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    Protagonists in The Crusaders 

Gerald

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gerald.jpg
They'll get theirs... I swear it!
Information:
  • Faction: Hironeiden
  • Weapon: One-handed Sword

A Commander, and later General of Hironeiden.


  • Badass Cape: To further cement his high ranking he wears a cape with a fancy fur collar.
  • Bash Brothers: Him and Rupert are very close thanks to both being raised by General Hugh, they work and fight well together.
  • Berserk Button: Threatening Hironeiden, his friends or family. It makes him lose his strategic cool.
  • Conveniently an Orphan: He is a war orphan, and alongside Rupert was raised by General Hugh.
  • Decoy Protagonist: Set up as the main character of the game and probably the one character closest to the typical heroic archetype, but ultimately, the resolution to the Encablossa Crisis lies in the hands of Kendal and Regnier and not Gerald.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: Wears only one pauldron, his left shoulder is barren.
  • Fatal Flaw: His inability to adhere to reason and obey orders when Hironeiden is threatened.
  • Frontline General: Using a similar trick to that one General Hugh deployed against Lucretia, Gerald uses himself as bait against Leinhart in the battle for Arein, though it somewhat backfires.
  • For Great Justice: Claims that is why he and his soldiers fight.
  • The Hero: Though an unusually temperamental one for a character that is not really an Idiot Hero.
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Fitting with his atypical fantasy hero shtick, he charges into battle with only a one-handed sword.
  • Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Furthering his almost cliched fantasy hero style, he has a full plate of armor sans helmet.
  • Hot-Blooded: Has a serious problem in tactical judgment when his emotions get the better of him.
  • Jack of All Stats: With some Lightning Bruiser elements.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Has a bad habit of rushing into trouble when emotionally provoked.
  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: A dark version. See below.
  • Revenge Before Reason: He goes kind of Ax-Crazy, after the Dark Forces sack his home town. He also goes after Regnier at the end of his campaign to avenge General Hugh, despite that being very bad idea, that gets Rubpert killed.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Especially after Esse falls.
    Gerald: Die, you foul beasts! Die in fear and in agony! Argh! Monster! Feel the sting of my blade! Choke on your own dark, boiling blood! I will hang your intestines across my mantle, then spike your filthy heads upon my gate! You will rue the day you Dare. Attack. My. COUNTRY! FIENDS! ANIMALS! BASTARDS! I AM GERALD AND YOU WILL ALL DIE BY MY HAND!!!
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: In a more idealistic setting, his constant disobedience of orders and the chain of command in favor of idealism and his personal emotions might have allowed him to save the day, but in this game, it only costs him everything he cares about.

Lucretia

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kuftc_dark004.jpg
Are you even elves?!

Faction: Vellond-> Kaedes
Weapon:

Information:
  • Faction: Vellond (The Crusaders), Kaedes (Heroes)
  • Weapon: Dual Scimitars

A leader in the Vellond Border guards, with a bombastic arrogance.


  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: An odd postmortem case. She may have been mocking and insulting Rithrin all this time, but his death absolutely devastates her.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Rithrin. Mostly from her side.
  • Berserk Button: Don't call her Luci. (Actually, she tolerates it from Cirith.)
  • Cat Fight: With Morene. Constantly.
  • Dark Action Girl: She is arguably the most morally despicable of the four heroes, but she can fight just as well as the others.
  • Demoted to Extra: From one of the protagonists of The Crusaders to only appearing as the Final Boss of Morene's campaign in Heroes. After her campaign in the Crusaders, she has no relevancy to Regnier and Kendal's campaigns which are the endgame.
  • Dual Wielding: Cuts through her enemies with a pair of scimitars.
  • Fantastic Racism: Loathes humans ("apes") and half-vampires.
  • Flash Step: Her A and B-move do this, forward and backward, respectively.
  • Hot-Blooded: She has a bad temper, and constantly trash talks her opponents during battle.
  • Jerkass: She's kind of a haughty bitch.
  • Ms Fan Service: Like most elves.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: Well, countries, considering that the darkelves are traditionally organized into city-states. But Lucretia is a darkelf supremacist who absolutely despises that they are ruled by half-vampires now.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Morene's Blue. She is brash, arrogant and cocky, while Morene is quiet and cold.
  • Running Gag: Her distaste for being called Luci. At first, only Rithrin does it. Two missions later, even Cirith and Morene have joined in and Lucretia doesn't even have the energy to protest anymore.
  • She-Fu: Has probably the most exaggerated and fast-paced fighting style of all the protagonists, relying on super-fast chain combos with lots of jumping and spinning.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: She is the most vulgar of the protagonists.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: She was this at the beginning, (claiming to have done things, she had no prior experience with) but by the end of the game, her actions have more than caught up with her boasts.
  • Stripperiffic: As with most Dark Elves in the game, she barely wears clothing. At one point in the game she even wonders why would humans waste valued speed on such heavy armor.
  • Tsundere: A heavy type A. She is severely harsh and arrogant, always treating everyone with scorn. The moment she sees Rithrin being killed by the Patriarch forces, she goes ballistic.
  • Put on a Bus: She is the only of the four playable characters in Crusaders that doesn't participate in the endgame. Even if Gerard wasn't playable, he was still involved in both Kendall and Regnier campaigns. She disappears from the story, only to appear again in Morene final mission on Heroes.
  • Working with the Ex: With Rithrin, who was her lover in the past and they still have a thing for one another -even if she denies it.

Kendal

Forget not the name of God.
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kuftc_human004.jpg
Feel the wrath of the Divine!

Information:
  • Faction: Ecclesia
  • Weapon: Warhammer and Mace

A general of the Eclessian Holy knights, and the best friend of general Walter.


Regnier

Their short lives limit what meaning they can draw from life itself, they cling to their little reality, Never really seeing it, their lives are over so quickly it's as if they try to fight back with passion alone...You wouldn't understand...not for a long time.
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/regnier.jpg

Information:
  • Faction: Hexter
  • Weapon: Greatsword

A mysterious warrior who conquered Hexter, proclaiming himself as the lord of the land.


  • The Ace: Probably the strongest warrior in the world, and and it shows in gameplay with him having the best abilities and strength in the game. His only weakness is being rather slow and the Ancient Heart being able to control his actions.
  • Anti-Hero =/= Anti-Villain: Despite being the poster child for Obviously Evil, he is actually a Well-Intentioned Extremist trying to keep the world from falling apart and commits no atrocity any other military leader would of in this story.
  • The Dreaded: To the human forces, for good reason.
  • Famed In-Story: The orcs consider him a memetic badass of sorts.
  • Flaming Sword: Can set his sword on fire at the cost of high SP drain by holding B.
  • Hero Killer: He kills General Hugh at Wooden Shade, leaving Gerald to fill his former father figure's shoes.
  • Hidden Depths: His long lifespan has given him great insight into the human mind.
  • Kid with the Leash: Not him, but anyone holding the Ancient Heart can become this to him. The Patriarch, Vellond and the Kaedes are therefore all very interested in possessing it.
  • Magic Knight: He has some magical abilities that improve his already significant combat power.
  • Mighty Glacier: Great damage, great reach, but incredibly slow.
  • Noble Demon: Despite being a demonic looking warrior with a dreaded reputation on the battlefield, he is actually pretty affable and well meaning.
  • The Stoic: He's not exactly the talkative type.
  • Sword Beam: He can hit the ground and unleash the burning part of his blade as a wave of fire.
  • Time Abyss: In contrast to Valdemar, Regnier believes that immortality is helpful in discerning the meaning of life. Regnier is aware of how immortality alters perception of the world and tends to make one apathetic, giving Leinhart a speech much like Valdemar's, but nontheless accepts the loss of his immortality gracefully and fights on with all his strength for his goals, even being willing to sacrifice himself so that the continent may be saved.
  • One-Man Army: Notable for being this among a lot of characters who are lesser One-Person-Armies.
  • Undeath Always Ends: He becomes mortal again once the Ancient Heart is destroyed.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Orders his troops to capture Gerald so they can destroy Encablossa together, and generally is willing to do anything to get rid of said dark god.
    Protagonists in Heroes 

Ellen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kuftc_human003.jpg
We're soldiers. We put our swords first and our hearts second.

An Ecclesian captain under the command of Sir Justino. Ellen is a half-elf and constantly wears a face-covering helmet to hide her semi-pointed ears. When the secret of her heritage leaks out to Ecclesia, which is dominated by Fantastic Racism, she becomes a fugitive and ends up fleeing to Hironeiden, where she is found by Gerald and eventually becomes his right-hand woman and later wife with whom he has a son called Glen. Ellen is a decent person at heart, but has a great loathing for elves. She is also rather cold and snarky, partially due to her reasonable and sharp-witted attitude when surrounded by overly emotional people, but either way, she cares for the soldiers under her command. She also likes to playfully fight with Rupert.

She is an officer under Gerald in his campaign in Crusaders.

Faction: Ecclesia-> Hironeiden
Weapon: Rapier and Bow

  • Action Girl: The only important female character from the humans side that fights with you, or you play as her.
  • Only Sane Man: During the beginning of Gerard story, she is the serious one between Gerald and Rupert, who tended to take things lightly. This role however slowly fades away after Hirudegarn is taken by the enemy, where Gerard takes himself more seriously.
  • Survival Mantra: One she teaches Gerald. "Swords first, hearts second."
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Rupert.

Leinhart

Information:
  • Faction: Vellond-> Hexter
  • Weapon: Vampire saber

The son of King Valdemar, who originally served as an overseer for Vellond. However, after meeting Regnier he joined the forces of Hexter.


Walter

This is the Lord's will!
Information:
  • Faction: Ecclesia
  • Weapon: Mace and shield

Rupert

Hahaha! The hammer of Hironeiden!

An old friend and brother-in-arms of Gerald's, serving as his second-in-command alongside Ellen. A traditional dwarf in all but race and height.

Information:
  • Faction: Hironeiden
  • Weapon: Warhammer

Cirith of Yenichen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cirith.jpg
It's a miracle we made it. Ugh, I feel like hell, though. I need to clean up.
Apes don't smell as bad as I thought!
Information:
  • Faction: Vellond (The Crusaders) Kaedes (Heroes)
  • Weapon: Katar

A Vellond officer under Lucretia's orders with the magical ability to cast lighting. She pretends to be a vain ditzy butt-kisser that knows no better, but in reality, is a spy for the Kaedes.


  • The Ditz: It's actually a facade.
  • Double Agent: A Vellond Agent attempting to infiltrate the Kaedes.
  • Fantastic Racism: Subverted. She does make fun of "apes" like other dark elves, but she actually finds them attractive.
  • Fragile Speedster: Like the other dark elves, she is quite powerful and fast, but lacks defense. Unlike Lucretia, however, she tend to use elemental magic.
  • Hidden Depths: Cirith isn't dumb at all and has a good perception of people and manipulation. On the other hand, some of her soldiers get surprised even seeing her read a book.
  • Killed Offscreen: Her campaign ends with her forces dying at the hands of Encablossa monsters. She accepts her death with dignity and allows Elcam to tell her a poem before their imminent death.
  • The Tease: Flirts with Rithrin and expresses an interest in their human enemies on occasion. Again, this is mostly a facade. In her own campaign, she gets outright annoyed at people expressing an interest in her sexually.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: She likes to paint herself as the typical, boy-obsessed ditzy dark elf girl, but she's actually rather smart and perceptive.

Morene Strident

Voiced by: Edita Brychta (The Crusaders), Unknown (Heroes)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dims.jpg
Now you will appreciate a vampire bloodlust!

Information:
  • Faction: Vellond
  • Weapon: Arm Blades

A half-vampire supervisor who serves King Valdermar. She was assigned to Lucretia's unit as an overseer. After the events of Lucretia's campaign, she takes over her troops.


  • Action Girl: As an overseer, she worked with Lucretia on her campaign as an officer, and after Rithrin death, she took over her troops for her own campaign.
  • Cat Fight: With Lucretia, with the two constantly bickering and on occasion willing to kill one another. Not surprisingly Lucretia is Morene's Final Boss in Heroes.
  • Characterization Marches On: Morene's characterization between The Crusaders and Heroes is more consistent than Urukabarr, but there is still a clear difference. In The Crusaders, Morene as a supporting character is The Stoic and cold-hearted to contrast with Lucretia, but by Heroes as a main character a Blood Knight side to her is shown.
  • Dhampyr: She is a half vampire, which to the Vellmond pecking order it meants she is qualified to be an overseer to the dark elves.
  • Deadpan Snarker: She spends most of her time with Lucretia making fun of her overemotional behavior and hostility towards her.
    Cirith: Morene, do you think Luci and Rithrin still, well...you know?
    Morene: Do I look like I give an orc's ass?
  • Fantastic Racism: She looks down on humans ("apes", especially the fanatic Ecclesians going into death meaninglessly for their Patriarch) and occasionally mocks the darkelves, though not that much. She also actually expresses sympathy for the orcs, all of which makes sense when you consider that she is a nationalist who believes in Vellond surpremacy, which just so happens to include a multiracial empire.
  • Fragile Speedster: With a bit of Jack of All Stats.
  • Mr. Exposition: In Lucretia's campaign.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: Again, very devoted to the Vellondian cause.
  • Nice to the Waiter: Probably the only Vellondian besides Leinhart who treats orcs decently.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Lucretia's Red.
  • The Stoic: Extremely serious and rather quiet, especially compared to Cirith and Lucretia.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Clearly how she feels during Lucretia's campaign.
  • The Vamp: Zigzagged/Defied. She is the Vellondian King's mistress, but it's implied she only tolerates it because of her loyalty to Vellond and doesn't care for it, nor have any hand in starting it herself or using it to manipulate the king. While dressing in a revealing style, she never seems to try using seduction on anyone, though she might flirt a bit, and her actual in-action persona is incredibly serious, stoic, devoted and thoughtful and while ruthless and brutal to her foes, she might be one of the most idealistic-hearted characters in the game when it comes to her nation.

Urukubarr

Then prove you have the strength to defend Hexter!

Production Credits:
  • Faction: Hexter
  • Weapon: Bare Hands


    The Kingdom of Hironeiden 

Hironeiden Itself

Hironeiden is composed of humans mostly, but elves, most notably the city-state of Arein, exist as mostly independent protectorates within the nation. There are also some diplomatic ties with the dwarf nations north of Ecclesia.

King Saul of Hironeiden

General Hugh

Walden

Paroth

A Hironeiden messenger to Elves and Dwarves. Escorting him is the prime objective of Rupert's campaign.

    The Theocracy of Ecclesia 

Ecclesia Itself

Patriarch Dimitri III of Ecclesia

Sir Justino

Voiced by: Robin Atkin Downes (Heroes)

Thomas

Captain Walter's son, and a believer of the Divine Will of the Reclamation Army. Thomas can control magic, serving Kendal with some fire support.


  • Child Prodigy: A rather minor example, but Kendal comments with surprise he is capable of wielding magic.
  • Child Soldier: Despite being nothing but a kid, he volunteered to join the Reclamation Army. He was allowed thanks to his father being a captain.
  • Demoted to Extra: Thomas is the only major character to never become playable in neither Heroes or Circle of Doom. It doesn't help he has a very minor role in The Crusaders to begin with.
  • Put on a Bus: Circle of Doom implies via retcon that Kendal didn't take Thomas to the final battle against Encablossa. While certainly a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation as you can keep him in your troops with no effect on the story, is worth mentioning that he doesn't speak during the two final missions, giving some credit to the retcon.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: He entered the army in order to gain his father's approval. Walter needs to remind him that in wartime, he should treat him as his superior at all costs.
  • Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: His fate is never revealed after Circle of Doom. He could have remained in Ecclesia during its destruction or he joined the Hironeiden army when Ecclesia was taken over.

Duane

  • Arbitrary Skepticism
  • Deadpan Snarker: He is completely sarcastic and doesn't believe in the Reclamation Army intentions, and in Kendal's words, he is more of the insubordinate type.

Palthor

Ebbard

    The Empire of Vellond 

Vellond Itself

The first nation in Bersian history to unite the warring dark elf city-states. Founded by the Vampire King Valdemar, Vellond is a fast-growing multiracial hegemony held together by liberal use of the Genghis Gambit. At the top, vampires and half-vampires serve as the ruling caste, providing high-ranked generals, officers, aristocrats and territorial Overseers. The matriarchal dark elves compose most of the population and fighting force, as well as the elite Yenicheri bodyguards. Orcs and ogres of Hexter are a recent acquisition, see Hexter Itself for details. There are also humans living in Vellond, perpetually in fear of their vampiric overlords. A notable Vellond subfaction are the Kaedes. This Anti-Vellond dark elf nationalist faction is intent on overthrowing the vampiric rulers of the realm and restoring darkelf self-governance. What they lack in power, they make up for in stealth operations and by supporting Vellond's enemies. In the end, the Vampire King's manipulations fail him and the Kaedes reach their goal as he is abandoned by more and more of his allies while Encablossa comes down on him, leading to his death and the dismantling of the Vellond Empire as we know it.

  • Amazon Brigade: All dark elf troops. Dark elves seem to be naturally matriarchal. You will find the occasional male in their ranks, but rarely with a specific pattern to it. In many ways, it could be said that males with dark elves are of a similar role as an Action Girl in a usually patriarchal army.
  • Equal-Opportunity Evil: Used and subverted. Orcs, dark elves and half-vampires make up the state together, but they highly distrust each other and despite claiming unity between the races, the half-vampires are clearly the ruling caste, while the orcs are considered the lowest.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Hironeiden, which is also composed of several major races. Though the "Evil" part for Vellond is somewhat debatable, one could argue for a dark shade of Lawful Neutral.

King Valdemar of Vellond

  • Evil Is Petty: It's heavily implied he deliberately calls the retreat from Arein, letting it fall to human control, despite the defenders being able to fend off the attack, because it's Leinhart's fief and he wants to punish his son for being unruly with him and not having succeeded at his task in Hexter.
  • Evil Overlord
  • Smug Snake
  • Spell My Name With An S: The games are inconsistent whether it should be spelt Valdemar or Waldemar.
  • Time Abyss =/= Immortality Immorality: He is a very old vampire and explains to Leinhart that, with sufficient age, all pleasures, people and accomplishments begin to seem shallow and replaceable and the only thing one will still care about is staying alive. This is in contrast to Regnier, who gives a similar speech to Leinhart, but risks everything for a cause nontheless.

Rithrin

  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Takes a lot of verbal abuse from Lucretia.
  • Foreshadowing: The source of most information on the Kaedes and also the one who expresses the most interest in an independent darkelf state.
  • Genre Blindness: Did you honestly think you could make an alliance with the Ecclesians and they wouldn't betray you at the first oppurtunity?
  • Mr. Exposition: Shares this role with Morene in Luci's campaign.
  • Working with the Ex: With Lucretia. He claims she is the reason he joined up with their troops.

General Rumen

  • My Country, Right or Wrong: Lucretia questions why she is so loyal towards the half-vampires and the new Vellond empire.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: The reason for her loyalty is believing the current situation to be a huge improvement over the perpetual Enemy Civil War between the darkelf city-states as it allows them to finally fight as one and defend their shared homeland together.

Devald

Ilfa

General Dyesa

Nachmir

Elcam

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elcam_pic.jpg
Smelly primates! Dare raise a finger against my black pearl, and you will taste true love's justice!
Cirith.' An exquisite name for an exquisite girl.

  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite being a comedic relief whose advances are constantly rejected by Cirith and treated more or less as a nuisance, he's actually a fairly good soldier.
  • Large Ham: Breaks into prose-laden poetry declaring his love of Cirith any chance he gets in the hammiest way possible.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: As a male dark elf leader of a group of archers that is in love with the playable dark elf protagonist, he is one to Rithrin from Lucretia's campaign.
    The Hexter Commonwealth 

Hexter Itself

More of a geographical region than a nation, Hexter is inhabited by many independent tribes of orcs who are traditionally lead by ogres as their chiefs. Though feuding one another, the tribes are fairly united in their beliefs and traditions, until Vellond sees an opportunity to expand and begins "pacifying" Hexter by supporting some of the weaker tribes with war materials. The most notable of these tribes is the Darokha Tribe. This effectively splits Hexter into the Pro-Vellond and Anti-Vellond tribes. Besides the Darokha, the most notable Pro-Vellond faction turns out to be the otherwise independent-minded Jurai Tribe, led by Chief Jubal, while the Anti-Vellond faction is led by Chief Urukubarr of the Gorzanik Tribe. Managing to get the Darokha to switch allegiance, Urukubarrs Anti-Vellond movement eventually succeeds in driving out most Vellondians. This in turn causes King Valdemar to send Regnier to pacify and regain the area, but Regnier has his own plans. Gaining the allegiance of Urukubarr and thus the whole movement of free orcs, as well as the support of Valdemar's own son Leinhart, he begins quietly consolidating power of his own until eventually breaking away from Vellond altogether, causing them to go to war with his newly-founded Hexter Commonwealth. After this point, very few orcs and ogres still serve Vellond, instead following Regnier wherever he chooses to lead them.

Regnier

(see his entry above)

Chief Urukubarr

(see his entry above)

Chief Darokha

Chief Jubal

    Other 

Nibel

Encablossa

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