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Characters / Dominic Deegan

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Below is a list of characters who have appeared in the webcomic Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire

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Main Characters

    Dominic Deegan 
The title oracle for hire, Dominic is a pessimistic and grouchy but ultimately heroic seer as well as the (primary) viewpoint character.
  • Alliterative Name: Dominic Deegan
  • 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.
  • Character Catchphrase: "SEE THE TRUTH!"
  • 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.
  • Flanderization: His ability to plan ahead.
  • Geeky Turn-On: How he fell in love with Luna. See here and here.
  • 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 Badass: 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.
  • Phrase Catcher: "Smug jerk."
  • Save the Villain: Has done this a couple times, most prominently with his Evil Counterpart, Celesto.
  • Scarf Of Ass Kicking: A very, very nice one at that.
  • 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.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Avoiding this trope is why Dominic gave up the massive power boost he received during the Storm of Souls arc as the Champion of Balance.

    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.
  • All Your Powers Combined: Being an Archmage requires one to have mastered every form of magic.
  • The Archmage: She's an Archmage, which is a title given to the most powerful mage in an entire plane of reality. Among her feats include sending people who piss her off to a dimension crawling with Eldritch Abominations. However, King David surpasses her to such a degree that even she is given pause. The Circle Archmages initially intended Miranda to be their first human archmage, but David used subtle suggestion magic on them to take the position. When he left the role of human archmage to Miranda, David also made her to restrain her own power via a suggestion spell. Later, David's plot lead to the non-human Archmagi being possessed and killed as scapegoats, but one of them manages to publicly declare they are being controlled by David, before dying. At the end of the story, Miranda retired as archmage, leaving Milov as the new leader of the Circle, with Luna as his apprentice before she took the position years later.
  • 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.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: She is a very loving mother, she's non-judgmental, she will put her life on the line to protect damn near anyone at a seconds notice, and she will rip your ass from here to the outer planes if you piss her off.
  • Big Good: Dominic's the viewpoint character, but Miranda's the biggest benevolent power in the series except possibly Rilian.
  • Death Glare: Has a range of half a mile, can go around corners, through dimensions, and can intimidate all but the most hardened foes.
  • The Dreaded: Milov is really, really scared of Miranda.
  • 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...
  • Happily Married: To Donovan. Even though they're both middle-aged, their relationship is as strong as it ever was.
  • Holy Hand Grenade: Able to convert demonic artifacts to possess angelic powers.
  • Mama Bear: She's past her prime, but Miranda Deegan is still damn scary when her loved ones are threatened.
  • Parent ex Machina: Has Lampshaded this several times.
  • 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, eventual fiancee, and finally wife, 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.
  • Abhorrent Admirer: Word of God is that Luna was conceived as a deconstruction of this before it was decided she'd be a main character, simply posing the question of how someone would react to being immediately and harshly rejected by someone they liked because of their looks.
  • Action Girl: Her specialty is illusion spells, but she's also got enough skill in Black Magic to hold her own in fights.
  • Apologizes a Lot: Especially at first, when she has very little self-esteem.
  • The Archmage
  • Badass Bookworm: Is just as big a nerd as Dominic, but one who can cast some very powerful magic.
  • Cain and Abel: Her relationship with her sisters was also like this for a while, but the three eventually decided to try and at least tolerate each other after the rest of their family got themselves killed with their petty fighting.
  • The 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.
  • 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.
  • Flanderization: Her bids for independence.
  • Master of Illusion: Her magic specialty is illusions. These illusions are so convincing that they can fool thousand year old necromancers.
  • 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. Something to do with embracing an orcish curse and that being part of Maltak being cast away in anger and then returned in joy or suchlike.
  • Now That's Using Your Teeth!: She once bit off Helixia's lips, trying to make the insane necromancer incapable of spell-casting. She wasn't entirely successful.
  • 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.

Supporting Characters

    Donovan Deegan 
Dominic's father and Miranda's husband, a bard famous for his sword skills and wearing pink.
  • Author Avatar: Mookie has admitted that he very much modeled Donovan after himself with his appearance, taste in music, and sense of humor.
  • The Bard: Although his sword's no joke.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: He's mainly comic relief, but he's one of the most skilled sword fighters in the comic. Also, as Serk Brakkis found out, much to dismay, if you threaten anyone that Donovan cares about, he will literally bring everything he has and kick your ass, whether that be something physical like swordfighting, or something political, like Lars Sturtz's skill in navigating paperwork.
  • Cool Old Guy: Still one of the great swordsmen in the land even though he's past his prime.
  • Cultured Badass: Bard, diplomat, and swordsman extradordinare.
  • Happily Married: To Miranda. When they're alone, he calls her "Randy".
  • I Was Quite a Looker: Very much a cutie in his younger days.
  • My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: His "mastery" of Orcish. He speaks it just fine, but thought this was funnier.
  • Papa Wolf: Normally very relaxed, but he's just as adamant as Miranda in protecting those who are dear to him.
  • Pungeon Master: And a variety of other groan-inducing jokes.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Donovan's the Trope Namer. His entire wardrobe is filled with pink, and the honorary name the orcs gave to him translates to "little pink man in pink".
  • The Trickster: He can screw around with people quite a lot if he wants to.
  • Took the Wife's Name: Being an orphan he didn't have a last name before marrying Miranda Deegan.

    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.
  • 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. Word of God says it sticks forever and so far it has.
  • Cain and Abel: The Abel to Jacob's Cain.
  • Catapult Nightmare: The loss of his White Magic allows the Blight-induced nightmares he had when he was a kid to return. He often wakes up from them bolting upright with a gasp. He starts using them as inspiration for Facebath's Heavy Metal songs.
  • Combat Medic: With a shade of Magic Knight, once his White Magic has developed some.
  • Hair Metal: White Magic's aesthetic, due to taking Rachel's fashion advice.
  • Heavy Metal: The In-Universe inventor of the musical genre. Combining his and his bandmate's bad experiences, horrible nightmares, and love of mythology with him "yelling in key," it comes out as something akin to an alternate-reality Metallica. The critics pan it, but it speaks to the people (his song about Callian's corrupt beuraucracy, "Cesspool of Lies," is based off of Pam's experiences, for example).
  • Manchild: He's not that much younger than Dominic, but he's certainly not very mature by comparison.
  • Revive Kills Zombie: White Magic makes him very effective at slaying zombies and Infernomancers. Chaos and Eldritch Abomination Infernomancers, not so much.
  • Shout-Out: His favorite comic book features a guy who turns himself into a superhero with a stock magic word (Abracadabra).
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Greg's more kind-hearted and innocent side has grown less distinct since he was permanently robbed of his White Magic, and he's gotten a lot more self-absorbed since then.

    Spark 
Dominic's talking cat. He can be selfish and impatient, but he also genuinely cares about Dominic and tries to help him whenever possible. Being a cat, he loves fish.

    Lady Jayden 
A priestess of Callan and one of Luna's few friends. A part of Siegfried's True Companions, and all that implies.
  • The Atoner: She took a pilgrimage to the Desert of Aldariat in order to atone for betraying Milov.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Is briefly mind-controlled into renouncing her faith to empower The Chosen.
  • Healing Hands: As an expert in white magic, she has this ability.
  • Heroic BSoD: Shadow Of Siegfried is full of this for her; she's entered a permanent silence in its aftermath. However after her pilgrimage to Eldariat she has finally snapped out of it and started to forgive herself.
  • Combat Medic: She's often using her healing magics in battle.
  • Miko Priestess really but.....
  • Naughty Nuns: A more PG version of this, but sexy none the less.
  • Official Couple: With Milov. They're no longer together, but miss each other immensely.
  • Squishy Wizard: Her magic may be powerful, but her body, not so much.

    Lord Milov Danovich 
A Spellwolf of the Winter Archipelago. He's a part of Siegfried's True Companions, and all that implies.
  • Comes Great Responsibility: The core being of an spellwolf, to the point that simply being one makes you a noble.
  • Druid: Had flavors of this and might be one if his magic is different from the rest of wizards.
  • Heartbroken Badass: He's hurting a lot since his relationship with Jayden fell apart.
  • Interspecies Romance: With Jayden.
  • Kung-Fu Wizard: He is a seven foot tall, half a ton werewolf with the same power as an Archmage.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction of Jayden's infidelity.
  • Noble Wolf: The pack mentality and taking seriously the Comes Great Responsibility of a Spellwolf.
  • True Companions: 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 among all of the werewolves, a master spellcaster, and a Juggernaut in battle... who is summarily beaten by every single opponent (from Jacob To Siegfried) to show how badass they are.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Siegfried.

    Melsheena "Melna" Durnaxe 
An orc woman working at Miranda's academy. Has a very Dark and Troubled Past that has prevented her from returning home. Becomes one of Luna's closest friends.
  • Close to Home: 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: Deliberate 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.

    Pamela Chayler 
Mayor of Barthis, and Greg's Hot Librarian ex, at the start of the "Built to Resist" arc, girlfriend.
  • Beautiful All Along: That head covering wasn't doing her any favors.
  • 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.
  • You Are in Command Now: She is universally chosen to become the mayor of Barthis after a Chosen attack kills the previous mayor and much of the local government.

    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.
  • The Chosen One: Again, among the other orcs, anyway. His unique ice powers are vital to purging the demonic influences killing Maltak.
  • Deliberate 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.
  • Kill It with Ice: Due to In-Universe Values Dissonance, Ice is a holy magic to Orcs, and therefore able to slay demons very effectively.
  • Rape as Backstory: 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. He genuinely meant well, but 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.
  • Supporting Leader: To the other orcs, anyway, since Dominic's just some crazy foreigner wandering around their land.

    Rachel Hart 
A childhood friend of Greg's. She breaks things with her face.
  • Black Comedy Rape: With Dominic. Cat ears were apparently involved.
  • Made of Iron: Again, somebody broke their hand trying to punch her in the face.

    Quilt 
A necromantic Golem built by Jacob, who gave up on him in disgust when Quilt turned out to be a nice guy and a fan of Donovan's jokes.
  • Beware the Silly Ones:
    • Had TIM been a mortal man, Quilt would have gutted him at the end of his last attack. No jokes, no fooling around, just a brutal attack.
    • Quilt does not want to mourn his killed friend Bumper. He wants to AVENGE him.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Quilt is a very strange person. Golem. Thing.
  • The Cuckoolander 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.
  • Companion Cube: Gerald, Quilt's face made out of newspaper clippings.
  • Cosplay: First as a Pirate, then as Sherlock Holmes. Quilt seems to like wearing absurd costumes to fit the mood he's in.
  • Flanderization: His stupidity.
  • Fun Personified: Even when everyone else is being very serious, Quilt tends to be just as silly as he always is.
  • Immune to Mind Control: Due to not having a brain, he's immune to anything that affects the mind.
  • Large Ham: Takes everything he does as far as it can go, regardless of whether it makes any sense to do so.
  • Mutual Kill: With TIM.
  • Who Even Needs a Brain?: Doesn't have a brain, which might be why he's so bizarre.

    Dex Garrit 
A Resistant former athlete-turned-Sheriff of Barthis.
  • Anti-Magic: Cannot be harmed or healed by magic. Powerful magic can still really hurt, though.
  • Badass Normal: Beyond Anti-Magic, Dex has no special powers or combat training beyond being an athlete. He's still a major badass.
  • Blessed with Suck: As a Resistant, Dex is immune to all forms of magic. This includes healing magic. When he is all but flayed during his battle with The Infernomancer, he can only get through the wounds by sheer willpower and non-magic medical treatment.
  • Character Catchphrase: "Never take your eye off the interceptor."
  • Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments.
  • 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.
  • Flanderization: His timing for Big Damn Hero moments.
  • 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: Inverted 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. Because if he wasn't redeemed yet, he sure as hell wasn't going to die until he was.

    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: He prefers to use ice magic 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.
  • Not Distracted by the Sexy: "Your country has made me immune to boobs." 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 Fun: As said in comic 2014, He used to be one, back when he was still mortal. He also pretends to be a fat, jolly fellow named Brian on a cruise.
  • 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.
  • …But He Sounds Handsome: In his persona of Brian, he pretends to be a fanboy of himself.
  • Creepy Good: Looks like a "vile zombie" but is still a hero.
  • 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.
  • Genuine Human Hide: He once 'stalked' Dominic and Luna in one. His own hide, in fact, and it allows him to be the way he originally was when he was mortal - a Big Fun Necromancer.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: He is a bitter, humorless revenant, but still as dedicated to saving lives as any other hero. When not masquerading as Brian, that is...
  • Shoot the Dog: His designated position as the "final option"
  • The Stoic: As he explains once, he has to be: otherwise, the pain of everything he's lost over his extremely long existence would be unbearable.
  • 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.

Former Villains

    Ilario "Bumper" Ciarenni 
Pickpocket and street magician who becomes The Atoner in the "Two Thief or not Two Thief" Arc.
  • Ambiguously Brown: Comes with being Semashi.
  • The Atoner: Grows disillusioned with life as a thief and still feels immense guilt over murdering Amanda in retribution for brainwashing him.
  • Determinator: Even when he's been savaged by The Infernomancer, to the point his hands are both gone, he is able to temporarily blind TIM and try to escape to get the Treasure back to his friends. Unfortunately, TIM impales him from behind and takes the treasure before anyone can help him.
  • Meaningful Name: In addition to his nickname being a literal description of what he does (see below), "Ilario" is an Italian name meaning "cheerful".
  • Percussive Pickpocket: It's where his nickname comes from.
  • Those Two Guys: With Stunt. Now he's out of the picture permanently.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: For several comics, it was unclear whether Bumper was male or female, cleared up only by Stunt's misogyny, and the two's close friendship.

    Lawrence "Stunt" Mondane 
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.
  • The Atoner: Becomes this during the pilgrimmage to Eldariat with Jayden to forgive himself for accidently killing his mother in a rage when he was younger.
  • Character Development: Has undergone a significant amount as his past was revealed especially in the first part of the "I Do" arc. He has certainly backed off from his tough guy persona and his misogynist tendencies, and opens up to trust people more and more.
  • Heel–Face Turn: At the end of "Two Thief", compared to Bumper's at the beginning.
  • He-Man Woman Hater: He really hates women. Both because of remnants of his father's harsh religious teachings and because he can't forgive himself for accidentally killing his mother when he was young.
  • Jerkass: Working on that Hidden Heart of Gold thing, though.
  • Never My Fault: Defines himself as having this attitude, although it's something he's managed to turn around lately.
  • 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.
  • Those Two Guys: With Bumper. Now he's on his own.

    Snowsong 
Dark Faux Action Girl with a Freudian Excuse who was the victim of Dominic's Gambit Roulette before being sent to the Aberthast Cathedral to get counseling.
  • The Bus Came Back: Returns near the end of the series and becomes Facebath's new lead singer.
  • 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.

    Szark Sturtz 
Formerly murderous Depraved Bisexual who received a "Get Out of Jail Free" Card by way of the More than Mind Control Defense. A master swordsman with an apparent man-crush on Dominic, cured when he saw Dominic sick. May be gay, but this status is uncertain, as he is very coy about revealing such matters.
  • Anti-Magic: He's a resistant as well.
  • 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.
  • Flanderization: He was originally a master swordsman and a sadist. Following his Heel–Face Turn and admittance to having a crush on the title character, he eventually became "Szark (who is gay)", according to one forum that follows the comic.
  • Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?: Ever since he came out of the closet nary a panel has gone by with him in it that hasn't made a joke about his sexuality or referenced it in some way.
  • 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 being hedonistic.

    Jacob Deegan 
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. After his revelations about the nature of death in the March Across Maltak arc, he's quit being a bad guy and just become a selfish jerk, even cooperating with Dominic to a certain extent.
  • Anti-Hero: Shifts into a type V after his revelations about the nature of death in Maltak.
  • Cain and Abel: The Cain to Dominic and Gregory's Abel.
  • For Science!: The reason he's gotten into necromancy, apparently.
  • Red Right Hand: Skeletal, in fact.
  • 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."
  • Skeletal Appendage: He rips the skin off his arm, twice, and the lower half of his face once. In both cases they get regenerated involuntarily.
  • Soft-Spoken Sadist: He's not very grandiose in his speech, but he'll do some very nasty things just out of curiosity.

Villains

    Brett Taggerty 
A misogynistic, womanizing Jerk Jock and all-around terrible person. Suffered an appropriate Karmic Death.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Tells Garrit that he should have stopped them in the bar if he really wanted to be a hero.
  • Karmic Death: He is blown up by Celesto's Chaos magic after he calls the latter a derogatory slur. With lots of Body Horror.

    The Infernomancer 
A mage who sold his soul (and eyes) to The Lord of Wounds to become the Implacable Man. He has gone To Hell and Back before being banished to a dimension of madness and horror... before coming back from there, too.
  • Arch-Enemy: Has apparently become one to Celesto, who is determined to hunt him down and put an end to him.
  • Deal with the Devil: He sold his soul to Karnak and became his Infernomancer because he feared death.
  • Determinator: He's lost his eyes and soul to infernomancy, been devastated by holy magic and chaos infused Black Magic, banished to an alternate dimension full of Eldritch Abominations by an arch-mage, and sent straight to Hell. So far, it has only served to piss him off. It takes the magic of the first and most powerful necromancer in the world to crumble his body and soul to dust and finally put him down for good.
  • Dirty Coward: Karnak once called him a pathetic wretch because he feared death so much he was willing to sell his own soul to avoid it.
  • The Dragon: First to Karnak, now to The Beast.
  • Hero Killer: While most of the comic sees him getting very close, he graduated to hero killer by murdering Bumper in front of Dominic and the others in the opening of the comics final year.
  • Humanoid Abomination: The only way to describe what he's become.
  • 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. However, it's later averted as being reduced to dust by Rilian's Blight seems to have finally put an end to him.
  • Killed Off for Real: Killed via being reduced to dust by Rilian's Blight
  • Last of His Kind: The war in Hell killed off many if not all of the world's infernomancers. After Karnak won it, he took away the surviving demon lords' rank, making it impossible to empower mortals anymore. But since THE Infernomancer managed to free himself of his bond to Karnak, he avoided the same fate and earned the right to call himself that name.
  • Mysterious Past: Word of God indicates that the name and backstory of the Infernomancer will not be part of the comic, partially because it would cheapen the character as a villain to see who he'd been before becoming who we know of today.
  • No Name Given: Word of God is that TIM's actual name will never be given, since who he was is irrelevant compared to what he is; the Infernomancer.
  • No Man of Woman Born: Thanks to Karnak's power, he cannot die of wounds. Good thing Rilian's Blight doesn't wound, it rots.
  • Resistant to Magic:
    • The Demon of Chaos' Infernomancer is immune to White Magic because "Demons/Infernomancers are weak to White Magic" is a rule, and his patron's power comes from breaking rules.
    • The Demon of Wounds' Infernomancer has the power to cause wounds that don't ever heal under any circumstances (a power his patron, Karnak, shares), making the recipient resistant to White Magic.

    Karnak 
Former friend and unrequited lover of Miranda Deegan, who decided to Murder the Hypotenuse shortly before falling into Hell in an act of semi-twisted Heroic Sacrifice. Formerly the Lord of Wounds, now the King of Hell, and a former Big Bad of several story arcs.
  • 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.
  • Big Bad: Was for several story arcs but pushed out of the limelight by The Beast.
  • Chained by Fashion: His last fight against Siegfried.
  • Evil Feels Good: Tormenting the Damned that try and rise up against him is the only thing that brings him pleasure anymore.
  • The Fettered: Thanks to this he had become the Warden of Hell.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: His preferred choice of weaponary and ballistic.
  • A Hell of a Time: For him, specifically. He realizes that he wasn't sent to hell as a punishment, but to serve as its warden.
  • 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 his, if a little unorthodox, epiphany.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Hell flavor. Really, Karnak is a fanatic believer in "waste not, want not".
  • 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 but he fought all of the Lord to become 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 to take down an entire army that rose up to oppose him and survives to gloat seconds later, he really deserve the title.
  • Ironic Hell: He sneers at Seigfried's desire to "command hell as father and son", explaining to him that all the beings, including the Lords, suffer one way or another.
  • 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 makes him stop for a panel or two before he return in full force.
  • One-Man Army: And this is against demonic armies, far beyond what normal armies could pack.
  • Physical God: He was one of the Lords of Hell and then destroyed the other Four and 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.
  • Would Hurt a Child: He attacked Dominic and Szark in their youth and left Szark with the infernal wound that would lead Szark into depravity.

    Raf Maliksh 
Elf Prince from the distant past, and a Knight Templar.
  • Big Bad: Of the Storm Of Souls arc.
  • Bad Boss: Regardless of his alignment, he always seemed to have a lot of his followers killed to further his plans.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Trapped by a Golem he created, then killed by a seer he powered up to be his champion.
  • You Have Failed Me: Tries to off Celesto for failing him, but backfires and gets him killed.

    Serk Brakkis 
Corrupt Corporate Executive whose credo of Screw the Rules, I Have Money! worked well until Dominic made sure that he didn't get away with anything after all. Then he got parole and was exploded by Celesto.

    Lord Siegfried "Siggy" Damaske 
An arrogant, violent racist knight and Draco in Leather Pants. Made a Heroic Sacrifice, but then came back as a demon and got even worse.
  • Anti-Hero: Prior to his death he was a Type III like Dominic, but then things went downhill.
  • 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. Doubly so when he serves as Karnak's Knight in Hell.
  • 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 for all of his own shortcomings.
  • Badass Normal: Able to kick copious amounts of ass with nothing but pure strength and his knight training.
  • The Dragon: To Karnak, post-death.
  • 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.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: 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.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Take your pick: when he was loudly sickened by Luna's tusks that send her to suicide, when he beat Dominic up for giving him a "wrong answer" of his future or when he brutally beat a crippled Gregory with his own crutch for trying to defend his brother.
  • 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.
  • Flanderization: His racism.
  • 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.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: He hands out savage beatings like candy, with too many triggers for a simple Berserk Button.
  • Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Deconstructed hard. When he first beats Dominic over bad prophecy, it's Played for Laughs. When he gets disgusted with Luna, it's done in a comedic fashion too, except that she then goes on to try and kill herself. When he beats a crippled teenager with the staff said teenager needs to walk over what amounted to self-defense... there was nothing funny about that.
  • Implausible Deniability: It's abundantly clear that the only person Siegfried doesn't blame for his actions and his shortcomings is himself. This carries on even after his death and damnation.
  • It's All About Me: Seriously, he has almost no empathy to other people. Played with later until his temper got the better of him.
  • Jerkass: The living embodiment in the entire series, acting like a petty bully over and over again.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He started to change in his later life... subverted when he slept with his best friend's lover, blamed his friend for it, brutally beat Dominic again and never repented of his past crimes against orcs.
  • The Juggernaut: He is the second strongest being in all Hell and is the only being capable of facing and hurting Karnak.
  • Lack of Empathy
  • Master Swordsman: One of the best Swordsmen in all Callan. And being dead has not diminished his abilities in the slightest.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: He is loyal to Callan to a T. No matter what.
  • Noble Bigot: Started as this... then it all went down to hell.
  • 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 Battles, either him dishing or receiving.
  • 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.
    • This causes a lot of issue...as all his Moral Event Horizons, at least until a later scene, are revealed as Retcons/Backstory.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When he attacked and brutally beat the gang after being condemned in hell, nearly brainwashing Jayden and nearly killing Milov. Done again in his rebellion against Karnak.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: After a long suffering of MindScrewing visions of regret and guilt for several characters, he simply punched the hell out of "Milov" and went on with his business 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.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: The reason he ended up in hell was because he hanged an entire Orc family, children included, as a birthday gift to his father, along with other atrocities.
    Karnak: You were unrepented mass murderers until it was too late.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Milov.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: After his failed battle with Karnak, he lets his temper get the better of him again and eats his father's soul. He realizes what he has done and cries out for help. The chapter ends with Loxo looking on, planning to use him, and we never see him again.
  • You Killed My Father

    The Beast 
One of the current Big Bads, 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.
  • Combat Tentacles
  • The Dragon: To David Johann, King of Callan and first Archmage of the Fifth Circle.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Though as the story progresses, it becomes less Eldritch and is capable of actually having a conversation with Dominic.
  • It Came from the Fridge: On a cosmic scale. Basically, all the planar waste the Elemecca stores rotting and congealing over aeons gave birth to the Beast. Although, this was catalyzed by the addition of the eyes of someone who went gorgon-gazing at the Heart of Magic.
  • The Man Behind the Man: To the Infernomancer, whom he grants new and terrifying powers. The David Johann, King of Callan, is his being the one who summoned him.
  • More Teeth than the Osmond Family
  • 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.
  • Power Parasite: It has the power to cut out and claim the magic of others for itself. Its harbinger steals Gregory's white magic and the Beast itself steals Dominic's third sight.
  • 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, another Eldritch Abomination that was one of the most powerful beings alive. Then played straight in the end, to the point that Dominic can't believe he was ever scared of it.
    Over time, knowledge of The Beast has diminished it. From a disembodied, eldritch god-fiend from an unknowable place... to the discarded eyes of a mad king, given parasitic life in a planar garbage dump.

    Spoiler Character 

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.
  • Absolute Xenophobe: Hates all non-human races and even looks down on humans outside of Callan. He eventually tries to use a Fantastic Nuke to destroy every nation on the planet except Callan.
  • The Archmage
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: He was a knight of Callan, one of the single most powerful mages in its history, and founder of the Fifth Circle of Archmagi; his biography states he is also Callan's first "elected" king.
  • Big Bad: Some have put forth the possibility that he's the one using the Beast instead of the other way around, and now he has sidelined Karnak for the position of main antagonist. Recent flashbacks revealed that he created the Beast by accident, with his own eyes.
  • 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.
  • Compelling Voice: Not so much a voice, but he is a master at mind control, even turning the Archmagi, the most powerful mortals alive into his unwilling slaves. Thanks to The Beast's corruption, he can even enchant Seers, who are normally immune to such things, though as he is starting to realize, not without deadly side effects.
  • Deal with the Devil: Disturbingly enough, with what was once his own eyes. In exchange for the Beast's help empowering humanity with the Heart of Magic, he will allow the Beast to consume all the non-human parts of the world. He makes a second one with it when he needs its help to harness the Heart of Magic's power. The Beast forces David to acknowledge it as his new lord and master.
  • 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.
  • Elective Monarchy: Apparently the first, by virtue of his sheer popularity and having quietly mind-controlled the previous, heir-less king and queen into committing regicide against one another.
  • Enigmatic Minion: We know he calls The Beast "master", but we don't know a whole lot else about the dynamic between them.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Miranda.
  • Eye Scream: Put out his own eyes since they didn't work anymore anyways and placed them into the Elemecca to study it. But instead, they became the Beast.
  • Fantastic Racism: He views humanity as the greatest race. As the elves were tyrants, the dwarves and halflings wasted their magic slaughtering each other, and the Eld squandered its magic, he believes only humanity deserves the Heart of Magic's power. Unsurprisingly, the Orcs were the next race meant to inherit magical dominance as Callan declines. Since he perceives them as violent savages, he went to war in order to retain Callan's magical dominance.
  • Fisher King: As seen in Ara's flashbacks, everything the King's magic touches becomes warped, corrupted, and putrid. So it's quite fitting that Callahan's government has become infamous for its corruption, which really says a lot about him as a person.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: He was probably always a little off, but when he sees the Heart of Magic for the first time, he pursues it with fanatic devotion. Later, he even outright states that glimpsing the Heart of Magic makes it an obsession, which is why he trusts Dominic, who has also seen it, to help him find it.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Has been corrupted by The Beast into one of these.
  • Hypocrite: Claims that the reason that mankind (more specifically, the human nation of Callan) is best suited to wield the power of the Heart of Magic is that they never misused it on a racial scale like previous races did before their magic declined (using it to wage war, etc.). However, once he found that Maltak (and by proxy, the nature magic using orcs) was the next nation destined to receive the Heart's power he declared war, using mages and even infernomancers to render Maltak lifeless so he could try and capture the Heart, keeping it bound to Callan.
  • Mad Scientist: Was very much one of these before he became king.
  • 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.
  • The Man Behind the Man: The Man behind The Beast
  • Offhand Backhand: Barely turns around to obliterate Dominic's mental projection when Dominic tries to spy on him talking to The Beast.
  • Perilous Power Source: Stricken blind after peeking at the Heart of Magic.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: He had apparently been manipulating the events of the world for at least twenty years without being discovered. Did we mention he enchanted the other four archmagi to convince them to make him one?
  • The Unfettered: His quest to capture the Heart of Magic has been incredibly ruthless.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: His original goal was to give all of humanity access to magic. But if it has to come at the expense of all non-humans, then so be it.

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.
  • 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. He's somehow able to speak after he and Celesto are transported to the Elemecca. He's as surprised by this as Dominic.

    Celesto Morgan 
One villain who's hard to classify. Began as Dominic's Evil Counterpart in the Storm Of Souls, he's also a Well-Intentioned Extremist. Is also a demonstrated badass. He's not quite a villain anymore because he's working to prevent an Eldritch Abomination from gaining a foothold in the world, and he's not quite an ally because his methods...
  • Cutting the Knot: Whereas Dominic uses his powers to defeat the villains through cunning and intractably complex plots, in a way that leaves everyone he cares about safe and happy, Celesto prefers to simply identify the wicked and irredeemable, and kill them dead. He genuinely believes that he is doing Dominic a favor here.
  • 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.
  • Humans Are Bastards: Part of his core philosophy.
  • Misanthrope Supreme: Mostly during the Storm of Souls arc, but doesn't care much for most of the human race even while he works against The Beast.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: He tends to blow up bad people, or at least those he perceives as such.
  • Psychic Nosebleed: Is a frequent victim of these as he fights The Beast's influence on his mind.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: "When the infection is too deep, amputation is the only option."
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: One of the reasons Dominic saves him despite their regular clashes.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Unlike Dominic, Celesto chose to keep the massive power boost he received during the Storm of Souls arc. While this makes him far stronger than Dominic outside of the mental planes, mere mortals are not built to be wielding that sort of power. As such, Celesto grows increasingly unstable during his tenure as Champion of Chaos, especially as he starts wielding the powers of the Beast.

    Gerald 
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.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Always has something valuable to Quilt's deductions hidden in the clippings making him up.
  • 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.

    Lars Sturtz 

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