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The Watcher and characters who can join the party in both games from Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. For other party members and sidekicks, see here. For the main index, see here.

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The Watcher

    The Watcher 

The Watcher

"No sleep for the Watcher."

The main protagonist of the story. Starting with a race, class, and background tailored to the player's choice, the Watcher is a newcomer to the Dyrwood, traveling with a caravan to Gilded Vale on the promise of cheap land and a place to settle. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the caravan is forced to stop for the night in a dangerous part of the woods, home to hostile natives who don't take kindly to interlopers.

The caravan is soon destroyed, and the PC, along with other survivors, manages to evade the tribesmen and enter the ruins of Cilant Lîs. Thereafter, they get involved in a supernatural event that will thrust them to the forefront of the main conflict, awakening their powers as a Watcher—a person who can see past lives, perceive souls, and manipulate them as they see fit.


  • Abusive Parents: Sort of. While the Watcher never abuses Vela per-se Serafen comments on the rather murky way the Watcher ended up 'adopting' her and banter with Konstanten has him lamenting that they need to find her some 'real parents' after commenting that she puts ants in his sleeping bag and her confessing that she shamelessly steals people's things.
  • An Adventurer Is You:
    • The implementation in-game is especially interesting - while you can be nearly anyone at character creation, your choice of home culture and occupation gives you some identity out of the gate, and are given the opportunity to define just what has brought you to Dyrwood and flesh out your character's backstory a bit during the prologue (which is updated in your quest journal to boot, as it keeps a rolling biography on you). The only options a player doesn't have are to be from Dyrwood, or its neighbors like Eir Glanfath, Readceras or the Vailian Republics because the set-up of the story requires your character to be a foreigner who is new to the region. The general arc of the story would be particularly difficult for a Glanfathan or Readceran protagonist, anyway.
    • It goes even further in that you're allowed to define who you were in a previous life, and why that person joined the Leaden Key.
  • Angrish: Upon being sent to Rymrgand's realm by Flaune Elette's experimental teleportation technology, two of the Watcher's descriptions of the experience (out of three total) are "Cold. Weird." and "Really not fun!"
  • Armor-Piercing Question: The very crux of the matter, the question that caused the Watcher's soul to Awaken after witnessing the Leaden Key ritual in the ruins of Cilant Lîs. Are there no gods? Subverted, in that it's the Watcher's past self asking the question, and their own metaphysical armor which is pierced by the asking of it; you can put the question to Thaos, but he's already made up his mind on the subject and is entirely unshakable. The Watcher's past self, meanwhile, had so much of their personal identity wrapped up in the gods that the truth rent their soul apart. That truth? See the Antagonist folder for details.
  • Anti-Hero: If played with Cruel and/or Aggressive reputation. Watcher can be played as a massive jerk who's an asshole to everyone and/or a Blood Knight maniac who enjoys violence. However, no matter how much of a bastard the Watcher is played as, they will still fight in order to stop Thaos from carrying out his plan by any means necessary.
  • The Anti-Nihilist: It's possible to play the Watcher this way.
  • Badass Bookworm: By default if you choose the Wizard class, as they get their magic through intense study. Also, if from an intellectually inclined background, such as a Scholar, Scientist, or Philosopher.
  • Badass Preacher: As a Priest, and/or if you have the Clergyman background.
  • Badass Teacher: If you have the Philosopher background and tell Calisca that you were a teacher.
  • Barbarian Hero: If you picked that as a class, anyway.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: As a, well, monk.
  • The Beastmaster: As a Ranger, you have your very own animal companion. In Deadfire, the Ranger/Druid multiclass is even called this.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: If you consistently click Clever dialogue options.
  • Bold Explorer: With the Explorer background.
  • Blood Knight: The aggressive dialogue choices paint the picture of a Watcher who enjoys violence.
  • Blessed with Suck: Being a Watcher carries the risk of being driven to insanity, as past lives are recalled without the ability to separate one from the other. In the Dyrwood in particular, Watchers are regarded with suspicion by the populace. However, the Watcher can potentially see it as Cursed with Awesome instead for the other things that go with it.
  • Brought Down to Badass: The Watcher is brought down to level 1 in the start of the sequel. Understandably, what with Eothas sucking out their soul and everything.
  • Brutal Honesty:
    • You can tell Iovara outright that the reason that you're seeing her again is that you were assigned to spy on her.
    • In fact, one can gain an Honest reputation by being brutally honest in various encounters.
  • Cain and Abel: Depending on your choices in your past life, your betrayal of Iovara can be this.
  • The Captain: Becomes this in Deadfire.
  • Conflicting Loyalty: Your dilemma in your past life. It's particularly important, given that the people you betrayed were Iovara and Thaos. The exact nature of these betrayals is up to you.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Being a Watcher carries all sorts of perks. You can communicate with the dead, peer into people's souls, and learn a host of unique abilities that can come in handy in a fight. The player is free to decide whether the protagonist's status as a Watcher is a curse or a blessing.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Picking the Clever dialogue options generally involves giving witty retorts. And because of the nuances in the Reputation system, the Watcher can be a number of different flavors of this, from gentlemanly to silent to a full-blown Snark Knight.
  • The Dreaded: If the Watcher has a high enough Cruel reputation, many of the enemies, who in a non-Cruel playthrough would itching for a fight and reject or laugh off attempts to find a peaceful solution, will actually start to seriously consider that going up against a person who is known to be highly dangerous and has a reputation of brutally and viciously killing people at the slightest provocation, in addition to occasionally maiming and torturing others just for the fun of it, might be a really, really terrible idea. Of course, being Cruel, the Watcher often simply won't allow them to act on these doubts.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: Mostly you dream of the past, but The White March, Part I ends with a vision of what the army that will march against the White March, Caed Nua, and eventually the whole Dyrwood, as set up for the Cosmic Horror elements of Part II.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: Averted as appropriate in Deadfire. Important and well connected people of Deadfire know who you are and often ask for your assistance because they realize you are the one who can get it done. Thugs and hired muscle on the other hand tend to have no idea who you are and will often try to bully you around. You can generally show them why that's a big mistake.
  • Fainting Seer: In the first game, the Watcher collapses from the pain and stress of remembering their past life. It's about the only sleep they get for much of the game. Often triggered by a Meaningful Echo, made all the worse if said echo comes from Thaos himself.
  • Famed In-Story: By the time of Deadfire, the Watcher of Caid Nua has become a widely recognized person and important people will ask for your assistance frequently because of your known exploits.
  • Foreshadowing: No sleep for the Watcher. That's you.
    • During the beginning of the game, the Watcher sees a vision of Thaos, stating that you have a question which he has to know the answer to...
  • The Fundamentalist: Certain dialogue options allow for this, especially, of course, if you're playing as a priest.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration:
    • As befits a Choose Your Own Adventure CRPG, your character's stats can open the door towards certain outcomes, or lock you out entirely.
    • You can perform a Dungeon Bypass during "Never Far From The Queen" if you have a Resolve score of 18.
    • One of the biggest examples is in the Expansion Pack. If the Watcher stays behind to strike Ionni Brathr, it's possible for them to survive with a constitution score of 19. Or a piece of equipment from an obscure side quest. Or if you made a certain choice of what to do with the souls bound to the White Forge.
    • The game opens with you suddenly taking ill, sweating and shivering. As of patch 3.0, the Watcher starts off with a status effect that reflects their illness.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Godlike and Orlans are subject to Fantastic Racism, and Pale Elves are considered a rare and exotic sight outside their homeland, yet most NPC's rarely comment on it, even as they give other NPC's and companions of the same race lots of grief and/or attention.
  • Gentleman Adventurer: Technically. Can't have your own castle and not be a member of the gentry, after all. Regardless of how you act outside of that castle.
  • Heel–Face Turn: One of the possible reasons your past self turned on Thaos: they saw exactly what he had become and tried to stop him.
  • Heroic Willpower: Resolve, which determines your drive, determination, and emotional intensity. It works in combat, as well as dialogue with NPC's.
  • I Am Who?: You are a Watcher, someone who has the ability to perceive souls and interact with them. Far more important, however, is who you used to be...
  • I Have Many Names: The Watcher of Caed Nua, the Hound of Eothas, the Herald of Berath, and the captain of the Defiant, among others.
  • I'm Taking Her Home with Me!:
    • In the "Bloodlines" quest, you have the option of taking baby Vela and keeping her. When confronted, you can even respond with "I'm keeping this baby." The guy confronting you is not amused. If Grieving Mother is in your party, she will also not be amused. The ending even changes a bit if you do this. Deadfire shows that you kept your word: a 5 year old Vela appears as an NPC crew member.
    • A considerable number of pets are these, actually. Notably, the Black Cat and the White Wurm.
  • I See Dead People: The most basic, entry-level use of your Watcher powers is this. Part of your problem in the first game is that you're not just seeing real souls, however, but pulling images from your past life into the present and instinctively embodying them through your powers. The problem is that if you can't stop this from happening, you're going to end up like Maerwald, unable to tell what's a waking memory and what's actually happening in the present, with the embodied souls giving rise to angry spirits which can actually attack the living.
  • Jerkass: Cruel dialogue options generally have you doling out unnecessary pain or just being a dick.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: A Benevolent, Honest, or Passionate Watcher is free to acknowledge how awful people can be to each other, but that doesn't stop them doing the right thing anyway. This is especially the case in Sun-In-Shadow, where the Watcher can point out kith's flaws to Iovara and then tell Thaos that the cost of keeping his secret is too high. If the Watcher has enough ranks in the Benevolent and Honest dispositions, certain NPCs will commend them for seeming to rise above their Crapsack World surroundings.
  • The Lad-ette: Can be played this way if female, if you choose snarkier and/or uncouth dialogue options.
  • Lady of War: Potentially if female, if you choose more classy dialogue and/or are from the nobility background.
  • Living Emotional Crutch: Can become this for quite a few companions, especially Aloth.
  • Living Legend: By the time of Deadfire, the Watcher of Caed Nua has gained quite a bit of renown. There's even a song dedicated to their victory over Gathbin in the Battle of Yenwood. The ending of Deadfire in which the Watcher reaches Ukaizo without relying on any other faction cements this. The feat is so impressive that many people start to see the Watcher as the savior of Eora in the wake of Eothas' breaking of the Wheel.
  • Made a Slave: With the aptly named Slave background, this happened to the Watcher in the past.
  • Nature Hero: If you play a Druid or Ranger.
  • Nay-Theist: If you so choose. Even more of an option in Deadfire.
  • Nice Guy: If frequently choosing the Benevolent dialogue options, The Watcher is this.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: No Aedyran, Ixamitl, or Vailian voice sets for the Watcher, even if every other character from your homeland has an accent. Also counts as Gameplay and Story Segregation, since many characters will pick up on the Watcher's background based on their accent, and many characters who are no more Dyrwoodan (or Deadfire-an) than you are have no particular accent either.
  • Number Two: To Thaos, in the Watcher's past life.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: A possibility Rymrgand suggests in Deadfire. During their final discussion with Eothas, they can even go so far as to sincerely try and convince him the world should be destroyed... and depending on various circumstances, including whether or not your party can muster a sufficient Patrick Stewart Speech in response, the seed of doubt planted in Eothas' divine soul can be enough to devastate the Wheel beyond repair and doom the world.
  • The Paladin: Another class option.
  • Parental Substitute: Subverted. While the Watcher can adopt (read: kidnap) Vela from Twin Elms and she joins the crew in Deadfire she never acts as if they're her parent and in banter she refers to them as 'Captain' rather than mother or father. The fact that the player can't have any dialogue with her and Serafen encourages Vela to leave if she ever feels like she wants to also paints a pretty poor picture of the relationship.
  • Pull the Thread: High Intellect and/or Perception allows you to do this with less-than-honest NPCs. In Deadfire, Insight also accomplishes this.
  • Refuge in Audacity: A high Resolve score allows the Watcher to pull off feats like "borrowing" a cultist's hood, or making someone drink poison.
  • Second Hour Superpower: Fairly early into the game the player character will witness a ritual that will change them forever. Surviving the ritual at the ruins of Cilant Lîs awakens their capabilities as a Watcher, with more powers triggered as the plot advances.
  • Self-Made Orphan: A Watcher with the Drifter background can self-describe as this when explaining their backstory to Calisca. The Watcher says that their parents had it coming; whether this is true or not is left to the player's imagination.
  • Shipper on Deck / Shipping Torpedo: In Deadfire, they can be either one for Konstanten and Fassina, Maia and Xoti, or Edér and Xoti, though that last one doesn't work out either way.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: The Watcher gets plenty of opportunities to shut down the game's villains. Sometimes they even listen. If the Watcher goes with Rymrgand's plan in the second game and tries to persuade Eothas to end all life entirely, it's possible that your companions will give the Watcher one of these, each of them pleading with Eothas in turn.
  • Sole Survivor: Soul survivor. A funny thing happened on the way to Gilded Vale... It happens again, on a much larger scale, when Eothas erupts from underneath Caed Nua. In both cases, it's the Watcher's ancient "strong soul" which saves them, resisting the pull of the bîaŵac.
  • Soul Power: As a Watcher, your unique abilities allow you to perceive souls, and, with practice, manipulate them. This allows you to see and talk with ghosts, read memories other than your own, and absorb power from others — all the things that make up your typical Obsidian protagonist.
  • Spanner in the Works: Being a Watcher allows you to uncover details of other people's best-laid plans that they usually wish you didn't find. Most often by communing with the souls of people they secretly killed.
  • The Spock: A Watcher that frequently chooses Rational and Intellect dialogue options.
  • Starting a New Life: No matter what your background, you left it all behind, willingly or otherwise, when you set out for the Dyrwood. Calisca's prying during the prologue of the first game gives you the chance to define some of your reasons in-game, some of which can even come up again later in the game. You get a castle and a potentially life-ruining curse within a few days of your arrival, so it's kind of tough to say exactly how well that's going.
  • The Stoic: Picking Stoic and/or Rational options consistently during dialogue tends to lead the character in this direction.
  • Talking in Your Dreams: Most of the Watcher's direct communication with the gods in the second game only occurs when they summon you before them in your dreams while sailing the seas. In the lore of the setting, the seas are Ondra's realm and the soul is less tightly tethered to the body while asleep, so it seems possible the Watcher's soul is actually being called out of their body.
  • Unhappy Medium: No sleep for the Watcher. Being Awakened would be bad enough, dealing with the psychic baggage of a past life, but being a Watcher gradually blurs the line between dream and reality, past memories and present events, what only you can see versus what your Watcher powers make manifest. Seeing what happened to Maerwald means there's also a definite time factor involved as well.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: As a Druid, during combat you can "spiritshift" into a giant, bipedal animal.
  • Worthy Opponent: If you're Aggressive enough and if you greet him by declaring that you're accepting his challenge, the revived Raedric will respond that he knew you would, since you are no coward.
  • You Kill It, You Bought It: After putting down Maerwald, you become the new lord or lady of Caed Nua. The 3.0 patch added a new questline where your claim is contested by a lord with a more legitimate claim. Unfortunately, the authorities uphold the claim. But, hilariously, add that because you did all of the actual work in reclaiming and rebuilding Caed Nua, the lord has to pay you for it. The Upper-Class Twit leaves the proceedings in a huff, vowing revenge, and the bemused chancellor who announced the decision says that since the other guy refused to pay compensation, Caed Nua is still yours. The other lord doesn't give up, and his efforts escalate from assassination, to framing you for overtaxing and attacking innocent villagers, and finally to outright warfare. It only ends after you finally slay him on the battlefield.
  • Your Soul Is Mine!: It's not generally the "good" option, but you can gain power and absorb knowledge by taking the souls of others. Mostly after they've already died, but still. Inverted in Deadfire, where you gain a whole host of willing souls walking in your wake (whether you like it or not), what with Eothas having disrupted the luminous adra and the usual flow of souls through Berath's Wheel.

Recurring Party Members

    Aloth 

Aloth Corfiser

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/l5ino51vvl3.png

"It's hard to be comfortable in your own skin when you're sharing it with someone else."
Voiced by: Matthew Mercer

An elven wizard first encountered outside the Black Hound Inn in Gilded Vale. Being a foreign noble, and an elf to boot, he's had difficulty acclimating to the locals, who now want to kick his teeth in. The Watcher gets involved, and Aloth, grateful for the assistance, invites himself to the party. He returns as a companion in Deadfire.


  • Abusive Parents: Suffered quite a bit of physical abuse from his father as a child, and his mother was rarely present and neglectful. In fact, it was during one such beating that he Awakened and Iselmyr manifested, breaking his father's arm in the process.
    • In Deadfire, after Character Development, he finds it in his heart to forgive one of them, depending on his path after the first game, while still bearing a grudge against the other. If he becomes grandmaster of the Leaden Key, he forgives his father, harshly, as a "weak man" who just wasn't cut out for a position of authority, but at least tried and was present. If he devotes himself to finishing off the Leaden Key instead, he forgives his mother who, though she was rarely present and did little to help him against his father, was at least kind to him when they were together.
  • A Degree in Useless: Played with. Aloth studied to be an Arcane Knight, which is only useful if you're employed by a noble patron. Since he couldn't find a patron (apart from the erl his abusive father served), and none of his offensive magic would be any use at a healer's den or charm-peddler's shop, he left for Dyrwood to spy for the Leaden Key, then joined the Watcher. It's part of why he's so Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Narrowly avoided this fate growing up by striving to appear beneath notice, due to Aedyran society shunning those with Awakened souls as little better than madmen and criminals. Avoiding this is a huge part of what drives him.
  • Badass Bookworm: Like all wizards. In the sequel, his Arcane Knight training lets him multiclass as a fighter or rogue, and his idle animation has him crack open his grimoire and pore over it for a few moments.
  • Bad Liar: Which is ironic considering how long he goes in the first game hiding his Split Personality and past with the Leaden Key.
    • Played for Laughs in Deadfire. His cover story for the animancers he's spying on is so hilariously unoriginal the Watcher can call him out on it. If romanced, his attempts to fend off Eder's and Tekehu's prying questions of how close he's getting with the captain involve some very flimsy deflections.
  • Bad Powers, Good People: Downplayed. As a wizard, he starts off with a number of ghastly spells that burn, zap, siphon, freeze, poison, impale, and corrode enemies into a grizzly death, but outside combat he's very polite, formal, and averse to conflict.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Aloth doesn't outright say it, but a Watcher who's nice to him is the first person to treat him with kindness and acceptance, Iselmyr and all. If carried over into the next game, their romance progresses along these lines too.
  • Beneath Notice: Spent most of his life trying to avoid getting beaten senseless by his abusive father or discovered as having an Awakened Split Personality by trying to seem as bland, quiet, and unremarkable as possible. Even after befriending the Watcher, he tries to remain as studiously blank and politely attentive as possible.
  • Berserk Button: Really doesn't like animancy. While the arguments he gives against the practice have some valid points, his animosity may also be due to his past as a member of the Leaden Key.
  • Birds of a Feather: Regardless of their race or background, Aloth and the Watcher are the only members of the party to both have an Awakened soul and personal history with the Leaden Key.
  • Blatant Lies: When you first meet him, he'll claim he got into that tussle with the villagers over some simple "misunderstandings and mistranslations," badly hiding the fact that he has a split personality that did it. That story about being a settler? Also a lie; he was waiting to hear from his contact in the Leaden Key.
  • British Stuffiness: Politeness. Decorum. Good diction. Aloth has the right accent, and his personality exemplifies all the ways in which Aedyr is the Britain to the Dyrwood's America. His other half? Not so much.
  • Character Class: Wizard. In Deadfire, his options are Wizard, Wizard/Fighter (Battlemage), or Wizard/Rogue (Spellblade).
  • Character Development: If the Watcher doesn't reject him outright at a critical moment, Aloth learns to be more confident and assertive.
    • Depending on what your actions, at the end of the first game he will either take over Thaos's position as lead of the Leaden Key or else dedicate his life to destroying it. In Deadfire, this will affect his personality and favored dispositions. If you convince him to go with the former option, he will appreciate actions in favor of order and leadership and if you convince him to go the latter path, he will approve actions that favor freedom and autonomy. His feelings towards his parents will change as well, with him forgiving one parent over the other.
  • Character Tics: Dusting off his robes, not knowing what to do with his hands, and looking at his grimoire, all of which are represented in his idle animations from the second game. In the text of the game, he's also described as having various facial twitches, which come up whenever he's trying to suppress his Split Personality.
  • Comes Great Responsibility: Part of why he hates animancers and the damage they cause. He firmly believes that with the advantage of education comes authority, and responsibility.
  • The Comically Serious: His decidedly uptight personality is part of what makes Iselmyr's occasional outburst even funnier.
  • Commander Contrarian: In the second game, it's a lot easier for his Relationship Values to sink (he has three fairly common pet peeves, irresponsibility, pride, and traditionalism, that can be triggered even by snark, being politely diplomatic to traditionalists, or simply asking to be paid for what you do) than to rise (he likes responsibility, fine, but his other like is one of either "autonomy" or "stewardship" depending on how he handled the Leaden Key, and both very rare). Calling him out on this behavior is actually a way to start his Romance arc.
  • Commonality Connection: When the sanitarium consultant suggests that Aloth's Awakened personality appears as a result of his liver producing excess black bile, the Watcher can't tell if it's Aloth or Iselmyr looking out his eyes when he responds, "That's utter horseshit." The two get along a little better after that.
  • Control Freak: Due to his abuse and Iselmyr sporadically taking over, Aloth grew up trying to control every aspect of his life and surroundings. With the Watcher's help, he can slowly ease out of it.
  • Cosmic Plaything: If anyone is going to get injured along your party, it'll probably be Aloth. The party scales a cliff and someone falls the rest of the way down? It's Aloth. The party jumps across chasm and someone breaks their ankle on landing? Aloth. They wade through a curtain of sentient vines only for someone to get whacked? Aloth. That's not even getting into his backstory. Drunken abusive father, Awakened personality, fell in with the Leaden Key, got abandoned by his contact after arriving in Gilded Vale...
  • Cowardly Lion: He never stops being nervous, tetchy, and uptight — but that never keeps him from being an effective combat presence, whether as a pure wizard or a spellblade. Even in the second game, he still sounds nervous when the Watcher and their other allies start picking fights with dragons, giants, or even just minor underworld figures.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Only topped by Eder as the snarkiest companion. His wit is so dry it could be used as kindling.
    Aloth: [entering the Salty Mast] Over-fried cod, watered ale, and prostitution. A bastion of Dyrwoodan culture.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: As a member of the Aedyran gentry, Aloth has some pretty Paternalistic views of the lower classes, believing it's the responsibility of the educated and wealthy to make choices for them. This ties back to Aedyran's rigid caste system and colonial expansionism, with the nobility justifying their rule by claiming they're improving the lives of the poor and foreign savages.
  • Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: He studied to become an Arcane Knight from an early age like his abusive father wanted. When he failed to find a patron, he had no idea what to do with his life, so he moved to Dyrwood hoping to start a new life, but was turned away same as the Watcher. He actually came out to spy for the Leaden Key, but was abandoned by his contact. By the time the Watcher meets him in Dyrwood, Aloth's been separated from everything he's ever known and is desperate for any kind of direction. By the end of the game, the Watcher can help him find a new purpose: take over or take down the Leaden Key.
  • Distinction Without a Difference: In the first game, Pallegina says in party banter she's never met an Aedyran so hesitant to speak his mind. Aloth protests that he's not hesitant! He just... likes to consider his words carefully. He gives a similar response when she observes that she's never met a wizard as obsessive as him.
  • The Ditherer:
    • During Act 1, Aloth often acts like he wants to tell you something but always fidgets instead, until one outburst too many from Iselmyr forces him to confess that he also has an Awakened soul and would like help looking into it.
    • Aloth's backstory and personal quest reveals he was always indecisive and didn't know what he wanted out of life, so went along with what others wanted of him. He became an Arcane Knight like his father wanted, hid Iselmyr like his mother insisted, and then followed the Leaden Key when he couldn't find a patron at school. A huge part of his Character Development is learning to grow out of this.
  • Downer Ending:
    • In the first game, if you turn him away after he reveals himself to be a member of the Leaden Key, he'll sacrifice himself to one of the Engwithian engines.
    • In Deadfire, if you find him at the Engwithian dig site but don't recruit him, he'll try to investigate Leaden Key activity among the Huana and end up killed for his trouble.
  • Elfeminate: He also has the mannerisms, which Durance frequently mocks in party banter. Ironically, he happens to have a second personality who is a woman... who just so happens to be The Lad-ette.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Actually, the guys like Durance and Edér don't necessarily want him. They're more interested in Iselmyr. Ironically, she's more interested in women. And Kana.
    • Amusingly, in Deadfire the Watcher can encounter an old male classmate from his academy days, who openly crushes on Aloth.
  • Experimented in College: His interactions with the courtesan Ymir, an old acquaintance from his college days, suggests such, though a comment from Iselmyr hints that it was her doing the experimenting, while Aloth was reluctantly along for the ride.
  • Fantastic Racism: Gets this in the first game for being an Aedyran elf. Aloth also doesn't think very highly of Dyrwoodans' Good Is Dumb, Hair-Trigger Temper tendencies.
  • Flanderization: Aloth's British Stuffiness and Cowardly Lion tendencies are exaggerated and Played for Laughs more in Deadfire... even as the ability to multiclass into rogue or fighter make him even more of a Badass Bookworm than before.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic. Even stated in-universe. Iselmyr is Choleric.
  • Freudian Excuse: Aloth's rigid and tight-lipped personality makes sense when it's revealed that he grew up hiding the abuse he received from his father, and then later his Awakened Split Personality Iselmyr. And that's not even getting into his involvement with the Leaden Key—a cult centered around secrets.
    • Aloth hates drunken louts with Hair-Trigger Tempers and is a Cowardly Lion when it comes to violence because his own father was a drunken batterer who beat the snot out of him and his mom when he was a little kid.
    • His tie-in short story "Until He Heard Himself Scream" elaborates why he hates animancy so much. When he was still at the Academy, he joined a group of students who illegally obtained and tested a soul-reading machine, which rendered one of his classmates a drooling vegetable. He was then picked up by the Leaden Key, who manipulated his guilt and dislike of animancy into serving their own purposes.
  • Friendless Background: Due to hiding Iselmyr most of his life.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: While other party members don't dislike him, Iselmyr's just a lot more fun. He can lighten up quite a bit in the second game, depending on your choices.
  • Happy Ending Override: At the end of the first game, Aloth dedicates his life to either taking over or taking down the Leaden Key. Deadfire shows how that goes. Aloth is frustrated to learn that a vast, secretive, disconnected organization that's been sending uniformed spies to play various gambits and long games all over Eora for over thousand years can't be redirected or dismantled overnight. He feels so discouraged that he's made so little progress in five years.
  • Heel–Face Revolving Door: One of his possible endings suggests that he will become the new, less brutal High Inquisitor after Thaos' death.
  • Heel–Face Turn: In his past. His very recent past, in fact — right before he met up with you, he was a member of the Leaden Key. He was on the verge of leaving and didn't actually know anything about their darker side, but even so, there's a reason why he let you think Iselmyr was his only secret.
  • Hidden Depths: Some easy-to-miss ambient dialogue suggests that Aloth is a closet romantic. In the first game, whenever you pass by the amphitheatre you'll witness a troupe of actors (badly) acting out various scenes, yet it's only during a scene where a woman gives a Narmy Anguished Declaration of Love that Aloth nervously requests that you watch to the end. In the second game, you can read a wizard's grimoire filled with sappy love letters. If in a romance, Aloth awkwardly requests that you burn all his books if he dies. Finally, in a DLC, you can encounter a woman who waxes poetic about how the stars inspire her. Most companions and sidekicks snark at her for being melodramatic, but Aloth alone will agree that one must find inspiration where one can, before eagerly grabs the Watcher's hand while beaming at you.
  • Holding Hands: In the first game, one way to sooth Aloth in his personal quest when he's reliving the most traumatic memory of his life is to hold his hand and assure him he's safe. In the second game, hand-holding comes up a lot in the romance.
  • Hypocrite: In Deadfire, Aloth hates when the Watcher lies to other people, as he feels you should always be honest (even if it's Brutal Honesty), yet he's not only spent most of his life lying about himself to virtually everyone he meets, but he gets very put out if you don't cover for his lie to a group of animancers he infiltrated when you first encounter him in the game. The Watcher can call him out on this.
    • Likewise, Aloth hates traditionalists and loses Relationship Values if the Watcher is ever polite to local Deadfire traditionalists (even if you're just being diplomatic), yet Aloth expects you to be polite and open-minded toward his own culture. Again, the Watcher can call him out.
  • Ineffectual Loner: He's by far the most quiet and introverted companion, and has spent most of his life trying to handle his troubles himself (due to his parents' abuse and neglect). It's also gotten him nowhere in life. In both games, it isn't until he asks the Watcher for help that he starts to make any kind of progress in his goals.
  • In the Hood: Descriptions of him early in the first game mention the hood he begins the game wearing. Fittingly, this ends around the time you start finding magical headgear items by which time he may have started to come out of his shell, revealed his Split Personality, and possibly even his previous ties to the Leaden Key. He doesn't start with the hood in the second game and it doesn't feature in either of his portraits.
  • Insecure Love Interest: The Watcher has to plant a Big Damn Kiss for him to believe you even like him, otherwise he'll assume you're just being friendly or joking.
  • Intelligence Equals Isolation: Played with. He has trouble fitting in with the other salt-of-the-earth companions due to his refined education and upbringing. However, Kana is also from an educated and well-off background, but Aloth still prefers quiet study to Kana's intellectual debates.
  • Irony: Hid Iselmyr his whole life to avoid being rejected or lynched, only for the new friends he makes to decide they like her better than him. Ouch.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's cold and acerbic (not to mention haughty and elitist), but Aloth has a good heart and genuinely cares about other kith. He joined the Leaden Key because they convinced him they were protecting kith from the dangers of animancy, and becomes dedicated to reforming or dismantling them to protect the world from the Leaden Key. In the second game, being cruel or callous to others is a good way to sink his Relationship Values.
  • "Just Joking" Justification: If the Watcher comes on strong early in Deadfire, Aloth assumes they're just joking if they have a clever reputation. The Watcher can confirm they're just messing with him (or lie that they're messing with him because they Cannot Spit It Out).
  • The Lad-ette: Not Aloth himself, obviously. Iselmyr is loud, incredibly crude, and mostly interested in violence, cursing, and occasional flirtation.
  • Like Goes with Like: Depending on the Watcher's reputation, early in the romance Aloth can point out that they're very alike; careful, rational, logical, diplomatic, and/or tend to think before deciding. (Though he admires that you always seem to know what to do while he rarely does.) Otherwise, he points out the opposite.
  • Living Emotional Crutch: The Watcher is one for Aloth, even if he doesn't openly admit it. Being rejected at a crucial point leads to the worst ending for him.
    "After the Watcher sent him away, Aloth found himself cut off from every authority and ally he had ever known – his family, his homeland, the Leaden Key, and, finally, the Watcher." He wanders away and effectively commits suicide a few days later.
  • Loved I Not Honor More: One of the reasons he's hesitant to enter a romantic relationship with the Watcher in Deadfire is because he's still dedicated to the path he took at the end of the first game, and doesn't want to make a commitment he can't honor. If the Watcher doesn't convince him to give up his new goal of leading or dismantling the Leaden Key, he'll leave at the end of Deadfire, having grown to care for the Watcher but not being willing to abandon his perceived duty.
  • Magic Knight: He studied to be an Arcane Knight, Iselmyr seems to have been a warrior of some sort in life, and he starting both games wearing leather armor and wielding a rapier. Deadfire allows him to make it official by multiclassing as a Wizard/Fighter or Wizard/Rogue.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy:
    • With Iselmyr. Aloth is a prim, proper, fussy scholar while Iselmyr is Hot-Blooded, foul-mouthed, quick-tempered, and loves drinking and brawling in cheap taverns.
    • He also shares this dynamic with Pallegina, Sagani and Maneha in party banter, since he's very delicate, effeminate, and appreciates the finer things in life (fancy drinks, literature, etc.), while Pallegina is a stoic warrior, Sagani is a hunter who's spent years on the road, and Maneha is a hard-drinking mercenary-turned-raider.
    • Can potentially enter a romantic relationship like this with a female Watcher, depending on her race, background, and/or personality.
  • Master of the Mixed Message: Upon meeting his old acquaintance Ymir, who studied at the same college as him, there is clear chemistry between them, but Aloth is quick to downplay it. He admits that he "confused the poor fellow" in their academy days, and when he tells Ymir that it was "lovely" to see him again, he quickly catches himself and states that "lovely" might be too strong a term and that "pleasant" is a better fit.
  • The Mole: In an interesting take on the trope, he reveals that he is in fact a member of the Leaden Key, but was not actually tasked to spy on the player per se. In fact, he was about to abandon the organization altogether when he saw you in Gilded Vale.
  • Neat Freak: Implied in the first game, confirmed in the second — complete with idle animation of dusting off his pristine robes. If Iselmyr is not suppressed, she elaborates that he's always been obsessed with cleanliness and tidiness. He never used to enter a threshold without scrubbing his boots, always kept his robes spotless, is secretly terrified of seagull shit, and once woke his entire dormitory in the Academy screaming in his sleep about an disorderly library. Aloth also hates when Iselmyr dog-ears his grimoire, and there's a minor Running Gag of companions dirtying his grimoire behind his back.
  • Nervous Wreck: Downplayed. While he strives to appear as calm and rational as possible, his constant fidgeting and pained/worried expressions betrays that inside he's always on edge. He's also the most easily startled in party banter, most hesitant to speak his mind to the Watcher, and shrinks pack the hardest whenever the Watcher snaps at him. (Sadly Truth in Television for many adults who were abused as children.)
  • Noble Male, Roguish Male: He seems to have a split-personality that's rough around the edges, which is against his normally prim and proper persona. Interestingly enough, Iselmyr's female.
  • Oblivious to Love: The Watcher can tell him in the second game that they always thought there might have been something between them, which seems to blindside Aloth.
  • Older Than They Look: He's at least 65, since he mentions that Iselmyr Awakened when he was 15, and he's been living with her for 50 years. Justified as Eora elves age slowly and have a lifespan of a few centuries.
  • Only-Child Syndrome: Aloth's difficult childhood was made worse by not having any siblings for his abusive father to focus on, and said father demanded perfection from his only child.
  • Opposites Attract: Depending on the Watcher's reputation, Aloth can point out that you two are so different. While Aloth always hesitates and rarely knows what to do, you're brash, bold, and quick to action. He can also note the irony that you're a lot like Iselmyr, yet he's still falling for you.
  • Other Me Annoys Me: He doesn't like Iselmyr's Hair-Trigger Temper.
  • Out of the Frying Pan: He left Aedyr because he couldn't find a patron apart from the erl his abusive father served, and he wanted to get as far away from his father as possible. The Watcher then meets him getting harassed and attacked by Dyrwoodans for being Aedyran. It can get worse if the Watcher chases Aloth away on learning his past with the Leaden Key, wherein Aloth is driven to despair and suicide.
  • The Perfectionist: Very fussy and self-possessed, Aloth always strives to do things the "proper" way, both in how he conducts himself and how he performs magic. It's revealed that his abusive father used to beat the shit out of him for every little mistake till he was 15, and he spent most of his life trying to be a model student so as not to draw attention to himself or his Awakened Split Personality.
  • Permanently Missable Content: His sidequest can be missed if not completed before the end of Act II.
  • Perpetual Frowner: Rekke says he always has a "sour lemon face", although given what Rekke is like, it's not surprising that they wouldn't get along. Still, his expressions are often described as studiously blank and politely attentive, and his smiles are described as fleeting, twitching briefly into place and then gone again. Which makes sense given his lonely upbringing.
  • Playing with Fire: Starts off with a few fire spells, and can learn more if the player so chooses.
    • Played for Laughs in Deadfire, where the Watcher encounters him undercover with some animancers learns his go-to cover story is that both his parents died in a fire. Then his "rich old aunt/uncle" (depending on the Watcher's gender) also died. In a fire.
  • Picky Eater: Spends a lot of time complaining about Dyrwoodan food in the first game. (Which is probably why he's so thin.) In Deadfire, he's bulked out quite a bit and approvingly says at one point that the Vailians know how to use spices.
  • Relationship Upgrade: Is the only returning companion who can be romanced in Deadfire.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: If you encourage him to be more independent, he'll take it upon himself to take down the Leaden Key.
  • Samus Is a Girl: His uncouth, sweary alter-ego? She's a girl.
  • Sarcastic Devotee: Aloth tends to snark and second-guess the Watcher more than any other companion, but he's also one of the most steadfastly loyal in the first game. Helps that he was The Mole, then they became his Only Friend.
  • Screw Yourself: Both Hiravias and Serafen ask if Aloth ever tried getting intimate with his Split Personality Iselmyr. Aloth firmly shuts them both down.
  • Sink or Swim Mentor: The Watcher can suggest that Iselmyr forcing a confrontation whenever Aloth is in trouble could be her way of trying to make him more assertive and confront his problems. He doesn't seem too convinced, but promises to think on it.
  • Slap-Slap-Kiss: A way to start his romance arc in Deadfire is actually by getting his relationship with the Watcher as negative as possible first. When this happen, Aloth is prompted to confront the Watcher with his dislike for them, which the Watcher can throw back in his face by accusing him of only playing a contrarian to them because he wants someone to fight against, before planting a "Take That!" Kiss on him. Aloth discovers, much to his confusion, that he actually enjoys the experience of said kiss, and falls in love with the Watcher.
  • Sour Outside, Sad Inside: He's very serious and uptight (Rekke even describes him as having a "sour lemon face", and his character portraits support this), but deep down he's very scared and alone, dealing with the aftermath of his abusive childhood, his Split Personality Iselmyr, and his past with the Leaden Key.
  • Sleeves Are for Wimps: Averted. Aloth's leather armor has no sleeves in both games, but only because that's the style in Aedyr, which is basically the culture of 19th Century Britain in the climate of the Amazon. In the second game it's revealed that day-to-day wear for most Aedyrans is Greek-style togas, and Aloth's armor now includes, in addition to even less coverage above the shoulder, a longer skirt, and a draping blue sash over the shoulder.
  • Split Personality: His soul was Awakened and is currently hosting the personality of a previous life he'd lived, Iselmyr. You can choose to help him accept her or suppress her, a choice which carries over into the sequel.
  • Straight Man and Wise Guy: Aloth generally plays the Straight Man to the more jokey, wacky Wise Guy companions including Iselmyr.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Normally very cool, tetchy, and aloof, he can show a much warmer and kinder side to a Watcher who gains his trust and friendship and doesn't outright reject him when he reveals his past with the Leaden Key, and even love in the second game.
  • Taking Up the Mantle: One of his possible endings suggests he takes up Thaos' mantle of High Inquisitor, of all things, if he's convinced that keeping the secret of the gods is worth doing and that Thaos just went too far.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Durance in the first game, Tekehu in the second.note  In both games, Aloth alone will actually interrupt their one-on-one conversations with the Watcher to snark under his breath.
    Tekehu: [to the Watcher] I... know how I must seem. We did not have this word, "conceited," before Aedyrans landed on the aisles.
    Aloth: Well, you've certainly made up for lost time.
  • This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Both of his endings lead to this. The "authority" ending has him replacing Thaos as leader of the Leaden Key and working to reforming the group, whereas the "independence" ending has him using his knowledge of the Leaden Key in order to ultimately destroy them.
  • Throw the Book at Them: As a wizard, he can learn Grimoire Slam.
  • Troll: Iselmyr can be one towards both Aloth and others. A notable example in Deadfire is when she takes advantage of Edér's crush on her and coaxes him into kissing her. As Edér leans in for the kiss, she returns control of Aloth's body to him, leaving him horrified at what Edér was about to do. Iselmyr can only laugh at Edér's embarrassment.
  • Unwanted Assistance: invoked It's revealed that his Awakened past life tends to come out when he's under pressure or distress. Since her methods tend to get him into even more trouble, he wishes she wouldn't.
  • Uptight Loves Wild: His romance can have some shades of this with a Watcher who is more passionate, impulsive, and/or snarky.
  • Useless Bystander Parent: Aloth's mother, who often left him to deal with his father's abuse alone, and then left him to hide his Awakened Literal Split Personality Iselmyr. The Watcher can accuse her as much in the first game. In the second, Aloth can come to blame her or forgive her for this depending on the path he took at the end of the first game.
  • Violent Glaswegian: Iselmyr and "her intolerable Hylspeak."
  • Walking Spoiler: Aloth is very tight-lipped about himself, which makes every revelation, including the truth about his split personality and connections with the Leaden Key, a spoiler.

    Edér 

Edér Teylecg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e4uzackhmbd.png

"Tough to walk very far without a soul. The Hollowborn, usually you'd have to stack 'em in a wheelbarrow and push 'em around."
Voiced by: Matthew Mercer

A human fighter and veteran of the Saint's War. Edér's not welcome in his hometown of Gilded Vale, for various reasons, chief among them being that he is a follower of Eothas. Seeing that his prospects in his hometown are dim, he decides to tag along with the Watcher. He returns as a companion in Deadfire.


  • All Love Is Unrequited: All romantic feelings surrounding him in Deadfire amount to this. He's still not over a girl he used to date, and if a non-orlan female Watcher flirts with him, he lets them down on these grounds, while male and orlan Watchers are let down because of their gender or race, respectively. If neither are romanced, Xoti flirts with him and he half-heartedly reciprocates for a while. On the other hand, he's still clearly into Iselmyr, who shares a body with Aloth (whom Edér is not into nor vice-versa), and she's not into him either.
    • Eder can finally start a "lifelong friendship") with Xoti, but only if Deadfire is completed with both characters having maxed relationship values and having come to similar conclusions regarding the nature of the gods, albeit in different games.
  • Badass Boast: Mellow as he usually is, he gets in a pretty good one on his god, Eothas, in the second game. Which means it's also a Blasphemous Boast.
    Edér: Hey! Eothas! We're not done here. You and I, we're not finished. Don't think you can just move me aside like all the rest. Maybe you can't be stopped. But on behalf of everyone you've trampled, betrayed, and ignored, I'll be coming to see you again.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: In Deadfire, Eothas finally returns. Unfortunately, Eothas's first act after returning nearly kills Edér's friend the Watcher:
    Edér: I used to dream that when my god came back, he would forgive us. That's the trouble with dreams: sooner or later, we all have to wake up.
  • Big Brother Worship: Edér idolized his brother and thought the world of him. It's why he takes the rumor that his brother defected to the other side during the Saint's War so hard. Especially when the rumor turns out to be true and Edér is left doubting whether he fought for the right side after all.
  • The Big Guy: Big, loyal, and, though not stupid, more Book Dumb than other companions.
  • Broken Pedestal: He heard rumors that his brother actually fought for the other side during the Saint's War, but refuses to believe it. Doing his quest lets you discover that his brother did join the opposing force, but not the reasons why his brother did it.
  • Character Class: Fighter. In Deadfire, his options are Fighter, Rogue, or Fighter/Rogue (Swashbuckler).
  • Chekhov's Gunman: He can be seen and spoken to as soon as you enter Gilded Vale, but he won't join you until a certain event happens in the town.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Some of the things he says are... out there. He also has the bright idea of petting Itumaak, and the even more brilliant idea of petting a stelgaer (a fantasy sabre-tooth tiger). Hiravias has to wonder how Dyrwoodans even survive with whims like that.
  • Crisis of Faith:
    • One which is central to his character: his god was seemingly blown up while possessing Waidwen, and followers of Eothas were killed en masse during the purges that followed. He fought against Waidwen's army during the Saint's War, believing Waidwen to be an impostor. Years later, he still wonders if he fought for the right side, and if he didn't in fact betray his god. Then he discovers that his brother actually defected to Waidwen's side during the war, that Waidwen may have really been Eothas and may be permanently dead, and that in any case the gods were created by kith and aren't true gods after all. Needless to say, he is quite shaken as a result.
    • However, depending on your conversations with him, he can have his faith renewed, even though he knows that the gods are kith-made and that his own god is probably dead. He then joins a secret society of Eothasians and quickly become an important member. Alternatively, he can let go of his faith and move to Dyrford Village, where he becomes a fixture of the community and, eventually, mayor.
    • In Deadfire, he can come to struggle with his faith again due to Eothas making his way across the Deadfire Sea, causing much death and destruction in the process. By the end, he comes to despise the gods in general, but your choices decide whether he extends that hatred to Eothas or not. He will either rebuild his love for Eothas or come to despise Eothas (and in one ending outright refuse to even say his name out of spite anymore).
  • Cuckoosnarker: He may be a bit out of it — and this may or may not be due to to the whiteleaf — but Edér remains a quick wit in his own, slightly eccentric way, even while trying to pet anything fluffy, or coming up with crazy whims.
  • Cuteness Proximity: If it's cute and fluffy, chances are Edér will want to pet it. He does it to Sagani's fox, Ituumak, despite warnings that he bites, and even asks Hiravias if he can pet him at one point. In the sequel, he's got the same reaction to Maia's bird, Ishiza.
  • Deadly Euphemism: Edér, relating an old joke:
    The Watcher: What's a Dyrwoodan Hello?
    Edér: [smiling] We blew him up.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: A war veteran whose whole hometown (those that were left) was about ready to hang him after discovering that his brother (maybe) fought on the wrong side of said war.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Edér has a very laidback wit which he shows off at every available opportunity.
    Edér: Say what you want about Dyrwoodans... but they haven't met a problem yet that they couldn't solve by killing some scapegoats.
  • Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: If Edér is with you while talking to Osrya in Raedric's keep, after she asks you to kill Nedmar Edér may say the following line:
    Edér: Hey, let's take the deal and then double-cross her! Sorry, I said that louder than I meant to. Got excited.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Most of Edér's rambling stories are metaphors, intentionally or not, for the events of the games.
    • Early in the first game, he tells the Watcher a story about a one of his neighbors holding out hope his wicht daughter — chained up in the barn, after having killed and eaten her brother — is going to wake up one day and recognize her papa. This is a metaphor (as Edér has belatedly recognized) for how how the whole Dyrwood, including Gilded Vale, turned on their own during the Purges. Just like that farmer, Edér has spent years just waiting for his hometown to finally snap out of it.
    • When you ask him how he spent the last five years in Deadfire, all three of his possible endings from the first game end up with him wondering if he could have done anything differently, or if good people getting hurt is just the cost of trying to change things. Which ends up being the central driving conflict of the game.
    • At the very end of Deadfire, with Eothas on the verge of smashing the Great Wheel to pieces, breaking the cycle of reincarnation, Edér tells the Watcher one last story — about a misspent afternoon when he was a kid, playing with his mother's spinning wheel and breaking it by accident, then breaking it even worse while trying to fix it. He says he used to think of the gods as being like his disappointed parents in that story — now, however, he sees the gods as more like that unattended little boy, playing with things that don't belong to them.
  • Dumb Muscle: Downplayed, at least in the first game. He might seem a bit slow, but he's actually quite observant, which is reflected in his above-average Perception stat. He's still a big, buff tank, though.
    Hiravias: The circumference of his neck exceeds the circumference of my torso at its thickest point... They sure do breed them big and dumb in the Dyrwood, don't they?
  • Establishing Character Moment: Can be found casually smoking his pipe in Gilded Vale under the hanging tree, and casually jokes that he'll likely to be the next hung on that tree.
  • Everyone Can See It: Played with. Several companions can remark in party banter that they thought there might be something more between Eder and the Watcher and it's such wasted potential he's not into them, with Eder agreeing but claiming he can't help how he feels. Doubles as Leaning on the Fourth Wall since the companions are stating what many players feel.
  • Evil Stole My Faith: First it was Waidwen, who surely couldn't be Eothas, right? But between the Saint's War, and the Purges, and Raedric's hangings, Edér is a pretty broken man when you find him, despite his calm and affable exterior. Depending on your choices in both the first and second game, he either rebuilds his faith in Eothas and His ideals (despite Eder's growing disenchantment with the gods in general) or writes Eothas off as no better than the rest and rejects Him altogether.
  • Fantastic Racism: Admits to it in the second game, if an orlan Watcher tries to romance him. While he's perfectly cordial to every orlan he meets (save a few Innocently Insensitive comments), he still explains that growing up in Dyrwood he didn't meet many orlans, but he was always hearing about how much trouble they were, and the few he did encounter were bad news, so he still has that negative association in his head—except with you, of course.
    • Edér is also the only companion who approves of kidnapping baby Vela. While the other companions are aware and appalled that you're taking a baby from her family, and that she'll be a lot of responsibility to raise, Edér is thrilled. He excitedly declares that he has room in his pack if you let him name it, seemingly unaware that she has a name and family already, and isn't just another pet to pick up like a dog or a cat.
  • Farm Boy: Used to be. Even tried to go back to being one after the war. It didn't stick.
  • Flanderization: The second game tends to play up his Dumb Muscle qualities and make less of his clear-eyed, cynical commentary on the world — though admittedly, he's a long way away from Gilded Vale at this point. He's still a ready source of surprisingly apt anecdotes and life experience. (Though it could also be years of abusing whiteleaf catching up with him...)
  • Fluffy Tamer: He wants to be, but most companions know better. Hiravias even remarks at one point that with him trying to pet every animal he sees, no matter how big and deadly it is (like stelgaers), it's a wonder he's still alive.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic (reserved and easygoing).
  • Friend to All Living Things: Hiravias points out that Edér is very kind to animals, a sign of his Hidden Heart of Gold buried under the barbs and largeness. He also loves petting soft animals, often to his detriment.
  • Gallows Humor: He regularly makes light about his status as a pariah and the fact that a lot of people in Dyrwood would like to see him dead. One of the first things you'll even see him doing is joking that he'll likely be the 19th person to be hanged in Gilded Vale.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Without a doubt one of the kindest companion you can recruit, and the only one who still worships Eothas (a god known for his kindness and benevolence), despite Eothas being allegedly dead. He also has a very large soft spot for animals.
  • The Heart: Much more so in Deadfire. Helping you defeat Thaos seems to have done a lot to help reclaim his spot in the world. With Eothas' help, you can, of course, break him all over again.
  • Hero of Another Story: Edér was a veteran of the Saint's War, which ended the reign of an usurper pretending to be the incarnation of a god. Or so he thought.
  • Heroes Love Dogs: Edér loves animals in general. He pets Ituumak, and notably has a number of random banters commenting on the various animals the Watcher can put in their pet slot, particularly dogs.
    Edér: Hey, you think we could get another dog? Keep this one company? Just a thought.
  • Heroic Spirit: Downplayed, but the racial stat bonus for humans is +1 Resolve. The stat bonus for characters from the Dyrwood? Another +1 Resolve. And if you directed the stolen souls in Sun-in-Shadow back into the souls of all Dyrwoodans, which is the option Edér argues for at the very end of the game, in Deadfire he has a special trait, Strong-Souled, which gives him +5 HP. Presumably this is what lets him keep his sense of humor in the face of all that's happened.
  • If It's You, It's Okay: Even though he's not interested in a male Watcher (see Incompatible Orientation below), he is attracted to Iselmyr despite the fact that she is stuck in Aloth's male body. However, nothing comes of it as she isn't interested in him that way.
  • Illegal Religion: He's a victim of this, as the town is against him for being a follower of Eothas.
  • I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: "Can we keep him?" Edér asked the Watcher, not for this first time. He even has this reaction to Modwyr in the sequel.
  • Incompatible Orientation: If a male Watcher tries to romance him, this is one of the reasons he turns them down. He does say that if he's ever curious then you'll be the first to know.
  • Innocent Bigot: Towards Orlans, to the point that he all-but calls Hiravias "One of the good ones" in the first game.
  • Innocently Insensitive: Sometimes he says things that rile people up without meaning to. Given where he grew up, it's not surprising that he genuinely doesn't know any better.
    • The Dyrwoodan tendency of Fantastic Racism for orlans shows in his banter with Hiravias. He immediately apologizes, meekly stating that he didn't know he was saying something bad. This also comes up in Deadfire if an orlan Watcher tries to romance him.
    • He's learned his lesson in Deadfire, sort of — before he even asks the question, he warns Tekēhu that he doesn't mean ill by it.
      Edér: All right... Is there any kind of ocean critter I shouldn't be eating in front of you?
    • In both games, Edér openly gushing about Iselmyr and asking to talk to her all the time makes Aloth feel irritated and left out, since he's standing right there. Edér does eventually apologize in the second game, though he never quite stops openly favoring Iselmyr's company over Aloth's.
  • Magically Inept Fighter: Even in the second game, he chooses from (or combines) the two mostly mundane, physical classes: Fighter and Rogue.
  • Mellow Fellow: Edér is casual and laidback in manner, speaks in a calm, wry tone of voice, and is hard to upset or even annoy. Of course, that's because most of the worst things he could imagine happening to him have already come to pass.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: Said almost word for word (depending on party composition of course) during a fairly harrowing vision from a god.
    If I'm dying here, at least it was with my friends. And Durance.
  • Never Accepted in His Hometown: Despite fighting for Dyrwood during the Saint's War, he's not accepted in his hometown of Gilded Vale because he and his family were Eothasians.
  • Nay-Theist: Starts to show this side as you learn more of Eothas' ultimate goal in Deadfire.
  • Nice Guy: Beneath the dry humor and the intimidating stature (at least according to Hiravias), he's a pretty friendly guy. He never raises his voice to the Watcher except during his personal quest, and that was out of desperation, not hate.
  • The Not-Love Interest: Despite the fact that he's a recurring party member who is treated as perhaps the Watcher's closest companion (a role that in other Western RPGs would mark him as a love interest), Edér cannot be romanced by any player character for various personal reasons and will always politely turn them down.
  • Oblivious to Love: Tekēhu is pretty clearly hitting on him in a few banters, but Edér never picks up on it, and Tekēhu eventually lets it drop.
  • The One That Got Away: Deadfire reveals that he was deeply in love with a woman Elafa, and has been unable to move completely past that relationship ever since it ended. It is also the main reason why he rejects the idea of pursuing a romantic relationship with either a non-orlan female Watcher or Xoti.
  • Plucky Comic Relief: Leans toward this in the second game, when he's gotten a little distance on the Dark and Troubled Past that prevented him from being this in the first game. Not the case in the first game, where the wounds are still raw, and his Sad Clown tendencies are closer to the surface.
  • Restored My Faith in Humanity: Defeating Thaos, and, more particularly, meeting the Watcher, seem to have done this for Edér: as of Deadfire.
  • Sad Clown: Most of his jokes are a reaction to the insanity all around him, and duly barbed.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: Edér never does find out why his brother joined Waidwen's army.
  • Ship Tease: Offers to buy Iselmyr a drink. Could just be a friendly gesture, but given his open admiration of her and frequent gushing about how funny she is and how awesome she is to be around...
    • The second game plays this dynamic with Xoti for all its worth, but ultimately the best possible ending for them ends with them becoming Platonic Life-Partners.
  • Sibling Rivalry: Affectionate oneupsmanship, as Edér remembers it now.
    Edér: We got along how brothers do. He used to throw water on me to wake me up in the morning. I used to fill his boots with stinging ants.
  • Simple-Minded Wisdom: The source of a good deal of this, through his quips and anecdotes.
  • The Simple Life is Simple: Yeah, no. But of course we already knew that.
    Maia: You ever long for the simple life, soldier?
    Edér: Nah, where I'm from, sometimes the simple life comes knocking on your door with nooses and pitchforks.
    • On the other hand...
    Maneha: Edér, you were a military man. Ever consider making a career of it?
    Edér: I did for a while. Then I heard you could make money shoveling pig shit and thought that sounded better.
  • Smoking Is Cool: The player first meets him as he's casually smoking a pipe while observing a bunch of corpses hanging from a tree. He is also frequently seen calmly smoking his pipe in much of the promotional material. In the second game, him lighting his pipe and smoking it became his idle animation.
  • The Snark Knight: Has a quip for almost every occasion.
  • The Stoner: Conversations with Hiravias and Zahua suggest he's a casual user of the Dyrwood's milder drugs. He even starts out with a couple sprigs of whiteleaf in the sequel, and the in-game description of the Dyrwood's (weak) beer in both games acknowledges that narcotics are more popular than alcohol throughout the country. Truth in Television, since garden-variety mild drugs had a long history of home use before they became illegal, or before they were laboratory-concentrated and then became illegal.
  • Sympathy for the Devil: He's come to see the many ways in which he and Waidwen are more similar than he'd like with an especially hefty dose if you bring him into Waidwen's Dying Dream in Rymrgand's realm during The Beast of Winter.
  • The Un-Favorite: Ultimately averted, since Edér's parents never thought any less of Edér or tried to change him, but they all thought of his big brother Woden as The Ace.
  • Video Game Cruelty Punishment: If the Watcher gains a negative reputation with him in II, his selection voice set changes, with the normally affable Edér sounding incredibly depressed at having found out that his god and his last real friend in the world are both kind of assholes.
  • You Are a Credit to Your Race: He at one point compliments Hiravias like this, saying that he might be a hairy (i.e. Wild) orlan but in his eyes he is as good as one of the hairless ones (i.e. the Hearth orlans, who are viewed as more "civilized"). Hiravias is understandably quite incensed about it, and Edér quickly backtracks, stating that he didn't mean to offend him. Hiravias does end up forgiving him. This comes up again if an orlan Watcher tries to romance him in Deadfire.

    Pallegina 

Pallegina mes Rèi

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/qfmtnigajat.png

"The safety of the Republics is being decided here. If I do what needs to be done, there'll be time enough to beg forgiveness when the dust settles."
Voiced by: Mela Lee

An avian godlike paladin from the Vailian Republics, she's first encountered when the Watcher wanders into Ondra's Gift in Defiance Bay, and offers to join the party after the manager at the Vailian import/export warehouse is tended to first. She joins the Watcher in the hopes of serving the larger interests of the Vailian Republics, rather than the relatively short-sighted goals of the Council of Ducs. She returns as a companion in Deadfire.


  • Abusive Parents: Pallegina's father hated her both because she was born godlike, meaning she was sterile, and because her birth caused her mother injuries so severe that she was incapable of bearing any more children, effectively ending his line. Perhaps the nicest thing that could be said about him is that he didn't throttle her at birth like many other parents of godlike children.
  • Afro Asskicker: Sports a magnificent mane of hair (and plumage).
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Pallegina sympathizes with outcasts, since her unusual appearance as a godlike has forever marked her as different from other people, who tend to shun her as a result.
    Pallegina: We all have to protect ourselves, no matter where we are. Being different means always looking over your shoulder, no matter what company you keep.
  • Ambiguously Gay: She becomes flustered when Maneha flirts with her by complimenting her accent, and implies that men paying her similar compliments in the past had not caused the same reaction. This is also evidenced in-game by her hostile reactions to male companions who flirt with her, such as Hiravias, Aloth (who she is not convinced was really "Iselmyr"), and Tekehu. Additionally, in the Vailian Trading Company ending of Deadfire, there is rampant gossip that she is having an affair with the Ducess of Spirento. Her devotion to her country supersedes any potential for romance, however, so there has been no proper confirmation.
  • Anti-Nihilist: Out of all companions, she probably takes The Reveal that the gods aren't real the best, acknowledging Iovara's (rhetorical) point that perhaps science can't provide the same certainty as the gods, that certain things have no inherent meaning without a higher power to assign them one. It helps that Pallegina has a longstanding bone to pick with her "mother" Hylea, of course.
    Pallegina: I stopped asking those questions long ago. It is enough to care for those we love with the time we have in this life.
  • Badass Boast: Tends to make these by making simple (under)statements of fact with absolute conviction.
    Pallegina: You will find this meal most difficult to eat, dragon.
  • Better the Devil You Know: While she's not necessarily fond of House Doemenel, she favors them over The Dozens since she considers the former smart enough to at least keep order in Defiance Bay.
  • BFS: Starts out equipped with and proficient in the use of a greatsword in both games.
  • By-the-Book Cop: Somewhat clouded, probably deliberately. She's introduced alongside the Doemenel crime family, who are also the faction whose influence on Defiance Bay she most supports. However, this is because the Doemenels are businessmen at heart, and the only rules Pallegina is interested in following are those set down by her ducs.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: It's not her biological parents, she's already come to terms with them. No... her beef is with Hylea herself, as the source of her Avian godlike features. She can give Hylea a piece of her mind if she's in the party when the Watcher meets the goddess.
  • Character Class: Paladin. In Deadfire, her options are Paladin, Paladin/Fighter (Crusader), or Paladin/Chanter (Herald).
  • Deadpan Snarker: More so in the first game, when she was much more hotheaded and impetuous. She chooses her words very carefully indeed after returning from being banished.
    Pallegina: You want to help? Sure. Go into that warehouse and ask for a man named Verzano. When you find him, throw him in a sack, throw the sack in a crate, and put the crate on a boat headed to Ancenze. Or the bottom of the Pearlwood Gulf. Either's fine with me.
  • Establishing Character Moment: She is introduced coolly strolling up to a Too Dumb to Live merchant who has crossed the Doemenels (and gotten others killed for it in the past) that the Vailian Embassy has withdrawn its protection, so she is no longer obligated to save him from his own stupidity or enable his continued destructive tendencies. She advises the Watcher to leave him to his self-inflicted fate, but does not stop you if you opt to save him, and joins you afterwards no matter what you do. This displays her absolute loyalty and obediance to the Vailain Republics, her unwillingness to suffer fools, and her Tranquil Fury over those who get innocents hurt.
  • The Exile: If the souls of the Dyrwood aren't strengthened by the souls of the Hollowborn, and Pallegina makes up a new trade agreement instead of the one she was ordered to offer, she ends up banished from the Republics. If she makes up a new deal and the souls of the Dyrwood are strengthened with the Hollowborn souls, however, the Republics benefit from her trade deal, and her exile is only temporary.
    • Can potentially become this in the second game (for the second time, even) if you side with the Huana without implicating the Vailians to cause a Rauatai/Vailian cold war. The VTC will pull out of the Deadfire and attempt to exile her (potentially for the second time) for supporting you. If Director Castol still holds his position, he'll intervene on her behalf.
  • Expy: Of Kaelyn the Dove, a divinely powered warrior with avian features and a celestial heritage, who starts to have doubts over the rightness of her cause, and the wisdom of her elders. Right down to one possible ending for Pallegina, where she's exiled from the Republics and pledges her sword to a more altruistic order of paladins. If you play your cards right, however, her exile may only be temporary.
  • Face–Heel Turn: In Deadfire, if you side against the Republic in the endgame and she was not exiled back in 1, not only will she desert you, but if the Republic is the Post-Final Boss, she will fight against you at Castol's side with no hesitation, bluntly telling you that the time she spent with you means nothing compared to her devotion to the Republic.
  • Flaming Sword: Blue Technicolor Fire, courtesy of the standard paladin ability Flames of Devotion.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Choleric (strong-willed and task-oriented).
  • Friendless Background: Driven home in Deadfire — not only was she sold to the Brotherhood by her father, but she wasn't close to any of her fellow paladins, either. The ideal of the Republic itself was really the one light in her life, which explains her absolute devotion to her country. The only real friend she had growing up was her brief acquaintance with Giacolo, the animancer who prevented her godlike attributes from manifesting any further, becoming something of a father figure to her. In a VTC ending, it's also implied that her reasons for favoring the Republic of Spirento above all others may have more to do with the Ducess herself than the country, with the two implied to have embarked on a common knowledge affair which is the talk of the capital.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: In Deadfire, Pallegina's breastplate changes depending on which of her endings you got in the first game. It's a symbol of her mental state as much as anything.
    • Each version starts with the Defiant trait, reducing all damage by 5%, which increases as the wearer's health drops.
    • If she followed her orders and put the Republics' interests ahead of the struggling Dyrwood, she is assigned to the Honor Guard of the Ducess of Spirento and given a new breasplate and bright-red sash as a mark of her position. It can be upgraded to give her a +8 bonus to all defenses (Pride of the Ducs), which drops as she loses health.
    • If she followed her orders but the Dyrwood later bounced back thanks to the Watcher strengthening their souls, or if she was banished and later reinstated under the same circumstances, her Five Suns Breastplate is as pristine and shining as it was in the first game, upgradeable to grant a damage-enhancing aura (Bracciao Rugo) to allies.
    • If she was exiled from the Republics and spent years working as a guard, her original breastplate, now listed as the Desgraza Breastplate, is now gouged and pitted, with the five suns of the Republics painstakingly scratched off. It can replace Defiant's damage reduction with an aura (Recompienza) that provides the same protective qualities to Pallegina's allies, while stripping them from Pallegina herself.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation:
    • While picking up some fighter training makes sense for a career soldier, her herald (paladin/chanter) multiclass is given no in-game reference or explanation, and Kana actually asks her to stop singing at one point (and she's not even that bad, or at least Mela Lee's voiceover isn't). That being said, given that chanting is as much asking the spirits for their willing help as anything else, it might be the spellcasting class that requires the least background explanation.
    • Even if she eventually joined the Kind Wayfarers in one of her endings from the first game, no mention of this is made in Deadfire and her subclass doesn't change. The game seems to treat this as the ending where she became a guard for ships and caravans from the Republics, to be as close to others from her homeland as she could after her banishment.
  • Giant Poofy Sleeves: Of the Elizabethan slashed-silks variety. In the second game, her pantaloons are even larger to match.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Language: Gratuitous fantasy Italian. She drops enough Vailian into her dialogue to count as Poirot Speak at times.
  • Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Which is funny, of course, since she's part bird. Kana, who otherwise spends half his time trying to convince others to sing him any snippets of folk songs they can remember, backs off completely when Pallegina volunteers, of her own free will, to sing the various patriotic Republic anthems she knows.
  • Hot-Blooded: She's known for her hot temper in the first game, but seems to have become more reserved (or beaten down) in the second.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Pallengina hates being treated as special and somehow chosen by the gods, like godlike in the Deadfire. Part of this is simply down to her longtime Nay Theism, but it's more than that, since she wouldn't be godlike at all if she had the choice — most avian godlike are considerably more avian in appearance, but Pallegina's development was stopped short in adolescence thanks to a surgical procedure by the animancer Giacolo, perhaps the closest thing she has to a friend and father figure. Due to this, while she is against racism as a whole, she also doesn't want godlike to be treated any differently either, which puts her at odds against Tekehu.
  • Informed Flaw: Her 'horrible' singing voice. In-universe, she's terrible enough for Kana to beg her not to sing anymore after he listens to her once; out of universe, she's played by the lovely-voiced Mela Lee, who doesn't manage to hit anything that could be considered awful.
  • Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: Depending on the ending you got for her in the first game, the sunburst symbols may be stricken from her breastplate after she's ejected from the Brotherhood of the Five Suns.
  • Jack of All Trades: Has a very balanced spread of stats with no clear favorite. She also belongs to a primarily defensive class (Paladin) while favoring the two-handed sword, a very offensive-minded weapon.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: "Jerk" might be overselling it, but she is a stoic, hot-blooded, ruthlessly pragmatic servant of the ducs who will not suffer fools or unwanted flirting and can make grown men piss themselves just by glaring at them. But she has a very kind heart underneath; she's deeply compassionate to outcasts like herself (including orlans like Hiravias), wants what's best for her beloved Republics, and (if the Watcher encourages it) will defy orders for the ducs for the good of the Dyrwoodan and Vailian Republic people.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: She'll do what the ducs ask. She might complain at some length, but she'll do it. It takes convincing from the Watcher to make her do otherwise.
  • Lady of War: Starts equipped with a great sword and knowing the Soldier weapon mastery, and despite her sharp tongue she's a poised and courteous mediator between her native Vailian Republics and the merchants of the Dyrwood.
  • Long Game: She's frustrated that her ducs are only focused on short-term gains to secure footholds of power, rather than long-term stability which would ensure the future of the Vailian Republics.
  • Loophole Abuse: How she gained access to the Brotherhood - only women that can bear children are considered "women" in the Vailian Republics, so her being infertile (due to her godlike status) was enough for the recruiter to happily agree to take her.
  • Magic Knight: As a paladin, she channels soul energy into both powerful attacks and healing.
  • Magic Music: While the chanter's various buffs do synergize nicely with the ones she can choose as a paladin, there's no in-game reference to how or when she picked up the knack.
  • Mark of Shame: Her marred breastplate from the second game. Pallegina being Pallegina, she still wears her shame even after being banished for years, since it's her only remaining connection to the country she loves.
  • Married to the Job: Maneha finds out the hard way between the first and second games. If the Watcher tries to flirt with her in Deadfire, so will they. In her Vailian Trading Company ending in Deadfire, there's gossip all over the Republic of Spirento that she's in a relationship with the Ducess, much to the Chagrin of the Ducess's husband. A local playwright even stages a popular farce about it.
    Pallegina: The Republics are the only love I have ever known. I would give all that I have to them, to our people, to our future.
    Watcher: The only love? Have you never been in love with someone?
    Pallegina: [tilts her feathered head to one side, thinking] If love means to feel the way I do about my country, no. What I feel is about more than one person, more than the ducs.
  • The Musketeer: She starts off with a greatsword and a pistol as her weapons.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: The crux of her conflict. She feels that the mission she's currently doing for the ducs isn't what's best for the Republics overall. Whether she obeys or disobeys orders, and whether she's rewarded or punished for doing so, depends on the player's actions.
  • Nay-Theist: She resents the gods — particularly Hylea — for creating godlike like herself and then abandoning them into the world. She becomes even more contemptuous of them in the sequel, knowing what she now knows about their true nature. This ironically leads to her being the one party member who approves of Eothas breaking the Wheel.
    Pallegina: At their best, the gods are powerful children. At their worst, they are little more than mad beasts taking out their anger on our world.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Making up a new trade deal so as not to take advantage of the Dyrwood's weakened state for the Republics short-term gain can end disastrously for her if the Watcher doesn't end up strengthening the Dyrwood with the stolen Hollowborn souls. With the Dyrwood not in a position to challenge the Republics for trade, Pallegina ends up exiled from her beloved homeland.
  • The Order: The Frermàs mes Canc Suolias ("Brotherhood of the Five Suns," in Vailian) are a paladin order loyal to the ducs bels, the five rulers of the Vailian Republics. Not the will of any one duc, mind you, but the collective will of the ducs as a whole.
  • The Paladin: Paladins in this setting serve ideals, and don't necessarily directly commune with the gods. Pallegina, for example, is a Paladin of the Brotherhood of the Five Suns (the Frermàs mes Canc Suolias), an order loyal to the Vailian Republics' legislature. All of her multiclass options in Deadfire retain paladin as her first class. She's somewhat single-minded, to put it lightly, since her powers are basically drawn from her patriotism — yet not mindlessly so, since her love of country often clashes with the orders of her ducs, which she frequently sees as shortsighted.
  • Playing with Fire: Paladins project soul-fire, and paladins of Pallegina's sun-themed Vailian order all the more so, hurling motes of fire, summoning blinding columns of light, and wreathing her weapon in flames.
  • Prestige Class: Her unique Paladin subclass, Frermàs mes Canc Suolias, grants Sworn Enemy as a bonus ability, and upgrades it to Wrath of the Five Suns, which launches five motes of flame when it's used, dealing Burn damage to the target. In the first game, she could also take Vielo Vidòrio ("Swift Victory"), which granted allies a buff to Attack Speed when she used Flames of Devotion.
  • Properly Paranoid: She's worried that the Republics usurping the Dyrwood's trade deals during the latter's weakened state could cause a long-term conflict with the Dyrwood if they recover. If the Watcher empowers Dyrwood with thousands of stolen souls, this proves exactly the case as the Dyrwood fights back against the Republics. If Pallegina had amended the trade agreement to something more fair, she ends up temporarily exiled for her insubordination but eventually pardoned for her foresight.
  • Purple Is Powerful: Puffy, frilly purple sleeves, and an unswerving agent of the Republics, whether they appreciate it or not.
  • Realpolitik: All of the actions that Pallegina is favorable to are those that she feels will benefit her nation the most. To this end, she sees maintaining the stability of the Dyrwood as vital to the Vailian Republics, as it serves as a buffer between them and Aedyr, and is a reliable trading partner for Animancy research.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica: At the end of Deadfire, if she remains with the party and the Vailian Trading Company isn't a powerful faction, most of her endings amount to this. If the Principi under Aeldys control Ukaizo, Pallegina goes down with a Vailian trading ship.
  • Regal Ruff: As a representative of the ducs bels, she has a (relatively understated) frilled collar and cuffs, as well as Elizabethan Giant Poofy Sleeves.
  • Relationship Values: In the second game, unlike your other companions, Pallegina's relationship with the Watcher isn't based on your opinions or actions, but purely based on your relationship with the Vailian Trading Company. Which, given that she's a paladin devoted to the ideal of the Republics themselves, does make a kind of sense.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: If she decides not to make a sweetheart deal with Eir Glanfath to take advantage of the Dyrwood's weakness in the wake of the Saint's War and Hollowborn Crisis. This can come back to bite her if the Watcher doesn't strengthen the souls of the Dyrwood with the Hollowborn souls.
  • Semi-Divine: Technically, as the name godlike implies, although in the Vailian Republics she's treated as more of a mutant freak than any kind of demigoddess.
  • She Is the King: She's a brother, not a sister, of the Canc Suolias. Because only women who can bear children are considered women in the Republics, and all godlike are sterile.
  • Ship Tease: With Maneha, who openly crushes on her. In Deadfire, though, it turns out it didn't go anywhere because Pallegina is Married to the Job. Though her slightly wistful behavior when she explains that their relationship ended up not really going anywhere, indicates that she is a bit disappointed that it didn't work out.
  • Shout-Out: To Mozart's The Magic Flute. Unlike her counterpart Papagena in the opera, a woman dressed in a feathered costume, Pallegina is an Avian godlike who has feathers. Furthermore, rather than finding her perfect mate, Pallegina has resigned herself to a life of celibacy without children — not without bitterness.
  • Supernatural Gold Eyes: Yellow eyes are yet another birdlike feature given to her by her Avian godlike status.
  • To Be Lawful or Good: To obey orders, or to do what she believes is right, not just for the Dyrwood but the Republics as well.
  • Touched by Vorlons: As one of the godlike, she's the result of prenatal tampering by one of the gods — Hylea, in her case. Pallegina is deeply resentful of this — since she couldn't bear children and her mother died in childbirth, she effectively ended her family line, meaning she was sold to the Brotherhood to be raised as a paladin.
  • The Unfavorite: She's quite open about the fact that her father sold her to the Brotherhood, despising her for effectively ending the bloodline by being born godlike, and thus sterile.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: If you convince her to disobey her orders in the first game and then she gets exiled, when you meet her in Deadfire, she clearly resents you for talking her into it, though she tries to hide it. If you are sympathetic/apologetic about what happened, she will let bygones be bygones. However, if you are flippant or uncaring about what happened, she will unload on you with a huge profanity-laced tirade where she calls you the worst thing to happen to her.
  • You Are the Translated Foreign Word: Rekke says she is like "suhel shul aki has" — horse in small house. Very grumpy.


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