Paragons •
Dominic Ash: In the real world, Ash is a middle-aged man working in
marketing. He is married to a woman named Sophie. He was best friends with Sol before they were transported to Die. In the world of Die, Ash lives as a woman. She plays the game as a Dictator, a
diplomat character archetype represented by a 4-sided die. She has the ability to manipulate people's emotions and convince them to do her bidding with her words. During her time in Die as a teenager, Ash had numerous relationships with men, including an affair with Isabelle's lover Zamorna that resulted in an unexpected pregnancy. •
Angela Ash: Ash's younger sister. In the real world, Angela is a
coder who develops video games. She has two children and is in the process of
divorcing her husband after having an affair with her co-worker Susan. In the world of Die, Angela plays as a Neo, a
cyberpunk-inspired character archetype represented by a 10-sided die. She can gain control of machines and
teleport herself, and she is able to manifest a
robotic version of her childhood dog that acts as her companion. Her abilities are all powered by
Fair gold, resulting in a dependence on the substance that is akin to addiction. As a teenager, she traded one of her arms for a
cybernetic limb, which resulted in her losing an arm when she returned to the real world. •
Isabelle: A Vietnamese-French adoptee who dated Sol when they were teenagers. She had a contentious relationship with Ash, made worse by the affair that Ash had with Zamorna. As an adult, Isabelle is divorced and teaches
English literature at a high school. In the world of Die, she plays as a Godbinder, a character archetype represented by a 12-sided die. She is able to demand favors from twelve gods, each representing different elements and ideas, though she must perform favors for them in return. She strongly believes that the party should treat everyone in Die as if they are real and take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. •
Matt : Matt is a
statistics professor with two daughters. His mother died when he was a teenager, leading to struggles with
grief and
depression. In the world of Die, he plays as a Grief Knight, a variant of an emotion-based character archetype represented by an 8-sided die. He carries a talking sword that verbalizes his worst fears and insecurities and becomes more powerful as he becomes sadder. Of all the members of the party, he is the most invested in leaving Die and returning home to his family. In Issue 14, Matt takes up a talking mace that symbolizes anger and becomes a dual-wielder of both Grief and Anger. •
Chuck: After leaving Die for the first time, Chuck became rich and famous writing popular
fantasy novels. He has been married three times and is estranged from his children. In the world of Die, he plays as a
Fool, a character archetype represented by a 6-sided die. As long as he maintains a carefree attitude and doesn't seriously consider consequences, he is granted an unusual degree of
luck in all his actions. His recklessness and insincerity regularly antagonize the other members of the party. •
Solomon: Sol was Ash's best friend, and designed the game that led the party to Die as a gift for Ash. In the world of Die, he initially played as a Master, a character archetype equivalent to a
gamemaster and represented by a 20-sided die. When the party made their first attempt to leave Die, an unexpected disruption resulted in Sol being left behind. He ended up becoming the Grandmaster of Die, ruthlessly controlling the rules governing all the realms instead of just one. Ash kills him after it becomes clear that he won't let the party return home, and he is resurrected as an undead Fallen. Fallen Sol is kept prisoner by Ash, who regularly interrogates him to try to uncover the true origins of Die.
Citizens of Die •
Zamorna: The deposed vampire ruler of Angria, now in exile in Gondol. He was formerly the lover of both Isabelle and Ash, and fathered Augustus with Ash. Ash enchants him when they take over Angria to keep him under control. Zamorna is one of the characters created by the Brontë siblings as part of their fantasy worlds. •
Augustus: The son of Zamorna and Ash and godchild of Isabelle and the Mourner. When Ash realized she was pregnant with him, she was afraid of the implications of his existence and what would happen to her and her baby if they returned to Earth, leading Isabelle to ask the Mourner to carry him to term so that the Paragons could leave without strings. •
Delighted & Dour: Two dwarves who can only feel the emotion they were named for. They befriend the party in Glass Town and join them throughout their adventures. Dour is killed in issue 15 protecting Chuck, and Delighted leads the Paragons to their final destiny. •
Molly: Angela's eldest daughter, who reacted badly when Angela's affair with a coworker was revealed and her parents began divorce proceedings. Molly appears in Die as a Fallen, leading to concerns that time is passing faster on Earth and that more people are being pulled into Die and subsequently dying. •
The Elf Queen of the Dreaming Lands: An elven woman who initially appears to the party as an undead Fallen, and then later in her true form to Isabelle and Chuck. She is based on a former classmate of the Paragons when they were in school. Chuck sleeps with her real form but she leaves when Chuck says she isn't real and just a plaything, on top of not knowing her name. In the final issue, she gives a mission to the Fallen Chuck, who accepts on the condition that she tells him her name. •
The Master of the Front: A man who appears to be
J. R. R. Tolkien and who is now the unwilling Master of 'The Front', who believes that the Realm is a perversion of his
stories. Unlike the other Masters, this echo does not directly claim to be the man who inspired him. •
Charlotte Brontë: The Warden and Master of Angria, who claims to be the real Charlotte Brontë who was transported to Die upon her death. Charlotte and her siblings created the worlds of Gondal, Angria, Glass Town, and characters such as Zamorna in their childhood, but soon realized that they had gotten more than they bargained for when their worlds began to bleed into reality. •
H. G. Wells: The Master of Little England, who reveals that he and the other Masters are merely 'echoes' of real-world creators who created pieces for Die. Wells is more involved in his realm than the other Masters, and believes that he successfully saved the world already by writing the book
Little Wars. When Ash tells him that this didn't prevent
World War I, Wells leaves in a time machine to try to stop it. He teams up with the Fair in a final attempt to stop Die and presumably dies during the attack. •
H. P. Lovecraft: The Master of the Realm of Thirteen, an endless sea with an island and sub-dungeon based on
Lovecraftian horror. He carved out his eyes after viewing the horrors of Die. This echo recalls that he once dreamed of non-Euclidean shapes and cults who revered his name, which are revealed to be futuristic premonitions of
TTRPG dice and people playing the role-playing game based on his works,
Call of Cthulhu. Isabelle kills him once he shows the Paragons the truth of the Fallen. •
The Fair: Android-like fae creatures who act as Angela's patrons and provide her her Neo abilities. They are described as elves if elves were designed by
William Gibson. They choose whether to provide boons or not based on a coin-flip marked with
binary. The Fair reveal that they arrived in Die in 1990 to try to stop Die's plan to merge with Earth in 2020, and are killed in their final attempt after teaming up with H. G. Wells. == Comic book publication history ==