Koudelka | Shadow Hearts (Yuri Hyuga) | Covenant | From the New World
The cast of Koudelka.
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Party members
Koudelka Iasant
Koudelka Iasant
Voiced by: Hiroko Kasahara (JP, games), Yui Horie (Koudelka Drama CD), Vivianna Bateman (English)
Appearances: Koudelka | Shadow Hearts
The protagonist of Koudelka and its manga sequel; she is a Romani girl who possesses mysterious healing powers, which causes people to fear her as a witch. Koudelka grew up alone, developing her abilities, until one day she was beckoned to Nemeton Monastery by the gathered souls of the dead there.Appearances: Koudelka | Shadow Hearts
- Action Mom: Proceeds to blow apart her abductor's ritual the second she realizes he is going to destroy the world her son lives in.
- Berserk Button: Koudelka is so jaded to pain that she will outright mess with her torturers by making them think she is catatonic. However, the second someone touches her son she drops her meditative trance, taps into the power of the Emigre's Author, and turns into a Person of Mass Destruction.
- Broken Ace: Her final encounter with Charlotte exposes this. Beneath Koudelka's snarky, seemingly jaded exterior, she's actually deeply damaged due to being denounced by her family, being exiled from her clan, and having to sell her body in her youth just to have shelter.
- Chekhov's Gun: The pendant she drops early on can be found and used against the Elaine monster.
- Continuity Nod: Koudelka appears in the first Shadow Hearts, and is reunited with her son, Halley.
- Crazy Sane: Sends her-self into a meditative coma to keep from going mad from the torture. And when the person with the most clarity in a room is the one wearing a straight-jacket and staring blackly into space... well, damn.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her drunken rant to Edward while they're waiting for James to make nitroglycerin lays it all out.Koudelka: Do you have any idea how much pain my psychic powers have brought me? My father died when I was only a child. I predicted the exact time, place, and ending of my father's life. Imagine that? Predicting your own father's death? Hm! No, I was cursed as a child. Being given powers not meant for a child. And my mother? Huh. She, she was so frightened and so full with hatred for me... she tried to kill me with her very hands. The gypsy elders got together and decided to excommunicate me. I was only nine then. Do you have any idea how a nine-year-old child survives, without the help of a living soul!? Treasures! You must be joking! Have you ever cried, and begged for your next meal!? Did you ever sell your body seeking shelter from the frigid night air!?
- Dark Magical Girl: While certainly a Deadpan Snarker in the first game, by Shadow Hearts she is far more cynical and jaded. Less invested in saving the world than just saving her son. Hard to tell if it is from being stuck in a torture chamber for years or her run with The Author.
- Deadpan Snarker: Her default attitude is bitter sarcasm. In one early and memorable scene, she calmly tells Edward that she would have partaken of the food Ogden and Bessy offered them earlier if it hadn't been poisoned. Note that she did absolutely nothing to stop Edward from eating it.
- Decoy Damsel: A rare heroic version. In the first Shadow Hearts she pretends to be helpless and broken just to mess with the Inquisitors. Alas, the Big Bad saw right through the act and was rotating in and out of guard duty with Olga to back them up, resulting in her needing to continue to play possum.
- De-power: By the end of her manga, Koudelka possesses not just her own powers but also the powers of a Druidic God within her, making her one of the heaviest hitters in the world. But when she unleashes them on Albert, he promptly counters with a Demon God of his own, Amon, who drains all her powers right out of her. She doesn't even have her original powers anymore.
- Everyone Has Standards: As tough as she acts in Koudelka, Edward's cold-blooded execution of a thief who tried to kill them leaves her shocked and dismayed.
- Heroic Neutral: Brave, selfless, ethical, but she has absolutely no motivation to stop the Big Bad...until he endangers her son.
- The Heretic: Aside from being quite openly pagan, she also uses atheist poetry to be contrary to her two ultra-faithful co-travelers. Edward doesn't seem to mind, but James is mortified.
- Hijacking Cthulhu: Thanks to her Hypno Trinket she managed to shift The Author into her subconscious while her consciousness has the show by hypnotizing herself once she became possessed.
- Hot Witch: More old-world classically faire than the standard model, but she still counts. She’s also note worthy in being an actual early Wiccan witch instead of the trope’s generic magical woman, witch.
- Hypno Trinket: An odd subversion. She has placed herself under a standing hypnotic command, triggered by the sight of her pendant. The second she lays eyes on it, her mind has dominance over whatever is trying to possess her. Appropriate insurance for a Willing Channeler.
- I'll Take That as a Compliment: Being called a “Witch”.
- I See Dead People: Eventually her companions do, too, but Koudelka's talents for it are much stronger.
- The Kirk: In a Freudian Trio with Edward and James.
- Lady of Black Magic: A cold, stony young woman with a feminine touch to her appearance with black lace and a mini-skirt, and an embodiment of black magic with powerful fire and psychic powers.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: Numerous shades of this are seen in her game and in the sequel manga, but in the first Shadow Hearts it appears to be in full swing. Like Roger, she isn't exactly panicking that the apocalypse is about to happen; the only part she definitively wants saved is her son.
- Mask of Sanity: A lighter version than most. Koudelka would be rendered insane if not for a hypnotic suggestion that keeps her in touch with her humanity; the second she takes that down, though...
- Meaningful Name: Her Romani name Zlato means "treasure".
- Missing Mom: To Halley.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Her first name references Josef Koudelka
, a photographer known for his projects about gypsies in Romania. - Oh, Crap!: In the first Shadow Hearts, she finally agrees to cooperate with Simon, until she figures out what he’s going to use her for and starts legitimately freaking out at the idea of bringing doom down upon her son.
- Previous Player-Character Cameo: To say she makes a show-stopping appearance in Shadow Hearts is putting it mildly. It also connects quite a lot of threads, confirming Shadow Hearts as a Stealth Sequel.
- Psychic Power: Koedelka's powers include precognition and telepathy(though seemingly only being able to send messages rather than maintain a conversation).
- Person of Mass Destruction: When Koudelka drops her Mask of Sanity, the walls shake by mere merit of being in her presence.
- Power Incontinence: Her psychic powers were too strong for her to handle as a kid.
- Sanity Has Advantages: Koudelka is one of only three people to read the Emigre Manuscript and comprehend its true nature, and of those three, she is the only one to not go insane. She may not be able to alter reality on a whim since she hypnotized herself to only have access to The Author at a subconscious level, but she is also capable of functioning without the crazy kicking in - something she considers well worth the extra step between witch and godling.
- Secret Other Family: After Koudelka parted ways with Edward at the Nemeton Monastery, he will settle down with Beatrice Villiers four years later; she and her son Halley are thus implied to be his premarital family.
- Spirit Advisor: Years later, Koudelka would find herself guiding a young Harmonixer named Yuri, via telepathic (if cryptic and only semi-legible) communication. She eventually guided him to Alice Elliot.
- Take Me Instead: In Shadow Hearts, she accepts to cooperate with Albert Simon in Alice's place so she can save her son.
- Tragic Keepsake: Her pendant's origins are revealed in the Koudelka sequel manga: she retrieved it from her father's corpse after he was crushed by a coach that veered off a bridge while he was spearing fish in the river below.
- Wham Line: Throughout Koudelka, Koudelka loses her sardonic nature whenever Charlotte appears. In giving the Bastard Bastard letters confirming her mother loved her, Charlotte fades away, and Koudelka's final words to her gives a sobering look at her actual self.Koudelka: Charlotte, how does it feel to know you were loved?
- Willing Channeler: For ghosts, to allow them to speak with the living. Eventually becomes this to The Author as well.
- Witch with a Capital "B": As the games take place in the late 19th-20th century, people like James call her a “witch” with far more malice than the modern example; As for Koudelka herself, she only turns up the B for those who have a problem with the W.
- The Voice: She guides Yuri as the voice in his head during Shadow Hearts, until the party meets her in person.
Edward J. Plunkett
Edward J. Plunkett
Voiced by: Ryōtarō Okiayu (Koudelka Drama CD and Japanese), Mickaël Bradberry
Appearances: Koudelka
Appearances: Koudelka
- Abusive Parents: When he explains his backstory we find out his father was a "very strict man".
- Accidental Misnaming: He initially thinks Koudelka is an angel sent to guide him to heaven and repeatedly refers to her as such. She's not amused.
- Action Survivor: While he is all for helping others out along the way or Pay Evil unto Evil, unlike his two traveling companions his main goal is not to vanquish evil, recover the Artifact of Doom or save lost souls, but rather just getting out alive.
- The Big Guy: Easily the strongest of the three.
- Blatant Lies: He heard about a monastery re-purposed as a burlesque house that was so intense those who came rarely left, and he came to put the fear of god into such heathens. No, that is totally why he came there in the first place... really, scout's honor.
- Byronic Hero: He approaches exploring the countryside alone with an air or romanticism, openly embraces his vices and, is easily the most in-touch with his conscience despite being willing to do things like kill a helpless man.
- Chivalrous Pervert: He initially approaches Koudelka in this manner, but since they are trekking through a murder dungeon and Koudelka is both a White Mage and the easily annoyed type, he quickly learns to not indulge in flirtations, chivalrous or otherwise.
- Genre Blindness: He falls for quite a few traps that Kouldelka alone would have just rolled her eyes and walked around.
- Historical Domain Character: Based very loosely on Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany.
- Knight in Sour Armor: He is like the beta Yuri in this regard. He will always do the right thing but with an air of pure cynicism/bitterness.
- Made of Iron: Of the three heroes in Koudelka, he is easily able to take the most punishment.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Starts with pretty bad magical stats, which makes him pretty useless when casting and very vulnerable to magic. Thankfully, this includes healing magic.
- The McCoy: In a Freudian Trio with Koudelka and James.
- Pragmatic Hero: After the party injures Alias and corners him when he tried to kill them via chandelier, it becomes clear that Alias grew up in a bad neighborhood and made a series of poor life choices yet resents the pity of someone self-righteous like James. Edward can relate to a lot of that and has real empathy for the man. That said, he did try to kill them, so...Edward: I believe this guy. Thieves can be exceedingly honest, you know. Still, he did try to kill us. For that...James: What was that for?Edward: If our lives cease being threatened, that's a victory for God and all his glory, right? If we go on letting them attack us, the filthy godless pagans win. Which would you like to bet on?
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red Oni to James' blue.
- Religious Bruiser: A firm believer in God/Jesus, and easily the most pugilistic of the three.
- Secret Other Family: Since Lord Dunsany was married for ten years at the time of Shadow Hearts, Koudelka and Halley would be this to Edward.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: He is mortified that his fellow Christian traveling companion is making their religion look bad to his non-Christian traveling companion by being such a judgmental politically incorrect prude. As a result he gets along much better with the Wiccan Roma.
- Young Future Famous People: Famed author, and central inspiration to H. P. Lovecraft, Lord Edward Dunsany Plunkett. Koudelka takes place just prior to his father's death and Edward having to return home to settle down as a land-baron and pass his time as a writer.
Father James O'Flaherty
James O'Flaherty
Voiced by: Rokurō Naya (Koudelka Drama CD and Japanese), Scott Larson (English)
Appearances: Koudelka
An Irish vicar who was sent by the Vatican to track down three documents which were stolen from their vaults. He managed to follow the trail of one, the Émigré Manuscript, to Nemeton Monastery. He openly distrusts both Koudelka (for her powers and atheism) and Edward (mostly for his treasure seeking and philandering), but he strikes a truce with them for the greater good.Appearances: Koudelka
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: In the canon normal ending, when the beam of light that answers James' Final Speech disappears, he and Elaine (whose body was purged of its monstrous features by said beam) are nowhere to be seen.
- As the Good Book Says...: Has a propensity for Bible quotes.
- Badass Preacher: He is a priest and can fight alongside Koudelka and Edward.
- Character Development: He starts out bigoted against non-Christians and the poor, but learning about Charlotte's story and seeing how the people of Nemeton Prison suffered he changes his tune.
- Did Not Get the Girl: He was (and still is) very much in love with Elaine, but in his words, he "lacked the social status and inheritance money necessary to properly care for someone so well-bred and sheltered as Elaine", and stepped aside to let his friend and love rival Patrick win her over. Depressed, he became a Celibate Hero.
- Dying Declaration of Love: In the canon normal ending, he caps off his Final Speech with this.James: I have always loved you, Elaine.
- Everyone Has Standards: Before his Character Development, and just after demonstrating his bigoted mindset at this point toward Alias (whom he also believes to be a mass murderer), he's nonetheless absolutely horrified by Edward's cold-blooded execution of the thief.
- Final Speech: In the canon normal ending, he delivers one of these, capped off with a Dying Declaration of Love.James: Dear God... is this my fault? Do you blame me? Are you punishing me now because the path to my faith was tainted? I accept my fate. If it is your wish, then I accept my fate. He who has an ear, let him hear! If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go! If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed! I am what I am, I am content with my lot! I have always loved you, Elaine.
- Hidden Depths: To get past a heavy iron door, he noticed Patrick's chemicals and decided to make nitroglycerin to blast the door open. An unexpected feat of science from a man of the cloth.
- Holier Than Thou: He gives off this vibe frequently, and it's a source of friction with his teammates.
- Jerkass: The only thing keeping him from being a Sinister Minister is that he is on the good guys' side, and even then, only as a Nominal Hero, at first.
- Love Redeems: Both him as a character and Elaine from undeath in the canon ending.
- Lonely Funeral He canonically dies a hero, without any family or fellow clergy ever knowing; His grave standing alone on a cliff overlooking the Nemeton Monastery ruins, likely with Roger the only one to do much as set up the grave.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In the canon normal ending, after James delivers his Final Speech and holds his cross to the heavens, a beam of light inexplicably hits James and the monstrous Elaine, makes them ascend to the sky, and purges Elaine's monstrous features from her human body. When the beam disappears, the pair are nowhere to be seen. Desperation Attack, or Divine Intervention? The question is left unanswered.
- Nominal Hero: At first. He cares very little for the people who died in the monastery during the Inquisitional era and would have even been willing to leave Koudelka and Edward to the monsters roaming the halls if he wasn't also trapped there. He is traveling with them because there is strength in numbers and he is only there in the first place to A. check up on his former friend and B. recover the Emigre document.
- No Hero to His Valet: In Shadow Hearts his grave and Roger memorializes him as a great exorcist who sacrificed himself to stop the horrors of the Nemeton Monastery; The two people who actually knew him though probably flipped off his grave during the eulogy.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: His initial reaction to the inquisitional dungeon was an utter lack of empathy for those who were tortured and murdered in the name of God, because they were heathens and therefore evil anyway... Upon meeting Charlotte, he starts to rethink this position.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: He starts out incredibly prejudiced towards the Romani people in addition to abhorring the poor.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue Oni to Edward's red.
- Stone Wall: Most of his stats start out fairly so-so, but he has good Vitality and his Piety is through the roof. This means he's fairly tough and nigh-immune to magic but has a hard time dealing damage. Thankfully, items and support spells don't need good offensive stats to use.
- The Spock: In a Freudian Trio with Koudelka and Edward.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Once he finds out his former friend is responsible for the monsters in the first place and meets Charlotte, who became a ghost from the bitterness of being declared a heathen by mere merit of "being born bad", he abandons both his self-righteousness and his mission to recover the Emigre document and just tries to redeem his friend and his lost love.
- You Are What You Hate: His intolerance towards the poor reads like this with the revelation that he couldn't marry Elaine, the woman he loved, because of his poor financial situation. In effect, him loathing the poor is him loathing himself for not being born of higher standing.
Antagonists
Ogden and Bessy Hartman
The current caretakers of the Nemeton Monastery.
- Axe-Crazy: Ogden especially, bonus points for use of an actual axe.
- Battle Couple: Ogden is the more hands-on fighter, but Bessy backs him up by poisoning his targets.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Ogden was left destitute after he accidentally crashed his ship. Elaine felt sorry for him when he went to interview Patrick for a job, and Patrick gratuitously offered Ogden a job at his manor, as well as providing live-in accommodations for him and Bessy. Neither will ever forget the second chance at life the Heyworths offered them.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Ogden says this to Koudelka for telling him he's gone crazy, right before he readies his axe. Ends up being his Last Words when Bessy shoots him.
- Dissonant Serenity: Bessy, even as she Mercy Kills her husband and turns the gun on herself.
- Hearing Voices: Ogden pauses chopping Koudelka to tell an imaginary lamb that he'll "make them just a lamb!"
- Hidden Depths: Elaine was fond of the paintings Ogden made about the Princess Alice pleasure boat that he used to captain.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Bessy, it is halfway between a Mercy Kill and just plain cracking under the weight of everything she's done.
- Master Poisoner: Bessy has gotten quite good at growing and dosing just the right amount of paralytic into her meals for travelers.
- Mercy Kill: Bessy, unable to stand seeing her husband go any more Axe-Crazy, shoots him to rescue Koudelka and give him peace. Of course, as a good wife, she can't very well keep him waiting for her long...
- Murder-Suicide: Bessy murders Ogden, tells Koudelka how he ended up Ax-Crazy, and then turns the gun on herself.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Bessy.
- Real Event, Fictional Cause: Ogden was blamed for the sinking of the Princess Alice.
- Sanity Slippage: Both of them bit-by-bit over the years of helping Patrick. The combination of tragedy, isolation, and making sure their victims were half-dead before sending them to the basement, have all taken their toll.
- The Unfought: In a cutscene, Ogden ends up shot dead by Bessy before he could kill a disoriented Koudelka, and Bessy tells Koudelka about his past before turning the gun on herself to join him.
The Thief / Alias
A thief who snuck into the Nemeton Monastery to loot whatever riches he can, he has managed to elude Ogden, Bessy, and the roaming monsters for quite a while before the protagonists arrived.
- All There in the Script: His name is only revealed in the ending credits.
- Boom, Headshot!: Delivered by Edward.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: Spends his boss fight running back and forth between two boxes he uses as cover. Ranged attacks don't do much damage (because, again, the boxes act as cover) and he's outright immune to magic, so the only way to win is to get to the boxes and destroy them with melee weapons. Alias drops pretty fast once you can hit him in melee, but getting there is a pain.
- Karmic Death: Tried to kill Koudelka, Edward, and James by sniping them from afar and later shooting a chandelier to drop it on them. After being cornered by them, he is shot dead by Edward because the risk of him backstabbing them was too great.
- Spell My Name With An S: It's probably supposed to be "Elias".
Charlotte D'lota
The ghost of a young girl who spent her whole life in the Nemeton Monastery's dungeons.
- Bastard Bastard: Neither is really her fault, but the way she was treated for being a literal bastard, led her spirit to believe it was the only way to act after death.
- Disappears into Light: If you retrieve the letters her mother wrote for her, it finishes her unfinished business and sends her to heaven. It should be noted that unlike most versions of this trope where it is peaceful, Charlotte is utterly terrified as she fades out as both love and the concept of someone like her getting into heaven are inconceivable to her.
- Dub Name Change: A possibly unintentional example. Her last name (and that of her mother, Sophia) is a misromanization of "Dorothea".
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Charlotte was told she was bad all her life for being born out-of-wedlock. Learning her mother truly loved her legitimately scares and confuses her.
- Go into the Light: Her ultimate fate if you pick up the letters from her mother.
- Love Redeems: Finding out she was loved finishes her Unfinished Business.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Her mother is strongly implied to be Sophia Dorothea of Celle, reinforced by Sophia's Letters mentioning her residence at an "Arden Castle" and her affair with a "Phillip Christopher, son of Von Koenismark" (also implied to be Charlotte's birth-father) while married to a "Count Hannover".
- Optional Boss: If you do not bother to retrieve the letters from Charlotte's mother, Koudelka's attempts to convince Charlotte to move on fall on deaf ears and she attacks as a wraith-like boss.
- Redemption Equals Death: Literally, since she is a ghost.
- Tragic Villain: She is only a malevolent ghost because she was raised in a dungeon, tortured daily while the local Inquisitors let her know she was evil for being born out-of-wedlock, and ultimately beheaded. Leading to...
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Charlotte was tormented for being "born bad" her entire life, until she was finally beheaded in the Inquisition hall. Coming back from the dead, she fully embraces the concept and becomes a lonely sadist.
- Unfinished Business: Her own self-hatred. Seeing the letters from her mother and learning she was loved destroys her sense of identity as a worthless bastard and exorcises her for good.
Patrick Heyworth
The owner of the Nemeton Monastery. After his wife died, Patrick fell on hard times, and the Monastery's dilapidated state is a testament to that. First person in the series to have used the Émigré Manuscript. He is never actually seen, seeing as he is long dead.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Tragic though he may be, the man became an absolute monster whose works are witnessed in horrifying detail by Koudelka, Edward, James, and Roger.
- Alchemy Is Magic: Patrick's reading of the Émigré Manuscript, is one of a researcher trying to make a logical leap from medical science to alchemy and then necromancy.
- All for Nothing: Patrick killed nearly two hundred innocent people in gruesome ways to meet the sacrifice requirements to resurrect Elaine, and in the end all he got was a soulless monster.
- Benevolent Boss: Patrick gave Ogden a job when no one else would, and did not blame Bessy for failing to protect Elaine when he returned home to find her dead. Ogden and Bessy adored working for him and Elaine. So much so they signed right up as loyal members of team crazy when Patrick snapped.
- Came Back Wrong: The necromancy Patrick unleashed was still in effect when he let himself get killed; his vine-choked corpse is a boss right before you fight Elaine.
- Crusading Widower: By the time Patrick is midway through his Slow Slipping Into Evil, he is justifying his actions to get sacrifices by rounding up the poor since a random bandit killed his wife in the first place, and he does not stop there.
- Driven to Suicide: When his wife Came Back Wrong, the guilt of all the people he killed catches up to him all at once, and he lets the resulting monster kill him in an act of acidic remorse.
- Evil Former Friend: Much to James's horror.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Patrick, there was a good reason the very monk who translated the book opted to let it stay locked up in the Vatican.
- To further illustrate this, in the manga Roger asks this question: "Why do you think the tribe of Druids who wrote the original Émigré Manuscript aren't around anymore?"
- Go Mad from the Revelation: All things considered, reading a Tome of Eldritch Lore was probably the least of what drove Patrick insane - it surely didn't help, though.
- The Heavy: We would not have a game or a Shadow Hearts series if not for Patrick, despite the fact that he is just a name in a journal.
- Last Words: "Elaine, I-I just wanted to make you happy."
- Love Makes You Evil: Patrick was willing to go to any length to get back Elaine. Going beyond his morals to meet the sacrifice requirement steadily drives him into a serial-killer mindset.
- Love Triangle: Both Patrick and James were in love with Elaine, but Patrick managed to pop the question first. James tried to take it with a stiff upper lip, but by the time he learned of his mission involving Patrick they hadn't talked to each other in twenty years.
- Necromancer: Patrick is just the first of many in the series to become this, thanks to the Émigré Manuscript.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Patrick only heard about the Émigré Manuscript in the first place because he sheltered a weary traveller from the cold, and said traveller offered to repay Patrick's kindness by stealing the book for him. Naturally, things did not go well once he got the cursed tome.
- Please, I Will Do Anything!: Patrick made the colossal mistake of telling Albert this when he mentioned the Émigré Manuscript.
- Posthumous Character: Patrick is long dead by the start of Koudelka. Despite his pre-story death, his actions literally haunt the main characters and figuratively haunt the entire series.
- Sanity Slippage: Patrick's journal makes it agonizingly clear he went through a very realistic depiction of a mental breakdown as he was accruing sacrifices to resurrect Elaine.
- Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Patrick starts off killing animals and feels terrible about it. Then he realizes he needs to use people, takes the already dead, and feels awful violating the corpses. Then he realizes he needs living people, rationalizes it, and feels even worse. By the time he is making requests to slave markets and rounding up the homeless to "come stay at his house", he is processing them with the impartiality of a dock worker unloading boxes.
- Tragic Villain: He was willing to do anything, ANYTHING to undo his wife's death. He knew what he was doing, felt guilty, and didn't stop. When he saw it was All for Nothing, his previously rationalized guilt for the awful things he did, hit him all at once, like the hand of Meta-God.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He just wanted to bring back his wife, and ended up (1) unleashing a plague of undead monsters created from the sacrifices, (2) proving to his sponsors, the Royal Medical Society, that ancient Druid gods could be invoked, which gave them their own ideas, (3) giving the "Traitor in the Vatican", Albert Simon, the idea to resolve his problems with the Three Sacred Tomes, (4) disturbing the spirits of the dead already at unrest deep beneath the Nemeton Monastery's foundation, (5) reanimating his wife's body with her spirit tethered to, but unable to inhabit it, with said body turning into a soulless Body Horror, and (6) acting as a test run for the sorts of powers Albert intended to unleash.
- Unwitting Pawn: Of Albert. To be fair, Patrick's journals clearly state that he had been warned about the Émigré Manuscript being an unholy book; Albert was basically just giving the man what he asked for to use him as a test run of what he was planning for his own self later.
- As for the Royal Medical Society, the ones sponsoring the actual experiments, they were outright manipulating him, complete with egging him on in the murders and diverting slaves to the Nemeton Monastery. Patrick was a desperate guy who got exploited twice over.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The Émigré Manuscript becomes Patrick's tragic legacy, one that haunts the entire series, all because robbers broke into his house and killed his wife.
Others
Strange Creature
See here.
Elaine Heyworth, née Spencer
The wife of Patrick Heyworth, she is the catalyst for the events of the game.
- And I Must Scream: Her body was reanimated, but she wasn’t in it; however, she is bound to it. Her soul is stuck just outside her zombified body, where she had to watch it kill her husband, who willingly fed himself to it when he realized her soul wasn’t inside.
- Benevolent Boss: She was the one who convinced Patrick to give the otherwise destitute Ogden a job and was apparently a very sensitive employer to Ogden and Bessy.
- Came Back Strong: Her body may not have a soul, but it does have ever expanding strength, endurance, and dark magic.
- Came Back Wrong: To put it mildly! Elaine’s body is the final boss and by far the most corrupted in the game.
- Disappears into Light: In the canon ending, she and James’s bodies melt away as they ascend to heaven in a holy light.
- Life Will Kill You: In a world of demons, ghosts, Lovecrafian horrors, and with her very house built on top of a haunted Inquisitional dungeon... Elaine dies in a random senseless break-in gone bad, while her husband was out shopping.
- Love Imbues Life: Played VERY darkly. In that her husband’s heartbreak animates her body, as a monster, and binds her soul to it.
- Mercy Kill: She very much wants one. In the canon ending, she finally gets one courtesy of God, on behalf of James, at the cost of James’ life.
- Naked on Arrival/Naked on Revival: The first time we physically see Elaine, she is naked, which is because she was preserved naked after her revival. She remains naked through all the boss fights.
- Plot-Triggering Death: With bonus points as it not only triggered the plot of the game, but the entire series as Albert Simon and the Émigré Manuscript became involved by her grieving widower.
- Tragic Monster: With the extra knife in the wound being, she is still mentally herself, she just has no control over her mosterized body.
- The Heartless: A special case as the evil animating her body is not her own inner darkness, but her husband’s and the collective Malice of his various victims manifesting inside her corpse.
- The Lost Lenore: She is this to Patrick, well aware of it in the afterlife, but completely unable to comfort him.
- The Pollyanna: A selfless, empathic woman, everyone who knew her has nothing but kind words to say. Even desperately in need of a Mercy Kill, her ghost is more concerned with warning away her friends from being killed by her zombie.
- One-Winged Angel: Her body starts out looking serene if pale, before contorting into a quadruped skittering on broken limbs in the motions of a feral dog, then it morphs again to a massive insectoid abomination, just barely recognizable as “Elaine” due to it’s face. Oh, and it’s completely naked the entire time.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: She has no unfinished business, she is bound against her will by her zombified body, which she has no control over.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Her body is not merely a mindless undead corpse, but an ever-mutating feral, acid-spewing abomination.
- Start of Darkness: Her role in the story unwittingly serves as this for not only Patrick but the entire series.
- Soulless Shell: Though her soul still exists, it is both outside and lacking in any influence over her body, which is now a feral soulless monster.
- The Voice: She is the voice calling out to Koudelka. It wasn’t intentional, but once Koudelka is there, she very much wants the above stated Mercy Kill.
