After killing him, he drops a Contraption Key that leads to the attic of the building we’re in, and we find a young painter girl. This is the lady that Gael asked us to find and show flame to. She is the one who will paint a new world to replace this one.
Our story begins when the Ashen One arrives at the Cleansing Chapel in the Cathedral of the Deep , where he (or she) encounters Slave knight Gael. Gael is praying for fire for Ariandel, and when he sees you, he notes that you have the same scent as another woman, and he concludes that you are Ash. The other woman, as we’ll later find out, refers to Sister Friede. Gael begs us to show his lady flame. Once we confirm that we are Ash, Gael will take us into the Painted World of Ariandel through a rotted scrap of the painting.
At the very first bonfire, we’ll find a Corvian sitting at the corner. He tells us to make our bed and find a good place to rest . While this isn’t really indicative of anything at this point, it is the first hint of the flame versus rot conflict that exists in the Painted World. Venturing further into the Painted World, the Ashen One soon comes across Ariandel Chapel, where Sir Vilhelm stands guard outside. Vilhelm makes a peculiar remark, and is confused as to how you got here, considering that “no bell tolls.” As we know from all of Dark Souls III’s promotional trailers, the beginning movie, and vanilla NPC dialogue, the Ashen Ones rise from their graves when the bell tolls. This is how our journey started, and how we embarked on our initial journey to bring the Lords of Cinder back to their thrones.
We don’t exactly know what her true intentions were, but we can safely assume that she chose to take on the role of protector in this world. Just as Priscilla was seen as the protector of Ariamis, Elfriede herself also adopted mannerisms that we previously saw in Crossbreed Priscilla. Her scythe and invisibility attacks are clearly meant to show her efforts in trying to be similar to Priscilla, perhaps so that she could convince the Corvians that she was really on their side.
After striking down Sister Friede, Father Ariandel sees her dead body lying on the ground and cries out in pain. The fire starts to spill over, and because Friede herself is an Ashen One, she is quickly revived by the flames. After killing the both of them, Friede is revived once more as Blackflame Elfriede.
When Friede's blood flows to the bowl containing the flame, the sight of her corpse enrages Father Ariandel, causing him to break free and strike the bowl against her unkindled blood to spark the flame and revive her by restoring her ember as an unkindled.
He constantly flails himself, bleeding onto the flame, to prevent the fire from burning his world, for he used blood in the restoration, and only that blood could prevent the fire from blazing again. When Friede's blood flows to the bowl containing the flame, the sight of her corpse enrages Father Ariandel, causing him to break free and strike the bowl against her unkindled blood to spark the flame and revive her by restoring her ember as an unkindled.
The First Flame is a storyline concept in the Dark Souls series.
But then, the Advent of Fire occurred. This created Disparity in the world: with it came heat and cold, life and death, and light and dark. From the dark, came humanoid creatures - Hollows. These creatures found souls near the First Flame, and took on the powers they gave.
With the dragons defeated, the Lords took over the world. It was a prosperous era, and from it many nations were born. The land which the lords hailed from, Lordran, became the center of many adventures for those of other nations to engage in. The First Flame became linked to the bonfires throughout Lordran, and gave power to them. In time however, the Flame began to fade.
With the strength of these souls, four figures were born: Gravelord Nito, the Witch of Izalith, Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and the Furtive Pygmy. With the powers gained, the Lords overthrew the dragons, ushering in the Age of Fire.
In Dark Souls III, many Lords of Cinder had come and passed and the Age of Fire had persevered. However, when the new chosen Lord, Prince Lothric, refused to link the fire, a desperate attempt to save the fading Flame began.
Desperate to ensure that their Age of Fire continued, and afraid of the coming Dark, Gwyn did everything to keep the flame lit . They linked the bonfires to humanity, and shepherded the humans to kindle the flames.