Characters / Cradle Series Main Characters

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• Abidan and Vroshir ^note  Abidan, Vroshir, Fiends of Chaos
• Monarch Factions ^note  Akura, Arelius, Northstrider, Emriss Silentborn, Seshethkunaaz, Reigan Shen, the Ninecloud Court, the Eight-Man Empire
• Vassal States ^note  Blackflame Empire, Seishen Kingdom, Sacred Valley
• Dreadgods and Cults ^note  Abyssal Palace, Redmoon Hall, Silent Servants, Stormcallers
• Others ^note  The Sword Sage, The Winter Sage, Ruby

Lindon

Wei Shi Lindon Arelius, The Sage of Twin Stars, Empty Ghost

Blackflame Appearance

^{click here}  to see after Waybound

"I'm here to punch a hole in the sky."

Paths: Black Flame, Twin Stars

A crippled, powerless member of the clan of the White Fox in Sacred Valley. He spent his entire childhood being bullied by those stronger than him... until he discovers that the world was much, much larger than he thought.

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• Accidental Proposal: So. Many. Times. With Yerin. It's a central theme of the series that he can't see himself in the future without her, whether it be in his internal thoughts or an accidental admission out loud. They're basically joined at the hip, especially in later books. Even the supporting characters pick up on it, though most don't comment on it.
• Acquired Poison Immunity: He isn't technically immune, because nobody is totally immune to poison, but his Iron body is tailor made to resist poison.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: His upbringing has left him with little pride, and he isn't above bowing to others for help.
• All the Other Reindeer: As an unsouled, Lindon has been treated as worthless by his entire clan and even his family for most of his life.
• An Arm and a Leg: Lindon loses his right arm in a duel, and later thanks his opponent for it, since he easily could have killed Lindon instead.
• Anti-Hero: Lindon is like a classic anti-hero in that he lacks a lot of confidence at first, but he also fits the more modern conventions of an anti-hero by being pragmatic, and he can be selfish with his goals at times.
• Anti-Magic: Pure madra is this for him.
• The Apprentice: Eithan takes him under his wing.
• Appropriated Appellation: He was originally called "Unsouled," someone without a natural talent for any sacred art (and thus less than human, by the laws of Sacred Valley). After becoming the Void Sage, he uses a single ideograph on his badge, since the Void has no visual representation. That character is the same one that marked him as Unsouled.
• Artificial Limb: He gets a Remnant arm to replace his right one. It uses hunger madra, so it can suck power out of everything he touches, but it can't even touch things without madra unless he's concentrating on it.
  • When Lindon advances to Underlord, he goes to the extra effort to evolve it with him, turning it into a more real-looking arm with upgraded hunger madra powers.
  • In Reaper After the events of Bloodline his previous arm is damaged beyond repair. So he finds a new one: the arm of Subject One, the father of all Dreadgods.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: His inexperience and enthusiasm leads him to ask some dumb questions. Sometimes these questions are understandable, like when he asked if his second core would give him another Iron body. But other times, they can just be dumb—like when he asks Yerin if Gesha can really go back in time and talk to herself.
• Audience Surrogate: Lindon was born and raised in the world of Cradle, so he is familiar with some of the world's rules and customs. However, his home, Sacred Valley, is very isolated from the rest of world and are actually wrong about many things concerning sacred arts. He was also deemed unworthy of instruction as an Unsouled. He frequently needs to have things explained to him (and by extension, the audience).
• Aura Vision: Like nearly everyone else in Cradle, he can use his copper eyes for this effect.
• Awesome by Analysis: Part of his cleverness comes from his ability to analyze situations and the powers of others. This is taken to the next level when he gets Dross, who can analyze fighting styles, map out plans, create simulations, and analyze Remnant parts.
• Badass Bookworm: Lindon spent a lot of his time as a child working in the archives in Sacred Valley, and when Mercy asks him what he enjoys doing besides work, research is one of the only things that he can come up with.
• Badass Family: By the standards of Sacred Valley, his family is very capable. Before being crippled, his father was considered a prodigy. His mother is a valuable soulsmith, and his sister has proven to be a prodigy herself.
• Badass on Paper: When you look at his accomplishments on paper, he sounds an undisputed badass, and sometimes he is. However, his victories in the start of the series had him beating up children, tricking, backstabbing, using bees, begging, and getting his share of beat downs.
• Badass Transplant: His Remnant arm is a menacing white skeleton that can absorb any madra it touches. When Lindon advances to Underlord, it becomes a chalk white arm that looks more human.
• Battle Aura: His Burning Cloak emits a black haze around his body. His Soul Cloak is a soft blue and white haze.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Lindon is polite to everyone he meets, regardless of rank. The reverse is not always true, much to the chagrin of some people once he starts outranking them.
• Bond Creatures: He bonds with the dragon-turtle Orthos to walk the Blackflame Path. They can sense each other's emotions at a distance, and feed each other madra. In Wintersteel he also bonds with Little Blue to drastically increase the capabilities of his Path of the Twin Stars.
• Born Unlucky: He was born Unsouled, and he his presumably the only Unsouled in his entire clan. Subverted in that his lack of training by his clan in their backwards ways meant that when he finally finds someone to train him it is done properly.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: When he uses his Empty Palm against Li Markuth it does nothing, and he is promptly torn in half. In Bloodline he breaks his Hunger arm feeding too deeply from a Dreadgod.
• Butt-Monkey: Lindon's weakness and inexperience leads him to comically suffer quite a bit.
  Eithan: Why is it that I so often find you locked in a dark place, filthy and exhausted and covered in blood?
  Lindon: At least Yerin didn't have to kick me this time.
  Mercy: Does that happen often?
• Can't Spit It Out: He has this moment with Yerin occasionally. When she's injured, he doesn't know how to express his feelings and even thinks of having Eithan bail him out. He does eventually say what he wants.
• The Chosen One: He was picked out by Suriel to see his future and change his fate.
• Character Development: At the start of the series, Lindon lacks confidence, can be pretty selfish, and thinks he has to move on his own. As the series goes on, he starts to gain more confidence and put other people's wants and needs before his own. He also feels less alone with the help of Yerin, Eithan, Orthos, and Gesha.
• Combat Pragmatist: His clans motto is 'honor by any means,' which he echoes in his actions. Growing up Unsouled meant that Lindon had to scheme and think of other options besides direct combat to have a chance against basically anyone. Even once he's powerful enough where he can just outright overpower many opponents, Lindon STILL prefers to prepare every trick, weapon, or unexpected strategy he can come up with to gain an edge.
• Crazy-Prepared: Lindon is very rarely short on weapons and equipment. He carries a huge bag full items. In one of his big fights, he covers himself head to toe with special weapons to beat his much stronger opponent.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Blackflame is a black and red flame that is infamous for its destructive capabilities. However, despite what every stranger he meets expects, Lindon doesn't want to destroy anything if he doesn't have to.
• Deadly Upgrade: Played with. His Path of Blackflame can kill him, but his Iron body combined with his second core take off most of the strain, allowing him to use the Path much more safely than the original Blackflames.
• Death Glare: It's pretty much his default expression, particularly when he's focusing on something or he is stressed out. He doesn't mean it most the time. It gets even worse with his Blackflame eyes.
• Determinator: Lindon retried the spiritual origin test at every opportunity. He doesn't give up on fighting much stronger opponents, and when his Iron body preparation requires him to be repeatedly bitten by venomous monsters, he keeps asking for more until he goes into a seizure. He has to make an effort to not spend every waking moment improving himself.
  "Might be you know this already, but he doesn't give up. If you cut off two legs and an arm, he'd fight you with one hand and his teeth. If there's a way to win, he'll hunt it down or he'll die on the trail." - Yerin, about Lindon
• Difficult, but Awesome: His original technique the Dragon Descends is this for him, since his Blackflame madra is hard to forge.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: After a lifetime of being weaker than everyone he knows, Lindon has a hard time realizing how strong he really is. When a random idiot picks a fight with him, he's still rapidly planning his next attacks when he realizes he had already incapacitated his opponent with his first blow.
• Do I Really Sound Like That?: He asks this when Mercy does an impression of him.
• The Dreaded: He wasn’t this for a long time, but he eventually earns his place as this. His face, fighting style, power, and ability to drain people of their strength make people fear going up against him - including dragons.
• Earned Stripes: His badges indicate his rank in advancement.
• Endearingly Dorky: Lindon is not described as being the cutest guy around, but there is something charming about his apologetic nature, naïveté, and excitement when he learns anything new about the sacred arts.
• Extreme Doormat: Due to him being in a world where Asskicking Leads to Leadership, his first instinct in a confrontation is to bow and apologize. This improves with his Character Development throughout the series.
  For the first time, Lindon witnessed what it was like to hear someone weaker than him speaking too humbly. It was painful.
  He felt a moment of shame for his past self.
• Face of a Thug: People say he always looks like he's spoiling for a fight.
• Fatal Flaw: Lindon remains consistently insecure about his abilities, as he still remembers how weak he was in Sacred Valley.
  Orthos: Once, you were weak. That boy is long dead, but his Remnant still haunts you. Your weakness, Lindon, is thinking you are weaker than you are.
• Friendless Background: Growing up, Lindon's status as an Unsouled led him to not having any friends in Sacred Valley.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Lindon starts off the story as the smallest fish in the smallest pond. When he gets out of that pond, he's a weak nobody without money, power, or connections to his name. He eventually becomes someone whom monarchs don't want to fight.
• Gentle Giant: Lindon is described to be pretty big and severe looking, but he's actually a pretty mild manner guy.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: After he reaches Lowgold, whenever he cycles Blackflame his eyes transform to match Orthos' - all black, with glowing red circles for irises. Once he forms a contract with Little Blue and his other core, they turn all blue with white circles when he cycles Pure madra. Finally, when he merges with his Remnant to become a Dreadgod in Dreadgod, they permanently transform into all black with glowing white circles.
• The Gift: Inverted. He's the one guy in Sacred Valley who doesn't have this in some area, which leads to him being abused by All of the Other Reindeer. In the outside world, he discovers that having the Gift doesn't matter nearly as much as having the proper training, resources, and willpower.
• Grin of Audacity: Sports this when he succeeds in beating up 10-year-olds at the festival tournament.
• Guile Hero: Through most of series, Lindon finds himself fighting against opponents well above his level. Because of this, he has to constantly use clever tricks to win. This has come back to bite him more than once; several times, his allies note that he could bust through an obstacle with brute strength, but he wastes time making a plan instead.
• Healing Factor: His Bloodforged Iron body not only resists poison, but helps him heal at a much faster rate.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: His insecurities follow him throughout the series, leading him to continually question his worth.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Has a hard time shooting Blackflame when he first gets it.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Has this dynamic with Yerin, since she barely comes up to his chest.
• Humble Hero: Despite rising in rank and power, Lindon doesn't throw his weight around most of the time.
• Horrifying Hero: How his enemies come to see him, every narration from their point of view points out that he looks like a demon in human form. Ramped up to insane degrees in ''Wintersteel',' once his enemies learn that not only will he defeat them but he will drain them dry and leave them as husks. A previously terrifying Blood Shadow takes one look at him and runs the opposite direction.
• I Am the Noun: How Lindon expresses the revelation that allows him to summon the Void Icon and advance to Sage. "I am the End."
• I Just Want to Be Badass: His goal is to be strong enough so that he won't see himself as worthless.
• Irony: Even though his face and size make him look like a brutish thug, Lindon is very mild mannered and polite.
• It Was a Gift: Lindon's glass marble, given to him by Suriel.
• Killing in Self-Defense: Lindon does not like to kill without reason, and would rather spare enemies if given the option. However, there are many times where his enemies just won't stop trying to murder him, so he ends up having to put them down.
• The Leader: Assumes this role during and after Ghostwater. When Lindon gets out of Ghostwater, he automatically falls into the role of leader with Yerin and Mercy. Despite Eithan being the one technically in charge, he lets Lindon take the wheel, and this continues during the Underlord trials and beyond.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Lindon constantly finds himself in scenarios where he steps up and fights a much, MUCH stronger opponent.
• Lightning Bruiser: Lindon, especially with his enforcer techniques, displays immense strength and speed.
• Loser Protagonist: For the first chunk of the series. Lindon is first seen as worthless by his clan, and then he's seen as a weakling barely of note in the outside world.
• Made of Iron: Like most people in Cradle, he has what's called an Iron body, which gives him inhuman durability.
• Mark of the Supernatural: His Blackflame goldsign is flaming red and black eyes. However, his pure core does not have a goldsign, as he raised that one to Gold through sheer power rather than with a bond. Therefore, he can hide his goldsign easily by switching to his pure core, when most sacred artists are stuck with very visible goldsigns for a long time. This changes in Wintersteel after bonding with Little Blue. When he is using his pure core his eyes take on the appearance of blue crystal with white irises.
  • During Dreadgod Lindon Consumes the Silent King, and after incorporating the Dreadgod's power into his core and body his eyes now permanently have black sclera with bright shining white rings for irises.
• Martial Pacifist: Lindon never voices any complains about killing when it has to be done, but he generally tries to avoid fighting and shows mercy if at all possible. Lindon is rarely the one picking a fight and is often the voice of reason trying to prevent violence, even in situations where he could easily win.
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: He has two cores, whereas every other person we meet only has one.
• Men Don't Cry: Whenever he's on the verge of tears, he tries to hide them, as he fears it will shame him.
  • Subverted in Underlord and beyond after Orthos tells him "A dragon is not ashamed of tears" and Lindon gets more comfortable expressing himself through tears.
• Naïve Newcomer: He was raised in the seclusion of Sacred Valley, so he has little clue about the outside world.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Many people react with hostility or fear to him as the Blackflame, and he is later dubbed the Empty Ghost by Malice.
• Nice Guy: Despite having good reason to take out his anger on people, Lindon is a surprisingly kind-hearted boy. Even when he's trying to do the badass tough guy thing, he'll probably offer an apology along with any threat.
• Oblivious to Love: He's uncertain about Yerin's feelings for him. He also has trouble understanding his feelings for her.
• Occult Blue Eyes: When he cycles Pure madra after forming a contract with Little Blue his eyes turn oceanic crystalline blue with white circles for irises.
• Playing with Fire: He uses his second core to start the Blackflame Path, an extremely powerful Path that uses fire and destruction madra. This lets him punch above his weight class on a regular basis.
• Power of the Void: As of Wintersteel, Lindon is the Void Sage.
• The Protagonist: He's Cradle's leading man.
• Psychotic Smirk: Subverted, in that his smile only looks psychotic due to his resting scowl face.
  Fisher Gesha: A smile doesn't go with those eyes. You look like you want to eat me for breakfast.
• Rage Breaking Point: Lindon actively tries to keep his emotions in check, despite people making it hard for him to do so. Even he has his limits though. He experiences this moment in Underlord when the stress of Orthos leaving, him not advancing, and Yerin's life threatening injury get to him. This happens again in Wintersteel, when yet another person tries to kill him because he defended himself.
  • As shown in Bloodline and Reaper his father has a way of doing this to him. When they're together expect Lindon to break furniture, doors, and/or buildings.
• Red Baron: Lindon's Dreadgod name is the Empty Ghost
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Partially subverted. Lindon's red eyes, a sign of when he is cycling blackflame madra, are a signal that he is getting ready to fight and due to the nature of blackflame madra he does feel violent urges when cycling it. However due to his non-confrontational personality, most of the time this is used to contrast how threatening he looks against his actual nature.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to Yerin's Red.
• Relationship Upgrade: After dancing around each other for most of the series Lindon and Yerin share a romantic kiss and board the cloudship they'd designed together.
• Removed Achilles' Heel: The Blackflame Path corrodes the body of the user, leading to an early death. His Bloodforged Iron Body has a Healing Factor that can overcome the corrosion.
• Screw Destiny: Lindon was originally fated to meet his end in Sacred Valley killed by a dreadgod, but with Suriel's intervention he strives to change his fate.
• Shrinking Violet: He's this more at the beginning of the series. His upbringing has left him doing this as a defense mechanism.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Because marriages are arranged in early childhood in Sacred Valley and no one wanted to hang out with an Unsouled anyway, the only people near his age he has spent any time with are his sister and his bullies. The first person his age who does treat him with respect is also the only person whom he ever expresses any interest in - Yerin. Somewhat subverted in that in alternate threads of fate he is shown marrying two other women (and seems equally devoted to at least one of them as he is to Yerin), but never shows any attraction to them in reality.
• The Strategist: Lindon often thinks of ways to beat his much stronger opponents.
• Super-Reflexes: What his bonding with Dross has given him, at base level Dross handles basically all of his low level actions during combat but while receiving a REPORT Lindon enters into Bullet Time where the entire fight plays out in his head, after leaving Bullet Time narration places most of these fights ending after seconds have passed. This does all depend on how much information Dross has been able to Sherlock Scan out of the enemy.
• Super-Speed: Lindon has enhanced speed from his Iron body, and it increases drastically when he uses his Burning Cloak technique.
• Super-Strength: Like most people in his world, he has Iron body that gives him enhanced strength. However, Lindon grows even stronger by eating special kinds of meat. With all that and his enforcer techniques, he can match those of higher advancement level. This goes even further in Wintersteel. With Lindon's Vampiric Draining Consume technique, he can absorb the blood essence of his foes, making him that much more powerful.
• Swiss-Army Appendage: How Lindon's Badass Transplant works out. It allows him to nullify attacks sent at him and throw them back. It allows him to grip onto walls and floors to keep from falling. Finally in Wintersteel it becomes the linchpin for his Consume technique.
• Took a Level in Badass: Lindon starts out as weak as they come in his world. But as the series goes on, not only does he show real mettle, he gains overwhelming strength that the other characters truly start to respect.
  • Come Wintersteel and he rises to be the youngest Sage in living memory.
  • By Dreadgod he finishes incorporating Subject One's arm into his body and uses it to Consume the Silent King's power, becoming essentially a combination of a Dreadgod and a peak level Archlord Sage, allowing him to finally be able to match Monarchs blow for blow.
• Training from Hell: Even by sacred artist standards, his training is insane. In fact, it's so crazy that it gets likened to abuse. After he reaches Lowgold, Fisher Gesha tells him that he could take it easy for the rest of his life and still make it to Underlord by age fifty. He can't give up because he needs far more power than that to save his home, but he does agree to take it easy for a few weeks. Then he runs after Yerin to join the Skysworn.
• Unique Protagonist Asset: Four of them.
  • First, he has pure madra. This isn't actually unique; every child is born with pure madra. But since it's only useful as Anti-Magic, everyone always quickly gives it up for something else once they reach the rank of copper. As an adult with pure madra, he has an unexpected trick up his sleeve, and has an advantage in soulsmithing.
  • Second, he split his core in two. On the surface, this is a disadvantage; he has to raise two separate cores instead of one, and all he gets was defense against a few extremely rare abilities that target cores. But having a second core means he can fill one of them with a different type of madra and still keep his pure madra in the other one.
  • Third, he walks the Blackflame Path. This is an extremely dangerous Path that built the Blackflame Empire, only for the imperial family to die off on their own as the madra crippled their bodies and minds. But Lindon's overpowered Healing Factor, combined with his ability to switch to a pure core to take the stress off and clean his madra channels, means he can use the Blackflame Path with little danger.
  • Fourth, he's the only known member of his world with a Presence, in this case Dross. This is an item that's usually used by people who his world considers to be gods.
• Un-Sorcerer: As he was born Unsouled, his clan forbade him practicing sacred arts.
• Vampiric Draining: Thanks to his prosthetic arm and a technique literally named Consume that he learned from the Monarch Northstrider, Lindon has gained the ability to drain madra, aura, and even knowledge directly from the bodies of those he touches with his arm. He can either drain a small amount, just enough to top his own reserves, or drain them completely dry to the point that their Remnant doesn't even manifest when they die. He just has to vent the excess if he drains them completely dry.
• Would Hit a Girl: Given that gender has no real impact on someones potential within the Sacred Arts, gender inequality concerns don't really exist and neither Lindon nor anyone other male characters voice particular concerns about fighting women when the need arises.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Orthos tell him as much in Ghostwater.

Yerin

Yerin Arelius, Path of the Endless Sword

Highgold

^{click here}  to see after Wintersteel

"The strong don't run."

The disciple of the Sword Sage, despite the fact that Sages never take disciples. She is brusque and no-nonsense, dedicated only to getting stronger as her master wanted. Suriel shows Lindon a vision of her to set him on the path out of Sacred Valley.

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• The Ace: When we meet her, she's Lindon's only way out of sacred valley and does almost all the fighting. Without her, it's safe to say Lindon would be dreadbeast chow.
• Action Girl: She's a master swordsman and always down for a fight. Plus, she does most of fighting in the earlier parts of the story.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She can come off as pretty uncaring at times.
• An Arm and a Leg: She apparently lost both of her arms and a chunk of her leg during her time with the Sword Sage. Her master's refiner skills helped her regrow them.
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: A tame example. When she's locked in a closet with Lindon and he reaches toward her, she's embarrassed but silently embraces what may come. When it turns out he was just reaching over her, she's a little disappointed.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: It's her main strategy for fighting, even when her back is against a wall, because her Path doesn't have any defensive techniques.
  The Sword Sage: When you're alone, first look for a weapon.
• Berserk Button: She is not shy when it comes to expressing anger and there are some specific ways to get her going.
  • The death of her master can be a sore subject for her. When Lindon talks about using poison or sneak attacks to take down Jai Long, she is understandably pissed at him, since those were methods used by the Heavens Glory school.
  • Endangering or undermining Lindon is a good way to set her off. There are several times where she either threatens or insights violence on those who try to hurt him. She also hates him getting slighted, such as when Eithan refuses to teach him any of his pure madra techniques.
• Blood Knight: She's not shy when it comes to fight and has little problem with killing. Ironically though, she kills fewer people than Lindon because she tends to fight more named characters while Lindon is killing their mooks.
• Bloody Murder: The red "rope" around her waist is a blood shadow, a Blood Magic parasite that killed her village as a child. If she embraced its power, she could use all sorts of interesting things with her own blood... or it could hollow her out and wear her like a suit. When she does eventually embrace it, it manifests as a blood clone, a perfect copy of herself that will fight beside her.
• Broken Bird: She has lost her family and everyone else she ever cared about. She strives to become strong and not show vulnerability, so that she won't be hurt again.
• Brutal Honesty: Whenever Lindon's expectations are getting too wild, she brings down to reality.
• Catchphrase: She has a couple:
  • Cheers and celebration.
  • Bleed and bury me.
• Child Prodigy: She was hailed as one back when she was a kid living in a village, and all of the characters in the present agree.
• Clothing Damage: Her clothes are ragged from all her fighting.
• Covered in Scars: She has many, many scars. Some are deep, but most are small white scars from the times the Sword Sage trapped her in a ring of swords. The scars are healed when her body is reforged in soulfire and she becomes an Underlady.
• Cool Sword: Initially Downplayed: Her sword belonged to her master, and at the start of series she doesn't have enough power to use its special properties.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Her Path Of The Endless Sword is extremely powerful, but depends entirely on being in proximity to swords.
• Cuteness Proximity: Like everyone, she finds Little Blue adorable. She is therefore rather annoyed that Blue is terrified of her. This carries on to Wintersteel when Little Blue finally gives Yerin a hug and Yerin MELTS. Later, she is easily distracted by a juvenile horned snow bunny and cannot pay attention to the conversation until she is allowed to hold it.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Her entire family and village were killed. The Sword Sage found her fighting off a Blood shadow parasite.
• Deadpan Snarker: She has a lot of these moments throughout the series. She either does this when someone is being stupid or she's trying to add some levity to the situation.
• Determinator: Yerin isn't one for giving up. Even when she was a little girl, she was able to control a blood parasite with her sheer force of will. This what impressed the sword Sage enough to take her in.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Her Path of Endless Sword was super dangerous to master, so much so that she even lost limbs. However, the results of the path speak for itself.
• First Friend: She's the first friend Lindon has ever had. She hasn't said it outright, but the opposite is likely true as well.
  • She’s also this for Mercy. Mercy is the friendliest person in the cast, but wasn’t shown to have any friends before separating from her family. This is likely because her role as a prodigy left many of her family members scared of her.
• Foil: To Lindon. She's aggressive when he's submissive, she's strong when he's weak, and she's a seasoned traveler while he's lived in one sheltered valley his whole life.
• Freaky Is Cool: When Lindon gets a prosthetic arm that looks like a skeleton, Yerin compliments its likelihood to strike fear in his opponents.
• Friendly Rival: Is this with Lindon starting in Underlord. She lightly teases him on her slightly faster advancement, but ultimately sees him as someone to watch out for.
• Fusion Dance: What Yerin and Ruby go through before the third match of the final round of the Uncrowned King Tournament. The being that comes out the other side, while still answering to Yerin, has physical and emotional aspects of both.
• Hates Being Alone: She admits as much to herself.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: She isn't the most heroic of the core cast, but she still does good things and helps people, while being a master of the blade.
• Hidden Depths: At first glance, it seems like she's only motivated for the sake of being strong, but she really just wants to avoid the pain of losing those closest to her.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Has this dynamic with Lindon, since she barely comes up to his chest.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She isn't always the nicest person, but she's legitimately helpful and does care about people, especially Lindon.
• Little Miss Badass: She's the shortest of main crew, but also one of the most deadly.
• Love Interest: She's Lindon's primary one, to the point that basically everyone notices. When they're separated they both get antsy because they're worried about each other, and Mercy eventually flat-out asks Lindon what's going on with them. This comes to fruition in Wintersteel, in which she and Lindon become an Official Couple.
• Made of Magic: Basically what Yerin becomes post merging with Ruby and advancing to Herald. Northstrider explains that a Herald and their spirit are one being, and in other places we see that Heralds are able to essentially become Energy Beings during combat.
• Mark of the Supernatural: Her goldsign is a steel arm with an attached blade growing out of her back. As she gets stronger, more arms appear, until eventually she has six and can retract them at will. Post merging completely with her Blood Shadow she gains a distinct red stripe in her hair, her eyes are now crimson, and her sword arms are dyed scarlet.
• Master Swordsman: She was trained under the Sword Sage, who was thought to be the greatest swordsman in the world, and eventually becomes one of the greatest Sword artists alive.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: She's not shy about killing first and asking questions later. When she's feeling generous, she says she won't finish someone off if they survive their fight.
• Never Be Hurt Again: Yerin's true motivation for gaining strength.
• Never Learned to Read: The sword sage didn't teach her much not related to the sacred arts, including reading.
• Not So Above It All: She says that she's always known what sacred arts cost and that she hasn't been spoiled, but her training with her master, The Sword Sage, is seen as priceless.
• Odd Friendship:
  • She and Lindon come from two very different backgrounds and bring different world views, but they get along very well.
  • She and Mercy are also very different in their upbringing and attitude, but develop a nice friendship.
• One-Woman Army: She's capable of fighting off hordes of enemies at once.
• Only One Name: Before she's adopted by Eithan, she only goes by Yerin.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Sometimes she makes her red eyes glow for dramatic effect.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: She is the Red Oni to Lindon's Blue.
• Relationship Upgrade: After dancing around each other for several books, Lindon and Yerin share a romantic kiss and board the cloud fortress they'd created together.
• Revenge: When we first meet her, she wants to get vengeance on the Heaven's Glory school for killing her master. She's not obsessed with it, but she does take pleasure in carving her way through the school on her way out of the valley. She mentions that she plans to go back and burn the school to the ground one day, but doesn't really think about it much.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Yerin's master didn't teach her anything that wasn't related to Sacred Arts. Specifically, she doesn't know how to read.
• Ship Tease: With Lindon. There are multiple Accidental Proposals from both of them, Lindon is one of the very few people who can (rarely) touch her without her growling, and they say to each other several times that they just want to stay together no matter where they go.
• Spider-Sense: In Uncrowned she hones her spiritual Perception enough that she can fight with her eyes closed.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She can be prickly and snarky at times, but she does have a soft spot for the people in her life.
• Super-Strength: According to her, her Steelborn Iron body is the best for strength, and by the time she reaches Overlord starts to reach Reality Warping status.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Yerin is a ragged looking girl, who's used to roughing it. This is contrasted with Mercy, who grew up privileged and still has more resources.
• Training from Hell: From what she describes, her training with the Sword Sage was brutal. It's notable that she's the only person who never sees anything odd about Lindon's training, which is incredibly brutal even by sacred artist standards.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: She won’t hesitate to bring down anybody trying to hurt Lindon, even before they are technically a couple.

Eithan

Eithan Arelius, Path of the Hollow King

Eithan Arelius

"You can call me what you like. Genius. Savant. Prodigy. Virtuoso. Once-in-a-lifetime intellect. I've always preferred that people look beyond who I am on the inside and really appreciate my gorgeous exterior."

The Underlord Patriarch of the Blackflame Empire branch of the Arelius family. Eithan is known for being friendly, silly, and always knowing everything that is going on.

---

• The Ace: He is the strongest and most experienced of the main group, and helps them out when things get to rough.

• Actually, I Am Him: Throughout most of Soulsmith, the local clans sects are worried that when the Arelius Underlord arrives, he will claim all the riches available. When they think they have Eithan cornered, he reveals that he is the Underlord, which promptly terrifies them.

• Almighty Janitor: He's ranked eleventh among the Underlords. That's because he's sandbagging, and doesn't want to reveal that he's deffinitely the strongest.

• Anti-Magic: Eithan is a master at using pure madra, which serves to disrupt the madra of others.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: In the Blackflame Empire, he is the only Underlord of the Arelius family, making him the strongest in the family by far. They immediately made him the patriarch when he fell through a portal from the Arelius homeland, passing over Cassias to do so.
• Badass Boast: "I am the greatest janitor in all of existence!" This sounds like a joke, but it is literally true.
• Badass Teacher: Despite his odd teaching methods, he's still a very helpful mentor and competent combatant.
• Bash Brothers: Eithan and Lindon eventually evolve from a mentor/mentee relationship to a more equal friendship.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Eithan is a pretty nice and merciful guy, but that doesn't stop him from stopping is his foes when called to.
• Beware the Silly Ones: His oddball nature doesn't stop him from kicking ass.
  • The first time we see him going all out is against a Monarch who disguised herself as an Underlord. He wins the battle in exactly nine seconds, and his internal narration implies that he thought he was a bit slow.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Subverted. People only think that he is lazy, lamenting that he’d be a perfect sacred artist otherwise. However, this is actually all a ploy on his part, as he could advance at any time, and only holds himself back because he feels it will benefit him in the long run. He also hides his full capabilities as much as possible, to the extent that we don't see his full path until Wintersteel.
• Broken Ace: Underneath layers and layers of good humor and trollish behavior Eithan is very broken up about his one true great failure which caused the death of his families Monarch and the scouring of his homeland. He is so broken that he is actually happy that he can still feel anger when viewing the ruins of his former home.
• Broomstick Quarterstaff: Sometimes uses a broom as a lethal weapon. His opponents' shock is puzzling, since the patriarch of the Arelius Clan was the Broom Sage.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The higher-ups of the Arelius clan find Eithan to be childish and unprofessional, but as the clan's only Underlord, he is the Patriarch. They eventually decide to temporarily suspend Eithan of his position in an attempt to force him to talk to them. This doesn't work, and he just goes off to do what he wants without the burden of leadership.
• Cool Old Guy: Twice as old as Lindon and Yerin, but is generally the more relaxed one.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Ghostwater is the first time we see him use more than one technique, because he has no witnesses. He easily defeats an Underlord who previously beat him bloody because he was holding back.
  • In Wintersteel he manages to defeat Sha Mira, who is a disguised monarch, in only nine seconds.
• Deliberate Under-Performance: He is one of the lowest-ranked Underlords in the Blackflame Empire because he constantly hides his true abilities. He doesn't use his true techniques unless there are no witnesses.
• The Dreaded: Even professional killers fear going up against Eithan. Others just dread to interact with him.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: When he took over the training for the Arelius initiates his Training from Hell was so strict that one of them ran away to hide in a cave in a forest infested with two headed bears for two weeks just to escape it. When this is brought up he says he wasn't strict enough because if he had been she would have been killing the bears with her bare hands.
  Lindon: His favorite training method is... I guess I would call it extreme duress.
• Eccentric Mentor: His general demeanor and methods for training come off as nutty and needlessly harsh at first.
• Evil Laugh: Does this when he gets a little too excited about his pupil's progress.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Though he and Cassius are not brothers, people think they might as well be, including him. He takes up the foolish sibling mantle.
• Fun Personified: Even in the most serious situations, Eithan tries to find some enjoyment.
• I Am Not Left-Handed:
  • He hides as much about his abilities as he can, as long as he can, to keep an edge. It takes a long time before anyone even realizes that he uses pure madra, and from there his exact abilities are still unknown. He easily kills a Redmoon Hall underlord when Eithan's own allies aren't looking, and often mentions he doesn't like having witnesses.
  • Wintersteel reveals that Eithan had the necessary revelations to go not just to Overlord but all the way to Archlord from the very beginning. He didn't go to Overlord because he did not want to overshadow Emperor Naru Huan, and did not go to Archlord because it would have taken too much effort to gather the materials needed to burn for Soulfire. Once he's no longer in the Blackflame Empire and has secured a sponsor for the materials, he goes straight to Archlord while pretending to be just an Overlord.
• Icy Blue Eyes: On the rare occasion that he drops his perpetual smile, his rage is icy cold.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: All he really wants is for people able to walk his Path beside him, despite common wisdom being "a Path is only wide enough for one." It says something about the way the world works that everyone always assumes he's up to some nefarious purpose when he's generous when his wealth and merciful with his enemies.
• Immune to Fate: Eithan is noticeably absent from Abidan Presence reports. The report on Tiberian Arelius in particular only mentions a "young adviser," and there are multiple warnings of Fate errors.
• It Amused Me: His stated motivation for a lot of his actions in the series, including his reason to approach Lindon and Yerin.
• Just Toying with Them: Eithan has a tendency to flex on his opponents.
• Mark of the Supernatural: Averted; he lacks a goldsign, because he raised himself to Gold without binding a Remnant or contracting a sacred beast. This is because he uses pure madra. Pure Remnants and beasts are both extremely rare, and would just muddy the waters of his Path. On the other hand, his blond hair immediately makes him stand out in the Ashwind Continent where most of the series is set, since only blood members of the Arelius family are blond, and even brown hair seems rare.
• My Greatest Failure: Before coming to the Blackflame Empire, he was the youngest advisor of the Arelius Monarch and respected for being a prodigy. It was on his recommendation that the Monarch reached out to Raigan Shen with a plan to kill the Dreadgods for good. Shen in turn betrayed them, killed the Arelius Monarch, and burned their homeland to the ground. Eithan blames himself for this.
• Mysterious Past: Even by the ninth book, not a whole lot is known about him. We finally get some answers in Reaper.
• The Omniscient: His bloodline ability lets him see and hear everything over a very large area, combined with a massive spy network containing many people with lesser versions of the same ability.
• Parasol of Pain: Kills an Underlord using a parasol as a weapon. In fairness it is raining at the time.
• Perpetual Smiler: He generally only drops his smile when something has gone seriously wrong.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Eithan is very compassionate to his subordinates and lets go of petty slights against him.
• Rebellious Spirit: He doesn't have much regard for things like rules.
• Sherlock Scan: Not only can he see, hear, and smell (and every other sense) everything within miles of himself, he can quickly deduce everything else about a person's situation. This is particularly useful in battle.
• Sink or Swim Mentor: His training methods for Lindon mostly consist of repeatedly throwing him into situations that most would call several levels above his ability to handle.
• Spider-Sense: His bloodline gives him something similar to a spider sense. Wintersteel solidifies this by showing that his Bloodline ability acts like a spider's web that he has spread around him at all times. Ordinarily only Sages and Monarchs can even detect the web.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Likes to sneak up on people with his superior veils, often dropping down from the ceiling or through an open window. Sometimes this backfires and he just falls off a cliff in front of them instead.
• Stronger Than They Look: Eithan is a delicate looking man, who looks like he's never lifted a finger his entire life and almost always wears brightly colored silk robes. However, he's still an Underlord to be reckoned with.
• Super-Reflexes: During Wintersteel he is able to fight similar to how Lindon does but without the aid of Dross to back him up. Dross assures Lindon that despite this they're still better at it than Eithan.
• Super-Speed: His Iron body is geared towards speed, since as a kid his hands couldn't keep up with his eyes, and his Path doesn't have any speed enhancing techniques.
• The Strategist: Eithan always has a plan, and a backup plan for if the first one fails, and a multi-tiered backup plan in case the original backup plan fails. He was youngest advisor for the Arelius Main Branch, considered a prodigy, and reported directly to the Arelius Monarch.
• To Be a Master: Eithan's dream is to reach the end of the Sacred Arts. With the context of the Abidan bead he received from Ozriel, that likely means ascension from Cradle.
• Trickster Mentor: Though his methods tend to be helpful, both Lindon and Yerin have a hard time a gaging Eithan and when he’s serious or just messing with people.
• Troll: Eithan loves to mess with people's heads.
• Uncle Pennybags: Being both an Underlord and a Patriarch, he has basically unlimited funds, can make money from thin air, and is happy to share them with Lindon and Yerin. Even ignoring the completely unique things he gets them like access to the Blackflame Trials, they still practically drown in expensive elixirs.
• Victory by Endurance: Eithan has deep, deep madra reserves. He has to, since he can't cycle aura in order to restore his madra faster. Several times, he's won fights simply by throwing a ridiculous amount of power at the problem. It's not particularly efficient, but he has power to spare.
• The Wonka: He's the most ridiculous member of his clan by a wide margin, but he's also the most powerful and legally in charge, so there's not much his subordinates can do. Eventually, the clan elders vote him out of his spot as Patriarch to try to force him to talk to them; he doesn't care, and just focuses more on Lindon and Yerin.

Orthos

Orthos, Path of Blackflame

Orthos

"A dragon does not back down from a challenge."

A Blackflame dragon-turtle sacred beast, slowly going mad due to damage from channeling the Blackflame.

---

• Badass Teacher: Becomes this to Wei Shi Kelsa after he leaves Lindon to venture to the Sacred Valley in order to find the rest of Lindon's family.
• Bond Creature: He forms a Contract with Lindon that allows them to share parts of themselves with each other. This includes but is not limited to Madra, lucidity, and their Path. Eithan facilitates the Contract to both give Lindon an offensive Path and to help Orthos who had strained his spirit defending the Arelius Clan to such a degree that he can barely speak through his insanity.
• Breath Weapon: His primary attack is to emit Blackflame from his mouth. But rather than it being an uncontrolled cloud or cone, he condenses it, making it come out like a plasma beam.
• Career-Ending Injury: Before forming his Contract with Lindon he has worked himself so hard to defend the Arelius Clan that his spirit and sanity are in tatters. He has already injured a former caretaker, and the guards that had been stationed to keep him contained recommend that he be put down.
• Extreme Omnivore: There doesn't appear to be anything that Orthos cannot eat, including pieces of trees, obsidian, wooden doors, large sacred fish, and one time the shield of another Sacred Artist that Lindon had defeated.
• Fountain of Youth: The Life Well in Ghostwater makes him at least a hundred years younger, putting him back in the prime of his life.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: A dragon [awesome action]!
• Our Dragons Are Different: He is a descendant of the old black dragons, but is a turtle. He mentions that he could choose to evolve into a dragon when he does the sacred beast version of transitioning to Underlord.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes are all black, with burning red circles for irisis. Given the reputation of the Path of Blackflame and dragons in general, most people in the Blackflame Empire freak out when they see him.
• Resized Vocals: Averted. When he shrinks himself to the size of a baby turtle, Lindon is disturbed by the fact that Orthos' voice still has the same pitch and volume.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Immediately after reaching Underlord he grows to the size of a baby Dreadgod, but realizing that being the size of a small mountain would make travel difficult he then decides to shrink himself down to the size of a baby turtle. Everyone loves this.
  • In Waybound after reaching Archlord he takes on a human form, then at the end of the book he switches back to his original Turtle shaped form because this is how his friends know him best.

Little Blue

Little Blue

Little Blue

[makes a sound like windchimes]

A Sylvan Riverseed, a type of nature spirit that will eventually grow into a powerful force. The Heaven's Glory school found her somewhere, and Lindon steals her on the way out.

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• Big Eater: She likes to gorge on pure madra scales that are usually bigger than her head.
• Bond Creature: She's particularly fond of Lindon and lends a hand whenever she's called upon. This becomes literal in Wintersteel when she forms a Contract with Lindon similar to his Contract with Orthos, and they become connected to each other spiritually.
• Cowardly Lion: Is terrified of Red Faith and presumably Redmoon as well, but she still stabs him to save her friends.
• Cute Critters Act Childlike: It's unclear how old she is, but she maintains an innocent childlike demeanor even as she gains power and sapience.
• Cute Bruiser: When she reaches a high enough level of advancement she starts taking on opponents who are much, much larger than herself, and sometimes wields weapons that are comically large compared to her.
• Evolution Power-Up: Starts out looking like a tiny blue sack doll but her appearance becomes increasingly detailed as she advances.
  • After entering into a Contract with Lindon in Wintersteel she becomes perfectly defined with all of the normal limbs of a human girl, while still only growing to a foot tall.
  • Come Waybound after reaching Herald she choses to take on the size of a human woman and is completely solid.
• Healing Hands: She can heal damage to madra channels, which soon proves invaluable since both Lindon and Orthos take damage when using Blackflame.
• Nature Spirit: Sylvan Riverseeds form where there is a strong confluence of balanced vital aura. In Blue's case, probably by a river in a forest.
• An Odd Place to Sleep: Sleeps in random places, such as Lindon's head as he cycles, his pockets, or in flowerpots. To her, one of the benefits of becoming human-sized is getting to sleep in her own human-sized bed.
• Scavenged Punk: Uses "miniature junk" as toys, such as scales or Cradle's equivalent to paperclips.
• Sizeshifter: Once she reaches the Lord realm she can change size at will, but prefers to live up to the "Little" part of her name.
• Stronger Than They Look: Post Wintersteel, she may still look like a foot tall semi-transparent doll, but she is able to absolutely thrash Jades and Lowgolds, and by the end of Waybound she can hold her own against a Monarch.
• Team Pet: Everyone loves Little Blue. Yerin is a bit annoyed that Blue is scared of her, likely because of her Blood Shadow.
• True Blue Femininity: Her whole body is ocean blue, so she is a Shy Blue-Haired Girl with Innocent Blue Eyes. Once she and Lindon form a contract, when he cycles Pure madra his eyes change to hers, and on him come across more like Occult Blue Eyes.
• The Unintelligible: She speaks in chirps and chimes that neither Lindon or Yerin can understand at first, leaving them to rely on context clues. However, Mercy, Dross, Orthos, and Fury are able to hold whole conversations with her. There's a good chance that Eithan has always been able to understand her but he's never said so. After forming his Contract with her in Wintersteel, Lindon is able to understand her as well.
  • In Waybound after reached Herald she gains the ability to speak but still chooses to communicate as she has been or using vocal interjections like "mmhmm".
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Once she and Lindon reach a high enough level of advancement she can change her size at any time, but chooses to stay small until it becomes necessary to reach Herald and take physical human form. She likes the "Little" part of her name.

Mercy

Akura Mercy, Path of Seven Pages

Akura Mercy

"I try to be friendly, when I can!"

An exiled daughter of the Akura clan, which rules a significant portion of the continent. She is in fact the daughter of Akura Malice, the Monarch herself.

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• Ambiguously Absent Parent: Unlike most of Malice's children, Mercy and Pride are full siblings, but their father isn't even mentioned until Wintersteel and a full explanation for his absence doesn't appear until Waybound.
• Badass Adorable: Her friendly and bubbly personality makes her very sweet, but she's still very capable.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She's super friendly but there are a great number of people who fear her.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Certainly sees her family as this, she hates that nearly all of them would sell out just about any other member of the family if it meant just a bit more attention from the main branch or Akura Malice. This is what has lead her to be a Internal Reformist with her mothers permission.
  • In Dreadgod she's smacked in the face with just how screwed up they really are causing them to abandon them outright for Lindon's team after first attacking her mother.
• Big Sister Instinct: One of things she regrets about her banishment is leaving behind her little brother, Pride.
• Boyish Short Hair: An accidental example. Half of her hair gets burned and she has it cut to even out. It does eventually grow back with the help of a hair potion.
• Broken Pedestal: It takes a while, but after the reveal in Dreadgod that her mom had known about the connection between Monarchs and Dreadgods the entire time, she finally realizes just how low the Monarchs of Cradle have sunk, causing her to violently reject her mom and join up with Lindon and Yerin for good.
• Brought Down to Badass: She had her powers sealed during her exile, but she was still capable of fighting.
• Casting a Shadow: The basis for almost all of the Akura family's various paths.
• Child Prodigy: Was hailed as such by her clan. She was the first person ever to bind the Book of Eternal Night, the book crafted by Malice herself detailing the Path that Malice wished she had been able to walk.
• Cute Bruiser: She’s described as looking more like an innkeeper's daughter than an heir to a great dynasty, but she is very powerful.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: She's known for stumbling a lot. This confuses everyone, since even the most basic Iron body gives enhanced grace. Turns out that her mother sealed her physical abilities as well when she left the family. Mercy's Puppeteer's Iron body gives her perfect grace, so without it she is even worse off than a normal person.
• The Chosen One: Mercy was chosen by a special book made by her mother, for her affinity to her path.
• Cool Big Sis: She has a younger brother named Pride, who greatly looks up to her.
• Cuteness Proximity: Mercy loves cute things. She absolutely adores Little Blue, and she even gushes over Lindon and Yerins budding relationship.
• Dark Is Not Evil: She literally fights with shadows and can even make experience a nightmare like state, but she’s one the kindest people in the world.
• The Dreaded: There are a lot of people afraid of Mercy. Some fear her because her family owns most of a continent. However, even members of her family fear her, because she’s known to be so powerful and has beaten every one of her peers in combat.
• Fallen Princess: She was meant to be her clans heir, but left due to a personal disagreement.
  • Come Dreadgod she becomes this for good after finding out about the truth of Monarchs and Dreadgods and violently rejecting the status quo directly to her mothers face.
• Genki Girl: She's a very social and enthusiastic girl.
• Glowing Eyes: Her purple eyes when she partially summons her armor, which she sometimes does for dramatic effect.
• The Heart: She's the most morally righteous and caring of the main cast.

• Heroic Self-Deprecation: She hates that her motivations for practicing sacred arts are not as pure as she would like.
• Hidden Depths: She is very kind and wants to do good, but struggles with insecurity. She doesn't always feel the joy that she spreads to others.
• The Kindness of Strangers: Mercy's first act is to give an expensive healing pill to a total stranger.
• Living Weapon: She possesses Eclipse, Ancient Bow of the Soulseeker. It was her mother's weapon from Lowgold to Archlord. Made from the Remnant of a shadow dragon who became a Sage. With this bow her mother sealed the living volcano of Shara Kahn. She destroyed the Sunlight Rebellion with this bow and bound together thirteen islands into one. Mercy calls it Suu. It retains a measure of its old will and tends to hiss when disrespected. Deeply respects Akura Malice.
• Mark of the Supernatural: Her Goldsign makes her hands look like they've been dipped in a glossy black liquid, and her eyes sometimes glow when she calls on her power.
• Martial Pacifist: She doesn't want to solve problems through violence like everyone else in her world, and she has a pretty non-lethal fighting style.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Because her mother is immortal, she has hundreds of siblings that we're aware of, though only two play any part in the story.
• Meaningful Name: She is by far the nicest member of the Akura clan, working tirelessly to create a world where the weak aren't constantly bowing and scraping before the strong. "Mercy" is such a perfect name for her because at her birth Malice looked into the future to see what a good name would be for her.
• Modest Royalty: She does not like people treating her differently because of her heritage. She is kind to everyone, regardless of class or strength.
• Motor Mouth: She's never afraid to say what's on her mind.
• Nice Girl: Probably the nicest character in the cast, over even Lindon and Eithan. She's one of the only sacred artists shown with a primarily non-lethal fighting style.
• Shipper on Deck: She is the one to get Lindon to admit his feelings for Yerin out loud and in Wintersteel all but bullies him into finally asking Yerin to go on a date.
• Tangled Family Tree: Being the daughter of a centuries-old Monarch, her family is more than a little confusing. In particular, her "aunt" Charity is actually her half-niece, but she doesn't want to call someone two hundred years older than her "niece," and their relationship is closer to mother-daughter.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Ultimately, all she really wants is to make her mother proud. This is why she ran away from home. She thought her core purpose was to help people, but it really was just about making her mother proud of her. Both Malice and Charity assure her that this is only her beginning and she can still become someone who really is all about helping other people.
  • Circles back around in Reaper where her Overlady revelation really is that she wants to help people and truly does hate all that her family, and more to the point, her mother represent. Her mother is Malice, but she is Mercy.
  • By Waybound, she's a Self-Made Orphan because her mother would rather kill her entire family than admit she's wrong.

Dross

Dross, Mind Spirit and former Speaker Construct of Ghostwater

"Some time after I fell in the well, I realized I could put words together in new combinations. Then I realized I'd realized it, and that was the beginning for me, wasn't it? The 'realization cascade,' that's what I call it! I don't call it that."

A random speaker construct in Ghostwater that gained sapience after being left in the Dream Water well.

---

• And I Must Scream: Minor example. Dross gained sapience after spending fifty years in the Dream Water pool—but it was another five years before Lindon showed up. Dross doesn't seem to have suffered any permanent damage due to the isolation, but he admits it was really boring.
• Bad News in a Good Way: Dross has a tendency to deliver reports of near-certain death and impending doom in the same cheerful, upbeat tone he uses to say everything else.
• Came Back Wrong: In Reaper Lindon manages to reboot him after his Heroic Sacrifice in book Bloodline... but he comes back with a totally different personality and with access to many of his memories lost.
• Combat Clairvoyance: With enough information, he can simulate any opponent's fighting style perfectly. If it is possible to defeat them, Dross can provide a perfect simulation, which Lindon can follow step by step. This is the same as what an Abidan's Presence would do.
• Death of Personality: At the end of Bloodline Dross' Heroic Sacrifice leaves him as a nonresponsive cloud. When Lindon finally "reboots" him, he comes back first as an emosionless version of himself, then megalomaniac, "helpful," and finally "deadly."
  • In Dreadgod this turns out to be a partial Subversion, he could have returned to his original personality the entire time after Lindon fixed him in Reaper, but he was so emotionally traumatized by his failure fighting the Wandering Titan that he was trying to find a "better" personality. It's not until Lindon proves that he wouldn't abandon him and obtains enough dream madra from the Silent King that Dross feels comfortable returning to his original personality.
• Exposition Beam: Has this ability thanks to being Dream madra fueled. Can impart knowledge he gains directly into Lindon or anyone else that he chooses within range. Allows for him to share all of Sophara's combat data with Ruby after witnessing her match with Mercy.
• Expy: If you mistook him for Wheatley from Portal 2 when he first appears you wouldn't be alone.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Pulls one in Bloodline to fool a Dreadgod, blowing himself out in the process.
• Hive Mind: In Waybound the copies of himself that are attached to the rest of the team can function independently, but when they are together or in the presense of the original they function this way.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: He is vastly beyond the tech level of Cradle, and was created entirely by accident by leaving a totally non-sapient discarded speaker construct for years in a vat of liquid intended to refresh the mental faculties of humans. Granted it was very far from instant (he spent over 50 years in the Dream Well before gaining sapience) and the facility was intended to produce an AI, but Dross was the only success, and was created by pure chance long after the facility was abandoned.
• Meaningful Name / Nonindicative Name: His name literally means "rubbish," which everyone thought he was before Lindon found him. However, he is extremely useful both in and out of combat.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Lighter example than most but the first thing he does after re-asserting his original personality is desperately ask everyone to forget everything he said while cycling through the different personalities in Reaper and Dreadgod.
• Sherlock Scan: His defining ability after becoming a Presence; Dross is able to glean information using all of Lindon's senses to detect and analyze information on basically everything and relay it back to Lindon. This includes being able to run simulations and run hyper realistic predictive algorithms to the point that even Northstrider is impressed with him.
• Slasher Smile: At the end of Reaper his "deadly" personality has a slasher smile.

Ziel

Ziel of the Wasteland (formerly The Dawnwing), The Shield Sage, Path of the Dawn Oath

Ziel of the Wasteland

"Believe me when I say that I am no one at all."

A talented 35-year-old with a constantly dead expression. He used to be a sect leader and an Archlord, but his sect was massacred and his core was mutilated, sending him down to Truegold.

---

• The Ace: Before his core was intentionally mutilated he was one of the youngest Archlords of his era and people called him The Dawnwing. He is skilled enough with scripts that he can write them on the fly in combat.

• Badass Bookworm: Ziel's path only has two techniques; a full body enforcer and a forger technique. However, his forger technique creates floating runes and scripts that he can use to do practically anything, from making himself stronger to creating floating platforms to blowing up opponents within a circle of runes, meaning that his Path basically requires him to be a scripting genius. Other than when he fights Dreadgod cultists, the only flicker of emotion he expresses usually is excitement in seeing new scripts.
  Ziel: [Complaining that the team keeps getting sidetracked] I don't know why we would... [sees some scripts on the floor] what do you have there?
• Berserk Button: The Stormcaller Dreadgod Cult. The first time we ever see a real emotion on his face is when he faces one of their members in the top 16 of the Uncrowned King tournament. That emotion is Rage.
• The Berserker: When his Berserk Button or Trauma Button are pushed he tends to have rage blackouts and wake up a moment later with himself and his hammer covered in blood. He gets better over time.
• Broken Ace: He was the a powerful Archlord and leader of the Dawnwing sect, but a choice he made led to its destruction and the damage to his core. This leave him a broken man, having little faith in himself or the world.
• Broken Bird: Rare male example. Very little can stir him out of his flat-affected depression.
• Brought Down to Badass: Even after he was crippled he was at the Truegold stage, which shows just how powerful he was before it happened.
• Covered with Scars: Though it is only visible with spiritual sense, his madra system is twisted and broken when Lindon meets him. Later in Waybound in the process of merging with his remnant to become a Monarch his entire body becomes covered with green scars.
• The Cynic: Ziel’s experience with his damaged core has seemed to make him evaluate the aspects of life and sacred arts. He basically believes that the journey up the mountain is endless and all paths fall.
• Cynicism Catalyst: He was apparently more determined back in the day and loved expressing his power. However, the extermination of his sect and his damaged spirit has left him hollow and wondering what’s even the point of living.
• Death Seeker: In a very passive sense, Ziel just does not care for his own life and doesn't really feel any sense of danger because he'd be fine with dying, just as much as he'd be fine with anything. Or so he says to himself.
• Determinator: Despite telling himself that he has given up, he keeps going, even with his entire madra system mutilated.
• Dismotivation: He seems to have little motivation to do anything and just wants to fix his core.
• The Dreaded: For the Stormcaller Cult. There's a brief POV from the perspective of his top 16 opponent during the Uncrowned King tournament. A fellow Stormcaller Cultist and senior teammate gives Therian a pep-talk, but after finding out it's Ziel, Calan simply says "No shame in top 16."
• The Eeyore: While he is a Nice Guy, Ziel is, to put it mildly, something of a downer after all the horrible things that happened to him.
• Horned Humanoid: His goldsign is glowing green horns.
• Nice Guy: He's cynical, bitter, burned-out and terse, but even on their first meeting he saves Lindon's life and helps him out significantly afterwards for no real reason other than the fact that he can and there's no reason not to.
• Older Than They Look: Ziel looks like he is about eighteen, but is actually in his mid-thirties.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Ziel, as a former Sect Leader, somehow naturally falls into this role despite very much not wanting to be one.
  Someone had given Ziel the title "Master of the Training Hall," and any students who needed specialized training hunted him down. [...] The sect quickly figured out that he didn't mean all the harsh things he said, and that became part of his charm.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Starts to run away when a second Dreadgod shows up in Sacred Valley, but has a Trauma Button blackout and finds that he has returned to the ground to take a second chance at saving people under his protection.
• Sixth Ranger: Introduced in Ghostwater and brought back in Underlord, becomes one of the party members in Bloodline, and has his place cemented in the group by Lindon in Reaper.
  "You can call us what you want," Lindon went on. "But whether or not you consider yourself my ally, I am yours. You have only to call on me."
• Thunder Hammer: Discussed and averted. Lindon suggests making a thunder hammer for Ziel out of the Weeping Dragon, but Dross mocks the idea, calling it clichéd. Ziel doesn't want anything made from the Weeping Dragon, anyway.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: When he's describing Dreadgods to the Patriarch of the Kazan clan and his wife, he ignores their toddler as he jumps up and down on Ziel's cloud and eventually climbs on top of his head. The child's parents are horrified, but Ziel just hands him back to his mother.