Elden Ring is set in the Lands Between, which is filled with mysteries and unusual characters. With its long history, this land has been the site of multiple power struggles and coveted by more than one Outer God. In the middle of it all are characters who try their best to survive, and some who go beyond survival to attempt removing power from the god that currently has the most influence: the Greater Will.

By the time the Tarnished returns to the Lands Between, most of the big events that helped shape the power dynamics and factions that divide the residents have already taken place. However, the Tarnished comes across no shortage of fascinating characters, each one with their own opinions about Marika, the Greater Will, and the state of the Lands Between. These characters might not all be beloved, but they have intriguing backgrounds and unusual stories.

10

Godrick The Grafted Poses Questions About The Golden Lineage

While his exact parentage isn’t known, Godrick the Grafted is part of the Golden Lineage, which encompasses all descendants of Queen Marika and Godfrey, the first Elden Lord turned Tarnished. When the Elden Ring was shattered, he received a Great Rune. Although he doesn’t seem to be very close to the other descendants of Marika, Godrick the Grafted is still a demigod, and that raises a few questions about the strength of this bloodline.

The reason that Godrick isn’t like Marika or many of the other demigods is due to how diluted the Golden Lineage is in his blood. It’s not clear how distant an ancestor Marika is, but it seems like divine blood isn’t as strong as it appears to be at first. This situation makes it possible that the Greater Will makes sure that the Golden Lineage weakens with each generation to keep control over the family it gave power to.

9

Maliketh Embodies Duty & Devotion To Marika

Being her half-brother and her Shadow, Maliketh is bound to Marika in much the same way that Blaidd is bound to Ranni. However, Marika used Maliketh effectively when it came to solidifying her rule and the Golden Order that she’d start in the Lands Between. He played a key role in both defeating the Gloam-Eyed Queen and protecting the Rune of Death, at least until Ranni plotted to steal it.

Maliketh’s character becomes even more interesting when the Tarnished encounters him in-game. He disguises himself as Gurranq, asking the Tarnished to bring him Deathroot. It seems that his connection to the Rune of Death left him with a connection to even the fragment of it that was engraved on Godwyn, causing him to hunger for the Deathroot that grew from his corpse and spread across the Lands Between.

8

Fia Has Unusual Powers That Control Life & Death

Fia is called the Deathbed Companion because she possesses the unique ability to absorb vitality from others, and then pass that vitality to the dead in order to bring them back to life. She’s one of the characters the Tarnished comes across whose homeland isn’t the Lands Between. However, she escaped to the Lands Between when she was awoken by Grace and driven out of her homeland.

It seems that Fia isn’t the only person with this ability to absorb life from others and transfer it to the dead. Instead, it was a profession that was considered sacred in her home. As somebody who’s so connected to life and death, it’s not surprising that Fia wants to help those stuck between life and death in the Lands Between, where death was once eliminated. But since the natural order has become twisted, she strives to be a mother to Those Who Live in Death.

7

Marika Was A Tool For The Greater Will In The End

Queen Marika is crucial in Elden Ring’s lore, but when her story is looked at as a whole, it seems like she was just a tool in the end. She fought against other Empyreans to win the favor of the Greater Will, and after the defeat of her biggest adversary, the Gloam-Eyed Queen, she became the vessel of the Elden Ring. However, becoming the vessel of the Elden Ring tied her to the Greater Will, and that would lead to her downfall.

Although she removed death by giving the Rune of Death to Maliketh, she didn’t expect it to be stolen and used to kill her own son. From there, Marika rebelled against the Greater Will by shattering the Elden Ring, only to be punished for it. As she no longer had use beyond holding the Elden Ring, the Greater Will started searching for her replacement.

6

Millicent Took Fate Into Her Own Hands

Millicent is a by-product of Malenia using her Scarlet Rot against Radahn when they fought during the Shattering. The Scarlet Rot produced buds, and they became Millicent and her sisters, who were then taken care of by Gowry. Although Gowry had a path he wanted Millicent to follow, even asking the Tarnished for help leading her along it, Millicent preferred to find herself and make her own decisions.

Millicent is suffering from Scarlet Rot, and the Tarnished can use the Unalloyed Gold Needle to stop the progression of her disease. Taking this path and then giving her a prosthetic arm to replace her lost sword arm lets Millicent search for her past and explore her connection to Malenia. In the end, when Gowry schemes to turn her into a Scarlet Valkyrie, she decides that she’d rather die as herself than become somebody else.

5

The Elden Beast Is A Vessel Of The Greater Will

The Outer Gods are interesting, even though they never appear in their natural forms. The closest the Tarnished comes to seeing an Outer God is the Elden Beast, which is a sort of extension of the Greater Will, but not the Greater Will itself. While the Greater Will has the most influence in the Lands Between during the time the game takes place, it’s clear that other Outer Gods are working to increase their influence through the demigods and those who are unhappy with the Greater Will’s rule.

In time, it’s possible that a different Outer God will usurp power from the Greater Will, especially when they choose to curse candidates the Greater Will wants to use. Malenia and Miquella, who are both Empyreans and candidates to take Marika’s place, were inflicted with Scarlet Rot and eternal youth and turned away from the Greater Will. They aren’t the only demigods who turned their backs on the Greater Will, either. The conflict between these gods doesn’t have a conclusion, but it seems like it’s a fight that will always be waged.

4

Malenia Is On The Cusp Of Ascending To Godhood

Malenia is the twin sister of Miquella, and she fights on his behalf, working to help him fulfill his dreams. She was cursed with Scarlet Rot from her birth, and although she tried to avoid using it to instead prove herself with her battle prowess alone, she resorted to using the power of her blood when she fought Radahn. As a result, she bloomed once, and she only needs to bloom once more to be reborn as a goddess. This is an event that a faction in the Lands Between looks forward to, seeing Malenia as a savior from the Greater Will.

Although she has the power to ascend to godhood, Malenia is only interested in power for the sake of protecting Miquella and helping him achieve his goals. She spent her life suffering from a disease that can be stalled, but not cured, and worked to become an incredible warrior even after losing multiple limbs to the Rot. As an optional battle, she becomes the Goddess of Rot if the Tarnished fights her, but it poses the question of what her fate is if she’s left in peace by the Haligtree.

3

Miquella Might Have The Most Frightening Ability

Like his twin sister, Miquella was also cursed by an Outer God. However, his curse is eternal childhood instead of Scarlet Rot, and he attempts to replace the Erdtree and grow up by encasing himself in the Haligtree. This would allow him to feed the tree with his blood, but also put him in a position where he could overcome his curse. Or it may have, if his cocoon hadn’t been taken while Malenia wasn’t there to guard it.

Miquella becomes more interesting with the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, where he seems to be in a different land and related to Messmer in some way. Their abilities even share similarities given the information revealed so far, as Miquella can make others love him, while Messmer seems to have the ability to make others confess their sins to him. The way they interact and what Miquella is doing in this other land will only add more intrigue to his character.

2

Melina Has Mysterious Origins

Melina stays at the Tarnished’s side for the majority of their journey, only leaving at the end to set fire to the Erdtree using herself as kindling if the Tarnished doesn’t follow the Frenzied Flame. However, her existence brings with it plenty of questions and few answers. It’s possible that she’s also a child of Marika, but there’s also a chance that she could be the Gloam-Eyed Queen, especially with the detail of her closed eye having a gloam color.

Another possibility is that Melina is connected to Ranni. The mark on Melina’s left eye lines up with the mark on Ranni’s right eye, and the ghostly image connected to Ranni looks a lot like Melina. Neither woman seems to have a physical body either. While Ranni destroyed her body and possessed a doll to escape the Greater Will, Melina’s unclear status is never quite explained. She seems to not have a physical body, but then it’s strange that she can burn herself to destroy the Erdtree.

1

Ranni Changed The Lands Between

Ranni is ambitious, and she works to take control of her own fate, because she doesn’t want to be a pawn of the Greater Will. She’d seen what the Greater Will did, and she lived under the Golden Order, but she saw the problems that came with Marika’s reign. So, she participated in the battle for power in the Lands Between, but with the purpose of freeing people from the Golden Order, letting them live without being controlled by distant gods.

Additionally, Ranni was the driving force behind the events that started the fighting between demigods for power, and her actions led to the Elden Ring being shattered. She plotted to steal the Rune of Death and use it to kill Godwyn’s soul and her own body. Then, she works with the Tarnished to take the Elden Ring for herself at the end (if her ending is chosen), freeing herself and others from the Greater Will and beginning the Age of Stars, at least for a time.

Elden Ring takes place after most of the biggest events have happened, but that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing interesting for the Tarnished to find. Aside from items, abilities, and places, the people who inhabit the Lands Between are fascinating, and they each survive the Greater Will’s rule in their own ways. But that’s only a small piece of what makes the characters so memorable in Elden Ring.