| “ | Let us dance together into the abyss!
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” |
The Enchantress is the evil sorceress who commands the Order of No Quarter and is the main antagonist of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove. Her final form, the Remnant of Fate, is the final boss of Shovel of Hope.
Official Bio
| “ | Of all the monsters roaming Shovel Knight’s world, none are as dangerous as the Enchantress. Cold, brilliant, and pulsing with vile power, the Enchantress is a preternatural force. Her Order of No Quarter carries out her will with ruthless might, although her origins remain shrouded in mystery. With a loyal army under her command, she is more than a match for a solitary knight with a lowly shovel... or so she assumes! | ” |
- Pros: intelligence, magical prowess, healthy glow
- Cons: no sense of humor, seems sad sometimes...
Dig the Vote
Tone
| “ | The Enchantress’ story revolves around the frighteningly cold power she displays, and some more insight into her past. Maybe the Order has rebelled, and the Enchantress has to enforce her authority! | ” |
Original Play Style Ideas
- Mobility and Damage – All of attacks have extra mobility options built right in!
- Self Inflicted Danger – All attacks can harm her too. You might have that boss pattern down but but you’ll need a dodge strategy for your own attacks too!
- Fast – Can run through levels quickly.
- Glass Cannon – Has lower health than other characters.
- Reflect – Projectiles are not a problem!
Strategy
The Enchantress herself is a fairly simple boss, but the floor being made entirely of dirt blocks makes it more complicated, as the player is forced to use Shovel Drop sparingly to avoid falling. The Enchantress begins by throwing fireballs that can be whacked back at her. After a while, she then floats to the top of the screen and throws fireballs downward, destroying some of the floor. Next, she dashes all over the screen and attempts to divebomb Shovel Knight. Then, she uses her pyrokinetic powers to bring up some flames from the bottom of the screen; the flames lurk at the bottom of the screen and follow Shovel Knight's position for a few seconds before rising up to consume the floor. Thankfully, the flames will turn into dirt blocks when they go out if they consume a space that didn't have a dirt block. The player can use this to get the Enchantress to replenish the floor by getting her to spawn flames near large gaps in the floor so they can be replaced with blocks.
History
Origins
The early stages of the origin of The Enchantress are mostly wrapped in mystery and lacking in details. What is known is that at some point, by means and reasons unknown, a magic amulet containing the power over life and death came into existence, but said power was of evil nature. The amulet would under unknown circumstances end up being enshrined in the Tower of Fate, a solitary and half crumbling fortress of unknown history located in the far east of the Valley, which was or became home to many questionably dark creatures. Tales about the amulet would eventually leak out among the populace, with those of its great powers being apparently more widespread compared to the ones about its dark nature.
An unspecified, but probably long time later, two adventurers, Luan and Donovan, hear of its powers and, due to Luan's fears for his son's well-being, seek to claim the artifact for themselves, in hopes of protecting the boy from his own recklessness. But concurrently another group, the duo of wandering knights Shovel Knight and Shield Knight, decide to seek out the amulet in order to destroy its evil power for good.
With both groups reaching the chamber where the amulet rests at the same time, Luan and Donovan find themselves face to face with Shield Knight, who had apparently run ahead of her companion. Full of mistrust and contempt towards knights, and perhaps partially brainwashed by the amulet's dark influence, Donovan refuses to heed Shield Knight's warnings and steps aside, engaging in a vicious clash with her. The skirmish destabilizes the stability of the room, resulting in the floor caving in, plummeting both Luan and Donovan to their deaths in the dark abyss below.
Left alone in the room with the cursed amulet, Shield Knight, perhaps because she was weak after her fight with Donovan, almost immediately becomes overwhelmed by its powers. Her personality becomes twisted and warped by the evil magic, transforming her into the dark witch known as The Enchantress. It appears that it was this metamorphosis that caused the then catching up Shovel Knight to pass out and, while unconscious, to be somehow expelled from the Tower, maybe by the amulet itself, an unknown third party, or by The Enchantress herself.
Lusting for total domination, the newly born Enchantress reached out for a dying and full of regret Donovan. The dark sorceress promised to extend his life, in exchange for his servitude as her enforcer, tasked to gather an order of knights strong enough to conquer the entire Valley in her name. Once said duties were fulfilled, she would provide him with the means to completely restore his life.
Backed into a corner, Donovan was left with no other choice but to accept. Satisfied, The Enchantress proceeded to create out of thin air an unearthly, grim scythe and with it, she struck Donovan, transfiguring him into a scythe-wielding specter, an undead shell of his former self. She then took his beloved locket, and infused it with a powerful magic: with each knight fallen under her command the locket would charge in strength until eight of them were united, granting the trinket the necessary power to reverse death and restore life, but once and once only. With her puppet ready, the Enchantress unleashed his newly dubbed Specter Knight on the unsuspecting Valley.
Many of the most ill-famed or misunderstood inhabitants of the Tower and the surrounding Valley would end up swearing allegiance to The Enchantress, out of both awe and fear of her monstrous powers, with the undead folk in particular doing so also out of boredom of their eternal existence and in search of guidance. Some of the most ancient ones, like Horace, choose instead to remain neutral. The now new leader of the dilapidated fortress, The Enchantress withdraws herself into the innermost parts of the Tower, biding her time while she waits for the completion of her armies.
Meanwhile Shovel Knight, once he recovered his senses, tries to re-enter the Tower, but finds the way sealed and completely impenetrable. Assuming the worst for his beloved companion, Shovel Knight becomes struck with overwhelming grief and decides to retire to a life of solitude. This further exacerbated his rivalry with Black Knight, who comes to see him as a coward who was unable to protect Shield Knight.
King of Cards
| Spoiler warning! This article contains plot details about an event that occurs later in the game. |
Sometime before the events of King of Cards, the Enchantress created with her current army a card game called Joustus. This game was part of the Enchantress's plan to bring all the kings of the land together to use magic on them. She had the idea of making a Joustus Crown, once being given as a reward once beating Joustus Judges. This would make people interested in playing and doing the work of gathering the kings for her. A 3rd king was made by enchanting a birder so the quest for the Joustus crown wasn't to easy. Eventually, word was spread about Joustus and the Joustus crown and houses were made. Somehow, Joustus cards were spread throughout the land.
Eventually a knight, named King Knight, wanting the prize of the Joustus crown, goes off destroying all the Joustus judges with the help of his new crew. Throughout this journey the Enchantress disguises herself to check if King Knight is progressing her plan. Once King Knight defeats the final king, King Birder, The Enchantress reveals her plans and says that the Joustus crown has done enough for her and she won't use magic on the three kings to control them. Eventually King Knight goes to the Tower of Fate alongside his crew to fight the Enchantress. After the Enchantress is beaten, she uses magic on the three kings thus making the Grand Triumvirate, trying to destroy King Knight.
Finally after King Knight beats the Grand Triumvirate the three kings are free from the spell thus falling at the edge of the room, about to fall alongside the rest of the crew. The Enchantress, impressed, gives the offer of giving him his own castle and being a knight of her Order of No Quarter, but only if he abandons his crew. King Knight, wanting the power, shoulder bashes his friends, thus joining the Enchantress. King Knight commands the Enchantress to destroy all Joustus cards, thus ending the tournament.
Specter of Torment
Eventually Specter Knight tries to coerce his old friend Black Knight into subservience, but the attempt not only ends up in failure but also spurs the knight to begin his search for Shield Knight. Returning to base with his tail between his legs, Specter Knight is visited by The Enchantress herself, annoyed by the setback, threatening heavy repercussions if progress did not begin swiftly.
Not longer after this however, The Enchantress is bothered by an unexpected event. Reize was in fact able to boldly sneak inside the Tower, wishing to purge the evil within. The Enchantress finds the reckless lack of fear in the young adventurer endearing, seeing beyond Specter Knight's panicked advice to ignore the boy. She opts to make Reize hers, blasting him with a corrupting darkness. Ending up twisted, not unlike herself, Reize quickly swears allegiance to The Enchantress, who decides to appoint her new bodyguard as a replacement for the Dark Acolyte, who was deemed too cowardly, and, for her own amusement, thrown into the dungeon beneath the Tower.
Her plans continued to proceed undisturbed until her Order of No Quarter was almost completed, recruiting in its ranks several notorious individuals, one of which being the unpredictable alchemist Plague Knight. However Black Knight decides to put a stop to Specter Knight, whose exploits had began to plunge the Valley into chaos, hindering his search for Shield Knight. With the help of his turtle steed Terrorpin, Black Knight burrowed a tunnel through the dungeon, bypassing the seal and storming the Tower.
Alerted to his presence, The Enchantress manifested before him and Specter Knight, personally commanding him to serve her or be destroyed. But her offer was met with confusion from Black Knight, as he recognized her as Shield Knight. Annoyed, The Enchantress teleported away, leaving to Specter Knight the duty of disposing of the intruder.
But the reveal of her true identity pushed Specter Knight into an unstoppable rage, for he not only had been bossed around, treated like a dog and stripped of his freedom, but the person doing so was the one he held responsible for all of his misfortunes that had befallen him. She even dared to harm Reize, who was the beloved son of his friend Luan. Unwilling to serve her any longer, he swore vengeance, which he intended to fulfill immediately.
Overcoming the traps and obstacles of the innermost parts of the Tower and after defeating Black Knight, who tries to reason with him out of concern for both his old friend and Shield Knight, Specter Knight directly confronts the Enchantress. Irritated by his insubordination, the witch toys with him and after brief clash, she summons Reize and, just to spite Specter Knight, further corrupts him into Nightmare Reize.
Specter Knight defeats even this foe, and tries to reject his subservience to her, but is forced to instead fully embrace it when she threatens to instead take Reize. With all eight knights reunited, the locket reaches its full power, but Specter Knight chooses instead to use it on Reize rather than himself, purging him of The Enchantress's magic, something that The Enchantress had planned to happen. With Specter Knight now completely under her control and without hope of escaping it, she punishes him for his previous insubordination with an eternal duty to guard the Lich Yard, laughing while a silently tormented Specter Knight carries the injured Reize to safety. The experience utterly crushes Specter Knight's spirit, making him losing all hope of ever seeing freedom again and the Enchantress defeated.
With her army complete, The Enchantress sweeps the Valley like a storm, even personally spearheading an assault on the Armor Outpost. Her Order places Locked Gates all over the land, virtually conquering all inches of it. Black Knight, scared by her overwhelming powers, resolves to protect The Enchantress's safety from afar, all while hoping that the trapped Shield Knight would be able to expunge the darkness binding her soul.
It seemed that nothing would be able to stand against The Enchantress's powers.
Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows
However she doesn't account for two major hindrances: Shovel Knight and Plague Knight.
With her conquest of the Valley, she consequently brings up whispers among the people of the Tower of Fate unsealing itself, sparking in Shovel Knight the hope of discovering what happened to his beloved Shield Knight. She is also unaware that the alchemist Plague Knight is working in the shadows to take advantage of her and the knights she has reunited, for his own purposes.
The two knights begin their journeys simultaneously, both unaware of each other's quests, sometimes even clashing against each other, forcing open the Locked Gates by defeating each member of the Order.
Despite all of the Order of No Quarter's efforts, both knights continue to progress towards their respective goals, getting closer and closer to her stronghold. Whilst remaining confident of her ability to defeat both knights, The Enchantress tries to ensure their failure by making a second attempt to convince Black Knight to join her cause. But he stays headstrong in his desire to remain independent of her corrupting influence.
After scorning her third attempt, The Enchantress loses her patience with the ebony-clad knight, and blasts him with her dark energies, granting him great power but also making him go berserk. Despite this, Shovel Knight is able to defeat him yet again, snapping him out of his power induced haze.
Plague Knight arrives at her personal chambers first, confronting The Enchantress with the goal of extracting her essence. He seeks to combine it with the other essences he has collected from the knights of the Order and Shovel Knight to create the Ultimate Potion, so that he can (in his eyes) be worthy of Mona's love.
The Enchantress scorns and mocks the alchemist for such a simple goal, making snide insinuations that he will forever be unable to be more than what he is. She tries to enforce her rule on him, but she finds herself unable to subdue him without also killing him, the loss of a valuable asset that she is unwilling to part with.
She concedes, teleporting away while also leaving behind her essence, convinced that she will be able to use him as a pawn at a later date. Her essence would soon prove to be much more powerful than anticipated, resulting in a unpredictable reaction that transforms the Ultimate Potion first into the Plague of Shadows, then into the Corrupted Essence.
After her confrontation with Plague Knight, The Enchantress does not have the time to gather again to her full strength, as Shovel Knight arrives shortly after. She tries to crush Shovel Knight's hopes, to convince him to stand aside or lose his beloved Shield Knight forever, but the stalwart warrior refuses to let her words influence him. The two clash with each other.
Blow after blow, Shovel Knight is in the end able to sufficiently weaken The Enchantress to the point that her dark influence can no longer maintain control of her vessel. With an outpouring of energy that shatters all the glass windows in the room, Shield Knight is finally freed from the dark magic that ensnared her, reuniting the two lovers at last.
Despite the end of the Enchantress as an individual, her raw strength and malice recombine, condensing themselves into the monstrous Remnant of Fate, an abomination moved only by a desire of total destruction.
Thanks to the efforts of Shovel Knight, Shield Knight, and the crumbling of the Tower initiated by Plague Knight sacrificing the Ultimate Potion, the Remnant of Fate is stopped, putting an end to the Enchantress and her reign of terror once and for all.
Joustus Deck
Note: This is The Enchantress's deck from Challenge Mode, she can't be battled in the normal campaign.
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| The Enchantress | Cloaked Figure | Dark Reize | Dark Acolyte |
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| King Knight | Specter Knight | Plague Knight | Treasure Knight |
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| Mole Knight | Polar Knight | Tinker Knight | Propeller Knight |
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| Liquid Samurai Reaver |
Joustus
Her Joustus card can be found in Shrouded Spires, when taking the secret exit. There is a breakable wall underneath where one of the Liquid Samurai are placed. Her card has three Count arrows (arrows that are "triple arrows" but disappear after three turns) to the bottom, left, and right. She also has the Cascade ability, meaning any card initially pushed will swap teams until the end of the match.
She also has her own special Joustus match in Challenge mode. You cannot see her cards.
Dialogue
Shovel of Hope
Black Knight Wandering across the Valley: Template:Quote/8
At the entrance to the Tower of Fate: Template:Quote/7
Before the battle:
| Spoiler warning! This article contains plot details about an event that occurs later in the game. |
Template:Quote/7
Plague of Shadows
Before the battle: Template:Quote/7
After the battle: Template:Quote/1
Specter of Torment
After completing the Plains: Template:Quote/3
After completing four stages: Template:Quote/4 Template:Quote/6
Template:Quote/1
After the fight with Reize: Template:Quote/5
Donovan's flashback after completing eight stages: Template:Quote/7 Template:Quote/3
After completing nine stages: Template:Quote/4
- [Template:Tags/Purple appears]
Template:Quote/6 Template:Quote/3
Before the battle: Template:Quote/3
After the battle: Template:Quote/5
After defeating Nightmare Reize: Template:Quote/5 Template:Quote/4
King of Cards
Cloaked Figure wandering at the Cavern of Joustus: Template:Quote/1
Cloaked Figure wandering at the Crag of Joustus: Template:Quote/1
Before Specter Knight's second fight: Template:Quote/7 [[[:Template:Tags/Blue]] and ???? leave] Template:Quote/4
After King Birder is defeated: Template:Quote/2 [[[:Template:Tags/Blue]] appears] Template:Quote/9Template:Quote/5
Trivia
- In her Body Swap Mode appearance, The Enchanter, he bares a striking resemblance to the character Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda, this even being noted in the Body Swap design article.
- They jokingly said how a designer must have been playing lots of Ganondorf in Super Smash Bros., a game Ganondorf appears in, this designer being Nick Wozniak.
- Her outfit is heavily inspired by a kimono.
- Early concept sketches originally had her a low-cut neckline and exposed back, but this was scrapped, due to the developers feeling that it wasn't "quite right".
Gallery
Key Art
Concept Art
Sprites
