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Main Characters
Hero
Hero
young and courageous slayer of demons who fights to protect humans
The brave and reliable Hero who protects the village from evil monsters. When he hears that a Maiden from the village has been captured by demons, he embarks on an adventure to rescue her.- Blood-Splattered Warrior: Gets covered in blood if he decides to kill the demons on the way to the castle. As a result, the Maiden will be horrified by the sight of him, and the other demons will refuse to let him into the castle without a fight.
- Failure Hero: In many non-golden endings, he does things like kill the Overlord when she didn't harm any people, get the Maiden killed (sometimes by his own blade), drive the Overlord and the Maiden apart, or allow the Underling to take the throne, so he often fits this trope to a T.
- Hero Protagonist: He's the main character and plays the role of The Hero in the story. He tries to be the brave individual who fights the demons and rescues the Maiden, but is so misguided that he ends up coming across as a Knight Templar.
- Hiding Behind Your Bangs: The Hero has one of their eyes completely covered by their hair. It hides his true nature: he's not all that interested in being a hero. His fate, changed by the player, is to be a tailor.
- One-Man Army: Capable of killing the entire demon army by himself.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: In-Universe. "TRIUMPHANT HERO" might seem like a good ending from the Hero's point of view, since the Hero successfully completes his quest and everything goes exactly as planned. However, he doesn't realize that the Maiden was getting along well with the Overlord and is now traumatized by the senseless death of her new friend, which the Maiden blames herself for.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Was raised to believe all demons to be evil beings that must be killed, and will carry out this trope if the "Dutiful" trait is present.
Maiden
Maiden
common victim of abduction or worse fates at the hands of demons
A beautiful young Maiden who lives in the village. She knows she is fated to be captured by the Overlord, but she doesn't really understand the point of it all. She decides to pay a visit to the demon castle just to see what happens.- Actual Pacifist: She never directly kills anybody, and reacts to danger by either running away or praying.
- Author Avatar: At the end of the game, it is revealed that this is why TRAGEDY looks just like her when unmasked.
- Break the Cutie: Pretty much every single path ends with the Maiden either dead, traumatized, or both.
- Damsel in Distress: Her role in the story. She doesn't understand why she is supposed to get captured by the Overlord, so she deliberately pays a visit to the Overlord in order to figure everything out.
- Eaten Alive: The "CONSUMED MAIDEN" ending consists of her suffering this at the jaws of the Underling.
- True Blue Femininity: A sweet and innocent girl who is associated with the color indigo.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ironically, despite being the nicest and most peaceful character, she is also more or less responsible for almost every death that occurs in the story.
Underling
Underling
servants of the overlord, widely considered to be very untrustworthy
A demonic Underling who serves the Overlord. They are tired of guarding the Overlord's castle since they haven't had to fight a hero in a long time, and try to persuade the Overlord into giving them a day off.- Ambiguous Gender: Has an androgynous appearance, and is referred to with they/them pronouns.
- Ax-Crazy: They have the option to eat the Maiden and murder a bunch of humans purely For the Evulz.
- Black-Hole Belly: Being physically smaller than the Maiden doesn't stop them from eating her whole.
- Combat Pragmatist: The Underling can take on defenseless maidens and other humans easily, but when facing an opponent as powerful as the Hero or the Overlord, they will either resort to sneak attacks from behind, or wait for their target to grow weak from battle before going in and finishing the job.
- Dirty Coward: A consistent personality trait is that the Underling will always be compelled to do something that benefits them above all else, which includes betraying their boss after she gave them the day off, and letting all their friends be slaughtered for the sake of wanting to live another day.
- Extra Eyes: At least four of them. They are usually hidden under the Underling's hair, but become visible whenever things get serious.
- Extreme Omnivore: The Underling isn't a very picky eater, considering they apparently eat the Maiden's clothes along with the Maiden herself. Also, there is a supplementary comic where the Underling disposes of a letter by eating it.
- Good Feels Good: In any path where the Underling is coerced into killing the Overlord, they feel really bad about carrying out the deed. In the "HEROIC UNDERLING" ending, however, the Underling cheers up upon realizing their actions saved the Maiden from a wretched fate, even if it wasn't intentional.
- Good Lips, Evil Jaws: The Underling has a very toothy mouth, and has the potential to become the most overtly evil character in the story.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the "VICTORIOUS UNDERLING" ending, the Underling stays in the castle and jumps on the Hero to put an end to his killing spree, but gets fatally wounded in the process.
- Pet the Dog: In the "HEROIC UNDERLING" ending, the Underling accidentally saves the Maiden by murdering the possessive Overlord. When the horrified Maiden expresses her thanks, the Underling decides to be nice to her and tells her to leave the castle for her own safety.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: They may be the smallest and scrawniest demon, but they're still a demon.
- Puppet King: While not outright stated, it is implied that the demons deliberately elect the Underling to be their new overlord just so they can keep bullying them.
- To Serve Man: If they have the "Hungry" trait active, they will eat the Maiden alive on sight.
- Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The Underling will happily murder humans without a second thought, but killing the Overlord in her sleep and abandoning their friends to die will make them feel genuinely guilty. They try to push that feeling away by assuring themself that their own life matters the most to them, and that demons are supposed to be selfish, treacherous scumbags anyway.
- Wild Card: Of all the main characters, the Underling has the most variable morality. They can murder the Maiden, or they can be nice to her. They can abandon their friends to die, or they can stay and protect them from the Hero.
Overlord
Overlord
tyrannical ruler of demons and the hero's ultimate target
The Overlord who rules the demon castle. She spends most of her days enjoying a life of luxury and really hates it when the humans send heroes to attack her castle.- Evil Overlord: Her role in the story. Even though she has an army of demons at her command, she knows it's a bad idea to pick fights with the humans and prefers to just relax in her own castle.
- Extra Eyes: She has a Third Eye on her forehead. The "CAPTURED MAIDEN" end shows her with a total of seven eyes, though it's most likely the Maiden's perception of her.
- Maou the Demon King: Of the "is actually a woman and more benevolent than she lets on" variant. She rules over the demons and defends them from invading humans, while refraining from attacking the humans unprovoked.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Despite being a demon, she has a very human-looking face, her hands have five fingers as opposed to four, and she is the only demon to lack both wings and a tail. The fact that she is based on a real person might have something to do with it.
- Paper Tiger: Zigzagged. Most of the time, she's not that much stronger than the demons that serve her, and can easily be bested by the Hero and the Underling rather quickly in many circumstances. But in situations where she's grown attached to the Maiden and her anger gets the best of her, she has a somewhat easier time killing the Hero, and can even go on to conquer the world.
- Put Them All Out of My Misery: In the "VENGEFUL OVERLORD" ending, the Overlord is so infuriated by the deaths of both her minions and the Maiden that she decides to take her anger out on all of humanity.
- Red Is Violent: She's not as gratuitously violent as some of her minions, but sometimes her anger gets the best of her. She is also associated with the color crimson.
- Screw Destiny: She is fully aware that she is supposed to be the story's "bad guy", and deliberately tries to avoid giving the humans a reason to kill her or her kind.
- She Is the King: She's a woman, but still goes by the title "overlord".
- Yandere: In any ending where her "possessive" trait comes into play, she takes such a liking to the Maiden that she would rather murder the Hero than let him take the Maiden away.
Races
Humans
Humans
peace-loving people ruled by their fear of violent demons
The Hero and Maiden's friends and neighbors. Underneath their peaceful facade lies a deep-seated hatred of demons and everything associated with them.- Burn the Witch!: If they find out that the Maiden has been fraternizing with the Overlord, they will assume she's turned evil and burn her at the stake without hesitation.
- The Paranoiac: They are defined by their fear and hatred of the demons who live nearby.
Demons
Demons
unabashedly selfish creatures who value power above all else
The Overlord's unruly minions. They don't seem very happy with the current Overlord, and believe a change in leadership might be in order.- Blood Knight: One reason they're upset with the current Overlord is that she doesn't allow them to attack any humans. They are also implied to enjoy roughhousing in their spare time.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The demons hatch a plan to kill their own Overlord, threaten the Underling into carrying out the deed, and are willing to blame the whole thing on the Underling if they get found out. In the event that the Underling is elected as the new overlord, they live in fear that the demons will one day betray them too.
- Four-Fingered Hands: While the human characters have five fingers on each hand, the demon characters have four.
- Non-Human Non-Binary: According to the art collection, the demons have a greater diversity of genders than the humans. In-game, most demons, including the Underling, go by they/them pronouns, the only known exceptions being the Overlord and her father.
- Our Demons Are Different: These ones inhabit a castle located dangerously close to the human village. They appear as humanoids with pointy ears, horns, tails, and a varying number of eyes, and they have a reputation among humans for being violent and treacherous. They fight and kill using their claws and teeth, and are somewhat implied to have at least some magical abilities.
- Pet the Dog: Apparently, one of the demons—a guard—has a habit of bringing food to the Underling whenever they're feeling a little down.
- Playing with Fire: Implied. How they manage to set the Overlord's bedroom on fire is not made clear, but the Hero believes there is some kind of magic involved.
- The Starscream: In some of the bad endings they hatch a plan to overthrow the Overlord in a few ways, like locking her in one room by coercing the Underling to do so.
- Stupid Evil: They try to assassinate the Overlord by locking her inside the castle and burning her to death, completely ignoring the fact that the castle itself would also be destroyed and they would end up without a home. The Overlord thinks this in the ending where she burns to death.
- White Hair, Black Heart: They are pale-haired backstabbing bullies. It's hard to tell if their hair is strictly white due to how the game handles color, but it is definitely lighter than their skin.
- With Friends Like These...: The demons are supposedly the Underling's friends, but they are nevertheless ready to murder the Underling for not going along with their assassination plan.
The Theater
Warning: The characters below are Walking Spoilers.
The Playwright
TRAGEDY
the narrator, storyteller, god of this world
The mysterious owner of the theater and the creator of the in-story world. Writing stories with horrible endings is its obsession.- Big Bad: She is the creator of the in-story world who traps the four characters inside various bad ends to relive her own suffering from the loss of her love.
- Big Bad Friend: She's the villainous force behind BAD END THEATER and she's the Director's girlfriend.
- Final Boss: In the Omega Ending, after obtaining all the endings in the game, TRAGEDY becomes the ultimate threat the main characters have to face.
- God Is Evil: Downplayed. She's a goddess who is deeply obsessed with tragic endings, as in her name TRAGEDY, by putting the four characters into their respectively tragic bad ends. All to seemingly becoming more obsessed with her own past loss by reliving it over and over again. Not necessarily per se, as she's the embodiment of tragedy and most of her obsession stemmed from her estrangement, especially how her defeat at the true Omega Ending made her to give them genuine happy endings.
- Hypocrite: The Golden Ending shows that TRAGEDY has a rather low opinion of self-insert stories. However, the Omega Ending reveals that TRAGEDY created the Maiden as her own self-insert, and wears a mask in order to hide the resemblance.
- Malevolent Masked Woman: The malevolent goddess of the world wears a tragedy mask to symbolize her being the writer of a world of tragedy. The mask is also meant to hide her resemblance to the Maiden, her self-insert.
- Misery Builds Character: If the ending song lyrics are any indication, TRAGEDY believes its stories can make people stronger... or break them.
- Named in the Sequel: In the Lonely Wolf Treat series remake, she makes a cameo appearance as a witch named Lilium.
- Narrator All Along: TRAGEDY speaks not only with its own voice, but through the game's narration as well.
- Samus Is a Girl: TRAGEDY initially appears as a dark mask-wearing silhouette who goes by "it" pronouns. When TRAGEDY's mask comes off in the Omega Ending, she looks exactly like the Maiden. Why? That's because she's the one who self-inserted Maiden.
- White Mask of Doom: That white theater mask that appears in the game's logo? TRAGEDY wears it.
- Walking Spoiler: Her true nature as the malevolent playwright who torments the four protagonists with bad endings is only revealed on the path to the Golden Ending, and her true true nature as the Maiden's self-insert author and the player character's girlfriend is only revealed in the Omega Ending.
The Director
You
a lost soul who wandered into my theater
It's you, the Player Character, who wandered into TRAGEDY's beloved theater in search of a happy ending.- Deus ex Machina: You have the bizarre and initially unexplained ability to insert yourself into the story and teleport the main characters out of the burning castle. The Omega Ending implies that rewriting TRAGEDY's bad endings into happy ones is something you did a lot in the past.
- Featureless Protagonist: Your form in the story world is that of a dark, naked, genderless silhouette of a human being, which you chalk up to the fact that you're not really supposed to exist in that world. Conveniently, it keeps your true identity a secret before the big reveal in the Omega Ending.
- Hostile Show Takeover: In the Golden Ending, you try to hijack TRAGEDY's story and forcibly give it a happy ending, which does not please TRAGEDY in the slightest.
- Named in the Sequel: In the Lonely Wolf Treat series remake, you make a cameo appearance as a witch named Orchid.
- Rage Against the Heavens: In the Golden Ending, you rally the Hero, Maiden, Underling, and Overlord to defeat TRAGEDY, their very own god.
- Tomato Surprise: The game does not reveal the truth about who you are and why you entered the theater until the Omega Ending: you are actually TRAGEDY's long-lost girlfriend and her inspiration for the Overlord, and you came to BAD END THEATER in order to reunite with her.
