Text: Card Fan Man
You faders who have embarked on adventures at the junction, it has been nearly half a month since the release of "Eldon's Circle of Law", I don't know if you have passed the level? Which ending was chosen in a week? According to the situation of various votes and discussion posts on the Internet, the popularity of the witch La ni can be said to have reached the extreme of the history of the FS Society Soul Game, the arrogant and petite character design, various cute moves have made many faded people who have suffered in the adventure call their wives, and the marriage event under the corresponding ending and the star ending of the two-person world have easily captured the hearts of many players. Even the "ring-proof girl" Melina, who made a stunning appearance in the pre-release trailer and online beta version, and the "dead sleeping girl" Fiya, who can give players a gentle hug early in the official version of the game, are also bleak under the high popularity of La ni... It is really a testimony to the essence of the soul system veteran players looking for love simulations in their suffering. However, in this way, as the first heroine of the card, Melina, who must always accompany the protagonist in the main line, has almost become a passerby heroine and has become a favorite play material for players.
Compared with the underline of TheRaini's mission, the relationship between the protagonist and Lani gradually develops and gradually becomes clear, and Lani's own identity and past experiences are revealed layer by layer, so that players feel a very delicate and three-dimensional character construction, and Melina does appear to have a lack of presence in the game. As a role similar to the "fireproof woman" and "puppet sister" who guides the player and is responsible for upgrading, she will only appear under the blessing interface and CG when the player rests at the specific blessing point after the completion of a specific plot, and usually does not appear at all when upgrading; although the setting has been accompanying the faded person to travel, it cannot be observed by the player like the green-robed sister and the puppet The daily behavior of some rich character images can be observed by the player; the character itself is also full of mysteries, and many words are not clear if they are not pieced together. It is impossible to let the player understand the details of all aspects of this character more directly... All in all, Melina in the game gives people a very strong sense of distance, as the first heroine, but may not have met with the player a few times.
However, in the soul series works known for their unique fragmented narrative techniques, we can gradually piece together and make up a more complete world view setting through many small details in the game, and even the "passerby heroine" like Melina has a very sufficient clue to reveal the truth behind the characters. Today, I will play the role of "ring scientist" here, with the purpose of discovering The identity of Melina, combing through the plot of "Eldon's Law Ring". Since the plot analysis of the Soul series has always had a very large space for players to play themselves, and here is only the delusion of the girl, I will try my best to give clues to give my insights and discuss with you.
Before we can really explore Melena's question, it's important to understand the eldon's worldview.
What is the purpose of the player in the game? The opening CG gives us a simple foreshadowing: the artifact that creates an order called the Golden Law for everything in the Junction, the Ring of Eldon is shattered, the goddess who rules the Junction under the blessing of the Golden Tree, the Eternal Queen Marika disappears, and the demigods with the bloodline of the Gods fight for the Fragment of the Ring of Law to become the new ruler. However, no side has really won the war, and the already orderly junction has become even more chaotic. At this time, the "faded ones" who had previously lost the blessing of the golden tree were summoned by the supreme will, woke up from death, traveled through the fog to the junction, and embarked on the road to repair the Ring of Eldon and become the new king of Eldon, which is the background of the world that we can know at the beginning.
Entering the first large map of the game, Nym gf, a huge golden tree shining with golden light appears in front of our eyes, which is the most direct embodiment of the power of the supreme will at the junction, the way in which the Eldon Ring and the Golden Law bring blessings and order to the junction, and is the core clue throughout the game. Through the progress of progress and the excavation of details, we can find that the Golden Tree and the Elden Ring were not born at the junction, but evolved from the aliens invested by the supreme will of the outside world, the Golden Meteor and the Eldon Beast.
Prior to this, life in the Junction was born from the Furnace, ruled by the powerful Ancient Dragon Race and the Dragon King Platon Sanx that we can see in the game, and the golden power as an outsider gradually developed into a golden giant tree through the early life furnace form, and with the help of Marika, a "god-man" born in the rare family of fellow outsiders, through the Elden Ring of Law, a new order for the operation of all things at the junction was established, the Golden Law, using the giant tree as the medium, to bless all parts of the junction, opening the Golden Tree Age. In fact, there are quite a few prop descriptions in the game that confirm that the junction, as its name suggests, is the junction of the world ruled by many gods, and it does not give birth to the original divine power, so it has become the focus of contention among the gods, but the foreign gods such as the "Supreme Will" who brought the golden tree do not directly enter the junction to intervene, but here they cultivate the forces with their own power to achieve control. This setting is somewhat similar to the continent of Tamriel in The Elder Scrolls, a "arena of the gods". For example, the "Evil God Flame" in the giant cauldron that can burn the Golden Tree, and the two fingers of the "Supreme Will" Messenger whose form is very similar, and the three fingers that are in charge of burning everything are obviously god-level forces that do not belong to the power of the Golden Tree, and these forces seem to be impossible to destroy, but can only be sealed, and the "Supreme Will" to which the Golden Tree belongs is only a temporary winner.
Whatever the true purpose of the Supreme Will, the Golden Tree and the Eldon Ring of Law did bring well-being to the junction. Marika, a rare person who became a god at the junction, and the natives of the junction, the warrior Horley Lu, and the warriors together destroyed the giants and giant flames that threatened the golden tree, and handed over the power that would bring death, "Destiny Death", to the "Black Sword" Malikas sealed by the "Supreme Will" to serve and supervise Marika, so that there was no death under the Golden Law in the borderlands, and all life would be repeated through the process of "returning to the tree" and obtain eternal life. Marika was thus called the "Eternal Queen" and crowned Horley Dew as the first Elden King of the Golden Tree Age, giving birth to three demigod heirs: "Gold" Godwin, "Bad Omen" Mongart and later the self-proclaimed "Blood King" Mong, who began the dynastic rule.
Does this golden tree age look perfect? Indeed, as far as the Golden Tree itself is concerned, the Golden Law can be said to be perfect, but the instability factor arises in the guardian of the law, the goddess Marika, a god who has joys and sorrows like a human being, which will certainly affect the operation of the Golden Law of the Ring of Eldon. At this point, a more perfect God who does not sway the law by emotion seems necessary. In the game, we can learn of a character named "Red-haired" Ladagan, who is the husband of the "Full Moon Queen" Rena La, the ruler of the Magic Academy Of Relucaria, who later abandoned Rena La instead and joined the goddess Marika to become the new generation of Eldon King, and the three people who were previously born to Rena La, "Broken Star" Rataen, "Princess of the Moon" Lani and later became the "Blasphemous King" Lakkad were also promoted to demigods. As the game progresses, players can easily learn that Ladagan and Marika are actually the same character, as the true god of the junction, Marika has the ability to change genders at will, generate new gods, and combine the two gods, giving birth to two gods, "The Pure and Flawless Sacred Tree" Mikaela and "Mikaela's Blade" Marlenia. In contrast to Marika, Ladagan is like the embodiment of the Law, where everything is focused on the stabilization of the Law and the maintenance of rule, and constantly pursues the perfection of itself and the Law.
At this point, the worldview of the Eldon Ring of Law is generally clear, but there are still a few concepts that need to be added. First, the man of God. The goddess Marika, as the figure who establishes, administers and rules over the Golden Law at the junction, is the true god of the junction, but there are still several figures called "god people", as the substitutes of the true god, who have the qualification to ascend to the true god, but relatively, they are also guided and monitored by the "supreme will" and the two fingers of the direct messenger at the junction, which is very similar to the situation of Marika's "black sword" Malikas. The gods and men who can be clearly known in the game are Lani, Mikaela and Marenia, and Grenfell, as the husband of the goddess and the first king of Eldon under the Golden Law, also has the potential to become a god. Among them, Blazer around La ni can be confirmed to be a tool assigned by the double to monitor La Ni, once La Ni betrays the "supreme will" of the god-man plan, it will be manipulated by two fingers, and it has nothing to do with Blaise's own will; although Grenfell's side cannot be fully certain, the "Lion Prime Minister" around him is most likely to exist, and finally when he faces the player, a sentence of "I have had enough red tape" and then tears up the "Lion Prime Minister", and the name also reverts to Holly Lu, who was the name of the warrior before the Golden Age. It's a break from the shackles of two fingers. We can roughly judge that the god-man is a means of "raising clams" of the supreme will, constantly ensuring that the spokesmen of their own power develop their own order at the junction.
Second, the night of the black knife. This is an extremely important event in the game's plot, and it is also the direct trigger for the shattering of the Eldon Ring of Law and the outbreak of the Fragment War. In the CG at the beginning of the game, the narrator mentions that the great Eldon Ring of Law has been broken, the "Eternal Queen" Marika is missing, on the night of the Black Knife Conspiracy, "Gold" Gurdvin is killed, Marika's heirs are divided into the Ring fragments, and the Shattering War breaks out; in the CG short film "Broken War" before the release, Lani's description also mentions that the event occurred long ago, the death of Lune (that is, the power of the "Death of Destiny") was stolen, and "Gold" Gurdwen became the initial deceased among the demigods. Perhaps Queen Marika had gone berserk.
For this incident, the more clues you can get in the game are the black sword branch of the magic swordsman Roger and the mission line of La ni. If each player advances Roger's story before heading to the Tower of The Three Sisters, Roger will tell the player about the Black Knife Death Mark and direct the event to La ni, entrusting the player to find her. In this way, the player can directly explain his intentions when the magician La ni meets him again, and explore the truth of the night of the black knife, and la ni herself will directly admit that she is the mastermind behind the night of the black knife, she stole part of the death lune from the "black sword", carried out the assassination of Gurdwen, and later used the death lune to kill her own flesh, abandoning her original ability and identity, but la ni will not tell the player the whereabouts of her body with the mark of death, and also drive the player away. As players join Lani's small group and gradually gain her trust, La ni will tell her desire to get rid of her two fingers and "supreme will", find the hunting finger knife "God Killer" and break away from the Golden Law, and will also lead us to find her death mark.
It is very noteworthy that although La Ni admits to being the initiator of the Night of the Black Knife, she does not state that she is the only initiator, and it is likely that there is an accomplice. This suspicion mainly stems from the theft of death luan and the main force of the assassination operation, the Black Knife Assassins, who are as rare as Queen Marika; the broken ring, The Radagan retreat and announce that Marika is missing, and after La ni raises the anti-flag against the Supreme Will and the two fingers, the Black Knife Assassins obey the orders of the two fingers and assassinate the members of Rani's command. It seems that at any time, La Ni is unlikely to single-handedly make these assassins obey, and the most reasonable explanation seems to be that the Night of the Black Knife in addition to La Ni and Marika were also involved in the planning, but as the actual executor, La Ni did something unexpected by Marika, so there is "Maybe Queen Marika fell into a frenzy" in "Broken War" and the disappearance of the queen claimed by Radagan.
However, before the "disappearance", the queen must have done something, that is, to break the ring of law - this can be seen in the opening CG screen, and Ladagan, who is also with Marika, intends to stop it, but it is not successful. The War of Brokenhood begins, the Queen's heirs fight each other, going mad, no one wins, and our Faded Ones enter, guided by the blessings they have regained, and embark on the path of gathering fragments to repair the Ring of Law and become the King of Eldon.
Having said that, it's time to meet our heroine, Melina, again.
Without knowing her identity or origin, we found the unconscious faded person in the initial cave, and took the initiative to meet us after we started our journey, and made a deal with us to take her to the foot of the golden tree, and she gave us a way to turn Lune into strength, to some extent to replace the duty of the finger witch, which sounded good. Although people have one eye that can't be opened, their faces and voices can still please the old undead... Ah, the delight of the faded, not to mention the gift of a wonderful spirit horse companion Torette. However, she really rarely appeared in front of us, as if she did not have a complete body, and could only take shape near the blessing, and when she arrived at the royal city of Rodel, she said, "Thank you, thank you for taking me to the foot of the golden tree." Here, I am free to move. This seems to be confirmed even more, full of mysterious Melina, who is it?
She doesn't talk much about herself, but she still tells us something very important, and when we first met, she said to us, "About me?" I'm looking. The mission that my mother gave me in the Golden Tree in the past, and the reason why I could continue to live even if my body was burned and transformed into a soul form... In fact, I also want to apologize to you, I once said that I would take the place of the finger witch, but I have no way to guide you. Because I'm not a witch, and... It also lost its existing mission (My purpose, was long ago lost). When our journey approached the royal city, she spoke again, mentioning: "It is almost time to reach the golden tree, and the foot of the tree mentioned in the quid pro quo is almost here... I am born at the foot of the golden tree, and it was there that I accepted the mission given to me by my mother. ”
This is a very worthy clue - born at the foot of the golden tree, at the foot of the golden tree to accept the mission given by the mother, lost the mission a long time ago, can not move freely in other parts of the junction, but can move freely in the royal city, and can also help the faded one defeat the bad omen king Menggart... Is she Marika's child? But it seems that her abilities are completely different from other demigods, and the fact that she cannot move freely is also a great doubt, and more clues are needed to be further deduced.
Speaking of the tailor Burke, Melina said to us, "Your tailor, Burke. He sometimes cries, as if he misses his mother, and hopes that someone will praise him for being good-looking... As mothers, and the people born to mothers, will everyone be like them...?" It was as if Melina was thinking about the identity of the mother and the child. But mother? Will she bring herself here into her motherhood? Anyway, Melina's feelings are very delicate... This, in turn, bears a striking resemblance to Queen Marika herself. Have we seen Marika in this game? It seems that there is no, in the golden tree, the fader can only see the "golden law" Of Ladagon, who is the queen's different gods, and the queen herself is in a state of bondage, so that we cannot know whether the queen's consciousness is still there. However, in terms of ending choice, if the player enters the star ending, La Ni will become an eternal companion with the protagonist; if the King of Eldon ending is chosen, according to what the game has always told us, Marika will become our partner, then why has Marika not appeared?
Or is she always with us?
Let's think again about melina's characteristics.
She knows very well what Marika has said, and will tell us Marika's proverbs every time she goes to churches and other important places; the skills used are very special, and the prayer power of the golden tree itself, which cannot be used by the demigods, even Radagan, can be used in the battle of the Nightmare King; she attaches great importance to the existence of life, and when persuading the faded to give up embracing the fire, she trembles and says, "As long as life exists, the world will live forever... Is that not? "Words; a body that can only move freely near the foot of the golden tree where the goddess's body is located; a face that bears a striking resemblance to the side of Lani's soul; an arm with obvious burn marks...
I think that based on these characteristics, combined with the background of the work that has been rolled out earlier, it can be inferred that Melina was born after the night of the black knife, Marika copied her consciousness and the body of the god-man abandoned by Lani, and it is a miracle plan to fulfill Marika's last wish when the ring is broken, the golden law is broken, and the influence of the "supreme will" and two fingers is weakened.
Things can look like this:
Marika, who valued life so much, handed over the "death of destiny" when she became a god and used the Ring of Eldon to establish the Golden Law
The "Black Sword" Marikas sealed it, thus excluding death from the legal system of the junction and perpetuating life. However, such a seal is unstable, and once it erupts, the consequences are difficult to estimate – as evidenced by the changes in the world after the player kills the Black Sword in the game. In order to survive in the borderlands, Marika needs to explore a new way out, and the first thing she does is to deprive Greco of the blessings of Greco and the warriors, and Melina conveys to us what Marika once said: "O my king, the warriors of the king, I will take your blessings, and when your eyes fade, I will exile you beyond the junction, outside the junction, to fight, to live, to die." After you face death, the one who has been captured will return - return to the junction, throw yourself into battle, show the Ring of Eldon as you wish, be adjacent to death, and become strong - the warriors of the king, my king Greire. Marika herself was born after this the "Golden Law" Side of Ladagan, which was her attempt to constantly improve on the path of the Golden Law, and the birth of the first faded people was an insurance on another path - laying the foundation for the subsequent rebellion against the "Supreme Will".
So was the path to exploring the Golden Law successful? It doesn't look like it. In the Queen's Boudoir, Melina conveyed the Queen's proverb: "Oh, Ladagan, the loyal dog of the Golden Law." You are not me, you are not a god. Oh my half! Smash each other! The perfect law of Radagan's lack of emotion and the path of the perfect hero were not what Marika sought, and there was a great divergence between the two gods. At this point, another safe path comes in handy — rebelling against the Supreme Will, abandoning the Golden Law, and making the world a new one. Marika chooses her daughter Lani, who has the same direction as her, as an ally, betrays the "Black Sword" Malikas, unites her own people, takes away some of the power of the "Death of Destiny", and sacrifices the strongest demigod Godwin, releasing death and returning life to its original form.
However, things did not go well, and although La ni had similarities with Marika's path, she chose to get rid of the fate of the gods and men directly, at the cost of the flesh, and embarked on the road to eliminate the two fingers and the "supreme will"; after the release of death, Gu devan's ally, Fersanx, a member of the ancient dragon, let the cursed "root of death" be released from the body of the dead prince when she tried to resurrect Gurdwen, and the filthy death died appeared at the junction. These things do not meet Marika's expectations, but they still give Marika a hint that the influence of the Supreme Will can be severed, and the power of "Destiny Death" can be used in other ways. As La ni in The Broken War, "perhaps Queen Marika fell into a frenzy", she destroyed the Ring of Eldon, and as punishment was bound by the "Supreme Will", the divine personality was suppressed by Radagan, but also left a will - to kill the gods. Recall that in the game, have you ever seen the scene of the blacksmith Shugu at the Round Table praying to Marika? He believed in Marika, who wanted to fulfill the Queen's wishes, and was obsessed with creating weapons that could kill the gods; in addition, Gideon Auvernir, the "Wise Sir", could also prove this, as he believed that the Queen's wishes were the "end of the impossible".
The key to the realization of this will lies in the special doppelganger left by the Queen, Melina, for the guidance of the faded. In the gods and the messengers of the gods, the doppelganger is not a novel operation, the "nightmare demon" Malkit in the game, the "beast priest" Gulanger, are similar to the existence of the doppelganger, instead of the ontology of Mongart and Malikas to achieve some of the duties, Marika herself can directly separate the different consciousnesses such as Ladagan, directly create the doppelgang is not difficult, but this time the doppelganger needs to inherit Marika's wishes, but also needs to avoid the gaze after the body is bound by the "supreme will" and the self-enclosing golden tree, She has to be special enough. Even so, what about the human body of God who was abandoned by La ni? When the attention of two fingers was diverted by Lani's soul body, how could he notice a burned empty shell body? Marika copied Marie's flesh into her own will, and although due to the influence of the death mark on Lani's flesh, Melina could not move freely in her physical form steadily, and there were traces of burning on her body, but she did inherit Marika's wishes and spirit, and then produced her own soul and emotions. In this way, Melina's soul form, similar appearance to La ni, the same burn scars as La Ni's body, and the fact that she followed the Spirit Horse Toret, who originally belonged to the Snow Witch Rena (La Ni's secret teacher), has a reasonable explanation, and it is also in line with her own sentence" "I must know that even if the body is burned and becomes a body in the form of a soul, I can continue to live." ”
At this point, we can basically confirm Melina's identity, but she still has problems that can be developed. Melina initially found the protagonist just to let the protagonist help herself to the foot of the golden tree, to confirm her identity and mission, after the royal city acted alone for a period of time, she participated in the protagonist's battle with the nightmare king, and when she reunited with the protagonist, she became determined and proposed such a bold action as burning the golden tree. During the time when she is away from the protagonist, a very important thing happens - the two fingers lose contact with the supreme will, is this what Melina did? I have not found any evidence of this, but this is very doubtful, after all, she inherited Marika's will to kill the gods, La ni can kill the finger, and Melina should have a way to cut off the connection of the Supreme Will. After this brief separation, Melina found the goal of her action, and when we met Shapoli in the Forbidden Land and learned about the existence of the epileptic fire, Melina said: "I want to tell you one thing, although my mission was given by my mother, but now, the mission is achieved out of my will, it has nothing to do with my mother's expectations, I am acting to make the world look like hope - it is my heart, I decided to do this... I will not allow anyone to trample on this will. Of course, even you are not allowed. "She judged according to her own heart, her own soul.
Regarding the important plot of burning the golden tree in the plot, the old woman with two fingers next to her described it this way: "Burning the golden tree is the most primitive felony, not to mention the power to pursue the death of Lune... Death Loon is the "death of destiny", the dark shadow that was first removed and sealed at the beginning of the golden law... There must be a person who can see the illusion of the flames, and only by sacrificing that person can he destroy the golden tree with the fire of the cauldron, and the road to death in Luen will also be clear. "Melina will not hesitate to sacrifice herself, but also to achieve her goal and build a new world, why? Because she has a key link in her body, "The Death of Destiny", she needs this power to go forward, and she just has it. Let's take a look at one of the most interesting descriptions in the game about "Death of Destiny":
Let's look at Melina's finally opened left eye in the epilepsy ending:
Where does this power come from? The path is unclear, but it is most likely related to the fact that Rani stole part of the body that she still retained when she stole the "Destiny Death", which Queen Marika subsequently retained as a killer weapon against the Supreme Will in the future. Melina chooses to release it in a sacrificial way, for the continuation of life at the junction, and for the sake of what she calls "friends", who want to touch us at the end of her life but cannot touch, to become kings.
"This man will also be pursuing the Eldon Ring of Law... Even doing so would be against the Golden Law. ”
"Hope you achieve your mission... You've all gone on a journey, and there must be a way to be king—to be king of Eldon. ”（I have no doubt,you will become Elden Lord.May you take this road.）
"I kept looking at the junction and thinking that the world had to be repaired... It is also believed that death must be allowed to come equally. ”
"Those who march with the fire will one day encounter the death of destiny."
Looking back at our long-term travel companion, but always having to keep a delicate distance from us, is her image more three-dimensional? Maybe before we chose the end of the throne, when we became the new queen of Eldon, she was supposed to be our partner, but the difficult road ahead did not give her this choice. Space is limited, some clues and parts that can be further expanded have to be deleted, but the main content has been presented, and analysis and inference have been made, perhaps after the truth is revealed, Melina's popularity will be higher?