Characters in the video game A House of Many Doors.

Note: Due to the nature of the story, this character page contains heavy spoilers.

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Officers

Viola Nox

Ice Queen: There's literally no way to improve your relationship with Viola, unlike every other crewmember. She will only ever treat you with open disdain.
Starter Equipment: The starting Chief Engineer for all new captains.
Tomato in the Mirror: Is actually an Aspect of the Trickster disguised as a human.
Walking Spoiler: Owing to her status as an Aspect of the Trickster.

Rotherford

The Alcoholic: Is rarely seen without a drink, even stealing whiskey from the kinetopede's cargo hold to feed his addiction. You can confront him over this, let it slide, or express concern for his health.
The Snark Knight: Believes Humans Are Bastards and is kind of a Jerkass to everyone as a result - including to himself.
Starter Equipment: The starting Surgeon for all new captains.

Panorama Volt

Abusive Dad: Her father became convinced that the gods wanted Panorama dead when she was just a little girl, and tried to sacrifice her. That's why she's missing an eye.
Dark and Troubled Past: Hoo boy.
Driven to Suicide: In an attempt to escape whatever fate Old Lady Death was trying to railroad her into, young Panorama eventually resorted to hanging herself. Old Lady Death, being literally the goddess of the dead, just picked up Panorama's soul and stuffed it back into her body.
Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die: Quite fond of making these, much to your crew's chagrin.
Sanity Slippage: Panorama's knowledge of the fact that she's a character in a video game forced to play the same role over and over again hasn't done wonders for her stability.
Refusal of the Call: She tried. Gosh, she tried. Old Lady Death refused to be deterred.
Starter Equipment: The starting Lightbearer for all new captains.

Tybalt Balsamic IV

Abusive Dad: Tybalt's father, a nobleman in the City of Keys, viewed Tybalt as weak and constantly belittled his self-worth. If Tybalt ever stood up for himself, the elder Balsamic would punish his son by locking him in their manor's basement, which was charged with dangerous occult energies after a long-dead Balsamic ancestor used the basement for human sacrifices.
Blue Blood: The heir to the Balsamic family, a highly influential aristocrat family in the City of Keys.
Chatty Hairdresser: What he eventually becomes in the Old Hallow if you help him follow his dreams.
Driven to Madness: You can lock Tybalt in the manor's basement with his father's corpse and all those occult energies, recreating the trauma he suffered as a child. At this point you can just leave, but if you wait around until the screaming finally stops and then let him out, he'll rejoin your crew, but he's now "smiling". Permanently.
Non-Action Guy: Despite being a Guard Captain, Tybalt just doesn't have the stomach for violence. Until his father pushes him too far, that is. Even more so if you break him by leaving him in the basement until he's "smiling".
Starter Equipment: The starting Guard-Captain for all new captains.
The Dog Bites Back: Eventually outright murders his father after years of abuse.

Bradley Baggs

The Cynic: Believes that the entire House (save for the City of Keys) is nothing but a hotbed of "horror, monstrosity, and perversion".
Fantastic Racism
Jerkass Has a Point: Despite being crotchety and prudish, Bradley's claim that the House is a horrible place to live is by no means unsubstantiated.
Moral Guardian: Completely freaks out upon discovering obscene photographs aboard your kinetopede. Also not a fan of Vex, where everyone is addicted to the smoke from the burning corpse of a god.
Starter Equipment: The starting Recordkeeper for all new captains.

Finnegan Skip

The Generic Guy: Finnegan is the only crewmember with no actual storyline attached to him. He's not hiding anything, he's not looking for anything, and he's not anyone important to any of the House's factions; he's literally just a guy trying to make a living without too much work.
The Slacker: A nice person, but still lazy as hell.
Starter Equipment: The starting Lookout for all new captains.

Sandy Bracket

Compulsive Liar: Seemingly can't help but tell outrageous and obviously made-up stories about herself at every opportunity, even when it leads to a serious threat to her safety.
Genki Girl: Sandy is... a lot. Her questline is called Increasingly Desperate Shenanigans for a reason.
Gold Digger: If you flirt with her, she will insist on being bought an expensive gift before she will reciprocate your advances. If you do so, she immediately takes you to bed, and the next morning she rifles through your stuff, steals some of your clothes, and then cheerfully breaks up with you.
Starter Equipment: The starting Navigator for all new captains.

Bishop Landman

Bait the Dog: It's hinted to begin with that Bishop is a heroic guy who you could trust to have your back against the Governor. He likes unions! He has socialist plants that go on strike if they don't get watered! Then you learn that the Governor is his boss.
- Subverted based on player choices: upon finding out the true origin of Governor's Men from a defector, he also defects; if you keep him on board, he seems perfectly loyal to you from then on.
Beneath Notice: Nobody gives him a second glance, which is why it takes everyone so long to learn he's a Governor's Man.
Deep Cover Agent: His real reason for having signed up as your pilot in the first place.
The Generic Guy: So generic, in fact, that your captain forgets what Bishop looks like upon looking away from him. Given how he's a Governor's Man, this is almost certainly intentional on his part.
The Mole: Is actually a Governor's Man sent to join your crew in order to lead the Governor to the Orchard.
Starter Equipment: The starting Pilot for all new captains.

Dr. Henry Delgado

For Science!: Quotes this verbatim as his motivation for becoming a Mad Scientist.
Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Dr. Delgado is an incredibly skilled engineer by the standards of the City of Engines, where aspiring inventors need only snap their fingers to assemble physics-defying devices. Outside the City of Engines, he's so unskilled at his job that it takes a day to teach him the most basic principles of engineering.
Large Ham: Naturally. It's part of his Mad Scientist aesthetic.
Mad Scientist: By his own admission. It's what he's wanted to be since he was a child.
Motive Rant: As your Chief Engineer, he periodically gives grand, maniacal monologues in the engine room. The junior engineers actually find it very motivating.
There's No Place Like Home: All he wants is to find - or invent - a way back to the world the House snatched him from. If you take him to the Orchard, he can eventually get his wish.

Lucetta Quetzl

Blade Enthusiast: She wields a knife in her portrait, and puts it to use in the assault on the Cathedral of Stolen Gods.
Everything is Big in Texas: A Texas native before her abduction by the House, and vocally proud of it.
Human Mail: This is how she joins your crew - she hides inside a crate made to look like a gift from the Omnipope.
The Cameo: She looks like the Merciless Modiste from Sunless Sea

Judith Grimalkin

Alice Allusion: One ending implies her real name is Alice, and her mask is a grinning purple cat.
Disney Villain Death: One possible ending to her questline involves her jumping from the roof of Fargyle Keep rather than be captured.
Given Name Reveal: If you take her to the Orchard and leave without her, then her epilogue scene implies her real name is Alice.
Lack of Empathy: If you eat a fruit from the Orchard, Judith is horrifyingly nonchalant when she suggests that you burn down the entire Orchard, destroying every reality outside of the House. She's also incredibly sadistic in how she deals with Lord Reynard if you follow her questline to the end, burning him alive inside the engine furnace.
I Just Want to Be Special: Admits to this being her motive for all her misdeeds if you corner her on the roof of the Keep at the end of her questline. It also comes up in the ending if you take her to the Orchard, where she wants to be uniquely immortal.
Malevolent Masked Woman: It's never made completely clear whether she's this or an Evil Mask puppeteering a human body, but one ending seems to imply the former since she removes the mask to eat a fruit from the Orchard.
Omnicidal Maniac: Unlike others who seek the Orchard, Judith isn't satisfied with escaping the House or immortality. Rather, she wants to eat a fruit, then burn the Orchard to the ground to ensure nobody else can become an immortal in the future.
Token Evil Teammate: A few of the possible crewmembers have questionable pasts or dark secrets, but Judith is the only one who is actually unambiguously evil.

Gladys Skarter

Gadgeteer Genius: A former Factory engineer who designed some of their most formidable weapons, including the Tyrannic. Yes, that Tyra nnic.
My God, What Have I Done?: She can eventually learn that she herself ordered the removal of her memories and her hands, after realising how dangerous her creations were.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Plotting one against the people who took her memories and her hands.
Swiss-Army Appendage: After she lost her hands, she spend the rest of her life creating progressively better robot hands. Her current model can transform into guns, buzzsaws and lockpicks as required.

Char Dvetistek

Dr. Mobius Vanch

Demonic Possession: If he succeeds in talking to the plague, it eventually results in the plague taking direct control of his body. You can still keep him around as a crewmember though.
Heroic Sacrifice: His questline ends with him trying to give himself the Plague in order to help defeat it.
Nightmare Face: Can end up with one as a result of giving himself too many diseases.
Plague Doctor

Jhang Ba Sho

Dream Walker: Is fond of using Dreamsalve for this, for both professional and recreational purposes.

Raised by Humans: Which, amusingly, leads to him being one of the surgeons that knows the least about Mycenae and how to treat them.

Genevieve Caul

Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire: She abstains from non-consensual blood-drinking, and in fact works for a support group of such vampires - although her "work" is assassination.
Hunter Of Her Own Kind: Hunts down vampires for the Absternii, despite herself being a vampire.
Most Definitely Not a Villain: Her attempts to hide being a vampire are... not good.
Vampires Are Sex Gods: Implied if you have a romantic relationship with her. "It is a long time before either of you sleep" is certainly an interesting wording...

Otto Von Honbach

Actual Pacifist: Refuses to harm another person or allow someone else to harm a person on his behalf, even in self-defense. This can result in his death at the hands of Graveddonites if you're not careful. There's exactly one scenario in which it turns out he'd be willing to kill, and that's if you try to eat the fruit of the Orchard.
All-Loving Hero: Loves animals of all kinds, and abhors cruelty towards any living thing - even monsters like the priests of Graveddon.
Friend to All Living Things: An extremely passionate zoologist who successfully studies even the House's most weird and dangerous creatures.
Gentle Giant: Otto is huge, over seven feet tall and extremely well-built, but he absolutely wouldn't hurt a fly.
Kind Hearted Cat Lover: He's stroking cats in his portrait.
Supreme Chef: Cooking is his second passion after zoology, and he's just as good at it.

Fiona McConnaghe

You Can't Fight Fate
The Chosen One
Refusal of the Call: Eventually changing to Resigned to the Call if you complete her questline and she finally accepts that there's something to these 'Chosen One' claims after all.
Warrior Poet

Ransack Morton

London Gangster: Not actually from London, probably, but he speaks, acts and looks the part.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As part of his companion quest, Ransack has the option of freeing a seemingly-helpless princess from captivity...in the Panomicon. Turns out this princess is actually Dredger in disguise, who can cause a prison break, murder Arthur Quodcoven, and devour Ransack if you're not careful.
Reformed Criminal: Used to be in prison for what seem to have been some horrifically violent crimes (he knows what a man choking on his own blood sounds like, for one thing). Now he wants to be a hero.
Unwitting Pawn: Of Owlglass and Dredger.
Windmill Crusader

Abbas Salem

Me's a Crowd

Ashen/Ashley

The Atoner: Centuries after Ashen helped her captain to betray Persephone, she's begun working to redeem herself for her crimes by killing off her fellow Perennials, one by one.
Eye Scream: Ashen's right eye was slashed through at some point in the past, leaving it a milky white in coloration.
Facial Horror: Ashen's face is criss-crossed with scars, one of which seems to have blinded her right eye.
I Was Quite a Looker: The Governor remembers her as a "pretty young lady". These days she's a mess of scars.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Before the start of the game, Ashen succeeded in assassinating her old crewmate Gustave Weissglass, who at that point was not only immortal, but had over two millennia of experience killing gods. Ashen won.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Periodically zones out staring at a wall, sometimes for days. Disturbing her during one of these episodes results in her abruptly putting a knife to your throat before she regains her senses and recognises who you are.
Walking Spoiler: On account of her status as a Perennial and the Navigator of the Governor's crew.
We Used to Be Friends: Formerly in a relationship with Giles, the Recordkeeper of the Governor's crew. However, after Giles became the ruthless, immortal CEO of the Consortium, the two are no longer on speaking terms.

Jack of Quills

Magic Librarian

Harmony Ricketts

Mad Artist: Worrisomely eccentric at least. Her idea of 'artwork' includes horrifying modifications to her own body. The Mad Doctor Monster Clown workers at Harlequin's Grotesquerie see her as something approaching a kindred spirit.
Nightmare Face: Wants to give herself one, among other modifications, as a sort of artistic expression. You can help her get it done if you want.
Nightmare Fetishist

Penpusher

The Klutz: As a result of being a giant bipedal shark.
Lovable Nerd
Shark Man

Nicholas Verdant

La Résistance: A member of the Unnamed Society, which seeks to overthrow the Governor.
Rich Kid Turned Social Activist: A well-dressed intellectual who also happens to be a member of La Résistance for vaguely socialist, humanitarian reasons.

Violante DiMar

Spire ( Thaddeus Herb)

Camera Fiend: His love of photography is actually what got him possessed.
Demonic Possession
Sharing a Body: "Spire" is actually the name of the city-ghost whose eye is implanted in his forehead, which occasionally can take control of the body. If you help him get rid of the city-ghost, he remembers his own real name is Thaddeus.

Valeria Bell-Roberts

Magnetic Medium
Sleeping with the Boss: All of her ghosts are actually her former employees - and most of them are also her former lovers.

Cromlech

Peter McNally

Amnesiac Dissonance
Psychic Powers: Although he loses them if he gets his memory back.
The Reliable One

Augustus Ribbins

The Brigadier
Officer and a Gentleman
Nerves of Steel
Old Soldier
Papa Wolf: To Waif, should you come across her.

Banjo Smiggs

The Sanctioned Nine

In General

Jerkass Gods: They are unapologetically weird, demand luxuriously taxing tribute to earn their favor, and are easily offended by simple heresies.
Two Girls to a Team: Abjah and Old Lady Death are the two that only ever get female pronouns. Morbazar's pronouns are "he-and-she" or "she-and-he". Angelcrab is usually "they", and Scorthidion most often seems to just be "it". The other four all seem to be always male.

Cobblestone

The Trodden God. The Carved and Hewn. Sanctioned God of Work and Suffering.

Scorthidion

The Mountainous Scab. The Coagulant God. Sanctioned God of Healing.

Alien Blood: The Deiform Scabmatter that is Scorthidion's own coagulated blood is described as being a strange mix of red and black, and is almost impossible to damage.
Final Boss: On Morbazar's route, he is the final boss the party must face to escape the house.
Guardian Entity: Scorthidion defends the damaged portions of the house from would-be adventurers and raiders, most importantly to prevent someone from finding and destroying the house's heart.
Healer God

Wyl o' Pan

The Son of Stars. Sanctioned God of Merriment and Light.

Glowing Eyes of Doom: Seen with them in a dead god's memory of it's death in combat with Wyl o' Pan and Nahash.
Life of the Party
Light Is Not Good: Wyl o' Pan is actually one of the few gods where gaining his favour is noticeably harder than gaining his scorn.

Graveddon

The Iron Swine. Sanctioned God of Violence and Bloodshed.

The Brute: Graveddon doesn't care for much except violence, and therefore neither do his followers.
Full-Boar Action: Graveddon is generally depicted as pig-like, and his title is The Iron Swine.
God of Evil: All of the Sanctioned are morally ambiguous at best, but Graveddon's whole domain is literally all about killing things and dominating those weaker than you.
Human Sacrifice: Graveddon is the only god among his peers who still accepts human sacrifice in exchange for divine favor^noteEven Death doesn't care about them.
War God
Worthy Opponent: Graveddon views anyone who kills his followers as this. Destroying a roaming band of his blood-mad vicars gives you +1 to his favour.

Nahash

The Serpent. The Infinite Coils. Sanctioned God of Knowledge.

Information Wants to Be Free: Nahash and his church isn't concerned with converting people, only with educating them - on literally whatever topics are available, up to and including Things Man Was Not Meant to Know.
Satanic Archetype: Well, not Satan per se so much as the Edenic Serpent. Nahash is a snake that offers forbidden knowledge at potentially great cost. It may be worth noting that 'Nahash' is also the name of a snake-shaped idol from the Old Testament.
The Smart Guy

Anglecrab

The Impossible Geometries. The Great Contortion. Sanctioned God of Anti-Geometry.

Alien Geometries: He's the god of these.
Eldritch Abomination: Moreso than any other deity save for Abjah, Anglecrab is a being outwith normal human understanding.
Mad Artist: While Anglecrab isn't completely insane, as he has a firm grasp of the mathematics and perspective needed to fully understand Alien Geometries, he refuses to simplify any of his work or teachings in Euclidian, which tends to drive his followers insane.
You Cannot Grasp the True Form: By default, being the god of Alien Geometries, however he can grant his worshippers the ability to grasp the true form of things they otherwise couldn't.

Abjah

The God-Shaped Void. The Void-Shaped God. Sanctioned God of Emptiness and Absence.

Eldritch Abomination: A sentient void in the shape of a god, also simultaneously a god in the shape of a void. By many definitions, Abjah doesn't exist, but rather has some sort of equal-and-opposite anti-existence.
Power of the Void: Abjah isn't exactly a god, but rather, a void shaped like a god. Worshipers can see the effects of her miracles eating away at the world, but cannot see her effigies directly.

Morbazar

The Clock-Faced God. Sanctioned God of Time and Fate, and very fond of storytelling. He-and-She manifests as an androgynous figure in a purple pinstripe suit with a clock for a head. Originally the angel Baraphal, they ascended to full-on godhood while fighting for humanity during the War of the Gods.

Affably Evil: The least generous interpretation of him-and-her is this. Even if you assume he-and-she's lying about their reasons for wanting the House destroyed, he-and-she is never anything but cordial and polite with the player. Following through with the Night of Clocks sees them becoming increasingly downright friendly with the player, to the point of halting the advance of six other gods just so the party can take one down on their own.
Apologetic Attacker: Needs to kill the player in order to wake them up whenever he-and-she invades their dreams. He-and-she finds a way around this in the endgame of A Night of Clocks.
The Cavalry: Him-and-her leading the angels into battle on the side of humanity was a deciding factor in the Sanctioned's victory in the War of the Gods.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Murdered a Physical God when he-and-she was just an angel.
Et Tu, Brute?: Ascended to godhood by murdering his-and-her lover the Sunflower King when he sided against humanity.
Eyes Do Not Belong There: Fitting of a former angel, Morbazar can turn the numbers on his-and-her face into eyes.
Fountain of Youth: As God of Time, he-and-she can rejuvenate people by rewinding them back to their youth.
One-Man Army: Even among gods, Morbazar is no slouch when it comes to a fight.
- Murdered his-and-her patron deity when he-and-she was just an angel, and then led his-and-her army against the Unsanctioned Gods.
- At the culmination of A Night of Clocks, he-and-she holds off six of the Sanctioned Nine on their own while the player fights Scorthidion. Including the War God himself.
Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: Manifests as an androgynous figure, and answers to the pronoun him-and-her. Though they're sometimes referred to as a "he" for simplicity's sake.
Regretful Traitor: Assuming he-and-she isn't lying, while he-and-she originally fought for humanity, countless years of bearing witness to the evil of humans like The Governor and the damage the House was doing to the multiverse led them to the conclusion that the House must be destroyed.
Time Master: Fitting of the God of Time, he-and-she can stop time, reverse aging, and even insert him-and-herself into the Trickster's past.
Trickster God: His associated trait is Guile.
Troll: Pretends to be caught in the Trickster's time stop just to screw with him, right before squishing him flat.
Satanic Archetype: Originally the most favored angel of a god he-and-she ultimately rebelled against and usurped, who also happens to be both a consummate liar and charismatic trickster-figure.
Spanner in the Works: First to the Unsanctioned Gods, then The Governor, and finally The Trickster himself at the culmination of his-and-her Concern.
The Storyteller: One of his-and-her titles and favored pastimes.
You Shall Not Pass!: At the end of A Night of Clocks, he-and-she fights practically the entire Sanctioned Pantheon single-handed to buy the player time to kill Scorthidion. Doubles as an Offscreen Moment of Awesome.

Old Lady Death

Abusive Mom: Not intentionally, but she does keep trying to raise mortal children even though her Blue-and-Orange Morality makes her very bad at it.
Dem Bones
The Grim Reaper
Needlework Is for Old People: She enjoys knitting, and she's older than maybe anyone else in the House.

The Perennials (spoiler warning)

The Perennials

The first kinetopede crew to reach The Orchard. Rather than escape the House, they chose to eat its fruit and become immortal. Over the centuries since they returned to the House, they have each taken advantage of their power and experience to greatly influence the history of the House's various civilizations.

In general

Enemies with Death: Old Lady Death has it in for each of them for the crime they committed to live forever. However, the House makes it impossible for her to track them down herself. That doesn't mean she can't send another immortal to do the job for her, however...
Evil Counterpart: To the Kinetopede Captain and their crew. They originally were a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits who might have also been Fire-Forged Friends who explored the House together in search of the Orchard. But rather than escape, each of them chose to eat the fruit and enjoy immortality in the House instead, most of them going on to commit further atrocities later. If the Player Character surrounds themselves with likewise evil NPCs, they're a straight counterpart.
Flower Motif: Referred to in concerns and distinctions as "Perennials", a reference to trees or plants that live an exceptionally long time. Likewise, killing one of them is called "uprooting" them.
Greater-Scope Villain: While not directly antagonistic to the player character, they are each at least partially responsible for most of the devastating evens or evil organizations encountered or at least referenced during the course of the story.
Healing Factor: Immortals slowly regenerate from any injury they receive, even if they're reduced down to ashes.
Immortality Hurts: Being immortal does not stop them from getting hurt. Ashen is horribly scarred, Gustave was infested with Thread by the Architect Heart, and the Governor can end up being burned nearly to a crisp while still alive and conscious.
Immortality Immorality: Becoming an immortal requires one to eat a fruit from the Orchard, which means killing an entire world in the process.
Karma Houdini: Their immortality effectively lets them get away with whatever they want with no consequences. They've escaped comeuppance for their cosmic crime for centuries, and can get away scot-free altogether if the player chooses not to kill any of them before leaving the House.
Loophole Abuse: Immortals cannot age and cannot be killed, but they can die by their own hand. However, no one said that their hands can't be moved by an outside force, or that a fragment of their essence can't be fashioned into a weapon and then used to kill them conventionally.
Old Master: As to be expected with numerous centuries of training and experience, each of them are quite formidable in their own way.
Older Than They Look: As a group of immortals, this trope goes with the territory.
Undeath Always Ends: One has been killed before the beginning of the game^noteAnd one refused immortality and was murdered for it. You and your party can kill five across your travels, and the final one dies if You insult her by trying to become immortal yourself, which causes her to snap and kill one of your party members at random, which is followed by a battle between her against your entire party (sans the ones who defect to her side), followed by a final duel based on your skill checks and perks.
- Also, the survivors die a short while after the house explodes from overclocking itself. Even if the Governor escapes the house, she does so at the cost of her immortality.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: At least two of them ( the Lady of Blades and G.) are tired of living forever, but are too afraid of death to kill themselves.
Written by the Winners: They won the War of the Gods, and have been manipulating the history of the House since. With the exceptions of the Imperator, the Governor, and the Lady of Blades, all of them have erased any mention of themselves from history to avoid drawing unwanted attention.

The Governor

Captain of the first kinetopede crew to discover the Orchard, and the first of the crew to eat a fruit, kick-starting the War of the Gods. She somehow saw to it that the gods that supported her won the war, founded the City of Keys and lived for several thousand years experiencing everything the House had to offer. Now, finally, she's bored and wants to relinquish her immortality by leaving the House, but that requires manipulating the player into finding the Orchard again for her, because the House won't let her find it again herself.

Antagonistic Governor
Big Bad: Ultimately responsible for pretty-much every bad thing in the House: the existence of the Perennials, the War of the Gods, the war between the cities and the Principate, the ongoing orphan labour and Police State of the City of Keys, the nonconsensual harvesting of human hearts for heartlights, the Swarm Bomb, everything that happens at the Factory, and finally the entire plot of the game and any harm your crew or anyone else comes to as a result of the quest for the Orchard.
Depraved Bisexual: Mentions that she's been in love with hundreds of men and hundreds of women over her long life, and she's also basically a fascist dictator.
Everyone Calls Her "Barkeep": We never learn her birth name, because she no longer uses it. She's just the Governor.
Evil Overlord: Controls the City of Keys and its vast wealth of resources and goons with an iron fist.
Final Boss: Of the "Quit the Game" ending, if you choose to fight her in the Orchard before leaving.
Rasputinian Death: Due to her immortality, if you choose to fight her in the Orchard. She gets shot several times, burned horribly in an exploding kinetopede, and then either the Player Character spears her to a tree and forces her to cut her own throat or Ashen stabs her in the neck, knocks her around and forces her to shoot herself in the face.
Samus Is a Girl: When the Governor finally appears in person, it turns out that she is a woman - and in fact, specifically, she's the woman whose voice you've been hearing in your dreams, claiming to be Persephone.
That Man Is Dead: She's had many names over the millenia she's lived for, but by now "Governor" is the only one that feels right. We never even learn who she was before she found the Orchard, other than being a kinetopede captain.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: After a few thousand years she eventually gets bored and wants to escape the house and retire to a mortal life.
Would Hurt a Child: Orphaned children are used as Human Resources for various projects of hers.

Persephone

Persephone was the Lookout of the Governor's crew. Together with her lover she explored the House and eventually uncovered the location of the Orchard. After the crew consumed the fruit and became immortal, she was betrayed by her comrades and impaled to a tree, damned to remain pinned in place for the rest of time while they returned to the House. After forming a mysterious mental bond with the Kinetopede Captain, she acts as the player's guide on how to reach the Orchard, free her, and ultimately escape the House.

But after reaching the Orchard, it's revealed that Persephone was Dead All Along. While the rest of the crew agreed to eat the fruit, she alone refused and even tried to stop the others from committing the ultimate crime. In response, her former lover led the rest of the crew in murdering her. The illusory Persephone encountered by the player character in visions is really the Governor in disguise, hoping that the promise of a Damsel in Distress will inspire a kinetopede captain into leading her back to the Orchard once more.

Cruel and Unusual Death: And how. Brutally stabbed in the chest with a spear first by her captain, and then the rest of her friends joined in. Assuming she didn't immediately die from her wounds, she was then left her for dead with the means to either heal herself or escape the House dangling just out of reach above her. This is all made worse by the fact that the person who orchestrated all of this was her lover.
Dead All Along: By the time you reach the Orchard,
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Stabbed eight times in the chest and left for dead.
Meaningful Name: Persephone in Greek Mythology was a woman who was lusted after by Hades, who ultimately stole her away to the land of the dead and tried to trick her into staying there by offering her fruit to eat. Here, Persephone was in a relationship with the Governor, who left her for dead in Death's Orchard after she refused her lover's temptation to eat the fruit with her.
Redemption Equals Death: Backed out of eating the fruit at the last moment, and tried to convince the rest of the crew to do the same. They killed her for it.
Token Good Teammate: While some members of the Governor's crew might have had better reasons than others to eat the fruit, she was the only member of the crew who absolutely refused. It's strongly implied that the guilt over her murder inspired Ashen and Arthur to do something that's outright positive with their immortality.

The Lady of Blades

The Lady of Blades was the Lightbearer for the Governor's original crew. Out of loyalty to her captain her crew, she seduced the angel Zaraphael and convinced him to reveal the location of the Orchard to her, which she then revealed to the Governor. Following her ascension to immortality, she settled in the City of Masks. She is the creator and overseer of the Star Gardens in the center of the city. It's true purpose unknown to the public, the garden is actually her attempt to recreate the Orchard for her and the Governor's own nefarious ends.

Better to Die than Be Killed: A complicated example. She claims to have grown bored of her immortality and wants to die, but absolutely refuses to kill herself or let a washed-up fool like Zaraphael be the one to kill her, which is why she asks you to do it. It's also possible that she knows time is almost up before the House destroys itself, and sees no point in going on now that her own plan to escape failed offscreen.
Cool Mask: Wears one all the time in public, one of a sun with all of its sunbeams replaced with sharp blades.
The Dragon: Implied to be a sort of one to the Governor, running experiments in replicating the Orchard for her as a backup in case her Plan A of tricking you to open the Orchard Door doesn't work.
Death Seeker
Hidden Depths: Has relatively little impact on history and interaction with the player character compared to the other Perennials, but her lines imply that not only is she still partnered with the Governor, but she's also actually aware of the Eternal Recurrence the House is stuck in, and that they're running out of time to escape.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Where the other Perennials have long removed themselves from the public eye lest they attract unwanted attention, she continues to live among the public under the guise of one of the Masked.
Manipulative Bastard: Conned the location of the Orchard out of Zaraphael, and continues to openly be a major power player masquerading as one of the Masked with ties to the Factory.
One-Woman Army: Unlike G. or the Governor, she doesn't hide behind an army of hired thugs. She lives in plain sight of the public is heavily implied to dispatch any would-be thief or assassin personally with her sword skills. She's apparently good enough at her swordplay that no one has ever caught on she's an immortal, as Dame Kraken found out firsthand when she challenged her.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: An important figure in the City of Masks and deadly with a sword.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She knowingly betrayed Zaraphael and leaked the Orchard's location to the Governor. What she couldn't have anticipated was this would lead to Persephone's murder, and that eating the fruit would kickstart the War of the Gods and sub-sequentially utterly decimate the ancient civilization that once ruled the House.

The Hostage-King

The Hostage-King is the founder and original ruler of the City of Engines. Using advanced occultism, he weakened the laws of reality in one of the House's rooms to create a city where visionary scientists could easily create incredibly advanced technologies. After a falling out with his colleagues, he's currently chained up and living in exile beneath Tarwater Bay. He and his loyalists continue to experiment and build machines of war in anticipation of the day he can rise and retake the City of Engines once more.

And I Must Scream: If you prevent the Demon from killing him, the Hostage-King is left alone in his fortress, chained there beneath Tarwater Bay for all eternity.
Emperor Scientist: A mechanical genius who hoped for the City of Engines to become a haven for like-minded individuals to work together on revolutionary new inventions.
The Engineer: Chief Engineer of the Governor's crew before he became a Perennial.
For Science!: His reason for founding the City of Engines.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Can be killed by the Demon, the machine he built to help him reclaim the City of Engines, using a fragment of his own soul.
Insistent Terminology: His official title is "His Majesty-in-Exile", not "the Hostage-King", thank you very much.

G./Giles Grengold

G. was the Recordkeeper of the Governor's crew. Originally a mere accountant, since becoming an immortal G. has used his power and influence to become the CEO of the Consortium. In order to avoid suspicion, he secludes himself far from the public eye and allows very few people to even know of his existence. It's strongly implied he controls his underlings by replacing their eyes with magic coins he created himself. Originally a small and skinny man, G. has become revoltingly corpulent since gaining his immortality.

Berserk Button: Do not criticize his poetry, or even suggest it's anything short of great.
Brown Note: His poetry is utterly terrible, despite him apparently writing it for literally thousands of years. Even the Governor couldn't stand it.
Boom, Headshot!: The protagonist and Ashen blow his head off with a magic bullet.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: He's the head of the Consortium, the second most evil, corrupt trade organization in the House next to the Factory.
Dirty Coward: He relies on far more capable henchmen and clever defenses to protect himself from threats. When he's finally cornered by Ashen and the protagonist he can either beg for his life or be found sobbing surrounded by his terrible poetry.
Fat Bastard
Hoist by His Own Petard: G. controls his agents by replacing their eyes with special coins he made himself, using his life essence as an ingredient. It's by stealing these coins and melting them down into a bullet Ashen is able to finally finish him off.
Pocket Dimension: G.'s built his mansion inside a dimension strongly implied to have once belonged to the Sunflower King, an god killed during the War of the Gods.
Properly Paranoid: As the head of The Consortium, G. seems terrified of people trying to kill him and has surrounded himself with the finest defenses his money can buy. He even went so far as to booby-trap the Mirrorwise around his mansion. The only thing that keeps this from being downright paranoia considering he's an immortal is the fact Ashen assassinated his old friend the Imperator of Thread relatively recently, giving him a very good reason to be on guard.
That Man Is Dead: After becoming a Perennial, G. erased all traces of his former identity as Giles Grengold to ensure his safety.
Villainous Glutton: G. is disgustingly fat and seems to spend a great deal of his time eating an obscene amount of food. He also scarfed down the orchard's fruit like a starving man as soon as he got the chance.
What You Are in the Dark: Despite originally being in a relationship with Ashen and professing that life is beautiful, he ends up eating the fruit even faster than Dredger does when it's offered to him.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: G.'s poetry indicates he actually hates being immortal after living for hundreds of years alone he's almost come to regard it as a curse. Of course, he's still too much of a coward to kill himself and begs for his life when Ashen finally finishes him off.

Arthur Quodcoven

Arthur was the Surgeon of the Governer's original crew. He ate the fruit willingly, but openly cried about it even as he did so. For most of history since then, he's been running the largest prison in the multiverse single-handed as a sort of atonement.

The Atoner: He clearly always regretted eating the fruit of the Orchard (he actually cried while doing it), and now he tries to make up for it by locking away the worst villains in every world, starting with Dredger, the worst of his own crewmates.
Badass Bookworm: He's a former professional surgeon, and he looks like a nerdy weakling - the Governer remembers him as a funny little man with glasses - but he's managed to single-handedly capture and contain millions of prisoners.
Cultured Badass: He's a well-dressed and well-spoken man capable of containing millions of evil monsters single-handedly.
Extranormal Prison: Arthur created a prison dedicated to stealing the worst monsters and tyrants in the multiverse. These include an intergalactic conqueror, Lord Drakul the Monster Progenitor of all vampires, and the guy who invented the duplication books that eventually cursed Abbas and Abbas.
Hoist by His Own Petard: If you free Dredger, Arthur ends up impaled by his own sword, which he retrieved in a desperate attempt to kill Dredger. It apparently kills Arthur, implying that he made it out of a piece of himself for some reason.
Idiot Ball: It seems he made a sword out of a piece of himself, thereby making it the only weapon in the House that could kill him. He took this sword into battle against Dredger, despite presumably knowing that it would be useless against the immortal Dredger but potentially fatal to Arthur himself if Dredger turned it on him (which is precisely what happened).
Wardens Are Evil: Well, he destroyed a world like the rest of the crew. It's implied this is his idea of redemption: if he's in a living hell, he might as well put all the really evil guys here. Ashen, at least, chooses to leave him alone...

Gustave Weissglass

Gustave Weissglass was the Guard-Captain of the Governor's original crew. After becoming a Perennial, he brokered some manner of deal with the Architect Heart and founded the Empire of Thread. As an immortal, super-powered Threaded, he killed countless gods as he and his followers carved out an empire of terror in the southeast corner of the known House. It's heavily implied he was assassinated by Ashen not long before the start of the game.

Deal with the Devil: With the Architect Heart, turning him into the first Threaded.
The Emperor: As the Imperator of Thread, he served as this for the Empire of Thread.
Hoist by His Own Petard: According to Ashen she killed him by jogging his elbow at the right moment so that he accidentally stabbed himself with the sword he was holding.
Killed Offscreen: Murdered by Ashen some time before the game began.
Kill the God: Both Gustave and his Empire, over the course of centuries, made this into a way of life. They are very good at it.
Large and in Charge: The Governer remembers him as "hulking", and he became the Imperator of Thread.
Rage Against the Heavens: The Empire of Thread's goal is to kill all the gods in the House. Ironically, they practically worship Thread, which comes from the House itself.
Tin Tyrant: In the Governor's memory, he's apparently wearing a full set of armour.

Dredger

Dredger is the former kinetopede pilot of the Governor's crew. Unlike the rest of the Governor's crew, he demonstrates many uncanny supernatural abilities that imply he already wasn't quite human before becoming immortal. A cruel and sadistic monster, he actually willingly and eagerly partook in consuming the Orchard's fruit. He was captured and locked in the Panomicon by his former comrade Arthur Quadcoven.

Ambiguously Human: He demonstrates a number of bizarre abilities outside what an immortal should be able to do, such as incredible speed and shapeshifting. It's unknown if something he encountered changed him even further or if he was always some sort of inhuman beast.
Dastardly Whiplash: Dresses up in a black clock and top hat, was described as "beak-nosed" by the Governor, and is certainly as one-dimensionally evil as they come.
Deal with the Devil: The player can make one with him in exchange for his freedom from his prison. Surprisingly, he honors his end of the deal.
Evil Brit: Speaks with a thuggish Cockney accent.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Whatever he did to his Aspect of the Trickster to get it to help him trick Ramsack into letting him out of jail, it's apparently enough to let the player character strangle him to death with it and have it actually stick.
Humanoid Abomination: Possibly always was one, certainly is now.
I'm a Humanitarian: As poor Ransack Morton can find out firsthand if the player isn't careful.
Leaking Can of Evil: The Panomnicon keeps him contained for the most part, but it seems he somehow put a bit of himself into Owlglass, and through him is able to speak to people and lead them to his cell for an escape plan.
Obviously Evil: His master plan to trick some poor sap into letting him out of his cell is to make himself up like a stereotypical fantasy princess and beg to be let out. In a prison of the multiverse's worst criminal masterminds, he sticks out like a sore thumb as especially suspicious. The player can call him out on how unconvincing his whole act is.
Token Evil Teammate: While the rest of the Perennials at least have some level of ambiguity surrounding their reasons for eating the fruit, Dredger is clearly established to have already been a sadistic bastard by the time the crew reached the Orchard.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Transforms into a Princess Classic to trick Ransack, and sprouts arms from his back to disarm Arthur when he escapes.

The true owner (Spoilers)

The Trickster

The true owner of the House, and ultimately the one responsible for the entire plot of the game. Raised from the dead by Old Lady Death herself, the Grim Reaper adopted him as her son and brought him to live with her in the House. Eventually however he was convinced by the Architect Heart to banish his adoptive mother and take the House for himself, becoming immortal in the process. After one of the gods he summoned to the House to play with him started summoning mortals and inadvertently let Death back in, he split his soul into seven pieces and went into hiding in the most remote corners of the House, leaving the Heart to constantly expand the House and the gods to do what they please. He's the only one who can get the Heart to let the player into the Orchard.

Abusive Mom: Being the god of death, Old Lady Death didn't really understand what it took to raise a child. In addition to only feeding him sweets and giving him toys that were either dangerous or impossible to play with^note, she left him alone for long periods of time in a very dreary House while she left to reap human souls. She was also unable to comprehend the idea her "son" might resent living with the entity that let his biological family die, and telling him to his face she'd reap his soul one day too.
Companion Cube: As a child in the House, his Only Friend was Owlglass the toy clown. When he split himself into seven Aspects, one of them chose to hide inside Owlglass.
Dark and Troubled Past: A particularly traumatic example. His natural family died alongside him in a horrific natural disaster. Old Lady Death raised him from the dead and took him to live with her alone in the House, despite not knowing how to raise a child. His "mother's" unintentional neglect and lack of any real friends made softened him right up to the whispers of the Architect Heart.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Only ever referred to as "the Trickster" or the "first mortal".
Gender Bender: His Viola Nox form is just a gender-swapped version of his true self.
Goggles Do Nothing: As a child, he wore goggles around the House for no obvious reason.
Karma Houdini: Ate a world, summoned a bunch of gods against their will and kickstarted the plot, and orders the Heart to keep summoning stuff until it eventually explodes. Gets away with it all and keeps letting events in the House play out the same because he's always a comfortable observer right up until the end. Subverted in the Night of Clocks Concern, where Morbazar and the player squish him and blow the House up for good.
Literal Split Personality: Split himself into seven "Aspects" to hide from Old Lady Death.
Rage Against the Heavens: Really resents Death for saving him out of curiosity of what it's like to be a mother and letting his real family die. This makes it very easy for the Heart to persuade him into kicking her out.
- Does it again later when one of the gods he summoned lets Death back in by accident. He locks him up in Photebor Quinn in an inescapable jail for the rest of time.

The Architect Heart

"DO NOT LEAVE ME"

A giant, sentient beating grey heart that beats below the rest of the House. As the heart of the House itself, it is the one ultimately responsible for the House's innumerable thefts of people and places from other worlds, as well as expanding the rooms to accommodate the ever-increasing amount of stolen goods.

Art Shift: While the rest of the game is told through game displays or drawings, the Heart is a hyper-realistic giant heart that's animated to boot. It's...unsettling to look at, to say the least.
The Corrupter: Arguably acted the part for the Trickster. The boy came to it looking for a friend, and it ended up convincing the boy to eat a fruit from the Orchard, kick out Death and fill the House with gods.
Evil Is Visceral: It's a literal heart, and it's bad.
Explosive Overclocking: There's a limit to the amount of stuff the Heart can steal and create space to store it. Eventually, the Heart will reach it's limit and explode, taking the whole House with it. The time loop means things get better again, at least.
Greater-Scope Villain: Ultimately responsible for the House's entire history of stealing people and things from other worlds, and therefore for the entire setting.
Hates Being Alone: It's final line to the Trickster implies this. It might also be the reason one cannot escape the House by any other means other than physically exiting it and going to the Orchard.
My Master, Right or Wrong: It's going to explode eventually from the burden the Trickster is putting on it by making it constantly steal stuff. It also didn't seem to like working for Old Lady Death and didn't waste time convincing the Trickster to kick her out when it got the chance. It continues to do what is commanded of it however because it belongs to the owner of the House.
Mysterious Past: It's never actually revealed where the Heart came from, how Death got ahold of it, or if it has motives of its own. It's just... there.
Organic Technology: It's a giant organic heart for what at least appears to be a brick and stone house. It also makes a loud clockwork ticking sound every time it beats, further confusing exactly what it's supposed to be.
Space Master: Constantly expands and shifts the rooms of the House to confuse Death and keep the Orchard hidden from mortals.
Terrible Ticking: Emits a loud mechanical ticking time every time it beats. It's heard in the soundtrack, in the background of certain scenes, and the first thing the player hears upon beginning a new game.

Characters / A House of Many Doors

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