History Characters / TheFirstLawUnionInquisition

* FalseFriend: [[spoiler:Any care or friendship he displayed towards Vick turns out to have all been just an act since "Tallow" never really existed. It was just a false identity adopted by an Inquisitor who was assigned to manipulate and spy on Vick.]]

!!!POV: ''Literature/ALittleHatred'', ''Literature/TheTroubleWithPeace''

* BigSisterInstinct: She did everything she could to keep her siblings alive in the camps but was unable to save them. She shows mercy to Tallow and takes him under her wing largely because he reminds her so much of her brother who died. [[spoiler:It's eventually revealed that Vick earned her freedom by ratting out her brother's planned prisoners' revolution, something that haunts her to this day.]]

* ReplacementGoldfish: The reason she becomes so protective of Tallow is because he reminds her of her brother who died in the camps.

* KarmaHoudini: A notable example. Whether or not you think he is, Glokta certainly thinks so. He commits horrific crimes but ends the original trilogy as the new Arch Lector of the Inquisition, married to Ardee West, a beautiful woman who's one of the few people to treat him decently, and the second most powerful man in the Union as Bayaz's MouthOfSauron.

* CoDragons: Risinau and Judge act as the right and left hands of their boss, the Weaver.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Glokta is a bad, bad man, but by ''A Little Hatred,'' he loves his adopted daughter Savine beyond anything else in the world. He also genuinely loves his wife, Ardee, whom he married to protect from the threats against her life that would come from baring the king's bastard, and Glokta truly valued Collem West, his only friend.

* TheMole: Glokta begins to suspect that either he or Severard is a traitor. It turns out, both of them are but for separate reasons and employers. Severard was forced to betray Glokta because he was threatened into it by Valint and Balk. Frost was willingly informing for Arch Lector Sult and never gives a reason why he betrayed Glokta.

* ManInWhite: [[spoiler:He dones the traditional white coat of the Arch Lector's office after Glokta retires and appoints Pike his successor.]]

* ManInWhite: After replacing Sult as Arch Lector.

[[Risinau]]

* FatBastard: An overweight revolutionary who's perfectly fine with abandoning his followers to die when the king's forces come to take back the city after he started an uprising.

!!Inquisitors

[[folder:Harker]]
!!Inquisitor Harker

A senior Inquisitor in Dagoska who worked for the now-missing Superior Davoust.

* DoWrongRight: Part of what gets Glokta's goat about Harker is that the man isn't just needlessly cruel, he's ''stupid'', allowing his only leads to die in captivity.
* LaserGuidedKarma: He ends up occupying the same wretched cells he lets prisoners die in.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He's proudly and openly racist, deriding the natives as savages whom he can torture on a whim.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: [[spoiler:Harker ''did'' have the correct suspect in custody, but it was a complete mistake and a byproduct of his own racism, as opposed to any investigative instincts.]]

[[folder:Vick*]]
!!Inquisitor Exempt Victarine "Vick" dan Teufel
!!!POV: ''Literature/ALittleHatred'', ''Literature/TheTroubleWithPeace''
-->''"Because if I learned one thing in the camps... it's that you stand with the winners."''

When Sand dan Glokta convicted Sepp dan Teufel, the Master of the Mints, on trumped up charges, he sentenced the man and his entire family to penal mining camps of Angland, including the eight-year-old Vick. Though her family died, Vick somehow gained her freedom from the camps, and now works as Glokta's top spy.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: Frost doesn't speak much due to his speech impediment, usually reserving his words for either when he has to, or when he can't a resist a joke. [[spoiler:This becomes especially terrifying when Glokta realizes he betrayed him to Sult, at the same time that Frost realizes he's figured it out. Frost snaps Severard's neck without a word before trying to finish off his old boss. When Glokta demands to know why, Frost simply shrugs.]]
* BrainsAndBrawn: Subverted. While Severard is the smirking quipster and Frost is a hulking lisper, Frost shows HiddenDepths in a few occasions, including excellent penmanship and [[spoiler:being a mole for Arch Lector Sult]].

* DidNotSeeThatComing: When Frost tries to kill [[spoiler:Glokta he's shocked to discover that Glokta's cane secretly doubles as a fencing sword, which his ex-employer uses to fatally stab him. Frost has just enough time to express mild surprise before dying.]]
* DissonantSerenity: Frost is always impassive, even during torture sessions, [[spoiler:even when the victim is his long-time co-worker, Severard]].

* TheMole: Glokta begins to suspect that either he or Severard is a traitor.[[spoiler: It turns out, both of them are but for separate reasons and employers. Severard was forced to betray Glokta because he was threatened into it by Valint and Balk. Frost was willingly informing for Arch Lector Sult and never gives a reason why he betrayed Glokta.]]

* TheSociopath: [[spoiler:Unlike Glokta and Severard who are capable of some kindness, Frost really is just an emotionless killer. He shows no hesitancy in torturing Severard, and even less in snapping his neck. When Glokta demands to know why Frost turned on him, Frost shrugs, implying he did it for no reason.]]
* TheStoic: Frost rarely displays any kind of reaction to anything. [[spoiler:Even his own death doesn't elicit much more than a mildly surprised reaction.]]

* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Despite being a professional torturer, it's hard not to pity him considering he was forced to betray Glokta and then ends up tortured by Glokta and killed by Frost, the two people he had that were closest to friends.]]
* BrainsAndBrawn: Subverted. While Severard is the smirking quipster and Frost is a hulking lisper, Frost shows HiddenDepths in a few occasions, including [[spoiler:being a mole]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: He aides Glokta in his tortures, even complimenting him on his precision in using a meat cleaver to cut off bits off fingers. [[spoiler:When Glokta finds out he's a mole, he uses the cleaver to cut off Severard's own fingers. Glokta even asks if Severard still values his precision.]]
* TheMole: Glokta begins to suspect that either he or Severard is a traitor.[[spoiler: It turns out, both of them are but for separate reasons and employers. Severard was forced to betray Glokta because he was threatened into it by Valint and Balk. Frost was willingly informing for Arch Lector Sult and never gives a reason why he betrayed Glokta.]]
* NeckSnap: [[spoiler:When Glokta realizes Frost has betrayed him to Sult, Frost snaps Severard's neck.]]

* BigBadWannabe: [[spoiler: While he thinks that he's running the Union, he's actually just another of Bayaz's pawns.]]
* TheChessmaster: A canny political operative. [[spoiler: Subverted; he gets OutGambitted pretty regularly and his grand plan in the end involves a demon-summoning spell that doesn't actually do anything.]]
* EvilOldFolks: He's in his sixties, but far from frail.
* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:He ends the original trilogy as the captive of the new Arch Lector, Sand dan Glokta, who, along with his new Practical, Pike aka Salem Rews, are about to torture Sult for their amusement.]]

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Furious that common peasants and laborers have the cheek to demand any sort of rights. Also, the whole torture thing.

* SmugSnake: [[spoiler:Accomplishes very little except to be a pawn to Bayaz.]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Glokta is often DisappointedByTheMotive when performing his interrogations, and wishes he'd get an answer more interesting than the questions he poses. [[spoiler:When Practical Frost reveals he's a traitor and prepares to kill him, Glokta demands to know why. Frost simply shrugs, and Glokta reflects that sometimes there really are no answers.]]
* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Played with. Glokta spent two years being tortured by the Gurkish Empire, and was mutilated and crippled. After he returned home, he joined the Inquisition and started torturing others for a living. However, according to others and Glokta himself, he was as big an asshole in his youth as Jezal was pre-CharacterDevelopment.

* ConsummateProfessional: He tortures and investigates as ordered, even when he doubts his superiors or sympathizes with his victims. He has no problem forcing false confessions from the relatively innocent, mutilating and even murdering them in the process, as long as he's following his orders. Unlike many cases of this trope, however, he doesn't have much love for his institution or his superiors, and often finds himself wondering how and why he became the man he is.
** During his time in Dagoska, he found himself privately sympathizing with the oppressed natives and sharing their disdain for the inquisitors and Union administration in the city, but as the ranking representative of both kept these thoughts to himself. He worked to better the conditions of the natives and remedy the corruption in the city, but for practical reasons more than moral, and still played the part of the unflinching Unionist in his duty.
* CorneredRattlesnake: Without his Practicals, everyone expects Glokta to be a helpless cripple. [[spoiler:But when his back's against the wall, he reveals his cane is secretly a sword that he's still handy with. He used to fence, after all. Jab, jab.]]
* DeathSeeker: A version. He doesn't go out actively looking for his death, but he'd dearly like someone to kill him. He's positively thrilled when Ferro and [[spoiler:Salem Lews]] hold his life in the palm of their hands and thinks they're about to kill him. He can't stand to lose though...

* DisappointedByTheMotive: After spending so much of his life questioning others and hearing their motivations, he often finds himself disappointed at how petty their reasons for their actions are. [[spoiler:Even discovering that Arch Lector Sult is secretly trying to control demons is seen as a surprisingly childish scheme by Glokta.]]
* TheDreaded: By the time of ''Age of Madness'' Glokta has become the most feared man in the Union, with all commoners living in fear of Old Sticks coming to get them.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Glokta is a bad, bad man, but by ''A Little Hatred,'' he loved his adopted daughter Savine beyond anything else in the world. He also genuinely loves his wife, Ardee, whom he married to protect her from threats against her life that would come from baring the king's bastard, and truly valued Collem West as a friend. His only friend really.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even Glokta thinks the Superiors are assholes. Not to mention his professional disgust when he learned an inquisitor had tortured someone to death and not even bothered to ask any questions.
* EvilChancellor: [[spoiler:He becomes this at the end of the trilogy. His efforts have earned him some respect from Bayaz, who makes him de facto ruler of the Union in his absence. Though he's technically an "advisor" even King Jezal obeys the instructions Glokta relays on behalf of Bayaz]].

* HandicappedBadass: A distinct subversion. Being tortured for two years has made him a wreck of ineffective bodily functions. [[spoiler:Then subverted again when he reveals he possesses a SwordCane and stabs Frost to death.]]

* ItGetsEasier: He expounds on the theme in Before They Are Hanged:

* KarmaHoudini: A notable example. Whether or not you think he is, Glokta certainly thinks so. [[spoiler:He commits horrific crimes but ends the original trilogy as the new Arch Lector of the Inquisition, married to Ardee West, a beautiful woman who's one of the few people to treat him decently, and the second most powerful man in the Union as Bayaz's MouthOfSauron.]]

* MoralityPet: Collem and Ardee West are the only two people Glokta shows consistent kindness to, especially when he finds out Collem didn't abandon him after his mutilation, but was driven away by Glokta's own mother. [[spoiler:Glokta even refuses to murder Ardee, who's presence risks a scandal after she becomes pregnant with Jezal's bastard child. Instead, he marries her to protect her from any attempts on her life by other members of the Closed Council.]]
* MouthOfSauron: [[spoiler:After Bayaz lets Jezal and the Closed Council know who's really in charge, he leaves Glokta behind as his mouthpiece to relay his orders. Everyone knows that disobeying Glokta and causing Bayaz to return to the Union would be a bad thing for everyone.]]
* MyBelovedSmother: Following his torture, mutilation and crippling, he was returned home to his mother's to heal. Unbeknownst to Glokta, his mother sent away his friend, Collem West, on account of West being lowborn, driving away the only person who hadn't abandoned Glokta and convincing him that he was truly friendless.

* ShootTheDog: All the time. As a professional torturer, Glokta doesn't pretend that the things he does aren't vile, but feels they are nevertheless a necessary evil for the greater good. One of his most monstrous deeds is [[spoiler:forcing a ScarpiaUltimatum on Queen Terez, threatening to torture her childhood love unless she essentially becomes a baby-farm to an unknowing King Jezal to ensure the Union remains stable.]]
* SwordCane: [[spoiler:It's revealed in ''The Last Argument of Kings'' that is cane secretly contains a fencing sword, which he uses to great effect on the treacherous Practical Frost.]]

* VillainousFriendship: His Practicals, Severard and Frost, are the closest thing he has to friends in his line of work. [[spoiler:He takes it hard when he finds out both of them betrayed him, for separate parties and for separate reasons.]]

* BigBadWannabe: In ''Red Country'', theoretically he's the one in charge of the Union's activities in the Near and Far Country. In practice, his hired mercenary commander, [[DragonInChief Nicomo Cosca]], plays him like a fiddle to pursue a fabled treasure rather than find and eliminate the rebellion as Lorsen intended. [[spoiler:In the end, Lorsen is able to outmaneuver and arrest Cosca by taking advantage of the low morale of Cosca's men.]]
* TheDogBitesBack: After being manipulated by Cosca into going on a wild goose chase for the rebel leader, Conthus, [[spoiler:Lorsen convinces one of Cosca's lieutenants to turn on and arrest Cosca so he can use him as a scapegoat for the expedition's failure.]]

* KnowWhenToFoldThem: When he's tricked into thinking [[spoiler:the Old Empire has made a treaty with Crease, Lorsen decides to take his forces and go rather than risk an entanglement with the Old Empire that could spell war for the Union.]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In ''Red Country'' he's last seen [[spoiler:arresting Cosca and vacating the Near and Far Countries after being duped into believing the Old Empire had signed a treaty with Crease. Not much later, Cosca reappears, having freed himself from his imprisonment, with no clue as to what happened to Lorsen and the rest of his captors.]]
** In the Age of Madness, he's risen to the post of Superior of Westport.

!!Inquisitors

!!Inquisitor Lorsen

The Inquisitor who also serves as the commandant of a prison[=/=]penal labour camp in Angland. He returns with a large role in ''Red Country'' as part of the Union's plans to expand their reach in the Near and Far Countries.

A practical in the Inquisition first introduced working under Superior Goyle. She accompanies Glokta to Dagoska in ''Before They Are Hanged'' to report on him. She eventually quits the Inquisition and, by the time of ''Best Served Cold'' has gone freelance.
----
* ActionMom: She's a capable fighter who does dirty work, first for the Inquisition, then later on as a freelancer. She's also the loving mother of three children.
* ChainPain: Her weapon of choice is a chain with a cross-shaped blade at the end.
* DarkActionGirl: A torturer for the Inquisition who is one of the few people who can go toe-to-toe with Logen in a fight.
* DeadpanSnarker: Has her moments, especially when Cosca is involved.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Despite her unpleasant behavior to everyone else, she deeply loves her husband and children.
* FieryRedhead: She's a fighter with a mop of spiky red hair.
* GoodParents: Despite her job as a killer and torturer for hire, Vitari is a loving, devoted mother to her three kids.
* HappilyMarried: While her husband is often away, and Vitari has tried several other relationships, she deeply adores her husband and treasures whenever he visits. [[spoiler: The fact he's ''Shenkt,'' a superpowered cannibal assassin makes this even more surprising.]]
* HeroesWantRedheads: And so do villains: Both her husband and Morveer find her red hair a very attractive feature.
* HiredGuns: Monza hires her to help her assassinate the targets of her vengeance in ''Best Served Cold''.
* InformationBroker: Her primary job.
* MamaBear: Do ''not'' touch Vitari's children.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Vitari leaves the Inquisition after Glokta threatened her children and flees the Union. In ''Best Served Cold'', she leaves Monza's employ before her group makes it to Ospria, stating she'd rather take half pay and be alive than earn full pay and be dead after going into a war zone for a personal vendetta.
* SixthRanger: For Monza's group.
* StealthExpert: She's very good at sneaking in and out of places.
* TortureTechnician: As a former Practical of the Inquisition, she knows how to make people talk.
* UnholyMatrimony: She's a professional torturer and hired gun who's revealed to be married to [[spoiler:Cas Shenkt, the world's most feared assassin and an Eater.]] Their relationship is one of the most loving and stable in the series.

* IFightForTheStrongestSide: Her justification for joining the Inquisition in spite of what they did to her is because of the most valuable takeaway she took from her time in the camps. To survive, you have to side with the winners.
* IOweYouMyLife: Vick serves Glokta because he arranged for her to get out of the camps, in spite of the fact that Glokta was the one who sent her and her entire family there in the first place. Glokta speculates that because Vick has made a life of herself by betraying others, it's very important for her to be loyal to someone.

* MasterActor: As a child, Vick was always good at hiding her feelings to the point where everyone around her had no idea what was going on in her head. Vick studied facial ticks and expressions, then made a game out of using her talents to trick everyone around her. After she was sent to the camps, it became a method of survival, and Vick is capable of manipulating and deceiving others by the strength of her acting.

* RegretfulTraitor: Vick makes a living off of deceiving and betraying others, but she's never happy about it, and often empathizes with her targets, even if it doesn't stop her from completing her assignments. Sometimes she'll try to get mercy for them, but only small efforts as she doesn't want her own loyalty called into question.

* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: Vick spent twelves years working in the nightmarish penal camps of Angland, watching as all of her family members died one-by-one. She endured sickness, starvation, exposure, and deadly and dangerous forced labor, and the experiences hardened her to the point where she joined the Inquisition after gaining her freedom.

!!Practicals

[[folder:Frost]]
!!Practical Frost

One of Sand dan Glokta's Practicals, a hulking albino with a speech impediment.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Glokta is a bad, bad man, but by ''A Little Hatred,'' he loved his adopted daughter Savine beyond anything else in the world.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: He's thirty-five, but seems far older due to his disabilities.

A disfigured prisoner in an Angland penal colony, he was recruited by Collem West due to the need for capable smiths in the war and acts as an ally to him. Following the Battle of Adua, Pike becomes a member of the Inquisition.

* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: The hardships and disfigurements he endured as a prisoner at an Inquisition penal colony have hardened him. By the end of ''Last Argument of Kings'', he takes Glokta's offer to join the Inquisition.

* ChekhovsGunman: Pike actually appears very early on in the story but

* NoDoubtTheYearsHaveChangedMe: Forced servitude and horrific burns have changed his appearance quite a lot. When he confronts the object of his vengeance, [[spoiler:Glokta]], he doesn't even recognize Pike until Pike spells out just who he is, and his would-be victim laughs at the absurdity of being killed by him of all people.

* PetTheDog: He pretended that his fellow prisoner, Cathil, was his daughter in order to protect her from the lascivious intentions of the guards and other prisoners.

[[folder:Glokta]]

* KickTheDog: One of his most monstrous deeds is [[spoiler:forcing a ScarpiaUltimatum on Queen Terez, threatening to torture her childhood love unless she essentially becomes a baby-farm to an unknowing King Jezal.]] He takes some morbid delight when he first summons his Practicals, though even he admits what he did is disgusting. Not that it stops him from doing it, however.

[[folder:Shylo Vitari]]