4. The Nameless One

First appeared in: Planescape: Torment (1999)

If you're looking for the one of the most original, inspired and fascinating character since gaming began, then look no further than The Nameless One, star of Black Isle's game-changing RPG, Planescape: Torment. Waking up on a mortuary slab in the inter-dimensional city of Sigil, Nameless discovers (with the help of his floating skull companion, Morte) that he's an immortal amnesiac who can never truly die and the only clues to his past are scrawled in spidery tattoos across his scar-laden flesh.

So far, so Memento, but as The Nameless One's story slowly unfolds, we see a tortured, tormented soul who has lived a thousand different lifetimes and played host to a dozen different personalities, only to be slain and rise again. What's more, every time Nameless is reborn, a random soul in the multiverse dies to fuel his resurrection, eventually returning as a shade to exact its revenge.

Torment is a tragic, intricately woven tale and, quite deservedly, recognised as one of the greatest role-playing games of all time. Rather than other RPGs of the era, which gave you a blank slate character to flesh out as you wanted, Torment's strength was in the detail and richness of its protagonist, who remains one of the very best more than ten years on.