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Royal Line of Beren
Iverlantho
Iverlantho
King of the Berenethtelli
- "The rightful king of the Berenethtelli tribe should also lead the clan."
The royal heir of the disintegrating Berenethelli tribe.
- Beneath the Mask: His arrogant bearing is partly a put-on that hides his true feelings of inadequacy. When language dies and people start spontaneously admitting uncomfortable truths, Iverlantho — if present on the clan ring — will confess that he knows he is a bad ruler, but is too proud to admit it.
- Berserk Button: He spares no effort on Chaos hunts, as a ring member notes. Unsurprising, as he lost two wives and all of his sons to Chaos in the past.
- Dramatic Irony: He worships Elmal, a god best known for not seeking out authority or sticking with old ways.
- Dumbass Has a Point: His ambitions are not unjustified, precisely- following tradition and giving him what he's entitled to rewards the clan with morale and magic bonuses. A fraction of the clan supports him for just that reason. But through a modern-day lens, he's not a good leader.
- Cartwright Curse: He's had two wives, both of whom died before they could bear children. He remarries eventually, but it's more about protecting the royal bloodline than any hope that things will be different.
- Facial Markings: He has the rune of Vingkot (reflecting his descent from the demigod and right to rule) on his left cheek, above his beard.
- It's All About Me: He thinks the apocalypse happening to everyone is caused by him not being on the throne.
- Judgment of Solomon: When a woman from another clan accuses one of yours for stealing her newborn baby, his advice is: "Offer to cut it in two and see who cries the hardest." You cannot actually do this in-game.
- Leader Wannabe: Most of his adviser dialogue is him trying to make every problem about his authority or lack thereof.
- Master of None: His stats are mostly average, with one (randomly decided) stat being slightly higher. There are many better candidates for ring membership.
- Puppet King: The player decides at clan creation whether the clan cares about Iverlantho's ambitions. Even if they do, he's more of a clan chief than a king, and has no more weight in council than anyone else. Only one of the other clans in the tribe wants him to rule.
- The Shut-In: Of the voluntary kind. He never leaves Berenstead; if selected for a task that involves travelling, he'll nominate someone to go in his place. Given all the monsters out there, and the scarcity of royal heirs, he's more justified in doing so than most examples of the trope.
- Took a Level in Badass: Downplayed. If you select him as clan chief, his leadership skills will slowly improve and he will become a more effective (though hardly stellar) leader. Unfortunately, his arrogant, self-centred personality will remain and colour his advice no matter how high his stats get.
- Took a Level in Kindness: If he’s the king you win the game with, his experiences in the Dead World will make him learn humility and become a much better ruler in his final years.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: He will constantly berate his son Venef for his dithering, lack of courage, and failing to display what he thinks is proper royal dignity. If Iverlantho survives long enough to see Erenlanth grow up into an (over-)confident warrior hero, he will be overjoyed to finally have someone he considers a worthy heir, while Venef will quickly become The Un Favourite.
Venef
Venef
Venef as a youth
- "Always seek the middle path."
Iverlantho's son and heir.
- The Ditherer: He always wants to consider every side of a question before acting, which can make him indecisive to the point of paralysis.
- Awful Truth: When language dies, most people speak gibberish or blasphemy, and the other royals admit to embarrassing but obvious truths. Venef confesses to something worse: only the law against kinstrife prevents him from murdering his own father.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: A downplayed example. If he manages to win the endgame quest (usually not easy due to his unimpressive starting stats), he may find that his son is among the few survivors of Berenstead.
- Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: Believes this, which is why he hasn't actually murdered Iverlantho.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Where Iverlantho is full of himself and attempts to assert royal authority at every turn, Venef is indecisive and tends to seek the middle ground in conflicts.
- Took a Level in Badass: If he succeessfully completes the endgame quest, he will become a more confident and effective ruler, earning the byname "the Stallion".
Erenlanth
Erenlanth
Erenlanth as a youth.
- "The odds may be against us, but we are Berenstead, dammit."
Venef's bold and reckless son.
- Age-Gap Romance: Can have a brief romance with Rodene, who is likely older than his father.
- Fearless Fool: Brave to the point of recklessness, even though his death could cause the destruction of Berenstead.
- Identical Grandson: He shares his great-grandfather Brolarulf’s portrait set. They also look almost identical in event artwork.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Venef is considered and indecisive, while Erenlanth is rash and determined.
- Magic Knight: Has a talent for both combat and magic.
- Meaningful Rename: If he’s the king you win the game with, Erenlanth renames himself after his father, having learned the worth of caution.
Berenstead
Dresta
Dresta
Shaman
- "The spirits sworn to Berenstead grow restive because there is no shaman on the ring."
- Cool Old Lady: Her age at the start of the game is semi-randomized, meaning that she either is this trope or will become it in a few years. Regardless, she's a excellent candidate for ring membership and capable of large magical workings.
- Nightmare Fetishist: She feels "invigorate[d]" by the presence of ancestor ghosts, and supports them moving into Berenstead. Everyone else on the ring is terrified.
- Squishy Wizard: An ageing woman whose Combat stat is far from being her best. But combat hardly matters when you can summon enough spirits to break a horde of Chaos monsters.Advisor: The people most trust Dresta to lead the defense.
Hanth
Hanth
Hunter
- "You can’t debate morality if you’ve starved to death."
- Combat Pragmatist: Being a hunter, he's a specialist in ambush tactics and unfair fights.Hanth: One stab in the back is worth three in the front.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He tries to lure away the game of neighbouring clans, including allied ones, so the player's clan will eat better.
Kerenna
Kerenna
Killer
- "As Humakt guides my sword, I can direct our Swords."
- Celibate Hero: Like all Humakti, she is sworn never to marry or have children. She also inspires others to be the same way; an event involves her request to initiate four clanmates into Humakt's service, which means the clan can't use them as diplomatic bargaining chips.
- Disproportionate Retribution: She doesn't like something Sereden said, so she challenges him to a Duel to the Death with a Humakti warrior, a duel Sereden is extremely unlikely to win. She expected him to refuse- which he does- but it's still taking things way too far.
- Facial Markings: The rune of Death on her right cheek and Truth on her left— Humakt's two defining runes.
- My Country Tis of Thee That I Sting: Although she's part of an Orlanthi clan, she considers Orlanth the god a criminal.Advisor 1: You have the story all wrong, Kerenna.
Advisor 2: Does she, [advisor 1]? Does she? - One-Woman Army: Downplayed. She's not at 'army' level, but she's definitely worth a platoon or two. An event involves a band of Humakti asking for help eliminating a Chaos den, to which Kerenna advises the ring; "Send me and only me." Doing so will impress the band, and note contribute greatly to the battle.
- Religious Bruiser: As a devotee of Humakt, it is her duty to fight necromancy in all its forms. When Humakt orders her to kill a clan chief who's turned to necromancy, she goes- and she wins, hacking up the chief and all the guards in her way.
- Will Not Tell a Lie: While you can overrule her opinion, her advice unfailingly suggests honesty, even when lying might offer an advantage.Kerenna: I must not lie, and even if I did, I would be bad at it.
Reda
Reda
Diplomat
- "We can survive only by helping others."
- Facial Markings: A Horse rune on her right cheek, representing her devotion to her ancestor, the horse-riding goddess Redalda.
- Fearless Fool: Her quest to enter a hole in the fabric of reality may succeed, but it's a lot more likely to end in people's deaths- and the reward for succeeding isn't that great anyway.
- Meaningful Name: Reda the rider.
- Nice Girl: She ends the demo commenting that the clan have many friends to make.
- Pragmatic Hero: She advises that the temples of dead gods be dismantled, so the clan will have more goods to support the living.
- Sole Survivor: She is very unlikely to succeed in her quest to find Charandar, but she will always survive it, which anyone escorting her does not.
Sereden
Sereden
Carver
- "What is as it seems?"
- Constantly Curious: He's like a Gloranthan version of Socrates, more likely to ask his students questions than answer them. The ring has a difficult time asking him what he thinks about kingship.
- Eccentric Artist: Much to the annoyance of his wife, who hopes their newborn son will be more practical.
- Innocently Insensitive: Musing whether death is an illusion is normal, but not a good idea when your clanmates worship a god composed of the Death and Truth runes. The paranoid Kerenna interprets him as either belittling half of Humakt's power or calling Humakt a liar, which she doesn't take well.
- Nay-Theist: Unusually for Orlanthi adults, he is not devoted to a god note . However, he explicitly tells the ring he has no objection to performing religious rituals.
- Ultimate Blacksmith: The carpentry version. He can craft artifacts and often incorporates magic into his work.
Others
Spoiler Character
Heort
King Heort
An Orlanthi hero who hails from the Sacred Mountain (probably Kero Fin).- Hero of Another Story: He’s acting on a prophesy from the Spider and seeking to destroy Wakboth. As it turns out, actually making that happen requires a whole lot of heroes…
