Don Quixote

A Singularity is a unique, fantastical technology that a Wing possesses and exploits for power and profit. The details of a Wing's Singularity are a closely guarded secret, but its products (such as L Corp.'s Enkephalin or H Corp.'s Boluses) and side effects (such as T Corp.'s color desaturation) tend to be widespread throughout the District and play a major role in defining its culture.

While Singularities' true abilities are usually incredibly powerful, a Wing must convert them into a marketable product in order to make a profit. Singularities are the primary source of income for the Wings to sustain themselves in the harsh environment of the City, meaning creating new products from the same Singularity is incredibly important. For example, T Corp. makes use of its Singularity for various products, such as the TT2 Protocol (which allows for the control of time in a determined area), and the TT4 Protocol (which instead allows for the synchronization of different individuals' time).

In addition, Wings must be careful during the development process of new Singularities, to prevent information leaks and intellectual theft before a patent is received.[64] It is also common for Wings to make use of multiple Singularities, both by purchasing them from fallen Wings,[65] or through partnering with other existing Wings.

If a Wing collapses, the patents on its Singularity expire and any individual or group who discovers how to utilize the technology may do so. In addition, the technology's status as a Singularity is lost. A number of technologies of the City were previously considered Singularities in the past, such as augmentation tattoos.[66] Singularities, while technological marvels, are not all they're made out to be. In one way or another, every Singularity fundamentally requires human suffering in order to function, and no Wing can claim to have their hands clean of the blood of its citizens.

Syndicates are a type of organization in the City, and can be seen as the unregulated counterpart to Fixer Offices, being comparable to gangs with various goals and methods of operating. In general, the term Syndicate is used to refer to organized groups that aren't tied to the responsibilities and restrictions that come with being a Fixer.

Some Syndicates focus on extorting money from people for protection, while others abduct people, kill for fun and pleasure, or do anything in between. Syndicates mostly operate in the Backstreets, but are not restricted to them. They can be small groups that only exist in one corner of the Backstreets, or large enough to exist in every District in the City.

Syndicates can be hired to do contract jobs, although there is higher risk compared to contracting an Office or Association, as they are not bound to the same regulations Fixers are.[56] Sometimes, Wings will hire Syndicate members for criminal projects that cannot be handled officially.

Syndicates tend to have a culture unique to their group, and a way of living that distinguishes them from other Syndicates. Many Syndicates have a culture focused around replicating family dynamics and consider each other family, with some even referring to each other with familial terms.[57] This can result in Syndicates with a strict focus on respect for those who are higher ranked, or in Syndicates whose members care deeply for each other and protect one another at any cost.

Syndicates are graded through the City's hazard system, measuring their danger level and notability. Syndicates can grow under these aspects and gain power in many ways, with one of them being the practice of raiding and wiping out Fixers' Offices. The larger and more experienced an Office is, the greater the notoriety that is achieved by defeating it.[58]

Above all Syndicates are the Five Fingers, or "the hand of the Backstreets", five Star of the City-level Syndicates, whose power rivals that of the Wings.

In the City, a common path in life for those without better options is that of the Fixer. A Fixer is a sort of handyman, who can be hired for everything from menial tasks to active combat. Fixers are subject to a grading system based on the missions they complete. A Fixer starts at Grade 9 and can be promoted to a higher grade, all the way up to 1; in the case of a Fixer being caught breaking work regulations, they can lose their status and be demoted to a lower grade.

A majority of Fixers congregate in Fixer Offices, small to mid-sized businesses led by and composed of Fixers. Offices process requests dedicated to whomever in their ranks may be best suited. Offices can work independently, or they can be associated with particular Associations of Fixers, which are larger professional organizations with City-wide influence, with particular interests aimed at the Fixers working beneath them.

There are thirteen Associations in the City, each of which manages certain types of requests common to Fixer work, such as the Zwei Association focusing on protection missions, or the Devyat' Association focusing on delivery across the City. Associations control and distribute Fixer tasks, and can take jobs from anywhere within the City, as they have individual branches set up in various Districts. Branches are divided into four groups corresponding to the cardinal directions of the City, and employees are further divided by grade into sections ranging from 1 to 6, with lower number sections corresponding to higher Fixer grades.

Every Association has its own rules, specialties, uniform, and agreements with other factions. The Associations are governed by the Hana Association, which oversees everything related to the Fixer system, including Fixer grades.

In the case of a Grade 1 Fixer demonstrating great renown in any particular field of work, they may be considered beyond the grading system, and receive the title of Color from Hana Association.

Everyday life in the City is defined by a constant struggle to stay afloat. While the people of the Outskirts dream of living in the City, which they see as a safe place from the monsters that plague it, the people of the Backstreets strive to gain the wealth and power to gain access to a Nest, partially due to the influence of the Wings publicizing Nest dwellers' lives as the height of prosperity and comfort,[20] and the people of the Nest struggle daily to keep their place inside it, while being constantly exploited by the Wings.[39]

Regardless of their station, the people of the City are never free, and in order to survive, they typically tie themselves to various forms of organizations, seeking security and belonging in something larger than them.[40] In doing so, they're willing to exploit others beneath them and make use of all the City can offer them, without caring about anyone else's well-being, and often taking pleasure in their suffering.[35]

The people of the Backstreets must typically tie themselves to one of the Five Fingers or their subsidiaries to receive the necessary protection to carry on with their lives, while the people of the Nests depend on the Wings to shelter them. Because of this, Nest dwellers are colloquially known as "feathers". While the high level of security the Nest provides makes it the most ideal place to reside, its daily routine, which is often accompanied by overtime work[35] and the constant fear of losing one's job and place in the Nest,[41] can be stifling and oppressive to many of its citizens, with some recalling becoming listless as if they "lost focus, spacing out and staring into empty places".[42]

The necessity for a connection to a group also means that the people of the City try not to form strong connections between individuals, as personal bonds can become a hindrance in one's abilities in the case of a loved one's death, which proves to be especially dangerous for those involved in Fixer work.

The Backstreets are the areas of a District that lay outside the Wing's domain. The Backstreets are typically slums crowded with buildings, characterized by twisted and irregular roads, although there can be great differences between Districts.

Wings have differing degrees of presence, influence, and benevolence with regards to their Backstreets, although their relationship is ultimately exploitative. Citizens of the Backstreets are motivated to move up the ladder and into the Nests, while citizens of the Nests are motivated to maintain their statuses and preserve a more comfortable life under their Wing's protection. While not as secure as the Nest, residential areas are the safest parts of the Backstreets.[25]

Given how strongly Backstreets denizens wish for a life in the Nest, Wings tend to uphold strict divides between the sectors, including security checkpoints and physical divisions. Security of borders between Nests and Backstreets vary from plasma walls to mere chain fences, but the Wings' power is such that no one in the Backstreets dares to cross over into a Nest without express permission.[7]

As the Backstreets are not under the control and protection of the Wings, and even the Head's power struggles to reach within them,[26] various factions operate freely in their place. The Backstreets are home to the headquarters of both Fixers, a type of mercenary for hire, who typically operate their Offices in the Backstreets, and organizations and gangs called Syndicates. Among Syndicates, the most important are the Five Fingers, the five largest Syndicates of the City which most other Syndicates answer to, and whose power is said to rival that of the Wings.[27]

The Night in the Backstreets is another defining component of Backstreets life, as an 80 minute phenomena taking place from 3:14 to 4:34 AM. During this time period, nearly everything is allowed, as no one is held responsible for their deeds done during this time period.

The Wings of the World are a group of the twenty-six largest, most powerful conglomerates in the City. Each Wing acts as the governing body of a Nest of the City's District, and is commonly referred to with a letter from A to Z, corresponding to the number of the District in their control. Wings generally oversee all facets of living in the Nest of their District, while leaving the residents of the Backstreets to fend for themselves.

A Nest is the urban center of a District, which is under the direct management of its Wing. The citizens and employees of a Wing are commonly referred to as "feathers"; the status of a feather is widely considered one of the best and most secure paths in life,[17] which the people of the Backstreets are often willing to go to great lengths to obtain. To gain access to a Nest, a corresponding Nest migration permit is required,[18] while to be granted temporary passage one must be in possession of a visa unique to the specific Nest.[19] Visas are implied to be relatively common, with corporate employees being provided with work visas that allow them as easy passage; Nest migration permits, on the other hand, are highly sought after, and implied to be expensive enough that even Grade 1 Fixers would struggle to obtain them. During the Smoke War, migration permits were offered as rewards to Fixers participating for K Corp. and I Corp., although by the end of the war the veterans were refused entry to the Nests.[20]

Each Wing has its own cultural style and social structure which are reflected in how it governs its Nest, and the policies that regulate the way of life in the District's Backstreets. The laws of a Wing are called Taboos, and are enforced by specialized Fixers called Taboo hunters that police both the Nest and the Backstreets. While all Wings have Taboos, the enforcement and punishment for breaking them varies.[21]

The Wings are directly ruled over by the Head, which bestows the status on a corporation that possesse.

The Head is the leader of the Wings and the central governing body of the City. It is in direct control of A Corp., B Corp., and C Corp., the three Districts at the very center of the City. The Head's identity is completely unknown, although it appears the term refers to a group of people rather than a singular entity;[7] any detail regarding it is a closely guarded secret.

The Head, through A Corp., retains control of the entire City. It is responsible for authorizing Wings, managing patents, and the minting of Ahn, the currency used in the City.[8]

Despite this, it does not typically interfere directly with the affairs of the various Wings in their own Districts; rather, the Head's greatest involvement in the life of the City consists in establishing and enforcing the rules that relate to the overall ethics of the City.

The Head's will shapes the image of the City, as it wields the ability to decide when a part of it no longer fits in the vision, and to chase it outside its confines. Some speculate the Head's decisions in these matters aren't aimed at maintaining order, but rather that the Head wishes to preserve its ideal image of the City, and that for this reason they allow the various Stars of the City to keep existing.[9] This is corroborated by the agents of the Head themselves referring to their work as cultivating the ecology of the City.[10]

To preserve this vision, the Head retains the unique power to assign the highest risk level in the scale of hazards of the City, that of Impuritas Civitatis, or Impurity of the City. The risk level of Impurity signifies a hazard that violates the ethics of the City,[11] and that must be either destroyed or physically expelled from the confines of the City expeditiously.

At a certain point in history, sapient beings that weren't humans were driven out of the City and into the Outskirts, and their existence within the confines of the City was deemed a Taboo. This marked the beginning of the City's "age of humanity"

The City is divided into twenty-six Districts, quite diverse in culture and aesthetics, each of which is governed by a Wing, a corporation that has ascended to claim complete control of said area. All Wings respond to the Head, the supreme governing power of the City. The arrangement of the Districts seems to be static, as there has been no mentioned case of a District expanding into a fallen Wing's territory.

Each District is split into a Nest, a territory directly governed and protected by its Wing, and the Backstreets, expansive spaces of wilderness or slums, largely neglected by the Wings, where the Syndicates of the City run free.

Districts tend to have similarities to their neighbors, and are typically grouped into four sections: the northern, eastern, southern, and western quarters.[4][5] These quarters may be distinguished by commonalities including culture and temperature, such as the same Fixer Associations differing in garb and fighting style across different quarters, or the northern quarter having colder weather.

District 26, while confirmed to exist in current times,[6] is not visible from the map.

The City is a massive urban complex the size of a small country,[1] and has a population of around 7 billion.[2] The City is bordered to the south by the Great Lake, and to the other directions by the Outskirts. Underneath it lie the Ruins.

This would lead the three Overseers of the park to plot against Don Quixote, eventually making him don the Helm of Mambrino, a Relic that would allow them to go against their Bloodfiend hierarchy: this made them able to rebel against his orders, and to finally feed on the human guests of La Manchaland. While Don Quixote was captured and staked to the Wheel of La Mancha, he was able to call upon Bari and entrust Sancho to her. He asked Sancho to carry on his dream, and had her wear Rocinante, a pair of shoes crafted from his blood, which had the ability to suppress a Bloodfiend's nature and distinctive red eyes.

Left alone with Bari, Sancho decided to seek out Lethe, the River of Oblivion, to erase her pain and allow herself to dream. After drinking from the River, her memories of her past and her identity were sealed by Rocinante. She was left with the instinctual need to wear Rocinante at all times, keeping her nature as a Bloodfiend a true secret even to herself. Bari took the amnesiac Sancho into the "Cradle", a lighthouse in the Ruins. The Bloodfiend, in a dream-like state, would spend her days reading the books and magazines Bari left for her, and writing letters to Associations and Fixers, that she believed to be going on adventures with.

Around two hundred years after the rebellion of the Manchegan family, Vergilius broke into the Cradle, and showed the young Bloodfiend his red eyes, by him described as holding the blood of a generation higher than her own, coaxing her into following him and leaving the lighthouse behind. When asked for her name, the Bloodfiend introduced herself by the name written in her shoes: Don Quixote.

Although little is known of her early life, Don Quixote was a native of District 16, where she led a profoundly unhappy life, having been left without a family for so long she no longer remembered having one. Back in these times, which trace back to around four hundred years before the beginning of the main story, she went by the name Sancho. After having tried taking her life in a fire, Sancho was found by a Bloodfiend, the First Kindred of District 16, who introduced himself to her as Don Quixote, and offered her to make her his Second Kindred, and part of his family: Sancho accepted, and was turned into a Bloodfiend.

Don Quixote's family, the Bloodfiends of P Corp., would come to include another Second Kindred, Dulcinea, and two Third Kindreds, Nicolina the Barber and Curiambro the Priest, and they would take the name of the Manchegan Family. Together, the Family lived in a castle far from the society of both humans and other Bloodfiends. They would continue such until the arrival of Bari, whose tales of the human world, and particularly of Fixers, drew Don Quixote and Sancho's attention. Having grown close to Bari, Don Quixote was inspired to create La Manchaland, an amusement park where humans and Bloodfiends could coexist happily.

His endeavor would involve the entire Manchegan family. While leaving most of the management to Dulcinea, Nicolina, and Curiambro, Don Quixote and Sancho would often go on adventures together, acting as Fixers and pretending to be human, with Don Quixote insisting they limit their Bloodfiend powers, in order to defeat their enemies nobly and fairly. While she would brush off any attempts at pointing it out, Sancho genuinely enjoyed these adventures, and she had grown to treasure her Father's dream of becoming a Bloodfiend Fixer as dearly as he had.

In the meantime, the Bloodfiends at La Manchaland were suffering, having been forced to stop feeding on humans, leaving them all unsatisfied and profoundly unhappy.

Bloodfiends are City monsters that are visually reminiscent of humans yet fundamentally different. To become a Bloodfiend means to be infected with an illness, afflicted with an enormous thirst that can only be sated by feeding on fresh, flowing blood.[1] They are virtually immortal and immune to aging so long as they are provided with enough of it.[2] Together with their thirst for blood, Bloodfiends are also afflicted with the instinct to propagate their Family by creating further Bloodfiends.[3]

Bloodfiends are known to originate in three ways: turned Kindred by a higher Bloodfiend, through the Distortion Phenomenon, or by receiving blood in a "certain mansion".[4] Bloodfiends have adopted an intense hierarchy based on the degree of separation from the species' original progenitor. Despite not being related in the traditional sense, they refer to each other with familial terms, and possess genuine familial bonds.[5]

Those who were turned by the original Bloodfiend progenitor are called the "First Kindreds": there is a First Kindred in each District of the City, each of which has formed their own Family, made up of their "Children" and "descendants" separate from the others. The First Kindred serves as the Elder of their Family, which the other Kindreds of the same Family are compelled to obey. Each Family has settled into a different District (for 25 Families in total),[4] made it into their territory, and "culled their kin" until they were able to live quiet lives.[4] However, Bloodfiends who defy this expected lifestyle emerge on occasion, such as the Blood-red Night, whose excessive and attention-drawing actions eventually led her to become a Star of the City.

Following the White Nights and Dark Days, it became common for people to turn into Bloodfiends upon distorting, as a "stereotyped form of Distortion".[6] These newborn, independent Bloodfiends lack any knowledge of the prior group's rules, and don't know how to control their powers.

Sancho lived an entirely different life, that of an impassive Bloodfiend, prior to wiping her memories and eventually joining Limbus Company as "Don Quixote". As a result, she possessed a drastically different personality.

Sancho was an all-around detached individual. She harbored a deadpan, pessimistic attitude that establishes her as antisocial and stubborn, in contrast to the excited personalities of her Family members. She lived and spoke as she pleased, with little concern for matters like Bloodfiend hierarchy or social etiquette. While occasionally prone to perkiness, Sancho was always quick to swallow these emotions down, considering it embarrassing.

Despite her apathetic exterior, however, Sancho was at times disposed to stronger emotions, such as a great passion for Fixers and love for her Father. Rather than being incapable of intense feelings, Sancho is more accurately described as dishonest with herself and others, possessing an inexplicable need to disguise her joys and tenderness under layers of apathy. She is also shown to be prone to bouts of depression: having originally met Don Quixote after a failed suicide attempt, and later choosing to erase her entire "self" after the tragedy of La Manchaland.

Sancho's feelings towards other people are at times unclear, as she held strained relationships with her Family members Dulcinea, the Barber, the Priest, and Cassetti. However, she cared deeply for her Father, and grew to love her fellow Sinners enough to refer to them as her new "family". Rather, it's suggested that Sancho was prone to difficulty communicating with and reading others, leading to her mistakenly coming off as condescending and arrogant, and resulting in strained relationships with the Bloodfiends unable to forgive her icy attitude.

Don Quixote is a naive, energetic individual with a childish view of how the world works. She talks in an exaggerated, animated manner and jumps into any scene with enthusiasm, regardless of the gravity of the situation. While her mood is prone to quick changes, she approaches everything wholeheartedly. On a bus filled with hardened personalities, Don Quixote sticks out as incredibly friendly, silly, and over-the-top woman. Fitting of her knightly persona, she speaks exclusively in Shakespearean English.

Don Quixote has an intense sense of justice and desire to protect the weak. She cannot stand to watch idly as innocents are harmed, and her desire to protect children is particularly strong. While this benevolent attitude is a respectable rarity in the City, it proves to be troublesome when paired with Don Quixote's high levels of impulsivity. More often than not, this determination to shield others from harm only serves to cause trouble for the people around her. Intervening during the separation of parent and child as the LCB's attempted to enter into K Corp.'s Nest led the Sinners to fight several unnecessary battles against the Wing's feathers in Canto III, just as engaging in a duel against a Cinq Fixer in Canto VII to convince him to rescue citizens ends up a bloody, fruitless cause. However, a reprimanding from Vergilius after the K Corp. incident did lead to improved behavior from Don Quixote, as she began to learn to think before she acts.

The passionate spirit defining of Don Quixote's character originates from her great love of Fixers. Although Fixers are little more than contracted help, Don Quixote views them as the City's altruistic heroes of justice, and yearns to be one herself. By playing the part of the people's knight in shining armor, Don Quixote believes herself to be living up to a worthy Fixer's example. She particularly idolizes famous Fixers such as Siegfried, Vergilius, and the Red Mist, but has a great deal of love for each and every one

Don Quixote is a short woman with blonde hair styled in a bob cut and deep, round hazel eyes. She wears the Limbus Company uniform: a plain white shirt tucked under a black waist belt, a red tie, black slacks, worn brown running shoes, and a long black coat. Her upper body is thoroughly decorated with various Fixer merchandise.

Notably, Don Quixote forgoes the Limbus Company uniform shoes and instead wears a pair of yellow shoes with the word "Rocinante" embossed on them. Don Quixote wears a variation of this footwear in nearly all of her Identities.

Don Quixote wields a massive jousting lance named "SUEÑO IMPOSIBLE" that towers over her, indicating that she is much, much stronger than she initially appears to be. This fact is further supported by her dexterity with such a massive weapon and her effortless ability to pierce a human skull with it at short distance.

In her Bloodfiend form, Don Quixote has bright red eyes, and her hair is noticeably wavier, swept to the side. In her time as Sancho, Don Quixote was seen wearing a light gray outfit reminiscent of a military uniform, with a darker coat on top and a red fur boa worn over her shoulder that reached down to her knees. Currently, her Bloodfiend form wears an altered version of her Limbus Company uniform, which bears the same red fur boa from her past, covers the coattails in hardened blood, seemingly conceals or outright removes all of her Fixer decorations, and leaves her barefoot due to Rocinante's removal.