Eternal Darkness/Characters

The various characters from the game, and the year in which their chapters are set where applicable.

Alexandra Roivas - 2000 A.D.


""Well, you'd better find out who did this. I'm not leaving Rhode Island until you do.""


 * Action Girl
 * Badass Normal: She may tread into Badass Bookworm, being that she's working towards a degree in abstract mathematics. Like Grandfather, Like Granddaughter, really.
 * Bath Suicide: A one-time sanity effect.
 * Evil Phone: Another one-time sanity effect.
 * Hot Chick with a Sword
 * Jennifer Hale
 * Lightning Bruiser: Alex has only average health, but her sanity and magick meters are both generously-sized. Her magick refills twice as fast as other characters, she moves quickly, and she has access to a wide variety of good weapons by end-game.
 * Magic Knight: Has a reliable melee weapon and a strong firearm (and possibly a combination of both of these later), and her aforementioned magick replenishment ensures she doesn't have to go long without spellcasting.
 * Meaningful Name
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Screams this almost verbatim after.
 * Nested Story: Every other character's chapters are explored from within her own chapter "A Death in the Family...".
 * Raised by Grandparents: After her parents died, Edward raised her.
 * Secret Legacy: There's quite a bit she doesn't know about her family before the game.
 * Took a Level in Badass: She goes from a college student/mathemetician who just ended up tangled up in the business of the Ancients to mowing down zombies with a shotgun (or other firearm of choice), and finally.

Dr. Edward Roivas - 1952 A.D.


""The Guardians grow restless. Their time once again near. Whether by fate or misfortune, my family has crossed their path... and they didn't take kindly to it.""


 * Badass Bookworm
 * BFG: The Elephant Gun. You have three guesses as to what it was designed to take down. If not properly braced, the recoil will knock you flat on your back. And damn does it pack one hell of a punch. And that's before you enchant it. Enchanted, it has a decent chance of scoring a one hit kill on pretty much any enemy.
 * Booze-Based Buff: He has a flask of "Liquid Courage" to restore sanity. Might also double as Bottled Heroic Resolve.
 * Cool Old Guy
 * Glass Cannon: Edward has access to two of the most powerful guns in the game: the double shotgun and the elephant gun. His magick and sanity meters are also large, but he ties for the smallest health meter in the game. Do not let him get hit by a Horror or a powerful Magickal Attack unless he has a shield in place.
 * Jerkass: One scene has him reveal he is annoyed that Alex didn't die alongside her parents and he had to raise her because of it..
 * Magic Knight: With said health meter, use the "shield" and "pool" are very helpful for his combat heavy chapter. It is almost required to abuse them in a Chattur'gha game (as things do more damage).
 * Meaningful Name
 * My Death Is Only the Beginning:.
 * Off with His Head:.
 * Posthumous Narration
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: His narrations.
 * The Shrink: Type 3 (Awesome Shrink) based on his Eldritch Abomination-fighting skills, its implied that Peter Jacob saw him for treatment.
 * So Proud of You: To Alex in the endgame.
 * Spirit Advisor:, Edward appears to Alexandra at times as she reads chapters in the Tome of Eternal Darkness, at first with comforting words, but then he gets increasingly creepy;.

Pious Augustus - 26 B.C.


""Face me and you shall surely perish.""


 * The Dragon:
 * The Starscream: To Xel'lotath, or so she believes.
 * Big Bad Duumvirate: Despite the split personalities, Xel'lotath does seem to treat Pious as a marginal equal to it.
 * Dragon-in-Chief: Towards Chattur'gha.
 * Dude, Where's My Respect?: ALL of the Ancients treat him like crap, no matter how vital he is to their plans. Specifically, Chattur'gha thinks Pious' plans are unnecessary nitpicking, Ulyaoth reduced him to a groveling ass kisser, and working with someone with a split personality would be trying for ANYBODY as shown with Xel'lotah, who also enjoys reading his mind.
 * Evil Gloating: Pious is a huge fan of this... So much so, that he even gloats to Mantorok!
 * Evil Is Hammy
 * Glamour Failure: Just before the beginning of Roberto's chapter, some random knight sees through Pious' disguise. Pious congratulates him, then has him used as the foundation of the pillar of flesh.
 * It happens again later.
 * Heroic Spirit: Pious is the only playable character who completely lacks a Sanity Meter.
 * Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Manages to miss Lindsey every damn time. But then, he is an Imperial Stormtrooper.
 * Louis Cypher: Be very afraid if you meet someone called Paul/Phillipe Augustine...
 * Mighty Glacier: As the final boss. He shuffles rather slowly, but his staff and his spells hit really hard.
 * My Death Is Just the Beginning: Trope Namer.
 * Nerves of Steel: Pious is the only character without a sanity bar. In gameplay terms, this essentially means that when terrifying undead monsters rise up to fight him, he is immune to their attacks on his mind and simply begins killing them without a second thought. Being a Roman Centurion (and thus the only career solider among the playable characters) might help with this. Either that, or he was already insane to begin with. He hears the Ancients calling to him before he makes it into the shrine where the Artifacts are kept, but doesn't seem to think much of it...
 * Our Liches Are Different
 * Start of Darkness: He is the first character in the tome you play as, and in it, you witness him set the plot in motion by getting lichified.
 * The Undead
 * Yes-Man: To Ulyaoth.

Ellia - 1150 A.D.


""I only wish something that fantastic and of higher purpose could happen to me.""


 * And I Must Scream: Pious kills her after.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: She wanted adventure...
 * Break the Cutie
 * I Just Want to Be Special
 * Kukris Are Kool: It's referred to as a "Short Sword", but it's the same model as Lindsey's kukri.
 * The Load: She can't actively cast spells outside of using an enchanted amulet a finite number of times to heal herself, and her health and magick meters are both tiny. In addition, she can permanently lose her only decent weapon, the Short Sword, if you fail to save a NPC.
 * Miles to Go Before I Sleep: She was conscious the entire time she held Mantorok's essence. 800+ years before, she could lay down her burden.
 * Poisoned Weapons: The blowgun.
 * Stripperiffic: Ellia isn't exactly dressed for the occasion. Justified, since a Cambodian dancer slave from 1150 A.D. would probably be forced to dress like that.
 * Wrecked Weapon: Her blade after a fall through a secret passage. It's repairable if you save the right NPC before the zombies kill him.

Anthony - 814 A.D.


""If this was meant for Charlemagne then what will become of him?! I have to warn him of this treachery!""

Mighty Glacier: As the scroll's curse takes hold, he gets progressively slower.
 * And I Must Scream: After he reads the scroll, he's steadily turned into a zombie. Post his chapter, he spends several centuries locked alone in an abandoned section of the cathedral going completely insane from despair and agony unable to even die normally until Paul makes him.
 * Battle Butler: Taken upon himself.
 * BFS: The two-handed sword. Even a scrawny messenger can cleave a zombie in half with it. And he'd better get it if you want Paul to have access to it later.
 * Cam Clarke
 * Determinator: Even after 600 years, what's left of him is still trying to warn Charlemagne.
 * Eye Scream: One of the gemstones needed for a puzzle in Paul's chapter is lodged inside of Anthony's eye socket. The red one, of course.
 * Impeded Messenger
 * The Klutz
 * Lightning Bruiser: He has average to above-average meters in all three main stats, the second-best melee weapon in the game, and the curse will also revive him from death if he is killed.
 * Sacrificial Lion
 * You Got Murder: The scroll.

Karim - 565 A.D.


""The things I do for love...""


 * BFS: The good old Ram Dao, which is capable of killing even Horrors with a single hit if properly enchanted.
 * Dogged Nice Guy: His chapter takes place during an attempt to impress the girl he loves. So much for that.
 * Dual-Wielding: His Tulwars.
 * Lightning Bruiser: He has only average magick and sanity (and his sanity will quickly drop considering the amount of Bonethieves in the level), but Karim ties for the largest health bar in the game, has high running stamina and speed, and the Ram Dao is obscenely powerful.
 * Love Makes You Dumb: Even after he found out that Chandra had two-timed him and gotten herself killed, and the only way he could be with her was by getting himself killed as well, he still took her Kiss of Death. "The things I do for love..."
 * Multi Mook Melee: The gauntlet of Zombies and Horrors that he must endure after taking the Ram Dao, as well as at his chapter's end.
 * Rings of Death: He has a small supply of chakrams.
 * Together in Death: With Chandra.
 * Together in Death: With Chandra.

Dr. Maximilian Roivas - 1760 A.D.


""Dear god, I had to do it... had to...""


 * Cassandra Truth
 * The Colonial Period: His chapter "The Lurking Horror", which is only appropriate since this same time period figured into several H.P. Lovecraft backstories.
 * Foreshadowing: One of the sanity effects involves an asylum room. His ultimate fate? Trapped in an asylum.
 * Go Mad from the Revelation
 * Guns Akimbo: Dual wielding flintlock pistols.
 * Large Ham: For an extra helping of ham, listen to his narration of the autopsies. He's overweight too.
 * Meaningful Name
 * Mighty Glacier
 * Monster Compendium: His autopsies.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: What got him sent to the asylum? He murdered his entire serving staff, convinced they were all infested with Bonethieves. Some of the staff were likely possessed but evidence suggests that innocent people were among those killed. He may have felt he couldn't take the chance given the stakes, but that defense doesn't work too well in court.

Dr. Edwin Lindsey - 1983 A.D.


""You are a scholar Dr. Lindsey, not a warrior.""

- Pious Augustus


 * Adventurer Archaeologist: As an Homage to Indiana Jones. Notable in that he's virtually the only character who is well-prepared to fight the monsters before he finds the Tome.
 * Badass Bookworm: "You are a scholar, Dr. Lindsey, not a warrior." That doesn't stop him from... anything, really.
 * Badass Normal: Can be applied to virtually any PC in this game, but Lindsey is a special case because he not only lives, but shows virtually no negative side effects from his little jaunt into a Cosmic Horror Story.
 * Crazy Prepared: A Remington M-870 shotgun, a Colt .45, a kukri, a torch and his archaeologist's brush. And that's just his starting equipment.
 * Determinator: He has the option to simply leave the temple but won't as nobody crosses Edwin Lindsey. Not even if that someone's an undead horror.
 * Kukris Are Kool
 * Last-Name Basis: The good Dr. Lindsey is even addressed in the game's text as just "Lindsey".
 * Lightning Bruiser: Lindsey has above-average health, the highest sanity meter in the game, average magick, and a great weapon arsenal.

Paul Luther - 1485 A.D.


""I managed to find remnants of his journal and it all points to Augustine's involvement with a paganistic cult operating inside the Cathedral!""


 * Carry a Big Stick: He wields a mace.
 * Good Shepherd
 * The Many Deaths of You: Paul, depending on Pious' given Ancient, can die in three different ways—by getting flattened under the red Guardian's claw, stomped by the blue Guardian's foot, or His Head A Sploded psychically by the green Guardian.
 * Mercy Kill: He does this for, finally putting him out of his misery and offering him last rites.
 * Sacrificial Lion
 * Simple Staff: Useless as a weapon, but can restore some sanity.
 * The Spanish Inquisition: His chapter "Heresy!" albeit technically in France.
 * Squishy Wizard: His magic and sanity are pretty good, but his health and stamina are low.

Roberto Bianchi - 1460 A.D.


""The foundations are infested! Demons and devils! Many lives will be lost if you try to build there!""


 * Bad Boss: He's not only unknowingly in the forced service of the evil Pious, but he's being made to survey and oversee crucial repairs to damaged structures whilst demons try to kill him.
 * Buried Alive
 * Mighty Glacier: Roberto has above-average health, average sanity, ties for the smallest magick meter in the game, is extremely slow (even moreso than Maximillian), and he tires quickly. His two primary weapons are a saif sword and crossbow. The saif causes decent damage but has a very wide swinging arc, and it often gets caught on walls in narrow corridors. The crossbow also inflicts good damage, but it only holds one round and has a very long reload time.
 * Only the Worthy May Pass: Karim and Chandra's specters subject Roberto to this before they relinquish the Ancient's essence to him.
 * Renaissance Man: Literally: he's a Venetian architect during the period of the Renaissance.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Despite eventually completing the task at hand, he ends up dead for his troubles anyways.

Peter Jacob - 1916 A.D.


""...And that was how I came by it. I know it sounds crazy but there you have it.""


 * Action Survivor: All the Chosen besides Karim (a swordsman) and possibly Michael (a Gulf Wartime fireman) qualify for this, but as for the trope name, Peter actually survives.
 * Badass Normal: A VERY common trait in this game, but Peter gets special appreciation for punching out an Eldritch abomination that demolished a previous character in no time flat after fighting through one of the most combat-intensive levels in the game, and for actually SURVIVING into ripe old age with fairly few problems.
 * Improvised Weapon: He carries his photography flash pan with him and can use it to stun mooks with the burst of light.
 * Intrepid Reporter
 * Squishy Wizard: One of the best magic-users out of the cast, very low sanity and health and too physically weak to wield the two-handed sword easily.
 * Wizard Duel: Versus the Black Guardian.
 * World War I: His chapter "The War to End All Wars".

Michael Edwards - 1991 A.D.


""The Guardians know where I am and I won't last the night. But that's not the point...""


 * An Axe to Grind: Not that you'll be using it much, given his armament.
 * Better to Die Than Be Killed: Originally planned for Michael suiciding in front of Edward; changed to leave his fate ambiguous when this proved "too depressing".
 * BFG: The OICW. Wow, that is a hell of a gun. There are multiple settings: single-shot, burst shot and full automatic. It even has a grenade launcher. The downside? When you run out of ammo, you are out for good because there is none lying around. Good thing you start with a lot.
 * Dumb Muscle: Ties with Karim for the largest health bar in the game and has access to an automatic rifle and a grenade launcher. Both his magick and sanity meters, however, are pathetic.
 * Gulf War: His chapter "Ashes to Ashes".
 * Infinite Flashlight
 * Power-Up Letdown: Most characters receive the Tome straightaway and can start casting magic before facing any monsters. Michael, however, must first endure enough rooms in the Forbidden City to complete a puzzle, and even then, his Mana Meter runs out quickly.

The Ancients
Common Tropes:
 * Eldritch Abomination: Based off of H.P. Lovecraft, so naturally.
 * Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Each of the three primary ancients (excluding Mantorok) is strong against one and weak against one of the other Ancients.
 * The End of the World as We Know It: Each primary Ancient is trying to bring it about..

Mantorok



 * Beat Still My Heart: Mantorok's essence is one of its still-beating hearts.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Well, sort of. Mantorok draws its power from death, decay and entropy, and Pious claims that it "corrodes the universe" just by existing. However, it opposes the three villainous Ancients, and used to be a fertility god to the region around its temple. Perhaps it just has a soft spot for humans.
 * De-Power: Due to being bound by Pious, Mantorok can no longer fuel Summon Magic.
 * Shape Shifter: Upon examining Mantorok directly, Lindsey hypothesizes that it is one of these. This is further implied by the many different forms that Mantorok takes within the frescoes on the walls inside its temple.
 * Shape Shifter: Upon examining Mantorok directly, Lindsey hypothesizes that it is one of these. This is further implied by the many different forms that Mantorok takes within the frescoes on the walls inside its temple.
 * Shape Shifter: Upon examining Mantorok directly, Lindsey hypothesizes that it is one of these. This is further implied by the many different forms that Mantorok takes within the frescoes on the walls inside its temple.

Chattur'gha


""It is of no matter, for the power I will wield on my return will crush all that oppose me.""


 * Dumb Muscle: Subverted. It is a god of strength and definitely doesn't seem to display Ulyaoth or Xel'lotath's level of intelligence, nor does it put the same value on it that Ulyaoth seems to, but it's certainly not dumb. The conversations between Chattur'gha and Pious do, however, seem to imply that the Ancient leaves much of the Evil Planning to Pious.
 * Evil Sounds Deep: To almost guttural levels.
 * Might Makes Right: A firm believer in it's strength being the only real quality required to overcome its enemies. This is true when he encounters Xel'lotath, but not so much against Ulyaoth.
 * Tractor Beam: Uses one to drag Xel'lotath into his claw before tearing her to shreds.

Ulyaoth


""The Universe is a yawning chasm, filled with emptiness and the purile meanderings of sentience.""


 * Audio Erotica/Compelling Voice
 * The Chessmaster
 * Dimension Lord
 * Portal Cut: Ulyaoth's preferred method of attack. It is also a fan of Frickin' Laser Beams.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness
 * Smug Snake: In conversations between Pious and Ulyaoth, Pious is a Yes-Man and merely listens to whatever orders that the Ancient supplies. On the rare occasion that Pious does offer a (usually good) suggestion, Ulyaoth always treats him with disdain.

Xel'lotath


""He lies... as do well all.""


 * Jennifer Hale: Its voice actress. One of them, at any rate.
 * Power Born of Madness: Is the Anthropomorph- Errr, whatever it is Personification of it.
 * The Schizophrenia Conspiracy: Xel'lotath seems convinced that Pious is a Starscream.
 * Sickly Green Glow: Its color of choice.
 * Split Personality: It's delightfully creepy hearing it talk to itself.