Knights of Ambrose is a series of RPG Maker games developed by Joshua Keith and Team Bewitched.
The world of Ambrose was created by two deities, Helena and Zamas, but the latter developed a hatred for humanity and tried to wipe them out after discovering Helena fell in love with one of them. Helena then had to sacrifice herself to save humanity, but in the present, the world is still in danger from the Drakon Cult and their mysterious backer, Lilith, an angel of death who looks just like Helena. This conflict not only takes place for over a century, the timeline gets split at the end of the first game.
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- Knight Bewitched (Canon to both timelines)
Timeline 1
Timeline 2
This series contains examples of:
- Ambiguously Related: In Mari and the Black Tower, Ned is the son of Mary, the female scientist from the prologue. In Knight Bewitched 2, Abbie is revealed to be a clone of Abigail, the daughter of one of the scientists. Due to Mary's concern for Abbie and insistence on naming them, it's implied that Ned and Abigail are siblings.
- Big Bad: The overall villain of the series is Lilith's master, Zamas, who wants to destroy humanity for being too unpredictable and for gaining his sister Helena's love. Even when Lilith breaks free from his control in Timeline 2, the trauma he put her through as a mindless puppet drives her antagonistic actions, making him the Greater-Scope Villain to her.
- Boomerang Bigot: The Drakon Cult seeks the resurrection of Typhus the Worldbreaker, who wants to wipe out humanity. The majority of the cultists are human, though some have the gall to act surprised when Typhus treats them as expendable cannnon fodder.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Even without the Vulcan Stone, Lilith's master Zamas can manipulate people by acting as a compelling voice in their head, driving them to insanity and making them believe they want to do his bidding. He corrupts Typhus, Morgoth, Phoenix, and Tiamat this way.
- Brutal Bonus Level: Knight Bewitched, Finding Light, and Celestial Hearts has the Depths, a dungeon featuring multiple mismatching environments. The enemies and bosses here are the strongest of their respective games. Although this dungeon is optional, it has a connection to Lilith's master, the Big Bad of the series. This is averted in Knight Eternal, where the Depths is part of the main story and was taken over by the Deepforge dwarves.
- Curse: Those who use the Vulcan Stone are cursed to become demonic beings who serve Lilith's master Zamas. Known users include the queen of Zamaste, the Monarch of Null Fortress, and Hermes. According to Malady, this is because the Vulcan Stone has such a drastic effect on fate that it punishes the user to destroy what they love to compensate.
- Dark Is Evil: In Timeline 2, Lilith somehow loses her angelic nature and becomes a demon, trading her light-elemental skills for dark-elemental skills. She's also much more malicious as a demon than as a mindless angel, since she's acting on her jealousy and spite towards Helen.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Zamas is a genocidal Jerkass God, but he loves Helena and is saddened at her sacrifice. Unfortunately, this just causes him to shift the blame of her death onto humanity, even though she willingly sacrificed herself to stop him. In the ending of Finding Light, he revives Abbie because either she or Mari has a connection to Helena.
- Fourth-Wall Observer: Of the characters in this series, Malady seems to be the most aware of the fourth wall, especially in Finding Light, where she is aware that the game is in monochrome while every other character still sees the world in color. She also addresses the player outside the screen at a few points. This is deconstructed because this is one of the reasons why Uno considers her too crazy to take care of their son Dylan.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: In most locations, Helena is worshipped as a benevolent goddess. In Zamaste, Helena is considered a traitor whose romance with a human caused Zamas to hate humanity, ignoring that he felt this way even before learning of Helena's love life.
- In Spite of a Nail: Certain events in Timeline 1, such as Morgoth summoning the Black Tower, Zamaste being restored, and Dylan marrying Adalia Primrose, still occur in Timeline 2 despite the changes caused by Scitech.
- Invincible Villain: The main antagonist of the series is Zamas, a god who is on too high a plane of existence for the protagonists to deal with. Even when he exposes himself for battle in Finding Light, he turns out to have Complete Immortality and he states he will never die unless he wills it. At best, he can be weakened so that he can't affect the world as much.
- Jerkass Gods: The book "Of Gods and Men" and various clergy describe Zamas as a cruel deity who wants to wipe out mortals for their potential for chaos and for gaining Helena's affections. In Finding Light, the party meets him face-to-face and he's just as condescending to them as one would expect and makes it clear that he will never give up on his genocidal goals. And he's responsible for all the confusing looping rooms in the Black Tower and Heaven's Door. While he is worshipped by the Kingdom of Zamaste, this is less because of any benevolence on his part and more because the nation considers his victory inevitable and hopes he'll spare them.
- Joker Immunity: Lilith is defeated in every game in Timeline 2, but is such an iconic villain that she never dies. Even when she loses her angelic and demonic powers at the end of Celestial Hearts and is reduced to being an extremely powerful human, she survives her defeat in Absinthia.
- Knight Templar: Lilith's master, Zamas, brainwashes several characters, such as Typhus, Morgoth, Phoenix (Timeline 1), and Tiamat (Timeline 1), into believing that humanity will cause the end of the world and that they need to destroy or cull humanity for the greater good.
- Mirror Character: In the second timeline, Lissandra turns out to have many parallels to the object of her revenge, Lilith. Both lost their chance for a fulfilling youth due to being manipulated by Zamas. Even when they find freedom, both are bitter and obsessed with revenge, but Lissandra doesn't target anyone other than Lilith and Zamas while Lilith takes out her rage on Helen out of jealousy, who has nothing to do with her tragic past. Both also have a Morality Pet to humanize them; Lissandra has her son Achilles, who she wants to have a happier life, while Lilith has her dog Strider, who she leaves with Freya to keep safe.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In Knight Bewitched 2, the scientists sent the Scitech facility back in time. While this provided the heroes with information, it also allowed villains like Shujin to use futuristic technology for evil.
- Recurring Boss: Strife, a Halonian knight who fell to evil, is a boss in every game in the series except for Knight Eternal and Absinthia.
- Satanic Archetype: Zamas was once meant to rule the world alongside Helena, but he turned rogue due to his hatred of humanity and their unpredictability. In Finding Light, when he is fought as the Final Boss, he has a halo on his head and a giant ring of light behind him, as well as several advanced light spells.
- Schizo Tech: Justified. Due to Scitech's time machine and the Black Tower's ability to contain objects from other timelines, modern and futuristic technology can be found in Ambrose during its medieval period.
- Silent Antagonist: Lilith is introduced as a silent angel with no will of her own. This changes in Celestial Hearts, where she gains sentience and the ability to speak.
- The Speechless: Abbie is a Silent Protagonist in Mari and the Black Tower, and she still has no lines in Finding Light, where it's revealed she's mute.
- Stable Time Loop: Timeline 2 seems to be a failed attempt to turn Timeline 1 into a stable time loop. Since Timeline 1 received Abbie, the Knight of Heaven, from the Bad Future, the Scitech scientists of Timeline 1 tried to send another Abbie back in time. However, the original Abigail's mother hid the clone away. Instead, Timeline 2 received the entire facility of Scitech earlier than normal, giving the heroes more prior information to work with.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Morgoth is good at healing magic, but when it comes to offensive magic, he can't control the output, leading to more destruction than he wants. This keeps him from fighting alongside the party, even before his Face–Heel Turn.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The Zamastians believe Zamas is justifiably wrathful towards humanity, but they also believe he'll spare them if they pray hard enough.
