A Practical Guide to Evil | Character Index (Villains, Heroes, Morally Ambiguous Named)

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The Woe

"Lies and violence!"

—Battle cry of the Woe

The main characters of the series and Catherine's Band of Five. They consist of various Named whom Catherine managed to sway to her side around the time of the Arcadian Campaign, and were dubbed a "woe unto all [they] behold" by the Queen of Summer. The pseudonym was quickly ratified by the Ranger, and in time they came to live up to the Queen's apt description.

In General

Appropriated Appellation: They got their group name after the Queen of Summer said that they were destined to bring woe.
Deadpan Snarker: All of them are exceptionally witty individuals, and tend to lovngly bicker amongst themselves in their downtime—usually at Catherine's expense.

Catherine Foundling

Queen Catherine Foundling of Callow, The Warden (formerly Squire, Warden of the East), Lady of Marchford, Sovereign (formerly Duchess) of Moonless Nights, Queen of Winter, Queen of the Hunt, Queen in Callow, Arch-heretic of the East, Losara Queen (Queen of Lost and Found), First Under the Night

The Black Queen of Callow, Captain (formerly Lieutenant) Callow, Warlord, Countess of Marchford, Mighty Losara

"Justifications only matter to the just."

The main protagonist of A Practical Guide to Evil. Born in the years following the Praesi conquest of Callow and raised at the Imperial House for Tragically Orphaned Girls, Catherine was an excellent example of exactly what those facilities were designed to throttle in the crib. Stubborn, driven, and precociously clever and charismatic, Catherine had all the signs of a hero in the making. However, her ambitions laid in the opposite direction—rather than risking further destruction through rebellion, her plan was to enroll in the War College and rise up the ranks, reforming the system within the institutions of the empire. Fortunately for her, the Black Knight was working a longer game that was compatible with her goals: when they encounter each other one fateful night he offers her the name of Squire, and the power to make the changes she seeks. Catherine accepts, becoming one of the Empire's most powerful agents overnight.

Catherine's first Aspect was Learn, after her confrontation with Heiress on the Blessed Isle she gained a second Aspect: Struggle. During the Battle of Marchford her third Aspect, Seek was corrupted by the demon and had to be permanently removed by Masego.

Following the events of the Battle of Liesse in which her Name was stripped from her and she had to win it back from Chider, she lost all of her aspects while also regaining the empty slot that had been lost to the demon. The first new Aspect she gained was Take. The second Aspect was Break and the third was Fall

After the second Battle of Liesse Catherine loses her connection to the name of Squire, retaining only a shadow of her previous Aspects and her Mantle as the new Queen of Winter. She then gains the title (not Name) of 'The Black Queen'.

Then during her trip into the Everdark in an attempt to recruit the Drow as a fighting force she found herself locked in battle with a pair of nascent goddesses and despairing over how no one is willing to work together surrenders her Mantle as the Queen of Winter to them and after they interrogate her and find her to be true in her motives raise her from the dead and make her the head priestess of their religion.

Following the fall of the Tower, Cat finally receives her new Name: Warden of the East. However, both candidates for the role of her counterpart, the Warden of the West, refuse the title. As a result, Cat ascends to the Name of the Warden. The Aspects she gains are Silence, See, and Sentence.

Abdicate the Throne: Promises to do this after the perils facing Calernia pass. She makes good on her promise in Epilogue I, and abdicates from the position of the Warden at the end of Epilogue II, decades after the war against Keter ends.
Action Girl: This. Only two years after becoming Named, she already had two hero kills to her Name, a third was done at her order and she won every battle she was involved in. She's a walking ball of death to anything she fights, from other Named to devils to demons. And she's just getting started.
Action Survivor: During the Summerholm arc. Afterwards she develops her combat skills and becomes acclimated to her Name abilities so that she's more of a straightforward badass
A God I Am Not: She is shocked and immediately denies it when The Dead King lists her as a fellow immortal, stating that all Villains are ''technically'' immortal already, and even he can still be killed.
Anti-Magic: Cat's Silence Aspect allows her to silence even access to Night, presumably on the basis that it cuts off the mental communication of Willing Channelers.
Anti-Villain: Somewhere between Well-Intentioned and In-Name-Only. She becomes more ruthless as time goes on but she still avoids clearly reprehensible practices like human sacrifice, torture, etc. and does her best to preserve innocent life. Her villainy is almost entirely a factor of being aligned with the Evil side. This however changes when she does become more willing to sacrifice innocents by the thousands just to maintain her power.
- This is remarked on in Kairos's internal monologue: By using his Aspect of Wish, he is able to see a person's most fervent desire, and has a laugh at Catherine's intense desire for peace in her country. Were circumstances different, she could easily have been a hero.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Zig-zagged. When she is first granted command of Rat Company it is in recognition of her achievement in taking command of the company and leading it to victory against truly ridiculous odds. In order to earn the command of the Legion, Catherine then has to come out victorious in a five-way melee commanding her own company. However she subverts this trope when she wins by cutting a deal with her most competent competitor rather than carrying the fight through to the bitter end. Once the Fifteenth Legion enters the field this becomes inverted: Although she's technically in charge, her physical power as The Squire forces her to focus on front-line combat, and she delegates most tactical planning to Juniper, while still clearly being in command.
Badass Creed: "Justifications only matter to the just."
Badass Boast: She gets a few.
- "I don't win fights because I'm the Squire – I win them because I'm Catherine Foundling. Watch them take a swing. See where it gets them."
- "Whether they be gods or kings or all the armies in Creation."
Black Comedy: Catherine has a distinctly dark sense of humour. Mind you, a cynical take on life with bonus Gallows Humor are par for the course with a job in the armed forces of anywhere.
Broken Pedestal: Goes so far as to stab Black in the gut and banish him from Callow due to his manipulations.
Brought Down to Badass: Repeatedly.
- Covered in burns by Hellfire and a cut by an Absurdly Sharp Blade? Use your Necromatic abilities on yourself.
- Have your Name ripped out of your soul? Deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the person who is now struggling to cope with the Super Senses they just stole.
- Book Four takes this further. She willingly feeds her status as a Physical God to Sve Noc. Shocked by this, Sve Noc saves her life and makes Catherine her first priestess, and allies with Callow.
Brutal Honesty: Cat tends to tell it to you in ways both blunt and straight. Why lie when truth can get the job done?
Came Back Wrong: She's had part of her soul amputated due to demonic corruption, was killed by The Lone Swordsman (with her corpse's head cut off), and was turned into a Humanoid Abomination and had her literal heart ripped out by the Winter King. Several characters question how much of the original Catherine is actually left.
Conveniently an Orphan: Catherine grows up without ever knowing her parents in an imperial orphanage, and thus can leave with no obligations, regrets or even a goodbye. Furthermore, in a universe that runs on stories, being an orphan is often an advantage: Cat uses it in Arcadia to wriggle herself in a story of a lost daughter tragically killing her unknown father as foretold by an ancient (read: written this evening) prophecy.
Cool Horse: Later in the story, her mount is an undead murderous Pegasus that she killed and reanimated herself.
Daddy's Girl / Daddy's Little Villain: Technically, she and Black aren't at all related. But, just you try telling all of his mates that, as most of them spend (or, in Catherine and Black's opinions, waste) time twitting both about how alike in attitude and humour they are. Down to mannerisms. The rest of the Calamities have a point, though — whatever their victims say.
Deadpan Snarker: She has to be one just to keep up with her officers.
Determinator: Woe betide foes who think that because she's bleeding out, she's got to be out for the count. It gets to the point where The Lone Swordsman repeatedly tries to warn others of what he's found out about her the hard way.
Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Has a bit of a habit of doing this, and has done it to angels, The Dead King, and Sve Noc.
Discard and Draw: Cat cycles through powers frequently in the first four books. Late in Book 2, during First Liesse, she loses the Name of Squire to Chider but takes it back with a new set of Aspects. During Second Liesse, at the end of Book 3, she embraces her Mantle of Queen of Winter, which immediately consumes the Name of Squire but brings her nearly to the level of being a Physical God. She loses Winter at the end of Book 4 to Sve Noc, but she convinces the Drow goddesses to pact with her, making her First Under the Night and empowering her with the Night. Averted with that last one: though she obtains the Name of the Warden in Book 7, she still largely relies on Night for her heavy lifting, and though she passes on the position of Warden to Sapan at the end of the series, she never loses her connection to Night.
Don't Make Me Destroy You: Her pleas for compromise to the First Prince and the Grey Pilgrim are both turned down. Unfortunately, this was her attempt at searching for an excuse not to pursue her third option: an invitation to Keter by the King of the Dead himself.
The Dreaded: It takes some time, but Catherine eventually earns her reputation as the heir to the most successful tyrant in Calernia. By the time the Tenth Crusade rolls around, the Proceran commanders are clearly terrified of her.
Eating The Eyecandy: Catherine is very fond of ogling attractive people around herself.
Extra-Dimensional Shortcut: After becoming the new Queen of Winter, she and her forces can use these to dramatically, if unpredictably, shorten the time it takes to march somewhere with no risk of being attacked en route.
Fisher Queen: After becoming the Queen in Callow, Grey Pilgrim claims this as the reason why negotiation is not an option. According to him, the people of Callow living under the rule of a Villain will be influenced into Evil themselves, regardless of her intentions.
From Nobody to Nightmare: She starts as an orphan who works as a waitress, but raises fast to become The Dreaded.
Frontline General: The power of Catherine's Name means that she is frequently needed on the front lines, however she usually prefers to stay out of the fray as long as possible, only getting directly involved in combat at the most decisive point in a given engagement. Over time, she stops embracing this trope so whole-heartedly, as her new powers and roles require her to be more of The Chessmaster.
Godzilla Threshold: The power of Winter. After the Arcadia arc, Catherine is the sole titled noble in the fae Winter Court. Pulling on its power in a controlled way is easy enough, but when she breaks the bindings that connect her soul to this raw power, watch out.
Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Uses a dragonbone pipe to smoke medicinal herbs.
Good Thing You Can Heal: Cat fights very recklessly as Queen of Winter, causing her to lean on her Healing Factor frequently. She has to train herself out of this behavior as First Under the Night, as she's become considerably easier to kill.
Healing Factor: As Queen of Winter she acquires something akin to this, capable of regenerating entire parts of her body in a manner of seconds. She compares it to her body being "smoke and mirrors", and it's later confirmed that her form as Queen of Winter was a fixed state that Creation would simply replenish when any part of it was lost.
Hero Killer: She cripples the Hunter in the second Summerholm arc, then goes on to order the death of the Exiled Prince and then kills The Page in single combat at the battle of Three Hills. However, her credentials arguably aren't fully secure until she kills The Lone Swordsman in Liesse.
- By the beginning of Book 4, she has killed at least half a dozen heroic incursions into Callow, cementing her place as this.

Honesty Is the Best Policy: When caught with her hand in the cookie jar, she tends to head for sheer audacity (and, at the very least, ~50+% truth, perhaps ~25% twisty omission and maybe 10-25% outright fib... give or take) over completely weaseling out of it. She owns both her faults and her strengths, thanks — including accepting the price of not being awesome enough to get out unscathed. And, she does get herself dinged; just, not as badly as you'd expect given the situations. This is mainly thanks to ducking the worst due to mostly going for this trope and combining it with Crazy Is Cool.
Humanoid Abomination: After breaking Masego's shackles that held her Mantle in check Catherine fully comes into her powers as the Queen of the Winter Fae. As a result becomes less a person than a person-shaped magical construct that can bend, exploit or flat-out ignore normal Creational Laws.
It's Personal: To Akua, one of her Nemeses: when Akua attacks the 15th legion and Marchford, Catherine takes it personally (instead of (as Praesi do) to see it as a part of the political game).
- Other than the fact she played a major role in the Doom of Liesse, a large part of Catherine's enmity with Malicia stems from her instigating the Night of Knives, and murder of Ratface.
Kid with the Leash: While certainly not helpless in her own right, she becomes this for the Wild Hunt after claiming the Mantle of Winter, and for Akua after binding her Soul Jar to her cloak. Being the High Priest for Sve Noc also counts, as they (usually) listen to her advice, despite not being under her control.
Lame Pun Reaction: She absolutely hates puns and is none too happy that she's recruited a lot of people who love them.
Les Collaborateurs: Catherine is a Callowan who willingly works with the Dread Empire, albeit for the sympathetic reason of keeping Praes from ruining her nation any further.
The Leader: She's mostly a mix of The Charismatic and The Headstrong but she's been known to pull some clever plans and manipulations in the mold of the Mastermind as well.
Line-of-Sight Name: She calls her first horse Zombie, as she'd just brought it back from the dead when told to name it. She carries on the tradition for all subsequent mounts - all six of them.
Morality Chain: She's an odd version of this for Sve Noc. In large part, they keep her so that they can socialize with someone not their enemy or raised to worship them. This is so they won't get too detached from mortals and lose their Genre Savviness, as old gods like them often do.
Non-Indicative Name: She calls her personal mounts "Zombie", even though a few of them (most notably Zombie II, who never actually becomes undead as its body is destroyed beyond resurrection when it's killed by the Summer Fae) were still alive.
Patricide: At the end of the Praesi arc in Book 7, Black forces this on Cat so that she will not be unable to kill Alaya as she had sworn to do. Praes needed a Chancellor, and without him, Alaya would be the only candidate left. Though this act doesn't damage her feelings for the man, she has nightmares about it for some time afterward.
Pragmatic Villainy: She's still got L-plates on, but is well on the way to getting her license.
Rebuilt Pedestal: See Broken Pedestal above. She and Black mend their wounded relationship in book 5.
Red Baron: During Second Liesse, Catherine's charisma with her troops; slightly treasonous actions to take more power back from Praes; and sheer, terrifying badassery causes her people to begin revering her as the Black Queen. The Wandering Bard sabotages events so that it doesn't become a Name, but it's a title Catherine nonetheless wears with pride for the rest of the series.
Redheads Are Ravishing: Cuddly redheaded mages to be precise, as evidenced by her brief relationship with Killian.
Refusal of the Call: When the Hashmallim try to turn her into the heroic Queen of Callow in Liesse, she flatly refuses and calls them out for being hypocrites.
Ruler Protagonist: Starting from Book 4, after she achieves her goal of becoming the queen of Callow.
Spontaneous Weapon Creation: After getting the power of Winter, she creates swords out of ice whenever she loses or breaks her sword.
Take a Third Option: At the end of Book Four, she's stuck in the middle of a pitched battle between Akua and Sve Noc over her soul's worthiness. Mortally wounded, missing a large part of her soul, and having just come out of a Villainous BSoD, she interrupts. Catherine freely offers her unconditional surrender to Sve Noc, and humbly begs for aid for her people from the new deity. Sve Noc decides to not only spare her, but allies with her against the Dead King, technically fulfilling Catherine's obligations to the Dwarves, and gaining the army she went there to gather in the first place.
Then Let Me Be Evil: She tries to play nice and limit casualties during the Tenth Crusade's initial push into Callow. She refused a plan that would have crippled Procer in the first few months of the Crusade as well as the use of any large rituals out of hope that being cordial would enable peace talks. The House of Light promptly declares her Arch-heretic of the East. She then decides to take The Dead King up on his offer of negotiations.
Throwing Down the Gauntlet: She challenges the Duke of Violent Squalls to a duel while at a party in his estate by stealing another guest's glove and throwing it against his head.
Underestimating Badassery: People keep thinking she's a minor threat and paying a hard price for it. Even angels.
Unresolved Sexual Tension: Cat and Akua go through this song-and-dance for most of the Tenth Crusade. Cat goes from being annoyed at how attractive she finds a person she hates, to being annoyed at how she's starting to like a reluctant ally, to considering her a close friend whose past crimes she can't overlook, to falling in (ill-fated) love with her.
Villain Has a Point: Many of her criticisms of the Heroes are completely valid, seeing how at least some (read:William) tend to view Evil races (like, say, Orcs) as Always Chaotic Evil beings that deserve to be wiped out.
Villains Never Lie: She certainly prefers to use truth, but isn't about to shackle herself to the practice. She tells the unvarnished truth most of the time — particularly if she knows her opponent is resistant to the idea that straightforward truth is even a thing. However, it just makes her lies harder to catch or refute when she does deploy them. Later on, her fae power makes any promise relatively binding. She can still be very specific with the wording though.
Villain Protagonist: With everything she has done up to this point for her own selfish gain, as well as what "side" she's technically on, she definitely fits this.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: After getting the Mantle of Winter, its power makes her more "traditionally evil" the longer she uses it in a battle. When this is devoured by Sve Noc at the end of Book Four, Cat enters an on-and-off Villainous BSoD out of horror over her actions.

Hakram of the Howling Wolves

Lord Hakram "Deadhand" of the Howling Wolves, The Warlord (formerly Adjutant)

Catherine's sergeant in the academy wargames, Hakram quickly proves himself indispensable with his quiet competence and uncanny encyclopedic knowledge of the social dynamics of the academy students. After she assumes command of the Fifteenth legion Catherine names Hakram her adjutant, which unexpectedly develops into a new Name, the first to appear among the orcs in generations.

Adjutant has three Aspects: Stand, Find, and Rampage.

While on a diplomatic mission to the Orc tribes, Hakram experiences a fair amount of inner turmoil from the combination of losing two limbs to a demon, Cat's subsequent Condescending Compassion, and the realization that Adjutant had gained no personal goals outside of Cat's ambitions. Hakram responds by reluctantly leaving Cat's service and relinquishing the Name Adjutant in order to place a successful bid as the first Orc Warlord in centuries. The first new Aspects he gains in the position are Lead and Rage.

An Arm and a Leg: Had his hand cut off by William's sword. Warlock gives him a replacement made via Necromancy.
Affably Evil: Hakram is quite suave and sophisticated in a smoothly jovial way. And, not just in a case of "for an orc": for practically anybody. Still has the whole "will kill you easily" air, though.
Badass Bureaucrat: He wasn't what anybody would call bad at juggling the admin before he got his Name, but afterwards? Yikes: turbocharged! Also, Orc — pity anybody who tries to mess with his filing system...
Battle Butler: Of a distinctly batman variety (no, not Batman — don't give Pickler ideas). He has a higher status than you'd expect, but he basically functions as this in his role as Adjunct to Catherine.
Broken Ace: At first glance, Hakram is pretty much the ideal Orc male — physically imposing, skilled at violence, stoic, and sexually successful. He doesn't let on to anyone except Catherine that he doesn't like that role — he doesn't feel the bloodlust that normally defines his people and was essentially going through the motions until he ran into Catherine.
Cultured Warrior: Has a love of Kharsum poetry, and occasionally recites poems when fighting a particularly difficult opponent.
Deadpan Snarker: Yup. Tusks greatly help with your deadpan delivery, apparently.
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: As Hakram tells it, this was where he was at the time he met Catherine. He'd been coasting through life on the back of others' expectations and his own competence without ever finding something he cared enough about to fight for. It was only when Catherine showed him both how truly messed up the imperial system was and that it was possible to change it that he truly dedicated himself to something for the first time in his life.
Determinator: Meeting Catherine put a fire under him. So much so, he not only shrugged off a major injury for her, but wrestled a new, and appropriate, Name from the ungrateful cosmos.
Friend-or-Idol Decision: Book 7 sees his loyalty to Cat challenged when Hakram has the opportunity to become a claimant for the Warlord Name. Ultimately, he chooses the latter as it provides a chance to return the currently-subjugated Orc race to their former strength.
The Lancer and/or The Dragon: Catherine's all-purpose right-hand man. His nascent Name seems to be built as a supporting role to the Squire.
The Oath-Breaker: Regretfully breaks his oath of loyalty to Cat in order to take up leadership of the Orc clans and the ancient Name of Warlord.
Phrase Catcher: Among the former members of Rat Company: "Hakram, you gossipy bitch!"
Hakram: I don't know why people keep telling me things.
The Reliable One: Seems to have as large a part in running the Fifteenth as Catherine herself sometimes, and she's commented several times she lucked out majorly when she first got him as a sergeant. We see in the extra chapters that he's not above cleaning up messes before they ever get to her attention, including his own attempted assassination.
Red Baron: got nicknamed "Hakram Deadhand" after losing a hand to the Lone Swordsman in Summerholm and quickly proved the nickname right by strangling an enemy priest to death at the Battle of Three Hills.
Skeletal Appendage: After Hakram loses a hand in a fight with the Lone Swordsman, Warlock creates a skeletal hand instead, granting Hakram the moniker Deadhand. The skeletal limb apparently makes him a hit with the Orkish ladies and also helps him intimidate people (most notably Thief).

Masego

Lord Masego, The Hierophant (formerly Apprentice)

Warlock's adopted son who joins the Fifteenth Legion after fighting with them in Summerholm. Masego is an extremely gifted mage who is largely apathetic about all non-magical matters, but he quickly proves himself indispensable. His Aspects are Glimpse and Deconstruct. His Aspects as The Hierophant are Witness, Ruin, and Wrest.

Autism in Media: It's heavily implied that Masego would be on the spectrum by our world's standards, though it's depicted with enough nuance to avert Hollywood Autism:
- At one point early in Book 4, as a result of entering Masego's Mental World to help him wake up from the backlash of Gray Pilgrim disrupting a massive working, Catherine accidentally finds herself experiencing some of Masego's memories from his perspective. The second time around, she notes that he finds faces hard to read before immediately wondering about his aversion to touch—which she speculates is about not understanding why people are touching him:
  Catherine: I still remembered what it felt like, people’s faces being so hard to read. Was that how he felt all the time? I’d thought he was uncomfortable with touching because it was the way Warlock had raised him, but that hadn’t been the way at all. I just… hadn’t known what the touching was for, and I’d hesitated to act until I could correctly identify the reason. It’d been like living a world full of masks, so very few of which I could read.
- He is highly Literal-Minded. It's noted repeatedly that he is by far the most sincere of the Woe without even trying.
- His focus on magic and magical theory is implied to be a fixation.
Badass Bookworm: Masego had reportedly never been in actual combat before he met Catherine. Despite this he wipes the floor with pretty much every mage he comes up against. This was, perhaps, only to be expected when he was up against The Bumbling Conjurer but he also sends Heiress running and goes several rounds against a Demon of Corruption.
De-power: Book 5 has him see his magic Severed from him by Saint of Swords during his possession by the Dead King. It's downplayed, though: he soon gains a replacement in the form of Wresting magic from outside sources instead. In Book 7, Akua uses a small part of Sve Noc's reforged godhood to reforge Masego's soul and with it his connection to his magic.
Deity of Human Origin: Masego's overarching goal is to obtain sufficient knowledge to achieve apotheosis. Upon subsuming Neshamah's godhead, he succeeds.
For Science!: Well, "for empirical thaumatic studies", at least. Poking at Creation to see how it ticks! Yay!
Freudian Excuse: He wants to dissect Creation to see how it works. The reason? He was raised in a pocket dimension and at quite a tender age saw his world end.
Friendless Background: Hinted at. Also hinted that both his dads have tried several times to socialise him in various ways with others around his own age, only to have it not stick until relatively recently.
Glass Eye: Gets a pair of glass eyes during the Arcadia arc, made from his magic spectacles after they blew up in his original eyes due to seeing the Sun of Summer up close. He can see with them at least as well as he could with his original eyes, even through the blindfold he wears over them.
Godhood Seeker: Becomes this after meeting the Dead King at the latest. What he hopes for is not power, no, but the understanding and knowledge it would bring. He succeeds, consuming the Dead King's godhood to attain it—in the epilogue, he uses it to develop a new theory of magic.
Goggles Do Something Unusual: His spectacles let him capture images and easily see spellwork, among other things.
Grammar Nazi: He is obsessed with being exact when he talks. Catherine has theorized it's a weakness driven by his Name and he's literally incapable of letting imprecision go.
Happily Adopted: At some point, Warlock bumped into a promising, very little lad (a 2 year old, according to Word of God) with a propensity to learn magic. And, Tikoloshe promptly started a "we can adopt and train him — oh, go on, you know you could do a much better job as a real Daddy to your apprentice than your master did with the whole master-pupil thing!" campaign. It worked (ulterior motives or not): Apprentice wouldn't have it any other way.
Implied Love Interest: Subverted. Admittedly, Archer makes clear that she is in love with him during Book 4, while Masego cares for her the most out of the Woe. After their Relationship Upgrade, Indrani also refers to Masego as her "partner"; nevertheless, their relationship is later shown to be non-romantic. On top of the fact that Masego doesn't consider it his concern who Indrani sleeps with (itself not dispositive), Cat explicitly distinguishes her friends' relationship dynamic from the non-sexual romantic relationships she's seen. That, in addition to Masego's unique views on love, suggests the two are actually in a Queerplatonic relationship:
Hierophant spared an irritated thought for Trismegistus as well, irked by the presumption [that he was not "in love" with Archer]. As if a cursory reading of his memories would be enough to understand the sum of him.... Not every kind of love involves bedplay or poetry, Uncle Amadeus had told him. You can crave closeness with someone without craving them in other ways. Sometimes it just… fits.
—Masego
Not Distracted by the Sexy: Heiress makes a brief attempt to Show Some Leg hoping to bring him over to her side. He responds by deadpanning about vivisecting her. It's all but stated that Masego is asexual, to the point of fellow ace-spec Black being brought in to give him a talk about it.
- He does seem to be at least a little attracted to The Archer, however — or flummoxed: one of the two or both. And, Malicia can crack his chronic disinterest a little, too (but, she does that with everybody).
Odd Friendship: He, Cat, and Hakram rub along surprisingly well, considering their various differences. It seems to surprise him a little, too. In Book 3, he is also the first of the Woe to befriend Archer.
Person of Mass Destruction: Where Masego goes, the Fifteenth's enemies die.
Signature Move: Most of his magic spells are one-offs, but he has a signature binding ritual, "Seven pillars hold up the sky...", which he uses several times throughout the series.
Squishy Wizard: In fights, the rest of the Woe usually provides frontline support and protects him while Masego spends time calling down the equivalent of a magical nuke. He takes time to build up, but once he gets going none of the Woe can match him in raw offensive power.
Variant Power Copying: The central ability of the Hierophant: almost any "miracle" (which seemingly encompasses most non-Aspect-based unique abilities) that Masego Witnesses can be reverse-engineered using magic, up to and including the smiting of an angelic choir.

Indrani

Indrani, The Ranger (formerly Archer)

The Lady

One of Ranger's minions, a young woman who is sent to retrieve The Hunter after the Empire agrees to return him to Refuge. By Book 3, she has decided to join Catherine's cause and has been bound as one of the Woe. Her Aspects are See, Flow, and Stride. During the fall of the Tower, Indrani decides to challenge Hye Sue, becoming a claimant to the Name Ranger. Partway through the final bsttle against the Dead King, she succeeds and transitions into the new Ranger.

Adaptational Early Appearance: She's one of several characters from Refuge who meet William during the epilogue of the Yonder rewrite's Book 1, encountering the Lone Swordsman in Refuge and calling him Lonely Hand.
Aloof Big Sister: Seems to be her relationship with Hunter, roughly.
Anguished Declaration of Love: Averted. In Book 5, she casually states that The Power of Love should help a plan, as she is in love with Masego.
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Her version of saying 'hi' is to deliver a casual beat-down to Adjutant, Apprentice, and Squire while the latter is convalescing from a battle with devils.
The Big Guy / The Brute: It's not evident right away, but Archer fills this role within the Woe as the most skilled fighter of the crew. She was trained by Ranger, after all.
Boisterous Bruiser: Female version, an arrogant, hard-drinking badass who picks fights and takes passes at people left and right.
Boom, Headshot!: As one would expect for someone Named Archer. Book 5 has her on the receiving end of one courtesy of a Dead King-possessed Masego.
Bow and Sword in Accord: More of a long knife than a sword really (Legolas-style) but still fits the basic concept.
Changed My Mind, Kid: At the last minute she and Hunter show up to help fight the Demon.
Deadpan Snarker: OK, Tinkles really does deserve it, let's face it. The poor, dumb fool.
Dual Wielding: In melee, she wields two longknives and is scarily competent with them.
First-Name Basis: She tells Catherine to call her by her given name (Indrani) at the end of Book 3, as a sign of loyalty.
Friends with Benefits: With Catherine, starting in Book 4.
The Hedonist: When quizzed she points out that Named tend to get more of everything, power and danger, which means she's likely not destined for old age and should enjoy life while she can.
Improbable Aiming Skills: She once manages to shoot five running horses in the head from a mile away before the riders even comprehend what is happening.
"When I can see it, I can shoot it."
Master Archer: As befitting somebody with the Name Archer, her skill with a bow is supernaturally good.
The Nicknamer: Downplayed. While she does refer to some characters by their full name (e.g. Hakram, Ranger, Beastmaster), she refers to many characters by shorthand names or nicknames (e.g. Masego as "Zeze", Concocter as "Cocky"), and it's a running gag while both Akua Sahelian and Indrani are in the party for Archer to call her a wide variety of insulting nicknames.
Odd Friendship: With Masego. They later have a Relationship Upgrade.
“I know he’s not interested in bedplay, Cat,” Indrani snorted. “Come on. Last time he saw me shirtless he asked if I needed healing.”
Reformed Bully: Archer's initial Social Darwinist ways meant he was a major bully to the other Refuge students as they grew up. A few years with the Woe largely remedies this, though her old tendencies sometimes pop up.
Superior Successor: She successfully steals the Name of Ranger upon proving herself this to Hye Su. The latter, upon finding a monster that she couldn't defeat (an undead Drakon), immediately ditched her companions (including two of her students) to save herself. In contrast, Indrani pulled the mother of all Big Damn Heroes moments, claimed her master's Name, and proceeded to fight the Dracolich god to a standstill.

Vivienne Dartwick

Lady Vivienne Dartwick, The Princess (formerly Thief), Queen of Thieves

A Hero of Callowan origin that joins the Lone Swordsman's party for the rebellion in Callow. Although she is arguably the most effective member of the Swordsman's party (besides William himself) we know relatively little about her. She has an independent streak, tending to leave the party and operate solo for long stretches. This has continued in her role among the Woe as well. Her Aspects are Hold, Hide, and Steal.

During the Tenth Crusade, wherein she spent more time as an unofficial spymistress and a diplomat than a thief, Vivienne lost her hold over the Name. However, over the same period, she gained the role of Cat's intended post-war successor as Queen of Callow. This eventually led her to gain a new Name: Princess. As the Princess, she gains the Aspect Trick.

Adaptational Early Appearance: In the Yonder rewrite's first book, she's mentioned by The Baron as a hero who isn't responding to his communications. She later shows up as one of several heroic Named William encounters on the way to Refuge during the Yonder Book 1 epilogue, apparently having absconded with an entire hold of wyvern meat on an island he and Hunter were getting bogged down on.
Ascended Extra: She's a side character in the main plot of Book 2, with slightly more importance in William's Interludes. In Book 3 she steps up to face off with Cat directly, and becomes a member of her growing party.
Brought Down to Badass: She begins to fear she is losing her Name as her driving motivations change. This leads to some positive Character Development where she lets go of the anger that caused her to start stealing in the first place. This leads to her becoming the politician and diplomat of The Woe. She's skilled enough at this to be made heir apparent to the Crown.
Combat Pragmatist: The Thief tends to avoid direct conflict, preferring to strike from surprise. In a stand-up fight, she isn't able to defeat Hakram even before he comes into his Name.
Hidden Depths: Quickly works out that the Wandering Bard isn't as spoony as she looks — and, starts surreptitiously sidling away from ground zero without drawing attention to it, beyond warning William he should think about getting out of dodge.
Impossible Thief: Thief's Hold Aspect makes this relatively easy, letting her steal objects into a pocket dimension and take them out later. She uses it to steal a fleet of river galleys, somehow cramming them all into a Bag of Holding, then uses them to form a makeshift barricade at the battle of Liesse. She later one-ups herself when she uses Hold to steal the Sun from the Princess of High Noon
Irony: During her time with William, she calls him out on being an Anti-Hero who tries to use Evil's methods against it. She would later come to be the Token Good Teammate of a band of villains, and it's implied that Assassin spared her because she was seen as more likely to become a villain than a hero.
Karmic Thief: Apparently, the underground thieving community of Callow follows this general principle, with scams that rely on the mark's own greed being preferred, and scams that don't being expressly forbidden from being used on innocent Callowan citizens. Praesi are fair targets for anything, of course.
King of Thieves: Becomes the "king" of the Callowan thieving underground.
Kleptomaniac Hero: Doesn't hesitate to steal from her teammates.
Morality Chain: Catherine trusts Thief with several code phrases that could be used to control, contain, or even kill her because she believes Thief has the firmest moral compass of the Woe, and has an actual worldly goal that would cause her to be directly opposed to measures that are too Evil.
My Country, Right or Wrong: Thief is ultimately loyal to Callow itself. This is the very reason she joins the Woe, as she realizes that Catherine truly has the country's best interests at heart.
Power Loss Makes You Strong: Prior to losing her Name, Thief is one of the weakest Named in a straight fight that isn't a complete noncombatant like Scribe or the Wandering Bard. After losing her Perception Filter it becomes a lot more urgent that she be able to defend herself, so Vivienne ends training herself up to Weak, but Skilled territory.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: Akua delivers a Breaking Speech about how Catherine's ambition would eventually drive her to become a new Empress in a bid to "fix" the world. Thief promptly retorts that Akua has gotten obsessed with justifying her defeat by convincing herself that Catherine was a Worthy Opponent who will succeed where she failed. Later, she calls Akua out for intentionally losing arguments like this in order to become more personable to the Woe.
Token Good Teammate: Of the Woe. Adjutant has Undying Loyalty to Cat, not any particular ideals. Masego's a Mad Scientist with a total Lack of Empathy towards anyone who isn't a close friend or family member. Archer is an unapologetic Hedonist and Thrill Seeker. Cat has similar goals for saving Callow, but mentions several times that Vivienne is simply a better person than her.
Unexpected Successor: Catherine declares her heir to the Crown of Callow.
Utility Party Member: She's very useful for stealth, as a spy-mistress, and removing enemy supplies and trump cards from the equation, but, much to her frustration, is a very poor combatant for a Named.

The Calamities

Black's personal Band of Five, and the hatchet men of the Dread Empire. Each is a legendary nightmare that play instrumental roles in overseeing the well-oiled machine Amadeus and Malicia have converted Praes into.

Amadeus of the Green Stretch

Amadeus of the Green Stretch, The Black Knight (formerly Squire)

The Carrion Lord, Black

The Empress Malicia's right-hand man and de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Callow since the Conquest.The son of a small freeholder in the Empire's Green Stretch (and one of the light-skinned Duni minority), Black spent decades rising to the pinnacle of the imperial hierarchy along with his allies, the Five Calamities and the Empress Malicia I (formerly an imperial concubine named Alaya). After leading Malicia's forces to victory in a brutal civil war, Black set about re-organizing the imperial legions of terror into a highly competent professional army loyal to him, a weapon which he then used to annex the Kingdom of Callow. The past twenty years have been spent consolidating these gains: Stomping on any hero that raises their head in Callow while managing the kingdom well enough to prevent widespread rebellious sentiment from spreading among the masses.As the story begins his efforts are beginning to fail as the narrative arc of the universe turns against the upstart empire. Heroes are popping up like mad- two or three a year at a rate that is only increasing and will soon overtake the calamities' capability to suppress. Meanwhile, the Decadent Court in Praes gets more mutinous by the day and the Principate of Procer is gathering its forces looking to finally drive the Praesi back to the wasteland. But Black has a plan. A plan to turn the rules of storytelling back against themselves. What he needs is an Anti-hero, a Callowan with a Praesi name who can change the story of Callow forever and bind the two nations together. Enter Catherine Foundling.

Black's Aspects are Lead, Conquer, and Destroy.

Affably Evil: Like all the Calamities, he's a reasonably pleasant guy to be around. But... there is a distinct limit: show your Stupid Evil, Bond Villain Stupidity or particularly egregious Stupid Good off near him, and he'll quickly show you how little he appreciates it. Graphically and geographically, if needed.
Badass Creed: "I do not kneel."
Black Comedy: His sense of humour is both dark and very, very cynical. Beware when he breaks out in some kind of smile. If somewhat lighter, kind of playful version, it's probably closer to a Cheshire Cat Grin. If playful in a completely different way, it's a disturbing Slasher Smile. In both cases... something is about to go very badly and ironically wrong for somebody he thinks deserves it.
Blood Knight: All his Aspects power up when he's brutally crushing his enemies in an open battle. Loathe though he is to openly admit it, it's a rush he can't avoid getting.
Childhood Friends: Alaya the tavern-girl and Amadeus the farm-boy were friends long before Dread Empress Malacia and The Black Knight were allies.
Cold Ham: He has a very cold and restrained affect but that doesn't cover up the fact that he loves his melodrama. He also is so careful not to act smug that it loops around and comes off as smugness.
The Creon: After leading the rebellion to get control of the tower, Black is quite content to let his good friend Alaya have the throne and serves her faithfully as The Dragon for decades.
Dangerous Deserter: Amadeus enlisted in the Legions of Terror, where he was so inconsequential that they even misspelled his name on the roster. He then deserted after his first battle out of disgust for how incompetently it was conducted. Alone and far away from home, this teenage boy decided he was going to fix things.
Deuteragonist: In the earlier books. Word of God is that in early drafts Black was even the original protagonist of the story.
Doomed Hometown: Or rather, doomed homestead. A while after he becomes the Squire, the Heir has his remaining family back on his home farm killed. As Amadeus remarks at their burial, it was inevitable that something would kill them- Squires don't have a home to return to.
Dragon-in-Chief: Malicia won the throne in large part due to his military skills and both the standing armies and the most powerful Named in the empire are loyal to Malicia only through their connection to Black. In many ways Black is more powerful than his mistress.
Evil Is Sterile: He lives to break this trope so hard that it dies a death. The cycle of fabulously pointless creative schemes that are doomed to end in big, empty nothing since Status Quo Is God must go.
The Gadfly / Troll: If you know what's healthy for you, you don't mess up enough for him to come at you in fully remote Troll Mode. May all the Gods, those both Below and Above, help you if he's decided to hound you, because he will make a years-long campaign out of it to make a point, rather than just ending you quickly — those who wind up on the receiving end of this probably welcome Assassin eventually showing up. However, nothing stops him casually having a little subdued fun with you for the shared, companionable (if still somewhat spikey) giggles. Just ask Cat and Masego. And Malicia. And any other Calamity.
Genre Savvy: Black knows all the genre cliches that run his universe, and he long ago worked out how best to exploit them—or simply avoid them. Just a few examples:
- He knows that trying to recruit by deceit or threats will inevitably lead to betrayal and so is careful to always be honest, generous and polite to those he works with long-term.
- He knows that it's pointless to try to pursue heroes after they flee a dramatic confrontation as it would clearly be too anticlimactic for them to be defeated that way and therefore the universe would not permit it.
- His empire has a well-run and effective system of orphanages, ensuring that any disaffected orphans who might be inclined to become rebellious heroes can receive a good education and prospects in life without rebellions or, failing that, can be carefully monitored by his agents and suffocated in their sleep if they appear intractable.
- It's also flat-out stated that his actions and general lack of self-destructive tendencies has actually significantly limited the power of his Name. In terms of raw power he's probably the weakest Black Knight in centuries, but he views the trade-off as being worthwhile.
Hero of Another Story: Oh, so played with. On the one hand, we do get some significant segments of his Villain Protagonist tale, from his own and others' perspectives, but our story is not his. On the other, he actively chose to be the Black Knight over becoming the White Knight, reasonably considering a White Knight to be incapable of changing anything in Praes' borked system permanently. On the gripping hand, willing to sacrifice all of yourself (and those around you) to improve a broken system of governance so it functions for those being governed and not just the crazy arseholes who get to the top isn't exactly a straightforwardly Villainous thing, now, is it? And, he's not that powerful a Black Knight, to boot. Cat may not be the only twisted, battered and self-mutilating almost-Hero- definitely-monster in this tale, Pilgrim, dearest.
- An important thing to note is that Black's goal is NOT "to improve a broken system of governance so it functions for those being governed," that's a side effect. Black just wants Evil to win over Good. More precisely he wants Good to lose, just once, just to show it can be done. What makes Black far more villainous than his protege is that his goal is selfish and not good - he's just willing to do anything, good or evil, to accomplish it.
Hero Killer: So often it's become routine, though Assassin has an even higher body count according to Word of God.
Heroic Sacrifice: Black disdains these as a concept. He eventually ends up performing one for Malicia, using his dues to Below to force Cat to let her live for a time.
Living Emotional Crutch: To Captain definitely, and possibly the other Calamities as well. When he is trapped in another Plane for a few days at one point Captain reacts by slaughtering an entire village in a fit of rage while Warlock mutilates the soul of an informant trying to locate him.
Luke, I Am Your Father: Parodied. Catherine is sure to ask him if she's his long-lost daughter the morning after they first meet. She's somewhat disappointed when he informs her that she is not. It's also played with: eventually, Cat comes to treat Black as her adoptive father while Black comes to consider her his adoptive daughter.
Mayfly–December Romance: When he started his relationship with Ranger he was in his twenties and she was several hundred years old. Of course since Black doesn't age either he's now pushing 60 so they're on somewhat more even footing.
Morality Chain: To Wekesa. Has implemented explicit rules limiting how much he's allowed to go all-out, and it's his potential displeasure that Wekesa thinks of when pondering civilian casualties (and that appears to be the only reason Wekesa notices those at all).
Moral Myopia:
- Black has killed thousands of people, including many innocents, with a methodical detachment to achieve his goal of a successful Praes. Nevertheless, he despises the Grey Pilgrim and Wandering Bard for their respective roles in killing Marshal Ranker and Captain. This despite the fact that (in both cases) he had instigated the conflict by invading rival foreign powers in order to cause widespread disorder and destruction (killing many people in the process).
- He similarly looks down on the concept of the Heroic Sacrifice as a cowardly attempt to avoid spending the time and effort to enact one’s goals. However, his own death is a sacrifice to save his closest friend, Alaya, from execution.
Parental Substitute: While he and Catherine are not blood-related, by the fourth book she refers to him as her father, and he regards her as the closest thing to a daughter he's ever had.
Perma-Shave: As the Squire and later the Black Knight, he does not see himself as someone who has facial hair. So his Name means that he doesn't grow a beard. Averted once he loses his Name.
Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: After the Second Battle of Liesse, he offers this to Catherine to apologize for using her the way he did. The response is a non-lethal stab to the gut because she still sees him as her father, and he probably had a Xanatos Gambit set up anyway.
Practical Joke: He's not above getting into a prank contest with his friends to blow off steam. Particularly Wekesa. Be afraid.
Pragmatic Villainy: Most of his philosophy. This is especially apparent in the "One Sin, One Grace" principle he drills into the Legions of Terror
Red Baron: Said by Catherine to have a bunch of those. Most notable is "The Carrion Lord", usually used by his opponents.
Single-Target Sexuality: The only person he's ever had sexual feelings for is apparently The Ranger. Word of God is that he was written as demisexual/demiromantic, meaning he needs a close emotional bond to develop sexual/romantic feelings for someone, and the closest he came to developing feelings for someone other than Ranger was Alaya.
Sink or Swim Mentor: He does provide some basic swordsmanship lessons and plenty of books to read. However he has no idea how to teach Catherine to use the powers of her Name and actually never intended to as it would stunt her growth. Invoked, when he sends Catherine to Imperial College, putting her into a lieutenant position in the company with the worst results... pitted against the company with best results. It works.
Shout-Out: His title of 'Carrion Lord' is one shared by The Witch King of Angmar, who is sometimes called 'Lord of Carrion', similarly to the Grey Pilgrim's Name being a shoutout to Gandalf. His Name of Black Knight may be one as well, though the Witch King is usually called the 'Black Captain'.
So Proud of You: If Cat continues going the way she is, he might just start ambushing his friends with his subdued equivalent of videos and baby pictures... Slapping demons down a few pegs and mugging angels makes for a very Proud Papa — not that he'll ever gush about it, as such. His not-gushing is about as obvious as his not-smug.
“She stabbed you, Black,” he growled. “Don’t wave that away as youthful enthusiasm, because we certainly haven’t.”
“One who rears a tiger should not complain of stripes,” Amadeus quoted in Mtethwa.
“Your tiger put on a crown and raised an army after stealing three legions,” Grem growled in Kharsum. “We’re past stripes.”
“My tiger beat back an army twice the size of hers strengthened by the two most famous living heroes on Calernia,” the dark-haired man laughed.“Three legions, one of which was always hers, is a paltry price to pay for that.”
Teacher/Student Romance: The love of his life is his mentor, The Ranger.
The Unfettered: Amadeus has been demonstrated to be utterly ruthless in the pursuit of his objective, up to and including using himself and his allies as merely sacrificial playing pieces in a long-term gambit. The whole "ignore morality" aspect unusually swings both sides, however, since he's done arguably moral things as well as smothered children in their cribs.
Villainous Friendship: With the Calamities, his Squire and the Dread Empress herself.

Hye Su

Hye Su, The Ranger

The Lady of the Lake

For tropes relevant to The Ranger, see her entry on the Morally Ambiguous Named page.

Sabah

Sabah, The Captain (formerly Cursed)

The Black Knight's Right-hand woman and second in command of the Legions of Terror. An eight-foot-tall Taghreb woman who's disarmingly easy-going and friendly but capable of bouts of extreme violence. Captain originally held the Name of The Cursed, as she had inherited a bloodline curse that turned her into a werewolf. For a long time Amadeus was the only one who could calm her down when she transformed but sometime after he took the Name of Black Knight and before the crowning of Empress Malicia she underwent an ordeal, taking the Name of The Captain and learning to control her transformations.

Her first known Aspect, present from her days as the Cursed, is Obey which grants her more power when doing what Black tells her. Her second Aspect, Unleash, triggers her transformation into an unstoppable beast, and is likely another remnant of the Cursed.

The Big Guy / The Brute: Enormous for a human (over eight feet tall) to the extent that some people think she has ogre blood. As the largest and physically strongest melee combatant of the group, Sabah clearly fills this role in the Calamities.
Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Captain, somewhat predictably, uses a warhammer when she's not in savage wolf-mode.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: She is killed in an offscreen resolution to a confrontation with Valiant Champion, which was engineered by Bard through story tropes to ensure her death.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She has a husband and two children she loves deeply.
Evil Me Scares Me: Strictly speaking she's always evil but she certainly didn't appreciate being turned into a berserk killing machine back when she was The Cursed. Even today she shows signs of personality change when she is forced to transform several times during the Liesse rebellion and is clearly ashamed of it.
Gentle Giant: Certainly a giant at over eight feet, and while she is evil, she is still the nicest of the Calamities: She is the only one who cares about innocents they kill, and can be quite motherly at times.
Happily Married: To a mid-ranking imperial bureaucrat of all things.
Impossibly Graceful Giant: She's far too agile and stealthy for an eight-foot-tall woman who's almost always decked out in full plate. Even Black is a little unnerved by how quiet she can be when she chooses to.
Made of Iron: Very hard to hurt/kill. Especially when in werewolf form, where Ranger of notes she no-sells hits that would have dropped a stone golem.
Our Werewolves Are Different: Due to her curse, she turns into a gigantic, man-eating wolf at will or when agitated (especially when still the Cursed). However, as one character who fought against werewolves before notes, she isn't really a werewolf but something different and more dangerous.
Undying Loyalty: To Black. An anecdote early in the story describes her slaughtering an entire village in rage when he goes missing.
Unstoppable Rage: When she's in beast mode she's fully capable of slaughtering entire armies. Even the Silver Spears, with hundreds of Heavy Cavalry led by two heroes, fled rather than attempt to fight her.
Super-Senses: Has an acute sense of smell as a werewolf and directly after, probably in addition to the heightened senses common for Named.
Villainous Friendship: With the rest of the Calamities, but mostly with Black. It's telling that when she dies, Black becomes noticeably off-balance and loses his edge.
Villain Respect: She is polite to the enemies she fights and mentally compliments their progress at their young ages.

Wekesa

Lord Wekesa, The Warlock (formerly Apprentice)

An extremely powerful mage, Wekesa was the first member of the Calamities to join Black (when Wekesa was still the Apprentice and Amadeus was still The Squire). A magical prodigy born to an uncultivated Soninke bloodline, Wekesa became a fugitive when his master, the previous Warlock, attempted to murder him and eliminate a threat to his Name. Wekesa would later kill his master during the civil war to place Malicia on the throne and claim the Name of The Warlock for himself. As the Warlock, his Aspects are Link, Reflect, and Imbricate.

Character Death: He dies in Book 4 in order to protect his son from the unleashed miracles of the Ashurans attacking Thalassina.
Colony Drop: Reasons not to piss him off... He can play cosmic, inter-dimensional, exhibition snooker aimed right at you, given enough prep time.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: If his son dies on your watch, he will outright end you. If you betray his friends, you won't be that lucky.
Evil Sorcerer: Acts halfway between this and the Mad Scientist, running magical experiments and having apparently dissected gods in his basement at some point. Said to be massively powerful, and certainly wiped the floor with the heroes from the moment he started fighting them in Book II.
Happily Married: He and Tikoloshe have a very close, harmonious pact together. To all intents and purposes, they're happily married with solid, mutual goals which also stretch to child-rearing. Being a fly in their ointment is not recommended, because if Wekesa doesn't get you, Tikoloshe probably will.
Hero Killer: He took out The Wizard of the West in the backstory and he puts down the Bumbling Conjurer with a single gesture.
Heroic Sacrifice: How he dies in Book 4: sacrificing himself to banish the power of a summoned entity in order to save Masego's life.
Living MacGuffin: During the second Summerholm arc Catherine's objective is to prevent the heroes from killing him.
Practical Joke: He has an almost pathological need to pull annoyingly petty pranks with high arcana when he's missing his husband or is just getting a bit bored or anxious. Nothing seriously deadly, mind you; particularly given the durability of his friends. Gets seriously silly when he and Amadeus start tit-for-tatting.
Person of Mass Destruction: To the point that he's actually unable to avoid massive collateral damage when he uses combat magic. Presumably this is related to one of his Aspects though we don't know which one.
Pragmatic Villainy: He could have kidnapped and forcefully raised the boy who grew to be Apprentice using standard Sith-like child-rearing tactics. But, he quickly said "screw that inevitable death by his hands, thank you" by knuckling down and learning how to be the joint Dad of the Year for successive years in a row. Sure, the mage-training is still tricky and tough, but he's made a point of it also being both fair and interesting. Evil: hard, but fun!
Red Baron: The Sovereign of the Red Skies.
Silver Fox: Catherine needs to remind herself rather forcefully that he's A) gay and B) more than 3 times her age. She still can't stop herself from staring even while telling herself to quit it.
The Smart Guy: Wekesa's role in the Calamities is to be the researcher, and he's the one most knowledgeable about magic. With Ranger gone, however, his role in the present storyline is closer to The Dragon.

Assassin

The Assassin

The most mysterious of the Calamities and the only one who has yet to be seen even in flashback (as far as we know...). They spend most of their time outside the country dealing with the Empire's enemies or undercover in the Kingdom of Callow eliminating heroes before they can become a nuisance.

Genre Savvy: Assassin deliberately sets up a modus operandi in the way they kill, to throw the scent off of their other murders.
The Ghost: Played With as, according to Word of God, apparently they've appeared "on screen" in some form by Book 2 Chapter 2.
Revenant Zombie: In Book Seven, they are revealed to be a manifestation of Scribe's Inscribe Aspect, which can be used to successfully revive corpses and impute them with overarching directives. After years of refining her Aspect, and upon finding corpses that were sufficiently powerful, Scribe was eventually able to use her directives to create a Named.
Shape Dies, Shifter Survives: Black has been known to use Assassin as an impromptu body double, as the latter is near impossible to put down for good. When temporarily experiencing an Alternate Universe, Cat notably discovers that Goblinfire is capable of permanently killing them. It's later confirmed that Assassin only "survives" their deaths in a manner of speaking, and that their actual form is more Possessing a Dead Body.
Shapeshifter: Highly implied to be one, skilled enough to fool Name sight. Confirmed in Book 3, where they briefly adopt Black's form to dupe Diabolist.
Undignified Death: Their preferred method of operation. While the deaths appear natural, they're also unlikely and undignified enough to not be. For example, drowning in your own chamber pot.
- It's later revealed that Assassin doesn't always kill this way: they set up a subtle pattern in their kills so that the rest of their murders would go unnoticed.

Eudokia

Eudokia, The Scribe

The Webweaver

The unofficial sixth Calamity, The Scribe is never far from the Black Knight's side, serving as his chief administrator and Spymaster. Her Aspects are Fade and Inscribe.

Already Done for You: One of her signature tricks is carrying out a particular function before the person it's intended for can even think to ask. Need a messenger to deliver news to the capital? Already left two hours ago. Want a disguise so you can discreetly sneak into town? Folded and ready. Catherine is both impressed and a little annoyed by this.
Black: What would I do without you, Scribe?
Scribe: The same things. Just slower.
Badass Bureaucrat: The Black Knight's rule of Callow is able to function effectively largely because he has Scribe serving as a compact, one-woman civil service, and intelligence agency.
Beware the Quiet Ones: She's usually found in the corner with a lapdesk, quietly catching up on correspondence or whatever. Don't bug her by making her come over there herself to sort things out, though; it's scary. She got her Name taking down the assassin school/guild that raised her with nothing but subtle tricks and words on paper.
Friendly Rivalry: Seems to have something like this going on with Assassin, of all people. Subverted; Assassin is a part of her—specifically, a manifestation of her Inscribe aspect.
Heart Is an Awesome Power: A few words in the right ears at the right time, the correct paperwork filled out and verified — [redacted] was, officially, never even a little problem to have managed existing.
Hidden Depths: There are more than a few hints that she can be just as bad to get on the wrong side of as Black, Warlock or Assassin. So, annoy this mouse librarian-type at your own risk: she'll probably write you out of existence if she thinks it's worth the bother.
Hypercompetent Sidekick: To the Calamities, and by extension the entirety of Praes. She might not be a warrior, but her capacity to act as a tireless one-woman bureaucracy is one of the chief reasons the Empire runs as efficiently as it does.
Ignored Enamored Underling: Lady Ime implies her loyalty to Amadeus goes beyond friendship, but he only has eyes for Ranger.
My Master, Right or Wrong: Scribe is loyal to Black, not to the Empire and certainly not to the Empress.
Non-Action Guy: She's not a warrior by any means (Black notes in the prologue that it's unusual to see her on a battlefield that's already mostly deserted), and her Name doesn't lend itself to fighting. Doesn't mean she isn't dangerous in her own way, though.
Perception Filter: Fade leaves her appearance almost impossible to remember, save for her ink-stained hands.
Secretary of Evil: Scribe plays this role for the Calamities and later, the Woe, taking care of all their administrative needs. During her chapter, Scriven, we learn that she was apprenticed to a prior Scribe who did bookwork for a Delosi assassin school/guild.
Sixth Ranger: Not an official member of the Calamities as far as the history books are concerned, but they all treat Scribe as one of their own, and her contributions were a key factor in the success of the Conquest and its fallout.
Spy School: Scriven reveals that she started as a street urchin who was tricked into joining an assassin's school/guild hybrid. She eventually assassinates the school itself, using nothing but words on paper, clever tricks, and a dying gift from her mentor.
The Spymaster: She runs a continent-spanning network of informants for Black.
Stealth Hi/Bye: Catherine spends time trying to work out how she can just turn up at your elbow unexpectedly from a starting position right across the room or the square.
The Stoic: Almost constantly sports an emotionless demeanor. Catherine, who prides herself in her ability to get a rise out of others, can barely provoke a slight change in mood from Scribe at the best of times.

Other Villains

Dread Empress Malicia

Dread Empress Malicia I (formerly Alaya of Satus)

"Power is mostly a matter of making the right corpses at the right time."

The current ruler of the Dread Empire of Praes. Alaya began her career as a barmaid in her father's inn, conscripted into the Harem of the Dread Emperor Nefarious for her beauty. Alaya was able to use her position at court and her friendship with the young Black Knight to accumulate influence and ultimately to arrange the murder of Nefarious herself. After the Emperor's death, Alaya claimed the throne with the assistance of Black Knight and the Calamities, defeating The Chancellor and would-be-emperor Baleful I in a civil war. Since then Malicia has ruled the empire in concert with Black, using her political skills to carefully manage the nobility while fear of Black's brutal reprisals keeps them in line. Her Aspects are Rule and Connect.

Beneath the Mask: She projects an image of an insanely sexy and whimsically violent temptress when she's actually a fairly conservative, calculating and pragmatic policy geek. Essentially she's Hillary Clinton pretending to be Catherine the Great while looking like Nefertiti wished she looked.
Big Bad Wannabe: Though she plays a masterful game, Malicia woefully underestimates just how competent she is next to ancient monsters like the Dead King and the Intercessor, who use her for their respective schemes before quickly abandoning her when she's no longer useful. Even her downfall features practically every major scheme she's orchestrated begin tripping over and sabotaging one other, reducing her to essentially just a pawn for Catherine, Amadeus, and the Intercessor to fight around.
Childhood Friends: Alaya the tavern-girl and Amadeus the farm-boy were friends long before Dread Empress Malicia and The Black Knight were allies.
Compelling Voice: Many Names have some of this capability but Malicia's is apparently so potent that any agent that has been in the same room as her must be assumed to be compromised.
Distracted by the Sexy: She's gorgeous in her own right but she uses glamoured dresses and some kind of Name shenanigans to accentuate the effect, ensuring that no one ever has their wits about them when dealing with her.
Ermine Cape Effect: Played with. She sometimes shows up to private scrying sessions with her best friend in a court dress and crowned to signify that she is there in her capacity as the Dread Empress, not as Alaya.
From Nobody to Nightmare: She was a waitress before she usurped the throne.
Manipulative Bastard: No Empress can afford to be merely a pretty face relying on a group of heavies to keep alive at the top. And, she isn't: she's into chess — speedy or slow. Only the dimmest of Truebloods don't understand this.
Non-Action Big Bad: She has no combat or military skills and does not seem to be a mage of any kind. Even her Name powers are geared towards politics and social manipulation rather than any kind of direct conflict.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: Spent forty years slowly regulating the Truebloods into bankruptcy and irrelevance.
To Win Without Fighting: Her strategy in the Tenth Crusade has shades of this. She initially tries to steal Akua's Doomsday Device in order to stop the Good nations from invading and taking the risk of it being used. Her next strategy is to have the rebellious Callow and invading Crusaders wear each other down, while allying herself with The Dead King to split the Grand Alliance's forces against a bigger threat.
World's Most Beautiful Woman: Quite possibly, her beauty certainly defies easy description and she outstrips the Heiress and the Baroness Dormer by a fair margin.

Akua Sahelian

Lady Akua Sahelian (formerly The Heiress, Diabolist), The Warlock

The Doom of Liesse, Advisor Kivule

The Heiress to the High Lordship of Wolof (the home city of Dread Empress Triumphant and the most fabled center of black magic and the old Praesi ways), Akua Sahelian was raised and educated in the Decadent Court of Praes. Heiress adheres to the old school of Praesi villainy, and uses tools as diverse as bribery, blood magic, assassination, demon-summoning, slave soldiers and good old-fashioned mean girl shenanigans in her seemingly open-ended quest for ultimate power. Heiress first comes on to Catherine's radar as a possible rival claimant for the title of Squire. After Catherine defies and defeats her, Heiress makes a point of undermining her at every turn.

Her motivations and drives have been expanded upon in Book 3, giving her both a morality pet in the form of her father to whom she would go to any length for and a wish to be free, from both her mother and the Empress. As the Diabolist, her Aspects are Bind, Claim, and Call.

Alpha Bitch: She always gets herself a posse of Betas to smug through, ASAP.
Arch-Nemesis: One of two for Catherine, the other being the Lone Swordsman.
Becoming the Mask: After she begins to act more genuinely loyal and friendly towards Catherine and the Woe, Catherine considers this to be inevitable.
And I knew, of course, that she was not beyond such exquisite deception. That she might have been weaving that intricate web around me since the moment she saved my life in the Everdark. But it wouldn’t matter, I thought, watching Akua Sahelian letting out a snort of laughter at some pointed comment Indrani had made. It wouldn’t matter because she’d want it to be true
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Akua's final fate is to become the Evil Counterpart to the Wandering Bard in order to enforce the eternal Balance Between Good and Evil.
Big Bad Wannabe: Akua is Catherine's most personal and dangerous enemy in the first three books of the series, but her arrogance ensures that she's always operating as someone else's pawn. The Wandering Bard sets her down the path of becoming the Diabolist specifically to orchestrate her death so that Malicia can claim her doomsday machine, with Malicia herself secretly funding Akua's activities for the same purpose. Though the revelation that Akua unearthed Still Water manages to blindside the Dread Empress, Catherine notes that—even had she won—her adherence to traditional Praesi villainy would have seen her slain by a hero in a few months.
Consummate Liar: She can seem so genuine when she wishes to! She should: she's obviously practiced for years. The effectiveness of it is somewhat mitigated by the fact she does it so often, a lot of people quickly catch wise, though. It means she has to double down and produce a whole web of fibs and half-truths to back her lies up with.
Cool and Unusual Punishment: How does Catherine punish the ghost of one of her most ruthless and hated foes? She invites her to a pleasant, friendly get-together with Catherine's other friends. It's much crueler than it sounds, as it forces Akua to confront the fact that genuine companionship was what she truly needed and the only person she ever really cared about was sacrificed by her to attain power she now knows would not have truly made her happy. She now has to live with the knowledge that she could have had all of this years ago and it is entirely her own fault that she didn't.
“The closest I have to match to last night is a girl I sent to die. You’ve devised a poison so sweet I will crave the taste of it.”
Create Your Own Hero: Well, your own protagonist nemesis, at any rate. Had she not gone out of her way to make Cat an enemy, it's likely the Squire wouldn't have cared enough about her to spend time wondering what she's up to and trying to thwart her plots. It's also likely that Catherine wouldn't have had the narrative weight to stop the Lone Swordsman without Akua providing Cat multiple chances to prove herself as genuinely caring about Callow (instead of being yet another example of Les Collaborateurs).
Daddy's Little Villain: Oddly subverted. Akua is following in her scheming super-evil mother's footsteps but she doesn't have any real loyalty or affection for her and ultimately views her as a future enemy. It's actually her less-evil father who is her favorite parent.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Akua's only positive relationship seems to be with her father. It comes too little too late to humanize her much.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Her Fatal Flaw; she doesn't get how Pragmatic Villainy is often the smart option as well as the moral one.
Evil Mentor: Becomes a political, magical, and historical adviser to Catherine of all people. Justified in that her shade is bound to Catherine's cloak and is only let out when she's useful. It is later revealed that she wants Cat to become her Superior Successor and one day seize the throne. This is justified by her Social Darwinist worldview rejecting the idea that she could be defeated by someone unimportant. However, she'll still escape and pursue her own ambitions if given a chance.
Eye Scream: When Akua's shade seizes control of Catherine's unconscious body, Thief forces her to rip out her own constantly-regenerating left eye. Ten times.
Fantastic Racism: She smugly reflects on how progressive and flexible she is, compared to many of her race and class. But, in reality, she's still got the Soninke blinkers and attitude in spades; she just doesn't realize it.
Faux Affably Evil: After dying and having her shade trapped in Catherine's collar, Akua becomes a lot more pleasant and servile. It's an act, of course.
Heel–Face Turn: Though it begins as an act, Akua's time with the Woe causes her to become genuinely attached to them. Catherine uses Akua's burgeoning feelings for her to manipulate her into growing a conscience, with the Praesi campaign in Book 7 centering almost entirely around Akua finally accepting that she wants to do good out of selflessness and rejecting the cruelty of the Dread Empire.
Heroic Sacrifice: Akua is ultimately the one to defeat the Wandering Bard, fettering herself to the Intercessor to forcibly share her role. The Bard had considered this role to be a Fate Worse than Death, to the point where her entire plan to bring genocide to Calernia was done just to escape, and Akua's new duties mean she and Catherine will only be able to see each other sparingly over the centuries. However, Akua gladly accepts the role anyway, wanting to do whatever it takes to help the innocent.
Horrible Judge of Character: She's a finely-tuned political shark... as long as she's swimming in Praesi Trueblood waters. When dealing with others, though; not-so-much. She totally misread Catherine's threat-level because of her low birth, she disregards most of the Fifteenth's officers because of their status or species, she somehow thinks she can eventually wrap Black around her pinkie finger... and, writes Scribe and the Wandering Bard off as being fairly nonthreatening. These are not the hallmarks of good judgment.
I Am Not Left-Handed: She's a very skilled mage, but keeps it largely under wraps so that her enemies will underestimate her.
Magic Knight: She's trained in sword-fighting, but she considers it beneath her and it shows- Catherine trounces her with minimal effort when it comes to blows.
Nominal Hero: Suprisingly, is interested in becoming this by the end of Book Four. More than anything, she wants to be influential and remembered. Literally citing The Power of Friendship when fighting a dark god helps accomplish that.
Oh, Crap!!: Her reaction in a nutshell when Catherine breaks free of her Aspects by giving herself over fully to the power of Winter, which ends predictably with her demise.
Once Done, Never Forgotten: Admittedly who could forget the sacrifice of a city of 100 thousand? Nevertheless, the first part of Cat's plan to facilitate Akua's atonement is to emphasize the sheer gravity of what her old foe had done. The second part is to make her realize that, even if Akua can't make up for her crimes, it's still worth the effort to try.
Our Liches Are Different: She has herself a get-out-of-death-free card in the shape of a Soul Jar. Which... kind of makes her sort of a lich.
Passed-Over Promotion: She becomes Catherine's enemy because Black chose Catherine to be his Squire instead of her, blocking a possible path for her plan to rise to power.
Red Baron: After completely slaughtering the city of Liesse, Akua picks up the title of "The Doom of Liesse," cementing her as a mass-murdering monster to all who meet and recognize her.
Sixth Ranger: After she's been bound to Catherine's Mantle of Winter as a shade, she becomes a spiritual advisor on all things political to the Woe, eventually becoming a sort of pseudo-member.
Smug Snake: Heiress is insufferably arrogant and almost all of her plans lean heavily on her family's wealth and connections to protect her from blowback. She's like a slightly more competent Draco Malfoy without any qualms about mass murder.
Stupid Evil: She isn't stupid, but, if given a choice between Bond Villainy or "just get the job done", she'll go for the "convoluted acid pit full of demon-sharks with mandatory gloating" route every damn time.
Unresolved Sexual Tension: Cat and Akua go through this song-and-dance for most of the Tenth Crusade. Akua goes from using her sexuality to manipulate Cat, to making a genuine pass at her, to performing a Face–Heel Turn when scorned, to falling in (ill-fated) love with her.
We Have Reserves: She views all of her assets that are not Praesi nobles as completely expendable. (The Praesi nobles are only mostly expendable.)
Wicked Cultured: She certainly has the bearing, breeding, and class. Even better, she prides herself on being this trope and goes out of her way to emphasize how tastefully, classically Evil she is. Catherine and Black just see Bond Villain Stupidity, though.

Kairos Theodosian

King Kairos Theodosian, The Tyrant of Helike

"It's not a hobby, my friends, it's a side. A side in the war that defines Creation. Did you think you could sit on the fence forever? Speak the words without ever paying the price? Naughty, naughty, if you'll forgive my language. We're the villains, my friends. We're the things out there in the night that they're all afraid of, the reason they bar their doors and shutter their windows. This place is in dire need of being reminded that truth. So muster your armies, rustle up your devils and let your monsters out of their cages. Let's have us a jolly good time, eh?"

The Exiled Prince's precociously Evil Uncle who usurped the throne of the Free City of Helike from him three years before the events of the story (at the age of twelve). The young Tyrant quickly began what can only be described as a reign of terror, which apparently included making profanity and alcohol possession both capital offenses. He also evidently idolizes his famous predecessor Theodosius The Unconquered to the point that he appears to be attempting to duplicate his military exploits through the provocation of the Principate of Procer. His Aspects are Rule, Wish, and Rend.

At the end of book two he murders the emissaries of all the Good Free Cities to the League Council, sparking an all-out war between the Good- and Evil-aligned Free Cities. It is revealed in Book 3 by The Wandering Bard that he is living a juggler's life. Keeping as many balls and plot threads up in the air as possible in order to ensure effective immortality because the first step never fails. It is nearly outright stated that Dread Emperor Irritant "The strangely successful" employed similar tactics.

Ax-Crazy: At first, he seems to have some kind of Moral Sociopathy what with his strange moralistic decrees... But, he's actually just gone all-in on the theme of being totally evil and appears to be having the time of his life with it.
The Caligula: Well, yeah. Seems to have decided on the old-school Julio-Claudian model of tyranny as a template (poison included), so this is a natural byproduct.
Cannot Tell a Lie: After betraying everyone involved in the battle for the shard of Arcadia at least once, The Grey Pilgrim curses him with this.
Card-Carrying Villain: To a tee. His whole philosophy seems to be that, if you're going to be evil, you might as well go all-out and enjoy it before your inevitable demise.
Cast from Lifespan: The downside of using Wish actively—each Wish spends a portion of Kairos's 13 bought years of life after coming into his Name. This catches up to him at the end of Book 5.
Contractual Genre Blindness: In contrast to Amadeus’s Genre Savvy, Kairos does all he can to play into every possible Villain trope and is just as effective as a result. For one example, since You Can't Thwart Stage One, he has multiple multi-step plans going on in parallel at all times.
Kairos: Gods Below, act Evil for once in your life. It’s like it’s a hobby with you people…. We’re the villains, my friends. We’re the things out there in the night that they’re all afraid of, the reason they bar their doors and shutter their windows.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: At first he just looks like some kind of insane Royal Brat in the mold of a Joffrey Baratheon. It takes him less than a chapter to show how he earned his Name. And, he keeps his foot on the accelerator.
Disabled Snarker: Prior to ascending to the throne and gaining a Name he was a particularly bitter version of this. As Tyrant he's a flat-out Large Ham though he still retains his snarky sense of humor.
Enfante Terrible: He was 12 when he usurped the throne from his (older) nephew and 16 when he started what appears to be the first of the Uncivil Wars.
Evil Minions: His gargoyles function as this.
Evil Uncle: Subverted. He's actually younger than the nephew whose throne he usurped, which rather goes against the idea of an experienced and powerful uncle usurping the throne from the virtuous, but young and vulnerable, true heir.
For the Evulz: Roughly 60% of what he gets up to is spur-of-the-moment dog kicking for funsies. The rest is long-term dog kicking for funsies.
Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Downplayed. He's generally pretty direct in stating his meaning, but he avoids actual profanity and tends to beg pardon for any brusque language he uses.
Large Ham: Whether he's acting the Laughably Evil whackjob or giving an intense Motive Rant, Kairos qualifies:
I am Kairos Theodosian, Tyrant of Helike. And I say that my Rule extends even to the sky. Come servants of the heavens, the Age of Wonders is not dead yet. Not while I breathe.
Like You Were Dying: When he was twelve, he received a prophecy saying he would die at the age of thirteen. This caused him to stop caring about the propriety expected of a royal spare and start doing whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, which has enabled him to live beyond his expected time of death.
No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: He sets up a banquet for the heroes in Delos with an extra helping of arsenic.
One-Man Army: He routs Atalante's mercenary army single-handedly with the power of his Name.
Pragmatic Evil: Surprised? This cackling font of ostentatiously Classic Evil is quite deliberately hiding a metric tonne of meta-awareness under all that ham, which means that he can sneak the pragmatically moral or steely rational in amidst all the flamboyant bonkers he throws around. For starters, he's actively using his appearance of being "just another nutso Tyrant" to hide the extent of what he's capable of not just from the Calamities, but the Wandering Bard as well. Every hard-core, very nasty trick he's pulled has been a shell game used to attain goals beyond the obvious ones, yet others have been slow to realise this thanks to the show he makes of juggling obvious villain balls. And, when he does pull something moral-looking, such as the decree to reduce inebriation and drunkenness in the population at large, it just looks... like an eccentricity of no real note.
Powered by a Forsaken Child: He brings back the old Praesi trick of mass human sacrifice to power flying fortresses. Cue the tutting of the Calamities; his outdated techniques work, but they're hideously inefficient, so it offends their sensibilities to see such a waste of that many victims. He could power so many other defenses or weapons with that!
Prophecy Twist: It was prophecied that he die on his thirteenth name-day. When he came into his Name, the prophecy twisted in two ways: he would die when he'd been Named for thirteen years, but he could also spend those years on Wishes.
Red Right Hand / Red Eyes, Take Warning: Both. He has one seriously creepy red eye, rather than a clawed hand to tip you off that he's batting for Team Evil. And, it's not simply conjunctivitis.
Screw Destiny: His motivation for going From Nobody to Nightmare. As The Un Favourite cripple child to his heroic relative, he desperately sought out his family's oracle temple for a source of hope. When he was informed that his destiny was to die within the year and not be remembered, he decided that if nothing he did would matter, he might as well have fun. Over four years later, he's still alive, and everyone knows of him.
- In Book 5, Chapter 43, The Skein tried to use his Spool Aspect on him several times. The sudden influx of constantly shifting futures overwhelmed the Ratling.
  Tyrant: Fate is a tug of war, you raggedly old thing. Do you think that the wishes of the conquered matter more than the contenders?
  Skein: You die laughing. Or. You flee. Or. I am broken. Or. Everything burns. Or. Or. Why does it keep changing?
Screw the Rules, They're Not Real!: Tyrant believes in this so strongly that he despises anyone who would compromise or ignore their own desires in favor of adhering to some external rule. This includes the Exiled Prince's moral code, Adjutant's oath of loyalty, and (especially) Black's commitment to pragmatic villainy.
Slasher Smile: He never seems to stop smiling.
Straight Edge Evil: He's not fond of profanity, or alcohol.
Thanatos Gambit: At the end of Book 5, knowing that he's almost used up his borrowed time, he engineers one final, glorious ending for himself. He helps set up a court for Anaxares to try the White Knight and the Choir of Judgement, then when Catherine, the White Knight, Gray Pilgrim, and several others show up he deliberately triggers Pilgrim's curse of honesty by telling a lie. This prevents the Choir of Mercy from stopping Hierarch's Indictment of the Choir of Judgement (until Hierarch decides to come over to Judgement directly), forcing Cat to use Night to stop the angelic backlash from incinerating everyone around. This puts Kairos in a situation where he can deliver his Final Speech to Cat one on one: he uses his villain's last words to tell her the broad strokes of the Intercessor's plan, the way his actions messed with that plan, and gives Cat the reason she asked for to not make truce with the Dead King or the Intercessor. He uses his dues to Below to "slay the Age of Wonders," before leaving one final posthumous message to his people: "do as thou wilt."
Your Heart's Desire: Kairos's Wish Aspect gives him the ability to read a person's most intense desire.

Neshamah

Neshamah Be-Iakim, The Dead King

Trismegistus King, The Hidden Horror, The Pale Crown, The Pale King, The Young King

"There is no peace. There is no truce. There is only the shiver before the blade claims your neck. You will fight and you will rage and you will weep, but in the end there can only ever be one end to this. I am the King of Death. I come."

A millennia-old lich overlord who rules over The Necrocracy of Keter in the north, and one of the most powerful people on Calernia. Thousands of years ago, he was known as Neshamah, the last Prince of Sephirah, before gradually sacrificing the lion's share of his kingdom in order to fuel his ascension to power. Today, he rules his kingdom from the Serenity, his own personal slice of Hell. His plans and motives are a great mystery for the first three books, but he becomes a major player in Book 4. His Aspects are Raise, Reign, and Return.

Arch-Enemy: The ancient enemy of the Procerans, although the fear and rancor is completely one-sided. His enmity with the Wandering Bard is more mutual.
A God Am I: Believes himself to be a god due to his vast power and immortality. Notable in that his proclamation seems to imply that the difference between gods and mortals simply seems to be having true power and not being beholden to death.
Big Bad Ensemble: Neshamah and the Wandering Bard are the two overarching antagonists of the series, each working to unravel the others' schemes and end all life on Calernia for their respective goals. Neshamah is introduced very late into the story, but it's his Trismegistan sorcery that the Dread Empire has used to turn themselves into a persistent thorn in the side of the Good nations, and once he takes center stage, his clear ambition of total genocide propels the idea of stopping him to the top of everyone's priority list.
Dimension Lord: He rules his own personal dimension of Hell (called 'the Serenity' by his followers).
The Dragon: He was Dread Empress Triumphant's most powerful and reliable ally during her conquest of Calernia. While he was in no way considered her equal, it's also noted that he managed to avoid getting reduced to a mere vassal, suggesting a high degree of trust between the two of them (or, at the very least, he held enough power to make doing so not worth the effort).
The Dreaded: The Dead King is one of - if not the- scariest Villains on Calernia.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Flashbacks show Neshamah had a loving mother whom he cared for. Although he denies her death being his Freudian Excuse, the event is still indicated by the Bard to have been an "ugly affair" that didn't do any wonders for his psyche, and there are hints he still cares for her in the present: despite dismissing her story of Sipo as a lie, he holds onto its imagery of the sparrow to the point where it's the shape of his soul, and the Garden of Crowns—apparently the only spot of vegetation in Keter spared from being blighted like the rest of the Kingdom of the Dead—is implied to be the same garden where she first told him the story.
Freudian Excuse Denial: The Bard, upon first meeting Neshamah, posited that his mother's death when he was a child was what shaped him into the monster he has since become. Neshamah responds with amused offense; he regards his actions as "the only lucid answer" to gaining true freedom from the Gods. No matter what he feels about her death, he sees his quest as such an obvious goal to pursue that he's insulted by the implication he needed to have been pushed towards it by evil mentors or a traumatic backstory.
Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: For all that one could argue the Bard's constant hounding was what drove him to the extreme, omnicidal lengths he goes to in the present, Catherine has absolutely no sympathy for him, considering the act of wiping out an entire kingdom for any reason to be nothing but pure madness.
Genre Savvy: Neshamah is undoubtedly genre-savvy. There aren't many characters in the Guide-verse who can outmaneuver the Wandering Bard for as long as he has.
Evil Sorcerer: A powerful mage with centuries of experience.
Friendly Enemy: He and The Wandering Bard (aka: "The Intercessor", but that's not her ''real'' name either). They've been thwarting each other for centuries, and can still hold cordial conversations. She's one of the few people he considers to be a fellow immortal.
- He and Ranger have... an understanding? A frenemyship? He treats her like a neighbourhood cat he's grown attached to and is training up? She's only a half-elf, so technically not immortal, but she could drop by to eat the food he puts out for her when she challenges the security systems for centuries, at least.
Immortality Seeker: As a living man, he sacrificed his entire kingdom in order to ascend to undead lichdom. His real goal is being the only entity standing at the end of the world, escaping the game of the gods once and for all. In his own words:
"When the Gods end it all, when the last soul passes and the last of Creation is unmade, then I will stride alone into a sky of cold and distant stars. And in that empty void between worlds, moving to no purpose but mine, I will at last know the taste of freedom."
Land of One City: His kingdom of Keter is a subversion because while his foothold on Calernia is more or less one city, he also rules an entire dimension of Hell.
More than Mind Control: He has conditioned entire generations of humans within the Serenity to more or less worship him.
Mortality Phobia: At his heart, Neshamah fears his own death above all things. It is remarked several times in later chapters that for all his power, he is the greatest coward on Calernia. They don't call him the Hidden Horror for nothing.
Necromancer: He's the necromancer.
Our Liches Are Different: As an undead, millennia-old, being who seeks immortality, he's probably closer to an Archlich than an Archmage.
Physical God: Considers himself to be an immortal of this calibre, and counts very few others to be in the same category; namely The Wandering Bard and, recently, Catherine.
Rasputinian Death: Naturally, it takes one of these, performed through a Combination Attack by several of the most powerful living Named, to kill him. In order:
- Cat's third Aspect, allows her to Sentence the Dead King to death, empowered with her Role as Warden and the narrative weight of being the lynchpin of the Grand Alliance against Neshamah;
- The Mirror Knight, attacked with a rotting curse, uses a dying attack (with all the narrative weight that provides) to Reflect the curse back onto the Dead King;
- As Christophe falls, the White Knight grabs the Severance (made with the power of the Saint of Swords) and uses his Aspect, Undo, to reverse Neshamah's lichdom;
- Cat uses her first Aspect, Silence, to negate Neshamah's attempted killing spell as Hanno cuts off the Dead King's head; and
- Masego catches and eats the Dead King's fleeing soul.
Self-Sacrifice Scheme: In Book 5, he willingly loses an unrecoverable piece of his soul to make his "defeat" against the Intercessor appear authentic, so that a smaller piece of his soul can get back to his main body with knowledge of her real plans.
Soul Jar: As a lich, he has one. It's the entire city of Keter, which will bring his soul back to his body each time he is 'killed'.
Time Abyss: It's unknown just exactly how old he is, but it's clear by the historical treatises that his original kingdom of Sephirah was destroyed at least several millennia ago.
We Wait: The crux of his plan is to quietly build an army in his own personal hellscape while the rest of Calernia burns, until he's the only power left on the board. To quote Catherine:
"He's not after the quickest or most effective way to rise... [he's after] the one that leaves no openings."

Ishaq

Ishaq "Deathless", The Barrow Sword

A crafty Levantine Villain that joins the truce against the Dead King in the hopes of winning renown.

Bastard Understudy: Subverted, upon joining the truce, he initially seeks a Klingon Promotion by assassinating Cat (she takes it in stride as an inevitable result of dealing with Villains). After she kicks his butt, he becomes a fairly reliable subordinate (and even expresses relief that he doesn't have to deal with all the responsibility Cat does).
Glory Seeker: His primary motivation is to be added to "the Rolls," a Levantine record of achievements historically reserved for nobles and Heroes.
Grave Robbing: Ishaq got his Name upon finding the magical, Soul Eating blade Pinon buried in a barrow.
The Reliable One: Among the Villains facing the Dead King, Ishaq is one of the few that isn't Ax-Crazy, Stupid Evil, or a Non-Action Guy, so Cat makes him her primary lieutenant during battles.
Your Soul Is Mine!: Using his Aspect, Drink, his sword collects souls and uses them to heal Ishaq's otherwise mortal injuries.

Tancred

Tancred, The Scorched Apostate

An untrained Proceran mage that becomes a Villain and uses his newfound power to burn down the town of Marserac. Cat recruits him to the crusade against the Dead King.

Black Mage: He's a young mage who's only shown an affinity for Playing with Fire spells.
Birds of a Feather: With Cat, as another young person who fell into Evil out of the belief that Holding Out for a Hero or hoping for a miracle would only cause undue suffering. She feels more than a little kinship with him as a result.
Final Solution: Tancred got his Name when he chose to burn down a town killing almost every man, woman, and child within, to prevent them from spreading a Mystical Plague created by the Dead King.
Good Scars, Evil Scars Two-thirds of his face is covered in harsh and unhealing burns. Tancred views them as divine punishment for his actions.
Holy Hand Grenade: He wields a mixture of flame and light, useful only for smiting.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Only hours after meeting one of the only Named that could sympathize with his choices, and even obtaining the chance to be formally trained in magic, one of the Dead King's assassins kills him. Cat ends up having to put her zombified charge out of his misery.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Scorched Apostate's act of mass murder was done only to prevent the deaths that would result from a plague spreading through an already war-torn Procer. He believes the villagers' refusal to wait for a priest that could provide a cure (before leaving to seek refuge in neighboring cities) forced his hand. Cat agrees, as he likely saved tens of thousands in the process.

Marshal Nim

Marshal Nim Mardottir, The Black Knight

An Ogress that is one of the only remaining Marshals of Praes following a mass desertion. Afterward, the Dread Empress Malicia appoints Nim High Marshal of Praes and she takes on the Name of The Black Knight. Her Aspects include Survey and Delegate.

The Brute: In contrast to Amadeus, Malicia ensures Nim is kept in the dark regarding her political maneuvering as well as the finer points of Namelore. As a result, she's only really used for combat and military strategy.
My Country, Right or Wrong: The only reason Nim continues to work for Malicia is loyalty to the stability of Praes. Specifically, she subscribes to Amadeus's belief that a standing army loyal exclusively to the position of Dread Emperor/Empress would curb the civil wars that break out each time a noble wants to play The Starscream.
The Rival: To Arthur, as Cat purposefully manipulates the Squire into a Pattern of Three with the Black Knight. On a military level, she serves as this to Juniper, handing the Marshal of Callow multiple defeats during the Praes campaign.
Skilled, but Naive: She's a capable fighter and excellent strategist, but her ignorance regarding the Law Of Narrative Causality bites her repeatedly.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Malicia and Akua given that their Manipulative Bastardry encapsulates everything she hates about the governance of Praes.

Past Dread Emperors and Empresses

The Villains who have ruled Praes in the centuries before Malicia. Many have fleshed-out histories but some are known only by their page-quotes at the beginning of the Serial's chapters — only Dread Emperors and Empresses with a greater impact on the setting or the story will be listed here, those that are only known by their quotations are listed on the Quotes page.

Dread Empress Maleficent I

The Founder of the Dread Empire. A Taghreb who united the Orcs, Goblins, Taghreb, and Soninke tribes after the Miezan empire withdrew. Assassinated by an ancestor of the Sahelians who became the second Dread Empress.

Dread Empress Triumphant (MAY SHE NEVER RETURN)

The Greatest and most Terrible of all the Tyrants of Praes and perhaps of all Calernia's Villains. Conquered the entire continent of Calernia 700 years prior to the story only to be defeated by the combined might of the First Crusade and an invasion of the Yan Tei Empire from across the sea. Following her death most of Praes was annexed into crusader states and the Empire would not regain its original borders until Dread Emperor Terribilis II drove out the crusaders a generation later.Liked to summon demons, which she generally bound to the standards of her Legions, some of which are still lying around. Also made a habit of crucifying people or better yet, forcing people to crucify their own loved ones which led to the cross being used as the Crusader symbol in Calernia (though not the symbol of any religion).

Classic Villain: She was Pride all the way.
The Dreaded: She was probably the most successful and notorious Dread Empress of all time, and Praesi are extremely proud of her - and just as eager to never be terrorized by her again.
Escaped from Hell: Whenever her name is mentioned most Praesi will make a prayer that she never return in order to ward off this possibility. Since a different Villain has actually managed to pull off something like this at least once in Calernia's history it may not be as improbable as it sounds.
Hell Has New Management: The belief of most of Praes is that she is almost certainly the new ruler of the damned - she conquered the entire continent and nearly another with much less resources than "the theoretically infinite hordes of the damned."

Dread Emperor Terribilis II

Probably the best ruler the Empire had before Malicia. He took power a generation after Triumphant's fall and succeeded in reconquering the home territory of the empire and annexing part of Callow, reducing the kingdom to a Proceran client state. The only ruler prior to Black and Malicia to come close to solving the demographic problems that forced Praes into repeated, self-destructive invasions of Callow but he was assassinated before his plan could be fully implemented and the empire contracted back to its prior borders afterwards.

Big Book of War: He wrote one of the setting's two best-regarded books on warcraft.
Expy: As the Emperor who united his people to drive out the crusader states, he resembles the real-life Egyptian King Saladin.
Pragmatic Villainy: Calernia's Ur-example. Black is arguably his spiritual successor.
Villainous Valor: His story was one of reconquering his homeland from the occupying crusader states, despite being firmly on the side of evil.

Dread Emperor Tenebrous

The Emperor who built the Imperial Road. Had a promising early reign but is now mostly remembered for coming to hold the belief that he was actually a Giant Spider in a human body and using magic to physically transform himself into such a form before taking up residence in Ater's sewers. Rumored to still be alive down there.

Big Creepy-Crawlies: Believed that he was one, and took steps to make physical reality conform to this belief.
Mother Of Monsters: It's implied she's the ancestor of the Giant Spiders that still infest the sewers of the Empire's capital.
Never Found the Body: In Book 7, Amadeus and Ranger call her up from the sewers during the Battle of the Spiders, where she ends up serving as a setpiece in Archer, Concocter, and Silver Huntress's reunion with Ranger before dying for real. Cat later uses her corpse as a Night puppet.
Never Live It Down: Weirdly enough nobody seems to remember his infrastructure projects, impressive though they were.

Dread Emperor Malignant II

One of the less impressive Dread Emperors. Best known for creating a subspecies of aquatic orcs for a failed invasion of Callow.

Dread Emperor Nefarious

The Dread Emperor prior to Malicia. Notable mostly for his skill with magic, his incompetence in most other matters, and his venality. Attempted an invasion of Callow 20 years before Black's conquest that resulted in disaster when he was defeated by the Wizard of the West on the Field of Streges. After limping back from that defeat he spent the remainder of his reign abusing his concubines one of whom, a woman named Alaya, murdered him in order to ascend as Dread Empress Malicia.

Asshole Victim: Let's just say few politically minded people were all that surprised when a member of his harem was involved in his downfall. And, just as many mourned his loss. If that. Not generally considered a high point of Praesi style, this guy.
Dirty Old Man: After his invasion of Callow was defeated he spent the remainder of his reign indulging his lechery with whatever attractive women his soldiers could bring him.
Laser-Guided Karma: Murdered by one of the women he abducted and raped, who would then go on to become a far greater ruler than he.
Sorcerous Overlord: Nefarious was apparently an unusually skilled mage, though not as skilled as the contemporary Wizard of the West.

Dread Emperor Traitorous

One of the more colorful Dread Emperors, he has ended up as something of a historical folk hero for the people of Praes. Most commonly known for his habit of double-crossing just about everybody.

Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He named himself Traitorous for a reason. He performed over a hundred different acts of treachery over the course of his reign. Most notably, he successfully betrayed a Villain whose Name was Betrayer.
Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: A common aspect of his plans involves him pretending to play a bunch of sides at once.
Full-Circle Revolution: On at least one occasion, rebels who managed to overthrow the Dread Emperor Treacherous found too late that their leader was the Dread Emperor Traitorous in disguise.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Once managed to disguise himself as his (female) Chancellor using a wig and falsies made from a pair of melons.
Refuge in Audacity: Openly announced to the world that he was an untrustworthy backstabber with his choice of reign name, and yet still managed to successfully betray over a hundred different people and groups over the course of his reign. The fact that he was somehow able to pull this off is a major factor in why he is so fondly remembered by the people of Praes.
Thanatos Gambit: In his final betrayal, he committed suicide while framing over a hundred different people for his murder.

Dread Emperor Benevolent

The only Hero to ever rule the Dread Empire.

Token Good Teammate: His entire thing was this, though downplayed in that he was still a Dread Emperor and ruled the part. His rule was not particularly stable.

Dread Empress Massacre

A Dread Empress known for her namesake.

Leave No Survivors: Apparently she only had to do it once to gain a reputation for it.
Make-Out Point: During Book 2 of the Yonder rewrite (an extended version of WordPress Book 1's War College arc), it's revealed that Massacre's rosestone shrine in Ater is a popular destination for seductions—because apparently, she took the lord of Mapai as a consort instead of torching Mapai because he was apparently just that good in bed. Cat ends up at her rendezvous with her highborn minder Rafiq Muraqib there, who quickly defies it by noting that all pretense of subtlety was abandoned when his uncle chose that location in the first place.

Dread Emperor Malignant II, the Particularly Petty

A Dread Emperor known for experimentation and pettiness.

Literal-Minded: Most Epigraphs taken from his journal see him take idioms literally, performing an experiment that comedically misses the point of the phrase in question.

Yonder-exclusive Villains

The Baron (Vernon Angler)

The only living Callowan Villain at the start of the story. He's currently attempting to come into a story that lets him replace Black as the Governor-General of Callow. His only known Aspect is Foment.

Adaptational Origin Connection: He mentions several Callowan Named and plot elements that would not show up in person until later in the series. While most show up in Book 2 or Book 3 of the WordPress version, The Fox in the Woods doesn't appear until Book 6.
Adaptation Expansion: Aside from being part of a new arc exclusive to the Yonder rewrite, his goal in infiltrating the Foxtails is to obtain one of the three legendary swords of Callow—an element exclusive to the rewrite.
Overt Rendezvous: He starts an impromptu one with Catherine at the Foxtail hideout, as both independently developed the idea to infiltrate the resistance in Peren Woods for their own ends before finding themselves at the same bar. He even uses a Cacophony Cover Up to hide their conversation by goading the Foxtails into singing The Fox in the Woods.
The Rival: Seems to be shaping up as another one for Cat.

The Summoner (Praesi)

A female, Sanke^noteYonder rename of Soninke Praesi villain who is behind the string of Agrinya assassinations Black is investigating.

Foregone Conclusion: The existence of a male, ethnically Callowan Summoner in Book 6 implies she probably won't survive until the Yonder version reaches that point in the story.

Characters / A Practical Guide To Evil: Villains

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