Harkyn/ The Iron Wayfarer
A dangerous criminal imprisoned for "Unspeakable Crimes", Harkyn found himself recently released to help defend the very kingdom that convicted him. Grim, violent and jaded, Harkyn's no hero, but his is not a hero-prone world.
- The Chosen Zero: In a world where All Crimes Are Equal, no one likes a criminal. Even if he just saved your ass.
- Face of a Thug: Justified. All criminals get their faces marked to show the world what they are.
- Godzilla Threshold: Men with combat experience are now in such short supply that convicted criminal are fair game for conscription.
- Jerkass: A Jerk with a Heart of Gold, or a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, depending on in-game decisions. (None of these can actually make him outright evil.)
- Magic Knight: All character classes come with a type of magic. Then there's the Gauntlet.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Harkyn's character class (determined by the player) is the only clue we get about his actions before the game. Some are, admittedly, criminal by nature (e.g. Raider) but one has to wonder what Harkyn the Cleric did to get himself imprisoned.
- My Greatest Failure: He regards giving the Rune of Adyr away between games as this.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Following his defeat of Antanas, he gave the Rune of Adyr to the Judge Cleric. Come the sequel, and to say he regrets this is a gross understatement, blaming himself for the state of Mournstead and cursing himself for his actions.
- Noodle Incident: No one will ever let him forget that he's a criminal, but no one ever actually mentions the nature of his crimes.
- It is implied that the brands on Harkyn's face represent his crimes. One brand for each type of crime. This implies he's done dozens of criminal actions, given the number of marks on his face, so rather than asking what he's done, asking what he hasn't done might be a better question.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Kaslo's Blue.
Kaslo
A monk serving the realm who acts as aide to Antanas. Kaslo freed Harkyn from Prison (along with several other criminals) but only the two of them made it to Keystone alive. Kaslo acts as Harkyn's guide throughout the game, often supplying him with important information regarding his mission and objectives.
- Hidden Depths: He is the true heir of the Judges and he's not as loyal to Antanas as he claims. He presumably realizes that Antanas has gone well and truly cuckoo, he turns neutral.
- The Lancer: Pretty much the only real ally Harkyn has. Not that they like each other much.
- Plotline Death
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Harkyn's red.
- Warrior Monk: Not that he actually fights.
- Wizard Beard: Well, Monk beard. The connotations are the same, however.
Antanas
The enigmatic Leader of All Mankind.
- All Crimes Are Equal: Anyone caught committing a crime under his rule - any crime - gets a life sentence and their face branded in case they escape.
- Body Horror: The Judge.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: Is believed to be the "Savior", and acts in the Judges' name. While not outright stated, the order of monks at Keystone presumably serve him as his accolades.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Has been experimenting on hapless humans long before the game opens. The more combat-specific samples just got released.
- The Heavy: Antanas' actions are what provoked Adyr and the Rhogar army to make a bid for power.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Despite his actions, and the survivors being well aware of his actions, by the time the sequel comes around he's treated as a hero, and Harkyn as a common criminal that murdered him in cold blood.
- Hollywood Exorcism: Lore notes mention that he commissions these regularly, banishing Rhogar from human hosts. However, this is not a good thing - all humans need their inner Rhogar to remain complete, and without it, they can barely think or act of their own volition.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Goes crazy near the end and turns himself into The Judge.
- Knight Templar: Antanas is... pretty adamant about criminal activity, and how it is intolerable. We have no idea just how bad he is until later, though.
- Like a God to Me: Most humans believe that Antanas is their Savior. Most of these people either cross the Despair Event Horizon after his Freak Out, or else plunge into My Master, Right or Wrong territory.
- Mirror Character: Really doesn't stack up well against the tales recorded about Adyr. Both are tyrannical extremists who don't react well to insubordination.
- Muggles Do It Better: An alarming version. When Harkyn faces off against Antanas' Super-Soldier army, he learns very quickly that these suped-up humans are much more dangerous than the average Rhogar.
- Obliviously Evil: Believes that imprisoning criminals and "exorcising" demons out of people are both good and necessary. They're not.
- One-Winged Angel: The Judge.
- Playing with Syringes: Combined with Professor Guinea Pig to become The Judge.
- Villainous Breakdown: Occurs off-screen. He does not take Adyr's survival well, nor (possibly) the realization that Kaslo isn't blindly devoted to his cause.
- Walking Spoiler: Let's just say that most of the plot wouldn't have happened without him and leave it at that.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Humanity is on the verge of extinction, with the survivors looking to Antanas as their last bastion of hope. While his methods would be unconscionable during any non-apocalyptic era, they seem to be the only source of hope that civilization can last at all. Bear in mind, however, that Antanas is the reason things got this bad in the first place and that all his actions have only ever made things worse. Humanity would've almost certainly died out completely had Harkyn not eliminated him permanently.
Adyr
A god worshiped by humans long ago as a protector of humanity, until the three Judges overthrew and banished him into another dimension. Now reviled as an evil being and remembered only as a tyrant, no one doubts that he is behind the recent Rhogar invasion. If humans are to have a chance of permanently repelling the demonic threat, they'll have to produce a champion who can repeat the Judges' deeds and save the world again.
- Ambiguously Evil: REALLY hard to say whether he's pure evil or just... not very good at being a nice God.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: Err, Crystal Dragon Satan. And/or YHWH, depending. Humans' current opinion of him is the former, but his role pre-banishment seems to have been more in line with the latter.
- Greater-Scope Villain: As the being behind the Rhogar, he is pretty much this. It helps that he never so much as appears on-screen.
- God Is Evil: A being formerly revered is now behind the invasion of the demonic forces. If his claims are true, his primary objective was to stop Antanas; reclaiming his former glory was a bonus.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen / The Voice: During the events of the first game, he never appears.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Antanas' actions - both the mutations and exorcisms - are very bad things that will end up harming mankind in the long run; given Antanas' reputation, neither of these is likely to fall out of practice anytime soon. Whether the Rhogar Invasion was an appropriate response or
not is another matter. - Only Works Once: He thought the Judges were just uppity mortals until they kicked his ass. He's not trying that again when a new uppity mortal comes a-knockin'.
- Orcus on His Throne: He doesn't get off in the first game. Somewhat justified due to being banished. The Lampbearer forces him to get off in the sequel.
- Order Versus Chaos: Unusually, this Crystal Dragon Jesus is on the side of Chaos to Antanas' order. Neither is good news.
- Satanic Archetype: Rules the demonic Rhogar and offers Harkyn a loaded bargain. May be a case of Satan Is Good (or just not as much of an asshole as we thought).
- The Unfought: In the first game. The sequel rectifies this on the Radiant ending path.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist:He is horrified by Antanas' treatment of humans and failure to comprehend what the Rhogar actually are. Re-conquering the human world was his way of fixing that.
- Unreliable Narrator: Provides a lot of exposition when we finally meet him about the state of the world, along with his, Harkyn's and Antanas' role therein. A lot of what he says is provably true, but a lot we have to take his word on. Since he paints himself and his rule as the best thing for humanity... grains of salt should be taken. It gets further muddied in the sequel as, even though the Rhogar are causing a lot of trouble and a lot of people die, the Hallowed Sentinels who oppose him are just as bad, if not worse, and if the Lampbearer goes through with killing him, the supposed 'good god' of the setting, Orius, nukes them immediately afterwards, whereas Adyr outright rewards them with a position as the first of his new Lords. Ultimately, it boils down to who you trust.
