Characters / Battleborn Eldrid

The various characters belonging to the Eldrid faction of Gearbox's game Battleborn.

''Beware of Unmarked Spoilers.''

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The Eldrid

A naturalistic order of observers and scientists, charged with the stewardship of the natural order of the cosmos. Long ago, the reach of the legendary Eldrid spanned entire galaxies — but as the stars themselves have faded into darkness, so too has the might of this ancient faction. As all eyes turn to Solus, what remains of the Eldrid are grappling with their place in a darkening universe as they rally in defense of the Last Star.

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In General

• Ancestral Weapon: Within the Eldrid faction, well-constructed weapons are often passed down through a family lineage or to successors within an order, granting them legendary status in the fight to preserve order in the universe.
• Foil: As a whole in comparison to the other factions:
  • To the Jennerit: Faction-wise, the Eldrid and the Jennerit have a Harmony Versus Discipline conflict between them in regards to their interactions with the universe. The Eldrid in general believe in merely studying and maintaining the natural order of the universe and being overall in harmony with it. They however believe this ideology so much that some of their more extreme members have at times interfered with other factions' efforts. In contrast, the Jennerit in general believe in controlling and bending the laws of the universe to suit their needs as well as destroying what they can't control. This ideology overall has put them in odds with other factions especially in regards to the actions of the more extreme but well-intentioned Jennerit.
    Playable Battleborn-wise, all the Eldrid Battleborn feature greater Health and Health Regeneration by default than any other Battleborn group as compensation for their lack of shields. In contrast, all of the Jennerit Battleborn are capable of some form of life steal which he is handy as they prefer close combat.
  • To the LLC: Faction-wise, the Eldrid and the LLC have a sort of Magic Versus Science scenario between them as well as a Slobs Versus Snobs one. The Eldrid in general tend to favor tech and aesthetics that's more natural and primitive looking thus they come off as more unconventional Science Fantasy leaning. They also in general believe in the natural order of the universe, preferring to be one with nature rather than disrupting it thus they come off as dirty space hippy slobs towards other factions especially more so in regards to the wealthy heavily science attuned LLC. In contrast, the LLC in general tend to favor tech and aesthetics that's more robotic and futuristic looking thus they come off as more conventional Science Fiction leaning. They are also in general wealthy aristocrats who prefer things clean, shiny, and refined thus they come off as rich snobs towards other factions especially more so in regards to the heavily nature attuned Eldrid.
    Playable Battleborn-wise, the Eldrid refuse to use shields. To compensate for their refusal to use shields, they instead feature greater Health and Health Regeneration by default than any other Battleborn group. In contrast, the LLC excel in the shield department. Almost every LLC Battleborn has some set of abilities which can take advantage of shields with a technological twist. It could be someone's native ability to turbocharge the shields of allies or have the firepower to quickly sap enemy shields, leaving them vulnerable to attack.
  • To the Rogues: Faction-wise, the Eldrid and the Rogues are somewhat foils to one another in terms of tech and aesthetics that aren't necessarily conventionally manufactured in a sense. The Eldrid pull in a lot of elements and inspiration from nature like insect chitin-like armor, to an organic tech gauntlet. They harmoniously integrate what they can find naturally in the environment which gives them a fantasy nature theme. Meanwhile, the Rogues scavenge and modify whatever scraps they can find like a military bomber's jacket with spikes added, to a scythe made from the bones of a previous target. They make do and mishmash what they can find in a rather disharmoniously way which gives them a "duct taped together" theme.
  • To the UPR: Faction-wise, both the Eldrid and the UPR are factions dedicated to protection, so much so that in some cases, both have taken more extreme measures to protect things. However, the actual things that the two factions want to protect differ and because of that it at times puts them at odds against one another with the best example being the conflict they had over Ekkunar. The Edrid in general are dedicated to protecting nature and preserving the natural universal order above all else, especially since there's very little left in the universe thanks to the Varelsi. As such, the Eldrid are dedicated to doing so even if it means denying others settlements in the process. In contrast, the UPR in general are dedicated to protecting people and preserving life above all else, especially in regards to the refugees who have lost their homes to the Varelsi. As such, the UPR are dedicated to doing so even if it means disrupting nature in the process.
• Great Big Library of Everything:
  • Codex the Eldrid's seat of power before it was darkened was one. The planet was the home to massive data troves – a planet-spanning repository of all the knowledge from around the universe, encoded into the very DNA structure of the planet's massive eliim trees.
  • After Codex was darkened and the Eldrid re-settled on their ancient homeworld of Ekkunar, they tried restoring what they lost via the The Codex Regrowth. The Codex Regrowth is a testament to the Eldrid's determination to gain knowledge and preserve the natural order of the universe. There, the Eldrid have re-planted several seed-pods from the planet Codex in an attempt to re-grow the massive eliim trees and recover some of their lost knowledge troves. This grove is the setting of The Archive mission.
• In Harmony with Nature: The main deal with the Eldrid. They believe in the natural order of the universe and prefer harmonizing with the universal laws rather than altering them as seen with their abilities and technology. For this, they've been called space hippies by other factions. Although they may come off as such, that doesn't mean they're pacifists who'll just hug it out when pushed. They'll fight to preserve the natural order of the universe against those who would disrupt it.
• Jungle Japes: A good number of places in the Eldrid homeworld of Ekkunar are lush jungles. Others though are arid deserts.
• Last Fertile Region: With the legion of cosmic horrors known as the Varelsi consuming all the stars they come across, many planets have become barren as a result. As such, bathing in the warmth of Solus the last star in existence, the Eldrid homeworld of Ekkunar stands as the last lush green planet in the entire universe. Because of this, it is highly contested among the factions despite it being a Shattered World whose chunks of land mysteriously float around in place for reasons scientists have yet to figure out.
• Magic From Science: Although the Eldrid are a fantasy inspired faction that uses what by all means would be considered as magic, their "magic" is actually derived from utilizing more science grounded concepts.
• Mayincatec: The ruins of the Eldrid precursors have a very Mayincatec aesthetic to them. This is best shown in the Incursion map Monuments which takes place in one such Aztanti ruin.
• Nature Hero: The Eldrid faction's Hat. Their number includes a sentient Fungus and a Space Elf. However, their approach is more in line with a scientific approach to affiliation with nature and its balance, according to Word of God.
• Organic Technology: In line with the Eldrid's philosophy, many of them use technology that's interwoven with nature. One example of this are the massive Eliim trees that are bio-engineered to be organic knowledge repositories capable of storing massive amounts of data, which only the Eldrid have the technology or ability to retrieve.
• Precursors: The Eldrid homeworld Ekkunar was originally settled by a group of beings known as the Aztanti, who eventually spread out across the universe. The Aztanti are believed to be the seed race which eventually evolved into several core races of the Eldrid, a notion scholars generally agree on. Aztanti relics can still be seen stretching across the surfaces of a few of the remaining worlds, especially on Ekkunar and the icy moon of Nylo, Bliss.
  • A potential dialogue between Deande and Mellka in The Sentinel mission implies the Aztanti are also the precursors to the Jennerit as well. Lore revealed by Word of God in Battleplan 17 furthers this as the Aztanti also settled on Tempest before they eventually disappeared and were replaced by the pre-Jennerit Tempestian civilization on the planet.
• Proud Scholar Race: The Eldrid faction value the natural universe and dedicate great deals of time and resources into observing, preserving, and cataloging all that they find. Although they are pretty much nature loving scientists in this regard, they are not beyond fighting against those who don't comply with their desires and views.
• Regenerating Health: Due to Eldrid beliefs, the Eldrid Battleborn don't use shields like the other playable characters. They instead are capable of passively regenerating health as well as having greater amounts of health.
• Shattered World: The planet Ekkunar, homeworld of the Eldrid is this. Some cataclysm fractured the planet several thousand years ago. While still basically spherical, huge geological chunks of the planet are separated from one another, exposing the molten core of Ekkunar. The brightest scientists in the remaining universe are still trying to ascertain why the planet hasn't flown apart or settled back in on itself. The best guesses still fall back to near mysticism, citing the universe-law-bending Varelsi or some arcane machinery of Ekkuni Dwarves.
• Space Elves: The core race of the Eldrid faction, the Aelfrin are this. They resemble a typical fantasy elf race being that they are tall, agile, Long-Lived, prefer bows and knives, and are fervent protectors of the natural order of the universe.
• Sufficiently Advanced Bamboo Technology: Along with much of the Eldrid's technology being Organic Technology, many of it also resembles like it's made out of ancient stone structures and such. This is best seen with the ancient but still functioning tech of the Aztanti, the ancient precursors of the Eldrid. While Eldrid tech as these on the surface look ancient and primitive, they are actually quite advanced if not much more than others due to being several millennia old. This look pretty much aligns with the Eldrid's philosophy with being one with nature rather than imposing on it.
• Temple of Doom: The ruins of the Eldrid precursors, the Aztanti, which can be found on both Ekkunar and Bliss are this. The ruins on Ekkunar tend to be mostly made from stone while those on Bliss tend to also incorporate the fossilized dragon bones littered about the moon. These ruins tend to be guarded by ancient Aztanti golems and traps. This is best seen in The Sentinel mission which involves the Battleborn traveling into a heavily trap-laden ruin to find the titular weapon.
• World in the Sky: As a result of the mysterious force keeping Ekkunar, homeworld of the Eldrid, somehow stable despite being shattered, there are various chunks of land of varying sizes that float in mid-air.

Eldrid Battleborn

The playable Eldrid heroes.

Alani

Voiced by: Jill Harris

Alani is the last vestige of an Eldrid monastic warrior enclave on the freshwater ocean planet, Akopos. Raised with a deep reverence for water, Alani learned to embody and manipulate low-viscosity fluids with the use – er – rather, the warranty-breaking misuse of a water-soluble nanotech. This technology and her training allows her to manipulate water all around and even within her own body, healing injury and ailments.

The order's peaceful existence was abruptly interrupted as Rendain attempted to claim what he believed to be an uninhabited planet for the Jennerit Imperium. Alani's people struck back quickly but were cut down as the Jennerit turned their weapons against them. Alani fought back, but not before she was witness to her own order's destruction. As a warrior from a planet with vast seas, Alani's attacks and abilities revolve around her power to control water to dish out pain, or heal her fellow Battleborn.

Alani is an Eldrid Supporter. She's the first of the five new free heroes announced to be released post launch of the game, the 26th Battleborn. She was officially released on May 31, 2016. However, for players who own the Season Pass, Battleborn Digital Deluxe Edition, or played the Open Beta on Playstation 4, they got to play Alani a full week early on May 24, 2016. She can be unlocked as a playable character using 47,500 in-game credits or for Digital Deluxe and Season Pass holders, by using the hero key that accompanies with her on release to unlock her instantly.

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• Bare-Fisted Monk: Subverted Trope - while she looks like it at first glance, her combat capacities really lie more in her using nanotech to control water.
• Bioluminescence Is Cool: Alani is capable of glowing her eyes and the tattoos on her body in a manner similar to certain bioluminescent deep sea fish. One of her lore challenges reveals that this glow is referred to by her order as their Syl.
• Combat Medic: Originally raised as a healer but forced to become a warrior. She in particular uses water to heal and her style of healing is more integrated with combat than most.
  • Her most basic and foremost healing ability Wellspring has her envelop a single friendly target in water to heal them. If untargeted, Wellspring heals Alani for half the amount instead. The amount of health Wellspring restores however depends on Alani's passive Osmosis. The way her passive basically works is that for each successful hit she does with her basic attack Torrent, Alani fills a portion of an Osmosis stack. When an Osmosis stack is fully filled, the heal amount of Wellspring is increased when used. With Alani being able to generate up to a maximum of 3 Osmosis stacks, the effectiveness of Wellspring thus ranges from being kinda pathetic at 0 stacks to being a great lifesaver at 3 stacks. The Extremophile mutation when chosen makes the difference even more so as it increases the maximum Osmosis healing bonus while at the same time reducing the minimum Osmosis healing bonus. The Overflow augment though mitigates the difference between using Wellspring at full Osmosis stacks or not a bit as it increases the minimum healing amount from Wellspring.
  • At its simplest, Alani's Wellspring healing ability depends on successfully hitting enemies with her basic attack Torrent in order to fill up the Osmosis stacks that increase the amount of health Wellspring is capable of restoring. Two mutually exclusive augments Channeling and Refresher however allow her to use other attacks as additional means of filling up Osmosis stacks. Channeling makes it that her geyser attack generates one stack of Osmosis per enemy knocked into the air. Refresher meanwhile makes it that moving through the pools made by her Riptide attack generates Osmosis overtime.
  • In addition to Wellspring, Alani has a number of augments which make her more powerful attacks capable of also healing allies as well.
• Enemy Mine: Alani having joined the Battleborn means working with Ambra, who is responsible for what happened to Alani's people as detailed in one of Alani's lore challenges. Given that the aforementioned lore challenge is named "Another Million and We're Even" and requires killing enemy Ambra for a number of times to unlock, it's suffice to infer that Alani doesn't like the arrangement.
• Fish Person: She's a Green-Skinned Space Babe with visible gills on the sides of her neck and abdomen. Though she seems to be merely this on the surface, Battleplan 20 however reveals that not only is she not actually a native of Akopos but she is also actually a half-human half-Helician that gained the ability to breathe and swim underwater through the surgical modification prowess of the Emula.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: She's literally one due to being a fish babe with green skin.
• Half-Human Hybrid: While she may seem like a native Fish Person from Akopos, Battleplan 20 however reveals that she is actually a half-human half-Helician. Her parents left her in the care of the Emulan monks for reasons that poor Alani may never know. Due to her parentage, she also was not actually aquatic to begin with as neither humans nor Helicians are such. Fortunately, through the surgical modification prowess of the Emula, she gained the ability to breathe and swim underwater.
• Healing Shiv: Alani's abilities, Riptide, Geyser, and her ultimate Emergence normally just deal damage to enemies. However, there are augments which give these the ability to also heal allies as well. These are two mutually exclusive ones in regards to Riptide and Geyser, and one for Emergence.
• Last of Her Kind: She's the last of an Eldrid monastic warrior enclave as well as her entire culture.
• Making a Splash: She uses water to either attack or heal. Despite looking like magic, it's not as she may poorly try to deny when she gets stunned.
  Oh no! My nanotech!... I mean, connection to nature!
• Mars Needs Water: Her backstory involves this. Rendain decided to drain Alani's freshwater ocean planet of Akopos for a Jennerit reservoir fleet.
• Nanotechnology: Her water manipulation abilities are explained to be thanks to water-soluble nanotech. A number of her in-game lines shows that she seems to be keeping this a secret. It might have to do with the nanotech's background as revealed in one of her lore challenges.
  • According to Kleese who took some samples from her tank while she was on-mission and found said nanotech mixed in with the water, the nanotech apparently consists of virus-grade nanorobotics. While he couldn't identify its manufacturer or original source, he confirmed that it's inorganic and that the only explanation for its presence that he hasn't ruled out is that it is comes from Alani herself. He also found that there appears to be a positive correlation between the self-reproductive activity in the nanotech and the bioluminescence observed from her tattoos. Furthermore, he found that while it bears the framework of a pathogen, the replication process seems to halt well below the saturation level required for rampant transmissions, and remains dormant when not in her immediate presence. Kleese theorizes that this nanovirus was once unleashed on her homeworld, Akopos. By whom, or to what ends, he doesn't know. Somewhere in their history he goes on to theorize, the nanovirus' control vector must have been hijacked by the survivors and, over time, integrated into their society. This Kleese believes explains Alani's power to wield water as both weapon and panacea.
• Odd Friendship: Hailing also from Akopos, she's pals with the literally cold-blooded anthropomorphic snake assassin Pendles of the Rogues.
• Power Tattoo: She has tattoos on her body that light up especially when she uses her water abilities. After gaining a level, she might remark that she's got a new tattoo.
  • A couple of her lore challenges reveal somethings about these. The glow they emit is referred to as Syl by her order. Also according to Kleese who took some samples from her tank while she was on-mission, there appears to be a positive correlation between the bioluminescence of her tattoos and the self-reproductive activity in her nanotech.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Went on one in the past as revealed in one of her lore challenges. When Alani's freshwater ocean world of Akopos was discovered by a reservoir fleet of Rendain's forces, they saw it as an ideal source for the fleet and decided to siphon the water. The natives naturally fought back and in response Rendain directly ordered assistance to this situation. That assistance was Ambra and her fellow priestesses whom Rendain instructed to neutralize the resistance which they easily achieved when they boiled the population with their tech. Suffice to say, this angered Alani. Having survived, she sneaked onto Ambra's ship and unleashed a storm of watery fury that nearly tore the ship apart as she drowned the priestesses aboard. Only Ambra survived Alani's rampage when the former surrendered the ship to the latter.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the achievements from the DLC Story Operation "Montana and the Demon Bear" is called The Last Bear Ender and is rewarded for completing a playthrough of the operation as Alani. It's name is an obvious reference to Avatar: The Last Airbender, fitting as Alani with her being a water wielding Warrior Monk with glowing Power Tattoos seems like a waterbending character straight out of Avatar.
  • A number of Battleborn characters get Borderlands inspired skins in a update patch. For Alani, her "Impending Storm" skin turns her into Maya from Borderlands 2.
• Squishy Wizard: Alani's a great Combat Medic with potent area-effect crowd-control and temporary speed buffing, but that doesn't change how her health and sprint speed are quite low.
• Warrior Monk: She's a fish alien warrior monk who uses Ket, her order's martial art. Said martial art involves water manipulating nanotech.
• Water-Geyser Volley: Her Geyser attack which launches enemies into the air.
• Water Is Womanly: A demure female monk who was raised with a deep reverence for water, using it to attack or heal through nanotechnology. She has a feminine design with long braided hair with flowers as well as gills due to being half-Helician.
• Worthy Opponent: Ambra considers Alani this in regards to what happened between them as detailed in one of Alani's lore challenges. Despite having drowned her fellow priestesses in revenge for what they did to Alani's people, Ambra was impressed by Alani's Unstoppable Rage. Ambra considered Alani quite the hellraiser at that moment, the like of which she had not seen since apparently Galilea if the title of another one of Alani's lore challenges, Helician Hellraisers, is any indication. For that, Ambra respects Alani and even gave Alani a ribbon from her cloak.

Boldur

Voiced by: Todd Haberkorn

Boldur the Unbearable is a stubborn, axe-wielding native of Ekkunar who has survived the last two millennia of interruptions to his quiet forest life through sheer stubbornness and the aid of the civilian militia he leads called the Woodsworn. Tough as a gnarled root, the Ekkuni dwarf carries only a rune-forged axe and shield into battle against any foe who dares land their dropship in his front yard.

Boldur is an Eldrid Defender. Initially, he was unlocked as a playable character upon reaching Command Rank 26 or by completing The Experiment mission. After the Winter Update though, he and the rest of the core 25 Battleborn became all unlockable after completing the Prologue mission. He features prominently in The Experiment as the main character the Battleborn give aid to.

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• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: He has tree-like hair which is best shown by his beard and the stump at the back of his head. The stump on his back though is later revealed to a Cedar Bear transplant in the lore of Battleplan 26.
• Boisterous Bruiser: A bit like Montana, Boldur is a muscular tough ass-kicking fellow that is exuberant and confident.
• Cool Old Guy: After Boldur started conversing with other people again, he helped form a militia for the Eldrid's defense against the Varelsi, but he does the majority of their work. The big (metaphorically speaking) softie also sent Thorn a poisonous root and letter talking about how it poetically compares to her good traits (while repeatedly telling her not to eat) and keeps the plant spine which led to his meeting Thorn entangled in his beard.
• A Day in the Limelight: The Experiment mission features him prominently.
• Everything's Worse with Bears: Inverted Trope, a lore challenge of Boldur's has him have a conversation with Nova while sedated (ok, he was really just talking at her while she decided to humor him) about a "cedar bear" he used to ride and fight with which was apparently the absolute best thing ever. Appropriate for a fellow that sounds vaguely Slavic.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: His Boldur Dash ability has him charge forward, stopping when knocking back the first enemy he runs into. A helix can amplify his capacity for this by instead launching them into the air on impact and passing through them instead of stopping.
• Gag Censor: A chibi image of his head which pops up to cover his otherwise exposed privates.
• Going Commando: He doesn't wear any underwear. Thankfully, his privates are censored by a chibi version of his head whenever this fact is highlighted.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: While his axe is tossed away, Boldur will beat opponents up with his fists (and technically a bit of Shield Bash too since one of his arms is wearing one). It is technically better for him to be unarmed without his axe runes anyway since his damage doesn't decrease while he is, he moves faster without his axe weighing him down, and he can make use of Stunning Blows augment which allows his basic attacks to always slow their target but only while he's not using his axe.
• The Hermit: He used to be this until a chance meeting with a young Thorn as detailed in one of his lore challenges.
• Husky Russkie: Not Russian but he has a thick Slavic accent and otherwise fits the trope pretty well.
• Irony: Boldur doesn't wear any underwear at all however, his shield according to a lore challenge of his so happens to have been crafted by him from the codpiece of an Ekkuni golemic guardian.
• Last of Its Kind: As revealed in the lore of Battleplan 26, the stump on Boldur's back is actually a transplant of a Cedar Bear that the dwarf somehow transplanted it onto his body. Cedar Bears are generally considered extinct through the veiling of their homeworld of Ralpopym and extended Eldrid conflicts with both the Varelsi and Peacekeeper forces on Codex, Ekkunar, and elsewhere. As such, Beatrix believes that Boldur's stump maybe the last Cedar Bear in existence. It's a thing that's supported by Boldur being protective of it and refusing to have it removed despite Beatrix's assumption that the arboreal parasite will kill him eventually if left unchecked.
• Loincloth: Wears this as part of his apparel and unfortunately that's all there is as Boldur doesn't wear anything else underneath it.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: An Ekkuni Greatshield to be specific. A lore challenge of his reveals he crafted this from the codpiece of an Ekkuni golemic guardian.
• Magikarp Power: Boldur starts out a bit unimpressive, with it being difficult for him to kill things even after hitting all of his abilities on them and chasing them, forcing him to spend a good bit of the game mostly hiding behind his shield. This changes after he gets his ultimate which while active boost his damage and heal him from absorbing damage with his shield until they are consumed to improve his other abilities, and the cooldown on his ultimate is rather low which gives him very little downtime at being very tough and threatening.
• Mighty Glacier: Boldur possesses exceptional health and power to compensate for his lack of speed or range.
• Mooning: For his "Rear Guard" taunt, he uplifts his loincloth and gleefully does this. Thankfully, his completely bare behind is censored by a chibi version of his head.
• Odd Friendship: With Thorn who he has adopted as his granddaughter of sorts, a dynamic which subverts the stereotypical fantasy Elves Versus Dwarves dynamic. Per one of Boldur's lore challenge, the story goes that when Thorn and her parents migrated to Ekkunar after their homeworld Eshteni was Darkened, they settled in a refugee village not far from where then reclusive Boldur made his home. A young Thorn would often journey deep into the Ekkuni forests and spent more than a year watching Boldur from a distance before making contact, said first contact came in the form of stealing from plants he grew in his garden. One of the plants she stole pierced her skin and inflicted Thorn with a sickening poison. Boldur later found her and after weeks of treating Thorn from the poison, a relationship budded between them wherein the dwarf adopted Thorn. She gained a grandfather of sorts, and he gained a new incentive to leave his solitude and once again invest in the well-being of others.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: A stubborn boisterous fellow with a wicked cool beard who goes into combat with robots and magic users with just an axe and shield. Just about the only things about him that's not Dwarf-standard is that he's a nature-attuned character rather than one with the typical industry-feel of Dwarves and he speaks with a Slavic accent instead of a Scottish one.
• Planimal: In the lore of Battleplan 26, Beatrix discovers that the trunk and root structure covering most of Boldur's back is actually an arboreal parasite. Boldur's "stump" is actually a transplant of what may be the last Cedar Bear in existence. While Beatrix can only hypothesize as to what constitutes a biomarker of aging for Cedar Bears, if their growth patterns are at all similar to typical trees, she guesses that the one on Boldur's back appears to have been cut around the age of 500. Somehow he has transplanted it onto his body, enabling it to survive by drawing off of his own incredible regenerative properties for the past 50 years or so. An Eldrid children's book which Beatrix later reads for further research also apparently states that Cedar Bears take root in the hardest of stone and grow into trees. Only when once fully grown into trees, do they bear fruit.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: The Axe Return augment allows Boldur's axe to immediately return to his hand if Axe Toss fails to strike an enemy.
• Punny Name: Yes, his name is pronounced exactly like the word for a large rock.
• Really 700 Years Old: He's at least over two millennia old. More specifically according to some lore from a visit by Randy Varnell at the Battleborn Discord Server, he's 2,533 years old having been in 17,425 C.R.
• Running Gag: His appearance in The Experiment has him say the word "science" a lot throughout the mission with a rather exaggerated and relished tone.
• Smarter Than You Look: In spite of the heavy accent and looking like a penniless hermit, he was apparently helping with a Eldrid science team that working on a method to defeat Varelsi portals in The Experiment mission, which was why he was the only survivor after a shardstorm killed the rest of the team. Ghalt can respond with expected incredulity with him being in charge soon after the players meet him, with Mellka explaining he was more just the only one left.
• The Symbiote: Initially dismissed by by Beatrix as some form of Eldrid ornamentation, she discovers that the stump on Boldur's back is actually an arboreal parasite in the lore of Battleplan 26. It's actually a transplant of what may be the last Cedar Bear in existence that Boldur somehow transplanted onto his body, enabling it to survive by drawing off his own regenerative properties. While Boldur on the surface appears to be physically unaffected by the parasite, Beatrix assumes that if left unchecked, the Cedar Bear will kill the dwarf either by maturing into a full grown bear whose weight will crush Boldur, or its root structure will invade one or more of Boldur's vital organ systems, inadvertently killing the dwarf and the parasite alike. Her assumptions though are dismissed by Boldur and this leads to her researching more on the matter. It leads her to a children's book which apparently describes a bit of Cedar Bear physiology. Apparently only in the hardest stone, do Cedar Bears take root, and only once their tree is grown, do they bear fruit.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Boldur's Axe Toss ability. When it doesn't, he'll move faster until he gets it back anyway!
• Top-Heavy Guy: He's almost as wide as he is tall, and his arms are more than twice as muscular as his legs. His legs are, in true Dwarf fashion, pretty short.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Boldur walks around without a shirt.
• Weird Beard: His beard is pretty much a bunch of tree branches.
• Wild Hair: He has wild bark and branch-like hair.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Assumed by Beatrix in the lore of Battleplan 26. During a checkup, Beatrix discovers that the trunk and root structure covering Boldur's is actually an arboreal parasite, a transplant of what may be the last Cedar Bear in existence. As such, Boldur is very protective of his stump. While this may be the case and Boldur appears to be a picture of physical health despite the parasite, Beatrix believes that since the root structure is already fundamentally altering Boldur's body, it will eventually kill him. She believes that if left unchecked, the Cedar Bear will either continue to mature and crush Boldur under its weight, or the root structure will invade one or more of Boldur's vital organ systems, inadvertently killing the dwarf and the parasite alike. Upon informing this to Boldur though, the dwarf simply laughed at Beatrix and called her a "silly Jennerit science-baby" with "much to learn of bear-science". While she doesn't appreciate his condescension, Beatrix however admits he's right and thus decides to research more into the matter, something that leads her to an Eldrid children's book which apparently describes a bit of what's happening.

Kelvin

Voiced by: J. Michael Tatum

At first glance, Kelvin appears to be a hulking ice golem, but is in fact an entire microorganism civilization that, together, form a single sentient being that smashes, chomps and freezes its enemies for the survival of the species. Rescued by Miko, Kelvin now fights for the Eldrid to preserve what's left of the cosmos.

Kelvin is an Eldrid Defender. Initially, he was unlocked as a playable character upon reaching Command Rank 18 or by winning 5 matches as an Eldrid character. After the Winter Update though, he and the rest of the core 25 Battleborn became all unlockable after completing the Prologue mission.

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• And Show It to You: His "Heart of Ice" taunt has him pull out his eponymous glowing heart out from his mouth. This doesn't bother him and he simply gulps his heart back in.
• Cephalothorax: With his huge skull and even bigger jaw making up a good portion of his body, he's pretty much a walking maw with limbs.
• Color-Coded Elements: Zig-Zagged - Kelvin's colours are pretty mixed between brown, blue, cyan, pale green, and a bit of orange rather than predominantly blue, white or cyan.
• Dem Bones: Kelvin's golem form basically resembles a large walking skeleton that has an even larger skull with a prominent underbite, protruding overall out from a huge chunk of ice and covered in various other parts of his skeletal frame in smaller amounts of ice. Some of Kelvin's lore challenges and one of Miko's reveal the origin of this. Upon discovering the microscopic colony, Miko decided to help Kelvin attain a more stable form in order to relate to others better as Kelvin then was a formless cloud of cold. As such, the first step was to find a suitable endoskeleton to which the colony could bond with, making it possible for Kelvin to manifest in a consistent physical form. This led to Miko asking Phoebe for help. Although her initial metal and plastic suggestions were shot down, Phoebe suggested that they use Aztanti relics from Bliss. Among said relics were the remains of skeletal Aztanti "guardians", golem-like beings which the civilization seemed to have had a penchant for constructing. At this suggestion, an expedition sent by Phoebe, which included Mellka whom Miko asked to also help, went to Bliss to recover one of these Aztanti skeletal things to help Kelvin with his identity.
• Eating the Enemy: He can Chomp his enemies and gain a permanent health upgrade if he kills them with it.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Kelvin of all characters had a moment of this as detailed in one of his lore challenges. During a mission tracking down Varelsi hunter patrols with Ghalt on Bliss, the two of them had a few close calls in heavy fights. The result of all that made Kelvin a bit jittery. So much so that when some indigenous fur-covered rat-thing jumped out from behind a rock, Kelvin in a panic erected some ice walls around him and Ghalt, inadvertently trapping the two of them in a rather humorous situation.
• Elemental Barrier: Kelvin can erect a temporary impassible Ice Wall that will stun nearby enemies upon creation and block movement.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: His right skeletal forearm is encased in larger amounts of ice than his left one. Same goes for his left leg which is encased in more than his right one.
• Flowery Elizabethan English: Despite his appearance, Kelvin tends to talk like this thanks to the Universal Translator he's equipped with. Except when he's having trouble putting it into words.
• Hive Mind: Kelvin is an ice golem with a single consciousness emerging from a colony of extremophilic microorganisms.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: His Chomp ability normally gives him permanent health when he kills enemies. It however can be augmented with Mastication Restoration so that a portion of the damage dealt by Chomp is returned to Kelvin as health.
• An Ice Person: Has a number of ice based abilities.
• Meaningful Name: His name is Kelvin and his abilities are ice based.
• Mouth Cam: Kelvin's POV is actually a view from inside his mouth, odd considering he clearly has eyes in the normal human position.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Sometimes when he defeats an enemy Miko, he'll be greatly remorseful at killing his first friend.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A giant skeletal ice golem that's actually a colony of extremophilic microorganisms.
• Odd Friendship:
  • With Miko who's a ninja Mushroom Man. Kinda has do with Miko being the last surviving bud of a planet-spanning fungal colony with a Hive Mind consciousness, something that Kelvin as an entire microorganism civilization with a similar Hive Mind consciousness can relate to. A lore challenge of Miko's even further reveals that due to their similar constitutions, they're capable of talking with one another in a way that Mellka describes in her audio transcript as something that looks nothing like any conversation she has ever seen. Mellka describes it, much to her being grossed out by it, that it's like they're melding or molding. It's at least something she says involves Miko trading some of its stuff for some of Kelvin's stuff and vice versa.
  • Alongside Miko, he's also apparently friends with Phoebe according to two of Kelvin's lore challenges as she helped Kelvin find the Aztanti relic that would serve as Kelvin's physical endoskeleton.
• Snowlem: A large skeletal ice golem.
• Starfish Aliens: Kelvin is in reality an entire civilization of extremophilic microorganisms with a Hive Mind consciousness. His original state is a cloud of frigid state and to interact with others in a more stable physical form, he takes on the shape of a large skeletal ice golem which he created from bonding with the remains of an ancient Aztanti construct.
• Super Smoke: Kelvin's Sublimate ability allows him to become a cloud of frigid air for a brief time. According to a number of Kelvin's lore challenges, this is actually the state Kelvin had before Miko and others helped him attain a more stable physical form.
• Universal Translator: A lore challenge of his reveals that Kleese developed and outfitted Kelvin with one.
• The Worm That Walks: Kelvin is actually an entire, sentient microorganism civilization that takes the shape of an ice golem.

Mellka

Voiced by: Brina Palencia

The Eldrid tend to be scientific-minded and peaceful folks, in tune with the natural order of things. Mellka apparently missed the memo at the last Eldrid meeting. Born in space, Mellka Hyenyota developed an early hunger for solid ground, and found a clear calling in special operations, even joining with the Eldrid group called The Vigilant. While serving with The Vigilant, she developed close ties with an elite Peacekeeper operative named Trevor Ghalt. While proficient at several combat styles, Mellka prefers some of the more exotic Eldrid weaponry including an Eldrid Bio-Glaive, a biologically-active Eldrid gauntlet now permanently fused with her left hand which reshapes itself based on her neural prompting.

Mellka is an Eldrid Attacker. She is the very first playable character of the game, acting as the main protagonist of the Prologue, the first story mission and initial tutorial of the game. Initially, she was unlocked as a playable character outside of that mission upon reaching Command Rank 34 or by completing The Heliophage mission. After the Winter Update though, she and the rest of the core 25 Battleborn became all unlockable after completing the Prologue mission.

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• Blade Below the Shoulder: An Eldrid gauntlet permanently fused with her left hand. She extends a blade from it for her Claw Lunge ability or shoots blades from it for her Blade Launcher ability.
• Blood Knight: Finds combat rather fun.
  Clear my schedule, I want to do that again!
• Child of Two Worlds: Mellka is a literal one as her human father was born on Penarch while her Aelfrin mother was from Eshteni, both worlds of which were tragically darkened. Mellka's background and upbringing also makes her a child of two worlds in character. She chooses to both embrace aspects which are more nature attuned such as Eldrid beliefs of things like the fabled Old Sentinel, and her bio-gauntlet; and aspects which are less nature attuned such her clothes, gun, and hairstyle.
• Combos: Mellka's venom effect on enemies, in addition to damaging them, also causes them to take extra damage from Claw Lunge and her melee attacks.
• Cyborg: The Wayfarer skin switches Mellka's Organic Technology for more traditional non-organic mechanical parts and basically turns her into a cyborg.
• Delinquent Hair: Sports a mohawk which fits her as a more modern punk rock character within an otherwise fantasy themed faction.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Courtesy of the Eldrid gauntlet fused on her which not only covers her entire left forearm but also has visible parts going up the rest of her arm and shoulder to the left side of her neck. Her left pupil is green as opposed to the color of her right one thanks to the gauntlet's fusion as well.
• Glass Cannon: Mellka has good speed, range, and power to offset her low health.
• Half-Human Hybrid: A couple of her lore challenges reveal that Mellka is this. Her father was a Penarch-born human researcher, and her mother was an Aelfrin refugee from Eshteni. Furthermore, this mixed lineage is suspected to be reason her gauntlet permanently bonded to her.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: After the Sentinel mission, when the team is forced to destroy her childhood hero, she has the team come back saying, "We're gonna drink now."
• Mark of the Supernatural: Mellka's right eye is amber but her left's green with a pupil like a snake's, certainly because of the Eldrid gauntlet that is fused to her hand on the same side.
• The Musketeer: Mellka's main weapons are her machine pistol and biogauntlet.
• One Bullet Clips: Like Borderlands 2's Tediore guns, Mellka's machine pistol gives you reason to not reload immediately like the trope would encourage because reloading causes her to release a damaging explosion that afflicts targets with venom at the same time.
• Pointy Ears: Has these which she inherited from her mother.
• Poisoned Weapons: A poisoned machine pistol.
• Poisonous Person: Several of her attacks deal envenomed damage over time. Others benefit from hitting targets afflicted by it.
• Precision F-Strike: Mellka has a line when blinded that clearly shows how much she does not like being blinded.
  You sonofmotherf*cker!
• Space Elf: More specifically she's a Space half-elf due to being the offspring of a human and an Aelfrin as her lore challenges reveal. Thanks to her upbringing though, she's more space than elf unlike the rest of the more typically fantasy inspired Eldrid.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: A good portion of the campaign focuses on her to a degree that she could be considered as the game's main protagonist. She's the game's very first playable character via The Prologue; she's a central narrative NPC for a number of missions with The Archive and The Sentinel in particular focusing on problems close to Mellka; she along with Deande storywise are the ones spearheading the ground team in The Heliophage which is the final mission of the campaign; and at the very end, she pretty much undergoes Character Development as she becomes more accepting of Deande who she had been hostile to since the start.
• Status Effects: Venom, doing damage over time for a short duration, which has the extra benefit of delaying enemies' ability to recharge their shields even if they break contact with Mellka. A variety of her helixes increase her ability to inflict venom or receive additional benefits from inflicting it on enemies.

Miko

Voiced by: Julie Mayfield

The last surviving bud of a planet-spanning fungal colony, the otherworldly Miko is regarded as a capable "combat botanist," healing and protecting its allies while hurling poison-tipped kunai at pretty much everything else.

Miko is an Eldrid Supporter. Initially, Miko was one of the few initial playable characters unlocked after completing the Prologue mission. After the Winter Update though, the rest of the 25 core Battleborn joined Miko and these few in being unlockable after completing this mission.

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• Ambiguous Gender: Although Miko's technically a sentient fungus and therefore doesn't have a gender, that hasn't stop other characters from getting confused on what gender and such they should identify Miko as. This is highlighted by the fact that Miko's voice is provided by a woman performed in a way that's at most times sounding gender ambiguous but at others distinctively female. As if that wasn't enough, Miko's gender ambiguity is made even more confusing by Battleborn Tap which uses female pronouns such as "her" when referring to Miko.
• Combat Medic: Possesses multiple skills to heal itself and its allies.
• Cyclops: Has a single eye that's usually obscured by Miko's mushroom cap.
• Eye-Obscuring Hat: Miko's mushroom cap typically obscures its single eye.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: A small logical example with Miko pulling off its mushroom cap on its head to throw to the ground for Fungus Among Us...and in doing so, makes it a lot harder to headshot Miko for critical hits.
• Genius Loci: Mikollopria was once a planet-spanning fungal colony with a Hive Mind consciousness that gained sentience over a million years ago. It was an entire living world before the machinations of the star consuming Varelsi darkened its sky. The last remaining bud of this massive organism, Miko, now serves as a member of the Battleborn.
• Hidden Depths: According to Phoebe, they are an "absolute beast at poker," and this is why Kelvin resembles a giant skeletal golem (Miko's preference) than one of the giant minions (Phoebe's preference).
• Hive Mind: Miko being once a part of a planet-spanning fungal colony has this which is reflected with how Miko personally uses plural pronouns for themselves.
• Last of Its Kind: Miko's backstory as the last member of a planet-wide fungal colony.
• Magic Mushroom: Miko's essentially a walking one in concept with the capability of releasing bio-friendly spores with healing properties for most lifeforms.
• Mushroom Man: A sentient Mushroom creature. Specifically, Miko's the last remaining bud of a planet-sized fungal organism classified as A. Mikollopria. According to one of Miko's lore challenges which is a species contact report, the buds of the fungus had taken on humanoid qualities and shapes to better relate with other beings. The report further stated that the buds seemed to share a Hive Mind with their home planet, but a few were notable in their uniqueness. Miko happens to be one of those more unique ones reported.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A ninja Mushroom Man.
• No Biological Sex: Due to being a sentient fungus, Miko has no biological sex in the same sense as animals and above have.
• Odd Friendship:
  • With Kelvin who's a skeletal ice golem. Kinda has do with with Kelvin being actually an entire microorganism civilization with a Hive Mind consciousness, something that Miko as the last surviving bud of a planet-spanning fungal colony with a similar Hive Mind consciousness can relate to. A lore challenge of Miko's even further reveals that due to their similar constitutions, they're capable of talking with one another in a way that Mellka describes in her audio transcript as something that looks nothing like any conversation she has ever seen. Mellka describes it, much to her being grossed out by it, that it's like they're melding or molding. It's at least something she says involves Miko trading some of its stuff for some of Kelvin's stuff and vice versa.
  • Alongside Kelvin, Miko's also apparently friends with Phoebe according to two of Kelvin's lore challenges as she helped Kelvin find the Aztanti relic that would serve as Kelvin's physical endoskeleton.
• Poisoned Weapons: Miko's kunai are spikes Miko is capable of sprouting. Said spikes, Miko has applied with poisonous acidic secretions which are hazardous to most biological and non-biological sentients.
• Pronoun Trouble: Being a sentient fungus, Miko has no biological sex. As a result of this, other characters tend to have trouble on what pronouns they should use to refer Miko as, whether to refer Miko as a "he", a "she", or an "it". Miko personally uses plural pronouns such as "our" and "we" though due to having a Hive Mind and all. Battleborn Tap the mobile phone game however confuses the matter as it uses female pronouns when referring to Miko.
• Really 700 Years Old:
  • The planet-wide fungal colony Hive Mind consciousness that Miko possesses is extremely old. The physical bud itself according to Battleplan 20 came to existence during the War of Being (19208-19304 C.R.) wherein the planet-being Mikollopria released spores to aid the Eldrid forces against the Jennerit.
  • Some lore from a visit by Randy Varnell at the Battleborn Discord Server more specifically states that the bud that's a Battleborn was spawned in 19,209 C.R., just after the War of Being started. The original Mikollopria though first gained sentience over a million years before.
• Starfish Aliens: A. Mikollopria was a planet-sized fungal colony with a Hive Mind that gained sentience over a million years ago. To better interact with other sentient species, the buds of the fungus took on more humanoid qualities and shapes. Still retaining a Hive Mind-like consciousness, Miko the last remaining bud of the massive fungal organism fights against the Varelsi as a Battleborn.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: Poison-tipped kunai that deal damage over time. According to one of Miko's lore challenges, these are actually well-balanced fibrous spikes that Miko is capable of rapidly sprouting. Typically fungi and buds of A. Mikollopria are not known to defend themselves with thorns or other hazards, but they are known to be highly adaptable to their environment. Thus it is believed among the Eldrid Vigilant that this spike sprouting capability is not a natural ability of Miko, but was a learned adaptation after a violent encounter with the blade-throwing Jennerit spymistress Deande.
• Time Abyss: Although the last remaining bud of the planet-wide fungus Mikollopria that fights as a Battleborn was spawned in 19,209 C.R., Miko's Hive Mind consciousness first gained sentience over a million years before. They are thus in a sense the oldest living being in the entire Battleborn universe having even been sentient during the time of the ancient precursor Aztanti civilization.
• Weaponized Headgear: In Miko's Fungus Among Us ability, after hurling its mushroom cap, the cap normally grows into a separate mushroom that just spreads healing spores in an area to aid nearby allies. However when augmented with Vicious Strain, its spores can also deal damage to nearby enemies.

Thorn

Voiced by: Caitlin Glass

Teshka Elessamorn — nicknamed "Thorn" for her short temper — was the last aelfrin child of her homeworld before it was darkened by the Varelsi. Thorn ranges the jungle-wilds of Ekkunar and beyond with her bow "Kreshek" and her battle-honed skill with advanced Eldrid "magic."

Thorn is an Eldrid Attacker. Initially, she was one of the few initial playable characters unlocked after completing the Prologue mission. After the Winter Update though, the rest of the 25 core Battleborn joined Thorn and these few in being unlockable after completing this mission.

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• Accent Tropes: Speaks with a Slavic-esque accent.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Two particular mutations augment Thorn's abilities so that enemies would suffer shield penetrating damage. The first, "Fiendish Curse" mutation makes it that any bonus damage to targets that Thorn curses will penetrate completely through their shields. The second, "Phasing Arrows" makes it that a portion of arrow damage penetrates through enemy shields. Both mutations are capable of being chosen together for combined effects.
• Black Magic: Downplayed example, but nonetheless Thorn uses an ability named "Blight" and charging her bow attacks long enough will cause her to curse the enemy she strikes for 8 seconds with the next shot.
• Calling Your Attacks: Subverted Trope - while using her ultimate "Wrath of the Wild", she occasionally may call out "GRRREEEEEENNN...BALLS! That name is temporary!"
• Charged Attack: Her arrows can be strung longer before firing for more damage and accuracy, up to a maximum. At this maximum, the arrow will also curse the target, making them take additional damage from her abilities and charged arrows.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: A twofer, she's asymmetrical both horizontally and vertically. Her right arm and left leg are covered by her armor, her left arm and right leg are not.
• Floral Theme Naming: Her unlockable Palette Swap skins are all named after flowers/flowering plants such as Oleander and Orchid to name two.
• Forest Ranger: She checks on the boxes for a typical forest elf with her weapon and adherence to nature except she's more wild jungle than peaceful forest.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: She easily gets angry. It's a trait that earned her nickname of Thorn.
• Healing Factor: Thorn carries no shield, relying instead on rapid health regeneration to survive in combat.
• Jungle Princess: Although looking like the typical fantasy forest elf at first, she's more of a wild jungle girl. It's best highlighted in moments where she growls like a savage animal.
• Life Drain: The "Archer's Boon" augment makes it that when Volley deals health damage to an enemy, a portion of Thorn's health is restored.
• Mage Marksman: Thorn decimates her enemies with arrows and special magic powers, such as blight fields, which deal significant area-of-effect damage. She can also apply her powers to her arrows, inflicting enemies with a damage-over-time effect called "curse".
• Multi Shot: The Volley ability.
• Named Weapons: Her Ekkuni longbow is named Kreshek. From a lore challenge of Thorn's, Kreshek in Aelfrin literally means "One Who Hunts the Shadow".
• Noodle People: Thorn's limbs seem to have traded width for length. Her legs are twice the length of her torso.
• Odd Friendship:
  • With Boldur who has adopted her as his granddaughter of sorts, a dynamic which subverts the stereotypical fantasy Elves Versus Dwarves dynamic. Per one of Boldur's lore challenge, the story goes that when Thorn and her parents migrated to Ekkunar after their homeworld Eshteni was Darkened, they settled in a refugee village not far from where then reclusive Boldur made his home. A young Thorn would often journey deep into the Ekkuni forests and spent more than a year watching Boldur from a distance before making contact, said first contact came in the form of stealing from plants he grew in his garden. One of the plants she stole pierced her skin and inflicted Thorn with a sickening poison. Boldur later found her and after weeks of treating Thorn from the poison, a relationship budded between them wherein the dwarf adopted Thorn. She gained a grandfather of sorts, and he gained a new incentive to leave his solitude and once again invest in the well-being of others.
  • Thorn, a very noodly Nature Hero Space Elf with a Hair-Trigger Temper is apparently friends with Montana who is a ridiculously top heavy Space Marine human Nice Guy. In both Thorn and Montana's potential responses to Wolf in the Void's Edge mission on what they plan to do after the mission, both of them mention being in a book club with each other.
• Our Elves Are Different: Thorn resembles the Wood Elf archetype and she uses magic along with a longbow to encompass two common fantasy elf stereotypes, but her short temper and thick Slavic accent keeps her from completely resembling the classic elven archer.
• Pointy Ears: Has these due to being an Aelfrin.
• Sociopathic Hero: Downplayed, her enjoyment in Bond One-Liners can get a bit...extreme.
  I never knew shrieks of agony could sound so good!
  It is a shame Varelsi do not bleed. Or cry. Or sh*t themselves in terror.
• Space Elf: As one of the Aelfrin, a tall agile elf-like race, she's this.

Eldrid NPCs

The non-playable Eldrid based enemies.

Swarmers

Swarmers are bug-like creatures native to Ekkunar and Bliss. These indigenous enemies per their name are known for swarming in large numbers and being a general nuisance for the Battleborn.

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• Action Bomb: Swarmers without shells lounge at their targets and explode. With shells however, they simply bite at their targets instead which is otherwise negligible except when they come in large numbers. Swollen Swarmers are capable of exploding as well but only when they've sustained enough damage.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Swarmers, especially the Swollen ones, are weaker from behind via their exposed abdomens.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Swarmers are tick-like creatures that come in two types.
  • The typical Swarmer is relatively small in size for a giant bug and easy to kill but capable of high damage. Individually, a Swarmer is weak but in numbers, they can pose a challenge.
  • The other type of Swarmer is the Swollen Swarmer. They are larger and tougher than their smaller counterparts but aren't as aggressive, relying instead on spawning tiny Swarmers to attack targets.
• Weaponized Offspring: Swollen Swarmers rely on spawing and siccing their young on targets as their main form of attack.
• Zerg Rush: Per their name, Swarmers specialize in swarming at their targets in large numbers.

Guardians

Guardians are ancient Aztanti golem-like beings that the Eldrid precursor civilization had a penchant for constructing. Built to match whatever environment they're in, they tirelessly guard the Aztanti ruins they reside in. Among them include boss characters, the Galactic Emperor from The Algorithm mission; and the Old Sentinel, Guardian Arc, and Guardian Vyn from The Sentinel mission.

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Old Sentinel's hard-wired for defense thus it refuses to see reason with anything that Mellka tells it, forcing the Battleborn to resort to violence.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Guardians are impervious to damage except for the small exposed area on their chest. For some, this area is covered by a chest piece that has to be destroyed first before they can be damaged. A patch later made it that they can be damaged at any point of their body but would receive significantly more damage at their cores.
• Chest Blaster: Guardians are capable of firing blasts from their exposed chest area.
• Dem Bones: Due to incorporating the fossilized dragon bones found throughout Bliss in their design, Frigid Guardians resemble walking ice covered skeletons.
• Enemy Summoner:
  • In between his battle phases, the Galactic Emperor summons Frigid Guardians to aid him via boulders that pop out when he burrows himself. They can be stopped however from spawning if the boulders they spawn from are destroyed before they hit the ground.
  • Guardian Vyn is capable of spawning a Swarmer at the spot he throws his spear at. The Old Sentinel has this ability as well with his own spear with the added effect that it splits after thrown into multiple smaller spears that spawn even more Swarmers. In addition of being able to spawn Swarmers, the Old Sentinel is capable of spawning Eroded Guardians from boulders it throws and pops out from the ground. Like with the case of the Galactic Emperor's Frigid Guardians, these can be prevented from spawning if their boulders are destroyed if they hit the ground.
• Fast Tunnelling:
  • Guardians are capable of burrowing and moving underground. They are effectively invincible in this state. Only a flurry of either earth for Eroded Guardians or snow for Frigid ones above ground displays their position as they move around while underground. A patch though later removed this ability for the Frigid Guardians.
  • The Galactic Emperor enters his boss area via tunneling beneath the ice and then bursting out of it. In between his phases, he'll retreat underground and summon Frigid Guardians to his aid. As for the other boss Guardians found in The Sentinel mission, they're incapable of tunneling underground.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: In the ISIC and Magnus centric Algorithm mission, the Galactic Emperor comes off as relatively if not completely unconnected to everything else that happens in the mission. He's simply a boss that suddenly shows up, having been awakened by the Battleborn when they try to drill through an ice wall to get to the Aztanti ruins where ISIC is located in. Even ISIC has no idea what this guy's deal is.
• Golems: Guardians are golem-like constructs and come in two types depending on where they reside. Frigid Guardians inhabit the Aztanti ruins of Bliss and are built from ice and the fossilized dragon bones that litter the moon. Eroded Guardians meanwhile, inhabit the Aztanti ruins of Ekkunar and are built from stone and plant life.
• Humongous Mecha: The Old Sentinel is essentially a large ancient robot.
• An Ice Person: Frigid Guardians are capable of wielding the icy elements to attack.
• King Mook:
  • The Galactic Emperor is basically a more powerful Frigid Guardian with special moves.
  • Guardian Arc and Vyn are larger more powerful Eroded Guardians with Arc focusing more on electrical attacks and Vyn focusing more on melee ones. The Old Sentinel is an even larger more powerful Eroded Guardian that has the abilities of both Arc and Vyn.
• Lost Superweapon: The Old Sentinel is a legendary ancient artifact/doomsday weapon that's based on Ekkunar for at least a thousand years, probably zillions according to Mellka. Originally thought to be just the stuff of stories, Rendain was able to find its location and decided to acquire it. The objective of The Sentinel mission is thus for the Battleborn to destroy the titular sentinel per the Eldrid Observatory's instructions as it was deemed better that it be dead than fall into Rendain's hands much to Mellka's dismay as she sees the Sentinel as a sort of childhood hero from the stories she heard about it.
• Lost Technology: Guardians are essentially ancient robots whose method of construction have been lost to the ages.
• Mêlée à Trois: The Guardians in The Sentinel mission are more than willing to fight both the Battleborn and Jennerit forces intruding upon the ruins with the titular Old Sentinel refusing to believe anything that Mellka says about what's happening in the universe.
• Meaningful Name: Guardian Arc is capable of electrical arcs.
• Mini-Boss: The Galactic Emperor; and the Guardians Arc and Vyn are minibosses in the respective missions they are in.
• Shock and Awe: Guardian Arc is capable of sending out electrical attacks. The Old Sentinel due to being basically a combination of Guardian Arc and Vyn has electrical attacks as well.
• Shoulders of Doom: Most Guardians typically have large pauldrons adorned on them. The electrical attacks of Guardian Vyn and the Old Sentinel come from long electric rod looking ones.
• Snowlem: Frigid Guardians are golems made from ice and the fossilized dragon bones. Their basic material makeup is used by Kelvin for his physical form according to his lore.
• Taking You with Me: Guardians when low on health will explode and damage anyone nearby.

Aztanti Name-Eater

The Aztanti Name-Eater is an ancient golem construct and the boss in the DLC Story Operation "Phoebe and the Heart of Ekkunar". Found in the ancient ruins deep within Ekkunar's core, it serves as a guard protecting long lost secrets among other things. While it is an automated golem like the Guardians found in other Aztanti related ruins, its most distinguishing feature however is that it bears an uncanny resemblance to the large golden shield wielding statues often found in multiple Jennerit locales, a thing that Phoebe's expedition takes note of and leads them to a number of discoveries regarding the ancient Aztanti and other matters.

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• BFS: After the initial phase of its battle, the Aztanti Name-Eater discards one of its shields for a large sword. Later on in the battle, it discards the other shield and makes its sword even larger and into a Whip Sword.
• Crystal Prison: When Phoebe's expedition encounters the Aztanti Name-Eater, it's initially encased in several large shards of crystal that keep it in its place. It promptly breaks out of these to engage the intruders.
• Dual Wielding: It initially wields two shields as weapons in battle.
• Eye Beams: The faces adorned on its shield are capable of shooting out lasers from their eyes.
• Living Statue: The Aztanti Name-Eater is an ancient golem construct that strongly resembles the large golden dual shield wielding statues often seen around in Jennerit related levels. The real kicker however is it's noticed by Beatrix that this forty thousand year old golem looks intriguingly like a Thrall. More specifically, it resembles the species before Beatrix modified the Thralls' genome, the Temptestian Greyhorn.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Aztanti Name-Eater's shields he wields naturally protect it from attacks.
• Mêlée à Trois: The Aztanti Name-Eater's boss battle is a three way fight between it, the Battleborn, and the Varelsi who've infiltrated its chamber. The Thralls which have been drawn by the signal emanating from the ruins are also present in the battle however they instead fight alongside the construct rather than against it.
• Nonstandard Character Design: Though it is identified as a golem construct, the Aztanti Name-Eater has a completely different design than what is commonly seen from other more regularly encountered Aztanti golems.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: One of the Aztanti Name-Eater's attacks when it still possesses its left shield involves throwing the shield at enemies. The shield returns back to it after being thrown.
• The Reveal: Through investigating certain peculiarities noticed about this golem construct and other things over the course of the multiple playthrough runs of operation, Phoebe's expedition discovers that the Thralls are actually the devolved descendants of the Aztanti, having purposely devolved themselves into the primitive beasts that were generations later forcefully uplifted into a Slave Race that serves the Jennerit.
• Shield Bash:
  • In its initial phase, the Aztanti Name-Eater fights with two shields. Apart from shooting lasers with its shields, most of its attacks equipped with these involve bashing the shields against opponents.
  • After its initial phase, the Aztanti Name-Eater discards one of its shields for a sword. It still however uses bashing opponents with its remaining shield as one of its attacks.
• Status Effects: A number of its attacks are capable of inflicting silence.
• Sword Beam: Upon equipping itself with a sword, the Aztanti Name-Eater gains a number of attacks which involve swinging its sword and firing beams at enemies. Many of these inflict silence.
• Throwing Your Shield Always Works: In a similar vein to Galilea, the Aztanti Name-Eater has an attack where it throws its left shield at enemies. It's capable of doing this when equipped with two shields or equipped with one shield and a sword.
• Whip Sword: In its final phase, the Aztanti Name-Eater discards its remaining shield and makes its sword extendable. Not only does this make the sword even larger but whenever the golem swings it, the sword further extends during the attack before returning back in shape immediately afterwards.

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