Prior to Shadow of the Erdtree, it really looked like Miquella was the best option to replace Marika as the deity of the new era. And as we enter the Land of Shadow, we meet a group of people drawn together, putting past differences aside to follow Miquella and, even if they don't feel they have the power to aid him in his ascension, they come to learn more about him and revere him.
And... well...
Spoilers Ahead
I think George R. R. Martin is probably a big fan of Dune. Dune, of course, was Frank Herbert's deconstruction of the sci-fi "planetary romance" genre, and the very notion of messianic heroes overall. (Notably, Herbert was cousins with Joseph McCarthy, and was not happy about the way that his relative had gone about trying to attain power and influence.) Much as Dune presents Paul Atreides as a hero on the surface level but ultimately becoming one of history's greatest monsters, Martin's Song of Ice and Fire tells a story about the era after the great uprising against the evil regime and shows that Robert, who could have been the hero of a less complex narrative, isn't really fit to rule, and the story even questions whether anyone can really be trusted with the power and authority that comes with such a position.
Likewise, Hidetaka Miyazaki is not interested in simple, classic heroes.
The darker side of Miquella, hinted at in the base game, becomes somewhat more directly textual here. The power of his Great Rune is that he can compel the adoration and devotion of others. (I find it sort of fascinating to think what this all implies about the pre-Shattering era. Did Marika possess all of the Great Rune powers we find? And given that this would include things like Rykard's and Malenia's runes, does that mean she had the power to call upon the Rot and the serpentine ability to "take" life force?)
Miquella goes to the Land of Shadows seemingly to divest himself of everything he possesses - including his own flesh. There is something kind of spiritually logical about this - that the path to godhood means shedding one's old self. But there's an argument I think being made that doing so is actually not, you know, a good thing.
Among the Miquella Crosses I've found, the early ones talk about leaving some of his flesh, perhaps his "arm sinister" (meaning left arm). But as I've explored further, I've seen two other ones that give me pause: one in which he leaves behind his doubt and I think hesitation. Ok, fine, that's something a god would probably need to leave behind, though I tend to find that shedding all doubt tends to actions made regardless of the harmful consequences that might follow. But the other is where he sheds his love, his other self.
In the depths of the Stone Coffin Rift - which might count as a legacy dungeon or at least as something akin to one of the Eternal Cities - after you fight the Remembrance Boss the Putrescent Knight (again, which I killed in one attempt, giving me 3/4) you can find St. Trina.
Trina (and this is part of Thiollier's questline) is a strange figure - she seems to have largely transformed into big purple flower, her head sort of off to the side as if she's bent over while the flower glows out of her back and kind of occupies the spot her head would be in if she were standing up straight. She won't speak, but if you take her nectar of eternal sleep, you'll die. Doing so four times will get her to speak to you in your sleep of death, and she implores you to save Miquella from godhood by killing him.
And to be clear, Trina appears to be like Radagon is to Marika - she was Miquella's feminine aspect. Now, he's basically cut her out of himself, and in doing so, has lost whatever elements of his personality that Trina represented.
Did he need to remove her in order to commit some heinous acts that his saintly, feminine aspect would not allow?
Unrelated to all of this, I've found a very strange location past the Cerulean Coast (the coast is accessible only by passing through the river that flows under the Gravesite Plains, which I think you might need to get up to the Scadu Altus to reach) that is the most surreal place I've found in Elden Ring.
The entire area looks like a giant fingerprint, and it's a massive canyon with stone pillars that look like fingers. There are, unsurprisingly, a lot of fingercreeper enemies here, as well as these odd leech/lamprey-like humanoid creatures. At the center of the "finger pad" there's what looks like a big finger-shaped bell, but I don't know how to ring it yet. (Also, I found a headless demigod sarcophagus, confirming that you can copy remembrances like you did in the base game with the wandering mausoleums).
The Cerulean Coast map fragment also covers this area along with the Jagged Peak, so at this point I think I only have one area left to reveal, which I've got access to, but haven't explored much (it's a poison swamp, and there's an aura that dismounts you from Torrent, because Miyazaki is a cruel, cruel man).
Anyway, I'm already pretty blown away by the scope of this DLC. This is not meant to be a brag, but I'm surprised that people have been complaining about its being too difficult. Granted, I started playing again shortly before it released, so I'm a bit better in-practice. I suppose if you haven't played since 2022, it might be a shock to just dive back into the Soulsborne games, but I've found the DLC pretty fair. I do recommend scouring the world for Scadutree Fragments - at this point I've got 12 of those buffs.
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