Coffin was a former Porter, as well as the leader and founder of an extremist group known for opposing BB research as well as the mother of Fragile.
Story[]
Background[]
Much of what is known about the woman later known as Coffin comes from the writings of her late-husband, the father of Fragile. According to these writings, Coffin was born into a military family in the Pre-Stranding world, and was taught by her parents to "take care of others" as well as what her husband described as "the tools to do the job right and proper" (presumably "the job" being her role as a Porter, and later, Terrorist). These "tools" included the knowledge and operation of firearms as well as training in (and knowledge of) medicine.
Coffin became a porter at an unspecified time following the Death Stranding. According to her husband, this was due to a sense of personal responsibility to "help bring people back together" and her belief that America "was once a beacon of hope and freedom". As a Porter, she made a variety of deliveries for both preppers and Bridges itself. According to her husband, she had "bought in" to the idea of American Reconstructionism. It was in this role that she eventually meet her husband, who, in his words, was drawn to her compassion and "burning desire to help those in need". It was this same man that Coffin would later have a child with, a daughter who they chose to name Fragile, a name shared with the delivery organization her husband had founded. According to her, the name was chosen because "everything that's worth something is fragile."
Not too long after her daughter's birth, Coffin, as well as other porters, discovered the terrible truth about the packages they had been delivering to a Bridges facility in the eastern region: living babies. Babies who would serve (and possibly die) in order to research and develop the BB project. Learning this, she and other likeminded Porters abandoned their occupations and went into hiding, forming an extremist group to put an end to the BB experiments and correct the UCA's path. Coffin was also aware that her new life and goals would put her husband and daughter in great danger, if only by association, and so she chose to leave them behind, trusting her husband to care for their child.
Before leaving, the woman who would soon become known as Coffin, came up with a lie for her husband that she was leaving them. But while her husband saw through this, he chose to pass this lie on to their daughter, Fragile. Before she left, Coffin gave her husband her Misanga, the same one he passed on to their daughter one day.
Becoming Coffin[]
While travelling all over the country, Coffin recruited and trained Porters so they would be able to "hold their own" against Bridges, officially forming an extremist group with the objective of destroying the BB facilities and ending the project altogether. To do this (and protect her family from reprisal) she assumed the identity of Coffin. According to her husband, this name was chosen because the role of a Coffin is to "preserve that which was most important to us". Around this time she met a promising young Porter named Peter Englert, a Porter with the ability to sense BTs. In Peter she saw fear and "a terrible anger", but believed these to be a manifestation of the boy's "passion to build something better."
Coffin chose to inform Peter of the true nature of Bridges' research (namely the BB Experiments) and asked him if he would join her cause. Peter agreed, subsequently undergoing the training required to join her organization. With the ability to sense BTs at their side, Coffin and her group became infamous for their attacks on various Bridges facilities, for which they were branded as terrorists in the public eye. Despite Coffin's best efforts, the UCA would not admit the true nature of these facilities to its citizens.
End of Extremist Group and Coffin's Death[]
After a number of successful missions, Coffin's group would discover their final destination, a BB facility in the Eastern Region. The extremists successfully infiltrated and occupied the facility, prompting the UCA to take drastic, unexpected measures: destroying the entire facility, bringing it down Coffin and her team, who were still inside. This was a desperate attempt by the UCA to destroy evidence and eliminate Coffin's group all in one fell swoop.
However, Coffin, as well as a handful of her team, survived and managed to rescue a potential BB from the facility's destruction. This would mark the beginning of the end as one by one, the survivors began to succumb to Chiralium Contamination, which manifested as Cancer. Coffin would be the last one standing, remaining in the destroyed facility for an unknown period of time. Undertaking the excruciating job of burying her dead comrades as well as the BB, a grown up girl by the time of her death, whom she had rescued and raised. The one who would inherit the cause of the extremists was Peter Englert, who, shortly before the mission, had received a final message from Coffin: to "keep the flame burning a little while longer" after the death of her and her husband; and to "look out for" their daughter, Fragile.
Meanwhile, Coffin records a message explaining her actions to her beloved adopted son, Peter, hoping he would find the holograms when he returned. In this message Coffin would also express the pain she felt having abandoned her daughter and husband, and asks Peter to take care of Fragile, Although its not clear if Peter, later known as Higgs Monaghan, ever saw these hologram messages, or even how much he knew of Fragile before they met as porters. Years later, it would be the porter Sam Porter Bridges who uncovered these messages, and the true fate of Coffin, her group, and the BB facility in the Eastern Region.
In the end Coffin never knew that her adopted son, Peter, (under the name Higgs Monaghan) would attempt carry on her legacy, albeit in the form of the Homo Demens terrorist group, or the violent conflicts he would later have with her daughter, Fragile.
Notes[]
- At the end of the final mission in the Ruined Facility, Sam will encounter a BT hovering over the grave of a female BB, presumably Coffin herself. However, unlike other BTs, this one is harmless and disappears as soon as it sees Sam.
- Coffin's real name is unknown. Though not a secret, the name of her husband, Fragile's father, is never stated in-game.
- At some point her husband handwrote a letter to Coffin, (which would be "harder to intercept" in his words) and tried to have it delivered through some "mutual friends". It is unknown whether Coffin ever received this letter.
- The actions of Coffin and her group likely inspired the later actions of Higgs and the Homo Demens.
- Fragile never talks about her mother, Coffin. Likely because as far as Fragile knew, her mother abandoned both her and her father, implying in an interview that she never learned the truth of her mother's identity as Coffin, or why she left.
- A photo of Fragile as a child can be seen on a desk in the Ruined Facility.
- The Ruined Facility and Coffin's related story/interviews are only available in the Director's Cut edition of Death Stranding.
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