The story of Elden Ring starts with collecting the pieces of the Elden Ring shattered by Marika.

You would be wondering, “Why Did Marika Shatter the Elden Ring?”

In this article, the author, native Japanese, explained the reason why Marika shattered the Elden Ring, taking the Japanese backgrounds into consideration.

目次 (Contents)

What Is Elden Ring?
Elden Ring Shattered
Suspicion to Golden Order
For Her Children
The Death of Godwyn
Using the Rune of Death to Herself?
Postscript

What Is Elden Ring?

What exactly is the Elden Ring?

In Japanese translations, the meaning of “Ring” contains that of “order” and “destiny”.

In other words, the Elden Ring can enforce your rules in the Lands Between.

So, what a kind of rule did the Elden Ring enforce when it was shattered?

The answer is Golden Order.

Golden Order represents the immortal life cycle via the records of the Erdtree.

Finger Reader Enia said that the Golden Order is the wellspring of all joy.

Finger Reader Enia
Great Elden Ring, root of the Golden Order. Anchor of all lands, giver of grave, wellspring of all joy. Until it was shattered. The tragic corruption of the Order has taken its toll. Across the realm, life lies in ruin. Fallen to pieces. Foul curses and misery spread, unabating. But the Greater Will has not abandoned the realm, nor the life that inhabits it. So it is that the Tarnished are guided by grace. Called to act. Brave Tarnished, your Great Rune is a handsome shard of the Elden Ring. Seek another of its kind. To become Elden Lord, and restore the Golden Order

At first glance, the Golden Order seems like a good rule.

However, a person appeared who has doubts about the Golden Order.

Suprisingly, that was very Marika, the queen of Lands Between.

Elden Ring Shattered

Marika shattered the Elden Ring, which is also shown in the official video.

Moreover, the fact that Marika shattered the Elden Rnig is described in the text of Marika’s Hammer.

Marika’s Hammer
Stone hammer made in the lands of the Numen, outside the Lands Between. The tool with which Queen Marika shattered the Elden Ring and Radagon attempted to repair it.
The hammer partially broke upon shattering the Ring, becoming splintered with rune fragments.

From the text above, we can see Marika is the very person who shattered the Elden Ring.

On the other hand, the text of “Radagon attempted to repair it” indicates tha Radagon is the other personality of Marika.

It seems that Marika and Radagon were originally separate individuals, but they would have assimilated and become one being, which was suggested in the Marika’s own words read by Melina.

Marika’s own words
O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order. Thou’rt yet to become me. Thou’rt yet to become a god. Let us be shattered, both. Mine other self.

The text of “O Radagon, leal hound of the Golden Order.” indicates that Marika and Radagon had different beliefs about the Golden Order.

In other words, Marika has doubts about the Golden Order, while Radagon worships it.

So what made Marika suspicious of the Golden Order?

Suspicion to Golden Order

Marika’s children would be the cause of Marika’s doubts about the Golden Order.

There are many children of Marika in the story of Elden Ring, but this time let’s focus on Miquella and Malenia.

Miquella and Malenia‘s upbringing is explained in the item text of Remembrance of the Rot Goddess.

Remembrance of the Rot Goddess
Miquella and Malenia are both the children of a single god. As such they are both Empyreans, but suffered afflictions from birth. One was cursed with eternal childhood, and the other harbored rot within.

The text of “One was cursed with eternal childhood, and the other harbored rot within” indicates that Miquella has eternal childhood and Malenia has rot inside herself.

Don’t you think that “childhood” and “rot” have a bad correspondence?

The words “adulthood” and “old age” have good correspondence as antonyms to “childhood”, but what is the relationship between “childhood” and “rot“?

The answer is implied in the flavor text of Blue Cloth Vest.

Blue Cloth Vest
The blue color of its fabric symbolizes brisk waters, as fluid and flowing as the sword in the hand of its wearer.
Just as still waters turn foul, stagnation leads to decay.
Warriors must remain ever drifting.

The text “stagnation leads to decay” implies that the eternality of the Golden Order leads to stagnation(≒ eternal childhood) and decay(≒ rot).

In summary, the eternality of the Golden Order seemed to be perfect at first glance, but as a result the eternality led to stagnation, decay, and the children with “eternal childhood” and “rot”.

In addition, Mohg and Morgott were also cursed and treated pretty badly as filthy beings.

Marika faced these pitty children and shattered the Elden Ring to end the root cause of all – the Golden Order.

For Her Children

The purpose of Marika‘s shattering the Elden Ring would also contain to protect her children.

Marika’s own words
Demigods. My children beloved. Make of thyselves that which ye desire. Be it a Lord. Be it a God. But should ye fail to become aught at all, ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to sacrifices…

In Japanese translations, the fact that Marika loved her children is clearly stated in the corresponding sentence “My children beloved“.

Moreover, the text of “ye will be forsaken. Amounting only to sacrifices…” implies that Marika‘s children would be killed by Greater Will and its vassal Two Fingers.

Therefore, Marika rebelled against Two Fingers and shattered Elden Ring to protect her children from being killed.

From these backgrounds, we can see Marika is a compassionate god.

This is also implied in the text of Mending Rune of Perfect Order.

Mending Rune of Perfect Order
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.

In Japanese translations, “The god like a human mind is no longer needed” is clearly stated in this text.

From these points, Marika would be a compassionate god and want to protect her children, which made Marika shatter the Elden Ring.

The Death of Godwyn

The trigger of Marika’s shattering would be the death of Godwyn on the Night of the Black Knives.

Rogier heve mentioned the trigger of the Elden Ring shattering.

Rogier
The misshapen corpse under Stormveil? That is a sacred relic. Of the black knives plot. As that famed night of assassination is known.
It happened during the Golden Age of the Erdtree, long before the shattering of the Elden Ring. Someone stole a fragment of the Rune of Death from Maliketh, the Black Blade. And on a bitter night, murdered Godwyn the Golden.
That was the first recorded Death of a demigod in all history. And it became the catalyst. Soon, the Elden Ring was smashed, and thus sprang forth the war known as the Shattering.

In Japanese translations, it is clearly stated that the death of a demigod became the catalyst to the Elden Ring shattering and its war.

Moreover, Marika is the very culprit to plot the Night of the Black Knives, described as “Someone stole a fragment of the Rune of Death from Maliketh“.

The reason why Marika plotted the Night of the Black Knives would be to get Mending Rune of the Death-Prince from Godwyn to end the Golden Order.

I will explain it clearly below.

Earlier, I explained that the the eternality of the Golden Order and its stagnation and decay caused cursed children such as Miquella, Malenia, Morgott and, mohg, which made Marika have a suspicion against the Golden Order.

The eternity of the Golden Order began with the removal of Destined Death from the Order.

Mending Rune of the Death-Prince
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.

So, Marika planned to mend the Elden Ring with the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince to return the Destined Death into the Golden Order to end it.

In addition, the flavor text of Cursemark of Death indicates that we can get the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince when a first Demigod died.

Cursemark of Death
Cursemark carved into the discarded flesh of Ranni the Witch. Also known as the half-wheel wound of the centipede.
This cursemark was carved at the moment of Death of the first demigod, and should have taken the shape of a circle.
However, two demigods perished at the same time, breaking the cursemark into two half-wheels.
Ranni was the first of the demigods whose flesh perished, while the Prince of Death perished in soul alone.

However, due to Ranni’s unexpected actions, only a soul of Godwyn died, and Marika could not obtain the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince.

Also, Marika might have planned to utilize the Fia‘s ability to revive Godwyn.

However, the death of Godwyn was incomplete, and his revive became impossible.

Marika was in such a stalemate and shattered the Elden Ring as a last resort to end the Golden Order.

Looking a little deeper, Marika shattered the Elden Ring in order to extract the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince from Marika herself.

Using the Rune of Death to Herself?

So far, I’ve explained that Malika needed the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince to return the Destined Death to the Golden Order but it failed.

So, Malika may have attempted to extract the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince from her own death by using the Rune of Death to herself.

Marika and Godwyn have same Cursemark, which implies the possibility of Marika’s using the Rune of Death to herself.

The Cursemark is inscribed on the body of a god when he/she dies.

In addition, Enia’s dialogue suggests that Marika is the Elden Ring itself.

Enia
Marika’s trespass demanded a heavy sentence. But even in shackles, she remains a god, and the vision’s vessel.

Elden Ring is the vessel of a order and Marika is the vessel of vision, which implies Marika is integrated with the Elden Ring.

From the above situation, Marika would have attempted to extract the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince from her own body by destroying the Elden Ring, Marika herself, using the Rune of Death.

However, the attemption would have been thwarted by Radagon, as implied in the text of Marika’s Hammer.

Since the Radagon’s sabotage failed the Marika‘s plan, Marika subsequently ordered Hewg to create a weapon that could kill gods.

Hewg
Use my masterpiece to slay a god. That is all that I have lived for.
And my promise to Q-queen Marika. But do me a favor, and do look after the girl.

That also implies that Marika wanted to kill herself and to obtain the Mending Rune of the Death-Prince.

Postscript

Those are the reasons why Marika shattered the Elden Ring.