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Allies
The Cryptomancer
- Mysterious Woman: Her essential role in the plot. She tells your Gunmancer where to go and what to do, but how she knows any of the stuff she knows and how she even survived the destruction of the Imperium is a complete mystery.
- The Spymaster: She's the last surviving one of the Imperium's Cryptomancy Guild, and this used to be her job.
Hilda Bulla
She's spread Gunmancy far and wide across the broken islands in hopes that when the mainlanders invade in earnest, the inhabitants will put up a fight. The gun cults have discovered her plot, and the bounty on her head and those who follow her has increased dramatically.
- Ms. Exposition: She'll drop tidbits about the world and her Rider friends each time you defeat one.
The Last Bard
- The Bard: Obviously. His job is to pass down stories through the generations using his extremely long lifespan.
- Mr. Exposition: He'll tell you a little bit about the biome you're entering if you stop to talk to him on the biome's outskirts, and that's about all he does.
- Last of Their Kind: He's the only Valyn Bard remaining.
- Really 700 Years Old: Due to his long lifespan, as far as we know he's from around before the downfall of the Imperium more than 200 years ago.
Young Joshua
- The Blacksmith: If you bring him the right metals and components, he can forge you a gun of your choosing.
- Cthulhumanoid: He's from Valyn, so like the rest of the descendants of the Magi he's one of these.
Grandma Bogfen
- Cthulhumanoid: Downplayed. She's still a victim of the Magi's corruption, but she's been able to resist it much more to the point that she still resembles a normal human for the most part.
- Solitary Sorceress: Grandma Bogfen is a potion-maker and herbalist who lives by herself deep in the poisonous fens of what was once Valyn, and she will gladly teach your gunmancer her potion recipes. Hilda even suggests you seek her out for temperature-correcting potions before heading to Koleye and Alders.
Riders
Isa Gladwell, the Mechantress
"How'd YOU get into my library? You bothersome fool! Who'll even pay my bounty when the world ends? Bah, I'm wasting my energy talking to you, gunslinger. Just remember my parents want me alive, not dead...and I'm going to make that very hard for you!"
An engineer and the heiress of the only remaining Mechana factory, Isa traveled to the ruins of the Imperium to study the mechana and ruined libraries. Hilda is her aunt, by marriage, and Isa was the first to follow Hilda into the Tower.
- Fat Bitch: She's much chubbier than any other rider, and has an unpleasant, cantankerous attitude towards intruders like you.
- Flunky Boss: Her primary mechanic is summoning Mechana to swarm you with. When she gets low enough on health, she'll summon a Construct Mechana as a desperation attack.
- The Engineer: Her whole business is building and tinkering with Mechana and she wears a mechanic's apron and greaves which only enhance this look.
- I Call It "Vera": Her signature wanderbuss is given the unassuming name of Wallace.
- Sawn-Off Shotgun: She wields an augmented sawn-off wanderbuss in battle.
- Wrench Wench: Isa is a brilliant female Mechana smith, designing the Mechlanders which patrol the ruins of the Imperium and controlling many more Mechana on top of that.
Orion
"Ah, we meet again, but in such strange circumstances... You would not remember though, would you? What must it be like for you? Dancing in circles. Living the same day. Over and over. Always getting in the way. Is this a cordial visit then? Some casual sightseeing? Have you come to fix the Well? No, you've come to dance. You could leave the Tower and enjoy your last few minutes before the Wheel rolls you back. No? I think you will not take my offer, so let's dance."
Formerly a doctor in the Fell, Orion treated Hilda's wounds the first time she passed through the swamps. When she returned and told him of the Tower, Orion took up arms and followed her with hopes of discovering the source of the curse and corruption that had poisoned his people for more than a millenium.
- Bullet Hell: Moreso than the other riders, Orion's whole game plan is to cover his arena in so many projectiles that you can't dodge even a single one of them.
- Combat Tentacles: He can charge forward and sweep a large area around him with his twelve huge tentacles, as well as simply lash them out at you.
- Game Face: When you first show up in his part of the Tower, Orion resembles a small, regular two-eyed humanoid draped in a cloak. When you start fighting him, however, all the rest of his eyes open up and he reveals his twelve Combat Tentacles.
- Gatling Good: His primary means of attack is to spray everything in sight with his huge poison minigun, Blightspreader.
- Named Weapon: Orion's minigun is called "Blightspreader".
- Let's Dance: He describes your fight with him as "dancing", and even drops this line verbatim right before putting on his Game Face.
Kolanna
"Bounty hunter! Never seen you trek across the snow before. And you figured out how to open the doorway? Huh. Hilda won't like that... You see her lately? Things got messy out there. Worst roll of the Wheel I've ever seen. Been locked in here for what feels like weeks. Time's weird though, right? You probably don't know what I'm talking about. Anyway, let's get down to business. I'm not my father; I take no pleasure in killing you... Let's get this over with so I can go back to staring into the void."
The child of the last king of the barbarians, Kolanna has forsaken their duty as heir. Saving Hilda from their father's ambushers, they followed Hilda to uncover the Tower entrances throughout Koleye. Now they're looking for a Godmachine that can break the violence that's plagued Koleye for a hundred generations.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: It's unclear from any story information so far whether Kolanna is nonbinary or whether they merely have an unidentifiable gender which no one knows the truth behind.
- An Ice Person: Downplayed, but Kolanna has a few ice attacks in their arsenal, including the ability to summon a bunch of ice walls into their arena.
- BFG: Their weapon of choice is a massive Kolbara Cannon called the Hammer of Sol, which they can rapid-fire mortar shots out of in very quick succession and cause a wave of explosions with as well as cast ice magic. They can even just smack you silly with it in a lunging melee attack.
- Barbarian Longhair: They have this in spades spilling out of the back of their mammoth-skin headpiece.
- Expository Pronoun: Long before you encounter them, you'll notice from any First edition entry concerning them that they use they/them pronouns.
- Fur Bikini: An interestingly non-female example, but Kolanna's two-piece fur outfit heavily evokes this.
- Meteor Move: When they make the "thumbs down" gesture at you and a massive hit reticle appears around them, they will immediately jump high into the air and slam back down in an explosive Ground Pound.
- Named Weapon: Kolanna's enormous BFG is called "Hammer of Sol".
- Pelts of the Barbarian: As a barbarian of Koleye, they dress in these.
- Rebel Prince: They're fighting a bloody and protracted civil war against King Harold because they don't want to succeeed him as King of Koleye while simultaneously trying to help Hilda stop Chaos from ending the world.
- Top-Heavy Guy: Their chest and arms are at least twice as big as their legs.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Kolanna is likely going to be the first Rider you can't beat solely by leveling up your bullets and out-damaging them. While Isa and Orion have some dangerous attacks in their arsenal, they largely don't provide too much aggression towards the player. Kolanna, on the other hand, is very suddenly a boss which requires you to actively take precise notes of when and where to dodge due to their extremely unrelenting attacks, as well as hitting like a truck and having quite a bit of health. If you manage to defeat them, you'll be more than adequately prepared for the bosses down the line.
Talia Stareyes
"You. I've heard the gears of the Wheel turning across the Void. Is that your doing? You must be seeking what I have then. Did you take over from Hilda? Did you kill her? Nevermind... I remember you now. I wouldn't believe you if you did answer me. You've changed! Your aura's much... brighter. You've cast so many spells since we first fought...You'll finally be a challenge. Shall we?"
Talia is the last daughter of the long line of pirate queens of Alders. With the oceans gone after the shattering of the world, she now rules over a fierce community of desert bandits. Her vision is limited to seeing the magical auras of beings, which makes her an excellent mage hunter.
- Blind Weaponmaster: Talia has been blind since birth, but this doesn't stop her from being able to snipe you from all the way across her arena, since she can still see magical auras. It's for this reason that she's also called the Blind Huntress.
- Cane Fu: Her walking stick, Third Eye, doubles as both a huge sniper rifle and a powerful club.
- Cold Sniper: She wields a huge sniper rifle to great effect, and what little she says before her fight indicates she has a very aloof and protected mindset.
- Ice Queen: Several First Edition entries and her dialogue demonstrate her to be extremely terse, laconic, and no-nonsense, especially compared to other Riders like Isa or Kolanna.
- King Mook: To the Mage Hunters, since she looks very similar to a basic Mage Hunter only skinnier and with a sniper rifle instead of a revolver.
- Mage Killer: Being the leader of the Mage Hunters, she's an expert at killing wizards thanks to her ability to see their magical auras. That includes you.
- Named Weapon: Her sniper rifle is called "Third Eye".
The Three Godwizards
Alchemi, Godwizard of Transformation
Alchemi was the patron of the early Imperium, where she built a library to house all of her knowledge. Aside from his book collection, Alchemi was known for his ability to spontaneously transform everything, including his own appearance and gender, as well as his love of trickery and the mischief his abilities granted him. The Imperium, out of respect, alternated between referring to Alchemi in her female and male forms. After the gods left, the Imperium continued their worship of Alchemi, treating transformation magics as the pinnacle of magical knowledge.
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: It's unknown what Alchemi's true gender was, if she even had one to begin with or if he considers herself to be male and female simultaneously due to his Voluntary Shapeshifting powers.
- Expository Pronoun: The description of her statue keys in the player that his gender is either fluid or double-binary by using alternating pronouns to describe her.
- Trickster God: He was renowned for filling this role in the trinity of Godwizards, as she was quite partial to mischief.
- Shapeshifting Trickster: He is very heavily implied to fall directly into this archetype.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Because she was the Godwizard of transmutation magic, he could transform everything around him and could even transform her own appearance and gender at will.
Magus, Godwizard of Creation
After creating the world, Magus lived in the verdant Vale with his people, the Magi. He taught them the magics of life and agriculture, which lead to the Valyn being the predominant empire for thousands of years. When Magus left with the other gods, the Magi attempted to crack the secrets of immortality. Instead, they poisoned the Infinite Well, their main source of water, and destroyed their civilization.
- The Maker: He supposedly created the world, not just the Shatter but the Mainland as well.
Solus, Godwizard of Destruction
Solus, lived among the Koleye barbarians for millennia, teaching them the ways of war. When the Koleye began warring with the Valyn, Magus and Solus were drawn into the conflict. They forged a truce between their peoples, and Magus gifted the Kolbara tree to Solus to honor the peace. She planted it in the heart of the wastes, where it grew to be a massive World Tree that provides food and shelter for the tribes. When Solus left with the other gods, she pulled her own eye out and left it to watch over her tribes, to judge their deeds and glories for eternity.
- Destroyer Deity: Solus' domain is all destruction magic, and as such she is greatly favored by sorcerers and warlocks due to their schools of magic overlapping with her interests.
- Eye Scream: She tore her own eye out to leave as a gift for the people of Koleye.
Chaos
The Harbinger of Chaos (Spoilers for defeating all four riders)
- Alpha Strike: When it gets reasonably low on health, it will charge forward and unleash a huge wave of lasers which destroy all the terrain in its path.
- Beam Spam: It has the Frickin' Laser Beams of Eyes of Chaos, but can use them much faster and more lethally, culminating in its Alpha Strike beam attack.
- Disk-One Final Boss: Defeating it gives you the last gear for the Chronomancer's Wheel and unlocks the Oculus, which indicates there's more to come despite it being the Climax Boss of your quest to restore the Wheel. Currently it's the effective Final Boss, however, as more content has yet to be added.
- Flunky Boss: To a ludicrous extent. It's capable of summoning scores of Chaos creatures and even a slew of Ambush Rifts which can then summon even more Chaos.
- Flying Seafood Special: It resembles a gigantic, flying Portuguese Man-o-War.
- Gate Guardian: Defeating it is the only way to gain access to the Oculus, the gate into the Tower that the Godwizards left through.
- Recurring Boss: You'll encounter a smaller, much weaker version of it in each new biome you unlock, each of which holds a gear and primes you for some of the Harbinger's moveset.
