ELDEN RING | 10 UNSOLVED Lore Mysteries! 

The Godskin Apostles are clearly looking to rekindle or replace the power source of their Black Flame. They were at the Liurnia Divine tower for that purpose because it housed half a curse mark of death. I wonder perhaps if they just dropped into the fight with Iji to get the Black Knives held by the Black Knife Assassin because they're imbued with destined death.

Most likely being after the cursemark of death.

I think the Godskins are somehow connected to the Divine Towers themselves. The boss hidden at the bottom of the Divine Tower in Caelid is a Godskin Apostle guarding the Godslayer's Great Sword (AKA the Gloam Eyed Queen's sword)

@@jschemel3921 they're at that tower probably because that's where GEQ was defeated. that's near Gurranq, who defeated her. they're likely near Ranni's body to guard it, because they worked alongside the Black Knife Assassins, because Rykard and Ranni were allies. the Godskins are heavily associated with Mt. Gelmir and Volcano Manor.

@@seratoxin3825 Can't say I was aware of a connection at the Volcano Manor. Altough now that you mention it, there is a Godskin bowling ball boss in the chapel at the Manor and the Godskins have alot of serpent like abilities and visuals, similar to the snake men

Totally forgot about those

Malenia learned waterfowl dance from him, I can only imagine how OP this guy was

Millicent using the same ash and one of her sisters using two of his swords.

Even the Warrior starting class is linked to the Swordsman.

The presence of the dancing warrior is recurrent in the other Souls. The dancer of the boreal valley, Ciaran, Tomoe in Sekiro, there is still information to dig !

Possibly but I think it’s more likely he just knows what is required to enter the erdtree. He probably has no idea who your maiden is at this point.

@@mattfromtinder9803 That theory is very likely to be the case because Shabriri probably said the same thing to Vyke as well.

@@smileandnodd on a side note I happen to agree with Shabriri. I do not like the idea of sacrificing Melina, at all. I always take the frenzied flame, burn the tree, then remove it. I just wish there was an alternative storyline to include that route.

@@mattfromtinder9803 I also agree with Shabriri. In all my playthroughs of Elden Ring, I never once sacrificed Melina and always choose to get the Frenzied Flames instead. Of course, fighting Blade of Miquella is a pain but I always do it. That's because I too believe that Melina shouldn't have to die for you to become Elden Lord, even if it is her wish. It's Ironic though. The closer you get to the Frenzied Flames, the more Melina encourage you to turn back. She kept saying that despite how cruel life is, it is also beautiful which makes it worth living for. Yet, she herself is choosing to die rather than to live on. And when you actually give her the chance to live, she resent you for it. Like you, I really wish there is an alternate ending where you didn't have to end in bad terms with Melina.

@@mattfromtinder9803 that what I do too, but I don't think there should be an alternative rote to this yet, I believe that just like Patches did reappear in the Ringed City, some characters that we let alive can reappear in the Elden Rings DLCs

I just wish we get to see a Godwyn riding for Fortissax bossfight lol

Maybe. The DS2 model for DLC puts the entry points near to areas of thematic significance. The DS3 model is much less obvious. It really depends on what story they want to tell. The assumption that DLC will involve Miquella etc. in such direct ways has not panned out in the past and I see no reason why they would do something so obvious now.

I don't think there's any point going to the badlands, it's the realm of mortals as far as I see it. We know it's just a place of hardship & fighting & getting from there to the lands between is extremely difficult, so there wouldn't be a good enough reason why we'd be leaving the land between, so it would need to be a visiting the passed DLC which other than flushing out the backstory of the many tarnished we meet, even more than already in game (which as I'm writing this does sound cool), there's really not much point & probably plenty of other more rich & entertaining places to explore more.

Don't forget the location of the Cinquedea that happens to line up well with the rest of the divine towers. It also has an interesting and often not touched-upon lore piece about when the beasts were granted intelligence and how the hand is a representation of that blessing. It is also used by the priest as a weapon and a base for the black blade to wrap around. Maybe it will act as a key to use the divine towers to go back in time and stop the shattering, or who knows.

I want to find out if i assumed right about this. Cause some how i always did. I always just thought the fingers were made from the erd tree and sculpted to look that way once i saw they were wood. Hence how they speak for the will of the tree. So when they "die" they turn back to the wood of the tree.

Yea. The game of thrones guy said it was 5000 years from the shattering till we come along. Like the school for magics been closed that long but the one guy who wants an extra key and the woman we meet and find trapped to a wall (names slipping atm).

@@dont-touch-mepg1392 thop and sellen

@@dont-touch-mepg1392 I don't tjink it was literally 5000 years. GRRM also said that the game is a sequel to dark souls. I think it's just something he said out of misunderstanding or to give a general number without being specific.

There are tens to hundreds of other demigods we don't know about bcos they are all minor characters, I'd sooner say it's one of them, hell it could even be the Selivis we meet as I suspect he's not actually the real or original Selivis.

It's puppets all the way down! The Greater Will was Pidia all along!

Arguably every demigod apart from ranni is a puppet to some higher being. Malenia for the scarlet rot, mohg for the formless mother. Miquella to some unknown one but he tried to escape. Morgott to the golden order, rykard to the god devouring serpent and radahn is a puppet of his hunger due to the rot and before that he bound the stars as a way to halt his families fate, meaning he was a puppet to the golden order by keeping the current state. Rennala is a puppet to the desire of rebirth, which we could attribute to godwyn or the ones living in death. And godrick is a puppet to his desire to impress godfrey who himself is a puppet to grace.

its highly unlikely, Miquellas charms dont work on the strong, and its very different from the puppets of Seluvis, who all display a complete lack of personality or speech, plus the fact he worked so hard to cure her and everything else indicates the loyalty was both genuine and mutual, if he simply desired her as a strong warrior he could have gone and made radahn or a number of demigods puppets i also dont think the amber draught has any effect on the the demigod whos fate it came from(except perhaps freeing them of there fate) considering it can be used on anyone, i think the potions work by basically taking fate and distilling it, turning it into a form the puppetmaster can manipulate and force on another, what that fate was before doesent matter since its remade, only that the fate is strong enough to effect demigods, its possible it did come from Mellania though, to free her of her fate as the goddess of rot

Ranni is the puppet Demi-God.... It's her that Seluvis is talking about.

And because he was likely a pacifist,and the only other options were…well😂

And it might be related to the fate of the solar Celtic god Lugh

I believe ranni said it was completely random and that Godwyn just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time.

First reply: Godwyn was far from a pacifist. He won the war against the dragons. Secondly, he probably wasn’t as strict a believer as you think. He integrated dragon worship and acceptance, supported Miquella’s goal, and overall seemed pretty open minded. It really was just right place and time mostly to the guy who was there, unfortunately the guy keeping things good and smooth

I agree with this but also I think because he was they only "known" demi god of the golden order because morgott and mohg were omens so they weren't known to be from the golden order because of that morgott supported the golden order just as much godwyn so technically godwyn was Ranni's only option because she wouldn't have known about morgott or mohg

What if though that the black knife assasins were not there to kill Iji, but were there to protect him? The flame coming from Iji's corpse is black flame. And black flame is used by the Godskin. And aren't the assasins loyalists to Rani? Didn't she lead the assasination? I'm so confused. Am I wrong?

Pretty sure ranni had to kill blaid as he was given to her from the two fingers. Ranni wanted nothing to do with them so she had to get rid of him. As for iiji I believe she said she had to get rid of him too. This was I think from the eternal city from the miniature ranni doll dialogues.

@@TheSlickmicks I got you bro. The Godskins created the black flame to kill gods but the true power was sealed when the rune of death/Destined Death was sealed away. Black Knife Tiche’s ash summon expand on why she allied with Ranni. So it can be inferred that the death of Tiche’s father is why her and the other assassins she was aligned with were willing to kill Godwyn because it’s almost like being betrayed by your own people as it happened under Marika’s rule. At this point her omen children are banished and the twins are quite young so the only one left is Godwyn. The Black Knife Assassins are still women of Nox/Numen that are also related to Marika. Nokrom/Nokstella was shoved underground and forced to live under a false starry sky because they chose to forge their own god so there is hate towards a god they have appointed to them. With that context, maybe only Tiche allied with Ranni, Tiche recruited others, and embedded their blades with the flame that was capable of killing a god in their entirety which is why it’s red and black. Black and white means it can’t slay a god. Ranni was selected as the Empyrean by the Fingers to rule. When you put everything together, Ranni more than likely used the BKA to kill Godwyn as it assisted her in her goal but to kill 2 birds with one stone, they turned on Ranni as well because of what her destiny was. Tiche had her blade imbued with Destined Death and used it to kill Godwyn, then she killed Ranni causing Destined death to be split in 2 (body and spirit.) Now I don’t know if Ranni was playing chess but having her body destroyed meant that she no longer is an empyrean because she was killed. Godwyn being killed caused Malenia and Miquella to flee entirely because the Golden Order couldn’t help either of them with their ailments, which were the other Empyreans meant to rule. Ranni severed any connection the Greater Will and the Fingers had to any Empyrean that would rule for them. FAST FORWARD and the assassins now aware that Ranni still lived stopped at nothing to kill her and any of her Allies. Any of the BKA you fight away from Ranni’s allegiances just kinda stab you in the back and that’s it. The ones that once allied with Ranni used Black Flame to kill Iji and Seluvis in search of her but their flames are black and white; The Black Knife Tiche Summon still has a red and black flame because like I said, the power to slay a god was an honor given to her then when she was inevitably killed for avenging her father. The other assassins probably sought out the Godskins after to help them because they, too, want to slay all the gods but the true power was sealed away again by Maliketh after the assassination.

Some think that Radahn had her two fingers suspended in space so she couldn’t reach them. When you defeat him all kinds of stuff crashes down including her two fingers.

@@mattfromtinder9803 that is probably true actually, that would explain why her "destiny" is held in place by radahn

@@mattfromtinder9803 no I think both of you are mixing 2 things up. I'm quite sure her 2 fingers have always been at manus celes to serve as a guide for an empyrean or demi god. This is why when you give her the fingerslayer blade she states she sets on her own journey indicating she knows where she is heading. Also Ranni specifically states that she destroyed her physical body to escape her determined (empyrean) fate of the 2 fingers . Radahn halting Ranni's fate has to do with the star that Radahn keeps suspended in the cosmos that is supposed to crash and serve as an entrance to nokstella and the fingerslayer blade. Without Radahn's interference this would have happened already allowing Ranni to continue her fated path to slay her 2 fingers.

correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't ranni the golden child of the greater will?Didn't the greater will try to lead her to combine the elden ring to become the next elden lord? Is that not why she rejected her original body and split her soul off so she didn't become bound to the destiny the greater will was leading her on?

@@Beeelzebud Ranni, Malenia, and Miquella were all candidates as far as replacing Marika. Its not really clear who was leading that pack though.

But what about the egg rennal has it's supposed to be a great rune but somehow radagon had it before the shattering of the elden ring

@@jaymor1916 pieces were removed from the Elden ring long before the shattering. Distant death was part of the Elden ring. It was more removed from it. The only time that we know they old and we do have ever been whole is on the greater will first came to the planet.

They're all puppets, I thought this was well known.

@@xLionsxxSmithyx How do you know?

@@fiahpoa Sellen explains it I think... About how their true self's were placed into a Crystal and that the Bodies are just Empty puppets that they transfer their consciousness into pretty much.

@@xLionsxxSmithyx I knew Seluvis was (Pidia’s, I believe the common theory is), and Ranni is sort of but also not really, but I didn’t know Iji was.

@@S2Pot_Gaming I'm still not 100% on iji tbh but yeah.

Godwyn life path resembles his father's, Godfrey, and this would easily put him ahead of the other Demigods politically, who else is better suited to take over Marika than the child who closely resembles the First Elden Lord Godfrey.

Omen spirits are gold/black in appearance and scale off int and fth, I feel like this says more about what kind of death he’s the prince of

@@ZomifiedHam but what relation do the Omen have to him in the first place? Morgott can imbue his sword with the flames as well, and while that could be explained by Morgott and Godwyn being brothers, it doesn't explain why random horned omen can harness it too, and only the horned ones, the ones with their horns cut off can't. Plus, in the item descriptions for both Omen Bairn items, it calls the projectiles "Wraiths" as in the exact same thing the wraith callers in Liurnia summon, also, there are a few wraith callers and a revenant in the sewers where the Omen live, so there's obviously some sort of connection, but what is it?

@@canadiangopnik7007 The "wraiths" are referred to as "rancor spirits" elsewhere, such as the Rancorcall spell and the Rykard's Rancor spell. The Wraith Caller Bell calls them wraiths. We find them in multiple different energy forms, not just deathblight. The wraith caller bell states that they are the spirits of people who died while cursed. So perhaps the type of energy they embody is based on the type of energy they were afflicted with upon death. The omen themselves seem connected to the crucible because they grow horns, and the deathblight energy has a tinge of red between the gold and black. Red tinged gold is the colour of the crucible. There's also some suggestion that upon death people return to the tree. So perhaps an omen's soul was somehow tainted by the deathblight energy in the tree.

@@TonkarzOfSolSystem so you're implying that the wraiths, rancors, and rykard's rancor, are all the same thing essentially, but different only in the manner of death? And I suppose if the Omen are that closely tied to the crucible, it might make sense as to why they could use the flames of the prince of death, seeing as almost right next to the remnants of that primordial tree of the crucible, lies Godwyn, it's not hard to imagine that the crucible has been influenced by his power since the deathroot reaches all across the lands between already. That actually makes a good bit of sense

Okay, now this is deep. And I like it.

I would just add a little bit of Buddhism in that Elden Ring as a concept always reminded me of the Law of Dharma ( from Buddhism )... the universal governing law. Now imagine that broken, not only that it would be impossible to leave Samsara, ever, but local world would have its own mini version of eternal Samsara ( death and rebirth ) without the ability to escape it no matter how much you meditate and untether yourself from the world, without learning through incarnations and progressing in any way. Basically a world frozen in place with its cycle of death and rebirth that is going into eternity without any..any at all.. change. All inhabitants and creatures you kill do exactly the same things in next incarnation, make the same moves and choose the same choices...forever. Now Ranni would be as you said, but i would go with Buddhist comparison and call her a Buddha of that world ( there were many Buddhas, not just one widely known as Buddha..thats a title, not a name ).

But wouldn't rabbis mother and some other things not line up then. Because her mom's still alive. She didn't get rid of her and it's ranni we hear when the second stage of her boss fight comes. Given I don't quite understand that whole fight and scene. And why keep us. These r genuine questions and am not trying to nit pick ur shit lol.

All of this kind of falls apart when you try to make sense of Miquella and Malenia. How exactly did Radagon impregnate Marika?

@@Lee-km7qq who said he impregnated her? Miquella and Malenia are flawed, and their flaws might be coming from an unnatural process of their creation.

He was also the strongest, being an uncorrupted child of a Godfrey with Grace and a Marika that hasn't broke the Elden Ring, so like they all also probably thought no one would be dumb enough to try lol

It makes sense as does her being Marika's daughter. The way I see it having seen the fall of the Dragon Order and its God during the age of the Crucible, I think Marika took steps to avoid a similar fate and that why she removed the rune of death from the Elden Ring then took out Melina who became the Gloam Eye-ed when the fingers chose her to wield destined death because she didn't trust the Greater Will and so sought to make so that she and her Golden would live up to her Eternal Namesake but she left Melina burned and bodiless and banished the Tarnished to act as a failsafe/escape clause so that should she ever want to end her order she could do so through them.

Ranni also has three wolves outside of her tower.

But why GEQ (if we assume Melina is GEQ) is so fixated on restoring the cycle, and why is she so opposed to frenzied flames? Also, I think it's Ranni who kills her followers. As I wrote three times in this comment section, three wolves spawn outside of Ranni's tower. The do not spawn when Blaidd appears there, they stop respawning after Blaidd dies. And that is when Ranni severs her connection to the Erdtree. And on top of that, there's a mystery of the girl, three wolves and an erdtree statue, which kind of implies some form of connection between those three pieces.

Blaidd maybe killed the BKAs because he was mad, just like he attacks the player or Ranni send them to kill him because he now was a threat to her. The only question is what the BKAs get in return for further helping Ranni.

Melina looks more like Ranni than Marika. Which leads me to believe that they are sisters. My guess would be that, Marika and Radagon simply had 3 children; Miquella, Malenia, and then Melina. That would easily explain her resemblance to Ranni.

@@Lee-km7qq Keep in mind that we don't really know what Ranni looks like. The form we see is just a doll, her real body is the one burned up on top of Liurnia's Divine Tower.

@@VIctorcerezini11 I would say when people compare Melina and Ranni they are probably at least in part correct. There are a lot of striking similarities between Ranni and Melina. I can’t really deny that. We just don’t know enough and we are all interpreting the story from different angles. I’m not really holding out hope for DLC to further explain anything though, since that usually isn’t how From soft operates when creating DLC.

Why would they leave their dead members behind though? Why not take them with and cover the tracks? Imo they tried and failed and someone else finished the job, leaving the bodies to cover their tracks and blame them

@@rezokiladze2334 Well, first off, we can see that the black knives don't realy care about their dead members, as we can still see a corpse of a black assasin in the snowfields. Second, if there's a puppet master behind the black knives attacks, i don't think it would that useful to cover the tracks, and this event happens instantly after the end of Ranni's quest, so i don't think that the black knives (Or the one who would've done the attack) had Time to get rid of the corpses. And for the third one, i actually don't realy see anybody that can create the black flame and would've had something to care about killing Iji and trying to kill Blaidd and even more about covering the attack.

@@rezokiladze2334 DD does DoT, so it's possible that Iji killed the 3 knives then succumbed to his wounds

I have another question. Why is he in a death pose similar to the puppets that are in Selivus’s secret chamber?

@@mattfromtinder9803 I had the theory that it was a Black Blade Kindred that killed him, the motivation is there, Ranni stole death from Maliketh, Iji is a servant of Ranni, and the Kindreds are servants of Maliketh, and it would make sense why he's looking up, because they're tall as fuck, if he collapsed from the black flame taking it's toll on him, he'd be looking up at it when he fell, also, the Corpse Wax Cutter skill on the Black Gargoyle Greatsword shows a DD blade cutting through the ground, but when it hits, it applies a black flame effect, best theory I got

Agreed

Except, fromsoft never really makes dlc specifically for certain questions to be answered, If anything dlc will add more questions with some main game mysteries cleared up here and there.

So you know the dlc will be neither of these things lmao

@@drunken1967 Bloodborne DLC did answer a lot of questions. Like what Kos is, about Lady Maria, about Ludwig and Laurence etc. All of those are names that were mentioned in the base game. DS3 did also give us answers about the Painted World(s) plus the Pygmies and the Dark Soul itself. Maybe we get something similar with Elden Ring so I could see us getting some important answers about characters or places mentioned in the base game.

In the Maliketh boss room I believe there is a statue of a girl surrounded by wolves at the back of the room. Possible connection?

would this not have been updated or patched out by now if it wasn't intentional? especially on what is essentially the climax of a major questline in the game. we're on version 1.08.1

Dude i think after 9 months this oversight would have been brought to their attention countless times

@@exeterd9 and yet fires deadly sin is still buggy af The game was rushed af it most definitely is an oversight that isn't incredibly important in their eyes

I think Rannis two fingers was suspended in space by Radahn. All kinds of stuff comes crashing down to the ground when he is defeated, not just the void monster we fight on the way to the moonlight alter. It’s even mentioned that her fate is held in place along with the stars. Radahn likely was aware of her plans and stopped her at some point from going through with it. Whether or not it was an antagonist or a protective action against her I suppose we can’t know. Seeing how Radahn was pretty into the golden order though I’d say he was probably not on her side.

What I found weird is that we have an example of her trying to stop you from getting an ending and, if she is the gloam eyed queen, why is a godskin protecting ranni's body? Doesn't seem all that bothered by you joining ranni at all

Possible

I just think the Black Knife assassins killed him and the color the flame is just wrong. Hell it wasn't even present until the 1st patch so it was definitely a hastily made addition.

@@Terminalsanity That's a bit odd though as they've been quietly going through and correcting things like maps and other visual lore indicators, yet Iji's "wrong" flame color has survived to this day.

I tend to agree since when you burn the tree the round table hold Melina takes us too also appears to burn. But that solution also creates a logical fallacy, since Melina wants to go to the foot of the Erdtree, but can also already go there?

But, if it's in the past, why does it burns at the same time the in-world one does?

i mean if she was bodiless as a curse from birth like the twins it would be possible there triplets, after all only two bodies would come out, noone, not even the midwife, or radagahns would no, the only one who could know was there mother who could feel them

​@@seelcudoom1 I really like this theory, she might have been a more recent edition, especially with the fact that she says she has a mother but also hints at the fact that she doesn't know what a mother's love feels like during Boc's questline, and the bodiless curse could be a side effect of being born from one demigod just like Malenia's rot and Miquella's Eternal youth

@@seelcudoom1 I saw a video by masked nintendo bandit on her being born from the great rune of death to assist us in bring it back into the world, great video that honestly makes sense and could be right. Idt I could really explain it here but i think you should really check it out

The bodiless cure would explain hoe Melina has so much info about Marika and Radagon. She would have seen them when they were separate and probably when they merged together.

The blind swordsman is seen on the Curved Sword Talisman and in the Prothesis-Wearer Heirloom description it says the following: "Though born into the accursed rot, when the young girl encountered her mentor and his flowing blade, she gained wings of unparalleled strength" Meaning obviously that Malenia had a mentor. On the talisman there is Malenia with another person (the blind sowrdsman). Malenia is blind and he trained her as her mentor.

@@EldenLord. you can actually get that mentors gear as well but I forget where.

@RedEye yes, malenia is with the blue dancing fairy, her mentor. Fact 1: Blue fairy taught a blind swordsman, blind swordsman sealed the rot god. Fact 2: young girl encountered her mentor and his flowing blade and gained wings of unparalleled strength. This is simply not two separate events. Its two accounts of the same event. There is one person that gives power to someone to accomplish something. One account calls him a fairy and the other calls him mentor. The fact that she gained 'wings' of strength from her mentor should signify why he was called a fairy in that account. Subtle yet amazing way to separate points of view.

@@mattfromtinder9803 i know what you are talking about. That's not his set more as the clothes of his nomadic people.

But doesn't the game refer to Malenia as a "swordswoman"? why would they be referring to her here as "swordsman"?

Godwyn was only a demi-god not an Empyrean. Remember of the Demi-gods only Ranni, Miquella and Malenia had that title. Ranni literally tells us this and nowhere in the game is Godwyn referred to as an Empyrean the only other Empyreans mentioned aside from Ranni, Miquella and Malenia are Marika and the Gloam-Eyed Queen. Interestingly enough given Ranni's goal I think she entered into the Night of black knives conspiracy planning that Radahn was to be slain not Godwyn as Radahn kept Ranni fate suspended for an age so targeting Radahn would have been a 2 for 1 death but as things turned out Ranni's ultimate ambitions were stalled out indefinitely since Godwyn was slain in his place. I suspect the Black Knife assassins did this intentionally specifically to sabotage Ranni's and that's why plan that that's why Ranni has their Leader Alecto Locked up in the Evergoal in the immediate aftermath of the Night of Black Knives. I suspect this was done at the behest of Miquella and the Black Knife Assassins had been persuaded into him serving as their long awaited lord of Night(I mean he did try to eclipse the sun) and were then by him to enter into conspiracy with Ranni and Rykard's using their ambitions to further his own and had Godwyn killed instead of Radahn orchestrating the fall of the Golden Order to make way for his own Order of unalloyed Gold while sidelining the only known Empyrean that could and would rival his own order Ranni which would then also explain why the Black knife assassins attack Iji and Blaidd once Ranni has slayed her two fingers and is in position to establish her order. (the Black flames on Iji being nothing more than a coloring error the flames were actually part of the 1st patch and the Gargoyles Blackblade which attacks with the red tinted flame of the death rune has a similar coloring error as in inflicts a black flame on enemies)I suspect Miquella controlling the Black Knife Assassins because you 4 living Black Knife assassins guarding the seal to the haligtree in Ordinia along with Albanaurics you even find the Black Armor set there. In regards to Placidusax I assume his God was an Empyrean in dragon form that the Greater Will eventually abandoned as the age of the Crucible gave to the ae of the Erd tree and its for that reason Marika having seen the Greater will and the Elden Beast/ring abandon its one time vessel and God not wanting to be one day replaced or discarded herself, that once The greater will through the two finger appointed her Daughter Melina to be the weilder of destined Death and became the Gloam Eye-ed Queen Marika then took it upon herself to remove the Rune of death from the Elden ring and had Maliketh defeat The Gloam-Eyed queen so she could then seal destined death so the greater will could not similarly discard her or her Golden Order but left Melina burned and bodiless to like the tarnished act as a failsafe to burn the erd tree should Marika decide to end things which she did when she resolved to shatter the Elden Ring.

I heard a theory once that Ranni killed them and right before you grab her hand in her ending it’s cuts away but you get stabbed in the back by the assassins.

@@mattfromtinder9803 I don't think Ranni controls the assassins, it makes no sense, they are with Queen Marika, Ranni's goal conflicts with the will of the Elden Ring.

@@Cybershroom well personally I don’t think that theory is correct as well, however I’m not so sure that the assassins are with Marika. I think it’s more likely it’s someone else. I get that they are Numen women like Marika but that would imply that Marika had Godwyn killed, which doesn’t make sense if the prevailing theory of why the elden ring was shattered was because Marika was distraught by the death of Godwyn. Also, Ranni admits to stealing a fragment of the rune of death to forge the black knives. It’s just a thought but perhaps Ranni tricked the assassins in some way and they seek revenge. Or, and like I said not likely, she’s straight up evil and had everyone she cared about killed.

It's flat out stated that Radagon and Marika were originally separate people though. So, the question would be why did they merge? The common sense answer for me is that Marika needed to get rid off him as he posed a threat to her ultimate plan. That would explain her statement about Radagon not YET becoming her. Radagon was likely forced against his will to be one with Marika (a literal arranged marriage) however before that, the two had 3 children. Melina more than likely clung to Ranni for some reason, but I doubt that they're the same. Another reason why Ranni and Melina being the same wouldn't make sense is because, they have different mothers.

Cuz Goldwyn died and he was the “sun” just like Ranni is the “moon”