Feminism and Fantasy: The Women of Elden Ring

“Fantasy and Feminism” is going to be a series of articles that provides analysis of strong female characters and their role in stories that tend toward the grim as well as dark. A short analysis of those properties that exist in hopeless and shadow-filled worlds that benefit from good writing toward its female protagonists (or antagonists). There will be spoilers for the plot of the game so let the reader beware.

What is Elden Ring?

Elden Ring is a Dark Souls-esque game FromSoftware as written by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin. The premise is that the Lands Between are a mythological Medieval kingdom formerly ruled by the God Queen Marika. After the death of her son, Godwyn, she shattered the Elden Ring that was the source of her power and plunged the world into chaos. The Tarnished, a banished warrior, is empowered by her to seek the Great Runes spread among her children and restore the lands to glory.

Why is Elden Ring feminist?

Elden Ring is a story driven by its female characters and their struggles, agendas, and ideology. Marika the God Queen is a character driven by female rage that proves to be a complicated figure with both good as well as evil qualities. Supporting characters Melina and Ranni both have their own solutions for the state of the Lands Between but require moral compromise that the Tarnished will have to debate. Themes of motherhood, marriage, and love are tied in with questions of power as well as revenge.

Notable Female Characters

Marika of the Golden Order

 

God is a woman in the Lands Between and while there is a Greater Will above her, they remain nebulous to the primary religion that venerates Marika above all others. She successfully conquered most of the world in the past and built a literally immortal empire by sealing away Destined Death. Marika is a complicated figure in-universe as her actions include the genocide of the Fire Giants, near destruction of the Dragon Race, and persecution of the Merchants. However, Marika is not a figure who is easily vilified like Cersei Lannister as she is never shown as anything but an incredibly capable ruler. Indeed, her room in the royal palace is shown to be filled with thousands of stone tablets containing the issues of ruling.

One interesting element is that the goal of the Tarnished is to become Elden Lord or her consort. Which is a play on the classic fantasy of marrying a princess to become king. Except the princess in this case is a queen and has already been married twice before. Marika discarded her first husband, Godfrey, when he was no longer of use to her. We also discover that her second husband was a guise for herself, which adds some interesting elements to her story (especially as said guise sired children with another woman). She is far from the Medieval virgin archetype and has close to a dozen children if we include the ones in the mausoleums on the map.

Shadow of the Erd Tree also expands on Marika’s backstory as we discover she was part of a persecuted minority in the Shadowlands. Marika eventually overthrew the Hornsent Empire that oppressed her people by becoming a god but later sent her eldest (?) son, Messmer to slaughter them all. Marika isn’t going to win mother of the year awards, though, as while it seems she destroyed the Elden Ring because of her son, Godwyn’s, death, she also charges the Tarnished to kill the rest of her extended family to become the new Elden Lord.

Melina

As Varre said at the start of your journey, you are Maidenless and thus unable to be an Elden Lord. Just as the God Queen needs her consort, so does the Elden Lord aspirants need a Maiden to provide them the secrets to achieving said state. Melina, despite not being a maiden, agrees to serve in this role for you. This is not because of romance but out of a desire to bring an end to the chaos of the Lands Between. She is the in-universe reason you can level up with runes and becoming powerful enough to slay demigods.

Later, we discover that Melina is aware this is a one-way trip for her. To enter the Erd Tree and become Elden Lord, it must be burned with mystical fire. This requires Melina to sacrifice her life to reignite the Fire Giant’s flame. You can choose an alternative way to burn the Erd Tree and save her life, but Melina rejects you as you do so, since it means siding with the evil Frenzied Flame. Indeed, if she survives, she devotes herself to destroying you as well as the horror you have brought to the Lands Between.

Ranni

The most well-loved character of Elden Ring if the ending statistics are any indication, Ranni the Snow Witch is a daughter of Marika who decided to rebel against the Golden Order. She is the reason for the Shattering by having Godwyn assassinated. Despite this, she is not a villain. Ranni despises the gods attempting to control the lives or mortals (and immortals in her case). Ranni’s plan is to force the Elden Ring into space and deny everyone its power. This will give humanity self-determination but also make them vulnerable to the other non-Marika gods out there.

Ranni is one of the only romanceable characters in the game aside from Fia but it is a strange journey based on aiding her to achieve freedom from the mysterious Fingers. Ranni is a character who has multiple strong relationships with her follows as well with the most tragic, perhaps, being her wolfman bodyguard, Blaidd. Without a hint of romance, he is willing to die for her but is cursed to turn against her by his creators.

Fia

Fia the Deathbed Companion is from a culture that forced her into a deeply uncomfortable role as a temple prostitute who laid with dying men to transfer life energy to them. Fia mentions that she was not someone who chose these companions and bitterly resents the role she was assigned by society. However, Fia is not a victim and has found a new path to devote herself to: the resurrection of Godwyn as well as saving Those-Who-Live-In-Death (the undead) from persecution.

If you do Fia’s quest to its entirety, she will reveal you are not the only one of her lovers but one of several she’s been taking the life-force of to try to restore Godwyn. She also kills the enigmatic monster hunter, D, in order to avenge the many undead he’s slain. By the end, she willingly sacrifices her life to create a Golden Rune that will make it so that the undead are not hunted anymore.

Fia is an interesting deconstruction of many traditional fantasy and video game tropes. Because, at the end of the day, you are never as important to Fia as she can be to you. Rather than played for titillation, lying with Fia only includes showing her embracing you with a warm hug. While her backstory has strong elements of trauma, they are not her primary motivation. Fia sexually manipulates individuals like Roderick and Lionel, but this is never judged by the game. It is simply the tool she must save her adopted people. Indeed, when D’s brother, also known as D, desecrates her body while shouting slurs at her, you are encouraged to kill him.

Roderika

One of the most tragic stories in Elden Ring, Roderika is the story of trauma and depression. A woman that may or may not have been Tarnished, she was exiled from her homeland and attempted to carry out the quest to recover the Great Runes. Instead, she failed miserably, and all her companions were killed. The Tarnished protagonist can help her by giving her a purpose in Roundtable Hold and befriending her to the blacksmith Hewg.

But trauma isn’t something that is easily let go of and Hewg’s dementia combined with the deaths of so many other warriors of the Roundtable results in her choosing to stay with the former when it the hold burns to the ground. Roderika is an interesting case of a game portraying weakness and sorrow without condemnation.

She’s not meant for the life of an adventurer, but her empathy makes her one of the few individuals that can be called unquestionably good in the Lands Between. The fact that she is a Master Spirit Tuner also shows that she is a person who has value and much to contribute. Unfortunately, she can’t leave behind her pain and the only thing you can do for her in the end is fulfill her request of killing Marika.

Rya and Tanith

Two of the less prominent female characters in the game that, nevertheless, have the closest mother-daughter relationship in the story. Rya is a half-human, half-snake deity who pretends to be an ordinary human girl with magic. She has been raised to believe she’s a princess and that there’s nothing abnormal about her condition. Tantih is a former dancer who became the chief priestess of Rykad the Heretic’s cult, taking over in his absence (of being transformed into said monstrous snake deity).

Tanith is absolutely evil and about as sane as your typical Cthulhu cultist but is a supporting kind mother who wants nothing more than to make sure Rya is happy. Rya wants to serve the cause of her family and prove to be a good daughter until she can’t deny that her father isn’t a noble royal but a blasphemous Emperor Leto II-esque monster living in the basement. That doesn’t get rid of her love for her mother, though.

Perhaps my favorite moment for these two is after you defeat Rykard and Tanith is reduced to her worst: trying to absorb Rykard’s essence and become the new God Devouring Serpent. Her servant, Patches, trying to remind her of her past as a dancer, suggests you show her a token of her past. Her reaction? Sneer and go back to what she’s doing.

Malenia and Millicent

The most difficult boss in the history of Elden Ring. Malenia has already begun a legend in the annals of video games. However, Malenia also has a large role in the history of the Lands Between. The world’s greatest warrior, Malenia is also disabled. Born with the curse of Rot, she has lost multiple limbs over the years as well as her eyes. Prosthetics and the Golden Order Fundamentalism (science) of her brother Miquella has let her live an accomplished life.

Malenia’s story is a tragedy, though, because her gratitude and belief in Miquella’s dream means that she became a tool for him rather than a heroine in her own right. An Empyrean, she was destined to take Marika’s place as ruler of the gods but chose to subordinate herself to her brother instead. This results in tragedies like the destruction of Caelid via Scarlet Rot and her being abandoned in the Halig Tree while waiting for his return (which will never come). Tragedy doesn’t mean misogyny, though, and Malenia remains one of the most iconic characters of Elden Ring.

Interestingly, underscoring this relationship with power is Millicent. Millicent is basically a reincarnation or child of Malenia. She wishes to reach her original self and remind her of her glories but is ambushed by her sisters who have succumbed to the Scarlet Rot. Millicent refuses and chooses death over succumbing, which puts her above Malenia who unleashed it on Caelid in order to keep her unbroken win streak. In this respect, she proves the better woman.

Criticisms

Elden Ring is a work that isn’t above criticism, though. The archmage Rellana is the ruler of her own kingdom and able to stand against the Golden Order but due to heartbreak, goes mad and abandons her kingdom in order to lord over the insane reincarnations of her juvenile students. Preceptor Seluvis actually has a plotline where he attempts to brainwash a young warrior woman into being his slave (with all that implies), which your character can actually help him achieve. One of the most interesting characters in the game, Sellen the Sorceress, ends up a horrific biological mass even if you assist her character. Still, it is a collection of fascinating well-rounded women with their own dreams as well as ambitions.

Conclusion

Elden Ring is a video game that you must work very hard to experience the story of. However, it is a story of many three-dimensional characters with their own motivations as well as stories. Many of the stories deal with particularly female interpretations of power as well as family as well. Would I have appreciated a couple of female writers to add their own content? Yes. However, George and Miyasaki have done a fantastic job with their world’s women.