The Three Heroes
Darkners: Card Kingdom (Card Castle Royalty) | Cyber World (Spamton)
Lightners
Other Characters
"That's because you're alongside the Lightners, Lancer.
Our purpose - Darkners' purpose - is to assist them.
It's the only way we can feel truly fulfilled."
Our purpose - Darkners' purpose - is to assist them.
It's the only way we can feel truly fulfilled."
— Ralsei
Characters of the world of Deltarune who are natives of the Dark World, collectively known as Darkners.
As with the main page, all spoilers are unmarked. Due to the ties of various elements and cast members derived from Undertale and the game expecting you to at least have some familiarity with it, spoilers involving Undertale are also unmarked.
Specific world darkners
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General Tropes
- The Ageless: If Jevil saying that he will sleep for "THE OTHER 100 YEARS" is to be taken seriously, Darkners are at least a century old.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Though they're fully-animated monster people inside their own world, they exist as inanimate objects in the Light World. For example, the Card Kingdom's inhabitants are toys, cards, and game pieces from the school's unused classroom, while Cyber World's citizens are pieces of hardware and software found in the Library's computer lab.
- Dark Is Not Evil: While some Darkners can be evil, most of them are just normal folks living their life in the Dark World.
- Defeat Means Friendship: If the player spares enough of a enemy Darkner type, they'll be recruited to Castle Town as friendly NPCs. Averted if you defeat a Darkner with violence, as that results in them becoming unrecruitable.
- Departure Means Death: Downplayed. While Darkners can enter a Dark World other than their own, they eventually turn to stone. The exception to this is Castle Town in the school's supply closet, due to its Dark Fountain emitting pure darkness.
- Servant Race: Ralsei claims that the purpose of Darkners is to assist Lighters, as that is only way they can feel truly fulfilled.
- Taken for Granite: The fate of (most) Darkners who enter a Dark World that they don't originate from is to turn to stone. It's also the fate that awaits them should The Roaring come to pass.
Castle Town Darkners
General Tropes
- But Thou Must!: Even if you ended Chapter 1 violently, Chapter 2 still introduces the recruitment mechanic with the Card Kingdom population, overriding the previous ending with a quick excuse and to emphasize the overarching theme of the game.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Sparing enough enemies means seeing them migrate to the town, and they recognize Kris and co. as "boss".
- Ghost Town: In Chapter 1, where Ralsei is the sole inhabitant. All the other buildings are locked and empty, though they begin to fill in Chapter 2.
- Home Base: Becomes this in Chapter 2 to the Three Heroes, being a place where, as Ralsei puts it, they come to get away from the real world for a bit.
- Minion Shipping: The Castle Town Café allows you to seat Darkners you've recruited next to each other at one of the tables, giving additional Flavor Text and insight into their platonic and possibly romantic relationships.
- Thriving Ghost Town:
- Downplayed, in that the amount of Darkners you can recruit to populate the town is nothing to scoff at, though not every single one of them makes an appearance in the overworld for the sake of leaving things uncrowded; just enough around to make the streets look busy. There's a couple standard weapons/armor shops, a dojo with a handful of challenges, different places where you can stop by to get healing items, and Ralsei's castle that comes with rooms for the party and their friends.
- Played straighter if you choose to recruit very few Darkners, at which point the most you'll be populated with are the Card Kingdom denizens and some of each chapter's cast, only because there's no way to deny them.
Ralsei
The Prince of Darkness, and initial sole inhabitant of the Castle Town Dark World. Being one of the Three Heroes of prophecy, his character folder can be found here.
Dreemurr Residence Darkners
The TV
(Looks like it's plugged in, but it's dusty.)
During The Stinger of Chapter 2, Kris creates a new Dark Fountain, which makes the TV in their house come to life as a Darkner.- Ambiguously Related: It's been common speculation that the TV is in reality the mysterious Mike that Spamton talked about, just as Jevil speaks of Queen if you beat him through violence, which also makes them connected to Spamton himself. Some even claim that the TV / Mike is the Anonymous Benefactor that helped Spamton before throwing him away. And they do have their reasons for saying this.
- When talking about Mike, Spamton quickly advices Kris to not believe "[[Anything You See On TV!]]".
- On the flipside, Spamton says that he and Kris don't need CRTs, and only then mentions Mike. One way or another, he heavily implies he has connections to the TV.
- "Big TV deals" is just one of the many few things Spamton got after his Anonymous Benefactor helped him.
- During his Spamton NEO fight, Spamton states his desire to turn those [Cathode Screens] into [Cathode Screams].
- Even without directly saying things related to TVs, Spamton still makes comments that indirectly connect him to the TV, or the TV to Mike.
- In the Weird Route, he indirectly states he had problems with a gameshow host in the past. Gameshows are typically watched on television.
TO [$!$!] ME OVER RIGHT AT THE [Good part]!? WHAT ARE YOU, A [[Gameshow Host]]!?- If defeated through violence on the Normal Route, Spamton NEO asks Mike if he's "getting all this", as if Mike was watching the fight recording it. You know, like a cameraman, once again bringing connections to the TV.
- During the official SPAMTON SWEEPSTAKES, people were allowed to ask Spamton questions about himself. One of these questions was "Who is Mike?"
and while Spamton refuses to respond to the question properly, he does ask if the questioner is "ONE OF THAT [Cathode]'s CREW!?"
- Call-Back: A TV with a Slasher Smile? Sounds familiar...
- Ominous Television: The Slasher Smile doesn't exactly make you feel nice.
- Slasher Smile: After coming to life, the TV makes one. It's very similar to the ones Photoshop Flowey and Sans have, too.
- Walking Spoiler: It's literally impossible to mention it without spoiling The Stinger of Chapter 2, and possibly its relations to Spamton, Mike and/or Tenna.
Others
The Holders of the Shadow Crystals
A catch-all term for the Superboss characters of Deltarune, one fought per chapter. They possess mysterious Shadow Crystals, which Seam requests that you collect and bring to their shop if possible.
The first Holder, Jevil, can be found here under the "Shadow Crystal Holder" heading.
The second Holder, Spamton, has his own page here.
- Amusement Park: Both Jevil and Spamton have rides from amusement parks in their fights, with Jevil's fight taking place on and having him use a merry go round, while Spamton NEO's fight takes place on a rollercoaster.
- Arc Words:
- "Freedom." So far, both the word and the concept of freedom have had a heavy presence with each superboss and their backstories. And the specific phrase "The air crackles with freedom." has been in each one's descriptive text rotation.
- "NEO." Jevil shouts, "THE TRUE AND NEO CHAOS!" just before unleashing his ultimate attack, while Spamton NEO outright has "NEO" in his name.
- Central Theme: Each of them so far have been a discarded object, befitting them being separated from the rest of the Darkners due to their mental problems. Jevil is a Joker card, discarded from most normal decks of cards, and Spamton is a scam email, discarded by anyone who can see through the sender's ruse.
- Disc-One Nuke: The weapons and armor they grant tend to be the best in their respective chapters, with items rivaling in stats appearing later on. Still, they aren't to be discounted so easily.
- Equippable Ally: Sometimes, they won't just hand you equipment as a reward, but also become the reward by transforming into it, depending on how you end the battle. Jevil only does this as the Devilsknife from a violent outcome, as he will merely stay in his cell if pacified. Meanwhile, Spamton will offer himself up regardless of whether he was spared or fought.
- Fake Special Attack: Downplayed as while both of them do have a proper "ultimate move", the final part of them look like they will hit you no matter what but the attack cuts short as soon as it would actually hit you.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Both holders met so far have been hit hard with this after their encounters with some kind of mysterious influence, and it seems like this encounter is directly tied to both of their unsettling amounts of knowledge and ability to act as by far the strongest bosses face within their chapters... at the complete cost of their sanity and in turn all of their known relationships, with those who knew them before it all (Seam in Jevil's case, several fellow salespeople in Spamton's) being alienated and pushed away from them as consequence of this. Jevil seems to be too far gone and absorbed in his chaos to even care for this, but Spamton gets some moments of genuine lucidity from the madness, and it's clear when he does that beneath the insanity is an overwhelming feeling of despair.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Holders offer the hardest battles in the game, and reward you with some of the best equipment after defeating them in certain ways. A pacifist outcome from ACTing provides armors, while defeat through FIGHTing offers weapons for specific characters to use.
- Leitmotif: So far the Holders appear to be associated with a motif present in 'The Circus', 'THE WORLD REVOLVING', 'Dialtone', and 'BIG SHOT'. Interestingly enough, said motif at points shares a figuration with Gaster's Theme.
- Not Quite Dead: Upon defeat, they will reward you with either unique armor or a special weapon, usually transforming into the equipment as is the case with Jevil's Devilsknife and either of Spamton's rewards. It can be assumed that they're fully conscious in this state, as Noelle will notice the Devilsknife smiling at her if you try to have her use it, and wielding it when facing Tasque Manager heavily implies that he spouts his signature "Chaos, chaos!" that causes her to rebut with "Order, order!", while Spamton will angrily storm off if your inventory is too full to keep him.
- Live Item: Though not to Lancer and Rouxls's extent as this, a Holder might become an Equippable Ally depending on the method of their defeat. Certain characters reacting to the Devilsknife and Spamton storming off after transforming suggest that they're still aware of their surroundings and may react or speak on occasion.
- Percent Damage Attack: The damage that both bosses' ultimate attacks do is a percentage of the remaining health of the party.
- Satanic Archetype: So far, they all seem to reflect Satan in some aspect.
- Jevil is a rebel against a king sealed in a prison deep beneath the earth, his name evokes the word "Devil" and he calls the player characters "sinners" in one attack. Additionally, he serves as something of a contrast to Sans, who has certain angelic parallels.
- Spamton mirrors Satan's manipulations, constantly trying to get Kris to take his deal, and tempt them to do evil. He even wants to make a deal for Kris's SOUL. He also has ambitions to overthrow the rule of the Queen and take power, which are realised during Chapter 2's Weird Route. Additionally, his NEO form brings to mind a winged demon, and you fight him either in the mansion basement, or at the Dark Fountain, with both bringing on similarities to the imagery of hell.
- Start of Darkness: They were once ordinary Darkners who eventually came into contact with an unknown someone. Afterwards, their sanity started to deteriorate until they were reduced to the maniacal, yet powerful lunatics they are today.
- Suddenly Voiced: Both have actual voice lines, with Jevil getting voice clips and Spamton having a Voice Clip Song in their themes.
- Superboss: Each Shadow Crystal boss is dramatically harder than the final boss of the chapter they're in, and can only be fought during that chapter before the Dark Fountain is sealed. Best one and the party is rewarded with both a Shadow Crystal and a unique piece of equipment that changes depending on whether the boss was defeated through violence or mercy.
- Walking Spoiler: These bosses are well-hidden and usually never need to be fought to progress the game, but the Shadow Crystals they carry are seemingly very important to some aspect of the Dark World.
- We Used to Be Friends: Both of the holders so far have been shown to have had acquaintances and friends before they went insane. Jevil had Seam, while Spamton had the Addisons, Swatch, and Mike.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Both of them have incredible amounts of power and act as the most difficult boss fights you'll encounter in their respective chapters, and they've also evidently underwent a severe Sanity Slippage getting there.
Thrash Machine
Thrash Machine
A contraption designed by Kris as part of Susie's and Lancer's ultimate plot to thrash their ass. Later on, a certain puzzlesmith gives it a second chance at life using much better technology.- Apologetic Attacker: According to the flavor text at the start of Rouxls' boss fight, the Thrash Machine is only reluctantly fighting Kris and Ralsei.
- Bait-and-Switch Boss: The Thrash Machine is set up to be the final fight of the Card Kingdom's Forest area, but since Susie and Lancer can't actually build the thing, they blow up the junk-pile facsimile they ended up with and fight Kris and Ralsei as a Dual Boss instead. The proper fight comes in Chapter 2.
- Call-Back: The machine reappearing in Chapter 2 is already a call-back in itself, but there's a second, more subtle example in its Combining Mecha form, which specifically uses the head from its shoddy original model. The Laser and Flame heads both have a goofy face scribbled on the side, the Sword head has Susie's bangs and teeth, and the Duck head... looks exactly the same.
- Character Customization: Kris can select one of four types of head, body, and wheels for the Thrash Machine, and recolor them with a slider. Each head and wheel type has a different attack in Rouxls Kaard's fight (the Tank body also gets an attack), and each head provides a different ACT special move in the Giga Queen battle.
- Chekhov's Gunman: It starts out as a lengthy "Shaggy Dog" Story joke throughout the middle portion of Chapter 1, then gets brought back for an easy mid-boss fight late in Chapter 2, and then helps save the day in the true final fight of the chapter.
- Combining Mecha: Parodied. The heroes turn Thrash Machine into a Giant Mecha to fight Giga Queen at the end of Chapter 2. The parody is that most of the parts that combine are from the recruits you obtained in that chapter and are completely nonsensical, including elements such as the giant Berdly statue, "fresh cooking" from a Swatchling, and "(meow noise)" from a Tasque.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Thrash Machine's sword mode gains a damage buff on every successive hit, but loses it when it misses.
- Dump Stat: The Thrash Machine has six stats altered by the parts used, but they're stylistic stats of "Elegant", "Lively", "Cute", "Hot", "Cool", and "Gun's". The highest stat affects a few dialogue bits, but means nothing in battle.
- Guest-Star Party Member: It's treated as a special party member in its solo fight with Giga Queen at the end of Chapter 2, complete with unique values for items with variable healing amounts.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: An attempt at exploiting this by Susie and Lancer; not only will Kris bring about their own downfall by creating a machine to thrash their own ass, but it saves the bad guys the trouble of designing it themselves. They don't realize until afterwards that they still have to build the design, and they also fail to account for Kris making an awful design to screw with them.
- Humongous Mecha: When boosted by the power of the heroes' friends to fight Giga Queen, it stands tall above the skyscrapers of Cyber City.
- Joke Character: The game states that the Duck parts make your machine "suck ass". It's not kidding; Rouxls Kaard has completely ineffective attacks if he tries to use the Duck head and wheels, and the DuckMode ACT in the Giga Queen fight deals much less damage than the other heads' special attacks but also provides a slight life-draining effect.
- Leader Forms the Head: Averted; the original Thrash Machine forms the head for its Giant Mecha version. Kris forms its torso instead.
- Mini-Mecha: When properly built in Chapter 2, the machine fits comfortably in Rouxls' boat.
- Old Save Bonus: The Thrash Machine in Chapter 2 is an exact replica of the design Kris made in Chapter 1, with the battle differences that it entails. If the player chooses to start from Chapter 2 in the demo, the Thrash Machine will default to a red Laser head, a blue Tank body, and green Tread wheels.
- Quacking Up: Kris can inexplicably choose to make the Thrash Machine resemble a cartoon duck, which offers absolutely no combat advantage for a battle robot. Going through with this alters the exchanges with Susie and Lancer about the machine in Chapter 1 (notably, it's the only type of machine they can build 100% perfectly), and the jokes stick around in Chapter 2 as well.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Thrash Machine's laser mode drastically increases its punching speed during the counterattack phases.
- Route Boss: Due to Rouxls Kaard being turned to stone before his fight, the Thrash Machine cannot be fought on the Weird route.
- Scratch Damage: All of the duck's attacks will only deal 1 damage if it manages to hit you.
- Stealth Pun: In the Chapter 2 final boss, a Duck Mode Thrash Machine is described to have "sucky attacks". At first it seems like another joke about how the Duck parts "suck ass", but it's used in a very literal sense: punches now suck the energy out of Giga Queen.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The Duck version of the Thrash Machine has an attack where it runs on the other side of the board before it blows itself up. Due to the nature of this Thrash Machine, it only does 1 hit point of damage. Humorously, it teleports back under Rouxls's feet after the attack ends.
"Shadowman"
A new Darkner enemy teased in the September 2022 Deltarune update and the Spamton Sweepstakes charity event.
- The Mafia: Their appareance looks like a typical 1920's ganster, albeit all pitch black except for a white outline and socks.
- Sinister Silhouettes: They're black silhouttes of gansters, albeit the "sinester" part can be downplayed if you choose to spare them.
"Weather"
Two new Darkner enemies teased in the Spamton Sweepstakes charity event. According to the 2024 Valentine’s Day newsletter◊, their names are Lanino and Elnina.
◊, their names are Lanino and Elnina.