History Characters / DarkestDungeonNPC

->''"His attention is unfocused. [[VideoGame/DarkestDungeon As if he is in two places at once]]."''

The ultimate antagonist of the second game, and implicitly the entire series - a five-pointed crescent. A cosmic entity [[GodOfEvil embodying all madness, despair, sorrow, and pain in life]], and the very ArcSymbol of the series itself.

-->'''The Academic:''' There is a way out of this mire. ''Now climb''.

* AncestralWeapon: You can acquire his old firearm, the Ancestor's Pistol, a powerful CoolGun, which gives accuracy and dodge bonuses. Most notably, he used it in the intro to off himself.

-->'''The Academic:''' ''(after a [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere Partial Victory]] in a lair)'': Cowardice - a crude term for the science of self-preservation..\\

'''The Academic:''' ''(after [[TimedMission running out of time in a road battle]])'': The goal is to reach the mountain. [[DeadpanSnarker Alive, preferably.]]

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: As the extent of his depravity and occult fixations became apparent to the Hamlet's inhabitants, they began to hold demonstrations. He was so thoroughly despised that the local lawmen rejected any attempt he made to bribe them to get rid of the problem, no matter how 'generous'.

->''"What little there is must suffice, for the time being…"''

* EarlyBirdCameo: Obviously it was the stress symbol from the first game, but the Iron Crown was also referred to by name in the second Darkest Dungeon quest "Lighting The Way", as the three objects you needed to activate to complete the quest.

* DeterminedDefeatist: Downplayed. He thinks you ''can'' save the world, but he expects you to lose ''plenty'' of times first, and that's fine — it's a major task.
-->'''The Academic:''' ''(after a [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere Partial Victory]] in a lair)'': In a crisis, no gain is insignificant.\\

* SmallStepsHero: He's willing to take ''any'' easing of the world's troubles as a plus; it's the end of the world, so even if you ease its pain, it's still worth something.

* KnightInSourArmor: He's pretty blunt about your chances of saving the world on any particular run: Not good. He still happily consoles you when you fail and gives genuine encouragement.

[[caption-width-right:350:Free yourself from this suffocating stillness. Fix your gaze on the horizon, and face the fearsome truth… of the Darkest Dungeon.]]

* PerpetualSmiler: He has a constant and manic ear-to-ear grin when doing practically anything. He can't seem to control it either, seeing how when he's showing you the Graveyard for your fallen Heroes, he's trying to cover his mouth while otherwise having somber eyes.
* UndyingLoyalty: Has this for the Heir and Ancestor's family. Probably the only reason he hasn't put a bullet into his own skull.

* MadScientist: He alludes to seeking "firsthand experience" of the occult alongside the Scholar during his narration, and [[spoiler:definitely assisted the Scholar in dozens of "deplorable" experiments following the ritual at the Ancestor's manor]]. The Academic's Study further underscore this, with findable curios such as [[BrownNote eldritch music recordings]], dissected test subjects, and caged masses of flesh that the Academic alludes to as having resulted from their experiments.

The player character of the sequel. They are introduced in a morbidly rotted room, staring at an unsigned letter of confessions. The Academic bursts in, rallying them back to adventure in a desperate attempt to save the world. They drive the stagecoach carrying the heroes to the new Darkest Dungeon, managing the heroes between fights.

* DeceptiveDisciple: The Scholar wanted to immediately publish their findings after discovering the Iron Crown, but The Academic reasoned that they should wait for a bit until they have more information and all their facts straight. The Scholar's resentment of The Academic began burgeoning from that point on as they continued their research and [[spoiler:eventually(with the help of The Ancestor) recreated the ritual to reveal the Crown's secrets]].
* EnemyWithout: [[spoiler:The [[FinalBoss Body of Work]] worshipped by the Cult is actually the body of the Scholar, corrupted by the power of the Iron Crown and the Scholar's personal failings.]]

* SanitySlippage: Discovering the [[spoiler:Iron Crown]] wasn't exactly kind to their sanity, as their interest in this occult subject lowly caused them to graduate from obsessive research of the subject to [[spoiler:murdering multiple people - their mentor seemingly included - and unleashing the apocalypse upon the world]].

* MadScientist: He alludes to seeking "firsthand experience" of the occult alongside the Scholar during his narration, and [[spoiler:definitely assisted the Scholar in dozens of "deplorable" experiments following the ritual at the Ancestor's manor]]. The "Thought Experiment" curio at the Academic's Study furthers this, consisting of a former test subject the Academic and Scholar restrained and then apparently vivisected as part of their research into the mind.
-->'''The Academic''': ''(On finding the Thought Experiment)'': We reasoned that the mind must be dissected if it is to be understood.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aiki32b.png]]

* FeaturelessProtagonist: You don't even see their silhouette this time, but the introduction is from their perspective. Whenever they appear on-screen after the introduction, their entire body is covered from head to toe in a hooded BlackCloak that obscures any features.

* MeaningfulName: A subtle example. The Scholar's confession is signed with the name "Reus Captivus" ([[BilingualBonus Latin for "Guilty Prisoner"/"Prisoner of Guilt"), referencing their status as TheAtoner and their guilt over their crimes.

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:For being an assistant of the Ancestor and having engaged in dark magic out of obsession with understanding it, eventually causing the catastrophe they are trying to undo.]]
* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: To the Heir [[spoiler:and the Ancestor]].

* FeaturelessProtagonist: You don't even see their silhouette this time, but the introduction is from their perspective. Every time they appear on-screen after the introduction, their entire body is covered from head to toe in a hooded BlackCloak that obscures any features.

* MentorArchetype: The Academic was a mentor to the Scholar while they were at the university, having been a lecturer there who began to work with the Scholar after their questions on the occult fascinated him and outright calling them his protegee. Their [[SwappedRoles roles were swapped]] by Confession 4, however, where the Scholar was now ordering the Academic around and he had become their assistant.

* PosthumousCharacter: Much like [[VideoGame/DarkestDungeon The Ancestor]], [[spoiler:The Academic died after being sacrificed by the Scholar to the Iron Crown, and now assists them to undo their mistakes]].

* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler:The conclusion of "Ambition" reveals the Scholar seemingly sacrificed him to the Iron Crown to unleash the apocalypse, stabbing him through the back and attaching his body to a physical representation of the Crown. It's not entirely clear whether he somehow survived it or not, or existing similarly to how the Ancestor once did]].
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:Though exactly how much of the current state of the world is to blame for it is up in the air, both him and the Scholar answering an invitation from the Ancestor and sharing their occult findings with him almost certainly didn't help anything, considering that the Ancestor later used that knowledge to unearth the Darkest Dungeon and Heart of Darkness. He also refused to stand up to the Scholar at first, until his life became the final component in the ritual to summon the Iron Crown, in spite of his growing misgivings]].

[[folder:The Iron Crown]]

* MentorArchetype: The Academic was a mentor to the Scholar while they were at the university, having been a lecturer there who began to work with the Scholar after their questions on the occult fascinated him and outright calling them his protegee. Their [[RoleReversal roles were swapped]] by Confession 4, however, where the Scholar was now ordering the Academic around and he had become their assistant.

* MentorArchetype: The Academic seems to have been a mentor to the Scholar while they were at the university, having been a lecturer there who began to work with the Scholar after their questions on the occult fascinated him.

-->'''The Academic:''' I understood your eagerness to build a reputatation, and it pained me greatly to hold you back.

* BeardOfEvil: He sported a goatee and moustache in his youth, while his older self has a rather impressive beard. He's also a complete and utter bastard who [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder stabbed everyone around him in the back]], [[BadBoss treated those under him horribly]], and [[spoiler: [[AmbiguousSituation may]] still serve the Heart of Darkness in death as its herald.]]

* FeaturelessProtagonist: You don't even see their silhouette this time, but the introduction is from their perspective. The one time they appear on-screen after the introduction, their entire body is covered from head to toe in a hooded black cloak, obscuring any features.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:The Academic implies killing the Body of Work will cause their soul to pass on to whatever awaits them, as the world is reconstructed from their memories.]]

* SanitySlippage: Discovering the [[spoiler:Iron Crown]] wasn't exactly kind to their sanity, as their interest in this occult subject lowly caused them to graduate from obsessive research of the subject to [[spoiler:seemingly murdering multiple people - their mentor included - and unleashing the apocalypse upon the world]].

* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: Their personality traits and downward spiral resulted in [[spoiler:the shattering of the order of the universe thanks to the releasal of the Iron Crown's knowledge]].

* GoodCounterpart in a world where The Iron Crown is seemingly a cosmological constant, a very fact of reality itself, humanity created a {{Tulpa}} to be its equal in power while embodying everything The Iron Crown is not.

* CassandraTruth: The Academic warned the Scholar every step of their descent into madness that what they were doing was seriously bad, except every warning fell on deaf ears. The Academic doesn't gloat about this after he's proven right, however, acknowledging that the Scholar was consumed by resentment, obsession and ambition([[NiceJobBreakingItHero partially stoked by the Academic himself]]) that caused them to simultaneously reject the Academic's advice out of spite and continue down their path of darkness.