[1] There are many musical references in the Guilty Gear series, including various characters' names and moves, which were inspired by rock and heavy metal bands like Queen, Guns N' Roses, and Metallica.
Sol took part in the Crusades, during which he was a member of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights (Seikishidan), acquiring the nickname "Flame of Corruption" (背徳の炎, Haitoku no Honō).
Working alongside Ky, Sin, Leo Whitefang, and Elphelt Valentine, Sol fought to stop the Conclave from using the Cradle to resurrect Justice and destroy humanity.
While recalling their days as members of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights, Sol mocked Ky, claiming that he held back every time they fought, despite him not doing so when he battled Gears.
When he returns to work, Ky is thrust into a new conspiracy which includes robot clones of himself—called Robo-Ky (ロボカイ, Robokai)—, a secret organization, I-No, and his rival, Sol Badguy.
Despite his wife was exposed to the public and planning to move somewhere with his family, he is glad to hear the article news from a recently cured Elphelt that Dizzy is instead being praised as a savior during a last battle against Sanctus Maximus Ariels.
As Ky won, he found out Sol planned this for a preparation to settle with “That Man”, Asuka R. Kreutz the Gear Maker, who recently turned himself in to the government after the last battle against Ariels.
With the help of Axl Low and Chaos' former servant Nagoriyuki, Ky uses Uno's Dragon Install to weakeaned I-No, allowing Sol to kill her with a god-killer weapon Outrage, thereby saving the universe from being destroyed and reset multiple times.
A hero of the Crusades, having clashed with Justice multiple times, he became a great mentor to Ky Kiske and personally scouted Sol Badguy to join the Holy Order, who had saved a younger Kliff from a rampaging Gear long ago.
Both Millia and Zato are summoned by the third king of Illirya Kingdom, Daryl to investigate I-No's next plan, after she took something from an imprisoned Ariels, later revealed to be a demon-like sorcerer Happy Chaos.
With the help of Anji and Chipp, during Chaos' terrorist attack on the U.S. white house, or rather an airship Tir Na Nog, Millia and the rest of the world learned the true identity of I-No's accomplish, his past relation to Asuka and the previous events.
After I-No's demise at the hands of Sol Badguy (now a human named Fredrick Bulsara), Millia and Zato are last seen being regular customers of Venom and Robo-Ky's Bakery.
Zato-1 (ザトー＝ONE, Zato Wan) was a Spanish member of the powerful Assassins Guild that allowed himself to become the host of a symbiotic creature named Eddie (エディ, Edi) in exchange for his sight.
While his body was taken by Eddie from Guilty Gear XX onward, after the death of his voice actor Kaneto Shiozawa, Zato-1 was resurrected by the Conclave as part of their experiment and serving them until he is defeated by Faust.
Robo-Ky (ロボカイ, Robokai) is not simply one character, but in fact a line of robotic copies of Ky Kiske created by the shadowy Post War Administration Bureau.
Eventually, she finds "Flament Nagel", an ancient war relic shaped like a key, and decides to keep it as her partner; whom she renamed "Paracelsus" (パラケルス, Parakerusu).
Judgment was originally Raymond, a mad scientist working on the remote island of Isene and exploiting its inhabitants, trying to create a living weapon that would surpass even the Gears.
Due to Justice's daughter, Dizzy married to a noble first king of Illriya, Ky Kiske and has a son named Sin, Dr. Paradigm begin to work for the kingdom.
He is a mind-reading assassin who in an induced coma like his sister Delilah due to their unique condition of their bodies unable to handle their greatly enhanced thought processes, creating a dream world to interact with others while using a weaponized roll-away bed to physically move about.
Shortly after his death, an unknown person who appears to resemble Bedman, later revealed his recently awakened twin sister Delilah approaches his crumbling petrified corpse.
As it turns out in Strive that Bedman's soul is still alive within his weaponized bed frame, and Delilah discovers that Happy Chaos is responsible for Ariels' corruption and her brother's eventual downfall prior to being separated by I-No.
However, in the final chapters of Story Mode, once she exceeded her fighting limit too much, as Dr. Paradigm's warned her not to engage in combat while defending the Illriya castle, it is revealed her "true" objective was originally concealed from her own mind and didn't activate until after Justice's awakening.
But in the Xrd storyline, aiding the protagonists in stopping the Conclave and then a possessed Ariels, Asuka revealed he only took the blame for the Universal Will's actions while creating Jack'O to complete Justice's restoration to Aria.
Following days, Asuka started a new normal life as a radio broadcaster in his own established studio, his dream job, with Tir na Nog as the main station while moving the U.S.A.'s White House to safer areas.
Following Bedman's sacrifice to weaken Happy Chaos-possessed Ariels before the heroes' final battle against the fallen Sanctus Populi, Delilah returns to the real world shortly and consumed by vengeance.
Goldlewis Dickinson (ゴールドルイス＝ディキンソン, Gōrudorūisu Dikinson) is an overweighted right hand-man of the 76th US President Colin Vernon E. Groubitz and the Secretary of Defense, who fights alongside an alien spirit filled coffin, code name "Area 51 - U.M.A.".
Happy Chaos (ハッピーケイオス, Happī Keiosu) is an overreaching antagonist who took the name of secondary Jack'O Valentine that Asuka created as a contingency should Sol Badguy fail to defeat Ariels or I-No's power runs rampant, formally introduced in Guilty Gear Strive.
By the end of Strive after Sol (now a human named Frederick) defeated Chaos-empowered I-No, Daryl's team celebrates a proper completion of the giant pudding they made together this time.
After I-No unseal Happy Chaos from Ariels's body, Malcolm is captured by a now world's famous bounty hunter Gear hero Sol Badguy and his partner Jack-O Valentine, who then take him to custody at Illyria.
IGN said all the characters are very distinguishable and interesting, and remarked they "doesn't feel repetitive, even after dozens of hours of play", citing them as the reason that separates Guilty Gear from other fighting games.