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Main Protagonists
Verm
- Abdicate the Throne: At the end of the game, with King James dead and no direct successors stepping up out of fear of the revolutionaries, it seems that Verm could claim the throne for himself. Instead, he sticks the Titan Cleaver into the throne, declares that it's time for a change of governance, and leaves.
- And This Is for...: During the fight with the Yellow God, Verm will say different things when he uses Berserk. In the first phase he says "This is for my tail," and in the second he says "This is for my brother."
- BFS: The human-sized pocketknife he wields is considered one of these, to the point where many of his opponents are baffled that he can even swing it at all. Its size is a key factor in the battles against Blademaster Leo, whose rapier-like needle blade shatters under a few good blows from Verm's weapon.
- Broken Pedestal: Played With with regards to Blademaster Leo.
- Chaste Hero: While exploring Murida with Gwen, Verm has no idea that the occasion is supposed to be a date. During said date, he can have a conversation in which he says that he's not really sure what kind of person he's interested in, if anyone. This is reinforced when he looks at the smutty drawings in the old contraband storage room under Sky Garden (which contain images of both male and female rats), with his only response being "Huh."
- Expy: Verm is a mouse version of Guts in a less harsh and dire world. From the cloak and handwraps and BFS, to making a Life-or-Limb Decision and severing a part of his body with a broken sword, getting a prosthetic that should take him a long time to become accustomed to but doesn't, going against a force far far above him, being rather terse except in battle where he can show Blood Knight aspects... One of his lines is "As long as I was swinging my sword at a foe, I didn't have to think" which is an extremely Guts thought. There's also a shot of him riding an owl while holding the Titan Cleaver that's a clear visual reference to Guts riding on Zodd's back. Verm's dark period is not nearly as pronounced or sinister as the Black Swordsman's of course, but he does learn the same kind of lesson about doing better with friends and allies and contemplates giving up on Revenge, but Verm is actually able to manage it as humans just aren't Griffith.
- Giant's Knife; Human's Greatsword: His "Titan Cleaver" is just a normal human pocketknife.
- Handicapped Badass: He loses his tail in the prologue, which a few characters note would probably throw off his balance, but is more than capable in combat despite this. When he gets a prosthetic tail, he becomes much more agile.
- Instant Expert: When Gwen gives him a prosthetic tail, she warms him that it might take him weeks, or even months to get used to it. He acclimates almost immediately.
- Life-or-Limb Decision: With Lance killed by the Yellow God, Verm decides to cut his own tail to get out of the mouse trap and escape.
- No One Gets Left Behind: After the events of the opening, Verm gets a headache whenever he even considers leaving a friend of his behind, causing him to go to their aid no matter the risk.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: At the end of the game, Verm ends up showing mercy to the Yellow God he fights, and lets him flee. As he tells Siobhan later, he's fully aware that any human could wear the Yellow robes and it was impossible to truly avenge his brother, but was still using that quest for vengeance as a way to give himself purpose until he saw his reflection in the God's eyes and realized he'd become a ghost of his former self.
Siobhan
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Before the Time Skip, Siobhan shows hesitance at their Mammy addressing them with female titles. After the Time Skip, Siobhan starts being referred to with they/them pronouns and makes some comments that imply that they don't identify as female anymore, but nothing is specified. Whilst working under Aquilla as their assistant, they even encourage them to use such pronouns, because Aquilla personally considers the idea of gender distinction to be utter nonsense compared to the pursuit of scientific knowledge.
- Glass Cannon: Siobhan's HP is lacking, but their lighter deals out absurd amounts of damage when fully overclocked, to the point where they can single-handedly reduce endgame bosses' HP by half in a single turn.
- Rebellious Princess: Their "Mammy" is Gilda, the leader of Cranbaile, a tiny kingdom that sticks to the Old Ways of nonaggression with the Gods despite their own citizens being endangered by a housecat. Siobhan is eager to fight back and then to join Verm on his quest despite his reluctance, but their mother is in such denial that she condemns Verm as a corrupter and kidnapper.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: After the Time Skip, Siobhan buys a pointy, wide-brimmed hat that looks like a classic witch's hat. The hat is actually traditionally worn by males, showing their increased comfort with their gender nonconformity.
- The Smart Guy: Siobhan is almost invariably the one to fill the other characters in on anything technical or scientific. Aquilla even takes notice of this and, despite their high standards and overall issues with the rest of Muria for their experiments, is completely genuine about allowing Siobhan firstly to become their assistant, then to inherit the title of Plaguemaster of Muria after their passing.
- Unusual Weapon User: Siobhan wields a souped-up cigarette lighter that's been modified to send out blasts of flame.
Bruce
- The Bard: He mostly contributes to combat by playing songs (through a flute made from a hollowed-out pencil) that heal and empower the other characters.
- Booze-Based Buff: One of his special skills quintuples his damage when he's tipsy.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Bruce begins wearing a blue bodysuit with matching mask because he needs to hide his identity in public due to Clan Grey slaughtering Clan Red. After Clan Grey has been ousted, he switches to a blue kilt, white shirt, and uncovered face.
- Support Party Member: He doesn't even have a way to deal damage to enemies at first, only able to play songs that heal and empower his allies. While he does eventually get an attack, it's not all that strong and his songs are going to be used far more.
Gwen
- Affectionate Nickname: She calls Verm "dwt" (pronounced "doot"), a Welsh word that basically means "little guy."
- Amazon Chaser: Implied to be the reason that she tried to flirt with the massive and terrifying Blademaster Lamia. Her response to Bruce's incredulous statement that she'd eat Gwen alive is "Gods, I wish."
- An Arm and a Leg: Gwen is a former lab rat whose hind legs were both removed and replaced with prosthetics as part of an experiment.
- Giant's Knife; Human's Greatsword: Her "glaive" is a scalpel.
- Handicapped Badass: Both of her legs are prosthetic, but it doesn't seem to slow her down much.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Her ex-boyfriend, sir George, is a rabbit that absolutely dwarfs her.
- Out of the Closet, Into the Fire: Bruce first encounters Gwen in a Clan Grey dungeon where the latter's crime was simply being queer in a territory that doesn't tolerate it.
- Secret Test of Character: She could have slipped her chains at any time by just detaching her leg, but sent Bruce out to get the key to see if he would be able to do it and reliable enough to come back for her.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: When matched with Verm, she's more than twice his size. However, the people she's romantically attracted to are taller than her.
- Unstoppable Rage: When confronting her old boyfriend/mentor George over the whereabouts of their missing friends and family from White Hall, Gwen initially keeps demanding answers from him between trading attacks, but in the face of his persistent silence and disapproval over her choice to defy the Gods who "care" for them, Gwen eventually unleashes her own version of Verm's Berserk state, only hers lasts for a whopping 98 turns, more than enough to finish the fight with, especially since it occurs when George's health is getting low.
Allies
Lance (Prologue Spoilers)
Verm's older brother, who has a plan to break into Heaven and make off with a godly hoard.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: His attacks do absolutely no damage to the Yellow God, and when it turns its attention to him it immediately grabs him in its hand and crushes him to death, dealing hundreds of times his maximum health in damage.
- Interface Spoiler: Masterfully subverted. Lance has an entire skill tree that is just as fleshed out as any later party members', leading the player to think they might survive before their very unambiguous...
- Plot-Triggering Death: His death to the Yellow God is what kicks off Verm's quest for vengeance.
Anton
Bruce's boyfriend.
- The Cavalry: Completing Bruce's endgame sidequest leads to Anton joining the revolution and fending off some knights at a key moment.
- Distressed Dude: After Anton and Bruce are both apprehended by Clan Grey, he's kept in a separate cell, and rescuing him before Lamia decides to eat him becomes one of Bruce's main goals.
Clan Grey
In General
- Eagle Land: Type 2, patriotic American-accented colonizers from across the sea who exterminated the native red squirrels to take over their territory. However, most of the vileness comes from their leadership, with their actual citizens portrayed as victims of a tyrannical regime.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Aside from their Fantastic Racism to everyone who isn't a grey squirrel, they're also homophobic.
- Salt the Earth: Clan Grey did this to the original Sky Garden in order to take control, burning its tree into an ashen pillar, killing the Cailleach, and slaying all of Clan Red save for Bruce.
Duke Josh
The leader of Clan Grey.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: He commands the loyalty of Lamia, a rodent-eating stoat, in exchange for the use of his dungeons as her personal larder. After he's overthrown, Lamia has no more incentive to obey him and makes him her next meal.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He regularly takes hits from a (human) vape pen, signifying his crass, obnoxious personality.
- Karmic Death: Duke Josh leaps from Sky Garden to flee after being defeated by the party, but wounds his ankle on the landing. The only subordinate that comes to his call is Blademaster Lamia, who he's fed his prisoners to, and who now devours Josh as tribute.
Lamia
Duke Josh's Blademaster, known as "the Peerless".
- Ax-Crazy: Blademaster Lamia is a stoat that threatens to eat her own allies, but is tolerated by Clan Grey because she's a peerless warrior and permitted to dine on their enemies and prisoners. In the boss fight against her, she outright cannibalizes her subordinate to heal herself, and abandons her skewer weapon in favor of biting and clawing at the party.
- Double Meaning: In the fight against her, she explains that she's not just "the Peerless" because of her remarkable combat skills; she's also the only stoat that did not flee to the Outwoods, leaving her without literal peers.
- Giant's Knife; Human's Greatsword: She wields a barbecue skewer as a lance.
- Neck Lift: Blademaster Lamia does this Hazel the janitor who chooses not to squeal on the party after they pull a jailbreak to save Bruce and Gwen. She also nearly eats him, but is stopped by a subordinate.
- Uncertain Doom: The party beat her to hell and kick her out the top of the Sky Garden tree, but she shows up alive and very badly bleeding to finish off Duke Josh after he likewise leaps from the top to escape the group. Given the state of her injuries, it's left unclear if she recovered from her meal, or succumbed to her injuries afterwards, but the party have other concerns to deal with.
- Wham Shot: If you thought the game had eased up on the red-in-tooth-and-claw since the introduction, time to think again: Lamia eats one of her subordinates right in front of you.
Rodentia Royal Court
Sir Alex
One of the king's knights, who has a rivalry with Blademaster Leo.
- Dirty Coward: He's rather underhanded and cowardly, exemplified in an endgame sidequest in which he tries to hire Verm's party to kill his former subordinates Rosalie and Maisie for insubordination, after he used Maisie as a Human Shield to save himself and Rosalie attacked him in retribution.
- General Failure: Regardless of his swordsmanship, Sir Alex is an abysmal tactician. When he's given command of the kingdom's forces to quell the riots in the final act, he's so deranged by his need to show up Leo that he marshals the entire guard to the palace's front door — including the guards who were patrolling the palace, leaving the King almost defenseless.
- Green-Eyed Monster: He's bitterly jealous of Sir Leo for taking his position as the kingdom's Blademaster.
- Karmic Death: In the game's Playable Epilogue, according to Steve, Sir Alex the Sterling Knight managed to survive the revolution by fleeing the kingdom, only to try to swim for safety and sink like a lump of silver.
Rosalie and Maisie
The scissor-sisters, promising new recruits who work for Sir Alex.
- Goldfish Poop Gang: The siblings encounter Verm's party a few times throughout the story, and get defeated every time.
- Heel–Face Turn: A late-game sidequest to save Maisie from snake venom convinces Rosalie to join Verm's side in the rebellion.
- Human Shield: Maisie ends up used as one by Sir Alex to save himself from a Titan snake, which outrages Rosalie and leads to them both leaving Alex's service.
- Shear Menace: Each of them wield one half of a pair of scissors as a sword.
- Those Two Guys: The sisters are rarely seen apart, and the few times they are, it's when the player's party is split and each part encounters a different sister.
Sir Leo
The Royal Blademaster, an honorable and legendary knight.
- Begin with a Finisher: The second fight against him has him use Fleche Fatale on his first turn, the same One-Hit Kill move he used on Verm in his first duel. However, Verm can either attack and fatally wound him before he gets the chance, or use Nimblefoot to dodge the attack entirely.
- Field of Blades: The final battle against him takes place in one of these, with his numerous spare needles scattered around the throne room.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The first Duel Boss against Blademaster Leo has him parry everything Verm throws at him. Even after Verm manages to break Leo's weapon, he still follows up with an attack with his broken weapon that deals several times Verm's health.
- Legendary in the Sequel: He was the protagonist of the Needle Knight prequel comic.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Downplayed. Sparing him in the rematch by breaking all his needles will have someone comment that he left town with his daughter- his daughter that the general public was unaware of. It's implied his daughter is Virgo.
- Master Swordsman: Regarded by many to be the greatest living swordsman in Rodentia, with fighting strength equal to an entire battalion.
- Promptless Branching Point: In the endgame, whether or not Leo survives is dependent on the duel against him. If Verm defeats him, Leo dies; if Verm stalls long enough for all of Leo's spare needles to break, Leo surrenders and lives.
- Rogue Protagonist: Sir Leo, of Needle Knight, is now the direct underling of the king that forbids conflict with the Gods, which is Verm's primary motivation. Near the end of the game, Leo duels Verm to the death out of concern that Verm's crusade of vengeance will lead to a war with the Gods that will doom everyone.
- To Be Lawful or Good: Upon realizing that King James is willing to sacrifice his own subjects to keep himself in power, Needle Knight Leo has a brief monologue about what it really means to be honorable before turning traitor and stabbing the King in the back.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His slaying of the fox that was menacing Solhill did save them from the beast, but its rotting corpse spread disease and attracted far more dangerous predators, eventually leading to the death of everyone in Solhill.
- Wrecked Weapon: The Duel Boss fights against Leo will have Leo parry Verm's attacks, but his sewing needles can only take so many hits before breaking. The first time, he's still capable of attacking and one-shotting Verm with a broken needle. In the second fight against him, Leo has several spare needles around the arena as replacements if his weapon gets broken. However, once all of them run out, the fight ends with Verm victorious and Leo being spared.
- Zodiac Motifs: Like the sign he's named after, Leo is a charismatic, confident knight, with a penchant for showsmanship. He is also courageous enough to betray his own king, but only after it becomes clear he values nothing for the lives of his own people. It's also implied this is a family tradition- the girl implied to be his daughter in the ending where you spare him is named Virgo.
Sir Diego
Leo's closest companion, the gigantic guardian of the throne room.
- Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: He's so huge he totes a human gavel as his weapon.
- Gate Guardian: While Leo stands beside the throne, Diego stands in front of the gate to the throne room. Try to enter without permission and Diego slams his hammer on the ground with enough force to knock you off your feet.
- To Be Lawful or Good: Like Leo, he has his doubts about King James as a ruler. Unlike Leo, he comes down on the Lawful side of things, and after Leo murders the king, Diego prepares to avenge him.
- The Unfought: Despite his unique design and position all screaming 'boss fight', his only fight is with Leo, who defeats him offscreen. The OST includes unused music for this battle.
Plaguemaster Aquila
- Despair Event Horizon: Aquila crossed this long before the game's events, when they read a book that detailed the irreparable destruction wrought on the environment by humankind. It was this that convinced them that the both the human and rodent worlds were beyond salvation.
- Flunky Boss: Their boss fight has them summon Mecha-Mooks to aid them in battle and help stall the party.
- For Science!: The stated reason that they don't seem to present as any particular gender is that they consider gender to be a distraction from what really matters: Science.
- Mad Scientist: Subverted. At first all mentions of them paint them as an extremely sinister figure, with occasional mentions made of sinister experiments (including one that got them kicked out of the royal court), but what we actually see of their experiments aren't really all that bad. Aquila attributes their bad reputation to mostly being anti-intellectualism. While they do end up being an antagonist, it's for reasons largely unrelated to their scientific endeavors.
- Noodle Incident: What exactly got them thrown out of the royal court in the first place.
- Time-Limit Boss: The battle against Plaguemaster Aquila has a four-minute time limit before they launch Excalibur, killing a huge portion of Rodentia.
Titans
Tiger
A housecat who's been terrorizing Cranbaile.
- Advertised Extra: The game's main promotional art features him, but he's a Disc-One Final Boss at most.
- Panthera Awesome: He's just a normal house cat, but in proportion to the rodent protagonists Tiger is absolutely colossal.
The Kraken
An octopus that has taken up residence in the sewers.
- Rhymes on a Dime: For some reason, it speaks exclusively in rhyming verse.
The Curse of Solhill
- Dark Is Evil: It's fought shrouded in darkness in a pitch-black room.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Rosalie and Maisie seem to see it as a genuinely supernatural beast, but Verm think's it's probably just an escaped human pet. The setting does have some supernatural elements, but aside from London being an extremely odd place to find a hooded cobra it doesn't seem to do anything really unusual for a snake.
- Optional Boss: It's only fought if you choose to go to Solhill near the end of the game.
The Cailleach
An ancient seer who lives at the top of Ashen Tower, near Sky Garden.
- Dead All Along: Murdered by Lamia seasons ago at the Duke's order, after she prophesied he would be overthrown. She's survived by four fledglings, which retain a portion of her knowledge.
- Long-Lived: Said to be four hundred seasons old, a hundred years in human terms and well beyond the lifespan of a normal owl.
- The Owl-Knowing One: She's an owl Titan said to be omniscient and to have the gift of prophecy. Verm seeks her out for more information on the Yellow God.
Nightwings
The Cailleach's four children, Bane-Ghial, Sheer-Ghlass, Doo-Dorraghey, and Jiarg-Lossanagh, who have taken her place atop Ashen Tower.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse: For some reason, their colors (and names) match the horses of the biblical Horsemen. Bane-Ghial is white (Conquest), Sheer-Ghlass is green (Death), Doo-Dorraghey is black (Famine), and Jiarg-Lossanagh is red (War). The party rides them into battle in the opening of their attack on Sky Garden.
- The Owl-Knowing One: Like their mother before them, they claim to have some kind of supernatural knowledge.
- The Psycho Rangers: They mirror the composition of Verm's party: Bane-Ghial is their main melee fighter, Jiarg-Lossanagh attacks from range like Siobhan, Sheer-Ghlass inflicts status effects similarly to Gwen, and Doo-Dorraghey sings the same songs as Bruce.
The Gods
In General
- Giant Hands of Doom: Due to the massive size difference, the two battles against gods are really just against the gods' hands.
- Humans Are Cthulhu: The people of Rodentia call humanity gods, and many are terrified of even the chance of gaining their attention. The opening lets us briefly control a mouse who is attempting to attack one of them as a distraction, and it's an utter Curb-Stomp Battle where the human is left completely unharmed and the mouse is crushed to death almost immediately by an attack that does hundreds of times more damage than their maximum health.
The White God
- Improbable Weapon User: It wields a scalpel in one of its hands.
- Optional Boss: Only fought if the player decides to return to Whitehall in the endgame.
- Superboss: The White God is one of the most resilient and by far the strongest opponent in the game, with attacks capable of causing a Total Party Kill if they go in unprepared.
The Yellow God
- Book Ends: The first encounter with the Yellow God takes place in an area introduced with the text "Heaven: Tread Softly." The Final Boss takes place in an area introduced with "Hell: Tread Softly."
- Hazmat Suit: The Yellow God of Death is, in actuality, just an ordinary human exterminator in a protective yellow suit so he isn't exposed to the Deadly Gas he uses for his job.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Lance's battle with it in the prologue. None of his attacks deal a single point of damage to it, and once Lance gets its attention, the Yellow God uses its hand to crush Lance several times for damage way over his maximum health, killing him.
- The Power of Friendship: The Yellow God as the Final Boss can grab a character and attempt to subject them to Lance's fate in the prologue by repeatedly crushing them... but this time round, you have allies and dealing enough damage (including bleed damage) to the hand that grabbed them will release the character, saving them.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Verm and his party land the final blow against the Yellow God, Verm hops over to meet him face-to-face and menacingly tells him to run. The following cutscene makes it pretty obvious that the Yellow God took Verm's advice.
- Seemingly Hopeless Boss Fight: The final battle against the Yellow God has Verm's party attacking the boss' feet, which have ??? HP each and damaging them doesn't put a dent in their health bar. Verm fortunately decides that the strategy isn't working and they need to get higher, causing the party to fight the boss' much more vulnerable hands.
