Characters / Bravely Default II

The characters of Bravely Default II.

---

The Heroes of Light

In General

Left to right: Adelle, Elvis, Seth, Gloria

• Badass Crew: They're a bunch of adventurers who can kick ass up and down the continent, given they take on both monsters and Asterisk Bearers.
• The Chosen Many: Each of them have been chosen by the one of the Crystals to become Heroes of Light; Seth's is Wind, Gloria's is Water, Elvis's is Earth, and Adelle's is Fire. What keeps them from being The Chosen One is that the four Heroes of Light are chosen in a consistent cycle which would normally have a time gap of two centuries. In fact, the former Hero of Light chosen by the Wind Crystal is still alive by the start of the story and is able to both witness his successor being chosen and meet the new Heroes of Light. The former Hero of Light chosen by the Fire Crystal is also still alive, having been tasked with ensuring that new Heroes of Light are chosen for the cycle after theirs.
• Elemental Motifs: All of them match the Crystals they were chosen by. It also plays into their relationships with their love interests.
  • Seth is the wind, flexible and going whichever way is needed of him at the moment. He is also a sailor, a man of the sea guided by the wind.
  • Gloria is water, ever graceful and elegant yet inexorable and determined in pursuit of her goal.
  • Elvis is the earth, being the most laidback and constant of the four. He's also noted to be a bit of pyromaniac with things catching on fire around him.
  • Adelle is fire, being the most Hot-Blooded and outwardly emotional.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Just like their Bravely Default counterparts, Elvis is Sanguine, Adelle is Choleric, Gloria is Melancholic, and Seth is Phlegmatic.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: In the True Final Boss battle, the Night's Nexus consumes entire party's memories, leaving them lost and unable to act as they try in vain to figure out who they are and what's going on. Seth must hold on as long as possible to restore their memories before his are consumed too. Luckily, the player bails him out when it happens.
• Moveset Clone: Unlike the party members of the Luxendarc duology, all four Heroes of Light this time around have identical stat spreads. The only meaningful differences are join time and which jobs they have early investment in.
• My Name Is ???: When the Night's Nexus eats their memories, it includes their names as part of the meal, leaving only ??? behind in place of their names in the UI.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Each of the bad endings is dedicated to how fate and each of their personal flaws lead to a couple being separated from each for good.
• True Companions: Initially a bunch of random people brought together by coincidence and the Crystals, they eventually grow to love each other so much that they defy fate several times with the player's help to make sure they can defeat the Nexus for good without any of them dying.

Seth

Voiced By: Shunsuke Takeuchi (JP), Chris Lew Kum Hoi (EN)

"If I helped even one person, it means I did the right thing."

Our hero is a young seafarer who was washed ashore in an unfamiliar realm after the power of the Crystals saved him from an unseasonal storm.

---

• Always Save the Girl: He passes up a chance to stop the Night's Nexus from being summoned to protect Gloria.
• Audience Surrogate: He's not from Halcyonia and never even heard of the place prior to washing up on its shores. As a result, a lot is explained to him, and the player along with him.
• Back from the Dead: He actually died along with the rest of his crew when his ship sank beneath a giant wave. He was resurrected by the power of the Wind Crystal. In the True Ending, it appears that he's returned to being dead now that he helped defeat the Night's Nexus, but the Wind Crystal rewards him for his efforts by bringing him back to life again to rejoin his friends.
• Born Under the Sail: In a Party Chat conversation with Gloria, Seth reveals he was born on an as-of-yet unnamed chain of islands where becoming a sailor is an expected profession for most adults born there.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: He believes that if he succeeds at helping at least one person, that's a good job to him.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Despite sharing more than a few similarities to Tiz, he stands apart from him in a few key ways:
  • Whereas Tiz and Seth are both nice, caring people, Tiz is more shy and awkward compared to the straightforward, confident Seth. Tiz could become very proactive in certain situations, but for the most part he was following Agnes' lead. Seth leads the party simply by default, and tends towards making decisions for the rest of the party.
  • While both are the viewpoint characters, Tiz was not the protagonist of his debut game, as Agnes was the most central of the initial four. Meanwhile, Seth is about on equal terms with everybody else as being the protagonist, despite not having any particular chapters associated with him directly.
  • Tiz's hometown is destroyed at the start of his journey, Seth's is completely unseen as he's from somewhere else entirely. The destruction of Tiz's hometown pushes him forward for much of his story, where Seth seems content to be a hero because he just wants to be a good person. His hometown is rarely even mentioned.
• Dimensional Traveler: It's revealed towards the end of the game that Seth is from a different world than the rest of the party, explaining not only why he didn't recognize the continent of Excillant, but also the game's online functionality where he meets other players' versions of himself.
• Foreshadowing: At the end of Chapter 3, he sees Mona's ghost. This may be heavily implying about the fact that Seth himself is essentially dead but is only Living on Borrowed Time.
• The Gambler: Has a fondness for gambling. In a humorous moment during the revisit to Savalon, Adelle has to warn him to avoid the gambling hall until they've dealt with the crisis.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: At the beginning of the game, you can freely choose his name, probably the reason no one ever refers to him by name but just a friend. The Golden Ending has the rest of the party call out his name—but their voices are muted out due to the customization of said name.
• Hero Protagonist: The first playable character in the game and referred to as the main protagonist. He's also a Nice Guy who will go out of his way to help others.
• I See Dead People: He sees Mona's spirit trying to guide him and the party out of Folie's crumbling lair, but no one else can see her.
• Knight in Shining Armor: His default secondary job in the first demo is the Vanguard, and he also uses it in promotional material. The Final Demo has it set to him as his primary job, instead.
• Kind Hearted Cat Lover: He is more of a cat person and comments that cats are indispensable during voyages just because they can keep mice away from food supplies.
• Lady and Knight: Becomes the Knight to Gloria's Lady after Sir Sloan's death. Also, was this to the Night's Nexus, prior to his first death.
• Leitmotif: Has two variations thereof. Both themes heavily utilize castanets.
  • This one plays when he's anointed by the Wind Crystal.
  • Sailing! when he uses his Special Attack.
• Messy Hair: He has the messy, windswept hair you'd expect from a sailor constantly in the face of the ocean's breeze.
• Nice Guy: He's a friendly, outgoing, and kind person who is quick to jump to other's aid and is disgusted by the injustices he sees on his journey.
• Red Is Heroic: His typical white-and-brown sailing uniform is accented by his bright red sash, highlighting him as the intended protagonist of the story as well as underscoring his naturally heroic inclination.
• Say My Name: "GLORIAAAAAAAAAAA!" He hollers her name in the first ending when she sacrifices herself to contain the Night's Nexus.
• Screw Destiny: He believes in this and even discusses this with Gloria before the fight with Edna. Naturally, when he finds out that sealing the Night's Nexus will result in Gloria sacrificing herself, he is the first to walk away so that they can find another way to save the world.
• Ship Tease: He gets a lot of moments alone with Gloria, be it through cutscenes, sidequests, and party chats.
• Supporting Protagonist: Promotional materials refer to him as the main protagonist, but it's Gloria's quest that drives the plot.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Functionally and aesthetically resembles Tiz from the first game, both young men who end up accompanying a young woman with connections to the crystals, and become an Implied Love Interest over the course of the story. Like Tiz, he also is commonly portrayed with the most variance in terms of what Asterisks he can use.
• Take Up My Sword: In the metaphorical sense. After it's revealed that Seth has been chosen by the Wind Crystal, Sir Sloan formally names him his heir. During their battle in the prologue, Sir Sloan tells Adam that his title of Hero of Light has been passed down to another. In a literal sense, you can actually get Sir Sloan's sword, and it offers an extraordinarily strong set of passive skills.
• Talk Like a Pirate: Downplayed. While he lacks the accent, his voiced battle lines are littered with sea and sailor metaphors. He even belts out stereotypical interjections like "Yarr!" every now and then.
  "Our voyage isn't over yet!"
• This Is Gonna Suck: Seth's says a wary "there's choppy waters ahead" in response to an incoming boss fight.
• You Wake Up on a Beach: The story begins when he washes up on the shores of Excillant and is found by Sir Sloan and Gloria.

Gloria Neu Musa

Voiced By: Yu Shimamura (JP), Charlotte Ritchie (EN)

"You dare claim the Crystals? You do not know their worth!"

Princess of the lost kingdom of Musa. Having escaped her homeland's destruction, she set out on a quest to restore the Crystals to their rightful place.

---

• The Comically Serious: Most of the comedy around her features how she never breaks her Proper Lady manners, even when it's obvious what she's really feeling.
  Seth: Hey, did you ever get pranked by those kids yourself, Gloria?
  Gloria: ...Ahem. No comment.
• Crazy-Prepared: Even when she was a little girl, she was taught everything and the ways of swordsmanship so much she was top of the class and usually sparred with the toughest student. Her father was preparing her for anything that may happen to her.
• Dark Secret: She's planning on sacrificing her life to seal away the Night's Nexus, which she is resigned to. The Heroes do not find out until she's already went through with it in the first bad ending. In the other endings, Elvis's book reveals the truth before it's too late, preventing her from going through with it.
• Determinator: Very determined to see her duty as the Princess of Musa through, to the point where she is Conditioned to Accept Horror at times, such as when she sees nothing wrong about traversing Wiswald's putrid sewers.
• The Dreaded: During her days when she trained with a sword, though all other students were understandably hesitant to fight and possibly injure a member of Musa's royalty.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In the first bad ending, Seth cradles her in his arms as she passes away.
• Fallen Princess: She was the princess of Musa, but the kingdom was wiped Adam and the forces of Holograd three years ago.
• Fatal Flaw: She's a little too eager to take on everyone's burdens on herself while never relying on others. She takes it to the logical conclusion in the first bad ending when she sacrifices her life to seal away the Night's Nexus. By the time the other Heroes figure out what happened, it's too late and she dies mere seconds later.
• Foreshadowing: She is fully determined to do her duty to stop the Night's Nexus...however, she remains vague about what she is going to do and doesn't really explain what to the party, all who think she means eliminating the Nexus. She intends to fulfill her duty by sacrificing her life to seal it away and only reveals that fact after she pulls it off.
• Generation Xerox: Gloria is physically identical to her great aunt, the Night's Nexus.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Woman!: She was at a complete loss as she fled from Musa's destruction, but she managed to keep going because of Sir Sloan bringing her to her senses.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the first bad end, she sacrifices her life force to give the crystals the power they need to seal the Night's Nexus again. However, given how Gloria is the very last of the Musan bloodline, this is a very bad thing.
• Hidden Depths: She is a talented painter as shown in her sidequest with Adelle where the latter decides to have the two have a friendly competition with their art in order to help Gloria take her mind off things for a bit. She is also shown to be rather pragmatic. After the chaos in Rimedhal ends, she chooses to say that Domenic performed a Heroic Sacrifice rather than tell the truth about his role in the battle so as to prevent further chaos from disrupting an already troubled situation.
• Implied Love Interest: To Seth, given their Lady and Knight dynamic, and Seth always looking out for Gloria's well-being. It becomes all but confirmed in the true ending, where she jumps into the resurrected Seth's arms and hugs him tightly.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: She wears a luxurious white dress beneath her black tunic, and she has no problems fending for herself in a fight.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": In a town conversation, she urges Seth to make no delays and head for Serpent's Grotto quickly because she sheepishly admits she wishes to meet a real dragon.
• Lady and Knight: The Lady to Sir Sloan's Knight. After Sir Sloan's death, Seth becomes her Knight.
• Last of Her Kind: She's the very last person from Musa besides Orpheus who's still alive. This is why her sacrifice to seal away the Night's Nexus in the first bad ending is not a good thing. That being said, a sidequest does reveal later that the King of Halcyonia confirmed that some people from Musa did escape the city and he is harboring them as refugees. So while she may be the last person alive from her family, she isn't the only survivor of Musa overall.
• Leitmotif: Has two variations.
  • When she's chosen by the Water Crystal
  • "The Princess's Pride" during her Special Attack.
• My Greatest Failure: The fall of Musa. She greatly lamented leaving her kingdom to die when she fled from it with Sir Sloan, who managed to keep her from crossing the Despair Event Horizon.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Notably averted should she equip the Gambler Asterisk; unlike Shirley and Adelle, Gloria wears a modesty-preserving sleeveless tuxedo under her top.
• The Needs of the Many: Her selflessness is not without reason, believing that it's necessary to put one life's on the line to ensure everyone else is safe. Taken to its logical conclusion when she has settled with her "destiny" to sacrifice her life to seal away the Night's Nexus to save the world from it.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Most of the villains and even some people throw flak at her for giving royal advice when she has no kingdom to rule anymore. Every Arc Villain had a personal hand in destroying her kingdom.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat:
  • Her comment to Prince Castor as she and the group are arrested is this in spades.
  • She also has a good moment of this when the party first encounters Archbishop Domenic, knowing full well that the power of the Fire Crystal is the reason Rimedhal's citizens can live comfortable lives, not prayers to a dragon God. This tips Domenic off and has his subjects keep tabs on the party.
• Planning for the Future Before the End: There's a sidequest between her and Seth in which she talks about the things she wants to do but never thought about because she was too focused on her duties. That duty is sacrificing her life to the Crystals to seal away the Nexus, which is why she avoided thinking about she wanted because she knew her wishes would never come true.
• Politically-Active Princess: Gloria is well-known as a benevolent public figure throughout the continent. With the exception of Rimedhal, the other kingdoms trust the party immediately because of her.
• Proper Lady: Always conducts herself as regally as possible despite no longer having a country to rule over.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She's a princess who isn't afraid of combat and is chosen as a Hero of Light.
• Senseless Sacrifice: In the first ending, she gives her life to seal away the Night's Nexus. However, since she is the last member of the Musan royal line and a diary you can find during the final chapter makes it clear that only Musan royals can keep her at bay, she has only bought Excillant another two hundred years before the end of days comes.
• Sole Survivor: She is the last survivor of her family, the ancient guardians of the Crystals.
• Sorry That I'm Dying: In the first bad ending, she uses that last moments of her life to thank Seth for being her friend and apologizing that she kept the truth of her plan secret, hurting him in the process.
• Strong Family Resemblance: With her aunt, Inanna. Who would eventually become the Night's Nexus. Inanna, for reference is the girl on the cover of the game, holding Elvis' book.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Functionally and aesthetically resembles Agnes from the first game, both young women with ties to the crystals attempting to stop them falling into the wrong hands. Just like Agnes, she's also commonly associated with support Asterisks, but also does just fine with more offensive spellcasting Asterisks, much like how Agnes later was associated with black magic in Bravely Second. She also aesthetically looks like a more serious and darker Ophilia.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the girly-girl to Adelle's tomboy.
• Tragic Keepsake: The dagger Sir Sloan gave her after she's rescued from Selena and Dag is the only thing of his she doesn't leave at his grave. It turns out to contain one-half of the missing Bravebearer Asterisk.
• Water Is Womanly: Gloria is the chosen hero of the Water Crystal, and she's also graceful, polite, and feminine.
• White Mage: Her default secondary job in the demo is the White Mage, and she also uses it in promotional material.

Elvis Lesley

Voiced By: Kazuhiko Inoue (JP), Steven Cree (EN)

"I've a certain special book to be deciphering!"

A scholar from Wiswald who's on a quest to decipher the secrets of a book he inherited from his mentor. He's a larger-than-life character who's never one to dwell on the minor details.

---

• Accidental Pervert: His keen eye can be used to scout out shoe sizes instantly. Adelle takes this as a sign that he's got a foot fetish.
• Admiring the Abomination: By the second natural disaster caused by the stolen crystals, Elvis expresses excitement to see how the third one will look like.
• The Alcoholic: He's the most enthusiastic of the party when it comes to drinking, and likes his drinks hard and fiery. Even his leitmotif is called "The Best Drink Is..." It works to his favor when the heroes visit Mag Mell, as Elvis breaks through Esmerelda's Fantastic Racism by pointing out all the similarities between him and Adelle before challenging the warden of the fairies to a drinking contest. Esmeralda is so shocked by his sheer audacity and frankness that she bursts out laughing and takes him up on his offer before letting the heroes stay in Mag Mell.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: In one of the bad endings, Adelle cuts him off as he is about to do this because she already knows and feels the same way.
• Black Mage: Unlike any other previous playable character, Elvis is depicted in official artwork and initial in-game scenes with the Black Mage outfit, and the Asterisk is in his possession from the start. He also uses the Black Mage job as his default secondary job. He does have a distinct freelancer outfit, however. It turns out he inherited it from his dead mentor Emma.
• Blue Blood:
  • In Savalon, he reveals to the party that he is of noble birth. Prince Castor doesn't believe it, since Elvis speaks to everyone casually, and happily indulges in "common" street food. He does know about the corrupted side of court intrigue, however, and his warnings for the party to watch their backs aren't entirely unjustified.
  • It's revealed in Wiswald with a bit of digging that he is the son of the Lesley family. While not out-and-out nobility, they do come from old money, and sponsored the creation of the Institute of Magical Inquiry. As the head instructor of the Institute (Emma, and then later Roddy) acts as the leader of the town, by Wiswald's standards, his family might as well truly be nobility.
• Brave Scot: Speaks with an extremely thick Scottish brogue, like all Wiswaldians, and he's a Hero of Light.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Downplayed. He's incredibly easy going and laid back; and by his own admittance he was a pretty lousy student who either skipped, or slept through, his lessons with Emma. He's clever enough that she entrusted him with her mysterious book, and he was able to piece together that collecting Asterisks was the only way for him to read it.
• Character Catchphrase: "Don't sweat the details."
• Classy Cravat: A yellow-gold one to match the band on his hat. He is a noble, after all.
• Dub Name Change: His last name was changed from Laslow to Lesley to better reference a certain famous singer.
• Evil Laugh: A rare heroic example that's more boastful than anything, but he does have a chance to belt one out at the end of his special attack cinematic.
• Funetik Aksent: His dialogue is transcribed with his thick accent in all pre-release material.
• Hidden Depths: An early side-quest has him merrily drinking with a fisherman who has fallen on hard times. The fisherman mentions that he dropped a knife that his mentor had given him before he died while fleeing a monster on the beach. Elvis, who up until this point had just been trying to get free drinks, immediately volunteers the party to get the knife back from the monster, waving it off by saying that the fisherman will owe them a round or two after. A flashback after the party retrieves the knife shows his recently deceased mentor, Emma, playfully chastising him for his laziness (and asking a lady her age). Notably, his black mage Asterisk costume is identical to hers.
• Interspecies Romance: It's implied and outright confirmed in the second bad end that he's in love with Adelle, who's a fairy.
• Leitmotif: Has two variations. Both of which are, fittingly enough, laid-back jazz numbers.
  • When he's chosen by the Earth Crystal
  • "The Best Drink Is..." when his Special Attack is triggered.
• Meaningful Name: His full English name is one to Elvis Presley.
• Mellow Fellow: Elvis has a habit of not overreacting much when seeing strange situations such as when he sees half of Savalon drowning or Wiswald being overrun with trees, though he comments panicking won't do any good, which only adds to his recklessness as a scholar. Ironically, he is out of words and frozen in shock when he first sees Adelle changing to her fairy form to save Martha from falling to her death.
• Oblivious to Love: Completely misses that Adelle obviously has feelings for him. You know it's bad when Roddy, a complete stranger to Adelle, can tell what's going on between the two and Elvis himself can't.
• Older and Wiser: The oldest (at least next to 21 year old Seth and 20 year old Gloria) party member (albeit zigzaging about his wisdom at times), at 35. He is beat by Adelle, who is a 150-year old-ish fairy.
• Pyromaniac: Adelle likes to tease him for his tendency to set things on fire willy-nilly.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • The first is in chapter 2, when the party (plus Roddy, Lily, and Galahad), start to get to the bottom of what has been happening in Wiswald. When they finally find Folie in her hideout (but not before stumbling across a pile of corpses), it leads to the Tranquil Fury described below.
  • The second incident is in chapter 4, where Vigintio kidnaps everyone in Wiswald with the intention of turning them into an undead army. Vigintio insults Lady Emma and spits on her memory at every given opportunity- Elvis doesn't even pretend to be calm; he is furious from the start of the boss fight to the end.
• Refuge in Audacity: His approach to solving a thousand years of racism from fairies to humans is... to challenge the acting warden to a drinking contest. It actually works, and notoriously strict Lady Esmerelda smiles for the first time in centuries.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Functionally & aesthetically resembles Ringabel from the first game, both men with a distinctive fashion sense carrying a mysterious book. And just like Ringabel, he's commonly associate with magical and speedy Asterisks.
• Too Dumb to Live: The way this guy learns new things is nothing short of suicidal. His method to traverse the Wayward Woods is to get lost in there on purpose and figure the way out, but even then, he still sucks at it. He eats grass that's supposed to be medicine for dragons but wasn't yet proven to be fit for human consumption, which earns him an earful from Adelle, who gets brushed off by him laughing it off.
• Tranquil Fury: His reaction after he learns that Folie killed Mona and was responsible for tormenting his friends.

Adelle Ein

Voiced By: Yukana (JP), Samantha Dakin (EN)

"We're not friends or anything. I'm just here because he hired me."

A skilled mercenary, employed by Elvis to accompany him on his quest for the Asterisks.

---

• Action Girl: Adelle is a skilled mercenary reputable enough to be employed by Elvis on his quest to acquire the Asterisks.
• Ambiguously Bi: Reacts in the same flustered way to Martha's flirting as she does to Elvis.
• Badass Adorable: This cute and friendly young lady is also a skilled mercenary, as well as a Hero of Light.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Her default secondary job in the demo is the Monk, and she also uses it in promotional material. Whenever she levels up, she also makes acrobatic leaps and jump kicks reminiscent of a graceful Monk attacking, and she's the poster girl for Monk when the party acquires it in the main game, so it's not unfair to associate the job with her somewhat.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Played straight. A flashback shown in the Heart and Sole sidequest in Savalon shows that she and Elvis met because she, inadvertently, threw her old pair of shoes at him. Rather than get angry at her, Elvis notes that she can't exactly travel in shoes that are too small for her, and buys her a brand new pair. To her surprise, the only payment he asks for is for Adelle to buy him a drink. Afterwards, she encourages Elvis to hire her as his bodyguard, saying that the roads are dangerous and that he'll need someone to watch his back. When the flashback ends, she admits to Seth that traveling with Elvis gave her a real sense of purpose, since her search for Edna felt like directionless wandering up until that point.
• Beneath the Mask: She might look like she wears her heart on her sleeve at a first glance, but she's hiding a lot underneath that cheerful exterior. For one, she's secretly terrified of the possibility that her friends will reject her should she reveal that she's not a human, but rather a fairy. The guilt of hiding the truth from her friends eats her up so bad that she constantly apologizes to them whenever the subject comes up. She also harbors a lot of guilt for the atrocities Edna committed, and blames herself for not noticing the changes before it could get started.
• Big Eater: Adores eating so much that many Party Chats involve her asking about the local cuisine. She may have indulged too much in food seeing as living in a hidden village that discourages leaving it only made her more curious about eating different things.
• Cain and Abel: She's the Abel to Edna's Cain.
• Character Tic: Has a habit of clutching her left arm whenever she's feeling distressed.
• Deadpan Snarker: Gets quite a few zingers in, especially in sidequests.
• Fairy Sexy: The Form-Fitting Wardrobe she wears in her fairy form exposes some quite nice cleavage.
• Foreshadowing: A sidequest in late Chapter 2 after Folie's death opens up an optional Party Chat, in which Adelle comments on sucking up the nectar of flowers instead of playing with them like Gloria and Seth do. That's not normal behavior for a human. A fairy, on the other hand...
• Heroic BSoD: In the Golden Ending, even after the Night's Nexus is defeated for good, she still questions if she has any right to seek happiness for herself after having failed to stop her sister from nearly dooming the world. Elvis and the rest of the party are able to convince her that she shouldn't blame herself for Edna's crimes.
• Hidden Buxom: Her baggy crop-top in her default outfit hides that her chest is stacked, which is more evident when she uses the Gambler Asterisk or she's in her fairy form.
• Humanity Is Infectious: The rest of fairykind views her as irredeemably "tainted" by humanity after journeying among them for so long. Even after they start getting over their racism, they all note that she's become more human and than fairy mentally, even if the differences between the two races are small.
• Hypocrite:
  • In the demo she teases Elvis for being over 30 despite her being far, far older.
  • She accuses Shirley of being suspicious and hiding something from the Heroes. This, coming from the fairy pretending to be a human.
• I Choose to Stay: The second bad ending has her stay in Mag Mell as it's frozen in time forever to stop the Night's Nexus, despite being given the opportunity to leave with the other Warriors. She does so as her way to repent for her sister's actions.
• Implied Love Interest: To Elvis, which Gloria begins to ask about in Wiswald, before Adelle quickly changes the subject. In the second bad ending, Elvis and Adelle acknowledge that they love each other. In the true ending, they exchange an elbow tap and knowing looks when they see Gloria run to glomp a resurrected Seth.
• Interspecies Romance: She's a fairy and reciprocates Elvis's romantic feelings towards her, as revealed in the second bad end.
• It's All My Fault: She secretly blames herself for not noticing the changes in Edna before everything went to hell. It culminates with her using that reason into choosing to stay in Mag Mell when it's becoming a eternal cage to keep the Night's Nexus from terrorizing the world.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: After she chooses to stay in Mag Mell, she tells Elvis she can find peace in knowing at least one of them gets to live on.
• Leitmotif: Two variations thereof.
  • Wandering Flame surprisingly slow and melancholy, yet determined track when she's chosen by the Fire Crystal.
  • And Thus, the Wandering Flame Rises Higher when she uses her Special Attack.
• Ms. Fanservice: A couple of her outfits show off quite a lot of skin, including the Gambler Asterisk, whereas other girls are more covered up.
• Mystical White Hair: Adelle stands out among her contemporaries due to her shock of silver-white hair. It's eventually revealed that she's a fairy.
• Mysterious Waif: She likes to tease the rest about her past, brushing it off as a girl trying to act mysterious because she'd be more interesting that way in an attempt to keep them from prying too much into her business. Then again, she is secretly very hesitant about revealing the fact she is a fairy.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Adelle gains this should she equip the Gambler Asterisk, it provides a nice contrast to Gloria, who wears a sleeveless Tuxedo under her top instead.
• Nice Girl: She has her streaks of selfishness but otherwise she's as kind and compassionate as Gloria, and openly shows concern for strangers no matter what.
• Older Than They Look: Being a fairy, she's actually over 150 years old.
• Only in It for the Money: She insists that she's not friends with the party and is only present because Elvis hired her. After Gloria is rescued, however, she reveals she's also looking for her sister. And even later in Savalon it's revealed that she asked him to hire her as an excuse to travel with him in the first place. To her credit, she does warm up to the party fairly quickly and they eventually all become Fire-Forged Friends. She may have acted like she did initially in order to keep the party from finding out about her true form as a fairy.
• Our Fairies Are Different: Is secretly one of the fairies Rimedahlians are so scared of. In this case she's capable of minor shapeshifting to hide her wings.
• Pals with Jesus: She admits she's not exactly pals with the Lord of Dragons, Gwylim, though she is in good terms with him and his guardian.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Sometimes does this when she's hit with a status ailment.
• The Reveal: She's a fairy, though that's honestly less of a shock than the fact she's an unambiguously GOOD fairy in this franchise.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Wears a long, white scarf around her neck and is a skilled mercenary.
• Senseless Sacrifice: In the second bad ending, she chooses to stay in Mag Mell before it's sealed away forever as penance for Edna's crimes, believing that she doesn't have the right to be happy anymore. Both the fairies and the Heroes agree that she's being too stubborn about it, but they fail to change her mind.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: A classic case with Elvis. When Gloria notes how the two of them are so synchronized with each other's thoughts and asks if they're in a relationship, Adelle adamantly denies it and gets more flustered when Elvis jokingly teases her about it. No one except Elvis himself is convinced by her denial.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • Functionally resembles Edea from the first game, serving as the party's Action Girl who has a familial connection with one of the main villains, though she aesthetically resembles Magnolia from Bravely Second. To no one's surprise, it's a pretty good bet that if an Asterisk is physically offensive in nature, she'll be its poster girl.
  • Also to both Airy and Anne. Airy for being a fairy member of the party with a secret motivation for joining the adventure. Anne for being a fairy who asks the heroes for help stopping her sister. Though, Adelle is considerably better natured than either of them.
• Terrible Artist: An absolutely atrocious artist as revealed in a sidequest. The best compliment Seth can offer when he sees her landscape portrait is that it's "abstract", and the game itself wonders if the fabric of space-time was warped when she was drawing in attempt to make sense of it. At least Elvis appreciates her drawings.
• Theme Naming: Like Airy and Anne before her, Adelle is a fairy in the main cast whose name begins with 'A'.
• Tomboy: Much like Edea from the first two games.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the tomboy to Gloria's girly-girl. She also qualifies as the tomboy to her sister Edna's girly-girl as well.
• Tsundere: This way to both Martha and and especially Elvis. She's quick to call him all sorts of names including the classic "stupid," equally quick to distance herself from him, but it's evident she has great affection for him. In the second bad ending, she only confesses her feelings for him after he does so.

Asterisk Bearers

In General

^{Halcyonia Bearers} 

^{Savalon Bearers} 

^{Wiswald Bearers} 

^{Rimedhal Bearers} 

^{Holograd Bearers} 

People who have gotten their hands on stones containing the knowledge to make them masters of a specific class, and most of them have been using them for generally evil purposes.

---

• Akashic Records: The Asterisks were formed by concentrating the power of the Fountain of Knowledge, which contains all memory of past, present, and future. The Librarian Asterisk disguised as Elvis's book can access this knowledge much more directly, which is what allows it to show flashbacks and visions of the future.
• All There in the Manual: Most of them use only their first name in-game, the last names are often unstated.
• The Corruption: Asterisks seem to amplify the negativity that's already there for some of its users. Case in point, Prince Castor's desperation to save Savalon from drought leads him to become an unscrupulous tyrant with no care for tomorrow, Folie's egotism towards her art leads her to become a serial killer and brainwasher to get what she wants, and Domenic's delusions over hearing Gwydion and envy over being denied by the Fire Crystal leads him to be easily used by Helio to start fairy-hunting witch trials. It applies tenfold to the only Asterisk the player never gets to use: the Librarian Asterisk, which amplified Inanna's existing gluttony for knowledge and ultimately turned her into the Night's Nexus.
• Clothes Make the Superman: An Asterisk produces clothes not just for the party, but for the Bearers too. A handful of bearers who are keeping their possession of the Asterisk secret use them to transform before battle. When the party defeats a bearer and claims their Asterisk, their clothes revert to something else. One hilarious example includes Orpheus the Bard being left in nothing but his pantaloons, no shirt, after his defeat.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: After losing their Asterisks, some of the bearers are still able to use weapons and skills attached to their former jobs. Just like the main party, the bearers commit the learned skills to memory.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: You must locate all of the Asterisks to get the Golden Ending because together, they can bring an end to the Night's Nexus.
• Hollywood Encryption: Each Asterisk that comes in contact with Elvis's book enables him to read more of its contents, which are otherwise complete gibberish. The book is itself an Asterisk, which is forced to react to the presence of the others. Having the full set enables the player to see, and erase, the Night's Nexus's save file.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Just like Bravely Second, the weapons the bearers wield are the strongest you can equip in the game. They're actually even stronger this time around because by equipping each wielder's weapons, you also automatically equip their corresponding job's passive abilities which stack on top of whatever you've already got.
• Instant Expert: While most of the Asterisks go to users who had at least some affinity for their concepts beforehand, they work just as well at making a total amateur into a master. Explicit with Lily, who had never even held a bow before being given the Ranger Asterisk, but continues to wield her bow just as proficiently after losing the Asterisk. Played with a bit in that the Asterisk is only as strong as its holder, as Horten learns the hard way.
• Made of Indestructium: Breaking an Asterisk is an extremely difficult task. Only the Night's Nexus has ever damaged one, and even then just bringing the two broken halves together is enough to fully repair it. The same applies to Elvis's book, which he mentions having accidentally dropped in a fire without any damage to it. The second bad ending reveals the Night's Nexus can truly destroy them by breaking them down into their composite information and then devouring it all up.
• Secret A.I. Moves: A few of them have abilities that the player doesn't get. Some of those abilities can be acquired late in the game by raising the level cap on each job, while others remain unique to the boss.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Most apparent with the Savalon bearers, who copy a lot of their jobs and roles from their Ancheim equivalents in Bravely Default, but both the bearers and the jobs they wield are largely comparable to jobs from the previous two games. Some jobs mix and match old tricks, though - the Oracle is both Bravely Default's Time Mage and Bravely Second's Astrologian, while the Swordmaster combines the counterattacks of Bravely Default's Swordmaster and the stance system of Bravely Second's Fencer, for example.
• Upgrade Artifact: The Asterisks were made to be exactly this, condensing the knowledge of generations of masters of a profession into a form that would allow their skills to be passed on and proliferate. The 23 Asterisks the player can use were crafted by the fairies, while the 24th, the Librarian, was created by the Musan princess scholar Inanna.

Halcyonia Bearers

The White Mage

Selene Noetic

Voiced By: Tomoyo Kurosawa (JP), Lyla Schillinger (EN)

Selene is the holder of the White Mage Asterisk. She abducts Gloria along with Dag in an attempt to secure the Wind Crystal.

---

• Animal Motifs: Slightly more subtle than Dag, but the soft furs of her White Mage garb evoke the appearance of a sheep. This is made more explicit in Dag's Meaningful Name (and more specifically what part of a sheep a "dag" is.)
• Brains and Brawn: She's the brains to Dag's brawn, being the schemestress that sought to sell the Wind Crystal for money.
• Combat Medic: Averted. Whereas in previous games, the White Mage had access to Aero and Holy to contribute to damage, this incarnation of the job has no offensive capabilities whatsoever, unless they equip an offensive job command in their sub slot.
• Happily Married: To Dag at the end of their side quest chain.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Her sidequests reveal she's significantly more soft-hearted than during her initial appearance.
• Magic Staff: Carries a silver rod around to cast spells with.
• Pet the Dog: Despite her fairly cold demeanor, she genuinely compliments Dag for going out of his way to help out the father and his sick son in a sidequest.
• Pretty in Mink: Unlike previous incarnations, the White Mage outfit now looks very elegant, with a dress and cape trimmed in fur.
• Punch-Clock Villain: She and Dag were hired by Horten to steal the Wind Crystal, and when they're defeated, both of them are quick to break off the contract.
• Secret A.I. Moves: Her rematch comes with the Full Cure ability, which fully restores her entire party.
• The Stoic: Selene rarely shows emotion, even when she's defeated, as a large contrast to her boisterous partner Dag, though she temporarily loses her composure when she sees Dag get injured.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Holly Whyte, both of them being beautiful women of the White Mage job, though whereas Holly was fiery, sadistic, and alluring, Selene is more cold, calculating, and stoic.
• Took a Level in Kindness: She and Dag were introduced as cruel mercenaries and across the sidequests they develop into much more helpful and charitable people.
• Unknown Rival: Together with Dag in a series of sidequests where they pursue the same goals as the party from slightly out of sight.

The Vanguard

Dag Rampage

Voiced by: Jun'ichi Suwabe (JP), James Corrigan (EN)

"And that little beauty's gonna make both of us filthy stinkin' rich!"

Dag is the holder of the Vanguard Asterisk. He abducts Gloria along with Selene in an attempt to secure the Wind Crystal.

---

• Animal Motifs: Roosters. He has an image of one on the back of his plainclothes, and he behaves not unlike a Cocky Rooster.
• Awesome Aussie: Dag is portrayed with a broad Australian accent, and occasionally uses Australian slang like "drongo" and even mentions gumtrees at one point.
• Brains and Brawn: While not completely stupid, he's clearly the Brawn and quick to resort to force.
• Draw Aggro: Enrage allows him to force your allies to attack him first. It's part of the Vanguard's skillset.
• Happily Married: To Selene at the end of their side quest chain.
• Hidden Depths: He turns out to be a superb blacksmith and miner.
• Hypocritical Humor: Dag rages at the party for using a flash bomb to rescue Princess Gloria and condemns it as a sneaky tactic. Never mind the fact that they overpowered an old man and blackmailed him in order to get the Wind Crystal, while having the princess hostage.
• Hot-Blooded: Very loud and boisterous in contrast to his stoic partner Selene.
• Ironic Name: His name is Dag Rampage, but his Asterisk is focused on protecting others. Though his first name is certainly meaningful, see below.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Like Selene, Dag appears in a series of sidequests that make him rather more sympathetic.
• Knight in Shining Armor: The Vanguard Asterisk is the Knight from the first two games in the series in all but name, being an armored class with great offense and defense.
• Meaningful Name: "Dag" is Australian slang for someone who is uncool or unfashionable. Taken literally, it means "a turd hanging off the wool of a sheep's rear end" (and Selene certainly looks the part of a sheep in her White Mage garb.)
• Pet the Dog: One sidequest in Savalon has him give away his lucky necklace to a distraught father, so he can cover the costs for his sick son.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Both he and Selene just want to make a profit to live more comfortably, and he turns out to be quite a decent guy when he helps out a father without hesitation.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: If you knock Selene out before you do him, he'll pull out all the stops. What this means is that he can, and will, steamroll your entire party in one turn if you're not careful.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: After he and Selene get married, they can be found on their honeymoon on the beach in Halcyonia. Dag is shouting out to world how much he loves Selene, much to her embarrassment.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Barras Lehr, both of them being a Dumb Muscle paired up with a White Mage, with the main difference being that Barras was a Monk.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Was introduced as mercenary who sadistically beat an old man and developed into someone who charitably helps poor fathers and puppies.
• Unknown Rival: Together with Selene in a series of sidequests where they pursue the same goals as the party from slightly out of sight.

The Monk

Horten

Voiced by: Cho (JP), Roger May (EN)

Assistant to the King of Halcyonia and holder of the Monk Asterisk. He has been looking to become king himself, and tries to get Gloria out of the picture to do so.

---

• Arc Villain: Of the prologue.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: The Asterisk grants him devastating martial arts prowess.
• Cain and Abel: His diary, which can be found in the Inn after his defeat, reveals he murdered his brother using the Asterisk in order to get his position.
• Cast from Hit Points: The Monk pays for their powerful strikes with their very life.
• Les Collaborateurs: After Dag and Selene bail on him hence their failure to secure the Wind Crystal, he reveals that he was sent by Holograd to that end; disappointed in their failure, he takes matters into his own hands.
• Evil Chancellor: He's the Prime Minister to the Kingdom of Halcyonia, and is out for his own selfish ends.
• Obviously Evil: Looks like Dastardly Whiplash, constantly lets out true intentions slip into his words... yeah, pretty clear he's up to no good.
• Playing with Fire: The Monk job, and Horten by extension, have a plethora of fire attacks. This specialization is so pronounced that, until mid-game and the Oracle job, the Monk ability Firebird is the only easy way to reduce the efficacy by which a creature resists fire damage.
• Smug Snake: Not particularly smart or competent.
• Starter Villain: The first major antagonist faced by the party in their quest.
• Treacherous Advisor: Secretly plans on betraying Halcyonia to Holograd in return for the throne.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He's ambitious and somewhat sexist. He killed his brother, and hired Dag and Selene to steal the Wind Crystal to get into Adam's good graces. This is the extent of his character, and he is the first asterisk bearer permanently killed off, very early into the story.
• You Have Failed Me: Adam murders him right in front of the party for failing to obtain the Wind Crystal.

The Bravebearer (Spoiler Character)

Sir Sloan

Voiced By: Hideyuki Tanaka (JP), Rufus Jones (EN)

^{Click here to see him as the Bravebearer:} 

One of the previous four Heroes of Light who sealed away the Night's Nexus 50 year ago, blessed by the Wind Crystal. He previously held the asterisk of Bravery, but it was split in half during his battle with the Night's Nexus.

---

• Antiquated Linguistics: His dialogue falls squarely here. Notably, he's pretty much the only one to speak as such.
• Badass Longcoat: The Bravebearer job provides one to anyone who wields it.
• Composite Character: The Bravebearer takes many of the strongest abilities from the previous games, having abilities that manipulate the flow of battle for allies and enemies alike like the Kaiser, having access to the Obliterate passive from the Conjurer, even seeing a return of the My Hero skill (now renamed to BP Bump) from the Performer.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: His attacking moves don't run on the same formulas used by the player, which calculate using battles won, time spent playing, or the user's current HP.
• Cool Old Guy: He's a very kind and easygoing old guy, especially to Gloria.
• Crutch Character: Serves as this for the party in the Prologue. Sir Sloan hits absurdly hard at this point in the game (high 3 digits) when bosses have only a couple thousand health points, and he'll constantly be shoving Phoenix Downs and special potions down the party's throats, making it near impossible for the player to lose. It's a miracle his back hasn't broken already from a mixture of his old age and carrying the entire party for the first few hours. Every other Guest-Star Party Member in the game never quite matches up to Sir Sloan in terms of both damage output and supporting abilities.
• Feeling Their Age: He was once a mighty warrior in his prime, but he's an old man now and nowhere near powerful as he once was. He nearly faints after the battle with Dag and Selene, and is forced to sacrifice his life just to stall Adam for a few minutes. When Party gets the chance to face him in his prime, they find out he's bar none the strongest Asterisk bearer in the game.
• Friendly Rival: With Lonsdale. The two were fierce rivals who travelled together in their youth and tried to one-up each other constantly, but never could gain a decisive victory. Despite this, the two still considered each other friends and met up to drink together once in a while even in their old age.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: He had to snap Gloria out of her despair during the fall of Musa, the only time he ever lost his temper with her.
• Guest-Star Party Member: He joins the party as a companion for the Prologue, and is powerful enough to defeat almost every monster in one or two hits. Naturally, this doesn't last, as he is killed by Adam at the end of the Prologue.
• Guide Dang It!: The game doesn't spell out what you have to do or where to go in order to unlock the job. You only get a vision of the fight from 50 years ago as your hint. Because Sir Sloan held half of the broken Bravebearer Asterisk, that is a hint you should go back to his grave to meet his spirit. Talking to the other party members in town will provide further hints in this direction.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He sacrifices his life to save the party from Adam in the end of the Prologue.
• It Was with You All Along: The split halves of the Bravebearer Asterisk were in Seth and Gloria's possession all the way back in the Prologue, but it takes until near the very end of the game for them to realize what it is they're carrying.
• I Was Quite a Looker: As shown with his appearance as the Bravebearer, Sir Sloan was quite the handsome man 50 years ago.
• Magikarp Power: An odd case. While the Bravebearer still starts out as the most powerful job in the game, some of its attacks deal damage based on the number of battles won and the number of hours spent playing. On a first playthrough, these skills will probably still be weaker than other, less BP-intensive commands. However, should you bring the data pertaining to your number of battles won and number of hours played to a New Game Plus, their associated Bravebearer commands can become extremely powerful.
• Master of All: The most powerful job in the game, and quite likely the most powerful job in the entire series. The Bravebearer boasts the highest overall base stats of any job, is able to wield all equipment with good proficiency, has some of the best supporting skills and passives, and has access to very powerful attacks to easily mow down enemies.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: He's an elderly veteran and mentor to the heroes, meaning he's already got one foot in the grave. He goes out protecting the heroes from Adam.
• Old Master: He's quite old by the time the game starts, but he's still strong enough to help out the party.
• Precursor Heroes: He was one of the Heroes of Light who fought the Night's Nexus 50 years ago.
• Purposefully Overpowered: The Bravebearer is easily the strongest job in the game. This is balanced by the fact that you acquire it extremely late, so it will mainly be used for late-game grinding and New Game Plus.
• Secret A.I. Moves: His Augmented Microgravity is similar to the Gravity series of moves that the player gets, but runs on a different damage formula. Good thing too, as the real Gravity series^note fixed damage equal to a percentage of the user's HP to the entire enemy party, starting with Supergravity at 25% would be a guaranteed Total Party Kill in his hands.
• Secret Character: Unlocking this job is required to reach the true ending.
• Support Party Member: While capable of high damage, Sloan doesn't have easy access to hard-hitting attacks the same way people like Martha or Gladys do. His best attacks cost a lot of BP, meaning he can't just belt them out. Instead, his job mostly focuses on BP generation or messing with BP for both sides of the battlefield. The Bravebearer job itself is best used to supplement and bring out the best in other jobs through its amazing stats and passives. In his rematch, he can properly make use of his BP building to support Emma's hard-hitting magic while Lonsdale protects them both.
• Take Up My Sword: Does this with Seth when he sees that the Wind Crystal has chosen a successor.
• Time Master: While the Oracle Asterisk contains the power to manipulate the turn order with its Haste, Slow, and Stop spells, the Bravebearer contains a plethora of options for manipulating BP counts, both its own and that of everyone around it.
• Wrecked Weapon: The Bravebearer Asterisk was split in half when Sloan tried to use it against the Night's Nexus 50 years ago, and half fell into the astral void before being reclaimed by Seth during the Prologue. The other half is in the dagger that Sloan passes on to Gloria.

Savalon Bearers

The Bard

Orpheus Tragoidia

Voiced By: Nobuo Tobita (JP), Thomas Coombes (EN)

Orpheus is the holder of the Bard Asterisk. A servant at Bernard's who likes to distract people with his music.

---

• The Atoner: The last sidequest has him trying to make up for the wrongs he committed against Musa and Savalon by becoming an honest bard and making the people happy with his music.
• The Bard: In his title, his skills revolve around playing songs with various effects such as status ailments.
• Boulder Bludgeon: Since Bard is a support class without many directly damaging abilities, he likes to throw a Stone at the party to deal damage to the group.
• The Chew Toy: Nothing goes right for him the entire game. Even after he starts redeeming himself in Savalon's eyes, he's made the butt of Anihal's jokes, much to everyone's delight.
• Clothes Make the Superman: His attire and his powers are directly sourced from the Bard Asterisk; once he is bested and the Asterisk liberated from his person, he changes into peasant garb involuntarily. He still has a trick for such a situation, though. During the fight with Shirley, however, he still is able to use his magic songs, meaning he must have mastered some of the Asterisk's powers while he was wielding it.
• Early-Bird Boss: Far harder than the other bosses thus far. If you haven't bought a bunch of bangles to raise your HP, you're gonna have a bad time. Even if you have you'll be in for a tough fight.
• The Exile: He was banished from Musa after he was caught stealing from the royal family. This ironically saves him when Adam and his army destroy Musa later.
• Fixed Damage Attack: He occasionally throws rocks at the party that deal 300 damage unless you're actively blocking them.
• Hate at First Sight: Seth instantly gains a very low opinion of Orpheus as soon as he meets him.
• Hate Sink: There's nothing good about him when the party first meets him, and Gloria's comments about him do nothing to paint him in a better light. Even after he's defeated and returns for Shirley's side quest imploring the party to beat her at her own game, he willingly sides with her because it'd be easier for him to repay his debts to her if he helped her kill the party instead. He, thankfully, turns over a new leaf for good in a late side quest.
• Jerkass: As soon as you meet him, Orpheus establishes himself as a stuck up prick who repeatedly mocks and insults Gloria for things that were completely his own fault to begin with. Later sidequests involving Anihal and Shirley have him develop a Heel–Face Turn, turning him into more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He used his position in the Musan court to steal money from the royal family. After the heroes defeat him, Shirley comes and tricks him into gambling all his money on her, leaving him in severe debt.
• Magic Music: As the holder of the Bard asterisk, he can perform music to buff himself and allies as well as weaken foes. He also uses it to temporarily mesmerize a crowd.
• Meaningful Name: He's named after Orpheus from Classical Mythology, a famous bard and son of Apollo who met a tragic end while trying to restore his wife Eurydice to life. As if to underscore the point, his surname is the Greek root word for "tragedy".
• Motive Decay: He once saw a traveling bard and was inspired by their ability to make a crowd happy with music, and wanted to become someone just like that. But once he became the royal bard, his greed got the better of him, and then he turned to vengeance when he was caught stealing. He does regain that passion in the last side quest involving him and Anihal.
• Never My Fault: Absolutely refuses to accept or admit that being thrown out of Musa was the result of his own actions, instead blaming Gloria and her ignorance of his art.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: He's a whiny, self important fop who sets an obvious trap for the party to walk into. However, he turns out to be a vicious boss.
• Recurring Boss: Is the only asterisk wielder to be truly fought multiple times outside of the trials in chapter 6, being fought once on his own, and again with Shirley.
• Support Party Member: The Bard job is almost exactly similar to the Performer job from the previous games, with its abilities that buff the party's stats. In his boss battle, Orpheus tends to stay back and buff the monsters in his party, attacking only once in a while.
• Trapped by Gambling Debts: After he's defeated by the Heroes and loses his Asterisk, he tries to cheer himself up by playing lots of B 'n' D in the gambling hall. Shirley takes notice and cons all his money, leaving him in debt to her, which is partially why he helps her in her boss battle.

The Beastmaster

Anihal

Voiced By: Yukiyo Fujii (JP), Rosie Day (EN)

Anihal is the holder of the Beastmaster Asterisk. A performer in the Savalon game house that is very faithful to Bernard.

---

• All of the Other Reindeer: She is seen as scum to anyone else in Savalon (outside the Gaming Hall) for being a foreigner and her reputation for talking to monsters.
• Anti-Villain: Unlike the other Savalon Asterisk bearers who are nasty pieces of work, Anihal is not evil at all and is only fought out of her fear of being thrown out.
• Apologetic Attacker: Before her boss fight and if she wins.
• Badass Adorable: Anihal is a cute girl who can tame fearsome monsters and utilize their power against her enemies.
• Bait-and-Switch: After inviting the party to her home, she calls out to her animal friends to feed them dinner. The party understandably assumes that Anihal brought them to feed to her animals, except she doesn't, and just feeds her animals with regular food. This is a big indication that Anihal is by no means a bad person.
• The Beastmaster: It's in her title. Adding to this, her Asterisk grants players the ability to capture and use monsters to fight.
• Believing Their Own Lies: She's convinced that Bernard loves her and all the abuse he throws her way isn't an indication that he actually hates her. Given that he only keeps her around because she's useful muscle and then vows to kill her after he finds out she betrayed him, it's clear that she's desperatly trying to rationalize the abuse like most victims.
• Better with Non-Human Company: By her own admission, she's good at communicating with monsters but terrible when it comes to people.
• Big "NO!": Lets one out when Castor murders Bernard right in front of her.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: She tries to talk the party out of fighting but insists she will fight them if she has to.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Is mostly seen with her snake monster "Bernie."
• Friend to All Living Things: Is fond of all animals and monsters, helping a child's puppy despite being tormented by Savalonian citizens in the process. This pays dividends to the party as a bird under her command steals the keys to the Savalon dungeon.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: The Beastmaster can use Mercy Strike (later Mercy Smash) to leave its targets with 1 HP in order to capture monsters. In Anihal's case, since she doesn't want to hurt the group, this translates to her trying to hold back at times.
• Grew a Spine: The crux of her entire character, really. When first introduced, she is blindly loyal to Bernard, so traumatized by her experiences she refuses to think for herself. As she spends time befriending the party, however, she allows herself to see the warts on Bernard's character for what they are, and learns to make the difficult choice to act against him. Once Bernard and Castor die, her growth accelerates, as she's able to live independently and make her own choices. This leads to Anihal becoming Pollux's Number Two, leading his armies in Savalon's charge against Holograd, and culminates in her, by herself, making the choice to bring the circus acts back to the gaming hall in Savalon. In fact, her development is such it mirrors Orpheus' character arc, which goes in the opposite direction. By the final sidequest involving the remaining Savalon bearers, she's the one in charge and Orpheus is the butt of the joke.
• Heel–Face Turn: While she was never a bad person in the first place, she actively helps the party after she's defeated, and later on becomes one of Prince Pollux's most trusted companions.
• HP to One: The Beastmaster's Mercy Strike and Mercy Smash cannot drop a target below 1 HP, which is useful for taming weaker monsters.
• Meaningful Name: "Anihal" is only one letter off from "Animal", which are her specialty.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: She is fiercely loyal to Bernard, who took her in after her troupe was killed. Bernard in turn constantly insults her and threatens to throw her out on the street if she displeases him. The party eventually convinces Anihal that she doesn't deserve Bernard's threats, and that what he's done in taking the Water Crystal is wrong. She agrees to help the party infiltrate Bernard's mansion and steal the crystal back, in the hopes that he can be convinced to turn over a new leaf.
• Nice Girl: Anihal is a very kind-hearted girl who can even tame monsters with her kindness, and only fights the party out of fear and reluctance.
• The Nose Knows: Her pet monster snake Bernie has a strong sense of smell that lets her tell smells apart. Snakes in real life actually do have a keen sense of smell, which is what they use to get around.
• Number Two: To Prince Pollux. The Prince trusts her with aiding the military and leans on her support quite a bit.
• Only One Name: Unlike the other Asterisk Holders shown, Anihal was not presented with a last name.
• Punch-Clock Villain: She doesn't like the bad things Bernard does and doesn't want to fight the party, but follows his orders because she doesn't want her and her pets to end up on the streets.
• Ship Tease: With Prince Pollux in some side quests and late-game cutscenes.
• Shoot the Medic First: In her boss battle it's best that you kill her Undine monster. Once of the enemies starts entering low HP territory, the Undine will start healing the entire party for as much HP it has currently, vastly outpacing the Heroes' damage output at that point in the game.
• Spanner in the Works: She is a very useful little girl:
  • She divulges where Bernard hides the Water Crystal to the party.
  • She rescues the party from Savalon's prison so they can confront Castor.
  • While optional, her pet Bernie can help the party get closer to identifying the assassin Marla posing as Lady Cygnus.
• Status Effects: Can inflict Silence on the entire party with the Muzzle ability and Blindness with one of her monsters, covering pretty much all offensive avenues available to you if you're not careful.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Anihal is a monster tamer who's good with animals and bad with people, just like H'aanit. The Beastmaster's ability to capture monsters and command them functions just like H'aanit's Talent in Octopath, unlike the Vampire and Catmancer classes from the previous games.
• Token Good Teammate: Out of all the asterisk users in Savalon, she only fights you because she doesn't want Bernard to get rid of her. Once her fight is over, she actively helps the party in retrieving the Water Crystal.
• Tragic Keepsake: The Heroes give her the dagger Bernard lost when he saved her life as a memento after he's killed.
• Turns Red: After her monster companions are defeated and she's brought to low health, she starts releasing Sandworms on the party, to attack them with Sandstorm.

The Gambler

Shirley Clarence

Voiced By: Junko Minagawa (JP), Cassie Bradley (EN)

Shirley is the holder of the Gambler Asterisk. A local patron of the Savalon game house that likes to swindle everyone who plays against her out of everything they have.

---

• Born Lucky: Her boss battle doesn't have much of this. Her Halls of Tribulation battle ramps it up due to the Gambler's Second Specialty increasing the odds to win at roulettes, though she can still miss a few times.
• Dual Boss: While she does come with other flunkies, she also fights alongside Orpheus in her boss battle.
• Femme Fatale: Uses her looks and innocent act to seduce Orpheus into gambling all his money onto her.
• Freudian Excuse: It takes a single loss of B 'n' D for her to complain people are only after money, as her father was swindled out of his money, her mother left them, and her father died from heartbreak. Mind you, the group was only trying to get her Asterisk fair and square without any intention to exploit it for riches.
• The Gambler: She uses a roulette wheel strapped to a bow as her weapon and she's encountered in the Casino of Savalon. Her skills are based around random chance, gambling for a high reward, or possibly instant death of the caster.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Her top, whether it be the art style or not, seems to barely cover her breasts. And the cleavage extends to her navel as well. This extends to Adelle, should she equip the Asterisk.
• Optional Boss: Is one of the few Asterisk users that are not required to be fought in the main story. That said, her asterisk is mandatory to reach the true ending.
• Random Effect Spell: The hallmark of the Gambler job. She uses Odds or Evens to perform a physical attack with a 50% chance of doubling in power. She also uses Elemental Wheel, which separately rolls a random element and a random number of attacks. If she rolls high, the party is in for a world of hurt.
• Riches to Rags: Her family was once noble and very wealthy, but her parents lost everything, and they both died soon after. Shirley took this as a lesson that the only thing anyone really cares about in this world is money.
• Serious Business: Losing a normal B 'n' D match is enough for her to try to kill the party. She did lose out on getting all their Asterisks, but that hardly excuses murder.
• Small Name, Big Ego: She fancies herself as a bigshot gambler, but she's only C-rank in B 'n' D. Might be a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation so the player doesn't have to grind through so many card games before they can challenge her for her Asterisk.
• Sore Loser: She doesn't take it well when she loses in B 'n' D, and even more so after her boss fight.
• Utility Party Member: The Gambler isn't really a competent combatant, but has plenty of beneficial abilities to boost money gain.
• We Will Meet Again: After she's defeated, she runs off not before threatening the party that she'll come back for revenge. By the time The Bard and the Beastmaster quest occurs and she returns, she has since mellowed out, however.

The Thief

Bernard Alfard

Voiced By: Takaya Kuroda (JP), Elliot Cowan (EN)

"Bernard's the name—dreaded master-thief and all-around criminal genius—and this Asterisk is mine!"

A so-called "treasure enthusiast" who is encountered at the end of the Sandswept Ruins in the demo. He claims the Thief Asterisk. In the main game, he is actually a part of the Savalon court, but secretly uses the water crystal to line up his pockets.

---

• Achilles' Heel: In the demo, he doesn't handle Thunder damage well. In the full game, he's weak to Earth elemental attacks instead.
• Acrofatic: Downplayed, as while he isn't fat, he's still quite burly, and still moves as fast as expected of a Thief.
• Ambiguous Situation: His diary briefly recounts the time he was recruited by Holograd to attack Musa. He states that the first to die was Holograd's Beastmaster and that he acquired the Asterisk from the latter. However, he writes ellipses before "acquired" and he states his desire to obtain more Asterisks, which implies that he backstabbed the Beastmaster. It doesn't help that in the present, he's actively trying to betray Castor, who is supposedly his ally.
• Ambition Is Evil: Before he became an elder for Savalon, he was nothing more than a shady thief who still was "good" enough to save Anihal's life. But once he became involved with Savalon, he started to commit more atrocious acts and turned into a conniving man. You know the man has gone to deep end once he muses about killing Anihal for giving away the location of the Water Crystal once he's done killing the group.
• Arc Villain: He's the primary antagonist of Chapter 1. Bernard has illegitimately come into possession of the Water Crystal, and has Orpheus and Anihal attack the party to keep them from reclaiming it. However, Castor simply kills him after he loses to the Warriors so he can claim the crystal for his own needs, becoming a Big Bad Wannabe.
• Big Bad Wannabe: He thinks himself the real master of all that happens in Savalon. With the Water Crystal in hand, he has a near limitless source of wealth. He even conspires with Prince Castor to lead the party by the nose, and plans to use the Crystal to obtain a permanent position of power in Savalon. However, he didn't expect that Castor would simply kill him and take the crystal instead.
• Characterization Marches On: His characterization is the biggest change from the first demo to the final demo and main game. In the first demo, he's never shown to be anything more than a common brigand; in the actual game, he's instead a recently ennobled member of Savalon's court.
• Clothes Make the Superman: The demo states that he found the Thief Asterisk and he uses it against the party in battle, meaning he is not its real owner. In the full game, it's not made clear if Edna gave him the Asterisk just like she did with Castor or if he had the Asterisk beforehand and used it to facilitate his rise to power. His reaction towards the other Asterisk holders in his diary entry implies the latter. Noticeably, he doesn't change clothes after defeating him and taking his Asterisk.
• Coat Cape: Wears a remarkably fancy coat held together by a chain around his shoulders. Seth and Elvis do the same as Thieves, while Gloria and Adelle wear equally fancy mink coats normally otherwise.
• Counter-Attack: While it's a common trait for bosses in this game, Bernard is notable for having five different counters: he punishes use of the Monk job's abilities with his own powerful physical attacks, while any attempt to recover HP, MP, BP, or apply status buffs can cause him to counter with the relevant stealing move to take the freshly-gained resources for himself.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: The party can understand why Anihal was attached to the man who saved her life, and they sympathize with him when they learn Bernard started down his path when he lost a friend who was stealing food to save Bernard's life. However, the party notes that while Bernard's actions towards Anihal were heroic, he also nearly drowned a country with an important magical artifact necessary for the continued balance of the world in a get-rich-quick scheme, making it difficult to feel bad about him dying.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a nasty looking one on the left side of his face, and is as unpleasant as you'd expect.
• Greed: The demo portrays him as particularly obsessed with financial gain, monologuing about how rich the Asterisk he has will make him, and even briefly offering to sell it for an obscene price before his boss battle This still holds true the full game, though his scheme is more about using the Water Crystal for the sake of profit.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Most of his outfit is made of leather and he's a no-good thief.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: When Prince Castor kills him.
• Jerkass at Your Discretion: When he's among other Savalon political figures, he comes off as polite, patient, and mellow. When he's alone with Anihal, he's verbally abusive even when she's doing something as simple as giving a report.
• Life Drain: In the demo, his Steal Breath attack can heal him for twice the damage he deals with it.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: As Adelle and Elvis note in his mansion, despite his many flaws, Bernard is a man of refined taste who enjoys a subtler touch to elegance. His outfit is fairly ritzy, too, managing to take the stereotypical 'thief' appearance and class it up with a fur-lined coat and studded vest. His English voice actor gives him a high-class Faux-British accent to sell the look.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: In the demo, Steal Breath is twice as effective for him as it is for you. The final game makes it function the same as the player's.
• Only One Name: In the English demo. He gives his full name as Bernard Alfard in the Japanese version.
• Pet the Dog: While Bernard is verbally abusive towards Anihal, he otherwise treats her substantially better than most of Savalon's populace does. One of Anihal's sidequests explores this side of him in a bit more depth. It's shown that he saved her life while she was attacked by a giant sandworm while trying to find food for her friends and gave her some food when seeing that she was starving for no ulterior motive at that moment. He was by no means friendly then, but he was hospitable enough to save her life.
• Red Herring: Anihal tells how bandits killed her traveling group before Bernard took her in. Since he is a thief, the player surely expects that it was him who drove her into poverty. He really wasn't involved in that incident.
• Secret A.I. Moves: His Perfectly Awful move isn't part of the Thief moveset.
• Super-Speed: The demo has his Godspeed Strike attack, which has him dart around the screen rapidly before moving in to attack. In the demo, it, it provides a speed buff as well, causing him to get several turns in a row in some instances. The final version instead uses its enormous speed to declare that You Are Already Dead, dealing its damage again a short time later.
• The Starscream: Despite conspiring with Prince Castor, he wanted to monopolize the Water Crystal for the sake of profit, which is why Castor kills him.
• Turns Red: After you wear him down in his boss fight, he starts using Perfectly Awful, which is powerful enough to one-shot anyone who isn't a Vanguard.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • He considers doing this on Anihal for seemingly betraying him if he manages to kill the group first.
  • He was being used as a pawn by Castor to hoard the Water Crystal's power for Savalon, but once the party bests him, Castor executes Bernard and uses the party as a scapegoat for the crime.

The Berserker (Spoiler Character)

Prince Castor

Voiced By: Satoshi Hino (JP), Adam El Hagar (EN)

"You think all that water is bad for the city? It is nothing compared to what drought would do! Nothing! We need the Crystal more than anyone!"

The holder of the Berserker Asterisk and a prince of Savalon. Willing to save his kingdom at any cost, he acquires the water crystal to supply endless water for the people behind the scenes.

---

• Achilles' Heel: He's weak to Water and Wind attacks. However, his Water weakness is a trap meant to trigger his Counter When Attacked With Water.
• Ambition Is Evil: Once Savalon started to face drought threats, Castor's desperation and Edna's manipulation led him to commit crime after crime behind the scenes.
• Anti-Armor: As an ally, he has the Lower Defense and Lower Magic Defense skills that do this to the respective defense types. When his Berserker job comes out, the skills get the much more menacing names of Shell Split and Scale Strip, and he gains the ability to pierce the Default state.
• Arc Villain: The true main villain of Chapter 1, having used Bernard to steal the Water Crystal for his people.
• Ax-Crazy: Murdered his own father in a fit of rage, and later murders Bernard because he outlived his usefulness. Bonus points for actually using axe-type weapons.
• Bad Boss: To Dromed, whom he belittles and insults at every opportunity. He's also this to Bernard.
• Barbarian Hero: The Berserker Asterisk's outfit certainly evokes the image, but Castor, while in possession of a more benevolent goal than most Asterisk bearers on this page, is a near-raving lunatic with a very dangerous philosophy regarding classism and what a proper government should look like. Played straight when the party gets the Asterisk.
• The Berserker: It's in the job description. The Berserker job specializes in all out offense at the cost of defense, having a skill that inflicts the Berserk status on the user.
• Boring, but Practical: In his Halls of Tribulation rematch, his strategy is to spam his normal attack until everyone on the other side of the field is dead. Given his insane offenses and the Berserker passive Indiscriminate Rage, this makes him the most dangerous guy on the field.
• Cain and Abel: Threw his brother Pollux in the dungeons to rule Savalon unopposed.
• The Caligula: He's veering dangerously close to this by the time his boss battle occurs. Between the Evil Laugh, openly advocating for the invasion of an allied kingdom, murdering his father to claim the throne, planning to get rid of the Council of Elders and committing murders in broad daylight it's safe to say he intended to be a brutal ruler.
  "Off with their heads!"
• Composite Character: The Berserker job takes aspects from the Pirate and Valkyrie jobs from the previous games, having access to physical attacks that debuff stats and attack all enemies at once, respectively.
• Condescending Compassion: He truly loves his kingdom and its people, yet can't help but see himself as above them.
• The Corruption: The Berserker Asterisk appears to behave this way in his hands. After it is given to him, he gives into his anger over Savalon’s situation more readily. Eventually, he activates the Asterisk reflexively during an argument with his father, and kills him in a berserk rage. Pollux notes he changed drastically after getting the asterisk.
• Crippling Overspecialization: The Berserker class grants its user terrifying power at the cost of defensive capabilities, and Castor's use of it, especially Vent Fury, take his damage from "incredibly powerful" to "pray for your Vanguard" if you let him. If you mitigate that, he becomes a lot more bearable, and the Freelancer's Purge can end his berserker rage before it cuts down your party.
• Death by Irony: His final fate echoes his father's: to die by his palace's railing, though in his case it gave way because of a missed attack he tried to throw on his father earlier. Becomes extra ironic when he dies by drowning in water.
• Didn't See That Coming: He would have gotten away scot-free with his evil actions... had Elvis' book not shown a flashback of him murdering his father to everyone present.
• Disney Villain Death: Dies by falling from the balcony he had previously damaged while attacking his father.
• Dual Wielding: During his tenure in your party, he wields an axe in his right hand and a dagger in his left.
• Evil All Along: Presents himself as an ally of the heroes, but he's secretly manipulating them for his own ends.
• Evil Costume Switch: The Berserker Asterisk costume is significantly more menacing looking than what he wears normally, and it isn't seen until it's clear he's a villain after all.
• Evil Laugh: Lets out an impressive one when he gets his hands on the Water Crystal.
• The Evil Prince: He murdered his own father for power and would have invaded Musa if given the chance.
• False Friend: To Gloria, to whom he offers shelter and assistance while actually planning to use her to get rid of Bernard so he can claim the Water Crystal for himself.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. He's immensely intelligent and manipulative and had the situation set up perfectly to ensure no one got the water crystal after pulling his masterstroke, but achieving his aim brought out the worst in him, and he refused to let Dromed bring in palace guards under the pretense that he could take the party in a fight easily. His pride was actually hinted at fairly well throughout the chapter, too, given his belief about being better than commoners was genuine. Of course, he ends up losing to the party, which leads to his Death by Irony when his defeat leaves him unable to kill the party and gives them the Asterisk they need to prove Castor killed his father.
• The Fatalist: He's convinced it's his destiny to rule over Savalon alone and justifies his evil actions as fate taking its inevitable course. Gloria disagrees.
• Glass Cannon: The Berserker boasts fantastically high Strength and surprisingly high Magic, but suffers from very low defenses and speed.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Though you don't know that he's an Asterisk Bearer at the time.
• Large Ham: He's pretty calm and composed at first, but once he reveals his true colors, he starts yelling and gesturing and chewing the scenery about as well as one could expect from the Berserker Asterisk bearer.
• Life Drain: Uses this and Mana Drain in his rematch incarnation in the Hall of Tribulation. Notably, he's one of a few Asterisk holders using abilities from jobs other than their own.
• Making a Splash: His Water Damage attack does physical water-element damage. It doesn't particularly fit with the rest of the Berserker's abilities, but certainly matches Castor's motivations. Ironically, he is weak against it, but it is all Schmuck Bait. His Halls of Tribulation fight changes that weakness into an element he can absorb. Even his enemy entry mentions water gave him power this time.
• Manipulative Bastard: Effortlessly fools the party into trusting him and is able to play them like a fiddle to both eliminate Bernard and retrieve the Water Crystal.
• Mask of Sanity: He presents himself as The Wise Prince, but beneath the mask he's really a raving homicidal maniac.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: He doesn't have the Indian accent most Savalonians do, for whatever reason.
• Pull the Thread: When he tries to accuse the party of assassination after they best him, Elvis' book shows a flashback to Castor's murder of his father; one guard checks the clock at the edge of the room and finds the evidence that brings the crazed prince's schemes crashing down.
• Schmuck Bait: Attempting to exploit his water weakness will result in him countering with Crescent Moon, dealing heavy damage to the party. Going with a x4 brave Blizzaga is a surefire way to get the party wiped out.
• Screaming Warrior: He lets out a primal yell whenever he Braves.
• Self-Made Orphan: A flashback reveals he murdered his father in a blind rage.
• Smug Snake: After he reveals his intentions, his smiles have this effect especially when he feigns a Wounded Gazelle Gambit, until Elvis' book screws him good.
• Spanner in the Works: Castor could have gotten away with accusing the party of an assassination attempt on him had Elvis' book not triggered the Thief Asterisk's memories of when he murdered his father and revealed his intentions to invade Musa to his loyal guards, who then turned on him.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Khamer from the first Bravely Default as the Well-Intentioned Extremist ruler of a desert nation who despises the commonfolk, is secretly in cahoots with The Empire and whose Evil Plan revolves around water. He even has a thief under his employ. He's a lot better at concealing his true intentions than Khamer ever was though.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Bernard. They're partners in crime, but Bernard always intended to keep the Water Crystal for himself and never shared the details of its location with Castor. Probably a wise decision too, given that Castor pulls a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on Bernard the moment he gets the Water Crystal.
• Unstoppable Rage: Vent Fury inflicts Berserk status on him. This greatly increases his attack power while reducing his defense, and causes him to only perform basic attacks for the next three turns. This prevents him from Defaulting or performing special attacks, but provides him with enormous power.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Gloria, having known him from childhood, remembers him as a kind young boy, and disapproves of his snobbish attitude towards the common people. She's even more upset to see what a villain he's turned into.
• Villain Has a Point: He may be bloodthirsty, but Savalon became a desert due to his ancestors' rampant deforestation, and his citizens do need water. Likewise, his anger stems from the fact that his father and brother Pollux only wanted to ensure the future of Savalon while not falling out of favor with their Council of Elders, seemingly not caring for the people suffering now from drought. The fact that Pollux actually agrees with him post-mortem and chooses to balance both the people and the future shows he wasn't entirely wrong.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: A hell of a lot of players had the misfortune to face him and go after his Water weakness by going Blizzard on his ass four times in one turn. With his Counter When Attacked With Water ability and the Berserker's natural high Phy. Atk and its Pierce Default speciality, the results aren't pretty.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He desires to save Savalon from its endless drought by using the power of the Water Crystal. However, he usurps the throne by killing his father and imprisoning his brother.
• White Hair, Black Heart: The berserker asterisk bleaches his hair white when activated, and below the surface he's a raging, murderous mess ready to kill anyone for the sake of Savalon.
• The Wise Prince: Subverted. He presents himself as a noble ally of the heroes, but in reality he's a treacherous, murderous individual who killed his father and had his brother imprisoned, and was planning to get rid of the council of elders to rule unopposed.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: After he loses, he tries to convince his guards to arrest the party on a false assassination attempt on him. It doesn't work when Elvis' book reveals what he did to his father.
• You Will Not Evade Me: The Bloody-Minded passive his Berserker job grants allows the user to ignore all enemy evasion against their physical attacks, in exchange for also adding recoil damage.

Wiswald Bearers

The Red Mage

Roddy McGranate

Voiced By: Yasunori Matsumoto (JP), John Mackay (EN)

The holder of the Red Mage asterisk, head of the Institute of Magical Inquiry, an old friend of Elvis's, and Lily's husband.

---

• All Your Powers Combined: The Disaster spell combines both wind and earth to deal heavy damage to an enemy.
• Anti-Villain: He is by no means a bad person, and is only fought because of Folie's brainwashing.
• Benevolent Mage Ruler: The kingdom of Wiswald is a bit unorthodox as a haven for scholars, and the head of the Institute is effectively the king. Roddy himself deeply cares for his subjects, but has a tendency to push himself too hard.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Is being controlled by Folie's painting to create blue paint under the belief it will bring his daughter back.
• Elemental Powers: The Red Mage uses Aero and Stone in battle.
• Flower Motif: Not a flower per se, but Roddy's coat, weapon, and brooch as the Red Mage all resemble pomegrantes. This is no surprise, given his name.
• Guest-Star Party Member: He accompanies the party after defeating him and until the end of the chapter and uses the Red Magic spells Stone, Aero, and Heal to aid them.
• Hypocritical Humor: He has the audacity to tell someone else not to push themselves too hard. Lily is NOT amused, and promptly drags him back to bed so he can rest.
• Meaningful Name: His last name is McGranate. No prize for guessing which fruit the Red Mage is themed after.
• Papa Wolf: Needless to say, Roddy is PISSED when he learns that Folie murdered his daughter.
• Red Mage: Red Mages can use both attack and support magic at the same time, although unlike most depictions of the Red Mage as a Crutch Character that can only learn up a certain level of magic, this incarnation of the job learns strong abilities to remain useful throughout the game.
• Status Effects: As a bonus, any damaging spell Roddy does (or a character that has the job) has a chance of inflicting a status effect.
• Weak, but Skilled: The Red Mage's stats are overall rather unimpressive, save for a fantastic Magic Defense stat, but its Nuisance speciality lets the job offer great utility with whatever element they can use, and their second speciality Chainspell effectively doubles their damage and healing output, although they still won't hit for much.
• Workaholic: Is the de-facto leader of Wiswald and works himself to the bone to keep the place running. He once didn't sleep for 3 days out of fear the town would fall apart without him. There are many more stories of his workaholic nature and how others tried hard to keep him from going overboard that he often found ways to keep overexherting himself anyway.

The Ranger

Lily McGranate

Voiced By: Miki Narahashi (JP), Amy Lennox (EN)

The holder of the Ranger asterisk and Roddy's wife. She lives out in the woods, with rumors saying it to be with Mona.

---

• Anti-Villain: She is not a bad person at all, and is only fought because of Folie's brainwashing.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Is being controlled by Folie's painting into believing her daughter is still alive and is kept out of the way in a distant forest to prevent her from interfering with Folie's plan.
• Damsel in Distress: She and the people of Wiswald are kidnapped by Vigintio in Chapter 4. Fortunately, the party manages to rescue them in time after killing Vigintio.
• Freak Out: After her defeat, the poor lady completely breaks down as she remembers that her daughter is dead.
• Friendly Sniper: After beating the brainwashing out of her, she becomes a kind-hearted housewife who wields a bow as her favored weapon.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Once beaten in a fight partway into the second chapter, she accompanies the party for the rest of chapter 2.
• Instant Expert: It's noted that she never even touched a bow before getting her Asterisk, but even after losing her Asterisk she still fights with a bow as a party companion.
• Mama Bear: Lily attacks the party out of the delusion that Mona is still alive. Unsurprisingly, she is not happy when she learns that Folie murdered her daughter.
• Turns Red: At low health, she starts using Humanoid Slayer instead of a basic attack. Seeing as the entire party is humanoid, this massively increases her damage potential.
• Weak, but Skilled: The Ranger's overall stats range from mediocre to low, apart from its high Speed, but it has great utility with its Slayer skills, and has exceptionally high hit and critical rates to go with its mastery over bows.

The Shieldmaster

Galahad Kelly

Voiced By: Hiroki Yasumoto (JP), Rhys ap Trefor (EN)

The holder of the Shieldmaster asterisk and another old friend of Elvis's. Has been tasked to guard a nearby tower.

---

• Brainwashed and Crazy: Is being controlled by Folie's painting to guard the tower where the Earth Crystal is supposedly held.
• Brother–Sister Team: Halls of Tribulation III puts him in a team with his sister Gladys, alongside Glenn, who also has a brother.
• Counter-Attack: The Reprisal ability causes 50% of damage taken by the user to be reflected back to the enemy. Galahad himself abuses this ability in his boss fight to an incredibly annoying degree. In his Halls of Tribulation rematch, he upgrades it to Harsh Reprisal, which reflects the full damage back to the attacker.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: He doesn't show up during Vigintio's raid on Wiswald because by the time it happens, he has traveled to Rimedhal to go visit his sister Gladys. Even if the quest is completed, it is assumed that he doesn't get back to Wiswald until the events there are over.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Like Roddy and Lily before him, he brings the guest star roster up to a whopping three for chapter 2 once knocked out of his mind control.
• Heroic BSoD: Being unable to save Mona from getting killed in an explosion put him in the dumps, though he is able to find closure. Learning his sister Gladys died while half of Rimedhal hated her guts just adds to his misery. Thankfully, the group helps to make him move on.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: His first fight is not meant to be won, as he's annoyingly sturdy to every attack you throw at him, and the fight automatically ends after attacking him enough times. If you do manage to take him out, the game (through Folie) flatly refuses to acknowledge it.
• Iron Woobie: Discussed In-Universe. Despite losing his parents and winding up in Wiswald, Roddy and Lily comment how the man hasn't broken down from that hardship and still ended up very dutiful, wishing that more people strong like him were around Wiswald. But then he returns to Rimedhal and learns about his younger sister Gladys's bad reputation she couldn't fix in time before she was killed by her own countrymen, prompting him into another Heroic BSoD.
• It's All My Fault: Blames himself for being unable to save Mona from dying, as he was there when the murder occurred, and blames himself again for not being able to prevent the death of his younger sister Gladys.
• Madness Mantra: PROTECT! PROTECT! BZZAAAGH!
• Manly Tears: He breaks down crying when he discovers that his younger sister, Gladys, is dead. The official art for the Wiswald Asterisk bearers even shows him crying hard.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue oni to his sister Gladys's red oni.
• Stone Wall: As the job name implies, he has a very high defense that almost nothing can get through. The Shieldmaster boasts truly ridiculous HP, Defense, and Magic Defense, at the cost of middling Strength, Magic, and Speed.
• Trauma Conga Line: Boy, does he suffer. Firstly, his parents were killed by Helio before he ended up in Wiswald and settled there, leaving his sister Gladys at Rimedhal. Secondly, he had the misfortune to witness Mona dying by an explosive posing as the earth crystal, putting him in deep despair that allowed Folie to brainwash him. And lastly, after the ordeal at Wiswald is over, he finally returns to Rimedhal to visit his sister Gladys...only to find out almost the whole town despises her for her actions in the judgements...and she's dead for it all. Thankfully, Galahad is able to move on.

The Pictomancer (Spoiler Character)

Folie Morris

Voiced By: Yumiri Hanamori (JP), Lucy Montgomery (EN)

"Prepare to be sacrificed for the sake of art! Hyeee hee hee heee!"

A self-proclaimed genius who is more than willing to destroy the lives of others in the name of her art.

---

• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: While not exactly technicolor much, her battle setting takes place in her lair with the ominous shifting painting in the background instead of the usual Asterisk ring of fire.
• Ambiguously Evil: It's left unclear if she was corrupted by the power of her asterisk the same way Castor was or if she's just plain evil.
• Arc Villain: Of Chapter 2, as she's the one who has the Earth Crystal, as well as being the mastermind behind the death of Mona, the trees overtaking Wiswald, and Galahad, Lily and Roddy's brainwashing.
• Art Initiates Life: Can create perfect replicas of existing objects by simply painting them, such as the fake Earth Crystal at the top of the tower in Wiswald. Her replica monsters are more obviously fake, but they hit just as hard as the real thing.
• Artsy Beret: Standard issue for the Pictomancer job class. Folie, Seth, and Gloria wear it large and centered on their heads, while Elvis and Adelle wear it small and off to the side.
• Ax-Crazy: Calling her completely insane is putting it lightly. It's even more obvious in battle, where she screams like a madwoman before launching an attack.
• The Battle Didn't Count: If you defeat Galahad before you're supposed to she'll reveal herself early, break the fourth wall, and inexplicably wind back time before the fight by painting on your screen.
• Berserk Button: Criticizing her art.
  "How dare you! Art is the most important thing in the world! Creators must be allowed to create!"
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Can inflict this on her victims through her paintings. It's how she brainwashed Galahad, Roddy and Lily.
• The Chessmaster: Unlike Horten and Castor, who are both prominently involved in their chapters and encounter the party multiple times before their final battles, Folie does everything in her power to obscure who she is and where she's hiding for the entire duration of the chapter.
• Collapsing Lair: How she meets her end.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In her Halls of Tribulation rematch she uses the Rewarding Results passive ability, which is part of the Phantom's moveset, not the Pictomancer's.
• Confusion Fu: Roddy, Lily, and Galahad note that Folie behaved extremely differently in front of each of them in order to produce this effect, making it harder to identify her.
• Creepy Child: Maybe. It's unclear if she's actually a child or a just a psychopathic adult posing as one. The creepy part however is unquestionable.
• Damage-Increasing Debuff: Part of the skillset of the Pictomancer asterisk.
• Death by Irony: She stole the Earth Crystal, and she dies by being crushed by rocks.
• Early-Bird Cameo: She can actually be spotted when the party first enters Wiswald, making paintings on a few buildings, but she cannot be interacted with. Defeating Galahad early also makes her appear and address the player directly.
• Eldritch Abomination: Her mural is a mess of colors that looks vaguely organic, with creepy eyes glaring at the player and more worryingly is animated like all her paintings, regularly assaulting the party with a powerful Darkra spell and a party-wide move that causes the dread status. Made even worse when you remember she mixed human blood and industrial waste with her paint. Said mural also bears a remarkable resemblance to how The Night's Nexus is depicted in the flashback told later by Gwilym. This, along with the fact that her other murals closely resemble Mag Mell has led to several wild theories about the mural's true origin.
• Enfant Terrible: She's an unrepentant killer who doesn't elicit any sympathy from the party when they finally meet her face to face.
• Evil Is Petty: Second to being a Mad Artist, this trope is the crux of her character. Everything about her is either petty or Disproportionate Retribution for perceived wrongs. Need blue paint? Murder the daughter of the head scientist of Wiswald so you can use his despair to mind control him into making blue paint from industrial waste. Need yellow paint? The obvious answer is to create special trees that offer no food but have good bark to draw yellow paint from. People losing their homes and living in a giant fire hazard are acceptable losses. Need red paint? Kidnap and slit the throats of dozens of adults! It's all okay to Folie, because the world is full of idiots who don't understand her talent.
• Expy: The game's director specifically compared her asterisk to Relm Arrowny, and she also bears a strong resemblance to Adeleine. Her personality, however, is NOTHING like either of those two.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: She's noted to be quite innocent-looking, which accentuates her insanity whenever it starts leaking out.
• Faux Affably Evil: When she's finally confronted right before her boss battle, she politely introduces herself talks with the Heroes while still peppering the conversation with insults aimed at their intelligence.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: If the player manages to defeat Galahad during his scripted battle, she will paint the screen, triggering a Reset Button that will bring the player back to right before the battle.
• French Jerk: Speaks with a heavy French accent, and is most definitely a jerk.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Her murals describing her backstory attempt to paint her unhappy childhood as one, and lack of appreciation for her and her art as another. Given the next room is where she's thrown the corpses of the missing citizens of Wiswald after using their blood for red paint, any sympathy she might have had instantly evaporates. Made even hollower when, after defeating Folie, one of the kids in the area with the orphan children says he liked the paintings Folie put up around town and thought it was a "shame" that they were taken down. So people did appreciate her art.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: The Art Initiates Life powers she has in the story aren't part of the Pictomancer moveset.
• Green Thumb: Not her specifically but she's able to wield that power thanks to being in possession of the Earth Crystal, having stolen it from Musa. It's how she caused Wiswald to be overrun with trees. She came into possession of this crystal and utterly changed Wiswald's landscape, toppling homes and ruining lives, because she needed all the extra trees to make special yellow paint better than any she could get at a store.
• Hate Sink: Folie is easily one of the most despicable antagonists in the game, with her horrific crimes being committed for a shockingly insignificant reason.
• It's All About Me: Folie has a massive persecution complex, blaming her loneliness and despair on people being stupid and not giving her enough attention. At first the party is willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she, like Prince Castor and Bernard, must have some positive qualties; this illusion shatters when they learn Folie is so self-centered she murdered people to use their blood for red paint. She then has the audacity to get mad at everyone else for ruining her work.
• Jerkass: Would you expect nothing less from a murderous psychopath?
• Karmic Death: Committed all her crimes in order to paint her Magnum Opus, and ends up crushed beneath the rubble of her collapsing lair because she refuses to abandon it.
• Knight of Cerebus: Horten was a Smug Snake and Castor a Well-Intentioned Extremist but she's a complete, unrepentant psycho who participated in the destruction of Musa, killed Mona, brainwashed her parents into becoming mindless servants, and orphaned many children in Wiswald by murdering their parents to make red paint out of their blood, setting the tone for what the rest of the Chapter antagonists are going to be like.
• Laughing Mad: "Hyee hee hee hee!"
• Living Drawing: She can create these thanks to the power of her asterisk. In her boss fight her mural acts as a Background Boss, periodically assaulting the party while remaining out of the player's reach.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Defeating her causes her lair to crumble down (apparently as a result of her magic no longer powering her mural) and she ends up buried in the rubble.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Was this in her backstory. The party notes that this doesn't excuse her from being a murderous lunatic.
• Mad Artist: Fits this trope to a T.
• Master Poisoner: Poisons Seth when he grabs the fake Earth Crystal by mixing poison in her paint. She mentions this isn't the worst she can do with her paint, as she can also make bombs out of her artwork, like the ones used to kill Mona.
• Meaningful Name: Folie is French for madness, and she proves herself to be quite the Mad Artist. Also overlaps with Names to Run Away from Really Fast.
• Misanthrope Supreme: She detests humans for being stupid and not appreciating her art and genius.
• Narcissist: Folie sees herself as a master artist, but she thinks nobody respects her talents and calls them "ugly and stupid". Considering how there were at least some people who liked some of her paintings, it's pretty clear she never gives people a chance. Seth and Adelle even lampshade just how egotistical and self-centered Folie is to look down on people and think she is much better than them.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • The rage Elvis feels after learning the full extent of her crimes is what enables him to bond with the Earth Crystal, designating him as the third warrior of light.
  • The Mona scarecrow Lily made while brainwashed has wald ash wood parts, which Elvis and Roddy reverse engineer to permakill Vigintio.
• Older Than They Look: In the Japanese version, Lily and Galahad think she's really an adult who is putting on a childlike act. In the English version, she is described as "childlike" and as having a "butter-wouldn't-melt look about her." In both versions, she speaks about her childhood as if it's in the past. According to the mobile game Bravely Default: Brilliant Lights, she's 25.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: There are some hints she may actually be an adult, such as her being described as "childlike" and her mentioning her childhood as if it were in the past. In addition, Lily and Galahad in the Japanese version outright believe she is an adult.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The paintings she uses to control Galahad, Roddy and Lily all have glowing red eyes when talking.
• Serial Killer: She’s murdered multiple people and use their blood as red paint, piling the bodies of her victims at a specific point in her cave.
• Skewed Priorities: Chooses to remain in her crumbling lair because she can't bear to part with her art masterpiece, which ends up killing her.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Fancies herself a great artist, but some of her paintings look crude to say the least, and the party comments that they find them disturbing to look at. Other paintings of hers look decent, and at least one person in Wiswald seems to have liked them. Because she never gives potential acquaintances a chance, she likely didn't even know this.
• The Sociopath: Perhaps one of the most sociopathic characters among the Asterisk Bearers, if not the biggest. Folie has an egotistical view of herself and her talents, cares nothing for the lives she ruins nor how her actions affect others, has a need for stimulation in the form of painting, and commits her crimes for the most petty of reasons.
• Spooky Painting: All of her art qualifies really, but special mention goes to the paintings she uses to brainwash Galahad, Roddy and Lily.
• Squishy Wizard: The Pictomancer has a massive MP pool, with great Strength, Magic, Healing, and Speed, but pays for it with very low HP and Defense.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Victoria F. Stein from the first game, both being deranged and murderous children who kill because they can, also murdering someone dear to one of the main characters, earning them their seething hatred and wrath, with the distinction being that Victoria is much more sympathetic than Folie. She's also one to Mephilia Venus, as a magically-oriented, barely coherent psychopath with a warped vision of the world who thinks nothing of murdering children.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Elicits this reaction from the party in general and Elvis in particular once they learn both the full extent of her crimes and the incredibly petty motives behind them.
• The Unfettered: There's nothing she won't do in the name of her art.
• Unreliable Narrator: Her backstory is full of holes on account of her being a batshit insane misanthropist. It's quite possible what she wrote down is only her interpretation of events that unfolded differently in reality.
• Vague Age: Is she a child still, a teenager, a very youthful and petite woman? Who knows? If she's an adult, her artist's smock and hairpin are probably what make her look so childlike. Gloria, whose Pictomancer outfit is most similar to Folie's, also looks childlike when it's her main job.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: One of the few characters to capitalize on the trope, Folie prominently presents a fake Earth Crystal at the top of Wiswald's central tower and brainwashes Galahad to guard it. Her actual lair is a much smaller cavern hidden behind a piece of graffiti.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Her eyes always look like this whenever her Mask of Sanity starts falling apart.
• Would Hurt a Child: Murdered Mona and made it look like an accident.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: The Pictomancer asterisk grants her a powerful light magic attack, Chiaro, and a powerful dark magic attack, Scuro.

The Black Mage (Spoiler Character)

Lady Emma Odilia

Voiced By: Masako Katsuki (JP)

The former holder of the Black Mage Asterisk and a past Hero of Light. She was a professor of the Institute of Magical Inquiry and the mentor of Elvis and Roddy. She passed away six months before the story began, leaving Elvis to take up her Asterisk and mission of deciphering the mysterious book.

---

• The Archmage: She's one of Wiswald's most powerful wizards, if not the most powerful, and was responsible for establishing the city as a place for wizards and magical research. She was also the person who killed Vigintio after he began experimenting on humans. A conversation between Elvis and Roddy mentions them cleaning up the messes left from the people who challenged her.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: As a black mage, she can use the fire, ice, and lightning line of spells.
• Founder of the Kingdom: She founded the kingdom of Wiswald 50 years ago.
• Older Than She Looks: She fought alongside Sir Sloan in his prime, yet she doesn't look any older than the rest of the adult cast. Not even Elvis knows how old she really is, and remarked that her physical age seemed to vary every day. Her diary explains that she's using her magic to delay her aging, but it was only a measure to buy more time.
• Optional Boss: You can fight her in the Halls of Tribulation after getting the Bravebearer Asterisk.
• Posthumous Character: Already dead by the start of the story.
• Precursor Heroes: She was one of the Heroes of Light who fought the Night's Nexus 50 years ago.
• The Unfought: She's deceased by the time the story begins, leaving Elvis as the proper holder of her Asterisk. This makes the Black Mage the only Asterisk whose owner doesn't need to be defeated to obtain it. A memory of her is available as an optional boss to unlock the Black Mage's final abilities.

Rimedhal Bearers

The Salve-Maker

Glenn Booth

Voiced By: Soshiro Hori (JP), Conor MacNeill (EN)

The holder of the Salve-Maker asterisk. A genuinely nice guy and mayor of a small village near Rimedhal called Enderno, whose twin brother is currently trapped in an endless dream.

---

• All Love Is Unrequited: He was in love with Glynn's wife, Aine, but she did not return his affections and outright rejected him, preferring Glynn. However, he doesn't hold it against her or his brother.
• Always Someone Better: Subverted. Glynn is convinced that his wife Aine loved Glenn more than him, but Aine never felt romantic feelings for Glenn at all.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: He is this to Qada, who was the Salve-Maker Asterisk in the original game and quite overeager about using his talents to create deadly concoctions.
• Dual Wielding: The Thrust and Parry skill incentivizes this. The Salve-Maker will take 15% less damage for every weapon equipped. If Highwind or Dual Wield is in effect, an an additional 20% is added on top, giving them 50% free damage reduction.
• Fighting Irish: The English localisation of the game gives him (and the other citizens of Enderno) an Irish accent, though he takes it a step further by having a four-leaf clover in his mouth in the promotional art.
• Fixed Damage Attack: He's not going to beat you with his shovel. As a Salve-Maker, his stats aren't that impressive, but Contagion Agent will always deal 1,500 damage to the entire party unless Defaulted or some other defensive measure is taken, making him dangerous if he can get 3 BP.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Glenn and Glynn are identical save for which side their bangs fall on. Glenn's hair falls on the left side of his face, while Glynn's hair falls on the right.
• It Was a Gift: The Salve-maker Asterisk turns out to be a gift passed down by his family, who received it from Aileen when she and the previous Heroes of Light came to the village and saved the villagers from a contagious illness.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He loved Glynn's wife Aine, and wants the best for both of them, even if he's not part of the equation.
• Outside-Context Problem: He has no relation to the main plot other than the fact that he has an asterisk on him. In fact you only fight him because he has an "evil" version inside a nightmare.
• Red Herring: His dream version gives the party the sense that he has ulterior motives to screw Glynn over for losing Aine's affections. However, his exaggerated "Ogre King" persona is just Glynn reliving the times when all three of them used to play a game when they were children.
• Shoot the Medic First: In his Hall of Tribulations rematch, he can resurrect his fallen allies with compounded Phoenix Downs. You'd better take him out first if you want to win.
• Shovel Strike: He (or at least his dream version) wields a shovel in battle. It's classified as an axe if you happen to obtain it as a common drop in the Halls of Tribulation.
• Support Party Member: The Salve-Maker job focuses heavily on applying buffs to allies and debuffs to enemies rather than dealing direct damage. Aside from its multi-purpose Mixing skill, it has the ability to revive allies, reveal enemy weaknesses, inflict status effects, and healing teammates.
• Token Good Teammate: Unlike the rest of the Rimedhal Asterisk-bearers save Martha, and even the majority of Asterisk-bearers in general, Glenn is a legitimately nice person who uses his asterisk for good and only wishes to save his brother.
• The Unfought: Glenn is never actually fought, as the party only defeats a dream version of him in his twin brother Glynn's nightmares and he straight-up gives them his asterisk as thanks.

The Dragoon

Martha Lancer

Voiced By: Aya Endo (JP), Kimberley Nixon (EN)

The holder of the Dragoon asterisk and an old friend of Adelle's. Is tasked with guarding and watching over the Lord of Dragons.

---

• Ambiguously Bi: Uses innuendo when dealing with Seth and Adelle, implying attraction to both. This flusters both of them to her amusement.
• Blood Knight: She challenges the party to a battle for no other reason than the joy of a good fight. That said, her Asterisk battle is simply a friendly sparring match: she gives you ample time to prepare for if you need to, no one comes away from the battle injured, and she hands her Asterisk over without a second thought afterward. That being said, losing to her is still a Game Over, despite her asking to have another go.
• Cleavage Window: Her Dragoon outfit leaves a window for her cleavage.
• Cool Big Sis: She acts as one to Adelle and Gladys.
• Dragon Knight: The appointed guardian of the Lord of Dragons, and the owner of the Dragoon Asterisk.
• Face Death with Dignity: Remains calm and composed even as she's falling into the abyss. Fortunately, Adelle jumps in and reveals her identity as a fairy to rescue her.
• Fighting Your Friend: She's an old friend of Adelle's, and she fights you for sport.
• Guest-Star Party Member: The final one in the game. She teams up with Gwilym and the party during the climax of chapter 3 to hold off the invading Holograder forces, bringing her powerful jump and AOE attacks to bear.
• Hidden Depths: She's an S-ranked B 'n' D player despite staying in a cave with no one except Gwydion and Gwylim for company. She lampshades it when you challenge her to a game for the first time.
• Innocent Innuendo: Her request for the party to sleep over and play with her in a mock battle initially sounds like she's asking for something else.
• Lightning Bruiser: The Dragoon has great Strength, good Defense, and incredible Speed and Magic Defense, at the cost of being a Magically Inept Fighter.
• Nice Girl: Martha is a very friendly and kind lady.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The game plays the typical menacing impeding battle theme prior to your fight with her despite Martha being entirely friendly.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Dragoon Asterisk is this to the Valkyrie Asterisk from Default and Second, being another spear-oriented job with jumping attacks.
• Token Good Teammate: Martha is not a bad person, being an old friend of Adelle's, and fights the party just for a friendly spar.

The Spiritmaster

Helio

Voiced By: Fukushi Ochiai (JP), Rhydian Jones (EN)

"You stand accused of the most heinous of crimes - that of being a nefarious fairy in disguise!"

The Lord Inquisitor, and holder of the Spiritmaster Asterisk. Tasked with overseeing the Judgements to find fairies and executing them.

---

• Arc Villain: The true one of Chapter 3, being a spy sent to destabilize Rimedhal and allow Holograd to invade. He does this by playing into Domenic's envy and kickstarting witch hunting trials over a fairy.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He acts like a soft-spoken and well-meaning clergyman, but he's really a sadistic and ruthless agent of Holograd.
• Death by Irony: He killed dozens, if not hundreds in the name of the Lord of Dragons to destabilize Rimedhal, only to be killed himself by the very deity whose name he desecrated with his actions. Since he stole the Fire Crystal, he dies by being burned to a crisp by Gwydion's flames.
• Dirty Coward: He tries to run away from the battlefield after cruelly mocking Gladys in her dying moments. Gwydion catches him almost immediately and proceeds to viciously roast his smarmy ass into a crisp.
• Dual Boss: Is fought alongside Gladys in the Jaws of Judgment.
• Expy: Has more than a few similarities to Inquisitor Guillaime. Both are spellcasters who infiltrate a religious nation in a wintry region (which is experiencing non-standard weather when the heroes show up, to boot) and supplant themselves as high-ranking church officials, then use their position to have their enemies executed by having them cast into a chasm, with the claim that if the accused are the true enemy, they would transform themselves and fly to safety. Pretty much the only meaningful difference is that Rimedahlian worship actually has a reason to believe the falsely-accused will survive, not that it turns out to be true.
• Eyes Always Shut: Though he does open them when he reveals his true nature and intentions, revealing bright green eyes.
• Fatal Flaw: His two biggest flaws are his overconfidence and his self-indulgence. He is far too confident in his abilities to be running into an active war zone after accomplishing his goal. He already had the fire crystal - all he had to do to succeed was deliver it to the Holograd army and walk away to success and fortune back home. He risked everything on the chance to gloat to Gladys about how he killed her parents. Even weakened, she was The Brute in the fairy trials for a reason, and easily knocks him around when she gets the chance. By that point, him being so far behind enemy lines meant there was no way he would avoid his ultimate fate in the end.
• Good Powers, Bad People: His Spiritmaster job gives him healing abilities beyond what a White Mage can accomplish, as well as light-elemental offensive spells. He's also the most malevolent of the Rimedhal Asterisk bearers, due to being a Holograd agent trying to destabilize the country from within.
• Hanging Judge: The Judgements inevitably end with the accused thrown into the Jaws of Judgement.
• Hate Sink: He's up there with Folie as one of the most despicable antagonists in the story.
• Holy Hand Grenade: The Spiritmaster has access to Banish, the light elemental damage spell, and eventually learns Holy.
• The Inquisitor General: His title is Lord Inquisitor, and his job is to root out potential undercover fairies and publicly try them in a ceremony known as the Judgement.
• Jerkass: He is an irritatingly smug bastard.
• Just Between You and Me: Reveals to Gladys that he was the one who killed her parents as she lays wounded and helpless.
• Kangaroo Court: His fairy trials are trials in name only.
• Kill It with Fire: How he meets his end, courtesy of Gwydion.
• Lack of Empathy: Couldn't care less about the many lives he took during his time as Lord Inquisitor.
• Light Is Not Good: When holy robes and the strongest light magic in the game are wielded by a sociopathic spy who intends to destroy Rimedhal from within, it definitely isn't.
• Manipulative Bastard: From getting Domenic to start the Judgements (which were previously reserved for serious crimes), to wrapping Gladys around his finger, to whipping the population of Rimedhal into a frenzy at a snap of his fingers, he's a scarily competent one.
• The Man in Front of the Man: Appears to be Domenic's devoted servant, but is actually the one pulling Domenic's strings by playing into his envy of fairies.
• Meaningful Name: His name relates to the sun. He's almost always squinting as if blinded by light, his staff features an image of a sun, and he's the true brains behind using the Fire Crystal in Rimedhal. Said plan involved melting snow to make Holograd's invasion easier. Ironically, he meets his end by being burned alive.
• The Mole: He's actually working for Holograd to weaken Rhimedhal from within.
• Sinister Minister: He's a bishop of Rhimedhal and the Lord Inquisitor of the Lord of Dragons, and he is also the one who suggested the Judgements increase from the highest of offenses to a regular occurrence in order to destabilize the country for invasion.
• Smug Snake: He's legitimately intelligent, and like Castor gets everything he could have wanted from following his plans and weakening Rimedhal from within through the fairy trials, but is himself possessed of an overinflated ego that sees him get into physical scraps his job and overall abilities cannot handle. He has no choice but to run when he's beaten by the party in the Jaws of Judgment, and makes the boneheaded decision to taunt Gladys, who is far, far, far more powerful and muscular than him, even weakened from blood loss and a fatal wound. This ends up costing him dearly.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Never raises his voice, even when gleefully taunting Domenic or Gladys about how he deceived them and intended to bring Rimedhal down all along.
• Squishy Wizard: He can't take hits too well and really doesn't hit too hard, but it's almost inevitable you will Shoot the Medic First in his boss fight because his skills as a healer are exceptional and he's partnered with Gladys when he confronts the party, who hits like a speeding bullet train.
• Straw Hypocrite: He seems fiercely devoted to his cause of protecting the people of Rimedhal from fairies, no matter how many people he has to throw into the Jaws of Judgement. It's all an act, he couldn't care less about fairies and is just doing it to weaken Rimedhal from within in order to facilitate the coming invasion from Holograd.
• Stupid Evil: He just has to indulge in his petty sadism and taunt Gladys about how he killed her parents. This earns him a sword to the gut and costs Holograd the Fire Crystal.
• Summon Magic: The Spiritmaster asterisk is a variant of this, as it enables its wielder to summon spirits that regularly heal the party.
• Support Party Member: Both what the Spiritmaster is focused on and, appropriately, how the Lord Inquisitor approaches a fight. He has one of the lowest HP pools among any boss in the game (especially considering he's fought in Chapter 3 - Martha had over 50,000 to his over 20,000 HP, and Gladys has about double of what Helio has normally.) and doesn't hit too hard, but he's being backed by Gladys, meaning his goal in a fight is to keep her alive - something he excels in.
• Walking Spoiler: Hardly anything can be said about the man without massively spoiling the events of Chapter 3.
• White Mage: The Spiritmaster returns from the first game as the best healing support job in the game, with powerful abilities that can restore HP and MP, cleanse all ailments, grant BP, and raise fallen allies for 3 turns.
• Witch Hunt: He's the one in charge of conducting the Judgements and subsequent executions. It's later revealed he was the one who started them, to destabilize Rimedhal.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Throws a dagger in Domenic's chest on Adam's orders after the latter fails to eliminate the party.

The Swordmaster

Gladys Kelly

Voiced By: Mitsuki Saiga (JP), Kezia Burrows (EN)

The holder of the Swordmaster asterisk. A trigger-happy lady who is the one tasked with hunting for fairies to be held for Judgements.

---

• Animal Motifs: Gladys wears a shoulderpad shaped like the head of a rhinoceros, and is strong and dependable, but reckless and unstable at her worst.
• Base-Breaking Character: In-Universe, after she dies fighting off Holograd's invasion. Some of the Rimedhalians are happy she got her just desserts for killing so many innocent people, others are willing to look past her crimes and focus on how she selflessly laid down her life to protect her kingdom and its people.
• Berserk Button: Mentioning fairies is a sure way for her to get very defensive.
• Brother–Sister Team: Halls of Tribulation III puts her in a team with her older brother Galahad, alongside Glenn, who also has a brother.
• The Brute: She's not stupid, but her animosity blinds her significantly and tends to put the blinders over her face whenever she hears about fairies. Helio uses her as a blunt cudgel in the fairy hunts for this reason as she has the most prominent abs and musculature in the game, and makes good use of them in a fight. For the brief time she's working with the party, she makes a natural Big Gal, now understanding the suffering she caused and aiming to make amends. She even downs three Holograders in a single stab - and the last battle the party was in served to demonstrate they were damage sponges!
• Chainmail Bikini: The female version of the Swordmaster outfit leaves the midriff bare for the girls, but completely covers the torso for the guys.
• Counter-Attack: Like the previous game, the Swordmaster has access to powerful counterattacks, though a distinction is that they can only use it in Fluid Stance.
• Death by Irony: As pointed out by Helio himself, she rounded up many to be killed in the Judgements in the name of revenge for her parents, only to be killed by a man seeking vengeance for his sister, whom she killed.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: During the battle against Holograd, after Gladys is backstabbed by another soldier for the death of his parents, she is able to wrest the Fire Crystal from Helio and get it to Seth's party before dying.
• Dual Boss: Is fought alongside Helio in the Jaws of Judgment.
• Fantastic Racism: She loathes fairies because they were responsible in her parents' deaths, and is more than a little trigger happy when it comes to accusing the party of being fairies themselves. While the true killer turns out to be Helio, not only is one of the party an actual fairy, but in a roundabout way, a fairy was technically responsible for her parents' deaths; Edna, who scattered the Asterisks and pushed Lord Adam to conquer everything, which led Helio to assassinate her parents for discovering the truth about the Judgements.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Two instances for gameplay to help get across something unique to Gladys; it's easy to miss, but out of every job master in this game, she's the only one to wield her weapon with both hands. As you later learn, Swordmasters get Two Hands Are Better Than One in their skill tree, which increases how much damage someone does if they wield a weapon in one hand and nothing else in the other. She actually knows how to properly wield a greatsword because of this. Going further, the Halls of Tribulation allow you to take her Executioner's Blade, which gives its wielder all the Swordmaster passive abilities - so even just by holding the sword, Gladys can use it with both hands.
• Gladiator Games: Unlike the previous games where the Swordmaster had a samurai-like aesthetic, the job takes on a more gladiator-like design in this game.
• Glass Cannon: The Swordmaster has incredible Strength and high Speed, but has low defenses.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: After she learns the truth about the judgements and all the innocent people she sent to their deaths, she tries to redeem herself by defending the city against the Holograd invasion. She dies in the battle, not to the Holograd soldiers, but to one of her own allies, whose sister was killed by Gladys.
• Inspector Javert: After the Heroes publicly defy Domenic, Gladys starts hounding them wherever they go and admits she's already decided to kill them, only waiting for the perfect excuse to do so.
• Karmic Death: A tragic example. Even though she tries her best to redeem herself, she still actively caused the deaths of many innocent people, and dies at the hands of one of her soldiers, whose sister she falsely executed.
• Karmic Nod: As she dies, she acknowledges that her role in the Judgements means she had it coming.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is a pun on a type of sword used by the Romans known as a gladius.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Adelle forces her to look at the countless number of corpses in the Jaws of Judgement, Gladys is completely and genuinely horrified at the atrocities she actively caused, realizing that Helio had been using her.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When she rescues one of her soldiers from Holograd forces, the soldier responds by fatally stabbing her, remembering that she murdered his innocent sister for supposedly being a fairy.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: A twofer, even! In a sidequest following chapter 3 it is heavily implied that the carnage Gladys brings down upon the Holograd army is much greater than what the player gets to see. The player gets to see her one-shot three Holograd soldiers with a single stab, but given the context of the situation she was apparently one of the only people holding the entirety of the back entrance to Rimedhal against Holograd's invasion. She then follows this act up by staggering all the way back to Rimedhal with fatal and grievous wounds, a part of the story the player sees the impetus for but not the process.
• One-Man Army: If the people of Rimedhal are to be believed, her holding off Holograd with a skeleton crew in the back of Rimedhal during the Holograd invasion makes her this.
• One Head Taller: Even with the chibi-esque art style of the character models, Gladys stands at least a head taller than most people she shares the screen with.
• Redemption Equals Death: Realizing she's been used by Helio, she tries to redeem herself by fighting back against Holograd. However, one of her own soldiers, still angry at her for blindly killing his sister in the Judgements, fatally stabs her and leaves her to die. She manages to return the Fire Crystal to the party just before succumbing to her wounds.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • The red oni to Helio's blue oni.
  • Also applies to the relationship between her and her older brother Galahad.
• Religious Bruiser: She's The Brute for Helio and believes everything that he and Domenic say about the Judgements, since she sees them as pious clergymen. Sidequest 61 reveals that her own parents were also priests in Rimedhal's church, and they were killed by Helio for trying to obstruct his agenda. Once she learns the truth, she turns against Helio.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: She has Fantastic Racism towards fairies because they killed her parents, and accuses the party of being fairies themselves despite lacking evidence. Though Helio was the real killer (they found out the truth behind him and were silenced because of it), a fairy was partly responsible for her parents' deaths. Helio only has the Spiritmaster Asterisk because Edna gave it to him. Additionally, Rimedhal became warm enough for Holograd troops to easily move through and attack the city because Edna and Adam destablized the leadership of the country through Helio and used Domenic's envy of fairies and mania towards the fire crystal. As for the party, Adelle herself really is a fairy, and has been one all along.
• Spared, but Not Forgiven: Rhydion refuses to forgive Gladys for sending Margaret to her death, but he also refuses to kill her, since he was also complicit in the Judgements. However, not all the Rimedhalians feel the same way, as shown when a soldier stabs her for killing his sister.
• Stance System: The Swordmaster has two distinct stances in battle: the Solid Stance, which specializes in using their regular attacks twice in a row and delaying enemy turns, and the Fluid Stance, which specializes in counterattacks and BP manipulation.
• Taking You with Me: The Out With A Bang passive unleashes a powerful attack on all enemies if the user is knocked out.
• Tautological Templar: She's fanatical about her belief that fairies are evil and believes anyone who stands up for the Judgement victims is either a fairy or a fairy sympathizer. She also fully believes in Domenic and Helio's righteousness and falls for their circular logic whenever they accuse someone of being a fairy, and therefore believes that she's smiting evil by following their orders. This is because of Helio killing her parents and blaming their deaths on fairies.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Martha remembers how Gladys used to be sweeter until her parents died.
• The Witch Hunter: Serves as the main hunter of those accused of being fairies, due to her hatred of fairies killing her parents.
• You Killed My Father: Why she hates fairies so much and is way too quick to accuse the party of being ones themselves for questioning the Judgements, as they were responsible for her parents' deaths. It turns out that Helio was the true killer, having assassinated them for discovering the truth behind the Judgements. In a twist of fate, a fairy did play a part in her parents' death: Edna, who scattered the Asterisks and pushed Lord Adam to conquer everything, which led Helio to sneak into the country and destabilize it, and assassinate her parents for refusing to stay quiet about the Judgements.

The Oracle

Domenic

Voiced By: Hiroshi Naka (JP), Michael Cochrane (EN)

The Archbishop and ruler of Rimedhal, and holder of the Oracle asterisk. He has received the Fire Crystal, dubbing it as the Lord of Dragons' blessing, but uses that as an excuse to get rid of people opposed to his position of power.

---

• Arc Villain: Of Chapter 3, as he's the one with the Fire Crystal and started the fairy trials to remove any who opposes his will. However, he's simply driven by envy and was being used by Helio, who was a spy sent by Adam to destabilize Rimedhal in time for the invasion, and is killed by Helio after he loses.
• Attack Reflector: The Oracle carries the Reflect spell, and he'll prioritize casting it on anyone in your party with White Magic to keep them from healing themselves, as well as casting it on himself to spread out the effects of his Triple magic.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Discussed by the party and brought up with Domenic himself, but never given a concrete answer. It's not clear whether he truly believes Gwydion is still speaking to him, but there are hints towards both sides of the argument.
  • Gwydion was speaking to him at one point, so there is an established history where Domenic truly was the voice of the Lord of Dragons. His own envy blinded him to Helio's machinations and he believes that the Fire Crystal is a symbol of Gwydion's power. Additionally, even as he starts to lose in his boss fight, he still claims to be the one who will win because he has religious authority and is following the will of the Lord of Dragons, and takes that claim to his grave.
  • On the other hand, everyone else brings up the fact Gwydion stopped speaking to him a while ago. Martha directly confronts him when Domenic has her tried, and while he gets flustered by her assertions he never directly denies his envy or his self-righteous interpretation of what he says Gwydion tells him. Helio agrees for much the same reasons, and Domenic's rise to power came specifically from cutting himself off from Gwydion to enact his plan to prove that his voice was the voice of the Lord of Dragons by warming Rimedhal.
• The Chosen Wannabe: He was unhappy about not being chosen by the crystals fifty years ago, and so hoped that having the Fire Crystal in his possession would result in him being chosen in the present. History Repeats, as Adelle is chosen over him. Moreover, the crystal ended up choosing another fairy over him.
• Egocentrically Religious: As the Archbishop, he wants to believe that he's favored by Gwydion and the Fire Crystal, and is willing to label his citizens as fairies and execute them to feed into that lie.
• Evil Old Folks: An old, power-hungry priest.
• False Prophet: Claims that as the Archbishop, he's the only one who can hear the voice of Lord Gwydion to pass his guidance on to the people of Rimedhal. It's unclear whether Domenic ever heard Gwydion's voice, but the only thing he's heard lately is his own desires.
• Fantastic Racism: Towards fairies, as he sees them as pure evil that must be eradicated and has convinced the people of Rimedhal to fear them. His hatred for them may stem from downright envy since the Fire Crystal gave its blessing to an actual fairy over him, and as a result he conducted the judgements both as a way to lash out at them and blindly believing that no one else but him would receive the crystal's blessing.
• Fatal Flaw: Envy. He was pissed off at being passed over for the role of the Fire Crystal's chosen champion for the queen of fairies, and his desire for revenge allows Helio to play him like a cheap kazoo for Holograd's ends.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Oracle's Triple series of spells cast Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder all at once. Unlike the Black Mage's individual spells, Triple can only target a single opponent, but Domenic gets around this in his boss fight by casting Reflect on himself and then Triplaga on himself to spread the damage out to the whole party.
• Fixed Damage Attack: In his boss fight, he gets around his low power by either getting lucky with the Triple line of spells, or by making use of Bomb Arms - item attacks that do a fixed 2,000 damage.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: In his boss fight, as he's brought to his knees, he starts tossing Bomb Arms as a vain attempt to believe he has the Fire Crystal's blessing.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Just before his boss fight, he really does not take it well that a fairy was chosen rather than him to serve as the Fire Crystal's Warrior once more, implying that Domenic's reason was simply out of envy.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Gloria spins a false story that he sacrificed his life in order to summon Gwydion, so as to not throw the people of Rimedhal into further disarray.
• Holy Halo: The Oracle outfit comes equipped with a golden floating halo adorned with eyes, circling clockwise. It slows down and stops spinning when Domenic dies.
• Irony: Of all the characters who steal the Crystals - Folie, Castor, Adam, and himself - he's the only one to covet the Crystal for its status as an Elemental Crystal, because he feels that, as a manifestation of Gwydion's power, it is proof positive Domenic is a prophet. The other three just exploit the Crystal for its powers. Despite this, if the player reads the character bios for Domenic, Folie, Adam, and Castor following their rematches, his is the only one that doesn't say he gained new powers from the Elemental Crystal. No, instead, Helio gained new powers from the Fire Crystal. Domenic coveted the Crystal for the status it would bestow upon him, and it never gave him a drop of attention.
• Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: Voices the trope almost verbatim when he's about to have Martha jump to her death.
• The Resenter: Hates and resents that the Fire Crystal, which he sees as tied to the Lord of Dragons, would not only pass him over twice as a Hero of Light despite his faith, but that it instead chose a fairy both times.
• Sinister Minister: A power-hungry ruling priest who uses a Witch Hunt for fairies to eliminate his political opponents.
• Time Master: The Oracle serves as this game's Time Mage from the previous games, having the staple Time Mage spells like Haste, Slow, and Stop. During his boss fight, he performs a boss-exclusive version by gaining Counter Any Ability: +1 BP, giving him an extra turn for nearly every ability you use.
• Unwitting Pawn: Of Helio.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Gloria covers up the truth of his death by claiming he died summoning Gwydion for help, so that Rimedhal won't fall into further chaos as Holograd is invading the country.
• Weak, but Skilled: The Oracle's stats are overall rather unimpressive, but has fantastic utility in the form of Time Magic spells, elemental resistance weakening and strengthening, as well as elemental enchanting.

Holograd Bearers

The Bastion

Maddock Lonsdale

Voiced By: Shigeru Ushiyama (JP), Christopher Godwin (EN)

The holder of the Bastion asterisk. A general under Adam's army that has invaded Halcyonia.

---

• Affably Evil: The man is one of the highest-ranking generals in the Holograder army and placed Halcyonia under martial law after invading it without casus beli, but he has a strong sense of honor, refuses to execute the king, sits down for a drink with Seth at the local tavern and warns him not to free the king or else they'd have to fight.
• Anti-Villain: He's an honorable soldier who only follows Adam out of loyalty to his father.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The entire continent knows about him! The man was hired to become a general for Holograd and singlehandledly helped it to make its nonexistent army a superpower.
• Barrier Warrior: His Bastion class grants him access to the Rampart and Vallation skills, which make him immune to one physical attack and one spell attack respectively, and Wall, which boosts his defence against both physical attacks and magic by 25%.
• Death Seeker: Following the fall of Holograd and the defeat of Adam, he begs the king of Halcyonia to grant him death for this crimes.
• The Dreaded: Anyone who doesn't know his name or can even hope to measure up to him is usually taught the hard way why he is so feared. He's so feared that bandits immediately drop thievery when he decides to do something about them.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When he receives an order from Adam ordering him to execute the king of Halcyonia, he is disgusted and surmises that Edna put his lord up to it.
• A Father to His Men: When he is defeated by the party, he requests that his men be allowed to go back home safely.
• Holy Hand Grenade: The Bastion has access to light elemental attacks.
• Last-Name Basis: He's primarily referred to by his surname Lonsdale.
• Mighty Glacier: The Bastion has very good stats overall at the cost of very low Speed.
• Morality Chain: He remained in Holograd after Adam took over to steer him down the right path. Obviously, it didn't work.
• My Greatest Failure: Regrets that he didn't try at all to sway Adam away from Edna's corrupting influence, which lead to Holograd declaring war on Excillant and many people dying.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Lonsdale is a soldier of Holograd above all, and remains completely loyal regardless of the actions it takes in the war. In fact, it's implied he doesn't even like Adam at all that much and serves him only out of gratitude for Adam's father treating him kindly.
• Noble Demon: His principles and honor clash with the ruthless expansionism of Holograd, but he remains one of Adam's strongest and most loyal retainers.
• Old Soldier: He's old enough to be a contemporary of Sir Sloan, who was active fifty years prior to the events of the game. He's still a powerful enough warrior to take on the Heroes of Light personally.
• Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: After Adam's death, he offers his head to the king of Halcyonia. However, the king immediately realizes that he's an honorable soldier and pardons him instead.
• Secret A.I. Moves: In his Halls of Tribulation fight, he can put up two physical or magical shields at once instead of one, as a counter while you unleash multiple blows, often negating your whole barrage.
• Sole Survivor: Unlike the rest of the Holograd Bearers, he's the only one not to lose his life.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Braev Lee. Like Braev, Lonsdale is part of the main antagonistic force of the game, and he turns out to be not as bad as he seems. He also holds this game's version of the Templar Asterisk. The main difference between him and Braev is that while Braev is the leader of the Eternian Forces, Lonsdale serves as a general for the Holograd Empire.
• Training from Hell: Subjugated the Holograd army to harsh training. They couldn't complain because he also did the same training just to keep them from ever talking back to him.
• Token Good Teammate: Not necessarily good, but he is the only bearer from Holograd that has a sense of morality behind him.

The Phantom

Marla

Voiced By: Ruriko Aoki (JP), Olivia Vinall (EN)

"Prepare to die..."

The holder of the Phantom asterisk. A mysterious masked woman with intense loyalty to Adam.

---

• Aborted Arc: Her infatuation with Adam and her jealously of Edna has its development cut short along with her throat.
• Ambiguously Brown: Inverted. She's unusually pale for someone who came from Savalon.
• Arch-Enemy: Absolutely hates Bernard for pushing her father into suicide and then stealing both his house which was turned into the gambling hall, and his spot on the Council of Elders. Unfortunately, Bernard dies before she ever gets a chance to act on her grudge so she takes it out on the rest of Savalon since she sees the country as an accomplice to his actions.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: She's loyal to Adam because he took her in after she left Savalon.
• Casting a Shadow: Her asterisk's powers allow her to hide and teleport away in the shadows, as well as utilize dark elemental attacks. The job outfit for the Phantom also leaves behind a trail of shadow when running.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Her strategy is to kill single targets quickly and painfully, which has a few flaws that make her damage bearable if you're willing to exploit them by utilizing a Counter-Savvy Shieldmaster with Freelancer backup.
• Daddy's Girl: She loves her father, and hates Savalon for letting him Bernard and his cohorts shame him into suicide before promoting the thief into Lupus's place.
• Disproportionate Retribution: She desires to destroy Savalon in revenge for causing her father Lupus's death. It should be noted that the actual culprits Bernard and Prince Castor were long dead and she killed his two cohorts, but the rest of the country didn't deserve it.
• Driven to Suicide: After being defeated, she commits suicide by slitting her throat with her blade.
• Expy: Of Selvaria Bles. Both are stoic, pale-haired, Statuesque Stunners. Both are Anti Villains with a Dark and Troubled Past who were saved by the Big Bads of their respective stories. They also fight on the side of the villains solely out of romantic love for their commanders and even kill themselves after they have failed to defeat the heroes.
• Extra Turn: Recurring Nightmare and Neverending Nightmare allow the user to act again immediately if the attack kills the enemy.
• Foil: To Bernard, the other dagger specialist.
  • Bernard is bulky and ostentatious, while Marla is slender and prefers to keep the shadows.
  • Bernard is loyal only to himself and concerned with becoming richer, while Marla is loyal to Adam and his cause.
  • Bernard is a shitty father figure who verbally abuses Anihal and keeps her around only because she's useful. Marla is a Daddy's Girl who's fiercly loyal to the memory of her father, and acts to avenge him.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: She may have suffered a lot with the death of her father, but it doesn't excuse her murderous actions and her siding with a crazed tyrant, as Adelle's victory line against her rightfully points out.
• Glass Cannon: The Phantom has great Strength and ridiculous Speed, but is incredibly fragile otherwise.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She despises Edna for seemingly taking Adam's attention away from her.
  Marla: (That infernal woman! How DARE she take my master away from me!)
• He Knows Too Much: Tried to assassinate Dromed on the grounds that letting him live would compromise her attempts to disrupt Savalon's other elders into siding with Holograd by knowing about her past as Lupus' estranged daughter.
• Kill and Replace: She killed the real Lady Cygnus and took her identity for some time now.
• Master of Disguise: She disguises herself as Elder Cygnus and Prince Pollux in order to sway the council towards joining Holograd.
• Ninja: The Phantom job is pretty much a reskin of the Ninja job from the previous games, sporting most of the Ninja's abilities like Dual Wield and Frenetic Fighting. Her diary reveals that her family served Savalon as spies, and sees her father's death at the hands of Bernard's conspiracy a betrayal of her family's loyalty.
• Revenge: Her main and only motivation in ensuring Savalon surrender to Holograd is because of Bernard's actions which convinced other elders of the council to drive Lupus to suicide.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Kikyo Konoe, with both of them being female ninjas capable of disguising themselves as other people.
• That Man Is Dead: She was once Maia, but she changed her name to Marla after leaving Savalon in disgust after it welcomed Bernard into the Council of Elders.
• Undying Loyalty: She is fiercely loyal to Adam for taking her in after her father's death, to the point where she commits suicide rather than return to Adam with her failure.
• Villain Has a Point: Although she took her revenge against Savalon too far, Dromed acknowledges her point that he could use his position as Record Keeper to clear Lupus's name.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Her high evasion, coupled with the Phantom's turn-granting skills and speed, make her a very formidable foe. If there is a chance she can exploit Never-Ending Nightmare, she will. And if she can exploit that a second time right after and vice versa, she will.
• You Have Failed Me: Does this to herself after losing the second time, she sees her failure as inexcusable to return to Adam and slits her throat with her own blade.
• You Killed My Father: She seeks revenge against Savalon, deeming them responsible for her father's death.

The Arcanist

Vigintio Isaac

Voiced By: Taisuke Nishimura (JP), Adam Diggle (EN)

"I am the greatest, mightiest wizard the—WORLD!—has ever seen!"

The holder of the Arcanist asterisk. An undead scientist who studied life and death magic at Wiswald, and now seeks to take over the town with an undead army.

---

• Always Second Best: Lady Emma was always slightly better than him.
• Arch-Enemy: After Lady Emma's death he became this to the people of Wiswald in general and Roddy in particular, since Roddy was Lady Emma's apprentice. He later adds Elvis to his list for the same reason.
• The Archmage: He's a very powerful mage, and came very close to beating Lady Emma several times.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: The most straightfoward boss in the game, as his only strategy is drowning you under an absolute torrent of magic spells. Anytime he gets extra BP, you can be sure he'll blow it his next turn with another multitarget spell. Thus, the key to victory is nerfing his damage output while buffing your magic defenses and outpacing it with healing.
• Ax-Crazy: Yet another asterisk bearer who isn't all there.
• Berserk Button: He hates Lady Emma to the point that speaking of her around him will paint a target on your chest.
• Black Mage: The Arcanist returns as one of the strongest damage spellcasters in the game, with very powerful spells to ravage the enemy (and sometimes the party too...).
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Had he simply killed or taken Roddy prisoner instead of tying him up at the top of the tower to force him to watch Wiswald being turned into an undead kingdom the latter wouldn't have been able to provide the party with a way to kill him for good.
• Came Back Strong: Was killed by Lady Emma, but managed to cheat death thanks to a potion of his and was later given the Arcanist asterisk, becoming one of the top generals of Holograd.
• Came Back Wrong: At the same time his sanity appears to have suffered from becoming undead, and his Resurrective Immortality is clearly flawed: every time the party defeats him his max HP take a severe hit.
• Casting a Shadow: The Arcanist has access to Dark, the dark elemental damage spell, and eventually learns Doomsday.
• Combat Sadomasochist: He enjoys feeling pain. A flashback shows him stabbing himself with a knife, and enjoying the pain so much he stabs himself again multiple times, begging for more.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Gets back up everytime his HP bar is emptied, at least until Elvis stabs him with the stake Roddy provided to the party.
• Department of Redundancy Department: In a flashback he calls himself the almighty—MIGHTY!—wight.
• Didn't See That Coming: Was completely unprepared for Elvis breaking JRPG conventions and just straight-up walking to him and stabbing him with an enchanted stake.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The Arcanist is capable of some truly impressive magic damage... if you can handle its friendly fire gimmicks. It gets even more difficult at level 12, with its second speciality, Wild Wizardry, further boosting magic damage with the catch that it might end up blasting everything in the vicinity, both friend and foe, even if the spell was single target, making it even more unpredictable.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed given how crazy this guy is, but he, like Marla, greatly distrusts Edna.
• Evil Gloating: He watched Lady Emma's funerals from afar, all the while gloating about his superiority over her.
• Evil Is Hammy: The Mighty Wight dines on only the finest -HAM!-, and drinks only the finest -MILK!- in all of Excillant.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Not all of the time, but whenever Vigintio's below-mentioned Verbal Tic kicks in, his voice drops to a raspy growl to whatever word he's stressing.
• Fate Worse than Death: A party chat describes his condition as such, being dead but still being conscious. His heart isn't beating anymore, his body is cold and he can't taste anything. Vigintio himself however considers this his greatest achievement.
• Forced to Watch: He ties Roddy up at the top of the Wiswald tower so he'll have to watch the population of Wiswald being turned into undead monsters. The party rescues him before that can happen though.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: All that boasting about how he's the almighty Mighty Wight and the greatest Undead necromancer? Vignitio's not lying. A lot of status effects don't work on him and reflecting his own spells back at him will occasionally heal him because of his dark affinity. However, this also means he has all the weaknesses of being Undead; Undead Slayer will deal bonus damage to him, and healing spells will take large chunks out of his HP.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How he finally dies, stabbed with a massive enchanted stake by Elvis before burning away.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: A late-game chat between Elvis and Roddy reveals that he could never stand Lady Emma being both more powerful and more respected than him, driving him to challenge her in battle to prove his superiority. His many defeats at her hands were his Start of Darkness.
• Insane Troll Logic: In his mind, having become undead while Lady Emma died means he's the one who actually won.
• Laughing Mad: He's already like this naturally, but an event scene showing him watching Lady Emma's funeral has him break down laughing multiple times.
• Lean and Mean: Very thin and very nasty.
• Mad Scientist: One look at him should tell you that he is very definitely this trope (or at least a magical version of it).
• Meaningful Name: His name resembles the Latin word for 20, vīgintī, and if you include the two optional bosses, he's the 20th asterisk bearer you fight (given you defeat Lonsdale and Marla beforehand).
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Unlike any other Asterisk-bearer in the Bravely series, Vigintio isn't considered a humanoid enemy, but instead an undead.
• Necromancer: Controls undead minions, and wants to add the population of Wiswald to his army's ranks.
• Our Liches Are Different: Or the "Mighty Wight" as he calls himself. He's essentially a lich, as he's a powerful mage reanimated from the dead by dark forbidden magic.
• Professor Guinea Pig: Experimented on himself to develop his Resurrective Immortality.
• Resurrective Immortality: Thanks to experiments he performed on himself, knocking his HP down to 0 does little more than briefly inconvenience him. However every time he's revived he has less max HP than previously.
• Revenge by Proxy: His plot to turn the people of Wiswald into undead monsters is little more than an attempt at finally getting one over on Lady Emma. Elvis calls him out on this before his boss battle.
• Revive Kills Zombie: He isn't classified as a humanoid, as he really is a Wight. This means that Red Mages and White Mages can go to town on him with healing spells and chunk his HP bar - it's actually one of the faster ways to kill him. In fact, in a twisted fashion, this is literally how he meets his end. The Wald Ash branch is designed to perfectly revive an undead creature, restoring them to life. The issue is that it's also a massive wooden stake being driven into the undead's body - what time they have left truly alive is short. Adding in just how long Vigintio has been alive, and death comes quickly for him.
• Rule of Three: His battle runs on three phases, which, unlike previous bosses, are centered on when he loses all his HP; he just gets back up again and starts using stronger magic. Each time he loses, he invokes his powers as a lich to get another health bar. By the third time, however, Elvis has had enough and sticks the Wald Ash branch into Vignitio's body, finally forcing him to actually live long enough to die properly.
• Speech Impediment: He seems to be struggling to speak, though whether this was caused by his experiments or something else is unclear.
• Squishy Wizard: The Arcanist is easily the strongest spellcaster, boasting fantastic Magic and a massive MP pool, with great Magic Defense to boot, but pays for it with very low HP, Defense, and Speed. Vigintio plays with this trope, since he has poor HP for a boss but revives twice, albeit with less max HP and more offensive power each time.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Has a lot in common with Ominas Crowe from the previous titles, as an antisocial mage disliked by his peers with a foul temper, a speech impediment and a rivalry with a female mage. He's much more evil and dangerous than Crowe ever was though. His sadism, use of human test-subjects for his studies, black and white-themed color-scheme, and turning people into undead monsters via his experiments also make him one to Qada.
• Tested on Humans: It's mentioned that he used to experiment on humans, forcing Lady Emma to kill him.
• Undeathly Pallor: As a result of being undead, his skin is extremely pale.
• Verbal Tic: Vigintio talks like—THIS!—with a Speech Impediment as a—RESULT!—of him being an—UNDEAD!—wizard.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: The inverse of this is discussed in the party's discussions regarding Vigintio. While undead think that they're journeying from death back towards life, in reality they've permanently trapped themselves in the moment of their death, experiencing the sensation of dying forever.
• Zombify the Living: He claims that turning a person into an undead usually involves waiting for them to die or killing them, but he's found a way to take that out of the process.

The Hellblade

Adam Holograd

Voiced By: Rikiya Koyama (JP), Gyuri Sarossy (EN)

"All shall kneel before me!"

The holder of the Hellblade asterisk and current emperor of Holograd. He seeks to use the power of the Crystals to take control over the whole continent.

---

• Authority Equals Asskicking: He's the ruler of Holograd, and by far the strongest fighter.
• Barbarian Longhair: His hair reaches his waist.
• Beard of Evil: As befits the leader of The Empire.
• Benevolent Boss: He treats his lackies quite well but only so long as they remain useful, as Horten can attest.
• BFS: Continuing the tradition started by Braev Lee and Kaiser Oblivion in the previous titles, he swings a enormous blade in battle.
• Black Knight: The Hellblade is derived from the Dark Knight job from the previous games, being a job whose abilities are Cast from Hit Points to deal significant damage, with the main distinction being that the Hellblade can utilize all of the elements rather than just darkness.
• Blood Knight: Always sporting for a fight that can push him. He's eager to fight Sir Sloan in the prologue, and expresses joy when Gwydion takes to the field against him in Rimedhal.
• The Brute: His political machinations are laughable and always blow up in his face, and his plans are crude and simplistic, but he's one of the mightest warriors around.
• Cast from Hit Points: The Hellblade class repeatedly gores its victims with elemental blades fueled by their own life force. Adam does not shy away from this strategy during his fight.
• Cold Ham: He's quite capable of chewing the scenery without raising his voice.
• Composite Character: The Hellblade asterisk combines two different jobs from the previous titles: the Dark Knight and its Cast from Hit Points mechanic, and the Spell Fencer's elemental versatility.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Just like Alternis before him, he does not need to expend as much HP as the player does to launch his attacks: his cost him about 5% of his max HP, while it's 25% for the player.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Unlike Braev Lee and Kaiser Oblivion from the previous games, who had genuinely good intentions, Adam is just straight up evil and wishes to rule the world.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: He's an absolute Lightning Bruiser in cutscenes, capable of withstanding explosion, Super-Speed, and going toe-to-toe with a dragon.
• The Cynic: Sees the world as "bleak, black" with peace through diplomacy being a mere fantasy.
• Deal with the Devil: Their first speciality is named exactly this trope, which grants them constant HP and MP regeneration every turn, but if they're knocked out, their BP drops to -3.
• Death by Irony: He steals the Wind Crystal, and his death is caused by a crashing airship.
• Death or Glory Attack: Death Storm does extreme damage, but also sets the user's HP to 1, their MP to 0, and their BP to -3. If he doesn't wipe your party out with it, he's not long for this world.
• Decapitated Army: His defeat immediately puts a stop to Holograd's expansion campaign.
• Desperation Attack: The Hellblade's final ability, Death Storm, unleashes 10 incredibly powerful attacks on all enemies on the field, but reduces the user's HP to 1, MP to 0, and their BP to -3. Count on Adam using it when he's running on fumes.
• Die Laughing: He bursts into maniacal laughter as his airship crashes and kills him.
• Disc-One Final Boss: There's still quite a bit of game left after his fall.
• Elemental Powers: As a part of the Hellblade moveset, he has access to every single element in the game.
• The Emperor: Of Holograd, although in-game his subordinates refer to him as Lord Commander instead.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Single-handedly turned Holograd into a military superpower by exploiting its advances in technology and the wealth gained from the country's ore extraction business.
• Frontline General: Unlike Braev Lee and Kaiser Oblivion from the previous titles, who suffered from a strong case of Orcus on His Throne, he has no problem taking to the field and fighting with his soldiers, as demonstrated in Chapter 3 where he leads the Rimedhal invasion.
• Graceful Loser: He doesn't seem particularly bothered by his defeat at the party's hands or Edna's betrayal, all things considered.
• Greater-Scope Villain: For most of Chapter 3, being Helio's boss.
• The Heavy: He's the villain who drives most of the plot. However, he's ultimately nothing more than a dupe for Edna and the Night's Nexus.
• Hero Killer: Every time he takes to the battlefield, he ends up killing someone. This is unfortunate for both Sir Sloan and Gwydion.
• Heroic Lineage: He's a descendent of the man who founded Holograd 300 years ago by unifying the warring clans of the wastelands into one kingdom.
• Hobbes Was Right: Attempts to use this as his justification for declaring war to the whole continent, arguing that all it took for the other nations to fall apart was to give them a Crystal and that this is proof that the continent needs his leadership. Of course, since this comes from the man who destroyed Musa to steal those very same Crystals, Gloria is quick to tell him to shove it. It does not help that the people who got those crystals included a serial killer who was already something of a misanthrope willing to kill people for the sake of her art and an arch bishop with jealousy issues. In the latter's case, giving him the Fire Crystal was to intentionally weaken Rimedhal, so it wasn't 'just' a test of humanity's ability to cooperate with itself. He's ultimately proven wrong after he's defeated, as Holograd immediately ceases its conquest and reestablishes trading relations with the other kingdoms.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Unlike most bosses, which use counterattacks to level the playing field, Adam's counterattacks are actually his greatest weakness, as it's possible to negate them and thus force him to pay HP for no benefit. Defeating him in the Prologue requires taking advantage of this mechanic.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: You aren't meant to defeat him in the Prologue. Somehow defeating him in that battle earns you a terrifying secret ending...
• Horrible Judge of Character: Played with regarding the very Obviously Evil Edna. While he's smart enough to suspect she has ulterior motives, the fact that the Enigmatic Minion with vast arcane knowledge who's completely unfazed by his threats might pose a threat to his plans evidently never occurs to him. Sure enough, it turns out she was just using him the whole time to drain the Crystals of their energy, and she leaves him to die after the party defeats him.
• Informed Attribute: He's described as a Master Swordsman and a politically-savvy operator by an NPC in Halcyonia. While the former is true, it should be noted every political move he makes failed. His attempt to make an alliance with Halcyonia is shot down by King Vernon, every other state is leery about becoming a vassal state, and his grand plan to conquer Excillant only serves to unify everyone else against him.
• It's All About Me: Unlike Braev and Kaiser Oblivion, everything Adam does is for his own sake and ambition. Even in his dying moments, he helps the Heroes not out of any altruism, but to give Edna one giant middle finger for screwing him over.
• Just Toying with Them: He admits that he's got a problem with this. Doing so enables the Heroes to escape him in Halcyonia, and by the time he gets serious in the proper boss battle, the power gap's been closed and he's defeated.
• Mighty Glacier: The Hellblade has fantastically high Strength and Magic, alongside great HP and defenses, at the cost of fairly low Speed. This is an issue in his boss fight, because he readily makes use of regenerating health to delay his death, though it's offset somewhat by his best abilities costing him in his HP.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While he claims that his goal is to end all wars by uniting the continent, unlike the previous two main human antagonists Adam is just as power-hungry and ill-intentioned as he is presented from the start. Though he is still usurped in his role as Big Bad by the end.
• Obviously Evil: He's called a Hellblade, and certainly looks the part.
• One-Hit Kill: His first fight has him unleash Ultima Sword as he nears the 70% HP threshold, and Minus Strike afterwards until about 25% HP remaining. The former drains all his MP for one powerful attack proportionate to the MP used; the latter inflicts damage equal to the HP he's lost. Either is more HP than any one Hero of Light can realistically have.
• Pragmatic Villainy: While he clearly prefers to achieve victory on the battlefield he has no issue with resorting to other tactics if it's not feasible. In particular since invading Savalon would be a very difficult task he instead opts to have Marla infiltrate the Council of Elders and eliminate those who would oppose surrendering to the Empire, so he can annex the whole kingdom in one fell swoop.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: His color scheme pretty much screams that he's a major antagonist.
• Redemption Equals Death: Downplayed. He saves Seth's life and gives away the Wind Crystal while going down in his airship, but admits that he's only doing this because he wants the Heroes of Light to punish Edna in his stead.
• Rush Boss: What his fight ends up being if the player is being in any way proactive. While he's normally a Mighty Glacier who can heal off the damage he does to himself, any type of buffing - including setting up abilities like regenerate - has a strong likelihood of Adam goring himself outside his turn, when he can't heal, and ripping his HP apart to punish the buff attempt. His damage is frankly substantial, so someone is going to die fast; the question is if it's the party or Adam. In his last phase, he'll almost exclusively use Death Storm, which will utterly annihilate an unprepared party...but also take all of his BP and MP at a point where he simply doesn't have enough HP to take any more hits, meaning either he dies then and there or the party does.
• Secret A.I. Moves: His Heavencloud Blade allows him to restore himself, but isn't part of the Hellblade arsenal that the player receives.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Is on the receiving end of this by most of the party when he tells them about his plan to use the war to end future wars. They rightfully call it out for its hypocrisy and pointlessness.
• Start X to Stop X: Adelle notes that his grand plan to unify Excillant and stop all wars... starts by setting off a world war.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: When Gloria tells him his plan with the Crystals will unleash the Night's Nexus and doom the world, Adam replies that he'll just deal with the Nexus like every other enemy before him. The Heroes can only shake their head at his sheer arrogance. Considering what the Night's Nexus actually does the first time the heroes fight it, they are ultimately correct in dismissing his claims.
• Turns Red: Unleashes Deathstorm when his HP fall below a certain threshold, a guaranteed Total Party Kill against an unprepared player.
• Unwitting Pawn: Edna was only using him to drain the Crystals of their power and weaken the seal of the Night's Nexus.
• Villainous Valor: He's many things, but a coward isn't one of them. He'll challenge a fully-grown dragon in battle without ever showing the slightest trace of fear.
• Villain Respect: He commends Gloria for her perseverance.
• Villain's Dying Grace: With his last moments left, he saves Seth and returns the Wind Crystal to him so he can exact vengeance on Edna in his stead.
• Villain with Good Publicity: He's very popular among his fellow male, nationalistic Holograders. The women on the other hand take a dim view of him, since his ambitions got many of their brothers and lovers killed for nothing.
• Visionary Villain: He believes true peace can only be achieved in a one world order, with him at the helm.
• The Worf Effect: Three times in fact. First he effortlessly trounces your party at the end of the prologue, then immediately after that he defeats Sir Sloan (who up until that point had been the player's biggest source of damage with blows dealing upwards of 1K damage each) in single combat, and later he leads the invasion of Rimedhal in Chapter 3 and defeats Gwydion all by himself.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: Many NPCs around the world note that Holograd is the most technologically advanced kingdom in Excillant, and lament that Adam decided to hoard their discoveries to help his conquest instead of sharing with everyone else.
• You Have Failed Me: He's quite fond of this. Besides dispatching Horten after he failed him one too many time he also flat-out tells Edna he'll kill her if she ever stops being useful to him, to her amusement.

Other Characters

King Vernon

Vernon

The king of Halcyonia who offered Gloria political asylum after the destruction of Musa.

---

• And Then What?: He's very ready to lay down his life when Holograd takes his kingdom to keep the citizens safe from harm, until Gloria asks him what the point will be in the very likely scenario Holograd forces his own citizens into taking part in more wars, endangering their lives anyway.
• Helping Would Be Kill Stealing: When Halcyonia is conquered by Holograd, the Heroes manage to convince Vernon to come with them when they rescue him. Think you'll see his super sword skills that Gloria hyped up earlier as a Guest Party Party Member in the fight against Lonsdale? Nope, he just hangs back and lets you do all the hard work despite being a master warrior.
• Horrible Judge of Character: The one blemish against him is that he somehow never realizes the Obviously Evil Horten is an Evil Chancellor.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: By far the wisest and kindest of the rulers in the game. While Pollux is as kind-hearted, he lacks the experience and acumen to match up to Vernon.
• World's Best Warrior: Supposedly the greatest swordsman in the world, better than even Sir Sloan, the previous Hero of Wind. He never gets a chance to show it off except the time he cuts down a couple of Holograder mooks.

Truff

Truff

A friendly, yet cowardly orc met near Halcyonia capable of speech who the party encounter several times. He's searching for the man who saved him.

---

• All of the Other Reindeer: Him being a talking friendly pig monster is certainly not an easy hurdle for humans to cross over quickly.
• Interspecies Friendship: Forms one with a wandering chef and journeys to return a ring he lost during their encounter. He eventually settles in Enderno once he's vouched for.
• Punny Name: Truff's name comes from the truffle: a type of fungus used in cooking that can be located by pigs (which the orcs are modelled after).
• Rule of Three: The party encounters him three times on their journey.
• Third-Person Person: Truff speaks like this.
• Token Heroic Orc: In the most literal sense.
• Verbal Tic: Usually snorts, slobbers, or whines between words.

Dromed

Dromed

Record Keeper and unofficial advisor to the kingdom of Savalon.

---

• The Atoner: He willingly turns himself in for being an unwilling accomplice to Castor's crimes. Ironically, even behind bars, he is still being consulted for guidance whenever Pollux requires his aid.
• The Good Chancellor: He genuinely has Savalon's best interests at heart, and tries his level best to rein in the increasingly unstable Castor. Even after Castor and Dromed are exposed, Pollux continues to rely on him for his wisdom.
• He Knows Too Much: Due to knowing about Lupus and her daughter Maia - now Marla - Marla tries to kill him to keep him from being a possible source that could foil her identity as a disguised Lady Cygnus.
• Hidden Depths: He's an S-rank B 'n' D player. Not even being behind bars will stop him from playing a game against Seth.
• Leave Behind a Pistol: One of the memories in Elvis' book reveals that, after exiling himself to the dungeons, he was visited by Marla disguised as Lady Cygnus, who gave him a dagger and tried to goad him into suicide.
• Red Herring: Although he didn't approve much of Castor's actions when the party arrived at Savalon and how the player is treated to seeing a secret meeting between him and Bernard plotting about the Water Crystal, it turns out Dromed wasn't really an Evil Chancellor but was simply doing his best to keep Castor from going off the deep end. Sadly, it only stalled the inevitable.
• Secret-Keeper: He witnessed an enraged Castor murdering his father and had no choice but to keep the king's murder a secret to keep the kingdom from falling apart. To his dismay, he kept piling on dark secret after dark secret until it was too late to hide it all when the party arrived at Savalon.
• Self-Imposed Exile: After his role in hiding the circumstances of King Orion's death is exposed, he insists on being sent to the Savalon dungeons for treason.
• Serious Business: He's pretty mellow and soft spoken until you challenge him to a game of B 'n' D. His demeanor makes a full 180 turn at that point as he takes great pride in his record, and vows to crush you to maintain it.
• Walking Spoiler: It's very hard to talk about Dromed without going into a bit of any detail about him and his motivations.

Prince Pollux

Pollux

Prince Castor's brother who has been abroad for quite a while. His absence, along with the King's disappearance, has only furthered the turmoil facing Savalon.

---

• Ironic Name: He and his brother Castor were named after the Dioscuri twins, better known as the Gemini, who were famously close and attached to each other. In this game, they're a classic case of Cain and Abel.
• Lady and Knight: A gender-inverted pairing with Anihal. Pollux can't fight, but he can lead, meaning that when he martials Savalon's forces to attack Holograd, he's the one galvanizing the troops while Anihal does the fighting with her monsters. The two are also very close to each other and trust each other's input implicitly.
• Man in the Iron Mask: His true fate; he was thrown in the Savalon prisons while Castor runs rampant in Savalon.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: A point of growth for him both via sidequests and throughout the main story. While he lacks his brother's classism, he doesn't have the same charisma, but eventually grows into it when it turns out his reasonable attitude allows him to work diligently to improve the lives of his people.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With his brother Castor. Castor is intelligent and gifted, yet haughty and unapproachable to the masses. Pollux on the other hand is kind-hearted, yet lacks the necessary talent to become an effective ruler. There's also the little matter of Castor being an insane murderer.

Mona

Mona

Roddy and Lily's dead daughter, who lost her life after a strange incident involving the Earth Crystal.

---

• Cute Ghost Girl: As Folie's lair starts to crumble, only Seth senses her presence, guiding him and an oblivious party out to safety.
• Inciting Incident: Her death kickstarts a series of unfortunate events all just so Folie can manipulate Roddy, Lily, and Galahad more easily.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is a nod to The Mona Lisa. Much more exemplified when Folie uses a frightening possessed painting that copies Mona's voice to control her parents and Galahad into procuring paint.
• Posthumous Character: You don't meet her personally but only know she was alive.

Father Rhydion

Rhydion

One of the priests who manages the day-to-day affairs in Rimedhal. His daughter, Margaret, is a revolutionary opposed to the Judgements, and Rhydion himself is a popular figure in Rimedhal who has the qualities to be a prime choice as the next Archbishop. These qualities make him particularly dangerous to the current administration...

---

• Hypocrisy Nod: He wants to gut Gladys for killing his daughter, but cannot escape the fact that he himself contributed to the atmosphere that led to the fairy hunts claiming her.
• Irony: The entire reason Margaret was offed was to kill two birds with one stone - her criticism of the Judgements was raising eyebrows and her father was close to becoming the next Archbishop. It's her death that spurs Rhydion to dedicate himself to helping the heroes, which leads to the Judgements quietly falling out of favor and stopping once the Holograder invasion ends, and while never publicly named Archbishop, Father Rhydion effectively becomes the next leader of the town, anyway.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When the Judgements take his daughter from him, he breaks down and climbs down the Jaws of Judgement just to see the corpse mound and come to terms with what his inaction and active participation have wrought. While fairly composed, his immediate self-deprecation makes it clear he regrets everything he did up to that point.
• Only Sane Man: Among the members of Rimedhal's church (unless Martha herself could be considered a priestess), Father Rhydion is the most down-to-earth and willing to believe his approach is flawed. While he finds it hard to believe the party has spoken to Gwydion, he's receptive to the help the party provides and actively aids them once he sees the corpse mound in the Jaws of Judgement.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His daughter Margaret is killed in the fairy hunts.

Lord of Dragons

Gwydion

Voiced By: Allan Corduner (EN)

The god worshipped by the people of Rimedhal. A kind being who sees himself as Rimedhal's guardian, he is deeply concerned about the Judgements but has found that his voice no longer reaches Domenic, thus he asks that the Heroes of Light to intervene on his behalf.

---

• Attack Reflector: On the ground, Gwydion reflects physical damage he takes back at the attacker. He loses this trait while in the air, but gains the ability to absorb magic damage instead.
• Big Damn Hero: Shows up during Holograd's invasion of Rimedhal in order to scare off the invaders and punish Helio for his crimes.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Although Adam does kill him, Gwydion still manages to land a good couple blows before he bites it. The Hellblade even admits that he should have known better than to go into that fight and expect to come out unscathed.
• Dragons Are Divine: A dragon worshipped as a god. Notably looks like a western dragon rather than eastern.
• God Is Displeased: Needless to say, he is very angry to learn about the Judgments and how Domenic and Helio have been using them.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Or at least their lifecycles are. A dragon's child is also their reincarnation, with the new dragon instantly maturing to adulthood when their father dies and inheriting all of the memories and powers of every previous dragon.
• Puppet King: Officially, the Lord of Dragons is the leader of Rimedhal and gives advice to his Archbishop even if he is sworn not to interfere with political matters. However, his advanced age has left him bedridden and unable to stop Domenic from doing whatever he pleases and claiming that's what Gwydion wants.
• Superboss: After completing all of the trials to enhance the Asterisks, examining the obelisk behind Rimedhal will allow you to fight Gwydion as the strongest boss in the game.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of Final Fantasy mainstay Bahamut; they even share a title.
• The Worf Effect: In spite of his fading life, he's still a giant roaring dragon; the fact that Adam is able to kill him in single combat signals he is bad news. This is blunted somewhat by the fact that Gwydion's health has been on a severe decline for many years now, so one has to imagine how much trouble Adam would be in were Gwydion a few centuries younger.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Is dying, and only has enough power to leave his sanctuary one more time. He eventually dies after being defeated by Adam, passing on his title to his son, Gwilym. As a boss, he inflicts this on you, with his counterattack of choice being to cast Doom on the attacker while he's airborne.

Gwilym

Gwilym

Voiced By: Hiroki Tochi (JP), Matthew Gravelle (EN)

Gwydion's son and heir to the title of Lord of Dragons. The heroes run into him while investigating the goings on in Rimedhal, finding a comfy place in the heroes' knapsacks.

---

• Berserk Button: Don't call him a lizard.
• Big Damn Heroes: Shows up as Adam's airship is falling to bail the Heroes out from dying in the crash.
• Deus Exit Machina: Wow, a fully grown, healthy dragon is going to aid the Heroes! Wait, some debris from Adam's airship injured him during the escape, confining him to his bed for the rest of the game? Well, that's a real bummer.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Not until the group heads for the Jaws of Judgement. Otherwise, he is forced to stay in Adelle's bag.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Or at least their lifecycles are. A dragon's child is also their reincarnation, with the new dragon instantly maturing to adulthood when their father dies and inheriting all of the memories and powers of every previous dragon.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Following the death of his father, Gwilym becomes the new Lord of Dragons, receiving all of his father's knowledge and powers. This acts as "sustenance" that instantly ages him into a form resembling his father's with the maturity to match. This allows Gwlilym to come to the heroes' aid as Adam's airship goes down in flames.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: He's positively adorable as a baby dragon, and the party stops to coo over how cute he looks and pet him. He doesn't object much.
• Vocal Dissonance: A baby dragon with the voice of a grown man.

The Boat-Lending Woman

The Boat-Lending Woman

An old lady who Seth befriends after rescuing her from some monsters in an early sidequest. In exchange, she lends him free use of her old boat, allowing him to sail the oceans while the console is in sleep mode to gather treasure.

---

• Anti Poop-Socking: Much like SP in Bravely Default and Bravely Second, using the boat rewards the player for putting the game away for a while, in this case with money and useful items such as Experience Orbs, JP Orbs, and stat-enhancing Booster Buns. You're also helping other players complete the final dungeon.
• Friendly Sniper: The Sylvan Bow's description implies she used it as her weapon during her time as a Hero of Light.
• God Was My Copilot: You can talk to her any time you want during the story, but doing so after erasing the Night's Nexus's save file is the only way to prompt her to reveal her true identity and progress to the final dungeon.
• Heroic Sacrifice: She sacrifices her remaining life to open the passage to the Outer Oceans, leaving only her cane behind.
• King Incognito: Her true identity is Aileen, the missing Queen of the Fairies and former Chosen of the Fire Crystal.
• Never Mess with Granny: She's a shriveled old lady, yet that didn't stop her from travelling with the other three Heroes of Light and going on all sorts of adventures.
• The Older Immortal: The elderly Aileen is the oldest of all the fairies, a race whose members barely age even after centuries.
• Precursor Heroes: She was one of the Heroes of Light who fought the Night's Nexus 50 years ago.
• Randomly Generated Levels: The adventures that take place on the boat describe Seth sailing to random islands, encountering other players, helping them clear obstacles, and finding treasure. During the final dungeon, all of those obstacle-clearing events will trigger, with you on the receiving end of someone else's aid.
• Recurring Traveller: She has a location in every city where you can take the boat out, mentioning she's on vacation to wherever you happen to also be. This includes Holograd, which is landlocked. She says all it takes to sail from there is some determination.
• Ret-Gone: After entering the final dungeon, she's replaced by a taller woman at each of her sites. She mentions during the event that the Night's Nexus had already devoured the memory of her existence.
• She Was Right There All Along: The flashbacks that occur when the previous Heroes of Light fought the Nexus completely obscure her presence, though the other three do acknowledge her being there, making it look like the flashbacks happened in her point of view.
• Socialization Bonus: While the boat can still be used if playing offline, the quality of the items gained goes up if you connect to a network.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To the Adventurer in Bravely Default and Bravely Second. She's a traveler who quietly helps the party as they progress and turns out to be far more important to the overall plot than she seems at first glance.

King Godric Musa

Godric Musa

Gloria's grandfather and the previous Hero of Water who died in the battle against the Night's Nexus.

---

• Heroic Sacrifice: As per tradition, he's forced to offer up his life to empower the Crystals so they can seal away the Night's Nexus for another two hundred years.
• Precursor Heroes: He was one of the Heroes of Light who fought the Night's Nexus 50 years ago.

Lady Esmerelda

Esmerelda

The acting warden of Mag Mell ever since the Queen disappeared fifty years ago.

---

• Hidden Depths: She can hold her alcohol very well, beating Elvis in a drinking match.
• Humans Are Bastards: This was her mentality before meeting the heroes. This is due to the fact that the last human she befriended betrayed her trust and became the Night's Nexus.
• Hypocrite: One human goes bad and becomes the Night's Nexus? That's proof that all humans are ireddemably evil. One fairy goes bad and tries to release the Night's Nexus? She just brushes it off and continues hating humans.
• Iron Lady: The rather no-nonsense leader of Mag Mell. One of the fairies even mentions that her interaction with Elvis was the first time she had ever seen Esmerelda smile.
• Lady of War: Adelle mentions that it was her who taught her how to fight.
• My Greatest Failure: She was the one who introduced the Musan princess Inanna to the Fount of Knowledge and the Asterisks. Inanna would abuse the trust Esmerelda placed in her to make her own secret Asterisk and devour enough knowledge to become the Night's Nexus. Esmerelda deeply regrets her role in the whole mess, and closed off Mag Mell from the outside world to prevent another Nexus from being born again.
• Not So Above It All: It's Elvis's rather brassly informal personality that warming the normally serious Esmerelda up to the heroes. Likewise, she manages to drink Elvis under the table as they talk over wine.
• The Older Immortal: With a middle aged appearance, she's physically the oldest looking fairy in Mag Mell, having been around ever since the Night's Nexus first emerged, an event that happened so long ago that records of it barely exist in human histories.

True Villains (Major Unmarked Spoilers)

Cloaked Woman

Edna

Voiced By: Mamiko Noto (JP), Nina Yndis (EN)

^{Click here to see her true form:} 

^{Click here to see her boss form:} 

A mysterious lady in purple robes and a veil who is the one responsible for scattering the Asterisks across the world, and serves at the right hand of Lord Adam. In truth, she's a fairy and the sister of Adelle, who's hatred of mankind has led her to be used by the Night's Nexus to awaken it and wipe out everything.

---

• Ambiguous Start of Darkness: It's mentioned that Edna once loved humans, but one day she just suddenly changed for the worse and hated humans enough to actually seek to awaken the Night's Nexus. Nobody knows why this happened, and while it's implied that the Night's Nexus corrupted her, Edna denies this, leaving things unclear.
• Ax-Crazy: She stands out from Airy and Anne by how genocidal she is. Much of her dialogue is screaming about how she's going to kill every human out there.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: She went from being the number one human lover to the number one human hater.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Possibly. Adelle theorizes that Edna's interactions with the Night's Nexus has corrupted her and are the reason she is so hateful towards humans but nothing is confirmed.
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to Adelle's Abel.
• Call-Back: Like both Airy and Anne before her, she favors a one-two punch of making the whole party weak to all elements, then using a high-power Flare spell to capitalize on the resulting weakness. This is furthered by her Battle Theme Music's Musical Nod to Wicked Flight, Airy's battle theme.
• The Corrupter: She's the one who pushed Adam into seeking to conquer Excillant as part of her plan to weaken the Crystals' seals and release the Night's Nexus.
• Demonic Possession: As the Night's Nexus's influence over grows, it slowly starts taking control of her body and speaking through her. Whenever this happens, she gains Black Eyes of Evil.
• Fantastic Racism: She's motivated by how much she hates humans. Adelle and the fairies of Mag Mell note she wasn't like that, but one day she changed for the worse and the rest is history.
• Final Boss: Of the first ending.
• Foil: To both Airy and Anne from the previous games.
  • Like Airy, her true nature is hidden from the characters, she has a relationship with Edna, much like Airy's dynamic with Angès, her theme incorporates Airy's theme of Wicked Flight and both take on a One-Winged Angel form in their fights. Though unlike Airy who acted as a helpful companion to the Warriors of Light, Edna was always shown as a villain, hid her fairy heritage and acted as an advisor to Adam.
  • Like Anne, she acts as a Treacherous Advisor to an Evil Overlord as a means to further her true master's ends, but unlike Anne, she takes the form of a human rather than a fairy.
  • Like the both of them, Edna is a chessmaster who manipulates both the heroes and the minor villains to achieve her ends of bringing forth her Eldritch Abomination master and serves as the final boss of the first bad ending.
  • Unlike both of them though, Edna comes from a natural, sentient race of beings and was once kind and loving before she fell into evil. Airy and Anne on the other hand were born evil, as they were created by malevolent gods for the sole purpose of serving them and lack free will.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: To Adelle, should you progress past Chapter 5. Once she's turned into stone, she ceases to exist as a character; Adelle's motivation shifts to keeping her friends safe and she barely gives thought to her sister.
• Freudian Excuse: She despises humanity due to the fact their constant wars have ravaged the world and taken everything Edna used to love. It's nowhere near enough to excuse her omnicidal mania, but she has more reason to be a misanthrope than Airy and Anne, who were in it purely For the Evulz and being devoted servants to their masters.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: None of the Holograders actually like her. Adam keeps her around because she's useful but otherwise dislikes her constant brown-nosing, Vigintio distrusts her, and Marla and Lonsdale outright despise her for her corrupting influence on Adam.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: Ironically acts as this to Adelle. Before she turned evil, she spoke to Adelle often about how much she loved and admired humanity, which broke through Adelle's racism enough to give them a chance to change her mind.
• Greater-Scope Villain: She's this to nearly all of the Asterisks Holders in the game. The destruction of Musa? The theft of the crystals? Castor's newfound ruthlessness? The murder of Mona? The death of countless people in Rimedhal (including Rhydion's daughter and Gladys's parents)? Holograd's goals of conquest? All of these can be ultimately pinned on Edna and her goal of awakening the Night's Nexus.
• In the Hood: Before the reveal of her true identity, she wears a face-concealing hood.
• Intrigued by Humanity: She once loved humans so much that she desired to live among them. Now, there's only hate left.
• Musical Nod: Her Battle Theme Music, "The One Who Soars in the Darkness of Having Longed, Leapt, and Suddenly Fallen", contains excerpts from Adelle's, Edna's and Mag Mell's themes, since it's a battle between the fairy sisters, as well as "Wicked Flight", Airy's battle theme, to show the similarities between Edna's role in the story and Airy's.
• Mysterious Past: What exactly is it that caused her to hate humanity so much? Adelle herself is unsure why, as she mentions that one day she suddenly changed for the worse and started her plan to free the Night's Nexus. It's implied that this hatred actually belongs to the Nexus, but Edna herself angrily rebuffs the suggestion.
• Omnicidal Maniac: She wants to awaken the Night's Nexus to destroy everything due to her hatred of humans. It's implied by Adelle that this hatred is due to the Nexus using her, though she gets pissed when the implication comes up.
• Signature Move: She likes to use Silent Storm which is despite its apperance a physical, Non-Elemental move that can inflict Silence in her first phase, before switching to the magical Ultraflare in her second phase.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: She's considerably more soft-spoken in the Japanese version, but it doesn't diminish her utter hatred for humanity one bit.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • To Airy from Bravely Default and Anne from Bravely Second, being a malevolent fairy who manipulates events to awaken an evil god.
  • She's also the Kaiser Oblivion to Adelle's Yew Geneolgia from Second, being a main character's sibling who became a major antagonist and is responsible for putting them on their path to heroism.
• Sycophantic Servant: Acts in a gratuitously flattering manner towards Adam while she's working for him, to the annoyance of both his other servants and Adam himself. She's legitimately that loyal towards the Night's Nexus, however.
• Taken for Granite: Her fate after awakening the Night's Nexus.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly-girl to her sister Adelle's tomboy.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Adelle mentions that Edna once loved humans more than any other fairy in the world, and desired to join them. Quite notable since she was born after the split between fairykind and humanity, meaning she was raised to be racist towards humans.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In the first ending, she's the final boss — getting the second ending means turning around before fighting her, and it's unclear what happens to Edna in the second and Golden endings.

The Source of all Evil

The Night's Nexus

"Never forgive... Never forget..."

^{Click here to see her second form:} 

^{Click here to see her as Inanna:} 

The true evil of the game. She was once a Musan princess named Inanna who entered Mag Mell, but after taking in too much of the fairies' knowledge, she soon became an entity hellbent on consigning all to oblivion.

---

• The Assimilator: Her end goal is to consume everything into herself in what she calls the great unity.
• Bishōnen Line: Her second form is still monstrous, but is also more visibly feminine.
• Call-Back: She takes inspiration from major bosses in the previous two games.
  • Like the mightiest of the Ba'al, Diamante, Inanna is completely immortal and just resurrects each time the party defeats them. The Heroes' reaction to their intial defeat is identical too, with their victorious joy turning into disbelief as soon as their opponent revives themselves. Eventually, the two aren't outright defeated so much as sealed away using time-related shenanigans.
  • Inanna's Giant Hands of Doom harken back to Diamante's creator, the wicked god Providence. In its true form, Providence also had two hands as its main form of attack and will constantly bring them back without end. Both sets of hands also use the attacks Ruin and Salvation.
  • Her second form takes more inspiration from Ouroboros's approach dealing out massive amounts of damage over Providence's approach of hanging back and letting its hands do the work. They both have a move that drains BP from the party, A Courage Squandered/Demonic Touch respectively, a move that inflicts Death, A Life Cut Short/Zero Dimension, and similarly named magic moves that hit the entire party very hard, A World Annihilated/Disaster.
  • Also, just like Airy in Bravely Default, the villain is unassumingly placed dead smack in the center of the game's cover and featured on the game's start up screen.
• Eldritch Abomination: Remember, that... thing used to be a human... She becomes a Humanoid Abomination mummy in her second form.
• Evil Aunt: The diary of the first king of Musa who sealed away the Night's Nexus reveals that Inanna was his sister, and with that, is Gloria's distant family.
• Evil Laugh: Weaponized in her second form. She cackles when using A Courage Squandered, intimidating the Heroes and taking one BP from them each.
• Fatal Flaw: Her gluttony for knowledge. Innanna's desire to learn led her to seek the knowledge of the fairies despite their warnings, causing her transformation into the Night's Nexus and giving her to consume all knowledge and information.
• False Friend: Although they were once friends, Esmerelda believes that Inanna was deceiving her all along in order to gain more knowledge.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You:
  • If you somehow manage to defeat Adam in the Prologue, the next scene has her tell Edna to bring the Asterisks over to the player's world.
  • Also inverted, as she tries to hide behind the fourth wall, by using a save file to restore herself. You have to delete this save file to stop her from reviving over and over again and be able to kill her for good.
• Giant Hands of Doom: Her second form is accompanied by two gigantic hands reaching out of the void behind her, which act as both a living shield and separate bosses in their own right.
• Generation Xerox: Is eventually revealed to have once been human, who traveled with a dark haired young sailor, a fiery person and a well grounded person. That sailor was Seth. And she's Gloria's aunt. The girl on the cover of the game? That's Inanna. Not Gloria. They look identical.
• Glasgow Grin: Her second form's face has this, giving her an unnerving Psychotic Smirk. Each time she attacks, the camera always zooms in on her face to give the player a good look at it.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: She's on the cover of the game! Players would be misled to think it's Gloria holding Elvis's book, but in fact, it's Inanna, and her having the book makes much more sense since it is the Librarian Asterisk she made.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Inanna created the Librarian Asterisk to give her better access to the Fountain of Knowledge's limitless wisdom. That same ability prevents the party from suffering bad endings at her hands twice.
• Immortality Seeker: Inanna used the forbidden knowledge she gained in an attempt to become immortal, transforming her into the Night's Nexus.
• Ingesting Knowledge: Basically her entire motivation. She became a monster because she sought the knowledge of the fairies. In combat, this translates as a Laser-Guided Amnesia to the Warriors.
• Kill the Ones You Love: Inanna was once accompanied by her lover, a black-haired youth. But once she became the Night's Nexus, she devoured him too in her quest to consume all.
• Madness Mantra: Never forgive... Never forget...
• Mana Drain: Her first phase has Ruin, which depletes 200 MP from each party member. Her final form takes it even further with A Wellspring Depleted, which depletes all of the party's MP. On a more minor note, the final form also has A Courage Squandered, which takes away one BP from each party member.
• Motive Decay: As Inanna, she was merely a scholar princess with a desire to learn all that she could. By the time she became the Night's Nexus, that curiosity devolved into an insatiable appetite to devour everything into herself.
• Mummy: Both of her forms qualify. Her second form's attack A World Forsaken uses its bandages to deal massive physical damage to the entire party.
• Physical God: According to her brother's diary, her power as the Night's Nexus rivals that of the gods themselves.
• Power Incontinence: While she's the creator and master of the Librarian Asterisk, she can't fully control its power to show visions, most of which actively work against her goals.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Inanna, later known as Ishtar to the Babylonians, was the Mesopotamian goddesses of love, beauty, sex, war, justice and political power. Inanna was also notoriously greedy and once attempted to conquer the heavens, the earth, the underworld, everything, only to be foiled.
• Resurrective Immortality: Just like the Ba'al Diamante, every time the Heroes defeat her, she just revives and keeps trucking on. As it turns, she doesn't quite have immortality...
• Save Scumming: The secret behind her Resurrective Immortality. Her memory is crystalized in her Asterisk as a Soul Jar, or in game terms as a secret save file hidden in the game. Every time she dies, she just reloads to keep trying again. This makes her completely invincible to characters in the game, which is what necessitates the Musan royal family sacrificing their lives to seal her away. This being a Bravely Default game, it takes Divine Intervention from the player saving over her file to finally render her mortal for good.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Since it can't normally be destroyed, the most people can do is seal it away. In one of the endings, the fairies of Mag Mell seal it in a space outside of time to separate it permanently from the rest of the world. Effectively, the town of Mag Mell itself becomes that can.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: Elvis's book turns out to be a disguised form of the Night's Nexus's power source, the Librarian Asterisk. Her memory is preserved inside it, so she will revive herself so long as it is still in there.
• Transhuman Abomination: Once a human princess who sought knowledge, now an Eldritch Abomination that seeks to consume all knowledge into herself no matter what.
• The Voiceless: Unlike Ouroboros and Providence, the Night's Nexus never talks directly to the party or the player, only cackling insanely or repeating her Madness Mantra.
• Was Once a Man: A woman, in the Night's Nexus' case. She once came to Mag Mell to increase her knowledge, despite the warnings of the fairies. She took in too much and became an Eldritch Abomination.

---