Character
Malenia, Blade of Miquella is a character in the 2022 video game Elden Ring. Malenia appears as a tall, red-haired woman, wearing a golden valkyrie-like armour and prosthetics re…
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Malenia, Blade of Miquella (Japanese: ミケラの刃、マレニア, Hepburn: Mikera no Yaiba, Marenia) is a character in the 2022 video game Elden Ring. Malenia appears as a tall, red-haired woman, wearing a golden valkyrie-like armour and prosthetics replacing both legs and her right arm, the latter of which is attached to a katana-like blade.
Malenia, Blade of Miquella is a character in the 2022 video game Elden Ring. Malenia appears as a tall, red-haired woman, wearing a golden valkyrie-like armour and prosthetics replacing both legs and her right arm, the latter of which is attached to a katana-like blade. In the lore of the game, she is a demigod princess and one of the land's most potent warriors and military commanders, having never been bested in battle. Despite featuring as an optional boss fight for the game, Malenia is prominent in related media, such as trailers, television spots, and promotional items. She is regarded a
Malenia, Blade of Miquella (Japanese: ミケラの刃、マレニア, Hepburn: Mikera no Yaiba, Marenia) is a character in the 2022 video game Elden Ring. Malenia appears as a tall, red-haired woman, wearing a golden valkyrie-like armour and prosthetics replacing both legs and her right arm, the latter of which is attached to a katana-like blade. In the lore of the game, she is a demigod princess and one of the land's most potent warriors and military commanders, having never been bested in battle. Despite featuring as an optional boss fight for the game, Malenia is prominent in related media, such as trailers, television spots, and promotional items. She is regarded as one of the game's main mascots.
Malenia is considered one of Elden Ring's most memorable encounters, where her boss fight received massive media attention for its high level of difficulty. She was also praised for her design and story. Her boss battle is a source of many unusual challenges, such as using a dance pad or voice chat as a controller. The player "Let Me Solo Her" gained attention for offering assistance to players due to the difficulty of her boss fight, fighting her with no clothes, a pot on his head, and a pair of katana.
Malenia first appeared in the video game Elden Ring, serving as an optional boss fight available later in the game. Within the game's lore, she is the demigod child of Queen Marika and her second husband, Radagon. Alongside her twin brother Miquella, Malenia was born as an Empyrean, a powerful being chosen as a candidate to create a new age and rule it as a god. In Malenia's case, she was cursed with Scarlet Rot, a devastating disease caused by a godlike being, and one that begins to putrefy her body. In an attempt to save Malenia from being consumed, Miquella utilized Unalloyed Gold, a material capable of warding off the influence of Outer Gods, to break the rot god's influence on her. Malenia learned her combat style from a nomadic character called the Blind Swordsman. Mastering his technique gave her "wings of unparalleled strength", while also helping her resist the rot.
During a civil war known as the Shattering, Malenia led her knights on an undefeated campaign across the land, winning many victories, including against at least one fellow demigod relative. Her campaign eventually brought her into conflict with her half-brother Starscourge Radahn, with her encountering heavy resistance from his army before the two demigods met each other and dueled to a stalemate. At the end of their battle, Malenia unleashed the Scarlet Rot and lost her special Unalloyed Gold needle. With both sides unable to claim true victory, she lost control of the disease and Malenia herself was dragged unconscious by one of her few remaining knights to the Haligtree, a holy tree created by Miquella. After Miquella is kidnapped, she inadvertently causes the tree to rot from the inside during her slumber. She awakens when the player encounters her at the base of the Haligtree's interior, engaging them in battle. If the player manages to deal enough damage to her, she is overcome by the rot once more, becoming Malenia, Goddess of Rot.
Source: Malenia (CC BY-SA)
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If the player manages to defeat her, Malenia's body fades away while she compliments the player's strength, having awaited the coming of a challenger who could face her in single combat and live to tell the tale. In her place is left a large red flower with powers of rebirth. If the player has completed a certain NPC quest earlier in the game, they are then given the option to return the Unalloyed Gold Needle to Malenia's flower form. In doing so the player "fulfills a part of what [the NPC] had set out to accomplish in her journey," that being to "return something to Malenia; a means to restore the will and dignity that she lost after her battle with Radahn." The red flower gives the player another Unalloyed Gold Needle in return, which can be used to suppress the Outer God of Frenzied Flame if inherited, and avert the otherwise locked ending."
Elden Ring received a day-one patch that modified various aspects of the game, including making Malenia less difficult. In the original version, her first phase was more aggressive, including using the attack Waterfowl Dance at any point unlike the later version, which requires her to be below 80 percent health. A popular tactic to defeating Malenia, an incantation called Swarm of Flies, was nerfed via a patch. This same patch erroneously made Malenia more difficult, allowing her to heal "almost at will." This was fixed in a later patch. It was believed that this was only affecting battles when other players were summoned online. When designing the downloadable content for Elden Ring, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, the game's director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, stated that there would be optional bosses tuned similarly to Malenia in terms of difficulty.
To commemorate the release of Elden Ring in Japan, in February 2022 life-size statues of the character were exhibited across the country, with additional Elden Ring related merchandise sold at the locations. Meanwhile, a smaller statue of Malenia was included in the Collector's Edition of Elden Ring. In October 2023, S.H.Figuarts released a miniature figure of Malenia alongside several other Elden Ring characters. In April 2024 for the release of the Elden Ring's expansion Shadow of the Erdtree, Bandai Namco and PureArts released a limited production 95 centimeter, 3 kilogram polyresin replica of Malenia's prosthetic arm.
Malenia has received positive reception, identified by Polygon writer Nico Deyo as capturing the Elden Ring audience upon her first appearance. Discussing her boss battle, Deyo felt that her first phase was "designed to thwart and emasculate," commenting that there was a "deep humor in the idea of a woman whose very attacks steal health from you to empower herself." They commented on how her second form covers her body in rot except for her breasts and genitals, which "evokes a confusing mixture of fea
