General Radahn
Hark! You wish the tale of the greatest among the demigods? The tragic legend of General Radahn is one of duty, devotion, and a fall more painful than any battlefield wound.
The Red Lion General
Radahn is a son of Queen Rennala and Radagon, a lineage that gifted him colossal strength and the fiery red hair of his father. He was, and remains, a giant of a man, revered across the Lands Between for his strength and surprising tenderness.
Godfrey's Cub: From his youth, Radahn idolized Godfrey, the First Elden Lord, modeling himself after the ancient warrior. He adopted the lion motif, signifying a noble, ferocious spirit.
Master of Gravity: Despite his immense size and strength, Radahn possessed a gentle heart, particularly for his diminutive steed, Leonard. To ensure he never crushed his beloved horse, Radahn journeyed to the town of Sellia and mastered the forbidding secrets of Gravitational Sorcery. This feat—combining brute force with arcane intellect—was legendary.
The Starscourge: His greatest achievement, and the one that gave him his title, was a crushing victory over the very cosmos. Using his gravity magic, he challenged the stars themselves, holding their destined path in place. This stopped the movement of fate, effectively freezing the cosmic portents that would otherwise guide the destiny of his sister, Ranni, and others.
The Shattering and The Standstill
When the Elden Ring shattered, Radahn, the Red Lion General of the Caelid Wilds, was the most formidable force on the field.
The Mightiest: He was the only demigod capable of fighting Malenia, the Severed—another of the mightiest demigods—to a bloody, devastating standstill. Their battle raged across the Caelid landscape.
The Unthinkable Wound: In the final, desperate act of that war, Malenia, unable to defeat him, unleashed the full, dreadful power of the Outer God that cursed her: the Scarlet Rot. She "bloomed" into a gigantic, deadly flower of infection.
Caelid's Curse: The resulting cataclysm not only scarred the entire region of Caelid, turning it into a festering, red hellscape, but it drove the mighty Radahn utterly insane. The rot gnawed at his mind and flesh, transforming the magnificent General into a shambling, howling beast.
The Festival of War
You meet Radahn in his twilight, a creature of madness and instinct. But this is where his true devotion is revealed.
Unwavering Duty: Even in his insanity, the Great Rune he holds burns, fighting the relentless spread of the Rot. Furthermore, the immense magical power he learned purely for his horse keeps the very stars he conquered locked in place. Should he die, fate would resume its slow, terrible march.
The Noble Wish: His loyal soldiers, the Redmanes, and his old friend, the festival master Jerren, understood that the General, a warrior of honor, could not be saved. All that remained for him was a dignified end in battle.
Radahn's Festival: His devoted followers organize the Radahn Festival—a tournament of champions meant to draw together the strongest warriors who will fight him in an open, glorious melee, finally granting their beloved, suffering General the honorable death he would have desired.
He is not a monster of malice like Rykard, nor one of petty greed like Godrick. He is a tragic hero, undone by a cosmic plague, whose colossal willpower is the only thing preserving the cosmic order and his small, scrawny horse.