My headcanon is that the fingers serve a dual purpose.
Basically cosmic parasites. Infiltrate a planet and uplift them from chaos. Then insert themselves into the fabric of that planet and seed a ring of 'order' in the form of the Elden Ring/Beast for the Greater Will. The Greater Will programs basic instructions in the main Node of the fingers themselves so it doesn't have to micromanage anything.
Establish Godhood as to unite everything under that 1 God and as a failsafe have their lineage be able to pick up incase anything happens.
I think the Greater Will essentially created a system of finding suitable planets to uplift. A sort of life cycle. The Cruicible is either it's own creation or the creation of another Will. We know that in the Hyetta quest line the three fingers state that the One Great is source of life (potentially in the Lands between). We cannot 100% confirm it if means the Greater Will or another entity that seeds a planet with a Crucible. However, the Greater Will seems to have a part in this as it some how adds strife to the Cruicible. Perhaps the Cruicible and The Greater Will are mother and father?
Perhaps the end game is some sort of complex cosmic rebirthing cycle to see life across the empty cosmos? Only thing we do know is that our Metyr is broken and lost connection with the Greater Will and our Lands Between really fucked up the process so the fingers couldn't account for it with their instructions/programming and went 'unhinged'.
We know that the Erdtree was born of the Crucible and by that time I would conclude Marika already figured out the Finger's BS and wanted to break away from the parasitic infiltration, and eventually all the drama that happened with the Night of Knives speed it even more.
The item descriptions are absolutely in universe otherwise all the items and all the lore everyone gets wouldn't mean a thing. Its why some items have biased and misleading (intentionally) descriptions. They are from Miquella's memory of Radahn. He brought Radahn back to the ideal point of his (Miquella)memory and even potentially the only point Miquella even knows about Radahn directly, since it seems he probably never seen Radahn after a certain time in history.
It only helped sate his bloodlust so he doesn't go barbarian on every strong opponent and ally. This doesn't mean Godfrey stop liking battle. Infact Radahn's item call out his admiration of the lord of the Battlefield and his heroic father.
Radahn's Lion Armor "Armor depicting the golden lion. Worn by General Radahn.
The golden lion is said to symbolize Godfrey, the Elden Lord, and his beast regent, Serosh. From his youngest years, Radahn was naturally captivated by the Lord of the Battlefield."
Radahn's Redmane Helm "Radahn inherited the furious, flaming red hair of his father Radagon, and is fond of its heroic implications.
"I was born a champion's cub. Now I am the Lord of the Battlefield's lion."
Both of General Radahn's items, the person he naturally grew into overtime, specifically calls out bring fond of Radagon's heroicness and captivated by the lord of battlefield. He wanted to become the majestic, heroic and ferocious lion a combination of both his idols. I don't think Radahn would have ever wanted the wars to stop otherwise there wouldn't be a need for the 'Lord of the Battlefield'.
Note that
Edit:
I would assume that Miquella had the ability to charm radahn while young into making the promise. However, after the shattering and Radahn getting his Great Rune or just simply over time it was resisted. Radahn really loves war. Sure he's kind but I would assume only to his direct family and fellow soldiers. As someone who saw Godfrey and Radagon ad his inspiration right until the very end he really really loves battle and combat and he would have never agreed to Miquella's age of forced compassion (enslavement essentially, no free will).
It's quite simple. He doesn't want anyone other than Radahn. He wanted Radahn since he was young and even planned on forcing radahn to be his in the end. Remember Miquella is forever youthful and we can interpret that as having a childish hubris as well. It's like a child saying 'my big bro is cooler and strong than your big bro and you can't change my mind!'... except you know the incest and all.
Radahn eyes were golden, as though given grace... which from what we learn on how grace seemingly brainwashes people into following a path. I don't think Radahn has a choice.
The two fingers become perma stunned trying to reach the Greater Will so we basically just said fuck it we'll do it our way with black jack, blow and hookers. Finger Priested Enia basically confirms that the Fingers arent sure or dont want the tree burned (it is the vassal of the Greater Will and the fingers were imo effectively sent down with a sort of programming from the Greater Will, which could account for all the variables that occured throughtout the game). Marika wasn't a moron, it's very clear she had plans within plans forecasted well into the future, probably even figured out the Finger's bullshit and if we are still following one of her contingencies it still ends up being an Age of Man/Mortals (they're all the same shit but just have different smell) or burning everything to the ground.
I think Empyrean can be inherited. Remember Radagon is basically Marika. Miquella proves that something you can outright inherit from your parents such as having two halves like Marika did and I speculate that Shamans are hermaphroditic in nature which is why Miquella and Marika have a male/female part.
I think Empyrean is more so a designation that the Two finger's original programming (well Metyr's original programming from the Great Will) looks out for. So it's kinda both in my eyes. The quality to become a God, a budding Empyrean, can be inherited by Marika/Radagon's descendents through simple reproduction. A God's genes do have to be strong and the souls of those offspring stronger still. More so, the drive and ambitions of that person must also be strong, since Godlyhood is tied to an idea made manifested (Marika's age of Order to crush the Age of Chaos, Miquella's age of Compassion to right the wrongs of the Age of Chaos, Ranni's age of the Stars to remove the flawed God's influence on the world).
The two fingers are, in my speculation, programmed to be able to detect these qualities and provide guidance based on what the Greater Wills programmed Metyr with. Of course, we all know all the Gods are inherently flawed in the world of Elden Ring and what ever instructions or guidance programmed into the two fingers just couldn't account for everything happening so it ultimately became unhinged, especially since it couldn't phone home to the Greater Will.
Marika/Radagon's genes are just that strong. They could create Empyreans even through mortal Carian lineage. Personally though, Miquella was just so damn similar to Marika that he could recreate her process of Godhood. I would even go far as to say Milenia only existed to serve as the vessel to hold everything impure and bad that could have made Miquella less perfect physically (in a sense compared to Marika and Godwyn representing the ideal lord, thus Marika's favorite...see where im going?). I don't think Ranni would have been able to. The Gate of light probably consumes a vast amount of power and faith to do what it does. Like one giant engine sucking dry it's faithful sacrifices like batteries.
Ranni wouldn't have the qualities in that sense imo and her method of ascension was one she figured out on her own through pure intelligence and studying the twin moons. Age of stars ending is significantly different than all the Fractured adjacent endings and polar opposite of the Frenzied flame ending (Removing godly influence to let life flourish and be complex on its own vs using godly influence to burn everything down into it's simplest state). Ranni did slay her body and Godwyn's soul was eradicated in a sense a Demi-god and Empyrean in total did die of you add them together.
I do think there's more to the two fingers though. They are inexplicably tied to the Elden Ring. You can't activate a great rune with out going to the towers and the fingers are there. I think their programming allows them to tie into the inner workings of the Elden Ring process as a parasite to allow them to infect this Godhood for the Greater Will to manipulate as vassal God/world. After Metyr's lore drop people seem to think that the Two finger's aren't that important but I think they are just not as we did before.
Yes? Okay? Either way it's still faster than a microwave. Neither is slow.
Ah I can respect that. We're all slinging theories here.
Nothing in the game has ever pointed to Radagon being a chosen consort of Marika prior to ascension. Nothing in game or dlc mentions radagon splitting from Marika prior to ascension either.
Radagon had never shown any affinity for fire like Messmer or Melina do, both being Kindling. Nothing ever implies Messmer to be her oldest born either. I would honestly say a fire giant got freaky with Marika to birth two flame cursed children since the connection is really only their red hair but that would be a stretch too.
I think another option is through the Elden Ring itself. It seems like a tool or implement to rewrite the rules of reality in the Lands Between. Ranni takes it with you in her ascension.
So there are certainly multiple ways to Ascend. Either through brute force like Miquella and Marika or through inheriting a vast amount of power through the Elden Ring or taking power from a god.
I think Marika's race and therefore Empyrean as a whole are just really good at holding power. The Shamans/Ichikos (blind priestesses in Japanese translation) very flesh were very good at melding with other flesh and presumably very good at taking power forcefully.
Empyrean probably just had the capability to inherit a god like amount of power. Whereas a lord need to have the ability to take a god like amount of power in runes. Runes seem to be a physical manifestation of power rather than spiritual since the Elden Ring and Great Runes themselves rewire reality itself.
I'm not sure about Radagon. Remember that Godfrey is the elden lord. Radagon only ever was known to split from Marika after she ascended no?
1L of water to 100C is 2 minutes is not slow.
This is false we have 110/120v kettles that can do 1200w.
My electric kettle heats 1L of water to boiling in about 2 minutes and I'm from the US using 110v. They just have a very slow kettle.
Godwyn the dragon fucker iirc
What I want to say is that grace was that it was a means to control the yet to be lord soul inhabited vessel until the Elden Lord was ready to hijack it after the Empyrean ascends.
I wonder if the Shamans themselves are of a Hermaphroditic origin. It seems like they are pretty androgynous when you see them as the living flesh enemies. Marika had a male counter part that she separated from. Miquella being a mirror to Marika also has a male and female counter part in one as well. Their hermaphroditic nature could explain why they were so susceptible to 'melding harmoniously' with other flesh. To the hornsent, who worshipped the Crucible - the Primordial melting pot of life, this was probably envious because this meant the Shamans were ideal for combining life to return back to the Primordial times of Wings, horns, and what not.
I wonder, are the demi-humans and misbegotten perhaps the descendants of what ever survived becoming sainted? They do have multiple different features that hornsent would find ideal. However, it's all half cooked with bareformed wings and deformed bodies and horns. The hornsent themselves don't even look like an amalgamation of these Crucible aspects but rather a strong representation of 1 or 2 feature. They were probably envious that the Shaman could take these features better than they could so that's why they inflicted the absolutely henious torture to the Shamans.
One thing that is interested is Ichikos are blind shrine maidens. The living flesh enemies are also blinded it seems, but Ichikos are very spiritual in nature so that could explain why they could 'see you'.
One of the biggest theme of the dlc is everything coming full circle. Miyazaki said that Miquella is completing the circle of Elden Ring (that being the ascension of Godhood seemingly being a cyclical thing).
Your mistake is you are trying to apply our own human ethics and morals to a completely fictional and inhuman race that has been proven, in game, to be far removed from our own human perspectives as possible. There hasn't been a single instance that the hornsent regret and will stop following their culture. Infact everything points to them being mad for being killed for their culture and being mad they can't continue it. Every instance of hornsent settlement shows that they are pretty much united and the same in culture. They aren't like humanity irl with various cultures.
This isn't including the Omen and Lands Between Crucible descendents since they are far removed from the hornsent in culture.
Wasn't it after Marika banished the Tarnished and Godfrey that Radagon decided to go back? I seriously doubt Godfrey would accept banishment if it wasn't from Marika directly to his face, even if planned. It would have to be a public spectacle.
Unicorn mode >>>>> > Destroy Unchained > NT = Destroy
Hot take: Narrative design > Unicorn
Gunpla