Maliketh is the loyal Shadowbound Beast and half-brother of Queen Marika the Eternal, an Empyrean of Numen descent, who would become the vessel of the Elden Ring.
Maliketh fought and defeated the Gloam-Eyed Queen, the leader of the Godskin Apostles. On Marika's orders, Maliketh sealed away the Rune of Death, binding it within his blade, causing the true power of the god-slaying black flame to be lost.
 
When the Rune of Death was plucked from the Elden Ring, and confined, the Golden Order was created, with Queen Marika as its one true god. Marika's offspring were granted a form of immortality owing to the removal of their fated deaths from the Elden Ring, however there was not one Demigod who did not fear Maliketh and his blade imbued with death. He was a beast of such terrifying ferocity that his name came to mean "Death of the Demigods". He also led the Black Blade Kindred, living gargoyles who wielded weapons held together by blackened corpse wax.