History Characters / TheWolfhound

* CluelessChickMagnet: Let's see — he gets at least two girls[[note]]Maybe three, if we count [[RescueRomance Niilith]], though she soon switches her attentions to Tilorn.[[/note]] openly crushing on him in the first book alone, [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys despite]] [[FaceOfAThug his looks and reputation]]: [[PrecociousCrush Little Doe]] and [[RescueRomance Elen]]. He doesn't really give that much thought, though, not in the small part because [[ChasteHero he considers himself]] [[ToyShip engaged to Little Doe]], though he eventually grows into her for real.

* {{Bishounen}}: A classic blond green-eyed example.

A major antagonist for several spinoff novels, Mavut is a world-renowned sorcerer and [[BladeOnAStick spearmaster]], which brings him a lot of students and followers. The less known fact is that he's also the cruel and insidious warlord and [[TheDon criminal mastermind]], but those seeking power as his cronies care little anyway, even if they know.

* MayDecemberRomance: It is not that Wolfhound is old, [[YoungerThantheyLook he's not]], it's just that Little Doe [[PrecociousCrush was just 11]] when they've first met.

* GenocideBackfire: After the Pup killed one of the attackers, the brother of said attacker tried to sic hounds on him, but they [[{{Beastmaster}} refused to tear him to shreds]]. Vinitarius saw this as a good omen and spared the kid, selling him to slavery instead. Boy, did it turn out wrong!

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: His name is actually exactly the same as his son's — Vinitar — but he insisted on changing it to the [[AncientGrome more Arrantish]] way out of vanity.
* GenocideBackfire: After the Pup killed one of the attackers, the brother of said attacker tried to sic hounds on him, but they [[{{Beastmaster}} refused to tear him to shreds]]. Vinitarius saw this as a good omen and spared the kid, selling him to slavery instead. Boy, did it turn out wrong!

* IAmAHumanitarian: He [[NeverLiveItDown once]] partook of a killed enemy's flesh in a heat of battle, earning him the nickname.

* MeaningfulName: Despite the incident that caused his nickname being more of NeverLiveItDown, the name itself turned out quite appropriate -- he's indeed a cruel and insidious warlord, a robber and an aspiring conqueror.

* EverythingIsBetterWithPrincesses: Self-evident in the first book where she is a major character.

* AndroclesLion: Well, bat. Wolfhound saved his whelps from being squashed by mining equipment in Jewel Mountains, and he's been loyal to him ever since.

** Uloiho, the ChildhoodFriend in question, is himself an example, being a weak, hunchbacked son of a middle-class artisan, and, on the outside, not a match for a Mafia Prince. Turned out, Kei-Sonmor's GenreSavvy father specifically encouraged this to improve his son's character. In the end it worked, helping not only Luta, his son, but Uloiho as well, who went to became [[GeniusCripple a world-famous jeweller and goldsmith]].

* {{Patronymic}}: Nesmeyanovich means "the son of Nesmeyan", or "the Unsmiling".

* TheMafia[=/=]TheYakuza: Sonmor's gangs try to maintain the same image of suave sophisticates and [[NeighborhoodFriendlyGangsters protectors of the underdogs]] as their prototypes. Sometimes they even succeed.

* {{Badass}}: Due to his [[PrisonsAreGymnasiums past in the mines]] (which simply kills the weak) and arguably the [[OldMaster best teachers]] available, he's one of the deadliest persons in the world.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: [[TheOjou A daughter of wealthy merchant]], she has lost both her parents to an epidemic as a kid, and [[EvilUncle her uncle]], who inherited their property, treated her no better than a common slave. The famous scholar, Zelhat of Melsina, who lived near them and [[TheObiWan taught her various subjects]], tried to buy her out as a wife, if only to get her free from an abusive household, but couldn't rise the money before her bastard of an uncle has sold her away. After which she ended in the Maneater's castle.

* ArrangedMarriage: Gluzd planned to give her off to Vinitar back when he still held an important post. To say that elen cared little for the idea would be understatement, but being a nice girl she didn't oppose her father.
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Unfortunatey, Wlolfhound doesn't return [[RescueRomance her crush]] and sees her as [[LikeBrotherAndSister his younger sister instead]], with consideration for the class divide.

* SmartGirl: Well read, educated and naturally bright, she's a [[WisePrince good ruler material]].

* TookALevelInBadass: A mild example, but those kan-kiro lessons from Wolfhound did pay off a little.

* BlondGuysAreEvil: Thoroughly averted. Hi might not be the ''[[DeadpanSnarker nicest]]'' character, but he's certainly one of the kindest.

* BlondGuysAreEvil: Averted as strongly as with Eurych, though he's a platinum blond and was originally mistaken for an old man by Wolfhound.

!!Sonmor
The Narlak city of Condar, being a [[NotSoSafeHarbor large trade haven]], always was [[WretchedHive a hotbed of crime]], but after one notable incident during a major war 200 years ago, it came forth as a seat of the [[TheDon main crime lord]] of the whole nation, whose descendants bore [[LegacyCharacter the same name and the title]] of the Night Conis ever since.

* TrialByCombat: Is challenged to one by Wolfhound, [[HandicappedBadass despite the latter having just started to recover from the injuries received during the trip and nursing a broken arm]]. Gets killed [[KarmicDeath by his own sword]].

* GenreBlind: He showed the effect of gunpowder to a warlord and didn't realise until almost too late, that he'd want to use it for war.

* AndroclesLion: Well, bat. Wolfhound saved his whelps from being squashed by some mining equipments in Jewel Mountains, and he's been loyal to him ever since.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Sour cream.

A young scholar from the [[AncientGrome ancient and advanced land of Arrantiad]], who makes himself at odd with the [[SinisterMinister influential Twins priest]] and gets essentially kidnapped by his posse to be dragged before the crowd as an example of "[[ScienceIsBad empty learning]]". Gets saved by Wolfhound, and soon becomes his HeterosexualLifePartner — [[VitriolicBestBuds snarking all the time]].

* {{Bishounen}}: A classic blond blue-eyed example.

[[spoiler: A spacer from Earth stranded on this planet after his starship hit a NegativeSpaceWedgie close to it.]] Knowledgeable beyound belief and [[TelepathicSpacemen imbued with powerful]] PsychicPowers, but overly trusting, he'd once offered his help with building a castle for a seemingly benign chieftan Vinitarius, aka The Maneater. Vinitarius quickly realised the [[FantasticNuke true potential]] of the gunpowder Tilorn used for demolishing rocks, and, after the scientist refused to reveal its secret, threw him into the dungeon, from which he was rescued by Wolfhound. The plot of the second book was started by TheQuest to reach [[spoiler: his lifeboat with its SubspaceAnsible]], which he has to leave on one of Segvan Islands after the circumstances forced him to get out of there as soon as possible.

* BlondGuysAreEvil: Averted as strongly as with Eurych, though he's a platinum blond, and was originally mistaken for an old man by Wolfhound.

* TheMedic: Just by the fact that he's [[spoiler: an Earthling and knows infinitely more about the origins of diseases]], he gets to be a better physicians than most of other in the series, even disregarding his HealingHands.

Vinitarius' former slave, a 15-year-old Saccarem girl introduced as a Maneater's bedmate for the night during his unfortunate encounter with Wolfhound, and rescued by him along with Tilorn. She was a student of the famous scholar and physician, and while she herself quickly gets DemotedToExtra together with Tilorn ([[PairTheSpares whose girlfriend she eventually becomes]]), her master (or his memory) and her past remain important even in the later parts of the series.

* AbusiveParents: Subverted. She had perfectly nice and loving parents — until they died. It is [[EvilUncle her guardian]] who turned abusive, largely so that he hadn't give her the required part of inheritance.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: [[TheOjou A daughter of wealthy merchant]], she has lost both her parents to an epidemic as a kid, and [[EvilUncle her uncle]], who inherited their property, treated her no better than the common slave. The famous scholar, Zelhat of Melsina, who lived near them and [[TheObiWan taught her various subjects]], tried to buy her out as a wife, if only to get her free from an abusive household, but couldn't rise the money before her bastard on an uncle has sold her away. After which she ended in a Maneater's castle.

Wolfhound's mentor and a kind of mother figure, an elderly priestess of an Eastern love goddess Kan, she brings to the world a message of love and forgiveness at the knees of the Great Mother. But as the world is hardly as kind and forgiving as the Kan's priestesses' teachings, they get another of their goddess blessing: a martial art that allows even the women, the weak, and the elderly to protect themselves easily -- the ''kan-kiro'', of which she's the undisputed grand-master. Her travels with Wolfhound are described in the prequel novel ''Peace on the Road''.

* BlandNameProduct: Kan-kiro is pretty unabashedly an Aikido with a serial number filed off.

** She's basically a saint herself, [[spoiler: if not more -- in the finale she's been shown [[WalkingTheEarth walking on]] with [[NeverMessWithGranny Angran]] and [[PhysicalGod Mother of the Twins]], and all three ''[[PowerFloats didn't touch the ground]]''...]]

King of a Solvenn nation with his capital in Galirad. [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure A just and noble ruler]] and the [[WarriorPrince gallant warrior]], he's a significant character in the first book and is often mentioned afterwards. He is well loved by his people, and while he is understandably suspicios of Wolfhound when they meet, he stil tries to do the right thing.

* AllAmazonsWantHercules: He's a famous warlord himself, and ''both'' his wives were the equally well-known [[LadyOfWar warrior maidens]]. In fact, his second one [[LastMinuteHookup settled on him]] after crushing on Wolfhound for most of the book

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: From all what is said and seen of him. He's suspicious of Wolfhound, true, but it only adds to his reasonable character, as who wouldn't be suspicious of a semi-foreign cutthroat returning from a disastrous trip with the accusations of treason towards the old-known and trusted reative?
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Not only is he very involved in daily goings of his kingdom, but he also beieves into leading from the frontlines, and often engages in diplomacy presonally, being his own envoy. In fact, he is out of Galirad for most of the book because he's on a diplomatic trip.

* LegacyCharacter: The official legend maintains that it's still the same Sonmor as two hundred years ago.

* OddFriendship: Kei-Sonmor (the heir) befriended both Wolfhound and Eurych on their journey, and as Wolfhound managed to do him a favor, saving the pregnant wife of his ChildhoodFriend from a Death Cult assassin, he extended his protection on them for his whole empire.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Involuntarily enforced on Wolfhound and Eurych in Tin-Vilena. When they were swindled by a dishonest merchant there,[[note]]Who, basically, {{Rules Lawyer}}ed himself out of paying the deposit for the mules they've rented elsewhere on the road and returned to him, saying that the quipu that served as a proof was forged.[[/note]] the money were returned to them on the very next day (together with a merchant who couldn't stop his excuses) by the couple of a scary-looking dudes, who then left with the quote: "The friends of Sonmor are our friends".

Another Segvan antagonst (notice the pattern here?) and a recurring one at that. [[SinisterMinister An up-and-rising priest]] of the [[CrystalDragonJesus Twins faith]], he's most characterized by [[AmbitionIsEvil his dream of achieving fame and recognition]], and putting his Church in a better position, and [[TheUnfettered the lengths he was prepared to go]] for that were... [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans pretty radical]], to say the least

* AmbitionIsEvil: Honomer isn't a bad man, really, but his ambitions pretty much consumed him completely, until [[BreakTheHaughty he was brough down and shown the error of his ways]] [[spoiler: by the miracles of the Twins and their Mother]], leaving him a better man afterwards.
* BookEnds: The series chronologcally starts with a kind Twins' priest wandering into the Grey Hounds village in the dead of winter, and after being nursed to health decides to write down Venns' myths and legends. [[spoiler: It ends with another priest similarly wandering into another village, only this priest now being Honomer.]]

* HumiliationConga: Honomer in Tin-Vilena, when [[spoiler: the Twins [[DivineIntervention decided to took the matters into their own hands]]]]. First the great icon of the Twins in the main city temple miraculously rotted through in just a couple of days (after just slowly fading for years), then it just plainly ''refused'' to be removed, showing its ruined state for everyone, until the replacement was carved by the master artisan miraculously healed from blindness due to praying to the Mother (whose cult is officially suppressed and discouraged by the Hyerarchs as semi-pagan) at the equally discouraged unofficial prayer spot -- all this happened on a Honomer's watch and exactly when he hoped to raise his standing in the Church. Then Honomer decided to visit the miraculously revealed image of the Mother at Haran-Kiir (mentioned in the second book) and is plainly ''refused'' entry through the usually easy mountain pass. Finally, he gets lost in a well-known place, and is forced to wander, subsisting on raw rabbits and roots for a month, [[spoiler:until he has a mystical episode and decides to start WalkingTheEarth]].
* TheFundamentalist: He's of a more radical, by-the-book pesuasion regarding the doctrinal points of faith.

* HonorBeforeReason: Vinitar would've very much rather be friends with Wolfhound, but his honor commands him into the blood feud, because Wolfhound killed the Maneater without a duel.

* ParentalAbandonment: His mother died when he was a child, and his father ''hated'' him with a passion. He ended up being raised by [[NeverMessWithGranny his grandmother]] and his father's men, after he impressed them with his strength of character (yeas, even as a kid). They then mostly ended up defecting to him from his father.

* WorthyOpponent: He and Wolfhound hold nothing but a healthy respect to each other and are only at odd because the [[HonorBeforeReason honor binds them]] into a [[CycleOfRevenge Blood Feud]].

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: He's actually named exactly the same as his son — Vinitar — but insist on changing it to the [[AncientGrome more Arrantish]] way out of vanity.
* GenocideBackfire: After the Pup killed one of the attackers, the brother of said attacker tried to sic hounds on him, but they [[{{Beastmaster}} refused to tear him to shreads]]. Vinitarius saw this as a good omen and spared the kid, selling him to slavery instead. Boy, did he turned out wrong!
* {{Jerkass}}: To everyone, including his own son, which leads to them quikly becoming estranged, until Vinitar leaves with the most of his father's original band, fed up with the Maneater's character.

* {{Pirate}}: A reputation for most Island Segvans, actually, whose barren islands bear very little, so they turn towards the life of mairitime highwaymen. OTOH most other island chieftains seem to find other ways of feeding their men, either by settling on the shore, or taking up a trade, but Vinitarius sticks to the old ways, apparently [[ForTheEvulz out of pure amusement]].

* SelfServingMemory: Wolfhound muses that Luchezar might've actually convinced himself that [[spoiler:it was Wolfhound and not him who sold Helen out]]. Gray Dust can do that to people.

* CluelessChickMagnet: Let's see — he gets at least ''three'' girls[[note]]And maybe four, if we count [[RescueRomance Niilith]], though she soon switches her attentions to Tilorn.[[/note]] openly crushing on him in the first book alone, [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys despite]] [[FaceOfAThug his looks and reputation]]: [[PrecociousCrush Little Doe]], [[AllAmazonsWantHercules Ertan]] and [[RescueRomance Elen]]. He doesn't really give that much thought, though, not in the small part because [[ChasteHero he considers himself]] [[ToyShip engaged to Litte Doe]], though he eventually grows into her for real.

* FaceOfAThug: Looks like a total cutthroat, which only adds to his sour outlook on life.

* KnightInSourArmor: He's seen enough to not have any illusions about people, but still