless regardless. I also wonder, how do you be an effective mother and a powerful god at the same time?
Actually, like thinking of Marika and Motherhood™, it's kind of fascinating that there's so little tying her to Miquella and Malenia? I'm fairly certain the statue depicting someone comforting them isn't Marika, and I took a quick look at Gideon's dialogue about Miquella, and he's actually only guessing that it's a cause for Marika's sorrow.
It's one of those weird little bits were I think the absence of something is actually saying a lot about what's present.
Last reblog got me thinking, I wonder if Marika ever even wanted Miquella and Malenia. We don't really know when she started questioning TGO and hating Radagon, but the fact they had children together feels more like a tactic or strategy rather than something born out of love. Especially considering they both ended up being chosen to be Empyreans. Maybe they knew children born of a single god would have a greater chance of being Empyreans. Maybe it was a plot to try and keep the power in the hands of the current Order's camp, and block Ranni from becoming the next god and threatening their rule. Clearly it didn't turn out that way, given both Miquella and Malenia turned their backs on the Golden Order, but that could've been the motivation.
Whether this was a joint decision or a decision that was somewhat forced upon Marika somehow is another story. There's a lot in Elden Ring about bodily autonomy, so it wouldn't surprise me if that was a part of it. I wonder if that was the point where she started questioning how much control she really had as a god. Trina does tell us that godhood is a prison.
I'm weak, I want the twins to be together....
