In true George R.R. Martin fashion, the lore of Elden Ring can be impenetrable even on a good day. The backstory of the Lands Between is left for players to find on their own, including one particular wedding that carried massive implications for the realm and those in it.
Rennala and Radagon are two of the biggest figures in Elden Ring lore, despite the less attentive gamer probably only knowing them as the stat respec lady and the frustratingly tough final boss respectively. While it’s tough to attach even the vaguest of timeframes to anything that happens in Elden Ring‘s lore, the doomed pair’s marriage and subsequent messy divorce set the stage for a good chunk of what you experience in the game proper, and the place where it all happened still has more than a few secrets to discover.
Where to find Radagon’s wedding site in Elden Ring
You may have even been to Elden Ring‘s most hallowed ground before—it’s the Church of Vows in Liurnia of the Lakes, where everyone’s favorite Turtle Pope Miriel can be found. As befitting Elden Ring‘s chaotic demigod family tree, nothing about this wedding was straightforward.
Radagon and Rennala were previously bitter enemies at opposite ends of the two Liurnian Wars, which were motived largely by aggression on Radagon’s part (or rather, Queen Marika‘s part, because Radagon and Marika are kind of the same person. Nothing is simple here!)
Eventually, however, Radagon had a change of heart. In a symbolic gesture of repentance, he consumed Celestial Dew at the Church of Vows, thus performing the very first absolution. This is why your character can do the same to repent for their sins and even bring NPCs back to life—you’re walking in the footsteps of a god! The hefty price tag attached to Celestial Dew feels a little less eye-watering in light of this.
Rennala then proved to be immensely forgiving for someone who’d just had her lands sieged for what was probably decades on end and married Radagon in the very same place he’d turned away from his warmongering ways. She gifted him a sword, and he gifted her a decree mandating all the practitioners of her centuries-old family tradition of magic to wear stone masks and swear to secrecy—which is up there among the worst wedding gifts of all time.
Even so, Rennala was smitten (for some reason) and the pair had three children: Radahn, Rykard, and Ranni, two of whom would go on to great, world-changing endeavors and one of whom would turn himself into a snake in his basement. All seemed well until the instant Marika was single again, at which point Radagon promptly left Liurnia and his family for good to go marry her instead.
Despite being the crucible of so many important events in Elden Ring‘s lore, the Church of Vows is now a pretty chill place. It’s immensely valuable, however, for being the only place in the game you can perform absolution. If you’ve accidentally ticked off an NPC or unforgivably killed the Turtle Pope, just swing by the Church of Vows—and maybe reflect on the history of the place as you make your prayers.
