Characters / Brig Scarlet Flamingo

Brig Scarlet Flamingo has quite a number of characters, so these are only the most relevant ones.

The Crew of the Scarlet Flamingo

Amelia Marr

Alias Anne Jones, alias Little Billy, alias Guillaume Lerby, alias Amelia Roberts. Amelia is a fisherman's daughter who impulsively decides to dress up as the Flamingo's captain, since she needs a lot of money for her mother's treatment.

• Action Girl: Amelia might not be an experienced fighter, but she’s a good tactician and has enough courage, for example, to fight a five-ship flotilla on a single ship of her own.
• Affectionate Nickname: Amelia gets "Milly" from Walter, "Annie" from Izzy Ernscott and "Little Billy" from the crew (although that one starts as an Embarrassing Nickname).
• Am I Just a Toy to You?: She is frightened that Walter isn't serious about her, and she at first accepts him simply because she is lonely and starved for affection. She isn't wrong in her suspicions: he does initially have shallow motives in seducing her, but later he grows to love her for real.
• Becoming the Mask: She only decides to become a corsair to save up money for her mother’s treatment. However, she finds herself growing to enjoy her new lifestyle.
• Berserk Button: After dealing with Simon Canter, she flies into a rage any time she hears of a case of I Have Your Wife blackmail.
• Boyish Short Hair: She wears her hair short even before deciding to get disguised as Billy. Justified, since she always takes menial jobs, more often in the outdoors than not, and doesn’t want long hair to be a nuisance. She doesn’t have any time for Acceptable Feminine Goals and Traits, either.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • She decides to dress up as Little Billy on the spur of the moment, barely thinking it over. In the following chapters, she has to deal with the necessity to somehow hide her periods, the different impact some magical creatures have on men and women, and a wound to the hip which leads to the man treating her to instantly realise the truth. And that’s not even her worst problem, the worst one being the murderer of Little Billy chasing her in the belief Billy is still alive.
  • Her grand revenge plot against Simon Canter: a) go to his estate b) get employed there c) figure out the rest later. Naturally, she gets found out very quickly.
• Disappeared Dad: Her father drowned in a storm when she was a toddler.
• Fake Twin Gambit: When she, as Billy, meets a man who knew her as Amelia, she quickly bluffs her way out of it by claiming (s)he has a twin sister who was born sickly and sent to be raised by a fisherman’s family.
• Fire-Forged Friends: After living through several adventures together with her crew, she bonds with them.
• Free-Range Children: In her childhood, she was looked after to some degree by friendly neighbors, but in general was on her own after her mother was paralyzed.
• Heroic BSoD: Undergoes a massive emotional breakdown while learning, in rapid succession within the scope of just several chapters, that Walter is killed, her crew believes her to be dead and has left Jarison Haven, leaving her stranded, she is pregnant, and Walter's murderer is happy, rich and living life to the fullest. The first bit of news almost deprives her of her will to live.
• High-Dive Escape: Caught between a mutiny on her brig and the officers of Baron Canter's ship, she jumps from the deck and dives into the sea. Later she reflects she really did not know what to do and simply decided to take the only way remaining for her to flee.
• Inconvenient Attraction: She can't help but feel attracted to Anthony, which she isn't happy about since she sees he is a jerk.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: She is thin and muscular and is easily mistaken for a young man.
• Lying to Protect Your Feelings: In her letters, Amelia tells her mother she's working as a cook aboard a normal ship, so that Georgina Marr wouldn't go mad with worry about her.
• Mistaken for Gay: The corsairs suspect Little Billy is gay since the latter never shows any interest in women but gets really, really close with Walter Roberts. Of course, they are unaware that Billy is, in fact, a straight woman in disguise.
• Mistaken for Junkie: A downplayed one-time case. On her second day on Las Estrellas, she acts very giddy and distracted and is slow to react, leading Joseph to assume Little Billy has had too much alcohol. In fact, she has just slept with Walter for the first time.
• MST: Does it In-Universe while reading a terribly boring sentimental novel and mentally snarking about the most idiotic plot points.
• Multilayer Façade: Early in the third part, she pretends to be Little Billy who pretends to be Anne Jones.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She is terribly ashamed of herself after learning that the Crystal, which she has plundered, was Jerome's last unsold possession that he wanted to use for an opportunity for the last romantic getaway with Yvonne before he had to leave her due to being blackmailed by the new government.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Anthony is very annoying but ultimately loyal, and then Amelia gets the brilliant idea to demote him and make Walter third mate instead. Anthony nearly kills her and deserts to the Amlonians.
• Pirate Girl: And a captain no less. However, most of the crew, so far, haven't seen through her disguise.
• Plain Jane: She considers herself rather unattractive (short hair, too tanned for the beauty standards of the day, and too scrawny with barely any curves). However, she doesn’t dwell too much on it, and Walter finds her quite pretty.
• Refuge in Audacity:
  • How can one get past a Courbartian fort in a very narrow strait? Amelia simply attacks it head-on. She correctly predicts that nobody would have expected it.
  • When she learns Simon Canter counts on her being too afraid for innocent people's safety to attack him, she attacks him disguised as Little Billy's vengeful ghost.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: It's been three times that her crew has mistakenly believed her dead.
• Scarecrow Solution: She pretends to be Little Billy's ghost to frighten Simon Canter and attack him while he's still shocked.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Walter’s death, she wants nothing more than to come home to her mother, actually booking a passage on a ship to Walsia. The reveal of her pregnancy forces her to stay in Jarison Haven.
• Self-Serving Memory: She views her relationship with Walter as a grand romance for the ages, especially after he is killed. The reality is somewhat less rosy, with him using her loneliness and her secret to get closer to her and being rather inconsiderate even after he falls for her for real.
• Superior Successor: Joseph grudgingly acknowledges that Little Billy did a better job at battling the Courbartians at Fort Montbleu than Old Arnie used to.
• Support Your Parents: Amelia works from dawn till dusk to support her paralyzed impoverished mother, and later joins a pirate crew to get enough money from the plunder for her mother's medical treatment.
• Sweet Polly Oliver:
  • She dresses up in the Flamingo’s captain's clothes. It helps that they look very alike, that he has been wearing a large eyepatch and that nobody from the crew knows the captain well.
  • When sailing the Marceline Julie to Las Estrellas, she masquerades as one of the owner's sons.
• This Is My Name on Foreign: Subverted when she pretends to be Dr. Lerby's son, since she calls herself Guillaume, a version of the name of William Gattern whom she impersonates.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Amelia was more or less forced to become a tomboy in the harsh conditions she grew up in. She is a pretty skilled Action Girl but admires pretty dresses and jewelry as well.
• You Can't Go Home Again: She wants to return home from Jarison Haven twice, and her plans are thwarted both times. The first time, it’s revealed she is pregnant and she decides not to risk travelling in the storm season. The second time, Edgar Cole decides it will be a grand idea to get the wood for ship repairs by scrapping lifeboats, and as a result, all the women and children from among the passengers are transferred from the state-owned fleet to Simon Canter's ships. Naturally, "Little Billy" can’t show up there, especially with a baby.
• Young and in Charge: She becomes a captain of a corsair brig at sixteen. Over the first two months, she has to deal with two mutinies, numerous battles, and makes some impulsive decisions that lead to all sorts of unwelcome consequences. Her dealing with Anthony probably takes the cake: she is attracted to him and tries to avoid him because of that, making him suspect he is out of favor, and then she demotes him on an obviously ridiculous pretext and promotes Walter instead. Anthony doesn't take it well.

Joseph Avery

Formerly the right-hand man of Old Arnie, Joseph Avery is the Flamingo's first mate who takes over as captain in Amelia's absence.

• And This Is for...: When the Flamingo destroys the fleet of Montbleu, Joseph yells it's for Old Arnie and the Red Drake (even though the Drake was burned and Old Arnie killed in a battle with a Walsian ship, the Courbartians were the arch-enemies of Arnie's).
• Beard of Sorrow: He stopped cutting his beard, let alone shaving, after Old Arnie was killed and the Red Drake got burned.
• Beardness Protection Program: Downplayed. For him, another reason for growing a beard is hoping to avoid recognition by the authorities of Monge Point. However, they learn what he looks like pretty quickly. Later on, already aboard the Flamingo, he muses that that his height and distinctive red hair make him recognizable anyway.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: When he was a child, the conductor of the Navy Orchestra praised his singing voice and selected him for the local children's choir.
• Berserk Button: Don't insult his previous captain Old Arnie in front of him. Not even jokingly. Joseph is fiercely devoted to his memory and will go mad with anger at once.
• Better Off with the Bad Guys: He is desperately unhappy and lonely both in his hometown and later at the orphanage (other children bully him, and as no adult looks out for him or gives him any advice, his only solution is to beat them up at the slightest provocation). He eventually runs away and joins a pirate crew, finding happiness and fulfillment.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Very deep down but certainly present towards Frank. After all, that rash idiot does need someone to watch over him.
  • In a less vitriol-filled variation, he has always been very protective towards Gerry, ever since the latter was a cabin boy aboard the Drake.
• Big Brother Worship: He used to be so much in awe of his elder brother Nathaniel that he wasn't bothered that the latter was a pirate and joined the pirates as well – obviously, Nathaniel knows better what's right!
• Catchphrase: "Are you suggesting X?" or "How do you suggest we manage X?" in his arguments with Frank. X is usually a mocking description of some impossible feat.
• The Chains of Commanding: To his own astonishment, he realizes being captain is way harder than being first mate, in spite of his decades of experience. As he puts it, when you are captain, you become the one to blame whenever things go wrong.
• Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: In the orphanage, Joseph, who is by that point feared by the rest of the kids, gets befriended by Eric, an easily-scared younger boy, after saving him from a group of bullies. They hang out together in the orphanage because no one else wants to deal with either of them, but they don't have much in common, and the friendship dissipates even before Joseph runs away to the pirates.
• Dislikes the New Guy: Joseph’s initial problem with Frank in the Red Drake days was basically an adult version of Infant Sibling Jealousy. He feared that his Parental Substitute Arnie might like the newcomer better than him.
• Experienced Protagonist: Unlike Amelia, at the point of the story's start he has already had more than twenty years of experience at sea, including many years of serving as Old Arnie's first mate.
• A Father to His Men: Old Arnie has had his worries about what Joseph would be like as Captain, especially in terms of the relationship with the crew, but it turns out that, whatever his faults, Joseph is very protective of the corsairs and does everything he can to make sure they are content with their life.
• Forgotten First Meeting: He first sees Yvonne in Monge Point, some days before the main plot kicks off. He is impressed by her beauty but doesn't remember her for long, that is, until he sees her aboard the Crystal.
• Glory Days: After Arnie's death, trapped in Monge Point, he feels the good part of his life is definitely over.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: He is very strong and very skilled in fistfights, so he can defeat small beasts or less skilled opponents bare-handed.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Downplayed. He is still just over forty and nowhere near ugliness, but he has really let himself go after Arnie's death, while before that, he used to be known as a handsome dandy.
• In Love with the Mark: Joseph's crush on Yvonne starts after he picks her pocket. It results in him stealthily putting the pocket's contents back.
• Inconvenient Attraction: He really wants to forget about Yvonne, a girl from an enemy country who probably hates his guts anyway.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: He isn't ashamed to admit defeat when he sees the odds are definitely not in his favor. For instance, when the corsairs raid Araqueste but its residents start fighting back furiously, Joseph is quick to order a retreat, since the brig wouldn’t stand a chance against an entire island.
• Large and in Charge: Very tall, muscular, and an excellent fighter, he fits the trope whenever he acts as captain in Amelia's absence.
• Love Across Battlelines: He’s in love with Yvonne, whose native country is a longtime enemy of Joseph's own homeland.
• Mistaken for Spies: Anthony thinks Joseph is involved in Eua-le’s espionage mission, in exchange for her looking after Yvonne. While Joseph and Eua-le know each other and she has encouraged him to try and court Yvonne, Joseph has never taken part in her spy mission and so far isn’t even aware Yvonne is alive.
• Never Gets Drunk: Downplayed. It's possible to get him really drunk, in theory, that is, because one would need a great deal of alcohol. However, after drinking particularly strong stuff he becomes lyrical and wangsty.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He owns a drake toy and talks with it. That doesn't make him any less badass.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Many people thought he was killed alongside Old Arnie, eight years before the main plot.
• Sherlock Scan: With ships. He can recognise any ship he has heard even a few details about (let alone seen himself), even if the vessel in question is repainted and given a different name.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He has his mother's red hair and his father's height and build.
• Took a Level in Smartass: He starts off as a quiet, polite child, and even after getting bullied for several months and learning to repay every insult with Good Old Fisticuffs, he never uses verbal jibes himself and talks with his Only Friend from the orphanage gently. However, then he gets adopted by pirates. Thirty-four years later, he rarely utters a phrase without sarcasm, and vicious Snark-to-Snark Combat is the way he and his best friend prefer to treat each other.
• Undying Loyalty: After Old Arnie as good as adopted him, he had been his most devoted crewman for more than twenty years. Even now, eight years after Arnie's death, Joseph is determined to honor his memory.
• Worthy Opponent: Joseph talks of the previous king of Courbarte, Victor the Wise, with respect and says he was a smart old man.
• You Are in Command Now: He promotes himself to captain three times.
  • In part one, chapter six, after Amelia impulsively throws herself overboard during a confrontation with the Rosamund and everyone thinks she drowns. She returns in the next chapter alive and well.
  • In part one, chapter twelve, after Amelia is washed overboard, along with Walter and Peter, by a wave summoned by Scrawny Greg. Unlike during the previous incident, now Joseph has developed some respect for his captain and honestly attempts a search, but the wave has thrown Amelia and her companions too far. Little Billy returns six chapters later.
  • In part three, chapter two, after Amelia is believed to have been shot and fallen overboard during the battle with Simon Canter's flotilla.

William Gattern

The original Little Billy. The illegitimate son of Baron Eustace Canter and Lady Marina Gattern, he decides to become a pirate to escape his assassins. They get him before he can escape.

• Eyepatch of Power: Parodied. He wears a huge eyepatch because he thinks it's what one needs to be a pirate. The Flamingo's crew finds it hilarious.
• Inheritance Murder: Little Billy gets killed on his half-brother’s orders, for his share of the inheritance.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A literal case. He decides to become a pirate but doesn't like the idea of violence. Therefore, his only solution is to stay on the shore until some idea would come to him about what to do. Sadly, he gets killed before he can do anything.
• Plot-Triggering Death: If he hadn't been assassinated on Monge Shore a couple of minutes before Amelia came to the spot, Amelia’s arc would never have happened (she would have just lived on as a fisherwoman) and the arcs of Joseph, Anthony, Mabel, Walter, Yvonne and many others would have been noticeably different.
• Posthumous Character: He is only alive in the second chapter and just barely in the first one (chronologically, the second chapter's first part takes place earlier than the first chapter).
• Red Is Violent: One of his assassins mentions that Billy called his brig Scarlet Flamingo to make it sound bloodthirsty.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: He uses bribes to get his future crew out of prisons and on board the ship.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He has just one scene before getting killed, but he is the chief reason the Scarlet Flamingo’s arc begins.

Frank Bundiwren

Nicknamed Frank the Marten or simply Marten. The Flamingo’s boatswain, formerly a sailor on the Red Drake, and even earlier an officer of the Royal Navy.

• Altar Diplomacy: In the course of trade negotiations with the Walsian island of Randelia, Frank finds himself married to The Chief's Daughter Princess Laura.
• Always Someone Better: How his rivalry with Joseph began, back in the Red Drake days. Frank was mad that Joseph was better than him at any task Old Arnie needed done, and that when any change of plan was necessary, it was Joseph who came up with the idea first and not Frank.
• Animal Motifs: Nicknamed Marten for his litheness and especially for his climbing abilities.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: His usual plan for almost any situation is to charge at anything that would be in the brig's way.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He muses how nice it could be to be able to marry a highborn lady (although he is mostly saying it to stealthily tease Joseph). Later, he does get to marry a highborn lady and isn't too excited about it.
• Big Damn Heroes: Dramatically saves Amelia's life from a drake (a mini-dragon, not a male duck) during the brig's first stop on Ghyriales.
• Card Sharp: Frank is an expert in all sorts of card game tricks. It often triggers brawls between him and Joseph.
• Commander Contrarian: Disagrees with everything Joseph says, no matter whether his own arguments are logical or not.
• A Friend in Need: After escaping the Miridians’ captivity on Mulfa, it would have been far safer for him to just hide and lie low, but Frank immediately starts planning to free the rest of the Flamingo's crewmen as well. Unbeknownst to him, even Joseph, while in the Miridians’ prison, says that hiding would be the only sensible choice for Frank and that he’d tear off the latter’s ears if he attempts to singlehandedly rescue the crew.
• Hot-Blooded: He looks quiet and collected but is known for making or at least suggesting extremely risky decisions. Additionally, he is almost always ready to provoke Joseph into a new fight.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: He claimed, even to himself, that he deserted the Navy due to their unfair treatment of him. Later, he begins to admit it was mostly due to his own resentment of what he viewed to be a terribly mundane post.
• My Beloved Smother: He was on the receiving end of the trope. His parents doted on him obsessively.
• Never My Fault: He was like that when he was younger. He is constantly reprimanded for lack of discipline? Why, it’s the superiors’ fault for not getting him a better post!
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Downplayed. His real surname is only mentioned in the first and in the sixtieth chapter, he is usually just called Frank or Marten.
• The Only One: Justified. After the entire crew is taken captive on Mulfa, he is the only one who is able to escape and therefore, as the island is Courbartian and the locals are hardly sympathetic to the Flamingo, the only one who has at least a theoretical opportunity to help his mates.
• Refuge in Audacity: His plan of escaping the Miridians basically amounts to "scream on top of your lungs, run past the guards, and dive into the sea". It works, as the guards are at first too astonished to react, and then Joseph and a few others distract them.
• Shipper on Deck: He drops several hints that he supports Joseph/Yvonne.
• Spoiled Brat: Was extremely spoiled by his parents and grew up thinking everyone was obliged to make his life perfect. He did get better.

Bald Gambe

The Flamingo’s second mate (promoted to first mate in Amelia’s absence).

• Animal Motifs: Fat and with a croaking voice, he is often compared to a frog.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He is illiterate and likes a drink, but he is a pretty capable, not to mention experienced, sailor and fighter.
• The Drunken Sailor: He is really fond of liquor. Whenever the Flamingo isn’t engaged in battle or preparing for one, Gambe is enjoying a bottle of something strong.
• Hidden Depths: Despite being illiterate and often drunken, he is able to compose songs.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: He is only ever called "Bald Gambe".

Anthony Jamble

The Flamingo’s third mate, until Amelia demotes him. Offended, he deserts to the Amlonians.

• Accidental Murder: Veronique grips Anthony's hand, but he forgot to warn her his glove is smeared with tactile poison that kills within minutes.
• Beaten By A Girl: Anthony always takes defeat hard, but when a woman literally beats (like Eua-le) or outsmarts him (like Marie), he gets mad with fury and shame. No wonder, since he is sure he can win over any woman with his charm and good looks.
• Berserk Button: Saying someone else is better than him at anything or reminding him of his failures. He will hate the person who dares to do it.
• The Casanova: Anthony can sweep nearly every woman off her feet and is very much aware of it. He tries to hit on any pretty woman in sight and usually succeeds.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: A serious case. Literally, there are hardly any characters whom he has had any contact with and hasn’t betrayed in some way.
• Comforting the Widow: Played with. He makes a move on Lidia. At that point, his own faithful longtime partner Veronique has only been dead for less than a day and isn't yet buried. He does feel ashamed afterwards, however.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: He whispers "Damn Jeanne and Lidia and their frogs!" (It Makes Sense in Context) without noticing it and is shocked that Eua-le has heard it.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted in one of his Jerk with a Heart of Jerk moments. He firmly admits (both out loud and to himself) that he is not a pedophile and wouldn't dream of becoming one, but instantly reveals that the moral or at least the legal aspect of the matter doesn't even enter his mind: he simply doesn't find prepubescent girls attractive enough, the same way he is repulsed by older or overweight women. When he's told, in the same scene, that some hobos attempted to molest seven-year-old Mireille, his only thought about it is that these hobos had amazingly bad taste in women.
• Fake Twin Gambit: When confronted by Yvonne, Anthony claims he has got an Evil Twin and it’s he who plundered the Crystal. Yvonne doesn't buy it.
• Guilt-Induced Nightmare: After accidentally killing his lover Veronique, Anthony is plagued by a nightmare where she appears to him as a glassy-eyed walking corpse. It is one of the steps that lead to his gradual Heel Realization.
• Has a Type: He particularly likes it if a woman is a whitish-blond Ice Queen.
• Head-Turning Beauty: A Rare Male Example. The one character (except for prequel-only Queen Carolina who lived centuries earlier) whom everyone views as jaw-droppingly gorgeous (even with Izzy Ernscott, while she is also considered a great beauty, there are people who aren't impressed by her). He is very much aware of it and exploits his good looks whenever possible.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: He accidentally causes Veronique's death, and it never stops haunting him afterwards.
• In the Dreaming Stage of Grief: After accidentally killing his lover Veronique, Anthony tells himself over and over again that it must be a nightmare, for several hours. Even in the months that follow, he still sometimes thinks he is just dreaming.
• Intentional Heartbreaker: Usually he prefers to part with women on good terms (because tears, scandals and quarrels are too annoying and inconvenient), but he has plans to deliberately break the hearts of Eua-le and Yvonne. With Eua-le, it’s in revenge for her outsmarting and beating him in a fight. With Yvonne, it’s even worse: it’s in revenge for Joseph beating him in a fight, because Joseph has a crush on Yvonne (do you follow it?). So far, however, Anthony hasn’t made any progress with either: Eua-le sees through all his tricks, and Yvonne has also become savvier about him thanks to Eua-le’s influence.
• It's All About Me: Anthony’s world consists of himself and lesser creatures who exist for his amusement.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Almost every time Anthony appears to do something good, his thoughts reveal he’s still the same selfish jerk as before. For example, he takes two homeless children in just to manipulate Eua-le’s landlady into giving him lodgings as well (as part of his grand revenge plan).
• Jerkass at Your Discretion: He radiates charm when a woman is in sight and/or when he has to talk his way out of danger, but doesn't do much to hide his true nature among the Flamingo's crew (of course, he has no idea there is a woman among them).
• My God, What Have I Done?: For once, he has a genuine fit of remorse when he sees he has accidentally poisoned Veronique. To clarify: Veronique is a sweet, kind girl selflessly in love with him and the poison is extremely rapid. Moreover, had Anthony simply remembered to throw away his poison-smeared glove, nothing would have happened.
• The Sociopath: From part two till the end of part four, he definitely looks like one. He can play people like a fiddle but actually has zero empathy, cares about no one and nothing but his own amusement, constantly looks for thrills in the form of risks, love affairs and risky love affairs, and has an enormous ego. Ultimately subverted, however, as after Veronique's death he breaks down with remorse and admits to himself that all of the above has somehow lost its flavor.
• Sore Loser: Any time he is defeated, he is furious and plots revenge.
• Thrill Seeker: He loves dangerous ordeals, provided, of course, that he emerges victorious.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: He recalls he became a Consummate Liar as soon as he learned to speak.
• Villainous BSoD: After accidentally killing Veronique, he is plagued by remorse and memories and admits that he barely cares about anything, even the thrills and dangers he used to love.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Becomes his modus operandi in Courbarte. He tells everyone who would listen that his Courbartian wife has died, leaving him with two children, one of whom is sick, and that evil tax collectors drove him deep into debt.

Walter Roberts

A crewman of the Flamingo and Amelia’s eventual lover. She promotes him to third mate. In the beginning of the third part, he gets killed in a battle with Simon Canter, leaving Amelia pregnant.

• Big Brother Bully: He ran away from home, in particular, because of his embittered brother Robert who lashed out his anger about the family's misfortunes on Walter.
• But Not Too White: He has never liked pale women, because white skin reminds him of his sickly sister-in-law who died very young. Amelia, with whom he has his last and most serious relationship, fits his type perfectly, since she is extremely tanned after working outdoors all day long, every day.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: In-Universe, when he lived with a puppeteer troupe, his jobs included voicing female characters.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He briefly becomes very jealous after Amelia saves the life of Thomas, a law-abiding Nice Guy and captain of the Margaret. Thankfully, he doesn't act on it.
• Has a Type: He likes black-haired, slim and tanned women.
• Kick the Dog: In order to get closer to Amelia, he puts two large bats into Gerry Mount's cabin which is next to hers. It might not seem so bad, unless one recalls that Gerry is panically afraid of vampires – after they killed his sister right in front of him. And Walter is aware of that.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Several years earlier, he betrayed a Bad Boss captain to the police.
• Nurse with Good Intentions: Downplayed. He volunteers to help Dr. Lerby tend to Amelia's wound just because he is the only one of the crew aware that she is a woman. He doesn't cause much harm, but his near-hysterics at the sight of Amelia's wound distract and annoy the doctor, and he isn't much help as a nurse, either.
• Precocious Crush: Had one on his Raven Hair, Ivory Skin sister-in-law Olivia, who succumbed to tuberculosis less than a year after marrying his brother. Ever since then, he has been afraid of pale skin.
• Romantic Fake–Real Turn: He initially seduces Amelia with promises of love and marriage because he’s gone too long without a girlfriend. However, he develops genuine feelings for her.
• Spotting the Thread: He suspects Little Billy is an impostor after seeing "him" unaffected by siren charm, since the latter works on every straight man.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Downplayed a little. He participates in the mutiny against Little Billy, even though the latter has only just treated his serious leg wound and possibly saved his life. However, it's not his initiative, he does feel guilty about it and later asks Amelia's forgiveness.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He is an unscrupulous pirate who once betrayed his own captain to save his skin, got thirty years in prison for his crimes, and initially blackmails Amelia with her secret so that she would promote him. He used to be a serious, studious child who was considered The Dutiful Son of the family in contrast with his roguish older brother.

Gerald Mount

Usually called Gerry, he is a young crewman of the Flamingo who used to be a cabin boy of the Red Drake.

• Friend to All Living Things: His primary character trait. He loves playing with and feeding gulls and albatrosses, and later buys a parrot. He gives his rations to the birds even when food is scarce.
• Nice Guy: The most optimistic and cheerful and least quarrelsome member of the crew.
• Undying Loyalty: To Joseph, after the latter acts as mentor to him aboard the Red Drake and later, on the Flamingo, promotes him to second mate.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He is absolutely terrified of vampires. The moment he hears they might be found on the island of Ghyriales, he tremblingly begs Amelia to let him stay on board.

Gregory Milter

Nicknamed Scrawny Greg. A former student of magic, he has severe mental health problems. For a version closer to the truth, see "The Ernscotts' Visitor" entry in "Intelligence Services".

• Inept Mage: He used to study magic but can’t do a single spell properly. When he tries to stop a storm, he ends up summoning an enormous wave that washes Amelia, Walter and Peter overboard.
• Put on a Bus: Gives himself up as a hostage to the Amlonians and vanishes from the plot.

Peter West

One of the Flamingo’s three cabin boys, later promoted to ordinary seaman.

• Disappeared Dad: He has never known who his father even was.
• Fearless Fool: Downplayed; when commanded to stay put, he can do it, and if he sees some really big danger he realizes Fear Is the Appropriate Response, but in general, he is often prone to underestimating risks and rushing into battle without thinking.
• Keet: He is a hyperactive and excitable teenager who loves games.
• No Indoor Voice: He is shouting pretty much every time he opens his mouth.
• The Pollyanna: He is almost always cheerful, and genuinely, too. Even when he is washed overboard in a magical storm, he keeps his good humor.
• This Is My Name on Foreign: When posing as Dr. Lerby's son on the Marceline Julie, he calls himself Pierre.

Intelligence Services

Eua-le

Introduced as a high-class courtesan from Las Estrellas, she is soon revealed to be an Amlonian secret agent.

• Action Girl: She is quick-thinking and skilled in combat. She defeats Anthony in a hand-to-hand fight (just for comparison, Anthony earlier manages to hold off and almost defeat Joseph, one of the strongest guys out there).
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: A very attractive brunette who keeps to herself.
• Brainy Brunette: Black-haired, and works as a secret agent at the age of eighteen.
• Contralto of Strength: She has a deep melodic voice and is one of the most badass main characters (and very dangerous to enemies).
• Dark and Troubled Past: Implied. Sierra, Miss Kitty of The Golden Sun, mentions that Eua-le has been a prostitute since fourteen. However, as both of them are revealed to be working in the Secret Service, this might not necessarily be true. Then Eua-le herself reveals she has a living family but has parted on bad terms with them.
• Femme Fatale Spy: She manipulates the son of the governor of Las Estrellas into assisting with her schemes.
• Hospital Hottie: One of the reasons she is so popular after starting to work as a nurse. There are even rumors about soldiers getting wounded on purpose just to be treated by her.
• Lady of War: She looks like a fragile exotic beauty, but try to mess with her or her friends and you’ll see the trope played literally. As in, she carries a knife and a pistol with her all the time and knows how to use them very well.
• Not So Stoic: When she learns her family is in danger due to the impending war with Miridia, she bursts into tears and clings to Anthony for support.
• Pretty in Mink: Dons an elegant fur coat in Port de la Reine in winter.
• Shipper on Deck: Eua-le encourages Joseph to court Yvonne.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Eua-le can be either very sharp and sarcastic or gentle and friendly. So far, as she is a secret agent, it is unknown which of her sides is closer to her real personality.

Lidia Felipez

A courtesan and spy from Las Estrellas, Eua-le's political rival.

• Everyone Has Standards: Lidia is morally grey at best, being a Femme Fatale Spy and Master Poisoner who is ready to manipulate people into assisting in her shady schemes. But even she calls Anthony out when he starts seducing her mere hours after the death of his faithful lover Veronique.
• Femme Fatale Spy: Just like Eua-le, she is a lovely courtesan, and she also quickly twists the island's governor's son around her little finger and gets him to help her in her mission.
• Master of Disguise: She can pull off various disguises successfully, and Anthony often remarks he wouldn't have known her. In particular, on board the Moth, she pretends to be a down-on-her-luck immigrant, in Courbarte in the spring she poses as an Impoverished Patrician lady in mourning, and both times the disguise is brilliant.
• Master Poisoner: She is very knowledgable about poisons of all levels of danger.
• Not So Above It All: She knows firsthand that Anthony is a fickle ladies' man and can't be trusted, yet she can't help but develop feelings for him.

Jeanne Verjois

Lidia's sister (apparently) and fellow spy. As a cover, she owns a bakery.

• Chubby Chef: She is quite fat and a baker, although her profession is mostly a cover for her espionage work.

The Ernscotts' Visitor

An agent of King Eugene's Secret Service who one evening comes to visit the Ernscotts. For the persona he assumed at first, see the "Gregory Milter" entry in "The Crew of the Scarlet Flamingo".

• Affectionate Nickname: Continues to call Amelia "Billy" even after learning about her real identity.
• The Bus Came Back: After being absent for forty chapters, he returns.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Starts as a minor supporting character who is slightly off his rocker. Then he disappears for forty chapters, only to reappear as a Secret Service agent who helps Amelia escape Jarison Haven.
• Laugh Themselves Sick: Bends down in hysterical laughter as he realizes the person he has suspected of being Canter's agent is none other than Jerome de Barnec, who, for extra irony, has suspected him of having a fling with Amelia.
• Must Make Amends: After almost getting Amelia killed (not intentionally per se, it was a question of Lesser of Two Evils), he wants to do what he can to help her.
• Obfuscating Insanity: It turns out that he was only pretending to be a madman.
• Play-Along Prisoner: He only gives himself up as a hostage to the Amlonians for some yet-unclear purposes of his own. He hasn't revealed how he escaped, but it's implied it wasn't even too hard.

The Crew of the Lord of the Waves

Joel de Goirré

A Courbartian minor nobleman turned anarchist. Captain of the Lord of the Waves.

• Arch-Enemy: Self-proclaimed greatest enemy of the Scarlet Flamingo. As they manage to defeat him in every battle, they treat him more as a minor nuisance.
• Bad Boss: He barely allows his crew to take any plunder from the ships he attacks. He is not malevolent towards them – he simply wants them to be free of "the frames of the world" and lead a fully anarchic life.
• Dangerous Deserter: He used to be in the Royal Navy of Courbarte but abandoned his post and has since become a ruthless pirate.
• Knight Templar: He really thinks that he is being a hero when he sinks any ship he encounters (even those that fly his homeland's flag), because this way he’s bringing about the future golden age of anarchy.
• Rebel Prince: He is an aristocrat but decides to destroy the world's political system.

Louis Carran

Joel's childhood friend and first mate of the Lord of the Waves.

• The Heart: For his firm moral compass, he is the favourite with the entire crew.
• Morality Chain: He is the only one who keeps Joel from crossing into irredeemable evil.
• You Didn't Ask: When he is held captive on the Flamingo, he reveals that he knows the origins of the water magic. When Joseph angrily asks him why on earth he didn’t say it earlier, Louis sarcastically replies they didn’t ask.

The Crew of the Red Drake

Arnold Bolener

Known as Old Arnie, a fearsome pirate captain.

• Catchphrase: "If not... Dramatic Pause", when delivering his ultimatums. He clearly preferred his threats implied.
• Cool Old Guy: A villainous version, but still. He stayed in action even in his seventies and actually remarked that he felt better in a fight than when he was calm. It took a cannon to kill him.
• A Father to His Men: He really cared for his crew and treated them very well.
• Feeling Their Age: By the time he's past seventy, when he isn't in battle, he has attacks of acute rheumatism.
• Graceful Loser: Joseph recalls how the Drake’s crew under Arnie used to talk politely and respectfully with the captains who managed to defeat them.
• I Have Your Wife: When he found out one of his hostages was a jeweler's daughter, he said he would let her go unharmed if the jeweler made him a statuette of his pet drake. It did indeed happen.
• Iconic Item: His copper drake statuette, made in memory of his beloved pet. He treasured it and kept it with him always for thirty-five years, right until his death (and eight years after that, it passes to Joseph).
• Lost Pet Grievance: His beloved pet drake was buried at sea with military honours, got Arnie’s best-known ship named after him, and got a statuette of him made and kept as Arnie’s talisman.
• Parental Substitute: He practically adopted Joseph when the latter was seven.
• Posthumous Character: He died eight years before the main plot's beginning. However, there are three prequels featuring him.
• Sarcasm Failure: When he finds out a seven-year-old boy has sneaked on board completely unnoticed and wants to join the crew, Arnie is so shocked he can't even come up with a good quip.
• Would Not Hurt A Child: Even though Arnie, unlike the Flamingo's crew, never even pretended to be honorable, he drew the line at harming children.

Joseph Avery

See his entry under "The Crew of the Scarlet Flamingo".

Nathaniel Avery

Joseph's elder brother, one of the Drake’s cabin boys.

• Big Brother Instinct: At one point, it is revealed how he was killed: he went down in battle while shielding Joseph to the last second.
• Cool Big Bro: When Joseph meets him aboard the Drake, he completely lives up to Joseph's expectations, happily accepting him as a member of the family and of the crew and becoming his mentor.
• Happy Ending Override: His character arc. The only prequel featuring him ends with him reuniting with his baby brother, the two of them feeling like family for the first time in a very long while... and the author's note reveals that Nathaniel was killed just three years later.
• Posthumous Character: He is killed at seventeen, more than thirty years before the main plot's start.

Frank Bundiwren

See his entry under "The Crew of the Scarlet Flamingo".

Gerald Mount

See his entry under "The Crew of the Scarlet Flamingo".

Residents of Ernscott House

Gerald Ernscott

In the main story: Founder and director of the Colonial Bank.
In The School Years: Brilliant but financially struggling student at Jarison Haven’s First Royal School.

• The B Grade: In The School Years, he strives to earn high grades rather than merely passing grades. The reason is that, as his Maths teacher explains to him, Gerry barely has enough money to pay the school fee and has to work even for that, so if he gets average marks, his diploma won’t be worth much anywhere and he will have wasted his childhood for nothing.
• Beneath the Mask: When he was a kid and teenager, he pretended to be much more tough, determined and stoic than he actually was, hiding and sometimes actively suppressing his enormous insecurities. As he grew up, he became a more balanced case of Sugar-and-Ice Personality, with him being genuinely tough now but opening up the "sugar" side for family and the closest friends.
• Berserk Button:
  • Insult/threaten him, and he'll just smile and shrug it off. Insult/threaten his family, and he'll unleash his rage.
  • Never, ever compare him to Simon Canter. Not even if you are Isabel Ernscott. Gerald is determined to keep his own moral grayness within bounds and is utterly repulsed by the levels Canter sinks to.
• Brainy Brunette: He has dark hair (though now mostly greyed) and is close to being The Chessmaster of Jarison Haven.
• Deliberate Under-Performance: While in the third grade of school, he deliberately makes mistakes at the end-of-year exams, enabling Delicate and Sickly Susan Deanham to end up top of the class and win an all-paid trip to Walbere that would help restore her health.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Gerald Ernscott would love it if his wife stopped calling him Mr. Ernscott. As her parents took British Stuffiness and played it up when educating their daughters, she can't bring herself to do it. She finally does call him Gerry during a heated argument, but tells him there will be some time before she gets fully used to it.
• Friendly Scheming: When at school, one day he took two coins from his savings to treat himself to a visit to the sweetshop with his friends, but then stealthily put one of these coins under Nelly Haley's desk, because Nelly was also poor but fiercely proud and wouldn't have wanted anyone to pay for her sweets. When she discovered the coin under the desk and couldn't find out who had dropped it, she kept it for herself with a clear conscience and went to the sweetshop with Gerry, Charlie and Edgar.
• Good Counterpart: Mr. Ernscott is basically Simon Canter with a conscience. They both are pragmatic, calculating, determined masters of Batman Gambit, both know the value of their public image, both love art, both marry younger Blue Blood Walsian ladies, and both make no secret of wanting to make a lot of money. However, Mr. Ernscott, though he has his faults, genuinely works for the people's good, not just for his own gain, and is repulsed by Canter's atrocities.
• Has a Type: Intelligent women who excel in and enjoy mathematics. He has had a hard time finding these, too, as almost forty years pass between his romance with Letty and his marriage to Izzy, and he has had no other romantic relationships.
• Holding Hands: Before he and Izzy became close enough for more intimate gestures, he took and held her hand when he wanted to express his affection or to comfort her.
• Early Personality Signs: His determination and intelligence showed themselves when he was a kid of eight already.
• Lying to Protect Your Feelings: Sometimes, he lies (or, rather, tells a Half-Truth) to his loved ones to spare them what he thinks would be undue anxiety. For examples, for a long time he keeps Izzy in the dark about the more heinous deeds of Simon Canter.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Izzy Ernscott blurts out she will never force an early betrothal on her daughter, it dawns on Mr. Ernscott how traumatized she was by their own betrothal and marriage. Even though she was happy to leave her parents, she still got engaged to a man thirty-five years her senior without having any choice about it. Izzy assures him that he has made her very happy and he knows that a lot of the fault lies with her parents, but the bitterness of the revelation remains between them for quite a while.
• Out of Character Is Serious Business: Whenever his usual calm falters. If he is surprised, that means something really shocking has occurred. If he is angry, that means his Berserk Button has been pushed. And if he is frightened, that means someone from his family is in immediate danger and he can't do anything to help (that only happens once, when his baby daughter has scarlet fever).
• Panicky Expectant Father: Izzy recalls he was one even after the actual labor, fussing over her constantly and doing everything to make sure she fully recovers.
• Pragmatic Hero: Mr. Ernscott's motivation for many of his acts of kindness (such as helping Amelia during her pregnancy) is to gain allies who might in turn be useful to him in the future.
• Rags to Riches: At twelve, he lived in a shack and couldn't even afford a snack at the school canteen. At fifty-three, he lives in a Big Fancy House and can afford to collect art.
• Rich Language, Poor Language: His pronunciation was a major problem for him at school. He had taught himself to write properly all right, but he couldn’t help speaking the dialect he is used to (his parents have no school education and own a small fish store). Same goes for his speaking exercises at the lessons of foreign languages, as he had previously only practiced these languages by talking with sailors. Gerald’s teachers had a hard time figuring out what to do (as he was a brilliant student otherwise, they didn’t want to give him lower marks based purely on the accent).
• Scholarship Student: He did odd jobs at the extremely prestigious First Royal School to at least get a discount for his studies. He wasn’t the only poor student there, as Nelly Haley was a tailor’s daughter whose mother paid the school by making clothes for the staff, but Gerald was the only one who worked for most of the money himself. In the beginning, it was pretty hard for him as he was bullied by several of the richest students.
• Starving Student: In The School Years, he can't even afford anything at the school canteen except for the free-of-charge glass of tea.
• Self-Made Man: Mr. Ernscott’s parents owned a small fish store. Solely by his own efforts, he is now the richest man of Jarison Haven.
• Silver Fox: He is in his fifties, with mostly grayed hair. But he is tall, broad-shouldered and keeps himself in excellent shape, which is why nobody is very surprised that his young wife swoons over him.
• Social Climber: From his early childhood, he is desperate to rise up in society (hence his enrolment at Jarison Haven's First Royal School and later his marriage to a baron's daughter). He is a more benevolent version of the trope, genuinely longing to change Jarison Haven for the better – and he eventually succeeds, managing to stabilize the island's economy and helping turn it from a poor, obscure colony into a prosperous place fast on its way to autonomy.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: He is very composed and stern in public and never speaks much, but he is a lot more open and sociable at home. And even more of his softer side gets revealed whenever he is alone with his wife and daughter.
• Sweet Tooth: Very partial to butterscotch and caramel (though careful not to indulge in them too much).
• Vetinari Job Security: He has made himself utterly indispensable to Jarison Haven's economy, so that pragmatic villains like Simon Canter would realise killing him would only bring heaps of problems for them and the entire island. Aware that he won't last forever, he plans to help Izzy achieve the same security before she inevitably inherits his money and his businesses.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: At school, when Letty belittles his parents, he muses that if a boy did it, he wouldn't have hesitated to beat him up.

Isabel Ernscott

Izzy to her friends and family, she is Gerald's much younger wife and business partner.

• Abusive Parents: Izzy’s parents are a case, oppressing her psychologically to the point that at home she felt like she was an army recruit under particularly vicious officers. When they realized they were out of money, they began blatantly selling off their daughters to rich husbands.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Very beautiful, according to multiple characters, and one of the kindest people in the 'verse.
• Brainy Brunette: She has long coal-black hair. She has also been skilled in mathematics since school and is now her husband’s partner in managing the bank.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Izzy vows not to repeat her parents' numerous mistakes while raising her own daughter.
• The Bride with a Past: Subverted. On her wedding day, her thoughts imply she has some terrible secret, the reveal of which might lead to Gerry annulling the marriage on the spot. The secret turns to be the fact that her family is so destitute she couldn't even afford to hire a lady's maid, and she is astonished when Gerry says he doesn't care (and in addition, another prequel, in which Gerry first hears about Izzy's family, shows that it's an Open Secret in Walsian high society anyway).
• Desperately Craves Affection: She went through such psychological abuse at home that when Gerald treats her with kindness and respect, she falls head over heels for him within a month after their wedding. That makes Gerald doubt whether she really loves him or is just that desperate to feel loved.
• Early Personality Signs: She refused to conform to Proper Lady standards and was Nice to the Waiter at age six already.
• Elegant Classical Musician: Izzy loves playing the clavichord, and her husband loves watching (and hearing) her doing it.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: She is one of the kindest and friendliest characters overall, tending to see good in everything and everyone. However, she utterly loathes Manipulative Bastard Simon Canter, one of the story's arc villains. After Canter makes the mistake of threatening to kill Isabel's daughter, she, together with her husband, begins plotting his downfall and death.
• Grew a Spine: Starts as pretty downtrodden after the toxic influence of her parents and the implied Boarding School of Horrors, but as she spends more time on Jarison Haven, her natural Spirited Young Lady character blossoms fully.
• Last-Name Basis: The Nicknamer towards everyone else, she only addresses her husband as Mr. Ernscott. The first time she does call him Gerry, it is after nearly two years of marriage and in an argument, and she switches to "Mr. Ernscott" again when she calms down.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: She has waist-length hair, longer than any of the named characters, and is very feminine, graceful and elegant, with a fondness for romance novels, poetry, art, music, dancing, and finance.
• Mama Bear: How do you make Izzy Ernscott, usually the nicest girl around, really outraged? Tell her her daughter's safety is threatened.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: She has five elder sisters.
• The Nicknamer: She almost always calls her friends and family by pet forms of their names. Her daughter Melinda is Melly, the housemaid Louise is Lou, etc.
• "Not So Different" Remark: In one of her few quarrels with Gerald. After he tells her he is going to send Amelia, Amelia's baby son, and Mabel away from Jarison Haven to keep their own family safe from Simon Canter, Izzy angrily tells him it won't be so different from what Canter himself does – ignoring other people for the sake of one's own comfort. Gerry isn't amused, since he knows Canter to be a ruthless murderer, but he realizes it's his own fault that he hadn't told Izzy the whole truth about Canter before.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Izzy pretends to be a frivolous Gold Digger. In fact, she is Mr. Ernscott's partner not just in marriage but in business as well.
• Practically Different Generations: Mabel recalls that Izzy's five sisters were all out of boarding school at the point when Izzy herself had just started it. The education at that boarding school lasts nine years, which means even the second youngest sister of the family is at least nine years older than Izzy.
• Pretty in Mink: In winter, she wears large fur cloaks common in Jarison Haven. Edgar Cole admits she looks lovely in them.
• Trophy Wife: Subverted. Her first appearances certainly suggest the possibility, as she is beautiful, young and married to a much older rich financier. However, it is revealed that Gerald actually loves her as a person and treats her as an equal in business, and even before romance entered the picture his primary motive in marrying her was her mathematical talent precisely so that she would be able to work with him. Although, if Gerald's remorseful thoughts in one of the interquels are any indication, there was an element of trophy-ing involved as well.

Mabel Wilson

She works as a maid on Baron Canter's ship the Rosamund before agreeing to follow Amelia to the Flamingo. Upon reaching Jarison Haven, she gets employed as a nanny by the Ernscotts.

• The Drag-Along: She never intended to get mixed up in any adventures. Instead, thanks to the ongoing fights between Amelia and Canter, she is literally dragged along across the globe, as she knows too much about Canter’s intrigues. At least she is not too sorry to leave the Rosamund, but she hates it when she has to go away from the Ernscotts as well.
• Innocent Bigot:
  • She grew up in continental Walsia and is afraid of black people. After spending several months in Jarison Haven, she gets better.
  • It also takes some time for her to get used to the idea of businesswomen. When she first hears that Mr. Ernscott fully intends for Izzy to inherit the Colonial Bank, she is dumbstruck.
• Team Mom: She acts as mother-figure towards Amelia, Izzy and the younger servants at Ernscott House. Not to mention she is officially Melly's nanny (though it's more teaching Izzy to care for Melly than actually looking after her herself).
• Too Much Information: Mabel knew Izzy when she was a kid and is freaked out by the servants’ gossip about her passionate married life with Mr. Ernscott.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Becomes a lot more abrasive and easily-angered after being forced to leave Jarison Haven. Justified, since she has to leave wonderful employers for no fault of her own and also has to hide from Canter's agents who might kill her, likewise for no fault of her own.

Gerald Ernscott's Former Classmates

Richard Frankson

Rick to friends and family. In the main story: Founder and head of Jarison Haven's Fishery Control.
In The School Years: Reserved and initially rather conceited student who sits next to Gerry Ernscott.

• The Quiet One: In the first years of school, he kept to himself and hardly talked with anyone.
• Reformed Bully: He was extremely mean towards Gerry Ernscott when the latter started school. He grew a lot better and ended up being Gerry's best friend.

Alethea Frankson

Letty to friends and family. In the main story: Well-known salon hostess.
In The School Years: Highborn, wealthy and initially very proud and selfish girl, one of the class's top students.

• Alpha Bitch: She used to be the most snobbish and insufferable girl in class, thanks to her coming from one of the town's wealthiest families. She also had shades of Academic Alpha Bitch, getting mad when Gerry's marks were as high as hers. Like her husband, she ended up a Reformed Bully.
• Aroused by Their Voice: Even when she was Gerry Ernscott's bitter enemy and he didn't think much of her looks, he found her voice incredibly beautiful and found himself entranced whenever she read a poem in Literature classes.
• Deadpan Snarker: No one is spared from her sharp tongue, not even after she Took a Level in Kindness.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Her attitude at school. When she felt hurt, she always shooed away her clique and went to some quiet corner to cry alone, and she lashed out at anyone who tried to express sympathy.
• Excellent Judge of Character: Grows up to become one. When Izzy Ernscott comes to her first ball in Jarison Haven, Letty is the only one who sees through her Obfuscating Stupidity spiel.
• Green-Eyed Monster: At school, when Tilda, a girl from her posse, so much as talked to Susan Deanham who wasn't included in their circle (she simply offered Susan help with her schoolwork, since the latter has been sick for weeks and missed out a lot), Letty immediately grew furious and ended her friendship with Tilda.
• First Love: She was Gerald Ernscott’s first love (and he was hers) when both were at school.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: At school, she had a posse of adoring friends, both boys and girls, obeying her every whim. She, however, fell in love with Gerry Ernscott who (initially) outright despised her, and later fell in love with and married Rick Frankson who had no interest in joining her clique either.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • At school, children outside her clique called her Bun for her chubbiness. They rarely used the nickname to her face, but she was painfully aware of it.
  • Likewise, Gerry Ernscott mentally dubbed her Puppet at the start, thinking her hair resembled straw and her cheeks were round and unnaturally red, like those of a marionette.
• Lady And A Scholar: What she ultimately becomes, an intelligent, cultured salon hostess who is also friendly and mild-mannered.
• Lost Pet Grievance: Her beloved pony died in a hurricane when she was in third grade, and Letty was heartbroken.
• Loving Bully: At the start of The School Years, it seems she is nasty to Gerry just because he dares to 1) be poor 2) get high marks. However, then she is absolutely heartbroken when he mocks her chubbiness (after she mocks his parents), and, as the fight lands them both in detention, she asks him to walk her home afterwards rather than suggest the task to one of her eager admirers. Gerry fails to connect the dots.
• Odd Name, Normal Nickname: Her name is Alethea, but everybody on First-Name Basis with her calls her Letty.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She had the same golden blond hair and round face as her mother.
• Took a Level in Kindness: From a snobbish, whiny bully in to a kind, generous and friendly woman.
• Upper-Class Equestrian: She rode a pony to school. In Jarison Haven, it is especially expensive to keep horses, due to the poor vegetation, so using a pony for such mundane purposes is a clear case of flaunting one's riches.

Edgar Cole

In the main story: Director of the port of Jarison Haven who isn't doing his job too well.
In The School Years: Gerry's first friend who isn't too good with studies but is easygoing and cheerful.

• Abhorrent Admirer: Downplayed, towards Izzy, which certainly annoys her and Gerald very much. However, Cole doesn’t go beyond mild attempts at flirtation, realising his chances are nonexistent, and anyway it’s his complete incompetence that annoys the Ernscotts even more.
• Evil Former Friend: By the time of the main timeline, he and Gerry are on firm Last-Name Basis and quietly despise each other. The School Years reveals that he became Gerry's First Friend at school after defending him from Letty's bullying.
• Fat Idiot: He used to be a plump boy who wasn't good with school subjects. He is now a fat man who isn't good with anything.
• Innocently Insensitive: Even before he Took a Level in Jerkass, he sometimes couldn't understand the problems his less wealthy friends had to face.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Edgar Cole adores salmon sandwiches. That’s one of the few things about him that hasn’t changed over the years.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He was a nice, easy-going boy who was Gerry Ernscott's First Friend. Now he is a lazy, selfish, greedy bore.

Charles Perry

In the main story: Captain of the Marianne, a cargo ship that also half-legally carries passengers.
In The School Years: Best friend of Edgar Cole with a fascination for sea and ships.

• Big Fun: A cheerful, fun-loving plump boy who grows up to become a cheerful, fun-loving fat man.
• Big Eater: He loves to eat even more than Edgar Cole.
• Childhood Friend: He was good friends with several of his classmates, but Edgar was his first and best friend at school.
• Early Personality Signs: He has been fascinated by the sea and ships since he was a child.
• Nice Guy: One of the friendliest and most easygoing people out there, both as a child and as an adult. As a child, he was even friendly towards the class's resident bullies, unless they were rude to him first. As an adult, he is shown to be helpful and generous towards Amelia and protective of his passengers.

Helen Haley

Nelly to friends and family. In the main story: Successful tailor.
In The School Years: Friendly, kind girl who helps in her mother's tailor workshop.

• Berserk Button: She is usually sweet and mild-tempered, but don't you ever suggest she should become a Yes Woman to the rich or accept charity.
• Education Mama: Her mother is a downplayed case. Although from what the readers are told of her, it seems she and Nelly have a good relationship, she still pushes Nelly to attend First Royal School – where Nelly rarely gets anything above a B due to the fact that helping her mother with her work takes most of her time. Gerry is baffled as to why Nelly's mother wants her to have a school degree at all, because at the same time she intends for her to take over the Family Business, for which the degree isn't needed.
• Family Business: Her mother was likewise a tailor, and Nelly has helped her in her business since childhood.
• Nice Girl: Friendly, kind and reasonable.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: She refuses to join Letty's clique, which could allow her to mingle with the wealthy, because she would never be a lickspittle.
• Sleepyhead: At school, she was often sleepy during the lessons, which was partly the reason for her lower-than-average marks. Justified, since she had to stay up very late to help her mother with the work.
• Starving Student: In The School Years, she and Gerry are the poorest students in their class, unable to have anything but the tea at the canteen.

Susan Deanham

A shy and quiet A-student, daughter of the chief of police.

• All There in the Manual: So far, she has only appeared in prequels.
• Damsel in Distress: Her terrible sickness in her third year motivates the entire class to help her all they can.
• Like Mother, Unlike Daughter: Her father has No Indoor Voice and her mother a Motor Mouth, while Susan has neither.
• Morality Pet: She becomes this to Tilda Quinsley, formerly one of the bullies in Letty's posse, when Susan is recovering after a long illness and Tilda offers to help her with schoolwork.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: In a variation of the trope, it has less to do with her clothes and looks in general and more with her attitude. At a school party in the end of her third year, she is so happy about winning a trip to Walbere that she forgets her usual shyness and awkwardness, and everyone sees her for the pretty, sweet and intelligent girl she actually is.
• Shrinking Violet: She is so reserved and shy that barely anyone recalls she is there at all. Gerry is only really aware of her existence because her name is right before his own in the class lists. It gets better after she befriends Tilda Quinsley.

Residents of Madame Zeré's

Yvonne de Geriese

A young highborn woman, forced to live in poverty after the revolution.

• Noble Fugitive: She is in hiding under the name of Yvonne Bernard.
• Regal Ringlets: Yvonne wears her hair in curls.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Many people believe or suspect she is dead, while she is more or less alive and well, simply living in an obscure boarding-house under an assumed name.
• Satellite Love Interest: Throughout the first four parts, she is mostly defined as the girl Joseph is crushing on. In the interlude, she is given a POV excerpt and begins evolving into an active character of her own right.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: Early in the story, she genuinely believes she can find some "refined" job (such as that of a governess) in a poverty-stricken, war-ravaged town.
• Took a Level in Badass: She starts as timid and pampered, but toughens up due to Eua-le’s influence.
• With This Ring: She has a diamond engagement ring given to her by Jerome. It used to be too small for her, so one day she took it off and slipped it in her pocket – while in a crowd in a major port on market day. Naturally, the ring got stolen. However, it was stolen by Joseph who then had a change of heart and returned it.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Joseph often reminisces on the loveliness of her dark-grey eyes.

Veronique Larvier

Anthony's fiercely loyal and adoring lover.

• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Veronique is a gentle, utterly selfless and extremely naive blonde girl.
• Hired for Their Looks: Anthony decides to hire her as a governess for the two children he’s taken in, solely because she is almost exactly his type, being whitish-blonde and pale.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Attempts to invoke it. When Anthony tells her about his enormous debt to Badger, she offers to earn the money by prostitution. Anthony, however, dissuades her from it (not out of care for her, but because the neighbors would obviously start asking questions and because she wouldn't earn the necessary sum in time anyway).
• Horrible Judge of Character: She firmly believes that Anthony is a kind and honorable man and doesn’t listen to anyone’s warnings about him. He is anything but: he isn’t even loyal to her, flirting with other women behind her back.
• Silk Hiding Steel: She is only in her late teens and looks helpless and fragile, but she manages to cook, clean, look after Leon and Mireille, do all sorts of odd jobs around the boarding house just so that Anthony would get a discount for their lodgings, and see to it that Anthony never notices it, because she always makes sure she looks pretty and clean for him. Sadly, her determination and loyalty are wasted on a man like him.
• Sleeping with the Boss: Veronique sleeps with Anthony, who employs her as a governess. She is so much in love with him that she accepts the situation without questions.

Leon

A highborn boy turned vagabond, he is taken in by Anthony.

• Big Brother Instinct: Leon is very protective of his little cousin Mireille.
• Child Soldiers: Despite being around thirteen, he plans to participate in the war with Miridia.
• Promotion to Parent: Before getting arrested, his mother begged him to take care of Mireille. He has been doing it ever since.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: At his first appearance, he is twelve, and from the very start, he helps Anthony and Veronique with household management and finances. He had to grow up pretty fast, after all.

Mireille

Leon's second cousin, she is taken in by Anthony along with Leon.

• The Baby of the Bunch: She is seven at her first appearance, and, being the youngest resident of Madame Zeré's boarding-house, she is pampered by everyone else.
• Delicate and Sickly: When Anthony finds her, she is feverish and has a cough. Afterwards, the fever and weakness gradually go away but the cough lingers (it’s implied it's at least partly due to allergy or asthma). However, she decides to defy the trope as she feels herself pretty well otherwise and is tired of everyone fussing over her.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Established as one of the nicest characters in the 'verse in the second chapter featuring her, as she takes in a stray kitten.

The Canter family

Eustace Canter

Father to Simon Canter and at least two illegitimate children. Ordered the murder of his son William. Allegedly.

• Extreme Doormat: Implied to be this, since everyone he meets seems to be able to manipulate him.
• The Ghost: Many people talk about him but he never appears.
• Killed Offscreen: He is murdered midway through part three, but Amelia only learns about it from Albertina and from the Jarison Haven Chronicle.
• Offing the Offspring: He arranges the murder of his illegitimate son. Except that he doesn't, the strings are pulled by his legitimate son Simon.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: He is fabulously rich, bu he is much worse at managing these riches than at accumulating them. Not to mention he hasn't done a good job raising his one legitimate son.
• Serial Romeo: According to Albertina, he really does fall deeply in love with each of his many, many conquests.

Simon Canter

Eustace's son and heir and murderer.

• Bait the Dog: He seems polite, reasonable and understanding... right until he threatens to poison little Melly.
• Berserk Button: Whenever he learns someone has taken and/or may have some right to his inheritance, he turns, in the words of Gerald Ernscott, into a five-year-old deprived of a lollipop.
• Big Brother Bully: He mentally abuses his half-sister Albertina.
• Brainy Brunette: He is black-haired and quite clever, especially when it comes to counting money and manipulating others.
• Confound Them with Kindness: When Amelia comes to him in her “Anne Jones” disguise, Simon welcomes her heartily, agrees to hire her as a kitchen help and even berates his cook for overtaxing her. Amelia is dumbfounded and realises that "disarming politeness" isn't a metaphor. However, Albertina soon quietly explains to her that Simon is not someone whose path one should cross.
• Evil Uncle: Perfectly ready to kill his little nephews if Albertina causes any trouble for him.
• Faux Affably Evil: Most of the time, he is very pleasant-mannered, down to smiling politely at Mabel while holding a packet of poison over Melly's cradle. His facade so far has only dropped once, during the battle with Amelia's ship.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: He is ruthless and scheming, and also fabulously rich and with such excellent taste in architecture and design that even Amelia can't help admiring his palace, its furnishings and the palace park.
• Nothing Personal: His attitude towards anyone who becomes or might become collateral damage in his plots. Simon doesn't wish them any harm, he just doesn't like it when people stand in his way.
• Pet the Dog: Downplayed. When it looks like he is on his deathbed, he leaves his long-suffering sister a thousand guineas in his will. Which is certainly a nice thing to do, except that it's a figment of his practically Fiction 500 wealth.
• Pragmatic Villain: Simon might be cruel but he is smart enough to maintain an excellent public image and avert Evil Is Petty. Although, in his opinion, committing murder and blackmail to increase his already colossal inheritance is not petty at all, but otherwise, he really values being successful more than being villainous.
• Shame If Something Happened: Blackmails Albertina using implied threats towards her husband and children and Mabel by threatening Amelia’s unborn child and Melly.
• Sibling Murder: He arranges the murder of his half-brother William.
• Villain with Good Publicity: The Jarison Haven Chronicle writes glowing articles about Simon, and he is one of the arc villains of the story.
• Would Hurt a Child: Blackmails Mabel by threatening to poison baby Melinda and his sister by threatening her husband and children.

Albertina Kittle

Simon's abused half-sister and housekeeper.

• Kindly Housekeeper: Unlike Simon, she is genuinely a nice woman.
• Mrs. Exposition: An entire chapter is devoted to her explaining to Amelia what is really going on in Simon's household. This is done on Simon's command as part of his Batman Gambit.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Her mother committed the horrifying crime of asking Eustace Canter for money. Albertina is the one who pays for it by working like a slave and constantly fearing for her family's lives.
• Stepford Smiler: She puts on a cheerful facade to hide how broken she is. And even that is done on her brother's orders.
• Stockholm Syndrome: A hopefully platonic version. Blackmailed by her half-brother into serving as his housekeeper, belittled and abused by him, she develops a twisted affection for him and defends him before Amelia.

William Gattern

See his entry under "The Crew of the Scarlet Flamingo".

Royalty

In General

• Alliterative Family: King Eugene the First and Queen Miranda had children called Margaret, Millicent and Eugene the Second.
• Altar Diplomacy: Most royals try to get married with at least some feeling to go along with the convenience, however, there are marriages arranged for purely political reasons.
  • In the backstory, Emperor Alexandre of Courbarte married Princess Carolina of Amlonia to fulfil part of the treaty between their countries. However, they fell in love very quickly.
  • Archduke Ferdinand of Jennsen and Princess Mary of Walsia got married because Jennsen needed more ties with Walsia and the Archduke needed legitimate heirs. They are both completely miserable with the arrangement.
  • Princess Vivian has been engaged to her second cousin Percival since birth to stabilise the succession and placate the junior branch of the dynasty.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Downplayed with the Walsian royals. Considering how many of them there are, they get on much better than one would expect. However, they do have issues, some of them pretty serious, such as the long-standing bitterness between Queen Margaret and Duchess Millicent, Princess Katherine's status as the disappointment of the dynasty, or the scandalous elopement of Princess Mary's youngest daughter.
• Black Sheep: Several in the Walsian royal family.
  • Princess Katherine is usually considered a failure, especially compared with her sister Amalia. She is ugly while her sister is gorgeous, separated from her husband while her sister is happily married, and whiny and arrogant while her sister is cheerful and kind. Amalia herself muses that getting always compared to her since childhood led Katherine to a downplayed version of Then Let Me Be Evil.
  • Queen Margaret is so horribly incompetent at ruling that even her loving brother only supports her because the other option is her violently anti-Walsian minister.
  • Isolde, youngest daughter of Archduke Ferdinand and Princess Mary, is considered an embarrassment of the family for eloping with a minor knight.
• A Day in the Limelight: Many of them have so far only appeared in the side-stories.
• Did Not Think This Through: Many years ago, a Walsian queen Dorothea passed the law stating that women could inherit the throne. However, she did not specify what would happen if the heiress presumptive married a foreign king. Now that a Miridian queen is second in line after Princess Vivian, Vivian will have to marry her second cousin Percival as soon as she is old enough, to avoid a civil war in the event of her dying childless. Vivian and Percival get on well enough, but aren't too excited about their future marriage.
• The Ghost: Some of them have so far only been mentioned but never made an appearance.
• Gone Horribly Right: In the backstory, Queen Carolina did everything in her power to split up her son Jean with the latter's headstrong first wife Emilie de la Martal and get him married to meek Augustine de Geriese. Once it happened, Augustine turned out to be anything but meek and worked against Carolina far harder than Emilie had ever done.
• Kissing Cousins: Downplayed. Princess Vivian will probably marry her second cousin Prince Percival from the dynasty's younger branch when the two come of age. This is not a matter of some Royal Inbreeding-inspiring ideas of bloodline purity, but rather a result of Walsia's extremely complicated succession laws.
• Law of Inverse Fertility:
  • Margaret, Queen of Miridia, was childless for a long time and then only managed to have one son.
  • Rose, Queen of Walsia, gave birth to Princess Vivian, but the difficult birth rendered her unable to bear any more children, leaving the king with no possible Spare to the Throne.
  • Meanwhile, Prince Peter, who is not the heir to the throne and isn’t likely to become one, has a lot of descendants down to great-great-grandchildren.
  • Archduke Ferdinand’s first wife Klara remained childless, while during the same time period that encompassed his first marriage his lover gave birth to a son and a daughter.
  • Downplayed with Princess Mary. She herself never wanted kids and now she has a son and two daughters. However, as her husband is the Archduke of Jennsen who had no legitimate children before, from the political standpoint it means the succession in Jennsen is secure.
• Rebellious Princess:
  • Princess Mary, one of Prince Peter's numerous grandchildren, wished to become a sorceress and certainly didn’t want to marry young and have a crowd of kids. Her parents and Altar Diplomacy forced her to do the latter, and she has been miserable ever since.
  • Princess Amalia, Prince Peter's daughter, had been forced to be more or less a living ornament of the court since she was a baby. She married a minor lord who lived in a distant poor region (his lands turned out to have plenty of coal, which is why the marriage was allowed) and immediately sold her rich jewels and dresses, saying she was sick of being the beautiful princess.
• Rule of Three: There are three major dynasties involved in the rule of Dugoslovia – they formerly used to rule the three countries that afterwards got united into Dugoslovia.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Princesses Margaret and Millicent looked so alike as children they were often mistaken for twins (actually, Margaret is a year older).
• We Used to Be Friends: Princesses Margaret and Millicent used to be inseparable as children. However, their friendship deteriorated after Millicent sustained heavy injuries after a nasty fall, was left with a permanent limp and became jealous of Margaret, while Margaret was so elated with her engagement she largely ignored her sister. By the time the main plot begins, while Millicent does try to help Margaret with the political mess in Miridia, she is revolted at the very thought of meeting her sister in person again.
• The Wise Prince: Not a prince technically, but heir to a duchy with a high level of autonomy. Edgar of Saleton is aware of The Chains of Commanding that await him, he works hard with the management of affairs he already controls, and when he is only fifteen he arranges a tour of the many, many, many island territories that Saleton has, so that he would actually meet his future subjects.

The ruling family of Walsia

King Eugene, Queen Rose and Princess Vivian.

• "Eureka!" Moment: After brainstorming over whaling restrictions, Eugene has one when he sees his daughter playing with a plush dolphin toy. It dawns on him that to avoid a financial crisis to which a ban on hunting dolphins would otherwise lead, he can turn dolphins into a cultural symbol of the city previously known for its whalers.
• Flowers of Romance: Eugene proposed to Rose by giving her a bouquet composed of ferns (her favourite plants) and purple flowers endemic to Walsia.
• The Good King: Eugene is a capable sovereign and very benevolent towards the people.
• Good Parents: King Eugene and Queen Rose do everything they can to make sure Vivian both grows up to become a worthy successor for them and enjoys a happy childhood.
• Honorary Uncle: Vivian has such a crowd of cousins of various degree that she has decided to address everyone from Prince Peter's family who is ten years or more her senior as "Aunt" or "Uncle" and be on First-Name Basis with everyone younger than that.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Princess Vivian adores tennis and plays it extremely well. It isn't always easy to reconcile this and her responsibilities as the future queen.
• Politically-Active Princess: Vivian is a teenager and already helps her father with the ruling.
• Purple Is Powerful: When Eugene proposed to Rose, he gave her a bouquet with purple flowers endemic to Walsia, implying he would like to see her as a Walsian queen. She got the hint immediately.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Eugene sends a lord he doesn’t like to guard his sister Queen Margaret in war-torn Miridia.
• What's Up, King Dude?: Downplayed. The Walsian royals allow everyone to send petitions to the king directly if necessary. However, it's up to the postmasters to decide which petitions are worthy of the king's time (judging by the heap of these on King Eugene's table, the censorship isn't overly strict).

Prince Peter's family

Prince Peter's, King Eugene's uncle, his wife Princess Venceslava, and their numerous descendants.

• Absurdly Youthful Mother: A streak among the descendants of Peter and Venceslava. Many couples of this branch of the family have kids before hitting twenty, so the couple already has living great-great-grandchildren. Peter's age isn't mentioned, but Venceslava is only seventy-one, and their nephew King Eugene is just forty.
• Generation Xerox: A sad version with Princess Katherine and her second daughter Lady Yolande. Openly considered a disappointment by everyone around? Check. Becoming The Eeyore in response? Check. Married to an obvious social climber? Check. Awful Wedded Life? Check again.
• Parents as People: Prince Peter and Princess Venceslava are decent people and genuinely try to be good parents, but they end up favoring their two elder children over the two younger ones, leading to a permanent rift between them and their second daughter Katherine that they can't mend even after going through My God, What Have I Done?. Their second son, Quentin, is more forgiving, mostly because in the case of him and his older brother, the Parental Favoritism wasn't as blatant as with Katherine and her older sister. For that matter, their elder daughter Amalia wasn't that happy about being the favorite either as she felt she was forced to be a living ornament of the court.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: The two sons and two daughters of Prince Peter and Princess Venceslava. Ethelred is The Wise Prince who is a skilled politician and diplomat and Quentin is a Warrior Prince who serves in the army. Amalia is The Dutiful Daughter, beautiful, kind and Happily Married, and Katherine is ugly, rude, disobedient, formerly a Big Sister Bully towards Quentin, and has separated from her husband after a terrible marriage (and a lot of this stems from her being The Unfavorite and constantly compared to Amalia).
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Princess Amalia used to be the most gorgeous girl at the Walsian court, while at the same time she was too far in the line of succession to be actually important. Therefore, she was forced to become a Princess Classic Living Prop, only needed to impress the court and its guests with her beauty. She felt it was basically prostitution, except that she didn’t have to go further than flirting.
• Spare to the Throne: Prince Peter was the crown prince’s younger brother, and the crown prince’s wife had long been childless. He had already prepared himself to inherit when his brother finally had a child. It was a harsh disappointment for Peter and Venceslava, however, they eventually managed to cope with it. Currently they are very far down in the line of succession, but, on the bright side, it looks like their youngest grandson will at least become Prince Consort.
• Universally Beloved Leader: Prince Peter is so popular in Walsia that Eugene mused that, should he die childless, people would start a war to put Peter on the throne. After Princess Vivian was born, the anxiety was somewhat alleviated with her betrothal to Peter's grandson Percival.
• Warrior Prince:
  • Prince Peter used to go to war in his youth.
  • Prince Quentin, Peter's second son, is likewise in the army and proud of it.

The ruling family of Courbarte

The late King Victor, his son King Etienne, and Etienne’s wife Queen Leticie.

• Adipose Rex: Etienne is very fat, very vain, and very stupid.
• The Good King: King Victor the Wise of Courbarte did an excellent job of everything… except properly raising his son.
• Sketchy Successor: King Etienne of Courbarte is a weak and vain idiot who quickly undoes all the good work his father has done. Needless to say, Courbarte gets torn by a civil war just a few years after his ascension.

The ruling family of Miridia

The widowed Queen Margaret, sister to King Eugene, and her son King Luigino.

• A Child Shall Lead Them: King Luigino of Miridia is a child, crowned at five. Naturally, he is a Puppet King, while his mother and the ministers fight for the real power.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Queen Margaret thinks that smiling and waving to the crowds is all a queen needs to do. The economy of the country is getting steadily worse.
• Puppet King: King Luigino of Miridia is a boy, and it is no secret that he does no ruling of his own.

The ruling family of Jennsen

Archduke Ferdinand, his wife Mary (granddaughter to Prince Peter), their children and Ferdinand's illegitimate children by Lotte, a peasant woman.

• Bastard Angst: Downplayed. All things considered, Selma Edelherr is treated extremely well and doesn’t feel much angst on her own behalf, but she is deeply sad that her parents (the Archduke and a peasant woman) can’t get married. The way it is, her mother has the uncertain and unofficial status of The Mistress and her father is stuck in a loveless political marriage. Selma even pities her father’s wife, who also never wanted that marriage and is equally unhappy.
• Cool Aunt: To be exact, "Cool Honorary Aunt who is actually a much older cousin". Princess Mary has a strained relationship with her husband, her children, and her parents and grandparents, but she has managed to bond quite well with her second cousin Vivian, teaching her to play tennis during one of her visits to Walsia.
• Cool Big Sis: Selma Edelherr cares for her half-siblings greatly, having always been the one to play with them and tell them stories when they were little. They adore her in turn, especially since their mother is cold and distant towards them.
• Defiled Forever: When Lotte gets pregnant by Ferdinand for the first time, she has to leave her native village for a town in the other end of the country and pose as a widow to avoid being viewed as an example of the trope.
• Happy Marriage Charade: It’s not exactly a secret that the union of Archduke Ferdinand and Princess Mary makes both of them nothing but miserable. However, since they are the ruling couple of the country, they have to publicly act as if their marriage is picture-perfect and everybody else has to pretend to buy it.
• Hates Their Parent: Princess Mary still hasn’t forgiven her parents and grandparents for crushing her dream to study magic and arranging her marriage to Archduke Ferdinand. She feels so strongly about it that she refuses to attend a feast in honour of her own grandson’s birth because her parents and grandparents are also attending. As a result, the cycle goes on as she alienates her children and grandchildren.
• Interclass Romance:
  • Isolde, daughter to Archduke Ferdinand, is viewed as the embarrassment of the family for eloping with a minor knight. Apparently, the marriage is quite happy.
  • Meanwhile, Ferdinand himself has been in an affair with Lotte, a peasant woman, since he was eighteen. Unlike Isolde, though, he still goes through with the Altar Diplomacy marriages arranged for him.
• Meaningful Name: Ferdinand's bastard children have the last name of Edelherr (an actual medieval title for German nobility).
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Ferdinand learns that his lover Lotte is pregnant, it dawns on him that starting their affair at all was extremely callous of him – as she is a village girl, there was never any hope of marriage, and now she is so deeply in love with him she adamantly refuses to marry anyone else even should he dump her.
• Shrinking Violet: Laura, one of the daughters of Ferdinand and Mary, has been very shy and quiet since childhood.

Others

Louis de Geriese

Yvonne's father, a Courbartian nobleman who has fallen on hard times.

• Befriending the Enemy: Amelia, captain of a corsair ship of an enemy country, stealthily gives him some of the Flamingo's riches, and he helps her in return when she becomes stranded on Geriese Island.
• From Bad to Worse: In the backstory and the main plot, Louis just can't catch a break. First, his wife dies a sudden and early death. Then, due to the worst luck of all, he gradually loses his riches. Then the revolution happens and he loses whatever was remaining of his money. Then his daughter's fiance coldens towards her as her dowry dwindles (in fact, it's not like that at all, but Louis has no way of knowing the truth). Then he is imprisoned by the rebel government and doesn't know if he'll ever see his daughter again or if she's even alive.
• The Lost Lenore: He still mourns his wife Marceline Julie who died ten years previously. It is an especially painful matter for him since she was twenty years his junior and her death was completely sudden: she fell off a cliff.
• Wealthy Yacht Owner: He has a beautiful private yacht. However, as his wealth slips away in the civil war, he realizes he can't keep it and doesn't want the revolutionaries to take it, so he gifts it to Amelia who then rents it to the Amlonian fleet.

Alexander Rene

Amelia's fellow passenger aboard the Marianna, revealed to be Jerome de Barnec in disguise.

• The Bus Came Back: He returns to the plot after an eighty-two-chapter-long absence.
• I Have Your Wife: On the receiving end of it. The new Courbartian government blackmails him by holding his parents and sister hostage.
• Knight in Shining Armor: He rushes to defend Mabel from humiliation, despite barely knowing her (however, due to barely knowing her, he misunderstands the situation completely and thinks Greg is Mabel's unfaithful husband openly cheating on her with Amelia, while none of it is true).
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: He figures out Greg and Amelia aren't really brother and sister. However, he suspects they are having an affair, while in fact they are in hiding from Simon Canter's agents.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to explain why such a Bit Character got an entry without saying he is Jerome de Barnec.
• Wealthy Yacht Owner: He owned a lavishly decorated yacht when he could afford to keep it.
• Widow's Weeds: He wears a black armband on his arm, a sign that he is a widower. In fact, he is Jerome de Barnec, and he is in mourning for his fiancée Yvonne, whom he mistakenly believes dead.

Peter and Cheryl Ernscott

Gerald Ernscott's parents, owners of a fish store.

• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: They were completely baffled by his dream of receiving education. Peter at least admired the boy's determination, but Cheryl thought it was simply ridiculous for Gerry to strive beyond what he was born into.
• Good Parents: Despite their faults, they are kind and (at first grudgingly) supportive towards Gerry, and he loves and respects them greatly.
• I Want Grandkids: Implied to have been one of Cheryl's main complaints about her son after he grew up. In one of the prequels, she laments that Letty, the only woman Gerry has ever dated, is now married and already has four sons. Though Gerry does eventually marry, his parents drown in a storm four years earlier and never meet his wife, let alone witness the birth of their granddaughter.
• Together in Death: They went out fishing and perished in a storm when Gerald was forty-seven.

Dinah Limmerdale

A Walsian marchioness and Letty Spencer/Frankson's aunt.

• Character Catchphrase: Marchioness Dinah Limmerdale loves saying "unlike some" while praising herself or people she likes (and in general she often focuses on the abstract "some" when she wants to criticise a custom or point of view). She also has a fondness for using the phrase "lovely as a rose" while describing girls eligible for marriage.
• Everyone Has Standards: She is formidable, conceited, and loves to criticise her niece Letty for the latter’s supposedly improper lifestyle (while really there is simply a Culture Clash between Dinah’s native Walsia and Letty’s native Jarison Haven). However, even she is outraged at the Domestic Abuse and blatant hypocrisy of Izzy’s parents and helps arrange Izzy’s marriage to Gerald Ernscott (even though he is from Jarison Haven, like Letty) simply to give the poor girl a happier life.
• The Matchmaker: Gerry asks her for help in finding him a suitable Walsian bride. After nine years of searching, she helps arrange his marriage with Izzy Ernscott.

The Meadows family

The dynasty of Jarison Haven's finest doctors. Two members of it appear in the story – a Dr. Meadows who is The Medic during Gerry Ernscott's childhood, and his son.

• Innocently Insensitive: Dr. Meadows junior doesn’t realize that his detailed stories of his previous cases only irritate and disgust his patients.
• Like Father, Like Son: Both are extremely loud and tactless, but excellent doctors.
• No Indoor Voice: A booming voice is seemingly In the Blood.