Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will ship gamers on a brand new journey this summer season to the Land of Shadow, the place they may study extra about one of many recreation’s most mysterious demigods, Miquella of the Haligtree.
Recreation director Hidetaka Miyazaki says that gamers will monitor Miquella on their journey by 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 recreation. Gamers can even uncover what compelled Queen Marika, who shattered the Elden Ring within the recreation’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 recreation’s story. We’re right here to inform you what you could know so that you don’t have to look at an hourlong lore video that unpacks all of it.
Who’s Miquella in Elden Ring?
![A stone statue depicting rot-afflicted Malenia embracing her brother Miquella at the entryway to Haligtree Promenade in Elden Ring](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/GqchS5w51iwj0LLxFFT-gRs0nhM=/0x0:3840x2160/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25403202/ELDEN_RING__20240416143228.jpg)
Miquella of the Haligtree is a demigod on this planet of Elden Ring and a being generally known 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 recreation, 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 recreation’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 have 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?
![Malenia touches the roots of the Haligtree near Miquella’s former gestation chamber in a screenshot from Elden Ring](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fyb30vlLzePM_-jdohOSaYPW4u0=/0x0:3840x2160/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25403184/ELDEN_RING__20220426193630.jpg)
Picture: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco by way of Polygon
Malenia and Miquella have been shut. The previous fought to guard her brother, incomes her the title Malenia, Blade of Miquella. Miquella was equally protecting, and labored unsuccessfully to develop a treatment for Malenia’s rot affliction. One in every of 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,” based on the outline of Miquella’s Needle; an Outer God seems to be chargeable for the unfold of rot, too.)
As a part of his work to treatment his sister and after leaving the religion generally known 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 turn out to be a haven for the meek and stricken. 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 turn out to be Miquella’s consort.
That’s why Mohg has Miquella’s cocoon in his chambers. Mohg basically stole Miquella from his Haligtree womb, by 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?
![Miquella’s cocoon in Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum after being activated by Mohg, a screenshot from Elden Ring](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aEGGJS28pTDHJpQfgt3OiTrCEsw=/0x0:3840x2160/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25313318/ELDEN_RING__20240228210528.jpg)
Miquella is claimed to have “divest[ed] himself of his flesh, his power, and his lineage,” based on Shadow of the Erdtree’s official description. Miquella might not be a purely bodily being within the DLC, and the Land of Shadow might not be a purely bodily house; 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 linked 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 goals, in accordance to a couple 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 practically equivalent in-game objects — Trina’s Lily and Miquella’s Lilly — that will join them in still-unclear methods. Nonetheless, in content that was discovered to have been cut from Elden Ring, it’s hinted that Miquella and St. Trina are truly the identical individual. That connection might 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 take pleasure in from creators like VaatiVidya, Smoughtown, and Arlun Grim if you wish to be totally ready for Elden Ring’s DLC.