Beheaded

The Beheaded, also known as The Prisoner or the Fallen , is the protagonist of Dead Cells. He is a gelatinous creature with a single glowing eye that can control human corpses. The Headless One prefers to possess headless bodies rather than move around without one. The Beheaded does not know how it came to be, but it was evidently created on immortal shores, as he refers to an "uncomfortably familiar" empty tub and a skull on a "strangely familiar" desk. Also, the Headless One is known to the Prisoners and a few others. The Crypt Demon calls the Headless an anomaly and mentions that "she" was looking for him. It is currently unknown who 'she' is (although it is revealed in the queen and the sea dlc). The Headless One pursues the King, hoping that killing him will bring some kind of change.

The Beheaded can possess dead bodies, until said body becomes so damaged to the extent it becomes unusable. Possessing a body is not instant. The Beheaded seemingly needs to "boot up" its body in order to use it efficiently. With the use of the Homunculus Rune Icon.png Homunculus Rune, the Beheaded can launch its "head" from the body while not losing control of the original. Even without a body, the Beheaded retains the ability to move around, though it does not prefer doing so. The Beheaded seems to be immortal. No matter where it is killed, even in the Forgotten Sepulcher’s darkness, it always seems to survive and come back.

The Beheaded can somehow consume food and potions even though it does not have anywhere to consume them. According to The Heart of Dead Cells, the green mass of the Beheaded is a homunculus. This is implied in-game by the Homunculus Rune Icon.png Homunculus Rune and the Failed HomunculusFF. The Beheaded seems to have no issue possessing both male and female bodies, given some of the outfits. The Beheaded seems immune to the Malaise, but the bodies it possesses are not.

The origins of the malaise are relatively unknown. It's widely suspected to come from the slumbering sanctuary’s sap that infected the sewer network below the prison. The malaise was helped spread across the island by infected insects, contaminated fish feasted on by the villagers, and improperly disposed infected corpses within the sewers, evidently spreading rampantly admist the Island's population. The symptoms of the malaise are itchiness, belly aches, feeling down, headaches, and blurred vision, and always resulting in death. Apart from this, the malaise caused mutations in both the living and dead, and reanimating the dead into bloodthirsty monsters.

There is little to go off on what the island had been before the malaise outbreak and its inevitable downfall following it. Though, it can be said the island had been somewhat prosperous.

Otherwise, the island had been ruled by the king and queen who resided in the High Peak Castle. The gates of the castle were defended by the giant, the interior defended by the royal guards, and royals themselves protected by the Hand Of The King and The Servants.

Beyond the High Peak Castle is Stilt Village, where the lower class citizens of the island resided, Where they would spend most of their time fishing as their source of food and as an activity. Occasionally, some managed to retrieve crystals from the caverns to sell, how they obtained the crystals was never mentioned.

Connected to the village is the black bridge, acting as an exit and entrance to the prison, personally guarded by the prison warden, Castaing. Back then, it had only been used during special occasions Things quickly changed after a sudden deadly illness spread across the island. The illness was named a variety of names such as: the malaise, the gloom, or the green poison. Its symptoms were itchiness, belly aches, feeling down, headaches, blurred vision and eventual death. However, it reanimated the once dead infected and mutated them into aggressive monsters who attacked the living.

In an attempt to contain the infection, The King ordered the imprisonment and execution of anyone who was infected, those who were only suspected would also be hanged. The king ordered the prison warden, Castaing, to stop controlling the gates and keep all prisoners inside even if they’ve finished their sentence. When the cells became overpopulated, due to many imprisonments, the king ordered the guards to use the outside jails and to leave no suspects unsupervised.

The king’s orders confused the guards as they questioned why they were transferring sick villagers to the prison and not getting them treatment. Because of this, the guards were threatened with execution if they failed to obey the king’s orders.

Inside the prison, the prisoners wrote on the cell walls questioning why the prison was being filled with the innocent, or why they didn’t want to get infected and die.

Eventually, they began escaping. Digging tunnels to the Sewers or Promenade, and climbing the Ramparts. However, these escapes always resulted in death to either exhaustion, starvation, or by the hands of Castaing had they gotten to the bridge.

Because of his actions, The Giant confronted the King warning him his actions would bring ruin to his kingdom. The king, however, ordered the Giant to be executed and have his body thrown in the prison quarters.

Within the village, the villagers revolted against the king. Vandalising the statue of him and his hand, his posted orders, and even demanding his death. This led to the nights of bloody riots. After which, the guard’s condemned a wing of the prison, the Ossuary, to dump corpses in, and in an additional attempt to burn excess bodies when the Graveyard became full. Even then, the bodies piled up endlessly and burning them was no longer good enough as they were reanimating and acquiring weapons.

At this time, The king wasn’t the only one taking action against the malaise: A sorceress, called The Time Keeper, resorted to rewinding time to the same day, executing infected and keeping the malaise at bay, although this exhausted her as noticed by The Alchemist.

The Alchemist, alongside the King and the Time Keeper, took action against the malaise, using scientific means to find a cure. He gathered research from all over the island to learn the origin of the malaise and conducted many experiments to combat the malaise, using corpses or villagers who volunteered their bodies for his work.

His research took him to a sanctuary beneath the village. Some believed the liquid sap running through the walls of the sanctuary could've been contaminating the sewer network and thus causing the malaise. With this knowledge, the alchemist began experimenting with the sap. Over time, he discovered mutations in the infected slowed down when submerged in a solution of the sap. However, the sap provided unpredictable results on the bones of corpses. He reflects on whether the king’s methods were worth killing so many people.

During the final retreat, when the malaise was at its peak, the King gave The Alchemist a wing of the castle to continue his experiments. Although, everything proved to be futile as the royal guard once protected within succumbed to the infection and the king himself succumbed to the Malaise.

As a final desperate attempt, The Time Keeper set the island in an endless time loop, containing the malaise to the island.