Imperial Knights characters

Imperial Knights is a character RPG wearing dungeon equipment. The Steam page highlights three faces: Diana Ashley, Tear Lamley, and Lysithea. Japanese charts add Lea, Tania, Ellis, Sting, Butts, Robert, and Luna. This hub is the roster index. Deep pages exist for Diana, Tear, Lysithea, and a party / mercenary breakdown that actually lists who shows up on which route.

If you opened this because a slot is empty after a story dungeon, skip to when allies leave below, then hire from the guild. Do not start a new file.

House Ashley

Diana Ashley is the playable lead: second daughter, housework prodigy, accidental combat talent. She joins the Adventurers’ Guild to send money to Robert Ashley, a knight commander living under the shame of Luna’s desertion. Luna Ashley was already an Ether Knight and a public hero before she walked out of the empire. Diana’s entire first hour is “I cannot be Luna, but I can take requests.” Read Diana’s page for guild ranks, crest flags, and the Ether Knight ritual.

The house is the political wound. A sorcerer whispering to the emperor is the national wound. Diana’s personal wound is that she still wants to understand Luna without becoming her.

Official Imperial Knights opening — Circle Poison

Ether Knights and the church

Tear Lamley is the empire’s strongest knight on Kagura’s English page: lightning Ether techniques, loyalty, and a mandate to cut corruption while still slaughtering official enemies. She is the Route 1 face of the order Diana is trying to enter. Full page: Tear Lamley.

Lysithea is a Church of Proteus priest — water magic, heals, a quest to free a saint locked in Protea and forced into “something terrible.” On Route 1 she is the North Road rescue and then your Mina Heal button for the rest of the file. Full page: Lysithea. Party page covers her mercenary re-hire.

Lea joins after the Protea cathedral sequence on Route 1 and leaves with Lysithea after the catacombs. She is easy to miss in equipment management because she exists for one dungeon cluster and then sits on the board.

Route-locked faces

• Sting — veteran who “helps” with the guild fee. Funnel into Routes 2/3.
• Butts — hideout boss. Lose for Route 2, win (usually on NG+) for Route 3.
• Tania — Route 2 facility sections, including a control-swap stealth beat.
• Ellis — Route 3 mines; later hireable with a partner from Hertzots.
• Steve — Silved’s lord, Route 1 quest-giver toward Robust Fort.
• Sati and Norakura — late bosses, not party members.
• Ariel, Pan — show up on specific guild jobs; their presence changes extra flags. See the walkthrough extras list.

Japanese materials mention seven story heroines plus enough male mercenaries that a full album of hires sits around nineteen names including Diana. You will not see nineteen portraits on file one. You will see four at a time.

When allies leave (read this before a dungeon exit)

Circle Poison likes temporary join → dungeon → leave → mercenary registry. The Steam page even sells it: allies join for a while, then you can hire them. The unstated rule is strip their gear before the cutscene that removes them.

Typical Route 1 handoffs:

• Lysithea and Lea leave after the Protea catacombs.
• Tear leaves after you report Mud Poison, right before the Ether Knight ritual.
• Tear returns for Svalt.
• After a Route 1 clear, the whole crew is hireable on New Game+.

If you donated your only sleep-null card to Tear and then walked into the basement mage, that is a player error, not a bug. Combat and the party tier list both nag about this because it is the number-one “my damage vanished” report.

Mercenaries as a system

The guild board is how Routes stay playable when the plot isolates Diana. Male hires do not use armor-break costumes, which makes them boring and valuable in combat. Gold upkeep is real; night jobs and guild ranks exist partly to pay for people you already know.

Cards (the gacha chips) are not characters you deploy. They are accessories with chibi art from older Circle Poison games. Rank those on the card tier list, not here.

How to use this hub

1. Diana if you want flags, ranks, and Ether Knight.
2. Tear if you want lightning kit and loyalty plot.
3. Lysithea if you want Mina Heal, the North Road rescue, and the catacomb re-hire.
4. Party if you want a route-by-route who-joins table.
5. Party tier list if you want “who is actually good.”
6. Getting started if you have not recruited anyone yet.

Official art and Steam screenshots on this wiki show Diana’s adventurer coat, Lysithea’s priest whites, and the guild-hall talk that starts the whole mess. They are the faces the English build wants you to remember. The rest of the nineteen names are why the mercenary board exists.