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The Heroes
The Team
- Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Hilbert is the Optimist, Matilda is the Cynic, Thorve is the Realist, Lorenza is the Conflicted, and the other three are all, each for a different reason, Apathetic.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: With Hilbert as the Sanguine, Matilda as the Choleric and Thorve as the Melancholic. Lorenza starts as the Phlegmatic and completes the four-person team.
- The Hecate Sisters: The female party members play this trope straight. Lorenza is the inexperienced maiden, Matilda is the sharp-tounged crone and Zawu turns out to be the mother.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Lampshaded by Drakovic in the last third of the game:"You just can't leave anything to us, can you?"
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: An idealistic Idiot Hero, a bad-tempered female Sergeant Rock, a traumatized healer, an 18-year-old Havali girl, an amnesiac who's been locked up for the last three years, an elderly geologist, and an unflappable Lady of War who wants to help the Big Bad. Lampshaded:"You are... not a very inconspicuous group."
- The Three Faces of Adam: Hilbert as the hunter, Ethan as the lord and either Thorve or Randolph as the prophet. Thorve fits the role better.
Hilbert
"I always felt that... I was born to be something... something greater than this!"
A boy from the small Republic village of Whitelake, Hilbert is the self-proclaimed protector of his town and aspires to be a hero. Luckily for him, he's also the main character; before long, he's approached by the Mysterious Informant Zawu and told that he's actually descended from the great hero Alexander and destined to lead mankind against demons in a coming war. However, he also happens to be head-in-the-clouds idealistic.
- Batman Gambit: Plays on Castor's Pride and his one-sided rivalry to make him meet with the party, despite the Omega Team's best efforts to prevent that. However, while it does work, Castor already acquired a fraction of power and is not hesitant to show it off. But it does allow the party to learn about his plans for the near future.
- The Chosen One: Except not. See The Pawn. Ultimately subverted, then reconstructed as The Unchosen One.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: This gets him in a lot of trouble several times near the beginning of the game, and while it never really goes away, he eventually learns to temper it with a little bit of common sense. Then it comes back full force at the very end, when he decides to stay behind to rescue Castor when even Ethan and Zawu have given up.
- Dark and Troubled Past: His parents were killed when his hometown was ransacked by bandits in his childhood. This is his motivation for wanting to be a hero.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: During his Heroic BSoD.
- Foil: From Castor — both of them are motivated by a similar traumatic event, but he deals with it by trying to help everyone while Castor deals with it by pushing everyone away so he doesn't have to rely on anyone.
- Heroic BSoD: When it's revealed that he's been tricked all along about being related to Alexander.
- Heroic Lineage: Descendant of the great hero Alexander, and does he ever get special treatment for it. Actually he's not.
- Heroic Wannabe: Especially in the beginning when he has the manic wish to be the "protector of his village".
- Ideal Hero: His goal. By the end, he's not doing too badly at it.
- Idiot Hero: Though only at first.
- Infinity +1 Sword: Artemis' Bow
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Very much an idealistic and Naïve youth.
- The Leader: As mentioned in his description.
- Lightning Bruiser: Technically, though he's more of a Jack of All Stats that sacrifices intellect for speed.
- Parental Abandonment: Which is why Zawu was the one who needed to tell him about his lineage. Or rather why he was so easy for the kingdom to manipulate and convince him of this lie.
- The Pawn: For the Kingdom. They wanted him to reach an important position so that they could influence his actions and then crush his dreams at a strategic moment.
- Preemptive Apology: To a Mook he has to kill at the third Entalar seal.
- Ridiculously Average Guy: It'd be hard to tell he's The Chosen One with how he looks like a generic NPC tagging along with more important-looking characters, and even averts Heroes Prefer Swords in favor of a bow. In fact, he's not even The Chosen One at all. He really is just a random schmuck in every way until he finally starts to prove himself.
- The Unchosen One: Sorry, did we say 'descendant of Alexander'? We meant 'gullible pawn of the Kingdom'.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: This is almost physically painful near the beginning of the game. Deconstructed, as it gets him in trouble from time to time. Then Reconstructed when he remains idealistic until the end, but tempers it with a little common sense.
Matilda
Captain of a special unit in the Republic army - the very unit that Hilbert joins. Matilda is down-to-earth and hotheaded; she doesn't react well to Hilbert's idealistic nonsense, but she values every member of her team highly. She's loyal to her country, but has some issues with the army's higher-ups...
- 24-Hour Armor: She even wears it to sleep, due to lack of a different sprite.
- Badass Cape: Not quite on Zawu's level, but it's there nonetheless.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: On more than one occasion, she threatens to rip someone's head off. Of course, given that this is Matilda, it's quite likely she means it.
- Fiery Redhead: Her temper matches her hair color to say the least.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: The resident queen of this trope, albeit none-violently. She snaps Hilbert out of his Heroic BSoD after he learns that he was the Kingdom's Pawn, and drags Thorve with her in a flashback while he was still wallowing in his own misery.
- Hot-Blooded: Especially when she loses her temper.
- How Dare You Die on Me!: She reacts very badly to Jord and Selene dying.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: No matter how she may act she really does care for her fellow teammates.
- Lady of War: Not as graceful or detachted as other examples but still an example nonetheless.
- The Lancer: She tends to play this role a good deal of the time. Which is rather appropriate.
- Made of Iron: Survive being covered up to her chest in boulders. With just a little healing, she's IMMEDIATELY on her feet again.
- Mighty Glacier: Is the second-slowest character in the game, but hits like a truck and has excellent physical defenses.
- Platonic Life-Partners: She has this relationship with Thorve. She basically dragged him back into doing something with his life after Wolfram died. But she's married and he's quite happy as nothing more than her second-in-command and good friend.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Inverted. She's only a captain, but is the strongest and second-toughest playable character.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to both Thorve and Valentin.
- Sergeant Rock: No matter how gruff she may get she will do her job, and do it well.
- Try Not to DieMatilda: You'd better come back alive. Otherwise I'll have no one to blame for this mess.
Thorve
"I thought that I couldn't feel anything anymore. I was wrong. I can still feel despair."
Matilda's second-in-command and the group's main healer, Thorve is calm and level-headed. He tends to be the main voice of reason, particularly early on, as a contrast to Matilda's fiery personality. He has a painful past, but does his best to keep it to himself.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Thorve was born in the Empire and was close friends with Felgorn and Wolfram. He abandoned his dream of becoming a hero and parted ways with Felgorn after Wolfram's death. Years later, he was recruited for the Republic army by Matilda.
- Improbable Weapon User: He uses a 'clawgem' - a gemstone that apparently gives him the power to physically attack enemies. Somehow.
- The Medic: What he's introduced as, but due to the spellcard system, he's just the second-best (and slightly more durable) mage.
- My Greatest Failure: Wolfram's death. It hits him very, very hard when he can't save Selene and Jord later on.
- Perpetual Frowner: It's shocking when he actually smiles for the first time.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Matilda. She basically dragged him back into doing something with his life after Wolfram died. But she's married and he's quite happy as nothing more than her second-in-command and good friend.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Matilda's red.
- Squishy Wizard: Interestingly, he is actually intended as a magic tank — his specialty stat is magic defense. Unfortunately, due to an oversight (see Armor Is Useless on the main page), offense beats defense in this game, making him generally inferior to Lorenza.
- The Stoic: Due to his past it takes a lot to shake him up nowadays.
- Wolverine Claws: His "clawgems" are something vaguely similar.
Lorenza
First encountered as a mysterious girl being pursued by soldiers from the Rosehart Kingdom, Lorenza ends up as a permanent member of the party when the village that's sheltered her since her father's death decides she's too much of a danger. She's one of the elusive Havali, but knows little more about her own race than the rest of the group. As a descender of the Havali Elder, she is the 'Key' to awakening the demons of legend, or so the antagonists say.
- Barrier Maiden: As the 'Key' she is one of these. However in actuality the so-called 'demons' are her own people, who want vengeance on mankind after being unjustly forced into hiding.
- Can't Argue with Elves: Havali tend to be treated like this.
- Damsel out of Distress: Due to her importance, certain factions repeatedly try to kidnap her, but due to her skills and determination, that's a mostly futile effort.
- Mysterious Waif: Not even she knows much about her past.
- Parental Abandonment: She lost her father to illness at a young age, and her mother was killed in the demon war, when she was too young to remember.
- Really 700 Years Old: Really Three Hundred Years Old. Though most of that was spent in biorite, so she's not mentally or physically much older than the rest of the party.
- Squishy Wizard: The true Squishy Wizard, with the best magic attack in the game but even worse defenses than Thorve.
- Standard Female Grab Area: A Rosehart soldier tries this on her. A moment later, he's struck by lightning and vaporized.
- Take Me Instead: The offers to turn herself over to the Kingdom in order to save Joanna.
Ethan
"The things I remember are those that I wanted to remember the most. Does that mean... that I forgot that which I wanted to forget the most?"
A mysterious man with amnesia and formerly a Kingdom soldier, Ethan is accepted into the party through his promises of information they lack. Unfortunately, he says he remembers little that the party doesn't already know. Thought to be dead by most of the Kingdom, Ethan clearly has motives of his own, but he isn't sharing.
- And I Must Scream: Prior to the start of the game, he was buried alive and semi-conscious for three years.
- Angst Coma: Passes out when he remembers that Castor is his brother.
- Big Brother Instinct:
- He is extremely close to and protective of Lorenza, as well, to the point where when she's captured by Ortas, he heads off on his own and starts cutting a bloody swath through the castle trying to find her.
- His protectiveness of Castor, on the other hand, did a lot of harm in the long run. And in this case, it's the younger brother who was determined to protect the older one.
- Buried Alive: In biorite.
- Cain and Abel: The Abel to Castor's Cain.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The things he remembers most clearly are the ones he wanted to remember, which makes him suspect that what he can't remember is the stuff he wanted to forget. The latter category includes his entire childhood. He's the former head of the Kingdom's elite Omega Team, and Castor's younger brother.
- Disease Bleach: Inverted. His hair was blond prior to being sealed in biorite.
- Does Not Know How to Say "Thanks": And has problems expressing emotions in general.
- Heroic BSoD: He actually passed out on the floor when he remembers that Castor is his brother.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Rather strikingly, fitting his stoic personality.
- Incoming Ham: Not that he actually is a Large Ham, mind you, but the principle is the same:That's right! You're a liar, Zawu!
- Irony: He has amnesia, but when he first joins your party, he's equipped with an accessory that prevents the status effect amnesia.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Played With. A lot of Castor's issues stem from Ethan constantly trying to protect him, but no one but Castor seems to think he's particularly extreme about it. Also, Ethan's the younger of the two.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: As a result of being sealed in biorite. However, he does remember more than he lets on.
- Lightning Bruiser: He's something of a Jack of All Stats who sacrifices defense for speed, but unlike the two player characters faster than him, he can wear heavy armor, which covers a lot of that weakness.
- Looks Like Cesare: Justified. Getting locked in a lightless room for three years can leave you a bit pale, and all of the other test subjects in the cells near his also have black hair, so it's probably not an uncommon side-effect.
- Never Bareheaded: The only time he is ever hatless is in flashbacks.
- Not So Stoic: He goes for the whole first half of the game without losing his composure once... and then Randolph mentions Cromwell.
- Older Than They Look: Ethan is 28 (physically 25) and looks closer to 20. Nowhere near as extreme as Castor, though.
- Parental Abandonment: He lost his parents at a young age.
- Phlebotinum Rebel: Borders on this.
- The Quiet One: Especially in the beginning of the game, it's a rarity for him to speak at all in cutscenes. Hilbert hangs a lampshade on this at one point, saying Ethan startled him since he so rarely speaks.
- Spanner in the Works: He was not supposed to be woken up early, and certainly not supposed to run into Hilbert. Castor had him locked up for a reason. Between his knowledge of what's actually going on and his connections to Zawu and Castor, his escape winds up causing a lot of problems in the long run.
- The Stoic: Between his past and his amnesia this isn't very surprising.
- Sympathetic Murder Backstory: With an added dose of One Degree of Separation for maximum guilt.
Randolph
A geologist from the North Empire and an acquaintance of Thorve's, Randolph is more than willing to help the party make a difference in the Empire... in exchange for help with his research, of course. Despite his age, Randolph is a capable fighter and very sharp.
- Cool Old Guy: Despite being over sixty, he still fights in your party and figures out how to solve any scientific problem the party runs into.
- For Science!: Has doubts about blowing up a morally questionable facility due to the fact that they'd be destroying research. He gets over it pretty fast.
- Gentleman Snarker: Very sharp and sharp tongued.
- Mighty Glacier: Has even better defense and HP than Matilda, but is even slower than her, making him the absolute slowest character in the game.
- Outliving One's Offspring: His son Wolfram died many years ago.
- Seeker Archetype: About his research.
- The Smart Guy: Well he is a geologist, what did you expect?
- Smart People Wear Glasses: A scientist who wears spectacles
- Squishy Wizard: His appearance subverts this trope. When you meet him, he totally seems to be a "squishy scientist", but in fact, he is a Stone Wall character without a really special degree of skill in magic.
- Stone Wall: Highest vitality and HP in the game.
The Republic
Drakovic
Drakovic is a member of the Republic army and an intelligent, skilled tactician with a knack for The Plan. A Major at first, he gets a promotion during the Empire civil war, and then later becomes commander of the Republic army in the place of the late Newick.
- Apologetic Attacker: If you send Lorenza against him for his Duel Boss fight, he apologizes for having to fight her.
- The Chessmaster: A brilliant strategist.
- Colonel Badass: Though not until he gets promoted to colonel, of course.
- Didn't See That Coming: He's completely taken by surprise when the Kingdom takes over the Republic while the Republic forces are invading the Empire.
- Duel Boss: Though you get to choose which character you send to fight him.
- Early-Bird Cameo: About one hour into the game, you can see and talk to Drakovic, but he won't have much relevance until halfway through the game.
- Friendly Enemy: When he's an enemy. This is due in large part to the fact that he treats everyone with the same chatty, informal attitude, even when they're actively trying to kill him.
- Just Following Orders: His justification for invading the Empire during the civil war.
- Nerves of Steel: He's calm enough to make smart-assed comments when he's heavily injured from having just arranged to be cornered by enemy agents in the middle of his camp, then burned the whole place down around him.
- The Plan: Lives off these, and he's damn good at making them work out perfectly.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Inverted; though he is a highly intelligent strategist, he is not very good at hand-to-hand-combat despite being Colonel Badass.
- The Strategist: Drakovic may not be much good in a hand-to-hand fight, but he sure as hell knows what he's doing.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Invoked:Drakovic: Ah, but a good strategist never reveals his most daring plans.
Matilda: ...Why?
Drakovic: That way... you don't look as bad if they fail. - Xanatos Gambit: Drakovic lives off of these, as he always has a backup plan. About the only time attempts to foil his machinations don't average out in his favor is when Castor took over the Republic while he and his army were busy with the Empire. Didn't See That Coming.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: He'is good at these too, like when the empire holds 500 of his men as P.O.W.s and he waits to ask for them to be released. He does this in case they'll be needed to free his country, but when they aren't he has them released to capture a nearby port friendly to the Kingdom out of nowhere.
Commander Tazar
A Commander in the Republic army and cowardly sleazebag.
- Armchair Military: He's plenty composed when he's giving orders from his office, but put him in an actual combat situation and he panics.
- Dirty Coward: Where to start... How about how he sold out his people to save his own skin while his soldiers died?
- Fake Defector: Zig-Zagged. He tells the Republic he's on their side, but he tells Helga he's on her side, saying he has no ties to the Republic, and eventually after Helga and Augustus are both dead, he goes running to the Kingdom for help.
- Foil: He's essentially the exact opposite of Drakovic in every way.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: On the wrong end of this.
- The Neidermeyer: No exactly "compentent" at his job, to say the least.
- Oh, Crap!: Several times, but particularly when the party catches up to him at Antar Camp. He even has an alternate portrait for it.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves:
- Subverted. Despite being a Dirty Coward and selling out all his men so he alone would survive, he's given a high rank in the Herzog army despite misgivings.
- Double subverted after Helga dies; Augustus demotes Tazar. Taken even further when, after the civil war, Helio sends Tazar to be a guinea pig for Psycho Serum at the Biorite Facility.
- Or played damn straight: He was never a warrior, always wanted to drop out of the Republican army, didn't participate in any battles, and asked for a position of Imperial Prime Minister, but was "promoted" to Commander-in-chief as an ironic punishment for doing absolutely nothing except for the aforementioned. And after that they made him lead the army to defend the Capital, all to his panic and depression. And only after that was he able to continue his career as a Biosynthetic Mutant. He literally gained nothing from his betrayal.
- Turn Coat: Defects to the Empire early on to save his own skin while his soldiers get killed, and later ends up being Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves and used as a Biorite test subject.
- Villainous Breakdown: Let's us say that whole turning traitor thing didn't turn out the way he expected.
Selene and Jord
Selene and Jord are young soldiers working under Matilda. Jord, the newest member of Matilda's unit aside from Hilbert, is a spellcaster who spends his free time squabbling with Selene about her seniority. They usually fight as a team, bickering aside.
- Blood from the Mouth: The sign that Selene is screwed.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Selene and Jord only exist to prove that, if not anyone, seemingly major characters can die.
- Those Two Guys: Typically the two are seen together.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Part of being the SacrificialLambs so early on is not getting a lot of time to get to know them.
Colonel Newick
Newick is the man in charge of the Republic army. Despite his position, he's never been on a battlefield, and as such is not particularly popular with the actual soldiers.
- 0% Approval Rating: Being an Armchair Military made him very unpoupular with his subjects. One NPC even comments after his death that the Kingdom 'knew better than to kill anyone the people liked'.
- Armchair Military: The source of his unpopularity.
- What Measure Is a Mook?: He treats his soldiers more like numbers or strategy game units, not caring much about casualties and arousing Matilda's wrath.
The Empire
Felgorn
"Do you want to become a hero yourself? Forget about it. It's just a meaningless word."
The celebrated hero of the North Empire, Felgorn is a highly skilled swordsman and essentially a One-Man Army. He is devoted to his country and doing what's right for it.
- Anti-Villain: He, along with Wolfram, was Thorve's childhood friend and joined the army with him. After Wolfram's death, he chose a different path from Thorve and worked his way up through the ranks of the Empire's military.
- The Atoner: After he realizes that he has been deceived.
- Blade Spam: One of the reasons why his swordsmanship is so revered.
- Broken Ace: He's world-famous as a hero and One-Man Army, known and looked up to by the entire Empire and feared everywhere else. And also full of barely-concealed self-loathing and so deep in denial it's almost painful.
- Cool Sword: One of the few characters who does have the corresponding personality.
- Climax Boss: As Augustus's pawn.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: Heavily implied. He died from his wounds after defeating dozens of enemy soldiers.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Same as above. He dies fighting around two hundred soldiers singlehandedly... and it's a tie.
- Heroic Sacrifice: And it worked.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The first time you fight him. It can't even be won on a New Game Plus!
- I Did What I Had to Do: His usual justification for everything.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When he realizes how much Augustus tricked him.
- One-Man Army: This is not an exaggeration.
- Unwitting Pawn: Lets Augustus manipulate him completely. It almost hurts to watch.
Augustus
Augustus is a smooth-talking noble from the Empire with an insane skill for manipulating others. Born a commoner, he has since worked his way up through the ranks all by himself, and eventually achieves his goal of becoming Emperor, for a short time. He is a close friend of Felgorn's.
- Challenge Seeker: Despite having ulterior goals, he treats his striving for power like a game.I proved my superiority. I have already won. I regret nothing.
- Death by Irony: The scheming, traitorous chessmaster is killed by Felgorn, the one person who he trusted completely.
- Evil Chancellor: Well more like Evil Prime Minister.
- Face Death with Dignity: He calmly accepts his fate, he even manages to...
- Go Out with a Smile: Because he could die with no regrets.
- I Lied: When he kills Helga.Helga: "I- I trusted you!"Augustus: "Well, that was a stupid move. But then, you never were very bright, were you?"
- I Regret Nothing: His last words.
- The Man Behind the Man: Behind Helga for a short period of time.
- Manipulative Bastard: He even convinced Helga that they could trust him even though he hates them.
- Motive Rant: After he poisons Helga, Augustus gives one of these, calmly explaining to her as she's dying that he hates her and everything about her because while he had to work his way up from the gutter to reach his position, she had everything given to her and takes it for granted.
- No Peripheral Vision: At least once, Augustus fails to see someone in front of him because the distance is greater than the size of the screen.
- Self-Made Man: Proudly so, and the main reason why he despises royals and nobles. He has a great respect for Felgorn for being the same, though that doesn't stop him manipulating him.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives an epic one to Helga, after he poisons her.
- Wicked Cultured: Very cultured and very wicked.
Princess Helga
Helga is the power-hungry and, truth-be-told, rather bratty elder child of Emperor Leopold. She is first seen arranging to have her father assassinated in order to seize power herself, and it doesn't get any better from there.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: Invoked. Augustus specifically goaded her into being an even worse ruler so that when he killed her, no one would object.
- Cain and Abel: Her and her brother Wilhelm.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: She's beyond merely incompetent as Empress.
- Jerkass: A murderous Royal Brat, what do you expect?
- Prince Charmless: Hilbert was imagining a "beautiful princess." Hilbert was wrong.
- Royal Brat: A grown-up version.
- The Wrongful Heir to the Throne: Capriciously cruel and terribly incompetent.
Prince Wilhelm
Wilhelm is the younger child of the Emperor, and a quiet, studious teenager who would most likely prefer to be left out of the royal family's power struggles altogether. Hilbert is something of a role model to him, which is probably cause for alarm.
- Cain and Abel: He's Abel, Helga's Cain.
- Character Development: From quiet kid who mostly just does whatever Grauss tells him to competent leader in his own right who knows when to take advice and when to ignore it.
- Nice Guy: Especially when compared to his sister.
- Non-Action Guy: Though after his father is assassinated, he does end up leading an eventually successful rebel faction intent on overthrowing Helga's rule.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He becomes one when he takes the throne of the Empire.
- Rousing Speech: Pulled off rather spectacularly; his words inspires his troops to the point where the invaders they're fighting are forced to retreat.
- Treachery Cover Up: Subverted. Despite the suggestion, Wilhelm refuses to hide Felgorn's murder of Emperor Leopold, choosing instead to reveal it to the public while still honoring the culprit's good deeds and ultimate Heroic Sacrifice.
General Grauss
The man in charge of the Empire's military forces, Grauss takes Wilhelm's side when civil war breaks out in the Empire. He's gruff, makes no pretenses, and hates being proven wrong, but becomes a useful ally to the party despite his initial distrust.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is loyal to say the least.
- Sergeant Rock: His bad personality is balanced out by his capability.
- The Strategist: Why he's in charge.
The Kingdom
Castor
At the age of 30, Castor is already a General in the Kingdom army. He makes his first major appearance after being put in charge of the invasion of Pargon Island.
- Ambition Is Evil: He is power-hungry and determined to be completely independent. But in a subversion, he is portrayed as probably the most sympathetic of the villains, and his ambition is given reasonable justification: he's a traumatized war orphan who never wants to feel afraid or powerless again.
- Angst Coma: He may have simply been knocked out, but the realization that he was weak kept him from getting up for a long time. Maybe it's a family trait.
- Bait-and-Switch Boss: Subverted when he backstabs Ortas. Instead of him fighting the main characters, Ortas fights them despite being near death.
- Big Bad: After his breakdown caused by losing to the main party despite fighting at full power.
- Broken Ace: Brilliant, talented, powerful, influential, ruthless, and a writhing mass of emotional problems.
- Cain and Abel: The Cain to Ethan's Abel.
- Dark Messiah: He later gets shades of this.
- Dragon with an Agenda: He's introduced as being this to Ortas. When he's actually The Man Behind the Man. Not that Ortas is aware of this.
- Enigmatic Minion: At first.
- Freudian Excuse: He's got quite a complex going due to his helplessness when his hometown was ransacked and burned to the ground around him and he had to rely on his little brother to protect him.
- I Lied: When Castor literally backstabs Ortas in the Temple of Gaia.
- In the Back: How the finally reveals himself to be the real Big Bad.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Played With. A lot of Castor's issues stem from Ethan constantly trying to protect him, but no one but Castor seems to think he's particularly extreme about it. Also, Ethan's the younger of the two.
- The Man Behind the Man: The actual man behind all the men, in fact!
- Noble Demon: Prior to his Villainous Breakdown, at least.
- Older Than They Look: See that portrait? He's thirty. Again, must run in the family. He looks younger than 19-year-old Hilbert.
- One-Winged Angel: Twice, in fact, in addition to his human form. Also Played for Drama, as it's repeatedly stated that he's too willing to throw away his humanity for power.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: His attitude toward Hilbert.
- Parental Abandonment: He lost his parents at a young age.
- Personality Powers: Combined with Meaningful Name. Castor, whose name means "he who shines/excels", has a "Blinding Flash" attack.
- Playing Both Sides: The conflict between the Republic and the Empire was entirely the Kingdom's fault.
- Psychotic Smirk: His default expression is basically ">8)"
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: An ass-kicking 30 year old General.
- Recurring Boss: You fight him throughout the game.
- There Are No Therapists: Just try and count the number of times Zawu, Ethan, or Flynn say something along the lines of "Castor needs help."
- Villainous Breakdown: When he realizes he's weaker than the main characters, and his weakness lead to Helio being killed. The party actually knows about his potential breakdown long before it happens, and tries to prevent it.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: It's never outright said, but it's heavily implied his core motive, besides his power obsession, is to prevent all war. His methods evolve over the course of the game, from simply playing politics to outright Assmilation Plot after his Villainous Breakdown.
- White Hair, Black Heart: If you go by his Character Portrait.
- Would Not Shoot a Civilian: And really doesn't like people who do. Makes sense, considering his entire hometown was razed by the Imperial army with no provocation.
The Omega Team
A team of Kingdom elite agents who answer directly to Castor.- Co-Dragons: To Castor.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Flynn and Earp are really quite friendly after their country is invaded.
- Just Following Orders: As Castor's elite this is their job, and can be rather pleasant under different circumstances.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Their role in the game.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Earp, Helio and Flynn.
- Punchclock Villain: Earp and Flynn moreso than Helio.
- Undying Loyalty: Again, to Castor.
- Villainous Valor: They protect the unconscious Castor from the main party. Helio even gives up his own life to stall them in a You Shall Not Pass! moment.
Helio
The always-smiling Number Two of the Kingdom's Omega Team, Helio, along with his teammates, answers directly to Castor. He is in charge of the Biorite Facility.
- Affably Evil: Always tries to appear pleasant, even to his enemies.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: It turns out he does have moral standards, they're just... different from most people's. He's absolutely disgusted by the fact that Ethan felt he had the right to know what Castor was planning just because they're family, saying that since Castor was also his superior officer, Ethan should have trusted him to tell The Team what they needed to know. As such, he feels that turning Ethan in was completely justified and he deserved what happened to him.
- Breaking Speech: Gives one to Ethan right before the last fight against him, chastising Ethan for blaming him for his current state, and how Ethan has no one to blame but himself as he was the one who chose to betray the team that had come to consider him family over a (to Helio) petty reason.
- Eyes Always Shut: You do not want to see them open.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Cold, manipulative and slightly sadistic. No to mention how he got his position by turning Ethan in for going behind Castor's back.
- Heroic Sacrifice: It's debatable just how heroic it is, but it certainly qualifies.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: At one point Hilbert has to fight him with no weapons or armor. That one can be won on a New Game Plus, though, unlike Felgorn's. Not that the game notices.
- Karmic Death: The man who used dozens of people as guinea pigs for Biorite experiments uses it on himself in a You Shall Not Pass! moment and dies as a disfigured mutant.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: When Tazar goes to him for help assuming he'll be protected even though he proved incompetent at every turn, Helio tells him he can have a job at a secret research facility. He does not mention that said job is as a test subject.Earp: "That was cruel even for you."
- Mad Scientist: Likes experimenting with Biorite on people.
- Motive Rant: Before the last fight with him, he takes a minute to deliver a speech about why he has it in for Ethan.
- One-Winged Angel: After turning himself into one of his own experiments for Castor's sake.
- Rush Boss: If you're lucky, you'll kill him without being attacked with anything remotely menacing. If you're less lucky, though, he gets off
That One Attack often enough to kill you despite his low HP and defense. - Story Overwrite: See Hopeless Boss Fight. Even if you punch him out, the dialogue afterward stays the same.
- Villainous Breakdown: Well, sort of.
- You Shall Not Pass!: A Villainous Valor example, when he takes his own Psycho Serum to delay the heroes while Flynn and Earp get Castor somewhere safe.
Earp
The Number Three of the Omega Team. Earp is a pretty chill guy with wicked facial hair and a cool eyepatch. There's not much more to say about him.
- Anti-Villain: As mentioned a nice guy when he's off the clock.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Far and away the most friendly and cheerful of the group.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He constantly reprimands Helio for his various atrocities, including sending Tazar off to a Fate Worse than Death.
- Eyepatch of Power: Pretty cool looking one too.
- Friendly Enemy: Which is why he is one of the most likeable members of Castor's squad.
- Noble Demon: One of the few members who has a "normal" sense of morality and has no problem calling out on the ones who don't.
Flynn
The Number One of the Omega Team, Flynn is the last of the group to make an appearance. In accordance with her number, she's also the strongest.
- Anti-Villain: She's just doing her job and worries about Castor when his behavior starts getting erratic, to the point where she's heavily implied to be the one who sent a letter asking Hilbert for help. And after Hilbert and company invade the capital of the Kingdom, she'll even play Hex with you.
- Blade Spam: Very good at this.
- Cool Swords: Her weapon of choice.
- Dual Wielding: Which is why she uses two cool swords instead of one.
- Hat of Power: Has a beret protecting against some detrimental effects.
- Hidden Depths: She reveals that she used to live in Zawu's orphanage and was happy to find a purpose in life by following Castor.
- Mook–Face Turn: Borderline case. After Castor starts to really lose it, Flynn tips the party off to what he's doing because she thinks they're the only ones who have a chance of getting him to see sense.
- Punny Name/Meaningful Name: See Flynning to get the reference.
King Alfred III
The ruler of the Rosehart Kingdom. He does almost as little as Emperor Leopold.
- Despair Event Horizon: After losing Pargon Island and learning that Castor was only using him, he crosses this, to the point that he willingly surrenders during Hilbert's invasion, not because he cares about his country, but to save his own life. His words during that scene border on a Tear Jerker.
- Minor Major Character: When Hilbert takes over the Kingdom near the end of the game, he willingly agrees to surrender. This makes him the only previous leader of the three countries to survive the war.
- Unwitting Pawn: He spends more or less the entire game being played like a violin by Castor.
Lt. Colonel Alison
A soldier in the Rosehart army, and one of Ethan's former subordinates. Alison is loyal and level-headed, and after learning that Ethan is alive, agrees to aid the party just once.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She is the one who eventually saves the party from Tiamat.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Why she's only able to aid the party once.
Havali
Ortas
Ortas is the Grandmaster of the Havali, and has more or less taken the position of their ruler. As the plot unfolds, he seems to be behind everything that happens, though his motives remain unclear.
- Alas, Poor Villain: He may have been a genocidal, racist dictator, but it's almost impossible not to feel sorry for the guy when you realize just why he turned evil and that in the end, he was just another one of Castor's pawns.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's the Grandmaster for a reason.
- Climax Boss: But not the last boss or the Big Bad.
- Cynicism Catalyst: His entire family died. No wonder he went a little nuts.
- Dark Messiah: For the Havali at least.
- Determinator: Even after being mortally wounded by Castor, he refuses to give up on his plans.
- Disc-One Final Boss: His purpose in the game.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He is completely unable to understand why Lorenza believes humanity deserves to live. That is, until he's on his deathbed, at least.
- Fallen Hero: After the events of the "Demon War".
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: When you fight him, he's been fatally wounded by Castor and has blood running from his mouth. Yet he has 10,000 hitpoints and is far from easy to beat.
- He Who Fights Monsters: He hates humanity for wiping out his entire family so he... Wipes out as many human families as he can.
- I Did What I Had to Do: To make sure the Havali are safe.
- Knight Templar: Connected with the above.
- The Man Behind the Man: He's the man behind Augustus. Though Castor turns out to be the man behind him.
- Motive Rant: His telling Lorenza about what really happened in the "Demon War" is essentially this.
- Out-Gambitted: Very, very badly.
- Pietà Plagiarism: With his murdered wife in a backstory scene. [1]
◊ - Tragic Villain: During the 'demon war' 300 years ago, Ortas's entire family was murdered. After awakening from being sealed in Biorite, he took over the Havali once more and made an alliance with the Rosehart Kingdom with the intent of eventually eliminating mankind. Unfortunately, he underestimates Castor and ends up dead for it.
- Villainous Breakdown: When the party fights him in Entalar Palace after he's been gravely wounded by Castor, he's clearly lost his mind. He calms down during his final moments.
Barasur
The Elder of the Havali, and Lorenza's grandfather, Barasur has very little influence over his people despite his position. He considers himself a coward and bears the burden of knowing how "Tiamat" came into being.
- Dirty Coward: Thinks of himself as one for fleeing the Havali capital during the war 300 years ago.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Performs the Awakening to stabilize the Cluster, knowing that he's too weak to survive it. Particularly meaningful for him due to his status as a Dirty Coward, and could also be an example of Redemption Equals Death.
- It's All My Fault: He blames himself for a lot, including Tiamat, who was his former lover Esmerelda who he could not bring himself to execute, the current state of the Havali, Ortas's death, and Castor's plans. (In regards to the first two, at least, he's basically right.)
Tiamat
A mysterious Havali woman found trapped in Biorite below the Kingdom, all that is known about Tiamat is that she's very powerful... and not exactly sane.
- And I Must Scream: She was trapped in Biorite for 300 years. While conscious.
- Ax-Crazy: In addition to being conventionally crazy.
- Bold Explorer: Esmerelda was one of the first Havali to set out to explore the world. Stumbling across a power she shouldn't have is what lead to her transformation into Tiamat.
- Evil Redhead: Though she was still a redhead when she was good.
- Explosive Overclocking/Taking You with Me: Attempts to do this to the party after she's finally beaten. It takes Alison pulling a Heroic Sacrifice to save them.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Being stuck all alone, in Biorite, for 3 centuries did not do her sanity any favors.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Her Ax-Crazy Omnicidal Maniac motivation is due to learning that all life once came from a single consciousness, and is now hopelessly fragmented.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: You just had to bring Lorenza into that room, didn't you, Hilbert?
- Omnicidal Maniac: After learning that all life came from a single consciousness, she concluded that all life was a hopeless failure doomed to destroy itself with factionalism and petty conflicts. She wants to hasten this demise so that everything will return to the Cluster and start over with a blank slate.
- Recurring Boss: Only twice, though — once in her introduction, and once at the end of the game, as the boss of the Lemuria.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: To go with her bright red hair and give you another warning sign to run if you see her.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: She was sealed in biorite for her crimes. The heroes accidentally awaken her by bringing Lorenza too close.
- That Man Is Dead: When she embarked on her fateful expedition, she was known as Esmeralda. When confronted about this, she says that Esmeralda couldn't handle what she saw, and had to change her personality to the ruthless Tiamat to survive. Which makes the artwork image you can see after completing the game where Esmeralda says goodbye to Barasur before departing with the ship a real Tear Jerker.
- Tragic Monster: To Barasur, who is solely to blame for her current situation and they both know it.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Though it's not clear how much is due to this, and how much is due to 300-some years of isolation.
Everyone Else
Zawu
Zawu is a mysterious robed woman who guides Hilbert after telling him that he is the descendant of the hero Alexander. She reveals little that is not essential, only saying that Hilbert must become a hero in order to lead mankind against the soon-to-awaken demons.
- The Atoner: She becomes one of these to some extent after the Entalar arc.
- Badass Cape: Take that◊, Golbez. Over-the-top perma-Dramatic Wind is unnecessary.
- BFS/Cool Sword: Notable for being one of the only characters in the game to have the personality that goes along with her weapon; about the only others are Lorenza, Felgorn, and Castor.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Immediately after you fight her, she joins you.
- Fragile Speedster: She has the highest speed stat of any player character, but her defense is barely better than Thorve's. That being said, due to how dodging and defense works in this game, and given you get her at the 50-60% point of the game, past the point where you had to get through the period of the game where defense barely mattered, this works as a boon; upon getting her, she has her evasion in the high 30s. By the end of the game, this will easily reach the mid 70s to the low 80s. Functionally, this means she's only getting hit throughout her stint as a player character an average of half the time, meaning her poor defenses won't be as big a factor as they are for Thorve.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Graceful and mature.
- Heel–Face Turn: Debatably. She's not really on the party's side, she's just concerned for how Castor has gone mad with power and wants to save him as much as Hilbert does. This means that her goals and the party's goals are roughly the same, and she eventually warms up to the group without ever fully becoming loyal to them. Thankfully, she's never given a reason to betray them.
- Herald: She was the person who told Hilbert about his heritage which triggered his quest. Or more acuratlly lied to him about it.
- HP to One: She has an attack that does this when you fight her.
- Lady of War: Very graceful, powerful, fast, and female.
- Lightning Bruiser/Glass Cannon: She's essentially Ethan+ — she has roughly the same stat layout, only higher in everything except defense, HP, and MP.
- Mysterious Informant: Not much is known about her at first beyond what she told Hilbert. Turns out she is a Kingdom agent and was actually lying to Hilbert in order to use him as a pawn.
- Mysterious Past: How did she get in contact with Ortas? Barasur says that Ortas personally invited her so be a representative of the Havali, but that's about it.
- Parental Substitute: To Ethan and Castor.
- Redemption Demotion: You fight her immediately before she joins the party. She promptly loses her HP to One attack and most of her very high stats. Weakly justified, as she says that she was "using the last of the shield's power".
- Sixth Ranger: Well more like seventh.
- The Spock: Can be appear to be very analytical and detached.
- Statuesque Stunner: Good God is she tall. Her in-battle sprite, when on your side, clearly shows her to be the tallest party member.
Phantom/Alexander
A mysterious old man with amnesia, very little is known about Phantom. First seen inexplicably wandering around a Republic base, it turns out he also helped Ethan to escape from the facility he was being kept at.
- The Atoner: Though he doesn't remember it immediately, Phantom is actually none other than the legendary hero Alexander, who fought against the Havali in the 'demon war' 300 years ago. After realizing that the Havali were in the right, he defected to their side, and in return was allowed the chance to sleep alongside them in Biorite, though it didn't work as well on humans...
- Barred from the Afterlife: Along with Xolon, Lucius and Durile, he can be found in the Gate to Elysium after his death.
- Buried Alive: In biorite.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He appears first as an apparently crazy, mysterious old man. Later it's revealed that he's actually the ancient hero Alexander, and has been sleeping sealed in biorite for three hundred years.
- Defector from Decadence: Alexander didn't sacrifice himself to defeat the 'demons' (a.k.a. the Havali); he defected to their side once he realized the horrible things his country was doing.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: As a side effect of sleeping in Biorite like Ethan has.
- Not Afraid to Die: Although he ends up being Barred from the Afterlife.
- Sacrificial Lion: He willingly becomes one.
- Sealed Good in a Can: By choice after learning the truth about what he did.
- Spanner in the Works: Indirectly, since he woke up Ethan.
- Superboss: He's the hardest boss in a normal playthrough.
- That Man Is Dead: He uses a similar phrase when Ortas takes him from his prison cell.
- Walking Spoiler: Look at all this white space.
- Zen Survivor: When he gets his memories back.
Moritz
Moritz is the captain of the Brunhild, the Cool Boat given to the party by the Empire, and a very good captain at that. He remains calm and goes with the flow even when insane things are going on around him.
- The Captain
- Cool Boat: The Brunhild is pretty cool. The Brunhild II is even cooler. And the Lemuria is just plain awesome.
- Going Down with the Ship: Defied. He has no problem abandoning the Brunhild II as it's about to crash, saying that you get used to it, and then stating that he'd crash a hundred ships if it meant he'd get a chance to pilot the Global Airship the party's trying to hijack.
Joanna
Hilbert's older sister, Joanna has done her best to lead a normal life and take care of her brother after the death of their parents. Unfortunately for her, being the sister of the main character has consequences.
- Big Damn Heroes: She causes a rockslide that stops Helio from killing Hilbert.
- Damsel in Distress: Very often needs protecting. (She does, however, save the day at one point when she causes a rockslide that buries her captor.)
- I Have Your Wife: Well more like "I Have Your Sister".
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Or rather, to stay normal while her brother and his friends are doing crazy, world-saving stuff.
- Promotion to Parent: When her and Hilbert's parents died.
Valentin
Valentin is Matilda's husband of fourteen years. In contrast to his wife, he's calm and relaxed, and aside from Matilda rarely spending time at home, they seem to be a happy couple. Valentin's status as an ordinary civilian does occasionally put him in a position to be rescued, however.
- Non-Action Guy: Just an ordinary laid back civilian after all.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The laid-back blue to Matilda's red.
- Satellite Love Interest: Although sometimes adorable, he doesn't get much dialogue or personality and seems to exist just to avoid any thoughts of possible romantic involvements between Matilda and Thorve or Drakovic. Even lampshaded in a dialogue where Matilda warns Drakovic that she's a married woman. It's worst at the end of the game when she returns home only to sit down for a drink instead of embracing him or doing something affectionate.
Saraswati
An avid Hex player, Saraswati is considered the best in the world at the game. She travels constantly in an attempt to discover some sort of 'secret' about the game and the tiles used to play it.
- Demonic Possession: At the end of her sidequest.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: When you meet her in Randipur near the end of the game.
- Grand Theft Me: Eventually attempted by the sorceress on the party.
- Immortality: Attempted by the sorceress by way of body snatching.
- Sanity Slippage: Best exemplified by her dialogue when you meet her in Serinal Port."I'm growing IMPATIENT with these people. They don't UNDERSTAND the importance of Hex.""Take out your tiles! Hurry! Hurry!"
- Serious Business: Hex is very much this to her. In fact, Hex is actually a Gambit Roulette by an evil sorceress to gain immortality.
- Unwitting Pawn: Saraswati plays Hex to get closer to enlightenment. It turns out she's playing right into the hands of an evil sorceress who preserved her soul in the tiles; luckily, the party saves her.
- Walking Spoiler: Yup, that is quite a bit of spoiler tags right here, as expected of Bonus Bosses.
Wolfram
A soldier who died in the Kingdom-Empire war fourteen years ago.
- My Greatest Failure: Thorve regards his death as this.
- One Degree of Separation: One unremarkable soldier from a little town in the middle of nowhere. His father, best friend, and murderer are all in the party, as well as a witness to his death, and the Big Bad is the person who he was killed in defense of.
- Posthumous Character: Even though he's dead he is important to the plot and we learn a bit about him and his death. Randolph's son, Thorve blames himself for his death, and to make things more complicated Ethan is the one who killed him.
Bergheim
An old colleague of Randolph's, and inventor of such contraptions as the Bergheim Ray. He's also an anti-social recluse who lives on an uninhabited island with his assistant. Considers himself a rival of Randolph, though the feeling isn't particularly mutual.
- Insufferable Genius: As a very skilled inventer he can easily come across as this.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Randolph.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: For such a grouchy Jerkass, he sure does have a happy-sounding Leitmotif.
