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The Moonshade Order
The Moonshade Order
"Surrender yourself not unto silent dusk. For the light shall fade. And soon, night shall fall."
A world-spanning cult that worships the dark god Vide the Wicked. Believing that the world is beyond saving due to mankind's inherent darkness and sin, they seek to resurrect Vide so that he may bring an eternal night to the world.- Apocalypse Cult: They're a doomsday cult dedicated to destroying the world due to nihilistic despair.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: While Arcanette/Mindt is the leader of the cult, she, Ori, and Oboro/Kazan all play equally distinct roles in manipulating player characters and villains alike into furthering their cause. Oboro, likewise, is the one to awaken Vide the Wicked at the end after Arcanette has been slain in battle.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Several of the members disguise themselves as regular folk as well as a few of them using a different name to hide their true identity.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- To Lyblac, the mastermind behind the events of the first game. Lyblac was an Obviously Evilnote , sadistic demigoddess who mostly worked alone, manipulated others into doing her bidding, and her ultimate goal was to revive her father so he could rule the world. By contrast, the members of the Order are ordinary humans so broken and disillusioned with humanity's future that they seek to revive their god and have him end everything.
- They also serves as one to the Bestower of All, the final villain of Champions of the Continent. Like the Bestower of All, the Moonshade Order is motivated by lifetimes of seeing how dark and sinful the world and humanity can be. However, while the Bestower of All sought to become a god so he could remake the world without the desires he believed caused those sins, the Moonshade Order seeks to awaken the evil god Vide to destroy the world and everyone in it and be done with it.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Much like Lyblac before them, all of the order's members turn out to have been met much earlier, in each of the 8 characters' story, and in positions that don't suggest their greater role. Some of them are extremely minor too. Their leader, Arcanette, for example, is Mindt, the nun who is friendly to Temenos in his first chapter, but otherwise doesn't play a major role in the events of his story.
- Dysfunction Junction: A solid half of them suffer from debilitating mental issues, though in some cases this is abused by another member of the Order to make the person suffering 'work' for them properly. Tanzy was mentally broken by Arcanette to serve as a perfect servant for her and suffers from several emotional issues she barely manages to keep under wraps around the troupe, Trousseau lost himself to nihilistic depression, and Harvey continually shoots himself in the foot due to a inferiority/superiority complex he can't rein in regarding Osvald. Ori and Oboro both suffer from suicidal levels of depression, but work effectively because of this due to the end goal of the Order. It's telling that Ori is the only member who manages to survive, due in large part to the fact she tries at the last second to confront her suicidal tendencies.
- Evil All Along: Subverted with Ori, who was inspired by Partitio's sheer selflessness to regain a little hope for humanity and start anew. Played straight with Arcanette and Oboro, though the former is a heartless Sadist with no redeeming qualities, while the latter is a broken victim of war.
- Evil Counterpart:
- Each of these members who counter against their Traveler, is also their darker counterpart.
- The Moonshade Order as a whole comes off as this to Crick. Both Crick and the Order believe that the world is a cruel place to live in, but Crick joined the Sanctum Knights out of a desire to help the people, while the Order's idea of "helping" others is summoning their god Vide to end everything.
- Fun with Acronyms: There are eight major members and associates, one for each of the eight stories, and each of their names spell OCTOPATH: Oboro for Hikari, Claude for Throné, Tanzy for Agnea, Ori for Partitio, Petrichor for Ochette, Arcanette for Temenos, Trousseau for Castti, and Harvey for Osvald. As an added bonus, their corresponding protagonists spell HTAPOTCO, or OCTOPATH backwards.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of most of the eight storylines. To wit:
- They hired Harvey to help them recreate the Book of Demons, offering to help fund his research as payment.
- Their massacre of the Kal Clan was what began Captain Kaldena’s vendetta against the Church and her obsession with controlling the Shadow for herself. Arcanette ends up using this vendetta to manipulate her into killing several of the Order's enemies.
- Their attempt to create a vessel for Vide's soul ended up creating Claude, who went on to create the Blacksnakes.
- Oboro helped orchestrate Mugen's takeover of Ku in order to get closer to the Darkblood Blade, only to turn on him and help Hikari defeat him once it became clear Mugen had no intention of giving up the sword.
- Claude was the one who told Trousseau about the world's dark history and the depths humanity is capable of sinking to, causing him to go mad and become the nihilistic plaguemaster he was in Castti's story.
- Petrichor the Dark Hunter is the true Arc Villain of Ochette's story despite never appearing during it. She captured the animal Ochette didn't choose as a child and worked with Harvey to turn it into the Darkling. She also hunted down the Guardian Beasts to keep them out of the way; she killed Cataracta, broke Glacis' egg, and wounded Tera enough that he slept for ten years to recover. She also hunted down Roi on Arcanette's orders to take back the Darkblood Bow, which likely led to the creation of the Dark Entity seen in Ochette's Chapter 1.
- He Was Right There All Along: Their members include various important characters from each of the eight storylines. Most of them are revealed to have been operating under false names during those storylines.
- The Heavy: The Big Bad is Vide, but the Moonshade Order's actions to resurrect him are what moves the plot forward.
- Hypocrite: The Order's justification for consigning everything to oblivion is that the world is nothing but suffering with no hope, but they are responsible for the majority of suffering the travelers endure on their journeys, and a few members even take pleasure in the pain they cause. In fact, out of the eight Arc Villains, only two of them (Dolcinaea Luciel and Roque Brilliante) are not members of, associated with, or pawns of the Order.
- The Night That Never Ends: Once they enact their master plan, Solistia is covered in an endless night that causes powerful monsters to spawn throughout the world.
- Omnicidal Maniac: They seek to revive Vide so he will destroy the world, believing that oblivion is a preferable alternative to a life of suffering and strife.
- Straw Nihilist: Having seen the worst depths humanity is capable of sinking to, the Order seeks to just end everything, as they see no point in living a life that will inevitably be filled with suffering, strife, and regret.
- The Unfought: Petrichor, Ori, Oboro, and Tanzy are not directly fought by the party. Ori ends up having a last minute Heel–Face Turn and leaves for parts unkown, Tanzy is killed by Arcanette to extinguish a Sacred Flame, Oboro throws himself into Vide's black flames in order to complete the dark god's revival, and Petrichor has the Darkling sacrifice her to douse her Sacred Flame (though it is implied that in doing so, she may have turned into a Darkling herself, guarding the site of her death as a Grotesque Monster).
- We ARE Struggling Together: Part of what makes the group capable of being overcome by the party is that the group itself is split into two factions, with Harvey, Trousseau, and Claude acting as wild cards. Otherwise, Arcanette's side minimizes contact with Oboro's side, and Oboro's side treads cautiously with Arcanette's. Several of their plans fall apart in large part due to them not working well together; Claude doesn't work with the group at all past giving them an item they need, Harvey goes behind the Order to saddle Osvald with a life sentence over a death sentence, and Ori is more or less left as an errand girl for the group because no one else really steps forward to help with the various tasks the group has.
The Leader of the Moonshade Order
Arcanette/Mindt
Overworld Sprite
Battle Sprite
- "Once, long ago, night was invited into the world. But a loathsome few drove it away. Those events will not repeat themselves again.""Surrender yourself not unto silent dusk. For the light shall fade. And soon the world shall know—the joy of a dawn that never comes."
- Ambiguously Gay: She forms a relationship with Tanzy, and Tanzy's journal mentions that she was seen flirting with another woman, while she's never shown interacting with men in such a manner. However, because Arcanette's "romance" with Tanzy is all for the sake of manipulating her, it's unclear if she's actually attracted to women or not.
- Arc Villain: The true antagonist of Temenos's story, with Kaldena and Vados as her pawns.
- Big Bad Friend: Mindt, a close friend of Temenos who had a supporting role in his story, is revealed to in fact be Arcanette, the Order's leader.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Every positive trait under her entry as "Mindt" is a lie. She's manipulative, cruel, and exults in the suffering she causes.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Darkblood Staff she wields is the same one Throné delivered to Father in her first chapter.
- The Chessmaster: Arcanette is a master manipulator to the point where even Oboro is wary of her. She ordered the murders of Roi, Pontiff Jörg, and Crick, who all got too close to the truth.
- Evil Counterpart: To Temenos. While Temenos is one who is filled with doubt about his fellow man's sincerity, actions, and good intentions, at his core Temenos is a man who has a strong belief in his personal justice and doing the right thing. Arcanette is a woman filled with a deep faith in her actions to unleash darkness on the world, and doesn't care how many people she has to harm in her path to get there.
- Fatal Flaw: Her enjoyment of other people's suffering backfires in the end, when she willingly exposes herself to the party at the last moment for the sake of getting to see Temenos angry.
- Foreshadowing: There are a few red flags that "Mindt" is not the sweet cleric woman she presents herself as.
- Temenos' first chapter includes two:
- She tells one of the children attending Temenos' play about Aelfric's battle against Vide, that everyone is born with "Shadow" within them, which manifests itself in "anger, hatred, resentment and jealousy". "The Shadow" is mentioned many times throughout the protagonists' journeys before being revealed to be none other than Vide himself. Furthermore, during the end-game, the Dark Hunter monologues about how "shadow" manifests itself in a Call-Back to "Mindt"'s lecture before sacrificing herself to the Darkling of the Sorrowful Moon to douse Toto'haha's Sacred Flame.
- Pontiff Jörg sounds worried after she exits the cathedral and asks him and Temenos if they are keeping secrets from her, and tells Temenos to "come to the cathedral this evening. I have much to tell you." The end-game reveals that Jörg rightfully suspected her of being the leader of the Moonshade Order, and that she orchestrated the events surrounding his death because He Knew Too Much.
- Trying to use Path Actions on her while Temenos is in the party reveals that she cannot be Guided, which seems odd for a secondary character.
- At the end of Temenos' story, Temenos explains that he plans to wander and asks her if they should keep in touch, to which she ominously responds, "That won't be necessary this time, Temenos. After all, your journey is already over." Temenos notably seems suspicious when he hears this. During the end-game, she tries to kill the protagonists when they try to re-kindle Flamechurch's Sacred Flame.
- The biggest red flag happens during the optional side story "Ort's Next Chapter." The player assists Ort with hunting down members of the Moonshade Order who are looking for a hair ornament in Flamechurch Cathedral's cellars. At the end of Temenos' story, Temenos had noticed that "Mindt"'s hair ornament is missingnote .
- Ori writes in one of her journal entries found in the Fellsun Ruins, that she's excited at the thought of giving her the Darkblood Staff so that she can "douse the cathedral's Sacred Flame." During the end-game, she uses the Darkblood Staff to do just that, sacrificing Tanzy to Vide in the process.
- Temenos' first chapter includes two:
- Gone Horribly Right: She decides to show her true colors to the party at the last moment just because she wants to break Temenos's placid demeanor. This ends up getting her killed in battle.
- Graceful Loser: If there's anything positive that can be said about her at all, it's that she takes her final defeat pretty well, if only because she's so nihilistic that she doesn't even value her own life.Arcanette: Ungh… And so we arrive at this moment… Are you truly so desperate to see the dawn? I see now that the pontiff was not the true threat… It was you… Temenos. You [Throné]… A dagger sharpened to a razor's edge. Claude's masterwork. Hehehe… I can see it… A collar around that thin neck of yours… You…will never be free… Hehe… Hehehehehehe… Even if I fall here, nothing will end… And there…always near… "Soon…night shall fall."
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of Ochette's story, as Arc Villain Petrichor is her personal Dragon.
- Hate Sink: There is not a single scrap of good in Arcanette's body. Even if the stated purpose of the Moonshade Order is to "save" everyone by destroying the world so no one has to feel any negative emotions anymore, Arcanette merely gives lip service to these ideals in order to justify her sadism. She is either directly or indirectly involved with the deaths of most of Temenos' allies, played the long game with Kaldena to ensure the poor woman would fall off the deep end and do most of Arcanette's job for her in the name of 'justice', worked with an immortal eugenicist serial rapist and a depraved egotist without batting an eye, seduced Tanzy when she was most emotionally vunerable to compel her to do Arcanette's every whim before ultimately sacrificing Tanzy to Vide, and has the gall to taunt Temenos over all he's lost. Her death is only played as a tragedy because it happens as the Order's plan is in full swing and she's already done so much wrong in the world.
- I Control My Minions Through...: She tells Temenos and the others that you can't bend people to your will using force, instead favoring making people feel like they belong and are cared for. One notable example is Tanzy of Giselle's Traveling Troupe, in which Arcanette manipulated her desire for love after the loss of her husband to have her loyally search for the Sacred Flame locations.
- Light Is Not Good: She pretends to be a cleric and wears the same blue and white robes as everyone else in the church. However, she's one of the most evil characters in the game.
- Meaningful Name: Arcanette sounds like a combination of arcane and marionette, fitting her skill at manipulation and use of magic during her boss fight.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Right before her boss fight, she claims Temenos should be thankful that she granted her victims death so that they no longer have to experience a cruel world, but this is undercut by her mocking faux compassion towards Temenos's deceased friends for knowing "the beauty of a dawn that would never come." While she believes in the misanthropic aspect of the Moonshade Order's teachings, she clearly doesn't believe in the mercy killing aspect, since she takes pleasure in making people suffer before killing them. This is in contrast to Oboro and Ori, who believe in the Moonshade Order's ideals in a more consistent way and take no pleasure in their crimes.
- Really 700 Years Old: Like Claude, Arcanette has lived for decades, possibly even centuries, despite appearing just as youthful as he did. While a concrete explanation isn't provided, it's implied her pact with Vide granted her eternal life, which Throné directly compares to Claude when the topic is raised.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She's the one who hires the Blacksnakes through Claude to take the Darkblood Staff from Diamanté. Though they are successful, Donnie dies halfway through and his death triggers the next wave of infighting that makes Throné realize she wants out of the Blacksnakes.
- The Sociopath: Not only is she manipulative and abusive without any remorse, but she was able to hide her true identity from Temenos, who isn't easy to fool; and while one of the members was disgusted by the actions of two of her associates, Arcanette was the one who recruited them, seeing their potential in her Evil Plan.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: She never once raises her voice, and she takes pleasure in ruining the lives of others, even taunting Temenos about everybody he's lost.
- Spotting the Thread:
- At the end of Temenos's story he observes that Mindt's lost her hairpiece. The sidequest that opens up after, Ort's Next Chapter, has him team up with the travelers to capture a group of Moonshade Order cultists looking for their leader's hairclip. This is one of the primary clues that Mindt is really the leader of the Moonshade Order before the Sacred Flames are extinguished.
- At the start of Temenos' story, the pontiff is shown to be visibly uncomfortable around Mindt, and asks Temenos to speak to him in private away from her. Despite the pontiff's death, Temenos gets the sense that he shouldn't mention anything about what he's learned to Mindt because of that. When she reveals her evil nature, Temenos realizes she was the one who had the pontiff killed, having likely learned the truth about "Mindt".
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- While the order as a whole shares a lot of similarity with Lyblac, Arcanette has the most. Both are lovely women with long hair who seek to release an evil god, manipulate and murder people to achieve this, appear as unassuming minor NPCs before a number of clues indicate greater relevance, and both are in fact Older Than They Look, being gifted with unnaturally long lifespans.
- She also has a lot in common with Mattias. They have similar methodolgies relating to how they get their work done, though Arcanette's 'Lianna,' Tanzy, doesn't have an 'Ophilia' to save her before going through with Arcanette's plan. Additionally, many of the similarities Arcanette shares with Lyblac also apply to Mattias, such as long lifespans and appearing to be fairly minor background characters. The major difference is that, for all his vileness, Mattias merely wished to weaken the bonds on Galdera to draw more power from his patron, while Arcanette wants to herald the coming of Vide entirely.
- She also has a lot in common with Lucia. She manipulates Kaldena into doing her dirty work before callously disposing of her once she is no longer useful, similar to Lucia's manipulation of Yvon. Also, both she and Lucia are the Arc Villains of stories whose protagonists travel to solve a mystery.
- Her role is most similar with Mattias's cohort, Ceraphina, who also poses as a lowly cleric that's friends with a main character but is actually the leader of a cult worshipping the local dark god.
- Too Dumb to Live: There was no need for her to show her true colors to the party once the Sacred Flames were extinguished for the advent of Vide, but she did so anyway just because she wanted to get a reaction out of Temenos. This gets her killed in battle.
- The Vamp: Arcanette controls Tanzy specifically through The Power of Love. Following the loss of Tanzy's husband-to-be, Arcanette seduced Tanzy and subsequently groomed the writer to do whatever she asked, and even pretended to favor another woman for a brief time to further compel Tanzy to come desperately and intentionally under her thrall. Unsurprisingly, though Arcanette's orientation is left up in the air, it's made clear as day that she sees Tanzy as nothing more than a means to an end, and Arcanette sacrifices Tanzy to Vide as a 'reward' for all of Tanzy's hard work pleasing her without any hesitation.
- Villain Ball: She's an expert manipulator to the point that even Oboro, her ally, is uneasy around her. However, her sadism eventually gets the better of her when she chooses to show her true colors to the party just because she wants to break Temenos's placid demeanor, resulting in her demise.
- Walking Spoiler: There is more to her than just being a minor supporting character in Temenos's story.
The Martyr
Tanzy
A member of Giselle's Traveling Troupe, she fell hopelessly in love with Mindt/Arcanette after suffering the loss of her husband just after their marriage—to the point of worshiping her—and joined the Troupe so that she could pinpoint the locations of the three Sacred Flames in Solistia outside Flamechurch, in Arcanette's stead. Unbeknownst to her, Arcanette is merely using her to bring about The End of the World as We Know It.- Ambiguously Bi: It's unclear if she's truly bisexual, or if her husband's death broke her so much that Arcanette's fake compassion convinced her to devote herself to the latter.
- Chekhov's Gunwoman: She's introduced in Agnea's interlude chapter as a member of a random group of performers who monologues about a "goddess". She turns out to be much more important to the overarching story than that.
- Corrupt the Cutie: Tragically, no one realizes because everyone who knows her from before she was a member of Giselle's Traveling Troupe are dead or left behind. She has been corrupted by the seduction of Arcanette and the dark history of the Book of Night to be a devoted slave to the former so she can (unknowingly) conclude the will of the latter. No one knows anything is wrong besides her parents, because she joined the Troupe after her corruption from a young, aspiring writer to a broken doll — the most anyone realizes about her is that she seems to be a bundle of nerves sometimes and makes allusions to some unnamed "goddess".
- Evil Counterpart: To Agnea. Both women lost a person dear to them, but while Agnea is still pained by her mother's loss, it doesn't control her. She plans to use her position as a dancer to bring hope to the world. Agnea also recognizes the flaws in her idol and will stand up to her when she thinks Dolcinaea is wrong. Tanzy is a backstage worker for a production company trying to bring happiness to the world and is oblivious to her idol's evil intentions until it's too late for her to do anything to resist Arcanette.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Tanzy was someone Agnea saw as a friend, and clearly was well-liked by the rest of Giselle's Traveling Troupe, but her death is never commented on by anyone. While part of this is because her death is revealed in a cutscene focused around Temenos and Throné, who don't have a real connection to her, not even Agnea reacts to learning she was sacrificed. Even during the epilogue, none of the troupe so much as mention her if you speak to them.
- Ignored Enamored Underling: As revealed in her journal found near Flamechurch's Sacred Flame in the final chapter, after losing her husband shortly after their marriage, she lost herself to the manipulations of Arcanette, who strung her along and used her need for love to make her a loyal pawn who would search for the Sacred Flames in Solistia. It's also noted in her journal that she immediately pledged herself to Arcanette out of fear of losing her after seeing her getting close to another woman, which may have been part of Arcanette's plan to ensure absolute obedience, considering her style of using (false) love and acceptance to command loyalty rather than fear and force.
- Hopeless Suitor: She has utterly deified Arcanette, actively referring to her as "goddess" to anyone who will listen. Her love, loyalty, devotion, and faith in Arcanette is total. Unfortunately for her, though Arcanette lets her think doing Arcanette's bidding and finding the Sacred Flames will cause her "goddess" to love her back, the truth of the matter is that she has a much darker role to play as Arcanette's sacrifice to Vide.
- Kill the Cutie: Her final fate is to be one of the four sacrifices that will herald the coming of Vidania so Oboro can summon Vide. And she thought until her last breath that Arcanette was going to return her love.
- Love Martyr: She falls in love with Arcanette sometime after the death of her beloved. Arcanette eventually sacrifices her to douse Flamechurch's Sacred Flame once she learns of the other Sacred Flame locations.
- Obliviously Evil: She doesn't have a single clue in her head that anything she's doing is wrong. She is deliberately the member of the Moonshade Order most kept in the dark in regards to the Order's dealings, ostensibly because she's supposed to believe Arcanette is a benevolent entity with nothing but love in her heart. It's implied she doesn't even know there are other members of the Moonshade Order besides herself and Arcanette, and probably doesn't even know there is a Moonshade Order to begin with. This is justified by the fact that all she's been told to do is locate shrines dedicated to the Sacred Flames in order to please her mistress, and is kept out of any dirty business involving people like Claude, Petrichor, Harvey, and Trousseau.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She is introduced as a side character to a side character, being the troupe's director who stands off on the sidelines while Rico and Coda put on their comedy routine and Giselle woos the audience. She's also why the Moonshade Order has such a smooth, easy time putting out the Sacred Flames at the earliest possible convenience for them, since her travels through Solistia allowed her to pinpoint the exact locations of three of the Sacred Flames. All the work Oboro did to get the Darkblood Blade and Ori the Darkblood Staff would have been pointless without her efforts.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Of Lianna, Ophilia's adoptive sister from the first game. She is rendered a broken wreck after losing her husband and becomes the Unwitting Pawn of a Manipulative Bastard, as did Lianna after her father, Archbishop Josef, died. However, while Ophilia was eventually able to save Lianna from Mattias's false promises of Josef's resurrection, no-one suspects that anything is wrong with Tanzy before she does Arcanette's bidding. In fact, by the time the party finds out who Arcanette is, Tanzy is already deceased.
- Walking Spoiler: She is one of the most important characters in the entire game, and talking about her in detail will spoil events in the final chapter.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After she pinpoints the three Sacred Flames outside Flamechurch, Arcanette heartlessly sacrifices her to Vide using the Darkblood Staff. Arcanette even says "I love you, Tanzy" right before killing her.
Oboro
Oboro/Kazan
Overworld Sprite
Ori's older brother, who masterminded the events of Hikari's story as Kazan.- Affably Evil: In the brief exchange Oboro has with the travelers in the final chapter, he's nothing but amiable and seems to genuinely regard siccing Vide on them as a Mercy Kill after everything they've suffered.
- The Alcoholic: He's drinking in virtually every scene that he's in. And unlike his gambling problem, which is part of his ruse to liberate the fighters of the Montwise arena, Ori's journal implies that his penchant for alcohol isn't an act.
- Anti-Villain: Of the “sympathetic motivations” variety. While other associates of the Order genuinely seem to revel in the suffering they cause, such as Harvey and Arcanette, Oboro and his sister Ori are genuinely broken victims of war whose compassion has turned into destructive nihilism over time.
- Big Bad Friend: His friendship with Hikari seems to be genuine, but he is committed to awakening Vide to end the world anyway.Oboro: Hikari... Goodbye, old friend. This world's end calls to me. Soon, you shall have the world you envisioned — a world without bloodshed. For oblivion shall bring peace...
- Chekhov's Gunman: Oboro — and his plan to end the world — is referenced early on, as you can find his journal in Hikari's Chapter 1. It's not until the final chapter that you receive context for what any of it means.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Supported Mugen's rise to the throne and then, when that didn't get Oboro what he wanted, promptly turned on him and put the crown on Hikari again before then trying to destroy the world.
- Dragon Their Feet: Despite Arcanette being the Order's leader, she's defeated halfway through the final chapter, leaving Oboro as the last member of the Order to be confronted by the party before Vide himself.
- Drowning My Sorrows: He drinks copious amounts of alcohol as a way of coping with his nihilism.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Even after frequent war made them destructively nihilistic, he cares about Ori enough to warn her to be wary of Arcanette.
- Evil Counterpart: To Hikari. Hikari is a noble born while Oboro is from the gutter. Both have experienced the loss of comrades and formed a close companionship with those not of their blood, Hikari and his three friends of which Oboro is included, and Oboro is close only with his adopted sister Ori. While Hikari lost his home and family to Mugen's evil, Hikari never succumbed to the darkness and despair, holding onto hope that things could be made right. Oboro, after losing his country to Hikari's father and living in destitute conditions, has given up on there being any way to fix the world, seeing the only hope is if it all ends.
- Family of Choice: His journal states that he found Ori on the streets after they'd both lost their families, so he took her in and raised her like a sister.
- Foil: To Hikari. In a manner of speaking, he shares Hikari's goal of a world without bloodshed. Oboro chooses to get there by consigning the world to oblivion.
- Foreshadowing: In Hikari's first chapter, you can find a journal in Castle Ku written by someone named Oboro, who muses about how humanity is predisposed to war and bloodshed and questions whether or not that will ever change. The final chapter reveals that Kazan is Oboro, and he is a major figure in the Moonshade Order.
- Greater-Scope Villain:
- Of Osvald's story, being the one to recruit Harvey to the Order in the first place.
- Of Hikari's story, being the one to orchestrate Mugen's rise to power.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: His final act is to kill himself to awaken Vide.
- No-Sell: In his journal, he notes that his heart is "unmoved" by the Book of Night, due to having already reached the same conclusion about the world that it would've lead him to.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: What drove him into nihilism was having a front row seat to Jigo's countless conquests and watching all the ensuing carnage.
- Start of Darkness: Oboro and Ori came from a deeply impoverished background, only to then lose what little they had when their nation was taken over by Ku. After suffering immensely under Ku's aggressive rule and being pressganged in becoming King Jigo's military advisor after a failed assassination attempt, Oboro spent the next several years watching humanity indulge in its darkest excesses, driving him to nihilistic despair and making him, and by extension Ori, all too eager to join Arcanette when she approached them.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: As revealed in one of Ori's journal fragments, despite having a common goal of consigning the world to oblivion, Oboro has been very wary of Arcanette to the point of forcefully warning Ori to also be careful around her. Ori understands completely after witnessing Arcanette's ploy in action regarding Kaldena and Temenos in the latter's final chapter.
- Too Broken to Break: When Oboro was shown the Book of Night, he was completely unfazed by its horrific contents, as he had long since already given into nihilistic despair regarding the world's future. Remember that this was the same book that drove Trousseau mad.
- The Unfought: Not only one of the only Moonshade Order members you don't fight (putting aside Ori, who's a noncombatant), he also happens to be the only major character from Hikari's story that you never fight.
- Walking Spoiler: There is more to him than just being a major character in Hikari's story.
- What the Hell Are You?: Ageha asks "What are you?" when Oboro is about to sacrifice him to put out the Tranquil Grotto's Sacred Flame, as he realizes exactly how extreme Oboro really is.
Oboro's Sister
Ori
A young scrivener with the New Delsta Times. She used her position to gather information on the protagonists for the Moonshade Order.- Animal Motifs: As she puts it in her journal, she'll be the hound on the ground to her brother's eagle in the sky, referring to the way she snoops for info and how people lower their guards around dogs if they're cute.
- Anti-Villain: Ori and her brother Oboro are genuinely broken victims of war whose compassion has turned into destructive nihilism over time. Ori is notably the most sympathetic member of the Order, playing an integral role in Partitio’s success out of genuine compassion. Castti (noted to be one of the Order’s biggest threats) mentions that Ori seems to have a noble soul in a travel banter long before her motivations are uncovered and she goes through her Heel–Face Turn.
- Beneath the Mask: As she admits in her journal, her declaration to Partitio about people's suffering the world over and her offer to help spread good news—especially about the things he's accomplished—were genuine. She even notes that he had a penchant for getting her to drop her guard around him.
- Bungled Suicide: Attempted to sacrifice herself to douse the Sacred Flame in the Fellsun Ruins. She succeeded in dousing the flame, but survived, apparently due to some hesitation.
- Convenient Coma: She spends the rest of the game in a coma in Crackridge's inn. She reappears in the audience for Agnea's show after the credits, standing far behind the rest of the game's cast.
- Easily Forgiven: By Partitio. When he finds out that she attempted to sacrifice herself to douse the sacred flame he expresses nothing but relief upon finding out she survived. The prospect of forgiveness doesn't even seem to be a factor for him.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Since she was taken in by Oboro, the two remain close even after frequent war made them destructively nihilistic.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- It's made clear that Ori absolutely hates Harvey, and only worked with him because he was the only one who could restore the book needed for the Order's plans.
- Ori also notes her utter disgust for Claude, finding the Blacksnakes twisted and sick, and being completely creeped out by Lostseed and Claude himself, spending much of her encounter with him just wanting to get out of there knowing just how he adds to the Blacksnakes' ranks.
- Evil Counterpart: For Partitio. While both lived in poverty with only a sole family member as a primary support—Oboro for Ori and Papp for Partitio—and suffered from the injustice of those who had power over thier lives—Clan Ku for Ori and Roque for Partitio—Ori gave up on the idea of trying to fix the world, seeing that there is no good, no hope, no truly decent people. Partitio, even after learning that his mentor and second father is the man who put him and his town through hell for years just to squeeze a few more leaves out of their pockets, doesn't succumb to hatred or despair. Partitio is confused, but then pursues his goal of making sure no one must suffer like he did, and seeks to bring wealth and stability to all he meets. Ori sees the only way to make sure no one suffers like she did is to end the world.
- The Fake Cutie: Her journal reveals that she deliberately acts like a Genki Girl to make people underestimate her, comparing it to the way people behave around puppies.
- Family of Choice: She and Oboro aren't related by blood, but she still looks up to him a good deal.
- Foreshadowing:
- Her brother being Oboro is hinted at a few times, with the most obvious being her journal corroborating some details of Oboro's journal, and her likening her brother to an eagle.
- Partitio's Chapter 4 hints at her being a member of the Moonshade Order twice.
- The first is when she tells Partitio that she has met many people in her life, but no-one like him. This is because she grew up in poverty in a land ravaged by war, and believes that there is no hope for humanity, but seeing just how selfless Partitio is is starting to change her mind.
- The second is near the end of the chapter, when she recalls the first time she met Partitio. She admits that she had difficulty believing him when he spoke of a bright future, hinting at her involvement with the nihilistic Moonshade Order.
- Redemption Earns Life: Seeing Partitio's utter seflessness throughout his story causes Ori to begin doubting the Order's goals. This doubt ends up saving her life, as when she stabs herself to allow the Shadow to quench a Sacred Flame, the wound ends up not being fatal, and she is soon found and saved by nearby healers.
- Restored My Faith in Humanity: Partitio’s kindness and success do this for her, and they give her enough hope and will to live that she fails to sacrifice herself to douse the flame and survives to the end of the game.
- Stepford Smiler: She’s a spunky, outgoing scrivener whose war trauma has led her to a death cult aiming to throw a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum.
- Start of Darkness: Oboro and Ori came from a deeply impoverished background, only to then lose what little they had when their nation was taken over by Ku. After suffering immensely under Ku's aggressive rule and being pressganged in becoming King Jigo's military advisor after a failed assassination attempt, Oboro spent the next several years watching humanity indulge in its darkest excesses, driving him to nihilistic despair and making him, and by extension Ori, all too eager to join Arcanette when she approached them.
- Walking Spoiler: She turns out to be more than just a humble reporter, but going into details spoils the game's final act.
The Dark Hunter
Petrichor
The hunter responsible for hunting the three Creatures of Legend, leading to Cataracta's death, Tera's sleep, and Glacis' isolation. They are not encountered during Ochette's story. However, the final chapter reveals that the hunter's true identity is Petrichor, a member of the Moonshade Order who answers directly to Arcanette.- Arc Villain: The true antagonist of Ochette's story. While the Night of the Scarlet Moon is a natural event, her actions were done to exacerbate it, being the Dark Hunter who hunted the Guardian Beasts and captured the animal Ochette didn't choose at the start of her story, conditioning it and subjecting it to Harvey's experiments to turn it into the Darkling.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: She helps Harvey turn the unchosen animal companion from Ochette's story into the Darkling, which includes kidnapping and torturing the poor thing.
- The Dragon: To Arcanette. Having been taken in by her as a child, she pledged her Undying Loyalty to her.
- Evil Counterpart: To Ochette. Both are mentored by beings who have longer-than-avergage human lifespans, raising up their skills as archers and hunters, and those mentors set both out on quests to find the Creatures of Legend. Ochette hunts to survive and respects her quarry. Petrichor hunts for the glory that killing the Creatures of Legend will bring. Ochette loves and befriends her animal companion, while Petrichor captures the one not chosen and mutilates the innocent beast until it becomes a ferocious monster as dark and twisted as she is. Ochette doesn't hold grudges and sees no value in it, where Petrichor will kill innocent children out of spite for failing to kill her target.
- Evil Is Petty: The hunter that Ochette meets while looking for Glacis tells her that the Dark Hunter smashed Glacis' egg because they couldn't manage to kill the legendary beast itself, purely out of spite.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of Temenos's story, being the one responsible for Roi's disappearance and implied mutation into the Dark Entity fought at the beginning of Ochette's story (albeit on Arcanette's orders). This ended up backfiring because it made Temenos much more cynical, which helps him uncover the Church's dark secrets.
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: She sometimes hunted humans on Arcanette's behalf, like the time she chased down Roi and took the Darkblood Bow from him.
- Meaningful Name: 'Petrichor' is the smell produced following rainfall in an area that was recently warm and dry. Fitting, then, that her blood sacrifice serves to snuff out a Sacred Flame.
- Out of Focus: Petrichor the Dark Hunter is the true Arc Villain of Ochette's story, killing Cateracta and disturbing Tera and Glacis along with capturing the animal Ochette didn't choose and turning it into the Darkling with Harvey. Despite this, she is only shown in a flashback in the final chapter that shows her sacrificing herself to douse Toto'haha's Sacred Flame on the Night of the Scarlet Moon. She doesn't get much characterization beyond her Undying Loyalty to Arcanette.
- The Social Darwinist: In Toto'haha's Sacred Flame's memories upon being rekindled, Petrichor likens the world to be nothing more than hunters and prey before proceeding to offer herself as a sacrifice to the Darkling.
- The Unfought: For all the headaches she caused Ochette, you never get to fight the Dark HunterHowever, as she sacrifices herself to douse Toto'haha's Sacred Flame at the start of the final chapter.
- Was Once a Man: The Grotesque Monster fought on Toto'haha near the end of the game may in fact be Petrichor, transformed into a Darkling after sacrificing herself to one.
D'arqest
A powerful archmage from long ago. He is Claude's grandfather, and the founder of the Moonshade Order.
- Arch-Enemy: He is noted to have had a bitter emnity for the Lumina family, to the point that when the Book of Demons, which was made from his own dead flesh, is exposed to the blood of someone descended from the Luminas, its true power awakens and grants Harvey the power of the Shadow.
- The Archmage: Supposedly wielded the One True Magic, and it is every scholar's dream to figure out how to obtain it. Osvald's final chapter exposes him as a sorry cheat who merely borrowed Vide's power.
- Duel Boss: The Curse of Ku, which is heavily implied to embody a fragment of his soul, is fought in a duel at the end of Hikari's story after defeating Mugen's first phase.
- Famous Ancestor: He's a distant ancestor to Clan Ku's current members, grandfather to Claude, and great-grandfather to Throné, Mother, Father, Donnie, Scaracci, Pirro, Mira, and many other Blacksnakes.
- Irony: He never actually wielded the One True Magic, but the belief that he did led to Osvald discovering the One True Magic centuries later.
- Meaningful Name: D'arqest sounds like "darkest".
- Person of Mass Destruction: He left a massive hole in the earth outside Stormhail that became known as the Pit of D'arqest. The sheer size of the Pit led the scholar Gratton to hypothesize that D'arqest wielded some form of magic beyond the six elements. Thus, Gratton's hypothesis of the One True Magic was born.
- Posthumous Character: A legendary figure that lived long ago and is currently dead, Harvey desecrates his tomb to create the Book of Demons in Osvald's final chapter.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Little else is known about the archmage aside from being Claude's grandfather, founding the Moonshade Order and causing much havoc with dark magic in the past.
- The Unfought: He is not confronted directly by the travelers, but instead is vicariously fought through the living members of the Moonshade Order. The closest he comes to opposing the party directly is when his Curse of Ku tries to take control over Hikari directly during the final battle with Mugen.
- Villainous Legacy: Clan Ku descended from him, inheriting the curse that compels them to needlessly slaughter and end lives, amongst various acts of wanton cruelty.
The Shadow
Vide the Wicked
Vide’s Initial Form
Vide’s Wounded Form
Vide the Wicked
Vide the Wicked in Eternal Night
A god of darkness that attempted to destroy the world millennia ago, but was defeated and sealed away by Aelfric the Flamebringer. The Moonshade Order seeks to release him so he may finish what he started.- Anti-Regeneration: During the last leg of the final battle, his dark aura gets so strong that all ways to resurrect party members are rendered unusable, leaving you with little time to kill him before he kills you.
- As Long as There Is Evil: Upon defeat, he warns the party that so long as darkness and the night exist, he will never truly die.
- Badass Arm-Fold: In his second form, Vide's arms are crossed in front of his chest, showing off his real, godly power.
- Big Bad: He is the main antagonist of Octopath Traveler II, being the god that the Moonshade Order desires to resurrect so that he can end everything.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He is mentioned at the beginning of Temenos' story, and is the evil that the Moonshade Order wishes to unseal, which they (temporarily) succeed at.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: While Galdera sought to consume the other 12 gods and become absolute ruler of Orsterra, Vide seeks to bring a complete end to everything.
- Cognizant Limbs: Summons these in both of his phases. In his second battle, these are not his actual limbs, but a pair of arms he creates out of magic.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Upon defeat, Vide bemoans why the travelers are determined to see a new dawn when the everlasting night has taken over, highlighting much of the Moonshade Order's nihilistic teachings.
- Earlier, in Ochette and Castti's Crossed Path, he is genuinely shocked and angered that Ochette has no inner darkness he can exploit.
- Final Boss Preview: A figment of his power is fought in Ochette and Castti's Crossed Path.
- God of Darkness: He is heavily associated with darkness and the night. In fact, a major plot point that foreshadows his involvement in the plot is that Solistia's nights are slowly becoming longer and longer, and "We are the night" seems to be an anthem for the Moonshade Order.
- Leaking Can of Evil: It's heavily implied that as more of the Sacred Flames are snuffed out as the game goes on, his power and ability to influence the world increases before he's completely revived. During Castti and Ochette's Crossed Path, which chronologically takes place after Petrichor has already snuffed out Toto'haha's Flame, he has enough power to attack Castti and Ochette directly, albeit in a considerably weakened state.
- Meaningful Name: Vide is French for emptiness and the void. Which is fitting for a god who seeks to end and destroy everything.
- Physical God: He's a god of darkness and is frequently portrayed in the scripture as a god of fear and destruction. Fighting him allows him to display his godlike power.
- True Final Boss: Like Galdera before him, he serves as the final antagonist of the game, unlocked after completing all eight original storylines as well as the four Crossed Path sidequests.
- Vocal Dissonance: Despite being referred to with masculine terms, he has a distinctly feminine voice and body. This is due to translation errors as the original Japanese uses gender neutral terms for them.
