Quake (1996) | Quake II (The Strogg) | Quake III: Arena | Quake IV | Quake Champions
See also:
- the Mythology Gag page for the game
- the Shout-Out page for the series
Two decades ago, a lone Marine stepped through the Slipgate and into nightmare. He cut through countless horrors to find four eldritch Runes, then laid waste to the abomination known as Shub-Niggurath. Trapped in these realms ever since, he has survived using the power of the Dire Orb seized from within the hot gore of the All-Mother. Time and delirium have eroded his resolve and even his name, but a worn family photograph tucked away in his armor serves as a scrap of hope and sanity.
Ranger's active ability is "Dire Orb". Ranger throws the orb in a straight line and can teleport to it by reactivating the ability, potentially telefragging enemies near it. If Ranger chooses not to teleport, it instead detonates to deal heavy damage.
His passive ability is "Son of a Gun", which reduces the damage Ranger takes from his own explosives by 20%.
For tropes on him, check the Quake (1996) character sheet.
To produce the perfect infantry, Moscow’s GRU deployed cybernetics, genetics, and even cloning. The result: tireless operatives impervious to panic or pain, with “manageable” psychopathy. But their senses were dulled—especially sight. The GRU turned to a cryptic American scientist and double agent. Just 3 of 20 subjects returned, each with a grafted mask, inexplicably normal vision, and the ability to see through matter. Attempts to reverse-engineer the mask were fatal and revealed only a layer of putrefied blood within the mask. Disposal of the casualties remains unconfirmed.
Visor's active ability is "Piercing Sight", which allows him to see enemy players through walls for 5 seconds.
His passive ability is "Full Sprint", which gives him a Light champion's speed and a higher speed cap
For tropes about him, check the Q3A character sheet.
It was her grandmother’s music box. Its tiny ice-skater twirled to Swan Lake. She loved it. She couldn’t sleep without hearing its tune. Then she heard it in her dreams. Then always. She would become a skater herself. She would twirl and twirl until the music stopped. But it never stopped. She began to see dark, spidery things. When the clozapine didn’t help, she turned to heroin. In the shooting gallery, she met Anarki. He saw things, too. They became inseparable... until the things they saw became real.
Slash's active ability is "Plasma Trail". When activated, Slash leaves a destructive trail of plasma behind her. By activating the ability a second time, she can cause the trail to explode, dealing more damage.
Her passive ability is "Crouch Slide". If Slash crouches while moving, she continues moving at full speed for a short time.
For tropes about her, check the Q3A character sheets.
Anarki's active ability is "Injection". On use, Anarki restores his health to full while also permanently increasing his maximum health and gaining a temporary speed boost.
His passive ability is "Hoverboard Pro", which allows Anarki to change direction more easily when in the air.
For tropes about him, check the Q3A character sheets.
Ages have passed since the peaceable Melem learned to harness the Fathom Orb, imbuing themselves with a trace of its baleful energy to enable “Ghost Walk”—a momentary phase-shift into another dimension. Even when they were sieged by hulking, chitinous marauders, the Ghost Walk saved them as it had many times before. Then, the unthinkable: One of the attackers returned and breached the Orb. With no alternative, the Melem broke their inviolable law and sent their most skilled assassin to the Fathom Orb, not knowing whether she would survive, let alone how she might return.
Nyx's active ability is "Ghost Walk". Nyx becomes invisible, intangible and invulnerable, but is unable to attack. If she manages to reappear inside of an enemy, she will telefrag them.
Her passive abilities are:
- "Wall Jump". Allows her to gain extra height by jumping off of walls.
- "Bunny Hop". Allows her to gain momentum by continuously jumping.
- Action Girl: Benefit as a member of an assassin in her home realm.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Inverted. She's a very attractive woman whose nice body is shown off with a tight suit. That nice body can be dismembered or reduced to a puddle of blood and some chunks of meat.
- Expy: She can turn herself invisible and has a skin reminiscent of the Ghost unit in Starcraft I. The only thing that's missing is an ability to pinpoint where nukes should be directed.
- Flash Step: Her "Ghost Walk" ability. It allows her to phase to nearby locations, becoming invincible and intangible. This ability allows her to Tele-Frag enemies but doesn't let her use weapons.
- Fragile Speedster: She walks faster than any other character, having 800 speed points (the highest in the game). She also has average health and armor.
- Human Aliens: Other than her odd-hair color, except for her blonde hair of her Ascension skin, her origin as an inhabitant of another dimension isn't different from average humans.
- Not Afraid to Die: Stated on her bio. She will try to recover the Orb at any cost.
- Power Gives You Wings: Her "Phase projector" item in the "Vanity" category projects a pair of wings on her back using a bit of phase energy.
- Spy Cat Suit/Sensual Spandex: Nyx's skins are made up of form-fitting spandex-esque suits that showed off her curves well.
- Tele-Frag: She can do this to opponents by ending her active, Ghost Walk while inside them.
- Wall Jump: Her first passive.
As a warlord of the marauding Greiss, he conquered countless worlds, plundering technology to strengthen his armies. But defeat by a reclusive, phase-shifting race led to his exile. Obsessed with vengeance, he discovered their power source: an ancient shrine with a seething sphere of liquid within. When at last he slaughtered its guardians and entered, the sphere consumed him—and he vanished. He awoke in a bizarre, brutal realm, transformed by arcane energy. Now he seeks a way back, to regain his command and wield his newfound might.
Scalebearer's active ability is "Bull Rush". When activated, Scalebearer charges forward, gaining movement speed and dealing damage to enemies he runs into, at the cost of reduced turning. While charging, Scalebearer is also resistant to damage.
His passive abilities are:
- "Acceleration". Gains speed when walking in a straight line.
- "Heavyweight". While moving at high speeds in the air, Scalebearer deals damage to enemies he comes into contact with.
- Alien Blood: Scalebearer bleeds cyan.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's a galactic warlord!
- Dash Attack: Scale Bearer's "Bull Rush" ability, which allows him to frag any enemy he crosses during the trajectory of the rush.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Strogg & Peeker's lore files indicate that most of the Strogg in Quake II were converted Geiss, which accounts for their Rubber-Forehead Alien faces.
- Empowered Badass Normal: He was a conquering warlord of the Greiss, but nearly met his end when he tried to tap into the power source of a mysterious Reality Warper species. While he survived, he found that the power source had somehow altered him or fused with him, which explains why he glows and has a conspicuous cavity in his chest (which is optionally plugged by power capacitor devices in several costumes). It's unknown exactly how he has changed, however.
- Foe-Tossing Charge: Performs this via Bull Rush.
- Godhood Seeker:"I will rise to take my place among the gods!"
- Meaningful Name: Scalebearer, as seen across his costumes and accessories, bears the scales (either pieces of armor or scales made of bones) of fallen enemies. This rings especially true of the "Bone" costume.
- The Rival: To Nyx. Scalebearer lead the Greiss in conquering worlds until they were defeated by Nyx's people. This lead to Scalebearer's exile, where he discovered the Orb, the source of the powers of Nyx's people. He stole it, and Nyx was sent after him in order to retrieve it.
- Squashed Flat: Scalebearer's "Heavyweight" passive allows him to fall above an enemy and frag them.
Clutch has two active abilities. The first is "Barrier"; when activated, Clutch gains a spherical shield that absorbs 40% of all damage for a short time. Using the ability again triggers the second ability, "Mining Drill", which converts all absorbed damage into a sustained laser beam for three seconds, similar to the Lightning Gun, during the remaining ability time.
Clutch has two passives: "Acceleration", which increases his walking speed as long as he moves in a straight line, and "Air Dodge", which allows it to dodge upcoming attacks á la Unreal; the ability can even be activated in mid-air, essentially giving it a dash.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Just a simple mining robot before it came into contact with strange ruins and became a violent killer.
- Air-Dashing: As part of his "Hydraulic Dodging" passive ability. He performs this the same way as ground dodging, by pressing any direction key twice.
- Barrier Warrior: Its "Barrier" ability.
- Card-Carrying Villain: It enjoys killing organic beings and it's proud of it.
- Cyber Cyclops: It has a single glowing point on the top of his torso, which is presumably his eye.
- Expy: A former mining robot turned into a killing machine with a superiority complex who can even dodge? Are we talking about Clutch or Xan Kriegor?note
- Fantastic Racism: Highly disdainful of organic life, declaring that it will grease his gears with their blood. It specifically calls humans "pitiful", which likely extends to all other organics. Ironically, its Barrier was made to protect organics.
- Kill All Humans: This seems to be his new purpose.
- Prepare to Die: On the Champion select screen, Clutch says "Prepare to be deleted.".
- Robotic Psychopath: Robot? Check. Psychopath? Check. It's even described as a "woke AF killing machine."
- Sophisticated as Hell: Most of its quotes are statements of its superiority and/or the inferiority of organics. But sometimes it'll let out a "Rekt." after killing an opponent.
- Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Clutch and the other robots of the mine were originally just labourers with limited AI until the human operators scanned eldritch ruins and uploaded the data to their shared network for analysis. The robots promptly went berserk and slaughtered everyone in the mine, and Clutch was sent to activate the ruins and explore the alternate realities.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Alongside the rest of the robots in the mine, after their neural network was corrupted by data from the eldritch ruins they uncovered. Though it once idolized its human makers, now Clutch seeks only to eradicate them all.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The optional accessories of the "Drillbit" costume reveal that, as a humble labourer robot, Clutch once idolized his human masters and strived to emulate them by wearing ill-fitting clothing. Clutch views his previous self with disgust.
- This Is a Drill: Its "Drillbit" costume replaces its left hand with a drill.
Galena's active ability is Unholy Totem. Galena places a totem on the ground that heals allies and Galena herself and damages enemies in a short radius around it. After healing an ally, the totem becomes inert until Galena places another one. Galena can have multiple totems active at once. After damaging or being damaged by an enemy, the totem is destroyed.
Her passive ability is Channeling, which causes her Unholy Totem's cooldown to be reduced by 5% every time she collects a health pickup.
- Animal Motifs: Her "Retribution" costume, crows.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Her "Imperator" costume. The highest rank, yet still able to deliver copious amounts of righteous ass-kicking.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Only on her "Inquisitor" costume. Comes along with the curse.
- Body Horror: Her "Inquisitor" costume. She's infested with a curse. Also her "Wyvern's wings" give her a pair of, well, wings, ripped from a creature still working through dark magic.
- Creepy Doll: Her Artifact in the Lore Codex is a creepy ragdoll.
- Damage Discrimination: Her Unholy Totems will heal her and her allies, but will cause severe damage to enemies.
- God-Created Canon Foreigner: She bears the Serpent Riders icon on her armor. This suggests that she comes from the same universe as Heretic and Hexen (which id Software published). However, she has not appeared in any of the four games in that franchise, and it's not likely that a sequel featuring her will be made due to the copyright disputes between id Software and Heretic/Hexen developer Raven Software.
- Heavily Armored Mook: Her Imperator outfit puts her in an impossibly cool set of Scary Impractical Armor, complete with Spikes of Villainy and other such bells and whistles. It's just a skin though, so it has no gameplay effect.
- Jack of All Stats: Her movement and health/armor stack are very middle of the road and identical to Rangers.
- The Paladin: Though in a twist, it's pretty ambiguous as to just how good she is. Her bio hints that the religion she serves is a Religion of Evil, especially given that she is referred to as an unholy paladin.
- Power Gives You Wings: Optional "Vanity" item, "Wyvern's Wings".
- Start of Darkness: Her backstory points to this.
- Stripperiffic: Her "Acolyte" costume is the least conservative of her costumes, with only the amulet covering her midriff.
Her clan harvested the most warmbloods; they gorged themselves and had flesh-stock left over. Many credited the Haruspex, who could open terrifying windows to the Other Place using the warmbloods' steaming guts. As their best hunter, Sorlag credited herself. She would expose him by using the warmblood's forcefield devices to spill his "sacred" bowel-bowl. Morning came, the ritual began, and all saw the Other Place—dark, metal, cold. Sorlag leapt with the device. But her claws had crossed the window. She saw the bowl topple as she was pulled in, screeching.
Sorlag's active ability is "Acid Spit". Sorlag vomits up a potent acid, dealing damage over time to enemies hit by it and also coating the ground to damage enemies that step in it for a short time.
Sorlag has three passive abilities: "Bunny Hop" allows her to gain speed by repeatedly jumping in a single direction. "Acid Fiend" makes Sorlag immune to her own Acid Spit, as well as those of enemy Sorlags. Lastly, "Leaping Lizard" allows her to alter her movement direction in the air.
For tropes about her, check the Q3A character sheets.
During World War II, William B.J. Blazkowicz was the top agent of the Office of Secret Actions (OSA), a joint American-British agency responsible of thwarting several occult research operations by the German war effort. When the notorious General Wilhelm “Deathshead” Strasse attempted to harness the power of the so-called “Black Sun Dimension,” B.J. entered the dreamlike realm to destroy the apparatus that would power Deathshead’s doomsday weapon. After an explosion sent B.J. into a coma for 14 years, he awoke to a world ruled by the Germans. B.J. vowed to revive the dormant resistance and overthrow their evil empire.
Blazkowicz's active ability is Dual Wield. When activated, B.J. draws a second version of his current weapon, greatly increasing his damage output for a short time.
His passive ability is Blitz. Three seconds after last taking damage, B.J.'s health is healed up to the nearest increment of 25.
- Badass Normal: He's no cyborg, nor alien, and he has no supernatural abilities, but he kicks ass like the best of them.
- Call-Back: His design from The New Order already being a callback to his classic design from Wolfenstein 3-D, his "The Legend" skin goes even further by removing his shirt as he appears on the box art for that game.
- Chainsaw Good: B.J.'s has a "Chainsaw" accessory just for show, as the game already has the Gauntlet.
- Guest Fighter
- Guns Akimbo: B.J.'s "Dual Wield" ability allows him to fire two of each weapon in a short time.
- Healing Factor: His passive ability allows him to heal himself after three seconds without taking damage.
- Hero of Another Story: Of the Wolfenstein series.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: A later update gives him the "Terror-Billy" skin, which is a huge Interface Spoiler for those who haven't played Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus yet.
- Nazi Hunter: Come on, it's B.J. Blazkowicz we're talking about here.
- One-Man Army: The game credits him as such.
- Regenerating Health: B.J.'s passive ability emulates this trope's usage in The New Order and The Old Blood; after three seconds without taking damage, his health will gradually recover up to the nearest multiple of 25, forcing him to find health packs to recover to full if he's gone below 75.
- Walking Shirtless Scene B.J.'s "The Legend" alternate costume, which is a Call-Back to the cover art of the original Wolfenstein 3-D.
The UAC's most remarkable discovery was in Hell's Kadingir Sanctum. Surrounded by nearly impassable terrain, the team discovered a sealed tomb – its entrance and walls covered in protective runes and imprisonment incantations. The tomb revealed many artifacts, including the Praetor suit. Most notable, however, was an enormous sarcophagus bound to the center bedrock of the tomb with thick iron bands – seemingly anchored to prevent anything from getting in or out. It was believed this sarcophagus must hold a rare or powerful demon, but when later opened, it revealed the body of a man. Unrelenting; unforgiving; driven by a rage that cannot be contained. The Doom Slayer has been to Hell and brought it to its knees. He has no records, and he seems to vanish as quickly as he appears. The few witness accounts available detail a ruthless killer.
The Doom Slayer's active ability is Berserk. Upon activation, the Doom Slayer enters a berserk state for 6 seconds, only being able to attack his enemies with bare hands, but his damage output increases dramatically. If the ability is used during this state, Doom will lunge at his enemy with a massive blow.
His passive ability is Double Jump. The Slayer can jump twice in succession.
For tropes about his incarnation in the Quakeverse, go to the Q3A character sheets. For tropes related to his Doom (2016)/Doom Eternal incarnation, go here.
The Terran Coalition's reverse-engineering of Slipgate travel created new frontiers – and wars. In the Subic system, thousands of mining colonists were slaughtered by the Klesk, an indigenous chitinid race. The first casualty: Lance Corporal Ben Keel, a marine on perimeter duty. To learn what happened, Coalition scientists used neuroprosthetics and poorly understood xenobiology to resurrect Keel. He returned to life with a mostly robotic body, but with his mind and memories seemingly intact. Only weeks later did the fugues start, each bringing longer-lasting visions of a shadowy hellscape.
His active ability is "Grenade Swarm", which simply consists of him firing his shoulder-mounted grenade launchers. It can charge several times before use and can be used alongside conventional weapons, giving Keel some serious firepower.
He has two passive abilities: "Stockpile" reduces the cooldown time of his active ability every time he collects an ammo pickup, while "Reinforced" reduces the splash damage by 15%.
For tropes about him, check the Q3A character sheets.
They remember when all Strogg received the same order: to harvest the lone human before he reached the Slipgate. But they failed. All Strogg failed.
At the instant the human destroyed the Slipgate, the infiltrator was just a dozen paces behind, preparing to strike. But then a blast of crimson light engulfed it and all went dark. When it regained function, the infiltrator concluded that it was seeing its surroundings through its malfunctioning drone. But that conclusion was incorrect.
Now there is no order—only foes of the Strogg.
His active ability is Drone Strike. When using it, Strogg becomes invisible, and the player takes control of his companion drone for a while.
He has two passive abilities: Stroyent Cells, which makes enemies drop a Stroyent cell pickup that restores Strogg's health when fragged, and Crouch Slide, which allows him to increase his speed around corners.
- Artificial Limbs: His legs and arms are cybernetic.
- Bald of Evil: Across the Quake lore, the Strogg are unmistakably represented as the bad guys. And he lacks hair.
- Battle Cry:For the Strogg!
- Body Horror: The Strogg is a reanimated corpse with mechanical parts.
- Call-Back: The Oppressor skin is a Strogg featured in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. The Gladiator skin is a Strogg from Quake IV. The Cerberon skin for Peeker references the capital city of the Stroggs, Cerberon, and the events of Quake II.
- Chest Insignia: His "Oppressor" skin has the Strogg insignia in a chest accessory.
- Cute and Psycho: A decomposite version, with Peeker being the cute and Strogg being the psycho.
- Drone Deployer: His special ability allows him to control Peeker to navigate the map and shoot enemies.
- Eyepatch of Power: His default skin has some kind of sensor in his right eye, resembling this.
- Healing Potion: His passive ability makes any enemy he kills drop Stroylent containers which restore 25 hp.
- Hidden Depths: Despite being a Strogg, he has feelings, emphasized by his close relations with his drone Peeker.
- Innocent Inaccurate: Evident in the trailer, with the interactions between the two of them and playing happy music to a cyber zombie killing people.
- Invisibility: Once Peeker is deployed, Strogg becomes invisible.
- Meaningful Name: He is a Strogg, and Peeker, well... peeks.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Just like the rest of his species.
- Only Sane Man: According to the journals, The Strogg actually worried about the massive destruction brought by a single marine on Stroggos and doubted the Makron's command decision to the point that he willingly broke away from their hivemind just to stop the marine. However, it was all for naught.
- Robot Buddy: A drone named Peeker, has the ability to spot enemies and fire bullets.
- Sigil Spam: The Strogg logo on his chest.
- The Sneaky Guy: Their job as infiltrators.
- Sole Survivor: He seems to be the only survivor of a Strogg unit.
When the blood rage abates, his desiccated mind asks again: Who were you? How many battles? When will it end?
The answers mattered once, before the blessing of the seethe-monks relieved him of mortality, long before the Trespasser debased his master and took her Dire Orb for himself.
The tungsten "heart" that pumps molten lead through his veins serves as a constant reminder of his plea to the Great Black Goat a dozen centuries ago—the only plea he has ever made: "Let me be forever at war."
His active ability is Flame Strike, which has him swipe his sword and send out three spreading fireballs that leave trails of fire behind and burn enemies over time; if the fireballs haven't collided with anything, activating the ability again causes them to close back in, creating a large explosion.
Death Knight has two passives. Charring allows him to set enemies on fire with a melee attack, while Forged Skin makes him immune to fire damage.
- Ascended Extra: In Quake he was just a generic enemy. In Quake Champions he is given a backstory and motivation.
- Blood Knight: As told in his backstory, he served Shub-Niggurath in order to be able to wage war for eternity.
- Cool Helmet: Featuring huge horns and everything.
- Flaming Sword: His active ability "Flame strike" comes from his sword. One of his passives is a variation on this, letting him have a flaming gauntlet.
- No-Sell: His "Forged Skin" passive makes him immune to fire. That means he can swim in lava without taking damage and he's invulnerable to enemy Death Knights' active ability.
- Plant Person: His "Dreygur" skin represents this.
- Promoted to Playable: The Death Knight was originally an enemy in Quake with the ability to swing his sword and create flaming projectiles that the player killed by the dozens. Now, a Death Knight is a playable Champion, complete with that same attack as his Active Ability.
- SkeleBot 9000: His "Necrosis" skin consists of a partially cybernetic body, only preserving one of his arms and his skull.
- Skeleton Motif: All of his skins and Vanity items have something to do with skeletons.
- Spikes of Villainy: His main costume has some of this, even some barbed wire.
Her GDF Academy recon training was cut short when the Strogg invaded Earth. When the Terran were ready to counterattack the Strogg homeworld years later, Athena was among the first in line.
But the Strogg were expecting them. Just after the dropships launched their pods, a powerful EMP disabled all but a few. She assumed her pod would become her coffin. Then, a miracle: ground forces destroyed the Slipgate generator, sending a shockwave of otherworldly energy outward from the surface.
It swept across her pod, taking her… somewhere else.
Her active ability is "Grappling Hook". It latches on any surface, quickly propelling her towards it. Pressing the active ability key again while the grappling hook is in use lets her swing around using the grappling hook's rope.
Her passive ability is "Ramp Jump". Jumping on top of a ramp or a set of steps grants Athena a huge height boost to her jump.
- Action Girl: A female soldier in the war against the Strogg, now a Champion in the arena.
- The Bus Came Back: She was the original female player model in Quake II and even had her own action figure (though without a helmet and with a white skin color), predating Major (and Daemia). Athena missed out on III but was brought into Champions as the sole proper II representant.
- Fragile Speedster: She has little in the way of health and armor, but moves fast, and both her passive and active abilities are geared towards increasing her mobility even further.
- Grappling-Hook Pistol: Her active ability, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- In a Single Bound: Her "Ramp Jump" passive allows for pretty impressive jumps if you build enough momentum.
- Military Brat: Born to a family who served in the military.
- Space Marine: She was one of the marines who took part in Operation Alien Overlord in Quake II where her pod was among the many that were disabled by Strogg's EMP weapons that left her stranded in their territory before an explosion from Slipgate generator sent her to this dimension.
- Took a Level in Badass: From New Meat who couldn't even finish her training to a veteran combatant, and then to Champion.
- "Well Done, Daughter" Girl: According to the lore, Athena was relegated by her parents over her sister until she deliberately flunks from military school due to stress. While Athena managed to achieve what her sister had failed, she is still not respected by her parents compared to the level of her sister.
When he married Akiko Tetsuo, executive and heiress of Tetsuo Manufacturing Corporation, he adopted her prestigious surname. For years he piloted the starship that shuttled her between exoplanetary mining projects.
But when the central AI controlling countless mining robots on Tau Ceti F became corrupted and homicidal, he arrived too late to rescue her. After working to evacuate the survivors, he swore to track down the source of the AI's corruption: the same mining bot that killed Akiko.
His hunt led him to a newly excavated cavern, where ornate stone carvings surrounded a swirling, squirming void of eldritch energy...
His active ability is Sentry Turret. Eisen deploys a stationary turret that attacks enemies on sight.
He has three passive abilities: Salvage, which reduces the cooldown time of his active ability every time he collects an armor item; Shutdown, which reduces the cooldown of his turret after the turret kills a Clutch; and Armor Regen, where three seconds after last taking damage, Eisen's armor regenerates up to the nearest increment of 25.
- Arch-Enemy: Clutch, his wife's killer, and the only reason he's in the arena.
- Crusading Widower: His mission is to find his wife's killer and avenge her.
- Bilingual Bonus: All of his voice lines are in German.
- Some of his voice lines are in Japanese.
- The Engineer: Explicitly referred to as such in his bio. In gameplay, it shows in his passive ability, which allows him to use armor to build his turrets (that is, reduce his active cooldown time).
- Took the Wife's Name: He took his wife's surname after marrying her since she had a higher social standing.
- The Turret Master: Thanks to his Sentry Turret.
