History Characters / TheFirstLawUnionMilitary

[[folder:Gorst*]]
!!Bremer dan Gorst

-->''"It's an upside-down sham of a world in which men like these, if they can be called men at all, can look down on a man like me. I am worth twice the lot of you. And this is the best the Union has to offer? We deserve to lose."''

King Jezal's disgraced former bodyguard, now a special observer on the war from the Closed Council of the Union. Introduced in ''Literature/TheFirstLaw'', he becomes a POV character in ''Literature/TheHeroes''.

* AGoodWayToDie: [[spoiler:He falls in ''Wisdom of Crowds'' buying time for Orso to flee. He could have escaped, but opted to sell his life and redeem himself for his failure years earlier.]]
* AscendedExtra: Had a minor role in the original trilogy before being promoted to a main character in ''The Heroes''.
* TheAtoner: Tries to redeem himself in battle after failing to protect his king in ''Best Served Cold''.
* BenevolentBoss: He cares about his two servants, genuinely viewing them as two of his only friends. After one of them is scarred by a colonel, Gorst heads to his tent to demand satisfaction. Unfortunately, when the man turns out to be in awe of Gorst's display in an earlier battle, Gorst's need for recognition makes it so he can't bring himself to avenge his friend's honor.
* TheBerserker: When he fights in battle, Gorst practically falls into trance as he gets in the rhythm of killing.
* BloodKnight: After his fall from grace, fighting is the only thing that makes him feel alive. He goes so far as to say that he loves war as it makes him feel like a God.
* TheBigGuy: His role in the Union's army. He's quite possibly the best fighter in the series, with the exception of Logen Ninefingers.
* CannotSpitItOut: Has been in love with Finree for years. When he finally does tell her, it goes disastrously.
* DeathSeeker: One of the reasons why he throws himself so recklessly into war is because he wants to die. [[spoiler:In ''The Wisdom of Crowds'' he's positively thrilled when the time comes for him to sacrifice himself in a blaze of glory.]]
* DeathEqualsRedemption: [[spoiler:He views his death as this. Having failed to save one king, he sacrifices himself by holding off Leo's forces for as long as possible to buy Orso time to escape. As he's dying he asks Leo if he believes in redemption. When Leo acts dismissive, Gorst's final words are, "You're young. Give it time."]]
* DesperatelyCravesAffection: Gorst is starved for affection, whether romantic--like he wishes from Finree--or platonic--where he wants respect and recognition from his peers.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Bremer is a bit of a laughing stock due to his piping voice and his disgraceful exit from the King's service, but he's very intelligent and the best warrior the Union has. He silently rages about the lack of respect and appreciation he gets.
* TheEeyore: While his sour attitude initially seems like a natural reaction to the miserable state of both his life and the war, near the end he receives the royal forgiveness and reinstating into his previous position as royal bodyguard that he's spent the whole novel yearning for and working towards, and is happy for all of five minutes - after which he promptly finds new reasons to pity himself. His short story in ''Sharp Ends'' reveals he suffers from depression.
* FailureKnight: His failure to protect Jezal in ''Best Served Cold'' haunts him, as it caused his fall from grace. During, ''The Heroes'', he seeks to prove himself in the Second Northern War in the hopes of regaining his position, which he does. [[spoiler:He views sacrificing his life to save Orso's own as redemption for his failure.]]
* FasterThanTheyLook: It's remarked upon multiple times that for all of Gorst's massive size, he's much faster than he has any right to be.
* FirstPersonSmartass: Bremer doesn't talk often because he's ashamed of his high-pitched voice, but his inner monologue is full of biting commentary on the people who surround him.
* GracefulLoser: When he loses his duel against Jezal in ''The Blade Itself'', he takes it in impressive stride, congratulating Jezal and presenting him to the cheering crowd.
* GreenEyedMonster: His unrequited love for Finree has turned him into this, to the point where he attempts to murder the already wounded Harod dan Brock.
* HeroKiller: Gorst is this for his Northern opponents in ''The Heroes'', even with the book's GrayAndGrayMorality. He pulls Glama Golden from his horse and bashes his face in with ease, maims Scale and swats aside Curnden Craw, successfully kills Drofd, and is the only swordsman who can duel Whirrun of Bligh on even terms.
* HopelessSuitor: Gorst is hopelessly in love with Finree, who, in addition to barely knowing him, is already married to Harod dan Brock. When Gorst reveals his feelings for her, it goes horribly wrong.
* LightningBruiser: Bremer is a hulk of a man and able to fight with amazing speed as well.
* LovingAShadow: Though he believes himself to be in love with Finree, throughout ''The Heroes'' it becomes clear that he barely knows her and is just projecting his own desires onto her.
* MasterSwordsman: Bremer is the best fighter the Union has, not that he gets much respect for it.
* MurderTheHypotenuse: While helping Finree search through the rubble of Osrung to find her husband, Gorst finds him first, unconscious but still alive. He attempts to strangle him to death so he can have Finree to himself, but stops when she arrives.
* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Subverted, he's got nothing but contempt for Jezal. Ironically, Jezal is deeply loyal to Bremer.
* MoodSwinger: While its harder to pin down just where Gorst sits in the moral spectrum, how acts in any situation largely depends on his mood. He can be one of the nicest characters in the army in one moment, to suddenly violent, and even murderous. Even he seems aware of his own flaw, rescuing a man shortly after his attempt to murder Finree's husband is interrupted and Gorst passes the incident off as simply discovering him. The man calls him a hero, while Gorst guiltily thinks "if only you knew".
* MovingTheGoalposts: A sad, self-inflicted variant. At the end of ''The Heroes,'' he finally receives almost everything he had wanted throughout the entire story, and briefly finds himself happy with his life, and yet he still ends up feeling miserable. He ends up bitterly concluding that that's simply the way that he is.
* NeverMyFault: Insists that he was wrongfully blamed for the disaster at Cardotti's House of Leisure in ''Best Served Cold''. In fact, he was drunk out of his mind and whoring around when Jezal needed him, and Finree's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to him reveals that it wasn't the first time. However, in the short story ''Wrong Place, Wrong Time'' from the collection ''Sharp Ends'', it's revealed that, rather than being passed out drunk and whoring, Gorst was sobbing on a prostitute's lap as she soothed him, showing that Gorst had been dealing with depression for quite some time before ''The Heroes''. Once he heard the chaos break out, he immediately rushed to find the king, barreling into Shivers who promptly headbutts him, sending Gorst sprawling down the stairs.
* ProfessionalButtKisser: His notes to Jezal, reporting on the war, are filled with empty flattery and blatant lies about how well things are progressing. At one point he writes a letter expressing his real, contemptuous feelings towards Jezal, only for it to be revealed that he writes an honest letter every night then burns it.
* TheQuietOne: Gorst usually keeps his thoughts to himself because he's ashamed of his child-like voice.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Following the fiasco at Cardotti's House of Leisure, he's dismissed from the King's First Guard and is made Royal Observer for the Second Northern War. By the end of ''The Heroes'', he's granted an opportunity to regain his old position due to his perceived heroics.
* TheScapegoat: Gorst claims this is why he was dismissed after failing Jezal at Sipani. In reality, it's because the Council believed he was drunk out of his mind and whoring when he should've been protecting his king. The truth is a little more complicated as he was actually sobbing in a prostitute's lap because of his depression.
* UndyingLoyalty: As a result of his failures with Jezal, Gorst is painfully loyal to his son Orso. [[spoiler:He gives his life for him, while Orso can only wonder how he inspired such loyalty.]]
* VocalDissonance: His high, child-like voice notably clashes with his brutish appearance, to his eternal shame.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: When no one else is around, he attempts to murder his romantic rival, only stopping because Finree came across him before he could finish the job.
* WorthyOpponent: He and Whirrun of Bligh consider each other to be this during their duel in ''The Heroes''. Gorst is disappointed when a random spear kills Whirrun before they could finish their fight.
* YouShallNotPass: [[spoiler:Gorst engages Leo's entire force to buy Orso time to escape. Bremer dan Gorst is one man, kills over eight soldiers, nearly gets to Leo himself and ''holds the fucking line.'']]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tunny*]]
!!Corporal Tunny
!!!POV: ''Literature/TheHeroes''

-->''"Wars are hard enough work without people'' fighting ''in the middle of them."''

Standard-bearer of the First, a veteran Union soldier.
----

* TheBigGuy: He serves as the main muscle in Jezal's group of friends.

* HeroKiller: Gorst is this for his Northern opponents in ''The Heroes'', even with the book's GrayAndGrayMorality. He nearly kills Scale and Curnden Craw, successfully kills Drofd, and is the only swordsman who can duel Whirrun of Bligh on even terms.

* NiceHat: He's usually seen sporting a campaign-worn fur hat. Orso says it looks quite fetching. Tunny says it looks like a quim. When Forest overhears that he dejectedly realizes it does.

* BadassMustache: Forest begins growing out long lustrous mustaches later on in his military career, and he proves his badass credentials by [[spoiler:unflinchingly participating in the Battle of Stoffenbeck against a relentless tide of Stour Nightfall's Northmen]].