There's a secret place hidden within the Lands Between, where the downtrodden are safe and where two demigods might make the world a better place. To get there, however, you have to find a secret path through the Mountaintops of the Giants.
The peak of the Mountaintops of the Giants holds the Flame of Ruin, but that's not all that's hidden within the Lands Between's snowy mountain range in Elden Ring. Malenia, one of the fiercest demigods and a Shard bearer, hides here somewhere, as well. If you can defeat her, you can claim her Great Rune--but you'll have to find her first, and doing so is no easy task.
You're not the first to go looking for Malenia or her brother, Miquella, in fact. Sir Gideon Ofnir the All-Knowing, the Tarnished knight you find in the Roundtable Hold, has been trying to locate the whereabouts of these two demigods for some time. He knows they can probably be found at Miquella's Haligtree, a special, holy site--but he doesn't know where it is or how to get to it. He wants the information so badly that he was willing to wipe out an entire village to get it. The gameplay loop of Elden Ring, like the other Soulsborne games, sees you facing tough enemies and often dying while trying to fight them, either because they stand in your way or because you're trying to gain their power--and often both at the same time. However, because of the actions of Queen Marika and your role as a Tarnished, death is somewhat trivial; you'll awaken at a nearby Site of Grace or Stake of Marika when you fall in battle. Enemies respawn when you rest at a Site of Grace for the same reason: Death is largely broken in the Lands Between, and most everyone has been alive for a really long time. It's why you hear the howls at night of the many crucified characters scattered around Limgrave, why so many enemies look like zombie knights, and why a few people seemingly wander around aimlessly or dig at the ground, as if they've lost their minds. As in Dark Souls, a lot of people seem like they've been alive so long that their wits and intellect have failed them.
When people do die, their souls generally return to the Erdtree, the big golden tree at the center of the world that's both the primordial source of life and, now, the major component of the Elden Ring and the "Golden Order." There seems to be some kind of eternal life or resurrection possible through the Erdtree, although it's not super clear what's going on there. The fact that souls physically return to the Erdtree, rather than ceasing to exist or being destroyed, is why Elden Ring includes so many ghosts, as well as gameplay elements like Spirit Ash--there are a lot of souls floating around. Returning to the Erdtree is also why you enter so many catacombs dungeons that end with a boss room full of Erdtree roots; the proximity makes it easier for the souls to get where they're going.
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