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Esgares Empire
Previously known as the original Almekia. It is located in the central land. Before it became Esgares, Almekia was ruled by King Henguist. Prince Lance was supposed to be his successor but one of Almekia's generals, Zemeckis, was tricked by Cador into staging a coup and killing the king. Lance fled the country, and Zemeckis declared himself emperor of the new Esgares Empire. Their flag is colored purple.
Tropes associated with Esgares in general:
- 0% Approval Rating: In Grand Edition, the Esgares Empire are unable to recruit most of the quest knights, not to mention they cannot obtain new rune knights if they conquer a nation with a few exceptions.
- Ambition Is Evil: Half of the empire's rune knights side or join with Zemeckis for purely selfish reasons.
- Anti-Villain/Punch-Clock Villain: The other half of their rune knights are decent people or just see the opportunities in working with the empire.
- Blood Knight: Zemeckis and some of his rune knights (Escalados, Gish, Meltoresfas) enjoy the chaos of battle and war.
- Social Darwinist: Zemeckis and some of his rune knights share the same philosophy.Zemeckis: Only violence wins battles. I will rule Forsena and violence will crush all who oppose me.Zemeckis: The powerful lead and the weak serve. So it is boy. I will teach you!MelTorefas:(To Lance): Evil Empire!? Ignorant Brat! The strongest person should rule the world!
Zemeckis
Zemeckis (Voiced by Akio Ōtsuka)
Class: Emperor
Ruler of Esgares. The mighty general of Almekia who won them in the last war against Norgard, but pulled a coup to turn Forsena into a place where soldiers like him don't lose their meaning. While he sounds like a power hungry tyrant, he does have a few soft spots, especially to his wife Esmeree.
- Alas, Poor Villain: If the player's chosen country defeats and conquers the Esgares Empire, each monarch expresses their sympathies to the fallen emperor after Bulnoil kills him. Even the likes of Lance (the Prince of the kingdom he destroyed) and Vaynard (who indirectly took his sister Esmeree from him) can't help but feel sorry for him despite having every reason to hate him.
- Badass Normal: The nerfs in Grand Edition essentially makes him this in comparison to the other lords. The other 5 lords can cast offensive or supportive magic and usually have or gain a powerful AOE spell. All Zemeckis has is his already high stats, a spell that buffs his or a unit's next attack and his gigantic crossbow that has tremendous range and power.
- Barbarian Long Hair: His wild mane of hair makes him look like a wild beast, especially in his frontal portrait.
- Blood Knight: In spades. He even admits to King Dryst (if Iscalio conquers Esgares) that he enjoys the chaos of war and battlefield
- Bow and Sword in Accord: Carries a giant crossbow in battle while being a dangerous swordsman.
- The Conqueror: After his successful coup and transforming the Almekian Kingdom into his own personal empire, he begins his campaign of conquering the other kingdoms by force, throwing the continent into chaos.
- The Emperor: Upon taking control of the territory, he converted it into his own Empire.
- Expy: Retroactively, he's basically Big Boss, a soldier turned warlord due to being his fear of being useless after war. He's even has the same voice actor.
- Graceful Loser: Despite being defeated, he harshly encourages the rulers to go and forge an era of peace and unite Forsena.
- Great Crossbow: Is strong enough to use what literally is a ballista as a personal weapon. Grand Edition has him unable to use it after moving though, presumably due to the sheer weight of it.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Trusts the likes of Cador and never questions his intentions and why and how was he able to organize the rebellion in Almekia while at the same time informing him of his impending Kangaroo Court approved by the King.
- Large Ham: Akio Ohtsuka's performance made Zemeckis REALLY HAMMY. His last stand with Bulnoil takes the cake, really: TEMPEEEESSTTT BOOOOOOWWWW!!!!
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: He has quite the square-shaped jaw and when he was an Almekian Knight, he was praised as a great hero, idolized by Lance. Of course, then he got accused and things go to hell.
- Lima Syndrome: At first, Esmeree was nothing more than a hostage for Almekia, granted to him. Zemeckis started to love her for real and treated her as a special person that he confided with at times, earning her loyalty as well.
- Nerf: Between the vanilla game and GE, Zemeckis gets hit with a very big one. He's no longer able to use the Tempest Bow post-movement and loses the Geno-Thunder spell. His high level and his buff to his ranged attack means he's still a big threat whenever he enters the scene, but he's no longer a
Game-Breaker or a Demonic Spider. - Noble Demon: Zemeckis may be a ruthless conquerer who shows no mercy to his enemies and cares little to how his war is devastating the entire continent but he enagages in genuine Pet the Dog actions and he still has own Even Evil Has Standards moments. And despite his claims that he'll never rest as long as he lived, he still would grant Forsena peace if he's the one unifying it.
- Not Me This Time: Contrary to what many in Forsena believed, he's not the one who ordered the capture of Soleil's mother (that would be Cador). That's why he's okay with letting Soleil go when his mother is freed by Esmeree.
- Pet the Dog: Aside from his love of Esmeree, he recruits the Belferes Twins, not minding the supersition that states that twins are bringers of sorrow and horrible events. He also expresses desire to put MelTorefas and Eniede out of their miseries after Bulnoil turned them into Death Knights, even when he somehow caused their death and conversion in the first place, because he thinks it's too much for them.
- Unwitting Pawn: His fear of being turned obsolete in an era of peace that led to his rebellion is used by Bulnoil to engulf Forsena in war and weaken the seal of Ouroboros. When Zemeckis learns this, either he gives one last middle finger to Bulnoil by forcing him to retreat before being killed (if Esgares is not the selected faction), or takes the matters onto his own hand and kill Bulnoil and Ouroboros himself.
- The Usurper: Out of desperation of being falsely being executed for treason, he killed King Henguist and transformed the Kingdom of Alemekia into the Esgares Empire while it's rightful heir Lance is forced to retreat to the Kingdom of Padstow.
- Violence Really Is the Answer: As the man himself says and his answer to Vaynard's rebuke on his guiding principles.Zemeckis: Only violence wins battles. I will rule Forsena and violence will crush all who oppose me.
- Villain Protagonist: If Esgares is the selected faction, he's definitely this as he has no remorse or pity in response to the many characters either berating him for being a violent beast with no clear goal or how the war and chaos he started has driven many ordinary people to suffer.
- You Killed My Father: He's the one who personally offed Brangien's father, although Bulnoil had a hand in letting him win
Cador
Cador (Voiced by Masashi Sugawara)
Class: Death Knight
The Death Knight who convinced Zemeckis to rebel. He personally killed Lance's father Henguist and served as Zemeckis' right-hand man and one of Esgares' Big 4 Generals. He is actually Leland, Halley's boyfriend, resurrected as Bulnoil's servant and eventually got him to turn against Zemeckis. He later had a rematch with Halley and regains his sanity, only to be killed by Bulnoil when he attempted to strike back at him, letting Halley escape
- Black Knight: Clad in black armor, wields a massive weapon (axe) and a very much enigmatic person. Cador has this trope written all over him. Bonus point for having some Black magic on his repertoire.
- Blood Knight
- Crutch Character: He is pretty powerful at the start of the game and can mop the floor with most other generals, but when you start getting other generals up to his level you find that he really isn't all that great. Not to mention he leaves you if you're down to a few castles along with Eniede and MelTorefas. This is expanded further in Grand Edition, if Esgares have gained enough castles, he will leave.
- Dragon with an Agenda: He is really working for Bulnoil so that the fighting would continue and the Snake of Chaos would destroy the world.
- Dying as Yourself: He gets his sanity back at the end, only for him to make a final attack to Bulnoil and die by his new Death Knights. In the original version, however, he succeeded in taking out Bulnoil while burning his life out, since the new Death Knights do not exist.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: In Legend of Forsena, after he regained his old self as Leland, he tried to strike Bulnoil, hoping to take him out at cost of his life and succeeded. In Grand Order, he tried the same again, but Bulnoil has new Death Knights. One of them, Olwen, shot him dead before he could do the deed.
- I Have Your Wife: He successfully forces Soleil to side with the Esgares Empire by holding his mother as a hostage.
- Obviously Evil: Wears pitch black armor and a horned skull helmet while wielding a massive axe and uses dark magic in battle and is called the "Death Knight" for his ruthlessness and brutality in war. Obviously a trustworthy individual. His past self, not so much, since the whole getup was only after he became Death Knight, and since he did become Halley's lover, he used to be good until he was Brainwashed and Crazy.
- You Killed My Father: He personally offed King Henguist, Lance's father, to kickstart Zemeckis' rebellion.
Esmeree
Esmeree (Voiced by Yuri Amano)
Class: Lector
Vaynard's big sister, sent as a hostage to Almekia at first, but eventually fell in love for real with Zemeckis, staying by his side at Esgares' formation, and even protected him from Bulnoil and Cador. If Esgares is defeated, she chooses to retire from the battlefield.
- Expy: Of Annerose Von Grunwald from Legend of the Galactic Heroes
- The Fatalist: Her quotes and her resignation to her fate marks her as this. Which is why she is loyal to Zemeckis, who fiercely fates against his fate.Esmeree: (To Vaynard) We must walk the path that life gives us brother. You are King of Norgard and I am Zemeckis' wife. We must fulfill our duty without wavering.
- Love Martyr: While Zemeckis never mistreats her, she is willing to fight for his sake regardless of morality or even if it means facing against her younger brother, Vaynard.Esmeree: (To Vaynard): I could not forgive anyone who hurts my husband. Not even you Vaynard.
- Token Good Teammate: The only high-ranking Esgares Rune Knight who isn't evil.
Gish
Gish (Voiced by Keiji Fujiwara)
Class: Wizard
The second best magician of Forsena (second after Cai, that is). He used to be calm and cool, but turned into cold and evil once Zemeckis pulled a coup. However, he still stays loyal and courteous with Zemeckis as his advisor. One of Esgares' Big 4 Generals.
- The Archmage: Famous enough that some characters (eg Janfadar) would challenge him in a combat.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Gish may have been turned into an arrogant and megalomaniacal evil mage, but the prospect of the Mana being used to eventually weaken the seal of Ouroboros and cause The End of the World as We Know It unnerves him.
- Glory Hound: The reason why he willing joins Zemeckis is that he sees the war as a chance to make his mark in the history books.
Esclados
Esclados (Voiced by Tetsuo Komura)
Class: Shogun
Gereint's master in swordsmanship. For some reason, he develops quite the blood lust and thinks the sword is meant only for killing, thus he sided with Zemeckis. One of Esgares' Big 4 Generals.
- Blood Knight: Possibly a far bigger one than Zemeckis. He comments to his former pupil Gereint, Vaynard and Layoneil that only blood and carnage are what matters in the art of swordsmanship.
- Killed Off for Real: He is implied to be killed by Gereint before the Multiplayer Scenario 2 starts.
- Old Master: His age is listed at 51 but unlike Brusom of New Almekia, old age hasn't dulled his fighting skills nor his bloodlust. But it did have an effect of his overall Rune Power, since for his level it's actually quite mediocre. But he makes it up with great overall stats worthy of his level.
Shred
Shred (Voiced by Kouji Ishii)
Class: Champion
One of Esgares' Big 4 Generals, attempted to oppose Zemeckis and imprisoned. However, once Cador took his leave, Esmeree freed him to protect Zemeckis.
- Convenient Replacement Character: He is available instantly after Cador leaves. On one hand, Shred's stats may be a match of Cador. But on the other hand, he had to also fill in the blank for three weaker, but more Rune-attuned Knights like MelTorefas, Eniede and Soleil. And Rune Power is his one big weakness.
- Strong, but Unskilled: As a Rune Knight, he's very strong, being a Level 20 Champion and could land powerful hits considerably well. Unfortunately, he has such low Rune Power that he's very very unskilled in terms of managing his Rune skills to govern monsters.
- Token Good Teammate: Of the Big 4 Generals, he's the only one who dared to rebel against Zemeckis instead of following along with his battle lust. He paid for it dearly.
Mira
Mira (Voiced by Yumiko Kobayashi)
Class: Lancer
Elder of the Belferes Twins, a tomboyish lady fighter with a spear. Due to her born a twin, they've been persecuted as bringers of misfortunes and Mira is more than determined to prove the rumors wrong.
- Anti-Villain: Actually a nice girl just surrounded with bad rumors, but she starts out in Esgares Empire.
- Break the Cutie: Mira is the first to break down and about to cross the Despair Event Horizon when she heard that the twins' nanny got beaten up because of serving her family
- Sibling Team: Of course, with Millet.
- The Tease: She has her moments, pretending to be Millet in front of a drunk Rain as The Matchmaker for lulz. It backfired.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboyish physical fighter for her magic-slinging sister Millet.
Millet
Millet (Voiced by Yumiko Suzuki)
Class: Sorceress
The younger of the Belferes Twins, a sophisticated Cute Witch. She's adopted to Ranguinus' family and became friends with his son Rain. Like her sister, she suffered because of the rumors about misfortune bringers.
- Anti-Villain: Like her sister, Millet is a pretty nice girl, but serving the Esgares Empire at first isn't going to make her look good at first.
- Cute Witch: One of the younger up-and-coming mages in Forsena and has a witch-like getup.
- Oblivious to Love: She can't seem to tell that Rain is crushing so hard on her.
- Sibling Team: Originally with Mira, but she can be one with her foster brother Rain.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly and feminine sorceress for her physical fighter sister Mira.
Ranguinus
Ranguinus (Voiced by Shigeru Ushiyama)
Class: Sorcerer
The head of the Carlsen Family and the father of Rain and the adopted father of Millet. He reluctantly joins with Esgares for the people's safety.
- Anti-Villain: He's only fighting for the safety of the people around him.
- Heel–Face Turn: He can be convinced to go back into the battlefield with his son Rain, fighting under a non-Esgares banner.
- Parental Substitute: He basically acted like a father figure to the Belferes twins (or in case of Millet, literally her adopted father), showing them what's on the menu when they joined Esgares.
Shiraha
Shiraha (Voiced by Yasunori Matsumoto)
Class: Ninja
A member of an assassin clan in Almekia that was destroyed, leaving him with another member, Kazan, and then for unknown reason he served Esgares. After Esgares' fall, he can join any country via questing, recruiting him means Kazan joins another country.
- The Atoner: His recruitment quest has him join a faction out of atonement for his traitorous actions, dreaming that one of his fallen comrades tells him to live to pay for his sins.
- Fragile Speedster: His high Agi stat and his 'Hit & Away' skill (enables him to move after attacking without any penalties) makes him a very difficult character to hit. All too well too balance his low Str that makes his physical attacks weak and a few heavy hits will bring him down.
- Gratuitous Ninja: Shiraha seriously sticks out in a setting like Brigandine which is modeled like medieval Europe. We don't even see his ninja village!
- Highly-Visible Ninja: Props should be given that he at least tried to wear dull-colored clothes as a ninja and covered his face, but none of his spells help out in any manners of stealth, he's just as visible as everyone else that appeared in a map. He does has a 'Hit & Away' skill to enforce the ninja stealth (like making people not realize that they have been hit), but that doesn't help much.
- Turncoat: It is implied that he is the reason why his assassin group is wiped out except him and Kazan, who wants Revenge for his traitorous actions.
Soleil
Soleil (Voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama)
Class: Bishop
An animal-loving Rune Knight known as the Beast Master. Formerly thought to be loyal to Almekia Kingdom, but he suddenly became a member of the Esgares Empire, though he's not that enthusiastic on them. As it turns out, his mother was taken hostage and he has to fight for the Empire for his safety. He's best friends with Schutleis and will join any country that has the latter if Esgares is defeated.
- Anti-Villain: He's only fighting to protect his beloved mother.
- The Beast Master: Soleil is an animal lover and it's signified with his tremendous Rune Power for someone his level, allowing him to carry a lot of monsters.
- Crutch Character: If you're playing as Esgares in an unorthodox way. While not highly leveled, Soleil's capabilities to carry a lot of monsters from get go makes him a popular monster storage that people would likely to depend on (it helps that he has an astronomical Rune growth) and try to give him as much EXP as they wanted. Mid-way of Esgares' story, however, Esmeree freed Shred as well as Soleil's mother, on the request that Soleil be freed from his burden. Joyous moment for Soleil, true, but there goes your Rune Knight with top tier Rune Power that you have been raising and depending on! (To add insult to injury, Shred is a powerhouse Rune Knight but has an atrocious Rune Power...)
- Forced into Evil: He'd more likely to join any of the country or maybe flee to New Almekia. But then, his mother got taken hostage and he has to fight for the Empire...
Castor
Castor (Voiced by Hideo Ishikawa)
Class: Fighter
The middle child of the Rand siblings. Castor aims to move up the ranks of the country he served, but also has strong desires to reunite his family members.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He's not exactly evil by all means, the only designation of evilness is that he served Esgares. However, in the novels accompanying Grand Edition, Castor got put in the same squad with MelTorefas and ends up very unnerved with his attitude. Considering MelTorefas will become one of the Death Knights, he was kind of right to be unnerved, in a way.
- Heel–Face Turn: New Almekia can have a good time in bringing him to them, simply because as soon as he encounters Liguel, Castor gets overwhelmed with his brotherly love and then ditches Esgares for Liguel.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Just like the rest of the Rand Siblings, which also had their own punch clocks. Castor is only in for upholding the honor of the Rand family and moving up ranks. He tried to persuade Liguel to think like him as well by persuading her to join Esgares, but she declined.
Ivan
Ivan (Voiced by Shinpachi Tsuji)
Class: Druid
A Rune Knight and a friend of Gereint who sides with the Esgares Empire out of fear.
- Dirty Coward: While he misses his friend Gereint, he refuses to change sides due to believing that Zemeckis will win the war.
Fiel
Fiel (Voiced by Tōru Ōkawa)
Class: Cavalier
A member of the Priest Corps of Almekia. He sides with the empire despite his reluctance due to not wanting to risk his livelihood being deprived.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Unlike his commander, he only took the job of become of becoming a rune knight in order to avoid poverty and earn a living and is also the reason why he reluctantly sides with the Esgares Empire. If the Player's country defeats Esgares, he joins your side for the same reason.
Roecod
Roecod (Voiced by Eiji Takemoto)
Class: Cavalier
Commander of the Priest Corps of the Almekian Kingdom, He is fooled into joining Zemeckis' rebellion by Paradoll and is utterly loyal to him as a result.
- Heel–Face Turn: If the Esgares Empire is defeated, he sees the error of his ways and fights for the people of Forsena by joining another faction.
- Knight Templar: Genuinely believes in Zemeckis's cause and becomes instrumental in the success of the rebellion.
Paradoll
Paradoll (Voiced by Junichi Sugawara)
Class: Bishop
An evil priest who turned the Priest Corps of Alemekia against the King and endured the success of the rebellion. He somehow has a hidden megalomania to Take Over the World.
- Sinister Minister: Manipulates the Holy Knights like Fiel, Roecod and Clarence to join Zemeckis' rebellion and expresses the desire to take over the world.
Irvin
Irvin (Voiced by Kentarō Itō)
Class: Mage
A man raised alongside Prince Lance since childhood. Thought to be a loyal friend and a future right-hand once Lance becomes King, he defied expectations by siding with Zemeckis' rebellion.
- Driven by Envy: His words towards Prince Lance hint a matter of envy towards him which is only confirmed in a battle conversation with Schutleis.
- False Friend: Due to believing that he was only raised to be a brother of Prince Lance by chance, he immediately sides with Zemeckis and had no problem Kick the Dog toward Lance by nonchalantly telling him to give up and saying he was never a friend to him in the first place.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: Schutleis seems to know about his friendship with Lance and calls him out for his rather petty betrayal based on envy. Irvin tells him to just shut it and mind his own business.
Mel Torefas
MelTorefas (Voiced by Hiroki Takahashi)
Class: Fighter
An up and coming fighter amongst the Esgares fighter. He believes in the philosophies of 'The strong rules over the weak' and idolizes Cador. Somehow he got close into a fellow Knight Eniede and his fate turned upside down...
- Despair Event Horizon: The death of Eniede sets him off to despair and eventually the dark side.
- Horrible Judge of Character: First off, he likes Cador. The guy with scary skull mask and not exactly interested in mentoring someone, and treats him like a normal grunt. Second, there's this suspicious looking bald man that offered him a 'chance to see Eniede again' after she died. MelTorefas took the offer by gusto and it led him to his death and transformation into Death Knight, though he was already in grief when the offer came in, so he's not quite in the right mind.
- Hypocrite: Mocks Prince Lance and calls him a kid for being a Wide-Eyed Idealist, when he's essentially even far more naive regarding his belief in power.
- The Social Darwinist: A solid believer of this mindset. Perhaps because of this, he likes to challenge super strong opponents like Vaynard, Dinadan or Dryst despite being outclassed, to prove himself stronger and deserving of living.
Eniede
Eniede (Voiced by Tomoko Kawakami)
Class: Archer
Daughter of a disgraced Almekian Knight, having been forced to an exile even before Zemeckis' rebellion. She resurfaced and applied for a position as a Knight in Esgares, but she hid a tremendous hatred. She ended up befriending MelTorefas but fate wasn't really kind of her.
- Daddy's Girl: Everything she did was for her disgraced father that she loved.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: She perishes while being cradled by MelTorefas.
- Killed Off for Real: She became unavailable mid-game of Esgares when she had a failed assassination attempt on Zemeckis, which was foiled by Cador. Adding insult to the injury, she was then transformed into Death Knight Olwen by Bulnoil.
- Revenge: She believed that Zemeckis unfairly exiled and shamed her father, so she wanted revenge. Ironically, Zemeckis eventually revealed that he and Henguist had very good reasons to do so: Eniede's father was actually a Norgard spy.
