The Salt houses a variety of denizens; some friendly, some oppressive, and some pivotal to the Genius Loci's workings.
open/close all folders
The New Hope
Dandara
Dandara
The player character, a concentrated resistance born from the Crib of Creation to free the Salt from the Golden Idea.- Action Girl: She's a young woman who single-handedly fights for the Salt's freedom.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: She is a living affirmation of the Salt's right to Freedom.
- Heroic Mime: The Salt's hope doesn't discernibly speak or otherwise vocalize, and she has zero lines of dialogue.
- One-Woman Army: With proper technique, she can mow through many, many Eldarian units.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Her Scarf of Freedom exemplifies her strength in battle, even granting her energy for special attacks!
- Tuckerization: She's named after the 17th-century Afro-Brazilian warrior woman who led a community of escaped slaves in the Brazilian state of Alagoas.
Village of Artists
Tarsila
Tarsila
A painter who, at Dandara's request, allows the village's painting platforms to be moved.- Shout-Out: Her unusual proportions are an homage to the namesake Brazilian modernist painter's most famous painting, Abaporu.
- Tuckerization: She's named after Tarsila do Amaral.
Thommaz
Thommaz
A musician whose reinvigorated hope upon seeing Dandara allows her to activate the village's music platforms.- Author Avatar: He's an insert of this game's composer, Thommaz Kauffmann.
Jonny B.
Jonny B.
An engineer who grants Dandara the ability to launch magical missiles that destroy stone walls.- Tuckerization: He's named after Jonathan Blow, an early indie game developer and the creator of Braid and The Witness.
Major Allies
Lazúli
Lazúli
Dandara's guide throughout the game, who overlooks the Temple of Creation.- Feeling Their Age: She mentions having grown too exhausted in the long run to fight for the Salt anymore.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: If you reach for the true ending, the Salt's fear over Nara's freedom and Eldar's death leads to Lazúli's brutal death by Tormenta's hands.
- Ms. Exposition: She often introduces Dandara to different areas of the Salt.
- Telepathy: She can mentally communicate to Dandara from great distances in the Salt.
The Writer
The Writer
The creator of the various stories preserved within the Remembrance Desert. Bélia
Bélia
The Salt's Spirited Heart, who hardened herself over the Salt's damage. Once she is freed from her shell, she holds open the Hidden Realms' maws to grant Dandara access to them.- Boss Subtitles: In the state Dandara fights her in, she's subtitled "The Stone-Hearted".
- Defeat Means Friendship: Defeating her will free her from her stone shell and make her friendly to Dandara.
- Safety in Indifference: This heart concealed herself in a combative shell, specifically over Nara's disappearance, and she pushes away her own joy out of fear of sadness.
- World Tree: Her roots extend throughout the entire Salt, including the Hidden Realms. She can feel and perceive everything near them.
The Voice of Protest (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Nara
A songbird woman who was imprisoned in the Exile of Contemplations for speaking out against Eldar. Upon being set free, she prepares to sing for genuine change to the Salt.- Anthropomorphic Personification: She's the living manifestation of Protest, and her songs are its Voice.
- Bird People: She's clearly humanoid, but has an avian upper mandible, wings, and tail feathers.
- Pictorial Speech-Bubble: When Dandara frees her, some of her lines are peppered with music notes.
Eldarian Army Leaders
Augustus
Augustus
The Eldarian Army's general, who trapped Lazúli in the Temple of Creation and seeks to directly destroy the Creation side of the Salt.- Boss Subtitles: He's subtitled "The Immutable Fogy", fitting his disposition.
- The Dragon: He functions as Eldar's second-in-command, leading the Eldarian Army against Dandara and Lazúli.
- Flying Face: He appears as a giant, floating purple head.
- The Generalissimo: He leads a siege on an offshoot of Ancient Brazil, and he wants to purge the Village of Artists by throwing it into Oblivion.
- Giant Hands of Doom: He has two huge, disembodied fists to attack with.
Eldar
Eldar
The ultimate assimilator of the Intention side of the Salt, who reigns its refinement tendencies into his ideals of shallow perfectionism.- Affably Evil: Before he fights Dandara, he apologizes for the toil she endured to reach him.
- Big Bad: He's the core cause of the Salt's suffering, and defeating him sets the Salt free.
- Body Horror: Once his collective second form is defeated, it's reduced to a writhing, hastily conjoined mess: three bodies with grimacing blood vessels and handless appendages. It's so unstable that it expires in a few seconds, even if Dandara doesn't land the killing shot.
- Boss Subtitles: He's subtitled "The Outer Voice", and his second form is subtitled "The Relentless Choir".
- Color Motif: Gold, a luxurious color Eldar uses to adorn and describe the only institutions and stories he approves of.
- Final Boss: He's the last opponent impeding Dandara's path to the Salt's realization.
- A Glass of Chianti: Right before Dandara fights him, this evilly refined overlord swirls around a glass of wine.
- Malevolent Masked Man: The face he shows is a soulless, golden mask.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: He wears a purple, perfectly symmetrical suit, signifying his desire for complete respect for his rule.
- One-Winged Angel: His second form, "Them, Eldar", is a massive ovum-like ball covered by a shell of golden masks. Inside the ball are five naked Eldars with different expressions and strange protrusions embracing a pink orb. As he gets more damaged, he launches more masks and sperm-like arrows.
- Perpetual Smiler: His face constantly shows a theater-mask-style smile.
- Sequential Boss: He has a second phase after you defeat his TV-like form.
- Stationary Boss: His second form, along with the mask shell sections, doesn't move at all.
- Terms of Endangerment: Despite being Dandara's central enemy, he refers to her as "my dear" and "Darling" at certain points.
- The Topic of Cancer: In the beginning cutscene, the growth of his consumeristic "golden idea" is compared to cancer.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Eldar wants the Salt to be greater than it was and seeks to take over the realm and protect it with his golden walls. Unfortunately, he adamantly rejects the Creation half of the Salt, considering it a poison that must be destroyed, and in doing so, he brings upon his own downfall and death.
- The Worm That Walks: As shown by both his second form and the bodies flowing from his breach in the Crib of Intention, he's an amalgamation of many shallow, materialistic ideas and thoughts.
Hidden Realms Residents
The Three Masters
The Adventurous One, the Noble One, and the Persistent One
Three long-standing inculcators who hold various challenges in the Hidden Realms. Eldar, and Dandara in the present, are among their apprentices.- Homage: They host throwbacks to the game's three major influences. The Pioneer Facility, the Privileged Keep, and the Enduring Fortress are based on Metroid, Castlevanianote , and Dark Souls; respectively. To this end, the Masters resemble prominent Metroidvania and Souls-like RPG characters and creators: the Adventurous One is Yoshio Sakamoto dressed as Samus Aran, the Noble One is Koji Igarashi dressed as Dracula, and the Persistent One is Hidetaka Miyazaki dressed as Solaire.
The Old Crone
The Old Crone
The Ephemeral Station's overseer, who used to fight for Freedom like Dandara does, but now regards it as an illusion after getting trapped in the tower.- Despair Event Horizon: She's so far gone that whenever she meets Dandara, she tries to convince her to give up and let Eldar win. When the Salt grows hesitant over Eldar's death, she harshly rebukes Dandara and tries to convince her one more time. Accepting reverts the Salt to the moment before Eldar died, returning your access to normal gameplay.
- Fallen Hero: She used to be a lot like Dandara, and fought Eldar when he was weaker, but she failed the Salt and fell into despair. In the present, she tries to trap Dandara in the Ephemeral Station.
- Plot Tunnel: When Dandara first enters the Ephemeral Station, the Old Crone tricks her into trapping herself in the station. Luckily, Dandara can leave upon completing the first two challenge rooms.
The Unspeakable Fear (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
Tormenta
The embodiment of the Salt's fear of change. Should you defeat Eldar after freeing Nara, it mashes the Hidden Realms with the rest of the Salt out of desperation to continue the cycle.- Anthropomorphic Personification: It's a mass of the Salt's strongest fear: fear of change.
- Boss Subtitles: It's subtitled "The Unspeakable Fear" once Dandara confronts it.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Salt's fear has festered enough to form as a huge, disembodied human head with glowing orifices and lots of thin tentacles protruding from its neck.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Its sheer wrongness can be seen in its design, which is a 3D model, as opposed to the 2D sprites of all other characters in the game.
- True Final Boss: Striking this thing down is necessary to bring true change to the Salt.
