History Characters / BrightlyBurning

[[center:[-[[Characters/HeraldsOfValdemar Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/DeitiesAndGeneralCharacterTropes Deities and General Character Tropes]] | [[Characters/MageWarsTrilogy Mage Wars Trilogy]] | [[Characters/LastHeraldMageTrilogy Last Herald Mage Trilogy]] | [[Characters/CollegiumChronicles Collegium Chronicles]] | [[Characters/BrightlyBurning Brightly Burning]] | [[Characters/VowsAndHonor Vows and Honor]] | [[Characters/ExileDuology Exile Duology]] | [[Characters/ArrowsTrilogyAndRelatedBooks Arrows Trilogy and Related Books]] | [[Characters/MageWindsAndMageStorms Mage Winds and Mage Storms]] | [[Characters/DariansTale Darian'sTale]]-]]]

This subsection of the Characters/HeraldsOfValdemar CharacterSheet lists the characters of the stand-alone novel ''Brightly Burning''.

!Herald Lavan "Lan" Chitward and Companion Kalira
* AchillesHeel: Controlling Lavan's powers requires both Lavan and Kalira's full concentration. It leaves them wide open to any attack because they're not paying attention.
* ChasteHero: Lavan and Kalira, both due to their bond.
* DoomedByCanon: His tale and fate were first mentioned in the ''Arrows'' trilogy.
* DoomedProtagonist: Aside from being DoomedByCanon, his fate is repeatedly foreshadowed in his own book.
* EmotionalPowers: Lavan's powers are fueled by rage and fear. When Kalira dies, his rage destroys the entire Karsite Army.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Every time Lavan uses his power, he hears a soft thump- like something heavy falling to earth- but he can never find the cause of the mysterious sound. No one other than Lavan seems to notice it. [[spoiler:It's the sound of Kalira's body collapsing after she's shot. They never had a chance of escaping their destiny.]]
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: He is ''terrified'' of this trope, and not without reason; the necessities of war mean that he has to terrify enemy soldiers, most of whom are only attacking because their fanatical leaders intimidated them into it. For this reason he usually refrains from burning people directly, instead destroying their supplies or herding them towards Valdemar soldiers. But, even before Kalira's death, he snapped and broke this rule.
* InterspeciesRomance: A platonic one, with each other.
* TheMagnificent: Lavan Firestarter; Lavan Firestorm.
* MeaningfulName: Lavan means "white" in Hebrew. Here both literally meaningful (he's a Herald, and so wears white), and figuratively so (he's basically a naive kid who ends up channeling forces he doesn't understand and can barely control).
* MindlinkMates: An interesting example in that Lavan is Lifebonded to Kalira on top of the normal connection of Herald and Companion. The double bond is necessary for controlling his Gift, but it also means that he is almost completely dependent on her.
* MoralityChain: Kalira. She largely holds Lan back from using his Gift reflexively or unconsciously; she has far more trouble reining him in when he begins to channel it through sheer rage.
* MuggingTheMonster: The school bullies who corner him end up awakening his Firestarting power. Thye putcome goes as expected -- they die, but Lan is left with such deep psychological wounds that he spends the rest of the book with Kalira effectively holding him together.
* MyGreatestFailure: Lavan's unwillingness to burn an attacker led to his beloved mentor being blinded in the fight that ensued.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: He was Lan to his friends, and Lavan Firestarter to the Collegium, but future generations only call him Lavan Firestorm.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Lavan has a massively powerful gift under very tenuous control. He receives special honors, consideration, and protection because this ability makes him Valdemar's WMD just as Karse is starting to invade.
* PlayingWithFire: He is a Firestarter of incredible power.
* PowerIncontinence: Lavan nearly killed himself when his power first manifests. He's so powerful that his primary problem is controlling his power, not using it.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: When Kalira died, he incinerated the Karsite army so thoroughly that the ground they stood on was burned down to bare rock.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Multiple characters notice that Lavan's Gift becomes more powerful once he joins the Karsite War. It's implied that this trope is in effect and that the horrors of war are having an increasingly negative effect on his emotional stability.
* TerrorHero: Of TheDreaded variety. The king of Valdemar makes sure he becomes known as Lavan Firestorm to intimidate the Karsite army.
* TragicHero: His massive power and psychological wounds made it all but impossible for him to have a normal life.
* TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening: He explodes with flame when tormented by bullies at school. Unlike most Heralds, Lavan didn't need a Companion to catalyze his Gift - he needed her to ''control'' it.
* UptownGirl: Kalira's crisp, confident manner of speaking implies she was one in the life before she became a Companion.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: The only thing keeping him sane was his Companion. When she died...

!Herald Pol and Companion Satiran
* DeerInTheHeadlights: They have to be physically dragged away from the inferno that Lavan summons [[spoiler:after Kalira is killed.]]
* {{Mentor}}: For Lavan
* PapaWolf: Satiran is Kalira's sire. Subverted in that Heraldic duty means he ''can't'' protect his daughter from all danger, much as he wants to.

!Herald Trainee Tuck and Companion Dacerie
* {{Bookworm}}
* CannotTellALie: To the point that Lavan notes that it's like Tuck has a permanent Truth Spell on him.
* RealMenWearPink: He learned how to sew from his grandmother, and as a consequence, one of his chore duties at the Collegium is in the mending room. He greatly enjoys the fact that he is the 'only rooster in the henhouse'.

!Healer Trainee Elenor
* TheEmpath
* HopelessSuitor: She's in love with Lavan. Lavan is lifebonded with his Companion, and thus not even remotely available.

!Tyron "Tyrant" Jelnack
* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: Only his mother mourned his death. Everyone hated his guts.
* AssholeVictim: He made Lavan's life at the Trade School a living hell. When Lan's Gift awakened, he and three other bullies were utterly vaporized.
* BarbaricBully: Normal kids don't try to whip others, much less tie them up and try to whip him 80 times over 4 days. It got him killed.
* TheNicknamer: He called Lavan "Scrub". Lan also insulted him back, calling him "Tyrant".
* SpoiledBrat: He was the son of a very wealthy family. His mother sent assassins after Lan after Tyron's death.

* MuggingTheMonster: The school bullies who corner him end up awakening his Firestarting power. RealityEnsues -- they die, but Lan is left with such deep psychological wounds that he spends the rest of the book with Kalira effectively holding him together.

!Tyron Jelnack

* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: Only his mother mourned his death. Everyone hated his guts.
* BarbaricBully: Normal kids don't try to whip others, much less tie another kid up and whip him 80 times over 4 days.
* TheNicknamer:He called Lavan "Scrub".

* BarbaricBully: Normal kids don't try to whip others, much less tie another kid up and whip him 80 times over 4 days.

!Herald Lavan Chitward and Companion Kalira

* HopelessSuitor: She's in love with Lavan. Lavan is lifebonded with his Companion, and thus not even remotely available.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Future generations only call him Lavan Firestorm. (It doesn't help that his last name, Chitward, is hardly heroic.) When he was alive, his loved ones called him Lan.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Lavan is a living weapon capable of annihilating entire armies. He receives special honors, consideration, and protection because this ability made him into Valdemar's WMD at just the right time to repel a Karsite invasion.

%%* TerrorHero:

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Future generations only call him Lavan Firestorm. It doesn't help that his last name, Chitward, is hardly heroic.

* PowerIncontinence: Lavan nearly kills himself when his power first manifests. He's so powerful that his primary problem is controlling his power, not using it.

* AchillesHeel: Controlling Lavan's powers requires both Lavan and Kalira's full concentration. [[spoiler: It leaves them wide open to any attacks because they're not paying attention]]

* DoomedByCanon: His tale and fate were first mentioned in the ''Arrows'' trilogy, before he got his own book.
* EmotionalPowers: Lavan's powers are fueled by rage and fear. [[spoiler: When Kalira dies, his rage destroys the entire Karsite Army]]

* MindlinkMates: An interesting example in that Lavan is both life and Companion bonded to Kalira. The double bond is necessary for controlling his Gift but means that he is almost completely dependent on her.
* MoralityChain: Kalira. In this case, it isn't that Lavan would turn ''evil'' without her, but he ''would'' quickly go insane. [[spoiler: The Karsites find this out firsthand.]]
** Lan going evil is hinted at. Because his power is fueled by anger and the Karsite war is so terrible, by the end he's fallen into a bad habit of getting wrapped up in his anger and rage with Kalira being more and more ineffective at reining him in.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Future generations only call him Lavan Firestorm. It doesn't help that his last name's kinda lame.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Lavan is a living weapon capable of annihilating entire armies. He receives special honors, consideration and protection because this ability made him into Valdemar's WMD at just the right time to repel a Karsite invasion.
* PlayingWithFire

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge

* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: The only thing keeping him sane was his Companion. [[spoiler: Then she died.]]

* DoomedByCanon

** Lan going evil is hinted at. Because his power is fueled by anger and the Karsite war is so terrible, by the end he's fallen into a bad habit of getting wrapped up in his anger and rage with Kalira being more and more ineffective at reigning him in.

* TheMagnificent: Lavan Firestarter; Lavan Firestorm

* InterspeciesRomance

* MoralityChain: Kalira

* MindlinkMates: With each other.

* RealMenLikePink: He learned how to sew from his grandmother, and as a consequence, one of his chore duties at the Collegium is in the mending room. He greatly enjoys the fact that he is the 'only rooster in the henhouse'.

!Herald Lavan "Firestorm" and Companion Kalira

* MeaningfulRename: The "Firestorm" part of his name

* PersonOfMassDestruction