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As any fan of the Dark Souls series can tell you, the series is known for its difficulty, marvelous boss fights, and many poison swamps.Elden Ringis no stranger to these swamps, but pushes it a step further by introducing the Scarlet Rot, a disease far more potent than any poison in the series.
The thing about the Scarlet Rot, however, is that it isn’t a mere disease, but a sort of entity that permeates the entire Lands Between. So what exactly is the Scarlet Rot, why is it so potent, and why can we find it in so many different and distant corners of the world?
What Is The Scarlet Rot?
In the game,the Scarlet Rot is a red liquid or smokethat inflicts a powerful condition,making you lose health every second until it kills you.Of course, there are items and spells players can use to rid themselves of the affliction, but thosedon’t seem to be an option for certain NPCs.
The source of the Scarlet Rot is an Outer God, an entity that influences the Lands Between from afar. In that way,the Scarlet Rot is very similar to the Flame of Frenzy, having followers, combat applications, and a deity associated with it.
The Goal Of The Outer God Of Rot
The goal of the Scarlet Rot seems to bethe decay of all things, making them die sosomething new can be born from their corpses.The fungi and flowers that bloom in areas heavily infected with the Rot seem to bethe ultimate lifeform for this entity, wanting the entire Lands Between to be covered by the Rot.
The Rot seems to also create the Pests, servants of the Rot that look like sentient centipedes. It isn’t clear if they are completely created by the Rot, like the flowers are, or ifthey rise from the corpses of people afflicted by the Rot, born again to worship the Outer God.
The Blind Swordsman
The Outer Gods are unbelievably powerful, buttheir influence on the Lands Between is limited, so if you manage to cut them from their element of worship,they lose a great deal of power.We can see this happen to the Fire Giants (as there is only one left) and the Flame of Frenzy (locked and hidden away below Leyndell).
The Scarlet Rot was defeatedin much the same wayby a legendary hero known as the Blind Swordsman.Not much is known about this man, but we do know thathe defeated the Scarlet Rot, using his technique ofFlowing Water.
Said technique could mean two things, one of which is using careful swordplay like Flowing Water to avoid getting infected by Rot while fighting enemies made of it. Another meaning could be thatthe Swordsman literally used flowing water to seal the advance of the Rot, trapping it somewhere.
That somewhere is likely the Lake of Rot, a cave deep underground filled not only with Scarlet Rot, but with ancient temples built by the Pests to worship the Outer God.The rivers that flow underground might have been the work of the Blind Swordsman, trapping the Rot underground where it can’t hurt anyone else… or so he thought.
Malenia, Goddess Of Rot
Malenia is one of the mostwell-known bosses of Elden Ring, famed as the hardest fight you can have in the game. Mechanically speaking,she’s immune to the Scarlet Rot, but only because she has been suffering from itsince she was young.
It seems thatthe Outer God of Rot chose her as its avatar, but how Malenia was first infected isn’t clear. This infection runs through her whole body, and it rotted her legs and right arm to such a degree thatthey needed to be amputated.
To fight off the Rot,Malenia’s brother Miquella developed artifacts of unalloyed gold, capable of warding off the influence of the Outer Gods. These artifacts wereMalenia’s prosthetic limbs, anda needle placed deep within herto stop the Rot from spreading.
Malenia also meets the Blind Swordsman during this time, who teaches her his Flowing Water swordplay technique that she’s so famous for.
The Rot In Caelid
Malenia lived with Miquella in the Haligtree(located northeast on the map of the Lands Between), hidden away from the influence of the Golden Order. At some point,Malenia traveled south with her knights towards Caelid, but exactly why she did this is unknown.
She might have neededRadhan’s Great Rune, or perhaps she or Miquellaneeded the stars to start moving again, but regardless of the reason,she and Radhan had a glorious battle.Malenia was about to lose, butin a last act of desperation, she breaks the needle within herand explodes in a Scarlet Bloom.
This is howthe Scarlet Rot got into Caelid, corrupting the land, its leader, and many of its denizens.Radhan’s forces still fight against the Rot, using tanks and firebombs to burn away the infection as best as they can, but it is a losing battle.
The Rot In The Haligtree
Malenia manages to return to the Hailigtree, but her mere presence therespreads the Scarlet Rot through the realm, infecting the tree and making the iconic mushrooms and flowers grow everywhere.She remains at the root of the now dead tree, waiting for the return of her dear Miquella.
It isn’t clear if Miquella was already missing when Malenia left for Caelid, or if he disappeared during her travels.
This is where players can find Malenia,the never-defeated Blade of Miquella, but if you succeed in taking her down,she blooms like she did against Radhan.This form is calledthe Goddess of Rot, making Maleniathe unwilling avatar of the Outer Godin the Lands Between, and since that deity is all about decay and rebirth,it might not be the last time we see Malenia.
The Five Buds
There are five NPCs you may encounter that heavily resemble Malenia, both in their relationship with Rot and the loss of limbs.They are Millicent, Polyanna, Maureen, Amy, and Mary— althoughyou can only interact with Millicent.
They seem to be descendants of Malenia, but she isn’t known for having any kind of offspring or lineage. In reality,they were likely born from Rot, sprouting from the Rot flowers and, as it seems,they are meant to be the Valkyries(or Angels) that will ascend with Malenia once she reaches godhood.
If the five sisters came from flowers, then they came out of them already fully grown.
We can follow the story of Millicent, found within the rotten lands of Caelid.We are guided by a mysterious NPC called Gowry, who wants us to find a needle and fix it, so the Rot in Millicent can be kept at bay, allowing her toembark on a journey towards the Haligtree.
Gowry is one of the Pests, and he wishes us to help Millicent reach the Haligtree and earn her trust, only tokill her once we make it there.This is because, if Millicent dies due to a betrayal, her rebirth will be as grand as it can ever be, at least according to Gowry himself.
Yet even if you decide to never betray Millicent,she dies either way, since she takes the needle keeping the Rot at bay.She decides to die as she is, letting the rot take her and accepting her fate, never to be reborn again and escaping her fate as a Valkyrie of the Rot.
The Needle
A key item in all of this isthe broken needle made of unalloyed gold, found in Caelid thanks to Gowry’s guidance. This needle seems to be the same oneMalenia broke during her fight with Radhan, so once fixed, it is understandable thatit can keep the Rot at bay, since it was made by the capable hands of Miquella.
Yet the needle isonly a temporary measure, and the longer someone keeps it in, the more the Rot builds up inside of them. This is why the Scarlet Aeonia cast by Malenia against Radhan was so mighty;it had been building up for decades, if not hundreds of years.
Since the needle is used to ward off the influence of the Outer Gods,players can use it to rid themselves of the Frenzied Flame(it is the only Outer God that can infect/interact with players directly). But to do so,a player needs to be somewhere outside of time, like the boss arena of Dragonlord Placidusax.
Once the player uses the needle that way,it can’t be undone, and the influence of the Flame of Frenzy can’t affect the player ever again (at least until New Game +). It isn’t known ifthis permanent cure would have worked for Malenia, or if Miquella even knew that a cure could be permanent; after all, players only find out about it through an item description, so nothing in the lore tells us about it.
The Shaded Castle
The Scarlet Rot and Malenia both have their own followers, and while they might seem one and the same, the two groups couldn’t be further apart. The followers of the Scarlet Rot, mostly composed of Pests, see Malenia as their Goddess, but she clearly wants nothing to do with them.
Meanwhile, the Cleanrot Knights follow Malenia despite her condition, following her and Miquella anywhere they might go. The only one that seems to follow Malenia due to her condition, but isn’t affiliated with the Scarlet Rot,is Maleigh Marais.
Maleigh is a nobleman of House Marais, andhis home is the Shaded Castle, a fortress almost hidden away in the Altus Plateau. Most players might not even know the true story of the Shaded Castle, since it seems like just another fortress deep in a swamp,its most notorious feature being the boss Elemer of the Briar.
Elemer is unrelated to Malenia or the Marais family, he was simply captured by them. He killed nearly everyone in the fortress and took it as his own.
But the hints are there, since the throne room that used to belong to Maleigh is filled withprosthetic arms and a portrait of Malenia.Maleigh had also been a sickly child since birth, and he admired Malenia’s prowess in battle even though she was afflicted by a deadly condition.
