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Player Character
You are the adventurer. You answer the Gilded Summons sent out by the Order of Gilded Rose calling for fighters to combat the rising forces of the Umbria, heading off to the city of Brightcandle where they're stationed. Soon, however, you find that the Dawnbringer, the Champion of the Order prophesized to win the fight against the Umbria and save the Shattered Realms, has gone missing and set off to locate him.
The following are tropes that apply to your character in the narrative, regardless of the character class you select.
The following are tropes that apply to your character in the narrative, regardless of the character class you select.
- An Adventurer Is You: You play as a random adventurer and can choose amongst 6 classes that determine your skill set, appearance, and abilities. While all are damage dealers, some do damage via magic, others focus more on dodging and inflicting status effects via melee and ranged attacks, and others combine the two.
- The Chosen One: The Chantry of Light actually did not pick you. That said, the one they did pick proves himself to be The Poorly Chosen One and if the Arch Demon is to be believed, the Dawnbringer was never really anything but a random dude with a bunch of unwanted responsibility placed on him and you were always the one fated to meet him.
- Jumped at the Call: You begin the game responding to the Guilded Summons call to fight against evil, though depending on your responses you can express enthusiasm in your aid or more subdued interest based on personal gain.
- Supporting Protagonist: You are not The Chosen One and neither are you The Hero in-universe, that title going to the famed Dawnbringer. You are just a random adventurer tasked with finding The Hero. Subverted. If the Arch Demon is to be believed, the Dawnbringer is The Poorly Chosen One and you were always the true The Chosen One.
- The Unchosen One: In-universe, your character is just an ordinary adventurer. No one expects you to do anything regarding the Umbris except maybe fight off a few grunts and locate the real hero who has gone missing. However, the battles you fight to find the Dawnbringer and the allies you make along the way give you the power and ability to not only take on the Big Bad solo, but to defeat him too. Possibly subverted however as according to the Arch Demon, you were always destined to be The Hero and the Dawnbringer was never anything more than an average guy.
Playable Character Classes
Arcanist
A mage type role that relies primarily on quick spell casting. You begin with 2 intelligence skill points when playing as this role. In terms of the standard Fantasy Character Classes, this includes the Black Mage, the Druid, and the Elementalist.- Bald Mystic: Two portraits in this magic focused class you can select are both bald. The only other bald portrait across the six other roles to even feature a single bald character is in the strength-focused Warrior class.
- Black Mage: The Arcanist typically focuses on damage dealing spell casting that uses Elemental Powers.
- Druid: The Metamorphosis update has made it possible to build this type of character as cards that allow one to shapeshift into different animal forms have been added. They require either dexterity or intelligence skills.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Arcanist has access to magic cards of all three types, while the staff you pick can have one of those three qualities.
- An Ice Person: Can channel ice magic for damage and inflict the "Frozen" status ailment on enemies, which reduces their damage by 1 for every stack of frozen on the enemy.
- Magic Staff: The Arcanist can wield various magic staffs or Magic Wands, each with different effects. The 5 weapons you can choose from are the Force Wand that chains attacks and builds damage, a scepter that inflicts the burning status ailment, a caduceus which heals you and does attack damage to the enemy, the spire, and the Winter Sprig.
- Playing with Fire: Can channel fire magic for damage and inflict the "Burning" status ailment on enemies, which deals 1 HP of damage at the end of the enemy's turn for every stack of burn on them.
- Life Drain: The Caduceus staff makes your basic magic attacks deal 2 damage and heal 1 HP when played.
- Shock and Awe: Can channel lightning magic for damage.
- Wizard Classic: The default image for the role is modeled after this character type as it features a stern-faced elderly man with a long, white beard, glowing eyes, and wearing what appears to be robes.
Hunter
A melee type role that combines physical attacks with status ailments. You begin with 1 dexterity skill point and 1 strength skill point when playing as this role. In terms of the standard Fantasy Character Classes, this includes the Hunter, the Barbarian, and the Dual Wielding Ranger.- Barbarian Hero: Every character portrait shows the Hunter wearing animal pelts and skulls and this class focuses on dealing high physical damage using either the Poison or Bleeding damage status ailment.
- Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: A melee focused barbarian fighter who mostly uses axes and hatchets, with a definite taste for vicious and even unholy arts. The seven weapons available are Hatchets, Battle Axe, Cleavers, Stormaxe, Soul Kama, and Ritual Totem.
- Dual Wielding: Two of the weapons available to this class are dual-wielded axes.
- Soul Power: Many of the Dex/Str hybrid cards that are specially available to the Hunter as rewards allow you to either acquire souls in-combat, or expend those same souls for potent effects. In addition, if you're killed while in possession of 100 souls, you'll expend them all to come back to life.
Knight
A melee focused role that combines physical attacks and shielding with some spellcasting. You begin with 1 intelligence skill point and 1 strength skill point when playing as this role. In terms of the standard Fantasy Character Classes, this covers the Knight, the Paladin, the Dark Knight, and the Samurai.- Katanas Are Just Better: The second to last weapon you can unlock in this class is a katana.
- Knight in Shining Armor: The knight part is explicit in the name and the focus on sword weapons. The armor part is implied as the default weapon available to you is the longsword, which does 2 damage and gives you 2 armor.
- Magic Knight: Essentially this role allows you to start off with access to magic cards due to your intelligence skill point, and most default weapons are different sword types—Longsword, Great Sword, Soulblade, Scimitar, Katana, Tome of Light (the main exception so far), and Sun Lance.
- The Paladin: Though technically any role can become this if you select the upgrade that gives you access to Divine cards, there are a few cards that take either strength and intelligence skill to play that will also allow you to gain playable Divine skill points. As the role that starts off with both skill types, the transition to Paladin is easiest for them as you can start off with such a card in your base deck. Metamorphosis, meanwhile, introduces enough Black Magic cards for the Knight that you can instead build as an Antipaladin.
Rogue
A thief type role that combines melee and ranged attacks with high evasion and inflicting status ailments. You begin with 2 dexterity skill points when playing as this role. In terms of the standard Fantasy Character Classes, this covers the Rogue, the Thief, the Assassin, the Bandit, the Pirate, and the Bard.- The Bard: Some dexterity cards give you the "Performing" status which can offer support abilities, status ailments to inflict on enemies, and deal damage directly to the enemy. Such cards are depicted with dances and musical instruments. Given that the Rogue starts out with the highest base dexterity, this class can easily transition into this role.
- Combat Pragmatist: The Rogue has access to "Sinister" cards with this general concept. The more Sinister cards you play, the more potent later ones get.
- Critical Hit Class: The default weapon this class starts off with are daggers, which have the "Ambush" condition—when the card is played at the start of a turn, you deal critical damage. Cards you can receive will focus on resetting one's Ambush status to allow you to do critical damage multiple times in the same turn.
- Devious Daggers: The Rogue's default weapon is Daggers, which deal an empowered Critical Hit on Ambush, meaning when used at the start of your turn or after using a card that resets your Ambush. Cards which reset Ambush tend to have a sneaky theme, like Sneak Attack or Take Cover, further reinforcing the connection between daggers and sneakiness.
- Dual Wielding: Half of the weapons available to this class are dual wielded daggers, knives, and swords.
- Lovable Rogue: Dexterity skill points open up cards and enchantments that can inflict the "Charmed" status ailment on enemies, as a nod to this trope.
- Magic Music: Implied to be the case with the "Performing" status. After a certain number of performances ranging from 2-6 you automatically get one of the following effects: a single point of dexterity energy, inflict the Charmed status on the enemy 3x your current level, draw 4 cards, heal HP, do 5 damage to the enemy for each level you have.
- The Sneaky Guy: Many of this classes' abilities are focused on building evasion and dealing critical damage via Ambush.
- Swashbuckler: Equipping the rapier or the cutlass pushes this character class away from the typical Rogue character class and more into this subclass in addition to the class's reliance on Evasion and Ambushing.
- Trap Master: Metamorphosis introduced Snares, cards which are inserted right into the opponent's deck and deal damage on play while replacing themselves with another card (potentially another Snare)—while upgrading every Snare in the deck but not yet drawn. The Rogue also gets enchantments that let Snares inflict Poison, Slow, Charmed, and/or Bleeding.
- Video Game Stealing: The default weapon power available for the class allows you to stun and steal a potion from the next enemy you encounter.
Seeker
A role that combines spell casting and ranged attacks. You begin with 1 intelligence skill point and 1 dexterity skill point when playing as this role. In terms of the standard Fantasy Character Classes, this covers the Ranger, the Sniper Ranger, the Bow and Sword Ranger, the Magical Ranger, and the Soldier.- Bow and Sword in Accord: Though only one of the seven weapons available is a non-ranged weapon, you can also add melee attacks to your deck.
- Charged Attack: The general idea behind Dragon cards, including the Dragon Wraps basic attack. They're Persistent (they don't get automatically discarded when you end your turn), and gain power at the start of each turn.
- Forest Ranger: Your character can become this due to this class's exclusive use of bow and arrows, the inclusion of magic abilities, and if you take up Animorphism magic action cards.
- Mage Marksman: The role is modeled after this. So far, only one available weapon, the Dragon Wraps, isn't a ranged weapon. You also have access to magic cards and skills that can conjure up special arrows with unique abilities.
- Ninja: Can essentially play as one by using the second-to-last unlockable weapon, a shuriken. This is somewhat atypical as ninja are usually a subclass of rogue classes, even if Seekers can get Rogue cards (along with Arcanist cards) as possible rewards.
- Our Elves Are Different: Three of the seven portraits for this range-focused role are of elves, complete with blue skin and Pointy Ears. In fact, none of the other classes have any clearly elven portraits available.
Warrior
A fighter type role that relies primarily on dealing heavy damage and playing high-cost cards. You begin with 2 strength skill points when playing as this role. In terms of the standard Fantasy Character Classes, this covers the Warrior and the Berserker.- Bald Head of Toughness: The final portrait you can unlock for this strength focused role is of a completely bald man. The two other bald portraits across the six other roles are both in the magic-focused Arcanist role.
- The Berserker: Has access to several cards and enchantments that apply the Angry status buff which increases damage output by 1 per stack. Such cards also often require you first to lose health to play, trading in your own HP and defense for higher damage output.
- Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: A melee focused warrior who uses hammers and maces to deal massive damage, with Unstoppable Rage an important part of the equation. The seven weapons available to Warriors are the War Mace, Maul, Forge Hammer, Great Club, War Hammer, Hand Cannon (itself in part a bludgeon), and Twinned Maul.
- The Big Guy: Of the 6 distinct character classes, the Warrior can hit the hardest right out the gate, with their first basic attack inflicting Brittle and dealing the most base damage at 4.
- Cast from Hit Points: A fair number of Str cards dock a hit point when used, most notably the conjurable Fury cards that deal one damage to you while increasing your Anger by 1. Anger's effect is to enhance all your attacks by how much Anger you have. This also helps with activating the Warrior's specialty Frenzy effect on other cards, and is counterweighted by Surge of Strength healing you for 1 HP.
- Mighty Glacier: This class gives you basic attacks that can deal lots of damage, but cost two energy. Considering that you start off with only two energy, this means that you can generally only do one action per turn if you want to do damage, unless you increase and/or conserve your energy.
Bosses (Base Game)
Weeping Mother
The boss of Canto I, "The Weeping Woods." She appears after you defeat the two spider enemies in the area.- Mama Bear: She attacks you to avenge the two giant spiders you slew while working your way to Brightcandle.
- Spider People: She is a half-spider monster, with everything above the torso appearing humanoid.
Garvin Greaves
The boss of Canto III-A. He's the leader of a Bandit Clan out in the woods.- Ambiguously Human: While he probably started as human, his red eyes suggest that's at most partly the case now, likewise the black mist he emits if you kill him before he can get going with his attempt at a Breaking Speech.
- The Leader: He's the leader of a Bandit Clan.
Bolgar Blightbane
The boss of Canto V-A. He's a necromancer mystic who lives out in the woods alone.- Dark Is Not Evil: Bolgar may be a necromancer, but he's definitely not malicious.
- Defeat Means Friendship: When you defeat him you have the option of killing him or not. If you choose to not kill him, he joins your team and will offer you the option to either imbue an enchantment or memorize a card to make it always appear in your first hand each combat.
- Evil Sorcerer: He starts off as an antagonistic mystic with poison powers. However, after you defeat him he makes it quite clear that he was fighting you not out of malice but out of a desire to be left alone, subverting the trope.
- Green Means Natural: He's depicted as a Hermit Guru that lives deep in The Lost Woods with glowing green eyes, emitting a Sickly Green Glow, and levitating mushrooms. He fights primarily by inflicing you with poison.
- Hermit Guru: He's a mystic that lives in the depths of the woods and in general wants to be left alone.
- Meaningful Name: Last name is Blightbane. "Blight" is a plant disease or can be used to call any thing that erodes or destroys something. "Bane" refers to anything that can cause a considerable annoyance. Most of his attacks use poison, which does damage over time by doing 1 damage every time you play a card. This makes the act of playing cards, i.e. the main gameplay loop, very annoying.
- Necromancer: His title in game apart from his actual name is "The Necromancer". The area that he's the boss of is filled to the brim with Undead Warriors, Voodoo Zombies, zombified spellcasters, and ghostly sprites that seek to ward off anyone who gets too close to bothering him.
Serena Hellspark
The boss of Canto VI-A. She's a succubus who has been enchanting a "lucky" few humans into roaming her lair.- Charm Person: She can bewitch people into being semi-mindless droids for her. Trying to break her magic and failing to properly do so makes the enchanted person turn into a horrendous monster.
- Deal with the Devil:
- You can actually cut a deal with her that will allow you to leave her dungeon without having to fight her, though you will have to fight another, arguably more difficult boss who blocks the exit. To do so, you have to make sure to let the remaining bandits from Canto II join you and then simply offer them up as new playthings for her.
- After you save high priestess Viola Skysword, you learn that the Dawnbringer may or may not have done the team member trade with Serena when he came through her dungeon. It's from Viola's perspective so you don't know if the Dawnbringer explicitly left them behind to allow himself to move forward, but it is heavily implied given that you can do the exact same thing.
- Meat Puppet: Said verbatim by Serena to describe the people she puts under her charm and controls. For the most part, they become mindless demonic entities that just serve her.
- Playing with Puppets: She doesn't need to keep the humans she enchants, she likes doing so however because it's fun. When you break the high priestess out of her enchantment, Serena appears complaining about how her toys are being messed with.
- Succubi and Incubi: She's a succubus who enchants humans and turns them into her playthings. In fact, it is possible to skip her battle entirely if you offer her new toys to play with.
Melchor the Cursed
The boss of Canto VII-A. He's a fishman pirate.- Sea Monster: He mixes this with Ghost Pirate in terms of his aesthetics. He's a fish looking humanoid that comes from the watery depths with some otherworldly trappings.
Arch Demon Dantelion
The final boss of the base game in Canto IX. He's a giant demon who is fighting the Dawnbringer when you arrive on the scene.- Big Bad: He's the cause of all of the evil in the realm and defeating him marks the successful end of a run.
- For the Evulz: As far as he's concerned, creating a hellscape while dashing hopes is the most entertaining thing possible.
- Large and in Charge: The portal he emerges from is quadruple the height of the ones in the Black Citadel, implied to be pretty tall in their own right. He's also in charge of all the demonic forces ransacking the lands near Brightcandle.
- Red Baron: While other characters in-universe refer to him by his real name and title, the in-game name used when you are fighting him is "Lord of Despair."
Bosses (Death of Divinity)
The Pale Warden
The boss of Canto I-B from the "Death of Divinity" expansion, "Heroes Rest Cemetary." He appears after you encounter three graves.- The Grim Reaper: Heavily inspired by the Grim Reaper in design. A pale skeletal humanoid, in a Black Cloak, with glowing eyes carrying a scythe that resides in a cemetary.
- Necromancer: He's a necromancer who despises the living. The area is filled with skeleton enemies and undead abominations that serve as his minions.
The Fallen One
The boss of Canto VI-B from the "Death of Divinity" expansion. See The Dawnbringer's entry below for tropes about this character that aren't related to his appearance as a boss.- Walking Spoiler: There's little that can be said of this boss that doesn't spoil a major reveal in the story.
Statue of Ilthar
The boss of Canto VII-B from the "Death of Divinity" expansion.- Fallen Angel: Ilthar claims to be an angel who descended from heaven because they wanted to experience mortality.
- Living Statue: Appears initially as a statue of a winged human man wrapped in thorns with glowing pink eyes that moves and talks to you.
Bosses (Metamorphosis)
Notable NPCs
Traveling Companions
These are the characters who are traveling with you and offering their aid to you on your journey. They are the Blacksmith, Reghar Firehorn; Theresa Blackbrew, an alchemist; Bolgar Blightbane, a necromancer and enchanter; Julius Bellthorp, a merchant; and Viola Skysword (or Viola of the White Rose), a high priestess. While you start off the game with The Blacksmith and Theresa on your side, you must recruit the remaining members at different points along your travels in order to have access to their services.See Bolgar's entry under "Bosses (Base Game)" to know more about him specifically.
- The Blacksmith: Reghar is your resident blacksmith and can upgrade your weapons, remove a basic weapon attack from your deck, and reset the cooldown on your weapon ability.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: When you meet Viola in VI-A, she is under the charm of the succubus Serena who will then force her to fight you. If you defeat Viola, she will break free from Serena's enchantment and vanquish her.
- High Priestess: Viola is one for the Chantry of Light. Notably, if you have access to Divine cards, instead of paying her 30 coins to heal, you can pray with her instead, which will also heal you.
- Intrepid Merchant: It's implied that Julius travels far and wide across the Shattered Realm to acquire his wares to sell. He also accompanies you on your adventure, collecting new cards to sell you along the way.
- Meaningful Name:
- Theresa Blackbrew is an alchemist who brews potions for you.
- Reghar Firehorn is a blacksmith, who typically forge weapons using intense heat.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Theresa, the alchemist, hardly bothers to hide her fascination with all things unholy and horrific. In fact, you can lower her prices by making yourself more comely to her...as a result of getting yourself noticeably scarred in a sandstorm.
- Optional Party Member: Apart from the Blacksmith and Theresa, all of the other characters need to be recruited and can end up as Permanently Missable Content for each run should you not recruit them
- To get Julius the merchant in Canto III-A, you need to cut him off the tree you find him tied to and you cannot scare him off after doing so by alluding to stealing from him, because he'll run away. Failure to recruit him prevents access to the card shop. In III-B, you just need to stop him from being sacrificed. In III-C, you have to turn down Count Vesperin's offer (or defeat him), meaning you can't get his own services.
- To get Bolgar the enchanter, you need to spare him after defeating him in Canto V-A. Should you kill him instead, you miss out on the ability to pay him to memorize cards (memorized cards always show up in your first hand in an encounter) or imbue enchantments (imbued enchantments make enchantments always active without needing to play them from your hand). In V-B, you just need to trigger his encounter; after killing the demon fighting him, he joins you.
- To get high priestess Viola, there are two methods, depending on whether you get Canto VI-A (base game) or Canto VI-B (Death of Divinity expansion necessary). Missing either prevents you access from paying Serena to either heal you up for 30% of your health or remove all curses from your deck:
- Base Game: You have to defeat her as the boss of Canto VI after which she can join your team.
- Death Of Divinity: You have to correctly recite the control words for the cage controls to free her and the other prisoners from the cage. Should you mess up, the cage drops into the temple's magma currents, killing Viola and the other prisoners.
- White Magician Girl: The role Viola fills in your group. She can heal you and remove corruption cards from your deck for a small fee and is the most vocally supportive and gentle of the cast.
The Order of the Gilded Rose
The public name for the Chantry of Light, the religious order that resides in Brightcandle and is waging war against the Umbris.- The Chooser of the One: Technically they believe that their god Rae selects The Chosen One but as the human representation for said god, it's them that do the picking and this time they believe Corellion Solspear to be The Chosen One. Subverted and then deconstructed when Corellion is squashed like a bug by the Arch Demon Dantelion, who then states that their Sungod, if they were ever real, has long abandoned them and any person they pick is just some random person they've decided to place all of their hopes on.
- Church Militants: The guild is explicitly a Paladin guild run by those who follow the Sungod. The first person you meet in game, Paladin of the Vigil, states that he'd love to join the fight against the Umbris but he's just too old to do so.
- The Order: The guild you take quests from is explicitly a paladin guild who follows a God of Light known as "Rae", "the Burning God", or "the Sungod". They have recently mobilized to create the Radiant Militia, an alliance of all humanity within the Shattered Realms, to take on Big Bad Arch Demon Dantelion.
- The Paladin: As a religious order filled with holy warriors, most members fit the archetype.
The Dawnbringer
Real name Corellion Solspear, the Dawnbringer is the champion of the Order of the Gilded Rose and the supposed hero of the story. Trying to find him and figure out what has happened to him becomes your main goal in the game.- Blue Blood: You learn he's a Candorian Noble, Candor being the largest and most properous city-state in the Shattered Realm, making him come from the highest of elite societies
- The Champion: He was picked to be one by the Order of the Gilded Rose.
- The Chosen One: Dawnbringer is an honorary title given to those who have been chosen to fight the Arch Demon and save the realm. Corellion has been prophesised to be this supposedly by the Order's Sungod. Subverted. Arch Demon Dantelion tells you that you are in fact the chosen one, and Corellion is just the person the Chantry picked out of blind faith.
- Got Volunteered: This is essentially how he views being selected as The Chosen One. He doesn't really believe in the prophecy or the Chantry's plan and isn't really interested in killing every evil he comes across. Just Dantelion.
- The Hero: He is treated as such in universe, which is why his disappearance is a big issue for the Order. Subverted as he is crunched like a fly in Dantelion's hand and the Arch Demon tells you that you are in fact the real hero in this story.
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: When you stumble across his personal journal, you learn that the Dawnbringer scoffs at the idea of being the chosen one as it's essentially a suicide mission as the Order expects him to be a One-Man Army against an army of demons. He finds it ridiculous and is instead going to try to fight the Arch Demon directly.
- Knight in Shining Armor: He's a Candorian Noble that is selected to fight as the Warrior of Light on behalf of the Order to protect the Shattered Realms. He also wears golden, shining armor. Later subverted. He doesn't really care for the duty-bound honor that has been bestowed upon him and does the very non-chivalrous thing of leaving behind his crew to become toys for a succubus, as it will allow him to avoid fighting the demon. He's still going to fight the Arch Demon for the greater good.
- Meaningful Name: Solspear literally means "spear of the sun" and Corellius was chosen to be The Champion of the Chantry who prays to a God of Light. In other words, he's a sun god's weapon against the forces of darkness.
- The Poorly Chosen One: He actively rejects the prophecy and avoids taking on the majority of the demonic forces, even leaving behind his own traveling party. He still tries to take on the Arch Demon anyway, but is abruptly killed.
- Pragmatic Hero: He's going to try to kill the Arch Demon and he's not above leaving his team behind to become a succubus's playthings to do so. Logically, this makes sense: no point in wasting time, effort, and energy fighting the small fry when there's a much bigger fish to kill. But as Viola's stunned reaction shows, it's still a dick move.
- Reluctant Hero: He doesn't want to be The Chosen One and scoffs at the prophecy. He still chooses to take on the Arch Demon as a way to end the issue of the rising demonic threat at its source, but he has no interest in purging the land of the lesser malevolent forces.
- Screw Destiny: Played with. He doesn't really believe in the prophecy and considers the idea of him being The Chosen One to be some horseshit. That said, he still plans on confronting the Arch Demon, just on his own terms.
