The Retainers are the emissaries, servants, and bodyguards of the Overlords who rule the Crimson Courts. Each Overlord treats their Retainers uniquely. Though uniformly they all take a vow of silence unless they are to speak on behalf or by the behest of their Overlord. Some Overlords even go so far as to remove their voice boxes and replace them with a playback device that only plays messages given to them by their Overlord.

Retainers also forgo their identity after their induction. As such none are truly named and rather are given epithets by those who encounter them. Notable ones include the Ghost of Legius who often carries out his most bloody of orders and intimidates threats into compliance, the Hand of Malial who was known to be so evil that he somehow killed his own Overlord, or the Will of Skollvaldr who is an impartial Retainer who obeys no Overlord as they serve the metaphorical overlord Skollvalder, or the god(s) of Solace.

Retainers often have a filtered or mechanized voice much akin to Spy's in EMESIS BLUE after his accident (this can be found specifically at 1:35:48 of the video).