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The Vampire Trio
The Main Characters
- Chromatic Arrangement: Red for Valnar, Green for Asgar, Blue for Alaine. This only applies to the first game though, in Ancient Blood Asgar is dressed in black and red like Valnar.
- Freudian Trio: Since Valnar's nature depends on whether he's played as good or evil, the alignments can be interpreted differently. The Freudian Trio works best with a good Valnar.
- Reign of Blood:
- Good Valnar: Asgar is Id, Valnar is Superego and Alaine mediates as Ego.
- Evil Valnar: Both Valnar and Asgar could be Id, so the trope isn't present.
- Ancient Blood: Asgar is Id and Alaine is Superego. Valnar mediates as Ego.
- Reign of Blood:
- Love Triangle: In Ancient Blood, Asgar intends to win Alaine back from Valnar.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Valnar, Asgar and Alaine.
- Magic Knight: Vampirism of the first three generations confers both magical powers and increases physical strength, so all three of them are this, in different ways.
- Valnar is a Fighter-type, having physically oriented stats with supportive magical abilities (though he can still deal a lot of magical damage).
- Asgar is a balanced type, being equally good at combat and magic.
- Alaine is a Mage-type, best at magic and worst at combat of the three.
- Parental Substitute: All three of them are this to Jayna at some point.
- Same Character, But Different: There's a curious change in characterization between Reign of Blood's canon version and Ancient Blood – Valnar and Alaine basically switch roles and characters in between games.
- In the first game, Valnar is a good-natured warrior who dreads senseless bloodshed, doesn't want to be a monster and hates Asgar with a burning passion, while Alaine is not necessarily evil but quite content with being a vampire and all that comes with it, backing Asgar's world view more often than not. In the end she chooses the good side because of Valnar.
- Once the second game comes around, Alaine's suddenly a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire who wants a family and despises Asgar, while Valnar turned into an I Did What I Had to Do guy.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In Ancient Blood.
Valnar Darnus
One night his girlfriend of many years, Aysha, is kidnapped and murdered by a mysterious stranger. Desperate to find her, he's an easy target for the vampire Asgar who turns Valnar into a vampire of the third generation for his own reasons. Now Valnar needs to find out if it's the species or the actions that define whether somebody is a monster or not. And he's still more determined than ever to find Aysha.
Ancient Blood cuts off the branches and starts where the first game's canon ending left off. Together with Alaine and their daughter Jayna he lives in Klennar until a World Sundering spell leaves him and the other two vampires power drained in the past.
The Crimson Realm has him deceased at the beginning, a victim of Elras possession magic who had to be subjected to a Mercy Kill. However, he is returned to unlife a third or so into the game.
- Anti-Hero: Slowly becomes one of the Pragmatic Hero variant, with an added bit of Heroic Neutral. If he's not played as an outright Villain Protagonist.
- Blessed with Suck: He dreads his vampiric existence at first.
- Casting a Shadow: One of his two Elemental Powers.
- Chick Magnet: Downplayed. A lot of random girls you meet in II actually find him cute, but they rarely go as far as to actually bring it up. You have to read their minds to notice. Them not bringing it up might have to do with Valnar openly travelling with his girlfriend.
- Conveniently an Orphan: His introduction text informs us that his parents are dead, but died when he was already able to take care of himself. It doesn't affect his character, it's never brought up again, and is really only there to make sure there aren't any close relatives who might miss him.
- Cool Shades: Valnar needs to wear a pair of sunglasses because is eyes are vulnerable to the bright light in the first game.
- Evil Costume Switch =/= Good Costume Switch: He goes through one of the two in Reign of Blood's final dungeon, depending on his Karma Meter. A good Valnar will temporarily get an outfit resembling a Knight in Shining Armor, while an evil Valnar will get an even darker costume than he is already wearing.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Him and Alaine at the beginning of Ancient Blood.
- Happily Married: To Aysha at the beginning of Reign of Blood. Or are they? In a happy relationship with Alaine at the beginning of Ancient Blood.
- Hearing Voices: Literally in the "Kill them all!" flavor in Ancient Blood. A ghostly voice tells Valnar to kill "the other two" because "we don't need them".
- Heroes Prefer Swords: A broadsword.
- Heroic BSoD: Twice in Reign of Blood. First after Aysha's death, then for a short time after his baptism of fire.
- Informed Flaw: He's a vampire of the third generation and should be much weaker than Asgar (second generation) and Alaine (first generation), but his stats are on par with theirs. According to the narrator, this is because he already had the body of a trained warrior when he was transformed and he is magically inferior to them.
- Last of His Kind: Sometimes entirely, sometimes with Asgar and Alaine.
- Lie Back and Think of England: The trio once again needs the blood of a human who slept with a vampire to resurrect Alaine in Ancient Blood. So they find a brothel and Valnar grudgingly volunteers to do the deed. He insists he didn't enjoy it.
- Light 'em Up: One of his two Elemental Powers.
- Mystical White Hair: As a side-effect of his transformation into a vampire. He was originally green-haired.
- Narrator All Along: According to one of the six endings of Ancient Blood he was the grandfather!
- Retired Badass: At the beginning of Ancient Blood. For instance, he and Alaine mention several times that they don't need weapons anymore and how their days of fighting are over.
- Rule of Symbolism: His Elemental Powers are Light and Dark.
- Sanity Slippage: It starts with having a dream near the beginning of Ancient Blood despite the fact that vampires Cannot Dream. Then he keeps having visions of other peoples' memories, is Hearing Voices that tell him to kill his friends, and gets trapped inside his own mind where he has visions of his worst fears. Even Asgar is afraid that Valnar might snap at some point and kill them all. Eventually the cause of these problems is revealed: Morlon's shadow ghost who possessed Valnar.
- Stages of Monster Grief:
- Denial: Believing from the start that human life is innocent and he will be able to uphold his values.
- Driven to Suicide: He makes it clear that he'd prefer being dead to being an immortal, bloodsucking monster before he learns about the realm of the Blood Wraiths.
- Defiance: He hates Asgar with a burning passion and channels his anger into his determination to find Aysha.
- Acceptance:
- This stage is reached at the end of Reign of Blood. The only exception is the Good/Alone ending for which this trope doesn't apply. It works with the other three endings though.
- If you want to stretch this trope into Ancient Blood, he spends most of the game in this stage, starting with being a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire with Alaine and generally not whining over the course of the game.
- Betrayal:
- The non-canon evil endings to Reign of Blood play this trope straight immediately. He turns against humanity, either with or without Alaine.
- At least two of the endings to Ancient Blood play it straight.
- Sunglasses at Night: Valnar, being a relatively weak third generation vampire, permanently wears sunglasses to deal with extreme light. (In the second game he is strong enough not to need them anymore.)
- Turn Out Like His Father: Valnar can become just as cruel as Asgar over the course of the game. In the beginning he even says that he doesn't want to become a monster or a killer.
- Unwitting Pawn: Was meant to be used as this by Abraxas in Reign of Blood as a way to lure more vampires out of hiding by creating panic after Aysha's death.
- Villain Protagonist: If played as evil Valnar.
- Volleying Insults: With Asgar in Ancient Blood.
- What Have I Become?: Asks himself this question a lot after becoming a vampire.
- White Hair, Black Heart: If played as evil Valnar.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: In the beginning he'd rather be dead.
Asgar Serran
His fate becomes intertwined with Valnar's when Asgar's love Alaine is killed. In order to resurrect her as a vampire he needs Valnar's blood. Not only does he succeed, he also turns Valnar into a vampire and makes him his servant. When Valnar and Alaine almost fall victim to a murderous vampire called Abraxas, he decides it's personal and joins Valnar on his quest to find both Aysha and Abraxas.
He kicks off the plot of Ancient Blood by casting a World Sundering spell under Demonic Possession. When he finds himself, Alaine and Valnar power drained in the past, a new adventure begins.
By the time of The Crimson Realm, he has become a ruthless vampire warlord, waging battles with Alaine over the Elras tablet.
- Anti-Hero: In the Easy/Good ending of Ancient Blood, where he seems to have given up being an outright Villain Protagonist.
- Berserk Button: Threatening and/or hurting Alaine.
- Big Eater: Played for Laughs in the Black Comedy way. Whenever the party encounters some innocent, wayward human or other, expect him to claim that he is feeling positively starved of blood, regardless of his actual blood bar.
- Blood Magic: One of his three Elemental Powers.
- Card-Carrying Villain: At one point all but outright states his philosophy to be "evil is more fun!". A bookshelf in his castle in the second game heavily implies that, in his spare time, he likes rewriting classic fairytales into Black Comedy versions of themselves and putting himself in the story as a replacement for the main bad guy.
- Casting a Shadow: One of his three Elemental Powers.
- Cursed with Awesome: His attitude towards being a vampire.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's sincerely in love with Alaine and was devasted at the sight of her corpse in Shannar, pretty much to the point of exterminating the entire town. He holds her dear for the whole Reign of Blood, unless Alaine finally decides to betray him and side with Valnar. Because of that, their relationship is much more complicated in Ancient Blood.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While he doesn't mind what Molona did to the people in Tradan, he says that it's a huge waste of blood.
- First Person Snarker: Engages in tons of this. It's part of what makes his playable segments fun.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Before Reign of Blood he tried it for a while, but he was really more of an Isolated-And-Not-Quite-As-Abusive-As-Usual-Neighbourhood-Vampire. Then he goes right back to being fully evil when Alaine is executed.
- Face–Heel Turn: He wasn't much of a good guy to begin with, but by getting more and more power and going crazier by the minute his clash with Valnar brings the story of Reign of Blood to its only logical conclusion: He becomes the true Final Boss.
- Heel Realization: Upon finding Valnar and Alaine Taken for Granite in a cave, he thinks back to Reign of Blood, the good times they had and that his actions at the end of the first game went too far and that he ruined everything.
- Hero of Another Story: He tends to get his own playable protagonist segments at the start of both games, they're generally among the most memorable parts of the game.
- Hypocrite: Asgar of all people accuses humans of not even understanding what love and peace mean, just two scenes away from being amused by a public execution.
- An Ice Person: One of his three Elemental Powers.
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Only because the guy killed his parents though.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: He's a fan of this, exemplified when he asks the prisoner in Melsan where the blood shop is.
- Love Redeems: He says himself that his love for Alaine brings out his humanity. It doesn't last.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After Ghadar's shadow ghost leaves his body, this is Asgar's reaction upon seeing what he has done while he was possessed in Ancient Blood.
- Mystical White Hair: As a side-effect of his transformation into a vampire. He was originally black-haired.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: A dying vampire asks the trio to hide in order to save vampires from going extinct. Asgar replies that he could care less about the vampire race. Abraxas has become a personal problem.
- Playing the Victim Card: Develops an all-out victim/betrayal complex in the third game as every single party member turns their back on him or tricks him in some form, completely oblivious to the fact that it's a Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal every time.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Played for laughs in a scene where he heals an injured Nyria simply because the blood on her face is driving his vampiric instincts crazy. Generally, his teamup with Nyria is so full of this that she ends up finding him a strange, but genuinely likeable person.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner:Sir Esthir: This... cannot... be...
Asgar: Send greetings to the damned from me! - Pet the Dog: He loves Alaine, is comparatively friendly to an evil Valnar, has a soft spot for Ronak and helps out Nyria at one point.
- Puny Earthlings: His opinions of humans boils down to this.
- Race Lift: Asgar's sprite in Reign of Blood was Ambiguously Brown, with prominent Pointy Ears and an overall elvish look. His sprite since the second game is that of a Long-Haired Pretty Boy with Undeathly Pallor, not so different from Valnar. This is ironically Lampshaded in Ancient Blood when Valnar and Alaine enter the gallery of abstract art, which really features their old sprites from Reign of Blood as paintings: they immediately immediately recognize themselves in the respective canvas, but when commenting on Asgar's old sprite, they can't recognize anyone in on it.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He kills everyone in Shannar after he learns that Alaine has been executed.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: He alerts dozens of guards to their presence in Melsan and just leaves Valnar there to fight his way out of town.
- Stupid Evil: Subverted. He absolutely delights in random cruelty, but will make sure to cover his tracks if he thinks he cannot fight off whatever repercussions his current act of evil would have. He gets more and more reckless as his power increases. When he's depowered in Ancient Blood, he's back to being careful and reasonable. He even refuses to kill the only merchant in the area.
- Tears of Blood: The only time he is seen crying is after he buries Alaine near the beginning of the first game.
- Token Evil Teammate: Contrasting the Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire tendencies of his two teammates, he represents the mindset of the average vampire in this universe.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: He was never a nice guy in the first place, but by the time of the third game, much of his more playful and laid-back villainy is gone and instead, he has just become incredibly angry and impatient and developed a massive victim complex. While the player has the option of having him act mercifully during sidequests, the actual main story and endings scale back his already rare Even Evil Has Standards moments from the previous games, instead pushing the similarity between him and the villains, whose Evil Plan he comes to admire.
- Villain Protagonist: He is the lead character in Vampires Dawn III.
- Volleying Insults: With Valnar in Ancient Blood.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Vampirism changed his hair color and also turned him into a power-hungry asshole.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: A prime victim of this trope.
- You Killed My Father: A few centuries ago, after turning into a vampire, he tried finding the vampire who killed his foster parents. He didn't succeed. When he finally meets him, he has other reasons for wanting to see him dead.
Alaine Frynia
Left with no memory of her past, she embraces her new existence and helps Valnar getting used to his new life as well.
The beginning of Ancient Blood also sends her back to the past, together with Valnar and Asgar.
In The Crimson Realm, she appears as a vampire warlord, attempting to stop Asgar from gaining control of the Elras tablet while being increasingly forced to sacrifice her morals and scruples in the process.
- Amnesiac Hero: She doesn't remember her past at all, or anything that happened before she was put in Shannar's asylum. It doesn't bother her a lot though.
- Anti-Hero: More in the first game, than in the second. In the latter, she's really closer to an outright heroic character who just goes along with whatever evils the other two deem necessary. Becomes an Unscrupulous Hero in the third game, holding benevolent views of humans and trying to prevent Asgar from enslaving the whole world, but also willing to use any means to achieve that goal, including mass-turning people into vampires and thus contributing to humanity's rapidly-approaching extinction.
- Berserk Button: Being a Straw Misogynist, abusing women and calling her a whore.
- Blood Magic: One of her three Elemental Powers.
- Cursed with Awesome: At least in the first game, this is her attitude towards being a vampire.
- Dark Mistress: To Asgar after he resurrects her as a vampire. Not for very long though.
- Five Stages of Grief: In her position as Only Sane Vampire in Ancient Blood she often can't believe her own eyes when Valnar agrees with one of Asgar's suggestions. The issue of whether or not to create new vampires to fight the Elras depicts the stages quite nicely:
- Shock and Anger: She's appalled and angry that Asgar and Valnar would even consider creating new vampires.
- Bargaining and Denial: Arguing how dangerous to humanity they can be and how uncontrollable they can become.
- Acceptance: Eventually she just throws in the towel and says that she trusts Valnar will make the right decision. However, she refuses to actively contribute to the endeavor since it's easier for them to kill Valnar's fourth-generation vampires than her second-generation vampires if they get out of control.
- Foil: To Molona in a way. She became a vampire through the actions of her first love interest, has been dead at some point, eventually starts a relationship with Valnar, and both had a period of insanity in the story. Alaine gets a much happier ending.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Her and Valnar at the beginning of Ancient Blood. Interesting in that it's a somewhat downplayed example. Unlike Valnar, she doesn't feel particularly attached to her humantiy or humans in general and is quite willing to resort to Pragmatic Villainy whenever necessary. She just really seems to like the idea of living among humans as a pretend-regular family, and harming them would get in the way of that.
- Friend to All Children: She enjoys talking about children with NPCs and refuses to let you turn kids into vampires.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Alaine attempts to help Valnar appreciate his new life after his constant whining.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Her desire to have a family at the beginning of Ancient Blood.
- Informed Ability: She was revived as a vampire of the first generation. Nothing in her stats implies that she's in any way stronger or better than Asgar or Valnar.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Early on in Reign of Blood, she admires Asgar's descriptions of his acts of cruelty.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: We eventually find out what caused her amnesia. It was a spell cast by Vincent Weynard because she refused to keep helping him in his endeavors.
- Love Interest: The player can choose to have Alaine be this to Valnar by Relationship Values, which determines part of the ending. Asgar isn't happy about it, especially since this pairing is the canon ending of the first game.
- Mistaken for Prostitute: A customer in the brothel near Ghardon assumes Alaine's working there.
- Morality Pet: To Asgar in Reign of Blood.
- Morality Chain: In Ancient Blood, again to Asgar. Though he's actually a lot more evil in the first game, oddly enough.
- Mysterious Waif: That's the way we're introduced to her in the opening narration. She was found mute, mad and was put into Shannar's asylum because of it.
- Only Sane Man: Often plays this when the other two get out of control or begin fighting each other.
- Playing with Fire: One of her three Elemental Powers.
- Quest for Identity: When the vampires visit the ruins of Asran in Ancient Blood and Valnar keeps getting strange visions of Vincent and Alaine 400 years ago, Alaine reveals that not knowing anything about her past or the person she used to be does bother her. Getting answers is so important to her that she'll even let Valnar kill her so that she can demand them from Vincent's blood wraith. At the end of this quest, she discovers nothing in particular. She still has no idea who she used to be besides Vincent's assistant. At least nothing implies that she used to be very different from the way she's now.
- Really 700 Years Old: One of the last major reveals in Reign of Blood is that Alaine is actually 400 years old and used to be Vincent's assistant.
- Retired Badass: At the beginning of Ancient Blood. For instance, she and Valnar mention several times that they don't need weapons anymore and how their days of fighting are over.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Her reason for leaving Vincent 400 years ago.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: By the third game, decades of vampire wars and needing to Shoot the Dog have really taken their toll on her mental well-being.
- Wolverine Claws: Her weapon of choice. Artificial ones, though.
Major Characters in Reign of Blood
Abraxas Ethar
- Hopeless Boss Fight: He can be fought early on when Valnar and Alaine accidently walk into his cave-hideout. If they choose to fight him, he will play with them for a few rounds and then cast a One-Hit Kill spell called Blood Torpor. Cue the Nonstandard Game Over. Curiously, this spell is absent when you fight him for real.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: Abraxas is a vampire who hunts vampires.
- Mysterious Employer: Valnar and Alaine see Abraxas talking to him through a communication device.
- Only in It for the Money: He doesn't care about the fate of the vampire race, he just wants to get paid for delivering their heads.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Discussed with his Mysterious Employer. He's afraid he might be on the receiving end of this when all other vampires in the world are killed.
Aysha Darnus/Ayrene Molana Trevos
Both the fact that her murderer called her "Molona" and her character sheet indicate that there's more to her character than the golden-haired Disposable Woman Valnar is determined to rescue.
The prequel Deceit of Heretics provides more information on her character and her life.
- Ax-Crazy: After the failed resurrection spell.
- Beneath the Mask: Beneath it doesn't lie an innocent lady. Not at all.
- Came Back Wrong: Valnar demands Asgar use the same spell he used to resurrect Alaine on Aysha. The only problem: Aysha is neither dead nor human and Valnar's blood isn't the blood of a human who slept with a vampire anymore. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
- Dark Secret: Her introduction text mentions that something seems to bother her lately. She's been hiding her identity as a vampire from Valnar.
- Disposable Woman: Poor Aysha. She gets better... sort of.
- Happily Married: To Valnar at the beginning of Reign of Blood. Or are they?
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: If one supports the theory that her relationship with Valnar was genuine and in fact wasn't all a lie, this trope applies. In the cell phone game, it's revealed that as a human she already was The Starscream to Vincent Weynard and a Manipulative Bitch who had no problems with brainwashing vampires into Meat Puppets and using them for her own plans. Since the game ends when she becomes a vampire, what exactly turned her into the character you meet in Reign of Blood is left unclear.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: At the end of the prequel, the protagonists turn her into a vampire and use one of her own vampire mind-control rings on her.
- Manipulative Bitch: If her comments about her and Valnar's relationship are to be trusted. Definitely in the prequel.
- Pink Means Feminine: She's sporting a pink dress.
- Proper Lady: The townspeople in Klennar describe her as very polite and inconspicuous.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her sprite changes after the failed resurrection spell.
- Secret Identity: Within the first few minutes of the game, Abraxas calls her "Molona". It's her real name. "Aysha" is her secret identity as a human.
- Slashers Prefer Blondes: Part of her fate as the Disposable Woman.
- Sex Slave: Has been one to Abraxas.
- Was It All a Lie?: According to her claims when you fight her in the Magma Caverns: Yes, it was all a lie and she only pretended to care about Valnar in order to remain hidden. It's never revealed whether this was the truth or only just something the said after turning into an Ax-Crazy monster.
Vincent Weynard
In truth, the Holy Crusade was a staged event brought forth by Vincent himself. After finding a Tome of Eldritch Lore that once belonged to the Elras, he quickly realized its potential and turned himself into the first vampire, creating many others in order to create a threat only he could combat, paving a way to power and glory for himself. What he did not know, however, was that his actions were not entirely his own...
- Big Good: Nope. Not even close.
- Blackmail: He demands regular payments from King Tranak by threatening him with a potential army of vampires.
- Call to Adventure: Vampires appeared and killed people left and right. He was the first one to fight back.
- Hero of Another Story: The Whole Episode Flashback in Reign of Blood which lets you briefly control Vincent incorporates this trope.
- High Priest: He became one after he started the Holy Crusade against vampires 400 years before the start of the game.
- Interface Spoiler: The fact that while he's briefly playable Vincent possesses a BP count despite supposedly being human not to mention his rather massive stats in general hint at his true nature.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: As the first vampire, he's effectively the ancestor of our protagonists. Except not.
- Mysterious Employer: He's this to Abraxas.
- Not Good with Rejection: You don't love me Alaine? Here, have an unhealthy dose of madness and physical pain for the next few centuries until someone mercy kills you. If I Can't Have You…...Am I not good enough? She'll pay for that. Nobody rejects my love.
- Rags to Riches: He was an unremarkable village priest before vampires appeared on earth. Then he answered the call.
- Rousing Speech: In a flashback we see him hold one right after being declared a High Priest.
- Unwitting Pawn: He of all people was this to the Elras all along, with Morlon manipulating him into using an Elras spell to create the race of vampires.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: He thinks that as creator of vampirekind, vampirekind as a whole cannot hurt him due to them being unable to hurt their creator. He learns the hard way that this only applies to their direct creator, and none of them being his creations specifically...
The Children of the Apocalypse
A dark sect organized in a secret headquarter under the city of Asdion. They are most notable for their dealings with vampires, organizing hidden shops in several cities where bloodsuckers may purchase various types of blood and other magical objects.
While the World Sundering ritual causes their destruction, a few of their leaders survive into Ancient Blood and, if found, will supply the vampires with blood-related services and arcane objects.
By the time of The Crimson Realm, they've truly thrived, becoming a kind of business empire or grand conspiracy that is no longer dependent on the aid of our vampire protagonists.
- Ascended Extra: They were only generically named in Reign of Blood, but in the next game, they got a bit more characterization, getting four named leaders who can be recruited.
- Cult: Which does business with vampires.
- The Faceless: Played straight in Reign of Blood, averted in Ancient Blood.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: Finding all four leaders is optional, but highly beneficial, as they provide better blood potions and handy magical devices that can do things nothing else in the game can.
- Only in It for the Money: Their leader is only interested in the survival and spreading of vampires because they're the best customers for the cult's blood potions.
- Remember the New Guy?: The Vampire Trio will recognize Lord Mandrake as one of the cult's blood dealers when they meet him in Ancient Blood. The player has never heard of him before.
King Gerald
The current king of this world. While he has loyal followers, he does not appear to be a particularly capable ruler.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: The fight against him is one of the harder ones of the game.
- Blackmail: On the receiving end. Vincent demands regular payments by threatening him with a potential army of vampires.
- Genericist Government: His only impact on the story seems to be collecting taxes.
Major Characters in Ancient Blood
The Erys Sisters
Nyria Erys, the older sister, and Jayna Erys, the younger sister. Though growing up in the simple village of Thyrik, their life has been a fountain of strange encounters and misfortunes ever since Nyria's mother was abducted and almost killed by a vampire.
- Cain and Abel: Unusually for the trope, Jayna as the younger sibling is the "evil" one of the two, Nyria als the older sibling is the "good" one. Nyria blames Jayna for the death of her best friend and hates her for it. Comes in somewhat handy when Jayna ends up being an Elras leader's host, allowing for open hostilities. In the end, it is never properly resolved though, since Jayna is killed by the vampire trio, not by Nyria.
- Disappeared Dad: It's a minor plot point. The game sets up a Red Herring by making us believe that it's actually Raron, the current host of one of the Elras leaders. As it turns out later, Raron was actually the secret lover of their mother, who ended up killing her father in self-defence and then went into exile to atone for it.
Nyria Erys
Overcome by the feeling of powerlessness, Nyria soon left home to join King Gerald's army, vowing to become strong enough to be able to always protect the people she loves. She proved to be a very successful soldier, soon ascending to knighthood and even becoming a general.
Nyria is lucky to survive the World Sundering and is found by the Holy Warrior Clan, which took her in. Suffering from mild amnesia, she then begins trying to figure out her situation.
In The Crimson Realm, Nyria appears as the leader of the rebuilt human forces and a general under the new monarchy.
- Badass Adorable: Even as a kid, Nyria was capable enough to kill a vampire. Well, not quite.
- Blood Knight: Downplayed, but fighting was one of Nyria's major passions. It goes away almost entirely after she first encounters the Elras, as nobody would relish having to go into battle with them again.
- Can't Catch Up: The last time she's playable she's around level 23. You meet her again when the vampire trio is around level 90.
- Character Development: We don't see much of her in III, but what we do see seems to imply that years and years of leading people have slowly eroded her Sugar-and-Ice Personality and turned her into more of a low-key All-Loving Hero with a stubborn side, matching her new design which more heavily emphasizes her Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold features.
- Cool Big Sis: She used to be this to Jayna before Jona's death, and Jayna still seemed to regard her this way when she joined the royal army.
- Decoy Protagonist: Nyria really only exists to give the point of view of the Holy Warrior Clan and to get some exposition out. She ends up being largely irrelevant to the plot.
- Driven to Suicide: If she's still alive at the Evil/Easy ending, she'll play this trope straight. Considering that Evil/Easy is the canon ending for Crimson Realm, and Nyria is still around, however, that's a bit of a Series Continuity Error.
- Easy Amnesia: She wakes up in one of the Holy Warrior Clan's castles and can't remember what happened. It only takes a short walk for her to remember that she was on a ship when the world suddenly changed.
- Some little inconsistencies in what she remembers hint that the amnesia may be worse than she herself realizes.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Literally in Thyrik. Many citizens talk about how she used to be the most beautiful, most beloved girl in town.
- Foil: To Valnar. It's even invoked in the prolog when the narrator mentions that Nyria's first encounter with a vampire was very similar to Valnar's and that she handled it much better, despite being a little girl.
- Four-Star Badass: Technically, she's one of King Gerald's generals. However, this mostly comes down to an Informed Attribute.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: One of the few characters with a good alignment.
- Head-Turning Beauty: She has this effect on both the village boys in Thyrik and the Holy Warrior Clan. The fact that Asmos abstains from drooling over her might be one of the reasons she seems more sympathetic towards him.
- Informed Ability: Despite being technically a general, she displays no particular skill or inclination towards strategy or leading men into battle. It might just be due to having to deal with an entirely unfamiliar environment, however. There certainly was no organized warband of deadly spellcasters to battle in her time.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Only briefly mentioned, but she's technically one of the royal knights. That's Lady Nyria to you.
- My Greatest Failure: Being unable to help Jona.
- Never Be Hurt Again: She joined the royal army on order to become strong enough to never be incapable of helping the people she loves again.
- Older Than They Look: In the third game, she's got maybe some forty to seventy years on her back, but still looks like a gorgeous twenty-something due to having stopped aging. You can thank Jayna's Elras magic for that. It's worth noting that, being the only recurring non-vampire and non-Elras character in the cast, anything else would have meant her changing severely due to the Time Skip.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket / Memento MacGuffin: Part of an amulet she got from her Disappeared Dad.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: By the Vampire Trio, unfortunately.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Acts with aloof disinterest or annoyed impatience to most people she meets, but becomes protective of Asmos quickly and is always one of the first to jump into the fray if she feels she's fighting the good fight. Notably, judging by her benevolent relationship with the nameless soldier who accompanies her, the way to getting along with her is actually pretty simple: Don't act like the average person in the Vampire's Dawn world, that is to say, don't give her the Head-Turning Beauty treatment and don't waste her time with inane nonsense or blatant narcissism.
- Unexpected Successor: If she's still alive at the Good/Normal ending, she'll become the Reasonable Authority Figure of the Holy Warrior Clan because Sir Aaron is either dead or in hiding. This also happens in III.
Jayna Erys
In The Crimson Realm, she is initially a Blood Spirit, having been killed to defeat the Elras ghost possessing her, but is later revived. During her time as a Blood Spirit, she has secretly been feeding Nyria information and teaching her Elras spells in a bid to rid the world of vampires.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: In the third game.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Soon enough to her substitute parents Alaine and Valnar.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: She learns this the hard way after Ghadar's shadow ghost possesses her. Has seemingly learned nothing from these events, as the third game features her bringing back the Elras in the mistaken belief that she can control them.
- Good All Along: For all the evil Asgar and the Elras have corrupted her with, and her own burning thirst for vengeance against Valnar and Alaine, the nature of her wish for the stone tablet is incredibly telling: If she gets to have her way, Everybody Lives, even Asgar.
- Happily Adopted: By Alaine and Valnar for quite a while.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Downplayed since she wants to leave at first, but eventually trusting Asgar wasn't her wisest move. She makes that same mistake again in the Valnar/Alaine dead ending of III, trusting Asgar not mess up her new happy world despite letting him keep his vampiric powers and nature.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: She might actually be Raron's daughter. Her being the only redhead in a family of blondes could be a hint.
- Someone to Remember Him By: She is the result of this trope, having been conceived a few weeks before her father disappeared.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: In the third game, where she brings back the Elras with all the deeply dark and horrible magic that implies and even manipulates her own sister, all in the hopes of saving humanity from vampire supremacy.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Gives a very justified one to Valnar for stealing her away from her family and turning her into a vampire without her consent in one of the epilogues.
The Elras Mages
Elras mages reappear in The Crimson Realm due to Jayna's machinations.
- The Ageless: According to a flashback, they turned into their hooded appearances by using a machine that was intended to not let them age anymore. The flashback only shows it happening to Ghadar and the new appearance clearly wasn't the intended outcome. But since all Elras mages we ever see are darkly dressed, hooded people, we can assume it worked.
- Ambition Is Evil: Their whole situation ultimately comes from having tried to perfect the magical arts.
- Ascended Extra: We learn very little about them in the first game. The red chests which can only be opened when Valnar's intelligence stat is high enough and the Optional Boss Pharaoh Ustra are the only instances when they are mentioned. They're the main antagonists of Ancient Blood.
- Evil Genius: Their intelligence defined them so much that they felt save by putting spells on their treasure chests which killed every intellectually weaker person who tried to open them.
- Evil Sorcerer: All of them.
- For Science!: A magical version is ultimately their motivation, trying to perfect the art and turning the world into a lab where they can experiment freely on the population.
- Life Drinker: A shadow ghost drinks its current host's Life Energy in order to perform spells.
- Magitek: At least the method to extract blood wraiths from their realm relies on a machine.
- Transhuman: An Elras mage you can torture after conquering castle Zharas tells you that the Elras used to be humans. However, their magic allowed them to become more than that.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Their magic is based on using souls as power sources.
The Elras Leaders: Ghadar, Gorgoth and Morlon
The main antagonists of Ancient Blood. This triumvirate of master spellcasters leads the Elras order in battle and in their mad schemes. Ruthless, brutal and smart, they are a force to be reckoned with and are responsible for a great many evils. They will not stop until they have turned the entire world into a mad laboratory for their magics.
Ghadar is their primary leader, a brilliant spellcaster and schemer, the evil mastermind, the brains behind the order's plans. Sadistic and utterly psychotic, he lives for only two things, the magical sciences and his own personal amusement, exclusively at the expense of others. He initially possesses Asgar, but later takes control of Jayna due to having drained all the former's power; and having an attraction towards women with red hair.
Gorgoth is the secondary leader and hatchet man. He has a more straightforward and brutish personality, often being mocked by Ghadar, but his mind should not be underestimated, he is a powerful mage after all and can display both cunning and sadism to match up with his colleague. His host body is a man named Raron, whom he picked for his trained warrior's physique.
Morlon is the third Elras leader, also the one the least seen or spoken of. His domains are unclear, though it appears he excels in subtlety and manipulation. He is also the weakest of the three as far as combat prowess is concerned. His host is Valnar.
- Ambiguously Brown: Ghadar in his original human form.
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: They have a strange grudge against the Clan's cooks.
- The Archmage: A villainous example. They certainly didn't gain the top spot via charisma.
- Author Appeal: In-universe. More like creator appeal. Female redheads turning into vampires do not suffer from Disease Bleach simply because Ghadar finds the color hot.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: The three of them, but most prominently Ghadar. Interestingly, they're also the retroactive Big Bad behind Vincent's schemes from the first game.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: Their current host bodies – Raron, Valnar and Jayna.
- Blood Knight: Ghadar expresses annoyance at missing out on participating in the first battle against the Clan. Gorgoth seems to have a thing for physical brutality as well, given his stated preference for hosts with strong bodies. It is unclear whether Morlon qualifies.
- Body Surf: When their host is a vampire they can change bodies whenever they please.
- Catchphrase: Ghadar always greets Gorgoth by telling him he's late.
- Demonic Possession: The three magically modified their souls to become "Shadow Ghosts" so they could travel freely and possess new bodies. They can only leave their host when it dies, though. Which makes vampires ideal hosts, since their bodies already are dead, so they can Body Surf at any time.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: Although they're all mages and steal bodies as Shadow Ghosts, the trope still applies during the plot of Ancient Blood. Gorgoth possesses the body of a strong fighter, Ghadar is the strongest mage because he can draw upon the powers of Jayna's vampire body, and Morlon's biggest impact on the story is quietly possessing (stealing) Valnar's body and waiting for the time to strike.
- Humanoid Abomination: See Trans Human above. The leaders are a step even beyong the regular mages that way.
- Large Ham: Ghadar manages to make Asgar look subtle by comparison.
- Loophole Abuse: The reason they created vampires. A shadow ghost can only leave a living host when it dies, but as vampires are already dead, the ghost can Body Surf all it wants between vampires.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Ladies and gentlemen, meet the true collective fathers of vampirekind! Their manipulations are the direct reason for many of the special traits of vampirism. For instance, the realm of Blood Wraiths is just a glorified battery to them, and female red-headed vampires always keep their hair color because it's a fetish for Ghadar.
- Magic Knight: Both Ghadar and Gorgoth use combat skills and enchanted weapons alongside their spells.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Ghadar sends his regards...
- The Man Behind the Man: Before Valnar, Morlon manipulated Vincent into creating vampires and killing them, filling the realm of Blood Wraiths so that the Elras could use it as a magical battery much later.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: In their own spellbook, no less.
- Sorcerous Overlord: As the Elras leaders, becoming this is their shared goal.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Ghadar quickly changes host bodies when Asgar becomes too weak.
The Holy Warrior Clan
An organisation of knight-like fighters that prides itself on having defeated the Elras Mages. They are composed of simple human swordsmen, though the Clan is supported by a few mages, mostly healers and summoners. The Holy Warrior Clan belives itself to be a force of justice and goodness, building castles next to prominent human settlements and acting as guards and law enforcement for the population. These castles hold the pieces of the Elras Stone Tablet in their dungeons, having been split into fragments long ago to prevent the full spell from ever being used. The Clan does not usually allow women to join, finding them to be a dangerous distraction from duty, but cannot exactly afford to be picky when it comes to having Nyria join them. Despite being unable to seriously match them in power, the Clan outlived the Elras. While they had disappeared by the time Valnar was born, it is implied that the power structures they had established became the foundation for the ensuing monarchy and its royal knights.
By the time of The Crimson Realm, the Clan has been subsumed into an order of knights and monster-hunters under Nyria's command, serving a brand-new monarchy.
- Badass Normal: They consider themselves an army of this. In truth, however, the trope is played with and ultimately averted. The Clan can fight back against Elras assaults, but always suffers horrific casualties when doing so. While a regular Clan soldier can kill a low-ranking Elras mage in a single blow as long as he manages to get the first strike, they have absolutely no counter against their overpowering magics, much less their leaders. What truly kills their chances, however, is that they have no clue how to defend against some of the Elras's more tricky spells. For instance, setting up guard posts has little use when the enemy can just teleport their army in for a surprise attack.
- Knight in Shining Armor: The reputation they try to cultivate, and what they see themselves as. Unfortunately, swords and morals aren't enough to win a war against the Elras. Or against vampires.
- Precursor Heroes: They did, however, contribute to making sure the future wasn't dominated by Elras and considering that the armor of King Gerald's generals bears the Clan's insignia, it seems their tradition eventually carried on to the royal knights.
- Redshirt Army: What they actually are, especially from Nyria's perspective.
Asmos Kleyr
A Captain of the Holy Warrior Clan. His father, also a Holy Warrior, was a close friend of Sir Aaron's who perished in the final battle for the Stone Tablet. Since then, Asmos has been raised by Sir Aaron as a fighter, hoping to honor the memory of his father. He finds Nyria and takes her in, also showing her around and explaining about the Clan, thus becoming perhaps her closest friend in the order. While Asmos has a good and noble heart, he is naive and still inexperienced.
- Hero-Worshipper: Towards Sir Aaron and his father.
- Killed Off for Real: At the end of the second game. He is not ressurected for the third, even in its Golden Ending.
- Love Interest: He seems to be Nyria's love interest, but given the setting, it doesn't end well for either of them.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He mainly fights to impress his father and Sir Aaron.
Sir Aaron
The highest-ranking commander of the Holy Warrior Clan. Sir Aaron is an aging fighter who led the Clan in battle against the Elras, succeeding in obtaining the Stone Tablet. He also raised Asmos. In truth, he himself killed Asmos's father when he attempted to stop him from trying to use the Stone Tablet to destroy the Elras. However, as Aaron was not suited towards using the spell, it split into nine parts on its own as a safety measure. Then he just rolled with it and pretended to have split it up on purpose, being hailed as a hero by the rest of the Clan.
- Broken Pedestal: To Asmos, though he never has a chance to realize it.
- Cool Old Guy: From the perspective of the Clan's warriors.
- Famed In-Story: He's a great hero among the Clan and considered their best chance for defeating the Elras again.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: His attempt to use the stone tablet to destroy the Elras for good, even killing Agaleo for it.
Major Characters in The Crimson Realm
Celene Varianis
- A Lighter Shade of Black: She is on Asgar's side on most matters, but generally more restrained and controlled, and is still capable of feeling genuine empathy with humans on certain occasions.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: It's heavily implied all the rape and torture she endured as as a human is directly responsible for her obsession with power and stability as a vampire.
- Berserk Button: Same as Alaine, being a Straw Misogynist. Also anything that even vaguely reminds her of her time in the House of Joyful Tears.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: She (quite astutely) considers Alaine a threat to her relationship with Asgar and is constantly looking for an opportunity to get rid of or kill her.
- Driven to Suicide: Once she realizes that Asgar has No Sympathy for anyone, not even his own heavily traumatized girlfriend, she takes revenge on him by destroying one of his fragments of the stone tablet and releasing the humans he imprisoned to teach him the concept of "loss", then jumps into a pool of lava before he can get his hands on her.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: She refuses any pity from Alaine or Valnar because she considers them enemies, but does wish for her boyfriend to understand and respect her feelings. His complete lack of sympathy for the hell she went through is ultimately a major part in what drives her over the edge.
- Horrible Judge of Character: As Alaine observes, loving Asgar and expecting him to treat you well can only end in blood and tears.
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: She was turned against her will and her feelings towards her creator, Larius remain decidedly ambiguous most of the time, but eventually she settles on this trope.
- Mark of Shame: The teardrop tattoo under her eye is what all the Sex Slave girls in the House of Joyful Tears were forcefully branded with to signify ownership.
- Mirror Character: Celene refuses to acknowledge it, but Alaine notes the similarities. They are/were both young, naive female vampires serving as the Dark Mistress to Asgar who eventually realize the extent of his egomania and cruelty and abandon him.
- Orphan's Ordeal: Her parents died early and so she was raised by her elder brother, Larius.
- Pet the Dog: She shows empathy for those who have suffered similar conditions as herself and eventually defies a direct order from Asgar, letting dozens of humans who had lived in such conditions go free instead of imprisoning them for the party's own use.
- Replacement Goldfish: Asgar clearly just picked her up in an unsuccessful attempt to get over Alaine, and she comes to realize quickly how much more Alaine matters to him.
- Sex Slave: As a human, she was enslaved in Larius' House of Joyful Tears, a brothel for sadistic vampires, where she was repeatedly subjected to Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil and Cold-Blooded Torture and always at the risk of being "disposed of".
- Slave Brand: Once again, her teardrop tattoo.
- Street Urchin: Her mother apparently owned a healer's shop, but it's heavily implied Celene became this after she died.
- Trauma Conga Line: Oh yes. Let's see: Parents die when she is young, becomes a Street Urchin, has only her messed up brother left for family, her brother suddenly disappers and she must fend for herself all alone, is captured and becomes a Sex Slave in a vampire torture brothel run by her brother which permanently scars and traumatizes her, is mortally wounded trying to escape it, learns her brother is a vampire, gets turned into a vampire by said brother against her explicit wishes, escapes him because she can no longer bring herself to look him in the eye, tries to make up with him anyway later only to be subjected to Victim Blaming and attempts to justify her having been a Sex Slave, kills her brother in hopes of finding peace, realizes that the boyfriend she found in the meantime and dedicated her life to cares nothing for her trauma and only views her as a slave and Replacement Goldfish for the actual love of his life, kills herself, and, depending on the ending, may be brought back from the dead just so that her former boyfriend can imprison and torture her for all of eternity to satisfy his narcissistic grudge against her. Phew.
- Walking Spoiler: The first half or so of Vampires Dawn III is dedicated to exploring her backstory.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Unlike all the other main characters, we are not shown what became of her in the Golden Ending, but Abraxas believes she must be around somewhere, and the other endings supply further evidence that she is probably alive as a human and likely doing better than she was as a vampire or Sex Slave.
Larius Varianis
An enigmatic second-generation vampire crime lord who is involved with a secret society whose members all bear dragon tattoos. He is Celene's brother and runs the House of Joyful Tears, a brothel where vampires and humans belonging to the secret society go to rape and torture enslaved women.
- Big Brother Mentor: Was this to Celene.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: From his own point of view, he is the good guy and holds no sexist views. You see, it's just absolutely necessary for the survival of humanity that human women be separated from their husbands, raped, tortured and mind-broken, so they can be used as Baby Factories in secret underground facilities and never dare question that the outside world is too dangerous to risk seeking it out. It's him Victim Blaming Celene that everything would've been just fine if only she'd have gotten pregnant from all the constant rape that finally makes her turn on him for good.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He does genuinely care for Celene, it's just that his ways of showing it are incredibly messed up.
- Plot Hole: Maybe. It's been noticed by fans that he somehow became a vampire during a time where the only two vampires left in existence were dedicated to not creating any others. The developer aims to add an explanation at a later point in time.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Unlike his co-conspirator, he is apparently serious in his belief that what they are doing is the only way to ensure the continued co-existence of both humanity and vampirekind and worth any sacrifice.
Sir Baltur
Nyria's second-in-command who is incredibly obvious about having his own agenda. He and Larius are working together in a conspiracy involving the dragon-tattooed secret society and the House of Joyful Tears in a demented effort to "preserve" humankind in a world where the reality of vampire supremacy is becoming more obvious by the day.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While he is certainly willing to accept that the conspiracy between Larius and himself might save humanity in the long run, he's mostly just interested in all the money he can make in the meantime selling blood harvested from the humans under his "protection" to vampire clients. He also seems quite content to take advantage of the Sex Slave aspect of their conspiracy as a bribe to ensure the loyalty of the men working under him.
Other Characters
Jinnai
- Big Good: Tries to pass himself off as this, nobody believes him.
- Foreshadowing: His headgear is very similar to that of Pharaoh Ustra.
- Helping Would Be Kill Stealing: Jinnai makes it clear that he's able to kill some of the Elras mages himself, at least the weaker ones. Yet he doesn't join the vampires' party when they reconquer their castle.
- Manipulative Bastard: He's particularly obvious about it. Asgar does not trust him. As it turns out, he's completely right.
- Single Specimen Species: He explicitly points out that even he has no clue what race he's from and as far as he can tell, he's the only one.
- Squishy Wizard: Jinnai has tons of powerful spells, but completely lacks melee attacks. Meaning the Mirror spell will utterly destroy him when you fight him.
- The Svengali: He saves the vampires from certain death, teaches them about runes, the castles, mercenaries and more. But behind their backs he without a doubt has his own agenda.
- Time Abyss: Jinnai claims to be so old he can't even remember his own past. Of course, this could simply be Ustra lying about the fact that he could not assimilate Jinnai's memories.
- Undeathly Pallor: Though we know nearly nothing about him, including whether he's alive or undead. By the end of the game, the only thing that's for sure is that he's not a vampire.
- Villainous Harlequin: At least in appearance. Or more than that.
- The Unreveal: What exactly is the creature Jinnai?
Raron
Note: This section is just for tropes specific to Raron. Tropes about the one controlling him, Gorgoth, should go in the Elras Leaders section.
Raron actually hails from the village of Thyrik. He was a fine hunter and great swordsman, being close friends with Nyria's father Kerilian, with whom he had many adventures. However, he eventually fell in love with Nyria's mother and they had an affair behind Kerilian's back. One day, Raron confronted him on being too neglectful of his family, having decided to leave Thyrik together with Nyria's mother and Nyria. This enraged Kerilian so much that he attempted to kill Raron, who sorrowfully, but effortlessly slew his friend in self-defense. Wishing to atone for this sin, he left Thyrik behind, becoming the hermit Gorgoth met him as.
- The Atoner: Several years before the beginning of the story he killed Nyria's father and went to live alone to atone for it.
- Badass Back: Played for drama. Raron turns his back on Kerilian when he realizes he has to kill him, being unable to look him in the eyes when doing so, which only enrages Kerilian more. When he attacks, Raron takes his head clean off in a single half-turn, while keeping his eyes closed, no less.
- Badass Normal: Implied, after all Gorgoth considered him an adequate host body, despite the fact that he's not a vampire.
- Luke, I Might Be Your Father: It's never brought up in the game, but he might be Jayna's actual father.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He deeply regrets killing Nyria's father.
- Red Herring: His amulet hints at him being Nyria's and Jayna's Disappeared Dad. He isn't.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: His diary strongly implies the good variant. He genuinely loved his best friend's wife and intended to tell him about the affair before moving away with his love and her daughter.
Pharaoh Ustra
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Yes, he is a manipulative, ruthless and power-hungry tyrant. However, unlike the Always Chaotic Evil Elras, he just wants to rule and be worshipped by people, rather than killing them for sports.
- Ascended Extra: He was just the boss of a Bonus Dungeon in the first game, but is a major figure in the second.
- The Archmage: He was an incredibly powerful user of magic, perhaps the most powerful one in the entire VD-verse, given that he could take on several of the Elras Leaders at the same time and win.
- Big Good: According to Jinnai. Subverted in that he really was as much of a selfish jerk as anyone else in this world.
- God-Emperor: The descendants of his former citizens still worship him centuries after his death.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: It's a smart move to carry a stone that can capture shadow ghosts in case one needs to kill the Elras leaders. It's not smart to have it on your person when you're a shadow ghost and get yourself into a situation where you might be killed.
- Making a Splash: He seems to specialize in water-based magics. As a desert ruler, this makes sense to further his God-Emperor image with the citizens of his nation.
- Nepharious Pharaoh: Or was he? Yes, he was.
- One-Man Army: He single-handedly killed all the Elras mages.
- Posthumous Character: Played straight in that everything we learn about him is conveyed via narration, Apocalyptic Log or flashback. Averted in that he's actively influencing the plot as Jinnai.
- Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: His shadow ghost possessed the ageless creature Jinnai. Unless a possessed body in undead, a shadow ghost is trapped in there until it dies.
- Take Over the World: What's eventually revealed to be his motive.
Recurring Characters
The Grandfather
- The Münchausen: If his grandson is to be believed, he is notorious for making up crazy stories.
- Narrator All Along: According to one of the six endings of Ancient Blood.
- Retired Monster: Given that this ending only occurs on an evil Valnar playthrough. The grandfather never shows any signs of being evil, though.
- Squick: Invoked. His grandson finds the explanations of decapitations, filling mouths with garlic, rains of blood and vampire sex rather disturbing.
Simon Rage
- Genre Savvy: He figures out several plot twists of the story before his grandfather can explain them and basically points out a Chekhov's Gun whenever he spots one.
- Raised by Grandparents: Averted despite the framing device giving every opportunity for such a scenario. His father is just busy being a soldier, so he spends more time with his grandfather.
Ronak the Minotaur
- Butt-Monkey: Part of his role as Asgar's comically incompetent servant.
- The Ditz: When asked if he knows a place where men went to "enjoy themselves" he thinks of a pub instead of a brothel.
- Killed Off for Real: At the end of the second game. He is not ressurected for the third, even in its Golden Ending, despite being a series' staple.
- Morality Pet: Maybe. He was fine with Asgar's evil deeds in the first place, but his absence in the third game certainly coincides with a reduction of Asgar's Pet the Dog moments, his increased jackassery and a tendency to play his actions more seriously rather than as Black Comedy.
- No Sense of Direction: At the beginning of Reign of Blood, he doesn't even know how to find Asgar's coffin in his own castle.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Ronak may seem like pure Plucky Comic Relief who can only sweep floors and such, but he's still a friggin' minotaur. Whenever enemies invade the castle, he serves as the last line of defense, tearing them apart or at least making them flee several times throughout the setting.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: Well, he's a minotaur.
- Team Pet: Seemingly one of the only creatures in the world Asgar has a soft spot for.
