Characters / The End Times: Vermintide: Player Characters

The five playable characters for the games The End Times: Vermintide and Vermintide II.

For miscellaneous allies and enemies, see here.

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The Ubersreik Five ^note Or Four. Doesn't matter...

As a Whole

A group of colorful individuals who happened to end up at the city of Ubersreik at the same time to help prevent the invasion by Clan Fester, using the Red Moon Inn as a base of operations. In the second game, they defend the city of Helmgart from an old Keep located in the nearby World's Edge Mountains.

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• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Downplayed in the A Quiet Drink mission in the second game, where they get completely drunk and go about Helmgart in search of more ale. While they all have comedic lines and make drunken confessions, their intoxication doesn't prevent them from racking up a body count as large as their usual missions.
• The Atoner: As revealed by the Nameless Voice, all of them are driven at least partly by desires to atone for their pasts.
  • Sienna murdered a lot of people in fits of magic-corrupted pyromania, even destroying an entire town at one point.
  • Saltzpyre tortured at least one innocent woman to death under the mistaken impression that she was a vampire, and failed to save the town of Skaggerdorf, which the Skaven annihilated. His crusade against the ratmen is to make sure nothing like that ever happens again.
  • Kerillian indirectly caused the deaths of many humans in Ubersreik by slaughtering a military convoy en route to it, which otherwise would've made Clan Fester's job harder and perhaps given more time for evacuations, because the dryads told her that the town would play a role in the downfall of Athel Loren. She now counts all the Skaven she kills in hopes of atoning for Ubersreik's slaughter.
  • Bardin seeks to avenge the victims of the Skaven's rampage because he himself still feels guilt over his failure at Ziflin Deeps, where his inability to warn the hold of the coming Skaven attack resulted in the deaths of many dwarfs - including his own son.
  • Kruber's the vaguest of all of them, but bits of dialogue and statements by the Nameless Voice hint that he used to be pretty vicious when he was a mercenary. Also, he has Survivor's Guilt from losing so many of his men back when he was an Imperial State Troop sergeant for Ostland, and wants to make sure that his current comrades (and any civilians under their protection) all make it out alive.
• Badass Crew: There's only five of them (four in the actual missions) yet each of them can rack up literal hundreds of kills over the course of a single mission. Not just against Cannon Fodder like Skavenslaves either, since they regularly go toe to toe with Stormvermin and later Chaos Warriors, not to mention all the specialist units and monsters Clan Fester and the Rotbloods throw at them.
• Badass Normal: Excepting the Token Wizard Sienna, none of them have superhuman physiques^note Kerillian and Bardin are demihumans, but elves and dwarfs aren't too different from humans aside from a longer lifespan. In Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay for instance, all three races have identical base strength, while elves have a slight boost to agility and a moderate boost to movement, and dwarfs have a slight nerf to agility in exchange for a slight buff to toughness., magic, or particularly advanced or enchanted gear, yet they kill literally tens of thousands of enemies including wizards, heavy weapons teams toting high-tech steampunk gear, teleporting assassins, hulking ogres, twelve-foot minotaurs toting axes the size of men, and daemonic super soldiers. Their toll also includes several Hero/Lord level characters like a Chaos Lord, Exalted Chaos Champions, two Chaos Sorcerer Lords, two Skaven Warlords, and a Grey Seer. Their DLC classes move them into Empowered Badass Normal territory, as do the blessings they receive from the gods in the Chaos Wastes.
• Badass in Distress: Any member of the team who gets "killed" during a mission is later found helplessly tied up on the ground and in need of rescue. Once they're back up, they resume kicking ass.
• Blood Knight: All of them love slaughtering their way through the forces of Skaven and Chaos. One of the most common responses by all characters to a teammate getting a streak is to chastise them for hogging all the kills.
• The Cameo: The Five briefly appear in both the Alternate Universe of Total War: Warhammer II and Total War: Warhammer III (some of them get name-dropped by other characters and five suspiciously similar Hero units are the default garrison for the Red Moon Inn landmark)^note The third game's Vermintide endgame crisis of the third game also gives the player a unique quest battle which rewards them with an army that has a Witch Hunter, Dwarf Thane, Wood Elf Waystalker, Imperial Captain, and Bright Wizard embedded by default, all at level 25. and in the fourth edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, specifically the twentieth developer diary of the Enemy Within campaign.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Each of them have experienced and done nasty things in their past. The voice in Castle Drachenfels revels in tormenting them all about it.
• Dark Secret: All of them have one, and the disembodied voice of Be'lakor the Dark Master has a good time taunting each of them over the possibility of the others finding out.
• Deadpan Snarker: All of them, by the second game. Even Saltzpyre gets in a dig every now and then.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Again, barring Sienna, all of them become this post-Drachenfels. Where before their use of magic topped out at the occasional lightly enchanted weapon or a potion whose effects last mere seconds, their trips to the Chaos Wastes see them get boosts from their gods that carry on through the adventures. Additionally, Kruber, Kerillian, and Saltzpyre are all permanently infused with magic powers as part of their premium careers. Bardin is not, but the Outcast Engineer's Magic-Powered Pseudoscience functionally amounts to the same thing.
• Experienced Protagonist: At the start of the first game, each of them are already elite soldiers with decades if not centuries of combat experience, and appropriately look and sound noticeably weathered (except Kerillian). Many of their conversations involve Noodle Incidents from their pasts. Brief examples of their pre-Ubersreik adventures can be glimpsed by the party in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, where they're already presented as veteran soldiers (Kruber, the youngest, has even already risen to command his own platoon) despite the campaign involving them being set 11 years prior to the first game.
• Famed In-Story: They built this reputation throughout the first game; multiple in-game contracts say that their seemingly impossible victories are boosting the morale of Reikland's army. By the start of the second game, they've received significant field promotions from their respective factions, and build their reputations more further as the game's expansions go on. Their deeds have made them celebrities in the Reikland, a fact often referenced by Lohner and in item descriptions. After saving Bogenhafen, each of them are also made knights in the city's order, with the mayor promising to build a statue of them. Bardin even speculates in the Keep about the songs people will sing of their deeds. In the Chaos Wastes Kruber, Bardin, and Kerillian each joke that their adventures will be passed down as "Sir Kruber's Triumph", "the Saga of Goreksson the Brave", and "Kerillian and Her Endless Nursemaiding of Mayfly Children" respectively.
• Fire-Forged Friends: While at first they were all mistrustful of each other, they slowly grow more attached to each other throughout both games. Implicitly deconstructed in some parts of the second game, especially in Castle Drachenfels, where the voice reveals a few of them have had thoughts about just murdering the others and just leaving. Reconstructed in that they suppress these thoughts even when a daemon is directly trying to play on them. In the second game's prologue, the mission objective displayed on the screen is even "Find Your Friends."^note The PC in the prologue is Kruber, he's already found Bardin at the point the objective comes up, and the objective is considered complete after finding Kerillian and Sienna, so technically it only refers to those two. Still though.
• Fighting Your Friend: A brief three-way fight happens shortly after Sienna acquires her necromancer abilities after battling Sofia again, as detailed in Lohners journal. When Sienna is unconscious and unwittingly summoning the dead to protect her from the rest of the Five approaching, Saltzpyre wastes zero time in identifying that Sienna is a necromancer now and that the others will likely try to stop him from putting her down, and so he spins around to sucker punch Kerillian in the face to knock her out and takes Bardin down as well. Markus, however, silently refused to help him slay Sienna and knocked Saltzpyre out with a blow to the back of the head via a rock before recovering Siennas body and carting everyone home. Amazingly, once out of the heat of the moment, Saltzpyre is willing to tolerate Sienna and her new abilities, preventing anymore fights.
• Friendless Background: While tolerated for their skills, none of them were actually liked by the time they met, which the Nameless Voice takes delight in taunting them about.
  (while on an expedition to the Chaos Wastes)
  Saltzpyre: This is the lair of outcasts, exiles, and apostates.
  Bardin: Aye. And we're all at least two of those things, aren't we Grimgi?
  • Saltzpyre was separated from his biological family early on and never bothered to cultivate relationships afterwards, being entirely set on his duty. Despite this, his willingness to bend the order's rules and his obsession with the Skaven (among other implied factors) meant that even his Witch Hunter comrades thought him a fool.
  • Sienna was outcast from her village as a child and had no family from then on besides her murderous sister, whom she killed. She had a tutor named Rambler for a while, but she killed him too for unknown reasons. When she was studying at the university in Altdorf, her peers regarded her with caution and suspicion due to her desire to push her magic to its limits, and she eventually left due to feeling the scholarly lifestyle was ill-suited for her. By the time of the first game she's a wanted fugitive on her way to a murder trial.
  • Kerillian was a Waystalker, who are singularly solitary among Wood Elves and are so antisocial that they can go years without even speaking to another elf. Moreover, the Voice heavily implies that she regarded her kin with scorn due to an inferiority complex, and they regarded her badly in turn — and after that, she was formally exiled from her people.
  • Bardin is an exile due to his failure at Ziflin Deeps, but even before that he wasn't popular, as the first game's lore book had his clan-brothers describing him as "chatty" and "over-familiar", with "a habit of offending and belittling his comrades through ignorance and his robust attitude." He had a wife and children, but his son died at Ziflin Deeps, and he reveals in Keep dialogue that his wife no longer speaks to him.
  • Kruber is the exception, as he was A Father to His Men and obviously well-regarded by them; however by the start of the first game all his old comrades are dead, as is his family.
• Heroic Sacrifice: At the end of "Dark Omens", they decide to trigger a magical detonation to stop the Beastmen's ritual, and all have unique dialogue lines about being fine with going out in such a manner. Fortunately, Olesya's intervention renders their deaths unnecessary.
• Large Ham: All of them qualify, even if Kerillian is more along the lines of Cold Ham than anything. Saltzpyre is perhaps the top pork of the group due to his lack of an indoor voice. Their career skills are also deliberately given call-outs that are as loud, bombastic, and thunderous as humanly possible to help with identification during a heated fight, and therefore the associated button might as well be renamed the Ham Button and nothing will have changed. Many of their career skills additionally have them sprinting or leaping headlong into a mob of enemies, making their callouts double as Incoming Ham by association.
• Last-Name Basis: As can be noted from this page, people usually refer to Victor Saltzpyre and Markus Kruber by their last names for whatever reason, in and out of game. The characters don't never call them by their first name, but use of their last names is overwhelmingly more common. For their part, Kruber always refers to himself by his last name (even after he becomes a Grail Knight; he never uses "de Mandelot"), while Saltzpyre usually uses his first.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: They were all so terrified by the experience in Castle Drachenfels that any time one of them tries to bring up the topic in the Keep, the others shush them and say they don't want to talk about it.
• Made of Iron: While they can't withstand too many hits (especially on higher difficulties) they are surprisingly quick to bounce back after just ingesting a Healing Draught or slapping some bandages on themselves.
• Major Injury Underreaction: The group's reaction to suffering friendly fire tends to be more snarking or complaining about it rather than actually reacting with the appropriate pain of being shot or set on fire.
• Moveset Clone: Minus Kerillian, the characters share movesets and animations across similar weapons. Saltzpyre and Bardin's one handed axes use the same moveset, for instance.
• Multi-Melee Master: All of them are highly skilled in a variety of melee weapons:
  • Bardin: two-handed axes, one-handed axes, two-handed hammers, one-handed hammers, war picks, shields, and the butt of his shotgun.
  • Kerillian: longswords, spears, shortswords, daggers, glaives, two handed-axes, bardiches,^note Her weapon category labeled as "glaives" are actually two-handed battle axes of various types, including bardiches. Ironically, her spear models are pretty close to actual glaives, being long polearms with very large, edged heads used for cutting and slicing as often as stabbing. one-handed axes, javelins, and shields.
  • Kruber: halberds, poleaxes^note The "Soldier's Halberd" skin is closer to one than an actual halberd, with a much smaller and less broad head, greatswords, longswords, arming swords, maces, shortswords, two-handed hammers, spears, executioner's swords, shields, and the butt of his blunderbuss.
  • Saltzpyre: greatswords, billhooks, rapiers, falchions, flails, one-handed axes, and pistol-whipping.
  • Sienna: arming swords, crowbills, maces, flails, and daggers.
• Multinational Team: Saltzpyre is an Imperial (from Middenland), Kruber is of mixed Imperial (from Reikland) and Bretonnian (from Parravon) descent, Sienna is from the Southern Realms (Estalia), Kerillian is an Asrai Wood Elf (from Tirsyth), and Bardin is a Karaz Ankor Dwarf (from Karak Norn). Counting their support you also have Olesya (from Kislev) and the Imperial Lohner (from Wissenland). Notably, the crew has a representative of every macro ethnic group of Order in the Old World, bar Araby.^note The Eonir Wood Elves of Laurelorn Forest aren't the same as the Asrai Wood Elves of Athel Loren, nor are the people of Tilea the same as those of Estalia, nor are the people of the Wasteland the same as those of the Empire, but they're all closely related nonetheless (and use the same units on in the tabletop games).
• Multi-Ranged Master: Except Sienna, who uses Aqshy magic for all her ranged attacks:
  • Bardin: muskets, shotguns, pistols, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, Gatling guns, throwing axes, and crossbows.
  • Kerillian: longbows, shortbows, volley crossbows, javelins, energy bows, and Ghyran magic.
  • Kruber: muskets, blunderbusses, longbows, and repeater carbines.
  • Saltzpyre: regular pistols, shotgun pistols, repeater pistols, crossbows, and volley crossbows.
• One-Man Army: All of them, taken to absurd levels. On higher difficulties the team will easily score over a thousand kills per mission, and considering there are several dozen missions in total between both games and their expansions, that would put each of the five's canonical death tolls into the quintuple digits, of whom 10-15% would be elites and specials. The interquel mission "Waylaid" hangs a lampshade on this; after they repulse the first Skaven invasion of Ubersreik more or less on their own, Rasknitt lays a trap to capture them, reasoning that the city would easily fall in their absence. He turns out to be right, as Ubersreik falls almost immediately while his even larger and better-equipped attack on Helmgart ends in miserable failure soon after they're released.
• One Riot, One Ranger: Well, five rangers. Their arrangement is initially impromptu due to them all just happening to end up trapped in Ubersreik, but in the sequel they're basically an unofficial Empire commando unit that Lohner trusts to execute any important mission he comes across, usually at a hundreds-to-one numerical disadvantage. He's consistently proven right. By the DLC the team more or less knows that they're close to unstoppable, such as when they think that being attacked by a small army of Skaven and Chaos soldiers isn't sufficient grounds to call off their pub crawl in "A Quiet Drink."
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: With the revelation of Sienna's embracing of necromancy, the other four have all exhibited signs of this. Despite all of them having more than a few reasons to be wary of the nature of Sienna's new magic, that they're all Fire-Forged Friends have put doubt into all of their minds. This prompts them to seek alternative methods to cope with her transformation, with even the pious and stalwart Saltzpyre being open to the possibility of seeking the Lady of the Lake's help to save her soul, and the normally-distant Kerillian openly referring to Sienna as her friend for the first time ever, much to the incredulity of the rest of the party.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: In the first game, the team consists of a Witch Hunter and his hired Empire Soldier bodyguard escorting a Bright Wizard to Ubersreik for trial, where they joined alongside a Dwarf Ranger and Wood Elf Waywatcher to fight off the Skaven invasion. In the second game, each of them can change to a variety of different professions that make them even more unique.
• Religious Bruiser: Most obviously Saltzpyre, but each of the Ubersreik Five pay homage to a god from their distinct pantheon and has a small shrine in their mountain base in II. Saltzpyre obviously worships Sigmar, patron god and founder of the Empire. Kerillian worships the elven goddess Lileath, goddess of the moon and associate of fortune and seers. Sienna worships Myrmidia, goddess of war and the blazing sun. Kruber worships Taal, the Lord of Beasts and patron of hunters and woodsmen. Bardin worships Valaya the Protector, mother of dwarfs and ancestor goddess of hearth, healing and home.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • They all start as formidable combatants each with decades of experience, but the additional experience (and new, rare gear) they acquire over years of straight rat slaying^note In the End Times timeline, the Skaven attacks begin in early 2523 (which is also the date given in the Horn of Magnus mission). Kerillian's Sister of the Thorn dialogue references Isha's avatar Ariel being subsumed by the High Elf Everqueen, which took place in the winter of 2524-2525 according to "End Times: Khaine", placing the current timeline at least into late 2524 and more likely early 2525. see them take several levels regardless. By the time of the second game, they all start as promoted and objectively superior versions of their classes in the first game. The second game's DLC classes upgrade their in-universe power even more significantly, though for balance reasons said classes are more like sidegrades in gameplay.
  • Their appearances in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: The Enemy Within 4e take place in 2512 IC, 11 years before the first Vermintide game starts. As a result they're each capable, but only roughly on par with Elite Mooks or mid-level adventurers in stats, far from the army-slaying terrors they'd become in the Vermintide series (from a meta perspective this also has the benefit of keeping their occasional help from trivializing the relatively tiny and low-level battles that are the bread and butter of WFRP).^note One example: Kruber's combat stats were 51 Weapons Skill (with most hand weapons, or 46 for two-handed weapons), 37 Ballistic Skill (for blackpowder weapons), 39 Strength, 46 Toughness, 35 Initiative, 37 Agility, and 15 Wounds. An experienced but otherwise unremarkable knight (i.e. a human character who rolled an average 30-31 for every stat and is exactly halfway through the knight career's advancements) would be 43 Weapon Skill (with all melee weapons), 30 Ballistic Skill, 38 Strength, 38 Toughness, 38 Agility, and 13 Wounds. Kruber and the generic knight's combat talents are also pretty comparable.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: By the second game's DLC, they're all clearly fond of one another (excepting perhaps Kerillian and Saltzpyre's relationship), but still throw out some pretty hard insults in banter.

Victor Saltzpyre

Vermintide I: Witch Hunter

Vermintide II: Witch Hunter Captain, Bounty Hunter, Zealot, Warrior Priest of Sigmar

Holy Sigmar, bless this ravaged body!

Voiced by: Tim Bentinck

Judge, jury and executioner combined, Victor Saltzpyre is a Witch Hunter who will by any means necessary burn out heresy and corruption from the heart of the Empire. Grim and relentless, this sinister man is a member of the Holy Order of the Templars of Sigmar, an organization whose members seek to punish those who dare employ fell sorcery or consort with the agents of the Dark Gods. When battle rages and the conjurations of vile wizards tear the skies above, Witch Hunters are often all that stands between an Empire soldier and a most unnatural death.

Victor’s obsession with the Skaven has unfortunately led to friction with his superiors, preventing him from being promoted to Witch Hunter Captain. Additionally, his lack of objections towards working with other races separates him even further from his fellow members, even if he draws the line at not allying with anything outright evil or daemonic. In Victor’s eyes, the end justifies the means, and he is ultimately willing to fight alongside anyone as long as they are not apparent enemies of Sigmar and the Empire.

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• Actor Allusion: A dialogue from II between Saltzpyre and Kruber where Saltzpyre requests that Kruber keep his sword of office should he die is a Shout-Out to a scene from the first episode of the early 90s historical drama Sharpe where a dying Captain Murray, also played by Tim Bentinck, leaves his Cool Sword to Richard Sharpe, with the exact same reasoning ("They'll think I liked you.").
• Almighty Janitor: His knowledge, skill, and devotion to the Empire are so great that he should have been promoted to a position of authority over other Witch Hunters years ago, but he has been repeatedly passed over for promotion due to his radical methods. ...until flavor text from Vermintide 2 revealed that with the witch hunters suffering a lot of casualties in these times, the higher-ups were finally forced to promote Victor to Captain. It's even in his initial class' name in V2: Witch Hunter Captain.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Victor lives in a world where monsters are common and has seen all kinds of strange magic but is adamant that the Great Enchanter Constant Drachenfels never existed. He remains steadfast in this opinion even when standing in Castle Drachenfels.
• Armor Is Useless: Despite his Bounty Hunter career explicitly wearing heavy armor (making it his only class to do so before Warrior Priest), it's also Victor's squishiest career, with both the lightly armored Witch Hunter Captain and especially the entirely-unarmored Zealot being more durable.
• Automatic Crossbows: One of his DLC weapons is a semi-automatic triple crossbow with 15 shots per reload, or it can fire three bolts at a time.
• Badass Boast: His declarations from his Witch Hunter Captain class' ability has him let off one of these.
  "Fall back! I smite your heathen souls!"
  "The crime is your foul existence! The sentence is death!"
• Badass Longcoat: Part of the typical attire of a Witch Hunter for both practical traveling and intimidation purposes.
• Barrier Warrior: His Warrior Priest career skill, Shield of Faith, props up a shield around himself or an ally of his choosing for 5 seconds, allowing them to No-Sell all damage. The shield will then explode when the effect ends, damaging everything around the shielded player. With the proper talents selected, the barrier can also revive downed teammates, or allow the shielded person to run over trash mobs.
• Battle Cry: His career skill as the Witch Hunter Captain has him shout righteous fury so loudly that enemies are blown backwards or staggered in place while the rest of the team are empowered more critical hits, similar to Krubers rallying cries but more offensively oriented.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Reminisces about doing this to Baron Francke at some point in the past in Empire in Flames, forcing Francke to donate half his immense wealth to the Church of Sigmar or Saltzpyre would have him burned at the stake for knowingly leveling a false accusation of witchcraft at an innocent woman. When Markus asks him if he could actually do that, Saltzpyre simply remarks that nobody questioned him.
• Boom, Headshot!: As a Witch Hunter Captain, his "Killing Shot" passive talent ensures that any man-sized enemy that eats a critical headshot dies instantly.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: "A Quiet Drink" may have him call everyone else "Lumberfoots". Apparently the term ended up on his mind after how much Kerillian says it.
• Bounty Hunter: A possible career for him in Vermintide 2, specialized in ranged attacks. If this class has been chosen, it's the end result of a falling-out between Victor and his superiors. Yes, he's still a legally sanctioned witch hunter, but now he's taking matters into his own hands and funds his own crusade against the Skaven by collecting bounties.
• Burn the Witch!: His version of the Chamber of Gnignol is a prison where a witch is being burned at a stake.
• By-the-Book Cop: Even though his station grants him an incredible amount of leeway in how he performs his duties, Victor firmly insists on conducting thorough investigations and giving his suspects a fair and impartial trial.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: His complicated relationship with Sienna is built off of his duty as a witch hunter to have her tried and killed being put at odds with his his insistence that she be given a fair trial after the Skaven are repelled, and later his genuine sense of companionship with her. In the first game his bounces back and forth between scathing criticisms while still recognizing that she’s a valuable tool against the Skaven menace, while in the sequel he holds much of the same attitude against the Pactsworn while recognizing her as a true ally. Even when she suddenly turns to necromancy and he has all the reason to kill her where she stands at any point, he vocally reasons that she’s still useful enough as a means of fending off the forces of Chaos to not be killed at this particular moment. Although, dialogue between him, Kruber, Kerillian and Bardin reveals that he’s uncharacteristically open to the idea of seeking favor from the Lady of the Lake to cure Sienna, and needs little convincing that she may not even be quite herself anymore, showing that his decision to spare her is likely more tied to their relationship together than any actual pragmatism.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Perhaps unsurprisingly, Victor is the most-affected by the party's drinking spree in "A Quiet Drink". Presumably his devotion to his duty means drinking isn't something he does often.
• Cherry Tapping: Two of his weapons, the Rapier and the Reckoner hammer, have alternative attacks that do low damage to a single enemy he's facing, via a small pistol shot and a punch, respectively, that can finish off low-health enemies in a pinch. There are two Okri's challenges tied to the latter, one for punching a Chaos Warrior immediately after he's punched you, and the other for socking out Bödvarr Ribspreader in combat.
• Church Militant: A member of the Holy Order of the Templars of Sigmar. He is so devoted in his duty that a conversation with Kruber in the keep has him initially, humorously, unable to understand a query about what he would do after his fight ends (he assures Kruber that would only ever happen with his death). As a Warrior Priest, he is perhaps the closest thing to a literal church-ordained Knight Templar.
• Close-Range Combatant: Kind of. As a Warrior Priest, Saltzpyre cannot use his guns and is restricted to his selection of hammers. His Hammer and Tome give him a bit of a gap closer, but similar to Grail Knight Kruber before him, he has no means of directly challenging an enemy at range other than chucking bombs at it.
• The Comically Serious: He rarely makes an intentional joke, but his straightlaced personality makes him an ideal target for needling from the other party members. Even the inhuman forest spirits quickly recognize him as the juiciest target and ignore the rest of the keep in favor of constantly trying to get a rise out of Saltzpyre (usually successfully), which Lohner finds amusing. Even Kruber gets in on it.
  Saltzpyre: Are you mocking me, Kruber?
  Kruber: No, no sir. Perish the thought, sir.
• Critical Hit Class: With an ability that raises the critical hit chance of himself and allies along with the bonus of instantly killing any man-sized enemies with a headshot while critting, Victor's Witch Hunter Captain class clearly emphasizes synergy with the critical chance statistic.
• Critical Status Buff: The Zealot career in II boosts his aptitude the lower his health is. For ever 25% of his health missing, Saltzpyre gains 5% more power, and his Castigate talent buffs his attack speed when he's at below half and 20% health, respectively.
• Dark Secret: Saltzpyre's faith in Sigmar is actually quite shaky, contrary to what the fiery rhetoric would have you believe. Saltzpyre secretly feels that Sigmar has abandoned his Empire and there is little he can do to avert its imminent collapse. He feels guilty about an incident in the town of Skaggerdorf, where his zealotry led to him executing an innocent girl, and his guilt over this failure is eating him.
• Disappointed in You: Says this to Sienna after she has embraced necromancy. Up to this point, his trust in Sienna had been growing, only for her to betray it.
  Saltzpyre: You have fallen so very, very far.
• Double Take: Does this in A Quiet Drink when the Obese Megalodon goes up in flames around him and the others.
  Saltzpyre: Oh look the tavern's on fire... THE TAVERN'S ON FIRE!!
• Dramatic Irony: Saltzpyre's inability to hear Sigmar's voice is leading the man to experience a Crisis of Faith. Though he'd never admit it publicly, he believes deep down that Sigmar has abandoned his empire. The truth unbeknownst to him is that Sigmar is by this point in the End Times timeline, possessing the body of Emperor Karl Franz.
• The Dreaded: He's made something of a reputation among the Skaven◊, if Total War: Warhammer II is any indication — enough so that the Skaven Lords may mention him by name at times if you're playing as the Empire and try to negotiate with them via Diplomacy, though they are confident that he will eventually fail to stop them.
• Dual Wielding: His loadouts in both games provide him the option to wield either a rapier and an off-hand pistol, or Guns Akimbo via brace of pistols. 2 additionally has an axe and falchion combo for him to use. As a Warrior Priest, Saltzpyre can also wield twin hammers.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: In spite of all of the Ubersreik Five's achievements and Victor proving Properly Paranoid in regards to the Skaven threat, his organization still regards him as a loon.
  Nameless Voice: Little Victor... so blinded by purpose, even your Order thinks you a fool. What would the others say, if they knew?
• Enemy Mine: His willingness to use any means to secure the Empire's safety tends to result in him accepting help from those who share its enemies, even if not his allegiance to the Empire. During his conversations, with Kerillian in particular, he shows a desire for greater coordination between the Empire and the Wood Elves of Athel Loren, but she brushes such notions off with characteristic Elven condescension.
• Epic Flail: He has the war flail available to him in Vermintide II. It's a great weapon for dealing with shielded enemies.
• Evil Stole My Faith: Struggles with his devotion to Sigmar as the campaign wears on. Not that he doubts that Sigmar is real or that he's wrong, but that his patron is strong enough to save anything as the forces of Chaos rampage across the world.
• Eyepatch of Power: One of his Premium cosmetics as a Warrior Priest is the Redemptor's Patch, which covers his now-defunct right eye.
• Eye Scream: Lost one of his eyes to a Skaven attack years ago. The incident caused him to be focused on the building Skaven threat ever since. Unused voice lines from the sequel hinted at Skarrik Spinemanglr being responsible, though Be'lakor's whispers in Blood in the Darkness hints that Saltzpyre's eye was lost either to a Grey Seer, or as a self-inflicted wound over his failure at Skaggerdorf.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: He is not well liked to say the least, neither by his Order or by the rest of the group, the former of which considers him a liability due to his radical Knight Templar ways, and the latter find him a bit too dour and ill-tempered for comfort, but they do at least respect his abilities if not his personality. For his part, he would rather be feared than liked in any case. Kruber is at worst obedient to him, and Bardin's only nice because he's the nicest person in the group. Kerillian can outright state this about him in "A Quiet Drink" while admitting she's also an example.
• Gangsta Style: When using a repeater pistol, the alternate firing mode allows him to spin the action, turn it sideways, and discharge all the barrels at once, causing it to fire out in a "fan" pattern. It burns through his ammunition and has extremely limited range, but it is ideal for thinning out a charging horde just before it reaches him.
• Gatling Good: Played with. While he doesn't have an actual gatling gun to use, his Repeater Pistol can be fired this way by using its secondary function, which has Saltzpyre spin the barrel cluster before unleashing a blistering cloud of shot.
• Germanic Depressives: Of all five heroes (or four, doesn't matter), Victor is the most dour and humorless, being wholly dedicated to his work and worship of Sigmar. Keep banter with Kruber in II reveals he's a Middenlander ("Explains your foul temper!"), perhaps the most Germanic of the Empire, itself already being heavily based on early modern Germany in addition to ancient Rome.
• Germanic Efficiency: The most disciplinary, ruthless, domineering, and dedicated to his work.
• Good Is Not Nice: Though he is an unpleasant man responsible for, among other things, torture and witch burnings, he does it all so that innocent people can sleep safely in their beds.
• Got Me Doing It: Once genuinely uses Kerillian's oft-said "lumberfoots" in "A Quiet Drink", and immediately notes with distaste that now he's saying it too.
• Guns Akimbo: Wears a brace of single-shot pistols in his coat, which he can draw and fire very rapidly, firing with one hand as he draws another pistol with the other in a continuous motion.
• Gun Kata: In the intro cutscene for Vermintide 1, Saltzpyre can be seen performing elaborate, fluid motions to draw and fire his pistols, including firing in multiple directions at once. In game, while he cannot fire in two seperate directions, pay close attention to his in game model when the pistols are equipped; he has multiple braces of pistols on his back, waist, and legs, and his firing/drawing animations has his hands go to each of these locations to draw a new pistol after firing.
• The Gunslinger: Saltzpyre's skill with handling pistols is unmatched; when he concentrates (which lowers his movement speed), he can draw and fire a new pistol as fast as the player can pull the trigger. This effectively translates to the equivalent of wielding dual revolvers in an era of blackpowder single-shot pistols. He's also skilled at reloading said blackpowder pistols in seconds.
• Hammer of the Holy: His Warrior Priest career in II replaces his normal weapon options with a flail and an array of hammers — regular, extra-large, dual-wielded, or paired with a shield or blessed tome — in an emulation of his his god.
• Hammerspace: Before the second game made Saltzpyre's Brace of Pistols weapon consist of twelve separate pistols that he has to keep loaded to fire (which he does two at a time), the first game just had him draw, fire and presumably drop a pistol for ever shot he fired with Brace of Pistols' ammunition reserves...which could go up to over 70 shots on his person at once.
• Heroic Resolve: How his Warrior Priest career came to be, as the combined horrors of Helmgart, the Beastmen hordes, Castle Drachenfels revisited, and the expedition to the Citadel of Eternity bolstered his shaken faith in Sigmar and granted him the willpower to rise as a champion of hope. This spiritual awakening is especially powerful for a Zealot, whose religious fervor has devolved into mad fanaticism, or a Bounty Hunter who's so disillusioned by his order that his faith was all but lost. Unlike Markus, Bardin, or Kerillian before him, whose ultimate careers all involved some negative connotations or personal trauma, Warrior Priest Saltzpyre is by far the most outright hopeful and heroic of the lot. In fact, it may very well be that his resolve is what granted him his powers in the first place.
• Hidden Depths: For an antisocial zealot, he can read people surprisingly well when he puts effort in. For example, Kerillian's reason for staying to fight the Skaven is a mystery even to Kruber and Sienna, who she's reasonably open and friendly with. They have Keep dialogue asking her, and she's evasive about it. Saltzpyre, just from observing her demeanor in "Empire in Flames" and her general pattern of behavior, accurately identifies that she feels guilty about the ongoing slaughter in Reikland and had some part in bringing it about, even if he doesn't know what it is. The incisiveneness of the observation may be because they're more similar in personality and motivation than either would like to admit. He brings it up again in Keep dialogue later.
  Saltzpyre: A guilty expression haunts your eyes. Perhaps a confession would ease your burden?
  Kerillian: I have nothing to confess to you.
  Saltzpyre: But something to confess, all the same?
  [...]
  Saltzpyre: You could leave at any time, and yet you don't. I find that... interesting.
  Kerillian: I'm not one of your quarries, One-Eye.
  Saltzpyre: No, but guilt hovers over you like a storm cloud.
  Kerillian: I feel no guilt. My sleep is untroubled.
  Saltzpyre: So why is it you pace long into the night, when you think that no one is watching?
• Hypocrite: After becoming a Warrior Priest, he adamantly refuses to admit that his "miracles" are magic spells in all but name. As explained in some sources such as WFRP 2e Realms of Sorcery, "miracles" are just spells that are formed by the preexisting expectations of the magically-sensitive people casting them, similar to the gods themselves.
  Bardin: So, Grimgi. What happened to hating magic?
  Saltzpyre: I'm afraid I don't follow, Master Dwarf.
  Bardin: Well, you use it now, don't you?
  Saltzpyre: This is not magic! This is a holy manifestation of Sigmar's wrath.
  Bardin: Aye. Sure it is.
• Ineffectual Loner: As much as anyone is vulnerable when alone, Warrior Priest Saltzpyre is at his weakest when there are no teammates around him.
  • As Warrior Priest is a tank and support class, it is plagued with very sub-par DPS through its selection of hammers, with only the Reckoner doing enough damage to really put a dent in an Elite enemy's health pool, causing Saltzpyre to be very easily overwhelmed if he's the last man standing, especially if there's a patrol or monster bearing down on him. In such cases, you might as well toss a bomb at your feet for all the good it will do you, which can actually be a valid tactic if you've got a barrier ready to go.
  • His being melee-exclusive also means he has no way of responding to a Special enemy in the distance, and he's also very slow to trundle around, whereas the equally range-limited Grail Knight and Slayer have access to a speed boost and a gap closer in the form of the Blessed Blade and Leap, respectively. His only means of a dash is the charged attack of the Hammer and Tome combo, which is short, takes a while to ready, rather obviously requires equipping said weapon set in lieu of a more practical option, and easily interruptible. Having to slowly walk up to a Packmaster dragging an ally will be a very frequent occurrence.
• Innocently Insensitive: His attempt at comforting Kruber over the loss of his parents in the first game is... less than successful.
• Insult of Endearment: He constantly refers to Sienna as the witch, and rarely uses her actual name. Over time as he grows to trust her, the scathing tone of his voice when calling her by this name gradually lowers to the point where it may as well be her callsign to him rather than an insult. Rarely, when he’s particularly respectful, he’ll substitute the word witch with the much more polite term wizard when referring to her.
• Introverted Cat Person: He has trouble getting along with pretty much everyone to the point that even his obsession with combating the Skaven has put him at odds with many of the similarly stern-and-dogmatic members of the Holy Order of the Templars of Sigmar, but in lore articles on the official, Saltzpyre has adopted a cat.
• In Vino Veritas: The Anniversary Event, which naturally involves the played party getting quite wasted, has dialogue from revealing something the uptight and dogmatic Victor would surely never admit to while sober: he never actually wanted to be a Witch Hunter. He would have preferred to be a Steam Tank pilot. It also has him display his Heart of Gold a bit more openly with him thanking Bardin for saving him from a cave troll despite insulting the Queen of Karak Norn, or showing him valuing Kruber keeping with him by saying he believes himself as respected by "Valiant! Kruber!".
• Irony: After an entire lifetime of hating and distrusting magic and ruthlessly hunting its practitioners, it turned out that Saltzpyre was one of the tiny handful of humans who was born with natural magic attunement, allowing him to become a Warrior Priest. He doesn't see the connection, insisting that he uses divine miracles, not magic spells. As a bonus, he's almost certainly an unsanctioned practicioner (Lohner speculates his priesthood was self-appointed), i.e. the kind of person he'd shoot on sight just a couple years prior.
• It's What I Do: When Kerillian accuses him of spying on her, he replies that spying on people is literally his job.
• I Was Just Passing Through: He did not pull strings to get Kruber leave to visit his family. He just needed an extra guard to help him watch over his prisoner and they were just incidentally passing by where his family lived, is all. Sienna and Kerillian suspect that even seeing that the former received a fair trial was not his true purpose for coming to Ubersreik.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's not quite as mean as he may seem. Some background fluff reveals that while the Bright Wizard was his prisoner prior to the start of the game, he was escorting her to the city to stand trial in large part because he believed she would never receive a fair one otherwise. He is also sympathetic towards Kruber and the soldier's worry over the fate of his family, though his awkwardness around people keeps it from being too comforting.
  • One conversation line that may be triggered at the beginning of Wheat and Chaff in the first game has him chastising Kerillian for complaining about having to fetch grain sacks for starving survivors, and he sounds genuinely furious at her for not wanting to help the civilians.
    Kerillian: "Oh, we're hungry! Won't you find us some food?". Mayflies.
    Victor: Silence! We do this because only we can!
  • In II, he has several conversations with Sienna urging her to go back to the Mages College to receive additional training to control her fire magic. Rather than his usual threats and accusations, his tone and choice of words imply that he sincerely wants to help her control her magic addiction.
  • Even more than that, a conversation in Taal's Horn Keep reveals that the main reason he suggests that Sienna return to the college is so that she will appear less guilty to others who might judge her as he once did. He actually trusts her enough to sincerely believe that she is innocent, and coming from Saltzpyre that is a very big deal.
  • A number of lines in II imply that he is earnestly very grateful for Kruber's presence over the years.
  • One bit of dialogue will have him start to snap back at Kruber for correcting flaws in his stance, before stopping himself and (begrudgingly) thanking Kruber for the good advice.
  • Unfortunately this is coming back to bite him in II, as the continued devastation of the Old World despite all his best efforts is starting to take its toll on his sanity, and he's too proud and abrasive to confide in any of his allies.
  • A line from Kruber in A Quiet Drink has him parody Saltzpyre over this by yelling multiple battle-cries that would be characteristic of him, like "For Sigmar!", but ending it with "...and for my little cat!"
• Judge, Jury, and Executioner: His office charges him to root out heresy, proclaim guilt, and perform punishment as he sees fit. Unlike most examples though, he takes great care to ensure that his investigations are handled fairly.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Downplayed — referring to him as kindhearted would be a rather gross exaggeration, the fact that he's adopted a little cat is more just an indication he's not quite as prickly and obstinate as he usually presents as.
• Large Ham: Frequently makes dramatic declarations in a nasal voice. But then, displaying his zeal is part of the job.
  "Ugh... HOOOLY Sigmar... BLESS this ravaged body!"
• The Leader: He considers himself this, and he is by technicality, as he outranks Kruber and holds Sienna as his prisoner, though none of his teammates save for Lohner really treat him like one. If anything, Kruber is arguably the real leader of the group, as he's far and away the more combat-experienced one, having fought plenty of different foes (greenskins, Skaven, beastmen, etc...) before the End Times, and actually shouts battle commands during horde rushes.
• A Lighter Shade of Grey: As far as witch hunters go, at least — Saltzpyre may be bombastic, judgemental, and quite unpleasant, but fanatical as he is, he's not nearly as manic or brutal as some witch hunters tend to be, waging his war against the Ruinous Powers in a professional manner and displaying a surprising level of compassion.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: As a Warrior Priest, Saltzpyre can wield a shield in tandem with either a mallet or a flail.
• Macho Masochism: As typical of Witch Hunters, he regards penitent suffering in pursuit of a holy goal as a character building experience. In the second game, this reaches its logical conclusion with his Zealot class, which is entirely based around taking horrendous beatings and giving the pain back twofold.
  Saltzpyre: The righteous feel no pain. Be you unrighteous?
• Mean Boss: As the highest "ranking" member of the group (which does not actually have any ranks or structure unto itself) he considers himself to be its leader, and considers his mission too important to worry about the petty concerns of his underlings. The only person he might have any actual authority over is Kruber, whom he hired to help bring in Sienna.
  Saltzpyre: [reviving Kruber] You have not EARNED death, Kruber!
• Meaningful Name: And it's a last name practically custom-made for a Witch Hunter. Saltz, as any Templar is willing to destroy a village and salt the earth afterwards if it would prevent a Chaotic incursion. Pyre, for burning witches and heretics at the stake, and those are ignited by lighting a pyre.
• More Dakka: Though he would be offended to have it described with an orc word, his preference in black powder weaponry favors filling the air with a fusillade of hot lead shot. Also doable with other weapons; by downing a Potion of Speed to increase attack rate, Victor can also empty his brace of pistols in record timing. Whilst each shot is relatively weak and the range isn't great, he can carry a lot of shots. And if his pistols carry the Haste trait, triggering the effect whilst under the influence of a speed potion turns Victor into a one-man machine gun turret.
• The Musketeer: Wields melee weapons and firearms with equal skill, tending to favor precise and rapid weapons like rapiers and pistols, though he is known to use a zweihänder, axe, or crossbow on occasion.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • The event that lead to Saltzpyre's obsession with the Skaven. A plot involving a vampire, a corrupt burgomeister, and a Skaven horde that resulted in the destruction of Skaggendorf. Victor believes that if he had trusted his gut instinct and his faith over the words of his superiors, he would have been able to save the town, and he has been at odds with the Order ever since.
  • Early in his career, Saltzpyre had a young woman burned on suspicion of witchcraft, only to discover to his horror and shame that she had been innocent. In the wake of that tragedy, he has always insisted on conducting a thorough investigation to prevent making that same mistake twice.
• Nerves of Steel: Implied - unlike the rest of the Ubersreik Five, he has absolutely no audible response whatsoever to the poor odds of being the only one left alive in a match.
• No Indoor Voice: Saltzpyre has one volume level and that is loud. Must have been part of the job.
• Noodle Incident: Victor allowed flagellants of Sigmar into his retinue once, and only once, and it was apparently a terrible experience. Ironically enough, he himself can become one in II should the player choose the Zealot career path.
• No-Sell: His Warrior Priest career's Shield of Faith ultimate grants either himself or an ally five seconds of complete immunity to all damage, special enemy grabs, or minor knockback. Additionally, the Incorruptible passive makes him immune to the health reduction effects of Grimoires, thus making Curse Resistance trinkets redundant.
• No Sense of Humor:
  • His idea of a joke is to make another comment about burning Sienna at the stake, just slightly exaggerated. When he admits that he's trying to be "more... personable", the others tell him to keep trying.
  • A Veteran illusion for his custom Crossbow, Levity, continues the trend that whenever Victor doesn't have a grim sense of humor, he has a really lame one instead.
    "A rare Witch Hunter’s joke, which Victor considers amongst the finest of jests. 'Levity can be dangerous.' Judging by his increasingly-weary expression, Kruber has heard it too many times."
• Not So Above It All: "A Quiet Drink" shows that even Victor can't be completely strait-laced while drunk. In fact, he might even imitate a steam tank whistle out of nowhere. In the Chaos Wastes he'll also indulge in the others' hypothetical about what they'd want to be a god of if they ascended (though he still says he'd serve Sigmar, god or not).
• Not So Stoic: Occasionally, being downed and wailed upon by the enemy can result in Victor screaming for help with uncharacteristically-palpable fear.
  • One of the responses he can give to the Drachenfels voice is to pray for Sigmar to shelter him, in a tone that is clearly in fear.
  • Dialogue with Sister of the Thorn Kerillian or when he is alone in the Chaos Wastes hub reveal that Saltzypre is starting to lose his faith and may be on the verge of a mental breakdown.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: Or rather, using the Z word. Specifically, his Zealot class is a Flagellant in all but name, and is even called out as one by Sienna, atleast once.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: "A Quiet Drink" can see Saltzpyre thank Bardin for saving him from a cave troll, in spite of Saltzpyre having insulted the Queen of Karak Norn. Bardin brushes it off as his duty to friends. Saltzpyre wonders aloud that he really has no idea who pushed him into the cave though... Bardin suggests it was a Stormvermin, and whispers that he hopes Kruber will corroborate that account.
• Odd Friendship: With Bardin of all people, though it's more of a grudging respect on Victor's side.
  • While the far more gregarious-though-haunted Kruber is pretty different from the zealous bundle of purpose that is Saltzpyre, the sequel makes it clear that Kruber does his best to support Saltzpyre's position in the group's harrowing endeavors and Saltzpyre has the utmost faith in Kruber in return.
  • Saltzpyre reciprocates these two's friendship with being notably appraising of them should they perish in a match.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Unlike Markus, Kerillian, Bardin and Sienna, who all linked up and fought their way out of the Skaven nest together in the sequels prologue, Saltzpyre had to break himself out and fight to the surface on his own with zero backup. The only hints to the details is a trail of ratmen corpses littering the surface and the fact that he managed to reach the Bridge of Shadows well before everyone else.
• Oh, My Gods!: He usually swears in Sigmar's name, requesting his benedictions and dedicating deeds in his name.
  "Holy Sigmar! Bless this ravaged body!"
• One-Hit Polykill: His special as a Bounty Hunter in the sequel has him fire a big shot from a pistol, which punches through everyone in its way (which most infamously, if neither of you are careful, includes your teammates).
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: He despises, distrusts, and would probably happily kill Kerillian if he didn't need her... but when she scores a particularly impressive killstreak, there is a chance that Saltzpyre will simply lament that someone with such amazing talents isn't one of Sigmar's faithful. By the sequel he claims that his trust in her improves with every kill she makes.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Sienna's turn to necromancy raises the possibility that he'll need to execute or Mercy Kill her, he loses his usual fervor and acts slightly sad and reluctant. He even asks Markus whether the Lady of the Lake could help to save Sienna, a major swerve from his staunch monotheism.
• Pain & Gain: As a Zealot, he gains a percent-based Power boost that scales in proportion to how much health he's lost. Various talents can extend the bonus to attack rate, movement speed, and Damage Reduction.
• The Paranoiac: By the Chaos Wastes expansion he's rambling to himself about how his comrades are plotting against him. To his credit he tries to keep these thoughts under control.
  Saltzpyre: The others must not suspect I have doubts. I must not give them cause to... provoke me. Yes, that's right. It will all work out for the best...
• Personal Horror: Dialogue while alone in the Chaos Wastes' starting area will reveal Saltzpyre has not been taking the very concept of what he's been doing well. He fully understands the gravity of the possibility of his order realizing he's gone to the Chaos, may try to internally deflect the blame for doing this onto Lohner, Kerillian or Sienna, or mention that his dreams are full of blood.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In the second game, at the conclusion of the prologue, he says it's good to see the group after their escape from the Skaven, which is possibly the nicest thing he ever says.
  • Some of Saltzpyre's banter with Kruber implies a good deal of respect for both his martial skill and quality of character, to the point that a Witch Hunter Captain Saltzpyre offers Kruber the chance to become a Witch Hunter, even being willing to use his position within the Order to fast-track Markus if he accepts, and calling him valiant in "A Quiet Drink". After Kruber leaves the Imperial army to become a Grail Knight, Saltzpyre tells him that he doesn't think any less of him after his "defection", which would be totally unthinkable to practically any other Witch Hunter (indeed, Bardin even has dialogue asking Kruber if he's worried about the Empire coming after him for being a deserter).
  • Similarly, his banter with Sienna has him trying to help her return to the Mages College to finish her training, which frankly has the best prospects for her livelihood considering her magical addiction and the fact even sanctioned wizards are usually already distrusted.
  • When he notes that Bardin hasn't been looking for his lost hold any more, which Bardin attributes to having more important things to do (i.e helping the party), Victor quietly and sincerely tells him "Your assistance is appreciated, Goreksson."
  • In the second game, he's the only character who never calls out any of the others for using healing items.
  • After Kerillian becomes a Sister of the Thorn, Saltzpyre becomes even more abrasive in their dialogue. But if she's not at the Keep and the others are, he'll say that he actually feels sorry for her, because "in her search for meaning, she has cast a part of herself away - perhaps the noblest part." Kruber and Bardin are surprised by the pseudo-compliment and the latter mockingly accuses Saltzpyre of becoming soft, to which he responds "I forebear to comment."
  • When he first figured out that Sienna had become a necromancer, he knew the others would try to stop him from killing her, so he punched out Kerillian and squared off against Bardin before himself being incapacitated by a surprise smack from Kruber. The "nice" part is that he actually bothered to try to take them out nonlethally before going after Sienna; any other Witch Hunter (including Saltzpyre himself at the beginning of Vermintide) would've simply shot them in the back of the head without warning if he so much as suspected that they would defend a necromancer.
• The Pig-Pen: In Keep dialogue with Grail Knight Kruber, he reveals that he never bathes and his hat description mentions it has lice living in it. Considering how often he's covered in blood, guts, poison gas, and sewage, it's a wonder any of his teammates can stand the stench, although it warrants mentioning that bathing and washing were considered two different things in the time period Vermintide is modeled off.
• Plagued by Nightmares: A voice line while alone in the Chaos Wastes' starting area has him ask himself with horrified exhaustion why his dreams are full of blood.
• Properly Paranoid: Paranoia is in his job description, after all. As someone who hunts the devious Skaven on a personal vendetta and has already lost an eye to one of the ratmen, it's a totally justified attitude.
  Saltzpyre: Don't relax, that's when they'll pounce.
• Quick Draw: Saltzpyre can fire all twelve of his pistols for his Brace of Pistols ranged weapon in the same time his companions will be able to fire a handgun twice at most.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Even though he's a zealot, Saltzpyre prefers to do things by the book. He escorted Sienna to Ubersriek to ensure she would receive a fair and impartial trial, and in one mission in II, mentions he was in Ussingen years ago to investigate an accusation of witchcraft. When Sienna assumes he just had the poor girl burned, he corrects her and informs the group that he conducted a proper investigation and declared the girl innocent.
• Religious Bruiser: As expected from someone explicitly sanctioned by the Sigmarite church. Saltzpyre frequently intones supplications to Sigmar in battle and abjures enemies in His name.
• Royal Rapier: Rapiers are expensive, and the fact that he owns one shows the kind of resources and access Saltzpyre has. It allows him to attack with several quick jabs or a deeply penetrating thrust. It's especially effective when targeting the head, and also has a very-low-damage but infinite ammunition pistol that he holds in his off-hand that he also brings up to block with. He wears his signature rapier on his hip for the Vermintide 1 intro, but only is seen in the intro as firing multiple pistols.
• Sanity Slippage: Several Lohner's Chronicles posts note that Saltzpyre is becoming increasingly unstable in the aftermath of the second game's base campaign, due to how the world seems to be getting worse and worse no matter how many victories the team wins. In the Chaos Wastes expansion, Kerillian and Sienna have a conversation where they note how unusual it is that he'd be in favor of a desperate expedition to the Wastes themselves (the very idea being heretical in his order), while Kruber has dialogue with Saltzpyre indicating that he wrote a letter saying something uncompromising to Saltzpyre's superiors in the Witch Hunters. In the keep before the Wastes, Saltzpyre can be heard whispering to himself and revealing that he's losing his faith and is stricken by dreams full of blood.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Victor is something of an outcast in the Templar Order due to his willingness to employ mages and non-humans in his retinue, and disdains the Order's practice of pretending the Skaven simply do not exist. Likewise, he's a good deal more cautious and inquisitive than the average Witch Hunter, having the legal permission to punish the accused and their entire town any brutal way he sees fit but instead he strives to make a fair judgement and to punish the right heretics accordingly (as sadistically and torturously as he'd liked).
• Sentimental Drunk: The Anniversary Event has him act very much more polite and sociable to the other teammates than usual, from apologizing to Bardin over a previous arguement to describing Kruber as "valiant". Considering his Jerk with a Heart of Gold personality, it's likely he's genuinely like this.
• Serrated Blade of Pain: His Greatswords, all of which have flameberge-style wavy blades, in contrast to the more conventional straight-edged ones used by Kruber.
• Short-Range Shotgun: His griffonfoot pistols (aka duckfoot pistols◊) fire all of their multiple barrels simultaenously, giving them non-existent accuracy but the ability to absolutely shred unarmored enemies at close range with a wall of lead pellets.
• Socially Awkward Hero: There is a (generally) good soul to Saltzpyre and the work he does, and there’s more admiration than he lets on for his teammates by the time of sequel. It also happens that he's terrible at socializing during anything that isn’t an interrogation, with his attempts to comfort Kruber for the loss of his family coming across as insensitive, he’s at an almost complete loss for words whenever Sienna flirts with him, his drunken stupor in A Quiet Drink being the most jarring transformation of the team and even his attempts at small talk with everyone, along with his reluctant singing to Bardins song, coming across as stilted and awkward during expeditions to the Chaos Wastes.
• Spock Speak: He always speaks in a perfectly pronounced, almost archaic way, using completely clinical language with a little bit of Purple Prose mixed with religious ferver. The few times he tries to speak more down-to-earth-like, or even try to give a sentimental greeting to the team, comes across as stilted and awkward on his end.
• Stealth Expert: Implied. Kerillian doesn't realize he's spying on her until he tells her.
• Stone Wall: As a Warrior Priest, Saltzpyre becomes a tank in the same vein as Bardin's Ironbreaker or Kruber's Foot Knight, with superb defenses and a high capacity for group support, but very low mobility even with the Hammer and Tome combo, and rather lacking damage output.
• Support Party Member: The Warrior Priest class. Even if his direct offensive potential and mobility are quite poor compared to Saltzpyre's other careers and his allies, defensively speaking he's the strongest of the Five by quite some margin. Most of his talents later in his skill tree are oriented around bolstering his teammates' power rather than that of himself. For example at 25th level, he gains a choice of three Prayer blessings; that increase the Stagger power (Prayer of Might), maximum HP (Prayer of Hardiness) or damage against Monster enemies (Prayer of Vengeance) of all his teammates. And at 30th level, he can take the talent The Comet's Gift and his Shield of Faith becomes one of the few ways to gain healing without using a consumable, and the only way to revive a downed teammate from a distance - making him the master of pulling a doomed run Back from the Brink.
• Sword and Gun: When using a rapier, he holds a pistol in his off-hand. The pistol isn't very powerful and can be hard to aim/use, but it has a variety of subtle benefits — it is pinpoint accurate, doesn't use any ammunition to fire, is very reliable at staggering enemies which gives Victor time to wind up a charge attack or safely whittle down a mob while retreating, can be fired whilst blocking, and is able to activate both ranged or melee weapon critical effects (most notably, the Witch Hunter Captain's guaranteed One-Hit Kill on critical headshots against any non-boss, Chaos Warrior or Mauler enemies).
• Throw-Away Guns: He can rapid-fire his way through his pistols by discarding each and pulling another out of the Hammerspace of his coat, as he displays within the intro cinematic for Vermintide 1. In the sequel, he can only have up to 12 pistols or 8 griffonfoots ready to be drawn at once, and after those are used up, he has to take the time to place new ones in those holsters before he can let off another salvo, effectively giving him a reload mechanic.
• Tsundere: Every time he does anything that seems remotely compassionate toward his colleagues, he will come up with some reason he is doing so as a matter of pragmatism, reassuring them that he is most definitely not doing so because he has become sentimentally attached to them or anything.
• Took a Level in Kindness: He's much less abrasive in the second game than the first. Most notable with Sienna and Kerillian; despite a ton of friction he still engages in personal conversation with them and offers genuine compliments, whereas in the first game he was constantly suspiscious and threatened to kill or imprison them every five minutes. Less notable but still present with Kruber. In the first game, Saltzpyre had some care for him, but overall treated the soldier as an expendable minion and lorded his authority constantly. In the second game he seems to see him as a genuine friend. It's not solely limited to the other Ubersreik Five members either. In some of 2's missions he'll pay respects to fallen Imperial soldiers and compliment them on their faith and bravery, a far cry from how one of his first lines in 1 (upon reaching the tower in Horn of Magnus) was to mock Ubersreik's garrison as useless for dying so quickly.
  Saltzpyre: Doesn't anyone in this town put up a fight?!
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Uniquely amongst all the DLC careers, Saltzyre's Warrior Priest career can't use any of his previous weapons, instead coming with a full set of six weapons of his own instead (three of which have unique movesets, three being Moveset Clones of the Mace and Hammer weapons used by Kruber and Bardin).
• The Unsmile: Never seen, but referenced a few times after he becomes a Warrior Priest. Apparently Saltzpyre has been trying to smile more. The results are... unsettling, at least if you believe Kruber and Kerillian. Sienna asks him to stop because he's frightening the cats. Apparently one cat can manage to withstand his smile, though (while Lohner remains fearing that the world has already ended considering Saltzpyre attempting to smile and suspects the cat is either addled or as much of a nihilist as Saltzpyre is).
• Unwanted Assistance: Due to his Zealot kit revolving around getting down to dangerously low health in order to trigger his Critical Status Buff, the greatest hindrance to a good Saltzpyre player is an ignorant teammate with a medical pack, who can unknowingly wipe away a lot of his enhancements just by trying to help him.
• Warrior Monk: A literal one in the form of his Warrior Priest class, being a Sigmarite clergyman clad in an armoury's worth of plating who runs around administering holy justice via his massive hammers.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: His devotion to the security of the Empire, protecting it from all threats arcane and mundane, is undeniable. His methods are equally... undeniable.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Sienna, after she became a necromancer. He makes it clear that he fully intends to kill her, and makes it just as clear that it's breaking his heart.
• With Us or Against Us: While this is true of all Imperial Witch Hunters, he surprisingly plays it more on a compassionate side. His priority is the protection of the Empire, and anyone (who is not obviously using Chaos magic) willing to fight for that goal is someone he considers an ally. This actually puts him at odds with many of his peers, for being too trusting of outsiders.
• The Witch Hunter: Literally his job... though by the point of Vermintide 1, he's particularly concerned with Skaven instead, and in 2, two of his careers may indicate he's left the technical path of a Witch Hunter — though he'll maintain the same zeal in fighting his Chaotic foes regardless and never keep quiet about his detest and distrust of wizardry whenever enemy wizards pop up in-game.

Sienna Fuegonasus

Vermintide I: Bright Wizard

Vermintide II: Battle Wizard, Pyromancer, Unchained, Necromancer

Fire and ash! We'll burn them all!

Voiced by: Bethan Dixon Bate

Sienna Fuegonasus is a fiery tempered Bright Wizard who roams the land in a constant search for opportunities to indulge herself in the ecstasy of pyromancy.

Blessed with a sharp intellect and a wicked sense of humour, Sienna will generally pass for a well-adjusted individual, as far as wizards go. Those who witness her in battle, however, will soon catch a glimpse of how deep her dependency on the adrenaline rush of pyromancy has taken her.

Sienna arrives in Ubersreik as the prisoner of a Witch Hunter, Victor Saltzpyre, and guarded by a former State Trooper, Markus Kruber. A trial indeed awaits, but of a different kind than they all expected.

---

• Action Girl: The Flaming Sword is not just for show. Indeed, as a Bright Wizard, Sienna is probably usually the most destructive threat on the battlefield for any of the Ubersreik Five's enemies...and possibly the Ubersreik Five as well given the fears of Sienna losing control of her magic. Bright Wizards in general are trained especially for martial purposes given their grand displays of pyrokinesis don't have much other demand and to make use of the inherent aggression that training in the Lore of Fire will nurter into a person. Sienna has also spoken of adventuring travels in her undisclosed number of years.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Applies to her skeleton minions as a Necromancer. By default, each use of Raise Dead summons six skeletons to Sienna's side, and recasting the ability will simply disperse them to make room for the new mooks instead of making her army bigger. With the Army of the Dead talent, this limit is ignored in exchange for skeletons beyond the initial six automatically dying after 20 seconds, meaning that the player can spam Raise Dead as many times as their power meter will allow, and is the only way to complete the Death's Company challenge.
• Bad Powers, Good People: As a Necromancer, Sienna is adamant that she's still on the side of good despite the other four having massive misgivings about the nature of her new powers. Her career promotional materials also place a strong emphasis on her proving to them that her powers can be wielded for noble causes.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Implied. Despite her mastery over the Lore of Fire, Sienna never had any passion nor patience for more scholarly pursuits, instead preferring to keep herself high by recklessly casting fire magic and pushing her body to its limits, essentially squandering her talents for selfish reasons. Becomes more than a bit ironic when she also chastises the Blightstormers for wasting their raw magical talent when she herself is doing the exact same thing.
• Badass Spaniard: Her name implies she's from Estalia, the setting's version of Spain. In the second game, her conversations in the Keep confirm that she hails from the aforementioned country, leaving after her aptitude for fire magic became apparent and some "suspicious" arson cases made her a persona non grata in the city she grew up in.
• Black Mage: Though her magic is ironically from the Bright school, her sole focus is on killing things with fire.
• Blood Knight: Next to Saltzpyre's righteous fury, she’s the most bloodthirsty member of the group who gets the most excited at immolating hordes of Skaven and Norscana, a perfect opportunity to enjoy the highs of uncontrolled magic.
• Carry a Big Stick: Sienna's sole option for a large, two-handed weapon is a flaming mace that grants her both decent performance against hordes and armored opponents, at the cost of being slower and harder to use.
• Clear My Name: While Sienna clearly enjoys giving Victor all the grief she can muster, she is giving her all to fight the Vermintide and denies any involvement in murdering the Burgomeister's son. Victor initially presumes her guilt, but later considers the Vermintide a sufficient trial by fire. Kerillian is less willing to let the matter drop and continually presses Sienna to use her powers to escape, but all it does is annoy the wizard.
  Kerillian: I suppose you had a good reason for allowing One-Eye to shackle you, and not burn him to a crisp?
  Sienna: Yes. It's called 'innocence'.
  Kerillian: You think he cares about innocence?
  Sienna: No. But I do, Elf.
• Cold Flames: As a necromancer, her fires turn cold and blue-green, burning slower, longer, and inflicting a Damage-Increasing Debuff.
• Cool Old Lady: Assuming she isn't Younger Than They Look (see Vague Age below), she definitely has that vibe going about her. For what it's worth, she'll sometimes refer to herself as an "old lady" when healing herself in II (though it could also just be self-deprecating sarcasm) and her voice actress is over 50.
• Critical Hit Class: As a Pyromancer, Sienna gains an escalating bonus to her critical hit chance that scales with her Overheat level. She can enhance this with Talents that boost her crit chance further, add secondary benefits, and refund her career skill cooldown if she scores a critical hit with its projectile.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Kerillian seems to like her best out of the entire gang, though seemingly only because Sienna is, in the elf's own words in II, the "least annoying one" among the other four.
• Dark Secret: Sienna has murdered several people who were nothing but kind to her, including a man named Rambler who taught her to focus her gift and cope with the magic addiction. Sienna feels that she could slip and lose control at any moment. In one incident, she burned a templar who was hunting a woman through a town (and burned the town itself in the process), only to find out later that the templar was Properly Paranoid and the girl he was hunting was none other than her sister Sofia, a wicked necromancer. Sienna corrected her mistake, but necromancers seldom stay dead.
• Deadly Euphemism: She refers to having a 'disagreement' with a Chaos Dwarf in the past. Bardin presses her until she straight up admits she killed him.
• Deadpan Snarker: While they're all guilty of this, Sienna has the honor of being the only person to face Victor (and even Kerillian) in Snark-to-Snark Combat and win. Specifically, she suggests that Victor's threats about her judgement are to hide that he's smitten with her, which leaves him sputtering in anger. She's mentioned this theory to Kruber as well.
• Death Is Gray: Befitting a Necromancer, Sienna's normally-peachy complexion is completely bleached gray while playing as the class, complete with an even more gaunt face and eye shadows. To complement the look, even her brown hair has also lost most of its color, turning soot black instead.
• Death or Glory Attack: An increasingly central part of her playstyle on Sienna's later unlocked career paths, both Pyromancer and Unchained gain significant bonuses to their damage output at high overheat. Unchained in particular, is encouraged to continually fight right on the edge of a fatal meltdown.
• Dem Bones: As a Necromancer, Sienna's career skill raises several skeletal men-at-arms out of the ground to attack her enemies. If the Dread Seneschal talent is selected, the skeletons also become Elite Mooks.
• Demonic Possession: In her Necromancer career, she is strongly hinted to be possessed, or at least strongly influenced, by Sofia's lingering ghost. Markus is the first to express doubts on the matter, although the others also find this concerning once he raises the point — after all, twins are known to share close bonds, and necromancers never die easy, and they did kill Sienna's necromancer twin right before she decided to become one too...
• Evil Laugh: Comes along with being a Necromancer. Lampshaded by Kerillian, who takes issue with it and distrusts Sienna's new lifestyle in part because of her newfound tendency towards maniacal laughter.
• Feeling Their Age: Maybe. Sienna often complains about her age and physical discomfort, though it's up in the air how old she really is.
• First-Name Basis: She is the only one to ever address Victor by his first name.
• Flaming Hair: She's a Fiery Redhead on her own, but also has fire in her hair as a mark of Aqshy, burning brighter as her Overheat rises.
• Flaming Sword: One of her melee options, naturally. Whilst her melee options are fairly weak, the flaming sword's charged attacks can ignite foes for extra damage over time.
• Flirting Under Fire: She does this with Saltzpyre and Kruber. With Kruber, it's complimentary and even charming. With Saltzpyre, it's purely because she knows it annoys him.
• Functional Addict: She is quite literally a magical addict, or more precisely, an adrenaline junkie who can only get her fix via the rush of power she gets from channeling her Bright magic. Unfortunately, this fixation led her to push herself to greater and greater acts of pyromania, opening herself up to dangerous amounts of the winds of magic. Her pyromania is what made her the prime suspect in Victor's investigation of arson and murder involving the Burgomeister's son.
  Saltzpyre: [In response to asking if he trusts Sienna yet] It is not what you give that concerns me, Fuegonasus, but what you yearn for.
  Sienna: Yearn for?
  Saltzpyre: I fear that you are a slave to the flames, rather than the reverse. You, I trust. But only a simpleton would trust a raging fire.
• Glass Cannon: All four of her careers have flimsy defenses in some way to offset their sheer offensive power, not helped by her abundance of staffs that grant immense firepower but lack of stamina in her melee weapons for defending.
  • Battle Wizard focuses primarily on mobility and burn damage dealt to enemies, quickly overheating and just as quickly cooling down to keep burning hordes while dashing between groups of enemies to ignite them. Her only unique defensive talent, however, is Soot Shield, which can grant up to 30% damage reduction so as long as enemies are burning - the same tier also has Fires From Ash (cooldown reduction on Fire Walk for every enemy burnt to death) and Immersive Immolation (attack speed increase for damaging four enemies at once), giving it considerable competition depending on the play style someone wants.
  • Pyromancer gains increased crit chance the higher her overheat goes, exchanging considerable melee damage at the cost of fire damage, and is only slightly better than Battle Wizard in potential defenses. Soul Siphon grants up to 30% in damage reduction for every Special enemy she kills, while Bonded Flame heals her for 35 temporary HP upon casting The Burning Head — similar to Battle Wizard these also face competition from skills that up her already high damage potential.
  • Unchained, able to take a serious beating due to her damage reduction, also benefits from an attack speed increase if her overheat meter is high, encouraging a play style that keeps her on the edge of exploding almost instantly if she completely overheats. Because damage dealt to Sienna now partially transfers to her overheat meter, the optimal Unchained play style is constantly on the edge with the risk of one or two hits from even Skavenslaves pushing her to detonate and make her high defense almost moot.
  • Necromancer boasts a very powerful kit surrounding damage-over-time and additional contributions from her skeletal minion squad, with highly consistent crowd-control abilities and the Soulstealer staff, a unique weapon that does incredibly well against any kind of non-monster enemy due to it ignoring armor if used right. However, it also has the lowest base health out of all of her classes, has no innate Damage Reduction, and has comparatively few ways to generate temporary HP to use as a buffer against enemy attacks and venting Overcharge, meaning that a Necromancer who's caught in a bad spot without minions to back her up is likely to go down quickly. The Necromancer is especially vulnerable to special enemies that disable players (such as Packmasters and Assassins), since her minions will also be disabled until she's freed.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Empowered as she is by her use of Bright magic, Sienna's eyes glow quite noticeably, her irises a vivid orange-yellow colour and her sclera are a dark, ashen grey. Appropriate, for a pyromancer. Her Unchained class has her eyes disappear completely, being only glowing orange circles.
• Handicapped Badass: Downplayed — some of her banter mentions being hearing-impaired, but it doesn't affect her gameplay.
• Having a Blast: In the sequel, her Unchained class' active ability has her create a huge explosion centered on her, blowing away any enemy foolish enough to get close and venting all of her overcharge in one go.
• Healing Shiv: As Unchained, Sienna's Living Bomb can be augmented with the Bomb Balm talent to restore 30 temporary HP to teammates around her.
• Hearing Voices: As a necromancer, dialogue with Kerillian hints that she hears ghostly voices telling her to do terrible things. So she ignores them. Or perhaps she's kidding.
• Heroic RRoD: Casting spells will fill up her heat gauge. If it reaches its max she will explode, dealing damage to surrounding enemies but instantly downing her.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: In private, Sienna is extremely self deprecating, believing her lack of formal training makes her a lackluster one trick pony and not worthy of being a true Battle Wizard. The fact is that even though her aversion to book work and lack of academic rigor prevented her from completing her classes, with her raw talent and expert use of basic spells she has managed to slaughter thousands of Skaven and go toe to toe with Chaos Warriors.
• Hot-Blooded: Literally when casting her Bright Magic, but also figuratively a major part of her temperament, eager to bring the heat down upon her enemies and relishing the carnage around her.
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: Non-fatal example on Sienna's part, where she will quote the trope when using Death's Release on a minion to vent her overcharge.
• Incendiary Exponent: The more she draws on the Winds of Magic, the more her body is wreathed in the glowing flame of Aqshy.
• Interface Screw: Sienna has the potential to screw with her team's performance. Basically every single one of her staves leave behind huge fire patches or explosions, and some melee weapons also cause groups of enemies to catch on fire with specific attacks, significantly reducing the visibility of her team, or causing considerable framerate drops from the overload of fire effects.
• In the Hood: Purchasing the Necromancer Cosmetic Upgrade grants the player the Ill-Hallowed Hood, which looks exactly how it sounds like, complete with undeathly icy breathing coming from the opening.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Though she disdains his close-minded prejudice, Sienna confesses that she shares Saltzpyre's fears that she's losing her mind to the thrill of pyromancy, with the point being proven in the form of her Unchained class in the sequel.
• Kill It with Fire: Her favorite method of dispatch, and general solution to any problem.
  Sienna: Why am I here? To burn things, of course.
• Long-Range Fighter: She wields considerable destructive power channeling her Bright magic, but her potential for melee damage is considerably lower than that of the other characters. Even some Clanrats can withstand multiple charged hits from her mundane weapons.
• Magic Knight: Downplayed, Sienna's obvious fondness for, and effectiveness at meting out death with her fire magic makes her arguably the best ranged damage dealer of the Five, but her melee weapon selection is relatively lacking, but still servicable enough in dealing with the common hordes.
• Magic Staff: Which she uses as an arcane focus for casting her fire magic. There are various kinds available, which alter the properties of both her basic and charged range attacks.
• Mark of the Supernatural: Her use of Aqshy's burning wind has marked her with perpetually smoldering hair, which glows more and more brightly as she draws upon her magic.
• Meaningful Name: Not exactly a subtle one. Sienna is a reddish-brown pigment. As for Fuegonasus, "fuego" is spanish for "fire" and "nasus" is latin for "nose". The former obviously refers to her pyromaniacal habits. The latter...
• The Minion Master: Her Necromancer kit is a Mechanically Unusual Class, even for a character who's already a Mechanically Unusual Fighter, due to her ability to command around a gaggle of minions with her Icon of Death. Unlike most other class specials, the Icon is an intrinsic part of her kit that's permanently attached to her potions slot (selecting potions require two button presses), and can be wielded as its own weapon to give orders to her troops.
• My Greatest Failure: Her dark secret revealed in Blood in the Darkness is that she incinerated a man (presumably a Bright Wizard) who helped her harness and control her fire magic. There was also the time when a Witch Hunter accused a friend of hers of being an evil witch, and Sienna killed him to protect the friend. Unfortunately, afterwards it was revealed that said friend really was the monster the hunter claimed, and performed more atrocities unimpeded. Lohner dug around and found that this individual was her twin sister who was a necromancer, and who Sienna later managed to kill herself... but now it sounds a lot like her incineration didn't stick.
• Nay-Theist: Although Sienna acknowledges the existence of the divine, she doesn't actively worship any of them unlike her companions. While she did look to Myrmidia, the goddess of war, during the expedition to the Citadel of Eternity, it was more of Sienna being inspired by her tales of valor and justice than actual worshipping. Either that, or the goddess' heraldry being a blazing sun. As Lohner puts it, it's "more of a meeting of equals[...]one incandescent ball of light to another".
• Necromancer: Exactly What It Says on the Tin regarding her premium career. Apparently the knack for necromantic arts runs In the Blood, as hers was awakened after the cataclysmic showdown against her twin sister Sofia. Needless to say, none of the other four were particularly thrilled to find out.
• Noodle Incident: She once burned down a chunk of Miragliano collecting a debt. She's not welcome there any more. She also met a Chaos Dwarf on the Cathayan Silk road... they disagreed.
• No-Sell: Being already dead, Sienna's skeletal minions are completely immune to the effects of a Globadier's toxic gas globes, are immune to Ring Out by monsters or other knockback-related attacks, nor are they affected by disabler enemies even if they got in the way of them attacking their master. However, if Sienna herself is pinned or incapacitated in any way, the entire minion squad will be temporarily disabled as well.
• Not Himself: Downplayed as a necromancer — she's mostly herself, but the incident with Sofia and some odd behaviour have the others worried there's "more than one set of hands on the reins". The most distinct change to the way she speaks: she loses much of her boisterousness in battle for an uncharacteristically low, calm voice, and is unusually insensitive to her friends' concerns.
• Odd Friendship: With Kerillian. She has some small degree of understanding and a healthy level of respect for Kerillian's beliefs and connection to the world, and Kerillian sees her magic as something to be honored, not feared. It's strongly implied that she knows why Kerillian came to Ubersreik in the first place. That doesn't stop her from giving some rather impressive snark whenever Kerillian starts on one of her tangents. In the sequel this escalates to Vitriolic Best Buds since Sienna is much freer with her snark and is happy to return Kerillian's own insults if the situation allows, but they're clearly still fond of each other.
• Oh, My Gods!: In contrast to the others, who swear by deities, when Sienna is moved to swear she usually does so by the wind of Aqshy itself or in the name of Volans, the founder of the Colleges of Magic.
• Overheating:
  • Throwing too many firebolts or spells around builds up a 'heat gauge'; past a certain point, Sienna's overall speed reduces considerably, and exceeding the maximum will make her explode. This gauge drains by itself, but she can quickly drain her gauge by "venting" the heat at the cost of some self-damage.
  • The Unchained class in the sequel, however, as befitting its "high risk, high reward" style, actually thrives off of high Overcharge. Not only does it not come with a speed reduction for high Overcharge, it actually buffs her by increasing her cleave and attack speed. The more Overcharge, the better. It also allows her to vent painlessly by either blocking attacks, which will consume some Overcharge in exchange for less stamina drain, or by using her special, which vents all Overcharge in a huge explosion around her. However, she builds Overcharge if she gets hit, which can cause her to overload and down herself on the spot.
• Pinball Projectile: Her Soulstealer Staff primary fire bolts will bounce between targets up to five times, with each hit dealing splash damage and also causing the enemy to stumble, and the final hit also ignoring armor. There's an associated Okri's Challenge where the Necromancer player must stagger eight Elite enemies with this staff at the same time by exploiting this property.
• Playing with Fire: Pretty much all her magic is fire-based.
• Power Tattoos: The visible parts of Sienna's torso are covered in usually-invisible tattoos that light up with Aqshy's flames as she overheats, seemingly to help channel the excess magic.
• Pyromaniac: She was always pushing herself to conjure bigger firewalls and hotter grouts of flame, always seeking to push her limits. She relishes the opportunity to "take the gloves off" and reduce hordes of enemies to ashes. Her version of the Chamber of Gnignol is appropriately, a city in flames.
• Recruiting the Criminal: She is technically a prisoner of Victor Saltzpyre, who is bringing her into town to face judgement for probable murder and arson. However, the Vermintide precluded any formal trial, and Victor becomes less concerned about her punishment after she torches a couple thousand Skaven.
• Screaming Warrior: Having surrendered to her magic addiction, her Living Bomb special in her Unchained path in the sequel is often delivered with her screaming at the top of her lungs.
  "AAAAQSHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!! AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGHHH!!"
  "OH, FULMINATE! FUUUUUULMINAAAAAAATE!!"
  "REEEEEED WIIIIIIIIND!!"
• Sinister Scythe: The new melee weapon type introduced with her Necromancer career, but can be used regardless of class.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: While all of the crew are exceptionally brave and powerful, Sienna seems particularly unconcerned about the odds the group is faced with.
  "Northerners, ratmen.... why should I care who faces us? They all burn just the same."
• Superpower Meltdown: As her heat bar rises, Sienna visibly burns up, especially notable on her off hand and face, and if she pushes it too far, she explodes.
• Team Mom: Sometimes performs this role, breaking up arguments between the other heroes and telling them to focus on killing Skaven. It's even joked about as she regularly calls herself "Auntie Sienna".
• Technician Versus Performer: Her two ranged classes in the sequel, Battle Wizard and Pyromancer, play off this dichotomy. Battle Wizard is the Technician, maintaining strict discipline and focus on her magic, and through that restraint, keeping her Heat Gauge to a minimum. Pyromancer on the other hand, embraces the reckless disregard for that discipline she maintained in the original game, gaining increasing critical hit chance the higher her heat draws, encouraging her to play closer to the edge for greater damage potential.
• Token Wizard: The sole magician on a team of badass normals (bar their occasional use of lightly enchanted weapons), at least until Kruber and Kerillian get their own magical boosts following the Curse of Drachenfels DLC.
• Two Siblings In One: Implied as a Necromancer, since her change in magical practice and other unusual behaviour crop up soon after Sofia's apparent death. Markus suspects that there's "more than one set of hands on the reins".
• Vague Age: Constant smoke inhalation has given her the voice of an older woman and magicians (like real world drug addicts) often don't look their ages. She could be anywhere between her early thirties to her late fifties. Although she refers to herself as an "old woman" and calls herself "Auntie Sienna" at points, this may just be Self-Deprecation on her part. In the Curse of Drachenfels DLC, she and Kruber have a conversation referencing this:
  Kruber: Been a funny few years, hasn't it? How long have we been doing this?
  Sienna: Oh, I'm not answering that. It'll make me feel even older.
  Kruber: Even older than what?
  Sienna: Shut up, Markus.
• Video Game Flame Throwers Suck: The Flamestorm staffs, whose sole means of attack is let loose a stream of fire. Primary fire will produce a quick burst of flames that do little damage but can stagger nearly everything short of a Chaos Warrior, while its secondary fire can be charged for a variable bout of flames that can annihilate hordes. Against weak, swarming enemies like Skavenslaves and Marauders it can easily hold its own, is of middling effectiveness against elites and berserkers, and against monsters and specials the weapon is practically useless, specializing Sienna into clearing hordes over sniping key targets.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: As a Necromancer, Sienna has access to several soul-absorption abilities and weapons, namely the Soulstealer Staff that kills its targets by ripping their souls from their bodies. In a pinch, she can also retrieve souls that she lent to her skeletal minions on command to vent a significant amount of overcharge.

Bardin Goreksson

Vermintide I: Dwarf Ranger

Vermintide II: Veteran Ranger, Ironbreaker, Slayer, Outcast Engineer

An old ranger trick...

Voiced by: David Rintoul

He may be the shortest in the group of heroes, but the Dwarf Ranger Bardin Goreksson certainly makes up for it in ferocity, determination and spirit. Gregarious, prideful, and not afraid to offend, Bardin is frequently seen charging into the thick of battle, axe or hammer in full swing and leaving a trail of Skaven corpses behind him. Once the victory is assured, he will be the first back to the pub, roaring and laughing at the top of his lungs in a manner only is a dwarf is capable of.

---

• Acrofatic: Being a dwarf, his stoutness is a given, though he's surprisingly nimble on his feet despite his shorter legs and visible potbelly. As a Slayer, he ramps this up with his constant leaping across the room into mobs of enemies.
• Achilles' Heel: Slowness. Despite having normal movement speed, Bardin's weaponry tend to be slow and clunky to use properly. While some of them do very high damage, the majority of them would require charged heavy attacks to properly deal with armoured targets, such as Stormvermins or Chaos Warriors, thus leaving him vulnerable to being poked by a faster light enemy. He also lacks an effective means of relieving pressure on himself, with half of his career skills being entirely defensive, while the other two are more suited towards controlling crowds of weak enemies, instead of instantly deleting a priority target that's bearing down on him like Kerillian or Markus can with their class skills, making him easily overwhelmed when put in a bad spot. At best, his Ranger Veteran's Smoke Out can give him some breathing room, but it recharges far too slowly to be entirely reliable. As such, if Bardin's the last man standing in a team while there's a horde or patrol bearing down on him, especially if he's Ironbreaker, chances are he will not survive if they manage to all strike at once.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: An unusual example of the trope, but still fully qualifies as one. His role as a "Holdseeker" is discovering old dwarven settlements that have been lost but not forgotten. He travels the world to uncover information about them, and is fully equipped and trained to fight through any danger to find his goal. Appropriately enough, his version of the Chamber of Gnignol is an underground dwarven chamber filled with gold and riches.
• The Alcoholic: Always willing to mention his love of fine drink, which is to be expected. Contrast with Kruber's decidedly less jolly preference for the bottle. Kruber mentions a time when Bardin managed to drink the Red Moon Inn's cellar dry.
• All Your Powers Combined: As an Outcast Engineer, Bardin's level 25 talent Bombardier effectively merges the two bomb types into one, allowing him to chuck out powerful explosives that also burst into flames without the need to swap between them on the field. It only works with the bombs he personally uses, however, as giving them to his allies will not impart the effect.
• Armor Is Useless: He's wearing a chainmail hauberk, and it does nothing to reduce damage. Averted in the sequel's Ironbreaker class, where he gets a passive skill that negates the damage of one hit every 20 seconds to reflect the toughness of his Gromril armour. Exaggerated in the same game though, where the Veteran Ranger has less health than the Slayer, despite the former wearing a vest of leather armor and the latter being a Walking Shirtless Scene.
• And This Is for...: When killing a Warpfire Thrower, Bardin may claim vengeance for Karak Eight Peaks. This is a nod to the famous Dwarf hold whose gromril gates were melted by Warpfire when the Skaven were sieging it.
  "Die fire-rat! That one's for Karak Eight Peaks!"
• Badass Family: His infamous Cousin Okri has performed such amazing feats that other members of the Ubersreik Five think he might be made up. Less mentioned is Cousin Dori, a Dwarf who made bombs. Either way, Bardin clearly loves them as he has their names inscribed on the hafts of his Longbeard's Axe skin. Lore posts also reveal that his wife Gelda is the terror of every greenskin in the region, and his daughter Helda has become an adventurous sailor and warrior.
• The Bard: Not his actual job, but Bardin prides himself on his singing and even offers to give the others lessons. He's even introduced singing a song in Vermintide 2. He sings about all sorts of things, such as...
  • Sneaky goblins.
  • Mining gold and fighting underground.
  • Defending a Hold from Skaven.
  • Courting a lady by singing to her.
  • The Doom of Broggi Stonehand. ^note Likely a famous song in-universe, since even Saltzpyre knows this one. Apparently involves a warrior fighting "foemen" and also an unflattering portrayal of Elves.
  • It was even made the focus of Fatshark's 2019 April Fools Day joke.
• Battle Cry: When he performs his Slayer leap in the sequel, he'll roar out one of these.
  "GRIIIIMNIIIIIIIIIIIRRRR!!"
  "FOOOR KAAAAADRIIIIIIIIIIIINNN!!"
  "DWOOOOORDAWIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!"
• Berserk Button: Saying bad things about Cousin Okri is a quick way to rile him up. When Kerillian makes a dismissive comment about him, Bardin demands to fight her immediately. And when Kruber asks if he's actually real...
  Bardin: Real? REAL? Next you'll be askin' me if my boots are real! You want me to prove it by kickin' yer dongliz across the mountain like a goat's bladder?!
• The Big Guy: Downplayed. Bardin's pathfinding skills are important in Karak Azgaraz and he mentions his tracking skills a few times, but his main contribution is being the team's heaviest hitter. Even then, in Vermintide 2, his default class is a ranged combat specialist. Played very straight with the Ironbreaker and Slayer classes, though.
• The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: His throwing axes will always bean a target with their sharp edge no matter how closely he is to them. This is especially notable since these axes spin as they soar through the air, unlike Kerillian's Briar Javelins which travel in a straight line.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He loves nothing more than charging the enemy, swinging his weapons, and going to the pub afterward. Players starting up Vermintide 1 will first see him in action in a point-of-view shot of him letting out a hearty chuckle just before caving in a Skaven's head with his great hammer.
• Booze Flamethrower: Discussed and Played for Laughs. Sienna sometimes asks him how much he drank before the mission, because she's worried she might light his breath on fire.
• Bottomless Magazines: As an Outcast Engineer, Bardin's Crank Gun has this on a technical level. While it requires manual cranking to build up steam Pressure, which it cannot shoot without, the gun itself requires no reloading at any point, and can fire endlessly as long as it has ultimate charge to expend. This trope can be invoked temporarily by chugging a Potion of Concentration, which gives Bardin virtually unlimited ultimate charge for a short time in this setup and by extension, infinite ammo with the Crank Gun.
• Brief Accent Imitation: On three separate times he's done this to Markus and Victor, apparently when he's particularly annoyed by them. When Markus simply asks him whether Cousin Okri is actually real, Bardin snaps back with threats to kick his ass and puts on a dimwitted English accent to shoot the question back at him. In the sequel, if Bardin misses a bomb throw or sees Victor waste a healing potion on himself he snaps back at his criticism/his weak excuse with a nasally and high pitched voice.
• Buffy Speak: If he sets down a Jade Censer in the Chaos Wastes, he'll refer to it as a "healing thingy" or "gubbins".
• Chainsaw-Grip BFG: How he holds some of his largest firearms: the Ironbreaker Drakegun, Steam-Assisted Crank Gun (Mk. II), and the Trollhammer Torpedo. If anything, calling them mere "firearms" would be an immense understatement, with each of them being the size of a small Empire cannon, and the Trollhammer Torpedo launcher is big enough that he can hoist it up to his face to use as a makeshift shield.
• Chekhov's Gun: The fact that Bardin's a Ranger. Many Dwarfs distrust the Rangers as a whole, some even suspecting them of being dishonored Dwarfs who are too cowardly to take the Slayer oath and instead simply become outcasts. Whispers from the Blood in Darkness map reveal that Bardin is severely ashamed over his failure to warn Zilfin Deeps of an imminent attack upon them by a horde of skaven.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Bardin's dead son, Mordin, was referred to via a reward painting "Mordin's Fate" from the Year of the Rat event in 2020, which depicted two Dwarf heads on sticks while a rat crawled on top of one of them, but who Mordin actually was — aside from an implication from Lohner that this subject matter would greatly sadden Bardin — was not indicated at all until the Blood in Darkness map released a week after the event ended. As it turns out, Mordin was Bardin's son and his death was probably a key reason that Slayer Bardin took the oath.
• Close-Range Combatant: The Slayer class prevents him from using any ranged weapons and replaces his second weapon slot with another melee weapon.
• Coattail-Riding Relative: Played for Laughs. "Stop showing off! You'll never be as good as Okri!"
• Conlang: Bardin peppers his speech with bits and pieces of the (fairly fleshed-out) dwarfen language of Khazalid. The loading screens often offer helpful translations, though the context is usually enough to grasp the general meaning.
• Copycat Mockery: He'll do this to Saltzpyre in response to being chided for missing a bomb throw or in response to his excuse for wasting healing.
• Cultural Rebel: He's very strange by Dwarf standards. Most Dwarfs are dour, constantly ruminating on grudges and distrustful of outsiders, especially wizards and Elves. Besides his justified hatred of Greenskins and Skaven, he doesn’t seem to care as much as an average Dwarf about grudges, allows himself to smile and not take things too seriously, and doesn’t seem to hold most of the Dwarven supremacist views common in most hold-born Dwarfs. Much of what Kerillian says alone would be worthy of an entry in a book of grudges, especially since an Elf is saying it, but he lets (most of) it slide. He was friendly by default with the humans of the party, even the wizard Sienna, when most people have to spend years building up enough trust with a Dwarf for them to even begin letting their guard down. He’s also very open about the viciously guarded Dwarven culture with the others, to the point he openly speaks in Khazalid around them (though he draws the line at writing in Khazalid). In general he’s much less a stick in the mud like his brethren, and more like the life of the party. The fact he is a Ranger, and thus something of an outcast by his culture to begin with, is the likely cause for all of this. He'll even speak of the Chaos Dwarfs. While he still insists they're not true dwarfs, even acknowledging their existence, especially in front of non-Dwarfs, is such a breach of Dwarfen culture that he'd very likely be killed if his kin ever discovered it.
• Dark and Troubled Past: 2 gives him one of these. The website's blurb on the Ironbreaker career makes it clear Bardin legitimately used to be one of these impeccably-equipped elite Dwarf warriors, which is a far cry from the largely-distrusted Rangers that he later joined for some reason...the Slayer career's blurb also says that "Bardin has long borne a burden on his heart." A conversation in the keep will have Kerillian state that she suspects Bardin is not actually looking for Karak Zorn and simply wishes to stay away from his kin for a reason unbeknownst to her, while another one with Kruber has Bardin get upset with him that a group of enemies got very close to them in their last battle because of a lack of vigilance on Kruber's part, complaining that slacking like that gets folks killed in way that seems like Bardin's projecting. The Blood in Darkness map has Nurgloth's whispers to Bardin reveal he was the only sentry that was on duty for the Zilfin Deeps before a horde of skaven annihilated the Dwarfs there to survive, though a gutter runner that was no doubt aiming to end him too wounded him and prevented him from sounding the alarm. His failure to bring word back in time from his injuries and possibly prevent the slaughter also cost Bardin his son, Mordin. "-Family Matters" further makes his family's past a sad tale indeed — his traditionalist warrior father quarreled with his iconoclast engineer uncle before a "mining accident" killed the former and led the latter to die as a Slayer, Bardin canceled his engineer apprenticeship and joined the throngs to eventually become an Ironbreaker, Bardin's daughter took to engineering in spite of him and left for Karak Norn, and his departure from his wife isn't sure to have been amicable. The Outcast Engineer class for Bardin is stated to be a bit of a way for him to make amends to his daughter.
• Dark Secret: Bardin's mistake on a mountain expedition led to him being surprised and seriously wounded by a Gutter Runner. He was unable to warn the outpost of Ziflin Deeps of the incoming Skaven attack which led to the deaths of several Dwarfs including his beardling son Mordin. Rather than take the Slayer Oath, Bardin lives in self-imposed exile; his Adventurer Archeologist mission is really just an elaborate excuse to avoid going home.
• Death Seeker: In one of the three career paths in 2, the horrors of Ubersreik boiled the deep-seated guilt within Bardin over the top. He casts aside his Ranger gear, and takes up the axe as a Slayer, and longs for a glorious and honorable death in combat. It didn't stick, however, as Bardin turned to his family heritage after the events of Castle Drachenfels and embraced his uncle's legacy as an (Outcast) Engineer.
• Determinator: Bardin's upbeat and steadfast attitude never, ever wavers. Even when he's on the verge of death, he'll just push himself harder.
  "C'mon, Goreksson, one last blow!"
  "I am a mountain, I feel... OW! NOTHING!"
• Difficult, but Awesome: The Outcast Engineer class in general. Not only does he lack an ability to buy himself space, immediately kill some enemies, or provide a buff at a difficult time, his ability to take a hit is, quite frankly, garbage. In the hands of an unskilled player, he won't be standing or firing his Crank Gun for very long. But in the hands of a player decent enough at defending themselves and keeping the Crank Gun's level high, the Outcast Engineer is a downright terrifying force capable of mowing down hordes and melting bosses like nobody's business.
• Draw Aggro: As an Ironbreaker, Bardin can taunt anything smaller than a Chaos Warrior into attacking him by hitting them with the shockwave from Impenetrable. When equipped with the "Oi Wazzok!" talent, he can taunt monsters as well.
• Drunken Song: His love of song and love of drink come together when he gets his hands on some Bugmans. Doubles as an Ode to Intoxication. And of course there's the aforementioned Doom of Broggi Stonehand. It's a fine song to go with an ale or twelve!
• Dual Wielding: Depending on which career he's assuming, Bardin could either wield twin hammers, dual axes, or two Drakefire pistols.
• Elves vs. Dwarves: If Kerillian gets captured and he notices, he'll ask the others if they really want to save her. Then again, it might be more that it's Kerillian.
• The Engineer: His Outcast Engineer is of the Combat variety, with him going all-out with precision hand-made armaments. Slightly downplayed in that he's only responsible for maintaining his own custom gear and not his allies'; not that they would need it given what they usually use.
• The Exile: Nurgloth can whisper to Bardin that he's really an exile rather than a seeker in the Blood in Darkness map, though it is unknown if this exile is truly official in any way rather than just self-imposed.
• Expy: As an Outcast Engineer, Bardin becomes a very close Expy of Grimm Burloksson, both being maverick dwarven engineers with powered gauntlets on their left arms and identical gear-crested, telescopic-monocled helmets (technically an option cosmetic, but one Bardin uses in most of his promotional material). The DLC also gives Bardin a new melee weapon in the form of a Cog Hammer, as opposed to Grimm's Cog Axe (Although both weapons consist of one hammerhead and one axehead...) And if he so chooses, he can even swap his Masterwork Pistol for a mass-produced model of Grimm's signature Grudge Raker. The Crank Gun however, is all Bardin.
• Extreme Omnivore: If Catrinne and Olesya are to be believed, Bardin seems to like eating paintbrushes and candles. If the Grail Knight DLC is purchased, he and Sienna also have a conversation about how a Bretonnian duke gifted him a horse in exchange for his service... and rather than riding it, Bardin proceeded to cook it for dinner. Lohner also complains in Keep dialogue that Bardin keeps making troll stew that everyone else hates, causing Bardin to claim it's just too strong for them. He even eats the messenger pigeons that keep getting sent to the keep. His lonely and self-sufficient existence as a Ranger may be an explanation for his indiscriminate tastes, but he doesn't feel the need to explain or justify his behaviour.
  Kerillian: [after killing a Chaos Spawn] Save some for Bardin. He'll eat anything.
• Face Death with Dignity:
  • Even before he sees Kruber in the sequel's prologue, as he's in his cage on the way to be sacrificed, he's happily singing to himself.
    Bardin: Wrath and vengeance, grudge and strife! We march into the afterlife!
  • If Bardin is the last of group alive, he'll generally state an intent for vengeance or otherwise declare he is unbowed by this circumstance.
• Failure-to-Save Murder: A self-inflicted version — whispers from Nurgloth in the Blood in Darkness map reveals that Bardin is secretly very ashamed he failed to raise the alarm before a horde of skaven slaughtered the Dwarfs in Zilfin Deeps. He was the only sentry that survived prior to their attack, but was prevented from warning Zilfin Deeps because a gutter runner wounded him. The attack also killed Bardin's son, Mordin.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Gorek was a traditionalist and wanted his son to become a soldier, but Bardin was fond of his eccentric engineer uncle. Bardin apprenticed in the Engineers Guild, but his father forced him to pursue the path of an Ironbreaker.
• Friendly Sniper: Especially in the sequel, where he starts out as a ranged specialist with three weapons, two of which are most effective at sniping.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Similar to the Foot Knight's Charge ability, Leaping into a mob as a Slayer allows Bardin to scatter them like a bunch of bowling pins.
• Follow in My Footsteps: According to the backstory of the Outcast Engineer, Bardin's father wanted him to pursue a future in being a warrior, which was unfortunately at odds with Bardin taking more after his engineer uncle. His father wasn't happy when Bardin decided to take an apprenticeship in the Engineering Guild.
• Foreign Cuss Word: In amongst the more conventional bits of Khazalid that he uses, there are more than a few expletives.
  Bardin: Krut! A gas rat!
• Foreshadowing: Bardin's atypical pleasantness and willingness to speak Khazalid amongst non-Dawi compared to other Dwarfs. As II revealed, he likely doesn't have any reservations against these things because he wasn't really planning to ever return to his people anyway.
• Gathering Steam: Quite literally in the case of an Outcast Engineer Bardin and his Crank Gun. Since the Crank Gun uses ultimate charge as ammo, and Bardin can't passively generate his meter with this class setup, he will need to manually work the steam tank by holding reload with his gatling gun equipped. Even then, he won't be able to charge an entire meter in one go, as Pressure charges cap out at five, and if the player attempt to crank it any further beyond this point, Bardin will simply get burned by the vented steam and no additional meter will be gained. Achieving a full meter takes a lot of well-timed cranking and leaving the gun alone, but if the bar is maxed out, Bardin can make minced meat out of a sizable Zerg Rush if he's allowed to let loose.
• Gatling Good: His skill as an Outcast Engineer has him pull out a crank gun that uniquely uses the charge of his skill gauge as "ammo". It starts out firing slowly, but as it spins up, it'll fire faster and faster. He can crank the gun to start building skill again, effectively providing a renewable ammo supply. The gun can shred through hordes and make mincemeat of unarmoured enemies. It isn't great against armoured foes, however.
• Glass Cannon:
  • As a Slayer, Bardin trades high survivability for sheer damage output. This means that while he can mop up crowds of trash enemies with ease, he won't be able to stand up to them as well as an Ironbreaker could if he makes mistakes, not does he have Ranger Veteran's Smoke Out to fall back on should the going gets tough. While Slayer does have high pain tolerance in the form of Damage Reduction and stagger resisting talents, the career's position as a frontline DPS without a (conventional) ranged weapon means an unskilled Slayer will melt almost instantly to a horde that they had just rushed into.
  • The Outcast Engineer can dish out some truly frightening damage, but can't take it to save its life. The Crank Gun can be used to demolish hordes and absolutely melt bosses (assuming they aren't armoured of course). But it only takes a few good hits from even weak enemies to give Bardin a one-way ticket to the ground.
• Good Counterpart: Depending on his class and choice of weapons, Bardin can serve as the player counterpart to some types of Special enemies, such as an Ironbreaker carrying a Drakegun (Warpfire Thrower), an Outcast Engineer using the Crank Gun (Ratling Gunner), or a Slayer equipped with dual axes (Berserker and Plague Monk).
• Grenade Spam: As an Outcast Engineer, Bardin's Utility Belt perk allows him to carry up to three bombs on him, giving you the ability to stash explosives in your inventory to spam out at a moment's notice. Alternatively, one can use this perk as an impromptu bomb reserve for the whole group, allowing the entire party to engage in Grenade Spamming if they so choose.
• Guns Akimbo: Known to pack a pair of dwarven flame pistols on occasion, using them in alternating shots.
• Hand Cannon: He gains the Masterwork Pistol with the release of his Outcast Engineer class. It's a very powerful weapon, capable of one-shotting many different enemy types with a single headshot, and can punch right through body armor, letting him drop tougher Elites like Stormvermins and Ratling Gunners in a snap, although it can't be fired without charging, and Chaos Warriors still No-Sell any bullet fired at their torsos. Its alternate fire mode is a downplayed instance of More Dakka, where Bardin will fire it in (slow) full-auto, letting him shred through enemies who are about to give him the business. Really, the only downsides to this weapon are that its shot spread is absolutely massive, and even when charged, is subjected to a very steep damage falloff, so unless you're firing at something that's within spitting distance to you, you might as well not bother.
• Heavy Equipment Class: Bardin carries a good bit of heavy weapons and armor, with his choice of melee weapons being weighty great hammers, great axes, the monstrously powerful but slow war pick, a Drakegun, a Trollhammer Torpedo launcher, a steam powered gatling gun, and the option to wear a full set of heavy gromril armor as an Ironbreaker.
• I Shall Taunt You: The Ironbreaker's special skill is to become temporarily invulnerable while letting off a series of insults.
  "Not enough, either in numbers or effort! More!"
  "Still here! Just take a swing!"
  "You stink stronger than you strike!"
• Incoming Ham: As a Slayer, Bardin's career skill key is his Ham button.
  "BY THE ANCESTORS!"
• Item Caddy: As a Ranger Veteran, Bardin innately has a small chance not to consume items upon use, and can build on that with talents to get a guranteed free bomb use every time he uses Disengage or to cause more consumables to spawn in place of ammunition when he kills a special enemy.
• Item-Drop Mechanic: The Ranger Veteran career has a passive effect which does this — special enemies killed with drop some ammunition. Talents can also add to this and cause them to dropping a bomb every one in four, or a potion for every one in three. With the Drunken Brawler talent equipped, slain Specials have a 50% chance to drop a bottle of ale that grants increased attack speed and Damage Reduction for five minutes when consumed, and everybody in the group can drink them if needed.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Bears a stout dwarven shield that allows him to absorb much more damage than his teammates. His short stature is of great benefit here, since it makes him a smaller target and thus able to cover himself more fully than a human or elf could. It's also very useful for tanking a Ratling Gunner's attack, as the bullets don't lower the guard break meter very quickly.
  • The Ironbreaker. Not only do you start with two extra stamina, but you can increase that further as you level up and with the right equipment, easily racking up ten shield icons worth of stamina on a weapon with a shield. Plus, the Ironbreaker's skill gives you infinite stamina for its entire duration.
  • Kruber notes in the sequel that Bardin is extremely talented with his shield, and suspects that he has some history in the dwarven military that he's not telling them about. Bardin's response more or less confirms it (as does the website's blurb for the Ironbreaker class), but also makes it clear he doesn't want to talk about it.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Bardin tends to be this among the group.
  • His Slayer career used to play this straight, being the only class in the game to be solely melee aside from the occasional bomb toss, making him an absolute grinder on the frontline, but very vulnerable at range. This has since been supplanted by Kruber's Grail Knight career, and Slayer Bardin himself also gained a viable ranged weapon in the form of the Throwing Axe, thus somewhat downplaying this trope.
  • An Outcast Engineer Bardin's bread-and-butter is his Steam-Assisted Crank Gun Mk. II, which runs on unlimited ammunition and can be used at any time, even if his ultimate bar is not full (although it does require some charge to fire). The catch is that, each shot of the Crank Gun takes a chunk out of his ultimate meter, which doesn't passively regenerate without the player manually cranking it to generate Pressure or chugging Concentration potions to gain charge. Unless you're paying attention and cranking it every now and then to keep your ultimate charge coming, the Crank Gun might as well be useless as it won't have "ammo" to shoot with.
• Mighty Glacier: The Ironbreaker class turns him into a class that can't dish out damage very well, but can soak it up like nothing else. Not only does his active ability turn his block stamina infinite and allow him to Draw Aggro, his passive lets him No-Sell any unblocked attack when charged, no matter how strong.
• Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Even as a Death Seeker Slayer, Bardin seems to regard the hordes of Chaos as not worthy enough to be his glorious end, as evident by his low health quotes.
  "Not yet...not yet!"
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: The Outcast Engineer update brought with it a new melee weapon for Bardin — the Coghammer; a two-handed hammer with an axe blade on the other end. Normal attacks have him batter enemies aside with the hammer side, but charged attacks have him flip the hammer around to use the axe blade in a heavy downwards strike, perfect for Chaos Warriors and Stormvermin.
• Muggles Do It Better: Kerillian and Kruber's DLC classes sport hefty magic powers, as will presumably Sienna's. The Outcast Engineer keeps up by inventing and toting a steampunk proto gatling gun, and is no less effective for it.
• My Grandma Can Do Better Than You: He can say a line to this effect in II as he uses his Ironbreaker ability to shrug off blows.
  "I've a grandmother hits harder than that!"
• My Greatest Failure: The Blood in Darkness map implies that the reason Bardin is a wandering Ranger is because of his failure to alert Zilfin Deeps from a Skaven attack (due to being severely injured by a Gutter Runner sent to facilitate the attack against its sentries) that ended up killing his son, Mordin. It's the unspoken reason that he'd consider taking the Slayer oath.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Once lets slip he sometimes thinks Dwarfs should begin setting aside grudges that are no longer feasible to avenge so they can be more unified against Chaos. His own kin, and even the Dwarven gods, have killed Dwarfs in the past for thinking this. But if there is ever a Godzilla Threshold that would justify it, then The End Times are it.
• Mysterious Past: Double Subverted. Bardin has a very straightforward reason for being in human lands in the first game: he's following a treasure map to Karak Zorn. Yet dialogue throughout the Vermintide's DLCs and Vermintide II imply that the search for Karak Zorn is just an excuse not to go home, and it's not clear why. The website itself describes Bardin as having been an elite Ironbreaker before for the blurb of the Ironbreaker classes — which is a far cry from the Ranger which he became.
• Never Accepted in His Hometown: Implied. The Lorebook mentions that Bardin was unpopular back in Karak Norn, described as "overly chatty". Plus, he was a Dwarf Ranger, which is the ultimate thankless job in Dwarfen society. Dialogue in the sequel has Kerillian inferring that Bardin's search for Karak Zorn is a front because he can't or simply won't go home. He doesn't exactly deny it, he just begins to get angry for her stating it aloud.
• Never Gets Drunk: A conversation with Sienna has her imply he's drank so much that his mere breathing seems to be at risk of going alight from her use of her fire magic, but Bardin's still plenty steady. The "A Quiet Drink" map has everyone else saying funny non-sequiturs due to their inebriated states, but not Bardin. We can probably just assume that due to being a Dwarf he'll only start to feel drunk when having drank continuously long after everyone else has already passed out. Another line from the map has Kruber imply a time when Bardin was clearly drunk, but apparently "...he drank the Red Moon's cellar dry."
• The Nicknamer: Bardin only rarely calls any of the other heroes by their actual names, preferring to use Khazalid nicknames or their titles/ranks. Kruber is "Azumgi"^note "Az umgi" is literally "war axe human". Mindful that dwarfs don't use swords, it may be the closest he can get to Kruber's profession of "swordsman", but loading screens describe it as "a man almost worthy of wielding a dwarfen axe", Victor is "Grimgi"^note "harsh man" or "unyielding man", Kerillian is "Wutelgi"^note "wood elf", and Sienna is "Zharrin"^note "fire lady".
• Noodle Incident: A bit like Ellis speaking about his friend Keith, Bardin frequently mentions his cousin Okri in dialogue. Unlike Keith, who was a guy who kept surviving weird incidents, Bardin implies Okri is more simply a straight-up badass who beheaded a giant, made bombs, and all sorts of other awesome feats. When Kruber asks whether Okri really did all these things that Bardin claims, Bardin angrily sputters that a dwarf would never lie to his kin.
  (Kruber delivers the final blow on a Rat Ogre.)
  Bardin: Not bad, Azumgi. Not as good as Cousin Okri, but it's a start.
• Not Helping Your Case: In the Chaos Wastes, he and Kruber have a conversation where Bardin says that he wrote a letter to the Witch Hunter General assuring him that Saltzpyre is definitely not a heretic despite his obsession with the Citadel of Eternity, which is only spoken of in a book written by a heretical scholar whose works are banned.
• No-Sell: With an active stack of Gromril Armour, an Ironbreaker Bardin can completely negate one hit's worth of damage, though this doesn't protect him from lingering Damage Over Time, knockback, being caught by special enemies (though Gromril Armour popping will throw them off with the Gromril Curse talent slotted), or being pushed into instant-kill zones.
• Odd Friendship: While their exchanges are full of verbal jabs, Bardin and Kerillian seem to have a healthy respect for each other's skills, with every addition to the game moving them closer to Vitriolic Best Buds. On the poster for 'A Quiet Drink' they're shown clanking mugs like old friends. He also eventually realizes she's the only one in the group who can see past his constant cheerfulness and has any real sympathy for what he's going through, becoming less guarded with her as a result. There's also a special interaction in 'Against the Grain' where Kruber will reminisce on his farming heritage; if both Kerillian and Bardin are in the party, Kerillian will tease him about it, then Bardin will crack a joke at Kruber's expense that causes Kerillian to crack up laughing.
  Bardin: I've half a mind to travel south after this, see that forest of yours for myself.
  Kerillian: And you'd be welcome.
  Bardin: Truly? That's not what I hear.
  Kerillian: Aye! Blood and bone makes for good root mulch!
• Oh, My Gods!: He typically swears by invoking the treasures or body parts of the Ancestor Gods, such as Valaya's flaxen hair, Valaya's radiant helm, or Grimnir's bones.
• Or My Name Isn't...: One of his intro narrations for The Screaming Bell has Bardin claiming that the titular bell definitely has to be destroyed, or that his last name is not Goreksson...which it definitely is!
• Ornamental Weapon: His Long Drong's Landlubber premium skin gives him a bandolier with two of the Slayer Pirates' flintlock pistols strapped to his chest, though he can't actually use them during gameplay due to the limitations of his Slayer class.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: He is fairly typical for a dwarf of the old world in some ways: gregarious, grudge-bearing, and proudly competent at what he does. Being a ranger, though, Bardin is (like the rest of the party) a bit more open to working with other races, especially the wood elf. At one point, he mentions that maybe it's time for the races to set their grudges aside during the End Times, which is a transgressively progressive sentiment for a dwarf to express.
• Outliving One's Offspring: A Skaven attack on the Zilfin Deeps killed the Dwarfs there, Bardin's son Mordin among them. This weighs on him since he was a sentry that failed to alert them about the attack in time, since a Gutter Runner heavily wounded him while the other sentries were also killed.
• The Pig-Pen: One of the things about Bardin that just about everybody is of the same mind on is that he has very bad hygiene, apparently never bathing despite having a personal bathtub in his chamber. His teammates frequently joke how the enemies can detect them coming by smell, and if Kruber's narration of Hunger in the Dark's intro is to be believed, the only thing that stinks worse than the dwarf is a bile troll. Given he was a constantly-outdoors-and-alone Ranger, he probably got quite used to ignoring the concept of soap.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: He is the smallest combatant in the party, but also one of the toughest and capable of dishing out some of the greatest damage. With the exception of the Slayer's Dual Axes, all of Bardin's weapons are very strong but slow.
• Poirot Speak: He speaks fluent English (or rather, Reikspiel) peppered with the occasional word in the dwarf language Khazalid — especially insults, names for enemy units, and nicknames for his teammates.
• The Pollyanna: Rarely is Bardin ever gloomy — apparently, even making a Death Seeker oath will not stop his jocundity. Sienna even has dialogue in the Keep asking him to give it a rest, finding his endless cheerfulness grating. Very occasionally some insult may anger him, but otherwise he's usually having a jolly time cutting through minions of Chaos with his drengbarazi.
• Powerful Pick: The Karak Azgaraz content brings War Picks as a new weapon choice for Bardin. Slow to attack, but works wonders against armour.
• Practical Taunt: The Ironbreaker career skill forces all nearby man-sized enemies to attack him, grants him Damage Reduction, and lets him block any attack.
• Prematurely Grey-Haired: After the events of Castle Drachenfels in 2, Bardin seems to have been traumatized enough by them that his hair and beard have been bleached out entirely as an Outcast Engineer, making him look much older than he is.
• Professional Gambler: Whilst not truly a professional, Bardin claims to have something of a knack for it in one elevator chatter event between himself and Kerillian. Given his roaming lifestyle, it may well have been a primary source of income.
• Punny Name: A Dwarf who enjoys singing and his name is Bardin.
• Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": Frequently belly-laughs with joy as he carves his way through a knot of Skaven.
• Sad Clown: He's utterly jovial such to the point that Sienna may occasionally complain for him to give it a rest sometime, but something weighs on his conscience so much that it could have inspired him to take the Slayer oath. He was a sentry that failed to warn Zilfin Deeps of a skaven horde about to attack it, though not for trying as a gutter runner wounding him prevented him reaching it in time and the other sentries were already killed. This attack led to a slaughter of the Dwarfs there, including his own son Mordin.
• Seadog Peg Leg: His Slayer Pirate outfit replaces his right leg with a metal stump. Yes, he can still somehow leap with his ability as far despite having one less leg to push off of.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: His Grudgeraker weapon will be as lethal as one would expect in a game which regularly consists of Cannon Fodder attempting to run up and swarm you, but its Achilles' Heel is being terrible against bosses and Packmasters.
• Smoke Out: The Veteran Ranger's skill. Bardin becomes undetectable to enemies and deals more damage with his ranged weapons until he either waits for the effect to end or steps out of the smoke cloud.
• Stone Wall: His Ironbreaker career begins with Damage Reduction, extra Stamina, a career skill that draws aggro and enhances both of the above, a No-Sell power, access to shields for extra defense, and high Hit Points. Many of its Talents boost his defenses even further.
• The Storyteller: Loves tall tales as much as songs. When he asks about Saltzpyre's past and gets a curt response, Bardin offers to help him improve his storytelling technique.
• Summon to Hand: The "Winds of Magic" DLC gives him a set of Throwing Axes for his Ranger and Slayer classes, all engraved with a rune that causes them to return to his hand after being thrown (or he can just yank them out of whatever they hit). They pierce armor, and holding down the aim button makes them more accurate and stronger, causing them to cleave through multiple foes until they run out of momentum. Since he can reuse them indefinitely, the only drawbacks are that there's only three of them and it takes some time before all three return to him.
• Survivor's Guilt: Despite getting horribly wounded by a Gutter Runner and highly fortunate just to be alive at all, given all of the other sentries were slain to a dwarf and Zilfin Deeps was thoroughly annihilated, Bardin feels very guilty for the massacre at Zilfin Deeps out of the belief that he could have prevented it all if he was just a bit faster to have avoided the Gutter Runner's attack against him which would have left him fully able to sound the alarm.
• Tranquil Fury: His reaction to Kerillian prodding him about his search for Karak Zorn. Considering how jolly he is usually, this is enough to get her to change her tune.
  Kerillian: I don't think you're seeking anything at all, Bardin. I think you're avoiding going home. And if I'm right...
  Bardin: Choose your next words carefully...
  Kerillian: ...then you have my sympathy. That is all.
• Treasure Map: Found an old one on the long-dead corpses of several dwarfs killed by skaven some years back. It is ancient, and deciphering it has been his quest. He came to Ubersreik based on rumors of an antiquarian there who could help him interpret it.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: The Outcast Engineer class gives him far more versatility when it comes to bombs. Not only can he carry up to three bombs at once with this class instead of just one, but he can choose a talent that causes every bomb he throws to have the effects of both a normal and an incendiary bomb at the same time.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Winds of Magic gives him access to throwing axes, usable in both his Ranger and Slayer careers.
• Token Good Teammate: While all of the 5 are heroic, Bardin's the only one without serious skeletons in his closet.^note Saltzpyre, Kerillian, and Sienna all killed innocents in misguided attempts to be heroes, and even Kruber casually references having raided and pillaged as a mercenary (e.g. in Parravon). He's atoning for failure rather than malice.
• Universal Ammunition: Bardin with the Ranger Veteran career causes dead special enemies to drop ammo that works for everything from crossbows to pistols or Trollhammer torpedoes. Scroungers everywhere would be impressed.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: As the classical Slayer look portrays, Bardin as a Slayer goes into battle shirtless and tattooed.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Due to lacking a ranged weapon of any sort by default, Bardin's Slayer career is almost helpless against Warpfire Throwers and Ratling Guns whenever his leap ability is on cooldown, unless he has a handy grenade. The other specials that incapacitate players will also give him considerable grief without some good dodging on the player's part. This is mitigated with the Throwing Axes released in the Winds of Magic DLC, but it requires the player to have said DLC, and even then you only get three of those axes to toss without needing to summon them back.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: Collectively refers to his comrades as Dawri. In everyday use, something that is "dawr" is something that is not necessarily ideal, but is as good as you're going to get under the circumstances. This is considered a polite form of addressing non-Dwarfs by Dwarf standards. Alternatively, he may address the group as Drengbarazi, which roughly translates as "Brothers in Arms" and lacks racial connotations. He also still uses the term "Umgak" freely, which is generally translatable as "crap/crappy", but literally means "human-made". Then again, he certainly doesn't seem to want to associate with other Dwarfs anymore...
• You Can't Go Home Again: In II, Kerillian states she thinks Bardin isn't actually trying to find Karak Zorn, he just refuses to turn home for whatever reason.
• You Fight Like a Cow: Bardin's other hobby apart from drinking ale and battling the forces of Chaos is to belittle and make fun of anyone fighting him. His action skill as an Ironbreaker is to sling one of these insults at enemies, which gets all their attention and lets him tank whole groups by himself.
  Bardin: You hit like gobbos, the lot of you!

Kerillian

Vermintide I: Waywatcher

Vermintide II: Waystalker, Handmaiden, Shade, Sister of the Thorn

Almost precise enough for an elf. A drunk, blind elf.

Voiced by: Alix Wilton Regan

Enigmatic and sharp sighted, Kerillian is a Waywatcher who walks the lands of men, after having left her post as a guardian of the Wood Elves' ancient home of Athel Loren. She keeps the reasons why to herself. Using her exceptional skills with a bow and blade to take down anyone perceived as a threat, she is as likely to kill you as she is to begrudgingly acknowledge your presence. Kerillian regards the human race as nothing more than clueless children, and treats them accordingly, most often drenching her answers to their naive questions in patronizing sarcasm. Unfortunately for her, Wood Elves are rare in human lands, and even if many recoil in fear, she is regarded as a curiosity and approached more frequently than she would prefer by foolish humans attempting to interact.

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• Abnormal Ammo: Her basic bows loose regular arrows, but as for her high-tier ones:
  • The Trueflight Longbow uses arrows that possess a rudimentary sentience, giving them self-guidance and a tendency to target enemy weakpoints. In the sequel her Trueflight arrows are no longer tied to a dedicated weapon, but are an active ability of the Waystalker class. She can loose them improbably fast (up to eight in under a second), allowing her to potentially wipe out an entire Stormvermin patrol in one volley.
  • The Hagbane Shortbow uses arrowheads tipped with magic poison harvested from Chaos-tainted trees. Said poison is supernaturally lethal, quickly and painfully killing any target should the arrow so much as break their skin (at least, in lore).
  • The Moonfire Bow generates magical projectiles on the spot that explode on contact with the enemy with the force of a small grenade. Said explosion also releases blue flames that set enemies alight. It never runs out of magical arrows.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Her Elven-forged bladed weapons maintain such a keen edge that even her daggers slice cleanly through Skaven limbs, and are so light that she can swing them with minimal windup and follow-through.
• Action Girl: Obviously, given she was a Waywatcher which are seasoned elven archers that subsist in lonely corners of Athel Loren which are terribly dangerous to visitors even if going there somehow didn't get one ambushed and killed by Waywatchers in the first place.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: "A Quiet Drink" event has Kerillian suggest a few strange things aloud at times. Like thinking fire only wants to give everyone a warm hug, or thinking their dead enemies look so much smaller while they're dead ("Like little dolls."), inspiring a want to stuff them as a souvenir.
• Arcane Archer: Most of her bows use magic payloads, and she can still use a bow even while utilizing inherent magical powers as a Sister of the Thorn.
• Automatic Crossbow: If Kerillian picks the Shade subclass in Vermintide II, she has the option of wielding a Druchii Uraithen, the infamous "Death Rain" repeater crossbow of the villainous Dark Elves.
• Backhanded Compliment: A lot of her praise of her companions falls into this. Interestingly, she also dishes out backhanded insults, statements which by tone and phrasing seem derogatory, but are in fact complimentary when the true meaning is considered. For example, at the opening of "War Camp", she declares: "With a score of my kin at my side, that Champion would already be dead. With you lot? A bit more effort." Initially it seems like she's simply posturing on elven superiority again, but when you think about it, what she's actually saying is that her 3 "mayfly" teammates are only slightly inferior to 20 Wood Elf veterans all focusing on the same target, which is pretty high praise. She has another line in one of her introductions for Blood in the Darkness along similar lines:
  Kerillian: We're off again to help those who cannot help themselves. I suppose that makes us heroes. Or fools. It's so hard to tell the difference when I look at the company I keep.
• Back Stab: The Shade class has her deal additional damage upon hitting someone in the back with a charged attack. Even more so if she's using her ability at the time. This doesn't make much difference when fighting hordes, but it turns Kerillian into a boss-killing assassin.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: While hanging out in the Keep, Markus expresses this about Kerillian's singing voice.
  Markus: Heard something strange last night.
  Bardin: That bottle of brandy probably didn't help.
  Markus: No, I'm serious. I heard singing. Beautiful, it was. But wistful and... sad.
  Bardin: Don't tell me the keep's haunted.
  Markus: Maybe, but this wasn't no ghost. It was our elf.
  Bardin: Kerillian? Never heard her sing. She saves her voice for insults.
  Markus: It was definitely her.
• Body-Count Competition: Subverted. Kerillian counts her kills, but doesn't want to compete. Bardin seems eager to compete, but doesn't keep count.^note As stated by the Nameless Voice, she counts her kills because she feels she has to get justice for the humans she indirectly doomed ("Count your kills all you like. Repay Ubersreik's slaughter a dozenfold, a hundred. It will change nothing.").
  Kerillian: Ennai-noi. One step closer.
  Victor: What was that?
  Sienna: Sounded like counting to me.
  Bardin: You're competing with us, Wutelgi? You should have said.
  Kerillian: There is no competition. Just the count.
  • By 2 it's implied that she's taken up Bardin on his offer, as when Kruber gets a good kill streak she playfully tells him that "if you keep killing like this, I'm going to lose my bet."
    Kruber: Bet? What bet?
    Bardin: (quickly) Uh, don't you listen to her, Azumgi. You know how she gabbles on.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • The Longbow. While it lacks the crowd-control capabilities of the hagbane short bow, the fire rate of the swiftbow, or the close-range burst damage of the volley crossbow, what it does is doing incredibly high damage that can potentially one-shot most enemies smaller than a Chaos Warrior if your aim is really true. A Kerillian player skilled with the longbow can pick off a group of specials at frightening speed, especially as a Waystalker.
  • For a Sister of the Thorn, the level 35 talents modify how you use your Thornwall for (supposedly) many different purposes. Ironbark Thicket increases the wall's duration by 4 seconds, allowing it to remain standing a bit longer and blocking more damage. Blackvenom Thicket debuffs enemies when it expires, causing them to take considerably more damage for a few seconds. Bloodrazor Thicket...just does more damage. A lot more damage, which turns it from a defensive tool to a massive nuke spike that can be spammed relentlessly with a potion of Concentration, making short work of even monsters and Lords with its insane burst power and bleed procs.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: Seamlessly switches between shooting and slicing, and is equally skilled at both.
• Brave Scot: While Scotland obviously doesn't exist in this world, she has a Scottish accent and uses Scottish slang (scunner, glaikit, etc.), a notable departure from how Wood Elves usually speak in Warhammer. It could be a Tirsyth accent.
• Broken Pedestal: Towards Lileath. Whatever transpired in the Night of Masks and the expedition to the Citadel of Eternity had caused Kerillian's faith in the Moon Goddess to waver. To fill the void that was left in its wake, Kerillian decided to seek patronage of other deities, a mix of both the benevolent Cadai and malevolent Cytharai, the blessings (and curses) of both that she now wields in unison as a Sister of the Thorn. She still worships Lileath, of course, but with much less fervor and a lack of the single-minded devotion she once displayed.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • During Convocation of Decay she might mention dreaming about Shallya being trapped in a gilded cage near a cauldron, which is a plot point in one of the End Times novels. Saltzpyre tells everyone to ignore her.
  • After Kruber becomes a Grail Knight, she has several dialogue exchanges with him in the Keep where she either heavily implies or outright says that the Lady of the Lake who granted him his superhuman powers is probably the same elven god that she worships (which was a major reveal in the End Times arc). Kruber repeatedly tries to tune her out and eventually resorts to saying "Lalala, can't hear you!", after which she drops it. In this case, it isn't clear whether he doesn't believe her or does and simply doesn't want to acknowledge it in public.
  • She actually saw Constant Drachenfels once but still can't get Victor to accept he did exist.
• Characterization Marches On: In the first game, while she is snarky, she's fairly low-key and somber overall, with her entry in the lore book even noting her melancholic personality. In 2 she's nearly as energetic and jokey as Bardin, presumably because she's more comfortable around her companions.
• Commonality Connection: For the many things that she has to poke and prod her companions over, she also has at least one thing about them she does appreciate.
  • In Bardin, she sympathizes with him in that he cannot return to his kin until he has found Karak Zorn, as well as being a non-human in the Reikland.
  • With Sienna, she appreciates the pyromancer's connection with the Weave, and respects her magical abilities as a gift. In the Lohner's Chronicles posts leading up to her Sister of the Thorn class, it seems she discussed becoming a magic-user herself with Sienna extensively beforehand.
  • In Markus, she greatly approves of his closeness with nature, and has expressed that among humans, he is a standout for his character (or, in her words at one point, the "least annoying mayfly she hasn't killed yet"). She also respects his abilities as military leader (especially his willingness to "frag" bad officers) and says his Farm Boy upbringing brings him closer to the Weave. Some of these may just be excuses to the fact she finds Kruber's simple-mindedness endearing, however.
  • In Victor, it takes a lot of drinking to bring it out, but she relents that even they have something in common — that she doesn't think either of them are well-liked by their peers. Moreover they have a lot in common personality-wise, which she hates.
• Cultural Posturing: She is almost incapable of saying anything to her comrades that does not make mention of her innate superiority to them, even when she is complimenting them.
• Damage-Increasing Debuff: As a Sister of the Thorn, she uses implicitly magical Blackvenom, having it automatically applied to all her melee weapons. Blackvenom deals very little damage on its own, but causes anyone infected with it to take 12-24% extra damage as long as it's active.
• Dark Secret: Kerillian heard a prophecy which said that Ubersreik would play a role in the destruction of Athel Loren. Incorrectly assuming that meant the city would attack the forest and arrogantly believing she could avert the prophecy alone, she ambushed a contingent of Imperial soldiers moving to Ubersreik. Without this vital reinforcement, Ubersreik quickly fell to the Skaven of Clan Fester, who used the city as a staging area to attack Athel Loren. Kerillian dreads the idea of the others finding out this secret (particularly Kruber, as his family perished in Ubersreik as an indirect result of her actions) and she also has felt tempted to murder her partners to protect her secret. Kerillian feels that she is cursed and that it wouldn't take much convincing to be turned over to evil.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Kerillian was generally incapable of not talking down to any of her teammates or any of the other "lumberfoots" around her in the first game, but by the second, she's occasionally willing to call the Ubersreik Five her friends. Kruber and Bardin even joke and Lampshade this.
• Devious Daggers: As a Shade, she focuses on Back Stabs and stealth attacks, and her career skill gives the greatest damage multiplier when performed with a pair of daggers.
• Doesn't Like Guns: She finds black powder weaponry distasteful, being too noisy, too smelly, and too crude, the province of those who lack ability with bows and magic. Still, she will grudgingly use bombs if she finds them, mumbling about "needs must" as she does.
  Kerillian: It's small, filthy, and noisy — just like a dwarf!
• Dreadlock Warrior: As a Sister of the Thorns, most of Kerillian's headgear choices have her hair be tied into white dreadlocks.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: She occasionally mentions she's had dreams about what the party is currently doing, despite just arriving. In the second game when the End Times are oncoming, the dreams have apparently turned to nightmares of things to come.
• Dual Wielding: Favors a swift pair of elven daggers (as seen in the Vermintide 1 intro) or short swords, though sometimes she wields a long sword instead. While Dual Wielding became a lot more common about the Ubersreik Five's repertoire after the second game's DLC added more, Kerillian remains the character with the most weapon sets that dual-wield with her three.
• Elves vs. Dwarves: Subverted. She's not much nicer to Bardin than she is to anyone else, but her jabs have a more joking tone and her compliments are a little less back-handed. As if to stress the subversion further, Kerillian and Bardin actually make a pretty good combination: he is an exceptional tank, which allows him to keep crowds of enemies away from her, and she can shoot over his head without having her aim blocked since he's pretty short.
  Kerillian: You start slow, dwarf. Like an avalanche.
• The Exile: When pressed about why she doesn't return to Athel Loren, she admits that she wants to go home, but she can't. She did something there, it involved a problem with The Weave, and she cannot return until it is fixed. Franz Lohner manages to eventually pry the story of how she came to be exiled out of her, though he's uncertain if she's pulling his leg.^note A certain elf in Athel Loren was secretly a worshipper of Hekarti, and along with a few disciples tried to call upon her for power with the sacrifice of a few forest spirits. Kerillian had been shadowing the group, and when it was clear what they were trying to do, she put a stop to it... lethally. Unfortunately, that elf had friends in high places who accused her of murder, and as there were no witnesses left alive (who were willing to admit to being there at least) to corroborate her side of the story, she was sentenced to exile.
• The Faceless: No matter where she is, she wears a veil over her mouth and nose, a hood over her head, and combs her bangs over one eye. Her other headgear options are full masks that only show her eyes. Interestingly, she does have an unmasked head◊ in 2, fully textured albeit never used, which can be seen when ripping her model from the game files, or on occasion when her headwear fails to render, revealing a bald head since her hair is actually part of her hood.
• Fantastic Slurs: Tends to refer to humans and possibly dwarfs as 'lumberfoots', or 'mayflies'. If she is a Sister of the Thorn, she'll also refer to them as "meat".
• Forest Ranger: Waywatchers by definition, acting as sentinels over the territory of Athel Loren. Her version of the Chamber of Gnignol is an Elven forest, presumably the one she was from.
• Fragile Speedster: Her attack speed is greater than that of her companions, even her two-handed melee weapons are faster than similar weapons that the rest of the party wields. Also, most of her weapons let her move almost at full speed while blocking or charging an attack, and so can move in and out of range of enemies without sacrificing her blocking ability. However, she has few great blocking weapons, so she can't block many hits or push enemies away very effectively.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Her Fantastic Racism and constant insult-dropping don't go unnoticed by the rest of the party. Markus and Sienna are the only ones who regularly call her something other than "elf" and if she dies in a mission other party members typically respond with indifference or even the odd insult. It's also implied that nobody really tries to associate with her outside of combat except for Sienna and possibly Markus. "A Quiet Drink" even has her admit it by bringing up that she has this in common with Saltzpyre (Saltzpyre is sure "Valiant Kruber!" respects him, Kerillian insists that Kruber's lying).
  • This even extends to the fanbase; she's such an asshole in the game that an April Fools DLC to shut her up actually gained traction, with many fans wishing it was real. Some players refuse to play with a Kerillian player at all and will kick the elf out of public games.
  • She has a very interesting dynamic with the rest of the group: their dialogue in 1 shows how little they trust her, due to her being a mysterious outsider who doesn't get along with anyone, and because of preconceived prejudice against elvenkind in general, before beginning to warm up to her more in 2. In contrast, Kerillian seems more polite and patient with their antics in 1 than she is in the sequel, where she seems to have gone full Jerkass for no reason. As time has gone on though, she's gotten more lines that suggest she's fully aware of her behavior and might be doing this on purpose; why she'd do that is anyone's guess.
  • This gets downplayed as time goes on in 2's expansions and in the Lohner's Chronicles blog. By the current timeline she's regularly hanging out with the rest of the gang outside of work, such as going pub crawling with them in "A Quiet Drink", going hunting with Kruber in "Wolves of Winter", and joining the others around the campfire to share an elven myth via song in "The King and Queen i’ the Woods." By the Chaos Wastes DLC she openly refers to them as her friends, albeit in her usual snarky way (admonishing her own stupidity for coming to Chaos Wastes, because "what is friendship weighed against one's soul?").
  • Interestingly, she was this even among the Asrai. Waywatchers are notoriously antisocial as a rule, and it's hinted that Kerillian was especially so. The Nameless Voice reveals that she never got along with her fellow elves, preferring the company of dryads (who themselves generally hate elves only slightly less than every other race), and that she was censured by them prior to her exile for an unknown reason. She regarded them with disdain in turn, believing them jealous of her skills; her bio in WFRP also says that her tendency to stalk fellow elves for fun was a source of constant irritation and embarrassment for them, and that they'd often send her on long missions away to the lands of the humans so they didn't have to see her, which suited her as well as it did them. Her relationships with Bardin, Kruber, and Sienna might actually be the closest and friendliest ones she has.
• Garden Garment: She has strips of tree bark and vines that perfectly contour to her bracers and boots. Knowing the Wood Elves, they could well have been custom-grown to fit her. Being a Waywatcher, they are likely less for armour and more for camouflage.
• Glass Cannon: In either game, Kerillian specializes in dealing very high damage at the cost of her own fragility, but especially in II. A Waystalker Kerillian can very quickly neutralize a group of elite enemies with one Trueflight Volley, while a Shade specializes in bursting down single beefy targets, like monsters or Chaos Warriors. Both classes also fall very quickly when something actually lands a hit on them. Even her most sturdy career, the Handmaiden, still relies on a lot of dodging and/or blocking to tank rather than actually eating raw damage and survive like her other teammates can.
• Got Me Doing It: A conversation in the Chaos Wastes has Kerillian and Bardin both singing "Over the Mountain" which ends with her complaining "Ach, you got me doing it now!"
• Green Thumb: In her Sister of the Thorn class, Kerillian is blessed with the manipulation of Ghyran, the green Wind of Magic. Wielding a Magic Staff as a channeling focus, she can conjure thorns from thin air and send them at high speed into enemies. Alternatively, she can induce a tall bramble of thorns to spontaneously shoot up in growth from the ground, lacerating any standing above that patch of ground and blocking passage through it, until the magic is spent and the bramble quickly browns and withers to dust. She also uses it to enhance her durability (the Sister has the same health as the Handmaiden despite wearing no armor), possibly explaining the odd texture she has on her upper arms and nowhere else.^note In the RPG, there's a Ghyran spell called Barkskin (which is also the name of a boon in the Chaos Wastes in Vermintide 2), which makes the "skin of the target become hard and gnarled, as the bark of a tree; this acts as natural armour." Presumably she always has the spell active in combat. Her showing up in her usual Waystalker appearance in the Warrior Priest trailer, chronologically after she'd become a Sister of the Thorn, shows she can turn it off.
• Healing Factor: Downplayed; as a Waywatcher she gains Regenerating Health while below 50% HP.
• Hearing Voices: If she speaks with necromancer Sienna as a Sister of the Thorns, she might admit that she hears the goddesses making very unpleasant demands of her.
• Heel–Faith Turn: Potentially, in the timeline where Kerillian chose to take up the dagger as a Shade, as all three of her career choices in II converge in her awakening as a Sister of the Thorn after the expedition to the Citadel of Eternity.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Many of her lines hint at this. If Lohner's theory is correct, the reason she was dissatisfied by what she heard at the Citadel of Eternity is entirely because she expected to get rejected or ignored by her god, so that's what happened.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Most of her melee weaponry consists of blades on short hafts, like daggers, shortswords, and longswords, often Dual Wielding more than one at once.
• Hidden Depths: Despite her abrasive nature, Kerillian's singing is apparently rather enchanting, if Kruber is to be believed.
• Homing Projectile: One of her bows is enchanted to have its arrows seek its targets. Its quiver may be small, and its draw time long, but it can pierce a moving target on the fly and potentially even score a One-Hit Polykill as it over-penetrates and seeks a new target. In Vermintide II, the homing arrows are no longer tied to a piece of equipment, rather they are an active ability for her Waystalker subclass she can activate on a cooldown and fire three at once.
• Hot-Blooded: She is as much a Stealth Expert as any other Waywatcher, but rather than quietly observe and report like most of her fellows, her impatience leads her to prefer more... direct approaches.
• Hypocrite: One of her lines when calling out a Gutter Runner is yelling at it for not facing her "blade to blade", when she's heavily reliant on ranged weapons and sneak attacks, and the Wood Elves in general are the Old World's main practicioners of guerilla warfare.
• It Amused Me: Her encounters with the player party in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay essentially boil down to the elf finding them particularly interesting enough to stalk (and occasionally offer an arrow of assistance when needed). She will still stay out of their way for the most part, though.
• Innocently Insensitive: In the second game she will occasionally try to be genuinely supportive, which works about as well as when Saltzpyre tried it in the first game.
  Kruber: I came through Ussingen years ago, don't really remember much about it..
  Kerillian: And I doubt you'll recognize it now.
  Kruber: That’s a real nice sentiment that, real nice.
  Kerillian: What? I meant it as reassurance.
  Kruber: It’s your tone, hard to read.
• I Have Many Names: Invoked in a group banter with Sienna. As it happens, "Kerillian" probably isn't even her true name, it's just one that she deems suitable enough to let the mayflies call her.
  Sienna: Do you have another name, Kerillian? I've never heard you use it.
  Kerillian: I have many other names, and I shan't share them.
  Sienna: And why not?
  Kerillian: A name is a personal thing. It has powers. I've never understood why mayflies are so free with theirs.
  Sienna: So "Kerillian" isn't your real name?
  Kerillian: Real enough for our current purpose.
• Insistent Terminology: To her annoyance, becoming a Sister of the Thorn has her insist that she has become "part of the forest", not "part-tree" as Bardin refers to as.
• Insufferable Genius: Kerillian has more years of battle and general life experience then the other members of the Ubersreik Five, likely more than all combined. She's a peerless tracker and archer, a deft hand with a sword or knife, and also proficient with many other elven weapons including spears and glaives. She's implied to be the most intelligent (and correspondingly has the highest Intelligence stat of the Five as a Guest-Star Party Member in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay). And she's a complete twat about it. Saltzpyre knows it's the End Times and they need someone like Kerillian, but he still sounds like he's constantly restraining himself from strangling her.
• In Vino Veritas: "A Quiet Drink" sees the entire playing party inebriated, and might see her uncharacteristically complain about how she wants to go home.
• Irony:
  • She constantly browbeats the party for their supposed ignorance and lack of understanding of the world around them, but seems to like Kruber specifically due to his down-to-earth mindset and willingness to admit he's out of his element when it comes to most things that isn't swinging a sword.
  • Becoming a Sister of the Thorn would mean Kerilian is now, quite literally, a Lumberfoot.
• It's What I Do: Invoked. Her reply when Bardin accuses her of spying on him is 'It's what [wood elves] do, so I'm told.'
• Javelin Thrower: As a Sister of the Thorn, Kerillian gains access to Briar Javelins that she can both wield as stabbing weapons and throwing ones. Unlike Bardin's Throwing Axes, these cannot be picked up from where they landed, but only conjured back into her hands.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When she mentioned to Saltzpyre that they're both The Friend Nobody Likes, Saltzpyre insists Kruber likes him and Kerillian openly doubts this. As a Grail Knight, Kruber becomes more comfortable throwing his weight around with Saltzpyre, consistently referring to him as "peasant" (an appellation no other party member gets, since he's an Imperial man) and callously brushing him off when Saltzpyre tries to get closer to him (such as replying "I've already got a better sword than you" to Saltzpyre's Actor Allusion above). Thus partially proving Kerillian's point (other dialogue indicates that he still respects him, though).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Though her level of jerk manages to outshine Saltzpyre at times, Kerillian does have some kindness in her. She gets on well with Sienna and assures her that her magic is a gift and she is not a monster for having it, joins the others in trying to convince Bardin that searching for his precious Dwarven Fortress will probably get him horribly killed, and even tries to comfort Kruber as he laments about his life. Notably, it's one of the few times she acknowledges him by name. She gradually starts to use his name more, and vice versa. Her statement under You Are a Credit to Your Race is... not great, but she explains her attempt at a compliment as stemming from Lohner suggesting she should be nicer. Actually abiding that suggestion is rather surprising from Kerillian alone. Notably, when she shows up in WRFP, she doesn't have the "Prejudice" trait like Victor does.
  Kruber: Have you traveled far, Elf?
  Kerillian: I have walked kingdoms that you have no name for, through realms of dream and nightmare.
  Sienna: She means yes, I think.
  Kruber: I've rarely strayed beyond the Empire. I suppose it's too late now.
  Kerillian: It's never too late to choose a new path, Kruber.
  • In 2, she has some lines admitting that she'll miss the rest of the Ubersreik Five when she inevitably outlives them. She'll only ever admit this when they're not around or when she's extremely drunk.
    Mayflies always fade, but I'll miss them all the same.
    You may stink like rotting pigs. But I'll miss you all when you're dead!
  • Dialogue added in 2 makes it more or less explicit that her insults towards her teammates are meant as banter rather than being genuinely malicious. She'll welcome barbs returned at her and at one point tells Kruber "you really must cultivate some self-esteem" with a good-natured laugh.
• Lightning Bruiser: Kerillian undergoes a radical transformation as a Handmaiden, changing from a squishy archer who primarily picks off tempting targets with her bows into a melee-focused mobility/dodge tank festooned with buffs that increase her survivability massively. Her Dash career skill and Dance of Seasons career perk (+15% dodge distance) combined with the Wraith-Walk talent (can pass through enemies with her dodges) make Kerillian more agile and harder to corner or hit than she ever was as a Waystalker. And with increased HP, possible 90% block cost reduction, an innate +1 stamina shield and +100% faster stamina regeneration, she'll be almost as hard to bring down as an Ironbreaker Bardin. While still doing decent damage in melee and being able to snipe specials opportunistically as before.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Winds of Magic DLC for Vermintide II allows her Handmaiden class to carry a tall elven kite shield along with a spear (a martial style common to all the elven peoples but more common with frontline soldiers than Waywatchers.)
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Comes close to being a meme in Vermintide II, where her low HP voice lines will fire after taking just a few hits, with her actual health being somewhere around 75% or higher; everyone else says those lines when they have 30% or less health. This is also the criticism she faces from her teammates if she squanders her healing items.
• Mortality Phobia: Of all five heroes, Kerillian seems to dread the prospect of dying the most, as apparent through her low-health quotes. Considering how a wood elf soul not sheltered by the mystical powers of Athel Loren could either be consumed by the Chaos God Slaanesh, or doomed to eternal torment in the realm of Ereth Khial, the Pale Queen, an outcast such as she would be rightly terrified of death.
• Multishot: Her Waystalker subclass active ability in Vermintide II allows her to nock three enchanted homing arrows at once and fire them at one target, making her an expert at quickly taking out special enemies before they can threaten the party. Equipping the Loaded Bow talent adds a fourth arrow to the cluster.
• Mysterious Past: Little is known of why she left Athel Loren and came to Ubersreik, though what we do know is that it involved her curiosity and witnessing a ritual she was better off not seeing. The experience left her chilled to magic, and she left Athel Loren for the lands of men soon after.
  • Banter with Sienna reveals she has some sort of curse on her, and that she draws magic to her with every kill.
  • Dialogue with Sienna in II has the latter comment on the fact that she never told them her surname. She replies that she has many aliases and that humans are too liberal with their information, leading Sienna to question if Kerillian is even her real name. The mind-reading Nameless Voice referring to her as Kerillian implies that it is, though any other names she has are still unknown.
• Nature Hero: As can be expected from a Wood Elf, Kerillian has a deep connection to nature around her and frequently talks like she can hear it. Indeed, she frequently expresses a lot more interest in it than the many "mayflies" around her or uses their inability to understand the same as another reason to insult them.
• Nemean Skinning: Purchasing the Phoenix King's Bodyguard cosmetic pack lets her don the uniform of the legendary Chracian White Lions, which comes complementary with a cape made of the pelt of the organisation's namesake.
• Never Bareheaded: None of her cosmetic headgear ever reveals her face. She almost always wears a veil if just her face would show through, and even if the headgear is otherwise extremely minimal (like a decorative circlet) she wears a thin balaclava underneath it so only her eyes are exposed. However, the icon for Okri's Challenge for completing all of the Back to Ubersreik missions as her depicts her with her Shade hood on but without the veil; one premium hat in Vermintide 2 for the Waystalker class is her wearing only a mask, leaving her head exposed. Somebody has been able to get a view of Kerillian's face from her in-game model.
• The Nicknamer: Like Bardin, she doesn't often call the other heroes by name in the first game. Victor is "One-Eye", Kruber is "Mercenary", Sienna is "Wizard" or "Aqshinar",^note Sienna derives her bright magic from Aqshy and Bardin is "Hold-seeker". As of 2, she mostly refers to Sienna and Kruber by name and will generally call Bardin either by name or simply "dwarf". She even occasionally uses Saltzpyre's name, although she mostly sticks to "One-Eye". She also has more insulting nicknames for the new enemy factions in the second game: the Norscan Rotbloods are "scunners" and the Beastmen are "corruptors."
• Ninja Run: Tends to keep her body bent over low in combat, her muscles almost perpetually tensed and ready to spring in any direction she needs to while minimizing her profile. She only stands up straight when carrying a few weapons like Briar Javelins, revealing she's actually pretty tall, towering over commmon men and standing at about the same height as Kruber.
• Noodle Incident: Party banter in Vermintide 2 has her recount an incident where she took on dozens of enemies at once in Hoggar's Bridge, which turns out to be two Nuln regiments. Saltzpyre is not pleased. It's revealed in the Blood in the Darkness map in 2 that these regiments were headed to reinforce Ubersreik, and by destroying them, she left the city vulnerable to the Skaven attack. Even with her distaste for humanity Kerillian harbors an intense guilt for this when she realizes the ramifcations of what she's done, having put both The Empire and Athel Loren in further danger because of this.
• Not Bad: If Kruber takes the Huntsman specialization in Vermintide 2 — which bears a lot of similarities to her default Waywatcher class (from the fashion, weapons, overall style and attitude) — she will admit that she approves of his new path.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Her pure black eyes set her apart from most elves in Warhammer, being a reference to older designs◊ that had mostly disappeared for more than a decade before Vermintide came out. This caused a recursive effect, as various sources after Vermintide now occasionally depict some elves as having black eyes while the rest still have human-esque ones - such as Elessa◊ in Warhammer Chaosbane or this unnamed Eonir◊ in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4e.
  • She also has Mystical White Hair, something not really seen among Wood Elves. The Asrai tend to have either human-like hair colours or occasionally green hair among spellcasters. Dark Elves are the ones that have white hair (not often, black hair being more common, but it does happen) so this could be seen as Foreshadowing for her family ancestry.
• Not So Above It All: She'll never really outright say it, but a few of her lines strongly imply that she's having damn near as much fun killing rats by the score as Bardin at times.
  • This is further reinforced if she happens to be the one to land the final blow on Rasknitt in the sequel.
    Kerillian: Ohh... by the gods of star and shadow. That was... hahahahahaha... that was satisfying! Aye, I said it, mayflies! I thoroughly enjoyed that! Hah!
  • While she's drunk (like everyone else) in "A Quiet Drink", she'll frequently call herself Queen Kerillian (the First). Just as arrogant as usual, but in a less straight-laced manner. While claiming that is she in fact perfectly...thing. You know, sober.
  • Bardin can crack her up laughing by making a joke at Kruber's expense in "Against the Grain," much to Kruber's annoyance.
  • Ninety percent of her lines when picking up a bomb are disdainful. One or two are not. She might be getting used to them after years of use. She also seems to delight in the explosions whenever the team has to set black powder barrels on fire to complete an objective, and act disappointed when she kills a warpfire thrower and it fails to explode.
    Kerillian: Hello little bomb. We could do great things together.
• Odd Friendship:
  • With Sienna. As an elf, she believes that magic is a gift and that those who have it should be respected for their control, not feared for the possibility of corruption, and further acknowledges that Sienna is more perceptive to subtle shifts in the Winds of Magic than she thought humans were capable of. It's even implied that Sienna knows why she's in Ubersreik. This escalates to Vitriolic Best Buds in the sequel, where Sienna is perfectly happy to throw Kerillian's own insults back at her if she can but is still the friendliest with her on average. And though she is uneasy about Sienna embracing necromancy, she explicitly calls Sienna a "friend" in a conversation discussing the matter. Markus cheerfully makes note of it.
  • She warms up to Markus in between 1 and 2, both of them becoming more likely to call the other by name. While she still is still as snarky as ever, they are much more comfortable with each other. He even seems to pick up more on her sense of humor, and prods her jokingly if she uses healing items preemptively.
  • They may not entirely be friends but she's the most sympathetic ear Bardin has in the group, something he seems increasingly aware of; as more dialogue gets added to the game they're even approaching Vitriolic Best Buds. On the poster for 'A Quiet Drink,' Kerillian and Bardin are shown clanking mugs. Further, Bardin is the only one who can get Kerillian to snap out of her perpetual dourness for any longer than a second or two, and they both endure similar problems being alone among humans. It's especially something considering the history between the Wood Elves and the Dwarfs. Once she decides to become a Sister of the Thorn, Bardin is the only one she's willing to confide in that she's afraid she may have made the wrong choice.
• An Odd Place to Sleep: Examination of her room in the Red Moon Inn reveals that, while the room has a bed, she has removed the mattress and blankets, uses the frame as a low table, and instead lays out her own bed roll on the floor. Presumably a lifetime of patrolling Athel Loren has made her most comfortable sleeping on the ground. Her private "room" in the second game is a crude tent in the courtyard of Taal's Horn Keep, instead of one of the available rooms inside the building.
• Oh, My Gods!: She turns to Lileath in dire times, asking her to watch over the party.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: Unlike the rest of the group she actually hates Saltzpyre, but she'll occasionally offer him a real compliment when he gets a good kill and respects his devotion in the war against Chaos.
  Kruber: So uh, of these Chaos Gods, which do you think is the worst?
  Saltzpyre: I see little point in grading evils. All are abominations. All are to be abhorred.
  Kerillian: That's probably wise, One-Eye.
  (...)
  Kruber: So sir, killed any daemonologists before?
  Saltzpyre: More than my share... but never enough.
  Kerillian: Then be of good cheer. Your tally increases today.
• Overheating: Equip her with a Deepwood Staff as a Sister of the Thorn, and she'll be subject to this if she overuses it, like Sienna. She can also vent overcharge at the cost of her own health. Unlike Sienna, however, she won't explode upon overheating. She simply won't be able to use her staff for a while.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In her brief appearance in WFRP, she happily leaps out of hiding to help the party against a Mutant ambush during the "Death on the Reik" expansion and can later aid them in "The Horned Rat" and "Empire in Ruins", though in each case she'll quickly disappear after, not wanting to make the party's acquaintance.
  • In the first game's console-exclusive prologue, it's revealed that she saved Bardin from the Skaven the second time they met and even gave him on the spot medical attention after killing his captors, even though she could have easily ignored him and she was under the impression that they would be heading in opposite directions afterwards (so she had no pragmatic reason to do so). In the same scene she threatens to kill Bardin if he tells anyone about it.
  • A conversation with Bardin will have her accuse Bardin of not actually looking for Karak Zorn and is simply trying to keep away from his fellow Dwarfs, though she has no idea why. This leaves Bardin sounding like the next thing she says might get him to try and kill her, but she ends the conversation off with an honest appeal that he has her sympathies and that she hopes he really "...finds what he is searching for".
  • She might complain about it, but she's as gung-ho about rescuing the "mayfly" prisoners as the others in missions like "Against the Grain" and "Blood in the Darkness." The same pretty much goes for every mission involving dead or captured civilians (in "Empire in Flames", Saltzpyre even notes that the slaughter appears to deeply affect her, which she denies).
    Champion of Ubersreik skin description: The survivors of Ubersreik still whisper of the shadowy figure who slaughtered Skaven as freely as she insulted the intelligence of those she saved.
    Helmgart Sentinel skin description: Outfit presented in thanks for efforts in Helmgart's defence. Worn with an appropriate amount of grudging acceptance.
  • In "The Blightreaper", she's surprisingly respectful when coming across the corpse of Father Kraussman, considering the dismissiveness with which she usually regards Imperial servants.
    Kerillian: A faithful servant and an untimely end. Seek your reward, priest.
  • The description for her "Naggarond Backstabber" outfit notes that she got it after killing a Dark Elf assassin sent after Lohner, and has taken pains to keep him ignorant to the fact that she saved his life.
    Naggarond Backstabber skin description: This particular ensemble – until recently – belonged to a traveller come seeking Lohner. Kerillian intercepted him before contact could be made, and has since taken pains to keep Lohner ignorant of his almost-brush with death...
  • As a Sister of the Thorn, she jokes to Kruber: "I'd never hurt you; when the moment comes, it'll be painless." In later keep dialogue, he tells her that the crack genuinely hurt his feelings, causing her to sincerely apologize for it. Kruber then notes that this is the first time he's ever heard Kerillian apologize for anything.
  • In the Lohner's Chronicle entry "Gathering Clouds", she readily heads out with Sienna to rescue Catrinne from the Pactsworn, and even carries her back to the keep after slaying her captors. As with her rescue of Lohner and her affectionate conversations with Kruber, Bardin, and Sienna, it's an indication that she deeply cares for her "mayflies", even if she'd be hard pressed to admit it to their faces.
• Reverse Grip: She tends to wield daggers this way, though only in first-person. The blades are always worn pointed end up from a teammate's perspective since her dual-wielded weapons have the same third-person animation.
• Self-Deprecating Humor: If she's not making a joke by insulting someone else she does it by insulting herself, usually by lampshading her own arrogance.
  • When Outcast Engineer Bardin tells Kerillian the story of what really happened with his father and uncle — an accident borne of pride — he finishes by telling her she wouldn't understand why things happened the way they did. Kerillian responds by asking if he really thinks she doesn't understand pride.
  • In the Keep she'll mention to Sienna that elven mages are secretive and arrogant, just like herself.
  • Right before confronting Rasknitt at the Skittergate, she cheerfully says "we'll show [the Skaven] how the most puerile of idiots do it, not once but twice in a day."
  • In "A Quiet Drink" she jokes that she actually does have something in common with Saltzpyre: "no one likes us, for starters." Interestingly, other dialogue shows that she is genuinely liked by her comrades,^note E.g. Bardin calls her "drengbarazi" in "Dark Omens" and confides in her when he won't speak to the others, and Kruber appreciates her company enough that when she temporarily leaves in "Empty Chambers" he becomes depressed and Lohner is seriously concerned he might try to follow her. and ditto for Saltzpyre (to a degree). Interpret that how you will.
• Ship Tease: A mild example with the new Keep banter added in Vermintide 2. Kerillian has apparently been hounding Kruber to leave the service of Saltzpyre for quite a while now. When pressed as to why, however, she gets coy and gives a particularly weak excuse. Kruber himself notes with frustrated confusion that she "seems to care absolutely nothing about the human world, except [his] relationship with Saltzpyre." In-game, one of Kerillian's voice-lines for her getting healed by Kruber is a slightly terse warning to watch where he's putting his hands, a response that no other character gets. She also refers to his "lack of finesse" as "endearing" when he gets a good kill streak, which is a peculiar choice of words. Once she becomes a Sister of the Thorn, she's surprisingly much more open about her affection for him, but in a very cynical and fatalistic way.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Kerillian has a particular loathing for Packmasters, given their profession. This attitude also pops up in "Against the Grain" in regards to the Rotblood's enslavement of the local farmers:
  Sienna: When we arrived, you couldn't wait to abandon the farmers to their fates. What changed?
  Kerillian: I don't like slavers.
  Sienna: But surely there's more to it?
  Kerillian: Is that not reason enough?
• The Snark Knight: She is shameless when it comes to deadpan or sarcastically expressing how everything around her fails to meet her standards, whether the enemy, the architecture, the items she picks up, or her own companions.
• Socially Awkward Hero: She’s comfortable enough with her team by the sequel that her previously gloomy and irritable attitude is mostly gone with them. The problem, however, is that her way of showing admiration to others comes across as incredibly condescending and sarcastic, with many of her jokes and praises being laced with wording that come across as vitriolic at best. At one point while lamenting the destruction and loss of life during Empire in Flames, Kruber bitterly mistakes her wording as mockery and forces her to clarify.
  Markus: I came through Ussingen years ago, don’t really remember much about it.
  Kerillian: And I doubt you’ll recognize it now.
  Markus: Oh, that’s a real nice sentiment that. Real nice.
  Kerillian: What? I meant it as reassurance.
  Markus: It’s your tone, hard to read.
• Spam Attack: Her swift bow is capable of allowing her to generate an almost-Rain of Arrows single-handedly.
• Smug Super: Kerillian's lived and trained for over a hundred years, could do so more if it weren't the End Times, and she never fails to toot her own horn or mock her fellows as "mayflies" (or, if she is a Sister of the Thorn, "meat"). "A Quiet Drink" has humorously manage to act even more arrogant by frequently referring to herself as Queen Kerillian (the First).
• Support Party Member: As a Sister of the Thorn, she brings with her the "heaviest support of all careers in the game". Just by her being there, the party's healing is increased by 25%, and her special ability has her throw down a wall of thorns, impeding enemy movement, stunning them, and either dragging them to one spot or causing them to take more damage from all sources. She can also apply Blackvenom poison to enemies via both her powers and melee weapons, which do the same. The Sister-exclusive Deepwood Staff also lends itself well to support, as one of its abilities will suspend an enemy of her choosing in midair, rendering them completely helpless. This includes Chaos Warriors and Stormvermin, who are effectively turned into armour-clad piñatas for the team to hack away at.
• Technicolor Eyes: She has black eyes, and while they are neither particularly Evil nor Crazy, they do give her an exotic, otherworldly look among the lands of men.
• Took a Level in Kindness: As time has gone on she's gotten more and more lines that suggest she actually cares about the group a great deal and isn't just a smug jackass.
  Kerillian (at the Skittergate) I do believe I'm almost growing... well, not fond of you, but I certainly hate you less.
• Tsundere:
  • There are hints here and there that she does genuinely care about the rest of the party. It's most obvious with Sienna, but even for all of her barbs, she may still let slip that she holds the others in higher regard than she lets on. Not that she'll ever admit it.
    (If Bardin dies): Don't tell ANYONE, but I might just miss the Dwarf.
    (If Kruber dies): (choked up) For Kruber's sake, I do hope that Sigmar is real.
    (If Sienna dies): I shall miss your warmth, Sienna.
  • A statement from her in the Chaos Wastes has her state her regrets at going to the place, as friendship is nothing compared to the sanctity of one's soul, ambivalently declaring that they are her friends while also saying they are not worth going to the Chaos Wastes for.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Put simply, the entire chain of events of the two games were her fault. As Poor Communication Kills, Kerillian mistook the two Nuln regiments that were supposed to reinforce Ubersreik to be a military force marching on Athel Loren, and cut them down at Hoggar's Bridge. Without military aid, Ubersreik soon fell to the Skaven after the Five were captured during Waylaid, resulting in Clan Fester and Rasknitt greatly expanding in power and influence, which resulted in their Pactsworn alliance with the Rotblood tribe and the destruction of Helmgart following that. Had she simply not been so hasty in her misjudgment, much of the headache the group has been facing thus far could have been averted, a fact that the Nameless Voice relentlessly taunts her about.
  Nameless Voice: The dryads warned that Ubersreik would play a role in the waning of the elves. So you led the slaughter of a military convoy bound for the city.[...]In crippling Ubersreik, you set in motion the very events you sought to stop — a bloated Clan Fester, devouring Athel Loren. You must be so proud.
• Upsetting the Balance: She's careful of this possibility as a Sister of the Thorn, whose members take power from both halves of the elven pantheon as convenient.
  Sienna: I worry for you, Kerillian. What I know of the Cytharai isn't exactly encouraging.
  Kerillian: All is as it should be. Hekarti grants me the power, Atharti the will to see it used. Isha's memory binds me to the Weave and Lileath's love to the Light. And the Morai-Heg keeps the balance.
  Sienna: And if that balance fails?
  Kerillian: ...Kill me swiftly. For all our sakes.
• We Are as Mayflies: An Invoked Trope by her on the other heroes, whom she refers to as "mayflies". As an elf, Kerillian is naturally much more Long-Lived than the rest of the gang, and is already older than all of them by at least a century or two by the time of Vermintide, with possibly only Bardin ever hoping to match up to half of her in age in the long run, assuming he doesn't die of unnatural causes. As a result of this, she adopts a sneering attitude towards the rest of the group, viewing them as "children" that need to be educated. The trope becomes averted, however, for one member of the party: Kruber. One of the blessings received by Grail Knights is a massively prolonged life span and immunity to aging. Kerillian does not let this deter from teasing him, mind.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's deathly afraid of captivity. While she looks down on all her enemies, the Skaven Packmasters with their man-catchers seem to draw particular revulsion from her. Her warnings about them carry a more worried tone, her announcement when they die more exultant. The thought of being captured and caged by them seem to unnerve her especially. Sienna asks her about it at one point and she confirms that she hates Packmasters so much because the idea of being caged scares her. This phobia gets mentioned again in the second game during Fort Brachsenbrücke, where she can say that she hates being in sieges because they turn into a cage. This earns her a Pet the Dog moment in Against the Grain, where the band is freeing captive farmers. Despite going into the mission whining about having to save "mayflies" that are probably dead, once she sees they're being kept caged for enslavement her tone shifts completely. At the end she may even admit, in a nuanced way, that she's happy to have helped them.
  Kerillian: (Hearing a Packmaster) Some cruelties are worse than others, even among the rat-filth.
  (alternatively) Strangler! Bring it down! Don't let it touch me!
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: She can't seem to compliment her companions without condescension.
  Kerillian: Kruber, know that you are the least annoying of all the mayflies that I have not yet slain.
  Kruber: You what? Is that a threat?
  Kerillian: Nay, a compliment. Lohner says that I should try to be more 'nice.'
  Kruber: Yeah? Well still a ways to go on that one. Keep at it.
• You Are What You Hate: It's repeatedly implied that she hates Saltzpyre for reminding her too much of herself.
• You Can't Go Home Again:
  • Vermintide 2 has her mention that she can't go home until she's righted some wrong, though she's vague on what that is. Franz Lohner's Chronicle reveals the (supposed) reason: she alone witnessed a number of Dark Elf refugees gather to perform a ritual to Hekarti, when Kerillian confronted them and killed their leader. Problem was that said leader was quite popular, and the surviving cultists accused Kerillian of bloody murder. Since she was alone and had no other witnesses, the result was her exile.
  • The exact conditions of her exile are kept ambiguous. She's able to return to Athel Loren without notice and become a Sister of the Thorn, who are highly esteemed; Lohner notes the oddity of that since he had always assumed she was banned on pain of death, only to remember that she never actually said that ("it was more a feeling she conveyed through delivery and dead-eyed stare"). In a Keep conversation in the base game, Lohner offers to send a message to Athel Loren, as he has couriers who can do so (or at least who are willing to try), but she declines, saying "my kin know exactly where I am, and why." She also was promoted from Waywatcher to Waystalker after the first game, so at the very least they're still in contact and her exile doesn't prevent her from getting honors.

Markus Kruber/Markus de Mandelot

Vermintide I: Empire Soldier

Vermintide II: Mercenary, Foot Knight, Huntsman, Grail Knight

Oi! We're the bloody Ubersreik five! Or four, it doesn't matter.

Voiced by: Dan Mersh

A veteran from the battlefields of Ostland, Markus Kruber is a highly skilled but war weary Empire Soldier. As the sole survivor after his regiment fell prey to the gruesome death magic of a Necromancer, Kruber is emotionally scarred but keeps up appearances by clinging to his old self, the affable soldier trying to do right in a world of wrongs.

---

• Achievements in Ignorance: Normally, a Knight of Bretonnia has to undertake a harshly defined and often years long quest before they may sup from the Grail and become a Grail Knight. Kruber, upon hearing of his heritage, somehow managed the entire quest while completely drunk and unable to remember any of it.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: As a Grail Knight^note more accurately a Grail Paladin, that is a hero-level Grail Knight he gets bonuses to his melee damage through his talents, plus (via quests) a healing factor and access to replenishing potions.
  • On the tabletop, the Lady's Blessing was instead a defensive buff, specifically a 6+ ward save (1/6 chance for attacks to randomly be negated). Grail Knights also get peak human physical stats (mainly Strength 4), but Kruber basically already had those.
  • Also, his Blessed Blade is a bit different from its tabletop counterpart, the Sword of the Lady's Champion. The former just does more damage, but the latter invoked Strong as They Need to Be by having its strength always equal to its target's Toughness plus one, meaning that while even a lowly mook could potentially survive a hit from it, by the same token even a demigod couldn't just No-Sell it. A similar effect can be recreated when using the Virtue of Knightly Temper, which guarantees a One-Hit Kill on a Critical Hit if the enemy's current health is lower than four times the damage of that hit, or two times if it's a Lord or monster, and applies to both the Blessed Blade and normal weapon attacks.
• The Ageless: He gains this on becoming a Grail Knight. It's not a Fountain of Youth but he will get no older physically.
• The Alcoholic: There's indications he's been starting to take to the bottle a bit too much in the first game's DLC maps and the second game. In the bonus mission A Quiet Drink where everyone is smashed, Markus is clearly less-affected by the alcohol (although still audibly drunker than Bardin) and admits to Sienna that he hasn't been sober in twenty years. Looking closely at his model reveals that his eyes are perpetually bloodshot.
• Arbitrary Equipment Restriction: As a Grail Knight, Kruber can only wield "noble" weapons, meaning he's largely restricted to swords, maces, and shields. Spears and halberds are not available, due to being "peasant" weapons, as are his guns and bow.
• Armor Is Useless:
  • Played Straight in the first game, he might be wearing plate armor in the form of a breastplate, pauldrons, and cuisses unlike the other heroes, but it doesn't help him take any more damage than the others.
  • Subverted in the second, where each of his classes durability is directly correlated to how much armor they're wearing. As a lightly armored Huntsman, he has the lowest base health tier and little in the way of defensive talents. With the half-plated Mercenary career, he has a medium amount of health and a decent amount of defensive abilities to go with it. As a Grail Knight, he wears a mix of mail and plate armor all over his body, giving him full 150 health pool of a tank class, as well as a few defensive boosts to go with it. And finally, His Foot Knight career is fully decked out in plate armor, giving it equal health to the Grail Knight, significant innate damage resistance, and can increase it much further than any other career choice.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: As a Grail Knight, his Blessed Blade ignores all types of enemy armor and shields, allowing him to do high burst damage to almost anything without regarding their protections. Only bosses with specifically-scripted invulnerability phases can No-Sell this. On Legend difficulty, Blessed Blade will one-shot Chaos Warriors even when striking their armored torsos.
• Badass Boast:
  • In 2, his Mercenary special ability is always accompanied by one of these.
    "Oi! We're the bloody Ubersreik five! Or four — doesn't matter!
    "Gaah! We'll give 'em all-out war! Right here! Right now!"
    • He adopts the same term in the DLC campaigns, such as his simple response to Nurgloth's own boasts:
    Kruber: Yeah? Well we're the Bloody Ubersreik almost-Five, and you're going down!
  • When Bardin asks if he's worried about reprisals from Imperial officials for effectively deserting to become a Grail Knight, he replies "with the way we live, there's a queue they'll have to join, isn't there?"; apparently his regiment's officers rate rather low on his threat list compared to the Grey Seer, Exalted Champions, Sorcerer Lords, Warlords, Beastlords, and Chieftains that they've already killed.
  • After Kerillian shares the tale of what happened to Isha, Markus semi-jokingly offers to go beat up Everqueen Alarielle. Kerillian tells him her bodyguards would kill him with ease. He just reiterates his offer, subtly boasting that not even the best warriors the High Elves have could stop him.
• Badass Normal: He has many years of military experience, but is still a common footsoldier in a party of monster hunters, non-human long-lived warriors, and a wizard, which makes it more impressive he can tag along with any of them. At the very least, the very-stringent Saltzpyre particularly seems to respect his combat ability. This gets taken even further in II when he becomes a Grail Knight, as in addition to the heroic exploits that he and the rest of the Ubersreik Five can lay claim to, being allowed to drink from the Grail means facing Gilles le Breton, the Green Knight and one of the greatest swordsmen in history, in single combat and winning. Moreover, he seems to be a Paladin rather than a generic knight.^note The trailer depicts him getting his Blessed Blade in a manner identical to how Paladins are described getting their Swords of the Lady's Champion, and on the tabletop, Paladins with the Grail Vow are the only Grail Knights who can even use those weapons.
• The Big Guy: Easily largest member of the party and bar Ironbreaker Bardin, the best armored.
• BFS: Can equip a massive Imperial greatsword and cleave Skaven heads like a boss with it. He displays this in Vermintide 1's intro. He gets an even bigger Executioner's sword as a DLC weapon and keeps it in the second game, where he also gets access to a somewhat more restrained Bretonnian Longsword.
• Book Dumb: Kruber is by no means a stupid man, but he is clearly one of the least educated in the group. In WFRP, his younger self has an average intelligence rating of 31, which is actually slightly higher than Saltzpyre's (30) and close to Bardin's (32), though far lower than Sienna's (46) or Kerillian's (47).
• Bring It: One among his many boisterous battlecries as a Mercenary.
  "Think you can stop us?! You're welcome to bloody try!"
• Buffy Speak: He sometimes warns of packmasters by saying, "Mind the reachy-grabby one."
• Butt-Monkey: Downplayed. Bardin and Kerillian love to make jokes at his expense, which he takes largely in stride.
• Call to Agriculture: Would love nothing more than to retire from military life and go back to the farming of his youth near Ubersreik. However, as his request for discharge was denied, Saltzpyre's job to help him escort Fuegonasus to trial was appealing because it could exempt him from the remainder of his military service.
  • In the sequel he gets his wish to an extent as a Huntsman, where he gives up military life to live in the wilds as a scout.
  • Although in conversation with Sienna, he states that he no longer has the desire to go back to farming, preferring the life of a mercenary. She suggests he start a mercenary company, and he states he would be quite open to her joining him.
• Cannot Talk to Women: In one line of dialogue, he tries to strike up a conversation with Kerillian. Comes across as endearing, especially when he and Kerillian discuss the dreams they've had.
  Kruber: You seem a bit quieter of late, elf. Not that I'm complaining, you understand... or that I want you to be quiet... Taal, I'm no good at this.
  Kerillian: Relax, mayfly. No offence was taken. I've had bad dreams of late, that's all. A common affliction amongst my kind.
  Kruber: Yeah? I know what you mean. Couple of nights ago, I had this one with a giant squig, a jug of lamp oil, and Volkmar the Grim... and I was naked, too.
  Kerillian: ...I confess that does sound terrifying, at least to any witnesses.
  Kruber: No need to be snippy. Put me right out of sorts, it did.
  Kerillian: Would you prefer mine? With the Pale Queen, and the Mirai? And the dying flame? You know nothing of bad dreams, Kruber.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: The Foot Knight career has him resume his military and physical training. Said training allows him, a man armed with nothing but unenchanted armor and a (based on loot rarity) unenchanted or lightly enchanted weapon, to force a chaos warrior to their knees or sprawled on to their back. For reference, a chaos warrior is an eight-to-ten foot tall, unaging slab of muscle and fury blessed so heavily by their deity that they can scarcely be considered human any longer. This slab is then dressed in armor forged in the flames of what is essentially hell, armor that elevates him to the prowess of a demigod of war. And Marcus can just shove him over like a particularly tall traffic cone. Given that he's shown doing so in the second game's cinematic trailer, this can't even be put down to Gameplay and Story Segregation.
• Close-Range Combatant: Kruber as a whole is generally the most melee-oriented of the 5 playable characters, having the most melee weapon options and least ranged ones to choose from.^*Now tied with Saltzpyre, as his Warrior Priest DLC came with six new weapons to compensate for the fact that said class can't use any of his old ones, while only Zealot can use a half of the new, while Kruber has ten to twelve options for melee weapons on any of his classes His firearms are very powerful and accurate (excepting the Blunderbuss), but their long reload times limit their usage to specials and the occasional elite. Downplayed as the generally more ranged-oriented Huntsman, and taken up to eleven as a Grail Knight, who cannot use ranged weaponry at all but makes up for this with magical enhancement bestowed by the Lady of the Lake.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Despite his being The Heart to the group, he is frequently almost irreverent in the face being the last of the group left alive and may note something to the effect of Oh, No... Not Again! Being a Sole Survivor will do that to you...
• Critical Hit Class:
  • As a Grail Knight, his Virtue of Knightly Temper talent would certainly behoove you to play him like this. Due to how the talent works^note guarantees a One-Hit Kill if the target's current health is lower than 4x (2x for monsters and Lords) the damage of your next Critical Hit., it would be wise to stack critical chance as high as humanly possible, which can be further boosted by completing Duties and gaining the right Benisons, that can also be enhanced by Virtue of Purity. When paired with an Executioner Sword, a critical heavy attack can one-shot a Chaos Warrior on Legend most of the time, and a high-crit Blessed Blade can instantly delete a monster as soon as it dips under half health.
  • The Huntsman prioritizes headshots, critical hits, and critical headshots with talents that increase damage, improve critical hit chance, and grant secondary bonuses like a Damage-Increasing Debuff.
• Crippling Overspecialization: As a Grail Knight, Kruber cannot use ranged weaponry aside from bombs, which makes him especially vulnerable against enemies that can attack him from afar, such as Ratling Gunners and Blightstormers, or special foes that can disable him easily in melee, like Packmasters or Gutter Runners. What makes up for this is the fact he can take two melee weapons and his magical enhancements make him an utter killing machine - in lore, Grail Knights are mighty Bretonnian heroes, and Grail Knight Kruber may well be the most powerful of the Ubersreik Five by far... at least to any foe he can get within arm's reach of.
• Dark Secret: Kruber is haunted by the deaths of the men under his command, and feels he is a lackluster soldier. It is strongly implied that he used to be a vicious and unscrupulous man before becoming the Nice Guy we now know, and that it wouldn't take much persuasion to make him go back to his old ways. Deep down he (correctly it turns out) thinks that the Empire is going to lose the war with Chaos and he has been tempted to turn the others over to the Pactsworn, for the coin and to save his own hide.
• Difficult, but Awesome: When equipped with the warhammer, he deals a lot of damage and doesn't even need to charge his attacks against armored enemies, but his strikes are slow and get even slower when he charges the weapon — the only decent way to use it against hordes. It is thus extremely important to plan ahead where to move and when to start his attacks, lest he leaves himself open against swarms. Play him right and you get a powerful combatant, particularly against Stormvermin.
• Does Not Like Guns: As a Grail Knight, he refuses to touch "unchivalrous" weapons, chief among them firearms (actually illegal in Bretonnia according to lore).
• Drowning My Sorrows: While most of the other characters get goofy, Kruber admits during the events of A Quiet Drink that he drinks because it "helps me forget" for a while. The toll that his alcoholism has on him is most evident in his usually bloodshot eyes.
• Dual Wielding: 2 lets him wield a mace and a sword in each hand with the Mace & Sword combo.
• Dumb Muscle: He's the strongest and largest member of the party,^note Kerillian is about the same height when she stands straight up and Saltzpyre is slightly taller, but Kruber's noticeably broader in build. but is Book Dumb enough to be a common target of mockery for his companions.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: It's strongly implied by his original fully armored attire, and repeated portrayal in the trailer as wielding a BFS that Kruber was an elite Empire Greatsword captain.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Grail Knight Markus likely holds the record for receiving that title the fastest in history; normally it takes years if not decades seeking the Lady of the Lake's favour as a Questing Knight.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: The purview of his Morale Boost career skill for the Mercenary.
• Farm Boy: Kruber was one until he couldn't stand it anymore and enlisted to the State Troops - this is probably why he's more of a Taal-worshiper. He certainly lived long enough to regret his career change.
• Fleur-de-lis: Wears this symbol everywhere and on everything as a Grail Knight in honor of his Bretonnian heritage.
• A Father to His Men: Kruber once trained and led a military detachment of his own, the 8th Ostland Swordsmen. Unlike conventional military leaders, Kruber doesn't believe in The Spartan Way, and leads by example and bolstering good morale rather than being just another Drill Sergeant Nasty, and thus became very popular among his troops. He fought side-by-side with them against Chaos Warriors, Beastmen, the Undead, and possibly Orcs, and his men loved him enough to give their own lives to save his.
• Fish out of Water: As mentioned above and below, Kruber is nothing more than a humble and weary soldier in the company of some of the most dangerous people in the Old World, and thanks to Imperial propaganda, didn't even know Skaven existed before the Vermintide rose to attack Ubersreik. He loses this trait as time goes on, especially once he gains the Lady's favor and becomes a Grail Knight.
• Flanderization: Kruber has a lot of backstory in the manual, but a lot of it — his years of military experience, the necromancer slaughtering his unit, his war-weariness — rarely ever comes up in-game, having the unintended side effect of making him come across as Dumb Muscle compared to a religious zealot, a pyromaniac, and two non-humans visiting a human city for mysterious reasons. The DLC content and new voice acting seems to take this and run with it, like in Summoner's Peak where he takes enthusiastic glee in "pulling levers with reckless abandon". It becomes harsher after the Stromdorf DLC, where it becomes blatantly apparent that Kruber's developed a severe drinking problem just to cope with what he's seen and done.
  Bardin: Perhaps you should drink more, Azumgi. You're already so unsteady on your feet.
  Kruber: I'd go for that!
• Foe-Tossing Charge: As a Foot Knight in the sequel, he gets to perform one of these, battering aside smaller enemies and knocking larger ones to the ground, as he is a BULL OF OSTLAND! indeed — only Chaos Warriors, Stormvermin and the even-larger bosses and monsters will not be thrown aside as Kruber charges through them, but they'll be knocked down or left staggered from it. This leaves them wide open for a Blunderbuss shot or a few solid whacks with a warhammer.
• Functional Addict: Despite clearly being implied to be a significant alcoholic, there's no indications from any other characters that it's ever really caused him trouble with his job of cutting up Pactsworn.
• Gatling Good: One of his alternate ranged weapons is an outrider repeater handgun with eight barrels. It can be used either by emptying the barrels one by one or by spinning them and discharging several or all remaining chambers at once. Its good range, armor piercing trait and decent damage make it well-suited for taking out ratling gunners.
• Hat of Authority: He has earned the right to wear fancy headwear on the battlefield, a sign of his rank and seniority in the Empire's army and mercenary corps. He refers to his old weather-beaten wide-brimmed hat with its multiple decorative feathers his "Old Companion".
• I Have to Go Iron My Dog: When the Ubersreik Five sailed off for the A Parting of the Waves map, apparently Kruber left a note to Lohner that they'd "Gone Fishing". Lohner, obviously, was unconvinced that was what they had left to do.
• The Heart: He's often the moral center of the party, with much of his mission briefing dialogue remarking that the Ubersreik Five has the duty to rescue the Empires soldiers and civilians in trouble without an ounce of complaining. He’s been a good influence on Saltzpyre in particular, who seems to factor in how Kruber would view the party’s actions when making decisions as the unofficial leader. Not that Saltzpyre would ever admit it while sober.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Led a squad of swordsmen in the past, and is proficient in the two-handed greatsword, the executioner's sword, the shorter arming sword, the Bretonnian longsword, dual-wielding a shortsword with a mace, and using either an arming sword or a longsword in concert with a shield. As a Grail Knight he will flat-out refuse to use any weapons other than swords, hammers, and maces (bar the occasional bomb) because the Lady dubs them unchivalrous. His active ability as a Grail Knight also has him swinging an enchanted longsword, regardless of what weapon he's carrying normally.
• Heroic Lineage: The reason why he can be a Grail Knight is that he's actually the descendant of a former Bretonnian knight who was framed for the murder of a Duke and wrongfully banished.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Despite seemingly being a tad set in his ways such that he plans to continue his combat career by founding a mercenary company despite of how his former regiment's annihilation haunts him and has pulled him into alcoholism, and he gets plenty of humorous dialogue at his expense over his lack of education and world knowledge, Kruber may be legitimately interested in expanding his horizons - dialogue in missions with Kerillian has him ask if it would be possible for her to teach him to shoot a bow like her (which she considers an impossibility), and dialogue in the keep with Bardin has him insist to Bardin that he would like to learn engineering from him.
  • The Nameless Voice taunts him about how he used to "do anything for coin and a full tankard" and that he's "tardy with warnings, with blade-work... with the truth." It also questions if those days are really behind him or if his current personality is an act. The implication is that he used to be much less scrupulous as a mercenary than he is now, and his concern for civilian casualties and protectiveness of his friends are signs of him trying to make up for those days, consciously or no. Though Kruber's responses are all entirely unwilling to regard these allegations...
  • Given his past trauma concerning necromancers, and his new station as a Grail Knight, one would expect him to be the first of all people to take up arms against the newly-empowered Sienna, but Kruber instead blindsided Saltzpyre and the other two by clocking the Warrior Priest out cold with a rock in defense of the wizard. As Lohner postulated, Kruber's friendship and loyalty simply outstripped any prejudices and traumas he might have had.
• Hunk: To an extent in-universe, Markus' manly and heroic look hasn't gone unnoticed by women. Olesya apparently has been using her magic to spy on him in the mornings when he's bathing, Sienna off-handily compliments him and mentions that Grail Knight Kruber looks more 'exotic', and Kerillian at the very least has a lot of respect for his character and seems openly affectionate of him as a Sister of the Thorn.
• I Call It "Vera": He names his repeating handguns "Ursula". All of them.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: He admits to Sienna that he stole a lot of his medals and hats, tells Kerillian that he had a lot of fun pillaging Parravon, and the flavor text for some of his weapons like Defiance and Destiny imply that they're also stolen. A good deal of his cosmetics ranging from exotic hats to glamorous suits of armor belonging to elite troops usually outright say that he either stole them or looted it off their owners corpse.
  (Knights Encarmine): Expensive plate of a notoriously vain order. Would probably lament its fortune for falling into Kruber's hands.
  (Marshal Ludenwald's Favourite Hat): Last seen in the vaults of the Emperor Karl-Franz himself. Kruber swears he doesn't know how it ended up in his quarters.
• Knight in Shining Armor: As a Grail Knight, Kruber is this, complete with confidence and a bit of classist snobbishness, since he will refer to Saltzpyre as a "peasant."
• Knight in Sour Armor: His experiences have left him embittered and world-weary, but that does not stop him from being the most compassionate member of the party or trying it keep its spirits up, his long experience as a leader of men not deserting him so easily.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Although covered up by his massively bushy beard, he does actually have one. He receives a clean shave upon being anointed as a Grail Knight, which exposes his chin. This is best seen when playing as a Grail Knight and wearing the Obese Megalodon hat◊, as every other class headgear will cover his face up with a full helmet.
• Last of His Kind: Kruber is the last known descendant of the de Mandelot lineage, which gives him Bretonnian heritage and privilege to pursue the title of Grail Knight... and he did indeed earn the title.
• The Leader: Kruber is arguably the actual leader of the group, as he treats everyone nicely to bolster their confidence and morale, as well as having actual experience as a regiment leader, which is reflected by his default choice of career skill in 2 and the numerous battle commands he shouts while facing the enemy. Truly, the only reasons why he submits to Saltzpyre's authority are out of respect and that the latter technically outranks him in the Imperial military hierarchy, at least until he becomes a Grail Knight. Notably, all of his classes come built in with some form of team buff or other.
• Long-Range Fighter: The Huntsman is built to shred enemies at a distance with class features that boost the damage, range, and ammunition capacity of ranged weapons. He can still hold his own in melee but is much more fragile up close than Kruber's other careers.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Can wield either thin metal heater shields in combination with arming swords, maces, or spears, or larger, thicker, wooden shields in combination with Bretonnian longswords.
• Mighty Glacier: Largely downplayed, even as a Foot Knight. While Kruber usually settles for slow, methodical attack patterns that hit hard but can be cumbersome when mobbed, many of his career kits also possess situational speed buffs and/or mobility bursts that more than make up for his innate sluggishness.
• The Musketeer: Kruber has a wide variety of melee weapons, and all of his ranged weapons (except as Huntsman) are black powder firearms.
• Nice Guy: Always tries to prevent infighting and calms down arguments by emphasizing they need to work together. Telling, in the Wizard's Tower his version of the Chamber of Gnignol is a lovely grassy field on a sunny day as opposed to the more grim environments of his companions.
  • A bit of fridge brilliance in that, as a Sergeant, it's his job to preserve unit coherency during stressful and dangerous situations. He makes an effort to be nice to everyone, and everyone is generally nice (or in Kerillian's case, nicer) to him too.
  • In the second game this is reflected while the rest of the group has potentially undergone severe Sanity Slippage, Markus either gives up on leaving military life behind to be a mercenary, is offered a place among a chivalry order as a Foot Knight, embraces his Bretonnian origins by passing the trials to become a Grail Knight or at worst... devotes himself to Taal and Rhya as a Huntsman, serving as a scout in the Reikwald and being more lonely.^*Although it's also implied by Lohner and several of his cosmetic items he's also fallen into being a poacher and possibly fallen in with bandits. This is compared to Saltzpyre becoming a flagellating Zealot, Kerillian taking up worship of Khaine as a Shade, Sienna embracing being an Unchained Pyromaniac and Bardin taking the Slayer oath.
• Noodle Incident: He's apparently done a lot of unscrupulous things as a mercenary. One known incident was "a bit of loot and pillage" in Parravon; if this dialogue triggers while he's a Grail Knight, he'll then say that he hopes the Bretonnians don't find out about it, because they might take away his knighthood.
• Not the Intended Use: As a Grail Knight, Kruber's Blessed Blade grants him increased movement speed for as long as he's holding a charged attack. Players tend to use it as an on-demand speed buff regardless of whether there's an Elite enemy or monster in front of them or not.
• Oh, My Gods!: He mostly swears by his patron god, Taal, but occasionally invokes Sigmar and Rhya, the latter most often when finding healing supplies. In his Grail Knight career, he instead invokes the Lady of the Lake.
• Orphaned Etymology: He quotes Napoléon Bonaparte's "an army marches on its stomach" quip in one of his intros for Empire in Flames, and treats it as if it's already a famous expression in-universe.
• The Paladin: As a Grail Knight and Champion of the Lady, he is effectively this. Most of his talents also reflect this, being a complete trade of his mundane military training for magical blessings from the Lady which he uses to smite down evil.
• Raised by Wolves: In 2, when he reminsces about the herd of Talabec cattle that his family raised, Kerillian jokes that they must've raised him as one of their own and Bardin joins in to speculate about whether Markus is ever out "mooing for his lost kin".
• Reassignment Backfire: A disagreement with less-than-competent superior got him reassigned from the richest part of the Empire to the poorest, intended to put him in his place and well out of the way. He choose to see this instead as an opportunity to make a name for himself in a place where few would willingly go.
• Religious Bruiser: He is very devoted to the Imperial gods, invoking Sigmar, Rhya, and especially Taal, the God of Nature and the Lord of Beasts, Forests and Mountains. His achievement for reaching level 30 is called Champion of Taal, and his Huntsman class has him take to some of Taal's teachings more strictly. As a Grail Knight, he is one of the champions of the Lady of the Lake, and embodies the holy virtues of her religion. In the Chaos Wastes, he wants to entreat with Taal mainly because he's worshipped by the peoples of both the Empire and Bretonnia (rather than being an Ethnic God like Sigmar or the Lady).
• Rugged Scar: Has a prominent scar on his chin in 1, and gains a particularly nasty, claw-like one over his left eye in 2, likely thanks to some Skaven. His cosmetic "Veteran's Scars" foregoes his usual hats to show off the damage to his forehead.
• Retcon: Kruber originally had lines implying he was outright illiterate in the first game, but they were later removed (and him being able to make out the letter in The Courier map for the Stromdorf DLC indicates that he has some degree of literacy). The new story for it was him being illiterate until the requirements of an Empire Sergeant had him get acquainted with it. Thus, when he's newly-promoted in his brief WFRP appearance, he's the only future member of the Five who doesn't have the "Read/Write" talent.
• Sergeant Rock: His profession as an Empire Sargent-At-Arms, drilling and leading his squad of swordsmen, inspiring them with his prowess, wit, and sense of humor. He fulfills a similar job in the group, encouraging them and advocating cohesion.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He was doing well as a campaigner until a fateful battle with an army of the Undead, where a necromantic spell ripped through his unit, leaving him as one of the few survivors. The effect was traumatizing to say the least, and his enthusiasm for war has been tempered since, to the point that he requested (and was denied) a discharge from service. In his room, on his desk, he has some small toys he's made out of bits of wood and potatoes. It's not clear if these represent his family, his former men, or his current companions. He does want to express the pain and stress that he's going through, and he seems to be channeling that into making these little toys.
• Ship Tease: In one line of dialogue, Kerillian catches Kruber staring at her. He explains that he's never seen an elf up close, but sounds a bit smitten by her as well. As noted above, he also finds her singing enchanting, though Bardin cautions against actually telling her that. After he becomes a Grail Knight, Lohner notes in "A Close Call" that Kerillian seems to have softened on Kruber, and in his keep dialogue he seems unusually concerned with whether or not Kerillian likes his (incredibly fake) Bretonnian accent. In the Lohner's Chronicles entry "Empty Chambers" leading up to the release of Kerillian's Sister of the Thorn class, he mentions that he's asked Bardin to keep an eye on Kruber, as he's become depressed ever since the elf took off to Athel Loren without a word and he's worried Kruber might actually try to follow her. After she becomes a Sister of the Thorn and mentions her despondence at Ariel being absorbed into the High Elf Everqueen, Kruber casually offers to beat up a god if it'll make Kerillian feel better. When she talks him down on the logic that he'd die if he tried, he simply states that the offer is still on the table in case she changes her mind.
• Short-Range Shotgun: His blunderbuss, which takes considerable time to reload, but is capable of shredding targets at short range and knocking over and stunning targets not far beyond that.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • He delivers a very short, curt one to Kerillian when she takes her usual condescension a step too far.
    Kerillian: One-Eye didn't show much care for your family.
    Kruber: Neither did you.
  • The last level of Castle Drachenfels has a voice whisper to various members of the party. While most of the party will respond with denial or fear (even Saltzpyre), Kruber just tells it to piss off.
• Sidequest: As a Grail Knight, Kruber can fulfil certain "duties" given to him by the Lady of the Lake in order to gain team-wide combat buffs that will last a whole level. These are typically Kill or Fetch Quests, such as slaying a certain amount of Elite mobs, or getting a tome, etc... These are not limited to Kruber himself, however, and are shared with everyone in the party, meaning his allies can help him, and in return receive the same benefits.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: While Kruber's opinion of Karl Franz in-game is far more normal grousing about his Emperor (such as complaining about taxes and accusing him of misusing of funds), journals from Franz Lohner's Chronicles basically paint Karl Franz as this with Lohner suspecting Kruber never got over an instance of Karl Franz getting a hat Kruber had his eye on first, mentioning Kruber making a slightly-shorter snowman of Karl Franz wearing a threadbare hat among group of snowmen, and Kruber probably having misappropriated half of Karl's hats at this point. Of course, given that Karl Franz has the entire Empire to manage during the End Times no less while Kruber is just a former State Troops Sergeant (albeit one that saved Ubersreik), Karl is unlikely to be aware of this.
• Sole Survivor: Of his regiment of swordsmen. A necromantic spell ripped through it during a battle with The Undead. The specifics are not described but are implied to have been very... disturbing. Markus has not been the same ever since.
• Start My Own: His Mercenary class in Vermintide II represents a change in career after he retires from the Empire's state troops and decides to apply his experiences by putting together his own group of Private Military Contractors.
• Support Party Member: All of Markus's careers have some level of team support abilities built into their kit baseline, and all of them except Huntsman can gain further such abilities from talents.
  • As the Mercenary, Kruber strikes a delicate balance between offence and defense at both close and long range, though his toolkit generally favours up close and personal. Where he shines though is through his signature "Morale Boost" Skill, which grants temporary HP to all his teammates and knocks enemies back, providing the Five a vital lifeline if they are being overwhelmed by a horde or a powerful patrol. With a certain talent, Morale Boost can even revive downed allies. By taking the "Strike Together" talent, his signature Paced Strikes (which grants faster attack speed when cleaving three or more enemies) is conferred to nearby allies, giving them a big boost to their damage potential. In fact Mercenary might be considered his Boring, but Practical career choice because all of his abilities are relatively simple but extremely helpful to include in any kind of team composition.
• Survivor's Guilt: In addition to being the Sole Survivor of his regiment as well as its commander, he also knows for sure that he's the only one left because one of his fellows pushed him out of the way of the spell that annihilated the regiment.
• Touched by Vorlons: Becoming a Grail Knight imbues him with supernatural attributes by the blessing of The Lady.
• Tragic Bigot: His distrust of Sienna's magic stems from his experience with necromancy. He's well aware that it isn't fair to her, and tries not to let it affect the way he treats her.
  Kruber: Believe me, Wizard, I'm trying.
  • He actually ends up managing to grow past it and doesn't have misgivings with Sienna being a necromancer in of itself...he's instead worried that she's not herself since it's happened, seeming to fear that Sienna's unexpectedly had Two Beings, One Body, a Merger of Souls, or suffered Grand Theft Me with Sofia.
• Troll: Once it's learned that Kruber is actually Bretonnian nobility, he likes to tease Saltzpyre by occasionally reminding him that he now outranks him.
• Unfriendly Fire: He implies he's killed, or at least conspired to kill, incompetent superiors before, which mildly surprises Kerillian.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: After receiving the Lady's blessing and becoming a Grail Knight, Kruber started speaking in a vague Bretonnian accent. Nobody in the Keep likes that, especially Lohner. Apparently he's self-conscious about this since Kerillian (who's heard enough Bretonnians to have an ear for their accents) mocks him for it.

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