#they're dead it doesn't get more non-playable than that

[hydrachea]

For the HSR ask game:

Favorite 4* Character

Character who doesn't have a quest yet, but should

Favorite non-playable NPC

Plot thread you're most looking forward to seeing in the future

Bonus question: any other (generally positive) thought, theory, or headcanon that you've been dying to talk about, but haven't had the excuse to mention before

HSR asks

Favorite 4*

Okay, this is cheating a little because he also has a 5* alt, but Dan Heng. He's had the most development out of most of the 4*s, main character privilege, but listen. I love my boy. He sucks ass DPS wise and he's been holed up in the archives for 3 patches but I love my boy so very much. Nevermind that I robbed him of his LC and half his relics to give to Dr Ratio... They can share I promise!

Character who doesn't have a quest yet, but should

Xueyi and Hanya, both of them. By a long shot. They're very recently released, I know, but I can't believe they don't have a quest, even just one between the two of them. Xueyi featured in the Luofu main quest a little and both of them were present as more important characters in A Foxian Tale of the Haunted, but the quest still wasn't focused on them - and they really could use one focused on them! Have you seen their lore? Come on!

Favorite NPC

Nanook. Just kidding (except not really), my serious answer would be Yingxing but his NPC status would get debated. He qualifies though, and I'll die on that hill. So know the actual answer is Yingxing, but for the sake of a proper NPC answer it's Dan Shu. She was a great character who gave a different perspective on both Lan and the Xianzhou's immortality, and I really enjoyed her quest. And her voice, she had a very nice voice.

Plot thread you're most looking forward to seeing in the future

I'm so, so interested in the Trailblazer's relationship with Kafka. Their ongoing plotline is deeply intertwined with hers, she even said as much herself, and I'm interested in their forgotten shared history too. I wonder if we'll ever know more about the time they spent with her and the Stellaron Hunters before she wiped their memory... And I'm looking forward to discovering more about that so-called destiny of theirs and how it intersect with hers.

Any other (generally positive) thought, theory, or headcanon that you've been dying to talk about, but haven't had the excuse to mention before

There it is, the question that has a 100% chance of wiping my memory as soon as it's asked. But! Here's a headcanon for you. March I think was the one who mentioned every got their own room on the Express, but so far there isn't one for the Trailblazer. So until a new update drops one, it'll be my firm belief that they sleep in everyone else's rooms. Particularly Dan Heng and March's, and occasionally all three of them in March's bed since she has the biggest one. All lined up in a cuddle pile like the dango trio they are 🍡

[princess-earthquake-the-third]

Finality,the trailblaze and stellarons, and a potential end of Hsr.

So I've been thinking a lot today and I had some ideas about the aeons.

So , Terminus the finality yeah? Aeon of the end, big deal probably,and evidently different enough than Nanook the destruction that the two can exist without one absorbing the other's path, which I think makes sense , because while the concepts may seem similar,I think the two are quite the opposites in their approach to those concepts.

Now , Finality has only been mentioned a few times so far, we only know a small amount about it compared to Destruction, but Finality is about the end in the sense that the end is inevitable and unchanging, their wisdom grants them knowledge of a definite end but no beginning.

Destruction however is a lot more active in the sense that they are working towards the end, the end will be brought by their hands(figuratively and literally).

Followers of the finality as far as I can remember don't really,how do you say, make the same impact that the emenators of destruction, lord ravagers, the antimatter legion and even the annihilation gang (even though it's been said that Nanook did not bless them with thier gaze) make in the universe.

That is to say, the finality knows the end , but the destruction makes it.

That aside, I've also been thinking about how the trailblaze is arguably the most compatible path with any path, this isn't to say that any follower of the trailblaze can become a path strider for other paths while also being a trailblazer, but well, we do have an abnormal case on our hands with TB(the main character,the Trailblazer,this is what I'll be referring to them with for the sake of avoiding confusion), TB has already been gazed upon by 2 aeons, the destruction,and the preservation.

The first aeon was most likely attracted by the will to destroy that TB displayed when fighting the lord ravager, while the preservation was most likely attracted by their determination to save belobog , as well as being potentially attracted by an object of significance (the lance that the first leader of Belobog used, who I wouldn't be surprised if she was in any way blessed by the preservation), and as they go on, TB will most likely catch the glances of every aeon of a playable path (and maybe the non-playable ones too), the reason TB is able to do this,aside from the stellaron hunters working in the background to guide them towards certain roads that lead to meeting an aeon, the stable stellaron TB has, and the fact that they were "made" for this so to say, could be that the trailblaze, a path supposedly without it's aeon (whose dead somehow) is a path that can be repurposed as a base for a new path,keep this idea in mind for the next part.

So Aeons, despite being all powerful,can still die, whether that happens by getting killed, or by their path getting absorbed or by some other way that we might not know, but even if an aeon is killed (not absorbed,killed) ,or they disappear, Thier path stays, the trailblaze still exists as a path, but it's without it's aeon,but what if someone becomes the aeon of a dead path?

What does it mean for a Trailblazer,with a stellaron for a heart, to be able to tap into several paths?well, the revival of the trailblaze in a new form, a form that can somehow includes other paths but does not absorb them, I wouldn't know how that would work though, there is no precedent for it, so this is all just conjecture.

So, Stellarons , seeds of disaster, cancer of the worlds, they just fuck shit up, but TB's is calm for some reason, and I'm thinking what if Stellarons aren't just what we've seen of them, technically speaking while they are sort of implied to be related to the destruction,there is a possibility that they're not destroyers by default,maybe they're just things made of imaginary energy that can be effected by any aeon, but I guess that doesn't explain why every stellaron we've heard of has been a disaster,but if it's true then that would work with what I said about the trailblaze and TB, a vessel that can adapt to several paths.

Now I've come up with 2 possible endings, 1) TB, having the power of several aeons behind them, fights against Nanook and their followers alongside all the allies that they made, and kills Nanook.ooooorrrrr TB creates a new path that absorbs the destruction in an attempt to stop it completely.

Now it's still too early to really guess but I've had this in my brain for quite a while.

Small note: I know not everyone refers to TB with they/them (for both Stelle and Caelus), some just say he/she (which is stupid just say they tbh) but it's kind of similar to how all the aeons have been referred to with They/them,no?

[maplesamurai]

Soundwave for the character ask, and to be silly Dry Bones too

For Soundwave:

How I feel about this character

One of my favourite Decepticons and definitely one of the major legacy characters of the franchise for good reason.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Shockwave for our fic and just generally speaking, but as for specific continuities, I ship him with Cosmos in IDW1, Sideways in Cybertron, Hot Rod in Cyberverse, he and Megatron are definitely divorced in Earthspark, and this is going to sound like an odd choice, but in Animated I kind of ship him with Slipstream, since while they never met in canon, back when the series had just ended, I read a continuation fic that had them meeting after the series finale and forming their own team of Earthbound Decepticons before eventually forming a romance, which has since stuck in my brain when it comes to shipping those characters where Animated is concerned.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I've always seen Ravage as the cassette Soundwave gets along with the best, and I also loved his friendship with GI Joe's Mainframe in the IDW comics.

My unpopular opinion about this character

As much as I like the Megatron loyalist characterization from the cartoon that's become the definitive personality for Soundwave, I wish we'd see more iterations that drew from other versions of the character, like the self-serving blackmailer he was described as in the original G1 toy bio.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I want to see him interact with more of his classic cassette companions than just Ravage, Laserbeak/Buzzsaw and Rumble/Frenzy. It'd especially be fun to see a traditionally loyal Soundwave bouncing off a Marvel/IDW style self-serving would-be Deception leader version of Ratbat.

For Dry Bones:

How I feel about this character

I really like playing him in Mario spin-offs for the aesthetic, and I like the "like other easily defeated grunts except it won't stay dead" gimmick as a Mario enemy.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Can't actually think of any for this one. Probably doesn't help that I see Dry Bones more as a species than as an individual character.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

For this one, I can actually say I've always seen Dry Bones and Boo as a de facto duo in games where they're both playable, and think they should be treated as an official pair the way Peach and Daisy or Wario and Waluigi are.

My unpopular opinion about this character

...Got to be real with you here, I don't think there's that many unpopular opinions one can have about Dry Bones of all characters.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

If we ever get an all-new classic style Paper Mario game (fingers crossed that the Thousand-Year Door remake's success leads to one), I hope we get a Dry Bones as one of the partner characters.

[aydaptic]

Hi there! Just passing by to ramble about how much I love your take on Gavin since he's also my favorite non-playable character in the game.

(Connor is my fave playable character ((predictable, ig?)) and I know [read it somewhere in your post, at least] you're not very fond of him, and that's okay.)

I know Gavin may not be everyone's favorite, but I just love how you see him differently regardless of what people say. I'm always relieved to read all your posts about him because it makes me feel like I'm crazy for even liking him while others are very against him.

I think some people are just conditioned to hate him instantaneously for being antagonistic towards Connor and Hank. And I think he has a good reason for it too. He's not a saint and I guess it's fine to like a character who's a bit cocky and with a lot of flaws.

But you had to admit that despite how seemingly shallow he is in the game, he does show a bit of his character upon extensive scrutiny and that's the beauty of what you're doing. I'll be reading (quietly) more of your opinions about this lovable jerk and I'll be loving every bit of it. ❤️❤️❤️

Hi :)

I'm glad to hear that. The toxicity/vitriol towards Gav has always made me concerned for humanity. It proves that so many ppl are incapable of thinking logically instead of emotionally. Where are their empathy? Likes/dislikes are subjective, but to say he's "nothing but a bad guy" and/or "has no redeemable qualities" are such brain-dead takes.

Despite his unpleasant attitude, Gav has every right to be canonically concerned about androids, and he has every right to believe they're not alive. It's logical. The guy doesn't have the insider knowledge that we, as players, do. Gav's not a psychic.

I love the gameplay of Con -- the detective aspect -- as well as his journey... but his awkward + overtly positive + doormat personality type annoys the shit out of me, lol. I'm Team Gavin Reed™ in disliking Con. Kudos to you for having enough intelligence to put aside your love for him and recognize that Gav has a point.

These are the reasons I've seen ppl hate Gav for:

some are too blinded by their love for Con and/or Hank (as you say)

some are narcissistic enough to feel entitled to their personal favorite characters having more fandom content (...and thus they take it out on fandom favorites)

some feel envious that Gav has the charisma to get away with being a dick (...and they aren't capable of doing the same bc they don't have charisma)

some try to take some BS moral high ground (...and fail)

some see parts of themselves in Gav and thus desperately try to convince others that, "I'm not like him!" (...and funnily enough, every Gav hater I've interacted with has proven themselves to be worse ppl than he is -- so yeah, they're not like him, they're worse)

some ppl are envious that Gav is better/more beloved than them and/or their favorite characters

some ppl hate white ppl (racists)

some ppl hate men (sexists/misandrists)

some ppl ignore the lead writer's statement that "the game is about androids and not race" so they can make it a modern-day political issue, and get brownie points saying stuff like "androids are real-life POCs meaning anyone who dislikes them is racist," bc they can't separate fiction from reality (...and thus they have the brain-dead take that Gav is "racist." I don't like AI such as ChatGPT taking jobs. Does that make me a racist, too?)

some ppl claim to hate Gav just bc it's popular (pack mentality)

some ppl just wanna create drama

some ppl are so starved for attention that they claim to hate him "just bc"

some ppl lack empathy (...and thus they don't understand what losing a job you love is like -- especially to someone who was just programmed to be better than you -- when you worked your ass off for decades getting said job)

some ppl didn't pay attention (...and thus they don't know that Gav had every right to step in both in The Interrogation and Last Chance, Connor bc Con was literally breaking the law)

some ppl see the world as black and white meaning they only think in extremes (...and are incapable of seeing the greys/finding balance)

some ppl are specifically looking to get triggered and thus bring up completely unrelated topics like "misogyny" bc god forbid you like Gav and not North even when they're completely different ppl (...and it's hypocritical that they protect North for hating humans, while at the same time, cursing Gav out for hating androids -- I don't go around with the false claim that, "you're sexist/misandrist for liking North and not Gav" bc I'm not an idiot)

That hatred is all based on emotions instead of rational thought.

"He's a dick!" So is Hank, North, and Con can be. "They have good reasons for it!" So has Gav. These ppl are in no position to decide who's 'the most' affected/traumatized, etc. bc we all react differently. Some are more distraught by their pet dying than a parent. That doesn't make their pain any less real.

Disliking him is fine, but don't give BS moral reasons for doing so. Sometimes we just don't vibe with a person/character and that's perfectly fine. Not vibing with someone, however, isn't hatred. It's apathy. Ppl who are just "meh" about him and don't spout BS excuses are valid.

[cvbullshit]

I got back to thinking about Player stuff and my contributions to making Players

I love Lemon still, they will still be baby, so nothing will be directed at them and they will still exist even if they're still inspired by Crimson

But

Hm

When it comes to Players, I feel either unhappy over what I made(the deltarune player design) or was inspired by others

Which a part of me doesn't like because I want to be more original with my Players even if I will probably never do anything with them

And I actually think I might use a concept that I talked to Redwolf about for representation of viewers/players/creators

And I will ramble about the concept here but it may end up having something slightly done with it in the future, which I won't give anything away on

People, let me introduce my contribution to the Player concepts; The 4th Wall

The 4th Wall is the player but it's also the viewer and a creator.. But also not. 4th Wall is more of a representation of all of those, it may refer to itself as certain people if compared because they are a representation of those people. They could technically be considered the god of the multiverse but they won't really.. Do anything. Of course they'll take the role of the player when it's time to game(which has no limit, they can play as ANY person, not just the red soul) but other than that they're just there to chill and watch. I can see them getting up to actually talking to anyone in the multiverse if they wanted and getting into wacky adventures.. But not helping, it's not their job to help unless it's specifically a playable game.

Though I could see a neat gag in something, say Underverse, where someone asks "Are you actually going to do anything to help?" And 4th Wall is just like "Uh. Sure!" And proceeds to control their body to make them do or say something that that specific person needed to say or do then be like "Okay, done! Did that help?"(though a fight scene of 4th Wall helping someone fight would be dope)

I view them as being a goofball, pretty dorky, maybe a bit clumsy. Kinda more in tune with Ink. They're not taking themselves seriously and so they come off as not very serious. They would go by literally any gender because they literally are ALL OF THEM. They are a male, they are a female, they're trans, they're non-binary, they're an it, demiboy, demigirl, ect.

I'm currently not sure on their design bc when I think of them I think of that one artist's concept of the anomaly where it's the transparent background shaped as a person.. But I of course don't want to copy that artist even if I absolutely love that concept, so a design will have to be thought up later

But yeah, here's 4th Wall, my second(the Deltarune Player is dead to me) contribution to Player concepts. And unlike my Deltarune Player, I AM keeping this one along with Lemon. Lemon and 4th Wall can be cousins. Why cousins specifically and not siblings? Idfk, it feels right

[loregoddess]

finished SB finally, and can now officially say I still hate siding w/ the person who started a war, although it was nice to finally get to play as the SB-locked characters even if this is just an expansion of their CF characterization

some collected venting under the cut so I can get it out of my system

the motive for starting the war makes even less sense in Hopes than it does in Houses, although this is somehow the most consistent Edelgard's characterization has ever been (since it lines up w/ her characterization in GW) and that's honestly amazing, even if it doesn't amount to much since she's got like six other characterizations

I'm still super not loving the implications of "Ferdinand was in the wrong for wanting a fair trial for his father, which for some reason got put off 2+ years" and basically everything else about the reforms the war's supposed to bring since again, they're not explained at all and are very suspicious when they are. I was never a big fan of CF in general or the characterization therein (except Hubert if only bc he plays into the role of "cartoonishly evil sorcerer advisor" so well, and also his characterization is solidly consistent which is a rarity), so having all the characters essentially be expansions of CF wasn't quite my cup of tea, although I will admit all of Petra's writing is A+ and actually an upgrade in some regards to Houses. Despite my disappointment at not seeing Ferdinand's non-CF characterization explored, his character in SB at least builds up his relationship with Hubert in a far more convincing way, and we still get to see how his perfection-driven anxiety issues are very bad for him, so there was that. Caspar's still a delight, although Lin seemed a lot more apathetic in SB than in the other routes which is...interesting, I suppose. Bernadetta is Bernadetta still, I feel like her overall writing took a bit of a blow in Hopes since the writers played into her social anxiety as a character trait gag more than Houses did. I still love Hubert and his writing continued to be consistent, and it feels a lot more clear that he does care about his comrades a lot but is terrible at normal social behavior and therefore fails to show he actually does care in any normal way (and he still maintains the cartoonishly evil sorcerer advisor gimmick which is a trope I honestly love). Dorothea is...still eh for me, I think the writers actually did her worse in Hopes than in Houses as well, maybe bc Hopes focused a lot more on her being a diva than on her personal life aspirations? Manuela falls into the same trap of being written for her character joke traits, although her personal battle skill was so fun that it made me wish they'd allowed Hanneman to be playable all over again (even if it makes no sense for either of them to side w/ Edelgard, but again, anyone associated w/ the church at the start of Houses got their character assassinated in Hopes). Monica was fun and it was neat to see her not dead, but damn was her obsession w/ Edelgard like, super unhealthy. to the point where Faye's obsession with Alm almost seemed okay (almost). Like. Girl. Please get some therapy.

aside from the characters the story was really eh for me. the pacing was better than GW, if nothing else, and this is the only ending that doesn't feel like it ends abruptly like how AG and GW do, even with the "war still continues on" or whatever--and the ending cutscene was visually impressive even if it once again makes no damned sense for Rhea or Thales. Also really wish the writers would explain how all the different church factions' doctrines actually differed from each other, but expecting the writing team to consult religious studies scholars to worldbuild their story is too much to expect for a team that can't even manage consistent worldbuilding to start with. Alas.

still, all this aside the mechanics are insanely fun, enough that I'm tempted to start up a brand new AG playthrough on a harder difficulty so I can continue grinding out class mastery and achievements and stuff. Not sure if I'll do that, but the thought is there. I hope I have to eat these words later, but it doesn't look like there'll be DLC (and I hate that I want there to be DLC), which is a shame bc we could have gotten the characters who should have been playable (Cyril, Hanneman, Alois, maybe Judith and Nader if we were lucky, maybe Miklan if the writers weren't spineless cowards about trying to explore his character beyond the "death equals redemption" trope), and maybe some more (possibly better) story content.

Honestly overall there's actually a lot about Hopes that I enjoyed, even if parts of the story and characterizations were a mess. So, all my complaining and muttering aside, the game was fun as heck, and if I could combine aspects of Houses and Hopes into one game, I think I'd have a project that I'd really enjoy both mechanically and narratively.

[gascon-en-exil]

Dark Deity Pre-Release Character Opinions

This isn't actually a tier list, but someone helpfully created a template for this game and it's as good a way as any to do a little visual showcase for this cast. Characters are listed by their class sets, which are fixed but offer a nice variety in terms of promotion options. My opinions on each are as follows, from left to right in each row. Most characters have introductory profiles written up on the DD subreddit, if you'd like to check them out yourself.

Warriors

Alexa

You know those buff female blacksmiths in Echoes and Three Houses that some people wish were playable characters? That's pretty much Alexa. Can't say I'm too hyped about her myself, but warrior + tomboyish female character will do that for me...or not do it, I suppose.

Benji

Seems to have been written to become a meme, and I still can't decide whether that's clever or stupid. Kind of like Raphael only with a bigger emphasis on training than on eating, and with brotherly devotion replaced with brotherly angst that might theoretically go somewhere if the character isn't reduced to being a goofy joke all the time.

Fenton

Doesn't have a character profile, so as far as I know he's just a generic dwarf because DD swaps out its inspiration's loli dragons and other vaguely fetishistic shapeshifters for the two most cliché non-human races in Western fantasy. I wonder whether his VA will voice him with a Scottish accent, to go all in on the (ironic?) laziness. There are a handful of elves in the playable cast, but Fenton is the only dwarf so for better or worse he's representing.

Helena

She's the embodiment of the FE exotic swordswoman archetype, but curiously DD seems to have turned that broad ethnic brush inward. Helena's last name is apparently a Japanese verb, her art shows her with a spear (as in the association of the naginata with women), and she studied and trained in a monastery that seems to blend elements of Buddhism and Shintoism. Not sure how all that fits into the larger setting yet, but at this point she's still got more background development than Petra.

Irving

Our Hero, the one front and center on the cover art. He sounds a bit on the blander side as far as lords or lord equivalents go, with his most promising hook for me being his established friendship with Garrick (see the ranger section). At best I can hope for a bit of a romantic friendship dynamic, although they sound a bit rougher overall as they're military academy schoolmates I wonder why DD went with that instead of lordlings of different territories.

Rogues

Brooke

Looks like Camilla; has a backstory like Niles. Cleavage aside though the sexual element of both is toned down here, and there might be some sapphic bodyguard shenanigans to be had as her current employers are a pair of highborn sisters further down this list.

Cia

For some reason she reminds me of Tressa from Octopath Traveler, only bustier and a bartender rather than a merchant. She's still just a small town girl with big city dreams, and this being a tactical war game following those dreams will inevitably involve stabbing people.

Corvan

Hard to judge him at the moment, as his profile was only the second written and so isn't terribly detailed. He's a moon elf with scholarly interests, apparently. Still, as of right now he's the only rogue who doesn't slot loosely into either a ninja/assassin or pirate aesthetic, so that's kind of neat. Also, he's one of several characters to have FEH-esque beach fanart made of them already, so clearly someone's into elf twinks.

Ford

A former officer at the military academy Irving attends and a smuggler who dotes on his niece, Ford has major dad energy. Per developer reveals he's also bi, and as I mentioned before I'm totally fine with that. More bear sex, please - but what guy in this cast would hop in the sack with Ford? Only time will tell. His personal skill makes him extra dodgy, which combined with the mug of booze in his art makes me think of WoW brewmasters who dodge-tank through the power of being wasted.

Wren

Like Brooke, he's an assassin from a foreign nation - in his case the same one as Helena so presumably he's a not!Japanese ninja. I'm not really feeling him at the moment. What is it about Hao'Fen (the city/territory he and Helena come from) and massive families? That comes up in both their backstories.

Rangers

Caius

I feel like this is the third or fourth character to grow up in some slum or other; at least they've all been in different towns so far. The relative rarity of noble characters is certainly different from FE, but it reduces the political stakes which leaves me wondering a bit about the story. Anyway, Caius is a small town desert hunter who learned how to make arrows out of animal bones. How aerodynamic is bone, I wonder?

Garrick

Irving's BFF and seemingly the Hector to Irving's Eliwood, only with more flirting (his intro doesn't specify that Garrick is flirting with women, but I'm not going so far as to say that indicates anything). He's the academy headmaster's son, with a strained relationship with his father for some of that hotheaded lead tension. Notably, his VA is the one I'm most familiar with in this cast, as he's the voice of Revali from Breath of the Wild as well as love interests in two different erotic gay dating sims I've played. In other words, I know what this guy sounds like making awkwardly simulated sex noises...and I have no idea what to do with that information.

Maeve

She's a half-elf with a very storied background, so much so that it's all rather hard to follow her exploits when little of what's being described has been fully revealed yet. I'm expecting her to be a mid/lategame recruit, unless she's dropped in early on to reveal that (sun) elves exist or something.

Rose

Imagine if Bernadetta were a commoner, although we can only hope they'll be less screaming. Alternatively, Neimi without an obvious boyfriend. She won the beach contest so now she has official swimsuit art, which I guess makes her a top-tier waifu in the eyes of players who care about such things.

Sophia

A ranger in the "has animal companions" sense, although whether that will come into play mechanically aside from her personal skill - Butter the ferret can attack with her! - remains to be seen. Her preference for the company of animals is explained by a lack of social graces, so prepare for klutz-related humor. Of note to those interested in F/F is that her introduction specifically brings up her connection with Sloane (see the mage section) and how close the two of them are.

Clerics

Faust

Doesn't have a profile yet, so not much to go off other than his decidedly unhinged look. The cleric class set does feature some darker-flavored options, so presumably he's more naturally aligned with those. His VA was announced to be the YouTuber behind So This is Basically Fire Emblem and other similar videos, so I'm picturing a kooky and somewhat demented Henry type.

Lincoln

Also lacks a profile at time of writing...clerics get so little love. The Discord has identified him a bland blond paladin sort, but as we know from the likes of Perceval and especially Dimitri that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be boring (or not gay).

Maren

The soft-spoken healer type, and also a childhood friend of Garrick although her intro sibling-zones him but then this game is inspired by FE so who knows if that'll stick. She may have some interesting thoughts on the theology of the setting, as there seem to be several faiths and she's said to have a complicated relationship with her own. I will be utterly shocked if she's not either Irving or Garrick's eventual love interest.

Samara

One of two princesses of the country of Aramor, which appears to be loosely inspired by the Middle East. Heaven help us if the Khalidstans ever get wind of this game. Unfortunately aside from her bond with her older sister (in the mage section) and the knowledge that Brooke has been hired as their bodyguard there's not much to Samara at the moment. Hopefully the clerics all do some comparative theology in their bond conversations, and this isn't like Sacred Stones where none of the clergy characters from different countries ever compare notes. The succession crisis involving Samara and her sister vs. their less-loved cousin the king's son might be a major plot hook? It's still too early to tell.

Vesta

Much like Maeve her backstory has entirely too much going on to really follow at the moment. Basically she's a human who grew up in a sun elf city because Reasons (seriously, I don't know what they are) and was called to a clerical vocation and also something about taking a journey. Has an unfortunate case of silly boob armor, which unlike a certain other character probably won't be rectified this close to release.

Mages

Alden

Maren's precocious younger brother, also basically Ricken up to and including the comically oversized hat. As a unit he follows the tradition of Donnel, Mozu, and Cyril of having a personal skill that buffs his stat gains, so it's safe to say he's a growth unit. At least he'll probably join early.

Liberty

Comes with dead brother angst and a connection to the "aspects" system that will hopefully make more sense once I've played the game and know how it functions both mechanically and from a storytelling perspective. Otherwise she looks to be a busty older - as in, not a teenage - mage in the vein of Calill.

Monroe

Got the first ever character profile, so it's really short. He's the son of a duke and sounds like a bit of a snob, albeit one that can make explosions happen to back up his haughtiness. He's got some scarring around his eye that surely must come with a story. Someone also made featured fanart of him in Heroes summer banner style, so I guess he's got somebody horny already.

Sara

Samara's half-sister, with comparable fantasy Middle Eastern flavoring. Has an interest in discovering magical artifacts and being a just ruler in the event she winds up on the throne (so, almost definitely), and she and Samara travel around with the assassin Brooke as their bodyguard. There's maybe some lesbian possibilities there? Either way, Sara has enough development where I could see her as a major supporting character.

Sloane

Comes with a genuinely fascinating backstory involving manipulative double-crossing parents, an education in the cruelties and deceptions of social life (reflected in her personal skill), and disinheritance - and yet it's all likely to be overshadowed because she may go down as DD's equivalent to Fates's face-touching. Her initial art is even more revealing than Camilla's, and while the developers later gave her a more modest redesign after negative feedback I get the feeling that this controversy may live on. Her introduction mentions her hunting for both heirs and heiresses and she's now been linked to Sophia, so safe to say she's another confirmed bi character.

Adepts

While the other class sets are standard fantasy fare adepts require a bit more explanation. They have innate magical abilities and appear to be feared and distrusted most places in the setting. Functionally they remind me of adepts from the Golden Sun series, if anyone is familiar with those games. The classes in the adept group tend more toward physical/magical hybridization than those of other sets, so that will probably be their mechanical niche. Oh, and their default weapon type is lances, which is a plus in my book.

Aurima

Along with Caius and the royal sisters, he's another one from the desert nation of Aramor. An arena fighter who got touched by a god in what I assume was a non-sexual way and came out of it with a new appearance and adept powers. Also, he's confirmed to be over 40 - how often do you see that in games like this?

Bianca

Looks like a more carefree Mathilda from Echoes. She's a ranking officer in the Delian army which sounds like it'd sit uneasily with her adept powers. Her profile describes Lincoln as her close friend, which is still about the most we know about him at this point.

Elias

This guy's writing plays more into the fairly standard coding that comes with adept powers, as we know they manifested shortly before he was going to confess his feelings to a male paramour and afterwards he was forced to flee his homeland and wander the world. He also spent time among dwarves, so insert short bear jokes here? In the present he's attached to Cia in what seems to be a platonic way; maybe she's a fruit fly, or maybe she just likes having a friend who can light drunken assholes on fire? Elias is definitely into guys, but I would still be a little surprised if he turned out to be totally gay as that's such a rarity in these sorts of things.

Iris

Oof, another lengthy and rough backstory. Iris had better parents than Sloane, but she also had to deal with permanent facial scarring (hence the mask) after a bandit kidnapping and the stigma of manifesting as an adept pretty much eliminating the prospects of her making a good political marriage. Also, she and Elias both come from Neullais, which is prominently featured on the continental map on the DD subreddit but doesn't seem to come up all too often in backstories. I think it's a not!France? Hard to tell.

Thae'lanel

A World of Warcraft blood elf, flowing anime hair and apostrophe'd name and all. I like WoW so that's not terribly grating, but as he has no profile yet there's little else I can say. Thae'lanel is mentioned in Maeve's introduction as a member of a sun elf group called the Exiled, which I'm guessing is tied to his adept status in some way. He and Maeve form yet another adventurer/bodyguard duo.