From Software‘s latest dark fantasy action RPG Elden Ring has enthralled players with its richly detailed open world and challenging gameplay. But equally as captivating are the cryptic storylines and intricate lore waiting to be uncovered. As we journey across the Lands Between, fragments of history and sinister secrets reveal an engrossing mythology centered around the primordial force known as the Scarlet Rot.
A History of the Divine Scarlet Rot
Legends speak of the Scarlet Rot originally manifesting with the appearance of an Outer God taking the form of a grotesque and massive crimson scorpion. This cancerous "Rot God" spread its divine rot essence capable of slowly yet unstoppably corrupting all in its path. Fanatical worshippers enabled its insidious spread using sacred relics like the ceremonial Scorpion‘s Stinger dagger to butcher innocents and baptize entire civilizations in poison. Elden Ring item descriptions depict how the Scarlet Rot "ravaged huge swathes of the Lands Between" over an extended ages-long campaign "until death consumed all."
But the Rot God‘s conquest eventually faced powerful resistance from forces unspecified in current lore fragments. Somehow these unnamed opponents succeeded in sealing away this profane deity‘s pulsating heart using unalloyed gold – a substance beloved by the demigods for its purity and holy essence untainted from outside influences. Locked far beneath the earth, the Rot God became trapped in isolation. However its divine scarlet rot continued leaking out in diminished yet persistent quantities, ever awaiting the chance to bloom in force once more.
| Character | Description |
|---|---|
| Miquella | Malenia‘s younger brother seeking godhood |
| Godwyn | First demigod to die during the Shattering |
| Ranni | Daughter of Radagon and Rennala |
| Marika | Queen consort of the Lands Between |
| Radagon | Marika‘s husband who became Elden Lord |
Malenia and Miquella – The Cursed Twins
This foreboding prophecy manifested with the birth of Malenia and her brother Miquella, twin offspring of a single god. As Radagon‘s children and possible contenders to succeed Queen Marika, each seemed blessed with divine qualities fitting their status. However closer inspection reveals disturbing truths.
Miquella entered the world grossly disfigured, his growth unnaturally arrested in perpetual childhood. Malenia emerged healthy yet soon inflicted by the Scarlet Rot festering within. As her brother sought in vain to undo his condition through alchemical cocoons, Malenia‘s sickness gradually consumed her body and mind. The divine rot essence robbed the warrior empress of her senses, forcing reliance on her masterful sword skills just to stay standing.
Miquella forged Malenia a golden needle with the sacred ability to halted the Scarlet Rot‘s progress, buying time at great cost. Though unable to cure his beloved sister, this hex allowed Malenia to lead Miquella‘s fanatical Cleanrot Knights in his service. For these rotting yet undying warriors willfully shared their mistress‘s pain through self-mutilation, sawing off their own infected limbs as acts of devotion.
Theories on Malenia‘s Invasion of Caelid
Eventually Miquella created a Haligtree haven to house subjects cured from unwanted states like undeath or Malenia’s curse. But his ambitious designs required time and isolation from outside interference. Thus Malenia marched to war, determined to eliminate potential threats to her sibling’s vision.
The legendary hero Radahn posed one such challenge due to both territorial control and magical prowess. This legendary gravetender son of Radagon suspends constellations in stasis over Redmane Castle, preventing another calamitous starfall event. Yet curse marks on his armor hint at connections to destined death.
Some speculate Malenia intentionally triggered the needle’s containment to infect Radahn, cursing his kingdom to stop further interference. Others suggest Radahn’s magic or the falling star Astel threatened Miquella’s cocoon directly. But all signs indicate Malenia marched on Caelid to slay Radahn at any cost necessary to buy time for her beloved brother.
| Character | Scarlet Rot Infection |
|---|---|
| Malenia | Innate from birth |
| Miquella | None confirmed |
| Godrick | No record of infection |
| Radahn | Infected after battling Malenia |
| Millicent | Infected serving as vessel for Malenia |
The Legendary Battle of Aeonia Swamp
At the fetid heart of Caelid lies the Aeonia Swamp where Malenia finally clashed with General Radahn and his legendary gravity magic. While records of this fateful encounter remain fragmented, its sheer scale permanently transformed the region through death, madness and pervasive scarlet rot.
Some recount Malenia fighting on the offensive, carving relentlessly through ranks of spectral redmane warriors to reach the general himself. Others describe Radahn‘s magics suspending her battered figure high amidst his armies, raining arrows and sorcery upon her form.
All accounts agree a desperate Malenia ultimately resorted to fully unleashing her innate Scarlet Rot, corroding flesh and steel until no life endured except the goddess herself now collapsed. This final viral sacrifice brought victory yet also mutated the environment into a poisonous red wasteland reflected in Radahn’s own twisted rebirth. For rendered insane alongside his beloved horse companion Leonard, the Starscourge continues wandering Caelid guarded by spectral sentinels awaiting his legion’s prophesied return.
Curiously, Malenia’s own fate remains ambiguous as well. Some point to the empty cocoon by her arena as evidence of an completed transformation. Does she now roam the land as the fully realized Goddess of Rot? Or has this representation instead become a vessel reflecting her trauma and lost humanity? The themes of sacrifice and love abused thread heavily throughout Elden Ring’s characters trapped by destinies they vainly struggle to control.
Omens of the Scarlet Curse
Beyond demigods and knights, the Scarlet Rot has also cursed generations of unfortunate souls across the realms. Its divine essence leaks into progeny, spurring mutations like the destiny-twisted Dung Eater. Many born displaying an ill omen face abandonment or persecution, their villages and families casting them into subterranean shunning grounds far below Leyndell.
Tales also speak of the cursed Marais bloodline which once faithfully served an ancient outer god of decay. Though their deity remains imprisoned, this family‘s search to reclaim lost power instead brought further corruption from the Scarlet Rot they vainly struggle to control.
One scion named Loretta renounced her lineage early on to serve the Haligtree. Another known as Gowry the Heretical Sorcerer manipulates the player for his enigmatic yet seemingly aligned goals of aiding Millicent complete her journey into becoming Malenia’s true vessel. His motives like all things remain clouded in secrecy and deception. Does he seek to resurrect or supplant the Rot Goddess? Or are his intentions rooted in bringing back destined death itself?
All evidence shows souls who court scarlet rot risk becoming vessels for its spread or puppets in its grand orchestration. For exposure leaves one vulnerable to controlling parasites and minds equally infectious.
The Shattering and War in the Lands Between
Tragically, Malenia and Miquella represent just one aspect of the age-old cycles of violence and revenge perpetuated since Queen Marika Shattered the Elden Ring and plunged the realms into chaos. As offspring of Radagon, the twins stand conspicuously absent from the ensuing war‘s opening acts. Only later do they emerge to pursue their isolated ambitions in parallel to the evolving struggles convulsing the Lands Between.
With his son Godwyn assassinated, a grief-mad King Consort Radagon leaves Queen Marika imprisoned within the Erdtree as punishment for this plot his second wife Ranni helped engineer. Radagon‘s desperate attempts to repair the Elden Ring result in his fusion into what scholars now call the Elden Beast.
Meanwhile demigod siblings Godrick, Rykard and Radahn warred amongst themselves after dividing their father‘s territory. Only the Empyrean Ranni seeks peace through plotting to establish a new Order independent from the Greater Will’s machinations. Her quest to revive a Night of the Black Knives and Nokron Eternal City activities run in parallel to our own journey of becoming Elden Lord.
| Ending | Questline | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Age of the Duskborn | Quest for Ranni the Witch | Serve the Empyrian witch Ranni to bring a new age ruled by the Dark Moon |
| Age of Fracture | None | Become Lord without restoring the Elden Ring, spreading chaos |
| Lord of Frenzied Flame | Quest for Hyetta | Unleash frenzied destruction by burning the Erdtree |
| Age of Stars | Quest for Ranni the Witch | Aid Ranni becoming goddess of a new Lunar reign |
| Elden Lord | Default ending | Restore the Elden Ring for a golden age under your rule |
Scholars debate events from conflicting perspectives across these parallel storylines. But all signs suggest Queen Marika intentionally initiated the Shattering, perhaps influenced by a primordial force like The Greater Will or Scarlet Rot. Dark rumors even hint at ascended madness which left her enthralled by newfound power through destruction.
Omens of the Lands Between’s Downfall
Just as Malenia woefully underestimated her Scarlet Rot, these lands may equally fail to realize the scale of events unfolding across this shattered age. For beyond harbor between realities also lurk far more threatening outer forces seemingly intent on exploiting the current chaos during Marika and Radagon’s absence.
Signs of the coming apocalypse have emerged everywhere from sightings of Deathroot fungal bloom to possessed spirits raging from untreated ghostflame. Even the stars themselves now fall uncontrolled as Astel and other void entities venture down, consuming dynasties in their wake.
Each new revelation around the Scarlet Rot and events surrounding Queen Marika‘s new order reads as an ominous warning of repeating cycles which demand careful study. Will the Tarnished Elden Lord embrace the role of Lord or instead light its own "burn the Erdtree" revolution to bring transformation? Either way, woe to any who discount destiny’s demand for balance when meddling in matters preordained. For such pride reaps bitter rewards as the scarlet path before us now foretells.