Characters / Codex Alera Alerans

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Alerans as a whole

The long-lost descendants of the Legio IX Hispana and its Camp Followers (along with numerous Germanic mercenaries), who ended up in Carna through a wormhole. Basically humans granted with Elemental Powers connected to nature spirits called "furies", the Alerans went on to conquer an entire continent and have ruled over their newfound empire for roughly a thousand years under the House of Gaius.

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• Badass Army: The Aleran Legions were the primary tool from which the ancient Alerans were able to carve out their empire while being surrounded by numerous hostile forces like the Malorandim, Children of the Sun, Avar, Yrani, and Dekh. Zigzagged in the modern day, though, as while there are still several examples (most notably the Antillan and Phrygian Legions along with the First and Free Aleran), most Legions have been able to go decades (particularly in the southern cities) without seeing any action, making them very conservative and inexperienced. This unfortunately means that when the Vord finally attack, most of Alera's available forces are completely unprepared and get their asses royally handed to them multiple times before they're eventually able to wise up and effectively fight.
• Bullet Time: As part of their Super-Speed, windcrafters can use their furies to effectively slow down their own reaction time, allowing them to easily respond to enemy attacks and perform actions like casually cutting arrows out of the air.
• Decadent Court: Aleran politics are incredibly dirty and violent, to the point where "cutters" (read: assassins) will never be out of work.
• Deflector Shield: Skilled windcrafters can create shields of "hardened air" to deflect incoming objects, though in practice it's less a force field and more directing objects around/away from their intended target.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: As they're descended from a Lost Roman Legion, the Alerans frequently show an incredibly xenophobic (bordering on genocidal) and imperialist attitude towards their non-human neighbors, and are also highly misogynistic and sexist (represented in how Alera is a No Woman's Land). Furthermore, the practice of slavery is incredibly common and widespread, albeit becoming increasingly controversial and unpopular (to the point where it only seems to be several of the southernmost cities, such as Kalare, that are keeping the abominable practice running). Additionally, Alera also inherits from Rome a highly classist social structure whose nobility operates on a rigid Might Makes Right ethos. On a more positive note, though, modern racial politics (i.e., inter-human racism) are non-existent since the Alerans "left" Earth long before modern concepts around race were invented.
• Elemental Powers: Six of them, to be exact, each bound to one of the six elements of nature.
  • Windcrafting: In addition to wind manipulation and Flight, windcrafting also grants Super-Speed, the ability to chuck lightning bolts when combined with firecrafting, casting veils, creating limited "Deflector Shields" through air currents, and the ability to create a telescope-like lens out of "hardened" air.
  • Earthcrafting: Earth and rock manipulation, also granting Super-Strength (though only as long as the earthcrafter is touching the ground) and the ability to induce calm or lust in someone else (though limited by the earthcrafter's line of sight).
  • Metalcrafting: Manipulation of iron and steel, granting Implausible Fencing Powers and the ability to sense nearby metals; additionally, it can be used to artificially repress emotion and pain to turn the user into an Implacable Man. The most powerful and skilled metalcrafters can incorporate metal into their skin to protect themselves (although it's mentioned to be incredibly painful to do so).
  • Woodcrafting: Manipulation of plants, including encouraging them to grow, or animating them directly, which also (as the name implies) applies to dead wood. It also grants the ability to create veils when enough plant matter is present, specifically with shadows. Most woodcrafters are archers, since control of both the arrows and bows gives them Improbable Aiming Skills.
  • Watercrafting: Manipulating water (including ice), empathy, breathing underwater, the ability to change their appearance, long-range water-based communication, and, most importantly, healing. Without some metalcrafting, though, they tend to be Unhappy Mediums, since A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read.
  • Firecrafting: Fire and heat manipulation, along with granting the ability to inspire fear or passion/courange in others (without being limited by line of sight) and chucking lightning bolts when combined with windcrafting.
• Emotion Control: Firecrafting can inspire fear and/or passion, while earthcrafting can inspire lust and/or calm. Metalcrafting can instead steel oneself against emotion and pain.
• The Empath: Watercrafters naturally feel the emotions of those around them. Unless they also have access to metalcrafting, this can result in them becoming an Unhappy Medium (or even worse, as evidenced with Odiana being an Ax-Crazy Cloudcuckoolander thanks to her Dark and Troubled Past).
• Everyone Is a Super: All Alerans are naturally born with the ability to mentally access and control furies. Even Tavi, who is initially thought to be a "furyless freak," eventually turns out to be "only" a late bloomer when he finally gains access to his furycrafting when he's twenty years old.
• Fantastic Caste System: The social classes of Alera roughly go: Slaves, Freemen, Citizens, and Lords/Ladies, with several different ranks of nobility somewhere at the level of Citizens and higher. There is a strong but not perfect correlation between strength in furycrafting and social rank, and strength in furycrafting is at least partially heritable (until Tavi is implied to alter it at the end so it can be earned based on merit and effort), so while many characters have moved their way up in rank over their lives, the caste one is born into is still very determinative.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Realm of Alera is a society very similar to Western Rome at the peak of its empire. Justified since it was founded by a Lost Roman Legion. That being said, Alera has several distinct elements that show how far it has diverged from ancient Roman culture, particularly with a more executive system of government where the Senate, High Lords, and First Lord exist side by side, the fact that slavery is a divisive topic instead of the norm, and the use of several aspects of the medieval European feudal system, such as Counts ruling over regions under the High Lords and the title of a Knight of the Legions. Furthermore, unlike the very religious Romans, the Alerans are highly agnostic and secular, to the point of outright claiming to have Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions as "gods" and "prophecy".
• Feel No Pain: An aspect of metalcrafting. However, this doesn't mean the injuries being ignored are any less dangerous. If someone ignores the pain of a legitimately crippling injury (or a minor one from a poisoned weapon), it can cost them their life.
• Flight: Skilled windcrafters can generate windstreams to support their bodies and allow them to soar through the air. Notably, it's mentioned that this talent requires a windcrafter to also learn how to create a shield of hardened air out in front of them so as to protect them from incoming objects like insects or arrows.
• Founder of the Kingdom: The original Gaius Primus, the first of the House of Gaius and the first of the First Lords of the Realm. Ever since his death, his family line — through multiple different branches — has ruled over the entire Realm in at least one way or another.
• Future Imperfect: The details of Alerans' Roman origins from a few thousand years ago have been largely forgotten with such things like the adversaries they annihilated being only known now by the extinct foes' names, leading to contemporary scholars having a variety of baseless opinions on how the "Romanic" people were, such as assuming their ancestors were capable of furycraft as modern Alerans are.
• Heal It with Water: Healing magic is one of the watercrafting arts and one of the most commonly used for its Mundane Utility. It usually requires the patient to be immersed in a tub of water, but the more powerful practitioners don't need to do so.
• Healing Hands: Watercrafters can heal using their furies, but all but the most powerful need a tub of water to immerse the patient in.
• Healing Factor: Sufficiently skilled watercrafters can easily heal themselves from various injuries, as long as they either have enough time & focus to perform the necessary furycrafting or the injury they're inflicted with isn't instantly fatal. As an example, First Lord's Fury has Invidia nearly getting her windpipe crushed by the infuriated Awakened Vord Queen when she inadvertently hesitates on following one of the Queen's orders, and Isana notices Invidia carefully "pushing" her injured windpipe back into place and healing it to be functional after the Queen lets her go.
• Humanity Is Insane: Almost every nonhuman species is convinced that Alerans are completely, irrationally mad.
• Humans Are Bastards: The Marat, Canim, Icemen, and Vord all think so. And considering how the Alerans are the only species to practice slavery, they're presented as not being entirely wrong. Eventually, though, the series makes it clear that aside from the Vord being literally born to regard all other species as resources for expansion, no species on Carna is inherently "superior" to any other morally speaking.
• Humans Are Special: The Alerans are frequently shown to have a level of honor and creativity (along with "madness") that utterly baffles their inhuman neighbors. It's to the point where they prove to be deceptively infectious and "taint" the Awakened Vord Queen with concepts of empathy and a desire for family.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Many Canim, Icemen, and Marat believe this after being exposed to Aleran practices like slavery, organized massacres, and Civil War.
• Humans Are White: Averted. While most of the viewpoint Aleran characters are described as being either white or at least having pale skin (i.e., Tavi, Fidelias, Isana and Invidia), many other Alerans (mostly those hailing from the southern reaches of the Realm) are described as having dark skin tones, most notably Amara and Ehren. Makes sense, as the Alerans were founded by a Lost Roman Legion mostly staffed with people hailing from the Iberian Peninsula, Central Europe and the Mediterranean.
• Humans by Any Other Name: Why the Canim, Icemen, Marat, and Vord almost exclusively call them "Alerans," the actual Alerans use "Aleran" and "human" interchangeably, and it's made clear that there's no real difference between the two terms.
• Invisibility: Both wind and woodcrafters can accomplish this, though through different means. Windcrafters have a more "traditional" form of invisibility, where they craft the air around a target so it reflects light away. Meanwhile, when enough plant matter is present, woodcrafters can accelerate and adjust plant growth around them so that they are hidden in the resulting shadows and leaves, making them effectively invisible.
• Lost Roman Legion: The Alerans are descended from a people that their histories refer to as "Romans," who claimed to have come from "Mother Rome," and who originally appeared on Carna in numbers equal to a single Legion and its camp followers. invoked Word of God is that they were the IX Roman Legion, and were transported to Carna by a wormhole. Notably, it was so long ago that the ruins of this civilization are called "Romanic", and there's a serious debate on whether or not Aleran ancestors had inherent furycraft (they did not).
• Magitek: In daily life, most Alerans use technology roughly equivalent to medieval Europe, which is about what one would expect considering the origin of Alera was as a Lost Roman Legion. However, different aspects of furycrafting stand out as modern conveniences: furylamps, which function exactly like lightbulbs; coldstones, which provide refrigeration; watersending, which provides communication across thousands of miles; and air-coaches, which stand in for airplanes. Combined with the healing of watercrafting and the ability of woodcrafting to stimulate the growth of food crops, Alera has a general life-expectancy and quality of life equal to the mid-twentieth century United States.
• The Magocracy: Though not as obvious about it as other settings using the same trope, Alera is effectively one of these. One's political power within Alera is dependent on their capacity for furycrafting, with the First Lord being generally held as the most powerful furycrafter. High Lords, just below the First Lord, are nearly as strong, and are each a virtual One-Man Army. Below these are Citizens, who possess strong furycrafting in one or more disciplines and can prove that strength in a furycrafting duel with another Citizen. Everyone else (who aren't slaves) are freemen, who have some basic furycrafting but usually not enough to stand out.
• Mandatory Motherhood: In Alera, female Citizens are required to have children, at least in part because furycrafting talent is hereditary and Alera constantly needs skilled furycrafters to keep their enemies at bay. A large part of Amara's angst in the series comes from her infertility (not helped by the fact that she also legitimately wants children of her own someday) which could potentially take away her Citizenship, but she and Bernard eventually invoke some Loophole Abuse through deciding to adopt the unrecognized bastard children of Aleran Citizens (i.e., Masha).
• Medieval Stasis: For the most part among the Alerans, technology is static and has actually regressed from the original Roman settlers' because of the universal access to Elemental Powers. Magitek is so universal that despite the low tech levels, the actual quality of life is roughly equivalent to the mid-twentieth century United States, and the use of magic has been evolving. There is also an institutionalized traditionalism within Aleran society, thanks to the fact that they've spent a millennium simply fighting to survive against the Death World that is Carna, which resulted in an emphasis on following set, traditional methods. This is ultimately a serious problem that the Alerans have, as they have no reference point to deal with enemies using advanced engineering like the Canim, let alone a completely new Outside-Context Problem like the Vord. Furthermore, Aleran furycrafting is almost entirely hereditary, helping reinforce a static and unchanging power structure in society that makes it increasingly difficult for clever minds like Tavi to have their ideas spread and take root without sufficient outside assistance. However, Bernard and Tavi's re-invention of the catapult in the final novel along with numerous other achievements kickstarted by Tavi (such as the practice of "mounted infantry" units in the First Aleran and the "ski-ships" able to easily travel along the Shieldwall) seem to be the hints where the other Alerans (most notably Amara) finally get that their Medieval Stasis is breaking.
• Mundane Utility: All observed aspects of furycrafting have at least one "feature" that can be easily integrated into everyday life. In fact, Alera's economy is so based on furycrafting that most other forms of technological development have completely stagnated.
  • Firecrafters can create "coldstones" (which allow for refrigeration without need of ice). Additionally, sealing fire furies in lamps allows for "furylamps," which are basically treated as electrical lights, and skilled-enough firecrafters can use their abilities to incite either fear or passion to help them play to the crowd and be effective politicians.
  • Watercrafters allow for near-instantaneous long-way communication through connected bodies of water (though according to Max, skilled-enough crafters can alter the conveyed messages) along with providing extensive healing opportunities and helping advance the medical sciences. Sufficiently skilled watercrafters are also tasked with serving as Living Lie Detectors and "witchmen" (a special role found among Aleran sailors tasked with keeping leviathans from noticing said ships when they intrude upon their territories and smashing them into kindling, greatly aiding in the Alerans' nautical trade networks).
  • Windcrafters being able to fly allows for widespread and expedient aerial travel through coaches (where windcrafters act as the proverbial draft animals) along with being able to use their furies to create what are effectively modern telescopes through lenses of "hardened air."
  • Earthcrafters can draw up bedrock and minerals from the earth (making both construction and mining a breeze) along with using their Super-Strength to make manual labor far more expedient. Additionally, some skilled earthcrafters have been known to use their ability to incite lust to act as strippers & prostitutes, being able to throw an entire crowd of already horny folks into a tizzy. If Bernard is to go by, earthcrafters' ability to incite calm also makes them very useful in terms of training beasts of burden and utilizing domesticated animals such as gargants, sheep, goats, and horses. Additionally, earthcrafters can bring up nutrients for farming plants to help bring in larger yields of crops, though this is usually an emergency measure and is mentioned as making the soil unusable for farming after a few seasons' worth of growth. Finally, earthcrafters can infuse earth furies into causeways (special paved roads used to link the Realm together), greatly accelerating the speed of anyone using it for transportation along with having said roads adjust themselves (i.e., naturally creating furrows to allow blood/water to flow off of it).
  • Woodcrafters can use their powers to accelerate plant growth to bring in higher yields of crops for harvest along with being near-perfect hunters.
  • Finally, metalcrafters can use their connection to metal to be excellent blacksmiths through being able to intimately tell where an iron tool's weakpoints are and where it needs to be fixed. And while it's not directly touched on, their ability to have such endurance that they can block out pain and/or keep going for days makes them excellent athletes and couriers.
• No Woman's Land: Though Alera's women do enjoy plenty of rights as freemen, the number of female Citizens is limited; up until Gaius promoted Isana to the Citizenry at the end of Furies of Calderon, no woman had ever gained Citizenship without either serving in the military ^note Difficult, as women could not normally be legionares, so this requires them to serve as either healers or Knights, both of which require strong furycrafting, or the woman had to disguise herself as a man until such a point that her deeds on the battlefield proved her worthy of being a Citizen if she revealed her gender, winning a Citizenship bout (requiring strong furycrafting), or marriage into the Citizenry (strong furycrafting being nearly required as well). In short, women without Knight-level furycrafting are generally out of luck in Alera, at least until Gaius promoted Isana. This becomes an important plot point as the series progresses, as Isana's promotion is taken as an official statement by the First Lord regarding parity of genders and a sign of his power, making Isana a target for those trying to undermine Gaius' authority.
• Older Than They Look: Sufficiently skilled watercrafters seem to age at a slightly slower rate than other humans, to the point where Gaius Sextus (who is in his mid-to-late eighties by the time of Princeps' Fury) is described as looking like someone in their late forties or fifties aside from his snowy white hair.
• Our Gargoyles Rock: Gargoyles are manifested earth furies bound into statues taking the form of certain animals (sometimes In-Universe mythical creatures, like sphinxes), and are typically used as the Magitek equivalent of automated security robots by sufficiently skilled Citizens and High Lords. It's mentioned that they're only good as Dumb Muscle and are often painfully slow, but even a glancing hit by them can turn someone into a wet spot on the pavement.
• Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Modern Aleran society is highly secular and agnostic. Aside from minor elements like how the city of Ceres is named after the ancient Roman goddess of agriculture and Sextus mentioning in Captain's Fury how Kalarus is intent on "dragging as many possible lives into the underworld with him", organized religion seems to have fallen by the wayside. In fact, the modern Alerans speak with outright scorn of several ancient Roman traditions and practices, and some refuse to believe these things ever happened because they are so patently ludicrous. These traditions and practices include, but are not limited to, praying to "gods", trying to tell the future by scattering animal entrails, shaping metal and stone without furies, constructing mechanical devices to supplant human labor, and building a civilized society without furycrafting. Considering the fact that the Great Furies like Kalus and Garados are at least as powerful as the Olympian gods, and have a far more palpable influence on the world, it's not really that surprising that religion as we know it fell by the wayside.
• Physical God: Sufficiently skilled Citizens in Aleran society can effectively become this through their furycrafting. Easily the biggest examples are the First Lord and the High Lords, each of which is a Person of Mass Destruction able to wipe out entire armies virtually single-handed.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: As part of the Deliberate Values Dissonance on display, the Realm of Alera is a society that is rigidly classist and misogynistic, the former to the point where it openly practices slavery.
• Proud Warrior Race: Downplayed; Because they've been fighting for roughly two millennia just to survive in the Death World that is Carna, the Alerans have developed a heavy martial tradition in their society (to their point where it is law for all Aleran men to go on tour with one of their home city's Legions for at least three years), but modern Alera has sufficiently evolved to where a lot of focus is given to other professions such as espionage, scholarly work, and even bureucracy. Notably, this was played disturbingly straight with the ancient Romans who first landed in Alera millennia ago, as told below by the Great Fury Alera to Tavi in First Lord's Fury:
  Tavi: Then how did [the Romans] do it? How did they survive [without furycrafting]?
  Alera: With savagery. Skill. Discipline. They came from a place where they were unrivaled masters of war and death. Their enemies here had never seen anything like them. Your forebears could not return whence they had come. They were trapped here, and only victory gave them survival. So they became victors — no matter the cost.
  They did things you would scarcely believe. They committed the most monstrous and heroic deeds. The generations of your people in that time became a single, savage mind, death incarnate — and when they ran short of foes, they practiced their skills upon one another.
• Schizo Tech: While Alera is implied to have a technology-level similar to that of ancient Rome (as befits a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of the Romans), due to their use of furies, they lack some other techniques and technologies that would have been known to the real Romans, such as tracheotomy (because buying time for transporting patients isn't quite as vital when the doctor's a watercrafter) or even catapults (because you can blast things with firecrafters or bring down stone fortifications with earthcrafters instead).
• Shrouded in Myth: The ancient Romans who would become the ancestors of the modern Alerans first arrived in Carna two millennia ago. Eventually, after millennia of strife and war (both against their inhuman neighbors and then against themselves when they "ran out of foes" to practice their skills on), the original Gaius Primus conquered and united the disparate groups of Alerans all under his banner and founded the modern Realm of Alera. This time period is very poorly understood by the modern Alerans, to the point that despite numerous Roman ruins scattered across the land many Aleran scholars have shown incredibly biased and provably false attitudes towards the Romans, such as claiming that they had access to furycrafting since most Alerans think furycrafting is a vital component needed for any "civilized" species to found a long-lasting civilization with. In fact, this period of constant conflict was so long ago that many of the foes the ancient Alerans fought during that time (i.e., the Children of the Sun) have been reduced to half-remembered anecdotes in history class for most modern Alerans.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The long-standing Aleran practice of slavery is frequently shown to be easily their most abhorrent and inexcusable quality. Even the Marat (who practice cannibalism) are shown to be horrified by slavery and are portrayed as morally superior in terms of lacking that disturbing custom, and all Aleran characters who are supporters of slavery are portrayed as either being loathsome (i.e., Kord and Kalarus) or go through sufficient Character Development that they become righteous fighters against the practice (i.e., Isana, Tavi, Amara, and Bernard).
• Super-Reflexes: Wind, wood, and metalcrafters all showcase this. Windcrafters can do so through using the wind to augment their physical motions and effectively slow down their reaction time to a level where they can easily respond to any threat. Meanwhile, wood and metalcrafters are able to instinctively sense any wood or metal in their vicinity, and can use this along with their ordinary crafting talents to have Improbable Aiming Skills with bows and Implausible Fencing Powers with swords respectively.
• Super-Speed: Windcrafters can accelerate and move at incredible speeds through using their furies to guide and protect their movements through the air. At one point, Amara is described as flying so fast that she makes a sonic boom.
• Super-Strength: As long as an earthcrafter is touching the ground, they can show incredible strength and can put incredible amounts of brute force behind their attacks. During the Battle of the Elinarch, one Knights Terra of the First Aleran is described as being able to easily carry an incredibly oversized greatsword and use it to casually split a Canim raider entirely in half with a single stroke. Only the Canim and Icemen have been shown to surpass a skilled earthcrafter calling upon their strength in power.
• Unhappy Medium: Skilled watercrafters without access to metalcrafting are Blessed with Suck, as they constantly sense the emotions of all sapient life around them without being able to effectively block it out.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Downplayed; Sufficiently skilled watercrafters can change their appearances (including even features like facial structure and skin tone) to resemble another human being. However, it's mentioned to be very taxing and painful to do, and can be incredibly difficult to keep up over extended periods of time. Those with only a little watercrafting skill can still do so, but it requires longer periods of time to prepare and adjust the body so as to "keep the illusion up". For example, Fidelias was able to sufficiently alter his face so as to assume his previous cover as "Valiar Marcus" to infiltrate the First Aleran Legion, but his lack of skill in watercrafting required him to practice at it for several hours each day over the course of three weeks prior to joining the First Aleran.

Tavi

Tavi of Calderon, a.k.a. Rufus Scipio, a.k.a. Gaius Octavian, a.k.a. Gaius Tavarus Magnus

Tavi, raised by his Aunt Isana and Uncle Bernard in the Calderon Valley, is apparently the only Aleran in the world to not possess the power of Furycraft. While this is often a major disadvantage, in order to compensate he's learned to rely on something else – his brain. After the events of the first book, he begins studying at Alera Imperia to join the imperial spy network known as the Cursors, and joins the newly-formed First Aleran Legion under the name Rufus Scipio.

Tavi is really Gaius Octavian, son of the slain Princeps Septimus. Isana, actually his mother, accidentally suppressed his Furycraft when trying to make him look younger so he wouldn't be obviously the right age to be a son of Septimus and therefore a target for assassins. Eventually he does develop some Crafting, though to a lesser extent than most Lords. In the final book, the full potential of his powers emerges.

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• All-Loving Hero: Downplayed since Tavi isn't an Actual Pacifist or anything like that (Carna is far too much of a Death World to suffer pacifists, after all), but thanks in large part to his upbringing as a "furyless freak" who got to see and experience first-hand just how hideously abusive and cruel Aleran society can be, Tavi grows into a very empathetic young man who is able to look past his people's xenophobia and classism, able to see those less fortunate from him or even aren't of the same species as him with genuine kindness, mercy and empathy. See, for instance, where after defeating Sarl at the Battle of the Elinarch and making the Narashan Canim turn back, Tavi notes that he should logically be feeling satisfied over ending the life of such an Asshole Victim as Sarl... but he can't bring himself to feel that way, instead just feeling regret for having had to wage the battle in the first place along with being saddened by how many poor Canim makers had to needlessly lose their lives to sate Sarl's ambitions.
  Kitai: [to Tavi] You are mad, Aleran. You can be strong. Hard. But beneath that, you bleed for the fallen. Even those who are not your own folk.
• Ambiguously Bi: Played in jest during First Lord's Fury; When he, Kitai and Varg are all supremely impressed by Phyrigius Cyricus' impressive competence, Kitai jokingly remarks that she's now in love with Cyricus. Tavi's response to her? "I saw him first."
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Mostly done offscreen. The one time we see this in action, it's both awesome and terrifying as Tavi decides how to kill both High Lady Antillus and Crassus with a stick.
• Badass Bookworm: While not as much as Ehren, he's incredibly clever and is more one to outsmart or outwit his opponents rather than simply overpower them.
• Badass Normal: By Aleran standards, this actually makes him a Handicapped Badass. Although he becomes less normal as the series progresses.
• Brought Down to Badass: Isana's well-intentioned spell may have made him the butt of jokes everywhere, but one can't deny he was able to compensate.
• Batman Gambit: He grows skilled in using his enemies' tendencies and tactics to bring them down.
  • In Academ's Fury he, by means of Ehren and Aria, gets the Aquitaines to help protect Gaius and the crown from falling because it would ruin their own plans in the making.
  • In Princeps' Fury he uses Captain Demos' desire for wealth and repayment for destroying Demos' slave chains to stop Demos from ever being in the slave trade again by making him swear to use only these chains to bind a slave. The chains are solid gold. A lifetime of wealth and earns Tavi Demos' loyalty and opinion.
• Battle Couple: With Kitai. Whenever Tavi enters the fray, Kitai is always with him when possible.
• Becoming the Mask: He starts Cursor's Fury as a civilian Cursor who joins the First Aleran undercover as a junior officer, despite having zero time in the Legions. When the book ends, he's become The Captain, so much so that he spends the next years serving primarily as a legionare instead of a Cursor. This is foreshadowed when Magnus outright tells him that this will happen, with regard to his military career: "When you start, it'll be an act. At the end, it won't be an act anymore."
• Beware the Nice Ones: Tavi always tries to think the best of others and be as polite & considerate to others as possible. As such, in his rage and fury Tavi is absolutely merciless, as Fidelias almost found out.
• The Call Put Me on Hold: Thanks to Isana stunting his growth, he doesn't get his furycrafting until about age 20. In contrast, his father obtained his powers around age 5.
• The Captain: He is given a field promotion to Captain in Cursor's Fury by virtue of being the senior-most officer left standing after a surprise attack. He keeps the promotion and the fourth book is called Captain's Fury for a reason.
• Character Development: While he still retains his cleverness and snark even into the latter novels, he significantly matures, going from a crafty youngster to a Wise Prince. He also gains an increased sense of empathy for others - While Tavi was never an Empty Shell or outright Jerkass, he still understandably suffered from the Fantastic Racism and Deliberate Values Dissonance from growing up in Alera that one would expect. As he becomes a young adult, he becomes significantly more outspoken against slavery and moves past his countrymen's prejudices regarding their non-human "neighbors". He even feels sympathy for the Awakened Vord Queen when she finally dies, promising to make her death as quick and painless as possible.
• The Chessmaster: Metaphorically as well as literally. Even the First Lord takes a couple of lessons from him.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Tavi feels a responsibility to help defend those who cannot defend themselves. This even gets discussed in Princeps' Fury, where Sha notes to Tavi that the Aleran was holding the Idiot Ball in being willing to perform a Heroic Sacrifice to take out one of the Canean Vord Queens when Varg would be unwilling to help save the Alerans from the Vord. Tavi muses on this and freely admits that while Sha has a point, but he felt it was the right thing to do regardless (implicitly since it would've helped make sure more of the Canim could escape the Vord).
• Combat Pragmatist: Well, when everybody can rip you to shreds with their bare hands, playing fair doesn't seem very important. He says once that he never wants to be in a "fair" fight ever again. Even after his crafting powers awaken, he's still a pragmatist in battle.
• Consummate Liar: He was raised by Isana, one of the greatest Living Lie Detectors alive. He needed to develop this skill in order to get away with anything.
• Crazy Enough to Work: The majority of Tavi's plans are this. So much so that Kitai can correctly surmise where Tavi chose to have the Final Battle by thinking of the one place only a lunatic would go willingly. It's pretty much his motto. One of his plans literally gives an ally (Fidelias/Marcus) heart palpitations, and that's not an unfair response considering how Tavi's the man who made ships out of icebergs and attached runners to sailing ships to make them work over ice.
  • invoked Special mention should be given to his role in the defense of the Elinarch. Due to a lot of things going wrong at once, he ends up in command of a single, inexperienced legion (about 7,000 soldiers) who have to hold a bridge against an army of more than 50,000 Canim: centuries-old, enormous, and incredibly dangerous wolfmen. First, to stop them from crossing the river anywhere else, he has all the butchers in the camp and the towns at either end of the Elinarch throw buckets of blood into the river to attract sharks. Any Canim trying to swim across quickly learns the error of their ways. He also goes out to try to negotiate with the leaders. By himself. He proceeds to use his knowledge of their culture to laugh in the face of an Evil Sorcerer and exploit a division in their leadership. Then he sits for an hour and plays ludus with Nasaug during a truce to let them remove their dead from the field^note Tavi wins, in order to buy time for his men to set up his next tactic: sawdust and fire furies planted in every building on the Canim side of the bridge, which he then has his only Knight Ignus blow up while the Canim are trying to move through them. He'd makes sure they are all in the buildings by having everyone in the legion hold tiny firecraftings over the main square so the stones are superheated and anyone trying to step on them would get fried. And the battle ends when he has his Knights Aeris bend the air to form a quarter-mile-wide magnifying glass, concentrating the sunlight into a Death Ray. The general consensus among the characters seems to be that Tavi is completely insane.
    Ehren: This plan is insane... You are insane... [looks around] I need some pants.
  • Furthermore, that thing mentioned above about going into the most suicidal place he could think of? His plan is to piss off the Great Furies Garados and Thana Livia and use them against the Vord Queen. It only really works when she tries to claim the furies and he has the even crazier idea of cutting her connection and letting them go free to wreak random destruction. They are exceptionally pissed about the attempt to control them, and Thana—an enormous, sentient thunderstorm—pretty much literally chews the Vord Queen up and spits her out.
• Deadpan Snarker: Tavi can really lay the snark on when he wants to. Special mentions should be given to him telling the Canim Ambassador to his face that he has bad breath when they're on the verge of a Mutual Kill.
• The Dreaded:
  • He becomes this to the Canim. He earns the nickname "Tavar" (after a wolverine-like creature from the Canim's homeland, that is small, very vicious, and routinely takes down things bigger than itself,) and the repeated efforts of the ritualists to sabotage relations between Tavi and Varg suggest that, despite all their bluster about their superiority, they are a lot more scared of him than he is of them. In First Lord's Fury, Varg reminds Nasaug of the time he "fed Sarl to the Tavar" (in Cursor's Fury) and says it completely without irony, showing he was aware it wasn't even a fair fight.
  • The Awakened Vord Queen also becomes terrified of him, to the point where she wastes her remaining enslaved Citizens as part of an attempt to assassinate him and the leadership of the First Aleran simply because she's so desperate to find any way to kill him and prevent him from stopping her.
• Empowered Badass Normal: For most of his life, Tavi had to learn how to get by without furies in a world where everyone takes having them at their beck and call for granted, which has largely meant a life of constantly figuring out solutions to problems most of his peers don't have. The feats he's able to accomplish with that alone are impressive; once he does come into furycrafting skills of his own, applying that same sort of lateral thinking to their use has the same effect as giving Batman a Green Lantern Ring.
• Exact Words: Tavi proposes to Gaius amnesty for the freed slaves who acted in concert with the Canim using the words, "to those in this region who have broken laws in acting to protect their lives and those of their families due to the Canim invasion and Kalarus's rebellion." This just so happens to include Tavi himself, as he was acting to protect his mother and others when he broke Varg out of prison.
• A Father to His Men: Unlike Sextus, Tavi has personally led men into battle, risked his life to save them and cares about them personally. And for this, his men, even Fidelias, come to love him right back. Fidelias lampshades this in First Lord's Fury by thinking if Tavi asked his men to march into a leviathan's mouth, they would do so willingly - because they figure they would end up going out of the other side and loaded with treasure.
• Fate Worse than Death: As he is her chala, losing Kitai but being left alive. Tavi is frequently shown to be incredibly worried on her behalf and considers it literally unthinkable to live on without her if she'd ever get killed.
• Fictional Disability: For the first twenty years of his life — and the first half of the series — Tavi is incapable of furycrafting, making him be seen as a glorified special needs child since he lives in a society where Everyone Is a Super. He eventually comes into his furies when he's around 20 years old — when most Alerans come into their furies during puberty or even earlier — effectively making him a late bloomer par excellance. This is because of his mother Isana having watercrafted him to stunt his growth to protect him from being noticed as Septimus' son.
• Guile Hero: To make up for his lack of furycrafting, Tavi relies on his intelligence and smooth-talk. Suffice to say, after he finally comes into his furies, he’s made all the more dangerous.
• Heroic Bastard: Tavi always assumed he was just the the son of a commoner and some legionnaire having a fling. This isn't correct. His father left Isana with legal proof of their courtship and wedding to prove Tavi wasn't born a bastard.
• The Hero: Saves the country from numerous threats.
• Idiot Ball:
  • In Captain's Fury he fails to think Arnos would have him watched for any wrongful action when he races to trade a prisoner back for Ehren. It causes him to be brought up on charges of treason and removed from command.
  • In Cursor's Fury he realizes the Canim are able to destroy the command tent because of the standardized layout of all Legion camps. Later in First Lord's Fury, he berates himself for not thinking up a new system because the Vord Queen uses the same idea, but this time attacking the healers.
  • In Princeps' Fury he tries to form an Enemy Mine with one of the Canean Vord Queens based on incomplete information. Rather predictably, it does not work at all.
  • Kitai says he is holding it if he senselessly kills Fidelias for his traitorous actions. She reasons that if the man wants to die to attain some redemption, some order in his life, then Tavi should put that use helping take down a greater villain.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Although less and less so as the books go on. However, compared to the rest of society, it's I Just Want to Be Normal in this world.
• In Harm's Way: In later books, Tavi shows himself willing to put himself in the thickest and most dangerous part of the fighting, where his skills are the most necessary and crucial. This is in contrast to the rest of Alera's leadership, including his grandfather Gaius Sextus, who would try to maneuver a political rival into that spot instead on the off-chance that it might end up being a convenient way to get rid of them.
• Innocently Insensitive: Tavi has a Jerkass Realization and My God, What Have I Done? reaction when Max helps him figure out in First Lord's Fury that as much as he & Kitai love each other, he hasn't been fully trusting of her or treating her with the respect as expected of a true life-partner, not even having initially tried to figure out the courtship rituals of her own people despite freely admitting to have a Single-Target Sexuality for only her. To Tavi's credit, though, he immediately starts rectifying this with the gusto he applies to the rest of his life (i.e., taking her out for a romantic dinner and specifically figuring out the Marat's Best Her to Bed Her courtship rituals so as to figure out how he can earn her hand in marriage).
• I Shall Taunt You: Preferred manner of keeping his opponents off balance. He wins a duel against one of the most dangerous swordspeople in Alera with just six words.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Desperately trying to think of a way to kill the ridiculously-lethal Awakened Vord Queen, Tavi leads her to the mountain Garados to try to wake it and Thana Livia up. Unfortunately, the Vord Queen manages to get along to trying to control these two Great Furies. Thankfully, Kitai manages to stop her from completing doing so rather than the other possible situation of "The Vord Queen is now has two Great Furies at her command and is literally unstoppable."
• It's Personal: Kitai gets him to openly admit his inner rage for Fidelias's actions during Second Calderon, and how this rage is blinding him to other matters.
• Like Father, Like Son: Lots of comparisons are made to Septimus, though Tavi is smarter than his dad thanks to a good twenty years of Badass Normality. Both are courageous on the battlefield and natural leaders through their kindness, intelligence, and charisma. Both think and care about the plight of those who are less fortunate than they are, and fight for their voices to be heard along with protecting them from those who would do them harm. Both fall for a woman who was considered taboo and scandalous, Isana being a commoner and Kitai being not even Aleran, and both women would stand up to their loves, challenging them and their choices when they felt they were wrong but never make an argument about it. They also both get seasick really easily. It's to the point that most of the characters who realize who Tavi really is pre-The Reveal do so because Tavi ends up acting exactly as Septimus would in the given situation.
• Magnetic Hero: Tavi has a way of attracting former enemies to his side, usually due to a combination of his intelligence and charisma, the way he cares for his subordinates and how he fights right in the thick of it with his troops.
• Master Swordsman: Downplayed. His lack of furycrafting means he isn't as good as his peers, but he practices a lot between books and gets good enough to stand toe-to-toe with Phrygiar Navaris in a duel.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Tavi frequently shows excellent instincts and great skill at reading dangerous situations. While a large part of it is implied to be just due to his cleverness, comments from other characters (most notably the Great Fury Alera herself) claiming that the House of Gaius has always been exceptionally skilled in reading and reacting to predicted/future events suggests that even when he was without his furies, Tavi's instincts might have something supernatural (possibly a limited form/sense of prophecy) helping guide him and his family's actions towards the best possible path.
• Meaningful Name: Four of them:
  • His name of "Tavi" is a reference to the Rudyard Kipling character Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, a seemingly small and innocuous mongoose who worked together with his allies to use cleverness, guile, and courage to triumph over much stronger opponents.
  • Gaius Octavian, meaning both that he is the son of Princeps Septimus, and he shares the same name as the proper name of Emperor Augustus.
  • His Canim nickname, "Tavar", is the name of a wolverine-like predator native to Canea, which even professional Canim warriors avoid because it fearlessly, cleverly, and ferociously fights to defeat its enemies and protect its territory despite its small size (relative to a Cane). In other words, it's exactly like Tavi.
  • 'Scipio' is probably a reference to Scipio Africanus, the genius Roman general who defeated Hannibal. Rufus may refer to several people - the general Lucius Verginius Rufus seems plausible.
• Mindlink Mates: With Kitai thanks to her bonding with him. They can sense the other one's presence and general moods. And when he gains furycrafting, she gains it too, while Tavi gains enhanced senses and endurance from her.
• Mr. Fanservice: It is mostly hidden by the focus of the third-person omniscient narrator around him, but as he grows up and spends time in the First Aleran Legion, he is described as looking very handsome along with having developed a noticeable Heroic Build. It's perhaps most notable in Captain's Fury, where Kitai's cousin Enna is mentioned as blatantly appreciating his shirtless form when she interrupts him and Kitai in an intimate moment.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Following the Battle of the Elinarch, he feels completely unsatisfied with his victory, noting to Kitai that all he really feels is a weary resignation with the fact that he now has even more work to do along with being quietly regretful for having had to kill so many Canim over the battle whose worst crime was being dumb enough to trust the leadership of a loathsome Evil Sorcerer like Sarl. Similarly, he's understandably ashamed about having initially failed to properly court Kitai in the traditions of her people (with Max directly spelling out to him how Innocently Insensitive that was of him) and having failed to tell Crassus of his mother Dorotea's fate.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: He eventually gains the title Gaius Tavarus Magnus; "Tavarus Magnus" is roughly equivalent to "Lord Wolverine the Great."
• Nice Guy: Tavi has more than once shown immense compassion and understanding for others, actively tries to think the better of others, and wants to make the world a better place for no other reason than he feels that no one should suffer needlessly. It's to the point that he's sometimes considered to be a bit too nice to the people who should be his mortal enemies. Most notably, the Canim Hunter Sha is visibly taken aback when Tavi offers his sympathies over the deaths of his fellow Hunters in Princeps' Fury, and then becomes quite thoughtful after Tavi notes that he considers it his personal responsibility to help those who cannot help themselves — be they of his own species or not.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He has no way of knowing that cutting himself in the Wax Forest would wake up the Vord Queen, but it did. Or that it would absorb his and Kitai's blood and inherit their traits.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: invoked According to Word of God, Tavi's characterization was heavily inspired by both Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • In Cursor's Fury he has this revelation after a moment of self-examination. He is missing Kitai deeply and their strong bond makes being apart for long distances painful. However, he realizes that for the past few days, that pain has been gone and he has stopped talking about her in a forlorn manner. It takes him only a moment to realize Kitai has moved into the Legion camp he is stationed at, under the guise of a blind beggar.
  • invoked In First Lord's Fury, the Great Fury Alera grimly warns him of the Inferred Holocaust that will come over the Alerans once her form has finished "dissolving" back into the countryside. After hearing this, his first reaction is to desperately try to come up with some Crazy Enough to Work brilliant plan to solve this issue like he always does... but he then slowly realizes that even he can't possibly solve an issue of such scale and breaks down crying out of both guilt and grief upon realizing that countless innocent people are going to needlessly suffer and die no matter what he does.
• Older Than They Look: In the first couple of books in particular; Amara assumes he's about twelve when she first sees him, to which he grouchily replies that he's fifteen. The reason he looks so young is that his mother intentionally stunted his growth when he was a child via watercrafting to make him seem younger than he was, in order to keep people from guessing that he might be the son of Gaius Septimus, who died fifteen years before the first book.
• Parent-Induced Extended Childhood: Played with. At the start of the cycle, Tavi is a 15 years-old orphan but looks much younger. As well, he cannot manifest any Furycrafting powers, which usually awaken at age 12-13 in his peers. This is eventually revealed to be due to the manipulations of his aunt Isana, who is actually his mother and has used her powerful Watercrafting to fake Tavi's age and to prevent the onset of his powerful Furycrafting. She did it to prevent anyone from realizing that Tavi's father was none other than Gaius Septimus, the late heir apparent to the Aleran empire, making Tavi the only legitimate heir to the throne.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Considering how much damage the guy can cause with no powers, is it any surprise that giving him access to the full crafting abilities of the First Lord caused an insane amount of badassitude to ensue?
• The Plan: Creates several over the course of the last three books.
• Rags to Royalty: Starts as a poor, powerless shepherd. The series finishes with Tavi as the First Lord.
• Really Royalty Reveal: Happens to him in Captain's Fury.
• Refuge in Audacity: Virtually every plan Tavi comes up with is hilariously audacious and crazy, overlapping nicely with his love for Crazy Enough to Work plans. Amusingly, by the later novels, his skill in this area has gotten to the point where most responses to his plans being discussed can be summed up as "By the Great Furies, he's doing something completely insane and over the top... But eh, it's Tavi, so we'll just go with it anyway."
  • Tavi's way to stop the Icemen from destroying the Shieldwall in the future? Give it to them. With plans to have them lease it back to the Alerans, no less. Fidelias practically collapsed from shock when he heard this.
  • In addition to how he handles the Icemen, though, another example that quite clearly fits this trope: In Captain's Fury, he breaks half a dozen laws, and in ways that clearly could not be covered up or ignored. How does he handle it? He suggests to the First Lord a general amnesty for Alerans who cooperated with the Canim in conquered territory, but phrased in such a way that covers Tavi himself as well.
• Secret Legacy: Tavi grows up being told that his father (a nameless legionare) and mother died at the First Battle of Calderon, killed by Marat. Turns out that his father was actually Gaius Septimus, legitimate heir to the First Lord; his mother, Isana, survived and went underground as his aunt to continue to raise him; and Septimus was assassinated during the battle by a cabal of Citizens.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Though he starts off with a childish crush on a steadholt girl (Beritte), he falls hard for Kitai not long afterwards and stays that way for the rest of the series (much to Max's frustration while trying to get him to loosen up).
• Smart People Play Chess: Or the local equivalent, ludus.
• Spiritual Antithesis: invoked According to Word of God, Tavi's character was intentionally written to serve as the "polar opposite" of Harry Dresden. Tavi isn't a Person of Mass Destruction (at least until the last book), unlike Dresden, but is more deucedly clever and manipulative. Dresden often falls into Poor Communication Kills and is unwilling to share valuable information with his allies, while Tavi is very open with his loved ones and allies, instead being more often than not the one to have information hidden from him. Dresden was an orphan raised by an abusive guardian that forever tainted his soul with Black Magic when he had to kill him in self-defense, while Tavi was raised by his birth family and grew up surrounded by love and support. And finally, Tavi is not gifted with power on a level above and beyond most people like Harry is as a wizard, but is instead below them by virtue of being the only known Aleran without furycrafting for the first three books.
• Superior Successor: To both Sextus and Septimus in the House of Gaius. Tavi isn’t nearly as (metaphorically) nearsighted as his father was and is a better judge of character, but also has the charisma and creativity that his grandfather lacked along with being far more empathetic and craftier than either of them put together.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's a bit of a late bloomer (what with Isana slowing his growth and all), but even in Furies of Calderon Amara notes that he's a good-looking boy. By Captain's Fury, he's repeatedly mentioned to be quite tall and rather attractive, with Kitai's cousin Enna openly leering at him when she interrupts Kitai and Tavi in an intimate moment. As evidenced by both his uncle Bernard and his father Septimus, this seems to run in Tavi's family.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the first book, he's a steadholder's nephew with an eye for adaptation and a cool head in a crisis. In the second, he's a prize pupil at the Academy, the First Lord's personal assistant, a Cursor in training, and is good enough at combat that his trainer has him fake being bad to practice being undercover. He only gets better from there.
• Tranquil Fury: When he discovers that Fidelias had been masquerading as Valiar Marcus. He's very calm even as he makes it clear that he's absolutely furious at Fidelias. He only explodes later in private when arguing with Kitai and she's giving him a What the Hell, Hero? speech for wasting such a valuable asset against the Vord.
• Warrior Therapist: Against Navaris. He attacks her mental problems to make her sloppy in actual combat. It's actually genuinely unsettling to see since the weakness he exploits in her is something he shares, so to see him dredging up someone else's worst memories to get the advantage of them in a fight, especially considering that he can only do so because he has the same problem, is jarring.
  "I never knew my father either."
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Tavi's green eyes are typically mentioned as being among his most attractive features, and are easily the clearest indicator that he's the son of Princeps Septimus (since they're virtually identical). Kitai specifically mentions them when he meets back up with her in Academ's Fury prior to them becoming an Official Couple.
• Worthy Opponent: The Canim word "gadara" (meaning a respected and trusted enemy) is used a lot around him. To be specific, he's referred to as such by both Nasaug and Varg.
• Xanatos Gambit: While he is young and not always good at these, he was taught the art of them in his Cursor training. His old master often told him that, "Every problem was an opportunity, from a certain point of view." Take the Idiot Ball example: he was able to move things about to avoid summary execution, be in a spot to escape from jail, go on a mission to gain a key ally, and defeat Arnos summarily. None of which would have happened if Arnos hadn't arrested him.
• You Are in Command Now: In Cursor's Fury he is placed in the the army under the guise of Rufus Scipio. He is given the rank of "Third Subtribune to the Tribune Logistica" (aka the lowest rank Quartermaster Officer). And then he's delayed on the way to the officers' meeting and misses getting hit by an enormous lightning attack sent from the Canim that rendered all the other officers either dead or unable to work, and gets a surprise promotion to Captain.

Aleran Steadholders

Isana

Isana is Tavi's aunt (well, actually, mother). Born in the Calderon Valley, she is an incredibly powerful watercrafter but lacks access to other Furies. Isana distrusts Sextus because he allowed her husband, his son Septimus, to die, but becomes increasingly entangled in Aleran politics as the series goes on.

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• Action Mom: From an aunt's perspective, she is very protective of her nephew. She once flooded a river to keep him safe. Turns out, though, that she is his mother.
• A-Cup Angst: Earlier in the series before she gains more confidence in herself, she was always a little peeved that thanks to both her watercrafting and her natural appearance, her body made her look more like a young woman barely on this side of adulthood rather than someone who has silver in her hair by the time of the second book. This, in fact, made her think that she'd never attract another man after Septimus.
• Ambadassador: She and Lady Placida serve as ambassadors to the Icemen. She even shields them from an Aleran attack.
• Badass Longcoat: Begins wearing one in Princeps' Fury, on the urging of Araris. It's thick leather with interwoven steel plates; not quite as good as Legion armor, but better than nothing, and easier for her to fight and move around in.
• Beneath Notice: Despite eventually becoming a huge celebrity in Aleran politics, Isana is remarkably skilled at maintaining a stoic and demure demeanor that makes her come across as a lot less dangerous than she really is, making it all the easier for her to subtly interrogate and manipulate other people. Her incredbly strong empathic abilities only help her in this regard, with her being able to read other people's emotions and respond accordingly.
  • One great example of this is during her capture by the Awakened Vord Queen in First Lord's Fury, where she's able to get into a heated argument with the Queen to distract her control over the Vord's warriors attacking Riva. This doesn't just help the Aleran defenders launch a counter-attack to let more refugees escape to the Calderon Valley, but also lets the feral furies the Queen had funneled to Riva to serve as a devastating blow rampage through the Vord's own forces and grant the Alerans a slight reprieve. The manipulation is done so skillfully that it takes Invidia literally spelling out what Isana is doing for the Queen to finally catch on.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She's one of the nicest people in the world. She can also fight a High Lord in a Duel to the Death and make him admit defeat by psychoanalyzing him mid-fight, absolutely destroys six monsters that could kill experienced soldiers with water and manipulates both what amounts to a Physical God and her Dragon to put them in a vulnerable position while they knew she was jerking them around.
• Blessed with Suck: Her exceptionally powerful empathic abilities makes her an Unhappy Medium who struggles going into any public place. She regards cities with particular disdain, and is practically rendered catatonic during the Night of Red Stars as she gets overwhelmed with the crushing senses of panic, terror and confusion around her as the bloodcrows attack.
• Character Development: She becomes remarkably manipulative and clever as she delves into Aleran politics at the Aquitaines' encouragement, to the point where she becomes the Hope Bringer three times over. Furthermore, she goes from someone who abhors violence and has always considered herself a Non-Action Girl who wanted to hide Tavi away from the rest of the world for his protection to someone willing to sacrifice her own life in the name of permanently ending a bloody war and also making herself as public as possible in order to better garner support for the change that she knows should have already happened long before.
• Damsel in Distress: If there's a situation where she can be kidnapped and/or swoon, she'll be taken full advantage of. She even lampshades it later on:
  Isana: At some point I would like a few weeks to go by in which I do not faint during a crisis.
• Deadpan Snarker: As part of her taking a certain level in cynicism as the series goes on, with her gaining a rather dry opinion concerning her being repeatedly dragged into political intrigue against her will. This gets an amusing lampshade in Captain's Fury, where she can't help but chuckle to herself about the sheer absurdity of how her first thought upon waking up with a bag over her head is anger with the fact that the bag is dirty.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Isana is an incredibly powerful watercrafter – one of the strongest in all of Alera. She never really grasped how powerful she was, assuming that her great strength came from familiarity with the Calderon Valley's furies. It isn't until later on that she begins to understand her true strength, and suspects that Septimus passed on many of his furies to her when he died.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Finds herself... distracted when a shirtless Araris is fencing with Tavi aboard the Slive.
• The Empath: An incredibly strong one as a result of her powerful watercrafting abilities. Not only does it make her a Living Lie Detector, but it also makes her excellent at reading people and manipulating them. Fidelias is particularly impressed when he's escorting her in Academ's Fury and she notes that she's been well aware of them being followed by two assassins for some time now because the two men are "putting off greed and fear like a sheep does stink."
• Failure-to-Save Murder: The reason she hates Gaius Sextus and didn't trust him with Tavi's safety.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: She claims to be Tavi's aunt with a sister that died in childbirth. In actuality, she is Tavi's mother while her sister did die due to Tavi's birth.
• Femme Fatalons: One of her less-used tricks, being able to use her watercrafting to temporarily extend and sharpen her fingernails. At one point, she uses it to easily cut a dangling piece of thread during her sewing in Captain's Fury.
• Hope Bringer:
  • She is this to the Icemen when they sense she is truly honest about wanting peace, that peace might finally be achieved between their peoples.
  • She becomes increasingly beloved by the common folk of Alera as the series goes on, with many in the Dianic League seeing her as one of the main reasons to actually hope for the end of slavery in everyone's current lifetime.
  • Isana even weaponizes this by giving Invidia hope of escape from the creature on her chest as a means of getting her to betray the Vord Queen.
• Healing Hands: Give her enough reason, and she doesn't even need a tub of water to help her. She even becomes one of the best healers in all of Alera, with her giving back the eyes of a blinded First Aleran legionare in Captain's Fury.
• An Ice Person: Once she figures out that yes, snow counts as water. In Princeps' Fury, she uses this to save the entire Icemen delegation from High Lord Antillus' lightning attack through turning the landscape's surrounding snow into a massive shield, and becomes a highly mobile force evading Antillus' attacks through using the outdoor environment to her advantage later during their juris macto.
  Doroga: (impressed) If I ever invade Calderon again, it will be in the summer.
• Living Lie Detector: invoked An incredibly skilled one thanks to her powerful watercrafting. At one point, she sees through Gaius Sextus. To put it into perspective, High Lady Placidus Aria missed the same opening in Gaius' façade. It's been shown that the only people who could likely lie to Isana's face and she wouldn't be aware of it are Tavi (who learned from experience) and sufficiently skilled Consummate Liars like Fidelias.
• Mama Bear: Virtually everything she does is because she wants to protect Tavi. This even gets mildly deconstructed in Captain's Fury where not only does Araris have to warn Isana away from becoming so swept up in defending her son that she becomes no better than those she is fighting against, but she also realizes that she took the wrong lesson and was so protecting of Tavi that she forgot how Living Is More than Surviving.
• Making a Splash: Quite possibly the most powerful watercrafter in all of Alera, High Lords included. Max is briefly stunned when Tavi offhandedly later notes to him that his "aunt" flooded an entire river during the first book, and Isana only continues to evolve and develop her skill as the books continue.
• Master of One Magic: As a single-element Crafter, Isana wouldn't normally be considered very impressive as Alerans rank their powers – but as mentioned above, she can do a lot with what she's got.
• Meaningful Name: "Isana" is a German name meaning "strong willed". As she grows over the course of the series and further realizes that Living Is More than Surviving, Isana repeatedly shows great defiance and perseverance, being willing to die for what she knows is right and being unwilling to back down against seemingly insurmountable odds.
• Ms. Fanservice: More or less defied. Not only is there her A-Cup Angst, but she's a Plain Jane who is described as by the third-person narrator as looking quite unglamorous, ordinary, and average in appearance.
• Nerves of Steel: Slowly develops in this skill as the series goes on, making herself remain composed and seemingly calm even in moments of great stress and terror. For instance, during her peace talks with the Icemen, after getting her cheek cut on Red Waters' spear, she moves the makeshift bandage away (while in a land of such extreme cold that the blood on her cheek is starting to freeze to her skin) and simply gives a Death Glare to Sunset (the leader of the Icemen delegation) without flinching.
• Nice Girl: Isana is quite possibly the kindest and most considerate person in all of Alera, being both selfless and altruistic while always looking out those for less fortunate than her. Notably, her reaction to seeing the collared Alerans the Awakened Vord Queen has roped into serving as her Praetorian Guard is not one of fear, but pity.
• Non-Standard Character Design: When furies are physically manifested, they most often take the form of some type of plant or animal (i.e., Count Gram's fire fury Phyllis taking the form of a hummingbird, and a feral fire fury in First Lord's Fury being described as taking the form of a swaying willow tree). Isana's water fury Rill instead never directly manifests as anything other than a faint reflection of a younger Isana (specifically, around the time she first came into Rill's power) in the water she is currently controlling. Why exactly Rill looks so different from any other fury is intentionally left as a Riddle for the Ages.
• Older Than They Look: She's probably in her mid-forties, but because of her exceptionally strong watercrafting, she could pass for eighteen if it wasn't for some grey in her hair.
• Plain Jane: While her own narration is admittedly rather cynical and not that complimentary towards her physical appearance (i.e., her A-Cup Angst), she's often described by other characters (such as Fidelias and Amara) as looking like... well, what she is: a random farmwoman from the frontier, meaning that she's just an average-looking, unglamorous person who is often put off by the insanely high level of prettiness exemplified by most of Alera's Citizenry. This is compensated for by her sheer kindness and altruism towards other.
• Rags to Royalty: She is the Cinderella-type, with the bonus of meeting Septimus when hired by him to be their personal help.
• Took a Level in Badass: She gets a lot more powerful after a little swim in the Leviathans' Run. Interestingly, it's not entirely clear why this is: maybe she got them from the swim in the ocean in a stressful situation, but then again maybe she had that power all along or Septimus left her some furies of his own when he died and she didn't realize it. In either case, any extraordinary use of her power in her homeland is more normal where she is familiar with the place, and because she's a nobody from the hinterlands, she just assumed she couldn't possibly be that powerful otherwise.
• Unhappy Medium: She's as good or better at watercrafting as some of the High Lords, but doesn't share their ability to block out emotions with metalcrafting. This leaves her curled up into a little ball from emotional overload a couple of times.
• Warrior Therapist:
  • When she fights Antillus Raucus in Princeps' Fury, explaining to him as she's about to die that the real reason he doesn't want to listen to her is jealousy at Septimus for defying his parents and marrying the commoner he loved and regret that he didn't do the same with Max's mother. He later acknowledges he was mistrusting of her because she could have been in league with those who killed his friend Septimus but her willingness to sacrifice herself as such proved him wrong.
  • Her above actions were also present before the Icemen, who are powerful empaths. As they felt her words and emotions, they knew that she truly was there to make peace for them and the Alerans, even at the cost of her own life. Her willingness to die pushed them to agree to a ceasefire with the Alerans so they could fight the Vord and not fear a surprise attack.
• Water Is Womanly: A single-element Crafter of Water and one of the strongest watercrafters in all of Alera. She's also a selfless, kind empath and loyal motherly figure for Tavi.

Bernard

Bernard is Tavi's uncle and Isana's brother, possessing the power of both earth and woodcrafting. He begins the series as a steadholder (wealthy farmer/town mayor), but ultimately takes on a noble title as Count of Calderon and passes his steadholt to Isana. He is in love with Amara, and the two are married (at first in secret, but later openly).

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• Almighty Janitor: Formerly. He was only a rank-and-file soldier during his time in the Legions, despite his crafting skill being evident enough that Gaius pegs him as a former Knight Flora without a second thought (Bernard always thought the Knights were too uppity for his tastes). By the end of the first book, he's now the Count of Calderon and Alera's chief ambassador to the Marat, a station and title far more worthy of his abilities.
• Battle Couple: With Amara.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: Being both a powerful earthcrafter and woodcrafter, he's just as capable shooting targets at long range as he is at smashing them to a pulp with the biggest blunt object available.
• Canis Major: Brutus, his earth fury, takes the form of a massive wolf made of stone when manifested.
• Carry a Big Stick: Favors a bow, but when melee is necessitated he prefers a large club like most earthcrafters, to better take advantage of his Super-Strength.
• Characterization Marches On: Various asides in Furies of Calderon seem to imply that he is also aware of Tavi's true parentage and he's helping Isana hide it from the Citizenry. The events of later novels, however, make it clear that she actually kept him in the dark as much as she did everyone else (excluding Fade/Araris).
• Dishing Out Dirt: He's a powerful earthcrafter.
• Gentle Giant: Bernard towers over pretty much everyone around him, family and loved ones included, and his fury-derived Super-Strength makes him a terror on the battlefield, but he's still a bonafide Nice Guy who shows respect to all, and a genuine hero for the Realm.
• Green Thumb: He is also a powerful woodcrafter.
• Happily Married:
  • It is implied he was very much this to his late wife. He tenderly cared for her things long after she was gone, including her shoes he gives to Amara when they met.
  • To Amara as well. Unfortunately, her own insecurities often leave her feeling more worried about their relationship than there is.
• Heroic Dogs: His earth fury Brutus takes the form of a hunting dog.
• Interspecies Friendship: He gains a lot of respect for Doroga after the first book, and becomes Fire-Forged Friends with him over the course of the second book.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's pretty blunt and demanding to Tavi in the first book, but largely out of Tough Love so the latter can learn to handle himself. He becomes a lot nicer in later books, the implication being that pursuing a relationship with Amara brought some joy back into his life.
• Locked Out of the Loop: He has no idea of Tavi's true parentage for much of the series. He likely learns the truth sometime between the end of Cursor's Fury, after Fade displayed his impressive skills and saved their lives, and Tavi's open declaration.
• Loophole Abuse: He plans on using a small loophole to both keep Amara as his wife and fulfill his duties to have children. He will adopt a few of the bastard children other Aleran nobles created and cast aside because one parent wasn't of proper rank or station.
• The Lost Lenore: His first wife's death left him not taking up with anyone for years until Amara came into his life.
• Love at First Sight: He admits to have fallen for Amara when he tended her shoes after rescuing her and Tavi from the wilderness.
• May–December Romance: He's old enough to have already been married and have two children when he meets Amara.
• Mighty Glacier: Especially compared to Amara. His earth fury Brutus gives him Super-Strength, but he doesn't have the Super-Speed that wind furies grant.
• Mr. Fanservice: Many of Amara's chapters make eager note of his attractive Heroic Build and handsome features. Amusingly enough, the narrative treats him as more of the "eye candy" member in his and Amara's relationship, in direct opposite to how most other May December Romances are normally portrayed in media.
• Not Now, Kiddo:
  • Bernard to Frederic the Younger, regarding the Vord Taker parasite he's captured in a cup in Academ's Fury. It takes Frederic getting fed up and ultimately dangling the Taker right in Bernard's face to get his boss's attention.
  • On the other hand, the other Citizens pretty much ignore him when he tries to warn them about the Vord. After trying in vain for a while, he decides "screw it" and starts covertly building up Calderon's defenses instead.
• Outliving One's Offspring: It's mentioned that before the series, his first wife and two daughters were all taken from him by disease, helping explain why he's so protective and caring towards his nephew Tavi. It's also implied that his grief for their passing is why he is so eager to start another family with Amara after they fall in love.
• Papa Wolf: He is fiercely protective of Tavi, especially before his crafting came in.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • When he learns Doroga is a reasonable and honorable man among the Marat, he is more than willing to listen to the needs of the Marat, honoring their agreements and later helping him fight the first incursion of the Vord.
  • Later, he tries to convince others of the seriousness of the Vord threat. When that fails, he prepares his domain for the inevitable incursion and develops some serious weapons and defenses (thanks to some of Tavi's ideas).
• Retired Badass: Ex-military, in fact.
• Second Love: For Amara; her only previous romantic relationship was with a fellow Cursor-in-training while they were at the Academy and who which she eventually split ties with on amicable terms.
• Silver Fox: Downplayed. He's about a dozen years older than Amara, but is apparently aging quite nicely. Seriously, Amara has trouble not noticing.

Kord

A Steadholder like Bernard, who runs his Steadholt along with his two sons Aric and Bittan. Unlike Bernard, he is a brutal thug and his steadholt is a Wretched Hive that runs on slavery.

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• Abusive Parents: Kord is a horrible father who mistreats and regularly beats Aric for being an actually decent person.
• Always Someone Better: He's a powerful earthcrafter and influential steadholder in his own right, but is not as strong as Bernard and not nearly as competent in terms of leadership, intelligence and martial skill.
• Asshole Victim: No one feels bad for him when he's murdered by the Marat, not even his surviving son Aric.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He gets both scalped and his heart ripped out of his chest by a group of angry Marat of the Horse Clan off-page after Odiana arranges it to look like he was responsible for desecrating the bodies of some of their fallen warriors.
• Dishing Out Dirt: An earthcrafter, though not of Bernard's level.
• Dirty Coward: He starts to desperately beg and plead for his life after he realizes the nasty fate that Odiana has prepared for him.
• Evil Counterpart: He's basically a negative imprint of Bernard in the first book - A skilled earthcrafter and steadholder in the Calderon Valley, but one who is a raging misogynistic Jerkass and hedonist who shows nothing but poorly disguised disdain for anyone who doesn't cowtow to his every whim.
• Green-Eyed Monster: It's all but outright stated that part of his hatred and envy for Bernard is because he's everything Kord wants to be - Happy, successful, and beloved by their countrymen.
• Hate Sink: invoked Basically the main purpose of his existence in the first book is to give readers a villain they could hate wholeheartedly (Atsurak barely interact with the main cast in his brief appearances, while Team Fidelias both operates on an Evil Is Cool basis and have some Evil Virtues).
• He-Man Woman Hater: Particularly brutal to female slaves.
• The Hedonist: As evidenced by him kidnapping women to serve him as glorified sex toys through discipline collars.
• Jerkass: Even putting aside his misogyny and indulging in slavery, he's just a rude, boorish prick who always acts like he knows more than everyone else in the room even when that's demonstrably false.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Not only is he betrayed by the son he frequently abused and insulted, but the woman he brutally raped sets him up for a particularly painful and hideous death.
• Parental Favoritism: Spoils Bittan, his thuggish son.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: A massive misogynist. Her also mocks and derides Tavi for being a "furyless freak" (which is basically treated as an In-Universe disability)
• Scary Scorpions: His earth fury manifests as one.
• Slave Collar: Fond of discipline collars that make people take pleasure in obeying the orders of the person who put on the collar.
• Smug Snake: There's numerous times throughout Furies of Calderon that show him to be far less clever than he thinks himself to be.
• The Sociopath: Kord never shows anything like genuine empathy or love for another person, and even his Parental Favoritism towards Bittan is ultimately less familial affection and more making sure that he has an effective servant/bruiser on his side.

Cursors

Amara

Amara is a windcrafter and a Cursor, one of the First Lord's elite messengers, spies, and general agents. She comes to the Calderon Valley while trying to return to the capital and warn Sextus of Aquitaine's plotting, thereby setting off much of the books' action. She is married to Bernard, but sometimes angsts about her fears of infertility (Alerans place great value on having children who will inherit their powers, to the point that a man of Bernard's rank is legally obligated to have children).

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• Action Girl: She serves as both a spy and personal agent for Gaius Sextus, and is still of the best fighters in the series despite her furycrafting actually making her best skilled for non-combat roles.
• Amicable Exes: While they never actually appear on-page, Amara makes passing mention to her first romance having been with a fellow Cursor-in-training at the Academy, and how while they eventually split due to differing priorities/jobs as Cursors, they at least each other left on good terms.
• Babies Ever After: Thanks to Isana saving her with the Blessing of Night, a cure-all mushroom, the Blight-induced damage to her reproductive system years ago is healed, and during Tavi and Kitai's wedding, she is heavily pregnant. This doesn't include her adopted children, Masha and two boys.
• Battle Couple: After she and Bernard start dating between the first and second books, they form one, bringing a united front against Alera's foes.
• Blow You Away: She's one of the most skilled windcrafters in all of Alera.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Fidelias' betrayal really cut her deeply, as the man wasn't just her teacher but one for pretty much every Cursor.
  • Her opinion of Gaius Sextus drops dramatically after his Shoot the Dog moment, to the point where she quits the Cursors and fully embraces her role as Countess Calderon.
• Character Development: While she starts out with Undying Loyalty towards both Alera and Sextus, she ends the series with only the former intact as she gains an uncomfortably intimate understanding of the Decadent Court that is Aleran politics. Furthermore, she also gradually becomes less insecure and learns to take more pride in her accomplishments, finding great relish in becoming a beloved Countess of the Calderon Valley after quitting her former job as a Cursor.
• Cool Horse: Her wind fury, Cirrus, appears as a translucent horse made of air and clouds when it's manifested physically.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: During the final assault to get Gaius to Mt. Kalare, she draws her fury so deeply into her, it allows her to move at Flash-like speeds. However, she lacks the secondary powers to do this without serious harm to her body as a result.
• Deadpan Snarker: Shows herself to be quite sarcastic across the novels, such as her only responding with a Fascinating Eyebrow when Tavi comes up with a terrible excuse for why he went to go get flowers for Beritte instead of getting the sheep like he was supposed to.
• Deuteragonist: She has the second-largest number of POV sections in the novels (right after Tavi's).
• Eating the Eye Candy: Played for Laughs, with many of the chapters from her point of view having her getting lost in fantasies about or distracted by her husband's attractive physique.
• Fatal Flaw: For all of her heroism and selflessness, Amara is an incredibly insecure person, often thinking incredibly lowly of herself and viewing herself as far less important than she is.
• Flight: She is one of the most talented flyers in the series. Invidia, a very powerful High Lord, defers to her in aerial tactics. The First Lord himself comments on how she is the first person he's flown with since Septimus' death who is able to keep up with him.
• Fragile Speedster: Might very well be the fastest flier in the Realm, but without earth or metalcrafting, she's not the most durable.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Downplayed in Cursor's Fury. After hearing Rook allude to the horrific techniques utilized in the training of Kalarus' female Bloodcrows, a nauseated Amara can intellectually understand it but still finds herself unable to fully comprehend the sheer dehumanization and callousness practiced by Kalarus.
• Guile Hero: Shown to be adept at political maneuvering and coming up with plans on the spot. Her preemptive double-cross of Invidia in Captain's Fury, planned and carried out during a high-speed aerial chase with Kalare's minions, is probably the highlight.
• Happily Married: To Bernard. Eventually.
• Heroic RRoD: After the Dangerous Forbidden Technique mentioned above, she fell into this, unable to move, barely conscious, and probably dying until Gaius heals her.
• History Repeats: An exceptionally cruel example; She's ultimately betrayed by two different men she looked up to as father figures - Fidelias and Gaius Sextus - after having put all of her trust and loyalty in them. It's made particularly tragic the second time as Amara had already been betrayed by Fidelias and felt understandably sickened over having a trusted mentor deceive her yet again.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Amara might be quite sarcastic at times and downright ruthless in combat, but she has repeatedly shown herself to be an incredibly selfless and kind person, willingly putting her own life on the line multiple times for what she thinks is right along with actively trying to make the world she lives in a better place.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: As mentioned, she's afraid she's infertile, and Citizens are required to have kids. She avoids marrying him for a while on I Want My Beloved to Be Happy logic and even after that remains insecure. Bernard eventually gets exasperated and points out that they could just adopt. This gets fixed after she's dosed with the Blessing of Night to recover from fatal poisoning.
• Master Swordsman: A gender-inverted case. While still not on the skill of a Knights Ferrous, Amara is an incredibly talented swordswoman, often using her windcrafting to accentuate her attacks.
• Meaningful Name: "Amara" means "bitter" in Italian, which befits her status as a Deadpan Snarker. Additionally, it also means "grace" in the Igbo language, alluding to her being a highly skilled flier and master of windcrafting.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking: Cursors are spies and messengers first and foremost, and generally intended to fight only when necessary. Amara still finds herself in many of the battles in the books, and holds her own in just about all of them.
• Mirror Character: With Fidelias. Both are Cursors who ultimately grow to hate the Decadent Court of Aleran politics and develop a fervent Undying Loyalty to their country first and foremost before anyone else. However, Amara stays loyal to Alera's rightful government (even when she finally grows to hate Gaius Sextus, she never becomes an outright traitor) while Fidelias became a Wild Card temporarily allied with the Aquitaines before he ultimately joined up with Tavi.
• Ms. Fanservice: Amara is a unique case; while she is legitimately quite attractive, the third-person narration for her sections often doesn't make note of it thanks to her self-esteem issues. Additionally, whenever she's occasionally forced into wearing ridiculously skimpy clothing as part of her job as a Cursor, it's almost always Played for Laughs as any potentially titillating aspect is instantly neutered by Amara's constant internal complaining over how ridiculous she looks and how impractical her outfits are for actual combat.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After she and Bernard are finally alone following Gaius Sextus' immolation of Kalare, she breaks down sobbing over how she's become an accomplice to mass murder through her and Bernard having aided in helping Sextus "pull the trigger" on the entire province.
• Not Wanting Kids Is Weird: Discussed repeatedly and eventually even inverted. In reality, Amara actually does want to have kids and is repeatedly shown to be excited with the idea of raising a family with Bernard, and so she feels a lot of angst and self-loathing over how her infertility is impairing her relationship with Bernard. Further complicating manners is how Alera is a No Woman's Land that enforces Mandatory Motherhood on all of its female Citizens, further worrying her about potentially losing her status as a Citizen.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: As she herself notes, her ultimately killing Nihilus Invidia in the final book, making the Awakened Vord Queen feel the sadness and regret that comes from losing a loved one, is completely deserved considering the untold millions of people she and her fellow Queens have killed in their wars with the rest of Carna.
• Second Love: For Bernard, with his first wife having died prior to the events of Furies of Calderon.
• Troll: A more subtle case than most. For instance, as Tavi notes with quiet amusement in Captain's Fury, she mocks High Lord Aquitaine's "lazy and confident" pose in the military planning session at the Elinarch by mimicking it near perfectly while on the other side of the room.
• Undying Loyalty: Her loyalty to the rightful government of Alera is one of her strongest character traits. In fact, she was specifically chosen to help Gaius Sextus on his "furyless trek" through Kalare to stop the Kalaran Rebellion because Sextus couldn't think of any other sufficiently skilled and available Cursors that wouldn't have betrayed him. Unfortunately, her loyalty was repaid by making her complicit in the deaths of several hundred thousand innocent people.
• Weak, but Skilled: Amara is no slouch when it comes to windcrafting, but she lacks the raw power that the High Lords and other strong Citizens might have. That doesn't stop her from being one of the best fliers in the world, compensating her lower power by sheer talent and dedication.

Ehren

Another of Tavi's classmates, and a Cursor. Like Tavi, tends to rely more on his wits than his furies.

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• Ascended Extra: In a sense, with him getting first a brief portion of the introduction to Cursor's Fury narrated from his perspective (along with a single chapter later on in the same book) before he's promoted to a regular viewpoint character in the last two books so that the readers can see more of how the Vord War is progressing in Alera.
• Badass Bookworm: Invoked. One of the smartest characters in the series, which is saying something.
• Badass Normal: By Aleran standards, anyway. He has some talent for wood and windcrafting, but rarely relies on them over his talents with blades and spycraft.
• Beneath Notice: See that small guy with lots of papers in his hands? See him just walk around the rooms and hand out papers? Look at how weak his furies are, He cannot do anything with them one must think. What you don't see is a man carrying a large number of knives and a mind that manipulated a powerful High Lord to commit suicide.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Has some very funny moments like this. In one instance during Captain's Fury, hearing a commotion on deck while aboard The Slive, he opens his door to ask what's going on. When an arrow drives through the door close enough to touch his hand, he just muses "Oh," and shuts the door. Later in the same book, after he wakes up naked, in a healing tub, staring at what he thought was an enemy about to kill him, his response is, "Oh. Well, I see some things have happened while I was lying down."
• Character Development: He grows from being nebbish and awkward to a deceptively brilliant and clever Chessmaster who is able to effectively manipulate his soverign into killing himself, and also gains significantly more confidence and expertise as the series goes on. Compare his panicky and easily frightened demeanor in Academ's Fury to him coldly and bitterly contemplating just knifing the fence he's pretending to work under in Cursor's Fury.
• The Chessmaster: Very good at thinking of contingency plans. And, it turns out, at manipulating people – in First Lord's Fury, he plays Aquitainus Attis like a harp, resulting in the latter's death before he can become a threat to Tavi.
• Cowardly Lion: As terrified and panicky as he is during Academ's Fury, he still goes out of his way to fight on Tavi's behalf and even saves both Tavi & Kitai from Kalare's bloodcrows after they're captured and held in a waterfront warehouse.
• Determined Defeatist: He spends the vast majority of First Lord's Fury completely convinced that the Vord will inevitably take over Alera and his people are trapped in a Hopeless War. Despite all of that, he still firmly fights as hard as he can to make sure the Realm will stand for as long as it can.
• Disney Death: Briefly in order to deflect suspicion that he was behind the assassination of Aquitaine.
• Establishing Character Moment: His first few moments in Academ's Fury show a young man who calls Tavi out on his foolishness but will still stick with Tavi despite knowing they are walking into trouble.
• Guile Hero: He's a capable fighter after taking a couple levels in badass, but is still horribly outclassed by the vast majority of the villains in the series, Aleran and otherwise. He gets by with cunning, manipulation, and being one of the most capable Rules Lawyers in the land.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In the last book. It is part of a plan to fake his death for a time until Attis dies, after Ehren manipulates him to commit tactical suicide. He later admits that the faked death was a little more authentic than he intended, as he hadn't planned on actually being skewered.
• Ironic Name: "Ehren" is a German name meaning "honorable", and while he's still on the side of the heroes, he's also a manipulative Guile Hero and Chessmaster who works in the shadows.
• Nerd Glasses: One of a very small handful of characters mentioned to wear glasses, which serves to emphasize his studious personality.
• Older and Wiser: invoked At Eastercon 2015, Jim Butcher stated that Ehren will have become this as he takes up the role of teacher for a future class of Cursors with Canim and Marat now joining.
• The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: He's very accurate with throwing knives, at one point scoring a headshot on a vordknight as it's trying to impale him through the side of a high-speed wind coach on pure reflex.
• The Smart Guy: Not quite in Tavi's league – though, to be fair, the only people who come close are Varg, Sextus, Aquitaine (at least before Ehren himself "kills" him), and Fidelias – but he is very clever.
• The Quiet One: Doesn't usually talk much, which is a rather handy skill for a spy.
• Took a Level in Badass: He's gained a lot of levels by the time of Cursor's Fury and his promotion to a full Cursor alongside Tavi. While in the previous book he's mostly a noncombatant and a bit of a Cowardly Lion, he's now a trained warrior and spy with a level of ruthlessness that even Tavi finds unnerving - slicing Ullus' throat after he's outlived his usefulness without a moment of hesitation is only the first example.
• Weak, but Skilled: In terms of furycrafting power, he is pathetic and weak. However, he is a skilled fighter, his furies allow him some skills but won't regularly set off the wards meant to detect furycrafting, and he can obfuscate with the best of them.

Astorius Magnus

A senior Cursor, under whom Tavi trains. He believes their ancestors lacked furycrafting but several of the teachers at the Academy laugh at him for this.

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• Beneath Notice: A specialty of the Cursors. He keeps his place in the wilderness well stocked in wines and sweet breads to give to passing traders because one may not know what they could let slip when drunk. Tavi studies under him for six months and never picked up the fact he is a cursor too.
• Becoming the Mask: Originally, his archaeological work was a cover, but he admits that it's really grown on him.
• Cassandra Truth: At first, Tavi just doesn't want to believe that his trusted First Spear Valiar Marcus was really Fidelias.
• Cool Old Guy: He's fairly eccentric, but gives good advice to Tavi on how to survive in the Legion.
• Crouching Scholar Hidden Badass: He first appears as a professor who's semi-voluntarily exiled himself to an archeological dig. And then it turns out he's also a senior cursor, and served in the Legions, and Fidelias notes that if he wants someone dead, they'll die.
• Deadpan Snarker: invoked He likes to point out when Tavi is acting a little ridiculous. One of these lines in Princeps' Fury: "More mash, please, Your Highness."
• Early-Bird Cameo: Tavi cites his work at the Academy in Academ's Fury, the book before he was actually introduced.
• If I Wanted You Dead...: There is a training skill all Cursors must learn. It is to sneak up upon an unsuspecting victim completely unnoticed and within distance to plunge one's blade into the back of the neck, severing major arteries and the trachea. He does this to Fidelias when he begins to suspect something is not quite right with "Marcus". Fidelias realizes if Magnus wants him dead, he wouldn't have announced himself first.
• The Mentor: One of Tavi's mentors; he helps Tavi acclimate to Legion life, and later openly advises him during his time as a Princeps.
• Older Sidekick: Who's also a valet.
• Servile Snarker: He rebuffs Tavi when, in Princeps' Fury Tavi ordered him and the Cursors to not gather information on the Canim during the boat trip, with the line, "And Your Highness expected me to listen?"
• Spot the Thread: His exposure of Fidelius starts when he notices a few inconsistencies in Valiar Marcus's backstory, such as having seemingly vanished off the face of the earth after serving his term.
• They Called Me Mad!: Magnus invokes this when celebrating the success of his and Tavi's furycraft-free catapult at the beginning of Cursor's Fury. Magnus isn't exactly a Mad Historian, but to be fair, the fools at the Academy did call him mad.

Lords and Other Nobles

Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera

Gaius Sextus is the ruler of Alera, the most powerful Crafter alive, and essentially Albus Dumbledore without the facade of eccentric senility. While often ruthless and manipulative, he is both intelligent and wise and everything he does is for the greater good of Alera. All respect Gaius's abilities, but some (like Isana) think he's lost touch with the common people and is therefore dangerous. Others (like Aquitaine or Kalarus) want to take his throne for themselves.

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• Accomplice by Inaction: Characters who were close to Septimus such as Isana, Attis, and Raucus consider Gaius to be this. His failure to do anything to protect Septimus is the root of their dislike and distrust of him.
• Anti-Hero: Pragmatic type. He destroys High Lord Kalarus, the city of Kalare, the valley the city's in, and thousands of Kalarus's innocent subjects... because it ends the war faster as well as saving more lives in the long run. He's also a ruthlessly practical man who literally tells Amara to her face that, while he personally wouldn't like it since he enjoys her company and finds her to be an excellent servant to the Crown, he would sacrifice her life in a heartbeat if it was necessary for the stability of the Realm.
• Badass Boast: Gives quite possibly the most epic one in the entire series when he's pulling a Brandishment Bluff on Kalarus Brencis Minoris in Captain's Fury:
  Gaius Sextus: Boy, you have a choice. You may choose to stand with your father against me. Or you may choose to live.
  Kalarus Brencis Minoris: ...I'm not afraid of you.
  Gaius Sextus: Of course you are, and should be.
• Batman Gambit: He specializes in them. One of his more benign ones was making Tavi and Max roommates to help them become friends. Another is putting Amara's life on the line to test Fidelias's loyalty in the first book.
• Beautiful Dreamer: A non-romantic version. According to Alera, he would visit Tavi's dorm when he was in the Academy and watch him sleep. It gave him comfort and pleasure.
• Best Served Cold: Gaius waits about twenty-five years before killing the first of two men responsible for Septimus's death (see Moral Event Horizon). Then he convinces the second man to fly out against an insurmountable number of Vord with little backup.
• Big Good: Zigzagged. On the one hand, he's definitely much more benevolent and reasonable than half the other High Lords of the Realm. On the other hand, his cynical and manipulative nature is at least partially responsible for the sorry state of the Realm at the beginning of the story, and by the end of the story and his untimely demise almost none of the "good-aligned" characters are loyal to him any longer.
• Brandishment Bluff: While he is an incredibly powerful and dangerous crafter, he knows he is by no means a young man. Against a young crafter of suitable strength, such as Brencis Minoris, he would much rather not have to fight the person. This is especially true in his mission to blow up a volcano. Time is of the essence and delaying to fight a relatively well rested Brencis Minoris while Gaius is recovering still from his prolonged injuries in the swamp would likely lead to a failed mission.
• Creative Sterility: One of his main character flaws is that of his simple lack of creativity. Sextus, while intelligent and excellent at manipulating others from behind the scenes, is not one to directly challenge the cultural institutions of Alera even if he supports certain reforms. Really, Fidelias puts it best in the last book, describing Sextus as a man who "never looked past the wisdom of his forefathers."
• The Chessmaster: Very adept at maneuvering other Lords politically. In the fifteen years after his son and soon after his first wife died, likely after some period of mourning, he started over a decade's worth of selecting a new wife from the daughters or nieces of the High Lords or their families. His eventual choice was just a political stratagem to prevent neighboring High Lords from becoming allies as Gaius would literally have the one High Lord's daughter at his side.
• Chrome Champion: The first one to do it, and the only one who isn't exclusively a metalcrafter. It's part of his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Determinator: Best seen in Captain's Fury when he takes a third option to the powerful wards Kalarus set up to detect him and walks without aide of his furies to Kalare's main city. How far? Just over 300 miles and Gaius is well into his eighties. He won't let anything stop him, whether blisters on his feet or a broken leg.
• Didn't See That Coming: His above plan to get into Kalare got off to a bad foot because Gaius discounted an unknown known: blisters. He assumed his months of increased walking without being augmented by his furies would suffice in giving him the strength and endurance to handle the trip. If not for Bernard and Amara's quick actions, the plan would have failed before they got very far at all.
• Do Not Go Gentle: Dying of old age, weak lungs, having walked several hundred miles in unpleasant environments, and having been secretly poisoned, Gaius Sextus does not run from the Vord but takes them on alone. He unleashes the long dormant volcano under his city and takes a huge number of Vord with him.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: He poses this point against Brencis Minoris in order to make the young man run away rather than face Gaius in a fight. He later reveals it was in part a Brandishment Bluff.
• Exact Words: When telling Amara and Bernard about Kalarus's plan with the volcano, he says that he will not let Kalare's citizens die at the hands of "that madman" (High Lord Kalarus). Notice he never said anything about preventing the volcano from erupting...
• Excellent Judge of Character: Sextus shows himself multiple times to be dangerously good at reading others or discerning who they really are as people. For instance, it's heavily implied that he recognizes Fade (a.k.a. Araris Valerian) for who he is at a glance despite the disfiguring brand on his face, and from that he's able to immediately deduces who Tavi really is. Similarly, when he lightly hints at Amara and Bernard's relationship in Captain's Fury, an annoyed Amara haughtily noted to Sextus that she could've fallen out with Bernard years ago and have had "half a dozen lovers" since then for all he knew. Sextus' response was then to burst into laughter, noting that while she could claim that, he knows her well enough that she would have never actually done such a thing.
• Failure-to-Save Murder: Several characters resent or hate Sextus because of his apparent failure to protect Septimus.
• Fatal Flaw: His relative lack of charisma and fundamental inflexibility. While he's a brilliant schemer and manipulator, and a very good judge of human nature (unlike his son), he doesn't have the charm and creativity to balance it out that Octavian does.
• Forgot Flanders Could Do That: Deliberately invokes this in Captain's Fury. He says that the High Lords of the realm, Kalarus in particular, see him only as a scheming old man, and that image is part of what makes Kalarus think he can just take over the realm. So during that book, he sets out to forcibly remind Kalarus and the rest of the High Lords that in a realm where Authority Equals Asskicking, there is a very good reason why the House of Gaius is in charge.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In Princeps' Fury, he sinks Alera Imperia and the surrounding countryside into a massive volcano, destroying the vast majority of the Vord army and slowing them down enough to let the Alerans regroup over the next several months.
• It's Personal: The murder of his son is just about the only thing that draws this reaction from him, though it's very well disguised - even Fidelias doesn't twig to it. However, slowly but surely, Gaius eliminates every single one of the known conspirators behind Septimus' death, often in spectacular and karmic fashion. The only exception is Invidia, who gets her just desserts shortly after his death.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Gives it to High Lord Rhodes when he convinces the man to lead a direct assault on the Vord as they attack Ceres. The High Lord is destroyed and consumed by the Vord, not unlike how Rhodes' efforts allowed for Septimus to suffer a similar fate against the Marat.
  • He receives this, in his own view, from Caria. He knew she was a naïve child who didn't understand the political nature of the game he plays when they wed. He stays married to her for about ten years, and considers her poisoning him and taking that much from his life a fair trade, not even having her punished for her actions.
• Manipulative Bastard: Isana describes him as a "manipulative old serpent" in Captain's Fury, and while she's got a grudge against him, she's not exactly wrong.
  • Takes advantage of Amara's loyalty to help him destroy Kalarus. Understandably, she quits on the spot once she learns what he did. For his part, he's saddened but accepts it as the price of beating Kalarus.
  • Later, Amara loathes him even more when in the face of the Vord threat he told Rook he would personally place her daughter anywhere she chose to be safe from the Vord, if she helped spy on them to learn how they are using furycrafting. If not, her current life may not be enough to save them both.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: He dies performing a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Princeps' Fury.
• Moral Event Horizon: invoked In-universe example: Amara is unwilling to trust him ever again after he manipulates her into helping him get into position to turn one of the Great Furies against Kalarus, destroying the entire province with a volcanic eruption. Admittedly, it was that or let Kalarus use it to destroy most of Alera's Legions when they finally killed him, but as Amara bitterly points out, he still killed several hundred thousand innocent people no matter his excuse.
• Morality Chain: Caring for Tavi as a grandfather should for his grandson remains his most sympathetic trait as the series goes on when his duty to the safety of Alera forces him to more and more extreme action.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: invoked As per Word of God, Gaius Sextus was inspired by a combination of multiple different “decent”/“average” Roman emperors (conveying the implication that, as good of a First Lord Sextus is, he fundamentally lacks both Tavi’s cleverness and Septimus’ charisma) and Erwin Rommel (though Sextus is significantly more heroic than Rommel ever was).
• Nothing Personal: He knows that dubious alliances and manipulation are a way of life in politics and spying (as if the two are all that different), so he doesn't tend to take it personally when someone seems to side against him, so long as they're doing it for good reasons. However, threatening his family is something he takes very personally, as High Lords Kalarus and Rhodes eventually found out (one was blown up by his own giant superweapon, while the other was tricked into a Uriah Gambit).
• Older Than They Look: Like all powerful watercrafters – in this case, he looks like he's in his forties, when he's about 80 at the start of the series and likely could be in his nineties by First Lord's Fury.
• Old Soldier: By the start of the books, he is said to nearly be eighty (in Academ's Fury, he states that he's 'nearly four-score years'). He still commands enough power that no one dares openly challenge him for the throne. When one High Lord does declare open civil war, Gaius makes a three-month journey on foot without the aid of his furies, suffering a broken leg and blistered feet, to get beyond the man's defenses and destroy him with his own superweapon.
• Papa Wolf: It takes him a couple of decades, but he calmly and methodically disposes of almost all the people responsible for his son's death, or tricks them into disposing of themselves, with the sole exception of Invidia, who dies shortly after he does. He also spends most of the series protecting Tavi (his grandson) to the best of his ability, even setting up a special plan with Ehren to make sure that Tavi has no potential rivals to the throne after Sextus' demise.
• Parental Substitute: He's a fatherly mentor figure to Amara, and a grandfatherly figure to Tavi — of course, Tavi is his grandson, not that anyone but Araris/Fade and Isana knows it until he meets Tavi. His cruel betrayal of Amara and Bernard by making them indirect accomplices to his act of mass murder in Captain's Fury after she's already been betrayed by Fidelias is what makes Amara quit being a Cursor on the spot.
• Person of Mass Destruction: When he isn't about to collapse due to his age and overwork catching up to him. Witness Captain's Fury, when he kills off two whole legions of Kalarus's Super Soldiers, or Princeps' Fury, where he takes down millions of the Vord military forces with him in a Heroic Sacrifice, sinking Alera's capital city into lava and turning the whole region into a wasteland that the Vord can't possibly use.
• Pet the Dog: He's quietly fond of Tavi, and tends to be at his most gentle and grandfatherly around him - which, considering that he's actually Tavi's grandfather, is not entirely surprising.
• The Smart Guy: He's not half as much of an out of the box thinker as his grandson - in fact, his Creative Sterility is cited as a Fatal Flaw. However, he is a brilliant politician and schemer, a superb judge of people, a capable commander, and a surprisingly good teacher (Amara was, by her own account, pretty hopeless at wind-crafted veils. Gaius, while feverish, lying on a stretcher behind enemy lines and suffering from a broken leg and footsores, unable to use his own Furies, teaches her how to create an excellent veil in a couple of hours). He also successfully sneaks into Fidelias' quarters in the heavily protected Aquitaines' house, leaving behind a kind of cloak used in Kalarus' lands - as Fidelias points out, this simultaneously reveals that he knows where Fidelias is, where he's going, that he's giving his blessing, and that he can get in and out of a building inhabited by two of the most powerful, skilled, and intelligent furycrafters in the series without being detected.
  • He's heavily implied to be the very first person to recognise Tavi for who he is outside of Araris and Isana, doing so at first sight. Since it took Captain Miles, one of Septimus' former singulares, at least two years of seeing Tavi almost every day, and Fidelias seeing him in full command mode to finally click to it, this is impressive as hell.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • He's not bothered by Isana allying with the Aquitaines in Academ's Fury, despite both him and her knowing that they're looking to depose him, pointing out to Tavi that she came for his help, which it was his responsibility to give, and though there were extenuating circumstances, the fact was that she didn't get it, so she had to turn elsewhere.
  • invoked Has no problem with either Bernard and Amara's relationship (which is illegal under Aleran law) or Tavi and Kitai (which is an Interspecies Romance within an empire fraught with Fantastic Racism), and in the latter case just advises him to try not to get her pregnant.
  • He will make use of Doroga and Bernard's friendship and seek peace with ancient enemies for greater goods.
  • Is willing to listen and even says if he had the power, he would give Tavi permission to test his ideas with the Cane invasion force, but he must respect the decisions of the Senate, which have put Arnos in charge of Tavi.
• Shipper on Deck: It's subtle, but throughout the series he seems to do everything in his power to put Bernard and Amara and Tavi and Kitai together – first, having Amara serve as his personal envoy to Bernard as the new Count of Calderon (thereby ensuring that she'll see him regularly), and then when Tavi bullshits his way into having Kitai made an ambassador, makes it his only duty to be her teacher and guide for the following several weeks. The irony here is that Amara thinks she has to hide her marriage to Bernard because of her duty to Gaius and Tavi wants to hide his relationship so Gaius can't exploit it, but he seems to know about and approve of both cases, though in the latter he advises Tavi to at least avoid getting her pregnant.
• Shoot the Dog:
  • Better than the alternative as the invading men would be killed by Kalarus' volcano. So he makes sure the volcano can only kill Kalarus' side. Similarly, he destroys the mosaic at Alera Imperia that the Great Fury of Alera's personality is based around since he couldn't afford it possibly falling into the hands of the Vord. Alera herself doesn't hold a grudge, implying that she much preferred it to the alternative.
  • When his character is introduced, he takes a potshot at Amara: he admits he is willing to sacrifice a loyal retainer to test the fidelity of another one. He assumes the loyal one would lose the fight.
• The Spock: He's utterly and relentlessly practical, a trait that turns many people off of him, as they get the impression that he doesn't actually care about people beyond their utility. As it happens, he does, but he sees duty to the Realm as coming above all other considerations, meaning that he's completely willing to Shoot the Dog. The better side of this is that he tends not to take much personally (except the murder of his son, whereupon he spends the next two and a half decades methodically destroying the participants). He's sadly understanding when Amara silently resigns after he blow up Kalarus' volcano (after he manipulated her and Bernard into helping him to reach it), he's civil and willing to work with Fidelias even after his betrayal, and when Tavi is indignant at how Isana allied with the Aquitaines in Academ's Fury, Gaius points out that he didn't help her. He was unconscious, but in his view, that didn't matter - he had an obligation, he failed to live up to it, so she turned to the next available help.
• Taking You with Me: He faces down a majority of the Vord forces from the spire on his castle. Using the ancient volcano beneath the lands with his own furies, he reduces the Vord forces down to a small tithe of what they once were.
• Troll: It's shown several times that he loves to thoroughly embarrass Tavi and Amara by lightheartedly teasing them about their romantic relationships, such as him "mildly" asking Tavi if he's "sleeping with the Marat Ambassador by any chance." When a blushing Tavi awkwardly stammers out that he and Kitai haven't done that, Sextus just snorts while trying to hide his laughter.
• Uriah Gambit: Tricks High Lord Rhodes into one, since Rhodes was one of those who killed his son.

First Lady Gaius Caria

Second wife of Gaius Sextus, Caria is fifty years younger than her husband. This, combined with being used as a political pawn and neglected by her husband, makes her easy prey for Attis's manipulations.

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• Arranged Marriage: To Gaius. He held off wedding another woman after his first wife's death and then picked her simply to drive a wedge between her father and Kalare, as her father would never rebel against Gaius if Gaius was holding his daughter hostage, in a fashion.
• Awful Wedded Life: How both her and Gaius see their marriage. Instead of living out a great epic romance, she found herself married to a much older man who ignores her.
• Karma Houdini: Gets completely off for having been poisoning her husband over the last few decades (although she might have died soon afterwards during the evacuation of Alera Imperia, just before Gaius destroyed it). Interestingly, this trope is actually enforced by Sextus, as he acknowledges that this was actually some karmic rebalancing directed back at him.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Delivers some towards Gaius. See Master Poisoner and Tampering with Food and Drink.
• Mal Mariée: "Badly married" Caria is fifty years younger than her husband Gaius Sextus. They have a sexless marriage. Her old husband doesn't treat her well and ignores her, so this trope lacks the jealousy part. In the spirit of the trope, she ends up having an affair with a charismatic and handsome man Attis who is manipulating her. It's later revealed she has been poisoning her husband for years.
• Master Poisoner: She is poisoning Gaius for years and was only discovered just before the Vord attacked Alera Imperia. She used her medical knowledge from the Academy to do it.
• Old Man Marrying a Child: While not as young as most examples of this trope, she's closer in age to Gaius's grandson than to Gaius himself. He even refers to her as a child a couple of times.
• Sexless Marriage: Gaius is old, and as disinterested in that part of their marriage as the rest of it. Tellingly, when Max disguises himself as Gaius and promises her some nookie time, she seems quite genuinely touched.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: She is married off to an old man who ignores her most of the time. It's easy to see how she would end up having an affair with a charismatic and handsome man like Attis.
• Sympathetic Murderer: Gaius forgives her for poisoning him because while she may have taken a few years of his life away, he's taken far more than that from her by sticking her into a loveless arranged marriage.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Has been poisoning Gaius for years by slipping small and unnecessary amounts of a medicine into his tonic.

Princeps Gaius Septimus

Septimus is the son of Gaius Sextus. He dies fifteen years before the series begins, in battle against the Marat in Calderon Valley. His death sets off the main conflict of the series by starting a succession crisis. What few people know is that Septimus married Isana in secret and they had a son, Tavi.

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• Arranged Marriage: He was supposed to marry Invidia, but he turned her down. She didn't take it well.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: In his pursuit of protecting the common man from the abuses of nobility, he had many scuffles and insults levied against said nobility, particularly Rhodes and Kalare. He never paid these insults much mind after the matters were settled, not realizing these insults festered and turned these men to working to kill him.
• Child Marriage Veto: Gaius wanted Septimus to marry Invidia, but Septimus rejected her proposal and married Isana in secret instead.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Septimus married Isana despite knowing it would enrage Gaius that he'd chosen a commoner over a powerful Citizen and crafter like Invidia.
• Defeat Means Friendship: In Captain's Fury, Araris mentions how he had a way of facing down his rivals without breaking their pride, and getting them to follow him, and brings up how Septimus and Raucus used to fight a lot when they were in the Academy. However, this only applied to direct rivals - when he was protecting commoners from rogue nobles, the latter held grudges.
• Disappeared Dad: To Tavi, as Septimus died the night he was born.
• Fatal Flaw: His (metaphorical) nearsightedness. It's noted that he tended to disregard the consequences of protecting the commoners from the nobility, the grudges that would cause and how they would fester, thinking that people would be as forgiving as he was.
• King Incognito: Had a habit of traveling around in disguise. He met Isana incognito and offered her a job elsewhere in the camp.
• Living Is More than Surviving: A major point of difference between Gaius & Septimus. Gaius was focused only on surviving, while Septimus wanted more out of life than just survival.
• The Lost Lenore: A male version for Isana.
• Master Swordsman: Sir Miles states in Academ's Fury that he was the very best, better even than Araris - though he also suspected that Araris held back so as not to embarrass him.
• Marry for Love: He marries Isana, a commoner and non-Citizen, for love despite the controversy it would cause.
• Mr. Fanservice: Isana's flashback chapters show him as a Tall, Dark, and Handsome young man who basically swept her off her feet with his charm and considerate nature.
• Nice Guy: All scenes of him in the series paint him as a kind, generous, and loyal noble who would've been a perfect ruler of Alera. Admittedly, it's worth noting that there's a pretty clear factor of Unreliable Narrator in play here since the people often talking about how great Septimus was are his family members, widow, and friends, and the more politically astute tend to observe that he was a bit too nice and nearsighted to be a great politician.
• Plot-Triggering Death: His death sets off the main conflict of the series by causing a Succession Crisis in Alera.
• Posthumous Character: Dies fifteen years before the series begins. What we know of him comes from flashbacks and the recollections of other characters.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • He is one of the first nobles in recent history to speak out against the slave trade.
  • He realizes his best friend Araris is in love with his wife. Instead of being jealous, fearful, or smug, he warmly accepts this because Araris fell in love with the same qualities he himself did, wryly pointing out that he can hardly fault him for doing exactly what Septimus himself did. He even uses this love to make sure Rari would stay with a heavily pregnant Isana and protect her instead of staying at Septimus's side.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: It's said that Tavi looks a lot like his father in the later books.
• True Companions: With Attis and Raucus. He mentions in his letter that he'd have gone mad after the Battle of Seven Hills without them. His singulares count as well.
• Unfriendly Fire: It is widely believed that Septimus was killed by the Marat. He was actually assassinated during the battle by a cabal of Citizens, who were put up to it by Invidia.
• Universally Beloved Leader: Every good or neutral person thinks he'd have been an excellent First Lord (though the more politically adept concede his flaw of being a bit too nice). He was so well-loved that his death, particularly Gaius's failure to protect him, is the reason why Isana, Attis, Neddus, and Raucus all hate and/or distrust Gaius.
• Warrior Prince: He spent time serving in the Crown Legion and fought in several battles before he was ultimately killed.
• The Wise Prince: Was shaping up to be a good and thoughtful ruler who cared about the common people, and whose only real flaw was a habit of believing the best of people.

High Lord Aquitainus Attis

Mostly off-screen in the early books, Attis is one of the two high Lords in serious contention for the position of the next First Lord. Sleeping with the First Lord's wife may give him some advantage at this... especially as he's far more than the hedonist he appears to be.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: It's hard not to feel at least some pity for him when he dies in First Lord's Fury.
• Anti-Villain: His rebellious activities are because he genuinely wants to strengthen Alera, not out of personal greed or envy of Sextus' position. In fact, his original motivation was bitterness over how Sextus failed to protect Septimus. When he does temporarily become First Lord in First Lord's Fury, he genuinely does his best for Alera, and continues leading even when he's dying from the wound Invidia gave him.
• Awful Wedded Life: How he and Invidia see their marriage. Though they put up a Happy Marriage Charade in public, the reality is their marriage is loveless and they can't stand each other. Once they end up on opposite sides of the Vord War, they have no reservations about taking up arms against each other.
• Batman Gambit: Is stuck in one by Tavi in Academ's Fury when Tavi has it revealed to him and his wife of the Vord-Cane threat against Gaius and knowing Kalare would use this opportunity to take the throne, they must work to protect Gaius and his seat on the throne. Neither particularly like this fact.
• Big Bad: Subverted. He's built up as this in the first half of the series, but is upstaged in the second by the real Big Bad, the Awakened Vord Queen.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With his wife. Technically, most of her schemes are aimed at getting him the throne, but that's only because as a woman that's the closest she'll ever get to true power in the misogynistic culture of Alera. In many ways, Invidia was the Big Bad more than he ever was, since she was more actively involved in the plot and unknown to him, was behind the murder of his best friend, Septimus. Attis is, in fact, motivated largely by vengeance on the men he holds responsible for that (Kalarus, Rhodes, and Sextus).
• Characterization Marches On: Played with and discussed. Furies of Calderon introduces him as a seemingly unsubtle drunkard who needs to be guided by his wife and more capable subordinates down the avenues to take the throne - though hint at his later characterisation with signs of razor-sharp intelligence, effortlessly dissecting an argument while apparently drunk and interested in getting laid. Later books run with this, revealing that he is a clever and insightful manipulator, skilled in both legion strategy and politics, and disinclined to pointless violence - not that he won't kill people if they get in his way, of course, but he's not cavalier about it. A letter from Attis to Raucus shows that in his youth, Aquitaine was a much nobler and kinder man, but had developed a burning hatred for the corruption and treachery among the Aleran nobility after Septimus died. This, coupled with his ambition to replace Gaius Sextus for what he felt were his manipulations and deceptions, gradually turned Attis into a ruthless, scheming traitor. Shades of his more noble side start to come back out as the Vord close in on Alera and he rises to help lead the Realm. Isana and Aria suspect that the death of Septimus pushed him into becoming what he hates the most.
• The Chessmaster: One of the best in the series, though still not as good as Ehren or Tavi.
• Come Back to Bed, Honey: He uses this on Caria when she starts to leave after they've just had sex, assuring her that Gaius won't be back for a while yet.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Invidia essentially disembowels him with a heated sword that cauterized his wounds (preventing him from being healed by watercrafting), causing him to very slowly waste away over the last act of First Lord's Fury.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has a dry wit about him. When he sees Invidia burned to a blackened crisp, but still alive, he only comments that he likes her new hair style. He also delivers her their divorce papers after she essentially disembowels him in the same scene.
• Deathbed Confession: He openly confirms his role in manipulating Atsurak into attacking the Calderon Valley years ago after Doroga tells him when the Vord War was over, they would have words about his role in getting a good many Marat killed.
• Dramatic Irony: He hates Sextus because he failed to save Septimus, Attis's best friend. Attis is apparently unaware that he's married to the woman who masterminded Septimus's murder.
• Enemy Mine:
  • In Academ's Fury Tavi sends Ehren to apprise him and Invidia of the matter with the Vord, by using Aria to get into the house, to help deal with this serious matter. Neither like helping Sextus, but prefer him over the civil war the Vord (and Kalare's own attempt on the throne) want to bring about.
  • With Sextus and the Vord. He's the first High Lord to stand with Gaius, and calls out Riva for being an obstructive idiot, because he knows that the priority is for Alera to survive – and at the same time, he can give a boost to his position.
• Establishing Character Moment: Aquitaine is first presented as a short-tempered hedonist being entertained by a dancing slave, but quickly shows himself to be much cleverer than his first comments dictate by deconstructing an Argumentum Ad Hominem and then deferring to a low-born minion with more experience. The scene is also one for his wife Invidia; she was the dancing slave in disguise without him noticing.
• Face Death with Dignity: He accepts his fate after Invidia stabs him and spends his remaining time calmly leading and doing everything he can to hold Alera together.
• Failure-to-Save Murder: The reason why he hates Gaius. He blames him for failing to protect Septimus and not taking action against the overly ambitious High Lords who were plotting against him.
• Graceful Loser: When he realizes that Ehren manipulated him into making himself vulnerable, leading to a mortal injury and thereby securing Tavi's position as the future First Lord, his only comment is a thoughtful and faintly admiring, "I think the little man assassinated me."
• Happy Marriage Charade: He and Invidia will show affection toward each other when others are present. The reality is their marriage is loveless and purely for political reasons. They eventually turn on each other without the slightest hesitation.
  Aquitaine: We shared a goal, an occasional bed, and name. Little else.
• He Who Fights Monsters: He wanted to take down Lord Rhodes and Lord Kalarus, power hungry manipulators who were behind his friend's death. He ended up becoming just like them.
• The Hedonist: Has shades of this. He does like his wine and dancing girls.
• Idiot Ball: He holds it once and pays for it. He assumes his gambit to lure his traitorous wife out worked and he vanquished her with a powerful firecrafting that left nothing, not even ash or dust, where part of a building and, supposedly Invidia, had worked. He spends the next few moments gloating to both Amara and Bernard, whom had been fighting her alongside him. Invidia reveals she did survive by launching herself from beneath where Attis stood and dealt a slow-killing blow to the man, and even points this out.
• Meaningful Name: In Phrygian mythology, Attis is castrated by Cybele and dies. Invidia deals Attis a death blow by piercing him in the loins with a red hot sword. Cauterizing the wound prevents it from healing.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: In a twisted sense. He's truly loyal to the Realm as a whole... but is willing to arrange for the massacre of hundreds of thousands of its innocent civilians to make sure that its longetivity is ensured.
• Out-Gambitted: Shown in the last book. Gaius adopts him as Tavi's younger brother and leaves Ehren at his disposal. That way, Alera has a competent protector until the real heir gets back and one of Tavi's closest friends is close enough to Attis to arrange his death if and when he seems disinclined to get out of Tavi's way - which Ehren does, to a dying Attis' mild astonishment.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He's one of the most powerful crafters in Alera, nearly on par with the First Lord himself.
• Redemption Equals Death: Amara actually cries when he dies, since he'd been trying so hard to save everyone during his last few weeks.
• Revenge: One of his main motivations is revenge on those responsible for Septimus's death. While he took no part in Kalarus's death, he did conspire with Gaius to send Rhodes out to face the Vord alone.
• Spare to the Throne: In one of Gaius' final acts, he adopts Attis into House Gaius as Tavi's "younger" brother to ensure when Tavi returns his primary claim on the position of First Lord isn't stopped by Attis on the ground of being older and more experienced in leadership than Tavi.
• Start of Darkness: Septimus's death, specifically Gaius's inability to protect him, led Attis to turn against Gaius and begin plotting to take the throne himself.
• Til Murder Do Us Part: He and Invidia plan to kill each other once they are on opposite sides of the Vord War. She succeeds.
• Tragic Bromance: He and Septimus. They were best friends and he was never the same after Septimus's death.
• True Companions: With Septimus and Raucus, though he decided to sever ties with Raucus after Septimus's death as Attis knew the path of revenge against Gaius and those responsible would lead him to dark places and actions. He also knew Raucus wouldn't follow him down this path but held nothing against him.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: He has a tendency to gloat after a victory. He ends up paying for it after making the mistake of gloating during his fight with Invidia rather than making sure he'd finished her off - something Invidia lampshades, after skewering him.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: No, really! Far from being behind Septimus's death, he was angry at Sextus's Failure-to-Save Murder and decided that since he couldn't even protect his own son, someone else had to take over protecting the country.
  • In the last book, he points out that had the heroes not foiled his plans in the first book, the country would have been unified to face the threat instead of delaying so long bickering and backbiting. Even more ironic in that said foiling is what woke the Vord up in the first place.
  • Though conversely, if it hadn't been for his plans in the first book, it would have been much less likely that Tavi and Kitai would have been in position to break it in the first place.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: The man has plots within plots within plots.
• You Are Too Late: Arrived in the Calderon Valley too late to save Septimus, but he was there when they found his remains and knew furycrafting had been used against him.

High Lady Aquitainus Invidia

At least as ambitious as her husband, Invidia is cynical, manipulative and lethal. She'll keep her word, in public at least, but only because her reputation for fair dealing is more important than anything else she'd gain – and in private she'll do whatever is most expedient. As a High Lady, she's utterly lethal on the battlefield when she needs to be.

Tends to use watercrafting disguises a lot. In Captain's Fury, she is shot and poisoned by her spy Fidelias. She was saved by the Awakened Vord Queen and put on life support in Princeps' Fury. If the life-support Vord is removed or killed, she will die horribly in a matter of hours.

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• Ascended Extra: A downplayed case. She is briefly promoted to a viewpoint character for the prologue and a few chapters of First Lord's Fury so that the readers can see how both she and the Awakened Vord Queen are reacting to events. This ends after Isana and Araris are kidnapped by the Queen and Isana's viewpoint is then used in lieu of Invidia's.
• Asshole Victim: She aides in killing Princeps Septimus years ago for dumping her for a commoner, kills many more who are a threat to her power and rise in the ranks, blackmails Isana into being her political puppet as the price to save Tavi and Bernard, betrays every ally she makes when it can secure her more power or insure her own survival, which leads to her becoming the lead human and aide to the Vord when she is found dying from her own failed machinations, then she betrays the Vord Queen in hopes to secure her freedom from the Vord, only to turn back to the Queen when she outclasses the High Lords who Invidia lead in to kill her and offers her a cure to her poisoning so she will no longer need the vord-life-support creature on her chest. The only person to be saddened for her is the Vord Queen who, with Invidia's death, now understands what it is to lose a precious person.
• Awful Wedded Life: How she and Attis see their marriage. Though they put up a Happy Marriage Charade in public, the reality is their marriage is loveless and they can't stand each other. Once they end up on opposite sides of the Vord War, they have no reservations about taking up arms against each other.
• Batman Gambit: Is stuck in one by Tavi in Academ's Fury when Tavi has it revealed to her and her husband of the Vord-Cane threat against Gaius and knowing Kalare would use this opportunity to take the throne, they must work to protect Gaius and his seat on the throne. Neither particularly like this fact.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted after Attis sets her on fire, leaving her bald and heavily scarred. The echoes of her beauty remain, but it's a far cry from how she used to look. She's constantly referred to as the "burned woman" afterwards in narration.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: More or less with her husband—it was a marriage of political advantage for both of them, and they both know it. In fact Invidia is probably more of a Big Bad than he ever was, since she is much more involved in the story and in actually manipulating people or dealing with their underlings—for instance, he was as annoyed with Senator Arnos as anyone else in the military, but Invidia was actually pulling Arnos' strings the whole time. Plus, she was behind the death of Septimus, which caused Attis' Face–Heel Turn in the first place.
• Body Horror: The Vord life-support creature has its head buried in Invidia's flesh, and its claws have dug into her back. And that's before she's burned to a crisp.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: invoked Every character with significant dealings with her has attempted to take her sudden but inevitable betrayal into account, with levels of success ranging from "filleted for their trouble" to "left Invidia tied up and naked in the middle of the woods." The Awakened Vord Queen even admits that they can't be angry at her for treachery because it's just what Invidia does.
• Dark Action Girl: Only when she needs to in the first few books, but pretty much solidly after joining the Vord Queen.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: After getting shot by a poisoned bolt from Fidelias, she needs the constant help of a Vord creature attached to her chest as life support, or she'll die painfully.
• Death by Irony:
  • Stabbed in the back by someone invisible, using a weapon she couldn't see coming.
  • Twice, if you count Fidelias's attempt (she lived, but only because of Vord life support). A traitorous underling shot her in the back with a poisoned bolt. To add insult to injury, the weapon used was the very one that she had given to Fidelias to use to assassinate either Tavi (a loyal servant of the Realm) or Arnos (one of her lackeys).
• Demoted to Dragon: After she joins the Awakened Vord Queen.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Is manipulated into helping Gaius Sextus a couple of times, since she can't take over if someone else does first.
  • Offered the chance for this in the last book to join the Alerans against the Vord Queen. When she refuses, she gets killed.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Downplayed, but comments by her in First Lord's Fury allude to how both she and her mother deeply loved each other before the latter passed away from illness.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Not many, but she dislikes pointless deaths and would rather rule the country through manipulation of the government than all-out war. After siding with the Vord due to desperation, she's also shown small signs of regretting her choice, such as her visibly wincing in sympathy to a young mother when she mistakenly thinks the Awakened Vord Queen is about to kill the young woman's infant child.
  Invidia: I'm willing to make sacrifices in pursuit of a greater goal. That's not the same as condoning the rape and murder of entire steadholts. There was no profit to those actions. No purpose. It's unprofessional. Idiotic. And I have difficulty tolerating idiots.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She's a bit better at this than a Vord, but not by much—she's just too cynical to really get altruism.
  Invidia: We are selfless when it suits our purposes, or when it is easy, or when the alternative would be worse. But no one truly wishes to be selfless. They simply desire the acclaim and goodwill that comes from being thought so.
• Fatal Flaw: Envy, appropriately enough. Invidia is an incredibly spiteful and cruel person who can't stand the power and success enjoyed by others, and is willing to tear those people down even if it means that she won't get anything out of it except for her own twisted sense of satisfaction.
• Faux Affably Evil: While she'll be polite and make a number of necessary deals in public, even managing to form a bond of sorts with the Awakened Vord Queen because of how useful she is, make no mistake — the woman is ultimately a ruthless monster.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Downplayed, since there's lots of other extenuating factors involved, but the point still stands that her assassination of Septimus ultimately kicked off the series' entire plot.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She was jealous because Septimus rejected her marriage proposal and had him killed as revenge. And, well... look at her name.
• Happy Marriage Charade: She and Attis will show affection toward each other when others are present. The reality is their marriage is loveless and purely for political reasons. They eventually turn on each other without the slightest hesitation.
• Healing Factor: As a powerful watercrafter, she can heal from most injuries quickly. To take her down, sudden and blunt trauma is best. So a surprise spear to the chest and slashed throat cannot be countered. Cauterized wounds cannot be healed either.
• The Heavy: Though she's not the ultimate villain of the series (she's always working for someone else, technically speaking), as a major antagonist in every book she's definitely the most visible in the narrative, setting in motion a wide variety of threats in the present time and the backstory. Basically, if bad things are happening in Alera, Invidia either had a hand in causing it, or will be on hand to help step on the competition.
• Hidden Depths: According to First Lord's Fury, she was apprenticed by her father to all of the master artisans of her home city for a year at a time. As such, she's a surprisingly good carpenter.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Her near-death at the end of Captain's Fury came from Fidelias shooting her with a Cane bolt weapon. She gave him that weapon to assassinate either Arnos or Tavi.
  • On a larger scale, her assassination of Septimus (which set the whole series' plot in motion) is what put her into the position she's in at the end of the series - a broken woman living on time borrowed from the Vord.
• If I Can't Have You…: She couldn't accept that Septimus rejected her, so she had him assassinated.
• It's All About Me: Look above and below for examples.
• Karmic Death: Invidia, the woman whose main character trait is Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, is literally stabbed in the back.
• Kick the Dog: She comes across as far too smug when she tells Isana that she was the one who helped arrange Septimus' assassination.
• Lady Macbeth: She manipulates Attis into essentially starting an undeclared war between the Marat and Alerans of the Calderon Valley. She is also the one who lands the killing blow on Attis.
• Les Collaborateurs: Joins up with the Vord after the Awakened Vord Queen gives her a form of biological life support.
• Living on Borrowed Time: If her Vord life support is damaged or removed, she only has hours to live while in complete and utter agony.
• Meaningful Rename: Isana renames her "Nihilus Invidia" for her Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
• More Deadly Than the Male: She is much more of a villain than her husband.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Who names their kid "envy"?
• Oh, Crap!: Suffers a small one at the end of Academ's Fury when Fidelias shows her his cloak to protect against wet weather which he left in the care of Gaius Sextus before his final mission and betrayal. He finds it in his room in the Aquitaine manor. This means not only does Gaius know where he is, but for Invidia, Gaius knows who he is working for.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: It's mostly shown in First Lord's Fury, but Invidia is ultimately revealed to have an incredibly classist view of Aleran society, derisively referring to Isana as both a "glorified peasant" and "camp whore" while she and Araris are imprisoned by the Vord.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Although, considering that she's directly or indirectly responsible for literally every problem that comes up in the novels, this may not be entirely true. It is, however, her view of herself:
  Invidia: I'm willing to make sacrifices in pursuit of a greater goal. That's not the same as condoning the rape and murder of entire steadholts. There was no profit to those actions. No purpose. It's unprofessional. Idiotic. And I have difficulty tolerating idiots.
• The Quisling: She sides with the Awakened Vord Queen in return for keeping her alive and letting her rule the Alerans who accepted the queen's deal.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Has dark hair and pale skin, which has her considered strikingly beautiful.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Arnos after he begs her to save him from the consequences of his actions throughout Captain's Fury.
  Invidia: I believe I made a mistake in you, Arnos. I knew you were a pompous egotist with delusions of grandeur, but I did believe you were at least competent.
  Arnos: We had a deal!
  Invidia: We had an understanding. But you've broken faith with me. You told me you hadn't aquired any of your troops as mercenaries. But your extremely well-supplied and well-armed and well-paid cavalry seem to have taken it upon themselves to loot and pillage every human habitation they come across.
  Arnos: Their Tribunes are acting independently of my orders!
  Invidia: You're the commander of these Legions, dear. You're responsible for what they do. That's rather why one is able to attain glory and respect after a victory. Or don't they teach that at the Collegia?
  Arnos: How dare you lecture me on—
  Invidia: (glares at Arnos, immediately shutting him up) Don't make me raise my hand, Arnos. When I slap someone, he doesn't scurry away after.
  Arnos: You were willing enough to spill Aleran blood six weeks ago!
  Invidia: I'm willing to make sacrifices in pursuit of a greater goal. That's not the same as condoning the rape and murder of entire steadholts. There was no profit to those actions. No purpose. It's unprofessional. Idiotic. And I have difficulty tolerating idiots.
  Arnos: (scowls) Then you should agree that this conversation is unprofitable, given the circumstances. We need to focus on the matter at hand.
  Invidia: (raises an eyebrow) Oh?
  Arnos: (snorts) We're probably worried about nothing. Navaris is going to introduce our young captain to the crows, and that will solve the problems at hand.
  Invidia: Will it? I've made a decision about the problems at hand, Arnos.
  Arnos: What's that?
  Invidia: They're your problems. Solve them by yourself. If you manage to survive them, I may be willing to renegotiate our relationship. But until then, you're on your own. (saunters off, leaving Arnos fuming in rage)
• The Sociopath: As the series goes on, it becomes disconcertingly clear that even the Awakened Vord Queen probably has more of a functioning moral compass than Invidia does. At the end of the day, she's only looking out for number one and cares nothing about whatever she has to do as long as it makes her own life more comfortable as consequence.
  Invidia: Everyone wants someone to suffer, Isana. It's simply a matter of finding a target and an excuse.
• The Starscream: To pretty much everyone she's ever worked with. She doesn't seem to be happy unless she's plotting against someone, even if that someone is on her same side.
• Til Murder Do Us Part: She and Attis planned to kill each other once they are on opposite sides of the Vord War. She succeeds.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Standard for a powerful watercrafter. Her most notable use of it is to disguise herself as a legion laundrywoman in Captain's Fury to keep an eye on both Arnos and Fidelias.
• Villainous Friendship: Develops into a type IV relationship with the Awakened Vord Queen, with the Queen being somewhat put out by her sudden death and even admitting that they had formed something of a bond.
• Villainous Rescue: An odd case in First Lord's Fury. She saves the life of the Awakened Vord Queen at one point from the Junior Queen during their duel in the ruins outside Alera Imperia, as she's smart enough to realize that the "non-defective" Junior Queen wouldn't see Invidia as a valuable asset to the Vord's conquest.
• Wild Card: At the end of the day, Invidia is ultimately on her own side, not anyone else's.
• Woman Scorned: See Green-Eyed Monster. It's worth noting that Invidia didn't have Septimus killed for falling in love with Isana because she loved Septimus or anything like that - Rather, she had Septimus killed because she couldn't stand the fact that Septimus snubbed the "great Invidia" for "a glorified peasant" and wanted to punish him for that perceived slight to her ego.
• Xanatos Gambit: The way she saw it, either outcome of Tavi's duel with Navaris is good for her - if he loses, then a big obstacle towards getting the throne is dead, and if he wins, then Arnos is pretty much toast, relieving Invidia of a retainer who was becoming too much of a liability. And after it's done, she has an agent with a Canim balest ready to shoot whoever wins, meaning no matter what the outcome is, she's removed two obstacles to her ambition. Of course, she didn't foresee Fidelias switching his loyalty to Tavi (who's saved his life, hasn't gotten him involved in anything horribly unethical, and would probably be a good First Lord) and shooting both Arnos and her.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: Fidelias tries to get her to see she could reveal herself in Captain's Fury, save the trapped Legions from the Canim forces, and become a hero of the Realm once more. Instead, since she doesn't think there's enough of a good chance for her to actually survive, Invidia plans to sacrifice the Legions and depart with Fidelias, to make sure he is taken care of as well. Later, in First Lord's Fury, Isana almost convinces her to help her fellow Lords defeat the Vord Queen and save the nation... but she decides to try killing them too to win the day as the last woman standing, and the whole plan blows up in her face.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Tends to happen to her retainers. She orders Fidelias to kill Arnos if Navaris wins the duel against Tavi, and Fidelias suspects (with good reason) that she'll order him killed sometime. Additionally, she was fully prepared to let the Senatorial Guard and First Aleran Legions all get wiped out by the vengeful Canim and Free Aleran forces since it could be spun to her political advantage.
  • Discussed in First Lord's Fury, wherein Invidia (worrying about having been replaced), thinks to herself that she must appear calm, confident, and above all useful, because the Vord's only concept of retirement is becoming food for the croach.

High Lord Kalarus Brencis Majoris

The other main candidate (besides Aquitainus) as the First Lord's successor. The province of Kalare is one of the few where slavery is still rampant, and Kalarus has taken the twisted furycrafting of slave collars and weaponised it. He's also a horrifying mix of both The Hedonist and The Caligula, being a murder-happy maniac obsessed with obtaining power for its own sake.

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• Asshole Victim: Literally the only reason Amara is horrified when Gaius kills him is that countless innocent civilians were caught in the crossfire.
• Ax-Crazy: The First Lord thinks that Kalarus would be a bit easier to deal with if he weren't quite so mad, since it makes him unpredictable.
• Beard of Evil: He has a goatee, apparently to hide his weak chin.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: For Academ's Fury, Cursor's Fury, and Captain's Fury. In Academ's Fury, he's responsible for organizing the assassination attempts on Isana, and uncovering who The Mole he planted within the Cursors is one of the major subplots of the novel, but his villainy is completely unrelated to the situations involving Sarl and the Vord Queens. He then directly tries to coup the government in Cursor's Fury with the assistance of a surprise Villain Team-Up with Sarl, but it ultimately falls through thanks to the actions of both Tavi and Amara. Finally, his rebellion is still going on in Captain's Fury, and attempting to put a final end to it is the main conflict for Sextus and Amara's subplot, with his remaining alliance with the Canim now being very tentative and any potential involvement with Senator Arnos being tangential at best.
• Big Bad Wannabe: He tries very hard to be the Big Bad, but he's ultimately just not quite up to snuff.
• The Caligula: Equally, one can't deny that this guy is a few legionares short of an army.
• The Chessmaster: Half-succeeded. His "masterful plot" fails thanks to Sextus being a better player. Gaius saw only one way to defeat him, and though Kalarus never thought of it, Gaius was pissed that it came to that – namely, annihilating the entire province before Kalarus did.
• Compensating for Something: High Lady Placida taunts him by bringing up how he apparently had a little problem bedding women back at the academy. Either he was impotent or he just was a bastard. Whatever it was, it's a major Berserk Button.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: As alluded to below, he's been playing The Long Game in terms of his coup against the First Lord, and seems to desire power just so he can lord it over others.
• Do Not Go Gentle: Rather than accepting his defeat and probable death, Kalarus ties his life to that of the ancient volcano fury, angering it so much that when he dies, the volcano will erupt. His hope is to unleash the great fury not only on the Crown's forces that lay siege to his last city but the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of civilians and refugees crowded into the city.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • Kalarus's control over Rook ultimately falls through since he couldn't imagine anyone convincing her to pull a Heel–Face Turn by helping her save her daughter from his clutches. He's also far too sociopathic to get basic concepts like diplomacy, resulting in him having to hold the loved ones of his surrounding High Lords hostage so they won't fight against his unlawful attempted coup of the government.
  • Really, the scene in Cursor's Fury where Amara and Rook have broken into Kalarus' tower apartment-dungeon to rescue his hostages sums it up perfectly; Amara notes that the apartment is richly and gorgeously decorated with various works of fine art, but the art pieces are all put together in a manner with no sense of style, theme, or commonality. The Cursor even lampshades it, noting how the room is an excellent insight into Kalarus' character.
    Amara: [Kalarus] knew what beauty was, but he did not understand what made it valuable. His collection was expensive, expansive, all of undeniable masterpieces — and that was all he cared about; the shell, the price, the proclamation of his wealth and power, not beauty for its own sake.
• Evil Is Petty: The entire Amara & Gaius Sextus subplot of Captain's Fury only exists to try and mitigate the damage caused by Kalarus' pettiness. For all intents and purposes, he'd been defeated in the previous book. He no longer had a chance of actually becoming the First Lord. He was being beaten back by the forces of Alera and eventually his city would fall to a siege and he would be captured. However, Kalarus decided "Screw it!" and enslaved the volcano-dwelling Great Fury of Kalus to his very life. When the time finally came that armies would besiege his city (which itself would be packed to the brim with refugees), he would die and trigger a massive eruption with the intent of killing as many people as he could along the way. All to give one final middle-finger shaped farewell to Gaius after losing to him.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. He has an ego larger than the fire-mountain his home province is named after, and it proves to be his downfall multiple times over.
• Faux Affably Evil: He tries to put upon a facade of civility, but he's really a savage maniac.
• The Ghost: In Captain's Fury. He is alluded to in Furies Of Calderon, since Kord got his slave collars from his province.
• Hate Sink: He's ultimately a perfect example of everything fundamentally wrong with the corrupt Might Makes Right-based aristocracy of Alera's Citizenry, being an obnoxious, misogynistic, petty, arrogant, xenophobic, and greedy sociopath who only cares about gaining more power for himself at the expense of everyone around him.
• I Have Your Wife: Kidnaps High Lady Placida Aria and the daughter of High Lord Atticus to prevent their armies from actively opposing him, and holds Rook's daughter hostage to ensure her continued good behavior. To add to his malevolence, Rook's daughter is his own granddaughter.
• Kick the Dog: As far as he's concerned, the day is wasted if he hasn't found at least three small furry animals to kick before lunchtime. To put it into perspective, ordering the assassinations of countless abolitionists and brainwashing innocent children into becoming Super Soldiers loyal only to him still aren't the most horrific things he's done.
• Kill It with Fire: His mastery of firecrafting is on par with Gaius Sextus. It is said he personally snuffed out a raging wildfire that threatened his precious hardwood forests he exported.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He is killed when the father of the man he murdered triggers the volcano he personally leashed to his own life erupts prematurely, derailing his Thanatos Gambit and ending his rebellion by several years.
• The Long Game: He and his ancestors have been planning a coup of the Realm for years, heavily taxing the commoners into virtual slavery, to build up enough money to support his secret legions.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Set himself up as this on purpose as insurance when it looked like he was going to be defeated.
• Mask of Sanity: As both Gaius and Amara later realize in Cursor's Fury, he's far more insane than they realized, which makes him significantly more difficult to predict and react to.
• Orcus on His Throne: In Captain's Fury. Justified because Bernard and Amara crippled him at the end of Cursor's Fury –- he was quite an active villain before that.
• Out-Gambitted: So, you set up a volcano to explode when you're killed and cover a few hundred square miles around it with a surveillance network set to detect the furies of the one guy who can stop you? Too bad he takes a cue from his grandson and just walks in, not using any furies until he's too close for you to prevent him from taking control of the volcano away from you.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He's widely despised, and with good reason. He's also probably not as smart as he thinks he is - certainly not smarter than Gaius. However, he is universally acknowledged as a genuine powerhouse.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Is a virulent misogynist.
• Shoot the Dog: Forces Sextus to do this.
• Sibling Murder: Implied, with it being mentioned that High Lady Antillius Dorotea is the only surviving sibling of Kalarus.
• The Sociopath: Kalarus has no real respect for human life, and isn't even that good at faking empathy in public.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In many ways, he's Steadholder Kord from Furies of Calderon given even more power (both in terms of political and furycrafting) and influence. Justified, as Kalarus is meant to in part show that the societal issues in Alera that allow for monsters like Kord to get power are everywhere and practically Inherent in the System, further inspiring the protagonists (most notably Isana and Amara) to fight back against and progress their nation forward. In other words, Kalarus is just Kord given more power simply because there's tons of people like Kord all over Alera.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • The man had child slaves fitted with obedience collars so their wills would be broken and they would become his berserker assassins.
  • He holds his own granddaughter in a death trap to secure a High Lady and make Rook loyal to him.
  • When his forces were attacking Ceres, they were able to eventually bait the defending Ceresian Legions and Crown Legions into a devastating trap through savagely attacking the city's largest orphanage along with several streets where retired legionaries were living out their pensions.
• You Killed My Father: Though it's never brought up by Tavi, he is one of the two men who personally murdered Septimus (the other was High Lord Rhodes).

Lord Kalarus Brencis Minoris

Son of Lord Kalarus and classmate of Tavi's at the Academy – where he was a vicious bully. Hasn't improved since, first becoming a servant of Kalarus during the Civil War he instigates, and later being given a discipline collar by Invidia to serve the Vord during their invasion of Alera.

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• Asshole Victim: Is eventually stabbed through the neck by Amara after he turns to the side of the Vord.
• Captain Ersatz: There's a fair bit of Draco Malfoy in him (Brencis is nastier, though, by virtue of having inherited a bit of his dad's instability), though it's unknown if that was deliberate. Even funnier when you consider that Tavi is a skinny kid with black hair and green eyes...
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Brencis is a talented warrior and crafter, despite being a cowardly jerk. When the going gets tough, he responds in kind, like the time when he fought Max to standstill despite being intoxicated, or when he disobeyed the Awakened Vord Queen despite having a discipline collar on. Also, he creates slaver collars more powerful than Invidia's, though that's at least in part because of tricks he learned from his father.
• Despair Event Horizon: Seems to have passed it after Gaius Sextus obliterated Kalare, turning him into The Hedonist who doesn't care if the Vord win.
• Dirty Coward: When he ends up facing Amara, Bernard, and, most importantly, Gaius, he Screams Like a Little Girl and runs. Understandable, though, given that Gaius is a Person of Mass Destruction.
• Fatal Flaw: Sloth. Brencis doesn't want to make the effort to actually support anything and just wants to live his life in luxury. After his province is obliterated by Gaius Sextus and he crosses the Despair Event Horizon, he can't even be arsed to help save humanity, instead collaborating with the Vord in exchange for material pleasures.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: In the sense that he was already evil before joining the Vord thanks to Invidia's slave collar.
• The Hedonist: After his father dies and Kalare collapses under volcanic ash, he spends his time having threesomes and taking drugs.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Has difficulty mustering confidence to challenge people in the same league as him and compensates by picking on those obviously weaker.
• Les Collaborateurs: Works with the Vord so they can have collared Citizens to help in their conquest of Alera.
• Mind Rape: One of the best at it.
• Mr. Fanservice: It's not commented on that often, but even Amara is briefly impressed by his handsomeness while pretending to act as his slave in Princeps' Fury.
• The Rival: In Academ's Fury, he is this to Tavi, seeing him as a freak and should be squashed. When he shows up next, he's kind of outclassed.
• Smug Snake: He loves to rub his high born status in the face of his classmates.
• Villainous Valour: He manages to resist the horrific torment visited upon anyone rebelling against a slave collar so as to keep his own skin intact while in service of the Vord Queen.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Kalarus doesn't think very much of him.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He is aware of this idea and resists giving the Awakened Vord Queen and Invidia knowledge of making truly broken and mindless collared slaves because once he does, it is only a matter of time before he would be killed.
• Yuri Fan: Played for Horror - After his father loses and he eventually joins the Vord, he spends the rest of his time forcing women wearing his Slave Collars to have sex with one another for his amusement.

High Lord Antillus Raucus

High Lord of Antillus and father of Max and Crassus. Raucus spends most of his time fighting the Icemen on the Shieldwall and is a very skilled battlecrafter. He is loyal to the House of Gaius, but hates Gaius Sextus for personal reasons.

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• An Arm and a Leg: The Awakened Vord Queen cuts off his right arm when he, Phrygia, and the Placidias fail to assassinate her.
• Arranged Marriage: To Kalarus Dorotea. He hates her and would've preferred to marry Max's mother instead.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Even more than the other High Lords. To be High Lord of one of the Shield Cities, you have to be adept at asskicking.
• Awful Wedded Life: His marriage to Dorotea. He never wanted to marry her in the first place, wanting instead to marry Max's mother. However, he caved to pressure when his father died, not knowing how strong Max would be, and married Dorotea to secure an alliance with Kalare and their food supplies which would greatly help the frozen lands up north. Dorotea then had Max's mother murdered.
• The Big Guy: Of Septimus's circle of friends.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He's a big guy with a large personality and no reservations about getting into fights.
• Captain Obvious: Has a tendency to point out the obvious. This is lampshaded by Lord Phrygia.
• Didn't See That Coming: He's briefly taken aback when Isana - who he had previously assumed to be toadying on behalf of Gaius Sextus, a man he personally despises - angrily snarls that she actually hates Sextus for having essentially left her husband (Septimus) to die.
• A Father to His Men: He personally attends the funerals of his men who die fighting on the Shieldwall. One of the reasons why he hates the Icemen so fervently is because of how many of his soldiers and people they've killed in the endless war on the Shieldwall.
• Graceful Loser: He technically wins the juris macto, but Isana defeats him by psychologically analysing him and by convincing the Icemen to agree to a cease fire. He then agrees to aid her in every way possible and places himself under her command.
• Hero Antagonist: He's the main obstacle preventing Isana from moving the Antillian and Phyrigian Legions south to support the rest of the Realm against the Vord in Princeps' Fury, and her struggling to overcome him is the main conflict for her subplot in that novel.
• Papa Wolf: When Crassus becomes leader of the First Aleran while Tavi is removed from the position in Captain's Fury it is mentioned if Arnos tries to get Crassus executed on trumped up charges or refusing to kill civilians, Raucus would quickly step in and challenge Arnos to juris macto.
• Parental Neglect: Raucus is a largely absent father due to spending so much of his time defending the Shieldwall. As such, he never intervened to stop Dorotea's abuse of Max. Things got so bad that Max ran off to join the Legions at 14.
• Parental Obliviousness: It's unclear how much he knew about Dorotea's abuse of Max, considering he was gone most of the time.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He's one of the most powerful High Lords and is a very skilled battlecrafter.
• Playing with Fire: Though Raucus is skilled in all six forms of crafting, he is especially skilled at firecrafting. Lady Placida speculates this is due to his passionate nature.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: The fifth book makes it clear that he's been one for decades. He has been protecting Alera from constant Iceman attacks since he was fourteen, and forty years of warfare has left deep scars on his psyche. This is why he is so unwilling to believe that it could be possible to make peace with the Icemen, he's seen too many of his soldiers and worse, his civilians, dead at their paws.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: He's almost pathologically unable to even contemplate forming a lasting peace with the Icemen until Isana finally shows herself to be willing to die for it to succeed.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: He and Max's mom. Raucus wanted to marry her, but was forced to marry Dorotea instead. Then Dorotea had the woman killed.
• True Companions: With Septimus and Attis, though he and Septimus didn't get along at first.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Lord Phrygia. Phrygia mocks the boisterous, direct soldier's words regularly and Raucus shoots back at him; but the two remain a steadfast duo.
• Worf Had the Flu: He deliberately limits himself in the juris macto he has with Isana since he feels it would be disrespectful towards her.

High Lady Antillus Dorotea

Sister of High Lord Kalarus and wife of Antillus Raucus. They have one son, Crassus. She's tried to kill Max numerous times, viewing him as a threat to Crassus's inheritance. She is introduced in Cursor's Fury, where she serves as the First Aleran's Tribune Medica.

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• Abusive Parents: To Max — and to Crassus as well; some of Max's scars are from protecting his half-brother from his mother's temper. Crassus makes his excuses, but when he sees someone else at risk from his mother's wrath he's quick to try to prevent it, knowing all too well what it's like.
• Ambition Is Evil: Tavi comments that her ambition was a cancer that got amputated by the collar.
• Arranged Marriage: To Raucus.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She always did love her son Crassus; her persecution of Max and the attempts to kill him were mostly to keep him from taking her son's place.
• Good Feels Good: The collared Dorotea gives off a deep sense of fulfilment quite unlike the buried misery Isana senses in other collared slaves. Collar or no, Dorotea is finding healing people and experiencing their gratitude and liking very rewarding.
• Healing Hands: She served as the Tribune Medica to the First Aleran before turning traitor. She resumes working as Tribune Medica after being collared.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: An understated case. Her personality is still her own, even after being collared, but it becomes much more benevolent afterward. This trope is actually discussed by both Durias and Tavi - both of whom are rather sickened by the concept.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Defied; while it's darkly ironic that Dorotea — the sister of a High Lord who's notorious for his monopoly on the slave trade — should end up a collared slave herself, Tavi doesn't believe for an instant she deserved such a fate, regardless of how awful she was. He's particularly sickened at the thought of what she must have endured at the hands of the formerly enslaved people freed by the Canim.
• Made a Slave: Sarl puts a slave collar on her. With his death, she can never be freed from the commands she has been placed under.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Her preferred method of removing her enemies.
• The Medic: She is an able healer, first joining the Legion as the top medical official.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Had Max's mother killed.
• Offing the Offspring:
  • He's not her biological offspring, but Max is her stepson and she's been trying to kill him for years.
• Rage Breaking Point: When the Awakened Vord Queen kills Foss, who saved Dorotea from the blast by pushing her away, she's filled with such righteous fury that she temporarily overcomes her slave commands and launches a powerful attack against the Vord Queen, stunning her enough for Tavi to catch up. That said, her collar quickly punishes her for this violation.
• That Man Is Dead: After being collared, she says that High Lady Antillus Dorotea no longer exists and she is simply Dorotea now. She also asks Tavi to tell Crassus that she's dead, as she believes it would be easier for him to mourn her.
• Wicked Stepmother: She beat Max repeatedly until he came into his furies and could stand up to her. After that she started arranging "accidents" for him.

High Lady Placidus Aria

Wife of High Lord Placida and one of the strongest crafters in Alera. She and her husband prefer to stay out of politics, though she eventually becomes a close friend and ally of Isana.

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• Action Girl: Earned her Citizenship through both merit of her furycrafting and skill in combat.
• Ambadassador: Serves as ambassador to the Icemen along with Isana during Princeps' Fury.
• Damsel in Distress: Kalarus captures her so he can use her as a hostage against her husband. Downplayed in that she could've escaped from him on her own, but he rigged things so that a child would die if she tried anything.
• Foil: She can be seen as the Good Counterpart to Invidia. Both are powerful and skilled crafters who hold a great deal of influence in Alera. When they both approached Isana in Isana's moments of need, Invidia made the cold calculating practical assessment on how it could help her goals, while Aria offers kindness for nothing asked in return.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Her displaying this served as an alert to Isana that something was making Alerans feel irrationally angry around Icemen.
• Happily Married: To Placidus Sandos. While most High Lords marry for politics, they married for love.
• Lady of Black Magic: She's regal, elegant, and the first woman to become a Citizen by winning a juris macto duel. Later she becomes one of the top Aleran commanders during the Vord War.
• Load-Bearing Boss: If she had been killed in Cursor's Fury, numerous dangerous wild furies leashed under her command would've been released and would've ravaged the countryside of her province.
• Redhead In Green: She's a redhead and frequently wears green, as it's the color of Placida.
• Silk Hiding Steel: See Lady of Black Magic.
• Team Mom: Takes this position when the other High Lords (particularly Antillus, Phrygia and her husband) are picking on each other like school kids.

High Lord Cereus Macius

The elderly High Lord of the city of Ceres. While not considered to be one of the greatest furycrafters in the Realm — thanks in large part to his city being best known for its rich agriculture and crop yields — as the series ramps up he often finds himself forced into the frontlines of Alera's increasingly turbulent political sphere.

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• Beware the Quiet Ones: He's often likened and described as being a "frail old man," but survives right to the end of the series despite being put through some of the worst possible battles.
• Feed It a Bomb: How he manages to kill the last of the Vordbulks, flying into its mouth while unleashing all of his firecrafting, effectively vaporizing its head.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He flies into the last Vordbulk's mouth and blows its head to smithereens through his firecrafting, saving Garrison and helping win the day for the Alerans.
• Old Soldier:
• Older Than They Look: Subverted. It's specifically noted that, unusually for a skilled Citizen-tier furycrafter, Macius' watercrafting isn't able to make him look decades younger than he really is, resulting in him being one of Alera's few watercrafting-capable aristocrats to actually look his age.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His son and heir Vereus is killed by the Vord early on into the events of Princeps' Fury.
• Papa Wolf:
  • After Kalarus obliquely threatens Macius' son, daughter, and grandchildren, he makes Kalarus' water image explode into droplets, and directly aids on the frontlines during Kalarus' siege of the city to help keep his family safe.
  • His Heroic Sacrifice to kill the last Vordbulk is motivated primarily by how his daughter and his grandchildren are all hiding behind Garrison's walls with the rest of the Calderon Valley's refugees, and if the Vordbulk isn't stopped, it will plow right through the Aleran defenses and kill everyone.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: High Lord Ceres is repeatedly shown to be a patient, wise man who is willing to listen to the advice of others even when it's not necessarily advice that he'd want to hear.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: He directly fights on the frontlines against both Kalarus and the Vord.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: After Kalarus's watercrafted image in Macius' garden subjects him to a "The Reason You Suck" Speech and all but orders him to stand down and let Kalarus' forces pass Ceres by or else he will take the city through bloody force, Macius silently stares at him for a moment before snarling "Get out of my garden," making Kalarus' water image evaporate and then immediately start barking orders at his councilors to prepare for the defense of his city.
• To Be Lawful or Good: He subtly chooses "Good" through having his civic legionaries turn a blind eye to the Libertus Vigilantes, a group of ruthless abolitionists who murder slavers in their drive to abolish slavery throughout the Realm, quietly supporting their viewpoint while being unable to openly endorse them since his city's largest market is in agriculture (as in, an industry "requiring" slave labor thanks to Alera's Medieval Stasis).
• Trauma Conga Line: His city and subjects are repeatedly savaged — first by Kalarus, and then by the Vord — to the point where it must be abandoned, his son is killed in battle by the Vord, and he is forced to fight on essentially the front lines to keep the Realm standing. Suffice to say, he's basically falling apart by the end of the series.
• Undying Loyalty:

Lady Cereus Veradis

The daughter of High Lord Cereus Macius. As Alera slowly falls into chaos over the course of the series, she and her father find themselves increasingly intertwined with the Realm's politics.

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• All Love Is Unrequited: Antillar Maximus is implied to have become a Ladykiller in Love, being very fond of her but having his affections for her turned down multiple times. That being said, this trope might actually be downplayed since the series' epilogue heavily implies that she is starting to return his affections following the end of the Vord War.
• Hero-Worshipper: She becomes quietly fawning over Isana and is greatly impressed by the older woman's Nerves of Steel and unexpected skill in the political arena.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Forms one with Isana.
• Magical Defibrillator: Can do this through using a mix of windcrafting and watercrafting to channel electricity.
• Non-Action Girl: While she is a skilled crafter, her specialties aren't in combat and are more based in healing people.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She spends the vast majority of her time directly helping save the lives of Alera's legionaries, first during the Kalaran Rebellion and then during the Vord War.
• Trauma Conga Line: Her city and subjects are all ravaged — to the point where Alera is eventually forced to abandon the city — her older brother is killed (meaning that she must now indirectly care for her dead brother's children), and works herself to the bone through trying to keep Alera even somewhat standing as the conflict with the Vord slowly shifts more and more into a Hopeless War. Amara even mentions in her narration that Veradis is barely able to stop herself from breaking down crying when she's begging the Senate to help defend Ceres from the Vord's incoming attack.
• Unexpected Successor: Her older brother was the next in line for Ceres' throne; as such, when he is killed by the Vord, everyone is very surprised to see her as Macius' successor.

Senator Guntus Arnos

The Senator in charge of military spending, who dismisses any report of military threats that don't fit his preconceptions. Politically, not a supporter of the First Lord, but in a position too sensitive to ignore.

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• Ascended Extra: He goes from having just a cameo in Cursor's Fury to being one of the main antagonists of Captain's Fury.
• Bad Boss: Seen hitting and insulting a secretary who gives him bad news. Also willing to sacrifice his army just for his personal political gain.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Forms one with both Kalarus and Nasaug in Captain's Fury, though even then he's just the pawn of the Aquitaines.
• Big Bad Wannabe: He views himself as Invidia's equal. She views him as a pawn that, despite his stupidity, happens to be convenient for getting her husband into power. In the end, she orders Fidelias to kill him after he has outlived his usefulness by taking care of Tavi for her.
• Commander Contrarian: Despite Tavi's innovations being highly effective, he ignores them simply because they aren't traditional.
• Dirty Coward: He has no stomach for fighting. When Bernard challenges him to a duel, he face turns red before he all but runs out of the room in fear.
• General Ripper: Has no problem sending his troops to their deaths - or sending them to cause massive civilian casualties - just for his political career and ego.
• Hate Sink: It's impressive how thoroughly awful he is when he's treated as an outright villain. Suitably, literally no one else in the series seems to actually like him.
• Hanslons Razor: Tavi ultimately realizes that his A Million Is a Statistic attitude is ultimately born of this, with Arnos being both too stupid and too selfish to be "truly" evil and he just has a fundamental Lack of Empathy making it so he doesn't understand the numerous hideous Disaster Dominos that emerge from warfare.
• Hope Spot: There is a brief moment in Captain's Fury when he gives a heartfelt thanks to Tavi for sending his men in at the right time to save his own. It looks like Tavi might be able to work with him and control him, but then he gives Tavi orders. See Kick the Dog.
• Humiliation Conga: Arnos's Karma Houdini Warranty has expired by the climax of Captain's Fury. He discovers that his opponent is the legitimate heir to the throne (and so has the right to challenge him over the horrible things he's done), his champion loses the duel, meaning that he's going to have to face justice, and when he takes a hostage in an attempt to escape, he's shot in the back. As he lays dying, Tavi shows him absolutely no respect and only calls a healer for the woman he was trying to use as a human shield.
• I Reject Your Reality: He dismisses anything that doesn't fit his preconceptions. Reports of a new and extraordinarily dangerous enemy, which has already chewed up a Marat force and an Aleran force, and is possibly on the loose? Just lies. Marat can't be trusted, you know. Canim now have ranged weapons? The Canim are just dogs who couldn't possibly innovate that, and the Canim crossbow you captured isn't sufficient evidence to the contrary. The Canim want to build ships and leave? Nope, the Canim only exist to make Alerans miserable, and giving them any quarter towards achieving this goal will just result in sea-going Canim raiders.
• Jerkass: Nobody really likes him. Even Invidia finds him annoying, and merely puts up with him because he's on her side and in a useful position.
• Kick the Dog: He has an entire town ordered killed for "conspiring with the enemy" (read: not fighting to the death against an unbeatable opponent that doesn't want to kill you) just so he can get Tavi removed from his post when he inevitably refuses. Then he decides to kill them anyway as an "example" to the other towns.
• Lack of Empathy: Doesn't even bat an eye when ordering the executions of a town of innocent people. He views everyone else as pawns in a game, and truly doesn't get how war hurts others.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Indifferent to the casualties in his campaign. It's commented that he just views it as a game.
• Noodle Incident: A non-comedic version. When Invidia is blackmailing him into doing what she wants, she mentions several things, including what seems to have been an assassination.
• Obstructive Zealot: He wants nothing more than his own political advantage, and does stupid and destructive things that get thousands of people, both soldiers and civilians, killed for it.
• Save the Villain: When he lays badly injured from a poisoned bolt in his chest, he thinks this is happening when Tavi calls for a healer. Tavi subverts his expectations by saying the healer is for the hostage he took, not him.
• Smug Snake: Convinced he is a brilliant tactician who uses the powers the Senate gave him to kill. Everyone else is convinced that he's a delusional idiot who somehow managed to weasel his way into a high position, and that he's just going to make things difficult for everyone before he finally falls. As it turns out, he actually can be more competent than he appears, he's just hamstrung by his prejudices.
• Villainous Breakdown: It begins when Tavi reveals himself as Gaius Octavian and challenges him to a duel, but he really loses it when Tavi beats his champion Navaris, meaning that he's finally going to have to face the music for what he did.
• We Have Reserves: See General Ripper and A Million Is a Statistic.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: Tavi commented that he could have, though he takes it back when he realizes that Arnos thinks in terms of A Million Is a Statistic.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Invidia decides that Fidelias should kill him if he doesn't die during Tavi's juris macto against him.

Mercenaries

Fidelias

Fidelias was a Cursor and Amara's mentor, until he betrayed the First Lord for Aquitaine. A master spy and manipulator, he has greatly helped Aquitaine's bids for power until deciding Tavi would make a better ruler. He is now Tavi's advisor, in a Secret Identity. In any event, Fidelias is absolutely loyal to only one thing – his country – and will do whatever he thinks is best for it, no matter how terrible others might think it.

Fidelias is absent throughout Cursor's Fury, and it's only after a moment of Fridge Logic from Amara that the narration reveals where he is: throughout the book he's been serving in the First Aleran Legion as First Spear Valiar Marcus, an old cover identity of his. Marcus later has some inner struggles with Heel–Face Revolving Door and Becoming the Mask, but ultimately abandons Lady Aquitaine and sides with Tavi.

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• The Atoner: Kitai believes this of him as he didn't run when he had the chance once outed. He stayed and accepted Tavi's punishment without argument. He feels his death is needed to make amends.
• Becoming the Mask: After taking on the guise of Valiar Marcus, Tavi successfully earns his loyalty up until the point that he comes to value his role as Valiar Marcus over his role as Fidelias, even to the point of turning against Invidia.
• Being Evil Sucks: He defects to the Aquitaine's side because he thinks they're the best hope for the country. He does a lot of horrible things for them, like inciting the Marat to invade Alera, betraying his student Amara, and giving Arnos advice on how best to oust Tavi, who's The Good Captain. He feels utterly horrible about all of this, and it eventually makes it so that he cannot reveal his identity to Tavi after Tavi earned his loyalty, because to Tavi, Fidelias is the one who attempted to murder his family.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: While he's ultimately only the puppet of the Aquitaines, both he and Atsurak are the main antagonists of Furies of Calderon.
• Big Bad Friend: To Amara at the beginning of the first book, although they never interact after she discovers his treachery and escapes.
• Consummate Liar: As he said to Odiana: "Yes, I do. No, I don't. The sky is green. I am seventeen years old. My real name is Gundred."
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Nearly suffered from one in First Lord's Fury after his cover is blown, with him being crucified and left to fend for himself out in the frozen north of Phrygia. Thankfully, however, Kitai convinces Tavi to recant and Fidelias is saved.
• Death Seeker: Has shades of this, particularly in the last novel where he doesn't even attempt to make a break for it after he's found out.
• Death Equals Redemption: Feels that he has to die in order to find some sort of redemption. Which happens. Sort of.
• Evil Counterpart: To Bernard, same crafting, both straightforward, mentors, and a little gruff at times. Too bad Fidelias is evil(ish).
• Fallen Hero:
  • Amara and many Cursors view him as this for his betrayal to the Crown.
  • Tavi, Max, and the First Aleran's leadership see him as this after they learn Valiar Marcus, their dependable First Spear, is also the greatest traitor to the realm.
• Famed In-Story:
  • Fidelias has a reputation as one of the best Cursors, which makes his defection a Mass "Oh, Crap!" moment for his former colleagues.
  • Marcus is given the name Valiar in recognition of his bravery after the aforementioned raid, one of only five men so honored. When Max learns that Valiar Marcus is the First Spear of the First Aleran, he becomes a lot more hopeful of the Legion's chances.
• Good Feels Good: Even after he turns his coat, Fidelias always likes the rare occasions when he work lets him help the ordinary people of Alera. This is part of why he ends up Becoming the Mask; it's plainly obvious that Valiar Marcus, First Spear of the First Aleran, is a lot happier than Fidelias ex Cursori.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Started out on the side of the Big Bad, then switched to the First Aleran, then almost to the Big Bad's Dragon, before finally sticking to Tavi.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: ...Because they're most likely to be able to preserve the Realm. But his true loyalty is to the country itself.
• Mercy Kill: In Furies of Calderon he kills a steadhold girl who is captured by the Marat and being eaten alive by them.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Fidelias never gloats. He never does anything he hasn't thought out and planned ahead for, and he never offers his enemies any second chances or a dramatic showdown. Best demonstrated when he decides to deliver his resignation to Lady Aquitaine—with a balest bolt, from several hundred metres away, laced with two of the most lethal poisons in the Realm. One which quickens the heart rate and the other becomes more deadly the further it spreads in the body.
• Non-Indicative Name: "Fidelias" means "faithful". Which he... isn't. Well, except to the Realm itself.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Ends up on the receiving end of this - a lot - during Captain's Fury.
• Old Master: Revealed at Eastercon 2015 after the series, this will be his role among the next generation of Cursors, which would include Canim and Marat. Ehren will "Obi-wan" them directly and Fidelias will be "Yodaing" in the shadows.
• Old Soldier: The most experienced legionare in the First Aleran. At one point, Tavi is about to give him orders, and changes his mind.
  Tavi paused, took a breath, and shook his head. "He'll know what to do."
• Only a Flesh Wound: Things like spears inside of him, or javelins scaled for nine-foot-tall Canim are only a mild inconvenience.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: In Cursor's Fury, as the First Spear with years of experience, he has every right to remove Tavi from command when he knows Tavi is not a real officer, but listens to Tavi's arguments and ideas about how he knows much of the Cane. He eventually agrees to follow him. It helps in that moment, Fidelias likely realizes Tavi is Septimus' son.
• Retired Badass: Valiar Marcus came out of retirement to join the First Aleran. This causes Magnus to become suspicious of him, since until he came out of retirement, Marcus had vanished off the face of Alera... around the time Fidelias was known to be operating.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Ultimately averted. It was a close thing, though: when Tavi found out who Marcus really was, he ordered him crucified and had to be talked out of it by Kitai.
• Secret Identity: As Valiar Marcus.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: At the end of Cursor's Fury he has realized Rufus Scipio is Tavi, who is really the child of Septimus, heir to the House of Gaius. He is a bit shocked but doesn't even dare hint that it is true when Lady Aquitaine asks.
• Sergeant Rock: Oh yes. There's a reason he's First Spear.
• Sleeping with the Boss's Wife: His affair with Invidia. Fidelias worries about how Attis will react if he finds out.
• That Man Is Dead: Forced on him in favor of Valiar Marcus at the end of the series. Not that he minds, though.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Like many watercrafters, though it's much harder for him due to it not being his specialty. It takes almost a month and is apparently quite painful.
• Walking Spoiler: The revelation that Valiar Marcus is Fidelias ex Cursori is one of the main plot twists at the end of Cursor's Fury.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He betrays Gaius in favor of the Aquitaines because he thinks Gaius is a dying old fool who won't simply bow out gracefully, and the other options for First Lord are petty schemers (and minor characters) and Lord Kalarus, who's a mentally unstable and vicious madman. He later implies he wouldn't have betrayed Gaius if he had known about Tavi, and pretty quickly switches his loyalty to him once he sees that Tavi is both the legitimate heir and a better ruler than the Aquitaines would be.
• What You Are in the Dark: Soon after he realizes Magnus is very close to discovering his true identity (which Tavi would execute him for if he'd known), the pair of them are attacked by three Vord while alone. Marcus realizes he could very easily Make It Look Like an Accident (after all, who would blame him for only being able to kill two and a half Vord?), but also that doing so is the kind of cold, self-serving action that he hated Alera's nobility for. He ends up saving Magnus.
• Wild Card: For much of the series grasping just whose side he is on is the question. He ends up pretty firmly on Tavi's side by the end.
• Worthy Opponent: Gaius Sextus appears to hold him in high regards even after he turns coat. Enough to use furycraft to sneak into his room and leave him the swamp-exploring gear he had left behind because they're in an Enemy Mine situation against Kalarus, also serving as an If I Wanted You Dead... reminder.
• You Just Told Me: During a fight with some Vord scouts, Magnus, who has been suspicious of Valiar Marcus for a long time, shouts, "Fidelias! Behind you!" When he whirls around to look and sees nothing there, he realizes he just blew his cover. Tavi is pissed.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: In Captain's Fury, he gets this both coming and going. Lady Aquitaine is highly impressed by the plan he came up with to force Tavi to either execute a town of innocent people or be imprisoned, which he feels very guilty about, and other officers of the First Aleran praise Valiar Marcus's loyalty, when he's actually a spy.

Aldrick

Former singulare to Princeps Septimus. Aldrick ex Gladius is probably the second greatest swordsman alive, fearing only the swordsman who once beat him -– the legendary Araris Valerian. Lover of Odiana, and a mercenary in the service of the Aquitaines.

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• Back for the Finale: After two books' worth of non-involvement, he shows up to help the good guys in the final battle.
• Catchphrase: During the first book he will regularly say "Only Araris Valerian has ever beaten me, and you're not Araris," and variants thereof.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • In Furies of Calderon, he's visibly disgusted both by the Marat practice of devouring the flesh of their adversaries (sometimes while they're still alive) and Fidelias coldly breaking the neck of a young steadholder girl who was captured by the Marat.
  • Odiana was so broken by her treatment before they met that she wants him to put a discipline collar on her. He always refuses.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: He helps the First Aleran and Tavi's allies in the final battle against the Vord.
• Extra-ore-dinary: He's a very skilled metalcrafter on par with Araris.
• Fallen Hero: He was once one of Septimus' closest allies, one of his bodyguards, but sleeping with Odiana, for whom Miles was smitten, to calm her down led to Miles challenging him to Juris Macto, which led to Araris taking up the spot after Miles' "accident" and his defeat. The juris macto led to the public reveal of the incident and Septimus couldn't allow him to be near him again. After that, he became a mercenary.
• Master Swordsman: It's in the name. He's nearly as good as Araris. Unfortunately for him, "nearly" isn't nearly good enough.
• Meaningful Name: His name is Aldrick of the Sword...so naturally, he's a Master Swordsman.
• Oh, Crap!: He practically collapses in shock near the climax of Furies of Calderon when he realizes that he's finally facing Araris Valerian again for the first time in almost two decades.
• Out of Focus: Doesn't do much after the halfway point of the series.
• Pretender Diss: His "you're not Araris" Catchphrase, as mentioned above. When it turns out his opponent actually is Araris, he's absolutely terrified.
• Punch-Clock Villain: A mercenary-revolutionary with standards, if not morals.
• The Rival: To Araris.
• Secret-Keeper: Based on Invidia's first conversation in Captain's Fury, Aldrick never told her or anyone else Araris is alive and where he has been hiding. Whether this is out of respect, or not wanting to admit Araris beat him again is unknown.
• The Stoic: Since metalcrafters can block out pain and emotion, he can be fairly emotionless...unless he sees Araris, understandably.
• Unholy Matrimony: Stoic mercenary + Ax-Crazy Cloudcuckoolander = Surprisingly adorable couple.
• Villainous Rescue: Just when Amara and Bernard's battle against the Vord in Academ's Fury seems lost, he appears leading the charge with Aquitaine's legionaries, transforming the conflict from an extremely close call into a resounding victory for the good guys.

Odiana

A powerful watercrafter who was enslaved as a young girl – a mind-warping slave collar combined with her powerful empathy and the trauma of slavery has driven her mad. She serves the Aquitaines alongside Aldrick.

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• Axe-Crazy: Her sanity fractured when she came into her water crafting at the age of 11 in the middle of being sexually assaulted by older men.
• Broken Bird: They don't come more broken than her in this series, she's so broken that she doesn't even react to being raped by Kord and tells Isana quite bluntly how to give Kord the least satisfaction.
• The Empath: Standard for a watercrafter, much to her detriment as it caused her to become mentally unstable.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Isana gets appropriately worried when she sees Odiana's "cheerfully insane" demeanor immediate fade into undisguised terror and panic when Kord pulls out a discipline collar for the two women to see.
• The Ophelia: Years as a slave broke her mind. She spends a lot of time giggling while drowning people.
• Out of Focus: She doesn't do much after the halfway point of the series.
• Pet the Dog: Helps Isana with no real ulterior motives when they're both trapped in Kord's steadhold.
• Rape as Backstory: As a slave. When Kord and his men start raping her in front of Isana, she just grimly accepts it. In fact, she gives Isana advice on how to be raped in such a way that the rapists won't hurt her too much.
• Tragic Villain: The poor woman's sanity broke like an old thread thanks to the hellish treatment she was forced into as a child.
• Unhappy Medium: Hoo boy. Being brainwashed and raped just as your empath powers are coming in does nothing good for your sanity.
• Unholy Matrimony: With Aldrick. Stoic mercenary + Ax-Crazy Cloudcuckoolander = surprisingly adorable couple.

Captain Demos

Captain of the Slive, a merchant vessel that indulges in smuggling as long as they can afford the bribes. Originally recruited by Ehren to carry word of the Canim in Cursor's Fury, he's later hired to help Tavi transport Varg after their Prison Break in Captain's Fury and remains a part of the team through Princeps' Fury and First Lord's Fury. A powerful woodcrafter, as evidenced by the fact that the Slive itself is one big wood fury that he can control at will.

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• Anti-Villain: Originally. He was the one who brought Sarl and the Vord Queen back to Canea. In his first appearance, he threatens a pawnshop owner/illegal fence with murder, and in his second appearance he nearly follows through—and then proceeds to kidnap all the women and children he can find on his way out of town. Sure, he's technically saving them from being murdered by a horde of Canim, but only so he can sell them into slavery. Yet he's somehow very likable, like a Darker and Edgier Captain Jack Sparrow. In the following book, Tavi notes that he doesn't have enough chains on his ship to be a full-time slaver; he probably never really sold them as slaves and really was just trying to save them. It's just that he's a pirate— and he has a reputation to uphold.
• The Captain: A very talented smuggler. He cares for his men and moves to protect them if he can.
• Combat Pragmatist: He has no problem fighting in any way that gets him an advantage, which includes using his the ship's wooden features against his enemies.
• Green Thumb: His whole ship is controlled by his powers over wood. So making doors open as surprise attacks are something attackers should be cautious of.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He may be a smuggler who will kill you without hesitation if you can't pay him, but he dislikes slavery and is appalled by what the Canim do to their captives.
• Honest Advisor: He is never cruel or mean to Tavi, and gives the title of Princeps little respect, but when it comes to his knowledge of the sea, sailing, and sea combat, he never minces words either. Tavi trusts his opinion on this and other matters.
• I Gave My Word: Once Tavi purchases his service, he will see it through, even if Tavi destroys his slavery chains during the trip. That is to be a matter they will discuss after this current venture is over.
• The Promise: When Tavi replaces the chains that he destroyed, he requests that if Demos approves of the replacements, he will never use any other set of chains for slavery. Demos, cynically suspecting them to be old rusty chains, agrees—provided they meet his expectations. Tavi doesn't give him rusty chains, but a long length of solid gold chains. Demos accepts them and becomes Tavi's mount at sea.
• Obfuscating Disability : The Slive looks "stained, old, and worn." It isn't. It is a very fast and nimble ship on the open sea, and while not a powerhouse in combat, one not to be taken lightly either.
• Out-Gambitted: Tavi stuns him by offering chains of pure gold as replacement ones to the slaving chains Tavi destroyed. Demos wasn't sure exactly how Tavi planned to settle accounts with him, but he never anticipated this. He even notes that with The Promise above, Tavi is making him wear his own chains and put them on freely.
• Shoot the Messenger: He almost became the victim of this trope when he delivered the final message from Kalarus to Sarl about the Canim invasion.
• The Stoic: He has two emotions: Blank, and pissed.
• The Unsmile: They are instead described within one book as "showing his teeth."

Rook

Head of the Bloodcrows (Kalarus's equivalent of the Cursors), she is Kalarus' chief spy and assassin; a minor but important recurring character.

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• Break the Cutie: What her training seems to have involved. She was raped and broken emotionally to allow her strong intelligence to remain and still be loyal to her lord. She wasn't totally broken, though...
• Cruel and Unusual Death: She gets part of her throat torn out by the Awakened Vord Queen, with her left to slowly drown in her own blood.
• Dark Action Girl: Not by choice. Kalarus keeps her in line by using her daughter against her.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Heartbreakingly and callously murdered by the Awakened Vord Queen because the Queen senses Rook's approval in Brencis Minoris not yielding information in making the slave collars even more effective. The Queen sees this flicker of independence as counter to her goals, so she kills her with as much thought as a human would feel for swatting a fly.
• Feed the Mole: After they discover she is a mole, she's allowed to remain with the Cursor candidates "undiscovered" because it's easier to keep an eye on her than to try to hunt down whatever replacement Kalarus would install.
• Heel–Face Turn: She defects from Kalarus' service the second she gets a serious chance to remove her daughter away from him.
• I Have Your Wife: Her daughter being kept close to Kalarus is how he keeps her under control.
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: As Gaelle.
• Kill and Replace: Maestro Killian allows Rook to kill the real Gaelle shortly after she was selected for Cursor training and use watercratfing to assume her appearance. Killian did this to get into Kalare's spy network.
• Mama Bear: She commits treason against both the First Lord and Kalarus for the sake of her daughter Masha.
• The Mole: As Gaelle, who got close to Tavi in Cursor training.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Even when collared and supposedly under Brencis' control, she is able to act and stay loyal to the Crown and protect her daughter. She eggs on one fellow slave to kill the Cursors they found to prevent the Cursors from revealing more information and then kills the second slave because he realizes the truth. After this betrayal, she then goes back to her master and gives the truth in such a way that she isn't disobeying his commands.
• Punch-Clock Villain: A good person forced to do bad things because Kalarus has her daughter.
• Take Care of the Kids: After being enslaved by a discipline collar, her last request to Amara is this, as the one place she felt was safest from the Vord was the Calderon Valley.
• Trapped in Villainy: Kalarus forced her to act as his puppet through threatening the safety of her daughter.

Phrygiar Navaris

Bodyguard, assassin, or blade-for-hire, Navaris doesn't care – she's in it for money and the reputation as the most dangerous swordswoman alive. Nowadays, though, she serves as the chief singulare to Senator Arnos, enforcing his corrupt will on anyone unlucky enough to get in her path through sword and intimidation.

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• Alas, Poor Villain: Downplayed. Tavi isn't particularly devastated by her death, but he's not very proud of using her Freudian Excuse to induce a Villainous Breakdown and takes the time to gently close her eyes after she dies.
• Animal Motif: Snakes; both Tavi and Fidelias compare her eyes and general demeanor to a serpent's. It's fitting given that many snakes are quiet and unassuming, but extremely deadly, just like Navaris herself.
• Ax-Crazy: She thinks becoming a famous killer will force her father to acknowledge her.
• Dark Action Girl: A sadistic, Ax-Crazy killer with a bodycount in the hundreds if not thousands.
• Death by Irony: Navaris became famous as a champion-for-hire (basically, she fights duels for rich people so they don't have to risk their lives). She ends up dying in a duel with Tavi.
• The Dragon: To Arnos. She's his main enforcer and his champion in any duels.
• Duel to the Death: She uses these as an excuse to legally kill lots and lots of people, mostly just for the hell of it.
• Evil Virtues: She has an extraordinary amount of willpower, which helps keep the Ax-Crazy in check.
• Freudian Excuse: She was born out of wedlock and never knew her father, or even who he was; she acts as she does in the hope that if she becomes the best in the country he'll appear and acknowledge her.
• Mask of Sanity: Much is made in Tavi and Isana's narration throughout Captain's Fury of how she's actually profoundly mad and is only able to make it seem like she isn't perfectly fine with disemboweling everyone she meets.
• Master Swordsman: Araris is probably the only person on the planet more capable with a blade than she is, and unlike with Aldrick, the margin between them is close enough that Navaris is still a genuine threat to him. Tavi only managed to win their duel by playing on her psychological hang-ups, and even then it was a close deal.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Her response to pretty much any problem is to put a hand on her sword and get ready to start cutting throats. Tavi and Arnos are able to dissuade her a couple times, but eventually she stops accepting excuses and just starts slashing.
• Parental Abandonment: She is the bastard child of a Citizen and commoner. Her father never acknowledged her and she might not even know his true name.
• Sanity Has Advantages: She's a far better swordsmaster than Tavi is, but Tavi thinks far more clearly than her. He manages to use her deep-seated psychological flaws to talk her into a Villainous Breakdown, meaning that she ends up making the mistakes that allow him to kill her.
• To Be a Master: To be the greatest swordswoman alive! Oh, and to gain the recognition of her father.
• Villainous Breakdown: Tavi talks her into one.

Soldiers and Other Characters

Araris Valerian

One of the greatest swordsman who ever lived and once Septimus' close friend, he is believed dead by most of the world and uses the identity of Bernard's disfigured, brain-damaged slave Fade to watch over and instruct Tavi. He also develops a romance with Isana.

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• Becoming the Mask: A bit of a twist on the actual description: he isn't a con man, and he only clings to his alternate identity out of guilt. But he clings hard.
• Big Brother Worship He loves his brother so much, he lamed him to stop him from fighting Aldrick in juris macto and being killed.
• Big Damn Heroes: A lot. Nearly every book has him appear and perform some awesome swordsmanship, and generally defeating the enemy, or at least stalling them for other heroes to arrive.
• Bodyguard Crush: He was Isana's personal bodyguard while both were serving alongside Septimus in the Legions, and continues to protect her (and Tavi by extension) in the present day out of a sense of duty - and also because somewhere along the line, he ended up falling in love with Isana himself.
• The Cavalry: Likewise, a lot. Especially in Cursor's Fury, when Bernard, Isana, and Amara are about to be killed by Kalarus's Immortals, and in comes Fade, out of nowhere, in a dirty chef's apron, and slashes their way out.
• Chrome Champion: Does this for the final showdown against the Vord Queen. It doesn't win the fight but it helps save his life.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: His cover. He's very good at it. He abandons this after Cursor's Fury, where he openly appears as Tavi's, and later Isana's bodyguard, as Araris Valerian.
• Extra-ore-dinary: His metalcrafting ability makes him the deadliest swordsman alive. Also came in handy around Bernardholt's forge.
• Failure Knight: He blames himself for Septimus' death and falling in love with his best friend's wife.
• Faking the Dead: Part of the reason he became Fade is so that everyone would believe the greatest swordsman in the world had died.
• Feel No Pain: All metalcrafters have the ability to block out pain, but Araris is unquestionably one of the best at it: case in point, blocking an assassin's arrow by catching it through his palm barely makes him flinch.
• First-Episode Twist: Some fairly critical details about him are revealed early on, which can make him tricky to talk about without giving plot twists away.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Played with; he disguised himself by burning his face with the Legions' brand for cowardice. He's no coward, but he thinks he is.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: After spending close to two decades presenting himself as a mentally disabled unkempt slave, it's mentioned to be quite surprising how handsome he looks after he regains his will to live and decides to clean himself back up following the epilogue of Cursor's Fury.
• Mark of Shame: The brand on his face marking him as a coward to anyone who sees him at first glance. However, as noted in other tropes, Araris is only a coward in his own mind. His love for a woman who is the wife of his best friend and protecting her and not his Prince left him with guilt that lasts until Isana has a Journey to the Center of the Mind while healing him from a serious wound.
• Master Swordsman: Widely renowned as the single greatest swordsman in Alera. After a while, the narration simply stops describing most of his fights, summing them up in lines like, "Nine men rushed him. They died."
• Meaningful Name: When your surname means 'all-heal', and you end up with the master healer, and at least metaphorically healing her....
• The Mentor: To Tavi. He's also the first person to realize that Tavi has become capable of furycraft. He specifically trains Tavi in sword-fighting.
• My Greatest Failure: Blames himself for Septimus's death because Septimus had ordered him to leave and protect Isana instead. He failed to protect her sister Alia, and thought his delivery of Tavi caused him to be without furycrafting.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Views Tavi (Septimus' son) and Isana (Septimus' wife) as these.
• Not So Stoic: In Cursor's Fury, it becomes very clear that below the surface that he loathes himself and wants to die due to My Greatest Failure.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Again, he's good at this, in his Fade persona. He maintained it in view of anyone for over fifteen years. Even Bernard never caught on to the act. For part of the first book, Isana was worried he was lost in that persona.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: His brother, Sir Miles, knows him very well. Miles knows Rari would have died standing next to Septimus, however, he didn't. He has been protecting some boy for the past fifteen years. What could have made him abandon his best friend in a time of his greatest need? Cue Oh, Crap! to Miles' Fridge Brilliance on the matter.
• Painful Transformation: Araris makes it clear that even with his pain-numbing abilities via metalcrafting, his Chrome Champion transformation is highly painful (and the Vord Queen at one point takes advantage of this by reducing the temperature of the room to make his metal skin frost over), but when you're fighting the Awakened Vord Queen in a last-ditch effort to stop her from destroying all of Carna, you'll do it.
• The Penance: Part of his branding himself is to pay for his perceived cowardice and his greatest failures.
• Percussive Prevention: In order to save his brother, Sir Miles, from an almost certain death in a duel, Araris arranged it so that Miles broke his leg. Then Araris fought the duel in his stead and won.
• Posthumous Character: Died before the start of the series in the First Battle of Calderon. That's what is commonly believed, anyway. The reality is that he's been living undercover as the slave Fade.
• Scars Are Forever: That brand on his face isn't going away any time soon.
• Second Love: He takes up a romance with Isana long after Septimus's death.
• The Stoic: Not even Isana can pick up on his emotions most of the time. That's right, he's stoic on the outside and the inside.
• Survivor Guilt: Araris feels guilt over not being at Septimus's side during First Calderon, though the reason he wasn't there is because he was following Septimus's direct orders to protect Isana.
• Wig, Dress, Accent: His look as Fade has long, unkempt hair, a slack and unintelligent expression, dulled speech, and the burn mark on his face to hide his distinctive features. It works well enough because people saw the coward's mark and looked no further. Even his brother dismissed the similarities.
• The Worf Effect: Araris alternates between descriptions of his martial prowess and scenes of him getting roundly trounced. For example, Navaris nearly guts him in Captain's Fury, and the Vord stun him by hitting him with a door toward the beginning of First Lord's Fury.
• World's Best Warrior: Was well-known as one of the greatest swordsmen alive and it usually takes very long odds to even things up in a fight against him. Even Aldrick gets cowed at fighting him, courtesy of a previous duel between the two. Phrygiar Navaris can about match Araris and even manages to get a leg up on him in Captain's Fury, but she has the (dis)advantages of being quite crazy affecting her credentials.

Antillar "Max" Maximus

The illegitimate son of one of the most powerful High Lords, Max is Tavi's roommate at the Academy and a close personal friend. Lives life for the moment, as he doesn't expect to outlive his father. Powerful in Earthcrafting (especially the ability to induce lust), with a respectable skill in watercrafting as well. As a descendant of Alera's nobility, Max is also highly capable in all six elements. Seems to have fallen into the role of Tavi's primary sidekick.

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• And Then What?: As he later confesses to Tavi, he's never really put much thought into what he'd do with his life since he was fully in the mindset that Dorotea would make sure he'd never live to old age. As such, he's left a bit at a loss about what exactly he should do after Dorotea is given Heel–Face Brainwashing and the Alerans ultimately "win" the Vord War. It's implied that he is now thinking about settling down, hopefully with Cereus Veradis.
• Bastard Angst: Max is regularly abused by his stepmother Dorotea due to his bastard status. She sees him as a threat to Crassus's inheritance and arranges "accidents" for him as a result. She also had his mother murdered.
• Big Brother Instinct: He sometimes took whippings for things Crassus did in order to protect him. Additionally, Tavi notes in Captain's Fury if Arnos tries removing Crassus by trumped up charges and threatens to kill him, if their father didn't beat him to it, Max would surely call Juris Macto against Arnos and then "scatter Arnos' residual pieces over a quarter-mile of farmland."
• The Big Guy: Of Tavi's group from the Academy.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Very loud, a ladies man and the most talented furycrafter of Tavi's academy friends.
• Catchphrase: He often remarks about how it's a "sacred right" for a legionarie to complain about how sucky their life is and how much their commanding officers are screwing each other over.
• The Charmer: Very much so. He spends a night with a pair of twins at one point.
• Cerebus Retcon: His status as The Hedonist comes across in a far darker light come Cursor's Fury once it's revealed that it's a side effect of him being fully aware of how his Wicked Stepmother will ensure he has a short and tragic life.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: His outwardly lecherous behavior belies a surprisingly intelligent and tactically-minded nature. Additionally, he's also probably the single most powerful of all of Tavi's friends in terms of both furycrafting and straight-up combat.
• Dysfunctional Family: His father was largely absent fighting on the Shieldwall, leaving Max at the mercy of his stepmother Dorotea, who killed his mother and regularly had him beaten. After he stood up to her, she began arranging "accidents" for him. It was this that caused Max to run off and join the Legions.
• Everyone Has Standards: As lecherous as he is (to the point where he self-mockingly claims that he "treats women like objects"), Max is very keen on earning women's consent before he sleeps with them. Sure, he'll earthcraft them to be a little more open to him than they might otherwise be, but this is presented as more him just "speeding up the timetable" than anything else. In fact, it's mentioned that many of the women he bedded at the Academy were actually women that he'd previously helped defend from the interests of unwanted suitors.
• Flat "What": His reaction in the first chapter of Cursor's Fury to being told the catapult he just destroyed, and promised to help rebuild, was made with no crafting and the new one will be like that.
• Handsome Lech: Occasionally verging on Chivalrous Pervert.
• Heroic Bastard: A good man who doesn't resent his half-brother for his mistreatment at the hands of his Wicked Stepmother. He even took the blame for a few things to protect his half-brother in their youths.
• Healing Hands: He isn't as skilled as other watercrafters, but he has enough skill for minor wounds.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: He often mocks himself, both in good humor and as an example of his carefully concealed fatalism. As noted above, he himself claims that he "treats woemn like objects".
• Hidden Depths: Despite his goofy demeanor, he often shows a surprisingly clever mind in terms of politics, furycrafting, and insight into one's character. For instance, he bluntly but honestly informs Tavi in First Lord's Fury that he's a better man than Gaius Sextus ever was, since Tavi wouldn't have simply condemned the civilians of Alera Imperia that couldn't be evacuated in time to death like Sextus did with his Heroic Sacrifice. He also read up on advanced furycrafting theory in preparation for Tavi's expedition to Canea so as to make sure he and his friends were Crazy-Prepared. Furthermore, he criticizes Tavi during First Lord's Fury by noting how he hasn't been properly taking Kitai's opinions into account regarding their romance.
• In a Single Bound: His talent for windcrafting isn't quite enough to enable Flight like true Knights Aeris, but he can still jump very high and really far, to the point that Tavi genuinely mistakes it for crafted flight the first time he witnesses it.
• Ladykiller in Love: He is very interested in Cereus Veradis, who won't give him the time of day. It's implied that she's started to warm up to him after the end of the Vord War, though, likely aided in part by him defending her from various Jerkass Citizens attempt to usurp her position as the heir to Ceres.
• Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: In contrast to Tavi, who is set only on Kitai, Max goes through a series of one-night stands. Both Tavi and Max himself lampshade it.
• Made of Iron: Max has suffered through numerous "accidents" at the hand of his stepmother, but thanks in large part to a mix of his own luck, having good friends, and just in general being pretty damn tough, he's been able to survive them all. Probably the most noteworthy case is how he managed to survive having Schultz open his throat during a swordplay practice session thanks to Dorotea making Schultz's sword "slip" out of the legionarie's hands.
• Meaningful Name: Antyllus, son of Marc Antony, who did die young because his father's death stripped him of his protection — because Gaius Octavian murdered him.
• Mr. Fanservice: It's often mentioned that He Cleans Up Nicely and that while he's not precisely "conventionally" handsome, his attractive & boisterous Heroic Build along with his Deadpan Snarker streak and status as The Charmer often got him into bed with any woman he smiled at in the Academy.
• Mood Whiplash: Causes it just by wandering in and out of scenes. Especially when his past comes up, where he goes from happy to dark and curt jarringly quickly.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Tavi is very put off and concerned when he sees Max get openly terrified when his Wicked Stepmother arrives at the First Aleran Legion's camp in Cursor's Fury.
• Parental Issues: Well, he is a bastard son of a High Lord. Additionally, his stepmother had his mother killed and has been trying to do the same to Max for years in order to shore up her son Crassus' position as heir.
• The Pornomancer: His most-used application of earthcraft is to induce lust in women. Downplayed in that it's specifically noted that Max less uses his earthcrafting to get women into bed with him without their consent, but more to distract them so he can "properly" romance them with his silver tongue.
• Really Gets Around: His first scene in Academ's Fury has him having just enjoyed a night with twins. Whether he actually had a simultaneous threesome with them or he just took them in turns is unsaid, but Tavi finding him and dragging him from the bed of some young woman during their schooling wasn't uncommon.
• The Rival: Dorotea sees him as this to Crassus. In reality, he forms a sincere friendship/friendly rivalry with his step-brother as the series goes on.
• Sad Clown: A lot of his lechery and clowning around is because he knows his stepmother's planning to murder him anyway, so he sees no point in being too serious about life.
• Sarcastic Devotee: Despite his "Sacred Right" to complain, Max would give his life for Tavi.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: He and Crassus. Max is a fun-loving Boisterous Bruiser. Crassus is quieter and more thoughtful. They become an effective team over the course of the series.
• Stepford Smiler: Max uses his lechery and goofiness to avoid thinking about how miserable and depressing his life is.
• Spare to the Throne: While Max has no ambitions to take his father's position of High Lord, Dorotea is aware that should something happen to her Crassus, or if Max gets enough support from Antillus' Legions and the other High Lords, he could challenge Crassus for the position. She views his actions, growing prominence in the Legions, becoming friends with the page of the First Lord, as a plot to get around his illegitimacy. So she seeks to kill him.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Max has this relationship with virtually everyone he meets, most notably Crassus, Tavi, Ehren, and even Kitai.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He calls out Tavi on not properly courting Kitai according to the tenets of both her people and that of Aleran culture in First Lord's Fury, even noting that as a bastard himself, he wouldn't want to inflict the pains of illegitimacy upon anyone if he could afford it and it's more than understandable how angry Kitai would be at Tavi about this.

Antillus Crassus

Max's younger and legitimate half-brother, and their father's heir.

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• The Atoner: For both his mother's treachery and both his and his mother's abuse of his step-brother.
• Bash Brothers: Literally. Max and Crassus together are nigh-on unstoppable.
• Big Brother Instinct: An age-inverted case. In part out of guilt for having previously been cruel to him in childhood when he didn't know any better, Crassus is very defensive of Max, to the point where he point-blank obliterates the Canim charge on the First Aleran's position so as to make sure a critically injured Max can be sent back to the healers.
• Brought Down to Badass: The Awakened Vord Queen badly cripples him in First Lord's Fury by making him fall out of the sky, to the point where it's unknown if he'll ever be able to actually walk again without extensive physical therapy. However, he's still an incredibly deadly furycrafter, and both he & a nearly-unconscious Max successfully erect a stone barrier during a furystorm to help the First and Free Aleran Legions during the Battle of Third Calderon.
• A Father to His Men: Maybe moreso than Tavi; not quite as popular, perhaps, but less willing to put lives in danger. Still generally liked and respected.
• In the Blood: Zig-zagged. Fidelias observes that he has inherited the best parts of the Kalarus bloodline (patience, intelligence, long-term planning), but not their infamous mental instability.
• Ironic Name: Crassus is a patient, humble and level-headed man, unlike the infamous Marcus Licinius Crassus with who he shares a name and was known for being glory-hungry and greedy.
• Locked Out of the Loop: He was just as shocked as Tavi, Kitai, and Max were by his mother's treachery (Crassus only came along with the First Aleran since he was hoping he could try and bury the hatchet with Max).
• Only Sane Man: Considering his step-brother is not the most far-thinking person, Ehren is a somewhat cold spy, his boss's plans are all Crazy Enough to Work, and his boss's lover does whatever the hell she wants to, Crassus is pretty much forced into this position.
• The Rival: To Max, in a more friendly way as the story progresses.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: He and Max. Max is a fun-loving Boisterous Bruiser. Crassus is quieter and more thoughtful. They become an effective team over the course of the series.
• Spare to the Throne: After his uncle starts his war and his cousin joined in, Crassus ends up becoming a potential heir to the lands of Kalare. He is of high birth, his mother is Kalarus' sister, making him first in line to take over the lands once the war is over. It left him in a nice political situation where he couldn't be killed if Arnos tried to make him commit an legal but morally bankrupt order and Crassus refuses.
• The Strategist: His main weakness is that he is too cautious (which nearly costs him dearly), but even that usually serves him well since he is able to sense traps more easily than anyone else. In pretty much every other respect he's an excellent leader and tactician.
• What the Hell, Hero?: When he finds out that his mother is alive and Tavi never told him, he doesn't take it well and calls him out on it. By the epilogue, he is still refusing to speak to Tavi while undergoing physical therapy in Antillus, and it's unclear if their friendship will ever be mended.

Durias

A former slave who was liberated by the Narashan Canim during their invasion of the Amaranth Vale, and who has since become the First Spear of the "Free Aleran Legion" (made up entirely of liberated Aleran slaves fighting with the Canim to preserve their freedom).

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• Fire-Forged Friends: With Tavi, since they were on opposite sides of the conflict with the Canim until Tavi managed to bring about a peace between both sides. Their friendship was further engrained following Durias helping with Tavi's expedition to kill one of the Canean Vord Queens.
• Les Collaborateurs: He was the first Aleran to side with the Canim as part of the Free Aleran Legion. However, considering that he's a former slave and is using the opportunity to strike back against his oppressors, he's a very sympathetic example who's a Hero Antagonist at his worst.
• Naïve Newcomer: A downplayed case; during Tavi's expedition to kill of the Canean Vord Queens, Tavi internally muses how out of all the people he has brought along with him, Durias is the only one who hasn't been previously exposed to any of Tavi's Crazy Enough to Work stratagems, and so must think they've all gone insane. Him looking back to see Durias' pained "Why me?" expression regarding why someone like him was brought along almost makes Tavi burst into laughter.
• Only Sane Man: He largely serves as the Straight Man among the small group of Alerans and Canim Tavi leads within Shuar.

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