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Introduced in Stick War
Miner
- "Gold please."
The basic worker unit, Miners serve as the economic backbone for all armies, harvesting resources to fuel every army and technology their Empire requires.
Stick War 2 allows Miners to pray for Mana as well as mining Gold, with Order Miners gaining the unique ability to construct Miner Walls to hold off enemies from the castle.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The chaos miners are enslaved, to this effect."We had no choice..."
- Worker Unit: The primary resource collectors of Order and Chaos alike.
Archidon
- "They will fall before they can stand!"
The people of Archidonis, skilled in the use of the bow. They serve as the basic ranged attack unit for Order, allowing reliable and crucial long-range damage and high speed for a low health pool and high cost. A second variety, the invulnerable Castle Archidon, serves as the last line of defense for the monument, firing on enemies that approach.
In 2, they gain the ability to shoot Fire Arrows that have longer range, deal more damage, and set enemies on fire for damage over time.
- Arrows on Fire: Used by fully-upgraded Archidon in the first game, and a full-fledged ability in the second.
- Fragile Speedster: Their agility allows them to reliably kite and outmanoeuvre most enemies, at the cost of only having a measly one bar of health.
- Glass Cannon: Their long range and respectable damage allows them to take out most enemy infantry easily. However, the Archidon's frailty means he'll die easily to anything that gets close.
- Long-Range Fighter: The only long-ranged unit in the first game's roster, and Order's main ranged attacker in the sequel. With their high damage and range, they can devastate enemies before they can get close, but anything that does close the gap will likely make short work of them due to their pitiful health.
- Mage Killer: Dollar-for-dollar, Archidons are the best answer to Magikill in the first game, as they can focus fire the minions before shooting down the Magikill from outside his spell range. Ironically no longer the case in the sequel, where the Magikill's new spells make him extremely good at decimating massed Archidons.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: Most manually-controlled units in the first game attack enemies at the tap of a button or key. If controlling an Archidon, you instead have to aim and fire with the mouse in Stick War or tap and drag in Legacy.
Swordwrath
- "Limbs will sever at mere sight!"
Warriors that live by the way of the sword, the Swordwrath are the basic melee unit of Order. Cheap, reliable, quick to train, and decent attack power despite their unarmoured status, they serve as the melee backbone of any starting Order army, especially in large numbers.
Stick War 2 grants them the Rage ability, which greatly increases their attack and movement speed at the cost of health.
- The Berserker: Their defining depiction in the later games, even gaining a new Rage ability which causes them to briefly berserk at the cost of some health. Rage returns as a power in Legacy that doesn't cost health.
- Cast from Hit Points: Rage, which increases their damage output but costs health to use. Legacy waives the health cost.
- Elite Tweak:
- When AI-controlled, Swordwrath are fairly weak and easily killed. However, when manually controlled, the player can easily take advantage of the Swordwrath's high damage to pick off key targets or just deal a lot more damage while improving the Swordwrath's longevity with strategic blocking.
- The Vamp skin grants the equipped unit lifesteal while worn. While expensive to buy (unless you get lucky from a chest or get it from the last bonus level), it has great synergy with the high-damage Swordwrath, letting it easily heal itself very quickly and making it quite durable. If controlled by the player, this makes a very powerful combination.
- Glass Cannon: Swordwrath hit hard and move fast, but aren't great at taking hits in return. Rage, naturally, exaggerates this by letting them tear through enemies even faster while making them even less durable.
- Primitive Clubs: The basic version of them in the first game and Legacy, which serve as your first available combat unit, wield crude clubs to reflect Order's lack of technological development. Only when you actually conquer the Swordwrath do you get the option to upgrade their weaponry into proper swords. The ambush level after No Man's Land also have club-wielding enemies, this time representing natives who also have little in the way of development.
- Simple, yet Awesome: While the Magikill's minions work much better as cheap Cannon Fodder and Speartons are generally more cost-effective as a frontline melee attacker, Swordwrath are easier to train, and deal colossal damage for their cost, especially when manually controlled. Even in the second game, they serve as the backbone of Order's early game.
- Zerg Rush: Swordwrath cost very little, train quickly, and do a lot of damage despite their frailty. One Swordwrath isn't much of a threat to anything, but a mass of them can overrun unwary enemies. Legacy even tweaks their AI to let a swarm of Swordwrath collapse onto a smaller group of enemies and hack them apart, whereas in the original game Swordwrath in the back would stand and wait.
Spearton
- "Born to die, but not before them!"
Armed with spear and shield, the powerful Spearton are among the most powerful soldiers in the Order Empire. Their helmets and shields can weather all but the deadliest onslaughts, and they can throw their spears to sow chaos among enemy ranks.
Speartons were reworked in Stick War 2 to take on a more defensive role. Shield Wall has the Spearton raise his shield, blocking a large portion of incoming damage; however, the Spearton cannot move or attack while blocking. This also allows the Spearton to use Shield Bash, knocking enemies back and stunning them.
- Cool Helmet: To complete the Spartan look.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Unlike the other factions, which are based entirely around a weapon, the Speartons are pretty much just Spartans (as depicted in 300).
- Heavily Armored Mook: The only Order unit with visible armor on their character model, and they thoroughly avert Armor Is Useless by being exceptionally tough.
- Javelin Thrower: In 1 and Legacy, they can throw their spears at enemies as a powerful, single-use ranged attack and then pull out a sword to keep fighting until they pick up a new spear by garrisoning.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Spearton's shield is just as much a part of their fighting style as their spear is, allowing them to block enemy attacks and last much longer in battle. Upgrading the Spearton's shield in Legacy will also give him a chance to block incoming attacks completely and take no damage from them. Their reworked ability kit in 2 revolves entirely around their shield and defence.
- Mascot Mook: Even though Magikill are the leader of the Order troops, the Spearton are the empire's face.
- Shield Bash: Gain the Shield Bash ability in 2, allowing them to briefly hit and stun enemies with their shields when researched.
- Shout-Out: Heavily inspired by the Spartans' portrayal in 300.
- Stone Wall: Their incarnation in Stick War 2 takes a more defensive and tanky approach, with their high armour and large health pool, as well as abilities focusing on allowing shield formations to further increase defensive ability.
- Use Your Head: Legacy eventually gave Speartons a headbutt attack that knocks enemies down briefly, giving them back the functionality of the shield bash they had in 2.
Magikill
- "Today we summon unity!"
Unlike the other nations of Inamorta, the Magikill have devoted themselves to studying the arts of magic rather than weaponry. In Stick War 1, they can stun enemy infantry with powerful explosions, and summon minions to overrun them.
Stick War 2 gave the Magikill a major overhaul, turning him from a summoner into a purely offensive spellcaster, eschewing the ability to summon minions for powerful area-of-effect spells.
Unlocked by default is Blast, which creates a large, fiery explosion that damages and burns enemies within its area of effect. Two more spells may be researched: Poison Spray, which casts a toxic beam instantly poisoning all enemies hit, and Electric Wall, an area denial spell which casts a wall of lightning that continuously damages enemies within.
- Area of Effect: His spells in 2 focus primarily on dealing heavy damage and pressure to large areas and groups of enemies.
- Black Mage: Stick War 2's Magikill is a formidable offensive spellcaster that can deal massive area damage.
- Cane Fu: The multiplayer games allow them to hit enemies with their staves (which they also use as walking sticks), though the low damage and the Magikill being an expensive Squishy Wizard means this is only useful in emergencies.
- Enemy Summoner: The first game and Legacy give Magikill the ability to summon minions, which are effectively weaker Swordwrath, to attack enemies.
- Having a Blast: Their main form of offense across the series is creating a magical explosion. Depending on the game, the blast either stuns enemies, sets them on fire, or both.
- The Leader: Acts as the leader of the Rebels at the beginning of 2, but once Medusa's Chaos Empire appears as the greater foe, the wizard faction is the one that leads and unites the Rebels and Order under a common banner.
- Shock and Awe: Their Electric Wall spell forms a barrier of electricity that constantly damages enemies within it, very useful in area denial or putting heavy damage on a line of units by dropping a Wall at their feet.
- Squishy Wizard: While the Magikill's spells make him a force to be reckoned with, he's also slow and fragile. Without minions or other units shielding them, they will go down quickly.
- Universal Poison: The unlockable Poison Spray spell casts a jet of toxic liquid that poisons all enemies hit for damage over time.
- Wizard Beard: Gained these in 2.
Introduced in Stick War 2
Shadowrath
- "The last thing you never see."
After the Swordwrath's initial defeat, some remnants of their nation regrouped and trained themselves in the ways of stealth and shadow, renaming themselves the Shadowrath. In other words, ninja.
In-game, the Shadowrath is a fast melee unit suited for hit-and-run tactics and assassinating key enemy units. Their starting passive is Fixate, which increases their attack damage for each consecutive attack made on the same enemy, and are able to research Cloak/Shinobi, which turns the Shadowrath invisible. If he attacks an enemy while invisible, that attack deals major bonus damage and inflicts poison.
- Fragile Speedster: The Shadowrath is the fastest unit in the game, matched only by upgraded Crawlers and Bombers, and can quickly pick off enemy units. However, his HP is a bit on the low side and he isn't armoured like the Spearton.
- Glass Cannon: Fixate and Shinobi allow Shadowrath to quickly destroy most enemies. They can't take hits nearly as well, though.
- Gratuitous Ninja: If Inamorta's nations have religions built around weapons, why are there ninjas? Who cares?
- Invisibility Cloak: Their Shinobi ability instantly cloaks them for a time, rendering them briefly untargetable.
- Mage Killer: Because most spellcasters tend to be fairly squishy, a Shadowrath can use Shinobi to easily sneak past the enemy's front line and one-shot them.
- Multiple-Choice Past: The Shadowrath have two somewhat conflicting backstories in the series. In 2, they were introduced as Swordwrath who took on a new fighting style for survival before being incorporated into the Order forces, but their backstory in 3 states that they were founded by a daughter of Order's King Zarek and recruited from elite Swordwrath. It's also possible that both of these were true and that the Shadowrath fighting style was assimilated by Order and taught to elite Swordwrath after they were beaten, or the two developed similar fighting styles independently, or this could be an in-universe case of Written by the Winners.
- Ornamental Weapon: Ironically, despite being an advanced version of the Swordwrath, Shadowrath never use their swords in combat in 3 except for their ability to parry attacks.
- Took a Level in Badass: In the lore, Shadowrath are Swordwrath who managed to escape the routing of their people and adapted their simple and everyday style into a new stealth-oriented offensive style just to survive, ascending from simple cannon fodder to Order's most powerful assassins. Also, ninjas.
Meric
- "All is well, I cast a spell!"
In the aftermath of the Order Empire's campaign, the remnants of the Magikill, aiming to rebolster their army, chose to recruit and train their women in the art of magic and warfare. This resulted in the creation of the Merics, female Magikill monks well-versed in the arts of healing and recuperation, a fine support for those injured on the battlefield.
The Meric, introduced as both the first female and first healing unit in the Stick War series, acts as the primary healing support for Order. Albeit slow and fragile, they are able to quickly Heal damaged units on the front lines inside and outside of battle, and are able to research the valuable Cure ability to remove otherwise permanent poison status effects.
- Black Cloak: A rare heroic version, aside from when they first fought as Rebels, the Merics wear a large hooded black robe and cloak as their uniform.
- Deflector Shields: 3 gives them the ability to cast projectile-proof barriers around themselves.
- Magic Staff: By default holds a very fancy adorned sceptre, in contrast to the Magikill's more wooden and gnarled staff.
- Smurfette Principle: Order's only female unit.
- Support Party Member: Order's primary medic unit, with primarily healing and curing abilities and almost negligible attacking power.
- White Mage: In contrast to the Magikill's highly offence-oriented moveset, the Merics adopt supporting heal and cure spells.
- White Magician Girl: Aside from literally being a white stick figure, they are female units with only support and healing abilities.
Albowtross
- "Our bolts will blaze."
During the last stages of the campaign against Medusa's Chaos Empire, Order's encounter with the airborne Eclipsors made the Empire realise that control over the skies is as important as control over land. Thus, reverse-engineering their own flight-capable prototype was imperative, resulting in the birth of the Flying Crossbowman, or Albowtross. Skilled bowmen that have taken to the skies with bulky mechanical wings, armed with powerful crossbows, they are the newest and last weapon with which to stand against the might of the Chaos.
The Albowtross acts as Order's only aerial unit, untouchable by any melee ground unit. Their massive wings and armour make them surprisingly heavy and well off defensively, at the cost of speed and manoeuvrability. Their crossbows allow for very high ranged damage at a slower rate of fire, and the ability Blazing Bolts allow them to apply a burning effect with every hit and deal higher damage to Armoured enemies.
- Airborne Mook: As a flying unit, Albowtross can only be attacked by ranged units and Cycloids.
- Bamboo Technology: Their wings appear to be created from simple wood and cloth, yet are completely flight-worthy.
- Bows Versus Crossbows: In contrast to the Eclipsors' fast longbows, the Albowtross opt for a higher-damaging but slower crossbow, befitting their roles as heavy ranged flyers.
- Foil: They are the obvious counterpart to the Eclipsors of the Chaos Empire, whom of which they were even originally created to counter in the story. The Eclipsors take a more agile approach at the cost of being fragile, while the Albowtross are armoured and powerful at the cost of speed.
- Mighty Glacier: They are very high damaging units and heavily armoured for a ranged attacker, though their slow aerial speed serves as their main fatal flaw.
Enslaved Giant
- "I big rock throw."
Originally the enormous inhabitants of No Man's Land and members of Medusa's army, these Giants have been bound and forcefully recruited by Order to fight for their army, pushing Medusa over the edge and beginning the war between Order and the Chaos Empire. Slow, lumbering behemoths, enormous backpacks filled with boulders chained to their backs, these Giants are as much a force to be reckoned as their free brothers.
The Enslaved Giants make their return as Order's most powerful late-game tank - however, they have been revamped into powerful ranged units, their chains and restraining backpacks forcing them to forgo their clubs and resort to hurling enormous boulders from their packs at enemies for heavy damage and stunning capabilities.
- Anchored Attack Stance: Stick War 3 gives them the Catapult Mode ability, allowing them to plant their feet in the ground and gain more powerful attacks and longer attack range at the cost of becoming immobile.
- The Big Guy: They are gigantic tanks, after all! In exchange for losing their clubs, Enslaved Giants are able to hurl giant boulders that slaughter the unfortunate that gets in their way.
- Foil: The ranged, enslaved Order counterparts to Chaos' classic brutal melee and freed Giants.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: The gigantic humanoids of No Man's Land make a return from the first game, however, under slightly different circumstances. The Giant Growth upgrades up-size the Giants even further for even more health.
- Mighty Glacier: Extremely powerful tanks that can quickly turn the tide of a game - as such, they are balanced by being ridiculously slow.
Introduced in Legacy
King of Inamorta (King Zarek)
The king of Inamorta and the Order forces. While not a conventional unit, he appears in some missions to stand alongside his troops, and must be protected at all costs. He becomes a trainable General in Stick War 3.
- Carry a Big Stick: If forced into combat, the King will use his scepter to club enemies.
- Escort Mission: What any mission featuring him in Legacy boils down to. If he dies, you lose the mission.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He frankly doesn't make a particularly good impression on the player in the Stick War 3 campaign, being arrogant, irritable, and somewhat misogynistic toward his own daughters. However, he does love his children and is aware of his flaws, and after being captured, he seemingly has a Heel Realization and comes back a lot less abrasive.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Granted, he's not a terrible combatant with his high health and surprisingly high damage, but despite being a VIP you have to keep alive he's all too happy to charge into battle alongside the rest of your forces and put himself in harm's way. This is actually a plot point in 3, where at one point he bumrushes the enemy with only his bodyguards and gets overwhelmed and captured, forcing the player to rescue him.
- Named in the Sequel: Stick War 3 gives him the name Zarek.
- Nepotism: Planned to replace the leaders of the various factions under the Order Empire with his own kids, much to the protest of said leaders. They convinced him to at least do a trial by combat for leadership (as per their traditions) and the royal siblings won leadership that way. But then his favoritism showed up again when Adicai fell in battle and he appointed Atreyos as Adicai's successor in spite of Atreyos being grossly inexperienced as opposed to reinstating the more experienced Spearos.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Especially in Stick War 3, where he becomes a trainable unit that can fight on the front lines with the best of them instead of a character you have to protect. In fact, Zarek's Stick War 3 incarnation boasts the second highest HP of any unit in the game behind only the Giant, and deals almost enough damage to kill a Swordwrath in one hit.
Atreyos
Leader of the Speartons, Atreyos appears in the Endless Deads mode of Stick War: Legacy as a member of the ambushed caravan that starts off the mode. He returns in Stick War 3 as a trainable General.
- Ascended Extra: While he started out as just a Spearton with a name in Legacy, he gets a lot more prominent in 3 as a member of the royal family.
- Badass Cape: He gets a tattered red cape in 3, where he kicks as much ass as ever.
- Distressed Dude: His first appearance has him being the leader of the caravan that gets ambushed in Endless Deads mode, kick-starting it; the loss screen has him climbing up the statue to get away from the hordes. Keeping him alive long enough earns you an achievement.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: In the Order campaign of 3, Atreyos's only appearance is as the player's ally in the final mission.
- Inadequate Inheritor: Given that he was extremely inexperienced and seemingly not on board with the whole Spearton philosophy when he was appointed to the position, Zarek seemed to be the only one who actually had faith in him as leader of the Speartons. He does grow into the role but his inadequacy was the final straw that caused Spearos to turn on Zarek.
- King Mook: Functionally, in most of his appearances he's a beefed-up Spearton with higher damage and health.
- Parental Favoritism: There's a lot of hints throughout the third game's campaign that he's Zarek's favorite. The Marrowkai even scornfully calls him a "daddy's boy," likely out of jealousy as he's implied to be Zarek's eldest son Back from the Dead.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: As he leads a group of fantasy Spartans, this is essentially a given. His incarnation in 3 is easily one of the strongest units in the game in a direct fight; with the Speartons' pike upgrade, he can one-shot a lot of weaker units.
- Scarred Equipment: His armor and cape in 3 are noticeably battered compared to his appearance in 2, hinting at him being an experienced warrior.
Kytchu
Leader of the Archidons, Kytchu appears under certain weekly missions in Legacy. She becomes a trainable General in Stick War 3.
- Action Girl: The first female character in the series to specialize in weaponry as opposed to magic.
- Badass Cape: The main addition to her appearance in Stick War 3 is a long, green cape.
- Cool Helmet: Her main distinguishing feature compared to normal Archidons is a shiny gold helmet. It's further distinguished from the Golden Archidon by being of a different design.
- Gender Flip: Kytchu was referred to as male in a few Legacy mission briefings before being retconned to female in Stick War 3. Given the fantastical name, her minor role, and the stick figure art style, not much was affected.
- Hero Unit: Effectively a stronger version of the regular Archidon, capable of putting down most units in a couple of shots.
Sicklewrath
Natives armed with comparatively primitive sickles, Sicklewrath are melee fighters with all the skills of Swordwrath.
- Divergent Character Evolution: While they were essentially reskinned Swordwrath in Legacy, Stick War 3 makes them into a separate unit. Reflecting their more primitive technology, Sicklewrath are weaker but cheaper than Swordwrath and lack the Swordwrath's leap attack, and specialize against light units while the Swordwrath is stronger against heavy units.
- Glass Cannon: Sicklewrath in Legacy are comparatively weak, but can hit even harder than Swordwrath.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: The Sicklewrath's attacks deal half their normal damage to units in a small area around the main target.
- Palette Swap: In Stick War: Legacy they were functionally the same as Swordwrath and share their animations.
- Unique Enemy: Their only appearance in Legacy was a single weekly mission.
- Zerg Rush: Even better at this than the Swordwrath. Sicklewrath have less health and do less damage than the Swordwrath but are cheaper and faster to train, making them disposable but spammable.
Introduced in Stick War 3
Riprider
Order cavalrymen mounted on reptilian Ripptors, they wield double-ended blades to cleave through groups of enemies.
- Double Weapon: Their weapon of choice is a double-ended sickle.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: Ripriders' attacks hit all enemies within range.
- Mounted Combat: Ripriders are the first unit that fights from a steed (the Kai Rider's giant Dead does all of the actual fighting for him).
Xiphos
One of the sons of King Zarek, and leader of the Swordwrath. Xiphos serves as a playable General and can be called on to assist the player in the campaign.
- In a Single Bound: His Heroic Leap ability allows him to jump extremely high before landing on enemies.
- Meaningful Name: The xiphos was a type of ancient Greek sword, and eventually evolved into the Greek word for "sword."
- Mutually Exclusive Party Members: In the third game's campaign, the player gets to choose between him and Thera to assist them in certain battles. Whichever one is picked, along with their forces, stays throughout the campaign and cannot be changed for that playthrough.
Thera
A daughter of King Zarek, and leader of the Merics. Thera is a playable General in the game and can be called on to assist the player in the campaign.
- Cutscene Power to the Max: In a cutscene showing how the Royal Siblings took charge, Thera won her trial against Mera by burying Mera under a pile of rubble. She has no such abilities in-game.
- Last Chance Hit Point: Her Flight of the Foretold ability casts an aura around Thera that allows nearby units that take fatal damage to survive the hit and then receive a large heal, but each unit can only receive this effect once per cast.
- Mutually Exclusive Party Members: In the third game's campaign, the player gets to choose between her and Xiphos to assist them in certain battles. Whichever one is picked, along with their forces, stays throughout the campaign and cannot be changed for that playthrough.
- White Magician Girl: Thera is rather calm and level-headed, and as the leader of the Merics she uses only healing and defensive magic.
Former Leaders
The former leaders of the nations that comprise the Order Empire, consisting of Archis, Wrathnar, Spearos, and Magis. After losing command, they founded their own factions.- Arc Welding: Their existence basically ties the Legacy skins and their associated factions into the overall world.
- King Mook: Archis and Spearos function as an Archidon and Spearton respectively with higher stats and more abilities. Wrathnar is intended to follow suit as a stronger Swordwrath, and does indeed appear as such in certain Legacy missions.
Archis
The former Archidon general and leader of the Woodland Tribes.
- Badass Normal: Out of the former leaders, Archis is the only one that doesn't seem to use magical powers of some sort. He's no less dangerous than any of them.
- Eyepatch of Power: Wears an eyepatch to match his grizzled ranger image. It also doesn't seem to affect his archery skills.
- Sore Loser: He clearly wasn't happy about Kytchu beating him for leadership of the Archidons.
- Trick Arrow: His Tether ability fires an arrow with a rope attached, letting it bind the target to a spot on the ground.
Spearos
The former General of the Speartons, he now leads the Glacial Uprising.
- An Ice Person: Specializes in inflicting the Freeze condition to enemies, with one of his abilities letting him freeze nearby foes and another applying a frostbite effect that inflicts Damage Over Time to nearby frozen enemies.
- Magic Knight: Unlike other characters in the setting, Spearos combines his weapon skills with what is unambiguously ice magic.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: He initially didn't hold any hard feelings about being bested by Prince Adicai for leadership of the Speartons, but when Adicai was killed in action, he and a lot of people expected him to be reinstated in the position. When Spearos was passed up in favor of Atreyos, one of the king's other sons who was both a rank amateur and not a believer in the Spearton culture, Spearos was so infuriated that he decided to skip town entirely.
- Mr. Exposition: When defeated in the campaign, he exposits at length about what drove the former leaders to rebel against Order.
- Old Soldier: Visibly elderly with white hair and a wrinkled face, but he's no less fearsome a warrior in spite of it. According to his exposition, he served Zarek during two wars previously, presumably both of the first two games.
- Secret A.I. Moves: As a boss, he possesses a dodge roll that is not available to players.
Mera
The founder of the Vampiric Soulstealers and former leader of the Merics. After being defeated by Thera, she delved into the powers of Chaos, forming an alliance with them.
- Poisonous Person: Her Hero Unit passively poisons enemies in her vicinity.
Wrathnar
The founder and former leader of the Swordwrath. After being bested by Xiphos, he turned his sights on the borders of the Empire and founded the Borderland Flame Feeders.
- Flaming Sword: Wields a sword that's covered in flames and appears to be made from some volcanic material.
- Ground Pound: His special ability has him leaping high into the air and slamming down so hard he causes an explosion upon landing.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He and his faction are known to be hostile to anyone that intrudes on their lands, forcing them to turn back or die. Turns out there was a good reason for that, since they discovered things that are dangerous to Inamorta as a whole and have devoted themselves to keeping it sealed.
In General
- Evil Counterpart: Aside from literally being the Evil army to Order's good, every Chaos unit is an evil/hell-themed Foil to another unit in the Order Empire.
- Foil: Besides being evil counterparts, every Chaos unit contrasts their Order counterpart mechanically as well, usually placing a unique twist, ability, or reversing their role in some cases.
- Healing Factor: Chaos do not possess manual ways to heal and cure their units in battle, instead all of their units possess passive regeneration and curing. This means that poison will deal almost no damage toward their units, and it will be automatically cured after 15 seconds.
- The Undead: Their theme, if the Deads (zombies), Marrowkai (liches), and the Healing Factor their units have are any indication.
Introduced in Stick War
Giant
- "Stop moving puny things."
The original colossal dwellers of No Man's Land, who were introduced in the original Stick War as the last and most powerful melee wildcard to the ranks of the enemy nations, eventually recruited by Order in their campaign across Inamorta.
In Stick War 2, they make a massive return under slightly differing circumstances - the classic melee Giants return almost unchanged under the command of Medusa's Chaos Empire, now acting as Chaos' heavy melee powerhouses.
The Giants are the most powerful late-game units of the Chaos Empire, heavy melee tanks designed to soak up and dish out as much damage as possible, and can single-handedly cause a great deal of disarray against an unprepared army. They are armed with enormous clubs and drag with them the dead body of an unlucky stickman with which to clobber their enemies with powerful area-of-effect stunning hits.
In both games, they are able to be upgraded with Giant Growth levels, heavily increasing both their height and health.
- Anti-Air: In Stick War 3, their size allows them to smack Eclipsors.
- Anti-Structure: In the first game, they received a major damage bonus against statues. It's still there in Legacy, but scaled down dramatically.
- The Big Guy / The Brute: Both a figural and literal example! Regardless of the side they are on, Giants are nasty tanks who can singlehandedly wipe out armies of the unprepared, with damage that can leave units at near death, and soak massive amounts of punishment.
- Elite Tweak: With the player controlling a giant with the Voltaic skin, their damage is increased to what it was in the original Stick War and they also gain the benefit of increased health. Additionally, manually controlling a Giant with any skin allows them to unleash a devastating earthquake attack, letting them stun enemies en masse like they could in the original.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Besides their huge clubs, every Giant, for some reason, also wields the body of a poor hapless stick figure as a flail to slam enemies with. The Final Boss Giant of the original Stick War is so large, it swings the body of a normal Giant as a weapon!
- Herd-Hitting Attack: Giants can strike multiple enemies with their attacks, stunning every enemy hit. The number of units they can hit with each attack is capped in Legacy and 3, though their Earthquake ability in Legacy can still hit any number of enemies.
- Mighty Glacier: Enormous, powerful melee tanks, though their speed leaves a lot to be desired.
- Nerf: In Legacy, they no longer deal astronomical amounts of damage to statues or other giants, and their basic attack can only strike up to 3 units per hit. Their base damage was somewhat increased to compensate.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: The original Giants of No Man's Land, enormous stick figures several times taller than an average unit. Giant Growth upgrades take this to a whole new level.
- Primitive Clubs: They swing around enormous clubs as their main weapon.
- Shockwave Stomp: Equipping one with a skin in Legacy gives them the ability to stomp the ground, sending out a fissure that damages and stuns any enemy it hits in a moderate range.
- Sixth Ranger: After conquering No Man's Land, Order made the Giants the last unit that they have acquired.
Introduced in Stick War 2
Crawler
- "Meeyowww!"
Chaos' basic early-game light infantry units - strange four-legged demonic cat-like creatures, they are fast, cheap, and fight well in numbers, they serve as Medusa's front-line troops and scouts.
The evil foil to Order's Swordwrath, they contrast their well-rounded offensive nature with a more squishy and fast scouting approach. In return for being far more fragile and less damaging than Swordwrath, they are faster, more agile, cheaper, and built towards more scouting roles and quick hit-and-run rushes in large masses.
Two passive Crawler abilities may be researched to increase their power and attacking viability - Pack Mentality buffs the Crawler's attack power depending on how many are present, encouraging the building of massive Crawler rushes - and Predatory Edge, which increases the running speed of the Crawler, allowing them to chase and escape far more effectively.
- Cats Are Mean: They're demonic cat-creatures, so...
- Fragile Speedster: Crawlers are among the fastest units in the game and attack quickly, but their abysmal health doesn't hold up well against anything that fights back. They're even more fragile in Stick War 3.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Their portrait in the second game and new models in the third gives them a very reptilian look, and they're vicious pack predators.
- Zerg Rush: They're made for this. Fast and cheap to train, with an ability that increases their damage based on the number of Crawlers in an army, a mass of them can easily overrun enemies.
Bomber
- "Medusa wants you to have this!"
Order's first battles in their campaign against Chaos had begun with a bang - Medusa had released her newest shock troops, the suicidal Bombers, cheap and fast light assassins that dash directly into enemy lines to explode and cause mass confusion and disarray in enemy forces.
The Bombers act as Chaos' counterpart to Order's expensive, single-target assassin, the Shadowrath, adopting a cheap, single-use, area-of-effect assassin role able to be made quickly in droves and sent right into the front lines to harass hapless groups of enemies, exploding for instant high AOE damage. Their only ability is to manually detonate, which allows them to reliably target normally unreachable air units by exploding beneath them.
- Action Bomb: Their sole purpose is to run at enemies with dynamite in hand and then explode.
- Art Evolution: The Bomber's appearance was that of a short stick figure holding dynamite in Stick War 2. In Stick War 3, however, they were redesigned into imps with glowing, explosive growths on their hands and tails.
- Depraved Dwarf: They're Ax-Crazy midget imps with explosives.
- Expy: They functionally resemble the Baneling, being a cheap, fast suicide bomber unit. The resemblance became more pronounced in Stick War 3, where Bombers' new appearance makes them more closely resemble the Crawler (which functions like the Zergling) and gave them explosive growths.
- Fragile Speedster: Bombers run faster than unupgraded Crawlers, allowing them to close the gap with enemies very quickly, and they have to in order to get around their pathetic HP.
- Glass Cannon: Bombers die in one hit to pretty much anything. The catch is to not let them blow up half your army in the process.
- Hard Mode Perks: In Stick War 2, manually detonating a Bomber increases its blast radius and damage, and also allows it to hit air units with the explosion.
- Mad Bomber: Natch.
Juggerknight
- "Chaaaaaarrrrrrrrgeeee!"
As how Order's Spearton acted as their main mascot and armoured infantry, Chaos had to have an answer. They responded with the Juggerknight, dark armoured warriors clad in corrupted and edged armour, shields, and brutal axes with which to ruthlessly cleave their opponents, they are the physical backbones to any Chaos army.
The offensive tank to the Spearton's defence, the Juggerknights lead the charge of Chaos' might, focusing on chasing down and brutally rushing the front lines with gusto, hacking anything and anyone in their way to pieces. Their sole ability reflects this - Charge allows the Juggerknights to rapidly rush forward at high speeds, stunning the first unit unlucky enough to get in their way.
- Black Knight: Certainly rock the look, packing dark armor and shields.
- Blood Knight: Their execution animations (almost all for Swordwrath) make it abundantly clear that they love to brutally carve through their enemies.
- Dem Bones: The Stick War 3 Juggerknights are animate skeletons.
- Dynamic Entry: Charge is built for letting the Juggerknight quickly close the gap and dive onto their enemies, wreaking havoc on the enemy's frontline in the process.
- Evil Is Angular: Compared to the Spearton's rounded shields and helmets, Juggerknight equipment has a much more jagged, spiky design.
- Foe-Tossing Charge: Enemies unfortunate enough to be in front of a charging Juggerknight will take damage and be knocked back. In Stick War 3, Juggerknights can plow through multiple light units in their path.
- Good Weapon, Evil Weapon: Juggerknights wield nasty-looking axes to cement them as being Obviously Evil compared to their Order counterpart, the Spearton.
- Lightning Bruiser: In Stick War 2, they're respectably powerful and bulky, and can quickly charge into battle or run down fleeing enemies, and are some of the faster units in the Chaos arsenal.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: They carry shields, although they're mainly used for bashing faces in rather than blocking hits.
- Mighty Glacier: In Stick War 3, they're changed to this status. They boast even higher health and damage than their Stick War 2 version, but come with slower foot speed and a much longer cooldown on their charge, making them less mobile.
Dead/Toxic Dead
- "Ugrrhgh braaaaiins!"
Chaos' main ranged power comes from a surprising source - undead lumbering corpses risen for the sole purpose of attacking the enemy. Though not by rushing them mindlessly, but by throwing their own toxic guts at enemies from afar. A powerful addition to the armies of Medusa, they harass and pressure enemy lines with constant barrages of poisonous death.
These zombies are highly dangerous Chaos units, eschewing the fragile and quick nature of the Archidon for a lumbering, powerful and tanky disposition, making even a single Dead a force to be reckoned with. Their surprisingly high defence allows them to hold their own against weak enemies whilst continuously pressuring them with their primary threat: Poison Guts, which allows the Deads to quickly and reliably poison enemy units at the cost of some mana.
Deads reappear in Stick War: Legacy, with several new variants in addition to the familiar gut-flinger (renamed into "Toxic Dead" from this appearance onward). They serve as the main antagonistic force in the Endless Deads mode, and can appear in various missions.
- Art Evolution: The Toxic Dead was given a new appearance in Stick War 3 to distinguish it from regular melee Deads, looking like undead Archidons.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Deads gained several variants when they were introduced into Stick War: Legacy. Aside from the Stick Empires incarnation (referred to there as Toxic Deads), they can now also appear as melee-attacking mooks and Pouncer Deads, melee units with a pounce attack that knocks the target down.
- Elite Mook: The Stick War 2 version of the Dead was promoted to this status in Legacy due to the basic Dead becoming a melee unit. Legacy also has the Spearton Dead, which as their name suggest, are Deads decked out in Spearton armor that can take appropriately large amounts of damage.
- Elite Zombie:
- Toxic Deads are a combination of the Armored and Spitter variants for their toughness and long range, although unlike most Spitters they attack with parts of their own body as opposed to simply fluids.
- Pouncer Deads are Runners, capable of launching themselves into your ranks at high speed.
- Spearton Deads are very much Armored, being among the toughest enemies in Legacy.
- Improbable Weapon User: Attack by throwing their own guts at enemies.
- Nerf: Melee Deads in Legacy all had the Pouncer Dead's pounce attack by default before it was removed and Pouncers were made into a separate unit.
- Not Quite Dead: Deads in Stick War: Legacy can survive lethal damage, being reduced to crawling after enemies if they do; killing them again makes them stay down.
- Poisonous Person: Their attacks can poison things that they hit using their Poison Guts ability, at the cost of a smidgen of mana.
- Promoted to Playable: In Legacy, Deads originally only appeared as enemies, but players were eventually given access to spells that summon them. In Stick War 3, the basic melee Dead introduced in Legacy was made into a playable unit, with the original Toxic Dead getting a new look.
- Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: Deads in Legacy have to be killed twice by most normal means, as depleting their health the first time causes them to fall to the ground and start crawling after enemies instead of dying. However, if their first form is killed by a headshot (from an Archidon or a Spearton's thrown spear), they die immediately without going into their second form.
- Stone Wall: In stark contrast to the Archidon, the Dead has a respectable amount of health and is armored, but is incredibly slow and deals a piddling amount of damage outside of Poison Guts.
- Zombie Gait: They slowly shamble around with arms outstretched.
Eclipsor
- "Shadows can hurt."
The primary air force of Chaos, these winged humanoids rain down terror on their enemies from above with their dreaded longbows, possessing the speed and manoeuverability which their undead comrades do not.
In-game, the Eclipsors act as fast and reliable hit-and-run units, able to chase and quickly harass enemies from the air at a cheaper price than the slower and bulky Albowtross, at the cost of armour and fragility.
- Airborne Mook: Chaos's main source of air power, and appropriately they are immune to melee attacks from the ground (barring Giants in 3).
- Art Evolution: They got a significant redesign in Stick War 3, going from simple stick figures with wings to horned creatures resembling fantasy gargoyles.
- Fragile Speedster: In Stick Empires, Eclipsors are fairly agile and being flying units are immune to melee attacks from the ground, allowing them to harass enemies from above. However, their thin HP pool means anything that can shoot back will take them down quick.
- Good Wings, Evil Wings: Black bat wings definitely fall under the "evil" category.
- Our Gargoyles Rock: Their Stick War 3 appearance establishes them as gargoyle-like flying creatures.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Stick War 3 gives them glowing red eyes as part of their new, more sinister look.
- Winged Humanoid: Their flight is facilitated by large bat wings on their backs.
Marrowkai
- "I am all that is left."
Skeletal spellcasters, these undead liches are the spellcasting backbone of Chaos, with powers over fear, disarray and even hell itself that they may use to turn the tides of battle in their favour.
While it may be quick to assume that the Marrowkai are the answer to the Magikill, they are however, more a hands-on crowd-control based foil to the support unit Meric. Their two spells focus on supporting their infantry by crowd control rather than healing, sending enemy formations and control into disarray to become easy pickings for more powerful units. Reaper sends out a ghostly apparition to control a single target, temporarily forcing that unit to run blindly towards the Chaos side to be picked off by infantry units, while Hell Fists may be researched, causing a directional line of skeletal hands to erupt from the earth, ripping through any units in their way, useful for area denial and quick AOE damage.
- Continuity Drift: In Stick War 2, the Marrowkai were implied to be an order of skeleton wizards, but Legacy and 3 changed this and instead imply that the Marrowkai is a single individual. The campaign of 3 further implies he's the eldest son of King Zarek, Adicai, raised into undeath.
- Dragon Ascendant: With Medusa's death, he becomes the de facto leader of Chaos in Stick War 3.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Some dialogue in the third game's campaign suggests that he's very much jealous of the favoritism Zarek shows toward Atreyos.
- Glass Cannon: With the ability to both pick off key enemies with Reaper and mulch groups of light units with Hell Fists, the Marrowkai is a deadly force on the battlefield, but they're also slow, vulnerable targets.
- Herd-Hitting Attack:
- Hell Fists is Chaos's strongest answer to clumps of enemy units, obliterating weaker units like Swordwrath and Archidon entirely.
- The Marrowkai's basic attack hits multiple units for reduced damage in the third game.
- Hero Unit: Promoted to General status in Stick War 3.
- Our Liches Are Different: Skeletal wizards, strangely they still have a heart.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: In addition to dealing damage, Reaper forces the target to uncontrollably run forward, often to its death if the Marrowkai is accompanied by other units.
- Sinister Scythe: He trades his Magic Staff for a scythe in the third game. It's not just for show either, as he can strike multiple enemies with a single swing with his melee attacks.
- Unblockable Attack: The Reaper spell after being cast will always hit being the only spell in the game that can affect a cloaked shadowrath.
- Vocal Evolution: In the second game, the Marrowkai's incantations have him speaking in a high-pitched, nasally voice akin to Skeletor. In the third game, he instead speaks in a cold, low monotone, though his voice line for casting Hell Fist is unchanged.
Medusa (Gargos)
- "You fools thought Inamorta belonged to you?"
The leader of the Chaos army, this snake-haired abomination from Greek mythology is the true mastermind behind the conflict that permeates the games' campaigns, and now, she's gathered enough strength to finally mount an offensive to wipe out the Order Empire once and for all.
While Medusa herself acts as the enormous leader of the Chaos Empire, Chaos players can spawn more respectably sized versions of her as the final unit of Chaos, taking the role of a powerful long-range spellcaster and single-target assassin, contrasting the Magikill's area-of-effect moveset. Her famed and most dangerous ability is Petrify - drawing from her mythological inspiration, she stares at a single target, instantly dealing immensely high damage to them, turning them to stone if they are killed. Venom Flux may be researched to allow Medusa's snakes to spit a puddle of toxic poison in front of her, serving as an area denial ability to defend herself from approaching assailants.
- Big Bad: She's the main villain of the second game's single-player campaign.
- Named in the Sequel: Stick War 3 gives her the name "Gargos."
- Off with His Head!: Canonically, Medusa is killed by decapitation as shown in the intro to the third game's campaign, which has a Spearton lifting up her head.
- One-Hit Kill: While it's not an unconditional instant kill, it's still easier to list the things that don't instantly die to Petrify than the ones that do.
- Poisonous Person: Venom Flux poisons all enemies standing inside its area of effect.
- Squishy Wizard: While the story's Medusa is as powerful as you'd expect from a Final Boss, the playable version is slow and relatively fragile.
- Taken for Granite: As per all self-respecting depictions of Medusa, she can turn enemies to stone.
Introduced in Legacy
Deadkai (and Kai Rider)
Undead sorcerers with legions of Deads under their command. A Deadkai also appears as the leader of the Vampiric Soulsteelers in the final bonus mission.Deadkais can also be found fighting while carried by Giant Deads, summoning their undead minions to battle while the Giant Dead lays waste to enemies before it.
- Mook Maker: The Deadkai has no direct combat ability, but he can summon Deads en masse for as long as he lives. The Kai Rider retains the summoning ability, but can actually fight back well.
- Mounted Combat: Kai Riders are Deadkai riding giant Deads; they can still summon Deads while their Giant steed smashes things.
- Necromancer: They can raise Deads from beneath the ground.
- Our Liches Are Different: They're undead wizards that can summon Deads under their command.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To the Marrowkai, likely being a chronologically earlier version of them. They retain the Marrowkai's overall look and Reaper spell.
- True Final Boss: The Kai Rider appears as the boss of the final bonus level. Killing him is optional, though, as the victory condition is still to destroy the enemy statue.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: While the Kai Rider was eventually Promoted to Playable as a spell for the player, the regular Deadkai remains exclusive to AI enemies.
In General
- Demoted to Extra: They make no showing in any of the games after Stick Empires.
- Fusion Dance: Their unique quirk is that their basic units can fuse to become more advanced units.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: Unlike the Order and Chaos empires, the Elemental empire's advanced units are not directly trained; instead, they must fuse their basic units to form them.
Chompler
- "It's all about texture"
- Worker Unit: The elemental miner.
Earth elemental
- "We will, we will, punch you!"
- Cycleof Hurting: Earth elementals stun enemies they hit but attack slowly enough that this doesn't matter, unless they have numbers.
- Stone Wall: They actually have higher health than their Order and Chaos equivalents, but their damage output is nearly nonexistent due to their extremely slow attack speed.
Air elemental
- "I'm always calm before I storm."
- Airborne Mook: The Elementals' basic flying attacker.
- Glass Cannon: Air elementals have extremely high damage per attack, but they have a very slow attack animation, forcing them to stand still when attacking and rendering them unable to kite. Combine that with their relatively low health, and they become very vulnerable to counterattack from ranged units.
- Shockand Awe: They attack with lightning bolts.
Water elemental
- "I am life you are death"
- Action Bomb: A variation where their detonation heals allies instead of damaging enemies. They can also be used as the traditional version by combining with a Fire elemental to create an explosion.
- Ice Magic Is Water: Their "attack" is to freeze enemies solid.
- Support Party Member: Water elementals have no damage output, instead assisting allies by immobilizing opponents. They can also provide healing by sacrificing themselves.
Fire elemental
- "Everything burns if it's hot enough."
- Composite Character: Like the Archidon, they're fast and fragile ranged attackers, but like Deads, they rely on damage-over-time to wear enemies down and get a damage bonus against armored enemies.
- Glass Cannon: While they're not that fragile, Fire elementals still don't appreciate enemies getting up in their face. With their high damage output, though, the enemy might not be able to.
- Kame Hame Hadouken: They throw fireballs from their hands at enemies, with their idle pose and attack animation having them doing hand gestures typical of the trope.
Charrog
- "Soon your pain will be gone."
- Dig Attack: Their Burrow ability can be used as such, letting them emerge in the middle of the enemy army to wreak havoc.
- Magma Man: Huge humanoid figures that appear to be made of lava and igneous rock.
- Stone Wall: The Charrog is much bulkier than the primary tanks for the other factions, being between a Spearton and Giant in terms of health. Their damage without Radiant Heat leaves much to be desired, though.
Cycloid
- "The skies belong to me."
- Anti-Air: While they can't attack enemies on the ground, they deal decent damage against enemy air units.
- The Red Mage: One of their spells allows them to break up groups of enemies, while the other is used for protecting allies.
Infernos
- "Awaken Vastolis, it's time to feed!"
- Powerful, but Inaccurate: Unlike most spellcasters, Infernos has a relatively long cast time on both of its spells, giving enemies a chance to get out of the way.
Treature
- "Say hello to my little friends."
- Mook Maker: Summoning Scorplings is the Treature's primary form of attack.
- Stone Wall: Treatures have no basic attack, relying on Scorplings to fight for them, and can only proactively harm enemies themselves using the long-cooldown Death Blossom. However, their high health and ability to spawn Scorplings continuously make them very tough to uproot.
- When Trees Attack: If you couldn't figure it out from the name, it's an animate tree creature.
V
- "I will be your god once again!"
- All Your Powers Combined: V is formed from a fusion of all four basic elements.
- Doppelgänger Attack: V's Clone ability creates a pair of copies of it that cannot use abilities, but are capable of dealing a high percentage of V's massive base damage with their attacks (level 2 research makes them deal the same damage as V itself).
- Flash Step: The aptly-named Flash, which gives V a way to quickly engage or escape enemy units.
- Glass Cannon: Unusually for a spellcaster, V has an extremely powerful melee attack, and can clone itself to put out even more damage. It also has fairly low health; combined with its astronomical cost, this means you'll have to be very judicious about when to use it.
- Physical God: According to the epilogue of the third game's Order campaign, V is a primordial being that created Inamorta and its people.
- Squishy Wizard: As per the norm for spellcasters, V isn't good at soaking up damage. Doubly so when it's possessing a unit, which makes it unable to move or do anything else.
