tldr; it is dropping on 20th, and I am leaving and will be back only on 24th, which means that I wanted to create this post just to see how many things I can get right, since I won't touch this place, or anything Elden Ring related, for the next week or so, oof

With that out of the way, I have seen that there has been a lot of discuss among the fans about the identity of Messmer, who he could be exactly and where he could fit within the narrative, and I wanted to add to it in my own way. I love theory crafting, but sometimes I can start shooting too much from the hip, so I will say this right away, I want to try and go for something big because what's the fun otherwise? Feel free to laugh at me if I will be wrong.

Snakes complicate things. Serpents are a hated symbol within the Golden Order, as we can see through the gladiators, and there is enough lore to where we can tell that the symbol of a snake existed before Greater Will came (World-Devouring Serpent) and that snakes became a hated symbol within the pantheon of Golden Order BEFORE Rykard did his whole thing. Keep the pantheon of Golden Order in mind, it will be important later - however, this is why it complicates things, Messmer has snakes. Was he the reason snakes first became hated? Because that would mean that he had to be born way before when - or was he granted with the symbology of the serpent upon receiving the role that he did? That might seem like a more simple explanation, except that it isn't - it isn't stated that gladiators are forced with a symbol of the serpent by Golden Order to fight against. And this is where the idea of pantheon comes in.

The world was "whole" before and then became "separated", as we learn from Three Fingers. We can see Marika, as we assume, doing something in front of some gate with golden strands - I am not first to assume this, but I would guess that this might be the beginning, where Marika allied with Golden Order in order to win some battle. In doing so, the world that was once whole was separated - we know that Golden Order is very strict in its structure, so, why not assume that in creating Lands Between as we see them, an opposite had to be created too, a Hell to this Heaven. We know that people are reborn through the trees, but what happens to people that are not? Outside of Lands Between, where Godfrey went, I assume they simply go up and away, but what to people not aligned with Golden Order? Well, what if they get sent to the other place, the place that is a mirror, a horrible nightmare to Golden Rays of Sunshine - and a place like that would need it's Satan, it's despot to keep the war forever going. This is where Messmer comes in, I assume, forced with a role of "anti" within the pantheon of the Golden Order. There is no objective reason as to why, there simply has to be the opposite.

This is largely why I am leaning that Messmer, in fact, was not one of the later children of Marika, but in fact one of the first children of Marika. He had to be one of the first, if not THE first, to be the opposite to Marika - to become the king of the place of where Marika can store away the horror that she brings upon the realm. Natural gut-reaction is to assume that Messmer might've been the first child of Marika and Radagon - he does seem somewhat odd, physically, so it would fit the theme of incest going wrong - but if we want to go spicy, why not, Gloamed Eyed Queen. Sure, why not, right? There have been enough speculation about her identity, with people generally agreeing that she had to be close to Marika, or they had known of one another. We always assumed enemies, but what if they were sisters, or lovers, or both? What if Marika forced herself upon them in her first attempt at creating an empyrean? Whichever of the two it was, I think there is a chance we could see Gloamed Eyed Queen there - I mean, she died and had to go somewhere, right? Golden Order couldn't just not do anything with her.

All of that, of course, creates only more questions as to why Miq would be going there - before I assumed that he might be in cahoots with Formless Mother, but if that is out of the window, what might he want? To learn history? To undo history? It was mentioned before that he had to give up "his lineage" to go here, so it has to be something big, right? Unless, of course, Formless Mother is Gloamed Eyed Queen - I mean, flames that Messmer use are similar to flames you get from her magic, and once there, she was still an empyrean so...she could have became Formless Mother, which might mean that Miq is on his way to meet her?

Regardless, I think this is the short of what I had to say, yeah. I think the biggest speculation is just what is this place we are going to - is it a fragment of the place from the past frozen in time? An illusion? a literal "other half" of the world? Pocket dimension? Dream realm? My money on "other half" theory, but I won't lie, there is some charm to the "time from the past frozen in place, forced to repeat itself again and again" idea.