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The protagonist
The person thrown into the tunnels to be killed by the monsters.
- Action Survivor: If they can escape the monsters.
- Driven to Madness: If the player doesn't find the keys and escape within a certain amount of time, the character will begin hearing whispers and demonic chanting, then faint and wake up in another area.
- Fainting: Can happen to them if too much time goes by without them finding any notes, glowsticks, or the keys.
- Featureless Protagonist: All that can be seen of them is their hand when they pass out or hold a glowstick.
- Heroic Mute: Never says a word.
- Mysterious Past: Nothing is known about who they are or why they were thrown into the tunnels.
- Non-Action Guy: Can't fight back against the monsters.
- No Name Given: Their name is not revealed.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: He dies instantly if caught by the monsters.
The monsters/The Molemen
The antagonists of the game. A race of monsters living in the tunnels. They prey on maintenance workers and anyone thrown into the tunnels.
- Always Chaotic Evil: They are all aggressive and will try to kill you. Being that they seem to just be predators driven by instinct however, they could fall under Blue-and-Orange Morality.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: They don't have any visible genitals.
- Beast in the Maze: They are the beasts, and the tunnels are the maze.
- Bizarre Alien Senses: They can't see and rely on echolocation.
- Body Horror: They are hideously deformed and have birdlike faces to boot.
- Diabolus ex Nihilo: Their origins are a mystery. Notes from Hank and Phil indicate that the two had been working in the tunnels for some time before they showed up.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: They are implied to be the ones making the small tunnels scattered around the sewer, and you can even witness them enter one. You never encounter one in the tunnel with you.
- The Heavy: The game lacks a Big Bad, but they are the enemies and the only thing that can kill you aside from a hole in one room.
- Humanoid Abomination: They walk on two legs like a human and have humanoid shapes, but they clearly are not humans.
- Invincible Villain: They cannot be attacked.
- Jump Scare: Will do this if you see one behind a fence.
- Karma Houdini: Justified since they are predators just trying to survive. It is possible however that the protagonist would go and tell someone about the tunnels after escaping, resulting in a sweep team going through the area and clearing them out before looking into the kidnapping situation.
- Logical Weakness: They can't see, so if you stand still, they can walk right past you.
- Mole Men: Technically, while they do fit the bill of subterranean monsters, they don't actually resemble moles at all. Hank and Phil describe them as looking more rat or bird like.
- Mysterious Past: Absolutely nothing is known about their history.
- Neck Snap: How they kill you.
- No Name Given: They're called "Molepeople" by Markiplier. They have no official name.
- Offscreen Teleportation: They will disappear when they lose track of you. Any that you see entering holes will also not be present in the holes should you choose to follow them.
- One-Hit Kill: If they catch you, it's an instant kill.
- Single Specimen Species: Subverted. One might intially suspect this to be the case, given the fact that the game only ever generates one at a time and the near-complete absence of any actual info on anything the game provides, but the notes do refer to the monsters in plural terminology.
- Super-Persistent Predator: They are hard to shake off your trail even if you're running away from them.
- To Serve Man: They all eat humans.
Hank and Phil
Two maintenance workers who got lost in the tunnels sometime before you, and were most likely eaten by the monsters.
- Apocalyptic Log: Their notes serve as this.
- Driven to Madness: As they continued to wander the tunnels lost in the dark dodging monsters, their notes became more and more indicative of their decreasing sanity.
- The Ghost: The only indication of their existence are the notes they left behind.
- Mr. Exposition: Their notes tell you some info, like how you may be safe in the holes, how the monsters can't see and you need to be quiet around them, and how the tunnels are changing. Their biggest info drop comes in the form of telling you you need their keys to escape.
- Never Found the Body: While they were likely eaten, you find no sign of them. Not their skeletons or their bloodstains.
- Posthumous Character: They are most likely long dead, given that they couldn't have escaped since they clearly didn't retrieve the keys and they don't seem to still be around down there.
- Sacrificial Lamb: If you haven't encountered any of the monsters somehow, their panicked notes will clue you in to the fact that something is seriously wrong with these tunnels.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By dropping the keys, Hank not only doomed the two of them, but also made it harder for any future people thrown into the tunnels to escape.
The kidnapper(s)
The unknown person(s) who threw the protagonist into the tunnels to be killed by the monsters.
- The Faceless: They make sure you don't see what they look like in case you escape.
- Greater-Scope Villain: They threw the protagonist into the tunnels to either starve/dehydrate or be killed by the monsters. They are responsible for the plot and have likely executed several people in the past in this manner. You never encounter them however.
- Hate Sink: You can't hate the monsters since they are just following their instincts, but you can hate whoever trapped you with them.
- Karma Houdini: They don't get punished for attempted murder by proxy of the protagonist or the presumed killings of previous victims. Given the bag the protagonist wears over their head in the intro, it can be assumed he never saw their faces and will not be able to bring them to justice even if he tries to tell someone about the incident.
- Silent Antagonist: They don't make a peep while taking you to your intended execution.
