You’ve read the title, clicked the article, no doubt excited to find out what Elden Ring fan theory we’re talking about, what big lore revelation we’re going to reveal. Here’s your first and final warning. Click off if you don’t want to hear aboutShadow of the Erdtree.
Spoilers for Shadow of the Erdtree.
A popular idea going intoElden Ring’sDLC was thatMessmer is another child of Marika, making him Miquella, Malenia, and maybe even Melina’s brother, ifanotherfan theory is true. Well, you lot were right!
After defeating Messmer, he says “Mother… Marika…”, outright confirming what so many speculated. We later find out through item descriptions that she plucked out his eye and “put in its place a seal of grace” to hold the serpent within him at bay. However, fearing that this wasn’t enough, she felt compelled to “secret away her child within the realm of shadow.”
Messmer plucks his eye out during the boss fight to unleash his snake form, revealing what Marika feared all along.
Messmer then led a “cleansing” crusade against its inhabitants, his men commanded by Gaius, a childhood rival ofRadahn. “Fire was a symbol of the crusade, and even Messmer’s rank-and-file soldiers would wield it”. He was told to make himself a “symbol of fear” at the behest of his mother, and he did. His soldiers would impale the “impure”, invigorated by their cries.
Messmer Gets His Own Unique Butterfly To Match Miquella And Malenia
Much as Malenia, Melina, and Miquella have butterfly crafting items in the base game, Messmer has a charcoal black pyrefly burning with viscous red flames, further hammering home their familial relation.
you may also find embers of Messmer which are smoulders that continue to crawl across the ground, leaving his mark behind even after we crush him at the Shadow Keep.
Interestingly, despite fire being such an integral part of Messmer’s image to the point of permanently staining his butterflies—and with his knights adorned in bright red cloth, using pyromancy to burn villages to cinder and branding heretics—he “despised” the flame and “hoped to rid himself of it”. It wouldn’t be until we cut him down that he finally got his wish.
Elden Ring
WHERE TO PLAY
With worldbuilding from Game of Thrones scribe George R.R. Martin and developed by FromSoftware, Elden Ring is a masterpiece in what has become known as the ‘Soulslike’ genre of action role-playing games.
