Protagonist

Normal

With Imagigear

### Pactbearers

Nozomi Hinata, Shinya Yuda, Kokoro Surugadai, Ryotaro Date, and Chiyo Aikawa (temporary)

### Relatives

Yoru (mother)

The **protagonist** is the player character of *Monark*. He is named by the player.

## Background

The protagonist is a second-year high schooler student who was dragged into Shin Mikado Academy in the Otherworld along with his younger sister Chiyo Aikawa. Afflicted with memory loss, he encounters a Daemonic being and obtains a power called the Authority of Vanity. He is then instated as the vice president of the True Student Council.

Upon meeting the Monark of Vanity, Vanitas, and gaining an Authority the Protagonist is tasked by Sora Jingu to investigate and solve the ongoing anomalies within the academy. In terms of a chess piece, the Protagonist is the king, having the ability to control Fiends (effectively pawns) and probably being the most important person in the True Student Council.

His status as a Pactbearer of Vanity is one of confusion to Sora as his Authority isn't one of the seven deadly sins, or aberrant. Even Cromwell with his extensive knowledge of the Otherworld and Daemons knows little about it aside from its appearance in documents from Shin Mikado's early years.

His Authority powers are also confusing to people. while initially believed to only have the power of Resonance, there are multiple events where he is able to cancel the abilities of other Authorities. One time of this that stands out is when the Protagonist is able to free Ryotaro from the effects of the Causality Manipulation by the Pactbearer of Envy.

While Sora recognizes him as a student of the academy, few second year students recognize him. Members of Chiyo's fan club and others who know her are surprised to learn she has a brother in the first place. This is because in truth he *isn't* Chiyo's brother. The Protagonist is an artificial human created by Yoru, who used Chiyo's dead brother Takamori Suzuki as a template and altered the memories of everyone in the academy so the Protagonist could integrate with his surroundings with no problem. His being an artificial being can also explain his amnesia, given that when he wakes up in game he was probably just "born".

Vanitas recognizes the true nature of the Protagonist in their first meeting, calling him a "facade" with no sense of self. Knowing right off the bat that the Protagonist was an empty shell created by Yoru, yet managed to develop an Ego in spite of this.

During the intermission between Act 1 and Act 2 Chiyo leaves the club room as well as everyone else. When the Protagonist eventually catches up to her, she is in the Otherworld and already dead by Fiends around her. By the time the Protagonist gets Chiyo to the infirmary Neiko informs him that she was already done before he got there. This causes the Protagonist to pass out, presumably from grief.

When he wakes up it is now Act 2 and he has four routes to choose from, each one revealing more information about his true nature and other events.

Ryotaro's route seems to have the least amount of information about the Protagonist. While looking in the basement to get rid of Sora's Ideals they come across one of the hollow shells Yoru created. These shells look exactly like the Protagonist with the exception of having gray eyes instead of red. However, they never receive information about this in Ryotaro's route. After they defeat Sora, the Protagonist begins to disappear, and Sora realizes the truth behind his existence. When Ryotaro demands an answer for what is happening, Sora only refers to the Protagonist as being "a vanity project" before they both disappear.

In Shinya's route, before the battle Yoru reveals that she was the one who killed Chiyo for realizing the truth behind the Protagonist's existence. This sends the Protagonist into a rage, declaring that he would kill Yoru for this, much like how Shinya does for the death of Sora and Yugo. After the battle the Protagonist stabs Yoru through her stomach, fulfilling his earlier declaration before he and Shinya shatter the Ideal. This results in Yoru's disappearance, as well as the Protagonist's. Some time during the encounter, Yoru calls the Protagonist her "child" once, but doesn't elaborate on it.

During Kokoro's route, it is revealed that Sora is in fact the Monark of Woe and Yugo is her Pactbearer. Sora offers to absorb Kokoro, saying that the world now inside her would offer Kokoro all the "safety and security" she would want. Kokoro (having had a character development) refuses, saying that safety and security isn't what she really wanted, but instead for people to try and understand her, and that she would never be understood in Sora's world. After defeating Sora, the Protagonist takes a hit that would have killed Kokoro, killing him as well. Before he dies, Kokoro attempts to confess to him, but is unable to finish as he dies.

Nozomi's route gives the most information about the Protagonist. It also has a large amount of copies of the Protagonist in the basement sections before the Ideals, filling the place of Unsettled. Before the battle with Yoru, Yoru calls the Protagonist her "child" and this time elaborating on it, revealing that she created him. When Nozomi refuses to believe this, Yoru restores her memories of Chiyo's true brother, Takamori. Nozomi says that the Protagonist is still his own person, and continues to fight by his side. After the battle, when he begins to disappear Yoru reveals that he would always die at the end, as if the barrier or Yoru herself disappear, so does he. Nozomi becomes both angry and depressed at this revelation, realizing that the Protagonist probably knew what would happen and that she was losing someone she saw as a best friend for a second time in her life.

After all four routes the truth is revealed about the Protagonist's ability. His true ability is called Animakinesis in game, and is described as the ability to manipulate souls. He uses this ability as well as Kakeru's last Ideal that was never shattered to rewind time to before Chiyo's death. The Protagonist proceeds to use his ability to remember the events of all four routes and share them with the party member's, Chiyo and (perhaps inadvertently ) Sora, Yoru and Yugo. This is the beginning of the True Ending Route.

After figuring out how to reach The Gate with help from the party, the Protagonist goes there with the others. They are confronted by Sora, Yoru and Yugo. Upon receiving the memories from the Protagonist, Sora separated Yoru from herself early, meaning neither one of them could over power the other. Yugo also received all his memories back, and reveals his true identity has Hugo Cromwell, the author of all the notes about Daemons and the Otherworld found throughout the school.

Yugo (now Hugo) asks that the group not go into the gate. He reveals that the being the inside can grant their wish, it will come at a high price. He also reveals the full truth about the Protagonist.

The Protagonist isn't a Pactbearer of Vanity, but is a recreation of the Monark of Vanity, who was defeated by the Monark of Woe far before the events of the game. The Monark of Woe stole the core of the Monark of Vanity and attempted to absorb it to take on the power of Animakinesis, but it failed. Some time later when Yoru began creating the Protagonist clones, after multiple failures she decided to try and use the core of the Monark of Vanity and in doing so created the Protagonist, making him an artificial Monark as well as an artificial human.

Yugo's proof of this is the Protagonist's ability to control Fiends, something no Pactbearer is capable of. Yugo also reveals that another reason the Protagonist disappears at the end of other routes is because the Protagonist is subsisting off of Yugo's Ideals, just like Sora and Yoru are. When he defeated Sora and Yoru the Protagonist was putting himself in a kind of hibernation state that all Monarks go into once their Pactbearer's Ideals are shattered.

When the group insists they are going into The Gate, they are forced into a group battle with Yugo, Yoru and Sora all at once. Upon their defeat, Yugo falls into a comatose state similar to the other Pactbearer's. After their defeat, the Protagonist begins to disappear again. Before he can Vanitas reveals that it may be possible for the Protagonist to create a pact with one of them and continue being around, given that he is a Monark (albeit considered to be a failed attempt). Chiyo attempts to but her will alone is considered too weak. They are reminded that it is possible for a Monark to have more than one Pactbearer, and the entire group become Pactbearers to the Protagonist, including Shinya and Nozomi. Vanitas says that it is still weak, however, and will only keep the Protagonist around for two to three days at most. The group resolves to wish for the Protagonist to become a true human.

Once they are able to step inside The Gate, Vanitas reveals himself to be an incarnation of Yog-Sothoth, the god of the game, and as such is able to summon him for the group. He does so and Yog-Sothoth greets the players. He confirms that he is able to grant the group's wish to allow the Protagonist to become human, however he wants them to prove themselves in battle. Upon doing so, Yog-Sothoth keeps his word, and changes the Protagonist to a true human, meaning he will no longer die. As they step out of the battle the barrier around the school is gone, and the Protagonist takes his first step outside.

After the game the Protagonist is able to fight all the other Monark's again, and in doing so challenge Yog-Sothoth again. After defeating him a second time, the Protagonist may be able to wish for another character's return. (This character is the last one in the "other" category of characters in the phone).

## Abilities

The protagonist's ability tree is laid out as follows:

The protagonist can learn and use the following abilities:

## Other outfits

Casual wearFormal wear

1. ↑ Blake Jackson @rayblayjay "So excited to announce you can hear me as the English voice of the Protagonist in Monark 👑 Big thanks to @shannondreed and @NISAmerica for having me! Available now on PS4, PS5, Switch, and PC. #MONARKgame @monark\_info @SentaiFilmworks"