“Kindly Miquella.” “Sweet Miquella.” The second you start Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Miquella is on everyone’s lips. And everyone seems to have an incredibly high opinion of him, too. “Kind” is not a word you typically associate with Elden Ring in any capacity.
As I travel through the land of shadow, talking to Miquella’s followers and hearing about how nice he supposedly is, the question that keeps popping into my mind is: “Am I going to have to kill this guy?” It’s not the first time while playing Elden Ring that I’ve worried that my player character is actually the villain.
But even though everyone’s talking about Miquella, Elden Ring‘s lore is famously obscure. You’re not told the story, you piece it together through reading item descriptions, piecing together dialogue, and looking at environmental clues. Or by watching an hours-long video on YouTube of someone who’s done all that work for you.
So even though the name “Miquella” might ring a bell, it’s likely you’re not totally sure who he is. Which is more than understandable.
Miquella’s origins
Miquella is the twin brother of Malenia. You probably remember Malenia as the game’s most notorious, difficult boss. Malenia is the boss that led to Let Me Solo Her’s rise in fame. Good times.
Miquella and Malenia are one of the handful of Empyreans we know of in the game. That means they’re demigods who, if they became the vessel of the Elden Ring, could become a full-fledged god and create a new world order. They’re also direct descendants of Queen Marika, the “god-queen” who shattered the Elden Ring and started this mess in the first place.
But wait, it gets spicier: They’re the children of Marika and Radagon. But Radagon is also Marika. Just her male “other half.” That’s all the explanation FromSoft has given on this matter. I advise not thinking about it too hard.
In any case, for being the children of two people who were actually one person, Miquella and Malenia were cursed. Malenia was cursed with rot, as you know all too well if you fought her. Miquella was cursed with eternal childhood.
Despite having the appearance of a child, Malenia believed her brother to be the most fearsome Empyrean of all, due to his wisdom. Even when you fight her in Elden Ring, she’s known as “Malenia, Blade of Miquella.”
Miquella the Kind (ostensibly)
Miquella and Malenia were close as siblings, with each of them working to protect the other and look for cures for their afflictions. To that end, Miquella created golden needles to stop Scarlet Rot from spreading as quickly as usual. He also attempted to create a new Erdtree—which could have, in part, also been a rebellion against his mom-dad-mom. The result was the Haligtree, where you find Malenia in Elden Ring.
In order to grow the Haligtree—which would, hopefully, both cure Malenia of Scarlet Rot and grow himself to adulthood—Miquella cocooned himself at its base. The Haligtree is seemingly how Miquella started to become known as “Miquella the Kind,” as the Haligtree became shelter for those without grace and with various afflictions.
But before the Haligtree could reach its full potential, Miquella’s cocoon was stolen by Mohg, Lord of Blood. Mohg wanted Miquella to become Elden Lord, and therefore secure a spot for himself as Miquella’s consort. Word to the wise, Mohg: the way to most people’s heart is not to kidnap them. (Also, Mohg is Miquella’s half-brother. Royals be royals, I guess.)
If you’re wondering where Malenia was during all of this, and why she wasn’t protecting her brother, it’s because she was off fighting all of her half-siblings in a series of wars after the shattering of the Elden Ring. By the time one of her followers brought her back to the Haligtree—after her rot blossomed, turned Caelid into a hellhole, and put her in a coma—Miquella was already gone.
Meanwhile, Mohg couldn’t succeed in reviving Miquella. He even made his followers give their blood to Miquella. But nothing worked.
That’s why when you see Miquella in Elden Ring, it’s when you fight Mohg in the Mohgywn Palace. Miquella is a long, withered arm in a creepy cocoon-egg thing. His arm is withered because he ditched his flesh and the “Golden lineage” of the Empyrean in order to travel to the Land of Shadow. Once you touch that arm and begin to trace Miquella’s path, you find his discarded flesh here and there.
