Godwyn the Golden, eldest son of Marika and Godfrey, was the only demigod the people of the Erdtree truly loved. A great hunter of dragons, a bringer of grace, a friend to the Lichdragon Fortissax with whom he shared a bond of pact and a double existence. On the Night of the Black Knives, Ranni's assassins drove a fragment of the Rune of Death through Godwyn's chest while he slept in the Erdtree's high chamber. His soul died in that moment, an act unprecedented since Marika had hidden Death itself.

Godwyn's body, however, did not. Without Destined Death's law, his flesh continued: it grew, twisted, sank into the Erdtree's roots, and became the Prince of Death, a corruption that spreads still beneath the Lands Between. Fia, his deathbed companion in the underworld, gathers his rotting power into the Mending Rune that may one day restore the cycle Marika tore from the world. The Catacombs scattered across every region of the realm are the tombs of those who died after Godwyn, and who, like him, did not stay dead.

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WeaponBlack Knife

Dagger once belonging to one of the assassins who murdered Godwyn the Golden on the Night of the Black Knives. A ritual performed on the oddly misshapen blade imbued it with the power of the stolen Rune of Death.

Item / MiscMending Rune of the Death-Prince

Rune gestated by Fia, the Deathbed Companion. Used to restore the fractured Elden Ring when brandished by the Elden Lord. Formed of the two hallowbrand half-wheels combined, it will embed the principle of life within Death into Order. The Golden Order was created by confining Destined Death. Thus, this new Order will be one of Death restored.

Item / MiscPrince of Death's Pustule

A fetid pustule taken from facial flesh. Raises vitality. (Vitality governs resistance to the effects of Death.) It is said that this pustule came from the visage of the Prince of Death, he who used to be called Godwyn. As First Dead of the demigods, it's said he's buried deep under the capital, at the Erdtree's roots.