Rance/Characters/Other Creatures

Outside of the Human and Monster Realms, there are many other creatures and monsters living in the Continent, most of them actually being able to communicate by language. Their affiliation greatly varies since they aren't working for the Monster Army, except for the Angels and Oni who directly serve the Gods Hierarchy. This page regroups all of the standard non-humans met by humans in their everyday life.

Main character page.

= Previous Protagonist Race =

Round Ones
The first Protagonist Race created by the Gods, to test the Planner Scenario, making them the first living beings to ever exist on the Continent. Their designated enemies were creatures known as Shellfish, and war quickly broke out between them.

However, they ended up branded as failures by the Gods due to their weakness, and were terminated (although their data were recycled to make additional Monsters), with only a few remaining.

Among them, the strongest of the Round Ones, Kkulf Kkulf, was selected by Planner as the very first Archfiend, and Kayblis, future Big Bad of the series, became the first Fiend under its rule.

General Round Ones Tropes

 * Adaptive Ability: The Lis, while being average at best, possess the unique ability to evolve their bodies over time to suit a particular need.
 * Become a Real Boy: One of the many uses of the Lis' gimmick, by the likes of Wuu and Kayblis.
 * Conflict Ball: Their whole purpose was to start a war against the Shellfish for the sake of the Creator God's drama, on top of making them an accidental pun on this trope.
 * Dash Attack: Since Circles lack arms, all they can do was to charge at the enemy without much of a strategy.
 * Joke Character: They were stated to be very weak and weren't able to shine during their time as the Protagonist Race. Averted with their updated versions at the times of the series, such as the deadly Orbs.

Kkulf Kkulf
The first Archfiend of the setting and the most powerful up to this day. See his entry in Rance Archfiends.

Kayblis
The first Fiend created by Kkulf Kkulf as part of an experience. See his entry in Rance Fiends.

Wuu
Appearing in Rance 03, he's a Lis that fell in love with a human woman.


 * Humanity Ensues: Rance, trying to justify why Wuu's and Rola's relationship is wrong, tells him that if he wants to have a relationship with a human woman, he has to become human himself. To everyone's shock, Wuu actually succeeds in this, by abusing his race's Adaptive Ability to transform his body.
 * Interspecies Romance: He's in love with Rola Indus, a human woman. The feeling is mutual: Rola loves him just as much.
 * Nonmalicious Monster: Rance is hired to rescue Rola from him, as the people believe he kidnapped her. Turns out he's a perfectly nice guy and he didn't so much kidnap Rola as elope with her.

Dragons
After the failure of the Round Ones, the Dragons were the second Protagonist Race created by the Gods, with the objective of making up for their predecessors' weakness. As such, they were given unaging bodies, great strength and wisdom. Shortly after being created, they entered in a war against Kkulf Kkulf, who had become the first Archfiend.

The war would only end after 2000 years of all-out fighting, with the Dragon Abel landing the finishing blow: due to its cursed blood, Abel unwillingly became the second Archfiend after bathing in its blood. Roughly a decade later, war broke out once again, after the kidnapping of Camilla, the sole female Dragon, who was turned into a Fiend (effectively ending the only means of reproduction for Dragons). Abel was ultimately defeated by the King Dragon Magiihoa in a one-on-one duel, and was sealed to prevent the creation of another Archfiend.

The Dragons then started the building of a wordly utopia known as the United Kingdom of Tron, ensuring everending peace. This angered the Gods due to the lack of drama and violence, and caused them to be branded as failures. Under the commanding of the 2nd Class Goddess La Vaswald, multiple armies of thousands of angels descended upon the Continent and proceeded to exterminate the Dragons for several centuries until a handful of them remained.

After having learned from the Round Ones' weakness and the Dragons' strength and wisdom, the Gods created the third and still existing Protagonist Race: Humans.

General Dragons Tropes

 * Immortality: All of them were granted eternal life, and as such the surviving Dragons up to the LP Era are over 4000 years old.
 * One-Gender Race: Pretty much the only weakness of the Dragons is that there was only ever one female Dragon, namely Camilla. This meant that reproduction was extremely slow going, and when Camilla was sterilized by being turned into a Fiend, their race was effectively doomed from that point on.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: They appeared much like a standard Western dragon, though they could appear in a variety of different colors. Different subspecies like Golden Dragons, Lightning Dragons, and Platinum Dragons are said to have existed, though details are scarce. They were also intelligent (even moreso than humans) and could wield powerful magic. A number of them are suggested to have shapeshifting abilities, which many of the surviving dragons are using to avoid detection.
 * Utopia: Their nation, Tron, is described as having been a perfect society knowing no suffering or wars. At least until the gods descended upon it for the crime of being peaceful.
 * Too Cool to Live: They were immensely strong, extremely intelligent, and had lifespans of many thousands of years. Roven-Pan was forced to annihilate them because they were too perfect. Even then it took the gods themselves around 700 years to actually carry out the purge, since the Dragons fought back.

Magiihoa / "King Dragon"
The king of the Dragons, and among the most powerful of their kind to ever live. He was present at the final battle against Kkulf-Kkulf, and is known to have personally done a good deal of damage to the Archfiend, though he did not strike the killing blow. He is also the one who defeated and sealed away Archfiend Abel. He survived the gods' purge of his kind and continues to live in the current age, having shapeshifted into the form of a strange humanoid cat that calls itself "KD".


 * All-Powerful Bystander: Being the strongest of a race of beings stronger than any that exist on the Continent today means he's pretty high up on the power scale, ranking among the most powerful mortal beings in existence. However, following the destruction of his race he has no ambitions and remains in hiding.
 * Asskicking Equals Authority: Quickly became the Dragon King thanks to his gigantic strength.
 * Beware the Silly Ones: Despite having a reduced strength in his cat form, he's still a force to be reckoned with: his character card in Rance X is only surpassed in raw strength by Hornet and Arios.
 * Cat Folk: The disguise he's chosen to wander the world. Those who meet him have no idea who he truly is, and are puzzled by his existence (as cat-people do not exist as a race on the Continent).
 * Hidden Depths: Who would suspect a cat-like humanoid to be the former Dragon King?
 * The Jester: In his guise as KD, he wanders the Continent as a trickster, amusing himself by giving quizzes to adventurers he meets.
 * Meta Guy: Sometimes mentions trivia about the Rance series or the studio Alicesoft.
 * Perpetual Smiler: As KD, he sports a wide grin at any time.
 * Physical God: He possesses a Lv3 Skill in Dragon, making him the strongest Dragon in existence. This is taken a step further considering his feats, as he managed to defeat an Archfiend on a one-on-one duel!

Abel
The second Archfiend following the death of Kkulf-Kkulf. See his entry on Rance Archfiends.

Camilla
The only female Dragon to ever live and the wife of Dragon King Magiihoa, who was turned into a Fiend by Abel. See her entry on Rance Fiends.

Noce
An Earth Dragon turned into a Fiend by Jill. See his entry on Rance Fiends.

Cantel
A white dragon found slumbering on the floating landmass of Ylapu. He is suffering from a bad cold, causing the temperature around him to drop to below freezing.


 * Chekhov's Gunman: He seems to disappear after giving Rance the N Key. He shows up suddenly in the epilogue, helping Freak Paraffin, Hubert, and Hunty Kalar escape the falling island. Rance X reveals he joined up with Patton's group after that.
 * The Dreaded: It says something about how fearsome the dragons are that someone as arrogant as Rance thinks twice about fighting one... even a sick, injured dragon.
 * An Ice Person: It's unclear whether it's a native power of his species or if it's just his cold causing it, but he passively generates intense cold around him. Once Rance gets him some medicine, this stops.

= Monsters Species =

Haniwa
A race of bizarre creatures resembling living clay sculptures. Usually called "Hannies" in-game. They were created during the KK Era as a race of monster for the Dragons to battle against, and have survived the purge of the old world to live on in humanity's era.

General Hanny Tropes

 * Action Bomb: Puchi Hannies are tiny hannies that make up for their relative fragility with the ability to explode with tremendous force. This doesn't kill them, and the corpses remain explosive after they die. Puchi Hanny corpses are often used as the Continent's equivalent to dynamite.
 * Affectionate Parody: Many of them are a parody of TADA, the director of the Rance games, who is known to shout "Moe!" upon seeing Meganekko, not unlike Hannies do in the series.
 * Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Golden Hannies are gigantic and extremely strong constructs rarely encountered by adventurers. They aren't actually hannies, but hanny-shaped golems or robots. Nobody's really sure who created them or why, including the hannies themselves.
 * Beware the Silly Ones: Hannies have a reputation for being very weak and their bizarre personalities reduce them to comic relief most of the time. However, some hannies can be extremely strong, enough to be post-game challenges or even superbosses.
 * Catchphrase: "Aiyah!" when hurt or frightened. "Haniho!" to a lesser extent, usually used as a Battlecry.
 * Color-Coded for Your Convenience: a hanny's relative strength level can be determined by its color: brown->green->blue->red->black->yellow. Female hannies are always pink. Mutants may be other colors still.
 * Fantastic Slurs: "Pottery", by humans. Explicitly used in the manner of a racist pejorative rather than a common nickname.
 * Living Statue: They closely resemble mobile clay statues. Their flesh is said to have a bizarre texture: not quite hard but not quite soft either. Their bodies rapidly turn to regular clay when they die, and new hannies are born via their parents taking clay from each other's bodies and literally "baking" the child into existence in a special furnace.
 * Mascot Mook: One of the most recognizable mooks in the Rance series, often used as a mascot.
 * Non-Malicious Monster: While many hannies are "feral" and attack humans like any other monster, plenty of hannies have no problem with humans and live alongside them peacefully. The Continent's economy is in fact managed almost entirely by hannies, who produce the Gold coins everyone uses as currency.
 * No-Sell: All hannies possess "Absolute Magic Defense", which means that they cannot be harmed by magic, no matter how powerful it is. This applies to the strongest hannies all the way down to the weakest.
 * Signature Move: The "Hanny Flash" is a spell all hannies possess that ignores their target's defensive attributes. The strength of the spell depends on the strength of the individual hanny.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Hani Rice, which forms the bulk of what they eat. Humans can eat it safely, but consider it very bland and tasteless.

Hanny King
The immortal leader of the hanny race. He is a unique, white hanny who wears a crown and cape, and wields a scepter. He is unbelievably powerful in terms of magic, moreso than any human has ever been.


 * Author Avatar: His personality is based on TADA, former CEO of Alice Soft and director of the Rance games.
 * Bonus Boss: Some games allow the player to fight him as a post-game optional boss. He's usually among the greatest challenges in the post-game.
 * The Good King: He is universally beloved by all hannies, and he is a lot wiser than one would expect of a hanny, though he still possesses their quirkiness. He's also friendly to humans who have not wronged him or his subjects.
 * Immortality: He has been alive since the hannies were first created (ie, somewhere around 5700 years old), and shows no signs of age or breaking down. It's unclear whether he's truly immortal or if he could be killed by something powerful enough.
 * Super Empowering: He can give humans special powers if he desires it. In Rance VI, he grants Rizna the same Absolute Magic Defense that all hannies possess, rendering her immune to magic attacks. It's also been stated he can cure virtually any disease.

Kagekatsu
A puchi hanny wearing a samurai helmet. He wandered into Genbu's Castle and befriended Rizna, dedicating himself to protecting her and helping her escape.


 * Faking the Dead: To give Rizna the final push she needs to escape Genbu's Castle, he pretends to betray and attack her and Rance on the way out, and uses his racial ability to explode upon losing the fight. He meets up with her again outside the Castle, where he explains his actions and she forgives him.
 * The Mentor: He acts like this toward Rizna. Knowing how gullible she can be, he advises her on what to do and who to trust.
 * Only Friend: To Rizna, being the one person to come to Genbu's Castle to actually have her best interests in mind, after a long string of abusive men.

Masuzoe
A hanny Fiend, also known as the Lord of the Abyss. See his entry on Rance Fiends.

Nagata-kun
A hanny met by El Mofus in Rance X: Part 2. He becomes El's first friend and sidekick.


 * Blood Brothers: Declares himself to be El's "Soul Friend".
 * The Lancer: He assumes this role toward El throughout the story.
 * Non-Mammalian Hair: He's one of the only hannies to have hair, though it could possibly be a wig.

Third Generation Monsters (Guy and Gal Monsters)
Following the creation of humanity as a third Protagonist Race, Planner opted for a different system of monsters to oppose them. Rather than create dozens of different races, he created one super-race of Monsters: all kinds of Monster can interbreed with each other, and new forms of Monsters can be created through cross-breeding in some circumstances. While they are under the command of the Archfiend, many of them live in the wilds of the Human Realm rather than the Monster Realm. They are divided by gender, known as "Guy Monsters" and "Gal Monsters".

Guy Monsters

 * Always Chaotic Evil: Enforced. Though monsters usually have free will, they are magically compelled to obey Fiends and the Archfiend. As a result, they have been at war with humanity since their creation. There are very rare cases of monsters and human co-existing peacefully (when there are no Fiends around), but even in these cases the peace tends to be strained.
 * Gender Equals Breed: Any given combination of Guy Monster and Gal Monster can reproduce, with the children being the species of their father if male, or the species of their mother if female.
 * Mars Needs Women: Sometimes Guy Monsters will abduct human women rather than kill them. They can't actually reproduce with humans, but this doesn't stop them. The fact that Gal Monsters almost universally look like human women might explain this.
 * Monstrous Humanoid: Some varieties of Guy Monsters appear human (or close to human, anyway), though no one ever seems to be fooled into thinking that one is actually human.
 * Our Monsters Are Different: There is an extreme variety of different kinds of Guy Monster, with several hundred different sub-species having been seen across the franchise. They range from looking almost human, to bestial, to just downright bizarre.

Gal Monsters

 * Cute Monster Girl: Almost all Gal Monsters take the form of young human women with minor monster traits. Some of them are nearly indistinguishable from actual human women, except for their usual hostility. There are some exceptions, however, such as the Oni-Hag.
 * Made a Slave: Capturing Gal Monsters for slaves is a lucrative practice among humans. The slavers tend to exclusively go after Gal Monsters due to their generally being cute and attractive.
 * Single Specimen Species: Rare Gal Monsters are unique, and are frequently among the more powerful Gal Monsters, displaying strange and strong abilities.
 * We Are as Mayflies: Gal Monsters tend to have very short lifespans, only living 8 - 10 years on average. The Four Holy Gal Monsters are the exception, being immortal.
 * Whale Egg: Regardless of sub-species, all Gal Monsters give birth via laying eggs.

Doodle Beasts
Strange-looking beings artificially created through magic. They appear as living drawings, generally of very poor quality. The most well-known creators of these beings are the Sketch Gal Monsters, though it is not a skill exclusive to them.


 * Beware the Silly Ones: Most Doodles are very weak, but some can be extremely strong. Those who judge their power by their appearance can be in for a great shock.
 * Creating Life: They are technically alive but do not possess a soul, nor can they reproduce on their own. They merely act according to very simple instincts and orders given by their master.
 * Non-Malicious Monster: While the vast majority are created to be living weapons and are hostile to humans, some are created benign and are even kept as pets.

Holy Skeletal Fighting Marshal
Constructs made by the Holy Magic Sect to serve as foot soldiers in their army. Somewhere between robots and zombies, they're made out of the corpse of a mage, augmented with both magic and technology.

Originally, they fought against the armies of the Archfiend Gai under the command of the Holy Magic Sect, safeguarding humans. However, in his last days, the insane MM Rune gave them the command to exterminate any humans not part of the Holy Magic Sect, and no one else was able to redact the order. Since the Sect doesn't exist anymore, this basically means they attack any human they find. Due to this, they are considered no different from monsters in the modern age, and most people are unaware of their true nature.


 * In the Hood: They all wear a pointed hood reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan.
 * Lost Technology: No one knows how to make any more of them, as the secrets of "Holy Magic" died with the Sect.
 * Perpetual-Motion Monster: As they are animated by magic, they have no need for rest or sustenance, and they can repair themselves with "Holy Magic", so they continue fighting hundreds of years after being left to rheir own devices.
 * Putting on the Reich: Their spells are named after WWII-era German weapons, and their model names are the names of prominent Nazi party members. About the only words they're able to speak is "Heil MM Rune! Yes!"
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: They are effectively robot zombie mages.
 * Theme Naming: With the exception of "Rejection" (a heavily damaged Marshall unable to fully repair itself), all of their model names are the names of Nazi party officials. Oddly, the "Hitler" model is only the second most powerful. The most powerful is the "Kreuz" model.

Angels
Angels live in the Divine Realm, and usually assist the gods with their work. They also form the bulk of the gods' army, should they ever need one. They are formed mostly of ascended Kalars, though in rare cases a human can ascend as well.


 * Angelic Transformation: One of the few ways they can be born from.
 * Immortality: They do not age and cannot become sick. However, a very powerful human or monster can still kill them.
 * Light Is Not Good: Despite wearing white clothes and possessing white wings, they are pawns to the Gods and are deployed according to their wishes.
 * Psychopomp: Their main job is to collect the souls of the deceased. They compete with devils for each soul and it's common for them to fight devils on sight.

Oni
A type of ogre that lives in hell, whose job is to purify the souls of the dead in preparation for the soul's return to Rudrathaum. On rare occasions, a portal to hell will open on the Continent, and they will stream out. Most hellholes are located in Nippon, hence why they are known by a Japanese term.


 * Amazing Technicolor Population: They have a wide range of skin colors for their species.
 * The Corruption: All that work of purifying corrupted souls can sometimes corrupt the an oni in turn. Angels try to keep an eye on them and kill them before they become a problem.
 * One-Gender Race: All oni are male. To reproduce, they capture and rape human women they find on their rare excursions out of hell.
 * Rape, Pillage, and Burn: If they get out of hell, they will proceed to do this.

Youkai
Strange supernatural creatures that can often be found in Nippon, and are almost never seen outside of it. They have extremely long lifespans and frequently have powerful magic abilities. Sometimes they look human, and sometimes they look decidedly non-human.


 * The Ageless: Youkai do not age and can seemingly live forever, if they are not killed.
 * Animating Artifact: Youkai can only travel outside Nippon if they carry a scale of Orochi with them. If this is taken from them, they will vanish into oblivion.
 * Anthropomorphic Personification: Their true nature is a powerful emotion or thought given physical form through the unconscious power of Orochi. This is also why they're rarely seen outside Nippon: if they get too far away from Orochi's body (without one of his scales), they will vanish.
 * Healing Factor: They can heal from nearly any injury. Things like burning, dismemberment, and decapitation just take a bit longer.
 * Nigh Invulnerable: Youkai can be harmed as easily as anything else can be, but it's generally nigh-impossible to actually kill them. The only reliable method is for the emotions and thoughts they are formed of to cease existing, which is extremely difficult. Those who fight youkai will generally resort to magically sealing dangerous youkai rather than killing them.

Insects
A catch-all term for creatures not created directly by any of the gods. Most insects came into being from "leftover" materials used in creating the world. However, since they are not disruptive, the gods allowed them to live.

Not all of them are inherently hostile to humans, and some have been tamed for use as beasts of burden or pets.


 * Attack Animal: Some humans and monsters will use certain insects in this way.
 * Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": "Cows" are large, orange, four legged beasts somewhat like humpless camels used similarly to horses. "Goldfish" resemble living, mobile mushrooms with faces.
 * Non-Indicative Name: Not all of them are insect-like. The term covers all forms of animal.

Kurupistonians
A race of aliens who inhabited a star-shaped planet relatively close to the Continent. They were not created by Rudrathaum and their creator remains unknown. They had several minor appearances across the series before Kurupiston was accidentally blown up (by Rance), ending their entire race.


 * Half-Human Hybrid: they could create strange hybrids of themselves and other species, which they would send to spy on and sometimes abduct members of that species. The only known human hybrids live on the Continent after the destruction of Kurupiston, and work as unusual Level Gods.
 * Higher-Tech Species: From what little we see of their civilization, they were more advanced than humanity, being closer to modern, real-world humanity. They did have some rudimentary space travel, but had not established any permanent off-world colonies.
 * Mars Needs Women: For some strange reason, they found females of other species to be attractive, including humans. They would occasionally abduct women, but the women they took were not harmed or mistreated (other than having been kidnapped that is).
 * Pokémon Speak: Their language consisted almost entirely of the word "kuru" and variations thereof.