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Characters / Deponia

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Under construction. A few Late-Arrival Spoilers are unmarked.

Main characters

     Rufus 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rufus_1.png
An incredibly egotistical and clumsy tinkerer who wants to leave Deponia at all costs and get to Elysium. When Goal falls into his lap, Rufus sees an opportunity to escape, as well as a new girlfriend.

Rufus, along with Cletus and Argus, is actually an Organon prototype, Codenamed "R" because he originally had red hair. He was genetically designed to have no respect for life, but due to some problems with the original genetic coding, he has an abundance of hope.

  • Anti-Hero: Of the highest caliber. In fact, Rufus really only has a few moral hangups that keep him from being a full Nominal Hero: he will not willingly hurt Goal lie to her or let her die, and he will not go to Elysium at the cost of killing everyone on Deponia. Otherwise everyone and everything is fair game in whatever he is trying to accomplish.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Rufus creates all sorts of (occasionally impressive) inventions and convoluted plots to escape Deponia, but refuses to actually look for employment. In addition, Rufus' inventions and plots tend to be poorly thought out and often fall apart because of little details that Rufus either ignores or does not learn about because of his overconfidence. He's too lazy to check himself.
  • Bungling Inventor: The closest he has to an occupation. He's stated to be responsible for 90% of the injuries in his hometown...
  • Butt-Monkey: ...and approximately 90% of those injuries (so, over 80% of all injuries in the area) occur to him.
  • Cassandra Truth: When he tries to tell Toni that he died earlier and is now just a clone of the original Rufus, his ex-girlfriend scoffs the very notion, citing that she's personally seen him survive so many various impossible perils that she can't believe that his luck finally ran out.
  • Character Development: Downplayed. Rufus goes from a self-centered, egotistical and amoral Jerkass...to a self-centered, egotistical and mostly amoral Jerk with a Heart of Gold who at least cares for Goal and (somewhat) for Deponia and his close allies; but mostly for Goal. This finally culminates in a Heroic Sacrifice so Goal will live, overriding even his own persistence on going to Elysium.
  • Clone Angst: Initially refuses to accept the truth, although Hermes assures him that it isn't something to be ashamed of, due to the unique life he's lived in spite of his engineered DNA.
  • The Constant: Accidentally makes himself one in ''Deponia Doomsday" after crawling into the Utopian time machine in Interim Time, allowing him to simultaneously leap out of the pod to fix the time stream in a Heroic Sacrifice and to survive that as he was still technically in the time machine while that occurred.
  • Cosmic Plaything: You could throw a dart at at any point in Rufus' life and... well, you'd probably miss and hit him.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Compared to the other clones, Rufus has a "flaw" in his genetic programming... but it just so happens to be his Determinator status.
  • Deconstruction: Of your average point-and-click adventure game hero. Turns out someone who steals everything in sight and screws over random people to achieve their goals is kind of a self-centered asshole who nobody would like.
  • Dented Iron: A version of Rufus in Deponia Doomsday was "lucky" enough to be hit with the exact opposite of a memory erasing device, giving him the ability to remember the countless amounts of time loops he had experienced and causing him to rapidly age from the sheer weight of this knowledge. He's still sharp enough to come up with a plan to fix half of the time-related issues plaguing the cast, but his lucidity runs out before he can fix the rest, stranding him, the Utopians, a Goal, and an alternate version of him in Deponia's distant past, although this winds up indirectly help remedy the situation anyway.
  • Determinator/Hope Springs Eternal: Rufus's arguably most admirable quality is that he almost never gives up hope. The only thing to emotionally defeat him is Goal's supposed death at his hands, and he springs back quickly once he finds a potential way of undoing it.
  • Die Laughing: In true Rufus fashion, the final thing we see him do is cracking up at Barry being blindsided at a satellite on their way down.
  • Everyone Has Standards: While Rufus is a snarky prick who's been shown to do quite a few bad things (even awful ones) to get his way, he would never let Deponia be destroyed by the Organon nor lie to Goal or (willingly) harm her.
  • Failure Hero: A textbook example of the Downplayed Trope. On one hand, he tends to be quite good at defeating the Organon or giving them trouble; on the other though, he never actually manages to accomplish his ultimate Goal of reaching Elysium, being with Goal or preventing the Doomsday; and whenever his own idiocy doesn't screw things up, it is his awful luck what makes everything go sour whenever he's around, even when he genuinely tries to do better.
  • Fatal Flaw: Rufus has two: he is full of himself and always believes he is right, and he never learns from his mistakes.
  • Fearless Fool: Though he flees from life-threatening danger if he can help it, he seems completely nonplussed by the extreme risk to life and limb his plans universally entail, and is very casual about handling dangerous objects and substances or even hurting himself. This is revealed to be hardcoded into him as per his Flawed Prototype Organon clone nature: like all of them, he was engineered to have no regard for life and, by extension, no fear of death. However, the true Organon clones were seemingly updated to be less prone to self-destructive accidents resulting from the latter.
  • Flawed Prototype: A prototype for the Organon, with a defect in his genes that gives him an abundance of hope. It's technically a flaw because it was unintended and contrary to his conceived purpose, although it's ultimately what elevates him above the others.
  • Freudian Excuse: Much of his Jerkass tendencies come from the way his dad treated him as a kid. The rest comes from his programming.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: He has a wide circle of "friends," but he's oblivious to the fact that all of them except Goal unabashedly despise him thanks to long suffering from his antics. There might be a little fondness there deep down, but it gets so bad that in Goodbye the entire Resistance (including everyone he cares about but Goal) gets tired of him and abandons him for Seagull.
  • Heroic BSoD: After apparently killing Goal and finding himself in what seems to be Hell, he spends the beginning of the next chapter doing nothing but sighing and mumbling angry in place of his usual snark as you interact with things, and once he starts speaking in full sentences again, it's clear he's lost any faith in himself or will to go on. Combined with The Reveal that he's an Organon prototype, it culminates in the one of the few times he completely loses his cool, as he takes a baseball bat to everything in the vicinity. It's the only time you ever see such real anger and bitterness on his face.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Is willing to drop to his death if it means Goal gets to evacuate the crashing highboat.
    • Repeats it in Deponia Doomsday in order to prevent Goal's death and Deponia's destruction.
    • Disney Death: Possibly. It's deliberately left open in Goodbye Deponia as to whether he actually dies from the fall; it wouldn't be the first time he'd survive a huge drop, and he might not even land in a pile of used needles this time! Finally proven to have been played straight in Deponia Doomsday.
  • Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Obliviously ruining lives with absurd hijinks is practically his trademark - even intentionally on occasion - and he never cares about the consequences for others with the exception of the time he nearly killed Goal. It turns out he's literally like this: according to Hermes, he has no regard for life. He occasionally shows some caring about people, but he usually just messes up things worse for them or others along the way and he has no problem hurting people for the sake of "helping" them.
  • Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Before his father ran away, it's implied that Rufus had one of these. Become less hilarious when you see the extent of the damage it's done to his psyche.
  • Idiot Hero
  • It's All About Me: Rufus has a serious case of this, which his neighbors constantly call him out on. He will, for example, outright sabotage other characters' attempts to fix things so that he can do it himself. He's not-untruthfully accused several times of only loving Goal because she represents everything he wants and because he can use her to get to Elysium. Getting past that is the bulk of his character development across the series and he only truly proves he cares about her above himself with his final Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rufus's personality in a nutshell. He's greedy, careless to the point of sociopathy, often rude and has a tremendous ego — but he also shows genuine concern for Goal, particularly when Gizmo sells her out to the Organon. It's more obvious when he's contrasted against Cletus — despite hating Deponia and the majority of the people who live there, Rufus willingly sacrifices a life with Goal on Elysium in order to save it. He repeats this twice more with greater stakes, both times choosing to sacrifice his own life in order to save Goal.
    • Reinforced in the second game, which is all about Rufus trying to prove himself to Goal.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: Deconstructed. One of the reasons the townsfolk are less than fond of Rufus is that he's a thief and a mooch; his tendency to pick up whatever is necessary to solve a puzzle also gets him arrested and temporarily locked up by Gizmo.
    • Lampshaded in the second game; a fortuneteller predicts Rufus will steal his bananas, and despite his objections, Rufus is forced to do exactly that.
  • Loser Protagonist: Rufus mooches off his ex, as he doesn't have or want a job, and is widely disliked for being a thief who generally destroys what he takes.
  • Made of Iron: Goes through an absolute mountain of punishment over the course of the trilogy, almost never leaving it worse for wear. It's possible he even survives the fall in the ending.
  • Meaningful Name: Rufus is latin for "red haired", as in his original hair color.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Screams it in tears as he is thrown from the window after seemingly killing Goal.
  • Only Sane Man: When it comes to Deponia's situation, Rufus is the only one who actually cares that he has to live in a trash heap. Jerkass-tendencies aside, he has a point about actually trying to improve his life instead of just wallowing in garbage.
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: Pointedly averted. Throughout the games, Rufus repeatedly gets called out on the fact that he doesn't care how much he steals or who he screws over so long as he achieves his goals. The growing resentment he causes in everyone he harms along the way culminates in the entire Resistance wanting nothing to do with him at the end of Goodbye Deponia.
  • Redheads Are Uncool: Rufus isn't exactly a popular guy, although he actually hasn't been ginger for a long time. Therefore, the Red-Headed Stepchild trope is averted, despite actually being adopted as well.
  • Resurrective Immortality: Rufus actually does die multiple times during the third game, although the cloning machine can bring him back with his memories and consciousness intact. Potentially, this means that even if he did die during his final fall, it's not necessarily the end for him.
  • Single-Issue Psychology: Rufus' Parental Abandonment forms a pretty big part of his character, and his desire to reach Elysium is based in part on trying to reach his dad on Elysium. Alleviated somewhat by the revelation that his most repugnant character traits were coded into him as part of his being a Flawed Prototype clone for the Organon.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Rufus is utterly convinced he's the smartest, coolest and sexiest man alive. He's a scruffy, clumsy, reckless, selfish imbecile who blunders through things as much on luck and surprising resilience as anything else.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: He discovers he's a genetic prototype for the Organon, the very force he's been fighting against the whole trilogy.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Rufus ends up putting himself in harm's way due to bumbling over-confidence, lack of self-awareness, and a completely myopic inability to see beyond his most immediate problem. This also drives much of the story, as most of the problems he needs to fix are ones he created himself that could have been avoided with a little more foresight. Like most things in this game, this is Played for Laughs. Takes on a darker justification in the third game when the player is hit with The Reveal that Rufus' bumbling was because he was specifically engineered to have no respect for life, including his own.
  • Tragic Dream: All Rufus wants is to live on Elysium (with Goal, after he meets her). For various reasons, including his own shortcomings, this is impossible, and Deponia Doomsday hammers home that he can't have what he wants, no matter what.
  • Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: As several tropes described above attest.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Shades of it. Once he finds his dad, he initially yearns for his approval. Grows out of it quickly once he finds out what a jackass his dad actually his.

     Goal Shellert 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/goalie.png
An Elysian woman who wants to inform Elysium that Deponia is still inhabited so they will not blow it up. Unfortunately her plans are hampered by Rufus, who damages her brain implant. She is the only one who knows the ascension codes needed to pilot the only shuttlecraft to Elysium.

In general:

  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Goal at times seems rather impressed by Rufus' chaotic antics, but it's also because, unlike Cletus, Rufus actually tries to go out of his way for her.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: She's usually very serene and kind, but she threatens to kill Rufus when he reveals he lied to her at the end of the first game. Repeatedly. In the sequel, this portion of her personality ends up with Spunky Goal.
    • Lady Goal deserves a mention too for killing both of Donna's mooks in cold blood. Although she is less nice than her other pesonas.
  • Chew Toy: Ever since meeting Rufus she spends most her time proving that slapstick is for all, and in fact may be the most unlucky character in the series given that Rufus brings his misfortune on himself. Over the course of three games, she's been dropped from cruisers, brain damaged, thrown around like a ragdoll for hours, given botched brain surgery, split into three personalities (one of which gets struck by lightning), caught in the axle of a moving vehicle and injected with a nearly fatal dose of truth serum, and that's just the most prominent stuff. She's actually a mix between resigned and amused by it all. In Goodbye, she sums up her role fairly well after another one of Rufus' hijinks goes awry.
    Rufus: "Goal? Are you mad at me?"
    Goal: "Mad? I'm dirty, disheveled and humiliated, but no. I'm not mad. It was actually kind of cool."
  • Dying Declaration of Love: She doesn't actually die, but as she blacks out, her last conscious words are a declaration to Argus that she loves Rufus. Notably, neither were even aware that Rufus was listening.
  • Electronic Speech Impediment: After her brain implant is scratched up, Goal gains a tendency to "skip" like a broken CD or record. This tic inexplicably disappears by the end of the Deponia.
  • Fan of the Underdog: Despite everything he's done (some of it to her) and how horrible he can be, she loves and supports Rufus and his crazy plans. This couldn't be more clear near the end of Goodbye, when Deponia is about to be destroyed and everyone is blaming him, and she stuck for him and berated those blaming him in his defense.
  • The Load: Spends most of the first game unconscious. Wakes up in the last chapter.
  • Living MacGuffin: Is sought after by various factions throughout the series due to her possessing the access codes needed to get back to Elysium. Also exaggerated: in addition to her name, she spends much of the series unconscious or otherwise incapacitated and often has to be physically carried around like an object.
  • Meaningful Name: Goal, being that she's the driving force behind Rufus' quest as both his Love Interest and the holder of the Ascension Codes needed to launch shuttles to reach Elysium.
  • Mirror Character: Made particularly apparent in Deponia Doomsday, where Goal herself engages in a Zany Scheme that is a direct mirror-flipped version of the one Rufus was attempting, coming up with it apparently all on her own, and beating him to the punch in successfully using it to remove the obstacle blocking their progress. When Rufus finds out about this (despite Goal's attempt to keep it a secret), she gives him a smile.
  • Morality Pet: She's something of sorts for Rufus. While he still acts like an egotistical jerk and puts her in danger a few times, his willingness to sacrifice himself for her sake is what ultimately saves him, her, and/or Deponia in each game. Goal in turn is the one who sticks up for Rufus when nobody else does and even forgives him for quite a few of his mistakes (albeit that doesn't mean she won't give him the occasional punch or kick).
    • She also counts as one for Cletus, to a small extent. In the second game he rigged the bomb the Organon were going to use to make Deponia uninhabitable to only blow up the Organon station, and apparently was going to give an honest report of the life on Deponia, if it meant keeping Goal.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Gets the most Male Gaze of any character in the series, and wears a skintight costume to boot. There's even an unlockable nude pic of her in the second game.
  • No Accounting for Taste: She honestly at times seems somewhat smitten with how Rufus acts towards her, it helps that when it comes down to it, Goal is the ONE person Rufus can't bring himself to lie to, even if it means sacrificing his dreams. She lampshades it at the end of the first game, where she realizes that she fell for both Cletus and Rufus, both jerks, and wonders if its because they share the same face.
  • Rebellious Princess: Goal fits the bill by virtue of being a (literally) high-born Elysian. Becomes a full example once her parentage is revealed.
  • Secret Secret-Keeper: At the end, she seems aware that the "Rufus" she ended up with is actually Cletus, but she slaps down every attempt he makes to explain it to anyone. Since being forced to act like Rufus forever is clearly hell for Cletus, one imagines she's doing it on purpose for all he did to her. Proven to be the case in the introduction of her future self in Deponia Doomsday.
  • Show Some Leg: Goal distracts an armed guard in Deponia Doomsday by flashing her naked breasts at him. Rufus clearly also appreciates the view. She was actually surprisingly willing to go along with this plan, even snickering at the thought.
  • Upperclass Wit: Sports a posh demeanor (especially at first), a British accent, and lots of snark that typically goes way over Rufus' head. When she splits in three, this part of her goes to Lady Goal, who typically isn't joking when she's being snarky.

In Chaos in Deponia, Goal's brain implant is damaged by Rufus (again), splitting her mind into three personalities: Lady Goal, Baby Goal, and Spunky Goal.

Lady Goal:

  • Changed My Mind, Kid: Near the end of the second game she absconds with the ascension codes and plans to join Cletus, but ultimately goes back to Rufus' side because it would have meant leaving Spunky Goal behind if she didn't.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: The only reason the entire quest isn't cut short at the end of the game is because she has a slight change of heart.
  • Ice Queen: Will only agree to go out with Rufus after he goes out of his way to make a dinner reservation for her at a particularly fancy restaurant — and even then, she only goes along to get away from the dingy bar she's been stuck in.
  • Rich Bitch: Represents the aristocratic, purely Elysian side of Goal.

Baby Goal:

  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Her train of thought so much doesn't derail as it does leap back and forth between completely different rails.
  • Character Catchphrase: Gives herself one to say any time she comes back in control:
    B-b-b-Baby Goal!
  • Covert Pervert: Baby Goal demonstrates this occasionally, despite her apparent inability to understand Rufus' pick-up lines.
    Baby Goal: (In reference to a crystal ball showing Rufus/Goal's future, which has gone black) Maybe it's showing scenes which are inappropriate for young audiences!
  • The Ingenue: Might as well have been called that instead.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: She wants nothing more than the join the resistance, because it must be the right thing to do! Even though she has absolutely no clue what it is they are actually resisting, or why.

Spunky Goal:

Supporting Cast

     Toni 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/toni.png
Rufus' ex-girlfriend, who runs a junk shop in Kuvaq. Toni and Rufus do not get along at all. She reappears in the second and third games as a member of the growing resistance against the Organon.
  • Action Girl: She does join the Resistance, and looks like she does something useful unlike a lot of the other members. She can handle herself perfectly well in a fight, as demonstrated in Deponia Doomsday.
  • Angrish: A fluent speaker, especially around Rufus.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Perhaps somewhere deep, deep down. She hates Rufus, but she jumps to his defense when Seagull tries to kill him.
    • Deponia Doomsday offers a glimpse into a time when Rufus and her were still together. Hearing Rufus compliment her beauty and refer to her temper in an endearing way and seeing Toni actively optimistic and hopeful about Rufus's plans is downright heartwarming.
  • Butt-Monkey: Most interactions Rufus has with her are jokes at her expense.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Even while medicated to the gills with mood-stabilisers, Toni still manages to give Rufus an expert verbal thrashing in Goodbye Deponia.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: To Rufus in particular, but all of Kuvaq knows better than to annoy her.
  • I Take Offense to That Last One: Inverted. Back when they were dating, she didn't like Rufus calling her "snuggle bunny", even though she was fine with it actually meaning "choleric little viper with a delectable derriere."
  • Informed Deformity: She's genuinely beautiful and sexy (see Ms. Fanservice below) but most of Rufus's remarks about her range from unflattering to Squick as a result of their strained relationship.
  • Jerkass: Extremely abrasive and goes out of her way to stick it to Rufus at times, but then this may only be because we see her solely from Rufus' point of view, and Rufus typically deserves everything she throws at him.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Pretty much everything she says about Rufus is true.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Joined La Résistance to fight against the Organon and seems to care about her plants and/or her pets.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Toni has a Shower Scene in the first game, then sports a Spy Catsuit in the sequel that shows off her figure unlike everyone else who wears them. She also has a much more curvy figure than Goal.
  • Oral Fixation: Always has a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. Even while showering!
  • Poor Communication Kills: The underlying cause of her break-up with Rufus as revealed in Deponia Doomsday as the two were too stubborn to sincerely let the other know how much they cared for them. Case in point, when Rufus asks Toni why she beat up Lotti, she gives the ambiguous reply that it had something to do with an insult going too far when she was in fact defending Rufus' honour. Rufus, believing that she violently overreacted, chastises her for it, and she chooses to seethe rather than explain her real reasons, which likely would have flattered him. For his part, Rufus rewinds time over and over again in the same game to try and salvage their relationship in spite of glimpsing a future where he hooks up with the more straightforward, cheerful, and similarly attractive Goal, but his final words to Toni are of frustration and resentment, rather than an expression of the love he has for her.
  • Rage Breaking Point: She honestly tries to hold back her temper, but there's only so much she can do. Played for Laughs in Chaos on Deponia, where making her lose it nets you an achievement and a Non-Standard Game Over, as well as in Deponia Doomsday. Progressing through Goodbye Deponia also requires you to make her lose it.
  • Smoking Is Cool: She rolls her own cigarettes.
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: Deconstructed. While entertaining to watch, Toni and Rufus communicating almost exclusively like this proved to make their relationship untenable.
  • Violently Protective Girlfriend: Gives Lotti a rather horrific offscreen beatdown for insulting Rufus one too many times.
  • Wrench Wench: Has the look down and is an owner of a junk shop.

     Doc 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doc_2.png
You might know my slogan from the communal broadcasts: Machine head... proper head... All the same to me! Visit Doc!

A brain surgeon out of the Floating Black Market and a friend of Bozo; he becomes a regular companion to Rufus and Goal after running into him in the first game.

  • Beware the Nice Ones: A pleasant and reliable man of science who creates an enormous cannon to blow Elysium out of the sky in the third game out of desperation.
  • Mad Scientist: Though Rufus calls him an "Igor" at one point.
  • Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Insofar as medicine and engineering are involved.
  • The Professor: He can do pretty much anything mechanically related, given time and resources. When Rufus needs help with tinkering, he typically ends up going to Doc.
  • Running Gag: His legs are never fully seen (save for one instance in the first game when he meditates). Rufus points this out several times in Goodbye, but nobody pays attention.
  • Super Doc: Not just the only doctor in town, but actually highly competent, particularly given what he has to work with.
  • The Smart Guy: Acts the part after joining Rufus on his quest to stop the Organon.

     Captain Bozo 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bozo_artwork.png
The captain of a garbage trawler that Rufus ruins the life of over the course of the games, starting with calling him a pirate no matter how many times Bozo insists he's not.

Antagonists

     Cletus 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cletus.png
Goal's fiance, who looks almost exactly like Rufus. He was the one sent by Elysium to see if Deponia still has life on it, but does not care and plans to tell the Elysium council that it is empty.

He, along with Rufus and Argus are Organon prototypes, codenamed "C" and originally had green hair.

  • Arch-Enemy: Rufus' most persistent problem, even if he isn't the most powerful.
  • Beard of Evil: He's got a classically evil goatee in contrast to Rufus' scruffy stubble
  • Butt-Monkey: Is on the receiving end of a lot of abuse from Rufus, frequently in the form of a solved puzzle.
  • Evil Twin: Serves as one to Rufus since they look identical, even with a classic evil goatee. He's also a fellow prototype clone.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Has to spend the foreseeable future pretending to be Rufus, who he utterly despises. Goal is clearly aware he's not Rufus, but plays along and in fact pushes him into it to punish him.
  • Humiliation Conga: A huge one spanning all of the third game, where he is tricked into eating fish brains, gets his money stolen, is fed mothballs, gets knocked out with a mirror, is trapped in a closet with a crazed Donna, get imprisoned by his own allies, is fed a bad doughnut which makes him sick, gets an operation with Rufus as the surgeon, gets captured again and is finally forced to pretend to be Rufus for the rest of his life.
  • Identical Stranger: Is a spitting image of Rufus save for slight hairstyle differences and a Beard of Evil. He's a prototype clone, so it's only natural.
  • Jerkass: An even worse one than Rufus. Each new revelation about Cletus only makes him seem more and more despicable.
  • Mirror Character: Despite constantly chewing Rufus out for his shortcomings, Cletus is not that different from him; particularly in terms of arrogance. This is beautifully lampshaded in their first meeting, when they can't stop saying the same words to each other. Justified too, as it turns out he and Rufus are two of the three original prototypes for the Organon soldiers.
  • The Rival: Constantly competes with Rufus for Goal's heart.
  • Smug Snake: He's got the same huge ego as Rufus, and he's a snob to boot who constantly gloats about his superiority over Rufus.
  • Space Clothes: Has a signature set of Future Spandex attire. Along with their uncanny mutual resemblance, this allows Rufus to engage in Dressing as the Enemy on multiple occasions.

The Organon

     In general 

A powerful, high-tech (at least compared to Deponia's Scavenged Punk levels) military organization serving as Elysium's arm on Deponia. Their leader in the field is Bailiff Argus, and their commander-in-chief is Prime Controller Ulysses.

  • Base on Wheels: The Organon Cruiser. It's a weird-looking vehicle that's best described as a Cool Boat on a monorail, with a paddle steamer-like wheel for propulsion, transporting numerous Organon soldiers and serving as Bailiff Argus's headquarters.
  • Clone Army: All of the Organon are clones from the same template... and Argus, Cletus and Rufus happen to be the prototype clones for it, hence looking nearly or perfectly identical.
  • Evil Plan: Are carrying out one to hide that Deponia is inhabited, or barring that to make it uninhabited.
  • Doom Troops: Their modus operandi.
  • Faceless Goons: Never seen without their signature armor. As we find out, it's not without reason.
  • Henchmen Race: All of the Organon are the same race, with presumably no chance of a Deponian or Elysian getting in.
  • Leit Motif: The Organon hymn, the melody of which plays in a surprising amount of places—even the main menu screen.
  • Meaningful Name: "Organon" means "tool" in ancient Greek, fitting with their purpose as Elysium's agents on Deponia tasked with fulfilling their plans.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: A collective one against Elysium.
  • Radio Voice: Courtesy of their helmets.

     Bailiff Argus 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/argus.png
The second-in-command of the Organon, Elysium's main enforcers on Deponia, and the one overseeing the plan to blow up Deponia. He wants to capture Goal so he can get off the planet.

He, along with Rufus and Cletus is an Organon Prototype, codenamed "A" and originally had blue hair.

  • Badass Cape: Wears a flowing red one, signifying his superiority over the other Organon soldiers. He's also a capable combatant.
  • Big Bad: He's technically only the right hand of Prime Controller Ulysses, but Argus personally leads the Organon troops in trying to capture Goal and the third game makes it clear that the Organon itself considers him their true leader. His plan to overthrow Ulysses and conquer Elsysium directly leads to the trilogy's final conflict.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Argus rarely ever raises his voice, so he always delivers his sarcastic remarks and blunt observations with a very dry wit.
    *After just catching Rufus disguised as Cletus and Goal dancing in the middle of an Organon cruiser during a curfew.*
    Argus: "[Ahem] Wonderful. The grace. The discretion. The ability to ignore the entire world around oneself."
  • The Dragon: Is the field commander of the Organon, subordinate to the Prime Controller.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Ulysses might be the leader of the Organon, but Argus is carrying out the plan to destroy Deponia and is the one directly hunting Goal.
  • Evil Twin: To Rufus and Cletus by virtue of being a clone.
  • Exact Words: He tells Goal in the third game that he actually wants to prevent the Prime Controller from wiping out an entire people by leaving them behind when Deponia is detonated, telling her that he wants her to help him save 11 000 people by giving him the ascension codes. Argus is not lying, but he neglects to mention that the people he's referring to is the Organon itself, who are a disposable Clone Army meant to stay behind on Deponia when their task is complete. Argus has every intention of letting Deponia and its inhabitants be destroyed, but only after he's taken over Elysium with the Organon.
  • A Father to His Men: Genuinely cares about his soldiers. This contrasts with the Bad Boss attitude of the Elysians and helps him gain the Organon's support in his coup attempt.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Argus can be remarkably polite to the people around him, or at least a lot more than Rufus or Cletus are, but he's also every bit of a smug scumbag who's complicit in trying to blow up the entire planet and all of its inhabitants.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: What Argus is doing spells disaster for everyone who isn't an Organon, but he does bring up a difficult question to Rufus—why should Rufus get to obtain happiness on Elysium while all of the other Organon clones, his genetic brothers, are left to die on Deponia? Considering that they never got a chance to choose otherwise.
  • Meaningful Name: His name Argus is Greek, meaning "Bright; all seeing." Out of the prototype clones he's the least foolish.
  • Military Coup: Intends to carry out one on Elyisum, as the Organon are effectively its military.
  • The Starscream: Bailiff Argus makes it clear in his first few appearances that he has his own plans that go against his superiors. Even when everyone is working together to ensure their mutual survival at the end of Goodbye Deponia, he tries to kill Rufus and Cletus and still fully intends to carry out his plan to take over Elysium with the Organon.
  • Uncertain Doom: It's not clear what exactly happened to Argus at the end of Goodbye Deponia. He, Rufus and Cletus are wedged in the propeller blades of one of the engines on the last highboat to Elysium. Goal can only rescue one of them, but can't distinguish between the three since they are all dressed like Cletus. Rufus ultimately does a Heroic Sacrifice by deliberately plunging to his doom so she can save herself, leading to Goal saving Cletus instead. Argus is not seen again afterwards, meaning he either got torn apart when the propeller restarted or also fell to his death.
  • We Can Rule Together: Gives this offer to Rufus twice. The first is at the end of the first game, inviting Rufus to depart to Elysium with Goal like he always wanted, provided that he goes along with their plan to destroy Deponia. The second time is at the end of the third game, giving Rufus the choice between helping him conquer Elysium with the rest of their Organon brethren or being left for dead under the crashing highboat's engine. As self-serving as Rufus is, he refuses both times.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: To an extent. Ultimately he's fighting for the well being of the Organon. He claims that he doesn't want Deponia destroyed and that in taking over Elysium he's going to make life better for everyone, but it eventually becomes clear that it's a baldfaced lie - and that all he really wants is power. He does legitimately care about the Organon, though.
  • What Measure Is a Mook?: Half of the motivation behind his revolt against Elysium is their Bad Boss attitude towards his troops and its intention to let them be destroyed along with Deponia.
  • You Have Failed Me: When a disguised Rufus takes the blame for a mishap on an Organon outpost, hoping to advance one of his trademark plans in doing so, Argus decides the appropriate punishment is to throw him off the tower... after commending him for his courage and singing the Organon hymn as a salute.

     Commander Ulysses Shellert 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ulysses_telekopter.png
The leader of the Organon, a member of the Elysium Council of Elders and the one who reveals the Organon's intent to blow up Deponia.
  • Affably Evil: Aside from the whole genocide thing, he seems to be a fairly reasonable and dignified person.
  • All for Nothing: Deponia Doomsday reveals that the plan to send Elysium to Utopia with the shockwave created by Deponia's detonation was doomed to fail from the start. While Elysium did reach Utopia in a timeline where Ulysses succeeded, it crashed into the planet at such a high speed that it killed everyone aboard and on the planet.
  • Beard of Evil: Ulysses' helmet makes it look like he's got a full beard out of metal, even moreso than Argus. We get to see his silhouette without a helmet in Deponia Doomsday, showing that he's actually got a full beard underneath.
  • Dramatic Irony: He wants to blow up Deponia to save his daughter on Elysium, but his daughter was the fugitive trying to stop his plans the whole time. He only finds this out at the very end.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The main motivation behind the atrocity he's planning to commit is that he wants his daughter, Goal, to live in a better world than Deponia.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Upon discovering Argus has betrayed him and intends to have the Organon take over Elysium, Ulysses diverts the highboat off-course and immediately starts the detonation process in an attempt to get Elysium safely to Utopia and away from the Organon.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: He's the one ultimately overseeing the plan to blow up Deponia and hiding that it's inhabited, but he's mostly a background presence while Argus and the Organon do the heavy lifting.
  • The Faceless: Always wears a mask which only shows his eyes.
  • Heel Realization: After Argus's betrayal and learning that his daughter was the fugitive he was hunting the whole time, Ulysses has a change of heart about Deponia's destruction, but not before it becomes too late to stop the detonation himself. He ends up staying behind on the crashing highboat to keep it stable during evacuation.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: As a consequence of the above. We don't get to see his death, but it's clear that he didn't survive the destruction of the highboat.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: A remarkably literal example: the destruction of Deponia is intended as the means of propulsion for Elysium to reach Utopia, an unspoiled, habitable planet meant to serve as a blank slate where Elysium's passengers could start over after having ruined their home planet.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Wants to destroy Deponia because he genuinely wants the people of Elysium, especially his daughter Goal, to have a better life and does not see an alternative. Best demonstrated when he willingly sacrifices himself so the people on the shuttlecraft can escape to Elysium.

     Oppenbot 

An intelligent robot that serves as Cletus' and Argus' right-hand man.

  • Affably Evil: He works for the Organon but he's polite to a fault.
  • The Dragon: To both Cletus and Argus, being their personal assistant to carry out their mission on Deponia.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: Dies both on the receiving and giving end of this trope. One of Rufus' clones uses Oppenbot as a makeshift rocket to save Goal after Argus has her thrown off the ascension platform. That Rufus then crashes Oppenbot into Captain Seagull, killing all three of them with the ensuing explosion.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: He's really not fond of performing the more heinous commands of his superiors, but he ultimately does what he's supposed to since that's what he was created for.

Other characters

     The Narrator and Chorus Guys 

The exuberant host of the series who floats in a barrel singing the apparently historical tales of Rufus' adventures. He's accompanied by a group of unseen chorusmen.

  • All-Knowing Singing Narrator: He is relating Rufus's tale in song.
  • Author Avatar: Voiced by the creator of the game himself in the German version, to boot.
  • Framing Device: Technically serves as this for each individual game and the series as a whole. His accounts of Rufus's life are presented by himself to a girlfriend/wife angry with him and threatening to dump him as a fable in his defense and ultimately an admission of his faults and an acceptance of their breakup. The plot of the fourth game makes more sense in this light.
  • Greek Chorus: Doubles as this, as his songs provide commentary and jokes about the goings-on in the story at the given point. The accompanying literal Chorus Guys net bonus points.
  • Midword Rhyme: His songs tend to fall back to these starting with Chaos on Deponia, as he tries to fit in the intended commentary and still make it rhyme at least somewhat.
  • Motor Mouth: In Welcome to Deponia, he's pretty well-paced and easy to understand. From that point on, however, it's almost no use to try and make out the verses without subtitles, particularly when run-on sentences pop up.
  • Something Something Leonard Bernstein: As a result of the above, most people are likely to remember the inter-chapter songs only by the characteristic "Huzzah!" chorus.
  • Talkative Loon: Sometimes his songs seem more than a little bit incoherent.

Debuting in Deponia

     Hannek 

Member of Kuvak's trash miners.

  • Accidental Misnaming: Can't remember a single name to save his life. It gets so bad that in one puzzle, you can give him different names for yourself in a same conversation and won't even notice.

     Lonzo 

The owner of Kuvaq's bar, a straight-up though soft-hearted bartender and a coffee enthusiast.

  • The Bartender: He's the first of a few bartenders we meet, at least one per game.
  • Only Friend: Kind of. Lonzo is the only person in Kuvaq who not only tolerates Rufus, but is even a bit amicable towards him.

     Lobo, Gonzo, and Micek 
Three workers in Kuvaq who sit waiting for their turn to talk to the mayor and convince him that they should be responsible for the currently-sleeping Goal. Rufus has to get them to leave somehow if he would have even a chance of getting to her.

  • Comically Missing the Point: At least from Rufus' perspective—a beautiful girl from Elysium falls from the sky and they plan to make her do manual labor if they get her.
  • Rule of Three: Presumably more people should be interested in talking to the mayor, and the numbers suggest there were more, but in-game it's just these three specifically (and Wenzel, who you deal with separately.)

     Lotti 

A transgender secretary to Mayor Lotek who, like everyone else in Kuvaq, is constantly frustrated by Rufus. In the third game she reappears as a member of the Resistance.

     Wenzel 

Rufus short friend who hangs around him to see his escape attempts.

  • The Bus Came Back: Returns in Deponia Doomsday as a host of a mandatory minigame. Though, technically, the part in which he appears takes place ''before'' the original game.
  • Evil Former Friend: Rats Rufus out to the Organon without hesitation after he hides in his basement to save Goal
  • Sidekick: Subverted. Rufus certainly thinks he is one, and he seems like one in the first chapter, but he doesn't do much besides sit around and amuse himself with Rufus' failures. To top it all off, he actually claims he thought Rufus was HIS sidekick!
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: It's obvious he has far more common sense than Rufus does which leads him to finding fresh water under Kuvaq and becoming rich after Rufus gave him his dowsing rod. He also was able to con Rufus into giving him all his things, Rufus believing his plan to escape Deponia would work this time.
  • Put on a Bus: He, alongside Professor Gizmo, neither show up nor are mentioned after Rufus heads out of Kuvaq.

     Gizmo 

An inventor who works in Kuvaq as a police officer, a medic and a firefighter all in one. He is all too familiar with Rufus's antics and is very suspicious of him.

  • Clueless Detective: Zig-Zagged. Gizmo is competent enough to take care of fires, prepare traps for criminals like Rufus and is otherwise doing mostly fine for a person with three jobs. On the other hand, he can easily fall for Rufus' traps and mistook Mayor Lotek for a criminal.
  • Les Collaborateurs: Reluctantly points the Organon in the direction of Goal in order to avoid the destruction of Kuvaq.
  • Lovable Coward: Despite Rufus scolding him for the above mentioned, Argus threatened to destroy the town, so Gizmo had no choice.
  • Cyborg: Appears to have a dial indicating his jobs installed right in his torso. His personality also seems to alter somewhat in line with whichever job he takes on.
  • Do-Anything Robot: As per the above, he appears to be a cyborg. He always says "<X> mode activated! Firefighter/Doctor/Officer Gizmo at your service!" whenever his current displayed "job" is changed.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: His job as a doctor seems to include mechanical skills, in addition to all the tech he has rigged up in his office.
  • Hero Antagonist: Lures Rufus into a trap in order to apprehend him for causing so much chaos in Kuvaq
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: His voice is a parody of Don Knotts in the English version.
  • Put on a Bus: He, alongside Wenzel, neither show up nor are mentioned after Rufus heads out of Kuvaq.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Mostly. He IS reasonable enough to take sensible decisions, but also makes some dumb moves here and there.
  • Renaissance Man: He does nearly every single public service job in town - he's the doctor, the fire department and the police. Forcing a switch between them is the key to several puzzles.
  • The Bus Came Back: Returns in the Kuvaq chapter of Deponia Doomsday. Though it's set before the events of the first game occur.

     Mayor Lotek 

The mayor of Kuvaq, he seems to be a generally sensible, but lazy man.

  • An Odd Place to Sleep: He sleeps inside his desk on his office, and at the end of the first act of the first game he's seen sleeping in the meeting council on the same bed Goal was lying before.
  • Not So Above It All: While he's normally sensible, he can get in pointless arguments with Gizmo from time to time and abuses the magnetic device Rufus' father created to sleep better.
  • Pajama-Clad Hero: For a given definition of "hero". Always wears pajama pants and a nightcap.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Most of the time, he is the most sensible man around, when compared to the likes of Gizmo and Rufus.
  • Sleepyhead: Tends to sleep a lot of the time.

     Post-Bot 
A robot that runs the post office in Kuvaq, Rufus needs to figure out a way to distract him so that he can get a message to Goal's fiance unheeded. Has a liking for bubble wrap.

     The Operator 
A smarmy resident of Kuvaq who works atop post office as an operator for the town's local lines. A puzzle in the first game requires you to gain his headphones by giving him sensory overload.

Debuting in Chaos on Deponia

     Captain Seagull 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/seagull.jpg
Rufus' disappeared foster father, who left one day to find his way to Elysium. He never made it, and Rufus eventually meets him again as an adult in the Floating Black Market, where he's become mayor. Calling the Old Man Out ensues, and Rufus eventually leaves to find his own way to Elysium without him.

In Goodbye, we run into him again as the mysterious new general of the Resistance who ousted Rufus, whose master plan is to blow up Elysium so as to save Deponia. Rufus, of course, objects, and the bad blood between eventually runs out as Seagull tries to shoot Rufus in an insane rage.

  • Abusive Parents: While he apparently wasn't physically abusive, a lot of why Rufus is the way he is stems from the way his father used to treat him. When Rufus finally meets him again, he's also completely disowned him and treats him terribly.
  • Ax-Crazy: After giving Rufus a "The Reason You Suck" Speech in Goodbye, he demands Rufus admit to the entire Resistance that he's a failure. When Rufus refuses to apologize and presses his Berserk Button, he completely flips out, brandishes a gun and tries to kill him.
  • Berserk Button: At some point in the past, Rufus may have been responsible for his foster mother's death. When reminded of this, Seagull fatally shoots the Rufus clone who brought it up with a rifle.
  • Breaking Speech: Gives what is intended to be one of these to Rufus in the climax of Goodbye. When it doesn't go the way he planned... see Berserk Button.
  • Corrupt Politician: As the mayor of the Floating Black Market, which, to be fair, is an entirely corrupt place - so he fits right in.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Don't talk about his dead wife.
  • General Ripper: As General of the Resistance, his big plan was to destroy Elysium entirely to save Deponia - a last ditch plan that he is all to eager to carry out.
  • Jerkass: He only ever thinks about himself. Abandoned his son to grow up alone, became the greedy mayor of the Floating Black Market. Tries to blow up Elysium to save his own skin, and then tries to shoot his own son when he won't admit that he's a loser. He often stands in Rufus' way for no reason other than he wants to hinder him.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Like everyone else who gives Rufus a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, he has a point about Rufus' dangerous ineptitude. Unlike everyone else, he takes it a step way too far.
  • Universally Beloved Leader: As General of the Resistance, everyone loves him and jumps behind his plans, entirely forgetting Rufus in the process—though it helps that most of them hated Rufus, and that his claim that Rufus is an idiot that nearly got them all killed isn't entirely false. However, his approval rating drops considerably when he goes a step too far and tries to kill Rufus with a gun.
  • Villains Blend in Better: Despite being way worse than Rufus, he also proves to be more adept at schmoozing his way into people's good graces.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Tries to play himself off this way when he tries to blow up Elysum to save Deponia. While the other supporting characters reluctantly agree with the idea on those grounds, he ultimately shows that he's doing it in part out of selfishness and a desire to see Rufus suffer.

     Grandma Utz 

A One-off character that appears at the beginning of Chaos on Deponia. She has a little bird pet called John Thomas and seems to enjoy looking at the trash-filled landscape.

  • Cool Old Lady: She's nice, she's clever enough to suspect Rufus is up to no good, and she even has some snark reserved for him.
  • Properly Paranoid: At the beginning of Chaos, she doubts Rufus has changed as much as Doc says he has and comes up with a few wild assumptions that Doc shoots down. She's on the money about what Rufus does next. Every. Single. Time

     The Fisherman 
A fisherman that always hangs around the docks of the Floating Black Market. In contrast to Rufus, he has "fisherman's luck" and a knack for catching good fish. As a result, he's integral to solving some of the puzzles in the games.

  • No Name Given: For how many puzzles he's responsible for solving, he's too minor to have a name.

     Clever-Byte 

Doc's cyborg guard dog, protecting his shop on the Floating Black Market from unwanted intrusion.

  • Cyborg: As his electronics-themed name implies.
  • Die Laughing: This is how Rufus defeats him—he bumbles and causes the dog to laugh at him until he short-circuits.

     Janosch 

A resident of the Floating Black Market dreaming of taking the fight to the Organon. Emphasis on the "dreaming". His friends Garlef and Liebold gather together with him to plan acts of resistance. When Goal's personality is split and Baby Goal inhabits her body, she runs off to join their "rebellion", forcing Rufus to take a personal interest. Following that, the ineffectual "resistance" is set on the path to becoming a serious, full-fledged rebellion, and by the end of the game, they lead a fighting force competent enough to operate out of a secret base and directly take on Organon troops. Their rebellion proceeds to become a key force fighting for the salvation of Deponia.

  • Basement-Dweller: His base of operations seems to be in his mother's house.
  • Big Eater: Hinted at. He has a speech impediment as a result of eating too much chili in a chili eating contest. That had to have been a lot of chili.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: More than anyone else in the resistance, he continually trusts Rufus way too blindly for his own good.
  • La Résistance: He is the leader of a resistance movement against the Organon.
  • Momma's Boy: Besides still living with her in the Floating Black Market, she comes with him when he moves to Porta Fisco to continue with his resistance activities, acting as the cook for him and his men.
  • Speech Impediment: Has a comical one, allegedly from injuring his tongue eating chili. Rufus can't stop laughing at it.

     Garlef 

A resident of the Floating Black Market who, like his friends Janosch and Liebold, dreams of taking the fight to the Organon but never really achieve anything until Rufus shows up. Of the three, he's the most sensible and laid back about their organization. He also happens to be a professional rock-paper-scissors player.

  • Fingore: A soft variant—when playing rock-paper-scissors with him, the loser of each round has to remove two fingers, and they play until all their fingers are gone. In this case, though, the hand with the fingers is fake.
  • Rock–Paper–Scissors: He plays it, and takes it very seriously—he has a professional hand with detachable fingers that he uses to play with, and will scold Rufus for using loaded fingers.

     Liebold 
A resident of the Floating Black Market who, like his friends Janosch and Garlef, dreams of taking the fight to the Organon but never really achieve anything until Rufus shows up. He can be easily excitable but incompetent in the resistance, compared to Garlef—and is always forgetting the secret knock.

     Shop-O-Mat 2000 

A giant robot shopkeeper that sells memory cartridges, and also other sorts of useless stuff.

  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: It seems to have trapped the original shopkeeper inside of its head and doesn't have any intention of letting it go.
  • Blatant Lies: Much of its insistence that the Gadgeteer is missing, all while he's noticeably banging on the glass case he's imprisoned in. Also applies to how he sells most of his products.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: The way to get an important object is to force him into acting as if one of his false products actually works when it doesn't. He knows the object doesn't work, but admitting to it would mean admitting he's a fraud.
  • Logic Bomb: At one point pretends that a broken pair of "indestructible" blindfoldesque sunglasses are in working order to avoid being found out as a fraud, naturally by wearing them and pretending not to see anything with them. This leads to him being forced to let Rufus steal another product since he didn't "see" him do it.
  • Snake Oil Salesman: Quite a few of his products don't work the way they're supposed to.

     Wink and Nod 
Donna's henchmen who serve her in Unorganized Mob, a Mafia-equivalent that works in the Floating Black Market. Each of them is blind in one eye, and exploiting this is important to solving one of the puzzles of the second game. One of the brothers, who hangs out in the bar, is a professional rock-paper-scissors player.

  • Meaningful Name: Winking and nodding is pretty much the main way Donna seems to communicate with them.

     Donna 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/donna.png
The leader of Unorganized Mob, a Mafia-equivalent operating from the Floating Black Market. She is plagued with a variety of verbal and physical tics, which lead to her seeming Axe-Crazy, and has a brain implant like Goal. She's integral to solving a few puzzles in one chapter of the second game, and is a recurring character throughout the latter two games.

  • Axe-Crazy: She barely can hold a conversation with anybody, and just inappropriately spouts out threats and jerks around; locking her in a room with someone assures that she'll start wailing on them.
  • Character Tics: She walks and moves with a twitchy, uncontrollable, and downright floppy style attributable to her suffering from tics.
  • Verbal Tic: Constantly babbles or says nonsense phrases, some of which happen to be gruesome sentences like "rip out his nostrils," which her henchmen assume are actual orders. If the tics are due to a problem with her implant like in Goal's case, it would also count as Electronic Speech Impediment.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Rufus spent a whole chapter trying to restore what he thought was a young clone of Goal, but what turned out to be a clone of Donna (with Goal's red hair for some reason.)

     The Gondolier 

A "romantic" gondolier whose terrible singing annoys Rufus and gets in the way of Bozo wooing Bambina. Rufus eventually gets rid of him by switching his music with one that attracts junk crabs, which works a little too well...

     Gulliver 
The bartender who owns Gulliver's Gully, a bar run in the Floating Black Market. His place of business is extremely hazardous, which he seems unconcerned about.

  • The Bartender: As it's almost traditional to continually have a bar environment in Deponia, he's one of a couple bartenders we meet.

     Alex the Jukebox Dwarf 
A dwarf in Gulliver's G Ully who inexplicably makes a living by sitting in the jukebox and playing music, played according to the music sheets given him when bar patrons select a song. He's integral to solving a puzzle in the second game.

     Bambina 

A tough, short-tempered woman that runs a weapons shop in The Floating Black Market. Also Bozo's girlfriend, although their relationship is a rocky one—a puzzle in part two of the trilogy has Rufus get them back together to learn how to seduce Spunky Goal. Later joins the resistance.

     The Pharmacist 
A blind pharmacist that works in the Floating Black Market, who went blind after taking some of his own products. He left some of his coupons in the bathroom of Gulliver's Gully.

  • Snake Oil Salesman: His products seem to range from dangerous to outdated to useless. To be fair, there probably isn't any other option in a dump like Deponia.

     Hoedown the Gardener 

The gardener outside Seagull's estate in the floating black market. He has very little patience for Rufus' questions, let alone his antics.

  • Leit Motif: Has a humorous one that plays if you ask the right questions.
  • Megaton Punch: Piss him off enough and we'll wallop Rufus all the way to a different area. Getting him to do this is part of a puzzle.

     Crane the Poet 
A poet who lives in pathetically poor conditions under Captain Seagull's house. He despises Captain Seagull and his rich opulent ways, so has determined that anything Seagull needs is something he doesn't need. This backfires horribly on him when he meets Rufus.

     The Platypus Trapper 
A trapper of platypuses and all around expert on them, who sells all kind of platypus themed merchandise. He lives in the old town in Bellevue, above the Floating Black Market.

     Chez Schlumpi 
The proprietor of Chez Schlumpi, what is perhaps the only fancy restaurant in all of the Floating Black Market, which serves mainly platypus dishes. He seems to be a nervous little man who is in fact planning to sacrifice his guests to a dark lord that lives under the restaurant. He operates from the old town in Bellevue, above the Floating Black Market.

     Goon & June 

Goon is a poor citizen of Porto Fisco who Rufus has to barter a meal to in order to get his umbrella as part of a puzzle in Chaos on Deponia. Rufus solves this by dressing up a shoe and getting him to eat it. It just gets worse for him from there.

In Goodbye Deponia we meet him again, stuck in the sewers of Porto Fisco but otherwise happy with the love of his life, a good-natured girl named June - until Rufus shows up again...

  • Bad Job, Worse Uniform: As if being an organ grinder's monkey wasn't bad enough, the skimpy outfit that comes with the job makes June's predicament even worse. Her sole customer actually pays June because of how humiliating it is. See Go-Go Enslavement.
  • Chew Toy: After eating the shoe, a shoelace gets lodged in Goon innards and has to be surgically removed. Then he falls into the nigh-inescapable sewers of Porto Fisco. Then he finds the love of his life, only for them to be forced apart by Rufus and Goon to be pressganged into the mind-controlled servitude of a Humanoid Abomination, and possibly eaten.
  • Cruelty Is the Only Option: A standout example, as even though Rufus usually only screws things up for people accidentally (or obliviously thinks he's helping them), he intentionally ruins Goon and June's lives for the sake of a few bucks and burritos.
  • Go-Go Enslavement: While she didn't know she would be staying there at the time, Rufus convinces June to dress up in a skimpy outfit and dance for an organ grinder she knows is a pervert so she can pay for a way back to Goon. Then Rufus leaves with the money, leaving her stuck doing it until the organ grinder decides to pay her - which is a slim chance as the only money in the sewers is stuck in a piggybank in the bar. She's still dancing in the outfit when we last see her.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Granted she just met Rufus and he seemed legitimately apologetic for what he did to Goon in Chaos, but June waves off all of Goon's attempts to convince her that Rufus is nuts and nothing but trouble and insists they should all be friends. She continues to see Rufus as a friend and believe he's helping her up until it all goes very badly.
  • Lethal Chef: Goon is the victim of one of Rufus' dishes, which is literally a boot. It ends in a vague but apparently severe hospital visit.
  • Made a Slave: Both of them, thanks to Rufus. He sends Goon to work for a Humanoid Abomination that turns him into a mind-controlled slave, while June is literally sold by him to an organ grinder as a monkey.
  • Meat Puppet: Goon is eventually taken on as an "assistant" for the burrito stand lady, who turns out to be some sort of symbiot that takes control of him this way. It's implied that she eventually intends to eat him.
  • Oh, Crap!: Goon, when Rufus shows up in the sewers. Followed by This Is Gonna Suck when it becomes clear Rufus intends to meddle in his life again. He's entirely justified on both counts.
  • Unwitting Pawn: It's not clear whether Rufus really did want to do a favor for them at first, but by the end of it he's taking advantage of their situation so he can get what he wants.
  • The Woobie: Applies to both of them. It's kind of hard not to feel sorry for the two.

     Seer 
A seer that works in Porta Fisco predicting the future for couples. He later appears again in the next two games.

Debuting in Goodbye Deponia

     Hermes 

The creator of the Organon, the original designer of Elysium and the one who created the Evacuation plan when he believed Deponia was no longer inhabitable. For the process of creating the Organon, he removed all respect for life and thus, no fear of death was inadvertently put into them which caused them to die of various "accidents" until only three were left: Argus, Cletus and Rufus. When all this was done, he began to have second thoughts and stayed behind on Deponia to come up with a better solution.

  • The Atoner: Blames himself for his involvement in the plot to destroy Deponia, realizing only too late that it wasn't uninhabitable, and wishes he could fix his mistakes. He ultimately kills himself to give Rufus enough biomass to clone himself three more times.
  • Clones Are People, Too: He fully maintains to Rufus that despite originally being identical to Argus and Cletus, his own personal life and memories did turn him into a full individual.
  • Driven to Suicide: When Rufus destroys a large part of his cloning machine, he becomes determined to kill himself, believing there is no hope left. Even when his remains are cloned and he's "revived", he immediately goes to grind himself up again.
  • The Grim Reaper: Has the look down to a T. Apparently, the corpse-like appearance is the result of Clone Degeneration.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Kills himself one final time to give Rufus enough raw biological material to clone himself thrice, allowing his creation a fighting chance to save Deponia, something Hermes never found a way to do.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Though he came up with the entire Evil Plan that calls for Deponia's destruction, he ultimately decided to stay behind and try to work out a different, better solution, reasoning that the approach is too extreme.
  • Walking Spoiler: You can't read much in this entry that isn't hidden behind a spoiler tag, can you?

     Cowboy Dodo 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cowboy_dodo_and_girls.png
A popular musician on Deponia loved by Organon and Deponians alike. He throws his support behind the Resistance in the third game and joins in their operation at the Upper Ascension Station. He has an ego almost big enough to match Rufus's, so, naturally, the two don't get along.

  • Groupie Brigade: Is always surrounded by a Blonde, Brunette, Redhead trio, each of them clad in Custom Uniform of Sexy.
  • Heel Realization: After Cletus "saves his life," he realizes he was being an ass about having to be the hero and dives into the cause for real. This only serves to increase his popularity.
  • It's All About Me: He and Rufus get into a fight over which one of them can be the hero and sneak into Argus' office. He even fakes supporting the others, knowing that his entourage will just vote his way anyways.
  • Pretty Fly for a White Guy: You would think with his overall cowboy image he would be a country singer. Nope - he's a rapper.
  • The Rival: As outlined above, Rufus instantly sees him as this.
  • Stylistic Suck: His Piss Take Raps are hilariously terrible. Even more amusing, everybody in universe adores him but Rufus.
  • Suspiciously Apropos Music: To Leaning on the Fourth Wall levels. We first see his music videos on gigantic Organon TV-billboards. The first song, which distracts the Organon long enough for Rufus to sneak past, is called "Look at Me!" The second song, which gets them to turn and spot him, is called "Look Around!"
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: He's last seen in an Organon cell on the Upper Ascension Station, along with Janosch and his entourage. We never find out what happened to them. When the Organon take off, and they're not with the rest of the Resistance and Deponians when they all rocket onto the cable car to Elysium.

     The Council of Elders 

The ruling body of Elysium, composed of four elderly men and the Prime Controller, Ulysses.

  • Reasonable Authority Figure: All of the councilmen save Ulysses; not only do they hold off on the destruction of Deponia with no word from Cletus if it's inhabited or not, just in case, but they quickly call off the bombing completely once they learn the truth.

Debuting in Deponia Doomsday

     McChronicle 
A Temporal Physics professor from the nearby town of Porta Rustica. His careless driving puts him on a collision course with Rufus, imperiling Deponia's very future in the process.
  • The Lancer: To Rufus for most of Deponia Doomsday.
  • Me's a Crowd: Like Rufus, there wind up being multiple versions of him by the story's end. One who gave up studying time altogether and another who lives out the rest of his days in the remains of Paradox City with Old Goal.
  • Nice Guy
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Stands in for, and shares traits with, many of Rufus' usual reluctant sidekicks like Doc and Bozo.

     McChronicle Senior 
The dean of Porta Rustica's most prestigious university. More of less McChronicle's boss in all but name, and also his father.
  • Dean Bitterman
  • Freudian Excuse: His father beat his fascination with time travel out of him, causing him to likewise discourage his own son from pursuing the same. To his credit, he's not nearly as violent in his methods.
  • Merlin Sickness: His mother took an ill-advised time machine trip while she was still pregnant with him, resulting in him aging in reverse after he was born.
  • Smoking Is Not Cool: Years of nicotine addiction have destroyed all his teeth even as the rest of his body gets younger and healthier with age.

     Rokko McChronicle 
  • Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Knowing how dangerous time travel was, he did his best to dissuade his son Angus from ever pursuing the subject. Mostly by beating him up.

     Rita 

     The Maverick 

     Pimpy the Clown 

     Vince 
An elderly time traveler who is disproportionally proud of his Re-TARDIS time machine, which is only capable of "deterministic" time travel.
  • Bigger on the Inside: Inverted. It's smaller.
  • No-Respect Guy: He's the laughingstock of the Paradox City time travellers, but you probably wouldn't get much respect if a caveman could build a better time machine than you.
  • You Already Changed the Past: ENFORCED. Traveling to the past with his machine comes with the caveat that the traveller must ensure that they leave the past in such a way that guarantees their present. Otherwise, Critical Existence Failure will ensue.

     Burnert 
Toni's father who runs a firework depot in town.

     Toni's Mom 
Toni's morbidly obese and unpleasant mother.
  • Gonk
  • Kavorka Man: Rufus once took pictures of her while she was in the shower so he could sell them to some of her admirers in town. Based on the tones of voice he and Toni have as they talk about this, she probably wasn't in the prime of her life when this happened.
  • No Name Given
  • Through His Stomach: Burnert seduced her with the promise of free cookies.

     Rat Boy 

     Zoon 

     Prophet 

     Momed 
A nomad living in the Waste of Time, a vast temporal desert ravaged by war. He and his people have vowed not to leave the paradise they helped to destroy as penance.
  • Grandfather Paradox: After Rufus and Goal restore the Waste of Time to its former beauty, Momed and his fellows knowingly enter a time portal to the past, so that they can be the ancestors who ravaged the Waste of Time in the first place.

     Junk Knights 

     Ronnie 
The central computerised intelligence of Elysium.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: While Rufus' bumbling didn't help matters, Ronnie was always a bit unhinged, and leaps at the chance to use time travel to torture the residents of Elysium forever a little too readily.
  • To the Pain: He's written an entire song about how he's going to torture people for fun.

     The Utopians 
A pair of time-travelling aliens who masquerade in a lousy (but effective for all the wrong reasons) pink elephant disguise. Their attempts to glimpse into Deponia's past result in a cascade of chronal calamities that they become desperate to solve. Sometimes with murder.
  • Anti-Villain: They really just want to prevent the destruction of their own world, but are fully willing to kill people if that's what it takes.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: They are the primary antagonists of Deponia Doomsday, having accidentally caused the entire time loop and are now resorting to extreme lengths to ensure that everything returns to the way it is supposed to be, which unfortunately includes Rufus' death.
  • Clock Roaches: They fancy themselves as such. They really aren't.
  • Cosmic Keystone: Their time machine winds up being one of the three main focal points (the others being Rufus' death at the end of the third game and the Chronocar) of the massive time loop of Deponia Doomsday as it is constantly being stolen from and used by them simultaneously, perpetuating the cycle. Its destruction proves vital to resolving the conflict, but strands the Utopians, a Goal, and two Rufuses in Deponia's distant past, which fortunately (for everyone else) positions them far enough from important events that they cannot interfere with history anymore.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Shielding oneself from minor time loops requires a hood or hat made of tinfoil. The root cause of the Chronocar time loop in the game is that the Utopians don't wear any such protective garment when they turn the crank, causing them to endlessly use it because they assume it's always the first time they're trying.

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