Rance/Characters/Alicist Church

The Alicist Church, more commonly known as Alicism, is home for the largest religion in the Continent. Founded long ago during the SS Era, in the old days of humanity, it had the same function as you can expect of a church. As such, their goal is to guide humanity to happiness and salvation, accompanying them all the way to the afterlife, while forbidding sex and alcohol.

It is also a non-profit organization, but makes it up by getting massive donations from followers since they are the most prominent religion, and even own a private army, mainly made of Temple Knights. Finally, the church is located in the remote island of Kawanakajima, located in a river between Zeth and the Free Cities. Most of their members are Priests and Bishops, with the main criteria of selection requiring to have some form of Divine Magic abilities, ruled by the Pope, absolute leader of the Church and acting as the goddess Alice's representative.

In fact, the Alicist Church mainly serves as a means to manipulate human society, in order to satisfy the Gods' thirst for entertainment and chaos, with Alice serving as a direct intermediate between the Pope and the Creator God Rudrathaum himself. Every Pope is made aware of this during their appointment, making them yet another pawn in the Gods' Hierarchy despite having the best interests of humanity at heart.

In General

Artifact Collection Agency: One of the Church's goals is to collect dangerous artifacts to preserve the world balance.

Deity

1st Class Goddess Alice

The goddess worshipped by the Alicist Church. Her job is to guide humanity in the way the gods desire it... which usually means creating chaos and conflict while posing as a benevolent and loving deity. She is highly secretive and will only reveal herself to the Pope of the Alicist Church.

Tropes exhibited by ALICE include:

Bad Boss: When she first appoints a new Pope, she brutally kills them, or breaks their mind, or both, hundreds of times over (instantly restoring them afterward) just to prove a point that they can never defy her. Whenever Crook shows anything other than total and absolute obedience to her, she kills Crook and resurrects her before even giving Crook the chance to explain herself, even if all Crook was doing was offering a polite suggestion.
Bonus Boss: She can be fought in a non-canon encounter in Rance Quest. The player will have to do insane amounts of grinding to even stand a chance against her.
Holy Halo: Part of her ensemble to make herself look like a benevolent goddess to mankind.
Light Is Not Good: She has the appearance of an angel, with three sets of wings, a halo, the works. She's also actively working to ensure that peace never comes to humanity and conflict continues to reign supreme.
The Rival: She and Quelplan do not like each other and always seem to compete when they meet.
You Cannot Grasp the True Form: In combat, she uses some form of divine power that humanity cannot comprehend. It appears like a Storm of Blades made of light that attacks from all directions.

Popes

Crook Mofus

The current Pope of the Alicist Church, Crook is a silent but very smart girl with a vast knowledge of the world, knowing most of the current lore of the Continent. Her goal is to search for Balance Breakers around the world to seal them, and later joins Rance during her time as a bishop in Rance Quest due to his unusual demeanor and his tendency to attract other Balance Breakers, eventually falling in love with him along the way. As a Pope, she boasts a unique Lv3 Skill in Divine Magic, making her one of the most powerful people able to heal, purify, and remove curses seamlessly.

Tropes exhibited by Crook include:

Anti-Hero: At first, she considered friends and companions as expendable pawns, but after meeting Rance, she grows out of it.
Big Good: Of Rance X: Part 2, being the mother of El, who sent them to their adventure.
Cool Hat: Granted with goggles. However, they do nothing.
Lady Looks Like a Dude: Downplayed. She has the looks of a teenage boy, which causes Rance to mistake her for a man, if not for her skirt.
Peek-a-Bangs: Manages to be a mix of deception, loneliness, and the veil (supernaturally knowledgeable in her case).
Perpetual Frowner: In contrast to Am, she doesn't smile at all. Up until Rance X: Part 2, for a very good reason.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Am's Red.
Single-Use Shield: Her normal card in Rance X.
So Proud of You: She's very proud of her child for all of the accomplishments that El has done.
Stating the Simple Solution: It took thousands of years but Crook has managed to appease Rudrathaum by asking him to live alongside his creations and feel what it's like to be a human. This in turn allows the space whale god to realize that peace and happiness isn't so boring after all.
The Stoic: Nothing seems to make lose her composure, to the point one could easily interpret it as a Lack of Empathy: she's very aware of her surroundings, but prefers to not show any emotions.
Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: She's currently searching for a way to solve the Planner Scenario, but she leans more towards Idealism compared to her past predecessor Am, who vowed to kill Rudrathaum with a brutal method to end humanity's suffering. Her idea ends up being the best answer as Rudrathaum dismantles the Planner Scenario after finding out that peace and happiness aren't boring after all.
Story-Breaker Power: More specifically, she searches for items or people harnessing great power in order to seal them.
When She Smiles: At the end of Rance X: Part 2.
You Never Asked: The reason why she didn't say anything about Sill actually being an IP body and that her real body was still frozen.

Duran Teyuran

The former Pope of the Alicist Church, who dies shortly before the beginning of Rance Quest. Eventually revealed to be Crook's father.

Plays a larger role in Kichikuou Rance, where he remains the Pope and opposes Rance's conquest.

Tropes exhibited by Duran include:

Sinister Minister: While he's not shown doing much explicitly evil in Kichikuou Rance, his actions are not very in line with the Alicist Church. The Angel Knight Leda ultimately strikes him down for betraying the Church's aims, and he is posthumously revealed to have been stealing from the Church's treasury.
These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: He claimed to have books of prophecy that predicted everything happening on the Continent, but never showed them or their contents to anyone, citing this trope.
We Hardly Knew Ye: In the canon timeline, the first time he's mentioned is in his obituary, and what little is known of him is secondhand.

Am Ysuel

40 years ago, Am was elected as the first female pope of the church. However, her reign was short-lived, as upon learning the truth about Rudrathaum and the Continent, she disappeared as she was unable to accept that every being on the Continent was just a plaything of the Gods. She reappears nowadays having found a way to allow humans to rebel against the Gods, as the leader of the Shepherds. Her newfound goal is to induce Soul Pollution to all humans, as doing so prevents them to return to the Creator God, weakening him in the process. However, to have high Soul Pollution requires one to be extremely depressed and/or mad, as such she intends to push humans past the Despair Event Horizon as much as possible.

Tropes exhibited by Am include:

Ambiguously Human: Am is in her sixties, yet still looks like a young girl. She also has otherworldly powers which clearly surpass those of humans, and is able to survive fatal wounds.
An Arm and a Leg: After her defeat in Rance Quest, her body gets cut down in multiple parts to prevent her from moving in her prison.
Anti-Villain: She has ultimately a good intention, but her means are far from harmless.
Arch Enemy: To Crook Mofus.
Big Bad: Of Rance Quest Magnum.
Broken Pedestal: The true purpose of the Alicist Church sent her off the deep end and pushed her to the brink of despair, causing her to leave the office after being selected as Pope. Years later, she came back in Rance Quest Magnum as the Big Bad, intent on destroying Rudrathaum.
Complexity Addiction: As revealed in Rance X: Part 2, Crook achieved the result Am wished for all these years simply by using her Pope's wish to make Rudrathaum live a life among humans and teach him compassion.
Dark Messiah: Appears as one through Rance Quest Magnum, being the leader of the Shepherds.
Despair Event Horizon: Upon learning the truth of the Continent and its purpose. Also, her aim is to induce this to all of humanity, preventing them from going back to the Creator God and being reincarnated.
Godzilla Threshold: Rance can free her during the Second Fiend War to join the ranks of the Fiend Extermination Squad.
Hazy Feel Turn: After her liberation, she claims to be "always on the side of humanity", which means she's still determined to kill Rudrathaum, but helps the Human Alliance at the same time.
Holy Hand Grenade: The Divine Magic is usually a healing magic, but Am uses it to damage her foes.
Manipulative Bastard: Thanks to being The Social Expert, she can quickly persuade people to do her bidding. Notably, she convinces Calory to forgive her actions in Rance Quest despite having every reason in the world to loathe her, and eventually Rance himself. Only Crook Mofus is immune to her words.
Older Than They Look: She is around 60 years old and looks no older than Crook.
Perpetual Smiler: In contrast to Crook, she has a ever-smiling face.
Psycho Psychologist: Uses her talent in Negociation to further her goals and push people past the Despair Event Horizon.
Promoted to Playable: In Rance X, if the player chooses to free her.
Rage Against the Heavens: Her main motivation.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Crook's Blue.
Reformed but Rejected: Downplayed. Despite having joined the Human Alliance, she's still trying to do her thing by searching for war widowers in villages, since they are more likely to have crossed the Despair Event Horizon. However, she's kept under watch by Rance and Crook.
The Social Expert: She has a Lv3 Conversation Skill allowing her to persuade and manipulate people easily.
Talking Your Way Out: How she manages to escape her prison: by convincing Rance and his party to free her.
Took a Level in Kindness: Exploited. She convinces Rance and his party to free by giving herself the role of the martyr. It works, despite Crook's protests.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Following her defeat at the end of Rance Quest, she is sealed by the Alicist Church. Rance can free her during the events of Rance X when the Fiend Extermination Squad drive the monsters away from Kawanakajima.
Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Leans heavily towards Cynicism compared to her successor Crook, as learning the truth of the Planner Scenario made her fall into despair, and gave her the idea of polluting Souls to indirectly destroy Rudrathaum, since he cannot be appeased with anything other than suffering.
Stepford Smiler: Despite always seen smiling, she harbors 100% of Soul Pollution, meaning she's one of the most depressed humans alive.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: She wants to free Humans from the cycle of Reincarnation to depower the Creator God, but needs to push them over the Despair Event Horizon to do so.
Wound That Will Not Heal: One of her main abilities.

Bishops

Mi Lordling

A very passionate individual met by Rance a couple of times across the series. He chronologically appears in Rance 01 and 03 as a priest of the Alicist Church, sometimes appearing in dungeons to heal Rance and his group, and participates in the 7th Helman-Leazas War.

He then came back much later in Rance Quest as a Bishop, and eventually serves under the new Pope Crook Mofus.

Tropes exhibited by Mi Lordling include:

Badass Preacher: He's an incredible fighter and helped out in the war between Leazas and Helman, even earning Rick Addison's praise.
Combat Medic: He's just as skilled at healing as he is in combat, and will frequently heal Rance's party when they meet in early games.
Companion Cube: He carries a doll of Alice around everywhere he goes, and seems to believe Alice herself is speaking to him through it (she's not). This despite Lordling himself speaking for the doll, leading him to have ventriloquist conversations with himself over what Alice would want him to do.
Fairy Battle: In any game he appears in, he will randomly show up in dungeons to heal the party.
Good Shepherd: He's entirely oblivious to the dark side of the Alicist Church and wholeheartedly believes in helping people and doing good.
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: In Rance Quest and Rance X, he is totally bald, but in Rance 01, he has a rather luxurious mane. Rance 03 reveals that he started losing his hair due to the constant feeling that he was being haunted by an evil spirit, which is actually Willis admiring him from afar.
Hot-Blooded: He is... intense. He's constantly running from place to place, and screams almost all of his lines at the top of his lungs. After becoming a Bishop, his entourage of Temple Knights is frequently seen run ragged trying to keep up with him.
The Pollyanna: Is overjoyed at having a mere 35% chance of being chosen as the next pope, stating that "The gods have determined that if I tried 100 times, I'd become pope 35 of those times."

Oz Tortoise

One of the four Bishops of the Alicist Church, and during the time of Rance Quest, the favorite to become the next Pope. While he presents a kindly and reasonable face to the public, he's actually cut-throat and ruthless, obsessed with his own power.

Tropes exhibited by Oz Tortoise include:

And Now You Must Marry Me: What he intends to do to Crook Mofus once he becomes Pope: force her into marriage so he can use her status as the previous Pope's daughter to his advantage, as well as satisfy his lusts with her.
Faux Affably Evil: he's always wearing a gentle smile and presents a calm demeanor, but his actions are completely ruthless. He frequently takes bribes, happily commits acts of murder and slavery... or worse. His only real goal is increasing his own political power, through any means necessary.
Sinister Minister: He has no benevolent intentions for anyone. His plan for converting Nippon to Alicism involves releasing the Black Death in their nation, knowing their population has no immunity to it or any idea how to treat it, and then forcing them to convert in order to receive treatment. Later, he slaughters a huge number of Polluted individuals, which Crook acknowledges as technically being true to the Church's teachings, but he made no attempt to screen the victims for any that could yet be saved from their Pollution.
Villainous Breakdown: It starts when Crook reveals she is not a virgin, which angers him greatly, as he wanted her to be a "pure" bride for him. A bit later, when Crook is selected as the new Pope over him, he cannot comprehend how this could happen, and eventually commits suicide out of despair.

Roule Enron

One of the four Bishops of the Alicist Church. An extremely elderly man who is obsessed with becoming Pope.

Tropes exhibited by Roule Enron include:

Dirty Old Man: He keeps a pair of Healcinth Gal Monsters clad only in underwear by him at all times, and frequently molests them. He's also far too eager to "test" Crook's virginity when the issue comes up.
Evil Old Folks: He's somewhere around 160 years old, and definitely among the more evil members of the Church.
Foil: Inverted. Enron parallels Kayblis in a number of ways. Both are extremely old beings (Enron being well beyond a human's natural lifespan, and Kayblis being the oldest living thing on the Continent, the Gods notwithstanding) who are fueled by rage and jealousy, striving for a role of leadership for which they have been repeatedly passed up, the last straw being when a little girl is chosen over them due to their connection with the previous leader. Visually, Enron even parallels Kayblis' Archfiend form, always accompanied by two Healcinths, much like the two women growing out of Archfiend Kayblis' shoulders.
Sinister Minister: His desire to become Pope has overruled everything else, to the point that he's willing to support people like Stessel Romanov if it means getting a leg up. It's later revealed that his soul is 100% "polluted", a difficult feat, as most people commit suicide at around 80% pollution, unable to bear it.

Priests

Sel Curchgolf

The Priestess of Red. See her entry in Free Cities.

Rosé Card

The Priestess of Custom. See her entry in Free Cities.

Elisabeth Des

A priestess of the Alicist Church who only appears in Kichikuou Rance. She is given to Rance as a gesture of goodwill by the Church.

Tropes exhibited by Elisabeth include:

Brother Chuck: She makes no appearance in the canonical games, though one of Arios Theoman's unseen former girlfriends shares the same name.
Nun-Too-Holy: Not her fault: the Pope took advantage of her blind devotion to turn her into his sex slave. As such, she believes pleasuring men to be a holy ritual.

Temple Knights

Battling "BS" Senters

Head of the Church's Temple Knights, the military arm of the organization. He keeps his position secret from his family to avoid worrying them.

Tropes exhibited by BS include:

Church Militant: Serves as this if necessary, though usually the Temple Knights are more commonly deployed to battle devils or Balance Breakers.
Praetorian Guard: His position also sees him as part of the Pope's personal cadre of bodyguards.
Unfortunate Name: Often known by his initials, giving him the name "BS Senters".

Sachiko Senters

A young University student, Sachiko is saved from monsters by Rance... who promptly makes her his slave as a replacement for Sill. She's a primary character in Rance Quest.

Tropes exhibited by Sachiko include:

Healing Factor: She has holy runes tattooed on her body that boost her ability to heal. These were given by her father as a child simply for her protection; he never intended that she become a fighter. It's said that cuts and bruises heal within hours for Sachiko, and in-game, she regenerates HP every turn.
Hidden Depths: For all her lack of self-esteem, she actually has a very high level cap of 59. She's also fantastic at baking, as well as caring for children.
Humble Goal: All she wants out of life is to be a beautiful bride and mother. This changes after adventuring with Rance, as she decides to follow in her father's footsteps and become a Temple Knight who protects the people.
I Gave My Word: The reason she's sticking with Rance. She promised him she'd do "anything" to repay him after he saved her life, and he demanded her virginity. Then he demanded that she follow him and serve him until he actually takes her virginity, which he kept putting off. Despite not being bound by any kind of agreement other than verbal, Sachiko intends to fulfill her promise and sticks with Rance throughout Rance Quest.
Named Weapons: Weirdly, she named her shield rather than her sword. She calls it "Mr. Hisorshi".
Stone Wall: As a guard, defense is her specialty. Her shield is extremely strong, and her father etched holy runes onto her body as a child that greatly enhance her ability to heal, leading to her regenerating mid-combat.