For as much lore as is hidden within Elden Ring, and all FromSoftware games for that matter, few games produce so many questions within their community. For every answer Elden Ring players find, myriad questions arise. And one of Elden Ring's most mysterious characters remains Malenia, the Blade of Miquella, who is a demigod, an Empyrean, and one of the game's hardest boss fights. Elden Ring players are once again pondering a question regarding Malenia, this time with regard to her "shadow" or lack thereof.
Shadows in Elden Ring aren't literal shadows, unsurprisingly. Shadows are a sort of guardian said to be created for an Empyrean by the Two Fingers to ensure they remain faithful to the Golden Order. At face value, shadows are protectors, but in practice they're also meant to turn on an Empyrean if they stray from the Golden Order. Such is what happens with Ranni's shadow, Blaidd. With that in mind, by all accounts, Malenia should have a shadow since she's a known Empyrean -- but she doesn't.
A meme shared on Reddit by user dragonfist897 brought a focus to the question of Malenia's missing shadow. The meme jokes about how thinking on the matter of Malenia's shadow keeps them up at night. The comments in the Reddit thread offer some interesting theories about where Malenia's shadow could be, though.
The top theory shared in the Reddit thread guesses that Malenia killed their own shadow, hinted at due to their loyalty to Miquella and his separation from the golden order. One interesting theory is that Malenia's shadow, being a part of Malenia, died of the Scarlet Rot that infects her. Another popular theory is that Malenia is actually Miquella's shadow. She's certainly a loyal guardian. Yet another good theory is that Malenia and Miquella never had shadows, due to the Two Fingers deciding they were poor choices for gods due to their curses.
Unfortunately, there's no currently known evidence of Malenia or her brother Miquella ever having shadows in Elden Ring. The best theory then might be that the concept of shadows was created separate from the Malenia and Miquella storylines, so FromSoftware ignored them rather than make the lore any more convoluted.
Some players hope that the question might be explored in future Elden Ring DLC. While it's a subject that's interesting, FromSoftware likely has bigger ideas to explore with its DLC plans. The mysteries surrounding Malenia may end up plaguing Elden Ring fans for the foreseeable future.
Elden Ring is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
