Arknights Nations N To Z / Characters

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RIM Billiton

Affiliated Characters: April, Asbestos, Ayerscarpe, Blacknight, Honeyberry, Leonhardt, Savage, Schwarz

Affiliated Characters with Rhodes Island as their faction: Amiya, Ansel, Kroos, Popukar

Animal Motifs: Many of the Cautus characters like Amiya, Ansel, and Popukar originate from Rim Billiton, and so they are likely to have a heavy rabbit motif. Their Chinese name transliterated into English sounds a lot like 'rabbit'. (雷姆必拓) There's even a rabbit head used in their logo.
Expy: Of BHP Billiton, as both companies are major mining corporations.
Fantastic Racism: While outwardly, RIM Billiton boasts that it provides many benefits to Infected citizens, April reveals that in truth, Infected are billed heavily for their medical costs and are often unable to find any work.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
- To Australia, as its environment is depicted in official art as a semiarid landscape much like the Australian outback, the company it references is an Australian mining MegaCorp, and it being the place of origin of the Cautus race possibly references the widespread presence of rabbits in the continent, where they are considered an invasive species. The official map of Terra also places it roughly where Australia should be in real life.
- In Leonhardt's profile, it is said that Victoria sends their prisoners to mine, equal to Australia being British Empire's penal colony. However, given that RIM Billiton gains their relative independence because of its miner revolts, it's likely that RIM Billiton is representative of Anglo-Australia's mining empire that fought for its independence in general, including Papua New Guinea.
- In Invitation to Wine, both Kroos and Blacknight use a lot of Australian slang when speaking Rim Billitonian. It is implied that Rim Billitonian slang and dialect are so impenetrable that it is considered a separate language from Victorian.
One Nation Under Copyright: While RIM Billiton is often referred to as a corporation, the world map of Terra treats it as an actual nation with borders and territory.

Sami

Affiliated Characters: Bibeak, Gitano, Qanipalaat, Santalla, Typhon, Valarqvin

Affiliated Characters with Rhodes Island as their faction: Firewatch

A country that neighbors Ursus, which often sparks territorial conflict over its borders, Sami is well-known as a tourist destination for its pristine natural landscape and sauna, as well as its isolated and mystical nature. It is the homeland of Elafia, a race of humanoids with deer-like traits.

A Day in the Limelight: After spending 4 years mostly only being mentioned in passing, Sami finally got an event focused on it in the form of Integrated Strategies 4.
Animal Motifs: Cervine. According to Firewatch's bio, Sami is the homeland of the Elafian people, who usually migrate toward the neighboring parts of Ursus and Kazimierz. Their logo as well resembles a deer head with antlers.
Eldritch Location: Sami has always been a hotbed of supernatural phenomena due to the presence of a possible Feranmut and Beast Lord, but things have only been getting worse due to the encroaching corrosion caused by the Collapsals to the far north.
Failed State: Sami is currently in steep decline, mostly due to their Hopeless War against the Collapsals in the far north. Despite the best efforts of the mountain tribes fighting on the frontlines, Collapsal corruption is still spreading to the south, forcing the southern Sami tribes to flee further south. Eikthyrnir correctly sees this approach as unsustainable, as the the southern tribes will eventually be forced to choose between leaving Sami altogether or head north to fight the Collapsals as well.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Sami is influenced by Scandinavia in a considerable number of ways.
- The name of the country is a reference to the Sami people, a Finno-Ugric ethnic group living in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and northwestern Russia.
- The geographical division of Sami into northern mountains, central woodlands and southern marshlands more or less matches the Scandes stretching through western Scandinavia all the way to the polar circle, the Scandinavian taiga and the many lakes in southern Sweden and Finland. The geographical position of Sami in northern Terra matches Scandinavia's geographical location in northern Europe, and just like Sami borders Ursus, so does the Scandinavian region border Russia.
- Sami language terms and names sound very much like Old Norse, the language of Scandinavian Vikings. The Sami language also uses runic script, just like Old Norse did.
- The marshfolk's funeral method of sending their dead off in sinking boats seems to be inspired by Viking boat funerals.
- Sami also draws certain inspiration from Finland. The Ursus attempts to enforce Ursine culture and language upon conquered Sami territories seem to reflect the attempted Russification of Finland by the Tsarist rule, while the difficult Ursus conquest of Sami itself appears to be inspired by the Winter War. Blaze also mentions that the country is famous for its sauna, just like Finland is.
Genius Loci: Sami is noted to somehow have a mind and will of its own, and can actively respond to anything that ventures into its domain. Some evidence points towards the entire country itself being a living being.
Grim Up North: Much like actual Finland, Sami is typically described as a cold, frigid region that's inhospitable to live in, perhaps second only to Kjerag in terms of harshness. But because of this, the diverse racial groups of Sami are all very tough and stoic compared to their more temperate neighbors. Numerous items in Ceobe's Fungimist, along with Frozen Monstrosity's description, reveal that there are demons lurking to the north of Sami and that they regularly send Snowpriests - girls with powerful control over ice arts - to fight them off.
Treetop Town: Most Sami tribes live on a clan tree that they build their towns on. Not only is this done out of religious reasons since they worship their clan trees, but also a practical one since clan trees can actually move locations, effectively making them the organic equivalent of mobile cities.
Untrusting Community: Sami as a whole is a rather isolated and insular country, preferring to keep to its own business. However, the mountain Sami are particularly hostile to outsiders due to being on the frontline against both the Collapsals and Ursus.

"Sami"

The Feranmut that gives Sami its name, and its "consciousness."

Oakcup

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_964_11.png

A young apprentice shaman.

Affectionate Nickname: He picked up the nickname "Oakcup" due to his master always trying to drink from his horns whenever he was drunk.
Omniglot: He is a natural at picking up languages, being able to speak Sami, Columbian, and Ursus fluently.
Vision Quest: When Magallan, Typhon, and Santalla encounter him, he is on a quest from his teacher to "feel the Samivilinn".

Amma

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

A deer-like Beast Lord said to protect Sami from within its forests, especially against the encroaching Collapse.

Guardian Angel: Amma is said to protect everybody in Sami from harm, particularly those that earn her favor. In one case, she protects Magallan and her friends from a rogue Emperor's Blade by leading him away from their camp.
Heroic Sacrifice: In the third ending of Expeditioner's Joklumarkar, Amma sacrifices herself to drive Crazelyseon back into the portal it came from before forcibly closing the rift, trapping herself on the other side with the Collapsal. What happened to her afterwards is unknown.

Eikthyrnir

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_968_111.png

Artist: Cenm0

A Sami Snowpriest and the heroic chieftain of its Treescar tribe. He is first seen on a quest to hunt down a rogue Emperor's Blade that has fled into the icefields. He is also the Final Boss of Expeditioner's Joklumarkar's second ending, having been severely corroded by the Collapse on his quest.

Achilles' Heel: During his Self-Destruction mode, Eikthyrnir is unblockable and incredibly fast, while being extremely resistant to damage and outright immune to pretty much all crowd-control. However, he retains his vulnerability to Levitate, making it possible to delay him or, with enough buffs, permanently stall him. His Slow immunity also doesn't protect him from "passive" slows, which in particular allows Mostima's third skill to almost completely halt his charge. He's also not immune to Shu's ability to teleport any enemies who step outside of her grass field back to the starting tile during her third skill, causing him to be constantly looped back.
Boss Subtitles: "Eikthyrnir, the Scar of the Shattered".
Big Damn Heroes: In "The Black Forest Wills a Dream", he and a Treescar warband save Magallan and her party from an army of corrupted spirits.
Breather Boss: He's the easiest boss across all Integrated Strategies iteration. He doesn't do much damage and has no enrage timer, so you can stall him indefinitely as you clear all 74 trash mobs. Then it's just a matter of deploying a Defender and Medic to catch him after he comes out of his Self Destruction mode, whittling him down, and rinse and repeat. As added bonus, you will need get a special Foldartal to face him - said Foldartal can be used at any node, any time before the penultimate Prophecy node, so it can be used to make any difficult and run-ending node disappear.
Fallen Hero: He's a heroic figure revered in Sami folk tales, but is forced to be put down after being corrupted into a violent threat by Collapsals.
An Ice Person: He has a persistent area of effect surrounding him that regularly applies Cold to everyone and his attacks apply Cold as well. The combination of the two means that anyone who blocks him will be frozen permanently so long as he can attack them.
Stone Wall: His HP and DEF are extremely high and he will briefly become unblockable and run three times as quickly when his HP percentage falls below specific thresholds. His Cold-inflicting aura and attacks also allow him to indefinitely freeze anyone he's attacking, rendering them unable to fight back, while also slowing the attack speed of any operators near him, making defeating him quite an effort. What makes him qualify as this and not a Lightning Bruiser is his notoriously low damage output due to only dealing damage through regular attacks at a mere 1000 ATK with no additional modifiers, making it extremely easy to block and stall him using only a single high DEF and healer.

Samivilinn

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

The Final Boss of Expeditioner's Joklumarkar's first ending. It's a mysterious, sentient structure that seemingly represents the consciousness and will of the land itself, and seeks to test those who would venture into its depths.

Boss Subtitles: "Samivilinn, the Resolution of the Very North".
Herd-Hitting Attack: Instead of a normal basic attack, the Samivilinn strikes entire columns with icicles to damage everything in them simultaneously.
Time-Limit Boss: Fail to kill it in 10 minutes, and it will explode to deduct 30 Life Points, while also dealing massive mapwide Arts damage for good measure.
Turns Red: Below half health, the Samivilinn will start drastically reducing damage taken while targeting two units simultaneously with its attacks and skills.
Stationary Boss: Can't move.
Stone Wall: It has a titanic amount of health and good defenses, which are only exacerbated once it enrages and gains a constant 60% (70% in its advanced stage) damage reduction that makes the second half of its health bar far harder to deplete than the first. On the other hand, its attacks are infrequent and its damage is generally managable by moderately tanky units with healing support, and its only other attack is a single-target stun with a relatively managable Damage Over Time. The main difficulty of its stage comes from handling the other enemies while the Samivilinn is disrupting your formations with its attacks and stuns, as well as actually chewing through the thing's bulk before it times you out.

Sargon

Affiliated Characters: Beeswax, Bubble, Eunectes, Flint, Manticore, Minimalist, Passenger, Scene, Sesa, Tomimi, Tuye, Vanilla

Affiliated Characters with Rhodes Island as their faction: Gavial, Heavyrain, Spot

One of the oldest nations on Terra, gifted with abundant natural resources makes it a target for other countries. While a part of the country has modernized, much of its territories remains untouched, with various tribes living a life free from mobile cities and discrimination towards the infected.

Animal Motifs: Crocodilian, at least in Acahualla. Most of the enemies encountered in this region are anthropomorphic alligators, and it is also the home region of Gavial and Tomimi, who are self-explanatory.
Boisterous Bruiser: According to Flint's bio, the Tiacauh of Acahualla is an entire population of this. They love a good fight, and it's not uncommon to see two people beating the crap out of each other with violent intensity, only to then shake hands amicably and invite each other to dinner, but not before engaging in yet another scuffle to sort out whatever new debate they may be having.
Conditioned to Accept Horror: In the Acahualla region, due to the lack of modern infrastructure and basic services, death is a very common occurrence among the natives and has become an accepted part of life. So much so that they have no concept of how deadly Oripathy is, as they don't see it as any different from any other disease since they are all equally lethal. Ironically enough, this means that Acahualla is one of the only places on Terra where discrimination against the Infected is nonexistent.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Sargon is based on various ancient empires in the Mesopotamia region but in a modernized setting. It is named after Sargon of Akkad, the founder of the ancient Akkadian Empire, which spanned the area that would nowadays be the Turkic-Syrian region that neighbors Iran and Iraq. According to Vanilla, the majority of Sargon is comprised of arid deserts with little rainfall, making oases the primary sources of drinking water, thus matching the "classical" description of Mesopotamia. It is the birthplace of the noble Ancient race of Aslan, which means "lion" in Turkish, and the Manticore is one of several mythical beings that originated from Persia, a sizable part of this region. Speaking of Persia, Sargon's supreme ruler's title appears to be "King of Kings", which is a direct translation of "Shahanshah", the title of the ruler of Persia. Another similarty with Persia is the apparent large decentralisation of the Sargonian empire, with the regional governors holding more power in administration of the land than the central government, which seems to reflect Ancient Persia's division into a system of autonomous satrapies with its viceroys holding large regional power. The mention that the Sargon kings' palace is made of gold and the princes fighting over the crown prince's position by throwing decadent feasts to show off their wealth are all pointing at the Babylonian Empire, which is described in the Bible as such.
- There also appear to be certain influenes from the islamic empires of the Middle East. The regional governors in Sargon are named Padishahs and Lords Ameer. Ameer (a different spelling of Emir) is a title that become widespread after the rise of Islam and Padishah is a ruler title used by several islamic empires - most notably the Ottoman Empire. Speaking of the Ottomans, Sargon's history with Minos seems to be inspired by the history of Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Sargon conquered Minos, ruled it for centuries and attempted to enforce its culture upon the natives. Minos eventually revolted against its Sargonian conquerors and won its independence war, with the two nations having hostile relations ever since.
- In addition, it seems that Sargon also takes some inspiration from Africa, as shown by Spot (who is a Hyena, which is native to Africa in real life) and Beeswax (who has an Ancient Egyptian motif).
- Curiously, the region includes aspects of Central and South America as well. Out of all the known operators originating from Sargon, five of them (Eunectes, Flint, Gavial, Tomimi, Scene) are based on animals native to equatorial Central America and hailed from a region called Acahualla, which is named after a seaport city in El Salvador. Based on their operator artworks, Acahualla has a very marshy and swampy geographic model, and the corresponding event, "Gavial: The Great Chief Returns", takes place primarily in a rainforest setting.
- Per the official world map of Terra◊, Sargon sits where South America would be on Earth, which provides some credence to the existence of both deserts and rainforests, the former biome explaining the existence of Mesopotamian and African elements in the region, and the latter biome explaining the Amazonian bent of the sub-region of Acahualla.
Might Makes Right: In Sargon, but especially Acahualla, the ones who are the strongest in a tribe gets to be their chiefs.
Noble Savage: Those that came from the Acahualla region, namely Gavial, Tomimi, Eunectes, and Flint.
Villain Team-Up: The Tiacauh warriors and Drudge's mercenaries join forces in the permanent map of Contingency Contract #6 Wild Scales to take on Rhodes Island.

Inam

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_avg_npc_075.png

Artist: Azling4

The person in charge of the Inam Commercial Chamber.

Dark Horse Victory: Out of the tribe chiefs in Acahualla, she's the only one who doesn't compete in the trial-by-combat ceremony for the great chief position. She ends up being the great chief after all other possible candidates go to Rhodes Island.
Deadpan Snarker: In "Ideal City", her dialogue is filled with sarcastic remarks commenting the Durin and Elysium's carefree behaviour.
Going Native: Inam was born and raised in one of Sargon's mobile cities but grew to love living in the Acahualla jungles so she prefers living with the natives.
Rank Up: In "Ideal City", she takes it upon herself to take up the role of lord ameer for the Acahualla region before Sargon's main government can realize Acahualla's potential value and appoint someone else who may not have Gavial's or the Zereurtzans' best interests in mind.
You Are in Command Now: At the end of "Gavial The Great Chief Returns", Inam is made Great Chief since all the other favorite candidates are leaving for Rhodes Island.

The High Priest

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_avg_npc_074.png

Artist: Liduke

Eunectes' friend and assistant.

Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: He wears a really tiny scarf and glasses. He purchased that clothes himself because he thought it looked trendy.
Action Pet: To Eunectes. He pilots the Big Ugly on her behalf in her S3. Storyline-wise though, he's treated as a person like everyone else and is referred to as her friend, not pet.
Ambiguously Human: It's not the fact that he's a bird, which no one seems to point out. It's his seeming immortality, ability to disappear and reappear at will, and an old age measured in centuries at a minimum that are suspect. Gavial eventually asks Eunectes if he's a person, and Eunectes replies that she has no idea.
Combat Sadomasochist: When Big Ugly starts to malfunction and catches on fire, the High Priest points out that the mech is frying his butt, yet it makes him even more excited for the fight. He continues on sitting in it to fight the rest of the battle, and only stops when Big Ugly finally explode.
Dual Mode Unit: If you've managed to destroy the Big Ugly, the High Priest will be ejected from it as a second target that you must strike down before he makes it for your command box. Granted, he's on fire and will expire on his own if given enough time, but he can't be blocked, and depending on how soon you managed to destroy his Mini-Mecha, his routing may vary from "running around the place for a while" to "making a mad dash to the defense objective while the rest of your team is still reeling from the force of Big Ugly exploding in their faces".
Immortality: Possibly. While he doesn't remember how old he is, he's old enough to remember the first chief of the Acahualla and may have known Emperor for centuries. Also like Emperor, he repeatedly survives things that would normally kill (or severely injure) others - in his case, it's the Big Ugly exploding while he's piloting it. The locals dubbed him "High Priest" because he just won't die.
Intellectual Animal: Not only is he smart enough to operate machinery like the Big Ugly (and even helped on building it), he actually had a hand in the creation of many of Eunectes' machines. Also, he can talk and is interested in scientific research as well as the latest trends. He's basically a smart person in a little bird body, and is referred to as Eunectes' friend instead of pet.
- It's implied in finale that he's a similar case to Emperor (whom he's a friend of), where he's a person that happens to be an animal for some reason. Like Emperor, no one finds this odd besides Croissant initially remarking that he reminds her of Emperor. His other not-so-human traits (that Emperor also has) like his immortality and impossibly old age garner attention, though.
Machine Worship: Like Eunectes, the High Priest has a deep fascination with technology, to the point where he even asks Lancet-2 on a date when he realizes she's a semi-self aware robot.
Promoted to Playable: Sort of. He pilots the Big Ugly when Eunectes' S3 skill is activated.
Scary Shiny Glasses: Has these in the animated PV trailer while piloting the Big Ugly.
The Thing That Would Not Leave: While generally well-liked for his wisdom and jovial attitude amongst the Rhodes Islanders, certain individuals (namely Gavial and Eunectes) find his long winded rambling and tendency to lecture annoying enough to wish his presence would be elsewhere. And from Eunectes's promotion record; Kal'tsit is, funnily enough coming from her, among this group seemingly as she tells people to "not care about it".
Twinkle in the Eye: Gets a pretty badass one in the picture below.

"Big Ugly"

A giant mechanical monster built by Eunectes and piloted by the High Priest, which also serves as the Final Boss of the event "Gavial: The Great Chief Returns".

Battle Theme Music: ALIVE (Inst.)
Chainsaw Good: Uses a buzzsaw for its melee attack, which deals anywhere between 3 to 3.5 times its ATK as damage depending on the difficulty. It also allows it to chop down a nearby mushroom or tree trunk every 30 seconds, stopping the player from deploying operators there for the rest of the fight.
Climax Boss: Unlike with most event bosses, while Big Ugly's fight marks a narrative high-point for "Gavial: The Great Chief Returns", defeating it isn't the end of the event. Instead, Rhodes Island has a Post-Climax Confrontation with Tomimi, who sicks her entire tribe on them in a Zerg Rush to keep Gavial from leaving Sargon again.
Cowardly Boss: Once you scrap Big Ugly, the High Priest will pop out and run for it, refilling his HP bar. In this state, he can't do any damage and takes damage over time, but has greatly boosted defenses and cannot be blocked, meaning that he needs to be bursted down quickly before he slips into the exit.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Eunectes summons it during her fight with Gavial in the festival, and it quickly smacks her down.
Living on Borrowed Time: Once the High Priest is exposed, the explosion from the mech will light him on fire, making him take significant Damage Over Time as he runs for his life.
Macross Missile Massacre: If at range, it'll attack with rockets that deal Area of Effect damage.
Meaningful Rename: After going to Rhodes Island and improving the design with the Engineering Department, opening it up for playable use, Closure rechristens it into "Raging Ironhide".
Mini-Mecha: More "Mecha" than "mini" at any rate, considering how it still towers over the largest of Tiacauh units you can encounter.
Mirror Boss: Totally possible to bring Eunectes in RI-8 and RI-EX-8, activate her S3 to summon Rage Ironhide and engage the Big Ugly.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Eunectes always insists that its name is "Big Ugly Thing", but literally everyone else, including the CN version's interface, calls it "Big Ugly".
Promoted to Playable: In a way. The Big Ugly serves as the Mini-Mecha dropped by Eunectes in her S3. It was rebuilt and renamed "Rage Ironhide".
Stone Wall: Big Ugly packs a lot of HP, a ton of DEF, and passable RES, but its attack power is on the low side. However, it turns into a Mighty Glacier if it's blocked, as its melee attack deals far higher damage.
Taking You with Me: Upon destroying the mech, it'll explode violently, dealing a large amount of damage to all enemies in a huge radius while stunning them for a significant amount of time. The stun is particularly problematic, as not only does it give nearby foes a chance to slip through, it also gives the now-fleeing High Priest a head start in his dash to the exit.

Miarow

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_avg_npc_160_1_4.png

A local Infected doctor in the town of Long Spring who tends to the town's Infected population.

Frontier Doctor: He practices medicine in the remote village of Long Spring, though he dreams of traveling to Columbia so he can learn to be a proper doctor.
Having a Blast: He knows Arts that make Originium products explode.
Heroic Sacrifice: In order to help Rhodes Island and Team Rainbow, he uses his Arts to detonate an Originium ingot and destroy Drudge's secret weapon, knowing he'll be caught in the blast.
Hesitant Sacrifice: Before he pulls his Heroic Sacrifice, he admits that there's still so much he wants to do and he doesn't want to die yet, but a doctor should be saving lives. He then musters the resolve to save Picale, Rhodes Island, and Team Rainbow from Drudge and his mercenaries.
No Body Left Behind: After he dies from his Heroic Sacrifice, the Rhodes Island team quickly isolates his corpse within a nearby house, and Team Rainbow witnesses Oripathy dissolving it into Originium dust.
Secretly Dying: One of the reasons he administers to the Infected is that he already has Oripathy.
Wrong Line of Work: When he showed his Arts to someone, they pointed out that his Arts are rare and wondered why he wants to be a doctor when he'd be a better fit as a soldier, seeing his choice as kind of a waste.
Your Days Are Numbered: Turns out he has Oripathy. The blow he suffers from the Prototype machine puts him at death's door.

Drudge

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_avg_npc_158_1.png

The son of the Lord of Long Spring and Picale's older brother. He was exiled from the town due to his greed and now seeks to regain what he believes is his rightful ownership of the town.

Hypocrite: When Levi inevitably backstabs him, Drudge accuses him of being a traitor, only for Levi to retort with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech pointing out that having turned against his own father and having the blood of his own family and countrymen on his hands, Drudge is the last person to be calling anybody else a traitor.
Royal Brat: He was actually next in line to inherit Long Spring until he was disowned by his father for succumbing to greed and looking to exploit the town rather than lead it.
Small Name, Big Ego: He likes to think he's in charge, but he's ultimately just a puppet for his anonymous Colombian backers and easily gets tricked by Levi into being his pawn. Even when he's captured by Levi and found by Ash, Blitz, and Schwarz, he still acts as if he has the upper hand when negotiating with them, up until Ash beats him to near death and he's reduced to begging for his life (the fact he can't defend himself, even though [as a Terran] he should be technically stronger than her, suggest that he doesn't even have basic brawling skills to begin with.
Uncertain Doom: He's last seen having been left in Levi's lab after being beaten nearly to death by Ash. The epilogue of "Originium Dust" does not mention what happened to him afterwards, or if he survived the lab's collapse. However, if Sargonian law is followed, even if he survived, Drudge would be put to death for attacking royalty.

Picale Tulla

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_avg_npc_159_1.png

The daughter of the Lord of Long Spring and Drudge's younger sister. She leads the town guard and protects the town from outside threats.

Good Is Dumb: Despite being aware that Rhodes Island is a benevolent organization, she initially believes them to be responsible for attacking Long Spring. Even when Miarow vouches for them, she orders them to leave the town rather than requesting their aid. In the end, she even admits she doesn't feel fit to rule the town since she isn't nearly as intelligent as her father and brother.

Lord Tulla

A Sargonian who was one of the Lord Ameer of Bayalir's strongest warriors. As a reward for his service, he was granted the town of Long Spring. He is the head of the Tulla clan, and Drudge and Picale are his children.

Dead All Along: In OD-6, when Drudge asks his men if they found his father yet, Picale reveals that he died at some point in the past year and she has secretly been the acting Lord of Long Spring since then.
Reasonable Authority Figure: When he became the Lord of Long Spring, he immeidately ceased all mining operations in the town when the risk of oripathy infections became too great. He then created the Infected quarter and prohibited contact between the Infected and Uninfected populations in an effort to protect the Infected.

Essence of Evolution

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_avg_ac17_12.png

The Final Boss of Operation Originium Dust. A mutated Originium abomination created by Levi, contradictory to all known life on Terra.

Armor-Piercing Attack: It'll periodically release a global shock wave that deals true damage to all Operators on the field. As you beat it down, this shock wave will increase in both power and frequency.
Barrier Change Boss: In its initial form its left side will be shielded, giving it significant damage reduction from all attacks from that side. When it evolves once, the shield switches sides. In its final form, the shield makes its entire body effectively immune to attack, but also burns away its HP over time.
Clipped-Wing Angel: Its final form is effectively immune to damage, but also burns through its remaining HP. The indication is that it mutated so much that its body can no longer function.
Eldritch Abomination: It's an inchoate mass of connective tissue and living Originium shaped into a form that looks downright wrong, and continuously regenerates and buds off smaller mutant organisms. Whatever this thing is, it's completely alien to Terra and antithetical to the very nature of existence in the world. When Rainbow Team sees it awaken, their first thoughts are that it's something that fundamentally shouldn't be allowed to live.
Flunky Boss: Since it's unable to move or attack normally, it spawns Originiutant Excrescences to do the work for it. As it continuously evolves, it'll upgrade its minions to Originiutant Tumors, and then start spawning them en masse.
Knight of Cerebus: The Essence of Evolution's presence massively raises the stakes of "Operation: Originium Dust" compared to other events. While several events have had antagonists that could cause massive societal disruption if they win (though usually only restricted to their home nation), the Essence of Evolution is essentially a living extinction event that could bring ruin to all of Terra if unleashed. Notably, it's description in the enemy lineup explicitly questions if such a creature can be considered alive and treats it with fear.
Outside-Context Problem: This thing has no real counterpart in existing Arknights or Rainbow Six lore, even taking Mephisto's Arts into account despite its surface level similarities. Its traits, behavior, and very nature are alien to both settings, and unlike most villains, the story indicates it is flat out impossible to kill, only (apparently) dying because it mutated too much to sustain itself. Schwarz even says that it isn't "alive" in any sense that they could understand.
Sequential Boss: Has three forms that it'll evolve into as it takes damage, each one stronger than the last. And just in case you thought you could stall it, it'll evolve by itself after a certain amount of time has passed.
Stationary Boss: The first boss that is completely unable to move.

Old Isin

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_avg_npc_173.png

A mysterious old fortune teller who resides in Sargon's wastelands.

Parental Substitute: He acts as Elliot's guardian after Kal'tsit leaves Elliot in his care.
Really 700 Years Old: Isin at least 150 years old, and possibly even far older than that, which is unusual even for a Savra.
Secretly Wealthy: Despite appearing to be a homeless hermit, Isin actually has a huge hoard of pure gold stashed away in his home, since he's never really found any need or opportunity to spend it.
Sole Survivor: He is one of the last people who remembers the lost city of Reefsteep, which was consumed by a Catastrophe and lost forever over 150 years ago.
Uncertain Doom: It's not quite clear if Isin died or simply wandered off into the Sargon wastes to search for Reefsteep. Either way, nobody expects to see him again.

Lord Ameer of Ibut

The Lord Ameer ruling over the region of Ibut during the events of "Fire Within the Sand".

Evil Power Vacuum: His assassination led to a collapse of central authority in Ibut and was followed by a civil war between various power-hungry tribes and the Lord Ameer's son fighting each other to claim the vacant throne.
The Ghost: Although mentioned in "A Walk in the Dust" and "Fire Within the Sand", he's never seen onscreen.
Intimidating Revenue Service: His reign over Ibut was marked by extremely high levels of taxation which the poor tribes of the region could barely afford to pay. To ensure payments, the Lord Ameer fielded a large army which conducted raids against any tribe in the region that failed or refused to pay their taxes.
No Name Given: His name is never revealed - he's simply known as "the Lord Ameer" in both "A Walk in the Dust" and "Fire Within the Sand".
Posthumous Character: He's been dead for years by the current storyline, having been assassinated in a tribal revolt orchestrated by Passenger as a revenge for the Lord Ameer's role in killing Professor Thorne years ago. The third ending of "Fire Within the Sand" explores the tribal uprising that lead to the Lord Ameer's downfall.

Lugalszargus

A legendary Aslan Shahanshah known as the greatest monarch in Sargon's history, renowned for his military might and enlightened wisdom. He is credited with the creation of Terra's current calendar, and is the original owner of the Sighs of Kings that now lies in Victoria. Alongside Kharanduu Khan, the legendary Nightzmora conqueror, he led the conquest into the Foehn Hotlands to purge the Collapsal presence from the south of Terra, succeeding at the cost of his life.

Achilles' Heel: Physical attackers, opposite of Kharanduu. Although his 1000 base DEF still makes him pretty resistant to physical damage, it's much preferable to trying to beat through his 90 RES. He also has much longer range than his cohort but lower long-term damage output due to lacking his Gathering Steam ability, letting him threaten ranged tiles more easily but making him weaker to low-ground damage dealers with lots of HP, at least until you try to block him (which will trigger a highly damaging Flash Step to skip past the blocker).
Dual Boss: With Kharanduu as the Final Boss of the fourth ending of Expeditioner's Joklumarkar.
Enemy Civil War: In his boss fight, he and Kharanduu will be periodically targeting each other with massive AoEs which deal indiscriminate damage and stuns to the other boss, other enemies, and your units at once. Most of the fight will revolve around figuring out how to take the pair out while not being flattened in the crossfire between them, and making sure that you have a way to finish off the survivor fast after felling one.
Flash Step: Lugalszargus is able to skip past an operator when blocked, dealing Arts damage to whoever is blocking him.
The Good King: He's remembered as this by the Terrans, being both an excellent warrior who respected Kharanduu's might and allied with him to vanquish the Collapsal threat in Sargon, as well as being a wise ruler who had particular interest in the concept of time, leading to him inventing a new calendar more than a thousand years before the main story.

Siesta

Affiliated Characters: Ceylon, Schwarz

Doomed Hometown: It's discovered that the once thought inactive volcano next to Siesta will inevitably erupt and destroy the city-state, forcing the population to relocate to the new Siesta built on a mobile city.
Dying Town: While Siesta was able to safely relocate to the new mobile city New Siesta, their tourism industry has taken a massive hit due to the relocation and the whole city is in a serious economic slump as a result. However, Herman is confident that New Siesta's tourism will be revived after some time, especially after making a lucrative redevelopment deal with Bison's Mountaincomm Trade company.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: To Mediterranean Europe in general, but mostly Greece, with a bit of Italy. It is in fact named after the cultural time for afternoon naps in the local languages, of all things. Siesta hosting a popular music festival is possibly based on the island of Ibiza, Spain, which hosts one of Europe's most popular music festival. Additionally, the Final Boss of Obsidian Festival is (ironically) named after a significant Roman city that was destroyed in a volcanic eruption. The 'sea' it borders on is mentioned to be in fact a large lake, and the Mediterranean Sea is essentially a large lake. The last name of Ceylon and her father, Doykos, is also distictively Greek. Funny enough, one of the streets of Siesta is based on Abbott Street, Vancouver, Canada.
- So Long, Adele later reveals that Siesta is also influenced by Spain. It's stated that the word "siesta" means "afternoon nap" in the Iberian language. Furthermore, Iberian is the second-most spoken language in the city, behind Victorian and after Columbian.
- So Long, Adele also reveals several Hawaiian influences. Many characters can be seen wearing Hawaiian shirts in the event, and just like Hawaii, Siesta too is noted to be a producer of coffee. From political point of view, the country is at the crossroads between Victorian and Columbian influences, both vying to incorporate the city-state in their territory, much like how real-life Hawaii was contested by the British Empire and the United States. And while Siesta didn't end up outright annexed by Columbia like Hawaii did by the US, the Columbian influence still seems to be prevailing as Siesta is using the Columbian currency and is pressured to apply Columbian law.
Land of One City: Similar to Lungmen, Siesta is an independent city-state that nominally swears allegiance to Columbia. However, Herman has had to fight off repeated attempts by both Columbia and Victoria to assert greater authority over Siesta.
Loophole Abuse: Siesta was previously able to avoid Columbia's laws dictating that Infected that couldn't pay for insurance had to join the Pioneers due to the law only applying to mobile cities, and not static ones. However, once the mobile New Siesta is built, the Columbian government turns this on Herman in an attempt to pressure him to cede control of the city.

Destructive Dragon Demon (D.D.D.)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_017_1.png

Real name: Grace
An EDM artist and DJ attending the Obsidian Festival, they've recently exploded in popularity as one of the top musicians on the net.

Alliterative Name: Her stage name, Destructive Dragon Demon.
Color Motif: If the player picks them as the musician they support, the event UI will primarily have a cool green and light blue, which helps emphasize that their music is a lot more laid back in contrast to Alive Until Sunset and Emperor.
Connected All Along: Closure and D.D.D. are close friends, to the point that the former is one of the few trusted people who knows the real name of the latter.
Expressive Mask: D.D.D. wears a mask to hide their identity, while their emotion is shown through the mask.
Paper-Thin Disguise: You can still see at the shape of her mask and her tail that she's a Vouivre. Franka even compares the tail to Liskarm's.
Samus Is a Girl: When first selecting which Obsidian Festival artist to choose, the game reveals D.D.D. is actually a girl since the option for D.D.D. says "Pick Her".

Herman Doykos

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_024.png

Artist: Skade

The mayor of Siesta and Ceylon's father.

Anti-Smother Love Talk:
- Interestingly, he's the one espousing this in contrast to Schwarz who's worried that Ceylon will reject her if she knows about the mercenary's past and subsequently tries to shelter her charge as much as possible. Herman has taken the opinion that Ceylon is mature enough to handle things, and furthermore, because of his own unscrupulous activities to better Siesta, he believes that his daughter should see the world in a more nuanced light.
- He is also this towards Schwarz herself, telling her that she needs to find a purpose in her life other than being Ceylon's bodyguard, which is why he sent her off to Rhodes Island with her.
Assassin Outclassin': When Schwarz was sent to assassinate him, Herman singlehandedly defeated her in hand to hand combat.
Chekhov M.I.A.: He's established at the start of the event story to be absent from the city for business reasons, but that was a deliberate ploy to see how Cronin would act without his presence.
The Chessmaster: He pretends to leave Siesta on a business trip but leaves Schwarz behind to spy on Cronin, who he knows will let his guard down once he thinks he is gone.
Coat Cape: He wears his blazer like this.
Crazy-Prepared: He has already suspected that Siesta's volcano will inevitably erupt, destroying the entire city. That's why he's already built an entire mobile city for the population to relocate to.
Lost Lenore: His wife Barbara died while giving birth to Ceylon, and he built the entire city of Siesta as a tribute to her memory.
Parental Substitute: He essentially adopted Schwarz and considers himself her surrogate father.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike many other political leaders, Herman is tolerant of Infected and invests significant resources to improve the lives of Siesta's Infected population. He also thanks the Doctor and the rest of Rhodes Island for protecting his daughter, as well as solving the volcano crisis during the Obsidian Festival.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Herman's main motivation is to ensure the well being and prosperity of Siesta, even if it means having to resort to underhanded actions such as exterminating his rivals. Cronin misunderstands his action and only emulates the "extremist" part.

Barbara Doykos

Herman's wife and Ceylon's mother.

Hiding Your Heritage: Due to Victoria trying to absorb Siesta at the time, Barbara was forced to hide the fact that she was Victorian to prevent anybody from harassing her.
Loved by All: Due to her compassion and activism for Infected rights, she was widely popular in Siesta when it was an obsidian mining town.
Posthumous Character: She died while giving birth to Ceylon.
Pregnant Badass: She was seen touring obsidian mines to find safety issues while pregnant Ceylon.
Spirited Young Lady: Despite being the wife of the mayor, Barbara did not hesitate to venture into the dangerous obsidian mines to find ways to improve miner safety.

Cronin

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_023_1.png

Artist: Skade

The Catastophe Messenger of Siesta and Herman's second in command.

A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Herman took Cronin in as his disciple and assistant, teaching him administration. However, from observing Herman's actions to preserve Siesta, Cronin took a wrong conclusion from his lessons; that the only thing that matters is instant gratification to oneself, and he can trample anyone if he can benefits from it - even Siesta and her people. Herman pretty much disowns him after he and his lackeys are defeated.
Corrupt Politician: He has been secretly mining obsidian from Siesta's volcano despite Herman banning the practice, simply due to how profitable selling it would be. He also knew about the imminent eruption and covered it up, planning to mine the Originium that would have been created from the Catastrophe as well despite said eruption being slated to wipe out half of Siesta.
Evil Chancellor: He was running Siesta in Herman's absence and has taken advantage of it by illegally enriching himself behind Herman's back.
Foil: He's this to Schwarz, with Schwarz's Operator Record making the comparison more apparent. They're both downtrodden orphans taken by Herman, after they showed their talents to him. They were raised alongside his daughter, yet they see themselves as the Doykos family's servants despite that. However, while Schwarz becomes a loyal retainer and sees the family's love for Siesta, Cronin starts to resent his supposed inferiority and grows ambitious in his schemes at Siesta's expense. Their expertise is even the opposite; Schwarz is powerful bodyguard and assassin, while Cronin is an administrator and a Catastrophe Messenger.
Smug Snake: He learned everything he knew from Herman, but he unfortunately learned all of the wrong things as his plans quickly fall apart the moment Rhodes Island gets involved.
Token Evil Teammate: He's the only Catastrophe Messenger so far with his own ulterior motives and selfish schemes.

"Pompeii"

The queen of the Originium Slug colony living in Siesta's volcano, a massive volcanic aberration further mutated by its infection. Serves as the boss of the Heart of Surging Flame event.

Action Bomb: If Pompeii is blocked by an operator, it will pulse and charge up for 10 seconds before releasing a devastating eruption. This inflicts severe damage to all operators around it - 1,000 Arts damage at Pompeii's lowest level. It somehow doesn't die pulling this move.
Attack Its Weak Point: Provence manages to drive it off after shooting a crack in its shell with an arrow. In battle, Pompeii's high RES but somewhat flimsy DEF make physical attackers well suited to dealing with it.
Battle Theme Music: Volcano
Damage Over Time: Getting hit by Pompeii will set the target on fire, which deals relatively heavy damage over time for the next ten seconds.
Dual Boss: Two Pompeiis are fought in FA-6.
Evil Counterpart: Seemingly to Eyjafjalla, since it has pretty much the same moveset as her, plus an Action Bomb skill for when somebody tries to block it.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The impending eruption being caused by a colony of Originium Slugs is revealed at the last minute, while the rest of the event was very much treating it as an inevitable natural disaster. The mission description for the fight with Pompeii all but states that it only exists because Cronin would make a lame boss fight.
Ironic Name: It is strangely named after a Roman city destroyed in a volcanic eruption, rather than the actual volcano (Mt. Vesuvius) responsible for the tragedy. The irony goes further when you bring Eyjafjalla to fight it, which is not terribly effective due to its high RES. Yes, the thing named Pompeii is actually resistant to being destroyed by a literal volcano.
Kill It with Fire: It attacks by spewing gouts of lava and fireballs at your operators, which can inflict a rather significant Damage Over Time burn.
King Mook: To all of the lesser Originium Slugs. It even leads a colony of them in Siesta.
Mighty Glacier: Pompeii is pretty slow to move, but inflicts severe damage at long range to many operators at once - to the point where 3 Medics are usually the minimum requirement to keep everyone alive, especially with its afterburn chipping away at their HP. And when it gets close, you best be hoping everything in the vicinity can survive its eruption attack. Defensively, Pompeii is also pretty tough to kill - packing colossal HP and a whopping 70% resistance to Arts, although its DEF is comparatively fragile.
Tragic Monster: Pompeii and its slugs were actually totally innocent considering all things, and originally just minded their own business for the most part. It was Siesta (specifically Cronin) overmining the obsidian they use as food that drove them to go berserk digging for more. Unfortunately, this just happens to be the trigger for a Siesta-destroying eruption that warrants the intervention of Ceylon and Rhodes Island. It's implied to be crazed and constantly suffering from desperation, and even the protagonists pity it a little when they fight it. Lampshaded a little by the mission description of OF-8.
A giant creature assumes the role of the last boss, by no fault of its own. Sometimes, that's a more satisfying conclusion than some desperate villain.
Turns Red: At 50% life, Pompeii gets a substantial attack speed boost.

Professor Adele Keller

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

A family friend and research partner of the Naumanns.

Childhood Friends: She was friends with Costa before she left Siesta with the Naumanns.
Due to the Dead: She set up a volcano museum both to spread knowledge on the subject and preserve the memory of the Naumanns.
Given Name Reveal: Her first name is unmentioned until Eyjafjalla finds a letter signed by Adele Keller, revealing the two have another link besides their professions and memories of Magna and Katia Naumann.
One-Steve Limit: Averted: her first name is Adele, same as Eyjafjalla, but it's heavily implied that she's the original Adele, and the Naumanns named their daughter after her.
Poor Communication Kills: Due to being reluctant to tell Eyjafjalla about the true nature of her parents' deaths in order to protect Eyjafjalla's perception of them, Keller's silence causes Kahn and even Eyjafjalla to an extent to mistrust her and question her motives, nearly ending up getting them all killed when Siesta's volcano erupts.
Red Herring: Kahn is highly suspicious that she betrayed the Naumanns to the Leithanien government, and her dodgy behavior certainly doesn't do her favors. However, it turns out that she actually is innocent, the Naumanns had willingly provided some of their data to Leithania in exchange for privacy, and Keller had stayed behind from the expedition that took their lives in order to stall a Leithanien official that had come to hound them.

Kahn

Keller's assistant and an acquaintance of Eyjafjalla.

Agent Mulder: He's convinced that the Naumanns didn't die in an accident, but were instead murdered. He highly suspects Keller is the culprit, although after they come to blows, it's revealed that she's not, and that their deaths were actually an accident.
Inspector Javert: He shows signs of this when he's convinced Keller murdered the Naumanns and intends to the do the same to Eyjafjalla, and he eventually turns out to be wrong.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: He highly suspected that Keller sold the Naumanns out to the Leithanien government and handed over their research, when in fact, it was the Naumanns themselves who were forced to hand over some of their research just to get the government to leave them alone.
Too Dumb to Live: He tries to confront Keller about his belief she murdered the Naumanns while they are both standing on an active volcano. Eyjafjalla and Keller both plead they can resolve the issue after the leave, but he won't have any of it.

Harley

An older resident of Siesta who owns the White Volcano restaurant and is Enis' adoptive mother.

Cool Old Lady: While still a stern parent, Harley is rather easygoing and still grants a great deal of freedom to her children.
Hell-Bent for Leather: She is always seen wearing a brown leather jacket, likely signifying her past life as a rock musician.
Parental Substitute: She adopted Enis and his siblings after they were abandoned by their original parents.
The Power of Rock: She often tells a story of her using this trope to fight against a corrupt noble in Kazimierz.

Chuck

Harley's husband and Enis' adoptive father.

The Ghost: He is constantly mentioned in "So Long, Adele: Home Away From Home", but is never actually seen.
Parental Abandonment: He left Siesta, his wife, and his adopted children to go an adventure around Terra, though he still maintains regular contact with them through the mail he sends back.
Walking the Earth: He has spent the last few years adventuring around Terra.

Lut and Liv

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

Lut

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

Liv

Harley and Chuck's adoptive children.

Happily Adopted: They are aware of the fact that Harley is not their biological mother, but they are a loving family nevertheless.
Interspecies Adoption: Lut, a Perro boy, and Liv, a Feline girl, were adopted by Harley, a Liberi mother.

Costa

Artist: 我妻洛酱

A clerk for the Siesta local government.

Beleaguered Bureaucrat: He gets stuck with the unenvieable job of convincing his former neighbors to relocate their businesses to make way for a large redevelopment project, leading him to resent his job.
Childhood Friends: He was friends with Keller before she left Siesta.
Only in It for the Money: We absolutely hates his job, but sticks with it because it's one of the few ways to earn a steady income in New Siesta to both support his wife and pay for his grandfather's medical bills.
The Quisling: His neighbors and old friends consider him a traitor for working for the same City Hall that is trying to relocate them for a second time.

Byrd

A wandering Columbian musician who decides to migrate to Siesta.

Cloudcuckoolander: She shows elements of this being a wandering musician who is obsessed with music and stories.
Giver of Lame Names: At the end of So Long, Adele, she proposes restarting the Obsidian Festival under the name "Marshmallow Festival". In response, Emperor tells her she's a far better musician than a name giver.

Pelipper Brown

The owner of a local hot spring hotel whose hobby is to collect obsidian.

Heel Realization: Despite his fortune and influence, he lives a relatively obscure lifestyle as a simple hot springs hotel owner since he believes he alone cannot make a difference in Siesta. However, after meeting Ceylon and seeing how similar she is to her mother who inspired him when he was young, Pelipper decides to throw his full support behind Ceylon to build an Infected treatment center.
Really Royalty Reveal: He is actually the heir to one of Siesta's largest obsidian mining companies.
Serious Business: He is a very passionate collector of obsidian, and dislikes people only interested in them for their monetary value.
Tragic Keepsake: He keeps a large geode in his collection, which was intended to be a gift to Barbara after she gave birth to her child. However, since Barbara died during childbirth, he kept the geode until Ceylon visits him and he realizes she is Barbara's daughter.

Siracusa

Affiliated Characters: Angelina, Aosta, Broca, Chiave, Lappland, Provence, Shamare, Vermeil

Affiliated Characters with Rhodes Island as their faction: Sussurro

Animal Motifs: Foxes and wolves. Most of the operators who came from Siracusa are Vulpo or Lupo. Their logo resembles a wolf head from the front. The Patron Gods of Siracusa, the Signori dei Lupi, are a pack of wolf gods who compete among themselves, just like the famiglie of Siracusa.
Becoming the Mask: Siracusa sent several Mafia families to Columbia to infiltrate the rapidly growing nation. However, many of members they sent there eventually completely assimilated into Columbian society and began identifying themselves as Columbians rather than Siracusans.
Blood Knight: Beneath the refined exterior, expensive suits, and the veneer of honor, civility, and culture, the famiglie of Siracusa are vicious killers who often revel in the chance to kill one another for power and money. Some of the agents of certain famiglie, such as Demetri, despise the broad shift to peaceful solutions and prefer that the famiglie fight amongst one another like they once did.
Corrupt Cop: The laws of Siracusa are ironclad and theoretically supposed to be harshly enforced by the judges appointed by Sicilia. For example, there is to be no open fighting between famiglie, and the common people cannot be harmed by the famiglie. However, the famiglie get around this by bribing government officials, fighting in the shadows, and targeting the judges that are supposed to enforce the law via bribes, threats, intimidation, and violence. Civilians who get in the mob's way tend to die in accidents or simply vanish in a way that the judges cannot tie back to the famiglie, and often the ones that try will get "black letters" telling them to stop or else. The prison system is treated more as a rite of passage for young mafiosos and might as well have no security so escaping is extremely easy.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
- To Italy, taking its name from the Sicilian city, Syracuse, which is known as Siracusa in Italian. Its known primary cultural trait is The Mafia basically runs the country. Furthermore, wolves have never been extinct in Italy.
- The origin tale of the Sicilian families, the strongest mafia clans of Siracusa, is analogous to the nation-building myth of Rome. However, instead of simply a pair of brothers Romulus and Remus, there were 6 siblings, and the sibling rivalry went on into their descendants, before stopping after their quarreling offended their mother, the She-Wolf. In addition, the story mentions the She-Wolf and her children each lived on one of seven hills, a direct reference to the seven hills of Rome.
- Siracusans also immigrated to Columbia in large numbers and exported their Mafia traditions as well, mirroring how Italians immigrated to the United States and formed the basis of organized crime there.
Gangsterland: Deconstructed. All levels of Siracusan society are controlled by the Mafia Famiglia. Even the government, which is supposed to be a neutral arbiter, is typically either stacked with cronies or intimidated into doing the Mafia's bidding, and the Mafia itself is intimidated by Sicilia into obeying her rule of law. This creates a rather dysfunctional society where to only sorts of law and order are imposed by violent criminal gangs who quietly loot and prey upon the regular citizens even while outwardly acting like they leave the common folk alone. Though looking outwardly strong, the Famiglia are actually brittle and weak and don't have the numbers to actually control anything without using fear. By the end of "Il Siracusano" the Grey Table is seriously considering abolishing it altogether because of how weak the nation is.
Interservice Rivalry: After several Mafia families immigrated to Columbia, their descendants eventually assimilated into Columbian society and a schism began to form between the Columbian and Siracusan families. The Columbian families thought the Siracusan families were too old fashioned and limited by their self imposed codes of honor which prevented them from maximizing their profits. The Siracusa families saw the Columbian families as decadent and corrupt, having completely forgotten their Siracusan heritage. Even after the Texas family was exterminated and the Columbian families were forced to return to the fold, the tensions still remain.
Lost Technology: Though Siracusa has mobile cities, the country had lost the means to actually build new ones until the Rossati family transferred Columbian technology.
The Mafia: Siracusa is controlled by a council of twelve Mafia families called the Grey Hall, led by Sicilia who holds the highest authority.
Murder Is the Best Solution: Murders are an everyday occurrence in Siracusa to the point where the general populace has largely accepted it and they simply keep their heads down to hopefully avoid the attention of the Mafia.
Obstructive Code of Conduct: One of Sicilia's edicts is an ironclad rule that the Mafia families cannot employ lethal force against each other to settle their differences. However, this still hasn't stopped them from doing it, it just forced them to be more discreet about it.
The Purge: The entire Texas family was wiped out due to Texas' father usurping leadership of the family and declaring independence from Siracusa.
Wicked Cultured: All of the mafioso higher-ups have a great interest in fine cuisine and opera, with Bernardo and Giovanna even dabbling in making their own opera together, La Morte di Texas. Lampshaded when Sora confronts Giovanna over being both a mafia donna and playwright, with Giovanna saying even the mafia needs something to do in their downtime. In contrast, most Siracusans despise Columbian media as they feel it is all shallow and devoid of merit. They in particular hate Columbian representations of the Mafia given how inaccurate they are.

Signora Sicilia

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_691_111.png

The ruler of the Grey Hall and by extension, all of Siracusa.

Big Good: A dark take on this trope, as this is Siracusa. Many of her edicts and reforms were intended to curb the power of the famiglia and prevent bloodshed, though they were only partially successful. Maintaining her ironclad system of law was done so quite brutally; when the Texas famiglia tried to rebel the entire organization was annihilated save Cellinia herself, and when a number of government officials were trying to reform the system without Sicilia's consent they were killed and replaced.
Cool Old Lady: She's quite affable and polite, but well into her senior years.
The Dreaded: While Sicilia's rule of Siracusa is fairly hands off, all of the Mafia families greatly fear and respect her and most wouldn't even dare dream of trying to overthrow her.
Mirror Character: To Texas, as both are legendary Siracusan Lupo mafiosos with Sankta partners who upended the city's ways upon returning to the city after an extended absence; Texas's return resulted in the formation of a Siracusan city free of the Famiglia's influence with the help of her partner Exusiai, and Sicilia's return resulted in the present government based on Laterano's "guns and order"-style of law and dominating the Famiglia to follow her rule with her partner Agenir.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Ziggzagged. On the one hand, she is willing to give Leontuzzo, Lavinia, and Texas a chance to prove they can change Siracusa for the better and completely abolish the Famiglia system that has ruled the country for centuries. On the other hand, as Rubio's diary notes, she was not above quietly but violently purging multiple government officials trying for radical reforms without her consent, and the Texas family's attempted rebellion against her resulted in all of them but Cellinia annihilated.
Silver Fox: An elegant and good-looking lady despite her age, and Emperor even calls her "sexy", to her amusement.
Terminally Dependent Society: She is under no illusions that Siracusa's current age of peace is only possible by her sheer force of will and repuation keeping the Famiglia in line. Everybody knows the moment she's out of the picture, there's nothing to stop the various Mafia families from devolving into civil war all over again.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Agenir describes her as being one when she initially visited Laterano and was eager to import their "Guns and Order" style of governance to Siracusa.

Gambino

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_avg_npc_028.png

The leader of a Siracusan Mafia family, he was exiled from Siracusa and fled to Lungmen.

Bullying a Dragon: He's intent on destroying Penguin Logistics despite all the stories and rumors about how terrifyingly effective they are in combat.
The Bus Came Back: After his appearance in "To Be Continued", he returns in "Il Siracusano" as one of Lappland's henchmen. She lets him and Capone go free at the end of the event.
Enemy Mine: Joined up with Capone during "Code of Brawl" when Lappland showed up and started hunting him as well.
Honor Before Reason: His Mafia pride makes it so he's unwilling to call off his rivalry with Penguin Logistics nor show any respect to the Rat King or Wei, which is paramount to suicide in Lungmen.
Named After Somebody Famous: His name is a reference to the real-life Gambino crime family.
Uncertain Doom: The last we see of him in "Code of Brawl" is him being confronted by Lappland. "To Be Continued" shows that he's been forced to work for Lappland.
The Unfought: Unlike the Lazurites, Roy and Monique, neither he nor Capone appear as an in-game Elite mini-boss enemy. Being fought in cutscenes instead.

Capone

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_avg_npc_027.png

The leader of the branch of the Siracusan Mafia was stationed in Lungmen.

Bullying a Dragon: In his attempts to smoke out the Rat King, he begins harassing and interrogating random slum dwellers. This of course does not make the Rat King, who is an extremely powerful Arts caster, happy.
The Bus Came Back: He and Gambino return in "Il Siracusano" as Lappland's henchmen.
Pragmatic Villainy: He realizes that Gambino's single-minded obsession with destroying Penguin Logistics will inevitably anger the Rat King and Wei, so he plots to have Gambino eliminated before he can do too much damage.
Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: He attempts to prove his loyalty to the Rat King by killing Gambino. However, the Rat King points out that he has no reason to trust a man willing to betray and murder his own sworn brother, and has him exiled from Lungmen.
Named After Somebody Famous: His name is a reference to the real-life gangster Al Capone.
Uncertain Doom: The last we see of him in "Code of Brawl" is him being confronted by Lappland. "To be Continued" eventually shows that he's been forced to work for Lappland.
The Unfought: Just like his blood-brother, Gambino, he doesn't have an in-game version of him as an Elite enemy mini-boss. This contrasts with the Lazurites, where they appear in one mission as mini-boss opponents.

Salvadore Texas

The don of Famiglia Texas who migrated to Columbia to further Siracusa's interests there and was Texas' grandfather.

Doting Grandparent: Despite his poor relationship with his son Giuseppe, to the point he was murdered by him, he greatly favored his granddaughter Texas.
Good Old Ways: He was adamant that the Siracusan way of life was superior and did not like the Columbian influence of prioritizing profits over codes of conduct creeping into his family.
Loved by All: Unlike his son Giuseppe, Salvadore was greatly respected by both the Columbian and Siracusan Mafia families, and everybody considers his death and subsequent destruction of his family to be a great tragedy.
Posthumous Character: He was murdered by his own son Giuseppe long before the events of the game.

Bernardo Bellone

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_685_111.png

Artist: IRIS_口艺

The director of one of Volsinii's most famous acting troupes, the don of Famiglia Bellone, and Leontuzzo's father.

Better to Die than Be Killed: When he betrays Zaaro, he makes sure to poison himself first so that he can deny Zaaro the satisfaction of killing him or forcing him to do his bidding.
The Chessmaster: He was actually plotting against Zaaro the whole time, quietly manipulating events so that he could set up the ultimate fall of the Famiglia system that Zaaro was propping up.
Cool Old Guy: He is very charismatic and polite, and even goes out of his way to invite Sora to Volsinii to help further her acting career.
The Don: Of the Bellone crime family.
Didn't Think This Through: While Leontuzzo does agree with his motives to abolish the Famiglia, he points out that Bernardo failed to consider that in the absence of any alternative means of governance, the people would just build a new version of the Famiglia system and the cycle of violence would continue.
Face Death with Dignity: He calmly faces down Zaaro after betraying him, knowing that his fate is already sealed.
Retired Badass: He's largely retired from running his Famiglia and leaves most of the leadership duties to Leontuzzo so he can focus on managing his acting troupe.
Visionary Villain: His one dream is to see a Siracusa that isn't ruled by the Famiglia and free from Mafia influence. It is for that end he built up the Bellone family as a sacrifical pawn to see his plans come to fruition.

Demetri Certaldo

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_690_111.png

Artist: Infukun

A member of the Bellone family and Leontuzzo's closest advisor.

Bash Brothers: Demetri is close friends with Leontuzzo, with him helping run the Bellone family.
Broken Pedestal: His ultimate faith and loyalty to Bernardo and Leontuzzo is shattered when both of them betray the Bellone family in their aims to dismantle the Famiglia system.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: He swears he will be the one to kill Leontuzzo in revenge for his betrayal of the Bellone family.
We Used to Be Friends: By the end of "Il Siracusano", both Demetri and Leontuzzo have a falling out when they find themselves on opposites sides of the drive to abolish the Famiglia system.

Alberto Saluzzo

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_686_111.png

Artist: 一千

The don of Famiglia Saluzzo and Lappland's father.

Ambiguous Situation: It's not made clear whether Alberto has any love for Lappland or not. Lappland herself doesn't believe he does and constantly mocks him for it. However, when Lappland decides to formally cut ties with the family, Alberto decides to spare her life even when he had an opportunity to kill her, though at the same time he declares her a "monster" and says he will kill her if he ever sees her again.
Assassin Outclassin': When Danbrown attempts to kill him, Alberto easily outmaneuvers him and kills him in response.
Control Freak: A downplayed example, but he will not allow anyone to question his orders or slightly disobey him. One of the reasons why Lappland gradually went insane was because she was so completely under his control that she didn't even comprehend that she had a choice to rebel or not. When she did realize she had a choice to not be under his control, Lappland snapped and went completely mad.
The Don: Of the Saluzzo crime family.
Opportunistic Bastard: He is perfectly happy keeping the Saluzzo family neutral in the conflict between the Bellone and Rossati families until he sees an opportunity to side with the winner.
Parental Neglect: One of Lappland's biggest grievances against Alberto is that he always prioritized being a Don over being a father, and most of her childhood consisted of him grooming her to be his successor which sparked her desire to rebel against him.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: Being the Don of Famiglia Saluzzo, Alberto is no slouch in combat, and can even match Lappland in a fight.
You Have Failed Me: He had previously disowned Lappland due to her failure to kill Texas during the liquidation of the Texas family.

Danbrown Leopardi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_693_111.png

A former Saluzzo hitman who now works as a carwash attendant.

Almighty Janitor: As a car washer, Danbrown ends up in a position to interact with many of Volsinii's high ranking officials.
Redemption Equals Death: He decides to rebel against Alberto after realizing how the Famiglia take advantage of everyone, including him. However, he ends up being killed by Alberto.
Retired Badass: He was once a highly ranked Saluzzo hitman, but has now been retired for several years.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: After coming to the realization that Alberto has just been using him as a pawn to further his own interests, Danbrown rants at Leontuzzo, Alberto, and Wallach that despite all their pretense at being "civilized", they're just hypocrites who abuse the status they were born with to get their way. It's this very speech that makes Leontuzzo realize what he needs to do to abolish the Famiglia system.

Benthonexigios

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_694_111.png

A mysterious but knowledgeable vagrant who can be seen wandering around Volsinii. He typically just goes by "Ben" due to the complexity of his full name.

The Alcoholic: He's typically seen getting drunk off of cheap wine.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Ben's dialogue with Lunacub in Azione Solo mode for "Il Siracusano" are primarily written as soliloquies that address both his in-universe audience and the invisible audience behind the game's screen for what their perception of him is like.
The Mole: He is actually one of Sicilia's agents keeping tabs on the events going on in Volsinii.
The Unpronounceable: He lets people call him Ben rather than Benthonexigios. Considering how Exusiai's one atttempt at saying his name went, it's clear to see why.

Rubio

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_689_111.png

A civil servant in Volsinii who makes a name for himself catering many important Mafia gatherings and events.

Better to Die than Be Killed: After giving his public "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the entire Mafia, Rubio decides to shoot himself to not only prove a point, but to also prevent the Mafia from assassinating him.
Fling a Light into the Future: He commits suicide live on radio after giving a fiery speech, hoping his actions will spur common people like Lavinia into rising up to resist the Mafia.
Good All Along: Commonly seen as a sycophantic crony for the Mafia families, Rubio has actually been secretly making plans to bring down the Famiglia system.
Obfuscating Stupidity: He was faking being a talentless and unassuming civil servant for years while secretly making plans to bring down the Mafia.
Opportunistic Bastard: This how he is seen by his peers, and he even at one point arranges to take the post of a higher ranking official who was recently assassinated.
We Have Reserves: He has come to the realization that the Famiglia, due to their focus on blood ties, will never be large enough to govern Siracusa on their own, so they have to rely on the common people to run the government. However, this gives the commonfolk huge leverage over the Mafia, and if they ever did rise up all at once, there would be no way for the Mafia to stop them.

Giovanna Rossati

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_687_11.png

Artist: IRIS_口艺

The Donness of Famiglia Rossati.

…But He Sounds Handsome: She openly praises her own play in the Critica Artistica, saying that the ending is exactly what she envisioned to her own satisfaction.
But Now I Must Go: She disappears after recovering from her wounds, leaving only the completed script for "La Morte di Texas".
Childhood Friends: She used to be friends with Texas when they both lived in Columbia as children.
Damsel in Distress: She briefly becomes one when Wallach and most of the Rossati family turn on her, and she is grievously wounded in an assassination attempt.
Even Evil Has Standards: Despite leading a Mafia family, Giovanna was always adamant not to get the Rossati family involved in morally dubious business fields such as drugs, weapons, and military contracts, even if it means the Rossati family loses out on the potential profits.
Lost Lenore: She was hurt deeply when the Texas family was destroyed, believing that Texas herself had been killed. This is what spurs to her to write the play "La Morte di Texas".
Mafia Princess: She is the descendant of one of Salvadore Texas' lovers, and ends up running her own Mafia family.
The Queenpin: Of the Rossati crime family.
We Can Rule Together: She pleads for Texas to stay in Siracusa and join the Rossati family so they can both rule as partners.

Wallach

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_695_111.png

A high ranking member of the Rossati family.

Bodyguard Betrayal: He turns against Giovanna when he starts to believe she's become too soft to rule the Rossati family.
My God, What Have I Done?: He admits to Demetri that he regrets assassinating Giovanna.

Agenir

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_692_131.png

A Sankta priest who moved to Siracusa to follow Sicilia.

Anti-Armor: While he has bullets loaded into his weapon, each of his shots will permanently lower the target's DEF by 300. Given that even the bulkiest Defenders only have a natural DEF of around 800, it only takes a few shots to make his target start taking unmitigated damage.
Bottomless Magazines: Averted - he has the same ammo mechanic as other Laterano enemies, but since he's not fighting in Laterano he'll inevitably run dry after firing 10 shots. This is played straight when he appears as a boss in the third season of Trials for Navigator, as his map now starts with hostile Gelato Stops that will let him reload infinitely if not converted fast enough.
Cool Old Guy: He's nothing but polite to the Penguin Logistics girls and takes a particular interest in Exusiai. He even calls off an attack on Texas solely as a favor to Exusiai due to her being a fellow Sankta.
Mini-Boss: He appears as a unique enemy on certain Il Siracusano maps and generally carries a threat level far above that of a normal enemy. Taken further in Trials For Navigator #3, where he's temporarily promoted to a full boss and serves as the first threat in TN-4, alongside Andoain and Zaaro.
Mirror Character: To Exusiai, as both are Sankta and partners to Siracusan Lupo mafiosas whom they unwaveringly support; Exusiai has Texas, and Agenir has Sicilia. The two even strike up a friendship of sorts when they chat about their support towards their respective friends.
Sleepyhead: He can often be seen falling asleep during court sessions, to the point where his most recognizable accessory is his eye mask.
Token Minority: Sankta are already a rare sight in Siracusa, and Agenir himself is the sole Sankta in Volsinii.

Carracci

Volsinii's Ministro dei Lavori Pubblicci ^note.

External Combustion: Carracci gets assassinated by a car bomb. He actually made a point of walking everywhere rather than driving specifically to avoid this method of assassination; his assassins got around this by blowing up a car that he walked past, rather than one he was riding in.
The Ghost: Although mentioned, he is never seen onscreen.
Loved by All: A hard-working, energetic and idealistic public official overseeing the construction of Siracusa's new mobile city as well as of many other useful projects in Volsinii itself while not being a simple corrupt puppet of one of the Famiglie like many of his predecessors, he is fondly remembered by nearly everyone in the city.
Small Role, Big Impact: Depite the fact that he's murdered almost at the beginning of the story and we don't even get to see him onscreen, the minister's assassination is what properly sets the events of "Il Siracusano" into motion.
We Hardly Knew Ye: He gets assassinated soon after his existence gets revealed.

Empire of Ursus

Affiliated Characters: Absinthe, Beehunter, Gummy, Hellagur, Istina, Leto, Rosa, Zima

Former Members: Misha, Pozëmka

Affiliated Characters with Rhodes Island as their faction: Folinic

Affiliated Characters with Reunion Movement as their faction: Crownslayer, Faust, FrostNova, Mephisto, Patriot, Skullshatterer

Слава и чистота!

One of the three major superpowers on Terra and its largest nation on land, the Empire of Ursus is the home to the Ursus race, humanoids with bear-like traits. It is primarily known for its unmatched military strength, its cruel treatment towards the infected (even by Terra's standards), and the socioeconomic conflict that exists between the nobility and commoners.

Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Many faction leaders fear this will be the result of the Reunion's uprising in Chernobog. Hellagur warns that Ursus' military resources are vast, and once they start taking a threat seriously there is little that can stop them.
However, once Ursus looks at you, you will know the difference between being an enemy of Ursus, and Ursus regarding you as one.
Bad Boss: According to Hellagur's bio, the Ursus high command is notorious for executing commanders who failed to meet their lofty expectations, with more than a hundred officers being killed over the span of just a few decades.
Create Your Own Villain: Their harsh policies against the Infected and anyone who challenges their government is the reason why many Infected banded together to form the Reunion movement. As seen above, nearly all of the Reunion commanders hailed from Ursus.
Decadent Court: Operation Intelligence reveals the empire suffers from this between the nobles and Generals who are constantly fighting each other and trying to gain the Emperor's favor which has led to a negative view amongst its people.
Drunk on Milk: Ursus can get drunk just from consuming honey, as demonstrated by Leto and Beehunter in their "Children of Ursus" story with both being very tipsy and disorderly after downing one too many honey drinks.
The Empire: You can pretty much tick everything in the "evil empire" checklist with Ursus.
Fantastic Racism: The culture and government of Ursus are noted for being particularly brutal toward the Infected, even for the standards of the rest of Terra. This is what prompts the Reunion to begin its revolution in one of its cities. They're even racist to non-Ursus citizens which are shown in Operation Intelligence where Santalla recalls where her people, the native Sami people of the North, are constantly attacked by the Ursus who look down on her people. Ursus people are even racist towards their non-Ursin citizens with Folinic bitterly remembering how badly she and her family were discriminated against while living in Ursus just because they were Felines.
False Flag Operation: In Chapter 7, both Wei and Kal'tsit realize Ursus allowed Reunion to seize Chernobog by not warning the city and not mobilizing the army to suppress the uprising. The reason is that they wanted Reunion to send Chernobog on a collision course with Lungmen. Since Chernobog is still officially an Ursus city, they could accuse Lungmen of being an aggressor against Ursus if Wei tried to stop Chernobog with a preemptive strike. This would provoke a war with Lungmen's patron nation Yan, which is Ursus' true aim.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Very obviously of Russia; Ursin names use Cyrillic, Ursin people themselves are bear-folk, the named city seen so far (Chernobog) is sourced from Russian myth and the government appears to be an extrapolation of early-20th-century Tsarist Russia into a fantastic 21st-century-esque setting. Most notably, during "Originium Dust" Tachanka is able to read the Ursus language with no translation and notes how similar it is to his native Russian.
Furry Reminder: The people of Ursus collectively love honey and like to eat fish, just like actual bears. A huge jar of honey is even collectible as a dorm decoration, and it is said to be Leto's favorite snack.
Mother Russia Makes You Strong: Ursin people are famed for their great physical strength in-universe. Yes, including the women, and Zima is perhaps the best example of this, with Beehunter being the obvious runner-up. A bit downplayed in the cases of Istina or Gummy, though the latter is still deceptively strong due to her being a Defender.
National Animal Stereotypes: Appropriately enough, bears. "Ursus" itself means "bear" in Latin. All Ursin operatives have a bear motif going on, up to and including round ear-like lumps in their hair.
Nouveau Riche: Ursus is basically the last remaining major nation where all political power is centralized in the Emperor and nobility. However, even then, the steady rise of the merchant class and increased exposure to modern finance has given birth to a new type of nobility who value business over imperial tradition, causing further strain on Ursus' already volatile internal politics.
Power Armor: If their former member Patriot were any indication, they were known to issue these.
Puppet King: The events of Chapter 8 reveals that the current monarch of Ursus is actually a pacifist and heavily opposes the militaristic culture of his nation, though he's powerless to stop the high command from doing anything due to his status as a puppet figurehead.
Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The city Chernobog is named after the Slavic deity whose name means "black god".
Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Political prisoners and Infected are shipped off to remote Originium mines and forced to work until they either die of Oripathy or at the whims of the sadistic guards. When a mine is exhausted, the guards simply execute all the prisoners and collapse the mine to literally bury the evidence.

Misha

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/char_012_misa_1.png

Artist: 唯@W

Voiced by: Satsumi Matsuda (Japanese, anime), Liang Shuang (Mandarin Chinese, anime)

A mysterious Infected girl who is a refugee from Chernobog and now lives in Lungmen. For some reason, both Reunion and Lungmen are interested in taking custody of her.

Adaptational Wimp: Played for drama in the anime compared to the game, as despite being gifted with an affinity for explosive arts like her brother to be able to use his explosives when she dons his garb, Misha is unfortunately undertrained for actual combat and given the condition of her health by the point she confronts Amiya, she is understandably nowhere near the epic Disc-One Final Boss she is presented as in the actual game chapter and instead is presented an emotional challenge for the grief-stricken Amiya who can't bring herself to fight at all, only for Ch'en to cut out the middle man of the dilemma and do the dirty deed herself, killing Misha in a single hit by running her through just before she can act on Amiya's hesitance.
A Day in the Limelight: Chapters 2 and 3 focus their story mostly on Misha. She's the target rescuee who's wanted by both Lungmen and Reunion in the second chapter, while the third chapter deals with her motivation to join Reunion and take on her brother Alex's identity as the next Skullshatterer.
A Dog Named "Dog": Misha means... bear in Russian.
Badass Adorable: Overlapping with Instant Expert. She fights as well as the original Skullshatterer the moment she takes up after her brother's clothes.
Battle Theme Music: Calamity, when she's fought disguised as Skullshatterer in 3-8.
Commonality Connection: Amiya invokes this trope in Chapter 2, showing her hands to Misha to prove that she's also infected just like her, earn Misha's trust and assure her that Rhodes Island is sent as an escort.
Cycle of Revenge: Misha views the conflict between the Infected and the non-infected to be this. Had Ursus not labeled the infected as monsters, then hatred wouldn't have begun and perpetuated.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: While Misha dies still in the fateful confrontation against Amiya in the anime, rather than the implication that Amiya is the one to do the fatal blow, it's instead Ch'en who throws herself at a determined Misha and skewering her to protect Amiya who had withdrawn from standing her own ground.
El Cid Ploy: She took Skullshatterer's clothes and identity after his death, rallying the Reunion members opposing LGD and RI. Amiya realized what happened, and fell into despair that they had to kill their intended rescuee.
Face–Heel Turn: After witnessing the atrocities the Infected suffer under the established governments, as well as seeing Amiya kill her brother Skullshatterer, Misha decides to join Reunion because she feels she has no other place to turn to.
Freudian Excuse: Following her Face–Heel Turn, Misha explains to Amiya on the phone that she's now joining Reunion's cause because she saw how the government harshly dealt with the Infected and that it's fine for them to fight back and be a part of the Cycle of Revenge.
The way normal people treated the Infected... is how the Infected would treat normal people. Because they deserve it.
Hidden Depths: Misha makes dolls, and teaching Amiya how to make one is a promise that they made before the former is handed over to LGD.
Instant Expert: Zigzagged hard in the anime adaptation. While it's no doubt that Misha is capable of using Skulshatterer's grenade launchers by using Arts after several hours of training, her total lack of combat skills, increasingly worsening Originium condition in her legs, and suicidal tendencies prevented her from being as good as Skullshatterer when he was still alive. As a result, her final confrontation with Amiya in the anime is way shorter than the one in the main game and she never amounted to being the final boss of her story chapter.
Living MacGuffin: She's the target whom the L.G.D. tasked Rhodes Island to find and rescue in the slums of Lungmen. When it turns out that Reunion is also looking for her, the Rhodes Island rescue team became suspicious that Misha has a secret that only Lungmen and Reunion know.
The Promise: There are two between Amiya and Misha:
- In Chapter 2, Amiya promised her friend Misha that she would be watching over the Infected children in the Lungmen slums when Misha would be away from them. This gets fulfilled since Chapter 4 when Amiya visits and plays with the children, even after Misha's death.
- Also, Amiya requested Misha to teach her how to make dolls. Sadly, this can no longer be fulfilled given what happened to Misha at the end of Chapter 3.
Protectorate: What Misha becomes in the first half of Chapter 3. As Reunion was able to retrieve her, Skullshatterer's goal changed into protecting Misha at all costs so that they could return home after the mission is over. So when Skullshatterer had to face the opposition one more time, he entrusts Misha's protection to W. But this promise didn't last long either when both Misha and the original Skullshatterer, Alex, got killed in the battles.
Red Herring: At first, both Lungmen and Rhodes Island believe that the Reunion wants Misha because she happens to be the daughter of a famous scientist in Chernobog, and therefore may know some powerful secret. In reality, Misha just happens to be Skullshatterer's sister, and he is determined to be reunited with her at any cost. It is though later revealed Misha does hold one of the two keys of Chernobog's core, given to her by her father Sergei, and Talulah wants that key. The reason why she was manipulated into getting killed in action by W was to prevent Talulah from getting the key.
Repressed Memories: Yet another trigger for her Face–Heel Turn. Misha remembered how the Reunion Movement destroyed her home and took away her family, but after some more realizations, she also blames Ursus for what's happening in the Cycle of Revenge between the Infected and the non-infected. This comes in a contrast to how the previous chapter showed Misha as a girl who's seemingly unaware of why such factions are fighting one another.
I remember now. No, I never forgot, I just... don't want to remember...
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: She angrily tells W she'll never give Reunion any information, shortly before she goes off in disguise to die fighting Rhodes Island, who was trying to rescue her in the first place. In the end, neither Reunion nor Rhodes Island got anything they wanted. It's such a "Shaggy Dog" Story that the sheer pointlessness of all the deaths caused by the Misha rescue attempt leaves Amiya extremely emotionally disturbed afterward.
Villainous Valour: She disguises herself as Skullshatterer to improve his troops' morale as well as to buy them time to escape encirclement by Rhodes Island and the LGD.

Duke Kashchey

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_060.png

^{Click to see his new appearance}

Real name: The Deathless Black Snake

An Ursus noble who took Talulah from Lungmen in order to make her his heir, though he was already dead by the time of the main story.

Animal Motifs: Snake. Given his inability to die and his personal mark, it's likely that he represents the Ouroboros, a snake biting its own tail that represents immortality. Also ties in with his real identity as the "Deathless Black Snake."
The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People: He believes that human by nature is violent. He also thinks that the current corruption of Ursus is because Ursus has forgotten its nature as a warmonger; because they're in a time of peace, they have no common enemy to fight against, and because they have no common enemy, everyone is just fighting against each other. Instead of banding together to achieve glory, nobles pick off their own peasants and peasants pick off the Infected in a manufactured prejudice as an attempt to act upon their violent nature despite outwardly claiming to be peaceful. In his opinion, war brings people together because everyone's lives, whether it's nobles, peasants, or the Infected, are on the line and they have no choice but to exert their utmost effort to survive. What remain in the end are the most valiant, powerful, intelligent, and wise.
Arc Villain: With revelations made in Chapter 8 and his direct confrontation with Rhodes Island, Kashchey is the instigator and ultimate culprit of the entire Reunion arc of the story, and remains a looming threat even after taking a backseat in the Shadow of a Dying Sun arc..
Berserk Button: As much control as he has over his emotions for the most part, there's one thing that does seem to get on his nerves enough to drop pretenses as Amiya discovers is empathy, as he routinely monologues into furious ranting the moment Amiya and Ch'en tries to break through his conditioning of Talulah by pulling a "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight on her, trying to tear down any sense of compassion as useless idealism and would only weaken Talulah and Ursus to indulge in it.
- He also has apparently a small nerve to pinch concerning Kazdel and, by extension, the Sarkaz in general due to clearly a very personal issue in the past with them... though he grits his teeth and bears it for his plans due to how easily they can be made useful sellswords to tie up loose ends without having to answer any questions.
Body Surf: His 'immortality' is basically this; his possession only acts toward people with similar mind as him. If that person doesn't have what it takes and lash out at him, he will break their resolve and drive them to despair, while using that moment of weakness to take over the control of their body. It's implied that his previous identity before being Duke Kashchey is the heretical priest that continued to cry that it's human nature to be violent as he got publicly executed.
The Chessmaster: His grand plan involves corrupting Talulah and using her to bring back equality (or rather his twisted version of it) to Ursus, which starts even before his physical death in her hands, as from Amiya's observation of Talulah's distorted recollection of the day of her kidnapping, he had used his Arts on her during that time.
The Corrupter: He is this in spades to Talulah, taking pleasure in breaking her idealistic spirit bit by bit, luring her to come to a realization that the world isn't as kind as she believes it to be. To a lesser extent, he's also this to Mephisto, grooming him from a timid boy into a radical terrorist he is today.
Kashchey: I'm looking forward to... when the time comes... Your... regret and... your... hate...
Demonic Possession: Kashchey possessed Talulah during the events revealed in Chapter 8 that supposedly "changed" her, being the real force of power behind what were seemingly her plans on the surface but actually his.
Did Not See That Coming: While he accounted for many things in his plan, Kashchey is completely floored by the revelation that Amiya is the Lord of Fiends and has a very brief Villainous BSoD trying to actually comprehend the sheer insanity of making a Cautus girl the Lord of all Sarkaz, actually breaking his Master Actor performance in the process to reveal his Demonic Possession of Talulah to Ch'en.
Disc-One Final Boss: Is without a doubt the final opponent for the first act of the game while possessing Talulah, who ochestrated a lot behind Reunion's fall and current actions to stimulate a war between Ursus and Yan for his own Social Darwinist agenda. However, after he's both defeated and beaten back by Talulah, even in his various other bodies, he's more or less decided to go back to a quieter approach and stops antagonizing things for the time being to see how things shake out, which leaves Theresis to take over as the Big Bad for the following story arc.
Dub Name Change: While in the CN server he is named "Koschei", the global server localizes his name as "Kashchey", an alternate spelling of the mythical figure.
Expy: His snake motif, his status as Greater-Scope Villain, his Body Surf ability, his False Flag Operation that brings forth wars between one faction and another, his defeat at the hands of the protagonist with rabbit motif, all brings to mind Kamen Rider Evolt.
False Flag Operation: As Talulah, he secretly arranges for the actual Reunion members to be killed off and replaced by Ursus army soldiers disguised as them. This would allow him to advance Ursus' interests by using "Reunion" to antagonize Lungmen and Yan without having Ursus be directly implicated.
Gender Bender: His current main host, after Talulah fought off his Demonic Possession, is a Liberi woman serving as a teacher in the far north of Ursus, even Talulah starts referring to him as a she after a point for convenience's sake.
God Was My Copilot: Chapter 10 reveals, during Kashchey's conversation with Talulah, that he is the God of Ursus in fact and that everything he has done and continues to do is to test the strength of his country and defeat it's enemies.
Greater-Scope Villain: All but confirmed to be the case. As far as the story is concerned, much of the Reunion Movement's He Who Fights Monsters transition in the past and their current atrocities were the result of Kashchey exerting his control over Talulah. Once freed from his grasp at the end of Chapter 8, Talulah immediately stands down, ceases all of the Reunion operations under her control, and willingly becomes Rhodes Island's prisoner, while Kashchey is revealed to be still alive in some capacity, with even more schemes planned for something else, likely the three-way race for the Victorian throne.
Humans Are Bastards: Is a staunch believer of this after everything he has seen, and attempts to have Talulah rule Ursus under this logic, as can be seen when Reunion kills civilians left and right in the name of justice. In the same vein, he sees the entirety of Reunion as disposable pawns to achieve this. Somewhat zigzagged however, in that he claims to love everyone in Ursus equally as he sees their struggle as beautiful, because only by then contributions can be made to greatness. Thus he considers them as necessary sacrifices to create a stronger Ursus.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In Chapter 8, he's seen sitting on his throne with a sword stabbed through his chest, smirking as he's been killed by Talulah which goes according to his plans.
Kick the Morality Pet: He planned to manipulate Ch'en into joining Talulah's side just to kill her to drive her further down the Despair Event Horizon and complete his Demonic Possession of Talulah, irreversibly turning her into his brand new vessel as she's reduced to a Empty Shell out of grief.
Mad Love: The nature of his kidnapping of Talulah. He is extremely and creepily obsessed with her, wanting her to be his heir the moment they met to become the second coming of him, even placing utmost importance on Talulah's life above his own plans. His possessiveness is also demonstrated as he's angered when his control of Talulah starts to slip because of Amiya. In the Russian folklore he's based on, Koschei has a penchant for abducting princesses to marry them.
The Man Behind the Woman: The real force of power controlling Talulah and Reunion by the way of Demonic Possession.
Master Actor: If his possession of Talulah is anything to go by, he's strongly implied to be this, which makes sense considering his profound understanding of human nature. W alludes that the new Talulah is someone who can take on a different persona depending on who she addresses.
Me's a Crowd: Chapter 10 confirms that Talulah wasn't his only 'successor' and that Kashchey has many more hosts within Ursus serving as him and his vision of Ursus, with his current body being a Liberi woman named Kolshena.
More than Mind Control: While the things Kashchey did while possessing Talulah are indeed his own, he can't actually do anything Talulah doesn't want him to. Which heavily implies that she is so psychologically damaged and utterly crushed after burning down an entire village in a fit of rage, betraying her ideals in the process and hating herself for it, that she can neither endure the pain nor muster any will or strength to resist Kashchey's possession.
Patriotic Fervor: Everything he did, is for sake of Ursus. At one point, the Emperor's Blades celebrate him as the champion of Ursus.
Patron God: Although he's an Ageless and not an actual Feranmut (which would more closely fit with this trope), he has lived so long and dedicated so much of his immortality to manipulating Ursus that he's the closest thing to a personification of its "will."
Purple Prose: He really likes to grandiosely regal people with elaborate speech about his schemes. At one point, he even uses Talulah's Arts to silence Amiya and Ch'en, just so he can tell them how much he loves Ursus, lest they got their tongues burnt by Talulah's flame.
Really 700 Years Old: Chapter 8 reveals he's been possessing other people's bodies for a very long time, that it is made a point when Amiya manages to break through his possession of Talulah, he expresses interest that it's the first time someone's encroached on him like that in over a thousand years.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers a big one to Amiya, accusing her for being very short-sighted in her ideals as she has never experienced anywhere near the same amount of tragedy as he does, even most being derived from her ability to gain insight into a person's feelings and memories, nor has she done much to save the Infected as she claims she wants to and instead prefers to cry over every little tragedy in front of her. Doubles as Villain Has a Point, since Amiya is indeed quite sheltered and privileged compared to most Infected and thus unable to relate herself to those she sympathizes with.
Kashchey: You are deaf and blind, pretending to redeem yourself by weeping over every little thing in front of you.
Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Named after Koschei the Deathless, from Russian legends.
Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Kashchey is trying to teach this to Talulah her whole life, awaiting the day she shows an opening in her beliefs which will allow him to use her body as a vessel for his ideals. After she's freed from his possession, he tells her to stop daydreaming about people's nature in her prison cell. Ultimately, both him and Talulah care greatly about Ursus in their own way with the former wanting the latter to rule it at some point. However, Kashchey is too jaded as he has seen far too many tragedies and ugliness of human nature over the course of his existence. As Kashchey put it, he bears the scars of tens of millions of Ursus compatriots on his being.
Sore Loser: When he feels that Talulah, encouraged by Amiya and Ch'en's words, starts to fight back against his possession, Kashchey puts Talulah's sword on her own neck to stop them from interfering further. When Talulah continues to fight back anyway, he gives up to deny everyone the satisfaction of defeating him, while also claiming that his next domination on Talulah is inevitable.
Sue Donym: Chapter 10 reveals his current identity using a Liberi to be this, as he goes by the name Kolshena (the original text was even more obvious as Kashschena), Talulah immediately lampshades the blatant absurdity of it.
Thanatos Gambit: From the first mention of his name in the story, Kashchey is widely assumed to have been killed by Talulah, which is not strictly incorrect, since she only managed to destroy his physical body. However, due to his powerful Arts and status as an Ageless, Kashchey had actually accounted on Talulah doing this, in order to possess her and use the Reunion Movement for his own ends. At the end of Chapter 8, after Talulah was freed from his influences, Kashchey is implied to still be alive in some capacity, and will return in the near future to manipulate the state of Terran politics some more.
Walking Spoiler: Much of his background and involvement, especially by Chapter 8, can't be talked about without revealing he was actually the one possessing Talulah the entire time and controlling the entirety of Reunion for his own plans.

Tatiana

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An Infected civilian of Chernobog.

Boomerang Bigot: She deeply hates the Infected despite being one herself, saying all of them should just die. She acknowledges this, at the same time wishing she was also dead.
Hidden Depths: She was previously a copyist at a university, and recognizes Kal'tsit's accent as an "old-fashioned" one from Ursus's capital.
Meaningful Rename: The game changes her name from "Ursus Infected" to Tatiana to reflect her burgeoning trust in both Rhodes Island and Guard.
One-Steve Limit: Downplayed. Two other characters have very similar names: Tatyana the Ursus noble in Children of Ursus, and Tatjana the Elafian official in Twilight of Wolumonde.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Amiya gives Tatiana Oripathy inhibitors to distribute to her fellow survivors, after which Rhodes Island engages the Reunion guerillas and Guard goes to contact Patriot. She is not seen again after 7-10.
What You Are in the Dark: When she's found by Rhodes Island, she was under the protection of Guard, who has been infiltrating Reunion. However, she takes Rhodes Island's presence badly because of her hellish experience in the conquered Chernobog and refuses to cooperate with Rhodes' evacuation plan. Having no time to calm her down in the face of their operation to defeat Talulah, Kal'tsit then threatens both Tatiana and Guard's lives as a Sarkaz guerilla squad is approaching in order to snap Tatiana out of her irrational behaviors. Tatiana's reaction would determine whether Rhodes will save her and her fellow refugees: if she vouches for Guard, then Rhodes can easily start their evacuation with Guard's help; if she abandons Guard, rescuing her would be a folly and Rhodes will abandon her to her fate. After she ends up choosing the former and the guerilla squad is defeated, Kal'tsit tells Amiya that her ultimatum was just one of her "games", and Guard was never in danger.

Alina

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_079.png

Artist: Kuma𝙩𝙖𝙣(π)

The child of the family Talulah stayed with before forming Reunion, who quickly became a dear companion to her.

Animal Motifs: Deers, due to her Elafia race.
An Arm and a Leg: It's never outright mentioned, but her injured sprite implies she was missing her right arm when Talulah found her dying in the forest. In addition, the CG where Talulah carries her on her back as the forest burns behind them implies she's also missing her left leg.
The Confidant: Alina is the only person Talulah has ever fully confides in, and Talulah told her everything, even about Kashchey and Ch'en. Alina, in return, offers Talulah emotional support and advice, and helps to keep Talulah on track whenever she starts going astray.
Cool Big Sis: She took the role of a teacher in Reunion, and was very much loved by the children in return. Some of them allegedly cried when she failed to return.
Deadpan Snarker: She may support Talulah's ideals, but she isn't above making snide remarks at her expense.
Death by Origin Story: While she makes her first appearance late in the story, her death is one of the major events in Talulah's past and the first step to her eventual downfall.
Foregone Conclusion: She was nowhere to be seen in the main story despite being Talulah's very first companion and best friend, making her ultimate fate abundantly clear to the players.
Living Emotional Crutch: She was this to Talulah as the latter often relied on her for advice and emotional support. After Alina's death, Talulah became less lively.
Talulah: Alina, stop it! I don't want... I don't want to be without you, without Yelena, without Sasha and Eno, I can't let any of you...
Posthumous Character: Is long dead by the time the main story takes place, with her only appearances being in flashbacks.
Secret-Keeper: Was Talulah's closest friend, and the only one who knew about Talulah's past and the curse Kashchey placed on her.
"Shaggy Dog" Story: She refused to name her murderers, implied to be the same people Talulah had spared from deserting Reunion, because she feared that Talulah will lose her fight against Kashchey's possession. While her last words fend of Talulah's rage from exploding right there and then, her resentment nevertheless festered until it broke Talulah even more spectacularly. If Amiya doesn't conveniently have her mind-reading Arts to drag out Alina from Talulah's memories, Talulah might never recover from the possession.
Take Care of the Kids: Requested Talulah to do something to the children, especially Eno aka Mephisto, in her dying breath. What this exactly entails is unknown, and it doesn't help when Talulah forgot the events surrounding her death due to emotional trauma.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Alina is one of the few unambiguously good characters in the setting, and serves as Talulah's emotional pillar to keep her from succumbing to her dark side. Unfortunately, she's first of Talulah's inner circle to die. She doesn't even tell Talulah who is responsible for her death because she doesn't want Talulah going out to take revenge on her behalf.
Alina: Talulah... There is one thing you can detest... Everything they did, you can scorn. But... never hate... anyone.

Old Man

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Real Name: Ivan Iziaslav

Heroic Sacrifice: He turns himself in to the Ursus Patrolmen in order to draw attention away from Talulah and Alina. Naturally, he is executed on the spot due to being Infected.

Old Woman

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The Emperor's Blades

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Other variations: "Emperor's Blade" Pursuer

Elite Ursus soldiers who are described as the will of Ursus itself. Their unparalleled strength and combat prowess has earned them a borderline mythical status among all who know their names. They are also known as the Ursus Royal Guard.

One of them (called Pursuer) serves as the Final Boss of the sidestory "A Walk in the Dust", and is backed up by Ursus units rather than the event's enemies. Another notable Royal Guard is "Black Mark", who has gone rogue and wandered off into the northern icefields.

Badass Boast: In "A Walk in the Dust" event, Kal'tsit tried to make the Pursuer back down because he's trying to kill her right in front of a Victorian Count's mansion, with all the geopolitical mess that might follow if an Ursus' royal guard is found doing this in Victoria. The Pursuer's response?
The Pursuer: Your threat is weak and empty. Wherever I stand, the earth beneath me belongs to the Empire of Ursus.
Battle Theme Music: Infected's Shielder for their appearance in Chapter 8.
- Pursuer gets a track named after themselves in "A Walk in the Dust". A bombastic theme which makes it clear they are not screwing around this time.
Blind Obedience: A problem that they share, as while each are fiercely loyal, they are also needlessly reckless in displaying that loyalty. The mere mention of questioning their devotion to Ursus can set them off exceptionally quick and they tend to follow orders to the letter without question, which can cause more problems than it's worth when they engage those who are hiding in other nations as Pursuer not only risked an international incident between Victoria and Ursus by attempting to kill Kal'tsit at a Victorian party, but upon injury, he was willing to risk contamination of the entire area for generations to come, which could have sparked a war between the two countries had Kal'tsit not convinced him to flee.
Bodyguard Betrayal: When confronting the Royal Guard, Patriot not so subtly raises the suspicion that they assassinated the previous Emperor. Later on, Lungmen's Black Coats also raises the same insinuation. The Blades deny this, and based on their almost religious reverence to said emperor, this appears to be the truth.
Cool Mask: An inhuman, six-eyed, eldritch-looking gas mask with countless tubes protruding from it. Coupled with their Power Armor, it really makes them look more monster than man.
Cool Sword: They wield ornate sabers with decorated gold-and-red hilts. The Pursuer will start using it to attack in his second phase, and it hurts a lot more than his usual summoned blades.
Deadly Gas: The boss variant battled in "A Walk in the Dust" will use Dominion every time they lose a percentage of HP, spreading dark clouds centered on the Operators that dealt the most damage to them. If they stand in the gas, they'll gain significant damage reduction against physical and Arts damage. If Operators stand in the gas, they'll get their attack speed cut in half and become vulnerable to the Blade's One-Hit Kill attacks.
The Dreaded: Their power and combat proficiency is feared by all who know about them, to the point where their mere existence has spawned many myths and legends about their nature. Their description in the enemy intelligence further emphasizes this:
He once ravaged the demons of the Northern Tundra, segregating the outsiders beyond the reach of civilization; His blade shies not from royals nor nobles, safeguarding glory from the dusts of rebellion. Every Royal Guard is as a dominion; the land beneath their feet is all the territory of Ursus.
Eager Rookie: A lot of their opponents tend to dismiss their glorification of war as Ursus' patriotic duty as a result of the current generation of Emperor's Blade had never experiencing a real war.
Elite Mook: They're considered the strongest and most dreaded military units in all of Ursus, to the point where defeat isn't even considered a possibility for them.
Evil Versus Oblivion: The Blades are the cruel, top-ranking soldiers of Ursus, an empire infamous for its brutality and subjugation, but they're also dedicated to destroying and containing the unknowable demons from beyond the boundaries of civilization.
Friendly Fireproof: A rare enemy case of this; when the Pursuer is defeated, enemies in their Dominion zones will also become subjected to Dominion's attack speed penalty for the rest of the battle.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The Pursuer's appearance at the end of A Walk in the Dust seems like an example done deliberately for surprise: Kal'tsit is in Ursus for some of the event, and they were even mentioned during it, but since every previous map took place in Sargon territory he's certainly not the first thing you'd expect to fight at the end.
Harmless Enemy: Ironic considering their reputation. Two of these bosses show briefly in R8-11 to reduce Talulah the Fighter's defense and resistance, and leave. They won't walk in and attack your party, nor you can hurt them in any way. An actually fightable one appears in A Walk in the Dust, and he's far from harmless.
Iaijutsu Practitioner: The Pursuer wields his saber this way, slashing targets blocking him with a quick draw and sheathe.
Noodle Incident: Something happened in the Valley of the Setting Sun that resulted in countless Royal Guard casualties and rendered the entire area completely uninhabitable as a result.
One-Hit Kill: The Pursuer's Collapsing Fear will instantly kill any Operators that are currently being affected by the Dominion zones they set up. This can even one-shot things that are normally immortal, like Specter with her S2 up.
One Man Armies: Each one of these are apparently capable of single-handedly slaughtering multiple squads. Talulah's flashback in chapter 8 shows just how monstrously strong they are. 5 of them were enough to basically take on early-days Reunion: 1 was enough to face FrostNova and her yetis (and from her dialogue she was losing), 2 were enough to face Talulah and the Guerilla Shieldguards (while also striking so fast that they couldn't tell what was happening), and the last 2 can fight Patriot to a standstill, with Patriot mentioning that 3 of them has a good chance of defeating him. Considering what we've seen in the main story, it cannot be understated just how strong the Emperor's Blades are, not to mention there are more than just a few of them running around in Ursus.
Person of Mass Destruction: Not only are Ursus Royal Guards fearsome opponents in combat, but should they die, the containment system in their suits will be breached, exposing the demonic shard it holds; this in turn would violently react with reality itself, causing a massive explosion and rendering a wide area completely uninhabitable for an unforseeable amount of time.
Praetorian Guard: They act as the Emperor's personal guard and carry out his direct will.
Red Baron: Are known as the "Facerending Liches" for their penchant for slicing the faces off their targets and leaving them in mass graves of unrecognizable corpses.
Sealed Evil in a Can: "A Walk in the Dust" reveals that they harbor a fragment of an extradimensional demonic entity within them, which seems to be one source of their strength. If their armor were to ever break, the enclosed dimension would become unstable and leak into the real world. This is why Pursuer, the Emperor's Blade that battled Kal'tsit, backed down once she cracked his mask, as well as why Kal'tsit didn't push him any further.
Spontaneous Weapon Creation: They can summon blades out of seemingly nowhere to skewer foes.
Super-Soldier: Highly trained and heavily armed soldiers of extreme power who are empowered by demon shards sealed within them through rituals.
Villain Respect:
- The Royal Guard have nothing but respect and admiration for Patriot despite him being a traitor, and even go so far as to basically beg him to return to the Ursus military. Even when he blatantly rejects them and threatens them, they simply respect his wish without so much as a fight.
- The Royal Guard at the end of "A Walk In the Dust" extends respect to Kal'tsit after their battle, especially since she non-fatally wounded him and thus allowed him to return to Ursus with his honor, and explained that the reason why she assassinated Grand Duke Vanya was to avert a civil war within Ursus.
Walking Wasteland: A telltale sign, as "A Walk in the Dust" revealed, when they are around is black snow that snuffs the life of the environment around them, supposedly a consequence of their otherworldly powers gained from symbiosis with the demon shards imprisoned in them, to the point that if their suit is ruptured in any capacity, they run the risk of turning an entire region inhospitable for generations with the contaminants they produce.
Weak, but Skilled: Closer observation reveals that none of their stats are particularly high. But their core Dominion mechanic is what makes them difficult to handle, granting them reduced damage and allowing them to One-Hit Kill even immortal Operators, while greatly reducing Operators' combat effectiveness. As long you can manage where Dominion lands (much easier said than done), they will go down quickly.
The Worf Effect: They are known and feared for their immense power within them, so it says a lot when the "Age of the Silence" ending of Mizuki and Caerula Arbor has them willingly unleash the demons within to try and contain the rapidly advancing Seaborn threat, creating a barrier of death and desolation to buy time, only for the Seaborn to eventually adapt and overcome that anyway.

Islam Witte

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_076.png

Ursus Minister of Finance who's Wei's contact and works closely with the Emperor of Ursus.

The Cavalry Arrives Late: Wei initially scoffs at the news that Chernobog is in collision course to Lungmen because he believes Witte will never let that happen. Turns out, while he's right that Witte is on his way to uncover the conspiracy to incite war, Ursus' court intrigue prevents him from immediately stopping the plan from happening. By the time Witte has successfully exposed everything, it has been two weeks since the incident was resolved. Even then, the conspirators decided to escape the Emperor's punishment by committing suicide. Witte laments that the only thing he can do to uphold justice is by hanging the conspirators' dead bodies to rot in public.
The Good Chancellor: He's this to Ursus Emperor Fyodor. Witte advises the Emperor of internal and foreign policies in his attempt to reform the empire, uncovers conspiracies that undermine said reform, and protects the Emperor's power against ambitious war-hawks. At one point, the Emperor asks Witte to stop protecting him so much lest he would get targeted next.
Named After Somebody Famous: He shares his last name with Sergei Witte, who is regarded by many to have been The Good Chancellor to Tsar Nicolas II. He also served as Minister of Finance at one point in his career.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Seems like he plays one. He is the one that advises the Emperor on the present matters and tells him that they need to accumulate more political capital before attempting to close Infected mines in north, even if it is the right thing to do. He further argues that closing the mines now, will generate too much backlash from the nobility for Emperor and might endanger his rule over Ursus.

Fyodor

The current Emperor of Ursus.

Fantastic Racism: He is very well aware of the existence of "Ageless" individuals like Kashchey, thinking them as shadowy and sinister schemers who play with the lives of those with shorter lifespan, and wants nothing more than for all of them to be exterminated due to the threat they pose to Ursus. Witte advises him against this because not all of those immortals are evil. Given that Kal'tsit is one of them, and she's unambiguously good, Witte is right.
The Ghost: He's never seen during his conversation with Islam.
Hair-Trigger Temper: Because of his vassals' conspiracies against his internal reforms, the Emperor is frustrated by the sheer obstacle he has to scale just so his people can have a better life. Any news about his noble's Decadent Court will set him off into a rant about how his vassals' squabbles are ruining the country.
Inadequate Inheritor: He's viewed as such by nobility compared to his predecessor for supposedly allowing the glory of Ursus to fade. This is in deep contrast to what's actually shown as Fyodor dislikes the instability and corruption allowed to set in by the previous regime and wants to remove it all.
Reasonable Authority Figure: From what little has been seen of him, Fyodor opposes his predecessor's warmongering policies and the rampant corruption within the Ursus Empire's government. He also wants better treatment for the Infected. Unfortunately, he lacks the political clout to achieve any of these goals anytime soon. The extreme brutality that the Ursus military shows toward the Infected is also implied to be out of his control, as different divisions have their own loyalties to various noble lords.

Lillia

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The mother of Medic operator Folinic and a coworker of Kal'tsit.

Like Mother, Like Daughter: Her appearance in "A Walk In the Dust" reveals this as she and her mother Folinic both can become consumed with achieving revenge on others, even if it's to their own detriment.
Not Quite Dead: "A Walk In the Dust" implies that Lillia isn't actually dead, but was forced to flee to Sami to hide from Ursus.
Posthumous Character: Was mentioned to be dead in Folinic's archive files.
Revenge Before Reason: After the massacre of the Sarcophagus research team in Chernobog, Lilia can only think of taking revenge on Ursus, even if it means abandoning her only daughter to protect her from Ursus' retaliation. Even after Grand Duke Vanya is dead, she declares that she has no intention of stopping until she's punished Ursus and Sergei (who sold them out), even if she knows that this will certainly kill her.
Strong Family Resemblance: She could very well pass off as Folinic's older twin.

Grand Duke Vanya

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Face Death with Dignity: He was already suffering from many diseases and lived quite a long life, so he quietly accepts Kal'tsit fatally poisoning him in retribution for what happened in Chernobog after the two chat about Pine Valley and the Duke's experiences.
Reassigned to Antarctica: While he was ostensibly sent to the prestigious Pine Valley resort to live out the rest of his life in retirement, in reality Vanya was being held there as a helpless political pawn with no power or influence.

Victoria Empire

Affiliated Characters: Bagpipe, Bena, Breeze, Goldenglow, Grani, Haze, Indra, Iris, Jessica, May, Mint, Mousse, Nightmare, Phantom, Reed, Saileach, Shalem, Siege, Skyfire, Toddifons

Affiliated Characters with Rhodes Island as their faction: Blaze, Hibiscus, Lava, Melantha, Quercus

Former Members: Dora

We gather together to greet the storm; Tomorrow belongs to Victoria

One of the three major superpowers of Terra, Victoria is the center of culture and learning, with many notable figures and individuals learning in its universities. The country is currently facing a succession crisis after the death of its previous king.

And Man Grew Proud: It's mentioned that with the collapse of its two largest rivals Gaul and Iberia, there were no more major external threats towards Victoria's power and its conflicts turned inward, resulting in the removal of the monarchy and numerous power struggles among the nobility. This caused Victoria's steady decline over the past 20 years as well as gave Theresis the perfect opportunity to seize Londinium.
Animal Motifs: Cats. A majority of the characters associated with, or hailed from Victoria, are Felines. With the exceptions of Siege and Indra, they tend to be based on domesticated house cats. Those that came from parts based on ScotIreland (e.g. Bagpipe, Reed) are more draconic, though.
BFG: Londinium is protected by a ring of massive artillery cannons designed to shell approaching armies and shoot down aerial battleships.
Cadre of Foreign Bodyguards: Many nobles originally hired on Sarkaz mercenaries and brought them into Londinium for this purpose. Unfortunately, none of them knew or cared that these mercenaries ultimately were loyal to Theresis and served as his avenue to subvert the city from within.
Crapsaccharine World: Victoria is presented as one of the most prosperous and civilized nations on Terra, as well as being one of the largest. However, Victoria's power was built on aggressive conquest of neighboring lands, with many ethnic groups either exterminated or forcibly assimilated into the empire and treated as second class citizens. Many of these groups have harbored simmering nationalistic discontent against the crown for centuries, and with the current Succession Crisis and Infected riots, the whole situation threatens to erupt and break Victoria apart.
Elite Army: It's mentioned that one of Victoria's greatest strengths is its highly disciplined and well trained professional army.
Evil Chancellor: It's implied in Siege's profile that some sort of figure or group with ill intent has secretly seized control of Victoria.
- Chapter 10 reveals that Theresis and his court have occupied Londinium and as such have de facto control of all of Victoria. With the throne still empty, there's nobody that can contest Theresis' rule or unite the outlying Victorian cities to stand against him.
Fantastic Racism: There is a great deal of prejudice against the Tarans, Felines who have descended from a tribe that accepted Draco rule in ancient times, due to fears that they will try to break away from Victoria or support putting a Draco back on the Victorian throne.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: To the United Kingdom, with Victorians having a lot of (surprisingly varied) British elements to their design (from Mousse being a fancy, if dispossessed, British upper-crust girl to Siege and her Glasgow crew being classic British punks). Its capital is even called Londinium, with a massive tower named the Shard to boot.
- There's also some elements of the British Empire, such as the Victorian Mounted Police being named after the various police forces throughout the former British Empire, like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police/North-West Mounted Police, the New South Wales Mounted Police, the Lesotho Mounted Police, and the now defunct Natal Mounted Police and Cape Mounted Police, or Indra's codename referencing a Hindu god.
- Mousse's bio suggests that Victoria encompasses parts of real-world France as well, due to her place of birth being based on a real location and the decidedly French influences of her character design. Not much of a stretch, considering France and the United Kingdom are only separated by a sea channel in reality. It's later explained that the France equivalent, Gaul, was partially incorporated into Victoria. The second Integrated Strategies reveals this happened when Emperor Corsica I lost a war against a coalition of Leithania, Victoria, and Ursus in a reflection of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. One of those territories now in Victorian hands is Phantom's hometown.
- The Dracos, who had roots in ancient Leithania, used to be the dominant people of Victoria until the Felines settled and slowly overtook them, making them a rough equivalent of the Celts, who used to rule the British isles prior to the rise of the Anglo-Saxons. Later, it is revealed that there is a third faction, the Unicorn (likely a stand in for the Normans), that vie for the throne beside the Draco and the Aslan.
- During Originum Dust, it is strongly implied that the Victorian language is English, as Team Rainbow is able to use it to communicate with people from Terra.
- County Hillock's racial tensions between the Tarans and Victorians is representative of tensions between the Irish and British during The Troubles.
- So many Victorians having sided with Kazdel has parallels with the British royal family, who since the House of Hanover have had close connections to Germany until the conclusion of World War I where they decided to divest themselves of their German titles and holdings and rebrand themselves as the purely British House of Windsor.
Gambit Pileup: Thanks to Victoria's Succession Crisis, there are numerous factions meddling in the country's politics trying to seize the throne, ranging from Theresis and is machinations to spread Kazdel's influence, the various dukes trying to cling to their power, resistance movements like Dublinn seeking to break away from Victoria or put their own claimant on the throne, Infected rights groups like Reunion seeking to help Victoria's oppressed Infected underlcass, and Rhodes Island which seeks to put the rightful ruler back on the throne.
Humongous Mecha: One of Victoria's most powerful military assets are its Steam Knights, basically massive steam powered mech suits bristling with weaponry.
Malicious Slander:
- The fable a young Reed and Leader are taught is a direct parallel of the rule of Victoria passing from the Draco to the Aslan. However, since the fable is being told from the point of view of the Draco, the Aslan are painted as schemers and manipulators that used treachery and lies to usurp the benevolent Draco.
- The nobles justify the deposing of the last Aslan king by painting him as a tyrant who would oppress all Victorians, when in reality the king was a reformist who wanted to curb the power of the nobility and make them pay a larger share of Victoria's tax burden.
Propaganda Piece: Kazdel has taken control of Londinium's public news, using them to shift blame on trouble caused by the Military Commission on nebulous gangs and declaring that their presence is necessary for the security of the city, as seen in the notebook clipping for H10-1.
The Purge:
- After Theresis' coup, most of the loyalist Londinium defense forces and those sympathetic to them were wiped out, with the survivors forced to go into hiding.
- In Chapter 11, Theresis has no more need to appease the Londinium nobility with his plans nearly coming to fruition, and sends the Sanguinarch to purge all of them, including their families.
The Quisling: One of the largest reasons Londinium fell to Sarkaz occupation so quickly was due to many of the nobles and a large majority of the city defense force shifting their allegiance to Theresis once the Sarkaz coup was underway.
Ruling Family Massacre: It's mentioned that Siege's entire family and their supporters were killed by a cabal of anti-royalist nobles.
ScotIreland: The presence of Bagpipe and Reed indicates that Victoria also encompasses the in-universe equivalents of Scotland and Ireland, respectively, which is better described on their character pages (Reed in particular was part of an organization called Dublinn). Toddifons seems to be a Wales equivalent.
Succession Crisis:
- "Just So" Story of why the Draco royal family was wiped out: the last king's heirs disgraced themselves in their attempt to heal their father. The princess unwittingly used Originium on her father, and his mutation then turned him into a monster. She was summarily executed for her 'crime'. Meanwhile, the prince was seduced by the riches he found and decided to betray his country so he could swim in his treasure hoard. The ensuing power vacuum left by the Draco propelled the Aslan to become the sole king of Victoria's throne, while their Feline vassals cannibalized everything else. However, as seen with Reed and Talulah, the descendants of the Draco keep on terrorizing, perceived or otherwise, the claim of the Aslan.
- In current times, Victoria is in the midst of another Succession Crisis after the Aslan ruling family was removed from power by an anti-royalist faction. Ideally, Parliament was supposed to take over administration of the country but they were quickly undermined by power squabbles between the various nobles before being overthrown by Theresis, leaving the throne empty and the people yearning for the return of the Aslan. Complicating matters are the arrival of two potential Draco claimants to the throne, Eblana and Talulah.
The Uriah Gambit: This was essentially how Parliament and the dukes eliminated the Steam Knights, by deliberately sending them into an ambush set up by the Sarkaz, all because they were one of the last remaning institutions loyal to the crown.

Unnamed Cautus

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An acquaintance of Iris.

Count Vincent

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The ruling Count of Toron County in Victoria.

Obfuscating Stupidity: On the outside, Vincent appears to be a harmless nobleman who is only interested in throwing parties for his subjects. However, in reality, he is secretly working behind the scenes to protect Toron County from the political intrigue plaguing Londinium and the rest of of Victoria.

Louis Kelly

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A captain in County Hillock's local garrison.

The Quisling: Being a Taran in the Victorian Army, Louis is usually seen as a traitor to the Taran people despite him wanting to help them through his position.
Uncertain Doom: The last we hear of Louis is that he's been rounded up by Hamilton's men as they begin purging anybody of Taran descent from their ranks.

Colonel Hamilton

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_avg_npc_227_1_1.png

Artist: 我妻洛酱

The commander of the Victorian garrison in County Hillock.

And Then What?: Hamilton clearly had no plans for what to do after bombarding County Hillock with Originium shells. He simply assumed the bombardment wiped out the enemy and declared victory, completely unaware of Dublinn advancing on him.
Coat Cape: He wears a military uniform coat like this.
Fantastic Racism: He despises the Taran people whom he considers traitors to Victoria.
General Failure: He proves to be a completely incompetent commander as he's easily outmaneuvered by Dublinn at every turn, and even with his suprise artillery bombardment, just assumes it killed all of the enemy and doesn't even bother verifying the damage. A move which comes back to bite him later when Dublinn stages a surprise attack and overwhelms his base.
General Ripper: He's absolutely convinced that the Taran population of County Hillock plots to rebel against him, and he's willing to resort to any means to put them in line.
Glory Hound: For all he cares, accepting aid from outside means they would steal the credit of stamping out Tarans' rebellion.
Green-Eyed Monster: Based on his interactions with Horn, his insistent Obstructive Bureaucrat actions are implied to be motivated by jealousy that House Skamandros has more than what he could hope to achieve simply by the virtue of their lineage.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: He ends up hindering Horn and Bagpipe's investigation at every turn due to his rampant paranoia of Tarans.
Redshirt Army: Hamilton's men prove to be this. While they can easily beat down unarmed civilians, they quickly fold when they face an enemy with even a modicum of organization and discipline in the form of Dublinn.
Uncertain Doom: The last we see of Hamilton is him charging at Dublinn forces as they breach his headquarters.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Horn points out that thanks to him provoking Dublinn and the Tarans to rebel and shelling them with illegal Originium dirty bombs, he's essentially opened Pandora's Box as now there's been enough chaos sown in Victoria that the various factions vying for control of the throne can use it as a pretext to advance their own plans.

Craig

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A young Infected boy who lives in County Hillock.

Evil Is Not a Toy: The boy is radicalized by the rose-tinted grassroot propaganda that Dublinn is out to free Tarans from Victoria's oppression, and it pushes him to throw a bomb into a banquet that Hamilton is apprehending in an attempt to kill him. This provokes Hamilton to bombard the city, which in turn pushes Dublinn to reveal themselves. Dublinn, who scorn the Infected no less than the Victorians, would have struck Craig down if Saileach didn't protect him.
My God, What Have I Done?: Seeing his neighbor boasts that he sold his fellow Taran for a chance to be another oppressor and the one who saves him is the Victorian woman he stoned, jolts Craig awake that the conflict isn't as black-and-white as he thought.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The bomb he throws not only setting off the chain of disaster that destroy County Hillock, but also lighting the fuse of global war between Victoria and Kazdel.

Saoirse Kelly

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Louis Kelly's sister and worker at local newspaper in County Hillock.

Hesitant Sacrifice: Despite her resolve that what she does is ultimately right and in the case where she's wrong, believes that the Tarans will find their freedom regardless, her last words are ultimately lamenting that she's going to leave her family behind.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: She tips off Saileach about a secret Taran meeting in hopes she could defuse any potential trouble, only to inadvertently cause a Gambit Pileup as Bagpipe's unit, Hamilton's forces, and Dublinn run into each other. She's then branded a traitor by Dublinn for leaking information about the meeting and executed by Reed.
"Not So Different" Remark: As she's about to be executed by Dublinn, she points out that Dublinn are really no different from the Victorians in how little they actually care about the Tarans other than how they can be exploited.

Seamus Williams

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A writer and poet who has a keen interest in ancient Taran folklore.

Death of the Author: An In-Universe example. Seamus simply writes about Taran folklore because he's interested in the subject. However, Taran nationalists have latched on to his works believing he's some sort of revolutionary figure for reviving their culture, while anti-Taran Victorians see his works as subversive propaganda and historical revisionism.
The Bus Came Back: He makes a return in "What the Firelight Casts" in a series of flashbacks where he debates the Earl of Warwick over the best way to restore Taran culture. This also explains where Reed came to know of him.
You Cannot Kill An Idea: Even as Seamus is dead by the end of chapter 9, Reed still reading his works in its epilogue is meant to indicate that his writings will persist and continue to be interpreted by countless readers.
We Hardly Knew Ye: He's killed by a bomb very shortly after he's introduced.

Lady Golding

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Artist: Chuzenji

A schoolteacher of Gaulish descent taking care of orphans in Londinium.

Afraid of Blood: She apparently gets sick at the sight of blood, which doesn't help when she witnesses some of the Sanguinarch's handiwork.
Driven to Suicide: Both out of a sense of guilt and in an effort to prevent the rest of her knowledge falling into enemy hands, Golding commits suicide in front of the Damazti.
It's All My Fault: She's absolutely horrified when she finds out she had been inadvertently feeding information about Eartha's movements to the Military Commission through the Damazti, and blames herself for the dire situation Eartha is in.
La Résistance: She is one of Heidi's informants, which is why the Military Commission sends the Damazti to spy on her.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Both against Eartha and the Military Commission. She unknowingly fed information to the Damazti allowing the Military Commission to significantly curb Eartha's movements. However, her suicide is also one of the key events that causes the Damazti to question their own mortality, leading to their own subsequent suicide and depriving the Military Commission of one of its most powerful assets.

Molly

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Golding's assistant.

Uncertain Doom: The last we see of her is being knocked unconscious and taken away by Lettou so she can be replaced by the Damazti.
- In Chapter 12, after they reveal their true identity to Golding, it is implied by the Damazti Cluster that Molly was simply released and has returned to the Saint-Marsol school after the mass attack on Eartha branches in Londinium.

Catherine

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A factory owner and Feist's grandmother.

It's All My Fault: She blames herself for allowing Feist's father Harvey go out to protest the nobles overthrowing the king, which resulted in his death.
Never Mess with Granny: Despite her old age, she's still perfectly capable of taking out Sarkaz mercenaries in a fight.
My Country, Right or Wrong: She is dedicated to making sure her factory stays open and stays operating, regardless of who happens to be in charge of Victoria, much to Feist's frustration since that means manufacturing weapons for the Kazdel occupiers.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She finally decides to throw in with Eartha and rebel against the Sarkaz after her factory workers rally together to save her from execution.
Tough Love: She's very strict with Feist because she doesn't want to be seen as giving him preferential treatment, not to mention she doesn't want him to meet the same fate as his father.

Lt. Colonel Lettou

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_649_111.png

Artist: 我妻洛酱

A high ranking commander of Gaulish descent who served the Londinium Defense Forces before defecting to Kazdel.

Better to Die than Be Killed: Knowing that the Sanguinarch will eventually decide to kill him like the rest of his men, Lettou slashes his own throat in front of the Vampire, boasting his own polluted blood has sullied the Sanguinarch.
Break Them by Talking: When Golding comes to confront him, her defiant attitude frustrates him so much that he reveals her attempts to help the resistance have done more harm than good, because she unknowingly led the Sarkaz army directly to the Self Salvation Corps safehouses, causing them to be nearly wiped out. It works better than intended on poor Golding.
Despair Event Horizon: By the time he meets Clovisia, he's too beaten down to even consider joining forces with her as he feels a coward like him won't make much of a difference anyways.
Dirty Coward: This is what his enemies think of him for siding with the Sarkaz, and this is how he views himself as well, since he collaborated with the Sarkaz for his own self preservation, using the restoration of Gaul as a weak excuse.
Driven to Suicide: In Chapter 13, he's finally had enough of doing the Military Commission's bidding and ultimately slits his throat in front of the Sanguinarch as his first and final act of defiance.
Dying Declaration of Hate: He uses his last moments to curse out the Sanguinarch, proudly declaring his own dirty blood has sullied the Prince's "purity".
Even Evil Has Standards: While he apparently has no love for Victoria, even he is horrified at the atrocities the Sarkaz, and the Sanguinarch in particular, commit against Victorians.
Manipulative Bastard: What he really wants is to take advantage of Victoria's internal conflicts to liberate the Gaulish cities under Victorian occupation. However, he tells his troops that he sided with Kazdel in order to ensure their safety so that he can secure their loyalty.
Mercy Kill: He is forced to do this to his former commanding officer in the Gaulish army, who has been languishing in a Londinium sanatorum due his mental deterioriation. Lettou believes it's a better fate for him compared to what the Sarkaz will do when they find him.
My God, What Have I Done?: While he already felt guilt over leaving his men to die at the hands of the Sarkaz, finding out Golding, a woman he respected despite their opposing ideals, killed herself because of him ends up driving him deeper into despair as he grapples with the reality that he's as guilty of all the atrocites that took place in Londinium as the Sarkaz are.
Pet the Dog: He beqeaths all of his possessions to one of soldiers and allows him to hide out in his house shortly before he decides to commit suicide in front of the Sanguinarch.
The Quisling: He is one of the many Victorian officers who willingly sided with Kazdel and helps enforce their occupation of Londinium. This is implied to be partly because his true loyalties lie not with Victoria, but with Gaul.

"The Last Steam Knight"

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Real name: Charles Lynch

The last surviving member of Victoria's Steam Knights, who has been left to rot in the Mausoleum of Kings following their disappearance from Victoria. Serves as the Final Boss of Chapter 11.

Big Damn Heroes: He ends up inadvertently helping Horn and Misery's group escape Sarkaz ambushers in Chapter 12.
Chekhov's Gunman: He's brought up very early on in Allerdale's flashback as a newly knighted soldier for the Order of Steam Knights and is mentioned every once in a while as an example of what Victoria once was before he finally shows up in the Mausoleum.
Death from Above: Every time he hits a certain threshold of HP, he'll take to the skies before raining down missiles on the highest HP units on the map.
Determinator: After surviving the ambush that killed the other Steam Knights, Charles managed to stay alive in the Mausoleum of Kings protecting the Sighs of Kings for four years.
Giant Mecha: His suit of Steam Knight armor serves as this.
Hazy-Feel Turn: As of Chapter 12 he has escaped the Mausoleum and is fighting the Sarkaz invaders in Victoria, with Chapter 13 additionally revealing that he did not kill Allerdale, though where his allegiance currently stands has yet to be revealed.
Hopeless Boss Fight: What canonically went down in the Mausoleum as the combined forces of Siege, Dagda, and Totter could barely dent him in 11-19 and him entering the box doesn't affect the final score. This reflects the fact the aforementioned three were the only ones there who even had any hope of fighting him in the first place and Allerdale ultimately sacrifices herself to stop him. The player gets an actual chance to defeat him in the non-canon 11-20 and H-11 levels.
Laser Blade: His main weapon.
Last of His Kind: He was the very last person promoted to become a Steam Knight, and is also the Sole Survivor of the order.
Madness Mantra: He can only say "Victoria" repeatedly as he confronts Siege and the others.
Optional Boss: You do have to encounter him once, but it's more or less a fancy cutscene showing you just how unstoppable he is. 11-20, the map you fight him on for real, doesn't need to be finished to complete Chapter 11, since the heroes don't canonically defeat him.
Pile Bunker: Wields one on his right arm that he uses for his Furious Defense attack, charging up and striking the target for three hits of severe damage.
Sanity Slippage: Being betrayed and left for dead by the glorious country he dedicated his life for, and having to survive being sealed underground for four years, Charles lost his sense of self and can no longer distinguish himself from the Steam Knights as a whole. In order to cope with the betrayal and his subsequent crisis of what Victoria really means, he comes to the conclusion that the Sighs of Kings is the only thing that truly, definitively represents Victoria, and vows to defend it from any intruders, even the rightful heir to the throne. By Chapter 13, however, he seems to have regained some of his sense of identity, with the dialogue interface directly referring to him as Charles Lynch instead of merely the Steam Knight.

Gawain

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A lion that appears to serve as a guardian spirit and caretaker for Siege.

Invisible to Normals: Gawain appears to be invisible to most people, as only Siege and Allerdale have been able to actually see him.
The Ghost: He has played a very large role in Siege's life but the only time he's actually seen is in flashbacks and Siege's E2 art. Siege is almost certain Gawain is still watching over her but she hasn't seen him in years.
Physical God: It's highly implied Gawain is a highly intelligent, immortal animal in the same vein as Emperor.
Seers: He can apparently see or predict the future, as he tells a young Allerdale she will eventually reunite with Siege in the future.
Talking Animal: Similar to Emperor being a penguin, Gawain is an actual lion and doesn't exhibit any humanoid traits.

Fionn

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A Taran refugee who happens to encounter Reed in "What the Firelight Casts".

Afraid of Blood: Due to accidentally murdering a Victorian soldier, Fionn cannot stand the sight of blood.
Cowardly Lion: His fellow refugees chide him for being the first to run at any sign of conflict, but he eventually finds the courage to help Reed when she's in danger.
Hope Spot: At the end of "What the Firelight Casts", he decides to settle down at a nearby town and builds his own house there. It's then subsquently run over by a passing land battleship.
I Choose to Stay: He decides to stay behind in one of the towns Reed's group passes.
It's All My Fault: He blames himself for the Victorian army chasing his group because he accidentally murdered a Victorian soldier who was beating up a young Taran girl.

Selmon

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A Taran refugee posing as a Dublinn soldier who crosses paths with Reed in "What the Firelight Casts".

The Big Guy: She's the one refugee in the group with the greatest amount of fighting ability, and becomes the de facto leader.
Refusal of the Call: She originally set out with her brother to join Dublinn, but had second thoughts and fled, instead.
Searching for the Lost Relative: She wants to join Dublinn in order to find her brother again, who is a Dublinn soldier. Unfortunately, she only finds his reanimated corpse.
Surprisingly Sudden Death: She ends up getting killed in a chaotic skirmish between Victorian and Dublinn troops while trying to protect Moran.

Moran

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A blind Taran Infected who is one of Fionn's acquaintances.

Dude Magnet: She reminisces with Fionn about having several suitors before her infection, although outside of Fionn himself, she believes they've all forgotten her.
Handicapped Badass: She is actually incredibly strong despite her blindness, and isn't afraid to take the fight to both Victorian and Dublinn soldiers.
Ill Girl: She lost her vision during a famine and is only able to make out light, which may or may not have to do with her infection similar to Eyjafjalla.
Undying Loyalty: To Reed to the point where she becomes one of her most loyal followers, choosing to continue following her alongside a few other Tarans whereas others, including Fionn, decided to stay behind and settle down.

The Earl of Warwick

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Artist: 我妻洛酱

A Victorian noble of Taran heritage and a supporter of a restoration of Tara. He accepted Eblana and Loughshinny into his household after the assassination of their parents.

Ambiguous Situation: It's left unclear whether he helped Loughshinny and Eblana out of genuine patriotism for Tara, or was simply intending to use them as puppet rulers for the independent Taran state he envisioned.
Face Death with Dignity: He held no ill will towards Eblana for killing him, believing that she had a better chance of carrying on his will to create a free Taran nation.
Posthumous Character: The Earl only appears in flashback sequences of "What the Firelight Casts". He has been murdered by Eblana long before the events of the Victorian Arc.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He is killed by Eblana once she learned everything she needed from him, as well as considering his plans to rebel against Victoria to not being ambitious enough.

Colbert

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A Sarkaz janitor who ended up inheriting Norport Borough's famous Sunset Street Hotel.

Category Traitor: The Kazdel Sarkaz consider Colbert to be this since he identifies himself as a Victorian citizen.
The Mole: It turns out he was one of the Damazti's extensions in disguise all along.
You Are in Command Now: He ends up inheriting the Sunset Street Hotel after the Sarkaz occupation, implied to be because the original owners fled or were chased out.

Freda West

The mayor of Brentwood.

Heel Realization: After discovering that the Sarkaz intend to the sacrifice the population of Brentwood for a Vampire blood ritual, Freda decides to blow open a hole in the town's wall to allow the Self Salvation Corps to enter.
Heroic Sacrifice: She uses a cannon to blow open a breach in the town wall, allowing the Self Salvation Corps to enter. However, she is subsequently killed by Sarkaz soldiers in response.
The Quisling: After her father is executed, she capitulates to the Sarkaz occupiers in an effort to protect the town.
You Are in Command Now: She ends up becoming the mayor of Brentwood after the previous mayor, her own father, is executed.

Vouivre Alliance

Affiliated Characters: Liskarm, Vanilla

Civil War: Much of the country is caught up in vicious fighting between various mercenary groups.
Death World: The natural conditions of the country are described to be very extreme and difficult to survive against.
The Ghost: The country is only mentioned by Liskarm and Vanilla in Liskarm's operator records. It currently does not have its own logo nor is it labeled on the Terra world map.
Hidden Elf Village: The country is so isolated that very few people even know it exists, much less the conditions inside.
Mythical Motifs: It is the homeland of its namesake race, the Vouivre, who are based on wyverns.
Proud Warrior Race: Vouivre are known to for their extreme strength, and most of the world only knows them for being part of various mercenary bands.
Ruritania: Is commonly described by both Liskarm and Vanilla as a primitive backwater region. Most of the country consists of sparsely populated wilderness where isolated tribes with pre-industrial levels of technology scrape out a living, while the more populated urban areas are in a constant state of civil war.

Great Yan

Affiliated Characters: Chongyue, Dusk, Leizi, Ling, Mr. Nothing, Mulberry, Nian, Nine-Colored Deer, Purestream, Qiubai

One of the three major superpowers of Terra, and the patron country of Great Lungmen.

All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: It seems various forms of kung fu are widely practiced in Yan, as described in the bios of Waai Fu and FEater. Kung fu is apparently very Serious Business there, as it is typically depicted in media featuring real-life China, according to Waai Fu, whose family runs a prominent martial arts school.
Death of the Old Gods: The event Who is Real reveals that Yan used to be inhabited by countless gods in ancient times. However, the Yan emperor of that time, the Great Lung, led a campaign against the gods, with all of them either exterminated or forced to flee Yan. This was only possible thanks to one of the gods betraying its own kind and helping the Great Lung by separating itself into Nian and her siblings.
Early-Bird Cameo: The official logo of the Sui region of Yan first appears as the icon of Nian's third skill Iron Defense (albeit cropped), approximately a year before it was officially unveiled with the release of the Who is Real event.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: To mainland China.
- Melantha's sword appears to be based on the Chinese dao, as her weapon is only used in Yan and parts of Far East.
- The name of various places in Yan suggests Chinese is the predominant language in the zone, and kung fu-based martial arts are popular among its people.^note
- In addition, Yan acts as the patron nation backing Lungmen's independence, and as a result has a significant amount of leverage over Lungmen's affairs as seen from the Inspectors. This is similar to China's relationship with Hong Kong, where the latter on paper is an independent city-state but in reality is effectively ruled by the former.
- Finally, Yan practices open racial culture, alluding to China's vast ethnic groups.
Forever War: Like Ursus, Yan is involved in a constant war with "demons" in the far north. Ling earned great favor with the Yan government for helping lead the war effort against this threat for over a century, and in "Invitation to Wine" the Great Tutor asks for Nian to construct an army of terracotta warriors to help hold the line.
Gambit Pileup: The entire plot of "Invitation to Wine" involves various parts of the Yan government jockeying to obtain the enchanted goblet that belongs to Ling. The Sui Regulator wants to use the goblet as bait to lure Ling into the open so they can kill her, and employ the Escort Association's assistance. The Ministry of Rites wants to keep goblet out of the Regulator's hands and use their agents Ning and Blacknight to try and steal it first. Liang, as Shangshu's magistrate plays both the Regulator and Ministry of Rites against each other to keep the goblet out of both their hands. Meanwhile, Du wants to torpedo the deal between the Escort Association and Regulator just so she can humiliate her father, while Shang wants to take the goblet to force Zheng to accept a duel with him. And finally, Rhodes Island gets dragged into the whole affair because they're seeking to recruit Ling into their ranks.
Interservice Rivalry: The Sui Regulator and Ministry of Rites regularly do not see eye to eye. The Sui Regulator does not consider Sui's aspects real people, and simply sees them as potential threats that can merge back into Sui and wreak havoc on Yan. Because of this, the Regulator believes all of the Sui aspects should be killed, while the Ministry of Rites believes they should be protected as their skills are highly beneficial to Yan and most of them are either benevolent towards humanity or ambivalent enough to stay out of mortal affairs.
Ontological Mystery: The event Who is Real revolves around the mystery of P'o-shan Village, a town on the southeast border of Yan. The "village" in the event is revealed to be a Platonic Cave created by Dusk.
- As for the real P'o-shan, it had suffered a Catastrophe which didn't completely destroy it but poisoned its springs with active Originium. Because it had no Messengers, none of the villagers knew the location of the nearest city and all the adults that left to seek aid never returned. They decided to abandon the town, entrusted themselves to fate, and chose a direction. Many starved to death, and Dawn, who was a child back then, had been abandoned by the surviving group (which included her own parents). She was rescued by Dusk and ultimately became the lone survivor, because the group that abandoned her was never heard from again.
Secret War: Similar to Ursus and Sami, it's heavily implied that Yan has been quietly defending their northern borders against demons for over a millenia. Much of their success can be attributed to assistance provided by the Sui aspects such as Ling providing battle strategies and Nian building the border defenses.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Seems to be their national hat to be bitterly discriminative of those infected with Oripathy. During the events of Chapter 6, a group of Yan Inspectors warned Blaze she should leave Lungmen, as she doesn't belong there owing to her Oripathy, and while they respect Amiya as the leader of Rhodes Island, they consider it a pity she's also an infected. This also prompted Wei Yenwu to order a purge on the Infected populace in the Slums as the Yan Inspectors felt he was being "too soft" on them.

Mysterious Inspector

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Taihe

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^{Click to see him unmasked}

Voiced by: Hiroaki Tajiri (Japanese, anime), Dong Shengzhang (Mandarin Chinese, anime)

The Deputy Monitor Censor of Yan's Department of Discipline and Supervision.

The Big Guy: Towers over most other characters he interacts with, speaks in a terse manner, and serves as the muscle between him and Zuo Le during their mission together.
Dishing Out Dirt: In "Invitation to Wine", Taihe uses Arts to manipulate earth and sand to attack and restrain his enemies, which he uses in conjunction with his martial techniques.
The Faceless: During the events of the Reunion arc, his face is completely obscured by a cape and a mask, and his only distinguishing feature is his long cyan hair. His face only gets revealed during the events of "Invitation to Wine".
Kung-Fu Wizard: His skill with martial arts as well as Originium arts are noted to both be exceptional, which makes it all the more shocking when Ya defeats him effortlessly.
Uncertain Doom: After being defeated by Ya, he's on the brink of death and is barely saved with medical attention, but it's implied that even if he survives, he will be crippled for life.
The Worf Effect: In "Where Vernal Winds Never Blow", he takes on multiple Shanhaizhong members as well as their ringleader and has the advantage, but is quickly cut down by Ya from behind, then mortally wounded when he attempts a final attack using his arts, showing just how powerful the Feranmut is.
Worthy Opponent: Befitting the Chinese New Year events leaning into kung fu movies and their tropes, Taihe is initially dismissive of Mr. Nothing but later acknowledges him as an admirable combatant for his mastery of his school of kung fu. Taihe also expresses similar respect to Shen Lou when he reveals his true abilities to intervene in their fighting.

Dawn

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Artist: 幻象黑兔

The shopkeeper of P'o-shan Village.

The Lost Lenore: The original Dawn was mourned by Dusk after she passed away from old age and illness.
Parental Abandonment: The nomadic survivors of the real P'o-shan Village, which included her parents, abandoned her while she was foraging food for them.
Rescue Romance: She was on the verge of starving to death when Dusk rescued her. The "romance" part is implied by the connection between the first scene of WR-ST-3 and Dusk Beauty Flying to the Moon (a Yan fairy tale told by Suzuran in Rewinding Breeze), which begins with the protagonist Dusk Beauty living a happy life with her husband until he went missing one day; Dusk is also implied to have created and propagated that tale.
Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The self-aware construct of the invented P'o-shan Village does not have her memories reset when all the village's outsiders fall asleep. It's implied that Dusk intentionally made her this way.
Tulpa: The "Dawn" that Lava's group meets is a self-aware construct of the invented P'o-shan Village.
Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about her without spoiling the Who is Real event.

Storyteller

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Artist: 幻象黑兔

Calling himself the Umbrella-Boiling Hermit, he tells stories to the villagers of P'o-shan Village.

God in Human Form: He's actually Dusk in disguise.
No Name Given: Downplayed. The game continues to call him "Storyteller" even after he mentions his name.

Ah Jan

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_avg_npc_142_2.png

Artist: TrNyteal

A young girl residing in P'o-shan Village.

Disappeared Dad: According to Mr. Nothing in WR-ST-2, her father left home in search of work long ago and never came back.
Tulpa: As a construct of the invented P'o-shan Village, her memories reset when all the village's outsiders fall asleep.

Zheng Qingyue

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_300_111.png

Artist: Jacknife

A successful innkeeper who also controls Yan's Escort Association and is deeply connected to Yan's royal court.

Family Business: He owns a chain of inns and restaurants as well as a logistics company that he plans to pass on to Du.
Master Swordsman: He actually used to be a sword master in his youth.
Parental Substitute: He is actually Du's adoptive father, as her real father was killed by bandits.
We Are Everywhere: Thanks to his network of inns and restaurants, Zheng's organization has pretty much infiltrated every square inch of Shangshu.

Du Yaoye

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_296_121.png

Artist: Jacknife

Zheng's daughter who is set to inherit the Escort Association from him.

Rebellious Princess: She's the heir to Zheng's business empire, but she doesn't particularly care for it, as it is built on what she sees are outdated traditions and rules. She desires to break away and form her own organization.
Xanatos Gambit: She actually wants Zheng's mission to recover the goblet to fail, as that will delay his plans to have her inherit his business.

Liang Xun

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_295_111.png

Artist: Liduke

The magistrate of Shangshu and Lee's childhood friend.

Benevolent Boss: Ever since becoming magistrate, Liang has pursued his ideal of making Yan a place where all its citizens can live happily, and introduced many reforms and social programs in Shangshu to carry this out.
The Chessmaster: He plays both the Sui Regulator and Ministry of Rites against each other by having Lee deliver the black goblet, thus throwing a Spanner in the Works in the Regulator's plot to obtain the goblet. He's even more of one in "Where Vernal Winds Never Blow" where the plan to have Huai Tianpei protect Chongyue's sword was set up by him all along, and only Lee was able to figure it out.
Childhood Friend: He knew Lee back when they were schoolmates.
Promotion, Not Punishment: At the end of the entire goblet affair, in recognition for him playing the Sui Regulator and Ministry of Rites against each other and preventing the Regulator from going after Ling, the Grand Tutor promotes Liang to work directly under him at the royal court.
True Companions: He still maintains his friendship with Lee even though they haven't seen each other for over 10 years. "Where Vernal Winds Never Blows" reveals they are sworn brothers, along with Huai Tianpei.

Ning Ciqiu

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_298_111.png

Artist: KuroBlood

One of Liang's coworkers and a member of the Ministry of Rites.

Reasonable Authority Figure: She believes that the aspects of Sui do not need to be destroyed, and most of them aren't bad people and are still useful to Yan.
Ship Tease: Liang constantly denies he has romantic feelings for Ning despite constantly inviting her to his estate.

Shang Zhong

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_302_111.png

A simple porter in Shangshu who used to work under Zheng.

Almighty Janitor: As a pole carrier, Shang knows practically every single mountain route and shortcut around Shangshu and can navigate them quickly. He also happens to be a skilled martial artist.
Heel Realization: He realizes that his quest to kill Zheng is ultimately pointless since Zheng is easily willing to let Shang kill him at this point, and decides to leave Shangshu instead.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He has a grudge against Zheng due to the belief that Zheng let his son die in a caravan ambush, as Zheng's policy is to prioritize the cargo over people; however, what truly enraged Shang was that despite the loss of his son, Zheng ended up losing the cargo anyways in the long run. When he finds out about the goblet, he steals it in order to force Zheng to duel him.
Spanner in the Works: Knowing absolutely nothing about the various plots in Shangshu, his grab for the goblet and plans to use it as bait for Zheng takes everyone who wants it by surprise.

Shen Lou

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_294_111.png

Artist: Jacknife

An elderly boatmaster who is an old acquaintance of Liang.

Almighty Janitor: He works as a simple boatman, and as a result he knows pretty much all of the waterways and mountain trails of Shangshu. However, he turns out to be a warrior of renown.
Blatant Lies: He claims to Mr. Nothing early on that he has little skill in combat against people, merely a few tricks to fend off wild beasts.
Old Soldier: He spent over a decade as a soldier in Yan's army.
Retired Badass: He used to be a soldier and martial arts master, and still retains many of his skills even in his advanced age.

The Grand Tutor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_301_111.png

Artist: Liduke

One of Yan's political leaders and an very high ranking official.

Old Master: In his younger days, not only was he a swordsman who fought alongside Chongyue on the battlefield, but also the mentor of Wei Yenwu and his brother, who are Yan royalty.
Reasonable Authority Figure: He allows Nian to do as she pleases, in return for her providing her skills to strengthen Yan's northern defenses.
Smart People Play Chess: He's in a constant contest with the Second Brother to keep him contained.

Zuo Xuanliao

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_788_111.png

Artist: 九日九号

Yan's Lord Exorcist and the general in charge of the defense of Yumen. He is also Zuo Le's father.

Foil: Lee points out that Zuo Xuanliao is Yumen's counterpart to Wei Yenwu. He is the leader of a mobile city whose safety he prioritizes above all else, but has a bad habit of shouldering the burden on his own. In this case, instead of cooperating with Meng like Wei and Lin Gray do, he shut him out due to the fallout of an incident 20 years ago as well as having to keep Sui's existence secret, leaving a schism between Yumen's army and its kung fu masters.
Scylla and Charybdis: In "Where Vernal Winds Will Never Blow", Yumen is on its path towards the capital, but, using false catastrophe messenger data, it steers its course straight into a catastrophe. When the correct catastrophe messenger data are delivered, it is too late to change the course of the city. As the commander of Yumen, it is up to him to decide the next move, and he is presented with only two unideal options - splitting Yumen into small, more mobile parts, thus evading the catastrophe, but subsequently spending half a year reconnecting the city before it will be able to resume the journey to the capital, or driving through the catastrophe, thus severely damaging the city, but having it able to move again in much shorter time. He chooses the latter.

Meng Tieyi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_789_111.png

Artist: 九日九号

A blacksmith in Yumen who is one of Zheng's acquaintances.

The Bad Guy Wins: Ultimately, even though he doesn't live to see it, his plan works. With Yumen forced to take the brunt of a Catastrophe, the army and the kung fu masters team up to protect the city's Catastrophe defenses as well as defeat Shanhaizhong, restoring both sides' trust in each other.
Cool Old Guy: He comes off as this, acting as an uncle to Du Yaoye and running a forge that doubles as a tavern that serves as a popular meetup spot for kung fu masters.
False Flag Operation: It turns out that he is responsible for Shanhaizhong's second infiltratrion into Yumen, all to create a situation that will force the army and civilian kung fu masters to cooperate.
Foil: Lee points out that Meng is essentially Yumen's counterpart to Lin Gray. A civilian who doesn't hold any official position of power, but wields a great amount of influence among the populace. However, Meng is a window into what might happen if Wei Yenwu and Lin Gray had a falling out, since Meng is driven to rather serious extremes to protect Yumen in his own way after Zuo Xuanliao shuts him out.
Greater-Scope Villain: Ultimately, it turns out that he was responsible for Shanhaizhong's second infiltration of Yumen, as well altering Yumen's Catastrophe data to ensure the city would get stuck in the midst of a Catastrophe to force the military and civilian populace to work together to survive.
Heroic Sacrifice: During a battle, Meng throws his hammer to protect Du Yaoye from an ambusher, knowing that he'll be struck down by Ya in doing so.
Noble Demon: While his plan does involve tricking Yumen's navigators into driving the city straight into a Catastrophe, Meng goes to great lengths to ensure that no innocents are directly harmed by his actions. He's also fully confident that Yumen is tough enough to survive getting hit by the Catastrophe if everyone in the city works together, which is why he went through with the plan in the first place. When confronted about his plan, he takes full responsibility in order to protect his collaborators from prosecution.
Pet the Dog: Despite the risks in doing so, he helps Jieyun get out of Yumen as a final favor to his old friend, Jieyun's departed shifu.
Redemption Equals Death: Once his plan is exposed by Lin, Meng admits his crimes and reveals he intended to blow himself up with Ya in an effort to atone for his crimes. While that doesn't end up working out, his final act is to save Du Yaoye's life at the cost of his own.
We Used to Be Friends: He once fought side by side with Zuo Xuanliao and Chongyue, but has now grown estranged from them as time has passed.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: He remembers the times where the army and the kung fu masters used to work together, and seeks to restore that sense of camaraderie and cooperation, even if he has to strand Yumen in the path of a Catastrophe to achieve it.

Huai Tianpei / Waai Tinpui

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_785_111.png

Artist: KuroBlood

A martial arts master and Waai Fu's father who left her to find worthy opponents.

Alternate Character Reading: Waai Tinpui is the Cantonese rendition of his name, which he originally went by in Lungmen, he then switched the Mandarin rendition as Huai Tianpei after leaving Lungmen.
Badass Normal: Huai does not possess any special Arts powers or any special items or equipment. All of his fighting prowess comes purely from his mastery of kung fu, to the point where no living human can match him and he can actually hold his own against Feranmuts. Chongyue even declares him to be the strongest human in existence.
Curb Stomp Cushion: He ultimately loses his long-anticipated duel with Chongyue, but managed to land a blow against him. Everyone who witnesses the duel notes how exceptional this is as it's more than any other mortal has ever accomplished.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He actually manages to force Ya on the defensive and wound her all by himself, whereas before it took entire teams of Yan's most powerful fighters to achieve the same. He is also able to land at least one clean hit on Chongyue, of which no other living being had been able to achieve.
Disappeared Dad: He left Waai Fu ten years ago to search for worthy opponents, admitting that he's not the best person to take care of her.
Graceful Loser: He ultimately loses his match against Chongyue, but this only makes him more determined, and he promises to challenges Chongyue again after another 40 years of training.
Heroes Fight Barehanded: Huai never uses any weapons because he has absolute trust his fists can do better.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a brusque man who values martial arts above everything, even his own daughter, and has little respect for authority, but also has a strong sense of honor and steps into protect innocents when push comes to shove.
Secret Test of Character: His match against Chongyue ends up being one of these, as Chongyue is looking for somebody who can protect the sword holding his Sui essence while at the same time resisting the temptation to abuse its power. Huai ends up being the perfect candidate due to him not only being the most powerful martial arts master alive, but also his distaste for using weapons in lieu of his fists means he'll never use the sword in anger.
Worthy Opponent: His entire life's journey has been his search for one, which he finds in Chongyue. It's noteworthy that he does not regard Ya as this despite them being a Physical God, noting that they rely purely on their inherent power as a Feranmut rather than real martial skill.

Fang Xiaoshi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_820_111.png

A teenage boy that Qiubai picks up on her travels while hunting down Shanhaizhong members.

All the Other Reindeer: He's constantly felt like he was alienated from his fellow villagers, leading to his reckless behavior in the name of helping his father because he believes no one else cares for them like he does.
Driven to Suicide: Upon hearing his father state that he genuinely considers it would be best if the world thought his son was dead, no matter what, Xiaoshi follows through on his belief that he would rather die than be consigned to a stagnant life in Moushan with villagers he genuinely despises.
Missing the Good Stuff: He complains that the Shanhaizhong wouldn't let him come to Yumen on their massive raid with the ringleader. Qiubai says to consider himself lucky for that.
No Need for Names: His final interaction with Qiubai shows his nameplate has been removed to symbolize that to the people he's known for his entire life and the government, he is now legally dead and the person known as Fang Xiaoshi is merely another nameless wanderer like Qiubai.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He initially left Moushan Village because he couldn't stand the way the villagers were treating him and his father. After his return, he decides to leave a second time as he doesn't want to be a part of the village's plot to fake his death so they can scam the government out of death compensation money.
Small Name, Big Ego: He tries to puff himself up to Qiubai as a fiendish bandit leader who's feared throughout the lands and could sic fearsome flunkies on her. She takes one look at him, considers his age, and accurately pins him as a kid in over his head with the Shanhaizhong.
Walking the Earth: At the conclusion of "A Death in Chunfen", he decides to leave his village to follow Qiubai on her travels.
What Happened to the Mouse?: He leaves his village to travel alongside Qiubai, but by the time Qiubai joins Rhodes Island, he's not present and her profile makes no mention of him.

Zeruertza

Affiliated Characters: Minimalist, Pozëmka

An underground Durin city-state located underneath the Acahualla region that has been built to resemble a tropical beach resort.

Aliens Steal Cable: They prize a magazine called Stranger Things above all else from the surface for its supposedly great and informative lore on the other nations of Terra. Hilariously, Inam realizes that she could probably just bribe them with further issues and they would comply with whatever she wanted.
Awesome, but Impractical: Despite what amazing feats of engineering Durin underground cities are, many Durin do acknowledge that their biggest flaw is that if an Originium vein gets too close to an underground city, they have to completely abandon it while a mobile city can just move away on its own.
- Not that some have tried finding ways to make the underground city mobile. With "rock-crusher and borer-plane and the like across the dome, and a base plate slipped underneath the city". Needless to say, nobody has tried pulling that off.
Democracy Is Flawed: Zeruertza is run by a direct democracy among its citzens, and any and all issues must be decided by a public vote. Unfortunately, this means that there is no proper direction to lead the city, and it is extremely difficult to get problems solved if the general populace doesn't believe there's any problems in the first place, such as the giant hole in the city's ceiling.
Doomed Hometown: The city finds out almost too late that an active originium vein has shifted dangerously close to the city. While there is still enough time to evacuate, the city must ultimately be abandoned.
Face Death with Dignity: Despite being warned about the imminent demise of their city due to a Catastrophe, the Zereurtzans are surprisingly calm about it. They accept responsibility for their constant partying playing a role in delaying the installation of new Originium sensors, and calmly determine a proper evacuation plan.
Fling a Light into the Future: A common Durin custom is that when an underground city must be abandoned, the citizens completely renovate it so when future explorers rediscover the city they will find it in the best condition possible. This is ultimately what the Zereurtzans do for their own city before they evacuate it.
Hard Drinking Party People: While Durin are generally a fun loving people, the Zeruertzans take it to a whole new level as they constantly drink all day every day and are in a semi-permanent state of inebriation.
Hidden Elf Village: The city had been built under Sargon's Acahualla region without its residents even realizing it existed at all until Stitch made his way to the surface and petitioned Inam for help.
Going Cold Turkey: In Gavial's operator record, the Zereurtzans vote to temporarily ban alcohol consumption so they can focus on building a new city in Acahualla. Some citizens don't take it so well.
Learnt English from Watching Television: They taught themselves to speak Sargon and other surface-dweller languages from a bunch of magazines that ended up in their city by trading with various travellers, asking Avdotya to bring in some goods, or happenstance. This has led them to the conclusion that magazines can only be written in Sargon.
Let No Crisis Go to Waste: When an earthquake breaks open a breach in your underground dome letting in a torrent of water that partially floods the city, you would normally treat it as an existential crisis. However, the Zereurtzans saw it as an opportunity to convert their city into a giant water park and spend the next six months partying.
Older Than They Look: As typical with Durin, the citizens are all actually much older than their small appearance suggests.
Original Position Fallacy: Inverted; as noted by Pozëmka, the voters in Zeruertza usually are the ones ready and expects to face the negatives of their votes, while she counts the votes for the emergency evacuation plan; the strong voted for rapidly digging a giant hole for shelter, while the few that voted for rapid evacuation to a nearby city that might leave some behind are ready to give in their lives.
Serious Business: Zereurtzans take alcohol very seriously, with the city have largely split into two factions that advocate either mead or whiskey being the best. The only thing the two sides can agree on is that people who like berry tomato wine are weirdos.
Story And Gameplay Integration: The Zereurtzans being constantly drunk is actually implemented as a gameplay mechanic in "Ideal City" maps. Not only is their pathing erratic, but they also have 100% physical dodge in certain circumstances.
Sugar Apocalypse: It's the eponymous "Ideal City", where Durins drink and party like no tomorrow. This in spite of the fact that the endless waterfall in the center of The Great Aquapit is groundwater leaking in, thanks to an earthquake breaking a hole in the dome's ceiling, among other things. Such as their Originium detector that should've warned them of a shifting vein closing in...
Theme Naming: Almost all of them have Warrior Cats-esque last names consisting of two nouns.

Catch Lightrace

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_567_111.png

Artist: small_ryuzaki

The lead design representative of Zeruertza.

All the Other Reindeer: Played for laughs. When the other city representatives find out his favored form of alcohol is berry tomato wine, they immediately react with disgust and rethink their friendship with him.
Friendly Rivalry: He has one with Stitch, and enjoyed the time where they used to compete for design proposals.
Nice Guy: He has an extremely kind personality and takes no offense to Stitch’s vitriol towards him. Elysium even points out that he is in fact too nice, and advises him to be a little harder on Stitch to try and guide him properly.
Walking the Earth: After Zeruertza is evacuated, he decides to leave to find Finch.

Croque Diamondface

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_566_111.png

Zeruertza's business representative.

Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: While she is far more disciplined than her fellow Durins, she gets a little too excited watching tapes of the Dossoles tournament with Inam and indulges too much, ending with her agreeing to sign Avdotya into a deal with Rhodes Island without her knowledge. Avdotya is furious when she finds out and Croque hurriedly apologizes.
Aliens Steal Cable: Besides the Zeruertzian's standard "Stranger Things" mania, she absolutely eats up Inam's recording of what is most likely Dossoles Holiday, and it's partly the reason she becomes the swimming competition's announcer.
Work Hard, Play Hard: While she is the most professional and hard working of the representatives, once she's off the clock she drinks and parties just as hard as any other Zereurtzan.

Deculture Silvermint

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_569_111.png

Zeruertza's industry representative.

Robot Master: She is in charge with the construction and maintenance of the city's robot workforce.
Sleepyhead: She can often be found dozing off in a quiet corner and regularly ditches meetings so she can nap.

Edge Eartheart

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avg_npc_564_111.png

A city elder and an old friend of Stitch.

Cassandra Truth: He's concerned about the possibility of an Originium vein shifting near Zereurtza and has been trying to get someone to repair the city's Originium detectors with little luck. Turns out, his fears are completely founded as when new detectors are finally installed, they discover an active Originium vein almost too late.
- Downplayed in that the durins believes him and fully understand the risk and consequences of not fixing the Originium detectors quickly. They just chose poorly.
Cool Old Guy: He's one of the few citizens who actively tries to help out Stitch.
Not So Above It All: While he's a lot more levelheaded than most other Zereurtzans, he's not opposed to doing some partying and drinking himself.

Finch Canvas

The original designer of Zeruertza and Stitch's mentor.

Anti-Smother Love Talk: He leaves behind a letter for Minimalist explaining that he decided to leave Zeruertza in order to give Stitch an opportunity to grow and define himself rather than live in his shadow forever.
The Ghost: Finch is a famous figure in Zereurtza, but he left the city years ago and nobody knows why or where he went off to.
True Craftsman: He designed Zeruertza's highly advanced dome.
Walking the Earth: Elysium surmises that Finch left Zereurtza for the surface to find a cure for Stitch's Oripathy.

Characters / Arknights Nations N To Z

Edit Locked

Affiliated Characters: April, Asbestos, Ayerscarpe, Blacknight, Honeyberry, Leonhardt, Savage, Schwarz

Affiliated Characters with Rhodes Island as their faction: Amiya, Ansel, Kroos, Popukar

Affiliated Characters: Bibeak, Gitano, Qanipalaat, Santalla, Typhon, Valarqvin

Affiliated Characters with Rhodes Island as their faction: Firewatch

"Sami"

Oakcup

Amma

Eikthyrnir

Samivilinn

Affiliated Characters: Beeswax, Bubble, Eunectes, Flint, Manticore, Minimalist, Passenger, Scene, Sesa, Tomimi, Tuye, Vanilla

Affiliated Characters with Rhodes Island as their faction: Gavial, Heavyrain, Spot

Inam

The High Priest

"Big Ugly"

Miarow

Drudge

Picale Tulla

Lord Tulla

Essence of Evolution

Old Isin

Lord Ameer of Ibut

Lugalszargus

Affiliated Characters: Ceylon, Schwarz

Destructive Dragon Demon (D.D.D.)

Herman Doykos

Barbara Doykos

Cronin

"Pompeii"

Professor Adele Keller

Kahn

Harley

Chuck

Lut and Liv

Costa

Byrd

Pelipper Brown

Affiliated Characters: Angelina, Aosta, Broca, Chiave, Lappland, Provence, Shamare, Vermeil

Affiliated Characters with Rhodes Island as their faction: Sussurro

Signora Sicilia

Gambino

Capone

Salvadore Texas

Bernardo Bellone

Demetri Certaldo

Alberto Saluzzo

Danbrown Leopardi

Benthonexigios

Rubio

Giovanna Rossati

Wallach

Agenir

Carracci

Affiliated Characters: Absinthe, Beehunter, Gummy, Hellagur, Istina, Leto, Rosa, Zima

Former Members: Misha, Pozëmka

Affiliated Characters with Rhodes Island as their faction: Folinic

Affiliated Characters with Reunion Movement as their faction: Crownslayer, Faust, FrostNova, Mephisto, Patriot, Skullshatterer

Misha

Duke Kashchey

Tatiana

Alina

Old Man

Old Woman

The Emperor's Blades

Islam Witte

Fyodor

Lillia

Grand Duke Vanya

Affiliated Characters: Bagpipe, Bena, Breeze, Goldenglow, Grani, Haze, Indra, Iris, Jessica, May, Mint, Mousse, Nightmare, Phantom, Reed, Saileach, Shalem, Siege, Skyfire, Toddifons

Affiliated Characters with Rhodes Island as their faction: Blaze, Hibiscus, Lava, Melantha, Quercus

Former Members: Dora

Unnamed Cautus

Count Vincent

Louis Kelly

Colonel Hamilton

Craig

Saoirse Kelly

Seamus Williams

Lady Golding