History Characters / BlackCompany

* [[TheChessmaster The Chessmasters]]: The Black Company is renowned for their willingness to use whatever tools are at their disposal, and consider a conflict-less victory to be far superior to the alternative. Their leaders all tend to be the most cunning of the lot.

* [[spoiler: AGodIAm: Ponders in his last Annal that he and the other prominent figures of the Black Company will later become godlike mythic figures in the ages that follow the exploits of the novels.]]

* [[spoiler: DidYouJustScamCthulhu: A combination of scamming a willful victim and punching out an ageless golem; Croaker honors his promise to Shivetya by switching places with him, so that Shivetya gets his mortal and dying body while Croaker gets Shivetya's immortality and ability to re-experience the entire history of sixteen different worlds at will.]]
* [[spoiler: EarnYourHappyEnding: After years of wondering just what his relationship is with his wife, Croaker takes over for Shivetya and sets her up with a connection to tremendous magical power that she misses so desperately after being Named - his adopted daughters figure it is the greatest gift he could ever give her. He fails to save Booboo, and he no longer has a human body with which to enjoy Lady's love, but it's a happy ending nonetheless.]]
* [[InSeriesNickname In-Series Nickname]]: Murgen hardly ever calls Croaker anything but "the Old Man" in his Annals.
* KavorkaMan

* {{Omniglot}}: Claims to have a gift of tongues, and you are given no reason whatsoever to doubt it.
** Murgen claims that Croaker speaks twenty languages in ''Bleak Seasons,'' though he admits that he idolizes the man at the time.
* ThePowerOfLove: Averted. [[spoiler: Late in Soldiers Live, Croaker's love on its own is not enough to give Lady a reason to live, or redeem Booboo.]]
* [[spoiler:TogetherInDeath: Or more accurately, stasis. Soulcatcher poses Lady and him like this as a joke.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: Asks this of himself a few times after [[spoiler: he meets the Voroshk - first when he baits them into blowing up the Shadowgate to their own world, and again later when he blows up a flying pole remotely and remembers afterwards there were children within its blast radius. He also wonders about the morality of him setting up Goblin's final suicide attack.]]

* Minionshipping: By the fourth chapter The Captain gains a rather intimate relationship with Raven. In Shadows Linger, Croaker notes that of all people it was The Captain that took it hardest when Raven faked his death to run off with Darling
-->'''The Black Company: Chapter 4 Whisper''':Naturally, Raven has become the Captain’s best friend. They sit around together like a couple of rocks, talking about the same things boulders do. They are content just to share one another’s company.

Sergent. Croaker's best friend and sponsor. Laconic bastard.

* BlackMarket: Not a pun. One-Eye is fond of black marketeering wherever he can manage it, much to the chagrin of his superiors - he has a tendency to get chased out of town quickly.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Narrowly averted - One-Eye ages noticeably in the time skip between Murgen and Sleepy's Annals, and suffers a stroke that proves he is on his way out.]]

* NiceHat: Averted. It sounds like a cool hat even if everybody else goes on about how old, ugly and above all ''smelly'' it is. [[spoiler: Even years after his death, the stench remains.]]
* [[spoiler: ThanatosGambit:]] [[spoiler:Somehow manages to contrive a way to imbue his hat with just the right enchantments it can sever the connection between Goblin and Kina, and then power up his spear to a degree it can actually be used to kill Kina - even though *gods* were only able to put her to sleep in ages past, ''and'' give the right dying advice to Croaker to save his friend Goblin and kill Kina once and for all.]]
* UltimateBlacksmith: Of a sort. He creates a magical spear so ludicrously powerful it can be used to kill gods. As a very weak mage, it does take him some twenty years to imbue it, however. His [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity Plus One Spear]] is described by Croaker as one of the finest magical artifacts ever created in any world, ever.

Otto and Hagop, and never Hagop and Otto. One or the other of this pair of veterans is always wounded in battle and never dead. It is a miracle those two don't get themselves killed. A miracle Indeed, for Otto and Hagop are blessed.
* [[MauveShirt Mauve Shirts]]: This the duo's main schtick.
* ThoseTwoGuys: Born in the same town, joined the Company at the same time. Both became imperial captains in the Books of The South and both took command of cavalry divisions during the Shadowmaster Wars. They went north and back together in a [[spoiler: failurific]] search for [[spoiler: Longshadow]]'s true name.

* AxCrazy: Particularly after [[spoiler: her resurrection]].

* CuteAndPsycho

* HyperCompetentSidekick: Whilst Croaker is out scouting out the Taglian border; Mogaba is staying in town training the troops, collecting surveys of mountable animals and dealing with the Radisha (i.e: all the things a mercenary captain ''should'' be doing). She even wonders if Mogaba is secretly the captain of the Black Company
** After [[spoiler: switching sides,]] his attempts to be this again are quashed as a result of [[spoiler: Longshadow's mental instability and paranoia]]. Instead of being hyper-competent, he is shackled to one location and unable to exercise his talents, though [[spoiler: Blade]] fulfills that role for a time.

* [[spoiler:Brainwashed:]] [[spoiler:Claims this is why he fled with Soulcatcher after she springs the trap on Croaker and the other Black Company men on the Plain of Glittering Stone. One-Eye and Goblin help him overcome his LaserGuidedAmnesia when he returns to spring the Captured.]]

* [[spoiler: DroppedABridgeOnHim:]] [[spoiler: Suvrin mentions after the battle near the Grove in ''Soldiers Live'' that Swan was killed in action.]]
* [[spoiler:FaceHeelTurn:]] [[spoiler: Only from a certain point of view. Keeps fighting the good fight as best he can, but he has to contend with Soulcatcher, the one who {{Brainwashed}} him.]]

-->'''Lady'''[[note]]as Annalist[[/note]]: I looked them over, Blade, Swan, Ram, Naryan, the [[AndAllTheRest two arm-holders]]. Seven of us. As Swan had observed, the obligatory number for a company on a quest. A totally mixed bag. By his own standards each was a good person. By the standards of others everyone, excepting Swan, was a villain.

* [[spoiler: DroppedABridgeOnHim: Killed in the battle at the Grove as well.]]
* [[spoiler:FakeDefector:]] [[spoiler:In ''She Is The Darkness'', he has a falling-out with Croaker over Lady and defects to the Shadowmasters, where he quickly becomes an esteemed general in their service, only to turn on them in a critical battle between the Black Company and Mogaba's armies. It was all a ploy cooked up between him and Croaker.]]

* BreakTheHaughty: Works on [[spoiler:Arkana and Shukrat]], but never really takes with any of the others. [[spoiler:Arkana]] gets it especially bad - when [[spoiler:Gromovol tries his ill-fated breakout, she is raped several times]] before order is re-asserted.

* [[SmugSuper Smug Sorcerers]]: All of the Voroshk are like this, at first. [[spoiler:Most of them have only just enough talent to actually be magicians, and rely on their enchanted robes and flying poles for most of their tricks.]]

* {{Badass}}

* DragonWithAnAgenda
* EnemyCivilWar

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast
* QuirkyMinibossSquad

* SquishyWizard: The ultimate aversion in a series that averts this trope hard. Bonegnasher is the deadliest unarmed combatant in the series, in addition to being a powerful wizard.

A tavern owner in Juniper who has fallen on lean times. He is desperate to keep the Iron Lily and provide for his family, but his meekness, vices and poor financial skills constantly keeps him on the edge. As he grows increasingly desperate, he finds that he might have to stoop to levels for which there may be no forgiving one self.

* [[spoiler: TheAtoner: By the end of ''Shadows Linger'', once he realizes how he allowed himself to be manipulated into helping the Dominator.]]
* [[spoiler: MoralEventHorizon: Occurs after he defeats Crag. The text says it best: "Murder no longer bothered Marron Shed."]]
* [[spoiler: RedemptionEqualsDeath]]

A young woman who helps out Shed and quickly disturbs him with her ruthlessness.

* [[HoistedByHisOwnPetard Hoisted By Her Own Petard]]: Is sold to the Black Castle by Shed.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: In-universe. Few expected grouchy excavator-antiquary Bomanz to actually be one of the great wizards of his age.
* [[spoiler: FakingTheDead:]] [[spoiler: Used the final battle in ''The White Rose'' as a cover for his retirement; he killed the dragon quite easily. Returns to action in ''The Silver Spike'' when his wards go off, warning him that something is wrong in the Barrowlands.]]

* [[spoiler: NotQuiteDead: Frozen in time with a plume of fire from a dragon coming at him.]]
* TrueName: As a wizard, Bomanz keeps his true name a secret. When [[spoiler: the Lady interrogates him it is revealed his name is Seth Chalk.]]

A young soldier of the Northern empire. Though he considers himself unimportant to the grand scheme of things, events conspire to keep him near the centre of events. His friendship with a certain character who is quite a bit more than he claims allows Case the opportunity to learn how to read and write, and his diary, which he writes as an exercise, forms the narrative of ''The Silver Spike''.

* AudienceSurrogate

* DeadpanSnarker
* FarmBoy: Born on a family of potato diggers, Philodendron joined the army to get away from the sort of people who would name thier son after a flower.

* OddFriendship: With Raven
* [[spoiler: OfficialCouple]]: [[spoiler: With Darling at the end of ''The Silver Spike'']]
* ThemeNaming: His parents named each of their children after a kind of flower. Including the men.

* BadassGrandpa: Just to drive the point home - he had assaulted resident {{Badass}} Raven and two other people at the same time, [[CurbStompBattle beaten them without breaking a sweat]], murdered one of them and managed to do it too fast for them to see his face.
* [[spoiler: DroppedABridgeOnHim]]: [[spoiler: After escaping Rebels, Empire and the Limper, he dies from cholera.]]

* [[AntiVillain Anti-Villain]]: His character development in [[spoiler: ''Water Sleeps'' and ''Soldiers Live'']] turns him into this. Ends up as [[spoiler:AlasPoorVillain when he realizes his extremely prideful nature caused a huge amount of grief for the Black Company and himself, and he willfully walks away from Taglios in the end to save the city from more bloodshed.]]
* [[spoiler: [[ArchEnemy Arch-Enemy]]]]: [[spoiler: To the Black Company in general, Sleepy in particular.]]
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking / AsskickingEqualsAuthority: The Nar will only let the very best soldier in their number lead them. Mogaba is this and more.

* [[spoiler: GreenEyedMonster]]: [[spoiler: Deeply envies Croaker for his position as Captain of the Black Company, and eventually defects after his attempts to undermine the company at Dejagore come to light. Laments this deeply later in his life.]]
* [[FourStarBadass Four-Star Badass]]: Prefers leading from the front when given command and is exceptionally capable from this position.

* [[spoiler: HeroKiller]]: [[spoiler: In the time between ''She Is The Darkness'' and ''Water Sleeps'' he almost manages to destroy the Black Company, with Sleepy never managing to score more than a draw in any battle. In ''Soldiers Live'', he alone is responsible for the death of about a dozen major characters, including, but not being limited to, Murgen, Sleepy and yjr Howler.]]
* HonourBeforeReason: Mogaba is fiercely proud of his martial skills and will always seek a "fair fight" if left to his own devices. [[spoiler: Around the time of ''Water Sleeps'' he steps outside his rigid code of conduct to find ways to usurp Soulcatcher, and then he uses those traps on the Black Company instead.]]

* [[ImAHumanitarian I'm A Humanitarian]]: [[spoiler: The Nar are a splinter cult of Kina worshippers. During the siege of Dejagore they kidnap, murder and eat the civilians as part of their rituals. After the siege ends they all apparently abandon the religion, however.]]
* [[spoiler: JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope]]: Though it's depicted as a gradual process, it's clear that [[spoiler: once the siege of Dejagore starts he stops caring about the Black Company.]]
* [[spoiler: KilledOffForReal]]: [[spoiler: Near the end of ''Soldiers Live''. He fled Taglios not expecting to survive the wrath of Tobo's Shadows, and he was not wrong. Croaker later found out he was tortured for days before dying.]]
* [[spoiler: RedemptionEqualsDeath]]
* [[spoiler: ToBeLawfulOrGood]]: [[spoiler: In ''Soldiers Live'' he attempts to reconcile his sense of honour with his sense of morality. In the end he finds a workable solution that lets him satisfy both.]]

* DreamSpying: [[spoiler:After being attacked by a demon, he is left comatose and somehow becomes a conduit through which people can spy on dreams. His DirtyCoward tendencies still apply here - there are some people he won't look at.]]

* MadnessMantra: Notably, only whilst unconscious.
-->'''Smoke''': [[TitleDrop She is the darkness!]]

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder:

* FamedInStory: In-universe is widely reviled - and revered, by the Stranglers - for his deeds.
* [[spoiler:KarmaHoudini]]: [[spoiler: InUniverse. He is captured multiple times and escapes each time, evading direct punishment over a period of about twenty years. In the end he is killed by the brainwashed Goblin when it becomes clear he won't be able to escape again, and thus avoids the wrath of Lady and Croaker. The years spent as a fugitive were far from easy, however, and he has been forced to watch his beloved cult be destroyed time and again.]]
** Possibly averted. [[spoiler: A character realizes that no one will ever see Narayan as anything but a villain and with the Deceiver cult destroyed, there is no one to even venerate him as a saint even though he was the greatest saint the Deceivers ever had.]]

* RedRightHand: Along with many other Deceivers present at a critical ceremony, is marked permanently with a red spot on one of his hands.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: Suffers terribly for so long that even he has doubts about Kina at the very end. As soon as a more potent tool becomes available to her, Kina has him killed. Almost makes you want to go [[AlasPoorVillain Alas, Poor Villain.]]

* BodyguardCrush: As with most males who spend time around Lady, he is thought to develop unrequited feelings towards her.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Is slain by his Deceiver brethren when he betrays them to protect Lady after the birth of her child.]]

* PhysicalGod

* OneSceneWonder - Don't get too attached to him after glimpsing him in that one battle in the ''TheBlackCompany.''

* MadeOfIron: The more powerful a sorcerer gets, the more paranoid he or she tends to become. Those mages who attain power comparable to the Taken will have prepared for pretty much every possible contingency to the point of [[spoiler: having spells preserve them against even ''decapitation'' - that let them carry around their own head for ''fifteen years''.]] Some of them walk around despite having suffered from obviously fatal wounds at some point. The Hanged Man, for example, has a throat mangled by an actual hanging, to the point that his face is severely swollen and *points in the wrong direction.*

* MagicKnight: Most of them are both skilled wizards and strong warriors, due to the setting's inversion of the SquishyWizard trope. Bonegnasher's single appearance is especially exemplary, as he tears foes to pieces *with his bare hands.*

* XanatosGambit: Some of his grandest plans come across as this.

* PhysicalGod
* WhoWantsToLiveForever

* XanatosGambit: Sets up one that takes [[spoiler:nearly five hundred years to come to fruition... and ends in his own death.]]

* Omniglot: Claims to have a gift of tongues, and you are given no reason whatsoever to doubt it.

* MysteriousPast: Nobody is ever quite sure where Blade came from, why he was in a found in a crocodile infested swamp, or why he hates religious people so much.

* TokenGoodTeammate: Out of all the characters, Swan is the hardest to paint as a villain. As Lady notes in ''Dreams of Steel'' when [[EvilEmperor she]], Swan, [[DarkAndMysteriousPast Blade]], [[ProfessionalKiller Narayan Singh]], and Cordwood Mather gang up to [[spoiler:assassinate Shadowspinner]]:

* MadeOfIron: The more powerful a sorcerer gets, the more paranoid he or she tends to become. Those mages who attain power comparable to the Taken will have prepared for pretty much every possible contingency to the point of [[spoiler: having spells preserve them against even ''decapitation'' - that let them carry around their own head for ''fifteen years''.]] Some of them walk around despite having suffered from obviously fatal wounds at some point.
* MagicKnight: Most of them are both skilled wizards and strong warriors, due to the setting's inversion of the SquishyWizard trope.

* UltimateBlacksmith: Of a sort. He creates a magical spear so ludicrously powerful it can be used to kill gods. As a very weak mage, it does take him some twenty years to imbue it, however. His [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity Plus One Spear]] is described by Croaker as [[spoiler: one of the finest magical artifacts ever created in any world, ever.]]

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler:Thanks to Kina's influence, he self-sabotages himself severely. He could have crushed the Black Company even at the height of their power in Taglios but could not hold himself together long enough to actually do so.]]

* NeverMyFault