People of Babylonia
Squads (Gray Ravens)
Command & Other Humans
Factions on Earth
Human Factions
Non-Human Faction
Not every inhabitant of Earth seeks the well-being of humanity. Some Constructs and machines now strive for their own goals after breaking ties with humanity, even if that means getting rid of what remains of it.
Those with their names in bold are playable.
Warning: Punishing's Chinese servers were active before others, and thus have released more story and gameplay elements compared to international regions. As such, there will be spoilers aplenty, marked and unmarked. New players are advised to read at their own discretion, or avoid these pages entirely.
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The Punishing Virus and the Corrupted
In general
The Infection
After forcing humanity off Earth following its initial outbreak, the Punishing Virus remains on the planet, persisting either as lethal clouds that leave parts of the world inhospitable, or as roving bands of berserk machinery that seek only to kill the humans that still remain on Earth. While Babylonia believes in purging Earth of the virus, many parties believe it is here to stay, and may even be more desirable to keep it that way.- Alien Kudzu: The question of how the virus suddenly appeared in the Zero-Point Energy Reactors went unanswered for a long time, until Spiral of Chronos, which revealed that the Virus's programming language exists in higher dimensions, meaning the Virus truly isn't of terrestrial origin, or even from this plane of reality.
- Eldritch Location: The Red Tide is a formerly subterranean pool of Punishing virus that has become dense enough to resemble mud in some places, which is also filled broken robot parts. It is likened to primordial soup and has become a spawning ground for Hetero-Creatures that disturbingly resemble biological beings. Worse, it's broken through the surface, where it has risen high enough to actually drown buildings.By Chaos Unsnarled, the Red Tide itself evolves and grows more powerful, becoming a "Purple Tide" that's further developing Hetero-Creatures, infecting the local environment and is capable of inducing hallucinations in people who touch it.
- Murderous Malfunctioning Machine: All generic Mooks take this form. Whether rusting and ancient construction machinery, or constructs sent down to Earth, once you succumb, this is your final destiny.
- Nanomachines: Beyond just infecting and killing, the virus can persist outside and affect the physical world. Places with high enough densities practically start terraforming the land.
- Transferable Memory: The Red Tide is thick enough that it gains the property of absorbing memories, or at least imitating them. Asimov also floats the theory that enough memories exist in it that it may have become a Genius Loci.
- The Virus: One that can infect both humans and machines.
Nozzle
"Y-You... asked... an artist... to explain... their... work...? What an... amatuer... hehe."
Informally referred to as "the Graffiti Artist" due to its obsession with painting patterns wherever it goes, this Corrupted becomes the first target Gray Raven squad has to destroy to establish a foothold on Earth. Its manic but clear intelligence is the first warning sign the war will not be so simple.
- Art Attacker: It uses paint as one of its weapons, whether as a high-pressure beam of freezing paint, or paint cans used as improvised bombs.
- Fat Bastard: Its large frame gives this impression, and compliments its self-absorbed artist persona.
- Freeze Ray: Its paint is capable of freezing constructs, and it even killed other constructs in this manner.
- It Can Think: The fact it's found a hobby and is attempting to create art shocks Gray Raven squad, who were under the impression they would be fighting a mindless horde.
- Mad Artist: Its paint incorporates the fluids of constructs it's killed, making it even more despicable.
- Starter Villain: It's a dangerous enemy, but it's only dangerous so far as it's stopping Babylonia from establishing its first land base.
- Vagueness Is Coming: While insignificant on its own, Nozzle hints at the future plot by making Babylonia aware of prior unknown factions while speaking of the Ascendants and the Sage/Sagemachina.
Tifa
"With this power, I will fulfill the last wish of my Commandant..."
Tifa's true body
Once a Reconstructed Soldier serving with the Suzaku squad, the death of her commandant in the initial counter-invasion drove her to despair. Manipulated into accepting the Punishing Virus, Tifa has been turned into a nightmarish Corrupted called the Iron Maiden that's attacking other constructs in revenge.
- Art Evolution: For the Spiral of Chronos update, Tifa received a remade boss fight, which depicts her completely free of her armored shell and armed with several new projectile attacks.
- The Bus Came Back: She returns in a flashback in Spiral of Chronos, when Lee dives into his own M.I.N.D. to fight a Virtual Ghost of Tifa that's residing there, explaining her revamped boss form.
- Fallen Hero: She was once an ordinary soldier, but the death of her commandant and Roland's manipulations twisted her into an Corrupted powerhouse.
- Mercy Kill: She survives her story arc, but by that time, she's nothing more than an insane mind trapped in a wrecked body. Because of this Vera kills her for good to end her suffering.
- Prophetic Names: "Iron Maiden" might be an intimidating name for an armored, spike-shooting cocoon, but in the end Tifa winds up metaphorically inhabiting one, as she's reduced to a broken mind trapped in her body, until Vera puts her out of her misery.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: Her Memory set shows that, prior to her infection, she wielded Levi-Guns like Liv.
- Spike Shooter: Her main form of attack is releasing spikes as projectiles.
- Starter Villain: She and the Graffiti Artist are the main obstacles in establishing an Babylonia presence on Earth.
- Turns Red: When she reaches the last third of her health, she purges her outer armored shell and starts using new attacks.
- Virtual Ghost: The Last Spark added a Memory set based on her pre-infection self.
Roseblade
"I... will not allow... them... to defile Mr. Copperfield's legacy..."
Back in the past, the Estate Museum was cared for by a bionic steward, who steadfastly carried out his duty even after the Punishing Virus arrived. When Gray Raven squad come to investigate, they discover that he has been turned into the Museum's Corrupted guard dog, thanks to its new occupants.
- Kick the Dog: The recipient of one thanks to Roland. His callous enslavement of Roseblade and subsequent abandonment as a "failure" shows the Ascendants are self-serving Social Darwinists.
- One-Way Visor: He wears one (or perhaps has one installed) as a sign of his robotic nature.
- Playing with Fire: Further into his boss fight, he coats his sword in fire, granting himself fire based attacks.
- Royal Rapier: Uses one as his weapon, and fights with a gentlemanly stance appropriate to his old job.
- Something about a Rose: Some of his long range attacks are shaped like roses.
- Turns Red: When he loses one third of his health, he starts using a Flaming Sword.
- Villainous Breakdown: His fighting style becomes more erratic with each phase of his fight; he initially has a slow walk, elaborate rose-themed attacks and fanciful slashes, moves onto fire-based atttacks with wide sweeps and explosive pillars, and by the end goes completely feral, viciously charging the player while simply stabbing at them as hard as they can.
The International Space Station / Korolev / Riot
The International Space Station
Riot
Once a cutting-edge scientific research facility where gravity generation experiments were taking place, the Punishing Virus consumed the station and then expanded it with absorbed space debris. Since then, it has menaced both Babylonia and Earth as a giant artillery platform. Korolev, the station's AI, persists as an internal defense system — when Gray Raven and Ayla get deeper into the station, it downloads itself into Riot, a massive combat robot.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Korolev is a low-level AI, but a malicious one.
- Beam Spam: Riot specializes in all sorts of projectile attacks, whether it is massive beams fired from its central eye, or shotgun-like blasts from two side guns to push the player away.
- Deadly Euphemism: Korolev taunts Gray Raven using educational blurbs and PSAs recontextualized as warnings and threats. When the Space Station begins jettisoning sections of itself to isolate Babylonia's troops, it compares its actions to a human body fighting off infections.
- Death from Above: The International Space Station is capable of spreading the Punshing Virus by firing infected projectiles down to the Earth's surface.
Hetero-Core / Rail Heterozygote
Hetero-Core
Rail Heterozygote
When the Punishing Virus infected the gravity generator of the International Space Station, the extraordinary conditions allowed the virus to create denser and more complex devices, known as Heteromers, which are made out of Hetero-matter. The densest matter exists as the Hetero-Core, which manipulates all Hetero-matter on the space station. After the Hetero-Core falls to Earth, it re-consolidates itself into the Rail Heterozygote and promptly attacks the people of the Akdilek Commercial Alliance. Gray Raven squad is sent to eliminate it once and for all.- Disposable Vehicle Section: When Babylonia seriously threatens the Core by breaching its defenses, it makes a last-ditch attempt to survive by jettisoning itself out of the space station.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: It is the Punishing Virus at its least complicated, simply being an amalgamate of machinery that's destroying everything in sight. The greater threat it presents is a deadline that pushes Akdilek's population to the breaking point as they try to decide whether to ally with Babylonia or the Ascendants.
- Mechanical Abomination: The Rail Heterozygote is a multi-eyed, asymmetrical nightmare cobbled out of random parts through a pure hatred for humanity rather than actual engineering.
- Ominous Cube: The Core itself, though it uses a variety of square and rectangular weaponry as well.
Shark-speare
"Let's... play... together..."
Once a mere cartoon character, Shark-speare was later used as the basis for a mechanical mascot of Venus Splash Park in the Caribbean. However, it also serves as the water park's main defense system. During Grand Blue, Luna infects Shark-speare to turn it into an ironic executioner for Shome, an Ascendant fugitive.- Body Horror: Even if it's just a machine, there's something unnerving about how Shark-speare uses its abandoned face plate as a flail in its second form.
- Epic Flail: In its second form, it drops all its comedic pretenses and starts swinging its face plate around on a cable.
- Fed to the Beast: Shome eventually meets his end at the hands of his treasured mascot, which graphically bites him to pieces.
- Fighting Clown: In its first form, it fights more like a cartoon character — using a water gun, balloons and a jet-ski like aparatus — that just happens to also be able to hurt you.
- Nightmare Face: In its second form, the internal components under its decorative face are revealed, thus becoming unsettling Cyber Cyclops that clashes with the rest of its still cartoonish body.
Hetero-Creatures
In general
The Polyphage
Emerging from the Red Tide, these are the result of the Punishing virus imitating the evolutionary process of the Earth's organisms. Humanity has not yet understood the specific evolutionary mechanism of Hetero-Creatures, determined whether they possess biology like living organisms, or learned the reasons for their existence. The only thing that can be determined through observation is that Hetero-Creatures have initially shown the possibility of forming their own development tree and have the potential to achieve sentience.
- Evil Evolves: It's the Punishing Virus trying to ape biological evolution.
- During Evernight Beat, it succeeds in spawning the "Unidentified Twins: Male and Female", which grow in strength so rapidly they start imitating the player's Bullet Dodge and Lucia's Limit Break.
- During Chaos Unsnarled, the Commandant reports that the newest Hetero-Creatures are now exhibiting complex group behavior and even self-sacrifice to benefit a group, making them worry that the Creatures aren't far off turning into a civilization.
Polyphage
- Background Boss: The Polyphage boss of Fake Ascension. Later it becomes a Colossus Climb as you fight your way across its arm.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: The Polyphage requires an Ascendant to fully function. Gabriel, reasoning that Luna's no longer useful to the Ascendant Network, turns her into its core.
Unidentified Twins
- The Battle Didn't Count: After draining the Unidentified Twins of their health, the duo simply one-shots Lucia and Lee in a cutscene right after.
- Dual Boss: Evernight Beat ends with a fight against the Unidentified Twins, referred to individually as "Male" and "Female". The Male fights with a Power Fist, while the Female fights with Armed Legs and an Energy Bow.
- Evil Counterpart: The Unidentified Twins are the first bosses in the game that start using the game's mechanics against the player, making use of Matrix dodges to try and attack the slowed down Gray Raven squad.
- Final Boss: The Unidentified Twins are the final opponents faced in Evernight Beat. They are also the game's first Hopeless Boss Fight, as it is made clear you are not supposed to be able to defeat them.
- Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Downplayed with the Unidentified Twins — the Male uses a Power Fist while the Female has an Energy Bow, but the Female also has Armed Legs for melee combat.
- Hope Crusher: Evernight Beat is the point where mankind finally manages to go on the offensive against the Punishing Virus due to acquiring technology able to purify it during the events of The Last Spark. But just as it seems like they'll be able to capitalize on this new edge, the Unidentified Twins appear and virtually annihilate their main force, after which they go on to destroy any other groups of humans they can find, and seem to relish in doing so.
- Knight of Cerebus: Evernight Beat ends on the game's first cliffhanger chapter, with the Unidentified Twins giving Gray Raven squad their first unambigious defeat. From then on, they become a nearly unstoppable threat throughout The Surviving Lucem, as they and the Hetero-Creatures they lead lay waste to conservation areas, The Forsaken, and Akdilek, with every character only barely holding them back.
- Outside-Context Problem: Previous humanoid enemies were the result of the Punishing Virus corrupting constructs to serve its will. The Hetero-Creatures and, by extension, the Unidentified Twins are the first time the Punshing Virus has created humanoid entities of its own power.
- Shared Life-Meter: The Unidentified Twins share a health bar.
Siren
Fall. Burn. Crash. Rip. Merge. My body... does it still exist?
Following the Polyphage's defeat at the Ascendants' lair in City 075, the previously inert Red Tide is suddenly rediscovered, trying to spread out from a series of rivers and into the ocean. Following its course, the Commandant discovers the source of this Red Tide is a large Hetero-Creature called Siren, a dangerous but strangely pathetic monster that seems to be imprisoned by the Tide to serve as its beating heart.- An Arm and a Leg: When it's initially discovered, it's found pinned to a group of Punishing-formed spikes without any legs, which it quickly forms for the boss battle. During its second phase, it loses its left arm from the damage it took earlier from Wanshi, but it keeps fighting.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: During its first phase, its left arm is a jagged blade it uses for attacks, but it gets destroyed between phases.
- Fisher King: As the current source of Red Tide, it serves as its impromptu "heart", causing it to spread and pulse outwards. When it's destroyed, the Red Tide loses much of its destructive potential.
- Handicapped Badass: During the second phase, it loses its left arm and its feet. But it turns out to grow only more dangerous as it creates a sword to wield and switches from animalistic swipes to wild strikes with its new blade.
- Hell Is That Noise: It "sings" and makes noises similar to whale songs, which also causes the Red Tide to surge every time it does.
- Heroic Sacrifice: After dealing enough damage, the remains of Selena's original body is exposed. When the Commandant sees her, Selena regains just enough willpower to take the targeting beacon the Commandant had been carrying so that Babylonia can destroy Siren with a pinpoint artillery strike.
- Morphic Resonance: Its main body consists of its torso and a right arm, while the remaining limbs look oddly cobbled together. This alludes to the condition of Selena's body when last seen, which was also reduced to such a wrecked state with only one arm. Between phases, it also inexplicably starts pantomiming the playing of a violin, which makes all the more sense when you realize Selena was a musician, among her many other artistic talents.
- Shark Fin of Doom: Siren is capable of diving into the water before emerging to attack. Wanshi has a unique counter, where firing his Bloom Shot while it's lunging at him will cause an animation where he shoots it away.
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: At the start of its second phase, it summons a sword from the Red Tide as a weapon to keep attacking with.
- Tragic Monster: Unlike other Hetero-creatures, it's regularly described as a sorrowful being, imprisoned and unwillingly used as a source of the Red Tide, and whose song that empower the Tide sound sad. Given it's Selena being used by the Red Tide as a back up power source following the Polyphage's destruction, she truly is no longer in control or even conscious of what she's become.
Hetero-Hive Mother
"..Hush now, little baby..."
Hidden in a "greenhouse" controlled by the Ascendants, the Hetero-Hive Mother serves as another source of Red Tide, which the Ascendants are using to create new forms of life.- Actually a Doombot: In Evernight Beat it is revealed there are multiple Mothers being developed, and the one in Imprisoned Sight was hardly the most advanced.
- "Just Frame" Bonus: The Hetero-Hive Mother is the point when P:GR introduces its parrying mechanic and mastering its attack timing affects how difficult the fight is. If players can properly deflect each its attacks while it is suspended, it will take huge amounts of damage and eventually will be knocked down for even more free hits. Messing up the timing, however, will cause it to start using Area of Effect attacks that will poison portions of the arena floor for a period.
- Knows the Ropes: As per its spider-like appearance, many of its strongest attacks is flinging itself through the air while swiping with its sharp legs.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: While it is a machine, its design is a bizarre combination of a spider with bladed legs and a human heart.
- Virtual Ghost: It contains fragments of personality data belonging to Cinderelik's mother, in an attempt to give it some semblance of life.
Cthylla
A Hetero-creature that is able to copy the data of living beings or Constructs and give birth to another version of them.
It is first mentioned in Wintry Shackles as part of Project Cthylla, but finally makes an appearance in Cradle Parade.
- Meaningful Name: She is named after Cthylla from the Cthulhu Mythos, whose ability to revive her father Cthulhu should he somehow die by giving birth to him is paralleled by the PGR character's ability to give birth to copies of other living beings or Constructs.
Commandant's 'Daughter' (Spoilers for Cradle Parade)
- Expy: Her head ornaments and appearance bring to mind a Darker and Edgier version of Final Phase Sigma.
- Meaningful Name: The Merciful wants to name Cthylla's egg to make it hatch faster, and names it Billy Pilgrim, Vonnegut however think Chaos is better. After the egg hatches, the Merciful One expresses her understanding at Vonnegut's choice.
Fenrir
The Ascendants
In general
The New Humanity
Normally, the Punishing Virus is a death sentence. But against the odds, a number of people have not only survived the infection, but actually learned to control it. One group, known as "The Ascendants", now form the core of the "Ascension Network". Led by the woman known as Luna, they are intent on defeating Babylonia, which they consider a relic past its time, and establishing themselves as the future of Earth.
- Creative Sterility: One flaw of the Ascension Network is that it can't improve itself, and is reliant on Ascendants and Agents to grow and help it develop in turn. This turns into a problem when some of its most promising candidates,Luna and Alpha as of Wintry Shackles are more interested in rebelling against its influence.
- Enemy Civil War: Gabriel betrays the remainder of the Ascendants in Fake Ascension, preferring to align and make use of the new Hetero-Creatures of the Red Tide. As a result, the others turn on him, with some even allying with Gray Raven for assistance. There is also the existence of other Ascendant factions besides Luna's, such as those led by the Merciful One and Vonnegut, who are all mistrustful if not outright hostile to each other.
- Greater-Scope Villain: They present the greatest threat to Babylonia thus far, especially by their strengthening of the Corrupted forces. Even in the story arcs where they are not present, they often still exert an influence on other factions. While Gabriel betrays them in Fake Ascension, that merely ejects the sympathetic members, leaving the former to control an expanded and more ferocious Corrupted army.
- Mind Virus: Unlike the physicality of the Punishing Virus, the Ascension Network infects the minds of Ascendants, and it has a will of its own, seeking to constantly expand and seek more candidates and more importantly, higher level "Agents".
- The Social Darwinist: Their core tenet, for the most part. Those who have adapted to the Punishing Virus should rule Earth. Those who can't, don't deserve to live there.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: The aversion of this trope becomes a significant plot point in Wintry Shackles. With humanity getting a leg up in the conflict by using the Tower to create a truly Virus-free region, the Ascension Network starts actively trying to find new Ascendants and Agents to strengthen itself, Leading to Alpha becoming further intertwined and upgraded by Ascnet, and only barely resisting becoming a full-on Agent, while Lucia herself is starting to transform into one.
Luna's Faction
Luna (CDR-02) (Spoilers)
Voiced by: Si Bai (Chinese) Rie Kugimiya (Japanese), Suzie Yeung (English)
Ascendant Attack-type Construct
Click here to see Oblivion
Click here to see NPC design
"We'll live... Together in this world.. Let's welcome the coming of the 'dawn' together..."Profile
- Psychological Age: 16
- Vital Fluid Type: AB
- Activation Date: October 26
- Service Time: Less than a year
- Weight: 39kg
- Height: 159cm
"Punishment will descent upon here."
The leader of the Ascendants, who is empowering and directing ordinary Corrupted machinery to resist Babylonia's invasion. Her complete combat form possesses the ability to direct and shape the Punishing virus into energy or objects to attack. Her body retains the essence of the girl when she first participated in becoming a construct, while all her equipment is formed by the virus. She has extraordinary defenses despite being insanely light. Perhaps due to her obsession with being thrown away, she notices when her body is stained with dirt.
Luna's frames are Laurel and Oblivion.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: As mentioned below in Awesome Moment of Crowning, she curbstomped the Corrupted in 'Lost Upgrader' before deciding to become their leader (or rather use them as part of her plans to oppose Babylonia).
- Awesome Moment of Crowning: The "Lost Upgrader" short animation tied to Fake Ascension depicts her awakening as an Ascendant. After being abandoned by Babylonia's researchers as a failure, Luna, who is about to be swarmed by hordes of Corrupted , holds on to the memory of her sister and transforms into her Laurel frame, curbstomping the Corrupted into submission. Upon realizing that Lucia will not be there to comfort her, Luna chooses to become the leader of a new faction that opposes Babylonia, with all of the Corrupted in the vicinity bowing down to her.It's time... to end the lies in this world.
- The Battle Didn't Count: Even though she's an Optional Boss of Lost Chapter, when you drain her health, the following cutscene shows her simply blasting your construct into submission with a single attack.
- Cool Mask: During her boss fight, she dons a black gas mask, though she ditches it and the outer layer of her suit when she loses half her health and Turns Red.
- Dark Messiah: Luna offers a tantalizing future for humans and machines, by overcoming the virus and becoming stronger for it. Hence, many people are willing to do anything if it means a chance to join her.
- A Day in the Limelight: She and her past become the focus of Fake Ascension, and Luna later becomes a major character in Stars Ensnared.
- Death from Above: In her Annihilation State, she's given several "Annihilation Orbs" that fire off her floating spikes to drop down on enemies above for immense damage.
- Expy: Basically a more morally ambiguous version of the Herrscher of the Void, as a white-haired antagonist who fights with summoned lances and portals, is a chosen agent of the mysterious corrupting entity that tries to exterminate humans and was reborn when scientists tried to dispose of her after a failed, horribly painful experiment. If the parallels aren’t obvious enough, both are voiced by Rie Kugimiya in Japanese.
- Depower: During A New Divide, Luna finds her control over the Punishing has been removed, but she hasn't been rejected from the Ascension Network or reduced to a Corrupted for her failure. After spending some time soul searching, she eventually regains her connection at the end of the story.
- Deuteragonist: Luna winds up taking up significant screen time during A New Divide, as she's tries to find a reason to continue living after the events of Fake Ascension.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: In Fake Ascension, she's the final member of your Connector squad, but she only unlocks after completing the chapter's main storyline, and only serves as extra firepower for the stat checks if you haven't unlocked some of the side-stories yet.
- Exotic Eye Designs: She has clover-shaped pupils.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Once a gullible orphan who only wanted to help her sister, now the leader of one of the most dangerous factions on Earth, who will do anything and use anyone to make her family happy.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: In the past, when Lucia gave her a stuffed frog, she laughed and said the frog is ugly. Nonetheless she still accept it happily.
- Glass Cannon: Her core passive means she'll constantly be either in her powered-up Annihilation State or triggering multiple 3-Ping-level skills to build it up, giving her immense firepower. The trade off is her comparatively tiny health pool, which makes her unable to make any mistakes in combat.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: An ordinary construct conversion process went awry from her intense reaction to the Punishing virus, forcing Babylonia to dispose of her. Except they failed on that part.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: During A New Divide, Luna undergoes some soul searching and realizes that for all her claims of superiority, she ultimately had the very human desire to keep living. She realizes she's not so different from humans, and later sees that Babylonia has changed when it chooses not to sacrifice the Moon base to protect the infected Zero Point Energy reactor. With that, she chooses to find a new path where she can live peacefully with her sister; if need be, with humans or with Ascendants.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She was presumed to be dead after she traded herself in Lucia's place to be converted into a Construct. She failed as she contracted the virus immediately after, and has to be put down.
- Hive Queen: As an "Agent", she controls the Ascended Network and chooses who are prospective members that can join. It's made most explicit in Chapter 3, when various robots are shown begging to her to join the Ascended Network.
- Image Song: 月 ("Moon") sung by Xia Tongzi.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: Fake Ascension's story has the Commandant follow Luna through her memories after getting trapped in her M.I.N.D. following Gabriel's betrayal.
- Light Is Not Good: Her hair and her clothes are predominantly white, but she's the Big Bad of the series thus far. Tellingly, as a boss her weapons and attacks are Red and Black and Evil All Over, making her look ominous regardless of her appearance.
- Long-Lost Relative: She's Lucia's younger sister, formerly presumed dead.
- Only the Worthy May Pass: According to Luna, joining the Ascendants is not for "curing" oneself of the Punishing, but embracing it. Those who suffer from such "naivete" instead get killed for their weakness.
- Orcus on His Throne: She didn't do anything directly towards the heroes in several first chapters.
- Power Floats: Similar to Rosetta, she's always airborne when fighting. This extends to her boss form, where she's depicted flying around to attack you, without ever touching the floor.
- Power of the Void: Oblivion is the first character of the "Void" damage type.
- Promoted to Playable: One of the greatest examples. For Punishing's first anniversary, Luna's design got a visual overhaul as well as the ability to be recruited.
- Put on a Bus: Following the chaos in the aftermath of Fake Ascension, Luna goes missing, prompting Alpha to go search for her, while Babylonia wrings its collective hands at what became of the former Ascendant leader. Her whereabouts are revealed in A New Divide, where she had been held captive on the Moon as research into the Ascendants. Though she has a brush with death after being drained of the Punishing Virus, she regains her connection to the Ascension Network and returns to Earth.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: The leader of the Ascendants, and, as of Lost Chapter, a combat juggernaut and borderline Reality Warper with her power to conjure portals. While she already was strong prior to becoming the leader in Lost Upgrader, she went on to be stronger, likely upgraded by the Ascendent Network.
- Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Luna's weapons (and clothing) are actually made from solidified Punishing Virus. Her ability to manipulate it so great she can actually cause spikes of pure virus to burst from the ground as one of her special attacks.
- Stance System: Doing 3-Ping skills will fill a meter that she can then activate to go into Annihilation State. During this, she gets a very powerful Dark-damage combo chain and a set of Annihilation Orbs that essentially equates to free instant damage as you fire them off.
- Storm of Blades: Some of her attacks has her floating giant swords to be rained down upon the player.
- Thinking Up Portals: The motif of her attacks as a boss in Lost Chapter. She is capable of opening portals as a means of travel or attack, with her more elaborate moves including opening portals under your feet that can pull you in before energy blasts upward, or around herself to leech the same energy to fuel other attacks.
- Unwitting Pawn: Luna is actually being directed by a "voice", which threatens to make other Corrupted attack her if she doesn't obey.
Alpha (α) (Spoilers)
Voiced by: Xiao N * (Chinese) Yui Ishikawa (Japanese), Sura Siu (English)
Crimson Abyss
Click here to see Crimson Weave
Profile
- Psychological Age: 17
- Vital Fluid Type: A
- Activation Date: June 15
- Service Time: 6 Years
- Weight: 45kg
- Height: 165cm
"Die in the abyss."
Lucia Alpha — that is to say, the original owner of the construct Lucia's memories. Despite contracting the Punishing virus, she has managed to stay alive all this time as she is now part of the Ascendants. She wanders the planet, fighting the Corrupted by her lonesome. In terms of gameplay she is considered the Crimson Abyss and Crimson Weave frames for Lucia, but the story treats the two as separate characters.
- Amazonian Beauty: Downplayed in that her musculature is more compact and lean, but her Crimson Weave frame has a pretty toned midsection.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Has an awesome moment of this with Lucia during the Wintry Shackles saga against Kurono's test subjects at Fort Winter.
- Badass Biker: Alpha tends to be associated with motorcycles, especially in her Unchained animated movie. It even becomes a gameplay mechanic for her Crimson Weave frame, as her ideal CUB unit is actually her motorcycle, which she can summon to ride on and ram her enemies.
- Badass Normal: Subverted. This only applies when she's compared to the other infected Constructs.
- Big Brother Instinct: Discovering that Luna isn't dead, rekindles her sisterly instinct. Luna is the only reason Alpha joined the Ascendants.
- Blade Spam: The form her Limit Break takes — Alpha slashes an enemy dozens of time in an instant, before dramatically sheathing her sword, which causes more damage, after.
- Broken Ace: She is so good at fighting that Babylonia need to create a clone of her with modified memories. Even then, she has improved on her own and vastly overpowers Lucia's ''Plume'' frame. But she shouldered the loss of her sister, team and therefore as a whole; faith in humanity. Fortunately, she later found out that her sister is still alive.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: As you up her Affection levels, she starts behaving like this towards the Commandant, with two particularly telling lines:Affection Up 8: "Looks like you finally know which Lucia you should be paying more attention to."Affection Up 10: "Forget about her and those other Constructs... You just need me, and only me."
- Cool Shades: Her swimsuit coating, Seaside Sunbath, gave her a pair of glasses that form the word "COOL". Literally
◊. - Curb-Stomp Battle: Everytime Lucia encounters Alpha, the latter always wins.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Lucia's hellish backstory is actually hers. It's arguably even worse, because after becoming a Construct, she befriended her squad, only to be betrayed by her Commandant, who also reported her dead. This made her develop misanthropy towards humans and eventually made her join the Ascendants.
- A Day in the Limelight: Alpha becomes a major player in Wintry Shackles, as she seeks out Winterhold in the hopes a device there can help her resist the influence of the Ascension Network, which is now actively trying to turn her into an Agent.
- Dual Wielding: Her Crimson Weave frame gives her two swords mimicking a samurai's daisho, though exaggerated in length, so that one is more like a short sword and the other is an absurdly huge odachi. She switches between them based on her Stance System.
- Defector from Decadence: Babylonia left her to die because of her infection.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Crimson Weave's release was the most technically complex Frame at the time, having a multitude of different moves tied to button combinations and contexts, atop a Stance System. But in return, this gives players a large number of options to respond to any situation.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Against her will, the Ascension Network forcibly transforms her into her Crimson Weave frame so as to become an Agent, making her even more powerful than when she was doing fine with her skills alone.
- Enemy Mine: Joins forces with Lucia in the Wintry Shackles saga in order to get to the bottom of the Ascension Network's plans for refiltering, to the point of launching a joint assault on Fort Winter.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Subverted, as she's not actively chased after. Outside the Ascendants, she's technically very much unwanted. Babylonia don't want the Corrupted Lucia to exist for obvious reasons like compromising humankind's safety. In the wild, she's just another prey for the other Corrupted machines and Constructs. Following Luna's defection, she may have added the Ascendants to the list of her pursuers too.
- Expy:
- Her moves are very much inspired by Vergil, to the point that fans often joke about her being a daughter of his. The moves become even more referential with her Crimson Weave frame.
- Meanwhile, said frame itself actually bears quite the resemblance to Black★Rock Shooter, complete with the flaming blue eye. Lo and behold, the two are actively paired up during the events of Blazing Simulacrum.
- Also, her white hair, antagonistic attitude toward Lucia, and the fact that she is the original Lucia who's become an Ascendant after being betrayed bear more than a little resemblance to Archer from Fate/stay night, though unlike him, she is not a future version so much as the original Lucia that Babylonia made a copy of.
- Family of Choice: Her multiple dog-tags and jealousy towards Lucia hints at her strong attachment of her previous team.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: her Crimson Weave frame emphasizes her heterocrhomia, has a red arm that doesn't match her right, and only one pant leg.
- Fights Like a Normal: All of her abilities are a result of pure skill, compared to Lucia, who fights with increasingly advanced Construct frames. Moreover, while she can command the Punishing virus, she doesn't. In Imprisoned Sight she was even offered a chance to upgrade her control over the virus to be on the level of Luna, Vonnegut and the Merciful One, and she still refuses.
- Foreshadowing: The familiar pins on her red scarf are hints that she share a part of Lucia's (Lotus frame) identity.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Her swimsuit coating idle animation has her remove her hat and poke the stuffed rabbit decoration on the hat.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She's violently jealous of Lucia's relationship with the rest of Gray Raven, especially since Alpha lost her own Gray Raven squad, after being betrayed by her old Commandant, Ravenge, no less.
- Had to Be Sharp: One of the reasons why her skills are superior to Lucia may have been because of her experiences out in the wild. In which she had to survive on limited resources at all time, as opposed to have the luxury of getting cool-downs and maintenances after each battle like back then in Babylonia.
- I Hate Past Me: She often gets fed up with Lucia because she keeps seeing this idiot based on her old backup who's constantly espousing her loyalty to Babylonia and trust in humanity when they're the ones who threw Alpha aside.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Alpha is the boss of the prologue, and players will be lucky if their fresh Lucia can drain even one of her 30 health bars, before getting defeated and being taken to the next cutscene, where Alpha seriously wounds Lucia.
- This extends to Panini anime, where she's a boss that Lucia can't beat in a video game.
- Iaijutsu Practitioner: Her fighting style, contrasting the other Lucia. She always keeps her sword in a sheath mounted on a Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance-style articulating arm, only drawing whenever she needs to attack. Her Crimson Weave frame incorporates even more elaborate iaijutsu moves.
- Identical Stranger: Lucia's Lotus look is actually how Alpha looked like before she gets infected. But then the corruption process bleached her hair.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: Her Limit Break demonstrates that she can cut through anything, including the empty spaces. Meanwhile the animated shorts show that her slashes will cut through anything no matter the distance.
- Ineffectual Loner: Subverted. Effectively removed herself from the humankind following her infection, until she discovers Luna is still alive.
- Katanas Are Just Better: It serves her well.
- Kind Hearted Cat Lover: During Spiral of Chronos, Alpha adopts a stray cat, which makes an appearance in the Unchained animated movie. The care she shows it provides some humanizing moments for her.
- Master Swordsman: There's no way to touch her once she draw her blade out of the scabbard.
- Meaningful Rename: "Alpha" means "no. 1" in Greek. She's the original Lucia.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Alpha's Crimson Weave frame actually divides her orbs between the two states of her Stance System, with her blue orbs appearing in one, while the red and yellow orbs appear in the other. To get the full use of her, players have to work towards her second stance, where the majority of her attacks are.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: Her outfit has a large cutout in the chest that exposes her cleavage and midriff, although her cleavage is obscured by her dog-tags.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In Frozen Darkness, she infected Rosetta's narwhal companion with the Punishing virus, which eventually leads to its death. Unfortunately, the narwhal's whale songs were what keeping the ARU's Mechanical Abomination, Amberia, asleep, who later wakes up in Firn Night.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: She's only following the Ascendants because Luna is their leader. The moment Luna goes missing, she takes off again to go looking for her. Even her relationship with Punishing virus is ambivalent in the same way — she was offered a chance to either gain further control of the Ascension Network or be removed from it completely, and she refused both, as she only desired its link to her sister, not the power. However, by Wintry Shackles, the Ascension Network gets tired of this attitude and decides to forcibly increase its connection to Alpha, turning her into the Crimson Weave frame, though she continues to keep resisting and fighting its control. She also refuses to ally with Vonnegut, though the latter merely hopes she won't get in his way down the road.
- Not So Stoic: She broke down in tears when she found out that Luna is still alive.
- In the 1st anniversary short, she has a glimpse of shock when Lucia still came back for the second and the third times.
- One-Man Army: Managed to survive all Corrupted machines and Constructs on her own through wandering, after her abandonment.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Gabriel finally gets his comeuppance for his actions at Alpha's hands during Imprisoned Sight.
- Red Right Hand: She has heterochromia that shows her Punishing infection. Upon going Crimson Weave, she also has one in her left arm, which she used to isolate the Ascension Network.
- Reforged into a Minion: Attempted by the Ascension Network, which transforms Alpha into her Crimson Weave form while trying to make her an Agent, but Alpha manages to maintain control over herself, though she's still tied closer to the Network than before.
- Sheath Strike: She parries Lucia's first strike with her sheath in the Different Routes animated short. Her Crimson Weave frame also incorporates sheath strikes for some of her basic combos.
- Shock and Awe: Her Crimson Weave frame favors Lightning damage.
- Something about a Rose: Her "Azure Apocalypse" coating gives her a blue rose motif, both from a rose-themed eyepatch and the new graphics used in her Ultimate, which replaces her Diagonal Cuts with rose vines and flowers.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Her disenchantment towards the world is justified, considering she lost her only family in her childhood, then her team and abandoned by humanity.
- Stance System: Her Crimson Weave frame uses the Signature Move button to switch Alpha to her odachi, which comes with a different moveset, and only allows her to use her Limit Break from that state, which then switches her back to her basic stance. Mastering both is required to maximize her potential.
- The Stoic: She's rarely fazed by anything, especially in combat.
- Super Prototype: Lucia just can't catch a break in order to catch on her.
- Sword Beam: Her core passive skill, when activated, gives her a stock of projectiles she can unleash by swinging her sword. In her Crimson Weave frame, it's transferred to one of her moves, where hitting attack after a dodge lets her send a short burst of projectiles.
- Synchronization: In Wintry Shackles she starts trading sensations with Lucia.
- Tan Lines: Her swimsuit coating, Seaside Sunbath, has her sporting these.
- Tragic Keepsake: Her extra dog-tags originally belonged to Hiro, Murol and Xun — her former teammates of the first Gray Raven squad.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: In Lucia's interlude, she's shown to be a kind and a very reliable sister in her childhood.
- Villain Protagonist: She's one of the Ascendants. All of her story segments involve her doing missions for them and generally creating problems for Babylonia and Gray Raven squad down the road.
- Walking the Earth: She becomes a wanderer after she was abandoned.
Roland (BPB-26)
Voiced by: Lengquan Yeyue (Chinese) Koji Yusa (Japanese), Alan Lee (English)
Unknown Vanguard-type Transcendant
Click here to see NPC design
"Machines, Constructs, Humans, Punishing Virus, whatever comes of this ragged doll of a world, I have no interest... I exist to protect Miss Luna and ensure her wishes are fulfilled. That is all."Profile
- Psychological Age: 19 Years
- Vital Fluid Type: AB
- Activation Date: May 2
- Service Time: Unknown
- Weight: 70kg
- Height: 178cm
"This silly play about reclaiming earth and all from Babylonia, I'm actually sick of watching it. The main cast of this play, they struggle in all this deprivation and insanity — It's rather amusing, but it's gone on for too long. Well then, let's see how much longer you can struggle for. After all, it's rare to see a different kind of performance. Just don't let my hopes down so easily, will ya?"
The first of the Ascendants Gray Raven squad meets, Roland serves as Luna's right-hand. Formerly an actor during the Golden Age, Roland's words and deeds may seem unpredictable, but his true nature is actually quite serious. As an Ascendant, he has worked around the world. After experiencing many twists and turns, his previous body was severely damaged, and its present form was rebuilt by a benefactor he met.
Roland's frame is Flambeau.
- Art Evolution: For the Evernight Beat update, Roland's model was improved and given more details, while some of his animations were also updated, notably his boss intro sequence.
- The Battle Didn't Count: During their first meeting, Roland tests Lucia (in-story, at least). After dropping him to half health, he decides Lucia is still too weak, and bows out of the fight.
- Counter-Attack: When he gets a successful Matrix dodge in, Roland can use his combo-ending move immediately from there.
- Coup de Grâce: Roland's unique Finishing Move has him stomp on a fallen enemy before giving them the business end of his shotgun.
- Costume Evolution: His character design got revamped for his playable form, canonically due to receiving a new body from The Merciful One.
- Crazy Enough to Work: The way Roland deals with Gabriel's remaining hetero-creature is to teach her poorly. How to deal with an organism that starts copying your own attacks but doesn't understand the reasons behind them? Cut off your own left arm.
- Depower: During Inscription of Labyrinth Roland finds himself unable to control the Corrupted, due to Vonnegut's group exerting greater command over them. He spends the story having to fight them off to prove his worthiness to the new Ascendants.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: As his backstory shows in Fake Ascension. The trauma of the construct experimentations by Kurono destroyed even his survival instinct, but ultimately he was saved and turned into an Ascendant by Luna. Afterwards, he swore loyalty to her, hoping to find his purpose for living by observing what gave Luna her own resolve, and eventually came to see her goals as his own.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: His left arm notably clashes with the rest of his body, with a differing pauldron, visible elbow joint and a hand with red fingertips.
- Gratuitous Spanish: From Inscription of Labyrinth onwards, the English script started having Roland pepper his dialogue with Spanish words like "hermano (brother)".
- Jerkass Realization: In the Hidden Story of Evernight Beat, Roland tricks a group of scavengers into entering the corrupted Central Purification Filter 40 in order to feed their emotional responses to the incubating Hetero-Hive Mother. Before long, though, he becomes inwardly disgusted by how he's secretly watching them suffer reminding him of what he himself went through in his Interlude, motivating him to secretly help the survivors escape.
- Hannibal Lecture: He's very good at giving these. Many Ascendant hopefuls wind up turning their back on humanity simply because Roland knows what buttons to push to make people resort to gaining ultimate power via the Punishing Virus, be it for survival, revenge or whatever else. Against Gray Raven, he gives pointed questions about how valuable they think they are in the long run, given the inherent divide between Constructs and humans.
- Mad Artist: He tends look at situations as if they were theatrical performances, even in the middle of a fight, where where considers activating his Limit Break the "climax" of the show.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: He is the first chracter to not use Punishing's classic Match Three combo mechanic; if anything his system is more like an expanded version of how boss characters are played in the Hidden Chapters. Rather than matching signal orbs, Roland must use a combo-ending special attack to charge a meter his orb-type moves run on, and the orb moves in turn fuel the gauge for his Limit Break.
- Playing with Fire: His elemental damage type is fire.
- Promoted to Playable: While he had been playable in the past, the Evernight Beat update marks his arrival to the Gacha as a fully realized character.
- Super Mode: His Limit Break temporarily supercharges all his orb moves and makes them usable all the time, giving him far more powerful fire-element attacks that also better resemble his attacks from when he was a boss.
- Sword and Gun: His unique weapon type is a Whip Sword and Hand Cannon that are collectively known as "Durandal".
- Talking to Themself: During Inscription of Labyrinth Roland finds himself having an internal dialogue with another Roland in his mind amid his doubts about how to move forward following Luna's disappearance. It is never quite clear whether he's just thinking very hard, having temporary dissociative episodes, or is possibly even speaking to the Ascension Network.
- "Truman Show" Plot: His Interlude story reveals that he initially thought he was participating in one as a cast member, secretly managing an android who was tricked into thinking he was human and the show that he is a part of are actually real events. However, Roland later finds out to his horror that he is actually the main character of the show, and was secretly being manipulated and trained by the crew to be the perfect actor on live television. Naturally, this gives Roland serious trust issues that carry over into his Ascendant existence.
- Undying Loyalty: When he says his goals are Luna's goals, he's not being figurative. He's ultimately the only Ascendant personally loyal to Luna, and when he realises her true desire is to be somewhere free with her sister, he turns on Gabriel to protect her, and eventually even entrusts Gray Raven's Commandant with her safety, believing he will accomplish that goal. During Inscription of Labyrinth, he agrees to join Vonnegut to gain more power, but mentally he's still planning to betray him for Luna.
- We Can Rebuild Him: He gets heavily damaged following Fake Ascension, and winds up getting a new body courtesy of The Merciful One. In fact, he gambles on the chance that his pitiful wrecked body will draw her into saving his life.
- Whip Sword: He wields one, allowing him to spin whirlwinds in front of him, or swing through the air to attack below him.
- Villainous Harlequin: A secondary motif he has, to go with his Mad Artist stage performer theme. His purchasable costume, "Fool's Fables" gives him jester-like apparel, while his unique Memory set depicts an expy of The Joker.
- Villain Shoes: You briefly play as him in the Extra Story chapter BBS-3, "STRANDED", where he clears off a bunch of Corrupted alongside Gabriel on their way to a rendezvous with Luna.
Lamia (ATL-01)
Voiced by: Hua Yin bb (Chinese) Saori Goto (Japanese) Julia Ling (English)
Ascendant Attack-type Construct
Click here to see NPC design
"Wait, wait, wait! Are you a devil!? I'm here. Just lower your gun. I surrender!"Profile
- Psychological Age: 15
- Vital Fluid Type: A
- Activation Date: February 2
- Service Time:
- Weight: 49kg
- Height: 169cm
An Ascendant that first appears in Kowloong Metropolis, and a sharp contrast to the other forceful personalities that make up Luna's inner circle. Lamia's new body — created when Luna used her Ascendant powers to upgrade Lamia's previous frame — is able to freely switch between human and mermaid forms. Although Lamia whispered a request for a "height of 170", her humanoid height is only 169cm.
Lamia's frame is Lost Lullaby.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: She's quick to taunt when she's in a place of power, but quickly folds and begs for mercy once she's cornered and at gunpoint.
- Artificial Limbs: Even before her subsequent transformation into a Contruct and Ascendant, Lamia was born with her legs shattered from her mother's experiment exploding.
- Bad Liar: Ironically despite her skill with disguises, she can't tell lies without making them obvious, let alone keep one up since her disguises are so perfect that no one needed to question her. In her Affection Story, the Commandant nearly outs her "Irene" disguise because she kept looking at them, but their taking apart her lies triggers a memory of her time in Atlantis when she tried to tell lies to try get breaks from the experiments, only to be seen through by the scientists. When the Commandant finally asks if she's lying, this sets her off, breaking down crying, emotionally venting part-truths (she herself doesn't know if she was being intentional or not) that keep the Commandant off her case.
- Chicken Walker: Her boss form in The Last Spark comes with digitigrade legs for her land form.
- Cornered Rattlesnake: After spending multiple chapters fleeing, she finally stands her ground in The Last Spark and winds up becoming the first boss in the game to possess 100 bars of health.
- A Day in the Limelight: Lamia makes her gameplay debut in Cradle Parade.
- Death by Childbirth: Laibiya, Lamia's mother, went into labor when she was seriously injured by her experiment. She did not survive.
- Despair Event Horizon: The Last Spark serves as Lamia's, as Atlantis is her birthplace, her home, her life's purpose, and ultimately some place she can never return to.
- The Determinator: Lamia's intense desire for survival at all costs is tied to her Impossible Task given to her by her foster mother before she left, "Your responsibility is to gather information. If the Punishing disaster is over and the world is at peace - although it's unlikely - but if it does happen, you must return and let us know." Considering the inhuman shape of her prototype structure technology and lack of inver-device, it's amazing that she managed to survive at all to become an Ascendant.
- Dirty Coward: Her battle capacity is low, so she either resorts to commanding Corrupted to attack for her, going invisible to attack, or just straight up running for her life. After getting her new body, she develops into more of a Cowardly Lion.
- Face of a Thug: Despite having a "monstrous" body, she's timid, dislikes crowds, and prefers hiding out of sight.
- Field Power Effect: Part of Lamia's kit allows her to use her unique skill orbs to change the weather of the stage to "heavy rain" or "stormy", which increases her damage. Also, the stage gets flooded with water to accommodate her mermaid Dark Tide form when it's in use.
- Graceful in Their Element: Her animations show her being clearly uncomfortable with her humanoid form, as she stands knock-kneed and hunched over her spear, stumbles as she dodges, and has long range attacks to keep her away from danger. When she's in her mermaid "Dark Tide" form, she instantly becomes insanely agile in the water, and her attacks become rapid, hard hitting melee strikes. Even when she's set as the lobby assistant she chooses to be a mermaid.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: All throughout her life, not once has she ever been given any form of simple affection. During her Affection Story though, the Commandant interrogates her about her suspicious actions looking at them, only to unintentionally set off a memory of the scientists in Atlantis seeing through her lies. This made her cry from pent-up emotional baggage, and after calming down, she asks the Commandant to hug her to make up for it. They do, and Lamia has found herself missing the warmth ever since they separated.
- Making a Splash: Naturally, all her orb skills and attacks are portrayed as her hurling water at her enemies. Her passive even allows her to convert her 3-pings into a tidal wave that slams into the stage.
- Master of Disguise: Her upgrades have allowed her to change her entire body into different shapes, like that of a little girl with disabled legs named Irene in her Affection Story.
- A Mistake Is Born: Laibiya was supposed to be on maternity leave on the mainland, but she applied a stay of leave as she did not want to stop her research. Her experiment backfiring and Lamia's crippled birth put the Crazy Sane staff of Atlantis in an uncomfortable position.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: After a number of chapters hanging back from the action, Lamia finally fights in The Last Spark. In the process she becomes Punishing's first boss with three distinct phases, with a total of 100 bars of health, and a dangerous warrior when at sea.
- Nubile Savage: Her Lost Lullaby design has elements of this. Wearing little more than a high-tech bikini, it shows that Lamia's quite distant from social norms, and is more accustomed to the wilderness of the sea.
- Only Sane Man: When Atlantis starts its final experiment, a series of terrifying mandates are put in place including forced starvation in stages, starting with the least useful departments first, such that the research team can last the longest with the most support and finish the experiment. Unbelievably, these mandates are willingly accepted by THE ENTIRE STAFF of Atlantis... except Lamia. As a child who has never left Atlantis, Lamia has no clue if this is how humans should react and is understandably scared out of her mind.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: She's a cyborg whose lower body is a giant mechanical assembly that can configure itself into a dolphin-like tail, letting her maneuver underwater effortlessly.
- Progressively Prettier: Her old body, and her boss form, was positively ghoulish, and her lower body was definitely monstrous and disproportionate. In her playable form, she resembles a traditional mermaid, and while still very pale, it's definitely now angled towards having an exotic beauty.
- Prongs of Poseidon: When she enters her Dark Tide form, her spear opens up into a high tech trident, which is more than appropriate given she controls the water and the weather, like Poseidon does in mythology.
- Raised by the Community: Less raised and more like grown in a lab, but still, the scientists that make up the organism that is the Atlantis zero-point energy reactor took turns feeding and teaching the child. (It's as impersonal as it sounds.)
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: With the Ascendants' disintegration as of Fake Ascension, she cuts a deal Murray, helping Gray Raven infiltrate the Ascendant base in exchange for her safety away from Gabriel's "pet" Hetero-Creatures.
- Shapeshifting: She's got various illusory powers, including the ability to change her outer appearance. During Fake Ascension she tries to fool Gray Raven by pretending to be Murray, though they are able to notice the discrepancy almost immediately.
- Shrinking Violet: Her childhood in Atlantis being raised by unfeeling scientists has given her horrible self-esteem, not helped with her constantly getting the short end of the stick as an Ascendant thanks to other characters. Lamia even remarks in one line about how boring her past is, so it's surprising to her that the Commandant insists on listening.
- Stance System: Fittingly, Lamia's at her worst in her humanoid form, and her goal is to jump into her Dark Tide form, which has her most powerful attacks and her Limit Break.
- Trauma Button: Vera, the psycho who trounced her in The Last Spark.
- One of her voice lines has her hide behind the Commandant when she makes eye contact with Vera, expressing how scary she is. She's then taken aback by the Commandant saying she isn't.
- In her first Affection episode, upon recognizing the disguised Commandant, she immediately looks around for the rest of Gray Raven, and more importantly to her, "a crazy woman with red hair".
- Surrounded by Smart People: Atlantis is the crème de la crème of human research spirit with a noticeable lack of human empathy. Lamia is a handicapped child who should not be there. Having been called stupid her entire life has shaped Lamia's personality greatly.
- Underwater Boss Battle: Lamia's boss fight in The Last Spark begins on platform surrounded by water; her second phase causes her to drag it below the waves, allowing her to swim freely around, and her last phase takes place within a spiraling vortex when the water gets pushed away from the platform.
Gabriel
"The value of a collection is defined by the collector. Outsider eyes and words matter not."
Click here for Gabriel's true form
Another Ascendant who remains close to Luna's side, acting as her personal servant.
- Bad Ass Bookworm: Gabriel always has a copy of Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future in hand, only putting it away when it's time to fight.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: He betrays and turns on Luna, after believing she's grown too weak-willed following her reuniting with Alpha.
- Boom Stick: His primary weapon is a staff from which one end can project an energy blade. Even when he switches to his more powerful form, it's still used for several of his attacks.
- Dragon Ascendant: He takes over and essentially assumes leadership of the Ascendants in order to fully weaponise his new "pets", the Hetero-Creatures.
- Eviler than Thou: Believing that the Hetero-Creatures are the will of the Punishing Virus, he sides with them over the his original comrades, even attempting to feed them to the Polyphage.
- Faux Affably Evil: He presents himself as Luna's doting and loyal personal attendant, but he's certainly anything but a kindly old machine. All of his polite mannerisms only make his explanations and callous actions more notable.
- Meaningful Name: Gabriel is the name of one of the most famous angels in Abrahamic religions; similarly, Gabriel's true form in this game has six floating appendages that are draped in the rags of his coat, giving him the appearance of a seraphim, though in his case he's more of an Angelic Abomination.
- Only Mostly Dead: Alpha destroys him in Imprisoned Sight, but his head gets stolen afterwards. While she suspects this may let him resurrect, she decides finding Luna is her greater priority.
- Opportunistic Bastard: By Imprisoned Sight he has decided to become Vonnegut's underling. Unfortunately, the lack of loyalty runs both ways, as Vonnegut elects to allow Alpha to destroy him.
- Straw Vulcan: Turns out to be one retroactively in his data logs in Evernight Beat. Despite his almost fanatical worship of the Hetero-Creatures, his research eventually hit a wall, because he failed to recognize the importance of emotions in their evolution. As a machine, he only saw it as a matter of making them more "powerful", resulting in dangerous but undeveloped organisms. In fact letting them experience things like fear and desire was the necessary step to compel them to evolve.
- Turns Red: Once he loses one third of his health, Gabriel reveals his true form and completely changes his moveset, with the ability to fly, Flash Step, and fire silhouettes of his body as a projectile.
- We Can Rule Together: When confronted during Kowloong Metropolis, Gabriel reveals part of the Ascendants' goals is to find worthy individuals who can join them in creating a new world, and extends such an offer to Gray Raven squad, though he is flatly rejected, sparking his boss fight.
Vonnegut Faction
Vonnegut
"We must separate the sheep from the goats, as shepherds do, and bury the wicked in the shadow of history. Only then can the world endure the Long Winter and, one day, welcome the coming warmth of spring."
Another Ascendant who appears in Imprisoned Sight following Luna's usurpation, he is one of the few Agents with the potential to control the entire network.
- Affably Evil: He presents himself as a patient and modest man, who's happy to talk it out with his enemies, but only because of an immense confidence in his powers, and the presumption that anyone listening to him will obviously understand that humanity deserves to die so that new life will flourish on Earth.
- Barrier Warrior: Vonnegut's main method of attack and defense are invisible forcefields.
- Benevolent Boss: Is this to Cinderelik, who respects him a great deal. Saves her after she injects herself with a crystalized pyramid of Punishing Virus (which he gave her) to fight off Lucia and Strike Hawk. The same cannot be said of his attitude toward Gabriel.
- Cool Mask: He has a golden mouth mask that mimics a skull.
-
Fan Nickname: "Chicken Vonneguts". - Hidden Villain: Kept a low profile up until Luna's usurpation, preferring her to develop the Ascended Network for him and distract Babylonia from the existence of similar high-level Ascendants, and finally makes his play in Imprisoned Sight, feeling he can now benefit in being out in the open.
- Hive Queen: He is one of a few Ascendants with the power to control the whole network.
- It Amused Me: Despite Gabriel being one of his underlings, Alpha's strength of will, displayed in her answers to him, pleases Vonnegut so much he basically helps Alpha kill Gabriel by providing her the machine's location.
- Make Way for the New Villains: Imprisoned Sight reveals the existence of more Agents to Babylonia. Despite humanity already having enough trouble dealing with Luna, Vonnegut blows her off as a mere "pioneer" for the Ascenion Network, whose new members are becoming more powerful as it develops.
- Mind Rape: He's capable of using the Punishing Virus to hack into Construct's visual and auditory components, forcing them experience immense pain and relive their worst memories and anxieties.
- Misanthrope Supreme: He considers humanity a devious, polluting presence that Earth must be saved from through the Ascendants.
- Named After Somebody Famous: He is stated in-game to be named after famed science fiction author Kurt Vonnegut.
- Sparing the Aces: Has stated multiple times that many of his actions are screening for viable Ascendant candidates. Every confrontation with him by Babylonia is a lopsided affair that has ended unfavorably, and very often doing exactly as he asks. Extremely apparent when he fights Lucia, Strike Hawk, and Alpha at the same time while taking no apparent damage.
- Wicked Cultured: He's an eloquent and intelligent mastermind, who's able to reference things like the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Where Luna was motivated by revenge and personal safety, Vonnegut is driven by grand philosophies.
Cinderelik
"Why are you breaking into my greenhouse?"
A subordinate of Vonnegut that first appears in Imprisoned Sight.
- Angry Guard Dog: Vonnegut has ordered her to protect a lab area. Stay within designated areas and she's polite to a fault. But go into a forbidden area, and she will attack, even if it's against hopeless matchups like Alpha or Gray Raven and Strike Hawk combined.
- Creepy Souvenir: Cinderelik's one broken wing belonged to her friend, who she is hoping to revive and return the wing to.
- Dub Name Change: Her Global version name is Cinderelik, while her name in the CN server is Huiyan.
- The Quiet One: When she first meets Strike Hawk team, the impression she gives off is a quiet schoolgirl.
- Enemy Summoner: Fights mainly by singing to summon Hetero-creatures
- Seeks Another's Resurrection: The "mother" she is protecting is the Hetero-Hive Mother, a giant spider-looking machine that has her incomplete mother's personality data uploaded into it.
- Effective Knockoff: Not yet an Ascendant according to herself, yet is able to stall Lucia and Strike Hawk quite effectively.
Voodoo
"We will use full strength if you prove yourself to be stronger than you look like. Then "Loki" will wreak havoc. You may not want to witness that."
A subordinate of Vonnegut that appears in Inscription of Labyrinth, she serves as an attack dog.
- Arc Villain: Of Inscription of Labryinth. In this case, she accidentally takes this role, as all the traps and "games" she had set up was actually intended to test Roland for his potential worthiness to join Vonnegut's faction; the Commandant and Cerberus squad accidentally joined in partway through.
- Axe-Crazy: Her Loki personality is an insane, childish berserker that seems to be treating the whole situation as a chance to throw everyone into a set of sadistic games. Voodoo considers it the more capable fighter, but struggles to contain its insanity and keep them on track.
- The Cracker: She's capable of hacking other Constructs, even mid-fight, usually to disable one immediately while concentrating on the others, though even this has its limits.
- Samus Is a Girl: While her character art makes it pretty evident, in story the narration mistakes her for a man, until a portion of her helmet is shattered, revealing part of her feminine face.
- Shout-Out: Voodoo's design takes huge cues from different bosses from Metal Gear — her winged form makes her resemble Raging Raven from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, while her canine form makes her look like Crying Wolf from the same game, or Blade Wolf from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
- Split Personality: Voodoo's body contains both Voodoo, a calm and professional persona, and Loki, a psychopathic warrior. Voodoo constantly has to try and keep Loki suppressed, but it is implied Loki can easily break loose if she wanted.
- Stance System: As the boss fight continues, Voodoo reveals a canine form that is controlled by Loki, and then starts switching between it and her initial flying form.
Lithos
"So... the next time you meet me, please reintroduce yourself to me, as the me then... definitely won't remember you anymore."
Turned into an Ascendant by Vonnegut, Lithos seems to have the rare ability to turn others into Ascendants.
- Arc Villain: Of Cinder Burns and Across the Ruined Sea.
- Connected All Along: The ascendant that the former Gray Raven commandant Ravenge, and Alpha's superior, linked to and subsequently got mind polluted from is none other than Lithos, at Vonnegut's behest.
- Dub Name Change: From Huosha to Lithos.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: During Cinder Burns, Lithos gets close to the amnesiac Noan to observe him by masquerading as an abandoned Construct needing protection.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: The companion to the above that shapes Lithos' outlook on life. "I also want to find a way to coexist with humans, but I can't do anything except hurt more people." Lithos is extremely possessive of Noan because of this. In the end, when Noan states his resolution to put hope in humanity and leave him, Lithos impales himself on Noan's sword. It doesn't stick though, as Vonnegut orders Paper Crane to retrieve him.
- Never Found the Body: While Bianca impales him again at the end of Across the Ruined Sea, a horde of Corrupted pop out and whisk the body away before she can take it back. The only thing that remains is his fallen hair ornament. This also means that another Ascendant was observing, as only they have the ability to control that many Corrupted.
- Straw Nihilist: Lithos does not believe humanity can fight the Punishing Virus without ascending. And as most humans cannot ascend without first becoming constructs then risking dying or becoming horribly corrupted, finding happiness within the shared consciousness of the Red Tide as an alternative isn't so bad.
- Super Wheelchair: In his boss form, Lithos' wheelchair-like device, Paper Crane, becomes the head of a snake-like Hetero-Creature
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Noan initially mistakes Rosa as Lithos upon first meeting her in Babylonia. Further affirmed upon the latter's death as Rosa steals Lithos' head ornament from Asimov and asks Noan about him.
- Villainous Crossdresser: Despite the effeminate appearance and manner of dress, Lithos is a male.
Lilith
A female Ascendant in Vonnegut's faction who makes her debut in Wintry Shackles
- Combat Sadomasochist: You think?! Her animation once she Turns Red has her stare at her own blood in her hand while blushing, licks it, then has her entire body light up with a manic expression on her face while pillars of flame shoot up around her. The devs couldn't be more blatant if they tried.
- Foil: To Alpha - beyond being female Ascendants, the two are riddled with contrasts. Alpha (at this point) has a red and white attire with normal skin contrasting the black and blue one that Lilith has. Alpha is The Stoic while Lilith doesn't make the effort to control her emotions. Finally, while Alpha has struck out on her own, Lilith remains loyal to Vonnegut.
- Kick Chick: Most of her non-parasol attacks consist of kicks, which emphasize her legs and fishnet stockings.
- Machine Blood: A standout example compared to other constructs, as while most of them appear to have red blood regardless of which faction they support, Lilith has blue blood.
- Ms. Fanservice: Her attire is based off of those used by casino showgirls, and flatters her curves and legs well.
- Parasol of Pain: Her signature weapon is a parasol that packs quite a punch.
- Parasol Parachute: Her battle initiation animation has her vanish after throwing a playing card at the screen. The camera then pans up to show her slowly escneidng to the ground using her Parasol of Pain.
- Playing Card Motifs: Interesting example in that her overall theme seems to be that of a card game player, rather than one specific card - her attire is based on female casino employee attire in the United States, she has a spade tattoo under her right eye, and several of her attacks involve playing cards. Additionally, she enjoys gambling and even dares Alpha to keep raising the stakes! once she Turns Red.
Merciful One Faction
The Merciful One
"Regardless of whether they are good or bad, people always remember their 'unfinished business' when they are about to die ... so why not give them another chance?"
Click here for her unhooded appearance
The third Ascendant Agent equal in power to Luna and Vonnegut, she makes her first appearance in Labyrinth of Inscription. As her name suggests, she converts would-be victims into Ascendants to save their lives, an altruism that runs contrary to the group's overall beliefs.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: She's very neutral about her motives for saving lives, as well as her interactions with others, saying that her conversions are as incidental to her as any other mundane errand she does. She's also very nomadic and has few ties — She saves Roland and allows Lamia to accompany her for a while, tells them to get along when they meet, and leaves the next day.
- Effective Knockoff: The Merciful One purportedly has a knack for reproducing lost Earth artifacts of such high quality they actually make the originals look inferior by comparison.
- Hive Queen: The Merciful One is among the few Ascendants with the power to control the whole network.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Shares striking resemblance to Perce from the Dominik's Orphans manga.
- In the Hood: Her features are covered in a white cloak, making her true identity unknown.
- The Man Behind the Man: As one of the Watchers, she is a much bigger than threat than usually portrayed.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: She claims to have no real name, and only adopts the title others are calling her by so people can address her by something. In Babylonia, she's known as Ishmael, but it is unknown if this is any more real of a name for her.
- Wild Card: Despite being an Ascendant, she doesn't have any true allegiance to their cause. Luna's group even considers her desire to save people by turning them into Ascendants contrary to their goal, hence the events of Grand Blue, where they hunted down and killed Shome to warn her. In fact, she's actually a high-ranking member of Babylonia's Control Court, a section of the World Government.
Shome
A member of the Merciful One's faction, he's killed off as a warning by Luna's group.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Although he he occupied very short part of Grand Blue, his research and transmissions foreshadowed the true nature of the Punishing Virus.
- Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: One of the reasons Luna has him executed is because she considers his forays into the true nature of the Virus taboo.
- Riches to Rags: He was the grandson of the Shome Group's chairman, who had built the Venus Splash Park for him.
- Loophole Abuse: He is able finesse the Ascnets filtering to become an Ascendant, though he is so weak that Luna considers him a fraud.
The Church of Machina
In general
The Pilgrims
Awakened Machines are those that become enlightened by the Sagemachina. While the Punishing Virus destroyed human society, the Awakened Machines quietly spread in the aftermath like a flame. Through the graffiti made with mechanical language, machines found the path to knowledge, and had wisdom nurtured and formed in their steel bodies. After breaking free of their innate shackles, they have started a pilgrimage that follows in the footsteps of Sagemachina.
- Arc Villain: They are one antagonist in Her Last Bow, but become the central threat in The Ark Beyond.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: For all their newfound intelligence, as machines they're ultimately goal-oriented beings that value efficiency above all else. At one point, the "Paperclip Maximizer" thought experiment is brought up to describe how they are capable of immense cruelty if it gets results, and indeed, in one Bad Future, they possibly exterminate humanity just because they're a problem.
- Exact Words: In a chilling example of their "Garbage In, Garbage Out" mentality, at some point in the "Future War" timeline the Sagemachina asked them to protect humanity. The Church wound up interpreting that as "killing nearly all the humans, rounding up a roomful of survivors and tying them to life-support machines so they will live out their lives in A Fate Worse Than Death".
- Expy: Moreso than the Punishing Virus, the Church resembles the Machine Lifeforms of NieR: Automata. Their initial plan even is to repair a spaceship so they can leave Earth.
- Heel–Face Turn: At the end of The Ark Beyond, Nanami meets the Church, and tells them of her desire for humans and machines to coexist, before taking them with her to search for Ishmael's "treasure".
- Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Or graffiti, in this case. Somehow looking at the artwork left by the Sagemachina helped awaken sentience in machines that see it.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: While they are a formidable and growing military power, it's driven by an innate fear of being attacked by both humans and the Corrupted for just existing. It doesn't help that they basically only have had one century to develop their culture, so their gaps in knowledge come off as Blue-and-Orange Morality that they're desperately trying to solve by finding out where the Sage Machina went.
- Robot Religion: Their organization has religious elements to it, mainly the veneration of their missing Sage. All of their members are trying to find out where their enlightening figure has gone. Arcana formed the church, claiming that gathering "faith" creates power.
- Tarot Motifs: Their inner circle are given titles based on the Major Arcana, and are led by a "Mother" named Arcana.
Mother Arcana
"Sagemachina will return to the Church, guiding us away from this broken earth to the end of stars."
The leader of the Church of Machina. Arcana claims to have received inspiration directly from the Sagemachina, inspiring her and countless others to prepare for their Sage's reappearance.
- Dissonant Serenity: As pleasant and diplomatic as she is, there's still an uncanny air about her, especially since she's running a militarized mechanoid theocracy.
Cervantes
some caption text
A high-ranking member of the Church who built most of their infrastructure, including their global communication network. His codename is "Tower".- The Engineer: Despite being primarily an artist, Cervantes is quite adept at construction as well, and is responsible for the construction of almost all of the church's infrastructure.
- Foil: To Nanami. While they both are androids that the World Government was experimenting with to make them self aware, Nanami has an unconditional love for humans while Cervantes has a more clinical view of them, leading him to be unable to completely understand them.
-
Reclusive Artist: He was the assistant to one in his life before the Punishing Virus outbreak, and he adopted his former master's reclusive habits after joining the Church, barely interacting with anybody.
Haicma (MPA-01)
Voiced by: Hou Xiaofei (Chinese) Rie Tanaka (Japanese), Brittany Cox (English)
Church of Machina Vanguard-type Transcendant
Profile
- Psychological Age: Unknown
- Vital Fluid Type: Unknown
- Activation Date: Unknown
- Service Time: Unknown
- Weight: 50kg
- Height: 166cm
"The machines on Earth were creations discarded by humanity. They have always been seeking a purpose for their existence. They have always believed the Sagemachina would show them the way. I need to find her..."
The Awakened Machines, having gathered together to form a church, comb Earth in search of their mechanical forefather. Haicma, codenamed "Hermit", unlike other machines, however, seems to have ulterior motives for seeking the Sagemachina.
Haicma's frame is Starveil.
- A.I.-cronym: "Haicma" is a contraction of "Heuristic Artificial Intelligence Caretaking Machine-Alpha". Nanami was the one who named her, far back in the past.
- A Day in the Limelight: The Ark Beyond follows her trek around the world as she searches for the Sagemachina.
- Deadly Lunge: Her passive ability gives her a Charged Attack that turns into a leaping strike that causes massive ice damage. The attack can only activate when the charge is full, but she also automatically dodges any attack made on her if she has any dodge meter.
- Emotionless Girl: As a machine, Haicma delivers a flat tone of delivery and a logical mindset, though amusingly some of her optional dialogue shows she has "settings" that allow her to speak in different tones.
- The Fog of Ages: She remembers being tasked with finding the Sagemachina, but after decades of searching, most of the details of her mission, such as who tasked her, or why, are a blur to her.
- An Ice Person: Her damage type is ice.
- Sinister Scythe: Following Ayla and Chrome, Haicma also uses scythes.
- The Slow Walk: Her passive Charged Attack reduces her movement speed to a prowling saunter. Given that she can also use this move while her Limit Break freezes them in place, what seems like a disadvantage winds up making her look like encroaching death.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Haicma began her life assuming she was an AI caretaker and monitor for the subjects of the Machine Consciousness experiments, and considered herself just another duty-bound program who just incidentally now occupied a body. Near the end of The Ark Beyond, Gestalt reveals she was actually another subject who's since proven to have sentience and emotions. Unlike most examples of this trope, this surprise proves positive for Haicma's development, as it makes her realize she's a conscious being whose choices matter.
- I Will Find You: She's been searching for the Sagemachina for easily over a century. She's seeking out Nanami, specifically, after the researchers that created them both asked Haicma to find and protect Nanami before dying during the Punishing Virus outbreak.
Hanying (MPK-12)
Voiced by: Xie Ying (Chinese) Aya Endo (Japanese) Emi Lo (English)
Church of Machina Support-type Construct
Click here to see Solacetune
Church of Machina Tank-type ConstructProfile
- Psychological Age: Unknown
- Vital Fluid Type: Unknown
- Activation Date: July 24
- Service Time: Unknown
- Weight: 53kg
- Height: 169cm
"Nice to meet you, commandant. I am Hanying. Pulao told me a lot about Babylonia and you, and I have wished to meet you ever since. Please take care of me from now on."
Hanying is the crystallization of Kowloong's mechanical technology, and is infinitely close to human in appearance. She once lived aboard the Nighter and befriended Pulao and the other ship's inhabitants. Until recently she has lain dormant in the Church of Machina, but has now finally awakened, joining them under the codename "Hanged Man".
Hanying's frames are Zitherwoe and Solacetune.
- Ascended Extra: Once a supporting character in Pulao's backstory, now a fully-fledged playable character.
- Become a Real Boy: Hanying often expresses doubts over the authenticity of her feelings, and wonders if she has a "heart". Her friends, however, think she feels more than enough. Cervantes notes that her self-destruction in the past to protect Yoyo can only be considered "self-sacrifice", which only living beings are capable of.
- A Day in the Limelight: Hanying is the main protagonist of The Floating Reverie, where she reawakens and tries to finish her unfulfilled promise from years ago, which requires her to rescue Pulao from The Remnant of the anti-Kowloong faction "Cradle".
- Combat Hand Fan: Her weapon type.
- Combat Medic: As a Support-class character, she can heal her allies while also dishing out damage.
- Cool Big Sis: She is considered one by Pulao, who treats her like an older sibling.
- Flawed Prototype: She was Villier's first attempt at creating a vessel to house Huaxu in, though her inability to fulfill her purpose, plus the fact she eventually developed her own ego, caused Villier to abandon her as a failure while he moved his focus to constructs. Despite that, Hanying is incredibly advanced as is, and still capable of combat.
- Instrument of Murder: Solacetune's weapon is a lute-type instrument.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: That outfit is extremely elegant-looking, yet she can fight in it all the same.
- Lady of War: She's one of the most elegant playable characters in the game next to Bianca.
- Letting Her Hair Down: When Solacetune activates her first Signature, the animation for it involves her taking her hairpin out, signaling her entering her second form. She puts it back in when triggering her second Signature, as it places her back into her initial form.
- Ms. Fanservice: Hanying is a graceful, curvaceous woman wearing a robe that is simultaneously low and high-cut, baring both her shoulders, back, cleavage, and her long legs. Throw in her elegant, dance-like attacks and you have a character who is easy on the eyes.
- The Promise: Years ago, she promised a girl named Yoyo that she would help her find her parents. Years later, in The Floating Reverie, she attempts to make good on that promise. At the end of the story, Hanying reunites Pulao with her parents, but with her own missing memories, Pulao never realises the elderly couple are her parents. But the two thank Hanying for reuniting them, all the same.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: In universe, Hanying was purpose built to be especially human-like, and many machines express both awe and confusion at how Hanying prefers living with other humans.
- Set Bonus: She gives passive damage buffs to both Qu and Pulao if they're in the same party, incentivizing the player to use them together.
Chariot
The holder of the position of Chariot in the Church before Trailblazer.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He is left to succumb to Strike Hawk's attacks by other memebers of the Church because they have no use for a "rusty Gear".
Zero
"Why are you showing such an expression? Did we do anything that upset you? Is our tribute of "love" not precious enough to suit your revelation?"
The Awakened Machine codenamed "Lover", Zero is in charge of investigating and making deductions about the Sagemachina.
- Big Bad: Of the Future War timeline, as she's the driving force behind the schism in the Church that creates a faction that will go on the destroy humanity.
- Driven to Suicide: At the end of one simulated timeline, Zero takes the the Sagemachina's rejection of her poorly, and eventually reaches the conclusion that the Sage is instructing her to die, whereupon she impales herself, sparking a frenzy of suicides across the Church.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Her future incarnation is a tragic example, as Nanami sadly notes isn't developed enough to have a deeper understanding of emotions. She tries to offer gifts to "create romance" and "express love", but can't tell whether Nanami is crying from joy or sadness at human suffering.
- Yandere: Her future incarnation in Her Last Bow has a warped "love" for the Sagemachina Nanami, believing slaughtering humans in their name is what they want. When Nanami tries to stop her, she throws a fit, unable to understand what she did wrong, and blames Haicma and Spooner for "blinding [the Sage's] heart".
Trailblazer
"As "Chariot", I shall use this body to forge the path to our future for my kin."
The Awakened Machine codenamed "Chariot". During The Ark Beyond he hatches a plan to attack Babylonia while it is in disarray to seize supplies and documents from them.
- Blade Lock: As a boss he has a unique parry mechanic that leads to a cutscene where Nanami blocks one of his strikes before countering with her Signature Attack, though it can only be used once in the fight.
- Climax Boss: Of The Ark Beyond. His fight ends the storyline, as Nanami protects Babylonia from his upcoming attack.
- Evil Counterpart: While "evil" is pushing it, Trailblazer is a visual mirror to Nanami in her Starfarer frame: Like how Nanami pilots a Mini-Mecha, Trailblazer seems to have his "real" head and a set of more human-like arms embedded in the torso of his war machine, which has similar proportions to Nanami's POWER.
- In-Series Nickname: Zavier calls him "Blaze," while Nanami dubs him "Lazer".
- Legacy Character: Trailblazer is the second known Church member representing the Chariot arcana. Back when Haicma first joined the Church, "Chariot" was the title of a different machine, who later died offscreen.
- Lightning Bruiser: He constantly whizzes around on rockets, and getting caught in his attack even once can end you.
- Noble Demon: Trailblazer isn't actively malevolent. His mission to attack Babylonia is just that, and simply treats it as an opportunity for the Church to benefit over a weakened enemy. When he questions Haicma's doubts over the success of the mission, the latter realizes he's genuinely trying to calm her down rather than test her loyalty.
- Promoted to Playable: A special event during Renaissant le Fantastique made him temporarily playable in his own set of stages.
- Spell My Name With An S: Before his name was released in the Global Servers, possibly translations included:
- Radiant Marcher
- Glorious Marcher
- Light Bringer
- Star Knight
- Turns Red: Halfway through the fight, Marcher summons a Mecha Expansion Pack from Earth, giving him a new set of far more dangerous attacks and a set of Laser Blades to replace his energy knuckle dusters.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: When describing the events leading up to the "Future War" timeline, Haicma suspects that the raid she and Trailblazer undertook started the chain of events that would eventually lead to humanity's demise, hence, in the present day, Nanami has to stop him.
Spooner
some caption text
The Awakened Machine codenamed "Death". He handles construction for the Church of Machina and frequently partners with Haicma on scouting missions.
- Aerith and Bob: The menacing, all-black, dog-headed, death-themed mechanoid is named... Spooner.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: Despite his ominous title, he's levelheaded and kind. During the Future War timeline of Her Last Bow, Spooner gives a Mercy Kill to the crippled human prisoners of the Church, painlessly killing them while projecting videos of their happiest memories so they can go in peace.
- Only Sane Man: Spooner doesn't have as much patience for the fanaticism of other Church members, and prefers Haicma's company as a result, since she's also less sycophantic. During the Future War timeline of Her Last Bow, he winds up being Nanami's only other ally, since he's pledged loyalty to the Sage, not the Church's mental image of her.
- Spell My Name With An S: Early localizations of his names were oddly spotty, with written narration referring to him as "Spuner", while character dialogue called him "Spooner". The latter became his consistent name during The Ark Beyond.
- In all likelihood his name is most likely a mistranslation of "Sibuna", a reverse-spelling of the Egyptian god of death represented with the head of a dog.
Zavier
some caption text
The Awakened Machined codenamed "Magician". He develops technology for the Church and is partially responsible for Project Ark alongside Emperor.- Mad Scientist: The Church's very own, he has no filter and is constantly boasting and waxing lyrical about his creations. He's responsible for upgrading Trailblazer's body to its current form, and bemoans Arcana turning down his offer to turn her halo into a ring of cannons.
"Hierophant"
The Awakened Machined codenamed "Hierophant". He currently roams the Earth, in search of wayward mechanoids to rescue when they opt for self-destruction following their awakening.
- The Ghost: Because he's always on the move, he's currrently unseen in the plot, though Cervantes says he's always available to contact for those in need of mental aid.
- Talking Down the Suicidal: Hierophant's current efforts are to find and rescue Awakened Machines who become suicidal amid the panic of their changing neurology. He even maintains long-distance contact to the Church to provide what is essentially therapy for mechanoids.
Nanami and friends
Nanami (MPL-00)
Voiced by: Zhao Shuang(Chinese) Minami Tanaka (Japanese), Melody Peng (English)
Unknown Armor-type construct
Click here to see Pulse
Click here to see Starfarer
Profile
Nanami is a mysterious mechanoid whose affiliation is unknown and unaccounted for and has a knack for making friends with other machines. Why she grew a human-like consciousness is also unknown. She is lively, and has a unique style of dialogue and taste. When she fights, it seems more like she is playing. She claims her favorite hobby is observing humans.- Psychological Age: Unknown
- Vital Fluid Type: Unknown
- Activation Date: Unknown
- Service Time: Unknown
- Weight: 45kg
- Height: 145cm
Nanami's frame variations are Storm, Pulse, and Starfarer.
- A God I Am Not: In the future simulations of Her Last Bow, her reaction to discovering a cult of Awakened Machines who worship her as the "Sagemachina" − the first and most advanced Awakened − is one of fear and discomfort, considering what this cult ended up doing (namely driving humanity to extinction). She makes it clear that she is no God and never wanted any of this.
- Barrier Warrior: Her role as an armor-type is performed via dropping protecting domes around herself and her teammates.
- Benevolent A.I.: She is an Awakened Machine, but her greatest interest is to have fun and play with her friends. When she realises that humanity and the planet is on the road to destruction, Nanami doesn't hesitate to find a way to stop Gestalt's predictions.
- Chainsaw Good: Her weapon of choice.
- A Day in the Limelight: While she has appeared in various side stories and minigames that appear in every chapter and event, it all culminates in Her Last Bow, which centers on her specifically, while The Ark Beyond follows up and finishes that part of her storyline.
- Dub Name Change: From Qishi to Nanami (although they both mean the same thing).
- Fun with Acronyms: The Mini-Mecha she pilots for her Starfarer frame is the "Paradigmatic Omnipotent Weapon-Edge Remake", which she shortens to "POWER".
- Future Badass: An alternate timeline Nanami from a future where she leads the Awakened Machines off the doomed Earth is capable of sending data to the game's timeline from where she is. At the climax of Across the Ruined Sea, she embeds data that she calls "a gift called 'future'" into Chiko's body to be recovered after Bianca kills her.
- Creepy Crosses: For her Storm frame, she has cross motif decorations on her skirt as part of the Elegant Gothic Lolita design.
- Genki Girl: Cheerful even when in battle. Her stage victory animation always involves her jumping for joy and throwing V Signs
- Girl with Psycho Weapon: She has a cheerful demeanor that is frighteningly paired with a chainsaw.
- Humanity Is Infectious: Done deliberately to Nanami due to her being a highly advanced android built by the World Government as an experiment to see if she could attain self awareness if she lived among humans. The experiment ended up wildly successful, and Nanami picked up a deep love for humanity and arguably is the only Awakened Machine that can be truly considered human.
- Intrigued by Humanity: Nanami loves humanity because of all the awesome TV shows and movies they made. This has a tendency to perplex A.I.s like Gestalt or Huaxu, who only have mathematical predictions of humanity's survival, while Nanami empathizes with humans and their legacy on a personal level.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Her Starfarer frame fires off missiles for her blue skill, and switching her out lets her keep firing missiles from off screen for several more seconds as support.
- Mental Time Travel: Her Last Bow follows Nanami as she experiences simulations of how the war will end in 10 years, none of which are in humanity's favor.
- Mini-Mecha: Her Starfarer frame puts her in the seat of a war robot equipped with a chainsaw, missiles and a Pile Bunker.
- Parts Unknown: Just because she is seen, doesn't mean she can be explained, as her profile data shows. By Fake Ascension, Gestalt outright says she is neither human, machine, construct, nor Corrupted. Her Last Bow identifies her as the Machine Sage, the first to achieve true sentience on her own, without the need of the Punishing Virus.
- The Power of Love:
- Despite catching the virus at the end of her first interlude, she discovers her body has successfully purged it, which she concludes was because she managed to cling to the memories and love of her family, keeping her mind intact.
- In Her Last Bow, she reaffirms her belief that Humans Are Special because their capacity for love is their source of limitless potential.
"Where there is humankind, there is love. Love transcends time and space, and shows humankind where they should go in the infinite expanse that is the universe." - Putting the Band Back Together: After she embraces her role as the Sagemachina after "Her Last Bow", she sets about gathering up the scattered leadership of the the Church of Machina in order to carry out her plan to avoid the Bad Future Gestalt predicted.
- Roller Blade Good: Her Pulse frame has her feet altered to include disc-like wheels, letting her skate around on the battlefield, and even give a burning tackle for her Limit Break.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In Her Last Bow, Nanami experiences a number of simulations from Gestalt showing her a number of Bad Futures. Seeing this, Nanami sets out to find a way to avert the predictions, first by seeking out The Merciful One.
- Starter Mon: Nanami's B-ranked Storm variation is always the first Gacha reward you get while being walked through the system, and thus the first Armor type you receive in game.
- Shout-Out:
- She tends to coopt catchphrases from various series such as Kamen Rider for her own use, starting with her introduction in the story:
"Indeed... Walking the path of heavens... The Construct who will rule everything... My name is... Nanami."- Later Gundam in the first file of her interaction story:
"Then bring Nanami with you and Nanami will shining finger them all to death!" - Through the Eyes of Madness: Near the end of her Devour interlude, she gets infected by the Punishing virus, causing her to see everyone as rampaging machines.
- Tomato in the Mirror: In her interlude, she found out that she's a machine after getting infected by the Punishing virus when she went out to save people from the infected machines.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her Last Bow confirms that Nanami is actually the Machine Sage. The artwork she leaves around and the machine "friends" she has been making is accidentally turning her into a leader of a new faction of Awakened Machines, which Gestalt predicts could lead to the potential enslavement of mankind in 10 years.
- Wild Card: She has no affiliation, and while she aids Gray Raven at times, she definitely is working on her own agendas. As of Fake Ascension, she's working with Gestalt, Babylonia's AI, and in Her Last Bow it turns out she is a potential leader of new superpower composed of sentient robots.
The Watchers
The Watchers(Spoilers)
The Projections
Introduced in Spiral of Chronos, the Watchers are members of a higher-dimension civilization that has been tracking humanity to see whether they can grow and develop in spite of the Punishing Virus. Eventually they make their appearance, to test whether humans are capable of reaching higher levels of existence.
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: They have forbidden themselves from interfering with history. In their discussion with Lee, they reveal that in the past they rushed the development of three prior civilizations already, which led to their destruction.
- Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The top of the Tower is a space-time distortion that looks like a platform in outer space and is the site of the boss fight against the Primal Projection.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Their interest is only seeing whether humanity will adapt to the Punishing Virus, evolve, and eventually reach higher levels of existence, like them. As such, they help and hinder with complete neutrality — their technology can spread the Virus, but they also allow Lee to reprogram it to create a completely purified region that humans can live in.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: They make their official appearance with a tower that bursts out of the ground, and its red light produces powerful EM waves that cause humans and Constructs to go insane.
- Fighting a Shadow: As its name indicates, the Primal Projection is just a shape they send into our reality to interact with us. Defeating it destroys its presence, but doesn't do anything to the Watcher it represents.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of sorts. The Punishing Virus is implied to originate from the same dimension they are from. While they haven't explicitly unleashed it on humanity, they still are profiting from the chaos by observing how humans, Ascendants and the Virus are adapting, and actually are going so far as to "test" humans to see if they are ready to ascend. However, there is a strong case of Blue-and-Orange Morality going on as they are also beneficial when they choose to be.
- Hive Mind: The voices of the Watchers are merely the collective will of the group as a whole.
- Humanity on Trial: They've been observing human history and the events of P:GR to see whether humans will live long enough to evolve and become greater beings.
- Reality Warper: They're higher-dimensional, atemporal, and capable of terrifying feats. Lee himself realises that space and time are toys to them. Their Tower emerges from underground out of nowhere, its interior warps the flow of time so severely Lee can interact with variants of himself across history, and this space has already been altered into something humans can comprehend. Their boss fight, the Primal Projection, is also easily the most alien and bizarre entity out of all of the game's bosses.
- Sentient Cosmic Force: Of sorts. The Watchers we see in at the top of the Tower are a jumble of it with a Celestial Body.
