Main Characters | Outer Ones | Others
Black Souls: Heroines | Inhabitants of Elysium | Enemies (I)
Black Souls II: Inhabitants of Wonderland | Enemies (II)
Great Ones, as depicted in the Chaos Dungeon. Characters
The Outer Ones are the figures atop who rule the universe of the video game series BLACKSOULS. Their presence is largely essential and their actions and their consequences lead to the events of the games. Given how central they are to the games' stories, all spoilers are unmarked.
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In General
- Chewing the Scenery: Mary Sue's multiple freakouts in I and II, Baphomet laughing maniacally in the pitch black void after rending the world apart, the many times The Crawling One became enraged towards Grimm, or Mabel tricking Grimm with the prison before monologuing. The Great Ones know how to ham it up good, and it's always a complete switch from the emotions they were presenting just a few moments prior.
- Eldritch Abomination: Their true forms are pretty much beyond the scope of what is considered to be comprehensible to humanity.
- Fourth-Wall Observer: A shared quality between most Outer Ones. Characters like Mary Sue, Baphomet, Jabberwock, Mabel and Node all have a deep understanding of the nature of the Gardens they are in as fakes when compared to these world's inhabitants, even in relation to Gardens that do not belong to them. Mabel is so knowledgeable about the larger world most seem oblivious to that she can ramble about other Gardens and distant Gods for minutes on end. Characters like The Crawling One even persist past their apparent death and invoke this trope literally by watching over Grimm and Leaf like they're dolls in a dollhouse during their faux victory in End F.
- Large Ham: Most of them (Mary Sue, Baphomet, The Crawling One, Jabberwock, Mabel) have extremely eccentric, passionate and intense personalities, with the ones that are more subdued initially like Sue and Jabberwock dropping their acts eventually. Node and Kuti exist as the only exceptions to this as they are mostly pretty tranquil.
- Laughing Mad: Some of them tends to laugh due to their extreme instability.
- Nightmare Face: Good lord, this seems to be a recurring trait among all the Outer Ones. Mary Sue, Baphomet, The Crawling One and Mabel tend to be the standout examples.
Mary Sue
Mary Sue / Leaf / Mary Ann
...At least, that's what her story is supposed to be. In truth, she is actually an Outer One who was bored by humanity until one day, she managed to read one of Lewis Carroll's stories. Interested in them, yet thinking that she could spice up the story through her amusement, she would merge Lewis' soul with 7 other authors to create Grimm, the hero of her own story that she created with various twists to the fairy tales that she gathered, disguising herself as the fairy Leaf and playing the role as his companion, with the story she created to fit every single part of her needs, regardless of her fate involving her. This would come to a screeching halt when Baphomet. her mother, managed to locate the Holy Forest, and while she did manage to kill her, this also attracted the attention of The Crawling One, capturing Grimm and imprisoning Mary Sue alongside taking part of her powers. Left in the Fairy Jail and rechristened as Mary Ann, she deliriously awaits the day her hero, Grimm to rescue her.
- Antagonistic Offspring: She has a particular distain for her mother Baphomet for the control of the various Gardens, and is the one who finishes her off in End D of I.
- Ax-Crazy: Well, making a story that involves death gore and suffering, forcibly putting a person into it to watch their pain and reveling in it doesn't sound right at all, right? It gets even worse in the sequel.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With Baphomet in I.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She appears to Grimm as a trustworthy Fairy Companion. In truth, however, she's actually a insane Outer One who seeks to create an entire story that involves suffering for everyone, fuses the souls of 8 authors into Grimm with all the instability that follows, and this all was done for her amusement.
- Common Mary Sue Traits: Befitting that of the character, the various amount of Mary Sue Tropes that are invoked by her are way too many to list.
- Crutch Character: As a companion in I, she's the first one you meet in the game. However, as you get more companions, her weaknesses eventually show themselves, given that she's supposed to be a magic user, yet has below-average magic, and her Ultimate isn't useful in higher difficulty fights. By the midgame, assuming you play your cards correctly, she'll be likely be replaced by a more powerful magic user like Dorothy.
- Evil Twin: A book that can be found in the Chaos Dungeon in BLACK SOULS II reveals that she had a twin identical to her. However, she grew disgusted by her and presumably killed her.
- Exploited Immunity: Due to Resurrective Immortality she has, you can exploit her immortality by sacrificed her to Little Mermaid in I, as while other heroine will be killed being eaten by her, this isn't problem for Leaf since she'll easily resurrected herself with the only consequence that her level is drained to 1. She'll even comment that it isn't nice of you for doing that.
- Expy: Being a Fairy Companion who initially appears to be trustworthy but actually Evil All Along, she is this game's answer to Airy from Bravely Default.
- Fairy Sexy: Her fairy form is quite appealing in the eyes.
- Final Boss: Of I's End C.
- Green and Mean: Wears green clothing alongside having green hair, and is definitely insane.
- Hated by All: Pretty much almost every Outer One despises her, with Baphomet fighting her over control of the Gardens, the Crawling One imprisoning her once it takes Grimm from Mary Sue, and even Mabel snarks about her. It reaches to the point where Node explicitly refuses to help her get her powers back due to the mess she did, and outside of that, the few non-Outer Ones that aren't under her grasp despise her for her cruelty, and Grimm can be described as trying to hold back from his rage when meeting her again in II.
- Karma Houdini: In II, Grand Guignol's destruction results in the collapse of the Crawling One's garden which frees her, and the last appearance of her is briefly making a wink at the screen before flying away to parts unknown.
- Karmic Butt-Monkey: In II, the numerous amount of unfortunate things involving her has tripled compared to I, ranging from being punched in either the stomach or face, and vice versa. Even in the ending where Grimm sides with her, her fate can be described as similar to what happens to her in End C of I, except this one lasts for four years and counting, which is deserved considering all the horrible things she did.
- Mad Artist: Her motivation is to create a twisted fairy tale which derails into utter lunacy at the end. The "mad" part comes in when she forcibly merges the black souls of 8 authors to create a character that does what she needs to happen at a moment.
- Magic Wand: Has a wand aptly called Mary's Magical Wand which can be obtained in the Chaos Dungeon in II, and according to her, it's "The strongest, most omnipotent, most versatile want made by meee!". While the fact that it prevents Grimm from applying status ailments is questionable, it does provide a completely unavoidable Dispel and a 100% speed buff.
- Meaningful Name: A Mary Sue is described as a completely flawless character and/or idealized stand-in for the stories they inhabit and revolve around. Leaf was designed by Mary Sue herself as the perfect companion for Grimm.
- Meaningful Rename: When imprisoned in II, she is renamed from Mary Sue to Mary Ann. Mary Ann is the name of the White Rabbit's housekeeper, and she not only wears a maid's headdress, but this also reflects her having downgraded from a powerful Outer One to a mere prisoner.
- One-Winged Angel: Transforms into a Demonbeast in the second phase of her fight, and in I, transforms into the God of Creation in her final phase.
- Pre-Final Boss: If Grimm sides with Red Hood over her in II, she serves as the penultimate boss before the Crawling One in End G.
- Save the Villain: It is revealed through optional flashback sequences in II that the only reason she's still around is because she was saved from The Crawling One during I's End D by none other than Node. Not because she is particularly fond of her of course (no one is!), but because she was deemed necessary for Node's own schemes.
- Sizeshifter: Has the ability to change her size at her will.
- Skeleton Key: She's heavily implied to be the one who made all the copies of the Master Keys throughout all the games, which is hinted at if Grimm uses one to unlock Mabel's chastity belt and her shocked reaction to it.
- Stylistic Suck: Her writing outside of her changes to the various fairy tales flat out suck, riddled of plot holes and various other writing pitfalls. Case in point, when trying to make a Cruel Twist Ending for Soul Lady Elizabeth in I, because of how difficult it is for due to Grimm basically being an attack dog for her, she just flat-out opts to have her pop like a balloon suddenly.
- Wish-Fulfillment: As part of her powers as an Outer One, she can create a story to her desires, which is unfortunately about despair.
Baphomet
Black Judge Baphomet / Shub-Niggurath, The Black Goat of the Woods
Spawned, the twin Great Ones inherited their mother's will. They would create a new Garden and an organization, and begin the hunt for black souls.
— The Black Goat Chaos Dungeon description
Black Judge Baphomet, is the leader of the Black Trial, the tribunal that exists solely to punish sin. She resides way beyond the Tainted Bog, out of the way and out of sight.
Her true nature is much more devious than that, however. Baphomet is none other than the one Shub-Niggurath, The Black Goat of the Woods, an Outer One who has invaded the realm. It turns out, before the events of the game, she was brought into the Garden of Elysium in a ritual performed by one of the Sabbath Witches in attempt to impress her contemporaries. She is Mary Sue's mother and came into her Garden uninvited, with it all culminating in her confronting her daughter and ruining her world.
- Deal with the Devil: Forms one with Grimm in return for sexual gratification, seemingly. It does NOT end well!
- Evil Matriarch: To her also equally eldritch daughter Mary Sue. This is one of the most defining things about her, as it is her motivation to see the ruin of her daughter Mary Sue and seemingly why she gets involved besides just a knack for mass genocide.
- Expy: Of Mephistopheles of Demon's Souls, being high-ranking members of organizations hired to kill people, and like her, will attempt to kill you once you have done all her deeds.
- Final Boss: Of End D in I, and chronologically, of the game as a whole.
- God's Hands Are Tied: Though an Outer One of great power and the mother of Mary Sue, she is unable to intervene within her Garden, until Grimm forms a Pact with her and directly allows her entry into the Holy Forest, at which point, she destroys everything.
- God of Evil: Well... She's quite distinctively this. She is brought into the world with immediate intentions to destroy it. She rejoices on it, much to the dismay of absolutely everyone.
- Magically Inept Fighter: The ring that she gives you upon finishing her request, Baphomet's Favor, forces you to become this, since it greatly increases all parameters at cost of setting your MP to 0, making skills that cost HP the only ones you can use, which are mostly physical... unless you happen to have the Sorcerer's Staff+10 that reduces MP cost to 0, in which case you are free to use magic to your heart's content while still gaining the benefits from it.
- Matricide: After being shut down by Grimm during the final confrontation in End D of I, she is offed by her own daughter Mary Sue.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: Quite literally, she's directly referred to as the Shub-Niggurath, The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, and throughout the game is prophesized in multiple places as the cause end of the world where the skies would be dyed red, and she would emerge from it. This can actually be witnessed much earlier than if you pursue the proper path for her Ending (that being End D) through Catherine's Bad Ending where she is summoned in an evil ritualistic sacrifice and presumably destroys the world. She ends up fulfilling her prophecy in her Ending.
- She is also Mary Sue's mother, which further ties her to this role and name.
- Omnicidal Maniac: She seems to write off most people as sinners and will promptly kill them, which already goes to show how trigger-happy she is, but what really qualifies her for this is her apparent dilapidation of the entirety of the Garden by the last stretch of End D, including the Holy Forest which housed innocent animals and fairies and then presumably all of the rest of the land, which little to no care about it.
- Optional Boss: She can be fought outside of her Ending, in which case she actually has unique forms and attacks and drops different loot. Killing her, of course, locks you out of End D.
- Satanic Archetype: A winged God of Evil, Eldritch Abomination that makes pacts, that is explicitly themed after a horned goat humanoid, and has wings as well. While every other Outer One makes at least an attempt at looking normal, she is easily the most demonic looking of all.
- Summoning Ritual: Baphomet was brought into the Garden of Elysium by the witch Glynda of the Sabbath Witches, purely to impress her associates. Needless to say this backfired horrendously.
- Unholy Matrimony: It is revealed towards the end of II by Mary Sue that Baphomet, at some point in the past, apparently presented The Crawling One, to Mary Sue as her "husband". We are talking about a creature so unbelievably vile and incomprehensible it left even Mary Sue in shock and disgust.
The Crawling One
The Crawline One / "Alice"
Enter the Crawling One. Once Baphomet was taken out of the picture by Mary Sue, The Crawling One would later abduct Grimm and imprison Mary Sue, taking her powers in the process. There, The Crawling One would reconstruct its own Garden into another Wonderland, a theatre hosting his a play where Grimm would be the main star of its show, and as the playwright of its own play, it would take on the role of Alice to trick Grimm into increase its own power for an upcoming war, with various other Outer Ones being cast in the roles. However, The Crawling One became more immersed in his role as Alice as the loops continued on, to the point where The Crawling One began to feel genuine love for Grimm, but at the expense of having its own goal being forgotten, thus turning the play what was meant to be a limited run into an never-ending love story... That secretly lies the tragedy beneath.
Tropes applying to The Crawling One
- Alien Blood: Black blood tends to leak out of The Crawling One. The fact that Prickett also has it links her to The Crawling One.
- Almighty Idiot: By the time the other Outer Ones who weren't part of The Crawling One's play met him again, The Crawling One was practically insane with love for Grimm.
- Becoming the Mask: The Crawling One originally pretended to be Alice to use Grimm to increase its power, but after enough loops fell in love with both its role and Grimm.
- Big Bad: Of II and of the series as a whole.
- Body of Bodies: The Crawling One's form in End G can be described as multiple Alices fused together. As shown in other endings and Prickett, however, said Alices can detach from it.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Mary Sue/Leaf. Both characters are disguised as someone close to Grimm to take advantage of him. However, the differences lie in their association with certain occupations: Mary Sue can be described as an author, whose writing is based off the various characters that she can control for her own amusement, including Grimm, while The Crawling One can be described as a playwright who constructed the theatre that hosted his written play with various other actors, and while they can follow the script, can sometimes break character in various ways, to the point where it became unable to distinguish between itself and character he plays as, resulting in him forgetting parts of his own "script" and deviating from the character. Finally, both differ in while Mary Sue can be understood without anything needed about her language, The Crawling One is The Unintelligible without a specific ring.
- Demonic Possession: If Grimm manages to somehow fill up the first floor of the dungeon in II, it'll possess Dormouse to massacre everyone over there.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The Crawling One makes a brief appearance disguised as Alice in End D of I, way before Grimm or anyone else understood what "Alice" is.
- Final Boss: Of End F and End G in II.
- Gender Bender: The Crawling One is described as a he, but is described as a she when "playing" as Alice.
- Impersonation-Exclusive Character: To Alice. The Alice seen throughout II is, of course, not the real Alice, but rather The Crawling One in her form. This means we don't get to really see or interact with the real Alice throughout Grimm's journey. And well, conversely, this also means we don't get to see The Crawling One for what he really is either, so lose-lose.
- Lost in Character: By the time II starts, The Crawling One has become so obsessed with its role of Alice that he became Alice.
- Route Boss: The Crawling One is noteworthy in that the form it takes is based on which ending you get and is the only one who does so. In End F, it take form of Little Girl Alice, while in End G, it becomes an amalgamation of Alices. Meanwhile, in End E, the form it takes is based on which Alice you chose during the prologue.
- The Unintelligible: With the exception of The Crawling One's brief appearance in the final scene of End D in I and a few moments in II, all of his dialogue is complete gibberish without Prickett's Ring.
- Yandere: Unlike Leaf, he does genuinely love Grimm. However, The Crawling One has become so insane that he would do anything to make Grimm stay forever.
Tropes applying to Red Idol Prickett:
An idol who presides over Queensland, performing over the masses who cheer for her. Unbeknownst to everyone but her and Node, in addition being the Alice that Grimm is going to, she's actually a part of The Crawling One; something that she knows way too well.- Big Damn Heroes: In the full End H sequence, she rescues Grimm from the Crawling One's grasp to allow him to reawaken to reality.
- Chekhov's Gun: Her ring seemingly only allows Grimm to understand what The Crawling One is saying, but having it equipped by the time the Grand Guignol is fought is completely mandatory for fully unlocking End H.
- Draw Aggro: Her Covenant provides 500% aggro to Grimm, making it so that enemies are more likely to target him. This is useful for battles that feature a Dream Spirit fighting alongside him, but less useful when trying to use it alongside a summoned Wall of Flesh.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Her eyes are red and studded with stars.
- Hero of Another Story: She's the Alice mentioned in "Tea Party for Three" movie in Queensland. The movie alone could have been a standalone game, where the previous iteration of Wonderland was said to be wondrous, in which Alice journeyed with Grimm and the Black Rabbit, a trio who overcame threats like the Jabberwocky and the Red Queen.
- Idol Singer: Presents herself as such that sings to the masses who dearly love her.
- Interrupted Suicide: A flashback has her almost committing suicide after harming herself, but Node stops her from doing so.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: She really despises herself for being part of The Crawling One, and wishes to be a normal human girl, but is unable to do so.
- Million to One Chance: Her plan to free Grimm from The Crawling One's garden is considered impossibly low that it would take nothing short of a miracle to succeed. Fortunately, in End H, it happens.
- Only Sane Woman: She's the only part of the Crawling One who retains enough sanity to realize what she, or rather the rest of The Crawling One is doing to Grimm. For her, this awareness is not a good thing.
- Random Drop Booster: Her Covenant also provides a boost to various item drop rates, making very useful for farming various items off certain enemies.
- Stepford Smiler: Don't let her smile fool you. Secretly, the fact that she's actually a part of The Crawling One has caused her great distress, and a flashback shown revealed that she almost committed suicide because of it, only to be stopped by Node.
- Translator Microbes: Her ring allows the wearer to understand what The Crawling One is saying.
Mabel
Mabel, Girl of Nihility
- The Alcoholic: Has a love for wine to the point that she goes for the winery as soon as she and the player enter Winterbell; you can find her totally sloshed and lying on the wine-flooded floor, calling it "The only miracle of mankind's creation." It's revealed later that she doesn't actually get drunk off wine itself and gets off more from the idea and atmosphere.
- Expy: Very possibly Yog-Sothoth.
- Flunky Boss: Exaggerated. She doesn't merely summon "flunkies", she summons full-graded bosses to her side, some of which are outright endgame types, making the entire fight devolve into defeating her before she attempts to do that.
- Humanoid Abomination: Unlike most of the Great Ones, Mabel tends to keep to her human guise. Her "true" form goes unseen still.
- Humans Are Special: She stands out for being the only Great One having a healthy interest in humanity, especially Grimm who she is on friendly terms with, compared to the other Great Ones who only see them as playthings for their schemes.
- Increasingly Lethal Enemy: Her boss fight starts with her doing nothing but "laughing in front of the mirror". After several turns have passed however, she proceeds to summon another boss to her side, which includes endgame bosses like God's Odd Fish. If you fail to defeat her before she doing that, you're screwed.
- Irony: A character that is all-mighty, sits atop the hierarchy of the world above all mortals, is omnipresent and runs the Chaos Dungeon, a place largely themed after chess with a chess-themed final boss, who is extensively knowledgeable about so many things of the larger cosmos and other gods she can rant for what must be upwards of forty or fifty minutes all combined... is terrible at chess. Seemingly. She loses repeatedly to both to Red Idol Prickett and to Node.
- Motor Mouth: She talks. A. Lot. And asks to talk to you a lot. She is easily one of the characters with the most dialogue, if not the most dialogue. Mabel has well over a dozen idle chat lines in the Chaos Dungeon lobby, and the talk during the descent down the stairways after the Point of No Return of DLC 3 has so many variations it can pull from (out of a maximum of 4 each time) that a full video
showcasing every tangent of conversation is 14 minutes long. This is so much the case that there's multiple special interactions specifically about ignoring her talks, in which case her childishly frustrated reaction is adorable. In hindsight, this showcases just how willing she was to share with Grimm; compared to everyone else, even allies like Node who kept him in the dark, Mabel never held back information from him and helping him stay informed throughout his journey. And she is to be appreciated for that. - Not So Above It All: Generally keeps the attitude of being an aloof, mysterious mastermind amused at most by the events of the game. One of the random events in the Chaos Dungeon, however, has her ranting about Node beating her in chess.
- Older Than They Look: While it can be assumed that all Outer Ones like herself come from a time before humanity, a drunk Mabel in Winterbell complains (in a cutesy way appropriate for her childish looks) about being called a relic of the past by her fellow Great Ones, despite claiming to be the oldest.
- Smart People Play Chess: Heavily associated with Chess Motifs, and one of the maps in the Chaos Dungeon you can encounter has her recording her wins and losses against the White and Red Queens in chess.
- Sore Loser: On her scoreboard, she declares that Node must have cheated to beat her.
- Star-Spangled Spandex: The inside of her dress is pitch black and studded with stars, looking more like the sky at night rather than clothing.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Mabel, like many other of the Outer Ones, seems to look down on human emotions, even belittling Node over her self-admitted feelings for Grimm in one of the teddy bear flashback sequences, attributing love as nothing more than a desire to mate and create offspring to continue your species. This is a notion she seems to overcome by her last moments, comforting Grimm in his desperation to save her as her fate is sealed as she admits Grimm captivated her, the first to do so, something she either never expected, or refused to believe in.
The Grand Guignol
The Theater of Darkness, Grand Guignol / Doll Alice
The Grand Guignol was a theater specialized in the art of Splatter Horror, which was only further popularized by the playwright André de Lorde, the Prince of Hell.
However, in BLACK SOULS II, while it does share the same name, it is virtually different from the theater altogether. After Mary Sue's unfortunate incident with Baphomet, her creation powers were taken away from her as punishment. However, her powers would be deemed too great to be wasted away, and an artificial Outer God was created with this bestowed power, resulting in the creation of the Theater of Darkness, which would become the machine that powers the play of Wonderland, keeping it in a constant loop to further empower The Crawling One. As The Crawling One went insane with love for Grimm, however, the great engine that once powered Wonderland is beginning to stagnate. Eventually, an final encore will decide the fate of not just it, but the constructed world of Wonderland...
- Deus est Machina: It's a mechanical Outer One created by imparting the creation powers of Mary Sue.
- Dual Boss: One of the phases of Grand Guignol has Grimm fight against the initial phases of both Unis and Leiden, albeit in their Outer One forms.
- Eldritch Transformation: What it does to Grimm if he offers it his soul.
- Load-Bearing Boss: It's destruction causes the Garden of Wonderland to completely collapse.
- Marathon Boss: The Grand Guignol has a whopping 8 phases total, which when combined with the ludicrous amounts of HP each phase has, means that it will take a while to fully kill it.
- Meaningful Name: The Grand Guignol was a theater that lasted from the late 1890s to the first half of the 20th century that was (in)famous for its gruesome content. Fittingly enough, it appears in one of the bloodiest entries of the series to date, and it's final death leaves quite the bloodstain throughout the theater it resides in.
- Mechanical Abomination: A mechanical theater that has the power of an Outer One.
- Moveset Clone: The Waxwork shares the same attacks with The Crawling One's "Little Girl Alice" form in End F and the Theater of Darkness shares the same attacks with The Crawling One's final boss form in End G.
- One-Winged Angel: It's final form is a mishmash of character arts ripped from the Alice in Wonderland book.
- Sequential Boss: Even more so than other bosses, while most bosses have 2 phases at most, The Grand Guignol has 8 phases. If you didn't manage recruit most (if any) of the allies you can get during DLC 3 before fighting Guignol, be prepared to face an uphill battle against it from the sheer virtue of phases and Domains it has.
- Power Parasite: Wields the power of Change that was ripped from Mary Sue, now Mary Ann, by the White Queen and Red Queen. This power, represented by the eternal turning of gears, is then willed by The Crawling One and used to torture Grimm throughout the entire game.
- True Final Boss: To even fight the Grand Guignol, you must first achieve End G at least once, then defeat the Old King to access the DLC 3 content, and chose to resist offering your soul to it. Defeating it plays out End H.
- Wolf Pack Boss: Its second phase has Grimm fighting against three Alices at once. Fortunately, the Alice of Wonderland is the only one that needs to be defeated.
