History Characters / HopeForTheHeartless

* UltimateEvil: While he's made identifiable by his chilling aura, his appearance -- of what he looked like before his death or what his current form might look like -- is something that doesn't get much attention.

* CharacterSignatureSong: "Yankee Doodle Dandy". Possibly also "Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing On Rainbows". [[UpToEleven They even combine both songs!]]

* DarthVaderClone: The Horned King is TheDreaded warlord who's revealed to have HiddenDepths in his interactions with [[MoralityPet the one person he grows to care most of all]]. [[TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget His past and original motives are a mystery even to himself]], but he's implied to [[WasOnceAMan have once been an ordinary man]]. He's also a powerful fighter who previously served and studied under an EvilOverlord who's [[EvilerThanThou worse than him]].

* MismatchedEyes: His left good eye is somewhat dull and muddy brown, and his right (normally closed) eye is black and seemingly dilated permanently. The cause for this is implied to have been an injury, although it's equally possible that as a magically created creature, Creeper had these from the beginning.

* NotSoDifferent: With the Horned King. The horse was called Death by everyone, [[TheDreaded feared and hated as a monster]], and believed to be a lost cause. Avalina proved that assumption to be unfounded while having a limited time period to do that, and [[MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast music played a role in that]]. The third Invisible [[LampshadeHanging notes]] the [[HisStoryRepeatsItself similarities between Mitternacht and the Horned King's stories]]. Also, the lich becomes as protective of Avalina as Mitternacht.

* NotSoDifferent: After enduring numerous pranks from the Invisibles for months, the Horned King makes a mental recapitulation of them and finds in them two traits that remind him of himself; the Invisibles are deeply passionate about their work, like he had been about world domination, and like him, they have endless drive and ruthless determination to make something work, no matter how difficult that might be.

* MixedAncestry: These wolves aren't pureblooded, for they have at some point gathered domesticated dog blood in themselves, making them look different from other wolves.

* InstantBirthJustAddWater: Downplayed. It's not revealed how long she's in labor when Gethin is ready to be born, but after her water breaks, it takes several minutes for the birth to be complete.

* AscendedExtra: He was the main antagonist of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'' of Creator/LloydAlexander and the Horned King's master. In [[Disney/TheBlackCauldron the movie]] (which is roughly based on the first two books), he was merely hinted to be the soul of the cruel king who was thrown alive into a crucible of molten iron that was used as the material of the Black Cauldron.

* {{Expy}}: They're basically a DarkerAndEdgier version of the wolves portrayed in ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' that serve as a catalyst in the relationship between the {{beast and beauty}}.

-->'''The Horned King''': ''...she is anything but weak. Her strengths appear as weaknesses, but I have never seen or heard of a mortal so strong that they cry for their enemies, and call a... creature like me... a friend.''

* DogPileOfDoom: They manage to swarm over the Horned King, but he kills most of them with the Type A scenario.

* FragileFlower: She's so easy to bring to tears.

* SanityHasAdvantages: A sane wolf wouldn't have had the courage to even remain in the Horned King's presence, but it would have survived by simply ''[[KnowWhenToFoldThem not]]'' [[KnowWhenToFoldThem trying to attack the lich]].

* AxCrazy: They've all been driven hyper-violent due to a rabies-like-disease that was originally received from a foreign dog. As such, they're completely unafraid to attack anything that moves -- big cats, bears, entire wolf packs, livestock, a human village or even ''[[WalkingWasteland the Horned King]]'' himself. They also leave most of their victims uneaten.

* RedRightHand: The pack's alpha is recognizable from its long [[EvilRedhead red coat]] and a missing toe it lost when it was caught in a trap as a pup.
* SanityHasAdvantages: A sane wolf wouldn't have had the courage to even remain in the Horned King's presence, but it would have survived by simply ''not'' trying to attack the lich.

* GreenEyes: Her eyes are bright green with a rim of bright gold around the irises. When the Horned King sees them clearly for the first time, they remind him of [[FertileFeet forests and sunlight]]. Later he says that they resemble sunlit [[EmeraldPower emeralds]].

* DemotedToExtra: Like the other protagonists of the movie, he appears only in several chapters.

* DemotedToExtra: Like the other protagonists of the movie, she appears only in several chapters.

* DemotedToExtra: Like the other protagonists of the movie. He has so far appeared only in one chapter.

* GroinAttack: Avalina's captor receives one from her when she tries to escape. Unfortunately, she only manages to make him mad enough to try and kill her.

* OCStandIn: Avalina's captor is the man who captured Taran in the throne room. Based on his behavior from that brief scene, he's portrayed to be short-tempered and homicidal.

* WantedPoster: The Horned King becomes aware of their activities through Creeper who sees the men's faces in the wanted posters during his scouting missions.

The young assistant pig-keeper who caused the Horned King’s demise. He lives with his master Dallben relatively close to the residence of Avalina's family.

* FlashbackNightmare: After it's been months of the Horned King's death, Taran is revealed to have dreamed that event without variation almost every night. He hasn't told anyone of them, but he suspects that Dallben and/or Eilonwy are somewhat aware of them.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The narration writes his name as Dalben with one l.

* FunPersonified: All if them except the first Invisible.

* InfiniteSupplies: They can conjure things out of thin air, even stuff that shouldn't exist in the setting or timeline the story takes place. They are always vague about where they get the stuff when asked about the subject. When they disobey the Fates, they're confiscated of this ability for a while several times.
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: They're instructed to obey the Horned King regardless of their own opinions. However, they can't harm anything on his orders or help him in harming them (but neither they can stop him from harming others).

* WhatTheHellHero: After the Horned King keeps Avalina locked up in the dungeons for two weeks with a barely sufficient feeding, the second or the third Invisible finds her barely alive. It immediately rushes to scream at the Horned King's face for his cruelty toward Avalina and indifference for the chance he's been granted to be free of the Cauldron. It outright ''orders'' him to go to the dungeons and see the poor girl. The lich actually does that (though he claims that the reason is not the Invisible) and decides to let the Invisibles nurture Avalina back to health.

An evil warlord who existed centuries before the Horned King's time. He was the Horned King’s mentor and master, and like him, sought the Black Cauldron in order to conquer the world. He suddenly was defeated centuries ago and his spirit was sealed inside the Cauldron. After his apprentice was defeated, he made the lich suffer as much as he had. He's determined to have his plaything back for torture and does everything in his power to keep the Horned King’s only chance at freedom, Avalina, from interfering.

* AncientEvil: It's not stated exactly how long he has existed before his imprisonment to the Black Cauldron, but it's been stated that the Death Lord existed at least centuries before the Horned King -- who's over a thousand years old himself -- came into existence.
* AscendedExtra: He was the main antagonist of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'' of Creator/LloydAlexander and the Horned King's master. In [[Disney/TheBlackCauldron the movie]] (which is roughly based on the first two books), he was merely hinted to be the soul of the cruel king who was thrown alive into a crucible of molten iron that was used as the material of the Black Cauldron.

* DreamWeaver: He repeatedly torments Avalina through her dreams in order to keep her fear of the Horned King fresh. The dreams include the Horned King at his scariest, the Cauldron-Born, and the deaths of her beloved ones.

* EvilCounterpart: Arawn is the polar of opposite of Avalina and [[AllLovingHeroine everything]] [[FriendToAllLivingThings she]] [[FertileFeet represents]]. Arawn was a [[EvilMentor key factor]] in the Horned King becoming the monster he's known as, while [[MoralityPet Avalina]] is slowly turning the lich more humane.

* MasterOfIllusion: He's apparently a specialist of illusions strong enough to fool anyone unaware of this power and shape-shifting into various animals.

* PragmaticVillainy: The Horned King describes Arawn this way; while heartless, the Death Lord doesn't believe in attacking something [[ForTheEvulz for no reason]] because it would be a waste of time, resources and energy. Instead he would spot a potential threat and eliminate it without expending extra energy. Therefore, the reason he torments Avalina in the first place is because he sees her as a threat to his own plans.

A teenaged brush farmer from the outskirts of Prydain who lives with her mother and brother. When she's riding home from Dallben’s farm one night, an uncommonly powerful storm forces her to seek shelter from a scary castle -- the Horned King's castle. She's forced to stay there to prevent her from warning Prydain of the lich’s return.

* BeautifulDreamer: The Horned King watches several times while she sleeps.

* IntergenerationalFriendship: She slowly forms this with the Horned King, though the lich shows shades of being a ParentalSubstitute towards her.

* MoralityPet: Towards the Horned King. She's this towards Creeper also, though to a lesser extent.
* MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast: Music helps her to get under the Horned King's shell, and before him, Malwolaeth (Mitternacht).

* StockholmSyndrome: This is in play at least to some extent. After months of living with the Horned King's lands as the boundaries and the only creatures around who can speak being the Horned King and Creeper, Avalina loses any hatred towards the lich after his lately kindness towards her and the subtle lessening of his cruelty. While she misses her family very much, a part of her wants to stay with the one person who listens to what she tells about what is on her heart more than her family.
* SympathyForTheDevil: Towards the Horned King even before meeting him. One night (in the second chapter) she wonders what might have led him to become such a monster. The sympathy grows when she gets to know him over time, pushing away any hatred.
* UnkemptBeauty: Her long brown hair falls down her shoulders in a curling mass that seems to go whichever way the wind tosses it.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: When the badly injured Horned King passes out after killing the entire Mad Pack, Avalina has the chance to leave him to die and return home. Her heart opposes this idea and battles against her head. Eventually she gives in to her heart and [[SaveTheVillain brings the lich back to his castle]], telling her head that she couldn't ever forget [[MurderByInaction leaving someone to die willingly]] and [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim she'd be guilty of murder as much as the Horned King]].

Avalina's horse and the only thing from her old life remaining with her after she's forced to live in the Horned King's castle. He was originally the mount of a great knight (who happened to be Avalina's maternal uncle), but when the knight died, the horse turned furious with grief, allowing no one to approach him. He was known as Malwolaeth and Diafol Ceffyl during this time. This ended when Avalina saw past his furious shell and tamed him four years earlier.

* CoolHorse: He's a black [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friesian_horse Friesian]] that originally belonged to a knight. He's also the first known horse that has retained its sanity after being near [[WalkingWasteland the Horned King]] for so long. His {{Death Glare}}s can keep the lich at bay, and he even scares ''Arawn'' away from tormenting Avalina's dreams when the Invisibles aren't present.
* DarkIsNotEvil: He's looks like a fierce black warhorse, but he's loyal and kind to those he likes.

* MeaningfulRename: After Avalina tamed him, she renamed him Mitternacht, which means "Midnight" in Germany (or fictitious Mrenagy).

* NotSoDifferent: With the Horned King. The horse was called Death by everyone, [[TheDreaded feared and hated as a monster]] and believed to be a lost cause. Avalina proved that assumption to be unfounded while having a limited time period to do that, and [[MusicSoothesTheSavageBeast music played a role in that]]. The third Invisible [[LampshadeHanging notes]] [[HisStoryRepeatsItself the similarities between Mitternacht and the Horned King's stories]]. Also, the lich becomes as protective of Avalina as Mitternacht.