Work in progress
Characters from Eternal. Due to the nature of the online gamebook, all spoilers are unmarked and references to the Player Character will be in the second person.
Also note that some paths can drastically alter the personalities of characters, and tropes may only apply to them throughout one path. If this is the case, the path it applies to or the storyline it's related to will be listed.
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The eternals
You
The main character, training to be a Super-Soldier since birth.
- Broken Pedestal: You can display this towards The Empire, starting to believe them to be weak and ineffective.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: You can die of dehydration after accidentally trapping yourself in the desert. Even worse, your last thoughts consist of your failure to serve the emperor or save your teammates.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Kobolds are well below your ability, and unless they manage to ambush you while weakened, you and your troops can easily and hastily dispatch them.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Being raised as a Super-Soldier since birth and fed nothing but propaganda about The Empire can't be good for anyone's psyche. It certainly isn't for yours.
- Decapitation Presentation: You can have a belligerant man decapitated and chuck it to the horrified villagers to remind them of their place. It's rather effective at silencing their discontent with your late arrival.
- Dressing as the Enemy: You and Edgar do this in order to assassinate Kane, using the clothes of his own guards to sneak through his fortress.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even when laying waste to entire cities, Gratuitous Rape is well below you, and you rightfully condemn Felding for attempting something so abhorrent.
- Eye Scream: Edolith stabs you through the eye during your fight with her.
- Face Death with Dignity: If you sacrifice yourself to stop the majority of your troop from being executed, you will give some parting advice to the surviving members and use your last moments to reaffirm your dedication to The Empire.
- Fate Worse than Death: Like so many other unfortunate souls, you can transform into a wendigo if you make the wrong choices. It destroys all of your humanity and turns you into a mindless man-eating beast.
- Freudian Excuse: If you beg for your life at Mistress' hands, you'll develop an obsession with proving you aren't weak, so as never to be in a similar situation ever again.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: You can do this to the sheriff of Jekka to stop him from freaking out during a Usksha raid.
- Groin Attack: Using yet another dirty tactic, Edolith knees you in the balls during your battle with her.
- Heroic Sacrifice: You can take the fall along with Kane to save your fellow troops from being executed. A captain always puts the lives of his soldiers before his after all.
- Improbable Weapon User: You use a baby to drop the shield of an elven wizard. Amazingly, it works in killing him. Unfortunately, you're killed by Edolith minutes later.
- Kick the Dog: You have this as one of your default solutions to opposition, with innocents sometimes feeling the same wrath you display to your enemies. It tends to become more common and extreme as the story progresses.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Killing Felding probably wasn't necessary, but damn if it's not a cathartic moment.
- Lack of Empathy: Anyone is fair game as far as you're concerned and if they happen to suffer due to your actions, so be it. The longer you survive, the colder you get to human suffering.
- Likes Older Women: You have feelings for captain Krozer, a woman who just so happens to be quite a few years your senior.
- Ludicrous Gibs: If you're unlucky enough to get caught up in a dark shadow's suicide attack, you're blown to many pieces all over the place. Amazingly, you survive a few seconds in this state, getting to see the sorry state of your body before you painfully pass away.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: You tend to have this attitude towards The Empire, justifying atroicities if it benefits the emperor in any way.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In one Time Skip, you lead attacks on several changeling bandit tribes, wiping all of them off the face of the planet. While it's not shown, your exploits have rightfully earned you respect amongst your troops.
- Oh, Crap!: If you're ambushed by some shadows, you react with absolute horror, knowing you're completely at their mercy.
- Super-Soldier: What you are being trained to be. Whether you reach this potential is up to you.
- Surpassed the Teacher: You do this to Gruz after slaying him in battle. Even he's impressed.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Even though you're disgusted by Kane's betrayal, you feel sad for having to kill him.
- Undying Loyalty: To The Empire, as you've had these beliefs ingrained in your mind since infancy. However, you can revoke this oath of loyalty in certain paths, and subvert this completely.
- Would Hurt a Child: Children can be some of your potential victims if you're wiping out bandit settlements. After all in your mind, they're merely younger versions of the ones trying to kill you.
Gerald
A talkative and friendly member of your group.
- Back for the Dead: His reunion with you a decade and a half later is tragically cut short by an arrow to the skull. He lasts a bit longer than Roldan, though his reappearance is still awfully brief.
- Boom, Headshot!: He's hit in the head by an arrow. Even worse, he wasn't the intended target of said arrow.
- Chick Magnet: He became this as he got older, with him and Warrick drowning in the bodies of babes tossed their way.
- The Dog Bites Back: He murders Captain Pollo for attempting to rape him.
- Easily Forgiven: He gets a slap on the wrist for killing Pollo, though considering the type of man Pollo is, it's hard not to cheer when he's absolved for his murder.
- Killing in Self-Defense: He kills Pollo after the general tries to rape him.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: How he tried to kill Captain Pollo to avoid suspicion. It didn't work, but he got acquitted anyway due to everyone sympathising with him.
- Nice Guy: He gets along well with almost everyone, and is genuinely good natured. Just don't try to rape him or you'll end up with your neck twisted.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: He's killed by a single arrow to the head during a normal conversation. In fact, he doesn't survive much longer than Roldan, though his death is far more merciful.
- Taken for Granite: He can be turned to stone by a lizard monster during an attack on the Usksha.
Warrick
A stealthy and serious member of your group.
- Broken Pedestal: Like many other victims of the empire's cruelty, he's grown to dislike their practices and defected to the Felkan kingdom.
- Chick Magnet: Him along with Gerald were highly sought after by the opposite sex, something they were quite receptive to.
- Eyepatch of Power: If you reunite with him at Fort soot, he's sporting one. He's also a captain at this point.
- Eye Scream: His eye was torn out by a trap he carelessly walked into. Due to his newly gained Eyepatch of Power, you're spared from the sight of it.
- Not Quite Dead: He can (supposedly) die during the final days of the Felken war. This is yet another death that's revealed at the start of a Time Skip. Though this one is based on an assumption on your part rather than concrete evidence. Fortunately, your assumptions turn out to be incorrect and he's alive and well, now the captain of fort soot.
- Taken for Granite: A possible way for him to die at the hands of a giant lizard monster.
Brenda
The only female eternal to survive the training.
- Death by Irony: She can be killed by the Usksha archers in the exact same way she recently killed the desert monster; getting shot to death with arrows while already crippled by a previous attack.
- Dude Magnet: Due to being the same age as the rest of you and the only woman in your group, she's attracted the eyes of most of her brothers in arms.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: She perfers to use bows and arrows rather than swords or maces.
- Happily Married: Her and Roldan have a wonderful and healthy marriage, even if it doesn't last long before she's suddenly widowed.
- Heartbroken Badass: Even as an incredibly powerful eternal, she's unable to get over the loss of her husband.
- The Lost Lenore: Roldan becomes this to her if he happens to die before she does. Years later and she still grieves his loss.
- Married in the Future: She and Roldan can eventually get married.
Roldan
The most levelheaded eternal
- Back for the Dead: In the beg path, you reunite with him for the first time in 14 years before he's abruptly murdered by two assassins.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He's blown up in an explosion, dismembered and disembowled by the impact.
- Gallows Humor: He quips that if Kane is right, him and Brenda are committing incest as he's dying. Even in his last moments, he's still able to find something funny to ease his mind of the pain he's experiencing.
- Happily Married: Him and Brenda were madly in love before he was tragically and abruptly murdered while at your side.
- Married in the Future: He and Brenda end up getting married after the Time Skip. According to him, it was nothing fancy, but it's still official.
- Nice Guy: He steps in when tensions flare, and is rather skilled at defusing them. This makes him a valuable asset, despite his unremarkable fighting skills, as it keeps the rest of the eternals in good spirits.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Even when stabbed and bleeding out, he still returns the favor to the two shadow assassins who dealt the blows to him. He's so dangerous in fact that they have to resort to a suicide attack to finally immobilise him for good.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: He's caught in an abrupt explosion which causes his insides to leak out of his stomach and his leg to be torn off. His last moments involve him asking you to tell his now widowed wife Brenda he loves her, making a joke about Kane's odd mannerisms, and giving you one last compliment before he leaves this mortal realm.
Kane
The best warrior of your group
- Accidental Murder: During an unnecessary and frenzied fight with some fort guards, Kane gets too into the moment and kills three of them. This causes problems for him and everyone else, as all of you were already on tepid terms with Pollo and his soldiers.
- Affably Evil: Even when taking over fort defiance and rebelling against the empire, he's still incredibly friendly and unwilling to hurt any fellow eternals. His motivation is to bring in a better standard of living than the empire provides rather than from a mindest stemming from pure selfishness. Pity Cyrus is ushering him down a darker path.
- Apologetic Attacker: He'll react with regret and dismay if he has to fight you, saddened you haven't seen things from his perspective.
- Bald of Evil: After the Time Skip, he's shaved his head and is conspiring to overthrow the empire, having already made some morally reprehensible decisions by this point.
- Broken Pedestal: He becomes this to the empire, having grown utterly disillusioned by their regieme and actions. This leads to him attempting a coup with Cyrus.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He can be crushed by a boulder thrown at him by the giants.
- He can also die of dehydration after getting trapped in the middle of an especially arid desert.
- If you fight him in his office, you slash open his chest, his eye is sliced out, and he's disembowled for good measure.
- Evil Former Friend: This is how you see him, as he's turned his back on the empire as part of his treasonous plan.
- Eye Scream: One of his eyes is slashed out by a sword during his fight with you. Fortunately, he's killed before he has to contemplate living with such a disfigurement.
- Face Death with Dignity: If you refuse to take Kane's side after he accidentally kills three soldiers during a fight that spirals out of control, he'll calmly accept his punishment, putting up no fight even as his death draws nearer.
- Face–Heel Turn: He goes from a warrior protecting the innocent to a traitor (and Cyrus' puppet) using an army of bloodthirsty orcs to start a rebellion against the empire. The Nice Guy you once knew is long gone by this point.
- Go Out with a Smile: Even if you kill him, he still forgives you, smiling as he utters his last words.
- Irony: The leader of fort defiance defies the empire's rule and stages a rebellion. Turns out the name was oddly prophetic.
- Kick the Dog: While fighting Edgar, he lets him know he's not as strong as he wishes he was. This cuts Edgar far deeper than his sword manages to.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: He dies before he can utter his forgiveness to you, though the message is pretty clear.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He kills Edgar believing him to be just another assassin. When he realises he's slain one of his own "brothers," he's beside himself, distraught that someone he so greatly admired died at his hand.
- Nice Guy: After your fights, he always makes sure to ask if you're alright, showing he has a big deal of empathy for the wellbeing of others. Doesn't mean he's not willing to resort to violence against insubordination and hostility. He switches to Affably Evil after defecting from The Empire.
- Sympathetic Murderer: While he's not glorified for causing three deaths, it's presented as a fight that went way out of control rather than a malicious or evil act.
- The Quiet One: He's far more shy than most of your teammates, keeping to himself whenever possible. Even when condemned to death, he refuses to speak.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He was well regarded as a friendly child before eventually deforming into a murderous traitor.
- We Can Rule Together: Kane wishes to reunite the Eternals under a secessionist army, desperately trying to get you and Edgar on his side. Unfortunately for him, the two of you remain unflinching.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: While he's usurped fort defiance and staged a mutiny using his orcish army, he seems to genuinely believe that the empire is no longer looking out for its citizens and a new reign needs to be ushered in. Considering what the emperor and his network have done, it's hard not to see the merits in his argument, even if his actions aren't excusable.
Edgar
The "problem" member of your team.
- An Arm and a Leg: He can be dismembered by a giant reptilian monster while travelling through the desert. He quickly expires after this incident.
- Blood Knight: Like you, he's overly eagar to coat his sword in the blood of his enemies, itching for a fight no matter the adversary.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: While he may not be Taken for Granite at the hands of the reptilian monster like Warrick and Gerald, he is mauled and clawed to death after rushing in for an attack. Even worse, he doesn't die instantly, bleeding out of his mutilated and mangled body as he chokes on his own blood.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Him and you both utilise this tactic as part of your plot to infiltrate Kane's office without being stopped by any of the guards the two of you are disguised like.
- Fiery Redhead: He's got red hair and a flaming temper, making him the most difficult person to get along with out of the team.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Unfortunately for you, his fury doesn't leave him after his battles, as he's always attempting to pick a fight with someone, even if said fight could lead to catastrophic consequences.
- Jerkass: He's flippant, overly hostile, and a dick to you and your troop. This causes tensions to flare constantly as he proves to be proficent at getting on the nerves of others.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He may lack empathy or basic social skills, but he's right that defending everyone is counter-productive and time consuming, especially when you're already spread thin enough as it is by this point.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: On his 35th year of living, Edgar's finally embraced his darkest impulses and turned the Arat providence into his personal dictatorship, impaling the eyeless and decapitated heads of citizens (including children) on pikes as a warning to any potential attackers. It's clear that whatever good he had in his heart has completely melted away at this point.
- Killed Offscreen: If you're transferred under Mr. Mol's command, he'll die at the hands of a giant during the Time Skip. Despite your dislike of him, you still mourn his death and miss his prescence.
- The Load: Despite his combat proficency, he tends to start fights for no reason and make erratic choices, causing problems for everyone trying to contain the damage he causes.
- Mr. Exposition: If you're captured by Kane after refusing his offer to defect from the empire, Edgar will make sure to fill you in all of the details of what transpired to lead Kane down such a path.
- The Napoleon: His short height is rumored to be the source of his insecurity and aggression, which drives his desire to prove himself to everyone around him, even if he burns countless bridges along the way.
- Older and Wiser: When you meet him years later, he's far more mature and approachable, maybe due to having so much time to reconsider his behavior while imprisoned in Kane's dungeon.
- Pet the Dog: He makes sure to send his congratulations to Brenda and Roldan if the two of them get married. It's unknown if he did this before he Took a Level in Kindness.
- Small Name, Big Ego: While he's a gifted fighter, he's also incredibly arrogant, seeing himself as far more powerful and important than he actually is. This rubs others the wrong way for obvious reasons.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Being shackled up in a dungeon for years has really humbled him out, and he's far friendlier and helpful when the two of you reunite. It's clear he's a far cry from the Fiery Redhead he was infamous for being.
Cyrus
An eternal who was with the shadow guard
- The Corruptor: He encourages Kane to resist the empire, getting him to start a rebellion, and turn Fort Defiance into a base for his secessionist orcish army.
- Dark Is Evil: He wears black and is one of the most evil eternals.
- Defiant to the End: Even being on death's door doesn't stop hatred from oozing out of his body along with his blood. His last moments before his decapitation are cursing you and the empire.
- Evil vs. Evil: He's a despicable and manipulative usurper fighting against a tryannical regieme.
- Face Death with Dignity: Knowing he's about to be killed, he uses his last moments to mock you and the empire.
- False Friend: While Kane cares deeply for him, he's merely using Kane for his own means, unbothered if Kane perishes before his Evil Plan can take effect.
- Faux Affably Evil: While Kane adores him, he doesn't and he's clearly using his fellow eternal for his charisma and connections, uncaring if Kane dies by your hands. Cyrus isn't powerful enough to bring forward his plans alone, and Kane just happened to be the pawn that fell into his hands at just the right moment.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: He escaped conseqeunces for his actions for almost a decade, though his actions and your sword caught up to him eventually.
- Living Lie Detector: Either that, or you're such a Bad Liar that he can see through you in seconds. If you try to lie to Kane in order to appease his request for defecting from the empire, Cyrus will instantly catch on to your tricks and blast you to death with lightning.
- The Man Behind the Man: He's this to Kane, being the one to sow dissent to his mind and encourage his rebellion. It's obvious by this point that he's the one pulling the strings, and Kane just happened to be enough of a Well-Intentioned Extremist to fall right into his meddling hands.
- Manipulative Bastard: He's easily able to convince Kane to switch sides, using him as a proxy for his power game. Even then, he's able to mantain the role of a loyal friend while exploiting Kane's desires for his own ends.
- Off with His Head!: He's decapitated by you if the two of you fight to the death at the swamp temple.
- Straight Gay: He has apparently had sex with a male shadow guard, though you wouldn't know his sexuality if you didn't hear it from said guard.
Felding
Another eternal.
- Asshole Victim: He's a disgrace to the eternials and humanity as a whole, so his quick death is a relief for pretty much everyone.
- Attempted Rape: What he's introduced doing to a girl at his mercy. When you stop him, he believes you wanted first dibs on her and complains at you for ruining his fun.
- Establishing Character Moment: He's introduced attempting to rape a girl while bragging that she should feel lucky. Fortunately for everyone but him, he's stopped before he can commence the evil deed.
- Hate Sink: In just a few moments, he's made to be so thoroughly unlikable that killing him feels both satisfying and justified.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: He tries to rape a girl after murdering everyone else in her village. Even you (one of the other raiders) are disgusted by this action.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: His primary way of staying entertained during his raids.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He's thankfully slain by you before you get too acquainted with this odious bastard.
Other characters (will split into categories later)
The emperor
The Emperor of The Empire itself.
- Big Brother Is Watching You: The emperor apparently is. He sees all, he knows all, and creepiest of all, he's always watching you. Sleep easy at night, eternal.
- Cult of Personality: Due to a meticulous propaganda campaign carried out over centuries, he's become this, with millions blindly worshipping him despite knowing nothing about who he really is.
- The Empire: This is the creatively named domain he rules with an iron fist. Unfortunately, you just so happen to be a citizen of it.
- The Emperor: What he is. His power over his empire is absolute, and to go against him in any way shape or form only serves to hasten your demise.
- God-Emperor: He's a god in all but name according to his citizens, so much that other religions are quashed if they take any attention away from him or prioritise some other god's name before his. As far as the citizens are concerned, he's ominipotent and immortal, observing and judging their every action.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: To give him an ominous and mysterious aura, he's simply referred to as The Emperor, as naming him would strip him of some of his mystique.
- Propaganda Hero: What he is to his citizens. He's treated like a god among men, and merely critisising him is paramount to treason.
- Shrouded in Myth: Due to the intense propaganda people are fed about him, what's true and false about him is unknown. All that's known is that his power is absolute and his control is unbreakable.
- Unreliable Narrator: Everything about him should be taken with a grain of salt, as all public information only serves to construct a godlike figure for the citizens to fear and obey.
- Would Hurt a Child: In order to create the perfect Super-Soldier, newborns are taken from their parents and placed into a gruelling and dangerous program to enhance their abilities far beyond their basic capacities. Due to the unstable nature of these trials, most babies perish during these experiments, and any toddlers that are deemed unworthy of continuing the program are executed and replaced. While the emperor doesn't personally carry out the experiments, he enables them to continue, meaning the countless corpses of the young stain his already crimson hands.
Edolith
The leader of the elven mercenaries
- Ax-Crazy: She responds with glee while murdering an entire city. Even worse, the mass slaughter of children does nothing to deter her homicidal impulses.
- Asshole Victim: Her death is violent, but she deserves every second of it.
- Bad Boss: She leads her company through fear and intimidation, though they seem to respect her for her combat abilities. Even though she's respected by them, she's far from loved, something she knows all too well.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: She has her nose broken, her teeth shattered, and her throat torn out. It's safe to say her death was a painful one.
- Enemy Mine: Her and her company are only tolerating the human military due to them having a mutual hatred to the svelds.
- Evil Gloating: She does this moments before massacring your army and the elven villagers. It's the last thing you hear.
- Fantastic Racism: She hates the sveld even more than she hates humans, and she hates humans a hell of a lot.
- Hate Sink: She's a cruel and traitorous sadist without a single positive quality. While she's no worse than you, she's infinitely more unlikable.
- Jerkass: She's a haughty, surly jerkbag oozing with contempt for you and your kind. Unfortunately, the two of you have to work together on occasion, forcing you to put up with her cold barbs.
- Skewed Priorities: After almost being executed by you for attempting to provoke you, she's far more concerned about how she'll smell like a human for a few days rather than her brief brush with death.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With you and your armies. Edolith and her company only stay around due to their sizable wages and your combined interest in wiping out the local sveld population. It's clear she and her kind hate you and your fellow humans almost as much as they despise the "lesser" elves.
- Would Hurt a Child: She nonchalantly murders a baby and in her massacre of the elven village, not even the children are spared from a bloody death.
Mistress
An elven teacher
- Fantastic Racism: She abhors those not as "pure" as her elven bretheren, freely talking down to those she deems as inferior.
- Insistent Terminology: She's a svelk, not a dark elf.
- Jerkass: She's an incredibly cruel bitch, one of many in this story.
- Lack of Empathy: She couldn't give less of a shit about the agony she inflicts on young children, seeing it as their own fault for being weak if they die by her hand.
- Sadist Teacher: Her teaching mostly consists of attacking her students for the slightest mistakes, then insulting them for their emotional reactions.
- Would Hurt a Child: When a young student asks her what they will be learning, she responds by striking them with a bolt of lightning, causing a great deal of pain to them. To make matters worse, she forbids anyone from helping them, merely waiting for them to shrug of their agony before continuing like nothing has happened. She then confirms this isn't a one off thing by attempting to murder you as well.
Mr. Mol
A well dressed man.
- I Told You So: If Kane is executed for manslaughter, he'll use this to seperate your troop, claiming it should have been done from the very start to stop something like this from ever occuring.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: He seems desperate to do this to you and your fellow eternals, attempting this at every possible turn.
- Nerves of Steel: He either has this or no concern about Gruz's threats, calmly deflecting his threats and insults. Keep in mind that Gruz is a violent Blood Knight renowned for his strength and aggression.
Wally
A soldier of the arad providence
- Establishing Character Moment: He makes a flippant remark about the ineffectiveness of Harry's taunt to you and stands by as his friend badmouths the king. This is the polar opposite type of person that you've met before and serves to highlight just how different the arad population are from your countrymen.
Harry
Another soldier of the arad providence
- Establishing Character Moment: He aims a weapon at you before spouting out an ineffective threat. When Wally calls him out for said ineffective threat, he retorts that he's had to say so many that it's no surprise they're not all zingers. He then goes on about how he hates the king This shows a drastically different type of person than you've encountered in your home kingdom, and represents the stark contrast of the Arad population.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: He's a lot more profane than most of his fellow soldiers.
Chuck
Another felkan soldier
Military
Captain Gruz
An orc captain
- The Ace: He's far more intelligent than most orcs and so gifted on the battlefield that he was given a command far above what his kind usually had access to. It's clear his tales of battles and bloodshed are backed up by his performance.
- Affably Evil: He's a traitor and a treasonous usurper, yet a jovial and reasonable person.
- Blood Knight: Like most other orcs, he lives for the glory of battle, making him an incredibly useful soldier.
- Boomerang Bigot: He despises orcs, despite being one. This may be because he's far smarter than most of them, and he resents the bad reputation they have for others.
- Brains and Brawn: His mixture of intelligence and physical power have served him and the empire well.
- Broken Pedestal: He lost all faith in the empire when he finally understood just how horribly they'd treated him.
- Brutal Honesty: He's incredibly blunt about his opinions, no matter how harsh and harmful they are.
- The Bus Came Back: In the beg path, you reunite with him a decade and a half later. By this time, he's finally obtained the position he's yearned for, leaving him in far better spirits than when you previously parted ways.
- Cool Old Guy: It's unknown quite how old he is, but he's many years your senior and still a formidable warrior.
- Cool Teacher: Well, for the standards of his work at least. He actively encourages you to bond with your classmates and have some free time each day, to build your character as well as your skills. This line of thinking makes him a far more popular teacher than Mistress, who would respond to such insolence with violence.
- Dark Secret: It turns out he was complicit in Cyrus and Kane's mutiny. Even worse, he's the one who provided the orcs as a Dumb Muscle.
- Death by Irony: He can be slain in battle by one of his own students.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: He's cruel and uncompromising, yet rather effective in turning children into killing machines.
- Evil Mentor: Once you reunite with him, it turns out he's defected to Cyrus' side, and wholly embraced his ideals. This leads to the two of you having a bloody battle to the death right beside the recently felled Cyrus. You even use what he's taught you to defeat him in the brutal melee that commences.
- Evil Old Folks: He's far older than you, and also the one who supplied the manpower for Cyrus' attempted coup.
- Face Death with Dignity: Instead of insulting or cursing you, he uses his last moments to calmly warn you how detestable the Empire and the eternals have become, showing that he died as he lived: honorably.
- Genius Bruiser: He's extremely perceptive and tactically gifted, as well as a fearsome soldier on the battlefield. These two attributes have propelled him far beyond what most orcs ever achieve and made him a highly respected leader.
- Manipulative Bastard: He reunites you with several of your brother in arms in order to fight the shadow guards. What he omits to say is that his goal is to stop them all from revealing his involvement in the takeover of Fort Defiance so he won't face any repercussions for his treason. He almost gets away with it too.
- Motive Rant: He gives one as he's dying. He mentions how he grew disillusioned with the empire after realising they saw him and his kind as expendable, and how his successes for them were ultimately meaningless, as him and his battles were pointless in their eyes.
- Tragic Villain: He participated in a violent uprising, though he'd come to terms with the fact he'd been a puppet for a regieme who saw him as cannon fodder. Considering this level of betrayal, it's easy to see why he snapped.
- Training from Hell: His training involves you fighting dangerous wild beasts, where your life is always on the line. Fortunately, you fell the beasts before they can repay the favor.
- Undying Loyalty: He fights for the empire due to them giving him the respect and power he yearns for. To you and your classmates, he's vocal about his allegiance to them and their ways.
- This ends up being subverted in the beg path, where it turned out him, Cyrus, and Kane conspired to break free from the empire's grasp, though this plan was ultimately aborted after Cyrus betrayed both of them at fort defiance.
- Walking Spoiler: The fact that he's a defector comes as quite a shock, especially since he embodied the idea of Undying Loyalty when first encountered.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His desire to be part of a society where him and his fellow orcs were respected is admirable. Starting a coup and conspiring with a terrorist leader isn't.
Captain Pollo
A commanding officer you can be stationed under.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: Anu agrees with your argument that Pollo had it coming and agrees to exonorate Gerald for his crime. Everyone is happy that Gerald is released and Pollo is dead, since a competent soldier now runs the fort.
- Asshole Victim: Due to attempting to rape Gerald as well as being a horrific piece of shit, nobody cares too much when he's murdered by his would be victim.
- Depraved Homosexual: He demands you order one of your own men to stay behind at Pollo's fort so he can lust after him.
- Dirty Coward: He gets others to do things he could easily do himself due to not wanting to face any sort of danger whatsoever. This makes him despised by your troop and his fellow soldiers.
- Disproportionate Retribution: He makes you and your troop clean toilets for months because you wouldn't let him lust over Gerald.
- Ephebophile: His first action when meeting you and your soldiers is to lust over a muscular young man in your command. Since Pollo is far older than the sixteen year old greenhorn, it makes it instantly clear he has some deviant sexual attractions.
- Hated by All: Nobody has anything good to say about him due to his incompetence and personality, and serving under him is treated as a Fate Worse than Death by Captain Gruz.
- Hate Sink: He's not too evil for the standards of this gamebook, but he's such a lazy, disgusting bastard that you'll be wishing for his quick and painful death the moment you meet him.
- Karmic Death: He's killed by the boy he attempted to rape.
- Killed Offscreen: He's murdered by Gerald while you and your troop are slaying Kobolds.
- Meaningful Name: Pollo's an apt name for a man too chicken to solve problems by himself, arbitrarily sending other soldiers to do so while he lounges around in his fort.
- Neck Snap: How Gerald kills him, should the two of them be left alone.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: His deviant advances on teenage boys are treated with repulsion and horror, so much so that a blind eye is turned to Gerald when he kills him.
- Serial Rapist: What he's implied to be, as there's many tales of young boys being left alone with him while their teammates went out to battle.
Lieutenant Anu
Pollo's second in command.
- Brutal Honesty: He speaks his mind freely and makes his opinions loud and clear. Even those that disparage the emperor and his rule.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: It's instantly apparent he's a far better commander than Pollo, actually having some tactical knowledge and logical skills.
- Only Sane Man: He's the only one of Pollo's soldiers brave enough to tell him that he's squandering resources and increasing tensions needlessly while he sits around and delegates work to others to avoid doing it himself.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He allows you to battle as the army is running low on soldiers and agrees to exonorate Gerald due to the sympathetic circumstances surrounding his crimes.
Captain Ian
An army captain you can encounter.
- Dead All Along: It turns out the reports you were getting from fort defiance were Kane impersonating him to deter suspicion from his treasonous activities. Ian was killed long before these letters were sent to you.
- General Failure: While Pollo was awful out of laziness, Ian fails out of incompetence, making error after error. This has weakened both the manpower and morale of his troops as well as cementing his ineptitude as a leader.
- Karmic Death: He pays for his incompetence by dying during one of his ill-fated patrols.
- Killed Offscreen: He dies some time during the Time Skip, being secretly replaced and impersonated by Kane and his orcish army.
- Too Dumb to Live: Deciding to patrol during a blizard while knowing full well they could be ambushed at any time ends up being a disasterous blunder.
Corporal Delan
Another military man you encounter.
- Epic Fail: He arrives to help defeat the shaman/Sand Worm ...moments after you and your army have taken care of him and his minions.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After travelling through the desert for 10 days and going deeper and deeper into usksha territory, he and his men haul ass, knowing that only death lies ahead.
Captain Alison Krozer
A captain stationed at Fort Destiny
- Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: While you and her are drinking after surviving an encounter with the Wendigos, she comes onto you requesting the two of you copulate. While initially unsure how to deal with this advance, you accept and find out why sex is such an enjoyable pasttime for the soldiers.
- Fantastic Racism: Like most humans, she's disdainful of the elves.
- Fate Worse than Death: Her body is used as a vessel by a wendigo, being controlled against her own will to attack the soldiers she cares deeply about.
- Frontline General: Due to abhorring how other generals stay behind their desks while their soldiers do all the work, she makes a habit of joining them in the battles they face.
- Irony: Being so skilled at planning turns out to be her undoing, as one of the wendigos who possesses her is able to use her extensive knowledge to defeat her own soldiers.
- Killed Offscreen: Sadly, she can be assassinated by a fucking bomb in the beg path. Fortunately, you don't have to witness such a brutal end to her life and only hear about it from Warrick.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She understands the concerns of her underlings and tries to keep them in good spirits, despite the hellish conditions she's subjected to.
Lieutenant Verant
Another soldier stationed at Fort Destiny
- Cowardly Lion: A trait he embodies and a huge impairment for someone of his position.
- Foil: While Krozer is a Frontline General ready to fight any danger she faces, Verant is a meek coward who tries to avoid conflict at every opportunity.
- General Failure: He's woefully out of his depth at Fort Destiny, to the point that he's not even able to issue basic commands to his own underlings without heavy prodding by someone else. It's a wonder he's gotten to where he is.
- Irony: He's a high ranking officer who balks at the idea of issuing commands to others. In short, he tries to avoid doing the thing most required of him.
Captain Eckers
A captain of the Felkan military
- Curb-Stomp Battle: He's on the receiving end of this when the gnolls breach his fortress and lay waste to him and his soldiers.
- Mr. Exposition: He serves as an introduction to some of the internal military politics of the Felkan kingdom and provides some insight into the empire and it's failures.
- Off with His Head!: He can be decapitated by a gnoll during an attack on his fort.
- Only Sane Man: He's aware his soldiers aren't strong enough to withstand any more attacks and that a more aggressive set of actions is required to push back gnolls and bandits. Too bad nobody seems to be paying attention to his legitimate grievances.
Monsters and creatures
Kobold Chieftain
A kobold terrorising Dalt
- Asshole Victim: He's left at the mercy of the village him and his kobolds attacked. They repay the favor.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He's tortured and torn apart while completely helpless to do anything about it.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: He's not exactly the toughest opponent you face, being subdued without too much effort.
- Karmic Death: He's killed by the villagers he terrorised for so long.
- Sssssnake Talk: He speaks with a noticable lisp when you encounter him.
- Starter Villain: He's one of the first real threats you and your troops can face.
- Zerg Rush: How he and his kobolds operate, due to being pathetically weak by themselves. Once his minions are whittled away, he's easily captured and killed due to being outnumbered and underpowered.
Usk shaman
An evil shaman terrorising Jekka
- Asshole Victim: He's a mass murderer and a ruthless shaman, so his brutal death is rather cathartic.
- Evil Is Petty: He spends most of his rampage killing villagers who pose no threat to him instead of simply facing you directly.
- Eye Scream: You deal the first major blow to him by impaling him through the eye with your sword.
- Sand Worm: What he has become due to his magic and currying the favor of Usk.
- Spare a Messenger: He does this to a citizen to let them know he will no longer tolerate non-Uskshas in his land.
- This Cannot Be!: His last words before you execute him are bewilderment that him and his nomads were unable to reclaim their land.
- Was Once a Man: He was once just a shaman before the gods transformed him to a giant worm capable of destroying buildings just by smashing into them.
"Roger"
A carpenter and wendigo
- Bad Liar: He blows his cover almost instantly due to revealing far too much information he shouldn't have known. Though it's possible he was just doing this to taunt you.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Well, Wendigo in Roger's clothing. He seems like a strange villager oddly insistent in having you stay at his inn, but the truth is far more sinister.
- Fate Worse than Death: The real Roger went missing and was possessed by a wendigo some time later. He now lives in a secluded village, luring visitors to their deaths. Whatever this thing is, it's certainly not Roger anymore.
- Faux Affably Evil: He politely greets you and offers you a place at his inn. Of course, this act is dropped instantly when you are able to see through his lies.
- Hell Is That Noise: The sounds made by him and his fellow wendigos are blood-curdling.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: He knows you're searching for wendigos even before you tell him. This just confirms your suspicion of him.
- Karma Houdini: If you go after him while searching for Captain Krozer, he'll kill you and get away with his crimes. He'll even get a tasty shoulder to nibble on for his troubles.
Wendigo leader
The leader of the wendigos
- The Corruptor: He slowly breaks the minds of those he comes into contact with, turning them into his wendigo minions.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: His foot is cut off and he has a sword shoved through his jaw, only "dying" when half his head is sliced off. Of course, since the body is only a vessel for his evil spirit, it only temporarily incapacitates him.
- Hell Is That Noise: Like all the other wendigos, his howls are the stuff of nightmares.
- Large and in Charge: He's the largest and most powerful wendigo.
- Light Is Not Good: He has white fur and if an incredibly evil wendigo.
- Manipulative Bastard: He incites people to embrace their cannibalistic urges, tricking them into taking the first steps of becoming a wendigo. In order to do this, he preys on the weaknesses and fear of his victims.
