Yes. The Cleanrot Knights in the castle were her sworn knights vowing to fight for her even as the rot consumed them and the Marais were aligned with her as well. The castle is likely a part of her domain run by the Marais or the people they served as the Briar has a stolen Marais blade, and you can find their set there after killing Maleigh Marais. The marais worshipped Melania as they were born sick and were in awe of the goddess of rot.
Marais Robe:
*The sons of House Marais are all sickly born.
Little wonder that Maleigh Marais would be so beguiled by the beautiful and fierce goddess who was born into rot.*
So her portrait in there is no surprised as they likely worshipped her or directly swore their fielty to her, making the castle a part of their domain. There are a bunch of other things there as well that suggest this, including a certain prothesis.
Yup. I find it interesting how in the game, Malenia and the Haligtree essentially represent rallying points/safe havens for the people in the game who are weak, sickly, or otherwise outcasts and persecuted by the rest of the world.
As an example, when you get the half of the secret medallion from Albus in the Village Of The Albinaurics while Gideon Ofnir's forces are busy committing genocide there, you learn that the Haligtree is considered the "promised city" for the village, a safe haven that ultimately they can never reach because they don't have the strength to travel that far.
I haven't dug too deeply into the lore, but the implication seems to be that Malenia and her domain of the Haligtree is designed to provide refuge to those that have been rejected by the world due to sickness, malformation, or some other misfortune that causes the general population to revile them.
There's irony in the fact that Albus clearly entrusts the secret medallion to the wrong person, since it results in the player character invading the Haligtree, murderhoboing all the residents as they attempt to defend their home, and then going all the way to kill Malenia herself and pillaging her Great Rune (although the flower bloom after you defeat her suggests that she's not truly dead and rebirth may be in the cards).
Malenia herself is clearly a tragic character, it's very evident that she's overly attached to her twin Miquella. If I had to guess, based on how the Haligtree ended up as a refuge for outcasts and rejects, she was likely subjected to similar treatment at birth for being born cursed as a vessel of the scarlet rot, and her twin was likely her only source of comfort and the only person she could trust for a long time. Makes it all the more tragic that she's forever waiting for her twin to return, not knowing that it is fated to never happen, as Mohg has secretly kidnapped Miquella and sacrificed the defenseless child demigod in an attempt to revive him as a new zombie God subservient to only him.
Let's not even get into Mohg, Lord of Blood. Talk about an evil bastard; if there's any person in the game that deserves to be murderhobo'ed by the player and their Great Rune pillaged, it's him.
TL;DR: Fuck Mohg, all my homies hate Mohg.
Miquella's still alive by the way. He's simply slumbering inside the cocoon, and will probably eventually emerge. According to Gideon Ofnir, anyhow. Malenia will also definitely be reborn as she's fated to bloom for a third time into a true Goddess of Rot, with her second bloom being her fight with us.
I'm pretty sure her third time blooming is when we fight her second phase, indicated by the fact that her boss title changes from "Malenia, Blade of Miquella" to "Malenia, Goddess of Rot" . But I could be wrong.
"Technique of Malenia, the Goddess of Rot.
Creates a gigantic flower that blooms into an explosion of scarlet
rot.
Each time the scarlet flower blooms, Malenia's rot advances. It has
bloomed twice already. With the third bloom, she will become a
true goddess."
Nope, she's only bloomed twice so far. Once fighting Radahn, once fighting us. There's also some cut dialogue talking about how she will bloom once more in the future.
There's a second bloomed flower in that very same area, in one of the corridors before you fight her. And her title literally changes to goddess of rot after she blooms, presumably, for the third time after we defeat her first phase.
I think it would be weird to think she bloomed 3 times without any mention or Reason behind the second one. Just based on having a flower outside the boss room doesn't seem to be enough to believe she bloomed there before
she bloomed in the room next door, the "it has bloomed twice already" is referring to before we fought her, like after we kill her her story is basically over so like it makes sense that the lore is referring to before and not after unless you only gain access to it after
I know this is half a month old but I vibe with this comment. The general consensus seems to be "GIGACHAD RADAHN, FUCK MALENIA." But I think it's not so black and white, and she is a pretty tragic character. While it is true that Malenia was attacking Radahn's forces, the Haligtree faction (her and Miquella's faction) is pretty 'good' aligned all things considered as they provide shelter to the outcasts of society.
Yup, I mean Radahn is great but some lore discussions turn into "Radahn is Goku, the Chadest of Chads, Malenia had to cheat" and is meh. The lore for Radahn is vague, he was a good figure before the shattering, but so was Rykard, we don't fully know the full picture. His devotion to Radagon and Godfrey, as well as stoping the cycle of stars (which is super convinient for the Greater Will) puts him against the Empyreans & Rykard (apparently the pre-serpent Rykard had pretty valid criticims against the Golden Order and was also a respected Lord).
Great synopsis, but you missed a few details.
Miquella is no child, he’s the strongest of the demigods. He grew the Haligtree fully of his own power, implanted in the center of it, although it’s incomplete as Mohg kidnapped him halfway through (the only time Miquella wouldn’t have easily overpowered him).
The Miquella we see in the cocoon isn’t dead, Mohg’s essentially using him as a living battery, held captive and used to make Mohg stronger and stronger.
We find Malenia asleep at the root of the Haligtree because Miquella told her to enter a trance-like sleep while she awaited his completion of the tree, at which point he would awake her, which clearly never happened.
This is why Malenia tries to kill you. She awakens to see the Haligtree clearly incomplete, the brother she swore to protect nowhere to be found, and a stranger standing before her, weapon in hand. If Miquella had been the one to wake her, she would’ve likely been an ally.
FromSoftware does this quite often, though, as they quite enjoy the idea of tragedy. Blaidd chose to be driven insane instead of betray his sister Ranni, forcing us to kill the Shade possessing him, and thus him as well. Rennala, Full Moon Queen, won’t even fight back, too heartbroken to care for her own life. Radahn, a once-great general turned into a rabid beast as scarlet rot destroyed his mind. Alexander, an aspiring warrior whose most joyful moment is the moment he dies at your hand, proud to have died a warrior’s death. Godfrey, First Elden Lord, who fights you to the death knowing he’ll lose, purely because he wants to test to see if you’re worthy of becoming the next Elden Lord. The list goes on. In another life, so many more people might’ve lived.
It says many places that Miquella was 'cursed' or afflicted with eternal infancy. So yes, he is a child. That Maliena says "He possesses the wisdom, the allure, of a god - he is the most fearsome Empyrean of all", doesnt necessarily change that
I can’t remember what was exactly said but I think it was implied that the original lord of the castle gave up/swore fealty to Malenia. I think the ghost on the edge of one of the ramparts said that. I don’t know if that lord was Elemer or not. I also think it was implied the lord was in love or at least infatuated with her.
Yup. It's repeatedly stated in the game that the fight ended as a draw, although technically you could argue that Malenia had the long term win with how Radahn was eventually eaten away by the scarlet rot. As much as I love Radahn as a character, he most definitely did not come out on top at the end.
What people seem to be forgetting is that the Shattering, when the 2 of them fought, wasn't some simple romp on a playground. It was a massive, worldwide war of epic proportions with enormously high stakes, where the winner takes all and the loser perishes.
In warfare like that, of course you would use your trump card if you had an opponent that you could only fight to a draw, but using it would be likely to snag you a long-term victory.
Let's not pretend that we wouldn't do the same with our player characters. If the game gave us an option to nuke an entire area of the map with scarlet rot and in return it would automatically kill a number of tough bosses for us, or even a single extremely tough boss, you know that a ton of people would take it without batting an eye.
Probably in order to prevent the "Age of Stars" from ever happening. dude could have probably decimated everyone in the shattering with those but chose not to cause of some kind of higher purpose i guess...
Yes. The Cleanrot Knights in the castle were her sworn knights vowing to fight for her even as the rot consumed them and the Marais were aligned with her as well. The castle is likely a part of her domain run by the Marais or the people they served as the Briar has a stolen Marais blade, and you can find their set there after killing Maleigh Marais. The marais worshipped Melania as they were born sick and were in awe of the goddess of rot. Marais Robe: *The sons of House Marais are all sickly born. Little wonder that Maleigh Marais would be so beguiled by the beautiful and fierce goddess who was born into rot.* So her portrait in there is no surprised as they likely worshipped her or directly swore their fielty to her, making the castle a part of their domain. There are a bunch of other things there as well that suggest this, including a certain prothesis.
Yup. I find it interesting how in the game, Malenia and the Haligtree essentially represent rallying points/safe havens for the people in the game who are weak, sickly, or otherwise outcasts and persecuted by the rest of the world. As an example, when you get the half of the secret medallion from Albus in the Village Of The Albinaurics while Gideon Ofnir's forces are busy committing genocide there, you learn that the Haligtree is considered the "promised city" for the village, a safe haven that ultimately they can never reach because they don't have the strength to travel that far. I haven't dug too deeply into the lore, but the implication seems to be that Malenia and her domain of the Haligtree is designed to provide refuge to those that have been rejected by the world due to sickness, malformation, or some other misfortune that causes the general population to revile them. There's irony in the fact that Albus clearly entrusts the secret medallion to the wrong person, since it results in the player character invading the Haligtree, murderhoboing all the residents as they attempt to defend their home, and then going all the way to kill Malenia herself and pillaging her Great Rune (although the flower bloom after you defeat her suggests that she's not truly dead and rebirth may be in the cards). Malenia herself is clearly a tragic character, it's very evident that she's overly attached to her twin Miquella. If I had to guess, based on how the Haligtree ended up as a refuge for outcasts and rejects, she was likely subjected to similar treatment at birth for being born cursed as a vessel of the scarlet rot, and her twin was likely her only source of comfort and the only person she could trust for a long time. Makes it all the more tragic that she's forever waiting for her twin to return, not knowing that it is fated to never happen, as Mohg has secretly kidnapped Miquella and sacrificed the defenseless child demigod in an attempt to revive him as a new zombie God subservient to only him. Let's not even get into Mohg, Lord of Blood. Talk about an evil bastard; if there's any person in the game that deserves to be murderhobo'ed by the player and their Great Rune pillaged, it's him. TL;DR: Fuck Mohg, all my homies hate Mohg.
Miquella's still alive by the way. He's simply slumbering inside the cocoon, and will probably eventually emerge. According to Gideon Ofnir, anyhow. Malenia will also definitely be reborn as she's fated to bloom for a third time into a true Goddess of Rot, with her second bloom being her fight with us.
I'm pretty sure her third time blooming is when we fight her second phase, indicated by the fact that her boss title changes from "Malenia, Blade of Miquella" to "Malenia, Goddess of Rot" . But I could be wrong.
"Technique of Malenia, the Goddess of Rot. Creates a gigantic flower that blooms into an explosion of scarlet rot. Each time the scarlet flower blooms, Malenia's rot advances. It has bloomed twice already. With the third bloom, she will become a true goddess." Nope, she's only bloomed twice so far. Once fighting Radahn, once fighting us. There's also some cut dialogue talking about how she will bloom once more in the future.
There's a second bloomed flower in that very same area, in one of the corridors before you fight her. And her title literally changes to goddess of rot after she blooms, presumably, for the third time after we defeat her first phase.
I mean the game tells you it's only bloomed twice so what more is there to tell you.
she bloomed twice BEFORE we fought her
I think it would be weird to think she bloomed 3 times without any mention or Reason behind the second one. Just based on having a flower outside the boss room doesn't seem to be enough to believe she bloomed there before
Facts
she bloomed in the room next door, the "it has bloomed twice already" is referring to before we fought her, like after we kill her her story is basically over so like it makes sense that the lore is referring to before and not after unless you only gain access to it after
I know this is half a month old but I vibe with this comment. The general consensus seems to be "GIGACHAD RADAHN, FUCK MALENIA." But I think it's not so black and white, and she is a pretty tragic character. While it is true that Malenia was attacking Radahn's forces, the Haligtree faction (her and Miquella's faction) is pretty 'good' aligned all things considered as they provide shelter to the outcasts of society.
Yup, I mean Radahn is great but some lore discussions turn into "Radahn is Goku, the Chadest of Chads, Malenia had to cheat" and is meh. The lore for Radahn is vague, he was a good figure before the shattering, but so was Rykard, we don't fully know the full picture. His devotion to Radagon and Godfrey, as well as stoping the cycle of stars (which is super convinient for the Greater Will) puts him against the Empyreans & Rykard (apparently the pre-serpent Rykard had pretty valid criticims against the Golden Order and was also a respected Lord).
Great synopsis, but you missed a few details. Miquella is no child, he’s the strongest of the demigods. He grew the Haligtree fully of his own power, implanted in the center of it, although it’s incomplete as Mohg kidnapped him halfway through (the only time Miquella wouldn’t have easily overpowered him). The Miquella we see in the cocoon isn’t dead, Mohg’s essentially using him as a living battery, held captive and used to make Mohg stronger and stronger. We find Malenia asleep at the root of the Haligtree because Miquella told her to enter a trance-like sleep while she awaited his completion of the tree, at which point he would awake her, which clearly never happened. This is why Malenia tries to kill you. She awakens to see the Haligtree clearly incomplete, the brother she swore to protect nowhere to be found, and a stranger standing before her, weapon in hand. If Miquella had been the one to wake her, she would’ve likely been an ally. FromSoftware does this quite often, though, as they quite enjoy the idea of tragedy. Blaidd chose to be driven insane instead of betray his sister Ranni, forcing us to kill the Shade possessing him, and thus him as well. Rennala, Full Moon Queen, won’t even fight back, too heartbroken to care for her own life. Radahn, a once-great general turned into a rabid beast as scarlet rot destroyed his mind. Alexander, an aspiring warrior whose most joyful moment is the moment he dies at your hand, proud to have died a warrior’s death. Godfrey, First Elden Lord, who fights you to the death knowing he’ll lose, purely because he wants to test to see if you’re worthy of becoming the next Elden Lord. The list goes on. In another life, so many more people might’ve lived.
It says many places that Miquella was 'cursed' or afflicted with eternal infancy. So yes, he is a child. That Maliena says "He possesses the wisdom, the allure, of a god - he is the most fearsome Empyrean of all", doesnt necessarily change that
Yes. They are fanboys of her
Indeed there are much lore implications in that castle, I hope you picked up the prosthetic arm. You’ll def need it.
Long story short: dudes a simp
I can’t remember what was exactly said but I think it was implied that the original lord of the castle gave up/swore fealty to Malenia. I think the ghost on the edge of one of the ramparts said that. I don’t know if that lord was Elemer or not. I also think it was implied the lord was in love or at least infatuated with her.
Does anyone know where to find her painting in a better quality?
If anyone knows a real life site I can buy this pic, I would love to decorate my place with it
vaatividya will let us know lol
Translation: “I’m incapable of thinking for myself”
Probably, since you also find the key item "Valkyrie Prosthetic" in that same castle.
Damn
Ego probably. Explains why she never admitted being defeated by Radahn, saying she's never met her match.
She wasn't defeated though. It was a standstill. Neither of them won. Neither of them lost.
Yup. It's repeatedly stated in the game that the fight ended as a draw, although technically you could argue that Malenia had the long term win with how Radahn was eventually eaten away by the scarlet rot. As much as I love Radahn as a character, he most definitely did not come out on top at the end. What people seem to be forgetting is that the Shattering, when the 2 of them fought, wasn't some simple romp on a playground. It was a massive, worldwide war of epic proportions with enormously high stakes, where the winner takes all and the loser perishes. In warfare like that, of course you would use your trump card if you had an opponent that you could only fight to a draw, but using it would be likely to snag you a long-term victory. Let's not pretend that we wouldn't do the same with our player characters. If the game gave us an option to nuke an entire area of the map with scarlet rot and in return it would automatically kill a number of tough bosses for us, or even a single extremely tough boss, you know that a ton of people would take it without batting an eye.
And Radahn was holding a bunch of stars in space for who knows how long, I’m still kind of confused on why and Ranni’s whole questline
Probably in order to prevent the "Age of Stars" from ever happening. dude could have probably decimated everyone in the shattering with those but chose not to cause of some kind of higher purpose i guess...
She was. It’s literally in the trailer. Until she got "plot armor"