Chara the First Human

Lore & Background

Long after the war between humans and monsters had ended and the barrier was fully sealed, a human child named Chara fell into the Underground. Unlike later humans who were hunted or feared immediately, this first arrival was welcomed by King Asgore and Queen Toriel, who took them in as their own. The Dreemurrs raised Chara with love, treating them as family rather than an intruder. However, tragedy struck when Chara fell gravely ill after consuming buttercups—a poisonous flower—in an attempt to make themselves sick, hoping to poison Asgore with the same buttercups in a plan to free monsters.

In Their Own Story

The air in the garden is thick with the scent of blooming flowers, yet the silence feels heavy, waiting for a sound that never comes. A small figure stands before the golden petals, their hand trembling as they hold a vial of dark liquid. The promise of power to save a loved one burns brighter than the fear of the unknown. As the first drop touches the tongue, the world seems to blur, colors shifting into something ancient and wrong. In that final moment, there is no monster left to see them, only the quiet acceptance of a choice made in desperation.

Reader's Guide

Chara's story begins with their fall from the surface, an event that initially brought hope to monsters who had never seen a human before. Asgore and Toriel adopted the child, integrating them into their family life within Snowdin or the Ruins. This period of peace was short-lived; the death of Chara's sibling led the first human to seek a way to break the barrier by any means necessary. The ingestion of the Golden Flower poison resulted in Chara's death, followed immediately by the death of their sibling. Toriel found them and buried them, but Asgore kept the child's soul, which eventually became the catalyst for his decision to hunt humans. The ambiguity of whether Chara was a victim or a villain is central to the game's themes, changing based on the player's actions. In the context of the True Pacifist route, Chara serves as a guide and narrator, reflecting on the nature of the world. However, in a Genocide run, their presence becomes more sinister, representing the accumulation of sin and the destruction of the timeline. Their legacy is one of lost potential and the heavy cost of grief.

Did You Know?

• Chara's name is revealed if the player names their own character Chara at the start of the game, as well as through the 'Chara' name confirmation at the end of the Genocide route.
• The Golden Flower, associated with Chara, is described as having poisonous properties that can be fatal.
• In the Genocide route, Chara explicitly states they will erase the world and return it to nothingness.
• Chara is buried in a small grave located near Toriel's home in the Ruins.

The Fall and Early Guidance

The narrative begins when a human child plummets from Mount Ebott into the Underground, a secluded realm sealed by magic following an ancient war between humans and monsters. Upon landing, the child encounters Flowey, a sentient flower who serves as a deceptive tutorial guide. Flowey attempts to kill the protagonist while misrepresenting game mechanics like 'LV' and 'EXP'. The child is subsequently rescued by Toriel, a maternal goat-like monster who shelters them in her home. She teaches the child that survival does not require violence, advocating for sparing enemies rather than killing them. Her intention is to adopt the human to protect them from Asgore, the King of the Underground, whom she fears will harm the child. This early dynamic establishes the game's core moral conflict: whether to follow Toriel's pacifist teachings or succumb to the temptation of violence introduced by Flowey.

The Mechanics of Choice

Undertale revolutionizes role-playing combat by integrating bullet-hell elements where players control a heart-shaped soul to dodge enemy attacks. The system grants agency through four primary options: Fight, Act, Item, and Mercy. While attacking yields gold and 'EXP'—which increases the character's 'LOVE' or level of violence—the game heavily incentivizes non-lethal resolution. Players can analyze an enemy's feelings via the 'Act' command to find specific actions that allow them to spare the opponent peacefully. These choices are not merely cosmetic; they fundamentally alter dialogue, story progression, and even the difficulty of future encounters. The game features multiple branching paths leading to different endings based on whether the player kills monsters or befriends them. It is entirely possible to complete the adventure without taking a single life, proving that morality acts as the cornerstone for the entire narrative structure.

The History of the First Human

As the protagonist journeys through the Underground, they uncover a tragic history involving Asriel, the son of King Asgore and Toriel. Long before the current events, a human child—the first to fall into this realm—formed a deep friendship with Asriel. When this first human died suddenly, Asriel utilized their soul to break through the magical barrier separating the Underground from the surface world in an attempt to return the body home. However, humans on the surface attacked and killed Asriel upon his arrival. This betrayal led Asgore to declare war, resulting in the banishment of all monsters behind the barrier for centuries. In the present timeline, Asgore has collected six human souls and seeks one final soul from the current fallen child to destroy the barrier forever, unaware that this quest is rooted in a cycle of grief and misunderstanding.

Metafictional Judgment and Endings

The game employs metafictional elements where characters are aware of previous playthroughs, altering their dialogue based on past player actions. This culminates in the Neutral ending, triggered if the player has killed some but not all monsters. In this scenario, the protagonist reaches Asgore's castle to confront the King, only for Sans, a skeleton sentry, to intervene. Sans reveals that 'LOVE' and 'EXP' are acronyms for 'Level of Violence' and 'Execution Points,' respectively, recontextualizing the player's previous actions as measures of brutality rather than affection. He judges the human based on their accumulated violence before allowing them to proceed. This revelation underscores the game's thematic depth, forcing players to confront the consequences of their choices within a narrative that acknowledges their control over the story.