pf! nah~! we need DLCs, sequels and prequels! :D (imagine a spin off - sekiro like with one fixed character - as you (melina) go and murder the lord of frenzy xD
Thank you so much for the shoutout! I think you should still make those videos! I try to cover as much as I can but as many commenters have pointed out, I still miss so much, and your previous Ranni and Marika video were so good, I actually skipped both of them because I couldn't piece them together as well as you did.
You forgot to mention that when you summon her for the Morgott boss fight, she has the same moveset as a Black Knife Assassin and uses the Blade of Calling as her weapon and also has Erdtree Healing incantations. It's also noteworthy how you can find her entire armor set in the Haligtree in a room right before the Malenia fight.
I really really hope we get to see more Melina. She's so pleasant to talk to. Also, poor torrent. It broke my heart to see the whistle fade away in Melina's hand. I like to think he held on until he could tell her bye.
It's occuring to me now that based on the games starting location, the scion killing us, I can only assume we were a tarnished candidate to be grafted onto Godrick
@@watertommyzBro… the Tarnished already returned, we probably were in the Lands Between before the game. We were probably bout to get grafted onto Godrick.
The thing is, we would’ve never been grafted onto as we are special, noticed that most tarnish when killed never returned to their grace or respond we possess the power to do that we are fundamentally immortal
as an artist, I LOVE HER DESIGN! its so simple silent quiet yet very elegant and memorable. her eyes i dont know what but something about it tells me a lot about her.
What's also interesting is the fact that her tattoo is clearly faded in the Frenzied Flame ending, leaving behind a skin mark. To me, that seems like the tattoo may have been a seal. That eye is closed when the tattoo is there and open when it's not, after all.
If you look at the two tattoos on Ranni and Melina's face, it is almost like they are two halves of the same symbol. With Ranni having two crow fingers and Melina having three, it exactly mirrors the theory that the Two Fingers and the Three Fingers were one entity that split apart, kind of proving that they are two halves of the same person as well.
Kinda the opposite of what Malika stands for: Death (Melina) and the Moon (Ranni being the harbinger of Age of the Stars and daughter of the Runela)... Funny how they are her kids at the same time, albeit from different side of Yin(Radagon, the male side with Runella the queen of the Moon worshipers) and Yan (Malika, the queen of the Numen and Elden Ring)...
I was following until the eye mark thing led to the crow nonsequitur, when there's a much stronger and more relevant connection - her marks (and colour) match the Beast Eye Gurranq gives you, which responds to Deathroot. That is to say, Gurranq, or Maliketh, has Melina's original eye, and who is Maliketh's one confirmed kill? The GEQ, former holder of Destined Death. You could further point out that his title was Death of the Demigods, despite every known demigod being accounted for, Godwyn being the first to die in "recorded history" according to Rogier, and again, his only known casualty being the GEQ, suggesting GEQ is a demigod. And that lines up quite nicely with Melina being a hidden demigod, since she's born inside the Erdtree, and has a strong connection with Marika. There's also an interesting timeline issue - there's a lot that suggests GEQ is an older figure; for one, she used Destined Death before Maliketh, and Maliketh was given Destined Death at the creation of the Golden Order, so GEQ must preceed the Golden Order, for another, the Noble Presence description describes it as a trophy of a god hunt, strongly implying the succesful killing of gods, but every post-Golden Order god or demigod is accounted for (Miquella notwithstanding). But she's also an empyrean chosen by her (two?) fingers, so she can't have preceeded the Elden Beast's coming, and if she did preceed Marika, then not by a lot (she'd be the only pre-Marika empyrean, yet we know of 3 post-Marika empyreans), and obviously she was still around in Marika and Maliketh's time. She certainly doesn't seem to belong to some forgotten age of dragons or deathbirds. The way to create a cohesive picture of Melina is to see her as being both a demigod child of Marika, and the GEQ. Suddenly the timeline makes sense - as a child of Marika, of course she can be an empyrean. How can there have been successful god hunts? But of course there were, we literally know of at least one slain god - the Fell God of the giants. Therein we find a purpose she would have received at birth - to dole out Destined Death indiscriminate to competing gods, clearing the way for Marika to become the chief and only god. Why was her purpose lost? But of course it was - Maliketh could have only defeated her at the behest of Marika, which would be a betrayal of both Melina, and her given purpose. We know Marika is no stranger to betrayal, especially when it comes to the threat of Destined Death, after all, we're told she betrayed Maliketh without even explicitly understanding what said betrayal is. Maliketh's title as Death of the Demigods now makes sense - he killed the forgotten (possibly first?) demigod, Melina. Melina's actions ingame now make sense - empowering you to defeat the remaining demigods, and eventually even bringing death to the Erdtree, not to mention unleashing Destined Death. Ranni's own actions also take on a completely different bend when viewed through this lens - shedding her empyrean flesh to live on burned and bodiless, channeling the rune of death to kill demigods, appearing in spectral form to guide the Tarnished, not only is she acting in defiance to the Golden Order, but also emulating her forgotten cousin Melina. Why does she know Torrent's former master - simple, she knew Melina, who IS Torrent's master, after all, literally the first we see of Melina is her riding Torrent. Also, the present from Torrent's former master she gives you isn't jus the spirit calling bell, but also the 3 wolf moon t-shirt ashes, remember the altar at the back of specifically Maliketh's arena depicting a girl with three wolves near her? The wolves that are associated with empyreans? Marika's actions also suddenly have a more cohesive, and sinister form - imagine an early pre-Golden Order Marika waging war for the Erdtree, with Godfrey, Maliketh, Radagon and Melina leading her armies. Godfrey and Radagon to defeat her enemies, Maliketh to protect her as a loyal bodyguard, Melina to bring Destined Death to opposing gods. What happens after the wars are won? Godfrey is robbed of grace and sent on his long march, Maliketh is sent to defeat Melina and rob her of Destined Death, Radagon is recalled to be with Marika and make her whole again, and then as soon as the Golden Order is created, Maliketh is given the RoD and banished to Farum Azula. An image of Marika an calculating and paranoid very quickly emerges, not only betraying her comrades, but robbing them of their very purpose. If we wanted to really go off the deep end and make the theory crazy I'd say we can look at potential connections between GEQ!Melina and either Ranni's snow witch master, or the idea of the Eternal Cities trying to make a lord (Lord of Night?) from the silver tears (which is a whole can of worms when you consider Marika might be just that - it would explain how Radagon can be both her and not, and how Melina can be her daughter without any implied father). But again, that's getting kinda out there. One thing that I think that's worth thinking about is what's up with the Flame of Ruin/Forge of Giants? Is there a Flame of Frenzy connection? After all, Melina has some connection to both, and if I'm right, also to the Fell God. Alternatively/as well, is there a connection to the crucible? The Forge is basically an open crucible after all, and Melina does seem pretty attached to life and birth, (and death of the destined and indiscriminate varieties) which seems to be the crucible's field. Anyway, I look forward to learning more in the second DLC because we're definitely getting Miquella first.
Speaking on the noble presence and Maliketh being the one to kill Melina thus making her a spirit. When you face maliketh and he’s going into his second phase the roar he does that burns away his clothes is very reminiscent to the noble presence incantation which makes sense it’s descriptions stating it was a symbol of victory the move maliketh used when he killed Melina taking the tube of death inside of him. Also another tidbit that helps this theory is the fact that right before you face morgott if you use a recalling finger remedy you are then able to summon Melina as a support NPC to fight him. They gave Melina the same exact move set for tiche and the other black knife assassins where she does the air slash of death that had the same effects that the actual black knife death wave ash of war has showings that she has the power to control or has ties to the rune of death or destined death. Also the fact that she refers to it by destined death is a dead give away as the finger maiden tells you the original older name for the tune of death was destined death. And her possible reason for hating the lord of frenzied flame. Perhaps she killed the previous would be lord/Demi god of the frenzied flame.
Also what if the reason the black knife assassins were even created was to take revenge for Marika betraying Melina? It Melina was the first demigod and lead a army for the god hunt who were her troops? What if the black knife assassins are just remnants of Melina’s squadron? Which is how they even knew how to infuse the rune of death into a weapon in the first place?which then gives them motif for killing Godwyn a emperyean who clearly came after Melina and by his title “prince of death” must of been the next to inherit Melina’s former rune and power of death. And also give reason to why queen marika upon the death of her son godwyn banished maliketh to the Farum Azula a place inbetween reality and time capable of even sustaining the former former elden lord dragon king for eternity. Maliketh being loyal did all he did as a means to atone for his negligence in the rune being stolen and used to kill her only replacement and new emperyean meant to govern it. I believe that due to the way death affects maliketh when he’s incognito as Gurranq clearly shows that holding the power of death has a negative affect on the psyche. And if the beasts eye is truly Melina’s former eye “the beast” could be referring Melina or the GEQ. And if the lord of frenzied flame can create madness surely if Melina was sent to take him out on behalf of Marika who is clearly a selfish and paranoid ruler(as most of her caliber being a god and all have been depicted to be examples Zeus,Odin, Set etc) she would’ve surely had Melina taken out as 1 her bloodlust from harboring the rune of death within her and being tasked with the duty and strength to kill indiscriminately any and all Gods who get to ahead of themselves would make her a threat to marika she couldn’t be marika the eternal with someone capable of killing her and was given the purpose of killing her to exist. Godwyn the golden was probably raised differently and being apart of the golden order was already hardwired against the possibility of killing marika and thus a better replacement as it’s holder. Now that I’m going with this theory the Entire storyline and lore of this game makes sooooo much more sense and makes me love the writers even more. This is basically you typicall mythological Patheon family bullshit but we’re playing it out and having a key role In it and it’s all made up. Like this game is literally creating a whole historical mythic civilization and lore it’s amazing!!
Ranni’s cousin connection doesn’t make sense unless you were joking. They’d be half related and also I don’t think they’re half related it would make more sense that it is actually part of ranni
I think so too. Also, I noticed that all of the 4 endings where you become the Elden Lord are virtually the same with only slight variations. It's only when you go against Greater Will that you get a unique ending. The Frenzied Flame ending is obviously the bad one so that makes me think Ranni's one is the good ending. Instead relying on the power of Greater Will via the Elden Beast/Ring you claim back the "fate once writ in the night skies that had been fettered by the Golden Order" (as says the Telescope's item description). So basically instead of continuing to be slave to the Greater Will, mankind can find its own path forward.
@@maharaja101 you can also break free from the influence of the outer gods with Goldmask's ending, the order still exists but it is now free from any god's influence and all conflict has been erased and has given way to an age of perfect order
Look Bandit, as a theorist, don't worry about trying to cover stuff others haven't covered. Just do what you want to do. Just because someone did it first doesn't mean you doing it is pointless. Sincerely, Saber the (maidenless (F for Melina)) Tarnished Seeker.
I am agreeing whole-heartedly. Your approaches, cadence, research, and explanations add to what makes you, you. That another video exists is great but shouldn't discourage you from making your own. DO IITT DOOO IITTT DOOOOIIITTT
I’ll watch every lord video, just because 1 person did a lord video on a certain character or anything in the game doesn’t mean that someone else won’t know maybe even more stuff about it. I just love learning about the lord all together so I watch pretty much all of them 😂
@@Schmidtycent yeah I’ve heard dark souls story videos that pretty much say the same thing, but the difference are the deliveries of the videos. And everyone always has that little additional info or a joke here and there. Never get tired out of it.
Elden ring is the only game in a few years that makes me genuinely want to know what happened to characters. Like when you come back expecting to buy something or bullshit and find a corpse, or worse waiting where your friend, or at least business partner was.
Would be cool if George Martin released his back story to the game as a book 😮 As long as he fkn finished a song of ice and fire first... Hehehe..hahhehehaheh ... *Laughing manaically* never gonna happen 😢
@@andrew-rn9ui I mean its miyazaki who made the story of elden ring, tho. He is the director, lead writer and main script writer. Everything that is actually in the game is from the writing team. Probably only he knows what things actually mean, and he probably wont ever answer the questions
One correction to offer: The "Great Tree" is not the ErdTree. Check the Root Resin item description. It specifically says it's said that the Great Tree's roots were once entwined with the roots of the Erdtree. Having them both appear in the same description is a strong indicator that they're not the same thing with some kind of problem with the translation.
Also remember she says she awoke, burned and bodiless, if you see Ranni's body atop the Divine tower, it is burned and destroyed... This means that she was "remade" at the foot of the Erdtree after Ranni killed herself with destined death. Which kind of changes some timelines, seeing as this happened at the start of the shattering wars.
I’ve been speculating lately that the Great tree IS the Erdtree, but the Erdtree is the shining grace around the tree. Almost like a parasitic takeover of the Great tree. When you walk up the the entrance of the Erdtree you see that the tree itself is not golden.
@@MisterTMemory i had a crazy thought that Marika used her own two eyes to make Ranni and Melina, but just a thought. There is definitely something linked between Ranni, Melina, and Marika
Maybe the Erdtree is some sort of sinister parasite. When it grew around people, it sort of took on their appearance, like the big strange faces. Maybe it was only a tree because it consumed the Great Tree.
I always thought the “tattoo “ over the eye was a burn from a madness spell. Especially, since when you cast Flame of Frenzy, it comes out of the same eye.
It’s a centipede it actually says it two separate times in the dialogue once in fias quest look at the centipede you pick up and look at the mark it’s the same
@reeceroberts1775 the rune of death is a centipede. Also, they wouldn't look the same because they aren't the same. One is a tattoo, another is a carving made into someone's back. Besides that, we only see a small portion of the rune of Melina's face. It might look quite different with the whole thing on her face.
One fun fact is that Melina internal name in the game files is "MaricaOfDaughter". Her dialogue in the game already heavily hints at Marika being her mother.
Becoming host of the flame of frenzy, burning the tree, then using Miquella's needle would mean that Melina survives and isn't pissed at you. Kinda wish we got to see her after that.
even if you let melina burn the tree, then go become host of flame of frenzy, you still see Melina at the end saying she gonna kill you. so shes not dead there neither.
@@yugiohmaster2005 No, as someone who has done all the endings in ER and turned into the chaos lord AFTER Melina died she was dead and did not appear before the credits
@@yugiohmaster2005 I got the frenzied flame after Melina burned the tree but I don't remember seeing her during the ending. Before this video I didn't even know she could have been in the ending since I didn't see her.
@@yugiohmaster2005 if melina burns she is gone, if you turn frenzied after her death, she still stays dead and one can potentially miss out on her alternate ending
I've noticed you've twice mentioned the part where Ranni doesn't remember giving you an invite. I think the cooler approach to this part of the story is through Rogier's quest where he is investigating Ranni and sends you to serve her to gain info
I love that plot line. Especially the part where Ranni immediately sees through your attempt to gain info. Then in practically the same breath, she tells you that she doesn’t care whether or not you’re there to spy on her so long as you help her achieve her ends. It’s a hilariously honest “game respects game” moment that made Ranni one of my favorite characters.
@@H240909 i really like how smart they wrote ranni to be, she's pretty much always a step ahead of everyone, even when she has to improvise a coherent response to the utter shenanigans you can do like lying to her about torrent for no reason or insistently talking to a doll. the only time she can ever really be caught off guard is if you attack her after marrying her
16:20 pretty sure death spread through the erdtree's roots as a result of Godwyn's soulless body laying at the base of the erdtree deep underground. The mark of death got absorbed into the roots and that's how the duskborn came to be.
Could it be that Melina is the embodiment of the great rune that Ranni "cast away"? Melina mentions being burned and bodiless, and when you find Ranni's real body, its also burned.
Ranni l’s body isn’t burned besides on her back when she was held down by the black knife assassins and had part of the death symbol carved in her back. The rest of her body is just deteriorating
in regards to why melina might hate the lord of frenzy, i personally think that Tarnished(your character) wasn’t the first tarnished that she guided. I believe that Vyke, who was close to becoming the first tarnished elden lord, was a knight of the round table that was the main character before us.(an additional note: Vyke is the knight we see on the cover of the game kneeling down showing his downfall) i find this interesting because when you read the description of the fingerprint armour at the end of all of the set it reads “Did he make his choice for his maiden, or did some other force lure him with suggestion?” which might mean that vyke seeked help from the Three fingers so his maiden (which in this case could be melina) wouldn’t end up sacrificing herself and burn the erdtree. Vyke was probably too weak to wield the frenzied flame and probably died attempting to burn the erdtree, reason why melina warns you of the defiling nature of the frenzied flame. I’m not a theorist and never really made any theories so maybe some points didn’t really get across but i’d like to know any comments on this theory
This is a great theory, it does make sense actually. I was wondering what her connection was to the Frenzied Flame, even if she was the Gloam Eyed Queen, I can't think of any direct correlations between the two. It makes sense if Melina needs a strong tarnished warrior to carry out her bidding and reach the flame of ruin. The last tarnished she tried to guide was Vyke, but Vyke did what a lot of people did in their playthroughs, sought out the three fingers so Melina didn't have to die for him to become Elden Lord. But like you mentioned, perhaps Vyke was incompatible with the Frenzied Flame and ended up being mentally broken by it, turning him into a mere Scion instead of the Lord. Melina begs you not to follow his path because it can only end badly, either for you or the entire world should the fusion be successful.
I don't think Melina is actually a Finger Maiden at all. I think she (or Varre) killed the one who was supposed to be your maiden, which is why she says "I will play the role of your Maiden"
@@reeceroberts1775 not sure about that. Plus it’s heavily hinted that the Church that Vyke invaded with his full frenzy spells in Liurnia is where his maiden died. You can soak the white cloth in her blood and why else would Vyke’s invader spirit choose that location to protect? It’s pretty heavy handed that that was his maiden.
Dang. I always just assumed that Ranni and Melina were the same person. But this actually makes sense. I haven’t really delved into much of the Godskin Apostles’ lore because of I have grown to despise them after a particular boss that happens to come right before Maliketh. But after learning about them a bit more from this video, I can see this being a likely possibility
Still would say she's Rannis other half just like Marika and the twins are each others. It makes more sense Ranni awakened her by killing her body and it also explains why with the frenzy end her other eye is like Rannis if they haven't combined out of a sheer anger you ruined both of their paths and doomed the world.
Also remember she says she awoke, burned and bodiless, if you see Ranni's body atop the Divine tower, it is burned and destroyed... This means that she was "remade" at the foot of the Erdtree after Ranni killed herself with destined death.
honestly changed my mind, since radagon is marika, and ranni is supposed to be radagon/rennala children i guess, and milenia marika daughter. So they either are the same person or sisters idk.
Very good and interesting theory that may stand true, two thing I'd like to add is that. 1. you can summon Melina to fight Morgott along side you. 2. After you fight Morgott and head towards the mountains, as you are heading up(or down i cant remember at this time) the elevator towards the grand lift to the mountain tops, you can find a dagger called "Blade of calling" which is the exact same dagger Melina uses in the fight with Morgott. The item description for said dagger is: "Dagger given to one who set out on a journey to fulfill her duty long ago. The power of its former owner, the kindling maiden, is still apparent. The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death." Maybe something to add in a later video. All in all a very great watch :)
Well damn that adds a ton. We can infer the line, "the one who walks alongside flame" Can either mean her duty is to become the flame and the flame has always accompanied her. Or it refers to the player, in the flame lord ending. I think the player is more likely here, as "shall one day meet the road of destined death." Would mean that the player that she accompanied and walked alongside would lead her down the road to achieve the players destined death and by extension her own.
@@aidanmullard8508 good input for sure! when you burn the erdtree she will also say "The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death"
The dagger is interesting. It does holy damage so likely that "power of it's former owner" originates from the Elden Ring, which makes me think that this "kindling maiden", who I assume gave the dagger to her, could be Marika. Another interesting thing is the moveset of the weapon is the same as the Black Knife (and Melina has the same moveset as Black Knife assassins when you fight Morgott with her). This would also connect her to both Ranni (created the Black Knives) and Marika (The assassins were Numen women with close ties to Marika)
You earned my sub with that breakdown man, her presence and lack of knowledge about her has been irking me a lot but you really put the pieces together with this. Even if this turns out not being right, you make a very compelling case.
The tattoo on her eye is actually a sigil that appears in one of the incantations of the frenzied flame. It does fire damage and can drive the caster insane if you cast it too much.
Another detail about melina and her relationship to death is that she only ever seems to appear around death. Either at a site of grace where you spawn after dying, During a fight at the foot of the Erdtree or in the intro scene when she sees your dead body.
(Spoiler Warning)Pretty sure she is a twin or a part of ranni they are linked some how and it could have been when she cast aside her rune she was split. There is another like this.. Radagon and Marika are one in the same.
And this would make more sense as she is burned and with no body. The body her whole soul (ranni being the other half in a doll) had was burned and had the rune of death etched on her body.
When you reach the bridge to the capital, even if you have 4 runes, you can't pass without Melina. The gate says that you don't have enough great runes.
Hey man, great video. I like the way ur theory goes (with Melina being the Gloameyed Queen). But u forgot a very important part about Melina, that u can summon her to fight against Morgott and she has LITERALLY the same moves and weapons as the Black Knives Assassin's. So that part i think is important to understand what Melina is, was and will be, depending on ur ending on the game
@@justhaku9240 yeah it does, but my point is that it also adds a lot, and it could help understand her better. Her being a Black Knife ties her directly with Rannis plot to steak death and kill Godwyn
I both agree and disagree at the same time. You're right about Melina's move set being a holy black-knife assassin with no black flame at all, that is problem one, I would expect Melina to use blackflame in some capacity if she were the Gloam Eyed Queen. The weird bit where this makes it make more sense is if you set aside the blackflame, Melina being destined death would suggest she has the skills to kill gods which would be exactly the fighting style you would want to emulate if you were going after some gods.
One little thing to note, the blue glow effect they both share, is also a thing that appear with the albinauric women when she becomes a spirit you can summon, leaving her wolf. I wouldn't read that effect as a special link unique to melina and ranni, but more of a spirit not having a body thing.
If you notice Melina's hand in the cinematic where she finds you with Torrent, and Ranni's hand in the cinematic where you put the Dark Moon Ring on her finger; they have the exact same hand with another exact same ring on her ring finger.
It appears that the tattoo marking over Melina's eye is faded in the Frenzied Flame ending which may mean that whatever side of her that was maybe sealed is now free.
From what I understand. Melina is Marika’s daughter and Ranni is Radagon’s daughter. Marika and Radagon are the same person therefore they’re like sisters, thus explaining their similarities. Could be wrong but that’s my current take on it
I agree with that, but I would add that Melina is also Radagon’s daughter. There are only three maidens that have ever been within a mile of the Flame of Ruin, that would be Melina, Vyke’s maiden, and Bernahl’s maiden. Vyke’s maiden was prevented from attempting to sacrifice herself once he found out a sacrifice was needed to use the giants’ forge(hence why he tried out the Frenzied Flame instead). Bernahl’s maiden is the only other maiden that did attempt it, but his armor says he was no longer a lord after she tried, and as we all know, the Erdtree remained unburnt… And in my opinion I think Bernahl tried to mooch off Tanith, then us in an attempt to get back his lordship in becoming Elden Lord. Anyway, those facts about his maiden to me are a SMALL bit of evidence that Melina is THE only maiden who is capable of using the flame of ruin, hinting that she may be part fire giant as Radagon is. Also that secret room at Leyendell’s elevator near the Forbidden Lands, her knife that she used to help us against Morgot was stashed there, and the item description refers to the last owner as the “Kindling Maiden” which is a VERY exclusive title. Then there’s the three butterflies such as the Aeonian(Malenia), Nascent(Miquella), and Smoldering(Melina) butterflies… not to mention Melina, Miquella, and Malenia would presumeably be the only 3 children Marika has that have a name that starts with “M” besides the omen twins, and their names really more specifically start with “Mo”.
My theory is quite simpler, in the game you find out that Ranni's doll that she inhabits was made in the image of the person who took care of her when she was little. If that is the case, maybe Melina is/was that person and the former master of Torrent. As such when Melina gives you Torrent, Ranni recognizes it and comes to investigate who is riding the horse of her ?dead? caretaker, Melina. This does not explain a lot of Melina's story but I do believe they are completely different people that look similar due to the use of a doll created of Melina's image.
I like this theory except the person the doll was modeled after is explicitly mentioned to be a snow witch and nothing about Melina suggests that she knows or uses cold magic.
@@AkeemLee I thought the same but the fact that she owns Torrent, a water based name, and they both teleport away with blue particle effects.... It's sus. I'd never over analyze something like this usually but they do think about these things
@@AkeemLee if I remember correctly, people have confirmed the snow witch is the dusk-eyed queen. And since, as the video stated, the dusk-eyed queen is the gloam-eyed queen, the former teacher of Ranni is the gloam-eyed queen. My theory is that is how Ranni learned how to cheat her way out of being an empyrean.
I think this has to be the most well put together theory so far, there's clearly a connection between Melina and Ranni but she's also linked to the Gloam-Eyed Queen and I think you've tied it together pretty nicely. Another potential link is Melina's weapon the Blade of Calling being almost identical to the Black Knife... She's also got the same move set as the Black Knife Assassins... Maybe her spirit has taken the body of one of them like Ranni has with her doll? There's also the red spike through Marika that looks strikingly similar to the rune of death as it appears after the Maliketh fight colorwise... If that spike really is part of Destined Death then that could also explain Melina being born within the tree. Either way earned yourself a sub man great video!
Thank you for a great video! I appreciate all that work that went into it. Working theory about Ranni & Melina: 1) They are two sides of the same person, the same way Marika and Radagon are two sides of the same person. (Note: I am assuming that Marika and Radagon started as one person, then split due to conflicting opinions regarding the Greater Will and the order.) 2) Ranni is incensed of what Radagon did to Rennala, so much that she goes as far as committing suicide only to free herself from her ties to Radagon/Marika and the Greater Will. In fact, I think, she is out for blood… Radagon/Marika’s blood that is. 3) However, Radagon & Marika are split into two being with two conflicting agendas and Ranni is only one. So Ranni (who I am assuming has inherited Radagon’s/ Marika’s ability to split herself into two beings), splits herself into two people who have the exact opposite agendas than Radagon on one side and Marika on the other side. That is, Ranni works towards destroying the golden order, which is all that Radagon wants to preserve, and Melina works towards bringing about destined death, which is exactly what Marika doesn’t want. 4) Note1: What made me settle on Melina as Ranni’s other half is the fact that Melina attacks with the black knife assassins’ move set. Who is the only other person in the game who uses the black knives to her ends? Ranni. So it would make sense that she is familiar with them and would fashion her other self as one of them. 5) Note2: While Melina is clearly a demigod, she is never mentioned by (can’t recall his name) when he goes over the seats in the throne room. The only logical reason he’d skip a demigod would be is Melina is in fact one and the same (or rather another part) of one of the existing demigods he has already. (And I do not buy into the Melina-as-the-secret-child theory.)
I would like to point out that Radagon married and had children with Rennala, so it seems unlikely that Marika and Radagon were the same person before their marriage. Also, Ranni wouldn't inherit the "ability to split herself into two beings" because she was only the child of Radagon, not both Radagon and Marika. Miquella and Malenia were children of Radagon and Marika, yet they don't have this similar ability.
If you let Melina burn herself and the Erdtree before doing the frenzied flame quest, it will not trigger the cutscence in the ending were Melina took torrents ring from the ground. However, If you do the frenzied flame ending and let yourself burned instead of Melina, it will trigger the cutscene in the ending where Melina's left eye is already opened. Maybe this points to something I don't know.
My thought that I can’t articulate well is that Ranni and Melena were once the same being, the gloom eyed queen, upon being defeated by maliketh they should’ve died but as destined death was now sealed marika remade them into a new being(becoming their mother) the child Ranni who was then raised with Rennala. When Ranni suicided to break her fate from the 2 fingers which was to replace Marika, she essentially woke up the part of her that was the gloom eyed queen which is melena. It feels to me that empyrean are meant to be kinda dual souled people, we have marika/radagon as well as melania and miquella who I believe are cursed as they are separate beings completely, she had a body that is rotting away, he has eternal youth, combine them and they cancel out, they should’ve been a single being but dual souled. I think Ranni/Melena are the same which is why when they died in body there are 2 distinct souls which are connected but separate. Also sword of night and flame is found in Caria manor, whic for me fits as a weapon for this potential empyrean, Ranni with night, melena with flame/day, together make dusk/gloam.
@@nostalji93 well it’s the rune of the unborn, so imo Ranni was t really born but remade, same way as players are for stats and stuff. She wasn’t a new soul but the gloom eyed queen reborn. At least that’s how I reconcile it.
@@nostalji93 ye if you look all the clones I think have mismatched eyes, if you think rennala is convince Ranni died and tries to remake her in the same image it has a blue and brown eye(I think I remember right but can’t find any pics) which I think is interesting.
I mean the most obvious connection between Rani and Melina is right there at the frenzied flame ending. When she says she will send you Destined Death (Which is another name for the Rune of Death). And who else has sent the Rune of Death after people? Well none other than Rani herself when she sent the Black Knives. I think they are the same person. There is a reason she has two sets of hands. In fact duality, or two being one, seems to be a thing with all the empyrean/gods. Radagan/Marika, Malenia/Miquella, Ranni/Renna(who I think is Melina). I could also be wrong and Melina is acually the third sister. as in Seluvis's rise was originally her tower Melina's Rise. Infact bad things seem to happen is they are separate Radagan and Marika separating causes the problems to start with and Malenia being separate from Miquella seems to have left both broken. Anyway these are just some theories I've been thinking about.
I feel like the bit about deathroot is more like an unintended result of Ranni's plan rather than her intention, since deathroot was a result of godwyn's dead yet still alive body becoming corrupted and corrupting the erdtree through the roots. Plus Ranni learned magic from an Ice Witch, and even went as far as model her doll body after said mentor. Said body having a similar look to Melina is perhaps intended. Perhaps She was Melina's mother? It would explain why Ranni and Melina can teleport around in the same icy fashion and know of torrent, who may have originally been the witch's. Perhaps the ice witch was an alias used by the Gloam eyed Queen? Or an alter ego of sorts? There's a lot more to dig up and piece out for a proper picture, though I feel we won't have any solid answers until the DLCs start rolling out.
This is exactly what I was wondering about after completing the game, great video! I would love for you to do a video about Sir Gideon Ofnir. Specifically, what were his motives? Why did he encourage you and tell you what to do, when he planned to stop you the whole time? I feel like there's a lot to unpack there.
For me it goes like this: he is all knowing because the world is estagneted, the stars are stuck in place and nothing significant is changing. This is an opportunity to know everything since nothing new is being created or happening, he wants to keep the Status Quo at ALL COSTS because this garantees he knows everything about this stale world. So, a tarnished pursiung the elden nring, trying to become lord is part of that so he alows it, but to ACTUALLY achieve it and breaking the estagnation, no sir. (english is not my language i am sorry)
@@stefanolozardo9711 My take is that he discovers that Merika was plotting against the Golden Order with Ranni and he doesnt want you to wake her up cause he is aligned with the golden order or he believes that Merika is evil.I dont think he is all knowing, he is very blind to everything that happens around him in the roundtable and lets several people die without noticing or trying to help them.
When you fight Morgott you can summon Melina. She uses the same moveset as the black knife assassins, so she's most likely one too, in the service of Ranni.
Man this was amazing. I love hearing these ideas based on the actual lore and it’s so entertaining and I know some of these aren’t actual lore but your ideas on them but man you did an amazing job at tying it up together and it all makes sense to me. If they ever made a sequel or a dlc it would be awesome if you started with a character that became the lord of frenzied flame, Malenia would hunt you throughout the quest like Mr X and Nemesis on the resident evil series. Amazing work!
This is a really good theory. Also, you are basically delivering everyone their destined death with the assistance of Melina. So, in a way you are doing her bidding and fulfilling her purpose. I think Ranni killed herself just to give birth to Melina. This is why they look like each other, Melina basically possesses half of Ranni's spirit. Ranni's plan was to defy Marika's order by killing the demigods. And this is what you actually do during the game.
You seriously make the best lore dives that I've been able to find for Elden Ring. I think I've seen one other that was comparable to you but I think your videos had higher entertainment value. I can't speak for everyone but I would love your version of those people that have been covered because they occasionally lose their consistency and create plot holes in their own theories or conclusions or the more infuriating one is when they have the facts right but totally misinterpret what they mean. You do an excellent job with the information, the interpretation, and having a personality while doing it. Almost all the other lore people sound like they need a couple shots of espresso lol.
i’ll add that once the Erdtree has been set aflame, you are then transported to Farum azula by who we can only assume was Melina, allowing you to collect the rune of death so you could return it to the elden ring to bring back destined death to the lands between. I’m really looking forward to what story expansion we’ll get from dlc, i’m hoping for one themed around the age of giants and dragons
This supports so much of my theory on who Melina is! Would you find it possible that the Gloam Eyed queen and snow witch Renna are connected? As Renna could have been torrents former master, and the connection of the death rite birds and frost magic? Ranni's physical form was meant to imitate her old mentor, right?
@@nostalji93 she is pretty vague already so it would be more uncharacteristic to go into more detail all of a student, just because she hasn't added that detail doesn't mean it isn't the case
@@petercottantail7850 It wouldn't be weird to add something like ." and the Queen of dusk, but her Essence was taken away by Maliketh. " Would add intriuge and more perspective why to rebell against the golden order. Or at least make it clearer that she speaks of the Empyrians who are still alive. Rannis translation needs to be redone anyways if it is true how much difference there is to the original japanese.
Now it also makes sense why you get teleported to Farum Azula after lighting the Erdtree on fire, to free the bound rune of death and fulfill Melinas purpose completely. Great Theory!
I’ve been fairly curious about her. She is so mysterious. One idea I had was that she mentions that she can move freely in the capital near the Erdtree. Is it possible that she is Marika? But a phantom form of sorts? Hence why she would be pissed at you with the frenzied flame ending?
I love your vids, honestly you should do vids about ALL the lore ALL the main bosses etc... who gives a crap if others have covered it.. its always great to have multiple view points especially in games like fromsoft gives us
You can summon Melina for the Morgott and she uses the blade of calling, which has an ash of war very similar to the black knives. Also the descrition fits your theory: Dagger given to one who set out on a journey to fulfill her duty long ago. The power of its former owner, the kindling maiden, is still apparent. The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death. Great Video :)
My God! Finally somebody explains the odd connections and similarities between these two characters! I have been trying to figure out my own theories as to how the two of them are connected… And you hit everything and more… I appreciate your effort and research in making this video! I’ve subscribed and can’t wait to watch more
I am so happy someone is finally covering Melina. Like I've been trying to find videos on Melina for so long and I keep finding the valkyrie lookn' chick. Like seriously Melina's the character we know the least about and she's got the most interesting implications. Now with that being said I would also like to point out that Melina's left eye is the same color as gravity magic. Both gravity and death are things that bring you to the ground.
Marika and Radagon are split beings while being one, it would make sense that Ranni and Melina (her daughter(s)) are also a single being. Split in a different way potentially since one can die and the other can still live. There might even be something of a split nature between miquella and melenia too. Also godwin and Godrick? Lots of duos. Just speculation.
The Valkyrie in the Shaded Castle isn’t Melania, it’s one of her minions you can fight in the Shaded Castle, where you find Millicent’s prosthetic arm.
I also like the idea that Marika, who first served the GW and removed death, just straight up changed her mind and wanted to die a true death (or deliver it to the GW) and decided to aid and abet the Gloam Eyed Queen - which is why Melina can hear her actual thoughts and voice. It could also contribute to her betrayal of Maliketh - after everything he did to stop death, she just wants it back anyway. Maybe she thought the Gloam Eyed Queen was the only one who knew how to properly kill a god, but because she had long ago defeated the Gloam Eyed Queen, she had to find other avenues. Or maybe she found a way to resurrect or empower the GEQ.
Incredible video. Thx for this. I don’t know how you were able to extrapolate all that info and put it together but it’s fuckin awesome lol this game is all time
I’m not sure if this has already been posted, but the root resin item description proves that the Greattree and Erdtree were to separate thing and not just a translation error.
12:33 "Ranni was the Great Rune of the Unborn" Wasn't that rune given to Rennala by Radagon? How does Ranni embody that rune? Also Gideon says that Ranni cast aside her Great Rune, so my understanding is that we never learn or confirm what that rune was.
There’s one thing about Ranni that is problematic for the “Melina is Ranni” theory: Ranni’s artificial body is based directly on the appearance of her witch mentor. Unless Ranni decided to make one oddly specific change to the face, the witch was likely the one who possessed the closed eye to begin with. Much like Melina herself, the witch mentor advised Ranni to bring about a new age. If there is a Ranni and Melina connection, it’s likely through this mysterious witch.
@@nostalji93 dont know if I got you. I also dont think Melina is Ranni, but I meant that the spirit face is unrelated to the doll body... if Ranni was a green orc I still think the spirit face would fit Melina perfectly... Dont know when we will get this figured but I need to believe this was intentional... so I can sleep through my nights
What you are saying actually would double down even more that they are the same, unless we are to discard the holograohic melina that shares with ranni's closed eye. The puppet's appearance gives doubt they are the same but remembering it is what it is, just a puppet means Ranni could look like anything originally. Them being 'the same' however doesn't seem right. They are possibly just closely connected
Noticed while watching the video, the gem in the Apostle robe's chest is the same purple as her eye. Definitely digging the connection. Personally I'm in the camp that believes Marika herself is the architect of the downfall of the Golden Order and our role as the Tarnished who will be elden lord, so not so sure about establishing Ranni as the primary architect. But everything else about the theory has so much potential!
I subscribe to the gloam eyed queen theory but I'm not convinced on the Ranni angle, first thing, their face don't match up, I checked it in the 3D models from the game, second, Ranni creating Melina is something that would've been mentioned more if it was the case, we know from Ranni herself that she only tried killing herself, she didn't set out to spread death or something like that, she just wanted to be freed from the control of the fingers dictating her life's path (as she's the child of an other outer god) I think that the mark on Melina's eyes is the sign of Maliketh's seal, when she was sealed away she was reborn by Marika herself and sent out to find a new Elden Lord as Marika was trying to rebel against the Elden God, during that time she found Vyke, Vyke is a weird character as we're told he was the only one that was close to becoming the Elden Lord and is meant to be kind of a mirror to the player's character, he gave in into the frenzied flame. Now, Melina hates the frenzied flame and is burned, Torrent is actually burnt as well (if you inspect his game files his textures make that very clear, as does the naming), I think Torrent's former master was no other then Vyke himself, I'm not sure if Melina got her burns from Maliketh's death sword or from the frenzied flame but it can go either way, Torrent on the other hand likely got burnt from the Frenzied Flame. Making Marika the true "mother" of Melina (keep in mind there's cut dialogue from Melina that suggests she never actually knew or had a mother, in the true sense of the word), giving her purpose and cementing Marika's goals to rebel against the Elden God When the frenzied flame kills the Elden God or destroys the order etc her seal is broken and she regains her former form as the gloam eyed queen.
This is the best theory i've seen so far on the Melina topic!! Honestly i'm totally buying it. Congratulations my guy! And thanks for the awesome take on the matter...
@@PedroVinicius-le2ce Thanks :) I may be wrong obviously, but I just never bought the whole Melina & Ranni connection, it's just too obvious and Ranni already plays a central role in the game, if she were friends with Melina or had an idea of who she is we'd know, their goals also don't align, Melina wasn't seeking to change the order itself like Ranni has, Melina is much more aligned to Marika which can only mean she's either a projection from Marika herself or a sealed gloam eyed queen, and the gloam eyed queen makes way more sense since she, well, has gloam eyes lol. Also the tattoo under the eye thing, Ranni has one because she sealed her soul into the doll, meaning if anything it's a sign of something being sealed, if Melina is representation of the death rune, which can be the case, she's still a sealed gloam eyed queen searching for her purpose. But like I said, we know Melina has been on this search for a long time and that there was one other before us that came close to be the Elden Lord, with Torrent being burnt I personally think he's his former master. There's also the issue of naming, everyone that starts with an M is a descendent directly from Marika (and Radagon, which is Marika as well), further creating the connection between her and Melina.
I never bought the whole Melina is Ranni idea either, maybe a little dip on this matter very early on the game... My thoughts on Melina until then was that she was a tool of Marika. Marika, being one with Radagon, knew that he was and would continue to be loyal to the Golden Order, and being so he would try to keep the tarnished away from the Erdtree and from entering it. (Marika foreseeing Radagon's beliefs and attitudes wouldn't be absurd imo, whereas she prophesied the entire history of the Tarnished). Therefore Marika conceived Melina "at the foot of the Erdtree" and gave Melina her purpose to aid a tarnished become lord by putting Radagon's barrier down for us "to enter the Erdtree and brandish the Elden Ring". This was before i've acomplished the Lord of the Frenzied Flame ending, so before any obvious conections between Melina and the Gloom-eyed queen... Seeing Goth Melina made me rethink this theory.
Didn't you find Melinas Dagger in the evelator of rold? It says this belonged to a cinder maide and also " who which wanders the path of Flame, is meant to cross destined Death, which may explain why Melina is capable of setting the Erdtree ablaze. Also when summon her for the Morgott bossfight in Leyndell, she moves like a Black Knife Assassin. Besides from that Melinas Dagger shares the same weapon art as the Black Knife Assassins Dagger, just a in gold instead of black This itself is no contradiction for ur theory here. Merely a origin story of her, before she became the Melina we met. The same comment I wrote in the comment section in a theory Video, which wanted to explain that Ranni and Melina are the same, like Margitt and Morgott. Also I stated before, that I think Melina is the opposite to Ranni. Melina is a hard reset for the golden order Ranni wants to install a new order. This brings me to the conclusion that, the Golden Order is just a system created by the greater Will, to control Life itself on the lands between. The Erdtree is a representation of the Tree of Life, Yggdrasil. In Elden Ring the Erdtree got explained to a physical manifestation of the Golden Order, the Laws of Nature, the core of all of this is the the great rune Elden Ring. Elden Ring is the Motor, the Erdtree is Body and Marika is just a fuel. A New cycle begins with a new vessel for the Elden Ring, aka a new fuel tank. Marika resisted the greater Will, she shattered the Elden Ring, to remove Death from the laws of the game and that's why she became the eternal. But to remove Death, she also had to remove Order, to become a true ruler. When Life is defined by Death, you can't hardly say a Live without death is a live. Yea Marika got imprisoned for the shattering by the greater Will, but in my opinion this is developers way to say live itself can become a prison. Like when someone in the hospital is connected to a machine to keep one alive.
I think the Erdtree doesn’t belong to earth nor nature but it is parasite sent from alien outer god (Greater Will) space or higher dimension or wherever far from earth The incantation “Elden Star” description says Greater will sent golden meteor (Elden beast) to the earth and the Elden beast become Erdtree
when Ranni wanted to escape the control of the greater Will, she sacrificed her body and had her brother Godwyn killed for a ritual. Her body would die but not her spirit, and Godwyn's spirit would die but not his body. This way she could have a new body and thus escape the Order. What if, that body that she sacrificed became Melina?
@@windwalker111089 You found her body when you get one half of the death rune, that’s her body with the rune on top of tower instead of the two fingers
@@Noobmistress99 I believe that was Godwyn's body. His body had half of the death rune and Fia gained the other half when she was with him. Hence Godwyn was was called the prince of death, since when they tried to cure/revive his body with the Erdtree, it brought deathroot instead. so they had to remove his body and place it somewhere else.Man does this have so much lore that I doubt myself with this though lol😅
It’s also weird that after expelling the Frenzied Flames influence, Melina still resents you even though you did it all just to save her. Which is just so weird, we never get to see her ever again in the game.
@@jamesvarela233 what i am a little dumb man what you mean purpose what purpose wasn't she only a maiden who wanted to help and why would she wanna kill us doesn;t she have feeling that we did that for her because we care love her :(
@@Jacky_Dawson she wanted to be a kindling for the flame as she thought that was her whole purpose, you took that away and get upset especially when you dealt with the three fingers.
Another Theory is that Fia could potentially be Melina's Mother. As Fia is related heavily to the Rune of Death in the game and she is the only other female figure in the story who is "in the Erdtree" at its roots at any point. So that is another very potential food for thought. (Granted there is plenty of evidence to support otherwise, but I'm not immediately willing to do away with the idea.)
Fia mentions that she was in Lindell before though and was never able to get to the root of the Erdtree unless you help her do so. Plus with her as a Deathbed Companion, it's highly unlikely that she would be ever in the Erdtree.
Here's an interesting view: What if her line about "chasing the frenzied flame as night chases day" had relevance? I'd have to know what it was in the original Japanese, but given that Ranni,. Melina, and the Gloam/Dusk Eyed Queen all have connections to night and evening, the moon, the stars etc, and the Frenzied Flame looks similar to the sun, there might be an old connection there.
I fucking love this theory, not sure if it's true but I kind of hope it is, super fun. And it ties off other loose ends like ranni's appearance. Good shit bro.
If you like what you’ve heard about the story, you should play the game. The souls games are amazing and the stories are incredibly vague and interesting. None of the theories you may come up with about the stories these games tell are never objectively wrong as you basically want to use your own imagination to fill in the gaps that the story doesn’t tell you. And then outside of story, these games are very fun but VERY challenging so be aware of that
One thing you might consider: The doll that Ranni inhabits doesn't resemble how she used to look, but is modelled after an ice witch she met. Her eventual refusal to replace Marika and consequently stealing the rune of death was influenced by the Ice witch, who therefore is the mastermind of the whole ordeal. So maybe the connection is the other way around, Ranni looks like Melina and not vice versa. There's one more (albeit quite circumstantial) evidence for this. Melina with her right golden eye closed and left blue eye open is exactly how the doll looks. A doll that mind you, is modelled after the ice witch. Melina appearing to Ranni as the Ice Witch would have chosen to cover her golden eye of grace and open her blue dusky eye of death, and influence Ranni to reject grace and steal the rune of death. Also, another evidence that Melina is related to the Elden Ring itself and not Marika is that Melina has no issues with what happens to Marika but objects when the rune itself and the golden order is at risk like when the flame of frenzy would subvert the logic of the world.
Wouldn’t rannis ending piss melina off then? If they’re the same person or if ranni is based off melina wouldn’t rannis ending be a conflict of interest?
@@D0UBL3D0P3 Ranni's ending would not piss Melina off since the rune stays intact but the god/goddess acting as a vessel for the rune gets replaced from Marika to Ranni. Melina being of the rune suffers no consequences.
@@edkopik The doll's face looks exactly like how melina WOULD look as the ice witch. Think about it like this, Melina has two eyes, G for golden, B for blue. Then this is how they are ordered. G-B. I'm theorizing she'd close G and would look like this X-B This is what the doll's actual stony face looks like, X-B. Now Melina as she is now resembles the apparition beside the doll more, but that is not what I was referencing.
So theres a way to "save" melina. I'm currently trying to do this. You take the frienzied flame. Melina leaves you, do the millicent questline to get the item to undo the frienized flame. you burn yourself as tinder to burn the erdtree, then undo the friendzied flame ending. And then pick one of the other endings, she never burns so she doesnt die.
There’s also another theory of an Outer god being the “Mother of Death Birds” And since we are talking about birds and crow’s claw, this could mean that Mother of Death birds is an outer god that is related to the Destined death (or death rune) or could even be that Destined Death is an actual god that has its influence on the Elden ring and goes by the name of Mother of death Birds and this “Eye Queen” I forgot how it’s called. There are several outer gods in the game that constantly influences this world: Greater Will, Mother of Death Birds, God of Flame, the Moon itself and finally the Frenzied Flame, which is incarnated as the three fingers and can possibly be named as“Shabiri”.
What do you want to see most from Elden Ring's inevitable DLC content?
Can’t wait for Miquella and Malenia Duo (crying）
Awesome video
Miquella to emerge from the cocoon as Moghgywn, bride of Mogh.
So we can finally put him out of his misery.
Miquella
Horse upgrades and customization
We need DLCs for
- Godskin Apostles/ Dusk eye Queen
- Miquella & Malenia
- The past eras of beast & Dragons
pf! nah~! we need DLCs, sequels and prequels! :D
(imagine a spin off - sekiro like with one fixed character - as you (melina) go and murder the lord of frenzy xD
The void, the stars, and space
Three headed plasidusax! We all saw the nub he had. We want our blue eyes ultimate dragon lord.
Beast and dragons? You mean… Bloodborne/Sekiro and… Dark Souls/Demon Souls?
@@Tikdickler remember that the old lord's talisman depicts plasidusax with FOUR heads, it would be really awesome to fight that BEAST in full power
Thank you so much for the shoutout! I think you should still make those videos! I try to cover as much as I can but as many commenters have pointed out, I still miss so much, and your previous Ranni and Marika video were so good, I actually skipped both of them because I couldn't piece them together as well as you did.
I'm a fan of your videos. Keep up. The great work!
So you did what you're saying he shouldn't do 😉 Nah jk jk the more videos the merrier ✌🏻
Respect between artists like this is so cool to see. You guys are both great! Keep it up!
Thisbis good to see
9:27
You forgot to mention that when you summon her for the Morgott boss fight, she has the same moveset as a Black Knife Assassin and uses the Blade of Calling as her weapon and also has Erdtree Healing incantations. It's also noteworthy how you can find her entire armor set in the Haligtree in a room right before the Malenia fight.
I assumed her body was where you found the blade of calling.
@@OD91MJ No, it's found in a hidden room that's found whilst using the elevator that leads to Forbidden Lands.
the traveller’s clothing is also worn by Millicent
@@truthhc And by Millicent's sisters.
@@StanleyG23 what's the name of the armor set? I wanna look this up
I really really hope we get to see more Melina. She's so pleasant to talk to.
Also, poor torrent. It broke my heart to see the whistle fade away in Melina's hand. I like to think he held on until he could tell her bye.
That was truly the worst ending
Even sadder when you realize he is a baby. He is the infant version of the ancestral spirit. In that ending you can hear him crying
@@the_ideal_grease5565 yeah it’s one of From Softwares bleakest and saddest by far.
there is a reason that ending is the second rarest achievement (the most rare is 'have all achievements but that doesnt count')
@@Alex-bw6yd well, all bloodborne endings were much worse
It's occuring to me now that based on the games starting location, the scion killing us, I can only assume we were a tarnished candidate to be grafted onto Godrick
Yeah, godrick is literally spawn camping us with that scion
The Tarnished are banished beings returning to The Land Between after being touched by the grace.
@@SophiaLilithUwU lmao
@@watertommyzBro… the Tarnished already returned, we probably were in the Lands Between before the game. We were probably bout to get grafted onto Godrick.
The thing is, we would’ve never been grafted onto as we are special, noticed that most tarnish when killed never returned to their grace or respond we possess the power to do that we are fundamentally immortal
as an artist, I LOVE HER DESIGN! its so simple silent quiet yet very elegant and memorable. her eyes i dont know what but something about it tells me a lot about her.
What's also interesting is the fact that her tattoo is clearly faded in the Frenzied Flame ending, leaving behind a skin mark. To me, that seems like the tattoo may have been a seal. That eye is closed when the tattoo is there and open when it's not, after all.
sealed until you kill maliketh releasing destined death? maybe? 🤔
If you look at the two tattoos on Ranni and Melina's face, it is almost like they are two halves of the same symbol. With Ranni having two crow fingers and Melina having three, it exactly mirrors the theory that the Two Fingers and the Three Fingers were one entity that split apart, kind of proving that they are two halves of the same person as well.
Its factual, melina and ranni were the same person. Just like her father was also marika.
Kinda the opposite of what Malika stands for: Death (Melina) and the Moon (Ranni being the harbinger of Age of the Stars and daughter of the Runela)... Funny how they are her kids at the same time, albeit from different side of Yin(Radagon, the male side with Runella the queen of the Moon worshipers) and Yan (Malika, the queen of the Numen and Elden Ring)...
@@chunellemariavictoriaespan8752 you spelled marika wrong and rennala wrong as well
@@jomo148 Hehehe😅😅😅Sorry😅😅😅
There is no hand with 2 or 3 fingers. It makes sense when they join, you finally have a hand with 5 fingers.
I was following until the eye mark thing led to the crow nonsequitur, when there's a much stronger and more relevant connection - her marks (and colour) match the Beast Eye Gurranq gives you, which responds to Deathroot. That is to say, Gurranq, or Maliketh, has Melina's original eye, and who is Maliketh's one confirmed kill? The GEQ, former holder of Destined Death. You could further point out that his title was Death of the Demigods, despite every known demigod being accounted for, Godwyn being the first to die in "recorded history" according to Rogier, and again, his only known casualty being the GEQ, suggesting GEQ is a demigod. And that lines up quite nicely with Melina being a hidden demigod, since she's born inside the Erdtree, and has a strong connection with Marika.
There's also an interesting timeline issue - there's a lot that suggests GEQ is an older figure; for one, she used Destined Death before Maliketh, and Maliketh was given Destined Death at the creation of the Golden Order, so GEQ must preceed the Golden Order, for another, the Noble Presence description describes it as a trophy of a god hunt, strongly implying the succesful killing of gods, but every post-Golden Order god or demigod is accounted for (Miquella notwithstanding). But she's also an empyrean chosen by her (two?) fingers, so she can't have preceeded the Elden Beast's coming, and if she did preceed Marika, then not by a lot (she'd be the only pre-Marika empyrean, yet we know of 3 post-Marika empyreans), and obviously she was still around in Marika and Maliketh's time. She certainly doesn't seem to belong to some forgotten age of dragons or deathbirds.
The way to create a cohesive picture of Melina is to see her as being both a demigod child of Marika, and the GEQ. Suddenly the timeline makes sense - as a child of Marika, of course she can be an empyrean. How can there have been successful god hunts? But of course there were, we literally know of at least one slain god - the Fell God of the giants. Therein we find a purpose she would have received at birth - to dole out Destined Death indiscriminate to competing gods, clearing the way for Marika to become the chief and only god. Why was her purpose lost? But of course it was - Maliketh could have only defeated her at the behest of Marika, which would be a betrayal of both Melina, and her given purpose. We know Marika is no stranger to betrayal, especially when it comes to the threat of Destined Death, after all, we're told she betrayed Maliketh without even explicitly understanding what said betrayal is. Maliketh's title as Death of the Demigods now makes sense - he killed the forgotten (possibly first?) demigod, Melina. Melina's actions ingame now make sense - empowering you to defeat the remaining demigods, and eventually even bringing death to the Erdtree, not to mention unleashing Destined Death.
Ranni's own actions also take on a completely different bend when viewed through this lens - shedding her empyrean flesh to live on burned and bodiless, channeling the rune of death to kill demigods, appearing in spectral form to guide the Tarnished, not only is she acting in defiance to the Golden Order, but also emulating her forgotten cousin Melina. Why does she know Torrent's former master - simple, she knew Melina, who IS Torrent's master, after all, literally the first we see of Melina is her riding Torrent. Also, the present from Torrent's former master she gives you isn't jus the spirit calling bell, but also the 3 wolf moon t-shirt ashes, remember the altar at the back of specifically Maliketh's arena depicting a girl with three wolves near her? The wolves that are associated with empyreans?
Marika's actions also suddenly have a more cohesive, and sinister form - imagine an early pre-Golden Order Marika waging war for the Erdtree, with Godfrey, Maliketh, Radagon and Melina leading her armies. Godfrey and Radagon to defeat her enemies, Maliketh to protect her as a loyal bodyguard, Melina to bring Destined Death to opposing gods. What happens after the wars are won? Godfrey is robbed of grace and sent on his long march, Maliketh is sent to defeat Melina and rob her of Destined Death, Radagon is recalled to be with Marika and make her whole again, and then as soon as the Golden Order is created, Maliketh is given the RoD and banished to Farum Azula. An image of Marika an calculating and paranoid very quickly emerges, not only betraying her comrades, but robbing them of their very purpose.
If we wanted to really go off the deep end and make the theory crazy I'd say we can look at potential connections between GEQ!Melina and either Ranni's snow witch master, or the idea of the Eternal Cities trying to make a lord (Lord of Night?) from the silver tears (which is a whole can of worms when you consider Marika might be just that - it would explain how Radagon can be both her and not, and how Melina can be her daughter without any implied father). But again, that's getting kinda out there. One thing that I think that's worth thinking about is what's up with the Flame of Ruin/Forge of Giants? Is there a Flame of Frenzy connection? After all, Melina has some connection to both, and if I'm right, also to the Fell God. Alternatively/as well, is there a connection to the crucible? The Forge is basically an open crucible after all, and Melina does seem pretty attached to life and birth, (and death of the destined and indiscriminate varieties) which seems to be the crucible's field. Anyway, I look forward to learning more in the second DLC because we're definitely getting Miquella first.
Actually... I'm suprised how much it makes sense, consdering how complicated it is .___.
Well done.
Not only is Melina related to the frenzy and ruin flames, but if she is the gloam eyed queen, she’d be related to the black flame of death as well.
Speaking on the noble presence and Maliketh being the one to kill Melina thus making her a spirit. When you face maliketh and he’s going into his second phase the roar he does that burns away his clothes is very reminiscent to the noble presence incantation which makes sense it’s descriptions stating it was a symbol of victory the move maliketh used when he killed Melina taking the tube of death inside of him.
Also another tidbit that helps this theory is the fact that right before you face morgott if you use a recalling finger remedy you are then able to summon Melina as a support NPC to fight him. They gave Melina the same exact move set for tiche and the other black knife assassins where she does the air slash of death that had the same effects that the actual black knife death wave ash of war has showings that she has the power to control or has ties to the rune of death or destined death. Also the fact that she refers to it by destined death is a dead give away as the finger maiden tells you the original older name for the tune of death was destined death. And her possible reason for hating the lord of frenzied flame. Perhaps she killed the previous would be lord/Demi god of the frenzied flame.
Also what if the reason the black knife assassins were even created was to take revenge for Marika betraying Melina? It Melina was the first demigod and lead a army for the god hunt who were her troops? What if the black knife assassins are just remnants of Melina’s squadron? Which is how they even knew how to infuse the rune of death into a weapon in the first place?which then gives them motif for killing Godwyn a emperyean who clearly came after Melina and by his title “prince of death” must of been the next to inherit Melina’s former rune and power of death. And also give reason to why queen marika upon the death of her son godwyn banished maliketh to the Farum Azula a place inbetween reality and time capable of even sustaining the former former elden lord dragon king for eternity. Maliketh being loyal did all he did as a means to atone for his negligence in the rune being stolen and used to kill her only replacement and new emperyean meant to govern it. I believe that due to the way death affects maliketh when he’s incognito as Gurranq clearly shows that holding the power of death has a negative affect on the psyche. And if the beasts eye is truly Melina’s former eye “the beast” could be referring Melina or the GEQ. And if the lord of frenzied flame can create madness surely if Melina was sent to take him out on behalf of Marika who is clearly a selfish and paranoid ruler(as most of her caliber being a god and all have been depicted to be examples Zeus,Odin, Set etc) she would’ve surely had Melina taken out as
1 her bloodlust from harboring the rune of death within her and being tasked with the duty and strength to kill indiscriminately any and all Gods who get to ahead of themselves would make her a threat to marika she couldn’t be marika the eternal with someone capable of killing her and was given the purpose of killing her to exist. Godwyn the golden was probably raised differently and being apart of the golden order was already hardwired against the possibility of killing marika and thus a better replacement as it’s holder.
Now that I’m going with this theory the Entire storyline and lore of this game makes sooooo much more sense and makes me love the writers even more. This is basically you typicall mythological Patheon family bullshit but we’re playing it out and having a key role In it and it’s all made up. Like this game is literally creating a whole historical mythic civilization and lore it’s amazing!!
Ranni’s cousin connection doesn’t make sense unless you were joking.
They’d be half related and also I don’t think they’re half related it would make more sense that it is actually part of ranni
This lore leads me to believe that Ranni's Ending is the True Ending for Elden ring. Thanks for making this!
problem is that rannis dialoge seems to be translated wrong and meens something enterily different
I think so too. Also, I noticed that all of the 4 endings where you become the Elden Lord are virtually the same with only slight variations. It's only when you go against Greater Will that you get a unique ending. The Frenzied Flame ending is obviously the bad one so that makes me think Ranni's one is the good ending. Instead relying on the power of Greater Will via the Elden Beast/Ring you claim back the "fate once writ in the night skies that had been fettered by the Golden Order" (as says the Telescope's item description). So basically instead of continuing to be slave to the Greater Will, mankind can find its own path forward.
@@hattaki3208 explain, because miyazaki makes games like dark souls to be natively English, while the Japanese dub is the one that comes second.
@@maharaja101 you can also break free from the influence of the outer gods with Goldmask's ending, the order still exists but it is now free from any god's influence and all conflict has been erased and has given way to an age of perfect order
@@danieldato6213 ya but you don’t get to have space sex with a 4 armed blue witch for all eternity. I’ll take that instead
Look Bandit, as a theorist, don't worry about trying to cover stuff others haven't covered.
Just do what you want to do. Just because someone did it first doesn't mean you doing it is pointless.
Sincerely, Saber the (maidenless (F for Melina)) Tarnished Seeker.
I totally agree with that. I played Elden Ring day one and the first theory that I watched is this one, because I love Bandit's theories.
I am agreeing whole-heartedly. Your approaches, cadence, research, and explanations add to what makes you, you. That another video exists is great but shouldn't discourage you from making your own. DO IITT DOOO IITTT DOOOOIIITTT
Fr
I’ll watch every lord video, just because 1 person did a lord video on a certain character or anything in the game doesn’t mean that someone else won’t know maybe even more stuff about it. I just love learning about the lord all together so I watch pretty much all of them 😂
@@Schmidtycent yeah I’ve heard dark souls story videos that pretty much say the same thing, but the difference are the deliveries of the videos. And everyone always has that little additional info or a joke here and there. Never get tired out of it.
Elden ring is the only game in a few years that makes me genuinely want to know what happened to characters. Like when you come back expecting to buy something or bullshit and find a corpse, or worse waiting where your friend, or at least business partner was.
Would be cool if George Martin released his back story to the game as a book 😮
As long as he fkn finished a song of ice and fire first... Hehehe..hahhehehaheh ... *Laughing manaically* never gonna happen 😢
@andrew-rn9ui you'd need miyzaki to tell us what happened, it's his story
@@andrew-rn9ui I mean its miyazaki who made the story of elden ring, tho. He is the director, lead writer and main script writer. Everything that is actually in the game is from the writing team.
Probably only he knows what things actually mean, and he probably wont ever answer the questions
One correction to offer: The "Great Tree" is not the ErdTree. Check the Root Resin item description. It specifically says it's said that the Great Tree's roots were once entwined with the roots of the Erdtree. Having them both appear in the same description is a strong indicator that they're not the same thing with some kind of problem with the translation.
I read that too. The entire world must be the Greattree, and the Erdtree is from the Elden Beast and Greater Will
Also remember she says she awoke, burned and bodiless, if you see Ranni's body atop the Divine tower, it is burned and destroyed... This means that she was "remade" at the foot of the Erdtree after Ranni killed herself with destined death. Which kind of changes some timelines, seeing as this happened at the start of the shattering wars.
I’ve been speculating lately that the Great tree IS the Erdtree, but the Erdtree is the shining grace around the tree. Almost like a parasitic takeover of the Great tree. When you walk up the the entrance of the Erdtree you see that the tree itself is not golden.
@@MisterTMemory i had a crazy thought that Marika used her own two eyes to make Ranni and Melina, but just a thought. There is definitely something linked between Ranni, Melina, and Marika
Maybe the Erdtree is some sort of sinister parasite. When it grew around people, it sort of took on their appearance, like the big strange faces. Maybe it was only a tree because it consumed the Great Tree.
I always thought the “tattoo “ over the eye was a burn from a madness spell. Especially, since when you cast Flame of Frenzy, it comes out of the same eye.
It’s a centipede it actually says it two separate times in the dialogue once in fias quest look at the centipede you pick up and look at the mark it’s the same
@@joniotte635 that’s not true lol, Melina’s tattoo and half of the Prince of Death rune look nothing alike
frenzy spells are launched from both eyes
@reeceroberts1775 the rune of death is a centipede. Also, they wouldn't look the same because they aren't the same. One is a tattoo, another is a carving made into someone's back. Besides that, we only see a small portion of the rune of Melina's face. It might look quite different with the whole thing on her face.
One fun fact is that Melina internal name in the game files is "MaricaOfDaughter". Her dialogue in the game already heavily hints at Marika being her mother.
Becoming host of the flame of frenzy, burning the tree, then using Miquella's needle would mean that Melina survives and isn't pissed at you. Kinda wish we got to see her after that.
even if you let melina burn the tree, then go become host of flame of frenzy, you still see Melina at the end saying she gonna kill you. so shes not dead there neither.
@@yugiohmaster2005 interesting
@@yugiohmaster2005 No, as someone who has done all the endings in ER and turned into the chaos lord AFTER Melina died she was dead and did not appear before the credits
@@yugiohmaster2005 I got the frenzied flame after Melina burned the tree but I don't remember seeing her during the ending. Before this video I didn't even know she could have been in the ending since I didn't see her.
@@yugiohmaster2005 if melina burns she is gone, if you turn frenzied after her death, she still stays dead and one can potentially miss out on her alternate ending
I've noticed you've twice mentioned the part where Ranni doesn't remember giving you an invite. I think the cooler approach to this part of the story is through Rogier's quest where he is investigating Ranni and sends you to serve her to gain info
I love that plot line. Especially the part where Ranni immediately sees through your attempt to gain info. Then in practically the same breath, she tells you that she doesn’t care whether or not you’re there to spy on her so long as you help her achieve her ends. It’s a hilariously honest “game respects game” moment that made Ranni one of my favorite characters.
@@H240909 i really like how smart they wrote ranni to be, she's pretty much always a step ahead of everyone, even when she has to improvise a coherent response to the utter shenanigans you can do like lying to her about torrent for no reason or insistently talking to a doll. the only time she can ever really be caught off guard is if you attack her after marrying her
@@ashencometmom5291 I'd be cuaght off guard too, if someone who just proposed to me just all of a sudden attacked me afterwards. Understandble.
16:20 pretty sure death spread through the erdtree's roots as a result of Godwyn's soulless body laying at the base of the erdtree deep underground. The mark of death got absorbed into the roots and that's how the duskborn came to be.
yeah he explained that was ranni's plan
nothing says that's where he died tho. He may have been brought there by design.
Could it be that Melina is the embodiment of the great rune that Ranni "cast away"? Melina mentions being burned and bodiless, and when you find Ranni's real body, its also burned.
Ranni l’s body isn’t burned besides on her back when she was held down by the black knife assassins and had part of the death symbol carved in her back. The rest of her body is just deteriorating
It's still burnt
@@reeceroberts1775”her body isnt burnt its just burnt”
in regards to why melina might hate the lord of frenzy, i personally think that Tarnished(your character) wasn’t the first tarnished that she guided. I believe that Vyke, who was close to becoming the first tarnished elden lord, was a knight of the round table that was the main character before us.(an additional note: Vyke is the knight we see on the cover of the game kneeling down showing his downfall) i find this interesting because when you read the description of the fingerprint armour at the end of all of the set it reads “Did he make his choice for his maiden, or did some other force lure him with suggestion?” which might mean that vyke seeked help from the Three fingers so his maiden (which in this case could be melina) wouldn’t end up sacrificing herself and burn the erdtree. Vyke was probably too weak to wield the frenzied flame and probably died attempting to burn the erdtree, reason why melina warns you of the defiling nature of the frenzied flame. I’m not a theorist and never really made any theories so maybe some points didn’t really get across but i’d like to know any comments on this theory
This is a great theory, it does make sense actually. I was wondering what her connection was to the Frenzied Flame, even if she was the Gloam Eyed Queen, I can't think of any direct correlations between the two. It makes sense if Melina needs a strong tarnished warrior to carry out her bidding and reach the flame of ruin. The last tarnished she tried to guide was Vyke, but Vyke did what a lot of people did in their playthroughs, sought out the three fingers so Melina didn't have to die for him to become Elden Lord. But like you mentioned, perhaps Vyke was incompatible with the Frenzied Flame and ended up being mentally broken by it, turning him into a mere Scion instead of the Lord. Melina begs you not to follow his path because it can only end badly, either for you or the entire world should the fusion be successful.
You can find Vyke's maiden dead in the place where he invades you
I don't think Melina is actually a Finger Maiden at all. I think she (or Varre) killed the one who was supposed to be your maiden, which is why she says "I will play the role of your Maiden"
Vyke was guided by a different maiden, Hyetta is her name and her quest is quite sad
@@reeceroberts1775 not sure about that. Plus it’s heavily hinted that the Church that Vyke invaded with his full frenzy spells in Liurnia is where his maiden died. You can soak the white cloth in her blood and why else would Vyke’s invader spirit choose that location to protect?
It’s pretty heavy handed that that was his maiden.
Dang. I always just assumed that Ranni and Melina were the same person. But this actually makes sense. I haven’t really delved into much of the Godskin Apostles’ lore because of I have grown to despise them after a particular boss that happens to come right before Maliketh. But after learning about them a bit more from this video, I can see this being a likely possibility
Throw a sleep pot at them and it makes it a joke!
Still would say she's Rannis other half just like Marika and the twins are each others. It makes more sense Ranni awakened her by killing her body and it also explains why with the frenzy end her other eye is like Rannis if they haven't combined out of a sheer anger you ruined both of their paths and doomed the world.
Also remember she says she awoke, burned and bodiless, if you see Ranni's body atop the Divine tower, it is burned and destroyed... This means that she was "remade" at the foot of the Erdtree after Ranni killed herself with destined death.
Thank you can find ranni original body BURNED I still believe melina is ranni
honestly changed my mind, since radagon is marika, and ranni is supposed to be radagon/rennala children i guess, and milenia marika daughter. So they either are the same person or sisters idk.
Very good and interesting theory that may stand true, two thing I'd like to add is that. 1. you can summon Melina to fight Morgott along side you. 2. After you fight Morgott and head towards the mountains, as you are heading up(or down i cant remember at this time) the elevator towards the grand lift to the mountain tops, you can find a dagger called "Blade of calling" which is the exact same dagger Melina uses in the fight with Morgott. The item description for said dagger is: "Dagger given to one who set out on a journey to fulfill her duty long ago. The power of its former owner, the kindling maiden, is still apparent.
The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death."
Maybe something to add in a later video. All in all a very great watch :)
I can somewhat add to this as Black Knifes (weapons) are extremely similar to the Knife of Calling.
That's an amazing find and catch!!
Well damn that adds a ton.
We can infer the line, "the one who walks alongside flame"
Can either mean her duty is to become the flame and the flame has always accompanied her. Or it refers to the player, in the flame lord ending.
I think the player is more likely here, as "shall one day meet the road of destined death." Would mean that the player that she accompanied and walked alongside would lead her down the road to achieve the players destined death and by extension her own.
@@aidanmullard8508 good input for sure! when you burn the erdtree she will also say "The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death"
The dagger is interesting. It does holy damage so likely that "power of it's former owner" originates from the Elden Ring, which makes me think that this "kindling maiden", who I assume gave the dagger to her, could be Marika. Another interesting thing is the moveset of the weapon is the same as the Black Knife (and Melina has the same moveset as Black Knife assassins when you fight Morgott with her). This would also connect her to both Ranni (created the Black Knives) and Marika (The assassins were Numen women with close ties to Marika)
You earned my sub with that breakdown man, her presence and lack of knowledge about her has been irking me a lot but you really put the pieces together with this. Even if this turns out not being right, you make a very compelling case.
The tattoo on her eye is actually a sigil that appears in one of the incantations of the frenzied flame. It does fire damage and can drive the caster insane if you cast it too much.
Look more closely. It's actually a centipede. The description says it and so does Fia
@@moonman726 if combined with rannis tattoo it also forms malikeths left arm (the one destined death is bound to)
Gay
It's not the same
@@Pikachu-qr4yb Yes, it is.
That was so GOOD. I love your style of lore videos, trying to understand the underlying concepts of the game worlds and drawing conclusions from that.
Another detail about melina and her relationship to death is that she only ever seems to appear around death. Either at a site of grace where you spawn after dying, During a fight at the foot of the Erdtree or in the intro scene when she sees your dead body.
You have the option to talk to her at some of the churches of Marika too
There aren't many places in the game that you couldn't draw a connection to death from
Thought it was neat that you shouted out other content creators at the top
Thank you for the lore videos!
Well, Melina's internal name in the game files is "MaricaOfDaughter" (マリかの娘 "Marika's Daughter" in the Jp Ver.)
She straight up says it the first time you enter leyndell. She says her mother is trapped in the erdtree and when we get there we see it's marika
@@lokilucario So when we become elder lord it makes us her step father.
@@jackjohnson8305 what are you doing Step Tarnished?
(Spoiler Warning)Pretty sure she is a twin or a part of ranni they are linked some how and it could have been when she cast aside her rune she was split. There is another like this.. Radagon and Marika are one in the same.
And this would make more sense as she is burned and with no body. The body her whole soul (ranni being the other half in a doll) had was burned and had the rune of death etched on her body.
When you reach the bridge to the capital, even if you have 4 runes, you can't pass without Melina. The gate says that you don't have enough great runes.
Have you looked at the blade of calling? It’s the weapon Melina uses, found in a hidden room in the lift of rold. Has a reference to destined death
Woah nice knowledge dude!!
that weapon has holy damage tho, isnt that the opposite of death?
Hey man, great video. I like the way ur theory goes (with Melina being the Gloameyed Queen). But u forgot a very important part about Melina, that u can summon her to fight against Morgott and she has LITERALLY the same moves and weapons as the Black Knives Assassin's. So that part i think is important to understand what Melina is, was and will be, depending on ur ending on the game
I'm confused, that still fits within his theory
@@justhaku9240 It does, that's the point. Lucas was saying that Bandit missed another major piece of supporting evidence from what I understand.
@@justhaku9240 yeah it does, but my point is that it also adds a lot, and it could help understand her better. Her being a Black Knife ties her directly with Rannis plot to steak death and kill Godwyn
WHAT?! I literally didn't know that!
I both agree and disagree at the same time. You're right about Melina's move set being a holy black-knife assassin with no black flame at all, that is problem one, I would expect Melina to use blackflame in some capacity if she were the Gloam Eyed Queen. The weird bit where this makes it make more sense is if you set aside the blackflame, Melina being destined death would suggest she has the skills to kill gods which would be exactly the fighting style you would want to emulate if you were going after some gods.
One little thing to note, the blue glow effect they both share, is also a thing that appear with the albinauric women when she becomes a spirit you can summon, leaving her wolf. I wouldn't read that effect as a special link unique to melina and ranni, but more of a spirit not having a body thing.
If you notice Melina's hand in the cinematic where she finds you with Torrent, and Ranni's hand in the cinematic where you put the Dark Moon Ring on her finger; they have the exact same hand with another exact same ring on her ring finger.
Yeah and in no other scene with Melina do you see that ring. I was just thinking the same, and think FROM goofed on editing that out.
It appears that the tattoo marking over Melina's eye is faded in the Frenzied Flame ending which may mean that whatever side of her that was maybe sealed is now free.
From what I understand. Melina is Marika’s daughter and Ranni is Radagon’s daughter. Marika and Radagon are the same person therefore they’re like sisters, thus explaining their similarities. Could be wrong but that’s my current take on it
I agree with that, but I would add that Melina is also Radagon’s daughter. There are only three maidens that have ever been within a mile of the Flame of Ruin, that would be Melina, Vyke’s maiden, and Bernahl’s maiden. Vyke’s maiden was prevented from attempting to sacrifice herself once he found out a sacrifice was needed to use the giants’ forge(hence why he tried out the Frenzied Flame instead). Bernahl’s maiden is the only other maiden that did attempt it, but his armor says he was no longer a lord after she tried, and as we all know, the Erdtree remained unburnt… And in my opinion I think Bernahl tried to mooch off Tanith, then us in an attempt to get back his lordship in becoming Elden Lord. Anyway, those facts about his maiden to me are a SMALL bit of evidence that Melina is THE only maiden who is capable of using the flame of ruin, hinting that she may be part fire giant as Radagon is. Also that secret room at Leyendell’s elevator near the Forbidden Lands, her knife that she used to help us against Morgot was stashed there, and the item description refers to the last owner as the “Kindling Maiden” which is a VERY exclusive title. Then there’s the three butterflies such as the Aeonian(Malenia), Nascent(Miquella), and Smoldering(Melina) butterflies… not to mention Melina, Miquella, and Malenia would presumeably be the only 3 children Marika has that have a name that starts with “M” besides the omen twins, and their names really more specifically start with “Mo”.
My theory is quite simpler, in the game you find out that Ranni's doll that she inhabits was made in the image of the person who took care of her when she was little. If that is the case, maybe Melina is/was that person and the former master of Torrent. As such when Melina gives you Torrent, Ranni recognizes it and comes to investigate who is riding the horse of her ?dead? caretaker, Melina. This does not explain a lot of Melina's story but I do believe they are completely different people that look similar due to the use of a doll created of Melina's image.
I like this theory except the person the doll was modeled after is explicitly mentioned to be a snow witch and nothing about Melina suggests that she knows or uses cold magic.
@@AkeemLee I thought the same but the fact that she owns Torrent, a water based name, and they both teleport away with blue particle effects.... It's sus. I'd never over analyze something like this usually but they do think about these things
@@Pikachu-qr4yb Fair point
@@AkeemLee if I remember correctly, people have confirmed the snow witch is the dusk-eyed queen. And since, as the video stated, the dusk-eyed queen is the gloam-eyed queen, the former teacher of Ranni is the gloam-eyed queen. My theory is that is how Ranni learned how to cheat her way out of being an empyrean.
@@joshuasladecek4073 it has not been confirmed that the snow witch and GEQ are the same.
I think this has to be the most well put together theory so far, there's clearly a connection between Melina and Ranni but she's also linked to the Gloam-Eyed Queen and I think you've tied it together pretty nicely. Another potential link is Melina's weapon the Blade of Calling being almost identical to the Black Knife... She's also got the same move set as the Black Knife Assassins... Maybe her spirit has taken the body of one of them like Ranni has with her doll?
There's also the red spike through Marika that looks strikingly similar to the rune of death as it appears after the Maliketh fight colorwise... If that spike really is part of Destined Death then that could also explain Melina being born within the tree.
Either way earned yourself a sub man great video!
Thank you for a great video! I appreciate all that work that went into it.
Working theory about Ranni & Melina:
1) They are two sides of the same person, the same way Marika and Radagon are two sides of the same person. (Note: I am assuming that Marika and Radagon started as one person, then split due to conflicting opinions regarding the Greater Will and the order.)
2) Ranni is incensed of what Radagon did to Rennala, so much that she goes as far as committing suicide only to free herself from her ties to Radagon/Marika and the Greater Will. In fact, I think, she is out for blood… Radagon/Marika’s blood that is.
3) However, Radagon & Marika are split into two being with two conflicting agendas and Ranni is only one. So Ranni (who I am assuming has inherited Radagon’s/ Marika’s ability to split herself into two beings), splits herself into two people who have the exact opposite agendas than Radagon on one side and Marika on the other side. That is, Ranni works towards destroying the golden order, which is all that Radagon wants to preserve, and Melina works towards bringing about destined death, which is exactly what Marika doesn’t want.
4) Note1: What made me settle on Melina as Ranni’s other half is the fact that Melina attacks with the black knife assassins’ move set. Who is the only other person in the game who uses the black knives to her ends? Ranni. So it would make sense that she is familiar with them and would fashion her other self as one of them.
5) Note2: While Melina is clearly a demigod, she is never mentioned by (can’t recall his name) when he goes over the seats in the throne room. The only logical reason he’d skip a demigod would be is Melina is in fact one and the same (or rather another part) of one of the existing demigods he has already. (And I do not buy into the Melina-as-the-secret-child theory.)
I would like to point out that Radagon married and had children with Rennala, so it seems unlikely that Marika and Radagon were the same person before their marriage. Also, Ranni wouldn't inherit the "ability to split herself into two beings" because she was only the child of Radagon, not both Radagon and Marika. Miquella and Malenia were children of Radagon and Marika, yet they don't have this similar ability.
If you let Melina burn herself and the Erdtree before doing the frenzied flame quest, it will not trigger the cutscence in the ending were Melina took torrents ring from the ground. However, If you do the frenzied flame ending and let yourself burned instead of Melina, it will trigger the cutscene in the ending where Melina's left eye is already opened. Maybe this points to something I don't know.
Yeah cause she’s dead
@@aspart2842 how
@@Jacky_Dawson idk what I meant when I wrote this comment
@@aspart2842 ダミ
My thought that I can’t articulate well is that Ranni and Melena were once the same being, the gloom eyed queen, upon being defeated by maliketh they should’ve died but as destined death was now sealed marika remade them into a new being(becoming their mother) the child Ranni who was then raised with Rennala. When Ranni suicided to break her fate from the 2 fingers which was to replace Marika, she essentially woke up the part of her that was the gloom eyed queen which is melena. It feels to me that empyrean are meant to be kinda dual souled people, we have marika/radagon as well as melania and miquella who I believe are cursed as they are separate beings completely, she had a body that is rotting away, he has eternal youth, combine them and they cancel out, they should’ve been a single being but dual souled. I think Ranni/Melena are the same which is why when they died in body there are 2 distinct souls which are connected but separate. Also sword of night and flame is found in Caria manor, whic for me fits as a weapon for this potential empyrean, Ranni with night, melena with flame/day, together make dusk/gloam.
mind blown
But isnt Ranni born from the Great rune Radagon gifted to Rennala? How does that fit?
@@nostalji93 well it’s the rune of the unborn, so imo Ranni was t really born but remade, same way as players are for stats and stuff. She wasn’t a new soul but the gloom eyed queen reborn. At least that’s how I reconcile it.
@@matttownsend8406 makes this good bye present even creeper. "I am leaving you but hey how about you take this and design yourself a daughter?"
@@nostalji93 ye if you look all the clones I think have mismatched eyes, if you think rennala is convince Ranni died and tries to remake her in the same image it has a blue and brown eye(I think I remember right but can’t find any pics) which I think is interesting.
I mean the most obvious connection between Rani and Melina is right there at the frenzied flame ending. When she says she will send you Destined Death (Which is another name for the Rune of Death). And who else has sent the Rune of Death after people? Well none other than Rani herself when she sent the Black Knives. I think they are the same person.
There is a reason she has two sets of hands. In fact duality, or two being one, seems to be a thing with all the empyrean/gods. Radagan/Marika, Malenia/Miquella, Ranni/Renna(who I think is Melina). I could also be wrong and Melina is acually the third sister. as in Seluvis's rise was originally her tower Melina's Rise.
Infact bad things seem to happen is they are separate Radagan and Marika separating causes the problems to start with and Malenia being separate from Miquella seems to have left both broken. Anyway these are just some theories I've been thinking about.
I feel like the bit about deathroot is more like an unintended result of Ranni's plan rather than her intention, since deathroot was a result of godwyn's dead yet still alive body becoming corrupted and corrupting the erdtree through the roots.
Plus Ranni learned magic from an Ice Witch, and even went as far as model her doll body after said mentor. Said body having a similar look to Melina is perhaps intended.
Perhaps She was Melina's mother? It would explain why Ranni and Melina can teleport around in the same icy fashion and know of torrent, who may have originally been the witch's. Perhaps the ice witch was an alias used by the Gloam eyed Queen? Or an alter ego of sorts?
There's a lot more to dig up and piece out for a proper picture, though I feel we won't have any solid answers until the DLCs start rolling out.
DLC's don't um, always answer questions in Souls games...and they usually open up more.
@@watertommyz idk i think the ringed city wrapped up dark souls pretty nicely.
I love these theories! All of them ! It's amazing how some of you guys can put all this stuff together!
Best Melina video!! 🎉 i hope theres more with the Gloam eyed queen or Melina in the DLC
I honestly hope that one day we can get a DLC that can shed some light to this, and other amazing theories that float online.
A lore breakdown of the twinbird and the connections with Maliketh, the Walking Mausoleums, etc would be awesome.
This is exactly what I was wondering about after completing the game, great video! I would love for you to do a video about Sir Gideon Ofnir. Specifically, what were his motives? Why did he encourage you and tell you what to do, when he planned to stop you the whole time? I feel like there's a lot to unpack there.
For me it goes like this: he is all knowing because the world is estagneted, the stars are stuck in place and nothing significant is changing. This is an opportunity to know everything since nothing new is being created or happening, he wants to keep the Status Quo at ALL COSTS because this garantees he knows everything about this stale world. So, a tarnished pursiung the elden nring, trying to become lord is part of that so he alows it, but to ACTUALLY achieve it and breaking the estagnation, no sir. (english is not my language i am sorry)
@@stefanolozardo9711 do not apologize if its not your 1st language. Its already impressive that you can speak another language to begin with.
@@stefanolozardo9711 My take is that he discovers that Merika was plotting against the Golden Order with Ranni and he doesnt want you to wake her up cause he is aligned with the golden order or he believes that Merika is evil.I dont think he is all knowing, he is very blind to everything that happens around him in the roundtable and lets several people die without noticing or trying to help them.
He took the cowards path to the elden throne. Letting you collect the shards and kill the shardbearers. Giving you info on how and where.
This definitely, it also raises the question of his adopted daughter, considering her lineage.
When you fight Morgott you can summon Melina. She uses the same moveset
as the black knife assassins, so she's most likely one too, in the
service of Ranni.
Man this was amazing. I love hearing these ideas based on the actual lore and it’s so entertaining and I know some of these aren’t actual lore but your ideas on them but man you did an amazing job at tying it up together and it all makes sense to me. If they ever made a sequel or a dlc it would be awesome if you started with a character that became the lord of frenzied flame, Malenia would hunt you throughout the quest like Mr X and Nemesis on the resident evil series. Amazing work!
This is a really good theory. Also, you are basically delivering everyone their destined death with the assistance of Melina. So, in a way you are doing her bidding and fulfilling her purpose. I think Ranni killed herself just to give birth to Melina. This is why they look like each other, Melina basically possesses half of Ranni's spirit. Ranni's plan was to defy Marika's order by killing the demigods. And this is what you actually do during the game.
You seriously make the best lore dives that I've been able to find for Elden Ring. I think I've seen one other that was comparable to you but I think your videos had higher entertainment value. I can't speak for everyone but I would love your version of those people that have been covered because they occasionally lose their consistency and create plot holes in their own theories or conclusions or the more infuriating one is when they have the facts right but totally misinterpret what they mean. You do an excellent job with the information, the interpretation, and having a personality while doing it. Almost all the other lore people sound like they need a couple shots of espresso lol.
This is hands down the best explanation for Melina, and checks out with the fact that she want to kill you when you destroy order.
one of the best theories ive ever heard on any video game franchise, movie franchise, TV shows etc. This changes my perspective on melina
i’ll add that once the Erdtree has been set aflame, you are then transported to Farum azula by who we can only assume was Melina, allowing you to collect the rune of death so you could return it to the elden ring to bring back destined death to the lands between. I’m really looking forward to what story expansion we’ll get from dlc, i’m hoping for one themed around the age of giants and dragons
I believe malekith went mad after a piece of the Rune of death was removed from him on the night of black knives
This supports so much of my theory on who Melina is! Would you find it possible that the Gloam Eyed queen and snow witch Renna are connected? As Renna could have been torrents former master, and the connection of the death rite birds and frost magic? Ranni's physical form was meant to imitate her old mentor, right?
why doesnt Ranni mention the Gloam Eyed queen to be another Emperyrian?
@@nostalji93 she is pretty vague already so it would be more uncharacteristic to go into more detail all of a student, just because she hasn't added that detail doesn't mean it isn't the case
@@petercottantail7850 It wouldn't be weird to add something like ." and the Queen of dusk, but her Essence was taken away by Maliketh. "
Would add intriuge and more perspective why to rebell against the golden order.
Or at least make it clearer that she speaks of the Empyrians who are still alive.
Rannis translation needs to be redone anyways if it is true how much difference there is to the original japanese.
Now it also makes sense why you get teleported to Farum Azula after lighting the Erdtree on fire, to free the bound rune of death and fulfill Melinas purpose completely. Great Theory!
Well that's a little obvious. But how did we get there...
@@KyngD469 the power of friendship
@@jonathanasbrock1445 😅🤣
Please keep doing these! I don’t watch anyone else, as I follow ur format easier.
Vaati’s lore vids are the best I have ever seen
I’ve been fairly curious about her. She is so mysterious. One idea I had was that she mentions that she can move freely in the capital near the Erdtree. Is it possible that she is Marika? But a phantom form of sorts? Hence why she would be pissed at you with the frenzied flame ending?
That's a cool thought too. But Marika wasn't burned in any way that we would know of.
Why wouldnt she be pissed, you decided too end the world and kill torrent and not let her have her destined sacrifise
This is my theory too
@@izawa9211 ending the world is destined death, which is what she wants no?
@@rocketman3770 no its not? She litellary tells us she wont follow us if we get touched by fingers.
16:45 oh god I hope she’s ready for a completion time of like 300hrs+ because that’s how long this games probably going to be kicking my butt 😂
I love your vids, honestly you should do vids about ALL the lore ALL the main bosses etc... who gives a crap if others have covered it.. its always great to have multiple view points especially in games like fromsoft gives us
This is a very impressive lore breakdown. Well done. Very well done.
You can summon Melina for the Morgott and she uses the blade of calling, which has an ash of war very similar to the black knives. Also the descrition fits your theory:
Dagger given to one who set out on a journey to fulfill her duty long ago. The power of its former owner, the kindling maiden, is still apparent.
The one who walks alongside flame, Shall one day meet the road of Destined Death.
Great Video :)
My God! Finally somebody explains the odd connections and similarities between these two characters! I have been trying to figure out my own theories as to how the two of them are connected… And you hit everything and more… I appreciate your effort and research in making this video! I’ve subscribed and can’t wait to watch more
+1 evidence for the idea that the empyreans *are* runes - when Fia lays with Godwyn, their "child" is a mending rune
I am so happy someone is finally covering Melina. Like I've been trying to find videos on Melina for so long and I keep finding the valkyrie lookn' chick. Like seriously Melina's the character we know the least about and she's got the most interesting implications.
Now with that being said I would also like to point out that Melina's left eye is the same color as gravity magic. Both gravity and death are things that bring you to the ground.
Out of all the videos I've watched regarding Melina, this one just makes the most sense.
Melina was pretty clearly the gloam eyed queen and likely the teacher of Ranni.
Marika and Radagon are split beings while being one, it would make sense that Ranni and Melina (her daughter(s)) are also a single being. Split in a different way potentially since one can die and the other can still live. There might even be something of a split nature between miquella and melenia too. Also godwin and Godrick? Lots of duos. Just speculation.
The Valkyrie in the Shaded Castle isn’t Melania, it’s one of her minions you can fight in the Shaded Castle, where you find Millicent’s prosthetic arm.
Melania is known as the one armed Valkyrie however.
I also like the idea that Marika, who first served the GW and removed death, just straight up changed her mind and wanted to die a true death (or deliver it to the GW) and decided to aid and abet the Gloam Eyed Queen - which is why Melina can hear her actual thoughts and voice. It could also contribute to her betrayal of Maliketh - after everything he did to stop death, she just wants it back anyway. Maybe she thought the Gloam Eyed Queen was the only one who knew how to properly kill a god, but because she had long ago defeated the Gloam Eyed Queen, she had to find other avenues. Or maybe she found a way to resurrect or empower the GEQ.
Incredible video. Thx for this. I don’t know how you were able to extrapolate all that info and put it together but it’s fuckin awesome lol this game is all time
I’m not sure if this has already been posted, but the root resin item description proves that the Greattree and Erdtree were to separate thing and not just a translation error.
12:33 "Ranni was the Great Rune of the Unborn"
Wasn't that rune given to Rennala by Radagon? How does Ranni embody that rune? Also Gideon says that Ranni cast aside her Great Rune, so my understanding is that we never learn or confirm what that rune was.
what if melina is the ranni's rune, while havin its shape on her eye
There’s one thing about Ranni that is problematic for the “Melina is Ranni” theory: Ranni’s artificial body is based directly on the appearance of her witch mentor.
Unless Ranni decided to make one oddly specific change to the face, the witch was likely the one who possessed the closed eye to begin with. Much like Melina herself, the witch mentor advised Ranni to bring about a new age. If there is a Ranni and Melina connection, it’s likely through this mysterious witch.
I guess the Ranni is Melina theory is based on the Spirit Face of Ranni. Not Ranni's corporeal face. So her actual appearance would be irrelevant
Melina isnt Ranni, but the fact that the doll is modeled after the witch doesn't mean it would look the identical to her.
@@nostalji93 dont know if I got you. I also dont think Melina is Ranni, but I meant that the spirit face is unrelated to the doll body... if Ranni was a green orc I still think the spirit face would fit Melina perfectly... Dont know when we will get this figured but I need to believe this was intentional... so I can sleep through my nights
What you are saying actually would double down even more that they are the same, unless we are to discard the holograohic melina that shares with ranni's closed eye. The puppet's appearance gives doubt they are the same but remembering it is what it is, just a puppet means Ranni could look like anything originally. Them being 'the same' however doesn't seem right. They are possibly just closely connected
@@petercottantail7850 Copium
Bruh it's been over 2 years already
Noticed while watching the video, the gem in the Apostle robe's chest is the same purple as her eye. Definitely digging the connection.
Personally I'm in the camp that believes Marika herself is the architect of the downfall of the Golden Order and our role as the Tarnished who will be elden lord, so not so sure about establishing Ranni as the primary architect. But everything else about the theory has so much potential!
Also if Melina is part of Ranni’s soul, that would make Marina her step mother of sorts and would explain the red hair
I subscribe to the gloam eyed queen theory but I'm not convinced on the Ranni angle, first thing, their face don't match up, I checked it in the 3D models from the game, second, Ranni creating Melina is something that would've been mentioned more if it was the case, we know from Ranni herself that she only tried killing herself, she didn't set out to spread death or something like that, she just wanted to be freed from the control of the fingers dictating her life's path (as she's the child of an other outer god)
I think that the mark on Melina's eyes is the sign of Maliketh's seal, when she was sealed away she was reborn by Marika herself and sent out to find a new Elden Lord as Marika was trying to rebel against the Elden God, during that time she found Vyke, Vyke is a weird character as we're told he was the only one that was close to becoming the Elden Lord and is meant to be kind of a mirror to the player's character, he gave in into the frenzied flame.
Now, Melina hates the frenzied flame and is burned, Torrent is actually burnt as well (if you inspect his game files his textures make that very clear, as does the naming), I think Torrent's former master was no other then Vyke himself, I'm not sure if Melina got her burns from Maliketh's death sword or from the frenzied flame but it can go either way, Torrent on the other hand likely got burnt from the Frenzied Flame.
Making Marika the true "mother" of Melina (keep in mind there's cut dialogue from Melina that suggests she never actually knew or had a mother, in the true sense of the word), giving her purpose and cementing Marika's goals to rebel against the Elden God
When the frenzied flame kills the Elden God or destroys the order etc her seal is broken and she regains her former form as the gloam eyed queen.
This is the best theory i've seen so far on the Melina topic!! Honestly i'm totally buying it. Congratulations my guy! And thanks for the awesome take on the matter...
@@PedroVinicius-le2ce Thanks :) I may be wrong obviously, but I just never bought the whole Melina & Ranni connection, it's just too obvious and Ranni already plays a central role in the game, if she were friends with Melina or had an idea of who she is we'd know, their goals also don't align, Melina wasn't seeking to change the order itself like Ranni has, Melina is much more aligned to Marika which can only mean she's either a projection from Marika herself or a sealed gloam eyed queen, and the gloam eyed queen makes way more sense since she, well, has gloam eyes lol.
Also the tattoo under the eye thing, Ranni has one because she sealed her soul into the doll, meaning if anything it's a sign of something being sealed, if Melina is representation of the death rune, which can be the case, she's still a sealed gloam eyed queen searching for her purpose.
But like I said, we know Melina has been on this search for a long time and that there was one other before us that came close to be the Elden Lord, with Torrent being burnt I personally think he's his former master.
There's also the issue of naming, everyone that starts with an M is a descendent directly from Marika (and Radagon, which is Marika as well), further creating the connection between her and Melina.
I never bought the whole Melina is Ranni idea either, maybe a little dip on this matter very early on the game... My thoughts on Melina until then was that she was a tool of Marika.
Marika, being one with Radagon, knew that he was and would continue to be loyal to the Golden Order, and being so he would try to keep the tarnished away from the Erdtree and from entering it. (Marika foreseeing Radagon's beliefs and attitudes wouldn't be absurd imo, whereas she prophesied the entire history of the Tarnished).
Therefore Marika conceived Melina "at the foot of the Erdtree" and gave Melina her purpose to aid a tarnished become lord by putting Radagon's barrier down for us "to enter the Erdtree and brandish the Elden Ring".
This was before i've acomplished the Lord of the Frenzied Flame ending, so before any obvious conections between Melina and the Gloom-eyed queen... Seeing Goth Melina made me rethink this theory.
Didn't you find Melinas Dagger in the evelator of rold? It says this belonged to a cinder maide and also " who which wanders the path of Flame, is meant to cross destined Death, which may explain why Melina is capable of setting the Erdtree ablaze. Also when summon her for the Morgott bossfight in Leyndell, she moves like a Black Knife Assassin.
Besides from that Melinas Dagger shares the same weapon art as the Black Knife Assassins Dagger, just a in gold instead of black
This itself is no contradiction for ur theory here. Merely a origin story of her, before she became the Melina we met.
The same comment I wrote in the comment section in a theory Video, which wanted to explain that Ranni and Melina are the same, like Margitt and Morgott.
Also I stated before, that I think Melina is the opposite to Ranni.
Melina is a hard reset for the golden order
Ranni wants to install a new order.
This brings me to the conclusion that, the Golden Order is just a system created by the greater Will, to control Life itself on the lands between.
The Erdtree is a representation of the Tree of Life, Yggdrasil. In Elden Ring the Erdtree got explained to a physical manifestation of the Golden Order, the Laws of Nature, the core of all of this is the the great rune Elden Ring.
Elden Ring is the Motor, the Erdtree is Body and Marika is just a fuel. A New cycle begins with a new vessel for the Elden Ring, aka a new fuel tank. Marika resisted the greater Will, she shattered the Elden Ring, to remove Death from the laws of the game and that's why she became the eternal.
But to remove Death, she also had to remove Order, to become a true ruler.
When Life is defined by Death, you can't hardly say a Live without death is a live.
Yea Marika got imprisoned for the shattering by the greater Will, but in my opinion this is developers way to say live itself can become a prison. Like when someone in the hospital is connected to a machine to keep one alive.
Wow, that's a commendable perspective.
I think the Erdtree doesn’t belong to earth nor nature but it is parasite sent from alien outer god (Greater Will) space or higher dimension or wherever far from earth
The incantation “Elden Star” description says Greater will sent golden meteor (Elden beast) to the earth and the Elden beast become Erdtree
when Ranni wanted to escape the control of the greater Will, she sacrificed her body and had her brother Godwyn killed for a ritual. Her body would die but not her spirit, and Godwyn's spirit would die but not his body. This way she could have a new body and thus escape the Order. What if, that body that she sacrificed became Melina?
@@windwalker111089 You found her body when you get one half of the death rune, that’s her body with the rune on top of tower instead of the two fingers
@@Noobmistress99 I believe that was Godwyn's body. His body had half of the death rune and Fia gained the other half when she was with him. Hence Godwyn was was called the prince of death, since when they tried to cure/revive his body with the Erdtree, it brought deathroot instead. so they had to remove his body and place it somewhere else.Man does this have so much lore that I doubt myself with this though lol😅
It’s also weird that after expelling the Frenzied Flames influence, Melina still resents you even though you did it all just to save her. Which is just so weird, we never get to see her ever again in the game.
why
@@Jacky_Dawson bc that was her whole purpose. You practically took that away from her.
@@jamesvarela233 what i am a little dumb man what you mean purpose what purpose wasn't she only a maiden who wanted to help and why would she wanna kill us doesn;t she have feeling that we did that for her because we care love her :(
@@Jacky_Dawson she wanted to be a kindling for the flame as she thought that was her whole purpose, you took that away and get upset especially when you dealt with the three fingers.
Awsome seeing a creator respectfully shout out other channels
God that theory makes more sense than anything for me yet about her 😭🙌 well done man very intuitively thought over 👌
Another Theory is that Fia could potentially be Melina's Mother. As Fia is related heavily to the Rune of Death in the game and she is the only other female figure in the story who is "in the Erdtree" at its roots at any point. So that is another very potential food for thought. (Granted there is plenty of evidence to support otherwise, but I'm not immediately willing to do away with the idea.)
Fia mentions that she was in Lindell before though and was never able to get to the root of the Erdtree unless you help her do so. Plus with her as a Deathbed Companion, it's highly unlikely that she would be ever in the Erdtree.
Me see new Bandit Elden Ring video, me clickie on notification ö
Edit: ”goarse” is very approved for Torrent
Here's an interesting view: What if her line about "chasing the frenzied flame as night chases day" had relevance? I'd have to know what it was in the original Japanese, but given that Ranni,. Melina, and the Gloam/Dusk Eyed Queen all have connections to night and evening, the moon, the stars etc, and the Frenzied Flame looks similar to the sun, there might be an old connection there.
I fucking love this theory, not sure if it's true but I kind of hope it is, super fun. And it ties off other loose ends like ranni's appearance. Good shit bro.
i love seeing youtubers promoting each others, the world is good
I just finally finished latenna’s quest and would love a video on her story, if we’re continuing to do waifu lore
I know nothing about Elden Ring except what Bandit’s talked about, and yet here I am
If you like what you’ve heard about the story, you should play the game. The souls games are amazing and the stories are incredibly vague and interesting. None of the theories you may come up with about the stories these games tell are never objectively wrong as you basically want to use your own imagination to fill in the gaps that the story doesn’t tell you. And then outside of story, these games are very fun but VERY challenging so be aware of that
I wish I could play the game. Maybe when my dad gets his Steamdeck, or when my brother gets his PS5
Currently a Switch Lite owner 😔
One thing you might consider:
The doll that Ranni inhabits doesn't resemble how she used to look, but is modelled after an ice witch she met. Her eventual refusal to replace Marika and consequently stealing the rune of death was influenced by the Ice witch, who therefore is the mastermind of the whole ordeal.
So maybe the connection is the other way around, Ranni looks like Melina and not vice versa.
There's one more (albeit quite circumstantial) evidence for this. Melina with her right golden eye closed and left blue eye open is exactly how the doll looks. A doll that mind you, is modelled after the ice witch. Melina appearing to Ranni as the Ice Witch would have chosen to cover her golden eye of grace and open her blue dusky eye of death, and influence Ranni to reject grace and steal the rune of death.
Also, another evidence that Melina is related to the Elden Ring itself and not Marika is that Melina has no issues with what happens to Marika but objects when the rune itself and the golden order is at risk like when the flame of frenzy would subvert the logic of the world.
Wouldn’t rannis ending piss melina off then? If they’re the same person or if ranni is based off melina wouldn’t rannis ending be a conflict of interest?
It isn;t the doll face that looks exactly like Melina, it's the spectral face representing her soul that looks exactly like melina
@@D0UBL3D0P3 Ranni's ending would not piss Melina off since the rune stays intact but the god/goddess acting as a vessel for the rune gets replaced from Marika to Ranni. Melina being of the rune suffers no consequences.
@@edkopik The doll's face looks exactly like how melina WOULD look as the ice witch.
Think about it like this, Melina has two eyes, G for golden, B for blue. Then this is how they are ordered.
G-B.
I'm theorizing she'd close G and would look like this
X-B
This is what the doll's actual stony face looks like, X-B.
Now Melina as she is now resembles the apparition beside the doll more, but that is not what I was referencing.
So theres a way to "save" melina. I'm currently trying to do this. You take the frienzied flame. Melina leaves you, do the millicent questline to get the item to undo the frienized flame. you burn yourself as tinder to burn the erdtree, then undo the friendzied flame ending. And then pick one of the other endings, she never burns so she doesnt die.
Your passion on the lore makes me want to keep playing, thanks man.
There should be an ending where you save her by taking the frenzy flame and burning the tree and then healing the frenzy before completing the game
There’s also another theory of an Outer god being the “Mother of Death Birds”
And since we are talking about birds and crow’s claw, this could mean that Mother of Death birds is an outer god that is related to the Destined death (or death rune) or could even be that Destined Death is an actual god that has its influence on the Elden ring and goes by the name of Mother of death Birds and this “Eye Queen” I forgot how it’s called.
There are several outer gods in the game that constantly influences this world: Greater Will, Mother of Death Birds, God of Flame, the Moon itself and finally the Frenzied Flame, which is incarnated as the three fingers and can possibly be named as“Shabiri”.
Did you notice that Melina's hair is kind of RED, like Ranni's original body? and that Ranni's body is burned, like Melina's body also?
Love it! Exactly the conclusion I was getting to, but way deeper than I thought! Got a sub outta this Tarnished
You killed it bro. Great job