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Marika’s backstory has gotten a whole lot darker following the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. If it wasn’t weird before, it definitely is now.
But first, let me set the scene. Just before Shadow of the Erdtree came out, the story trailer showed off a someone pulling threads from a fleshy and pulp-like corpse. This was not Marika, but an unnamed character. Though, they did have a link to Marika. Towards the end of the clip, you see them lifting up these threads and holding them up towards the Erdtree, posing the same arc as Marika’s. They were an acolyte.
As you explore the expansion, you will stumble across the Belurat Gaol. This is a decrepit prison chocked full of Mutated Prisoners and Living Jars. The latter are no new enemy to Elden Ring, and there’s a tidy bit lore in the base-game that well informs a grotesque backstory, and you will hear it from Alexander, Warrior Jar.
“As luck would have it, there’s a veritable mountain of warriors’ bodies right here. If I can just squeeze this bunch down inside me, I’ll be a mighty warrior again in no time.”
Alexander, Warrior Jar.
The Living Jars in Elden Ring are not literally jars that are alive, but instead they are a container for a mass of bodies squished together. The organic matter grows to control the jar, hence why it tries to kill you with the cutest moveset in gaming.
You encounter Living Jars across the whole of the Lands Between and the Realm of Shadow, though it’s significant that you will see them prolifically in the Belurat Gaol, alongside the Mutilated Prisoners.
The Mutilated Prisoners drop ‘Innard Meat’ which is used for ‘filling up great jars’ according to lore description. Not only that, but you will find that ‘this is what becomes of the condemned, who get sliced up and stuffed into jars to become saints instead.’
You will meet Hornsent at the Three-Paths Cross in the Realm of Shadows. In his dialogue, he will illuminate that he has been blindly following Miquella, and that “[t]he Erdtree is my people’s enemy. By Marika long betray’d, set aflame.” There are several others of this Hornsent cult, all followers of Miquella.
You will also find the Shaman Village in the Realm of Shadows. It’s a location like few others. Devoid of any life at all, it’s almost an archaeological exploration rather than adventure. You will find a strand of Marika’s hair alongside an atmosphere bathed in golden light, much like the her motif.
An item description for the Tooth Whip can be found too, which ends with the following: “The flesh of shamans was said to meld harmoniously with others.” If that sounds familiar, consider the Living Jars and Mutilated Prisoners, both of which are fleshy sacs of human meat.
Similarly, the Minor Erdtree incantation reads that “Marika bathed the village of her home in gold, knowing full well that there was no-one to heal.”
Is it too far fetched to assume that the Hornsent took the villager’s from Marika’s hometown and performed rituals on them to mutate them? For what reason, you ask? To become saints instead.
With the context of the scene from the trailer in which threads are lifted from a body of meat similar to the Innard Meat, it all comes together.
Marika’s home town is massacred. Her people are turned into morsels of meat and stuffed into jars. The Hornsent couldn’t quite turn them into saints, but Marika was able to eventually. The Twitter user, Albi, who first devised this incredible theory suggests that “she was salvaging the remains of her people and made them the symbol of her divine ascension” brings it all together with that.
