Operators: Vanguards (A-M | N-Z) | Snipers (A-M | N-Z) | Guards (A-D | E-K | L-S | T-Z) | Defenders (A-M | N-Z)
Casters (A-G | H-M | N-Z) | Medics (A-M | N-Z) | Supporters (A-M | N-Z) | Specialists (A-M | N-Z)
Factions: Rhodes Island | The Reunion Movement | Dublinn | The Military Commission of Kazdel | Allied Factions (A-K | L-Z)
Enemy Factions (A-J | K-Z) | Miscellaneous factions & characters | Nation States (A-K | L-S | T-Z) | Enemy Units Index
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Nightingale
Nightingale / Liz
Introduced: Game Launch
Voiced by: Yui Ishikawa (Japanese), Shi Yinnote (Mandarin Chinese), Sophie Colquhoun (English)Additional VAs
Artist: Skade
As simple as a blank sheet.
Rarity: ★★★★★★
Subclass: Multi-target
An amnesiac, physically-frail Sarkaz woman who, alongside Shining and Nearl, formed the "Followers," a travelling healing group. Despite her illness and seemingly emotionless nature, Nightingale is an amazing medic with unmatched prowess in healing arts, and became an operator in order to accompany Nearl and Shining in their missions.
Nightingale's esoteric powers buff the Arts RES of allies in her healing range, and she's also able to deploy a limited number of transient Phantoms to draw enemy attention away from her teammates. Her skills allow her to create Arts-absorbing Barriers to shield her allies, or greatly improve her range, healing, and RES buffs for a duration while granting allies Arts dodge.
- Ambiguous Situation: While Chapter 13 confirmed that her body was artificially created to house her consciousness, it's unknown where her consciousness came from in the first place. Theories ranged from a dead friend of Shining, to a part of the Sarkaz collective memory, to even a piece of Shining's own memory/consciousness, but the game has yet to confirm anything aside from some vague hints.
- Anti-Magic: In a game where anti-Arts measures are extremely rare, Nightingale is the anti-Arts unit. With an arsenal of skills and talents designed to almost completely neuter Arts damage to her teammates, she's invaluable to have on stages that are heavy on Arts threats.
- Barrier Warrior: Like Shining, she is able to generate a magic barrier with her S2 Arts Shield which reduces damage received from incoming attacks. However, her barriers are based upon Arts damage reduction instead of physical (Arts damage completely ignores one's Defense stat, but can be reduced by a certain % based on the RES/magic resistance).
- Beyond the Impossible: It's been established in Originium Dust event that healing arts aren't the convenient healing spells found in most fiction, being hard to master and in practice mostly being used only as first-aid, thus medicine and medical science are still needed. However, Nightingale in her Operator Records is able to reverse the symptoms of Oripathy through her healing arts alone, a feat that even medicine and drugs seemingly cannot accomplish. It's no wonder she used to be caged and used for her healing powers when it can accomplish what seems to be miracles.
- Book Dumb: It is noted in her profile that Nightingale did badly on written exams and doesn't really grasp the principle and practice of modern medicine; in exchange, she knew human anatomy like the back of her hand, is so good with healing arts that it left researchers and observers in awe, and can discern symptoms of illness and their source with a look.
- Caged Bird Metaphor:
- Invoked in her Elite 2 artwork, which shows Nightingale breaking free from a large bird cage.
- She also recalls being imprisoned in an empty room, and the only time she goes out is when someone else needed her healing powers. Her lack of agency in the past is why Shining always ensures that Nightingale can make her own choices, as she's no longer imprisoned.
- Her voiced lines also contain allusions between rooms and cages.
- Cast from Hit Points: From her Operator Records, every time Nightingale use healing arts her own condition and illness worsens, though this doesn't deter her at all from wanting to heal people.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Nightingale is the complete opposite of Shining, specializing in buffing RES above all. This makes her ideal when going up against Casters or Arts drones, but much less effective when the majority of the enemy deals physical damage. It isn't all bad however, since Arts damage-dealing baddies tend to be among some of the more dangerous enemies the player can encounter, and very few Operators have ways of bolstering their RES or Arts dodge to mitigate Arts damage.
- Gameplay-wise, so much so that she's practically mandatory when fighting the True Final Boss of the first arc. Her Res buffs are almost always going to be the only thing standing between you beating JT 8-3 and the waves of fireballs killing all your operators while the hounds that come during the firestorm going through and ending your run. Being pre-packaged with a decoy that can Draw Aggro is another pointer why she's invaluable for this certain map.
- H8-4 is another fight against the True Final Boss, except instead of enemies trying to sneak through while the firestorm is raging, it's Ursus Civilians you must protect, forcing you to block 4 lanes worth of fireballs. Even worse is that Nightingale can only cover 3 of those lanes, though being able to cover just 3 is already a godsend.
- Gameplay-wise, so much so that she's practically mandatory when fighting the True Final Boss of the first arc. Her Res buffs are almost always going to be the only thing standing between you beating JT 8-3 and the waves of fireballs killing all your operators while the hounds that come during the firestorm going through and ending your run. Being pre-packaged with a decoy that can Draw Aggro is another pointer why she's invaluable for this certain map.
- Damage Reduction: Nightingale's specialty is in reducing Arts damage to any of her healing targets.
- Her talent White Fiend's Protection increases the RES of all allies within her range by 10 (15 at Elite 2).
- Arts Shield is an automatic skill that forms a barrier around her next healing targets, which soaks up incoming Arts damage equal to up to 90% of Nightingale's ATK, and increases their RES by up to 20.
- On top of increasing her reach and her ATK, her S3 Sanctuary buffs the RES of all allies within range by up to 150%, and gives them all up to 25% Arts Dodge.
- Damsel in Distress: In Chapter 13, Nightingale is kidnapped by the Confessarius to further his plans, as well as force Shining to confront him. However, it's also unusual in that Nightingale chose to get kidnapped, as the alternative of Shining killing him - and thus "giving birth" to the white-horned Lord of Fiends - is something Nightingale doesn't want.
- Déjà Vu: She gets this feeling whenever she sees Amiya, pondering if she has already met her before.
- Delicate and Sickly: Nightingale is one of the most prominent example in Arknights: the two main prominent ones are her memory loss and physical frailty (with her physical strength, mobility, and physical resilience tests all ranking at flawed), which makes her both physically and mentally disabled to some degree, but it's implied that there are more problems if the censored parts of her profile is of any indication. She's also unique compared to other ill girl like Eyjafjalla in that while she's suffering from Oripathy, it's actually not the main reason why she's become so ill, with the implication being Nightingale's condition was inflicted by human means. Chapter 11 later reveals that Nightingale is an experiment of the Confessarius to transfer souls and memories to another body and in this case, Nightingale was the original intended vessel to host Theresa's memories and power as the Lord of the Fiends which was turned moot when Theresa chose to transfer her powers and memories to Amiya instead.
- Draw Aggro: At Elite 2, Nightingale gains the Fleeting Phantom talent; with it, she can summon phantoms that don't attack or block enemies, but boast an incredible 75% RES and a good 30% physical dodge, and forcing enemies to attack it, giving your team some breathing room.
- Dumb Blonde: Downplayed Type I; she's blonde and fairly Book Dumb, but tremendously talented in terms of medical experience instead.
- Emotionless Girl: Amiya describes her emotions as like a blank sheet of paper, and all of her voice lines are delivered in the same, nearly-monotonous tone; she also never emotes in all of her appearances thus far, always sporting the same blank look and only having a single expression sprite, which is notable as even Shining - who always appears with her - has smiled a few times. However, she expresses worry when Nearl decides to crash into the arena in "Maria Nearl" event and shows happiness after healing a sick child in her Operator Records, showing that she does have emotions even if it's rather muted.
- Family of Choice: In chapter 10, Nightingale said that Kazdel is not her home; her home is with Shining and Nearl, which is practically this trope.
- Fictional Disability: As a result of breathing Originium toxin, her infection has left her with several nervous-related problems, such as memory loss and motor impairment. It's implied in her profile there are more issues.
- Foil: With Shining.
- Nightingale is clad in white, while Shining is clad in black.
- Nightingale's black horns are curled, while Shining's white horns are straight.
- Nightingale is infected with Oripathy, while Shining is immune to Oripathy.
- Nightingale is physically frail, having difficulty even in walking, while Shining is a One-Woman Army.
- Nightingale is mentally strong and decisive when push come to shove, while Shining often hesitates and became unsure of herself when facing her past.
- Nightingale received no formal education in medicine in exchange of being blessed with near-miraculous healing arts, while Shining is an accomplished doctor and scholar who pioneers a few medicinal fields on her own.
- Gameplay-wise, Nightingale is a multi-target medic who give protection against arts, while Shining is a single-target medic who gives protection against physical attacks.
- Forgiveness: In chapter 13, Nightingale managed to remember a question that Shining asked her a long time ago, and gives her answer: that she had forgiven Shining for what she'd done to her a long time ago, even before Shining had sealed her memories away without her consent.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Fittingly, as they travel together, she and Shining form an incredible tag team of Medics. Whereas Nightingale focuses on buffing your operator's RES, Shining can cover the buffing of your operator's DEF where Nightingale cannot, turning your team into an incredible Stone Wall regardless of damage type.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Nightingale has blonde hair and is dedicated to healing others despite the fact that doing so would cause pain for herself and worsen her own illness. As seen in her Operator Records, Nightingale very much chooses to do that on her own volition and not just to follow Shining and Nearl.
- Horned Humanoid: As a member of the Sarkaz race, she has two black horns that somehow fold on the sides of her head.
- Image Song: "Spring’s Pulse
". - Irony: Invoked in her profile. The medic operator who writes her medical analysis noted how ironic it is that despite being an amazing healer who can recognize symptoms of illness with a look, Nightingale cannot do the same for herself.
- Lady and Knight: Nightingale serves as the Lady to Shining and Nearl's Knight. She cannot fight and needs to be protected because of her frailty, but is the most powerful healer out of the three who can also protect them from arts, which few characters can do; she also worries over her "knights" and become an operator so she can accompany them on missions and battle. She's also definitely treated as one when traveling with Shining and Nearl, with both fussing over her to lean on them when tired, offering food and a spot near the campfire so she can rest better, and one of the factors they consider when deciding whether to risk conflict and stay in a village to help the people or not is Nightingale's health.
- Magikarp Power: Nightingale was one of the original 6-stars you could get as your starter, but starts off as a somewhat unremarkable Medic early on: her ability to protect against Arts isn't very relevant due to most major threats being physical, with Arts users being both rare and easily assassinated using Snipers or Guards, leaving her utility overshadowed by things like Ptilopsis' SP regeneration or Perfumer's global regen, both of whom also have more reliable ways to buff their raw healing power. This changes as the game progresses, where the game starts increasing the amount of deadly Arts threats that can't be quickly killed and do enough damage that just adding more healing often isn't enough, leading to Nightingale being prized in late-game content since nobody can buff RES as much as her, while her Elite 2 promotion also gives her an extra ability to place bulky decoys anywhere to Draw Aggro, an invaluable ability that, again, no other unit can replicate on the level that she can. This is in contrast to her DEF-buffing counterpart Shining, who excels in the early game, but falls off as you go on.
- Making the Choice for You: In chapter 13, the Confessarius gave Shining a choice: either let Nightingale be truly free, foiling his plan at the cost of her health, or she could kill him, had her body taken over and her family's plan realized, but Nightingale will be cured. Nightingale ends up choosing to get kidnapped before Shining could kill him, forgiving her for everything she'd done to her while also saying that she wouldn't let Shining decide everything by herself when they'd promised to face this together.
- The Medic: She definitely fulfills this role in the Followers, despite both Shining and Nearl also being able to heal others just fine, because this is definitely her main role; she's so good at healing, in fact, that she's able to heal and lessen Oripathy symptoms through her healing Arts alone, without the aid of any drugs or medicine whatsoever.
- Mythical Motifs: Demons, due to her Sarkaz race. However, her main motif seems to be that of birds, as she's got the same name of one, has a bird on her staff that spreads its wings whenever she heals, her Elite 2 artwork and her summons refer to birds in cages. Shining also refers to her as a "little blue bird" in her Operator Record.
- Named After Somebody Famous: She is named after Florence Nightingale, the founder of Modern Nursing. It also overlaps to a Meaningful Name with the Nightingale bird, which is referenced in her Elite 2 artwork having a bird cage.
- No-Sell: At S3 Mastery 3 and full potential, if Nightingale buffs somebody with at least 25 RES, they can almost completely laugh off Arts damage.Explanation And that's just them eating the raw damage by themselves, without factoring in the 25% Arts evasion bonus offered by the skill.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Chapter 13 shows that despite being extremely kind, frail and gentle, Nightingale is no pushover; she refuses to let herself be manipulated by the Confessarius, trapping him in her cage and even exposing his soul for Shining to attack, and when it's revealed that killing him is a part of his plan, Nightingale chooses to get kidnapped because she knew the Confessarius wouldn't actually hurt or kill her, thus giving Shining the necessary resolve she needs to face her past.
- Situational Sword: As described under Crippling Overspecialization, Nightingale focuses entirely on giving your team more RES. This makes her invaluable in situations where the enemy mainly deals Arts damage... which isn't that common until harder levels or events like Contingency Contract#1 or Chapters 7 and onwards, which limits her utility during the early-to-mid game. Regardless of occasion, the vast majority of enemies in Arknights deal Physical damage, which Nightingale doesn't protect against.
- This proves to be really useful in Chapter 8 against the final boss, due to the fact that after each of her phases, she will release waves of gigantic fireballs for several seconds, dealing heavy Arts damage that will likely wipe out your operators while groups of hounds try to sneak through. This is where Nightingale's S3 will really shine due to its strong Arts protection. Outside of this, there's really no other point in the game where one absolutely needs to have her to win anything.
- Even more useful for Chapter 8's Brutal Bonus Level, H8-4. Instead of having to block hounds trying to sneak through the firestorm, you need to plug 4 separate lanes (top 2 lanes and bottom 2 lanes) in order to protect a bunch of Ursus Civilians. Nightingale's S3 range is a literal godsend in providing enough RES for your plugs in 3 lanes to survive the firestorm (while you need to somehow figure something out for the last lane).
- This proves to be really useful in Chapter 8 against the final boss, due to the fact that after each of her phases, she will release waves of gigantic fireballs for several seconds, dealing heavy Arts damage that will likely wipe out your operators while groups of hounds try to sneak through. This is where Nightingale's S3 will really shine due to its strong Arts protection. Outside of this, there's really no other point in the game where one absolutely needs to have her to win anything.
- Super-Senses: From her Operator Record, Nightingale is shown to be able to sense people suffering from Oripathy without seeing them directly.
- Support Party Member: Nightingale is really a RES buffer just as much as she is a healer, meaning that she is an excellent choice for when Arts-dealing enemies show up to ruin your day (especially in Contingency Contract), as there are very few versatile options for dedicated Arts tanking.
- What Is This Feeling?: In her Operator Records, Nightingale felt an unknown emotion stirred within her after healing a boy suffering from Oripathy. She then asks Shining whether what she's feeling is happiness, which Shining confirms with a smile.
- Wistful Amnesia: Nightingale is one of the few operators who has amnesia. Despite that, however, she could still felt a sense of Déjà Vu, such as meeting Amiya.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Because her body is artificially created, her condition inevitably deteriorates as time goes on, and not even Rhodes Island or Kal'tsit can stop it. The only one who can cure or stabilize her condition is Confessarius or Shining with her family's lab and equipment.
Nowell
Nowell
Introduced: Episode 13: The Whirlpool That is Passion (First Appearance), See You Soon (Playable Debut)
Voiced by: Tarusuke Shingaki (Japanese), Liu Yao (Mandarin Chinese), Benjamin Lhommas (English)Additional VAs
Artist: VVVVIIIIIIA
No need to ask, he's only here to save people.
Rarity: ★★★★★
Subclass: Therapist
An Ageless Vulpo Victorian optometrist and Reunion member who later becomes affiliated with Rhodes Island. He used to live in Gaul.
He prioritizes operators afflicted by negative statuses, increasing his healing for them while targeting them first in both skills. He can buff his healing power and speed, or grant two operators regeneration and status resistance.
- The Ageless: Made into one by an unknown individual centuries ago. "See You Soon" would later give a strong implication that it was Clovisia who granted him immortality.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Subverted. When Clovisia offers him another wish during their next encounter in "See You Soon", he expects that she would curse him again after he chewed her out for making him immortal. He's beyond pleased to learn that he lost his immortality when his wounds from being hit by falling rubble shortly after the encounter don't close immediately.
- Blessed with Suck: He has immortality, but no other special powers or abilities that make the other immortals so dangerous. He even calls himself a Master of None.
- Commonality Connection: He's able to connect with Phantom after he has inherited the Tragodia mantle because he has been turned into an Ageless like he used to be.
- Death Seeker: He's sick of immortality and is looking for either a way to remove it or permanently die. Even after Clovisia removes his immortality, he still somewhat looks forward to the day he will inevitably die.
- Friend to All Children: He has a soft spot for children, and especially likes crafting eyeglasses for them to the point where he's invited to watch a children's movie with many of the younger Operators.
- Healing Factor: His immortality comes with the ability to heal his wounds quickly. Thus, when he notices that the wound he receives after confronting Clovisia doesn't stop bleeding, it clues him in to the loss of his immortality.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: As a man who has grown cynical due to his long life, he tends to deprecate himself in his dialogues.
- Knight in Sour Armor: His long life has left him very jaded. However, despite witnessing many tragedies over many years, he still goes out of his way to save people, exploiting his Healing Factor to go deep into battlefields. He even made a vow in "See You Soon" that he would devote his remaining time to save even more lives instead of wasting his time wandering after he's turned back into a mortal.
- Mortality Ensues: Clovisia strips his immortality at the end of his story in "See You Soon", which is what Nowell has been wishing for.
- Non-Action Guy: He claims that besides his immortality, he has no other special powers and would likely be beaten by even Guard in a fight. Fittingly, his playable incarnation is a Medic. However, he later states to the Doctor that he learned street fighting during his time in Gaul.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: His profile notes that he typically conflates the profession of "optometrist" (an eye doctor) with "optician" (someone who makes glasses), and does both despite not having a proper medical license. HR and Medical finally settled on a compromise that Nowell could continue as an optician, but he would need to take formal training and accreditation before he can be officially considered an optometrist as well.
- Perma-Stubble: He has a stubble underneath his chin, showing how he's one of the older playable Operators and representing the misery he is in thanks to his immortality.
- Promoted to Playable: He's originally introduced as a NPC in Episode 13 before becoming a playable Operator in the "See You Soon" vignette event.
- Really 700 Years Old: As it turns out, Nowell is apparently an immortal who has lived for at least two hundred years.
- Revenge: He is convinced that some sort of entity or party has cursed him with immortality and he wants to take revenge on it. He lets go of this after finally encountering the one responsible, Clovisia, which results in his curse being removed. He even thanks her for doing so.
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Downplayed. He's still a grumpy, self-deprecating man even after losing his immortality. However, he claims in an extra voiceline that he's able to find joy in seeing places with festive decor again, while in another voiceline, he celebrates the Doctor's birthday by making a joke based on his own incident that led to his immortality in the first place.
- True Craftsman: Despite there being many modern ways to manufacture eyeglasses, Nowell prefers to craft all of his by hand, which his customers appreciate since it makes every single one he makes unique.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: He despises his immortality due it causing him to outlive all of his loved ones, and seeks a way to permanently kill himself.
- Your Days Are Numbered: He's reverted back into a mortal after encountering Clovisia in "See You Soon" to call her out on making him immortal, meaning he will one day pass away from either old age or his wounds. Not that he minds however.
Paprika
Paprika
Introduced: Episode 11: Return to Mist
Voiced by: Yū Sasahara (Japanese), Zhou Yihan (Mandarin Chinese), Erika Harlacher (English)Additional VAs
Artist: VVVVIIIIIIA
She's still fumbling for a direction, and in fumbling she'll grow.
Rarity: ★★★★★
Subclass: Chain
A young Sarkaz mercenary and member of a Columbian squad hired by Manfred, who was rescued by Rhodes Island after defecting due to conflicting ideals following the Londinium incident.
She restores extra HP to targets below 40% health, with said threshold being increased by her second skill, which also improves the power of her heals and the number of targets they can bounce to.
- Adorably Precocious Child: She constantly tries to project the image of a hardened mercenary like how she's been trained, but her constant fumbling and toothlessness owing to her inexperience and innocence only make her more laughably endearing, especially since she and her antics provide some of the few lighthearted moments in the Londinium Crisis.
- Child Soldier: Given that she was roughly 12 when she was fighting for the Military Commission, she can be considered this.
- Children Are Innocent: Paprika is stated to be very young for a merc (being implied to be about 12) and is equally naïve to what war is actually like, as she joined the Military Commission of Kazdel just because her squad leader told her to and isn't even sure what she's fighting for. As a result, she's incredibly inexperienced and somewhat oblivious to how ruthless being a mercenary can actually get, and is noted to behave more like a girl scout than an actual mercenary. Fittingly, pretty much all of her Military Commission allies treated her as a sheltered kid at best or a clueless idiot at worst.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Both of her parents died when she was very young, and she was forced to live in relative poverty with her grandmother due to being a Sarkaz. And then she contracted Oripathy at a young age and was kicked out of school, forcing her to become a mercenary to survive.
- Defector from Decadence: "Decadence" is a stretch considering the grueling life of a Sarkaz mercenary, but once she witnessed the horrors of the Londinium incident and discovered that being a "full-fledged mercenary" meant having to be able to kill without remorse, she decided to give up on serving Kazdel and joined Rhodes Island instead.
- Fantastic Racism: She was subject to racial prejudices during her childhood in Columbia, which only got worse after she contracted Oripathy. This led to her being pressured to drop out of school, which led to her joining the Pioneers, and then a Sarkaz mercenary outfit after that.
- Minion with an F in Evil:
- She served Manfred's army in the occupation of Londinium and was part of the operation to kill anyone in Catherine's factory who knew too much, technically making her an enemy for the duration of Episode 11, but it quickly becomes clear that she's not good at it in the slightest. She never shows genuine hostility, makes small talk with Catherine and opens up to her when the latter is her prisoner, and ultimately can't even bring herself to kill her when her commander directly orders her to.
- This only continues in Episode 12 where Manfred decides to bring her to the frontlines and personally show her the harshness of war, where Paprika continues to fumble with the weight of a mercenary and gets in trouble for giving food to the starving citizens of Norport, as well as getting effortlessly subdued by Ines aboard the K.M.C.'s airship and needing Manfred to bail her out.
- Ditto in Episode 13, where she and her crew are stuck doing menial labor for the Blood Court and run into Amiya's group, where Logos and Doctor manage to leverage the former's Banshee status to make them give up their car and unwittingly become their prisoners. Paprika does catch on to this eventually, but between her inexperience and her being surrounded by genuine powerhouses, she can do little but tag along with them. When all the allied groups meet up and Paprika gets dragged into their plans, it's clear that nobody considers her a threat in the slightest.
- Only in It for the Money: She originally became a mercenary because she didn't know of any other way of making a living.
- Edible Theme Naming: 'Paprika' is the native name for the bell pepper.
- Token Minority: She is one of the three Columbian-born Sarkaz alongside Domma and Vigna.
- True Craftsman: She is actually a very skilled weaver and regularly weaves gifts for her friends. Her operator files show that at least one other operator believes that she could turn her talent in knitting towards running a clothing business on the landship.
- Younger Than They Look: At 155cm, she is a bit taller than Ceobe—however, her confirmed age is roughly 12 (which is quite young for her height).
Papyrus
Papyrus / Anat El-Aydin
Introduced: Adventure That Cannot Wait For the Sun
Voiced by: Azusa Tachibana (Japanese), Ge Zirui (Mandarin Chinese), Molly Harris (English)Additional VAs
Artist: small_ryuzaki
She observes the lives of others, and searches for her own.
Rarity: ★★★★★
Subclass: Chain
A Feline and the former curator of the Varjavandabad Museum in Sargon.
Her heals additionally grant their targets a temporary Barrier to absorb damage, which can be bolstered by her first skill. Her second skill instead has her lock onto an ally in range with the highest HP and exclusively focus on them, gaining increased healing power and speed while bouncing her heals to more targets.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: She often asks her friends and people she trusts to rub her ears, as it helps her calm down.
- Barrier Warrior: Papyrus' Erudite of Ancient Scrolls talent causes each of her heals to grant the targets a Barrier scaled to her ATK.
- Butt-Monkey: For most of Adventure That Cannot Wait For the Sun, Papyrus is often the victim of some kind of misfortune, such as having the speech she was preparing for completely derailed, fainting from fright when Zubayr wakes up, getting dropped multiple times when Pepe and Zubayr try to carry her to safety, and more.
- But Now I Must Go: She ultimately decides to resign from her post as acting-curator and joins Rhodes Island so she can travel the world and see it for herself.
- Childhood Friends: She was classmates with Pepe and Titi.
- Cute Bookworm: She's a cute Feline girl whose biggest hobby is reading.
- Hero-Worshipper: She is a huge fan of E. E. Erikson, the author of Terra: A Journey. She always keeps a copy of his book around and dreams of being able to travel the world like him. Thanks to some help from the Doctor, she is even able to write directly to Erikson for advice.
- I Just Want to Be Free: Her main motivation for joining Rhodes Island was so she could leave her sheltered lifestyle and experience real hardship and adversity while making her own choices in life rather than following her father's wishes.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: She comes from a fairly wealthy family but was raised under a very strict father who encouraged her to live a tightly scheduled and regimented lifestyle. While this kept her safe from the dangers of the outside world and Sargon's political intrigue, it did leave her feeling unfulfilled since she essentially had no agency in her life.
- Shrinking Violet: She is incredibly shy, and often has trouble speaking in public or expressing her true feelings. She's able to serve her curator duties remarkably well in spite of it, but is prone to devolving into a Nervous Wreck and overthinker when under pressure.
- Teen Genius: Despite her young age, Papyrus was able to secure the position as acting-curator of the Varjavandabad Museum due to her knowledge of Sargon's history.
Perfumer
Perfumer / Lena Athopoulou
Introduced: Game Launch
Voiced by: Rie Takahashi (Japanese), Yang Donghuinote (Mandarin Chinese), Sam Slade (English)Additional VAs
Artist: Lanzi
Anyone with a pollen allergy should stay away.
Rarity: ★★★★
Subclass: Multi-target
A Vulpo perfumer employed at Rhodes Island and the caretaker of its Convalescent Garden.
Her talent causes all allies on the field to slowly regenerate HP scaling with her ATK, while her skills mostly increase the power of her heals, either through a generic ATK buff, or a much larger ATK buff at the cost of a much slower healing rate.
-
Ascended Fanfic: Perfumer is actually Lanzi's original character, but with fox ears and a non-baseball job added. This is similar to some of the characters designed by KuroBlood, who were also original characters at first. - Animal Motifs: Fennec foxes.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Her S2 Fine Blending more often than not proves to be this. While its massively increased healing (up to a +250% ATK buff) is powerful, the fact that it also creates a much longer delay between bursts makes using it dangerous in most heated fights, where the enemy damage can greatly outstrip Perfumer's output, making the team more liable to being overwhelmed. As such, it's typically reserved only for maps where the enemy comes in small waves and/or Perfumer has someone else to back her up, such as a healing Defender or another Medic. Where constant healing output is needed, such as event challenge maps, Perfumer's S1 is typically the go-to skill in the meta, although her S2 does have its uses when Perfumer is being used for her passive regeneration, as the ATK boost from S2 increases the regeneration without any penalty on its speed.
- Beware the Nice Ones: While gentle and friendly, albeit a bit mischievous, she can also be headstrong and cunning if she feels like it. To say less of what happens when someone actually manages to displease her.
- Boring, but Practical: Her Lavender talent, which passively heals every friendly entity on the map, including Operators who can't be healed normally, summons, and even passive friendly structures on the map like Control Terminals. It's not flashy, but it's one of the only sources of permanent global healing in the game, meaning that it can be a godsend for longer stages.
- Caring Gardener: Perfumer both loves and is scientifically-fascinated with herbs and flowers. She keeps a large greenhouse on Rhodes Island to experiment with new forms of aromatherapy. She's also a literal case; her last trust file reveals that she's successfully treated patients with her aromatherapy, most notably getting Nightmare's condition under control.
- Floral Theme Naming: Her talent is named after the Lavender flower.
- Green Thumb: She has deep knowledge of herbs and medicinal plants, and all of her abilities are themed around her making use of them to heal her teammates.
- I Have No Son!: Perfumer was originally the heiress to the Athopoulou family, a prestigous line of Athenian herbalists, but was disowned and exiled after contracting Oripathy. Predictably, she's cut all ties with her family and didn't bat an eye when they eventually fell to financial ruin.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Due to her Lavender talent, Perfumer has technically infinite range. However, only those within her highlighted range will receive full-strength healing, since her global heal is calculated after a percentage of her ATK. Notably, this also heals things/Operators that can't normally be healed, like summons or enmity guards like Hellagur, and even works if Perfumer's been stunned or frozen.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Her real name is Lena, and by the route of Engrish, her name is a reference to the French chemist René-Maurice Gattefossé, who wrote about Aromatherapy in 1928. Since that, treatment using extract of plant is called Aromatherapy.
- Regenerating Health: Her talent Lavender passively causes all friendly units to gradually regenerate HP equal to up to 5.5% of Perfumer's ATK each second, making her one of the few sources of global healing in the game.
- The Nose Knows: According to her dossier, Perfumer has a super keen sense of smell that allows her to identify plants based on their aroma, and can sniff down anyone on Rhodes Island with ease. She also determined from scent alone that Beanstalk's Metal Crabs grow flowers with medicinal properties.
Ptilopsis
Ptilopsis / Joyce Moore
Introduced: Game Launch
Voiced by: Hisako Kanemoto (Japanese), Guiniangnote (Mandarin Chinese), Heather Nicol (English)Additional VAs
Artist: Ryuzakiichi
101010111101000note
Rarity: ★★★★★
Subclass: Multi-target
A former data analyst at Rhine Lab, the Liberi woman who identifies herself as Ptilopsis followed Silence out the door when Silence departed Rhine Lab with Ifrit. She is now employed with Rhodes Island as one of the medical technicians, assisting Silence with her care of Ifrit and other Oripathy patients.
She passively increases the SP regeneration of all allies on the field while deployed, and can use her skill to extend her range and dramatically increase her healing rate for its duration.
- Animal Motifs: While her Liberi race represent birds, hers is specifically northern white-faced owls. Multiple owls can also be seen in her Elite 2 artwork. When you tap her in the base, she will stand right up straight as in Tarnstellung.
- Animal Theme Naming: Ptilopsis is a genus of owls, which are her Animal Motifs.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Her hairstyle resembles the top of the head of the northern white-faced owl (Ptilopsis leucotis) and its general form resembles the shape of the owl, and also their orange eyes are similar to the specie. Her mostly white outfit in her Elite 2 artwork does another job of mimicking their white, black and grey colors.
- Brain–Computer Interface: Her module reveals that Rhine Lab chose her as experimental subject to essentially become this in order to interpret the mysterious signals of Originium as a human decryption system. The experiment went south and damaged her brain, which forced her to get a chip implanted in her brain to repair the injury, since which she starts hearing voices in her head which puts a lot of strain on her and forces her to speak in robotic fashion to reduce the burden.
- Combat Stilettos: She wears high heels in her Elite 2 artwork.
- Delicate and Sickly: Apart from her Oripathy, Ptilopsis suffered a permanent brain injury during a botched Rhine Labs experiment. She's only able to maintain her mental faculties due to an experimental chip implanted in her brain, but the strain placed on her brain has increased, exacerbating her narcolepsy and threatening to worsen the condition of her brain in the near future.
- Expressive Hair: The two hair parts on the sides of Ptilopsis' head will move and twitch according to the mood she's feeling, much like the ears of a dog.
- Gathering Steam: Her second skill takes a long time to charge. The first use is alleviated by a bout of starting SP, but even a skill 2 that is at mastery 3 will take a full 100 SP to charge. This is partially alleviated by her own talent, however, and can be further alleviated by sources that directly give SP, like Saria's second talent.
- Little Bit Beastly: More notable beyond the general fact of everyone being so in that she is identifiably a specific genus of owl — Ptilopsis is definitely some kind of African white-faced owl, which is the genus ptilopsis, with her more likely being a Northern white-faced owl.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Although Ptilopsis is a native Columbian, which makes her an in-universe equivalent of an American, the owl species she represents is only found in Africa.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: When Mayer probes Ptilopsis for details on Device #9, her brain chip, she states that there are no backups or any kind of reference materials she can give to Mayer, indicating that it's an absolute one of a kind chip that can only be found in Ptilopsis' brain.
- An Odd Place to Sleep: Ptilopsis' Oripathy manifests not only as narcolepsy but also memory loss. Because of this, she can spontaneously fall asleep where she stands and wake up not remembering where she is or why she's there in the first place. Because of this, she's not allowed to travel far without an escort lest she ends up passing out in a dangerous place.
- The Owl-Knowing One: She's based on an owl, and she's got a database in her head.
- Repressed Memories: It's implied in "Stories of Afternoon" that she suppressed her own memories regarding her involvement in the Flame Demon Incident, which is shown in Extra Chapter 3 of the Rhine Lab manhua. Ptilopsis was actually not present when Silence's attempt to smuggle Ifrit out of Rhine Lab led to Ifrit going on an unconscious rampage that was stopped by Saria, because Ptilopsis was undergoing a month-long treatment of her own condition at Director Parvis's suggestion. She only saw Ifrit in critical condition after the incident.
- Robo-Speak: She very rarely talks in something not Robo-Speak, occasional Third-Person Person and all, but not because she wants to.
- Robot Girl: A truly strange example: Ptilopsis behaves like a stereotypical one, never breaking character and speaking as if she was the interface terminal to a computer (and enters "sleep mode" rather often). However, make no mistake: she is a flesh-and-blood Liberi no different from, say, Silence. It's unclear if this is just how she is, or if her Oripathy is affecting her self-perception and thought patterns in some way (she asserts it's more the latter, but one has to wonder a bit, since nobody else is remotely affected this way). It doesn't interfere with her ability to work, at any rate (even if it makes conversations with her a bit odd). Once you get her trust high enough, she'll admit she actively dislikes socializing this way... but she thinks it's necessary to "prevent the system nexus from being devoured by that other voice".
- Rhine Lab actually intends her to be a human CPU more or less, minus the robotic speech and attitude that came about as a result of the faulty experiment.
- Shout-Out: Her real name may be referencing two people: Joyce Reynolds, an American computer scientist who played a significant role developing many of the basic internet protocols (including Telnet, FTP, and POP), and Gordon Moore, co-founder of processor manufacturer Intel.
- Sleeps with Both Eyes Open: To emphasize that she's a "robot", Ptilopsis' sleep animation still has her eyes wide open.
- Sleepyhead: To an extreme degree. She'll fall asleep while conversing with people, and then pick up where she left off on waking up. Silence has diagnosed her narcolepsy to be a result of her chip constantly forcing her brain to be in a state of active stimulation even while asleep and is perturbed by the implications of what this means.
- Split Personality: Her robotic Spock Speak tendencies are implied to be a method to combat this, being necessary to, as she puts it, "prevent the system nexus from being devoured by that other voice". It's highly likely that this means that if she doesn't talk like this, the voices she started to hear when the experiment went wrong will put extreme stress on her psyche.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Despite her robotic mannerisms, raising her trust enough reveals that Ptilopsis is a lot more emotional and attached to the Doctor than she lets on. Her mechanical facade is only there to keep her Oripathy infection in check, because if she doesn't, her heightened emotions would aggravate her symptoms and potentially kill her.
- Support Party Member: Upon reaching Elite 1, Ptilopsis gains the Skill Aura talent which increases the SP recovery of all allies by .15 per second upon deployment. As soon as she's promoted to Elite 2, the rate increases to .3 SP per second, and her module bumps it up further to 0.35 for allies in her range. This may seem small, until one compares it to a non-Ptilopsis run.
- Third-Person Person: Occasionally.
- Troll:
- She jokes about resetting the entire system when promoted, saying it in a very deceptive manner.(Talk after first promotion): Warning! Reverting Rhodes Island database to initial state... Don't worry. It's just a joke. Please don't panic.(Second promotion): Warning. Reverting Rhodes Island database to two years ago... Relax. It's just joke. System update completed.
- When someone calls for "Feathers" at both Ptilopsis' and Silence's direction in the "Stories of Afternoon" event, she tells Silence that they must be referring to Silence because Ptilopsis refuses to be saddled with such a stupid nickname. There's also the Unreliable Narrator aspect of her below.
- She jokes about resetting the entire system when promoted, saying it in a very deceptive manner.
- Unreliable Narrator: She narrates her own profile page. There's a few places where she's clearly embellishing a little bit and is not quite as robotic as her manner might first indicate (particularly in her final entry). One specific example is that despite her cell assimilation not being high and her having no visible lesions, her blood crystal density is rather high (0.43u/L, four times the safe limit and above many other "mild" oripathy victims) and she tries to pass it off as being mild and "under control".
Purestream
Purestream
Introduced: Coexistence
Voiced by: Marié Miyake (Japanese), Cheng Li (Mandarin Chinese), Kristen Li (English)Additional VAs
Artist: Wei@W, WalkingBoringnote
She always thought that throwing coins into water to make a wish was a rather silly practice.
Rarity: ★★★★
Subclass: Therapist
An Aegir water treatment worker and water conservation enthusiast from Yan who signed up at Rhodes Island as an Operator.
She grants Status Resistance to any ally she heals, and her skills can either instantly heal everyone in range for a large amount of HP, or dramatically increase her healing rate for a duration at the cost of each individual heal being weaker.
- Animal Motif: Finless porpoise. In fact, the scientific name of her species (Neophocaena phocaenoides) was explicitly given in the WWF collaboration materials.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Her second base skill Renewable Energy grants a 20% buff to gold production for each Trading Post you've built, meaning with the maximum of five Trading Posts, she would be providing a 100% productivity buff all on her own, which is more than most teams of three can accomplish and can stack with buffs from other Operators. In practice though, building five Trading Posts would be far more trouble than it's worth; to make room for them, you'd either have to be running just one Factory, which wouldn't be able to keep up with the demand from all five Trading Posts even with Purestream's huge boost to production, or build fewer Power Plants, which would prevent you from fully upgrading all your base's facilities. In either case, it makes more sense to use a smaller number of Trading Posts and accept a less impressive, though still substantial production boost instead.
- Early-Bird Cameo: On Global/EN servers, she first appeared in the "Astray" interlude from Rewinding Breeze, due to the WWF collaboration event being pushed significantly further from its original release date on CN servers (between Ancient Forge and Contingency Contract #0: Barrenland) to after the release of Chapter 8.
- Nature Hero: She is an enviromentalist who is especially concerned with water hygiene and thus works as a water treatment worker in Yan and Rhodes Island, while also serving in the battlefield as a medic.
- Raised by Natives: Despite being an Aegiran and her parents were originally from Iberia, she was born and raised in Yan. She even tells fellow Iberians Elysium and Thorns that she enjoys Yanese and Lungmenese food instead of her parents' native food.
- Rare Random Drop: She's only available through recruitment like Estelle, Vulcan, and Indra. Since she's a 4-star, she's somewhat easier to obtain at least.
- Significant Birth Date: Her birthday is Changjiang Porpoise Protection Day.
- Temporary Online Content: She was originally introduced as a part of the WWF collaboration, where she was rewarded upon buying one of the limited featured packages. She was later made part of the permanent Recruitment pool in 2022.
Record Keeper
Record Keeper / Yun Qingping
Introduced: Where Vernal Winds Will Never Blow (First Appearance), Fantasy in the Mirage (Playable Debut)
Voiced by: Seiji Maeda (Japanese), Sun Jinglong (Mandarin Chinese), Jonathon Ha (English)Additional VAs
Artist: Jiuri Jiuhao
The leaves fall to the ground and turn into dust, but knowledge is found in the most elusive place.
Rarity: ★★★★★
Subclass: Medic
A Yanese Perro who works in Yumen as a military archivist.
He gains SP and healing speed every time an ally inside his range activates their skill. He can heal an extra ally, or buff his heal power while applying regeneration to his ally for few seconds whenever they take damage.
- Horned Humanoid: Like Hung, he's one of the rare Perros who has a horn, as he's based on the mythological lion dog (specifically, the Diting).
- I Owe You My Life: He's been working with the Grandmaster as a record keeper ever since he was saved by the latter 10 years prior to the "Where Vernal Winds Will Never Blow" event.
- Promoted to Playable: He made his debut as a minor NPC in Where Vernal Winds Will Never Blow before being made playable in Fantasy in the Mirage.
Reed the Flame Shadow
Reed the Flame Shadow / Loughshinny Dublinn
Introduced: What the Firelight Casts
Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Fumeng Ruoweinote (Mandarin Chinese), Martha Mackintosh (English)Additional VAs
Artist: Starshadowmagic
Now she recognizes herself as the Red Dragon of Tara, and in bearing those humblest of ideals, she is illuminated.
Rarity: ★★★★★★
Subclass: Incantation
An alternate version of Reed after she embarked on a journey to help the Taran people and find a purpose beyond being her sister's shadow.
Having mastered her life-burning flames, Reed now scorches her enemies to inflict Cinders that debuff enemy ATK and apply Arts Fragility, and heals herself for half of the health she restores to others. She can envelop operators in orbiting fireballs that rapidly damage enemies while healing their wards, or target two enemies at once with enhanced attacks that always inflict Cinder, while also modifying the debuff to last until the skill ends, deal Arts damage over time, and explode when any enemy dies while affected, spreading it to nearby enemies.
- All-Loving Hero: As opposed to her sister, who is willing to harm or sacrifice anyone for her rebellion, Reed has no desire to hurt anyone at all, and as her Image Song depicts, she only wishes to protect and care for the oppressed, whoever they may be.If the roads all greet you with freezing rains,if your so-called comrades all do the same.Just check your pulse and you'll feel my flames,like I'm right there to warm you in the infinite cold.
- The Atoner: At least part of Reed's motivation is to make up for the sins committed as the "Leader", as even though the intentions were not her own, she still bears responsibility for submitting to her role as her sister's shadow.
- Breaking Old Trends: Reed The Flame Shadow is the first non-limited 6* Alter Operator, as well as the first 6* Incantation Medic.
- Broken Pedestal: While Loughshinny doesn't outright adore her sister Eblana, she has never seen her as an enemy and even acknowledges that they both want the same thing. The events of When Elegies Are Ashes however, completely shatters Loughshinny's perception of her sister after her actions to force Loughshinny to take up the Taran throne, to the point where she disowns Eblana as a sister.
- But Now I Must Go: Prior to "When Elegies Are Ashes", Reed decides to leave Rhodes Island in order to challenge Eblana for leadership of both Dublinn and Tara, knowing that if she were to take up her birthright, she could potentially alienate many Rhodes Island members.
- Cain and Abel: Subverted. Reed and Eblana are polar opposites in personality and ideologies, but neither actually regard each other as the enemy as they know their ideals for Tarans is the same, and it's heavily implied they still care for each other despite their differences. While Eblana does acknowledge the possibility that she may die at Reed's hands one day, she is willing to accept it if it allows her goals to be achieved. Double subverted as of When Elegies are Ashes; due to Eblana forcing Loughshinny to take up the Taran throne by killing her, using the lives of innocent Tarans as leverage, Loughshinny is so disgusted by her sister's actions that she all but explicitly disowns her as a sibling and wants nothing to do with her anymore.
- Chain Lethality Enabler: Her third skill allows her to attack two enemies at a time and guarantees the application of a Cinder for 30 seconds. Additionally, the Cinder lasts for the entire skill duration and causes Damage Over Time, and if an enemy dies with a Cinder active, they explode for Arts damage on surrounding enemies and inflict another Cinder on them, potentially setting off a huge chain reaction of mooks exploding left and right.
- Combat Medic: As an Incantation Medic, she specializes in bringing the pain to her enemies first and healing her allies' pain as a side effect. Considering that Reed herself is an avid pacifist and her development in What the Firelight Casts is about learning to use her powers for healing instead of harm, there's a certain amount of irony to this.
- Commonality Connection: With Saileach. Despite her being a witness to the events of County Hillock like Bagpipe, the two still manage to bond over their shared love for literature.
- Cultured Badass: Outside the battlefield, she is an avid reader and writer, who enjoys reading and composing poetry in her spare time.
- Damage-Increasing Debuff: Her attacks have a chance to inflict a Cinder on enemies, which at Elite 2 decreases their ATK by 20% and amplifies the Arts damage they take by 30% for 6 seconds.
- Death Seeker: In "What the Firelight Casts", she confesses to Bagpipe that she deliberately allowed herself to be hit by the bombardment attack in County Hillock, both as penance for her actions as the puppet leader of Dublinn and as a means to escape from that role. In the clinical analysis of her Archive Notes, it's shown that the first thing she said upon waking up at Rhodes Island was asking why she was saved.
- Extreme Doormat: "What the Firelight Casts" shows that she has never had the courage to take a stand against her sister's actions despite any disagreements had with them. Part of her Character Development within the side story is learning to move past this, culminating with her defeating a shadow of her sister and leading a group of Tarans under the name of Dublinn, following her own set of ideals.
- Foil: To Siege, since they are both hidden heirs to royal lines that both have legitimate claim to the throne of Victoria, with Siege being an Aslan and Reed a Red Draco. They both also want what's best for their people, but ultimately go about it in different ways. Siege feels that the Victorian monarchy is an outdated institution and refuses to pick up the crown, instead deciding to transition Victoria to a true democracy where the lower classes can hold political power. Reed, meanwhile, decides to embrace her role as Tara's King Gaeil, knowing that the scattered and disheartened people of Tara need a symbol to unite around so they can become a truly united people and rebuild their ancestral home.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: To reflect her Character Development of breaking away from her sister's shadow and maturing into a leader in her own rights, one of her base skills is Leader which causes her to restore morale to all allies garrisoned in the Dormitories when she is assigned to the Control Center.
- Her archetype going from a purely offensive Charger Vanguard to an Incantation Medic counts as well. Despite her class, Reed has only basic medical training and is initially unable to use her Arts for healing due to her Power Incontinence. Her former status as a 5-star Vanguard who merely dealt some additional Arts damage was likely a result of her holding back her powers to avoid hurting too many people around her. It is only after the events of What the Firelight Casts that Reed learns to embrace her Arts and use them in a controlled manner to heal others. This is reflected in gameplay as her kit is closer to a damage-dealing Caster that incidentally heals allies, befitting the Incantation Medic archetype as a Caster/Medic hybrid.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite being described as strong and tough due to her assumed Vouivre (actually Draco) heritage, she's significantly more fragile in gameplay compared to her Vanguard form as a result of being balanced around a Medic's statline. In fact, she is actually one of the most fragile Medics in the game, with even the physically frail in-story Nightingale having higher HP and DEF than her.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: The side story "What the Firelight Casts" reveals Reed's compassion towards others and adversity towards violence, showing her helping others even at great personal risk and trying to avoid hurting her enemies whenever possible, with multiple characters pointing out her kind heart and gentle personality. Even Bagpipe, who had suffered personally due to her from the events of Chapter 9, seems to have trouble mustering the will to hate her, admitting that her ideals for Tarans is just, and chooses to leave her to her own devices after hearing the truth from her.
- Heal Thyself: Reed's second talent heals her for half the amount received by her allies, useful for keeping herself alive through attrition damage and letting Reed focus on healing her allies longer.
- Hot Witch: Her Curator skin puts her in a witch costume, making her a literal version.
- Image Song: "Flame Shadow".
- Kill and Replace: This is ultimately what she does to Eblana, killing her and taking her place as the official ruler of Tara. Granted, Eblana finds a way to resurrect herself, but she's content to let Reed administer Tara in her place.
- Light Is Good: Loughshinny wields bright flames that both scorch and heal, and is a kind, compassionate woman who seeks to lead her people to a brighter and happier future.
- Living on Borrowed Time: Her lifespan is limited due to suffering from severe Oripathy, and she knows it.Though there may come a day
When my fire fades
May it carry on burning bright in every grieving heart - Magikarp Power: While she's already valuable even at low levels due her hybrid role, Reed has two excellent skills that serve different purposes with huge Mastery gains. A fully invested Reed is practically a Master of All that can heal, deal damage, debuff ATK and inflict Arts Fragility at great amounts all at once, with unrivaled single target DPS with proper use of S2 or instant mob clearing with S3.
- Magnetic Hero: Her side story shows that, once she has gained the resolve, she is just as capable a leader as her sister Eblana, using her kindness and empathy to win over the Tarans under her care and inspiring them with hope. The ending of the the story emphasizes this, showing the two sisters each providing a powerful Rousing Speech towards their respective followers. This trait ultimately drives Eblana to set up a chain of events to turn Reed into the leader of the newly-independent Tara, as she believes her charisma will allow her to convince the Tarans to abandon their Cycle of Revenge against Victorian people in favor of seeking future prosperity by rebuilding the nation.
- Meaningful Name: In contrast to her sister, who is compared to a violent fire of rebellion, Reed has spent so long unable to think for herself that she doesn't know how to be anything besides her sister's imitation. In other words, Reed is stuck as being a mere shadow cast by her sister's flame. After What the Firelight Casts, however, her title is meaningful in a different way, as she now emphasizes that she is the shadow of Dublinn, rather than her sister.
- My Greatest Failure: Downplayed example. While she does have a lot of regrets, one of the most noteworthy ones is regarding Mandragora. It is revealed that she and her sister had found Mandragora who was in a critical condition together. However, when given the chance to save her, Reed didn't even try to save her because she was afraid her power might hurt her. This allowed Eblana to do so. This event has always greatly bothered her. Believing that if only she tried to save her when she had the chance, Mandragora would not have gone down such a dark path.Reed: If I'd reached out to her, then perhaps, things would have been different.
- Orbiting Particle Shield: Her second skill lets her surround up to two units in range with 3 orbiting fireballs each, prioritizing low ground units. Each fireball deals Arts damage on impact while applying Reed's trait (ie. healing the target for half the damage they deal), although they'll need to regenerate briefly after bursting.
- Playing with Fire: Like the original Reed, her life-manipulating Arts manifest as flames, restoring the health of allies and overloading foes with so much life energy that they literally ignite.
- Power Incontinence: Averted in comparison to her original incarnation. While her life-manipulating was formerly so unstable that any use of it warranted the whole area be cleared, Reed later learned not to fear it, and how to better control it so it can heal wounds and suppress pain instead of only causing tissue to combust.
- Proper Tights with a Skirt: Her new dress comes with a pair of black tights that have white flower patterns on them. It reflects how Reed is now a compassionate and charismatic leader who wields a power that can help people after her growth.
- Rightful King Returns: She eventually returns to Tara and ends up becoming that nation's new leader, fulfilling her birthright as a descendant of the Red Dracos that once ruled the land.
- She Is the King: Despite being female, Reed's new official title as the ruler of Tara is "King Gaeil", which is ancient Taran tradition.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: It's revealed in "What the Firelight Casts" that despite both being based around life manipulation, Reed's Arts are the complete polar opposite of her sister Eblana's. Where Eblana uses her Arts for destruction and to raise the dead, Reed can use her Arts to heal others and neutralize Eblana's Arts. It's not explicitly explained whether this is a fundamental difference between their Arts or simply due to their differing ideologies, but considering Reed is capable of dispelling the effects of her sister's Arts to some extent, it's heavily implied to be the latter.Eblana: Are you scared of my fire? But your fire is the same as mine, Loughshinny.
- Squishy Wizard: Reed can put out some insane damage alongside healing, but she is very fragile, with her DEF capping out at a piddly 104 points at level 90 (including the +30 DEF from Trust bonuses).
- Stronger Than They Look: Her slender build and unassuming appearance give the impression of a scholar or caster, but her being a pure-blooded Draco gives her unprecedented physicality to go along with it, to the point where Bagpipe (an exceptionally strong member of a race known for their physical strength) admits to feeling a severe shock when clashing with Reed's weapon during their encounter. When the Brigadier tries to capture her, he tells his forces to not hold back, as attacks that would kill a normal person won't be able to do in a fully-fledged Draco.
- Succession Crisis: A potential one given due to Victorian law, anybody who is recognized as the king of Tara also has a legitimate claim to also be the king of Victoria, which is a problem considering the Victorian throne remains empty due to Siege's refusal to bring back the monarchy. Reed manages to get around this by assuming the role of Tara's king, but has indefinitely delayed her coronation until Tara is rebuilt, thus avoiding provoking Victoria.
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: After her Character Development in What the Firelight Casts and having accepted herself, Reed is significantly more comfortable and open around others while in Rhodes Island, becoming more receptive for conversation and even forging friendships with Operators such as Saileach. This is reflected in her sprites and E2 art, where she is shown smiling.
- Yellow/Purple Contrast: The yellow to Eblana's purple when it comes to their flames' colors. Reed represents the warm, life-giving side of fire that wards off the deadly cold, and in gameplay is a dual offense/support character in contrast to Eblana's entirely offense-oriented role.
- You Are in Command Now: As of When Elegies are Ashes, Reed is put into the position of leading of the newborn Tara, given that her sister Eblana is (effectively) dead and Dublinn is no more.
Rose Salt
Rose Salt / Pascuala
Introduced: Exodus from the Pale Sea
Voiced by: Miria Takagishi (Japanese), Nan Zhao (Mandarin Chinese), Andrea Alzuri (English and Spanish)Additional VAs
Artist: Erkai
I want to hold everything I want with my hand and pursue the good life I desire.
Rarity: ★★★★★
Subclass: Multi-target
A wandering Phidia herbalist from Iberia whose profession and sweet demeanor conceals a history of thievery.
Although her ATK is lowered by default, she increases the healing effectiveness on all allies in her range, and can use her skill to convert part of the damage taken by allies into a delayed damage over time.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Her Operator Record shows her agreeing to impersonate a Lord Ameer's runaway daughter in order to complete an important ritual in her stead. At first, Rose Salt can't imagine why someone would want to run away from a life of luxury and excess until she finds out to her dismay how she's constantly being watched by the servants who also keep insisting on doing everything for her, meaning she has zero privacy. Rose Salt finally comes to realize why the daughter ran away and leaves the moment the ritual is completed.
- Becoming the Mask: Spending time at Rhodes Island, where she isn't forced to steal to survive and is surrounded by people who are genuinely friendly towards her, has caused her to start becoming more honest and truthful instead of playing up her "innocent girl" act.
- Cast from Hit Points: A similar variation to Gavial the Invincible's third skill where she is able to convert a portion of taken damage for anyone inside her range into Damage Over Time, delaying the damage.
- Crippling Overspecialisation: Downplayed. While she is still perfectly useable by herself, her entire kit is geared towards damage mitigation and meting out heavy hits by spreading them out to make them more manageable in a pinch. This also means that she gives up on any utility or Combat Medic quirks that others do have.
- Embarrassing Nickname: She initially used a variety of overly cute nicknames for herself in order to woo other operators at Rhodes Island, but eventually stopped after her cover was blown and she started acting more genuine. However, the operators who were initially duped by her did not let it slide and now frequently call her by her self-made nicknames to mess with her, much to her embarrassment.
- The Fake Cutie: She's a cunning thief who deliberately puts up a cute, childish act to make others more lenient towards her and drop their guards. Parts of her true personality shine through whenever she's annoyed enough or stops playing around, where she speaks with a deeper, more aggressive voice (and, in the EN dub, tends to switch from a cutesy Victorian drawl to a rapid-fire barrage of foul-mouthed Iberian).
- The Hedonist: Much of her motivations stem from wanting to live a long life full of luxuries. Interestingly, although she loves collecting treasures and buying expensive goods, she seldom actually uses them, suggesting that her idea of a fulfilled life comes from simply owning valuable things rather than their actual nature. She's even expressed interest in going to the ultra-capitalistic Columbia or Kazimierz to make it big.
- Hidden Depths: Despite how much of a scoundrel she is, Rose Salt has a lot of knowledge on etiquette and fine arts that most people wouldn't be aware of, suggesting she once had an aristocratic upbringing that was stunted far too early. Exodus from the Pale Sea reveals that she indeed did come from a wealthy family that had fallen on hard times, and was branded a thief after trying to steal back a bracelet her mother made for her.
- Quack Doctor: Although her herbal doctor credentials aren't a total sham as she is legitimately knowledgeable on medicine, her idea of helping generally involves frankly unsafe dosages and sketchy ingredients that cause adverse side effects. She's also more interested in offensive applications of herbology than medicine, such as powders that can knock out a raging beast in seconds, which caught Aak's eye. Not to mention she actively uses her title as a means to get potential victims to lower their guards.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Rose Salt is one of the most foul-mouthed playable characters, and swears a lot in her operator lines.
- Support Party Member: Rose Salt's Talent lowers her own ATK (and therefore healing value) slightly, but boosts the healing received by all Operators in her range, which negates and, once she's promoted to Elite status, eventually overcomes this malus. Notably, this bonus applies to all healing received by those Operators, whether it comes from herself, other Medics, their own inherent health regeneration, or outside regeneration effects provided by other Operators or the environment. This means Operators in her range particularly benefit from multiple stacked sources of healing, as her Talent buff applies to all of them.
Shining
Shining / Qui'saršinnag
Introduced: Game Launch
Voiced by: Risa Shimizu (Japanese), Qiwennote (Mandarin Chinese), Jane Jackson (English)Additional VAs
Artist: Ryuzakiichi
Simple, yet a mystery you can't seem to solve no matter what.
Rarity: ★★★★★★
Subclass: Medic
A wandering Sarkaz medic who, alongside Nightingale and Nearl, formed the "Followers," a travelling healing group. A noble healer who dislikes violence, little is known about Shining's past aside from her being the one who freed Nightingale from her imprisonment. Despite her claims on the contrary, it is clear that Shining is no simple medic...
Shining not only heals her allies, but defends them by increasing the DEF of all allies in range, while also having innately raised ASPD from her second talent. Her skills allow her to confer temporary Barriers that absorb damage and buff DEF while active, or significantly buff her own ATK and her allies' DEF for a duration.
- Always a Bigger Fish: As both the proverbial fish in question and on the receiving end; as formerly one of the single most accomplished swordsmasters on Terra, and the previous Confessarius at that, many who know of her acclaim are instantly terrified with even most bloodthirsty of individuals running from her rather than upset her enough to forsake her personal vow to never draw her blade again. However, despite her well-earned prestigious status, she is considered so far beneath the King of the Nachzehrers that he considers challenging her barely a footnote compared to his own strength—which, given he's one of the most feared lords of the Royal Court of Kazdel, means it's no empty threat.
- Assassin Outclassin':
- In Near Light, though she's not the target herself, Shining foiled no less than five assassination attempts: Roy's attempt on Młynar, the Darksteel's attempt on Nightingale, Monique's attempt on the Doctor, Armorless Union's attempt on Maria, and Monique's attempt on Nearl.
- Her Operator Record reveals that the Confessarius used to send assassins after her and Nightingale, at one point even having 14 assassins finding the house where they're resting for the night. Unfortunately for the assassins, Shining sensed their presence, walked out, and killed them all with a single swing of her sword before walking back in, with Nightingale being none the wiser that there was even any danger at all.
- The Atoner: Implied. From what little we knew about the Confessarius, people's reaction to her presence, and Shining's own dislikes of violence to the point of seemingly hating her own sword skills, it can be interpreted that Shining chooses to be a medic to try to atone for whatever she did in the past. This is further supported by Nightingale's "talk after promotion 2" line.Nightingale: Shining told me that the sins we carry... the crime of starting the war, as Demons... will one day catch up to us and we will have to face our punishment.
- This also gains some new light when chapter 11 heavily implies that she was the one who locked up Nightingale in the first place as the test subject of the Confessarius before she eventually grew horrified at the process of the experiments that the others were putting on Nightingale and proceed to leave to take Nightingale away after causing as much damage as possible to the place where Nightingale was once held captive.
- Badass Bookworm: She's a pioneer of medical Originium study, a scholar in Originium Arts theory, an expert in field medicine and clinical medicine, and is badass enough that her mere presence can thwart assassinations.
- Badass in Distress: In Absolved Will Be the Seekers, Shining was at the mercy of Qui'sartuštaj because he taught her everything she knew, and as such he can perfectly counter her arts and swordsmanship. Shining needs the help of both Nearl and Nightingale to even the odds and eventually force him to retreat.
- Badass Longrobe: She wears a tattered cloak and robe that adds to her air of mystery, and is one of the strongest members of Rhodes Island.
- Barrier Warrior: With her second skill, Shining can erect a Beehive Barrier around the target of her healing. The barrier's strength is calculated after a portion of her own ATK and the target's DEF, and will block about as much damage before failing. It should be noted that as the skill is automatic, Shining is very likely to cast it on the wrong ally, however, or even herself, if she happens to be healing them instead of your tanks at the time of activation.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: Happened in the same paragraph no less, which caused quite a bit of confusion regarding Shining's background. The English translation of her profile mentions Shining as once being a part of the "Confessors," only to mention the "Redeemers" not long after; looking at the Chinese text reveals that they're both referencing the same thing (赦罪师, Shezuishi, lit. The Master/Teacher who forgives a sinner). Consequently, the same Chinese text is also used when referring to "Confessarius," which means "Confessarius" is either the new translation for "Confessors," or the localization team is missing the context and thus uses different translations for different context: "Confessors" when the context is a group, "Confessarius" when the context is a person, even though the original Chinese text implies "Confessarius" to simply be a "Confessor." Needless to say, all of this (understandably) cause quite a bit of confusion and speculation in the EN side.
- Crutch Character: Shining was one of the original 6-stars you could get as your starter, and makes the early game much easier due to her powerful raw healing and emphasis on buffing DEF, at a time where almost all threats are physical and have low enough ATK that Shining's buffs and shields are often enough to totally negate all damage on a stage. However, she starts to struggle as you progress through the game, where not only do major Arts threats start to become commonplace, she begins to lose effectiveness due to a combination of her DEF buffs not scaling well and credible physical threats dealing so much damage that Shining's buffs alone can't cut it, leaving her overshadowed by other Medics who can either provide stronger healing or more utility since Shining offers almost nothing but her DEF buffing and above-average base healing.note This is in contrast to her RES-buffing counterpart Nightingale, who struggles in the early game, but becomes nearly invaluable in the late game.
- Cursed with Awesome: Shining is one of only three Sarkaz operators confirmed to be uninfected, which is exceptional considering Sarkaz are inherently susceptible to Oripathy starting from birth and she is frequently traveling to Originium-heavy locations. Considering Sarkaz Arts are said to be inherently symbiotic with Oripathy, this suggests Shining is possibly a Badass Normal among her race, yet she manages to be so strong that she commands respect and dread from practically everyone who meets her without raising a finger. Episode 14 confirms that Shining is outright immune to Oripathy thanks to her pure Confessarii blood; not even getting impaled by Originium through her stomach managed to infect her."As a Sarkaz, not being infected is both a blessing and a curse."
- Damage Reduction: Her specialty is buffing the DEF of her healing targets.
- Her talent Black Fiend's Protection increases the DEF of allies within range by 40 (60 at Elite 2).
- Her S2 Auto Protect is an automatic skill that erects a Beehive Barrier that increases the DEF of her target by 20% of Shining's ATK and 20% of their own DEF at Skill Level 1.
- Creed Field increases her ATK by 20% and the DEF of all allies within range by 30% at Skill Level 1.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Shining might be dressed in (nearly) all-black, but she is one of the noblest character in the game; it's rather telling that even Nearl looks up to her.
- Death Glare: Gives a positively cold glare from blocks away at Monique after she broke her word to Shining by firing a fourth arrow at Nearl in an attempt to assassinate her.
- Devoted to You: Shining is absolutely devoted to Nightingale, prioritizing her safety and ensuring she always has agency in whatever she wants to do. At the end of "Near Light", Shining says that her place is always by Nightingale's side - or at least until Nightingale doesn't want her company anymore - and in chapter 11, it's revealed that Shining chooses to be with her instead of her family.
- The Dreaded: The moment she arrives outside the arena in "Maria Nearl", she stunned Platinum, Old Knight, and Old Mechanic into silence by her presence alone, and she doesn't even have to speak or do anything to make Platinum let her and Nightingale in; considering Platinum was fighting Old Mechanic and Old Knight just fine and was ready to fight Młynar - who challenges Nearl at the end of the event - if he appears, the fact that she doesn't even try to stop Shining speaks volumes on how strong Shining must be. This happens again in "Near Light", where Roy - a Lazurite assassin that outranks Platinum - hastily cancels his plan to assassinate Młynar the moment Shining shows up.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Whenever she's reminded of her past sins or broods about them, Shining's eyes lose their light.
- Establishing Character Moment: Her first appearance story-wise in "Maria Nearl" nicely establishes just what kind of character Shining is:
- Her appearance on the scene alone is enough to stun everyone into silence - all of whom are veteran knights and assassins - while Platinum's superiors outright tells her to just abandon the mission and do her best to survive, establishing Shining's power and strength as beyond anyone seen in the event.
- However, Shining doesn't really shows off her power or strength; instead, the first thing she actually does is to heal the twin Sarkaz knights that Nearl and Blemishine just beat and giving them advice to take care of their body better from using drugs, showing that despite her immense strength Shining prefers being a medic.
- Expy: Chapter 11 reveals that due to the Bene Gesserit influence of the Confessarius clan, Shining is comparable to Lady Jessica's role as an apostate as Shining deliberately defied them by stealing Nightingale away from their eugenics experiments, putting an upset in their original plans, something that has caused considerable drama within the clan when they meet again.
- Family of Choice: In chapter 11, Shining is reunited with her family, but when Salus asked her to come back because Nightingale isn't a part of the family, Shining cuts her off by saying that to her, she is family. And while she admits that she doesn't hate them, Shining clearly choose to be with Nightingale instead of her real family the moment she killed the people of her clan just to escape with Nightingale.
- Foil: With Nightingale.
- Shining is clad in black, while Nightingale is clad in white.
- Shining's white horns are straight, while Nightingale's black horns are curled.
- Shining is immune to Oripathy, while Nightingale is infected with Oripathy.
- Shining is a One-Woman Army who ranked among the strongest Operator of Rhodes Island, while Nightingale is physically frail.
- Shining often hesitates and became unsure of herself when facing her past, while Nightingale is mentally strong and decisive when push come to shove.
- Shining is an accomplished doctor and scholar who pioneers a few medicinal fields on her own, while Nightingale received no formal education in medicine in exchange of being blessed with near-miraculous healing arts.
- Gameplay-wise, Shining is a single-target medic who gives protection against physical attacks, while Nightingale is a multi-target medic who give protection against arts.
- Friend to All Children: Shining sometimes hold a performance with her Arts to entertain the children of Rhodes Island in private gatherings, implying this trope.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Fittingly, as they travel together, she and Nightingale form an incredible tag team of Medics. Whereas Shining focuses on buffing your operator's DEF, Nightingale can cover the buffing of your operator's RES where Shining cannot, turning your team into an incredible Stone Wall regardless of damage type.
- Gathering Steam: Even with mastery upgrades and some handholding from SP-regen supports like Ptilopsis, Creed Field still takes ages to recharge between uses due to its exorbitant SP costs, but once it's active, all operators within Shining's range will be able to enjoy up to a solid minute of Stone Wall-grade DEF that lets them laugh off high amounts of (physical) damage with ease.
- Hard Light: Her Originium Arts was described as a solid and tangible glow, implying this trope.
- Head Pet: Her pet raven in her summer outfit is this while in the dorm.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Despite the fact that many people looked up to her as The Paragon (including Nearl), there had been hints here and there that Shining doesn't have a high view of herself thanks to her past. Nearl the Radiant Knight's second module, which is written from Shining's perspective, confirms this.I suddenly felt a little regretful - after all, I have always hated my bloodline. I have never tasted the beauty of home and the meaning of family. She deserved to have it all, deserved to be noticed and blessed and I deserved not to be a part of it.
- Hidden Buxom: Downplayed. Despite her robes and cloak covering her body, it's clear that Shining is quite well-endowed underneath. Her summer outfit confirms this in case anyone still had doubts.
- Horned Humanoid: She has two white horns, a trait caused by her Sarkaz race.
- I Am the Noun!: When asked by W what her relationship with Nightingale is in chapter 12, this is her answer.Shining: She is my... no. I am her sin.
- Image Song: "Winter Absolution".
- The Immune: Absolved Will Be the Seekers reveals that Shining is immune to Oripathy, which is why she never gets infected even when she frequents areas with high risk of catastrophes. It's one of the perk of being a pure-blood Confessarii. For reference, the only other one explicitly stated to be immune to Oripathy is the Doctor.
- In the Hood: She wears her hood in her initial artwork, and while it seems to be pierced on the sides by her horns, closer examination reveals that her hood actually has zippers to accommodate them.
- Lady and Knight: She and Nearl serves as the Knight to Nightingale's Lady, but this is especially true for Shining; she was the one who rescued Nightingale from wherever she was locked up, and acted as her protector when they journey together before meeting Nearl. Shining also reveals many classified projects and answered Kal'tsit's questions so that Nightingale could get a comprehensive physical exam and treatment plan in Rhodes island, and when Nightingale expresses her wish to become an operator, Shining fought with Kal'tsit over the issue until Kal'tsit actually changes her mind, a feat that few characters have accomplished.
- The Leader: Shining is the de facto leader of the Followers, being the one to make decisions for the group, and both Nightingale and Nearl defer to her judgment. She also tried her best to look after Nearl and Nightingale by minimizing the risk they take when traveling and healing people, as both have a tendency to ignore their own well-being when it come to helping others.
- Let's Get Dangerous!:
- Though it hasn't occurred yet in-game, Shining can turn into a virtual One-Woman Army if she is forced to draw her sword, and she only does so in the most extreme of circumstances in order to protect others. In "Near Light", she finally draws her sword to block Monique's third arrow, and the sight manages to terrify Monique into submission even though Shining only draws her sword for an instant.
- To a lesser degree, her progression from just a healer to giving extremely potent defensive buffs is this, going by her trust lines. After spending time with Rhodes Island and the Doctor, Shining concludes that she can't simply heal others but must also protect them, which manifests in her S2 and S3 skills.
- Martial Pacifist: Shining's files contain reports by other operators detailing how she's capable of wiping out entire platoons of heavily armed enemies single-handedly if the situation is dire enough. She's also observed to hate having to do that and will personally deny any such reports as hallucinations brought about by her healing arts. Both the "Maria Nearl" event and Nightingale's Operator Records also shows that Shining prefers to avoid potential conflicts when possible, steering the Followers clear from places with groups who might have issues with them (like Leithanien's Gendarmerie).
- Meaningful Name: Her original name Qui'saršinnag means "hope that does not allow separation", representing her clan and family's destiny to become one and "give birth" to their progenitor, the White-Horned Lord of Fiends.
- Meaningful Rename: Chapter 13 reveals that she gave herself the name "Shining" to separate herself from her family and abandon her past sins to become a better person.
- Mundane Utility: Her Arts, which can heal and protect people from receiving physical damage, is also used to hold light shows or performance to the children of Rhodes Island in private gatherings.
- My Greatest Second Chance: Her 200% trust line implies this, as while Shining had lost someone she dedicated her life towards, she now made a vow to ensure that won't happen again, even if it costs her her life. While it's ambiguous as to who exactly Shining's greatest second chance is (her first is implied to be Theresa), Nightingale's Operator Records and later story chapters seems to imply it's Nightingale; while Shining wants to help others as a medic, she seems to place the safety of Nightingale first above all else (though she does respect her decisions and always make sure to give her the ability to choose), and her hopes is to heal Nightingale from her illness so she doesn't have to choose between saving other people or herself.Shining: Once upon a time, I followed someone who shone bright as the beacon of hope, until wicked machinations took the light away. But this time... the incandescence will cease never more. Even at the cost of my life...
- Mysterious Past: Very little is known about Shining's past, other than she was once part of a group called the "Confessarius" before joining Nearl and Nightingale. Her profile reveals she is in fact a master swordswoman, a fact that she has kept hidden from even Rhodes Island, but for some reason has sworn off using her sword unless things get truly hairy. "Darknights Memoir" also reveals a character named Confessarius, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Shining both in appearance and clothing, heavily implying that the Confessarius are an organization that works directly under Theresis. Some of Shining's lines also imply that she had met the Doctor before their amnesia. Episode 12 and 13 revealed that the Confessarius is an ancient Sarkaz secret society that researched Originium, souls and memory, dabbling in necromancy and manipulating their genealogy for thousand of years in order to eventually "give birth" to the White-Horned Lord of Fiends; to disguise this, they pose as Theresis' personal guards as well as Originium Arts researchers, which worked well enough that not even Kal'tsit has any idea of what they're doing other than they exist, and the current Confessarius is Shining's dead father possessing her younger brother.
- Mystical White Hair: Befitting her Mysterious Past, Shining has a flowing mane of pure white hair that's nearly as long as she is tall.
- Mythical Motifs: Strangely enough, not demons, despite her Sarkaz race. If anything, she seems to be based on elves, based on her sideways Pointy Ears and pure, immaculate white long hair. Her obligatory horns also seem more similar to antlers instead, as they jut out gracefully from the sides of her head and look to be quite blunt, instead of being pointy and sharp like those of other Sarkaz characters. This is especially unusual, as Elves as a race do exist on Terra, but they are exceedingly rare.
- Noodle Incident: Her trust file and one of Flamebringer's lines indicate that Shining used to be - and still is - a formidable swordswoman, but something happened concerning her previous organisation - the "Confessarius" - that led to her giving up the blade and taking up the role of a healer. "Near Light" shows that her past is so shameful that Shining closes her eyes whenever she draws her sword, and she always sheathes it back as quickly as possible afterwards; it's also implied that the reason why Shining usually embraces/cradles her sword is because she really doesn't want to draw it if possible.
- One-Hit Kill: Implied to be the case if she draws her sword; The Nachzehrer King, who claims that he could destroy Rhodes Island single-handedly and considers Patriot in his prime as his only Worthy Opponent, concedes that should Shining manage to draw her sword, even he wouldn't be able to take a hit from her head-on. It's implied that as a powerful Confessor with their signature soul Arts, in addition to physical damage, Shining's blade would likely inflict some kind of spiritual damage akin to directly cleaving one's very life or soul.
- One-Woman Army: As mentioned in her profile, Shining could take on a platoon of heavily-armed enemies when she has to on her lonesome and win.
- The Paragon: From her promotion record, many medic operators looked up to her and takes what she had said to heart after her debate with Kal'tsit; You know that Shining is one when even Nearl looks up to her.Nearl: Shining, too, is a beam of light that guides me forward. She carries the hope that I've always been seeking.
- Purple Prose: Especially apparent once she gets her EN voice lines, where her lines are translated better that she now sounds like a Dark Souls character.Shining: (In Battle 3) Grief, ever echoes in our souls.Shining: (In Battle 4) Agony, ever etched on our hearts.
- Red Baron: Platinum's superior called her "The Confessarius." It turns out to not be her specific title, but the position she occupies.
- Running Gag: Her exact relationship with Nearl, which began from her talk after trust increase 1 line. In "Near Light", multiple people asked Nearl about it, including reporters and even her opponents like the Blood Knight, and Nearl refusing to answer only adds more fuel to the fire. Shining's answer whenever inquired is always consistent though.Shining: We're companions.
- Her status as The Dreaded happens so consistently that it's finally Played for Laughs in chapter 11, where the Confessarius' guards are scared out of their wits when she approaches them... only for Shining to take a note out of her pocket and reveals that she only wanted to ask for directions.
- Sadistic Choice: In "The Whirlwind That Is Passion", Shining is forced to make a decision at the behest of her father to protect Liz's wellbeing; either she can strike him down, and much like Kashchey, invoke a Demonic Possession on Shining and replace her soul to honor her attempt to give Liz freedom at the cost of her own self or hand her back over to him so he can stabilize her specifically tailored condition. Shining initially was prepared to do the former and pull a Heroic Sacrifice to save Liz, but Liz herself stays Shining hand before telling her to let her go instead, forcing Shining to instead do the latter.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Her Operator Record shows that Shining was able to kill 8 Confessarius guards and 6 assassins simultaneously with a single swing of her sword.
- Situational Sword:
- Shining's focus on DEF-boosting makes her incredible when fighting bosses, or strong enemies who deal high amounts of Physical ATK, but much less so against Casters or Arts Guards, whose damage type completely ignores DEF.
- If you want to Aak-buff something other than a Guard or Defender, you're going to need a highly invested Shining to make it work.
- Statuesque Stunner: Shining is fairly tall among the female operators behind Pozëmka and Qiubai, standing at a good 175cm. She also has a very curvy feminine figure hidden underneath her robes, which is put on full display in her summer outfit.
- The Stoic: Shining doesn't emote much and is usually calm and level-headed. The only time she's seen emoting thus far is when she's with Nightingale and Nearl, where she smiles a few times.
- Stone Wall: Shining's kit hyper-focuses on turning your lineup into a bunch of these, with her buffing their DEF to ridiculous levels via Creed Field and Black Fiend's Protection, or erecting Beehive Barriers around them to eat high amounts of physical damage. This also makes her highly recommended, if not outright mandatory for non-Defenders to be able to survive Aak's buffs. Of course, this comes with the drawback of not doing anything to protect the team against Arts damage, which bypasses DEF entirely.
- Stunned Silence: Shining seems to have a habit of making everyone around her speechless whenever she shows up. In "Maria Nearl", this happened to Platinum, Old Knight, and Old Mechanic; in "Near Light", this happened to Roy, one of the two Lazurite Assassins of the Armorless Union and Platinum's superior.
- Super-Senses:
- When she first joined Rhodes Island and met Amiya, Shining instantly realized that Amiya is the current Lord of Fiends, something few Sarkaz in the story managed to notice without Amiya using her powers. She also noticed Ascalon trailing her for a while afterwards, presumably out of concern that she might have ill intentions towards Amiya, until Kal'tsit is convinced that Shining is a genuine physician and is of no threat to Rhodes Island.
- In "Near Light", after stopping Monique's assassination attempt on Nearl, Shining not only looked in the direction where Monique sniped from, but also knew it was her and not, say, her fellow Lazurite Roy. Considering Monique sniped from quite a distance and is well-hidden to boot, the assassin rightfully find Shining to be quite unsettling to say the least. She's also the only one who managed to notice the Darksteel's arrow coming for Nightingale, and warns Nearl in time to help her block said arrow.
- In her Operator Record, she's able to sense the Confessarius guards and assassins approaching the home she and Nightingale is taking shelter in early enough for her to walk out, kill them all in a single strike and came back in, with Nightingale and the child she's playing with none the wiser that there was any danger at all.
- Sword Cane: Her E2 and Trust file hints that her "staff" is really a sword that doubles as a staff, like Nearl's mace. This is confirmed in the Maria Nearl event, as Shining is described as not holding a staff, but a sword.
- Tired of Running: In "Near Light", seeing Nearl coming back to the homeland she dislikes in order to confront her past and change the country for the better gives Shining the resolve to do the same for herself and Nightingale, going to Londinium to sever an unspeakable crime relating to their past once and for all.
- Tranquil Fury: While her expression doesn't change at all when blocking Monique's fourth arrow, she gives off one hell of a Death Glare from blocks away to make it clear she's furious that Monique broke her word.
- Walking the Earth: Just like Nearl and Nightingale, Shining is a member of the "Followers," a travelling group of healers. She also personally calls herself a "roaming medic".
- White Mage: Despite her black robes and (initially) aloof demeanor, Dark Is Not Evil. Shining is a noble healer through and through.
- Willfully Weak: Despite likely being one of the most powerful swordmasters on Terra, something caused Shining to become a medic instead and she never shows her true abilities unless the situation is extremely dire. And even then, she just waves off claims from people who witnessed her as hallucinations caused by her healing Arts.
- Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: In multiple instances, Shining just showing up causes experienced and deadly assassins to completely abandon their missions lest they invoke her wrath.
- Worthy Opponent: Flamebringer notes she could have been one to him, if she hadn't given up her sword.
- You Are a Credit to Your Race: The Sarkaz people are usually ostracized or discriminated against due to the negative connotations behind their appearance. However, Shining is noble and pacifistic, which confuses the heck out of the people she works with due to such racial stereotypes.
Silence
Olivia Silence
Introduced: Game Launch
Voiced by: Akari Kitou (Japanese), Liang Shuang (Mandarin Chinese), Erica Lindbeck (English)Additional VAs
Artist: NoriZC
There’s no risk in the fruits of research, as they are only byproducts after all. Experimentation, on the other hand...
Rarity: ★★★★★
Subclass: Medic
A Liberi and former Originium researcher at Rhine Lab, Silence was involved in some fashion with the experiments involving the subject known as Ifrit. Following the incident, Silence took Ifrit into her care and brought her to Rhodes Island. She now works for Rhodes Island as a physician, doing her best to help keep Ifrit's condition stable and support the Rhodes operators in the field.
She buffs the attack speed of all Medics while on the field, and can use her skill to generate and deploy medical drones anywhere on the map, which rapidly heal all allies in their surroundings before vanishing.
- Animal Motifs: Great horned owls.
- Animorphism: She has the ability to transform either arm into a wing at will, and the sleeves on her upper garments are modified to account for it. Official art, skins, and spritework depict her both with two human arms, and with her left arm sometimes transformed into an owl-like wing.
- Broken Pedestal: The Rhine Lab manhua reveals that she admired Saria, Control, and her mentor Parvis ever since her time at university, such that she was elated to be part of Rhine Lab. By the time she joined Rhodes Island to get treatment for Ifrit, those four pedestals were utterly shattered. Even when Dalia's death compels her to thank Saria for saving her and Ifrit, she still cannot forgive Saria or the rest of Rhine Lab.Silence: I want to thank you too, for saving us. But I still cannot forgive you, and neither can I forgive Control, or Rhine Lab...Saria: I understand. It's not something that can be easily forgiven.
- CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Extra Chapter 3 of the Rhine Lab manhua shows Silence giving Ifrit chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth shortly after the Diαbolic Crisis, where her heart temporarily stopped beating.
- Curtains Match the Window: She has brown hair and eyes, which all compliment her owl motifs.
- Disc-One Nuke: If chosen as the free 5-star operator upon starting the game for the first time. While all four are undeniably strong in their own ways, Silence is widely considered to be the best one to start with, due to her being a high-level healer capable of surprising output even with moderate investment, especially at Elite 1 with her drone unlocked. Due to the generally-squishy nature of your operators during the early game, Silence's powerful coverage is a major boon in almost any situation, whereas Projekt Red, Liskarm, and Pramanix all require some significant upgrades to be viable, and even then are all considered to be niche units even in their categories.
- Drone Deployer: Her major contribution to Rhodes operations — her drone is an in-universe invention of hers that is meant to be cheap, replaceable, and easy to deploy while still being pretty effective at helping people stay on their feet. In gameplay, the drone is what makes her so effective (as it can deploy anywhere on the map, even way outside of her normal healing range) and able to keep pace even with 6* support characters. It is also independant from Silence herself, and is able to be deployed even if Silence herself is frozen or stunned.
- Dub Name Change: A particularly odd example that was also adapted back into the original release. When this character was first revealed all the way back in late 2017, she was unambiguously named "Silent", with multiple overlapping spellings (including "サイレント" in Japanese) all leaving the intended translation of 赫默 as a closed question. However, once the international promotion began and once the JP voicework started coming in, the character was named "Silence", not just in English but in the Japanese voiceover too (with her introduction line quite unambiguously pronouncing her surname and callsign as "サイレンス")... but in Chinese the hanzi of her name, 赫默, never changed. The new name/translation was ultimately adapted back into the Chinese client, with the promo image◊ of her Pioneer field work outfit referring to her as "Silence" while retaining the hanzi 赫默 spelling.
- Elephant in the Living Room: Anything to do with Saria and Ifrit.
- Geek Physiques: She's a scientist and doctor first and foremost, and not really skilled at actual combat aside from keeping people healthy; accordingly, she's typically portrayed as being fairly weedy-looking, and despite being a working professional who is, by all indications, well into her twenties, she stands just barely above five feet tall. The only operators who are shorter than her are literal children and Little People.
- Irony: In her desire to halt Ifrit's "treatments" to stop her being made into a weapon, Silence attempts to fake Ifrit's death by drugging her candy before a procedure... which accidentally causes Ifrit to go on the devastating rampage which would be known as the Flame Demon Incident, turning her into the very weapon Silence didn't want her to become. To be fair, she didn't expect Ifrit to only take half of the candy and save the rest to give to Saria.
- Jerkass to One: Although Silence is generally placid and easy-going, having Saria around her is a great way to mash her Berserk Button, especially if Ifrit is involved. She also seems to bear no love for Muelsyse, which is once again not helped by the latter speaking of Ifrit as nothing more than a test subject in Mansfield Break.
- The Lady's Favor: According to her Token, Silence gives a feather to those she appreciates and keeps close to her heart. Ifrit has one on her collar, and Saria has one on her belt. Ptilopsis seems to be a recent addition to this "club", as she sports one while wearing her Epoque skin, being attached to the strap of her bag.
- The Rhine Lab manhua reveals how Ifrit and Saria got their gifts: the former was to wish her a smooth treatment as she was undergoing an experimental procedure to stabilize her condition, and the latter was to wish her a successful investigation.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Despite being an ST Medic, Silence's medical drone basically gives her map-wide range, being able to be deployed anywhere that's a valid tile. It also heals everyone within its range simultaneously, like an AoE Medic, but much faster since the effect is applied constantly instead of calculating after Silence's ASPD.
- My Greatest Failure: She had some kind of hand in Ifrit's current condition and the cryptically-named "Diαbolic Crisis", which she doesn't like to discuss; what's clear is that she considers it the greatest failing of her professional career and has a responsibility to care for Ifrit as a result. The Rhine Lab manhua reveals that in an effort to fake Ifrit's death and take her away from Rhine Lab and her "treatments," the drug she used to put Ifrit in a death-like state accidentally caused her powers to go out of control, leading to the "Diαbolic Crisis".
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Because of an unexpected miscalculation, she is the one responsible for the "Diαbolic Crisis".
- No Social Skills: Downplayed. Silence's profile notes that she's awkward and quiet in social settings, but does well in one-on-one conversations, especially in regards to research. The description of her token indicates she's aware of her lack of social eloquence, hence why she gifts her own feathers to those she forms sincere bonds with.
- Noodle Incident:
- Precisely what happened with Ifrit and Saria and what led her to remove Ifrit from Rhine Lab and bring her to Rhodes Island. Unlike Ifrit, Silence seems to have some idea of what was going on, but generally remains tight-lipped about what it was aside from being something Ifrit needed to be removed from and involved biological experimentation (on Ifrit). The bigger noodle is what went down between her and Saria, as she refuses to say a word about that and simply wants Saria kept as far away from Ifrit as possible... and the fact that, from her tone, it seems just a hair too personal to be simply professional or even "motherly" objection to Saria's actions. The Rhine Lab manhua explains what exactly occured during the "Diαbolic Crisis" which drove them apart and caused Silence to take Ifrit to Rhodes Island.
- Relatedly, there's also the question of just how she contracted Oripathy, given that Saria hasn't done so (Ptilopsis was already speaking robotically when she, Silence, and Saria rescued Ifrit) and how Silence, being more a lab bird than anything during her time at Rhine, theoretically shouldn't have had any reason to be exposed to dangerous levels of Originium. The Rhine Lab manhua explains that she had Oripathy well before getting involved with Ifrit and Saria, having gotten infected from a lab accident prior to joining Rhine Lab at all.
- Parental Substitute: She is, in multiple very real senses, the nearest thing Ifrit will ever have to a mother and feels deeply responsible for her. The seeming ambiguity of how Saria fits into the equation gives rise to a number of interpretations.
- Significant Birth Date: Her birthday was the day on which the modern scalpel was patented.
- Sleepyhead: She's a great horned owl, so she's supposed to be nocturnal by nature and has a habit of dozing off in general. She tries to be diurnal in order to fit in better with Rhodes Island's staff, but it can be a bit of a struggle (usually to comedic effect). Her early-stage oripathy also messes with her sleep cycle a bit, making things even harder. Her Base sprite even falls asleep on her feet if standing still long enough.
- Starter Mon: She's one of the four free 5-star operators that the player could pick after creating a new account around the game's launch as a gift for the game reaching 1 million pre-registration. The other options were Liskarm, Pramanix, and Projekt Red.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: She gives her full name as "Olivia Silence", with Silence evidently being her genuine surname, and she's a quiet owl-like researcher by nature.note
- Support Party Member: The Booster Injection talent makes it such that the ASPD of all your Medics on the field increases by 6 (12 at Elite 2 to a possible cap of 19) as soon as Silence hits the field. Since Silence herself is a Medic, this means that she will always be healing just a bit faster than other Medics without her on the field.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She'll work with Saria if deployed with her on an operation, but her voice lines make it absolutely clear she has an axe to grind with Saria over something that happened during their Rhine days involving Ifrit, and Silence absolutely will not let Saria "have" Ifrit.
- We Used to Be Friends: It seems like she used to be on good terms with Saria. Now... not so much.
Sussurro
Sussurro
Introduced: Heart of Surging Flame
Voiced by: Haruka Terui (Japanese), Xin Yue (Mandarin Chinese), Cassandra Lee Morris (English)Additional VAs
Artist: Sho
She will strictly follow the operator guidelines when providing medical assistance.
Rarity: ★★★★
Subclass: Medic
A Vulpo medical school graduate serving who signed up as a hospital volunteer before transferring to Rhodes Island as a Medic.
Her healing power is increased on targets with a DP cost with less than 10, and her skill drastically increases her healing power and speed with the caveat that it can only be used twice per battle.
- Animal Motifs: Foxes, due to her Vulpo race. One also appears in the corner of her Elite 2 artwork.
- Disc-One Nuke: Sussurro is this for healers. She is available from both headhunting and recruitment, and once she hits Elite 1 and unlocks Deep Healing, things start to get silly. At skill Level 7, Deep Healing grants +70% ATK and ASPD for 30 seconds, which is absolutely bonkers for a healing skill, outhealing 5-6* medics by a significant margin for the level of investment needed to get there, and its surprisingly low SP cost of 19 means it'll be ready for two consecutive uses rather quickly. While its obvious downside is that it can only be used twice per operation, two uses is all it takes to get the player through tough early-game content like 3-8 or 4-10.
- Gratuitous Italian: Her name, "sussurro", is the Italian word for "whisper".
- Necessary Drawback: Again, Deep Healing's 2-use-per-battle restriction is a practical necessity to stop it from becoming downright broken, as it single-handedly gives the humble 4* Sussurro the highest healing-per-second of any Medic, and some of the highest healing output in the entire game, period.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: She volunteered at a hospital to treat Oripathy patients, but ended up getting infected herself.
- Older Than She Looks: Sussurro's extremely short stature and small frame often make it hard to remember that she's a graduate student with a proficient background in medical sciences. On top of her height, she also spends a lot of time in official media around Suzuran, Shamare, and Popukar, which often leads some fans to mistake her for being in their age group since she's in the same height bracket as the three children.
- Situational Sword: Sussurro has a very niche kit. Her Minimally Invasive Surgery talent increases healing effects by 10% (20% at Elite 2) on all operators with a DP cost under 10 if she's in the squad, basically confining her to babysitting low-rarity operators if she's to operate at full capacity. A further crimp on her performance is her S2's usage limit, with Deep Healing turning her into an extremely powerful single-target healer, but only twice per sortie, which rules out using her on longer stages like Annihilation maps.
Taraxacum
Taraxacum
Introduced: First of a Thousand Autumns
Voiced by: Nayuta Sugiura (Japanese), Ma Chengwei (Mandarin Chinese), Benjamin Valic (English)Additional VAs
Artist: 虬墨一型
The wheels of carriage travels north and south at will, why should a traveler complain about twist and turns?
Rarity: ★★★★★
Subclass: Watchman
A Sargonian Kuranta medic who came to Rhodes Island for an academic exchange and study. He is the apprentice of Fāng, the tenth of the Sui proxies.
He Takes Off into the air when activating his skills and passively grants flying allies within his healing range Sanctuary and extra Block. He can speed up his healing rate while healing random allies in his range, or he can empower his healing and heal an additional flying ally while granting his healing a splash effect to nearby operators.
- Flower Motifs: Dandelions; his codename is the scientific name for the dandelion, his staff is shaped like a dandelion, and his subclass as a Watchman alludes to how dandelions spread their seeds into the air.
- Going Native: While his file lists his place of birth as Sargon, in terms of gameplay he is considered a Yanese operator as he mentors under Fāng.
- Situational Sword: His Talent and second skill are meant for allied operators that can Take Off into the air, which currently only applies to Skyranger Specialists, Skybreaker Snipers, and his own subclass. note While Taraxacum himself is a decent healer in spite of that, it does leave him with no other utility if flying allies aren't present.
Titi
Medjehtiqedti "Titi" Nasutu Mashayer
Introduced: Adventure That Cannot Wait For the Sun (First Appearance), Medjehtiqedti Bound (Playable Debut)
Voiced by: Hiromi Igarashi (Japanese), Muzi Cheng (Mandarin Chinese), Christina Costello (English)Additional VAs
Artist: Kouhaku Kuroboshi
She's ready to start a new heroic epic together.
Rarity: ★★★★★★
Subclass: Incantation
The Feline vice-curator of the Varjavandabad museum in Menat-Ha'mait, who is now exploring Terra in hopes of both feeding her desire for adventure and mending the ages-old schism between Sargon and Minos.
She can attack Sleeping enemies and passively deals Damage Over Time to them, while dealing bonus damage to immobile enemies. She also buffs both Minos and Sargon operators with a Vigor effect that boosts their ASPD. She can put herself and an ally to Sleep while lulling enemies near either to Sleep and increasing the DoT dealt to them. Alternatively, she can attack and Sleep two enemies at once, with enemies taking damage and Sleeping another enemy when they wake up, while allies that take lethal damage in her range will instead go to Sleep until they're fully healed or the skill ends.
- Achilles' Heel: Since she's entirely reliant on putting the enemy to Sleep to reap the benefits of her kit, her utility drops like a rock when she's facing certain enemies like bosses that are immune to the effect. At least your allies will never be immune to it, letting her still support her team.
- Breaking Old Trends: She's the first Operator that can inflict the Sleep status to her own allies. note
- Childhood Friends: She has known both Pepe and Papyrus since they were classmates in school.
- Clothing Combat: Among the numerous relics she wears on her person is a white ribbon infused with Originium Arts, which she's able to freely manipulate to grab, restrain, or even write with.
- Damage Over Time: As long as she's deployed, all sleeping enemies will take Arts damage over time regardless of whoever inflicted the Sleep debuff.
- Disappeared Dad: Her father was rather sickly and died while she was still young.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Her silhouette shows up in the fourth anniversary PV before she made a proper appearance in "Adventure That Cannot Wait For the Sun", and long before she actually became playable.
- Forced Sleep: Her kit revolves around the infliction and interaction with the Sleep status.
- Going Native: Thanks to her father's teachings, Titi has an endless fascination with Minoan history and culture and it was her dream to be able to visit Athenius. Once she gets there, she fits in so well with Minoan society that she's even officially designated a "Honorary Minoan".
- Heroic Sacrifice: After the harp she was given to offer the Minoans as a peace offering turns out to be a fake, and Behnui forcibly derails the plans to suit a Sargonian agenda, Titi resolves to steal the harp and spend the rest of her life fleeing from both Sargon and Minos to prevent the conspiracy from coming to light and harming the nations' tenuous peace beyond repair. Fortunately, thanks to Mio's intervention and some luck, this doesn't come to pass.
- Hero-Worshipper: Despite being Sargonian, she adores the stories of Minoan heroes, having grown up with them as a child thanks to her father constantly bringing them home. This was a large contributor to her personality and interests in the present.
- Hidden Depths: While Titi is a social expert who is easy to get acquainted with, those who met her tend to quickly find out that she keeps most of her personal life and thoughts under wraps, so while it's easy to get along with her, it's very hard to actually get to know her.
- Immortality Field: While her third skill is running, any ally that takes lethal damage in her range will instead be put to Sleep, rendering them unable to be harmed but unable to act, although Titi can still heal them. This lasts untl the skill ends or the ally is fully healed.
- Impoverished Patrician: While she is by no means destitute, Titi is still the representative of the Mashayers, which was once a powerful noble family in Sargon which fell sharply in decline due to her father's mismanagement.
- Magic Staff: While most Arts wielders use these, Titi's is notable because it's a self-made weapon so accurately modeled after ancient Sargonian relics that it's often mistaken for one outright, capable of dramatically amplifying her Arts through the modifications she's made.
- Magnetic Hero: Her enthusiasm and desire for knowledge is so infectious, it's rather easy for her to make friends and she quickly builds a rather strong following in Athenius despite Minoans' latent distrust of Sargonians. This also holds true for her when she joins Rhodes Island, befriending numerous operators from all walks of life regardless of national origin.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Out of universe - it's a toss-up between Tyti and Nefertiti.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Similar to her friend Pepe, she is often called by her shortened name, Titi, as her full name is hard to pronounce.
- Promoted to Playable: She is made playable in the "Medjehtiqedti Unbound" event after initially appearing as a NPC in "Adventure That Cannot Wait For the Sun".
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: While her role as Sargon's ambassador to Minos was set up by the higher-ups as a means of getting valuable data out of the Minoans, Titi's respect for history and wish to make amends for Sargon's brutal colonization of Minos in the past leads her to butt heads with her Sargonian "allies", up to effectively sabotaging their plans to screw Minos over with a fake artifact and obtain documents that'd let them rewrite history.
- The Social Expert: Compared to the highly eccentric Pepe and Shrinking Violet Papyrus, Titi is far more socially capable than both of them, being able and willing to interact with other people as well as mediate their conflicts. She's so proficient at socializing that she not only managed to instantly integrate into Rhodes Island, but befriend many of the people of Athenius despite the generational Fantastic Racism they have towards Sargonians. By the end of her event, she's been outright declared an "honorary Minoan" for her deeds as ambassador, with even Varkáris, who is vehemently anti-Sargonian, begrudgingly respecting her.
- Spirited Young Lady: Her father wasn't like most Sargonian nobles and actually afforded her a great amount of freedom while she was a child. As a result, she became a self admitted "free range wild child" that helped her become the historian and archeologist she is today.
- Sweet Tooth: She loves sweets and candies, believed to be a side effect of her upbringing in Menat-Ha'mait. She refused to lower her intake until Papyrus gave her a list of Padishah who suffered tooth decay from excessive sugar, spooking her into cleaning up her act for a while.
- To Be Lawful or Good: When she discovers that Kereseira's harp that was in Sargon's possession is actually a fake, she becomes conflicted about whether to fulfill her duty as an ambassador of Sargon and go through with the cultural exchange anyways, or spill the truth which could potentially cause a diplomatic crisis. Eventually she settles on something in between by planning on stealing the fake harp, torpedoing the exchange while at the same time preserving its Dark Secret.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Mio, her travel companion, who often complains about all the trouble she gets herself into.
Tuye
Tuye
Introduced: Contingency Contract #4: Operation Lead Seal
Voiced by: Saima Nakano (Japanese), Z-kunnote (Mandarin Chinese), Georgia Burnell (English)Additional VAs
Artist: aZling4
Avoid touching the device on her back or that umbrella of hers, else you'll be spending quite some time scrubbing your face out.
Rarity: ★★★★★
Subclass: Medic
A Forte and former trading company employee who contracted Oripathy in an accident, and was recommended to Rhodes by her former employers.
She increases the power of her next heal if she didn't heal anyone for the last 4 seconds, and can confer Barriers using her first skill. Her second skill instead buffs her heals but forces her to only target allies below half health, while also letting her use up to three empowered heals on allies below 20% health, only after using all of which does the skill end.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Her name is Kazakh for...'camel'.
- Animal Motifs: Camels. The water tanks on her back mimic the humps of a camel, albeit storing water instead of fat (although it's a common misconception that camels store water in their humps). A number of camels also appear in the background of her E2 art.
- Artistic License – Biology: Camels are not bovids, and is probably the reason why she is 'a Forte most unlike a Forte'.
- Critical Status Buff: Her second skill only permits her to heal allies below half health, and applies an especially
- Deflector Shields: Her first skill confers temporary water barriers on units she heals, blocking a certain amount of damage before breaking.
- Making a Splash: Her healing visually manifests as water blasts, befitting her theme.
- Parasol of Pain: Less pain and more healing - like Whisperain and Ceylon before her, she uses an umbrella to cast healing Arts. Amusingly, she's the only umbrella wielding Medic to not be classified as a Therapist.
- Temporary Online Content: Like Bibeak and Scene before her, Tuye is a limited welfare operator purchasable from the Contingency Contract shop.
Vendela
Vendela / Magdelene Shaw
Introduced: Episode 13: The Whirlpool That is Passion
Voiced by: Yu Wakui (Japanese), Chang Jiameng (Mandarin Chinese), Cassandra Lee Morris (English)Additional VAs
Artist: Studio Montagne
If you happen to run across her napping on a clear afternoon, don't say anything. Do as she does, and close your eyes. Feel the sunlight on them.
Rarity: ★★★★★
Subclass: Incantation
A Feline survivor of the Sanguinarch's ceremony in Victoria, who joined the Self-Salvation Corps and later Rhodes Island.
She increases the healing received by the ally in range with the highest health, and can also envelop the highest-health ally in range with vines using her skill, giving them taunt and automatically retaliating against attackers with Arts damage while healing their ward.
- Attack Reflector: Her second skill envelops the highest HP ally in range with thorny vines. While the vines persist, the ally will Draw Aggro, and any enemy that hits them will take Arts damage and heal the ally for half of the damage.
- Fortune Teller: She has a talent for flower fortunetelling which has made her extremely popular on the landship. Though subverted when she reveals to the Doctor that her fortunetelling is based on plucking the petals off of a flower, and since she knows exactly how many petals most flowers have, she can subtly craft her fortunes to be whatever her customer wants to hear.
- Gaining the Will to Kill: Episode 14 reveals that she accepted Shovel's offer to kill him in order to possibly save her fellow townsfolk from the Sanguinarch's blood ritual that would kill the entire town. When another person saw her with Shovel's blood on her clothes, she lied about the source.Magdelene: It's fine—I cut my finger while I was pruning branches...
- Humble Hero: She's described as very quiet and unassuming, very rarely taking credit for any of her accomplishments.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. Her last name of "Shaw" also happens to be the codename of Specialist Operator Shaw.
- Signed Up for the Dental: She joined Rhodes Island as a Medic so she could learn how to treat Oripathy in order to take care of the people in her hometown of Brentwood who were infected.
Warfarin
Warfarin
Introduced: Game Launch
Voiced by: Manaka Iwami (Japanese), Gelin Tian (Mandarin Chinese), Lindsay Morton (English)Additional VAs
Artist: Shi-Chen
Of course, medical research is a tiny little bit more important.
Rarity: ★★★★★
Subclass: Medic
A Vampire Sarkaz and one of Rhodes Island's senior medical staff.
Her talent allows her to restore SP to herself and a random ally in range whenever an enemy in her range is killed. Her first skill is a defensive one, allowing her to heal allies below half health for an additional percentage of their maximum HP, while her second skill is more offensive, granting herself and a random ally in range a huge ATK buff in exchange for both of them losing HP over time.
- Animal Motifs: Under the Sarkaz race, she's a vampiress, and so she has motifs involving bats, as seen in her Elite 2 artwork.
- Art Evolution: Her appearance in Chapter 10 features an updated look to her base sprite in the story.
- Blood Magic: She has discussed the use of old Sarkaz Blood Marking Rituals with Mudrock and Vigna, although she does not actually practice these old rituals in the present day. She does have a signature stamp that bears an old Blood Mark symbol that she still uses to sign documents in Rhodes Island.
- Cast from Hit Points: Her Unstable Plasma ability increases the ATK stat of Warfarin and a random ally within range in exchange for scraping off 3% of their max HP per second. In total, each activation will result in a ding of 45% max HP, so for your own sanity's sake, do not put her together with an Ifrit specced for Scorched Earth, unless you have another Medic at the ready to hold both of their hands.
- Combat Medic: Downplayed. Whereas Warfarin, being a Medic, is innately unable to attack anything, she is suited for a much more offensive playstyle as per her first skill that provides emergency treatment that can hold charges, and her second skill in particular adds a hefty ATK buff, making it so that strong skills will essentially become kill buttons. Also, any enemy that dies within her range will grant her and an ally SP, so doing that will make it so that you will be able to churn out skills much more often and faster. This makes it so that a consistent stream of enemies is highly encouraged and Attack! Attack! Attack! as a reaction to that is faciliated by her deployment (special mention to operators like Saga, Siege and Blue Poison, who can spam their skills without abandon if there's something to kill).
- Her upgraded module even makes it so that killing elite enemies or boss enemies within her range boosts her talent and grants extra SP, alleviating the downtimes on the next skill cycles even further.
- Commonality Connection: Aak used to hate mainstream medicine. But when he learned that the real identity of "Mr. Blood" is no other than Warfarin, the two frequently engaged in academic discussions. And when they found out that they share some common interests and tastes, strange laughing and cheering became commonly heard from either Warfarin's or Aak's lab, now with two voices instead of one.
- Deadly Doctor: Since her second skill actually drains health (something very unusual for The Medic) she can be this as said skill is random to boot. A bit similar as to Aak, the operator receiving has to be able to withstand both the HP drain and the incoming damage they're already receiving from enemies, not to mention maps with constant damage over time effects and some Operators' skills also inflicting self-damage.note And as she takes the Hippocratic Oath for a Hippocratic Suggestion, this counts as Gameplay and Story Integration.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Warfarin's Unstable Plasma ability is her primary selling point, offering a substantial ATK buff in exchange for casting from both her and an ally's hit points. Hard-hitting operators like Meteorite can inflict somewhere in the neighborhood of three to four thousand damage per shot with both Unstable Plasma and their own self-buffs going. To offset this awesomeness, the ability is not very reliable owing to its random nature. It's not at all uncommon to pop Unstable Plasma hoping to buff a Sniper or Caster, but ending up applying it to a Defender who don't need the ATK increase or worse yet, a fragile Guard or Vanguard instead, which makes proper positioning a must to make the most out of her buff.
- The Dreaded: Many Rhodes Island operators actually fear her, not because of her vampiric nature, but because of her For Science! tendencies. Earlier Noodle Incidents even had RI members blacking out and then finding themselves strapped to a slab in Warfarin's office with her manic cackling ringing in their ears.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Despite her Mad Scientist tendencies, Warfarin does have standards, and she completely shuts down the notion of testing Bagpipe's constitution against Originium.
- Several of her voiced lines has her refute accusations of sneaking tastes out of blood samples, and she even protests that she can tell the difference between her patients, their samples, and her own stash of drinkable blood.
- Expy: Like Aak, Warfarin shares quite a lot of commonalities with The Medic. Both are Mad Doctors with a Morally Ambiguous Doctorate and a morbid sense of curiosity toward humanoid biology, whose impressive medical breakthroughs were made For Science! first, to satisfy their own curiosities second, and actual life-saving benefits last. To top it all off, Warfarin in particular is from the Terran equivalent of Germany, Kazdel, and has a similar color scheme as to the RED Medic.
- She also plays similar to him, having a notable skill that renders immense support to one operator, which needs to be set off at certain moments. It does not last very long, but both of them do have tools to quicken its preperation. Warfarin's Unstable Plasma might not outright render the operator invincible, but it does grant them such a high attack steroid akin to The Kritzkreig that strong operators will be the last one standing anyway.
- Face Plant: She enters the battlefield in a similar manner to Pramanix.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Okay, she may have some weird sadistic tendencies and she may be The Dreaded, she's ultimately on the side of Rhodes Island and, in comparison to several other members of her race, certainly on the tamer side.
- Hollywood Restraining Order: Her extreme attraction toward the Doctor's blood has resulted in "unladylike behavior" which led to Kal'tsit slapping a restraining order on her.
- Horror Hunger: Zig-zagged. Warfarin is normally able to control her hunger, which is important considering she's Rhodes Island's hematologist and oversees the blood bank. She even gets offended in one of her voicelines when the Doctor seems to imply she takes blood samples as food and makes it clear she differentiates between food and patient samples. However, there is something about the Doctor's blood that causes her to lose control and forced Kal'tsit to intervene after some "unladylike behavior."
- Limit Break: While all skills kind of count like one, hers is specifically an example because in many teams, it is usually a large part in hyper-buffing one specific operator. Namely, her skill, when fully charged, can be activated to grant an incredible buff for herself and her patient. The fact that she herself also gains the same ATK buff as her patient alleviates the HP drain that the skill also gives.
- Mad Scientist:
- Warfarin doesn't actually care too much for the Hippocratic Oath. In fact, she will handily put any idea she has in mind into practice without regards for possible detriments or harmful effects, usually on both herself and her allies. This is represented by her Unstable Plasma ability.
- She's also been plotting to drug Skadi with enough sedatives to knock out two hundred people just to have a look at her biology. Kal'tsit found out what she's been up to, and took away one whole month of her salary as punishment.
- This trait is the reason why she gets along well with Aak despite the latter normally scoffing at mainstream medicine.
- Meaningful Name: Warfarin is named after the drug that reduces blood clots in veins or arteries, so it would make sense why she's a Medic. But there could also be a sense of irony here if we remember that the playable Warfarin in Arknights is a vampiress, a creature known to suck blood... and the drug has also been used for vampire bat pest control.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Vampires are a thing in-setting and they are just as nasty as they are in literature. However, Warfarin seems to be the Token Heroic Orc, and has remarkable self-restraint, considering her job is to look after Rhodes Island's blood bank.
- Noodle Incident:
- Her first meeting with the Doctor apparently went very badly, with Kal'tsit mentioning that they'd have to postpone something called the "Kazdel matter" indefinitely.
- Warfarin has been given a restraining order because of unspecified "unladylike behavior" towards the Doctor.
- The Nose Knows: In an audio recording for Integrated Strategies, it is revealed that Warfarin, along with other Vampire Sarkaz, can apply a "brand" to people they care about that marks them with a scent. This lets the Vampire locate the branded person no matter where they are, and also serves as a warning to other Vampires that the person is under their protection.
- Not the Intended Use: As it buffs ATK, Unstable Plasma actually works pretty well when applied to another Medic, as it gives them significantly-increased healing output, while also easily counteracting the HP drain.
- Oh, Crap!: It's implied being treated by Warfarin isn't a particularly enjoyable experience, even if she does have standards. However, she herself also experiences similar moments in Kazdel encountering what's basically an eldritch abomination.
- Older Than She Looks: In her files, it is said that the number she gives when asked for her age 'still elicits a gasp' at some people. Her second Operator Record and Chapter 10 eventually reveal she's been alive for a few centuries.
- OOC Is Serious Business: At the end of Episode 15, Warfarin organizes a conference in order to announce the new breakthroughs in Oripathy research she had come across. At first, many of the invitees consider ditching the conference after finding out Warfarin is hosting, but change their minds when they see Warfarin is dead serious about it rather than displaying her usual Mad Scientist persona.
- Pen Name: She wrote several medical books under the author pseudonym of "Blood". While she was popular in the medical field, not everyone knows if "Blood" is a man, a woman, or a group. It turns out she used a pseudonym to hide her vampiric nature.
- Significant Birth Date: On this day, the coagulant dicoumarol was extracted for the first time, kickstarting the research of warfarin.
- Support Party Member: Upon reaching Elite 1, she gains the Blood Sample Recycle talent, which restores 1 SP to Warfarin and a random ally within range whenever an enemy within range is killed.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: A thankfully minor, joking case of this happens in her Operator Record, which involves her trying to treat an Infected child during the Chernobog Incident. When his friend shows up and attacks her, thinking she's some horrible monster that wants to eat him, it does nothing to stop her from trying to help them... though she can't resist playing up her vampiric nature while she takes a blood sample from him in order to give him a scare.
- Rank Up: She gets promoted as the head of Rhodes Island's Medical Department after Kal'tsit's deletion by Priestess in Episode 15.
- Vampire Doctor: Specifically, and appropriately, she is a vampire hematologist, with such extensive knowledge of the discipline that she's authored a number of widely-used books on the subject.
- Winged Humanoid: Invoked in her Elite 2 artwork, which shows Warfarin with bat wings to go along with her vampiric nature.
- You Are in Command Now: She ends up taking Kal'tsit's place as head of Rhodes Island's Medical Department after her apparent death in Episode 15.
Whisperain
Whisperain
Introduced: Episode 8: Roaring Flare
Voiced by: Saori Gotō (Japanese), Liu Shisinote (Mandarin Chinese), Sam Slade (English)Additional VAs
Artist: Chuzenji
Come closer to her, and do not be afraid.
Rarity: ★★★★★
Subclass: Therapist
A roving Aegir doctor who drifts aimlessly around Terra, never staying in one place and always helping those in need.
Her talent causes all allies in range with Status Resistance to regenerate HP over time, while her skills can either let her heal extra targets and grant them Status Resistance, or wind up to permanently buff her healing rate and her talent's regeneration while granting Status Resistance on every heal.
- Actress Allusion:
- An externally-Emotionless Girl with surprising Hidden Depths and yet no friends, who has an appreciation for arts and can pen extremely emotional and profound articles, and is implied to be associated with an organization of dubious intent? And voiced by Saori Gotō to boot? Sure sounds a lot like Kiryu Moeka.
- On the English side, a woman who appears to be emotionless on the outside, but is surprisingly a movie aficionado, and has spent her life being "lost" before finding a place to belong to, who's voiced by Sam Slade? Sounds like Anby Demara. note
- Animal Motifs: Jellyfish. She bears some subtle jellyfish traits, for example, the shape her dress makes her and the long threads behind her. The jellyfish that appear in her Elite 2 artwork specifically resemble Turritopsis dohrnii, better known as the "immortal jellyfish" for their namesake biological immortality.
- Bilingual Bonus: Her Priory of Abyss skin has two: The plaque at her feet has "Circulo de Mortalidad"note and below it is two lines of Morse code, which reads "Rest the soul of the wandering" and "Soothe the pain of the dying".
- The Cameo: The stained glass windows in her Priory of Abyss skin and the statues at her feet appear to depict Rhodes Island operators and NPCs of Iberia origin.
- Delicate and Sickly: Whisperain is noted to have a very weak constitution and immune system, to the point where the medical staff notes it's a miracle she hasn't contracted Oripathy yet.
- Emotionless Girl: Whisperain is described as a very reserved and emotionless person, who isn't very inclined to socialize with others. This is partially because her Resurrective Immortality erases her memories each time she "dies", making her afraid of forming connections. She accordingly speaks with a very exhausted, monotonous voice, as if she's whispering.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Unlike other operators, Whisperain's first Operator records can only be unlocked once you reach 200% trust with her. This is due to Whisperain's closed off nature and the nature of her Resurrective Immortality making her reluctant to get close to people.
- Hidden Depths: Despite her closed-off nature, Whisperain has a profound fascination with movies, and is able to express a surprising degree of emotions in her reviews of them. These reviews are in turn regarded extremely highly by the other movie buffs among Rhodes Island's staff, who usually refer to her recommendations when planning their own watchlists.
- Ms. Fanservice: Despite her poofy dress in her base art, all other art really likes to show off her curves. Her Elite 2 art has her in a Boobs-and-Butt Pose, her winter skin nonetheless hugs her curves and shows off some cleavage, and her second skin puts her in a nun costume with an open back that does the same thing. This even extends to her artbook concept art, where it's shown she wears Black Bra and Panties underneath her dress.
- Parasol of Pain: Played with. While Whisperain wields an umbrella in place of a staff or other implements commonly used by Medics, she can't actually attack anything.
- Resurrective Immortality: She's part of a rare subspecies of Aegir that has the ability to survive fatal situations by regressing to a younger and healthier state at the cost of losing all its prior memories. This is almost exactly how the Turritopsis dohrnii she's based off of achieves its own biological immortality.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: Her Priory of Abyss skin has this, putting it closer to Naughty Nuns.
- Shrinking Violet: Whisperain is very introverted and actively avoids confrontations. During her stay with Rhodes Island, she's observed to shy away from conversations and doesn't seem inclined to make friends, not helped by the rambunctious bunch that are the usual operators, although there are signs that this is starting to change.
- Situational Sword: She has bonus healing on operators with the Resist buff, and her skills grant Resist to operators in her attack range. Naturally, this makes her useful on maps where status effects are a particular issue.
- Walking the Earth: She's a self described "itinerant medic", and was constantly on the move before joining Rhodes Island. Even then, there's no guarantee that she won't just get up and leave again. This is a reference to the aimless nature of real jellyfish, who will endlessly drift through the open sea for their entire lives, following wherever the current takes them.
- Water-Breathing Humans: Like with more of her fellow Aegir, her race could not be discerned before her full official artwork revealed her to be based on jellyfish.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: The Iberia icon is prominently displayed on the back of her head in her Priory of Abyss skin.