History Characters / PillarsOfEternityNPCs

* ImTakingHerHomeWithMe: Instead of sacrificing her or eliminating the man who wants her dead, another option is for the Watcher to essentially kidnap her to raise her personally, although doing so requires killing the man who asked the Watcher save her in the first place. Not only will this choice be reflected in the Watcher’s ending, but Vela herself returns as a toddler in ''Deadfire''.

* TagAlongKid: In ''Deadfire'' she's five-years-old, but because orlans grow and mature slightly quicker than humans, she is still lives on the Watcher's ship.

->''"Spells are fueled by ambient essence in the ether. A miserly trickle of energy that leaks from the Wheel. But imagine what could be done with a more powerful source of essence. A Watcher's soul, for instance."''

* CultureJustifiesAnything: In a roundabout way. [[spoiler:The Gods are the Engwithans' creation and are built from Engwithan archetypes, tropes and an Engwithan understanding of the world. Thus, by protecting the secrets of his culture's FantasticPantheon he's also protecting his culture. Thaos has nothing but scorn for the gods of other civilizations, despite his own gods being no less bloodthirsty.]]

* NotQuiteDead: If the Watcher slays him, it is implied that, true to his interest in immortality and undeath, he might have found a way to hold off dying completely. In any circumstance, should his apprentice Uariki still be alive, she will express clear doubt that he is actually most sincerely dead and nervously state out loud that she definitely had nothing to do with his death, and there is the fact that, though mute, his skull is still animated, is able to float by its own power, and can summon his ghost to fight for you... at a cost of 40 hit points gradually drained from the Watcher over its duration.

* NobleDemon: Furrante refrains from unnecessary brutality and like all Principi, loathes slavery. [[spoiler:It turns out that Furrante does deal in slaves, but he still does seem to have something of a code of honor.]]

!! The Dozens

* PyroManiac: She has a thing of fire and explosions.

* ForScience: He believes unlocking the secrets of [[AppliedPhlebotinum adra] will extend lives, end disease, power machines and factories, and revolutionize travel. [[spoiler:He's provably right about that last one.]]

-->'''Renengild:''' There was a time when kinds and queens sent their firstborn to these mountains. When the White March was the envy of empires.

* PantheraAwesome: She has two white tigers as pets on her rooftop throne, as a display of authority and fearlessness. Their names are Rikuhu and Tangaloa, after the two eels of life and death, the aspects of Berath worshipped by the Huana.

!The Principi Sen Paterna

[[folder:Captain Furrante]]
!! Captain Furrante
The first seat of the Principi Consuelgo and the nominal leader of the organization. Furrante leads the Principi's old guard and seeks to maintain the values of Old Valia that govern the organization.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Furrante comes off as friendly and likes to joke around, but his tendency to turn cold when slighted makes it clear that this friendliness is just an act.
* NobleDemon: Furrante refrains from unneccessary brutality and like all Principi, loathes slavery. [[spoiler:It turns out that Furrante does deal in slaves, but he still does seem to have something of a code of honor.]]
* VillainousBreakdown: Completely loses his composure if the Watcher [[spoiler:proves to the Consuelgo that Furrante is a slave trader.]]

[[folder:Captain Aeldys]]
!! Captain Aeldys
The second seat of the Principi Consuelgo. Aedlys leads a younger faction of Principi who seek absolute freedom on the high seas.

* TheHedonist: Aeldys (and her faction in general) loves throwing raucous parties almost as much as she loves sailing.
* NobleDemon: Aeldys is one of the most brutal pirates in the Principi, but she genuinely believes that all kith deserve freedom and is an ardent enemy of slavery.
* PostFinalBoss: [[spoiler:If the Watcher sides with the Huana and Furrante is dead, than Aeldys fights the Watcher in one last bid to claim Ukaizo's riches for the Principi, although she's nowhere near as powerful as the preceding fight against the Guardian of Ukaizo.]]

!The Circle

[[folder:Concelhaut]]
!!Concelhaut
-> '''Voiced by:''' Unknown (I), Edmund Dehn (II)

->''"Spells are fueled by ambient essence in the ether. A miserly trickle of energy that leaks from the Wheel. But imagine what could be done with a more powerful source of essence. A Watcher's soul, for instance."''

One of the great archmages of Eora, the enigmatic Concelhaut rules over a castle at Crägholdt Bluffs.

* AmbitionIsEvil: Pits his apprentices against each other to bring out the worst in them as they compete for his favor with their research, even as he's only using them as stepping stones toward his own immortality himself.
* TheArchmage: Well, one amongst quite a handful of obscenely powerful magical scholars who lays claim to the title. Needless to say, he holds all of the others in contempt and view them as rivals, and it is evident that they are not too fond of him either. In a bit of a twist for the genre, Concelhaut is one of the wizards who lends his name to a number of the spells wizards can inscribe into their grimoires, which helps add to the sense that magic is an advancing, modern science in Eora.
* BonusBoss: One of the most powerful archmages in Eora and the game's only lich, with sinister designs on the Watcher's soul. Completely optional.
* BackFromTheDead: As a lich, he's defied the natural order to remove himself from the cycle. [[spoiler:Sure enough, kill him at Crägholdt and he'll still be back at his old tricks in ''Deadfire''.]]
* DarkIsEvil: He's a lich, and looks suitably skeletal. Among the spells he's invented: Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon, Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Concelhaut's Crushing Doom]]...
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: He believes the other members of the Circle are just as ambitious and obsessed with their own power as he is.
* FlunkyBoss: Surrounds himself with minions based on his apprentices' research.
* FlyingFace: He uses flaming, floating skulls, called void seers, as sentries. After you defeat him, all that's left is his phylactery, his own floating skull, inlaid with ruins and a peg of adra, which the Watcher can put in their [[PetMonstrosity pet slot]]. Unlike most pets, Concelhaut's Skull actually does something, summoning the spirit of Concelhaut to attack the Watcher's enemies for 20 seconds, at the cost of 40 Raw damage to the Watcher.
* ImmortalitySeeker: He has a keen interest in the subject of warding off mortality.
* {{Lich}}: He's among the few people in Eora to have ever cracked the code of becoming one.
* LifeDrain: Many of the spells he pioneered do this, much as you'd expect from a lich. He also seeks to drain the Watcher's essence, believing it will give him power over time itself.
* ManipulativeBastard: Based on his notes, it seems he deliberately pits his apprentices against each other, and it's implied by the long list of crossed-out names in his sanctum that he's planning to steal their research and kill them.
* NotQuiteDead: If the Watcher slays him, it is implied that, true to his interest in immortality and undeath, he might have found a way to hold off dying completely. In any circumstance, should his apprentice Uariki still be alive, she will express clear doubt that he is actually most sincerely dead and nervously state out loud that she definitely had nothing to do with his death, and there is the fact that, though mute, his skull is still animated, is able to float by its own power, and can summon his ghost to fight for you... at a cost of 40 hit points gradually drained from the Watcher over its duration.
* NothingPersonal: After his death at Crägholdt, [[spoiler:he hires the Torn Bannermen mercenary company to help him track down Bekarna's research at her observatory in Deadfire. He does bear a grudge against the Watcher for their part in his destruction, though he seems more impatient and annoyed with the interruption than anything.]]
* TimeAbyss: He was alive and (in)famous in the Steward of Caed Nua's time, hundreds of years ago.
* TimeMaster: What he aspires to be. He believes killing the Watcher and taking their soul could help him achieve this.

[[folder:Llengrath]]
!!Llengrath
-> '''Voiced by:''' Unknown

Another of the immortal archmages of Eora, Llengrath is a master and innovator in the field of defensive magic.

* TheArchmage: Turns out Concelhaut isn't the only Archmage in the Dyrwood in ''Pillars of Eternity''.
* BarrierWarrior: Many of the spells that bear his name focus on creating shields and wards.
* BonusBoss: If you seek her out at Mowrghek Îen, be ready for a fight, or at least a decidedly fraught conversation.
* {{Cult}}: The bog cultists in Mowrghek Îen are Llengrath's disciples, as are [[spoiler:her two bog dragon allies, Gafonercos and Turisulfus.]] All of them hope to be chosen to be the next Llengrath, or at least to share in the secrets of Llengrath's immortality.
* FlunkyBoss: She fights you with [[spoiler:two bog dragons]] at her side.
* ImmortalitySeeker: Not seeking, found. [[LegacyImmortality Immortality of a sort]], at least.
* LegacyCharacter: Rather than trying to extend his life by magical means, the original Llengrath believed that the most important part of immortality was ensuring his knowledge was passed down, so that his work could continue. To this end, he transferred his memories, and thus his power, into the mind of his disciple, who then took on the name Llengrath and picked up where he left off.
* LegacyImmortality: Believes this is the best, truest form of immortality any of us can hope for.
* MasterApprenticeChain: Each Llengrath chooses their successor, who eventually becomes the next Llengrath in turn.
* MindMeld: Each successive Llengrath retains their own memories, adding them to the greater legacy that is Llengrath.
* SamusIsAGirl: Anyone who knows anything about arcane history knows the original Llengrath was a man, but the current bearer of the name is a woman.
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: It can be done, since she really has nothing personal against the Watcher. [[spoiler:Talking her down requires a Resolve check of 17 or an Honest rank of 2. Alternatively, you can convince her to MindMeld with you, granting her your knowledge of the long-dead Engwithan language.]]
* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: Despite Llengrath's reverence of knowledge, there are certain secrets they'd rather see stamped out. [[spoiler:Concelhaut's lichdom being a case in point. She's the one who hired the Torn Bannermen to root him out at Crägholdt specifically to see Concelhaut's research didn't fall into any hands but her own. You threw a wrench into that, and when she draws you to Mowrghek Îen, it's to ensure that knowledge dies with you.]]
* TimeAbyss: A contemporary of Concelhaut's.
* TransferableMemory: By magical means. The form of immortality Llengrath chose to pursue hinged on this being possible. He's more than succeeded.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: All of Llengrath's actions in the first game are meant to protect the world from [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow things man was not meant to know.]]

[[folder:Arkemyr]]
!!Arkemyr
The Circle's master illusionist, currently in residence in Neketaka.

* TheArchmage: A requirement for membership in the Circle.
* BadBoss: His impossibly high standards mean he's never graduated an apprentice and they've all eventually walked out on him in disgust, and while he seems to have an odd affection for imps, that doesn't stop him from using them as guinea pigs, ordering them to perform suicidal tasks, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking saddling them with insulting nicknames]], or blowing them to pieces when they fail him.
* CutenessProximity: Imps. Their antics amuse him.
* GrumpyOldMan: Crotchety, stuffy, and humorless, at least toward the Watcher. [[spoiler:In fairness, the only way to meet him is by burgling his mansion first.]]
* TheMark: How can you see his giant mansion in Periki's Overlook and ''not'' want to rob the place?
* MasterOfIllusion: This for the Circle. Most of his illusions involve distorting the target's senses, causing a array of in-game afflictions, often at random: pain, fear, dizziness, nausea.
* RainbowMotif: Many of his spells create flashes of multicolored light.
* WackyGuy: Subverted. Despite the colorful, whimsical spells that bear his name and his apparent affection for the zany, obnoxious imps he employs as servants, in person Arkemyr seems like quite a stiff compared to the other members of the Circle you meet. It's apparently not just you, either, based on the reaction he gets from his colleagues. All that being said, out of three archmages the Watcher has met in their travels so far, he's the only one who doesn't try to kill you, [[spoiler:even after you break into his house and rob him blind]], so his quest ''is'' mostly PlayedForLaughs.

!Other Characters

[[folder:Caldara de Berranzi]]
->''"Your soul remembers, yes? Remembers how it sees when it leaves the body, like being reminded of a dream you had forgotten."''

A dwarven animancer from the Vailian Republics who came to look for a cure for the Hollowborn, but now numbers among the dead in Gilded Vale.

* BurnTheWitch: Hang the animancer, but what with Raedric rounding up all animancers, ciphers, so-called Watchers, and secret worshippers of Eothas, the overall effect is similar.
* CoolOldLady: A grandmotherly old woman who retains her roguish good cheer even knowing full well she's dead, injecting a little dark levity into the grim burg of Gilded Vale.
* {{Expy}}: Hard not to see a little [[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment Ravel]] in there.
* FakeFaithHealer: Overlapping with SnakeOilSalesman. Subverted on both counts, however. Raedric eventually hanged her believing she was a fraud, but she was a real animancer who genuinely wanted to help. What Raedric wanted was a miracle cure, however, and eventually she had to start making up false diagnoses for Lady Raedric, claiming she needed more time to work, or they'd probably both have been killed. [[spoiler:Which they both eventually were.]]
* GallowsHumor: Quite literally. Cracks jokes while still hanging from a tree in your vision.
* InterrogatingTheDead: The Watcher's entire conversation with her happens entirely through the Watcher's ability to see and occasionally communicate with the souls of the dead.
* TheMentor: The shortest time to MentorOccupationalHazard possible, given that she's already days dead before the Watcher arrives in Gilded Vale. However briefly, she serves as something of a tutorial character, since nothing that follows will make much sense without a cursory understanding of how [[OurSoulsAreDifferent souls]] work in Eora.
* MsExposition: Serves up a big chunk of this, and turns something that could be either dry or grim into a bit of a OneSceneWonder, explaining the nature of souls in Eora, the Hollowborn Crisis, and the way animancers are viewed in the Dyrwood, i.e. not well. She also explains what a Watcher is, and illustrates quite handily what your powers can be used for, before pointing you at Maerwald, the next point in the critical path, and a Watcher himself. [[spoiler:Unfortunately Maerwald isn't in any fit state to help explain what Watchers can do, so it's lucky Caldara happened to be in the neighborhood.]]
* OurDwarvesAreDifferent: She's a rather jolly animancer from the Vailian Republics. Her being a dwarf is mostly incidental, since she averts most of the usual stereotypes.
* PosthumousCharacter: She's dead before the game even begins, hanged by Lord Raedric for failing to "cure" his wife of Waidwen's Legacy.
* PublicExecution: One of eighteen bodies hanged from the leafless tree (not a metaphor) in the middle of Gilded Vale.
* ReluctantMadScientist: Of a sort: she discovered that there was nothing wrong with Raedric's wife that would cause her to produce a Hollowborn child, but lied to him about it, presumably to buy time for them both. [[spoiler:It ultimately doesn't work, since Berranza is hanged and Ygrid and her Hollowborn son both end up being murdered upon your arrival at Raedric Hold.]]
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Already dead before you finish character creation.
-->''"Goodbye, my dear. It was lovely visiting."''
* WickedWitch: Has the appearance of one, with her hairy warts and yellow teeth, not too mention the lovingly described bloated purple flesh of her corpse -- but it seems as if she genuinely came to the Dyrwood to help find a cure for the Legacy, even if she ultimately failed.

[[folder:Lord Raedric]]
!!Lord Raedric VII
-> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/RichardEpcar

->''"A just sentence."''

The Thayn of Gilded Vale. The Watcher came to the Dyrwood after Raedric made an offer of free land to anyone willing to settle in the village. Unfortunately, Raedric turns out to be a tyrant who hangs anyone he deems a threat to Gilded Vale.

* ArcVillain: He's the major antagonist for the Gilded Vale portion of the game.
* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:What exactly caused his resurrection as a Death Guard. Raedric himself believes that it was his devotion to Berath that triggered it.]]
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: He's very strong and he's the Thayn of Gilded Vale.
* BlackKnight: He takes on this look after [[spoiler: resurrecting as a Death Guard, an undead knight, and Berath's champion.]]
* BonusBoss: Dealing with him isn't actually necessary to complete the game. Good thing too, since [[spoiler:both times you can fight him]] he's quite difficult.
* CainAndAbel: Raedric, dedicated to his principles to the point of fanaticism and scapegoating Eothas and his worshipers [[spoiler:only for it to turn out that he actually had almost the right idea, but the wrong god]]; and his cousin Kolsc, a [[{{Realpolitik}} political realist]] [[AtLeastIAdmitIt who openly admits to]] being in it for [[AmbitionIsEvil his own ambitions]]. [[spoiler:Turns out not to matter very much in the end, since even if you kill Raedric and put Kolsc on the throne, Raedric returns from the dead [[ShaggyDogStory and kills everyone in Raedric's Hold]].]]
* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:Any humanity he had to begin with was stripped away after his resurrection. If not dealt with, he ends up razing Gilded Vale and massacring everyone within.]]
* TheChampion: For [[spoiler:Berath, who goes so far as to supposedly resurrect him despite the god's hatred of the undead.]]
* DoubleStandard: He blames and punishes mothers for the "crime" of giving birth to hollowborn children, but not the fathers for contributing to the children's creation. [[spoiler:Hence why he kills his own bride for giving him a hollowborn son, but doesn't so much as blame himself.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Raedric loves his wife. [[spoiler:But it's not enough to stop him from killing her once he finds out she worships Eothas after she gave birth to a Hollowborn. When the Watcher encounters him afterwards, Raedric is visibly shaken by what he's done.]]
* FakeUltimateHero: If you kill Kolsc for him, [[spoiler:Gilded Vale's ending reveals that his harsh measures are credited for ending of the Legacy.]]
* FlunkyBoss: Raedric's backup [[spoiler:in both fights]] is what makes him extremely challenging. [[spoiler:The second fight is particularly bad since he's supported by a group of fampyrs who spam Charm.]] Though he's not exactly a pushover by himself either.
* ForGreatJustice: A twisted, KnightTemplar take on this. He speaks constantly of justice and duty, and even wields a greatsword sword named Justice. He also believes Waidwen's Legacy is Berath's justice against the followers of Eothas.
* TheFundamentalist: He's a devout worshiper of Berath. [[spoiler:He's so devout that Berath allegedly resurrects Raedric, despite Berath's hatred for the undead. However, Raedric was also known to be patron to animancers, who can create undead, sometimes without the target knowing it until they wake up after their "death".]]
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:If you kill Kolsc, then when Waidwen's Legacy ends, Raedric ends his harsh treatment of Gilded Vale and the village finally starts to prosper under his rule.]]
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: His stance on his incredibly harsh measures to end the Hollowborn Legacy [[spoiler:and his murder of his own bride]]. Whether the Watcher agrees with him or not is up for the player to decide.
* InfantImmortality: Averted, since he doesn't see the Hollowborn as truly alive. [[spoiler:That goes for his own Hollowborn newborn son when you assault Raedric Hold.]]
* IronicName: His greatsword named "Justice" was wielded by a mad paladin who used it to murder countless people in a fit of paranoia and zealotry. It only lived up to its name after the paladin's own men impaled him with it to end the killing. Its new owner is also committing his own slaughter of innocents.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: [[spoiler:If neither Raedric nor Kolsc are killed, Raedric winds up hanging the entirety of Gilded Vale in a fit of paranoia. If Raedric is killed, he returns as an undead and wipes out the village that he claimed to be protecting unless the Watcher puts him down again.]]
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Despite his horrible acts, you can leave him in charge of Gilded Vale and even murder his cousin, Kolsc, who happened to be the biggest threat to his rule. Once Waiden's Legacy ends, he's even revered as a hero by his people. Should the Watcher kill him once then not slay him after his resurrection, Raedric will end up slaughtering everyone in Gilded Vale then return to his fortress to keep eternal watch over his barren domain.]]
* KillTheOnesYouLove: [[spoiler:Even though he loved his wife, he still killed her for giving birth to Hollowborn child and being a secret worshipper of Eothas.]]
* KnightTemplar: Raedric has devoted himself to ending Waidwen's Legacy. He tries to do this by exiling any woman who gives birth to a Hollowborn child, hanging all Eothas worshippers, hanging anyone working with Kolsc, hanging anyone who ''might'' be working with Kolsc, and so on.
* NoWomansLand: What Dyrwood essentially becomes under his rule. Since Raedric blames mothers for the birth of hollowborn children, any woman found to have given birth to a hollowborn child is executed or exiled (which is as good as a death sentence given the number of bandits, monsters, and wichts on the road...). Naturally, this leaves most prospective mothers so racked with stress they turn to desperate measures to avoid this fate, the already dwindling population is on the verge of collapse (hence the call for settlers), and panic-induced crimes are all but common.
* ThePaladin: In gameplay terms, his class is a Paladin, which explains his combat prowess -- but also his stubbornness in following the path he has once set upon, no matter the cost.
* ShaggyDogStory: Once again.
** Waidwen's Legacy is [[spoiler:the result of a plot by the Leaden Key, relying on the use of the ancient Engwithan machines that dot the Dyrwood.]] Raedric's efforts to "cure" the Legacy by purging worshippers of Eothas end up being completely pointless. [[spoiler:Regardless of your decisions, however, he never realizes this. If you side with him, neither do his (surviving) subjects, who end up believing that he was right all along.]]
** If, on the other hand, you [[spoiler:kill Raedric and]] allow his cousin Kolsc to take over, [[spoiler:Raedric comes BackFromTheDead as a deathguard in the service (or so he believes) of Berath, killing everyone in the keep, including Kolsc. If you don't kill him a second time, he becomes a worse scourge on Gilded Vale than he ever was in life; if you kill him, the town becomes a rough-and-tumble haven of lawlessness, in keeping with the game's tendency to shrug aside easy happy endings.]]
* StarterVillain: He's the first notable antagonist the Watcher can potentially deal with in the game.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: He's honestly trying to end Waidwen's Legacy, but his methods are downright tyrannical and are only making things worse for Gilded Vale. [[spoiler:If the player sides with him against Kolsc, then when Waidwen's Legacy ends, he calms down and becomes a capable, benevolent ruler]].

* NobleDemon: Aedlys is one of the most brutal pirates in the Principi, but she genuniely believes that all kith deserve freedom and is an ardent enemy of slavery.

!The Circle

[[folder:Concelhaut]]
!!Concelhaut
-> '''Voiced by:''' Unknown (I), Edmund Dehn (II)

->''"Spells are fueled by ambient essence in the ether. A miserly trickle of energy that leaks from the Wheel. But imagine what could be done with a more powerful source of essence. A Watcher's soul, for instance."''

One of the great archmages of Eora, the enigmatic Concelhaut rules over a castle at Crägholdt Bluffs.

* AmbitionIsEvil: Pits his apprentices against each other to bring out the worst in them as they compete for his favor with their research, even as he's only using them as stepping stones toward his own immortality himself.
* TheArchmage: Well, one amongst quite a handful of obscenely powerful magical scholars who lays claim to the title. Needless to say, he holds all of the others in contempt and view them as rivals, and it is evident that they are not too fond of him either. In a bit of a twist for the genre, Concelhaut is one of the wizards who lends his name to a number of the spells wizards can inscribe into their grimoires, which helps add to the sense that magic is an advancing, modern science in Eora.
* BonusBoss: One of the most powerful archmages in Eora and the game's only lich, with sinister designs on the Watcher's soul. Completely optional.
* BackFromTheDead: As a lich, he's defied the natural order to remove himself from the cycle. [[spoiler:Sure enough, kill him at Crägholdt and he'll still be back at his old tricks in ''Deadfire''.]]
* DarkIsEvil: He's a lich, and looks suitably skeletal. Among the spells he's invented: Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon, Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Concelhaut's Crushing Doom]]...
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: He believes the other members of the Circle are just as ambitious and obsessed with their own power as he is.
* FlunkyBoss: Surrounds himself with minions based on his apprentices' research.
* FlyingFace: He uses flaming, floating skulls, called void seers, as sentries. After you defeat him, all that's left is his phylactery, his own floating skull, inlaid with ruins and a peg of adra, which the Watcher can put in their [[PetMonstrosity pet slot]]. Unlike most pets, Concelhaut's Skull actually does something, summoning the spirit of Concelhaut to attack the Watcher's enemies for 20 seconds, at the cost of 40 Raw damage to the Watcher.
* ImmortalitySeeker: He has a keen interest in the subject of warding off mortality.
* {{Lich}}: He's among the few people in Eora to have ever cracked the code of becoming one.
* LifeDrain: Many of the spells he pioneered do this, much as you'd expect from a lich. He also seeks to drain the Watcher's essence, believing it will give him power over time itself.
* ManipulativeBastard: Based on his notes, it seems he deliberately pits his apprentices against each other, and it's implied by the long list of crossed-out names in his sanctum that he's planning to steal their research and kill them.
* NotQuiteDead: If the Watcher slays him, it is implied that, true to his interest in immortality and undeath, he might have found a way to hold off dying completely. In any circumstance, should his apprentice Uariki still be alive, she will express clear doubt that he is actually most sincerely dead and nervously state out loud that she definitely had nothing to do with his death, and there is the fact that, though mute, his skull is still animated, is able to float by its own power, and can summon his ghost to fight for you... at a cost of 40 hit points gradually drained from the Watcher over its duration.
* NothingPersonal: After his death at Crägholdt, [[spoiler:he hires the Torn Bannermen mercenary company to help him track down Bekarna's research at her observatory in Deadfire. He does bear a grudge against the Watcher for their part in his destruction, though he seems more impatient and annoyed with the interruption than anything.]]
* TimeAbyss: He was alive and (in)famous in the Steward of Caed Nua's time, hundreds of years ago.
* TimeMaster: What he aspires to be. He believes killing the Watcher and taking their soul could help him achieve this.

[[folder:Llengrath]]
!!Llengrath
-> '''Voiced by:''' Unknown

Another of the immortal archmages of Eora, Llengrath is a master and innovator in the field of defensive magic.

* TheArchmage: Turns out Concelhaut isn't the only Archmage in the Dyrwood in ''Pillars of Eternity''.
* BarrierWarrior: Many of the spells that bear his name focus on creating shields and wards.
* BonusBoss: If you seek her out at Mowrghek Îen, be ready for a fight, or at least a decidedly fraught conversation.
* {{Cult}}: The bog cultists in Mowrghek Îen are Llengrath's disciples, as are [[spoiler:her two bog dragon allies, Gafonercos and Turisulfus.]] All of them hope to be chosen to be the next Llengrath, or at least to share in the secrets of Llengrath's immortality.
* FlunkyBoss: She fights you with [[spoiler:two bog dragons]] at her side.
* ImmortalitySeeker: Not seeking, found. [[LegacyImmortality Immortality of a sort]], at least.
* LegacyCharacter: Rather than trying to extend his life by magical means, the original Llengrath believed that the most important part of immortality was ensuring his knowledge was passed down, so that his work could continue. To this end, he transferred his memories, and thus his power, into the mind of his disciple, who then took on the name Llengrath and picked up where he left off.
* LegacyImmortality: Believes this is the best, truest form of immortality any of us can hope for.
* MasterApprenticeChain: Each Llengrath chooses their successor, who eventually becomes the next Llengrath in turn.
* MindMeld: Each successive Llengrath retains their own memories, adding them to the greater legacy that is Llengrath.
* SamusIsAGirl: Anyone who knows anything about arcane history knows the original Llengrath was a man, but the current bearer of the name is a woman.
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: It can be done, since she really has nothing personal against the Watcher. [[spoiler:Talking her down requires a Resolve check of 17 or an Honest rank of 2. Alternatively, you can convince her to MindMeld with you, granting her your knowledge of the long-dead Engwithan language.]]
* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: Despite Llengrath's reverence of knowledge, there are certain secrets they'd rather see stamped out. [[spoiler:Concelhaut's lichdom being a case in point. She's the one who hired the Torn Bannermen to root him out at Crägholdt specifically to see Concelhaut's research didn't fall into any hands but her own. You threw a wrench into that, and when she draws you to Mowrghek Îen, it's to ensure that knowledge dies with you.]]
* TimeAbyss: A contemporary of Concelhaut's.
* TransferableMemory: By magical means. The form of immortality Llengrath chose to pursue hinged on this being possible. He's more than succeeded.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: All of Llengrath's actions in the first game are meant to protect the world from [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow things man was not meant to know.]]

[[folder:Arkemyr]]
!!Arkemyr
The Circle's master illusionist, currently in residence in Neketaka.

* TheArchmage: A requirement for membership in the Circle.
* BadBoss: His impossibly high standards mean he's never graduated an apprentice and they've all eventually walked out on him in disgust, and while he seems to have an odd affection for imps, that doesn't stop him from using them as guinea pigs, ordering them to perform suicidal tasks, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking saddling them with insulting nicknames]], or blowing them to pieces when they fail him.
* CutenessProximity: Imps. Their antics amuse him.
* GrumpyOldMan: Crotchety, stuffy, and humorless, at least toward the Watcher. [[spoiler:In fairness, the only way to meet him is by burgling his mansion first.]]
* TheMark: How can you see his giant mansion in Periki's Overlook and ''not'' want to rob the place?
* MasterOfIllusion: This for the Circle. Most of his illusions involve distorting the target's senses, causing a array of in-game afflictions, often at random: pain, fear, dizziness, nausea.
* RainbowMotif: Many of his spells create flashes of multicolored light.
* WackyGuy: Subverted. Despite the colorful, whimsical spells that bear his name and his apparent affection for the zany, obnoxious imps he employs as servants, in person Arkemyr seems like quite a stiff compared to the other members of the Circle you meet. It's apparently not just you, either, based on the reaction he gets from his colleagues. All that being said, out of three archmages the Watcher has met in their travels so far, he's the only one who doesn't try to kill you, [[spoiler:even after you break into his house and rob him blind]], so his quest ''is'' mostly PlayedForLaughs.

!Other Characters

[[folder:Caldara de Berranzi]]
->''"Your soul remembers, yes? Remembers how it sees when it leaves the body, like being reminded of a dream you had forgotten."''

A dwarven animancer from the Vailian Republics who came to look for a cure for the Hollowborn, but now numbers among the dead in Gilded Vale.

* BurnTheWitch: Hang the animancer, but what with Raedric rounding up all animancers, ciphers, so-called Watchers, and secret worshippers of Eothas, the overall effect is similar.
* CoolOldLady: A grandmotherly old woman who retains her roguish good cheer even knowing full well she's dead, injecting a little dark levity into the grim burg of Gilded Vale.
* {{Expy}}: Hard not to see a little [[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment Ravel]] in there.
* FakeFaithHealer: Overlapping with SnakeOilSalesman. Subverted on both counts, however. Raedric eventually hanged her believing she was a fraud, but she was a real animancer who genuinely wanted to help. What Raedric wanted was a miracle cure, however, and eventually she had to start making up false diagnoses for Lady Raedric, claiming she needed more time to work, or they'd probably both have been killed. [[spoiler:Which they both eventually were.]]
* GallowsHumor: Quite literally. Cracks jokes while still hanging from a tree in your vision.
* InterrogatingTheDead: The Watcher's entire conversation with her happens entirely through the Watcher's ability to see and occasionally communicate with the souls of the dead.
* TheMentor: The shortest time to MentorOccupationalHazard possible, given that she's already days dead before the Watcher arrives in Gilded Vale. However briefly, she serves as something of a tutorial character, since nothing that follows will make much sense without a cursory understanding of how [[OurSoulsAreDifferent souls]] work in Eora.
* MsExposition: Serves up a big chunk of this, and turns something that could be either dry or grim into a bit of a OneSceneWonder, explaining the nature of souls in Eora, the Hollowborn Crisis, and the way animancers are viewed in the Dyrwood, i.e. not well. She also explains what a Watcher is, and illustrates quite handily what your powers can be used for, before pointing you at Maerwald, the next point in the critical path, and a Watcher himself. [[spoiler:Unfortunately Maerwald isn't in any fit state to help explain what Watchers can do, so it's lucky Caldara happened to be in the neighborhood.]]
* OurDwarvesAreDifferent: She's a rather jolly animancer from the Vailian Republics. Her being a dwarf is mostly incidental, since she averts most of the usual stereotypes.
* PosthumousCharacter: She's dead before the game even begins, hanged by Lord Raedric for failing to "cure" his wife of Waidwen's Legacy.
* PublicExecution: One of eighteen bodies hanged from the leafless tree (not a metaphor) in the middle of Gilded Vale.
* ReluctantMadScientist: Of a sort: she discovered that there was nothing wrong with Raedric's wife that would cause her to produce a Hollowborn child, but lied to him about it, presumably to buy time for them both. [[spoiler:It ultimately doesn't work, since Berranza is hanged and Ygrid and her Hollowborn son both end up being murdered upon your arrival at Raedric Hold.]]
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Already dead before you finish character creation.
-->''"Goodbye, my dear. It was lovely visiting."''
* WickedWitch: Has the appearance of one, with her hairy warts and yellow teeth, not too mention the lovingly described bloated purple flesh of her corpse -- but it seems as if she genuinely came to the Dyrwood to help find a cure for the Legacy, even if she ultimately failed.

[[folder:Lord Raedric]]
!!Lord Raedric VII
-> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/RichardEpcar

->''"A just sentence."''

The Thayn of Gilded Vale. The Watcher came to the Dyrwood after Raedric made an offer of free land to anyone willing to settle in the village. Unfortunately, Raedric turns out to be a tyrant who hangs anyone he deems a threat to Gilded Vale.

* ArcVillain: He's the major antagonist for the Gilded Vale portion of the game.
* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:What exactly caused his resurrection as a Death Guard. Raedric himself believes that it was his devotion to Berath that triggered it.]]
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: He's very strong and he's the Thayn of Gilded Vale.
* BlackKnight: He takes on this look after [[spoiler: resurrecting as a Death Guard, an undead knight, and Berath's champion.]]
* BonusBoss: Dealing with him isn't actually necessary to complete the game. Good thing too, since [[spoiler:both times you can fight him]] he's quite difficult.
* CainAndAbel: Raedric, dedicated to his principles to the point of fanaticism and scapegoating Eothas and his worshipers [[spoiler:only for it to turn out that he actually had almost the right idea, but the wrong god]]; and his cousin Kolsc, a [[{{Realpolitik}} political realist]] [[AtLeastIAdmitIt who openly admits to]] being in it for [[AmbitionIsEvil his own ambitions]]. [[spoiler:Turns out not to matter very much in the end, since even if you kill Raedric and put Kolsc on the throne, Raedric returns from the dead [[ShaggyDogStory and kills everyone in Raedric's Hold]].]]
* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:Any humanity he had to begin with was stripped away after his resurrection. If not dealt with, he ends up razing Gilded Vale and massacring everyone within.]]
* TheChampion: For [[spoiler:Berath, who goes so far as to supposedly resurrect him despite the god's hatred of the undead.]]
* DoubleStandard: He blames and punishes mothers for the "crime" of giving birth to hollowborn children, but not the fathers for contributing to the children's creation. [[spoiler:Hence why he kills his own bride for giving him a hollowborn son, but doesn't so much as blame himself.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Raedric loves his wife. [[spoiler:But it's not enough to stop him from killing her once he finds out she worships Eothas after she gave birth to a Hollowborn. When the Watcher encounters him afterwards, Raedric is visibly shaken by what he's done.]]
* FakeUltimateHero: If you kill Kolsc for him, [[spoiler:Gilded Vale's ending reveals that his harsh measures are credited for ending of the Legacy.]]
* FlunkyBoss: Raedric's backup [[spoiler:in both fights]] is what makes him extremely challenging. [[spoiler:The second fight is particularly bad since he's supported by a group of fampyrs who spam Charm.]] Though he's not exactly a pushover by himself either.
* ForGreatJustice: A twisted, KnightTemplar take on this. He speaks constantly of justice and duty, and even wields a greatsword sword named Justice. He also believes Waidwen's Legacy is Berath's justice against the followers of Eothas.
* TheFundamentalist: He's a devout worshiper of Berath. [[spoiler:He's so devout that Berath allegedly resurrects Raedric, despite Berath's hatred for the undead. However, Raedric was also known to be patron to animancers, who can create undead, sometimes without the target knowing it until they wake up after their "death".]]
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:If you kill Kolsc, then when Waidwen's Legacy ends, Raedric ends his harsh treatment of Gilded Vale and the village finally starts to prosper under his rule.]]
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: His stance on his incredibly harsh measures to end the Hollowborn Legacy [[spoiler:and his murder of his own bride]]. Whether the Watcher agrees with him or not is up for the player to decide.
* InfantImmortality: Averted, since he doesn't see the Hollowborn as truly alive. [[spoiler:That goes for his own Hollowborn newborn son when you assault Raedric Hold.]]
* IronicName: His greatsword named "Justice" was wielded by a mad paladin who used it to murder countless people in a fit of paranoia and zealotry. It only lived up to its name after the paladin's own men impaled him with it to end the killing. Its new owner is also committing his own slaughter of innocents.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: [[spoiler:If neither Raedric nor Kolsc are killed, Raedric winds up hanging the entirety of Gilded Vale in a fit of paranoia. If Raedric is killed, he returns as an undead and wipes out the village that he claimed to be protecting unless the Watcher puts him down again.]]
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Despite his horrible acts, you can leave him in charge of Gilded Vale and even murder his cousin, Kolsc, who happened to be the biggest threat to his rule. Once Waiden's Legacy ends, he's even revered as a hero by his people. Should the Watcher kill him once then not slay him after his resurrection, Raedric will end up slaughtering everyone in Gilded Vale then return to his fortress to keep eternal watch over his barren domain.]]
* KillTheOnesYouLove: [[spoiler:Even though he loved his wife, he still killed her for giving birth to Hollowborn child and being a secret worshipper of Eothas.]]
* KnightTemplar: Raedric has devoted himself to ending Waidwen's Legacy. He tries to do this by exiling any woman who gives birth to a Hollowborn child, hanging all Eothas worshippers, hanging anyone working with Kolsc, hanging anyone who ''might'' be working with Kolsc, and so on.
* NoWomansLand: What Dyrwood essentially becomes under his rule. Since Raedric blames mothers for the birth of hollowborn children, any woman found to have given birth to a hollowborn child is executed or exiled (which is as good as a death sentence given the number of bandits, monsters, and wichts on the road...). Naturally, this leaves most prospective mothers so racked with stress they turn to desperate measures to avoid this fate, the already dwindling population is on the verge of collapse (hence the call for settlers), and panic-induced crimes are all but common.
* ThePaladin: In gameplay terms, his class is a Paladin, which explains his combat prowess -- but also his stubbornness in following the path he has once set upon, no matter the cost.
* ShaggyDogStory: Once again.
** Waidwen's Legacy is [[spoiler:the result of a plot by the Leaden Key, relying on the use of the ancient Engwithan machines that dot the Dyrwood.]] Raedric's efforts to "cure" the Legacy by purging worshippers of Eothas end up being completely pointless. [[spoiler:Regardless of your decisions, however, he never realizes this. If you side with him, neither do his (surviving) subjects, who end up believing that he was right all along.]]
** If, on the other hand, you [[spoiler:kill Raedric and]] allow his cousin Kolsc to take over, [[spoiler:Raedric comes BackFromTheDead as a deathguard in the service (or so he believes) of Berath, killing everyone in the keep, including Kolsc. If you don't kill him a second time, he becomes a worse scourge on Gilded Vale than he ever was in life; if you kill him, the town becomes a rough-and-tumble haven of lawlessness, in keeping with the game's tendency to shrug aside easy happy endings.]]
* StarterVillain: He's the first notable antagonist the Watcher can potentially deal with in the game.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: He's honestly trying to end Waidwen's Legacy, but his methods are downright tyrannical and are only making things worse for Gilded Vale. [[spoiler:If the player sides with him against Kolsc, then when Waidwen's Legacy ends, he calms down and becomes a capable, benevolent ruler]].

* BadassAndBaby: The ending narration even lampshades how strange it was the Watcher brought a baby with them to Sun and Shadow. Especially egregious since the Watcher doesn't just stumble upon her in the middle of a conflict, he has to make the conscious choice to abduct her.

* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: It can be done, since she really has nothing personal against the Watcher. [[spoiler:Talking her down requires a Resolve check of 17. Alternatively, you can convince her to MindMeld with you, granting her your knowledge of the long-dead Engwithan language.]]

An orlan baby originally from the Fisher Crane Tribe who has become the foster child of Simoc, the anamfath of the Three-Tusk Stelgaer. Despite her lack of blood ties to the tribe, who are wood elves, her powerful soul makes her a likely candidate for their next anamfath. She can return as a crew member in ''Deadfire''.

* TagAlongKid: In ''Deadfire'' she's five-years-old, but because orlans grow and mature slightly quicker than humans, she is still a possible crew member on the Watcher's ship.

* {{Cult}}: The bog cultists in Mowrghek Îen are Llengrath's disciples, as are [[spoiler:her two bog dragon allies, Gafonercos and Turisulfus.]] All of them hope to be chosen to be the next Llengrath, or at least to share in the secrets of Llengrath's immortality.

* WackyGuy: Subverted. Despite the colorful, whimsical spells that bear his name and his apparent affection for the zany, obnoxious imps he employs as servants, in person Arkemyr seems like quite a stiff compared to the other members of the Circle you meet. It's apparently not just you, either, based on the reaction he gets from his colleagues. All that being said, out of three archmages the Watcher has met in their travels so far, he's the only one who doesn't try to kill you, [[spoiler:even after you break into his house and rob him blind.]]

!Other Characters

[[folder:Caldara de Berranzi]]
->''"Your soul remembers, yes? Remembers how it sees when it leaves the body, like being reminded of a dream you had forgotten."''

A dwarven animancer from the Vailian Republics who came to look for a cure for the Hollowborn, but now numbers among the dead in Gilded Vale.

* BurnTheWitch: Hang the animancer, but what with Raedric rounding up all animancers, ciphers, so-called Watchers, and secret worshippers of Eothas, the overall effect is similar.
* CoolOldLady: A grandmotherly old woman who retains her roguish good cheer even knowing full well she's dead, injecting a little dark levity into the grim burg of Gilded Vale.
* {{Expy}}: Hard not to see a little [[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment Ravel]] in there.
* FakeFaithHealer: Overlapping with SnakeOilSalesman. Subverted on both counts, however. Raedric eventually hanged her believing she was a fraud, but she was a real animancer who genuinely wanted to help. What Raedric wanted was a miracle cure, however, and eventually she had to start making up false diagnoses for Lady Raedric, claiming she needed more time to work, or they'd probably both have been killed. [[spoiler:Which they both eventually were.]]
* GallowsHumor: Quite literally. Cracks jokes while still hanging from a tree in your vision.
* InterrogatingTheDead: The Watcher's entire conversation with her happens entirely through the Watcher's ability to see and occasionally communicate with the souls of the dead.
* TheMentor: The shortest time to MentorOccupationalHazard possible, given that she's already days dead before the Watcher arrives in Gilded Vale. However briefly, she serves as something of a tutorial character, since nothing that follows will make much sense without a cursory understanding of how [[OurSoulsAreDifferent souls]] work in Eora.
* MsExposition: Serves up a big chunk of this, and turns something that could be either dry or grim into a bit of a OneSceneWonder, explaining the nature of souls in Eora, the Hollowborn Crisis, and the way animancers are viewed in the Dyrwood, i.e. not well. She also explains what a Watcher is, and illustrates quite handily what your powers can be used for, before pointing you at Maerwald, the next point in the critical path, and a Watcher himself. [[spoiler:Unfortunately Maerwald isn't in any fit state to help explain what Watchers can do, so it's lucky Caldara happened to be in the neighborhood.]]
* OurDwarvesAreDifferent: She's a rather jolly animancer from the Vailian Republics. Her being a dwarf is mostly incidental, since she averts most of the usual stereotypes.
* PosthumousCharacter: She's dead before the game even begins, hanged by Lord Raedric for failing to "cure" his wife of Waidwen's Legacy.
* PublicExecution: One of eighteen bodies hanged from the leafless tree (not a metaphor) in the middle of Gilded Vale.
* ReluctantMadScientist: Of a sort: she discovered that there was nothing wrong with Raedric's wife that would cause her to produce a Hollowborn child, but lied to him about it, presumably to buy time for them both. [[spoiler:It ultimately doesn't work, since Berranza is hanged and Ygrid and her Hollowborn son both end up being murdered upon your arrival at Raedric Hold.]]
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Already dead before you finish character creation.
-->''"Goodbye, my dear. It was lovely visiting."''
* WickedWitch: Has the appearance of one, with her hairy warts and yellow teeth, not too mention the lovingly described bloated purple flesh of her corpse -- but it seems as if she genuinely came to the Dyrwood to help find a cure for the Legacy, even if she ultimately failed.

[[folder:Lord Raedric]]
!!Lord Raedric VII
-> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/RichardEpcar

->''"A just sentence."''

The Thayn of Gilded Vale. The Watcher came to the Dyrwood after Raedric made an offer of free land to anyone willing to settle in the village. Unfortunately, Raedric turns out to be a tyrant who hangs anyone he deems a threat to Gilded Vale.

* ArcVillain: He's the major antagonist for the Gilded Vale portion of the game.
* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:What exactly caused his resurrection as a Death Guard. Raedric himself believes that it was his devotion to Berath that triggered it.]]
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: He's very strong and he's the Thayn of Gilded Vale.
* BlackKnight: He takes on this look after [[spoiler: resurrecting as a Death Guard, an undead knight, and Berath's champion.]]
* BonusBoss: Dealing with him isn't actually necessary to complete the game. Good thing too, since [[spoiler:both times you can fight him]] he's quite difficult.
* CainAndAbel: Raedric, dedicated to his principles to the point of fanaticism and scapegoating Eothas and his worshipers [[spoiler:only for it to turn out that he actually had almost the right idea, but the wrong god]]; and his cousin Kolsc, a [[{{Realpolitik}} political realist]] [[AtLeastIAdmitIt who openly admits to]] being in it for [[AmbitionIsEvil his own ambitions]]. [[spoiler:Turns out not to matter very much in the end, since even if you kill Raedric and put Kolsc on the throne, Raedric returns from the dead [[ShaggyDogStory and kills everyone in Raedric's Hold]].]]
* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:Any humanity he had to begin with was stripped away after his resurrection. If not dealt with, he ends up razing Gilded Vale and massacring everyone within.]]
* TheChampion: For [[spoiler:Berath, who goes so far as to supposedly resurrect him despite the god's hatred of the undead.]]
* DoubleStandard: He blames and punishes mothers for the "crime" of giving birth to hollowborn children, but not the fathers for contributing to the children's creation. [[spoiler:Hence why he kills his own bride for giving him a hollowborn son, but doesn't so much as blame himself.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Raedric loves his wife. [[spoiler:But it's not enough to stop him from killing her once he finds out she worships Eothas after she gave birth to a Hollowborn. When the Watcher encounters him afterwards, Raedric is visibly shaken by what he's done.]]
* FakeUltimateHero: If you kill Kolsc for him, [[spoiler:Gilded Vale's ending reveals that his harsh measures are credited for ending of the Legacy.]]
* FlunkyBoss: Raedric's backup [[spoiler:in both fights]] is what makes him extremely challenging. [[spoiler:The second fight is particularly bad since he's supported by a group of fampyrs who spam Charm.]] Though he's not exactly a pushover by himself either.
* ForGreatJustice: A twisted, KnightTemplar take on this. He speaks constantly of justice and duty, and even wields a greatsword sword named Justice. He also believes Waidwen's Legacy is Berath's justice against the followers of Eothas.
* TheFundamentalist: He's a devout worshiper of Berath. [[spoiler:He's so devout that Berath allegedly resurrects Raedric, despite Berath's hatred for the undead. However, Raedric was also known to be patron to animancers, who can create undead, sometimes without the target knowing it until they wake up after their "death".]]
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:If you kill Kolsc, then when Waidwen's Legacy ends, Raedric ends his harsh treatment of Gilded Vale and the village finally starts to prosper under his rule.]]
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: His stance on his incredibly harsh measures to end the Hollowborn Legacy [[spoiler:and his murder of his own bride]]. Whether the Watcher agrees with him or not is up for the player to decide.
* InfantImmortality: Averted, since he doesn't see the Hollowborn as truly alive. [[spoiler:That goes for his own Hollowborn newborn son when you assault Raedric Hold.]]
* IronicName: His greatsword named "Justice" was wielded by a mad paladin who used it to murder countless people in a fit of paranoia and zealotry. It only lived up to its name after the paladin's own men impaled him with it to end the killing. Its new owner is also committing his own slaughter of innocents.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: [[spoiler:If neither Raedric nor Kolsc are killed, Raedric winds up hanging the entirety of Gilded Vale in a fit of paranoia. If Raedric is killed, he returns as an undead and wipes out the village that he claimed to be protecting unless the Watcher puts him down again.]]
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Despite his horrible acts, you can leave him in charge of Gilded Vale and even murder his cousin, Kolsc, who happened to be the biggest threat to his rule. Once Waiden's Legacy ends, he's even revered as a hero by his people. Should the Watcher kill him once then not slay him after his resurrection, Raedric will end up slaughtering everyone in Gilded Vale then return to his fortress to keep eternal watch over his barren domain.]]
* KillTheOnesYouLove: [[spoiler:Even though he loved his wife, he still killed her for giving birth to Hollowborn child and being a secret worshipper of Eothas.]]
* KnightTemplar: Raedric has devoted himself to ending Waidwen's Legacy. He tries to do this by exiling any woman who gives birth to a Hollowborn child, hanging all Eothas worshippers, hanging anyone working with Kolsc, hanging anyone who ''might'' be working with Kolsc, and so on.
* NoWomansLand: What Dyrwood essentially becomes under his rule. Since Raedric blames mothers for the birth of hollowborn children, any woman found to have given birth to a hollowborn child is executed or exiled (which is as good as a death sentence given the number of bandits, monsters, and wichts on the road...). Naturally, this leaves most prospective mothers so racked with stress they turn to desperate measures to avoid this fate, the already dwindling population is on the verge of collapse (hence the call for settlers), and panic-induced crimes are all but common.
* ThePaladin: In gameplay terms, his class is a Paladin, which explains his combat prowess -- but also his stubbornness in following the path he has once set upon, no matter the cost.
* ShaggyDogStory: Once again.
** Waidwen's Legacy is [[spoiler:the result of a plot by the Leaden Key, relying on the use of the ancient Engwithan machines that dot the Dyrwood.]] Raedric's efforts to "cure" the Legacy by purging worshippers of Eothas end up being completely pointless. [[spoiler:Regardless of your decisions, however, he never realizes this. If you side with him, neither do his (surviving) subjects, who end up believing that he was right all along.]]
** If, on the other hand, you [[spoiler:kill Raedric and]] allow his cousin Kolsc to take over, [[spoiler:Raedric comes BackFromTheDead as a deathguard in the service (or so he believes) of Berath, killing everyone in the keep, including Kolsc. If you don't kill him a second time, he becomes a worse scourge on Gilded Vale than he ever was in life; if you kill him, the town becomes a rough-and-tumble haven of lawlessness, in keeping with the game's tendency to shrug aside easy happy endings.]]
* StarterVillain: He's the first notable antagonist the Watcher can potentially deal with in the game.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: He's honestly trying to end Waidwen's Legacy, but his methods are downright tyrannical and are only making things worse for Gilded Vale. [[spoiler:If the player sides with him against Kolsc, then when Waidwen's Legacy ends, he calms down and becomes a capable, benevolent ruler]].

[[folder:Concelhaut]]
!!Concelhaut

->''"Spells are fueled by ambient essence in the ether. A miserly trickle of energy that leaks from the Wheel. But imagine what could be done with a more powerful source of essence. A Watcher's soul, for instance."''

One of the great archmages of Eora, the enigmatic Concelhaut rules over the castle Crägholdt.

* AmbitionIsEvil: Pits his apprentices against each other to bring out the worst in them as they compete for his favor with their research, even as he's only using them as stepping stones toward his own immortality himself.
* TheArchmage: Well, one amongst quite a handful of obscenely powerful magical scholars who lays claim to the title. Needless to say, he holds all of the others in contempt and view them as rivals, and it is evident that they are not too fond of him either. In a bit of a twist for the genre, Concelhaut is one of the wizards who lends his name to a number of the spells wizards can inscribe into their grimoires, which helps add to the sense that magic is an advancing, modern science in Eora.
* BonusBoss: One of the most powerful archmages in Eora and the game's only lich, with sinister designs on the Watcher's soul. Completely optional.
* DarkIsEvil: He's a lich, and looks suitably skeletal. Among the spells he's invented: Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon, Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Concelhaut's Crushing Doom]]...
* FlunkyBoss: Surrounds himself with minions based on his apprentices' research.
* FlyingFace: His minions and sentries, called Void Seers, are flaming, floating skulls. After you defeat him, all that's left is his phylactery, his own floating skull, inlaid with ruins and a peg of adra, which the Watcher can put in their [[PetMonstrosity pet slot]]. Unlike most pets, Concelhaut's Skull actually does something, summoning the spirit of Concelhaut to attack the Watcher's enemies for 20 seconds, at the cost of 40 Raw damage to the Watcher.
* ImmortalitySeeker: He has a keen interest in the subject of warding off mortality.
* {{Lich}}: He's among the few people in Eora to have ever cracked the code of becoming one.
* LifeDrain: Many of the spells he pioneered do this, much as you'd expect from a lich. He also seeks to drain the Watcher's essence, believing it will give him power over time itself.
* ManipulativeBastard: Based on his notes, it seems he deliberately pits his apprentices against each other, and it's implied by the long list of crossed-out names in his sanctum that he's planning to steal their research and kill them.
* NotQuiteDead: If the Watcher slays him, it is implied that, true to his interest in immortality and undeath, he might have found a way to hold off dying completely. In any circumstance, should his apprentice Uariki still be alive, she will express clear doubt that he is actually most sincerely dead and nervously state out loud that she definitely had nothing to do with his death, and there is the fact that, though mute, his skull is still animated, is able to float by its own power, and can summon his ghost to fight for you... at a cost of 40 hit points gradually drained from the Watcher over its duration.
* TimeMaster: What he aspires to be. He believes killing the Watcher and taking their soul could help him achieve this.

%%Llengrath

%%!The Huana

!Other Characters

[[folder:Caldara de Berranzi]]
->''"Your soul remembers, yes? Remembers how it sees when it leaves the body, like being reminded of a dream you had forgotten."''

A dwarven animancer from the Vailian Republics who came to look for a cure for the Hollowborn, but now numbers among the dead in Gilded Vale.

* BurnTheWitch: Hang the animancer, but what with Raedric rounding up all animancers, ciphers, so-called Watchers, and secret worshippers of Eothas, the overall effect is similar.
* CoolOldLady: A grandmotherly old woman who retains her roguish good cheer even knowing full well she's dead, injecting a little dark levity into the grim burg of Gilded Vale.
* {{Expy}}: Hard not to see a little [[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment Ravel]] in there.
* FakeFaithHealer: Overlapping with SnakeOilSalesman. Subverted on both counts, however. Raedric eventually hanged her believing she was a fraud, but she was a real animancer who genuinely wanted to help. What Raedric wanted was a miracle cure, however, and eventually she had to start making up false diagnoses for Lady Raedric, claiming she needed more time to work, or they'd probably both have been killed. [[spoiler:Which they both eventually were.]]
* GallowsHumor: Quite literally. Cracks jokes while still hanging from a tree in your vision.
* InterrogatingTheDead: The Watcher's entire conversation with her happens entirely through the Watcher's ability to see and occasionally communicate with the souls of the dead.
* TheMentor: The shortest time to MentorOccupationalHazard possible, given that she's already days dead before the Watcher arrives in Gilded Vale. However briefly, she serves as something of a tutorial character, since nothing that follows will make much sense without a cursory understanding of how [[OurSoulsAreDifferent souls]] work in Eora.
* MsExposition: Serves up a big chunk of this, and turns something that could be either dry or grim into a bit of a OneSceneWonder, explaining the nature of souls in Eora, the Hollowborn Crisis, and the way animancers are viewed in the Dyrwood, i.e. not well. She also explains what a Watcher is, and illustrates quite handily what your powers can be used for, before pointing you at Maerwald, the next point in the critical path, and a Watcher himself. [[spoiler:Unfortunately Maerwald isn't in any fit state to help explain what Watchers can do, so it's lucky Caldara happened to be in the neighborhood.]]
* OurDwarvesAreDifferent: She's a rather jolly animancer from the Vailian Republics. Her being a dwarf is mostly incidental, since she averts most of the usual stereotypes.
* PosthumousCharacter: She's dead before the game even begins, hanged by Lord Raedric for failing to "cure" his wife of Waidwen's Legacy.
* PublicExecution: One of eighteen bodies hanged from the leafless tree (not a metaphor) in the middle of Gilded Vale.
* ReluctantMadScientist: Of a sort: she discovered that there was nothing wrong with Raedric's wife that would cause her to produce a Hollowborn child, but lied to him about it, presumably to buy time for them both. [[spoiler:It ultimately doesn't work, since Berranza is hanged and Ygrid and her Hollowborn son both end up being murdered upon your arrival at Raedric Hold.]]
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Already dead before you finish character creation.
-->''"Goodbye, my dear. It was lovely visiting."''
* WickedWitch: Has the appearance of one, with her hairy warts and yellow teeth, not too mention the lovingly described bloated purple flesh of her corpse -- but it seems as if she genuinely came to the Dyrwood to help find a cure for the Legacy, even if she ultimately failed.

[[folder:Lord Raedric]]
!!Lord Raedric VII
-> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/RichardEpcar

->''"A just sentence."''

The Thayn of Gilded Vale. The Watcher came to the Dyrwood after Raedric made an offer of free land to anyone willing to settle in the village. Unfortunately, Raedric turns out to be a tyrant who hangs anyone he deems a threat to Gilded Vale.

* ArcVillain: He's the major antagonist for the Gilded Vale portion of the game.
* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:What exactly caused his resurrection as a Death Guard. Raedric himself believes that it was his devotion to Berath that triggered it.]]
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: He's very strong and he's the Thayn of Gilded Vale.
* BlackKnight: He takes on this look after [[spoiler: resurrecting as a Death Guard, an undead knight, and Berath's champion.]]
* BonusBoss: Dealing with him isn't actually necessary to complete the game. Good thing too, since [[spoiler:both times you can fight him]] he's quite difficult.
* CainAndAbel: Raedric, dedicated to his principles to the point of fanaticism and scapegoating Eothas and his worshipers [[spoiler:only for it to turn out that he actually had almost the right idea, but the wrong god]]; and his cousin Kolsc, a [[{{Realpolitik}} political realist]] [[AtLeastIAdmitIt who openly admits to]] being in it for [[AmbitionIsEvil his own ambitions]]. [[spoiler:Turns out not to matter very much in the end, since even if you kill Raedric and put Kolsc on the throne, Raedric returns from the dead [[ShaggyDogStory and kills everyone in Raedric's Hold]].]]
* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:Any humanity he had to begin with was stripped away after his resurrection. If not dealt with, he ends up razing Gilded Vale and massacring everyone within.]]
* TheChampion: For [[spoiler:Berath, who goes so far as to supposedly resurrect him despite the god's hatred of the undead.]]
* DoubleStandard: He blames and punishes mothers for the "crime" of giving birth to hollowborn children, but not the fathers for contributing to the children's creation. [[spoiler:Hence why he kills his own bride for giving him a hollowborn son, but doesn't so much as blame himself.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Raedric loves his wife. [[spoiler:But it's not enough to stop him from killing her once he finds out she worships Eothas after she gave birth to a Hollowborn. When the Watcher encounters him afterwards, Raedric is visibly shaken by what he's done.]]
* FakeUltimateHero: If you kill Kolsc for him, [[spoiler:Gilded Vale's ending reveals that his harsh measures are credited for ending of the Legacy.]]
* FlunkyBoss: Raedric's backup [[spoiler:in both fights]] is what makes him extremely challenging. [[spoiler:The second fight is particularly bad since he's supported by a group of fampyrs who spam Charm.]] Though he's not exactly a pushover by himself either.
* ForGreatJustice: A twisted, KnightTemplar take on this. He speaks constantly of justice and duty, and even wields a greatsword sword named Justice. He also believes Waidwen's Legacy is Berath's justice against the followers of Eothas.
* TheFundamentalist: He's a devout worshiper of Berath. [[spoiler:He's so devout that Berath allegedly resurrects Raedric, despite Berath's hatred for the undead. However, Raedric was also known to be patron to animancers, who can create undead, sometimes without the target knowing it until they wake up after their "death".]]
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:If you kill Kolsc, then when Waidwen's Legacy ends, Raedric ends his harsh treatment of Gilded Vale and the village finally starts to prosper under his rule.]]
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: His stance on his incredibly harsh measures to end the Hollowborn Legacy [[spoiler:and his murder of his own bride]]. Whether the Watcher agrees with him or not is up for the player to decide.
* InfantImmortality: Averted, since he doesn't see the Hollowborn as truly alive. [[spoiler:That goes for his own Hollowborn newborn son when you assault Raedric Hold.]]
* IronicName: His greatsword named "Justice" was wielded by a mad paladin who used it to murder countless people in a fit of paranoia and zealotry. It only lived up to its name after the paladin's own men impaled him with it to end the killing. Its new owner is also committing his own slaughter of innocents.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: [[spoiler:If neither Raedric nor Kolsc are killed, Raedric winds up hanging the entirety of Gilded Vale in a fit of paranoia. If Raedric is killed, he returns as an undead and wipes out the village that he claimed to be protecting unless the Watcher puts him down again.]]
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Despite his horrible acts, you can leave him in charge of Gilded Vale and even murder his cousin, Kolsc, who happened to be the biggest threat to his rule. Once Waiden's Legacy ends, he's even revered as a hero by his people. Should the Watcher kill him once then not slay him after his resurrection, Raedric will end up slaughtering everyone in Gilded Vale then return to his fortress to keep eternal watch over his barren domain.]]
* KillTheOnesYouLove: [[spoiler:Even though he loved his wife, he still killed her for giving birth to Hollowborn child and being a secret worshipper of Eothas.]]
* KnightTemplar: Raedric has devoted himself to ending Waidwen's Legacy. He tries to do this by exiling any woman who gives birth to a Hollowborn child, hanging all Eothas worshippers, hanging anyone working with Kolsc, hanging anyone who ''might'' be working with Kolsc, and so on.
* NoWomansLand: What Dyrwood essentially becomes under his rule. Since Raedric blames mothers for the birth of hollowborn children, any woman found to have given birth to a hollowborn child is executed or exiled (which is as good as a death sentence given the number of bandits, monsters, and wichts on the road...). Naturally, this leaves most prospective mothers so racked with stress they turn to desperate measures to avoid this fate, the already dwindling population is on the verge of collapse (hence the call for settlers), and panic-induced crimes are all but common.
* ThePaladin: In gameplay terms, his class is a Paladin, which explains his combat prowess -- but also his stubbornness in following the path he has once set upon, no matter the cost.
* ShaggyDogStory: Once again.
** Waidwen's Legacy is [[spoiler:the result of a plot by the Leaden Key, relying on the use of the ancient Engwithan machines that dot the Dyrwood.]] Raedric's efforts to "cure" the Legacy by purging worshippers of Eothas end up being completely pointless. [[spoiler:Regardless of your decisions, however, he never realizes this. If you side with him, neither do his (surviving) subjects, who end up believing that he was right all along.]]
** If, on the other hand, you [[spoiler:kill Raedric and]] allow his cousin Kolsc to take over, [[spoiler:Raedric comes BackFromTheDead as a deathguard in the service (or so he believes) of Berath, killing everyone in the keep, including Kolsc. If you don't kill him a second time, he becomes a worse scourge on Gilded Vale than he ever was in life; if you kill him, the town becomes a rough-and-tumble haven of lawlessness, in keeping with the game's tendency to shrug aside easy happy endings.]]
* StarterVillain: He's the first notable antagonist the Watcher can potentially deal with in the game.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: He's honestly trying to end Waidwen's Legacy, but his methods are downright tyrannical and are only making things worse for Gilded Vale. [[spoiler:If the player sides with him against Kolsc, then when Waidwen's Legacy ends, he calms down and becomes a capable, benevolent ruler]].

[[folder:Concelhaut]]
!!Concelhaut

->''"Spells are fueled by ambient essence in the ether. A miserly trickle of energy that leaks from the Wheel. But imagine what could be done with a more powerful source of essence. A Watcher's soul, for instance."''

One of the great archmages of Eora, the enigmatic Concelhaut rules over the castle Crägholdt.

* AmbitionIsEvil: Pits his apprentices against each other to bring out the worst in them as they compete for his favor with their research, even as he's only using them as stepping stones toward his own immortality himself.
* TheArchmage: Well, one amongst quite a handful of obscenely powerful magical scholars who lays claim to the title. Needless to say, he holds all of the others in contempt and view them as rivals, and it is evident that they are not too fond of him either. In a bit of a twist for the genre, Concelhaut is one of the wizards who lends his name to a number of the spells wizards can inscribe into their grimoires, which helps add to the sense that magic is an advancing, modern science in Eora.
* BonusBoss: One of the most powerful archmages in Eora and the game's only lich, with sinister designs on the Watcher's soul. Completely optional.
* DarkIsEvil: He's a lich, and looks suitably skeletal. Among the spells he's invented: Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon, Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Concelhaut's Crushing Doom]]...
* FlunkyBoss: Surrounds himself with minions based on his apprentices' research.
* FlyingFace: His minions and sentries, called Void Seers, are flaming, floating skulls. After you defeat him, all that's left is his phylactery, his own floating skull, inlaid with ruins and a peg of adra, which the Watcher can put in their [[PetMonstrosity pet slot]]. Unlike most pets, Concelhaut's Skull actually does something, summoning the spirit of Concelhaut to attack the Watcher's enemies for 20 seconds, at the cost of 40 Raw damage to the Watcher.
* ImmortalitySeeker: He has a keen interest in the subject of warding off mortality.
* {{Lich}}: He's among the few people in Eora to have ever cracked the code of becoming one.
* LifeDrain: Many of the spells he pioneered do this, much as you'd expect from a lich. He also seeks to drain the Watcher's essence, believing it will give him power over time itself.
* ManipulativeBastard: Based on his notes, it seems he deliberately pits his apprentices against each other, and it's implied by the long list of crossed-out names in his sanctum that he's planning to steal their research and kill them.
* NotQuiteDead: If the Watcher slays him, it is implied that, true to his interest in immortality and undeath, he might have found a way to hold off dying completely. In any circumstance, should his apprentice Uariki still be alive, she will express clear doubt that he is actually most sincerely dead and nervously state out loud that she definitely had nothing to do with his death, and there is the fact that, though mute, his skull is still animated, is able to float by its own power, and can summon his ghost to fight for you... at a cost of 40 hit points gradually drained from the Watcher over its duration.
* TimeMaster: What he aspires to be. He believes killing the Watcher and taking their soul could help him achieve this.

!!Notable Allies

[[folder:Lady Webb]]
!!Lady Eydis Webb
->''"Oh, don't look so surprised, it isn't an attractive expression. I wouldn't be where I am if I let details like that escape me."''

The so-called Hermit of Hadret House, enigmatic founder and leader of the spies and detectives of Dunryd Row.

!!Caed Nua and the Endless Paths

[[folder:The Steward of Caed Nua]]
!!The Steward of Caed Nua
->''"In restoring the keep... my great design... you have restored my purpose. Your name, your soul, is writ upon the very stone. I know Caed Nua will not fall again."''

The caretaker of Caed Nua is an old woman who originally designed the castle. Her final request was for her soul to remain to look after her beloved keep.

* CoolChair: Technically, she is one. It must make things awkward when the Watcher sits on her while making official decrees.
* GeniusLoci: She's bound to the keep and can actually feel it and all that's bound to it.
* LastRequest: She was a dying old woman whose final request was that her soul be allowed to stay behind and look after the keep she'd designed to be her final mark upon the world.
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: Her soul is forever bound to Caed Nua, but while the keep has fallen into disrepair, she hasn't given up hope that her keep will one day be the glorious place she envisioned it as. The Watcher can help her achieve her dream. [[spoiler:Unfortunately no matter what the Watcher does, the keep ends up destroyed by the resurrected Eothas.]]
* NumberTwo: She manages the Watcher's keep and obeys their instructions while the Watcher's out adventuring.
* OldRetainer: She intends to serve as this to all of Caed Nua's masters. She handles the upkeep of Caed Nua, hires on protection, and keeps the Watcher updated on important events.
* PsychicLink: She forms one with the Watcher after they become the new master of Caed Nua.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: She's a few centuries old by the time the Watcher meets her.
* SoulJar: Her soul is contained in the marble throne of Caed Nua. Even after Caed Nua's destruction at the beginning of II, she survives via the remains of the throne.
* TragicDream: Her dream was to ensure that Caed Nua, the beloved castle she designed as her last legacy upon the world, was always preserved and brought to its full glory. [[spoiler:Even if the Watcher achieves this and slays the Master Below that endangers it, Eothas ends up reviving himself, destroying the keep and stealing the souls of everyone within.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Old Watcher]]
!!Maerwald
->''"Come to speak to Maerwald...? Maerwald whose touch is poison? Maerwald who knows not his effect?"''

An old Watcher who presides over Caed Nua. He appears to have become a recluse in recent years.
----

!!The White March

!!Other Characters

[[folder:Caldara de Berranzi]]
->''"Your soul remembers, yes? Remembers how it sees when it leaves the body, like being reminded of a dream you had forgotten."''

A dwarven animancer from the Vailian Republics who came to look for a cure for the Hollowborn, but now numbers among the dead in Gilded Vale.

* BurnTheWitch: Hang the animancer, but what with Raedric rounding up all animancers, ciphers, so-called Watchers, and secret worshippers of Eothas, the overall effect is similar.
* CoolOldLady: A grandmotherly old woman who retains her roguish good cheer even knowing full well she's dead, injecting a little dark levity into the grim burg of Gilded Vale.
* {{Expy}}: Hard not to see a little [[VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment Ravel]] in there.
* FakeFaithHealer: Overlapping with SnakeOilSalesman. Subverted on both counts, however. Raedric eventually hanged her believing she was a fraud, but she was a real animancer who genuinely wanted to help. What Raedric wanted was a miracle cure, however, and eventually she had to start making up false diagnoses for Lady Raedric, claiming she needed more time to work, or they'd probably both have been killed. [[spoiler:Which they both eventually were.]]
* GallowsHumor: Quite literally. Cracks jokes while still hanging from a tree in your vision.
* InterrogatingTheDead: The Watcher's entire conversation with her happens entirely through the Watcher's ability to see and occasionally communicate with the souls of the dead.
* TheMentor: The shortest time to MentorOccupationalHazard possible, given that she's already days dead before the Watcher arrives in Gilded Vale. However briefly, she serves as something of a tutorial character, since nothing that follows will make much sense without a cursory understanding of how [[OurSoulsAreDifferent souls]] work in Eora.
* MsExposition: Serves up a big chunk of this, and turns something that could be either dry or grim into a bit of a OneSceneWonder, explaining the nature of souls in Eora, the Hollowborn Crisis, and the way animancers are viewed in the Dyrwood, i.e. not well. She also explains what a Watcher is, and illustrates quite handily what your powers can be used for, before pointing you at Maerwald, the next point in the critical path, and a Watcher himself. [[spoiler:Unfortunately Maerwald isn't in any fit state to help explain what Watchers can do, so it's lucky Caldara happened to be in the neighborhood.]]
* OurDwarvesAreDifferent: She's a rather jolly animancer from the Vailian Republics. Her being a dwarf is mostly incidental, since she averts most of the usual stereotypes.
* PosthumousCharacter: She's dead before the game even begins, hanged by Lord Raedric for failing to "cure" his wife of Waidwen's Legacy.
* PublicExecution: One of eighteen bodies hanged from the leafless tree (not a metaphor) in the middle of Gilded Vale.
* ReluctantMadScientist: Of a sort: she discovered that there was nothing wrong with Raedric's wife that would cause her to produce a Hollowborn child, but lied to him about it, presumably to buy time for them both. [[spoiler:It ultimately doesn't work, since Berranza is hanged and Ygrid and her Hollowborn son both end up being murdered upon your arrival at Raedric Hold.]]
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Already dead before you finish character creation.
-->''"Goodbye, my dear. It was lovely visiting."''
* WickedWitch: Has the appearance of one, with her hairy warts and yellow teeth, not too mention the lovingly described bloated purple flesh of her corpse -- but it seems as if she genuinely came to the Dyrwood to help find a cure for the Legacy, even if she ultimately failed.

[[folder:Lord Raedric]]
!!Lord Raedric VII
-> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/RichardEpcar

->''"A just sentence."''

The Thayn of Gilded Vale. The Watcher came to the Dyrwood after Raedric made an offer of free land to anyone willing to settle in the village. Unfortunately, Raedric turns out to be a tyrant who hangs anyone he deems a threat to Gilded Vale.

* ArcVillain: He's the major antagonist for the Gilded Vale portion of the game.
* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:What exactly caused his resurrection as a Death Guard. Raedric himself believes that it was his devotion to Berath that triggered it.]]
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: He's very strong and he's the Thayn of Gilded Vale.
* BlackKnight: He takes on this look after [[spoiler: resurrecting as a Death Guard, an undead knight, and Berath's champion.]]
* BonusBoss: Dealing with him isn't actually necessary to complete the game. Good thing too, since [[spoiler:both times you can fight him]] he's quite difficult.
* CainAndAbel: Raedric, dedicated to his principles to the point of fanaticism and scapegoating Eothas and his worshipers [[spoiler:only for it to turn out that he actually had almost the right idea, but the wrong god]]; and his cousin Kolsc, a [[{{Realpolitik}} political realist]] [[AtLeastIAdmitIt who openly admits to]] being in it for [[AmbitionIsEvil his own ambitions]]. [[spoiler:Turns out not to matter very much in the end, since even if you kill Raedric and put Kolsc on the throne, Raedric returns from the dead [[ShaggyDogStory and kills everyone in Raedric's Hold]].]]
* CameBackWrong: [[spoiler:Any humanity he had to begin with was stripped away after his resurrection. If not dealt with, he ends up razing Gilded Vale and massacring everyone within.]]
* TheChampion: For [[spoiler:Berath, who goes so far as to supposedly resurrect him despite the god's hatred of the undead.]]
* DoubleStandard: He blames and punishes mothers for the "crime" of giving birth to hollowborn children, but not the fathers for contributing to the children's creation. [[spoiler:Hence why he kills his own bride for giving him a hollowborn son, but doesn't so much as blame himself.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Raedric loves his wife. [[spoiler:But it's not enough to stop him from killing her once he finds out she worships Eothas after she gave birth to a Hollowborn. When the Watcher encounters him afterwards, Raedric is visibly shaken by what he's done.]]
* FakeUltimateHero: If you kill Kolsc for him, [[spoiler:Gilded Vale's ending reveals that his harsh measures are credited for ending of the Legacy.]]
* FlunkyBoss: Raedric's backup [[spoiler:in both fights]] is what makes him extremely challenging. [[spoiler:The second fight is particularly bad since he's supported by a group of fampyrs who spam Charm.]] Though he's not exactly a pushover by himself either.
* ForGreatJustice: A twisted, KnightTemplar take on this. He speaks constantly of justice and duty, and even wields a greatsword sword named Justice. He also believes Waidwen's Legacy is Berath's justice against the followers of Eothas.
* TheFundamentalist: He's a devout worshiper of Berath. [[spoiler:He's so devout that Berath allegedly resurrects Raedric, despite Berath's hatred for the undead. However, Raedric was also known to be patron to animancers, who can create undead, sometimes without the target knowing it until they wake up after their "death".]]
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:If you kill Kolsc, then when Waidwen's Legacy ends, Raedric ends his harsh treatment of Gilded Vale and the village finally starts to prosper under his rule.]]
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: His stance on his incredibly harsh measures to end the Hollowborn Legacy [[spoiler:and his murder of his own bride]]. Whether the Watcher agrees with him or not is up for the player to decide.
* InfantImmortality: Averted, since he doesn't see the Hollowborn as truly alive. [[spoiler:That goes for his own Hollowborn newborn son when you assault Raedric Hold.]]
* IronicName: His greatsword named "Justice" was wielded by a mad paladin who used it to murder countless people in a fit of paranoia and zealotry. It only lived up to its name after the paladin's own men impaled him with it to end the killing. Its new owner is also committing his own slaughter of innocents.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: [[spoiler:If neither Raedric nor Kolsc are killed, Raedric winds up hanging the entirety of Gilded Vale in a fit of paranoia. If Raedric is killed, he returns as an undead and wipes out the village that he claimed to be protecting unless the Watcher puts him down again.]]
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Despite his horrible acts, you can leave him in charge of Gilded Vale and even murder his cousin, Kolsc, who happened to be the biggest threat to his rule. Once Waiden's Legacy ends, he's even revered as a hero by his people. Should the Watcher kill him once then not slay him after his resurrection, Raedric will end up slaughtering everyone in Gilded Vale then return to his fortress to keep eternal watch over his barren domain.]]
* KillTheOnesYouLove: [[spoiler:Even though he loved his wife, he still killed her for giving birth to Hollowborn child and being a secret worshipper of Eothas.]]
* KnightTemplar: Raedric has devoted himself to ending Waidwen's Legacy. He tries to do this by exiling any woman who gives birth to a Hollowborn child, hanging all Eothas worshippers, hanging anyone working with Kolsc, hanging anyone who ''might'' be working with Kolsc, and so on.
* NoWomansLand: What Dyrwood essentially becomes under his rule. Since Raedric blames mothers for the birth of hollowborn children, any woman found to have given birth to a hollowborn child is executed or exiled (which is as good as a death sentence given the number of bandits, monsters, and wichts on the road...). Naturally, this leaves most prospective mothers so racked with stress they turn to desperate measures to avoid this fate, the already dwindling population is on the verge of collapse (hence the call for settlers), and panic-induced crimes are all but common.
* ThePaladin: In gameplay terms, his class is a Paladin, which explains his combat prowess -- but also his stubbornness in following the path he has once set upon, no matter the cost.
* ShaggyDogStory: Once again.
** Waidwen's Legacy is [[spoiler:the result of a plot by the Leaden Key, relying on the use of the ancient Engwithan machines that dot the Dyrwood.]] Raedric's efforts to "cure" the Legacy by purging worshippers of Eothas end up being completely pointless. [[spoiler:Regardless of your decisions, however, he never realizes this. If you side with him, neither do his (surviving) subjects, who end up believing that he was right all along.]]
** If, on the other hand, you [[spoiler:kill Raedric and]] allow his cousin Kolsc to take over, [[spoiler:Raedric comes BackFromTheDead as a deathguard in the service (or so he believes) of Berath, killing everyone in the keep, including Kolsc. If you don't kill him a second time, he becomes a worse scourge on Gilded Vale than he ever was in life; if you kill him, the town becomes a rough-and-tumble haven of lawlessness, in keeping with the game's tendency to shrug aside easy happy endings.]]
* StarterVillain: He's the first notable antagonist the Watcher can potentially deal with in the game.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: He's honestly trying to end Waidwen's Legacy, but his methods are downright tyrannical and are only making things worse for Gilded Vale. [[spoiler:If the player sides with him against Kolsc, then when Waidwen's Legacy ends, he calms down and becomes a capable, benevolent ruler]].

[[folder:Duc Aevar]]
!!Duc Aevar Wolf-Grin
->''"I'm not saying you're a liar -- not yet. But you'd better start making sense of all this. Help us believe you."''

The ruler of Defiance Bay. Formerly a trapper, he's a well-liked man of the people.

* JustTheFirstCitizen: Inverted. Despite the noble title, Defiance Bay's ducs are elected to the position.
* MinorMajorCharacter: He's the ruler of Defiance Bay and he's in-charge of the hearings regarding animancy in the region. Despite his importance to the setting and how often he's mentioned, he only gets one scene [[spoiler:before being assassinated by Thaos.]]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Downplayed. Said by Lady Webb to portray himself as something of a bumpkin, but she also recognizes him as a skilled politician who's proven exceptionally adept at making friends and choosing his allies.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Needs to be, as he's sitting square in the middle of the Dozens, the Crucible Knights, and House Doemenel. Nowhere is this more apparent than during the animancy hearings, where he spends all of Act II listening to testimony behind closed doors at the Ducal Palace, [[spoiler:only to be instantly [[WeHardlyKnewYe assassinated]] by an Thaos-possessed animancer just after you deliver your own findings regarding the Leaden Key.]]

[[folder:Concelhaut]]
!!Concelhaut

->''"Spells are fueled by ambient essence in the ether. A miserly trickle of energy that leaks from the Wheel. But imagine what could be done with a more powerful source of essence. A Watcher's soul, for instance."''

One of the great archmages of Eora, the enigmatic Concelhaut rules over the castle Crägholdt.

* AmbitionIsEvil: Pits his apprentices against each other to bring out the worst in them as they compete for his favor with their research, even as he's only using them as stepping stones toward his own immortality himself.
* TheArchmage: Well, one amongst quite a handful of obscenely powerful magical scholars who lays claim to the title. Needless to say, he holds all of the others in contempt and view them as rivals, and it is evident that they are not too fond of him either. In a bit of a twist for the genre, Concelhaut is one of the wizards who lends his name to a number of the spells wizards can inscribe into their grimoires, which helps add to the sense that magic is an advancing, modern science in Eora.
* BonusBoss: One of the most powerful archmages in Eora and the game's only lich, with sinister designs on the Watcher's soul. Completely optional.
* DarkIsEvil: He's a lich, and looks suitably skeletal. Among the spells he's invented: Concelhaut's Corrosive Siphon, Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Concelhaut's Crushing Doom]]...
* FlunkyBoss: Surrounds himself with minions based on his apprentices' research.
* FlyingFace: His minions and sentries, called Void Seers, are flaming, floating skulls. After you defeat him, all that's left is his phylactery, his own floating skull, inlaid with ruins and a peg of adra, which the Watcher can put in their [[PetMonstrosity pet slot]]. Unlike most pets, Concelhaut's Skull actually does something, summoning the spirit of Concelhaut to attack the Watcher's enemies for 20 seconds, at the cost of 40 Raw damage to the Watcher.
* ImmortalitySeeker: He has a keen interest in the subject of warding off mortality.
* {{Lich}}: He's among the few people in Eora to have ever cracked the code of becoming one.
* LifeDrain: Many of the spells he pioneered do this, much as you'd expect from a lich. He also seeks to drain the Watcher's essence, believing it will give him power over time itself.
* ManipulativeBastard: Based on his notes, it seems he deliberately pits his apprentices against each other, and it's implied by the long list of crossed-out names in his sanctum that he's planning to steal their research and kill them.
* NotQuiteDead: If the Watcher slays him, it is implied that, true to his interest in immortality and undeath, he might have found a way to hold off dying completely. In any circumstance, should his apprentice Uariki still be alive, she will express clear doubt that he is actually most sincerely dead and nervously state out loud that she definitely had nothing to do with his death, and there is the fact that, though mute, his skull is still animated, is able to float by its own power, and can summon his ghost to fight for you... at a cost of 40 hit points gradually drained from the Watcher over its duration.
* TimeMaster: What he aspires to be. He believes killing the Watcher and taking their soul could him help achieve this.

[[folder:The Leaden Key]]
!!The Leaden Key

!!Factions

[[folder:The Crucible Knights]]
!! The Crucible Knights

A combination of standing army and town watch, the Knights of the Crucible were founded by blacksmiths who fought for the Dyrwood during the Liberation, the colony's war for independence from the Aedyran Empire over a century ago.

* TheBlacksmith: Started out as blacksmiths who joined the revolution against Aedyr, allowing the rebels to make their own weapons. Though in the present day, their shrine to the god Abydon, god of blacksmiths, is gathering dust in First Fires' Crucible Keep and they only have one actual blacksmith in the castle's ranks.
* CityGuards: Their Justiciar arm keeps the peace in Defiance Bay.
* FantasticRacism: Against Orlans, to the point that they'll refuse entry to anyone who was an orlan ''in a past life''. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation They let an Orlan Watcher join, however.]]
* {{Golem}}: The forge knight automatons which Commander Clyver and his superiors want built. [[spoiler:After [[PoweredByAForsakenChild transferring the souls]] of [[BoxedCrook condemned criminals]] into the forge knights to bring them to life, the constructs [[NiceJobBreakingItHero unsurprisingly go crazy and turn violent]]. This does, however, [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadow]] the animancer Galvino and his masterpiece the Devil of Caroc in the DLC.]]
* HolierThanThou: Of the three factions they have this attitude most, due to their knightly reputation and code of honor.
* KnightTemplar: The High Justice, leader of the order nationwide, and by extension the faction as a whole, at least in one of their endings. [[spoiler:If you convince Clyver to continue the faction's research into forge knights despite their disastrous initial test run, they're eventually perfected to the degree that the High Justice uses them to clamp down on animancy, eventually [[MilitaryCoup placing Defiance Bay under martial law]].]]
* RagsToRiches: A movement in the faction is pushing for the common-born Knights to be recognized as gentry in the Dyrwood.

[[folder:The Dozens]]
!! The Dozens

A relatively new faction of working-class rowdies, demagogues, mercenaries and adventurers formed in the wake of the Saint's War. They're named in honor of the seven men and five women who stood on the bridge and held back St. Waidwen's advance while the [[FantasticNuke Godhammer]] was brought to bear.

* AdventureGuild: Their headquarters in Copperlane, the Expedition Hall, hires out adventurers, mostly to plunder the Engwithan ruins in the surrounding countryside.
* BrainsEvilBrawnGood: The closest thing they have to a philosophy, as they see the educated aristocracy and animancers as the cause of the hollowborn crisis, while tough and uneducated common folk are all good.
* FantasticRacism: Against animancers, ciphers, and others who influence souls. While some of their concerns are not completely ill-founded, [[RabbleRouser how they go about expressing it]] certainly is.
* FullCircleRevolution: Represent the lingering mistrust of authority baked into the Dyrwood from its founding as a rebel colony of Aedyr. They reserve a special dislike for the Crucible Knights, viewing them as [[CategoryTraitor class traitors]].
* MartyrWithoutACause: They're mostly motivated by a knee-jerk reaction against any form of authority or perceived tyranny (including the intellectual elitism of, for example, animancers), but most of them seem to have no specific plans to replace it with anything or any thought of changing the system from within.
* {{Rabble Rouser}}s: Riling up angry mobs is their stock in trade. Comes to a head when [[spoiler:Duc Aevar is assassinated and the Dozens throw a city-wide riot, burning down Brackenbury Sanitarium and [[BrokenBridge blocking off player access to the city]] for days.]]
* ScienceIsBad: Or rather, Animancy Is Bad. (Since animancy is a legitimate scientific field in this world.) They feel that any study or influence of souls is automatically unethical and against nature. While they have a point about [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate how some animancers operate]], as usual, [[BothSidesHaveAPoint the truth]] is [[GreyAndGrayMorality more complicated than that]].
* WeAREStrugglingTogether: They're generally angry and want change, but their actions often hurt the very people they want to protect, such as their attacks on the patrons of [[TheOldestProfession the Salty Mast]] being [[StepThreeProfit a bizarre attempt]] to get the inn's madam to lower her prices, purportedly to better serve the working class people who live in the surrounding docks.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: As Eadric Morley's impassioned arguments at the animancy hearings show, their intentions ''are'' good, and while they may favor violent, destructive acts of protest, it's because they feel that broad, sweeping action is the only way they can make their voices heard as commoners.

[[folder:House Doemenel]]
!!House Doemenel

A wealthy noble house who fought on the wrong side during the war with Aedyr. In the time since the war, the Doemenels have had to reinvent themselves, becoming a sophisticated but utterly ruthless crime syndicate.

* AffablyEvil: Do what they want and stay in their good graces, and the Doemenels will be a very reliable ally for you.
* TheDon: Gedmar Doemenel, the current patriarch of the family.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes:
** Killing Danna, one of the few Doemenels who can be encountered outside of their manor in Brackenbury, is also one of a handful of actions in the entire game which will earn you an Extraordinary Negative [[AllianceMeter reputation hit]] with ''any'' faction.
** Her fiance Cendric will later challenge you to a duel in her memory, although if you didn't interact much with the Doemenels, you may well have [[ButForMeItWasTuesday forgotten her]].
* FantasticDrug: Deal in this, naturally. Most notably, in a dark but realistic example of the trope, they've cornered the market on bitter squash seeds, a contraband item which can be used to terminate unwanted pregnancies. Bitter seeds are a popular item in Defiance Bay owing to the prevalence of Hollowborn children.
* TheMafia: How they operate, and in essence what they are well on their way to becoming for Eora, including their once-noble roots. In particular, their methods for dealing with people who have failed or crossed them are similar. In truth they have more in common with this trope than a more fantastical ThievesGuild.
* NeighborhoodFriendlyGangsters: Despite their many crimes, it's noted by more than one person that the Doemenels do as much to keep the peace in Defiance Bay as the [[CityGuards Crucible Knights]].
* PragmaticVillainy: They're a ruthless criminal organization you do not want to cross, but if they want to continue making a profit, they need order in Defiance Bay.
* ShameIfSomethingHappened: Their favorite way to make threats.
* ThievesGuild: Serve as a more legitimate, perhaps [[JustifiedTrope more realistic]] version of this for a fantasy setting.

%%!!Dunryd Row
%%->''"The knowledge we gather here is Dyrwood's standing army, in many ways. We learn what's vital and we act on it while Dyrwood sleeps, blissfully unaware of the terrifying truths all around them."''

* BurnTheWitch: Hang the animancer, but what with Raedric rounding up all animancers, ciphers, so-called Watchers, and secret worshippers of Eothas, the overall effect is simialr.

* FakeFaithHealer: Overlapping with SnakeOilSalesman. Subverted on both counts, however. Raedric eventually hanged her believing she was a fraud, but she was a real animancer who genuinely wanted to help, but what Raedric wanted was a miracle cure. Eventually she had to start making up false diagnoses for Lady Raedric, claiming she needed more time to work, or they'd probably both have been killed.

* OurDwarvesAreDifferent: She's a rather jolly animancer from the Vailian Republics. Her being a dwarf is mostly incidental.

* CainAndAbel: Raedric, dedicated to his principles to the point of fanaticism and scapegoating Eothas and his worshipers [[spoiler:only for it to turn out that he actually had almost the right idea, but the wrong god]]; and his cousin Kolsc, a [[{{Realpolitik}} political realist]] [[AtLeastIAdmitIt who openly admits to]] being in it for [[AmbitionIsEvil his own ambitions]]. [[spoiler:Turns out not to matter very much, since even if you kill Raedric and put Kolsc on the throne, Raedric returns from the dead [[ShaggyDogStory and kills everyone in Raedric's Hold]].]]

** If, on the other hand, you [[spoiler:kill Raedric and allow his cousin Kolsc to take over, Raedric comes BackFromTheDead as a deathguard in the service (or so he believes) of Berath, killing everyone in the keep, including Kolsc. If you don't kill him a second time, he becomes a worse scourge on Gilded Vale than he ever was in life; if you kill him, the town becomes a rough-and-tumble haven of lawlessness, in keeping with the game's tendency to shrug aside easy happy endings.]]

* WickedWitch: Has the appearance of one, with her hairy warts and yellow teeth, not too mention the lovingly described bloated purple flesh of her corpse -- but it seems as if she genuinely came to the Dyrwood to help find a cure for the Legacy, however, even if she ultimately failed.

[[folder:Spoiler Character]]
!!The Eyeless
->''"Some things that are forgotten must never be remembered."''

Grotesque giants said to serve Ondra, stalking the dark places of the world, removing those things and kith the goddess would see "forgotten."

[[folder:Lord Raedric]]
!!Lord Raedric VII
-> '''Voiced by:''' Creator/RichardEpcar

->''"A just sentence."''

The Thayn of Gilded Vale. The Watcher came to the Dyrwood after Raedric made an offer of free land to anyone willing to settle in the village. Unfortunately, Raedric turns out to be a tyrant who hangs anyone he deems a threat to Gilded Vale.