Characters present in Laika: Aged Through Blood.
CAUTION: All spoilers are unmarked.
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The Coyote Family
Laika
"Fuck me if I care."
A coyote warrior cursed with immortality and the ability to talk with the dead. Also the protagonist of the game.- Action Mom: She’s a Badass Biker armed with guns and she’s a good shot, as well as being a doting and caring mother.
- Badass Biker: Laika's shooting skills are only matched by her driving skills, effortlessly crossing the wasteland on her bike, doing impressive stunts and taking out baddies. Her proficiency as a deadly biker earned her the title of "The Grim Biker" among the birds.
- Character Catchphrase: She repeatedly and consistently utters "Fuck me if I care" to express her apathy toward something. When Puppy starts saying it, she sternly tells her to watch her language.
- Cool Helmet: Her motorbike helmet is shaped like a skull, and decorated with feathers.
- Deadpan Snarker: She definitely has her moments.Alfredo: I'VE BEEN THINKING.Laika: Sadly.
- Good Parents: She does her best to be a good and loving mother to Puppy, raising her with affection...something her own mother Maya neglected completely while raising her, instead focusing on Tough Love that bordered on abuse.
- The Gunslinger: Fitting for the game western's theme, Laika's first weapon is a revolver, and she's really good with it.
- Hidden Depths: Music is one of the very few things that Laika isn't bitterly cynical towards. She collects tapes in tribute of Jakob, gushes about Beícoli's songs and excitedly helps the village's band get back together.
- I See Dead People: One of the powers bestowed to her by the curse is the ability to talk with the newly-deceased.
- Irony: Throughout the game, Laika dies in a single hit but is able to come back due to her curse making her immortal. By the end of the game, when Puppy inherits the curse and makes her mortal again, Laika is able to shrug off several bullets while chasing after the Egg.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Laika is not a happy person. She's fully aware of how dire their situation is, bitterly considers herself as a "pawn is someone else's game", and often wonders if the struggle is worth it. Still, she tries her hardest to protect her friends and family, and goes out of her way to help people just to make the wasteland a little less crappy.
- Mama Bear: You mess with Where We Live, she'll just kill you and be done with it. You mess with her only remaining daughter Puppy, and she will make you pay for it.
- Perpetual Frowner: She very rarely displays any expression other than an angry scowl. Considering everything that has happened to her, it's easy to see why.
- Rainbow Speak: All of her dialogue has a red color compared to the white text of everyone else, to distinguish her as the current bearer of her family's curse.
- Red Baron: The birds call her "The Grim Biker".
- Resurrective Immortality: Like her mother, grandmother and her ancestors, Laika is able to come back from the dead. This also applies to her bike due to it being made from said ancestors' bones.
- Terror Hero: She clearly strikes fear into the hearts of Birds everywhere with how she gorily slaughters hundreds of them with ease and viciously disassembles their war machines. Not to mention that she kills their Pope and destroys their spiritual center at one point.
- Trauma Button: The death of her daughters is a particular sore spot for her. She gets angry when Maya brings it up during a conversation, and grows uncharacteristically cold towards Puppy when she innocently asks about her sisters.
- Virtuous Character Copy: Of Brad Armstrong. Like Brad, Laika has internalized many aspects of the abuse her mother and kinsmen inflicted upon her and desires to be a better parent to her daughter, but she succeeds where Brad fails in that she remains a genuinely good mother to Puppy and avoids fully becoming The Sociopath despite her detachment from the rest of the inhabitants of Where We Live.
Puppy
"THAT'S SO COOL!"
Laika's youngest daughter, and future inheritor of the family's curse.- A Dog Named "Dog": Played for Drama. The reason Puppy is named the way she is is because she's the youngest of the numerous daughters that Laika watched die of the curse before her, and Laika wasn't sure she wanted to get attached to this puppy when she was born, deliberately holding off on naming her. Over time, the name stuck.
- Adorably Precocious Child: She often states how much she wants to ride out into the wasteland like her mother. While Maya is certainly proud of this, Laika is dismayed.
- Kidnapped for Experimentation: The Two-Beak God orders her capture, hoping to somehow extract the secret to immortality from her blood.
- Morality Chain: Puppy is one of the very few things that makes Laika completely lift her cynical, hostile exterior. Compared to the way she talks to all the adult characters and even her own mother with the way she dotes on Puppy and tries her best to comfort her when she's hurting, as well as all the gifts she can potentially give to Puppy. This is a critical reason why when the birds try to kidnap Puppy and harvest her blood, she becomes determined not just to fight the birds, but to destroy them.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Puppy displays an extremely and disturbingly nonchalant bloodlust towards killing all Birds as revenge for killing Poochie, something which seriously creeps out Laika and usually prompts a stern response from her.
- Verbal Tic: She has a tendency to say that things are "SO COOL!", no matter how mundane they are.
Maya
"I miss my blood. The power of the bike under my thighs. The smell of the gunpowder, blessed by the ashes of our kind."
Click to see her in her prime.
Laika's mother, the previous holder of the family's curse.
- Everyone Has Standards: When Laika expressed reluctance over getting attached to the newborn Puppy, Maya immediately reprimands her. Her methods may be questionable, but even she draws the line at parental neglect. YMMV whether it was genuine or out of pragmatism, however.
- Insistent Terminology: Once she tasks Laika with getting a shotgun, she refers to it as a "weapon binding ritual", and gets annoyed when Laika calls it "forging a shotgun".
- Outliving One's Offspring: Much like Laika, she lost several of her children due to the curse. However, she also lived to see her last daughter die, who sacrificed herself to stop a nuclear bomb.
- Pet the Dog: Downplayed and possibly subverted; while she was shown to be not only verbally abusive to Laika in the past, but also forced her to bear more daughters when the previous one would die, one act of motherly kindness she did was encouraging Laika to bond with her newborn daughter, Puppy. Whether this was out of genuine act of kindness and regret for her own harsh treatment of her daughter, or pragmatic desire to have Laika raise Puppy properly as the future inheritor of their power is left ambiguous.
- Retired Badass: Before Laika inherited the curse, Maya was the one riding in the wastelands and defending their community. After growing old and losing her powers, she stays in the village, acting as a guide to Laika and Puppy.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Downplayed. Her age scrambles her memories to the point where she cannot remember where she hid the family's pendant and confuses Laika with Ava, her grandchild, but other than that she's considerably rational.
- So Proud of You: After spending the entire game either belittling Laika or clashing with her, she finally acknowledges Laika's prowess by the end, and says she's proud of her.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Maya doesn't shy away from using foul language, not even in front of PuppyMaya: I'm so fucking old, Laika.
- Tough Love: Maya is downright verbally abusive to Laika, and subjected her to a harsh childhood in order to make her a fierce warrior. But all things considered, it was the only way to make sure she would survive in the harsh world they live in, and to properly train her to protect their home.
Ava
- Controllable Helplessness: You get to control her during a brief flashback section, only being able to run around the field while she calls for her mother. As the curse affects her more and more, she eventually grows too weak to keep walking, and collapses.
- Parental Favoritism: Not from Laika, but rather Maya, her grandmother. Believing that she would be the one to survive the curse, she personally trained Ava, and even gave her the family's pendant in secret. Sadly, she was mistaken.
Where We Live
A hidden village within the wasteland that fights against the Birds' invasion. The Elder
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Her name is never revealed, and everyone just calls her "The Elder".
- Lack of Empathy: The Elder shows little to no concern for Laika's well being after she lost Ava, instead insisting that she should have yet another child in order to maintain the curse. When Puppy becomes old enough to inherit the curse and grows sick, she just dryly asks the worried Laika if the "inheritor" is ready.
Jakob
- Almost Dead Guy: Despite the gaping bullet wounds in his side when she finds him, he's capable of holding a short conversation with Laika and telling her about A Hundred Hungry Beaks. He then manages to live long enough for Laika to go kill it and drive back to him before passing shortly thereafter.
- Honorary Uncle: Puppy describes him as "Uncle Jakob", indicating he was enough of a close friend of Laika's to be considered this.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: He managed to take down a ton of Birds with him, as can be seen in the hallways leading up to him, which is doubly impressive considering he did it without a bike.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Poor guy witnessed his son being tortured to death before going on a suicidal rampage against the murderers.
- Roaring Rampageof Revenge: After his son was brutally murdered by the Birds, he stole Laika's gun and attacked one of their outpost, taking down several soldiers before being mortally wounded.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Jakob is one of the first characters to die, right at the beginning of the game.
Poochie
Jakob's son, and Puppy's closest friend. He is killed and mutilated just before the events of the game by the Bird Captain Kidgutter, in an attempt to make a name for himself. Poochie's death subsequently causes the Elder to declare outright war on the Birds in retaliation.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Poochie was viciously mutilated, Gutted Like a Fish and then strung up on a crucifix made of his own guts. We can only hope the torture and disembowelment killed him and that he wasn't alive afterward to die from exposure to the elements.Jakob: They cut off his ears. His tongue. They ripped out his nails and stuck them in his eyes, one by one.
- Dead Guy on Display: Laika finds him crucified with his own guts at the entrance to Where Birds Lurk.
- Death of a Child: Since his death is literally the first thing that happens in the game, it shows just how ruthless and amoral the Birds are as well as how much of a Crapsack World the Wasteland is.
- Plot-Triggering Death: His death prompts Jakob to take revenge on the Birds, which then causes the entire game's story to unfold from start to finish.
- Posthumous Character: He's already dead by the time the game starts, but he remains very important to Puppy's arc and the effects of his death are felt by everyone.
Shaza
- Goggles Do Nothing: Not only she never wears the goggles she carries around on her head, but she also would probably be unable to get them around the TV screen she wears as a helmet.
- Honorary Aunt: Puppy calls her "Auntie Shaza", implying Laika considers her to be one of these for Puppy.
- Non-Human Head: Seems to be this at first glance, but it's clear that she has a normal head under that TV screen.
Zooey
- The Blacksmith: She's the one you'll be going to to improve your weaponry over the course of your playthrough.
Xoot
The local leatherworker of Where We Live, Laika turns to them for upgrades to her Viscera sacks and weapon pouches.
"Laika! Wanting to spruce up your bags for sure!"
- Ambiguous Gender: It's unclear from their sprite what gender they are, and they're never referred to in any capacity that would reveal it.
- The Blacksmith: Of a different stripe than Zooey. Xoot specializes in all things leatherwork (shoes, belts, bags, etc.) and offers their services to Laika if she can bring them enough leather for the job.
- Gentle Giant: Xoot is much larger than a lot of the residents of Where We Live, but is a chummy and courteous leatherworker.
Maniu
"My dearest friend!"
Where We Live's primary seller of foodstuffs. Laika can purchase all manner of cooking ingredients from her. She is also a reasonably close friend of Dalia, enough to ask Laika to return her notebook to her.- Friendly Shopkeeper: Contrasting many of the other sour inhabitants of Where We Live, Maniu is always chipper and eager to see a customer.
- Verbal Tic: She has a habit of calling people her "dearest friend".
Primo
- Due to the Dead: In order to honor his cousin's death, he sneaks out of Where We Live against the Elder's orders and buries Orella's ashes not Where Our Ancestors Rest, but at a spot Where Birds Came From with a perfect sweeping overview of the Big Tree on the horizon, due to her love for the Tree and the history and culture it stored.
- My God, What Have I Done?: His plan to destroy the Big Tree ends up driving his cousin Orella to suicide, much to his horror.
Petey
- The End Is Nigh: Constantly warns others of impending doom, such as flooding, a bomb, among other things.
- Hereditary Curse: Much like Laika, his family also carries a curse, which drive it's bearers insane.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Laika states that he his family is cursed in a manner similar to hers, and many of his ramblings do have a bit of truth in them. Whether it's a hereditary mental illness or something actually supernatural is left up in the air.
- Note to Self: Petey wrote a letter to himself before losing his mind, explaining the nature of the curse and that he can trust his friends.
Alfredo
- The Napoleon: He's just barely taller than Puppy, and has an attitude to match.
- No Indoor Voice: All his dialogue is displayed in all caps and, if his talking sprite is to be believed, he is always screaming.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: For all his zaniness, he is shown standing solemnly during Laika's funeral.
Mina
- Cloud Cuckoolander: While the village has no shortage of weird and crazy people, Mina is completely lost in her own little world. Not even the news of her brother's death seems to faze her that much.
- Friend to Bugs: Outright calls them her friends, and is always accompanied by flies.
- Hates Baths: Other villagers comment that it has been a while since she last took a bath, and the numerous flies around her seem to confirm this.
- Innocently Insensitive: She tells Laika that it's her birthday, and hands her a cutesy invitation. Laika is touched by the gesture, only for Mina to reveal that the invitation is for her brother, and that she wants her to deliver it to him.
Carey
Carey (right) with her daughter Sammie (left)
The most insufferable person alive.- My Beloved Smother: She's constantly hugging Sammie close to herself, often going to extremes to keep her safe, sometimes in a detrimental way.
- Took a Level in Kindness: At first, she's nothing but hostile towards Laika, but after completing her quest, she becomes a lot more pleasant.
- Ungrateful Bastard: And how.
- Right off the bat, she constantly reprimands Laika for being too loud with her bike, despite the fact that she is working to the bone to keep their village safe.
- She complains about Sammie having nightmares about Poochie, despite the fact that she is to blame after constantly lecturing the poor kid. She then pesters Laika into bringing her a flower that can stop the nightmares. When Laika brings said flower, she doesn't say a word of thanks, and "rewards" you with a single, measly piece of wood.
- Then, when Sammie has an allergic reaction to the flower (Something she failed to mention until after Sammie took it), she pesters Laika to bring another plant to solve it.
- When the herbs give Sammie diarrhea, once again Carey makes Laika go look for a cure.
- Subverted by the end, when she finally thanks Laika for her troubles.
Hilda
- Nice Gal: Hilda is a sweet old lady, and one of the few people who expresses concern over Laika's well-being.
- Tragic Keepsake: One item she asks you to find is her family's heirloom, a braid that is passed from mother to daughter. Due to the presumed death of her entire family, however, it became this trope instead.
Where We Forget
Where We Live's local watering hole. Despite the name, no one really forgets how shitty their life is here, and the atmosphere is far from lively.
A grouchy regular at Where We Forget who believes Laika is doing more harm than good and will bring the Birds' wrath down upon Where We Live. He kidnaps Puppy and gives her to Beícoli out of the belief that it will earn him safety from the Birds, and Laika mercilessly interrogates him about it before shooting him dead.
A gambler who frequents Where We Forget by night. Laika can choose to play lower-stakes Blackjack with him.
Camilla
"Soooo...What will we be disappointed with today? I'd say 'everything'. Safe bet."
The pessimistic owner and bartender of Where We Forget.- The Bartender: The owner and manager of Where We Forget, the village's bar.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- She momentarily drops her bitter pessimism out of respect while talking about Lewis' death.
- When Herman kidnaps Puppy, she apprehends him Where We Forget at Laika's request and doesn't raise any fuss when Laika interrogates him and paints his brains all over her bar.
- Defector from Decadence: Camilla stands out for being the sole bird living in the village, suggesting this trope. Later on you learn she's not the only one that does not support the Bird's imperialism, however.
- Obsessive-Compulsive Barkeeping: She is always seen lightly wiping down a glass. Hilariously, she doesn't even stop while Laika is interrogating Herman.
- Sour Supporter: Out of everyone in the village, Camilla is the most cynical without any doubt. She has resigned herself to the fact that the Birds will raze their home, and her only plan is to get so utterly drunk she won't feel anything when they kill her.
- The Stoner: She asks Laika to go get her some special herbs from Where Our Ancestors Rest. Laika initially thinks that the herbs are seasoning for the bar's food, but Camilla casually explains that she plans to smoke them to take the edge off (which she is implied to do frequently) and even offers Laika a hit of them.
- Verbal Tic: She has a proclivity toward starting her sentences with a drawn out "Soooo..."
Herman (spoilers)
- Boom, Headshot!: Laika kills him with a point-blank pistol shot to the skull, complete with Monochromatic Impact Shot.
- Dirty Coward: He's so afraid of the Birds that he's willing to kidnap Puppy. He's more afraid of Laika, especially after she gives a long, graphic description of how she'll torture him and keep him alive until the end of his natural lifespan if he doesn't tell her where Puppy is.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Delusionally, he somehow believes that the Birds will leave Where We Live alone if he gives them Puppy in exchange, and tells Laika that he isn't afraid to die if the village survives because of him.
- Signature Headgear: Laika is able to tell that he's the one who kidnapped Puppy because he left his iconic derby cap at the scene of the crime.
Chip
- The Gambler: He spends his free time playing blackjack Where We Forget at nighttime.
- Punny Name: He's a gambler whose name is "Chip", as in poker chips.
Pebble
- Cold Sniper: Downplayed. She seems pretty distant when Laika talks to her, but it's implied that the pain of watching her friend die and the general hardship of Where We Live have made her a little cold, as she's still pretty courteous.
- The Lost Lenore: It's heavily implied Pebble had a crush on Iris when they were kids, and it's very clear she still misses her dearly.
Gunda
- The Gunslinger: She's one of the best shooters in the village, which is why she was chosen to defend their home while Laika is away.
- Lying to Protect Your Feelings: At one point she asks Laika to check on a tree she planted when she was little. Laika finds the tree dead and attempts this trope, but Gunda figures out she's lying when she says a blatantly contradictory statement about the tree blooming in the wrong season. She's thankful nonetheless, seemingly understanding why she'd omit the truth.
The Wasteland
Renato
"See you later, you wanker!"
A mysterious cartographer of the wasteland who sells Laika regional maps.- Catchphrase Insult: In every line of dialogue he has, he calls Laika a wanker.
- The Faceless: With his face being obscured by pieces of paper, it's hard to tell what he looks like.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Not his maps, but rather Renato himself. He often effortlessly manages to find a way into places, no matter how bizarre or dangerous they may be, and unexplainably disappears after you purchase his services. It's hard to tell if he's just good at slipping away unnoticed, or if there's something unnatural at play.
- Mundane Made Awesome: How he describes his work, outright calling it "magic" even though it's just regular cartography.
The Hectist
- Bomb Throwing Anarchist: All but in name. She openly opposes the Bird's imperialism, praises chaos and encourages you to destroy bird statues. The "bomb throwing" part is also literal, since she's seen fiddling with one, provides you with explosives at one point, and mentions a "Hectist's Cookbook".
- Goggles Do Nothing: Subverted. She actually uses the googles while working on her bomb.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Her maw is filled with several jagged teeth.
- Ms. Exposition: Downplayed. Whenever you take down a statue, she gives you some information regarding the Bird's history and politics.
- No Name Given: Simply known as "The Hectist".
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: For all her talk of fighting against imperialism, she doesn't really do much besides standing around while Laika destroys the statues. Once all the statues are gone, she leaves and never appears again for the rest of the game.
Merchant
"Biker! You're my number one customer apart from the Birds, you know!"
A wandering merchant who mindlessly roams the wasteland selling knickknacks to whomever'll buy them. He sells a large quantity of candles as well as a Game Console and all but one of the requisite items needed for the Musician quests.- Handicapped Badass: He somehow manages to lug all his merchandise across vast distances of the Wasteland (which take an already long time to travel by bike, let alone on foot) despite being blind.
- Intrepid Merchant: You can find him travelling all over the Wasteland, including dangerous areas patrolled by countless Birds, unlike other merchants who hunker down in safe places. Doesn't stop him from selling to both you and the Birds anyhow.
- No Name Given: He's just called "Merchant".
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet: His traveling parasol is decorate with hanging ornaments made from bones and animal skulls. Whether they're human animals or animal animals, we'll never know.
- We Sell Everything: Need guitar or erhu strings? Sheet music? A cleaning brush? Cough medicine? He's your guy, even more so than the Gas Station shops due to how the majority of his apparent inventory is miscellaneous gimcracks.
The Bull Brothers
Tally, Dally and Kally
Three brothers who run the various Gas Stations Laika can buy goods at.- Buy or Get Lost: All three of them have a generally unpleasant demeanour due to the slow business the Wasteland brings, and will be ticked off at Laika if she wastes their time by not buying anything.
- Family Theme Naming: Their names all end in "-ally".
- Sibling Rivalry: Judging from their dialogue, they each consider the other two to be bothersome idiots and their direct business competitors.
Dalia
"The stars are above war."
A stargazer who lives out high up in an observatory Where Iron Caresses The Sky. She considers herself above the war between the Birds and the denizens of the Wasteland.- Badass Pacifist: Somehow she manages to live unmolested out in the Wasteland without defending herself, despite the Birds swarming Where Iron Caresses The Sky and even the tower her observatory is located on. She even turns down Laika's offer to live within the safety of Where We Live because she wants to continue watching the stars.
Where Other People Forget
An old, decrepit double-decker bus repurposed as a bar and motel, situated right on the outskirts of Where Rust Weaves near the entrance to Where Rock Bleeds. Hosts a handful of colorful characters.
A crusty dweller of Where Other People Forget. He doesn't believe Laika can come back from the dead until she proves it by breaking her neck right in front of him. After she proves it, he becomes extremely humbled by her and slips into a full-blown existential crisis.
The owner, bartender and motel clerk of Where Other People Forget.
Borden
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite having heard the tales of Laika coming back from the dead and living in a world once populated by giant monsters, he doesn't believe it until he sees it with his own two eyes.
- Despair Event Horizon: After watching Laika die and come back to life, he'll have an existential crisis and spend the rest of the game fretting in the fetal position.
- Lower-Class Lout: He's a slob in a wife-beater living at a motel and is rather flippant toward Laika until she takes him down a peg.
Walterio
- The Bartender: Essentially the same as Camilla, only his bar is also an inn.
- Mirror Character: Walterio is a dark reflection of Camilla. They're both bartenders running shithole dive bars with terrible food and drink, but while Camila is an absolute pessimist and has resigned herself to her inevitable death, Walterio seems to revel in the fact that he's somehow still alive in this Crapsack World against all odds.
- Refuge in Audacity: He somehow gets away with setting up shop right next to a bird outpost. Even he points out the aburdity of the situation by mirthfully wondering why the birds haven't burned the place down yet.
- Smug Smiler: Always sports a big, smug grin on his face.
- A Tankard of Moose Urine: When he asks Laika to buy him some gasoline, she initially thinks that he plans on moving Where Other People Forget to a new location, and therefore apologizes to him for only being able to acquire a gallon of the stuff, which won't get him very far. Walterio chuckles and says that he uses the gasoline to mix drinks with.
The Gamblers
A pair of gamblers who spend all their time playing Blackjack at Where Other People Forget.- The Gambler: All they do is play high-stakes Blackjack with each other and anyone who comes into Where Other People Forget.
- No Name Given: They're both just called "Gambler".
- Stealth Pun: They resemble humanoid humpback whales, and are the only ones that Laika can play high-stakes (e.g. bets of 100 Viscera and up) Blackjack with. They're whale gamblers
.
Roy
"A man's gotta eat."
A sea captain who begrudgingly works for the Birds.- Burial at Sea: Laika offers to take his ashes to Where Our Ancestors Rest but he refuses, instead asking her to leave his body in the sea so he may be forever bound to it.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Being one of the last people in the world capable of driving a boat means the Birds are willing to tolerate him as long as he's useful.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The Birds are responsible for the deaths of his wife and children, and he has no other choice but to work for them. Unsurprisingly, he ends up helping Laika destroy the Bird's communication center.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Aiding Laika results in him being gunned down by the Birds for his betrayal. At least he gets to see the whales.
- Only in It for the Money: Roy isn't sympathetic to the Birds in the slightest; in fact, he hates them guts. The only reason he works with them is because he needs to make a living.
- Spotting the Thread: He catches on pretty quick that Laika isn't the "Radio Guy" sent to repair the Birds' communications like she claims to be, noticing that she's relieved shen they get past the first Bird checkpoint, that she's carrying a shotgun and most glaringly that she doesn't know the actual infrastructural layout of the Birds' radio system. Luckily for Laika, he doesn't care and actually winds up helping her due to his fellow hatred of the Birds.Roy: Don't worry, radio guy. You're safe.
Miner
- I Lied: As the end of "Diplomacy" reveals, the captured miners he told Laika about have been dead for months, and he really just wanted her to kill A Caterpillar Made of Sadness and clear out the Birds from Where Rock Bleeds. Laika doesn't take kindly to this news, but the miner points out that he'll still uphold his end of the deal and allows Where We Live access to Where Rock Bleeds' resources.
- No Name Given: His name is just "Miner".
Orella (spoilers)
- Category Traitor: Zig-zagged. Orella hasn't defected to the Birds and acknowledges the danger they pose to Where We Live enough to help Laika destroy the Big Tree, but she also genuinely loves their culture and history to the point she's willing to demean herself as a laborer under the Birds.
- Driven to Suicide: Wracked with guilt for helping Laika destroy the Big Tree and kill Pope Melva VIII, Orella hangs herself just outside the Tree's grounds.
- Foreign Culture Fetish: She is completely enamoured with the extensive chronicling of their spiritual leadership the Birds have stored at the Big Tree, and can't bear to see it destroyed.
- Ms. Exposition: She frequently tries to tell Laika about Bird history and theology as Laika explores the Big Tree, but Laika constantly brushes her off due to her laconic personality.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After she helps Laika destroy the Big Tree's central support pillar, she has a Freak Out and starts panicking that she shouldn't have helped her destroy the Birds' history and culture like this before pleading with Laika not to ascend to the Papal Terrace. Laika then not listening and killing Pope Melva VIII is what brings her to hang herself.
The Wastelanders
A band that formerly played Where We Live. Beícoli
- Ambiguous Situation: There's not much explanation as to why Beícoli is in the Undernest. Either she defected to the Bird Empire, was kidnapped or simply had nowhere else to go.
- Author Avatar: Beícoli is also the game's composer and songwriter in real life.
- Boom, Headshot!: Laika kills her much in the same manner as Herman, with a swift pistol shot right between the eyes.
- Bullying a Dragon: Kidnapping the daughter of a deadly, immortal biker might not have been the brightest of ideas.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Her clashing with bandmates and several creative disagreements was one of the reasons why the band separated, and everyone (except Laika and Inok) is sick of her music. People disliked her so much that the fact she's gone is more than enough to convince the band to get back together.
- Oh, Crap!: Once Laika reveals herself in the bar (After having shot her right in the gut, mind you), Beícoli realizes she's already done for, because she knows fully well that the coyote is out for blood.
- Would Hurt a Child: Beícoli kidnaps Puppy, intending to hand her over to the brutal leaders of the Bird Empire in order to gain a spot in their Heaven.
Fernidu
"Ooooooooo"
The former lead singer of the group who lost her voice after being attacked by birds.- Career-Ending Injury: She had her throat slit by bird soldiers at one point and, while she survived, it made her unable to speak ever again. Despite this, she can still provide some vocals, which allowed her to become the band's backing vocalist instead of leaving altogether.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Fernidu is a minor character relevant only to the Wastelander's sidequest, yet her injuries led to Beícoli's rise to fame, the band's separation and a series of other events that resulted in Puppy being kidnapped.
Kai
- An Arm and a Leg: Literally, in his case. The Birds took his right arm and left leg, forcing him to retrain himself to play the guitar with his right foot.
- Career-Ending Injury: Very much subverted. After losing an arm, Kai just taught himself how to play his guitar with his foot and went right back to making music.
- Saint-Bernard Rescue: He very much resembles a Saint Bernard and even carries the stereotypical little barrel around his neck, though we never see him doing any rescuing.
Qwota
"My bar!"
A former bar owner that lost his bar to the birds, and the Wastelanders' armonica player.- The Bartender: Formerly. He still carries some of his glasses, and uses them as an armonica to play music with the band.
- Heroic BSoD: The destruction of his bar left the poor guy in a cataconic state, only being able to mutter "My bar!" repeatedly. Thankfully, he manages to get better and joins the rest of the group at Where We Live.
The Bird Empire
Birds
In General
- Absolute Xenophobe: The Bird leadership encourages it, with most of the Bird soldiers killing different species on sight. Very few non-bird characters are spared by them, and even then, they're treated very poorly.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Seemingly played straight at first, only to be subverted later. Right off the bat you learn that the birds tortured and murdered a child, and every single soldier you meet will open fire on you without a second thought, giving the impression that they're utterly irredeemable. As you progress further into the game, however, you start meeting other birds and learn more about their society, which makes things a little more complicated.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Their soldiers have helmets based on stahlhelms, their officers have Commissar Caps, they're a brutally racially supremacist and imperialistic dictatorship who want to eradicate all "lesser" beings, etc.
- The Dictatorship: The Two-Beaked God, supreme leader of the Bird empire, rules with an iron fist and fiercely punishes any dissenters.
- Eagleland: Type 2, full stop. A warmongering, imperialistic and fiercely xenophobic nation knee deep into rampant consumerism and an utter disregard for its' own citizens, who suffer from poverty, sickness and forced mobilization.
- Fantastic Racism: Birds refer to other species as "non-bird scum" and kill them on the spot. Those that are useful to their regime are just barely tolerated.
- Feathered Fiend: They're by far the most cruel and violent characters present in the game, and some of the bosses (who are products of genetic manipulation) look downright monstruous.
- Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: One of the Bird's specialty is the usage of genetic manipulation for warfare, being responsible for the creation of the War Machines and the augmentation of their leadership.
- Leitmotif: The central riff of "When It Began" has a tendency to show up in locations where they're at their most plentiful.
- Putting on the Reich: Fitting their ideals like a glove, Bird soldiers dress remarkably similar to Nazi stormtroopers as well as the overall aesthetic of the Bird Empire being very Nazistic.
- The Social Darwinist: The Birds' culture clearly maintains that might makes absolute right, which has led to them purging the weakest of their kind, attempting to create super-birds through genetic engineering and fostered a mindset amongst their soldiers that causes them to be extremely ruthless and needlessly cruel to anyone they view as below them.
- Sociopathic Soldier: The Bird army has its' fair share of sadists and psychopaths, murdering and tormenting citizens of other species as well as executing their own for defecting. If Captain Kidgutter's story is to be believed, acts of cruelty will earn you respect among your fellow soldiers.
- The Theocracy: Their church and state seem to be almost inseparably intertwined, with their leader being called "the Two-Beak God" and their veneration of their Popes bordering on God Emperorship. It's for this reason that Laika is instructed to destroy the Big Tree, their most sacred site of worship, as the Elder believes it will deal a crippling morale blow to the Birds. It doesn't; it just makes them more fanatical.
The Peace Beaks
A Bird organization that conscientiously objects to the mandatory conscription that the Birds enforce. They may be forced into service, but they will not fire a shot. Laika can sometimes encounter them out in the Wasteland, and momentarily speaks with one of their recruiters in the Bird Undercity.
- Actual Pacifist: They believe that eventually, by not shooting at their enemies, their enemies will pick up on the message they're trying to spread and lay down their arms as well.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Did you think that those Birds who sometimes wouldn't shoot at you out in the world were a Game-Breaking Bug? Well, now don't you feel stupid for killing them without a second thought!
- Suicidal Pacifist: The Peace Beaks will never fire a shot at Laika, no matter how many Birds or members of their own ranks she unquestioningly slaughters.
- Token Heroic Orc: Out of the thousands of Bird soldiers Laika dispatches, the Peace Beaks seem to be the only Birds not fanatically devoted to the Birds' ultimate goal of killing all the lesser races, or at the very least don't want to do it through warfare.
Captain Kidgutter (SPOILERS)
- The Atoner: The sheer regret he felt over his actions leads him into this, but the Bird's severe punishments for desertion and his insecurity makes it difficult.
- Bait-and-Switch: With the apt moniker of "Kidgutter" and his actions, you'd definitely expect a brutal, sadistic Bird officer like the many you've met before. What you find instead is a child soldier quaking in his boots, filled with regret and misery.
- Child Soldier: He's not much older than Poochie, the kid he ordered brutally murdered and dismembered, and yet he's still a Captain of the Bird Army.
- Due to the Dead: As a way to atone for his crimes, he cremates Poochie's remains and tries to place his ashes in the proper resting place.
- Gone Horribly Right: After being constantly mocked and ridiculed due to his age, he kidnaps and brutally murders a child in order to be respected by his fellow soldiers. While his plan did work, his actions left him deeply scarred and wracked with guilt, to the point where he completely lost the will to live. Even his alias, likely given by his comrades as a badass nickname, ends up being an eternal reminder of what he has done.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Laika has the option of killing him, which puts a very heavy question in to the hands of the player: are you willing to shoot a kid because he did something awful he now regrets? If not, is letting him live with his actions the harsher and more cruel decision to take?
Trook
- Ambiguous Gender: They have a non-gendered name and are never referred to with any gendered pronouns.
- Boom, Headshot!: Laika kills them by shooting them in the head.
- Bullying a Dragon: Trook isn't too clear on how deadly of a Mama Bear Laika is, and attempts to double back on their negotiation with her. It earns them a bullet to the brain.
- Too Dumb to Live: Even after Laika explains that she's fully prepared to give some of her own blood in exchange for Puppy's safety, Trook decides they don't trust her and loudly announce that they're going to shoot Puppy anyway. Laika shoots them without a second thought.
- Would Hurt a Child: They're fully willing to kill Puppy for their own personal benefit.
Pluck
- Dead Guy on Display: The Two-Beak God shows off his corpse to the massive audience of Birds before him, demonstrating how the Renegades were crushed under his authority.
- Older Than They Look: Laika initially mistakes him for another Child Soldier due to how short he is, but he explains that he's just malnourished due to being a part of the Birds' lower class, which stunted his growth.
- Rebel Leader: He commands the Renegades and helps Laika achieve her goal of getting revenge on the Two-Beak God for trying to kidnap Puppy.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: It's clear that Laika remains extremely distrustful and hostile towards Pluck no matter how helpful he remains purely because he's a Bird, and continuously tells him that if he tries anything funny she'll shoot him on the spot. Pluck himself averts this, remaining calm and focused for the duration of his time spent with Laika.
- Token Heroic Orc: Though Pluck is supposedly the leader of a resistance group, since we never see any of them he is effectively this in the story, being a Bird who is nothing but polite and helpful to Laika and her cause.
Pope Melva VIII
The Birds' current genetically-augmented Pope, and one of the weakest Popes in Bird history. Laika kills him at the very top of the Big Tree in the Papal Terrace in an effort to cripple the Birds' morale.
- All for Nothing: Orella describes to Laika after she kills him that Melva VIII was an extremely weak Pope that the Bird military deliberately sidelined from having any real authority, and that now they'll just replace him with a stronger Pope, rendering Laika's goal of crushing the Birds' morale moot.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Shooting enough of his eggs will cause him to reveal his head, allowing Laika to attach her bike hook to his neck and yank on it to deal damage to him.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Laika winds up killing him by using her bike hook to messily and gorily tear his throat out before crushing him under the altarpiece on his own back.
- Flunky Boss: Melva VIII doesn't directly attack Laika so much as jump around his arena and pelt eggs at her in the hope that she gets crushed by one of them.
- Weaponized Offspring: His primary means of attack is jumping around his arena while shooting eggs at Laika which split into smaller egg clumps upon being shot.
The Two-Beak God (FINAL BOSS SPOILERS)
"Birds United, I bring you...The Grim Biker's death!"
The supreme and Glorious Leader of the Birds, and the ultimate evil Laika must confront. After capturing Laika during her ascent to Heaven in the Birds' floating city, The Two-Beak God gloats to her about his plan to eradicate all life in the Wasteland using the Egg, as well as harvest Laika's blood and use it to create an army of unkillable Bird super-soldiers. But first, he shall entertain the Bird masses by repeatedly killing Laika, over and over again.- Bond Villain Stupidity: Despite having numerous methods and opportunities of preventing Laika from fighting back against his repeated killing of her (such as separating her from her bike), he imprisons her in exactly the kind of structure that permits her to both kill him and foil his plans by prematurely detonating the Egg.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: He traps Laika in a cage with slanted corners, allowing her to use her bike to travel up the walls and be able to flip in order to reload her weapons. If he had made the corners sharp, she'd be a sitting duck and unable to fight back.
- Boss Banter: Throughout his fight, he will mock and taunt Laika for thinking that she has a chance against him and to listen to the roar of the crowd of angry Birds who all want to watch her die.
- Chest of Medals: He's got a bunch of accolades lining his dress coat.
- Commissar Cap: Both of his two heads have one of these with the Bird Empire insignia on it.
- Dressed to Oppress: Being The Generalissimo of an empire with heavy Putting on the Reich iconography and A Nazi by Any Other Name ideals, he dresses in a military dress coat complete with epaulets, a Chest of Medals and a Commissar Cap for each of his two heads.
- The Generalissimo: The Two-Beak God is simultaneously the civic, military and presumably religious leader of the Bird Empire.
- Glorious Leader: Knowing how the Birds venerate him and listening to him describe himself, it's clear he has cemented himself in bird society as one of these.
- God-Emperor: He is the living god of the Birds and the absolute authority to which all Birds bow, even their Popes.
- Hate Sink: While some Birds throughout the story are put in a sympathetic light, The Two-Beak God has no redeeming qualities and is every bit the genocidal, bloodthirsty fascistic monster that Laika believes all Birds to be.
- Large and in Charge: He is massive, outranking even Pope Melva VIII in sheer size, and it's clear that he uses said size to earn the fear and respect of all the Birds he commands.
- Many-Faced Divinity: Invoked. He has two heads, and considers himself the God-Emperor of the Bird Empire.
- Multiple Head Case: Averted. Both of his heads seem to share the exact same identity and personality, being a haughy, bloodthirsty Social Darwinist dictator and evangelist.
- Sophisticated as Hell: Despite being The Generalissimo and giving an eloquent Rousing Speech to a crowd of birds, he still calls the Renegades a "piece of shit organization".
- Tactical Suicide Boss: He doesn't seem to grasp that Laika having access to her bike and being able to come back from the dead infinitely means eventually she's going to kill both of his two heads, and instead revels in being able to repeatedly kill her.
War Machines
A Hundred Hungry Beaks
A fiendish contraption Jakob discovers Where Birds Lurk. Laika dispatches it without much issue.
- Warm-Up Boss: As the game's first boss, A Hundred Hungry Beaks is more of a tutorial on how bosses in this game typically have some kind of unique bike-related movement gimmick connected to them. As such, it has the most straightforward kind— Laika must simply flip off of its front bulldozer blade when it charges at her in order to shoot its multitude of heads.
- Wham Shot: At first glance, A Hundred Hungry Beaks seems to be just an armored bulldozer, decorated with bird skulls. Gruesome, but nothing out of the ordinary. But then you shoot it and find out that not only does it bleed, but it also screeches in pain. This is your first clue about the War Machines’ true nature.
A Long-Lost Woodcrawler
A war machine employed by the Birds cutting down the ancient trees Where Our Ancestors Rest. Laika mercilessly destroys it while on her way to deposit Jakob's ashes.
- Boom, Headshot!: After all the Bird soldiers on it are dead, it will attempt to barrel up from beneath Laika complete with a cinematic camera rotation, prompting you to quickly shoot it in the head to finish it off.
- Flunky Boss: The Woodcrawler itself doesn't really do anything; what you really need to do is shoot all of the Bird soldiers on its back to kill it.
A Gargantuan Swimcrab
A titanic crablike war machine Laika encounters in the Birds' lighthouse. It chases her up to the very top before she manages to put it down for good by shooting its pilot dead.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: During the segments in between where it stops moving, Laika must hurriedly use her bike to ascend the lighthouse before it can catch up with her.
- Attack Its Weak Point: After dealing with its bubble attacks for a period, the Bird engineer driving it will pop his head out of the cockpit. This is your prompt to shoot him. Rinse and repeat three times and it's dead.
- BFG: In addition to its Bubble Gun attacks, it will fire out waves of bullets from its giant central turret that slightly track Laika's position. She can block them with the underside of her bike as if they were normal bullets.
- Boom, Headshot!: Laika kills the engineer driving it with a clean shot to the head.
- Bubble Gun: Its primary attacks come from two weapons built into its claws which fire bubbles at you. The blue ones just cause extreme knockback which can be deadly if you're in a bad position, but the red ones will just straight-up kill you.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Per the name, it's a gargantuan swimcrab. Hilariously, like the Trope Namer, you must also Attack Its Weak Point For Massive Damage.
- Marathon Boss: It takes a long time to defeat A Gargantuan Swimcrab from start to finish, as Laika will have to scale up the lighthouse every time after it periodically stops and fires bubbles at her, and if you mess up once you'll have to start all over again.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Given that Where The Waves Die is unlocked by unlocking the shotgun, A Gargantuan Swimcrab is meant to be the intended third boss in the game. Knowing this, it is a huge ramp up in difficulty from A Hundred Hungry Beaks or A Long-Lost Woodcrawler and absolutely requires you to have a decent grasp on driving and shooting at the same time as well as doing fancy midair reloading tricks.
A Caterpillar Made of Sadness
A horrifically augmented naked mole rat corpse outfitted with dozens of missile launchers. Laika encounters it four separate times deep in the mines Where Rock Bleeds before managing to finally kill it.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: It will always be careening right behind Laika, and flying back into it is instant death.
- Attack Its Weak Point: After avoiding its attacks for long enough, it will expose its tongue, allowing you to deal damage to it.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Its primary means of attack are launching a veritable megaton of missles and bombs at Laika, which she must either dodge or shoot to avoid.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "A Caterpillar Made of Sadness" sounds like the aftermath of a horrific torture experiment (which it is, in a way).
- Recurring Boss: Laika fights it four separate times throughout Where Rock Bleeds, and each time it gains a new missile attack.
- Shows Damage: Each time it's defeated, more of its skin is peeled off until it's almost nothing but a bleached skeleton on wheels.
