Maybe this has changed, but a common sentiment I recall in the early days after the DLC was that Messmer’s crusade was Marika’s revenge against the Hornsent for their atrocities against the shamans…… I am skeptical.

Before anything, my handy-dandy timeline for reference. Notice the huge gap between Marika becoming god at the Gate of Divinity + birthing the Erdtree and the crusade. Even accounting for lag time to field an army, that’s a long wait on your big revenge.

Fact is, there are a LOT of necessary events before Marika decides to plunge a chunk of the Lands Between into shadow and bonk the horny. This is the kind of stuff that takes decades, at least. Meanwhile, she and horns peacefully coexisting…

Godfrey waging “honorable” wars - taking control of Altus, defeating the giants. Marika developing a capital and noble class. Both pumping out kids, one going on to enact a failed coup. I mention building relations with Liurnia? Setting up a penal colony?

The crusade itself is a time capsule, with only occasional contact from the outside world. (Radahn, Miquella, etc.) Crusaders continue using Crucible-era sigil long after it died out in the LB, because they left at the tail end of the Age of Plenty.

To the point, it is after Destined Death got sealed by Maliketh and Crucible began releasing seeds for Marika to research and cultivate, priests becoming perfumers, but well before Radagon finalized this into Fundamentalism as Lord.

All this shows how Marika’s focus was building a kingdom and raising a family, not revenge. It is only when family threatens her grasp on power that she’s suddenly deadest on hurling the horny into another dimension, killing them, and sealing their tower. HMMMMMM…

It is not hard to see Marika’s motive: ensure no one could use the tower, like she did, to become god in the future. Horns were a potential variable, so they die. Son’s own vision of flame was another, so he banished. Proving himself killing them wraps things up nicely for her.

That she considered horns helping her rival possible betrays Marika’s past with them. She is not getting to the pinnacle of Belurat without the inquisitors' notice. Marika and horns were besties, which is why the crusade is a betrayal to horn granny. THEY propped her up.

No surprise! The gold is proof that horns had at least part of the Ring before Marika made it the seed for her tree. They kindred in faith! Horns were obsessed with reaching god(hood) so built the tower; Marika achieved it for them, so was allowed free reign, maybe as a test.

But wait, how could Marika ally with the horny! They doing weird stuff to her people! Let’s not forget the “seduction and betrayal” which led to Marika creating her Tree/Order of gold + shadow. If she a horns hugger, she definitely backstabbing the shamans they persecuting.

In fact, I am suspicious about this whole body-melding thing. How did the horns, whose main thing is spiritual possession, think to stuff physical people together, and from a random fringe village? Rauh excavations? That’s with different species. Now MARIKA on the other hand…

In my (now outdated) thesis on Altus pre-Marika, I point out a sort of pan-Dominulanism stemming from Gelmir’s snake worship, which DLC extends to Marika’s village down south. And as we know from their festivals, assimilating man's flesh is TOP of mind.

Side note: we can now say that this Gelmir cannibal culture inspired Marika when creating her Erdtree cross, not the other way around as I first concluded. Fashion must have gotten around along with that grease.

Marika always knew she was special. She grew up with a wolf bro shadowing her and got a Two Fingers to guide her. She also shows ambition and cunning. She might like her village, but she is not planning to stick around. Power tempted her. And who’s got that power? The horny.

Wanting their gold, she goes to Belurat, coming up with a plan together that throws her village under the bus. The shamans get experimented on, and this proto-grafting leads to the horns creating the Gate of Divinity, hence the narration when she uses it in cinematic.

This ties back to Marika’s return home one last time at the start of the crusade. She goes see grandmama and is alluded to making a prayer/wish/confession. What’s she got to confess? Oh, yeah! Probably a lot she didn’t explain, leaving them all for dead.

“Hey, gran, I am the reason everyone suffered so bad. Hope you guys can forgive me. Praying you rest in peace now that I am killing my accomplices.” She then leaves a “kind” memorial, cuts her hair - Asian media shorthand for cutting ties with the past - and seals up the place.

Basically, if Marika considered this revenge, it was retroactive and self-serving. Tragic irony of her is she loves family, but she loves power more. Every choice between them breaks her a little further, and when she finally changes course, she loses family anyway, thus snaps.