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This page lists the various humans of Rance who don't belong to any group, association, or country of any sort. It also includes background characters such as posthumous ones, who died before the beginning of the series.

Kentarou Ogawa and Miki Kurusu

Kentarou Ogawa

A young Japanese man who became trapped on the continent alongside his childhood friend Miki. He is considered one of the three protagonists of the Planner Scenario, alongside Rance and the Hero Arios Theoman. After Miki became the current Archfiend (nicknamed Little Princess) against her will, the two of them went on several adventures and travels across the continent to find a way to their home, or at least have a peaceful life.

During the events of Sengoku Rance, Kentarou is heavily injured in battle by the Fiend Xavier's Apostle Seiryuu and was turned into a Fiend by Miki to save his life. After the defeat of Xavier with the help of the adventurer Rance, they continue their research until the events of Rance X forces them to join forces with him once again, in the grand battle against the Monster Army led by Kayblis, who intends to kill Miki to be the next Archfiend.

Tropes exhibited by Kentarou include:

Amicable Exes: In Rance X, if Rance manages to brainwash Miki into being becoming his lover and steals her virginity, she forgets about Kentarou and treats him like a stranger. Despite this, they manage to become at least friends, and then Miki dumps Rance to be with Kentarou again anyway.
Berserk Button: Hurting Miki.
Bishounen: He's considered handsome enough to attract the attention of Ho-Raga in Kichikuou Rance.
Born Lucky: While misfortune tends to plague Miki, Kentarou always manages to pull through with a mix of guts and dumb luck.
Butt Monkey: Whenever he has to team up with Rance, he instantly becomes his punching bag.
Calling Your Attacks: Kentarou-kun Slash!
Characterization Marches On: As Little Princess allowed for him to do random and bizarre things, these were deemed non-canon and removed from his character by his appearance in Kichikuou Rance, making him come off as quite plain. By his reappearance in Sengoku Rance, the gag options were actually integrated into his character, making him a ditzy Cloudcuckoolander.
Chastity Couple: He and Miki still get nervous about kissing each other, despite having been dating for years.
Childhood Friend Romance: With Miki. Not going anywhere very soon since both are pretty thick about how the other feels.
Cloudcuckoolander: Definitely a bit out there. One of the gag choices in the Little Princess games is eating rocks or wrestling with trees.
Covert Pervert: On the verge of death in Sengoku Rance, he admits enjoying Miki's chest touching him until she slaps him on the spot.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's actually one of the strongest people in the world, or at least has the potential to be. He shows it more when things get serious.
Cuckold: If Rance uses Warg's powers to replace Miki's memories of Kentarou with memories of him in Rance X, she will become convinced that he's her boyfriend and will completely forget Kentarou. To make matters worse, Rance tells Miki that Kentarou is a nosy newspaper salesman who she should avoid at all costs. Despite everyone else immediately recognizing that Rance did something weird to her, Kentarou becomes convinced that Miki dumped him.
Determinator: No matter what stands in his way, he'll make sure Miki turns back to normal with the two of them returning home.
Earn Your Happy Ending: After all the crap they went through in the Continent, both he and Miki are cured of their condition and sent back to their world by Rance when he becomes the new Archfiend.
Emergency Transformation: He was turned into a Fiend by Miki injecting her Archfiend's blood to heal him when he was dying in Sengoku Rance.
Empathic Weapon: Holy Sword Nikkou. Unlike Chaos, she's pretty much a decent woman.
Foil: He's pretty much the complete antithesis of the other protagonist of the universe, Rance.
Hero of Another Story: He's the protagonist of the first two Alicesoft games, Little Princess and its sequel Little Vampire. Also in-Universe, there are three "protagonists" chosen by the gods for the entertainment of the Bigger Bad, and he is among them.
Horrible Judge of Character: He believes Rance to be his Big Brother Mentor, despite the latter's constant attempts to murder him, especially in Kichikuou Rance.
Idiot Hero: Up to Eleven. He actually believes that THE Count Dracula kidnapped Miki in Little Princess, when he was actually the sixth Archfiend Gai.
Keet: Though, in the English patch, his dialogue tends to read like something else entirely...
"Yay, I won. Victory pose."
Master Swordsman: Kentarou's not up to par quite yet, but Nikkou was one back in the day.
Nice Guy: He's a kindhearted, friendly and heroic person.
- He's so nice that he accepts Miki's relationship with Rance despite being heartbroken by it if you choose to make it happen in Rance X. He makes a point of saying that he'll kill Rance if he makes Miki sad, though.
One-Man Army: Already destined to become one with a Level Cap of 100 and a LV2 Skill in Sword Combat, he officially becomes this in Sengoku Rance by becoming a Fiend.
Power Copying: Rance hits him with many Rance Attacks in Kichikuou Rance, in several attempts to kill him to get Miki, which he misinterprets as some form of training. He ends up learning Rance Attack in the process.
Power-Up Letdown: Overall, while him becoming a Fiend grants him the Invincibility Shield, his Level Cap and Skill Levels didn't change a bit unlike others Human turned Fiends like Abert Safety and Rizna Lanfbitt, so while he had a top tier Cap as a Human, as a Fiend, he is among the lowest, almost tying with Babolat. Then again, a Level 100 Fiend is nothing to trifled with as he maxed out his Cap by Rance X.
School Uniforms Are the New Black: Still wears his school uniform despite being well out of high school.
Signature Move: In Sengoku Rance, he learns the Kentarou-kun Slash (Miki chose the name). As might be expected of that name, this technique is essentially the same as the Rance Attack.
Skilled but Naive: He has some experience in kendo before the kidnapping of Miki, which makes him quite good with a sword and a quick learner, as reflected by his Lv2 Skill in Sword Combat.
Superpower Lottery: Downplayed. By Sengoku Rance, he's now a Fiend himself and therefore has increased abilities, he is using a sword capable of killing them, and his girlfriend is the Archfiend. You cannot get anymore lucky than that. However, his Level Cap didn't change unlike other beings turned Fiends in the series.
Took a Level in Badass: Further honed his skills by Rance X, notably having improved his swordplay and "Kentarou-kun Slash".
Unstoppable Rage: What happens if Miki gets hurt. Reflected in-game during his fight with him in Rance X, when he gets a huge power-up if Miki is knocked out of the fight.

Miki Kurusu

A young Japanese teenage girl who became trapped in the Continent alongside her childhood friend Kentarou. She loves Kentarou deeply, but he's thicker than a fortress. She is actually the current Archfiend, better known as "Little Princess", destined to be the Big Bad of the Planner Scenario. She and Kentarou are currently in search of a way of preventing this from happening.

During their visit of Nippon in Sengoku Rance, Kentarou was heavily injured in battle, forcing Miki to give him her blood in the hopes of healing him, thus turning him into a Fiend. By Rance X, she's the single most searched person on the Continent, notably Kayblis who leads the Monster Army against humanity to capture and kill her to be the next Archfiend, and the Hero Arios Theoman who intends to kill her to put a stop in the war.

Tropes exhibited by Miki include:

Amicable Exes: Sort of. If Rance replaces Kentarou in her memories he discourages her from speaking to Kentarou by convincing her that he's a newspaper salesman. Kentarou, being an Idiot Hero, assumes that the way to win back Miki's love is by becoming an actual newspaper salesman, and begins striking up conversations with her while giving her newspapers. The two still get along great and it's suggested that Miki will eventually regain her former memories after spending enough time with him.
Badass Adorable: Completely adorable? Check. Strongest character in the setting barring the creators of the whole Continent? Double check.
Character Title: She's the titular Little Princess.
Chastity Couple: With Kentarou. They're embarrassed by the notion of kissing each other despite spending years together as a couple, despite both being interested in going to the next level. If Rance replaces her memories of Kentarou with memories of him in Rance X, she's perfectly willing, albeit very nervous, to consummate their relationship with him.
Childhood Friend Romance: Not going anywhere quickly since both are pretty thick about how the other feels. They do know they love each other, but Kentarou doesn't realize that Miki wants to take their relationship to the next level.
Damsel in Distress: When she was still human in the titular game Little Princess.
Earn Your Happy Ending: After all the crap they went through in the Continent, both she and Kentarou are cured of their condition and sent back to their world by Rance when he becomes the new Archfiend.
Humanoid Abomination: As the Archfiend.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Doesn't stop the Fiends from chasing her.
The Ingenue: Ironically one of the purest characters in the setting.
Killer Rabbit: She looks harmless. She's actually a nigh-invulnerable Archfiend with god-like power, but she cannot control them.
Nice Girl: She's a kindhearted and sweet girl who only wants everyone to get along. She even befriended Sill because they both share pink hair.
Nigh Invulnerability : As the Archfiend, she's invincible to all but attacks from Fiends, the Hero or the two Fiend-killing swords, Chaos and Nikkou. Even then, she has insanely high resilience and no Level Cap.
Not Allowed to Grow Up: She's stuck at 14 years old due to becoming the Archfiend at that age, in reality...
Older Than They Look: She's over 19 years old despite looking like a young teenager.
Person of Mass Destruction: She can nuke entire countries with ease when worked up.
Rose-Haired Girl: Oh so much.
Single-Target Sexuality: Towards Kentarou, to the point where the only chance Rance has at getting her interested in him is through mind control, and even that doesn't last long.
Save This Person, Save the World: One of the main objectives of the Human Army in Rance X is to find her and keep her away from Kayblis. And when she is captured in the endgame, rescuing her become the top priority.
School Uniforms Are the New Black: She still wears her school uniform despite being well out of high school.
Stone Wall: To an absurd degree. Being the Archfiend, her defense is unparalleled, and even Fiends can barely do anything to her in most cases... but because she eats Hirami Lemons that suppress the Archfiend's natural bloodlust, her offensive capabilities are next to nothing unless provoked.

The Hero

The Hero System is a system created by Planner to create a balance between the Archfiend System and its Invincibility Shield, in order to ensure that humans won't go extinct so that they can keep entertaining them. A hero's tenure begins when they turn 13 years old and ends the minute they turn 20. They have the ability to wield the sword Escude, whose power is dependent on the amount of humans alive, have a level cap of 99, usually has bad luck, but good luck in desperate situations, are attractive to the opposite sex and will always find a way to survive during their tenure. The Hero is always accompanied by Cola, whose task is to ensure that the Hero won't cause too much good so that there still is a balance.

Tropes exhibited by The Hero include:

The Ace: The Hero is considered to be one of the strongest beings on the Continent, but their strength usually depends on the amount of people that are still alive.
Chick Magnet: If the Hero is male, they are attractive to girls.
The Chosen One: A classic by the book exemple.
De-Power: They will lose their powers once they turn 20 years old.
Dude Magnet: If the Hero is a girl, they are attractive to guys.
Purpose Driven Immortality: A hero can't die during their tenure, but can still be captured or incapacitated.
Unwitting Pawn: They're ultimately pawns to the greater game of the Gods, as the role was created only to preseve balance.
World's Strongest Man: All of them are given the quite high Level Cap of 99, and Escude's power allows them to rival the Archfiend in terms of sheer power.

Arios Theoman

A man who served as the Hero during the early LP Era. A righteous individual with a strong sense of justice whose accomplishments were nonetheless almost completely overshadowed by those of Rance. Following the end of his time as Hero, he retired in his village to leave a peaceful life in obscurity. He returns unexpectedly in Rance X, somehow the Hero once again, this time sporting a sizable chip on his shoulder.

Tropes exhibited by Arios include:

The Ace: Comes with being the Hero. Along with being strong enough to take on two Fiends at once and an all-around Nice Guy, he's a hit with the ladies.
A Day in the Limelight: ETERNAL HERO, a short story released after Rance X, focuses on his life following the events of the 2nd Fiend War.
Affectionate Parody: Of traditional JRPG protagonists. By Rance X he has become one of brooding Darker and Edgier protagonists.
All for Nothing: In the endings of Rance X where he manages to accomplish his goal of killing Miki, he is immediately informed by Cola that absolutely nothing he did mattered since another Archfiend would soon be chosen by the gods to replace her. After Arios defiantly vows to continue killing every Archfiend until no more appear, Cola instantly removes his status as Hero, rendering him incapable of wielding the only weapon that he has that can harm the Archfiend.
Already Done for You: Rance ends up completing several quests that Arios had also taken before him due to Arios becoming too distracted by trying to help every person he came across in resolving their personal problems.
All There in the Manual: Almost all information regarding him prior to Rance X was revealed through side materials such as the Haniho fan newsletter due to him not having appeared in any game outside of Kichikuou Rance. Thankfully, Rance X includes a (slightly altered) personal history for him that the player gains access to immediately after his first appearance so that those unaware can catch up on who he is and what he's done.
Ambiguous Situation: He is left powerless and alone in the Monster Realm following his final battle with Rance. While side materials have confirmed that he survived, his fate is left completely ambiguous within the game itself.
Ambiguous Syntax: The narration of Rance X refers to the duo of Arios and Cola as "the master and his servant" several times, at no point clarifying who is what. From the beginning, it's pretty clear that, despite his official title being "servant of the Hero", Cola is the master and Arios his loyal servant.
Animal Motifs: Falcons. Along with having the word "Falcon" in the name of his special move, falcon imagery appears on his armor in Kichikuou Rance and on the hilt of Escude in Rance X. May count as a stealth Shout-Out due to how similar falcon sounds to Falcom, the company responsible for the Ys series.
Anime Hair: Sports the classic spiky 'do associated with many a protagonist.
Anti-Villain: Genuinely believes that allowing humanity to die at the hands of the Monster Army in order to strengthen his power enough to be able to kill the Archfiend is necessary to end the 2nd Fiend War and bring peace to the Continent. In reality, all he's doing is making the entire situation even worse.
Ascended Extra: A glorified Joke Character who primarily existed in side materials for most of the series, he finally plays a major role in Rance X.
The Atoner: Believes himself to be this throughout Rance X, making up for the supposed mistake of not killing Miki when he had the chance, which Cola convinced him was responsible for causing the 2nd Fiend War. Becomes a genuine one in ETERNAL HERO, where he co-founds an organization dedicated to protecting innocents from his successor.
Awesome but Impractical: Escude is able to damage Fiends and even gods in its higher levels, but requires 10% of the global population to be wiped out just to be usable. In general, there's a lot of red tape in place that prevents the Hero from getting to put their awesome powers to very much use.
Based on a Great Big Lie: Cola's insistence that his refusal to kill Miki when he had the chance is what caused the 2nd Fiend War to occur, and that killing her will bring about eternal peace for humanity, is entirely false. Not only is Miki completely unaffiliated with the invading Monster Army, but killing her would only result in a new Archfiend to be selected by the gods. Cola is completely aware of this, and simply hides the truth from Arios in order to turn him against humanity and make the war more interesting. When Arios realizes this fact in certain endings, he immediately freaks out.
Big Freaking Sword: His Weapon of Choice, the Sword of Heroes Escude, is slightly shorter than he is. It's also so extremely heavy that he's only able to wield it effectively while he's the Hero, due to one of his special powers allowing him to.
Bishounen: He's considered to be an attractive guy in-universe, and has boyishly handsome features.
Birds of a Feather: Becomes Platonic Life Partners with Wichita in ETERNAL HERO, who shares many of his ideals along with also having red hair.
Born Unlucky: One of the effects of being the Hero is that he is naturally very unlucky, and boy does he suffer for it. Along with everything that happens to him in Rance X, he has also been crushed by an entire floating city and suffered from a near-lethal case of food poisoning. As a tradeoff, being Hero also makes him capable of achieving miraculous success in dire situations.
Broken Ace: Following the destruction of his village in Rance X, he becomes a looming specter of death who inadvertently only hinders humanity during its greatest time of need.
Broken Pedestal: Becomes one for Cecil in Rance X, who is deeply depressed that the man who enchanted her with his heroism has now become a ruthless killer who directly opposes her efforts to assist in protecting humanity.
Brought Down to Badass: ETERNAL HERO reveals that, despite losing all of the special perks given to him as Hero, he retains his level cap of 99 and level 2 Sword Combat skill, allowing him the potential to still be one of humanity's strongest warriors. And since he had succeeded in reaching his level cap by the end of Rance X, he is able to utilize the full extent of his strength right out the gate once he begins cooperating with Justice.
The Bus Came Back: Rance X marks his first actual appearance in a game in over 20 years.
The Cameo: Makes small appearances in both Rance 01 and Rance 03. While he doesn't get a character portrait or even get credited by name in either instance, dialogue makes it clear that it's him. He also makes a small appearance in Rance IX among Miracle's depiction of her fantasy squad the Twelve Knights.
Captain Ersatz: A walking parody of Adol Christin from the Ys series.
Chaste Hero: Despite being a Chick Magnet, he is suggested to have only ever had feelings for his Childhood Friend Nina, as he remained a virgin throughout his time as Hero.
Chekhov's Gunman: After spending decades only being mentioned in passing, he returns in a major way in Rance X.
Chick Magnet: One of his powers as the Hero is that women are drawn to him. Across his adventures, eight different women fell in love with him.
Childhood Friend Romance: While Arios has several girls vying for his attention, all signs point to him only having eyes for his childhood friend Nina, who he willingly gave up his status as Hero early for in order to settle down with.
Cosmic Plaything: Almost everything that happens to him, onscreen and off, consists of either Rance beating him to the punch or him suffering in some way.
Crusading Widower: A major contributor to his transformation into a Well-Intentioned Extremist in Rance X is his desire to avenge the death of his lover Nina.
Curb Stomp Battle: Rance kills him with a single Rance Attack in the "Truth of God" ending, while Kayblis immediately traps him behind an enormous and unending wall of fire when he confronts him in the "Demon King Kayblis" ending.
Darker and Edgier: Compared to the squeaky clean Ideal Hero image he had in Kichikuou Rance, his appearance in Rance X oozes this, complete with a tattered billowing cape.
Despair Event Horizon: The destruction of his village and the loss of everyone he loves cause him to fall into a state of despair so severe that Cola is able to easily manipulate his feelings of guilt and desire for revenge into making him another obstacle for Rance to contend with during Rance X.
De-Power: Lost all of his special perks as Hero after turning 20. Cola manages to find a loophole to this rule in Rance X with some help from Serachrolas, who reverses his age so that he can be the Hero again. This ends up being what allows Rance to defeat him during their final battle, as Arios turns 20 mid-fight and becomes unable to lift Escude as a result.
Determinator: After being lectured by Cola for his tendency to become distracted by the small things at the beginning of the game, he is completely and utterly devoted to killing the Archfiend throughout Rance X. Nothing, not even getting trapped in Hell or sent to another dimension, will stop him from completing his mission.
Distressed Dude: Got himself captured and imprisoned by the Kalar to be used as breeding livestock some time before the events of Kichikuou Rance. He's eventually freed after Rance convinces Pastel to become less hostile towards humans.
Doomed Hometown: In classic JRPG fashion, his hometown getting raided by monsters is what kicked off his journey across the world as Hero. Fittingly, his second tenure as Hero in Rance X begins with his town once again getting attacked by monsters, only this time it's Played for Drama rather than for the humorous cliché-edness that it was the first time around.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Sports these throughout Rance X after his village is destroyed.
Evil Costume Switch: Gains a tattered cloak with a hood after beginning his second term as the Hero.
Face Heel Turn: Unknowingly undergoes one at the beginning of Rance X.
Failure Hero: Didn't end up accomplishing anything of particular significance during his first term as Hero, due to, depending on the particular situation, either becoming too distracted by side quests or Cola going out of his way to prevent him from doing so. Cola chews him out for being exactly this at the beginning of Rance X, which is what pushes him into becoming his Unwitting Pawn in a misguided attempt at making up for it.
Fallen Hero: An idealistic man who was once too compassionate to bring himself to kill the being known to be the enemy of all of humanity ends up becoming a remorseless specter of war. Characters who once thought highly of him, such as Miracle, Urza and Cecil, are all understandably disappointed.
Foil: To Rance. While both men possess strength and abilities far beyond the rest of humanity, Arios' strength is the result of him being directly chosen by the gods to fulfill the position of "Hero" whereas Rance's strength is the result of him being a "glitch" who was overlooked during his creation. As a result, Arios is ultimately incapable of impacting the world in any significant capacity due to the restrictions instilled upon him by the Hero System while Rance, who acts entirely outside of the conventions of the Planner Scenario, has been able to steadily completely up-heave the structure of the world. In addition, while Arios is a goodhearted and conventionally heroic person, his compassion causes him to constantly become caught up in helping resolve the problems of everyone he encounters across his travels, no matter how minor they may be, leading to him becoming too distracted to be able to involve himself with any conflicts of actual significance. In comparison, Rance is selfish and conceited, which causes him to only ever act in his own self interest, and has found himself at the center of nearly every major conflict of the LP Era, largely as a result of blindly following his impulses no matter the circumstances.
Fountain of Youth: In order to become the Hero again during Rance X, which takes place several years after he lost the title, Cola has Serachrolas reverse his age so that he is young enough to qualify as Hero again.
Girl of the Week: Parodied. The summary of his term as Hero before the events of Rance X makes a point of mentioning that a new girl fell in love with him during every single one of his adventures. It's heavily implied from Cecil, Elizabeth and Hekate's dialogue in Rance X that he never saw or contacted any of them ever again after completing the adventures that they first met him during.
Heel Face Turn: ETERNAL HERO reveals that he devoted the remainder of his life to atoning for his deeds after the events of Rance X.
Heroic Wannabe: Even ignoring the fact that he spends the entirety of Rance X unwittingly serving as a villain, Rance had already united all of humanity under himself to form a front against the Monster Army by the time Arios was reinstated as Hero. Arios then goes on to spend the remainder of the 2nd Fiend War running around being little more than a nuisance while the United Human Army actually does things to help rid the Human Realm of its invaders. During his final "Reason You Suck" Speech, Cola points out Arios' stupidity in thinking that opposing the person who had united all of the major human world leaders together to defeat the Monster Army would somehow contribute towards bringing about a peaceful future for humanity.
Hero of Another Story: Regarded as one of the three protagonists of the world by side materials, alongside Rance and Kentarou. In practice, this is largely an Informed Attribute, as Arios has never been the protagonist of a game of his own and, prior to Rance X accomplished nothing of significance in the setting.
Human Sacrifice: His weapon, the Sword of Heroes Escude, derives its power from the total percentage of deceased humans in the world. After 50% of humanity has been wiped out, it becomes strong enough to be able to damage the Archfiend. Arios' Face Heel Turn in Rance X comes about as a result of his effort to prevent the United Human Army from protecting humanity for long enough to power up Escude to be able to slay Miki, which he believes will end the war.
Infinity+1 Sword: His character card essentially functions as this in the base version of Rance X. It can only be obtained on New Game+ after obtaining at least one A-rank ending, is a very rare drop, and requires the Nina card in order to be used to its full potential. That said, it possesses ridiculously high attack, a 0 AP attack skill and a 3 AP super attack, making it pack a wallop. The post-game Bonus Bosses pretty much require him to be on your team for you to have a chance at beating them. He becomes more of an Infinity-1 Sword by the later versions, where he is outclassed statistically by Archfiend Rance, who requires even more work to be done before they can even have a chance of appearing as a random drop.
In the Hood: His hooded cape in Rance X is a good indicator of his status as a Fallen Hero.
Invincible Hero: One of the perks of being the Hero is that he can never die. While he can still lose and suffer great misfortune, he can walk off even the worst injuries after only a brief period of recovery. This includes stuff like getting stabbed straight through the neck and being crushed under the weight of an entire island.
Irony: The person who holds the title of Hero ends up serving as one of humanity's biggest obstacles during its darkest hour. ETERNAL HERO also reveals that he was only ever able to accomplish anything meaningful after he lost his title as Hero. Subverted to a degree, as the Hero System exists entirely to assist in maintaining the "balance" between humanity and monsters, and is deliberately set up in such a way that the Hero is incapable of doing anything that could significantly alter humanity's circumstances unless it is already close to extinction, at which point nothing they do will have any kind of lasting importance as a new Protagonist Race will be selected soon after.
It's All My Fault: Cola convinces him at the beginning of Rance X that it was his refusal to kill Miki when he had the chance to that led to the war between humans and monsters breaking out. While this isn't actually true in the slightest, Arios is so guilt-ridden over not being able to save his village that he falls for it hook, line, and sinker, which pushes him into pulling off a Face–Heel Turn for the sake of (what he thinks to be) righting his past wrongs.
The Juggernaut: In Rance X. While Rance is capable of narrowly defeating him in their first encounter, Arios' growing strength, combined with his inability to die due to being the Hero, causes each of their following encounters to amount to Rance holding him off long enough for some kind of outside interference to temporarily impede Arios until he inevitably returns to fight him again.
Kick the Dog: While his cold treatment of Cecil throughout Rance X could count as this, one moment in particular stands out: when Cecil reveals to him that Rance intends to track down and rape the various women that Arios had met in his travels, he bluntly states that, so long as Rance doesn't kill them, he welcomes it since it will keep Rance distracted for a while and prevent him from slowing down the global mortality rate.
Knight Templar: Becomes one in Rance X. In order to power his sword Escude enough to be able to fight the Fiends and slay the Archfiend, he goes out of his way to allow humans to die, and actively opposes the United Human Army due to their actions preventing the global mortality rate from increasing quickly enough. That said, he himself explicitly does not actually kill any humans that he encounters unless they directly oppose him in some way.
Laser Blade: Escude becomes made of Hard Light once it reaches its higher power levels.
Lightning Bruiser: He's very strong and very agile. This is reflected by his character card in Rance X, which has one of the highest attack stats in the game and a 0 AP attack skill, meaning he'll be able to take action far more often than most other characters.
The Lost Lenore: The death of his childhood sweetheart Nina is what pushes him over the Despair Event Horizon and allows Cola to manipulate him into becoming Obliviously Evil.
Master Swordsman: Comes with having a level 2 skill in swordsmanship. He can match Rance blow for blow during their fights.
Meaningful Name: His last name, "Theoman", refers to his hometown The O, and is sometimes romanized as "The O-Man".
Minor Major Character: Prior to Rance X. Despite being the designated Hero of his world for a significant portion of the series, his only appearance in the games was as a very minor character who appears in a single side quest that the player is completely capable of overlooking, in which he is only tangentially related to anything that happens. Outside of this, everything about him was revealed through side materials, all of which emphasize how little he actually contributes to the world compared to Rance and to a lesser extent Kentarou. His status as this is finally averted in Rance X, where he is a significant character with quite a bit of screen time.
Mortality Ensues: His sword, Escude, can pierce the Archfiend's and Fiends' Invincibility Field and inflict actual damage on them, and is even capable of killing them. It was originally the only weapon on the Continent with this power, until Planner transformed Chaos and Nikkou.
My God, What Have I Done?: His final scene in Rance X consists of Cola chewing him out for not doing anything but make things harder for humanity during his second term as Hero and Arios despairing over his actions.
My Greatest Failure: Comes to believe his refusal to kill Miki when he had the chance during his original term as Hero is this in Rance X, as Cola convinces him it is the reason that the 2nd Fiend War occurred. By ETERNAL HERO, he now considers his deeds during the 2nd Fiend War to be this.
My Greatest Second Chance: His detached and terrifying drive to slaughter Miki in Rance X comes about as a result of him believing it to be this; he miraculously gets to be the Hero again for a short time in order to right his previous mistake, avenge his loved ones and save the world. By ETERNAL HERO, Justice has become this for him; an organization dedicated entirely to protecting humanity from the atrocities committed by the man who succeeded him as Hero, which closely resemble his own actions during the 2nd Fiend War, albeit even more extreme.
The Needs of the Many: Becomes convinced that allowing the current generation of humanity to be wiped out to the point of near-extinction in order to strengthen Escude and grant him the power necessary to slay the Archfiend will allow future generations of humans to live peacefully. Cola chews him out in his final scene for using a theoretical "future" for him to save as an excuse to ignore the crisis that humanity is facing in the present and fixate on the failures of his past.
Nice Guy: His natural state is an idealistic and friendly young man with a strong sense of justice. These qualities get warped and distorted all throughout Rance X.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Should he manage to slay Miki Kurusu in Rance X, Cola reveals the truth of the Archfiend to him along with the gods' plan, prompting him to fall into despair upon learning that what he did only made the situation worse, along with having all of his powers removed.
Not So Stoic: Deep down, Arios is still completely overwhelmed by feelings of guilt and sadness throughout Rance X. And they all come out after Cola reveals that his actions throughout the game were All for Nothing.
Obliviously Evil: Has no clue that fighting against Rance during Rance X is only working to make things harder for humanity during the 2nd Fiend War, as he believes that allowing the majority of the human race to get wiped out, which is exactly what Rance is trying to prevent, is necessary to bring peace to the world. In addition, he thinks that killing Miki, who Rance is trying to protect, is also necessary to save the world.
Oblivious to Love: While he has several admirers, there is no indication that he was ever aware of any of their feelings for him, and is suggested to have exclusively been attracted to his sweetheart Nina.
Odd Friendship: Kichikuou Rance shows that, had they met under non-hostile circumstances, he and Rance would actually get along surprisingly well.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Defeated Satella (and presumably by extension Caesar), Hawzel and Kentarou all at once and fought Rance to a draw that left Rance severely injured and Arios unscathed in events that took place entirely offscreen.
One-Man Army: Along with having one of the highest level caps in humanity at 99 and a level 2 Sword Combat Skill, being the Hero grants him several additional skills that make him even deadlier in combat. By the later stages of Rance X, he can kill Fiends without a problem and even becomes too much for Rance to handle in a fight without outside intervention.
Only the Chosen May Wield: Only the Hero can wield Escude in combat, as it becomes too heavy to use when held by anyone else. Arios himself is just as vulnerable to this as anyone else is, and can barely manage to even carry it after his time as Hero expires.
Overshadowed by Awesome: All of his accomplishments during his first term as Hero were pretty much completely eclipsed by everything Rance did at the same time as them.
Perpetual Frowner: In Rance X, as a result of crossing the Despair Event Horizon and losing everything and everyone that he cared about to the monsters.
Platonic Life Partners: Becomes this with Wichita by the time of ETERNAL HERO. Both are too devoted to their deceased loved ones to even consider entering a relationship, but they still place an intense amount of trust in each other nonetheless.
Plot Irrelevant Villain: Ultimately has no significant impact on the events of Rance X beyond being another nuisance that Rance has to deal with. Cola even lampshades it during his final "Reason You Suck" Speech, where he points out that Arios spent his entire second term as Hero ignoring the actual crisis that humanity was facing while accomplishing absolutely nothing in the process. Subverted in the bad endings where he manages to succeed in killing Miki, which end up causing Rance to shift focus from fighting against the Fiends to fighting against the gods.
Purpose Driven Immortality: For as long as someone possesses the title of Hero, they are incapable of dying. This causes big problems when Arios sets his sights on killing Miki no matter the cost in Rance X, as it prevents Rance from being able to permanently defeat him.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Cola delivers one to him at the beginning of Rance X, where he claims that Arios was a miserable excuse for a Hero who was more focused on being praised for accomplishing insignificant tasks to stroke his own ego rather than fulfilling his duty to slay the Archfiend. He gives him another after his final defeat, where he mocks him for only succeeding in making things harder for humanity and declares him to not at all be worthy of the title of Hero. Really, almost all of Cola's dialogue to Arios could count as some variation of this, as he constantly exploits Arios' guilt in order to continue pushing him into doing what he wants.
Redheaded Hero: He's the Hero and a red head.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The compassionate, sorrowful and rage-filled Red Oni to the detached, uncaring and callous Cola's Blue Oni. By a similar logic, he's also the Red Oni to Geimark's eerily playful, sociopathic and unfeeling Blue Oni.
The Rival: Has shades of being this towards Rance. While they only interact onscreen in two games, one of which being the non-canon Kichikuou Rance, they have fought each other in the past offscreen and hold a mutual contempt for each other. All encounters with him throughout Rance X consist of one-on-one duels between the two as a result.
Same Character but Different: To say that people were shocked to see his Darker and Edgier redesign in Rance X is an understatement.
Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: Deconstructed. He ended up becoming too caught up in completing every minor quest given to him to be able to meaningfully contribute to any of the major global conflicts that occurred while he was Hero, resulting in Rance overshadowing him. After having this behavior pointed out to him by Cola at the beginning of Rance X, he abandons it in favor of being scarily singleminded.
Signature Move: Type-1 Falcon, where he launches a red energy shockwave from his sword in a similar way to Rance's Rance Attack.
The Stoic: Buries his emotions along with his village at the beginning of Rance X, and spends the majority of his screentime acting aloof and singlemindedly focused on accomplishing his goal.
Throw the Dog a Bone: After everything he goes through, ETERNAL HERO finally allows him to actually meaningfully contribute to protecting humanity. He even gets to keep some of the strength that he had while he was the Hero.
Took a Level in Badass: A meta example. Prior to Rance X, he was essentially a Joke Character who never accomplished anything as the Hero and became a useless weakling after losing the title. Rance X retcons his reason for losing his title as Hero to be an Act of True Love rather than simply being De-Powered and establishes him to actually be reasonably strong even without his powers, overall making him come off as a more competent and formidable character. In-universe, he goes from barely losing his first encounter with Rance in Rance X to becoming strong enough to kill him by one of their later skirmishes.
Tragic Hero: A genuinely good person driven to villainy by a combination of trauma-induced Sanity Slippage and the machinations of Cola. Even before he became an out-and-out villain, his situation was still quite tragic, as the combination of his own altruism and the restrictive nature of the Hero System prevented him from ever being able to do much good for the world despite wanting to.
The Unfought: Zig-zagged. While Rance can fight him upwards of five times in Rance X, he never gets a boss battle, so the player never does.
Unwitting Pawn: Cola manipulates him into working against humanity throughout Rance X under the guise of it being necessary to save the world. From a broader perspective, as the designated Hero of the system, his entire existence essentially makes him one of these to the gods, as the Hero System is set up in such a way that he is incapable of actually doing anything to improve humanity's standing in the world in any lasting or meaningful capacity.
Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Averted. Arios is explicitly stated to steadily be raising his level between each of his encounters with Rance throughout Rance X, and it shows. While Rance is able to narrowly defeat him in their first duel, he requires Miracle to intervene to avoid losing their second and is actually killed by him in their third.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Genuinely wants to save the world throughout Rance X. It's just that he believes the way to do it is by allowing humans to die to the point of being near-extinction in order to gain the power necessary to be able to killing the Archfiend.
What Happened to the Mouse?: His final scene in the "From the Sea" and "From the Sky" routes of Rance X shows him alone and powerless in the Monster Realm, leaving his ultimate fate ambiguous. A short story released some time later eventually clarified what happened to him afterwards. Played straighter in the "Breakthrough" and "Great Invasion of the Monster Realm" routes, where he doesn't even appear at all, giving his story no kind of conclusion.
What You Are in the Dark: His refusal to kill Miki while she was sleeping directly in front of him shows that his compassion is entirely genuine and that he places his human morals above his obligations as the Hero. One of the first things Cola does when manipulating him into pulling off a Face–Heel Turn at the beginning of Rance X is make him feel as guilty for having done this as possible, to the point of convincing him that killing Miki is the only way to save the world.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Is terrified of Bee Girl Gal Monsters, to the point where he refuses to even attempt to try and fight them.
Worf Had the Flu: His loss to Rance in their final battle is heavily implied to have been the result of his powers as Hero waning mid-fight, causing Escude to become too heavy for him to wield properly and his performance to suffer as a result. Similarly, he's suggested to be in too deep of a state of despair to even attempt to put up any kind of resistance against Rance in the "Truth of God" ending.

Adventurers

Bird Lithfie

A fellow adventurer who Rance has a habit of running into. While a fairly pleasant individual, his utterly horrendous luck leads to him more often than not suffering. He usually appears in the beginning of several games, often accompanied with a new girlfriend.

Tropes exhibited by Bird include:

An Arm and a Leg: He lost his left arm to Elenoa in Rance II and has had a mechanical arm ever since.
Arm Cannon: Upgrades his mechanical arm into one in Rance X, which can fire a beam of magical energy that he claims is as powerful as a White Destruction Beam after several seconds of charge time. Since we only ever see him use it once, there's no way of knowing how true this is.
The Artifact: His character is quite clearly from the time when the series was mainly focused on being a Deconstructive Parody of JRPGs, with Bird being a "traditional" protagonist in contrast to Rance's subversion of one. Once Cerebus Syndrome kicks in and the series becomes more focused on its own plot, Bird's role dries up, causing him to become reduced to a walking joke. Which makes it all the more shocking when he murders Sill.
Artificial Limbs: Gets a mechanical arm from Rance IV onwards to replace his lost left arm.
Based on a Great Big Lie:
- Is convinced that Rance antagonizes him for no reason, when in fact their feud only began after Bird attempted to steal Sill from him.
- His relationship with Copandon only started because she believed him to have a fortune of "Great Luck". After growing frustrated by his incompetence, she rechecks his fortune and realizes that she was mistaken, causing her to instantly lose all interest in him.
Beware the Nice Ones: Generally comes off as a Nice Guy, but can be quite pushy with women when they don't do what he wants them to. He also ends up having no problem with killing a person who showed him nothing but kindness for the sake of hurting Rance.
Bishounen: His looks are often commented on, to the point where Copandon was willing to choose him over Rance when she believed both of them had "great luck" fortunes based on looks alone.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He is routinely shown to be much more passive-aggressive towards women than his Nice Guy attitude would suggest, and is heavily implied to be as much of a womanizer as Rance is despite claiming otherwise. This is shown as early as his first appearance, where he attempts to enter a relationship with Sill despite already having a girlfriend at them time, and outright forgets about the girl that he originally went on the adventure with after falling for another one. He's also petty enough to kill an innocent woman all for the sake of hurting Rance.
Book Ends: In his first appearance he attempts to steal Sill away from Rance by seducing her. In his last, he ends up killing her, thus "stealing" her from Rance.
Born Unlucky: His fortune is revealed to be "bad luck" in Rance 5D, and it certainly shows.
Broken Pedestal: Both his relationship with Copandon and his relationship with Matilda begin with them glowingly viewing him as, respectively, a "great luck guy" and an Ideal Hero only for his mediocre skills and grating personality to cause them to eventually decide to abandon him without much fuss.
Butt Monkey: The biggest in the series by far. If he appears, he's guaranteed to get badly injured, humiliate himself and lose his girlfriend.
The Cameo: Is one of The Unfought offscreen competitors in the tournament in the first Toushin Toshi, and as such is mentioned in the various post-round results broadcasts multiple times. He actually manages to make it all the way to the third round, and is only eliminated due to his refusal to harm his female opponent.
Can't Catch Up: Actually what causes Matilda to leave him in Rance Quest. After a certain point, he hits his Level Cap and is unable to get any stronger, making him steadily become dead weight and cause her to ditch him in frustration.
Characterization Marches On: Rance II portrays him as being something of a playboy, as he makes several overt romantic advances toward Sill throughout their time together. In all of his following appearances, he is much more meek, and mostly relies on brow-beating as a means of getting women to do what he wants.
Chekhov's Gunman:
- Goes from a recurring but ultimately irrelevant character to the person indirectly responsible for Rance becoming the Archfiend and, by extension, the eventual end of the entire Archfiend system.
- From a meta perspective, Rance X's website openly advertises him on the character list in spite of his small, spoilerific role in the game itself. Despite this, his generally unimportant role in the previous games caused most to overlook and forget about him, causing them to have the same reaction as Rance when he finally shows up and proves himself to be Not So Harmless.
The Chew Toy: While he suffers constantly, the games make sure to make him come off as unlikable enough that it's more amusing than anything.
Chick Magnet: Zig-zagged. He's good at attracting women towards himself, but is bad at keeping them around. His incompetence and passive-aggressive personality are generally what drive them off.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: Rance accuses him of having a hero complex in Rance II, which he eventually owns up to in Rance X.
Covert Pervert: Heavily implied to be at the very least almost as perverted as Rance is throughout his appearances, and is quick to get handsy with women at the smallest signs of intimacy.
Cutscene Incompetence: While Bird is a perfectly fine fighter as a playable character, the occasions where he displays his skills without the player's input generally only ever show him screwing up.
Death Glare: Gives an absolutely chilling one to Rance, complete with suddenly having his Face Framed in Shadow, shortly before killing Sill.
Despair Event Horizon: Matilda bluntly calling him a useless wimp who has no right to call himself a hero pushes him into giving up as an adventurer in favor of wallowing in self pity as a bitter drunk. Learning that his hated nemesis Rance is being recognized as a world-saving hero a short while after that causes his sanity to snap in half and pushes him into killing Sill.
Didn't Think This Through: When facing Elenoa, he figures she can't use her powers if he closes his eyes. He is right but he probably should have noticed that she was also wielding a sword. For the rest, see An Arm and a Leg.
Dirty Coward: From Rance 5D onwards, his first instinct upon seeing Rance is to run on sight. In the same game, he attempts to have Lil' Avenger assassinate Rance instead of fighting him himself (though he claims that his ordering her to do so was an accident). While Matilda manages to drag him into several fights against Rance in Rance Quest, he always tries to bail out of them before they start, which causes her to grow increasingly more annoyed with him. In Rance X, he chooses to kill Sill in order to hurt Rance emotionally after coming to the conclusion that he has no chance of killing Rance himself.
Dissonant Serenity: Remains calm and polite throughout his conversation with Sill in Rance X, despite spending the entirety of it preparing to kill her.
Drowning My Sorrows: Drinks himself silly after getting ditched by Matilda in Rance Quest, and rants about his sexual frustration and hatred of Rance to a willing stranger. Unfortunately for him, said stranger is actually Rance, and he was simply too drunk to notice.
Elite Mook: As a boss in Rance Quest, he is simply a standard warrior type enemy with slightly higher stats than the ones that can be fought at the time in which he is encountered. By the final encounter with him, he's actually slightly weaker than the standard enemies.
Enemy Mine: Arnie successfully persuades him and Rance to work together for the first and only time in Rance 4.1. The partnership lasts for a few minutes before she leads them into a booby trap, which ultimately results in Rance manipulating Kisara into breaking up with Bird and leaving him to die. Notably, Bird's very next appearance, in Rance 5D, has him state that he'll never so much as consider joining forces with Rance ever again, clearly in reference to their previous encounter.
Epic Fail: His introductory fight in Rance 4.1, against a Gates '95 and a Caterpillar DX, two fairly unimpressive mid-level enemies, consists of him firing a Rocket Punch and missing, swinging at them with his sword and missing, and then getting saved at the last second by Kisara, who takes both out pretty quickly. Hilariously, he has the gall to act like he was the one protecting her afterwards, despite the fact that, as both Rance and Athena note, Kisara was the one who did all the work.
Fatal Flaw: His refusal to admit to his various failings is generally responsible for driving the women in his life away from him, and steadily causes him to grow more and more obsessed with using Rance as a scapegoat for his problems.
Flanderization: His first appearance shows him to be a reasonably competent warrior who serves as a perfectly valid substitute for Rance as a party member during Sill's time with him. His following appearances portray him as almost laughably incompetent, to the point of losing badly against a pair of mid-level enemies, mostly as a result of his own clumsiness. His hatred of Rance also continues to become more and more intense and irrational, starting as a fairly reasonable disgust at his treatment of Sill before devolving into an all out obsession. By the end of Rance Quest, his hatred of Rance overpowers every other aspect of his character.
Foil: To Rance. While Rance is upfront and open about his lack of interest in anything besides having sex with beautiful women, Bird attempts to conceal his perverted desires beneath a noble facade. While Rance is reckless and proactive in the face of adversity, Bird is indecisive and hesitant. While Rance lives a carefree and debauched life, Bird steadily allows a single grudge to consume every aspect of his own.
Freudian Excuse: Bird doesn't really start to actively despise Rance until after Rance 4.1, which is the only time in the series when Rance genuinely is almost entirely to blame for every bad thing that happens to him.
Green-Eyed Monster: His jealousy over Rance being recognized as a hero at the end of Rance X is what pushes him over the edge and causes him to kill Sill.
Guest Star Party Member: Accompanies Sill throughout Elenoa Ran's dungeon in Rance II, but is kicked out of the party permanently after completing it.
Hoist by His Own Petard: In Rance 5D, the assassin that he orders to kill Rance ends up inadvertently leading Rance to his location, which earns him a brutal beating and gets him trapped in an alternate dimension for a few years. Just to further twist the knife, Lil' Avenger's appearance in Rance VI implies that she never intended to follow through with killing Rance from the beginning.
Informed Ability: His mechanical arm apparently has a drill attachment, but we never get to see it.
Irrational Hatred: Zig Zagged. He does have very legitimate grievances with Rance as a person, but he uses this as an excuse to make him a scapegoat for every single bad thing that happens in his life, regardless of how related Rance actually is to them. In reality, Bird himself is the root cause of the majority of his failures and he simply doesn't want to admit it to himself.
Jaded Washout: His final scene in Rance Quest reveals that he abandoned adventuring and became a drunkard after Matilda left him. As such, his title in Rance X is "Fallen Adventurer".
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: While Bird isn't particularly likable, he's harmless enough that he can't really be thought of as a villain, especially when opposite Rance, who's hardly much better. Come Rance X, where he murders Sill just to get back at Rance, and it's hard to think of him as anything but a villain.
Karma Houdini: Faces no punishment for killing Sill (an act which indirectly leads to the deaths of millions) over a case of petty revenge. Even after the 15 year Time Skip, Word of God confirms that he is still alive.
Laughing Mad: His final line is cackling wildly while running out of Rance Castle after killing Sill.
The Load: He's suggested to have been little more than a hindrance to Kisara, Copandon and Matilda during his respective adventures with them, to the point where the latter two eventually ditch him out of frustration. This is in contrast to his time traveling with Sill in Rance II, where he is a perfectly competent ally.
Misplaced Retribution: Murders Sill, who had only ever been kind to him, in order to get back at Rance for ruining his life in Rance X. "Justified" in that by that point, Bird had become so delusional that he decided that, since he had only met Rance because of Sill, she was the true cause of all of his problems.
Mistaken for Badass: His relationship with Matilda in Rance Quest only happens because Matilda assumes Bird is an Ideal Hero due to his good looks and general courteousness. Once she actually starts adventuring with him, the mask quickly slips off.
Never My Fault: The real reason he's unable to improve his life is the fact that he's unable to admit his own flaws or own up to his mistakes and instead just shifts the blame onto Rance. Of his various romantic flings, Kisara is the only one who Rance played any direct role in breaking him up with, with all others being the result of either Bird's incompetence (Copandon, Matilda) or poor behavior on his part (Machiko, Nay).
Nice Guy: Albeit in the most unflattering way possible. While Bird is polite and mild-mannered, he's regularly shown to be far sketchier than he lets on and mostly uses surface-level pleasantries as a means of getting women to be interested in him, which always inevitably ends up backfiring.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Suffers one at the hands of Rance in Rance 5D, one from Genbu offscreen in Sengoku Rance and several more from Rance throughout Rance Quest.
Noble Male, Roguish Male: The noble male to Rance's roguish male. While they both have the same end goal of having sex with women, Bird attempts to seduce them by appearing to be a standup gentleman.
Not So Different: He's suggested to be just as selfish and perverted at Rance, but significantly less open about it.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: By his later appearances, Bird has lost all credibility as a threat to Rance. Despite this, his final action in the series is killing Sill out of spite just so that he can "beat" Rance for once.
Outside Context Villain: In Rance X, after spending the entire game fighting against and eventually defeating the entire Monster Army, Rance declares himself to no longer have any enemies left to defeat and holds a massive victory party. During said party, Bird, who had made no prior appearances throughout the game and had no connection to anything that occurred during it, kills Sill and chews Rance out for forgetting that he still had him to deal with. Suffice it to say, no one saw it coming.
Overshadowed by Awesome: The Rance 5D manual describes him as a decent adventurer, but not a particularly noteworthy one, which causes him to look downright pathetic when opposing Rance. His profile in Rance Quest even states that he maybe would have been able to make something of himself if Rance had never entered into his life. Notably, his skills, which were only revealed in Rance X, are exactly the same as Rance's, except at level 1 instead of level 2.
Paper Tiger: He looks like a cool, competent hero type, but is actually a bumbling coward who is bad under pressure.
Plot Irrelevant Villain: While calling him a "villain" is perhaps an overstatement, he's naturally always in opposition of Rance whenever he appears, but has no real significance to the overall plot. While his actions in Rance X end up having enormous consequences on the world, his actual appearance in the game is totally unrelated to the war against the Monster Realm that took up the entirety of the plot before it.
Put on a Bus: Gets trapped in Genbu Castle at the end of Rance 5D, preventing him from appearing in the next two games before finally getting kicked out by Genbu himself during Sengoku Rance.
Recurring Boss: Fought four times across Rance Quest. Notably, while he gets stronger in each of his first three fights, he's exactly as strong as he was in the third fight during the fourth.
The Rival: He never has much impact on the plots of the games he appears in, and mostly exists as someone for Rance to compete against to attract various girls. While he has shades of being an Unknown Rival, as he places far more stake in his grudge against Rance than Rance does in his grudge against him, he is nonetheless one of the very few characters that Rance clashes with across multiple games.
Rocket Punch: After acquiring a robotic arm, he is able to launch his hand at enemies as an attack.
Romantic False Lead: His screentime in Rance II initially leads the player on to believe that he might actually sweep Sill off her feet and away from Rance, only for Sill to remain loyal to Rance and turn him down. At around the same time this happens, Bird's less savory traits come to light and any expectation for him to end up with Sill is neutralized.
Sanity Slippage: As his hatred of Rance grows, his mental health shrinks. By Rance X, he's certifiably insane.
Serial Romeo: Treats every girl that he hits on like his One True Love, even when a previous target of his affections is standing right there. He's able to bounce back and forth between girls like its nothing as a result.
Sitcom Arch Nemesis: Rance sincerely hates Bird's guts and isn't afraid to say it, but their rivalry never plays a significant part in the plot of any game that he appears in.
Small Role, Big Impact: Appears in a single scene at the very end of Rance X, but his actions in said scene directly lead to Rance deciding to become the Archfiend.
Straw Loser: His appearances after Rance II mostly happen so that Rance can one up him.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: During his time as a party member in Rance II, his stats are identical to Rance's, and he essentially just serves as a temporary replacement for him in battle during Sill's Day In The Limelight.
Team Rocket Wins: In the darkest way imaginable, Bird finally succeeds in stealing a girl from Rance instead of the other way around for once in Rance X. Just not in the way that you might expect.
The Power of Hate: His character card in Rance X channels his hatred of Rance to curse his enemies.
Tranquil Fury: At the end of Rance X, he mostly keeps a polite and calm tone as he talks to Sill about his new Arm Cannon while he charges it in preparation for a fatal shot.
Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Played with in Rance Quest. While Bird does level grind between his encounters with Rance across the game, he eventually hits his level cap and is incapable of growing any stronger, which causes him to become a Zero-Effort Boss and quickly leads to Matilda declaring him to be The Load.
Walking Spoiler: It's pretty much impossible to talk about anything having to do with his screentime in Rance X without revealing that he kills Sill, which by extension reveals the beginnings of the plot of Part 2. His actions in said game have also tainted his character to a point where you're unlikely to see any discussion about him that doesn't have anything to do with them, despite them deliberately being out of left field in comparison to his role in previous games.
What Happened to the Mouse?: An extremely jarring example. He completely vanishes from Rance X after killing Sill, in spite of the massive impact it has on the story. However Fridge Brilliance kicks in once you realize that this shows how insignificant Bird is since, even his greatest crime wasn't enough to get him some form of recognition in any way, he was just forgotten by as the insignificant person he always is and will be.

Bernard Ceramité

A rather strange and mysterious mercenary, who first appeared in Rance VI as a member of Ice Flame, and retroactively in Rance 03 as a member of the Keith Guild. Despite his intimidating looks and muscular body, his abilities are unremarkable and average at best, making him promptly ignored by Rance whenever he joins him. Yet, he often presents himself as a Shell-Shocked Veteran, taking everything he does seriously, and frequently references a woman known as "Francesca", not unlike a Chuunibyou. He's also part of the Human Alliance in Rance X.

Tropes exhibited by Bernard include:

Ascended Extra: He went from a minor, quickly forgotten character with only a handful of lines in Rance VI to a retroactively recurring character with a given personality and several quirks due to Alicesoft's staff having a liking for him.
Ascended Glitch: Due to a programming error, his signature technique Multi-slash from Rance VI happened to strike only once instead of the intended three. It eventually became part of his character, by having impressive-sounding techniques as average attacks.
Battle Cry: "Dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee!"
Blade Spam: His special ability, Multi-slash, consists of attacking his opponent with fast swingings of his scimitar.
The Cameo: Bernard makes a small appearance in Rance 01 as one of the participants in the Leazas Coliseum Tournament.
Cloudcuckoolander: Spends most of time living in his own world, but is nonetheless an adventurer capable of defending himself.
The Comically Serious: Most of his sense of humor revolves around his Chuunibyou traits.
I Just Want to Be Special: His special abilities and backstory are due to his overactive imagination, effectively making him a Chuunibyou.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Despite being very muscular compared to many characters, he has actually a Level Cap of 25, making him average.
Paper-Thin Disguise: After being fired from the Fiend Extermination Squad by Rance when he learns of his mediocre combat abilities, he later persuades Rance to hire him again by pretending to be a high-leveled new character.
Sobriquet: Burning B!
The Social Expert: His Lv1 Conversation Skill is what's allowing him to quickly make up stories about his (alleged) abilities, and convincing others to hire him while hiding the fact he's not that impressive at all.
Shout-Out: His Battlecry is directly inspired by the famous boxer Muhammad Ali.
Weapon of Choice: Wields a scimitar in battle.

Arms Arc

A monster hunter who is always seeking out strong opponents to match herself against. She met Rance in Rance Quest.

Tropes exhibited by Arms include:

Blade on a Stick: She's notable for being one of the few non-Nipponese characters who are good with polearms in the series, possessing a Level 2 Spear Combat skill.
Blood Knight: She loves challenging battles; the more challenge, the better. The reason she joins Rance's group is because he always seems to be getting entangled in fights with powerful enemies.
Eyepatch of Power: Wears one on her left eye in Rance X: Part 2.
One-Sided Arm Wrestling: On the receiving end of this as Rance beats her repeatedly. She only won once and only because Rance was too distracted after Rance dared her to kiss him in order for Arms to have another match with him.
Living Legend: Becomes this in Rance X:Part 2 in which she became one of humanity's strongest adventurers and managed to kill a Fiend by herself.
Sore Loser: Rance claims that she hates losing after she loses against him in an arm wrestling match and she keeps on challenging him over and over.

Matilda Mateuri

A young martial artist who often hounds Rance in Rance Quest and Bird's lastest girlfriend, wanting to make him pay for his sins. However, she's not strong enough to be more than a nuisance to him.

Tropes exhibited by Matilda include:

Bare-Fisted Monk: She fights unarmed, but her set of skills is more oriented towards self-defense due to her Lv1 Skill Level in Grappling.
Cute Bruiser: A young teenaged girl who is also a straight up bare-fisted brawler.
Goldfish Poop Gang: She first shows up as the latest girl Bird has hooked up with, cementing her in this position. Even after separating from Bird, she fulfills this role.
Hot-Blooded: She has a fiery temper and is always standing up for "justice". She also tends to gesture and pose wildly.
Large Ham: Tends to be overly dramatic when fighting her enemies, in spite of her lack of strength.

Marishiten Assassination Brigade

Marishiten

Leader of the elite band of killers known as the Marishiten Assassination Brigade. There is almost nothing known about his background, though he may be Nipponese in origin.

Tropes exhibited by Marishiten include:

My Greatest Failure: The one mission he failed was his attempt to kill Miracle Tou, whose magic proved too strong for him.
Professional Killer: His trade is assassination. He's also extremely good at it, only having failed a mission once in his life before meeting Rance.
The Quiet One: Noted to speak very rarely, and only when needed.

Dangerous Bravo

The speedster of the Assassination Brigade. He dresses like a punk and has a laid-back personality that clashes with his bloodthirstiness.

Tropes exhibited by Dangerous include:

Affably Evil: He's jocular and friendly, even to those he's about to kill.
Attack Animal: His turtle, which he uses as a mount and as a shield. Riding on its shell is where a good chunk of his speed comes from.
Fragile Speedster: He fences enemies in and keeps them from escaping. He's also noted to not be as good in combat as his teammates, and can't take many hits.

Jofuka

The only woman in the Assassination Brigade, she is an onmyouji practicioner from Nippon who summons wind spirits. She's the group's mage.

Tropes exhibited by Jofuka include:

The Chick: The one beautiful woman in a group of men, who dresses in a very feminine manner and uses an indirect means of attack.
Confusion Fu: Yin-Yang magic is nearly unknown outside Nippon, so many of her targets don't have a clue how to defend against it.
Squishy Wizard: She hits hard, but has rather mediocre defenses if an opponent does close the distance.

Spartan

The muscle of the Assassination Brigade, protecting his teammates and hitting the opponent really hard.

Tropes exhibited by Spartan include:

The Brute: A very straightforward fighter, who just walks up to his enemy and smashes them.
Carry a Big Stick: His main weapon is a huge mace, fitting his emphasis on sheer brute force.
Dumb Muscle: He doesn't use my strategy in his battles, and even blabs the name of his employer with little prompting.

Civilians

Master Author Don Doessky

One of the Continent's most popular novellists. Also a notorious recluse, to the point that his editors have to hire adventuring parties just to get his manuscripts.

Tropes exhibited by Don include:

Exact Words: Rance eventually threatens his life to write anything about himself, so Don writes a 4-panel gag manga parodying Rance. Rance ultimately finds it Actually Pretty Funny.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers multiple to Rance, declaring that there is no way Rance could ever be a hero and no way he'd ever write about Rance's exploits.
Reclusive Artist: His usual home is deep within the Eureka Maze, a dangerous labyrinth said to bring inspiration to those who can survive it. He frequently leaves for other dangerous areas for further inspiration.

Nunuhara Cabbage

A girl who shows up in Rance X, and is revealed to have been stalking Rance through his adventures ever since Rance 01. She becomes an important part of Rance's information-gathering corps.

Tropes exhibited by Nunuhara include:

Fainting: Whenever Rance actually talks to her, she gets overwhelmed and faints on the spot.
Ms. Exposition: Serves as one in Rance X, for explaining the history of the Continent to the players.
Stalker with a Crush: She thinks Rance is handsome, and has been following him around for years, too shy to ever approach.

Shariela Aries

A mysterious girl who happened to live in the Shangri-La Palace with her master Luce Descoco, until its invasion by the Monster Army in Rance X. She's actually an Artificial Human, similar to a doll who cannot have any emotions. She mostly serves as a watcher for the Monster Army during the events of the game until her meeting with Rance.

Tropes exhibited by Shariela include:

Artificial Human: She's a wooden doll given life through the magic of Aladdin. Rance can eventually convince Aladdin to transform her into an actual human.
Cute Clumsy Girl: Clumsiness is one trait emphasized about her, and it seems to endear her to Rance.
Hollywood Homely: She's considered "unattractive" by the rest of the women in Shangri-La, but... well, just look at her.

Background Characters

The One-Armed Knight

A mysterious knight who delivered a young Rance to the village of Gomorrah. They died from terrible injuries shortly after reaching the village.

Tropes exhibited by The One-Armed Knight include:

Ambiguous Gender: Strictly speaking, it's never made clear whether the Knight was male or female. Their whole body was covered in heavy plate armor, making it impossible to tell.
An Arm and a Leg: They'd lost their arm when they came to Gomorrah, hence the descriptor "One-Armed".
Riddle for the Ages: Their identity, where they found Rance, and what caused their terrible wounds, have never been explained, and they have never appeared in the games proper. For his part, Rance doesn't seem to remember them.

The Female Warrior

A lone female warrior met by Rance after he was expelled from his village. Despite the latter having tried to assault her, she took Rance under his wing, sensing a certain potential from him and taught him the ways of the world. She suddenly died in an adventure two years before the beginning of the series.

Tropes exhibited by The Female Warrior include:

Mentor Occupational Hazard: She died two years before the first game. How this happened and how Rance feels about it are topics left unexplored.
No Name Given: She has never had anything about her described other than she was... well, a female warrior.
Small Role, Big Impact: She never appeared or was even mentioned in the games themselves, but she taught Rance how to become an adventurer and was his guardian for a while. She's also one of the only people Rance has admitted admiring.
The Talk: She quickly realized Rance's sex drive was going to be a problem, and tried to give him at least a cursory sex education, particularly on the subject of contraceptives. Rance mostly ignored her until he actually got a girl pregnant and despite her aborting it, it still traumatized him enough to take contraceptives seriously.
Tragic Keepsake: Indirectly. When she was alive, the Female Warrior wore a sea shell necklace. This inspired Rance to collect many shells around the world in her memory.

The Witch's Party

A group of three mages who were enemies of the Legendary Five, and fought with them numerous times. Lead by Eina, the Witch of Kitai, with her two disciples Mei and Shin. They were eventually killed in their final battle with the Five.

Tropes exhibited by The Witch's Party include:

Disproportionate Retribution: The three seek to destroy the Five mostly because the male members of the group spurned Eina's advances.
Taken for Granite: As a final act of spite, Shin used a high level earth spell to seal British in unbreakable concrete, which also halts his aging and prevents him from dying.
Vain Sorceress: Eina was a beautiful woman who prided herself on being able to seduce any man. Her failure to do so with British and Ho-Raga is what sparked her hatred of the group.

Souzou Masou

Shizuka's deceased father. One of the ten students of Mysteria Tou, and an accomplished mage in his own right. He was killed before Shizuka's eyes by Chenezali de Ragarl, who coveted Asmaase.

Tropes exhibited by Souzou include:

The Ace: He was the top student of Mysteria, though she did not deem him good enough to become her formal successor.
Duel to the Death: This is how he met his end, dueling Ragarl to protect his wife. Sadly, he failed.
Happily Married: He and Asmaase were noted to be very happy together, and Shizuka's early life was a good one with them.
The Rival: He and Ragarl were rivals ever since they met, fiercely competing at all times.

Chenezali de Ragarl

A student of Mysteria Tou and bitter rival of Souzou Masou. He went off the deep end after the woman he loved, Asmaase, married Souzou, and eventually killed Souzou and kidnapped Asmaase. He is the father of Nagi su Ragarl, Shizuka's half-sister and a product of his raping Asmaase.

Tropes exhibited by Chenezali include:

Asshole Victim: After being reduced to a torso, no one mourns him, aside of some pity from Shizuka after seeing the man she hates in a helpless state.
Dirty Coward: Only won his duel against Souzou by cheating and augmenting himself.
Entitled to Have You: He made many romantic gestures toward Asmaase but she ultimately turned him down. His refusal to accept this lead to his later crimes.
Fate Worse Than Death: Upon refusing to harm Shizuka upon discovering her before Rance VI, his daughter Nagi tore his body apart and left him barely alive in a tub, as killing Shizuka is her only goal in life.
Love Makes You Evil: He originally did actually love Asmaase, but took her marriage to Souzou as a betrayal, and was consumed by jealousy.

Asmaase

Shizuka's mother, now deceased. She was among the students of Mysteria Tou, and there met her eventual husband, Souzou Masou.

Tropes exhibited by Asmaase include:

Lust Object: To Ragarl, who desired her above all else.
The Woobie: Even for Rance's works, her story is dark: her husband was killed in front of her, she was kidnapped away from her young daughter, then imprisoned and raped until having another child, before finally going insane from grief and committing suicide.

Ishimaru Fujiwara

A famous Nipponese Warrior of the NC Era and its first Emperor, notable for being the first Human to conquer half of the Continent under his banner. After unifying all of Nippon in the 1st Sengoku Period, he allied with the Devil Geppei (founder of the Tenshi Sect) and Kurobe, the First Youkai King, and used the Three Sacred Treasures to start conquering the mainland and spreading Tenshiism along with the Nipponese language. His conquest eventually came to a halt after the Gods themselves feared for the numerous Souls stolen by the Devils, and directly asked the Archfiend Nighcisa to stop him. The Dread Fiend Xavier was deployed with an army of 2 million Monsters, which eventually culminated in a total collapse of the Human forces. After a fierce fight, Fujiwara and Kurobe are killed in battle by Xavier, but the latter was left too exhausted to prevent his eventual sealing by Geppei.

Despite his death, he did succeed at implementing the Nipponese language in the Continent, and is the finest exemple of what a Human can do with the right skills and allies.

Tropes exhibited by Ishimaru include:

The Conqueror: One of the greatest among the humans ever seen, as he came pretty close uniting the entire Continent (minus the Monster Realm) under his rule. He was somewhat out of his league dealing with the Dread Fiend Xavier, as he was left unable to break his Invincibility Field.
Posthumous Character: He's long dead by the time of the games. His legacy is very apparent however, from being the primary reason Xavier hates the Nipponese so much, to even being the reason Nipponese is the primary language used across the Continent.
World's Strongest Man: He possesed a Lv3 Skill in Sword Combat and a Level Cap of 108, the second highest known for humans in the series, with his Level being 92 at the time of his death.

Spoiler characters of Rance X

Hero Helman

The son between Patton Misnarge and Hunty Kalar and the cousin of Lelikov Helman whom he gets along with.

Dosu & Wasu

Tiger

Geimark

The hero after Arios Theoman. He launched a campaign to defeat Archfiend Rance by making himself stronger. This however means that half of humanity's population needed to die. In his rampage he managed to kill 30% of humanity. The nations attempts to stop him were all futile, but in an ironic twist, the person who stopped him was none other than the Archfiend he trying to defeat. He managed to survive this encounter, but three years later he attempted to fight Archfiend Rance once more, but got completely destroyed by him. This time the world was convinced he died, but legends say he still lives on...

Tropes exhibited by Geimark include:

And I Must Scream: As a result of the Hero System he managed to survive his last defeat from Archfiend Rance, but he's basically a walking corpse now and every second of his life feels painful to him now. Geimark: Please, kill....somebody.....kill....me...please....
Asshole Victim: This was actually discussed by the El Party since while his status as an undead zombie is pitiable, he still killed 30% of humanity's population. This is even worse when you consider that during his rampage, Archfiend Rance didn't do anything wrong yet and managed to suppress the Blood Soul's influence on him.
Immortality Hurts: He's immortal as rotting corpse whose own existence feels painful.
Irony: He wanted to save humanity by killing the Archfiend, but needed to kill half of humanity to do that and in the end his rampage was ended by the very Archfiend he was trying to defeat. This was actually lampshaded.
- Zance (after hearing the story of Geimark): Right, and our father, Archfiend Rance, took him out. Ironically, he probably saved more people than the Hero.
Knight Templar: Even a bigger one than Arios since Arios only allowed humans to die in the war while Geimark killed them himself.
Purpose Driven Immortality: As a result of god's disappearance and the Hero System, he is unable to die even though he's a rotting corpse now. He can be sent to the afterlife if El decides to show him compassion.

@@ Line 76: / Line 76: @@
 * [[Save This Person, Save the World]]: One of the main objectives of the Human Army in Rance X is to find her and keep her away from Kayblis. And when she is captured in the endgame, rescuing her become the top priority.
 * [[School Uniforms Are the New Black]]: She still wears her school uniform despite being well out of high school.
+* [[Stone Wall]]: [[Exaggerated Trope|To an absurd degree]]. Being the Archfiend, her defense is unparalleled, and even Fiends can barely do anything to her in most cases... but because she eats Hirami Lemons that suppress the Archfiend's natural bloodlust, her offensive capabilities are next to nothing unless provoked.
 == The Hero ==