Characters from the standalone game, The Forgotten City.

Warning: spoilers abound!

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Modern-Day Characters

The Player Character

Bilingual Bonus: An Archeologist character can speak and read ancient languages, including Latin, Ancient Greek, Ancient Egyptian, and Sumerian.
Dead All Along: One of the lesser reveals upon breaking the loop is Charon telling you that you had died with Al Worth prior to the start of the game and were drafted in because you possessed the obols.
Famed In-Story: If the player saves everyone using their prior knowledge of the loop the citizens will come to see them as an oracle and refer to them as such in the present day.
Good Is Not Nice: One way to stop the God of the Underworld is to threaten to kill the woman he loves over and over again unless he ends the Golden Rule. The achivement for this even calls them a Psycho.
Impossible Task: Players aware of the time loop repeatedly compare them to Sisyphus and other classical figures tasked with repeadedly attempting an impossible task.
Loophole Abuse: Despite murder being prohibited they are able to arrange the death of the Assassin by sending them into a Shrine they know is about to collapse without breaking the Golden Rule. One character will remark on how you effectively murdered him but promises not to say anything since you saved her life.
Multiple-Choice Past: When Karen asks the player for their identity, you can choose four backgrounds: an Archeologist (who knows about ancient history and can read ancient languages), a Soldier (who can use firearms), a Fugitive (who can run fast), or, alternatively, they can have no backstory, and thus play as an Amnesiac (who can tank more damage).
Outside-Context Problem: Ends up being one of these to the God of the Underworld. He wasn't responsible for bringing you to the city, and is baffled when he finds he cannot read their past and even moreso if you tell him where you came from. It's because he doesn't realize that Proserpina is able to affect things even while being kept in stasis.
The Main Characters Do Everything: Averted, once the player has completed a quest to save a citizen once they can task Gallerius with performing the necessary actions on future loops.
Touched by Vorlons: They're an ordinary person who is able to travel through time and recall previous loops thanks to Proserpina's ritual.
Videogame Cruelty Potential: Assuming they can sprint to the portal in time there aren't any lasting consequences for the player breaking the Golden Rule, so there's nothing to stop you stealing quest items or just murdering a random bystander if you want a quick way to reset the loop.

Al Worth

Back from the Dead: All endings have him resurrected thanks to the paradox eliminating his death from the timeline.
Dead All Along: The fact that he is no longer among the living is something you find out almost immediately after the game starts, when you find his hanged corpse and the notes detailing what happened. Taken up another level with the reveal that you and he were already dead before that due to perishing in a character-creation-determined manner only to be brought back due to possessing the Obols.
Despair Event Horizon: Crossed it as a result of spending time in the Forgotten City, as he reveals in his note. Sentius seems to take a perverse pleasure in describing how every loop brought him closer and closer to the edge.
Driven to Suicide: His hanging corpse is found at the start of the game, with a note indicating that he was unable to cope with the endless repetition with no way out.
Expy: Of Altrius from the original mod. Both are someone who went through the loop before you but failed, causing them to age into old men before finally killing themself.
Good Samaritan: It's revealed he stepped in to try and defend the player character from some thieves attempting to steal the ancient coins they found, but was killed an brought to the city by Charon.
Karmic Jackpot: In the good ending he's spared from being driven to despair by the loop and instead presumably receives a large nest egg from Charon like the other survivors, a just reward for giving his life to help the player character.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Noted as his main character trait by those few characters that knew of him. Played for horror as outlined in his suicide letter. Sentius mocks him for his stubborn, uncompromising moral character and he has a point. His determination to save everyone meant that he could never bring himself to kill Sentius even to end the loop and save himself, and also probably hindered his exploration and progression in game.
Posthumous Character: He's already dead by the time you enter the city. Subverted by the epilogue, where he's alive again thanks to you.
Samaritan Syndrome: Perhaps his defining character trait and one that endlessly screws him over. His suicide note near his corpse details how he had lived several years in the Forgotten City trying to set things right and never could, resulting him deciding that killing himself was the best way to stop the pain. The Reveal at the end by Charon shows this was another level, since his decision to help the Player Character try to save the obols from more mortal enemies also got him killed and brought here. Sentius notes this as his chief flaw.
Time Loop Fatigue: Eventually experiences this while trying to find a way to escape the city yet failing every time. It ultimately leads him to hang himself as an old man.

Karen — Spoilers

Ambiguous Gender: It seems that they appear as male or female to different people. Pluto and Proserpina will call them 'she' but it's evident that Karen is only their latest form, especially since Khabash remembers them in male form.
Ancient Astronauts: They're a member of a race of immortal aliens worshipped as gods.
Creepy Good: Her ultimate hat. She is a psychopomp with glowing red eyes who escorts the dead to their resting point, manipulates the player into the main plot, and is The Dragon to the God of the Underworld. However she herself is nothing if not polite and willing to be come even with you at the end.
I Have Many Names: As an immortal being worshipped by several cultures throughout history, they have been called Charon, Kharon, Kherty, and Khumut-Tabal, at least.
Louis Cypher: The player character mishears them introduce themselves as 'Karen', when they were actually saying Charon.
Nice Guy: It's unclear if it was Pluto or her who decided to take all the city's residents to the present day in the golden ending to avoid splitting them up, but she's definitely the one who decided to give them all enough treasure to get settled and start a new life.
Unrelated in the Adaptation: Cassia, her counterpart from the mod, was Altrius' sister. Karen is just a concerned friend.

Inhabitants of the City

Sentius — Unmarked Spoilers

The magistrate of the city.

Abusive Parents: He's responsible for the disappearance of his daughter, Sentilla. He's keeping her locked away in the upper cistern, both to keep her away from the man she loves and to ensure she doesn't break the Golden Rule.
Adaptational Nice Guy: A very slim example but unlike Metellus, he isn't raping his hostage, likely because she is his adoptive daughter and the Romans viewed adoption to be almost as binding as blood relations.
And I Must Scream: In the canon ending, he becomes the last golden statue in the city, doomed to be eternally conscious but unable to move or speak.
Be Careful What You Wish For: He desired to become immortal as the gods by using Proserpina's prayer created the time loop in order to live forever and he got what he wanted as the sole gold statue left in the Underworld alone and unable to act under his own power in canon ending.
Big Bad: It turn out Sentius is main antagonist of story by abusing the prayer to his own to live forever since he remembers every time loop. Even worse, he's responsible for the disappearance of his daughter, Sentilla by keeping her locked away in the upper cistern, both to keep her away from the man she loves and to ensure she doesn't foil his plan.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He presents himself as a stern but caring master, who puts the player on a quest to save his city from destruction. In reality, he is perfectly aware of what is going on, is an abductor, and is using the player's repeated time loops as a way of living forever.
Blasphemous Boast: During his Motive Rant Breaking Speech upon being confronted, he lapses into this.
Sentius: "I have become, in effect, as immortal as the gods!"
Breaking Speech: Delivered one to AL that drove him to suicide, and attempts to do the same to you. It doesn't work but it still upends the end game.
The Dog Bites Back: In endings one, two and three the player or Sentilla kills him for his misdeeds despite the fact that will trigger the golden rule and kill the other residents.
Egocentric Team Naming: While Roman naming was famously uncreative within families, the fact that both of his daughters are named as variations of his own name is still remarkable. This is a hint about his real, brutally egotistical nature.
Expy: Of Jarl Metellus from the original mod. Both are the ruler of the city, who are responsible for the time loop. Both are also reasonable rulers whose policies have left them unpopular among much of the city. Both are ultimately exposed to be villains holding a woman hostage for selfish reasons.
Heroic Sacrifice: The prayer he uses to reset the time loop kills him when it's used. He does it anyway. This ends up subverted when we learn he remembers every time loop and is abusing the prayer to his own selfish ends.
Ironic Hell: His fate in the Canon Ending. As the sole gold statue left in the Underworld, he has the immortality he so desired — except now he's all alone and unable to act under his own power.
It's All About Me: His ultimate motive, as he himself explains. While his body has to die in order to restart the time loop, this is no obstacle for him due to retaining his memories, and in the meantime he can live forever.
Sentius: "Why? Isn't it obvious? Because I have grown attached to all this: my title, my beautiful villa, the sun on my face, the music of birds chirping... And as long as this day keeps repeating itself, I get to enjoy it all, over and over again, for eternity. Don't you see? I've found a way to prolong my life indefinitely. To cheat death! I have become, in effect, as immortal as the gods! Can you honestly say you would not wish the same for yourself?"
Jerkass Has a Point: His imprisonment of Duli seems cruel, but he notes that he keeps the man fed and comfortable and that it would be too dangerous to let someone with his cleptomaniac tendencies roam free in a city given the Golden Rule forbids theft. He's proven right if Galerius releases Duli, who instantly breaks the Rule by picking up a shiny object belonging to someone else.
- His defense of Roman Society and its norms are twisted, but eloquent and might even be convincing.
Just Between You and Me: Has particular power since he and the travelers are the only people with Ripple Effect Proof Memories, meaning he has the power to taunt and goad them without them being able to alert anybody else and have it stick to the next cycle. He seems to take outright *pleasure* in the fact that a speech like this broke Al to the point of suicide.
Lack of Empathy: He gleefully describes how he watched Al Worth descend into despair over repeated loops, eventually taking his own life, and encourages the player to do the same, saying he'll just get another divine agent to exploit.
Laser-Guided Karma: Every one of the game's endings includes his death in some way. He either gets turned into a golden statue in the canon ending, is directly murdered by the player in one optional ending, and is set on fire by Sentilla in the other two.
Load-Bearing Boss: Essentially acts as one. Since he's the only one who knows the prayer to reset the time loop, killing him will result in a Temporal Paradox that will boot the protagonist back to the present day, regardless of whether or not you're responsible for his murder. This is how you get all but the canon ending.
Motive Rant: Happens if you choose to confront him about his kidnapping his daughter, during which time he shows his real colors, the reasons why he is doing what he does, and the fact that he remembers Al and all the previous loops.
Not Afraid to Die: Oddly enough, given his quest for immortality. Proserpina's prayer, which resets the time loop, kills the person who uses it. However, as a soldier, Sentius has overcome his fear of dying and is able to use it to reset time endlessly.
- This is helped by the fact that he retains all his memories from one loop to the next.
Related in the Adaptation: Sentilla, the missing woman, is his daughter. Metellus and Maisi were unrelated.
Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Sentius is the only character (besides the player) who can remember the events of previous loops.
Villainous Valour: Since he apparently had not expected the ritual to allow him to remember the previous loops, that means despite having imprisoned his own daughter simply to prevent her revealing a way out of the city because he actually enjoyed living there, he was fully prepared to sacrifice his life even if it was only Pragmatic Villainy.
Walking Spoiler: Somewhat subdued example in that many of his ties to the community are sitting out in the open, and he is obviously a man of great importance to the plot as the primary quest-giver. However, it is the exact nature of his involvement that is utterly dynamite.
We Have Reserves: He believes if the player gives up or otherwise dies Prosperina's ritual will just send him another visitor from the future to maintain the loop. It turns out he's actually wrong as Al Worth and the player had the last two obols in existence, meaning there was no-one else for Charon to send.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Non-lethal example. If you confront him about what you have learned about his true nature, he gives you a Breaking Speech and mocks you before declaring he has become bored with you. However, unlike most examples he does not attempt to kill you since he knows full well doing so would merely result in another loop or risk ending it entirely, so he's limited to impotently telling you to get out of his Villa because you bore him.
Sentius: "Understand that to me, you've never been anything more than a useful idiot - and you're no longer useful."

Sentia

Sentius' first daughter. She remains cloistered in her family's villa after her sister's disappearance.

Bratty Teenage Daughter: She's Sentius' daughter and behaves in a very haughty, pampered fashion.
Expy: Of Dwemora, the Jarl's daughter from the original mod. Both are the spoiled, rebellious daughter of the city's ruler who are frustrated with their father's overprotectiveness.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can be abrasive, spoiled, and classist, but she dearly cares for her sister, Sentilla, and desperately hopes to know what's happened to her.
Meaningful Rename: In the canon ending, like her sister, she changes her name to Cynthia in order to distance herself from her father as much as possible.

Galerius

The farmer of the city, and the first person the player meets during any loop.

Accidental Hero: If the player tasks Galerius with saving the other citizens he'll become immensely popular and easily win the election if he stands, despite essentially just relaying messages and conveying items the player already sourced. He doesn't take the credit though and fully admits the player character, who he sees as an oracle, put him where needed to be.
Babies Ever After: Shacks up with Equitia in the Golden Ending, and they're expecting by the time they see you again.
Call to Agriculture: Really just wants to spend his life farming. In the canon ending, he buys a large farm in the present day, where he lives happily.
Dark and Troubled Past: Originally from Britannia, Galerius' father was murdered by Romans seeking tribute from his family's farm, his mother died soon after from grief leaving him to take care of the place and two younger sisters. More Romans would continue to pilfer from the farm until they eventually came for Galerius' sisters. When he killed one of the soldiers to prevent that, the rest beat him and left him alive to awaken to the sight of the farm in flames and his siblings dead. Furthermore, after Boudica's failed rebellion he was brought to Rome as a slave, where his every attempt at escape met with failure.
Expy: Of Gulvar, from the original mod. Both are the first person you meet every loop. They are kind farmers, with a dark past involving the loss of their family. Both can also become the new ruler of the city, though Galerius holds office for a much more temporary period.
Fantastically Indifferent: The player can freely admit to being stuck in a time loop when he asks how they know which citizens need help and after brief confusion he readily accepts it.
Have We Met Yet??: The first thing you hear at the start of every loop is "Uh... salve, friend. I'm Galerius."
Heroic Sacrifice: Will give his life trying to save Duli in one of the game's endings.
Nice Guy: Unlike many other inhabitants of the city, Galerius doesn't really have a hidden agenda or secret dark side; he's just a genuinely good man who wants to help people, and will jump at the opportunity to do so when he's told how.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His first action upon being elected magistrate is to release Duli from his prison cell. Duli immediately picks up something shiny that doesn't belong to him, thus triggering the Golden Rule.

Equitia

The city's Vestal Priestess.

Babies Ever After: Shacks up with Galerius in the Golden Ending, and they're expecting by the time they see you again.
Expy: Of Ysmar from the original mod. Both are motherly and compassionate women who your farmer friend is in love with and ultimately marries him in the best endings epilogue.
Nice Girl: She's one of the most openly compassionate people in the city.
Vow of Celibacy: As a Vestal Priestess, she has to remain a virgin or risk upsetting the gods. When she finally escapes the city in the canon ending, she ends her vow and gets with Galerious.

Georgius

A well travelled Greek and the city's tailor.

Conditioned to Accept Horror: Being a Greek, he's more than familiar with the habit of Gods to deal out Disproportionate Retribution upon mortals, so he's rather accepting of the Golden Rule.
Mundane Object Amazement: He's a tailor and is quite amazed at the modern clothing the player is wearing when we first meet him. Afterwards he always refers to the player as "my sartorial friend" in conversation.
Naturalized Name: His name is actually Giorgios, but in the long tradition of the Romans re-naming everything Greek, (to this particular Greek's annoyance) he's referred to as Georgius.
What Did I Do Last Night?: Reveals in conversation that he's awoken stark naked in the desert a few times in the past after a night of revelry.

Horatius

A soldier, and loyal servant of Sentius.

The Dragon: For Sentius, though he's largely a nice, if a bit coldly professional, person.
Expy: Of Hjormund from the original mod. Both are a Punch-Clock Villain who loyally serves the city's ruler, but do genuinely care about the people they lord over, and both are separated from a loved one due to being trapped within the city.
My Girl Back Home: When asked about his life prior to the forgotten city he mentions being engaged to a woman and that he tries not to think about how she's likely moved on and married another in his absence. In the modern day epilogue he is saddened by the fact that she's long dead but assures the player he will persevere with one of his quotations.
"In the words of Epictetus: "As those who rode behind triumphant generals remind them they are mortal, remind yourself that your precious one isn't one of your possessions, but something given for now, not forever."
Obi-Wan Moment: When the Golden Rule is broken and the Furies start attacking, every single character (other than Sentius, for obvious reasons) will panic, plead for mercy and either duck or run. Horatius? He doesn't move a muscle and calmly quotes Seneca:
- Death arrives; it would be a thing to dread, if it could remain with you. But death must either not come at all, or else must come and pass away.
The Stoic: As in, a follower of the ancient philosophical school of Stoicism.
Warrior Poet: Loves to bring up various quotations from various philosophers whenever you talk to him. It's clear he carries a lot of inspiration from them.

Aurelia

A tavern keeper who peddles gossip, for a price

419 Scam: She fell for this when she blew her wealth in order to be "living in the high life".
Adaptational Villainy: Her mod counterpart Rastasia was a gossipy flirt but a genuinely warm and kind-hearted person despite her past as a Forsworn terrorist. Aurelia is a selfish bitch who only cares about enriching herself.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Aurelia is a gossipy flirt who's far more malicious, running a scam where she offers a way out of the city for a thousand denarii, only for that way out to be a dosage of hemlock like Iulia. She also encourages those who can't afford such to put themselves into debt-bondage with Malleolus, who's in on the scheme with her.
Greed: Aurelia is greedy and willing to sell anyone around her for more money. She runs a tavern, but also swindles other inhabitants like Iulia on the side.
Laser-Guided Karma: In the canon ending, she starts boasting about getting her claws into some rich Prince, and how she is going to be "living in the high life"...in Nigeria. She gets scammed out of all her wealth as a result.
Only in It for the Money: She says this after the player tricked her to get her wine
"I was just going to use you for your money!"
The Charmer: She'll flirt with the player as soon as they let her know they're loaded in order to after their money and trick them with dosage of hemlock.

Claudia

Wife of Malleolus and a drunker

The Alcoholic: She is this because her drinking was "unbecoming of a lady, let alone the wife of a Magistrate" after Malleolus treated her badly, so she asks the player to get wine for her in exchange for discovering the true identity of Malleolus is Quinctius. She's surprised when she learns he is allegedly responsible for starting the Great Fire of Rome and thought she wanted to destroy him. But in the canon ending, she ended up blowing all her money on wine, trying to drink herself back to the Underworld.
Oh, Crap!: Has one when the player tells her that Malleolus is allegedly responsible for starting the Great Fire of Rome and Nero wants him dead.

Malleolus

A wealthy man who serves as Sentius' main political adversary.

Been There, Shaped History: He's allegedly responsible for starting the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64.
Blackmail: The protagonist can learn of his past and use it to force him to withdraw from the election.
Composite Character: Of Domitius and Marius from the original mod. He takes Domitus' place as the cruel ruler-to-be of the city and abusive husband. And like Marius, he's living under a false name to avoid assassins.
Given Name Reveal: His true identity is Quinctius, alleged cultist and starter of the Great Fire of Rome, targeted for assassination by Emperor Nero.
Laser-Guided Karma: After being freed from the underworld, he tried to declare himself the rightful ruler of Rome... in the 21st century. He gets sent to a psych ward as a result.
Oh, Crap!: Has one when the player refers to him by his true name.

Domitius

An ex-gladiator, and Malleolus' loyal bodyguard.

The Dragon: He's Malleolus's muscle and if things proceed without player intervention he'll trigger the Golden Rule by attacking Sentius on Malleolus's orders.
Even Evil Has Standards: Even he rude to the player, he warns them about "the monster" in the lower cistern below Malleolus's villa, which is a peeled statue that killed Hannibal when he found a way out of the city.
Killed Offscreen: In the game's canon ending, he becomes involved in a fighting ring and dies during the Time Skip.
Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight: If the player chose the Soldier backstory, they will be armed with a gun. In some game pathways, Domitius tries to kill the player with a sword. It goes about as well as you'd expect.

Desius

A merchant who always prioritizes his own gain above anything else.

Adaptational Villainy: The worst Deglund, his mod counterpart, got up to was a scam involving a jumping potion. Desius is a much more selfish character who's done business with slavery, weapons dealing, and locks you in a temple to die after double-crossing you on a deal.
Expy: Of Patches, a greedy recurring character in FromSoftware's catalogue who's known for tricking the player character to rob them and leave them trapped.
Hypocrite: Averted, at least in the eyes of the God of the Underworld, which is why his behavior doesn't trigger the Golden Rule. By the God of the Underworld's reckoning, Desius fully expects others to be as ruthless as he is and would be accepting of such behavior. When people behave charitably instead, he considers them to be suckers.
Laser-Guided Karma: Becomes very wealthy due to playing the stock market during the Time Skip. The player has the chance to knowingly feed him bad investment advice in order to ruin him.
Smug Snake: He's pure slime under a paper-thin veneer of charming hustler. Observe what happens when you follow his advice and take the Golden Bow from the Temple of Diana.
Too Dumb to Live: Literally. When the Great Fire of Rome broke out he wasted time gathering his possessions onto a cart and had a slave girl push it toward the evacuation barges, immediately chose the cart over the girl, and when she responded by dumping the cart into the river, his immediate reaction was to dive in after it, which is probably how he died.

Livia

A madwoman, who might understand what's going on better than anyone else.

Go Mad from the Revelation: She was reduced to a wreck of herself when she realized part of the truth of what was going on in the city.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: If the player reveals they've had the same discovery she had she'll become much calmer, no longer fearing she may be going mad.
Mad Oracle: Her ramblings are actually quotations from the poet Ovid, ones that strongly parallel the situation in which the city's residents find themselves in.
She Cleans Up Nicely: In the canon ending, Livia literally cleans herself up along with sporting a fancy hairdo and clothes.
The Pig-Pen: Because of her state-of-mind, Livia is always unkempt, disheveled, and, described by Aurelia, as "caked in dirt."

Ulpius

A slave to Malleolus who is keeping a scandalous secret.

Adaptational Nice Guy: Ulrin was a grouchy jerk, albeit with the understandable excuse of his wife being missing and him being the prime suspect. Ulpius is much generally nicer.
Driven to Suicide: Jumps off a high wall when the combined weight of his circumstances and Sentilla's disappearance gets to him. he can be talked out of it when the player learns how to set him free.
Expy: Of Ulrin from the original mod as the depressed lover of the missing woman.
Happily Married: Should he survive to the Golden Ending, he'll be married to Sentilla.
Heroic Sacrifice: Will give his life trying to save Duli in one of the game's endings.
No Immortal Inertia: If he dies by throwing himself off the cliff into Malleolus' courtyard, he not only leaves a huge crater (whereas you land harmlessly in the pool if you attempt the same jump), his corpse also instantly ages into a mummified husk. Oddly, this doesn't happen to anyone else trapped in the time loop who dies of non-gold related causes, such as Iulia, Fabia, or the Assassin, which makes the whole thing seem like a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment.
Suicide Pact: In one with Iulia.

Iulia

A slave to Malleolus who might have crucial information.

Butch Lesbian: She's a short-haired woman and her fashion sense is more masculine then other female characters especially during modern times.
Driven to Suicide: She's in the clinic after swallowing hemlock as an attempted suicide. She will die unless the player can get her an antidote.
Suicide Pact: She made one with Ulpius.
Took a Level in Cheerfulness: In the canon ending, Iulia is much, much cheerier contrasting the state you first meet her. Her time in the present consists of her studying English, living at London with a "wonderful" girlfriend, and continues to marvel at modern-day inventions. Even she says she can hardly recognize herself nowadays.

Octavia

A servant to Malleolus who leads a secret double-life.

Ambiguously Christian: She references a single Lord (rather than Gods as the other Romans would), and mentions "lost lambs". She maintains a shrine with an ichthys deep in the caverns underneath the apartments, next to the Roman tablet. If you ask her outright about being a Christian, she'll reveal she's indeed one, but also requests you keep it a secret. Considering the kind of persecution her kind went through in the period, this is understandable.
Nice Girl: Octavia is unfailingly kind and understanding throughout the player's time interacting with her. In the canon ending, she's inspired to be a crisis counselor after witnessing Ulpius get talked out of committing suicide.

Rufius

Ambiguously Christian: He says "Thank the Lord" and keeps an ichthys carving in his apartment.
Armored Closet Gay: He's the one sending Vergil threatening notes about his homosexuality. Once he calms down, however, he comes out and starts a pleasant life with Vergil.
- This doesn't keep him from keeping a fertility symbol in the shape of a huge phallus in his quarters.
Boomerang Bigot: Bullies Vergil for being gay despite secretly being closeted himself.
Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: He explains that the pain from his rheumatism has been causing him to lash out at Vergil. If he's given a cure, he admits that it's no excuse, just an explanation, and agrees it's time to put a stop to it.
Driven to Suicide: His rheumatism got so bad during his time in the Legion that in one battle, he decided to just stop fighting as hard in the hopes someone would kill him and put him out of his misery. It's how he died and ended up in the city.
Expy: Of Rykas from the original mod. Both are terse, paranoid men who are (correctly) convinced something is watching them. Both are also closeted and bullying the man they ultimately get together with upon coming to terms with themself.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Once he's given a cure to his rheumatism, the still-gruff Rufius shows a kinder, gracious side to the Player and especially Vergil, whom he ends up dating in the canon ending and takes it upon him to clean up the bigoted graffiti he'd put up.
Meaningful Rename: If he is saved, then in the canon ending, he changes his name to Rufus. He feels that a new beginning warrants a new name.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The gruff, serious, dutiful Rufius next to the pleasant, affable, and personable Vergil. They even wear shirts of these colors respectively in the canon ending.
Terse Talker: Rufius does not mince his words, so he usually speaks laconically.
You Are What You Hate: He's sending homophobic threats to Vergil. He's also gay.

Vergil

Expy: Of Vernon from the original mod. Both are friendly shopkeeps bullied for their sexuality.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The pleasant, affable, and personable Vergil compared to the gruff, serious, dutiful Rufius. They even wear shirts of these colors respectively in the canon ending.
Straight Gay: Has no qualms admitting that he prefers the companionship of other men. You'd only know it if you asked him, though.

Lucretia

The city's current healer, who works out of the temple of Apollo.

Awful Wedded Life: After moving to Rome with her husband he decided to "do as the Romans do" and became a philanderer. Knowing he'd sooner kill her than accept a divorce she attempted to flee with their valuables during the great fire of Rome, awaking in the forgotten city after leaping into the Tiber river.
Open Heart Dentistry: When the previous healer dies, Lucretia ends up being the replacement, something which holds great pressure over her. She struggles to find any thing that can help at the very least aid a patient. In the canon ending, she decides to pursue a medical professions since she realizes she misses being able to help people.

Duli

A simple-minded man imprisoned by others for fear that he will break the Golden Rule.

Ambiguous Disorder: Duli clearly has some kind of mental disability. He easily follows his impulses, has a hard time remembering things, has trouble understanding the Golden Rule as well as other abstract concepts and is mentioned to not know how to read. Intellectual disability would fit many of these characteristics.
Expy: Of Dooley from the original mod. He's a mentally stunted man living in terrible conditions. They are also obsessed with treasure and have a hard time understanding more complicated matters. The epilogue sees them get a new, improved life thanks to your farmer friend.
Literal-Minded: His friend Hannibal told him he went seeking for treasure. When you follow Hannibal's path and find the "treasure" is a way out of the city, Duli has trouble wrapping his head around the idea that a treasure is not some nice shiny object.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If he is released from prison, he will soon pick up a shiny bronze mirror that was within sight of his cage simply because he likes how it looks, and thinks it wouldn't do any harm.

Others — Unmarked Spoiler warning!

The Statues

A collection of golden statues populating the city. Each one is a previous resident of the forgotten city, entombed alive in gold.

And I Must Scream: They're still conscious under there, forced to watch others repeat their mistakes and receive the same fate for eternity.
Body Horror: Naevia's attempts to help them move again by removing their golden skin causes them incredible pain and leaves them bleeding revenants who attack other creatures on sight and beg to be killed. They'll thank you for returning them to their golden prison.
Dead Guy on Display: Their entombed bodies are left as a warning to the new residents of the city, some of whom use them as ornamentation (e.g. placing them on top of a fountain) not realising they are still alive.
Earn Your Happy Ending: In the Golden Ending they're restored to life in the present day and given a nest-egg by Charon to help them set up a new life.
Easily Forgiven: The Furies presumably get restored to life in the golden ending along with the other statues.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The Peeled Statues roaming the Palace are explained in detail as the result of Naevia removing the gold skin from their still-living bodies, driving them insane with pain. The one in the Cistern is clearly shown as having escaped from the Palace through a nearby tunnel. The handful of mummy-like gold statues that attack you in the abandoned Egyptian portion of the city are not explained at all. They're visibly extremely different from Naevia's Peel Statues, and only make zombie-like growls whereas the Peeled Statues can still talk; whatever created them, it seems to have been a separate source from Naevia.
The Quisling: Some of the more violent ones agree to work for Pluto as his Furies, willingly inflicting the same fate they received on other residents whenever the Golden Rule is broken.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Killing them doesn't count as a breach of the Golden Rule since Pluto doesn't consider them people anymore.

Sentilla — Spoilers

Sentius's second daughter. She went missing several days ago.

Beware the Nice Ones: She's remarked to be a very sweet person, but, due to the trauma of being kidnapped and imprisoned by her own adoptive father, she can potentially kill him. This includes setting him on fire.
Expy: Of Maisi, from the original mod. Both are women who went missing shortly before you arrived and whose disappearance is widely grieved. Both are also being held captive by the city ruler. Freeing them leads to them killing him and destroying the city in the process.
Happily Adopted: Letters found written by her reveal she was ecstatic to be adopted by Sentius and loves him very much. This is naturally completely gone by the time you meet her, as she now views him as the monster he is.
Happily Married: She and Ulpius are married in the canon ending if you managed to prevent him from killing himself.
It's All My Fault: In the second ending, she takes all responsibility for the people who were turned into gold statues onto herself, telling the protagonist in a tablet that they should not feel guilty about what happened.
Kill It with Fire: She kills her father this way.
Meaningful Rename: In the canon ending, she changes her name to Gabriella, in order to sever all ties with Sentius.
Patricide: She hates her father, Sentius, and kills him in Endings 2 and 3.
Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about her due to her disappearance being so important.
Write Back to the Future: In some endings, she leaves a message behind on a tablet for the protagonist.

The Assassin

A man come to collect on an emperor's bounty.

Gameplay and Story Integration: He has a single Denarius on him, presumably the coin that resulted in Charon bringing him to the city on his death.
Insane Troll Logic: He's convinced that the whole city is under the sway of a Christian cult, and literally nothing that anyone says will convince him otherwise.
Too Dumb to Live: Charges into a temple where he suspects his target to be, ignoring the literal sign on the door informing people that it's unstable and might collapse.
What Happened to the Mouse?: He's never mentioned again once the player deals with him, though his wanted poster and bow prove useful.
You Are What You Hate: He despises cultists for their mindless fanaticism, but he's a mindless fanatic himself so fixated on his preconceptions he won't see the situation for what it is even when it's staring him in the face.

Naevia

The city's medic, who becomes dangerously obsessed with the city's golden statues.

Companion Cube: Fell in love with a statue of a woman she calls 'Galatea'. Her obsession with reviving the statue is her primary motivation.
For Science!: Her research method is horrific, but she's convinced it's a worthy endeavor. Her unwilling test subjects disagree and violently express their disagreement as soon as they're released.
"The others will call me mad, or a monster, but I don't care what they think."
Jerkass: She doesn't bother to hand her notes over to Lucretia or unlock her chest of medicines before absconding to carry out her research, leaving the city without a qualified healer and no way to get the medicines back due to their fear that trespassing or theft might break the Golden Rule.
Love Makes You Crazy: After falling in love with one of the golden statues, she becomes obsessed with finding a way to return the statues to life. The fact that every statue she attempts this on becomes homicidally insane doesn't seen to waver her resolve in the slightest.
Torture Technician / To the Pain: From the statues' point of view. One by one, Naevia immobilizes them and methodically mutilates their bodies with her tools. The other statues can only watch helplessly as they wait for their turn.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Is not seen after the Time Skip, and none of the characters mention what become of her.
- Messing around with the Photo Mode reveals that Naevia is in the museum in the Golden Ending. If you look to the left of the fountain on the bottom floor, you can see she's standing amongst the people who were changed back from being golden statues. She's the one wearing the red dress. Also, just to the right of this is Galatea. In a move that's either hilarious or just strange, Galatea is wearing a golden dress.

Hannibal

A Carthaginian who disappeared some time before the character showed up, and the best friend of Duli.

Posthumous Character: Was killed by a Peeled Statue in the cistern some time before the player character arrives in the city.
Stripped to the Bone: By the time you find him, the Peeled Statue has apparently gnawed all the flesh off him, leaving him nothing but a skeleton.
Unrelated in the Adaptation: His counterpart from the mod was Dooley's brother. Hannibal was just a good friend of Duli.
Worthless Treasure Twist: He told Duli to seek out his treasure in the upper cistern should he disappear. The treasure is actually the exit from the city, but to the literal-minded Duli this revelation is this trope.

The Hermit Philosopher

A living remnant of the city's past days.

No Name Given: Although he gives his name as "Philip" in the Canon Ending, we never learn his original name. However, some of his dialogue implies that he might be none other than Plato.
The Philosopher: This is his pursuit, and before he leads you to Khabash you'll ask you to engage in a Socratic dialogue with him about many of the themes associated with the Golden Rule and morality. And if the player failed to persude Pluto in the previous timeline, he would help them by appealing to emotion how he considers a sin and his reasons for imposing The Golden Rule. In the Golden Ending, he's working as a consultant to Faculty of Classics at Cambridge University, helping to fill the odd gap in their knowledge.
Precursors: Was a member of a previous generation of city-dwellers, who now lives underneath the Greek Temple. He's also aware that he's not the first; there were other generations before his.
Sole Survivor: The last survivor of a group of Greek denizens who escaped a Golden Rule purge by hiding underneath the Greek Temple.
Video Game Cruelty Potential: He survived the previous Golden Rule purge by hiding in a hidden haven with no golden statues nearby. Unfortunately for him, this also means he's seemingly the only person in the entire game you can murder freely without triggering the Golden Rule.

Khabash

An Egyptian fisherman and friend of Georgius, who had disappeared several weeks ago.

Crisis of Faith: He's a devout follower of Egyptian paganism, and finding evidence that his people built their religion upon Sumerian mythology just as the Romans had based their religion upon the Greeks' drives him to be rid of the tablet featuring Nergal's name. To peacefully escape with that tablet, you'll have to convince him building upon the foundations of earlier cultures doesn't necessarily invalidate his faith, or that living a good life is worthwhile regardless of whether the promise of a divine reward is upheld.
Story-Driven Invulnerability: Just like with Karen, the game won't let you kill him; shooting him with arrows has no effect and the game simply won't let you pull the trigger if you point a gun at him. Unlike Karen, there's no plot relevant reason for this, and it seems to be to prevent you from breaking the game as he needs to complete a couple of scripted actions when you encounter him.
Walking the Earth: In the Golden Ending, he decides to go backpacking around the world, let go of the 42 sins that would bar him from the Egyptian afterlife, and finally cut loose.

Proserpina — Unmarked Spoilers

The wife of the God of the Underworld. She loved humans so much that she sacrificed her immortality to remain with them. However, her husband was determined to restore her immortality, and placed her in stasis to keep her alive until he could.

Ancient Astronauts: Like the rest of the ancient gods, she is an extraterrestrial from another world.
And I Must Scream: Is kept in some kind of temporal stasis by her husband. However, she remains fully aware of what is going on, and can still use some of her powers as a goddess.
Creepy Good: She whispers at you through the female statues which can be unnerving. Some of the actions she encourages you to take are pretty risky, including saying "Do It" when Darius proposes stealing the Golden Bow and encouraging you to jump off the cliff like Ulpius, presumably to get into Malleolus's mansion.
Humans Are Special: Loves humans so much that she willingly gave up her extended lifespan to have one the same length as a normal human's.
I Have Many Names: Known as Proserpina to the Romans, Persephone to the Greeks, Isis to the Egyptians, and Ereshkigal to the Sumerians. In contrast to her husband, though, the game refers to her by her Roman name.
Mortality Ensues: Willingly gave up her status as The Ageless to become more like the humans she so loved. Unfortunately, her husband didn't like this particular decision...
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her whispering to Livia through the statues resulted in her thinking that she's insane when no one believes her.
Spanner in the Works: To her husband's scheme. She's the one who taught Sentius the prayer to create a time loop, and she called both Al Worth and the protagonist back into the past.
Summon Everyman Hero: Her ritual pulls the player and their predecessor Al Worth back through time to try and prevent the Golden Rule being broken, both of whom just happened to die in possession of one of Charon's obols.
Telepathy: Uses this to communicate to the protagonist.
Troll: In the Golden Ending she surprises the player by doing an impression of a whispering statue right behind them.
You Wouldn't Shoot Me: She encourages the player to take her hostage and force Pluto/Hades to end the Golden Rule in return for her life. She does this by having the player destroy her containment tube and take her Crown, which they can then use as proof they have the power to kill her and did so in a previous loop.

God of the Underworld — Massive Unmarked Spoilers

"The Many will suffer for the sins of the One."

The game's Greater-Scope Villain. He's responsible for the creation of the city and the imposition of the Golden Rule.

The Ageless: The people of his race don't have Complete Immortality, but their lifespans are many orders of magnitude greater than our own.
A Lighter Shade of Black: While he is the ultimate person responsible for everything wrong in the game, he is also what allows things to be set right. While obsessive and even oppressive, his altruism and the fact that he can actually be convinced of the error in his ways contrasts sharply with Sentius.
Ancient Astronauts: Like the rest of the ancient gods, he is an extraterrestrial from another world.
Blackmail: Can be coerced into abandoning his scheme if you can kill Proserpina and steal her crown, then bring it to the meeting with him in another loop, if you fail to persuade him of the error of his ways. Doing so will convince him that Humans Are the Real Monsters, however, though it won't impact the ending.
Control Freak: His defining flaw, along with Pride. Fundamentally he is driven by sympathetic interests: his love for Proserpina and the desire to create a society for humans to live without sin, but his obsession with having it all screws him over.
Didn't See That Coming: He had no way to know that his wife would still have the ability to project her powers despite being locked in stasis. This means he is unaware of the time loops and also that the protagonist is from nearly two thousand years in the future.
God Is Flawed: Combined with Sunk Cost Fallacy, he quashes any doubt he might have by rationalizing it as being wrong all along, when he's a god and thus cannot be wrong. The protagonist can make him see the error of his ways, though, and realize he's not that different from humans.
Greater-Scope Villain: While Sentius is Big Bad and the main mortal problem with the city, he is a mere mortal who would not be in this position were it not for This Guy.
Heel Realization: One possible route to the Golden Ending consists of showing him that he was wrong.
Humans Are Flawed: Is trying to prove this by showing their capability for good. In order to win a wager with Jupiter, who thinks Humans Are Bastards, he must have a city of humans last for one whole year without harming one another. Unfortunately, they've never lasted for more than a few weeks.
Humans Are the Real Monsters: What he can come to believe if you take the easy route to the Golden Ending and bring him Proserpina's Crown, which has the same effect but casts a much darker shadow.
I Have Many Names: Known as Pluto to the Romans, Hades to the Greeks, Osiris to the Egyptians, and Nergal to the Sumerians. The game settles for referring to him as "God of the Underworld."
Impossible Task: Jupiter bet him that he couldn't create a community where no-one committed a sin for an entire year. Inevitably his attempts to create a utopia through his brutal Golden Rule only resulted in dystopias where people live in fear, exploit the system and eventually snap and break the rules. No ending involves him succeeding.
Insane Troll Logic:
- Claims his morality is based on the rule, 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you', but his interpretation of this rule is extremely selective and hyper-literal. A developmentally-disabled man innocently picking up something that doesn't belong to him is a sin worthy of death, but slave-taking, gouging someone for lifesaving medicine, and homophobic hate crimes all get a pass (his reasoning seems to be that evil men like Desius and Malleolus fully expect others to be as ruthless to them as they are to others, and thus their conduct doesn't break the Golden Rule, whereas Duli is just intelligent enough to be upset when people take things from him, so he shouldn't take things from other people).
- Sentius' imprisonment of Sentilla is sin-like behavior in his eyes, but since it was done to prevent escape from the city (which he considers a more serious sin), he considers it justified and thus not a violation of the Golden Rule. Yet he doesn't apply the same logic to killing in self-defense or stealing to save a life.
Jerkass Gods: Downplayed to some degree. Considering he's a pagan God god, this goes without saying. Just see how he enforces the Golden Rule and the punishment for breaking it. However, like his Greco-Roman counterparts he is ultimately motivated by True Love and actually believes humanity can improve unlike Jupiter.
Mad Love: The entire reason he's set up this scheme is to win a wager he made with Jupiter so that he can bring Proserpina back to Elysium, despite her sacrificing her immortality. Never mind that she wants absolutely none of this.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: He has no problem with anyone killing the (still living) golden statues, because they're not 'people' by his standards and therefore it doesn't count as murder.
Wham Line: Provides the loud, booming voice rendering judgement on the city and its people. And in the Golden Ending provides a different one.
"The Many will suffer for the sins of the One."
"The many have suffered long enough."

Characters / The Forgotten City

Modern-Day Characters

Inhabitants of the City

Others — Unmarked Spoiler warning!

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