Anti-Hero: Typically a Type III, hovering between Type II to outright The Messiah on a good day and sometimes dipping down into Type IV on a bad one.
Badass Bookworm: Dominic has an admittedly weak body, to the point that physically speaking just about anyone else in the comic could beat him up if they wanted to, but he's able to more than make up for this with mental powers, first demonstrated when he banishes a demon lord when they fight on a mental plane.
Battle in the Center of the Mind: Given that he is only powerful in mental battles, this is where Dominic tends to do most of his fighting.
Butt Monkey: Dominic is often the butt of jokes when he's not saving the world, and sometimes even that won't help.
The Chessmaster: Being able to see the future (and present, and past) helps a lot with this, although he's been yelled at more than once for using his visions to manipulate people.
Good Is Not Nice: Dominic can be pretty nice when you get to know him, but he's also not very social and can be extremely rude at times, especially to Knights of Callan.
Handicapped Hero: He's lost his leg and a good number of his teeth during the comic's run, but he's got pretty good prosthetics. It apparently killed his former dancing skills, though.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: His two biggest fears are undead and Alterists. One because a powerful necromancer attacked his family as a child, and the other because of a mean-spirited prank that exposed Dominic to some visions of alterism gone wrong.
Miranda Deegan
Dominic's mother, an Archmage and a teacher. One of the most powerful characters in the comic, she does not take kindly to the evil forces that keep threatening her kids and students.
Action Mom: Being a mother of three hasn't slowed her down too much.
Badass Bookworm: She is a teacher and arcanist first and foremost, but it's mentioned she killed her Arch-Enemy Helixia with her bare hands when Helixia came after her family.
Big Good: Dominic's the viewpoint character, but Miranda's the biggest benevolent power in the series except possibly Rilian.
Eldritch Abomination: While she's not one herself, her fellow Archmagi are all friendly ones, as the recent story arcs have revealed. And she can send people who piss her off to a dimension crawling with them...
Holy Hand Grenade: Able to convert demonic artifacts to possess angelic powers.
Never Mess with Granny: Nobody's crossed Miranda Deegan in Mama Bear mode and won, even if a couple have lived to tell the tale.
Mama Bear: She's past her prime, but Miranda Deegan is still damn scary when her loved ones are threatened.
Pregnant Badass: She helped save the world from the Storm of Souls while she was pregnant with Jacob. If it's not already obvious, Miranda is one tough lady.
Luna Travoria
Dominic's sidekick, girlfriend, and eventually fiancee, Luna is a girl from the wealthy Travoria family that was hated by her mother for being born with unsightly tusks. Dominic saved her life in the comic's first real story arc and helped her through her suicidal and depressed phase. Luna's Character Development has been a major element of the comic's run.
Apologizes a Lot: Especially at first, when she has very little self-esteem.
Badass Bookworm: Is just as big a nerd as Dominic, but one who can cast some very powerful magic.
Chosen One: Entirely by accident, but Her tusks are the sign of an orcish curse that needs to be returned to Maltak for it to be reborn.
Creator's Pet: Unfortunately, many fans have grown irritated with how much exposure she's received, and the fact that everyone started singing her praises after a while has not helped at all.
Determinator: Develops into one after overcoming her initial confidence issues.
Driven to Suicide: Her mother's plan to get her to kill herself was how she was introduced.
Mighty Whitey: Unfortunately falls into this during the Maltak arc, having to be the medium through which the land is saved instead of any of the orc characters.
Progressively Prettier: Her tusks have gotten steadily less prominent over the series' run, although this also coincides with Luna being less self-conscious about them.
Wangst: Especially at the beginning, but she still falls into this every now and then.
Supporting Characters
Donovan Deegan
Dominic's father and Miranda's husband, a bard famous for his sword skills and wearing pink.
Badass Grandpa: Still one of the great swordsmen in the land even though he's past his prime.
Trickster Archetype: He can screw around with people quite a lot if he wants to.
Gregory Deegan
Dominic's younger brother, Gregory is a initially crippled White Mage that strongly looks up to Dominic. Like Luna, his character develops quite a lot over the series run.
Adult Child: He's not that much younger than Dominic, but he's certainly not very mature by comparison.
Battle Aura: One of the few mages able to manifest white magic as white fire instead of light.
Brought Down to Normal: The Infernomancer permanently depowered him in their last fight, leaving him with only his musical talents.
Revive Kills Zombie: White Magic makes him very effective at slaying zombies and Infernomancers. Chaos and Eldritch Abomination Infernomancers, not so much.
The Scrappy: Fans didn't like him very much when his white magic seemed too powerful, but things got worse when Greg started a band and ceased to listen much to what others have to say.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Greg's more kind-hearted and innocent side has grown less distinct since He was Brought Down to Normal, and he's gotten a lot more self-absorbed since then.
Nakama: As a Spellwolf, he formed a Pack with Jayden and Siegfried, and drew criticism from the other werewolves over it; when the Pack breaks after Jayden's infidelity is revealed, there's big repercussions.
What the Hell, Hero?: He gets pissed when he realizes Dominic kept Siggy's damnation a secret for an entire year, yelling at him for not even trying to help in that whole time. Later in the arc, he gives one to himself when his rage very nearly leads to Jayden being killed.
Worf Effect: Milov is one of the most powerful wolf alive, master spellcaster and a Juggernaut in battle... who had been summarily beated by every single opponent (from Jacob To Siegfried) to show how badass they are.
An orc woman working at Miranda's academy. Has a veryDark and Troubled Past that has prevented her from returning home. Becomes one of Luna's closest friends.
Berserk Button: Mistreating women or women showing a lack of self-reliance. This is rooted in her own suffering due to the absurdly misogynistic ways of her old tribe.
Genius Bruiser: Extremely strong, has elemental powers, but is also employed at an academy and has a strong understanding of magic.
Rape As Backstory/Rape as Drama: Values Dissonance between Orc tribes meant that Melna would be put to death unless she was able to "satisfy" Stonewater. Since Melna had just watched her parents die in front of her, she was in no shape to give consent before her time was up. This has given her serious issues in the present day.
Victim Falls For Rapist: One of the Never Live It Down elements of the comic, but actually averted. Melna is rather disturbed to find that Stonewater is attractive to her in the present, given that he was the one who raped her in the past, but discussion with Luna has her decide that what she's actually attracted to is the ideals that Stonewater has embraced, which reminded her of her father. She has since shown no romantic interest in Stonewater, although she has forgiven him for what happened.
Pamela Chayler
Mayor of Barthis, and Greg's Hot Librarian ex, at the start of the new arc, girlfriend.
Ensemble Darkhorse: Tends to be very sensible and level-headed, which certainly helps with her popularity.
The Medic: One of the few that is not a white mage, which winds up being rather important given that several heroes are Resistants who can't be treated magically.
Only Sane Woman: Sometimes slides into this territory, both with the Deegans and with the rather corrupt government of Callan.
Reasonable Authority Figure: As Mayor, she protests the absurd legal abuses of corrupt antagonists, but doesn't turn a blind eye to the main characters when they behave irresponsibly, either.
What the Hell, Hero?: She is furious with Dominic and Greg for their irresponsible behavior during the Snowsong arc, and even though the punishment she gives isn't that major, it's one of the first times Dominic is taken to task for being manipulative and needlessly secretive.
Stonewater
One of the major Orc characters of the series and a friend of Dominic's. Stonewater has a troubled past with Melna, but the two work together several times to help save their home of Maltak.
Chosen One: Again, among the other orcs, anyway. His unique ice powers are vital to purging the demonic influences killing Maltak.
Rape As Backstory[/]Rape as Drama: When Melna was about to be put to death as an orphan girl, Stonewater tried to save her life by claiming her as his wife to adopt her into his tribe. Unfortunately, being on Doma land meant that Melna had to immediately satisfy Stonewater or the execution would proceed, and Melna was unable to give consent. This has forever tainted the word "save" with the snarkers.
Never Live It Down: He does have a character beyond "raped Melna once", and he didn't enter the situation willingly. To hear the Fan Dumb tell it, he's Doctor Light, only an orc.
Supporting Leader: To the other orcs, anyway, since Dominic's just some crazy foreigner wandering around their land.
Values Dissonance: Evidently his tribe has much more tolerant views on women than the Doma do, hence his plan to rescue Melna from execution by marrying her, but Melna later pointed out that the Doma chieftain decided to enforce the Doma "marriage" laws Stonewater had been unaware of mostly out of spite.
Rachel Hart
A childhood friend of Greg's. She breaks things with her face.
The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: He could tell Gregory's first band was not likely to do well long before Gregory did. Sadly, his attempts to invoke this with his "detective skills" are rarely as helpful.
Dex Garrit
A Resistant former athlete turned also former, at the start of the new arc, Sheriff of Barthis.
Anti-Magic: Cannot be harmed or healed by magic. Powerful magic can still really hurt, though.
Badass Beard: It comes and goes, but helps Dex distinguish himself from Dominic.
Badass Normal: Beyond Anti-Magic, Dex has no special powers or combat training beyond being an athlete. He's still a major Badass.
Catch Phrase: "Never take your eye off the interceptor."
Determinator: The single biggest one in the series. He fought The Infernomancer head-on to give Gregory, his wife, and the townsfolk time to escape and managed to survive the unholy mangling he got through pure willpower.
Identical Stranger: He looks a lot like Dominic, only athletic, not wearing glasses, and with differently-colored eyes in color shots. Dominic says he doesn't see the resemblance.
My God, What Have I Done?: He has never forgiven himself for hitting his wife while they were together; he became the morally upright character we were introduced to to prove to himself he wasn't that person anymore, but when he thought he was dying, he begged his wife to forgive him.
Redemption Equals Death: Averted this. While his wife wasn't able to say she forgave him when he was dying, she realized she should have. However, because he didn't hear this, Dex was able to pull through purely on willpower.
Nimmel Fenix
A former student at Miranda Deegan's school, he was the one who told The Infernomancer where she was to save the rest of the students. Adept at seasonal spells, he transferred to the Coldfire Academy, apparently to feel like the "big dog".
An Ice Person: Typically tends to use ice and snow for his attacks.
Badass Bookworm: A bright student and an expert at chess, but also extremely powerful in places with intense weather.
Driven to Suicide: His Survivor Guilt after The Infernomancer's attack would have driven him over a bridge if Luna hadn't saved his life.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: He's got a massive disfiguring scar over his eye that rendered it useless, but he's gotten less self-conscious about it with time.
Thus, why it is so significant when, after being nearly totally desensitized to naked women, he sees KATYA in the nude... and realizes that it "affects him."
Rilian
The First Necromancer and one of the heroes that first sealed the Storm of Souls, Rilian is an ancient, mysterious, and grim person that acts as the "final option" in world-threatening situations.
Age Without Youth: He's been alive for thousands of years, but he was already rotting by the time he knew Acibek and has gotten worse since then.
Big Damn Heroes: Comes to Gregory's rescue during the Storm Of Souls arc, although when Luna is in danger later he comments that it's not his concern if she lives or dies.
Big Good: A distinctly darker take on this, he's one of the few in Miranda's league, but he's less directly involved and his brand of good is distinctly less pleasant than hers.
Body Horror: His body is in an advanced state of decay and apparently has been for millenia.
Cynical Mentor: To Dominic during the Storm Of Souls arc. He intended to "correct" Jacob, but Jacob rejected his teaching out of resentment over Rilian forcibly depowering him first.
Dark Is Not Evil: The major standout case in the comic, although Dominic is fairly slow to accept this.
Does Not Know How To Say Thanks: After the Storm of Souls is beaten, Rilian is able to congratulate Dominic for doing so with so few casualties, but mostly just says Dominic will be seeing him again if there's further trouble.
Jerkass Woobie: His demeanor really rubs Dominic the wrong way, but Dominic comes to sympathize with the loss and tiredness that has characterized Rilian's life. The audience gets it even more when we realize the fat, jolly man he pretended to be while checking in on Dominic was his original persona; his long, long life has beaten him down so much he is no longer recognizable in form or personality.
Knight in Sour Armor: He is a bitter, humorless revenant, but still as dedicated to saving lives as any other hero.
Shoot the Dog: His designated position as the "final option"
Time Abyss: Claims to have witnessed the birth of the Dragon Gods, and predates Acibek; Rilian may well be immortal, since his pupil Helixia's necromancy was too strong for her to be killed by anyone but Miranda.
Windows Of The Soul: His face is too far gone for there to be any readable expression on it, but his eyes tend to have three modes; hidden in the shadows of his hood, a stern, featureless glare, and, precisely once, a look of immense sorrow as he was forced to kill his last surviving friend for her Heroic Sacrifice to take effect.
Former Villains
Ilario "Bumper" Ciarenni
Pickpocket and street magician who becomes The Atoner in the "Two Thief or not Two Thief" Arc.
A misogynistic thief and murderer who is also the rare Karma Houdini of the comic. "Stunt and Bumper" act as the Goldfish Poop Gang until the end of the "Two Thief" Arc.
Anti-Hero: Type V, but now more in the Type IV with shades of Type III.
Heel Face Turn: At the end of "Two Thief", compared to Bumper's at the beginning.
Pay Evil unto Evil: Prone to killing the bad guys who cross him, but has also displayed some Cruel Mercy by leaving one of them broken and alone on the Wild Edge to be eaten alive by slimes.
Freudian Excuse: Evidently, her attempts to express herself kept getting shot down rather maliciously, causing her to join The Chosen due to a lack of direction in her life.
Camp Gay: Although pointing it out will simply earn you scoffs of disbelief from the snarkdom.
Evil Feels Good: Szark can never fully trust himself again after remembering how he reveled in his depraved, murderous life, and still feels guilt about enjoying the terrible things he did.
Master Swordsman: Shown repeatedly to be a remarkably proficient duelist.
My God, What Have I Done?: He was horrified when Dominic finally broke through to his buried inner goodness to realize all the terrible things he'd done while enjoying himself immensely.
Implacable Man: Banishing him to Hell and beyond only slows him down for a while. By the time he's been blown to pieces by Celesto, it's not enough to stop him.
Dominic's older brother and the black sheep of the family, Jacob is a necromancer who will go to great and terrible lengths to further his studies of death.
Shut Up, Kirk!: When Jayden tried to cheer him up by saying that creating a life that could feel genuine joy was his greatest success, Jacob replied with a succinct "I'm going to kill you now."
Soft Spoken Sadist: He's not very grandiose in his speech, but he'll do some very nasty things just out of curiosity.
Authority Equals Asskicking: Maintaining his role as king and warden of hell by beating the crap out of everyone that stands up to him.
Arch-Enemy: To the Deegans in general, but to Dominic and Donovan in particular.
Probably not anymore. As of his last appearance, he had made peace with his past and present, had say goodbye to Miranda for the last time and apparently destroyed the only "link" to the mortal word, embracing his future in Hell.
Badass: He's taken on Hell by himself and won at least twice now.
Badass Abnormal: He's a living human mutated into a demon by hellfire, apparently unique in Hell.
Big Bad: Competing for this role with The Beast at present.
I'm a Humanitarian: Hell flavor. Really, Karnak is a fanatic believer in "waste not, want not".
Ironic Hell: He sneer at Seigfried desire to "command hell as father and son", explaining him that all the beings, including the Lords, suffer one way or another.
Ignored Epiphany: Karnak has no interest in redemption, even when he's aware of the only way out of Hell.
Subverted in his last appearance. He had finally realized his role in hell and embraced wholeheartedly... if a little unorthodox epiphany.
Implacable Man: So far, nothing has been able to slow him down more than a panel or two, if at all. It needed the combined might of all the Lords of Hell to give him pause and has become as of know the literal embodiment of punishment in Hell. Even Siegfried "glorious comeback" resulted in a brutal beating two out of three times. When he use a termonuclear-like soul explosion as weapon at two feets to take down an entire army and he gloat seconds later, he really deserve the title.
Nigh Invulnerability: He was the lord Of wounds, meaning almost nothing can hurt him. What can hurt him (i.e. Siegfried) only make him bleed a little and a few scraps for a panel or two before he return full force.
One-Man Army: And this is against Hell armies, far beyond what normal armies could pack.
Physical God: He was one of the Lord of Hell and then destroyed the other Four with their armies single handely. Then he did it again with his ''own army" and back. Outside of the psychic plane, Karnak is by far the strongest being in the entire series. Probably the beast at full force would be able to face him... probably.
Authority Equals Asskicking: He's pretty high up on the food chain in Callan, and he's got a massive kill count to show for it.
Avenging the Villain: He tried to save his father in hell from the clutchess of Karnak until he snapped and devoured his head after blaming him of all his shortcomings.
Bad Ass Normal: Able to kick copious amounts of ass with nothing but pure strength and his knight training.
Bad Ass Abnormal: Since his death, his soul's gained a great deal of demonic power to supplement his earlier strength. He's the only person who's fought Karnak head-on in Hell and won.
Complete Monster: Past actions beside, you know he is a bastard when in his acts of being a better person he slept with his best friend love life, hate him for it and tried to sabotage their relationship and was unrepented of it.
Easily Forgiven: Honestly, it was past disgusting and to creepy how easy his friends would forgave and defend his brutal beatings again and again until the vision of why he was sent to hell.
Establishing Character Moment: Take your pic: when he was loudly sickened by Luna tusks that send her to suicide, when he beated Dominic for giving him a "wrong answer" of his future or when he brutally beated a crippled Gregory with his own crutch for trying to defend his brother.
Fantastic Racism: He loathes orcs and is quite happy to slaughter them left and right, regardless of age or sex. Reason why he ended in hell.
Fake Ultimate Hero: Ziggzagged. He is as strong, fearless and bound by duty as he stated. The problem is he is far, far from the noble, selfless, kind and compasionate knight he and his (ex)friends make him out to be.
The Juggernaut: He is the second strongest being in all Hell and is the only being capable of facing and hurting Karnak.
It's All About Me: Seriously, he has almost no empathy to other people. Semi-subverted latter until his temper got the better of him.
Kick the Son of a Bitch: For those who are fans of the series, it was incredible satisfying seeing Jacob beat effortlessly the living crap out of him with is own sword.
Master Swordsman: One of the best Swordman in all Callahan. And being dead has not diminished his abilities in the slightest.
Moral Event Horizon: In canon when he hanged an entire Orc family, children included as a birthday gift to his father, along with another atrocities and the reason he ended in hell. As put by Karnak
Karnak: You were unrepented mass murderers until it was to late.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He damn near killed Dominic during one of his rages; the vast majority of Siggy's fights are utterly brutal Curb-Stomp Battle s, either him dishing or recieving
Pet the Dog: In his last breath he was shocked and humbled by Dominic frantic screams for help after nearly killing him one more time and used his last seconds to ask for forgiveness for his actions.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When he attacked and brutally beated the gang after be condemed in hell, nearly brainwashing Jayden and nearly killing Milov. Done again in his war against Karnak.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: After a long suffering of Mindfucking visions of regret and guilt for several characters, he simply punched the hell out of "Milov" and went on with his bussiness nonchalantly.
The Starscream: After his mask broke, he went from doing Karnak's will to trying to kill him. Somewhat understandably, given that Karnak had been using him as a pawn, but fans still groaned at Siggy's villainous behavior while doing so.
Another candidate for Big Bad, the Beast is a creature that was born from the refuse of the Elemecca, the cosmic machine that creates and orders all reality. First seen as a giant eye that appears in the same Limbo that Miranda Deegan banished the Infernomancer, it takes a more active role in the series after the War in Hell frees the Infernomancer and sends him back to the physical plane. From what little Dominic and others have been able to learn about it, its goal seems to be devouring all of the magic in all of the planes.
The Man Behind the Man: To the Infernomancer, whom he grants new and terrifying powers. May be one to the King of Callan as well, depending on who is really in charge of the partnership.
No Sell: Capable of avoiding all of Dominic's attempts to directly scry on him and recently demonstrated the ability to depower him at will.
Villain Decay: Subverted. While Dominic has come out on top against the Beast multiple times it gets harder and harder for him and the same trick never works twice. Later it's revealed that the only reason the tricks even worked in the first place was because the Beast had already depleted its power after killing Miranda's old mentor Mu'rri, anotherEldritch Abomination that was one of the most powerful beings alive.
King David Johann
The King of Callan, recently revealed to be working alongside The Beast. Miranda's predecessor as the Fifth Circle Archmage, and one of the most powerful human mages ever to live.
Authority Equals Asskicking: He was a knight of Callan and one of the single most powerful mages in its history; his biography states he is also Callan's first "elected" king.
Badass: When a crew of Eldritch Abominations decide to expand their club to include humans completely because they're that impressed by you, you know you're a Badass.
Big Bad: Some have put forth the possibility that he's the one using the Beast instead of the other way around, and is actually the one competing with Karnak for the position of main antagonist.
Blind Seer: He has powerful second sight, and effortlessly obliterated Dominic when Dominic accidentally scried on him. In his old days, he wore a blindfold after being blinded in an "arcane accident", but now just goes with his Milky White Eyes.
Child Prodigy: He came from a poor family, but worked his way into college on a scholarship and went on to become the most powerful man in Callan.
The Dragon: If he's not the Big Bad, he is certainly a very, very powerful partner to The Beast.
The Dreaded: Miranda is afraid of him. The knowledge that the king of Callan is in league with The Beast has left the heroes desperately trying to find a new approach to fighting it that won't let him kill them all.
Enigmatic Minion: We know he calls The Beast "master", but we don't know a whole lot else about the dynamic between them.
Magic Knight: Was once a knight of Callan, and founded the Battlecasters that replaced the knights; his build suggests he's just as powerful as he was in his youth.
Offhand Backhand: Barely turns around to obliterate Dominic's mental projection when Dominic tries to spy on him talking to The Beast.
Misc
Bort
A Mongrelfolk of the Wild Edge territories that Dominic, Luna, and Stunt meet during their trip there. He appears to be made of spare parts of a dozen different creatures assembled in a rather haphazard fashion (one Shirtless Scene he has shows an eye on his chest, for example).
Body Horror: It doesn't hurt him at all, but his biology is very bizarre-looking, even compared to another Mongrelfolk we've seen.
Ensemble Darkhorse: Mookie loves him, and even snarkers seem to think Bort's pretty cool.
In Love with Your Carnage: Seeing the mongrelfolk girl he had a crush on slaughter the hunters after them just furthered Bort's attraction to her.
Talking With Signs : Given his jaw's structure, it's not that surprising he's only said one word on panel.
Badass: He seems to be quite capable of tearing things apart on the material plane, something Dominic can't do.
Depraved Bisexual: Although this hasn't been mentioned since his initial appearance, and he's never demonstrated any serious attraction to men.
Evil Counterpart: Very similar to Dominic, but has an intensely negative view of humanity and prone to very brutal methods.
Friendly Enemy: In a very strange way, he fills this with Dominic; when they become opposing champions, Celesto tries to convince Dominic to team up with him to change the world instead of destroying it, and afterwards has made several "peace offerings" to Dominic and attempted to work with him against The Beast. Celesto's extreme misanthropy and grim outlook means that these attempts to make amends with Dominic tend to be extremely brutal and often widen the gap between them more than anything.
A dwarf who punched Dominic in the balls while he was on vacation.
Batman Gambit: He was asked to punch Dominic in the balls by Rilian, to see if Dominic was at risk of Mindbreak over being attacked for something petty. Snarkers have suggested Rilian chose this particular method to troll Dominic.
A smiley face made of newspaper clippings Quilt keeps on Dominic's wall. A quiet but valuable partner in Quilt's detective work due to important information hidden among the clippings.
Companion Cube: Quilt was rather sad Gerald wouldn't be involved in his latest case, even turning Gerald's smile into a frown. He was also rather dismayed when Dominic tried to take Gerald off the wall, tackling Dominic to save the day.
Chekhov's Gun: Always has something valuable to Quilt's deductions hidden in the clippings making him up.
Memetic Badass: During the search for Celesto arc, some of the Playground snarkers reimagined Gerald as a stoic, hard-drinking Cowboy CopBadass working with Quilt who could have solved the case in minutes if Luna had let him. Like Scarf, he comes and goes from this.
Lars Sturtz
Badass Bureaucrat: Most of the events in the Battle for Barthis were to either delay or distract Brakkis, the Lawful EvilCorrupt Corporate Executive, so that Lars could navigate the legal system to rescind the unsubstantiated declaration of corruption on the town, grant the citizens disaster relief, circumvent Gregory's "debts", organize a benefit concert, and expedite the rebuilding protocols.
Beleaguered Bureaucrat: Saving Barthis by pen is neither easy nor fast. Not to mention helping out Donovan:
Lars: Donovan, I don't know how you managed this, but according to this you only want injury insurance for half of your children. Their upperhalves.
Karmic Death.
