Miquella is one of the most enigmatic and fascinating figures in Elden Ring. While there's no confirmation that Miquella will be a central figure in Shadow of the Erdtree - we don't know that it's him on the horse in the one image we've gotten - I wanted to examine this character and then look more broadly at the possibilities for the story of Elden Ring.
First off, FromSoft judiciously obscures the morality of different characters in their games. The wisdom and morality of the endings of, say, Dark Souls, is very open to debate. So any moral judgments I make are A: my opinion alone and B: not very strongly held opinions. What appears good and right might, by a certain interpretation, actually be insidious and horrible. Similarly, what might appear vile and evil could actually not be so bad (I personally think that, while The Dung Eater is 100% a chaotic evil serial killer monster, the "seedbed curse" might actually be more of a neutral change to the world, more akin to allowing wild nature magic to take root, so to speak).
So, let's talk Miquella.
Miquella is probably the youngest of the demigods, and is one of the Empyreans. We don't know if we have the total number of either category - each of the Wandering Mausoleums is said to house the body of a dead demigod, none of whose name we know. We know of three Empyreans: Ranni, Malenia, and Miquella.
Ranni is the daughter of Renalla and Radagon, while both Malenia and Miquella are the children of Radagon and Marika. There's a whole other rabbit hole to go down on whether Radagon was already the male aspect of Marika when he sired Ranni, Rykard, and Radahn with Renalla, or even whether he was anything other than Marika's other half (personally I think Radagon was originally his own person, given his anxieties about his fire giant ancestry in contrast with Marika's being a Numen and thus probably not related to anything from the Lands Between other than the folks in the Eternal Cities and the Black Knife Assassins - but let's set that debate aside for now).
If we pursue the Age of Stars ending, Ranni replaces Marika as the one Goddess of the Lands Between, though she departs to travel the cosmos for a thousand years, leaving the Lands Between to kind of do its own thing without divine influence.
Malenia is also an Empyrean, and thus the only one we fight in-game (fittingly, she's the hardest boss in the game - though I think the two-stage fight of Radagon and the Elden Beast is not exactly a slouch - on my last playthrough I did manage to one-shot Malenia pretty easily using the Fallen Star Beast Jaw, though). However, interestingly, there's never really any sense that she wants to be a God. She dedicates herself to defending Miquella (I think they're twins, but because of Miquella's curse, he winds up being a sort of younger brother). Malenia is cursed with the Scarlet Rot, and does not seem super happy about it (she's only willing to unleash her true power when desperate - though I think it's interesting that she is referred to as "Goddess of Rot" when we get her to phase 2 of her fight, implying perhaps that, briefly, there are two true gods in the Lands Between). Malenia's choice to set aside her own ambitions might just speak to her character and sisterly love, but it could be something else.
Let's now come to Miquella.
Miquella appears to be the most morally good character in all of Elden Ring. Consider the apparent purpose of the Haligtree - he makes it as a refuge for all the forsaken and exiled peoples of the Lands Between. The Misbegotten and the Albinaurics are welcome there (though it doesn't look like any of the Albinaurics make it there, unless Loretta is one.) Indeed, he and his feminine alter-ego (which, one wonders, might be similar to the Marika/Radagon situation) are associated with sleep, a non-violent way of subduing one's foes. It also appears that Miquella likely organized the Knights of the Eclipse in an effort to resurrect Godwyn's soul.
It thus seems like Miquella would actually be a very good option as the replacement for Marika should a new God arise. Perhaps under Miquella, the world would be kinder and gentler.
Miquella seems to have an ability to gain the loyalty of myriad people - he's basically universally adored. Now, you could interpret this in a sinister way, where he's able to manipulate people into worshipping him. But you could also read him as a truly messianic figure who might usher in an age of peace and harmony. Is Malenia dedicated to him because he's radiating a charm aura, or is it because she believes in her brother's vision?
Indeed, there's a part of me that wonders if our journey to the Haligtree is actually an evil act. Maybe these people deserve to have their refuge away from the rest of the Lands Between. On the other hand, with Miquella missing, it's sort of fallen to ruin. I don't know if Miquella's all-welcoming attitude actually doomed the Haligtree - allowing his sister to be there has probably caused the Scarlet Rot to spread through it, and might be the reason the tree has died. Alternatively, he might have been undone by the very appeal of his kind nature.
Mohg clearly had Miquella abducted from the Haligtree. Mohg, being a demigod Omen, has known nothing but scorn and hatred (again, I think being an Omen just means you're connected to the primal nature magic that existed before Radagon's Golden Order, so it's not actually an inherently bad thing) and must have looked upon the universal love that Miquella received and, knowing Miquella was an Empyrean, took him to be his new god, with Mohg as the Elden Lord (interesting that he talks about a new dynasty despite the fact that Mohg's father was Elden Lord). But the power that Mohg is dedicated to is corrupt and evil, and it seems that he is perhaps not really using Miquella's will or vision but simply his Empyrean blood.
We defeat Mohg (probably for the best) and, assuming it's Miquella's long arm in that cocoon (which seems likely) it looks like he's dead, though Gideon Ofnir suggests that he might actually still just be dormant.
Miquella's removal from the Haligtree might have been what ruined it - if there was any hope in counterbalancing Malenia's rot with some other power, Miquella's absence let it seep into the tree and kill it, dooming this refuge.
What I find interesting, then, is that Miquella could have been a prime candidate to replace Marika as God of the Lands Between. This, then throws our cooperation with Ranni in the Age of Stars ending into a bit of moral doubt. Ranni very well might have orchestrated the Night of Black Knives, and escaped the influence of the Two Fingers in this way. But it's also sort of implied Marika might have helped her.
The motivations of these various characters is all very questionable, but I've wondered often whether the Age of Stars is the "good" ending, or if it's one of the worst (I still think the Frenzied Flame ending has to be the ultimate "evil" ending - though I think there's a whole post to be written about how the precepts of the Golden Order as Radagon is pursing it kind of lead to the Frenzied Flame). Miquella's vision is, I think, a restorative healing for the world that could lead to reconciliations and reparations. Ranni, on the other hand, seems to be all about wiping the slate clean - a huge upheaval that could, in the long run, lead to some better future, but one where the old structures of society are basically ruined and forgotten.
I'm sure we'll get a lot more food for thought in Shadow of the Erdtree - probably many answers and about ten times as many new questions.
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