Miquella's Outer God Influence is The Formless Mother
Everything in game points to this truth, I'm genuinely shocked that this is not widely accepted as canonical... yet. But, I hope to at least tickle... if not completely change your mind on that.
Here are my points.
- At the very start of the game you can only find one item in the Chapel of Anticipation area; that is the Nascent Butterfly. There are two of them that can be acquired at the start of the game in that area, and nothing else. I personally believe that the location of the butterflies are where the "host" of the Outer God has been; akin to footsteps, so long as they did something of importance there. I also believe that the community's concept that the Butterflies themselves are linked directly to characters such as Malenia, Melina, Miquella, etc; is false. The Butterflies are not the representation of those demigods, they are the representation of the Outer God that influences/infects them--nothing more. That being said, the Nascent Butterfly itself is absolutely linked to The Formless Mother, and by extension to Miquella as he is influenced by her. As many of you know, the text of the Nascent Butterfly reads as follows:
"An arcane butterfly with translucent wings.
Material used for crafting items.
Exceedingly rare to find.
This butterfly appears as if it's just emerged from its cocoon for its entire life."
The key points here in this description are:
1. It's Arcane. Literally the first word in it's text that describes it. Arcane is linked to Blood incantations and Blood affinity on weapons, scaling damage through Arcane knowledge. Arcane knowledge is not Blood alone, I am aware, but if you want to argue that the word "arcane" describing this butterfly is implying Dragons.... I'm all ears.
2. It's wings are translucent. Visually formless. The wings are what is important to all butterflies in Elden Ring; they are the sole feature defining each of them. In the case of the Nascent Butterfly, translucency is the only way to depict... formlessness.
3. "Exceedingly rare to find". This line could be a direct link to Miquella, and I would agree to that from a storytelling perspective. But something that is formless would absolutely be exceedingly rare to find as it is almost not there at all. It's invisible to the naked eye, exactly as is said about The Formless Mother.
4. It appears to be "emerged from its cocoon for its entire life". This is another way of saying it is nascent, right? Just articulated in more words and applying this aspect to the butterfly specifically. Nascence meaning, the birth, or coming into existence for the first time; the emergence of something, and I argue that this "something emerging into existence" has not quite taken shape yet; it would be formless.
So, in conclusion to this point, the Nascent Butterfly has far more in common to what we understand of The Formless Mother than that of specifically Miquella. It has traits that can be applied to Miquella, but also that actually exceed defining him, just as Miquella exceeds defining it. Why? Because the butterflies do not represent the demigods, but instead represent what Outer God influences them.
As for the importance of finding it at the Chapel of Anticipation, this is two fold. On the one hand the very name itself is implicating both Miquella and the Formless Mother. To anticipate is to expect or foresee something; it is awaiting a situation (or being) to finally take shape with an outcome that you predict to see. I think that this is not coincidence, as nothing Miyazaki creates is mindlessly done. I believe that by naming the beginning of the game "The Chapel of Anticipation" and then placing a Scion (look the definition up if you don't know) in between you and the ONLY item there for you to loot, a Nascent Butterfly, he may as well named the place "The Formless Mother's Chapel of Miquella". But I'm getting ahead of myself, so please allow me to continue to another point.
- Miquella uses Blood magic, and is the only character to do so canonically outside of those that use the Blood Incantations of The Formless Mother... or is he? Is he using his own, personal Blood magic? Did he create his own Blood magic just to grow trees? Other than him, and the Omen Twins who use Blood Incantations of the Formless Mother, is there anyone at all that uses Blood in any way in Elden Ring? The answer to all of these questions is, "no". In fact, I will push this point even further by quoting the Sacramental Bud item.
"An immature bud containing fresh blood. Material used for crafting items.
Believed to originate long ago from a strain of buds cultivated with youthful, sacramental blood."
The words "youthful" and "sacramental" are extremely important in this items description, as well as the canonical knowledge that Miquella grew the Haligtree in this exact manner. Even more importantly, however, are the only two locations where you can harvest Sacramental Buds; from the Church of Plague and Writheblood Ruins. Let me dissect this.
The importance of this item is that it directly links itself to Miquella via its description as well as its in-game location. By finding it in the Church of Plague its existence not only leads to Miquella (with no point of contention on the matter, unless you want to imply that Malenia or Millicent grew it instead), but finding it in Writheblood Ruins also directly links it to the Formless Mother; the ruins being a place that is overrun by creatures infected by cursed blood, as well as a Sanguine Noble that guards the Blood Helice weapon.
This is all to say that, Miquella does not use his own form of Blood magic; he uses the same Blood magic as everyone else via the same arcane knowledge of The Formless Mother. He practiced with it to create Sacramental Buds, the predecessors to his grand opus on the matter; the Heligtree. Just as he practiced with Gold from The Greater Will to achieve Rings of Light. The source of power remains the same for everyone respectively; Gold from The Greater Will and Blood from The Formless Mother. But its use differs when in different hands, so long as those hands are creative enough.
As Marika used the Power of Gold to create The Erdtree, Miquella used it to create Rings of Light. Subsequently, as Sanguine Nobles and Mohg/Morgot use the Blood of the Formless Mother to create red fire that bursts blood from their victims, Miquella used it to (ultimately) create the Haligtree.
"All things can be conjoined"; united to a single source of power.
- Miquella canonically staves off Scarlet Rot from at least two characters (very easily more, since he is so compassionate); Malenia and Redmane Freyja. His is not the sole source of halting Rot, however, as it is also stated in the Sacred Bloody Flesh item that the Formless Mother can do this. The following is the items text:
"Raw meat soaked with blood.
A delicacy of the bloodfiends.
Temporarily boosts physical attack power and arcane.
When blood loss occurs nearby, further boosts attack power.
The blood is said to have fallen from the Formless Mother's wound. Never will it dry, never will it rot."
Here we can very plainly read that the Formless Mother possesses the power to halt Rot. Which, if you think about this conceptually, makes perfect sense. If the blood never dries, it never takes a form; it is nascent. Never taking shape, always formless and (just like Miquella) is unaffected by Scarlet Rot in turn.
So, it's not that Miquella himself has learned a way to keep the Rot at bay through his intelligence, nor was it his faith that paved the way; it was his Arcane knowledge that was the key to this power. Arcane knowledge of the Formless Mother.
- My final point that ties Miquella to the Outer God, is Light. Miquella has another incredible talent, and that is the manipulation of Light. Light, passes through translucent things. In fact, the more translucent something is the more pure the Light will be. One might say that.... being completely formless would allow Light to pass through perfectly. But, I'm not trying to be hyperbolic here. There is a direct connection conceptually between Light and the Formless Mother in Elden Ring; and that is because she is also refereed to as the Mother of Truth, as per the item descriptions on both the Bloodfiend's Sacred Spear and Mohgwyn's Sacred Spear in the following text: "The mother of truth desires a wound".
Light is more than "often" used as a literary tool to depict Truth, just as Darkness is used as a literary tool to hide the it. As poetic as it may sound at first, is there any more honest truth in reality than "light chasing away darkness"? The Truth reveals the Lies.
It is even used in the Bible, in the Gospel of John, where both terms describe Jesus as the ultimate revelation of God, where light exposes reality and truth provides spiritual life. We all know that there are many Biblical musings in Elden Ring, and this is yet another. If the Formless Mother is the Mother of Truth, then she is also the Mother of Light by proxy; and Miquella is Her vessel. Is there any other Outer God that fits more perfectly? And even if there could be an unknown Outer God that influences Miquella, why would Miyazaki's writing fall apart so horribly? The connections are already there. So much so that it would be comical to introduce a different Outer God for him.
But that's just my opinion.
I really hope some of you actually take this seriously and consider it. I strongly believe this is canonical. I believe that the Formless Mother is misunderstood... as are... other mothers in Elden Ring. I think that people attribute entirely too much to Miquella alone considering that we know of no other being that has such freedom in the Lands Between, and I don't subscribe to the theory that he is an exception.
Please leave comments below, and if any of you actually enjoy this I will consider starting a YouTube channel and creating videos for this and MANY more of my takes on what is going on in Elden Ring.