Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree ending explained: Miquella’s plan revealed

Are you confused by the ending of Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree? Here’s what it all means and where characters like Messmer, Miquella, and Radahn fit in. Spoilers lurk from this point.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree ends after a colossal twist, a shock reveal, and a poignant flashback showing a conversation between two brothers. Both of whom you just killed – and one of them for the second time. It then ends abruptly, leaving you to piece together what just happened.

Like all storytelling in Souls games, the ending of Shadow of the Erdtree is subtle, ambiguous, and much is left up to the player’s interpretation. However, there are some things we know for sure, while other aspects are speculative. But after spending many hours learning about these characters, we can make some educated guesses regarding what’s going on.

Following Miquella’s path

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree takes place either before or after you become Elden Lord with whichever ending you unlocked. In truth, it doesn’t really matter if you’ve beaten the game or not, the DLC is a side story ending the plot thread that was focused on Miquella and Mohg, with the rivalry between Radahn and Malenia also being important.

To recap, Miquella has escaped Mohg’s captivity and made his way to the Lands of Shadow, a lost region of the Lands Between ruled over by the tyrannical Messmer the Impaler. It’s revealed that Miquella has died in Mohg’s cocoon, but this death has allowed him to break the Erdtree’s cycle of death and reincarnation. Allowing him to exploit a loophole in Marika’s system that lets him go to the Lands of Shadow.

Miquella wants to get to the Lands of Shadow because the region is home to the Gate of Divinity, something his mother, Marika, used to become a god. On his way to the Gate, Miquella casts off various parts of himself, including what’s left of his body, as well as aspects of his personality and nature – this includes his compassion, kindness, and humanity. If indeed, a demigod ever was human.

During the Saint Trina side quest, it’s revealed that Trina and Miquella are the same person, with Trina being a saintly avatar of his, representing his gentle and decent self. This is not unlike Marika creating Radagon to be her male avatar, a tool for her to use in war, politics, and one she was eventually able to marry and have more demigod children with.

Now discarded and separated from him, Trina begs the Tarnished to kill Miquella, this aspect of his personality being terrified about the prospect of godhood. Saint Trina knows that not only does power corrupt, but it will be a prison for Miquella, who she feels deserves better, and that only death will release him.

To become a god

It was established in the base game that Miquella has a talent for charming others and that he can use this as a form of mind control, effectively “stealing hearts” and bending them to his will. It’s soon implied that Miquella’s kidnapping at the hands of Mohg wasn’t a kidnapping at all and that he charmed Mohg into becoming his tool, using this strategy to gain entry into the Lands of Shadow.

While the belief had always been that Miquella was Mohg’s victim, the truth is revealed to be the other way around. Not only that, Miquella has had his agents take Mohg’s body, and deliver it to Messmer the Impaler for some mysterious purpose.

Once Miquella sheds his Great Rune, and final connection to the Erdtree, many under his spell, such as the Followers of Miquella, start to go insane and fight amongst themselves. This explains why the game’s NPCs gradually become more paranoid, with only some of them resisting it.

One among them is Ansbach, a former follower of Mohg, who is able to keep his senses after being freed from Miquella’s control. He believes that Miquella aims to become a god and charm the whole world to make it a more “gentle place.”

While this sounds good on paper, it’s still denying the inhabitants of the world their free will and effectively making them all Miquella’s puppets. The demigod essentially plans on ruling as a benevolent tyrant, in a world with no argument or dissenting opinion.

Where does Messmer fit in?

From the trailers, we were led to believe that Messmer the Impaler would be the main antagonist of the DLC and that Miquella would be an ally in defeating him. In truth, Messmer is not his enemy and is aiding Miquella with his plan. However, it’s unclear how much Messmer truly knows about Miquella’s intentions.

What is clear is that Messmer is also disenchanted with the Golden Order and the Erdtree so was likely easy for Miquella to manipulate and recruit. Messmer is also a son of Marika (and likely Radagon), like Miquella. However, he was sent to the Shadow Lands to purge it and wage a continuous war against its population, who have been mostly wiped out by the time the DLC takes place.

Messmer has been abandoned by Marika, left in the Shadow Lands, and has since become resentful. He, like many of his brothers and sisters, is also cursed and was likely sent here to rot by his mother, allowing Marika to kill two birds with one stone. Marika has a history of exiling her cursed children, having done something similar to Mohg and Morgott.

Marika’s beef with the Lands of Shadow comes from her shamanic people being abused by them for centuries. Messmer was a tool of her revenge against these people, known as the Hornsent. However, Marika also had a third goal in mind, to prevent anyone from ever getting near the Divinity Gate and threatening the pantheon she had become queen of.

The Divinity Gate

Those who follow the Count Ymir story to its conclusion in Shadow of the Erdtree will learn another shocking truth: the Outer God known as the Greater Will, something the Fingers claim to speak for, and in turn, endowed Marika with her godhood to be their representative, is no longer connected to the world. It possibly never has been.

Ymir implies that the Fingers are broken and operating on out-of-date information, meaning Marika’s rule was flawed from the start. This could partly explain why Marika shattered the Elden Ring, the death of Godwyn being the final straw.

This information lends validity to Ranni and the Frenzied Flame’s goals. Gold Mask, Dung Eater, and Fia’s endings also become clearer – and more sympathetic – in the wake of this information. Marika’s godhood is a lie, and it turns out the Finger’s aren’t needed anymore. It’s time for a new age.

While it’s never confirmed in the story, it’s implied Miquella knows this too. So he travels to the Divinity Gate to usher in an era where he can be a god, and unlike his mother, one free from the control of the Fingers, or any power they claim to speak for.

Radahn Prime

To achieve his goal of becoming a god, though, Miquella knows he’ll need a monarch to rule through and someone to fight his battles until he can completely subjugate the world with his mind control. To this end, he tries to recruit his brother Radahn.

The final conversation after the last boss is Miquella asking Radahn to fulfill this role, choosing Radahn due to his “kindness” and martial prowess. However, we can only guess Radahn’s answer, as we only ever hear Miquella’s plea to his militaristic half-brother, never his reply.

We speculate that Radahn refused Miquella’s request, and when the Shattering War broke out, Miquella sent Malenia to weaken Radahn, so that Miquella could eventually use him in his plan. We know this as before infecting him with Scarlet Rot, Malenia whispers this to Radahn: “Miquella awaits thee, O promised consort.” Consort in this context simply means the one Miquella would rule with, or more accurately, through.

Once the Chosen Tarnished kills Radahn, and later Mohg in the base game, Miquella then uses Mohg’s body to create his ideal version of Radahn – and one he can control. If Radahn had come willingly, such a grand plan wouldn’t be needed. Also, like himself, Miquella needed Radahn to die as well as Mohg’s sorcery in order to resurrect him in the Land of Shadow, exploiting the same loophole in the Golden Order he used to get there.

Of course, Radahn’s refusal is just speculation on our part, the rest is a detailed account of the ending to Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, wrapping up any hanging plot threads left over from the base game. While Messmer and Radahn are the two main epic fights in the DLC, was there ever any doubt that we’d also end up needing to put down Miquella? This is a Souls game after all, and no deity ever makes it out alive.

Nascency

Ultimately Miquella’s curse wasn’t eternal youth, it was nascency, something that was just reflected by his childlike appearance and inability to reach maturity. Miquella’s entire life was marred by the inability to ever see anything through and this is what led to his plans going up in smoke.

Everything Miquella set his mind to ended up withering on the vine, quite literally in the case of his Haligtree. His sanctuary, his desire to cure himself and his siblings of their curses, his inability to resurrect Godwyn, leaving Malenia to rot, his plans for Radahn, and godhood.

Even his relationship with his parents, after all, his father was never truly his father, but an avatar of his mother. Everything Miquella tried was half-baked, doomed to never come to fruition, to never reach intended maturity. The Nascent Butterfly item, like his and St. Trina’s lilies, was a clue to this theme.

Who’d have thought the ending of Elden Ring would come down to flowers and bugs?