History Characters / AlexVerus

** He does his best to stay in shape. While he'd be hard-pressed to boxe with an elemental mage anytime soon, being able to run faster and longer than most people is a big factor in his being alive.

* TookALevelInBadass: After [[spoiler:reclaiming the Fateweaver and gaining the power to select futures, Alex becomes one of the most powerful mages in Britain. Unfortunately, it's also PowerAtAPrice.]]

* TookALevelInBadass: After [[spoiler:reclaiming the Fateweaver and gaining the power to select futures, Axel becomes one of the most powerful mages in Britain. Unfortunately, it's also PowerAtAPrice.]]

* HurtingHero: Alex is constantly plagued by guilt over his choice to follow Richard in his youth and what he did. He is also often forced to make hard decisions just to stay alive, protect his friends, or simply be decent while almost everyone around him either distrusts and/or despises him even when he does his best to help them. He is also deadly afraid of becoming like Richard, and often ask himself or Arachne whether or not he can be considered a good man, especially when he has so much blood on his hands.

* [[NiceGuy Nice Girl]]: Empathetic, quiet, fairly passive and nurturing, Anne is the nicest person in the series. Despite her massive Life magic abilities, she mostly focuses on their healing applications.

* AbsentMindedProfessor: Can gives off this vibe. On one memorable occasion, he is seen carelessly tossing around a ''bomb'' that he was studying to his audience, seemingly unaware of the danger.

* ChaoticGood

* LawfulGood -> LawfulNeutral / LawfulEvil: Likes to pretend to be the lawful good to the dark mages' chaotic evil. Centuries of peace (and the successful purging of malevolent magical creatures) however has changed that somewhat.

* FatalFlaw: While he can acknowledge that ''some'' Light mages are evil Sonder appears to be unable to conceive the Light Council as a whole might be fundamentally in the wrong. Like many light mages, he views the Light Council as the LawfulGood to dark mages' AlwaysChaoticEvil, despite ample evidence that the world is not so clear-cut. Even though he is generally a NiceGuy, this simplistic black & White worldview means [[spoiler: he can't accept some of Alex's actions, nor can he turn his back on the council]]. He is often more reticent than Alex to accuse the light council (or light-affiliated mage) of any wrong doings, he tends to propose working within the system as a first resort (even when it's painfully clear such a course of actions has 0 chances of succeeding due to the corrupted nature of the council), and lately [[spoiler: adopts some of the least savory traits of light council mages essentially because 'everyone is doing it, so it has to be normal to do so']].

* LawfulGood: At first. Unfortunately tends to LawfulStupid in later books, as she is unwilling to acknowledge how corrupt the light bureaucracy can be

** It is deconstructed however, as it often means Alex consequently ends up strengthening the position of someone he hates as the winner benefits from the outcome, worsening his own position in the long-term. Additionally, in ''Forged'', [[spoiler: Morden warns him that his successfully pulling off that tactic to get rid of many of those enemies means that there might now be a shortage of powerful players to pit against each others, even though the ones left are still dangerous]].

* GoodIsNotNice: While he is uncomfortable about it, it is repeatedly pointed to him that Alex killed more people in a few years than the average dark mage does in all his life. He can also be ruthless against those who threaten him and/or his friends

** He has trained himself to scan for danger in the future almost unconsciously, making him almost invincible to surprise ambushes
** He has a habit of always looking at escape routes whenever he gets into a place
** He hardly leaves his home unarmed
** He has several hidden caches of weapons, clothes, money in case he cannot reach his appartment
** He has a safehouse on the countryside, with weapons, clothes, food and money
** He mentions that he always categorizes people in two categories: those he can trust, and those he cannot, and take care to never let his guard completely drop around people belonging in the second category [[spoiler:which among others allows him to limit Meredith's interference]]
** He does his best to hide anything that can represent an edge (Starbreeze, his mist cloak, the dreamstone,...) around people he does not fully trust, regardless of how nice they appear to be [[spoiler:which among others allows him to escape from Haken and Cerulean, Caldera, etc]]
** He stockpiles gate stones, in order to be able to escape quickly if necessary, regularly shuffling them around or acquiring new ones to be less predictable [[spoiler: those come in handy when Alex and Anne are pursued by Levistus' men across the world]]

** He makes sure that everyone has a gate stone to eveyone's appartments, and takes care to refill some vial of blood, in case someone is kidnapped and he has to find them using a seeker focus [[spoiler:which lets him find Anne in time when she is abducted by Zilean and Lightbringer]]

* BlessedWithSuck / CursedWithAwesome: Almost litterally. Luna inherited a curse which takes the good luck around her to turn it into her own. Unfortunately, this means that the closer people get to her, the more prone to (quickly fatal) accident they become, leading her to become extremely isolated and miserable; all the more ironic as this spell was initially conceived as a ''protection'' spell. [[spoiler:However, after being properly introduced to the magical world, Luna learns how to control her curse, making her powerful in battle as her curse acts both as a shield and a sword (well, whip).]]

* [[spoiler:RankUp: Is officially recognized as a light mage after passing her trials]]
* RulesLawyer: Luna is normally a sensitive. However, she can make use of the curse she was born with, making her technically an adept (someone who can only use one spell). [[spoiler:After she enter the magical world though, she uses the fact that her spell has two seemingly distinct effects (draining the luck around her and boosting her own) to pass convincingly as a mage to everyone who might care, allowing her to get into the apprentice program without too much issue.]]
** [[spoiler: After looking at the rules governing the journeyman tests, she points out that anybody in the apprentices program can pass their journeyman tests and become a recognized light mage and all it entails, regardless of them being a mage or an adept.]]
* WindsOfDestinyChange: How her curse works.

* PutOnABus: In ''Fallen'', [[spoiler: the council realizes (Dark-)Anne has been helping Drakh, and they decide to come down on Alex and his allies hard. Arachne is whisked off by a dragon, and the letter she left Alex hints that they might not be able to see each other anymore. Alex theorized that the dragon sent her forward into the future to protect her, meaning unless he manages to live a long life, they are unlikely to meet again.]].

* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Starbreeze has a terrible attention span, and the maturity of a 5 years old child

** TheBusCameBack: In ''Fallen'', [[spoiler:Alex uses the dreamstone to call her again]]

->'''Alignment:''' Light apprentice [[spoiler:-> Independant]].
* {{Biomanipulation}}: the full extent of her power falls into this. If she can touch you, you're in big troubles.
* [[spoiler:EvilIsNotAToy: Dark Anne underestimates the threat the Jinn poses to her sanity and free will. She unwisely keeps using its powers, and it eventually usurps her to become a threat big enough to force the Light Council and Darkh to form an alliance.]]

* HealingHands: A particularly gifted Life magic practictioner.
* ImplacableMan: How she fights, when she truly has to. She'll use her HealingFactor to shrug off attacks, and will inexorably aim to close the distance until she can touch her opponent. Once/if she does, it's usually game over.
* LivingMacGuffin: Anne abilities and personality makes her the target of numerous Dark mages. Crystal, Sagash and Drakh spent quite a bit of time trying to control her. [[spoiler:Drakh finally succeeds in making her bind a powerful Jinn and falling under his mental control.]]
* [[NiceGuy Nice Girl]]: Empathetic, quiet, fairly passive and nurturing, Anne is the nicest person in the series. Despite her massive Life magic abilities, she mostly focuses on their healing applications.

* SplitPersonality: As a way to cope with the darker aspects of her personality and powers, Anne developped a Dark alter-ego that she keeps locked-up behind many mental walls. [[spoiler: It does not end well.]]

One of the most influential member of the council. Alex earned his enmity early on, [[spoiler: and their relationship worsened after his refusal to let the slave ring White Rose alone]] and he has been one of the more dangerous of Alex's (numerous) ennemies.

Contractors, hired to assist them in their tasks. They are not officially keepers, but they are still affiliated with them and they enjoy some of the perks of keepers.

* EliteArmy: They are essentially the Council's Special Forces, tasked with handling the most dangerous situations the LC might encounter. They are the ones called in when [[MadeOfIron mages]] [[ElementalPowers like]] [[DishingOutDirt Caldera]] are considered too ''weak'' to deal with the issue.

*

* PoliceAreUseless: Many, if not the majority, of Keepers do try to make a difference, and they are not really incompetent. But between the {{ObstructiveBureaucrat}}s, the lack of manpower, the [[CorruptPolitician politicians]] above their heads trying to subvert them for their own purposes, and the fact that their jurisdiction is overall rather limited (as a general rule, most magical laws only apply when the victim is a mage), their effectiveness can be limited.

* PoliceAreUseless: Many, if not the majority, of Keepers do try to make a difference, and they are not really incompetent. But between the {{ObstructiveBureaucrat}}s, the lack of manpower, the [[CorruptPoliticians politicians]] above their heads trying to subvert them for their own purposes, and the fact that their jurisdiction is overall rather limited (as a general rule, most magical laws only apply when the victim is a mage), their effectiveness can be limited.

* FatalFlaw: While he can acknowledge that ''some'' Light mages are evil Sonder appears to be unable to conceive the Light Council as a whole might be fundamentally in the wrong. Like many light mages, he views the Light Council as the LawfulGood to dark mages' AlwaysChaoticEvil, despite ample evidence that the world is not so clear-cut. Even though he is generally a NiceGuy, this simplistic black & White worldview means he can't accept some of Alex's actions, nor can he turn his back on the council. He is often more reticent than Alex to accuse the light council (or light-affiliated mage) of any wrong doings, he tends to propose working within the system as a first resort (even when it's painfully clear such a course of actions has 0 chances of succeeding due to the corrupted nature of the council), and lately adopts some of the least savory traits of light council mages essentially because 'everyone is doing it, so it has to be normal to do so'.

* CompleteMonster

** Deconstructed however as she actively represses the aggressive and selfish parts of her personality and purposefully keeps away from the harmful applications of her magic. Her nice-girl personality is essentially an overcompensation, and she sometimes shows signs of being tired of everyone expecting her to behave in such a way. This has led most people to get very wary of her as they can sense it's (at least partially) fake (as a rule, you don't get close to untrustworthy life mages if you value your life).

* [[spoiler:CorruptTheCutie: Sonder starts as a plucky new mage full of idealism. It's even the reason he grew distant with Alex as he struggled to accept his old friend's greyer actions. However, as the short story focused on him shows, Sonder has definitely been adopting the light Mages's corrupt way of thinking more and more. It seems to be mostly subsconscious, and he doesn't even seem to be fully aware of how far he fell, but eventually, he becomes the sort of person who thinks nothing of emotionally manipulating (with a not-so-subtle threat weaved in even) a friend to do him a favour (reasoning that he helped her earlier and as such is fully within his right to get something in return), use his powers to spy on people (when he used to avoid doing it out of decency) and more generally, comes off as much more conceited, self-serving and entitled than he used to. He's of course far from being as bad as some of the monsters seen in the series, but it's clear that associating so much with a corrupt organisation has stained him considerably.]]

** It is deconstructed however, as it often means Alex consequently ends up strengthening the position of someone he hates as the winner benefits from the outcome, actually worsening his position in the long-term. Additionally, in ''Forged'', [[spoiler: Morden warns him that his successfully pulling off that tactic to get rid of many of those enemies means that there might now be a shortage of powerful players to pit against each others, even though the ones left are still dangerous]].