Roderika is an NPC that players can encounter in Elden Ring from FromSoftware. The young woman is one of the characters whose abilities are available to the tainted in the Round Table Fortress.
Where to find Roderika for the first time: Elden Ring
Roderika can be found at the beginning in Limgrave in the Storm Hill hut. The young woman is crouched on the ground wrapped in a red robe, looking distressed. She tells the players that she came to the interlands with a group of men, but all of her followers were killed. Roderika says that the men had their limbs cut off to give to a spider.
Speaking to her again, she also mentions that she was led by someone in a white mask towards Storm Veil Castle. This refers to the White-Faced Varre, whom the players themselves may have already met at the place of grace called The First Step, and who also wanted to guide the players to the castle.
When players look around Castle Storm Veil, they will find a dining room near an elevator where a grafted Sprout is doing its thing. Right nearby is a small backyard where a large mountain of mutilated corpses can be found. If the players examine the corpses, they will find a memento of Chrysalids. If the players return to Roderika with it, she will give them a ghost ash as a thank you, which can be used to summon a floating jellyfish.
The Next Meeting with Roderika (Elden Ring)
Once the players have defeated Godrick the Grafted, they can return to the Round Table Fortress. Roderika can then be found next to the fireplace. She thanks the players with a gold seed. Afterwards, if you keep talking to the blacksmith Hewg and Roderika alternately, the young woman realizes that she has a gift. She is apparently able to interact with and understand spirit ashes. Roderika wants to put her gift to good use and opens her own booth directly across from Hewg, where she improves her ghost ashes for players.
Later in the game, when players burn the earth tree, Roderika returns to the fireplace. She asks the players to talk to Hewg again. Because the round table fortress is about to go down, there are also no more chains holding the blacksmith captive. Roderika wants Hewg to escape. The blacksmith refuses, however, and Roderika must realize that she can do nothing against the curse that keeps the blacksmith in his place.
Roderika and the Manure Eater
The Manure Eater triggers strong emotions in Roderika, even if she doesn’t see it directly. However, she tells the players that she can sense his presence in one of the distant wings of the round table fortress. Roderika warns the stained not to get involved with the Manure Eater because she can sense that he has absorbed many souls, all of whom are crying out in pain and torment.
When the Manure Eater visits the Round Table Fortress a second time, Roderika notices that the chaos of the souls‘ cries is different. She speaks of an order of fear, though she can’t name exactly what that means. If the players then complete the series of quests from the Manure Eater, he disappears from the Round Table Fortress for good. Roderika says that she can no longer perceive the souls. She is sure that they have escaped their captivity.
Mystery about Roderika’s origin: Elden Ring, Lore
Roderika is clearly not from the interlands. When first meeting her, she speaks of her husbands having sailed across the sea. This suggests that the young woman comes from a land that is far away.
It is also surprising that, although she wears simple squire armor, she speaks as if she had several retainers under her. Because Roderika has no weapons or fighting skills worth mentioning, it is unlikely that she is a leader in the military sense. But it is reasonable to assume that Roderika might have been a noblewoman, perhaps even a princess, in her homeland. The men who traveled with her might then have been the bodyguards who fell victim to Godrick’s mad experiments. Why Roderika came to the interlands, however, is not made clear. So it could be that she herself was searching for the fragments of the Elden Ring. But there could also be other reasons that are not revealed.