Fia (Elden Ring)

Editor's Note: This entry contains minor spoilers for Elden Ring; read at your own caution.

About

Fia is a non-playable character (NPC) in the 2022 video game Elden Ring who resides in the game's hub area, the Roundtable Hold. There, she offers to take the player in a "brief embrace," resulting in the player receiving the "Baldachin's Blessing" consumable after selecting to "let her hold you." After the game's release in late February 2022, Fia became the subject of discussion and memes about her function in the game, with many references to players being held by her.

Origin

In Elden Ring, released February 25th, 2022, players can encounter Fia after they are invited into the Roundtable Hold.^[1] She is located in a bedroom off one of the wings from the central hub. There, she invites the player to take her in a "brief embrace." If the player accepts, a short animation plays of the payer kneeling in Fia's lap. The player walks away with a consumable item called "Baldachin's Blessing," which increases poise. However, Fia does not tell the player that having "Baldachin's Blessing" in their inventory results in a slight health debuff. The game only indicates this by putting a small red box with a downward-facing arrow beneath the player's HP meter.

Spread

After the game's release, Fia became a topic of discussion among Elden Ring players as they talked about the function she plays in the game and her secretly giving the player a health debuff. On February 27th, 2022, Twitter user @Pmaka1991^[2] tweeted about how Fia functions in the game, writing, "DO NOT hug this lady in #EldenRing. She'll cause you a negative buff where you lose 5% of your Health Power (top corner, red box, arrow down). Use Baldachin's Blessing (she gives this consumable) to get rid of it. You should only hug her if you're ready about to fight a boss." User @Rehvion^[3] joked that Fia gave the player "Elden Syphillis," gaining over 2,900 retweets and 34,000 likes

Players also began creating memes based on Fia shortly after release. For example, on March 2nd, Redditor skitchie posted a Disappointed Muhammad Sarim Akhtar meme in /r/EldenRing,^[4] gaining over 23,000 points (shown below, left). On March 1st, Twitter user @RoonKolos^[5] posted a Video Games Appeal To The Male Fantasy meme based on Fia, gaining over 200 retweets and 2,000 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References