Characters / Brimstone Angels

Farideh's Family and Companions

Farideh

• Action Girl: Her adopted dad is a Proud Warrior Race Guy and she was raised to be able to handle herself. She's not great in a physical fight, but then she gets warlock magic...
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: She's definitely attracted to Lorcan and hooks up with him briefly in Fire in the Blood; also deconstructed as its made increasingly clear that Lorcan is manipulative, selfish, and in absolutely no hurry to change his ways for Farideh (or anyone else) and that these are not good qualities in a partner.
• Anti Anti Christ: she's a Chosen of Asmodeus, inherited from her great-great-grandmother. She's not happy about the arrangement, but like with her warlock pact, she sometimes needs the power...
• Aura Vision: As the Chosen of Asmodeus, she gains the power to see souls and gage how far into corruption they've fallen as well as the touch of any god or gods on them.
• Badass Bookworm: She can handle herself in a fight, but she's also intelligent and bookish.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Comes with the territory of being a warlock who tries to be as good a person as her pact allows.
• Cute Monster Girl: Being a tiefling, she demonstrates:
  • Cute Little Fangs: Her canines are longer and sharper than a human's, though not as prominent as Lorcan's.
  • Horned Humanoid: A pair of curving, ram-like horns.
  • Monochromatic Eyes: Though in her case overlapping with heterochromia, considering she has one gold eye and one silver eye.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Yeah, she looks fiendish and draws her power from Hell, but she's a basically good person regardless. Indeed, between being a tiefling and a warlock, trying to convince people that she's the good guy despite all appearances to the contrary is a constant uphill struggle for her and has left its mark on her personality.
• Deadpan Snarker: Certainly has her moments, though the game character she was adapted from was apparently much snarkier.
• Deal with the Devil: Part and parcel of being a warlock. Farideh's bargain with Lorcan sets the series in motion.
• Determinator: Farideh never gives up once she's set her sights on something. It's a trait she shares with her adopted father, Mehen and her biological ancestor Bryseis Kakistos.
• Fantastic Racism: A frequent victim of it, and its something she tends to brood on and that has strongly influenced her actions.
• Fatal Flaw: Farideh's biggest flaw - one also shared with Mehen and Bryseis and which tends to lead her into problems (and making deals with devils) is her need to take too much responsibility for things and think she's the one who needs to solve every problem.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to Havilar's Foolish.
• Happily Adopted: She was raised by Mehen, and though they've had their differences makes it plain she considers him to be her father, regardless of blood. When she meets her biological mother, she's less than impressed.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: When she has to fight physically, rather than with her magic, her preferred weapon is the short sword.
• Hero Protagonist: She's the central character and main good guy of the entire saga.
• In-Series Nickname: She's "Fari" to her family and close friends.
• Interspecies Romance: She's a tiefling, but her two main love interests Lorcan and Dahl are a cambion and a human, respectively. She ultimately ends up with the latter.
• In the Blood: She's descended from one of the most infamous warlocks in Toril's history, and since she resembles the original Brimstone Angel in both personality and abilities compared to Havilar, she's the one who most often has to deal with that legacy though ironically, Havilar is the one who gets body jacked by Bryseis.
• In the Hood: She tends to wear a long, hooded cloak in public, especially in area where tieflings are uncommon and subject to Fantastic Racism and she'd rather people don't spot her horns or eyes.
• Lady of Black Magic: Borderline example. As a warlock, her magic is highly focused on destruction and offense, and in addition she's rather too reserved for Black Magician Girl but not mature or regal enough to fully be this. Post time-skip she falls here more squarely.
• Magic Wand: She channels her warlock powers through a rod designed for that purpose; initially, she uses one Lorcan gave her, but after realizing that she (and Havilar, by extension) could be tracked by the presence of a Hells-forged artifact she destroys it. Dahl gets her another (mortal-made, this time) rod as a peace offering and she uses this one for the remainder of the series.
• Mark of the Supernatural: Her heterochromia is treated as this my many characters, though to all indication it's just a normal physical feature. Her warlock brand, on the other hand, is the genuine article.
• Playing with Fire: Most of her spells involve hellfire in some form; later in the series, another devil mocks Lorcan's lack of creativity in what magic he teaches his warlocks, but Fari usually gets by fine with it.
• Polar Opposite Twins: She's the quiet, reserved, snarky, broody, bookish one.
• Red Baron: "Brimstone Angel", her great-great-grandmother's title which is equally applicable to her handful of descendants.
• Squishy Warlock: Downplayed. She's not terribly squishy (she usually wears armor and carries a sword) but physical combat is not where her skills lie and she's very much aware of it. She gets somewhat better across the series, though swordplay still isn't her forte.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: On the surface, she can be rather prickly and standoffish, but she has a kind heart underneath it.
• Sword and Sorcerer: The Glass Cannon to Havilar's Fighter.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Subverted. Most of the people of her family's home village had Fari pegged as the twin who'd be most likely to turn evil, and treated her as such. When she became a warlock, they assumed it had finally happened and kicked her (and, by extension, Mehen and Havi) out of town. But ultimately, all of this mistrust just reinforces Fari's desire to be a good person, no matter how much it hurts.
• Teleport Spam: One of her most commonly-used spells is a form of short-range teleport that lets her quickly maneuver across a battlefield.
• Took a Level in Badass: Downplayed; Fari was always a badass with her magic, but her skills as a physical fighter noticeably increase across the series.
• Uneven Hybrid: As a tiefling, her heritage is mostly human but with a trace of fiendish ancestry that mostly manifests in her appearance and some of her abilities. It's eventually revealed that she - and by extension, all the Brimstone Angel bloodline - is a distant descendant of the demon lord Graz'zt, who appears to have been Bryseis Kakistos's father or (more likely) grandfather.
• Weirdness Magnet: Closer to creepiness magnet; she's attracted more than her fair share of handsome, manipulative, predatory men with magical powers (and Lorcan's the nice one of that crowd, which tells you something)^note the others include Adolican Rhand and Asmodeus himself, which Havilar lampshades.

Havilar

• Action Girl: Albeit a much more physical one than her sister.
• Badass Normal: Well, 'normal' for a tiefling, anyway. She doesn't have any supernatural abilities until her own Chosen of Asmodeus nature kicks in, anyway but she's still ready, willing and able to kick all kinds of ass.
• Beware the Silly Ones: On first meeting Havi, one is likely to take her for a flighty, somewhat immature, not-that-bright teenager. Then the glaive comes out, and you'll probably find yourself wondering how you ended up in a hospital bed so fast.
• Blood Knight: Mildly. Havilar loves a good fight, fuelled by the fact she knows full well it's where her talent lies.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Havi seldom acts it, but she's at least as smart as her sister; she just rarely has the patience or the interest to sit still long enough to do much that doesn't involve her glaive. Garago complains in The Devil You Know that she had the raw potential to be a wizard, but lacked any sort of interest.
• Butt-Dialing Mordor: Havi butt-dials the Nine Hells trying to get an imp and gets Lorcan instead, thereby setting the whole plot in motion.
• Chainmail Bikini: Spots one of these in a store early in the first book and decides she absolutely has to have it. Mehen and Farideh immediately explain that it's a costume piece that would be absolutely terrible to wear in an actual fight and she doesn't get to buy it. All of the actual outfits she wears for battle are much more practical.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Downplayed. Havilar is usually more spirited and energetic than eccentric, but sometimes she'll barrel headlong down trains of logic that end up in... odd places. Like suggesting that ghosts are best lured by brandy in a little tray, or that severed hydra heads should be burned to keep them from growing back into full hydras, rather than the other way around.
• Cute Bruiser: Havilar is generally sunny, cheerful, a bit silly, and fully capable of taking on most any (mortal) enemy she comes across with a smile on her face.
• Cute Monster Girl: Same as Farideh, including:
  • Cute Little Fangs
  • Horned Humanoid
  • Monochromatic Eyes: Both gold.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Again, goes with the territory of being a friendly tiefling, though it's not nearly as much an issue for her as Farideh (because she's not a warlock, much more open and friendly, and less prone to introspection).
• Deal with the Devil: Defied. She was actually the one who summoned Lorcan, not Farideh (she was trying to get an imp or lesser devil she could use as a sparring partner), but was completely uninterested in anything he had to offer when he tried to tempt her. Then Fari came in...
• Driven to Suicide: The dark side of her passionate personality; Arjhani had been a trusted mentor to her, and after he broke up with Mehen and left, she tried to kill herself by chasing after him into the dead of winter. Thankfully, her family rescued her, and Arjhani became a Broken Pedastel when Havi recovered enough to look at the situation more clearly.
• Empowered Badass Normal: After becoming a Chosen of Asmodeus. Downplayed in that the powers she gets from it aren't of that much use in direct combat, which irritates her to no end.
• Familiar: As a Chosen of Asmodeus, she gains the power to summon imp familiars.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Foolish to Farideh's Responsible.
• Girly Bruiser: Of the twins, she's the first to want to wear pretty clothes or gossip about boys- and also the first to jump straight to "knock the bad guy's head in".
• Grand Theft Me: Is the victim of this in The Devil You Know courtesy of her ancestor Bryseis Kakistos.
• Happily Adopted: Like her sister, she adores her adoptive father and makes it clear she considers him more of a parent than whoever her biological parents may be.
• I Call It "Vera": Across the first book, she tries out various names for her glaive, rejecting "Kidney Carver" (too mundane) and "Eater of Her Enemies' Livers" (too much of a mouthful). She ends up settling on "Devilslayer".
• In-Series Nickname: "Havi".
• The Lancer: She's the one companion who's almost always with Farideh, and who most closely contrasts and plays off her.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Not so much personality wise, but very much so narratively with Brin- they're basically a gender flipped version of the "Rebellious Princess and roguish warrior" dynamic.
• Pardon My Klingon: Havilar is prone to dropping Draconic swears into her conversation.
• Official Couple: Off and on with Brin from the end of Lesser Evils onwards.
• Polar Opposite Twins: The sunny, cheerful, physically inclined, impetuous one.
• Sword and Sorcerer: The Fighter to Farideh's Glass Cannon.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Havilar tends to throw herself completely into whatever she's doing at the time, whether it's fighting with her glaive, trekking across Faerun on an epic quest, trying on pretty dresses, or flirting with boys.

Clanless Mehen

• Arranged Marriage: He was part of one, courtesy of his father. It didn't work out; not only does Mehen not swing that way, but it was his tyrannical father making yet another attempt to control his life. The falling out from Mehen's refusal was the reason why his surname is "Clanless".
• The Big Guy: He's the physically largest main character and the most powerful and experienced fighter.
• Breath Weapon: Most dragonborn have one; he can breathe lightning.
• The Exile: Hence the "clanless" part. Ashes of the Tyrant goes into detail about what happened.
• Interspecies Adoption: He's a dragonborn who adopted and raised two tiefling girls.
• Lizard Folk: Well, dragonborn. Still a reptilian-looking humanoid, at least.
• Mirror Character: Openly, Havilar is the daughter who most resembles him, but his tendency to brood and internal conflict over his place in the world and his relationships with other characters are much closer to Farideh than either of them realizes. They also share a tendency to fall for charismatic but selfish and manipulative men.
• Nay-Theist: As is typical for a dragonborn. He acknowledges the existence of the gods but doesn't want them anywhere near his life or his family if he can avoid it, which is the one thing stopping him from sucker-punching Lorcan and dragging him off to a temple to be exorcised at first opportunity most of the time.
• Papa Wolf: If you hurt Farideh or Havilar in front of him (and they haven't dealt with you already) then... well, they might find what's left of you eventually.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: He's a dragonborn ('vayemniri', in Draconic); they rebelled against dragons ages ago and still maintain a martial culture; Mehen is no exception.
• Put on a Bus: Vanishes for most of Lesser Evils. This would be because he was arrested...
• Straight Gay: He's gay, and though he makes no particular effort to conceal this fact it's only outright stated starting in The Adversary (though it's hinted at before that). Most non-dragonborn don't really pick up on it unless he spells it out.
• Team Dad: Split with Tam. In his case he's literally the father of two of the main characters, and tends to fall into the role of father-figure in groups he's with, particularly when composed of people closer to his daughters' age.

Aubrin "Brin" Crownsilver

• Character Development: Early Brin has a tendency to avoid or ignore his problems rather than deal with them. This comes to a head in Fire in the Blood, and he starts making notable efforts to improve afterwards.
• Distressed Dude: Spends most of The Devil You Know a captive of Bryseis Kakistos.
• Fatal Flaw: Brin's biggest issue is his tendency to avoid or outright run away from his problems rather than actually try to deal with them; Raedra calls him out on this when she breaks off their engagement.
• Healing Hands: He has divine magic which can be used for this, though he's not that good at it.
• The Heart: Brin is sheltered, idealistic, and better at talking than fighting.
• Innocent Bigot: To the tiefling twins, initially. Upon realizing how he'd come off, he's extremely guilty and quickly apologizes.
• King Incognito: Well, prince...
• Knight in Shining Armor: Was in training to be one; subverted in that he's not that great a fighter, and can only sporadically use the divine magic.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: See note on Havilar.
• Non-Action Guy: He Took a Level in Badass post-Time Skip, but he's still not the fighter Havilar is and knows it.
• Rebellious Prince: Essentially a gender-flipped version of this archetype.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: Stowing away in Brimstone Angels is the first time he'd been out of Cormyr, and he's not very worldly, to put it mildly.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Notes that he's visibly shorter than Havilar even if you don't count her horns.

Tam Zawad

• Badass Preacher: A cleric of Selune and no slouch in a tight spot.
• Big Good: Essentially becomes this post-Time Skip.
• Cool Old Guy: Old enough to have an adult daughter, but he can still hold his own.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He's been involved in some pretty shady dealings in the past, though these days he puts his talents to better use with the Harpers.
• Demoted to Extra: From The Adversary on he's got a desk job with the Harpers and has less opportunity to be out and about adventuring; he's still Dahl's boss and shows up periodically.
• Determinator: When Tam has his mind on something, he does not give up.
• Good Shepherd: His past aside, he's a good man who genuinely wants to help people in the name of his goddess.
• The Medic: And he can do it more consistently than Brin.
• Papa Wolf: Towards Mira, in addition to being a substitute father-figure to most of the main characters.
• The Smart Guy: As a priest and a spy, he's knowledgeable about a pretty wide range of things.
• Team Dad: Split with Mehen.

Dahl Peredur

• The Alcoholic: After finding the bodies Adolican Rhand left behind during the Time Skip.
• The Atoner: Searching for a way to get back into the good graces of Oghma.
• Badass Bookworm: As a former paladin of the god of knowledge, it goes with the territory.
• The Handler: After his raid on Adolican Rhand's residence during the time skip and removal from Harper field operations.
• Interspecies Romance: He's a human who ends up with the tiefling Farideh.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Dahl's experience has left him somewhat bitter and he's prone to snap-judgments, but he's a good person underneath it.
• Non-Action Guy: Relative to Farideh. He's still handy with a sword, but she's the Chosen of Asmodeus.
• Official Couple: Eventually, with Farideh.
• The Paladin: Until he fell.
• Ritual Magic: Since he no longer has his paladin powers, he's made this his specialty insteady.
• Second Episode Introduction: Per Word of God, he was removed from Book 1 in order to better develop Farideh as a character.
• Where Did We Go Wrong?: The attitude of his parents. Dahl comments that his father died of a heart attack thinking his youngest son quit farming to become a secretary.

Lorcan

• Affably Evil: Lorcan's a charmer, and he's not really a bad sort... by devil standards. This does not make him a good person by mortal standards, one should note.
• Alien Blood: When he bleeds, it's tar black.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: As befits a devil, he's bright red.
• Anti-Hero: Heavy on the anti. He generally opposes greater evils, but almost always has selfish reasons for doing so and is always self-centered and ruthless in his methods.
• Black Eyes of Evil: His jet-black eyes are frequently remarked on.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Whenever Farideh is in the same room as any other similarly-aged male, but especially Dahl. He doesn't just extend it to romantic partners, either, but anyone else who might have comparable or greater influence on Fari; he and Mehen despise each other.
• Collector of the Strange: He collects warlocks, apparently a not-uncommon hobby among bored devils and a means of increasing one's prestige in certain infernal circles. Farideh completed his "set".
• The Corrupter: Played with. He's not interested in Farideh's soul, and while her conscience annoys him getting rid of it isn't high on his agenda. He mostly wanted to corrupt her just enough to take the pact, since he collects warlocks and as a descendant of Bryseis Kakistos, she's a rare "specimen". Even with orders from higher-up to corrupt her, he's fairly lukewarm in terms of actually going about it.
• Cute Little Fangs: His are bigger than Farideh's.
• Cute Monster Girl: Genderflipped; he's a cute monster guy, being depicted as looking essentially like a very handsome young man who happens to have devilish features like red skin, horns, and leathery wings.
• Deal with the Devil: The other side of the bargain.
• Deuteragonist: Explicitly described as such by Word of God; he's the secondary protagonist of the series, and his personal journey parallels and intertwines with Farideh's.
• Domestic Abuse: His relationship with Farideh always had shades of this, with him being a ruthless, manipulative and controlling patron to her. Becomes a lot more obvious when they briefly hook up in Fire in the Blood.
• Fatal Flaw: Selfishness. The fact that other people have feelings worth respecting just rarely occurs to Lorcan, and with the few people whose wellbeing he does care about, he still defaults to assuming he knows best and has no problem manipulating or deceiving them 'for their own good'. As a corollary, he often reads selfish or cynical motivations into other people's actions even when they're not there and he should know better.
• Freudian Excuse: Being raised by Invadiah would mess anyone up.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Outside of Farideh herself (whose feelings on the matter are... complicated) nobody in the main cast much cares for him and they'd almost all love to see him gone, by force if necessary - but, well, sometimes he does come in handy, so they'll grit their teeth and tolerate him.
• Half-Human Hybrid: As a cambion, he's half-devil, half-mortal. Well, slightly less than half mortal; his father was a tiefling.
• Horned Humanoid: Well, he is a devil.
• Hot as Hell: Downplayed. He's not an incubus so it's not actually part of his powers, but he's extremely handsome, knows it, and is perfectly willing to use his sex-appeal to keep people off-balance. Notably, he's very flirty with Farideh, but is much more reserved and businesslike with Havilar, as he knows he's not her type and trying to seduce her wouldn't get him very far.
• Hot-Blooded: Downplayed. He's definitely inherited his erinyes mother's temper, but he's disciplined enough that he (usually) keeps a good lid on it.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: In The Devil You Know he finds out that his biological father was Caisys the Vicelord, one of the Toril Thirteen. He's decidedly disquieted by the revelation.
• Magic Knight: Both a magic-user and a skilled warrior.
• Manipulative Bastard: Goes with the territory of being a collector devil. Those infernal contracts don't write themselves, after all.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: At first, he seems overwhelmingly powerful to both Farideh and the reader. Then we see what his home life is like...
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Among other devils he tends to act the part of a lazy court dandy, but he's much cleverer than he lets on.
• Painful Transformation: Downplayed. Shifting to his human form doesn't hurt that much, but it's still uncomfortable enough he prefers to avoid doing it when he doesn't have to.
• Pet the Dog: He is legitimately fond of Farideh- doesn't stop him from trying to control her, mind, but he does extend concessions to her he almost certainly wouldn't show towards anyone else.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He's a snappy dresser, as devils go; one of his biggest complaints about living in Malbolge is that the decaying, organic environment keeps ruining his outfits.
• Sibling Rivalry: He's beneath the notice of most of his erinyes half-sisters, but has a more direct rivalry with his full-blooded sister Sairche.
• Sociopathic Hero: Well, he is a devil. He does have the odd twinge of empathy or conscience, but it mostly annoys him more than anything, and though he's not too bad by devil standards, he's easily the worst person among the main cast.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He doesn't really resemble his mother at all, but he definitely gets his looks from his father Caisys. He also looks enough like Sairche that Farideh is able to deduce the nature of their relationship almost immediately after meeting her.
• Token Evil Teammate: On those occasions he's present in the flesh, he serves as this for Farideh and her companions.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He can shift to a human form as a disguise, though he doesn't like to because the transformation is rather unpleasant to go through.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Lorcan never lies outright, but you still have to be careful with him because he can still deceive you by shading the truth in creative ways without telling outright falsehoods. This is a trait of devils in general, but even Sairche will grudgingly admit Lorcan is good at it.
• Winged Humanoid: Lorcan's bat-like wings are the main feature that distinguish him from a tiefling, appearance-wise.

Dumuzi

Zoonie

The Nine Hells

Sairche

• Ambition Is Evil: Like her brother, Sairche isn't a particularly powerful devil. Unlike Lorcan, her ambitions are big enough to make up for it.
• Arch-Enemy: She's not the most powerful villain in the series, but she is the most recurring and personal; in The Devil You Know, Farideh admits that she doesn't actively hate many people... but Sairche is one of them.
• Bald of Evil: Keeps her head shaved, and she's very much a devil in the classic mold. When she goes without shaving for too long, the hair that grows in is silver.
• Bling of War: After taking her mother's job as commander of the pradixikai, she wastes no time in loading herself down with Invadiah's gaudiest armor and jewelry, which Lorcan lampshades (though he also notes she's got enough restraint to not be as flashy as she could have been.
• Cain and Abel: With Lorcan, though most of the time it's more like Cain and Cain. Lorcan is a slightly better person - emphasis on slightly.
• Collector of the Strange: She collects secrets.
• Dark Action Girl: She's more of a schemer than a fighter, but can definitely throw down if she has to.
• Deal with the Devil: Her deal to "protect" Farideh and Havilar, made at the start of The Adversary, would have serious repercussions down the line.
• Enemy Mine: She's forced to ally with Farideh and/or Lorcan at various points in the series, something she's inevitably less than enthused about.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: One wouldn't expect a devil to be on the receiving end of this one, but Sairche is, courtesy of Bryseis Kakistos, who plays her, uses her body, and leaves her to die when she's through.
• Expy: Word of God indicates she was based on Princess Azula - but goes on to stress that Lorcan is no Zuko.
• Faux Affably Evil: She can be charming when she wants, at least on the surface. She's pretty much always sneering inside, though.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Devil mother, mortal father. Slightly less than half human, as it turns out, since her father was a tiefling, but close enough.
• The Heavy: She's not the most powerful, the most successful, or the most evil villain in the series, but for both Lorcan and Farideh she is the most obvious, recurring, and personal.
• Horned Humanoid: One of the physical traits she shares with her brother.
• Karmic Transformation: After she dies at the end of the series, the epilogue shows she came back as a lowly imp.
• Manipulative Bastard: She's a devil; goes with the territory.
• Older Than They Look: Though Sairche looks like a young woman, she's at least a century old - exactly how old she doesn't bother to keep track of, beyond "older than Lorcan, younger than Asmodeus becoming a god".
• Sibling Rivalry: With her full-blooded brother, Lorcan.
• The Sociopath: Like most devils, she probably can't actually have a mortal mental condition, but she's certainly got the "superficial charm" and "Lack of Empathy" parts down pat.
• Shadow Archetype: To Lorcan; she's got all of her brother's bad qualities, absent his occasional flirtations with conscience.
• Sharing a Body: With Bryseis Kakistos during most of Ashes of the Tyrant. The situation is lopsided in Bryseis's favor, more so than Sairche realizes.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Any time she has an Enemy Mine with Lorcan, Farideh, or Havilar.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Though she initially mistakes Farideh for Lorcan's current girlfriend and nothing more, when she realizes that she's both a warlock and a Brimstone Angel, she becomes much more interested in either taking her pact for herself or finding other ways to benefit from her. Farideh doesn't take it lying down.
• Wild Card: Though she pays lip service to Glasya and serves her whenever directly commanded, Sairche's first loyalty is always to Sairche and she works with, for, or against just about everyone at some point or another.
• Winged Humanoid: Like her brother.

Invadiah

The Pradixikai

Rohini

Archduchess Glasya

Shetai

Asmodeus

The Empire of Netheril

Adolican Rhand

• Arc Villain: He's the major villain of the second and third books.
• Beard of Evil: He keeps a short, dark beard.
• Breakout Villain: Per Word of God, he wasn't even in the series originally- Lesser Evils just had a faceless Netherese expedition as the looming threat. Evans created Rhand mostly to stick some personality onto that group, and wrote him as the embodiment of everything bad about the empire of Netheril. He ended up one of the most prominent villains in the subsequent book.
• Collector of the Strange: Collects creepy artwork and magical artifacts, specifically and in The Adversary, he's started collecting Chosen.
• Creepy Blue Eyes: Rhand is a thoroughly villainous wizard with unusually bright, piercing blue eyes that are described as quite unsettling.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Implied to be his relationship to his Netherese superiors. He doesn't care about the cause of Shar, he just wants more power for himself.
• Deal with the Devil: Makes one with Sairche. He actually manages pretty well with it, probably by virtue of being not that different from a devil himself.
• The Dreaded: Among those familiar with his... proclivities.
• Evil Counterpart: Well, Lorcan is already evil, but Rhand shares several traits with him, but is more twisted on every level.
• Evil Sorcerer: A cruel and ambitious Netherese wizard though he's likely not as powerful as he'd like everyone to believe.
• Faux Affably Evil: Somehow his veneer of cultured politeness just makes him even more loathsome.
• Handsome Lech: Farideh catches on to it pretty early on, though. Mostly played for creepiness especially when its revealed that he doesn't much care if his "paramours" are willing, and what he does do them when he's done with them...
• Hate Sink: If the rest of his entry didn't clue you in, everything about this guy adds up to make him utterly and completely despicable.
• The Heavy: In The Adversary; he's not the only threat, but he gets the most pagetime out of any of the villains and is the most immediate concern for the heroes.
• Kick the Dog: Executes an entire courtyard full of innocent people just to make a point to Farideh.
• Lack of Empathy: Never shows one iota of genuine concern for anyone but himself.
• The Man Behind the Curtain: Downplayed. He's definitely got power, but not nearly as much as he'd like people to think, and he goes down pretty quickly once he loses his hold on Farideh.
• Manipulative Bastard: And he takes great relish in it, too.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Tends to favor surreal, disturbing pieces of art, particularly those featuring well-depicted Body Horror.
• Rules Lawyer: He's mastered the art of Rules Lawyering an infernal contract, and even manages to use it to turn the tables on Sairche when she trots the contract out to try and manipulate him with it.
• Serial Killer: How he gets his jollies on the side. Dahl busted him for it between books.
• Smug Snake: He's clever, to be sure, but not quite as clever as he thinks he is.
• The Sociopath: If the rest of this entry didn't clue you in.
• Wicked Cultured: Whatever else he is, the man does like his art and fine clothes.
• Villain with Good Publicity: In Lesser Evils. Thanks to Dahl, he's a wanted criminal in Waterdeep after the Time Skip, though he's still in the good graces of his Netherese superiors.

The Nameless One

Tarchamus the Unyielding

The Kingdom of Cormyr

Princess Raedra Obarksyr

Prince Irvel Obarskyr

Constancia Crownsilver

Ilstan

Djerad Thymar

Kallan

Anala

Arjhani

Uadjit

Vanquisher Tarhun

The Toril Thirteen

Bryseis Kakistos / Bisera

• Big Bad: Though she isn't revealed to still be around until the end of The Adversary and doesn't take a direct hand in things until the back half of the series, her machinations are the reason the entire plot is happening - up to including Fari and Havi even being born. She takes center stage at last in The Devil You Know.
• Deal with the Devil: She's made several. First with Shetai, then the Hag Countess, and finally with Asmodeus himself.
• The Dreaded: Bryseis's reputation proceeds her, and it isn't pretty.
• Evil Sorcerer: A warlock pacted to Asmodeus himself, you know she's not going to be using pleasant magic for benevolent ends.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: From an orphan thief in Vaasa to the most feared warlock ever to walk Toril.
• Freudian Excuse: An impoverished, orphan childhood, constantly suffering Fantastic Racism for being a tiefling, and ultimately losing her twin sister to said racism would play a significant role in shaping Brysesis/ Bsiera's bitterness towards the world and obsession with acquiring power.
• Full-Name Basis: She's usually referred to as "Bryseis Kakistos" rather than just "Bryseis", with a few exceptions. The fact that it's not her real name is probably part of it.
• Grand Theft Me: Steals Havilar's body at the end of Ashes of the Tyrant.
• Horned Humanoid: Hers are small and sharp, like a mountain goat's.
• Kill the God: Her ultimate plan is to undo the ritual she used to elevate Asmodeus to godhood, stealing his divine power and killing him.
• Love Makes You Evil: Platonic love, in this case. Her obsessive desire to resurrect her sister led to her pursuit of ultimate power and her alliance with Asmodeus.
• Meaningful Rename: After her sister's death, she changed her name from "Bisera" to "Bryseis Kakistos". Caisys and Alyona's ghost still call her "Bisera", but she won't tolerate it from anyone else.
• Morality Chain: Her twin sister Alyona was hers. When Alyona died, things started going downhill rapidly.
• Motive Decay: She started out wanting to resurrect her sister, then save the tiefling race, then get revenge on Asmodeus for betraying her, but by the time of The Devil You Know, Alyona's opinion is that Bryseis herself no longer has a clear idea of what she's trying to accomplish.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: What she spends most of the series as. Specifically, thanks to the failed reincarnation ritual, part of her is a ghost. Part is in Farideh, and part in Havilar.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Bryseis was a ruthless warlock and key servant of Asmodeus; Alyona was a kindhearted priestess of Selune.
• Red Baron: "Brimstone Angel", passed on to her descendants.
• Shadow Archetype: In many ways she's a twisted reflection of her great-great-granddaughter, Farideh.
• Sharing a Body: With Sairche in Ashes of the Tyrant. Sairche thinks it's an equal partnership. Bryseis has other ideas.
• Shrouded in Myth: Much of the information about her life has been obscured by the fearsome reputation she cultivated. Discovering exactly what sort of person she was and why she did what she did is a significant running subplot, especially in The Devil You Know.
• Squishy Wizard: Subverted. Havilar expects her to be one, but she proves to be a skilled swordswoman. After all, she wasn't born a powerful warlock.
• The Starscream: After Asmodeus failed to resurrect Alyona and withheld Bryseis's own Chosen powers, she turned against him and became this.
• Start of Darkness: The flashbacks in The Devil You Know cover hers.
• Villainous Friendship: She's loathe to admit to "friendship" with anyone, but of all the Thirteen she was on the best terms with Caisys.

Alyona

Caisys the Vicelord

Phrenike

Other Characters

Mira Zawad

Dahl's Family

Oota

Adastreia Tyrianicus

Enlil

Gilgeam, the Son of Victory

• Antagonistic Offspring: He is implied to either be the son or grandson of Enlil, and the two of them are on mutually opposed agendas.
• Arc Villain: Of the Djerad Thymar arc of the last two books.
• Bald of Evil: A ruthless tyrant who keeps his head shaved.
• Big Bad Ensemble: He and Bryseis Kakistos represent entirely separate threats in the final arc.
• The Caligula: Whatever else Gilgeam may be, it's clear he has more than a few screws loose.
• Dark Messiah: To his Untheran followers.
• Deal with the Devil: Bargained with the demon lord Graz'zt to get demonic forces to supplement his army.
• Evil Is Hammy: He has a tendency to give flowery, melodramatic speeches proclaiming his greatness and the inevitable doom of his enemies at a drop of a hat.
• Evil Overlord: He already commands an army, and intends to use it to build an empire - regardless of who's in his way.
• Fantastic Racism: He despises nonhumans.
• Final Boss: He's the climactic villain of the saga.
• A God Am I: Whether he's actually a god or not, he certainly believes it and will happily proclaim his divinity at length.
• God-Emperor: He claims to be the avatar of a god; whether he is or not, his followers revere him as such and he intends to conquer a new Untheran Empire on top of Djerad Thymar if need be. "God King" is explicitly one of his titles.
• God in Human Form: What he claims to be. The truth is somewhat more ambiguous; his magical powers, while impressive for a mortal, are less than what an avatar would be expected to wield, and nobody's quite sure what's going on with him. The most likely conclusion the characters come to is that he's an avatar but not a very powerful one, due to Gilgeam's last avatar having been killed and since then he's gone a long time without much worship.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Apparently, he got his start leading his people to freedom against their oppressors in Abeir. Somewhere along the way he got twisted into becoming a tyrant himself.
• Karma Houdini: Though he's prevented from conquering Djerad Thymar or seizing a divine spark for himself at the end of The Devil You Know, he and his army are still out there by the end of the series.
• Large and in Charge: He's a physically large and imposing man who towers over followers and enemies alike.
• Light Is Not Good: He's associated with bright light and the color gold and these manifest in both his wardrobe and his magic, but he's a brutal conqueror.
• The Man Behind the Man: To the maurezhi demon in Ashes of the Tyrant, not that the demon was thrilled about the arrangement.
• Outside-Context Problem: Nobody was expecting a half-mad demigod warlord from another world to show up at Djerad Thymar's gates. He didn't expect to show up there either.
• Red Baron: "Son of Victory." Less flattering, "King of Dust".
• Sanity Slippage: He becomes progressively unhinged over the course of the final book as events spiral increasingly outside of his control.
• Semi-Divine: He seems to have some portion of divine power, but not a full divine spark; his title ("Son of Victory") indicates he might be the half-mortal son of the original god Gilgeam ("The Father of Victory"), though it's never outright confirmed.