Roaring Knight - Partner

The Knight is a tall, slender, sharply emaciated pitch-black silhouette with a white outline. Its helmet is diamond-shaped, with its opening resembling the visor of a frog-mouth helm. It can contort the shape to primarily resemble a visor, occasionally as a mouth, and rarely as a dark eye. Two long protrusions extend from the sides of the helmet, which resemble sharp three-pointed horns or antlers.

The Knight's body is slim and angular, with large triangular pauldrons, an extremely thin waist, jagged and jutting hipbones, and pointy legs with no discernible feet. Each hand appears to have a large white hole through the palm. These can emit a mauve starry beam that can drag things in the vicinity toward itself. Its overall appearance resembles two Titans shown in Ralsei's explanation of the Roaring in Chapter 2.

Overall, the Knight's body can shift in shape. Its helmet's opening can morph and shift around its face, and can have sharp, visible teeth. It can contort into a small rotating ball to swiftly dodge attacks, or transform into a ragged avian creature that can fly at high speeds. When it takes enough damage, its body becomes distorted, resembling video noise or the oscillation of a seismometer. It can also manifest an endless number of knife-shaped bullets and a sword whose form seems indistinguishable from its body.

When roaring, the Knight's appearance becomes more monstrous. It has two white eyes and a mouth with sharp teeth, and its chest opens up with skeletal ribs splaying outwards to reveal a large white eye with a slit pupil at its center.

The Knight always levitates in the air and produces a trail of afterimages to the opposite of whatever direction it is facing, even when stationary. When laughing, these afterimages move outwards randomly, and when roaring, the afterimages expand as they move away.

Personality While the Knight's motives are unknown, it is shown to be ruthlessly aggressive towards its enemies and even its servants when disappointed by them, as it attacks Tenna the moment he frees Toriel from her capsule. It often roars, emitting a torrent of reddish light which physically impacts those in the area, with no indication whether the roar is meant in fury, triumph, agony, or simply a taunt.

Occasionally, there are moments in which the Knight displays arrogance, often in response to Susie. When Susie chases the Knight up a staircase, it simply leans back and drifts away with its arms crossed. It also laughs in response at Susie's proclamation that it is powerless in the Light World at the end of Chapter 4, which indicates that it is not a simpleminded life form like the Titan.

After defeating Tenna and right before trying to grab Toriel in front of Kris and the others, the Knight slouches down, dripping some sort of liquid, as its "eye" turns black. Whether this action corresponds to crying, drooling, or something else is uncertain.

Despite the Knight's generally violent and ruthless demeanor, it seems to be more tolerant of Kris. The Knight simply DOWNs Kris during their fight in Chapter 3, instead of SWOONing them like the other party members. Should the party survive the fight for long enough, the Knight strikes down Susie and Ralsei afterwards. It then slowly places its sword on Kris's shoulder, mimicking the act of knighting, before the scene cuts to Kris in their DOWNed pose.

Main story History The Knight is a significant figure in the prophecy, which preordains its duel with the heroes. It is unknown whether the passages detailing its involvement are among Hometown's religious scriptures.

Chapter 1 Before the Knight appeared, the Card Kingdom was ruled by the four kings of Card Castle. However, this changed when King, who harbored a strong hatred for Lightners after being abandoned and forgotten in the unused classroom, was told by his court jester Jevil of the Knight's "brilliance" and of a way to rise to power.[5]

Seam mentioning the Knight to the party The Knight does not appear during Chapter 1, and its whereabouts during that time are unknown. Instead, the party learns of it from stories primarily told by King and Seam. Seam refers to the Knight as a "strange knight" who appeared before King usurped the other three Kings and caused chaos,[6] and King himself refers to it as "My KNIGHT" in the same way a subject might refer to their ruler as "my King".[7]

The three Former Kings recall the appearance of the Knight as a turning point in Card Kingdom's history. King himself describes it as pulling "holy Fountains" from the earth in order to blanket the world in darkness.[8][9]

If Jevil is defeated, he alludes to the Knight's involvement in slightly different contexts depending on how he was defeated.[10][11]

Chapter 2 The Knight does not make a physical appearance in Chapter 2, though its involvement is occasionally mentioned.

The day after Chapter 1's events, the Knight created the library Fountain, forming a Dark World within the library.[1] A video of this event plays in one of the rooms at Queen's Mansion, but there is too much smoke to identify the person creating the Fountain.

Queen recalling the Knight's creation of the library Fountain In Cyber City, Spamton implies that the Knight is related to "[[Communion]]", and starts to tell Kris something about the Knight, before cutting himself off by plunging into an apology and a nonsensical tangent.[12] During the party's battle with Queen, she explains that any Lightner with enough determination can make Dark Fountains, and she was planning on using Noelle to make new Fountains in place of the Knight.

After the fight against GIGA Queen, Berdly attempts to make a Dark Fountain but is stopped by Ralsei, who explains that Dark Fountains, if gone unchecked, would eventually consume the Light World, turning all Darkners to stone and leaving Lightners in eternal darkness. Queen was unaware of the Roaring's consequences,[13] nor was she aware of the concept itself.[4] Thus, Queen does not seem to align with the Knight's goals, as she previously stated she wanted to "Make Everyone Smile".[14]

If Kris has acquired two Shadow Crystals, Seam acknowledges their progress and offers them the Shadow Mantle, before realizing that it has gone missing. Without it, Seam claims that fate is not in the party's favor, referencing the imminent confrontation with the Knight.[15]

Chapter 3 Kris, Susie, and Ralsei battling the Knight After several failed attempts to keep the party occupied within TV World, Tenna explains that at some point after falling into obsolescence, he came into contact with the Knight, and he was told that he could have as many viewers as he wanted if he kept the party distracted.[3] During the Sword Route, Tenna's NPC dialogue in the Original Game raises the possibility that these instructions were part of the secret deal that Kris made with Tenna earlier, indicating that Tenna, like the main antagonists of the previous Dark Worlds, might not have interacted with the Knight directly and could have been misled about its intentions.

Following an intense battle in the Cold Place, Tenna allows the party to leave along with Toriel, even though it goes against the Knight's wishes.[16] After giving back Toriel, he is suddenly struck down from behind, severely injured with both of his arms severed from his body. The party confronts the attacker, who is revealed to be the Knight. It attempts to abduct Toriel, but after Susie halts it, it engages the party in battle.

If the Knight is defeated, its form starts destabilizing, and Susie tries to attack it with her axe. The Knight recovers and parries her, but a shard gets knocked off its sword, the Black Knife.[17] Susie taunts the Knight and laughs, at which point the screen turns black and Susie is SWOONed in a huge slash, with Ralsei being similarly SWOONed right after. The Knight reappears, making Kris kneel at swordpoint in a motion reminiscent of a ruler "knighting" their servant. The cutscene then continues as if the party lost.

The Knight capturing Undyne and fleeing After the battle, the Knight resumes abducting Toriel again, but is interrupted by the appearance of Undyne, who throws spears at it. It then kidnaps Undyne instead, taking her through the Great Door of the Dark World, with Susie and Kris giving chase. Spotting someone in the distance, Susie grabs Kris's hand and chases them into the open shelter, but the doors slam shut before they can enter. Realizing they cannot get through for now, Susie goes back to the Fountain, and the shelter doors open slightly in front of Kris as the Chapter ends.

Chapter 4 When Susie tells Ralsei about the Knight's abduction of Undyne, he reassures her by claiming that he can sense that Undyne is not in immediate danger. He concludes that the Knight must have a goal beyond simply hurting people, as it would have "acted sooner" otherwise.[18]

At some point after church service had ended, the Knight made two Dark Fountains there: one in the church's lobby, corresponding to the Dark Sanctuary, and one in the main hall of the church proper, corresponding to the 3rd Sanctuary.

Kris confronting the Knight on the way to the Dark Sanctuary Fountain Shortly after the party arrives in the Dark Sanctuary, the Knight appears at the later end of the Atrium, blocking the path to the Fountain. It knocks Susie away with a sword and destroys the ground between her and Kris, then fires a barrage of swords at Kris as they approach. If Kris reaches the Knight, Susie yells at them to attack it, but they do nothing, and the Knight fires an unavoidable line of swords at them. Either way, the duo is thrown off and sent tumbling deeper into the Dark World.

If asked about the Knight, the Old Man mentions that it flew through a locked door inscribed with the Delta Rune on the Study's second floor.[19] He can later ask about the Knight after it has been unlocked.[20]

As the party explores the Sanctuaries, they find the Knight is referred to by title in the prophecy's glass tapestries.[21] A reference to Tenna's defeat, which took place at the Knight's hands, can be found later in the 2nd Sanctuary.[22]

While searching for the solution to the organ piano puzzle, Susie is separated from the party, and Ralsei suggests Kris close their eyes and think about what Susie is doing. If the player refuses twice, Ralsei suggests that Kris closes their eyes in general, and the player is given the option to think of the Knight instead. This causes Kris to visualize the Knight taking off its helmet. However, Kris immediately begins thinking of Jockington instead before opening their eyes, preventing the player from learning the Knight's identity.

As the party approaches the Dark Sanctuary Fountain a second time, the Knight appears again. It fails to prevent the party from reaching the Fountain, and subsequently retreats through the Great Door leading to the 3rd Sanctuary before Susie can reach it.

Heavy Footsteps soundtrack.png Susie challenging the Knight before it creates a Titan In the 3rd Sanctuary, the Knight attempts once again to prevent the party from reaching the Fountain, destroying a pillar they would have climbed to and pushing them away with wind and swords. However, it is once again unable to stop them, in part thanks to the aid of either all the Darkners recruited by the party during their time in the Dark Sanctuaries, or, if none were recruited, Jackenstein's apparent sacrifice.

Once the party corners the Knight near the Fountain, Susie jeers that the Knight has never appeared in the Light World and relies on the Dark World to pose a threat; if the party can get past it and seal the Fountain, it might be powerless against them. The Knight laughs at Susie, and to Ralsei's protest, makes another Fountain within the 3rd Sanctuary, which petrifies and hatches into a Titan.[23] The Knight is not seen again afterwards, and does not attempt to stop the party from defeating the Titan and sealing the Fountain.

Chapter 5 Flowery attempting to stop the Knight from taking Asgore Throughout Flower Castle, the party comes across documents written by Asgore detailing the Knight's prior actions. In these documents, Asgore mentions "black shards", chipped pieces of the Black Knife, being left behind in the aftermath of the formations of Cyber World and a Dark World from "a long time ago". The documents suggest that the Knight has been active and making Dark Fountains long before the party first encountered it. In addition, Ralsei repeatedly warns Flowery that the Knight will arrive and capture Asgore if Flower Kingdom stays active.

When Kris seals the Flower King Fountain, the Dark World remains active, as a new Fountain has taken its place. The Knight soon arrives and captures Asgore. Flowery gives chase and engages the Knight in battle, but fails to inflict any meaningful damage due to the Knight's ability to resist his fabricated statistics. The Knight fatally wounds Flowery and leaves the Dark World with Asgore.

... dark... fountain... next... ... church... tonight... ... need... soul... Without... soul... Kris... will... ... Kris... dark world... no soul... can't... ... police... sacrifice... next week... ... Susie... must not get... guitar... ... Susie... guitar... code... stop...