The protagonist of the first game, Caim is a soldier of the Union and was originally the next in line for becoming King before his parents were murdered by a dragon, now motivated primarily by his love for his sister Furiae and a need for revenge. After suffering a grievous wound in battle, he stumbled across a similarly wounded Angelus, and forged a pact in order to preserve both their lives. The superhuman abilities and new flying mount were a pleasant bonus. Together with Angelus and his other friends travelling companions, they set out to the defeat The Empire.
Back from the Brink: Justified by the fact that he forged a pact with the red dragon Angelus.
Badass: More or less single-handedly felled The Empire, destroyed entire armies, and depending on the ending killed at least two different Eldritch Abominations, the king of all dragons, and his own dragon.
The sequel makes him out as basically the most feared man on the planet, and for good reason. He outclasses the new protagonist, and manages to kill the The Grim Reaper.
BFS: He can acquire several, but Hymir's Finger in particular stands out.
Blood Knight: He basically only smiles when he's about to, is in the process of, and the aftermath of killing.
Brother-Sister Incest: A big part of the planned prequel manga would have been that Caim did indeed want to tap that, and was likely a reason for its cancellation. You can still see hints of it in artwork where he's blushing over Furiae
Character Development: Basically goes from "I care only about my sister" to "I care only about my sister and the dragon", but still...
Cry Cute: Yes, a male example of the trope. Watch Ending 1 if you don't believe me. The man who didn't cry even for his sister sheds tears for Angelus as she becomes the new Seal.
Dropped a Bridge on Them: In the fifth ending to the game, a heavily weakened Caim and Angelus are taken out by a couple of missiles.
Harmful to Minors: Not even child conscripts are safe from his wrath.
(This trope actually happens to Caim himself. As a child, he witnessed an Imperial black dragon, AKA Legna, killing his parents. This may go some way towards explaining hisbehavior.)
Hates Everyone Equally: Caim doesn't really discriminate. If you stand in his way, he will gleefully kill you.
Heroic Mime: He gave up his voice as part of the pact with Angelus. Though calling him "heroic" is kinda stretching it...
Hidden Depths: It's possible that him not crying for his sister is justified, as her being the Goddess Seal is a huge source of the problems that have plagued them both. His tears for Angelus could be because he realizes she's taking up that same burden, even though Angelus says that she's "stronger than a human."
The Juggernaut: Caim slaughters his way through entire armies, and that's without Angelus. The only things that can stop him are the Eldritch Abominations in the different endings.
Kick the Dog: He kicks Verdelet in the face once for practically no reason. Oh, and that dying elf who tried to appeal to him for help. He kicked her in the face too. And then there were those child soldiers he mercilessly crushed... And all those other people he mercilessly crushed...
Kick Them While They Are Down: At the end of the third map, Caim catches up to an imperial trooper trying to kill his sister Furiae. After killing the man, he spends the remaining cutscene (while Furiae and Inuart are angsting. Er, talking.) stabbing the man's dead body over and over and over. To be fair, it was his sister, and bad things happen once she dies
One-Man Army: The first game has him cutting through dozens of soldiers, and that's before he gets the pact; afterwards, he pretty much slaughters entire armies.
The second game pushes this Up to Eleven, he by himself made the entire world his enemy and doing it very smoothly! Not even the next protagonist Nowe can stop him. How bad is it? Killing his fire-breathing, flying dragon partner was seen as the easier alternative than engaging Caim himself.
Rogue Protagonist: He doesn't even bother to hide it. His first deed in the second game is annihilating a whole army with a large smile! Interestingly, there isn't actually much change in his personality. The only real difference is that now your on the receiving end of his violence.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: This is the key aspect of his character. His parents including his mom, who was most likely the previous goddess seal were killed by Legna when he was just a kid. Both he and his sister were denied their lives, and so he has a burning hatred of anybody who sides with the empire.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: As revealed during the backstory of Nier, Caim's father was a king and he's technically a landless prince. This is the big part of why he hates the Empire so much, and it makes his sister a princess on top of everything else.
Shoot the Dog: He's forced to do this in Ending 2 as Furiae becomes an horrible world-ending monster and Ending 3 when his pact is broken and he has to fight Angelus.
Unstoppable Rage: Goes from making him interesting to making him a Flat Character, right back to interesting when things start getting really screwy. It's like his rage is all he's got.
What the Hell, Hero?: A lot of characters do this to him. Does he care? Hell no, this is Caim after all, he is the hero you wouldn't want to mess with.
A red dragon who holds a rather disdainful opinion of humanity. Seeing the situation she was in at the beginning of the game and not to mention the sequel... perhaps she can be forgiven her views. After agreeing to a pact with Caim, she becomes his mount, his (rather ineffectual) voice of reason, and over time, the closest of his companions, to the extent where Caim sheds tears when they part in the first game's canonical ending.
Back from the Brink: She was dying, just like Caim, when they met. Only a pact with him saved her life.
Barrier Maiden: In the first ending, wherein she takes Furiae's place as the Goddess of the Seal.
Dropped a Bridge on Them: In the fifth ending to the game, a heavily weakened Caim and Angelus are taken out by a couple of missiles.
Heroic Sacrifice: She becomes the new seal in the first ending of the first game. In Drakengard 2, we see that being the seal entails horrific, constant agony for her.
Pet the Dog: Towards Caim, despite starting out as allies of convenience
What the Hell, Hero?: Despite disliking humans, Angelus asks Caim if he really has to kill that many.
Inuart
A bard who was initially Furiae's betrothed until her ascension to becoming the Goddess robbed them of their chances at wedding each other. Nevertheless, he remained close to Furiae and Caim... although a strong undercurrent of jealousy remained towards Caim's exploits, as well as Furiae's deep (perhaps too deep) affection for her brother - one that the villains wasted no time in exploiting.
Note that the 'evil' part is pretty much just because he joins the villains. Given he does not regularly engage in child murder, genocide or gleefully slaughter people for the heck of it and has a noble (if misguided) goal, 'evil' is sort of a relative term here...
A young maiden chosen to be the 'Goddess', a title for a person bearing a Seal that supposedly prevents The End of the World as We Know It from occurring. A rather colourless individual, the strongest facet of her personality is also a rather unpleasant one... She's in love with her brother.
Barrier Maiden: She's the Goddess - if she dies, disaster ensues! Artwork of Barrier Maiden Eris from the second game features an unknown woman, who some suspect is Furiae and Caim's mother.
One of the few survivors of the Empire's attack on the Forest seal and elven purge. After enduring such horrific circumstances, her mind... broke. In exchange for her womb, she entered into a pact with the spirits of ice and fire, Undine and Salamander.
Break the Cutie: She was once a kind and loving mother, until Empire soldiers slaughtered her family...
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She disappears from the face of the planet in the sequel, with the only mention of her being in the form of her weapon, which your protagonist can find.
An Ice Person: The power of her pact partner, Undine.
Karmic Death: So you like eating babies, huh? Well, perhaps it's only fitting that you got eaten by mind-numbing horrors in the shape of human babies...
The Quiet One: Doesn't talk very often, but when she does...
So sweet...
Verdelet
As the Union Hierarch, Verdelet is responsible for maintaining the goddess seal, down to replacing her if necessary.
Cursed with Awesome/Blessed with Suck: The only thing Verdelet sacrificed is his hair, which is rather light compared to others. However his dragon pact partner has since become petrified, leaving him with just his not-quite-telepathy.
Killed Off for Real: Was killed by Caim sometime before Drakengard 2 for strengthening the seal on Angelus and thus intensifying her suffering.
Bowdlerise In the original Japanese version, Leonard is explicitly a pedophile. An offical bio even states that the reason he was not in the fire that destroyed his home was because he was molesting a young boy in the forest at the time.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: As with Arioch, he does not appear in the sequel. He does, however, get a minor mention by an NPC, and you can find his weapon.
Disability Superpower: In exchange for his pact powers, he gave up his sight. Not that it hinders him at all in gameplay.
Leonard's pact partner, introduced after his failed suicide attempt. She tried to have him take another go at it, before deciding that forging a pact with him would be more amusing. This sets the tone for their relationship.
Moral Myopia: Accuses Leonard of being a coward who can't even kill himself right. Then, when Leonard does his Heroic Sacrifice against the Grotesqueries, the faerie turns out to be an even greater coward who would be cool with the world ending if only she was allowed to survive.
Disproportionate Retribution: He remains convinced that his sister is not too far gone and that he can still redeem her... up until she slaps him in the face. Once. At which point he orders Golem to squash her like a grape.
The Load: Without his magic attack, he's about as useful in combat as you'd expect from a six-year old with a knife.
What Could Have Been: The time theme for the final non-Goddess seal and the concept art showing Seere in a very dark light suggests he was the original final guardian.
High Priestess of the Cult of Watchers and apparent leader of the Empire via mind control, Manah started her life as a simple, unassuming child. Unfortunately, her mother hated her for some reason, to the extent that Manah viewed death as a preferable alternative, and when the Watchers approached the unhappy and insecure six-year old with promises of eternal love and happiness if they accepted her, they found a willing vessel. In the first ending she asks to be killed, but is refused - her punishment as decreed by Angelus and enforced by Caim is to wander the world and to witness the consequences of her rash decision with her own eyes. Likely a very large reason that she becomes The Atoner in Drakengard 2.
Fate Worse than Death: In her mind, at the very least. The first ending has Caim kidnap her and drag her around the world to witness what she has done.
The Un Favourite: For reasons never fully explained, Manah's mother hated her. There are some hints in the weapon history of the short sword 'Hero's Knife' in Drakengard 2, though.
Half-Human Hybrid: Nowe is the child of Inuart and Furiae's corpse, facilitated by the Seeds of Resurrection... somehow, and infused with the power of the dragons, making him a 'new breed'.
The Hero: A more traditional one, when compared to Caim.
Journey to the Center of the Mind : Inside Manah's mind. This is never really explained, like most other plot developments in the final act of Drakengard 2.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Apart from Ending 2 he never completely loses his idealism.
Legna
All There in the Manual: It's directly stated in the Memory of Blood supplement that Legna is both the dragon that killed Caim and Furiae's parents, and the dragon Inuart rode in the first game.
Evil Mentor: Well, not per se given the setting of Drakengard, but definitely not one of the good guys.
Grumpy Old Man: Probably helped along by his voice actor.
Heroic Sacrifice: Becomes the new seal in the first ending, albeit without the agony that Angelus went through.
Holy Hand Grenade: Her magic and weapon are aligned with the Holy element, and as such she is the only character who can effectively kill undead enemies.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: It is stated that Urick cannot die due to his reaper pact partner automatically reviving him. The player still gets a Game Over if he dies while being used.
Now the antagonist, Caim is devoted to freeing Angelus from being the seal she became in the first game. Despite the eighteen year difference between games, he's still as strong, if not stronger, and just as murderous.
Badass: Look at it this way: Caim's pact with Angelus is still active, meaning if one dies, the other will too. It was easier to kill the dragon than it would be to kill Caim.
Eye Scream: Manah stabbed an eye out while escaping from Caim. Thus, he's known as The One-Eyed Man for most of the game.
Kick the Dog: Two instances: a) It is mentioned early that Caim killed general Oror, Nowe's surrogate human father and Gismor's balance on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism; b) Later on, Caim kills Ensemble Darkhorse Urick in order to break the seal.
Big Damn Villains: The latter case also means that Nowe doesn't have to do it, since both of them technically wanted the latter to happen but Nowe can't make himself do it.
Posthumous Character: Developed via weapon histories and what characters mention about him rather than flashbacks.
Retcon/Sidekick Graduations Stick: Oror is never mentioned in Drakengard. The weapon history for "Oror's Lionblade" indicates he was the leading general of the Union, probably Caim's Number Two, and that he was present in The War Sequence of the first game.
Warrior Poet: If the weapon history for "Oror's Falconblade" is anything to go off of.
Villainous Glutton: Averted somewhat; he cared mostly about filling his own stomach to grow strong, but his pact price was the sensation of enjoying food.
Master Poisoner: She was the one who poisoned the drink Oror took before he lost his life, under Gismor's command. She tried the same with Nowe. It didn't work.
