History Characters / Avernum

* ArcherArchetype: A long-ranged warrior who's less effective in melee but can fare better from a distance.

* BladeOnAStick: His weapon of choice is a halberd.

* BladeOnAStick: Like all self-respecting Sliths, he brandishes a colossal, two-tined steel spear with next to no effort.

* MagicKnight: Dorikas is prepared for anything: he can rip you a new one with either his BladeOnAStick or with a barrage of spells, your choice.

* BladeOnAStick: Carries the Molten Halberd around as his weapon of choice, which you can reclaim from his body.

* BonusBoss: If you keep up with the Castle's "cease or desist" order, Kyass will turn hostile and attack you. [[spoiler: Regardless of what you did, Kyass becomes one if encountered by the party under Elderan's Tower, as he undergoes a forced OneWingedAngel.]]

* BonusBoss: It's possible to pick a fight with her in ''1'', but unlike most examples, doing so is not advised, since [[spoiler: you need a vital piece of information to complete the game from her.]]

* BonusBoss: [[spoiler: In the fourth game, as her domain in Khoth's Lair is optional.]]

* BonusBoss: [[spoiler: If you let day 160 roll by in ''3'', her plan will destroy the tower by summoning several demons through a portal and you have to destroy the demons and use the Blessed Athame to kill Linda, closing the portal.]]

* BonusBoss: [[spoiler: You can encounter what's left of him in Rentar-Ihrno's keep in ''4''. Killing him will allow you to enter a hidden part of the dungeon and deactivate Rentar's line of defense.]]

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Given this is the Abyss, It's only natural that Kyass is not only charismatic, but also stronger than his followers.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: He's the leader because he's the most powerful Slithzerikai their army had to offer.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: She became the boss of a gang of Nephilim by torching several of them alive with her spells, causing the others to relent and follow her out of fear. Recently though there's attrition between her and the other high-ranking Nephilim shamans and warriors.

* BladeOnAStick: His weapon of choice is a halberd. Given the icon, it could count as AnAxeToGrind.

A character sheet for the recurring main characters in the Avernum series. Be careful for spoilers.

The three leaders of the Slithzerikai Horde threatening Avernum's safety along with the Blight's threat running rampart across the cave. Each of the three leader specializes in a different field, the first being Khrez-Yss the Shadow, the second Ess-Kalyn the Manburner and the third Ghavassa-Oss, a Slith warlord.

* BigBadDuumvirate: Of the sixth and final game.

* ManBehindTheMan: Hes' this to [[spoiler: Sss-Thsss and the Slithzerikai Invasion.]]

* TheManBehindTheMan: Downplayed, but he has shades of this with Prazac despite being her main advisor. It's implied that the war against Avernum is entirely ''his'' pet project.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: [[spoiler: Her burning hatred for the Empire lead her to become a villain.]]

* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: The mastermind behind the monster Plagues afflicting Valorim in the third game, while she's the one behind the Shades and the sea monsters in the fourth game.]]

* OrcusOnHisThrone: [[spoiler: She has no reason to leave her base after TheReveal, as the controls for producing more monsters are right inside her throne room. Justified in the fourth title, where she forcibly turned herself into a Crystal Soul.]]

* SanitySlippage: When you meet him in ''5'', he's still lucid enough to carry on a normal conversation, but he's clearly going senile and paranoid with age.

* BonusBoss: [[spoiler: In the fourth game, as her domain in Koth's Lair is optional.]]

* FromNoBodyToNightmare: She starts as a renegade sorceress and became the leader of a ruthless gang of Nephilim bandits. [[spoiler: Then she returned from the dead as a much more powerful Lich and helped the rogue Vanhatai against Avernum.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: In the fourth game, you encounter a tormented wretch in the remains of old Empire fort, barely held together by Rentar-Ihrno's magic. It turns out to be none other than Garzahd himself, who is in so much pain from getting reanimated constantly and begs you to finish him off. [[spoiler: Before you do though, Rentar's magic kicks in and he tries to defend himself against his will.]]

* HoistByHerOwnPetard:[[spoiler: True, the massive facility under her volcanic lair allows her to generate all the monsters she likes and send them to wreck the surface. However, as Bor-Ihrno revealed, manipulating the energy beams and the slime production inside the machine can cause it to overheat and explode. In ''4'', completing the Shades sidequest will give you a magic shard from Rentar's current form, allowing you to use it to shield youserlf against her strongest attacks during the final boss fight.]]

* TokenGoodTeammate: There's a colony of Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Roaches living on the island and working with the Giant Intelligent Friendly Talking Spiders of Abigail. You'll need their help to locate the Factory.

* TheChessmaster: Surprisingly enough, the Troglo King is one: under the pretense of a diplomatic mission, he essentially manipulates you into getting rid of his fanatical priest who's hindering his plans and forcing him to fight the humans, under the promise of relenting the attacks on humans. [[spoiler: He lied on the last part, but he does stop attacking humans once the pathway to the Giants' opened again.]]

* NighInvulnerable: They're very though, even more so than Giants and Golems.

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: They showed up out of nowhere, start randomly hunting people for no discernible reason and noone knows much about them.

* HealingFactor: Before you acquire [[spoiler: the Onyx Scepter]], Shades are able to cast spells to recover from all damage after a while. Attacking them in an exercise in futility before that.

* OutsideContextProblem: Avernites were used fighting monsters of all kinds from the caverns or, at most, coming from the water but fighting on land: the presence of kraken-like abominations who swim too far away and too deep to be attacked left them with no real answer to counter them.

* CombatPragmatist: If the fight starts going against his favor, Dorikas' not afraid to use any method to turn the tide to his advantage.

* OneHandedZweihander: When he first appears, the narration describes him wielding a massive halbeard in his right hand and a rune-engraved baton in his left. While his sprite wields the polearm two-handed, his size and spellcasting implies he easily wields the thing with one hand (while in the fifth game his sprite uses a sword).

* VillainHasAPoint: You spend the entire game seeing first hand that Avernites tend to be arrogant, hostile and distrustful of the Empire. [[spoiler: Even when you kill him, General Redmark still honor is last request to use his own hidden fortress as an outpost to keep watch on the Avernite from the Northern Frontier.]]
* VillainousLegacy: [[spoiler: In the sixth game, you can find remnants of the Darkside Loyalists hiding in the caverns.]]

* AffablyEvil: He genuinely want to be helpful and aid the Kingdom of Avernum but... his methods and prices are still immoral.
* AmbitionIsEvil: [[spoiler: His ultimate goal is to gather enough strength to take over Avernum. The player can decide wether to stop him or to let him become the next king.]]

* MadScientist: From raising man-eating slimes to send heroes to collect bodyparts of various creatures to sending whole parties to unleash wild magic all over the caves.

* AffablyEvil: She's corteous, kind and treats the party with more respect than their colleagues.
* DisappointedByTheMotive: She will react with disgust and asks herself how could she see an ally in you if you still refuses to join the Darkside Loyalists and still express your loyalty to the empire.

* YouShallNotPass: She and her warriors will try to stop the pursuing party from crossing the Black River beyond the Vanhatai Lands.

A Darkside Dervish and one of Dorikas lieutenants. He prepares an ambush against the party halfway through.

* BlackKnight: Wears a full armor, brandishes a poleaxe, fights in the name of an evil master and blocks your way across a bridge.

* FlunkyBoss: He sets up an ambush with a veritable army of bandits and Darkside Loyalist, forcing the party to run for their lives, fighting through waves of enemies before reaching the camp where Tholmen is fought.
* HostageSituation: [[spoiler: Thanks to his small army, he can force the Amana village to help them into laying an ambush for the heroes. The Anama wouldn't do this, but can't fight back.]]

* NobleDemon: He's honorable and the thought of fighting a fellow imperial warrior sincerely disgust him. He also shows a good deal of respect for the party and, if slain, will go down gracefully.

The three leaders of the Slithzerikai Horde threatening Avernum's safety along with the Blight's threat running rampart across the cave. Each of the three leader specializes in a different field, the first being Khrez-Yss the Shadow, the second Ess-Kavyn the Man Burner.

* KillItWithFire: It's right there in Ess-Kavyn's moniker.

* VillainHasAPoint: She'd rather want the Avernite outside Avernum, but at least she points out that the vast caverns of Avernum have meager resources and won't be able to support the current population for extended periods of time. [[spoiler: Also she justifies her vengeance on the Empire by poiting out that the Empire will be left in chaotic disarray and Avernum will be able to overthrow them and take back their land.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Her ultimate plan will allow the Avernite to settle back on the surface permanently... over the thousands of corpses and smoldering ruins of the imperial cities.]]

* AnvilOnHead: The secret spell he's working on. By the time of the second trilogy, he's perfected the spell.

* AloofAlly: They are very cold and disdainful at first, but they do get better when you actually recover the Crystal Souls.

* OneHandedZweihander: When he first appears, the narration describes him wielding a massive halbeard in his right hand and a rune-engraved baton in his left. While his sprite wields the polearm two-handed, his size and spellcasting implies he easily wields the thing with one hand.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: For a Dragon, creatures known to be arrogant, cruel and haughty, he's surprisingly civil and rules his small island justly.

* VillainousLegacy: In both ''2'' and ''3'' you can stumble into bands of renegade Sliths still worshipping the late Sss-Thsss as a God.

The three leaders of the Slithzerikai Horde threatening Avernum's safety along with the Blight's threat running rampart across the cave. Each of the three leader specializes in a different field, the first being Khrez-Yss the Shadow.

* GetBackHereBoss: In ''4'', after suffering enough damage in combat he will summon some critters and cast Terror on the entire party as he makes his escape to another part of the base, where he recovers some health and attacks again.

!!Villains

[[folder:Emperor Hawthorne III]]

The cruel leader of the Empire, Hawthorne is a senile, sadistic old archmage who rules the Empire with an iron fist and banishing thousands of people into Avernum. He's eventually assassinated by adventurers sent by Erika, which kickstarts a war with Avernum.

* TheDragon: Responds directly to Dorikas.

* VillainExitStageLeft: When wounded enough he pulls out a smoke bomb to make a getaway, though reluctantly so.

Successor of Hawthorne, Prazac is the young and wise leader of the Empire. Unlike her power-hungry predecessor, she's willing to cooperate with Avernum to stop the Plague. [[spoiler: She was assassinated by Dorikas, the leader of Darkside Loyalists.]]

* TheEmperor: Well, Empress, but unlike her predecessor, she's sane, sensible and willing to make peace with Avernum. Too bad most of her subjects pretend she's not here to order them and follow their own agenda anyway.

[[folder:General Redmark]]

The cruel leader of the Empire, Hawthorne is a senile, sadistic old archmage who rules the Empire with an iron fist and is responsible for Avernum's creation. He's eventually assassinated by adventurers sent by Erika, which kickstarts a war with Avernum.

* GreaterScopeVillain: He's basically the reason why Avernum itself exist and why the conflict is happening.

* VolcanoLair: His personal domain is located in a far, charred land with a basalt castle emerging in a pool of scalding magma. [[spoiler: Years later, Rentar-Ihrno would re-use his lair for herself.]]

* OmnicidialManiac: [[spoiler: If her plans succeed, Valorim will be reduced to a barren wasteland.]]

[[folder:Linda]]

A member of the Triad with a penchant of demonology, she thinks she can learn arcane truths and secrets by summoning demons and has bound a Haakai Lord to the Tower, who promptly put her under his spell. During the second game she's exiled in Motrax' lair, but becomes once again a member of the Triad in ''3''. [[spoiler: Only to summon a demon lord again, destroying the entire tower out of spite.]]

* AscendedExtra: Zigzagged trope: she's a minor antagonist in ''1'', then an optional NPC encounter in ''2'', then back as a Triad member in ''3'' [[spoiler: when she destroys the Tower of Magi and needs to be destroyed.]]
* BonusBoss: [[spoiler: If you let day 160 roll by in ''3'', her plan will destroy the tower by summoning several demons through a portal and you have to destroy the demons and use the Blessed Athame to kill Linda, closing the portal.]]
* BroughtDownToNormal: She seemingly loses most of her powers after the destruction of her Haakai summon. She gets them back in ''3''.
* CloudCuckooLander: Summoning demons hasn't been... good for her mental health, to say the least.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: In ''3'', she tries to open a portal and summon back Grah-Hoth using her soul as a bait, but [[EvilIsNotAToy other Haakai Lords interfere and grab ahold of her soul, using the portal to invade the tower.]]
* TooDumbToLive: While it's possible to learn magic to summon other creatures or even demons, trying to summon a Hakaai Lord and dismissing all concerns as ignorant nonsense is straight demented. [[spoiler: She recovers some of her sanity in her final moments and begs to be killed.]]
* WhosLaughingNow: [[spoiler: Destroys the Tower of Magi after day 160 in ''3''.]]

[[folder:Pyrog]]

One of the last Five Dragons of Avernum, Pyrog is a violent and unsufferable monster who's attended by Giants and forces people to worship her. During the events of the first game she's eventually killed by some adventurers.

* BloodKnight: She's actually disappointed if you do not accept her challenge.
* TheBrute: She's the most violent of the five, and also the dumbest.
* DoomedByCanon: Even if you let her off the hook in the first game, she's killed by adventurers by the time the war starts.
* FlunkyBoss: She has her army of Cave Giants fighting alongside her.
* SuicidalOverconfidence: She downright challenges anyone entering her lair to a fight. It gets her killed.

[[folder:Garzahd]]

Hawhthorne's right-hand warlock, Garzahd is a powerful and crafty sorcerer with no morals and a burning desire to protect the Empire by any threats with any means, he's the leader of the Imperial Army in ''2''. Has made himself nearly-invulnerable by mixing his own blood with demonic blood.

* NamesToRunAwayFromRealFast: The Beast doesn't really sound reassuring.

* BigBadDuumvirate: In the fourth game, alongside the real BigBad [[spoiler: Rentar-Ihrno]], despite having no direct connection to her.

* AscendedExtra: Zigzagged trope: she's a minor antagonist in ''1'', then an optional NPC encounter in ''2'', then back as a Triad member in ''3'' [[spoiler: when she destroys the Tower of Magi and becomes an effective villain in the second trilogy.]]

* TooDumbToLive: While it's possible to learn magic to summon other creatures or even demons, trying to summon a Hakaai Lord and dismissing all concerns as ignorant nonsense is straight demented.
* TheUnfought: You don't get to fight her in the original trilogy.

[[folder:Lysstak the Beast]]
Chieftain of a band of bandits infesting the newly-colonized region of Drake Pillars, Lysstak is said to descend from an imperial general and is feared for his fighting prowess, his unmatched speed and the sheer number and organization of his followers.