Characters for the fanfic No Gods, Only Guns. Because some characters are composites of their Borderlands or Mass Effect incarnations, many canon tropes also apply. See Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Mass Effect character pages for canon tropes, and this page for tropes unique to the fic.
Lilith Shepard
Notorious human Siren, daughter of Admiral Hannah Shepard, and one of the main characters. The story opens with her arriving over Eden Prime as the geth invade, seeking the Eridian beacon left on the surface.
- Noodle Incident: There are frequent mentions of her having set a gunship on fire, and it's referred to as the "Oh God, everything's on fire, what did you do, Lily?!" incident.
Roland Taylor
Former Crimson Lance Sergeant who deserted upon receiving orders he refused to follow. Became a freelance mercenary who partners with Lilith.
- The Hero: The leader of the main protagonists.
- Only Sane Man: The most down-to-earth and grounded of the characters.
Maya
Another human Siren who shows up hunting for information relating to Sirens on the Citadel, and rapidly brings down a whole lot of violence as a direct result.
- Fight Magnet: And very aware of it too.
- Playing with Fire: Her Phaselock ability sets fire to nearby enemies, as per her Helios skill in-game.
Brick
A human bruiser who arrives on the Citadel hunting Fist, and gets caught up in the chaos surrounding Tali and Maya's encounters with him.
- Extreme Omnivore: His stomach can somehow process Dextro-amino meat, and he may or may not be joking when he says he's eaten Quarians and Turians before.
- Extreme Omnisexual: Reads interspecies porn in Fornax, up to and including Elcor porn.
Tali'Zorah nar Rayya
A quarian on her Pilgrimage, and part of Migrant Fleet Manufacturing. Stumbles across high-value information that ends with her being pursued by Fist's men, though she proves quite capable of handling herself, with the help of her Robot Buddy Chittika Vas Paus.
- Robot Buddy: Chittika, which in this universe is a robotic Skag.
Angel Harper
A human Siren with powers relating to machinery. First appears helping Handsome Jack with his plots surrounding the various Vault Hunters, and becomes more involved - and more independent - as the story progresses.
- Composite Character: She shares traits of both Angel from Borderlands as well as EDI.
Axton
Human commando and mercenary who barges his way into the plot when a mission to rescue the sister of one Nassana Dantius turns out to be a covert assassination...and Nassana tries to have Axton and his team wiped out rather than pay them.
- Everyone Has Standards: For all his flaws, he values a good partnership with his teammates.
- The Only One Allowed To Kill You: Has this relationship with Zaeed Massani, for unknown reasons.
Garrus Vakarian
A turian sniper and a member of Axton's team of mercenaries. Has an animal companion in the form of a cybernetic bird of prey names Bloodwing. May or may not be taking Mordecai's place in the story.
James Vega
The third member of Axton's team, a human bruiser who specializes in heavy weapons and cheerful battle commentary.
- Top-Heavy Guy: Justified in this case as he's a bruiser mutant.
Gaige
Human engineer and fugitive, on the run from accidentally killing a classmate, but who keeps finding trouble everywhere she goes due to the massive bounty on her head due to the aforementioned accidental murder.
- Action Girl: Through sheer inexplicable awesome, she manages to basically bulldoze the Virmire base.
- Inexplicably Awesome: How does a 18-year-old schoolgirl basically run over everything she comes across with so little difficulty? Our best guess is "Because awesome.".
- Instant Web Hit: Gives up counting her subscribers around the point where she estimates she has the population of a planet subscribed. Then Sovereign does so.
- Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: She has a habit of leaving destruction and chaos at her wake as well as updating the universe about it.
-
Play the Game, Skip the Story: What she effectively does to Virmire, putting it through such a Curb-Stomp Battle she doesn't even notice the experiments before destroying them.
John Shepard
The first human Spectre. Not much is known about him, as he has only made two appearances and has spoken even less.
- Informed Attribute: He has some quirky habits according to Peptuck, though we haven't seen much evidence of this yet:Peptuck: Except that he has this weird quirk where he ends every conversation with "I should go" and is insistent on asking the same question several times in each conversation.Also, after every mission he walks around in the ship and stops to stare at everyone for a second, as though he's looking for a sign that he should ask them a questions.//And then there are those really awkward pauses where he spaces out and stares at you for a minute or two for no apparent reason.//
- Medium Awareness: asks "Can we get on with this story?" after killing Face McShooty.
- Only Sane Man: Appears to be shaping up as this.
Salvador
A hairy, heavily-armed human dwarf who dual-wields guns and has "terrifying" hygiene issues.- One-Man Army: Singlehandedly fought off the entire batarian invasion of Mindoir.
- Red Baron: On Omega, he is referred to as "the Mountain King" because that's the song he hums while killing everything.
- Shrouded in Myth: For Omega, he's just a mysterious midget who showed up one day and started killing mercs for no apparent reason.
Ashley Williams
A former Crimson Lance officer who deserted alongside Roland.
Reiss
Another member of Roland's Lance team who deserted when receiving flat-out evil orders.
- Ascended Extra: In Borderlands 2, Corporal Reiss dies practically as soon as you meet him. He lasts longer than that in this story.
Richard L. Jenkins
The last member of Roland's Lance team to stick by him when they received their last, unacceptable orders.
Kaidan Alenko
Alliance marine and biotic who was sent to recover the Eridian beacon and got roped into the greater plot when the geth attacked.
Jeff "Joker" Moreau
Hyperion experimental test pilot who flew advanced, cutting edge ships. Emphasis on "flew" because he's out of work when Roland shows up with a job offer.
Claptrap
A CL 4-TP steward bot Lilith stumbled across on Eden Prime, who assists her and her team by unlocking doors, flying ships, and in the difficult moments drawing gunfire. He does not appreciate the treatment, but he doesn't have much choice.
Nihlus Kyrik
Turian Spectre who assists Maya when she is attacked on the Citadel.
Doctor Conrad Verner
A Maliwan scientist Lilith meets on Illium, who promises her the key to the Vault, but only if she can get him inside the Dantius Towers.
- Adaptational Badass: Holds his own against two asari assassins with a green-quality Dahl pistol, and keeps the thing all the way through the shootout in the Dantius Towers. Doesn't save him from dying later on.
- Straight Man
Seryna
An asari ex-Maliwan security specialist who offers to get Lilith and Roland into the Dantius Towers, if they help her get rid of her former lunatic boss, Nassana Dantius.
Feron
Drell agent for the Shadow Broker, sent to assassinate Nassana Dantius.
Zaeed Massani
Human mercenary. Professional badass. Seen It All. No, really.
- Bad Boss: According to Axton, he doesn't have teammates so much as ablative meat shields.
Geth-Buddy/Gethtrap
One thousand, one hundred and eighty three geth runtimes loaded onto a specialized platform sent by the Geth Consensus to monitor the hostile heretic geth. Encounters Gaige on Virmire, and subsequently gets blown up, rebuilt, and dubbed Gethtrap.
- Composite Character: He's a combination of Deathtrap and Legion.
Handsome Jack Harper
CEO of Hyperion, colossal jackass, and resident Manipulative Bastard behind the entire plot.
- Badass Normal: Stages annual "Dinners" that always end up as massive free-for-all fights between him and his 3 children. 2 of which are biotic, one of which is a Siren. He's still the one on top for a good part.
- Composite Character: He possesses Handsome Jack's personality as well as The Illusive Man's nature as a Diabolical Mastermind. His name is a combination of both characters (Jack Harper being TIM's real name). As the father of both Miranda and Oriana, he's also the setting's equivalent of Henry Lawson
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: When asked whether he looks like either Martin Sheen (TIM's Ink-Suit Actor) or Charlie Sheen, the author answered "yes".
Higgins
A Crimson Lance officer who commands Roland's unit, until an attempt to either force Roland into compliance or kill him for insubordination turns bad...
- Ascended Extra: Higgins was originally a character in the Borderlands: Origins comic that was heavily implied to have been killed by Roland by the time of the first game. In this story, he survives, only to be taken in by Saren.
Saren Arterius
Turian Spectre who controls Sovereign, a massive warship of unparalleled fire power and commands an army of geth.
- And I Must Scream: Whenever Sovereign seizes control of his body, turning him into a turian equivalent of a Psycho.
- Axe-Crazy: When Sovereign takes full control.
- Composite Character: With Sane!Krieg and Psychos in general.
Sovereign
Psycho Reaper Siren and Ship behind the man to Saren.
- Axe-Crazy: Especially notable when taking control of Saren.
- Composite Character: Psycho!Krieg and Psychos in general.
Nassana Dantius
Asari CEO of the Maliwan Corporation's Illium branch. Totally batshit crazy.
- Adaptational Badass: In Mass Effect 2, she was simply a corrupt businesswoman who was easily killed by Thane. In this story, she's not only a Psycho, but rides around in a custom Mini-Mecha. She's so badass that an entire chapter is mostly devoted to everyone trying to kill her, and she even manages to overpower NIFTU CAL, BIOTIC GOD.
- Ax-Crazy: Gene-manipulation has rendered her into an Asari Psycho.
- Badass Boast: "I AM NASSANA DANTIUS, AND I AM FUCKING INVINCIBLE!"
- Boss Battle: Basically a raid boss, from the not-quite-subtle mentioning of "Invincible" to the endless waves of enemies to the painfully raid-boss like tactics of "Bull rush them tanking everything, make big nova explosions".
- Mini-Mecha: Rides around in a custom battlesuit.
Donnel Udina
Systems Alliance ambassador to the Citadel. Has apparently seen enough violence that he's got multiple cybernetic upgrades, and is no slouch in combat.
- Adaptational Badass: He has a cybernetic arm and an eyepatch. The first time we hear him, he humiliates the Batarian ambassador in front of the Council with very little effort. His first proper introduction involves him killing what is effectively a boss by uppercutting him into the air, followed by nailing him dead-center in the chest with a Torgue pistol, while said enemy is still falling.
Warlord Okeer
Krogan warlord who seeks revenge against Nassana for attacking his lab on Tuchanka, and is deep in research on Sirens. Smashes into the plot by crashing into the Dantius Towers with a small army of krogan.
NIFTU CAL, BIOTIC GOD
A volus who was experimented on by Maliwan scientists, the resulting experiments inadvertently turned him into a tiny One-Man Army who spends most of his time tripping balls.
- Adaptational Badass: In case that character description didn't make it abundantly clear.
Mister Torgue High-Five Flexington
THE MOTHERF***ING CEO OF THE TORGUE-URDNOT CORPORATION, THE MOST BADASS CORPORATION IN THE F***ING GALAXY.
Miranda Harper
One of Handsome Jack's daughters, a genetically-perfect biotic who thoroughly hates her father and is protecting her younger sister Oriana from him.
Junior
A child of Handsome Jack, who thoroughly loathes dear old Dad, to the point that s/he (gender unknown) only attends the yearly family dinner because its the best chance to kill him. Also an incredibly powerful biotic.
- Ambiguous Gender: So far, his/her gender hasn't been fully confirmed
- Expy: Seemingly of Jack/Subject Zero, with the nickname "Junior" being used to avoid confusing names with his/her father.
