A list of characters from the Radiant Shadows Acariaverse campaign.
Eclipse Acquisitions
- Combat, Diplomacy, Stealth: Soto and Quinn are Combat (melee and ranged), Nora and Aldon are Diplomancy (manipulative and social), & Umbra and Hecate are Stealth (naturally-sneaky and magic-aided).
- Deadpan Snarker: A whole crew of them, to varying degrees.
Nora Illiondale
The head of Eclipse Acquisitions, and secretly a centuries-old native of another world, now long destroyed.
- Awesomeness by Analysis
- Badass Bookworm
- Batman Gambit / Xanatos Gambit
- Big Good: To the setting as a whole, to some degree, given her centuries-long efforts to protect the world from destruction.
- Combat Pragmatist
- Crazy-Prepared
- Creepy Good
- Good Is Not Nice
- Guile Hero
- Hunter of Monsters
- It's Personal: Her reaction when discovering Ezekiel’s identity and place of origin (I assume? Not sure how she felt about it)
- Manipulative Bastard
- Mission Control
- Ms. Exposition
- Mysterious Backer
- Mysterious Past: All we know is that she’s a refugee from another world, one built on fear, that was somehow destroyed thanks to incarnation magic.
- Mysterious Employer
- Passing the Torch: To Soto, implicitly approving of Soto taking over the crew’s operations while she’s away.
- Properly Paranoid: Her precautions prove well-founded when Ezekiel makes his presence known.
- The Strategist
- The Chessmaster
- The Leader
- The Team Benefactor
- Trapped in Another World
Amelio "Aldon" Fumetsu
A vampire and a member of the Fumetsu family. He is straight-laced and business-like, and serves as the crew's face and go-to for deception and social manipulation.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Wears a three-piece suit straight out of the 1900s.
- Hypnotic Eyes / Compelling Voice: Like all vampires, he possesses a hypnotic mesmer, which comes in quite useful in the crew’s line of work.
- Non-Action Guy: Despite his vampiric abilities, he prefers not to get his hands dirty.
- Only in It for the Money: <Maybe…? Implied by his leaving? Not sure>
- Put on a Bus: Due to scheduling issues, Aldon’s player eventually had to drop out of the campaign, leading to Aldon being Put on a Bus.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Ezekiel revealed himself, Aldon decided that between him and the Fumetsus, Osaka was a bit too hot for him at the moment, and ended up skipping town until things could die down somewhat.
- Sharp-Dressed Man
- Super-Senses / Super-Speed / Super-Strength / Super-Toughness: Part of the standard vampire package.
- The Social Expert
Honaka "Hecate" Satō
The crew's resident mage, a formally ordinary grad student who instantly leapt at the chance to learn magic the moment she found out it existed.
- Black Magician Girl
- Creepy Good: She dresses in all black, works at a mortician, and steals skeletons out of graves for her magical experiments. Despite this, she’s working with the crew to protect the world, and is perfectly pleasant to interact with in conversation.
- Hot Witch
- Detect Magic: One of her abilities.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
- Fangirl: A huge fan of fiction, most notably magical girl anime and certain video games, as well as to Kurou Fumetsu and the Eos Magical Girls.
- Goth
- Goth Girls Know Magic: Her entire premise, effectively.
- I Just Want to Be Special: The moment she learned magic was real, she lept headlong into learning everything she could about it.
- Magi Babble: Very fond of this when researching or speculating.
- Necromancer: She’s experimented with becoming this.
- Summon Magic: She has the ability to summon a carbuncle as support for combat or scouting.
- The Hecate Sisters: Her namesake.
- Token Wizard: Among the team, she’s the only one with proper, learned magical abilities; Nora’s fear aura is a byproduct of her origins, Umbra is a magical creature without any actual spells, Aldon’s powers come from his vampiric nature, Soto’s abilities come from her magical girl form, and no one really knows what’s going on with Quinn and Edgar.
- Vampire Vannabe: As a huge fangirl of magic, creepy stuff, and Korou Fumetsu, of course Hecate is this.
- Written-In Absence: Hecate’s college course occasionally took priority and prevented her from joining in on a few missions, which generally coincided with her player’s schoolwork preventing her from joining.
Quinn Bradley
A somewhat dysfunctional former military brat who spends her off time doing drugs (LOTS of drugs), partying, and killing cops, corrupt politicians, and other people she decides need targeting. She favors a sniper rifle as her preferred method of attack.
- Addiction-Powered
- Ambiguous Disorder
- Animal Eye Spy: Edgar.
- Bond Creatures / Familiar: Edgar, though exactly where he came from and why he’s bonded to Quinn (not to mention possesses supernatural abilities) is still unclear.
- Boom, Headshot!: Her preferred way to take down her enemies.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: An erratic, drug-addicted killer who is nonetheless one of the best in her field at tracking and elimination.
- Cop Killer
- Cute and Psycho
- Friendly Sniper: She’s relatively personable (in <her own way>) as long as you aren’t her target.
- Frisky Ferret: Edgar, her familiar/pet/companion.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: She once headshot a rampaging monster covered in fire and surrounded in smoke while dangling upside down from a skylight by a rope tied to her ankle.
- Invisibility: Edgar inexplicitly has this power.
- Long-Range Fighter
- Scarily Competent Tracker
- Sniper Rifle: Her weapon of choice.
- Womanchild <Maybe?>
Tomoe "Sotō" Mamoru
The crew's hitter and muscle, Soto is the only daughter of a rich family of architects from Tokyo. Having been stuck under her parent's stifling and controlling thumb her whole childhood, she resentfully decided to embrace the way people treated her due to her tall, thuggish appearance, and began running with a gang as soon as she arrived in Osaka, before eventually becoming a feared bodyguard and bruiser-for-hire known through the city's underworld as "the Demon of Umeda".
- Action Girl
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl
- Ambiguously Trained: She is a surprisingly skilled combatant for a stifled rich kid who mostly learned to fight out on the streets. It’s implied that she took kenjutsu lessons at some point, and she also was taught a lot by her former gang before she cut ties with them.
- Samurai Ponytail / Tomboyish Ponytail: She keeps her long hair up in a ponytail when out on the job.
- Berserk Button: Going after her family, <real> or <found>.
- The Berserker
- Bifauxnen
- The Big Guy
- Blood Knight
- Butch Lesbian: Or rather Butch Bisexual.
- Charles Atlas Superpower
- Clingy McGuffin
- Close-Range Combatant
- Cool Sword
- Crowbar Combatant: During ‘’Mall Madness’’, Soto uses a crowbar stolen from the bank robbers’ supplies to beat them back down the second they break through into the bank vault.
- Dark Action Girl
- Dark Is Not Evil
- Death Glare:
- Defector from Decadence
- Doesn't Like Guns: She'd rather be up close and personal.
- The Dreaded:
- Education Mama
- Face of a Thug:
- Gilded Cage
- Heel–Face Turn: Her slow shift from a violent thug lashing out at justifiable victims into a (somewhat) legitimate hero in her own right.
- Helicopter Parents
- Hired Guns: Her career as a bodyguard/muscle for hire around Osaka’s underworld, prior to joining the crew.
- Hot-Blooded: <?>
- It's Personal: With Ezekiel, once he begins threatening her family and friends.
- Japanese Delinquents
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- Katanas Are Just Better:
- Lady Looks Like a Dude
- A Lighter Shade of Gray
- Lightning Bruiser
- Lonely Rich Kid
- Made of Iron: Soto is excellent at taking a beating without letting it slow her down in the slightest.
- One-Man Army: Explicitly one of her abilities as a Cutter.
- Pragmatic Hero
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: <???? Find an example? The “‘Sup?” with the crowbar?>
- Street Samurai
- Strong and Skilled <???>
- Sweet Tooth: <?>
- Sword and Gun
- Taking the Bullet
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Gender Flipped.
- Then Let Me Be Evil
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak
- Yakuza
Autumn Amber
BASIC DESCRIPTION HERE.
- Air-Aided Acrobatics
- Amulet of Concentrated Awesome
- Anti-Magic: Her sealing talismans have the effect on the majority of magical objects and beings, though to varying degrees depending on how powerful they are.
- Badass Adorable
- Becoming the Mask (getting more heroic)
- Blow You Away
- By the Power of Grayskull!: Sotō initially believes that she has to say a special phrase to trigger her transformation. The exact wording varies over the course of the series, but is usually "Season's Change! Magical Girl Autumn Amber!".
- Combat Hand Fan
- Cute Bruiser
- Dead Person Impersonation
- Detect Magic / Detect Evil: One of her abilities as Amber, though one she has very little idea how to actually use.
- Dispel Magic: Her talismans are capable of this.
- Elemental Powers
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: To her dismay.
- Fights Like a Normal: It took Soto quite a while to start adjusting her combat style while Amber to play to her magical girl form’s strength, rather than just fighting as she always would and treating the transformation like a simple power boost.
- Glamour: The transformation comes with an identity-concealing effect that makes it difficult for anyone to recognize Amber as Soto unless they directly see her transform (though this is rather unnecessary given the physical differences), as well as influencing Soto slightly, causing her to give Amber's name instead of her own unless making a conscious effort and even mildly affecting technology such as text chats she's typing in and nearby cameras.
- Henshin Hero
- Holy Burns Evil
- How Do I Shot Web? (!!!)
- Living Battery: She served as this briefly when Hecate was trying to break the seal on her katana. Subverted in that it’s implied afterward that this only worked because of her connection to the entity inside. <!!!! Add a trope link here>
- Made of Iron: Amber is even tougher than Soto normally is, thanks to her magically-created divine body.
- Magical Accessory
- Magical Girl
- Magical Girl Genre Deconstruction
- Miko
- Most Common Superpower (?)
- Mundane Utility: Her outings as "Aki" (elaborate)
- Muscles Are Meaningless
- Not Quite Flight
- Paper Talisman
- Perception Filter: While transformed, it’s almost impossible to recognize her as her normal self (or vis versa) unless directly told or shown. It also affects her speech and the world around her to a minor degree (see Glamour).
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse
- Roofhopping
- Stronger Than They Look
- Stumbling in the New Form
- Supernatural Sealing
- Supernatural Sensitivity
- Superpowered Alter Ego
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body
- Token Super (? Does she really count with other magic users on the team? 'Downplayed'?)
- Toon Physics: Slightly, thanks to Hecate's subconscious influence
- Transferred Transformation
- Transformation Name Announcement
- Transformation Sequence
- Transformation Trinket
- Voice Change Surprise
Umbra
Basic description.
- Bakeneko and Nekomata
- The Charmer
- Classy Cat-Burglar: A male version.
- Deadly Dodging / Counterattack
- Devious Daggers
- Distressed Dude: Captured by the <?> gang as revenge after the crew humiliate them and cripple their operations in <SESSION>. The next session, <SESSION>, is about <breaking him out>.
- Drives Like Crazy
- Five-Finger Discount
- Fragile Speedster <?>
- Humanity Ensues
- In the Back: His favorite combat tactic.
- In the Hood: Tends to wear a hoodie when out in public, in order to hide his feline ears.
- Little Bit Beastly
- Lovable Rogue
- Master of Unlocking: Umbra is an expert at opening things people want to keep closed. He later teaches a few tricks to the rest of the crew.
- Percussive Pickpocket
- Phantom Thief
- Poisoned Weapons: <??>
- Pretty Boy: And he knows it.
- The Sneaky Guy
- Stealth Expert
- Sticky Fingers
- Street Smart
- Uplifted Animal
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Umbra is capable of shifting between his human and cat forms at will. However, it takes some time and is a rather painful process, so he spends the vast majority of his time in human form.
Radiant Shadows Antagonists
Antagonists who primarily appeared in Radiant Shadows.
Ezekiel
Basic description.
- Always a Bigger Fish: Ezekiel to the General.
- Arch-Enemy: Within the events of Radiant Shadows, Ezekiel is this to Nora, being not just the only other known survivor of her world’s destruction but also an elder vampire, exactly the sort of evil she used to hunt in her role as a monster slayer. He also quickly becomes this to Soto as well, once he starts threatening her family and friends.
- Attack on the Heart: How he finally died for good: After a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown with the whole crew wearing him down, Nora finished him off with a single shot through the chest with an incarnation-summoned derringer specifically created to kill him. And then Umbra poured Holy Water over his corpse for good measure.
- Beard of Evil
- Big Bad: Of Radiant Shadows.
- Evil Old Folks
- Evil Counterpart: To Nora, having similar origins, but a completely different outlook: Thought they’re both refugees from the World of Fear, Nora quickly adapted to her new surroundings and began working to make sure nothing like what happened to her world would ever happen there; whereas Ezekiel refused to change, spending centuries trying to find a way to return to or recreate the world he preferred.
- Fangs Are Evil
- Fatal Flaw: His selfish refusal to change or adapt, putting his own desires to once again live in a world of fear above all else. This is why, unlike Nora, he never learned how to directly manipulate incarnation energy, which is why he had to resort to stealing the energy the crew had accumulated and tricking someone else into using it for him.
- Faux Affably Evil: Unfailingly polite and refined in his speech, even as he’s in the middle of supernaturally terrifying someone out of their mind or sinking his teeth into their arm.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: He is capable of manifesting these.
- Holy Burns Evil: The crew begin their final confrontation with him when he grabs Soto’s katana out of her hand, and Jade ignites it with holy flame, forcing him to drop it. Soto then uses it to assault him with a flurry of slashes.
- Hypnotic Eyes / Compelling Voice: Like all vampires, he possesses a hypnotic mesmer. Unlike most vampires, his is incredibly strong, especially when combined with his [fear aura]. <??? Did he actually use his mesmer or was it just his fear aura and charisma? Look it up!>
- It's All About Me: His plan is to use the stolen incarnation energy and widespread manipulation of public opinion to influence the reality-altering properties of incarnation magic until the collective fear and unrest of the collective unconscious hits a critical mass, and then use incarnation magic to reshape the world into a copy of the world he came from, one ruled by fear. He is doing all this purely to recreate the world he came from, with no regard whatsoever for the other inhabitants of the planet, just so he can go back to what he preferred, rather than getting used to and integrating with the world he’s in now. <REVISE>
- Manipulative Bastard
- Monster Progenitor: Ezekiel is strongly implied to be the very first vampire on earth, and the origins of all other vampires. Subverted in that he was not the first vampire on ‘his’ world; there simply weren’t any vampires in the World of Knowledge until he ended up there.
- Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Mildly subverted in that Nora is also centuries old just like him, he just has several centuries on her. Played straight for the rest of the crew.
- Sharp-Dressed Man
- Smug Snake <???>
- Super-Senses / Super-Speed / Super-Strength / Super-Toughness: Part of the standard vampire package, though his are leagues above most vampires, especially his toughness.
- The Man Behind the Man: To General Hideki, most notably, by giving him the demon blade, but he’s implied to have had a hand in some of the other trouble the crew experience, through his MO of giving powerful magical tools to people who would use them to cause fear and chaos.
- The Unseen: He’s known only as “The Man In Black” for at least a third of the story…
- Unseen No More: ...Up until he finally introduces himself in person at the Mamoru Architecture opening event.
- Vampires Are Rich: Having been around for centuries gives you plenty of chances to accumulate wealth.
Detective Chiyoda Hatano
A detective with the Osaka Police Department who always seems to get the weird cases.
- Friend on the Force: Hatano to Nora
- Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Detective Hatano
- We Used to Be Friends: Hatano and Nora
General Hideki
Basic description.
- Always a Bigger Fish: Ezekiel to the General.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: By the power of the Masamune.
- The Brute: The General, if one considers him to have been “working” for Ezekiel.
- Healing Factor: To a horrifying degree. His wounds heal almost faster than they can be inflicted, but the flesh that regrows eventually starts coming back blackened and monstrous in appearance. Overwhelming this healing factor was the primary struggle during the crew’s confrontation with him.
Radiant Shadows Supporting Characters
Other characters primarily appearing in Radiant Shadows.
Kohaku ???
Basic description.
- Dream Sequence / Dreaming of Times Gone By / Shared Dream / Talking in Your Dreams / Visions of Another Self / Or Was It a Dream? / Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Soto’s dream meeting with Kohaku, the previous Autumn Amber. It is deliberately unclear whether she was actually communicating with some kind of spirit or remnant of Kohaku, or if she was just having a very odd dream after being bit by Ezekiel and falling asleep in Amber’s form. Even Kohaku admitted to being unsure.
The Fumetsu Family
The Fumetsu Family
A criminal organization run by vampires. <WIP>
- Absurdly Sharp Claws: They have the ability to manifest these, if Soto’s battle with the pair on guard in the hospital is any indication.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: They’re fond of this trope in general, considering several of them have been around for centuries.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: If you’re on their good side.
- Frozen Fashion Sense: More prominent with the older members of the clan, naturally. Subverted with the younger members, especially Kurou, who is actually actively bankrolling her girlfriend’s fashion agency.
- Fully-Embraced Fiend
- Hypnotic Eyes / Compelling Voice: Like all vampires, they possess a hypnotic mesmer.
- Immortality / Long-Lived: <Unclear which they are>
- Immortality Begins at Twenty
- Living Forever Is Awesome <???>
- Older Than They Look
- Our Vampires Are Different: <How?>
- Really 700 Years Old: Downplayed. Korou and Shiro really are about as old as they look.
- Ridiculously Alive Undead: Despite being vampires, the entire family is able to effortlessly pass as human in public. (The fact that their entire organization was originally formed as a way to secure a reliable, non-suspicious method of obtaining blood might be part of the reason why.)
- Super-Senses / Super-Speed / Super-Strength / Super-Toughness: Part of the standard vampire package.
- Supernatural Elite
- Vampires Are Rich
Kuroh Fumetsu
Basic description.
- Cute Little Fangs: <Presumably….? IDK, ask>
- Kiss of the Vampire: <?>
- Lesbian Vampire
Ciárran Doun
Basic description.
- Hemo Erotic
- Vampire Hunter: Ciárran is descended from a long line of these. Her initial appearances in MGC had her (ineffectually attempting to kill the Fumetsu siblings, but she mellowed over time, eventually falling in love with one of her targets.
- Voluntary Vampire Victim
The Eos Magical Girls
The Eos Magical Girls
Seven young women empowered by the goddess Eos with the ability to transform into magical girls.
- Big Damn Heroes: In the finale of Radiant Shadows.
- Friend on the Force: Rin to Shiro and the Fumetsus, once she graduates from the police academy.
- Healing Factor
- Perception Filter: While transformed, it’s almost impossible for anyone to recognize them as their normal selves (or vis versa) unless directly told or shown.
- Previous Player-Character Cameo: Their appearances in Radiant Shadows.
Hinata Fujiyoshi / "Lovely Indigo"
Basic description.
- Hemo Erotic: <?>
- Kiss of the Vampire: <?>
- Vampire Hickey: Has appeared in public (as Lovely Indigo) with visible bite marks on her neck, according to Hecate.
- Voluntary Vampire Victim
- Weak-Willed: Infamously so, ‘especially’ against vampires.
Shoko Miura / "Magic Mint"
Basic description.
Ashelynne London / "Icy Sapphire"
Basic description.
- Mystical White Hair: Caused by her near-death and subsequent revival/empowering by Eos.
The Acariaverse
The Acariaverse In General
Tropes applying to the overall setting.
- Background Magic Field: Usually referred to as aether.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Incarnation magic is influenced by the collective subconscious.
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: An aspect of Incarnated Entities.
- The Magic Goes Away: Or rather, the magic gets monopolized: by the City Of Acaria era, so much ambient magic (especially incarnation magic) is being used up by the Library’s unrestrained growth that there’s significantly less everywhere else on the planet.
- Mass Super-Empowering Event / World-Wrecking Wave: Known as “The Event”, this occurred when the Eos girls killed Kaos, causing a wave of power to sweep across the entire planet, have unpredictable effects on magical objects and creatures alike, and irrevocably revealing magic to the world.
- The Masquerade: Created and enforced by Nora, primarily by spreading a fear-empowered rumor that terrible things happen to anyone who reveals magic to others, but also by directly intervening when possible to silence anyone who threatens the status quo by any means necessary. Broken once the Event revealed magic worldwide far beyond her ability to prevent.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: A huge element of how incarnation magic passively influences the world. If enough people ‘believe’ something is true, it’s more likely to ‘be’ true.
- Pointy Ears: Elves and fey often have these, among other creatures.
- The Power of Creation: Incarnation Magic
The Library Of Glass
Basic description.
Other Characters
Tropes applying to characters who don't currently warrant an entire folder.
- Magitek: Riko wants to learn to create this.
- Shatterpoint Tap: Lake <Maybe?>
- Weak-Willed / Weak to Magic: Ren is this due to the way his part-fey heritage manifested. He is particularly vulnerable to mind and body altering magic.
Full Name
Basic description.
- The Lancer: Details.
- The Mole: Details.
- The Unchosen One: Details.