Melina Theory (redo with more info, spoilers)

[Mr_Blank]

Melina is by far one of the most cryptic characters in Elden Ring. Where did she come from, why is she related to the demigods, why does no one know of her, and why does she want to help the tarnished?

Melina is likely the secret child of Radagon and marika and I’ll explain why it can’t be renalla or Godfrey. If you hadn’t noticed already George R R Martin is a fan of having patterns within his characters. For example, Radagon and Renalla have three children all with names starting with R: Ranni, Rykard and Radahn. Godfrey and Marikas children start with G or M, being Mohg Morgott and Godwyn (the last of which is dead) finally, Radahn and Marika have 2 children, the twin prodigies Malenia and Miquella. This is where the pattern partially breaks. The names all match up with the parents, but Radagon and marika only have 2 children whereas there other marriages resulted in 3 children. This is where I think Melina fits for a number of reasons.

Melina’s ambition is to complete her mission and get to the foot of the erdtree, a mission given to her by Marika herself, proving that Marika trusted Melina more than, oh, I don’t know, the omen king protecting her city that pledges his allegiance only to the erdtree (man Marika really is racist towards omens). The other reason I don’t think Melina is related to Godfrey or renalla is that their ambitions don’t line up. Godfrey is a warrior who wishes only for good fights, which is why he happily agreed to lead the war against the giants, fight the storm lord, and fight the dragons (until his son Godwyn made peace with them.). We don’t know renallas original ambitions but it’s clear to me she wanted to expand the Carina empire, and that the golden order was getting in the way of this, which would explain the Carian-Golden Order war mentioned in Radagon and Renalla related item descriptions. Melina has no relation to the carian manor that we know of and also has no relation to the tarnished that we know of. If she did, then Gideon would absolutely have dialouge about her because he would be the adoptive father of Melina’s sister. Let me explain. Godfrey’s real name is Horaux Loux. The only other character sharing this name is Nephilli Loux, who is Gideon’s adoptive daughter who is tasked with killing Godrick by Gideon. If Gideon knew Godfrey or knew Godfrey’s descendants to the point where they entrusted a family member to his care, then he would have known about Melina. And while you can argue about him being the all knowing, the fact that his first set of dialogue is him saying “I can’t remember the last time a tarnished made their way to the roundtable” makes me question if he really does know everything. Because of the lack of dialouge from both Gideon and Nephilli about Melina I doubt Melina is related to Godfrey.

If Melina IS the daughter of Radagon and Marika it also makes three other patterns work. The first of the pattern being the names, having Marika and Radagon’s children all starting with M, Melina Malenia and Miquella (all incredibly similar btw) lines up with Godfrey and Marikas children starting with M and G, and Renalla and Radagons children starting with R. The second pattern is the fact that all three couples of demigods would have 3 offspring, something George R R martin does in his other works is so patterns in children counts. And finally, a parallel that is questionable but one that I found is the archetypes that these characters fall in. If Melina is Radagon and marika’s child, then each demigod couples child represents a different archetypes that the other also represents. Let me explain. Ranni, Melina, and Godwyn (that we know of about him) are all more diplomatic demigods that prefer to use violence as a last resort. Melina only fights one person in the game, being Morgott, who is directly blocking her and the tarnished from their end goal. Ranni beleived the only way to break the greater will’s grasp on the lands between (her main obstacle for starting the age of the stars) she needed to kill the unkillable demigods, and got the black knives to steal destined death and kill Godwyn. Finally, Godwyn, while called the prince of death, did choose peace over war. He defeated Fortisaxx, and instead of killing the dragon, he befriended him (in fact fortisaxx and Godwyn had such a strong bond that after Godwyn died fortisaxx stayed by his side until destined death also ate away at him). In the case of the more wanting conflict then peace, radahn malenia and morgott all fit this roll. Radahn is a warlord but only fights those he seems worthy of a fight. Malenia prides herself in the fact that she’s never known Defeat, and on the day of the shattering, Morgott slaughtered THOUSANDS of champions and even fought Radahn (which likely ended in a stalemate since radahn would survive and best Malenia later, forcing her to bloom.) finally the final three and the final archetype are more laid back warriors who wish to follow their own ambitions. Mohg, rykard, and miquella all left the golden order for different reasons: Rykard wanted his own order as strong as the golden order (likely because his dad left with the milk) mohg wished to make an order of love that accepted all for who they were since he was forced to the shunning grounds for being an omen, and Miquella wanted to make the world a better place by trying to make his own erdtree. These parallels can be disputed and I won’t be surprised if I’m clowned on in the comments for it.

Finally I wanted to address the ONLY form of dialogue that a character says directly to Melina: Morgott. Now while everything I’ve said before is either related to things we actually know or are going to know after the DLC, the rest of this theory is entirely circumstantial. Mmduring morgotts fight, instead of calling the tarnished foul for the twentieth time, he says something that always confused me: “Thy part in this shall not be forgiven!”. And that always bugged me. Morgott has encounter the tarnished a total of three times, potentially two if you missed his encounter in the leyndell fields. So why would Morgott throw around forgiveness as if he and the tarnished have known each other for a long time? It’s because he’s not talking to the tarnished; he’s talking to Melina. If you hadn’t known this, Melina is the spirit of her body, which was burned sometime between when she was born under the erdtree and the shattering. Because her spirit accompanies you to the foot of the erdtree, it’s likely that a demigod like Morgott would be able to sense her presence. Morgott exclaiming that Melina won’t be forgiven by him makes so much more sense of they are related by mother, then morgott just being a tsundere that won’t forgive the tarnished that he just met. This is all without mentioning that THE ONLY time that Melina offers her specific help for a boss in this game is with Morgott, someone she clearly knew. At this time In The game there are 5 shardbearers that Melina and the tarnished can encounter before morgott that she could have interacted with before, being Radahn, Godrick, Rykard Mohg and Renalla. Considering the tarnished needs two shards to get into Leyndell to get Melina to the erdtree, why didn’t she help then, is she lazy? Is she scared that rykard or radahn (or mohg in a different way) would eat her? No. It’s because she only has a vendetta against Morgott. Personally I believe that the reason no one knows of Melina is that Radagon and Marika kept her a secret, because she was the youngest and the weakest of the demigods. To combat this she was taught holy magic (she uses holy magic in the fight against morgott) and how to use a curved blade. Personally I believe that Melina was being hidden or trained during the events of the shattering, and came back to see what had become of the nation of leyndell. The she meets with Morgott who is told to let Melina inside the tree. Morgotts main purpose is to carry out the erdtrees, and before her betrayal to the order, Marikas wishes. Marika gives Melina her mission, and at this point Morgott realizes that they are conspiring against the order, and chases Melina out of the city. This explains 3 main mysteries but is entirely circumstantial: it explains Melina’s reason for fighting Morgott, or explains why know one knows about her, AND it explains why she didn’t plan ahead about the Erdtree, because she was let inside by Marika.

This is just what I think looking at how George R R Martin has written things in the past, looking at the patterns between the demigods, and what personally makes sense to me. Originally I made a post about why I thought she was the fourth child of Renalla and Radagon without taking the name rule into effect, and after discussing it with posters they explains their own theories.

Speaking of which let me know what you think Melina’s origins are and who she truly is.

[Krazy Wallet]

In your second paragraph, I think you meant Radagon

Originally posted by Mr_Blank:

finally, Radahn and Marika have 2 children, the twin prodigies Malenia and Miquella. This is where the pattern partially breaks. The names all match up with the parents, but Radagon and marika only have 2 children whereas there other marriages resulted in 3 children. This is where I think Melina fits for a number of reasons.

Let's not make the lore even more convoluted!

[Mr_Blank]

Originally posted by Krazy Wallet:

In your second paragraph, I think you meant Radagon

Originally posted by Mr_Blank:

finally, Radahn and Marika have 2 children, the twin prodigies Malenia and Miquella. This is where the pattern partially breaks. The names all match up with the parents, but Radagon and marika only have 2 children whereas there other marriages resulted in 3 children. This is where I think Melina fits for a number of reasons.

Let's not make the lore even more convoluted! :praisesun:

OOPS yeah my bad. Man that would be very messed up if they were togeather lol

[Krazy Wallet]

Originally posted by Mr_Blank:

Originally posted by Krazy Wallet:

In your second paragraph, I think you meant Radagon


Let's not make the lore even more convoluted!

OOPS yeah my bad. Man that would be very messed up if they were togeather lol

All good, the names are very similar and you had a lot of info here to keep straight. Very interesting thoughts by the way.

Also, it is George R. R. Martin - I wouldn't put it past him to create some type of lore like this

[medicinezombie]

Family Trees

Godfrey + Marika -> Godwyn, Golden Lineage (eventually Godrick, Godefroy, etc)
-> Morgott, Mohg (omens)
Radagon + Rennala -> Radahn, Ranni, Rykard
Radagon + Marika -> Malenia, Miquella, (cursed; scarlet rot, unaging child body)

Marika + ? -> Melina (likely Radagon + Marika, from "curse" of burnt yet bodiless, also M name)

Marika + ? -> nameless headless demigods in the Wandering Mausoleums
(edited for corrections)
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Putting everything else aside, I think these characters are more like ones from, say, Greek mythology, instead of following normal rules. Take Zeus. His daughter Athena was born from his forehead with no mother birthing her, while his twin children Artemis and Apollo had a mother. Also Zeus had some escapades as a beam of sunlight and a swan, the rules are just different lol

[fauxpas]

Personally I think the ending cinematic confirms that Melina is the Gloam Eyed Queen.


But the problem I have with people using Morgott's line as a reference to Melina is that he says that line whether she's present or not, and the line is him blaming the Tarnished of No Renown for making him unleash his cursed blood in the throne room. ... It's a "I'll never forgive you for this!" moment and not an indication of a relationship.

[Mr_Blank]

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Personally I think the ending cinematic confirms that Melina is the Gloam Eyed Queen.


But the problem I have with people using Morgott's line as a reference to Melina is that he says that line whether she's present or not, and the line is him blaming the Tarnished of No Renown for making him unleash his cursed blood in the throne room. ... It's a "I'll never forgive you for this!" moment and not an indication of a relationship.

Melina is a spirit of the body she once had, meaning she isn’t always physically present but she IS always with you. I argued that morgott could probably sense of another demigod was nearby and knew that it was Melina. But yeah to each their own with theories

[fauxpas]

Originally posted by Mr_Blank:

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Personally I think the ending cinematic confirms that Melina is the Gloam Eyed Queen.


But the problem I have with people using Morgott's line as a reference to Melina is that he says that line whether she's present or not, and the line is him blaming the Tarnished of No Renown for making him unleash his cursed blood in the throne room. ... It's a "I'll never forgive you for this!" moment and not an indication of a relationship.

Melina is a spirit of the body she once had, meaning she isn’t always physically present but she IS always with you. I argued that morgott could probably sense of another demigod was nearby and knew that it was Melina. But yeah to each their own with theories

Not in Lyndell, at one of the first graces she thanks you for fulfilling the accord and that she'll leave you with Torrent and the ability to eat runes (which is an interesting lore implication) but she can govern her own movement that close to the Erd Tree.


So she isn't there unless you summon her in that particular battle.

[Mr_Blank]

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Originally posted by Mr_Blank:

Melina is a spirit of the body she once had, meaning she isn’t always physically present but she IS always with you. I argued that morgott could probably sense of another demigod was nearby and knew that it was Melina. But yeah to each their own with theories

Ok so to your arguement I completely forgot about that dialouge
To my argument why does she want to be summoned? And why does she reappear right after you beat him? I do t think she strayed off too far.


So she isn't there unless you summon her in that particular battle.

[Mr_Blank]

Wait what did I just do

[fauxpas]

Originally posted by Mr_Blank:

Wait what did I just do

Apparently broke the quotation system. 🤣

[fauxpas]

Well, since I believe she is the Gloam Eyed Queen who had her body and "purpose" stripped from her she originally traveled with you (after killing your maiden to make sure you had to accept her) in order to get close enough to find out who she was.

Once at Lyndell she leaves and discovers she's the Kindling Maiden (not sure if she remembers being the Gloam Eyed Queen at that point) and that the Erd Tree is going to reject you. ... Which means two things, in order to fulfill her purpose you have to defeat Morgot and learn the truth, and the boss battle happens at the only spot where she can actually manifest bodily and help.

[Sabaithal]

Also there are 3 variants of butterflies in the game: Aeonia, Nascent, and smoldering. The first two are obviously representing Malenia and Miquella, and the last one represents fire.

What is Melina associated with primarily in the plot? Fire, the giants cauldron primarily, since she has the ability to wield its power. She also has knowledge of a different form of flame, the Frenzy flame, which few know about at all. And in the frenzy flame ending her appearance bears extremely strong resemblance to one specific figure in the lore associated with a third form of fire: blackflame.

I believe she also confirms in her dialogue somewhere that she is the daughter of Marika, though she makes no mention of her father. Considering the above I'm betting on Radagon.

[Tiny serpent Shnissuvihr]

She wanted to burn anyways... that can be arranged.

[S8DawnWarrior]

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Well, since I believe she is the Gloam Eyed Queen who had her body and "purpose" stripped from her she originally traveled with you (after killing your maiden to make sure you had to accept her) in order to get close enough to find out who she was.

Once at Lyndell she leaves and discovers she's the Kindling Maiden (not sure if she remembers being the Gloam Eyed Queen at that point) and that the Erd Tree is going to reject you. ... Which means two things, in order to fulfill her purpose you have to defeat Morgot and learn the truth, and the boss battle happens at the only spot where she can actually manifest bodily and help.

Varre is the one who kills our maiden btw, not Melina

[Mr_Blank]

Originally posted by S8DawnWarrior:

Originally posted by fauxpas:

Well, since I believe she is the Gloam Eyed Queen who had her body and "purpose" stripped from her she originally traveled with you (after killing your maiden to make sure you had to accept her) in order to get close enough to find out who she was.

Once at Lyndell she leaves and discovers she's the Kindling Maiden (not sure if she remembers being the Gloam Eyed Queen at that point) and that the Erd Tree is going to reject you. ... Which means two things, in order to fulfill her purpose you have to defeat Morgot and learn the truth, and the boss battle happens at the only spot where she can actually manifest bodily and help.

Varre is the one who kills our maiden btw, not Melina

MAY CHAOS TAKE THE WORLD!!!!