Characters from Death Song. Due to the nature of gamebooks, this will be written in the second person and spoilers will be unmarked. Proceed with caution. If any of the characters listed here are also in Necromancer, only tropes applying to them here will be listed.
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You and your family
You
A bard and army member or mercenary fighting against the dreaded necromancer.
- All for Nothing: All you achieve in reuniting with your family is getting a front row seat to their gruesome deaths.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: If slain by the necromancer, you can be reanimated as another one of his many soldiers.
- Anti-Hero: While you're (mostly) unambiguously heroic during the military path, the mercenary path sees you becoming a far more morally murky hero, either participating in or enabling horrendous actions to support your family and the kingdom. While you're still on the side of good, it's hard to tell at points.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: You can do this if you agree to play one last song for Catalina and the necromancer, reuniting with your family in the afterlife.
- Badass Normal: Apart from the oft chance that you may be granted vampirism, you have to rely on your wits, arrows, and leadership skills to survive in a world slowly turning into a wasteland. While the necromancer is far beyond your level in terms of power, you'll eventually grow strong enough to slay Elite Mooks like blood specters and death knights.
- The Bard: What you hope to be. While fighting is your main priority, you're sometimes given the chance to perform in inns or to soldiers, lifting the spirits of yourself and them.
- Bittersweet Ending: In the military path, you have to suffer through decades of anguish in an inhospitable world, but you're finally granted the mercy of death by the necromancer and reunited with your family in the afterlife. Even better, you get to die playing music. It's far from a happy ending, but it's the best fate you could have asked for considering the alternatives.
- Captain Obvious: If Warnov transforms you into a vampire, you make sure to explicitly state what's happened to you to him. He's amused by this reaction, as he's obviously already aware of this.
- Chick Magnet: You seem to be quite popular amongst the ladies. Doubly so if you become a vampire, where you have two hot vampire chicks fighting over you as soon as they lay their eyes on you.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: In your first battle, you can accidentally be fried to death by an overzealous Wessel when a Quillar he electrocuted touches you before dying. This is along with all the quills stuck in you, with both injuries causing you unbearable pain until you thankfully pass.
- You can also have your heart ripped out by a sadistic demon, after a futile attempt to escape him.
- In one of the strangest examples, you can sink into a mountain that has turned into a pile of bugs by a reality rift. If that's not bad enough, the mountain rematerialises with you trapped inside it, killing you instantly.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Facing the necromancer head on is almost certainly a death sentence, considering you're a lowly soldier and he's an insanely powerful necromancher well on the path to lichdom.
- Death by Irony: If you flee the military or Chimera company out of fear of being killed, it's almost guarenteed that'll be your fate. Turns out that death tends to follow you no matter where you run to.
- Determinator: 60 years of nonstop torment and you still keep living to spite death. If that's not an example of a determinator, then nothing is.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: You can do this to the necromancer by calling him out for all the heinous bullshit he's responsible for. As a two for one, he also does this to Catalina, another Cthulhu to flip off.
- Downer Ending: Due to the odds always being stacked against you, the longer you survive, the more the world crumbles, and the more death starts to feel like an everyday occurance. You tend to die horribly, with your soul as mangled as your body, surrounded by the corpses of all those close to you. Dying with the knowledge the world is a lost cause is almost more tragic than the fact your life has ended.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Well, as close as you can get to "happy" in this notoriously bleak story. After all the horrors and heartbreak you've been through, you can finally reunite with your family in the afterlife if you play a song for the necromancer. It's a long time coming, and an ending you've more than earned.
- Embarrassing Nickname: In the military, you're "endearingly" named "Farmboy" due to your humble upbringing which makes you stick out like a sore thumb compared to the city-born soldiers you bunk with.
- Face Death with Dignity: If you're executed for deserting your post, you simply hum a little tune to yourself as you're hanged for your crime.
- Face–Heel Turn: You can go from an aspiring hero to a vampire who feasts on humans in ritualistic sacrifices in order to mantain immortality.
- Faking the Dead: You can do this when things finally get too dire, not wanting to die in battle while also providing your family with an income on your behalf. Unfortunately, actual death finds you shortly afterwards.
- Fate Worse than Death: Losing everyone and everything your cared about before being isolated in a desolate wasteland, slowly losing your mind over several decades while knowing that your life could end at any moment is not a fate anyone would wish to experience. Unfortunately for you, this is exactly what you can go through.
- In an even more extreme example, once sent to hell, Big Red forces you to play music for eternity, but as you play, your body sears with unimaginably excruciating pain. The type of pain that never stops or lessens.
- Foil: To the necromancer. You're a selfless and honorable man who just wants to survive in a cruel world, while the necromancer is an egomaniac who seeks power above all else. Naturally, this puts the two of you at odds sooner or later.
- Foregone Conclusion: The necromancer wins at the end and you can never beat him, no matter how hard you try. The worst you can do to him is give him a rather epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- From Bad to Worse: Bootcamp is a nightmare, but there's far worse out there, which you can find out in the hardest way possible. If you station yourself at the Tulan outpost, you have no music to play and witness the deaths of so many soldiers that you refuse to form any emotional attachment to them in fear that you may mourn their passing. When you finally die, you've resigned yourself to your fate, happy to be free of this living nightmare.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Being trapped all alone on a mountain hasn't been the best for your sanity, and maniacal laughter and taunting hallucinations have become the norm for you. You're so far gone by this point that you're barely able to grasp reality anymore.
- Go Out with a Smile: If you're slain during the raid of Velzix's fortress, you die believing that you've made a positive contribution to the world. This causes your last thoughts to be peaceful, allowing you to smile for the first time in years.
- Happily Married: If you desert from the army, you settle down with a halfling woman and life a stable and comfortable life with her until the grand alliance catches up to you and executes you for desertion.
- The Hedonist: What you can become if you embrace Lord Rostov's decadant lifestyle. It doesn't last long nor end well for you.
- The Hermit: You're forced to become this as the necromancer destroys the last remnants of civilization, living in seclusion for bursts of time before it's overrun by violent survivors, undead soldiers, or hostile creatures.
- High-Voltage Death: Wessel can accidentally kill you this way by electrocuting a Quillar whose last moments involve them passing their electrical current onto you.
- Humble Hero: You're just a soldier trying to get by and provide for your family, scoffing at the idea of anyone putting you on a pedestal. You're alright with counting your losses and fleeing, as you don't see your pride as something worthy of avoiding damage to.
- Idiot Ball: Trusting a demon like Big Red is an amateurish mistake, and one with dire consequences. It's something you're normally above falling for, though Big Red's charisma makes it almost understandable how you lowered your guard at such an erronious moment.
- Immortality Immorality: If you accept Lord Rostov's offer to be his personal bard, you become addicted to feasting on captives to mantain your eternal life. Ironically, you're killed months later by the necromancer, making this pointless.
- Ironic Hell: If you accept Big Red's deal, you'll be forced to play music for eternity while in constant agony. In this realm, the one thing you love the most causes you an unbearable amount of pain, despite it being used as an escape from the pain you felt before you were eternally damned.
- It's Personal: You become even more determined to kill the necromancer after your entire family is slaughtered because of him.
- Kill It with Fire: In an unsuccessful raid on the necromancer's base, you're blinded then subsequently incinerated by a fireball.
- Laughing Mad: If you try to flee from the giant tentacled creature by retreating to the mountains, the mountain will turn into a pit of slimy bugs, sinking you deeper into it while you laugh maniacally. This proves to be the final piece of evidence that your mind has been irreparably damaged, as even with reality bending around you, you're too broken to properly react to it in any way.
- The Many Deaths of You: Death is around every corner and if you're not careful, it'll find you very quickly. Expect to die many times before the gamebook is over.
- Neck Snap: How Warnov kills you if you refuse his offer after turning into a vampire. Fortunately it's a quick and rather painless death.
- Next Thing They Knew: In a letter to your brother, you mention how a chance meeting with a merchant's daughter ended up with the two of you having passionate sex.
- No-Sell: You can find out the hard way arrows and basic magic don't do shit against the necromancer, who is pretty much a walking apocalypse at this point.
- Off with His Head!: You can be decapitated by Superior officer (now a captain) if you foolishly try to lie your way through where you've been the last few days.
- Oh, Crap!: You panic when the necromancer appears and demonstrates his ability to reanimate the dead. At this moment, you become painfully aware of just how dire your situation is.
- Another more fatal example happens when the necromancer breaches Lord Rostov's castle and controls the minds of the other vampires, causing them to mercilessly attack their former comrades. Your last moments are full of utter terror while at the necromancer's mercy.
- Schmuck Bait: If you've read necromancer, it becomes incredibly obvious how terrible of a choice it is to trust Big Red. The outcome is even worse for you than what the necromancer had in store, as there's no way to escape the Ironic Hell he condemns you to.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If you come face to face with The Dreaded necromancer, you can wisely haul ass in order to live another day. It's not the most honorable of choices, but considering how outmatched you are, it's by far the smartest decision to make.
- You can also do this is the antics of the mercenaries become too much for you.
- Sole Survivor: You're the only known survivor of the Nuro incident, making you highly sought after for intel about what exactly transpired there.
- In an even more extreme case, you can be the last living person in the world after the necromancer's Apocalypse How goes off without a hitch. For 60 years, you stay in isolation, with barely enough food and water to keep you going, mourning the countless people you've been unable to save.
- Start of Darkness: Killing a helpless captive girl is the first evil deed you can commit as a vampire. It's far from the last, and sets a path in motion that ends with the loss of your morality far before your life.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: You ally with the necromancer, of all people, to slay Velzix, since his demon army is just as ravenously destructive as the necromancer's undead monstrosities.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: You can give a scathing and well deserved berating to Catalina and the necromancer, reminding them what awful excuses for human beings they are. Due to unloading 60 years of anguish onto the two of them in minutes, your words are enough to pierce even the self-appointed god of the dead.
- Took a Level in Badass: You can go from an unremarkable farmboy to a fearsome soldier and one of the grand alliance's best assets.
- Training from Hell: What you go through in bootcamp. It's a gruelling and intense six months, but you prove to be a skilled archer because of this training. If you're trapped by Rostov in the dungeons for a year, you're forced to hone your skills on the beasts that dwell there, constantly at risk of meeting a brutal end.
- Wandering Minstrel: When you're not fighting, you're frequently performing to crowds of appreciative people who need something to take their mind off their woes. Your listeners can go from barflies, to vampires, to unruly soldiers, all the way to the king and queen of death themselves.
- Your Head Asplode: If you're unlucky enough to face a Death Knight in combat, chances are you'll get a squashed in skull for your efforts.
Mallack
Your younger brother
- The Confidant: You choose to reveal to him your sexual exploits with a merchant's daughter, stating that you haven't told this to your fellow soldiers and requesting to him that this letter be hidden from your mother.
- Conscription: Something he's facing after the Time Skip. While he's scared shitless about the state of the world, he's determined to make a difference. He's more than willing to sacrifice his own life if it means taking out even one undead soldier.
- Killed Offscreen: Tragically, in the military route, he'll eventually be killed in combat, being transferred to an outpost overrun with the undead.
- Oh, Crap!: A humorous example. If you decide to join the army, he's horrified to find out that he'll be forced to do the manual labor around the house now that you're no longer in a position to.
Mom
Your mother
- And Then John Was a Zombie: What can happen to her during the military route. Worst of all, she starts her undeath by feasting on Calwin.
- Good Parents: She's a loving and nurturing figure who is concerned about your health and wellbeing. In short, she's a beacon of light compared to the monsters and marauders who inhabit the world.
- Offing the Offspring: If she comes back as a zombie, she'll start by eating her own children.
- Outliving One's Offspring: While she can potentially do this for you, in the military route, Mallack dies during an attack a few months before she meets her demise. She can outlive Makana as well in the mercenary route, if the poor girl falls ill to a terminal sickness while the clerics are preoccupied with the necromancer's rampage.
- Tragic Monster: There's something especially cruel about her becoming a mindless zombie with a taste for her own children after she's sacrificed everything to save them from such a fate.
Randi
Your younger sister.
- Death by Irony: A tragic example. She uses the gun you sent to protect your family to kill herself.
- Driven to Suicide: She kills herself with her own flintlock after witnessing her family get slaughtered.
- Remember the New Guy?: In the military path, she's only mentioned by name near the end.
- Time Skip: You remember her as a little girl when you left to join the army. When you meet her again, she's blossomed into a teenager, reminding you of how long you've been away at war.
Calwin
Your youngest brother
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He can be eaten by his own mother after she comes back as a zombie.
- Death of a Child: He's eaten by his own mother after she's reanimated as a zombie.
- Remember the New Guy?: He's suddenly named and introduced far into the story, having been less than a background character beforehand.
Makana
One of your other sisters.
- Death of a Child: She's killed by the undead after they break into the family farm.
- In the mercenary path, she can die from sickness if you retreat to the farm and attempt to live out the rest of your days there. It's even worse in this instance since she's far younger, making her early demise even crueller.
- Remember the New Guy?: Unless you go down the mercenary path, she's yet another family member who makes her first appearance deep into the gamebook, having never so much been mentioned by name beforehand.
Mercenaries
Captain
the head of the mercenaries
- The Ace: He's more than earned his title of captain, being a feroicious and terrific mercenary to the point when even the dwarves (who hate merceneries with a passion) will seek him out.
- Anti-Hero: If he can even be called a hero. He's a remorseless barbarian and rapist, yet the Chimera company is a vital part of resisting the necromancer's reign of chaos and destruction. Like most mercenaries, he could switch sides in a heartbeat, yet he's on the side of good at this point in time.
- Archnemesis Dad: A "heroic" example. He's this to the necromancer, his own son, who wishes to usher in the apocalypse.
- Badass Normal: Despite being an absolute bastard, he's an exceptional soldier, able to stand his ground against an entire army of demons, by no means an easy feat for a mere mortal.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: He's an atrocious excuse for a human being, yet (somehow) manages to be one of the more heroic characters due to actively fighting against the necromancer's reign of terror.
- Blood Knight: He doesn't just love killing, he absolutely adores it. To him, bloodshed comes long before family.
- Dramatic Irony: Either this, or he's wilfully ignoring the fact that the mastermind behind the chaos he's fighting is his own son. He doesn't take things well when he finds out the truth.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Furious is his default emotion and it's easy to set him to default. You can use this to get him to lower his guard and charge at you, causing him to not notice the demons sneaking up on him and his company.
- Happily Married: He loves his wife, and always speaks highly of her. She's one of the two people he doesn't seem to have any hatred for. Due to his intense dislike of most of the populace, it's even more jarring to hear him revere someone so frequently.
- Heel–Face Turn: A strange example, as his methods are pretty much the same as before, but he's not taking out his violent urges on demons and the undead rather than innocent villagers and hapless soldiers.
- I Have No Son!: He loathes his son for the destruction he's brought on the mortal world, and has nothing but shame and regret for having fathered him.
- Jerkass: He's a vicious Blood Knight with dirt for morals and that expands to his personality as well. The best way to sum him up is by stating that he's a total dick. You and the other mercenaries get the brunt of his anger when the undead don't, but thankfully it's not physical when directed at you.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Well, it's probably made of copper at best, but deep down in his empty, black soul, he loves his family dearly and has nothing but pride for his daughter's success as a soldier. He's even empathetic to you for having a family you care for, a moment of humanity rarely displayed by him.
- Killed Offscreen: He can be slain by Velzix if you abandon him and his company. Fortunately, you don't get to see the murder nor the aftermath.
- Lack of Empathy: His tales about raping women and slaughtering innocents are told with such nonchalance that it makes you even more terrified of him. It's clear that though Captain's not in this area of his career anymore, he has no regrets about having been part of it.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: He's only ever referred to as boss, chief, or captain. Since he was never given a name in necromancer, the mystery remains and continues.
- Pet the Dog: After your first major battle against the demons, he actually shows some empathy to you, complimenting you for staying true to your family. This is due to the fact that despite his myriad of flaws, he does have love for his wife and daughter, giving the two of you something to relate to each other over.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: His solution to dealing with the demons is running headfirst into battle and killing as many of them as possible. Considering how numerous and deadly the demons are, everyone's rightfully put off by his reckless conduct.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He actually agrees to temporarily ally with the necromancer to fight Velzix, if only because he's promised a substantial amount of gold and renown for doing do. Even then, he's not happy about this turn of events.
Dimitri
A mercenary
- The Alcoholic: More often than not, he's pissed out of his mind.
- Asshole Victim: He'll finally be killed by you and Morri after attempting to kill the dwarf in order to steal his silver. Because he's shown time and time again he's a homicidal thug without an ounce of conscience, it's hard not to cheer when he's finally killed.
- Ax-Crazy: He'll resort to murder at the drop of a hat, no matter how pointless and excessive the reason is. Even amongst the ruthless and homicidal merceneries, he's deranged.
- Death by Materialism: His desire to hoard the mine's silver can bite him in the ass, as it reduces his mobility. This proves to be a fatal disadvantage when him and you have a fatal altercation, as he can't dodge your attacks fast enough with the excessive weight he's carrying.
- Establishing Character Moment: He's introduced trying to murder someone for agreeing with his joke. After the person dies, he encourages you to loot his corpse like it's no big deal. This sets the benchmark for him, and he only gets worse from there.
- Greed: He's willing to attempt to murder Morri in order to steal the silver bars in the mines, being too impatient to even wait for his payday.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He's itching for a fight, and willing to use the slightest provocation as an excuse to unleash hell upon whomever if unfortunate enough to trigger his wrath.
- Insane Troll Logic: He tries to murder Fermeli for agreeing with him that his sister is a whore.
- Jerkass: Like most mercenaries, he's a cruel and crass man with nothing nice to say to anyone. If you join with him, he'll mock you relentlessly.
- Lack of Empathy: His response to causing someone's death is to loot their corpse. A real paragon of humanity he is.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: His fucking vocabulary is pretty fucking crass, though it does compliment his crude and crass personality succinctly.
- Too Dumb to Live: He murders his only guide in mines he's unfamiliar with and tries to pick a fight with you while overburdened by silver. This goes predictably poorly for him.
Cal
Another mercenary
- Asshole Victim: If he's damned by your actions, it's hard to feel too bad for him considering the actions him and his fellow mercenaries have committed.
- Fate Worse than Death: He can be sent to hell by you in an ill-fated Deal with the Devil. His naked and broken body is to be used as a plaything for some exceptionally sadistic demons for eternity.
- Killed Off for Real: He doesn't survive the raid of Velzix's fotress.
- Mauve Shirt: His personality is hardly defined, and he spends most of his time complaining about shit. While he survives a while, he never gets any real focus, and his death is just there to add another casualty to the already astronomical death toll.
Fermeli
A mercenary with a particuarly short lifespan.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When he believes Dimitri has the upper hand, he begs for mercy. This isn't necessary, as he gets a chance to get some hits in shortly afterwards, turning the fight back in his favor.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: As with most other mercenaries, his vocabulary consists of a healthy diet of four letter words. He's killed before he can broaden his horizons with a more varied series of explenitives.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He's barely in the gamebook, but his death is the first stepping stone to get you into the mercenary business.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: His death is as sudden as his appearance, with him only existing to be killed by you.
Zalan Militia
Drill Sergeant Kosser
The drill sergeant of the Zalan bootcamp you're sent to
- Brutal Honesty: He doesn't mince words about how bleak things are, laying down on you the dire situations you'll be committing to if you choose to be stationed anywhere.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Like pretty much every drill sergeant in fiction, he's an aggressive hardass to those under his command. Fortunately, you're able to avoid most of his wrath due to your skill as a marksman.
- Jerkass: He's known for being cruel to those who cannot live up to his expectations.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He's a crusty individual, but he makes a good point in saying you shouldn't just take the bare minimum with you on your journey to Tulan, as rations are hardly enough to live off.
- Mr. Exposition: He serves to give you some insight into the state of the army and the trials and tribulations that they're facing. This can be used to make a choice about where you want to be stationed, as well as letting you know how bad things have become for Zalan and it's citizens.
Wessel
A wizard on his way to the Retland kingdom.
- Badass Boast: He's fond of giving these while fighting, though they usually are backed up more by arrogance than actual skill. This tends to get on the nerves of everyone around him, especially Vahlat who abhors braggarts.
- Berserk Button: Don't call him weasal or he'll blast you with a lightning bolt.
- Blood Knight: He loves fighting, charging into battle whenever the opportunity presents itself.
- It's All About Me: When it's revealed how much the demons and Mr. Demar have devastated Nuro, Wessel goes off into a rant about how Mr. Demar gave him a B in conjuration, ruining his perfect grades. Never mind the fact he's aware that Demar is partially responsible for causing the university to fall into chaos at the hands of bloodthirsty monsters.
- Killed Off for Real: He's one of the victims of the Nuro uprising.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Strategy be damned when he's around. If he sees something posing even the slighest threat, he'll charge into battle with a barrage of spells aimed at his foes. This can end awfully for everyone if he misjudges the strength of his opponents.
- Military Mage: He's a mage in the army and a skilled fighter due to his knowledge in offensive spells.
- Motor Mouth: You find out the hard way just how talkative he is. When he starts running his lips, he doesn't stop for an incredibly long time.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: His Motor Mouth tendancies tend to add some humor and brevity to the gamebook, so naturally his death signals the point where things become far more dire for you and everyone else.
- Small Name, Big Ego: He seems determined to take credit for the successes of those around him, while conviently ignoring the fact that their successes only happened because he overcomplicated things so severely that others had to step in to save him. Despite being a fledgling soldier, he seems to believe he's already hot shit due to his moderate skill as a wizard.
Tylir
Another soldier in the Zalan military.
- Killed Offscreen: He died some time during the Time Skip. This is confirmed in both your narration and letter to your mother. Even with death becoming commonplace by this point, it's clear Tylir's death still impacts you months later.
- Nice Guy: In his short time in the story, he politely refutes Wessel's boasting and becomes fast friends with you. This makes his death all the more abrupt and tragic.
- Sole Survivor: By the time the two of you are introduced to one another, his entire squad has been killed by quillars.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He dies a few months after you meet and befriend him, and due to the Time Skip when he's introduced, you get little time to acquaint yourself with him as either the reader or player.
Captain Vahlat
The captain of the military.
- Badass Boast: He gives an effective battle rally for his soldiers when they're fighting the undead, full of courage, zeal, and profanity.
- Berserk Button: Braggarts. He can't stand those who overestimate their abilities or try to turn the topic to themselves, and has a habit of abruptly silencing those who boast in his proximity. Naturally, this sometimes puts him at odds with Wessel, who has a habit of doing both.
- Deadpan Snarker: He responds coyly when he realises that you and Wessel are the only reinforcements he's been sent, sarcastically complimenting the kingdom for doubling his recruits to four men.
- Dramatic Irony: He's sure that the necromancer isn't as big of a threat as people make him out to be, and dismisses concerns about the necromancer's power and reach. For those who have read the gamebook, it's clear he's worse than anyone could ever have imagined.
- Killed Off for Real: Unfortunately for him, the necromancer turns out to be far more powerful than he imagined, and his army is no match for the undead menace. This leads to him being slaughtered alongside his troops.
- Precision F-Strike: He'll tell Wessel to shut the fuck up if the arrogant wizard tries to turn learning about the news of the Nuro incident into a story about how things didn't always go his way in university.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: As captain of the army, he cares about his underlings and tries to get to know them as well as he can in between fights. He listens to and addresses their concerns while being as encouraging and friendly as he can be considering the circumstances.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: He has quite the foul mouth, especially when under duress.
Captain Eckard
The captain of fort virtue
- Expy: He's said to have a very similar personality to Vahlat.
- Fatal Flaw: Stubbornness. His refusal to back down even when the odds are infinitely against him either ensures the death of him and/or his subordinates.
- Honor Before Reason: He will not even consider abandoning Fort Virtue, despite the fact that holding onto it is an unnecessary distraction from all the other dangers Zalan is facing.
- Too Dumb to Live: After ignoring and dismissing legitimate threats about the necromancer's impending world domination plan, he finally relents and sends in troops ...right into the necromancer's hands. This act of idiocy kills you and almost certainly cements his fate, having strengthened the already overpowered necromancer even more.
- What the Hell, Hero?: He'll rightfully call you out for dragging him into a bitter argument with a visiting superior officer. Considering the fact he is demoted and transferred because of your actions, it almost makes it understandable why he took out his rage on your beloved lute.
Superior officer
A woman you come to blows with during your stationing in Fort Virtue
- Anti-Hero: She's ruthless and demanding, yet one of the best soldiers the grand alliance has.
- The Bus Came Back: She returns yet again after the Time Skip, now an ever more distinguished captain of the grand alliance.
- Cain and Abel: She's sis from Necromancer, the abel in this tale. As she's one of the driving forces behind the grand alliance's army compared to her Omnicidal Maniac brother, she fits into this role snugly.
- Dark Secret: She's the necromancer's sister. While she has nothing to do with the monster he's become, she feels incredible shame with being related to him.
- Disproportionate Retribution: If you don't respond to her insults, she'll march up to Captain Eckard to yell at him before leaving in a huff, and then spend months pulling enough strings to have the two of you transferred to far less accomodable locations. What happens to Eckard isn't known but you meet your death at the hands of a ferocious giant during another of the Necromancer's attacks.
- The Dreaded: Despite being an extremely capable captain, she's feared by her men due to her hostility.
- Good Is Not Nice: She's an incredibly hostile and rather unpleasant person, yet firmly on the side of good despite her many personality flaws.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Anything can and will set her off, and she'll react with extreme force if given the chance to.
- It's Personal: One of the reasons she's so determined to stop the necromancer is because he's her brother.
- Jerkass: She reeks of hostility, looking for even the tiniest excuse to pick a fight with someone. Unfortunately, this can be you, with dire consequences.
- Must Not Die a Virgin: As she becomes more disillusioned with the state of the world, she propositions you for sex, though due to both of your declines in sanity, the two of you don't go through with it.
- No-Sell: She'll see through your lies and decapitate you if you try to bluff your way out of her accusations.
- Not So Stoic: Despite trying to present herself as being unburdened by emotion, the losses and tragedy she's experienced has clearly traumatised her, and she barely stops herself from breaking down during a heated confrontation in her office.
Stagir
A dwarf who saved you from demons years ago.
- Boom, Headshot!: He uses a dwarven firearm to deliver this to a particuarly nasty demon that was attacking you.
- The Bus Came Back: He reappears 5 years after saving your life when you save his squad from an otherwise certain demise.
- Dreadful Musician: He breaks your lute while attempting and failing to play it, blaming it on the workmanship of the lute rather than his lack of talent. His singing is also abysmal.
- Karmic Jackpot: He saved your life 5 years ago, allowing you to survive long enough to save his in a similar circumstance; by slaying a demon who was seconds away from ending his life.
- Nice Guy: He's a good natured and friendly dwarf, attributes sorely lacking in this Crapsack World.
- Sole Survivor: Of his original clan, he's the only one still alive. While he's rebuilt his battalion over the years, he's had to witness the deaths of his men repeatedly.
Private Ramusen
A soldier you go on a scout with
- Red Shirt: He's murdered by Warnov while trying to rescue you from a hole you and Gannon fell into.
Gannon
An unfortunate soul who is part of your scouting crew.
Vampires
Lord Rostov
The secretive leader of the vampire clans and the puppet king of the grand alliance.
- Affably Evil: Death song reveals a far darker side to Rostov that necromancer didn't show. Namely, he keeps his immortality by feasting on innocent people. Despite this, he's a polite and charming man as well as a valuable asset for the grand alliance.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Hedonistic bastard he may be, he's nothing compared to Velzix or the necromancer, who pose a global threat to all life.
- Anti-Villain: He may be a hedonistic Serial Killer, but he's a driving force behind the grand alliance, the last bastion against the necromancer and his army.
- Berserk Button: Due to being a Control Freak of the highest level, not being in charge of a situation causes him to explode into a fit of fury. It's brief but a stark contrast to his normal mannerisms.
- Control Freak: He desires being in control above all else, and the mere thought of losing his power sends him into a frenzied rage.
- Evil Old Folks: He's hundreds of years old and has done terrible things to stay alive for that long.
- The Hedonist: He enjoys sophisticated paintings, good music, and feasting on the blood of his many victims.
- Hidden Depths: He adores music so much that he purposely derails one of his and Warnov's meticulous plans in order to give you the chance to become his personal bard. For such a stoic and powerful vampire lord, it's certainly an unexpected turn of events.
- Immortality Immorality: It turns out he keeps his eternal life by feasting on mortals.
- Insistent Terminology: He's rather proud of his authority, and demands to be referred to as Lord Rostov.
- Killed Offscreen: If you refuse Warnov's offer, he's exterminated by the necromancer some time during the Time Skip.
- The Man Behind the Man: Turns out a secretive vampire is the driving force behind the grand alliance. He's also been this for many other realms dating back centuries.
- Manipulative Bastard: He's controlled entire kingdoms behind the shadows for hundreds of years, keeping a low profile throughout. It's clear he knows the wills and whims of humans and how to play them to his advantage. He's also able to convince you to take a drastic turn in life if Warnov bites you, something you'd otherwise be hesitant to accept from a less charismatic figure.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Reminiscing about his mistakes sends him into a brief but violent rage, showing that despite his eerie calmness and pretentions of being above other mortals, he's still consumed by human emotions he's tried to supress.
- Precision F-Strike: He goes off into a profane rant about the necromancer and ghoul king, shouting about his anger in being unable to predict their actions.
- Really 700 Years Old: Due to being a vampire, he's immortal. Even after several centuries, his control over the human realm and his sharp mind haven't waned in the slighest.
- Serial Killer: It's clear he's killed many in order to keep his immortality. While you never see him murder anyone, blood has clearly been on his hands many times.
- Walking Spoiler: His appearance adds vampires into the mix, and swerves the story down an unexpected path. It also reveals that the grand alliance is his puppet realm, another major revelation that changes things entirely.
Warnov
A member of the Zalan intelligence network
- Affably Evil: Even when murdering your soldiers and spouting gibberish, he's still friendly enough to compliment your musical talent.
- Apologetic Attacker: He regretfully slays you if you try and run away from him after he's turned you into a vampire. The last words you hear are his remorse that you didn't join him, as you would have been a valuable asset for the vampires.
- Deadpan Snarker: He bluntly compliments your powers of perception after you tell him he's a vampire. Since he's proven this by biting you already, it's clear he's just playing up to your Captain Obvious level of insight.
- Exact Words: He tells you he wishes to make you a hero. Unfortunately, that entails becoming a vampire as well.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: He's able to silently get into your fortress, something impressive for even a spy. It's not that impressive for a vampire, who can easily traverse large distances without making a sound.
- Killed Offscreen: He suffers this at the hands of the necromancer. He did survive long enough to advise him to appreciate your musical talents. The necromancer actually obliges when he meets you.
- Manipulative Bastard: He can use your desire to actually be the hero people percieve you as being to get you to lower your guard long enough to turn you into a vampire like him. Considering how paranoid you've become of others due to the hostile world you live in, it's made even more impressive he achieved this so quickly.
- Mr. Exposition: After he converts you into a vampire, he gives you a brief rundown of their ideals and history, just as Yolev did to the dark alliance. Later, he also informs you about the return of the Great Lich Lord (who just so happens to now be the Necromancer) and the inevitable death and destruction that heralds.
- Sole Survivor: By the time you encounter him during your Time Skip, he's one of the last vampires remaining, and constant paranoia about being hunted down and killed has made him lose most of his marbles.
- Your Days Are Numbered: He's well aware that the necromancer's close to dominating the world, and due to being a vampire, he's a high priority for the vampire-hating lich king. Due to this, his sanity has gone so much that he's barely capable of coherant thought anymore.
Natasha and Glasya
Two hot vampires you meet in Lord Rostov's castle.
- Depraved Bisexual: They seem to get some twisted arousal out of tormenting the young girl they're sacrificing to you. Glasya takes it even further by licking the terrified teen's face, showing a large degree of sadism to their actions.
- Fantastic Racism: They don't seem to value the lives of humans much, seeing them merely as creatures to feed on. In fact, they're so convinced of their superiority over mortals that Human Sacrifice is a common occurance for them.
- Human Sacrifice: During your threesome, they invite you to perform a ritualistic sacrifice of a teenage girl they've kidnapped.
- Lecherous Licking: What Glasya does to the young girl she's attempting to sacrifice to you. To say it ruins the mood of your lovemaking session is an understatement.
- Ms. Fanservice: They're both described as being extremely sexy. Even better, they're both infatuated with you.
Delilah the deathdealer
A warrior under Rostov's banner.
- Hero of Another Story: She previously retrieved the celestial sword, one of the most powerful and legendary weapons to ever exist.
- Jerkass: She's rather icy and blunt with you when you're a member of her group. She even goes so far as to slap you for daring to stand up to her dismissive taunts of you.
- Mauve Shirt: She gets a bit more time to shine than her two other fateful companions, though she still dies before her character can be explored in any depth.
- Names To Run Away From Very Fast: It's clear that she isn't called the deathdealer for nothing.
- No Kill like Overkill: Not only is she blasted in the face by Catalina's magic, she also lands on and is impaled by a fucking weathervane. Even the legendary deathdealer herself can't come back from that.
Gorax the mighty
A vampire under Lord Rostov's banner.
- Blood Knight: Upon meeting him, it's clear he's itching for the chance to go out and kill people.
- The Brute: Due to being a barbarian, his extreme strength and massive build make him an ideal example of this.
- Hero of Another Story: He once was a barbarian king who fought back massive orc hordes over a hundred years ago. It's clear he wishes to relive his glory days and achieve a feat of a similar caliber.
- Killed Offscreen: He's killed several yards away from you by Catalina's army. While you don't see his demise, it's abundantly clear it happened.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He dies as quickly as he was introduced.
Wally
A vampire halfling
- Flat Character: Compared to his two battle buddies, he gets no character development whatsoever.
- Killed Offscreen: He doesn't survive the second raid on Nuro.
- Lethal Joke Character: Halflings aren't usually known for their fighting prowess so for him to be paired up with two legendary heroes says alot about his abilities.
Other characters
The Necromancer
Yes, that necromancer, the one you play as in Necromancer. He's just as terrifying as ever.
- A God Am I: He's become the great lich lord reborn at the end, more monster than man, in both appearance and actions.
- Apocalypse How: Like in the true ending, he succeeds in doing this. Unfortunately, you don't die as quickly as most, having to suffer through the wasteland that you once called home.
- The Bad Guy Wins: He successfully causes the apocalypse in the military path, unluckily for you and pretty much everyone else in the world.
- Big Bad: He's the most prominent and dangerous threat you and your kingdom will face during your story.
- Cutting Off the Branches: His actions in this gamebook mirror the ones he takes during the "true" path, unfortunately for you and every other living thing.
- The Dreaded: You're rightfully terrified of him, due to his immense power and evil intentions.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Probably the only nice thing that can be said about him is that his love for Catalina is genuine.
- Evil Old Folks: While being immortal means he doesn't feel the ravages of time as much as most, he's still been on this world for a respectable amount of time, being about the same age as you. Since you can survive for several decades, he's rather old and evil when your paths cross again.
- Fantastic Racism: Like before, he really, really hates vampires. If you're one when he's around, woe is you.
- Faux Affably Evil: He talks to you like you're an old friend when your paths cross many years later. If you weren't aware that he was solely responsible for the predicament the world is in, you'd think he was a bonafide Nice Guy. It's clear that he's just as evil as ever, only taking interest in you because you're another living being he can torment.
- Foregone Conclusion: Since this follows the Dark Order path of necromancer, it's clear he'll prosper in the end, at the expense of humanity and natural order.
- Happily Married: To Catalina, the queen of the dead.
- Hero Killer: He's this to you if you're unfortunate enough to step into his path of destruction, and certainly this to all your bannermen he eviscerates.
- Karma Houdini: He never gets any comeuppance for destroying your life and the world. In fact, doing so benefits him and satiates his already monumental ego.
- Lack of Empathy: Somehow, he's so entitled he believes that you'll happily play music for him and his wife, despite him having ruined your life in the most horrific way imaginable.
- Necromancer: What he is and why he's so dangerous, as he's well on his way to kickstarting the apocalypse by the time you meet him.
- No Name Given: He's simply known as the necromancer, just as the great lich lord was never named.
- The Sociopath: While he's capable of feeling some genuine empathy for others, he's still an impulsive bastard with no regard for human life, driven by a lust for power above all else.
- Vocal Dissonance: When you finally talk to him, he's said to have a calm voice, something certainly unexpected for someone who has brought the planet to its death throes.
Catalina
The necromancer's queen, and second in command.
- Affably Evil: Unlike her husband, her friendliness seems to be genuine. Pity she helped cause the apocalypse.
- The Bad Guy Wins: She succeeds in bringing forward the end of the world, and becomes the queen of the dead, ruling the ruins of the world with her equally successful husband.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She loves the necromancer and stays by his side until the end of her life. Amazingly, he seems to feel this way for her as well.
- Evil Old Folks: She's of an advanced age like the necromancer, and while she isn't quite as bad as him, her body has become frail due to his deathly aura.
- Happily Married: To the necromancer/great lich lord II, the king of the dead.
- Hero Killer: She's the one that kills Delilah, though a conviently placed weathervane also helps in her murder. Her army also takes care of Gorax and Wally.
- Karma Houdini: Like her husband, she gets off scot free for the devastation she was complicit in.
Helena
A merchant's daughter you had a one night stand with.
- The Bus Came Back: Turns out she's still alive and well half a decade after the two of you crossed paths.
- Killed Offscreen: Like Mallack, she's slain by the undead. This is only revealed in a letter to your mother and while her body is never recovered, her fate is almost certain due to their being no other survivors.
- Next Thing They Knew: Your chance encounter with her leads to a rather x-rated evening for the both of you.
Qweet
A fairy who lives in the forest.
- Fantastic Racism: She really doesn't like elves.
- Fatal Flaw: Her ignorance of the damage the necromancer has done to the world leads to the demise of you, her, and her fellow fairies, as they're unable to fight back against something they never imagined happening.
- Hidden Elf Village: Where she and her fellow fairies live. They're so isolated from the rest of the world, they weren't even aware the necromancer had returned.
- Nice Guy: Anti elf views aside, she's a peaceful pixie who enjoys your music and allows you to stay in her woods, even if she won't reveal her village to you.
- The Pollyanna: How she originally comes across as. It's a jarring contrast to most other characters, considering the dire straits of the rest of the world. She becomes a bit more pessimistic when you reveal what's been going on in your kingdom, but she still holds onto her optimistic attitude.
- This Cannot Be!: When the necromancer's power finally penetrates her village, her last words are full of shock and confusion as to how this could have happened.
Morri
A dwarven miner living in an underground city.
- Berserk Button: Don't try and use his ore deposits. Dimitri finds out the hard way how fiercely protective he is of them.
- Death by Irony: It's possible for him to be murdered by the men he hired to protect him. He can also be killed by you, the person who saved his life.
- He Knows Too Much: he's killed by you to stop him from revealing that you killed Dimitri. While it was technically in self defense, Dimitri was an esteemed member of the Chimera squad, asshole he may have been.
- Jerkass: Despite his dislike of the mercenaries, he shares their unpleasant and rude nature. He's rude and has a fuse as short as his height.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Rude as he may be, he makes a fair point in refusing to pay the mercenaries after one of them attempted to murder him. He's also valid in stating that by joining with them, you're enabling their behavior, even if you're not actively participating in their atrocities.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being a prick to you and the mercenaries, he does understand your plight and help you escape the mines after you save his life, showing he has more honor than most of the treacherous douchebags in the gamebook.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: To show your morals are on a steady decline, you can murder him to prevent him from telling the mercenaries the truth of what happened to Dimitri.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He has these with the mercenaries, who he obviously can't stand. Despite this, he's forced to rely on them due to the demon's overwhelming manpower and physical strength.
Big Red
The Manipulative Bastard of manipulative bastards. You can encounter him as a mercenary.
- Deal with the Devil: You can make one with him, offering you mercy in exchange for betraying the rest of the Chimera company. This ends up with you getting trapped in an especially cruel Ironic Hell.
- Exact Words: He promises you his fellow demons wouldn't hurt you. Too bad he didn't mention he still would.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's polite, charming, and one of the most heinous creatures you can encounter.
- Manipulative Bastard: He tricks you into not only betraying your fellow mercenaries but also damning yourself to an eternity of torment by signing a deal with him. It's quite impressive, really.
- Sadist: He enjoys the pain of others, and is delighted after condeming you to an eternity of agony.
Sinthinia
A succubi working for Big Red
- Sadist: Like Big Red, she enjoys subjecting you to eternal agony if she gets the chance.
