Library of Ruina Main Character Index
The Library (Roland) | The Wings | Syndicates (The Five Fingers | Subsidiaries | Other Syndicates | The Reverb Ensemble) | Fixers (Associations | Offices) | Other Guests | Distortions | Abnormalities | Others
The Library (Roland) | The Wings | Syndicates (The Five Fingers | Subsidiaries | Other Syndicates | The Reverb Ensemble) | Fixers (Associations | Offices) | Other Guests | Distortions | Abnormalities | Others
The Five Fingers
Also known as the "Hand" and the "Fingers of the Backstreets", they are the biggest, most powerful Syndicates in the City who all other Syndicates who answer to, and have nigh-complete control of the Backstreets. They are so powerful that not even the Wings nor the Head can easily interfere with their activities and affairs. They have their own territory in the Backstreets and enforce different rules from the Wings and each other to dictate the districts of the City. They impose draconian measures upon their members and denizens of the Backstreets, and simple actions may result in death or body mutilation.Higher-ups of each Finger come together on an occasion in a meeting known as the "Finger Bow-Bell" to discuss ways to effectively control the Backstreets, as well as manage their territories. Much like the Associations and their associate Offices, the Fingers also have Syndicates directly under them as their subsidiaries who assist in managing the Backstreets, and any business with other Syndicates.
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In General
- The Aces: They are the top Syndicates in the City, equal to the Wings and slightly below the Head in terms of authority in places they control. The Head also cannot control them as much as they could with other Wings, but the Fingers still do have to make sure not to anger the Head.
- Big Bad Ensemble: They share this role in the game with the Wings, the Reverb Ensemble, and even the residents of the Library.
- The Caligula: The ones we've seen appear to run on almost inane and incomprehensible regulations to outsiders, which also count as berserk buttons that are ground to brutal executions. Again, just like the Wings, they are anything but incompetent and are excellent in what they could and will do.
- Cloudcuckoolander: The Fingers seen in-game are extremely eccentric unlike run-of-the-mill criminal organizations, basically running on strange rules and regulations that are subject to death sentence if violated.
- The Dreaded: The biggest and baddest of the outlaws and lunatics of the City before the Distortions managed to outperform them in terms of both attitude and power.
- The Ghost: Only two of the Fingers have been introduced in-game so far namely the Index and Thumb, and the other three are only mentioned. Members especially their higher-ups, with few exceptions in the Index and Thumb, are unknown in the story currently. For the Index, there's a trio of Proxies named Esther, Hubert, and Gloria, Moirai who is a Weaver, and finally, Yan, a Messenger. As for the Thumb, we have Kalo who is one of the Sottocapi, and a trio of Capi who are his direct subordinates named Katriel, Boris, and Denis. Downplayed for the case of the Middle Finger, as the artbook states that Tanya was one of its former executives.
- Hufflepuff House: The Fingers after the Library's books are the Index and Thumb. The other three are occupied for various reasons; the Ring and Pinky in a civil war with each other, and several sections of the Middle having been decimated by the Black Silence.
- Intimidating Revenue Service: They replace B Corp as the general tax collector service in the Backstreets. Most of them will require heavy fees for the sake of sustenance, but the Index only needs its wards to do Prescripts, eccentric and oddly specific orders that are ground to execution if done incorrectly.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: A rare case where this is wholly Deconstructed and Played for Horror. Each Finger follows a specific type of eccentric habit amongst them, but unlike most other franchises where the "typical criminal gang with strange quirks" are Played for Laughs, their eccentricities are played to logical extremes and instead defines them as the fickle and dangerous groups they are.
- The Syndicate: They are Syndicates, and the biggest of them all.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Although they occasionally come together on how to properly run the Backstreets and handle their turfs, the Fingers view each other as rivals, and don't really get along with one another, often getting into arguments and having turf wars over control of territory or other matters. The Ring and Pinky are noted to be in the middle of a major civil war with one another, and along with the Middle, are less involved in the battle for the Library. By the sixth chapter, the members of the Thumb located near the Library are decimated by the Index after one of their Sottocapi and three of their Capi are booked, and the Index themselves loses three of their Proxies and one of their Messengers, and with the other Fingers less involved, effectually puts them out of the race for the Library.
- Theme Naming: As the name suggests, all of them are named after a type of finger.
The Index
In General
- "That's the scary part. Those Prescripts seem random, but they work out in their favor somehow."- Roland
- Affably Evil: The Index has laws forbidding its members from committing pointless violence, meaning that the Index's agents are generally peaceful as long as there's no Prescript commanding them to attack. Civilians are even encouraged to approach Proxies for clarification on what a Prescript could possibly mean if they're too vague or confusing, and they'll clarify best they can.
- Badass Cape: All Index workers wear large white capes with emphasized collars as part of their uniforms.
- Berserk Button: If they relay a Prescript to you, just do it no matter how weird or vague it might sound, or you could kiss your life goodbye. The excuse is tax evasion, since they use the Prescripts to tax civilians. In reality, it's implied that this happens because the Prescripts are the Will of the City, and thus if you don't or can't perform them means you are no longer of any use for the City.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Somehow, the powers that be will know whether someone has done their Prescript or not not matter how hidden or unimportant they are, and Proxies will be sent to execute whoever hasn't done their duties with the exact location of the perpetrator, given to them by a Prescript of their own.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: From an outsider's perspective, their organizational structure makes little to no sense, with the low-ranking Proselytes being allowed to quit whenever they want, and with their agents constantly being relayed nonsensical orders such as being ordered to extract the spinal cords of all 37-year olds or to exchange the left leg of the fourteenth person they come across with the right leg of the twenty-sixth person they come across. Despite all of this, carrying out the Prescripts always leads to a favorable outcome for the Index as a whole.
- Chain Pain: Implied by their Binding Chains combat page, which features a person being wrapped by multiple chains. All named characters are shown to be able to summon chains, which sometimes have a pointed blade at the end. It is perhaps symbolic of their lives being bound to the Prescripts, especially considering they have been shown to be used to pull the unfortunate target towards them at quite some force as well, like in Gloria's mass attack.
- Flower Motifs: Blue aconite (wolfsbane) according to the artbook, as depicted in their icon (more clearly seen in Distorted Yan's icon.) A poisonous flower symbolizing caution and death.
- Gambit Roulette: No matter how nonsensical the Prescript may be, the Prescripts always lead to a favorable outcome for the Index in the end. For example, one Prescript demanded the Index to send a group of their Proselytes to the Library where the Proselytes would certainly meet their end. Sending the Proselytes into the Library, however, leads to one of the Thumb's Sottocapo and his subordinate Capi being lured into the Library to retrieve the books of the Index Proselytes, ultimately leading to the deaths of said Sottocapo and Capi allowing the Index to easily take control of L Corp's Nest.
- Graceful Loser: Befitting their fatalistic mindset, all members of the Index accept their defeat upon being killed in the Library. At the very worst, they just express confusion as to how it had to end in such a way.
- Grayscale of Evil: All of their workers wear uniforms in various shades of black and white, with some rare bits of gold. All of them but Moirai even have black or white hair.
- Light Is Not Good: Members are primarily adorned in white, with black and grey as secondary colors and accented with gold trimmings, but are far from being heroic. Their 'Blade Unlocked' state is also denoted by bright shards resembling myosotis petals (clarified to be aconite instead in the artbook) surrounding them.
- Mystery Cult: The Index has a few elements of being a cult, such as new members of the Index being called Proselytes, and practically nobody in the Index truly knows where the Prescripts come from and how the creators of the Prescripts are so omniscient. The higher ranked members are also clad in white robes, whereas the lower ranked ones have blindfolds to symbolize their dependance on the Prescripts. They are later allowed to take it off.
Weavers
Moirai (Unmarked Spoilers)
Moirai
- Affably Evil: She's pretty nice for someone who leads Yan to distort.
- Just Following Orders: Her justification for not rebelling against the Prescripts.
- Meaningful Name: In Classical Mythology, the Moirai are a trio of deities who personify destiny and control the thread of life of every mortal from birth to death. A fitting name for someone who weaves the Index's Prescripts.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Supposedly, she was selected to be a Weaver via Prescript in the first place.
- Statuesque Stunner: Moirai is around 186cm tall
, even taller than Olga despite being a year younger than Isadora and Tenma, two of the shortest characters in the game. - Unfazed Everyman: She seems to completely ignore the fact that Yan transforms into a Mechanical Abomination right in front of her eyes.
- The Unfought: One of the only characters featured in the game that never actually sets foot in the Library herself.
Proxies
In General
Officers and enforcers of the Index who lead the Proselytes.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The second time they're seen, they're in the process of following a different Prescript: "Remove the limbs of all Thumb thugs still remaining in the Nest. And hang their bodies on skewers."
- Evil Is Bigger: All three of the Proxies seen thus far are huge, easily being some of the biggest characters in the game. Gloria in particular is second only to Tomerry as the biggest so far. It's especially jarring when they're with fellow Index Messenger Yan.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: They briefly chat with Argalia, who passes by just to request for the corpses they skewered, because they need supplies for the Puppeteer and Bremen, Greta, and Tanya were feeling hungry. Esther goes for this so they don't cause unneeded conflict otherwise.
- Honor Before Reason: The Proxies, when given a Prescript, will see it through unquestioningly, even when it's a death sentence such as being sent to the Library, and waver not once in the process. This includes forged ones, if permitted by actual Prescripts.
- Magikarp Power: Every Proxy has the passive, Locked Potential, which does nothing until after they use six unique Combat Pages, upon which they enter a Blade Unlocked state that permanently gives them +1 Dice Power and access to their exclusive Combat Page. Each Proxy also has the Combat Page Unlock, which upgrades itself each time it is used until it reaches tier 3. Although rather useless at tier 1 and 2, upon reaching tier 3, Unlock becomes a 0-cost Combat Page that restores 1 light and draws another page, making it one of the most versatile Combat Pages in the game.
- Martyrdom Culture: When the Proxies were given the Prescript of going to the Library and warned of the impossible chances of success, they didn't budge once as that was what their Prescript ordained.
- No Mouth: All Proxies seen thus far invoke this in some fashion; Hubert has a mouth guard around his jaw and over his mouth, Esther's is obscured by his collar, and Gloria just doesn't have one to begin with.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: First, saving Yan from certain death in the Thumb's southern base, and later slaughtering every single member of the Thumb in L Corp's Nest.
- Secret Art: Each of the three Proxies has one that can only be used when they're in the Blade Unlocked state (which they will reach after using 6 unique pages).
- Esther has Castigation, an attack that makes up for its pathetic base rolls with the ability to lower the power of any die clashing with it by 12, in addition to the main attack dealing massive bonus damage proportional to the natural roll of the die.
- Hubert has Decapitation, an attack with a very high roll on top of inflicting Feeble and a massive amount of Bleed next Scene.
- Gloria has Eradication, a powerful Mass-summation attack that inflicts Feeble on the same Scene it's used.
- Villainous Rescue: Gloria rubs it into Yan that had it not been in their Prescript's best interests he would have likely been left to die at the Thumb's southern base without them stepping in. He's not grateful for what's really just another order being carried out rather than any personal feelings or attachment, which Esther does agree with.
- Villain Cred: Argalia notes he enjoys talking with Proxies, as they have a "similar scent" to him, following that with how he wishes to recruit one of them into the Reverb Ensemble.
Esther
Esther
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Sort of. He's the one that clears up ambiguities regarding the Prescripts for his fellow Proxies, such as whether or not Gloria needs to extract the spines from every 37 year old in the Nest (the answer is yes).
- Criss-Cross Attack: His exclusive combat page, Castigation, features Esther dashing forwards and slashing at his opponent from multiple angles.
- Dual Wielding: Not normally, but he briefly manifests a second sword before dealing the finishing blow with Castigation.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He has no knowledge of Argalia's plans, nor does he have any reason to interfere with them, but he still recognizes that the latter is playing a risky gambit and gives him a scathing threat.
- Just Following Orders / Nothing Personal: Gives both of these to the Thumb personnel he's been ordered to kill by a Prescript.
- Gender-Blender Name: 'Esther' is usually a feminine name.
- Mood Whiplash: Compared to Gloria & Hubert's Prescripts, his was very simple; eliminate the Thumb.
- Hubert: This one needs no explanation.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Pulls this on a Thumb Capo who calls them out for their blind obedience to the Prescripts.
- Esther: Isn't that how everyone in the city lives? We're all fundamentally the same, aside from the variation in methods.
- Secret-Keeper: It is implied from his comments towards Yan shortly before leaving the Library and from his key page story that Esther is aware of the true nature of the Prescripts.
- Straight Man: Serves as this to Gloria, and later to Argalia as well.
- Villain Cred: Notes to Gloria that Yan has shown obedience and efficiency with his Prescripts. He himself is respected for his wisdom by Argalia, however that may be taken.
- You Have No Chance to Survive: Warns Argalia that he and the Reverberation Ensemble will die while they remain "roosted" in Nest L. Come the Reverberation Ensemble's battle, every last one of them is killed and booked, making this warning true. And in the true ending they're immediately killed off by the Library following their reconstitution, the only Guests to suffer such a privilege.
- Esther: ...The Blue Reverberation, as long as you've chosen to roost in this Nest, know that you and your minions will have your guts spilt upon this land one day.
Hubert
Hubert
- Badass Armfold: His default stance in his cutscene portrait.
- BFS: A large, curved one. It's big enough that he drags it across the floor in his move animation.
- Blood Knight: Shows signs of it, stating foremost his willingness to participate in a war with the Thumb as ordered by a Prescript. Later, he describes the limbless Thumb personnel struggling to live after being impaled as "magnificent."
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: His Prescript of swapping the 14th person's left leg with the 26th's right leg that he met that day is weirdly specific and not even that damaging to the victims involved, especially compared to Gloria's and Esther's, but sees it out with the same seriousness as he always does. It also says something when this is what Gloria has to comment with:
- Gloria: They're so out there~ It actually feels strange to get a straightforward Prescript for once, you see, Yan~?
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a prominent scar over his right eye, and as noted above is quite the brutal combatant.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Shoots down Argalia's wish of wanting to include any of the Proxies into his ensemble and warns him to watch his tongue around them.
- You Will Not Evade Me: His exclusive combat page, Decapitation, features Hubert throwing a chain to bring his target towards them before dealing a single, powerful swing to decapitate his victim.
Gloria
Gloria
- All-Encompassing Mantle: Gloria has the hugest cloak of the Proxies. It covers Gloria's entire body, only revealing Gloria's arms and head.
- Cute and Psycho: Gloria seems to be a bit too enthusiastic for the fresh smell of blood from someone who failed a Prescript. Unlike the largely stoic Hubert and Esther, Gloria is noticeably a lot more childish and sadistic.
- Cyber Cyclops: Gloria's only facial feature is a large red eye.
- Establishing Character Moment: This huge, cloaked machine introduces itself by speaking like a young girl with the voice to match, and confronts an artist who was unable to fulfill his Prescript due to vague wording ("kill" the art he's made, which he interpreted as destroying his actual work and was outraged when Gloria explains that it was easy to just find someone as a model and kill them instead) and executes him moments after with childish cheerfulness.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Doesn't handle the revelation that Yan was giving them illegitimate Prescripts well.
- Genki Girl: Gloria's speech is almost always cheerful and doesn't lose its energetic tone even when Gloria is upset.
- Lightning Bruiser: Despite being a hulking mechanical monstrosity, Gloria is incredibly fast. The game's art book gives Gloria's personal specialty as "High Mobility".
- Mechanical Abomination: Gloria is a towering, robotic suit that seemingly doesn't have an actual body, larger and taller than most humans in the game at a whopping 250 cm of height, only outmatched by Tomerry at 350 cm.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The arms hidden inside Gloria's robes are actually blades fit to slice someone into bits.
- Vocal Dissonance: One of the worst offenders of this trope in the game. Despite being a hulking mechanical monstrosity that towers over most characters in the game, Gloria speaks in a high-pitched young girl's voice, not even with a voice filter like other mechanical characters. In the Japanese script, Gloria's verbal tics are those of a young kid's.
Messengers
Yan (Unmarked Spoilers)
Yan
Click here to see 얀샋ㄷ요무
- "Prescripts are just meant to be followed. It's not a good idea to give extra meaning or have any sentiment for them..."
A newly appointed Index Messenger who goes around delivering Prescripts, orders that substitute monetary taxes, to the Index's members and the public they shelter. His full name is Yan Vismok and he is a young man with white hair tied in a ponytail, holding a greatsword and wearing the Index's trademark black-and-white officer clothing. Recently he's been fabricating Prescripts out of resentment towards his occupation, but nevertheless got a free pass just because the Index's authorities somehow wished for the fabricated Prescripts to be carried out. He is then given a Prescript of his own, ordering him to enter the birthplace of the Prescripts, and the truth is enough to have him distort into an automaton typewriter monster called 얀샋ㄷ요무 (enlxmfflsdis in the Korean text.) He covers Star of the City Chapter 3.1.
- Affably Evil: Yan handles the Prescripts and would be more than happy to execute anyone who doesn't fulfill them, but at least he's willing to admit that he's just the one handling it and he's not responsible for any of these. If any given Prescript is potentially harmful to another person with no warning, Yan may also let its recipient warn them. Yan also warns a new resident that the Prescripts are not as simple as they first appear and asks if they really want to stay in an Index controlled area. This foreshadows the reveal that Yan was making fake Prescripts to try and destroy the Index out of resentment.
- All for Nothing: Yan's rebellion is for naught, as the leaders of the Index knew that he was fabricating Prescripts, but let it slide anyways because they were exactly what the Prescripts predicted anyways. It's justified even considering the origin of the Prescripts is the City itself, which the Library and the Seed of Light's corrosion had seemingly flown into.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: After serving as the main protagonist for the Syndicate arc, he becomes a Distortion in its last chapter and is ordered to go to the Library, and then dies in combat.
- Battle Theme Music: Children of the City, a jazzy vaporwave piece that consists of the citing of random Prescripts, representing Yan's Despair Event Horizon over how his attempts to be an individual are for naught due to the true nature of the Prescripts being written by the City's will.
- BFS: Carries a greatsword almost as long as he is tall, and it becomes colossal after becoming 얀샋ㄷ요무.
- Bilingual Bonus: Typing out the Korean characters of his name in the English translation (얀샋ㄷ요무) on a corresponding English keyboard, or typing out the English characters of his name in the Korean translation (enlxmifflsdis) on a corresponding Korean keyboard, will lead to his actual name as a Distortion: simply, Distorted Yan. The same is true for the Chinese translation, using the Wubi method, and the Japanese translation, using a Japanese keyboard.
- Boss Banter: Throughout the fight, the song and Yan recites random Prescripts, in a manner similar to the Abnormalities and Philip due to distorting.
- Boss Battle: Serve as one of bosses as the climax of Star of the City, and serves as the finale of the Syndicate arc.
- Cassandra Truth: He directly warns the Thumb that sending a high-ranking member into the Library is foolish and will lead to a catastrophe, since if someone that important dies there, it will not only devastate the Thumb and risk revealing their secrets, but will doom everyone else, since tons of people will rush into the Library to claim their book. He gets his jaw removed for his trouble, but later events show he was completely right.
- Chain Pain: Just like all other Index members, his boss fight consists of using chains to attack.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Was forced to kill his friends and family under a Prescript's order... and then was ordered by another Prescript to work for the Index.
- Death from Above: His exclusive combat page, Distorted Blade, is a mass-summation attack where he summons a skyscraper-sized sword that crashes upon his foes.
- Despair Event Horizon: He takes the revelation that the Prescripts are a Tulpa born from the actions of the people, making it the literal 'will' of The City, extremely poorly in light of his earlier concerns that his disgust with the Prescripts and his rebellion were predicted and accounted for.
- Dismemberment Is Cheap: Went to a confrontation against the Thumb at one point but lost his jaw and eyes. He comes back in neat condition the next time you meet him because his wounds were repaired by prosthetics. This led to an Index order to massacre all Thumb members within L Corp's Nest, and numerous Thumb Soldato can be seen being impaled on spears right before Yan delivers a fabricated Prescript approved by the Index authorities that throws them into the library to be killed.
- Empty Shell: Pretty much, as a Distortion, following the "City's will" as his own. As stated in his key page story, Yan ultimately accepts the futility of his actions and, with nothing left to live for, chooses to emotionlessly go with the flow in the hopes that maybe someone else will be able to break the cycle that he was unable to.
- Ensign Newbie: According to himself, Yan only took the messenger job for the Index a month ago.
- Establishing Character Moment: Is given two instances of this trope. He first shows up with the Carnival, addressing them in a familiar and lax way while they chew into desiccated corpses right in front of him. He then shows up later with the Index Proselytes, where he walks about delivering his Prescripts for the day. He notably tries to assist each and every person who he hands a Prescript out to, even outright telling one woman that her Prescript of "putting needles in the birthday cake of her neighbor" says nothing about telling said neighbor about the needles in the first place. This establishes him as a person who is used to the violence of the city, is well respected by the people who know him, and is deep down a kindhearted person. It also establishes him as an immediate threat- as quoted by Roland, only someone who's a danger in their own right would walk around the Backstreets without fear as he does.
- Fisher King: His background is covered in ink dripping from the ceiling, and seismograph lines within the background, while a blue light shines at the very center, representing in order, Yan's despair, what the Prescripts really are and their omnipresence, and the City's omnipotent will.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: At the final verse of the song, the singer is given their own Prescript, "don't go home until you finish reciting the value of e", the singer gives up and the song loops again, reflecting Yan's predicament.
- Identical Stranger: His overall white hair, side ponytail, and perpetually closed eyes bring to mind Angela's design back in Lobotomy Corporation. Fitting as he also struggled with his agency as she had.
- Giant Hands of Doom: Yan is assisted by two mechanical hands dripping with ink and connected by chains called the Right and Left Hands, serving as separate targets.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Yan really didn't take what the Prescripts really were well, as it wasn't some secret exploitive cabal that abused their power, nor a vile mastermind that controlled the Index to their whims. It was a seismograph that records the "City's will", meaning that the Index members were following senseless orders from vibrations within the City, rendering all of Yan's efforts at exerting his free will meaningless. Incapable of comprehending the Index's "god", he instantly Distorts, completely losing hope of fighting it anymore.
- Inside Job: It turns out that Yan had been fabricating Prescripts for the Index and its followers as a way of holding on to his own free will, culminating in trying to send his fellow Proxies and Proselytes to the Library from which he knows they'll likely never return. To his horror, it's revealed that they knew exactly Yan was doing and yet they condoned it anyway, perfectly willing to follow the Prescripts to their deaths. An official Prescript ordered them to obey Yan's fake Prescripts, as they ultimately can interpreted as still coming from the City itself.
- Madness Mantra: As 얀샋ㄷ요무; "Receive a Prescript... And carry it out..." In battle, he instead quotes random Prescripts.
- Mechanical Abomination: 얀샋ㄷ요무 resembles a ghostly version of Yan with the entire middle part of his head replaced with a lock and his ponytail on a ring. His limbs all have ink dripping from them, with his arms replaced with Giant Hands of Doom connected by chains, and typewriter keys growing from his legs. His voice is also garbled and deepened, as if speaking through a mouth of ink. This even extends to the in-game text subtitles, which gain a unique typing sound while writing out Yan's dialogue.
- Mirthless Laughter: After being forced to kill his loved ones and resolving to kill himself as well, Yan picks up a Prescript believing it will allow him to do so, when it instead orders him to join the very organization responsible for his situation. This is his reaction.
- Older Than They Look: He might look on the younger side, but this man is actually 25 years old.
- Ominous Obsidian Ooze: A black, ink-like substance covers the screen as he transforms into a Distortion. The same liquid continuously drips from his hands and lower body.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Yan doesn't really like seeing all the carnage unfold, to begin with. He's just doing his job against his will and he most probably meant it.
- Secret Art: Three. Baleful Brand is one of the only consistent sources of Erosion in the game, Lock possesses the rare dice-destroying effect, and Distorted Blade is a powerful Mass-Summation that also inflicts Erosion.
- Shielded Core Boss: While he is targetable, unless you can find a way around it, his dodge rolls are too high to realistically attack the main body. Only by defeating the Giant Hands of Doom will he be hittable, and even then, you need to overcome his Endure cards to do realistic damage. If he's still standing, then the hands will revive at 100 hp each.
- Stopped Caring: Being confronted with the truth of the Prescripts' creation and origin drives Yan over the edge, causing him to fully distort, becoming an automaton whose only drive is to carry out the Prescripts' will. He then heads to the Library by the order of the Prescripts, in spite of the danger, and becomes a book as a result.
- Tragic Monster: Realizing that his efforts to rebel meant jack-all to what can be best described as "the City's will created by it's inhabitants' cruelty" and realizing he can't escape or defy it, he becomes a Distortion that blindly heads into the Library to die.
- The Unfought: Downplayed, but he's never fought in his human form, and he never uses his sword on-screen. You only fight him after he succumbs to the Distortion Phenomenon.
- The Unpronouncable: While the name for his distorted form varies from language to language, it's always a mass of unpronounceable random-seeming symbols in the wrong language for its localization. Played with in that it's also a cypher; entering the keystrokes that would produce his name in that wrong language on a keyboard set to the correct language for his localization always produces the name "Distorted Yan."
- Walking Spoiler: Knowing about Yan's later development brings forth a lot of light to the Index's situation.
- Word Purée Title: The actual name in English is seemingly a bunch of random Korean letters, while the opposite is true if you're using the Korean language setting, and it's even more incomprehensible within other languages (in Japanese, it's a combination of English letters, numbers, and symbols). That said, if you enter said letters on the proper keyboard, it translates into 'Distorted Yan'.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Implied by "Children of the City" in his Distorted boss fight, assuming that it lists off some Prescripts Yan himself has taken. One order is to never go home until having fully recited to the final value of e; e is an irrational number, meaning it goes on forever.
- Your Worst Memory: According to Yan's key page story, he sees himself being forced to murder his family and friends every time he closes his eyes. He can't escape the past either, because he views his present reality as even worse. Note that he always has his eyes closed.
Proselytes
In General
- Artificial Brilliance: The Proselytes will always attempt to use a combat page that gains a power boost from their Grace of the Prescript passive. In addition, the Proselytes are unique in that they are one of the few guests that focus all of their attacks on a single Librarian at a time.
- Blindfolded Vision: All Proselytes upon joining the Index are given a blindfold that they must wear over their eyes until they are promoted either to the rank of a Messenger or a Proxy.
The Thumb
In General
- "The Thumb is the most cultivated and humane of the Five Fingers. Just be polite, and know to respect others.- Excerpt from A Thumb Soldato's Page
- "They execute anyone who ruffles their feathers even so slightly."- Angela
- Affably Evil: To an outright obsessive and cult-like degree, the Thumb values respect for superiors above all else. When the Night Awls' leader quietly mutters out their objections over the dilemma the City is facing during a meeting between the Thumb and various subsidiaries under their control and influence, he's instantly and messily beheaded for speaking out without being prompted without anyone so much batting an eye. When the Kurokumo Clan Patriarch excuses his underling's insolence and politely states his concerns, Kalo promises to 'only' severe his left hand for his group's lack of manners. When Katriel started speaking a little absentmindedly while standing in the Library's lobby, she's told that she just spoke without permission from their superiors (Angela and the Library) and she offers up her tongue to be severed without hesitation. It ends up being why Roland and Angela see the Thumb as another brand of lunatics even when compared to the Index.
- Artificial Stupidity: When you encounter them in-game. Due to a quirk in their AI they will use their melee pages way more often than they will use their more powerful ranged ones. It's easy to abuse this if one knows it.
- Berserk Button: If you happen to join or even simply encounter the Thumb, never talk back against their elites. Just don't. This includes basically anyone or anything higher in rank than the offender, including an external Star of the City threat that the Thumb supposedly has no connection with. This often leads to a series of brutal amputations or even outright executions for strange reasons amongst their personnel, and for the same reason most Fixers do not want to deal with them.
- Disproportionate Retribution: They treat any disrespect towards their social hierarchy very harshly. For example, if they see one of their members speak out against a superior, they'll cut out that lower member's tongue, or worse. And getting your tongue cut was already a mere warning (Granted, since they could most certainly buy a new tongue easily).
- The Dreaded: If the Thumb Soldato's page is to be believed, very few Fixers want to get involved with the Thumb despite their polite nature due to the harsh repercussions that come from disrespecting the Thumb, which works on both sides.
- Logical Weakness:: They're obsessed with hierarchy and respect to their superiors - getting rid of high-ranking leader figures predictably gets the underlings into a panic.
- The Mafia: They run their Syndicate like an Italian-Mafia family, and aren't afraid to dismember or kill leaders of other Syndicates, especially of their own subsidiaries, for speaking out of line.
- Noble Demon: They're one of the largest and most powerful Syndicates in the City, yet they are unfailingly polite towards those whom they interpret as their social betters and are just as willing to punish their own members as they are willing to punish others for any perceived disrespect.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
- Their entire force in L Corp's Nest is decimated by the Index because of a Prescript's order, and many members' corpses impaled in brutal ways thank to their Sottocapi being booked. To add insult to injury, Argalia arrives to take their corpses and bring them to Jae-heon, the implication being he turns them into the Puppets you fight in the Reverberation Ensemble reception.
- In The Distortion Detective, Isabella's Thumb group, also in Nest L, is one-sidedly defeated by Moses' Office, Edgar, and the Marksman of the Mist.
- Off with His Head!: Disrespect the Capo dei Capi and this what you get, as the boss of the Night Awls discovers.
- Tongue Trauma: Katriel, when sent to the Library in the Thumb's second attack, only has '...' to say when they arrive, having suffered the loss of her tongue for badmouthing Angela. In a more general sense, severing the tongue is the average punishment Thumb subordinates can get for rudely speaking out without permission. The other Thumb Soldati accompanying their superiors during that reception are also silent, though this seems to be more because they know not to talk out of place.
Sottocapi
Kalo
Kalo
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- Is one of the three people playing cards in the game's opening.
- Is also heard talking to Katriel during the Urban Legend chapter intro.
- Decapitated Army: It's stated that the Thumb's forces in L Corp's Nest are left devastated by the loss of his leadership in the Library. This leads to them being easily finished off by the Index.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's an underboss of the Thumb, and noticeably stronger than the people who serve under him.
- Rugged Scar: Over his left eye.
- Tranquil Fury: He's very calm and collected as he orders Yan to be mutilated for his perceived disrespect.
- Worthy Opponent: He views the Library with nothing but respect for reaching a Star of the City tiered threat. So much so that he considers the anomaly he's standing in and Angela herself as both his and the Thumb's superior.
Capi
Katriel
Katriel
- Badass Bandolier: Wears one that hangs around her waist carrying grenades and is a Capo for the Thumb. It doesn't see use in gameplay, however.
- The Dragon: She appears to be Kalo's second-in-command despite being the same rank as Boris and Denis, given that she fights alongside him in the Thumb's reception.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Is first heard during the Urban Legend chapter intro, reporting to Kalo about the upcoming war for Nest L and the appearance of the Library.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Despite her appearance, keep in mind that this is still a dangerous Syndicate fighter.
- Tongue Trauma: Got her tongue cut off by Kalo because she questioned if Angela was a machine, something that only so slightly irritated her.
Boris
Boris
- Cool Shades: Wears a prominent pair of sunglasses.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Instead of fighting with a bayonet like his peers, Boris fights with his fists in rather inelegant style instead, but is no less effective for it.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: As a visual treat to his Secret Art, Discipline, the final couple blows of the attack has the user knocking the opponent to the floor and wailing on them repeatedly with a hail of fists.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Can use the exclusive combat page Discipline, which consists of him beating down on his opponent savagely.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: It's not often visible behind his shades, but in the rare sprites where they aren't covered, Boris' eyes glow red.
- Stone Wall: With his passive, Grit, automatically reducing both health and stagger damage he receives, as well as using combat pages that feature multiple block dice such as Ferrous Guard and Discipline, it can be very difficult to take Boris down.
Denis
Denis
- Perpetual Frowner: Hardly ever shows any other expression besides a grimace. The only exception to this is when he's firing his gun, when he puts on a Slasher Smile.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Much shorter than the other Thumb leaders, but every bit as strong.
Soldati
In General
Standard foot soldiers, the lowest rank of the Thumb.
- Bayonet Ya: Considering the insane durability weapons in the City are made for, the Thumb just decided that, even if their soldiers run out of bullets, they can just use their guns as spears or polearms.
- Combat Pragmatism: Compared to the Full-Stop Office and their use of limited ammo supply with only their leader having a backup weapon, the Thumb soldiers just decided to slap a bayonet on their guns so even if they're not firing off their (remarkably plentiful) ammunition, they can still fight in close quarters combat. On top of that, their AI is programmed to focus fire on certain Librarians to try and stagger them out of a fight sooner, and readily abuse their common (and reusable!) ranged cards.
Other Fingers
The Middle
One of the Five Fingers whose modus operandi is kinship and retribution. They treat their fold as a "family" and fiercely protect those under their watch, closely tracking each and every percieved infraction leveled against them before exacting horrific and disproportionately brutal vengeance against even the most mundane of wrongs. At the time of Library of Ruina, its southern operations were decimated by the legendary Color Fixer known as the Black Silence and the Syndicate is still reeling from the attack, thus making it unable to participate in the war for Nest L unlike the Index and Thumb.
The only known member of the Middle shown in Library Of Ruina is Tanya, a former executive of its Southern operations, as revealed in the official artbook for Library Of Ruina. Limbus Company elaborates more on the Middle and introduces more of their members.
The only known member of the Middle shown in Library Of Ruina is Tanya, a former executive of its Southern operations, as revealed in the official artbook for Library Of Ruina. Limbus Company elaborates more on the Middle and introduces more of their members.
- Ascended Extra: They were just mentioned in passing in Library of Ruina with Tanya being implied as a former member. In Limbus Company, they get an elevated role, both in the past and present timeline of the game.
- Attack on One Is an Attack on All: When you combine this with their penchant for Disproportionate Retribution, it's not hard to see why people are so afraid of crossing them. The Middle interprets any offense against one of their Brothers or Sisters as a declaration of war by the offending party, and will respond with an utter massacre of them and everyone affiliated with them.
- Barefisted Monk: In lieu of weapons like the blades of the Index or bayonet-rifles of the Thumb, every seen Middle member uses either their bare hands or brass knuckles to fight, which is made lethally effective due to their strength-enhancing tatoos.
- Berserk Button: In no circumstances you hurt one of their members or their friends or family. They will slaughter hundreds of people over this with no mercy, no matter how powerful you may be or may be not.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Limbus Company shows that they take any offense against their family very seriously, and don't really care if the ones they punish are responsible or not.
- When Rodya killed a pawnbroker connected to them, the Middle retributed by mass-murdering Rodya's entire neighborhood instead of gunning just for her.
- At one point in Canto V, a Big Brother of the Middle tried to kill all of the Sinners just because they stole his coupon for a luxury hair salon.
- One of the dialogue lines of Meursault's Middle Little Brother ID has him noting that the Book of Vengeance has explicit instructions on how to enact retribution against various infractions, ranging from avenging a Brother's death to something as minor as getting their foot stepped on.
- There's also a tale where a child's family was never seen again after the child accidentally spilled ice cream on a Middle member's prized clothing, even if the Middle member's completely non-hostile response to the spill would imply otherwise.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Morbidly deconstructed and played for horror. Their whole ideology focuses on kinship, but just like other Fingers, this is played not as an admirable trait, but defines them as the insane and horrific organizations they are. The Middle values their comrades and family so much that they will murder hundreds if you even so hurt or kill one of them.
- Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Exaggerated - Middle members are almost psychotically devoted to their 'family', and the structure of the organization reinforces this, with low-ranked grunts being called 'Little Brothers/Little Sisters' who are 'looked after' by 'Big Brothers/Big Sisters', who in turn answer to a 'Great Sister'.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Implied. Their whole gimmick is endless loyalty to each other and endless retaliation to even the smallest of slights against them. Usually, this ends up causing absolute massacres of anyone even tangentially related to the person who wronged them in the first place... until they ended up in the crosshairs of the Black Silence. Someone who not only has a Perception Filter that ensures no one can be linked to them, but also ironically was themselves lashing out at anyone even tangentially related to the Distortion phenomenon. The end result of their off-screen conflict was a complete decimation of the Middle, to the point they're unable to even contest the other Fingers for new territory.
- The Mafiya: They're implied to be themed after the Russian Mafia: the one named member we know of is named Tanya, a Slavic name, and they were heavily involved in Rodya and Sonya's backstory in Limbus Company, both characters themed after the Russian book Crime and Punishment.
- Power Tattoo: As a whole, Middle members tend to prefer enhancement tattoos over prosthetics or weapons, with their particular brand glowing purple whenever they're being used. Queequeg also reveals that these tattoos cannot be removed normally.
- Resignations Not Accepted: As demonstrated by Queequeg, the only way one is allowed to leave the Middle is if they remove every part of themselves that can be considered part of the Middle. This includes their tattoos (which cannot be removed normally), their memories of the organization and their tongue which was used to speak for them. If that cannot be done, they will find and kidnap former members and force them to rejoin.
- Shout-Out: They have a big 'book of vengance' where every single slight done against any member of the group is jotted down, no matter how small, and later violently avenged, similiar to the Dwarves' Great Book of Grudges from Warhammer Fantasy.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: To show off their Power Tattoos and their glow properly for intimidation, many of the members opt to go shirtless, with Little Sister Don only wearing a Sarashi.
- The Worf Effect: While their decimation isn't shown, the way that it is treated serves as proof of just how strong and reckless the Black Silence is in directly targeting one of the Five Fingers and actually getting away with it.
The Ring and the Pinky
The other two of the Five Fingers are at civil war with each other for unspecified territorial reasons during the time of Library Of Ruina, and as such, aren't involved in the war for Nest L.
- Mad Artist: This is the Ring's shtick, as seen in Leviathan.
