The Black Guardian, or Greater Guardian, is a Guardian of immense size and power. It is summoned to Oublié Cathedral by Pious Augustus to guard the dominant Ancients' essences. Of all the Ancients' creatures, the Black Guardian is the most similar to its master's appearance. Peter Jacob's and Paul Luther's chapters take place solely on the reason that this beast hungered for human flesh, and was set to guard the artifact. Oublié had to do everything it could to feed it, which included luring monks and pilgrims to their doom to see the (fake) Hand of Jude, in the First World War taking wounded soldiers from the makeshift hospital.
The Greater Guardian's hunger for human flesh and bone seems linked to the binding allowing it to remain in this world and/or Pious's ability to command the monster. Despite Pious's attempts to placate it, no alignment of the Greater Guardian seems to take well to his authority and it cooperates with him only reluctantly, despite the importance of its task to the Ancients' plans.
In the end of Paul Luther's chapter, it is seen that the monk was killed by the Black Guardian, as its first onscreen victim. Chatturgha's and Ulyaoth's Black Guardian both crushed Paul's body (Chattur'gha's smashing him with its claw and Ulyaoth's stepping on him), and Xel'lotath's made his head explode, and also chastised Pious Augustus for suggesting he aid it in battle.
Eventually, the Black Guardian was starting to grow restless, even with the feeding, which caused problems for the faction it was aligned to especially when they needed to guard the rival Ancient's essence long enough for the celestial pattern necessary for unsealing their ancient to occur. It is heavily implied that this resulted in Pious Augustus and the others instigating World War I, or at the very least the Battle of the Somme, in order to keep the Black Guardian controlled long enough for it to accomplish its task by constantly feeding it.
The Black Guardian is later defeated by Peter, who at the time was reporting on the Battle of the Somme, one of the more devastating events of World War I.
Xel'lotath's Black Guardian[]
This Particular Black Guardian is considerably the black sheep of the three. Its body appears to have an impossibly skinny torso with two sets of arms and a distinct lack of any head. Instead, it has the Xel'lotath rune symbol in its place. The guardian is known to cackle and bellow with laughter uncontrollably within cutscenes, and has a very soft, whispery type of dialogue with an echo. It is also the only one of the Black Guardians to be heard before actually making its appearance, as in the ending of the Paul Luther chapter, she is heard saying "Paul..." and "Brother Luther..." as he's traversing down the hall before she emerges violently from the floor.
Instead of crushing or stomping on its enemies, it prefers to utilize magick for all of its attacks, as first shown when it levitates Paul Luther into the air and causes his head to explode. It uses this same technique against Peter Jacob when he fights it in 1916, though the magickal bolts home in on Peter instead of lifting him in the air, presumably for smoother gameplay. At close range, the creature claps its hands together and causes a pillar of magick to shoot up from within a rune triangle. If the player looks closely at this attack, they can see the runes Antorbok & Aretak (along with Xel'lotath of course) in a three-point spell. This spell cannot be acquired by the player. As it gets closer to death, the rune symbol gets closer and closer to the base of where its shoulders are, to indicate the player how close they are to beating it.
If fired upon, it will ask "Are you trying to fight me or entertain me, little one?" If shot at again after a long period of not being fired upon, it will say "Your weapons will not work against me, fool! Only the interplay of wits and magick can save your mind, if you can use them."
Chattur'gha's Black Guardian[]
Chattur'gha's Black Guardian is perhaps the most memorable as players simply refer to it as "The Lobster Boss". As its nickname entails, it indeed closely resembles a crustacean, including an exoskeleton, carapace, and large pincer-like claws. This one is considered to be the most monstrous, as it occasionally lets out a roar and deep, thundering voice. It attacks by shooting fireballs that travel like mortars and detonate on the ground, lashing out with its long tongue to consume players for an instant kill, and smashing its huge claws in an attempt to crush the player.
When shot, the creature will express amusement and say,"You bore me, 'flesh and bone' ...". Later on, if shot again after a long period of not being fired upon, it will remark "You believe you can hurt with THAT, flesh and bone? (laugh) Your weapons are weak... useless! Come close, feel the might of my wrath." It is the only Black Guardian that does not reveal how to defeat it during its taunting.
Ulyaoth's Black Guardian[]
Of all the Black Guardians, this one is the most bizarre-looking. It has three long legs which support a small, basic body. Under the body are thin hook-like appendages that hold some sort of levitating sphere. Its voice sounds calm and intellectual, and uses a high level of vocabulary within its sentences. After the end of the first phase of its fight, the floating sphere bursts apart, and as the battle progresses the tint of blue around the Black Guardian darkens. Of the Black Guardians, this one resembles the aligned Ancient the least.
If shot, it will say "My machinations are timeless, Peter... your life is not." If shot a second time after a long period of not being fired upon, it will remark "The tools of your puerile civilization are of no use against the Power of the Planes. Magick is your only hope, if you have any at all." It should be noted that the word "of", while said, does not appear in the text on the bottom of the screen.
Trivia[]
- It is the only Black Guardian that does not have a one-hit kill attack.
- The Black Guardian's name is referring to its evil nature rather than its physical coloration.
- Although you can use Mantorok's version of the magickal attack spell to fight the Black Guardian, it is highly not recommended as it costs more magick to cast [Especially when using the 5 or 7 point circles of power], it's better to use the alignment that the Black Guardian is weak against.
- It is possible to hit the Black Guardian with the 7 point magickal attack spell, by casting it just before it glows it's appropriate color of the aliment you chosen as Pious at the beginning of the game.
- As it is called often "greater guardian" by Pious and his cultists, this may or may not point to the possibility that there are more of this same type of creature that exist.