'Remembrance of Maliketh, the Black Blade, hewn into the Erdtree. Maliketh sealed the Rune of Death within his own being, and was given the title of the Black Blade. As the shadow of an Empyrean, sworn to that Empyrean alone.' Empyreans are the canon's god-candidates : a small pool of beings whose lineage and circumstances make them eligible to be elevated to godhood by the Greater Will. Marika was an Empyrean. Her sister-rival, the Gloam-Eyed Queen, was an Empyrean. So is Ranni, the Carian princess who refused her destiny. So is Malenia. So is Miquella. So, possibly, was the unborn child Rennala held in her amber egg. The role of an Empyrean's shadow-bound enforcer (Maliketh for Marika, Blaidd for Ranni) is to ensure the candidate either ascends or doesn't, but never escapes.

'Remembrance of Mohg, Lord of Blood, hewn into the Erdtree. Wishing to raise his beloved younger brother Miquella, the most fearsome Empyrean of all, to godhood, Mohg sought to become his consort.' The canon's late-game horror is that the Greater Will's selection process is opaque even to the Empyreans themselves. Marika did not know in advance that becoming god required betraying her family. Miquella did not know becoming god required burning his own kindness as fuel. Ranni's questline succeeds at refusing godhood ; Mohg's at refusing to wait for the Will's choice. The Empyrean class is the canon's quiet metaphysical hinge : every theological catastrophe in the lore traces back to one of these candidates trying or failing or refusing to accept the Greater Will's offer.