This article was updated on July 3rd, 2024, to include new lore insights about Mohg from the DLC: Shadow of the Erdtree.
Mohg, Lord of Blood is a fascinating yet disturbing character in the universe of Elden Ring. Mohg’s lore is characterized by blood, descendance, and ambition: born an Omen, he will carve his own path to create his own dynasty after being rejected by the Golden Order and sent to the depths of Leyndell, Royal Capital.
In this article we are going to analyze the lore of Mohg, from his origins as son of the Golden Lineage, to his demise by the hand of the Tarnished.
Mohg, Lord of Blood: An Omen Rejected
Mohg, Lord of Blood, was part of the Golden Lineage. He was born from the union of Marika, The Eternal, and Godfrey, First Elden Lord. He had a twin brother, Morgott (also going by the name of Margit), with whom he shared a terrible fate: they were both born Omens.
Omens, as explained partially in this article about Morgott’s Lore, are creatures born with features reminiscent of the Crucible. The most prominent characteristic of an Omen is the presence of horns everywhere on the body, although others, like Mohg and Morgott, had also a tail and wings.
In the Golden Order, Omens are treated as monstrosities, and their blood is considered accursed. Their horns are severed at birth, and this process causes the death of the Omen by blood loss in most cases. If you’re asking yourself why severing the horns kills an Omen, the Icon of the Omen Bairn shines a light on the topic, by showing that the inside of an Omen’s horns is made of flesh:
Doll of a curseborn bairn. […]
Omen babies have all their horns excised, causing most to perish.
These fetishes are made to memorialize them.
But not all Omens receive this terrible treatment.
Omens born from royalty are bound to keep their features intact and are instead segregated to an underground system of sewers and caves beneath Leyndell, Royal Capital, called Subterranean Shunning-Grounds and kept shackled. We come to know this after finding Mohg’s Shackle, which says:
A fetish bathed in golden magic.
Shackles were used to bind the accursed people called the Omen, and these ones were made to keep a particular Omen under strictest confinement.
Though faint, the shackles still retain vestiges of power — enough to trap the once-bound Mohg on earth, if only for a short time.
And so Mohg’s lore quiets down for a while, with both Mohg and his brother Morgott joining the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds… Not for long, though, since an entity hailing from outside the Lands Between makes its entrance and choses Mohg as its Vassal.
Blood and Dynasty: Twisted Ambitions in Mohg’s Lore
While Morgott, Mohg’s brother, was planning to be part of the Golden Order and defend the Erdtree, Mohg had other plans.
In the depths of the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds, Mohg met the Formless Mother. This being was none other than an Outer God: powerful entities which reside outside the world of Elden Ring, but which influence The Lands Between by making contact with its inhabitants. The Formless Mother, also called The Mother of Truth, was a quite sadistic Outer God, and gave Mohg the power to conjure flames from his accursed blood. She also craved wounds, as stated in Mohgwyn’s Sacred Spear:
Trident of Mohg, Lord of Blood. A sacred spear that will come to symbolize his dynasty.
As well as serving as a weapon, it is an instrument of communion with an outer god who bestows power upon accursed blood. The mother of truth desires a wound.
And also, further confirmed in the description of Bloodboon:
[…] The mother of truth craves wounds.
When Mohg stood before her, deep underground, his accursed blood erupted with fire, and he was besotted with the defilement that he was born into.
Mohg’s lore is deeply connected with the concept of both blood and descendancy. Being born an Omen, and thus being rejected by its own lineage, ended any possibility to ascend to higher positions within the Golden Order. This is why I don’t believe that the Formless Mother manifested herself to Mohg by coincidence.
What I believe is that The Formless Mother would use Mohg and his agenda to further satiate her twisted needs of wounds and blood. About said agenda, Mohg had only one goal from that moment on: creating his own dynasty.
While a major event that would shake the fate of the Golden Order was happening throughout The Lands Between, Mohg’s plans were slowly unveiling deep below.
A Consort for a Bloodstained Monarch: The Abduction of Miquella
Marika, Goddess of the Golden Order, shattered the Elden Ring following the death of her son Godwyn, The Golden, by Ranni’s hands. If you want more information about Ranni’s schemes, you can read this article about Ranni’s lore.
Marika’s action, called later “The Shattering” was followed by an all-out war between the demigods who inherited the shards of the Elden Ring. Epic battles, like Radahn against Malenia, are documented in monuments scattered through the lands between… but nothing can be found about Mohg’s involvement in the war.
I don’t believe he participated at all. Mohg was laying the base for his dynasty… which honestly speaking resembled none other than a cult.
First of all, he chose a name for it: Mohgwyn. As for its meaning, the suffix –wyn may come from the Welsh language. The curious thing is that if –wyn as prefix means pure, while as suffix it means “descent”.
Mohg’s next order of business was to find a consort of royal lineage to become a real monarch. He chose his half-brother Miquella, the Unalloyed. At that time, Miquella had watered a sapling with his own blood and created another great tree, the Haligtree. He then embedded himself in the Haligtree to reverse his course of perpetual childhood.
However, Mohg had other plans for Miquella. In a conversation, Gideon Ofnir reveals:
I heard speculation Miquella embedded himself in the Haligtree, but before he could finish, someone cut the tree open and absconded with his infant form
– Gideon Ofnir
And while this doesn’t prove that it was Mohg who kidnapped Miquella, we will find Miquella’s cocoon in Mohgwyn Palace. Mohg’s idea was to raise Miquella to full godhood by showering his cocoon in blood offerings.
Building the Dynasty: Followers of the Lord of Blood
Mohg was not alone in his quest. Earlier I described the Mohgwyn Dinasty as a cult, and a cult needs followers. A part of the Mohgwyn following was made by Sanguine Nobles, who mainly went into the Lands Between to share the word of the Lord of Blood…and also to appear from pools of blood and kill stuff.
Other known followers were the Bloody Fingers. Those were Tarnished who lost their grace and trust in the Two Fingers, and embraced Mohg’s vision. Their main role was to source the offerings of blood for Miquella’s ascension.
While on our own quest for the Elden Ring, we will meet some of these Bloody Fingers as well as those who hunt them down. The most important example is Bloody Finger Hunter Yura, traveling the world in search of the deadliest Bloody Finger, Eleonora, who was once a close relationship of his.
Another very important follower of Mohg is White Mask Varré. He is one of several war surgeons kidnapped by Mohg on an attempt to tame is accursed blood. While Mohg’s brother, Morgott, cleansed himself from the accursed blood by binding it to his blade, Mohg embraced it with Varré’s help, and further empowered it with the help of the Formless Mother.
Seems like taming the accursed blood was no easy feat, since many tried, but only Varré succeeded in doing so, as explained in the War Surgeon Gown:
[…] Of the surgeons that were abducted by the Lord of Blood, none were able to tame the accursed blood.
None but Varré, that is; though he was an exception.
The Mohgwyn Dynasty appeared to be rising to become a sight to behold. Yet, there was something at the base of Mohg’s machinations that did not go as intended.
A Shattered Dynasty: Confronting Mohg, Lord of Blood
When our player character reaches the depth of Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum, we are welcomed by the sight of a giant cocoon, cracked open with a long arm pointing towards the sky: this is Miquella’s apparently lifeless arm. Blood starts dripping from it, and from the pool formed at the base of the cocoon, Mohg will make his appearance.
After kissing Miquella’s hand, he will welcome us and successively fight us. The boss fight is hard, as Mohg will use his bloodflame powers to set the arena ablaze. I’m not gonna lie, I died a lot of times before making it through his second phase.
Eventually, Mohg’s lore come to an end, after being defeated by the player character. Until his last breath, he believes in his dynasty which, fortunately, will never see the light of day:
Ahh, I can see it, as clear as day!
– Mohg, Lord of Blood
The coming of our dynasty!
In reality, Mohg’s efforts were still not repaid, as Miquella did not react at all to the offerings of blood. We come to know this by reading the description of the Remembrance of the Blood Lord:
Wishing to raise Miquella to full godhood, Mohg wished to be his consort, taking the role of monarch.
But no matter how much of his bloody bedchamber he tried to share, he received no response from the young Empyrean.
This may be cause by the fact that probably Miquella’s soul was already long gone… in the Land of Shadow.
The Revelations in the Lore of Mohg After the DLC: Shadow of the Erdtree
The obsession with Miquella and a dynasty was probably forced upon Mohg by Miquella himself. After playing the DLC: Shadow of the Erdtree, we will meet an individual called Sir Ansbach, who served Mohg as one of his Pureblood Knights. He will reveal that he was aware of the spell Miquella put on Mohg—Miquella has the unique power to charm any living being—and tried to confront the demigod.
He had no chance, and before Ansbach knew it, he was also put under Miquella’s spell. He will reveal this information only when Miquella’s Great Rune is broken—therefore dispelling the charm—as part of a ritual to ascend to godhood.
To become a god, Miquella also needed a consort and had chosen Starscourge Radahn to fill the role. The ritual involved rebirthing the Promised Consort’s soul into a body with enough strength… and this is where Mohg came into play, even though he had no idea.
When the Tarnished killed Mohg, his body was sent to the Land of Shadow to serve as a vessel for the lord’s soul. At the end of Shadow of the Erdtree, we can admire this fusion, who will also be our final boss: Promised Consort Radahn. Radahn’s armor will be decorated with Omen horns, and his attacks will be empowered by Bloodflame, clearly a distinctive sign of Mohg’s power.
Conclusion
While we cannot know how deeply Miquella’s influence twisted Mohg’s actions, we must acknowledge that Mohg was not a saint to begin with. His is a tale of ambition which, as with most FromSoftware characters, ultimately ends in tragedy and death. After Shadow of the Erdtree, many fans in the Elden Ring community advocate for Mohg’s innocence, forgetting that Mohg was meddling with The Formless Mother, the Outer God of blood.
That’s as far away from a positive alignment as you can get. Dude was a savage.
That’s it for Mohg’s lore! I really hope you enjoyed the article, and if you did, you can have a look at all the other articles I wrote about Elden Ring! In the meantime, I wish you a great day, and I’ll see you in the next one!
