Kromer (Hangul: 크로머, keu-ro-meo) is the One who Grips of N Corp.'s Inquisition, the leader of a group focused on killing so-called heretical prosthetic users. She has a notable history with Sinclair, as she was a student who became personally involved in his life. She is the main antagonist of Canto III: The Unconfronting.
Kromer's consistent physical traits consist of pale pink skin, silver eyes and silver hair with yellow highlights. Kromer's hair is prominently swept to the right, covering her right eye. Her hair is tied back in a short ponytail when in her school uniform, and cut shorter in present times. Kromer's N Corp. uniform consists of a white shirt with a wide sleeve on the right side. The left side of the shirt is covered by silver plate armor with red wax seal ribbons and a badge with N Corp.'s insignia. The shirt is adorned with four-pointed yellow stars decorations that go from her shoulder to her lower torso, and a rounded, protruding collar in the same color. Kromer wears a cravat around her neck in a gradient that goes from golden to white, atop which is an N Corp. Inquisition red wax seal and ribbon. Her uniform has two different belts of different sizes: a larger yellow, cincture-tied belt with a large silver buckle, and a black baldric upon which Kromer carries her the nail she utilizes as a sword. A thin yellow string decorates the black belt. Her pants are of similar color to her upper half, however it is mostly covered by silver plate armor that extends from her upper thigh to her feet, with red wax seals planted around. Finally, Kromer wears a dirtied white cape that reaches down to the floor.
In the past, Kromer wore a school uniform design which consisted of a long-sleeved white button up shirt overlaid by a green sweater vest with a large V-collar dipping down just below her chest. She wore shorts of a similar color that are rolled up below her knees. Kromer also wears ankle-high white socks and black shoes.
Personality
Kromer describes herself as "a humanitarian who loves purity," referring to the purity of the human form without prosthetic modifications. As the head of N Corp.'s nailing judgement expedition in Calw, she displays extreme levels of sadism, obsession, and savagery towards prostheses, calling for intense mutilation of those who get these surgeries. She saw prosthetic users as affronts to humanity, describing them as impure things and heretics, and taking extreme pleasure in inflicting them pain, laughing with no remorse at her actions.
In Sinclair's memories, Kromer is shown to be a perceptive and charismatic person, noticing Sinclair's reluctance in undergoing prosthetic surgery, and easily manipulating him into trusting her, to the point of giving up his family's basement key to her. It is clear Kromer had always had an authoritative grip over Sinclair, exploiting him during their school years, and appearing possessive over him in current times, describing him as belonging in her hands. Kromer developed an obsession with the flesh, as seen in Sinclair's memories, where she excitedly stared at an Abnormality. This obsession drove her to the point that she had various facilities dedicated to creating Corroded Inquisitors built within Sinclair's basement.
Story
Prior to Limbus Company
Kromer was originally an N Corp. citizen. From a young age, she hated living among the "filthy affronts to humanity" she labeled prosthetic users, considering herself a "humanitarian who loves all things human" who should rid the world of the "impure". The forested town of Calw, also known as the Holy Site of Nest K's Prosthetic Industry, was a long-term area of interest for her in her deranged quest to eliminate those with prostheses. Kromer would come to lead a subsection of Nagel und Hammer called the Inquisitors, as the top-ranking One Who Grips.
During her school days, she made a deal with K Corp. that allowed her free destruction of Calw in return for supplying their Singularity with footage of the tragedy. She enrolled in the school which Sinclair attended, and laid low for a time. Yet one day, she caught wind of her classmate's hesitance to go through with his prosthetic procedure, and would properly introduce herself to Sinclair. Kromer bonded with him over his discomfort with replacing one's body with something else and appeared to empathize with his struggle. They spoke frequently, and at the time, Sinclair would consider them friends.
At one point, Kromer would prepare to take action against the people of Calw. She promised Sinclair that she would "help him" alleviate his pressures to receive his own prosthetic if he would help her with a grudge of hers in turn. For that cause, she asked him for his basement key, and Sinclair would hesitantly follow her through a filthy air vent attached to his home's basement. The two peeked into a Lobotomy Corporation branch containment cell, within which was an Abnormality that enraptured Kromer and sent Sinclair spiraling with terror and regret. Afterwards, she handed him two coins.
From that day forward, Sinclair grew horrified of Kromer, and did his best to avoid her. However, he would at one point ask for his basement key back, to which Kromer complied, only after cackling at his hesitance to speak up about it.
Kromer would ultimately go through her plan to desecrate the citizens of Calw on Christmas day. When Sinclair arrived home, he found her with Guido, massacring and dehumanizing his family. She demonstrated awareness that this day would haunt him for the rest of his life, and relished in it. Kromer wouldn't hurt him, but instead thank him for the opportunity he'd given her, take back one of the coins she'd gifted him, and order him to be brought to safety after declaring she'd call for him again when the time was right.
Some time later, still far off from Christmas, Kromer reenacted the day she murdered Sinclair's family in an attempt to permanently break his spirit and lead her to join her cause. She hung up the innocent townspeople in trees and on pikes, considering them less than human and deserving of the torment. Among these was the LCCB's Effie, whose limbs she had forcefully applied prosthetics to in an excuse to persecute and torture him. She also set fire to Sinclair's old home, where she reunited with him face-to-face and verbally tormented him, finding great enjoyment in his suffering and no concern for the fact that this outcome was clearly not what he'd wanted.
Kromer reached the Golden Bough before the Sinners could and resonated with it, revealing a manifested mindscape of mountains upon mountains of corpses. Sinclair found the resolution to kill her, and confronted her on the hills. Partway through their fight, Kromer distorted, and mentioned a Mirror World she witnessed of the two of them fighting side-by-side under her cause to kill prosthetic users, much to Sinclair's distress and denial. All throughout the battle, she attempted to manipulate, scar, and ruin her former classmate, claiming his family's death was entirely his fault and projecting her extremist beliefs onto him.
With time, Sinclair's determination slowed, and he seemed to give up on the fight against her when Demian appeared in response to a sentiment by Dante. In a want for no one else to "domineer over" Sinclair, Demian waved his arm and cleaved her clean in half, ultimately leading to a swift and dramatic end for Kromer.
Observation Logs
Log Writer: Sinclair
I really don't feel like writing logs...
But I will, if I have to.
I haven't fought Kromer before or seen how N Corp's troop fight... But from what I could tell, she probably knows how to use a sword. She always carried one with her.
As for her looks... not too different from what I remember, except a little taller...
And, that disorienting laughter...
Unnh, can I stop here?
→ None of this helps. (Heathcliff)
That bastard, she's killing our Sinners!
She murdered everyone in the back lines...
Blowing that stupid whistle... She came to me, too...
I couldn't do anything... Hearing that sound makes me go all stiff...
I could only watch as Kromer slew the others...
I wanted to crush her skull so dearly... But I couldn't move a muscle.
What should I do... Can you tell me, manager?
I'm...
I'm, still scared of Kromer.
Looking at her face makes my face twitch, and her blade gives me the chills.
Her maniacal eyes remind me of the tragedy on Christmas, and her creepy grin still has my eyes quivering.
But...
But I'm okay now.
I can stand up to her whistles now.
The things she's done are too vile for me to stand by, and I'd be too ashamed to see the Sinners she's killed if I let that bitch go.
I've changed a lot since then.
I've died a lot of deaths, and claimed a lot of lives.
I can go mad all the same now.
So, I will for sure…
I'll skewer her chest with a stake, over and over again.
→ You've got a good mindset. I like that. (Heathcliff)
→ While the willingness to fight is admirable, this log is for observations rather than decrees of your determination. (Faust)
→ Sorry… I'll do it right next time. (Sinclair)
Log Writer: Sinclair
When I think about it, Kromer always had an obsession with flesh.
And that obsession cumulated into what we're seeing now... A gruesome creature.
At first... I agreed with her. The idea of replacing the flesh with something else was unpleasant to me.
But now I see. What's really unpleasant...is believing that your thought is the only correct one...and letting that thought consume your mind whole.
The two coins that Kromer gives to Sinclair, and later asks to have returned to her, in Limbus Company are inspired by their central interaction in the novel. In Demian, Sinclair lies about stealing apples from a local orchard in an attempt to show off to some of the neighborhood boys, including the neighborhood bully Franz Kromer. Kromer threatens to report Sinclair for the theft, telling him that the owner of the orchard has offered a reward of two marks for anyone who reports the thief, so Sinclair must give Kromer two marks if he does not wish to be reported and known as a criminal.
Kromer's whistles are a reference by Franz Kromer whistling to signal to Sinclair when it was time to exchange the money. Due to Emil Sinclair being ten years old during this time, he was unable to acquire the full amount of money that Kromer was extorting from him, so the two had to meet multiple times throughout several weeks as Sinclair slowly paid off the two marks. Even while recalling the events an adult who has survived war, Sinclair believes he would still be frightened if he were to hear Kromer whistling again.
In addition to her whistles being referenced throughout the story of Canto III, they are also referenced in gameplay. In certain combat stages throughout the Canto, Kromer will whistle every three turns, applying Kromer's WhistlesKromer's WhistlesWe shall fear not, for the One Who Grips is with us. to the enemy N Corp. Inquisitors, and causing Sinclair to lose 30 SP. As an enemy, Kromer has the passive "Fearsome Whistles" which applies debuffs to Sinclair unless he has 3 of A SignA SignSinclair’s determination to stand up to Kromer. Once three strokes have been drawn….
Kromer's avoidance of Sinclair on days when he spoke to Demian and her eventual fate of being killed by Demian are inspired by Franz Kromer eventually being scared off from continuing to harass Emil Sinclair thanks to Max Demian. In Demian, Demian takes notice of how Sinclair is being bullied by Kromer and offers to help him be rid of the problem. While he first tries to get more information about the situation from Sinclair, he eventually decides to step in and handle it for Sinclair. At one point he makes the remark that Sinclair should just kill Kromer, and that he would help him with the act if Sinclair so desired. While Franz Kromer is not killed by either of the two boys, Demian soon confronts him and from then on Kromer never bothers Sinclair again.
Kromer was the first human enemy character to have both types of Resistance.
Kromer remains the only human enemy whose Sanity is fixed at 0. This is due to the fact that Sanity-using enemies were first introduced into Focused Encounters (and Sanity-fixed enemies into Regular Encounters) in Canto IV: The Unchanging, one Season after Kromer's initial addition to the game.
Incidentally, the Peccatulum Luxuriae first appears in the same dungeon that Kromer acts as the final boss of.
If The One Who Shall Grip Sinclair is deployed in the battle against Kromer, she will become staggered on the first turn and say "Aah... Could it... You're... My Sinclair...?!"
This was the first unique interaction between an enemy and a specific Identity.
Before the May 10th 2023 update, Kromer instead said "Ah... You... No way.... My Sinclair?"
