Chained Echoes / Characters

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The Crimson Wings

Glenn

An ace Doppelsöldner known for his talent with Sky Armor. After a mission ends up going horribly wrong, he goes into hiding, but reemerges when the cause for that disaster is recovered in order to destroy it.

Ace Pilot: He has a reputation for being a master Sky Armor pilot even after he's spent a full year out of action.
Boring, but Practical: His Restrain skill does nothing but lower the Overdrive gauge, but due to how luck-based it can be to get a convenient skill type on the Overdrive indicator, this skill is still very useful for preventing Overheat.
Broken Ace: He's very skilled at both Sky Armor and ground combat, to the point where Victor wants him to be the symbolic leader of the Crimson Wings to attract more recruits. Unfortunately, he's also carrying a lot of guilt over unwittingly activating the Grand Grimoire at Wyrnshire and failing to stop it during the battle on the Aurora, to the point where he hallucinates war orphans just to give himself a purpose in life.
Classical Anti-Hero: He is full of self-doubt and lacks any real confidence outside his ability to pilot Sky Armors. This is largely due to his guilt over accidentally causing the deaths of about ten thousand people during the prologue from activating the Great Grimoire. Said feelings only get worse when he fails to stop it from activating a second time.
Crippling Overspecialization: Glenn is very good at damaging and debuffing single targets. His capacity for dealing with multiple targets on the other hand is...lacking. He gets exactly one Area-of-Effect skill, and he cannot unlock it until the back half of the game. He can get the Warrior's Emblem pretty early on with some exploration which will give him an AoE attack, but it's damage is kind of mediocre compared to what his allies can do.
Hearing Voices: After the incident in the prologue, Glenn occasionally hears a voice in his head advising him on who to trust and what path to take in order to uncover the truths he's been seeking ever since. When the party is storming Tormund at the end of Act 2, it's revealed that the voice was Gwayn's.
Gameplay and Story Integration:
- A twofer. When the Forgotten Mantis nears the party for the first time, Kylian notes that he's burning up, but Glenn barely feels a thing. It's also later revealed he was a firefighter in his past life. No wonder his starting passive skill is Fire Resistance!
- It turns out that about half of Glenn's previous lives were quantifiable geniuses, including Yonahs, the inventor of the printing press, and Bartholomew, one of the smartest men to ever teach at Nhysa Academy, who ended up advancing magical studies by an order of decades. However, despite his vast intellect, Bartholomew couldn't cast magic himself, and it's not readily apparent any of Glenn's other past lives could, either. Glenn is a Gadgeteer Genius who can build a Mini-Mecha in the middle of a fight to harm multiple opponents, and is considered one of the greatest Sky Armor pilots around, but he is also a Magically Inept Fighter.
Heroic BSoD: He spent most of the year following activating the Grimoire that killed 10 thousand people unable to get out of bed due to depression and guilt. Kylian has to convince him that the grimoire is still out there and capable of causing another such explosion to get him going again.
Heroic Sacrifice: At the very end of the game, it initially appears as though he survived and has inherited Gwayn's powers as a True King, only for it to be revealed that he was tired of the original burden he had been carrying for multiple lifetimes and let himself pass on in order to give Kylian the power and a chance at redemption.
I Hate Past Me: Finding out that he wasn't Lenne's beloved Timothy, but the man that murdered him and Lenne, utterly breaks Glenn - he can't believe what an awful person he was back then and spends many, many lifetimes making up for it.
It's All My Fault: He blames himself for the mission going wrong in the prologue, and also for the disaster that occurs at the end of Act 1.
Knightly Sword and Shield: He uses a sword and shield as his on-foot weapon (though he can use any weapon in his Sky Armor), and has the ability Decoy that increases the chance for an enemy to target him.
Jack of All Trades: Falls into this once the full party forms. He's relatively fast (though not as fast as Sienna or Mikah), relatively strong (though not as strong as Sienna or Lenne), and fairly sturdy (though Egyl and Raphael have him beat), and has a variety of abilities that allow him to fit virtually any role in a party short of being an offensive mage. What sets him apart from the rest of the cast is his mastery of debuffs and his ability to directly affect the Overdrive bar to his whims.
Magically Inept Fighter: He can apply some elemental aspects to his attacks, but his magic stat is tied with Sienna as the worst in the party by far. This all makes sense, because the rest of his incarnations were just as useless with casting spells as Glenn is. If anything, the fact he can cast at all is a slight improvement.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Cameron calls him out for asking Prince Frederik for information about the Grand Grimoire as a reward for helping Lenne, since this just makes the prince suspicious of him and the entire party. If it weren't for Lenne ordering the soldiers to stand down, the party probably would have been captured before they could even look for clues on how to destroy the grimoire.
Past-Life Memories: He starts to recall his original reincarnation at the end of Act 3. The realization of who he was back then knocks him into a coma, and after the party journeys through all of his past lives to wake him back up, he clearly recalls them all.
Passing the Torch: Done in an unconventional way. Although Gwayn chose him and shapes him over the course of the game to be the next True King, by the end of his journey, finally having been forgiven by Lenne over his murder of her past Echo and Timothy, and standing at the beginning of a journey that could take millennia more, Glenn chooses to pass Gwayn's will to Kylian, feeling as though he's reached the end of his journey.
The Unchosen One: Unlike Lenne, who was chosen to eventually take down the Harbinger, Glenn's original incarnation entered a reincarnation cycle just out of a sense of entitlement, and then Gwayn became his Stealth Mentor to make him the perfect candidate for taking down the Vaen.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: On receiving Gwayn's Will and memories, and realizing the millennia-spanning scope of his new job as the eighth True King, he decides that he is simply too tired from having lived for so many lifetimes. He hands off the mantle of the True King to Kylian and passes into the Maelstrom, his goal of achieving forgiveness for his past life failures complete.
You Are in Command Now: When the party becomes an official clan called the Crimson Wings in order to fight back against Taryn, Glenn is shocked to learn that Victor has designated him as their clan leader. Victor claims that, with both Lenne and himself having secrets they still need to keep, Glenn was the most relatable choice for the position; in truth, it's because Glenn is the reincarnation of Victor's former master, who he still wishes to serve.

Kylian (Unmarked Spoilers)

A man with great ambitions, initially working as a Doppelsöldner alongside Glenn.

Animated Armor: During Act 4, Gwayn tethers his soul to a suit of armor in order to keep him around as a back-up in case Glenn fails to kill the Vaen. Once Kylan realizes he was an Unwitting Pawn now doomed to spend eternity in this state, he backstabs Gwayn and absorbs enough power to regain his human form.
The Atoner: In the final battle of the game, when he loses control and the Vaen attempt Demonic Possession on him, he does everything in his power to take himself out so the Vaen die with him. In the epilogue, it's then revealed that Glenn performed a Heroic Sacrifice to die in Kylian's place, and Kylian vows to spend the rest of his life redeeming himself and being worthy of Glenn's friendship.
Ambiguously Bi: Kylian’s decision to sleep with a male bishop in the church to gain a position there places Kylian’s sexuality into question since he didn't do this out of love. However, he does admit that he finds Sienna to be very attractive.
Big Bad Wannabe: He believes he's going to be able to make it to the top of the world by constantly betraying his allies for in favor of stronger ones, but all this does is burn his bridges and he doesn't really have a concrete plan to enact his goal of improving society. As a result, he ends up a pawn for every new side he joins and bites off more than he can chew when he tries to steal the 8th True King's power. This is in contrast to other contenders to the Big Bad status like Frederik, Gwayn, the Vaen, and Markas, who have more concrete plans and better long-term manipulation skills.
Broken Tears: During the end credits scroll, he's shown visiting his Morality Chain younger sister, successfully using his new powers to finally awaken her, and breaks down crying in joy at her bedside.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He betrays the party aboard the Aurora in order to try and gain favor with his homeland of Nabrelia. Later, he sleeps with an elderly bishop in the Corrupt Church to gain a high-ranked position in it, until they get their hands on the party and Grand Grimoire, at which point he steals it from them and delivers it to Frederik in exchange for replacing the now-dead Godfrey in his Elite Four. Finally, when he fails at Frederik's mission and is tricked by Gwayn into becoming his Unwitting Pawn, he tries to take Gwayn's power for himself upon learning the truth.
Crutch Character: Kylian is a very dependable Jack of All Trades during Act 1, having multiple healing, debuffing, and high damage moves, some of which hit the entire enemy party. By the time you're likely to have a hang on the gameplay as well as multiple skillsets and jobs available, he's out the door by the start of Act 2.
Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of Chronic Backstabbing Disorder traitors common in RPGs and JRPGs as well as opportunistic bastards, for several reasons. First, because he shows himself to be capable and willing of betraying people at the drop of the hat, the people he stabs in the back know not to let him back in - his reception with the party is frosty, and pretty much everyone he betrays besides the party swear to go for his throat. While that never comes to pass, Kylian's arc takes a good, long look at the ways he has to debase himself to gather power (such as by participating in sexual acts against his will and having to nuke a city) in the face of his constant attempts to switch sides and examines how the sort of man who would be willing to stab others in the back will oftentimes not be aware of when to stop. Kylian is frequently given good positions of power whenever he makes a sacrifice to switch sides, but those sacrifices pile up to the point he can't work with Taryn due to his moral misgivings with using the Great Grimoire, which gets him killed for a time. Kylian also never thinks to stick with any one side such that he benefits from the power he receives. It turns out that when a person makes a habit out of betraying people for power, they don't actually get to benefit much from the power they attain given they'll naturally think to take more power from elsewhere. Instead of being a cool loose cannon who usurps the role of the Big Bad, Kylian is instead a broken, grasping man who burns all his bridges because he can't stop himself from wanting more than he needs.
Demonic Possession: In the final battle, after suffering Power Incontinence but still believing he can control Gwayn's power, he opens the gate to the Vaen with intent to defeat them. The Vaen immediately possess him in order to add the power of a True King to themselves, but Kylian resists long enough for Glenn to use the Grand Grimoire to weaken them and then helps Glenn defeat his mutated form to try and take them out for good with him.
Everyone Has Standards:
- Sure, he's a backstabbing narcissist with a god complex, but even he has the time to pull Glenn aside and tell him to respect Lenne's personal space if she doesn't want to talk to anyone, telling him to "not be weird".
- Like the rest of the party, he's disgusted by Daimbert for being callous towards all life.
Expy: Has a lot of similarities with Delita. He leaves your party at the end of act one, will generally backstab anyone necessary, and is largely motivated by his little sister.
Fatal Flaw: His Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, though not for the traditional reason; none of the people he betrays ever gut him in the back, nor do the people he jumps to ever treat him with anything less than cordial trust. Fitting in with Kylian's theme of himself being his greatest enemy, he frequently betrays people when it's the absolute least opportune point to do so; he decides to turn on Lenne in the middle of enemy lines despite knowing she can defend herself and has the rest of the party right in front of her, he turns on the church just as the church was about to be attacked by Taryn (which he knew about, having leaked the intel), and he turns on Gwayn despite having no idea what the Vaen were truly capable of. This directly gets him killed because he puts himself in an untenable situation. Twice, even.
Fighting from the Inside: He fights the Vaen's Demonic Possession of him every step of the way, by buffing the heroes, destroying the Vaen's copies, and even bringing the Crimson Wings back from the verge of death.
Gave Up Too Soon: He betrays and permanently leaves the party at the end of Act 1 because of his desire for political power. The party eventually forms the Crimson Wings clan and can actually gain a lot of political influence with foreign governments if they invite enough clan members, ironically giving them everything Kylian ever wanted.
Guest-Star Party Member: Done interestingly, as he has all the makings of a permanent party member with unique equipment and a skillset unique to him. However, he bails at the climax of the first act, and his skill kit is split between Mikah, Egyl, and Raphael (who also inherits his Greatsword weapon class).
Ignored Epiphany: When Frederik sends him to use the Grand Grimoire on Marylea, Kylian wonders if Glenn is correct and that he's becoming a monster that his sister would be disgusted with. Then he's abruptly killed and revived as a suit of armor, and eventually backstabs Gwayn in order to become the next 8th True King.
Interface Spoiler: Unlike every other party member, Kylian's higher level skills are nothing but question marks, which makes one wonder why (more on that under Mechanically Unusual Fighter below). And the ultimate reason is because he defects from the party for good partway through the game.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Due to his defection, his higher level skills are blanked out, unlike every other character. On a normal playthrough, this won't ever factor into gameplay, as Kylian leaves well before the player would ever advance far enough to unlock higher skills. On a New Game Plus, however, it turns out that those skills are blanked out because they don't exist - rather, the player can choose to give Kylian permanent stat buffs with every two levels unlocked.
Mirror Character: Despite his supposed good intentions, he turns out to be very similar to Glenn's first incarnation, Van. Both feel they are entitled to things they don't deserve, with Van believing he deserves Lenne's love and Kylian believing he deserves political power. Both try to steal the position of their rival, with Van stealing Timothy's place in the Manaflora reincarnation ritual and Kylian stealing the power of the 8th True King that was meant for Glenn. This leads to them both suffering for their theft, with Van reincarnating as an impoverished boy in the slums and Kylian getting possessed by the Vaen. Finally, they only start to turn their life around after being shown kindness, with Van being saved by a priest and Kylian being saved by Glenn.
The Mole: Despite first appearing as Glenn's ally, he's actually a secret agent from the country of Nabrelia, only revealing the fact at the end of Act 1 when he tries to kidnap Lenne to use as a bargaining chip in his country's upcoming battle against her brother Frederik.
Morality Chain: All of the power he gains through his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder is ultimately so his comatose younger sister can grow up in a better world. When he's working for Frederik and about to activate the Grand Grimoire on his command, the thought that his sister would resent him for killing so many people with it causes him to hesitate long enough for his Sky Armor to be shot out of the sky.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Kylian sells out the Church to Taryn just to become Frederik's next general, but this gives Ba'Thraz an opportunity to kill the Pope and force Markas into hiding, meaning there's one less member of the Big Bad Ensemble for the party to worry about.
Power Incontinence: In the game's finale, killing Gwayn and stealing some of his Will to restore himself to his true form and take Glenn's place as the world's savior doesn't work out despite his insistence that he can control it, and he has to be fought both to put him out of his misery and also so Glenn can use Gwayn's power to take on the Vaen.
Redemption Equals Death: Once he realizes how his lust for power screwed him over and nearly doomed Valandis to the Vaen, he resists the Vaens' control knowing that he likely won't survive. However, Glenn decides that Redemption Earns Life instead and revives Kylian as the next 8th True King.
Sleeping Their Way to the Top: After his failure at the end of Act 1, Kylian ends up sacrificing his dignity in order to gain status and sleeps with Zacheus, an elderly male church bishop.
Tautological Templar: He's convinced he's the only one who can reform the world and that he's justified in betraying everyone around him to gain the power to do so.
Touched by Vorlons: Gwayn is initially surprised that Kylian is able to resist his Jedi Mind Trick powers, until realizing that the time Kylian has spent with Gwayn's intended successor Glenn has made Kylian compatible with his Will as well.
Unskilled, but Strong: He absorbs the 8th True King's power, but since his soul wasn't adjusted properly like Glenn's, he's unable to control that power and fight off the Vaen's control.
Unwitting Pawn: The motivation for his final betrayal. When Kylian's original body was dying, Gwayn bound his soul to a suit of armor and told him that he would inherit Gwayn's power and Will in order to fight against the Vaen as long as he helped Glenn, but neglected to mention that would only happen if his actual successor Glenn failed, and only because Kylian had spent enough time near Glenn to attune his soul to their ether rather than because of his ambitions or talents. Outraged upon learning the truth, he ends up killing Gwayn to take enough of his power to try and restore himself.
Walking Spoiler: Initially just the man that gets Glenn out of hiding, his true motives have major ramifications.

Lenne

A noble soul that is, in fact, actually Princess Celestia Valkyria of Taryn.

Bitch Slap: Lenne is a fan of delivering these. She slaps three people over the course of the story, each for good reasons: Robb for maiming a fallen opponent, Frederik when confronted with his warmongering ways, and Ba'Thraz for killing the Pope before telling her the real goals of the Church.
Cain and Abel: Despite Lenne being Frederik's Morality Chain, she later realizes she can only stop his ambitions by taking up arms against him, and becomes the Abel to his Cain. This was what Frederik was counting on, casting her in the role of the world's hero and having her take the credit for his planned death so that she could unite the world.
The Chosen One: According to Lord Markas, Lenne is the reincarnation of the Holy Mother, a key figure in his land's religion that once sealed away an ancient evil, and it is her destiny to do so again.
Irony:
- As revealed by Robb to Amalia, Lenne is a vegetarian who can't bear to eat meat or even get money from poaching woodland critters. Unfortunately, she's also allergic to most flowers and many other plants besides, limiting what she can eat.
- As part of being Secretly Selfish, Lenne took actions she felt would get her as far from the Taryn throne as possible, having no ambitions to speak of. By the end of the story, she's the ruler of a unified Valandis.
Glass Cannon: Outside of certain builds with Sienna, Lenne has the highest potential damage output in the party utilizing Third Eye, her amazing Magic statistic, and her weakness-piercing attacks. In fact, in terms of pure burst damage, she even has Sienna beat. As a consequence, while she isn't frail, she is frail by the standards of much of the rest of the party, not getting the best armors and not having access to many means of buffing her HP or Defense, and Third Eye briefly makes her much frailer than normal, typically necessitating buffs to her robustness or a proper tank with aggro abilities to avoid taking high amounts of damage.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: Near the end of Act 1, Lenne recognizes Valkyries as flying women armed with spears that specialize in defeating Sky Armor. When they attack Glenn's new Sky Armor, she reveals that she was one, immediately defeating them in aerial combat and saving Glenn. The only foreshadowing about this is Lenne having aerial movements in her party-wide skills and her Ultra Move, but nothing indicates they were meant to be used against Sky Armor outside of the wind elemental skills.
Past-Life Memories: As Lenne awakens her powers as The Chosen One, she starts to have visions of her previous life as a different Chosen One named Lenne.
Rebellious Princess: Lenne ran away from home to see more of the world, and has been travelling like this for over a year. She now works as a city guard in the capital of the rival kingdom. This has led to some resentment from her kinsmen, who question if things would have turned out differently if she had stayed in Taryn with her brother.
Secretly Selfish: She claims she left Tormund and joined the Farnsport City Guard to gain experience regarding the outside world so she can more readily serve Taryn as its princess and pontential queen. Frederik sees right through this and points out that she really left Tormund so that the role of governance would fall on him without his input - supported by the fact that she left just as their father's senility progressed enough to where someone else needed to rule for him - and Lenne even privately reveals to Glenn that she never wanted to be a princess, anyway - though she understands that being a princess affords her many luxuries, she can't handle being cooped up inside at all, and would trade banquets and opulence for life as a commoner any day of the week. These revelations put into question a few of Lenne's more seemingly noble acts, though she is still legitimately a good, kind person.
True Sight: As she realizes her role as The Chosen One, Lenne gains this, allowing her to realize Glenn is Van's reincarnation instead of Timothy's before that person does. In the epilogue, this is also how she knows the "Glenn" saying farewell to her is really Kylian trying to spare her the pain of knowing the real Glenn sacrificed himself to save him.

Robb

The heir to a Taryn noble house that is dedicated to serving Lenne, going as far as to willingly abandon his old life in order to join her on her travels.

Abusive Parents: The sidequest "No Place for Happy Endings" involves Robb reuniting with and fighting back against his father, who blames him for the death of his mother. Rather than being a case of death by childbirth, Robb was actually born from an affair, and his mother died of a broken heart after her lover was hanged for seducing her. Robb makes sure his "father" knows this right before his father dies.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Lenne is imprisoned in the Aurora airship, Robb is willing to bow his head when asking the party to save her, which is a change from his usual arrogant demeanor.
The Atoner: At the end of "No Place for Happy Endings", Robb admits that there is still hatred in his heart, but the influence of his friends has convinced him to try and make amends, starting with pardoning the men that tried to kill him, restoring their knighthood, and publicly absolving his noble title so his father's ill-gotten assets can be divided amongst those he had taken from. In the epilogue, he even asks Egyl to make him his squire, willingly leaving Lenne's side in order to learn how to be a more chivalrous person.
Black-and-White Insanity: He believes anyone who performs any criminal actions, regardless of circumstances, is evil and unworthy of sympathy. This even extends to Glenn accidentally attacking the Grand Grimoire during the battle at Wyrnshire, despite how no one except Taryn's leaders and Wywyan knew what it was. He starts to grow out of this at the start of Act 2, since he realizes that he and the group as a whole share the blame for failing to stop the Grand Grimoire's activation at the end of Act 1. In Act 3, he reveals that he hates commoners because of his abusive peers in Tormund Castle, but he starts questioning himself when he hears Egyl's reasons for refraining from revenge on Marylea, causing him to realize that his grudge is Misplaced Retribution.
Boomerang Bigot: He looks down on commoners despite how his real father is a commoner, due to the servants in Tormund Castle mistreating him.
Can't Hold His Liquor: Robb apparently gets drunk very easily as Lenne blatantly admits that Robb is unable to hold his liquor and even gets highly intoxicated just by smelling alcohol.
Crippling Over Specialization: Robb is amazing at two things; setting status effects on enemies and eliminating status effects on his allies. In all other respects, he is woefully mundane, having no attack combo that comes even close to the heights Sienna, Magnolia, Ba'Thraz, Lenne, Mikah, Glenn, or any of the other offensive characters can reach despite ostensibly being a primarily offensive character himself. His position as a healer is itself a shaky one because he doesn't heal damage, just status ailments, which already puts him in a losing battle with Victor and sees him completely made obsolete once Amalia joins. This means he only really has his status afflictions to fall back on, which also cripples him - in standard fights with a lot of enemies, he really has nothing he can do to meaningfully contribute, meaning his niche is only really applicable in boss fights.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: One of his major hang-ups is that he hasn't really considered what he would do if he ever left Lenne's side. He's properly loyal, but meeting Egyl and learning of the Sova's chivalrous deeds causes Robb to begin wondering if he's pigeonholing himself by living entirely for Lenne's sake. With some help from Egyl and a bit of soul-searching, he comes to the conclusion he wants to stop being hateful and wants to find solutions to his problems other than violence, and come the epilogue, he asks to become Egyl's squire.
Expy: He is rather similar to Argath/Algus from Final Fantasy Tactics, from his status as the relative of a disgraced minor lord, to his contempt for commoners, to his short blonde hairstyle which makes him look very similar to Argath. However, unlike Argath, he actually grows as a person and eventually becomes a better man compared to Argath who dies rather pathetically.
Heroic Bastard: "No Place for Happy Endings" reveals that he is one, which is why his (not-birth) father despises him and sent him away to be a vassal for Taryn's royal family as soon as possible.
No Sympathy: Robb only cares about serving Lenne, and for no one else; he resorts to torture in order to try and get information out of suspected terrorists (which fails), and upon crossing paths with a former knight of his father's that had to turn to banditry to make ends meet after said father cheated him out of payment, tells him it's his own fault for not being a better knight. Thanks to his new comrades treating him with kindness, Character Development eventually kicks in and he grows out of this mindset.
Number Two: Robb's defining trait is acting as Lenne's loyal aid, doing everything in his power to serve her while caring little or not at all about anyone else's lives. He starts to grow past it after befriending Egyl, and eventually becomes his squire, leaving Lenne's side to become a better person.
Trap Master: Several of Robb's special attacks are traps that he sets in front of an ally. They can either cause heavy direct damage, or like his arrow attacks be used to cause status effects. On top of that, there is an accessory Robb can equip that gives him the ability Trap Master, which allows his traps to automatically reset sometimes for a second use.
Status Effects: Robb's overall niche. His statistics are fairly unimpressive, since he can't deal a lot of damage or tank much in kind, but he excels in saddling foes with various debilitating status effects. He has access to almost every status ailment in the game, and is the only character to get status-setting moves that aren't resisted if attempted on a foe who has already suffered from that status effect.
What the Hell, Hero?: He tries to torture a bandit for information early in the story, right in front of Lenne. She slaps him across the face for it and demands that he never does that again. This puts him on the path to his later Character Development.

Victor

A long-lived man who seems to be connected to ancient history. He leads the group in the efforts to obtain and destroy the Grand Grimoire.

The Bard: His main role in combat, albeit his personality is a far call from the usual feisty and flirtatious bard. While Victor has a fondness for music and theater, some of his skills in battle are reflected in music ranging from songs that heal the party to his ultra move in which he literally turns into a one-man band that plays different instruments.
Famed In-Story: He is a world-level playwright, and both commoner and royal characters recognize him on sight.
I Owe You My Life: In his youth, he was a traveling artisan who was taken in by one of history's greatest researchers, Bartholomew, and given a full education. In return, he promised to help Bartholomew make amends for his past life as Van by taking care of Lenne's reincarnation when she eventually returned to the world, and also to take care of Bart's future lives, including Glenn.
I Should Write a Book About This: Renowned as a playwright in the modern era, one of his fans asks if his legendary stories are actually based on things that's actually happened to him. It turns out to be a half-truth, in that he based all of his plays on the lives of his master Bartholomew's various incarnations.
The Leader: In sharp contrast with the usual Bard, he's very levelheaded and calm. He leads the group and entire operation from very early on, in part because all of them at the very least know who he is (as a famous playwright) or deeply respect him. The fact that he passes "official" leadership to Glenn is seen as shocking, and though he tries to push Glenn into the role Victor is still the one actually calling all the shots until Glenn properly takes command in the final Act.
Long-Lived: Victor is an Aar, a rare human-like race that has a massively extended lifespan.
Red Mage: He ticks closer to the support role but can still dish out quite a bit of pain with several spells. Notably he's the only source of elemental earth damage for most of the first half of the game. He even has a passive skill to power up earth moves even more.
Really 700 Years Old: He was an student at Nhysa, which disappeared 500 years prior to the beginning of the story.
Signature Laugh: His laugh is "Shishishi", which he originally picked up from his master Bartholomew.

Sienna

An infamous thief and con artist that is blackmailed into a grand heist, and ends up sticking with her new allies because the bounty on her head means it's too dangerous to adventure alone.

Always Someone Better: She comments at one point at the Crimson Wings base that she is the weakest of the Sky Armor pilots. Mechanically, she's no better or worse than the others.
Born Unlucky: Played for laughs during act 1 and to keep Sienna in the party. She's constantly put through the ringer purely as a result of bad luck - she takes a wrong turn that puts her in a cathedral surrounded by palace guards who are not happy about her larceny just as a demon shows up, she gets launched back down into the sewers by trigger-happy sky armor pilots just as Sienna and the party have the demon under control, and every time she sees a chance to leave something happens that forces her to work with the party again. Really, if she wasn't so capable with rolling with the punches, she could easily be a Butt-Monkey given just how often things go poorly for her.
Con Artist: Sienna's Establishing Character Moment is posing as a festival employee that tricks Victor into giving her all of the tokens he's won there.
Childhood Friend Romance: She and her future wife grew in the same town and joined the Church largely because it accepted their relationship, and their town didn't.
Defector from Decadence: Sienna used to be a knight of the Church, but upon suspecting that they may in fact be a Corrupt Church, decided to leave and be labeled a heretic rather than continue aiding them.
Everyone Has Standards: While Sienna may be an unashamed thief and Con Artist, an early Establishing Character Moment shows that she still wouldn't steal from a sick child.
Fragile Speedster: It's not her stats so much as it is her armor that places her in this role. She has some of the lowest overall vitality in the party, with decent HP stat but shaky defenses, but more than makes up for it as the fastest party member and her ability to set up evasion so she can dodge incoming attacks. By endgame, it's not uncommon for her to go multiple times before the rest of the party and whoever she's fighting.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: She comments on being the weakest of the Sky Armor pilots, though this is not borne out mechanically. Like the others, her stats in Sky Armor combat are entirely determined by the machine she is piloting.
Katanas Are Just Better: Sienna's on-foot weapon (though like all Sky Armor pilots, she can use any weapon when piloting a Sky Armor). She is generally the fastest character, and in keeping with the trope, she can deal devastating amounts of damage with it.
Lipstick Lesbian: Downplayed with Sienna. She looks feminine with long red hair and slight use of lipstick but she wields a katana in battle and is a party member who emphasizes on attacking in battle. She is later revealed to have a wife, a Church knight named Eva.
Red Baron: Sienna is known as "Red Succubus" for her red hair and clothes. She's so proud of this title, she refuses to dye her hair or change her clothes to make fooling people easier. When Eva eventually finds out about it, she bursts out laughing at finding her wife is the famous Red Succubus.
Statuesque Stunner: She's the only character whose height is given - 1.80m, which translates to 5ft 9in. She's also very easy on the eyes, being debatedly the most classically attractive female party member.
The Vamp: Downplayed and eventually subverted. Sienna is flirtatious with men and women, but only to aid in her thefts, and in spite of having left the Church, she's still committed to and deeply cares for her wife.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Although Sienna doesn't admit, when going through the ruins of Nhysa she is shown to be scared of ghosts, as she desperately tries to calm herself to avoid freaking out over all of the ghosts there.

Ba'Thraz

A mercenary known for having made a Pact for mysterious reasons.

An Arm and a Leg: He gave up all of his organic limbs and had them replaced with metal Artificial Limbs as part of his Pact.
Awesome, but Impractical:
- In a similar vein to Magnolia's Wild Card and Falfalaran strategy listed under her own entry, Ba'Thraz has a similar highly-damaging maneuver he can pull off. By combining his combat abilities Berserker, Heaven or Hell, and Summoned Attack with his passive skill Summon Effects +, Ba'Thraz can deal astronomical damage that exceeds any other potential ability in the game. There are several issues with this, however, not the least of which being that this requires Ba'Thraz to run two self-buffs that actively cripple him and requires him to spend time using his magic weapons to build up Summoned Attack damage. As the slowest offensive character in the game, it's unlikely this could ever be pulled off in a fight effectively. This also has the issue of Ba'Thraz dealing six instances of damage with his magic weapons; assuming his party is also pulling their weight, nothing is going to stand up to the damage Ba'Thraz and the party will do in that time beyond the final boss and the Super Boss.
- Heaven or Hell alone falls under similar issues. For all its power, Ba'Thraz's speed and the fact Heaven or Hell kills him after he runs out the timer means it's generally a terrible idea to set up, especially at the point the player gets the ability, where most bosses will gain momentum and utterly crush the party if even one team member goes down.
Consummate Professional: While briefly hired by Sienna, a foe offered more money than what Sienna gave him to turn against her. He refuses, stating that people would never trust him enough to hire him if he only obeyed the highest bidder.
Deal with the Devil: Ba'Thraz is able to use telekinetic abilities and has the ability to summon weapons in battle due to having recieved the Curse of Steel via making a Pact. It is revealed that he made this Pact to save himself and his son from bandits in exchange for his limbs, which were replaced with the armor his son’s soul was confined in when his son made a Pact himself moments before trying to save his father's life.
Death or Glory Attack: A variant in the form of a death-or-glory 'status.' With his late-game ability Heaven or Hell, Ba'Thraz can deal up to triple damage for the next three turns. Of course, once those three turns are up, Ba'Thraz instantly dies.
Defector from Decadence: He's secretly a member of the Order of Leonar, but is working with Victor to fulfill its original purpose, rather than as a part of its Corrupt Church.
I Am Legion: Ba'Thraz tends to use "We" when describing himself, which is later explained to be because the remains of his son's ether is in his limbs as a result of their Pacts.
Mighty Glacier: He's tough, his magical power is incredible, and he is by far the slowest party member dedicated more-or-less to straight, direct damage.
Red Mage: While Victor is such a mage in his own right, Ba’Thraz’s take on this class is a lot more aggressive. He can summon weapons from thin air and is skilled in using light and dark magic. He only has one white magic skill in the game but players can make Ba’Thraz embrace more white magic by giving him a class such as a cleric, which is given some incentive due to his high mind statistic. While not as powerful as his magic, Ba'Thraz also has a few attack options that revolve around his strength statistic, rounding out the Red Mage ensemble.
The Royal We: He refers to himself as "us" and "we." This is because he is representing both himself and his son in the same body.

Amalia

A Princess, and the last remaining heir that can stand up to Taryn.

A Child Shall Lead Them: Princess Amalia is the leader of a rebellion, wielding guns and fighting back against her country's oppressors. She is also fourteen years old.
Character Development: When Victor first meets her, she can barely speak a word, being a Shrinking Violet par excellence. Three months of Taryn occupation in Escanya forced her to toughen up as she became the leader of the rebellion forces, and got her to talk more. Once she joins the party, she also grows to communicate better, starting her time in the party being unable to say a sentence without it sounding like a backhanded compliment or a demand but slowly growing more capable of speaking with others as they journey together, eventually taking it upon herself to look after the party and talk them through their problems.
Combat Medic: With most of the emphasis on 'medic,' as she's the best healer in the party. When she's not buffing defenses or healing others, though, she has a powerful rifle she can use to help Sienna, Lenne, Mikah, and Ba'Thraz's damage output. Since her healing powers are magnitudes better than what the Cleric class can provide, she's also encouraged to take classes like Shaman and Warrior to improve her damage output when she isn't healing.
Deal with the Devil: Amalia made a Pact with a Curse of Healing in order to survive when her country was taken over. Act 3 reveals that the price she paid was the majority of her remaining lifespan.
Family Extermination: Act 2 hints that one of these occurred in her backstory, and Act 3 elaborates on it. Amalia's large family was a Decadent Court filled with backstabbers trying to gain power, with both Amalia herself and her mother attacked by a courtesan worried for her own life. When she made the Pact to try to avenge her mother's death and save her own, she gained healing powers, allowing her to survive a mass poisoning at the family's next feast together and inherit the throne.
Heroic Dog: She's always accompanied by her dog Cres, who can help defend and attack for her in combat.
Internal Monologue: The player is given a direct look into her thoughts in almost every scene she's in. Often it's because she is analyzing what she just said and either hoping that she didn't just put her foot in her mouth or mentally kicking herself for saying something stand-offish.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Played with, in that she's not actually a jerk; she just has such a difficult time talking to others that she frequently says rude things or presents herself as a bratty princess, all while her internal thoughts are screaming at her for not saying the right thing. As a matter of fact, she's actually the sweetest, most selfless, most kindhearted member of the party.
No Social Skills: When Amalia is properly welcomed as a member of the party and brought to their base, she starts acting like a haughty brat, while her internal monologue is screaming at herself about not knowing how to act casually around other people but fully aware that everything she's currently doing is completely wrong.
Secretly Dying: Amalia eventually reveals to Ba'Thraz that the high price for her powerful Pact was not her siblings, as they were of little value to her after their rampant backstabbing, but instead all of the years she would have otherwise lived after surviving from her wounds; at best, she now only has a year or two left before she dies.
Squishy Wizard: Easily the least robust member of the party, having middling defenses and the best mind in the game but also the worst HP stat by far, in a game where HP matters more than defense or mind in terms of survival.
White Mage: Amalia specializes in healing and removing status aliments as a result of her pact. While other party members also have some healing skills, Amalia’s class is the one that primarily specializes in them, with her offensive options being marginal.

Egyl

A Sova knight that eagerly fights for justice and honor.

Big Eater: While Amalia is asking the others about what they're doing in order to figure out what to prepare them for a feast, Egyl mentions that his love of sweets and the resulting weight is one of the reasons he's flightless.
Bully Magnet: Egyl’s backstory reveals that he was bullied by other Sovas a lot, mainly due to being the only one that's incapable of flying.
Knight in Shining Armor: He is one of the most noble characters in the entire setting, vowing to uphold chivalry, keep his oaths, and fight back against evil simply because they are the morally right things to do.
Locked Out of the Loop: The other Sova from his clan purposely keep him ignorant of their plan to betray the oath they made with the Order of Leonar, as they're all honor-bound to commit Seppuku afterwards and didn't want Egyl to needlessly die with them.
Manchild: Downplayed. Egyl has a childish appetite for sweets and the way he talks is somewhat childish such as saying words like “shockingly shocking”. It is never stated how old he actually is but given that he is a knight of the dusk blue, he acts more immaturely than any typical knight in that organization. However, he does have the maturity to recognize that despite the Church's transgressions against his village, not everyone in the Church is to blame and not all of them are aware of the corruption in the leadership.
Stone Wall: His main role in combat is as a tank, compared to Glenn, Sienna, and Raphael only having some aggro control. Consequently, his damage output is mediocre at best, but can be increased with Class Emblems and Crystals to become decent.
Verbal Tic: He has a habit of describing words with that word, such as calling a surprising event "shockingly shocking".

Tomke

An elderly sailor that's forgotten most of what he knows, but is able to regain his memories by eating monsters.

Anchors Away: His unique weapon type is large anchors he swings around in combat, fitting with his past as a sailor.
Beast Man: He's a goat-person.
Big Eater: He believes that the best way to recover his memories is by eating as much as possible.
Blue Magic: Learns all his active abilities from eating enemies.
Cannibalism Superpower: Tomke's gimmick is that, when certain enemies have low enough health, he has the ability to turn them into a can of food he can then eat in order to gain new skills. Played with in that he's not learning the skills of his enemies, but using food to remember his old ones.
Extreme Omni-Goat: Tomke has unusual tastes, considering noodles to be atrocious but willingly eating the monster parts he cans...as well as the tin cans themselves. Passive dialogue while exploring the Hooge also has him admit that he's served on a lot of ships, but only because he keeps getting kicked off of them after nibbling on their hulls.
Honorary Uncle: He's not biologically related to Mikah, a human girl, but was close enough friends with her parents that she refers to him as her grandfather.
Jack of All Stats: His stats are fairly middling but decent all round, which, combined with his varied moves and Class Emblems, allow him to fulfill virtually any role in the party, albeit not as well as everyone else.
Secret Character: He is recruited by going to Arkant Achipelago in Act 2 and completing his sidequest.

Mikah

Tomke's "granddaughter", who lost her actual family to a sandworm while they were searching for the ingredients to the Great Gratin.

Bare-Fisted Monk: She specializes in dealing high amounts of physical damage with the ability to combo moves into one another, and secondarily has strong party wide buffs.
Big Eater: She has a healthy appetite that matches Tomke's, to the point that Sienna worries if those two alone will eat all of the food at the Crimson Wings base.
Dragons Up the Yin Yang: Played with. Mikah is heavily associated with Long^note and Tigers, two animals considered part of the cultural imagery of China, and wears a qipao and her hair in two buns aside, but it's unclear how much of her heritage is actually associated with Eldrea's equivalent to China; according to Mikah herself, she comes from the Arnsreich, and there's no immediate indication that its culture is anything like China. Still, the imagery, her attack names, her style of dress, and even much of the food she eats is very clearly meant to invoke aspects of Chinese culture.
Kick Chick: She's a martial artist, whose active skills have names like "Tiger Punch/Rush", "Falling/Rising Dragon", and "Spinning/Heavenly Kick".
Kung-Fu Kid: Mikah's age is hard to determine, but it's implied via various dialogues that she's either a little younger or a little older than Amalia, the token 'kid' in the group at fourteen. Mikah can roundhouse kick and uppercut with the best of them, and multiple characters muse on whether she'll grow up to be an amazing chef or an amazing martial arts teacher; humorously, Amalia only got into martial arts to combat the waistline that came with puberty and her love for food.
Lightning Bruiser: She's the best or second best in any category that isn't her defenses or magic, being second to Sienna in speed and critical chance and the single most powerful person in terms of raw attack power. Even though her defenses aren't the best, they're still above-average, with the HP to show for it. Her attacks also have some of the highest damage multipliers in the game, with Final Blossom reaching staggering heights that shoot past triple the damage of her normal blows. The main balancing factor is that Mikah runs off a 'combo' system that doesn't allow her to spam her best attacks without them doing pitiful damage, as she first has to work up the 'combo' for her Dragon and Tiger attacks before they can reach their more powerful variants and eventually culminate in Final Blossom.
Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Although she believed that her parents had died, undertaking her sidequest leads to getting devoured and exploring the insides of the sandworm that ate them, where it's revealed that they are still alive and had made an encampment inside of it.
Secret Character: She is recruited by recruiting Tomke and then raising your clan to Rank 3, which can be done as early as during Act 3, to activate her sidequest "For the Love of Food" at the Crimson Wings base.
Status Buff: Like Victor, she can buff the party's stats. While she doesn't have Heroic Ode, she has a skill that can extend the generic offensive, defensive, and agility buffs.
Supreme Chef: Despite her youth, she's regarded as the single best chef in the playable party, having a way with food no one else in the party can match. When Amalia is deciding who to get advice from to cook each part of a three-course meal for the party, Mikah is considered one of the two correct options for making an appetizer; not because Amalia, the other option, is comparable in skill, but because Mikah believes the appetizer should be the single most special part of the meal that has the person eating want to come back for more, and Mikah can provide something truly amazing. This and not wanting anyone to suspect her motives means Amalia can only choose to get Mikah's help for an appetizer and nothing further.

Magnolia

A Soulseer once able to perceive the door that connects all souls to the Maelstrom they originated from, now searching for those like Glenn that are still capable of doing so.

All-Loving Heroine: She opened her clinic to help those who fell into comas due to lacking souls. In her recruitment quest, she was exiled for sparing human children who found her fairy village. This is deconstructed in the same sidequest, since sparing the merchants who kidnapped her just leads to them attacking the fairies and killing them if the wrong dialogue choice is picked, showing that there's a limit to giving others the benefit of doubt.
Awesome, but Impractical: Magnolia has the potential to get one of the single highest damage outputs out of anyone in the party via a combination of rolling a 10 with her cards, which does double the damage she gets off her cards naturally, and her self-buff Wild Card, which doubles the damage of the next two cards she draws without running any risk of getting a 1. The key word here is 'potential,' however; for as powerful as this is, it's also dependent on no small degree of luck; with just Wild Card, Magnolia still has a one-in-nine shot of drawing a 10, and even if she were to set up Falfalaran beforehand, she's still reliant on a one-in-three shot of rolling a 10. Outside of the Super Boss, the final boss, and some of the various bonus bosses who the player needs to fight to get to the Super Boss, nothing will survive Magnolia's damage output from just using Wild Card and one of her card attacks, anyway, making the astronomical damage she can reach with a 10 unnecessary in the majority of fights she's in, which in turn renders the extra step of setting up Falfalaran to better the player's odds of getting a 10 completely impractical in most situations.
Black Mage: She has easily the best magic stat in the party, and can attack with any element.
Creepy Good: She makes constant passes at Glenn, seems to be wearing a blindfold, dresses like a stereotypical witch, has a house full of people who have bodies but no soul, and frequently peeks into other people's minds. The being said, she's also a former queen of the fairies who lost most of her powers when she was banished from the realm because she couldn't bring herself to kill children, she keeps the 'Shells' in her home to tend to them and look after them with her nurse friend, and she primarily uses her powers to wake up people with comas or help people through emotional turmoil; she considers the job she takes within the Crimson Wings to be the mental equivalent of what Amalia does with physical wounds. She's also a truly friendly soul who goes out of her way to try to save people who literally just bought her from kidnappers to be used to open the way to the fairy realm.
The Fair Folk: She was formerly the Queen of the Fairies, who live in a hidden grove in the Fiorwoods. However, when some children wandered into their sanctuary and she didn't want to kill them to keep their grove a secret, she was exiled and has since been living among humans.
The Gambler: Crossed with a Black Mage; Magnolia is the only character who innately gets the ability to hit every elemental weakness, but this comes with her spells being based on a random number chance from 1 to 10, with 1 being a failure, and 10 a critical hit. Her movepool is rounded out with a few buffs to support her damage output, and a Super Mode where she temporarily resumes her fairy form, where she only rolls high numbers.
Noble Womans Laugh: She even says 'Ohohoho!' while doing it. This can serve as some small bit of foreshadowing that she isn't just some weird wizard living in the poorest part of Farnsport, making ends meet as a fortune teller.
Power Incontinence: She originally could perceive the door by herself, but now relies on conduits like Glenn. She also struggles to maintain her physical form at times, which leads to her being captured and used to break the magic seal guarding the fairy grove when her disguise is dropped at a bad time.
Secret Character: She is recruited by completing the sidequests "Into the Maelstorm" in Act 2 and "Falfalaran Sings the Fairy" in Act 4.
Squishy Wizard: She's the hardest-hitting mage in the party, but her equipment selection and low HP mean she needs someone patching up her defenses or drawing aggro during a fight. She can double the damage output of her cards, too, but this takes a turn to set up, leaving her vulnerable, and if she doesn't set it up she can end up dealing no damage using her cards ten percent of the time.

Haku

The pilot of Sienna's personal airship, the Himmelskaiser. Although he doesn't participate in their battles, he helps the rest of the Crimson Wings get where they need to go.

Band of the Iron Bulls

Marlock

The commander of the Doppelsöldner clan that Glenn and Kylian are members of during their attack on Wyrnshire Castle.

Guest-Star Party Member: He's only playable during the Prologue, as the Grand Grimoire ends up killing him, as well as everyone else in Wyrnshire other than Glenn and Kylian.

Hyne

A Doppelsöldner that works alongside Glenn during his latest mission.

Guest-Star Party Member: Like Marlock, he's only playable during the Prologue. Unlike Marlock, Hyne doesn’t even get a dialogue portrait.
Jerkass: Acts gruff and unpleasant towards Glenn the few times they interact, and doesn’t get the chance to do much else before dying in the Grand Grimoire explosion.
Fish People: Well, aquatic mammal at any rate; he’s a dolphin man.
Making a Splash: Of his two skills in combat, one is a magic attack that does water damage to all enemies.

Taryn

Frederik

The current ruler of Taryn, and Lenne's brother.

Anti-Magic: He uses the Grand Grimoire to power his Elite Four generals with elemental magic, but when two of them decide to rebel, he reveals that he first gave himself the power to nullify magic just in case they turned against him.
Big Bad Duumvirate: Frederik and Gwayn have different reasons for using the Grand Grimoire, since the former wants to use it as a weapon of war to force Valandis to unite against him while Gwayn wants to power up the Grimoire to kill the Vaen. However, neither of these goals interfere with each other, leading to the two forming a mostly equal partnership. However, once Frederik guts himself, he tells the party to prevent Gwayn from using the Grimoire on the populace any further, showing that their agendas diverge in the long run.
Big Bad Ensemble: Alongside the Vaen. Frederik and his violent conquests through the Grand Grimoire serve as the primary threat running throughout most of the game, and stopping him serves as the backbone of the entire group's purpose.
Big Brother Instinct: Though he is the Big Bad of the story, he genuinely cares for his sister Lenne. So when she brings word that Matthye attempted to murder her to bolster the story that would restart the war, he has one of his arms and eyes removed as punishment (only stopping short of killing him because he otherwise performed his role well, and that it would be hard to explain to the public why the heroic surviving general of a treacherous plot was executed shortly upon returning to the capital).
Cain and Abel: The Cain to Lenne's Abel, willing to fight against her in war to achieve his ambitions. Subverted in that he never planned to kill her. When the final confrontation between them is initiated, he kills himself to spare her the burden of having to kill her brother to fulfill his Zero-Approval Gambit.
The Chains of Commanding: He's upset that Lenne left him to rule Taryn by himself, and Kennrich speculates this burden caused Frederik to resort to extreme actions to maintain his rule.
Disc-One Final Boss: Zig-zagged. He's the game's Big Bad, but the threat of the Vaen is introduced halfway through. However, Frederik is still the most critical threat present. By the time he is cornered, the player is under no impression that he'll be the end boss -the Vaen and the Harbinger have been given a lot of set up by that point- but the final battle against him is the penultimate main story segment...and then the final zag occurs when he just kills himself without directly fighting the party, as he had planned to do from the start.
Driven to Suicide: When the party confronts him for the last time after defeating what's left of his highest commanders, he impales himself with his own sword, not wanting to actually fight Lenne and completing his grand plan for her to gain glory as a tyrant-killer and truly unite the world.
Easily Forgiven: Averted. Even after the revelation that everything he's done has been a Zero-Approval Gambit to finally bring international peace by turning himself into a common enemy for them to unite against, Lenne doesn't find this particularly convincing and states to his dead body that this end goal doesn't make up for all the atrocities he committed to reach it and that she's not going to forgive him just because he sacrificed his life and reputation for it. She does at least find some solace in that her brother hadn't become truly evil.
Evil Overlord: Frederik starts off as the prince and de facto ruler of Taryn before eventually becoming king, and he deliberately restarts the old war to conquer Valandis, has dissenters strung up on walls and destroys Basil to Make an Example of Them. This all turns out be a ploy to get everyone in Valandis to hate him so that when he's defeated everyone will rejoice at the death of a horrible tyrant.
Gambit Roulette: A major flaw in his plan is that it requires Lenne to survive long enough to overthrow him and unite Valandis, but he can't tell that to his subordinates, who are willing to kill Lenne in his name.
The Heavy: Albeit other enemies appear through the story -even some that overshadow him in terms of danger and importance to the setting, like the Vaen and the Harbinger- he still remains the most immediately dangerous opponent that must be dealt with at almost all points in the story.
Mirror Character: Despite ruling Taryn with an iron fist, he's just as averse to the burden of royalty as Lenne, but is forced to take the throne because his father is getting senile.
Puppet King: Downplayed in regards to Gwayn. He's aware that Gwayn has his own reasons for wanting to use the Grand Grimoire, but works with the latter because their goals align enough. In the final act, Frederik asks Lenne to stop Gwayn from using the Grimoire again. However, he doesn't seem to be aware that Gwayn is secretly helping the Crimson Wings, since he's surprised when Gwayn throws the Grimoire at them at the end of Act 2.
Strong Family Resemblance: He's the splitting image of Lenne, just with shorter hair.
Thanatos Gambit: As part of his Zero-Approval Gambit, Frederik's plan includes his own death by having Lenne defeat him as an evil tyrant, and he kills himself when Lenne confronts him the last time.
Zero-Approval Gambit: His plan all along was to rally the rest of the world against him in order to establish true world peace, believing that the peace treaty from the start of the story was doomed to fail in time.

Gwayn (Unmarked Spoilers)

Frederik's advisor, who has some ulterior motives.

Big Bad Duumvirate: Frederik and Gwayn have different reasons for using the Grand Grimoire, since the former wants to use it as a weapon of war to force Valandis to unite against him while Gwayn wants to power up the Grimoire to kill the Vaen. However, neither of these goals interfere with each other, leading to the two forming a mostly equal partnership. However, once Frederik guts himself, he tells the party to prevent Gwayn from using the Grimoire on the populace any further, showing that their agendas diverge in the long run.
Big Bad Ensemble: He's one of the main instigators of the conflict, since he wants to use the Grand Grimoire in Taryn's wars in order to make it powerful enough to kill the Vaen and free humanity from their cyclical purges. Even when the party goes along with his plans, they do so reluctantly and merely see him as the Lesser of Two Evils between him and the Vaen, since the latter is willing to wipe out humanity while the former wants humanity's long-term survival. It helps that he often puts the party in situations where they have no choice but to do as he suggests.
Foil: He is essentially the type of villain Kylian wishes he could be, since he's able to manipulate many sides to serve his well-intentioned goal. However, unlike Kylian, he's usually less reckless in his manipulations and betrayals, since he puts his pawns in a position where they know they are being manipulated, but have no choice but to follow him in order to achieve their own goals or survive against other foes. In contrast, Kylian's betrayals are impulsive and end up making him a pawn of someone else without actually getting him any political power, and he nearly dies in what is implied to be a Uriah Gambit on Frederik's part. However, both are ultimately undone by their own machinations, since Gwayn's manipulation of Kylian causes the latter to feel betrayed and betray him in turn, stealing the True King's power. This results in Kylian losing to the Vaen's control due to his poor control over the True King's powers. Finally, as ruthless as both are, Gwayn is aware that he can't handle the task of saving humanity on his own and is willing to sacrifice himself to ensure that Glenn can become the next 8th True King. Kylian comes off as more selfish, since he refuses to go with Gwayn's safer plan of having Glenn inherit the True King's power in favor of stealing that power for himself.
God in Human Form: His true identity turns out to be Lebrodia-Dervinas "The Manipulator", the secret 8th "True King" of the world.
Good Is Not Nice: He's ultimately on humanity's side, but he willingly aided Frederik's use of the Grand Grimoire on living people so that it could absorb enough ether to wound the Vaen when used against them.
Heroic Sacrifice: In the final Act, when the Vaen attempt to wipe out all of humanity with a giant fireball for the Grand Grimoire being used against them, Gwayn uses nearly all of his remaining power to keep it in the sky until the Vaen are defeated and the fireball dispelled. He then attempts to give the remainder to Glenn to stand a chance against the Vaen, though Kylian literally backstabs him and ends his life to take some for himself.
Idiot Ball: He's a schemer who has both Taryn and the Crimson Wings dancing to his tune, but he makes the fatal error of letting his guard down around Kylian, who has a penchant for backstabbing others. While he only recruited Kylian as a backup for Glenn to gain the True King's power, it's jarring that he didn't come up with any countermeasures to keep Kylian's ambitions in check.
Jedi Mind Trick: Gwayn attempts to perform one on the Order of Leonar when they go to interrogate them about their past as the monk Nalkilber and his knowledge of Reina's Tomb. It works on two of the interrogators, but when Kylian arrives, he's able to resist long enough to gain Gwayn's intrigue.
Laughably Evil: He's a Well-Intentioned Extremist who is willing to sacrifice people to the Grimoire to kill the Vaen. He also uses several fake-out moves in his boss fight just because he needs to pretend to fight the party. In the Empyrean Ruins, he turns his invisibility on and off just to mess with the party and later disguises himself as Faran as a prank. It's implied that his long life caused him to develop a morbid sense of humor.
Long-Lived: Not only is he even older than Victor, but also the two are well-acquainted with each other.
Stealth Mentor: To Glenn, as Gwayn's been the source of the voice in his head in order to help him save the world from Frederik and other sinister forces.
Time Abyss: Gwayn reveals at the end of the game that he's tens of thousands years old, older than humanity itself.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: He is the true mastermind behind the use of the Grand Grimoire as a weapon of war during the events of the game, having been the one to hand it over to Taryn decades ago, and the one to "discover" its uses as anything more than an ornament. He considers the thousands of people killed by the Grand Grimoire an acceptable sacrifice to power it up enough to let it kill the Vaen, preventing them from carrying out their cyclical culling of humanity anymore.

June

Gwayn's enigmatic female partner. Although she does not share his past, she appears to be equally powerful.

Deal with the Devil: It's implied that this is how she gained her power, as in the Epilogue, a young orphan that resembles her and also named June approaches Kylian, saying that "the man in the mask" (the pact-making spirit) told her she belonged with "the man of many faces" (the 8th True King, formerly Gwayn and now Kylian).

Matthye

A general in Taryn's military.

An Arm and a Leg: As punishment for insubordination (trying to kill Lenne), Prince Frederik orders that one of Matthye's eyes and arms be removed, with the "official" story being that he lost them during the assassination attempt at the peace treaty. Later, he gives up his other eye and arm upon making a Pact.
Asshole Victim: Maiming is a fairly harsh punishment, but there'd be few people arguing he didn't fully deserve it.
Deal with the Devil: He makes a Pact of his own after his attempt at Taking You with Me fails, in order to stave off death long enough to try and kill the party again. However, the power of the Pact is dependent on how much is sacrificed, and with little left to give at this point, it's not enough for him to survive their rematch.
Elite Four: Averted. Although he starts with the rank of general, Prince Frederik demotes him for attempting to kill Lenne. As such, he's excluded from receiving the Grand Grimoire's power like the other generals.
My Country, Right or Wrong: General Matthye believes in Frederik's ambitions and in a glorious future for Taryn, to the point that he takes actions that contradict Frederik's other commands to him, such as trying to kill his interfering sister Lenne.
Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: He accuses Lenne of being selfish for thinking she can help her people without getting her hands dirty.

Godfrey

A portly man that's one of the four Generals that form Frederik's personal counsel.

Bad Boss: On Shambala, he sets one of his own soldiers on fire for talking back to him.
Butt-Monkey: When the party first encounters him, he insults the victims of Daimbert's experiments and gets decked by Glenn, but he can't remember the events clearly enough to press charges. Additionally, he has a fear of heights, yet he's chosen to fly a Sky Armor with the Grand Grimoire in it and later to invade the floating islands of Shambala.
Elite Four: Godfrey, Kennrich, Alena, and Guston are always seen together in Frederik's personal chamber during the earlier Acts, and Frederik grants all four of them equal power. However, Godfrey is the only one that's actually fought by the party.
King Mook: In the Aurora Sky Armor segment, he fights in a purple Sky Armor and is essentially a stronger Duel Boss version of a regular Sky Armor enemy.
Playing with Fire: Upon obtaining the Grand Grimoire, Frederik blesses him with mastery over the element of Fire.
The Social Darwinist: He claims that Daimbert was in the right for sacrificing innocents for the sake of scientific progress and that the weak dying is a natural part of history. He considers himself strong and worthy because he lived in poverty before climbing through Taryn's military.
Worf Had the Flu: In the church's lab, Godfrey defeats Raphael, but the latter manages to wound him. This makes it possible for the party to defeat Godfrey despite the power he gained from the Grand Grimoire.

Kennrich

An elderly-looking man that's one of the four Generals that form Frederik's personal counsel.

An Ice Person: Frederik blesses him with mastery over Water, which he uses to freeze an entire ocean during the attack from Nabrelia's army.
Awesome, but Impractical: He came up with the idea of training terriers to fight for Taryn by arming them with rocket launchers, but the terriers will always fire on both the party and the enemy team.
Even Evil Has Standards: In the final Act, he and Alena turn on Frederik because of his threats to activate the Grimoire near Taryn, which would kill their loved ones.
Military Coup: In the final Act, after Frederik threatens to activate the Grand Grimoire within his own territory if enemy forces refuse to stand down, Kennrich leads one of these with Alena's assistance. Although they kill Guston, who still supported Frederik, they end up executed after Frederik reveals his own Anti-Magic power.

Alena

A woman with pink pigtails that's one of the four Generals that form Frederik's personal counsel.

Even Evil Has Standards: In the final Act, she and Kennrich turn on Frederik because he plans on using the Grimoire near Taryn, and she has family in Tormund.
Military Coup: Joins Kennrich in his decision to try and take command from Frederik in the final Act, and meets the same fate.
Shock and Awe: Frederik blesses her with mastery over Electricity, which she uses to shock the entire Nabrelian army once they're defenseless in the ocean.

Guston

One of the four Generals that form Frederik's personal counsel.

My Master, Right or Wrong: When Alena and Kennrich turn on Frederik for threatening to destroy Tormund, they try to convince him to join them, but he refuses and declares he will not turn on him. Kennrich kills him for this.
Slime Girl: He's a man made out of red slime.

Maria

The head of Taryn's anti-Sky Armor Valkyrie unit, after her friend and former leader Lenne's departure.

Badass Normal: Not only is she the most successful villain in terms of stopping the heroes, down to forcing half the Vaen to kill themselves to prevent Maria from successfully killing Lenne outright at the end of Act 2 she also fights all the Sky Armors the party has on the ground with no tricks to speak of beyond her prodigious skill with a lance and some magic. Defeating the two valkyries she brings with her just causes Maria to hit even harder and faster. It is no large stretch to say, even with the mass amounts of power the Grand Grimoire grants Taryn's generals, that Maria may just be the single most dangerous person in Taryn.
Et Tu, Brute?: Muses on her last moments that Lenne was her friend, which is why she finds it so hard to forgive her betrayal.
Fragile Speedster: Compared to most Sky Armor bosses, Maria and her Valkyries have low HP, but their Mirror Image buff allows them to dodge a certain number of hits and they can keep recasting it, making it hard to land solid attacks on them.
Hero Killer: She successfully kills Lenne at the end of Act 2, only for the guardians attached to her Echo to sacrifice themselves in order to turn back time and undo her death.
Valkyries: Her unit uses this term, and fits the imagery, being an Amazon Brigade trained in lance combat and capable of magically flying through the air.

Cameron

A bespectacled, eccentric beastman that's good friends with Victor, and doing his best to formulate a method of nullifying the Grand Grimoire without needless sacrifice.

Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The reason he is not executed for openly betraying Taryn. His research is just too important for them.

Gustaf

The lord of House Ryrmeier, who once started a failed rebellion against the kingdom.

Abusive Parents: He openly disparages Robb and blames him for his mother's death and isn't even grateful for all the suffering Robb went through as a ward to restore the House's trust with the royal family.
Arc Villain: In the endgame quest, "No Place for Happy Endings," he refuses to surrender to the Crimson Wings and accept Lenne's authority even after Frederik's death. This leads to the Crimson Wings forming an Enemy Mine with Thoma, a former knight under House Ryrmeier.
Jerkass at Your Discretion: He acts like a polite Reasonable Authority Figure to his subjects, but this is implied to be pragmatism to hide his lust for power and keep the population from turning on him. He drops the act when talking to Robb, even when his subjects are in earshot.
Never My Fault: He refuses to admit that he's responsible for his wife Yanna's Death by Despair by hanging her lover.
Spiteful Suicide: At the end of the quest "No Place for Happy Endings," Gustaf orders one of his soldiers to gut him, solely to deny Robb the opportunity to personally dethrone him.

Thoma

A former knight who worked for Robb's father. During the previous period of war, he was promised all of the land that he could help conquer...and when that war resulted in a peace treaty, Thoma was left with nothing, and turned to banditry to make ends meet.

Beast Man: He has the appearance of a lion in knight's armor.
Heel–Face Revolving Door: He was once an honorable knight, but turned to banditry to feed his family. During the quest, "No Place for Happy Endings," he forms an Enemy Mine with the Crimson Wings to overthrow Gustaf Ryrmeier. After Ryrmeier dies, Thoma then tries to kill Robb, prompting the party to defeat him. Robb ultimately decides to forgive Thoma and knight him again before ceding House Ryrmeier's authority.
Recurring Boss: He's fought by Robb's group during the Involuntary Group Split, and then again at the end of the Robb-focused sidequest "No Place for Happy Endings".

Gandebrath Society and the Church

Markas

Head of the Gandebrath Society, which the Church itself is part of.

Big Bad Ensemble: He is responsible for the large number of wild monsters, which are intended to use up enough ether to weaken the Maelstrom and help weaken the Harbinger's seal. This puts him in conflict with Gwayn, who wants to destroy the Harbinger, and the Vaen, who want to keep the Harbinger sealed. His Church is defeated by Frederik's army, since the latter sees his influence in Valandis as an obstacle to his own goals. While he is forced to retreat with dire losses on his side, he's also the only major antagonist to survive the events of the game, leaving him with fewer obstacles to unleash the Harbinger.
Evil vs. Evil: He and the Vaen are at odds. For as cruel, unforgivable, and terrifying as the Vaen's methods are, they ultimately serve the benevolent purpose of keeping the Harbinger shackled with the souls of the dead. Markas is on board with any plan that sees the Vaen dealt with, because he wants the Harbinger unleashed, and the Vaen routinely wiping out most of humanity every few centuries makes that difficult.
Faith in the Foe: Once Marylea is destroyed, he decides to remove himself entirely from the fight against the Vaen, trusting Gwayn will be able to dispose of them with help from the Holy Mother.
Faux Affably Evil: He's charismatic, acts supportive of Lenne, and even assists the party on occasion, even though his ultimate goal is to unleash the Harbinger on the world before they're prepared to fight it.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: His plan is to breed monsters to power up the Grand Grimoire and kill the Vaen, which seems to align with the original Order of Leonar's goals, but it turns out his true motive for doing so is to unleash the Harbinger.
Villain with Good Publicity: As the leader of the Gandebrath Society which funds the Church, which is well known throughout the world for its humanitarian efforts, Markas is seen as a benevolent leader, when in truth he's only doing that to increase the world's population in order to weaken the Harbinger's prison so it can be freed and end the world.

The Pope

The current leader of the land's religious forces, who has an obsession over meeting The Chosen One.

Ambiguously Human: He appears to be a shadow creature with yellow eyes wearing ornate religious robes.
Jerkass at Your Discretion: He's normally very rude towards his allies, including Markas despite the latter presumably ranking higher in the society. When Lenne shows up, he attempts to sound more polite while stammering.

Endarht

A Sky Armor pilot that works directly for Lord Markus.

Big Damn Heroes: His first appearance is at Kindreld Monastery, arriving to save the party from General Guston of Taryn. Unfortunately, he only buys the party a brief amount of time before they're captured anyways.
The Faceless: He's never seen outside of his Sky Armor, so his true appearance is a mystery.

Zacheus

An elderly bishop that's in attendance at the peace conference.

Dirty Old Monk: He is rumored to have a harem of young men, and evidently enjoys sleeping with the much younger Kylian.

Whyatt

The most powerful of the Church's warriors.

The Atoner: Whyatt reveals right before his boss battle that he was a sinner and that the reason he's so fanatically loyal to the Church is to atone for his sins. What sins he committed is not stated.
Evil Counterpart:
- To Eva and Raphael, who have Conflicting Loyalty to the Corrupt Church and the ideals the church pretends to stand for. While Eva and Raphael eventually regain their footing and resolve to rebuild the Church into a benevolent organization, Whyatt insists on avenging the previous order no matter what.
- He's also a Shadow Archetype to Glenn, who also has a Guilt Complex about his past misdeeds. However, the lessons they learn in their quest for redemption couldn't be any more different. While Glenn does gain Lenne's forgiveness, this won't erase his past mistakes and it's more important for him to focus on being a better person than he was previously, which is why he pursues goals that don't necessarily revolve around Lenne. In contrast, Whyatt is so dependent on the Church leadership telling him how to regain God's favor that he never bothers to question their monster breeding scheme, making it seem like he cares more about his own personal redemption than the long term consequences of his actions. As a result, he regresses into an aimless avenger after the Pope is killed and never finds a way to actually use his power for good. Finally, both of their redemption arcs end up making them pawns of Valandis's top schemers, but Glenn knows he's a pawn and follows Gwayn's plan because he weighed the consequences while Whyatt likely has no idea that the Church's leadership seeks to revive the Harbinger.
The Faceless: At no point in the story does Whyatt ever remove his Cool Helmet and reveal his face.
The Fundamentalist: In his boss battle, he admits his belief that he has never heard the voice of God himself due to his past as a sinner, and after the Pope was killed, he hunted down Lenne and the others simply out of religious fervor, convinced God would want him to kill those responsible for silencing his speaker.
Our Giants Are Bigger: His bestiary entry states he may be half Baki, which explains his large size and his ability to fight Sky Armors on foot. However, he's not as big as full-blooded Baki.

Eva

A female inquisitor of the Church.

Battle Couple: She used to be part of one with Sienna. Circumstances have seen them drift apart recently, though by Magic Academy Nhysa they make up.
Big Damn Heroes: She appears in the final dungeon just in time to stop Whyatt from killing the party.
Dual Boss: With Ser Raphael as the last boss of Act 3.
Meaningful Name: Her nickname is 'the Boar of the Northern Sky.' She holds her two massive knives in such a way that she looks like she has boar tusks. Like a boar, she's also pig-headed and takes a bit of time to change her stance on the party and the church.

Raphael (unmarked spoilers)

An inquisitor of the Church, discovering the truth behind the organization's actions leads him to doubt its cause.

The Atoner: After nearly dying in order to protect Arlette during a cave-in, he realizes what a waste it would be to wallow in self-pity and die when his talents can still help people, and decides to join the Crimson Wings.
Death Seeker: After the destruction of the Corrupt Church's flying city and death of the Pope, Raphael wanders off to die, finding himself in an isolated cabin in the woods, where he is found by Arlette, Daimbert's former test subject, who attempts to care for him. However, he refuses to eat any of the food she brings him and plans to ditch her to die alone in the mountains when he is able to, as either the cause he fought for is dead or he's been causing too many people pain by fighting for the wrong side all this time. However, when Arlette follows him and they end up trapped in a cave-in together, he changes his mind and becomes The Atoner instead.
Dual Boss: With Lady Eva as the last boss of Act 3.
Interface Spoiler: Inverted, unlike the other party members who have their weapons revealed in the equipment screen from the beginning; he uses the same greatswords as Kylian.
Jack of All Stats: He is able to cover multiple bases. He can put out pretty solid damage, he has agro management and defense abilities, and he can even provide support with healing and SP recovery. While everything he can do, one or two other characters can do better, he does it well enough to be worth using.
Light Is Good: Doubled subverted. When he's introduced, he puts himself between the party and a demonic mantis despite some of them being criminals, showing that he has a sense of chivalry. However, he's loyal to a Corrupt Church, though he's unaware of most of their corruption. In his recruitment quest, he's ashamed of himself when he learns that the Church was run by an Apocalypse Cult, and decides to join the party so he can use his powers for good and eventually rebuild the Church to return to its more benevolent roots.
The Paladin: His movepool skews to high amounts of physical and Light elemental damage, and is rounded out with the ability to summon spirits and modest tank abilities.
Secret Character: He is recruited by completing the sidequest "A Will to Live" in Act 4.
Stone Wall: He's similar to Egyl in this regard, except whereas Egyl focuses on tanking physical damage, his specialty is tanking magical damage (and his physical damage output tends to be better than Egyl's).
Walking Spoiler: Him being a Secret Character not only spoils that he can eventually switch allegiances, it also spoils that Kylian will never return to the party due to Raphael replacing him.
Warrior Poet: One of the requirements of his order is keeping and maintaining a journal. Through dialogue during area explorations, it's revealed that he keeps his journal in the medium of comic books, which Robb asks to read.

Past Characters

Timothy

A clergyman that was truly in love with one of Lenne's previous incarnations.

I Will Wait for You: When it's time for Lenne to reincarnate due to Van accidentally stabbing her instead of Timothy and ending her life early, Timothy declares that he'll find a way to be with her again no matter how long it takes. Unfortunately, he never fulfills this promise due to Van taking Timothy's place in the Song of Manaflora.
Senseless Sacrifice: He stabs himself so that he can also reincarnate alongside a dying Lenne. However, as Van takes his place in the Song of Manaflora, that never happens and he dies by himself, never to reincarnate with the Song of Manaflora.
Red Herring: He's initially implied to be the reincarnation of Glenn, which Glenn himself thinks. This turns out not to be the case.
Star-Crossed Lovers: His relationship with Lenne's past self was forbidden due to her status as The Chosen One while he was a mere bookkeeper; furthermore, she was "betrothed" to Van, who turned out to be a Crazy Jealous Guy and separated them forcefully.

Van

A noble lout that was the fiance to one of Lenne's previous incarnations.

Aristocrats Are Evil: Born into money and never having to work to prove himself, he grew up to be a detestable person.
Break the Haughty: After forcing Timothy out of the Song of Manaflora to reincarnate himself instead, his first reincarnation was as an uneducated kid named Bart that's nearly beaten to death after stealing some coins. Him being shown kindness by a priest then led to that incarnation growing up to become the great researcher Bartholomew.
Crazy Jealous Guy: Upon seeing Lenne about to run off with Timothy, he takes out a dagger and prepares to kill Timothy in order to keep Lenne in his clutches. However, Lenne steps between them at the wrong time and is stabbed in his place.
Entitled to Have You: He cared little about Lenne, but considered it an insult that she wanted to run off with Timothy after his family bought the right for him to marry her.
Heel–Face Reincarnation: Van is a self-absorbed aristocrat who killed Lenne and stole Timothy's place in the Manaflora Song, but his various reincarnations are more benevolent and willing to help society.
Misery Builds Character: After hijacking the Manaflora Song in order to reincarnate, his next life is that of a boy in the slums, causing him to grow into a more humble person. All of the reincarnations shown in Glenn's mind are also commoners.
Walking Spoiler: His role in the world's history is far more important than his oafish nature initially belies.

Bartholomew

The most brilliant mind of the Nhysa Academy of Magic, before it fell beneath the world's surface.

The Atoner: Having at some point regained the memories of his life as Van, he regretted this past, and set about trying to recreate the Song of Manaflora in order for his Echo to eventually reunite with Lenne and personally make amends. In the multiple intervening lifetimes until Lenne returned to the world, he dedicated himself to helping others in any way he could, from firefighting to inventing the printing press.
I Will Wait for You: Lenne's Echo remained in the Maelstrom until her modern-day reincarnation, while he had to wait multiple mortal lifespans in order to reunite with her and make amends.
Muggle with a Degree in Magic: Despite having a brilliant mind and revolutionizing how magic is studied and performed, he was incapable of using any magic himself.
Signature Laugh: It turns out he's the source of Victor's own "Shishishi" laugh.

Reina

An ancient princess whose tomb has been hidden for centuries, only known by the monk Nalkilber.

And I Must Scream: When Magnolia touches the Everbloom that was resting upon Reina's corpse, she hears the remains of Reina's Echo trapped inside, repeating the key phrase to open the door that leads to the Vaen's pocket dimension. She promises to free it after the currently-urgent issue of Glenn's comatose state is dealt with.
Hidden in Plain Sight: It turns out her tomb is actually just a part of the mausoleum for Amalia's ancestors.

Other

Wywyan

A Sky Armor pilot that opposes the Band of the Iron Bull during their attack on Wyrnshire Castle.

Ambiguous Situation: He's supposed to be a famous pilot, but it's unknown which country he works for. The Iron Bulls don't question why he's here, implying that he's working for Taryn. On the other hand, he wants to prevent the Grand Grimoire from activating, which goes against Frederik and Gwayn's plans.
The Faceless: Like Endarht, they're never seen outside of their Sky Armor.
Hero Antagonist: He knows the stone at Wyrnshire is actually the Grand Grimoire and seeks to prevent anyone from activating it, otherwise it will wipe out all life in the area sans those in the safety radius. Unfortunately, the Band of the Iron Bull doesn't know this and his warnings fall on deaf ears, leading to him being the first boss.
Infinity -1 Sword: Long after their death at Wyrmshire, a downgraded version of their unique Dayajir Sky Armor frame can be obtained in the Empyrian Ruins. However, its full potential is locked until Dayajir's Soul is purchased from a secret merchant in Organne Grotto and combined with the frame at the Hooge.

The Black Sun Gang

A gang of thieves that strongarm Sienna into pulling a heist for them, and end up repeatedly crossing paths with her new friends. The group's members are named Bathusda, Prok, Nos, and Galfried.

Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The nicest way to describe Nos is to say he's as strong as an ox and as dumb as a brick. Despite this, he's just as capable a combatant as the rest of the crew.
Fatal Flaw: Sienna directly lampshades the fact that the Black Sun Gang's greatest weakness is their inability to trust anyone other than themselves. This gets them killed when they come to blows with the party in Magic Academy Nhysa, because they were so convinced Sienna and the others wouldn't just let them go once they found loot that they fought to the death for no actual reason.
Fighter, Mage, Thief: Their group is actually fairly typical of a tabletop RPG crew out of Pathfinder or Dungeons & Dragons. Nos, Galfried, and Prok form the core three, while Bathusda takes on the common fourth role of healer.
Hidden Badass: It's not initially apparent to the player just how capable they are. Nos and Prok in particular seem a bit short-changed in the brain department, and Galfriend looks about as much like a twig as other bandit enemies. Once the party and the Black Sun Gang finally come to blows at Kindreld Monastery, however, both sides are shocked by just how powerful their foes are - and Sienna's group has theirs outnumbered. It's not until Magic Academy Nhysa where the game definitively says Sienna's group has surpassed theirs.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: One would be forgiven for thinking this crew is incompetent and unable to seriously threaten Sienna, especially once the game starts dropping hints that Sienna used to be one of the most powerful warriors of the church. When they finally force a confrontation with the party at Kindreld Monastery, however, they turn out to be very competent and clever warriors who make ample usage of stalling tactics and status ailment combos, having a clear role for each member of the party. Despite being outnumbered, the post-battle dialogue has Sienna's side admitting that the Black Sun Gang is actually pretty strong.
Punny Name: One of the two polko in the group (which, in Chained Echoes, are an ancestry of humans that resemble pigs) is named Prok. Switch the 'r' and the 'o' and you get 'Pork.' The other polko, Nos, is indentifiable by his massive nose ring.
Recurring Boss: The group is encountered and fought at both the Kindreld Monastery and the ruins of Nhysa.
What a Senseless Waste of Human Life: In their last appearance, they're too paranoid that the party is just there to steal the treasures they just found to listen to reason, and fight to the death over it. Sienna remarks that it was a pitiful end, but also inevitable when you live as a thief and can't even trust yourself.

The Masked Man

A strange mask wearing spirit that appears to those at Fate's crossroads, offering the power to change their situation but with a steep price.

Deal with the Devil: What Pacts effectively amount to: someone offers up something of value and receives a correspondingly powerful Curse, which confers powerful magic or stranger abilities. The price, however, is steep beyond measure
No Name Given: He doesn't have seem to have a name, beyond vaguely being referred to as the masked man by others.
Wrong Context Magic: The masked man isn't connected to any of the major powers or forces in Eldrea; Matthye's Bestiary entry says that Fate sends him, but what is meant by that is left very mysterious. Even in-universe, people know next to nothing about it. This is especially odd because most observable magic is inherited from the Maelstrom when a person is born, like with Lenne and potentially Tomke. The fact the Masked Man can freely just give magic to others without obeying the laws of the universe further illustrates how mysterious he is, as does the fact this magic is apparently powerful enough, in June's hands, to be potentially comparable to a True King in power, entities second only to the Harbinger itself in terms of might individually.

Daimbert (unmarked spoilers)

He is the landlord of an inn near Tormund where the party goes to in order to rest after being split up. However he is secretly a scientist from Tormund who is also secretly a serial killer.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Daimbert initially appears to be an ordinary innkeeper with a pretty garden, only for it to turn out he's a smug, sociopathic Mad Scientist and Serial Killer.
Bullying a Dragon: He hits Arlette for losing to the party. She responds by setting him and his flowers on fire.
Dirty Coward: Daimbert talks big when he has the Crimson Wings locked in a cell but the moment Sienna unlocks the door he turns tail and runs away.
For Science!: He proclaims this as his motives for his experiments, as he wants to increase magical potential within all races and is willing to use inhumane means to do this.
Hate Sink: Daimbert is a scummy scientist who abducts and experiments upon people from nearby villages and people who rest at his inn. He tortures these people by infusing souls from other living things into them to increase their potential for magic because he believes that magical potential in all races is declining and that no one will be able to cast magic within a few decades. His torturous experiments repeatedly cause all of his victims to die with only one person surviving. He also abducted Lenne and sent the Crimson Wings on a wild goose chase to find her so he could have more time to experiment on her. He is also very abusive to the sole surviving victim of his experiments, Arlette.
Mad Scientist: Daimbert is secretly a scientist that was kicked out of Tormund for wanting to experiment on humans and running the White Rose inn he abducts travelers going through so he can experiment on them in the name of science.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Daimbert claims that his deadly experiments are necessary to reverse the decline of humanity's magic, but his nonchalant tone when talking about the people he stole souls from and trapped in flowers shows his lack of care for human life, implying he cares more about his personal scientific achievements than true altruism.
Serial Killer: Daimbert routinely abducts people passing through his inn so he can experiment on them which always results in their deaths.
Smug Snake: Daimbert is incredibly smug and proud of himself when has the Crimson Wings locked up and boasts about his inhumane experiments.
Would Hurt a Child: He is abusive towards Arlette as he experimented on her and he verbally abused her into fighting the party and he starts to beat her after they defeat her.
Your Soul Is Mine!: All of Daimbert's experiments ultimately in him removing the souls of whoever he's abducted, and he either puts them into another person which almost always kills them or traps them inside a flower while they're still aware of everything around them.

Arlette

A mostly-quiet, white-haired young girl that Daimbert takes care of.

Morality Chain: During the sidequest "A Will to Live", she becomes one for Raphael, giving them a reason to keep living at the lowest point of their life.
Playing with Fire: During her boss fight, all of Arlette's magic is fire based and her hair glows like fire.

Maddeleine

A scholar that washes ashore Hermit's Isle, where the Crimson Wings have set up their base, and cooperates with them to access the ancient ruins of Nhysa so that she can study it.

Heinlein

A goatman that works for Amalia's royal family, dedicating his life to being the perfect servant.

Evil Counterpart: His idea of loyalty and service contrasts Ba'Thraz's mercenary conduct. He claims to be loyal to the ruler of Escanya, and if Escanya is conquered, then he's loyal to the conqueror and is willing to betray his former allies. Meanwhile, Ba'thraz won't betray his contractor even if they get outbid by a rival party.
I Fight for the Strongest Side!: In Act 2, his claims of being a good servant to the ruler of Escanya means he's loyal to the strongest authority figure in practice, regardless of previous loyalties and how the position is achieved. Since Taryn conquered Escanya, he wants to serve Prince Frederik instead of Princess Amalia, the surviving royal of the country he was once loyal to.
Legacy of Service: His family have been servants to the lords of Escanya for generations.
Loyal to the Position: His loyalty to the rightful ruler of Escanya is absolute. And in Act 2, that's Frederik, by right of conquest.
The Mole: In Act 2, he betrays Amalia's rebellion by feeding information to Matthye, as Frederik's conquering of their homeland means he's more worthy of being Heinlein's master than Amalia.

Torman

A Sova (birdman) general that assists the queen of New Wyrnshire.

Better the Devil You Know: When his queen strikes a deal with Nabrelia to let them build military bases on Valandis in order to take down Frederik, Torman tries to rebel by killing Cameron, claiming that he would rather Valandis remain in the hands of a native tyrant like Frederik than to give Nabrelia the perfect opportunity to invade, conquer, and subjugate its people themselves.

The Vaen (MAJOR unmarked spoilers)

A group of 6 powerful, godlike beings. Originally, they were a group of mages from Nhysa Magic Academy, who created a pocket dimension in order to gain immortality and help guide humanity in the fight against the Harbinger. However, their power has corrupted them, and they're now a bigger threat than the evil they keep sealed.

Abusive Precursors: They're responsible for nearly wiping out humanity countless times. They claim it's to keep the Harbinger sealed by sending souls to the Maelstrom it's trapped in. While that is indeed the case, the way they've been using has caused them to become way worse than the Harbinger in question. Their original reason of being was to keep the Harbinger at bay until humanity could progress into creating a weapon capable of killing it. However, the Vaen have also been resetting all technological and magical progress every time, as they've grown too attached to the status quo and fear being replaced. Which should have happened long ago, by design, but they have basically screwed up the rules of the game they put in place.
Civilization Destroyer: The vaen have destroyed countless civilizations using the Grand Grimoire to kill millions resulting in human progress being set back centuries each time.
Connected All Along: Near the endgame, exploring Rockbottom in order to destroy the Goblin Totem and tie up the last loose ends from the "A Goblin's Dilemma" quest also leads to some discarded notes on how the Nhysa mages originally created said totem; monsters need less ether to live than humans, so they decided to turn humans into goblins and siphon the excess ether into their pocket dimension spell.
Demonic Possession: In the final battle of the game, they attempt to do this on Kylian, mutating his physical form in the process.
Evil Versus Evil: They oppose the Church's efforts and state that the organization only wants to make humanity prosper in order to cause overpopulation, which will result in less ether in the Maelstrom, which will weaken the seal on the Harbinger. However, the Vaen's motives for opposing this plan are selfish, since they don't want humanity to surpass them.
Fallen Hero: The Vaen once helped heroically defeat and seal away the Harbinger to save the world, but their time as immortals had them go drunk with power and act like they're gods who regularly destroy civilizations to maintain their superiority.
Faux Affably Evil: For god-like beings who can near-effortlessly destroy the world, they make no attempt to present themselves and rule over Eldrea at large, and are content to sit upon their proverbial ivory thrones in solitude. When they first meet Lenne, they're gracious and communicate openly with her, and only react with hostility when they sense aspects of Lebrodia-Dervinas on Glenn. However, they're still content to kill a majority of humanity every few centuries to keep the Harbinger locked away, and as their own ego demonstrates and Gwayn's assessment of them explains, they aren't lording their power over humanity because they're benevolent, but because they're so vain and egotistical they think it beneath themselves to interact with humanity - when they lose a weapon to humanity that can level nations, their issue isn't with humanity getting the weapon but the thief getting away.
Final Boss: They're the final threat that the party fights in the game.
Glamour Failure: The Vaen appear as three robed hyoms in front of Lenne to convince her to work with them, but when they realize Glenn has a connection to Gwayn, their eyes start bleeding and they transform into horrific beings.
Greater-Scope Villain: While not the major antagonist for Eldrea as a whole, they are the main villainous force in the context of Chained Echoes, as their method of preventing the Harbinger's return is ironically impeding the first step of stopping the Harbinger definitively, and the method in question makes the cure worse than the sickness. The threat they represent is not an immediately pressing issue however, so they take the backseat until the heroes come knocking on their doors. The main threat running through the game as a result is Frederik, while the Vaen serve as a separate end goal to be dealt with later.
Hoist by Their Own Petard: The Grand Grimoire is stated to have once been a "toy" of theirs, and proves to be instrumental in their downfall.
Load-Bearing Boss: As soon as they're taken out for good in the game's ending, the remains of Nhysa (where they kept the door to their pocket dimension) start crumbling as well.
Meaningful Name: Their greatest flaw is labeled by their very title. They're so addicted to their role in keeping the Harbinger at bay and so certain of their superiority over all other life forms that they've become corrupted by their own power and have transformed into something even worse than the Harbinger itself. Their vanity dictates that their achievements in 'protecting' Eldrea from the Harbinger give them all rights in deciding how the Harbinger is dealt with - and if lower lifeforms need to die every few centuries by the millions to keep the Harbinger's cage intact, that's a price they'll pay readily.
Misplaced Retribution: They're willing to nuke all of Valandis just to punish Gwayn for stealing from them and disrespecting them.
Nature Spirit: The closest explanation for what they are beyond 'powerful precursor entities.' When fought as a final boss, their true form takes on the appearance of a twisted, gnarled, quasi-angelic and bare tree, and they are labeled as a plant entity. Notably, while they are partially possessing Kylian in this form, his previous two forms were labeled as 'human' and 'ethereal' respectively, and the Vaen are definitely the ones mostly in control, suggesting the Vaen are in some aspect forces of nature itself. Additionally, when introduced, they are distinctly labeled separately from what humanity represents in the context of Eldrea, and make a point to dismiss the party as 'foolish humans.'
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Vaen claim all their atrocities are only done to prevent the Harbinger from escaping, since culling the human population means less ether is taken from the the seal on the Harbinger, but given their egomaniacal behavior towards any "mortals" disrespecting them and that their actions keep preventing mankind from finding a way to kill the Harbinger its clear that at this point they only care about maintaining their own power.
This Is Unforgivable!: They absolutely loathe Gwayn for stealing the Grand Grimoire from them, and hate Glenn and Kylian by association due to their souls being tampered with (accidentally in the latter's case) to be compatible with Gwayn's Will.
Villainous Rescue: Half of them intervene and sacrifice themselves to change fate to rewind time back to save Lenne, as her death would have cataclysmic consecuences so early in the timeline. They consider putting in motion their usual plan of bringing apocalypse as they can't actually fix the issue, at least not until they realize Glenn can actually prevent things.

The Harbinger (Unmarked Spoilers)

An ancient powerful being that tried to destroy the world millennia ago before being sealed by the Heroes of Leonar and the Vaen.

Ancient Evil: The Harbinger is thousands of years old and seeks to destroy the world.
The Ghost: Despite being ultimately responsible for everything in the game and actively trying to escape from its imprisonment, the Crimson Wings never meet or directly interact with it throughout the entire game.
Greater-Scope Villain: It is ultimately responsible for everything that happens in the game, as the Vaen would never have gone into their own dimension and went mad with power if not for the Harbinger and it's attempt to destroy the world.
Omnicidal Maniac: The Harbinger tried to destroy the whole world millennia ago and is trying to break free of its imprisonment so it can try again.
Sealed Evil in a Can: After being defeated, the Heroes of Leonar and Vaen were unable to kill it, so they sealed it away inside the Maelstrom so that mankind could eventually find a way to kill it.

Characters / Chained Echoes

The Crimson Wings

Band of the Iron Bulls

Taryn

Gandebrath Society and the Church

Past Characters

Other

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Characters / Chained Echoes

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The Crimson Wings

Band of the Iron Bulls

Taryn

Gandebrath Society and the Church

Past Characters

Other

Previous

Index

Next