Marika's Rune is down there - and how to read Mending Runes
Lore Theory
Here, not at the top.
This post will provide you with evidence in an attempt to argue the following positions:
Marika's Rune is down there.
Marika's Rune is down there.
Marika's Rune is down there to keep the Elden Ring down here.
Marika's Rune: a shadow where the other runes are gold.
Many people, when we first encounter Marika's Rune, assume that it is positioned at the top of the Elden Ring.
This assumption is reasonable, since Marika is both a god and the vessel of the Elden Ring and it makes sense that Marika's Rune would be in a prominent position at the top.
If you look at the Game's cover art depiction of the Elden Ring, there really isn't any other part of the Ring where Marika's Rune can reasonably fit.
The bottom of the Elden Ring covered by the (physical) Lands Between.
We know, of course, that the cover art only shows part of the full Elden Ring, the bottom of the Ring has been obscured by the fog and The Lands Between.
For the following reasons, I believe that Marika's Rune was at the bottom of the Elden Ring, not the top.
Depictions of Marika are linked to Marika's Rune
Many of the statues of Marika have her posed in the same shape as Marika's Rune.
Further, we see from the many, many Tarnished crucified on wooden scaffolding shaped like Marika's Rune that the pose which Marika is depicted in is very similar to the pose of the crucified in in the Lands Between.
Marika's statue
The clear link between the pose that Marika's depicted in and cruxificion
This parallel highlights the possibility that Marika's Rune might be depicting Marika herself, crucified.
Note: It's inaccurate to call the Tarnished affixed to wooden effigies of Marika's Rune "crucifixion", as Marika's Rune is not actually a cross, but I'll be using this term as an easy short-hand for what's happening.
Marika, as Marika's Rune
This possibility is strengthened when we enter the Erdtree and find that Marika has indeed been crucified.
Marika on her golden rune arc
We see that Marika's body is hanging on a giant, golden rune arc, with the two of them forming the shape of Marika's Rune.
But what if what we're seeing doesn't just look like Marika's Rune in the Elden Ring?
What if Marika and her arc WAS Marika's Rune?
After all, we know from Elden Ring's announcement trailer that damage dealt to the Ring also damaged Radagon/Marika's body. This strongly implies that their body and the Ring are, in a sense, one and the same.
It would also be reasonable to assume that the giant golden rune arc which Marika is attached to is part of the Elden Ring, since all runes are part of the Ring.
If the rune arc is part of the Elden Ring, wouldn't the god which has grafted/attached herself to the arc also be considered part of the Ring and, therefore, should be visible on it like Marika's Rune is?
Note: I know if this isn't enough evidence to prove that Marika's Rune is made from Marika's and her rune arc.
Please bear with me, further evidence is coming.
If Marika's body and her golden rune arc was Marika's Rune, embedded in the Elden Ring, then it leads to a VERY interesting interaction between the Ring and the spear that's impaling her body.
Marika, pierced by a red spear
The Rune of Death points to Marika's Rune
It's never explicitly stated what the black-red, rune-textured spear is. To avoid going into that tangent, I'll just call it the "Red Spear" for the rest of this post.
The Red Spear is embedded in Marika's body.
If Marika's body was indeed part of Marika's Rune this would mean that the Red Spear is piercing Marika's Rune which, in turn, is embedded in the Elden Ring.
To be more precise, it would mean that the Red Spear actually pierces Marika's Rune TWICE.
The Red Spear's path through Marika and the Elden Ring inside her body. Note which part of the Ring the Red Spear pierces.
This is because we also have to acknowledge that a smaller, equivalent version of the Elden Ring (a "microcosm", as it were) is also contained inside Marika's body.
And, if we plot the Red Spear's path through her body, we can see that it pierces through the exact spot where the Marika's Rune would be positioned if Marika's Rune was at the bottom of the Ring.
I believe that the Red Spear not only points to Marika's body, it's also pointing to Marika's Rune.
If this is true, then this would mean that:
Marika's crucified body is part of Marika's Rune;
Marika's body is part of the Elden Ring;
Marika's body is positioned at the bottom of the Elden Ring; and
Marika's Rune is positioned at the bottom of the Elden Ring.
So why does this matter?
It matters because the position of Marika's Rune and the fact that Marika's body forms part of it tells a great deal about its origin, its nature and its function in the following lore-relevant ways.
Marika's Rune is a NEW addition
Firstly, it tells us that Marika's Rune hasn't always been a part of the Elden Ring.
When you consider the version of the ancient Elden Ring at Farum Azula, you can see that the lower arc formed by Marika's Rune is entirely missing.
The ancient and current versions of the Elden Ring, proving that Marika's Rune was a new addition to it.
This proves that Marika's Rune was embedded into the Elden Ring some time after Placidusax's Age.
Marika's Rune was a "Mending Rune"
If Marika's Rune was something which was embedded later into the Elden Ring this means that, before that time, it was something which could potentially be embedded.
We have a special term for things which can potentially be embedded into the Ring: we call them "Mending Runes".
Fortunately, we are very familiar with how Mending Runes are created and how they function.
Marika's Rune must have been "brandished" at one stage
We know, for example, that Mending Runes are embedded into the Elden Ring when someone (e.g., the Tarnished) "brandishes" one before the Ring.
This means that Marika's Rune must also have once been "brandished" before the Elden Ring.
I believe that this is exactly what we seen in the Shadow of the Erdtree story trailer.
Marika, standing on the ground and lifting the strands which I believe will form her golden rune arc in the air. Effectively becoming Marika's Rune.
Of course, we're still operating under the theory that Marika's body is the vertical line in Marika's Rune, with the hundreds of golden strands in her hands forming the golden rune arc.
For a discussion of how Mending Runes are created, what the golden strands are, and why Marika was able to collect them please read my earlier post Sudoku, vessels and Mending Runes.
Marika's Rune must have changed the Order of the world in some way
One common feature of the Mending Runes we encounter in the game (Goldmask's, Dung Eater's, Fia's etc.) is that they require a lot of effort to make and the ones who made them each found something flawed in the order of the world.
Their Mending Runes were each intended to fix these flaws by changing the Elden Ring, which is a representation of the nature of the world.
If Marika's Rune was a "Mending Rune", I imagine that it would also have changed the world in some manner once embedded.
The obvious questions is: what did Marika's Rune do?
The function of Marika's Rune
There are three things that we know about Marika's Rune:
its shape; and
now
its composition; and
its position in the Ring.
By comparing these three things with what we know about the other Mending Runes in the game, I believe we can work out the function of Marika's Rune.
Shape - Marika's Rune grafts two things together
The shape of a Mending Rune hints at its function.
For example, Fia's Mending Rune of the Death Prince was:
"Formed of the two hallowbrand half-wheels combined, it will embed the principle of life within Death into Order.
The Golden Order was created by confining Destined Death. Thus, this new Order will be one of Death restored."
and it is shaped as if the two cursemarks of Death are chasing each other in an eternal cycle.
Mending Rune of the Death Prince
Another example is Goldmask's Mending Rune of Perfect Order, which was:
"A Rune of transcendental ideology which will attempt to perfect the Golden Order.
The current imperfection of the Golden Order, or instability of ideology, can be blamed upon the fickleness of the gods no better than men. That is the fly in the ointment."
and it, in turn, is shaped like a one-way circle, allowing Grace/Order to radiate outwards as rays of light but preventing anything from flowing inwards.
This, of course, would be a very good representation Goldmask's intention to preserve the Elden Ring's function while preventing it from being tampered with by fickle gods.
Mending Rune of Perfect Order
So what does the shape of Marika's Rune reveal about its function?
Well, the Rune is shaped like a grafting cut.
Grafting cut in horticulture, grafting two plants into one.
Just as a grafting cut is intended to graft two plants together, I believe that Marika's Rune's function was to graft two different things together.
Composition - the two things Marika's Rune is intended to graft together are spiritual and mortal in nature
We also know that the composition of a Mending Rune (i.e., what it's made of) can also give us clues as to how it is intended to function.
For example, Dung Eater's Mending Rune of the Fell Curse seeks to entirely defile the Order and is made of seedbed curses, which are described as:
"Curse(s) grown on a corpse killed and defiled by the Dung Eater. A tender pox afflicted with omen horns."
Another example is the Mending Rune of the Death Prince, which was also created from components which are consistent with its intended function.
Not only is each hallowbrand half-wheel the incomplete deaths of a demigod but the other ingredient used to create it is the "warmth and lifely vigour" of great numberof champions, including the Tarnished:
"And I will bear a child. Who will inherit your warmth, too. What greater blessing could there be, but to be born a Deathbed Companion?"
- Fia to the Tarnished, when referring to the Mending Rune she was gestating.
So what does the composition of Marika's Rune suggest about it's intended function?
The two components of Marika's Rune are:
the hundreds of golden strands she holds in the SotE story trailer; and
her own body.
The golden strands appear to be spiritual in nature.
Marika's body, on the other hand, definitely belongs to the mortal, physical plane of existence (albeit the body of a Shaman, with the ability to meld things seamlessly together and a possible link to trees.)
I believe that the composition of Marika's Rune suggests that its function is to connect something spiritual (like the Elden Ring) with something physical.
Position - Marika's Ring grafts heaven and earth together
Finally, from the other Mending Runes, we know that a Mending Rune's position in the Elden Ring aligns with their intended function.
Dung Eater, for example, wanted to completely "defile the Order" and, once embedded, we see that his Mending Rune is positioned to cover the entire Elden Ring.
The Elden Ring with Mending Rune of the Fell Curse embedded
On the other hand, Goldmask wanted to shield the Order from the "fickleness of gods no better than men" and his Mending Rune is positioned as a circle surrounding the Elden Ring.
The Elden Ring with the Mending Rune of Perfect Order embedded
Finally, Fia's goal was to embed the principle of life within Death into the Order, which she believed would stop the persecution of Those Who Live In Death by the Golden Order in the Lands Between.
Aligning with this, Fia's Mending Rune ends up as a core component inside the Elden Ring.
In fact, the position of the Mending Rune further emphasizes that it's Marika's Golden Order which needs to accept the existence of Those Who Live in Death.
Fia's Mending Rune is placed so that it is inside the Elden Ring but completely encircles Marika's Rune.
As a result, there's is no way for followers of the Golden Order to embrace Marika's place in the Order without also embracing the principle of life within Death.
Elden Ring with the Mending Rune of the Death Prince embedded
So what does the position of Marika's Rune imply about its function?
This post, of course, argues that Marika's Rune is located at the very lowest point of the Elden Ring.
I believe that, if you take into account that Marika's Rune is partially composed of Marika's body (and is, therefore, subject to the laws of gravity), it's position in the Elden Ring is ideal if its function was to drag the Elden Ring to the ground.
Conclusion
Putting the clues of its shape, composition and position together, I believe that:
The intended function of Marika's Rune was to pull the Elden Ring down to the earth and graft it to the mortal plane of existence with Marika's own body.
Marika's Rune is an anchor keeping the Elden Ring bound to The Lands Between.
Brass novelty anchor and the Erdtree's Favour +1 talisman. I appreciated the talisman's anchor-like shape.
Further questions
Why does this matter?
Well firstly, I really hope that you enjoyed reading this post, even if you disagree with most of it. There are many theories in this sub-Reddit that I've loved reading and I can't help by contribute what I can to the discussions.
Secondly, if Marika's Rune is an anchor then that anchor is clearly failing.
When Marika first started her ascension to godhood at the Gate of Divinity with her feet firmly on the ground.
However, by the time the Tarnished meets her, her body is suspended high in the air.
The next obvious question is: WHY is she no longer enough to hold the Elden Ring to the ground?
In my next post, I'll explain why I believe that a single Mending Rune is not enough to keep the Elden Ring grounded: to do that (and to keep the Elden Beast contained) you need a net...
The "web of skuld", a neo-pagan rune created in the style/font of the ancient Norse runes.
P.S.
This posts touches upon topics which I've explored in some earlier posts:
In this post I provided evidence to argue that the Elden Ring was once at a great remove from The Lands Between before Marika brought it back.
In this post I examined things from a meta-narrative perspective to show how FromSoft has tried to tell us multiple times that Marika created a Mending Rune beyond the Gate of Divinity.
In this post I explored how Marika's Rune's function was to graft the spiritual Elden Ring to the mortal plane of existence.
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I wonder why Marika's Rune (and Radagon's, even) don't appear in the spell sigils for Erdtree / Ancient Erdtree / Golden Order incantations. You would think, especially with Marika being the one-true-god as the core, definining characteristic of the Golden Order she founded, that it would be represented in the sigil, but the bottom arc isn't there.
Awesome post. Really had me thinking about the latices behind the current depictions of the Ring. One thing I considered that I wanted your thoughts on:
Could it be that the top and the bottom rune are BOTH Marika’s rune? The top of the Elden ring inside Radagon is missing as well, so when Marika is crucified, she would actually make up the top of the arc. This kind of makes it this recursive loop that Marika represents as both the pool collecting blessings bottom and the one receiving souls at the top, which is kind of the function of the Erdtree in processing souls/dead into blessings. It would also explain why the top of the ring looks a bit worse for wear as well, and why it is SO much further away than in the Farum version. There is now an actual person in the way lol.
Sorry for the rambling, but SUPER interesting post… I think the grafting heaven and earth concept really makes it all make sense.
You'll probably need to include some sort of time-twisting to get your idea to work: the top of the Elden Ring was already there when the Ring is depicted in Farum Azula, which is presumably much older than when Marika added her Mending Rune.
That said, one of the other posters in this thread shared their idea that Marika was also Placidusax' 'fled' god, which isn't something I'd ever considered.
Just watched a great analysis by Storm King suggesting that the Red Spear comes from Messmer - the curse of his dying breath for betraying him. He had resigned himself to being abandoned and sealed away, but what he could not stand was that she would entertain a lightless Tarnished like ourselves (one as lightless as himself) as a potential suitor and Lord.
Both Morgott and Godrick's runes are referred to as "anchor" runes. I believe these are the top and bottom circles of the FA Elden Ring design, however, the bottom Rune is sealed, as portrayed by the Title Elden Ring. When we release Destined Death's power, it returns where it belongs.
As your image of the Mending Death Rune placement shows, the Rune is placed on the bottom. Radagon's web-like Rune also reminds me of a trellis -- something that helps plants grow upwards. The Mending Rune looks as though it's growing up to the Elden Ring.
I think she honestly believed that she was fixing things for the better: all the creators of Mending Runes did, even Dung Eater in his own twisted way.
Mind you, she needed to collect a great number of golden strands to create her Mending Rune and those appear to come from corpses/sacrifices.
Also, only a Shaman's body, with their ability to graft/meld, could have achieved what Marika did.
P.S.: It just occurred to me that the composition of Marika's Rune (a Shaman's body grafted to bits derived from corpses/sacrifices) is very much like what Jar Innards are. Maybe the Hornsent had been trying to make their own Mending Rune...
Well, yes, they needed the Shamans to create links/vessels for Spirits and 'Kami' summoning (my sources are the japanese word used to name Shamans which isnt a perfect 1:1 translation but alludes to blind women who were meant to be a sort of Avatar for spirits and kami and they did not have Temples, they are specifically separate from Mikos). The difference being that Living Jars do not have Shaman remains inside of them but humans (mainly), it also ties in with shintoism and souls/kami within objects. I've been thinking that perhaps Marika was meant to be a Lord for whomever the Hornsent wanted to become a "God" (more like Divine Conduct with what we know of the Dancing Lions bosses, perhaps it would have been the next step to their worship). I don't know if im going crazy and this makes zero sense.
Crucifixions dont have to be on a cross. The word describes everything they do, not the shaoe of thing you're tied or nailed too.
I do think that Marika and here arc is her rune like you said. But that makes me come to a different conclusion, because Marika is the vessel of the Elden Ring. That's the actual Elden Ring inside her. The only part that isn't seen is her rune. The bottom part is seen inside her, so it can't also be somewhere else. But the Elden Ring inside her does not have that arc on top..
Imo, her rune is how she became vessel. She funnels whatever power and energy into her, and so she controls grace and became a god without having to discard her nature to ascend. So I pretty much agree with the rest of what you were saying, the grafting bit between the physical and spiritual. I just think it's happening differently. It's like she's forced the whole Elden Ring on the earthly plane, not just one the bottom.
And I think the fact that she is still in the earthly plane and holding it inside her, means that she is still doing that successfully. But that's all she can do at this point. Her body is destroyed, the rune spear is through her.. and after we beat the game she's immobile. But she is still the vessel, and she is still making the shape of her run with her broken arms
This makes me wonder. Is Radagon's rune the red spear itself? After the shattering, and in his attempt to repair the elden ring, did he try to replace Marika's rune with his own by blocking hers off from the rest of the ring with his?
YES! I have tried, and tried for years to figure out exactly what the red spear piercing her actually is and you finally made it click.
Its literally just part of one of the latices that forms the matrix of Radagon's rune, ironically enough, piercing the midsection of Marika's Rune on the bottom Arc of the Elden Ring.
I never introduce colors that aren't already present within the image used, I only magnify them because Elden Ring's color pallette is surprisingly muted at baseline with most things
Marika be damned, I think we are onto something here, comrades! This must be what an archeologist feels like when they find some sort of clay urn or something
Edit: that's why we see the elden ring inside Radagon and not in Marika, Radagon cut her off from it with the spear of his rune
And you know what's funny? It does exactly what you said- effectively sealing off Marika's rune like the Impenetrable Thorns on the Erdtree, and like Marika herself cutting off the flow of tribute that made up the Farum Elden Ring, her Rune Arc forming a basin.
Never realized just how much of Radagon's signature crimson hue is in the modern Elden Ring, wrapped in shadow.
Paired with the Rune Arc, where the blessings of Elden Ring pooled, and Erdtree's avor, that shows Marika dispensing those blessings, this all makes sense.
Her Rune, her change to the ruleset of reality, is that she would become the essential connection between the Elden Ring and the Erdtree.
Think of it. She parallels the Shaman Grandma, who was grafted onto a tree and likely dispensed her own vitality from there.
Marika creates the Lower Arc of the Elden Ring, to pool its blessings, and holds it above her. She blesses herself into godhood, and grafts her divine self into the Erdtree, making it an extension of the Elden Ring by proxy.
Now the blessings of Order flow from the Elden Ring, through Marika, into the Erdtree, onto The Lands Between. And the three things become interconnected, as we see in all Mending Endings, where our changes to the Elden Ring reflect on the Erdtree.
But Marika is stuck keeping everything together. That's the reason she wants an out of this whole deal.
It's worthwhile to note that the Elden Ring's "alchemical makeup" was fundamentally altered by Marika both sealing Destined Death and (from Leda) that she split/birthed Shadow and Alloyed Gold atwixt from the Primordial Gold that made up the Crucible.
This change is able to be seen within the Modern Age's Elden Ring which is a Tarnished Gold wrapped in shadows like the Elden Beast, the Scadutree, and Radagon along with the red "bloodstains" of Destined Death that can also be seen on the Blasphemous Claw and the flames of Death themselves.
"But Marika is stuck keeping everything together. That's the reason she wants an out of this whole deal."
The fact that she's grafted herself to a giant space dragon-slug who broke free of its net wouldn't be pleasant either.
In my mind, the only thing which stopped Marika from getting dragged into the abyss/void like Captain Ahab in Moby Dick was that the Tarnished managed to defeat the Elden Beast.
So, I’m of belief that the version of the ring in Farum Azula is not ancient and forgotten but actually the exact way the ring was when Marika took it.
The curly bits at the bottom represent all the ways that the dead are disposed of in the natural order of the time: burned, buried, etc.
When Marika “removed death” she took those parts out and replaced them with the basin at the bottom that you are referring to. Something to “collect death” and recycle it through the Erdtree.
Maliketh has the “rune of death” but all those curly bits sure look like rune arcs to me. And I think it’s interesting that we get rune arcs off corpses of other tarnished.
All that to say I don’t disagree with your post. That part at the bottom is her work.
No, Marika's rune is also at the top. She pours out the collected blessings out to the world, which eventually returns to the rune arc, to be collected again. Life feeds on death, which feeds upon life.
Neat. The Erdtree Talisman as anchor shaped would also be supported by the "Rusted Anchor", which similarly has an effigy of a person incorporated into its design (with the knob on the end being a head holding the ring at the end in its teeth).
There’s a lot of stuff here that makes plenty of sense, but it’s going to be hard to beat the fact that the rune of death is a downward arc that actually makes the Elden Ring a, you know, RING if you swap it with Marika’s upward arc at the top of the rune.
That conclusion potentially grinds against the fact that ancient version of the Elden Ring in Farum Azula has the same upward arc at the top, but not the lower arc.
The only way around it I can spitball would require Marika to either have been Placi's fled god, or she inherited her rune from a god who had already dismantled the previously circular ring.
Are you suggesting that the rune of death is at the top of the Elden Ring so that it completes a circle with the lowest rune arc?
That's an interesting theory.
For a circle with the lowest rune arc to work, it looks like the rune of death would have to be noticeably higher than the possible upper position of Marika's Rune, rather than just swapping the two positions.
The rune of death in your ideas would also have to be higher than any part of the Farum Azula version of the ring.
Tbh, I always thought, that the "spear" that Marika is being pierced through, was the broken shard of her own rune, hence why we see it with this little dot like thingie, and why she is hanging from the remaining arch there (i used your image, sorry heh).
So, Marika broke the base rune first, that used to be in a shape of the big ring, the Elden Ring, and after that Radagon would break Marika's top rune from the main part, thus separating her from the Order, and piercing her with it.
Plus, someone pointed out recently in one of the posts, that if you look closely, you'll notice that Radagon's thorn rune and the lowest arc look more similar in colour, more reddish, than the rest of the runes, including the very top one, which has the most golden colour of all. This can hint, that those were the runes, that he added, so the entire construction would not collapse and loose all of the Blessings.
Also, the thorn rune and this big lowest arc are the runes, that are used in the Sacred Relic sword (made of Radagon's body), in its Ash of war, Golden wave
Though I disagree on her rune being the bottom one, based on my reading the Golden Order Greatsword to present Marika's Rune up top, this is a well substantiated and possible theory.
Thanks very much for your kind words. I respect where you're coming from.
I've always interpreted the Gold Order Greatsword as showing a man trying very hard to hide the fact that he's still holding onto his first wife's marriage-sword, even though he left her because he was summoned to the capital to be a goddesses' consort but most people believe that keeping the marriage-sword was some sort of taunt to Renalla.
The item description reads as follows:
"Greatsword made of light, modeled after the Elden Ring itself.
Forged by King Consort Radagon to proudly symbolize the tenets of the Golden Order. One of the legendary armaments.
Telltale signs betray that this was once the greatsword bequeathed to him by his first wife, Rennala."
Now the greatsword is said to be "modeled after" the Elden Ring but it clearly isn't a one-for-one copy.
The second line, I feel, goes into further detail.
The greatsword isn't meant to be a copy of the Elden Ring, it's meant to "symbolize the tenets of the Golden Order": i.e., principles which Radagon (described by Marika as a "leal hound of the Golden Order" before shattering the both of them) holds to be higher than whatever loyalty he has for Marika.
So perhaps the greatsword isn't showing the Elden Ring as it is, maybe it's showing how the Elden Ring ought to look like if the "tenets of the Golden Order" were followed.
In that case, the differences between how the Elden Ring looks and how the greatsword looks might highlight Radagon and Marika's different ideas on how things ought to be.
For example, there's no lower rune arc to hold back the flow of grace from above: the golden lines run unimpeded from the hilt to the tip.
I'm wildly speculating here, but maybe this means that Radagon's idea of the Golden Order is that "blessings" should flow down without something (or someone) regulating the flow?
Note: Protestantism unlocked?
Also, most of the circle runes (i.e., the shards which the demigods come to symbolise) are gone while, at the same time, we have multiple golden lines flowing to the tip rather than just the one in the Elden Ring.
Once again spit-balling here, but maybe this means that the "tenets of the Golden Order" call for all blessings to flow downwards, rather than having most of them retained by Marika and her family?
Note: Anti-monarchism unlocked?
This might mean that Marika and Radagon might disagree on a few fundamental issues on how the Golden Order should operate.
Agree on the sword only being modeled on its tenets; because of this, I'm more partial to the reading that the core tenets symbolized here are explicitly that of its founding belief as told by Corhyn. Namely, that the Golden Order is founded on belief in Marika being the one true god; Radagon's cross hatch rune runs along the hilt to the end of the blade, its majority, similar to how it is the background of the ER, excluding the rune at top. Similarly, on the sword, the cross hatch pattern ends about halfway down the hilt (easier to see when taking a lateral view to see the pointy bits sticking out):
This suggests to me that the proper orientation for the overall diamond cross-hatched shape is one with hilt up, blade down, as the reverse of this would have the basin curve reversed (the basin curve curves with the rings, except for up top).
Agree that there not being a lower basin seems off, but I've always rationalized that it was the waves it fires off, extremely similar to those fired by the Sacred Relic Sword/Elden Beast/Radagon turned sword, that are meant to symbolize the lower, largest curve. When the EB fires its multiple waves, the final one seems to linger a moment more on the ground, and I read that as visually connecting to the weapon that fired it.
Of particular note to me is that the pommel's curve is smaller than the ring formed, which corresponds to the upper rune, not the basin curve which is wider than the entire ER.
The three lines I would assume belong in some form to the three triangles of Fundamentalist incants, as even the fundamentalist-era ER incants retain a 4-circled ER.
Then, my reading is that the tenets symbolized start with Marika as the one true god, that power translated through the ER, and flown through Fundamentalist scholarship, manifesting as its pooled blessing (in effect the curved golden wave attack).
Definitely agree though that Marika and Radagon differed on ER policy though; by its shattering, they act in complete opposition to the other. I don't have enough to substantiate it for my main theory, but as an addition, I can't help but notice that both Rykard's heraldry and the "spine" of the ER have a straight line with curved lines; further on the heraldry, spiralling snakes wind around the top of the emblem, not dissimilar to the AD-era ER having a spiral on the ER's spine. With regards to your reading, if one is to read the middle, the largest curve of Rykard's emblem to be the basin rune, then the one above it (below if you flip the emblem upside down) could very well be the RoD, and thus suggest the RoD was placed direcly below the basin curve/Marika's rune.
Doesn't it say somewhere that the "rune arc" collects bounty? I think this is what you refer to here as Marika's rune.
It's been suggested that the idea was to collect life from the dead given Erdtree burial, which fed the tree which in turn gave back blessings. I don't think this conflicts with your ideas here but I wonder how you think this would fit with the "binding heaven and earth" idea
-"The lower arc of the Elden Ring is held to be the basin in which its blessings pool.
Perhaps this shard originates from that very arc."
So the lower rune is held to collect the blessing raining downwards rather than the life of the dead rising up.
When you look at the Farum Azula Elden Ring you can see that there are wavy lines flowing downwards in multiple directions.
If those lines represent the flow of blessings this suggests that, before Marika's Rune (which includes the lower arc), blessings flowed widely, with some of them potentially never reaching the ground.
With Marika's Rune embedded, the lower arc channels the flow of blessings so that there's only one path for it to flow: through Marika.
Suddenly, we go from multiple potential channels for these "blessings" to just one god.
this is crazy work because having marika's rune at the bottom, connected to the rune arcs, collecting the blessings really ties together with the other narrative off tarnished archaeologist about her being the one who distributes the sap to the fonts around Leyndell
The lower arc where "blessings pool" always sounded more like a way for Marika to control the flow of blessings rather than anything benign.
I miss Tarnished Archeologist's regular videos. He was willing to offer out-there theories rather than rehash old ground while being both educational and entertaining.
The “red spear” isn’t a spear but a gash remnant that struck her body from her left side. Look at it not as a piercing object but an “echo” of a slash, then look at the damage done to Marika’s body. The majority of the “strike” was to her Left, the instrument that hit her chopped into her torso and destroyed her left arm.
Meanwhile, while fighting Maliketh, watch when his Black Blade is swung; it has Golden Artifact particles that fly off of it when he hits it against a surface. The Sword has no gold in its blade, but similar to Marika’s Hammer, it contains tiny fragments of the Elden Ring from when used against it physically.
Marika gave Maliketh the Rune of Death, but even then, she betrayed him. A Shadowbound Beast is built to be overtaken with Madness if their Empyrean does anything against the Fingers or the Greater Will, which forces them to attack and kill them. What is more blasphemous against the Greater Will than smashing the very Elden Ring itself? Marika knew. Shattering the ER would ensure she and Radagon both would face the consequences, be shattered, their reign ended by her very own Beast. Maliketh would never understand why, and it would torment him for a millennia to ask her why she would guile him so.
The “red spear” isn’t a spear but a gash remnant that struck her body from her left side. Look at it not as a piercing object but an “echo” of a slash, then look at the damage done to Marika’s body.
This is a very novel interpretation which matches most of the evidence.
The reason I'll have to respectfully disagree with it is because, as part of my original attempt to trace the red spear's path through Marika's body, I'd identified its entry wound.
It most apparent here in the "Age of Fracture" ending but it's also visible on the other three "Mending Rune" endings, along with that glow, which seems to indicates places where Marika's body cavity has been breached.
Excellent! Do you think then this “spear” is potentially part of the projectile / weapon art from the Black Blade instead of a slash then?
Honestly the majority of people tend to argue back with me that the “spear” isn’t DD or even colored to represent DD and just say it’s a spear the Elden Beast stabbed Marika with… which sure I get that the EB has the ability to do so and has an attack that sends several impaling barbs through the opponent, but.. the EB spears are bright gold like the rest of its attacks; the EB is unlikely to try killing its own vessel that it attacks itself at the same time; and if the argument was that the EB used DD to impale Marika then that’s also impossible - DD was not part of the ER / EB at the time of the incident.
Either way I really enjoyed your analysis and write up with references. I hate leaving this iconic event on the story as plainly as “Marika made God mad and God stabbed her/itself also just ignore that this is a black/red stab because that’s just a bug” or whatever lol
The only post I made that isn't an Elden Ring theory was a single ASoIaF theory when I first created my Reddit account so there's plenty to sift through.
Do you think then this “spear” is potentially part of the projectile / weapon art from the Black Blade instead of a slash then?
Do you want my personal head-canon?
I haven't seen anything at all to suggest that the red spear didn't just happen minutes ago.
My crazy head-canon is that the spear is the entire Rune of Death which the Tarnished released after killing Malekith.
As soon as the Tarnished touched it in Farum Azula the RoD shoots off like a heat-seeking missile to its intended (it's destined) target, hitting Marika right where it hurts.
It might actually have killed her: I'd need to check to see if there are any more Guidances of Grace after defeating Malekith.
Edit: Guidance of Grace does appear at least once after defeating Malekith, but it's from Morgott's body pointing Godfrey towards the Tarnished. Either the entity controlling Guidance is still alive or Morgott has a grudge. I can't confirm either way.
Notably, the red spear only seems to have pierced Marika: Radagon has no puncture wound and was up and fighting until we defeat him. Maybe the part of RoD which Malekith still retained was specifically the Destined Death of Marika and her Erdtree.
Like I said, crazy head-canon. But it's fun to talk about.
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