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Characters / Eternal Card Game

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Characters and factions of Eternal.

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Factions

The primary elements of Eternal. Most cards and characters are associated with at least one faction, and each has different specialties and drawbacks:

    Fire 

Fire

"Fire is the faction of creation and destruction; most problems can be handled with quick and violent solutions."
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: The most aggressive faction, containing many cards with Charge and Overwhelm.
  • Expy: Of Magic: The Gathering's Red, the most direct correlation of any of the five factions — aggressive play and direct burn.
  • Motifs: A flaming hammer.
  • Playing with Fire: Many of its damage-dealing spells, such as Torch and Obliterate.
  • Zerg Rush: The primary faction of the Grenadin tribe, small mechanical robots that suicidally overwhelm their opponents.

    Time 

Time

"Time is the faction of learning and discovery; knowledge is the key to true power."
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Sand is a recurring element in Time, manipulated in ways both literal (Sandstorm) and abstract (Excavate unearthing a discarded card, or Bury the Past sending a card to the bottom of the opponent's deck).
  • Expy: A mix between of Magic: The Gathering's Green and Blue colors. Mechanically it's similar to Green, with powerful but expensive units and ways to ramp up your Power to play said units early. Flavor-wise it's similar to Blue with its focus on knowledge.
  • Mighty Glacier: Unless Time decks have and use their Power-boosting cards immediately, they are usually vulnerable at the start. But once they are at full power, they can overwhelm with an endless tide of massive units.
  • Motifs: A yellow hourglass.
  • My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Temporal Distortion and Alhed, Vanguard allow a Time deck to play any Spell (and in the latter case, Relics and Weapons as well) as a Fast Spell.
  • Power of the Void: While far inferior to Shadow in this regard, Time is also able to manipulate both players' voids (discard piles).
  • The Smart Guy: All of the Time-aligned factions are known for their great knowledge.
  • Time Master: Has many cards that increase the pace at which players can gain power, represented by "speeding up time", letting them use expensive cards earlier than their opponents.

    Justice 

Justice

"Justice is the faction of order, both in civic harmony and brutal tyranny."
  • Expy: A mixture of Magic: The Gathering's White and Green factions, with White's capacity for control (both flavor-wise, and mechanically through locking down enemy units and clearing the field if necessary), and Green's potential to grow small units into incredibly powerful ones.
  • Good Is Not Soft: The faction of law and order at all costs, like the Crownwatch and the enforcers of Steelwarren.
  • Motifs: A green emblem of an eagle.
  • Moral Sociopathy: Falls into this at its worst, with the Harsh Rule representing its nadir — Rolant breaking a rebel siege by wiping out an entire city district via Fantastic Nuke.
  • My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Justice has the most ways to impose restrictions on what an opponent can play, like the Hammer of Authority preventing them from casting Fast Spells on your turn, or the Combrei Lawmage limiting them to one card of each type per turn.
  • Light Is Good: When it is protecting and enhancing its own units.
  • Light Is Not Good: When it is cursing its opponent or destroying its own units in a board wipe.

    Primal 

Primal

"Primal is the faction of nature in both its savage fury and pristine beauty."
  • Expy: To Magic: The Gathering's Blue and Green, with the mechanics of the former (emphasis on spells, card draw, board control, hand/deck disruption) and the flavor of both colors (Green's association with nature and growth, Blue's association with wind, ice, and lightning).
  • Flight: While all factions have access to Flying units, Primal has the largest variety including birds, sprites, spirits, and dragons, as well as the most ways to enhance or shut down fliers such as Windshaper or Skybolt.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Many Primal units feature Aegis, a single use shield against an enemy spell or effect.
  • Motifs: An icy blue pawprint.
  • Power of the Storm: Most of Primal's damage-dealing spells have some sort of storm element, typically ice (Hailstorm), wind (Violent Gust), or lightning (Lightning Strike).

    Shadow 

Shadow

"Shadow is the faction of vision and ambition; hidden paths lead to dangerous secrets."
  • Cast from Hit Points: Shadow regularly sacrifices its own units or health for short term gains, like Devour or Desecrate.
  • Dark Is Evil: While none of the factions are always good or always evil, Shadow is the typical faction of cultists, assassins, and Things That Go "Bump" in the Night.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Shadow is also the faction of choice of rogues, hunters, and ruthless but heroic figures like Vara.
  • Expy: A mix between Magic: The Gathering's Black and Blue colors. Like Black, Shadow can interact with killed units in the void (discard pile), resurrecting them or modifying them, and both sacrifice units and health to gain additional effects. Like Blue, it has many control cards that can sweep the board clean, kill units, or disrupt an opponent's deck/hand.
  • Motifs: A purple crescent moon.
  • Power of the Void: Discard piles are literally called "the void", and Shadow is by far the best at manipulating it, resurrecting units out of it and tampering with the void of opponents.

Dual-Color Factions

The game's first two sets, The Empty Throne and Omens of the Past, introduced ten locations in Myria representing the ten pairs of the base five factions, as well as associated traits and keywords for each group. Their colors and symbols have been used to represent their respective pairs ever since:

    Praxis (Fire/Time) 

Praxis

"The Praxis Arcanum are a collective of mages who seek power by unlocking the secrets of the universe."
Praxis combines Fire's affinity for creation with Time's pursuit of knowledge. In gameplay, they can utilize Fire's quick power gain and Time's slower power growth, as well as both factions' synergy with Relics, allowing for aggressive Zerg Rush tactics or building up an unbreakable wall of powerful units like Sentinels.

Praxis' trait is Impulse.

  • Humongous Mecha: The Sentinels are enormous creations of metal and stone, though so far none of them appear to be pilotable.
  • Lost Technology: Nobody can create Sentinels, they can only reactivate the dormant ones they find, but the Praxis Arcanum is determined to rediscover how to create them.
  • Mighty Glacier: One potential style of play, using power boosters and early game control to summon massive Sentinels and Dinosaurs as soon as possible.
  • Time Master: Their signature ability in Omens of the Past is Warp, which lets you play a card the turn before you'd normally draw it. In addition, multiple members of the Arcanum have a talent for scrying and observing different points in time, like Talir and Brenn.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Praxis mages tend to be monomaniacal in focus.
  • Zerg Rush: Praxis puts a spin on Fire's capacity for Zerg Rush tactics. One that allows it to combine Fire's spammable small units with Time's ability to boost the power of its entire side of the board.

    Rakano (Fire/Justice) 

Rakano

"Rakano is a settlement near the edge of the Crownwatch territory that has become a center of conflict with the Freed rebels."
Rakano combines Fire's aggression with Justice's strength and protection. Highly aggressive, but not quite a Zerg Rush; instead, it fields a smaller spread of units and makes them powerful through buffs and weaponry.

Rakano's trait is Glory.

  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: Their signature ability in The Empty Throne is Warcry, which grants a +1/+1 buff to the top unit or weapon in your deck upon attacking. This makes Rakano decks highly aggressive, combining Fire's aggression with Justice's buffs.
  • The Gunslinger: Has many units that are members of the Gunslinger tribe, that resemble cowboys and cowgirls.
  • Glory Seeker: Many of their most notable units are glory-chasing fighters.
  • Mascot: Icaria, the first Valkyrie and the first to rebel against Rolant's tyranny. Her backstory was developed in the Dead Reckoning campaign, showing her progression from pure Justice to embracing Fire and joining Rakano.
  • The Resistance: Rakano is the centre of the Rebellion against Rolant's regency.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Two of their most common unit types, Gunslingers and Oni. While both are fierce fighters, Gunslingers are often rowdier and more violent while Oni are often warrior poets.
  • Samurai Cowboy: Rakano decks often contain both Gunslingers and Oni.
  • Wild West: Shared with the Stonescar faction, both sites being frontier towns that provide the six-guns to Eternal's Sword and Sorcery setting.
  • Wutai: The Oni Shogunate, closely associated with Rakano, gives this flavor to the faction. It's shared by Rakano's equivalent in Bastion, the Oni-run House Kyoju.

    Skycrag (Fire/Primal) 

Skycrag

"The Skycrag Clans are a loose group of competing tribes who can be united under a strong leader."
Skycrag combines Fire's aggression with Primal's ability to sustain a battle through enemy neutralisation and card draw, as well as both factions' penchant for dealing damage through spells.

Skycrag's trait is Fury.

  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: Their signature ability in Omens of the Past is Spark, which gives cards an additional effect when played if the enemy player has already taken damage that turn, whether through spell damage or an aggressive Zerg Rush.
  • Barbarian Hero: Has a lot of these in their units, most notably Vadius, Clan Father.
  • The Beastmaster: The Clans train, raise and ride Sky Serpents, which they use for transportation and combat among the harsh Skycrag Mountains.
  • Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The diminuative Yetis have no relevance to the strife of Myria and largely serve as the setting's Plucky Comic Relief (when they're not beating your face in, that is). Their larger kin, the Jotun, are more of a force to be reckoned with.
  • Intrepid Merchant: Torgov, who travels to and trades with the barbaric and dangerous Yetis.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons in Myria are commonly aligned with Skycrag's colors, and largely match the western depiction: solitary, treasure-hoarding menaces of fire or ice.
  • Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The Fall of Argenport was themed around the Clans' destructive conquest of the capital under Eilyn's command, as she comes to claim the Eternal Throne from the recently-deposed Rolant.
  • Zerg Rush: The most aggressive Skycrag decks do this with Grenadin and Yeti.

    Stonescar (Fire/Shadow) 

Stonescar

"The Stonescar mines are the richest source of shiftstone in the world, but dangerous creatures lurk in their depths..."
Stonescar combines Fire's aggression with Shadow's death control to make a faction which is potentially quite strong in either aggression or control, fielding a wide army of small units which can be sacrificed for an advantage, or simply rush down an opponent before they can react.

Stonescar's trait is Chaos.

  • Dug Too Deep: Whoever was unfortunate enough to encounter the Stonescar Leviathan.
  • We Have Reserves: Their signature ability in The Empty Throne is Entomb, which triggers when a unit dies. Both factions have the means to directly sacrifice units (example: Combust), which can be used to immediately trigger an Entomb effect, and it also synergizes with Fire's ability to churn out expendable units for a Zerg Rush and Shadow's ability to gain strength when units die (or both, in the case of units like the Scraptank).
  • Wretched Hive: Stonescar has the highest concentration of Rogue units, and the combination of Fire and Shadow brings in some very ugly customers.

    Combrei (Time/Justice) 

Combrei

"Combrei is a center of study, where mystics and artificers all seek perfection in their own ways."
Combrei combines Justice's buffs and unit control with Time's power ramp-up and large creatures, permitting the beefiest decks in the game.

Combrei's trait is Progress.

    Elysia (Time/Primal) 

Elysia

"The Elysians are a group of explorers and adventurers who brave the harshest regions in the world."
Elysia combines Time's pursuit of knowledge and growth with Primal's appreciation of nature. In gameplay, Elysian decks combine Time's rapid power growth and heavy units with Primal's card draw and control.

Elysia's trait is Wisdom.

  • The Beastmaster: Many Elysian units have no problems taming and raising beasts, from dinosaurs to dragons, and riding them into battle.
  • Bold Explorer: Most Explorer cards are fittingly in Elysian colors, including Curiox, the Collector, the only Dragon Explorer.
  • Retired Badass: The Explorer Emeritus has clearly kicked around quite a bit.
  • Self-Duplication: Their signature mechanic in The Empty Throne is Echo, cards which create a copy of themselves when drawn. They're useful in supplementing Primal's focus on spells with a decent field presence — if you can get one Pteriax Hatchling or Twinbrood Sauropod into play, odds are you can play the other next turn — and with both factions' capability for card draw and manipulation (Twinning Ritual, Second Sight), it's possible to draw the same Echo card more than once and create even more copies.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Elysian explorers are a cheerful bunch of adventurers, seemingly disassociated with the strife of Myria.

    Xenan (Time/Shadow) 

Xenan

"The Xenan Temple sits on the border of the Shadowlands, and is inhabited by the enigmatic Radiants and their worshippers."
Xenan combines Shadow's affinity for death with Time's deserts. In gameplay, they may focus on high card draw, sacrificing minions, and converting health into power.

Xenan's trait is Mystery.

  • Blood Magic: Xenans regularly perform ritual sacrifice for an unknown purpose. Their signature mechanic in Omens of the Past is Lifeforce, which gives benefits any time the player gains life, taking advantage of Time's healing through spells and effects and Shadow's healing through sacrifice and Lifesteal.
  • Green-Skinned Space Babe: Some Radiants take on attractive humanoid forms with showy clothing and armor with yellow or purple skin, such as the Beckoning Lumen or Umbren Coaxer.
  • Power of the Void: Usually utilizes Shadow's void manipulation, boosting the power of dead units and bringing them back stronger than before.
  • We Have Reserves: Xenan frequently makes use of sacrificing units, with Wisps and Cultists as the most common fodder.
  • Yin-Yang Bomb: Radiants and Wisps are either light (Lumens, aligned with Time) or dark (Umbrens, aligned with Shadow), and some combine both, with half their body light and the other dark, such as the Mitotic Wisp or the Preserver of Dualities.

    Hooru (Justice/Primal) 

Hooru

"The Hooru are a reclusive society ruled by the great owls, ancient sages of great wisdom and power."
Hooru combines Primal's attunement with nature and Justice's pursuit of order. Gameplay-wise it's the pairing of choice for control decks, with access to Primal's spells, counterspells, and card draw, Justice's buffs and protection, and both factions' capacity for dealing with multiple units at once.

Hooru's trait is Order.

  • Flight: Having many owls and valkyries, Hooru have many Flying units.
  • Mentor Archetype: Hooru's signature mechanic in Omens of the Past is Mentor, allowing one unit to designate another as a Student, applying a powerful bonus to either or both.
  • The Owl-Knowing One: The rulers of their society are owls.
  • Suddenly Always Knew That: Hooru is by far the best faction at adding new battle skills to its units.
  • Throne Made of X: The Seat of Order appears to be a hibernating/dead tree shaped into a throne.

    Argenport (Justice/Shadow) 

Argenport

"Argenport is the capital city of Myria, where Crownwatch forces and the shadowy Cabal struggle for control."
Argenport combines Shadow's void manipulation and control, Justice's empowerment, and both factions' penchant for direct removal, allowing for a diverse range of playstyles. The pairing is represented in-setting by multiple factions of the city, including the Crownwatch, the Cabal, and the Auric Bank.

Argenport's trait is Vengeance.

  • Best Served Cold: Argenport's signature ability in Echoes of the Past is Revenge, permitting a slain unit to return to the player's deck and re-enter the battlefield directly when drawn (but only once).
  • Vigilante Man: Rooftop Vigilante, who apparently didn't take kindly to the alliance between Crownwatch and Cabal.
  • We Have Reserves: Thanks to the Revenge mechanic ensuring that many of its units will swiftly return to the battlefield, Argenport can afford to sacrifice its own to destroy or weaken the enemy.
  • Wretched Hive: At its worst, the city is home to villains on both sides of the law, from authoritarian Valkyries, to the scheming Cabal, to greedy Auric minotaurs.

    Feln (Primal/Shadow) 

Feln

"The Feln are an outcast coven of shamans who use blood magic forbidden by the other tribes."
Feln combines Primal's spells and spirituality with Shadow's cruelty and morbidity. Rather than overwhelm opponents directly, Feln tends to clear out enemies with Primal's damage or Shadow's removal, debuff them with spells and curses, or bypass them altogether.

Feln's trait is Cunning.

  • Blood Magic: The Feln are considered outcast by the other shamans because they use this.
  • Cast from Hit Points: A natural consequence of the blood magic they're associated with.
  • Our Elves Are Different: Like the Feln shamans, the elves of the Lethrai clan make their home in the Direwood and are typically aligned with Primal and Shadow.
  • Guile Hero: They tend to seek victory by avoiding the opponents units rather than fighting them, and either avoiding death or dodging its consequences.
  • Power of the Void: Regularly sacrifices units for power, and makes use of Shadow's ability to resurrect units temporarily with cards like Haunting Scream.
  • The Sneaky Guy: Their signature ability in The Empty Throne is Infiltrate, which activates the first time that unit hits the opposing player. To facilitate this, Feln decks tend to have ways to get their units around rather than through enemy blockers, whether debuffing enemy units or buffing their own units with keywords like Flying or Unblockable.

Tri-Color Factions

    In general 
Prior to Set 5, there were only three 3-faction cards in the game: one unit, one weapon, and one spell. Defiance introduced a cycle of five 3-faction powers, with associated traits (and in some cases, keywords) similar to the 2-faction pairs. Echoes of Eternity completed the cycle with the other five combinations:

  • Fire/Time/Justice's trait is Creation.
  • Fire/Time/Primal's trait is Instinct; their signature mechanic in Defiance is Amplify, which grants an additional effect to units and spells when played, as many times as you can pay the added cost.
  • Fire/Time/Shadow's trait is Destruction.
  • Fire/Justice/Primal's trait is Honor; their signature mechanic in Defiance is Renown, a bonus gained the first time you enhance a unit with a weapon or spell.
  • Fire/Justice/Shadow's trait is Ambition.
  • Fire/Primal/Shadow's trait is Menace.
  • Time/Justice/Primal's trait is Tradition.
  • Time/Justice/Shadow's trait is Vision.
  • Time/Primal/Shadow's trait is Knowledge.
  • Justice/Primal/Shadow's trait is Purpose.

Characters

The Scions

The de facto protagonists of Eternal, most of them being claimants for the Eternal Throne and among the most powerful magic-users in the setting. Originally, each Scion was emblematic of and associated completely with a single faction. As time has passed and they have grown, some of them have had their alignments shift:

    Vara 

Vara

"I've searched the Shadowlands, and found my way..."
Faction: Shadow
Caiphus and Eilyn's daughter, favored heir to the Eternal Throne, and Lady of Black Magic extraordinaire.
  • Abdicate the Throne: She was next in line to take control of the Throne, but after her father's death, she ran away from home and into the Shadowlands to avoid being used as a political pawn by Rolant.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: In the Into Shadow campaign, she finds the wandering Caiphus, who opted to Walk the Earth and figure out a way to stop Azindel rather than return home to Myria. She helps him confront Azindel, but does chew her father out for abandoning his family.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: The amulet Azindel gives her in The Empty Throne robs her of her memories and leaves her wandering in the Shadowlands.
  • Rebellious Princess: The favored heir to the throne, but she has no interest in ruling Argenport. In the end, what finally convinces her is the Eternal Throne itself when she realizes the power it holds.
  • Thicker Than Water: Among the Scions' Big, Screwed-Up Family, she and Kaleb have never had any real animosity towards each other. When he contacts her from Thera to warn her about Severin, her response is to drop everything and rally the other Scions to war to save her brother.
  • Trapped in Another World: Argent Depths sees her thrown into a nightmarish Mirror Universe by Eremot. She regains her powers and memories during the Awakening campaign.

    Kaleb 

Kaleb

"I'll find the truth of my bloodline."
Factions: Fire (primary), Primal, Time
Caiphus' bastard son, passed over as heir in favor of Vara, who has since embarked on a quest to find his own path and purpose.
  • Double Meaning: Marisen's warning ("unwilling to let secrets be, you are your father's son") implies both that he inherited Caiphus' impulsive and driven nature, and a much more literal meaning in that he's Caiphus' clone.
  • Jumped at the Call: After several years of peaceful rule alongside Eilyn and Vara, he finds the actual statecraft and diplomacy part of ruling hollow, so he opts to Abdicate the Throne and assemble a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits to pursue a quest for an ancient MacGuffin.
  • Missing Mom: His story starts out with him seeking the identity of his mother. As of The Dusk Road, he becomes aware of the truth and sets out to retake the Throne.
  • Playing with Fire: Fire is his primary element.

    Talir 

Talir

"One more puzzle to unlock..."
Faction: Time
Caiphus' sister and loyal advisor, a powerful mage and leader of the Praxis Arcanum, who avoids the political intrigue of her family in favor of magical studies.
  • The Ace: The most gifted and powerful mage in Myria.
  • Future Me Scares Me: The Queen of Glass, her counterpart from a Bad Future who tried and failed to stop Azindel. After defeating her, she keeps the Queen's mask on her at all times as a reminder not to follow the same path.
  • Non-Linear Character: The end result of her tapping into the Waystones to look through time. She has started to experience events out of order; for instance, her intervening in Eilyn and Kaleb's duel (Set 4, The Fall of Argenport) takes place immediately after she leaves Bastion (Set 11, Revelations).
  • Time Master: She is shown to have some degree of control over time. Exactly how much control she has is unclear, but she has been able to jump forward (the Bad Future timeline of Bastion) and backward (her narration provides the framing device of The Tale of Horus Traver, and near the end she steps in herself to try and stop Traver).
  • We Can Rule Together: Cuts short the duel between Eilyn and Kaleb and suggests that they and Vara rule together. Talir herself does not join their triumvirate, as she never had any interest in ruling to begin with and would prefer to direct her focus elsewhere (and elsewhen).

    Eilyn 

Eilyn

"You don't want to make my allies your enemies."
Faction: Primal (primary), Justice
The "Queen of the Wilds", Caiphus' wife and leader of a clan of barbarian warriors.
  • The Beastmaster: In addition to her clan's Sky Serpents, she also strikes up an alliance with the Hooru owls in order to reclaim Argenport.
  • Fantastic Racism: By leaving the Skycrag Clans for Argenport to marry Caiphus, she was considered a traitor by the former and an outsider by the latter.
  • The High Queen: She was Caiphus's wife and queen of Argenport until its fall. In The Fall of Argenport, she retakes the city and is reinstated as Queen.
  • Power of the Storm: She is represented in many Primal spell cards, being able to cast wind and lightning.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: As the queen, she is a fierce warrior with a wide spread of allies in combat.
  • Shotgun Wedding: During the first siege of Argenport, her barbarian clans nearly won, but agreed upon a truce under the agreement that King Caiphus marry Eilyn that same night.
  • White Mage: End of Hostilities depicts her healing two mortal enemies (a Clan member and Valkyrie) to get them to make peace.

    Rolant 

Rolant

"For safety, there must first be sacrifice."
Faction: Justice
"The Iron Fist", Caiphus' uncle and leader of the Crownwatch, who takes on the regency of Argenport after the king's death and the favored heir's disappearance.
  • Evil Uncle: Caiphus was his nephew. While it's unclear if he was always evil, the way he chose to end the rebellion set his path for the rest of his life.
  • Et Tu, Brute?: First to General Izalio, the original Rebel Leader, then to Icaria after she learns the truth of the 1st Battle of Argenport.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Rolant stands by his decisions, and accuses the other Scions of abandoning the kingdom, leaving him behind to resort to desperate measures.
    Rolant: When Caiphus died, the world went mad. Citizens rioted. Thieves grew bold. And my family - duty-bound to provide a stable hand in a time of unrest - fled the city we'd vowed to protect. Only I remained to do what must be done. I kept my oath, for the good of all, whatever the cost. And now, it has come to this.
  • Killed Off for Real: He is murdered in cold blood by Jekk at the end of Dead Reckoning.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Rolant's method of breaking the Rebellion was considered horrific by everyone who learned the truth.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Though no one approves of what he chose to do...
  • Starter Villain: He's the cause of much of the conflict in set 1 and 2, from his Harsh Rule devastating Argenport to his dealings with the Cabal, but by Set 3 he's betrayed by the Cabal and imprisoned within his own cell, and by the end of Dead Reckoning, he's rather easily murdered in cold blood by Jekk.
  • Villain Has a Point: Everything he says in his final monologue about the other Scions is true (though his self-assessment is far more questionable). And without Rolant and his sense of Justice, the others renounce the old alliance with Kosul and its rightful ruler Svetya on unjust but pragmatic grounds, a decision that comes back to bite them.
  • Zero-Effort Boss: At the end of Dead Reckoning, by the time Jekk reaches him, he's already been deposed and imprisoned by the Cabal. All you need to do is either stab him through with Icaria's sword or play a single card to shoot him dead.
  • 0% Approval Rating: A rebellion sprang up almost immediately after he proclaimed himself regent. Even with the truth of his Fantastic Nuke concealed, his reputation is shattered by the destruction of the First Battle of Argenport.

    Caiphus 

Caiphus

"Find me, my child... follow the Shadow."
Faction: None
The previous claimant of the Eternal Throne, whose sudden disappearance throws all of Myria into chaos.
  • Body Backup Drive: In the Mirror Universe of Argent Depths, this is what he does to Kaleb, transferring his consciousness into a younger body to perpetuate his rule. He hints that it's not the first time he's done this, and that he could have just as easily used Vara as his next vessel but Eilyn forbade it.
  • Godzilla Threshold: Tapping into the Eternal Throne. His Treacherous Advisor baits him into crossing it by bringing the Strangers to his doorstep.
  • Not Quite Dead: The Throne didn't kill him, but cast him into the Shadowlands, where he manages to survive through sheer grit rather than succumb like most who are lost in the wastes.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: Both in the Succession Crisis he left in his wake, and the implication that using the power of the Eternal Throne broke some kind of ancient pact and unleashed something upon Myria.

    Svetya 

Svetya Katarina Stormhalt-Kurtz

"Peace. Peace for all of Kosul."
Faction: Justice (primary), Primal
A newly-emerged Scion, unrelated to Caiphus' bloodline and the conflict over the Eternal Throne. Heir to the throne of Kosul, an old ally of Argenport in the cold north.

Antagonists

    Azindel 

Azindel, the Wayfinder

"The path has been set before you."

    The Strangers 

The Strangers / Horus Traver

"One from many."
  • Clone Angst: Each Horus Traver may feel this as they meet each other, but they are quick to brush it aside and unite.
  • Expy: Their background and behavior is similar to The Council of Ricks. A nomadic nation state of hundreds of thousands of copies of one person, each from a different timeline, who experienced the same tragedy. From a gameplay standpoint, they are very similar to Magic: The Gathering's Slivers, where the presence of one Stranger (such as a Stranger with Flying) can give all Strangers the same buffs. Notably, they're similar to "classic Slivers" where both players' Strangers get effects.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: They each have a glowing purple mark over their eye, and some artwork depicts their eyes themselves glowing, such as the Triumphant Stranger.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Like Caiphus, the Strangers were not killed, but scattered to other worlds. Some of them wound up in Xulta, and — realizing they had been manipulated by Azindel to get at the Eternal Throne, and faced with a different villain trying to reach a different Eternal Throne — decide the only logical course of action is to fight back.
  • I Am Legion: Both their backstory and their gameplay revolve around this. They are all alternate versions of Horus Traver and they all share the same skills on the battlefield.
  • Significant Anagram: Traver takes on a new identity in Xulta, Varret.
  • Slouch of Villainy: The Triumphant Stranger, the "original" Horus Traver, and leader of the Strangers.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sets in motion the primary conflict at the start of the game, all from wanting to protect and avenge their/his wife and daughter.
  • Voice of the Legion: For more powerful Strangers, or when they feature in campaigns.
  • Zerg Rush: Their primary gameplay mechanic.

    Severin 

Severin, the Mad Mage

"The stars show me truth..."

    Eremot 

Eremot, the Gathering Dark

"I am the fear of the whispering dark, of twisting nightmare and the coming void..."

Other Characters

Myria

The "main" setting of Eternal. A Fantasy Kitchen Sink including Sword and Sorcery kingdoms like Argenport and Kosul, Weird West frontiers like Stonescar and Rakano, and Wild Wilderness like the Direwood.

    Ironthorn 

Marshal Ironthorn

"You've run far enough."
  • Knight Templar: He certainly takes satisfaction in laying down devastation on the opposing side with his Ultimate ability.
    "Judgment...has come."
  • Out of Focus: He hasn't been seen since The Empty Throne, with Makto having risen as the more prominent of Rolant's goons.

    Makto 

Inquisitor Makto

"Run, cowards! You cannot hide!"
  • Blood Knight: He seems to take a bit too much joy from leading the Inquisition.
  • The Dragon: To Rolant, up until the end of Dead Reckoning.
  • Hero Killer: He murders Icaria during Dead Reckoning.

    Icaria 

Icaria, the Liberator

"Rise up, or be cut down!"
  • Heel–Face Turn: She goes from being one of Rolant's most loyal soldiers to helping lead the rebellion against him.
  • Meaningful Name: Icaria = Icarus. Her tragic end is similar as well.
  • Super Prototype: The first of Rolant's soldiers to be augmented as a Valkyrie, and one of the most powerful of the lot.
  • Too Good for This Sinful Earth: She stands out as one of the most righteous and traditionally heroic characters in all of Myria, standing as a symbol of hope among the rebellion. Her death in Dead Reckoning causes the story to noticeably darken, as it marks the first major character death since Caiphus and leads to Jekk's murder of Rolant.

    Jekk 

Jekk, the Bounty Hunter

"Who's the target?"
  • Anti-Hero: Despite being our hero, he's not exactly the honourable type; he'll take whatever job he can get, and he has no issue with shooting someone in the back if it gets the job done. In Jekk's Bounty, he is aligned both with Justice (as a bounty hunter he is working within a legal system), but also Fire (a system that he prefers to operate on the fringes of).
  • Deadpan Snarker: Jekk's got a very dry sense of humor.
  • Et Tu, Brute?: The final battle in the Jekk's Bounty campaign. You betray him.
  • First-Person Peripheral Narrator: He's the narrator of the starter campaign, The Empty Throne, detailing each Scion's story before his scheduled execution.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: His response to Icaria's killing in Dead Reckoning. He murders Rolant in an act of vengeance, an act that quite literally causes him to lose all sense of Justice. The next time he appears, he has shifted faction from Rakano to Stonescar, losing his Justice attunement and replacing it with Shadow.

    Milos 

Milos Izalio, Heir to Rebellion

"Those that can act against tyrants must do so."
  • Hot-Blooded: He throws himself into his late father's Rebellion, even attacking Icaria on impulse when she showed up trying to join up. After the Rebellion petered out due to the Fall of Argenport, he throws himself into further exploits with equal enthusiasm.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: After the Rebellion ended, he took on a greater sense of Justice and gathered up the remnants of his army to help Svetya topple the usurper at her home in Kosul. His new card even identifies him as such.

    Coslo 

Coslo Deleph, Cursed Prophet

"Endless possibilities!"

Xulta

The setting of The Flame of Xulta and Echoes of Eternity. A far-off land where the kingdom of Argenport is a distant memory.

    In general 

Bastion

The setting of Empire of Glass and Revelations. A labyrinthine, Magitek-heavy vertical city constantly building itself higher to escape the rising Shadowsea.

    In general 
  • Bad Future: A future version of Myria where Azindel convinced the populace to gather all of the Waystones in one place, corralling all of civilization into a Gilded Cage while abandoning the rest of the world to be consumed by shadow.
  • Cosmopolitan Council: Ten noble houses (corresponding to the ten faction pairs) govern Bastion, with each house controlling different parts of the city and occasionally competing for turf. All ten meet in the Speaking Circle, high in the Reach.
  • Developing Doomed Characters: Most of the storyline leading up to Hour of Glass. Many characters go to great lengths to stop the Queen of Glass and save Bastion, but when Talir finally confronts the Queen there's nothing left to save, and the only way to "save" Bastion is to make sure it's never built in the first place.
  • Layered Metropolis: "Upward mobility" is a literal phrase in Bastion. The city is segregated into several layers (the Bellows, the Mids, the Reach, etc.) with some central structures (the Pumpwerks and the Grand Elevator) stretching across the whole city.
  • Mechanical Animals: With everything outside of Bastion having been wiped out, robot animals were built to replace them.
  • One-Steve Limit: Multiple noble houses share a name with a character (Málaga, Roa) or group (Lethrai, Aurum) in Myria, hinting at a shared lineage.

Thera

The setting of Behemoths of Thera and Battle Lines. A world where wild animals grow to massive size, and civilization fights a constant battle for survival against the encroaching wilderness.

    In general 
  • Alternate Universe: Another parallel Myria, to the point of having alternate selves of established characters, Finneas and Quinn.
  • Death World: Settlements on Thera are sparse, and everything in between is overrun with wild beasts.
  • Giant Animal Worship: A group of cultists worship the Hecaton, a massive centipede whom they regularly offer sacrifices to. During The Devouring, said cultists infiltrate unsuspecting settlements and unleash their "god" to prey on them.
  • Improvised Weapon: Many hunters in Thera work with weapons crafted from beast bones, claws, or scales. Chizue introduces the Youngbloods to metal weapons at her earliest opportunity.
  • Outside-Context Problem: Nearly everyone on Thera was unprepared for the Hermit.
  • Place of Power: The landscape is dotted with arcane rifts providing an untapped source of magic, responsible for Thera's beasts growing to such massive sizes as well as the Hermit's rise to power once he figures out how to exploit them. The largest one, the Great Rift, happens to be the location of Thera's Eternal Throne.

With the events of Battle Lines, the alliances of Thera form a cycle of five, each corresponding to three basic factions and each having a unique in-game mechanic:

    The Grove 

The Grove Alliance

Factions: Fire (primary), Time, Primal
The Youngbloods' Grove accepts all who are outcast and downtrodden with open arms. Their commune is on the outskirts of society, and they strive to live in harmony with nature... which put them on the frontlines of the war against the Hermit.
  • Doomed Hometown: Recognizing Kaleb and his cohorts as the most immediate threat, the Hermit sics the Hecaton on their allies in the Grove. It's beaten back, but casualties are high and many homes are destroyed.
  • Gondor Calls for Aid: Their signature ability in Battle Lines is Recruit, which allows you to draw an additional unit — and if it costs less than the recruiting card, it's played automatically. Multiple Recruiting units can pull each other onto the field in a chain reaction, and potent units like Patrice, Your New Home can buff them on their way in with an Inspire effect.

    The Hive 

The Hive Caravan

Factions: Time (primary), Fire, Justice
The Hive was once the beating heart of Theran society, with their domesticated bees responsible for producing large amounts of food and resources... until it was destroyed by the Hermit. The survivors fled into the desert, forming a caravan to protect their remaining population and find a new home.
  • The Migration: The Caravan's purpose, seeking a safe haven to rebuild after Hivefall. Their signature ability in Battle Lines is Nomad, which alternates between making them more mobile on the player's turn with Flying, and letting them hunker down and defend on the enemy turn with an attack/health boost.
  • She Is the King: The leader of the Hivetenders bears the title of "Hive Queen", regardless of gender. The current bearer is Hive Queen Uther, a male.
  • Virtuous Bees: A colony of giant bees looked after by the Hivetenders, providing large quantities of honey that are used for multiple purposes.

    Steelwarren 

Steelwarren

Factions: Justice (primary), Time, Shadow
The largest, most well-defended settlement on Thera. The city has held strong against beast attacks for generations, but the looming threat of the Hermit has driven more and more to seek safety within its walls, straining its resources to their limit. Further complicating matters is the recent death of the Lord Mayor, an ongoing power struggle between his chief enforcers (namely General Fiera and Inquisitor Ziat), and a popular uprising rallied around farmer turned folk hero Dran.
  • Heal Thyself: Their signature ability in Battle Lines is Bolster, effects which can be triggered once per turn when the player gains health or armor, taking advantage of its three factions' various means of doing so — direct health or armor gain, health from Lifesteal, or armor from equipping a relic weapon.
  • Magnetic Hero: Dran sparks a revolution in the city without even trying. He makes a name for himself by slaying a massive mantis terrorizing his farm and others', and when he discovers the injustices within Steelwarren he makes a show of defiance against an Inquisitor to protect an innocent civilian, causing onlookers to rally around him. In both instances he insists that he's no one special, and it was merely the right thing to do.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Lord Mayor Horat and General Fiera were the quickest to push back against the Inquisition's aggressive policing — Fiera objects to arresting Dran on flimsy suspicions, and Horat is horrified when he finds out about Ziat's interrogation of a captured Hecaton cultist.
  • State Sec: With both Horat and Fiera out of the way (the former dead, the latter on the frontlines defending the city), Ziat and her Inquisition have free rein to crack down on dissent within the walls.

    Skullhaven 

Skullhaven

Factions: Shadow (primary), Justice, Primal
In days past, the hunters and scavengers of Thera would peddle their wares at the Skullmarket: meat, pelts, bones, weapons made from bones; if you need it, the Skullmarket could provide for the right price. After Hivefall, it became one of the last safe bastions on Thera, and quickly transformed from black market to refugee camp to thriving settlement. The denizens of the newly-christened Skullhaven are willing to use any trick in the book (of which they have plenty) to protect their home.

    The Den 

The Hermit's Den

Factions: Primal (primary), Fire, Shadow
Rumors of the Hermit, a strange man with the power to control the beasts, have crept across Thera for years. Most dismissed him as a myth, but over time beast attacks became larger, more frequent, more organized... until the Hermit finally revealed himself and his army to the world, and society on Thera was turned upside down.

For more information on the Hermit himself, refer to Severin's entry on the character page.

  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: The biggest, baddest beasts in the Den's arsenal are giant bugs: the spider Huntersbane and the centipede Hecaton.
  • Came Back Wrong: Compare One Eye, the Huntress to One Eye Returned.
    The Hermit was never one to let a good tool go to waste, even if someone else had broken it first.
  • Deader than Dead: Their signature ability in Battle Lines is Devour, which destroys cards from the enemy void to trigger powerful effects. Given that the void is typically a finite resource, Devour-heavy decks need to fuel the fire by aggressively taking out units and forcing the enemy to discard cards.
  • Make an Example of Them: How the Hermit makes his presence known to all of Thera. He destroys the Hive to cut off the largest supplier of food, to eliminate the few beasts he's unable to control, and above all to send a message: the boogeyman they call "The Hermit" is real, he cannot be stopped, and he's coming for them next.

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