The Builder is the protagonist and playable character of Builders. Resurrected by the goddess Rubiss and suffering from amnesia, they are a very distant descendant of Erdrick and the last person left in Alefgard who has the power to create new things. As such he is titled as the Legendary Builder and he is tasked with rebuilding the ruined world around him.
Appearance[]
The male Builder wears a blue tunic with a red scarf, black undershirt, white pants and leather gloves and boots as well as a belt adorned with a sleeping roll and water skin (representing Wayfarer's clothes). He also wears a blue Phrygian cap with large goggles on top. He is shown equipped with a Hammerhood's giant mallet.
The female Builder wears a red tunic with a blue scarf, white undershirt, black pants and the same leather gloves and boots, as well as a belt with a sleeping roll and water skin (resembling a Wayfarer's clothes). She also wears a red bandanna with goggles on her forehead. She is shown equipped with a Stone axe.
In Builders, the player can perform basic character customization such as changing the hair, eye and skin colour of the hero or heroine.
Personality[]
The Builder is curt and informal when addressing their fellow citizens, and even when communing with Rubiss herself. One such instance of this is upon first meeting Myrlund, the Builder opts to address him as "Gramps".
The Builder have a noticeably carefree attitude, often telling others not to worry about their concerns and also is initially disinterested in the larger plight of Alefgard, professing that they would rather build for building sake than doing it so for the good of mankind and their fight aganist the monsters. Over the course of his task however, the Builder's attitude changes, forming deep bonds of friendship with the people he met and assisted. In the end, when asked to leave them under the looming threat of the Dragonlord despite having at disposition all the tools necessary to confront him, the Builder couldn't bring themself to do so, and choosed to challenge the tyrant, even if it meant losing Rubiss protection and critically shortening their own lifespan.
Even after proving their identity as the Legendary Builder and earning their respect, the Builder hopelessly appears inattentive and dim-witted to the citizens of Alefgard, who often remark on their vacant stare or overestimation of their own skills.
Biography[]
Dragon Quest Builders[]
Prologue: the awakening of the Legendary Builder[]
In the alternate reality of Dragon Quest Builders, history took a much different turn for the land of Alefgard than what was expected. When the Hero descendant of Erdrick who was meant to slay the Dragonlord finally faced his foe, he instead foolishly accepted the monster's abominable offer of sharing the world's dominion with him. The end results were catastrophic, the very land of Alefgard was split and fragmented, almost all known cities were destroyed and basically any traces of civilization were erased. The surviving remnants of mankind, save some lucky few, were left in abject misery, literally stripped away by the Dragonlord of the very power to create new things, forced to live in the wilderness scrounging the ruins as their only ever-depleting source of usable objects, while at the mercy of the constant attacks of the Dragonlord's monsters. In their suffering the only one thing bringing them hope, was the prophecy that one day, all-mighty Rubiss would send them a Legendary Builder, destined to rebuild the world and deliver them of their pain.
After a century of searching the Goddess Rubiss fund such individual, a distant descendant of the hero Erdrick to bestow upon them the power of creation. However much to her despair she was too late and before she could contact them, the Builder had perished, killed by a horde of monsters and left in a shallow and open grave in the former Cantlin's region. As a last resort Rubiss filled them with holy energies, successfully reanimating them but leaving them in an amnesiac state. Awakening her chosen protege, Rubiss guided the still fragile Builder outside their grim grave and directed then to a nearby ruined village, where they could begin their task, despite the Builder swiftly proving themself to be not the easiest person to work with.
Chapter 1: the rebuilding of the city of Cantlin[]
Rubiss bestowed upon the Builder the Banner of Hope, an humble-looking flag engraved with Cantlin's old insignia, and instructed them to plant it in the center of the ruin, so that it's soothing light would attract the scattered people of the region to the location. Shortly after, the first to reach it was a young girl named Pippa. While initially suspicious of the Builder due to their claims to be both amnesiac and hearing voices in their heads, the welcoming atmosphere of the area proved to be too alluring, prompting the girl to ask to live there. Following the advice of Rubiss, the Builder quickly repaired the least damaged house still standing, shocking Pippa that they would be able to do such a feat with just mere dirt. The Builder quickly continued to further impress her more and more with their building abilities, which lead the young girl to begin escalate her requests. Meanwhile, while initially dependant of the goddess ever constant guidance, the Builder quickly began fully grasping the extent of his new capabilities, even pleasantly surprising the higher being herself. Soon Pippa, inspired by the selfless acts of the Builder, began expressing the desire to rebuild the ruined settlement around them into a splendid city where everyone could be happy, while also wanting to learn to build herself.
The two of them begin expanding the city but Pippa quickly realized that they would need more people in order to make the city flourish. Remembering of seeing a somewhat suspicious looking man not too far the city-to-be she directed the Builder towards where she last saw him. Following the traces left behind by their target, the Builder found the man, Rollo, who was shortly before maliciously buried alive under a pile of dirt by a group of monsters. Despite the Builder being not fond of neither his looks nor his personality, upon hearing the latter goal of building a city Rollo insisted in joining their cause, revealing to be in possession of the Cantlin Chronicle, an ancient book passed down as an heirloom in his family for generations, which not only recounted the long history of the old city of Cantlin but contained also various notions on construction. Just like Pippa, Rollo initially expressed disbelief in the Builder's abilities, mostly due to their dopey look, but once shown proof of their veracity he was quick to realize to being in the presence of the figure spoken inside his book, the Legendary Builder sent by Rubiss herself. Rollo quickly explained his newfound goals: to use the city the Builder and Pippa were building to resurrect the old city of Cantlin, while also discovering what happened to the old city, which despite being heavily fortified and even having a loyal Golem to defend it, still fell into ruin. With no objections from neither the Builder of Pippa, the reconstruction continued to proceed, while Rollo began also diligently working on translating the ancient language of the Cantlin Chronicle, in hopes to find as much as useful information he could in the book.
As the city began to expand, Rubiss cautiously informed the Builder of their inability to grow physically stronger no matter how much they trained, and advised them to constantly equip themself with progressly better armors and weapons as they unfortunately represented the only lifeline the Builder could rely on. No sooner than having finished her warning, a small but vicious band of Skeletons, having gotten news of the budding settlement, began marching towards them to crush their attempts. Thanks to the assistance of Rollo, the Builder was able to repel the assault even managing to find the pieces of a blue teleportal among the remains of their foes. Having done all she could for the moment, Rubiss warned the Builder that now that the forces of the Dragonlord knew of their existence, they would not stop assaulting until the new city of Cantlin was a pile of rubble and such they should remain ever vigilant and ready to face all kinds of beasts. She then departed, leaving the situation in the hands of the Builder, who was still lost on the true gravity of their task, while assuring to be ever watching upon them by afar. The Banner of Hope began shining of a bright light, changing into a less modest look and expanding its radiance reach. The beacon of light attracted the attention of a young man, Larouche, who quickly reached it's origin. Contrarily of Rollo or Pippa, Larouche was far more pessimistic on the notion of a community of people living in harmony helping each other, but decided to stick around for the moment. That night, the Builder had a vision, a long past memory of the hero who was destined to reclaim the Sphere of Light.
Under the request of Rollo, the Builder repaired the blue teleportal. Once done so Rollo instructed them to use the teleportal to seek out the Hammerhoods, who surely knew the means to build a Giant mallet, a mighty tool that, should the Cantlin Chronicle be believed, would prove essential to gather new and better materials for the reconstruction of Cantlin.
Chapter 2: the rebuilding of of the city of Rimuldar[]
Chapter 3: the rebuilding of the city of Kol[]
Chapter 4: the rebuilding of Tantegel Castle and the final battle with the Dragonlord[]
The ultimate fate of the Builder and their legacy[]
The ultimate fate of the Builder is left somewhat ambiguous: Rubiss was adamant in her beliefs that the Builder lifeforce would run out and they would pass away shortly after their fight with the Dragonlord, while Princess Gwaelin stated her beliefs that if their friends would pray with all of their hearts, then someday them and the Builder would meet again. After a brief celebration and a fade to black however, the Builder is then seen rebuilding Tantegel Castle and Tantegel Town into a single unit (similarly to how it was structured in Dragon Quest II) together with a group of workers after having seemingly fallen asleep. The Builder assert they weren't sleeping but they are not believed. The following dialogue of the worker who woke them up, is worded vaguely enough that it is impossible to determine if they are acknowledging the Builder as the Legendary Builder or not. Satisfied with their boss's performance the worker can then only wait to see what they would build when they begin working on an unspecified castle across the sea. Then a narrator-like text states that the legend of the Builder continue to live on. This ending ultimately leave the fate of the Builder up to interpretations such as:
- That the events Dragon Quest Builders have all been a dream.
- That the Builder seen in the ending is a reincarnation of the original who was reliving the memories of their past life in a dream.
- That Rubiss was underestimating how mush short the remaining lifespan of the Builder would effectively be, making them able to at least live long enough to became the owner of a construction company and complete the construction of several important projects including the rebuilding of Tantegel Town.
- That Princess Gwaelin's beliefs that the friends the Builder made had truly restored the Builder's life.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 somewhat further complicate the matters in regards of the Builder's fate and legacy. At first glance Dragon Quest Builders 2 appears to taking place in a possible not-so-far future of the exact same world as the original Dragon Quest II, but there are actually multiple hints that imply that the events of Dragon Quest Builders did in fact happen in this timeline, such how Sister Esther had visions of Elle aiding the Builder fighting against the Dragonlord, or how the city of Cantlin was remembered to had been once destroyed and then rebuilt by a Legendary Builder and other such examples. Additionally, pre-release material for Builders 2 notes that The Second Builder is a descendant of the Builder.
However due to the fact that in the Dragon Quest Builders reality the Hero of Dragon Quest, never married Princess Gwaelin and never founded the kingdoms of Midenhall, Cannock and Moonbrooke, being instead disgraced and cowardly fleeing never to be seen again once bested, it would seems that the Dragon Quest Builders reality and the original Dragon Quest II one are incompatible with one another unless some key details of the Dragon Quest II line of events have been altered in some unspecified way by the Hero and the Builder actions. At the moment no official answer has been made, leaving only speculation as to how the two titles can lead into one another. One such speculation suggest that the Builder themself, being a descendant of Erdrick, could be the progenitor of the three royal families after marrying Princess Gwaelin.
Trivia[]
- In the North American/European demo of Builders, the default character name for the Builder is Bildrick. This is likely a mixture of the word "build" which informs the game's premise, and "Erdrick" the legendary hero of the first three Dragon Quest games.
- The male Builder's Phrygian cap, tunic, blond hair and blue eyes make him resemble Link from the Legend of Zelda series.
- It's implied that the reason why the Builder is able to see the lingering spirits of the departed while also being completely unable to grow stronger no matter how much they trained, is less related to their status as the Legendary Builder and more for the fact of being only kept alive by holy magic, essentially being "more dead than living".
- During Chapter 2, the Builder mentions having invented the goggles they wear. Considering the fact that two of the three Scions of Erdrick in Dragon Quest 2 wear goggles, it’s likely that the Builder still lived as a successful inventor even in the original timeline.
Other languages[]
| Other languages | |
| French | Unknown |
| German | Erbauer Erbauerin |
| Spanish | Unknown |
| Latin American Spanish | Unknown |
| Italian | Unknown |
| Dutch | Unknown |
| Norwegian | Unknown |
| Greek | Unknown |
| Portuguese | Contrutor Construtora |
| Russian | Unknown |
| Chinese | Unknown |
| Korean | Unknown |
- ↑ Dragon Quest Builders 2 Japanese subtitle, protagonist, and setting revealed https://www.gematsu.com/2018/03/dragon-quest-builders-2-japanese-subtitle-protagonist-setting-revealed