Players of Elden Ring will come to the Roundtable Hold fairly early in their adventure where they will meet Fia, a deathbed companion who offers to hold the player whenever they wish, although it's unclear just what the larger meaning is behind this at first glance. FromSoftware's games often have NPCs that take part in different rituals or offer different services, such as blacksmiths and merchants, and it may seem at first as though Fia is just another one of these characters, offering a blessing with each embrace that will boost the player's poise at the cost of FP. FP is a valuable commodity, however, as one player proved by utilizing the magic points to cast a spell and take down one of Elden Ring's bosses in one hit.
Elden Ring is an action-RPG set in The Lands Between, a vast open world in which players can expect to come across several mysterious and suspicious NPCs, many of whom will ask the player to complete some sort of task for them, usually one fraught with danger. Fia initially appears to offer little more than the Baldachin's Blessing, a consumable item that only replenishes by returning for another embrace. However, repeated returns will reveal that there is more to this deathbed companion than first seems apparent and, like many of Elden Ring's NPC's, will take several visits to fully explore. Luckily, players will have plenty of time to keep returning and seeing what's changed, especially given how long Elden Ring takes to complete.
Regularly returning to Fia will open up new dialogue options for the player to converse with her in secret during their tender moments together and even a questline that will progress providing the player has found some of the necessary triggers. Tied into Rogier's questline, players will eventually be able to discuss this with Fia, who will gift them a map leading to the next step in the questline. There is even another, separate questline involving the deathbed companion that players can initiate after reaching the Altus Plateau region of the game. Both of these questlines are easily missable, especially if the player isn't returning to the Hold for regular cuddle sessions, something easily forgiven given the size of Elden Ring's map and level of loot.
Elden Ring's Fia Can Offer New Quests To The Tarnished
Given the way that NPC quests have worked in FromSoftwares previous titles such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne, some of the best gear to be found in the game is often gated behind these sometimes lengthy and obscure questlines, meaning that it's usually more than worth the effort involved to see these storylines through. In Fia's case, the player can ultimately be rewarded with an item needed for one of the game's multiple endings, as well as filling in some of the blanks in the game's lore. This could be of interest to some players, as Soulsborne games often present their story in fragments without a clear timeline for even the bigger events, such as the shattering of the titular Elden Ring.
Players can be forgiven for being suspicious of Fia, though, given FromSoft's history of making characters with less than noble intentions. Notable examples include Lautrec in Dark Souls, the Afflicted beggar in Bloodborne, and Yurt, the silent chief in Demons Souls. However, in this case, simply ignoring the deathbed companion will result in the player locking themselves out of a couple of the Elden Ring's more memorable questlines and even one of its endings.