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Nobles
Margaret Steelheart
Margaret Steelheart
The primary antagonist of volume 4. She is the leader of the "pro-war" movement in High Britannia and tries to kill Elizabeth in order to ascend to the throne. Though she fails to kill Elizabeth, she does succeed in taking the throne by keeping Elizabeth from reaching the capital city in time.- The Caligula: Fits this trope to a T.
- Death Seeker: In chapter 3 of volume 9, it's revealed that the real reason she forged ahead with declaring war against Belgaria, the strongest in-universe nation in the world, is that she wants to die, in spectacular fashion, because she's that bored. She doesn't have any other objective. Although amused by the struggle, she just ultimately wants it all to end.
- Driven to Suicide: After Oswald is defeated and killed in a fair duel, rather than let herself be captured to answer for her crimes, she stabs herself with a hidden dagger. Regis saves her life and insists she live to answer for her actions.
- Dystopia Justifies the Means: Her one and only idea of entertainment, waiting for her own death, is seeing mountains of corpses, and gets rather impatient when her armies can't provide it.
- Freudian Excuse: It's a doozy, bordering on Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds territory. Growing up as a child, she was forbidden from doing anything "improper" or that might put her in danger. Going to school? Forbidden, an assassin might come after you, you get a horrifically boring personal tutor. Playing with children her own age? Forget it, what if you're hurt. Having a hobby like knitting, cooking, or any kind of arts and craft? Ridiculous! A high noble and possible queen candidate can't be seen doing those kinds of things, it's beneath her! Even "trashy" romance and fiction novels or any kind of enjoyable book was banned from her household. The only "entertainment" she had were the "classics", ie, Shakespearean-type tragedies, which she was compelled to read and memorize. By the time she entered adulthood, she was so utterly bored to tears that she ultimately decided that if society liked Shakespearean tragedies that much, then she would make the whole country of Britannia into one.
- I Just Want to Be Special: The reason she launched a war on Belgaria is that she thinks she's "special" and the conflict would be gloriously highlighted in the history books. She did not take it well when Regis not only pointed out how common her condition is, but that the whole war she launched would most likely only make a line or two in the history books afterwards.
- It Amused Me: Her highly unstable behavior serves one purpose, and only one purpose, to get the maximum amusement she can out of any situation, good or bad, though mostly bad.
- Lack of Empathy: Doesn't care about the well being of anybody, not even herself.
- Meaningful Name: Her last name is "Steelheart" and she has a serious Lack of Empathy.
- Narcissist: Officially and clinically diagnosed as such by Regis when she's captured in Volume 10.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Due to her Freudian Excuse, she acts like a spoiled child, throwing a tantrum when things don't go her way.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Becomes queen of Britannia in volume 4.
- Villainous Princess: She causes a Succession Crisis in High Britannia by usurping the throne from designated heir Princess Elizabeth, and then invades the Belgarian Empire, for no other reason than her own boredom with the world.
- War for Fun and Profit: Far more concerned about fun than profit, although she does want to gain something from waging war on Belgaria.
Oswald Coulthard
Oswald Coulthard
Margeret's top aide, and close confidante. There is rarely a time that the two are not close to each other.- Bodyguard Crush: He is utterly devoted to Margaret, worshiping the ground she walks on, even when she's physically abusive, like ripping of his ear with her teeth, and licking up the blood.
- Break Them by Talking: He manages to upgrade this to kill them by talking. He deliberately provokes the terminally ill queen into a rage so that she has a heart attack and dies.
- Charles Atlas Super Power: He can match Bastian in raw strength. Remember, Bastian can stop a charging bull bare-handed.
- Devil in Plain Sight: He's a particularly nasty piece of work, doesn't bother to hide it, yet almost nobody seems to notice.
- Did Not See That Coming: Latrielle letting himself be stabbed in exchange for delivering the killing blow never occurred to him.
- Dragon-in-Chief: To Margaret. He's really the one running the show, and that's perfectly okay with her. She just wants to enjoy the ride.
- Dystopia Justifies the Means: He just wants to see the world burn, and will do any and all sorts of nasty things to see that happen. Margaret approves.
- Evil Counterpart: He and Margaret are shaping up to be this for Regis and Altina. To an outside observer, the primary difference between them is that Regis and Altina care about their men, while Oswald and Margaret do not.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He's illustrated and noted in-universe to be a particularly handsome man with a wholesome, almost childish appearance, but he's an utterly depraved individual who makes piles of corpses, friend or enemy alike, just because he can.
- General Ripper: Although he has no grudge against Belgaria, personally, he will do anything to defeat them. He tested army formations and tactics on Britannia's own citizens, to horrific, bloody results. Margaret is quite upset with him on this, not because he did it, but because he left her out, and she found out about it afterwards.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Is cut in half diagonally by Latrielle.
- Killed Off for Real: Killed by Latrielle in volume 10.
- Lady Macbeth: An unusual male variant. He's constantly feeding Margaret's ego, and encouraging her unstable and unsavory behavior. Unusual for this trope, he does indeed worship the ground Margaret walks on, and Margaret is also quite aware that he's playing this role, and likes it. She finds it very amusing.
- The Sociopath: Fits the trope to the letter. He is completely incapable of feeling any emotion except pleasure at the suffering of others, or rage at his own. He is utterly devoted to Margaret because she shares this mindset.
- Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb: He unknowingly took a page out of Regis's playbook and used a similar tactic on Latrielle, however, he showed that he is more than happy to sacrifice his soldier(s) in the process.
- This Is Unforgivable!: He hates Basitin because Basitin pointed a gun at Margaret while Margaret was threatening Elizabeth's life in Volume 4. He's even gone so far as to keep a wound he received from Basitin during their duel open, and bleeding, over half a month to remind himself of his hatred.
- War for Fun and Profit: At first, his motives appear to be this, what with telling the former Queen that he wants to fight war for money (despite being very wealthy already), but then it's subverted to hell and back when he tells Elizabeth his true motivations right before intending to kill her.
- Oswald:"Well, yes. I do want to go to war to get money, but then, money is needed to train troops, buy and build equipment and weapons and gather supplies to feed the army that's going to war to get money to train troops, buy and build equipment and weapons..."
Bruno's Carlos Victoria
Brunos Carlos Victoria
Elizabeth's uncle and the commander of Gray Bridge fort.- Cool Uncle: Subverted. He first appears to be this for Elizabeth, but...
- Dirty Coward: Didn't offer even token resistance to Margaret or Oswald.
- Et Tu, Brute?: He sells out Elizabeth to Margaret just to hold on to his command.
- I Lied: He convinces Bastian that traveling with Elizabeth would give the populace the impression that she was a Puppet King of Belgaria. Bastian, for his part, was very quick to figure out this was a lie after he had left the fort, and was staying in an inn.
- The Quisling: He wholly follows Margaret's folly because he's convinced that if he had resisted, he would simply be replaced.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Volume 5 strongly suggests that his entire regiment, including himself, were killed by Oswald when Oswald was testing battle formations, weapons and tactics under the guise of quelling a rebellion.
- We Have Reserves: He only pretends to care about the well being of the soldiers under his command.
