Godrick the Grafted serves as the first "Shardbearer" boss in Elden Ring. While not exclusively, the Shardbearers are kind of the "key" bosses to the game, most of them demigods, and tend to come at the end of one of the game's "legacy dungeons."
As the first, we spend a lot of the game's earliest parts seeing him as a sort of primary antagonist, but when he falls, most people talk about him in a dismissive, disrespectful way. He is, after all, the "distant relation," and we're given to understand that his strength was almost entirely due to the grafting of others' limbs onto his own body. When we kill him, his own body - really just a head and a torso - is miniscule (well, just kind of "normal human" sized).
It also looks like Godrick didn't really enjoy any success in the Shattering War - but not for lack of effort. He besieged Leyndell and we see evidence of his forces at work on Mt. Gelmir and in Liurnia. Indeed, Godrick's army might even be the largest one we encounter, but this seems to be a case of quantity over quality.
Unlike the other demigod bosses we fight, who are all the children of either Marika or Radagon (to the extent that there's a difference,) Godrick appears to be descended somewhat distantly from Godfrey, aka Horah Loux, who had been Marika's Elden Lord prior to Radagon (it's not clear to me if that role involved being quite as close as Radagon and Marika were).
Stormveil seems to have been conquered in the distant past by Godfrey, and Godrick clearly traces his legitimacy to his relation to Godfrey. In the great grafting hall, where the castle's Grafted Scion lurks, we see a massive portrait of Godfrey.
Clearly, Nepheli is also some relative of Godfrey, given that her last name is also Loux, and if we complete her questline (which I haven't actually done yet) she becomes the ruler of Stormveil Castle. I even wonder if the "conquest" of Stormveil by Godfrey might have been a little more metaphorical - Godfrey took that name when he was "civilized" in his marriage to Marika, having been Horah Loux beforehand. Might this conquest actually simply been his one persona replacing his old one?
(Also, I feel it important to point out that Godfrey, with his massive strength and lion spirit hanging over him like a cloak is a clear reference to Herakles/Hercules, the greatest of the Greek heroes who is usually depicted with the hide of the Nemean Lion on his back. Radagon, by contrast, shares visual aspects of Thor, like the red hair and hammer weapon. It seems that part of the story of Elden Ring involves an older, Greco-Roman mythological world being replaced with a newer, northern-European Norse mythos. Not sure what it means, but just throwing it out there).
Regardless of the history of Stormveil Castle's owners, Godrick seems to be a pretender. But let's also look at a few other elements.
First off, the grafting he does is, in true From Soft fashion, horrific and creepy. But I also think it's notable that, while grafting human limbs is pretty rare (typically just used to replace amputated limbs,) the process is actually quite common in tree husbandry - plants are very often grafted to one another. And indeed, Godrick's form, with all the arms coming off of his massive shoulders, is somewhat reminiscent of a tree covered in branches.
Also, Godrick's Great Rune is the very center of the Elden Ring - a piece that one would think is imbued with some special prominence among them. Now, it could simply be that this was Godfrey's and that it was passed on to Godrick through his family line, or that Godrick somehow stole the rune, having closer access to it.
Ok, now let's take things a step farther: Marika's and Radagon's children all seem to be tainted in some way. Marika's children with Godfrey are, I believe, Godwyn, Margit and Mohg. The M twins were born as "omens," those ogre-like creatures with weird horns growing out of them. Margit is actually quite noble, if a bit haughty toward us, while Mohg is a classically diabolic evil who is all about blood (and seems to be dedicated to a different Outer God). Godwyn appears to have been kind of universally beloved, but his soul was slain and now his bloated body seems to be the source of living death - a kind of "hollow undeath." Radagon's children with Renalla are Ranni, Rykard, and Radahn. Radagon himself is likely descended from the Fire Giants, given his red hair (which kind of mashes up Thor and Loki, the latter of whom is actually a frost giant adopted into the Aesir family) and thus likely carry some of the Fell God's essence in them. Marika and Radagon's children (which... don't want to think about how that worked - unless it was before the two shared a body) are Malenia and Miquella, the first of whom is a vessel of the Scarlet Rot and the latter of whom has been perpetually stuck in a child's body (which might have died in that weird sphere where Mohg is summoned).
Anyway, is it possible that Godrick is actually a descendant of Godfrey, but not Marika? (He is a "distant relation," after all, and thus might even just be a cousin or great nephew or something). Wouldn't it be interesting if Godrick is actually the only surviving would-be lord who is not tainted by Marika or Radagon?
In our quest to find Godwyn's body, we actually find a huge, distorted head in the depths of Stormveil Castle - which is odd. What connection does he have to Stormveil? It's also clearly not his "real" head, as that is, theoretically, found in the roots of the Erdtree.
Though now he's a source of Deathroot and the living death that seems to fly in the face of the Golden Order, Godwyn also seemed to be kind of "pure," at least before then. Might Godrick have had some kind of kinship with Godwyn?
We're still just scratching the tip of the iceberg on the lore of this game.
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