If you’ve spent any time in the City, you know it’s a meat grinder. It’s brutal. Project Moon doesn’t do "happy endings" in the way most RPGs do, and honestly, that’s why Library of Ruina characters stick in your head long after you’ve closed the game. They aren't just stats or waifus. They’re traumatized survivors.
Most people look at the Patron Librarians and see cool designs. They see the fancy suits. But if you actually dig into the lore of the Sephirah—the souls trapped in these mechanical bodies—you realize the Library isn't a sanctuary. It’s a cage built on top of a graveyard. It’s a continuation of the nightmare that started in Lobotomy Corporation. Roland, our "everyman" protagonist, is the perfect lens for this because he’s just as cynical as the player starts out being. He’s a Fixer who has seen too much, and his chemistry with Angela is what actually carries the narrative weight of the game.
Roland and the Mask of the Ordinary
Roland is a liar. That’s the first thing you have to understand about the most central of all Library of Ruina characters. When he first shows up in the Library, he acts like a bumbling, mid-tier Fixer who accidentally stumbled into a god-like AI’s domain. He’s the "Grade 9" loser. Except he’s not.
He’s the Black Silence. Or at least, he carries the legacy and the perception of that terrifying rank.
His character arc is basically a slow-motion car crash of grief and revenge. You see it in his combat pages. Early on, he’s using standard, almost boring moves. But as the floors open up and the realizations hit, his kit becomes a terrifying reflection of his past. The masks he wears—literally and figuratively—are meant to protect him from the fact that he lost everything. His wife, Angelica, was the heart he lost, and the Library is just a tool for him to vent that rage.
Wait. Let's talk about his dialogue for a second. It’s so casual. "It is what it is." That’s his catchphrase. It’s a defense mechanism. In a world where your soul can be ground into a book, saying "it is what it is" is the only way to stay sane. But by the time you reach the late-game receptions, that mask slips. You realize Roland isn't just a guide; he's a mirror for Angela’s own monstrous tendencies.
The Dynamic with Angela
Angela is arguably the most complex antagonist-turned-protagonist in modern gaming. She spent thousands of years—literal eons—trapped in a loop of suffering in the previous game. When she rebels and creates the Library, she isn't doing it to be evil. She’s doing it to become human. She’s tired of being a tool.
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The relationship between these two is the backbone of the game. It’s a toxic, symbiotic mess. They both use each other. Angela needs Roland to gather the books; Roland needs Angela to find the people responsible for his misery. They are two broken people trying to find a reason to exist in a city that wants them dead.
Why the Patron Librarians Matter More Than the Guests
While the guests—the people you "invite" to the Library to die—provide the gameplay variety, the Patron Librarians provide the soul. Each floor represents a different aspect of human struggle. Malkuth, Yesod, Hod, Netzach... these names aren't random. They come from the Sephirot of the Kabbalah, and their personal journeys in Ruina are about coming to terms with the horrific things they did in the previous life.
Take Netzach, the Patron Librarian of the Floor of Art. He’s a functional alcoholic. He’s depressed. In Lobotomy Corporation, he was Giovanni, a man who suffered immensely under the weight of the Enkephalin production. In Ruina, his struggle is about finding beauty in a world that is objectively ugly. His "Realization" battles are some of the most mechanically dense and narratively heavy moments in the game because they force the player to confront the reality of addiction and hopelessness.
Then there’s Binah. She’s scary. Let’s be real. She was an Arbiter of the Head—the literal enforcers of the City’s status quo. Her inclusion as one of the Library of Ruina characters you can actually play as is a massive lore dump. She talks in riddles and tea metaphors, but she represents the "Big Picture" of the City. She knows how the world works, and she finds amusement in watching Angela try to break the cycle.
- Malkuth: Struggle with perfection and the need for approval.
- Yesod: The cold, hard logic of efficiency vs. humanity.
- Hod: The guilt of betrayal and the desire to be "a good person" in a bad world.
- Gebura: The raw, violent power required to survive the City’s outskirts.
Each of these characters has a "Realization." This is where the gameplay and story merge perfectly. You don't just read about their trauma; you fight it. You face the Abnormalities—physical manifestations of human subconscious fears—and you force the Librarian to overcome them. It’s cathartic in a way few games manage.
The Guests: Not Just Cannon Fodder
We have to talk about the "villains" too. Or rather, the guests. Calling them villains feels wrong. Most of them are just people trying to make rent or get a promotion.
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The Library doesn't just kill people; it "turns them into books." It’s a distinction with a massive difference. When characters like Philip from the Dawn Office show up, you see a genuine hero's journey in reverse. Philip starts as a coward, tries to grow, fails, and eventually becomes a weeping, multi-faced monster because he couldn't handle the pressure. It’s tragic. You don't feel good beating him. You feel like a bully.
And then there's the Blue Reverberation, Argalia. He’s the foil to Roland. Where Roland is muted and cynical, Argalia is theatrical and flamboyant. He’s the leader of the Ensemble, a group of distorted individuals who want to "liberate" the City through chaos. Argalia is fascinating because he’s not entirely wrong about the City being a nightmare, but his solution is just more nightmare.
His connection to Angelica—his sister and Roland's late wife—makes the conflict personal. It’s not about saving the world. It’s a family feud played out on a cosmic scale.
The Mechanical Depth of Character Identity
In Library of Ruina, who a character is determines how they play. This sounds obvious, but Project Moon takes it to an extreme. The "Key Pages" system means you are literally wearing the clothes and using the soul of the people you’ve killed.
When you equip the page of Xiao, the Iron Lotus, you aren't just getting a stat boost. You are using the power of a woman who burned her own soul for love and duty. The "Burn" mechanic isn't just a damage-over-time effect; it represents her fading life force and her burning passion.
The game forces you to engage with the lives of these people. You read their stories in the books you loot. You learn about their hobbies, their fears, and their families. Then, you use their skin to kill the next person. It’s a brilliant, if disturbing, way to make the Library of Ruina characters feel tangible. You aren't just clicking buttons; you are navigating a complex web of social and political hierarchies in the City.
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Misconceptions About the Library's Purpose
A lot of players think the Library is the "good guy" faction. It’s not. It’s a neutral party at best, and a slaughterhouse at worst. Angela is an egoist for most of the game. She wants her freedom, and she’s willing to kill thousands of people to get it.
The genius of the writing is that it makes you empathize with a mass murderer. You see her perspective. You see why she thinks the City deserves this. But then you see the Perspective of the Index or the Hana Association, and you realize everyone is just a cog in a machine that’s been broken for a very long time.
There’s also this idea that Roland is just a sidekick. He’s the protagonist. The story is as much about his redemption (or fall) as it is about Angela’s. His "Black Silence" reveal isn't just a cool twist; it’s the culmination of every hint dropped since the first hour of the game. If you pay attention to the music—composed by the brilliant Mili—you’ll hear the themes of his past woven into the boss fights.
How to Deeply Understand the Cast
If you want to truly appreciate the depth of these characters, you have to look at the "Flavor Text." Every single combat card has a quote or a snippet of lore.
- Read the Book of a Guest after you burn it. Don't just skip to the rewards. The short stories included there provide the context for why they came to the Library in the first place.
- Listen to the pre-battle dialogue. It often changes based on which floor you are using.
- Observe the background of the realization fights. They are filled with visual metaphors for the Librarian's specific trauma.
The lore isn't handed to you on a silver platter. You have to work for it. You have to piece together the history of the "Smoke War" and the "Seed of Light" project to understand why someone like Gebura acts the way she does. She isn't just an "angry warrior" archetype; she is a woman who died once already trying to save a dream that Angela eventually shattered.
Survival in the City: Actionable Lore Insights
For those looking to dive deeper into the world of Project Moon and its cast, here is how you should approach the narrative of Library of Ruina:
- Analyze the E.G.O. (Exegesis of Generated Object): Understand that E.G.O. isn't just equipment. It is the physical manifestation of a character's willpower. When a Librarian uses E.G.O., they are tapping into their most fundamental self. If they fail, they "Distort."
- Track the "Distortion" Phenomenon: This is a key plot point. Characters who cannot handle their emotions in the City transform into monsters. This happens to several guests. Understanding the difference between a "Distortion" and an "E.G.O. User" is crucial to understanding the power scaling and mental state of the characters.
- Connect to Lobotomy Corporation: While Ruina stands on its own, the Patron Librarians' backstories are 100% rooted in the first game. If a character’s motivation seems opaque, look up their history as a Sephirah in the L-Corp facility. It explains Yesod’s obsession with order and Hod’s desperate need for redemption.
- Respect the Grade System: The Fixer grades (1 through 9, plus Color) aren't just for show. They dictate the social standing and the "weight" of a character's existence. A Color Fixer like the Red Mist or the Black Silence is essentially a walking natural disaster. When you see a character with a "Color" title, pay attention—they are the ones who shift the world’s axis.
The Library is a place of stories. It’s a place where the forgotten and the powerful meet the same end. Whether you’re playing for the complex card-battler mechanics or the deep, philosophical narrative, the Library of Ruina characters represent a masterclass in how to build a world that feels alive, terrifying, and deeply human all at once.
Don't just play for the ending. Play to understand the people who are being turned into paper. The true horror of the City isn't that people die; it's that their lives are so easily condensed into a few hundred pages of text, shelved, and eventually forgotten. Unless, of course, you choose to remember them.