Roland
Name
Like all the characters of Digital Devil Saga—with the notable exception of Jenna Angel and Margot Cuvier—Roland does not have a known last name.
His name, Roland, is originally a German name that means "famous" or "famed land". For the French among us, Roland is the name of the knight and hero of the epic tale "La chanson de Roland", the oldest major work of French literature. In it, Roland courageously fights the Saracen despite the overwhelming odds, and spends quite a bit of the tale dying. So much for that.
In the Japanese version of Digital Devil Saga 2, his name was Roald. I don't know why it was changed, but I am not going to complain, as I think that Roland rolls off the tongue much more easily.
Appearance
One of the most noticeable details about Roland's appearance is that, unlike the Embryon members, who were designed to be flawless for warfare purposes, Roland wears glasses. He also has hair of a natural colour, light blond, which he wears cropped short, and blue eyes. He has a small patch of facial hair on his chin, but since his hair is so light it doesn't show well against his pale skin. He seems to be of average height, taller than Serph, but shorter than Heat. Judging by his appearance, he's the oldest member of the playable party, looking somewhere in his early to mid thirties.
Roland wears a brown, open coat over a black zipped shirt, green camouflage pants and knee-high black boots. Despite the post-apocalypse getup, he still manages to look more like a book nerd than a soldier, let alone a military leader. When you first see him, he's carrying a flask around, but he presumably leaves it behind when he joins you.
He wears his orange Embryon mark on the left sleeve of his coat, from wrist to elbow. His atma, Lightning Bolt, is on the back of his left hand, toothy maw turned towards his fingers.
Life
According to the manual, Roland is a "classically educated author" who now "drowns his sorrow in alcohol".
Not much is known of Roland's past, aside from a very important event in his life. While the Lokapala were under attack from the Karma Society, he left behind Greg, his best friend and leader of the Lokapala, so he could escape with his life. Greg is then killed by the Society soldiers, and the leadership of the Lokapala, along with the custody of Fred, Greg's son, passes on to him. Unable to cope with the grief and the guilt of his cowardly actions that led to Greg's death, Roland turns to alcohol to ease the pain.
His life takes another major turn when the Embryon arrive. Hoping to find Nirvana, they are quite disillusioned when they see not only the doomed world they've landed in, but also the people inhabiting it. Gale chastise Roland and Adil quite strongly, but yet he announces that he will help them, for the sake of his friend. Fred probably also does some work behind the scenes, but it was the kick in the butt Roland needed: he takes the demon virus, paints the orange mark on himself, and marches off to join the Embryon, finally determined to work towards changing things in the world.
Weapons
When in human form, Roland uses a shotgun he carries over his shoulder as his weapon. It's a multi-target weapon and hits random enemies.
In berserk form, Roland's right arm changes into the armoured, bladed arm of Indra, and he uses it to piledrive his enemies into submission.
First Encounter
We actually hear of him a while before seeing him. As the game prologue ends, Fred talks about a man who knows the way to Karma City, but says he's "kind of a loser though". Nonetheless, he announces he'll take the Embryon to Roland, revealing the name of the "loser".
The first sight we get of Roland is a peculiar one. Standing behind the barricade made by his men with his right-hand man/second-in-command Adil, he looks at the gate dispassionately as someone (or something) is still banging away on it. After taking a flask out of his coat and drinking big gulps from it, he flatly states that "[whoever's on the other side]'ll get through eventually", then jerks his chin, signalling Adil to give the order to open the gate.
When the Embryon walk in, he walks up to them, seemingly without fear, and asks them if they know Cielo, whom his men have previously captured, thinking he was a Karma Society soldier. When they answer that they do know him, and probably encouraged by the fact that the AIs protected Fred and his friend all the way back, he introduces himself as Roland, leader of the Lokapala, and welcomes the Embryon.