Starscourge Radahn

Starscourge Radahn (also called General Radahn) is a fictional character from the 2022 action role-playing video game Elden Ring developed by FromSoftware. A demigod, he functions as both a prominent figure in the history of the game's fictional universe, the Lands Between, and one of its main bosses. Radahn is first encountered in Caelid, a once-verdant area that has been reduced to a red, highly-toxic wasteland by a fellow demigod, Malenia the Severed, in a last-ditch effort to defeat him. In the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, Radahn reappears under the name Promised Consort Radahn as the final boss.

Known by the epithet "Conqueror of the Stars", Radahn was formerly one of the most powerful warriors in the game's universe, able to halt the stars themselves in place using gravitational magic. During the Shattering, an immense conflict for control of the shards of the Elden Ring, Radahn battled Malenia to a standstill in the Caelid wilds. While the battle was ultimately a draw, with Malenia incapacitated, Radahn was rendered mindless after he was infected with Scarlet Rot, both a crippling toxin and an Outer God contained within Malenia. Contemporaneous to the game's events, Radahn has been reduced to a wandering, cannibalistic husk, with warriors attempting to defeat him and preserve his honor through the regular Radahn Festival.

Defeating Radahn, while optional, is required for the player to obtain one of the game's Great Runes, shards of the Elden Ring necessary to proceed the storyline. It is also needed for the optional quest of Ranni the Witch, who requires the stars to begin moving again in order to fulfill her destiny.

Radahn's lore and first boss fight were praised by critics, who were impressed by the scale of the first fight and Radahn's tragic backstory, calling him one of the game's best bosses and characters, and the Radahn Festival one of the game's most memorable events. Hidetaka Miyazaki also revealed the first encounter with Radahn as his favorite boss battle. The second battle has been called one of the hardest bosses in FromSoftware's history.

Appearances
Starscourge Radahn was the child of Radagon - a red-haired champion of the game's Golden Order faction, who worship the Outer God known as the Greater Will - and Rennala, queen of the Carians, a group of moon-worshiping nobles and astrologers predating the Elden Ring who draw power from the stars. Due to this, he is the brother of the demigods Lunar Princess Ranni - later called Ranni the Witch - and Praetor Rykard. Radagon and Rennala's marriage cemented an alliance between the Golden Order and Carian nobles, who had previously been deadlocked in battle. Since he was a young child, Radahn deeply admired Godfrey, Marika's First Elden Lord, and models himself after him, adopting Godfrey's lion motif.

While Radagon resented his red hair as being similar to that of the Giants and their Fell God, who had once posed the greatest threat to the Golden Order, Radahn viewed it as a positive, believing it indicative of heroic qualities. Despite following in Radagon's footsteps as a powerful general, Radahn also studied in Sellia, a town of sorcery located in Caelid. After realizing he was growing to a giant size and would be forced to abandon his beloved steed, Leonard, he chose to study gravitational magic under the tutelage of the Alabaster Lords, a race of humanoid, extraterrestrial beings. This ultimately allowed him to lower his weight to almost nothing, and continue to ride Leonard despite dwarfing the horse in size. Over the course of his life, Radahn is reputed as the mightiest demigod, an honorable warrior, an intelligent tactician, and a powerful sorcerer, gaining the respect and fear of many for his greatness. While known to enjoy battle, Radahn is noted to be kind, admired by many for his noble qualities, and is a caring leader to his personal army, the Redmanes.

Due to the constant threat of meteors bringing monsters to the Lands Between such as the Fallingstar Beasts, Radahn used his gravity magic to "challenge the stars", succeeding in a "crushing victory" and halting their movement entirely. This remains the case even when Radahn has long since lost his mind, and his death is required to restore their normal movement. Upon the advent of the Shattering, a war following the attempted destruction of the Elden Ring, Radahn may have lost control of the capital of Leyndell to the demigod Morgott and retreated to Caelid. Malenia marched from the Mountaintops of the Giants and into Caelid to confront Radahn, a major potential threat. The two of them fought to a draw, causing Malenia to resort to unleashing her curse of Scarlet Rot. Radahn was poisoned by Scarlet Rot so deeply that he lost his mind, and Caelid itself became a wasteland. Wanting to give their beloved leader an honorable death, Radahn's army holds the annual "Radahn Festival", inviting strong warriors to slay their general and put him out of his misery.

Radahn can be slain by the Tarnished player character during the Radahn Festival with the potential assistance of various other NPCs, and his Great Rune claimed by the player. This immediately causes the stars to snap back into position, allowing fate to resume for Ranni the Witch, and results in a large meteor impact that unlocks an underground city.

In Shadow of the Erdtree, Radahn is revived by Malenia's twin brother, Miquella, who put his soul in the body of Mohg, a fellow demigod who is also a being called an Omen. This was done in order to fulfill a vow made with Miquella when they were children to be his Elden Lord once Miquella ascended to godhood. Restored to his prime physical condition, Radahn again battles the Tarnished player with Miquella on his back, ending with the Tarnished slaying both demigods.

Development
During Radahn's second-phase meteor attack, Radahn pushes his horse Leonard underground as a protective measure. However, data mining revealed that Leonard also continues to track the player while underground, allowing Radahn to precisely target his meteor attack to hit the player. An easy trick discovered by players allowed them to instantly kill Radahn by standing adjacent to a cliff, causing Radahn to undershoot them and fall off the side of the arena when performing his meteor strike.

An update released in 2022 lowered the power of Radahn to make his first fight less challenging. However, the sheer degree of difficulty lowering was unintended, and a subsequent updates balanced it, but not all of his former power. In the DLC, data mining revealed Radahn had cut dialogue where he introduces himself during his boss battle.

The game's director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, stated that Radahn was his favorite boss, citing both Radahn as a person and the festive feeling of defeating him. He noted that he came up with the idea of the Radahn Festival, but the other developers did not take him seriously.

Reception
Ian Walker of Kotaku called Radahn the game's best character, and potentially one of the greatest Souls characters of all time, citing both Radahn's "touching" and "awe-inspiring" backstory, as well as the way his battle changes the game's world. Saying that his current form is "a pale facsimile" of the brilliant general he formerly was, he called Radahn's reasoning for learning gravity magic - to continue riding his prized horse, Leonard - "adorable". While calling the normal Radahn fight "incredibly challenging", Walker suggested that players make use of the other characters available to be summoned for the fight, saying that it is not only thematically appropriate but makes the fight a "cakewalk". He also praised the fact that Radahn's defeat added a "permanent geological feature" to the game's map, allowing the player passage to the city of Nokron.

Describing Radahn as "everything I look for in a Souls boss", with "weird and heartbreaking" lore and a "unique experience" with a challenge that can be scaled by the player's choices, he called it "incredible that, 13 years after Demon’s Souls first released, FromSoftware can still create characters that have this much of an impact". Following the released of the Shadow of the Erdtee DLC, Radahn's importance to the overall game is emphasizes, noting how much content is unlock for defeating him in his first boss fight, such two endings of the main, being necessary to access the DLC, and various others examples.

James Troughton of TheGamer also praised the first Radahn fight, saying that few games had captured the excitement of adventurers banding together in a similar way as the Radahn Festival. Describing it as the game's "Dunharrow moment" in reference to The Lord of the Rings, he was surprised that the battle with Radahn was not the endgame, but rather only the game's midpoint. He called the fight "the sum of your journey up until this point", and the culmination of the player's journey through the "treacherous, inhospitable wasteland" of Caelid. Ben Brosofsky of Screen Rant found the ability to fight alongside NPCs to be "emotional" and awarding to defeat Radahn.

Similarly, Robert Zak of DualShockers noted that the first Radahn battle broke the rules of Souls fights to that point, saying that it was the moment he most wished his non-Elden Ring-playing friends got to experience. Citing the Radahn Festival's buildup to facing him in battle, he called it "the only time I recall in a Soulsborne game that everything feels almost normal", also noting that the pre-fight cutscene took the player out of their own perspective to depict Radahn. Continuing to the fight itself, Zak said that it "indulges in spectacle like no other Souls fight", even at the expense of challenge, starting with "immense arrow volleys" that were nonetheless easy to avoid, and continuing with "the total headfuck where he jumps into the sky (taking the music with him), then crashes down on you in the form of a giant meteor", elevating the battle to a "cosmic scale". Zak called the act of "summoning your pals in as you’re initially charging across the battlefield" a "transcendent" moment. While noting the boss was not the hardest in the game, he criticized fans who would call Radahn a poor boss due to a lack of difficulty, saying that "everyone’s free to set their own criteria for what a good boss fight is". A 8-year-old beat Radahn's first boss fight at a "very low level" on his first try, noting Radahn was still a difficult challenge.

Radahn's second boss fight has received attention for its high level of difficulty. Praised for his highly aggressive and relentless moveset, Radahn has been considered the strongest boss in the DLC, the whole game, or even in FromSoftware's history. "Let Me Solo Her", a player known for their expertise at fighting Malenia and for helping others against her, beat Radahn after three hours of attempts and showcases different tactics to help other players.

Like Malenia's boss fight, Radahn's second boss fight has been a source of unusual challenges. Twitch streamer DrDecomposing beat the boss using a saxophone in place of a controller, while others did so without sustaining any damage, or without dodging at all. Twitch.tv streamer MissMikkaa, who spent 52 tries and seven hours before successfully killing Radahn using a dance pad.