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The world ofElden Ringis dense. This applies to the vast quantity of things to do in the game, from the many magnificent bosses, beautiful locales to visit, and the oh-so-many weapons and spells to collect. It is also dense lore as well, and Miquella is one of the most emblematic figures of this.
Shrouded away in the Consecrated Snowfield, Miquella’s Haligtree is far from easy to reach, making you journey across the world to even gain access. Yet once you are there, you are struck by just how different it is. Why does it exist, how did it come to be, and just how does it connect to the Golden Order? Let’s find out.
How Was The Haligtree Made?
From birth, Miquella and his sister, Malenia, were cursed. She with Scarlet Rot, and he with eternal childhood. He could not grow, and she could not live. With their parents as the god, Marika and her husband the leader of the Golden Order, Radagon, they should have been pure. Miquella and Malenia should have been the strongest aspects of the Elden Ring. But they were cursed.
This is furthered byMalenia’s Great Rune, which states her rune should have been the most important of all.
To Miquella, this was a calling. He would fix the world.He would remove Outer Godsand the power they had over the people. With his ownUnalloyed Gold, he could achieve it. Malenia, cursed with a Rot that would ultimately claim her, dedicated what life she had to see Miquella’s plans to fruition. And the beginning ofthose plans came with the Haligtree.
In the game,we’re not given an exceptionally deep history of the Haligtree. This makes sense given that the lore is delivered in an intentionally laundered fashion. We see things from the perspective of how the Golden Order wishes The Lands Between to be remembered, with their own history taking precedence.The Haligtree is meant to be a hidden refuge, so logically you don’t pick up much on it until you actually get there.
The majority of the lore we do get is from within the Haligtree itself. Much of this is primarilycentred around the devotion to Miquella, though certain items give a deeper indication of the Haligtree’s actual origins. TheHaligtree Knight Armorsays the following:
Though watered with Miquella’s own blood since it was a sapling, the Haligtree ultimately failed to grow into an Erdtree.
An oft-unmentioned aspect of Miquella is the strength of his blood. It is potent, holding the virulence of eternal youth. Yet simultaneously, it would seem thatnothing grown from this blood can ever come to fruition, either. Like Miquella, it fails to ever reach the height of its own promise.
This strength of Miquella’s blood may well bewhat enticed Mohg to himin the first place, and what allowed Miquella to enter the Realm of Shadow.
Why Is The Haligtree A Safe Refuge From The Golden Order?
Within Elden Ring, we first learn of the Haligtreethrough the Albinaurics. It is their Promised Land, the one place within The Lands Between that offers them peace without discrimination. Unlike many other aspects of The Lands Between that have been deemed blasphemous by the Golden Order,the Albinaurics are not native beings. They were created, salvaged from remnants of the Eternal Cities, yet fell into disrepute when they did not serve the purpose their creators wanted.
‘Halig’ is an Old English word that roughly means ‘Holy’, marking its association withMiquella’s own brand of divinity.
Albinaurics are closely associated with the Academy of Raya Lucaria and are spread throughout Liurnia. This caught the attention of Loretta, a knight of the Carian Royals. Seeing the injustices enacted against them,she sought to grant them a home free of this discrimination. A home away from the Golden Order. And she determined that should be the Haligtree.
So determined in this mission was Loretta that sheabandoned the Carian Royals she had devoted herself to and became a Knight of the Haligtree, blocking your passage into Miquella’s sanctum. She truly and wholeheartedly believed in Miquella’s mission, donning a helmet bearing the Haligtree and replacing the glintstone of her War Sickle with that of Unalloyed Gold.She even faced accusations of being an Albinauric herself, those of the Golden Order unable to comprehend her sincere empathy.
Misbegotten also find their way to the Haligtree, and one can even be encountered that holds theGolden Order Greatsword. Despite Golden Order prejudice, these are people who yearn for the comfort of divinity, and Miquella grants them that. Even an Albinauric can be found in the Consecrated Snowfield that casts Miquella’s Golden Order incantations.Miquella became the Lord that prayed for, and they gave their lives for him.
Albinaurics supposedlycannot see the Grace of Gold, making their connection with Miquella’s gold quite a fascinating phenomenon.
Why Did Miquella Put Himself In The Haligtree?
Prior to Shadow of the Erdtree, the sequence of events that led to Miquella’s kidnapping by Mohg was somewhat vague. While Malenia was off battling Radahn in Caelid, Miquella had put himself inside the very trunk of the Haligtree, and Mohg had ripped him away to become his consort before Malenia could return. Now, however, we have much more clarity as to why all of this occurred, and how.
Miquella was cursed with eternal youth, never able to grow into adulthood, and indeed into being a god himself. His Unalloyed Gold was the only means of battling the influence of Outer Gods, yet she hoped to use his power to remove Outer Gods entirely. To do that, he would have to become a god himself, yet his inability to grow prevented that. Thus,the Haligtree became the base of his plans.
He would grow the Haligtree in the hopes it would usurp the Erdtree, tweaking its influence and garnering his own. Yet this failed. Miquella’s next plan of action was to plant himself inside his Haligtree.He would grow with it, both of them coming to fruition. In some form, this succeded. Though the Haligtree grew no further, and indeed even became corrupted by Malenia’s rot in Miquella’s absence,Miquella did grow, at least enough to grant himself access to the Realm of Shadow.
We learn in Shadow of the Erdtree that Miquella in fact charmed Mohg, bringing himself directly to his Mohgwyn Palace and putting him in contact with the Formless Mother. An Empyrean now grown, Miquella could commune with Outer Gods andused the Formless Mother and his own divine blood to access the Realm of Shadow.
It is theorised exactly how Miquella entered the Realm of Shadow, though considering Mohg wished for him to be the vessel forthe Formless Mother, it is logical then to assume that this particular Outer God’s supposed truth is that ofthe Realm of Shadow’s existence, and one Miquella’s takes advantage of to enter to create his own Godhood.
In this sense,Miquella put himself within the Haligtree as a form of incubation. It would grant him a growth that he could not achieve by himself, yet also left him to the mercy of the world. He needed Malenia to protect him and Mohg to transport him, all so that he could eventually find his own consort in Radahn as his Vessel to preside over The Lands Between as a god.
Are The Haligtree, Erdtree, And Scadutree Connected?
Trees are of great relevance to the world of Elden Ring. Indeed, they are the very symbol of the ruling powers that define The Lands Between. The Erdtree is visible across every stretch of the map, impossible to avoid its overpowering presence.It is the seat of Marika, vessel of the Greater Will, and the basis of the Elden Beast. It is not, however, the first tree within The Lands Between to symbolise those who command the land.
Within the Deeproot Depths and various other locations in the game, you may encounter items discussing the Great Tree. One such weapon isSiluria’s Tree, which makes mention of the weapon being modelled afterthe primordial form of the Erdtree. It is not said explicitly when this was, but it can at the very least be assumed to be before the presence of the Erdtree.
With Shadow of the Erdtree, we are introduced to another tree - the Scadutree. This itself is no true tree, nor the Great Tree. It is insteada gnarled version of whatever tree the Hornsent found faith in. It has another tree wrapped around it as if it is squeezing the life from it, the sap of the Scadutree pouring forth. It does, however, hold echoes of what the Hornsent did truly praise.
The Hornsent originally praised what the Scadutree once was, though through the Scadutree sorceries in the DLC, we see that denizens of the Realm of Shadowco-opted their once faithful symbol into a weapon against Messmer’s Crusade.
Core to what this tree once was is the spiral. It seems to have always been two trees intertwined. This is depicted across much of their emblems and insignias, showing us a true image of what their own divine tree once looked like. Yet this seems to indicate,by merit of the Crucible’s existence, that this Great Tree may have taken on many different forms in the past.
The Crucible takes a core presence here. In reality, crucibles were closely associated with alchemists, the tools through which they attempted toturn mundane metals into precious gold. In Elden Ring, the Crucible seems to have been the very beginning of life in The Lands Between, creating life without any particular order. This is a mostly metaphorical origin, though one that bears relevance giventhe importance of gold within Elden Ring.
This ties closely into Miquella’s own Haligtree. The Golden Order and the Erdtree are symbolised bybeautiful, lustrous gold. Meanwhile, Miquella’s Haligtree, which by merit of its name is also holy, is characterised byUnalloyed Gold, a more dull yet untarnished form of gold. It is pure and soft. However, much of Miquella’s Haligtree, from the designs of his knights to the symbols of his incantations, also depicts a spiral not unlike that of the Scadutree.
The Scadutree, even blackened and ashen, bleeds golden sap. All of these Great Trees come from different groups for different reasons, yet all of them seem to pull from the same origins - The Crucible of Life. The molten gold that formed the foundations of all existence. Alchemy is a transformative process, yetthe end goal is always the same - Gold.
