Characters / Penny Arcade Adventures

Main Characters

Tycho Brahe

The head of the Startling Developments Detective Agency. Intelligent, well-read, with a minor pre-disposition to killing gods and destroying the entire universe.

• An Ice Person: His elemental attacks in Episode 3.
• Badass Bookworm
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Brahe clan is very big and very crazy. As its last surviving descendant, Tycho gets a little tired of all the other doomsday cults giving him flak over it.
• Brains and Brawn: The Brains to Gabe's Brawn.
• Demonic Possession: Possessed by Yog Ur at the end of Episode 4, and has to be killed by Moira.
• Final Boss: By virtue of Demonic Possession.
• Guest-Star Party Member: In Episode 4, he's kind of busy doing his own thing and jumps in and out of the group when it suits him.
• Omnicidal Maniac: No, you're not reading that wrong. The Brahe clan is actively trying to end existence. Tycho, however, differs from his clan in that he wants to make a new world from the ruins of the last.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: His weapons in Episode 3, though the animation looks like a Tommy Gun.
  • Gatling Good
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sealed Anne-Claire in the Periphery in order to create a better world since the incoming apocalypse was unavoidable. May have done the same to Rake Guy for the same reason.
• Working with the Ex: With Moira.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Moira is incredibly horrified when she finds out that Tycho sealed Anne-Claire in the Periphery and plans to shoot him. Yog Modaigh's arrival in the Periphery is the only thing that stops her. Though Tycho was fine with being shot as long as their job was done first.

Gabriel

The fists of the Startling Developments Detective Agency. Well-meaning but none too bright, he joined up with Tycho after winning a fistfight with Satan.

• Anime Hair
• Artificial Human: Is apparently one, as Episode 4 reveals. Though where he was made by the Brahes or enslaved by them is never made clear.
• Badass Cape: Played for laughs. He dons one resembling Doctor Blood's cape towards the end of Episode 3 and it's anything but badass. It's also been linked to spontaneous internal human combustion. And by "linked to" we mean "directly responsible for."
• Blood Knight: Gabe really likes punching things.
• The Chosen One: In the RPG universe the party enters in ''Episode 3', to everyone's annoyance.
• Demonic Possession: He's host to Lucifer, a fact Tycho uses to occasionally mess with his memories.
  • The ending of Episode 4 reveals that Gabe isn't possessed by Lucifer, he is Lucifer, handed down through the Brahe clan as a bodyguard and general thing-puncher. Tycho is apparently the first Brahe who regarded him as an actual friend.
• Dumb Muscle
• Good Is Dumb
• Good Old Fisticuffs
• Playing with Fire: His elemental attacks in Episode 3.
• Holy Hand Grenade: His Devil Knuckle attack.
• Ironic Name: His Devil Knuckle, a Holy-elemented attack.
• Plucky Comic Relief
• Self-Made Orphan: Not exactly. He left home at a young age because he heard how all great people start as orphans... his parents are pretty worried about him.
  • Averted Trope: as it turns out, he's not human.

"Rake Guy" A.K.A. "You"

The player character in Episodes 1 and 2, who joins the Startling Developments Investigations after their house was destroyed by Fruit Fucker Prime. S/he is absent from the rest of the series. As explained in the Episode 3's Begining of the End prequel DLC, Tycho sealed them in the Periphery and wiped Gabe's memory of them.

• Butt-Monkey: House gets stomped on by a giant robot, roped into fighting Elder Gods, temporary home gets destroyed, you finally find a new place to stay... gets burnt too the ground. And then you see Sealed Badass in a Can below.

• Dead Pan Snarker: Some of your dialogue opinions are these.

• Featureless Protagonist: Parodied in Episode 3: since his or her appearance was customizable in the first 2 games, the short extra chapter in the Episode 3 involving them solves this problem by having Gabe and Tycho randomly decide to refer to everyone with gender-neutral pronouns, with the latter stuffing them in a sack for the entirety of the episode so that nobody can tell what they actually look like.

• Improbable Weapon User: Uses a rake in the first game, and a hoe in the second. Uses a rake again in the Third's DLC.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Who knew you could fight Elder Gods with gardening tools?
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: You start on one. You get it by the end of Episode 2.
• Sealed Badass in a Can: Is cast into the Periphery by Tycho in the prequel to Episode 3.
• Secret A.I. Moves: Hard to say which this counts as, but if you fight every battle in the third game's extra chapter, beating its final boss gains them just enough EXP to reach level 17, which gives them a move called Rake Armageddon. Too bad the episode ends at that point and there's no way to actually use it in battle. Considering the implications about Rake Guy's nature and abilities listed below, maybe it's for the better.
• Unwitting Pawn: Was deliberately inserted into the group by Yog Ur to help along the destruction of the universe.

Anne-Claire

Tycho's beloved niece and SDI's go to Gadgeteer Genius.

• Gadgeteer Genius
• God: Becomes this at the end of Episode 4.
• Kill It with Fire: Attacks enemies with a flamethrower in Episode 1.
  • More Dakka: Rains missiles down from a blimp in Episode 2.
• Out of Focus: Disappears after the first act of Episode 3 to spend time with her parents. This turns out to be a lie: Tycho instead sealed her in the Periphery so that she could recreate the universe into a far better one after its inevitable collapse.
• Robot Buddy: Fuschia, her pet Reformed Fruit Fucker.
• Teen Genius

Jim

A skull in a jar that was once Gabe and Tycho's partner. He's their head of security in Episodes 1 and 2 and thus serves as a prop. He joins them in field work in Episode 3 and regains his voice (if not his skin) in Episode 4.

• Ascended Extra: Becomes a playable character in Episode 3 and 4 after being a prop in Episodes 1 and 2 .
• Skull In A Jar: Until Episode 4.
• Casting a Shadow: One of his two primary elemental magics.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being a skull in a jar who specializes in dark magic and raising the undead he's fairly nice once he gains the ability to speak in Episode 4.
• Dishing Out Dirt: One of his two primary elemental magics.
• Improbable Weapon User: His equipment is jars and containers.
• Necromaster
• Noodle Incident: How he became a skull in a jar is unclear, though Tycho mentions that something called the Geometricus was involved and that Tycho blames himself for it.
• Something Else Also Rises: His jar rapidly changes colors when a woman plays with its cork in Episode 3.
• Tempting Fate: Makes a really bad habit of this in Episode 4. At least two boss fights can be attributed to it.

Moira

A PI and Tycho's ex-wife, introduced in Episode 3.

• Blow You Away: Her primary elemental magic.
• The Lancer: Is usually the one to call out Tycho in Episode 3 and tries to shoot him when she finds out Tycho sealed Anne-Claire in the Periphery.
• Lightning Bruiser: Is the fastest of the three characters and gains buffs for it late in the game.
• Only Sane Man: When the next-sanest member of your party is trying to end the universe, you sort of fall into this role by default.
• Private Detective
• Shoot the Dog: Kills Tycho and, by extension, the entire cosmos in the series ending.
• Working with the Ex: With Tycho.

Doctor Blood

A mysterious doctor who helps Gabe, Tycho and the Player in Episode 2 He's revealed to be serving Yog Modaigh in Episode 3 and steals the paintings it needs to enter this plane. He joins the party in Episode 4, revealing that he was doing so to save his lover Hestia.

• The Atoner: In Episode 4.
• Bad Ass Cape: Has one starting in Episode 4. Gabe tries to copy it... and fails.
• Broken Pedestal: To Gabe, who spends what amounts to an eternity punching him on their way to Underhell after his actions lead to the end of the world.
• Cool Car: How he gets everywhere in Episode 3. And we mean everywhere, logic, physics, or fuel economy be damned.
• Demonic Possession: The Necrowombicon dupes him into becoming Yog-Modaigh's vessel in Episode 3.
• The Dragon: To Yog Modaigh in Episode 3.
• Large Ham: He manages this in Episode 3 without ever actually saying anything. Becomes a classic variety in Episode 4.
• Killed Off for Real: Gets shivved by Hestia when they reunite. He kinda-sorta forgot to mention that she was only in Hell because he sold her soul for power.
• My Greatest Failure: Selling Hestia for power.
• Too Dumb to Live: Did you really think Hestia would be happy to see you after you sold her to a demon?

Hestia

The new party member of Episode 4. A no-nonsense lady with a solid grasp of the arcane arts, she has some troubled history with Doctor Blood.

• Ax-Crazy: Hestia's got herself some anger issues.
• Damsel out of Distress: Imprisoned in a giant tower/slave camp in the Underhell. Haha, no. She was running the place within a month.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: According to Blood, she was in the past a kind, gentle soul. Now? not so much.
• Nightmare Fetishist: The horrors of the Underhell don't faze her much. Not to mention how she keeps her "prison's" former warden around as man-candy.
• Stone Wall: Her trainer bonuses tend towards building defense, and her initial monster, Fuchsia, is one of the sturdiest units in the game.

The Four Gods (WARNING! SPOILERS)

Tropes that Apply to all of them

• Big Bad: Of the episodes they appear in.
• Elder God: They have all been around since the creation of the universe.
• God Is Evil: Well... they are called Gods... And they have rather grim designs for humanity...

Yog Sethis, the Silent One

God of silence and mimes.

• Big Bad: Of Episode 1.
• The Dragon: The Silent Pope is his.
• Eldritch Abomination: His head certainly gives off this vibe.
• Enemy Mime: Leads an entire cult of this.

Yog Kathak, God of Gears

The god of machines, and the true identity of Fruit Fucker Prime.

• Big Bad: Of Episode 2.
• Hero Killer: All those professors you got to know over the first two episodes? Yeah, he slaughters all of them except for Anne-Claire and Blood.
• The Man Behind the Man: To Professor Mordo.
• Magitek: All the Fruit Fuckers are powered by Dark Steam, making them a blend of science and magic.
• No Cure for Evil: Averted. Every few turns, his "Self Repair" skill restores him to full health and heals any status effects or debuffs.
• Not So Above It All: Although his main goal, like the other gods, is to destroy the world, the fact that he is possessing Fruit Fucker Prime means he's just as susceptible to oranges as the lesser Fruit Fuckers.
• Puzzle Boss: Defeating him requires you to constantly debuff his speed and buffing your own attack so you're able to defeat him before he can use his Self Repair skill.

Yog Modaigh, God of Doors

Don't let the title fool you, Yog Modaigh is no pushover. Rather than simply doors, his domain includes anything that can be considered a passageway, including death.

• Art Imitates Life: How he got sealed. Apparently, an effigy of a god become the god.
• Big Bad: Of Episode 3.
• Evil Genius: He seems to be the most intelligent and cunning of the Four Gods, at least compared to Sethis and Kathak.
• Humanoid Abomination: He's the most human-like of the Four Gods...except for the giant black hole in his ribcage.
• In the Hood: His first form.
• The Man Behind the Man: To Doctor Blood in Episode 3.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Ironically, going after Anne-Claire in the Periphery actually ends up saving Tycho's life, as Moira was literally seconds away from shooting him in a rage over what he did to Anne-Claire when Modaigh attacked.
• One-Winged Angel: Two of them.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: His essence is trapped with four paints.
• Taking You with Me: When the party defeats Doctor Blood and ruins his plans, Yog Modaigh uses the last of his power to literally tear Tycho apart.

Yog Ur (The Narrator)

The fourth and final god of the Quartet of the Dusk of Man. He is, in fact, the narrator of Episodes 1 and 2. His true form is a hideous mass of meat that hangs over the entire Underhell.

• Big Bad: Of Episode 4 and the entire series.
• The Chessmaster: He's responsible for everything that's transpired up to this point, even providing "inspiration" for the Quartet For the Dusk of Man to get the ball rolling.
• Demonic Possession: Does this to Tycho in a last attempt to save himself at the end of Episode 4.
• Eldritch Abomination: His first form is an entire living continent.
• Interface Screw: Since the Narrator provides all the game's flavor text, a lot of it becomes a lot less friendly after The Reveal. See I Shall Taunt You.
• I Shall Taunt You: It's a lot more chatty than the other Gods. And since the Narrator controls the game's flavor text, said taunts even extend to the enemy descriptions and the recap screen.
• Lemony Narrator
• Narrator All Along
• Rage Against the Heavens: "And we shall rouse, with raised rod, to pierce the very house of God."
• Reality Warper: To a limited extent. He can only control events if they make some degree of narrative sense. Summoning giant monsters with the justification that Tycho and co. hadn't seen them yet is fine. Going "and then the good guys' heads all exploded" is not fine.
• The Omniscient: Certainly believes itself to be this. In fact, it's the reason behind his masterminding of the gods' deaths - he's so sick of the constant noise from everyone else's presence that he wants to be the only remaining thing in existence.
• Villains Out Shopping: If his dialogue in Episode 1 is anything to go by, he has a soft spot for windsurfing. How he does it when he's the size of a continent, we'll never know.
• Word of God: The Fourth God's name is unmentioned in the game. Jerry Holkins provided the name at a Q&A panel at PAX Prime 2013.
• Worf Had the Flu: After severing the pillars supporting Overhell, Yog Ur keeps it afloat through his power. But doing this takes a lot out of him, rendering him significantly more killable than he otherwise would be.

The Necrowombicon

Not a god per se, but a Tome of Eldritch Lore that exists to do their bidding - and does a damned good job of it, too. Appearing as a gold-plated tome with Penny Arcade's classic wombat logo on the front, the Necrowombicon keeps popping up to cause trouble for our heroes.

• Artifact of Doom: In a world filled with artifacts of varying levels of doom-ness, the Necrowombicon is the doomiest of them all.
• Book Of Shadows: Its pages can show whatever needs to be shown to further its plans. Tellingly, it stays completely blank whenever Tycho tries to read it (Gabe probably doesn't bother).
• Break Them by Talking: Yes, an inanimate object did this. At the end of Episode 4, it revealed itself to have taken the form of Tycho's sword, and taunted him with images of the many ways Anne-Claire would die at the hands of Yog Ur. After spending the entire game being subtly drained by the Necrowombicon's power, plus the despair this display gave him, allowed the fourth God to possess Tycho.
• The Corrupter: For a mostly inanimate object, it's very good at enslaving people to do the Four Gods' bidding, including Dr. Blood and Tycho himself.
• The Dragon: Effectively acts as this for each of the Four Gods.
• Shapeshifter: Disguises itself as Tycho's sword for the entirety of Episode 4.

Minor Characters