Database · People of the colony
Gothic 1 Remake NPC guide: who actually matters
The colony is crowded with people, but only a handful change your run. This Gothic 1 Remake NPC guide is decision-first: it ranks the characters that count — who to befriend, which Gothic 1 Remake NPC trains your skills, who gates each camp, and where to find them — before the full roster below.
The 30-second shortlist
The Gothic 1 Remake NPC shortlist to know first
Skip the wall of names. These eight are the Gothic 1 Remake NPC picks whose choices, quests and training shape a playthrough more than every background character combined — the Four Friends, the three camp leaders and the necromancer who turns the story.
The first friendly NPC inside the Barrier and the closest thing to a guide the game gives you. A high-ranking Shadow, this is the character who vouches for you with the Old Camp and trains your core stats.
Quest: Admission to the Old Camp
One of the Four Friends — a blunt, hard-hitting mercenary NPC who throws in with the New Camp's fighters. A reliable ally whenever the story brings the four characters back together.
The Four Friends' wanderer, a novice NPC of the Brotherhood of the Sleeper. He's your way in if the swamp tempts you — talk to this character before approaching the Gurus cold.
Quest: Admission to the Swamp Camp
The youngest of the Old Camp Fire Mages and the fourth friend — your contact NPC inside the magic circle and a steady source of help across the main quest.
The necromancer and former Fire Mage who drives the back half of the story — the most important NPC you meet outside the camps. Chapter 4 sends you to this character's tower to craft the Ulu-Mulu, one of the game's true turning points.
Quest: Xardas the Necromancer
The Ore Baron NPC who rules the Old Camp. Winning this character's nod is the last step of Old Camp admission, and his word sets the colony's ore trade in motion.
Quest: Admission to the Old Camp
The exiled general who commands the New Camp's mercenaries. Side with him for the route to bows, crossbows and ore-free independence from the Old Camp.
The Guru at the head of the Brotherhood of the Sleeper. His faith — and his failing health — shape the Swamp Camp's questline and the only path to the Templar.
Quest: Healing Herbs for Y'Berion
Your allies
The Four Friends — the Gothic 1 Remake NPC core
Diego, Gorn, Lester and Milten are the recurring allies the nameless hero meets early and crosses paths with again and again. Between them they reach into all three camps, which is why each is the first Gothic 1 Remake NPC to learn.
Most people in the colony exist to fill the camps; the Four Friends exist to pull you through the plot. Diego is the Gothic 1 Remake NPC who saves you in the opening, walks you toward the Old Camp and explains how the colony works — follow him in the opening walkthrough and he doubles as your first navigation lesson.
The other three NPCs spread across the factions: Milten is a young Fire Mage in the Old Camp, Gorn is a mercenary who leans New Camp, and Lester is a Sleeper-sect novice tied to the swamp. These four characters are the NPC thread that survives whichever camp you pledge to, and several of the game’s best moments — and main-quest beats — turn on having them on your side.
Who runs the camps
Faction leaders: the Gothic 1 Remake NPC who gates each camp
The single biggest decision in the game is which camp to join, and it runs through a few specific characters. These are the leader and contact NPCs whose approval you have to earn.
Each faction is fronted by a leader NPC you ultimately answer to and a contact character who first lets you in. In the Old Camp, the Ore Baron Gomez rules and his gatekeeper Thorus sends newcomers to Diego — the cleanest first-run route. The New Camp answers to the exiled general Lee and the Water Mage leader Saturas, with Lares recruiting fresh blood. The Swamp Camp follows the Guru Y’Berion and his high priest Cor Kalom, who judges your faith before he lets you near the Sleeper — but first the five Baal gurus each vet you in turn.
Because joining one camp permanently fails the other two admission lines, knowing each Gothic 1 Remake NPC leader ahead of time is part of choosing well. Weigh them on the camps overviewalongside the build each faction unlocks, and don’t pledge to a leader until you’ve banked the experience from all three.
Who teaches you
The Gothic 1 Remake NPC trainers who build your hero
In a classless game, your build is defined by which trainers you pay. Every skill is taught by a person, so each trainer NPC matters as much as any quest-giver.
There is no skill menu in the Gothic 1 Remake — every stat, weapon and spell is bought from a trainer NPC. These Old Camp characters are your first teachers: Diego sets your core stats, Scatty teaches one-handed combat and Fingers handles lockpicking, while the Fire Mage Torrez opens Rune Magic. Cross to the New Camp and the NPCs Cronos and Buster train mana and acrobatics; out in the wilds, the outsider NPC Cavalorn teaches the bow — and runs a whole quest line of his own.
Treat the full list of trainers as a map of your build. The skills and trainers guide covers what each one costs and the best order to spend your scarce Learning Points, and the interactive colony maphelps you plan the trip between them so you’re not crossing dangerous ground blind.
The full roster
Every key Gothic 1 Remake NPC, by faction
Grouped the way the colony is, with a role tag on each so you can see at a glance which Gothic 1 Remake NPC leads, which trains and which hands out quests. Leaders and the cast are confirmed; exact spots and trainer pairings are early single-source and flagged.
- ThorusQuest-giver
Gomez's right hand and the gatekeeper NPC at the Old Camp gate — he turns away anyone without standing and points newcomers at Diego.
- CorristoLeader
The head of the Old Camp Fire Mages, the circle Milten belongs to and the route to Rune Magic on the melee side of the colony.
- ScattyTrainerSingle source
Trains one-handed weapon skill — the warrior's first combat teacher once Diego has set your stats.
Where: Old Camp
- FingersTrainerSingle source
Teaches lockpicking, the skill that opens the colony's richest early loot.
Where: Old Camp
- HunoTrainerMerchantSingle source
The Old Camp smith — trains smithing and is where forged blades come from.
Where: Old Camp
- FiskMerchantQuest-giver
The marketplace fence — sells blades and lockpicks, runs two admission-vote side quests and upgrades the Shadow's Dress once you join.
Where: Old Camp marketplace
- TorrezTrainerSingle source
A Fire Mage who teaches Rune Magic in the Old Camp — the melee colony's back door into spellcasting.
Where: Old Camp
- LaresQuest-giverContact
A high-standing figure who recruits promising arrivals — your contact for proving yourself to the mercenaries and Water Mages.
- SaturasLeader
Leader of the Water Mages, the New Camp's magical half and the faction chasing a way through the Barrier.
- CronosTrainerMerchantSingle source
The New Camp alchemist — trains mana and brews the potions that keep a caster in the fight.
Where: New Camp
- BusterTrainerSingle source
Teaches acrobatics, the cheap survival skill that keeps you alive long enough to use everything else.
Where: New Camp
- Cor KalomLeaderQuest-giver
The Brotherhood's high priest and master alchemist. He judges your faith at admission — answer wrong and he turns hostile.
- CavalornTrainerMentorQuest-giverSingle source
A seasoned hunter living outside the camps who teaches the bow — the ranger's path doesn't need a faction to begin.
Where: Hut west of the Old Camp, on the road to the New Camp
This is the cast of characters that drives the early game, not a line-by-line dump of every villager NPC. As the community finishes cataloguing the remake, exact in-colony positions for the trainer and merchant NPCs will firm up; until then they carry a single-source flag rather than a guess.
The voices
Gothic 1 Remake NPC voice cast — the original actors who returned
One of the remake's headline moves: the studio re-hired original voice actors for its characters across several localizations wherever the voices still fit. Here are the confirmed NPC returns.
| Character | Voice actor | Language |
|---|---|---|
| Nameless Hero | Christian Wewerka | German |
| Diego | Matthias Keller | German |
| Xardas | Bodo Henkel | German |
| Nameless Hero | Jacek Mikołajczak | Polish |
| Nameless Hero | Petr Glanc-Ivaschenko | Russian |
| Milten | Islam Gandzhaev | Russian |
| Lares | Sergey Gabriyelyan jr. | Russian |
| Xardas | Fedor Sukhov | Russian |
Returning voices are blended with new talent for the roles that couldn’t be recast, so the cast of characters keeps the original’s spirit without pretending nothing has changed. Full per-language casts are still rolling out.
How NPCs work
Killing NPCs, escorts and what changed from the original
A few rules govern how you interact with the colony's characters — and they have teeth, because the Gothic 1 Remake doesn't protect its NPCs from your mistakes.
You can knock out or kill a large share of the colony, but it carries a cost: killing a Gothic 1 Remake NPC who gives quests can permanently break that quest and its rewards, and turning on a faction makes its member NPCs hostile. There is no traditional party system either — the Four Friends are recurring allies and certain characters escort you during set quests, but you never recruit controllable companions. The closest thing to a follower is Mud, the Old Camp pest, who tags along on his own — and whom most players are soon trying to get rid of.
A few side characters are worth their own pages because their quests are easy to fumble. Slyat the Old Camp’s north gate sends you after The Vanished Warder, and Sharky, the New Camp’s fence, only shows up by day and can be recruited to take over from Fisk. Syra, the slave in the Old Camp castle kitchen, is locked behind Thorus and an invisible-wall bug before she’ll start “Bully for Bullit.”
If you played the 2001 original, the cast of characters and camps will feel familiar — the remake retells the same story with the same NPCs. What changed is presentation: reworked faces and animations, the returning voice cast above, and combat that makes a hostile NPC far more dangerous than the old point-and-click brawls.
Quick answers
Gothic 1 Remake NPC FAQ
Who are the most important NPCs in the Gothic 1 Remake?
The four to know first are Diego, Gorn, Lester and Milten — the 'Four Friends' who recur across the whole story and tie into each camp. After them, the three camp leaders decide your faction (Gomez of the Old Camp, Lee of the New Camp and the Guru Y'Berion of the Swamp Camp), and the necromancer Xardas drives the back half of the main quest. Those eight are the Gothic 1 Remake NPC shortlist, and each one shapes a playthrough far more than the dozens of background characters.
Who are the Four Friends in the Gothic 1 Remake?
Diego, Gorn, Lester and Milten — four allies the nameless hero meets early and crosses paths with throughout the game. Diego is an Old Camp Shadow and your first guide, Milten is a young Fire Mage, Gorn is a mercenary who leans New Camp, and Lester is a Sleeper-sect novice tied to the Swamp Camp. Between them they reach into all three factions, which is why each one anchors any Gothic 1 Remake NPC guide.
Can NPCs join your party in the Gothic 1 Remake?
There is no traditional party system. The Gothic 1 Remake is a solo journey — you don't recruit permanent companions the way you would in a party RPG. What you do get are escorts: certain NPCs, like Diego at the start, walk with you during specific quests, and you can fight alongside camp allies. The Four Friends are recurring story allies rather than controllable party members.
Can you kill NPCs in the Gothic 1 Remake?
Many of them, yes — Gothic lets you knock out or kill a large share of the colony's NPCs. But it carries a real cost: killing a quest-giver can permanently break that quest and its rewards, and turning on a faction makes its members hostile. As a rule, don't kill NPCs whose names you don't yet recognise, and save before any fight you're unsure about.
Did the Gothic 1 Remake bring back the original voice actors?
For several roles, yes. The studio re-hired original cast members across the German, Polish and Russian localizations where the voices still fit — for example Christian Wewerka returns as the German Nameless Hero, Matthias Keller as Diego, and Bodo Henkel as Xardas, while Jacek Mikołajczak reprises the iconic Polish Nameless Hero. New talent fills the roles that couldn't be recast, so the cast blends returning voices with fresh ones.
Where do I find Diego in the Gothic 1 Remake?
Diego finds you first — he turns up on the path early in the opening and offers to walk you toward the Old Camp. After that he's usually around the Old Camp near the castle entrance, where he vouches for your admission and trains your core stats. If you've lost track of him, head back to the Old Camp and ask around; like all directions in the game, his whereabouts come from dialogue, not a map marker.
How many NPCs are in the Gothic 1 Remake?
There is no official count yet, but the colony holds dozens of named characters across the three camps and the wilds, on top of unnamed guards, diggers and prisoners. This Gothic 1 Remake NPC guide doesn't try to list every villager — it focuses on the people who actually affect a playthrough: the leaders, the trainers, the quest-givers and the Four Friends. The community is still cataloguing the full cast, so a precise Gothic 1 Remake NPC total will firm up over time.
Which Gothic 1 Remake NPC trains you?
Your build is taught entirely by trainers, so each one is among the most important characters to track. In the Old Camp, Diego trains stats, Scatty teaches one-handed combat, Fingers handles lockpicking and the Fire Mage Torrez opens Rune Magic. In the New Camp, Cronos trains mana and Buster teaches acrobatics, while the outsider hunter Cavalorn teaches the bow. Each Gothic 1 Remake NPC trainer is mapped in the roster above and costed out in the skills guide.
Are the Gothic 1 Remake characters the same as the original Gothic?
Yes — the remake retells the first game's story with the same characters, camps and factions, so veterans will recognise every major NPC from Diego and Gomez to Xardas and the Sleeper sect. What's new is the presentation: reworked faces and animations, a partly returning voice cast, and combat that makes hostile NPCs far more threatening. New players can meet these characters fresh without any prior Gothic knowledge.
Keep exploring
More Gothic 1 Remake guides
Gothic 1 Remake Guide
Know the people, then pick your side
The Gothic 1 Remake NPC cast decides your camp, your trainers and half its best moments. Learn who matters, then choose the faction whose leaders and build fit how you want to play.