Pre-Shattering

The history before the Shattering is the complete chronicle of the rise and fall of Queen Marika's "Golden Order." It is a timeline defined by the conquest of rival gods, the establishment of a new metaphysical system, and the political and familial betrayals that made that system unstable.

Here is a more detailed breakdown of the eras leading up to the Night of the Black Knives and the Shattering.

I. The Primordial Age (The Age of the Crucible)

Before the Erdtree, the Lands Between was a primordial, chaotic soup of life. This was the Age of the Crucible.

  • The Crucible: This was the "primordial form" of the Erdtree, a great tree that was a melting pot of all life. In this era, all life was blended. Omen (beings with horns and wings, like Morgott) and Misbegotten were not seen as curses, but as common, blessed aspects of this primordial life force.

  • The Ancient Dragons: During this age, the Ancient Dragons ruled. Their leader, Dragonlord Placidusax, was the "Elden Lord" of that era, serving a god that is said to have "fled."

  • The Outer Gods: The Lands Between was a contested territory for various cosmic entities known as Outer Gods (e.g., the God of Rot, the Formless Mother, the God of the Frenzied Flame).

II. The Rise of Marika and the Erdtree

The most significant event of this era was the arrival of a new Outer God: The Greater Will.

  • Arrival: The Greater Will sent a "golden star" to the Lands Between. This star was a living vessel: the Elden Beast.

  • The Elden Ring: The Elden Beast became the Elden Ring, a metaphysical object that could impose new laws of reality upon the world.

  • Marika's Ascension: The Greater Will chose a vessel from the Numen (a long-lived, otherworldly race) to serve as the god of its new order: Marika. She became Marika the Eternal, the one and only god of the Golden Order.

III. The First Elden Lord and the Great Wars

To establish her new order, Marika needed a consort and a champion to wage her wars. She chose the fiercest warrior in the lands, Hoarah Loux.

  • Godfrey, the First Elden Lord: To temper his unending bloodlust, Marika had him take the "beast regent" Serosh upon his back. He was renamed Godfrey, the First Elden Lord, and became her king consort.

  • The War Against the Giants: Godfrey led Marika's armies against the Fire Giants, the only beings who wielded a flame capable of burning the Erdtree. Marika's forces were victorious, and she cursed the last surviving giant to tend the Flame of Ruin for eternity, ensuring it was never used.

  • The War Against the Ancient Dragons: Marika's second great war was against the former rulers. This war was so brutal it was only ended when Marika's son, Godwyn the Golden, befriended the dragon Fortissax, ending the war in a truce.

IV. The Establishment of the Golden Order

With her major enemies defeated, Marika established the laws of her new age, which became the Golden Order. The single most important act of this new order was the alteration of the concept of death.

  • Sealing Destined Death: The Elden Ring originally contained the Rune of Death (or Destined Death), which governed the natural cycle of life. Marika removed this rune from the Elden Ring.

  • Maliketh, the Black Blade: She entrusted this rune to her shadow-bound beast (her "half-brother"), Maliketh. By sealing Destined Death away, Marika made herself, her demigod children, and the Golden Order effectively immortal. Souls would return to the Erdtree to be reborn, but no one could truly die. This was the core principle of her "eternal" order.

V. The Carian Wars and the Rise of Radagon

Not all lands bowed to the Erdtree. The Carian Royal Family, who ruled Liurnia, drew their power from the Moon (an entity seemingly separate from the Greater Will).

  • The Liurnian Wars: Marika sent her armies, led by a red-haired champion named Radagon, to conquer Liurnia. The wars were a bloody stalemate.

  • The Celestial Union: To end the conflict, a political marriage was arranged. Radagon married Queen Rennala, the Carian matriarch. This united the Moon and the Erdtree.

  • The Carian Demigods: Radagon and Rennala had three children: General Radahn, Praetor Rykard, and Lunar Princess Ranni.

VI. The Banishment of the Tarnished

After all her wars were won, Marika made a shocking move.

  • Godfrey's Exile: Her consort, Godfrey, had served his purpose. His warrior spirit, which thrived on struggle, was no longer needed in her perfected, orderly world. Marika stripped Godfrey and his entire legion of warriors of their "Grace" (the golden light of the Erdtree).

  • The First Tarnished: This exiled legion became the Tarnished. Marika banished them from the Lands Between, telling them to wage war in faraway lands, grow strong, and one day, after dying, they would be summoned back by the Grace they had lost. This was the origin of the player's lineage.

VII. The Second Elden Lord and the Cursed Twins

Immediately after banishing Godfrey, Marika took a new consort.

  • Radagon's Return: She summoned Radagon from Liurnia, forcing him to abandon his wife Rennala (who was left heartbroken, clutching the amber egg Radagon left her). Radagon returned to the capital, Leyndell, and became the Second Elden Lord.

  • The Great Secret: A statue in the capital reveals the truth: Radagon is Marika. They are two halves of a single being, a single god.

  • The Cursed Twins: This union of a "single god" produced two children: the twins Miquella and Malenia. Because they were born of a single being, they were both afflicted with curses. Malenia was cursed with the Scarlet Rot (an Outer God), and Miquella was cursed with eternal childhood.

This was the state of the Lands Between for a long time: a seemingly perfect, eternal order ruled by Marika/Radagon, but built on sealed-away powers, banished champions, and cursed children.

This delicate, fractured peace was what was finally shattered by the Night of the Black Knives.