Characters / Archipelago

Major Characters

Credenza and her team

Credenza Black

Oh Credenza, what have you gotten yourself into this time?

A former slave aboard Captain Snow's submarine, she managed to escape and washed ashore on the Ruin Island, where the Burillas adopted her. At the beginning of the story, Credenza works as a waitress in their inn, until she meets Blitz and stumbles into the quest to keep the Raven from being revived.

She becomes the unofficial leader in the search for the heirs, having a vaguely defined connection to Dragonfly and all the charisma necessary to keep the team together. Internally, however, she's prone to self-loathing, feeling responsible for many of the terrible things that she's seen throughout her life, notably abandoning her only friend Uru on Snow's sub. As we learn later, this was actually a Heroic Sacrifice on his part, and he survived.

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• Action Survivor: Not an experienced fighter (she's been working as a waitress), but quick on her feet, lucky and people tend to like her instantly, so she has no problem getting help.
• Amplifier Artifact: Paollo gives her the Soul Key necklace in their first shared vision (back in book 2) and she wears it for the rest of the story until Snow destroys it (see her portrait). It amplifies her magic, allowing Credenza occasional (but useful) feats of Super-Strength. It also detects evil magic. And fixes broken hearts, without the wielder even having to do anything. Besides that, it's a literal (if magical) key to several locked doors.
• All-Loving Hero: Not to the stupid levels, and she can throw a punch if needed, but she genuinely believes in her fellow man. Except for captain Snow. In fact, it's Credenza's unwavering belief in her fellow man that prods Raven to become her fellow man.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Compassionate and unwilling to let evil stand, Credenza has brought many a wounded wild animal home, which Paolin isn't happy about. Her introduction to the story is dragging a castaway (Blitz) to safety. During the story she refuses to help once - and then ends up helping anyway. Credenza's determined helpfulness earns her Blitz's Undying Loyalty and Raven's (initially begrudging) respect. It's also how Dragonfly is convinced to entrust her with both Tin Can Turtle's soul and the plot.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: To Blitz. She's generally the voice of reason in the team composed of a brain-damaged Cloudcuckoolander, a grumpy spirit with No Social Skills, a Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling pair of half-weresharks, and their assorted friends.

• Dark and Troubled Past: Her home town was one of many Snow razed. She spent a good portion of her childhood as an abused slave on one of Snow's ships and Uru threw her overboard during their escape attempt, because that was the only way he could think of to at least keep her out of Snow's clutches.
• Dream Walker: Throughout the story she has vivid Flashback Nightmares. Finally, when she tells Paollo's guards about her last disturbing dream, they work out Credenza is talented in this regard. It proves instrumental in the finale.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Credenza is a genuine All-Loving Hero who tries to find the good in everyone. Everyone except captain Snow.
• From Zero to Hero: She, a humble waitress from a backwater island, sort of stumbles into saving the world quest by rescuing a random shipwrecked guy. She finishes said quest by winning a Battle in the Center of the Mind while her friends dispatch the villain in the physical world.
• Girl Next Door: While pretty much uninterested in clothes and romance, she's the emotionally mature advisor to Alice and the twins, caretaker to Blitz, does the housework on the sub and admits to Deliza that after travelling with guys for so long, it's nice to have some girl talk once in a while. Credenza is not afraid to get her hands dirty, will whack a bad guy with a stick if they're threatening her friends, and just doesn't seem to think in "tomboy/girly" terms, at least not about herself.
• Gut Feeling: Credenza's intuition about who to trust never fails her. In a flashback her mom even tells her to trust her instinct.
• Happily Adopted: By the Burillas, who found her washed ashore Ruin Island ten years prior.
• Magnetic Hero: Credenza inspires people's loyalty by being helpful and trusting towards them first. She assembles quite a following gradually.
  Raven: I've been watching Credenza for months and I still don't understand how she can risk her life for people she barely knows! While you've been sitting here having tea time, this girl has been putting her life on the line for the good of others.
  Credenza: Raven! Don't insult him!
  Blitz: Raven's right! Credenza protected me when no one else would. She can protect Tin-Can!
  Tuff: It was the same for us! We're sharkmen, but she still defended us and fought by our side.
  Credenza: It's not like that! I wasn't trying to be a hero. I just saw they needed help. How could I turn away from that? I can't just look the other way and pretend there isn't evil at work here.
• Official Couple: Becomes one with Raven. The story ends with them dancing at the very beach where they first met.
• Plucky Girl: The optimist between Sour Supporter Raven and nervous, insecure Tuff. Even Snow has a twisted admiration for her indomitable spirit.
  Snow: I always admired that about you. No matter how hopeless the situation, no matter what I do to you, you just don't give up.
• Slave Brand: On her arm, left over from when she was on Snow's ship. It gets messed up into unrecognizability during the Battle in the Center of the Mind, when she receives a shoulder wound.
• Slipknot Ponytail: She loses the hair tie several times and is always happy to see it returned to her.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She looks a lot like her parents (seen in a Flashback Nightmare). She also resembles Dragonfly and Olivia, who may or may not have been her ancestors to an extent, both in slim, dark-haired looks and in her very green magic.
• Survivor's Guilt:
  • She's the only one of Snow's slaves who survived. Oficially. Uru slipped through the cracks. Even though she had been a little girl at the time, she blames herself for not saving her best friend Uru. When under the effects of hallucinogenic magical smoke:
    Credenza: You only exist in my head, you can't hurt me.
    hallucination!Snow: Such cold words. Was it that coldness that let you abandon Uru?
    Credenza: What? No! I didn't abandon Uru, he was my friend!
    hallucination!Snow: But you still left him behind. You left him with me.
  • She also blames herself for not saving Dragonfly (who told her to run and get on with the quest several times). And for not having saved Blitz in the final battle, although he gets saved by someone else.
• Team Mom: Especially towards Blitz. But she's generally the one organizing and directing the group.
  Raven: What makes that woman think she can order us around like that?
  Blitz: The way we always do what she says.
• Tragic Keepsake: Credenza's skull hair tie was a gift from Uru, when they were both slaves on Snow's sub. As it finally turns out, the hair tie was Uru's wristband and he gave it to her during the fateful escape attempt.
• True Companions: She's the center of a Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits who would gladly give their lives for her - Credenza, in turn, is a loving Team Mom to all her boys. It's the thought of them that gives her strength in the final confrontation.
• Unskilled, but Strong: While she herself is untrained, Credenza's magic is openly described as powerful and ancient, frequently.

Blitz/Anthony Solair

^(spoilers) 

Look Credenza! I found something shiny!

A young man with one eye and amnesia (among other problems) who washed ashore on Ruin Island. Initially untamed and untrusting, he eventually calmed down after Credenza befriended him and gave him a name. She quickly discovers that Blitz's amnesia is the result of a fudged possession attempt by an evil raven spirit. His former self stabbed his eye to stop the raven from taking control of his body, which resulted in his mind getting shattered, and the raven spirit starting to become a person (with some Anthony traits bleeding over). Blitz and Raven are eventually separated, but the damage remains.

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• Alternate Identity Amnesia: Blitz doesn't consciously remember being Anthony (his dreaming self and mind readers can access these memories), and, while he's aware of everything Raven does while controlling his body, he's not always able to stop him.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Blitz's childish demeanor and mood-swinging tendencies apparently do not make for a pleasant mental landscape, or possibly it's all those jagged shards of Anthony's memories left over he doesn't know about.
  Raven: Broke into the wrong brain, didn't you? He looks all frail and frightened, but he has a mind that will swallow you up before it lets you take over. Take it from me, more powerful minds than yours have tried.

• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: See his character quote? He says variations on that a lot. Credenza has to keep an eye on him so he doesn't accidentally steal anything he takes a fancy to.
• Beware the Nice Ones / Beware the Silly Ones: Make no mistake, you hurt one of Blitz's friends, and you may not live long enough to regret it. This brain-damaged young man is a Weredragon, incidentally. But even before he discovers that, he's a force to be reckoned with. Also, the shards of Anthony's broken mind are still there, and they're sharp. Vaniji finds that out the hard way.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Body of a grown man, mind of a five-year-old boy. He's prone to drawing childish scribbles on windows after breathing on them, playing pretend, and getting lost in his pursuits of shiny things.
  Raven: You should listen to him. I'm the first to admit Blitz's head cheese is the swiss kind. But he never just makes things up, and he can be oddly intuitive about certain things.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Quite capable in a fight when things get desperate. At first he would trade places with Raven when that sort of thing was needed, but he can do very well on his own. Particularly after Dragonfly gives him a memory of his past self.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His life as Anthony, especially towards the end. Anthony grew up in a rich and snobby family and fell in love with a girl they deemed beneath him. He married her and moved out, but she Died In Childbirth. Anthony broke down completely. It took him a couple of years to get his act together, during which the financial problems he already had got so dire he needed to get a job, right now, so he went to the sea. And then he got framed for a murder his captain commited, was marooned, tempted by a raven, but changed his mind in the middle of possession and stabbed the eye out, effectively killing himself, creating the person later named Blitz and starting Raven's Humanity Ensues. Blitz doesn't consciously remember any of that, but sometimes has Flashback Nightmares he finds sad and confusing.
• Eye Scream: He only has one eye. It's self-inflicted. Anthony stabbed out the eye that Raven had entered through, resulting in Raven becoming trapped in his body, cut off from the other ravens, and breaking Anthony's mind.
• Flip Personality: For the first book or two, while his Sharing a Body with Raven isn't amicable. Credenza can tell by the shift in demeanour, but sometimes Raven makes the body's tatoos glow magically.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Sort of; Raven appears as a wisp over Blitz's shoulder when he's not in the driver seat. Likewise, when Raven is using Blitz's body, Blitz starts floating around his shoulder.
• Hidden Depths: Blitz may be brain-damaged, but his innocence lends itself well to looking after others, and his love for Credenza is more than blind loyalty. He sometimes remembers Anthony's skills, like handling a submarine or playing the piano, and can be just as perceptive as his past adventurer self. Occasionally he also uses quite sophisticated language. Of course, he follows it with Buffy Speak like:
  Blitz: You're gonna faith him to death!
• Heroic Willpower: He can actually resist Raven. It's not easy, but he can. There are also several instances in the story where it seems like he's dead... and he comes back (as Big Damn Heroes, no less) triumphantly. A friend of Anthony's mentions him being stubborn, so this is probably left over.
• Loss of Identity: Normally, being possessed by a lurker raven would've pushed the original mind into a backseat, but not shatter it. Except the original owner of the body, Anthony, changed his mind in the middle of possession when he understood what he was losing and tugged back, causing both him and the raven spirit to break. For all practical purposes, Anthony is gone. People who knew him tend to be confused by Blitz at first, but they're quick to notice how differently he acts, sees the world and holds himself. Incidentally, as we see in a certain Flashback, Anthony used to be much more like Raven, a self-assured (if prone to blaming himself for things outside his control) and smart adventurer with a somewhat theatrical personality.
  Anthony (teasing Chesska): You have a passion for ugly, thorny things, why else would you be friends with me?
• The Lost Lenore: Chesska, Anthony's wife who Died In Childbirth. Blitz sort of stubbornly can't remember her.
• Made of Iron: Probably justified by being a dragon, but let's see: this is the guy who nearly died at sea and started running around less than two hours after getting brought to safety. He's unaffected by sleeping powder, a magic explosion, falling from heights... It takes being skewered through his heart in waking world and crushed in the dreaming world to stop him.
• Manchild:invoked Blitz is mentally on a level of a five-year-old, more or less. Case in point: Laundry Pants Man. He can't read (according to Word of God, he learns later), doesn't always know how to express himself clearly, plays a lot and generally sees the world in a simplified, childish, sometimes plain odd ways. Then again, it's not his fault.
• Messy Hair: Even as Anthony he's been kind of shaggy, but well kept, for a traveller anyway. As Blitz he's just shaggy.
• Scars Are Forever: Blitz's entire torso is covered in scars that date back to the very first page, when he washed up on the beach all cut up. They remain visible for the entire story.
• Supernatural Sensitivity: It may be caused by the messing Raven's done with his mind, or completely natural, but either way, Blitz can sense things like hate infusing dead sharkmen bones when they are in Quillotia.
• Talkative Loon: He doesn't have much of a filter, courtesy of the brain damage.
  Blitz: The person inside her is very noisy. He says he's tired of missing all the excitement. He won't be staying in much longer. He feels squished. Now, where did Credenza go?
• Weredragon: Even Raven, who's spent quite a lot of time in his head, is surprised by this revelation.

Raven

^(spoilers) 

For your information, I am a spirit, not a demon.

A raven spirit, one of many. Originally his mission was to possess the minds of normal people and use them to the goal of awakening the Great Raven trapped beneath the Archipelago. Unfortunately, his last attempt didn't go so well, and he became one of two personalities inhabiting Blitz's body. Originally bent on causing chaos, he joined Credenza's side after the other ravens turned on him, seeing him as useless in his current state.

A perpetually confused individual, since his unique circumstances make him vulnerable to emotions and feelings outside of his programming as a spirit, Raven tends to exert his frustrations by being grumpy. Over the course of the story, he learns to love and becomes very protective of Blitz in a brotherly way, and of Credenza, in a romantic way. After eventually separating from Blitz, he develops a physical body of his own.

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• Affectionate Nickname: His friends come to call him "bird boy".
• Always Save the Girl: One of the first signs of his developing emotionality and love for Credenza - her safety becomes his priority. When she falls into an abyss in the underworld, he's willing to grind the expedition to the underworld to a complete halt just to find her.
  Raven: This place is always moving, always changing. One moment wasted and Credenza could be lost forever. Forget the heirs. Forget the Raven. Until we find Crendenza, nothing else matters.
• Anger Born of Worry: After he develops attachments to Blitz and Credenza. Raven doesn't know how to handle frustration and worry, so he tends to he fall down on the tried-and-true yelling and recrimination whenever he thinks they're being reckless or not taking care of themselves.
• Ascended Extra:invoked He was originally going to be little more than a recurring Mook who would possess Blitz, until the author pictured him and Credenza talking and it just went from there.
• Become a Real Boy: The more human he becomes, the more he wants to be human and the more insecure in his humanity he is. For a while Raven thinks he's too imperfect to ever be a person. But finally understands no person is actually perfect.
  Raven: I'm not jealous! Why would you even think I'm jealous? I've got plenty of great qualities. Like my attention to detail! Or... or my magic wing! Or my cranky personality, or my incomplete body, or my connection to an evil spirit that wants to kill us all.

• Character Development: From a Mind Probe that possessed Anthony into a good, if grumpy, person who desperately wants to overcome his old nature and do the right thing.
  Raven: Well, yes, I'd still like that... but things have changed since then. For one thing, if someone sees a chance and takes the Raven down, I won't begrudge them that. Raven destruction gets priority over my "price". To be honest, after everything that's happened... my own vengeance doesn't seem important anymore. Not compared with everything that's happened to me since then.
• The Comically Serious: On occasion. Especially in the first couple of books, when he has no idea how humans work, really. Most of his comical seriousness is efforts to keep what he considers his dignity - when he loosens up and learns to laugh at himself, he gets better at this, but still has his moments.
• The Cynic: Begins as an utterly miserable, snarky pessimist who hates humans and is thoroughly convinced they must all hate him. He gradually grows out of it.
  Raven: All those things you said, it was just because I was listening too. As soon as I leave you can tell Blitz what you REALLY think.
  Credenza: I said what I said because it's truth. And I hope you can trust us enough to hear the truth face to face. You're a good human Raven, as much as you may deny it. And I think you have what it takes to someday be a good man.
• Crush Blush: After Raven learns to love, he sometimes blushes when watching Credenza being Credenza. Even before he has blood.
• Deadpan Snarker: Always snarky, but less and less bellingerently over the course of the story.
  Raven (after giving Clair a piggy-back ride): I don't need spine if I have love.
• De-power: After he gains a physical body, Raven loses the raven magic and (gradually) some of the knowledge inherent in ravenness. He's not terribly bothered by this, since at this point he'd rather be human anyway, only worrying that he'll be less useful from now on, but it doesn't come up, since he remains a knowledgeable, clever strategist.
• Deuteragonist: He undergoes the most Character Development of the main characters, and it has the most impact on the plot. During the final battle, he leads the group against Snow's physical form while Credenza wages a Battle in the Center of the Mind with Snow.
• Evil Is Hammy: He starts the story as a minor bad guy whose propensity for dramatic speeches is reversely proportional to his actual rank in the Raven Army. Grows out of this and becomes a Deadpan Snarker on the side of good.

• Gadgeteer Genius: He knows his machines (he used to be one). And software. Fixing and hacking (and sometimes guiling AI into doing what he wants) are his specialties, and as he grows as a person, he begins to build things: first jewellery to give Credenza and then small whimsical devices, like Credenza's bird alarm clock or Benjamin's small robot body in the epilogue.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: He appears as a winged ghost-like wisp with Messy Hair over Blitz's shoulder when not in control, and Blitz does likewise. Until they get separated when he gets a body of his own for a moment in Quillotia.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: Originally a Mind Probe for brainwashing people into mooks, finishes the story as a proper person and a hero, to boot.
• Heel–Face Turn: When Snow and the other ravens turn on him in book two, he vows vengeance out of spite and joins Credenza in exchange for getting the killing shot at the Great Raven eventually. He gradually becomes attached to Credenza and the others and develops more selfless reasons for fighting against Snow.
• Humanity Ensues: Early on, his broken raven heart is mended by Credenza, so he gains a functional soul. Later, he gets a (one-armed) human body to go with it. Psychologically speaking, being forced to interact with people instead of controlling them gradually turns him into a person with emotions, drives and existential fears. It does hurt, he does angst, but Raven wants it more and more. He's happy after having a pretty scary nightmare, since it proves he's really becoming human:
  Raven (excited): Any spirit with enough power can make itself a body. A puppet that spirit can move around to do its will. I'm becoming a human! Heart and mind as well as body! I can dream now, Credenza! I have nightmares!
• Insecure Love Interest: Ever since he realises he's in love with Credenza. Later on, after Uru is changed back and joins the group, Raven is harshly, vividly reminded of his faults and only eases the angsting after the other guy outright tells him he's not perfect, either.
  Raven: That woman likes people and animals and plants and things full of life! She could never be impressed by a cold, incomplete toy like you.
• Knight in Sour Armour: Grows into this. He keeps the tendency to complain and snark, but he'll be doing good all the way.
• The Lancer: Credenza's closest ally and a direct contrast to her. He tends to be suspicious of her Gut Feeling regarding people (she responds by reminding him of his Mook–Face Turn) and prefers to rely on logical reasoning and facts instead. He displays some Arbitrary Scepticism towards dream magic, favoring explanations like "low blood sugar" over "terrified by another dream walker", and he's slow to trust people and spirits.

• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Credenza helping Blitz (and him by extension), combined with Snow trying to kill him for becoming independent, is the last straw that makes him switch loyalties.
• Mook–Face Turn:invoked Was just another raven spirit before his accident with Blitz and subsequent siding with Credenza. Word of God states that Raven ranked really low compared to his fellow raven spirits - being nothing more than an intelligent mind-probe.
• Mr. Exposition: He knows an awful lot about spirits and magic and will share at a slightest provocation. He also tends to be enthusiastic about using this knowledge himself.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Once Raven develops a conscience, it's a pretty strong one. He's very remorseful about what he did to Blitz.
  Raven: What's wrong? I ruined Blitz's life, that's what! And not just his! Clair, the fish girl, everyone who depended on him, I've hurt them all!
• No Social Skills: Being created as a spirit, his original purpose was an auxilliary to the Great Raven. Since the Great Raven had been an antivirus on a spaceship, human emotions and ways of thinking were not the priority here. Credenza breaking down in tears freaks him out. Later on he's jealous of Uru's effortless likeability, among other things, and playing pretend with Clair is really beyond him. Raven is aware of this lack (indeed, he tends to think he's doing worse than he really is) and it fuels his insecurity.
• Not Used to Freedom: As he's used to being a part of a Hive Mind (a pretty dispersed one, but still), and then Sharing a Body with someone, when Raven finds himself actually alone with his thoughts, he feels puzzled and lonely. He comes round. But the first thing he notices about being human is the loneliness. He worries a lot about whether his now free choices are the right ones and how he doesn't have a clue what he's doing.
  Credenza: Yeah, well, welcome to the human club. Pick up your free existential crisis at the door.

• Official Couple: Becomes one with Credenza.
• Perpetual Frowner: He rarely smiles, and his default expression is one of neutral indifference. When he does smile, it means he's just got a very good idea. Or it's a Smile of Love towards Credenza.
  rant: "Not that I havn't tried to make him smile. It's hard to draw him with that expression without it looking... un-Ravenlike."
• Pragmatic Hero: If Snow was an heir, Raven wouldn't mind killing him in the hopes that the next one would be "nicer". Even Credenza thinks this is tempting (but it's Snow we're talking about).
• Reverse Grip: Raven's prefered method of holding a knife.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: He can turn into proper slave-driver when feeling especially insecure and remorseful, obsessed with Getting Things Done and calling himself "just a raven". Paollo's guards call this "Credenza's crazy boyfriend related problem" as they call her over to wrangle him a bit, and a heart-to-heart with her normally calms him down.
• Sense Freak: Raven's fascinated by tastes and really enjoys eating with Blitz's mouth, even more when he gets his own. He keeps a very detailed journal of everything he's ever eaten and whether he liked it or not (we see him working on it on page once).

• Sharing a Body: For a while, he's the sub-letter in Blitz's body, which he occasionally takes over. Later they get separated by Credenza's magic overload and he starts growing his own body.
• Sour Supporter: For quite some time, while he's still not understanding these human ideas like loyalty or saving the world and only working with the group to bring down those who wronged him. Afterwards he becomes a more constructive critic to the group's plans.
• Superpowered Evil Side: At first, he would take control of Blitz at inopportune times to cause trouble. Once he starts working with Credenza, the superpowered side stops being evil.
• Trapped in the Host: Why he's subletting in Blitz. Anthony gouging his eye out has left Raven without an exit door.
• What Is This Feeling?: Having never felt emotion for most of his existence, it takes him quite some frantic figuring out to learn how to handle them. Doubly so when he falls in love. Even (Blitz's) bodily feelings give him pause at first:
  Raven: Wait, that can't be right! I feel awful! And my stomach is making vile noises.
  Credenza: Well, when was the last time you ate or slept?
  Raven: I think about two days ago, when we were at the inn. Why?
• Winged Humanoid: The body he finally grows is full-sized (not small like Avians), with one full-sized physical wing and one magical wing (that doubles as an arm). He can fly just fine, but mostly does during battles.

Tuff Luck

Well, me and Riley are only half were-shark. Thankfully, we tend more toward the human side.

A half were-shark from Quillotia. Despite growing up relatively sheltered from the world (and his home island's Fantastic Racism towards sharks), Tuff always had the stigma from his parents' Maligned Mixed Marriage looming over him. His parents' disappearances finally spurred him to run away from home. He also stole Mikel's sub. But Mikel forgives him during the story. He intended to go alone, but Riley followed him. The two lived a nomadic lifestyle for eight years before fishing the half-drowned Credenza out of the water and getting caught up in the search for the Heirs.

Tuff is (most of the time) the the more thoughtful and careful brother, though he can also be neurotic, melodramatic and his tendency to overthink certain issues sometimes comes back to bite him. After being chosen as the Reader of the Listing of Names he turns into the navigator for the team, since the Book knows where to find the next heir, but Tuff has been the most tactically inclined from the beginning.

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• Afraid of Their Own Strength: Most of his moral fears are due to treating "the shark" as a Superpowered Evil Side, but he's also Afraid to Hold the Baby (Mikel's son).
  Tuff: I tell you I'm a monster and you hand me your firstborn child?
• Bizarre Taste in Food:invoked He casually munches on peanut-butter and mustard sandwiches and offers them to Credenza. Word of God says wereshark stomachs are a lot more durable than regular humans'.
• Black Eyes of Evil: When his eyes become fully black, it means his shark instincts are getting out of control. Especially later, when he's able to turn into a full wereshark.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: The last time he and Riley were on Hidden Island, he got ill and someone gave him an alcohol-based medicine. Cue...
  Tuff: Gregor Samsa is a giant potato!
  • This turns less funny when an Umbrella Drink is used to keep him out of the way. Tuff's also the last person in the group to recover from hallucinogenic smoke in the underworld.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: Perhaps the most important contrast between him and his brother. Tuff's always worried, often about Riley getting into trouble, embarrassed about himself in general and expecting his wereshark nature to surface and make him a monster.
• Deadpan Snarker: Usually when tired of Riley's silliness. But not only.
  Tuff: Figures. Even all-consuming hell beasts have it in for shark men.
• Dual Wielding: Uses two swords.
• Emotionally Tongue-Tied: He's pretty emotionally intelligent (as long as it's not about his emotions) and has no problem talking to girls about everyday subjects, but whenever he wants to tell one he likes her, Tuff panics and chickens out. He was pretty smitten with Credenza during the first couple of books, but this never went anywhere. Once he starts falling for Cassie, the problem re-emerges, to the point that in the epilogue they have a proper Twice Shy situation (she thinks he's angry at her, because he's avoiding her). He finally gets his courage at the reception and Cassie kisses him.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: He claims Riley's antics have given him ulcers. Subverted, though, in that while he's the more repressed, nervous and brooding (and generally thinks before he does things), he's quite capable of coming up with irresponsible ideas like stealing a sub to run away from home.
• Genius Bruiser: The bruiser part only really comes into play once Dragonfly gifts him with Required Secondary Powers so he's able to transform into a full wereshark. Both before and after that, he's the brains for the team, along with Raven, and generally fights smarter instead of harder.
• Half-Human Hybrid: He's half wereshark, after his father.
• I Am a Monster:invoked Tuff has a hard time accepting his shark side, especially that, per Word of God, he and Riley are used to Torches and Pitchforks. He gets better eventually, in part because, when he involuntarily goes full shark around Cassie, he's the opposite of violent towards her. Turns out, "the shark" is not necessarily bloodthirsty, it's still Tuff, just with no inhibitions. Then again, his Maze of Dreams nightmare is still built around this issue.
  Tuff: What if the monster I become doesn't see the difference between friend and foe? What if I'm putting everyone I love in danger just by being near them?
• Love at First Punch: His first interaction with Cassie was a sharp kick in the jaw from her to his wereshark form. Minutes later, he's purring.
• The Insomniac: He says it's just difficult for him to unwind and tends to spend these sleepless nights reading.
• Internalized Categorism: He's terrified of being a violent wereshark and in a genuine, deep state of shock after his first fight fully transformed. Earlier, he has a nightmare where he is the monster stalking Credenza. Tuff, unlike his laid-back brother, really takes the Fantastic Racism to heart - whispered insults and dirty looks actually hurt him, while Riley ignores them.
  Tuff: People have always seen me as a monster, they always will. Sometimes I think they might be right.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After having killed some ravens the first time he turns into a wereshark, even though they were the bad guys who attacked his home island and threatened to kill his cousin's heavily pregnant wife, not even counting the people they actually murdered. Mikel finds him huddled in a corner, and has to walk Tuff to the infirmary, very gently. Stress Vomit is involved. A well-meaning orderly further twists the knife by discussing a dead raven's injuries. Tuff just huddles on a bed, face buried in his arms.
  Orderly: Still... Imagine the monster capable of this kind of carnage.
• Parental Abandonment: Father vanished before the twins were born, mother went to search for him when they were sixteen and hasn't been heard from ever since.
  Tuff: Dad vanished a few months before Riley and I were born, so my mother and her family raised us. But mother never believed dad had left us of his own free will. She went to search for him when we were sixteen.
• Punny Name: Something Riley managed to escape, somehow.
• Royal Blood: Although due to the prevalence of Fantastic Racism in their home city, neither he nor Riley hold any actual title.
• The Runaway: It was his idea, notably, not laid-back Riley's, to run from Quillotia.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Rigorously conscientous, bookish, insecure in contrast with his brother's brash, extroverted impulsiveness. He tends to sit alone and sad by the nearest body of water when worried or upset. He's also quite empathetic, which gains him the love and Readership of the Listing of Names:
  Tuff: Don't you get it? Try and see it from the Book's perspective. To the Book, a reader is like its family! It can't just choose one at random, there has to be a relationship. How would you feel if I had died and you were told you needed to pick a new brother?
• The Smart Guy: His most important contribution to the team is being the Reader of the Listing of Names (which automatically grants Tuff the ability to read magical script), but he's been steering and maintaining a sub for eight years and often thinks for two. As the Reader he charts the course for the group and cracks an important code.
• Spider-Sense: A trait of all beastmen, but Tuff's is stronger. He gets those bad feelings earlier and more intense.
  Tuff: Credenza... I don't know what, and I don't know how... but something terrible is about to happen.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Avoids it at first, because he lacks Required Secondary Powers. Until Dragonfly gives him some. It still takes him a good while to come to terms with his shark side.

Riley Luck

I don't want anyone to mess around with my head. I'm perfectly happy the way I am.

Tuff's twin brother (younger by five minutes) and also a half-wereshark from Quillotia. Impulsive, brash and extroverted, Riley seems to wear his heart on his sleeve, but hides some impressive issues underneath that fun demeanor.

---

• Big Eater: Subtle, but he's eating something in many a panel and hearing sad stories doesn't affect his appetite (he even takes a bite out of the bowl). He's also bribable with fish pie, and impresses Alice with how much he can eat in a quillotian restaurant. He's also quite eager to try the dragon tea Cassie cooks and he likes it.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Like his brother, it's not a sign that he's evil, but his eyes becoming fully black mean that he's not fully in control of his shark instincts.
• Blood Knight: Most likely of the cast to engage in Casual Danger Dialogue.
  Riley: Unknown territory? Angry mob out for my blood? This is just like old times for me and Tuff.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Loud, extroverted, friendly, loves a good fight...
• BFS: Riley's sword, the Jawbreaker, is so heavy only someone with a (half-)wereshark's strength can even lift it.
• Casanova Wannabe: He gets...excited among pretty young women. Turns out, he's the one who got them kicked out of Hidden Island by showering the girls with rather too much attention. He also got them kicked out of at least one restaurant. And he's all smoochy charm towards Credenza when he first meets her.
  Riley: When you string the words "young" and "woman" together, how can I refuse?
  • But this is more of a case of single man seeks good woman. Once he meets his True Love, flirting with everything in a skirt ends immediately and Sickeningly Sweethearts takes its place.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: His signature dish and attempt to woo Alice Through Her Stomach looks disturbingly like the fish (and fishy... bits) is still kicking. Except it's a delicious dish, loved but lost by the Pintur family. Alice just can't tell at first, because her grandmother used to put a layer of breadcrumbs on top, possibly to make it look more appetizing. Either way, she's delighted.
• Cynic–Idealist Duo: Perhaps the most important contrast between him and his brother. Riley may go sharky when Tuff, Alice or someone else he loves is in danger, but he's incapable of worrying in advance and always thinks everything's going to come out fine in the end. He also finds hilarious the stories that mortally embarrass his brother. Especially the one about Tuff getting Unsuspectingly Soused.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: At first sight, the impulsive fool to Tuff's deep thinker, but he's just as good, and occasionally even better, with people matters. He's also on the lookout for his One True Love, until he finds her and turns out to be a really attentive, loving boyfriend.
  Riley: Hold on, I found a gross thing [dead shadomandyr] and I need to poke it.
• Half-Human Hybrid: He's a half wereshark, like his brother. But he lacks the ability to change shape properly. Let's just say his one attempt at going full were-shark is pathetic enough to make Snow decide a Mercy Kill is in order. Riley is, however, mostly comfortable with his wereshark nature, even though he understands others might not be.
  Riley: I promise I'm not going to eat you. I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you! Please don't punch me. Before you run off again, just hear me out. I can't blame you for being scared. I should have told you I was a were-shark. But I can't stop being part shark and I wouldn't if I could. Still, you really are in danger, and not from me!
• Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: Riley dresses that way (see portrait), possibly because quillotian way of dress is even more colorful and fun, possibly because he's laid-back and acts like he's on a holiday all the time.
• Hidden Depths: No pun intended. While he enjoys big cities and traveling, he'd actually love to just settle down on a small island and raise a family with a woman he loves. By the epilogue, he and Alice have been living on Ruin Island and are planning to stay there after they're married.
  • As his Maze of Dreams nightmare reveals, Riley has deeply hidden abandonment issues caused by his Disappeared Dad, Missing Mom, and Tuff trying to sneak off without him. Poor guy is terrified of being left behind and of Dying Alone. And he thinks they keep leaving him because he's not good enough...
• In Love with Your Carnage: He sprouts lots of tiny hearts watching Alice mop the floor with the baddies. And a Crush Blush. Later he tries to propose in the middle of a battle, having just watched her smash a bunch of golems.
• Love at First Sight: Falls in love with Alice the instant he sees her, spends the day flirting with her and only later learns that not only she is his destined love, but also one of the heirs they're looking for.
• The Nose Knows: Inherited the shark sense of smell from their dad. He can even fill in for a Scarily Competent Tracker in a pinch, though his brother snarks Riley can only track cute girls.
• Parental Abandonment: Father vanished before the twins were born, mother went to search for him when they were sixteen and hasn't been heard from ever since.
• Royal Blood : Although due to the prevalence of Fantastic Racism in their home city, neither he nor Tuff holds any actual title.
• The Runaway: Only to stay together with his brother. He doesn't seem to mind the on-the-road life, but would be just as happy settled down.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Impulsive, fight-happy, chatty, fun guy with (seemingly) no worries in contrast with his brother's insecure, strict melancholic. Then again, Riley wears his heart on his sleeve and is the member of the team most prone to Manly Tears.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Will flirt with Alice on any given occasion, including a battlefield. Especially on battlefield.

• Protectorate: Don't try to hurt people he loves. Just don't. Unless you're deliberately trying to make him Blinded by Rage.
• Vibrant Orange: His favorite color (also the color of his hair), it's associated with the sharkness in the Maze of Dreams, for him, but even more so for Tuff.

The Ravens

The Raven's Army

But even locked away, Raven was not without his powers. He created from the malice in his black heart the Ravens, evil spirits with the power to possess men, and by connecting their souls to Raven's, unleash their inner evils. They have no will of their own, but to serve Raven. They are created with broken hearts, only capable of feeling hate. Their only goal is to release their master.

---

• Army of Thieves and Whores: Since people willing to make a Deal with the Devil tend to have very little to lose, the Raven's Army is made up of all sorts of misfits, from starving homeless have-nots like Steller to broken-hearted nuns like Lucinda, to fallen nobles.
• And I Must Scream: When a host has outlived their usefulness, the raven may soulseal them, or move them to the backseat in their own mind - forever.
• Deal with the Devil: Ravens gain hosts by offering money, power, or whatever they think the host wants. In return, the host becomes their slave, and failure is not an option.
• Demonic Possession: Technically, as each of them has a raven inhabiting their mind/soul and liable to take control any second.
• Hive Mind: Low level. They're all little spirits "shed" by the Great Raven and in constant communication with each other, at least theorethically.
• Manipulative Bastard: The raven spirits are not above psychological manipulation, although most of the servants seem quite fine with the deal. But when someone who's still useful is having second thoughts, the raven in their head will play all the insecurities available.
• Must Be Invited: The raven spirits need victim's permission to enter in the first place, although at least one character gave it more or less in jest, and Knull was definitely coerced into it.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: This is the Great Raven's color scheme. The servants' distinguishing mark is a black left eye with a red pupil and their magical wings are black with red swirls. Raven magic is uniformly red. When they shape it into weapons, the blades are black with red swirly patterns.
• Red Right Hand: Ravens enter the host through the left eye, which then turns black with a red pupil.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: They can shape their raven magic into weapons, usually swords, sometimes daggers. Steller makes throwing blades.
• Winged Humanoid: Ravens also grant the host a pair of magical wings. The wings are only functional if the host is fighting or in danger - otherwise they shrink.

Captain Adrian Snow

Before I went to sea I was trained in medical college. I'm a doctor. It's my job to heal the sick and tend to the wounded.
Torture is what I do for FUN.

Captain Adrian Snow, former dread pirate turned general of the Great Raven's army. He lived a life of violent indulgence and terror before finally dying of a brain tumor... that is, until the Great Raven saw him as a worthy vessel, had Snow revived, endowed him with Olivia's Arm, and sent him to find the Heirs.

Sadistic, scheming, cheerfully violent, and not giving a flip what you think of him, captain Snow may be best described as unpredictable. His days of piracy have already made him a skilled leader and killer, but he's just as deadly with words.

---

• Animal Motifs: In the dream world, he presents as a giant white lion-like beast. There is something cat-like in how he likes to play with his victims - he even gets a Visual Pun in that panel with a cat-like critter pouncing a moof as he's about to kill someone.
• Artificial Limbs: He's using a mechanical arm/gauntlet for both everyday and nefarious purposes. It's connected to heirs' souls and can be used to suck them out. It also replaces any body parts Snow loses, as he loses them, and there's quite a lot of that losing going on. After hijacking parts of Benjamin's ship, Snow turns into a full-bodied cyborg. The arm has a connection to Heirs' souls and powers, allowing Snow to use weaker versions of them even when he doesn't have that heir's soul. If he has the soul, he can use their full power.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: If Snow is grinning at you... don't bother backing out slowly. It's useless at this point. If he's grinning in general, that means he just came up with a nefarious, twisted, cunning plan and/or things are going his way.

• Dream Weaver: Stealing Paollo's power has turned him into one. He uses this to terrorize the heroes in Book 9, and later in the Maze of Dreams.
• Dragon-in-Chief: To the Great Raven whom he eats in the end.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Hard to tell what his agenda actually is (he gives conflicting motives), but Snow will casually defy the Great Raven's "death and destruction right now" orders to have more fun later, or just because. All things considered, Snow's on his own side and nobody else's.
• The Dreaded: Even before dying and coming back to life (or undeath, in any case), he's already been a dreaded pirate.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He is somewhat protective of his nephew, at least compared to the rest of the crew. See also his wife/widow and daughter.
  Snow: Wow, Han! The fumes down here must be getting to me. I could have sworn I just saw you preparing to beat up my nephew! But that's ridiculous! Especially after I warned you what would happen if you did that again. After all, Knull is still important and useful member of the group. While others seem only good at picking on little girls.
• Faux Affably Evil: He tries, but those Omnicidal Maniac tendencies tend to get in the way. He can, if needed, put on a pretty convincing act, though.
• Forgot I Could Fly: With so many powers, he sometimes forgets:
  Snow: D'oh! Of course! I can teleport!
• Graceful Loser: Snow tends to take defeats and setbacks in his stride (being immortal probably helps). He shrugs and smiles when he's finally killed for good, and his very final act is to offer his mechanical arm to save Blitz.
  Snow: I was starting to feel some arthritis in my ankle. It would be much more convenient to simply oil my joints every time they became stiff. We must remain positive after all.
  The Raven: I'm sure you are proud of your composure, but have you forgotten that you lost your leg in our defeat?! My hold over the king's court is gone, thanks to that girl! How could a human command that kind of power?
  Snow: Really, my friend, you worry too much. The girl does present an interesting problem. We shall solve it the same way as any puzzle. One piece at a time.
• Ghost Pirate: Died and got resurrected by forces of evil to do their foul bidding.
  • Healing Factor: One of the heirs is a healer, but Snow's only using this power passively as the arm rebuilds him bit by bit.
• Terms of Endangerment: Prone to calling Credenza and other victims of his 'dear' and the like.
• The Heavy: For most of the story he's the main villain and the Great Raven just lurks in the background. Snow also has a personal history with Credenza and with Uru.
• Manipulative Bastard: Always on top of things. The pieces he's talking about here are Lucinda, Han and Knull.
  Snow: I just set the pieces up and watched what would happen.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Yes, he actually is a doctor, and has been before becoming a pirate. One gone bad.
• Mook Maker: His most frequently seen power, making Golems out of any available material.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Admiring the Abomination? Check. He tends to react to half-sentient killing machines like a twelve-year-old reacts to kittens. When he sees a dragon (that's definitely out for his blood), all he says is "beautiful". Becoming an abomination? Check and (in book 10, when he merges with an ancient crashed ship) double check.

• Pet the Dog: Shocking as it may be, even Snow seems to be capable of this.
  • He doesn't kill Knull despite the later's The Dog Bites Back attempt, just gives him a Tap on the Head and then summons the griffin medic to take care of him. And remember, this isn't like the past times he's spared Knull because his Anti-Magic made him useful, Knull literally just tried to kill him. Then again, real-life abusers do that, too.
  • There is no discernible reason why Snow would give Blitz Dragonfly's arm, especially when Snow was the cause of Blitz dying in the first place.

• Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": Quite often, but probably the biggest example is when he gets stabbed through the heart with a toy sword. Or when a dragon purposefully drops him on some rocks. He has also been known to laugh maniacally while stabbing someone with a magical dagger.
• Self-Made Orphan: Killed his entire family except for nephew Knull, wife Naomi and daughter Yula.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Takes pride in his wardrobe. When his leg is crushed and replaced with a robotic one, Snow only complains that his boots don't fit properly.
• Sizeshifter: While holding onto Alice's soul.
• The Starscream: When he finds out that The Great Raven has actually been reduced to the size of a small bird by his imprisonment and wishes to atone, Snow decides to eat him and gain his powers.
• The Sociopath: Spelled out in the Battle in the Center of the Mind, where all the characters are represented by toys and he's a child who plays with them.
• Stealth Hi/Bye:
  • He keeps sneaking up to people behind their backs and announcing his presence by saying something weird. Occasionally he uses Villain Teleportation to do it. For instance, when Steller is threatening to kill Han, who got lost and walked into the camp:
    Snow: Steller, this is your conscience. Don't kill the midge-wing, it isn't riiiight. Seriously though, he's with me.
  • With most people, he seems to be doing this as psychological warfare tactic (and for fun). With Steller, he does this mostly because he finds riling him amusing:
    Steller: I'll never understand how someone as big as you can be so quiet!
• Teleportation: He uses it already in his first appearance, and only later do we learn which heir he's stealing it from.
• Torture Technician: Once a doctor of medicine, he now uses the skills he learned to put people back together so he can keep taking them apart.

• Would Hurt a Child: Snow doesn't really discriminate and will happily hurt everyone from little girls to dotty old ladies. He does seem to prefer to hurt children psychologically, though.
  Clair: He... he said it was all my fault that Holly's gone. He said he came here because of my magic... that if I'd never been born, nobody would have gotten hurt!
• Your Soul Is Mine!: His other most frequently used ability, the entire point of the arm also stolen from one of the heirs. Its user can detach a soul from the body not only the Heirs' and store it inside or leave it out.

Lucinda Potter

You accepted the slavery of the Raven because you were scared of death. I accepted because I was afraid to go on living. In exchange for my faithful service, the Raven agreed to take away my fear and sadness. I no longer wanted my life, I had no reason to refuse.

A taciturn, mysterious young woman who serves as Snow's second-in-command, presumably because, all things considered, she's the least crazy of his crew.

---

• Broken Bird: Used to Be a Sweet Kid before Han-as-Corveau seduced her and broke her heart. Nowadays she's the Ice Queen in charge of a rowdy pirating crew and just as deadly as any of them, if quieter.
  Lucinda: We are all sinners here, Knull. Each to his own vice, greed, envy, hate, lust. We are Raven's slaves, because he is the only one who would take us.
• The Dragon: Snow's de facto first mate, by virtue of not being Ax-Crazy like Kurr, ruled by her whims like Han or terrified out of her wits like Knull. Her school colleague (who knew Lucinda before she was broken), describes her as a very intelligent girl, so that may also be a factor.
• Death Glare: A glare from Lucinda is enough to pacify Han, Kurr and Steller's wives.
• Driven to Suicide: Tried to throw herself off a cliff once, in the backstory, which is when a raven spirit came to her with a convenient Deal with the Devil. Does it properly, dragging Han down with her, when she learns he actually was Corveau and he never really loved her.
• Foil:
  • invoked To Raven - by joining the Raven Army, she lost what he gained by leaving. She's also just as knowlegeable as he is, both are second-in-command for Snow and Credenza respectively, and while Raven cares for and comes to genuinely love Credenza, Lucinda doesn't have any particular feelings for Snow.
  • Also to Tuff. Both are highly intelligent Readers of the Listing of Names, and she hates him for "stealing" the book from her.
  • And to Knull. They both joined the Raven because of fear - he was afraid to die, she was afraid to live on. While Lucinda is an Emotionless Girl and doesn't feel fear, Knull is terrified all the time - but capable of bravery nevertheless. His acts of bravery are often motivated by his love for her, while her love for Corveau is what spurred her to get rid of emotions.
• Face–Heel Turn: The former Reader of the Listing of Names. She can still read the book (with difficulties), but isn't doing it to protect the heirs anymore.
• The Medic: When Snow's busy elsewhere. She's got all the Hidden Island pharmaceutical training.
  Lucinda: You are favoring your left hand. Are you in need of medical attention?
• One-Winged Angel: When she learns who her lost lover really was, she snaps and becomes... something driven by pure revenge, with both eyes red-on-black, very large magical wings, and a very creepy way of speaking.
  Lucinda: Careful my love, you might hurt someone. Yes, thank you, it's a lovely knife, but I won't be needing it. I used to hate these things. I hated any form of violence. Now? Well... I've changed a lot since then.
• Pet the Dog: Lucinda is the only one of the villains who doesn't treat Knull like a Butt-Monkey. She actually seems to care about him, somewhat.
• Redemption Rejection: Tabitha tries to offer her help, but the raven whispering in her head makes sure she rebuts the attempts. When Knull tries to talk her down from her Villainous Breakdown and get her to escape with him, she thanks him warmly, but refuses.
  Her raven: Do you really believe that? That she can just "forgive" you? Pathetic. She's a werecat. You know what they're like. She wants you because you're The Reader. She needs you. She doesn't want to save you, she wants to use you. They all do. It hurts, doesn't it? Knowing they hate you. Let me take the pain away.
• Safety in Indifference: Her deal with the Raven. The raven spirit in her head keeps Lucinda's emotions "over there in the corner, where they can't hurt her".
• Sorry That I'm Dying: Apologizes to Knull immediately before her suicide.
• The Stoic: To somewhat creepy levels. Whether she's mowing down innocents or making tea for Knull, this girl does not emote. Except...
  • Not So Stoic: First, she doesn't take well to the Listing of Names refusing to join her side or listen to her. And second, when she finally finds out the truth behind Corveaux... Played a little less serious when she clobbers Han and Kurr with a Death Glare during an heir kidnapping.
  Snow: You want to make her carry the body? Go ahead, but I won't clean up your bodies afterward.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: She was raised by the nuns of the Hidden Island and became the Reader of the Listing of Names there. Lydia describes her as a kind girl, a philosopher and a poet. Then, one day she was seduced (by the shapeshifter Han) who left and never came back, breaking her heart , which drove her to suicide - and the ravens came with a Deal with the Devil. So she gave up her emotions and became one of the bad guys.

Knull Snow

Oh man, what have I gotten myself into? I don't belong here! I design armor! I'm not a killer like my uncle!

Snow's nephew who really, really doesn't want to be there, but dear uncle Adrian razed his village, murdered his parents, kidnapped him and forced him to enter a Deal with the Devil.

---

• Animal Motif: Horses. Horses represent him in the dreamworld and his soul is horse-shaped.
• Anti-Magic: A (very useful) ability of his, and why Snow keeps him around in the first place. Apparently, anti-magic is rare enough (and Knull's powerful enough) to make searching for another anti-mage impractical.

• Chekhov's Gunman: He, the constantly terrified drag-along of the villain team, turns out to be the help Credenza needs in the dreamworld.
• Cowardly Lion: Constantly quaking, perpetually terrified, but somehow tends to plant himself between Lucinda and danger a lot. He also gets these moments of calling out the pirates for their cavalier attitude towards gruesomely killing people that even astonish Han and Kurr.
  Knull: A man has just died and you stand there talking as if he was dirty laundry!
• Dogged Nice Guy: For Lucinda, the one person in the villain crew who treats him decently. She actually seems to like being around him, but can't reciprocate, because she's given up her emotions. And Knull is genuinely nice guy, in contrast with Han who thinks she "belongs" to him.
  Knull: Lucinda isn't your girl. She isn't mine either. This isn't some contest between you and me.

• Fish out of Water: For the last time, he makes armor for a living. He is not a pirate. He definitely does not want to unseal the Great Raven and destroy the world. Being forced into ravenness and piracy causes Knull to be stressed out of his wits and nervously bumble all the time. In the epilogue, as a free, if homeless, man, he's actually fairly calm and composed.
• Heel–Face Turn: Lucinda's death is the last straw, and he finally decides to turn against his uncle and the other ravens.

• Non-Action Guy: Snow keeps him around for his Anti-Magic, pretty much. Sometimes he makes armor.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: Gets a dream of this trope in book 6, in which he heroically stands up to a lion-like beast. The dream is prophetic of his eventual Heel–Face Turn.
• Nervous Wreck: Ever since dear uncle Adrian murdered his family, most likely, Knull is constantly jumping out of his skin. This is why he (and only he) chants while doing his magic - it calms him down and helps him focus.
• Neverending Terror: Being a slave in everything but name on a pirate ship, among Ax-Crazy, evil people bent on destroying the world who pass the time by bullying him. No wonder Knull is so nervous.
• Punny Name: Possibly an unintentional example, but his magic revolves around nullifying other magic.
• Redemption Rejection: He sneaks away from the good guy camp, even though they welcome him on Credenza's word. In the epilogue she's happy to see him, but Knull says it's too much of old pain for him to stay. Although he gets a nice job proposal from the Eastern Continent and it's implied that he takes it.
• The Speechless: In the denoument and the epilogue, because of a throat injury sustained in the final battle. Credenza gets him a blackboard, later he uses Archipelagian sign language (rendered as ASL) to speak with Credenza and Tusura.
• Stutter Stop: He stutters most of the time, because he's quaking in fear. And yet his meditative magical chant is always flowing and fluent. When he's alone with Lucinda, thus fairly relaxed, he doesn't stutter, either, but is right back to stuttering the moment someone else enters the conversation. His eventual Not Afraid of You Anymore speech towards Snow is perfectly fluent.
• Trapped in Villainy:invoked He's definitely unhappy with this place in the order of things, but can't see how to escape his uncle or the Raven. By Word of God, his deal with the Raven is:
  Basically that in return for working for the Raven, Snow wouldn't kill him. Pretty simple.
• Token Good Teammate: For a given value of "teammate". He's been made a pirate against his will and really would rather be somewhere else.
  Knull: Hey! L-leave her alone! Go pick on someone your own size! (Han walks up to him) D-did I mention how much smaller I am than you?
• White Hair, Black Heart: Subverted, he has the exact same hair as his decidedly evil uncle, but Knull's heart really isn't in villainy. In the epilogue, despite being dirt poor and hungry, he appears with his hair dyed black in order to look less like uncle Adrian.

Kurr

Thtupid human, did you really think you could fafhe me in a head on fight and win?

The Brute of Snow's crew. Likes insulting Han, bullying Knull and general mindless violence.

---

• The Bully: Especially towards Knull.
• Dogs Are Dumb: Not the brightest of Snow's minions by a long shot, sort of makes up for his lack of brains with mindless savagery.
• Heinous Hyena: Cannibalistic Dumb Muscle werehyena.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Will eagerly hunt and eat other sentients.
• Informed Species: Technically, he's a werehyena, but is referred to as a weredog.
• Speech Impediment: Obtains a thick lisp after his jaw is torn off (by ticked off Han) and replaced with a metal one (by gleeful Snow).
• Younger Than They Look:invoked Word of God says that he is actually 17, but is aging faster because he spends most of his time in animal form.

Han

Figures. The one time I don't kill a woman in her bed, it only causes trouble.

Another member of Snow's crew and a smug, sleazy shapeshifter with absolutely no morals whatsoever.

---

• All of the Other Reindeer: Grew up violent and narcissistic in an otherwise peaceful community of Face-Changers, hence was ostracized from said community and murdered them all in retaliation. (Including his own family. Especially his own family.)
  Han: My ninety-years old grandma was harder to kill than you.
• Death by Woman Scorned: When Lucinda learns he was Corveau, she throws herself off a cliff and takes him along.
• Devious Daggers: Gets a lot of mileage out of his shapeshifting abilities in fights, including the "get close to the opponent and stab" trick. Unlike most ravens, who use swords more than they use knives, he's never seen with any other weapon, unless it's for disguise purposes.
• Dying as Yourself: Although only Lucinda sees his real face.
• Kill and Replace: Snow having chased him away, Han nevertheless stows away on the villains' sub, only to later rejoin the crew by killing Vaniji and assuming his visage. Although Snow seems to know who that person really is:
  Snow: Seriously, who does that?! Oh, that's right. Han used to do that. Isn't it nice that he's gone now?
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: His preffered form. Although, unlike most of these, his hair does get grabbed by a dirty-fighting opponent and he has to cut it off to escape. He does take offence to be called "the man with a girly voice", though.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Han, one of the most threatening of Snow's crew, has a habit of sewing before a battle. Don't laugh at this if you like your bodily envelope intact. Part of this may be because he's actually using special magical cloth to shapeshift and fight, but it also seems to relax him.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: When finally backed into a corner, he makes himself look like the three people he knows his opponent loved or loves, desperately hoping that Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment. (Nope.) He ultimately shows Lucinda (but not the reader) his true form before dying. Long before that, he shapeshifts into wounded Paollo to trick and stab Tatami.
• Shapeshifting Seducer: Has seduced Lucinda in the backstory. Also tries the trick with Tuff (shapeshifted into a cute girl).
• Smug Snake: Has a definitely overblown opinion on himself and, despite numerous opportunities, never learns to stop taunting people who can kill him gruesomely. He only seems to have survived that long because he's a fast runner.
• The Sociopath: Entirely unable to understand the concept of "other people may not like what I do, so maybe I should stop", not that he tries. Bullies Knull, but also Kurr and Tuff, for no other reason that he can, and is astonished and outraged when he gets his ass handed to him. And, of course, there's the shapeshifting to get his way (sometimes with women). And nothing is ever his fault.
  Han: What did you expect?! It's not my fault you were a stupid child and actually believed me!
• Spot the Impostor: Puts Tuff and Riley in this situation, but it falls apart when he can't carry Riley's BFS (and because the real Riley's pants were unbuttoned, which Han failed to notice). He does have a tendency to miss or forget details like that, and isn't much of an actor - when he shifts into Simon, Tin-Can can tell after hearing three sentences from him.
• Stalker with a Crush: Towards Lucinda, in every form we see him take, including Corveau (the man who broke her heart, resulting in her Heel–Face Turn); but he's especially creepy as Vaniji.
• The Starscream: Has attempted to kill captain Snow once or twice, with the Raven's encouragement. Whether or not the Raven ever intended for Han to succeed is another matter entirely.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Of the Humanshifting variety. Also scenery. He accomplishes this with magical cloth and leather.

Steller

Why the Raven chose a fool like you to be our herald, I'll never know.

An Avian commander of Raven's forces. Snow's his superior, but Steller can't for the life of him understand why.

---

• Battle Harem: All three of his wives are ravens and more than willing to get their hands dirty.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Would have preferred himself as the Raven's herald, as opposed to Faux Affably Evil Captain Snow. Snow, on the other hand, sees right through him:
  Snow: ...a beggar boy with a loud mouth and no friends who was promised the world in exchange for his soul.
• Dual Wielding: Uses two magical swords to try and kill Kor.
• Exotic Extended Marriage: Has three wives that he won after killing a seagull chieftain. Note, he didn't know about them beforehand.

• Flechette Storm: The only one of the ravens who uses magical blades as throwing knives, and he always throws several at once.
• Foreign-Language Tirade: He's introduced ranting in the seagull language:
  Steller: Haask, vi katap'n plaut su froos! Can't I leave you alone for five minutes without you devouring someone important?
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Decides it's time to turn tail and run when the heroes awaken the Exigo, which looks like a really large dinosaur.
  Steller: That's it! I'm as loyal a servant as anyone could ask for! But there is a time to say: 'That's a giant monster. Retreat and try again later.'
• The Napoleon: Average height for an Avian, but that's about half of average human height, and a lot shorter than Snow is. Steller slams doors and shouts at him for "playing around with dream magic" instead of being out in the field, commanding. Snow, who is making an actual progress by patient use of dream magic, tells him to enjoy the gifts Raven's given him, namely, the opportunity to be important and yell at people.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: To an extent. Doesn't believe in dream magic's usefulness and won't engage in torturing people simply for fun - he'd rather just slit throats and go about his business. Steller is practical, straight-to-the-point and resents Snow's stalling (again, because he'd rather take the besieged by force than worm his way in through dreams). He also forbids fighting and is serious about keeping discipline in his camp.
• Unwanted Harem: His wives are uncontrollable, eat anything they can kill regardless of if it's sentient, go nuts about shiny trinkets, one of them likes to gouge out people's eyes, and they all refuse to speak Archipelagian. Needless to say, Steller is not a very happy husband.
  Steller: Take my advice: If you ever happen to challenge a seagull chieftain to mortal combat, double check to see if 'eerily delighted widows' are part of your winnings!

Heirs

Little Twin Fish used his skill to build the arm's physical form. Grom Pintur gave the arm his incredible strenght, lady Itaria her healing abilities, Ausalius gave the gift of reaching into dreams, and Icarus the dual powers of teleportation and bestowing temporary life to inorganic matter. But the most important gift came from Chalchiu, who could channel souls.

---

• MacGuffin Super-Person: The six heirs have inherited the powers used to seal the Great Raven, the powers that can be used to unseal him again, and for that they're being sought after by the villains. The powers themselves are very useful, but secondary.
• Single Line of Descent: Each of the original six heroes has exactly one heir in the present. Their detailed lineages are kept track of by Listing of Names and while at least one of the heirs (Paollo) has a definitely, one-hundred-percent living father, he seemingly doesn't count. Alice has three elder and two younger brothers, and Kor mentions having a bunch of half-siblings - they don't count either, for some reason.

Paollo Majestan

Me and my friends had just arrived on the island and I was out stretching my legs when I got... ummm... distracted. It happens a lot to me.

Descendant of Ausalius "of the all-seeing gaze", heir-apparent of the Eastern Continent. His heir power is the ability to wander the world of dreams, a skill important and held in high regard in his home country. He enters the story while travelling to gain wisdom and experience, or more precisely, when Blitz grabs a shiny thing to show it to Credenza and neglects to notice the shiny thing is attached to Paollo.

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• Cloud Cuckoo Lander:invoked For good reasons - per Word of God, Paollo lives in the waking world and in the world of dreams simultaneously, which makes him absent-minded and easily distracted.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Gets lost, falls off things and bumbles in the waking world. The Omniscient in the dream world.
  Paollo (falling onto a bad guy's head): BY THE POWER OF MY ANCESTORS I VANQUISH THEE!!!
• Distressed Dude: Poor guy gets kidnapped by Snow early on and remains prisoner for most of the story. His soul is also stolen, so he can't even try to escape.

• Dream Walker: His heir power. Dream walking is the core of Eastern Continent culture and Paollo is the only one of the heirs to be an actual royalty.
• Dream Weaver: Another aspect of his heir power - Paollo's been studying and practicing dream walking all his life. Since Snow's using his power to create dream worlds to lock people up in, Paollo has access to them and can fight back.
• Fainting Seer: A variation - Paolo's out like a light when he's about to have a vision, since his power works in dreams. Afterwards, according to Tusura, he sometimes needs a bucket of cold water to snap out of it, and says a lot of random things.
  Paollo: I am the walrus!
• Fantasy Keepsake: Giver of one, namely, he gives Credenza the Soul Key in their first shared vision.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Paollo's soul is (as stated in dialogue) one of the purest in the world. He doesn't even know any swearwords.
• The Klutz: If only because he's half-dreaming all the time.

• Nice Guy: Doesn't even hold having been dragged by a random Cloudcuckoolander against him. Paollo is always nice, polite and understanding, even towards the ravens.
  Paollo (about getting dragged to the inn by Blitz): I should be thankful. Without your friend I might never have found my way out.
• Mr. Exposition: He exposits a lot in book two, filling Credenza (and us) in about the Great Raven and heirs.
• The Omniscient: Only in the dream world, and since this would be a Story-Breaker Power otherwise, Talking in Your Dreams with him can be difficult when you're short on time.
  Paollo (frustrated by this fact): Darnit, what's the point of being omniscient when no one else is?
• Pimped-Out Cape: Part of his princely regalia, with little triangles on the fringe and flame patterns going down the back.

Tin Can Turtle

Don't sass me, boy. I don't need eyes to find my friends.

Descendant of Little Twin Fish, and the only non-humanoid heir. He's an elderly, blind seranith employed as Alfred to Willium's Batman - except this isn't Willium's story.

---

• Badass Adorable: His disembodied soul-form retains the Eye Beams, and is significantly more agile and durable than his deteriorated physical body. It's also tiny, bright purple, malleable like rubber, and people find it rather cute. Deliza even says so outright, petting him like a puppy.
• Battle Butler: Old Retainer for Willium's family, quite prepared to put down his cooking and kick ass in defense of the household.

• Blind People Wear Sunglasses:invoked Blind seranith, apparently, also do. He even has them in his soul form. Word of God says that he was born blind.
• Cool Old Guy: The oldest of the current Heirs. Lovingly doting on Simon, bequeaths his famous cookie recipe to Alice and Riley, because they're going to have kids, always there with grandfatherly advice (or teasing the whippersnappers).
• Eye Beams: His primary power.
• Handicapped Badass: Being old, blind, partially-deaf and even losing his body won't stop him from being a great asset to the team. According to Simon, with full use of his magic Tin Can could have singlehandedly defeated any attacker. Snow's crew only manages to get him because of Knull.
• Head Pet: As a disembodied soul, he sometimes rides on other teammembers's heads.
• Incurable Cough of Death: His body, shackled inside Snow's sub, gets a bad cold and is coughing violently upon rescue. He reminds the worried youngsters that he's really old and has had a good life.
• Last of His Kind:invoked Not of his species, but of his bloodline. He's outlived all of his relatives and Word of God clarifies that he never had children, so unless there are other descendants of Little Twin Fish kicking around that he doesn't know about, he's the last - meaning he's also the last person to ever possess his heir power. Thankfully, both the Great Raven and Snow are conclusively defeated before he dies of old age, so this never becomes a problem.
• Long-Lived: He speculates that his heir magic is what kept him alive longer than every other member of his family.
• Life Will Kill You: By the time of the epilogue - a year after the final battle - he has died of old age.
• The Nose Knows: He can smell Willium's arousal (caused by Nim).
• Sweet Tooth: Him of the "anything less than thirteen spoonfuls [of sugar] is a travesty" line.

Alice Pintur

Well, I'm not one of those people. It really makes me mad when some folk judge other folk for things they can't help... like having red hair or sharp teeth. Which means that if you talk like that again I'll dunk your ignorate hate-mongering head in the next fountain I come to. Understood?

Descendant of Grom Pintur, a Quillotian girl who can turn herself into a literally Pint-Sized Powerhouse at will. Coming from a family of humble fishermen, Alice's sudden, inexplicable fervent wish to see a royal ball up close brings her to sneak in while making a fish delivery for the kitchens. One thing leads to another and Alice is discovered as an heir, so she joins the team.

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• Action Girl: Combines Super-Strength with Nigh-Invulnerable, at least while downsized. Smashes golems with gusto.
  Alice: You're facing Alice Pintur, and I can crush you so small you'll make walkway gravel feel good about itself!
• Battle Couple: With Riley, as The Big Guys of the team. He first tries to propose during a battle, just after Alice's smashed some stone golems.
  Alice: Are you going to get your dirty magics off my sharkman? Or am I going to have to smash some heads?
• Big Beautiful Woman: The sort of lady for whom "big boned" is an approbation instead of a euphemism.
• Fiery Redhead: Nicknamed "Red", she's quick to the punch. And opinionated. When Riley tries to suss out her opinions on shark-men she directly tells him what she thinks of prejudice (see character quote). As for the other sort of fiery, she's quite enthusiastic about marrying Riley and having lots of red-headed kids.
  Pan: Ouch. The red-headed girl just punched Riley in the snoot.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: She dreams of getting a guy finally (she mentions being sick of I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship), and her romantic storyline is the most visible in the comic, she also wears dresses most of the time, in contrast to Credenza. She is also three times champion of the Quillota women's wrestling federation and bookclub and a girl raised around sailors, who has no problems whatsoever bashing ravens' heads.
• Flower Motif: Her heir crest, the least abstract one after Clair's watch, is a mandragora-like plant. Her disembodied spirit form has roots instead of legs and can attack with giant spiritual bundles of vines. It also has little flowers and leaves on her head.
• Magic Pants: Her clothes simply change size alongside her. Snow thinks she must have Required Secondary Powers of a Master of Threads.
• Red String of Fate: Dragonfly's gift to Riley (the scent of the woman he would eventually fall in love with) led him straight to Alice. They get married in the epilogue.
• Sizeshifter: Using her powers also causes her to shrink. The smaller she gets, the stronger and tougher she gets.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: She and Riley are all over each other whenever possible.
• Super-Strength: Just the person for smashing golems.
• Youthful Freckles: All over her shoulders and cheeks. Most pronounced when Riley's kissing her and she's blushing in book 6.

Kor Yander real name: Kor Huitzilopochtli

I'm an actor, I only pretend to be brave and cunning!

An Avian actor from Paper Island, illegitimate son of a noble lord, and descendant of Chalchiu. As we meet him, he's starring in a production of "The Cord of Gold", a well-known archipelagian play, in Vaniji's theater. Off-stage, Kor is a cordial, slightly bumbling Nice Guy who loves non-sentient birds (he loves sentient ones, too). The group simply approaches him backstage and tells him he's an heir, before shenanigans ensue.

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• Animal Lover: Takes care of a large flock of different kinds of birds, along with a jabberwock named Charlie who's actually Uru under a Forced Transformation. And by "takes care" we mean "loves, dotes on, coos at them". He's reluctant to leave them and only agrees to do so when Anansi promises to look after the flock.
  Kor (feeding his birds): It's okay, Bridgit, I forgive you for the scratches yesterday, come give Daddy kisses!
• Combat Pragmatist: He's not above getting a bigger, stronger and more experienced opponent entangled in branches and generally using the environment to his advantage.
• Cowardly Lion: His diminutive body hides a big heart. Once he warms up to the idea that he isn't helpless he can handle himself rather well in a fight.

• Flying Flightless Bird: Subverted. "Dustrunners" seem to draw greatly from flightless runners, naturally able to sprint at top human speeds, but they're also able to fly like any Avian can. Kor is a little out of practice, though.
• Flynning: He does a lot of that on stage and the skill carries over to real fights, as his sparring partner remarks Kor's good at parrying.
• Heroic Bastard: Illegitimate scion of a noble line. He doesn't use his father's surname because he's the only person to even know about it except for his mom, the Listing of Names and its Readers, and possibly also because "Yander" is easier to pronounce. The town callers think it's obviously a Stage Name.
• Master Actor: He's good. Not the guiley sort of good, but give this small, slightly cowardly guy a mask and a stage sword and he turns into someone who can stop Snow in his tracks.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: The character he's playing in "The Cord of Gold" seems to be at least The Trickster, if not outright Manipulative Bastard. Kor himself is a sweet guy, slightly clumsy, bit indecisive, prone to falling in love and terrified of his boss (who, in fairness, is a villain).
  Credenza: He only plays a bad man on stage, Blitz. I'm sure in real life he's very nice! He probably doesn't have a bad bone in his-
  they walk in on Kor feeding birds and chatting with them adorably
  Anansi: Truly, a sight to strike fear into the bravest of hearts.
• Serial Romeo:invoked Per Word of God, but with no hard feelings afterwards (he and Anansi are very Amicable Exes).
• Soul Power: His power lets him channel the souls of others to achieve all kinds of nifty effects. It first manifests itself when he summons an army of bird souls to enhance his wings and sword for a fight against captain Snow.
• Winged Humanoid: More this than Bird People, but with bird legs and all their hair replaced with feathers it's a closer toss up than most.

Clairissin (Clair) Solair

Look out mister Raven! The big monster's after us!

Descendant of Icarus, and the only daughter of Anthony/Blitz and Chesska. At six years old, she's the youngest heir, with the power to teleport and create Improvised Golems. A cheerful, lively, clever little girl. She enters the plot as Snow arrives on her home island, looking for her.

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• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: Has a... tendency. Especially in her scuffles with Spindle, who treats her as Annoying Younger Sibling.
  Spindle: Stupid brat
  Clair: Stinky teenager.
• Cheerful Child: She's only six and mostly unaffected by the tragedies that befell her parents thanks to the constant care of Cassie, her Not-So-Imaginary Friend Benjamin and her other guardians.
• Combat Pragmatist: Escaped Captain Snow by teleporting straight up and wriggling out of his grasp, dropping him into a well from a great height. Then she ordered some earth golems to jump into the well after him, plugging it with mud for good measure.
• Combo Platter Powers: In a world of primarily One Person, One Power, she gets two: making golems and teleportation.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: See page 40, book 8 for the collection of plushies in Clair's room. It includes a navy-coat-wearing kitty (Shout-Out to Krosp frim Girl Genius).
• Half-Human Hybrid: Offspring of a half-dragon and a full dragon.
• Happily Adopted: While her father's unable to be there, Cassie acts as Clair's guardian. After his disappearance gets resolved, she becomes Cassie's ward and they settle together on Ruin Island, along with the seranith and Credenza's team who help raise her.
• Little Miss Badass: She's a little girl with no fighting experience: her badassitude comes from her presence of mind, quick thinking and bravery.
• Ms. Imagination: A small child in a big, empty castle, she loves playing pretend. Indeed, she's introduced in the middle of an imaginary battle against "the cyborg king" (makes you wonder if the kid isn't precognitive on top of things).
• Parental Abandonment: Her mother died in childbirth, plunging her father into a deep depression. Two years later, when he started to be able to walk about again, it turned out the household financial problems got so bad in the meantime he needed to go out to the sea and earn money. Not long before the story started, he stopped sending anything. Clair's father is Anthony Solair, and he's practically dead (also out of a job). Blitz can't really take up fatherly duties, instead acting like Clair's protective brother, while Raven becomes more of an uncle to her, teaching her to read, fixing her toys and giving piggy-back rides.
• Teleportation: She only needs to imagine where she wants to be. Can also teleport others when she's touching them. The power is not unknown on the Archipelago, but difficult to master - and Clair just thinks about it and does it.
• Teleportation Sickness: Notably exhausted after mass-teleporting herself and three others to safety.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Since her powers awaken right in the middle of an attack on her house. The first time she teleports is when the darkeyes searching for her are just about to open the chest Clair's hiding in. She first controls golems when she stops Snow's by yelling in anger.
• Unknown Relative: To Blitz, being Anthony's daughter. We, the audience, learn about it as Tuff reads Clair's lineage from the Listing of Names, but the relative in question either can't or won't understand.

Uru Tan real name: Phulbirt Fairplay

Now to put some clothes on before my masculine whale blubber drives the women mad!

A were-whale descended from lady Itaria, with potent healing powers. Met and befriended Credenza, impressed by her Plucky Girl ways, back when they were slaves on Snow's ship, and became sort of a surrogate big brother to her. It's through his Heroic Sacrifice that she was able to escape, but Uru stayed behind, which haunts Credenza to this day. He becomes the Team Pet as Charlie, Kor's pet jabberwocky who just won't stay behind. After his Forced Transformation is broken (during battle with ravens), he considers himself part of the group by default.

---

• Big Brother Instinct: He and Credenza adopted each other as siblings during their time on Snow's ship, and he still sometimes calls her "little sister". Nowadays, he feels enough like her brother to give Raven a stern warning about hurting her.
  Raven: It's not that strange! There are lots of stories about magical creatures and spirits having relationships with humans!
  Uru: Oh, I've heard the stories. That's why I'm just a smidge concerned. See, those stories rarely end well for the mortals involved.

• Chekhov M.I.A.: Ever since the beginning of the story, he appears in Credenza's Flashback Nightmares about her life as Snow's slave. He only appears properly as the quest is close to wrapping up. He actually appears as Charlie in book 7, but is only revealed to be Uru later.

• Embarrassing First Name: And Embarrassing Last Name. As he tells Anansi in the epilogue, "Uru" is actually an Embarrassing Nickname he just finds less embarrassing than his actual name.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Raven thought, only knowing him from Credenza's description, Uru must be a "perfect prince charming" and is quite puzzled to learn that he isn't.
  Raven: It's strange. You were so eager to find him, I assumed he would be this perfect prince charming of a hero. But he's got flaws, and problems, and bad habits. For all his charm, there are still things he hates about himself. And you knew all this! You protected him.
  Credenza: Uru is a loudmouthed, sticky-fingered fibber who can't stay out of trouble. But he was willing to die to save a little girl. He's far from perfect, and he's not a prince, but he is a hero to me.
• Forced Transformation: Happened to him because Snow wanted to experiment with transformatory magic. With the help of a Mad Scientist seranith he turned Uru into a jabberwock, and then gave him to Vaniji, who gave him to Kor, who named him Charlie. It's lifted by a cut on his back breaking the transformation spell circle.
• Fun Personified:
  • Constantly upbeat (to Raven's annoyance), friendly to everyone, he reacts to being turned into human again this way:
    Uru: Ha! Haha! Oh, look at you, you sweet, darling digits! It's been too long!
  • He also wanders the corridors of a besieged castle barefoot, singing a Bawdy Song (and indeed, got captured by Snow in the first place because of a Noodle Incident involving a Bawdy Song). He's a bit more serious in the flashbacks and quite capable of Let's Get Dangerous! but most of the time, he's just enjoying life as it comes.
• Heal It with Blood: His blood can heal others, but, per Raven's explanation, most archipelagian healers get immune to their own powers, Uru included. Except for major, life threatening wounds, which Snow finds most unusual and intriguing, and which may or may not be heir magic keeping him alive like with Tin-Can.
  Snow: An arrow to the heart and you heal as soon as the weapon is removed. Yet minor wounds heal normally. Most intriguing.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Because of the Forced Transformation. Even his entry in the Listing of Names is unreadable until the spell gets broken.
  Tuff: The book's magic is too powerful and too unusual for some hex to affect it that much. It must be something to do with the heir.
• The Medic: Not the master of bedside manner, and not above little pranks and general irreverence, but when someone's hurt, Uru will heal them, insisting on staying by and cutting himself even as he's starting to faint.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: As Charlie, a jabberwock with a jabberwocky mouth. He's pretty toothy in his normal shape, too.
• Like Brother and Sister: With Credenza. She's been talking about him and missing him for most of the story, making Raven worry he's the third wheel in a Childhood Friend Romance, until Credenza explains the love is completely platonic.
• Slave Brand: Snow's brand, on his leg, see portrait.
• Sticky Fingers: He's an actual cleptomaniac. Even as Charlie. Credenza, who, while loving him, is under no illusion about this, always makes him return the stolen things.
  Uru: Because I'm a thief! Okay?! A common pickpocket! I've always been one, I always will be, because it's all I can do! Sometimes I do it because I just want to see if I can... other times it's like an itch I can't seem to ignore... and other times I do it just because I'm mad.

Minor Characters

Ruin Island

Paolin Burilia

The eldest of the Burilla siblings, the owner of the family pub and all around Parental Substitute.

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• Anger Born of Worry: A textbook example when reunited with Credenza in book 10:
  Paolin: Everyone's grounded!
• Big Brother Instinct: Towards his siblings and Credenza. He and Korus sail across the Archipelago to find her.
• The Chains of Commanding: He even has them on his soul. Paolin is the strict authoritarian for the otherwide laid-back Burilias. He might be overdoing it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He really loves his family, Credenza included. This manifests in Anger Born of Worry and snarking.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Seen wearing a fuchsia sweater in a flashback.

Korus Burilia

Paolin's brother. He cooks in the inn and doesn't talk much.

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• Gentle Giant: Big, quiet guy.
• Real Men Cook: The cook in family inn. His scrambled eggs are so good the first portion is free.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Seen knitting a fuchsia sweater in a flashback.
• The Silent Bob: He never speaks, communicating (sparingly) by gestures and is generally imperturbable.

Vanesse Burilia

The little sister in the family. She works as a maid and is (annoyingly) cheerful.

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• The Cutie: Very, very sweet and cheerful.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: Sweet, cute, girly girl who wears her long hair loose, even though it's not very practical for her job.
• Shipper on Deck: For Credenza and Uru. She doesn't really care they're Like Brother and Sister

Jan

The witchdoctor of Ruin Island, which makes him an important person there (Credenza says he practically owns the place). He's a rather responsible, if at times dorky, person, concerned about the well-being of the people on his island. In the epilogue, he officiates Alice and Riley's wedding.

---

• Cannot Talk to Women: Sweet on Vanesse and adorably shy about it. Credenza, Vanesse, and Paolin can all see it.
• Endearingly Dorky: Nice, well-liked, easily flustered when Paolin yells at him. Waxes poetic about how Vanesse is good with plants and animals.
• Fisher King / Fisher Kingdom: It's All There in the Manual. Archipelago witchdoctors are magically tied to, and receive their powers, from some bit of geography - a mountain, a forest, or, like in Jan's case, an island. The place shapes them and they shape the place. More practical part of this is a witchdoctor's ability to precisely locate anyone, as long as they're within the witchdoctor's domain.
• Irony: Is afraid of getting My Sister Is Off-Limits from Korus and Paolin. Not only are all the Burilia siblings aware of his feelings, Paolin is okay with it, but only if Jan makes the first move.
• The Medic: Part of his job as the witchdoctor. Jan's called to patch Blitz up when he first washes ashore.
• Sensor Character: On page, Credenza gets him to find Blitz once, but he can find anybody, as long as they're actually on Ruin Island.
• Teleportation: He's been dabbling, but isn't so good at it.
  Credenza: How about that stretcher?

Captain Syn

A pandorian, captain of a merchant ship that Anthony worked on. Marooned Anthony for a murder he himself committed. A couple of weeks later, he lands his ship on Ruin Island only to be greeted by Blitz. Syn and his crew are astonished by the change that happened to the young man, but the captain seems suspicious of it...

---

• Bit Part Bad Guys : A smuggler who murdered his girlfriend when she discovered Syn's illegal activities and wanted to tell on him, then framed Anthony for it and marooned him, then, by sheer coincidence, landed on Ruin Island and tried to frame Blitz for murdering yet another crewmember who was suspecting something. Syn plays the villain in book one, at the end of which his sins come to the light and he's arrested, never to be seen again..
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Sounds like "sin".
• Small Role, Big Impact: He marooned Anthony, setting up the scene for Raven to appear with his offer. Thus, Syn's actions indirectly caused a Death of Personality and birth of at least one brand new personality.
• The Sociopath: Although he comes off as simply aloof and/or depressed at first. This only comes to light in a Just Between You and Me with Credenza that he does not care squat about people.

Eastern Continent

The Royal Guard

We are the prince's guard, loyal to the death. Can a mangy dog like you understand that? Loyalty?

Zatachi, Tatami, Gozazi, Tusura and Vamuro. Trained as protectors and companions to prince Paollo they try to rescue him when kidnapped and eventually get brainwashed by Vaniji. After the heroes rescue them, the guards join the quest, partly because it involves rescuing Paollo.

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• Badass Crew: The highly trained bodyguard team of a VIP. They are also pretty much his siblings.
  Paollo: Just be sure to thank my guards when you see them next. It's thanks to them I have so many good memories.
• The Bus Came Back: Dissapear from the story after Paollo was taken, because their priority is rescuing him. Reappear and join the quest in book 7.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Their job, in a nutshell, is being responsible caretakers to the constantly distracted Paollo.
• Dead Man's Switch: All of which are linked to each other and Paollo. If anything should happen to any of them (or the prince), the King would know and the entire Eastern Army would come down on the head of those responsible.
• Draconic Humanoid: Zatachi is a half Ryuvian, a race descended from dragons. He has horns and a tail and can breath fire.
• Heroic Willpower: Their leader, Tatami. He never breaks under Vaniji's mind control attempts.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: Zatachi, Gozazi, Tusura and Vamuro play Faceless Mooks in Vaniji's "Cord of Gold" production. Blitz recognizes them despite the masks.
• Mr. Exposition: Tatami is a fount of information about dream magic, including the Maze of Dreams. Other than that, Tusura helps Credenza practice her magical powers with helpful tips, and the guys coach Kor a bit on swordfighting.
  Tatami: You think of magic so differently out here on the ocean. You see it as a tool or as a weapon, an incarnation of will. In Majestan, dreams and magic are the same thing, a way for people to connect, to make worlds together. Dreaming isn't meant for war, it is art! Given that power all Snow could think to do with it is torture and devour the minds of others. Perverts and monsters like Snow use dreams to hurt people. If you do find yourself in Snow's dream world... you will be standing in a man's heart, don't forget that.
• Sarcastic Devotee: A bit. There's only so much looking after Paollo one can take without snarking.
  One of Paollo's guards: Paollo is the prince of the Solid Tower, the destined ruler of the Eastern Continent! In his hands lies the future of our country!
  Tatami: God save us all.
• Stout Strength: Gozazi is noticeably pudgy compared to the others.
• Token Girl: Tusura. Also Token Glasses Wearer and the only non-dream mage in the group.
• Wolverine Claws: They use magically-charged ones in combat.
• Undying Loyalty: To Paollo, whom they love dearly, all the while being under no illusions whatsoever.

Coin Island

Willium Drake

Professional monster hunter and protector of Coin Island, the Batman to Tin Can Turtle's Alfred, but this is not his story.

---

• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Nim. Until he sees things from her perspective and apologises, and suddenly there's a lot less bellingerence between them. When Back for the Finale, they're a proper Battle Couple.
• Calling His Attacks: He always yells the name of the card spell as he's using it.
• Cards of Power: His magic takes form of spell-charged cards with vaguely tarot-like motifs. The cards can turn into weapons, give off light, give him access to hammerspace and a variety of utility, defensive and area-of-effect offensive spells.
• Consummate Professional: About monster hunting, which is one source of his disagreements with Nim. He is, however, a Humble Hero who can admit to his mistakes.

• Living Legend: A bit. The machine had it coming.
  Credenza: Willium Drake? THE Drake? The man who slew the army of evil, rabid flamingoes? Willium Drake who wields the deck of magical playing cards? Willium Drake who sank his father's talking flying machine?
• Mr. Exposition: He tells Credenza about Listing of Names and what shadomandyrs are.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: Averted. He has the reputation, but actually it's June who does the tracking, he's just the slayer.
• Ranger: Protector of the Coin Island, which is more visible when he's not there and Simon has his hands full filling in for him.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Doesn't think the Lucks should be automatically accused just because they're weresharks. Believes Credenza's news about Snow without undue suspicion. Humble, able to apologise, won't stand for misapplication of justice - will stand in the way of pitchfork crowd. He also has contacts among demon hunter community and uses them to organise forces against the Great Raven. He leads The Cavalry in the finale.
• Winged Humanoid: He can use a magical pair of wings.

Nim (The Hunter) Ru

A wannabe monster hunter who really annoys Willum with her recklessness, lack of professionality and sass.

---

• Action Girl: Bit of a feminist, too, since she thinks Willum dislikes her ambitions for being a girl. He actually dislikes them because he thinks she has no idea what she's doing.
  Nim: You think just because I'm a woman, I cannot be your equal?!
  Willium: No, you cannot be my equal because I have trained my whole life to do what you try to accomplish in a day!
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Willum. She's terribly frustrated with him just not treating her seriously.
• Pretender Diss: On the receiving end from Willium, which really angers her.

Simon Drake

Willum's partner. Best friends with Tin Can Turtle, who treats him like the son he's never had.

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• Animal Lover: The competent sort, although this is sort of a weak point. Simon just can't leave a wounded animal unhelped. Shadomandyr queen exploits this to possess him. Then again, the Power of Love he has for his dog, June, helps him fight back
• The Apprentice:invoked As the younger of the demon hunting duo. According to Word of God, he's an orphan and an adoptive brother to Willium (note the same surname). Willium generally refers to him as his partner, Simon calls Willium "sir" or "boss".
• The Beastmaster: If you count shadowmandyrs as beasts, after they're freed of their queen's evil influence they have nowhere else to go and become Simon's minions.
• The Chains of Commanding: When filling in for Willium, who's gone to arrange important stuff for the final battle to come, he's responsible for everyday security on Coin Island. This is why, despite dearly wanting to, he cannot go with our heroes to rescue Tin-Can from the underworld.
• Canine Companion: Constantly accompanied by his dog, June. She's a professional Evil-Detecting Dog and does most of the demon-tracking for him and Willium.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Assistant to the Coin Island's demon hunter, gets possessed by a demon under Willium's very nose.
• Demonic Possession: By the Shadowmandyr Queen, the main antagonist of book 3. He gets unpossessed by our heroes, with June's help.
• Inspector Javert: Utterly convinced Luck brothers must be the culprits for a series of mysterious dissappearances, because they're weresharks (Willium is open-minded). Except this is Shadomandyr Queen speaking through Simon - after getting freed, he's perfectly amicable with the brothers, and generally acts warmer.
  Simon: No amount of human blood can change their instinct.

• Scarily Competent Tracker: June helps, but Simon is no slouch either. Twice he appears at the scene to give a detailed explanation of what happened there, based on bloodstains, footprints and general state of the place. Down to the exact time of the event.
  Simon: Blood... (touches it, looks at his fingers) Hmmm... beast-man blood. (licks it, gags, spits it out) Were-dog blood.
• Youthful Freckles: All over his shoulders and face.

Hidden Island

Abbess Tabitha

Cool Old Lady in charge of the Hidden Island cloister. Word of God says she's had quite an interesting past beforehand.

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• Action Mom: Surrogate mom to sixty young girls, literal mom to Lydia, can transform into a Panthera Awesome and tear Kurr a new one. Yup.
  Tabitha: I'm not so old that I'll send my girls into battle without me.
• Badass Preacher: A rather elderly nun. There is a reason for that smirk she's wearing in the portrait.
• Cat Girl: She's a full werecat.
• Cool Old Lady: Thankfully, she uses her power of mind-games for good.
  Tabitha: Now, where might I find two strong men to open those big doors for an old woman like me?
• Dream Walker: As we learn when she gives Credenza a pep-talk - while the latter is napping.
  Tabitha: Oh, please. I live with exactly sixty-five young, hormonal, adolescent girls. I can smell self-doubt.
• More than Just a Teacher: Functionally the headmistress of a girls' school, as the Hidden Island nunnery is an Orphanage of Love, she is also the keeper of a powerful and important artifact (also known as Listy) and of ancient, potentially world-saving knowledge. And she wasn't always a nun.
  Tabitha: Hss, I really stink at this abbess thing. Should have stuck to crime.
• Mysterious Past: She's old friends with Kroft, she has a biological daughter and Ambiguous Criminal History. That's about all we know.
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Lucinda, then known as Lucy, was her most promising student.

Lydia

The nun protagonists interact with the most and an assistant to Tabitha.

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• Action Girl: Tabitha specifically refers to her as a fighter and she takes an active part in the defense of the abbey.
• Cat Girl: She's also a full werecat (and Tabitha's daughter).

Listing of Names

With so many souls in its pages, it was bound to develop a personality of its own.

The book written by Dragonfly who then left in in the Hidden Island cloister for safekeeping. It lists the lineages of all the Heirs and is sentient. After choosing Tuff as the Reader, Listy becomes his friend, riding in Tuff's bag most of the time, hugging him with paper tendrils and lending a sympathetic "ear" to the insecure sharkman, as well as a formidable help in battles.

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• Disapproving Look: Can't speak, but has expressive eyes and no problem conveying dissaproval.
  Tuff: Don't look at me like that, I'm ashamed enough as it is.
• Gender-Restricted Ability: Subverted. Past Readers have only been girls, so everyone is surprised when the Listing chooses to bestow this ability on Tuff. The gender restriction seems to have been caused by only having girls to choose from.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Having witnessed first hand how Love Makes You Crazy with the previous Reader, Listy is alarmed to see symptoms of infatuation in Tuff, and becomes intensely jealous. For a while, the book acts very snippy towards Cassie. This is resolved by an earnest conversation with Tuff and also by seeing how caring Cassie is, both towards him and the book.
  Tuff: Book! You silly old dog-eared tome! How long have you been worrying about this? I'm not just going to abandon you because I don't need you anymore. I like you! We all like you! You're a funny, cranky magic book that can turn into anything, what's not to like? Just because I make new friends doesn't mean I'll forget you, or that you need to change for us to stay friends. I know you're scared that everyone will leave if you don't somehow prove yourself, but... it doesn't work like that.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Somehow, the tome keeping track of the original six heroes' descendants developed sentience. Stands to reason that being written by a spirit, it's not made of regular paper.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Gets torn in half, but only one of the halves seems to retain sentience (unless the one taken by Snow is only playing dead). In book 7, Listy gets its other half back and Anansi helps with the repair.
• Narrative Shapeshifting: Listing of Names, being a book, is mute and can only communicate this way.
• No Biological Sex: Listy is generally referred to by neutral pronoun. While it can shapeshift into a likeness of Tuff or into a girl, it's sex- and genderless, because it's a book.
• Paper Master: A sentient book that shapeshifts. Also can regrow bits, judging by how it's not afraid of fire.
• Plot Coupon That Does Something: While both the heroes and the villains need Listy for the Gotta Catch Them All purposes, it's also a character (with attitude and Gut Feeling) on its own right, a friend (especially, but not only, to Tuff) and a formidable fighter.
• Psychic Link: The book's Reader is the only one it allows to understand its pages. Even after Lucinda's Face–Heel Turn (and the selection of a replacement Reader), she and the book are still able to sense each other's presence. Much later, the Listing immediately knows when Lucinda is dead.
• Sensor Character: In a way. Listy is the one who knows the heirs' names and locations. It can track them like a pointer dog. Lucinda can tell where the other half of the book is from the one she has, but the Listing is actively fighting her.
• Single Line of Descent: Documents those for the heirs of original six heroes who bound the Great Raven.
• The Speechless: Listy is a book and has no vocal cords, but communicates by shapeshifting.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Can shape itself into a dog, a bird, a horse for Tuff to ride heroically into battle, a Kaiju, anything, really.

Quillotia

Mikel Fandango

Credenza: It's a long and complicated story, your highness.
Mikel: Well I just happen to ADORE long and complicated stories. Please, just call me Mikel.

The Luck brothers' maternal cousin who just happens to be the king of Quillotia. Friendly, funny, reasonable guy.

---

• Anger Born of Worry: He's not of the sort to bear a grudge, but when our heroes arrive and meet him, he yells at Tuff, who stole his sub to run from home. Not for stealing the sub - for vanishing without a trace and making Mikel worry. Then he instantly forgives.
• Dishing Out Dirt: He's a masonmage, meaning he controls stone. Useful for castle rebuilding and for stopping sharkmen in a snit from walking away.
• Endearingly Dorky: Funny, easy-going, by all indications a wonderful (if a bit in-your-face) cousin, husband and king.
• Happily Married: Very. Snuggling in public happily.
• Nice Guy: Despite being royalty, he:
  • Has no qualms with "commoners" running around his castle.
  • Completely forgoes the fact that Tuff and Riley stole an expensive submarine in favour of being saddened at them disappearing for eight years without a word.
  • Playfully swaps Blitz's hat for his own crown, asking him what his first decree will be.
  • Has a hand both in the Ballroom Blitz and in the rebuilding of his castle (a magical, telekinetic hand, but still).
  • Gently guides Tuff out of a Heroic BSoD
  • Tries his utmost to locate Riley's Missing Mom in time for his wedding, even though he fails at that.
• Large Ham: He enjoys grandiose speeches and general overacting, is quick to hug and generally larger-than-life. He also throws parties at any excuse.
• Panicky Expectant Father: While the day his son is born turns out to be... memorable, none of the things he worried about come to pass.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: While not panicking over Deliza's pregnancy, he's really people-smart and by all indications a good ruler. Definitely a good psychologist.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Joins battle against the Ravens during their attack on Quillotia, only stopping when they take his wife hostage. He also helps clear up the mess in the aftermath and walks the utterly shocked Tuff to the hospital wing.
• Requisite Royal Regalia: His garb is noticeably more elaborate than the normal, already elaborate Quillotian attire.
• Uncle Pennybags: Gives the team a new sub as a farewell gift, because Riley remarked they'd be a bit cramped in their old one since the team is growing. He says he can't take part in the quest himself, so his sub will.

Deliza Fandango

Mikel's wife and Queen Consort of Quillotia. At the time of our protagonists' visit, she's just about to give birth to the royal firstborn.

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• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Even though neither of them expected it to be perfect, at least not before Mikel asked her to dance and sparks flew.
• Pregnant Hostage: Provides the page image. Goes into labor immediately after said hostage situation is resolved.
• Proper Lady: An elegant, poised lady and the calm voice of reason to her husband's easy-going sillyness. She's also just as nice as he is.

Kroft Skyfrost

Faithful servant of the Quillotian royal family. Is a dragon and one of these smiling old men you really should be careful around.

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• Cool Old Guy: Of the friendly, chatty and avuncular sort who doesn't need to do any actual violence to get his way. He sincerely compliments Cassie's dragon tea (a special soup for dragons she can cook really well) and pranks Uru and Anansi when they're drunk at the wedding.
  Orca (right in his personal space): I have no respect for this meddling old man!
  Kroft (grinning): Trust me boy, it's the meddling old men you need to watch out for. (transforms into a huge dragon form) Yes, that's much better. Now, who else wants to be eaten - I mean, arrested?
• An Ice Person: A winter dragon, who breaths ice instead of fire.
• Old Master: Has an air of zen-like effortless cool about him. Complete with a mentor-y pipe. Later teaches Blitz how to be a dragon.
  Kroft: I'm aged and mellow like old wine.
• Old Retainer: Being over 700 years old. Then again, he acts more like an uncle to the twins, even nudging Tuff in Cassie's direction a bit.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Does the beat along with Pan, bantering easily all the way. Preventively arrests the brothers to keep them safe from wereorca crowd. Helps Paulin and Korus find Credenza. Can even act serious when the situation calls for it.

Paper Island

Vaniji Ralo

Don't listen to your thoughts, they are lying. I am the only one you can trust. Let my will become yours, and everything will be easier.

A manager of the Paper Island theatre and Kor's boss. He ruthlessly hypnotises people to do his bidding. On the side he takes care of some sordid affairs for Snow, but once this jig is up, Vaniji is left with no other choice than to join the crew. Except he's Killed And Replaced by Han.

---

• A Lighter Shade of Black: Claims to be this, compared to the Raven and his servants. Credenza disagrees.
  Credenza: Snow and his crew are governed by the Raven. The Raven has no hold on you, you could do the right thing. But you chose to ally yourself with pirates and murderers! To turn good men and women into your slaves. Snow came for Kor's soul, but already has yours in the palm of his hand. He owns you, Vaniji.
• Amulet of Dependency: Keeps all of his magic in his cane.
• Compelling Voice: When he's brainwashing someone, the font in his Speech Bubbles turns the color of his magic (bright purple).
  Vaniji: Mona, honey needs you to be quiet while he's brainwashing.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Judging by how frantically he tries to get Mona to hide before Snow sees her, there might be some sort of an actual attachment here.
• Heinz Hybrid: More so than any other character - Vaniji is an "archipelagian mutt", a crossbreed of human, avian, cloven, and werecat.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Tries to wipe Blitz's mind, and gets hit with a nasty dose of Dark and Troubled Past. While so distracted, he can't keep Raven from breaking his cane.
• Hypnotic Eyes: While brainwashing the victim's eyes turn the color of his magic, too.
• Mind Rape: Repeated offender. Out of the named characters, he did this to Mona (a lot), Kor, and all the Paollo's guards except Tatami, who managed to resist. He tried to do this to Blitz, but this was Vaniji's undoing.
• No Ontological Inertia: After he dies, there's suddenly a lot of very confused people around... Mona's mind breaks completely, although she's had additional trauma.
• Large-Ham Announcer: As the MC in his theater.

• Smooth-Talking Talent Agent: A theatre manager. Kor is terrified by the very prospect when he needs to ask for a leave of absence, and there's a reason for that beyond the mind-raping. Not to mention Paollo's guards, brainwashed into bit-part actors.

Mona Rolly

Vaniji's girlfriend-slash-arm candy.

---

• Brainless Beauty: Even before her mind is properly broken, she's mostly interested in fawning over Vaniji.
  invoked Word of God: Archipelago's been home to quite a few intelligent, independent female characters. Enter Mona, to even things out a bit.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Would a woman with all her marbles shriek in Snow's face?
  Mona: Just you try and boss Vaniji around! If you don't mind your manners he'll put a hoodoo on your brain before you can blink!
• Cloudcuckoolander: After her mind gives in to brainwash fatigue after witnessing Han, disguised as her, murder Vaniji, and cracks, she's reduced to an Empty Shell recing a Madness Mantra. She also seems to lose what ability she had to focus for more than a minute. In the epilogue, she acts kookier than Blitz.
• Empty Shell: Because she's been brainwashed so much.
  Anansi: This girl's mind has been tampered with dozens, if not hundreds of times. There's no "real" Mona anymore.
• Madness Mantra
  Mona: The puzzle's all fallen apart. You can't solve it. All the pieces are gone and eaten by the bad children. All gone and eaten. Can't put it back together. I can't see myself anymore. I'm all eaten up.
• Signature Headgear: Mona always wears a huge flower in her hair that looks more like a botanical specimen than Flowers of Femininity. When impersonating her, Han forgets to copy the flower.
• Questionable Consent: Vaniji is most probably sleeping with her, and he's definitely brainwashing her so much her noodles are pretty much cooked. He just needs to snap his fingers and tell her what to do, and she does it, giggling.

Anansi Padma

Kor's close friend and a fortune teller. She can also control fabrics, which comes in handy a lot. After Vaniji's "departure" she takes over the theater.

---

• Amicable Exes: With Kor. The romantic relationship just didn't work out, but he trusts her enough to leave his birds with her, and she's often his voice of reason.
  Anansi: You take care of yourself, Kor. Don't leave me to take care of your smelly birds forever.
  Kor: Does this mean you really do love me after all?
  Anansi: Featherhead. I said I didn't want to be your girlfriend. I never said I didn't love you.
• Brutal Honesty: Given and received. She "doesn't do angles" according to Kor.
• Fortune Teller: Her occupation, for which she normally uses an elaborate board, but can also tell the future using simpler setups, like a glass of wine.
• Handicapped Badass: She lost her arms when she was a girl. The solution? Cloth limbs.
• Master of Threads: Her magic, which is incredibly fortunate, since she can substitute a scarf for the hands she lost. Anansi is good with mundane textile work, too, and stitches up Listy (and Riley).
  Anansi: Another crisis averted by the power of fabric.
• You Can't Fight Fate: She tried. That's how she lost her arms.

Penumbra Island

The seranith of Anthony's household

The seranith loyal to Anthony, who left his family home with him to settle in the old castle on Penumbra Island. Or, to be more precise, those seranith who have stayed through household's financial problems - as we first meet them, the group consists of:

• Holly Path, the elderly scholar (see below)
• Wrist Gorilla Spindle, the surly teenager (also see below)
• Azalea Trigger, whose job is to maintain the castle magical cannons, or the one cannon they didn't end up selling yet
• Symphony Daffodil, the cook
• and her husband Houndstooth Spoons, the butler

The seranith, along with Cassie, manage the entire castle and raise Clair.

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• Battle Butler: Anthony's household staff can and will go into battle to protect the house and their young lady.
• Critical Staffing Shortage: Their numbers have been dwindling over the years. When they enter the story, Anthony's household counts five seranith, one of whom (Spindle) is underage. Two seranith have actually only left the same morning.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Being matriarchal, it's Azalea and Daffodil who go out to fight, while Spoons and Spindle stay in to protect Clair. Spindle complains about this trope.
  Spindle: Hmph! Easy for you to say. Human males get to do whatever they want. You don't ever have to worry about being left behind with the kits!

Holly Path

Member of Anthony's household - an elderly seranith scientist with a worrying memory problems.

---

• Absent-Minded Professor: Played for Drama, as she's very clearly suffering from dementia and she knows that. The Great Raven has been wiping her mind since she discovered just what is buried underneath the castle, so he's responsible for at least some of that.
• Note to Self: Holly has so many notes she needs a list. Her entire workplace is covered with them. After calling Clair "Chesska" by accident (Chesska has been dead for six years at this point), Holly sticks a note on the girl that says "Clair".
• Mood-Swinger: It's a symptom of her dementia. Holly can start yelling completely out of the blue. Especially when you touch her things.
  Holly: It's so hard to think sometimes, it makes me short-tempered.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: The only seranith to wear prescription glasses in the story. She is both a scientist and a generally rather mature person, but comes off as less wise than she otherwise would because of the short-term memory loss.
• Unwitting Pawn: She has been promised the cure for her dementia in exchange for fixing the machine the castle is built upon. She has no idea the being who promised her that is the Big Bad and that the machine is holding him captive, not broken. Although this is because said being is wiping her memory.

Cassie Matsyendra

A former slave in a draconic household and Chesska's best friend. Now a member of Anthony's household and Clair's primary caretaker, a sensible, hardworking, nice young woman who loves books. She was in charge of cataloguing the library underneath the castle, which turns out to be quite useful.

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• Badass Bookworm: Nice, friendly, likes books and befriends Listing of Names pretty quickly, despite its initial misgivings. She knows the ancient library inside out. Owns a bookshop along with Tuff in the epilogue. But she's also trained in self defence, immediately decides to rescue Holly upon learning she might be in danger (and grabs a kitchen knife to do it) and isn't intimidated by a were-shark, or at least won't show it.
• Birds of a Feather: With Tuff - both are conscientous, responsible, shy-ish bookworms, willing and capable of kicking much ass if their loved ones are threatened. She can immedialy tell when he Forgets to Eat and when they crack The Book Cipher together, they're so excited they Almost Kiss.
• Fish People: Not your classic mermaid, though she does have a very elaborate tail.
• Parental Substitute: To Clair, returning the favor for Clair's mother serving the same role to her.
• Shock and Awe: Cassie has, among others, electric eel traits and can give a nasty, although not lethal, shock.

Wrist Gorilla Spindle

Teenage Seranith, which makes him mature and smart enough to see the numerous problems of Anthony's household, but unable to do anything about it. Understandably, he's very snarky. He can also make crepy illusions, but doesn't work a lot on this talent.

---

• Troubled Teen: Somewhat, because of the financial situation of the crumbling household and his own inability to do squat about it. He mainly deals with this by acting blaze, aloof and generally surly. Sometimes by yelling at grownups. Azalea thinks he just needs to find his purpose in life.
  Spindle: I'm not hungry! Seeing this much denial in one place makes me lose my appetite.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • With Clair, whom he treats like an Annoying Younger Sibling. He nicknames her "Squirt".
    Spindle: Azalea, I'm not old enough to tolerate Clair until I'm old enough to drink alcohol.
  • When Clair is in actual danger, though, Spindle drops the surly attitude and becomes all concern.

Spirits

The six great spirits are Artificial Intelligence modules of the ship that crashed and became the Archipelago. Out of those only Raven and Dragonfly get any pagetime. Other spirits are various minor AI modules and Olivia, a deceased human engineer and Dragonfly's beloved.

Dragonfly

I failed to defeat the Raven because, despite everything, I hoped there was still good in him. We were created long ago as two separate parts of a whole; life and death, creation and entropy. We were meant to preserve balance. I thought if I spared his life he might remember that purpose.

The legendary hero who, along with the six powerful people from all around the Archipelago defeated and sealed the Great Raven, wrote The Listing of Names and mysteriously vanished afterwards. He's waiting in the tunnels underneath Coin Island for the right people to entrust with the quest of stopping the Great Raven for good.

---

• Artificial Human: Olivia built him that body. Great Raven says he's always had a weakness for mortal girls.
• Benevolent A.I.: Unlike some AI's, he never turned against humanity.
• Big Good: He organized the sealing of the Great Raven and the means of defeating him permanently.
• Go Out with a Smile: And the name of his One True Love on his lips.
• Humanity Ensues: It already ensued before he got embodied.
• Sealed Good in a Can: Preserved himself in a tank that kept him alive after the last battle, a thousand years back. He starts aging and dying after he leaves it to protect our heroes from the Great Raven.
• Supernatural Aid: Functions as the giver of it, since in the present day that's all he's really able to do. He gives Credenza magic-amplifying necklace (through Paollo in their shared vision back in book 2), Raven a prophecy that's essential later, Blitz - a memory of his old self (quite possibly just the knowledge of how to transform into a dragon) and Luck brothers the scent of Riley's One True Love and Tuff's full transforming ability. The usefulness of the gifts isn't immediately apparent.
  Dragonfly: Sometimes what you want has nothing to do with what you need.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: He actually doesn't and, when asked whether getting a mortal body was Worth It, all he says is:
  Dragonfly: Olivia...
• You Shall Not Pass!: Stays behind to hold the Great Raven off, reassuring Credenza.
  Dragonfly: I have lived for a thousand years, more than anyone should have to. I no longer fear death. You do not betray me by saving yourself. You only honor me by living to fight for what is right and good.

The Great Raven

I am a great wind, and you are a little candle. And I will extinguish you.

The Big Bad. According to Word of God, he thought people just weren't responsible enough, so he decided to take over the world. He was sealed underneath the Penumbra Island by Dragonfly and the six heroes

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: His job on the ancient ship was an antivirus. Then he decided humans are a virus...
• Animal Motifs: Guess.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: After so much time spent sealed away, he wants to atone for his actions. But then Snow eats him.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Technically, he's the cause of the main plot, but as a Sealed Evil in a Can the Great Raven has no hand in the physical world and all the dirty work is done by his servants. Several of those servants, most notably captain Snow, have done plenty of unrelated evil both before and after joining the Raven.
• Leaking Can of Evil: The Raven is sealed away, but can still manipulate his servants.Except, as it turns out, he can't. The Great Raven has no connection to the world outside his prison at all; all the lesser ravens are simply continuing to obey his last orders.

• My God, What Have I Done?: He's had a thousand years to reflect on his wrongdoings and when the heroes finally encounter him, he's really very sorry.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: His color scheme. The comic being mostly in greyscale with color reserved for magical effects, the Great Raven is strikingly black with swirly red accents, his servants all have left eyes that are black with a red pupil and black magical wings with red swirls, and their magic is uniformly red.
• Redemption Equals Death: After being sealed away from everything for a thousand years, he has been reduced to the size of a sparrow, weak and begging for forgiveness for his past actions. But he gets eaten before he can fix anything.
• Spell My Name with a "The": The Great Raven is not a raven (but their progenitor), or the good guy Raven.
• Villain Override: He, or at least his servant currently residing in Snow's head, breaks his "no possessions" agreement with Snow only once, when he has the chance to personally kill Dragonfly.

Benjamin

A lesser spirit. Real name 10-JN - he's the AI autopilot of the Exigo, an old ship buried underneath Anthony's castle. The very ship the Great Raven stole for his last rampage and was finally sealed inside. He befriends Clair, but never shows himself to the adults of the household. Later Raven tweaks his machinery a little bit and makes Benjamin visible to everyone.

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• A Form You Are Comfortable With: He says this is a feature of his programming - he tailors his hologram to his master's likes and interests. The form he takes for Clair is taken from her favourite adventure books.
• Cassandra Truth: He gives Clair a lot of potentially useful information, but she's the only one who uses it, because the grownups think Benjamin is just her imaginary friend and dismiss Clair when she repeats what he said.
  Clair: It's not a dream! Benjamin says there's something big and evil in the lab with Holly. He says we have to leave right away. Benjamin says that Holly's been doing something bad in the lab, but he can't stop her, because he's not really real.
• Cool Starship: The Exigo may be designed as a civillian transport, but it's huge, dinosaur-shaped and has Artificial Gravity to counteract Star Trek Shake.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He did work for the Great Raven. He didn't do it willingly.
  Benjamin: Not that it mattered to Raven. All he cared about was that the ship was big. Dragonfly had a body, so The Raven had to have one, too. So he took the Exigo, this ship, my body, and turned it into a weapon. A big gun he could point at his enemies and pull the trigger. It didn't matter that I was a defensive ship. That everything I am was built to protect those who couldn't protect themselves in times of war. That's all I want to do, PROTECT. I try to make up for that he made me do all those centuries ago. Releasing him is the last thing I would ever want.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: He befriended Clair because he saw she was lonely, and probably because he also was. Benjamin avoids showing himself to anyone else, until Raven makes him to.
  Benjamin: I was scared! This hologram takes power to maintain, and I don't have much left. I was afraid of what Holly would do if I showed myself. What he would MAKE her do. If he had the power now, he'd delete me just for talking to you.
• Projected Man: His hologram form. He can also use it to display his source code.
• Robeast: His ship body is distinctly dinosaur-shaped.
• Robot Buddy: After the ship is destroyed in the finale, Raven builds him a small robot body.

Olivia

The code mage who gave Dragonfly his body and had a hand in building the gauntlet Snow's using. Long dead in the present, but still living in Dragonfly's memory.

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• Chekhov's Gunman: Her name is the password to the underworld, and written on Dragonfly's tank, and he whispers it while dying for good. She herself, or rather, her virtual ghost, only appears four books later to guide Credenza.
• Dream Walker: A powerful one who can still fight and give advice.
• Energy Donation: Give the last of her energy to Credenza to reinvigorate her, since she's dispersing already anyway after her dream fight with Snow.
• Ms. Exposition: On the arm, how it works and how it can be destroyed.
  Olivia: You can't just break the arm. It exists both in our world and the dream world, tied to Snow physically and spiritually. To sever the arm from him, you must destroy both connections at the same time, or the arm will simply teleport back onto his body. You'll have to fight him and destroy the arm in your dreams and the waking world at the same time.
• Wrench Wench: She created the arm. Her way of dress - sensible pants, plaid shirt and tools dangling from her belt - also brings the trope to mind.
• Virtual Ghost: The real Olivia is long dead.
  Olivia: Olivia was just a code mage, nothing special. She lived well and she died well many years ago. I am merely a magical echo of her, and what energy I have left is fading.