Elden Ring loreheads discover Shadow of the Erdtree's Rellana and Messmer might have been married all along, which could explain the Twin Moon Knight's fancy new decoration

Elden Ring
(Image credit: FromSoftware, PCGamer)

Just as Elden Ring quietly added a solitary chair to Rellana's boss arena, lore theorists have deduced that her and Messmer might have been married.

Yesterday saw Elden Ring patch 1.13 arrived, with huge PvP adjustments, Spirit Ash Summon tweaks, and even a nerf for the notorious Impenetrable Thorns at long last. It also, as the Reddit user realized below, apparently introduced a single chair to Rellana's boss arena, which was mentioned nowhere at all in the actual patch notes FromSoftware provided.

eldenring from r/Eldenring

No one can really work out why FromSoftware decided to add a chair to Rellana's arena, over a month after Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree released. You can be damn sure someone like VaatiVidya is going to unpack this in a detailed breakdown video relatively soon (at least, I'm hoping they do).

This chair actually coincides with a community discovery: Rellana might well have been married to Messmer, the Impaler. In the original tweet below, one fan has provided an incredibly detailed view of Rellana's two blades, and has correctly deduced that the one on the left features two intertwined serpents. You know who bloody loves a few snakes? Messmer, the Impaler.

If you recall back to Ranni's questline in Elden Ring's base game, the player can effectively become wedded to the character, at which point they're gifted a sword from Ranni, a symbolic way of sealing their bond. If this applies to all Carian marriages, then the second Twitter user above is correct in their assumption that this means Messmer gifted Rellana a sword as part of a marriage ceremony.

The Devil works fast, but fan artists work faster. In just a matter of hours, fans of Messmer and Rellana have produced pieces like the one below, which I just utterly love. In another world, Messmer and Rellana deserve to be united forever, and not cut down by some upstart Tarnished. The former deserves to be free of his mommy issues, as well.

New Elden Ring patch just made Torrent way easier to use in frantic fights, all thanks to a tiny tweak to the most annoying pop-up in the game.

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

Read more
Elden Ring DLC Messmer
It's about sending a message: Elden Ring fan waits for Nightreign by no-hitting Shadow of the Erdtree's Messmer on NG+7 difficulty with a new weapon every single day
Elden Ring
Elden Ring: Nightreign ties the worlds of Dark Souls and Elden Ring together for the first time, as iconic Souls characters make their way to a new "branch" of The Lands Between
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 dialogue
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 pays tribute to Elden Ring icon Let Me Solo Her - and the legend himself thinks the Easter egg is "awesome"
Elden Ring Nightreign screenshot showing a monstrous, terrifyingly large enemy
Elden Ring Nightreign is saying goodbye to FromSoftware's beloved messaging system
Kemuri
Horror game legend Ikumi Nakamura swaps her love of gore for true romance by helping dev use custom sidequest as real-life proposal: "Moments like this remind me how lucky I am"
a massive one-armed centaur holds a colossal stone sword
FromSoftware's next game is Elden Ring: Nightreign, a "standalone" 3-player adventure coming 2025 – so was Hidetaka Miyazaki just kidding about no Elden Ring 2?
Latest in Action Rpg
Monster Hunter Wilds characters share a meal
Oh no, Monster Hunter Wilds is so good that I'm already counting the days until its inevitable Master Rank expansion
Diablo 4 season 8 boss
Diablo 4 season 8 is revamping the boss ladder system with new mechanics and bosses, including one of the best from Diablo 3
Monster Hunter Wilds characters share a meal
Monster Hunter Wilds is slowly recovering from a rough PC launch, finally hitting 60% positive reviews on Steam – but some big issues remain
a colourful overworld where a sprite rows a boat through a magical ocean
The follow-up to a weird RPG with Undertale energy and over 10,000 overwhelmingly positive Steam reviews is, you guessed it, another weird RPG that's already flying on Steam
Monster Hunter Wilds
Monster Hunter Wilds' next update arrives next week, fixing another progression blocker, crashes, and weird monster behavior
Monster Hunter Wilds Nu Udra Palico
Monster Hunter Wilds players are so obsessed with Palico armor that turns your cute cat into a freaky little octopus that even Capcom is sharing fan art of it
Latest in News
Balatro
Balatro creator started "properly playing the game myself about a week before launch" and had "a pretty emotional moment" where he realized it's "actually fun"
Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition
Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would
Kingmakers
Kingmakers is a strategy game about taking on medieval armies with a gun, but its devs thought the giant mech was too much
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
Daredevil recap: The Defenders
Marvel fans are discussing which of the Netflix series characters would have survived the Blip