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The Main Heroes
Dust
- Voiced by: Lucien Dodge
The main character. One day, he wakes up in a meadow, remembering nothing but his name. He's approached by the Blade of Ahrah and begins to fight the monsters in his way on his Quest for Identity.
- Amnesiac Hero: He wakes up in a clearing and remembers nothing, and is then accosted by a sword and a flying fox. Over the course of the story, he remembers more of his past.
- Anthro Weapon: Dust is explicitly described as a weapon to defeat Gaius during The Reveal.
- The Atoner: The Cassius half of his personality. However, Ahrah explicitly says in the end that Dust's quest was not about redeeming Cassius.
- Badass Boast: He delivers one before the final showdown with the Big Bad.Dust: I am justice incarnate, brought to this world by forces beyond your comprehension. A cleansing storm to sweep across the land and purge it of your foul presence. I am Dust. And your campaign ends here, now. Throw down your weapons and surrender, or you will face an enemy unlike any this world has ever seen.
- Badass Cape: He wears one for the entirety of the game.
- Composite Character: Dust in an in-canon example, being the sum of Jin's compassion and Cassius's badassery.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dust will get in on Fidget's snarking action when the situation calls for it.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Dust easily falls into the "Amnesiac Protagonist" archetype, which usually involves the character being a no-nonsense anti-hero from around that time; willing to do anything to achieve their goals, be they good or evil. However, what sets Dust apart from the likes of Shadow or Alex is that he's very much on the hero side, willing to help others just for the sake of it and not expect anything in return. He's also perfectly willing to make jokes, as opposed to being The Comically Serious. It also helps that he's able to have genuine fun at times.
- Eye-Obscuring Hat: Dust wears a satgat with a fabric curtain around the sides tilted down over his face. Ginger doesn't recognize him at first because of it. Fidget straight up lampshades how it's even possible for Dust to see anything ahead of him.
- Eyes Are Mental: According to Ginger, Dust has the same eyes as her dead brother Jin, despite looking like his murderer Cassius. This is how she recognizes him.
- Fantastically Indifferent: When Dust acquires the first sheep and puts it in his inventory, Fidget questions him on it. Dust, however, thinks nothing of him putting an entire animal in his inventory. He also doesn't think much of the tornado in Blackmoor Mountains that takes him to a secret area.
- Go Out with a Smile: In the end. The guy really takes being swallowed by rising magma like a champ.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Relying on Ahrah's guidance and powers, of course a sword is Dust's weapon. Although he didn't actually need Ahrah to be a master swordsman.
- Heroic BSoD: Dust suffers a minor one when BoPo's dad dies, despite Dust reaching Lady Tethys and getting the waters running again.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: Creating a whirlwind - the Dust Storm - isn't that usual when fighting with a sword.
- I Am Who?: Dust is Cassius. And Jin. He is both of them combined into one independent entity, the Sen-Mithrarin.
- Laser Guided Tyke Bomb: Technically, Dust himself, since he's a new gestalt entity and was explicitly created as an Anthro Weapon against Gaius.
- Meaningful Name: "Dust" is not his real name, the name was given to him by the Moonbloods because in their language, Sen-Mithrarin, the legendary warrior literally translates to "He Who Was Born From The Dust".
- Merger of Souls: Towards the end of the game it's revealed that Dust himself has the souls of Ginger's brother and the Big Bad's henchman who slew each other. It's explicitly stated that Dust has its own mind and body, with either soul just providing moral guidance and power respectively.
- Missing Time: Eventually, Dust realizes that what memories he does have are ones from a year ago.
- Precision F-Strike: While not explicitly an F-Strike, when Dust, Fidget, and Ahrah return to the Mudpot Village after liberating the water supply for the village, and they find out that BoPo's father and MaBop's husband passed away while they were gone, Dust takes it very hard and use fairly harsh language for a game rated E10+.Dust: We... We failed, Fidget. We weren't fast enough. Damn it! We weren't fast enough!
- Quest for Identity: One of the driving factors of the story.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Cassius used to be the Royal Assassin.
- Red Herring: After a while, it seems pretty obvious that Dust is Cassius, a Royal Assassin, who survived the battle he supposedly died in and just doesn't remember who he is. However, it turns out things are nowhere near as simple as that...
- Reverse Grip: This is how Dust wields his sword.
- She-Fu: Dust is a Downplayed and Rare Male Example. He does such things as doing a little twirl on the third strike of one of his ground combos, and performs his ground throw attack by hooking his foot onto the enemy and cartwheeling them up through the air and into the ground behind him, but he goes through his attack animations so fast that one can go through the game multiple times without noticing those split-second gymnastic flourishes.
- Spinning Piledriver: Dust can perform a spinning air throw move called "The Undoing", which is executed via a button input that is identical to the command for Ryu Hayabusa's Izuna Drop in Ninja Gaiden.
- Take My Hand!: After defeating the Big Bad, Dust tries to stop Gaius from falling off a cliff, to no avail.
- Villainous Friendship: Type I between Gaius and Cassius, who shared a close friendship and vision of the future. It's this friendship which prevents Gaius ordering his army to hunt down Dust, whose body is based on that of Cassius.
- Walking Spoiler: And he's the main character, at that! Talking about his past results in this trope.
- We Used to Be Friends: Dust is a Sen-Mithrarin formed by the souls of Jin, Ginger's kind-hearted brother, and Cassius, General Gaius' ruthless assassin and his closest friend. Eventually, Dust gets into a heated confrontation with General Gaius not only as Jin's sworn enemy, but also Cassius' closest friend.
Fidget
- Voiced by: Kimlinh Tran
A Nimbat whose clan used to guard the Blade of Ahrah. When Ahrah awakens, Fidget reluctantly joins Dust's Quest for Identity in hopes of eventually getting the sword back.
- Appropriate Animal Attire: Subverted. Compared to every other Funny Animal character in the game, Fidget is one of, if not the only ones who doesn't wear anything.
- Badass Adorable: Cute as a button, and considering combining her magic with the Dust Storm will probably be your workhorse when it comes to racking up combos? Definitely.
- Bat People: Downplayed. She's half-bat with the wings and huge ears, but she's also half-fox. Then again, it could be a subtle reference to the particularly large species of bat known as the Flying Fox.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: She sometimes addresses the player directly about game mechanics and situations:Fidget: Um, I hope you saved.Fidget: MASH THE BUTTONS! DO SOMETHING!
- Buffy Speak: She'll use it on occasion, when she can't think of how to outright describe something.Fidget: AGH! It's another one of those spiky slime things!
- Carpet of Virility: The big, fluffy patch of fur on her chest makes Fidget a rare female example of this.
- Cowardly Lion: Fidget is very easily scared, and she admits to being afraid of monsters, darkness and, of all things, heights. Even so, her projectiles can become your most powerful attacks, and she still presses on with Dust despite her fears and their dangerous adventures together.
- Cute Little Fangs: She has these from both the bat and fox parts of her anatomy.
- The Cutie: Between her excitable, dorky personality and cuddly design, it's hard not to find Fidget endearing.
- Darkness Equals Death: She believes in this trope and invokes it when descending into the Cirromon Caverns for the first time.Fidget: I'm NOT afraid of the dark! I'm afraid of the things IN the dark!
- Deadpan Snarker: Fidget is responsible for most of the snark in the game.
- Fairy Companion: To Dust. She's a small fox-like being with bat wings and magic powers.
- Hartman Hips: Her body is very slim up top, but fills out a lot around her hips and thighs.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Fidget is proud to demonstrate her attack power which only produces three ridiculously weak projectiles. "That was... very pretty". Then Ahrah points out that you can combine these with the Dust Storm, turning them into a ridiculously powerful storm of bolts that can create combos in the hundreds of hits.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Invoked by her when discussing The Sorrowing Meadows.
- Ironic Fear: It fits with her Lovable Coward status that Fidget, who has wings and is always seen flying next to Dust, is afraid of heights.Dust: Wait, heights? How's that possible? You fly all the time. Everywhere.Fidget: Oh, do I? I must've forgotten. Just like you must've forgotten that I can still fall AT ANY TIME.
- Lame Comeback: During the Fidget Doll sidequest...Fidget: My head is just fine! You're the ones wearing those stupid hats! Maybe you two could form a STUPID HAT CLUB!
- Lampshade Hanging: To Dust when he rescues a sheep:Fidget: Did you just put that thing in your inventory?
- And when Dust returns six sheep:Fidget: I honestly have no idea how you carried those things around with you.
- And when Dust returns six sheep:
- Lovable Coward: She gets frightened very easily by all sorts of things, but she's humorous and adorable all the while; and that's on top of being stronger and braver than she looks when the chips are down.
- Medium Awareness: While the tutorial section at the beginning has the characters openly talking about gameplay mechanics as gameplay mechanics, Fidget continues to do that afterwards. Nobody else ever questions what she's talking about.(Sees a monster get blown up by a Blomb)
Fidget: Oh my... he really should've saved, first. - Oh, Crap!: Fidget has some of her moments.
- Playing with Fire: After defeating Fuse, Fidget gets an ability to shoot fireballs, which can be used with Dust's Dust Storm to create flaming pillars.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Lampshaded with her outright calling herself "Dust's funny sidekick".
- Power Copying: After defeating Fuse and knocking some sense into Lady Tethys, Fidget learns to mimic their attacks.
- Pun: She indulges in this when Dust promises to Corbin that he'll deal with Gianni. Dust reacts with appropriate amount of exasperation.Dust: And don't worry about Gianni. I'll sort him out.Fidget: Yeah, like the laundry!Dust: *sighs* Yes, Fidget. Like the laundry.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Fidget's big, vibrant green peepers and adorable face lend themselves perfectly to these kinds of expressions from her.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: And how. She's got huge expressive Puppy-Dog Eyes and ears, a small and cuddly body with cute round paws, and vibrant fluffy fur. It's emphasised more by her being chipper, friendly and Endearingly Dorky with an amusingly cowardly but brave-deep-down disposition.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Literally.
- Shock and Awe: The last power Fidget gets lets her shoot lightning.
- Sidekick Creature Nuisance: She can be annoying to the other characters, certainly including Dust.
- Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Fidget is less humanoid than the other animal people, and Lampshades everything in a very snarky manner.
- Sweet Tooth: Fidget has a very evident love for sweet foods. One official piece of art has her chasing a falling cupcake before it hits the ground, and she's seen roasting marshmallows on a campfire with Dust.
- Winged Humanoid: Fidget has arms with soft paws, as well as bat-like wings on her back.
The Blade of Ahrah
- Voiced by: Edward Bosco
An ancient talking sword which used to be guarded by Fidget's clan. It awakens to help Dust on his quest.
- Cool Sword: It emanates smoke and has a very distinct design.
- Exact Words: He mostly avoids direct lies, though he does do so once or twice.
- Flying Weapon: After awakening from its sleep, the sword flies off on its own, much to the surprise of its guardian Fidget.
- Legendary Weapon: Ahrah is one of the five blades of Elysium.
- Like Cannot Cut Like: Treasure chests are magical, so Dust can't smash them open with Ahrah.
- Living Weapon: With its own personality.
- Named Weapons: Ahrah.
- Not So Stoic:
- When Baron Kane reveals that Dust has "twin souls," referring to Jin and Cassius, and Dust asks Ahrah for clarification, he noticeably hesitates before putting the topic off for the time being.Dust: Ahrah? What does he mean?Ahrah: I...soon, Dust. Very soon, all of this will be explained. Come, we can discuss this later. We must hurry if we are to find Ginger and learn the location of this Moonblood camp.
- When snow is blocking their way in the Blackmoor Mountains, Dust proposes causing a massive avalanche, which Fidget wholeheartedly agrees upon. This causes Ahrah to actually break his normal mystic wise tone.Dust: And don't worry about Gianni. I'll sort him out.Ahrah: Really? Do I need to be the voice of caution here?! Need I explain how creating an avalanche puts us all in danger?
- Later, he gets noticeably irritated with Fidget when she has a prolonged bout of sneezing and complains that she's coming down with something.Ahrah: Yes, Fidget. We figured that out on our own.
- When Baron Kane reveals that Dust has "twin souls," referring to Jin and Cassius, and Dust asks Ahrah for clarification, he noticeably hesitates before putting the topic off for the time being.
- Possession Implies Mastery: When Dust first demonstrates his fighting skills, he asks in wonder where he learned them. Ahrah says that wielding him grants the user sword skills. Turns out he was lying.
- Power Glows: The runes on the blade glow, indicating Ahrah's power and magical nature.
- The Stoic: He always speaks with a deep, mystic, calming voice and almost never breaks his composure.
- The Svengali: While not malicious, Ahrah knowingly withholds information from Dust to test whether he's the savior the Moonbloods want him to be. Dust calls him out on this a few times during the story.
- Talking Weapon: He often gives guidance to Dust.
The Bosses
Fuse
- Voiced by: Edwyn Tiong
A rogue Moonblood warrior who unleashes hordes of monsters that keep attacking the village of Aurora.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: A magical variant. The armor which saved Fuse's life also drove him insane with revenge.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: They can be seen from beneath his mask.
- Handicapped Badass: Whatever accident he suffered before gaining his life support armor likely caused him to lose his legs; every other Moonblood member has normal legs and feet, while Fuse's legs end in stilts. This makes him no less agile or dangerous.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Wanting to destroy the people who slaughtered innocent villagers, he orders monsters to attack Aurora and burns Denham Village to the ground.
- Misplaced Retribution: He orchestrated the monster attacks of Aurora because he mistakenly believes they're aligned with Gaius.
- Playing with Fire: His main attack is fire-based. Fidget later gets an ability to shoot fireballs, which can be used with Dust's Dust Storm to create flaming pillars after defeating Fuse.
- Powered Armor: His armor given to him by Elder Gray Eyes helped him survive his injuries after being wounded in battle one year ago.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: He commands the local monsters to fight for him, and is strong enough to be the first Boss Battle.
- Revenge Before Reason: After surviving the attack on Zeplich Village one year ago, he wanted the Moonbloods to strike back immediately, despite being outnumbered and outclassed.
Lady Tethys
- Voiced by: Eileen Montgomery
A powerful spiritual being who has stopped the waters beneath Mudpot from flowing.
- Cool Crown: A spiky tiara.
- The Corruption: Feeling all the pain the war on the surface has caused has clouded her mind.Lady Tethys: "I could feel the souls of all the innocents he killed screaming for help, and I... I succumbed to that darkness – that desire for justice, no matter the cost."
- Defeat Means Friendship: She had gone mad with rage over Gaius' actions, and cut off Mudpot's water supply. Beating her knocks her back to her senses.
- Green and Mean: She's very hostile towards Dust and has green skin. After the Boss Battle, this trope doesn't apply anymore.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She's shocked when she realizes the consequences of her actions.
- Nature Spirit: A spiritual being who controls the waters and is attuned to The Life Thread.
- The Needs of the Many: If stopping the waters from flowing and therefore stopping the war from continuing kills a few people, so be it.
- Not So Omniscient After All: Which is why she's no help in finding out who Dust really is.Dust: "You can see into my past?"Lady Tethys: "Your soul is fragmented, like a shattered mirror. I can only see reflections in the broken pieces, and what I see makes little sense, even to me."
- The Omniscient: Because she's attuned to The Life Thread, she knows the thoughts of all beings and about the war on the surface.
- Power Echoes: The Lady is a powerful spirit who speaks with a booming voice. The echo doesn't disappear even when she calms down.
- Spell My Name with a "The": Known as "The Lady" to the villagers of Mudpot.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: She's very swift, her attacks deal moderate damage even with the highest defense and best armor available and she loves to spam spells which will make you fall on spikes in the lowest part of the arena if you move recklessly. Additionally, her melee attack has decent range and might catch you off guard. However, you can still kill her by spamming projectiles then hitting her while she's in hitstun.
Baron Kane
- Voiced by: Joshua Tomar
A wrathful ghost who haunts the mansions in the Sorrowing Meadow.
- Barred from the Afterlife: After Baron Kane's death, his spirit was consumed by rage and a demonic presence, turning him into the creature that haunts the Sorrowing Meadows.
- Defeat Means Friendship: After defeating the ravenous demon form he turned into in death. Beating him cleanses his spirit, and he reunites with his still living wife Cora.
- Floating Limbs: His giant claws aren't visibly connected to his body.
- Flunky Boss: Being a combination of his previous appearances as a vengeful ghost and the zombie-summoning wizard.
- Giant Hands of Doom: Giant claws which can do a lot of damage.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Violet ones that glow from within his skull.
- Greed: His motivator in life, as he turned in his Moonblood sympathizing friends and neighbors to General Gaius in exchange for money. It got so bad that even those who weren't Moonblood sympathizers were turned in as well to keep the flow of money coming in.
- Green and Mean: When you encounter him in the four mansions, he emanates a green glow.
- Intangibility: The first four times you meet him in the mansions, he exists on a different plane and can't be touched by Ahrah.
- Interface Screw: Somewhat downplayed example. While in his demonic form, the closer he gets to you the more colors get distorted.
- Regretful Traitor: When he was still alive, Kane turned in his own friends as Moonblood sympathizers to General Gaius in exchange for money, which he now deeply regrets.
- Skull for a Head: His demonic form is a giant skeleton.
- The Stool Pigeon: In his life he was this, of the Betrayer Barry type. He was selling out his neighbors and friends as Moonblood sympathizers to General Gaius in exchange for money, and if one of the servants' notes are any indication he was also doing this to those who had nothing to do with Moonbloods at all.
General Gaius
- Voiced by: River Kanoff
The leader of the campaign against the Moonbloods.
- Affably Evil: Despite being the Big Bad, General Gaius tends to treat Dust better than Dust's own allies do. This could be due to the fact that General Gaius and Cassius, one of the two souls who makes up Dust and the one Dust most looks like, were friends and partners before.
- Badass Boast: He counters Dust's own boast pretty effectively during their battle.Gaius: You cannot win, Cassius! You never could beat me.Gaius: You never could scare me either, Cassius. Very well. To the death!
- Big Bad: His goal is to wipe out the reptilian Moonblood race, apparently in his desire for racial purity.
Word of God states that Gaius's motivation was more fleshed out in the production stages, but scenes exploring it had to be cut. - Disney Villain Death: He falls to his death in the Everdawn Basin, including a Take My Hand! scene. Downplayed in that the fall might not have been fatal. However, the massive amounts of molten lava certainly were.
- Flat Character: Even as the Big Bad, he's not exempt from being this. He's given absolutely no reason for wanting to destroy the Moonbloods beyond "because I can".
- Marathon Boss: He's fought in three stages. He doesn't turn into a One-Winged Angel though. He just gets a new attack with each stage.
- Offstage Villainy: General Gaius has done atrocious things... apparently. In every single one of his actual on-screen appearances, he's being calm, professional, and endlessly forgiving. Making matters worse is that the majority of his evil is explained by the people who are in direct conflict with him, and in at least two cases have been withholding information from Dust for most of the game. It's a case of Real Life Writes the Plot. General Gaius was originally supposed to be just one of the milestones, with story continuing after his defeat. These plans were scrapped to meet the production deadline.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: General Gaius, who can match Dust blow-for-blow, openly says he was Cassius' better in combat, and has such insane endurance that he needs to be brutally pounded into the heart of a volcano before he finally dies.
- Social Darwinist: This is the closest thing to an explanation we get for his death march against the Moonbloods.
- Villainous Friendship: Type I between Gaius and Cassius, who shared a close friendship and vision of the future. It's this friendship which prevents Gaius ordering his army to hunt down Dust, whose body is based on that of Cassius.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Even if you aren't convinced Gaius is as evil as some of other characters think, it IS made clear that he is this and so justifying needing to fight him.
The Villagers of Aurora
Ginger
- Voiced by: Amber Lee Connors
A soft-spoken young woman who strongly distrusts Dust when he first visits Aurora.
- Break the Cutie: Seeing her entire village, including her brother, being slaughtered can't be easily forgotten.
- Eyes Are Mental: According to Ginger, Dust has the same eyes as her dead brother Jin, despite looking like his murderer Cassius. This is how she recognizes him.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Blue eyes for an innocent, soft-spoken victim of tragedy.
- Long-Lost Relative: She's the sister of Jin, one of the two souls used to create Dust.
- Sole Survivor: She's the only survivor of the attack on Zeplich Village one year ago.
- True Blue Femininity: She wears a blue outfit.
Mayor Bram
Haley
- Voiced by: Anna Kingsley
A blacksmith who lives at the top of Archers' Pass just outside Aurora.
- The Blacksmith: Bring her blueprints, materials and coin, and she'll forge a new item for you.
- Family Business: The forge on top of Archers' Pass was created by her ancestors.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Red hair, red fur, green eyes, and crafting items significantly helps Dust's fighting ability.
- Wrench Wench: A skilled female blacksmith who proudly continues the family business.
The Villagers of Mudpot
The Moonbloods
Merchant Sereth
- Voiced by: Xander Mobus
The shopkeeper who supplies Dust with items everywhere in Falana.
- The Faceless: Only his eyes and the shape of his face are visible.
- Finger-Tenting: His standard pose.
- Glowing Eyes: White ones that shine from the shadows under his hood.
- In the Hood: He wears a violet one which casts his face in shadow.
- Intrepid Merchant: He follows Dust through every dungeon and sets up shop there multiple times.
- Not So Stoic: While he always speaks in a quiet and polite tone, if you speak to him after defeating Baron Kane he talks about him with a subtle but noticeable degree of bitterness and venom in his voice, due to Kane's role in General Gaius' campaign against Moonblood race and their sympathizers.
Elder Gray Eyes
- Voiced by: Mick Lauer
The leader of the Moonbloods.
- Gambit Roulette: Allegedly, every action Dust takes in the game is Just as Planned by him.
- Really 700 Years Old: At least several hundred years.
- Unreliable Expositor: All of Gaius' committed atrocities are only relayed to Dust by people who are in direct conflict to the guy. The player is expected to take their word for it because the production deadline prevented the creators from fleshing out the story, though Arah vouching for him does help alleviate this.
