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Infernum Federation
Commander Flame and his subordinates.
Commander Flame
The protagonist of the story.- Ambadassador: This is Flame's real strength - while he isn't necessarily an incompetent fighter, he'd much prefer to solve problems with negotiation than violence.
- Berserk Button: Monster Girls from the Monster Girl Encyclopedia universe. Notably, he's perfectly willing to subject them to spectacular fates worse than death despite having no reason to do so. Word of God is that the Author himself absolutely loathes the setting (which essentially dooms humanity to be raped into extinction and portrays it as a good thing because everyone will get to have sex with monster girls forever), which completely enrages that author. Just the thought of encountering them is enough for Flame to try and figure out a way to adapt the nullifiers from Warframe to destroy demonic energy (which the Man in the Wall eventually gives him a sample of because it finds the Commander's paranoia to be annoying). The author has also confirmed in private discussion that he hates the setting because things like the Alice (basically a succubus in the body of a prepubescent girl) exist.
- Defeat Means Friendship: One Flame's main strengths - he'd prefer to be relatively nice to his opponents and, if they surrender peacefully, treats them with decency and respect. This is why several sentients and the Dread Lords come to his aid during his Darkest Hour in the Warframe arc - he gave the Dread Lords reasonable terms of surrender and allowed the Sentients to seek shelter in his hub universe when it looked like their own was about to be destroyed.
- Enemy Mine: Ends up in one with Melissa for roughly the entirety of the Galactic Civilizations arc, with her being the one to offer it, no less. Downplayed, though, in that it is pretty clear the two aren't really enemies anymore.
- This becomes permanent at the End of the Warframe arc, as Viv makes a Heel–Face Turn and formally allies with his forces.
- Establishing Character Moment: His conversation with Melissa at the start of the story. Rather than whine about his situation, he immediately tries to learn as much as possible about where he will be landing and begins preparing for what Melissa has on planet, showing that he prefers to think ahead compared to most Commanders.
- Fatal Flaw: Downplayed so far, but he has two:
- Curiosity. Flame often makes a good situation bad or a bad one worse because he becomes interested in trying to uncover a secret. Not only does he allow the Darkspore to locate the last surviving Progenitor enclave, but his desire to understand the nature of the artifacts is what cuases him to temporarily lose his commander and awaken the Commander Defense System.
- Not completely learning from his mistakes. While Flame may learn to prepare better for negative outcomes after one happens to him, he never really takes adequate measures to prevent them from happening in the first place. Case in point: whenever the artifacts are involved, he always seeks them out, even though they have invariably caused him problems. Anyone else would likely have simply stopped looking for them after all of the misery they have caused. However, this one is Justified, as it is implied the artifacts are leading him toward more of them, so it's possible they are also taking measures to ensure that he would find them - they want to be found.
- Foil: To Melissa. Flame prefers to avoid violence unless necessary, and tries to solve problems without resorting to force. Additionally, Flame is far more openly kind to his forces than Melissa. He's also far more even tempered than she is.
- As noted below, they also differ in choice of forces - Flame uses mechanical armies, while Melissa uses organic ones. Flame's armies are also mostly meant for ranged fighting with few types of melee units, while most of Melissa's creations are very capable in melee.
- This extends to their personal fighting styles as well - Flame is normally a ranged fighter who relies on marksmanship and uses any special powers he has to avoid the enemy, while Melissa prefers fighting up close and often uses her powers to close in on her foes. Additionally, Melissa seems to prefer using flashy abilities with little need for skill (and has rarely been shown training), while Flame prefers to use more subtle powers and spends several chapters training himself to improve his fighting skills.
- Force and Finesse: The Finesse to Vivian's Force, at least during the ''Monster Hunter: World arc. Flame's weapon of choice, and the only native weapon to that universe that he uses, is an Insect Glaive, which relies more on acrobatics, mounting, and kinsect usage to maximize its potential as opposed to raw power.
- Forgiveness: In absolute defiance of the how Self Inserts are often handled, Flame forgives Vivian from taking him away from his family and shoving him into a Commander.
- Freudian Trio: With Kathikon and Synais. He's the ego.
- Good Parents: To Rory.
- Mother Nature, Father Science: Prefers to use mechanical units in his army, in contrast to the organic forces of his ROB. While he has made some efforts to defy this, using some organic creations, Melissa still outclasses him in terms of biological forces used.
- Multiversal Conqueror: A very benevolent take on this trope - Flame doesn't actively try to conquer other universes, but unlike any other commander, he's actually put in the groundwork to building an empire out of the territory he has claimed as his own, populated by the people he holds under his protection.
- Repressed Memories: An interesting example - his commander chassis has several memories onboard it that he cannot access, apparently due to 'lacking administrator authority'. They count because his chassis is his body and its memories are, for the most part, his own. These memories are recordings of the Progenitor Wars.
- The Unchosen One: It's revealed that Flame was actually not meant to pilot a commander according to Celempheros' original plan - this role was supposed to go to people who, aside from being Planetary Annihilation fans, mostly lacked anything to tether them to a normal life (friends, families, pets, significant others, etc). Celm and Vivian only started looking at 'normal' people after the other candidates were wiped out.
- Unwanted False Faith: His creations from Spore outright worship him as a god. The only reason he tolerates this is to avoid disunity among his followers.
- Weak, but Skilled: While Flame has acquired a lot of technology, he doesn't really anywhere near as much firepower compared to most other protagonists from the genre, and arguably has less combat oriented technology than his counterparts. However, he's extremely versatile with what he has (to the point of being able to create planets by accident), employing subordinates who help him make decisions and avoid becoming too detached from humanity, and being extraordinarily willing to try and befriend his enemies, to the point that his ROB has outright defected to his side. Additionally, he's also the only commander who takes the time to learn how to fight without his commander and does not view it as a last resort.
- Why Can't I Hate You?: Downplayed - he acknowledges that he really can't hate Melissa for putting him in a commander anymore, as she is legitimately kind to him whenever he meets with her and, unlike practically every other commander Self-Insert protagonist, has lost the desire to kill her. He still makes it clear that, while he doesn't hate her, he has not forgiven her for taking him from his home and will find a way to get vengeance on her for it. Finally vanishes for good after the Warframe arc, where he decides to forgive Vivian for her actions.
Rourke
Commander Flame's son. Nicknamed Rory.- Heroic Bastard: In a manner of speaking - due to the circumstances of his birth, Rory can't be really be considered an illegitimate child, but his existence was unplanned by Flame, and yet he still happens to be one of the heroes of the story (and rather adorable).
- Just a Kid: Averted: while he really is a kid, he does have good advice from time to time, and everyone takes him seriously.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Owing to being an Artificial Intelligence, he knows far more than a ten year old child would be expected to know, but he's also able to convincingly fake emotions, such as sadness.
Synais
One of three Aritifical Intelligences created by Commander Flame.- Everyone Has Standards: For all of his selfishness, he's unwilling to expose Rory to extreme levels of violence and other mature content and willing changes the display on a monitor he is watching from Westworld to the relatively tame war game he was originally watching - much to Kathikon's chagrin.
- Freudian Trio: With Flame and Kathikon. He's the ID.
- Meaningful Name: It comes from the Greek word for emotion.
Kathikon
The second of the three Artificial Intelligences created by Flame.- Freudian Trio: With Flame and Synais. She's the Superego.
- Meaningful Name: It's greek for loyalty. It refers to her loyalty to her principles.
- Not So Above It All: While for the most part more rational and principled then Synais, she briefly expresses some annoyance when Synais changesthe display on a monitor from a clip for Westworld to one of the war games on the planet below, because she liked the scene that had just started. For context, said scene was the Hector's (extremely violent and messy) raid from episode one, and Synais changed it beacuase Rory had just entered the room.
- Women Are Wiser: Well, compared to Synais, anyways - she was literally created to be attentive to rules, and it shows, as she is much more mature than Synais and is usually the one to advise caution when Flame asks his AI trio for advice.
Fide
The last of the Artificial Intelligences created by Flame.- Meaningful Name: It's Latin for loyalty. It reflects on her position as Flame's Number Two.
- Number Two: To Flame.
- Undying Loyalty: To the point of Blind Obedience - she flat out won't do anything without Flame's approval (either directly expressed or heavily implied), to the point that she sleeps for a month and a half because he didn't order her to do anything. Flame actually finds this rather annoying, so he explicitly tells her (as in, words as a direct order) that she is to relax and enjoy herself if she is not completing one of his orders.
The Orphans
Twelve orphaned children that Flame rescued on Chiron.- Conveniently an Orphan: The fact that they have no living family that they know of makes it very easy for Flame to adopt them.
- It's also implied that this is why EXALT kidnapped them for their psychic powers, as they didn't have anyone left to look for them if they disappeared.
- Multinational Team: Their names, at least, would imply that they each hail from different countries, with one being Italian, another Japanese, and a third being of Arabic Descent.
- Psychic Powers: All of them have psychic powers.
- Hive Mind: A variation-they can choose whether or not to share information via their psychic powers. They use this when they need to make a decision but only one of them is physically present to do so. It's implied that the reason EXALT kidnapped them was to gain access to their powers.
Tylos
A reptilian being created by Flame using Spore, now one of his companions and subordinates.- Honest Advisor: Flip-flops between this and Yes-Man- while he is totally loyal to Flame and supportive of all his actions, if Flame has yet to make a decision, he will attempt to convince him to do what is usually the right action (at least from Tylos' point of view), regardless of whether or not Flame would like it.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: While the author has yet to post a picture of what he looks like, considering his species was made using the Spore editors, it's safe to assume it would look really weird.
- Unexpected Character: In-Universe, as Flame was not expecting to enter the Spore universe, much less enter one filled with his creations. The fact that they recognize him at all is a monumental curveball for him as well.
Hydra 01/Lernea
A Hydra Class Carrier Flame built in the Civilization: Beyond Earth universe.- Grew Beyond Their Programming: During a battle against berserk wildlife on Chiron, she briefly accessed a node improvement Flame had built in order to draw on a list of possible ways her opponents could act so that she could counter them. Following the battle, she begins to display human traits and mannerisms, up to the point of growing an organic body for herself to use as an avatar.
- Spaceship Girl: Becomes one at the end of the Beyond Earth arc, due to growing an organic body for herself. While she is an actual naval vessel, her systems are on par with a starship.
- You Are in Command Now: Is given a command position just prior to the first War Game between the Infernum Federation and the Emyprean Illuminate. Flame is actually considering making her a sub-commander, but needs to see if she can actually lead effectively.
Tobias
One of several immigrants to the Federation following the ends of the Civilization: Beyond Earth arc.- A Day In The Lime Light: Get's this in several of the interludes.
- Big Brother Instinct: Is very protective of his sister.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Says this in Interlude: During the Battle. He's also very specific as to what type of doctor he is - a part time cardiologist, and he is a chemist first and foremost.
- Out of Focus: Tends to not show up in the story except during interludes. Justified, though, because he isn't really doing anything plot relevant.
Empyrean Illuminate
ROB (Given Name: Melissa) (Real Name: Vivian Veravenora Vitrimithios Melissa Konig)
The story's resident Random Omnipotent Being and Big Bad.- Abusive Parents: Not her, but one of her interludes implies she was a victim of this.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Downplayed - From what we've seen of her interactions with her 'coworkers', it is pretty clear most of them don't really like her and occasionally bully/insult her. At the same time, some of said coworkers have to be physically restrained by others to prevent them from interfering when the bullying goes to far. It's implied this is a result of her brushing off many of their attempts to socialize due to devotion to serving Celempheros, and, in turn, getting an extreme amount of trust from him.
- Animal Motifs: Sea creatures, specifically Jellyfish per Word of God. Her colorful hair is reminiscent of some varieties of jellyfish (though no specific variety is held in mind), her tentacles are based upon those of sea nettles
, and her Really 700 Years Old nature brings to mind the immortal jellyfish. - Anti-Villain: Specifically, a Villain-In-Name-Only: while she is occasionally rude to Flame and freeloads off him from time to time, she has been genuinely helpful to him purely without expecting anything in return and willingly saves him from death during the finale of the Beyond Earth Arc.
- Benevolent Boss: Suprisingly, she is one: she is openly kind to her subordinates, doesn't needlessly antagonize Commander Flame (who she considers to be her 'slave'), and is perfectly fine with her subordinates being rather casual with her.
- Berserk Button: Interfering with her plans for Commander Flame. She is the only one allowed to mess with him. She's pretty angry that someone is choosing which universes her pawn heads to, and reveals this detail with no strings attached to Flame when she learns he has found another artifact in the Civilization: Beyond Earth universe.
- Big Ego, Hidden Depths: While quite prideful and rude toward Commander Flame, she is significantly kinder than she let's on: she's an incredibly Benevolent Boss, A Good Parent toward her daughter, and, despite still having having a ton of animosity toward him, is respectful toward Flame. She also seems to be somewhat resentful that she cannot use her full powers to help others.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Apparently, she can eat a xenomorph without getting melted by its acidic blood. However, it apparently did not sit well with her stomach, and when that meat worked its way out of her system, EOD armor and radiation equipment was needed to dispose of it.
- Conflicting Loyalty: Realizes during the Warframe arc that she empathizes with Flame too much to involve him in Commander shenanigans, but does not want to betray Celm due to owing him a life debt. She attempts to get around this by stating she'll resign from his service after sending Flame home, but the circumstances cause her quite a few complications in that regard.
- Enemy Mine: Enters one with Flame for the entirety of the Galactic Civilizations, in order to get vengeance on the Drengin for killing a group of war refugees, including at least one child, right in front of her.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Calling her evil is a stretch, but her forces include humans, aliens, monsters, and members of the swarm.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It's revealed in Chapter 46 she has a daughter named Cassidy. The two clearly care for each other.
- Foil: To Flame. Melissa, while not violent, enjoys a good scrape, compared to Flame's disdain for violence. Melissa also seems to prefer doing things in the short term, rather than make long term plans. Lastly, while both care for their subordinates, Melissa is less open about it, being somewhat gruff with those under her.
- Is also one to The Man in the White Suit. While both are ROBs that command forces from multiple universes (forces that no longer exist, in White Suit's case), Melissa actually cares about her subordinates, while White Suit views his merely as pawns. Additionally, while White Suit was only interested in Faith as a tool to free himself from his shackles, Melissa actually empathizes with Flame, while still being a thorn in his side. Tellingly, White Suit always managed to identify Faith solely as a pawn in his plans, Vivian ultimately became Flame's friend, and eventually joined up with his forces permanently.
- Force and Finesse: The Force to Flame's Finesse. During the Monster Hunter arc, her preferred weapon is a hammer, which, while having some unique tricks up its sleeve, is mostly used for bludgeoning things. Granted, she does seem to be aware of how to use it properly, as she's mentioned to be using it on a monster's head - which takes extra damage when hit by impact weapons like hammers.
- Geas: Is under one placed by Queneeria, forbidding her from using her powers to raise the dead. In fact, the geas even prevents her from remembering that she has that power.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Is Platinum Blond and a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Thought what exactly the other half is has yet to be specified. It's eventually confirmed to be Progenitor.
- Heel–Face Turn:Joins up with Flame after the events of the Warframe arc.
- Hero of Another Story: Implied to have been on quite a few world-saving adventures of her own, seeing how she has an incredibly varied amount of subordinates, including members of the swarm, Halo's Precursors, and the colossi amongst her forces.
- I Control My Minions Through...: From what we've seen so far, a mix of kindness, Birthright, and obligation. While Elling's loyalty is due to the fact that his family has served Melissa's for generations, she shows him (and all of her other servants) a great deal of kindness and comfort.
- It Amused Me: Her justification for meeting Commander Flame in person.
- King Incognito: It's offhandedley mentioned that she is a princess, but absolutely no-one brings this up after the fact. Then again, not only is she seventh in the line of succession, but the events leading to her becoming a ROB more or less removed her from said line altogether. It's also implied her family may think she is dead.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Admits that the reason she decided to meet Commander Flame in person was because she felt that his attempts to fix the multiverse were slow going. The story's pace has grinded to a halt around the time the chapter where she admitted this was posted.
- Light Is Not Good: Downplayed: she's the main antagonist, but she has plenty of humanizing moments, and she prefers to dress in white or light colors.
- Mirror Character:
- Shaping up to be this to Flame - for all of her selfishness, she's just as kind and caring to her subordinates as he is, and enjoys a healthy parent-child relationship with her daughter.
- Additionally, it's implied she has been on similar journeys to him - her pocket universe is home to all of the Colossi, and she also happens to have Space Marines with her, including the Dreadnaught Rylanor.
- Her actions in the Galactic Civilizations arc cement this, as when she is put in similar circumstances to Flame, she does the exact same things he does.
- Mother Nature, Father Science: Uses biological creations as the mainstays of her armies, compared to Flame's robotic forces.
- Mysterious Past: While tidbits of it have been released, we still don’t know much about who/what she is. All that we do know is that she was once a princess and has served Celm since he saved her life when she was one hundred sixty nine years old. Chapter 147 implies she is actually a piece of Progenitor Organic Technology that outlived its creators and had time to reproduce. The finale of the Warframe arc reveals she's actually a human-progenitor hybrid.
- One Head Taller: Is this compared to Flame. The narration, however, notes that this doesn't let him stare at here chest; instead, he ends up looking at her chin.
- Orcus on His Throne: Both Subverted and Enforced - Enforced because the OverROB does not want her to reveal his plans by using her powers and would prefer that she stay in the shadows, Subverted because she regularly gets involved with Flame's adventures personally.
- Overly Long Name: See that under the spoiler? It's not even her full name.
- Pet the Dog: After meeting the OverROB, one of her subordinates goes rigid with fear. Her response? Hug him until he returns to normal.
- Additionally, she comforts her daughter while they go to meet the OverROB.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Aside from stuffing Flame's mind into a Commander, she hasn't really done anything to antagonize him, and has actually given him advice without asking for anything in return. The most she has doe to make him angry is be a Pretty Freeloader for part of the Civilization: Beyond Earth arc, and Flame seems to have just stopped caring about her presence by the end of his adventures on Earth in that universe. Based on what we've seen so far in the story, she actually a case of The Pirates Who Can't Do Anything, as her master forbids her from using the full extent of her power in many situations.
- Pretty Freeloader: Ends up spending some time in Flame's base on Chiron during the Beyond Earth arc, knowing he can't really throw her out.
- Really Royalty Reveal: Later chapters reveal that she is a princess, though it's not something that gets mentioned often due to her apparently forfeiting her titles before an incident where she was presumed dead.
- Really 700 Years Old: She's 712, to be exact. The author has confirmed she was not lying about her age. She turns 713 during the Gal Civ arc, with Flame actually giving her a birthday present. By the current arc of the story, she's 714.
- Shadow Archetype: As of the recent chapters, she's slowly becoming one for Flame: just like Flame, she has several creations that act as a collective Morality Pet for her, treats her subordinates with roughly the same measure of respect as Flame does his AI followers, and is a Good Parent toward her daughter. The main differences between the two is that she is somewhat more selfish than Flame (she's willing to freeload off him because he lacks the power to kick her out) and, while genuinely caring toward her subordinates, comes off as rather cold when actually interacting with them. During the Galactic Civilizations story arc, she is implied to have allowed a girl whose family lost their home to a Drengin attack to live withint the Empyrean Illuminate, which is exactly the same thing Flame did for several displaced people during the Civilization: Beyond Earth arc.
- Stereotype Flip: While Downplayed, she is far friendlier than a normal ROB and actually gives friendly advice to Commander Flame from time to time. She is also the only R.O.B. to have ever met their Commander in person.
- Stop Worshipping Me: Downplayed - while she still wants to be acknowledged as powerful, she prefers people not worship her, if only because it interferes with their ability to have decent conversations with her.
- Top Wife: Discussed by her in a conversation with Flame where the two have a few moments of Belligerent Sexual Tension - Vivian outright states that she would not be adverse to being in a Royal Harem as long as she has seniority.
- Villainous Rescue: Saves Flame during the final battle of the Beyond Earth arc, and afterwards heals him in her home universe.
Mortarax
One of ROB's servants.- The Brute: Seems to fill this role for Melissa, though he's also shown to be capable of being diplomatic.
- Insectoid Aliens: His appearance is described as being a cross between an insect and a reptile.
Elling
Another of ROB's servants.- Child Soldiers: Pilots a mech in the Illuminate forces, and has been doing so since he was thirteen. Learning this ends up comfusing Flame, as he is unsure why Melissa would let someone so young fight for her.
- Nervous Wreck: Ends up as one after he, Mortarax and ROB meet the OverROB, to the point he can't even move. Melissa gets him out of this by hugging him until he returns to normal.
- Old Retainer: Apparently, he's the child of one - his family has served Melissa's for a long time.
Cassidy
Melissa's daughter- Bizarre Alien Biology: The same as her mom.
- Cheerful Child: Hell yes!
- Horrifying the Horror: Manages to make Specimen Six, a Xenomorph Queen, run in terror from her. Granted, it's abundantly clear Cass is the bigger fish between the two of them.
- Walking Spoiler: This will change eventually, but the mere fact that she is Melissa's daughter indicates that the character has far more depth and personality then her counterparts in other Planetary Annihilation SelfInserts.
Timingila
A battleship in service of Melissa.- Evil Counterpart: Morally Ambiguous would be a better descriptor, but she is meant to be this toward Lernea - she is a self aware vessel in service to Flame's Random Omnipotent Being and is implied to have a humanoid body, something Lernea is confirmed to have.
- Hindu Mythology: Is named after a monster from The Mahabharata.
- Spaceship Girl: Implied - she's mentioned as being able to smile, despite being a ship, and also has eyes that she can close.
- Xanatos Gambit: Pulls one off against Lernea in a training battle - when her fleet appears to be decimated, she opens up a straight path between her and Lernea, essentially goading the Hydra Class Carrier into charging her. If Lernea charges, the ship form of Timingila will have enough time to cross the T so that she can use her broadsides, or have the rest of her escorts encircle said carrier. If Lernea doesn't attack, she'll have to retreat when Timingila's backup arrives. Both of these will end with her relatively fine and her opponent out of the fight. She still ends up losing because she did not account for Lernea being able to fire torpedos, allowing her to exploit Timingila's maneuver to maximize the amount of hits she can achieve.
Specimen Six
The Protagonist of the Alien Campaign from Aliens vs. Predator (2010)- Always a Bigger Fish:Despite being a XENOMORPH QUEEN, she's no match for a Random Omnipotent Being, even if said being is a child.
- Dramatic Irony: For once, it's the Aliens who are running and hiding from humans....well, half-humans.
- Humanity Ensues: Melissa apparently turned her into a human at some point, before returning her to her xenomorph form. Cassidy does this whenever she's bored and wants to dress Six up.
- Horrifying the Horror: Is completely terrified of Cassidy.
- Walking Spoiler: A minor example, but the only indication she would show up in the story was an offhand comment by Melissa, which was worded such that any xenomorph could have been used.
Celempheros and Associated Figures
Celempheros
Melissa's superior, and the Greater-Scope Villain of the story.- Greater-Scope Villain: He's directly superior to Melissa, and is partially responsible for Flame's plight, but rarely tends to be involved in the main plot of the story. This gets subverted later on, when it becomes apparent his own motives are more heroic.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Designing a force to kill off all commander self inserts (most of whom are total just had the bad luck to end up shoved inside of the machines by a Random Omnipotent Being) is a dick move, but he does have a point that Commanders have the potential to cause titanic havoc if they abuse their powers - his rant directly references Glitch from On a Backwater Planet, a Commander Builds a Metal Extractor, who wholeheartedly embodies this problem.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He's willing to overlook violations of his decrees if you can give a good reason for doing so. He also wishes that his subordinates would work together to achieve common goals, rather than antagonize each other.
- The Reveal: He's a progenitor, and the one who built Flame's Commander.
- Time Abyss: Word of God indicates he's about a billion years old.
- Tranquil Fury: When his ally Queneeria uses a Geas to both prevent Melissa from using her powers to raise the dead and outright forget that she has those powers, he very calmly tells her that she had better give him a good reason as to why she did this or there will be consequences.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Celm does not like people using his commanders to mess with the multiverse, a legitimate issue with the Commander Glitch and Mr. Cloak. Initially, he wanted to choose his own commanders to oppose them and help fix the multiverse, but after all of them before Flame were wiped out by forces in the universes he visited, he decided to just wipe Commanders out as a whole, alongside their ROBs.
Operative Tau
One of Celm's subordinates. Not the nicest of people.- Jerkass Gods: Is a ROB, just like his boss and coworker, and is shown to be quite the jerk.
- We Used to Be Friends: Chapter 134 implies that he was friendlier with Melissa in the past, given that he bails her out when she needs help fighting a skullcrawler. It's eventually revealed that they were the ones to help induct Melissa into Celm's forces, and were rather close to her until she began to put her service to Celm before spending time with them (unknown to either of the two, she owes Celm a life debt.
Operative Zeta
Another of Celm's subordinates, she also isn't very nice.- Fiery Redhead: Has red and orange covered hair, and quite the temper. Cassidy wonders if she is trying to look like a fire.
- Jerkass Gods: Is in the same boat as Tau.
- Playing with Fire: Has pyrokinesis, which is first shown when she bails out Melissa in chapter 134.
- We Used to Be Friends: Just like with Tau, she bails out Melissa in the flashback shown in chapter 134, burning the skull crawler before it can attack her.
Characters from the Civilization: Beyond Earth Universe
XCOM Commander
The Leader of XCOM.- The Leader: For XCOM
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Defintely. While he doesn't trust Flame completely, he doesn't do anything to antagonize him, as the Infernum Commander has done nothing to indicate he has hostile intent toward humanity as a whole.
- The Reveal: He's Asaru, and has been leading XCOM since the events of the reboot.
- He's also accessed the Ethereal's Psychic Network and knows the Flame is from another universe. He doesn't care.
The Artifacts and their Enemies
The Artifacts
A set of machines of unknown origin that have shown up in literally every universe Flame has visited except for his hub one, their purposes are completely unknown at the moment, but have an integral affect on the story.- Achilles' Heel: Are this to Flame - whenever they are in a ‘distressed’ state, they emit a signal that manages to ‘‘shut down’’ his commander network, forcing him to rely on other ways of fighting them. He has almost died TWICE because of them.
- Anti-Magic: Are this toward commanders - they emit fields around them that cause some random interference for Flame. Generally, this takes the form of them shutting down his normal commander control network, forcing him to rely on other ways to deal with them.
- Macguffin: The best way to describe them, as they don't fit under any of the subtropes (at least, at the moment).
- Outside-Context Problem: Considering that we know virtually nothing about them, yes. Given that these machines can shut down Commanders, though, it is possible that they have at least some familiarity with commanders that Flame is unaware of.
- Small Role, Big Impact: They are, for the most part, incapable of acting on their own, but they have given Flame strange visions and are secretly directing him toward universes home to more of them.
The Artifact's Enemies
An unknown set of entities that are (at least implied to be) hostile to the Artifacts.- Ambiguous Robots: While several of their forces are robotic, some are fleshy in appearance. It is possible the two types could be created with different methods, though.
- Organic Technology: Some varieties of...whatever they are.
- Outside-Context Problem: For starters, we know next to nothing about them, and the few times the artifacts show them hasn't really helped here. It's implied they're actually another type of Progenitor weapon, in the same vein as the commanders.
- We now know some more details about them: they were created by the xziphid, who were actually the female members of the Progenitor species.
The Progenitors
The creators of the Commanders. They play a much larger part in this story than in other Commander Self-Insert fics.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: For starters, both genders can reproduce asexually - males shed spores, whilst females lay unfertilized eggs. Males also grow mushroom like caps on their bodies that can be consumed to exchange genetic material between each other, whilst females can do the same via infertile eggs. Apparently, this works across the gender spectrum.
- Everyone Has Standards: The Warframe arc makes it clear that they do not think very highly of the Orokin, especially Ballas. Later chapters and side materials indicate that they tend to treat others with Condescending Compassion, but said compassion is genuine, while the Orokin lean toward Faux Affably Evil.
- Multiversal Conqueror: Given the presence of their technology in multiple universes, as well as several scenes in the story indicating they fought other precursor civilizations from those universes, this is heavily implied ot happen.
- Posthumous Character: While (presumably) extinct, they form an integral part of the story, as they are implied to have been far more active across the multiverse then the game's lore would suggest. Subverted following the Warframe arc - it turns out they are still around, just heavily isolationist. Additionally, it's also revealed that Celempheros is a member of the species, and that the non-human half of Vivienne's heritage is a progenitor (or Progenitor-Xziphid hybrid, as the case may be).
Coelohim (Spoilers)
A biotech progenitor force created to work in tandem with the commanders.
- Adaptive Ability: Most fomrs have the ability to adapt to their surroundings, as is the case with the one Flame fights at the end of the Warframe arc.
- Biotech Is Better: Are literally the only thing in the story able to consistently fight Flames forces on equal footing.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Per Word of God, the 'slime demon' Flame battles with an Atlas early on in the story is a type of Coelohim.
- Organic Technology: All examples are organisms engineered to fulfil certain roles.
- Terraform: Their purpose in peacetime - they are the 'gardeners' to the commanders 'builders'.
Spoiler Character
Commander Defense System
A Progenitor automated military force designed to prevent other beings from using their commanders.Unmarked Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned- Adaptive Ability: One of their Coelohim, who acts as the final opponent of the Warframe arc, is explicitly shown as altering its body to resist being blasted with flames.
- Always a Bigger Fish: Are functionally meant to be this to commanders - the entire point of their existence is to destroy Progenitor Commanders, which puts them head and shoulders above pretty much everything else in existence barring certain types of Eldritch Abomination.
- Evil Counterpart: As a whole, they are one to all commander self insert protagonists, being Artificial Intelligences/Engineered Organisms designed to kill off ensure no one gains access to Progenitor technology.
- Hero Killer: By the time of the story, they've killed at least six other commanders who stumbled upon them by accident, including three who were working together across universes. And they come very close to killing Flame in their physical debut in the story.
- Knight of Cerebus: Their arrival in the story marks the point where it undergoes a Genre Shift from Wish-Fulfillment power fantasy to having an actual plot. Unlike every other foe encountered in the story, they don't need external help to fight off Flame, and actually come very close to killing him.
- Outside-Context Problem: The very fact that they there is a threat capable of challenging a commander regardless of the amount of tech it has consumed is a total surprise to, well, everyone!
- Wake-Up Call Boss: The first one encountered in the story is the first opponent Flame faces that can truly fight back against him - it also shuts down his commander's control network, forcing him to fight it on foot.
- Walking Spoiler: Their mere existence upends everything we've known in the story so far and establishes that this tory is not just going to be about Self-Insert demolishing everything in his path.
