#sry if i misspelled smt im tired bruh

[localsya]

Alr so, why tf are Ranni and Melina more conected than u all think, and why Melina might not be the Gloam Eyed Queen. Wake up bestie its lore time again. Lets start for the basics, who is the GEQ. Little miss was an empyrean, just like Marika, bit stop here. Many people believe the only way to be an empyrean is to be born from Marika and i highly disagree, Marika was chosen as a champion like the moon chose Ranni and the rot chose Malenia, maybe Malenia, Miquella and Ranni are empyreans because of this AND the fact that they are Marika’s offsprings, but i dont think its the only way.  Many people in Liurnia strongly believed Rennala was the champion of the moon, and everyone held faith into it, at the point she was treated as an empyrean, which is one of the big reasons why people turned against, her, the dissapointed that your so presumed god-empyrean, wasnt actually one. 

This immediately points to the fact people had the knowledge, Empyrians could be chosen.  Now im gonna carry on with the point of the GEQ was a chosen empyrean, the embodiment of death itself. She gave power to her subordinates, the power to kill gods, and here its the point were Marika was getting absolutely clapped by this other queen. ER is all about religious colonialism and just as christianism almost erased complitely certain pagan celebrations, Queen Marika also searched to destroy any force/religion/empyrean that opposed her own beliefs, the big problem is that this woman had the power to kill her, which is already a big threat. This is were Maliketh comes in. Maliketh is a shadow, probably chosen the same way Blaidd was for Ranni, he was Marika’s half brother and he was terribly loyal to her, when Marika comanded him to slain the GEQ, he did without hesitation over his sister’s beliefs and probably himself’s too. 

Now, why the GEQ cannot hold more influence in the lands between?  When Ranni stole death, the price was terribly high to pay, it required the soul of a demigod, the Queen’s firstborn, and her own body, AND destined death, a “tool” to say it somehow, now Maliketh held and guard preciously. Destined Death was the only tool capable to kill a god, which is probably why Queen Marika feared it, if we take on point the spear she was on her body is crossing her entirely, and most likely the reason why her body is destroyed, ONLY BY A SPEAR THAT WAS NOT MEANT TO KILL.  And you could kill a demigod just with a stab in the shoulder, imagine the amount of power Maliketh held, the GEQ was no Ranni, the ritual Ranni elaborated probably didn’t even existed back then, so it was impossible for the GEQ to survive, either in body or soul, and thats why she is inevitable dead, one of the very few true deaths. We know this also thanks to the Godskins and the Black Knife Kindred.

Specially thanks to this dude, we know Maliketh held the same power of the GEQ, give a part of his power to his servants. Which is what the GEQ did with the Godskins, but now these dudes are just there, terribly close to Maliketh, like if after the rune of death was passed to a new beholder, their loyalty switched to Maliketh too.

Now, why melina could or couldnt be the reincarnation of this Queen? If in the minuscule probability this is possible, its just another punishments of the outer gods towards Marika. Taking your daughter’s life in the name to ressurrect a god you killed its pure tragedy and punishment, but i dont think its the case. As we said earlier, GEQ had a true death.  Now, Melina was born as the foot of the Erdtree, not at the Queen’s Chambers, not inside the tree, at the foot. And she was burned and bodyless, wandering for a purpose that she lost long ago, one given by her mother. Also Melina IS Marika’s daughter, but her condition of being considerable shorter than the demigods, not an empyrean nor a demi god, its what makes the difference, still Melina is really strong, not only she can use Erdtree incantations and a knife that was holded by Marika herself. Why is she burnt? This is a reminder that a big reason of Melina’s existence its to be part of the plan of Queen Marika, only a maiden could hold the flame of the giants to burn the erdtree, and maybe, just maybe, the burns in her body were a cruel reminder that she had born to be burnt. 

Here is the next thing that happens, as soon as we enter the game, is not Melina the one that finds us, its Torrent, a loyal steed probably given to Melina by her mother, along side the sacred knife she carries with herself.  And thats really curious, because Melina decides to trust the tarnished for this mission thanks to torrent, but why would she be looking for a champion?

Right after the cinematic pop ups, we meet Ranni  disguised as Renna in the church during the night, or Melina in the site of grace, it doesnt really matter.  When we encounter Ranni after Melina gives us Torrent, Ranni will immediately comment how she knew the previous owner of the steed. We know its Melina, right? After that, Ranni will gives us the bell to summon spirits, but why would she, an empyrean, the queen that was always meant to be, trust you? A simple tarnished one more of the pile. The only way is that somehow she knew the tarnished was the lord chosen by Torrent and Melina, Melina had to fulfill her purpose and she had been looking for a champion for it, Ranni needed a tarnished too for all the other reasons we already know. The only reason Ranni had to trust you, ITS BECAUSE HER SISTER TRUST YOU. Now, when we meet Melina, she never truly states for a stablished purpose, in fact, she is still very ambiguous about her mission, she just requests you to take her to the Erdtree, where her mother birthed her. At first, she will state that she serves the two fingers, loyal to her mother’s purpose. 

And then, she will state she was testing your strenght, to see if you are truly fit. 

And as long as we keep our journey, Melina will start to remember and recite Marika’s words to you 

And that is untill we take her to the Erdtree, which is were she departs from us, cause now she needs to find her own purpose. 

And this is were thigs get funny, Ranni also requires a tarnished to acomplish her goal, and she also needs the Tree to burn cause none may enter the erdtree, its sealed away with Marika half dead inside.  Once Melina is back to us, and we start to wander more, there is a certain point were she states 

Now Melina is well aware of who her mother is, and she has chosen her own path, just as Marika chanted to all her children, for them to take their own desire be it as lords or gods, Melina chose this.  SO, RANNI’S QUEST. Once we gave her the knife she needs, her path is also clear, like Melina’s

And Ranni specially needs us, if she wants to accomplish her goal, she need a tarnished to defeat the champion of the golden order and bring her into the erd tree, but she also needed a maiden that would burn the erdtree. Here to the fact everyone and their mothers know. Ranni’s spectral face is Melina’s face. 

Why would she ever carrie her second face to be a woman who was born to serve the golden order to fulfill Marika’s scheme? Ranni simply needs Melina to burn the erdtree. And if we remember, Melina is no demigod, no empyrean either, how do you link someone to grant their loyalty? Well, whats better than granting her one of your eyes.  Thanks to Zullie we know Melina’s other eye throught the whole game is the same color of her open eye,

Her eye doesnt change until we get the frenzied flame ending, which is in short terms, an insult both to Marika’s will, Ranni’s will AND Melina’s will too.  However, Melina promises us destined death if we chose this ending. Melina in frenzied flame -comedy relief moment-

Back to it. Why would Melina be so pissed if you chose this ending?  Well, now she is the one beholding destined death right? But if we killed Maliketh, death is free to the world again. Who could have a good piece of this power tho? The one that stole death. Ranni.  By a long time i thought that Melina’s blue eye was Maliketh’s missing eye, since he was the beholder of death and the protector of this power, and the beast eye its really alike to her open eye. This would make sense because now she would be looking throught the eyes of death itself. But its not possible, Maliketh is dead.

The only left option, Melina’s blue eye is one of Ranni’s Empyrean eye, this would not only reassure her loyalty to her sister, in the name of changing the world to the better, but also allowing her to hold death the same way Ranni did, and most importantly of it all -EMPYREAN EYE NOW BELONGS TO HER-, this is pretty much possible and i think its reassured by the way her golden amber eye is now gone, faded away and lost all the grace that it once had, a symbol that Melina doesnt hold ties to Marika or the Greater Will anymore.

Why do i think its Ranni’s eye? Well, first of all the eye has no trace of Gold, theres no grace in them, all the contrary, the color is Dark and Deep Blue, alike to Ranni’s dark moon, the outer god that chose her as her “champion”.

Here is the description of Ranni’s Dark Moon 

“What she beheld was cold, dark and veiled in occult mystery.” which is pretty much the entire vibe Melina gives, The now faded grace and the blueish eye now allowing her to use the tool of destined death itself, because you not only have betrayed her will by chosing the frenzied flame, you also betrayed her sister’s (which i consider the canon ending of the game) scheme, and her mother’s too. It makes even more sense if you consider, why would Ranni carry the face of her sister as a shadow light besides her, why would a doll need to close an eye? Simply because that eye now belongs to Melina. Last good comparison, Melina’s eye once again is heavily alike to the dark moon Ranni conjures. 

The exact same color, shape of lights, and the deep blue dark spot in the middle.  IN CONCLUSION LADIES, GENTLEMAN, BELOVEDS AND FORGOTTEN LOVERS.  Ranni needed Melina to achieve her goals of a better world, and Melina needed Ranni to be free of her own will, not guided by the greater will of Queen Marika, but for Melina and Melina alone.