History Characters / Ravenor

* DestructiveSaviour: Ravenor’s efforts to stop the trilogy’s villains often cause tremendous collateral damage. In ''Ravenor Returned'', thwarting the Secretists' plan to [[spoiler:reconstruct Enuncia]] triggers an series of explosions that devastate most of Petropolis, killing thousands and plunging the entire subsector into twenty years’ worth of anarchy and civil unrest. In ''Ravenor Rogue'', the ritual he performs to banish Slyte obliterates an entire mountain range in a populous province of Gudrun. [[spoiler:His superiors in the Inquisition do not approve of either event, and the trilogy ends with him being put on trial for the destruction he’s caused.]]

* BaldOfAwesome: He’s shaven-headed, and he’s a skilled fighter who can take out a roomful of thugs by himself in seconds.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Thonius never shows obvious attraction to anyone, but his companions occasionally joke that he is attracted to men, and his emphatic disinterest in women points at either homosexuality or {{asexuality}}.

* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler:Ballack is KilledMidSentence while blurting out the Cognitae's formal code-greeting, in a final attempt to earn Molotch's mercy.]]

* HurlItIntoTheSun: Their plan is to trap all of Ravenor’s people aboard the ''Hinterlight'' and then send it hurtling into the local star on autopilot.

* TheTokenNormal: Madsen, compared to the psychic monster that is Kinsky, and the huge beatstick that is Ahenobarb. This isn't to say she is unskilled or dangerous in her own right, but Ravenor is immediately more suspicious of her than the other two.

Characters of Dan Abnett's Ravenor trilogy and associated tropes

In need of WikiMagic.

[[/folder]]

* KickTheDog: In ''Ravenor Rogue'', [[spoiler:he kills an innocent man by phasing him through a window to be torn apart by a blizzard, and at the same time he compels Maud to put a gun to her own head. He does both things simply to test the limits of his abilities, [[PerceptionFilter and to see how much he can cloud Ravenor's perception]]]].

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: In ''Ravenor Rogue'', [[spoiler:Carl]] suppresses her memories of the fact that he’s possessed by Slyte so she can’t tell Ravenor. She eventually remembers, but by that point it’s too late to do anything about it.
* SecretKeeper: Kara learns that [[spoiler:Carl]] is the host of Slyte, and she reluctantly agrees to keep his secret after he cures her cancer using his daemonic powers. When she starts having second thoughts, he inflicts LaserGuidedAmnesia on her to keep her quiet. [[spoiler:The fact that she kept this secret lands her in hot water with the Inquisition after the truth comes out.]]

* EvilHand: [[spoiler:Perhaps due to its role in causing his possession, Carl's right forearm becomes the focus of his daemonic powers; the many rings he wears on his right hand melt and break whenever his daemonic nature manifests, and his GameFace form burns away the flesh of the arm down to the blackened bones.]]
* EvilMakeover: Carl starts wearing less foppish clothing after [[spoiler:getting possessed]], to the point that he's dyed his normally blonde hair black by the start of ''Ravenor Rogue''. In particular, he starts wearing a ridiculous number of rings on his right hand--sometimes thirty at once. To Ravenor and those unaware of the true cause, it seems like an AdrenalineMakeover instead.

* TheSmartGuy: Thonius isn't a particularly skilled combatant or a psyker, but he serves the team through his skill with electronics and computer hacking - He even has a sophisticated personal cogitator that neatly folds into a leather-bound carrying case.

* FutureBadass: After Ravenor's adventures in theis trilogy, Zael was handed over to other Inquisitors, and eventually [[spoiler: put on a Black Ship]], he became not only a major player in [[spoiler: ''The Emperor's Gift'']], but also [[spoiler: the protagonist, Hyperion]]. Needless to say, he was a very useful servant of the Inquisition well into adulthood.

* RedHerring: [[spoiler:Serves as a massive one regarding the Divine Fratery's prophecy. First, Zael's surname on his mother's side turns out to be ''Sleet'', one of the alternate proposed names for the daemon Slyte. Later, Zael is conveniently found in a comatose state in the same room as Slyte's real host, after the daemon's second manifestation. Then, throughout ''Ravenor Rogue'', frightening psychic manifestations caused by Slyte (and a few others caused by Zael himself) haunt the ''Arethusa'' while Zael is onboard.]] Fortunately, Ravenor is GenreSavvy enough to realize that [[spoiler:Zael being Slyte is a little ''too'' obvious, and resolves to hold off on killing the boy unless faced with irrefutable evidence.]]

* VillainOpeningScene: The trilogy starts with him at an archaeological dig-site digging up something undoubtedly heretical. Subversion, since it ends with his plane, and him, going down in flames. [[spoiler: Double subversion, when he turns out to have survived, and is behind [[TheVillainMakesThePlot much of the of the plot]] until events at the end of ''Ravenor Returned'' forces him out of power.]]

* In ''[[Literature/{{Ravenor}} Ravenor Returned]]'', Orfeo Culzean’s Brass Thief daemon is bound to a small pyramid made of gold and silver. When he awakens the daemon, the pyramid unfolds and reshapes itself into an armoured body for it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Zeph Mathiun]]

!! The Diadochoi, [[spoiler:Lord-Governor Oska Ludolf Barazan / Zygmunt Molotch]]

!Other

[[folder:Zygmunt Molotch]]
!! Zygmunt Molotch
A Cognitae agent and Ravenor's personal nemesis.

[[folder: Ravenor and his retinue]]

The eponymous Inquisitor, Ravenor was {{Literature/Eisenhorn}}'s Interrogator until an event called the Thracian Atrocity left him a shadow of his former self. Ravenor was left to a life largely of contemplation and passive investigation. In spite of his injuries, and even a little bit because of them, he had become a successful Inquisitor, and one of the Imperium's most highly regaurded authors to boot.

* TheAce: Before becoming a burnt husk, Ravenor was quite the skilled individual who excelled at everything he tried. He was also [[{{Bishonen}} quite handsome]], as well. Eisenhorn thought he would make an excellent addition to the Inquisition, and while he was right, he mourned Ravenor's life altering injuries.

* BodySurf: Often how his mind reading works. He once [[ExploitedTrope exploits]] this when by hiding in the mind of a civilian from a rival psyker when he couldn't afford to fight.
* DestructiveSaviour: Ravenor’s efforts to stop the trilogy’s villains often cause tremendous collateral damage. In ''Ravenor Returned'', thwarting [[spoiler:Molotch]]’s plan to reconstruct Enuncia triggers an explosion that devastates most of Petropolis, kills thousands, and plunges the entire subsector into twenty years’ worth of anarchy and civil unrest. In ''Ravenor Rogue'', the ritual he performs to banish Slyte obliterates an entire mountain range in a populous province of Gudrun. His superiors in the Inquisition do not approve, and the trilogy ends with him being put on trial for the destruction he’s caused.
* DisabilitySuperpower: Ravenor's psychic potential was already impressive before becoming crippled; it has only increased after he went into the chair.

** Ravenor is capable of this, and won't hesitate, particularly in interrogations where he can easily read somebody's mind (provided they don't know ways to block him out). Forcefully enough to do some permanent damage or destroy their sanity if he is so inclined--likely due to a failed attempt at blocking the probe. Also see the PeoplePuppets entry.

* PeoplePuppets: "Waring" is basically possessing somebody and overriding their mental control, and also apparently a more refined and elegant method than simply bodyjacking somebody and controlling their bodies with brute psychic power. It's perhaps Ravenor's trademark ability. It's handy when somebody needs to [[TookALevelInBadass take a few levels in badass]] on the fly, and Ravenor can do it to several people at once.

* BadassNormal: He managed to go most of his career without ever needing augmetics digits or limbs. [[spoiler:Most of it, anyway.]]

!! Patience Kys

* PsychicPowers: A very capable [[MindOverMatter telekine]], specialising in the use of double-ended "kineblades" as short-range weapons. Also good at "feeling" her surroundings for a considerable distance.

* SecretlyDying: ''Ravenor Returned'' reveals that Kara’s heroic spacewalk in the first book gave her cancer, and she only has a few months left to live. She asks Belknap to keep her condition a secret so as not to worry her teammates. [[spoiler:It then becomes a moot point when Carl uses his daemonic powers to cure her cancer.]]

!! Carl Thonius
Ravenor's interrogator, a foppish computer expert with a dislike of fighting.

* EvilHand: Carl's right arm has shades of this after it's severed and reattached, [[spoiler: especially after he's possessed.]]

* KickTheDog: In ''Ravenor Rogue'', [[spoiler:he kills an innocent man by phasing him through a window to be torn apart by a blizzard, and at the same time he compels Maud to put a gun to her own head. He does both things simply to test the limits of his abilities, and to see what he can get away with while Ravenor is watching]].

* RedRightHand: [[spoiler:He loses an arm and the loss of perfect motor control following its reattachment is what drives him to drug use and ultimately his possession.]]
* SkewedPriorities: Carl’s desire to look fashionable sometimes eclipses his survival instincts and common sense. When Nayl tackles Carl into cover to save him from getting shot, Carl complains that his jacket might have been deformed. When the team launches a raid on a money launderer’s hideout, Carl insists on dressing to the nines when everyone else is wearing bodygloves and body armour.
%%* TheSmartGuy

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler:Gets run through by Culzean's Brass Thief daemon in ''Ravenor Returned'', being the first member of the retinue to die "on-screen".]]

* BigDamnHeroes: Manages to save Ravenor from death [[spoiler:at the hands of an enemy psyker by first turning off his limiter (yanking the psyker back into his body) and then snapping the confused psyker's neck.]]

* FutureBadass: After Ravenor's adventures in theis trilogy, Zael was handed over to other Inquisitors, and eventually [[spoiler: put on a Black Ship]], he was not only a major player in [[spoiler: ''The Emperor's Gift'']], but he was also [[spoiler: the protagonist]]. Needless to say, he was a very useful servant of the Inquisition well into adulthood.

!! Sholto Unwerth

* OurDwarvesAreDifferent: He is heavily implied to be, or at least descended from, one of the Squats which partially explains why he mangles Low Gothic. He isn't a native speaker.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: He lost his medical license because he committed fraud—not to benefit himself, but to beef up his practice’s meagre budget so his many patients could get the treatments they needed. He continues practicing as a back alley medicae to make sure that the people who fall through the cracks get the healthcare they need.

* FairCop: Downplayed. Maud is frequently described as having a pretty and youthful face, but she's otherwise plain in appearance.

--> '''Nayl:''' 'Look at her. Built for fighting. That's why the slavers chose her. Good breeding stock for the arenas.'\\
'''Angharad:''' [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne 'I am not good breeding stock for-']]\\

'''Angharad:''' 'But the slavers, they obviously saw that in me.'

* SpannerInTheWorks: Her dalliance with Nayl causes her to show up late to Fenx's raid on [[spoiler:Molotch's hideout]], letting her evade the massacre and rescue Ballack. This in turn lets Ravenor realize that [[spoiler:Molotch has survived yet again]], and go after him.

!! Gall Ballack

%%* [[spoiler:TokenEvilTeammate]]
* WhiteHairBlackHeart: Much mention is made of his white hair, and then there's the fact that he's [[spoiler:a Cognitae mole in the Inquisition who coldly stood by and let his team get slaughtered by Molotch]]...

** SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:His survival clues Ravenor in to the fact that Molotch is still alive, setting the final book's plot in motion.]]]

[[folder: Villains]]
!! Zygmunt Molotch
A Cognitae agent and Ravenor's personal nemesis.

* AntagonistInMourning: [[spoiler:Has this reaction when he believes that his trap successfully killed Ravenor near the end of ''Ravenor Rogue''.]]
* ArchNemesis: With Ravenor. The two of them have been trying to kill each other, on and off, for more than seventy years by the time the trilogy takes place.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Comes from his Cognitae training. He has HyperAwareness of his surroundings, and his mind is able to use that information to plot or react with inhuman speed.
* BigBad: [[spoiler:He's the main villain of the trilogy overall, and anything that he isn't directly involved with can be traced back to him.]]
* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler:With Orfeo Culzean in ''Ravenor Rogue'', though their alliance is shaky at best. At several points Molotch even lampshades the fact that, because he and Culzean are both highly intelligent and charismatic villains, their partnership isn't going to last.]]
* CompellingVoice: He can use what he calls 'the tone of command' to control people if he knows their names, or at least make them flinch if he knows part of it.
* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:Ironically, he's forced to team up with Ravenor when Culzean turns against them at the climax of the third book.]]
* EvilGenius: His most defining trait is his intelligence, and as an alumnus of the Cognitae school.
* EvilIsPetty: [[spoiler:Molotch, Culzean, and Ravenor concoct a plan to force Slyte through the tri-portal and thus back into the Warp. Molotch engraves the necessary runes into the door, but he then stands back and tells ''Ravenor'' to utter the blasphemous incantation to banish the daemon. He does this purely out of spite, all while a massive and hungry EldritchAbomination is bearing down on them.]]
* {{Expy}}: He is most definitely the Moriarty to Ravenor's Holmes, with all the grimdarkness added.
* [[FantasticRacism Fantastic Prejudice]]: Betrays one of his allies for being 3rd or 4th generation Cognitae because he is IncompletelyTrained and "diluted". [[spoiler:It ultimately gets him killed as the man brings Ravenor after him to get revenge]].
* TheHeavy: Much of the plot of the trilogy revolves around the twists in the conspiracy he set into motion in the first prologue, which takes place a few years before the novels.
* HeroKiller:
** He has this reputation amongst Ravenor's crew, having killed four members of the retinue during [[NoodleIncident the ambush at Majeskus]].
** Molotch proves just how dangerous he is at [[spoiler:the beginning of ''Ravenor Rogue'' when he takes on another Inquisitor's entire retinue by himself, and kills them all [[HoistByHisOwnPetard using their own weapons against them]] [[CurbStompBattle in a matter of]] ''[[CurbStompBattle seconds]]''.]]
* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:To Jader Trice in ''Ravenor'' and ''Ravenor Returned''.]]
* PosthumousCharacter: He's dead by chapter one. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} when Ravenor's agents discover that he is quite alive at the climax of ''Ravenor Returned''.]]
* PredecessorVillain: Between Majeskus and the long history shared with Ravenor, he's certainly Ravenor's nemesis, until he's dealt with in the prologue. [[spoiler: {{Subverted}}, [[HijackedByGanon however]].]]
* PresidentEvil: [[spoiler:Under the assumed identity which he was elected as ''Lord of the entire Sector''. This is notably quite an achievement as most Sector Lords are hereditary.]]
* SherlockScan: Can figure out that a drunk man works for the plantery government by how he looks and that another man is a local young noble who's slumming it at a low end bar.
* StarterVillain: In the context of the novels, he only appears in the first before getting burned alive. [[spoiler: Until he makes his reappearance heavily disfigured but otherwise intact.]]
* TookALevelInBadass: In ''Ravenor'', he's brainy and evil, but almost a NonActionGuy. In a flashback in ''Ravenor Rogue'', and [[spoiler:during that book]], he displays many badass skills, and can hold his own in hand-to-hand with Throne Agents.
* TwoFaced: {{Downplayed}}, his face is described as handsomeaj, but completely asymmetrical.
* VillainOpeningScene: The trilogy starts with him at an archaeological dig-site digging up something undoubtedly heretical. Subversion, since it ends with his plane, and him, going down in flames. [[spoiler: Double subversion, when he turns out to have survived, and is behind [[TheVillainMakesThePlot much of the of the plot]] until events at the end of ''Ravenor Returned'' forces him out of power.]]
* WalkingSpoiler: He's practically a PosthumousCharacter when the first novel proper starts, but it becomes clear that he has a greater influence over Ravenor and his team as the story progresses.

!! Orfeo Culzean
An antiquities dealer who uses his legitimate business to front his work as an "expeditor" employed by the Divine Fratery, a Chaos cult active in the sector.

* BigBadDuumvirate: With [[spoiler: Molotch]] in ''Ravenor Rogue''. Being a pair of highly-intelligent and assertive masterminds, their alliance is less than stable.
%%* TheChessmaster
* CollectorOfTheStrange: He collects [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deodand deodands,]] innocuous objects that have caused accidental deaths. His collection includes a key that a child choked on and a wet paving stone that a pilgrim slipped on, amongst other things.
* NervesOfSteel: Orfeo is very good at keeping a level head in the face of danger, and maintains an outward façade of calm composure even when he’s sweating bullets internally. The only time his composure slips is when something ''really'' bad is happening, such as the sudden appearance of Slyte.
* NonActionBigBad: Culzean, by his own admission, has never personally killed anyone; he leaves that stuff to his underlings, like his assistant Leyla Slade or his pet [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Brass Thief.]]
%%* PunchClockVillain
* WickedCultured: Orfeo is a well-spoken and sophisticated intellectual with an appreciation for philosophy. He’s also a heretic for hire who knowingly helps cults like the Divine Fratery bring death and destruction upon the Imperium.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Turns on Ravenor and Molotch at the climax of the third book when he learns that Thonius is the host of Slyte, believing that he can use the daemon's power to get whatever he wants. Unfortunately for him, EvilIsNotAToy is in full effect...]]

!! Leyla Slade
Orfeo Culzean's right hand woman and bodyguard.

* AbnormalAmmo: She's equipped with a magazine of handgun bullets that ''summon daemons''.
* BodyguardCrush: She and Culzean are implied to have a relationship.
%%* BattleButler
* BodyguardBabes: A no-nonsense female bodyguard to one of the main villains.
* DarkActionGirl: The most prominent female villain in the trilogy, and a highly skilled fighter to boot. She battles Carl to a standstill in ''Ravenor Rogue''.

!! Jader Trice
The Grand Provost of Eustis Majoris' Ministry of Sub-Sector Trade, and a member of the Cognitae. [[spoiler:Trice is the mastermind of a scheme to smuggle Chaos-corrupted cogitators onto Eustis Majoris in order to reconstruct [[LanguageOfMagic Enuncia]].]]

* BigBad: Appears to play this role in the first two books. In reality, however, it is...[[spoiler:Molotch]], relegating him to [[TheDragon secondary position]].
* HijackedByGanon: The entire scheme to [[spoiler:reconstruct Enuncia and use it to attain absolute power]] was entirely Trice's idea, and he spent twenty years working on it by himself. Then [[spoiler:Molotch]] got involved five years before the events of ''Ravenor Returned'' and essentially took over the whole project. Trice still isn't happy about that.
* LeanAndMean: He's described as having a slender build.
* AManOfWealthAndTaste: He's well dressed, and well groomed to boot.
* NonActionBigBad: Jader Trice isn’t a fighter, and prefers leaving the violence to his right-hand man Toros Revoke.
* ReducedToDust: [[spoiler:He crumbles into dust after Slyte’s touch turns him into a desiccated mummy.]]
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: He's a well-respected government official.
* VillainousBreakdown: He's reduced to tears when [[spoiler:Slyte]] rips apart his precious Enuncia lexicon, and desperately tries to gather up its shredded metal pages. [[spoiler:Slyte kills him seconds later.]]

!! Kinsky, Madsen and Ahenobarb
Three agents of the Ministry for Sub-Sector Trade. They’re assigned to help Ravenor’s investigation into the flect trade, but it quickly becomes apparent that they have ulterior motives. Kinsky is a powerful psyker, Ahenobarb is his minder, and Madsen is a tech-adept and the team's leader.
----

!! Toros Revoke
A high-ranking member of the secretists, Toros Revoke is the right-hand man of Jader Trice. He handles things in the field, getting rid of anyone who learns too much about his master’s secret plans.

* TheDragon: He’s Jader Trice’s right-hand man, and the most competent and dangerous member of the secretists. This effectively makes him The Dragon to another Dragon.
* SupernaturalGoldEyes: His pupils are stale yellow, and he’s both a powerful psyker and a skilled user of Enuncia.
* WordsCanBreakMyBones: He uses Enuncia to brutalize a hapless street thug near the beginning of the second book, breaking bones and bursting organs with every word.

!! Slyte
A terrifyingly powerful daemon, prophesied to manifest in the physical world through Ravenor or one of his associates. Ravenor is first warned about its existence in the short story ''Thorn Wishes Talon''. [[spoiler:Carl Thonius ends up being its unfortunate vessel when he looks into the wrong flect at the wrong time in ''Ravenor Returned''.]]

%%* DemonLordsAndArchDevils

%%* GreaterScopeVillain

* HumanoidAbomination: Slyte's vessel becomes a glowing, transparent figure with a visible skeleton and a fleshless, oversized right arm when drawing upon its powers. [[spoiler:This is only its avatar, however; Slyte's true form is a straight-up...]]

* AntiMagic: He is fitted with a device called a "limiter" which dampens his blank-ness so that Ravenor and other psykers can still use their powers while in close proximity to him. When hiding from enemy psykers' scrying attempts, Frauka can deactivate it to make those around him effectively invisible to a psychic search.

* SecretKeeper: Kara learns that [[spoiler:Carl]] is the host of Slyte, and she reluctantly agrees to keep his secret after he cures her cancer using his daemonic powers. When she starts having second thoughts, he inflicts LaserGuidedAmnesia on her to keep her quiet.

%%* CatchPhrase: "End of story."