This is a list of all characters featured in Ziggurat.
Playable Characters
Introduced in the first game
Argo the Apprentice
"Main character. Balanced stats without particular strengths or weaknesses."
With no particular advantages he also doesn't have any disadvantages. As such, it's less likely that you end up with perks that are completely opposite of the characters starting abilities.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Ziggurat 2 gives Argo an active skill and upgrades that differentiate him from Carina.
- Jack of All Stats: As his description would imply, he starts out with balanced abilities which allow you the freedom to build his abilities any way you want. In the sequel, his "Apprentice" perk merely restates this fact, providing no bonus or malus to any stat.
- New Meat: Sort of. The sequel states that Argo was the last apprentice accepted before the Downfall and one of the few survivors. However, he is only as unskilled as the player, and he did presumably survive the test of the Ziggurat itself.
- The Smart Guy: Among his upgrades in the sequel is increased experience gain.
- Power-Up Magnet: His active skill in 2, "Syphon", does this.
Carina the Apprentice
"Carina is an apprentice who has done her homework diligently."
Nearly identical gameplay-wise to Argo.
- Action Girl: Naturally. She's nigh-identical to Argo in gameplay and stats, but she's a girl.
- The Baby of the Bunch: The sequel states that she was the youngest accepted apprentice in the order.
- Distaff Counterpart: To Argo.
- Divergent Character Evolution: In Ziggurat 2, Carina receives an active skill and upgrades that distinguish her from Argo. Even in the first game, her wand was slightly faster firing but less damaging.
- Jack of All Stats: Like Argo, she starts out with balanced abilities which allow you the freedom to build her abilities any way you want. In the sequel, her "Apprentice" perk merely restates this fact, providing no bonus or malus to any stat.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Depicted as blonde both in her static portrait in the first game and her 3D model in the sequel. Her bio in the sequel makes mention that she is determined to rebuild her order better then it was.
- Knockback: What her active skill in Ziggurat 2, "Shove", can do to enemies, as well as damage them.
- More Dakka: Among her upgrades in the sequel is reduced mana usage for all weapons, letting her fire for longer.
Kraz the Novice
"Very powerful magic wand skills. Smaller mana pool for the other magic disciplines"
A young woman with a shaven head and a more powerful wand. Good for beginners, as the name would suggest.
- Black Magician Girl: The youngest member of the cast but still just as capable of dishing out hurt.
- Boring, but Practical: Her playstyle emphasizes using your starter weapon over all other weapons. By focusing on upgrades that boost the Wand's capabilities at the expense of the other weapons/spells, she can very easily steamroll through the rooms with just that Wand.
- Bullet Time: Her special ability in 2 has her enter a Trance that slows down time around her while her Wand gets a boost.
- Magic Wand: As a novice wizard, she is skilled with the starting magic wand, but her maximum mana for all other weapons is half that of Argo and Carina. Specifically, she has 5 ranks each of the "Wand Mastery" and "Wand Link" perks, giving her greatly increased fire rate and mana regeneration with her wand.
Menzi the Shaman
"He relies on his battle cry to recover health and mana. Mana gems and potions aren't as effective"
Gets health and mana back at the the beginning of every fight, which can be very useful for giving you a fighting chance.
- Barbarian Hero: Compared to the bookworms and "civilized" mages that make up the rest of the cast, Menzi really stands out.
- Battle Cry - Relies on his five ranks each of "War Cry" and "Vigilant" perks to regain health and mana at the beginning of fights, as he gets far less from potions and gems.
- Blood Knight: Presumably why he regains health at the beginning of a fight.
- Tribal Face Paint - Sports face paint of this kind that vaguely resembles a skull.
- Necessary Drawback: He also has lower maximum mana pools across the board.
Simon the Sorcerer
"Made a pact with the devil. A true master of the 3 main magic disciplines with very fragile health."
Incredibly fragile. If you are not an expert dodger you shouldn't go anywhere near this character.
- Blessed with Suck: Extremely potent magical abilities but is extremely frail and barely recovers any health from health potions, gets less maximum health from level-ups and less XP from experience gems.
- Deal with the Devil: Made one to greatly increase his magic abilities.
- Glass Cannon: With 50 health to Argo's 100, Simon is the second-most squishy character in the game behind Osuna.
- Infinite Supplies: Starts with the "Talented" perk of Staffs, Spells and Alchemy, giving him regenerating mana. On top of that he has 2 ranks of "Warlock", giving him more mana back from gems and "Equalizer", which distributes mana back evenly from any gem across all non-wand mana pools. He even gets mana back from knowledge gems with 2 ranks of "Mana Steal."
- More Dakka: Starts with rank 4 of "Mastery" for each weapon type, massively increasing his fire rate for all weapons.
- Shout-Out: His name might be a reference to the video game series of the same name.
- Squishy Wizard: Embodies the name and spirit of the trope massively. He undertook a Deal with the Devil which made all his magic more powerful, but left him physically frail. If he takes any big hits, he's done for.
Algorab the Alchemist
"Slow and steady, the alchemist can cause havoc around him. However, his wand skills are lacking."
Wherever you go things are likely to explode, as you start with an alchemic weapon and skills to use it more efficiently.
- Alchemy Is Magic: The crux of his character.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: In 2, it's stated that he died. As such, his place is taken up by his apprentice Margaret.
- Mighty Glacier: Moves slowly but has powerful alchemic weapons.
Rigel the Acrobat
"Excellent mobility and decent staff skills. The rest of his attacks have a slower rate of fire"
Runs fast, hits fast. A pretty well balanced character that does not suffer heavy penalties in exchange for his speed.
- Bullet Time: His special ability in 2 has him leap into the air while time slows. His damage is also enhanced during this state, letting him pick off enemies/do a ton of damage to bosses with relative ease.
- Lightning Bruiser: Has quick movement with 2 ranks of "Haste", and can inflict a lot of damage with his staff.
- More Dakka: He has 3 ranks of "Staff Mastery" and 2 of "Staff Profiency," Letting him fire staffs faster and for less mana.
Saiph the Librarian
"Great spell knowledge. He doesn't learn from experience as fast as others."
- Badass Bookworm: Starts with the "Bookworm" perk, which allows him another perk choice when leveling up.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: Does not have the hat but otherwise fits the image of a classic wizard perfectly.
- Magic Librarian: The crux of his character.
- Wizard Beard: The longest beard of any character in the game actually.
Corvus the Vampire
"He'll recover health from the souls of his enemies, but his thirst for blood will never be truly satiated."
- Blessed with Suck: Starts with a whopping 200 health, double the standard... but slowly loses health over time and recovers less health from health potions, 1/4 of normal.
- Classical Movie Vampire: His appearance in his portrait is this trope down pat. He looks a bit like Dracula.
- Our Vampires Are Different: A fairly classical vampire, he requires the souls of slain enemies lest he starve to death. In other words, his health drains over time and is refilled by killing enemies. He does however not suck blood and casts magic just the same as the other characters.
- Life Drain: A variation. Corvus starts with rank 5 of the "Bloodlust" perk, which causes experience gems to also give you health back.
- Shout-Out: His name is the same as the protagonist of this game's spiritual predecessor, Heretic.
Osuna the Bard
"Osuna makes up for her low health with a superb management of her mana reserves, allowing her to attack from long range without worrying about energy usage."
- Action Girl: Starts with rank 4 of "Proficiency" for Spells, Staffs and Alchemy weapons, giving her reduced mana usage, allowing her to put out more attacks than other characters.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Starts with the "Persistence" perk, which causes all drops to last twice as long before they disappear. This means Osuna can hang back and engage enemy groups from afar, taking advantage of her reduced mana usage.
- Lady of Black Magic: With most magic in the game being offensive in nature, she would naturally qualify as one of these.
- Magical Accessory: Always starts with a random, previously unlocked Amulet and with rank 3 of "Channeling", which causes it to recharge faster.
- Squishy Wizard: More so then even Simon, beginning with a tiny health pool of 40.
- Wandering Minstrel: The crux of her character.
Hadar the Templar
"The Templar gets energy from the souls of dead enemies. No need for mana gems."
- The Big Guy: Starts with 150 health compared to Argo/Carina's 100.
- Eyepatch of Power: Sports one of these. Naturally, it has no impact whatsoever on gameplay.
- Fight Magnet: What his Brawler perk is likely to represent, which has the effect of making enemies more plentiful but also drop more items.
- Mana Drain: Starts with rank 4 of "Mana Steal", allowing him to recover a good chunk of all mana types from knowledge gems — which is good, because normal mana gems don't drop for him.
- The Paladin: Supposedly. He doesn't look particularly heroic, though.
Jules the Harlequin
"An experienced and very agile thief."
Since he has an ability that makes rooms with items and treasure in them appear more often you are best off hoping to find something useful in those.
- Born Lucky: What his perks "Curiosity" and "Trickster" amount to, making treasure rooms appear more often and the mystery boxes within safer to open (As in less chance of it triggering an ambush). He also has rank 5 of "Scavenger", netting him many additional drops from enemies.
- Fragile Speedster: Starts with only 50 health, but rank 5 of "Haste", making him lightning fast.
- The Trickster: One of his perks. It's effect however only makes mystery boxes safer to open and give you more treasure.
Cid the Seer
"This one shows great potential. Low initial stats, but learns a lot faster!"
Has a rough time surviving from the outset but can grow extremely powerful if you manage to stay alive.
- Experience Booster: His key advantage, with 3 ranks of the "Scholar" perk.
- Magikarp Power: He is weaker in every aspect from the outset with half the starting health and mana, and ends up absurdly powerful thanks to his increased experience gain.
Glyndor the Battlemage
"The battlemage is used to pain and can channel it into energy, but he can't keep it for long."
Loses mana slowly over time and starts with small mana pools, but gets mana from being hit and starts with high health.
- Armor Is Useless: Glyndor wears several pieces of plate armor in the sequel. He does technically have more health, but no additional damage resistance.
- Composite Character: In the sequel. His mechanics are similar to the first game but his appearance is similar to that of Hadar the Templar.
- The Big Guy: Starts with 160 health compared to Argo's 100. This was reduced in the sequel, but he still starts with more health then Argo or Carina.
- Eyepatch of Power: In the sequel.
- Invincibility Powerup: His active skill in Ziggurat 2, "Shield", does this. Replacing his passive mana gain when damaged from 5 ranks of the "Sacrifice" perk, Shield absorbs all damage and turns it into mana for all weapons for as long as it lasts.
- Magic Knight: More magic than knight, but he's definitely no slouch in the physical department.
- Mighty Glacier: His inherent perk in Ziggurat 2, "Battlemage", invokes this to an extent. He gets more health from potions but slower movement speed, and less mana from mana gems, unlike in the first game, where he has 1 rank of "Warlock" for a bit more mana from gems.
- Old Soldier: Glyndor is apparently even older and more battle-hardened then he looks, and his bio in the sequel states he has "no intention of dying in a bed", and cites his age as the reason that he cannot hold on to his mana for long. In-game, this manifests as him having less speed and mana capacity as well as draining mana passively.
- Violation of Common Sense: In Ziggurat 1, Glyndor recovers a large chunk of all mana types when he takes a hit, so deliberately taking a hit now and again is to his benefit. In 2 this ability is a part of his Shield power. Better yet, if you have a weapon that can deal friendly fire, you can use that to recharge your own mana.
Agnes the Witch
"Fled from the mundane society before they burned her alive. Agnes hopes her mind-clouding powers can be of use in this test."
Decent stats (though with a slightly reduced starting health of 80), and starts with rank 5 of "Revenge", which sends out a stunning shockwave when she takes a hit. The wiki claims her movement speed is slightly lower the average.
- Black Magician Girl: Comes with being a witch.
- Hot Witch: At least, from what little can be seen in her portrait.
- Familiar: Has a crow with her on her portrait. It doesn't appear in-game.
- Status Effects: Her wand can also inflict stun.
Loki the Vagabond
"This mysterious character doesn't remember his past. Maybe it's for the better.
Has a wand that can poison enemies, but can only choose from one perk per level up unless he gets the "Bookworm" perk. (Presumably he's remembering rather than learning.) However, he has even less chance of drawing "Bookworm" then anyone else.
- Master of None: Loki has no advantages to counteract his lack of perk choices, except perhaps the poison wand (which doesn't even come close to making up for it). At the very least, he has the same health and mana reserves as the Apprentices.
- Status Effects: His wand's alt-fire poisons enemies.
Leto the Cleric
"A fervous worshipper of the gods with powerful healing abilities. The Ziggurat shows a strong hate towards this hero."
Has a greatly increased capacity for healing himself but is particularly disliked by the Ziggurat, resulting in enemies that are 10% faster. As a servant of the Old Gods, he will never be punished at shrines.
- Blessed with Suck: The "Healer" and "Hero" perks together means Leto gets less mana drops and has to use more of it to defeat the additional champions.
- Cursed with Awesome: On the other hand, "Hero", plus the bigger amounts of monsters in general, tends to mean more experience per battle if only from sheer amount of fighting. Coupled with experience-boosting perks, he can start leveling at rates similar to Cid's own. Particularly visible if you get the "Loan Shark" perk (goblets give you experience), as the champions he often faces tend to drop a lot of goblets.
- The Medic: An odd single-player version. Leto begins with "Healer", giving him more health potion drops compared to mana crystals, and rank 5 of "Druid", so he gets much more health per potion.
- The Chosen One: Sort of. Leto begins with the "Hero" perk, which causes more champion enemies to spawn, but also improves their drops. He also starts with "Oracle", which assures no outright negative effects from using shrines.
- Status Effects: Leto's wand has a chance to freeze enemies.
Introduced in Ziggurat 2
Kira the Rogue
"With a bold character that put her in trouble more often then not, Kira did leave the Brotherhood to offer her services as a Free Agent. Now that the order is in shambles, she has come back to help. A master of stealth, she can hide and become unnoticed."
- Boxed Crook: Of a sorts. Her help is hingant on release from a legal entanglement.
- Facial Markings: Wears purple face paint around her eyes in the "bandit mask" shape.
- Fragile Speedster: Starts with only 80 health to Argo and Carina's 100, but her inherent perk "Rogue" gives her extra movement speed, in addition to more drops from enemies.
- Invisibility Cloak: Her active skill, "Shroud", does this, preventing enemies from targeting her at all for the duration.
- More Dakka: Among her available upgrades is increased fire rate.
- White-Haired Pretty Girl
Jacob the Cultist
"Fervous worshipper of the Dark Gods, Jacob joined the Brotherhood after a Pact of Honor. Or maybe he's just plotting to infiltrate the order to betray them later. Moreover, Jacob enjoys upsetting his new colleagues."
- Bald of Evil: He's completely hairless saved for his swooped eyebrows.
- Cast from Hit Points: His active skill "Sacrifice" does this. In exchange, he gets more damage, fire rate, and infinite mana with any weapon for a few seconds. With an upgrade, he also recovers some mana.
- Cult: Part of one, though the specifics are not elaborated on beyond some nebulous "Dark Gods."
- Facial Markings: Has intersecting dark brown lines arranged symmetrically about his face and head that resemble scar tissue.
- Femme Fatalons: Downplayed, but they are pointy and painted black.
- Glass Cannon: His playstyle heavily leans towards this. Aside from his special ability his unique Perks often prioritize damage at the cost of health or health recovery.
- I Gave My Word: Jacob agrees to assist the Daedelon order in exchange for his freedom. Thus far, he's apparently held to the bargain.
- Necessary Drawback: Jacob's mastery of traditional magics is apparently limited in comparison to his cult knowledge. This translates to lower maximum mana reserves.
- Power at a Price: His theme mechanically. In addition to his Sacrifice skill and lower mana reserve, his inherent "Cultist" perk lowers his base damage in exchange for more drops from enemies and a greater chance for beneficial effects from shrines.
- Prophet Eyes
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: His robes, with additional gold trim and High Collar of Doom.
- Token Evil Teammate: Jacob's introduction cutscene makes it clear he will return to his evil ways when the Ziggurat has been restored.
- Troll: According to his bio.
- Unusual Eyebrows: White as snow and of the Swooped variety.
Eris the Necromancer
Eris is the last member of a long lineage of wizards dedicated to the forbidden art of Necromancy. Subjected to heinous experiments at the hands of the Dark Lord, her powers were strengthened a great deal, at expense of part of her soul.
- The Minionmaster: Her ability allows her to summon three skeletons to attack her enemies. The skeletons are indefinite, meaning that she can summon more once her ability comes off cooldown. Her unique perks are built around strengthening said skeletons particularly since she starts with far lower base MP than other characters.
Margaret the Alchemist
- Master of One Magic: She's the resident Alchemy specialist who comes with a natural buff to Alchemy weapons firerate at the cost of less mana for other categories. However, she avoids Crippling Overspecialization in that several of her unique perks benefits the other weapons as well.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: Her primary ability, Flask Toss, has her toss a flask that deals AoE damage of a random element.
Bosses
Introduced in the first game
Adam - Prime Golem
A large, red glowing and rugged looking golem.- Flunky Boss: Spawns small and big golems to fight alongside it.
- Golem: Of course. Made from stone, and seems to be the original among the many in the Ziggurat.
- King Mook: A larger version of the Large Golem enemy.
Audrey - Mother Nature Incarnate
A very large carnivorous plant.- Attack Its Weak Point: Is only vulnerable when her petals are open and they only open when you have killed enough spawned sprouts.
- Flunky Boss: Leaves the fighting to tentacle sprouts she spawns.
- Gaia's Vengeance: Invoked by her title.
- King Mook: A larger version of the Rotten Stem enemy.
- Shout-Out: To Audrey from The Little Shop of Horrors.
Bastian
A gigantic demon.
- Homing Projectile: Fires bursts of lethal purple energy balls that home in on you.
- King Mook: A larger version of the Demon enemy.
- Power Pincers: A feature of him and the other demons is pincers for hands.
- Super-Persistent Missile: The projectiles will not stop tracking you until it collides with terrain that's directly between it and you or it is shot down.
Brunilda
A giant, monstrous carrot in a dress. Yes, you read that correctly.
- King Mook: A larger version of the Carrot enemy.
- Flunky Boss: Spawns a large number of Carrots.
- Foe-Tossing Charge: Likes to charge and bite you.
Examiner Cepheus
The examinator of the test and final boss of the game. Wears an unsettling white mask and wields considerable magic power.
- Duel Boss: It isn't instantly obvious due to the lack of third-person perspective letting you see all your equipment, but Cepheus wields a staff in one hand (the energy waves it produces require the same effort for you to avoid as your staves' streams of fire do for your enemies), a sword in the other (a magical device activating somewhat-random but powerful traps in his room), visibly casts (summoning) spells, and directly attacks with purple-colored magic. As the game never suggests you're a legitimate threat to his life, there's a clear implication he's armed himself specifically to test you.
- Flunky Boss: Spawns Orcs, Hollow Armors and Demons to fight alongside him.
- Final Boss: Defeat him to complete the game.
- Homing Projectile: Fires bursts of lethal purple energy balls that home in on you.
- Malevolent Masked Men: With his humanoid appearance, obvious hostility and unsettling mask he is most definitely one of these.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Each ending gives a unique interpretation of his motives.
- In the Good Ending, he's a straightlaced Noble Demon who, upon defeat, gives you the scroll needed to pass the test, no strings attached.
- In the Exile Ending, he's a troll who gives you a fake scroll that instead exposes your cowardice to the Order.
- In the Bad Ending, he's an Evil All Along Manipulative Bastard who's been manipulating the Order of the Eidolon for years in a gambit to release himself and the other monsters from the Ziggurat.
- Shockwave Stomp: A nasty magical multiple wave attack.
- Super-Persistent Missile: The projectiles will not stop tracking you until it collides with terrain that's directly between it and you or it is shot down.
Gunkarr the Crusher
A big Orc with a bigger club.
- Carry a Big Stick: Even accounting for his size. The head of his mace is bigger than his chest, which means it's more than big enough to crush you entirely.
- King Mook: A larger version of the Orc enemy.
- Shockwave Stomp: Smashes his club on the ground, creating these.
Ignus the Firemonger
A large flying lizard.
- Breath Weapon: Breathes fire, obviously.
- Flunky Boss: Spawns Salamander enemies to fight alongside him.
- Gratuitous Latin: One letter removed from the Latin word for fire (Ignis).
- King Mook: A larger, fiery version of the Storm Beast enemy.
King Blob
A gigantic blue slime with a crown upon its head.
- King Mook: Even named as such.
Percival - Royal Knight
Simply a large version of the common hollow armor enemy.
- Animated Armor: Like the many other armors within the Ziggurat, he's just a hollow suit of plate armor, yet hostile nonetheless.
- King Mook: A larger version of the Hollow Armor enemy.
- Shout-Out: Shares a name and profession with a knight of the round table.
Poloko - Master Shaman
A large shaman which overwhelms you with mooks in his fight.
- Bad with the Bone: Wields a large bone as a staff.
- Enemy Summoner: Being a larger version of the common enemy shaman, he would be this. note
- Flunky Boss: He summons shamans, which then in turn summon carrot enemies.
- King Mook: A larger version of the Shaman enemy.
- Magic Missile Storm: He and regular shamans launch arrows of light all around them that then lazily track the player.
Queen Amanda
A beautiful female banshee which hides amongst near identical copies.
- Enemy Summoner: Spawns banshees which are nearly identical to herself.
- Flunky Boss: Naturally, as a result of the above.
Regulus - King of Predators
A gigantic bird that spits acid.
- Feathered Fiend: Like the basilisks, cockatrices and salamanders it lords over, it most resembles a large bird plucked bald and extremely angry about it.
- Flunky Boss: Spawns smaller acid spitting Basilisk enemies.
Sir Arthur
A giant helmet adorned red skull which spits fireballs at you.
- Flunky Boss: Fights alongside smaller flying skulls.
- Flying Face: Or rather flying skull, but it's nothing but a giant, flying cranium with a helmet.
- King Mook: Is a scaled up version of the common flying skull enemies.
Introduced in Ziggurat 2
Urguth the Wise
An ogre frost shaman.
- An Ice Person
- Carry a Big Stick
- Flunky Boss: Summons Glacial Nightmares.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: His bio mentions that his dedication to learn frost magic has made him unpopular with other ogres.
- Palette Swap: Has a similar model and animations to the other ogre bosses.
Dugroth the Forger
An ogre master blacksmith.
- The Blacksmith: His bio mentions he personally forges his minions' weapons.
- Flunky Boss: Summons Igneous Nightmares.
- Playing with Fire
- Palette Swap: Has a similar model and animations to the other ogre bosses.
Brulak the Sick
A crazed ogre surgeon.
- Acquired Poison Immunity: His bio mentions he fell into a poison pot as a child, becoming both immune and insane. Oddly enough, you actually 'can' poison him in-game.
- Carry a Big Stick
- Flunky Boss: Summons the regular Demonic Nightmares.
- Mad Doctor: Apparently he's not actually a very good one: His bio mentions that the scientific community is displeased with his progress.
- Master Poisoner
- Palette Swap: Has a similar model and animations to the other ogre bosses.
