The Bureau
General
You/"Interloper"
The (mostly) Featureless Protagonist, called in to work on the recovered personal corrucyst because everyone else is out of commission thanks to a bad mindspike firmware patch.
- The Faceless: Mostly. The protagonist seems to have roughly feminine features, at least shoulder-length hair, and glasses, but that's all that can really be made out.
- The Nameless: The protagonist has no name specified, but is generally referred to as "interloper" by the things they encounter within the corrucyst and just as "buddy" by Moth.
Moth
Your relatively-mysterious assistant, who manages the physical hardware that assists with interpreting the data you're receiving.
- Mister Exposition: Aside from doubling as the Hint System, Moth also serves as a source of information, where you can ask them about various terms and concepts encountered throughout the sequences.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Basically all we can see of Moth is a vague silhouette and reflections on what might be glasses or goggles.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: If you run across something that doesn't make very much sense without wider context, especially if it's clearly manmade or of human origin, Moth can usually shed some light on the situation.
The Corrucyst
Funfriend
The terribly overwhelmed overseer process of Akizetesche's personal memory cyst.- Existential Horror: On two fronts. First, Funfriend has lost awareness of just how bad the damage has gotten, as the memories within the corrucyst serve as Funfriend's own. Second, there's 'Velzie' lurking within the cyst, a potential threat that Funfriend cannot perceive directly.
- Exposition Fairy: Funfriend's main role. It also arms you with the Proxy tools you need to deal with various Incoherent threats.
__GOD__
A self-aware thoughtform that has risen up from the incoherence and is impeding repairs. It must be destroyed (or persuaded to keep a lower profile) in order to make Funfriend's repairs easier.- Extra Eyes: Depicted with five eyes; two on each side of its face, and one upon its forehead.
- Moral Dilemma: __GOD__ is a rogue entity arisen from the incoherence and is consuming resources in the corrucyst, but seems just as sane and coherent as Funfriend (though a little more eccentric). Do you spare the life of what seems to be an intelligent being, or do you kill something that was just trying to survive? If you do spare them, then they give you the SORRY message from "Velzie" for the Memory Hole and also act as your guide in the Cache, rather than needing to acquire the Sorry Cyst from BSTRD and Funfriend using Proxyfriends for the Cache.
- Sequential Boss: Defeating __GOD__ requires passing through several distinct phases, and you have very few hit points. Fortunately there's limited checkpointing.
"Velzie"
A strange entity lurking within the corrucyst, which breaches the authorization layer and allows you to access the corrucyst in the first place. Both Moth and Funfriend are unable to detect its presence directly, and its messages are not recorded in your message log, though they can see some of the effects it is causing (such as the auth layer being disabled). It bears a mild resemblance to Cavik's signature.- Poor Communication Kills: Whatever it is, it seems like it's trying to help you learn the truth of events. Unfortunately it's also impatient and indelicate, at one point completely and irreversibly destroying a memory sequence.
The Obesk
Humanoids from the tidally-locked moon of a gas giant, with their world almost permanently shrouded in darkness. They dispatched a research mission to Earth investigating something they referred to as 'the Call', a signal that could only come from early corru-tech. Unfortunately after some unspecified disaster in which Akizetesche and several of her team went missing, along with the loss of many of the mission personnel in the first Embassy Collapse disaster, the Obesk withdrew almost entirely from Earth and have been much less communicative.
General
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Information exchange with humanity means we know that the obesk homeworld is a tidally locked moon of a gas giant with a heavy ("pretty much half" in Moth's words) focus on parasitism and fungal life. The obesk themselves seem to have some loosely insectoid traits and live(d) in cavern-cities, whilst surface fauna is either massive, deadly, or both. Their cities are dependent upon the life cycle of the massive veilk, in a manner similar to whale falls, with the obesk making clothing and other items out of veilkskin, and harvesting some of the parasites that feed off the veilk for use as food.
- Fantastic Caste System: The Obesk have a sort of caste system, with the Jut (engineer), Kiv (warrior), Qou (ascended), Tir (digger/hunter), and Vel (corru shaper) being the known castes and their rough specialties. The system seems fairly flexible, as the Vel and Qou castes arose more recently with the development of corru. How an Obesk's caste is determined, and if Obesk can voluntarily change their caste (beyond 'ascending' to the Qou caste) is currently unknown.
- Parasite Zombie: The secri are microscopic apex predators, or perhaps a fungal infection, which hijack and reshape the bodies of their prey in order to multiply and spread.
Akizetesche Qou Jokzi
Surface VeteranLeader of the research team and diplomat. Her most notable features on her signature are her intense eyes and elegantly-curling receptors.
- Action Girl: Akizetesche barely hesitates when the time comes to fight, readily shaping one of her limbs into a wicked piercing implement. She also has 15 HP in the Embassy Collapse sequence, compared to the 10 HP of all your teammates. According to the "larval" memory, she was quite the fighter even before she ascended to the use of Qou bodies, managing to break the arm of a predator creature with a careful block - at the cost of severe damage to her own chitin.
- Shapeshifter Weapon: As noted above, Akizetesche clearly has practice weaponizing her Qou body. She's a fairly straightforward fighter who can stun enemies with a slamming attack, and inflict damage over time with a piercing thrust attack. These can later be upgraded to a more powerful strike and a 'frenzy' attack that can strike multiple times, at an increased rate if Akizet has Focused and/or the target is Vulnerable.
Gakvukani
Conspicuous InsiderAlways managing to look bored or distracted, Gakvu seems more often immersed in her games and toys than paying attention to her work. Her most notable features on her signature are her half-lidded eyes, casual grin, and angular, coiled receptors.
- Dark and Troubled Past: One does not simply 'acquire' a mindcore that possesses mobile groundmindsry capabilities. Whatever happened, it sounds like Gakvu is eager to escape that part of her past.
- Developer's Foresight: If you go back to the Embassy Discovery sequence after asking Gakvu to turn off her coat during the Collapse sequence, it'll still be off. If you then ask her about it with the new dialogue option, the simulation will destabilize briefly - the music turns discordant and the background shifts, as Gakvu lampshades that she feels like her signature and not herself. She brushes it off as a side-effect of her split attention between reality and false environments though.
- Dreary Half-Lidded Eyes: Pairs these with a smug smile, perhaps implying that she knows more than she lets on.
- Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Her mind-core has been augmented with illegal groundsmindry tools, which allow her to reshape the Embassy structure without being linked into the central control system. She makes the others promise not to speak of it, else she might be thrown off the project (or worse). Given the alternative for them all is all-but-certain death, the team has little choice in the matter.
- Playful Hacker: Certainly has this energy about her, between her interest in technology and her illegal upgrades.
- Squishy Wizard: Takes this role in the Embassy Collapse sequence, inflicting potent debuffs such as Vulnerable (incoming attacks are more likely to hit/crit) and Destabilize (all incoming and outgoing damage/heals are doubled).
Tozikoric
Inquisitive TechnicianThe stoic and taciturn Tozik. Not given much to chatter. Obsessed with the Call. His most distinctive features on his signature are the two vertically-aligned eyes on the right side of his face.
- The Medic: Takes this role in the Embassy Collapse sequence. His basic attack is weak but has a chance to grant a short-lived team-wide regen effect, and he can heal a specific ally for an immediate bonus and ticking regen over the following turns whilst also curing damage over time effects.
- The Smart Guy: Whilst Gakvu is your typical 'brilliant but inattentive-seeming' type, Tozik is more down to earth. He doesn't like trying to explain anything before he knows all the answers.
- The Stoic: Tozik is very calm and unemotional. Even if you stop to ask the party how everyone's doing in the Collapse sequence and he's at or below half health, he seems largely unconcerned. Over half, and he just gives a straightforward "fine".
Cavik
Hopeful EngineerA minor technician assigned to the project, and a dreamer, prone to listening to (and sometimes sharing) wild theories about the Call. His cheerfully-smiling face mildly resembles that of the thing which allowed you access into the corrucyst in the first place.
- Childhood Friends: With Akizet.
- No Fourth Wall: If hit with Destabilize, some of his possible comments imply he can sense the Interloper's presence or seem to make reference to other entries in the Memory Hole.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Cavik's interest in odd theories about the Call and seemingly minor assignment feel like obfuscation, and that he was planted on the Project for some reason.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: Concerningly, his weapon of choice is improvized explosives made out of unstable corrucystic components. He simply comments that it 'makes sense' if questioned, in contrast to Gakvu's secrecy about her unusual capabilities.
Miltza
Cynical ArtistPart of the Wisdom Initiative and former Surface Runner assistant. Her job was to manage and coordinate drones that assisted other obesk on the surface, but her role at the Embassy is unclear besides her being part of the Wisdom Initiative. In her free time, she sculpts scale replicas of obeski fauna out of corru.
- Attack Drone: One of her augments grants her an attack drone that automatically hits any enemies with the Vulnerable status, which Miltza can inflict with her Spy action.
- Extra Eyes: Depicted with three open eyes on the right side of her face, and two closed ones on the left side of her face.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Joins the party whilst fighting Movefoe, taking over for Gakvu whilst the latter uses her illegal Groundsmindry to protect everyone. Whilst she doesn't have much stopping power by herself, she has the chance to grant the team defensive buffs with her attacks, and makes enemies more vulnerable as well.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Has a third arm curling around over her right shoulder. According to your mindspike, it has some kind of religious significance.
Kazki
- Eyeless Face: Her signature has a distinctive U-shaped head with a wide grin and no space for eyes.
- Genki Girl: Kazki is very energetic and excitable, and prone to impulsive decisions. At one point she 'adopts' a spider (from Australia, no less!) and, realizing that Obesk ships have no need for life support, makes an air pocket in her head for it to live in.
- Gun Nut: Noted to have a fascination with man-made firearms.
Bozko
Burdened GuardianOne of the research team. Unlike most of the others, his signature is intuited from his self-image rather than an off-the-shelf or custom design.
- Mighty Glacier: Bozko is an absolute tank with even more HP than Akizet, presumably thanks to his extreme-pressure formation. The tradeoff is that he can't use Focus like the others to gain Evasion and improve his accuracy/critical chance. Instead, he can assume a Guard stance which reduces incoming damage.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: We learn in EP3 that Bozko was one of the few survivors of a secri incursion, and carries a lot of lingering trauma as a result.
Itzil & Karik
IK GolemA pair of mind-cores orphaned from their Qou bodies in the attack. They later co-pilot the golem the team assembles. Or more accurately, Karik handles most of the piloting whilst Itzil is in post-traumatic shock.
Other
BSTRD
An Optional Boss in Embassy: Collapse, and a manifestation of the game code Moth had to use to make the Collapse sequence viewable. First, complete the sequence normally. Then reload your save from the Embassy menu and head back into the Research Lab/Timestopper Chamber. A new access corridor will open up, leading you into a series of even more challenging encounters with new/remixed enemies.- Superboss: Defeating BSTRD rewards you with a golem weapon schematic. Convenient, seeing as your next stop is golem maintenance. You can then use this with the augment system in the third part to grant one or more members of the team a 'symbiotic rifle', which consumes the user's health but can deal heinous amounts of damage if the dice favour you. It also gives you the "Sorry" keyword for the Memory Hole in its inventory description.
