Miquella of the Haligtree and Archangel Michael

Miquella, the always young, the most fearsome empyrean, chosen by an outer god to be a divinity himself, was also regarded as gentle, honoured, and a protector.

Son of Radagon and Marika, he and his sister Malenia were next in line to the position of godhood in the Lands Between. Empyrean both, they were seen as the demigods in their own rights within the Golden Order. 

However, distraught by the inability of the Golden Order to cure his sister’s maledice, her scarlet rot, which was eating her flesh faster and faster, Miquella decided to leave.

Far from the Erdtree and the Golden Throne, hidden beyond the vast frozen opens of the consecrated wastelands, Miquella began his own legacy, a legacy of growth and care and protection.

The Haligtree is one of the most interesting and at the same time, less mentioned areas in the whole of the Elden Ring lore. Perhaps because it was mostly a secret, and hidden by many secret paths, barriers, and spells.

As the leader and founder of this new land, this place of new devotion, Miquella has very intriguing links to one religious entity in particular.

The archangel Michael is one of the great angels in Christianism and Catholicism. In Protestantism Michael is one of the four known angels, along with Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. He was venerated as a Saint, a general of the armies of God, and a Prince, protecting his people.

Along with carrying the banner of god, he was also known to be a great leader, a warrior, and the one who delivered the banished to hell.

In the Catholic lore, Michael was seen as holy and a saint, most commonly known as Saint Michael Archangel.

In his own Litany, a consecrated prayer of salutation and laudation, Saint Michael is revered as not just an emblem of the Church, but a saviour, a consoler, a protector, and the guardian of Paradise.

St Michael, guardian of Paradise, St Michael, guide and comforter of the people of Israel, St Michael, splendour and fortress of the Church Militant, St Michael, honour and joy of the Church Triumphant, St Michael, light of angels, St Michael, bulwark of orthodox believers, St Michael, strength of those who fight under the standard of the Cross, St Michael, light and confidence of souls at the hour of death, St Michael, our most sure aid, St Michael, our help in all adversities, St Michael, Herald of the Everlasting Sentence, St Michael, Consoler of souls detained in the flames of Purgatory, Thou whom the Lord has charged to receive souls after death, St Michael, our Prince, St Michael, our Advocate, 

More than a part of a sacred realm, Michael was also his own standart, his own liege. 

Also within CAtholic and Christian texts and lore, Saint Michael normally is referred to as having had four important roles or tasks within the kingdom of God and men.

His first role is, as mentioned before, as being the protector of people and the realms of life. That entails being the leader and champion of god in the battles against the devil. 

His second role is a more powerful and commanding one. In this role, Michael is tasked to reach out to people on their deathbeds, offering redemption and forgiveness, providing the dead a way into heaven. Connected to this, his third main role is about balance, as he weighs and considers one's lives and soul, giving guidance, the option of redemption, or delivering that soul to purgatory. 

The first three roles are quite formidable in the sense that after God himself, Michael appears to have one of the highest responsibilities and powers in the armies of heaven. He is judge, protector, saviour, and is in direct conflict with the forces of hell in the quest for human souls. 

However, it is the fourth role of Michael that finally closes a ring of connectivity between himself and Miquella. 

In his fourth task, Michael is the saviour and protector of the chosen people. Now, that is a common occurrence in the lore of many religions. From Judaism to Islamism, to the more vague and open interpretation of the chosen in christianism, the aspect of being chosen by God is fundamental for a religion of either defence or exclusion. The Maasai for example, use the idea that God presented them with the task to herd all the cattle in the world so they can steal from other people.

Michael is seen as the protector of that chosen group, a strong and even violent leader, leading his people through the darkness and evil, to a land where they can live in peace. 

A prayer depicts both his power and viciousness:

Blessed Michael, archangel,

defend us in the hour of conflict.

Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil

(may God restrain him, we humbly pray):

and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,

by the power of God thrust Satan down to hell

and with him those other wicked spirits

who wander through the world for the ruin of souls.

Amen

Now that we have established Michael, let’s have a look at Miquella. The son of two Divine entities, or one God split in two, Miquella is one of the most powerful and renowned demi-gods in the Lands Between. 

Many of his main features, however, derail somehow a connection with the Archangel Michael. First and foremost, is his wish to break with an already existing religious lore, the Greater Will, and build his own divination. Second, his incredibly fragile body and his poor health. That however, can be remedied.

Let’s first compare Michael’s goals and roles with that of Miquella. 

First, his commanding role as the greatest general of the armies of god. 

Miquella is not a general, nor a warrior. But what a general, or a leader, needs to be more than anything, is charismatic and be able to create a devotion towards his own figure. And that is something Miquella is a natural. In the item description for the Bewitching Branch, it reads, “The Empyrean Miquella is loved by many people. Indeed, he has learned very well how to compel such affection”

It is fitting, as the Bewitching Branch works as a natural poison that turns enemies into allies. 

Miquella is a leader, loved by many, a protector and the image of a god himself.

In his second role, Michael reaches out to the dead to offer them comfort and redemption. Miquella, in a way, has a similar responsibility to the people who fall to his devotion. He is saving them from a life of endless undeadness, serving the Erdtree and the Greater Will, and offering them a different life, a redemption in a way, forsaking the old god and coming to a new life.

And just as well, Miquella also judges and tests the ones to be saved. By hiding his Haligtree behind a natural and terrible land such as the Consecrated Snowfields and Ordina, the Liturgical Town, he selects the ones worthy enough to be given access to his sacred new land. The evergaol and its protectors are all there to both hold back and to be a trial for anyone who can be part of the chosen ones, the ones to be saved.

And through that, he offers a second chance for redemption, an opportunity for anyone to repent and turn away from the meddling of an outer god, being that the GReater Will, the Lord of Frenzied Flame, or the formless mother.

The creation of the unalloyed gold, and its many products, was Miquella's ways to cut away from any divine figures, but also save his sister, who is affected by a rot since birth. The same rot that would curse the whole of Caelid. A safeguard and a weapon alike.

And lastly, the fourth of Michael’s roles is the one of the guardian and protector of the chosen ones, as well as the one leading them to the sacred land.

That is Miquella’s main goal and objective. After the realises the Greater Will cannot save his sister and take away her illness, Miquella decides to break with the Golden Order, th order that his Father Radagon is the main figurehead, and moves to found his own sacred land, a land free of an outer will, where people can escape the everlasting cycle of infinite undeadness of the Erdtree. 

The Albinaurics are Miquella’s chosen people. Created to be an ulterior life system, disconnected from the Erdtree’s cycle, the Albinaurics are the ones who received the call from Miquella’s first, and the ones who, even through prosecution and judgement, protect the secret entrance to the Haligtree with their lives. 

And finally, beyond his four main roles, Michael is the one tasked to be the antithesis of the devil, Satan. And even if that is not exactly what those characters stand for in the Lands Between, Mohg and the Formless Mother are in a way the opposite and the complement to the Greater Will and the Radagon. One willing to break the establishment, the other putting all his life and will into continuing with what it has always been, or been for a while.

Michael Archangel and Miquella of the Haligtree have several links, from their ways to their goals, but in one particular instance, those two are strikingly different. Whilst Michael is a warrior, a strong and powerful asset, Miquella is frail. His body is broken, and more than feeding the Haligtree with his own blood and flesh, his ever youthful body is no fit for fighting. But he is not the one fighting, as this task is put upon his twin sister, Malenia. Malenia, the blade of Miquella. 

Whilst Miquella plays the role of the leader, Malenia is the fist, the left hand of the god, the agent of Miquella’s will.