History Characters / ASongOfIceAndFireFacelessMen

* ShroudedInMyth: The first Faceless Man, who lived in Valyria, is variously said to have been a slave himself, a nobleman's son, or an overseer who came to pity his charges. He watched countless slaves pray to their gods in hundreds of different languages for freedom, but no god ever answered. Then one day, he decided he must become god's instrument and killed the most wretched of the slaves, freeing him. He then heard another slave praying for his master's death and granted the wish, with the price that said slave must then become the second Faceless Man.

* ShroudedInMyth: The first Faceless Man, who lived in Valyria, is variously said to have been a slave himself, a nobleman's son, or an overseer who came to pity his charges. He watched countless slaves pray to their gods in hundreds of different languages for freedom, but no god ever answered. Then one day, he decided he must become god's instrument and killed the most wretched of the slaves, freeing him. He heard another slave praying for his master's death and granted the wish, with the price that said slave must then become the second Faceless Man.

* ShroudedInMyth: The first Faceless Man, who lived in Valyria, is variously said to have been a slave, a freeholder's son, or an overseer who came to pity his charges.

* EvilMentor: He is training Arya to be an assassin and teaching her that she is "no one" in a attempt to remove much of her previous personality and attachments. Yet, subverted by the fact that, [[TrainingFromHell brutal though his mentorship occasionally is]], it's the most carefully structured and caring experience she's had in ages.

* OxymoronicBeing: They consider a female Faceless Man to be one, because a woman brings life into the world while their job is to take life.

[[folder: Jaqen H'ghar]]

[[folder: The Kindly Man]]

[[folder: The Waif]]

-->--'''The Kindly Man'''

* ShroudedInMyth: The first Faceless Man is variously said to have been a slave, a freeholder's son, or an overseer who came to pity his charges.

-->''''Kindly man''': Many have served Him of Many Faces through the centuries, but only a few of His servants have been women. Women bring life into the world. We bring the gift of death. No one can do both.

* OxymoronicBeing: They consider a female Faceless Man to be one, because women bring life into the world, while they take it.

* OxymoronicBeing: A female Faceless Man is considered one by them, because women bring life into the world, while they take it.

* MasterPoisoner: She specializes in crafting poisons to kill her targets.

* {{Foil}}: Regardless of whether the [[EpilepticTrees popular fan theory]] is true that he is also Arya's fencing teacher Syrio, he's definitely presented as a foil to him. Both men are from Braavos and serve as mentors to Arya, but Jaqen is a much more morally ambiguous figure, and his helpfulness to her is very conditional.

* StealthExpert: Thanks to their almost supernatural skills as assassins, mastery of acting and ability to change faces it is almost impossible Faceless Men are able of effortlessly sneaking into any place and of killing anybody without being ever spotted or discovered after. This is part of why they are feared so much, even by the Targaryens.

-->''"Valar morghulis."\\

-> ''"On the morrow, at the turn of the moon, a year from this day, it will come. A man does not fly like a bird, but one foot moves and then another and one day a man is there, and a king dies."''

!!Jaqen H'ghar

-->''"A man sees. A man hears. A man knows."''

* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker[=/=]ThirdPersonPerson: Always refers to himself in a detached way as "A Man" rather than saying "I". Likewise, he speaks of Arya in third person as "A girl" rather than saying "You". [[spoiler: This is also part of his cover as Jaqen, as he doesn't speak this way in his "Alchemist" persona.]]
** ''Literature/TheWorldOfIceAndFire'' reveals that this manner of speech is typical of all the people of Lorath.

!!The Kindly Man

-->''"Kiss me, child."''

!!The Waif
-->''"The one you call waif is a woman grown who has spent her life serving Him of Many Faces. She gave Him all she was, all she ever might have been, all the lives that were within her."''

[[/folder]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: Arguably an example of this (their white-and-black outfits indicate a tendency to think of themselves as both dark and light), as a shadowy group of death-worshipping assassins who provide free, painless euthanasia to those who truly are in pain enough to wish for death. They also commit assassinations, but they only kill those who have driven others to pray (or pay) for their deaths, prefer not to kill someone they personally know, and are very strict about avoiding collateral damage.

* TheDreaded: The scariest assassins in the known world. Other assassination and death cults exist, but none come close to the amount of dread the Faceless generate.