The Battle of Aeonia set Malenia, Blade of Miquella, against Starscourge Radahn, the half-brother who shared her father Radagon, in the internecine war between demigods that the breaking of the Elden Ring had triggered. Caelid is remembered as the locale of that last battle between the two, and the monument over the field records how it held at first: Radahn and Malenia locked in stalemate. Her Cleanrot Knights had marched south at her side, sworn to fight alongside her despite the gradual putrefaction of their own flesh. The bloom she carried came at a price of its own: each time the scarlet flower blooms, Malenia's rot advances.

Then, the scarlet rot blooms. She let the rotflower blossom in Aeonia, and in that moment Radahn heard a murmur in his ear: 'Miquella awaits thee, O promised consort.' His Great Rune burns to resist the encroachment of the scarlet rot, and the rot ate him from the inside regardless; what the Tarnished meets at the festival of combat is a general cursed ever to wander, his wits long gone, gathering the corpses of former friends and foes alike and gorging on them like a dog. His Redmane Knights, driven to defeat by that same rot, burned the crest on their armor and remained as a bulwark against the blight. Malenia did not walk off the field either: Cleanrot Knight Finlay, one of the few survivors, carried the slumbering demigod all the way back to the Haligtree. The rot stayed, bubbling up from the Swamp of Aeonia and eating away at life like a vicious plague.

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Boss LoreRemembrance of the Rot Goddess

Remembrance of Malenia, Goddess of Rot, hewn into the Erdtree. Miquella and Malenia are both the children of a single god. As such they are both Empyreans, but suffered afflictions from birth. One was cursed with eternal childhood, and the other harbored rot within.

Boss LoreMalenia's Great Rune

A Great Rune of the shardbearer Malenia. The blessing of this half-rotted rune reduces the healing power of Flask of Crimson Tears. And yet, due to the infusion of Malenia's spirit of resistance, attacks made immediately after receiving damage will partially recover HP. Malenia is daughter to Queen Marika and Radagon, and her Great Rune should have been the most sacred of all.