Characters from the video game series Gabriel Knight.
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Main/Recurring Characters
Gabriel Knight
- Appearances - video games: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery, Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition.Appearances - tie-in materials: Sins of the Fathers (novel), The Beast Within (novel), Gabriel Knight: The Temptation (one-shot comic/short story).Voiced by: Tim Curry (Sins of the Father, Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned), Dean Erickson (The Beast Within), Jason Victor (20th Anniversary)
- Ambiguously Bi: While his appreciation of beautiful women is borderline legendary, his mutual attraction with Von Glower is barely even subtext, really. Not to mention that it's Von Glower, not Grace as is initially implied, who forms the Hallucinations plaguing Gabriel in Temptation.
- Anti-Hero: Primarily of the Knight in Sour Armor type, also called a Disney Anti-Hero, due to his vices for alcohol and casual sex. Frequently slips into Unscrupulous Hero, which is unsurprising considering he's often called upon to shoulder the burden of humanity's fate by himself.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: Kind of expected from an adventure game character. Gabriel isn't above stealing a priest's collar or even a police detective's badge.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Grace.
- Dating Catwoman: Gabriel has an unfortunate tendency towards this, with Malia in the first game and Von Glower in the second. Doubly Averted in the third, though, when it turns out that Madeline is not so much evil as just plain bitchy, and Gabriel chooses Grace over her anyway.
- Deadpan Snarker: All the time, but particularly with Grace and Mosely.
- Distressed Dude: Happens a couple of times in Sins of the Fathers, and provides the climactic scene (not to mention much of the main plot) of The Beast Within.
- Handsome Lech
- Heir Club for Men: As the last living male in the Ritter family line, he's obliged to produce at least one son or risk the Schattenjägers dying out. As of Temptation, he can't decide which option he likes least.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's kind of a jerk, but he does genuinely take his responsibilities as Schattenjäger seriously, and cares about the people who are getting hurt as a result of the monsters he hunts.
- It's true in his personal life as well in GK3, where both the "jerk" and "heart of gold" tendencies are in full force with regards to Grace.
- Ladykiller in Love:
- With Malia in GK1.
- Gabriel seems to have something of a Love Epiphany towards Grace near the end of Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned. It's enough to get him to turn down an offer from Madeline, anyway; too bad Grace has already given up on him and left by the time he turns up at her hotel room at the end.
- Limited Wardrobe: Always wears blue jeans and a white t-shirt, with a black leather jacket or a black Badass Long Coat, depending on the season. Lampshaded in the 20th anniversary remake, where he finds the catalogue from his clothing supplier (who sell only plain, block-colour t-shirts) and jokes that they've provided his entire wardrobe since forever, which is backed up by the contents of the closet in his bedroom, which is full of white t-shirts and one black button up, "for special occasions".
- Meaningful Name: Harking to the angel and the noble title, respectively. His German ancestral name, "Ritter" translates literally into "Knight", too.
- Messy Hair: It's joked frequently that Gabriel puts a lot of time and effort into ensuring his hair always looks like he just got out of bed. Grace and the narrator both enjoy snarking on it in GK1. Actually is a plot point when he has to flatten and smooth it down with hair gel to pass as "Father MacLaughlin".
- Most Writers Are Writers: Like Jane Jensen, Gabriel is a novelist. He starts off writing a book about the "Voodoo Murders".
- Must Have Caffeine: Mosley notes he's a caffeine addict, and he's particularly fond of the coffee Grace makes for the shop.
- Occult Detective: Gabriel investigates murders related to things such as Voodoo, Werewolves and Vampires.
- Raised by Grandparents: By his paternal grandmother, to be specific, since his parents died in an accident when he was very young. It's clear by their interactions that he adores her.
- Really Gets Around: Confesses that he had more than forty women in Sins Of The Father.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Invents an impromptu "blessing" for Madame Cauzanoux's bracelet on the spot. Justified, since he is a writer and wrote at least some poetry.
- Speaking Simlish: Though he makes his home primarily in Germany from the second game onward, what we hear of him speaking German is... not good.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Mosely.
- Unlikely Hero: He's just a sleazebag, poor bookseller who suddenly becomes the one who will save the world from a supernatural-oriented cult
Grace Nakimura
- Appearances - video games: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery, Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition.Appearances - tie-in materials: Sins of the Fathers (novel), The Beast Within (novel).Voiced by: Leah Remini (Sins of the Fathers), Joanne Takahashi (The Beast Within), Charity James (Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned), Cissy Jones (20th Anniversary)
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: "Nakimura" seems to be a misspelling of the common Japanese surname 中村, which is almost exclusively rendered into the Latin alphabet as "Nakamura". Despite this, the 20th anniversary remake didn't take the opportunity to fix the spelling, even though a few similar issues were corrected, such as Gabriel's mispronunciation of "N'Awlins".
- Badass Bookworm: Though her primary role is as Gabriel's research assistant, she studies tai chi and can hold her own in a serious fight by the third game. Not to mention her decision to train as a Schattenjäger herself at the end of the third installment.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: A mild Aversion in the first game, where she gets pretty beaten up towards the end.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Gabriel. The Dragon in Sins of the Fathers includes her among the three women who have loved Gabriel "purely" (the other two being Malia and Gabe's grandmother.")
- Damsel in Distress: She's kidnapped by the Voudoun cult at the climax of Sins of the Fathers, prompting Gabriel and Mosely to rush to her rescue. She gets her turn at playing Big Damn Heroes in the sequel, though.
- While she never actually becomes a victim in Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, Gabriel's nightmare of her being attacked by a vampire while she's asleep is enough to spark off a Love Epiphany towards her.
- Deadpan Snarker: Usually at Gabriel's expense.
- Deuteragonist: After becoming playable in the second and third games, her investigations tend to go off on their own paths before she and Gabriel meet back up to compare notes. Especially true in the third game, when her investigation isn't geared around helping Gabriel but in solving the case for the sake of the client, and she begins to think about branching out on her own as a Schattenjäger.
- Hot Librarian: She fits every part of this trope other than the optional bit about being an actual librarian, though given her academic background and status as Gabriel's researcher, she's clearly at home in a library. Particularly true in the first game, where she wears glasses and (in the original) a demure long skirt, both of which she ditches for more practical low-key Action Girl garb in the sequels. Somewhat downplayed by the end of the third game, when she finally gives in to the temptation to hook up with Gabriel, removing one of the Hot Librarian's key characterisations of "never giving in to the lecherous guy".
- Girl Friday: She's Gabriel's loyal secretary with lots of Belligerent Sexual Tension between them.
- Mission Control: Grace provides a low-tech version of this in Sins of the Fathers, where she provides Gabriel with all necessary research and keeps him in contact with important characters via phone messages. When she's non-playable towards the end of Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, she guides Gabriel through the finale via radio link.
- Promoted to Playable: She and Gabriel star in alternate chapters in The Beast Within and Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned.
- Put on a Bus: She leaves Gabriel at the end of GK3 to travel to India and train as a Schattenjäger. Though there's only been one brief addition to the canon since then, she's absent from The Temptation for this reason.
- Screw Destiny: It's implied in GK3 that Grace is destined to become the mother of the next generation of Schattenjägers. Grace is not particularly impressed, and decides instead to become one herself.
- Tsundere: To Gabriel. More "tsun-" than "-dere" most of the time, but the latter's definitely there too.
Franklin Mosely
- Appearances - video games: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition.Appearances - tie-in materials: Sins of the Fathers (novel).Voiced by: Mark Hamill (Sins of the Fathers), David Thomas (Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned), Ned Clarke (20th Anniversary)
- Butt-Monkey: Partly due to his own natural bad luck, partly because Gabriel loves to make him one.
- Cowboy Cop: While he's usually very good and responsible at his job, he has a major blind-spot for helping Gabriel out when he shouldn't.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Through much of SOTF he looks little more than a piece of fat sitting in his office and allowing Gabriel to take advantage of him. However, he later turns out to be a very good detective:
- The ability to think and act quickly he demonstrates in the crypt, where Gabriel mistakes him for dead, and which is revealed only in the last day, comes as a shock. And dispatching the fearsome Dr. John with a single shot may count as his moment of awesome. And then he catches a solid gold (read: incredibly heavy) medallion with one (injured) hand.
- He also manages to hold his own against two Night Visitors at the end of GK3. Though he did have help and like the GK1 example, was the only one with a gun.
- Finding out he's working for the CIA in GK3 is quite a level of implied badass.
- Friend on the Force: Gabe isn't a detective, but he does do some sleuthing with the help of his good friend Detective Mosely. He also uses Mosely to get information for his novels.
- Hero of Another Story: In the first game he's legitimately investigating the Voodoo murders case even before Gabriel gets involved, and continues to follow traditional avenues of detection as Gabriel does his thing. In the third game, unknown to Gabriel and Grace he's been poached from the NOPD by the CIA and is actually investigating the same case as them, something that must have quite an off-screen backstory to it.
- Tritagonist: He never became playable and was entirely absent from the second game, but his involvement with the investigations, the importance of his relationships with the leads, and the fact that he's clearly the Hero of Another Story much of the time make him one. He's also the only supporting character in the series to get nearly anything like as much screen time as Gabriel and Grace.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Gabriel.
Gerde Hull
- Appearances - video games: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers 20th Anniversary Edition.Appearances - tie-in materials: Sins of the Fathers (novel), The Beast Within (novel).Voiced by: Mary Kay Bergman (Sins of the Fathers), Andrea Martin (The Beast Within), Alex Matthew (20th Anniversary)
- Age Lift: Notable in that pretty much every appearance changes her age to some degree:
- In the original Sins of the Fathers video game, she states that she's 22 (since she's been working for Wolfgang for four years, since the age of 18).
- In the novelisation of said game, Gabriel estimates her age to be about 35.
- In the live-action game The Beast Within, her actress looked to be around 30 (about the same age as the actors playing Gabriel and Grace).
- In the 20th anniversary remake of Sins of the Fathers, references to her youth were replaced with comments about her mature attractiveness, and her character model is aged up significantly so that she appears to be in early middle age.
- Characterization Marches On: In Sins of the Father, Gerde was little more than a slightly helpful maid in Yodel Land costume (although what she says, or rather doesn't say, about Wolfgang at least implies what is later stated explicitly). In Beast Within, where Grace has far more interaction with her, not only is she dressed more modernly, but she also comes into her own as a character, especially given the knowledge that she was in love with Wolfgang.
- May–December Romance: The Beast Within reveals that she and Wolfgang were lovers.
- Put on a Bus: Is completely absent from the third game, and The Temptation mentions that she got married and left the Ritter castle, leaving Gabriel on his own. Given how uncertain the future of the series is, it seems rather unlikely we'll hear from her again.
- Second Love: Gabriel mentions in Temptation that she left his employ to get married, suggesting that she finally managed to move on after Wolfgang's death.
- Yodel Land: Her outfit in Sins of the Fathers is extremely stereotypical of this. She wears very sensible modern clothing in The Beast Within, though.
Baron Friedrich von Glower
- Appearances - video games: The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery.Appearances - tie-in materials: The Beast Within (novel), Gabriel Knight: The Temptation (one-shot comic/short story).Voiced by: Peter J. Lucas
- Above Good and Evil: His letter to Gabriel tries to convince him that such concepts are nonexistent, and that learning to thrive in (his idea of) nature is all that matters.
- Affably Evil: Genuinely nice, polite and easygoing, especially compared to most other aristocrats Gabriel talks to throughout the games. It really makes you forget he's killed and eaten people before.
- Alas, Poor Villain: When he's finally trapped and burns to death in the furnace, he gives a brief look of somber resignation, as if lamenting that his philosophy will never come to fruition.
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Alternative Character Interpretation: By the time of the game's events, was he truly sincere in his sentiment of wanting to transcend humanity's values and treat Gabriel as an equal, or did he harbor some hidden resentment towards Gabriel's family for hunting and executing his father which he fed into by forcing Gabriel to live with the curse? - Ambiguously Gay: It's never explicitly stated as stemming from sexual attraction, but all of the "companions" he seeks to join him in lycanthropy have been young and handsome men.
- Anti-Villain: As it turns out, the deaths Gabriel has been investigating in the second game are all caused by a subordinate werewolf of his; the evil we see from him in-game amounts primarily to turning people into werewolves in the first place because he's become lonely as an immortal being.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Holds a title of nobility along with most of the other members of the hunting lodge, which is said to be a requisite for joining, though in the end it appears to be up to him. Played With; the other nobles in the lodge are given some unflattering atributes, but the title of 'villain' only truly applies to him and von Zell.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Sharply disagrees with his Beta werewolf's method of randomly and openly massacring people for the sake of it. Of course, his own method of carefully studying and isolating his victims whose bodies are never found is arguably more frightening.
- Glamour Failure: The combination of the opera music and the sound of Wolf!Gabriel's howling forced him into his wolf form at the end.
- In the Blood: He became a werewolf because of a curse on his father's bloodline.
- Man of Wealth and Taste
- Our Werewolves Are Different: With his aristocratic background and seductive relationship to the protagonist, he's almost more of a vampire than the actual vampires in GK3
- Tragic Villain: He was the son of a baron who raped a young Gypsy girl and became cursed to lycanthropy as a result, and the curse was passed down to Friedrich himself as well, transforming him into "The Black Wolf." Despite living for centuries as a werewolf and committing countless slaughters, von Glower seemed to believe that the werewolf curse could be controlled, and he seriously wanted to control it. Of course, as Grace points out, this does not excuse his villainy, as she reminds Gabriel how he's chosen to perpetrate and cover up horrible murders.
- The Von Trope Family: The "von" hints to his character alignment.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: His immortality has left him tremendously lonely and much of the plot is caused by him trying to find somebody to share his predicament with him (since he does enjoy being a werewolf), albeit with mixed results. Both Ludwig and von Zell went insane due to lycanthropy and he only ends up pursuing Gabriel because of his Schattenjäger blood, believing he could resist it better than normal humans.
Sins of the Fathers
Malia Gedde
- Voiced by: Leilani Jones (original), Amy Ingersoll (20th Anniversary)
- Anti-Villain: Though directly responsible for the Voodoo Murders (which were themselves an example of Pay Evil unto Evil), Malia cared about Gabriel and was more a victim of her tribe's Loa (particularly Tetelo) than a villain in her own right.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Malia is of very high social class. Her evil nature only comes through possession though.
- Big Bad
- Girl of the Week
- Forced into Evil: She never had a choice in becoming the earthly vessel of Tetelo's Loa and taking leadership of the voodoo cartel, nor would she ever have chosen it for herself.
- Heroic Suicide: Natural if you're possessed by a vengeful spirit and in love, with your sworn enemy. But the voodoo murders have stopped.
- Powers via Possession: Malia Gedde. Justified as this is how Vodoun works.
- Raised as a Host: She and all of the women in her families were born to serve as vessels for Tetelo's Loa.
- Taking You with Me: To Tetelo if Gabriel attempts to rescue her, or to Gabriel himself if he doesn't.
- Tragic Villain: She was the great-great-etc. granddaughter of Tetelo, a voodoo priestess whose tribe's traditions included such things as cabrit sans cor. Malia herself had no ill will toward Gabriel and even seemed to be in love with him, but Tetelo's influence forced her to attack him and abduct his friend.
Doctor John
- Voiced by: Michael Dorn (original), Dave Fennoy (20th Anniversary)
- Deadpan Snarker: Talking to him will get this exchange:Gabriel: Do you ever get any whacko's in here?
Doctor John: You mean besides yourself? - Creepy Souvenir: His private quarters are lined with the skinned faces of the cartel's victims.
- The Dragon: He is Malia Gedde's right-hand man.
- Dragon with an Agenda: He is much more malicious than Malia, and he has no qualms about killing Gabriel Knight even when Malia specifically ordered him not to. At least he doesn't attack until Gabriel goes where he shouldn't.
- Faux Affably Evil: His overly polite demeanor towards Gabriel at the museum is just a facade.
- Heir Club for Men: Inverted Trope, as dialogue implies he is to give Malia a daughter and insure that Tetelo will have a vessel for the next generation.
- Made of Iron: Dr John is every bit as resilient as he is big. In certain death scenes he takes a roundhouse kick to the face or several right hooks to the jaw followed by several blows to the stomach. None of them even make him flinch. It takes being shot with a gun to do him in.
- Scary Black Man: He has a calm, learned demeanor, but he towers over everyone else and is heavily muscled, making him an intimidating person to be around. Late in the game, he is revealed to be the right-hand man of the Voudoun cult, and is responsible for almost all possible deaths after he is revealed to be such, typically killing Gabriel with his bare fists.
Wolfgang Ritter
- Voiced by: Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
- Badass Longcoat: He sports one at the African caves.
- May–December Romance: Wolfgang and Gerde.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Wolfgang falls victim to this on Day 8 of Sins of the Fathers.
Willy Walker
- Voiced by: Rocky Carroll
The Owner of Dixieland Drug Store.
Crash
Professor Hartridge
- Insufferable Genius: "I am never wrong, Mr. Knight, therefore 'sure' is not in my vocabulary."
The Beast Within
The Royal Bavarian Hunting Lodge
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Downplayed, for the most part. All members have Blue Blood, but most of them are no more evil than your average corrupt politician or sadomasochist. Only von Zell and von Glower play the trope fully straight.
- Egomaniac Hunters: Some more and some less, but considering what the club hides in the trophy room, they are not above bringing in and hunting down the more exotic and endangered species as well.
Baron Garr von Zell
- Voiced by: Richard Raynesford
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: While always competitive and conceited, Preiss described him as decent enough and Von Glower's favorite before something changed him. He later took his werewolf mentor's teachings and ran south with it, disdaining conservative hunting in favor of gratuitous slaughter, leaving the remains of his victims scattered for all to see.
- Ax-Crazy: And completely unable to restrain himself.
- The Dragon: To Friedrich von Glower.
- Would Hurt a Child: Which is why the child's family summoned Gabriel to deal with him in the first place.
- The Von Trope Family: The "von" hints to his character alignment.
Herr Doktor Stephan Klingmann
- Voiced by: Wolf Muser
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: He doesn't take it very well when Gabe gets too informal with him during their first conversation, insisting on at least being referred to as "Herr Doktor".
Herr Otto Preiss
Kriminalkommissar Leber
- Voiced by: Nicholas Worth
- Friend on the Force: He takes the role over from Mosely, though it's quite a stretch to call him "friend". He's much more friendly with Grace later on, which proves instrumental.
- Large Ham
- Temporary Substitute: Kriminal Kommissar Leber fills the Mosely role in this game.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
King Ludwig II:
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: He was seduced by a charismatic male werewolf, whose son seduces the otherwise straight Gabe. Also, Ludwig and Richard Wagner had worked together to create an opera which, when performed under the acoustic conditions specially engineered into Neuschwanstein Castle, would trigger a werewolf's transformation involuntarily. Ludwig's purported "madness" was a cover for lycanthropy.
- Historical Domain Character: Obviously.
Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
Characters from tie-in materials
