A list of the various characters and their associated tropes in AFK Arena. Currently under construction.

open/close all folders

Playable Heroes

Lightbearers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lightbearer.png

The human and humanoid denizens of Esperia, they are the first faction that the player is introduced to.

Light 'em Up: There’s a reason they’re called "Lightbearers", after all; many of them directly use light in their battle techniques.
Medieval Stasis: Of the factions, they’re the closest to the standard medieval fantasy setting and seemingly have been for millennia. They were extremely advanced in the ancient past and came too close to the gods. Annih, God of the Dead, became increasingly annoyed by humanity's Immortality Seekers, and tricked them with an art called human alchemy. The resulting experiments brought the downfall of human civilization, as did Annih's demon hordes. It is only recently that humanity has stabilized enough to start recovering Lost Technology.
Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Dwarves are members of the Lightbearer faction. They specialize in engineering and keep the Empire's trains in tiptop shape. A small number are playable, and there is one type of enemy NPC dwarf Mook that will show up in campaign mode.
Religion is Magic: In addition to the Celestials, the Lightbearers worship a power that they call the Divine Light, giving their priests and holy warriors various supernatural abilities.
Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Their attacks are super effective against Maulers, whom they’ve historically clashed with.

Angelo, Song of Dawn

"So it begins."

Hailing from a travelling noble family, Angelo is a skilled bard and performer. His songs were renowned far and wide with the ability to heal wounds and together with his faithful cat Harry, they travelled all over Esperia, singing for the rich and poor alike.

As time passed, Angelo became the most popular musician in all of Esperia and received many gifts from his admirers. Soon, however, he started to lose inspiration and his songs no longer moved anyone. Remembering the times when he and Harry traveled together before the fame went to his head, he came to realise that money and fancy gifts were nothing compared to his own love of music.

Humbled by this, Angelo resolved to start over and he and Harry began to restart their careers as travelling musicians.

Lethal Chef: According to one of the animations, his cooking used to be horrible, but he insists that he's gotten better at it since then.
Magic Music: His abilities are all him playing music to heal allies and attack enemies.

Belinda, Beam of Hope/Spark of Hope

"May the light protect us."

The second daughter of a noble family, Belinda was born with a natural affinity for the Light and spent her childhood studying and improving upon her skills, often seeking out the company and tutelage of the priests and paladins of the nearby temple. Upon finishing her education as a young noblewoman, Belinda abandoned her life of privilege entirely, devoting herself instead to the continued study and service of the Light.

Tropes relating to her as The Beam of Hope:

Beware the Nice Ones: Belinda is a sweet, soft-spoken young woman who works to heal and defend those around her. She also has absolutely no qualms about using the Light to roast any demon or other hostile party should the need arise, as the Earl of Oye discovered the hard way.
Expy: Of Jaina Proudmoore. Both women are the daughters of noble families who displayed an innate talent for magic from a young age, and who devoted the majority of their lives to studying and improving upon that talent. Belinda also mirrors Jaina's originally much gentler temperament. Interestingly enough, Belinda gets paired off in a Union with Arthas-Expy Lucius.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the story, one of her powers as a priestess is Healing Hands. In gameplay, she has no healing abilities at all and is purely an attack mage.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Blonde, and by far one of the kindest characters playing for the Lightbearers.
Hidden Depths: When giving visiting players a gift at the Oak Inn, Belinda's comment suggests that she suspects the people around her aren't terribly fond of her.
Holy Hand Grenade: Despite using light magic and having the temperament of a White Magician Girl, Belinda is one of the most devastating nukers available; her ultimate alone can easily destroy half an enemy team.
Silk Hiding Steel: Was raised to be a proper noblewoman, and it shows in her demeanor and wardrobe. This will not save you if you make the mistake of forcing her hand in battle.
Squishy Wizard: All of her moves are intelligence-based, and she goes down rather swiftly in direct combat against heavy hitters like Brutus or assassins like Silvina.
White Magician Girl: Played with. Despite having the typical appearance and temperament for this trope, she's functionally one of the biggest pain-bringers in the entire game.

Tropes relating to her as The Spark of Hope:

Playing with Fire: By taking the fire emblem, she has been given power over fire. She is able to synergize it with her preexisting Light 'em Up powers.
Power Dyes Your Hair: Her awakened form's hair has changed from blonde to white.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: The Temple of Light refused to give her permission to seek the fire emblem and threatened to declare her The Heretic if she did. When she saw children inflicted by a corruption that she couldn't heal, she convinced Bishop Palmer to give her the hint she needed to find it and turn a blind eye to her actions.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: Being infused with the emblem of fire has changed her eyes from blue to yellow.

Cecilia, Purger of Sins

"All have sinned."

Despite being born blind, Cecilia had a modest life with a comfortable home and a loving husband. That all changed when her husband mysteriously disappeared. While most believed he left, Cecilia refused to give up searching for him.

After thorough investigation, she discovered that her husband had been killed by occultists. With calm planning and inquires, she prepared herself for the occultists next meeting. By nightfall, she killed the occultists.

Although she avenged her husband, the experience changed her. She joined the path of ascension and devoted her life to killing criminals and followers of demons.

Knight Templar: When Lucius expresses hope that the ruthless inquisitor can refrain from letting innocents get caught in the crossfire of their demon hunt, she calls the sentiment "weak".
Mirror Character: Aside from still being mortal and thus lacking Athalia's onetime hatred for them, she is one to Athalia's past self. She has a fulltime devotion to killing heretics while lacking Athalia's newfound ability to Detect Evil, requiring only scant evidence to execute suspects.

Eluard, Protector of Souls

"Light, cleanse us of our sins."

As a orphan, Eluard was adopted by the church and trained to be a priest. Despite being a dedicated student, he was unable to commune with the Divine Light and as he grew older, he could only watch as his fellow acolytes left the orphanage. Nevertheless, he was determined to become a priest.

When he traveled to the town of M'Arjie, he tried to preach to the civilians but they weren't interested. On the fourth day, he met a young girl who listened to him while he preached. Unknown to him, the girl turned out to be a human sacrifice and the villagers turned out to be heretics.

In the struggle that followed, Eluard finally communed with the Divine Light but was unable to control its power. Within seconds, the heretics were wiped out while the girl killed herself. Unable to bear the shame, he returned to the Church in disgrace.

The old priest advised him to light a candle as an offering and meditate to find the answer. Doing so, Eluard prayed feverishly, begging for forgiveness. After what seemed like an eternity, the Divine Light answered him and blessed him. Renewed, Eluard joined the Heretic Inquisition and wore a golden mask over his face to conceal his emotions

Estrilda, Knight of Valor

"For King and country!"

As the only daughter from the noble house of Rayne, Estrilda had a peaceful upbringing and was educated in the arts while her brothers trained as knights and warriors. At age ten, she watched her brothers, uncles and father leave on patrol.

After weeks of no reply, a few soldiers returned with tragic news; the patrol party had been ambushed by a Mauler tribe and the male members of the Rayne family were killed. With the loss of an heir, House Rayne began to lose its wealth and power.

Determined to restore her family's honor, Estrilda began to take up the art of warfare by studying tactics, horsemanship, and training with every weapon. At sixteen, the king of Esperia hosted a grand tourney on the kingdom's anniversary. Seeing a chance, Estrilda disguised herself as a peasant boy to compete.

Estrilda worked her way to the top of the tourney until she was made champion by the king. Right before everyone, Estrilda revealed her true identity as a daughter of Rayne. Impressed and touched by her dedication, the King awarded her the title of General.

Jeanne d'Archétype: A young, blonde lady who serves as a general for her kingdom, carries a standard into battle, and has the respect of most of her followers. The similarities became more apparent when the actual Joan of Arc was given a depiction in the game.
Knight in Shining Armor: Noble, valiant, and always ready to fight for her kingdom. She even refers to herself as such.
Last of His Kind: The last surviving member of the famed Rayne family after most of them were killed by Maulers.
Young and in Charge: She became a general at the age of sixteen. As of her in-game appearance, she's still only 23.

Fawkes, Death's Defeat

"It's hunting time."

Automatic Crossbows: His crossbow never seems to need reloading (unlike Vurk, who's seen loading bolts into his weapon). He can even increase his own attack speed with one of his abilities, letting him put a lot of bolts down-range fairly quickly.
Cursed with Awesome: Fawkes's left hand was infected with a parasitic spirit due to a run-in with a necromancer in his youth; however, thanks to training by the demon hunters that saved him, he contained it in his arm and instead managed to control its powers for himself.
Demon Slaying: It's pretty much what he does for a living, and the Hypogeans give him plenty of targets.
Locked Out of the Fight: His Confine ability locks an enemy away in his coffin, rendering them unable to attack or be attacked for a lengthy period of time. Killing Fawkes will end the effect prematurely, and he will also end the ability himself if all other enemies are dead.
Status-Buff Dispel: His ultimate ability does a token amount of damage, but also removes most debuffs from allies and buffs from enemies - including shields like the one granted by Lucius's ultimate and Brutus's death-preventing barrier.
The Stoic

Ginneas, Heart of Moltenflow

"Moltenflow regiment, assemble!"

Our Dwarves Are All the Same: The second playable dwarf added, and the first ascended.

Gwyneth, The Fair Maiden

"It is an honor to serve."

The adopted daughter of Hendrik, Gwyneth seeks nothing more than to join her father in the armies of the Lightbearers. But being little more than a youth - and a young woman, at that - didn't help her chances in the slightest, leading to her not being taken seriously. That quickly changed when a Lightbearer hunting expedition disturbed a fearsome, draconic beast, which laid waste to the party. Gwyneth took a handheld ballista from a soldier struggling to wind it up on his own and slew the creature with a single, well-placed shot, earning her the respect of the king and a place in the royal guard.

Arrows on Fire: One of her basic abilities gives her a chance to light her arrows on fire, igniting the target for damage over time and reducing all healing they receive.
Great Bow: Her bow is taller than she is, easily putting the likes of Ferael and Lyca to shame. And, appropriately enough, each arrow she fires hits like a truck.
Happily Adopted: By Hendrik, who cares deeply for her. It eventually turns out that she has been adopted twice over. Her real father is a highborn dragon, and the bandit Hendrik mistook for her father was a loyal servant of said dragon that was forced to flee when her real father was slain.
Just a Kid: One of the reasons she wasn't taken seriously when she tried to sign up with the royal guard. That is, until they saw what she could actually do...
Long-Range Fighter: Gwyneth is built for picking off the opponent's back row from her own team's back row, and as such fights best when there aren't any enemies in her face. Additionally, her ultimate only hits the opponent's side of the battlefield.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Despite her petite, slender stature, Gwyneth has no problem firing a gigantic longbow in the game itself and a crossbow intended for a two-man crew in her backstory. She's even classified as a Strength hero. One of her enemies notes the seeming impossibility and realizes that she is an oblivious dragon, the very same he attempted to slay when a hatchling.

Tropes relating to her as The Winged Vanquisher:

Draconic Humanoid: Her real form is that of a blue haired humanoid with horns and feather wings.
Were Dragon: She learns to shift from her human disguise to her real form.

Hendrik, The Defender

"I am your shield."

One of the Kingdom's loyal and fierce defenders, Hendrik always believed in duty above all else. Any threat or danger that arose, he was always the first to act, striking out with no question or hesitation.

That all changed, when he and his squadron were attacked by bandits. Although they were easily dispatched, Henrik caught the last bandit trying to steal grain from their wagon. With ease, he killed the bandit but soon noticed how dishevelled and thin he was, just like the rest of the bandits.

Ordering his men to investigate the area, he came across a hovel of mud and straw where he found a little girl. It was then he realised that the bandit he killed was the girl's father and he was only stealing to feed her. Without hesitation, he adopted the girl as his own daughter.

This experience changed Henrik. While he still serves the Kingdom with loyalty, he learnt to see the world without black or white views and becomes more cautious, even forgoing his sword with large wooden shields.

My God, What Have I Done?: After killing a bunch of bandits that turned out to just be desperate, starving people, Hendrik ended up re-evaluating his world view to the point where he only wields shields to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
Stone Wall: As you might expect from a guy who wields two shields, Hendrik isn't the greatest at dealing damage, but makes up for it by being a terrific damage sponge that spams stuns.
Taking the Bullet: One of his abilities allows him to, once per battle, leap in front of a backrow ally that's about to take fatal damage and absorb all damage intended for them during the next few seconds.

Hogan, Knight of the Kingdom

"You dare stand against me?"

A skilled soldier and a staunch supporter of the king, Hogan saw his chance to prove himself when the commander of the fourth regiment retired. Sadly, another noble was chosen and Hogan was forced to accept that.

During an attack against Maulers, they were able to make them retreat but the new commander recklessly told them to chase after them. However, Hogan and a few commanders knew it was a trap and despite their better judgement, were forced to obey their commander.

Their suspicions were true as the regiment was led into a trap in a ravine and the noble was killed. As the second-in-command, Hogan planned a way out; most of his forces would distract the Maulers while he and a handful of his best men would circle around and flank them from the west.

Hogan's strategy worked and the Lightbearers emerged victorious. As a reward, Hogan was made Commander of the Frontiers by the King and became to be known as the Knight of the Kingdom.

Starter Mon: He’s the first hero that the player gets in the tutorial.

Lucius, Lightbringer

"Breathe the free air again, my friend."

The eldest son of the noble house of Lanward, Lucius learned the art of war from an early age, swiftly becoming an adept swordsman and only narrowly avoiding being drafted by way of his young age. Despite his skill, however, Lucius was a kind, gentle boy, and grew into an equally kind and gentle young man. His compassionate nature made him unwelcome among his comrades, who viewed him as weak and worthless - until the day he turned a horde of war horses loose upon an attacking Mauler tribe, saving the Lightbearer cavalry and rekindling their will to fight.

All-Loving Hero: One of the reasons Lucius initially made so many enemies among his own comrades was the fact that he was so compassionate he would even heal enemy soldiers. One fellow Lightbearer decided to turn this against him by slaughtering a stable full of injured horses that Lucius had been nursing back to health.
Barrier Warrior: Both in his union story and in gameplay. Lucius is able to deflect physical and psychic attacks with the massive shield he carries, and his ultimate Heaven's Protection allows him to cast a divine shield over all of his allies for a short period of time.
Beware the Nice Ones: As sweet and gentle as he is, Lucius is still an exceptionally skilled combatant with the ability to draw upon the Light to aid him in battle, and he will use everything he has against you if you push him to it.
Crutch Character: One of the strongest defensive heroes in the early and mid-game, whose ultimate can make teams very difficult to kill and is bulky enough to get it off at least once. However, his power level plateaus very hard in the late game (no thanks to the Power Creep that's had a lot of time to set in due to him being one of the earliest added heroes), at which point both he and his shield might as well be made of tissue against the bigger damage output you'll be facing.
Expy: Of Arthas Menethil - to a point, at least. Both are noble-born young men with golden hair and compassionate natures, raised to wield a sword from an early age and shouldering the expectations of their families and peoples, who ultimately become paladins of the Light and inspirations to their comrades. They even both have traumatic experiences involving dead horses...
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Lucius truly is an exceptionally kind young man, and it's heavily implied that he only engages in combat at all in order to defend those who can't defend themselves. Even his more aggressive dialogue is spoken with a softer voice; the sole exception is his line when he casts Divine Strike, which he delivers with a harder, more serious tone.
"Go back to the hell that spawned you!"
Healing Hands: His ability Divine Blessing allows him to heal the ally with the lowest health and give them a temporary boost to their attack rating. In lore, he initially made enemies among his comrades by stopping to tend to the wounded before the fighting stopped, sometimes even healing fallen enemies; between battles, he splits his time between praying at the Temple of Dura and tending to wounded warhorses.
Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: He does seem to wear some sort of protective headgear, though it more closely resembles a crown than a helmet and leaves the top of his head and his face completely exposed. At least his forehead won't get hurt?
Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Carries a large shield and puts it to good use absorbing damage with his defensive stance.
Made of Iron: Lucius is capable of withstanding attacks that apparently cause him extreme pain while defending Belinda in their union story.
Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty: Has shades of this dynamic with Belinda in their union story. Downplayed, as Belinda is still fully capable of raining the hurt down on her enemies with the help of the Light.
Shield Surf: His alternate skin The Mariner has him use his shield as a surfboard for his movement animation.
Stone Wall: Lucius excels at soaking up damage, both by facetanking it and by providing shields for his teammates. But with only a single offensive ability, he'd have the damage output of a wet noodle even if he didn't spend most of his time healing and shielding.

Mirael, The Burning Light

"I am the heir of ash and fire."

From the moment she was born, Mirael possessed a natural talent for fire magic. Being free-spirited, she ignored the lessons to control her powers and ended up being expelled from the Magic Academy. For a time, she wandered from place to place trying to find a use for her magic.

Eventually, she found her purpose on the battlefield. During battles, she was free to unleash her powers on the Hypogeans and became a heroine. She met Raine and Fawkes and they ended up becoming a team.

Exposition Fairy: She’s in charge of the Arenas Of Trials. She'll also be responsible for introducing certain aspects of the game to the player.
Playing with Fire: She was born with fire magic and is skilled with it.
Starter Mon: She’s one of the first heroes that the player gets, and her Ultimate, being clearly far more effective if used from the center of the back row, is used to demonstrate the importance of positioning in the tutorial.

Morrow, The Dark Crow

"The darkness is so beautiful."

A member of the Secret Society of the Crow.

Black Mage: Morrow's spells are all offensive in nature, giving him many ways to damage and debuff enemies.
The Dark Arts: He specializes in using forbidden magic to enslave hypogean demons.
Gone Horribly Right: A hypogean demon twisted his life path, only to end up being enslaved by him.

Morvus, The Far Stalker

"Do you like my shiny gun?"

Expy: A dwarf with a rifle that fights at long range, capable of slowing enemies in an area, sniping weakened enemies, and stunning on attack? Sounds a lot like Sniper.

Oscar, The True Gentleman

At your service."

Badass in a Nice Suit
Battle Butler: He may now be a house steward by trade, but he hasn't lost any of his assassin skills.
Beneath the Mask: His genteel demeanor belies a skilled killer, and only his current master knows of his connection to his past identity.
Beware the Nice Ones: While he may have turned a new leaf and now plays the role of a polite butler, Oscar is still just as formidable as he was in his assassin days.
Devious Daggers: He is an assassin disguised as a butler, whose signature weapon is a set of table knives. His codename, "The Mannered Knife", was given to him because as opposed to the roguish, brutal methods of his fellow assassins, he used them to make such a clean job of it while never dropping his sophisticated demeanor that it takes several hours for anyone to even notice that his victims are dead. His official artwork has him holding up a tea plate in one hand and his knives fanned out behind his back in the other.
Disproportionate Retribution: His former master ordered him to execute a nobleman that had crossed him. When Oscar was busted for the murder, said master covered his own tracks by claiming that Oscar was overzealous and carried out the killing of his own accord.
Heel–Face Turn: A notorious assassin turned polite household servant; his backstory gives no indication that he returned to assassin work, given that his exploits as the Mannered Knife are referred to in the past tense.
Villain with Good Publicity: Even back in the day, Oscar was viewed with a certain degree of admiration for his skill.
What You Are in the Dark
Wicked Cultured

Peggy, The Precious Pearl

"I'm here to play!"

The youngest daughter of the Lightbearer king.

Improbable Infant Survival: Her "death" animation shows her fleeing from battle instead.
Woman Scorned: On the one hand, she never particularly wanted the Arranged Marriage with Rowan in the first place, but on the other hand, she finds the way he ditched her pretty insulting. She intends to hunt him down and make him pay in full.

Raine, Death's Denier

"I'm the only shot you've got."

Guns Akimbo

Rigby, Brewmaster

"Last orders!"

The Alcoholic: He's not above sampling his own drinks. A lot. His victory animation even shows him taking out a pair of already-filled mugs and taking a swig from each.
Booze-Based Buff: He drinks readily in combat to increase his resilience to damage and make himself attack faster.
Booze Flamethrower: Exaggerated - his ultimate ability has him throwing his entire keg at the enemy before lighting it, detonating the keg like a bomb.
Healing Factor: He recovers health quickly. He isn't particularly useful on your side, but as a boss enemy, it can make him tedious to defeat.

Rosaline, The Kind

"I am at your service."

Animate Inanimate Object: She has the power to invoke the spirits within all things, including plates, teacups, utensils, and brooms.
Undying Loyalty: To the wealthy lady who took her in as a maid.

Rowan, The Roamer

"Hey! Need supplies?"

Abdicate the Throne: His father set him up in an Arranged Marriage with the youngest Lightbearer princess, a position that would have brought him much prestige. However, Rowan didn't want to marry a stranger. Furthermore, he interpreted that as a sign of his father's lack of respect for his abilities, so he ran off to prove himself and become a Self-Made Man.
Altar Diplomacy
Arranged Marriage: His father set him up for one with Princess Peggy, and neither of them were happy about it.
Boring, but Practical: Rowan is good at two things: giving his allies health, and giving his allies Energy. That being said, his strong healing output and ability to let your whole team put out more ultimates (with his signature item maxed out, he essentially halves the amount of Energy one of his allies needs to get an ult ready) means he's a very strong team member in almost all situations.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: He can definitely slip into this at times, though he's horrified when he realizes it.
Egg-Laying Male: Both Subverted and Exploited. His fortune duck that lays golden eggs is male. Rowan knows this. His customers do not. The eggs are fake.
Enemy Within: He once faced the temptation to harvest resources from the Wilders' home in the Dark Forest, and became overcome with greed enough to develop a Shadow Self. Luckily, Pippa and Tasi, with the help of Joker and Queen, knocked some sense back into him in "Voyage of Wonders: Dreamscape".
Intrepid Merchant: He searches the land, far and wide, in search of new business opportunities.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: "Dreamscape" revealed that he's very jealous of the preferential treatment Angelo got from their father. And just when he's finally about to get his approval, having finished Reginald's unfinished business, he gets a letter not from his father, but from his father's housekeeper, who tells him that, while he was away, Reginald was murdered.
Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: When his father's old rival admits defeat, saying Rowan is stronger than his father Reginald because, unlike Rowan, Reginald wasn't willing to screw his workers over, Rowan breaks at the Heel Realization.

Scarlet, The Arcane Shadow

"Confined by the gaze of others, yet you still desire freedom?"

Blessed with Suck: The evil spirits haunting her and bestowing her with power inflict her with a supernatural equivalent to schizophrenia. She is mostly sane for the time being, but her mother and grandmother ended up dying because of it.
Dark Is Not Evil: Her magic is drawn from evil spirits and is composed of dark miasma, but for the time being, Scarlet retains her sanity and is depicted as a heroic character in scenarios.
Meteor-Summoning Attack: Her ultimate showers the enemy with a stream of dark miasma, shaped like meteors. This skill makes her one of the best attackers in the game.
Powers via Possession: Her Superpowerful Genetics are a case of Blessed with Suck, making her maternal ancestors mediums to evil spirits. Scarlet can draw their power, but as a side effect is Hearing Voices. Her mother and grandmother lost the ability to separate what was real from what wasn't. Scarlet has yet to fully succumb, but shows slight traces of madness.
Where I Was Born and Razed: After Scarlet's mother lost too much sanity to care for her anymore, she was sent to the Violet Orphanage, an Orphanage of Fear used to conduct horrifying experiments on magically talented orphans. When one of their experiments pushed Scarlet too far, she awakened her powers and burned the orphanage to the ground, possibly killing the corrupt duchess that was sponsoring the place along with it.

Thane, The Exalted/The Veiled Wind

"I am at your service."

A masterful swordsman who can identify his foes' weaknesses at a glance, Thane made a name for himself through his skill, gaining arrogance to match. Unfortunately for him, his hubris and arm were both cut short by the ruthless blade of a Mauler warrior. Saved only by the intervention of one Lord Baden Rayne, who lost his life to the warrior, Thane devoted himself to House Rayne as a loyal retainer from that point onward, putting himself to work training their soldiers.

Later, when Estrilda fell into a coma with mysterious scars over her body, Thane set out to find the cause. From Wilder sages, he learned that the cause was a battle against creatures known as Corruptors, and only the Elemental Guardians can heal those who have fallen victim to them. His quest leads him to his old friend Baden and Respen, Guardian of the Wind, under attack by Corruptors. Unwilling to watch Baden fall in battle once more, Thane willingly took the emblem held by Respen that drew the Corruptors to them, gaining powers almost equal to the Guardian himself.

Thane is a melee assassin hero who specializes in darting around the battlefield and striking down foes with critical hits, capable of evading damage and quickly cutting foes down to size. This is exemplified in his ultimate ability Eviscerate; Thane dashes around the battlefield dealing several fast, weak slashes to enemies, becoming invulnerable in the process. Each critical hit scored by Eviscerate extends the ability by one slash.

Tropes relating to him as The Exalted:

Critical Hit Class: Thane is built entirely around scoring critical hits; not only does he have two abilities that boost his crit rate, but his Execution ability deals heavy damage to a target if he can score four critical hits.
Fragile Speedster: He can practically mow down weaker enemies in moments, but against opponents of the same level, he goes down so easily that he's practically useless.
Glass Cannon: If Thane can rack up critical hits, he can dish out alarming amounts of damage. However, he has to get those crits quickly as he can't stand up to sustained damage.
Handicapped Badass: His backstory notes that he adapted quickly to life with only one arm, and he certainly hasn't become any less deadly with a sword because of it.
One-Armed Warrior: Before losing his arm to Brutus, he was skilled but arrogant. The tragedy served as a wake-up call to train more seriously to protect the ones he loves.
Master Swordsman: One of the finest in the Lightbearers' ranks, as his backstory states.

Tropes relating to him as the Veiled Wind:

"In the formless gale, my steady blade swings true."

Blow You Away: He gains wind powers from Respen, allowing him to isolate and quickly eliminate enemies by blowing other enemies away, among other uses in battle.
Power Makes Your Hair Grow: In this form, Thane's hair grows to shoulder-length and becomes blue.
Touched by Vorlons: Granted the powers of the wind by Respen.

Walker, The Lone Ranger

"You're in the wrong saloon, partner."

Maulers

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mauler_8.png

Once part of a tribe called the Ya, itself the byproduct of Lightbearer magical experiments, the Lightbearers invaded them for resources, their hatred for each other becoming more and more heated as the war went on. The reason they call themselves “Maulers” now is because that’s what they intend to do to the Lightbearers.

Beast Man: Their ancestors were human civilians who were captured by unscrupulous sorcerers for human experimentation. Mislead by Annih's lies, these sorcerers thought that by infusing humans with the right form of Life Energy, they would achieve immortality. Instead, the test subjects mutated into a blend of man and beast, causing them to be shunned.
Humanoid Female Animal: Despite the wide range that Maulers as a whole cover on the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism, there weren’t any female Maulers that aren’t mostly human-looking until the release of Thali.
Proud Warrior Race: Though the Maulers are made up of different tribes with different customs, this is one trait that all known Mauler tribes have in common. A possible exception is the normally-timid durri, but even they have their own fair share of fearsome fighters.
Sapient Eat Sapient: While unknown if it's fact, Markiplier wonders in the noble tavern whether the predator-prey damage relationship between Maulers and Wilders means they actually eat Wilders or not.
Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: Ranging from Little Bit Beastly characters like Ankhira to Beast Men like Brutus to Funny Animals like the durri.
Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Typically being predator animals, they’re strong against Wilders, many of which are prey animals.
We ARE Struggling Together: The only race they hate more than the separate tribes of one another is the humans, and even that isn't always enough.

Alaro, Desert's Eye

"I'm just a spy, do you really want to fight me?"

Anasta, The Sacrifice

Ambiguous Situation: Her ultimate motive was to end the Maulers' civil war, but it remains unclear whether her betrayal was a last, desperate attempt to unite the Maulers under her or a Zero-Approval Gambit to rally everyone around Skriath all along. The release of Brutus's Awakened form confirms it was the latter.
BFS: Probably the game's most notable example. Anasta's blade is about twice her size and easily puts Brutus's sword to shame.
Broken Pedestal: Brutus once admired her as his mentor, up until her betrayal. Now, she is at best a failed leader who made a questionable Zero-Approval Gambit, and at worst, a traitor to her people that tried to become the Lightbearer's Puppet King. Rebuilt for Brutus when he finally catches up to her, and Skriath shows up to break up their fight and explain the situation.
Only Sane Man: She and Skriath were the only two Mauler leaders who realized that all their infighting was doing was weakening themselves for the Lightbearers to mop up, leading to them seeing each other as kindred spirits and forming their plan.
Puppet King: She, along with Skriath, were the two strongest warlords in the desert, and it soon became clear that the Mauler's next chieftain would be one of them. She ultimately made a deal with the Lightbearers to become their puppet in return for their assistance against Skriath, turning her into the greatest traitor in Mauler history.
Zero-Approval Gambit: She threw her lot in with the Quicksand Claws, a group of Mauler bandits that were hired by the Lightbearers, and effectively became a traitor to her own people to give the Maulers a common enemy and rally them around Skriath, working together with him to unite the Maulers while appearing to be his greatest rival. Given that even her prize pupil Brutus didn't suspect a thing for years, it appears to have worked.

Ankhira, Deceptive Beauty

"You play a dangerous game."

Beautiful and cunning, Queen Ankhira regins supreme over the Arachin clan as their Queen, spider-like Maulers. Despite being born from a new generation, her venom is deadly enough to kill an opponent with a single scratch.

When the Hypogeans invaded Esperia, they attempted to invade the Arachin nests. Queen Ankhira had the Arachin webs laced with the deadliest of toxins. Any Hypogean squad was killed instantly and it resulted in them retreating.

This tactical victory only served to reinforce the Arachin's deadly reputation and their queen

The Ace: A queen, a strategist and an assassin rolled into one.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: She is rather manipulative and according to her Union Story with Safiya, she is well-known for eating trespassers.
The Dreaded: The most feared of the Mauler clans that even the Hypogeans themselves steer clear of them
God Save Us from the Queen!: Queen of the Arachin and one of the most dangerous Maulers alive.
Out-Gambitted: She agreed to help Safiya reclaim the throne of her clan and effectively made her a Puppet queen, reliant on Ankhira's warriors to retain control. A Magic Meteor that could be used to magnify Safiya's magic fell from the sky. Knowing that Ankhira would never allow her to touch it if she knew the truth, she simply told Ankhira that it could give tremendous power. Ankhira tested it with her soldiers, and each became dumb upon contact. Concluding it was a trap for her, a furious Ankhira decided it would be ironic if Safiya died to the Magic Meteor instead and cornered her to it. But Safiya, being an expert in the Power of the Void, was able to absorb it just fine. Now, Ankhira's army has been annihilated, and she and her people are on the run, as Safiya consolidates her rule over the sphinxes and prepares to overthrow Skriath.
Poisonous Person: The Arachin secrete their deadly venom on their limbs with one scratch can kill a man within seconds
Spiders Are Scary: Deadly spider-like Maulers with toxins on their limbs.

Anoki, The Blood Guard

"Listen for my call."

As the son of a great Warrior, Anoki admired his father and aspired to prove himself to him by joining the ranks of the Blood Guard, the elite guard of the Grand Chieftain.

However, tragedy struck when assassins ambushed and killed the Grand Chieftain and most of the Blood Guard while Anoki's father was grievously wounded. With the death of the Grand Chieftain, many Mauler tribes began infighting while the remaining Blood Guard disbanded.

On his deathbed, Anoki's father gifted him his warhorn, leaving the latter the heavy responsibility to reform the Blood Guard and find out the cause of the Grand-Chieftain's death. After years of searching, Anoki restored the Blood Guard to their former glory and they would once again serve their Grand-Chieftain.

Antandra, Desert Fury

"I am the desert's fury."

Antandra was trained from childhood to become a warrior for the hidden temple in the Scorched Expanse, a grueling and ruthless process. However, while her fighting prowess became formidable, Antandra never did let go of her personal emotions in favor of complete devotion to the temple. This showed itself when a severely starved and dehydrated child appeared in front of the temple; with their compassion beaten out of them long ago, none of Antandra's training partners lifted a finger to help, but Antandra gave the child water against the temple's wishes, lashing out and killing another trainee when they tried to kill the girl. For defending an outsider over the temple itself, Antandra was exiled; she thus strode off into the world, only looking back to see the child being welcomed into the temple.

Cat Girl: She has a largely humanoid appearance with a set of feline ears and tail, based on a cheetah according to fluff text.
Life Drain: Healing based on her damage output is Antandra's main form of survivability. Her Mark of the Wild ability places a mark on an enemy that causes her to heal for a percentage of the damage dealt to them, her Knockdown ability heals her for a percentage of the damage dealt, and her ultimate gives her increased lifesteal for a few seconds afterward.
Lost in Translation: In the Chinese version, Antandra more or less adopted Satrana when none of her fellow initiates were willing to help, and while they didn't approve, the temple elders allowed it; however, Satrana's former master eventually came knocking, and Antandra defied Mauler law to fight and kill him to protect her. This in turn leads to her being banished, and her last request to the temple elders before leaving was to take care of Satrana (which was granted by one, implied to be Numisu). None of this appears in the English localization at all, which makes their decision to take Satrana in look a lot less justified.
Ms. Fanservice: In addition to being fairly easy on the eyes, Antandra's outfit has a Navel-Deep Neckline and shows off her legs, not to mention she has a Buxom Beauty Standard figure to the point of being one of the few females with Jiggle Physics. And as if that wasn't enough, her summer 2021 skin puts her in a bikini and sarong.
Parental Substitute: To Satrana, in the Chinese version at least, where she took care of Satrana and helped her recover from the abuse she suffered from both the slave master and the desert, culminating in an epic Mama Bear moment when Satrana's owner came looking for her. There isn't as much of an age gap between them as most examples (fluff puts her age as 10 years older than Satrana), but the dynamic is there.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Antandra knew full well that fighting to protect an outsider against the temple's wishes would lead to her being disgraced and banished; she did it anyway because she knew it was the right thing to do.

Brutus, The Blood Claw/Lion's Pride

"Ah, fresh blood!"

A legendary figure among the Maulers, Brutus is renowned for his unparalleled martial prowess - a paragon of what every Mauler aspires to be. However, his many victories led to him eventually losing the sense of triumph he would get upon winning a battle... until one fateful encounter with a human swordsman that could finally present Brutus with a worthy challenge.

During the Elemental Strife, Brutus sought out his disgraced former mentor Anasta to confront her for betraying the Mauler people. During their clash, he was met by the Grand Chieftain Skriath, who explained to him that her apparent betrayal was part of their scheme to unite the Mauler people. Finally understanding the sacrifices his mentor had made, Brutus chose to take on the burden of wielding the Earth Emblem, gaining its power and fully embracing the mantle of Blood Claw. Sword in hand, he marched on to battle the Corruptors.

Brutus is a powerful tank, infamous for being able to withstand outstanding amounts of damage while dishing it back out; his skillset allows him to fight back from the brink of death, mowing down enemies as they try to kill him. His ultimate ability Whirlwind has Brutus swinging his blade twice at the enemy, before leading into a spinning slash; while active, Brutus is immune to crowd control and magic damage, and heals for a portion of the damage dealt.

Breaking the Fourth Wall: One ad shows someone seeing an ad featuring Brutus lazing around as the rewards pile up, who proceeds to call it a fake ad—something which Brutus takes offense to.
Critical Status Buff: Brutal Defiance increases Brutus's attack speed and damage as his health drops low. At dangerously low health, he deals twice as much damage as he does at full HP and hits 25% faster to boot.
Crutch Character: If obtained early and invested into heavily, Brutus makes for a potent solo carry with his mix of damage output and durability. His power output falls off later on, though, generally relegating him to meat shield duty.
Expy: A fearsome warrior of his people renowned for his ferocity in combat who lugs around a giant sword, and whose kit includes a spin attack, a roar that debuffs enemies, a damage boost based on his missing health, and the ability to become unkillable for a few seconds? He's essentially Tryndamere in lion form.
King of Beasts: He's one of the more influential Maulers by virtue of his legendary status, even though he's not actually the one in charge (that would be Skriath, contrary to what Khasos's English backstory states, since in the Chinese version Brutus is only identified as the greatest Mauler warrior).
Last Chance Hit Point: Last Gasp, Brutus's bread-and-butter ability, blocks one fatal hit per battle and gives him invulnerability for a short time. As you can imagine, this combos very well with his Critical Status Buff.
One-Man Army: He's Famed In-Story for being one in lore. In-game, a Brutus with a significant gear and level lead over your other heroes can single-handedly demolish early enemies if you're lucky enough to get him early on.
Panthera Awesome: A leonine Beast Man and one of the most fearsome Maulers.
Series Mascot: Seems to have been adopted as such, with a lot of AFK Arena's publicity focusing on him. Brutus's portrait was even the game's icon for a while.
Spin Attack: Whirlwind, of the "spin while holding one's sword" variety. It also deflects magic and crippling debuffs.

Tropes relating to him as the Lion's Pride:

"To be a Blood Claw is to uphold one's duty!"

Dishing Out Dirt: Due to being imbued with the Emblem of Earth, he has gained tremendous power at the expense of becoming a target for the Corruptors.
Passing the Torch: While he was the Blood Claw in name for a while, Brutus only fully embraced the title once he learned the truth about Anasta's Zero-Approval Gambit.

Drez, The Quicksand Recluse

"Without experiencing true cruelty, one can never truly be strong."

A Durri who was once part of a hunting team. He was very good at what he did, knowing exactly how to quickly tell his opponents' weaknesses, and was even skilled enough to slay a mighty fire falcon. When more fire falcons came, though, his comrades abandoned him despite his pleas for help. Afterwards, he became a cold-hearted mercenary who trusts nobody.

Drez is an assassin through and through, having the ability to momentarily vanish from the battlefield before sneaking behind the enemy and delivering a brutal assault when they least expect.

Decomposite Character: Vurk once had the skill “Invisibility” which functioned very similar to Drez’s signature “Tactical Retreat”. Drez was introduced after Vurk traded this skill out for his poison traps.
Fantastic Racism: Drez was a victim of it. "Just leave him! It’s just a Durri, run!”, his so-called comrades said as they ran from the fire falcons attacking him. After already praising him for skillfully slaying one.
Farmer and the Viper: He firmly believes in this, and he has good reason to considering the treatment he’s gotten in the past. He doesn’t even trust the player, telling you to just leave whatever you have for him in the Oak Inn outside his door.
From Nobody to Nightmare: He started out as just a tiny rodent who was part of a band of hunters, but after he was betrayed, he became feared as a ruthless killer.
Head Hat: He wears a skull mask that he’s never seen without.
Noodle Incident: He refuses to tell anybody how he survived the fire falcon onslaught. It can only be assumed that it wasn’t pleasant.
Turns Red: He doesn’t start to use his bone spike until after he’s brought down to half health and pushed to temporarily retreat. Before that, he mainly uses a weak sling.

Golus, The Bladestorm

"You are either brave, or stupid to face me."

Granit, Desert's Stone

"I feel the beating heart of the world."

Khasos, The Unruly

"Let's do this!"

Born a runt of the litter, Khasos spent most of his life relegated to the role of a shepherd—considered a lowly, menial task considered only suitable for the scum of society among Maulers. His master was a feared and excessively cruel general, so when a freak storm scattered his flock too fast to do anything, he correctly assumed that he would be taken to be tortured and executed when his master found out.

He decided that if he was going to die, then it would be with some shred of dignity, so as he was being tormented, he exercised his right as a Mauler to challenge him. His master didn’t take him seriously, and decided to make a game out of it, drinking very heavily before the duel. Even then, he was still a dangerous opponent, but Khasos played to his own strengths and ultimately killed his master, to everyone’s surprise.

Brutus, as the de facto leader of the Maulers, had been observing the duel. Having a feeling that not only was the general being Too Dumb to Live but that there was more to this servant than it appeared, he paid close attention to how it went. After the battle, he offered to take him in as an apprentice and train him.

Better to Die than Be Killed: Khasos didn’t expect to actually win the duel. He only made the challenge so he could die in combat instead of being humiliated under the slaver’s whip.
Defiant to the End: Well, that was the idea, at least.
Dual Wielding: His preferred weapons are a pair of throwing axes.
Expy: Given his preference for axes, ability to switch from ranged to melee, and ability to gain lots and lots of attack speed (especially once his signature item was introduced), the resemblances to Troll Warlord have not gone unnoticed.
One-Hit Kill: Not in gameplay, but all it took for him to do in his master was one precise blow to the neck. Nobody was more shocked about this than Khasos.
Ship Tease: In the full-cast official artwork for Christmas 2020, Khasos is clinging onto Brutus's arm with a blissful expression with Heart Symbols above his head. The two of them are one of the more popular ships in the fandom.
Stance System: Khasos is unique in that he can switch between melee and ranged attacks on the fly depending on whether enemies are close to him; in ranged mode, he deals more damage, but when enemies get close, his attack becomes melee and deals area-of-effect damage, and he gains increased defense.
Weak, but Skilled: This was how he managed to come out on top in his backstory. He was weak, but he was observant, agile, and precise.

Kren, The Fanatical

"HAHAHAHA! Let the bombing begin!"

Ash Face: Kren has two different death animations, one of which features him being covered in ash after his gun explodes in his hand.
Card-Carrying Villain: While most of the Maulers have Blue-and-Orange Morality, Kren is openly evil and proud of it.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: He tore down his "Wanted!" Poster after seeing it, furious that the bounty on his head was only 3000 gold.^note
Even Evil Has Standards: While he enjoys destruction and carnage, he still needs an actual motivation to blow things up, usually profit. In fact, he ditches Thali because she doesn't, reasoning that if he was like her he'd end up a raving lunatic as well.
Expy: Of Rocket Raccoon of all characters; a small, fluffy animal who's a brash, smooth-talking outlaw that prefers BFGs. His Mad Bomber personality and design also bring to mind Ziggs.
I Call It "Vera": He's named his hand cannon "Lady" and his grenade launcher "Hot Stuff".
Red Eyes, Take Warning: While red eyes among Maulers aren't that unusual—even Skreg, who's the same species as Kren, has red eyes—black sclera and red pupils are unusual.

Numisu, The All Seer

"What do you need to know?"

As a child, Numisu was fascinated by the witch doctors and the art of voodoo magic. Despite studying and advice from his peers, he was unable to communicate with the spirits unlike the others.

Just as he was about to give up, a deadly plague swept the land and many Maulers fell ill. Numisu did his best to help but eventually fell victim himself. Being bedridden, Numisu was on the verge of death until he heard voices, belonging to the spirits.

Soon, Numisu was invigorated and with his newfound powers, saved the Maulers. Now, he becomes one of the most skilled witch doctors of the Mauler Tribes

Animal Motifs: His masks resembles an owl and his status as Witch Doctor gives him the title of 'wise one'
Hollywood Voodoo: He is a master of voodoo and many of his abilities are based on voodoo

Safiya, Daughter of the Desert/Maestro of Power

"I am one with the desert."

Viewing the old queen of the Sphinx as being weak and naive, the ruthlessly ambitious Safiya took it on herself to organize a coup to take power for herself. Though she succeeded through her skullduggery and magical prowess, she quickly found herself unable to hold power before being forced out of the throne. Now an exile from her own kind, Safiya's ambition nevertheless burns strong, and she plots to retake all she had lost and more.

A deadly spellcaster that specializes in massive area of effect damage, Safiya works best from the back line to empower her allies and burn her foes to ash. Her ultimate ability, Falling Sun, channels a powerful fireball that is released when the channel completes or is interrupted. The longer it is channeled, the greater its damage and area of effect.

Tropes relating to her as The Daughter of the Desert

Ambition Is Evil: Safiya's primary defining feature is her endless ambition and lust for power, leading to her being willing to manipulate and murder in order to become queen of the Sphinx.
Charged Attack: Her ultimate is the first one to be introduced to the game, with the amount of time she charges it determining its power. If the charge is interrupted prematurely, it launches anyway.
Cute Monster Girl: A sphinx whose top half is that of an attractive young woman with cat ears. She even does an adorable cat-like stretch in her victory animation.
Field Power Effect: Her Spectral Disruption ability sets up a power field on her side of the battlefield, buffing the attack power of allies in it while weakening enemies.
Full-Circle Revolution: Finds herself on the receiving end of one, with her usurpation being answered by a revolt from loyalists of the old queen.
Gathering Steam: With her signature item, a portion of the damage Safiya deals is converted into bonus attack power, letting her become much stronger over time if she can stay alive.
Lost in Translation: In the Chinese version, Safiya's bio includes details that aren't present in the English translation. It reveals that, after forming an alliance with Ankhira, she returned with an army of Arachin to retake the throne, and having learned from the last time, she managed to hold onto it and, being the power-hungry conqueror she is, Safiya plans to become leader of the Maulers. Her encounter with Ankhira also goes somewhat differently, with Safiya being bound and nearly killed before managing to talk her way out of her predicament.
Manipulative Bastard: She spent quite a while manipulating the members of the Sphinx court to join her cause, and later managed to sweet-talk Ankhira out of eating her and into an alliance. While she's definitely strong in a straight fight thanks to her magical abilities, she can do a lot more with words.
Our Sphinxes Are Different: She sports the traditional winged gynosphinx design, and while she's not one for riddles, her people are portrayed as shrewd and analytical. Her outfit also carries a heavy Egyptian motif, complete with a blinged-out headdress at Legendary+.
Power of the Void: She has spent many years mastering the Void realm's forbidden power.
Pyramid Power: Spectral Disruption's power field takes on a pyramidal shape, befitting her Egypt-inspired design; it's also easily one of her most impactful abilities, both buffing her fellow back-line heroes and debuffing anyone that tries to dive on them.
Recursive Ammo: Scatter Bolt splits on contact with its target to hit several more.
Sphere of Destruction: Falling Sun creates a fireball that causes a spherical explosion when it lands.

Tropes relating to her as The Maestro of Power:

Black Eyes of Evil: Her mastery over the Power of the Void has made her sclera turn black.
Magic Meteor: One imbued with the Power of the Void and the source of her new power.
Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Her introduction video shows her hair lengthen upon coming into contact with the void fragment.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her reddish-brown eyes have turned a bright red, she has always been ruthless, and now she has been empowered by a mysterious and ominous Magic Meteor.
Who's Laughing Now?: As a pair of duplicitous backstabbers, both fully intent on betraying one another, her alliance with Ankhira inevitably breaks down with the other queen cornering her and saying I Can Rule Alone. But after being Touched by Vorlons, Safira overpowers her and turns the tables, taunting her over it.

Satrana, Flame Weaver

"Time to turn up the heat."

The daughter of a Mauler deserter, Satrana grew up in slavery as per Mauler law. Under a brutal master, she suffered enough punishment to render her mute out of trauma. One day, the slaves under her owner revolted, and she fled into the desert in the ensuing chaos. As she was on the brink of death from the harsh desert, she managed to drag herself to a temple, where a mysterious warrior gave her water and was ostracized by her peers for it. After the rescuer was cast out, Satrana was taken in and trained as a Keeper of Flames, regaining the ability to speak over time, and eventually set out to both find the warrior who had saved her life and also bring her gifts out into the world.

Age-Inappropriate Dress: Despite canonically being 15, her outfit is exceptionally revealing and sexualized.
Dance Battler: Satrana's abilities incorporate a lot of graceful twirls akin to Sufi whirling; her ultimate is even named Firedance.
Dub-Induced Plot Hole: As stated in Antandra's section, the English version of their backstory cut out a lot of important details, such as Antandra's tenure as Satrana's surrogate mother and Numisu agreeing to raise her in Antandra's stead after the latter's banishment. This leads to her backstory having the temple taking her in for no apparent reason right after one of their trainees attempted to kill her.
Hero-Worshipper: To Antandra, and justifiably so given that Antandra put her own livelihood on the line just to save Satrana's life. This makes much more sense in their original backstory, given that the two had time to build an actual relationship.
Invulnerable Attack: While using her ultimate, Satrana is immune to damage and crowd control.
Kung-Fu Wizard: She's classified as a Mage, but she specializes in dealing area damage at melee range. Flutter Flame in particular tends to take her right into the middle of the enemy team.
Ms. Fanservice: She's a Dance Battler with a belly dancer-inspired outfit that shows a lot of cleavage (with jiggling for good measure). Then there's this remark in her voice lines...
"Hot? Why, thank you!"
Playing with Fire: She specializes in fire magic, and even uses the exact same incantation for one of her spells as Mirael.
Plucky Girl: She's always upbeat and determined to do good with her abilities, even with all the crap she's had to endure in her childhood.

Saveas, Strongheart

"I heed your call."

Cast from Hit Points: All of his abilities sacrifice 8% of his current HP. This includes “Sacrificial Sustenance”, an ability that heals him to give him more HP to sacrifice.
Combat Sadomasochist: Except without the “sado” part. The pain of battle thrills him to the point where he routinely damages himself on purpose. Even the other Maulers tend to look at him strangely for this.
Confronting Your Imposter: How he first met Vurk, who was trying to impersonate him using a stolen badge.
Crutch Character: Below level 160, he’s arguably the best character in the game with his speed, power, and surprising durability. Once he hits his hard level and ascension cap, though, he’s only good to the player as ascension fodder.
Lightning Bruiser: Has abilities to boost his own attack power and his own attack speed.
Stealing the Credit: Zig-Zagged regarding his Union story. During Vurk’s retelling of the story about the time he, Saveas, and Numisu killed a dragon, Vurk tried to say that his crossbow onslaught was doing absolutely nothing while Saveas saved the day with a decisive blow, but Saveas was quick to point out that he probably would have died if Vurk wasn’t (inadvertently) distracting it. In the original version of the Union story, however, which focused on the battle instead of the retelling, it was Vurk himself who dealt the fatal blow.

Skreg, The Cunning

"What do we have here?"

Skreg possessed the timid temperament typical of his race, the Durri, in contrast to his brother Vurk. However, once he learned of Vurk's exploits in Arachin territory, he felt inspired to venture outside of the Durri dens. It wasn't long before he found a wounded ironjaw, and despite initially attempting to kill the beast, Skreg saw in it the same boldness that drove him to face the world. He instead nursed the ironjaw back to health, and the two have been inseparable ever since.

Fighting alongside his trusty ironjaw steed, Skreg is a formidable tank that plows through enemy ranks, shrugging off any damage they deal in return while hurling opponents into the air. His Beast of Burden serves as both passive buff and ultimate ability. It grants his ironjaw immunity to knockback, and when activated, Skreg will mount the ironjaw and fight atop it. While mounted, Skreg's attacks gain bonus damage and hit the target twice, and he becomes immune to crowd control.

A Boy and His X: His relationship with the ironjaw being this way is more evident if the game’s language setting is changed. See Translation Train Wreck below.
Affectionate Nickname: The ironjaw’s real name is “Savagehorn”, but Skreg calls it “大块头” (“Dàkuàitóu”, “Big guy”) in the Chinese version, and “相棒” (“Aibō”, “Buddy”) in the Japanese version.
Animal-Eared Headband: Suspended from his headband is a chin guard designed to look like his ironjaw’s... well, iron jaw.
Androcles' Lion: He earned the companionship of his ironjaw by healing it while it was wounded; now, it's his steed.
The Juggernaut: If Skreg wants to get into your backrow, there's not much that can stop him. With knockback immunity, huge damage resistance, and immunity to disables from his ultimate, more often than not he can simply wade into the enemy team and stay there for the entire fight.
Made of Iron: The aptly-named Ironskin ability, which reduces damage taken from enemies the closer they are to Skreg. At melee range, enemies deal 60% less damage to him, and he can very easily get up close and personal to exploit this.
Mounted Combat: Skreg's specialty, and a very formidable one given that his steed can trample its way through most opposition.
No Name Given: The ironjaw is always just called "the ironjaw", even by Skreg himself during the “Deathly Marshlands” Voyage of Wonders event... in the English version, anyway. Skreg actually named it “Savagehorn”, but there’s no way to find that out without changing the game’s language setting.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: This used to be one of Skreg’s abilities, in which if Skreg was killed in battle, then Savagehorn would go berserk and lash out against his killers in a final attack. This ability was later traded out, however, because it just wasn’t very practical in gameplay.
This Is Unforgivable!: His catchphrase in the Japanese version.
”Make a fool out of me, and Buddy will never forgive you!”^note
Translation Train Wreck: Skreg is one of the characters whose personality is most drastically changed in the English version. Originally, he was a plucky little guy with a big monster friend that he often talks to directly and calls Affectionate Nicknames. In the English version, his attitude is much more aggressive, and he acknowledges his ironjaw’s existence much less, to the point of even the ironjaw’s name being excluded from the English translation of his lore. This seems to have been averted somewhat as in the Cycle of Sorrow event in Voyage of Wonders, Skreg directly calls his steed Savagehorn, and at the end calls him by one of his Affectionate Nicknames (big guy, in this instance).
Units Not to Scale: Canonically, Skreg is 130cm (4’3”) and Savagehorn is 173cm (5’8”), but in-game, Savagehorn looks the height of an average human while Skreg looks barely chest height to anyone else.

Skriath, The Wise One

"A wise choice."

Badass Pacifist: His claim to fame; Skriath managed to unite the Mauler tribes under one banner through mutual cooperation, ultimately becoming their Grand Chieftan, and then led their united forces to save his own people, doing only enough damage to coax out a surrender. Keep in mind, these are the Maulers we're talking about here.
Dishing Out Dirt: All of Skriath's spells summon sand and rock to attack enemies.
King Incognito: Downplayed. He takes on the persona of "The Kingpin" to play trumpet in the cross-factional band Esperian Rhapsody. His bandmates and fans, however, have no idea who he is despite his being one of the most major political figures in all of Esperia.
Musical Assassin: Even when he's not using his magic staff to summon sandstorms, the musical notes he can summon with his jazz trumpet are just as dangerous—it is, however, not *just* a weapon, and you can hear him play if you preview his "Kingpin" skin while the game's normal background music volume is turned down.
Nice to the Waiter: In the Oak Inn, he's the most affable and conversational of any character in any faction to you, who's acting as room service.
Noble Bird of Prey: He's an eagle-themed bird person that leads the Mauler tribes, and favors peaceful confrontation over mindless violence.
Only Sane Man: He was the only one of his tribe that knew that their violent ways would get them in trouble with their many enemies someday, and tried to convince them to pursue peace instead; he promptly got exiled for his trouble but was later proven right. It took none other than Skriath himself to save the falcon tribe from extermination.
Quicksand Sucks: His ultimate ability summons a quicksand pit that drags enemies inside it towards the center.
Reasonable Authority Figure: To the Maulers as a whole; keeping tribes that have been at each other's throats for years together through diplomacy means he has to be doing something right.

Thali, Maniacal Mage

"I'll give you a taste of brutality!"

Ax-Crazy: When even Kren considers her insane and dangerous, you know she's a nasty piece of work. At least he tries to profit from his mayhem; Thali destroys things just for the hell of it.
Cast from Hit Points: Thali loses a percentage of her max health at the beginning of each battle thanks to her passive, and her Fire Rapture ability has her shaving off another chunk of it to deal area damage.
Critical Status Buff: Thali's passive gives her damage resistance and lifesteal as her health drops, granting maximum benefits when she's below 40% health.
Pyromaniac: A dangerously insane fire mage that loves to set things ablaze - as Kren notes, she'd burn her own loot if she felt like it, which is partly what drove him to get away from her. It's even the name of her ultimate.
Unstoppable Rage: Thali's ultimate ability sends her into a frenzy that increases her attack speed and power while improving her other abilities as well. However, she becomes exhausted for a short time when it ends and is left briefly helpless. When upgraded by her furniture bonus, a frenzied Thali can shrug off fatal damage and keep fighting, only dying when the frenzy ends.
Villainous Friendship: A mostly one-sided one with Kren. While he thinks she's insane and wants to stay away from her (despite begrudgingly respecting her skills), Thali seems to enjoy being around Kren.

Thesku, The Serpent Charmer

"The melodious flute reminds me of an old friend."

Tidus, Shadowmane

"Show them no mercy."

The son of a Mauler deserter, Tidus was cast into the lowest echelons of Mauler society after his father's execution. As a slave, he was quickly found uncontrollable and was sentenced instead to life as a gladiator in the fighting pits. He took to the life very well, mercilessly destroying any opponent sent against him, save for a bear who could match him blow for blow, easily withstanding Tidus's frenzied offense. Having found an equal at last, Tidus has but one goal: to kill him.

The Berserker: Tidus's battle strategy in a nutshell: charge into enemy ranks, scatter them with his howl, then blindly attack the weakest enemy until it dies, rinse and repeat.
Blood Knight: Tidus essentially lives for combat, remaining as a gladiator solely to spill as much blood as possible.
Expy: Of Warwick, and by extension, Bloodseeker. His ultimate and Battle Howl are essentially the same as Warwick's equivalent abilities, while his Frenzied Strikes shares its mechanics with Bloodseeker's Rupture, and his passive draws from both characters.
Injured Vulnerability: Once an enemy drops below half health, Tidus's Savagery ability causes him to relentlessly pursue and attack them until they are slain, gaining various stat buffs at higher levels.
Savage Wolves: A Wolf Man whose bloodlust is particularly pronounced even for a Mauler.
Worthy Opponent: Begrudgingly accepts Warek as his equal solely for going into the ring against him twice and fighting him to a draw.

Vurk, The Devious

"I've come out to play!"

One of the rat-like Durri, a tribe typically known for using sneaky guerilla attacks using ranged weapons and poisons. Vurk uses those same tactics, except without the "sneaky guerilla" part. He spent his life venturing out in the world, and ultimately made a name for himself by infiltrating the Arachin tribe to steal their venom — a move the other Durri thought was suicidal but bold enough to gain the Durri respect from the other Maulers when he succeeded. He’s the one who inspired his older brother, Skreg, to go out and fight as well.

Vurk is a ranged attacker with weak individual attacks, but a strong focus on continuous damage. He also has several countermeasures against enemies who try to compromise his formation, including laying traps on his own side, and his ultimate returning him to the back of the battlefield if he’s been forcefully moved by a fighter such as Nara or Ezizh.

Annoying Arrows: His crossbow bolts aren’t very effective on their own, and his ultimate, “Mania”, involves firing a whole lot of them to hit as many opponents as many times as he can.
Big Little Brother: Vurk is 140cm (4’7”) tall while Skreg is only 130cm (4’3”). That said, because of Skreg’s ironjaw, in-game their height difference looks much more dramatic.
Draw Aggro: When he, Saveas, and Numisu were fighting the dragon that earned the “Dragon Slayers” union their name, the dragon was much more focused on the crossbow bolts hitting it than the spear that ultimately ended its life. Vurk was not doing this on purpose. Even so, Saveas admits that he would have definitely been killed by the dragon if Vurk wasn’t being careless enough to distract it.
Expy: Of Twitch from League of Legends, another ratlike creature specializing in a poisoned crossbow and sporting steampunk-like sniper's goggles. The inspiration's not as obvious after his redesign, though.
Goggles Do Nothing: He used to sport a pair of sniper goggles, but he ditched them after his Art Evolution and now only wears them in his battle portrait.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While acting very sadistic in the gameplay itself, when he has a chance to directly interact with other characters, such as in the lore for the “Dragon Slayers” hero union or the “Deathly Marshlands” event in the Voyage of Wonders, he’s shown to be much friendlier than he looks if you aren’t one of his enemies. He’s very open about how much he cares about his allies, and usually exaggerates their exploits as much as he does his own (albeit to their embarrassment). This is much more apparent in the Chinese version; in his Union Story there, he could have very easily just made off with the dragon's treasure while the dragon had Saveas and Numisu firmly beaten, but he instead opted to come up with a plan on the spot so the three of them could come out on top together. Important to note is that it's not him telling the story in that version.
Laughing Mad: Most of his spoken lines in the English version are maniacal laughter, most of his lines in the Chinese version are sadistic taunts with laughter in them, and he stops to laugh every time he throws one of his poison vials. He also grins during his death animation, even after he’s dead. The game makes no attempt to hide his homicidal insanity, his ultimate attack being called “Mania” and his signature item’s ability being called “Madness”.
Leeroy Jenkins: His poison crossbow isn’t an unusual weapon among Durri, but being upfront about using it instead of being a Cold Sniper very much is. While he was out plundering the Arachin venom — something other Durri would never even have considered — and didn’t return for a while, the other Durri just assumed that he’d finally done something stupid enough to get himself killed. This includes his own brother, who ordinarily respects him.
Master Poisoner: Poisons are his modus operandi. He gained his reputation by stealing powerful venom from the Arachin, two of his special attacks are throwing vials of poison and leaving poison traps, and his crossbow attacks become poisonous in the endgame.
Spread Shot: He’s able to fire three crossbow bolts at once during his ultimate if he gets the “Talonstrike” power-up in the Arcane Labyrinth or related modes, and he gains the ability permanently once he reaches Mythic tier and unlocks his signature item.
Stealing the Credit: Zig-Zagged. He can’t seem to make up his mind whether he likes to take credit for things he didn’t do, such as leading the way during the dragon mission, or push the credit on others for his actual accomplishments, such as with his performance during the actual fight — especially if the original version of his Union story is compared to the current one.
Stink Snub: Downplayed in that this is his attitude towards his brother’s ironjaw, complaining about its stench while helping it get its foot unstuck at the beginning of “Deathly Marshlands”.
Trap Master: He lays poisonous traps around his side of the arena, which can be very useful against enemies that force their way into the other side’s ranks such as Silveena or, ironically enough, Skreg.
Wheel o' Feet: During his ultimate, “Mania”, his legs are replaced with a rotating spiral as he darts around his ranks.
You Are a Credit to Your Race: All Durri were typically seen by the other Maulers as Dirty Cowards... until news of Vurk’s exploits spread. Durri began to be a bit more respected after that.
You Dirty Rat!: Among the rat-like Durri, Vurk is the closest in personality to the typical rat.

Warek, The Untamed

"Ready for battle!"

Born of the bear folk, Warek looked up to his brother who was leader of the tribes. His carefree life came to an end when the centaurs attacked and killed his brother. Warek and many other cubs were taken to the Crimson Arena to be sold as gladiators. Determined to earn his people's freedom, Warek rose up to be the greatest and undefeated gladiator of the Arena.

Bears Are Bad News: A bear Mauler and a skilled gladiator in the Arena
Heroes Fight Barehanded: His main weapons are vambraces and his ability "Bloodlust" punches the opponent numerous time
You Killed My Father: Or Brother in this case.

Wilders

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wilder.png

Protectors of nature, Wilders have the closest connection to Yggdrasil but have since been driven away from their home by the Hypogeans.

Beast Man: Many of them are descended from the Maulers, meaning that like them, their ancestors were experimented on with human alchemy, turning them into a blend of human and animal.
Nature Hero: Wilders are magically connected to nature and derive their powers from it.
Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism: Ranging from mostly-human fantasy characters like Eironn or Tasi to Civilized Animals like Pippa.
Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Wilders, representing new life, are super-effective against Graveborn, representing death. Both Markiplier and Nemora plainly state this.

Arden, Nature's Voice

"I hear every heartbeat."

Mentor Archetype: He taught several of the Wilders, including Nemora and Tasi.

Astar, The Brilliant Flame

"Astar is ready!"

Callback: One of the B-Side Comics shows that while Maetria claimed to have gathered all the Solarian flame in the world from Talene, the authors hadn't forgotten about Astar. The effect of the ritual on her was unpleasant, but temporary.
Playing with Fire: Her power as a Phoenix Flower sprite.
When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Another of her kind said that not all problems can be solved with their power over fire. Unfortunately, the lesson went over her young head. The other Wilders shun her because of her tendency to set their stuff on fire while "helping".

Eironn, Stormsword

"No victory comes without a price."

Gorvo, The Indomitable

"What is it?"

Ira, Rogue of the Forest

"I'm coming for you."

Kaz, Hand of the Wood

"It's time to join your friends in the Underworld."

Lorsan, Wind Whisperer

"I hear your voice."

Lyca, Keeper of Glades

"Protect the weak, defy evil."

When chosen as the First Ranger of the Wilder Dusk Watch by the tribe's sages, many of their people were skeptical due to her youth and inexperience. However, what she lacked in prowess and experience she made up for with a natural knack for leadership and bringing out the best in those under her command. One night, a deer spirit descended from the skies before her in a burst of light, holding a graceful bow - a portent of an ancient prophecy regarding a hero chosen by the stars themselves to drive evil out of the Wilders' homeland. No longer a mere Wilder, Lyca became a destined champion of her people, and she is wholly determined to live up to her role.

The Chosen One: She was essentially chosen by the stars themselves to lead her people into battle.
Damage-Increasing Debuff: Her passive marks any enemy that she damages, causing them to take increased damage.
The Marvelous Deer: Her steed is a celestial deer spirit.
Rose-Haired Sweetie: Lyca has distinctive pink hair, and she's both caring and encouraging to her peers.
Support Party Member: While her damage output isn't too shabby, what sets Lyca aside from other rangers is how much she can boost her allies' damage output. In addition to a powerful start-of-combat boost to Energy and attack speed for her entire team, she's also capable of marking enemies to make them take increased damage, especially since her ultimate can mark an entire enemy team at once.

Mishka, The Wild Child

"Come on! Show me what you got!"

Nemora, Nature's Heart

"I am one with nature."

A sweet-tempered Wilder with great attunement to nature and an insatiable desire for understanding, Nemora was among the keenest of Arden's pupils. On the eve of the Hypogean invasion, she was blessed with incredible healing abilities and puts them to good use warding off the demonic invasion.

Undisputably the premier healer in the game, Nemora excels at keeping her allies alive and healthy; when push comes to shove, she can also turn enemies against each other. Her ultimate ability, Wild Wonder, heals all allies by a percentage of her own health.

Cloudcuckoolander: In the Chinese version, she acts very naïve and childlike, especially compared to the sensible and wise persona she gives off in the English version. A good example of the difference is that, while in English her Oak Inn quote is just talking about how comfortable she finds the room, in Chinese she talks about how much she loves the sound her hooves make on the wooden floor when she trots around... which very much irritates Seirus because she's doing it constantly.
Corrupt the Cutie: She’s sworn to protect the forest, but after being broken by the constant death and blight around her, she began to care less about the forest itself and more about snuffing out anyone harming it. She eventually realized the error of her ways with Ulmus’s help and went back to her old self, although leaving behind an Enemy Without in the process.
Enemy Without: One of the bosses in the Twisted Realm, “Demonic Entity”, is an Evil Doppelgänger of Nemora created when she expelled the darkness and rage that was taking her over at one point, and it takes on the form of how she was at the time.
Exposition Fairy: She gives several of the explanations and warnings in the interface, particularly in the Rickety Cart or when the player doesn’t have enough resources to do something.
The Medic: Even among Support heroes, Nemora has incredible healing output and is the most healing-focused hero in the game; the tradeoff is that she's not much good at anything else.
Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Her Beguile ability forces an enemy to attack its allies; at higher levels, it also boosts the attack power of the charmed target.
Sweet Sheep: A petite sheep-centaur that's also a total sweetheart.
White Mage: Two of Nemora's abilities are heals, one is a passive that boosts her healing output, and the only thing she has resembling an offensive ability is the ability to charm enemies.

Ogi, Nature's Strength

"I shall free us all."

Oku, Ironfist

"Invader, you are not welcome in this forest."

Pippa, The Muddled Magician

"Practice makes perfect... I hope."

A squirrel mage who holds the unique distinction of being the only Wilder to ever be expelled from the Arcane Academy for her tendency to cast spells that go horribly wrong. She doesn’t mind, though, and enjoys the freedom it’s given her, continuing to practice on her own in the forest with the help of Nemora, Arden, and Tasi. Most assume she’s a fool, but she’s really a savant who’s capable of more types of magic than most others.

Pippa seems useless at first, with her tendency for her attacks to backfire and even her ultimate not being guaranteed, but she turns out to be the game’s Lethal Joke Character at higher ascension tiers. She can fill multiple niches at once by being able to heal, inflict status conditions, and attack, and if paired up with the character whose attack she’s copying, that character’s will semi-reliably become twice as effective.

Bag of Holding: ...which she accidentally tore a hole in. That she still hasn't noticed. This leads to the Forest Mania Match-Three Mini-Game, where she scrambles to re-capture the magic seeds she was supposed to deliver.
Civilized Animal: Out of all the animal characters in the game, Pippa is the least anthropomorphic, being an almost-completely-normal squirrel.
Ditto Fighter: Her ultimate attack, “Pippa’s Imitation”, turns into either Arden’s “Force of Nature”, Nemora’s “Wild Wonder”, or Tasi’s “Slumber”, randomized each use, though the chances are tilted towards fighters she can copy that are currently on the battlefield, if there are any. Since Arden is one of the characters with a hard level cap, “Force of Nature” becomes exclusively hers in the endgame.
Ditzy Genius: Her apparent ridiculous behavior is stated to be not because of stupidity like her peers assume; she just thinks in a different way than most people.
Forced Transformation: One of the spells she knows is turning the opponent into an acorn, rendering them helpless. The problem is, she’s just as likely to cast it on herself by mistake. She learns to use this state to be better at dodging at higher levels, though.
Hypocritical Humor: After decrying humans for their greed and defeating Shadow Rowan in "Voyage of Wonders: Dreamscape", she immediately finds an offer for a new hat and glasses at half-price from the real Rowan irresistible.
Magikarp Power: With her chance-based mechanics and frailty, earlier tiers are all but useless. She becomes much more dangerous at higher levels when she learns to use even her mistakes to her advantage.
The Medic: When Nemora is on the battlefield, she’s more likely to reliably heal her teammates by copying “Wild Wonder”. In fact, Pippa’s version is even better, as it will keep going even if interrupted.
Mundane Utility: While she was still in the Arcane Academy, she said her primary reason for wanting to learn a teleportation spell was to make storing acorns more convenient. Her professors groaned at this, but she actually meant it; her victory animation is her teleporting one of the acorns from her stash.
Opaque Nerd Glasses: Her eyes are visible in her official artwork, where said glasses are out of the way, but not any other time.
Power Copying: Lore-wise, she has the unique talent of learning how to cast a new spell by just seeing it used once. In the gameplay, though, this is restricted to the characters she has the closest relationship to: Arden, Nemora, and Tasi.
Rodents of Unusual Size: Despite being a non-anthropomorphic squirrel, she's 140cm (4’7”) tall — almost a foot taller than even Arden.
Self-Damaging Attack Backfire: Most of her spells have a chance of failing and disabling her.
Squishy Wizard: She is a tiny squirrel, after all, and she has the durability to match.
Stock Animal Diet: She’s a squirrel who loves acorns.
Walking Disaster Area: Wherever she’s practicing, things tend to be destroyed. It was one of the reasons she was expelled.

Raku, The Rascal

"Here we go again!"

Respen, The Wind Child

"Do you sense the wind?"

Blow You Away
Elemental Embodiment: Respen is the Elemental Guardian of the Wind.
Power Incontinence: In his infancy, he had the tendency to lose control of his powers from inexperience. Khazard eventually came into his life to help him control the winds as its new Guardian.
We Used to Be Friends: He used to have a student-mentor bond with Khazard, the former Guardian of the Tides, before the latter was turned into a Hypogean.

Saurus, The Risen Warrior

"I'm here for you."

With his pride shattered by an ignominious defeat, Saurus exiled himself to the decaying town of Rustport. There, he had the misfortune of being caught by a local gang for stealing from a stall under their protection and was locked up alongside a girl caught for similar crimes. However, the girl broke out of her cage, freed Saurus, and disappeared in the ensuing chaos. Inspired by her spirit, Saurus aims to regain his former pride and honor, and seeks out his savior to protect her.

Chaining together devastating spear attacks to strike down grouped enemies and single foes alike, Saurus is second to none in sustained damage output, particularly against bosses. However, his effectiveness is greatly hampered by disables. His ultimate ability, Phased Form, creates a spectral copy of Saurus that copies his abilities and grants him a shield while active.

Combos: Each time he successfully casts War Strike, Saurus resets the cooldown of Burst Strikes and vice versa, letting him chain the abilities together in quick succession. Each successful cast also builds Tenacity, making him even stronger.
Double Weapon: His weapon of choice is a double-ended spear, whose shaft can also be split into two as he does during Burst Strikes.
Glass Cannon: His offensive power is peerless in ideal conditions, but interrupt him once and he’s finished.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: Once a proud and respected fighter, but thanks to one bad decision, he wound up as a fugitive on the run. Fortunately, he's now trying to climb his way back up.
Weaksauce Weakness: Any sort of disable will bring Saurus's rampage to a screeching halt, as using one to interrupt his abilities will not only block his cooldown reset but also set his Tenacity buff back down to zero.

Seirus, Savior of the Sea

"The ocean is my dominion."

Solise, The Floral Wonder/Water Animator

"Do you need me?"

Gifted with the unique ability to commune with all forms of plant life, Solise is the premier botanist among the Wilder people, with herbal remedies for nearly any ailment. Not only can she instinctively recognize the properties of any plant at a touch, she can also channel the life force of surrounding plant life into powerful spells, making her a potent defender against the Hypogean menace.

Tropes relating to her as The Floral Wonder:

Asian Fox Spirit: She's based on the kitsune of Japanese folklore, being a Fox Folk with nine tails and supernatural abilities even for her own people.
Cherry Blossoms: Her ultimate ability causes sakura petals to fall for a duration, empowering her other abilities while it's active. They also symbolize her drive to protect the cycle of life.
Green Thumb: She specializes in communing with and manipulating plant life, both in her role as a botanist and to fight back against enemies.
The Red Mage: While she possesses strong damage output, Solise can also heal and buff allies with Forest's Blessing.
The Turret Master: When Blossom Fall is occurring, her Floral Specter becomes able to attack nearby enemies.

Tropes relating to her as the Water Animator:

Summon Magic: It's been upgraded to the point that she can summon water elementals.

Tamrus, The Jungleroamer

"I'm no human! could a human jump like this?"

Token Human: An adopted human, he is the only baseline human in the faction, which is mostly comprised of Beast Men and Elemental Embodiments. He tries to fit in by dressing himself to look like a monkey since a lot of Wilders resent humans for poaching.

Tasi, Dreamhopper

"I am here!"

An ethereal being that inhabits the dreamscape, Tasi bestows dreams to and soothes the nightmares of Esperia's denizens. But with the Hypogean invasion, her task has become increasingly difficult, and she recognized that she needed to take action in the physical realm. The treant Ulmus answered her call, performing the rite to conjure her into the physical world in the form of a fairy. Tasi thus joined Ulmus and the Wilders to fight back the demonic blight encroaching on their lands.

Dream Weaver: Responsible for sowing both pleasant dreams and quelling nightmares.
Forced Sleep: Her ultimate ability puts the entire enemy team to sleep, rendering them helpless for its duration and dealing damage based on a percentage of the damage they took while asleep once they wake up.
A Form You Are Comfortable With: Tasi's default form (so to speak) is a formless Energy Being, but Ulmus summoned her in a physical form to interact with the world by her request.
Locked Out of the Fight: She can banish the enemy with the highest attack power, rendering them unable to fight or be attacked, while also stealing a portion of their attack power at higher levels. Its cooldown is short enough that Tasi can basically keep a single enemy locked down for as long as she survives.
Minidress of Power: She sports a dress that barely goes down past her waist, and is every bit as dangerous as the less cutesy-looking Wilders.
Our Fairies Are Different: Of the "human with butterfly wings" variety, but only in her physical form.
Stone Wall: Tasi is deceptively durable thanks to her Teleportation giving her a good bit of damage resistance, and is great at shutting down dangerous enemies. Her damage output isn't as great, though.
Teleport Spam: Tasi's Teleportation ability allows her to periodically avoid damage and teleport to an ally or enemy, and each time she takes a hit, the ability's cooldown is reduced. Any fight where she doesn't go down quickly will have her teleporting around quite a bit, especially with her furniture ability (which lets her teleport a second time within 1 second of the ability triggering).

Ulmus, Aldermarrow

"I am prepared."

Graveborn

The undead of Esperia, doomed to be forever stuck in a state between life and death.

And I Must Scream: The ultimate fate of all Graveborn. They can never die, but their bodies will still eventually decompose and become dust. Sentient dust. Forever. This can be mitigated with things like embalming oil and healing magic (averting Revive Kills Zombie), but even that only puts off the inevitable.
And Then John Was a Zombie: There are ways to become Graveborn without dying first, such as with a cursed scroll that Mortas used on others, or by mutual agreement such as with Shemira and Silas. But regardless of the state one was in before, the change is permanent.
Dark Is Not Evil: While there are more openly evil characters in this faction than any others (save for the Hypogeans), there are plenty of exceptions, a notable one being the Forsaken Family union: the still-caring Mama Bear Shemira, the pure-hearted Daimon, and Niru who's well-intentioned but insensitive. Beyond that, the ones that reside on the Isle of the Banished, calling themselves "The Tainted", reject the cruelty of those serving Qaedam entirely.
Fate Worse than Death: Even besides the state of being a Graveborn itself, those who show even the smallest sign of disobedience to Thoran or Qaedam are thrown in the Black Prison, designed by Thoran to torture a Graveborn's soul for all eternity.
Hive Mind: Less powerful Graveborn typically end up this way, still being aware of their surroundings but being stuck under Qaedam's complete control.
Most Writers Are Human: So far, there have been no Maulers or Wilders turned Graveborn; they’ve all been Lightbearers.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Several Graveborn, like Niru and Oden, were executed for practicing illegal necromancy. What did their captors think would happen?
Proud Warrior Race: Not inherently, but the capital of Graveborn territory, King's Manse, was once home to the Lenu people, whose obsession with war and death makes the Maulers look like pacifists. This is what attracted Qaedam to the area.
Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Graveborn are super-effective against Lightbearers, being undead Lightbearers themselves.
Tragic Monster: The majority of Graveborn had no control over their own fates.
Undeathly Pallor: A universal trait among Graveborn is their unnatural skin colors, predominantly various shades of sickly grey.
Voice of the Legion: Most Graveborn that speak at all have a noticeable echo in their voice.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: While there are exceptions who volunteered like Silas and Vedan, most of the Graveborn were turned involuntarily. This is bad news for you if you’re suffering; not even a Hypogean can completely destroy a Graveborn. The Mortuary Void is the only thing in the world that can destroy a Graveborn, and it will grant not the rest of the afterlife, but Cessation of Existence.

Baden, The Abomination/Knight of Blight

"There is no hope for the living."

Tropes relating to him as The Abomination:

And I Must Scream: Implied. At the end of Baden's story, he finally tears his conscience free from various spells of mind control and kills his master. He is finally free, undead, but free — or so he thinks. The necromancer's spirit returns. Oh, and Baden's spirit is too tired to fight it off. He gets completely resealed by even stronger spells, and Baden's story closes with his spirit watching through what used to be his body. By the Elemental Strife story, he is apparently free of the lich, though there is no explanation of how.
Characterization Marches On: His bio implies that the necromancer that revived him retook control of his body after coming back to life himself. However, the Elemental Strife storyline and the story of Thane's Awakened form implies that Baden is either still in control or retook control of his body, as he's lucid enough to recognize Thane and fight beside him.
Downer Ending: Though his fate is pretty much unknown, the fact that he is completely possessed by the malicious necromancer that brought him back gives clue enough to the reader what he may be doing.
- Though there is still a bit of hope, as Baden is still very much conscious within his body — though this may not be a good thing...
Expy: His kit's design, based around summoning numerous weak phantoms to overwhelm enemies, along with his preference for a spear clearly bring to mind Phantom Lancer.
Heroic Sacrifice: In his final moments of life, it's implied that Baden jumped in to protect the wounded Thane from Brutus, only for himself to die in the ensuing battle. The Elemental Strife storyline confirms this through a cutscene depicting the exact moment Brutus cut him down.
Hope Spot: A brutal version, as Baden was quite well adored when he was alive and many people mourned him. After he was resurrected, the necromancer that brought him back placed a good amount of mind-control spells over him to keep Baden in his place. However, Baden gradually sheds those ties and killed his master. Baden left, most likely to find Thane or the rest of his people. And then he gets pulled under again. The necromancer must have anticipated his actions, because they came back as a spirit, overpowering Baden and reinforcing backup spells.

Tropes relating to him as the Knight of Blight:

Dark Is Not Evil: His mind free, he has joined forces with the Tainted to save the world from elemental imbalance.
Green Thumb: His awakened form has power over wood.

Daimon, The Forsaken Child

"Where are you?"

Creepy Child: A Graveborn child wrapped in bandages, accompanied by a monstrous doll, who speaks in the hollow, echoing tone used by most Graveborn.
Glacier Waif: Despite being a young boy, Daimon is classified as a tank and has the durability to back up his status. He and Stitchy also hit surprisingly hard, especially for a tank hero.
Puppet Fighter: In addition to Daimon himself using magic to drain health from enemies, Daimon's animated doll Stitchy fights semi-independently from him. Stitchy is completely invulnerable but dies alongside Daimon if he is killed.
Undead Child: His Chinese voice acting reveals that Daimon died before his tenth birthday.

Prince Edwin, The Usurper

Thoran and Theowyn's brother, whose sudden treachery single-handedly destroyed the prosperous kingdom of Bantus.

All for Nothing: How he saw Thoran's decision to outlaw Necromancy and aim for peace instead of war, seeing it spitting on not just the legacy of their family, but also on the graves of all the soldiers that fought alongside him in war.
Face–Heel Turn: Theowyn's story revealed that he used to be a very kind man. His own story revealed the change stemmed from years of ideological conflicts with his brother Thoran, culminating in Thoran all but imprisoning him for opposing the shift to peace and protesting Theowyn's arranged marriage.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Thoran's family weren't the only ones who died during the fateful coup. Just as he was about to claim the crown, he himself was killed by Ghrezul, risen as a Graveborn. On the bright side, Thoran became the cruel conquering Necromancer Prince Edwin wanted him to be, so it wasn't a total loss.
Knight Templar Big Brother: Downplayed. One of the reasons he came to blows with Thoran was over Thoran's seemingly cruel disregard for Theowyn's happiness in favor of wedding her off as a political tool. This didn't stop him from using Theowyn as an Unwitting Pawn to stage his coup, said coup ultimately getting her killed in crossfire.
Manipulative Bastard: How he pulled off his plan, luring Theowyn — who he knew greatly missed him — into his grasp by claiming he wanted to reconcile with the rest of his family, which led Thoran to temporarily lift Edwin's house arrest for Theowyn's sake, leading them all to gather in one place to be slaughtered.
The Usurper: It's in his title. Dissatisfied with his brother's pacifism and rejection of necromancy, he launched The Coup to take his brother's place. He failed, but his brother turned into the cruel conquering necromancer Edwin wanted him to be, so he later returns to offer Thoran his willing allegiance. However, his quote implies that he's still thinking of taking over.
You Killed My Father: He has this attitude towards Mortas, who he thinks murdered his son and turned him into a Graveborn.

Fane, The Wicked Warden

"How does it taste, old friend?"

Desira, The Sinister Siren

"It is time to exact my revenge."

Body Horror: Her tail? That's her spine.
Flying Seafood Special: There not being any swimming in the game, she instead levitates.
Good Powers, Bad People: Her kit revolves entirely around healing and protecting her allies, but that doesn't stop her from cruelly delighting in indiscriminately killing sailors.
My God, What Have I Done?: Laeah had this reaction after killing Desira in self-defense.
Our Mermaids Are Different: She didn't even start as one, but took this form upon being resurrected.
Woman Scorned: Her Start of Darkness was finding out that her best friend Laeah had gotten pregnant by Haarman, the man she loved.

Ferael, Doomwhisper

"It's unwise to stand against me."

In life, Ferael was the envy of people everywhere, both for his handsome appearance and his skill with a bow. Naturally, this garnered attention from both women charmed by his visage and noblemen looking to make use of his talents, but he lived only to put his skills to use in battle. Eventually this proved to be his undoing, as his desire to challenge himself led to Ferael being felled by a Mauler warrior; though not dead, he was taken away by an enchantress that bound him to her will - and slit his throat for good measure to ensure it. But when Ferael returned from death, the spell had broken. He returned the favor with the enchantress's own blade, then set forth to seek more targets.

Ferael starts out weak for a marksman, but if allowed to survive, he can quickly start racking up the damage. He specializes in summoning evil spirits to haunt his foes, inflicting a variety of crippling debuffs as they attack, and can use his ultimate Nether Blaze to bolster their attack speed while dealing board-wide damage.

Cold Sniper: Both in life and in death, Ferael is aloof, focused, and deadly with a bow.
Head-Turning Beauty: A male version, with him being a heartthrob known for miles around even in his teens. Not so much anymore after he turned Graveborn.
Lost in Translation: Ferael's stitched mouth is given no mention in the English localization, and the name of the enchantress that captivated him and her motives are both omitted. In the Chinese version, it states that she planned to use his heart for a potion, and after reviving, he opted to wear a mask to cover his face and sowed his mouth shut out of disgust for being made to kiss her.
Mage Marksman: While he wields a bow to attack, the various spells and evil spirits he packs are far more impactful.
Mana Burn: At higher levels, the spirits Ferael summons can remove energy from enemies they attack.
The Power of Hate: Not that you'd know it from the English localization, but he's essentially kept going by the hatred he felt at the enchantress's betrayal.

Grezhul, The Corrupted

"I have returned."

Anti-Magic: His passive ability Shadow Protection causes allies to take reduced magical damage, with Graveborn allies getting a larger amount of damage resistance.
Flaming Hair: Has blue fire for hair, which combined with his skin tone gives him a passing resemblance to the Disney version of Hades.
Meaningful Rename: As a human, his name was Gareth. Qaedam renamed him Grezhul.
The Minion Master: Grezhul specializes in overrunning enemies with a horde of skeletons, summoning up to two of them with his ultimate and passively raising one behind enemy lines every few seconds with his signature item.
Praetorian Guard: In life, he was a member of Thoran’s, and in death, he continues his duties faithfully.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The first thing he did after coming back to life was slaughter every single noble responsible for killing Thoran and his officials.
Undying Loyalty: To Thoran, quite literally so - after serving as a member of his Praetorian Guard in life, he continues to do so in undeath.

Hodgkin, The Reviled Captain

"Don't be scared, it'll be over for ye soon."

Isabella, The Taken Soul

"The shadows are my home."

Beam Spam: Isabella's plan A through Z is "spam Void Barrage and don't stop except to cast Psi Reap and her ultimate". With her signature item, Void Barrage can hit two or even three enemies at a time, adding to the spam. Even her ultimate ability is just semi-randomly blasting enemies with magic bolts.
Break the Cutie: Experienced her hometown being nearly razed to the ground, watched her parents die, and ended up killing the people responsible with her magic in a grief-induced rage. Following this, she and her sister were ostracized by their village and forced to fend for themselves.
Creepy Child: One of her voicelines specifically has her laughing. Considering the way a Graveborn's voice sounds, it is downright bone-chilling.
Full-Contact Magic: Isabella uses a variety of grand, sweeping gestures when casting her spells, with a particularly elaborate one for her ultimate.
Injured Vulnerability: Void Barrage, her primary attack spell, specifically targets the opponent(s) with the lowest health. When combined with other single-target elimination abilities like those of Thoran or Athalia, this can knock out an enemy very quickly. Likewise, her ultimate ability Decimation will prioritize the most injured enemy after hitting all enemies at least once.
Mana Drain: Psi Reap allows Isabella to steal energy from an enemy (two with the appropriate upgrade). If she finishes channeling the ability, it can also steal the enemy's critical hit chance as well (meaning that Isabella crits more and the enemy crits less).
Mundane Utility: Isabella's victory animation has her using her magic to conjure up a stool for herself.
The Stoic: Her artwork and sprite both depict her as being largely expressionless and much of her dialogue comes off as having a very flat and logical tone. Downplayed in the Chinese version, where she sounds somewhat more expressive and playful, though still vacant.
Tyke Bomb: She was taken in along with Silvina by Vedan from a young age, mainly so he could make use of her magical gifts.

Izold, The Forgotten Champion

"I am back."

Blood Knight: His whole purpose in life was fighting. It was the prospect of getting back onto the battlefield that convinced him to become a Graveborn.
Brain in a Jar: Presumably the only thing left of his old body is the brain mounted atop his new form.
Career-Ending Injury: His career as a Lightbearer soldier was cut short by a battle where he was grievously wounded, rendering him unfit to fight even after being nursed back to health.
Cast from Hit Points: Noxious Blast will consume a small amount of Izold's health to damage nearby enemies if he has high HP.
Drowning My Sorrows: Resorted to this, heavily, after his soldier days were over, to the point where his comrades made the not-unreasonable assumption that he drank himself to death after he disappeared to become a Graveborn.
Gathering Steam: With his Oak Inn furniture bonus, Izold will gain increased damage and attack speed as he takes damage. Given his self-healing abilities, he can stack it deceptively quickly; an Izold that lives for more than the first 15 or so seconds of battle will quickly become a Lightning Bruiser without equal.
Heal Thyself: His ultimate ability, Toxic Transfusion, and his basic Hypodermic Healing both heal him for a percentage of the health he has already lost. The former is a burst heal, while the latter restores health over time.
Magikarp Power: Even compared to most other heroes, Izold gets a lot of power from his Signature Item and furniture bonuses. This means he remains somewhat unremarkable until he gets to Ascended to unlock those, but once he does, he becomes a hard-hitting, nigh-unkillable menace if he gets his ultimate off even once.
Playing with Syringes: Has a giant syringe mounted on one of his arms, used for both skewering enemies and injecting himself with chemical compounds.

Kelthur, Plaguegrip

"I do not forgive. I do not forget."

The son of the nobleman Lord Marwen and a peasant woman, Kelthur found himself a pariah in all strata of society in life. His stepmother, a noblewoman from house Rayne, engineered much of the ostracism out of envy of the attention Kelthur got from his father, which she believed belonged to her own son. Lord Marwen was subsequently murdered, and Kelthur was accused of the crime in a sham trial. With his defense falling on deaf ears, Kelthur's dying words were a vow to exterminate the house that had doomed him. And thanks to the necromancer sect known as the Grave Vow, who usetheir powers to exact justice for wrongful deaths, Kelthur may yet uphold his promise.

A nimble melee assassin, Kelthur infiltrates the enemy team and gets up close and personal with them without fear. Even if he dies, his Ethereal Resurgence ability resurrects him as a spirit to continue his onslaught. His ultimate ability, Blades of Fury, has him throwing his shuriken at the farthest enemy from him, dealing damage to all enemies in its path, while Kelthur vanishes from the battlefield. Once it reaches the target, Kelthur reappears, catches it, and attacks that enemy.

Came Back Strong: Kill Kelthur in battle, and he'll get right back up as an invulnerable spirit that can rip enemies apart even faster, with the only drawback of the spirit form being his timed life. He can also still use his ultimate while in spirit form; however, if all of his other allies die, Kelthur's spirit will die as well.
Counter-Attack: His Retaliation ability periodically allows him to avoid an enemy attack and then teleport to that target before attacking them.
Flash Step: Retaliation and Blades of Fury both have Kelthur instantly teleporting next to an enemy before attacking them.
Gratuitous Ninja: For whatever reason, Kelthur has a very ninja-esque design, between his outfit, skill set, and weapon of choice.
Impossibly Cool Weapon: His weapon is a Fuuma Shuriken that can also split into a pair of double-ended swords.
Miscarriage of Justice: His stepmother murdered his father and then set him up to take the fall, resulting in his death. Given that he's now a Graveborn, that evidently didn't stick.
Retcon: The people who raised him as a Graveborn are no longer the Grave Vow, but the Eldritch Council under Qaedam, and his circumstances are now a lot more like a Deal with the Devil.

Nara, Heartcarver

"I am eternal."

Expy: Her moveset is very obviously inspired by the likes of Pudge, with a penchant for hooking enemies from afar and beating them down.
Ghost Pirate: She captained the pirate ship known as the Spirit, which was revived at the same time she was. They're now part of Qaedam's naval forces.
Groin Attack: Her Dismember ability ends with her giving the victim a vicious kick that almost always hits between the legs if used on a humanoid enemy. At higher levels, the kick also takes off a large percentage of the victim's current health. Ouch.

Niru, The Whispering Doom

"I am stronger in death than in life."

Niru was a medic in the ranks of the Lightbearers' army. Though he enjoyed his work in times of relative peace, wartime subjected him to more blood and death than he could bear. He quickly became callous and desensitized, even to the point of euthanizing soldiers who could not be saved. In the process, he became fascinated with death and what lay beyond, devoting himself to necromancy. This would ultimately doom him to execution when he was found out... only for him to rise from the grave, more powerful than ever.

A bulky spellcaster that thrives on the deaths of both friend and foe, Niru can put out high sustained damage and healing if left unchecked. His ultimate ability, Death Call, damages the enemy with the lowest health; the more health they are missing, the more damage it does.

Badass Family: His Union is with his wife and their son, both of whom are also undead and even more capable of ripping their enemies to pieces than Niru himself.
Combat Medic: Setting aside that he used to be a literal combat medic, his Life Leech ability not only damages nearby enemies but also heals allies around him based on the damage dealt. This also made him the closest thing the Graveborn had to a healer until Silas was introduced.
Expy: His appearance and ability design both draw heavily from Necrophos. His general design and actions in his Union story also fit the Grim Reaper archetype quite nicely.
Gathering Steam: Niru heals himself and gains a stacking buff to attack and defense whenever a hero dies. If he doesn't get taken care of quickly, he can snowball out of control with his high sustain and damage output.
Heroic Fatigue: His Start of Darkness stemmed from the compassion fatigue he experienced as a medic, which turned first to numbness towards death and suffering, then into a fascination with it.
Hidden Depths: The man who abandoned his family for the sake of his work and research later returned to them and brought them both into undeath so that they could be reunited. YMMV on the ethics of this, considering his wife was still a living woman and their son too young to consent to such a thing even if he hadn't been dead at the time, but in their Union story they appear to have come back together as a loving family again.
- There's also his notable lack of conniving in the Union story. He could easily have convinced Jarle and Reginald to become Graveborn; instead, despite Niru's somewhat abrasive approach to the issue, he helps reunite the two and urges them to accept their deaths and move on into the afterlife.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Niru is a bit short with Jarle in his Union story, interrupting the poor man on occasion and frequently appearing frustrated with how difficult it is for him to acknowledge his own death. Even so, he's trying to help reunite the man with his son so that they can both move on into the afterlife together, despite having known neither of them in life and therefore having no reason to help them beyond simple altruism.
- In life, his quick dispatch of soldiers too wounded to be saved probably also counts, as he made the necessary cuts so swiftly and cleanly that they often weren't felt - but still did so in order to end lives he deemed unsalvageable, and apparently never asked any of the dying if they had any loved ones to contact or any parting words before they slipped away.
Relieving the Reaper: Revealed in his Union Story to wander the Realm of Denial in search of trapped souls to guide, seeming contemptuous of Annih for abandoning his duties as the god of death.
The Sacred Darkness: Death itself is not an evil to be feared as far as Niru is concerned, but it's very telling that he never attempts to convince the spirits encountered in his Union story to become undead - he only seems to want them to accept their deaths and move on.
Sinister Scythe: Carries around a long scythe that he uses for basic attacks.
Undeathly Pallor: Niru's skin in particular is a pale, bluish-violet, which is fairly unique among Graveborn (who tend toward grey with various shades of brown).
Vocal Dissonance: For such a thin, willowy man, Niru has an extremely deep and gravelly voice - even more so than some of the male Hypogeans. Whether it was always this deep or merely became this way when he was raised into undeath is unclear. Averted in other languages, where his voice is much higher-pitched.

Oden, Bitterblight

"Lost in the void."

Formerly a beloved arch-mage for the Lightbearers, to everyone’s surprise, he was found studying necromancy. His reasoning was that a good mage should have knowledge of all magical disciplines, but the law is the law, and he was quickly sentenced to death. After being brought back clumsily by novice necromancers, his fumbling-around headless body led them to the place where he’d hidden a Soul Jar he’d already prepared, very near the entrance to the Mortuary Void, a place that even the other Graveborn are terrified of. After destroying the bodies of the novices and throwing their souls into the Void, he continues to seek out more to feed the Void’s hunger.

A mage that specializes in burst damage and disruption, Oden can force his foes out of position and shut down their ability to use ultimates while ravaging them with powerful area-of-effect nukes. He also gains power as the battle drags on, unlocking new functionalities for his abilities.

Came Back Wrong: The necromancers that reanimated Oden were sloppy beginners, and Oden wasn’t happy about it.
Deader than Dead: The fate of anyone who crosses him. The Mortuary Void is something that even the other Graveborn refuse to mess with, but he willingly serves it.
Do Wrong, Right: In life, he’d gotten very far in his necromantic studies. So when he was revived by total amateurs, he disposed of them the moment he was able to.
For Science!: Claimed his studies into necromancy were for the sake of having a complete knowledge of magical disciplines.
Hunter of His Own Kind: From a gameplay standpoint, Oden is a Squishy Wizard whose ability to displace enemies and burn energy makes him great at shutting down other squishy mages.
Mana Burn: The game's leading master of this. His ultimate ability will instantly remove all of the target's energy, and once his Eye of Evil ability is stacked enough times, his regular attacks shave energy off anything they hit.
Soul Jar: He had the foresight to prepare one in advance before he was caught and executed, and now uses it as his head.
Thinking Up Portals: Two of his abilities conjure portals, either using them to drop an enemy on another enemy or just blast them with lightning.
Turned Against Their Masters: The first thing he did upon retrieving his Soul Jar was kill the necromancers who brought him back, because they did a terrible job at it. And then he killed them a second time by throwing their souls into the Mortuary Void.
Undeathly Pallor: As with every other Graveborn character who isn't just a walking skeleton with eyes.

Shemira, Corpsemaker

"Embrace the arcane..."

Once happily married to Niru, Shemira's respect for the man quickly soured when the crimes he had been accused of came to light. When he was sentenced to death, Shemira held more loathing than love for the man who left her to care for their son, Daimon, alone. However, Daimon eventually came down with a fatal illness, and Shemira fell into despair. In her darkest hour, Niru reappeared, offering her a chance to rejoin her family in undeath. Shemira gladly accepted.

Shemira is a powerful Graveborn mage with high self-sustain that can shut down enemy spellcasters and put out withering amounts of area-of-effect damage. She boasts the fearsome ultimate ability Tortured Souls, which ravages all enemies on the battlefield for damage over time and heals Shemira for a portion of the damage dealt.

Crutch Character: One of the biggest in the game. Once obtained early and leveled up to the point where her abilities come online, Shemira can plow through entire chapters on her own. While she won't be as unstoppable later, a well-leveled Shemira can still be an incredible damage dealer, though she'll have trouble keeping up in the very late game as she won't be able to survive long enough to deal the majority of her damage.
Expy: She's basically a carbon copy of Death Prophet - a distinction she shares with her husband, who's also based heavily on a Defense of the Ancients hero.
The Eeyore: Apparently she was rather despondent even when she was alive. It only got worse after she became a Graveborn.
Herd-Hitting Attack: Tortured Souls is notable for being one of the few abilities that unconditionally hits everything that's not immune to damage in some way, giving her incredible damage output if left unchecked.
Life Drain: Soul Siphon allows Shemira to drain health from a single enemy (three with a Relic in the Arcane Labyrinth or Peaks of Time), while Tortured Souls will heal her based on the damage it deals.
Mage Killer: Her Silence ability allows her to completely shut down an enemy spellcaster for a fairly long duration; because this targets only one hero, if the enemy has only one or two spellcasters, she can reliably take them out of the picture, but it does nothing against non-spellcasters even if used on them.
Meaningful Name: "Shemira" is a Jewish religious practice of watching over a body between death and burial — and it was during this period for Daimon where she was turned.

Silas, The Ascended Death

"New day, new me! AHAHAHAHA!!!"

Crazy-Prepared: He wasn’t even fazed by the news of his Super Serum’s lethal side-effects, since he already had a plan to make a deal with some necromancers.
Superpower Meltdown: Overusing his Super Serum began to eat away first at his sanity, then at his internal organs.
Super Serum: Of his own invention, delivered through an applicator on his back. Anyone injected with it will have their attack rating multiplied by 1.5x and become immune to damage for 8 to 10 seconds, delayedly and nonlethally receiving 70% of the damage that they endured after it wears off.
Transhuman: He was obsessed with finding ways to augment himself.

Silvina, The Taken Breath

"Ha ha ha ha ha..."

Mage Killer: In addition to her ultimate burning energy from the target (in a game where mages are dependent on their own ultimates, which are powered by energy), Silvina's start-of-combat backstab will specifically target an enemy spellcaster if possible.
Tyke Bomb: She and Isabella were taken in by Vedan and trained as an assassin from a very young age.

Theowyn, The Wailing Widow

"It's all my fault!"

The Blank: In the cartoon series, this is what her face looks like when Angelo tickles her into removing her hands from her face. He then faints and Theowyn then starts weeping about how this happens to every guy that sees her.

Thoran, The Fallen King

"Long live the king..."

Became Their Own Antithesis: One of the defining aspects of his reign was rejecting the bellicose ways of the Lenu people and focusing on peace. He also banned necromancy within Bantus's borders, possibly even before the Lightbearers' empire did. But after his resurrection, he not only turned into the conqueror Edwin wanted him to be, he forced all of his subjects to become Graveborn.
Counter-Attack: Thoran's ultimate ability has him channeling for several seconds and then cleaving enemies, dealing damage based on the damage he took while channeling.
Damaged Soul: One could never guess from the hatred that consumes him now that he was once one of the most beloved rulers the Lightbearers ever had.
Determinator: If killed in battle, he’ll get right back up, restoring most of his own health (an act which will paralyze his enemies with shock). He won’t stop fighting until he physically disintegrates.
Expy: Of Leoric, being a largely skeletal evil king that was once known for being The Good King in life and swings around a big sword. Granted, unlike Leoric, Thoran didn't go mad until after being betrayed and killed.
The Good King: Thoran had a reputation for keeping his subjects cared for and his kingdom out of war. This didn’t sit well with his brother Edwin, who saw Thoran's benevolence as an insult to the legacy of their family which have historically been conquerors. Edwin's own story casts some suspicion on this though, as it notes that Thoran was willing to sacrifice Theowyn's happiness in favor of making her a political puppet for establishing peace, and that the reason Edwin was imprisoned was because he disagreed with Thoran's way of ruling, with no indication Edwin had actually tried any form of coup at that point, and Thoran saying it was so Edwin could "take a long look at himself" and would only be released if he saw things Thoran's way, suggest Thoran was more of a Knight Templar.
Improperly Paranoid: His rule post-resurrection is defined by this due to the way he was killed, and because of it, even the slightest hint of not agreeing with him will get a Graveborn thrown in the Black Prison.
Last Chance Hit Point: His signature item makes him unkillable while channeling his ultimate. Given its properties, it's not unheard of for Thoran to tank several health bars worth of damage using this bonus before proceeding to slaughter the entire enemy team in one hit.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Is currently building an army in preparation for one, upon rumors of hearing that his traitorous brother had also been brought back to life.
Synchronization: His Taint ability curses an enemy at the start of battle, causing any damage taken by Thoran to also be felt by that enemy.
Tyrant Takes the Helm: And he took the helm from himself.
Witch Hunt: He sentences all subjects under the slightest suspicion of disloyalty to a Fate Worse than Death. For further irony, his wardens are Tautological Templars, fully convinced that they are purging traitors without mistake, up until the moment they get falsely accused of disloyalty as well.

Torne, The Wandering Corsair

"Where are we?"

Horwich, Porter, and Torne: a trio of ne'er-do-wells that joined up with a pirate crew to escape various debts. One day, they discovered word of a hidden treasure from their captain's logs and set out to claim it for themselves. In a cove, they discovered a golden crown marked by a curse: it would grant immortality to the bearer, but trap them with the thing they hate most. Horwich took the bargain immediately... and the trio were promptly thrust into darkness, cursed to wander lost in the coves for a century before emerging as an undead monstrosity, their bodies fused together, for the thing they despised most was each other.

Torne is a brutal Graveborn tank that lashes out with a bone whip for heavy damage. While the whip breaks upon use, he can regrow it and become stronger by absorbing the corpses of fallen heroes. His ultimate ability, Piercing Bones, regrows his whip and summons bone spikes across the entire battlefield, damaging all enemies immediately and causing them to take further damage when they move.

Bad with the Bone: His weapon of choice is a whip made of bone. It's used for his Seething Death ability to deal huge area-of-effect damage.
Body Horror: Three unfortunate pirates, twisted into an undead behemoth with a single body and three heads.
Human Resources: Torne's Absorption ability allows him to absorb dead heroes to boost his health and regrow his whip.
Percent Damage Attack: The final hit of Seething Death drains a percentage of an enemy's health to heal Torne by the same amount, while enemies that move while Piercing Bones is active take a percentage of their health as damage every fraction of a second.

Treznor, The Aggrieved

"At your command."

Once a member of Thoran's Imperial Guard until the king turned to evil, Treznor led a revolt among those trapped in the Black Prison. However, many would-be allies broke under the torture of the cruel Warden Fane before they were ready to rebel, including Treznor's closest friend. After breaking free, he and his fellow mutineers now live as the Tainted, a splinter faction of Graveborn that seek to end their curse and earn redemption for their unlife.

Black Knight: Treznor rides an undead horse and sports black armor from head to toe, and even in undeath is a powerful, solitary warrior.
Dark Is Not Evil: His faction of Graveborn stand out in that they try to avoid the living as much as possible, and he fights primarily to defend them. Treznor isn't malicious in the slightest.
Hellish Horse: His steed is a warhorse with a tail of green flame, whose head not only resembles a lantern containing a flaming skull but can also sprout hands. It was formed from weakened Graveborn souls merging into a new form in order to help his escape.
Mounted Combat: He fights on horseback. This forms a part of his mechanics, as dropping him to low HP causes him to dismount and fight on foot, losing all of his abilities except his ultimate, which changes to deal higher damage to a single target.

Vedan, The Demise

"Nobody can stop me."

A rich, respected noble, Vedan never wanted anything in his life save for one thing: an escape from death. No matter how wealthy he was, death would come for him all the same. To Vedan, this came as a grave insult, and he devoted much time and money to finding a way to avoid the inevitable. His answer came in the form of two orphan girls. The younger, Isabella, had the magical gift needed to perform the ritual that would turn him into a stronger being that drained the life of lesser mortals to fuel his life force, while the elder, Silvina, would serve well as an enforcer. After taking them in, Vedan's reign of terror had begun - leaving the corpses of countless vagrants in his wake.

Aristocrats Are Evil: An evil nobleman who preys on the poor because he believes a man of his stature should be above death.
Fangs Are Evil: His character sprite has a pronounced set of fangs, though they're only visible when his mouth is open, most prominently during his victory animation or when he uses his base attack - they don't appear to peek out over his lips either in the sprite or his character art.
Horror Hunger: In order to maintain his immortality, Vedan must feed upon the living. His victory animation shows him gleefully licking the blood off his rapier and then hissing at his fallen opponents (or perhaps an ally who's looking at him funny for it), so clearly this is a diet change he's not terribly broken up about.
Immortality: Vedan is explicitly stated to have become immortal, with the one caveat being that he must feed on living victims in order to sustain that immortality. Beyond this, however, it's left uncertain precisely what kind of immortal he is.
Life Drain: All three of Vedan's abilities involve some form of lifesteal: Thirst grants it to an ally (and lets him heal from damage dealt by that ally at higher levels), while both of his offensive abilities restore his health every time they hit something.
Living Forever Is Awesome: He certainly thinks so. Not having to leave his worldly possessions behind is a plus, too, and after becoming immortal by turning into a Graveborn, he's never voiced any regrets.
Misanthrope Supreme: Has little - if any - love for humanity even as a mortal man himself. In undeath, he appears to have decided that all mortals are beneath him - and so, of course, sees nothing wrong with murdering countless innocents to sustain his own immortality.
One to Million to One: His ultimate ability turns him into a cloud of bats that attacks anything they pass over, healing Vedan for a portion of the damage dealt. He's also completely invulnerable in this form.
Our Vampires Are Different: He's never overtly referred to as one, but Vedan fits a lot of common vampire traits: he's an undead who drains blood from his victims to maintain his vitality, rarely sets out during the day, and he can even transform into a cloud of bats.
The Power of Blood: This is how he maintains his immortality in lore, and how he restores health and taunts fallen enemies in gameplay.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: His rationale for becoming one of the Graveborn was that it would be an insult for him to suffer the same ultimate fate as those with less wealth or influence. His entitlement is such that he has absolutely no qualms about killing innocent people in order to sustain his own youth and vitality. After all, many of his victims - if not all of them - are beggars and transients; in his mind, they barely qualify as people at all.
Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness: Firmly at the "homicidally misanthropic egomaniac" end of the scale. The only lives with any value in his eyes are his own and those of the two orphans he "adopted."
Vampires Are Rich: Vedan at least started out incredibly wealthy, with a decent amount of real estate to go with it. Whether or not this is still the case is left unclear.
Vampiric Draining: Lore-wise, Vedan is forced to do this to living people in order to maintain his immortality. In gameplay, his attack Vitality allows him to restore a small portion of his own health each time he successfully deals damage to an opponent, invoking this trope directly.
Wicked Cultured: As is to be expected of a member of the nobility. Vedan is particularly noted to have (or at the very least have had) an expansive collection of literature, albeit a good deal of it dealing with the arcane arts and other forbidden subjects. He also at least used to live on a sprawling estate and travel by carriage, and speaks with clear diction in a polished upper-class accent. In terms of gameplay, all but his ultimate attack rely on the use of his rapier, a blade typically associated with the rich and well-to-do. Though interestingly enough he doesn't appear to properly fence with the weapon.

Celestials

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/celestial.png

The divines on the side of Dura.

The Ageless: Celestials can be killed, but will not die of old age.
Deity of Human Origin: Sometimes, former mortals will join the gods. This usually happens when they are appointed by the other Celestials as the replacement for a god that was killed, but very rarely, mortals can ascend into entirely new positions.
God Job: The original gods are usually born as such, but if they die, it is possible for the other Celestials to give a worthy mortal their place.
Olympus Mons: Generally speaking, they’re the rarest and strongest faction in the game, barring Dimensionals.
Our Gods Are Different: They are considered to be deities.
Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Celestials and Hypogeans are mutually super-effective against each other.

Alna, the Frozen Mother

"Winter is here."

An Ice Person: Her skills are based on winter and ice, which slows enemies down for a few seconds. She's known as the Frozen Mother for good reason.
I Have Many Names: "Chillwind Songstress", "Mountain Protectorate", and "The Permafrost Matriarch" are several other titles she's known for, but the world knows her as "The Frozen Mother".

Athalia, Harbinger of Justice/Harbinger of Truth

"The war has begun."

Once a mortal woman, Athalia was ascended to demi-godhood to serve Dura. She often looked down on mortals for being weak and corruptible, and was perplexed by Dura's forgiving attitude towards them - an outlook that only soured when her goddess gave her life in defense of them. Athalia lives on as an avatar of vengeance, ruthlessly smiting the Hypogeans and all who would serve them.

Athalia is a powerful melee assassin that specializes in precision elimination, diving onto an enemy at the beginning of combat and relentlessly attacking them. With her ultimate ability, Divine Fury, Athalia delivers three crisscrossing slashes across the battlefield, damaging and stunning all enemies in her path.

Armed Legs: Her legs are shaped like spears, with sharp points touching the ground where her feet should have been.
Black-and-White Morality: In her perspective, one is either fully good or evil, which makes mortal contradictions confusing to her.
Blade Below the Shoulder: Her weapons are a pair of sword-length blades mounted on her gauntlets.
Blind Justice: Her helmet covers her eyes, and she essentially embodies divine punishment. Blade of Conviction ultimately plays with this, as she proceeds to slaughter a group of survivors of a Hypogean attack, including women, children, and the elderly, seeming just for having been touched by the Hypogean's "taint". The priest of the Divine Light can only look on in horror after his plea that at least the children be spared is ignored, before he proceeds to denounce Athalia, only for Athalia to call out to the "corpses", asking them how long they're gonna keep playing dead, revealing them to all be Hypogeans, and very much alive still.
Priest: Merciful Dura, you killed them all! Is this your justice Athalia?! You are a butcher in a goddess's guise who would sooner murder us all than heed our prayers!
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The only reason she tolerates mortals at all is because they are necessary to protect the Divine Light.
Dynamic Entry: Athalia's Judgment ability allows her to deliver a diving strike on the enemy directly across from her at the start of battle to stun them and deal a hefty amount of damage, usually followed by Purging Frenzy to lock them down even further. This also makes her one of the few heroes with manually targetable crowd control and can shut down certain start-of-battle effects.
Good Is Not Nice: Firmly on the side of good, but she's also completely ruthless and dismissive of even her mortal allies.
Humans Are Bastards: She has long tossed aside any connection to her own humble origins and downright hates mortals. She sees them as sinful and worthless existences that the far more valuable Dura made the mistake of performing a Heroic Sacrifice for. She very reluctantly accepts them as allies in protecting the Divine Light and avenging Dura's death, but show the slightest hint of heresy, and she will end them without mercy.
Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Athalia's methods of passing judgment on sinners are rarely peaceful. As far as the Lightbearers are concerned, she is no different from a murderer.
Knight Templar: Just encountering Hypogeans is enough to put you under her suspicion. When a priest takes in refugees from their onslaught, she reluctantly spares the priest, but massacres the people he was sheltering. Played with later. It's shown that Athalia only attacks those she knows are Hypogeans in disguise, but because she doesn't care for commiserating with mortals, from an outsiders perspective she merely comes across as a cold and heartless woman slaughtering innocents.
Touched by Vorlons: Once a mortal woman before being blessed by Dura and becoming a powerful Celestial.
Would Hurt a Child: All mortals are equally worthless after all, so why should she spare a child that might have encountered the Hypogean's taint?
You Should Have Died Instead: Annih couldn't have killed Dura if she had abandoned her mortal creations to be killed by him. As far as Athalia is concerned, making a Heroic Sacrifice was Dura's only mistake.

Tropes relating to her as Harbinger of Truth:

Detect Evil: She has become capable of sensing the Hypogean's corruption, allowing her to distinguish between innocent victims and cultists or Hypogeans in disguise.
Heroic Second Wind: Just as she was about to die to an especially powerful demon, the mortals she was protecting prayed, and as if in answer, Athalia was somehow empowered to her awakened form.
Humans Are Special: Her penchant for ruthlessly putting down heretics remains unchanged, but she has finally had a chance to see what Dura saw in mortals, even with their flaws. Previously reputed as a wrathful god who never answers the prayers of mortals, she has had a change of heart. The special "Blade of Conviction" elaborates that it was meeting a human child that caused her to change, looking after her as she followed along causing her to see the value in humanity before returning her to her mother... only to then learn the girl and her mother were ruthlessly killed by a group of Hypogean's masquerading as humans and pretending to be innocents victims of her "persecution", with her finding them hiding within a Church of the Divine Light. While they offered her trouble initially, their taunting her with the girl's death restored her conviction towards putting an end to monsters like them, so that no one else may perish like that girl did.
Restored My Faith in Humanity: The "Blade of Conviction" special elaborates that meeting and protecting a human child restored Athalia's faith in mortals that she had long forgotten, and learning the Hypogean's heartlessly ate her sent her into a rage, renewing her conviction towards ending the Hypogeans, but now for the sake of humanity rather than in spite of it.

Audrae, The Chaotic Star

""Changes happen at every moment."

Elijah & Lailah, Celestial Twins

"We have arrived."

Twin deities charged by Dura to forge and maintain harmony between mortals, Elijah and Lailah fostered kindness among Esperia's people. They calmed the greatest conflicts, then set about creating bonds and mutual acceptance between its people. However, the chaos sown by the Hypogean invasion are taxing them to their limits, but they still work tirelessly to uphold the peace wherever they can.

A potent support hero with two separate bodies on the battlefield, the Twins can protect their allies and each other from enemy attacks. Their ultimate ability, Hope, passively gives them bonus health and can be activated to hugely up their allies' Haste (attack and spellcasting rate).

Achilles' Heel: Because they share a single health bar but can both take damage, the Twins get brought down twice as quickly by area-of-effect damage.
Boring, but Practical: For all intents and purposes, the Twins tend to be played as a walking ultimate, and said ultimate isn't too flashy in effects either - a simple speed buff. That being said, this is such a huge boost to damage output that they're nearly indispensable in boss battles and hugely effective in regular battles too.
The Dividual: They're never seen apart; both in lore and in-game, Elijah and Lailah are effectively treated as a single character. Lampshaded by the twins themselves if you visit them in the Oak Inn, where they'll complain that they want separate rooms because they can't put up with each other's snoring.
God of Good: One of the straightest examples in the setting aside from Dura herself. The Twins represent harmony, friendship, and reconciliation.
Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Inverted. Elijah's attack is ranged, while Lailah's is melee.
Half-Identical Twins: They look almost entirely alike, save for their genders and hair colors.
Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Elijah's hair is pale blue, while Lailah's is pink; they're almost identical otherwise aside from their clothing.
Series Mascot: They seem to have taken over the role from Brutus (or at least are sharing it), with their portraits adorning the game's icon in later versions.
Shared Life-Meter: Both Twins share a single health bar, and both can take damage separately.
Star Power: Said to be created from starlight in Esperia's dark ages.

Flora, The Serene Promise

"Where flowers bloom, so does hope."

A Celestial born from a growing sapling as winter gave way to spring, she has the power to grow abundant green wherever she goes but felt inadequate compared to the other Celestials. However, after saving the lives of a family from a burning house and restoring the surrounding village from the scars of warfare, the smiles of the villagers made Flora realize her purpose of bringing life to a world that seemed hellbent on death.

Flora is a mage unit that both heals her allies and deals continuous AoE damage to enemy units while remaining out of harm's way until all other ally units are dead. Her ultimate ability, Sea of Flowers, unleashes a damaging flower field on the most densely filled part of the enemy's formation, dealing damage from the initial blast and adding damage over time as long as the enemy units remain in the flower patch.

Armored But Frail: Actually clearing a team to get to Flora is an ordeal in and of itself, but once Flora is all alone she folds easily.
Cast from Hit Points: Her Swoop ability has her sacrificing 25% of her health to send a pair of birds across the battlefield. Each enemy in the bird's path is dealt damage equal to 55% of the health she sacrificed. She can't use the skill once her HP dips under 60%, but her Rejuvenation passive allows her to regain health steadily, and she gains even more if both enemy or ally units heal themselves for 10% or more of their health.
Hope Springs Eternal: As her quote suggests, she makes it her duty to bring back hope to those who have suffered during the war against the Hypogeans by revitalizing the ruined lands she comes across.
Stone Wall: She can easily become this if her ally units are tanky and full of healers, allowing her to constantly reinforce them with a shield from Swoop that mitigates damage for up to 65% of the health she sacrificed to use the skill. Add that she inflicts constant AoE damage and can only be hurt once she's the last unit left, and she could easily grind down any opposing team.

Haelus, The Crafter

"A body is easily fixed. The soul is not."

Liberta, Scion of Dawn

"Pardon the inconvenience."

Deity of Human Origin: A human infant experimented upon with human alchemy and infused with massive amounts of power to create an artificial Celestial.
Human Weapon: At the old civilization's peak, when they tried to rebel against the gods, an alchemist experimented upon two infants, one of them Liberta, turning them into a pair of artificial deities intended to become superweapons to win the war. The war was lost before Liberta could be finished and deployed, so the alchemist sealed the two artificial gods into a slumber where the Celestials wouldn't find them. Centuries later, one did, but his conscience overtook his ambition, so he raised the two in secret with a similarly rebellious Hypogean. The Celestials and Hypogeans cooperated to tear the family apart so that they could use the twin aligned with their own energies as weapons.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Celestials sealed his memories to use him as a weapon.
Rage Against the Heavens: What he was originally built for, and what he ends up pursuing for ironic reasons. He eventually realizes that his fellow celestials see him as a weapon rather than his own person, and that they even went so far as to erase his memories and tear apart his family to make him one. So he decides to work with his sister to inflict punishment.
Sibling Yin-Yang: He is an artificial Celestial deity, who was codenamed "Day". His sister is an artificial Hypogean deity, who was codenamed "Night".

Morael, Queen of Stars

"Destiny is preordained."

Puppet Fighter: Her moveset is based around a Star Core that she places on the battlefield. The core can allow her to inflict damage around it or collect Energy for her and her allies.

Orthros, The Seer of Origins

"Here to serve."

Animate Inanimate Object: He’s the clock from a divine clock tower.
Floating Limbs: There’s nothing attaching his arms to the rest of his body.
Gathering Steam: Orthros's Celestial Vigor ability lets him gain increased health over time; after long enough, he starts regenerating a percentage of his max HP every second and then becomes immune to disables.
Improperly Paranoid: At the Oak Inn, he thinks Zolrath will probably intrude into his room since he ends up running into him everywhere else he goes. This gets a bit hilarious if he and Zolrath are housed in the same building, since it's entirely possible for that to happen - or, conversely, for Orthros to pay Zolrath a visit.
Set Right What Once Went Wrong:
- In his backstory, he tried several times to undo Dura’s death. And failed several times. Dura caught on and told him to stop.
- Currently, he tirelessly works to fix Zolrath’s attempts to Make Wrong What Once Went Right.
Time Stands Still: For his Ultimate, he stops time for three seconds, and goes after the opponent with the lowest HP to let loose a Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs assault.

Talene, The Rising Phoenix/The Resurging Flame

"From the ashes, I rise again."

With the death of her mother at the hands of demons, Talene was left as the last Obsidian Finch. Desolate and alone, she brought her mother's body on a funerary flight to their race's ancestral homeland - usually undertaken by a Finch on the verge of death - and dove in herself. But instead of dying, Talene was chosen by the collective spirits of her people to carry on their legacy and defend the land of Esperia, and she was reborn as a Celestial. The age of the Obsidian Finches had ended, but Talene's exploits had only begun.

Anthropomorphic Transformation: Her pre-Celestial form was a bird, but ended up becoming humanoid after her ancestors ascended her.
Cast from Hit Points: Talene heals allies by taking damage, and appropriately, her ultimate consumes a whole 90% of her health - enough to fully heal at least two of her allies easily. However, it compensates by also giving her a large shield, ensuring that she isn't left vulnerable afterwards.
Combat Medic: In addition to having huge healing potential with her passive ability (especially with her revival ability letting her sacrifice health comfortably), Talene's ultimate also gives her fairly strong damage output.
Flaming Sword: She produces one after using her ultimate, appropriately also changing her attack from ranged to melee and giving her bonus attack damage. It lasts until she dies.
Last of Her Kind: In life, Talene was the last of the Obsidian Finches.
The Phoenix: It's right there in her name. Talene originally belonged to a race of birds with power over fire. She wields fiery abilities, and most significantly, is the only hero that can repeatedly revive in battle.
Resurrective Immortality: As long as one member of her team survives, Talene won't die permanently. When her health runs out, she turns into a fireball and regenerates health until she revives and re-enters the battle. In voyages and the Arcane Labyrinth, winning a battle while a friendly Talene is in fireball form will count her as having survived.
Winged Humanoid: She takes the appearance of a woman with four wings.

Tropes relating to her as the Resurging Flame:

Jiggle Physics: Her Awakened Ultimate animation originally had an absurd amount of this before it was patched out.
Uncertain Doom: She uses her Solarian flame in a ritual designed by The Maker, Honas, to repair a flaw in the world's design. It is believed that the ritual will entirely consume the flame all Obsidian Finches need to even live and presumably kill her in a Heroic Sacrifice. However, her fate afterwards is unknown, with the other elemental emblem bearers hoping she may have received a miracle and her heroism sung by the people. She is later shown with her best friend, Astar.
Winged Humanoid: Her Awakened Form has six wings instead of four.

Titus, Guardian of the Mountains

"Halt. You shall not pass."

Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Unlike most heroes, Titus is dormant while his ultimate is not active, and cannot move or attack; all he can do is absorb Energy as his allies take damage, though he also enters play with a shield that protects himself and allies.

Wu Kong, the Monkey King

"I know a talking pig smarter than you!"

Doppelgänger Attack: His ultimate has him disappearing from the battlefield and leaving three clones of himself to do the fighting for him, while his Foresight passive allows him to dodge disables and leave another clone behind. Needless to say, when fighting Wukong, you'll be dealing with a lot of Wukongs.
Good Is Not Soft: He became the stuff of legend by largely beating up demons. Which, in turn, makes it quite fortuitous that he arrived as the Hypogean invasion was underway.
Lost in Translation: His English backstory glosses over the fact that this is Wukong after the events of Journey to the West, instead implying that he managed to elude capture by the Jade Emperor's armies (which also turns his catchphrase above into a Plot Hole since he only met Bajie after being recruited for Xuanzang's quest). The Chinese backstory also handwaves him being a Celestial rather than a Dimensional by noting that he's already achieved demigodhood through enlightenment.
Monkey King Lite: Implied, in fact, to be the Sun Wukong, if he wound up in Esperia.
Telescoping Staff: It wouldn't be Wukong without his trademark staff, which he grows to massive size for several of his abilities.

Zaphrael, The Righteous

"A God never rests."

The son of low-ranking clerics, Zaphrael was orphaned at an early age when a group of refugees his parents were sent to aid instead turned on their would-be protectors, slaughtering them all and going on to destroy the temple where Zaphrael lived. The boy escaped and grew up to become a fearsome and beloved commander among the armies of the Lightbearers. So great were his deeds in battle that he attracted the notice of the gods themselves, who raised him into godhood in recognition of his faith and might. Upon obtaining divinity, Zaphrael began to hunt a particular Hypogean known as the Twin Terror - only to stumble upon a ceremony meant to summon it into the mortal world, with his own son as the sacrifice to fuel the summoning. Zaphrael's wife begged the god to save their son, but Zaphrael believed the child was already lost and ended the life of his only son in a blaze of lightning.

Arch-Enemy: Lucretia considers him hers, and is possessed by a shade of the same Hypogean Zaphrael has spent his entire godhood hunting. The English localization leaves it unclear whether Zaphrael even knows (or cares) what became of his wife after he chose to end a summoning ritual at the cost of their only son.
- Clarified in his Union story with Lucretia: Not only is he aware of what's become of her, he's still enough in love with her to intentionally allow her to escape battle after battle with her life - even when his allies take notice.
Bolt of Divine Retribution: Thunderstorm summons a thundercloud that strikes the enemy nearest to Zaphrael every four seconds, dealing damage and stunning them for a period of time.
Electric Black Guy: Is noticeably darker-skinned than any other Celestial (or Lightbearer) up until the introduction of Alna, and is the god of thunder and lightning.
God of Thunder: He becomes one after being raised to take the place of another god who fell in battle.
Humans Are Bastards: Has believed this since his childhood, having spent his life watching humans praise and worship anyone who could give them what they most desired, be they god or Hypogean or fellow mortal. His parents' deaths and the destruction of his temple home at the hands of refugees did not help matters. He very much maintains this mindset even as a god.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a Celestial and therefore fights against the Hypogeans to defend the earth and all within it, and he does genuinely hesitate to kill his only son. That said, the English localization makes him out to care very little for his wife (provided he even remembers she still exists), and his non-combat dialogue tends to be less than friendly. There's also that nasty little lingering resentment for mortals in general...
- Perhaps partially justified, at least as far as Lucretia is concerned. Her own story explicitly states that Zaphrael was uncomfortable about marrying her, but did so anyway because Lucretia confessed her feelings for him (while he lay recovering from what was very nearly a fatal injury, no less) in front of a large group of onlookers. Recall that Zaphrael's parents were murdered by refugees who had been convinced that the clerics served a hateful god; it isn't entirely unlikely to assume Zaphrael might believe any mortal might turn on him even for something as small as rejecting a (significantly younger) woman's anguished declaration of love. That he was suffering from massive blood loss at the time probably didn't help.
- This trope gets turned completely on its head with the recent addition of his Union story, where he not only willingly defends his human allies even in defiance of predetermined strategies, but openly grieves for the loss of his son as well as Ancelot's son Marche and sacrifices himself so that he can go down into the Barred Gate with Lucretia held firmly in his arms.
Knight in Sour Armor: Much is said of his ferocity and heroics as a Lightbearer commander. Even so, he thinks very little of mortals in general and appears to have little (if any) love for the woman he marries and has a son with. Becoming a god only seems to have made him more temperamental.
- As of his Union story, it seems this trope is still in effect, though it's made clear his actual reason for being a sour knight is his grief over the death of his son and the corruption of his wife.
No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Not so much in his own story, but the way he responds to Lucretia in her story carries shades of this.
Ride the Lightning: ...Or "ride the stormcloud," to be precise. Zaphrael moves and attacks from atop a dark cloud that's constantly seething with electricity, and makes his appearance on the battlefield in a burst of lightning. Lightning Arc and Lightning Purge have him teleport with the help of lightning before unleashing his wrath upon his enemies.
Sealed Good in a Can: He sacrificed himself to save Ancelot and allowed himself to be sealed away with the Hypogeans.
Shock and Awe: As the god of thunder and lightning, his motif and powers are centered around this.
Shoot the Dog: With no way to exorcise the Hypogeans using Demonic Possession on his son, he gave his son what he saw as a Mercy Kill.
Taking You with Me: In his Union story. He could have hit Lucretia with a bolt of lightning and cast her and the Hypogeans possessing her into the Barred Gate from a safe distance. Instead he chose to rush her, embracing her even as she ran him through and taking them both down into the darkness.
"If I had to do it again, I would... But this time, Lucretia, there's no justice... We have been trapped by our mistakes... And this mistake has to end, but... I will end it with you."
Unperson: The Lightbearer erased his name from history, because they couldn't accept that a god would be unable to complete their duties for any reason.
Voice of the Legion: As a god, Zaphrael speaks with a doubled voice that sounds as though he's shouting and whispering simultaneously. Notably, the "second" voice sounds as though everything it says is in monotone.

Hypogeans

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hypogean.png

The demonic creations of Annih, this faction makes up the main villains of the game.

Born of Magic: Most Hypogeans are born from the ambient energy their kindred leak after feeding off of mortal misery.
Demon of Human Origin: If a mortal is infused with enough of their power, they will become a Hypogean as well. One way for this to happen is to receive Powers via Possession, like Lucretia. Some Hypogeans are The Symbiote in need of a host, bonding to a former mortal in return for the mortal committing wicked deeds. Occasionally, a high-ranking Hypogean will offer a Deal with the Devil, sacrificing some of their own power to transform their client.
Emotion Eater: They grow stronger by feeding on the negative emotions of mortals.
Mechanically Unusual Class: The Hypogeans don't have a faction bonus like the other factions (who get attack and defense buffs when 3 or more heroes in the same faction are on a team). Instead, if your team has a Hypogean, they give various direct stat buffs.
Mooks: The common-tier Hypogeans, which are nameless and some of the only non-boss characters impossible for the player to get.
My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Hypogeans are born from mortal suffering and were created as weapons to destroy Esperia. The vast majority of Hypogeans are Sadists by their very nature. But even so, their nature is not pure, which has allowed for rare exceptions. There are also hints that a few of the Celestials have deceived the world as to the true nature of the war against the Hypogeans.
Olympus Mons: Alongside Celestials, Hypogeans are among the hardest and most expensive heroes in the game to get, and have the power to match.
Omnicidal Maniac: Annih created them as tools to enact his Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum, and as such, with only rare exceptions, they wish for the destruction of all things. The Hypogeans call their goal the Entropic Annihilation.
Our Demons Are Different: They are a race the former God of the Dead, Annih, created from his blood to torture mortals.
Purple Is the New Black: Being the faction of darkness, all of the Hypogeans have a purple color scheme.
Sadist: Most Hypogeans enjoy the suffering of mortals.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Dura built the Barred Gate by twisting space to form a Prison Dimension. Ancelot lured the Hypogean horde nearby, allowing her to seal most of them away. Over time, the Hypogeans have managed to weaken the seal, allowing the occasional Hypogeans to break out.
The Symbiote: Some Hypogeans seek out mortals that hate the world, bonding with them, twisting them into a fellow hypogean, and giving them power to fulfill their grudge while feeding off of the resulting despair.
Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Hypogeans and Celestials are mutually super-effective against each other.
Tentacled Terror: Large concentrations of their energy crystalize and start growing tentacles.

Canisa & Ruke, Chimera of Ire

"Arrogant humans, we'll make you pay!"

Canisa and Ruke were once Maulers from enemy tribes. The two of them were captured by a Well-Intentioned Extremist who believed that he could end the war between Maulers and humans by breaking the curse and reverting the Maulers back into humans, making their peoples one race again. With humans being the only race the two Maulers hated more than their rival tribes, the two of them were enraged. A passing Hypogean symbiote fused the three of them together, which the other two accepted. The newly born demon proceeded to swear revenge against humanity.

Fusion Dance: A fusion of two Maulers and one Hypogean into a Multiple Head Case.
Psychic Link: Canisa and Ruke usually speak in unison, though one of Ruke's quotes implies that the two retain separate egos.
The Symbiote: The nature of the original snake hypogean who fused the three of them together.

Eugene, Fool of Chaos

My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Not counting Lucilla, who isn't quite a hypogean demon in the first place, he is the first unambiguously non-evil hypogean demon introduced.

Ezizh, Hellborn/Lord of Nightmares

"The infernal hells shall consume you all!"

Created from a demonic seed to invade the realm of dreams, Ezizh sows nightmares and fear among mortal minds to aid the Hypogeans' conquest. The dark dreams he plants can sap the very life from the dreamer out of sheer terror, eliminating enemies without fighting a single battle.

Ezizh is a bulky support hero that can bolster his allies and lock down his foes, preventing them from effectively fighting back. His ultimate ability, Fissure, creates a fiery explosion that sets the ground around him ablaze, burning enemies for further damage over time.

Arch-Enemy: As his powers are through nightmares, he’s trying to seek out and eliminate Tasi, who has power over dreams. After much warring with her over the dreams of mortals, he eventually surpasses and becomes so much stronger than her that she can no longer oppose him, only barely able to flee for her own life.
Born as an Adult: Ezizh was created in a "mature" form as soon as he fully manifested.
Department of Redundancy Department: His English catchphrase. Of course the hells are infernal, "infernal" means "like something from Inferno", so he’s essentially saying “the hellish hells”.
Emotion Eater: He feeds off of negative emotions.
Mind Rape: Both in lore and in-game, Ezizh specializes in ravaging his enemies' minds to break them entirely. In-game, this manifests as his ability to inflict crippling debuffs on enemies.
One-Winged Angel: Serves as the final boss of an Abyssal Expedition, in which he becomes a 28-foot-tall monstrosity with several billion HP. This form of him is also treated as a Dimensional to signify that his newfound power makes him more than just a mere Hypogean.
Power Nullifier: His Horrify ability prevents enemies from using their ultimates for a short time. This also interrupts ultimates already in progress.
Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Feeble Mind has Ezizh mind-controlling an enemy and making them walk towards him; once they're in front of him, Ezizh slashes at them with his claw. Ezizh himself doesn't do much damage, but being dragged into his team can be a death sentence for fragile back-liners.

Framton, Devourer Of Flames

"Is there ought more beautiful than dancing flames?"

Khazard, The Frozen Terror

"Colder by the second."

Attack Animal: His ice dragon companion serves as an Assist Character in combat by attacking enemies targeted by his other abilities, as well as striking enemies at will when his Frozen Mist is up.
Foil: He was released at roughly the same time as Talene, and as such parallels her in several ways: aside from their fire/ice duality, Talene was uplifted into a Celestial by a higher power related to her kin, while Khazard was torn away from his kind and corrupted into a Hypogean. Talene's kit is built around healing and damage output, while Khazard focuses more on shutting down healing and inflicting crippling debuffs.
Elemental Embodiment: As the former Elemental Guardian of the Tides, Khazard was once responsible for directing the ocean currents of the world. Additionally, Respen's backstory implies that he may be able to manifest himself from the tides.
Freeze Ray: His Frozen Beam ability damages a target and freezes it solid.
Go Mad from the Revelation: In his backstory, Khazard started out as a sea elemental protecting the oceans, much like Seirus, until some Eldritch Abomination filled his head with thoughts meant to make him question his existence and ultimately made him its thrall.
Hearing Voices: Prior to his becoming a Hypogean, Khazard had begun hearing the whispers of an eldritch undersea horror, whose influence made him falter in his duties as an elemental guardian and ultimately led to his corruption.
An Ice Person: Befitting his title, Khazard's abilities make use of ice magic.
Hostile Weather: His ultimate creates a layer of Frozen Mist on the battlefield, which reduces enemies' healing effects and freezes them solid when they're low on health.
Literally Shattered Lives: Khazard crumbles into ice fragments in his death animation.
We Used to Be Friends: He once had a mentor-student bond with Respen before becoming the Hypogean he is now.

Leofric, the Malevolent Menace

"The ignorant are always fearless."

A Hypogean disguised as a wealthy businessman, Leofric worked his way into the good graces of the Lord of Kuilin through generosity. Though not all trust the man, he has a way of hearing things and is more than capable of striking deals with those that suit his mysterious goals.

Bookworm: He has a love of knowledge in general, and went home from a gala early because he was excited to get a shipment of books. Unfortunately for him, this made him one of the suspects for stealing an artifact from the First Hypogean War that occurred, as his carriage was the only one seen leaving before the theft was discovered.
Dub Name Change: Unlike most heroes, Leofric's Chinese name 厄伦加纳 is not a transliteration of his English one.
Faux Affably Evil: He can be cordial, polite, and cultured when he wants to be, but given that he's a Hypogean and his goals are shrouded in mystery, it's likely that most of it is an act. Borders on Affably Evil as it's stated he doesn't hold much love for the other Hypogeans and their agenda.
My Species Doth Protest Too Much: He is about as close as you can get to a non-malicious Hypogean. It has been stated that he doesn't get along with his fellow Hypogeans very well because he finds their mindless love for violence and destruction distasteful, getting in the way of his own love for knowledge. His friendship with Prince Lester, the Lord of Kuilin City, is also a genuine one, even with the latter knowing of Leofric's true nature.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: He is depicted with one of his eyes glowing a sinister red, hinting at his true nature.
Treacherous Quest Giver: He dispatches Mirael and Rosaline to prepare dishes from various places throughout Esperia. Whatever he was really after is unknown, but the last one "accidentally" summons a glutton demon. Thankfully, it was somehow already injured, so the two of them manage to terminate it easily.

Lucilla, Maiden of Dusk

"Come play hide and seek with me!"

Deity of Human Origin: A human infant experimented upon with human alchemy and infused with massive amounts of power to create an artificial Hypogean deity, long before Annih's Hypogean demons actually existed.
Human Weapon: At the old civilization's peak, when they tried to rebel against the gods, an alchemist experimented upon two infants, one of them Lucilla, turning them into a pair of artificial deities intended to become superweapons to win the war. The war was lost before Lucilla could be finished and deployed, so the alchemist sealed the two artificial gods into a slumber where the Celestials wouldn't find them. Centuries later, one did, but his conscience overtook his ambition, so he raised the two in secret with a similarly rebellious Hypogean. The Celestials and Hypogeans cooperated to tear the family apart so that they could use the twin aligned with their own energies as weapons.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Hypogeans sealed her memories to use her as a weapon.
Rage Against the Heavens: What she was originally built for, and what she ends up pursuing for ironic reasons. She eventually realizes that her fellow Hypogeans kidnapped her to use her as a weapon, and that they even went so far as to erase her memories and tear apart her family to make her one. So she decides to work with her brother to inflict vengeance against the Celestials and Hypogeans.
Sibling Yin-Yang: She is an artificial Hypogean deity, who was codenamed "Night". Her brother is an artificial Crlestial deity, who was codenamed "Day".
Super Prototype: She is probably the first Hypogean. However, she was born from humanity's rebellion rather than Annih, and her malice originates from nurture rather than nature, with Liberta feeling that she isn't really evil at all.

Lucretia, The Betrayed

"The Celestials do not care for insignificant mortals!"

Arch-Enemy: Zaphrael's choice to end the summoning ritual at the cost of his son's life drove his wife Lucretia well and truly over the Despair Event Horizon, and in her grief she allowed herself to be possessed by the same demon that had attempted to possess her son. Now she scours the earth with a single purpose: To hunt down and eradicate Zaphrael.
Better Off with the Bad Guys: She was once a Lightbearer, the same as Zaphrael. However, once a Hypogean took over their son, forcing the now-Celestial Zaphrael to kill him, she began to deeply hate the Celestials and willingly allowed the Hypogean that possessed her son to take her as a host instead.
Dark Action Girl: Lucretia is both a Hypogean (although she's less mindlessly evil than most of them) and easily one of the more combat-oriented female heroes, with her kit often taking her straight into the middle of the enemy's ranks.
Driven to Villainy
Evil Costume Switch
Face–Heel Turn: Once an ordinary human woman, until her grief at the death of her son allowed the Hypogean that possessed him to take hold of her, turning her into a Hypogean herself.
Horns of Villainy
Love Makes You Evil
Playing with Fire: Her Hellfire ability shrouds her in flames that deal damage to surrounding enemies and reduce their Defense, and using her ultimate for the second time onwards in a battle creates a fiery explosion.
Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: An example of Deliberate Integration shows up in her abilities and AI. Normally, Lucretia's Deathwish ability makes her fixate on the enemy with the highest Attack. However, if her Arch-Enemy Zaphrael is in the enemy formation, she will instead focus exclusively on attacking him until one of them dies, regardless of his Attack rating compared to his allies.
Stance System: Lucretia gains defensive buffs if placed on the frontline, gaining increased evasion and resistance to crowd control, while she gets offensive boosts to her attack speed and critical hit damage if placed on the backline. After using her ultimate for the first time, she gains both sets of benefits for the rest of the battle.
This Was His True Form: When Lucretia is killed, the Hypogean inside her dissolves, leaving behind the body of her human form.

Mehira, Mind Cager

"Do you love me? I love you."

Charm Person: Her ultimate is a board-wide version of this, charming every enemy in front of her and making them all fight each other.
Hot as Hell: She's essentially a succubus in all but name. While nothing explicit is mentioned in her backstory, her modus operandi of using baser, darker desires to bend mortals to her will carries most of the same implications.
I Love You Because I Can't Control You: She has a crush on Fawkes because he was the first man to resist her charms long enough to inflict violence upon her.
The Minion Master: Mehira opens battles by giving up a majority of her health to summon three Hellspawn minions; they heal her when they attack, and when she takes fatal damage, she can sacrifice them to restore health.
Vampiric Draining: All three of her basic abilities can steal health from enemies to heal herself, offsetting the health she pays to summon minions at the beginning of battle and making her more bulky than she looks.
Worthy Opponent: Hers is Fawkes, for being able to resist her influence. She's thus made it her goal to break his will.

Maetria, Duskfeather

One of the last of the Obsidian Finches.

Anthropomorphic Transformation: She was originally a type of fire attuned bird before the power of the hypogeans turned her into a humanoid demoness.
Breaking Old Trends: The first Awakened hero without a non-Awakened counterpart.
Deal with the Devil: An unknown entity offered her the power of the Hypogeans. In return, if she ever gives up all hope, she will end up as that Hypogean's livestock to feast upon her despair.
Evil Counterpart: While Talene is at peace with the sacrificial role that the obsidian finches play, Maetria bitterly resents it. While Talene became a Celestial Goddess, she became a Hypogean Demoness.
- Her place as a dark reflection of Talene is further demonstrated in their Awakened ult animations, as they rotate in opposite directions—clockwise and back with arms out for Maetria, and counterclockwise and forward with hands clasped for Talene.
Fallen Hero: Her Heroic Sacrifice was initially willing, but when she realized that not only herself, but most of her kind was destroyed by it, and her species was created as a stopgap to fix an error in the world's design, she came to resent the world.
Fashionable Asymmetry: Unlike Talene's humanoid form, Maetria's wings are mismatched. Her right wing emerges from her back, normally, but the left one is merged with her arm.
Humanshifting: She has limited shape shifting powers, enough to disguise herself as a Wilder.
Hypocrite: Dolly's Corner notes that she hates deception due to how Honas tricked her into sacrificing her entire race. Nevertheless, she was willing to trick Talene until the last moment.
Last of His Kind: Though it's questionable as to whether either of them count as Obsidian Finches anymore, she and Talene are the last living members of their race.
Necromantic: She seeks the revival of her race, and she is more than willing to make the world pay a terrible price for it.
Obvious Rule Patch: Like Talene, she has Resurrective Immortality, which will work until all other members of her team are dead. So if you put her on a team with Talene, then that would mean that Talene or Maetria could give one another the chance to revive while dead. The team would stay alive unless the enemy managed to kill Talene and Maetria at about the same time, right? Yeah, the developers thought of that. If you put the two of them on a team, Maetria's Resurrective Immortality stops working for no other reason than to prevent this.
Resurrective Immortality: Like Talene, so long as one member of her team is alive, she can revive. Unlike Talene however, it is based on stealing health from others rather than an independent power. Her power is incompatible with Talene's and will stop working if they are on the same team.
Secret Identity: She usually pretends to be a bird-type Wilder.
Treacherous Quest Giver: She disguises herself as a human historian, guiding the heroes to end the Elemental Imbalance with her knowledge of history. She has her own agenda, involving the Elemental Emblems and Talene.
Uncertain Doom: After being defeated by Talene, her body seemingly disintegrates. As far as the world knows, her scholar identity is dead, but the end of her story shows that she revived, and the sinister figure she made her Deal with the Devil with laughs at her failure to Screw Destiny the plans of The Maker, Honas. She asserts that she will accomplish her goals even if it takes another one thousand years.

Mezoth, Abysmal Butcher

"Bow down!"

Belly Mouth: His most notable feature is the gigantic, gaping maw across his belly.
Fat Bastard: Easily the broadest Hypogean to date, and no less malevolent for it.
The Juggernaut: Mezoth has passive immunity to crowd control as long as he's above half health, and with one of his passive abilities giving him bonus defense depending on how much health he has, it can be a chore whittling him down. Chances are, he will get his ultimate off at least once no matter how hard the enemy tries to stop him.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Has two pairs of arms, with one pair being huge and muscular and the other being comparatively flabby; only the larger pair gets any real use in his attacks since they're the ones wielding his weapons.
Real Men Wear Pink: Humorously, the animation for Mezoth's ultimate has him putting on a pink bib with hearts on it.
Swallowed Whole: His ultimate originally had Mezoth swallowing an enemy entirely, keeping them trapped in his belly until his energy or their health runs out. The newer version instead simply traps them in place, unable to do anything.
Villainous Glutton: A wicked, constantly hungering demon, whose weaponry is basically a really sinister-looking knife and fork.

Mortas, The Insidious

"Hmm? Do you need something?"

Deal with the Devil:
- He got his power by making a deal with an as-of-yet-unidentified Hypogean, exchanging his soul for the power to kill all of his enemies. Then be made sure his last enemy could never be killed.
- He’s able to be the devil dealed with in the form of his fittingly-named “Devilish Deal” ability, where he first heals the opponent and then absorbs all of the restored health and then some.
Giftedly Bad: He didn’t seem to notice during his work as a Non-Ironic Clown that absolutely nobody was entertained by his act, to the point that even a kid putting sheep dung in his donation bowl attracted more interest.
Loophole Abuse: His Deal with the Devil was set to expire once the last of his enemies was dead. So when he only had one enemy left alive, he turned that one into an immortal Graveborn, and “undead” doesn’t qualify as “dead”.
Monster Clown: He turned into one very quickly, even before he became a Hypogean.
Non-Ironic Clown: At least, he started this way. He wasn’t very good at it.
Uncanny Valley Makeup: When he was still a Non-Ironic Clown, he was so bad at applying his makeup that he grossed out the Hypogean who would later give him his powers.

Vyloris, The Deceitful Demoness

"Come closer, there's nothing to be afraid of."

Decoy Damsel: Her modus operandi is to call out to a Knight in Shining Armor via Dream Land, present herself as a goddess imprisoned by Hypogean demons, and then ensnare the would-be hero, breaking them into the next fake Hypogean supposedly keeping her prisoner.
Divinely Appearing Demons: She presents herself as an imprisoned Celestial, and looks like an angelic Winged Humanoid while disguising her nature. Her true form looks similar, except with a darker, sickly color scheme.
Fallen Angel: It is implied that she wasn't always a Hypogean, but got addicted to deceiving would-be heroes.
Good Wings, Evil Wings: Her Celestial disguise has white feather wings. In her true form, they change to a sickly black and yellow.
Memory Gambit: She likes to add even herself to the list of people she deceives, altering her own memories to actually believe she is an imprisoned goddess. Her memories are setup to return as soon as she is "rescued", at which point she backstabs her would-be hero.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: Unlike most Hypogeans, she doesn't rage or boast. She prefers to give sarcastic praise for her would-be saviors or calmly explain how much she is going to enjoy your suffering.

Zikis, The Languid

"Ugh, what now?"

Zolrath, Voidbinder

"It is only a matter of time."

A cunning demon capable of peering and travelling through time itself, Zolrath puts his powers to good use in aiding the Hypogean conquest. Would-be heroes and threats to his purpose are ruthlessly snuffed out by the Voidbinder before they can even become a threat as he weaves the threads of fate to bring about a future where the Hypogeans reign supreme.

In battle, Zolrath is a ruthless warrior with high sustained area damage, and becomes more and more powerful as time goes on; if things go awry, he can even reset the battle for a second chance at overwhelming his foes. His ultimate ability, Time Rift, is a channeled ability that causes Zolrath to disappear from the battlefield while active, healing him and draining Energy over time. When the ability ends or is cancelled, Zolrath appears behind the enemy with the least health and hits them with a powerful sneak attack.

Arc Villain: For the "Depths of Time" adventures, in which he serves as a Treacherous Questgiver. However, he's only fought in the first and (potentially) the third.
Doppelgänger Attack: One of Zolrath's abilities summons a clone of him from another time, and both Zolraths will attack the target before unleashing a laser blast from their hourglasses. Interestingly, after the attack, the original Zolrath disappears into a time rift while the clone takes his place.
Eldritch Abomination: A demon that has powers over time unmatched by most others even among his kind, along with a straight-up bizarre appearance even by Hypogean standards.
Eyes Do Not Belong There: Look closely at his model, and you can see an eye on both his arm and his chest.
Faux Affably Evil: The Depths of Time series depicts him as such: polite and cordial, but only to taunt mortals while manipulating them into bringing about his desired Bad Futures.
Fourth-Wall Observer: To date, Zolrath is the only hero featured in adventures to directly address the player.
Gathering Steam: Zolrath's trademark ability, Annihilate, boosts his attack power over time, making him far more dangerous if he can survive for a long time. It also improves his basic attack at certain time intervals, first causing it to hit twice and then changing it to a powerful Shockwave Stomp.
Make Wrong What Once Went Right: What he primarily uses his abilities for are altering timelines, often by making prominent people never be born.
Reset Button: If Zolrath dies after all his allies have fallen, his Deja Vu ability will reset the battle and give him an attack speed buff, while also allowing him to retain his Annihilate bonuses for an explosive opener.
Time Master: Zolrath can form time portals to travel through time, as well as peer into the past and future.
Wave-Motion Gun: Part of his Doppelganger ability has both Zolrath and his double firing off a giant laser beam from their hourglasses.
Worthy Opponent: As his opposite and equal, this is how Zolrath views Orthros, and he looks forward to the inevitable final confrontation between them.
Wowing Cthulhu: The Depths of Time III allows the player to exterminate both the Mauler and Lightbearer settlements for the bad ending (which you have to do at least once to get all the rewards); Zolrath's responses indicate that he's straight-up impressed that the player is doing a way better job than what he had intended.
You Can't Fight Fate: A common theme in his taunts, especially in the Depths of Time series where he dares the player to change the future just to show them that they cannot.

Dimensionals

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dimensional.png

The catch-all faction for characters that are not originally from Esperia.

Bribing Your Way to Victory: While it’s possible for the free-to-play audience to get them, it involves holding back from spending any collected resources in order to have enough to make the exchange. The only other way to get them is to purchase them directly when they’re available.
Fusion Dance: Dimensionals have the unique property of being able to fuse souls with another hero, sharing their ascension tier in exchange for not being able to use the fused heroes simultaneously.
Guest Fighter: The entire purpose of this faction’s existence is to contain them.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: All other factions require multiple copies of the same hero to reach the higher ascension tiers. Since, generally speaking, only one copy of a Dimensional is possible to get, for them higher tiers are instead reached by fusing souls with another hero. This allows the Dimensional hero to share their fusion partner's ascension tier, at the cost of the two not being usable in the same battle unless you use a Dimensional Key to enhance their fusion.
Olympus Mons: The hardest characters in the game to get, most of them have sky-high stats and are only available through limited-time events.
Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The only faction that doesn’t have any inherent advantages or disadvantages against other factions.
Trapped in Another World: As of this writing, the only Dimensional who came to Esperia by choice was Albedo. All of the others were forcefully pulled in by Annih.
Viral Unlockable: After their distribution period has ended, the only way to unlock a Dimensional for yourself is to hire one from a friend using Dimensional Stones.

Arthur Pendragon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arthur_31.png

"No matter where I am, I shall lead."

The legendary king of the Bretons and leader of the Knights of the Round Table, brought to Esperia by a dimensional rift. Now, he fights alongside its people on his new quest to return home.

Arthur is a very durable tank that specializes in soaking damage for his allies with his King's Blessing and can deal area-of-effect damage through Excalibur's Fury, taking frontal hits that would kill lesser heroes easily. His ultimate ability, Smite, summons the legendary Excalibur to his hand, empowering his basic attacks and his other abilities: King's Blessing creates an aura that protects allied heroes, and Excalibur's Fury will have its area of effect increased. Subsequent uses of Smite will instead deal heavy area-of-effect damage in front of Arthur.

Armored But Frail: "Frail" is pushing it a little since he is built to tank damage, but hitting him from behind to bypass his frontal protection will bring Arthur down much more quickly.
Frontline General: Arthur's skill set actively encourages players to put him on the frontline; in addition to being exceptionally durable (except from the back), his signature item lets him rally allies behind him and give them a boost to their damage output.
Public Domain Character: The King Arthur packing a magical sword.
Stone Wall: While Arthur does have a couple of ways to do damage, it's fairly negligible compared to his ability to take hits, which is incredibly impressive as long as it hits him from the front.
Sword Beam: Excalibur's Fury sends a crescent-shaped energy blast from his sword at the enemy, or three if he's holding Excalibur. Subsequent uses of Smite after equipping Excalibur will also send huge energy waves at the enemy.
Swordfish Sabre: With his summer skin, Excalibur gets replaced by a huge swordfish that Arthur fishes up when he uses his ultimate.
Technicolor Blade: Excalibur is given a vivid blue-green blade in this game.

Ukyo Tachibana, Wandering Swordsman

"Greetings."

Blade Spam: One of the game's leading masters of this, with most of his abilities allowing him to unleash several extremely quick slashes on an enemy.
Incurable Cough of Death: If visited in the Oak Inn, his response is punctuated by coughing, no doubt due to his illness.
Reincarnate in Another World: Ambiguously - it's not clearly stated whether he revived in Esperia after passing away or whether he was simply dragged in.
Warrior Poet: He's as much a poet as he is a swordsman, and has a few lines where he speaks in haiku.

Nakoruru, Nature's Guardian

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nakoruru.png

"Pleased to meet you."

As an Ainu priestess, Nakoruru possesses a strong attunement to nature. This attunement allowed her to hear and sense the anguish of a forest similar to her own, a plea for help that she quickly became unable to ignore. Venturing into the realm of Esperia, she found the home of the Wilders under demonic assault. Leaping into action to help them, she was welcomed as a friend by Esperia's forest folk, and she now protects her new home with her life.

Nakoruru is a disruptive melee scrapper that can interrupt enemies and pick off single targets. Her hawk companion Mamahaha fights alongside her, attacking enemies or carrying her to safety as the situation demands. Nakoruru's ultimate ability, Running Chest Jab, removes all defensive buffs from a target before striking them for heavy damage.

Armor-Piercing Attack: Her ultimate removes shields and other effects from its target before hitting them, allowing her to take down Brutus with his invulnerability active or destroy Lucius's shield.
Attack Animal: One of her abilities is to have Mamahaha dive at enemies to interrupt their abilities.
Gratuitous Japanese: Regardless of what language your game is in, Nakoruru's voice lines are always in Japanese.
Guest Fighter: The second one from Samurai Shodown.
Heroic Second Wind: Her Kamui Mutsube ability, which restores her health if it drops low while Mamahaha carries her towards the enemy with the lowest health so that she can jump on them after healing.
In Harmony with Nature: Which, in turn, allowed her to sense the Hypogean invasion and led to her befriending the Wilders.

Ezio Auditore da Firenze

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ezio_1.png

Voiced by: Roger Craig Smith

"Give me his name."

The esteemed leader of the Assassin order, Ezio took up the mantle after his father was framed and murdered by the House of Borgia. After three and a half years, the Assassins under his leadership drove out the Borgias and established freedom for the people of Italy... and now, through unknown means, he now fights for the people of Esperia.

Ezio is an elusive melee assassin that evades enemy attacks and strikes them down with his deadly weaponry and skills, becoming more slippery and dangerous as the battle drags on. The crux of his prowess is his ultimate ability, Eagle Vision; when used, all enemies' health bars are marked with a kill threshold that increases with subsequent uses. When an enemy's health drops below the threshold, Ezio can leap to that target and kill them instantly.

Badass Normal: Relatively speaking. He doesn't have magical powers on the level of Esperia's residents - just a lot of weapons and a skilled hand to wield them, and that's all he needs to go toe-to-toe with any of them.
Counter-Attack: The Final Retribution skill allows Ezio to periodically evade an incoming attack and then counter-attack with either a crossbow shot or several quick stabs, depending on whether the attacker hit him from long range or up close.
Finishing Move: Ezio can deliver a killing blow to low-health enemies marked by Eagle Vision, by either jumping at them from above and stabbing them with his hidden blade or dashing behind them and running them through with his sword.
Fragile Speedster: Ezio is an avoidance tank, through and through: he can be deceptively hard to put down thanks to his high evasion, but it only takes a few hits that actually connect to drop him.
Gratuitous English: Similarly to the Samurai Shodown Guest Fighters, Ezio's voice lines are in English no matter what language your game is set to.
Guest Fighter: The very same Ezio Auditore from Assassin's Creed.
No Saving Throw: Once Ezio spots a target and begins his execution move, there's no way to stop him from killing that target; even Brutus and Thoran, who have abilities that prevent death altogether, can't block it. Units with resurrection abilities can still use them, though.
Walking Armory: He carries knives, swords, crossbows, and his trademark hidden blade, and he can put them all to good use in battle.

Albedo, Pure-White Devil

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/albedo_6.png

Voiced by: Yumi Hara

"As you wish, Lord Ainz!"

One of Ainz Ooal Gown's most devoted subordinates, Albedo found herself unable to stop thinking about her master when he departed for Esperia. With the inhabitants of Nazarick concerned about their leader, Albedo took it on herself to follow his trail, seeking out Ainz and protecting him from anything the world might throw his way.

Albedo is a tank that focuses on absorbing damage with shields and leaping to the defense of her allies, capable of warding off attackers and taking damage in place of other heroes. Her ultimate ability, Ginnungagap, has her leaping into the middle of the enemy, dealing area of effect damage and gaining a shield based on the damage dealt.

Barrier Warrior: Three of Albedo's four abilities generate shields for herself, allowing her to block damage reliably.
Battle Couple: Naturally, she still has the hots for Ainz and goes out of her way to protect him. Ainz naturally still doesn't reciprocate the feelings (in fact, he never even acknowledges her in this game), but fielding the two is a formidable combination as Albedo protects Ainz's squishy self from being sniped while he rains destruction on the enemy.
Final Boss: She appears alongside Ainz as the final boss of the Abyssal Expedition that took place during their event.
Guest Fighter: She appears as part of a crossover event with Overlord (2012).
Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Unlike in her source material, Albedo fights in her usual white dress instead of donning armor.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The ability she unlocks from the Oak Inn is essentially this, granting her immunity to damage and a huge attack bonus when an ally is slain for the first time (or when Ainz is defeated).
Stone Wall: Albedo is all about defense, boasting resistance to critical hits and near-constant shields with her abilities. She doesn't deal a whole lot of damage, though.
Undying Loyalty: To Ainz, to the point that she barged into Esperia just to look for him. Notably, if she and Ainz are on the same team, she will prioritize protecting him above everyone else with her abilities.

Ainz Ooal Gown, Magic Caster

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ainz_ooal_gown.png

Voiced by: Satoshi Hino

"I am Lord of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, Ainz Ooal Gown."

Once an ordinary salaryman and guildmaster in the MMO Yggdrassil, Momonga sat alone in the guild hall as he awaited the servers' closing. But instead, he found himself becoming one with his skeletal avatar, becoming a powerful spellcaster and taking the name of his guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, for himself. Despite his many exploits, however, Ainz ultimately still misses his old guildmates; pursuing them from one game to another, he still relentlessly seeks them out.

Patience is the name of the game for Ainz Ooal Gown. If given enough time in battle, he can devastate enemies and apply various debuffs with his powerful spells. His ultimate ability, Fallen Down, deals massive damage to all enemies; however, it also has a cast time of several seconds during which the ability can be interrupted. If the ability is cancelled, Ainz restores a portion of his Energy.

Ascended Meme: One of Ainz's abilities in this game is him buffing himself a bunch at the start of combat, just like he did before fighting Shalltear in his home series (a scene that fans latched onto).
Charged Attack: His Fallen Down ability must be channeled for 5 seconds before being cast; interrupting the channeling causes the ability to fizzle. His signature item lets him waive the cast time for up to 3 uses per battle.
Dem Bones: He has the distinction of being the first fully skeletal hero in the game.
Final Boss: The Abyssal Expedition that took place during his crossover event had him and Albedo as the final encounter.
Glass Cannon: Ainz has unquestionably the highest base Attack stat in the game backed by similarly huge damage numbers on his abilities (Khazard is the only one that comes close to his attack power, but his abilities deal a lower percentage of his attack power as damage), including his horrifically destructive ultimate Fallen Down that can One-Hit Kill most heroes of similar level. However, like most mages, his health is fairly low, and while charging he can't move.
Gratuitous Japanese: His voice lines are, as per the norm for crossover characters, only in the language of his source material, in this case Japanese, although he also sprinkles in Gratuitous English with his abilities.
Guest Fighter: He appears as part of a crossover event with Overlord (2012).
Large Ham: Suffice it to say, he's really playing up his Evil Overlord persona.
Medium Awareness: His lore indicates that he's fully aware he's in a game. After all, he was a gamer in his past life, and is now actively trying to reach out to his old guildmates.
Noticing the Fourth Wall: Unlike most in the game, Ainz's bio has him addressing the player directly - something he never did in his source material.
Pillar of Light: Ainz's ultimate summons one of these that explodes into a massive column of magical power that damages every enemy on the field.

QUEEN, Courageous Tactician

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/queen_57.png

Voiced by: Cherami Leigh (EN)

"Hmm... Like this?"

Fighting Spirit: Compared to Joker, Queen makes much more active use of her Persona Johanna, summoning it frequently to run over enemies in addition to using it for her ultimate.
Gathering Steam: Queen's crit chance and defense both go up over the course of a battle, letting her hit harder and making her harder to bring down over time.
Guest Fighter: Appears as part of a promotion for Persona 5.
Invulnerable Attack: Queen is fully invulnerable during her ultimate.
Mysterious Past: Her bio is deliberately left as vague as possible in this game to play up her mysterious nature; it doesn't even give her real name.
Tornado Move: Queen's ultimate creates a nuclear tornado that sucks enemies into the center, before ending off with a Ground Punch for area damage.

JOKER, Leader of Few Words

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joker_4.png

Voiced by: Xander Mobus (EN)

"Show me your true form!"

Art Shift: Joker's All-Out Attack ends on an animation that wouldn't look out of place in Persona 5, complete with Dramatic Red Samurai Background and Joker striking his Victory Pose with a change in art style to match.
Barrier Change Boss: Reflecting his Wild Card powers from his home game, Joker has the unique Adverse Reaction ability to change factions to counter the enemy directly across from him (if they're not a Dimensional), switching to a new target if that one dies. This also means he himself becomes weak to whatever counters his new faction, though.
Fighting Spirit: His ultimate, Maeigaon, summons his Persona, Arsène, to deal damage to all enemies.
Glass Cannon: Despite being a melee hero, Joker has no abilities that improve his sustain or durability, making him relatively fragile. However, he can put out significant damage across the entire enemy team if he gets going.
Guest Fighter: Appears as part of a promotion for Persona 5.
Ineffectual Loner: Much of Joker's damage output comes from his All-Out Attack, which can only trigger if at least one of his allies is still alive. His Oak Inn bonus also allows him to shake off disabling effects, but again only if he has a living ally.
Kick Them While They Are Down: Joker can execute an All-Out Attack if at least 3 enemies are disabled at the same time (or the entire enemy team if there's less than 3), dealing huge damage to the entire enemy team.
Man of Kryptonite: Joker excels at fighting enemy compositions made up of a single faction, as he can get faction bonuses against all of them for high damage and disabling potential; if there's at least 3 enemies of a single faction, his ultimate will almost assuredly trigger an All-Out Attack, letting him tear down enemies quickly.
Mysterious Past: Like Queen, his bio is left deliberately vague and minimalistic in this game.
Super Move Portrait Attack: As a stylistic holdover from his home series, Joker gets a cut-in of his face when he uses his ultimate on slower game speeds.
Sword and Gun: Usually attacks with his dagger, but will periodically whip out his pistol to attack enemies for bonus damage.

Prince of Persia, King of Blades

"I will tell you a tale like none you have ever heard."

Merlin, Seer of Destiny

"Ah, but one must always think before they act..."

Combat Clairvoyance: His ultimate works this way according to its description, allowing his allies to foresee incoming danger and thus avoid it, reducing the damage they take.
The Mentor: To Arthur, naturally. His backstory mentions him raising Arthur to become the king he is now.
The Owl-Knowing One: Has an owl familiar that helps him in battle, and also reinforces his image as a wise old seer.
White Mage: Merlin's abilities are all defensive in nature, with the only real damage output he has being a reactive disable that also happens to inflict damage over time.

Leonardo da Vinci

"A paper. A brush. A world!"

Art Attacker: Leonardo's combat abilities are all based on his artwork, from weaponized paint to turning enemies into portraits to conjuring a BFG from his blueprints. He even has a skill called "Art Attack".
Art Initiates Life: A power he gained in Esperia, allowing him to bring his various inventions to life from his drawings.
Clock Punk: All of his inventions have a certain clockwork aesthetic to them. The style is based on his work, after all.
Combination Attack: Art Attack not only debuffs and damages enemies, but also renders them vulnerable to his ultimate ability.
Historical Domain Character: The first hero to be added to the game based on a historical figure.
Reincarnate in Another World: Leo's backstory for the game has him waking up in Esperia after passing away in the real world (still as an old man, although probably much healthier than he was at the time).

Melusina, Baba Yaga

"Do you have everything you need?"

Composite Character: Melusina and Baba Yaga are separate characters in folklore. Here, they're one and the same.

Joan of Arc, Dawn Protector

"I remember my mission."

Combat Medic: Joan is designated as a support, and primarily provides healing and shielding for allies. The catch is that this is provided by a Phantom Standard that follows her in battle and only applies effects to heroes behind her, meaning Joan is expected to be leading the charge, and she also has abilities for stunning and dealing some damage to enemies.
Implacable Man: Joan is completely immune to knockback and has passive damage reduction, making it difficult to stop her from marching forward.
Reincarnate in Another World: Depicted as reviving in Esperia after being burned at the stake.

NPCs

Bosses

Recurring Bosses

Wrizz

A Mauler boss enemy that appears as the target of Guild Hunt.

Damage-Sponge Boss: His Guild Hunt version is the most straightforward boss enemy in the game. At a high enough level, he does negligible damage, so all that matters is racking up the DPS. Even in the labyrinth, he's still a straight-forward tank-and-spank fight.
Molotov Cocktail: Literally the name of one of his abilities, which sets the target on fire for damage over time.
Optional Boss: Wrizz can appear in hard mode of the labyrinth as a boss that provides a hefty reward when beaten.
Throw Down the Bomblet: He attacks by throwing bombs, with his Bombs Away ability showering the enemy with bombs periodically.

Soren, The Soulblade

A Graveborn boss that can only be challenged periodically in Guild Hunt. To unlock Soren, guild members must contribute a certain number of activity points, and then a Guild Master or Guild Deputy must open the hunt.

Empathic Weapon: Numerous ones gathered in a singular form.
Puzzle Boss: Soren does far more damage with Frighten than his attacks or fireballs by turning the player's heroes against each other. Finding a way around this is the only way to rack up a high score in his encounter.
Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: On the giving end of this with his Frighten ability, making the player's heroes attack each other.
Shout-Out: Though hidden, Soren is referred to in the game's files as "SoulCalibur".
Two Beings, One Body: Is an amalgamation of an entire army regiment who fought for Bantus, slaughtered after a stunning victory due to being seen as a potential political threat, along with their weaponry.

Demonic Entity

"This time, no one escapes."

Nemora’s darkness given form. The first boss in the Twisted Realm.

Gaia's Revenge: It was Nemora temporarily falling into this mindset that created the darkness Demonic Entity was born from.
Enemy Without
Evil Doppelgänger
The Medic: Just like the real Nemora, she has the ability to heal her entire team at once.
Mook Maker: Instead of fighting directly, she creates an infinite army of Dreafs.

The Unhinged

Arden’s darkness given form. One of the bosses in the Twisted Realm.

Contractual Boss Immunity: The only boss (aside from the Dreaf enemies summoned by the Demonic Entity) that doesn't have it, being fully vulnerable to all disables. You'll want to take full advantage of this since his abilities pack a wallop if he isn't stopped from casting them and he takes greatly reduced damage when he isn't stunned.
Enemy Without: An evil demonic version of Arden.
Evil Doppelgänger
Immortality Immorality: Arden began to fear that he would die before his work was finished, so the corrupting influence tempted him with the prospect of eternal youth. Arden realized what was happening and kept the darkness at bay for a while, but his fears didn’t go away and it took hold of him at a moment when he was too exhausted to resist anymore. If Nemora didn’t talk him out of it, there’s no telling what he might have done.

Ice Shemira, The Frozen Enchantress

A variation on Shemira brought on by the agony of her memories. One of the bosses in the Twisted Realm.

An Ice Person
Barrier Warrior: One of Ice Shemira’s most dangerous attributes is that a barrier of ice shields her every time she summons a blizzard to the battlefield. The barrier gets stronger the more damage she takes, and before long it makes her completely invincible while it’s raised.
Promoted to Playable: Released as an event-limited skin for normal Shemira in December 2020, though without the additional abilities that make her such a difficult boss battle. The developers’ design notes for this and similar skins given to Niru and Daimon imply that they’ve all undergone Character Development by this point; Ice Shemira has become both the heart and the claws of her family, Ice Niru has learned to be there to protect his wife and son to make up for his lapses of responsibility in life, and Ice Daimon has finally found some comfort and relief from his ailments.
Superpowered Evil Side: Possibly. It’s not clear whether she and Shemira are separate individuals (as is the case with Demonic Entity and The Unhinged) or different forms of the same individual. Regardless, the “superpowered” part absolutely applies.

Idre, the Grotesque Mage

A renowned stage magician once named Gaston whose act went horribly wrong, returning as a powerful Graveborn. One of the bosses in the Twisted Realm.

Doppelgänger Attack: The phantoms he creates are much more dangerous than him.
Escape Battle Technique: After your team uses a total of six Ultimate skills, he'll disappear and end the battle. Fighting him is one of the only times in the game where the Auto battle option is not a very good idea.
Fatal Method Acting: In-universe. During one of his shows, he was supposed to make it look like he decapitated himself, then miraculously reattach his head. Unfortunately, something went wrong and he actually decapitated himself by mistake.
Identical Stranger: His sprites are an edited version of Oden's, despite his having absolutely no connection to Oden in his backstory or even abilities.
Power Parasite: Most buffs that your heroes give themselves, his phantoms will take. This makes some usual Twisted Realm bread-and-butter heroes like Elijah & Lailah useless against him.

Burning Brute

A strange and highly destructive creature that appeared in the same kind of rips in spacetime that the Guest Fighters came through, and causes untold destruction wherever it roams. One of the bosses in the Twisted Realm.

Barrier Warrior: The Burning Brute comes with a barrier that greatly reduces the damage of most ranged attacks, and only goes down when it drops unconscious.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: It supposedly hibernates for most of the year, but it appears in the Twisted Realm every other week.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Both in-universe and out.
Outside-Context Problem: Part of what makes it so dangerous is that it’s a Dimensional that nobody has the slightest idea what world it came from.
Public Domain Character: It's the Nian/Year Beast from Chinese mythology in all but name. In the Chinese translation, they don't even pretend it's anything else.
Playing with Fire: If the name “Burning Brute” didn’t tip you off.
Turns Red: Twice per battle, when it takes enough damage, the Burning Brute will be briefly knocked out and lose its barrier, but when it wakes up, its attacks become even more powerful.

Kane

"You dare enter my realm? Well... let’s hope you don’t get lost!"

The owner of the Arcane Labyrinth and the last boss of the Twisted Realm before the cycle repeats.

Armor-Piercing Attack: Anything hit by Kane's attacks will instantly lose all of their shields before taking damage.
Assist Character: One of Kane's abilities will summon a dragon that breathes fire across the battlefield to deal damage.
Flaming Sword: His signature weapon.
The Kingslayer: He was once a knight who served a king. It didn’t turn out well for that king.
One-Hit Kill: Periodically, Kane will instantly kill the enemy that has dealt the most damage to him thus far.
The Unfought: Despite seemingly being the Arcane Labyrinth's owner, Kane can't actually be encountered in it. He could only be fought when the Twisted Realm was introduced.
Warm-Up Boss: Kane is fought once in the campaign at the end of the tutorial chapter. This being the tutorial, he's at a fairly low level and goes down fairly easily.

Event Bosses

Gouldos, the Devourer

An unfathomably powerful demonic being, Gouldos is the root of much evil in Esperia. Gouldos has yet to be added to the Twisted Realm, but served as the Final Boss of an Abyssal Expedition, as well as the enemy faced in the Chasmic Altar.

Combat Tentacles: Can periodically summon tentacle enemies that attack nearby heroes, and can inflict Insanity stacks if not dealt with quickly. It also uses its own tentacles to swat at enemies.
Cthulhumanoid: It appears as a floating head that vaguely resembles a nautilus; given that there's always a portal behind it, it's entirely possible that this is not Gouldos's entire body.
Eldritch Abomination: An ancient, powerful evil being responsible for sowing madness and corruption across Esperia.
Hearing Voices: A common symptom of victims unfortunate enough to be in its presence is the sound of whispers in their mind.
Mind Rape:
- In lore, Gouldos's whispers are known to inflict insanity. It's heavily implied that it's the one that turned Khazard into the Hypogean he is today.
- In-game, Gouldos's attacks can place stacks of an undispellable Insanity debuff on its enemies. Each Insanity stack on a hero reduces the damage it deals, and if stacked 5 times on a hero, Gouldos permanently takes control of it.
Outside-Context Problem: There is very little indication of how Gouldos fits into the Hypogean conflict instigated by Annih, though the descriptions of later campaign chapters heavily imply that it is responsible for sowing madness in areas beyond Esperia's shores.

Adrax, God of the Hunt

Esperia's god of hunting as well as the ruler and Final Boss of the Hunting Grounds, who long ago led a bloody hunting campaign across the land. His domain was thus sealed away with him inside it, though periodically, it opens for heroes to confront him.

Bears Are Bad News: He has an overall ursine appearance and build much like that of Warek.
Outside-Context Problem: While his origins are in Esperia, Adrax is treated as a Dimensional for the purposes of damage matchups, meaning he doesn't take increased damage from any faction.
Purple Is Powerful: His enraged form has a red-and-purple color scheme not unlike that of most Hypogeans.
Sequential Boss: Adrax's raid-boss encounter comes with three distinct phases. In his first phase, he uses his regular form with defensive and disabling abilities, making him take greatly reduced damage until a percentage of his health has been chipped away. Then, several beacons around his settlement become active, and the teams in them can be attacked to disable the beacons. Once enough beacons have been taken down, the rest deactivate and Adrax enters his final phase where he gains a new form and much stronger damaging abilities.

Morgana, Goddess of Law and Order

The leader of the Celestials after Dura's passing.

Knight Templar: She upholds order, but with ruthless cruelty.
Light Is Not Good: She was willing to rip Liberta from his loved ones and brainwash him to use him as a Human Weapon. After he breaks free of the brainwashing, she actively hunts him and his sister down.
The Mentor: She served this role to Liberta after she brainwashed him.

Others

Dura

The goddess of life, killed during the first Hypogean invasion.

Big Good
Create Your Own Villain: She contributed to Annih's growing resentment by heaping blessings on the mortals who feared and hated him, while remaining completely ignorant to Annih's plight. Had she been more attentive, she would not have driven Annih to become evil out of spite and wage war against Esperia.
Heroic Sacrifice: It was outside of Annih's power to kill her directly. If she had stood aside and allowed Annih to destroy her creations as he pleased, she would still be alive.
I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: Her last act was creating the seven Artifacts of Dura.
Posthumous Character: She is long dead by the time the story starts.
You Can't Fight Fate: She caught onto Orthros' numerous failed attempts to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, asked him to stop, and accepted her death as inevitable.

Annih

The god of death and the creator of the Hypogeans.

Blood Magic: He created the Hypogeans using his own blood.
Death Takes a Holiday: An indefinite holiday. People still die, but Annih abandoning his duties meant that instead of resting, lost souls tend to wander aimlessly in rogue dimensions, growing ever-more obsessed with what they were chasing in life until that obsession is all that remains of them. Characters with supernatural connections like Niru and Elijah & Lailah try to pick up the slack and guide these souls when they can, but they can only do so much.
Everybody Hates Hades: In-universe. He used to be the type of death god who was just doing his job, but the mortals shunned him anyway. This was the source of his jealous rage.
Face–Heel Turn: He used to be just doing his job, but then he got jealous.
Greater-Scope Villain: He’s never encountered directly, but he’s directly responsible for the conflict in Esperia.
Green-Eyed Monster: Before creating the Hypogeans, he grew jealous of Dura getting all the mortals’ admiration. Dura remaining blissfully ignorant of his feelings didn't help at all.
Then Let Me Be Evil: Everybody Hates Hades, so he snapped and gave everybody a very good reason to hate him.
Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: His main goal is to sadistically torture and eventually kill off all of Dura's creations for their ingratitude. Over time, his followers have been tampering with the laws of reality, resulting in multitude of Cosmic Flaws that will eventually cause the world to break down entirely.

Dolly

"I'm your one and only lucky charm, Dolly. Trust me for the best elite cards."

Rigby’s daughter and the shopkeeper of the Noble Tavern in his stead.

Ancelot

The founding emperor of the Lightbearers, who by unknown means is still alive.

Every Scar Has a Story: He lost his left eye during the first Hypogean war, and is still scarred from it. The narrator of the Final Choice Union story took note of it after realizing that the strange old man he was talking to was telling him things that, due to happening in another dimension, only Ancelot and his last two bodyguards could have possibly known.
Heroic Sacrifice: Attempted. He used himself as bait to lure the Hypogeans into the Bitter Rift and was about to be killed by Lucretia, but Zaphrael appeared to save him by sacrificing himself instead.
King Incognito: His only direct appearance is relaying Zaphrael and Lucretia's Union story. With most Lightbearer records wiping most mentions of Zaphrael from the pantheon, he — and whoever he tells — is the only one left who knew what actually happened or even Lucretia's true identity.
Time Abyss: He fought in the First Hypogean War when Dura was still alive, which was thousands of years prior to when the game takes place.

Lord Qaedam

"From this point on, you are neither living nor dead, and you will be more powerful than you have ever been. Just as you wished..."

One of the most powerful mages to ever live in Esperia and the inventor of necromancy. He now wanders as an ancient spirit, granting the restless dead his "blessing" by resurrecting them as Graveborn. As a result, the majority of Graveborn are bound under him.

Deal with the Devil: He grants the dead the ability to deal with their unfinished business in exchange for their soul.
Greater-Scope Villain: He doesn't show up much directly, but he is second only to Annih in the amount of strife he has caused.
Necromancer: He invented it by studying death and grudges.
Immortality Seeker: He was one of many mages performing research on this in the past, and his current false life is more than close enough for him.
Oculothorax: His current spiritual form is of a black sphere surrounded by green flames with a giant eye in the middle.
The Power of Hate: Studying the resentment of the dead and learning to harness it is how he perfected his craft.
Straw Nihilist: While not one himself, he encourages this attitude among his followers, as the Despair Event Horizon makes people more vulnerable to his influence.

Markiplier

"Two lucky charms are way better than one, almost twice as good! I'm Markiplier, this is Chica, and you can trust us, for the... uh... better best elite cards."

Famous YouTuber who could act as an alt for Dolly in the tavern when summoning until Spring 2021. He was joined by his dog, Chica.

Gratuitous English: His lines are always in English regardless of the language setting.
Sand In My Eyes: He acts this way after recommending that the player read some of the Graveborn backstories.
Special Guest: The only guest from the real world instead of a fictional universe so far. Though he insists he’s a Lightbearer instead of a Dimensional. And that his dog Chica’s a Mauler.
Stop Poking Me!: Tap Mark enough times, and he will get mad.
Markiplier: Stop toUUUCHING MEE!!

The Creator, Honas

The creator deity of Esperia.

God Is Inept: While he was forging Esperia, a dark cosmic force interfered with and tainted his work, causing an imbalance in the world's energies. Unable to solve the problem at its roots, he resorted to a stopgap measure. He built an artifact that would gather the sun's energy to produce the Obsidian Finches over time. Whenever the elements fell out of balance, most of the finches would be called upon to sacrifice their lives to resolve it. One of the finches' leaders, Maetria, came to be bitterly resentful over this.
The Maker: The creator of Esperia.

Characters / AFK Arena

Edit Locked