Mijaki
Hekat
- The Antichrist: While not strictly the devil's child, she is chosen by Mijak's god to unite Mijak into a singular destructive force hellbent on bringing the whole world to its knees.
- Blood Magic: She channels the god's power through spilling blood.
- Bloodbath Villain Origin: Hekat kills Abajai and Yagji with a divine curse as they had revealed her as a runaway slave to Raklion. Ironically, no actual blood is shed, and she even chooses to forgo slitting their throats to use the curse.
- Cannot Spit It Out: She never confesses to loving Vortka, though it's obvious by her behavior late in her life that she fell in love with him. She is distraught by his death moments before hers.
- Dark Action Girl: She becomes trained as a warrior and takes a special liking to bladecraft.
- Deal with the Devil: After running away from Abajai and carving her face open, Hekat fell into a fever where she swore Undying Loyalty to any god that would save her life. The god that answered? A God of Evil, setting her on the path to become Empress of Mijak.
- Enfant Terrible: Even as a child she was feral, biting anyone who approached her. Justified, as she was left to roam around her village and didn't even have a name.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: There are exactly two people she cares for; Zandakar and Vortka. That does not mean she will not act awfully to either one, but she is capable of Pet the Dog moments for both.
- Even Evil Can Be Loved: Vortka and Zandakar's love for her humanizes her greatly. They both know she's pretty screwed up, but they care about her despite that.
- Evil Sorceress: She is capable of great magic as the chosen of Mijak's god.
- Evil Virtues: Hekat is a psychotically bloodthirsty woman, but her religious devotion, ambition, cunning, and sheer determination to fulfill her goals make her a compelling Villain Protagonist.
- Fille Fatale: She's merely 14 when Raklion takes Hekat as his mistress (at her insistence).
- Freudian Excuse: Her childhood was horrifically abusive and the trader that she thought had rescued her by purchasing her as a slave and proceeding to treat her with exceptional kindness was really just trying to amp up her value for when he sold her as a concubine. Furthermore, a God of Evil grants her the power to improve her quality of life. It's not really that surprising she becomes psychotically vicious in trying to climb as high in power as she can so she can at last be "safe".
- God Save Us from the Queen!: As the Empress of Mijak she is relentlessly bloodthirsty and cruel, and is very much a Bad Boss even to her own troops.
- I Have No Son!: She rejects Zandakar after he tries to marry a wife from another country, proclaiming him as dead. This bites her in the ass later when Zandakar was smuggled out of Mijak and ended up enslaved thousands of miles away.
- Karmic Death: Dmitrak murders her. Given how she treated him it was completely deserved.
- Kick the Morality Pet:
- After conceiving Zandakar with Vortka, she rids him of the ability to bear children out of paranoia that he would one day father a rival to Zandakar. She later realizes how awful what she's done is after the god commands her to sleep with Nagarak as a result.
- She crosses the moral event horizon completely by murdering Zandakar's wife and unborn child by gutting her. This firmly sets Hekat as irredeemable.
- Lady Macbeth: To Raklion, who for all his faults was significantly less vicious of a man before Hekat came into his life.
- Little Miss Badass: She's only 13 when she starts learning how to fight in Raklion's army.
- Love at First Sight: As soon as she sees her baby Zandakar she falls deep in motherly love for him, making Zandakar one of the very few people she feels affection for.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Raklion is unable to have a healthy biological child. After a nasty miscarriage of her true child by Raklion, Hekat goes and has her two sired by other men, and she just pretends they're Raklion's. Hekat goes to Vortka to get pregnant with Zandakar, but then magically makes Vortka infertile after that. When Hekat decides she needs a Spare to the Throne, she waits for her god to tell her who should sire her next baby, and much to her horror, that's Nagarak.
- Meaningful Rename: Previously nameless, she names herself for the first time when she's sold to Abajai. It's based on the phrase "hell-cat," which he called her, but she stumbles over the words when she says it, turning it into Hekat. It doubles as a Meaningful Name for that reason.Abajai: Do you have a name?
Hekat: He—kat. Me. Name. Hekat.
Abajai: As good a name as any, and better than most. - Mother Makes You King: Hekat holds the throne for Zandakar, killing or exiling any other pretenders.
- Mundane Luxury: She is enchanted by the robe Abajai gives her when he first buys her. Honey and baths are also a big deal.
- Never Given a Name: Girls were not named in her village.
- No Social Skills Exaggerated or Wild Child Downplayed: She is so neglected and abused as a child that when the story opens she's about 12 and she doesn't even speak her own language fluently.
- Psycho Knife Nut: Her weapon of choice is a pair of long knives and she takes special delight in killing with them.
- Scars Are Forever:
- She deliberately carved open her face so she would be considered too ugly to be enslaved as a concubine. While she is still seen as beautiful under them years later, the scars remain part of her, especially after she tears them open again when exiling her beloved son Zandakar.
- Dmitrak's birth leaves Hekat with horrible pain and wounds that never properly heal.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Zigzagged. Hekat was intended to be sold as a concubine because of her beauty. She realizes she'll be sold again if she tries to run away with a beautiful face and cuts her face open to make herself uglier, claiming a Wicked Stepmother did it to her to hide her true past. This doesn't stop Raklion from noticing it, however, and ultimately her beauty propels her to becoming the Empress of Mijak.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Everything she does at an early age due to her upbringing and horrific backstory.
- Villain Protagonist: Of the novel Empress.
- Wicked Stepmother: Discussed as part of her false backstory. She pretends her father remarried a woman who became jealous of her and cut open her face, then kicked her out of her home.
Abajai
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Subverted. Abajai is the first person who Hekat ever cares about, because he's the first person to ever treat her with kindness. She adored him for this until she learns he means to mark and sell her as a slave. This betrayal shakes her to the core and makes Hekat vow never to trust anyone again.
- Small Role, Big Impact: While overall he plays a minor role in the story, he brings Hekat out of her village into wider Mijak and influences her general distrust of everyone around her. He also gets Vortka chosen to be a Godspeaker.
Vortka
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Hekat shows him slight kindness when he's one of Abajai's slaves, earning her his loyalty.
- The Chosen One: He's chosen by Mijak's god to become a Godspeaker rather than a slave. It's later implied he was chosen by the good God of the rest of the world to conceive Zandakar and Fling a Light into the Future decades later in the form of someone who could wield the demons' power against them.
- Love Martyr: He knows what Hekat is evil and too far gone to redeem, but remains by her side unfalteringly out of Undying Loyalty.
- Morality Pet: Zigzagged. He is one of the few people whom Hekat shows kindness and loyalty to, but she is not above kicking him out of paranoia and he ultimately fails to curb her evil.
- Papa Wolf: To Zandakar. After Hekat banishes Zandakar in a rage, he smuggles him out of Mijak to save his life.
- Token Good Teammate: Of the Godspeakers and of Mijak as a whole. He's overall not fond of the Blood Magic and sacrifices he must perform. His continued presence in Hekat's life is one of the few things that serves to show she is not completely evil to the core. Deconstructed, as even though his heart is good he's completely unable to rein Hekat in.
- Undying Loyalty: To Hekat, even as she sinks into further and further evil.
Raklion
- Ambition Is Evil: Even before Hekat came into his life Raklion dreamed of uniting Mijak under his rule, though he thought he was being tested by the gods and rejected his ambitions until Hekat learned of them.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Dmitrak's birth and Raklion's death. There's also some implied Balancing Death's Books going on. Hekat is about to suffer Death by Childbirth, then Vortka uses magic to heal her. Their magic healing crystals don't usually require Balancing Death's Books, but this is a really severe thing to heal, and after it's used Raklion is suddenly dying.
- Ephebophile: Hekat is only 12 when Raklion first sees her and lusts for her. She's 14 by the time they get together. A case of Deliberate Values Dissonance, as his unnamed wife given to him by another warlord is of similar age when they are married to one another.
- Friend Versus Lover: Hanochek vs Hekat. It's a simmering background problem for a long time, which comes to a head after Zandakar gets hurt. Raklion sides with Hekat when she twists Hanochek's words to make it seem as though Hanochek was badmouthing her to their son. But in the end, with his Last Words, he says he wishes he hadn't.
- Heir Club for Men: Raklion is obsessed with fathering a son to inherit his province.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Raklion and Hanochek.
- Last Words: It's a strange sort of Dying Declaration of Love, mixed with Platonic Declaration of Love, and also Love Confessor. Raklion's Friend Versus Lover conflict is a large issue for him.Raklion: I wish I had not banished Hano.
- Old Man Marrying a Child: He's in his late forties when he marries his unnamed wife, then in his fifties when he makes Hekat his mistress.
- Unwitting Pawn: Hekat's. He allows her ambition to guide him and conquers Mijak for her, setting up the events of the following books.
Hanochek
- Affectionate Nickname: Hano.
- Defiant to the End: He refuses to bow to Hekat until the very end, facing his impending death with dignity on the battlefield.
- Determinator: Even after being exiled, then imprisoned, he manages to lead a rebellion against Hekat, knowing he has very little chance against her army and magic but deciding it's the right thing to do anyways.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Raklion and Hanochek
- Hero Antagonist: He stands opposed to Hekat and is vastly more heroic, trying to turn Raklion from Hekat's radical changes.
- Morality Chain: He serves as one to Raklion, serving as his voice of reason restraining his ambition and worst impulses. Hence why he is so wary of Hekat, and why she's constantly trying to get rid of him.
Nagarak
- Ambition Is Evil: He is at first convinced to go along with Hekat's suggestions because her plans would place him above all the other Godspeakers in the land.
- Eviller Than Thou: He's killed by Hekat's more powerful magic.
- Evil Sorceror: He is a cruel Jerkass of a man and a very powerful practitioner of Blood Magic.
- Evil vs. Evil: He opposes Hekat, but not out of hatred of her beliefs, but rather out of fear she will replace him.
- Out with a Bang: A sort of Rape by Proxy, where Hekat has sex with Nagarak at the god's order. Neither of them want to. And it kills Nagarak... Although not right away; he lives a few more days in a feverous delirium before he dies.
- Sinister Minister: As the head of a Religion of Evil practicing Blood Magic this is a given.
Zandakar
- Anti Anti Christ: He was meant to be the chosen one of Mijak's god to conquer the world, but he rejects this fate after falling in love with a woman from one of the nations he conquered.
- Broken Ace: While he starts as The Paragon of Mijak, he becomes more and more troubled with the senseless violence and death he witnesses. After Hekat murders his wife and unborn child, he spirals into broken acehood for the entirety of the second book.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Raklion is unable to have a healthy biological child. So Hekat goes to Vortka to get pregnant.
- Power Dyes Your Hair: Zandakar's hair turns blue when he uses the hammer the first time.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The contemplative Blue oni to Dmitrak's fiery fearsome Red oni.
- Will They or Won't They?: With Rhian. The two love each other, but ultimately cannot marry as Zandakar has to return to rule Mijak and Rhian must remain in Ethrea.
Dmitrak
- Affectionate Nickname: His brother calls him Dimmi. Also an Embarrassing Nickname, as he hates the pet name—he says it makes him small.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Dmitrak's birth and Raklion's death. There's also some implied Balancing Death's Books going on. Hekat is about to suffer Death by Childbirth, then Vortka uses magic to heal her. Their magic healing crystals don't usually require Balancing Death's Books, but this is a really severe thing to heal, and after it's used Raklion is suddenly dying.
- Dead Guy Junior: Raklion names him after his brother Dmitrak, who died.Raklion: His name—is Dmitrak. I name him for my brother—who was to be—warlord.
- Freudian Excuse: Dmitrak is a sort of Child by Rape via Rape by Proxy. His mother Hekat already hates him as a fetus because of that. Then, she very nearly dies when he's born, and to save them both there's a surgery. The surgery works, but afterwords, even after she heals, Hekat has some chronic pain. Those two things together lead to Hekat hating her younger son, which in turn screws Dmitrak up.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Raklion is unable to have a healthy biological child. Hekat went to Vortka to get pregnant with Zandakar, but then magically made Vortka infertile to prevent him from siring competition to Zandakar. After the god tells Hekat she must have a Spare to the Throne, she must find another to have a child with. Much to Hekat's horror, the god chooses Nagarak.
- Power Dyes Your Hair: His hair turns red when he inherits the Hammer.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The fiery fearsome Red oni to Zandakar's contemplative Blue oni.
- The Unfavorite: Because of the trauma of his conception and birth, Hekat utterly despises him.
