Characters / Chronicles Of The Bitch Queen

The characters featured in K.S. Villoso's Chronicles of the Bitch Queen.

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Queen Talyien

The protagonist of the books, a queen forced into her role after her father's death.

• Anti-Hero: Talyien is ruthless, vicious, and does a lot of things that aren't really heroic. Nonetheless, she's trying to save her empire and her son and the reader is likely to sympathize with her.
• Broken Ace: Talyien is a great fighter, planner, and monarch. She's just worn down by countless years of lies, abuse, and difficult choices she was forced to make leaving her bitter.
• The Chessmaster: To Talyien, people often may as well be pawns. She's outright criticized for this attitude by Lo Bahn, but it sees her through to the end as she orchestrates wide-scale events to protect her interests and the people she loves.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Tali is a Spare to the Throne whose past is colored by Abusive Parents and warfare. Her brothers died, her father hardened her, and her husband cheated on her just before their wedding. This makes Talyien cold and bitter, but it never keeps her from doing the right thing.
• Determinator: Once Talyien has set her mind to something, there's no stopping her. She travels pretty much the entire empire on her quest to save her son, refuses to die no matter what she endures, and her spirit never breaks completely as she makes it her goal to rescue Thanh.
• Indy Ploy: Talyien's favored method of solving problems is to improvise through them if she can't plan around them.
• Mama Bear: Talyien will stop at nothing to save her son. If someone gets in her way, she'll kill them without a moment's hesitation. However, this is a double-edged sword; her love for her son can also lead to her doing things she despises doing and even surrendering to protect him at times.
• Master Swordsman: Tali is great with a sword. What she sometimes lacks in negotiation, she more than makes up for in an ability to kill people.
• One-Woman Army: Talyien carves a swathe through the assassins sent after her regularly, manages to survive battles often with a higher body count than her allies, and when she becomes a dragon, this multiplies a thousandfold as she massacres everything she's up against.
• Spare to the Throne: Talyien seemingly wasn't supposed to be the ruler of the kingdom, a role everyone thinks should have gone to her dead brothers. In truth, Yeshin had prepared her for the role.
• Sympathetic Murderer: Tali murdered a man for trying to blackmail her, a deed which could have ruined her life and her son's life.
• Unwitting Pawn: Initially, Tali is a pawn to her father's machinations and plans, which stretch long and she knows little about. Tali works toward turning this around, though, and takes control of her life.
• Villain Killer: Talyien manages to slay enemy generals, officials, and mooks by the number. Almost every major villain dies by her hand, and she doesn't hesitate for a moment to kill people she thinks will be a threat to her or her son.

Khine Lamang

A con artist and Talyien's Love Interest.

• Chekhov's Skill: Khine is a skilled doctor despite failing his exam, which rarely comes up initially compared to his con artistry but turns out to be hugely important to the plot of The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng.
• Con Artist: Khine makes much of his fortune from swindling the people around him, and has become an expert at it.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Khine failed to become an established doctor, lost family members including a child, and ended up forced to be a simple con artist despite his immense talents to get by.
• Guile Hero: Khine manages to fool Yuebek by blinding him with rage and making him think that he's sympathetic to his plight.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Khine is cynical, bitter and thieving. He's also one of the most outwardly heroic individuals in the trilogy, who will save lives if he can and hates hurting people.
• It Gets Easier: Khine initially hates killing, but derisively makes a mental comment after killing Yuebek for a time that finally sticks that killing does indeed get easier.
• Lovable Rogue: Despite stealing from people and swindling them, Khine prefers to rob bad people and is very protective of Talyien and his family.

Prince Rayvel

Tali's fiancé, who cheated on her and may have an eye out to kill her son.

• Abusive Parents: Rayvel's mother does not treat him well, nor does she approve of his actions due to her ambition and ruthlessness, seeming to see him as much as a bargaining chip as her own child. By the end of the trilogy, he rejects her almost entirely.
• Affectionate Nickname: Talyien generally calls him "Rai."
• Anti-Hero: Much like Talyien, Rayvel is a complicated person who undertakes the suffering of ruling. He's willing to consider killing Thanh under suspicion Thanh may not be his and has a lot of bitterness and character flaws, but he ultimately does want peace and proves heroic and brave multiple times when it comes down to it.
• Freudian Excuse: Rayvel enduring the burden of rulership is a huge part of what has shaped him into something of a bitter, unfettered man.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Ultimately subverted repeatedly throughout The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng. Rayvel is more than willing to try and sacrifice himself to help Tali and the empire, but never seems to pull it off. In fact, he survives the entire trilogy.

Agos

Tali's best friend and former lover.

• Alas, Poor Villain: Tali is heartbroken by his death after he betrays her, both because he turned against her and because he's dead.
• Anti-Villain: Agos is a dick and ultimately betrays Talyien, but he does mean the best for her and, possessive as it is, is in love with her and protective of her.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: Agos is Talyien's greatest protector, and she absolutely needs said protection... because she can't kill everyone who comes at her by herself.
• Driven by Envy: Partially driven by envy toward Tali's future lovers, partially driven by her mixed signals toward him due to her own issues, and partially driven by an intent to help her, Agos ultimately betrays Talyien.
• Entitled to Have You: A tragic example. Talyien has been Agos' lover from time to time, and he makes it clear that he's utterly fixated on her and falls in love with her, not helped by Talyien's own moments of weakness and the times she willingly takes him for comfort. Agos wants to be more than an occasional fling to Talyien, and ends up betraying her. Even to the last, he's desperate to have Talyien love him back.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: It's sadly unsurprising when Agos betrays Talyien, only to almost immediately be betrayed himself and killed by the very same people he sold her out to.
• Jerkass: Agos is a rude dick to everyone but Talyien, and even says outright that he'd abandon his wife and child for her without a moment's hesitation. It's barely a surprise when he turns on her and Rayvel, though he does have Hidden Depths.

Lo Bahn

The owner of a gambling den and a brothel.

• Anti-Villain: Lo Bahn is a very bad person with a lot of nasty views, but he's willing to provide genuine counsel to Talyien and has certain standards he won't cross.
• Enemy Mine: Lo Bahn spends most of the trilogy recognizing that it'd be inconvenient and unwise to fight Talyien, and instead he allies with her. Later, he joins Yuebek's court, but still helps Talyien out.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Lo Bahn is genuinely disturbed by how casually Talyien uses people in the grand scheme of things.
  • Lo Bahn is a dick who has no hesitation forcing women into prostitution, but even he's disgusted with Yuebek.
• Starter Villain: Talyien's first major antagonist is Lo Bahn. After this, he ends up in an Enemy Mine with her.
• Token Evil Teammate: Lo Bahn is easily the most morally vile of Talyien's inner circle, being a bastard willing to force women into prostitution, and even joins Yuebek when the opportunity comes around, though he helps Talyien from behind that position.

Prince Yuebek

The Evil Prince and Talyien's archenemy, an obsessive and vicious fifth son of the Emperor.

• Arch-Enemy: Of everyone in the empire, Tali hates him the most. He constantly comes back to wrong her, and never stops.
• Ax-Crazy: Yuebek gets off on hurting people, and takes glee in murdering them. He's utterly insane and vicious.
• Beauty Is Bad: Yuebek is a gorgeous Long-Haired Pretty Boy. He's also a horrifying sadist and misogynist who enjoys nothing more than making others suffer.
• Big Bad: The central villain of the trilogy, who serves as Talyien's main obstacle to victory.
• Blood Knight: Yuebek gets a thrill in the heat of battle, mainly because he enjoys turning his enemy into gory messes using his magic.
• Crazy-Prepared: An example that backfires completely. Yuebek creates a contingency to ensure he can return to his body after becoming a dragon, but all this gains him is a much less ceremonious death when Khine finds him and stabs him to death. He was well-prepared, but he didn't recognize what would happen ''after'' he made so many enemies.
• Evil Is Hammy: Yuebek adores theatrics and people paying attention to him, which plays a major role in his sadism. Most notably, when he becomes a dragon, he screams everything he does at the top of his lungs with sadistic delight.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: Yuebek starts the books being an example of Beauty Is Bad. By the end of the trilogy, he's a crumbling wreck of a human being who barely keeps up the facade of being a normal person.
• The Evil Prince: Yuebek would murder his father if he could, and fully intends to take the throne— but in lieu of that, he's willing to conquer a different part of the empire.
• Fantastic Racism: Yuebek thinks all peoples but his own are primitive savages and is utterly disrespectful to the Jinsein people and their culture. Of course, he doesn't treat those he supposedly respects any better.
• Hated by All: Nobody likes Yuebek. Everyone who follows him does so out of fear, the Jinsein people hate him for being utterly disrespectful to them and their culture, and his own court despises him since he could murder them at any time.
• Hate Sink: Yuebek has nothing likeable or sympathetic about him. He's a Psychopathic Manchild, a misogynistic sadist and rapist, and a disturbingly horrific Yandere with a sick interest in Talyien. It's clear from start to finish that he primarily plays the role of a vile antagonist, intended to be utterly despised.
• Hypocrite: Yuebek makes a huge point of how Talyien is "disrespectful" of him and their marriage vows. This coming from a man who raped other women while married to his wife and had no hesitation in brutally murdering said wife just to open himself up to marry Talyien.
• I Love the Dead: One particularly disturbing deed by Yuebek is that he raped and murdered a noblewoman... and nobody is sure which he did first.
• Manipulative Bastard: Yuebek will play on people's emotions to make them vulnerable, fittingly with his predatory nature.
• One-Man Army: Fittingly for a mage in such a setting, Yuebek is capable of wiping out multiple people with a wave of his hand and uses it in every battle he participates in.
• One-Winged Angel: Yuebek willingly takes over the body of a dragon for the final battle, forcing Talyien to do the same.
• Sadist: Yuebek only takes pleasure from hurting other people, and loves to make others suffer. He's a horrible, vicious Serial Killer and Serial Rapist who concocts elaborate methods of murder just to amuse himself.
• Serial Killer: Yuebek butchers who he pleases. If you're a man, you're lucky; he'll just horribly kill you. If you're a woman? You'd best hope you die before he gets started.
• Serial Rapist: Yuebek will assault any woman he pleases and does so regularly. If you're a woman, you're in danger of his lust.
• Smug Snake: Yuebek thinks he's incredibly smart, and almost is. Unfortunately, for all he thinks he knows, he misses a lot of other details.
• Undignified Death: Yuebek, after surviving many deaths, ends up stabbed by Khine unceremoniously despite belittling the man.
• Wicked Pretentious: Yuebek talks a lot about culture and arts, but doesn't understand or respect Jinsein art and writing at all and degrades it constantly.
• Yandere: Yuebek is madly obsessed with Talyien and what she represents, and doesn't hesitate to show time and again how much he craves her, flipping from a veneer of charm to furious anger at her within seconds.

Warlord Yeshin

Talyien's father, and the warlord who had once defined her territories.

• Abusive Parents: A complicated example. For all he has tender moments with her, Talyien is a pawn to him, and he orchestrated her life to marry her off to the vile Yuebek and ruined her life in the name of the kingdom. He clearly cared more about his power and legacy than his daughter. In the end, Talyien overcomes her mental image of him with Khine's help.
• Anti-Villain: Yeshin is as much a help to Tali as a horror, intending to save his kingdom from a horrific end. He was a flawed and abusive man in life, with a lot of layers. Nobody can quite come to a conclusion on who he is, and what he wanted.
• The Chessmaster: Yeshin has planned out his daughter's entire life as a method to save his kingdom, treating everyone as pawns in a grand vision that quickly goes off the rails after his death.
• Crazy-Prepared: Yeshin created a backup plan to deal with his current plan... and then created a backup plan to stop the backup plan because he figured out Yuebek couldn't be trusted. This is deconstructed, however, as Yeshin could hardly predict everything and ruined his daughter's life with his machinations.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Yeshin deconstructs The Chessmaster. He planned everything out to save his kingdom from beyond the grave, but it leaves Talyien's image of him extremely complicated and clouded. In the end, Yeshin was a pathetic old man who was trying to ensure his will long after his death. Talyien even makes this clear before she has Khine kill the memory of him.
• Dirty Old Man: Yeshin was just fine with marrying a much younger woman, which is emphasized by the fact she was the daughter of his current wife. Said relationship was entirely consensual, but it's doubtless that Yeshin wasn't complaining about such an opportunity.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Tali has very mixed feelings on him, and he was a brutal warlord who had no compunctions about murder to get his way... but Tali can't help but love him for being her father despite how shrouded his image has become to her.
• Posthumous Character: Yeshin died before the story even started, but his legacy and plans have a massive impact on the events that unfold in the story.
• Small Role, Big Impact: For a character who never shows up, Yeshin is surprisingly impactful on the story. His legacy is the dominant force that spurs Talyien to action and his own actions as warlord define her life to come.
• True Final Boss: After defeating Yuebek as a dragon, Tali and Khine ultimately confront the memory of Yeshin. Tali gives him a dressing down and Khine rips the memory's throat out, symbolizing the end of his control over his daughter.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: An extremely Zig-Zagged example with Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist. While Yeshin wanted to help his kingdom, he was also capable of extreme pettiness and much of what he wants, and the actions he's planned after his death, is purely selfish and an extension of his will.

Arro

Arro is Talyien's advisor, the most trusted one she has.

• The Mentor: Arro taught Tali a lot of what she knows, and cares for her deeply.
• Nice Guy: A rarity in the empire, but ultimately, Arro is a kindly advisor who wanted to protect Talyien and was more of a father to her than Yeshin ever was.
• Papa Wolf: Arro is noted to have refused to partake in any manipulation of Talyien, and it's noted that he wasn't in on Yeshin's schemes because he would never have let him and his conspiracy hurt her.
• Parental Substitute: Tali acknowledges that Arro was a more straightforward father to her than Yeshin ever was.
• Small Role, Big Impact: For a man who dies very quickly, Arro is very important due to his kindness toward Talyien.

General Ozo

One of Yeshin's former generals, and one of Talyien's retainers.

• Anti-Villain: Ozo is trying to carry on the late Yeshin's will, and that leaves him willing to work both for and against Talyien's interests.
• Four-Star Badass: Ozo is a formidable warrior unto himself, and a competent general to boot.
• Frontline General: Ozo is by no means a coward; he'll happily fight at the head of his men.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Ozo ultimately gives his life to protect Talyien in The Dragon of Jin-Sayeng.
• Undying Loyalty: To Yeshin, which causes Talyien to grit her teeth many times since his loyalty to his dead king overrides his loyalty to her.

Liosa

A madwoman who attended to Talyien's family in the past.

• Abusive Parents: Liosa does not care for her daughter, Talyien, in the slightest. She just wanted to give birth to a queen, and didn't give a damn about the girl herself.
• Ambition Is Evil: Liosa is a cruel, cold person defined by her desire to be mother to a queen and have her legacy remain in the world.
• Asshole Victim: Being the victim of Mind Rape at the hand of a mage is a cruel fate, especially since it's to hide the truth that she's Talyien's own mother, but it's hard to feel bad for her when it's revealed that she willingly married Yeshin and dismissed her own daughter as meaningless except for her status as a future queen and that said Mind Rape was a selfish order by Yeshin to hide that fact.
• Mind Rape: Liosa is the victim of it, to hide the fact she's Talyien's mother.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Liosa's not a major character at all, being a simple servant who doesn't have a hold on her mental faculties. That means it's surprising when it turns out she's one of Yeshin's wives, and Talyien's own mother.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to discuss her without mentioning that she's Talyien's mother, and that she was deliberately driven mad to hide that fact.

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