Gotrek and Felix characters throughout the books.
open/close all folders
Main Protagonists
Gotrek Gurnisson
Voiced by: BRIAN BLESSED (Realmslayer)
The most successful, (or unsuccessful from some points of view), Dwarf Slayer in the Warhammer world. Seeking to atone for a terrible crime in his past. He seeks a grand doom, and has killed many powerful foes to find it. None have succeeded yet due to his might, skill, and badass ancestral weapon Perhaps along with divine mandate. So far his Doom eludes him, though it finally arrives in an unexpected form. They meet the Slayer God Grimnir, who easily dispatches Gotrek then resurrects Gotrek to serve as his successor.
- Action Survivor: Especially in Elfslayer where he uses engineering and physics principles to help himself and his friends escape being trapped in a city recently resubmerged at the bottom of the ocean.
- Ancestral Weapon: His axe, which is one of the most potent examples of its kind in the entire world and throughout history especially since it a weapon made by a Physical God. His axe, more than anything else, seems to be the reason why he just can't get killed: the axe is destined to kill something really, really powerful, and Gotrek absolutely cannot die until the axe serves its purpose.
- Anti-Hero: He drinks, curses, bloodily dispatches his enemies, causes wide scale property damage, but many times his heart is in the right place and he's trying to help. He even goes out of his way to help a friend.
- The Alcoholic: Gotrek loves his alcohol, but being a Dwarf he's more resistant to it than a human would be. Also he follows the Dwarf stereotype of having a cultural, almost physiological, need for alcoholic drinks.
- Antiquated Linguistics: An in-universe example. In Realmslayer he insists on using the Old World terms for things. He's a Dwarf and can't be having this "Duardin" nonsense. His gruff no-nonsense speaking style also clashes with the flowery heroic pronouncements Fyreslayers favor, although it's still the standard for Dispossessed.
- The Atoner: Details are sketchy, but it's implied the reason he took his Slayer oath was because he killed his lord, his bodyguards and a good chunk of his court while grief-stricken over the death of his wife and daughter.
- Badass Abnormal: His rune axe is strongly implied to be boosting his strength and resilience to absurd levels.
- Brutal Honesty: Gotrek tells absolutely everyone what he thinks of them, friends are fair game, same with other slayer and even kings, much to the chagrin of Felix, and also Ungrim Ironfist.
- Catchphrase: "Come on!", "Kill me if you can!" and several variants thereof. Also criticizing something by saying it's for elves.
- The Chew Toy: A Trauma Conga Line led him to become a Slayer, but when he wants death it keeps eluding him.
- The Chosen One: Possibly; he himself admits that it's a hell of a coincidence that an average dwarf engineer just happens to find Grimnir's legendary axe days before the tragedy that set him on the path to becoming the greatest slayer who ever lived. In Realmslayer: Blood of the Old World, he speculates that it either knew who and what he would become before he did, or worse, it, or Grimnir himself somehow manipulated events to ensure he would become a worthy bearer. He's understandably very unhappy with that thought.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Shades of this. To seek his death, Gotrek looks for dangerous situations, though he sometimes helps for benevolent reasons.
- Combat Pragmatist: Although Gotrek seeks an honorable death in combat, the dwarven definition of "honorable" means he has to try his absolute best to come out a fight alive. As such, Gotrek has no shame in using moves or tactics that are brutally practical.
- Cool Old Guy: Despite being over 200 years old, Gotrek is a badass fighting machine.
- Deadpan Snarker: When not caught in the depths of a screaming rage, Gotrek tends to default to snarking at anyone and everyone around him.
- Death Seeker: A Dwarf Slayer makes an oath to redeem themselves by being killed in battle, making them all of this trope, and Gotrek is a Slayer. He's not very good at it, though. Not because he doesn't want to die, but because he kills everything that ever fights him, much to his disappointment. He's slain lich kings and vampire lords, dragons the length of football fields, and greater Chaos daemons - beings that are only slightly less powerful than the Chaos Gods themselves. He's even beaten Be'lakor, the Prince Who Would Be King.
- Dented Iron: Averted. Gotrek has taken a lot of punishment over his years as a Slayer, but aside from losing one eye in his first story, it's never actually been shown to slow him down.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: In the Age of Sigmar novels, he's outlived the god who he swore the Slayer Oath to, and so is free of it. But now he needs to figure out what to do with his life now that ending it in a spectacular fight isn't a valid goal in and of itself.
- Destructive Saviour: Gotrek will usually kill the terrible monster or evil villain threatening people, but he rarely does so without breaking a lot of stuff in the process.
- Determinator: A key part of his character. Gotrek never gives up on anything.
- Doom Magnet: At one point, Felix actually contemplates how death and destruction seems to follow the two of them wherever they go. Culminates in Elfslayer, which ends with the explosive demise of an entire city.
- Eyepatch of Power: Gotrek lost his left eye and wears an eyepatch over it...and it's hard to find stuff more powerful than Gotrek.
- Eye Scream: Lost his left eye in the first book, courtesy of a band of goblins raiders. Probably the only time a goblin managed to cause him serious injury in the entire series. Grimnir undid this damage at the end of Slayer... and then he loses his left eye again in Realmslayer.
- Fantastic Racism: Gotrek generally looks down on non-dwarfs, with a few exceptions, though he outright and unreservedly despises elves, even compared to the average Dwarf. The first elf he encounters in the series, the arch mage Teclis, he threatens to kill after he's finished with a daemon and regularly mocks and ridicules him despite the fact that Teclis saved him and Felix from their world's equivalent of Hell and ravenous daemons. He even says the one positive of Teclis failing to prevent a magic ritual that would enable the followers of Chaos to rampage across the world is that there'd be one less elf alive. It's a good thing Teclis has a lot of patience and a good sense of humour - as badass as Gotrek is, Teclis could probably obliterate Gotrek by waving at him (though Gotrek would want that).
- Fish out of Temporal Water: After being transported to the Eight Realms, Gotrek is very out of his depth, and despite burying it under snark and complaints, he finds them extremely alien. It's particularly galling to him to learn about how the races have changed from the World-That-Was, to the point that duradin no longer consider Revenge Before Reason a sacred charge the way dwarves did... at least, not to their ancestors' extent.
- Genius Bruiser: He is a wall of dwarven muscle who also happened to be an engineer before becoming a Slayer.
- Good Is Not Nice: Gotrek is, frankly, a jerk. He will fight evil with all his might, and even shows some hints that he enjoys it when he can save the genuinely deserving, but he's still an asshole to everyone around him.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Employs these when necessary, like, during his unarmed match against an Ogre Tyrant.
- Heartbroken Badass: Losing his wife and child was part of the reason he became a Slayer.
- The Hero: He'd bluster and deny it, but his combination of a genuine sense of compassion and his willingness to fight the most terrible evils in the world makes him a pretty heroic figure.
- Honor Before Reason: He's a Dwarf. Oaths and grudges are Serious Business beyond serious business to him, which puts him and Felix in jeopardy on several occasions.
- Indy Ploy: Most of his "plans" are these.
- Insult of Endearment: Never refers to Felix as anything other than "manling".
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gotrek is a jerk, but he really does care a lot about his closest friends, even if he doesn't really show it. Releasing Felix from his vow to record Gotrek's doom, in order to help Snorri Nosebiter recover his memory, comes to mind.
- Knight in Sour Armor: He's been fighting the meanest, nastiest monsters he can find for decades and not one of them has been able to kill him. Since his life goal is to get killed awesomely, it's only natural that he's started to get bitter about it.
- MacGyvering: In Elfslayer, he gets to show off his engineering skills to save a bunch of people from drowning at the bottom of the ocean.
- Made of Iron: Gotrek is, more or less, indestructible. The closest he comes to death is in Zombieslayer, which is followed by an Unexplained Recovery after Felix puts Gotrek's signature rune-axe back in his hands.
- Manly Tears: Twice. First it's implied in the vision of his life when he finds his dead wife and child. The second is when he's forced to kill his mind-controlled friend in self-defence.
- Nay-Theist: After being revived in the Mortal Realms, he displays a great deal of hostility and contempt towards the various gods, and the dwarven gods are no exception. He outright makes it clear that he views himself as personally betrayed by Grimnir, and he desires a reckoning.
- One-Man Army: Very close to it.
- Pet the Dog: Towards a few including Felix, Katerina, and his friend who lost their bar to Gotrek's enemies.
- Really 700 Years Old: He is over two hundred years old, not old by Dwarf or Elf standards, during the events of the Warhammer novels. By the time he arrives in the Eight Realms, he is, at his own estimation, over ten thousand years old, which is old even by dwarven standards.
- The Resenter: In Realmslayer, he expresses how he despises Grimnir for having lied to him of the doom the god promised him.
- The Schizophrenia Conspiracy: In Realmslayer, he has somewhat lost his grip on reality after spending an undetermined amount of time in the Realm of Chaos. After he somehow escapes and finds himself in the Realm of Aqshy, he spends the first act of the story believing that he is still in the Realm of Chaos, and everything is just another twisted game being played on him by the Chaos Gods and their minions.
- Seen It All: By the time he arrives in the Eight Realms, Gotrek has become extremely jaded, and is quick to mock everything around him because he's seen it all (and usually done better) back in the World-That-Was. Zigzagged in that there are rare occasions when even Gotrek is surprised or actually impressed, such as when he notes that he finds the godbeasts to be quite impressive.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Manly Man to Felix's Sensitive Guy.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Given Gotrek's own snarkiness, whenever he meets somebody capable of snarking back at him, this invariably happens.
- Springtime for Hitler: His oath requires him to die heroically in battle killing as many powerful enemies as possible. He's does well with the second part, not so much the first.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: In Kinslayer, which is pretty impressive considering he was already a jerk before The End Times.
- Tragic Keepsake: A lion-emblazoned pauldron he wears on his left shoulder, which he gains in the second half of Realmslayer. It's made from the breastplate of a human traveling companion, Jordainn, who died saving Gotrek's life. It also serves Gotrek as a reminder of Felix, who always guarded him on his left side to compensate for Gotrek's missing eye.
- Tranquil Fury: Usually, when Gotrek's mad, you can tell from a mile away. In the first story, however, Felix asks him about the Chaos Dwarfs. Gotrek's response (where he admits they exist and implies Felix should never mention them again), while quiet and measured, is simmering with rage under the surface.
- True Companions: Over the course of the novels, Gotrek and Felix develop an extremely strong bond. Come Gotrek's emergence in the Eight Realms and his discovery of the Stormcast Eternals, the idea that he could be reunited with Felix becomes his only driving goal.
- Two-Faced: About halfway through the third quarter of Realmslayer, Gotrek is partially struck by a powerful necromantic spell that visibly ages the left side of his face; destroying his eye, putting grey streaks in his beard on that side, and carving deep wrinkles and age-lines into the skin, so he looks older on one half of his face than he does on the other.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Never wears a shirt, though that could be due to not finding one his size or shirtlessness being the traditional garb for slayers...who are trying to die in battle, after all.
- Would Hit a Girl: While female assailants are rarer, Gotrek fights them as determinedly and readily as male assailants. In Trollslayer he kills a female Chaos Lord.
Felix Jaeger
Gotrek's rememberer, tasking with turning the tale of his doom into an epic story. Saved by Gotrek from a riot, he got drunk and swore a blood oath to follow him and record his story.
- Amazon Chaser: He's been interested in several women who can fight.
- The Alcoholic: Drinks a lot, perhaps a side effect of travelling with Gotrek and dealing with all the monsters that the Warhammer world has to offer. But then again, it's how the two first met and Felix made that oath.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Swore a blood-oath to Gotrek that he would record his doom after Gotrek saved his life from the events of a riot. There was no chance that a Dwarf would just let him off on making a oath like that after he sobered up.
- Battle Couple: With Ulrika and later Katriena.
- Cassandra Truth: Felix has much of his adventures recorded in diaries and his brother Otto even published them. However, the readers of them tend to think they're just fiction. It doesn't help that they frequently involve Skaven, which the citizens of the Empire refuse to believe could ever exist.
- Combat Pragmatist: Has no qualms about fighting dirty or using Improvised Weapons as well as his sword.
- Cool Sword: Karaghul, a sword enchanted to kill dragons, which never breaks and never needs sharpening. Unfortunately, it's also semi-sentient and has a mental link with Felix, and when a dragon shows up, Karaghul turns him into a Leeroy Jenkins.
- Cool Uncle: His brother Otto's son looks up to and admires Felix for his twenty years spent as a globe-trotting adventurer.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Despite understandable initial fears that he's going to die trying to record the events of Gotrek's doom (imagine what kind of circumstances that could hope to kill Gotrek!?), he becomes close to the dwarf after the years of adventures and eager to return to Gotrek after he tries settling down and being married.
- Genius Bruiser: Despite being a competent poet and a self-proclaimed educated man, he's also a very skilled fighter, especially after twenty years of practice.
- Dirty Old Man: Becomes this after the 20-year timeskip where he constantly oogles women half his age.
- The Lost Lenore: Kirsten and Ulrika, though the latter is undead.
- Mighty Whitey: Played with. He is an adventurer who explores several nations across the Warhammer world, including the lost Dwarf city of Karag Dum, Albion and even Nehekhara. In each land he achieves a heroic feat earning himself a place in history, and appears to be able to integrate well into each society if he chooses. He also seems to get a Girl of the Week in each one. Felix also happens to be white, which is only relevant because the novels he features in are British literature, the country this trope originated from (the Empire being fantasy Germany). Of course, the books almost never leave the equivalent of Europe in any case so he almost never meets anyone who isn't also white.
- Never Accepted in His Hometown: To Kislev and the Dwarfs he's one of the greatest living human heroes. In the Empire he's denounced as a hack fantasy author and liar because some of his battles were against Skaven, which everyone knows don't exist. Not helping is that he's broken some laws in the Empire as well.
- Never My Fault: Tends to shift blame towards others for his misfortunes.
- Older Than They Look: Karaghul's enchantments may be extending his lifespan, which means he looks and physically feels like a twenty-year-old when chronologically he's well into his forties.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: In spite of how he views himself, Felix is a powerful warrior, having fought foes the average human would never have a chance of winning against. It's just that Gotrek is an unstoppable killing machine by comparison that he isn't the One-Man Army his friend is.
- Rescue Romance: How me met most of his girlfriends, usually from being the rescuer.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy.
- Soapbox Sadie: When he was in university, due to his dislike for his family practices.
- True Companions: Over the course of the novels, Gotrek and Felix develop an extremely strong bond, which is probably. This gets to the point that, even after Gotrek releases Felix from his oath so that Felix could get married, Felix still leaves his wife and child to return to Gotrek's side when he discovers that the dwarf needs him.
- Warrior Poet: Accidentally. Drunk people don't make good decisions. Still, he seems to be growing into the 'warrior' part as time goes on.
Secondary Characters
Maximilian "Max" Schreiber
A wizard from the Colleges of Magic in Altdorf (originally a gold wizard but was retconned into a light wizard).
- Bad Ass Bookworm: He's a combat-trained wizard from one of the most scholarship-focused styles in a world where magic is prone to going disastrously wrong.
- Burn the Witch!: Has received some scorn from various people due to being a wizard.
- Disease Bleach: After Cold-Blooded Torture and almost being sacrificed to a daemon by the Dark Elves, Max's hair becomes white prematurely. Justified as the Dark Elves shaved his head before the torture and magic was involved.
- Light 'em Up: After being retconned into a Light Wizard, his magic focuses around using magical luminescence that can sear flesh, blind eyes, and banish daemons.
Ulrika Madgova
A Kislevite noblewoman and Felix's love interest.
- Action Girl: She is trained in combat and the most willing member of the party to fight apart from the Slayers.
- Badass in Distress: She is held prisoner by the vampire Adolphus Kreiger.
- Badass Normal: She is only a regular human with a noble's combat training, yet she keeps up with the rest of the party.
- Catch-22 Dilemma: She unthinkingly puts Felix into one that kills their relationship. She asks if he would abandon his travels with Gotrek to be with her. If he said yes, than he's an oathbreaker and is not worthy of her. If he said no, then he doesn't truly love her and thus is not worthy of her. Twenty years later she realizes that this was unfair and apologizes.
- Defiant Captive: Urika is not happy about being captured.
- She manages to resist Adolphus' arguments and makes several attempts to attack him or escape.
- When she was captured by Thanquol and his Skaven, she actively sabotaged them and eventually escaped see Groin Attack.
- Groin Attack: She gives one to Grey Seer Thanquol when he and the Skaven are about to ambush the airship Spirit of Grungni.
- Horror Hunger: She has a hard time resisting being around of Felix because of her bloodlust. An extended period of starvation and imprisonment during Kinslayer ultimately leads to her death at Felix's hands.
- The Lad-ette: Downplayed. Ulrika is an Action Girl who keeps her hair short and quite direct (her method of seducing Felix for their first encounter is to lie in his bed and once he arrives reveal that she's nude). However, Ulrika does display feminine behavior at times.
Snorri Nosebiter
An old and dimwitted Dwarven Slayer, a former friend of Gotrek's from before the latter took up the Slayer oath. Most distinguished for sporting a crest made of nails hammered into his skull instead of the usual red-dyed mohawk. Stupid but friendly, even when in battle, and drinks so much that even other dwarves think he's a drunkard. His memory becomes increasingly spotty due to head wounds, his crest of nails and his drinking, until eventually he forgets his shame. Remembers it and achieves his death in Kinslayer.
- The Alcoholic: Packs away liquour with a vigor that boggles even other dwarves. It helps that he drinks to numb the pain of his his guilt and his grief. Then again, he had quite the problem with alcohol even before becoming a slayer.
- The first thing he and Gotrek does upon meeting up in an inn, is to have a drinking contest (Snorri loses by a hairs' breath).
- Snorri has a habit of drinking vodka by the bucketload!
- The Atoner: He drunkenly caused a fight with a scouting party of Rangers that lead to Gotrek's hometown being razed by a goblin surprise attack, then killed a wounded dwarf (implied to be Gotrek's wife) in the aftermath.
- Despair Event Horizon: He's ultimately responsible for the events that led to Gotrek undergoing his Despair Event Horizon.
- Death Seeker: As a Slayer, he wants to die heroically against a terrible foe to wash away his shame.
- Dual Wielding: He typically fights with an axe in one hand and a hammer in the other.
- Heartbroken Badass: Perhaps even moreso than Gotrek. He's convinced, perhaps rightly, that Gotrek having to take the Slayer Oath was all his fault, and he knows for a fact that he was the one who killed Gotrek's wife.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: He ends up forgetting why he took his Slayer oath, which is probably about the only thing that could make a Slayer feel more ashamed than whatever made him ashamed enough to take the Slayer oath. The combination of extremely rampant alcoholism even by Dwarf standards, head injuries and probably also the fact he has nails driven into the top of his skull as if they were a mohawk are to blame for this.
- Retcon: Before his death in Kinslayer, his death was reported in the short story Death And Glory. In a battle against an enormous army of monsters, he personally slew three trolls, and the third one fell on him. Gotrek witnessed it and buried him.
- Third-Person Person: As a sign of his stupidity, he does this.
- Weaponized Limb: Sports a mace for a peg-leg in Kinslayer.
Malakai Makaisson
A highly unusual Slayer in that he was a former Engineer, kicked out of his Guild and forced to take the Slayer's Oath because of his crazy ideas and strange inventions, Malakai is from the northernmost of dwarfholds and pursues his Doom mostly with his incessant experiments, happily accepting an inevitable death when one goes disastrously wrong as equally valid as being killed by some gribbly horror.
- Bungling Inventor: Until the Spirit of Grungni, his last few inventions failed spectacularly, taking more than a few dwarven crewmembers with them. The losses are why he's a Slayer now.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: He's dead by the End Times. The only reason we know that is because another character mentions it offhand.
- Funetik Aksent: His northern heritage gives him a strong Scottish accent.
- Genius Bruiser: He's a skilled warrior and also an excellent engineer, capable of creating things like armored dirgibles.
- Only Sane Man: He is more even tempered and pragmatic in regards to seeking an honorable death than the other Slayers in the novels - this can be noted by his willingness to use his inventions in battle while Gotrek, also a former engineer, just hacks things down with his axe (that last sentence may fail to convey how effective Gotrek is while doing that). His only concerns when the dragon attacks his airship are the loss of the ancient treasure and the lives of his non-Slayer passengers.
- Tempting Fate: His naming preferences seem to tempt fate at every turn. His previous inventions included a steam-ship called the Unsinkable, which sank with all hands apart from Makaisson himself, and an earlier airship called the Indestructible, the explosion of which only he survived. In fact, he had wanted to name the Spirit of Grungni the Unstoppable, but was overruled on that for reasons that elude him...
- Unexplained Recovery: He turns up again in Slayer, and is still alive and fighting at the end of the book, not that this means much given that the End Times are in full swing by then.
Ulli
A young Slayer who invites himself during the dragon-killing expedition.
- Boisterous Weakling: Downplayed. While he boasts of his (future) exploits at every opportunity, he's still competent at fighting, he's quite clearly terrified of dying at first.
- Dirty Coward: For a Slayer he's very hesitant to actually get himself killed. He gets slightly better over time.
- Your Head Asplode: Has his head smashed by a beastman in Beastslayer just after saving Felix.
Bjorni Bjornisson
A repulsively ugly Slayer with a one-track mind.
- The Corrupter: Brings young Ulli with him to his brothel visits.
- I Banged Your Mom: One of his insults. He uses it against orcs of all races (who don't have females), and when the others just stare at him, just claims he did what he needed to do.
- Kavorka Man: Short and hairy, like all dwarves, noted to have huge warts, and yet always seen with his hand on some part of a joygirl's anatomy.
- Twin Threesome Fantasy: Mentions he bedded twins once.
- Your Head Asplode: Finds his doom in Beastslayer, courtesy of Arek splitting his skull in half.
Otto Jaeger
Felix's brother and heir to the family business. Otto represents everything Felix could've been, had he not run off with Gotrek.
- Adipose Rex: Subverted as he is not a nobleman (to their father's chagrin).
- Aloof Big Brother: Otto looks down on Felix for becoming a "penniless wandering sellsword".
- Happily Married: Despite not being the nicest of guys in some ways, Otto and his wife do have a genuinely happy and loving relationship.
- I Have No Son!: Felix's actions in Manslayer get Otto caught up in an assassination attempt. Otto realizes that these attackers know who he is, putting his wife and son in danger as well. He angrily orders Felix to stay away from him from then on to keep him and his family safe (Felix had also lied to him beforehand to involve him in the investigation and didn't factor his family into the consequences). The disowning doesn't come until Shamanslayer when they meet after their father is killed by Skaven agents in Elfslayer. Otto says this to Felix and wants nothing more to do with him. He relents after the events of Zombieslayer, and by Kinslayer, Felix and Kat are living with him.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Otto may be rather hostile to his brother, but the fact is that every time Felix wanders into his life, trouble follows for him and his family, and it's usually Felix's fault. As such, he's perfectly justified in wanting his black sheep brother to have his adventures somewhere else.
- Papa Wolf: Otto cares deeply for his son and wants nothing but the best for him.
Gustav Jaeger
Felix's imperious father, a relentless social climber who made it his life's mission to buy his way into the nobility. He failed.
- Abusive Parents: Zig-zagged. He was a short tempered man with no patience for any indiscretions on the part of his children, and Felix has no memories of his father being pleasant or kind to him, but he does acknowledge that Gustav, while hardly the perfect dad, did ensure that his sons didn't want for anything growing up and that they had the best start in life.
- Archnemesis Dad: To the point Felix spent a lot of his youth hoping his father would choke to death on his breakfast.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: He suffers this from Skaven agents looking for Felix and dies from it.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Gustav was willing to do absolutely anything to acquire money and status.
- Education Papa: Felix recalls that, as part of his efforts to get their family elevated to nobility, Gustav believed an extensive education was the mark of a nobleman, and spend a small fortune paying for the best tutors and getting Felix and Otto into Altdorf University. One of his reasons for being so furious at Felix for getting expelled from the university was because he saw it as Felix throwing away his costly education.
- Entitled Bastard: Expected Felix to drop everything and complete a deathbed request for his father - which involves covering up evidence that he jumpstarted the family business via illegal and borderline heretical means - when Felix notes to himself Gustav disowned him twenty years earlier, never bothered to ask after him in all that time, and was a pretty lousy father even before that.
- Hypocrite: For all his talk about Felix being a disgrace to the family, he was even less respectable at Felix's age - many of the business deals he made his fortune with were illegal, and some of them - namely trading restricted books on occult lore - could have gotten him burned as a heretic. And on his deathbed, he shows no sign of regret for said actions, apart from the possibility of what it might mean for the family firm should they be exposed.
- I Want Grandkids: Says this to Felix the first time they meet after twenty years, even though his other son Otto has a son of his own (which Gustav acknowledges).
- Lean and Mean: He is skinny from having a lean build and being sick, and he is mean. For example, his response to seeing his second son alive for the first time in twenty years is to give him a "Reason You Suck" Speech then demand a favor from Felix in exchange for regaining his inheritance.
- Nouveau Riche: He spent untold amounts of money trying to buy a title for himself and his sons.
- "Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a harsh one to Felix when he visits.
Katriena
A minor character from one of the original short stories in Trollslayer who later reappears after the Time Skip grown into a young woman. Marries Felix by Kinslayer
- Action Girl: Spent most of her life hunting down bandits and beastmen warbands in the Drakwald Forest.
-
Badass Decay: Justified; she almost starves to death during Zombieslayer and is recovering in a comfortable life as a minor noblewoman after she marries Felix. - Big Damn Heroes: Saves Felix from being killed by a Khornate Chaos Champion (who also happens to be her birth mother) by stabbing the warrior woman in the back with her own sword.
- Child by Rape: She's the daughter of a minor noblewoman who was raped by a cousin (and went on to become a brutal champion of Khorne in her pursuit of revenge).
- Forest Ranger: Although more an auxiliary of the guard than a self-appointed protector.
- Intimate Healing: After Felix falls into a freezing stream while escaping Beastmen hunting them, Kat strips naked and gets under the blankets with Felix to stop him succumbing to hypothermia. Felix finds it incredibly uncomfortable, given his growing attraction to her.
- Shared Unusual Trait: Inherited from her mother and key to proving the link between them. Disappears after her near-starvation experience leaves her hair white.
- She's All Grown Up: A straight example, although the Time Skip and Felix's delayed aging result in her becoming a peer to Felix. This quite disturbs him when he begins to develop an attraction to her, at first.
- Sole Survivor: Her original home was destroyed as a child and its population slaughtered; the only reason Kat survived is because the Chaos champion leading the attack (also her birth mother) spared her on a whim. Years later, her adoptive home and family were destroyed by Beastmen while she was out on a patrol.
- Underestimating Badassery: A lot of characters tend to do this because they doubt a woman could be so skilled and knowledgeable about hunting. Kat recalls that when she went to show a local nobleman how his soldiers could surround the campsite of the beastman warband that had killed her family so they couldn't escape, the lord laughed at her. However, when she came back a second time with the head of a beastman Gor (having snuck into the camp and killed one of the sentries) which she dumped on his desk, the nobleman took her a lot more seriously. He followed her advice and the warband was utterly exterminated.
- You Killed My Father: She hates Beastmen with a passion, as the creatures killed her adoptive family.
Age of Sigmar Characters
Characters who only feature in books set in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar instead of the original novels' being set in Warhammer.
Maleneth Witchblade
A Khainite assassin that Gotrek fights repeatedly in Realmslayer when she tries to steal the Fyreslayer's Master Rune. She turns out to be working for the Order of Azyr, and becomes Gotrek's new permanent companion in the Mortal Realms after the Rune she was sent to retrieve ends up bound to him.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Despite being a murder-worshipping aelf assassin, and one who is willing to try and kill Gotrek if she must, she is committed to battling the forces of Chaos. Gotrek even lampshades this, noting that in the World-That-Was, he'd have killed her on principle for being a Dark Elf.
- Chainmail Bikini: She spends most of Realmslayer in the usual Daughters of Kaine leather bikini before upgrading to the armor in the picture when she's no longer undercover. It's a minor plot point in Blood of the Old World that her armor leaves so much skin exposed that it's worthless for keeping warm.
- Foil: To both Gotrek and Felix, in different ways.
- Whereas Gotrek is a Mighty Glacier fighter whose fighting style revolves around strength, taking hits and sheer ferocity, Maleneth is a Fragile Speedster who focuses on dodging and evading foes whilst carving them apart in the process. Gotrek, brutal fighter as he is, still has a code of honor that demands he fight openly and fairly; Maleneth has no such code of honor and prefers to ambush, deceive, use poison and literally stab her foes in the back. Gotrek uses a massive two-handed axe, a weapon as bluntly brutal as the dwarf himself, whilst Maleneth favors twin daggers, which better mesh with her agility-centric and stealth-focused fighting style. Oh, and, obviously, Gotrek is a male dwarf whilst Maleneth is a female aelf.
- Whereas Felix was Gotrek's honorbound companion who volunteered to adventure with Gotrek (albeit whilst drunk), Maleneth has basically been ordered by her superiors to travel with Gotrek, at least until she can retrieve the ur-gold Master Rune embedded in his chest. Also, Felix genuinely liked Gotrek and actually hoped the dwarf would survive, whereas Maleneth would happily kill Gotrek herself if she thought that she could.
- Friendly Enemies: Neither she nor Gotrek exactly like each other, with their dialogue revolving mostly around mutual insults, taunts and mockery, and both being quite happy to see the other dead. Still, they fight together very effectively and they seem almost to enjoy the mutual snark and spite. Gotrek even admits in the short story "The Bone Desert" that he needs her, as much for the sake of not being alone anymore as to have somebody to explain the strange worlds that are the Eight Realms to him.
- Haunted Fetter: She carries a talisman around her neck in the form of a vial filled with blood from her teacher. Whom she murdered. This has bound said teacher's soul to her command, and she can consult it for advice... unfortunately for Maleneth, her teacher can also just make commentary whenever she feels like it, so Maleneth is often holding private arguments with the spiteful ghost.
- Mythology Gag: Her name is very similar to Malus Darkblade, a Dark Elf special character and novel protagonist from Warhammer who was also noted primarily for his treacherous nature.
- Token Evil Teammate: She's a murder-worshipping assassin who happens to be fighting alongside a dwarf who, for all his gruffness, is basically a heroic figure. She's also tried to directly kill Gotrek herself at least once, slipping him a number of poisons in the prelude to the short story "One, Untended".
Broddur
A duradin Battlesmith from the Unbak fyreslayer lodge, Broddur was there when Gotrek emerged from the Realm of Chaos into Aqshy, and spotting the resemblance to the icon of Grimnir on his totem pole, became convinced that Gotrek was some kind of avatar of the fyreslayer's patron god. He journeyed with Gotrek through Aqshy to try and recover the ur-gold Master Rune that had been stolen from his lodge.
- Acro Fatic: Despite being called out repeatedly as being heavily overweight, Broddur can run with surprising speed, thanks to a combination of duradin stamina and the power-boosting ur-gold runes hammered into his flesh.
- An Arm and a Leg: Has his hand burned off whilst trying to quench the activated ur-gold Master Rune, due to it proving to be too powerful for him.
- No-Respect Guy: Broddur gets nothing but mockery and contempt from Gotrek, in no small part because Gotrek is offended by Broddur's belief that Gotrek might be Grimnir reborn.
- Stout Strength: Extremely fat, even for a duradin, but also extremely strong, thanks to a combination of his race and the ur-gold runes that all fyreslayers sport.
Jordainn
A prince of the land of Edassa within the Realm of Aqshy, Jordainn is saved from an ambush by Tzeentch worshippers thanks to the intervention of Gotrek and Broddur, and he travels with them for a time, desperate to stop the Tzeentch cult, which he learns is being led by one of his cousins. After dying, he returns as a Stormcast Eternal named Jordaeus Lionheart.
- Came Back Strong: His Heroic Sacrifice catches Sigmar's attention and he is transformed into a Stormcast Eternal.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Throws himself in front of a Tzeentch Chaos Champion's blade to save Gotrek's life.
- Strong Family Resemblance: An ancestor of his who founded the land of Edassa 100 years ago became a Stormcast Eternal, whom Gotrek meets in the final quarter of Realmslayer. He observes that the resemblance between the two of them is uncanny.
Specials Characters
Characters who feature in the books that are playable Special Characters in the tabletop game Warhammer Fantasy. Below are the tropes that apply to them in relation to the novels.
Grey Seer Thanquol and Boneripper
- See the Skaven page
- Arch-Enemy: To Gotrek, to the point where, in Realmslayer, discovering Gotrek is still alive causes him to nearly piss himself.
- An Arm and a Leg: Loses a hand to Felix, though this gets healed and he has a new hand when The End Times occur.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Plans to do this to Gotrek and Felix. Does this to Aethneir for information.
- Enemy Mine: Works with Gotrek and Felix to sabotage the plans of the other Skaven leaders. See The Starscream below.
- Even Evil Has Standards: As a general rule, Thanquol isn't onboard when it comes to Clan Moulders’ ideas.
- Thanquol is unnerved when a Clan Moulder Beastmaster expresses an interest in acquiring human women for "experiments".
- When visiting Hell Pit, Clan Moulders' main Stronghold, Thanquol is shocked to see that the Moulders have grafted batwings onto Skaven, viewing it as an affront to the designs of the Horned Rat for their race.
- Fantastic Drug: Thanquol consumes warpstone like it's going out of fashion.
- Feed It a Bomb: In Daemonslayer, Boneripper II meets its end through an accidental case of this — Felix tosses a bomb at it while it's chasing the wagon he's in, Boneripper swallows it by mistake, and the explosion takes off its head.
- The Heavy: Thanquol is usually the one driving the plot on behalf of the Skaven, but he answers to the Council of Thirteen.
- Hugh Mann: Thanquol tries to pass himself off as human in his letters to Gotrek and Felix. However Gotrek and Felix eventually see through his letters, it's just they're too useful to disregard and they're anonymously given so they can't track him down.
- Legacy Character: Boneripper isn't a single rat-ogre, but a succession of rat-ogres that Thanquol acquires to be his bodyguard, gives the same name to, and then gets killed somehow. Between the Gotrek & Felix stories and the Thanquol and Boneripper stories, he's gone through at least half a dozen of them. By Thanquol's own count, he's acquired and lost at least thirteen Bonerippers over the years, with several of them coming and going during the Time Skip between the King and Long novels.
- The Man Behind the Man: In Realmslayer, Thanquol was the one behind the a Tzeentchian Cult and Free Guild's plan to infiltrate and destroy Hammerhal. Almost succeeded too if it were not for Gotrek's unexpected, and largely unintentional, interference.
- The Starscream: Due to the machinations of his fellow Skaven, Thanquol contacts Gotrek and Felix and helps them thwart his rivals.
- Uriah Gambit: Attempts to use Gotrek and Felix for this to get the Harp of Ruin from the Dark Elves. While it does lead to the defeat of the Dark Elves Black Ark, Thanquol doesn't get what he's after. Routinely gets this used on him by the Council of Thirteen, but doesn't notice that they're hoping he'll get himself killed and out of their fur.
- Villainous Breakdown:
- When Thanquol finds out that Gotrek and Felix don't know who he is and have been ruining his life by accident, he has a brief mental breakdown, which he fixes with Warpstone.
- Thanqual had an breakdown one when he finds out that Gotrek survived the end of the world-that-was, and gets another freak out when he is told that Gotrek is still alive after his attempt to kill him."He lives! NOOOO no no no no no it cannot BE! Not HIM! Not again! Not like this! Always the same! I want him dead! Dead dead! AAAAAAGH!"
- Why Won't You Die?: His opinion on Gotrek, given how Gotrek survived the destruction of his home planet by accidentally sheltering in the Realm of Chaos.
Loremaster Teclis
- A Lady on Each Arm: Downplayed. Teclis spends nearly all of his scenes in Ulthuan accompanied by two courtesans, even being introduced in bed with them. However, they are with him due to his high social standing as Loremaster and they still show an interest in Tyrion (the elven equivalent of a Hunk) when he visits Teclis.
- Big Brother Worship: Downplayed. Teclis more than once wished that his brother Tyrion was here dealing with Gotrek and Felix due to the former's charm.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Is asked to make one by the Slaan to save the world. While Teclis agreed to a Truthsayer intervened and took his place.
- You Are a Credit to Your Race: He tells Felix that Felix is mentally strong for a human.
Tyrion: Defender of Ulthuan
- Always Someone Better: Tyrion is this to Teclis.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Teclis laments his shortcomings to Tyrion, Tyrion tells Teclis not to worry and reminds him of his strengths.
Queen Khalida
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Subverted. She makes one to Gotrek and Felix, first by telling Gotrek of a vision she had of him then rescuing Felix and then by putting a magical bracelet on Felix that would inject a deadly venom if they didn't do the job within a certain time frame. It's revealed that the bracelet was a trick as the bracelet's enchantment hasn't worked for centuries and the venom dried up even earlier.
- Establishing Character Moment: Khalida is seen discussing politics with a foreign dignitary in her throne room. When a vampire sneaks into the room and tries to assassinate her, she dodges their attack just before the blow connects and then personally kills them. It's revealed she knew they were there and pretended not to know to lull them into a false sense of security. In addition, her adviser tells Gotrek and Felix that this is a common occurrence.
Heinrich Kemmler
- Big Bad: Of Zombieslayer.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He appears in Shamanslayer disguised as a grave robber who leads the group to Urslak and Gargorath.
- Evil Sorcerer: Powerful enough to raise as vast an army of the dead that he does.
- Necromancer: Raises a powerful army of the dead from the Beastmen and soldiers that died in Shamanslayer.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Many of the Imperial characters in Zombieslayer are surprised to learn of Kemmler's involvement, given he's believed to have been killed in battle 20 years prior in Bretonnia, though they do acknowledge Death Is Cheap for a powerful necromancer.
- Troll: Kemmler enjoys messing with the protagonists while carrying out his evil plans.
Krell
- The Dragon: Serves this role to Kemmler.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: In Zombieslayer Krell rides a zombified wyvern, which he cannot do in the game.
- Hero Killer: He kills several secondary characters and comes the closet to killing Gotrek out of any of the foes they encountered.
- Time-Delayed Death: His Black Axe inflicts this; the axe leaves splinters in any wound it inflicts that slowly work their way to the victim's heart.
Throgg the Troll King
- No One Could Survive That!: Throgg is struck down by Gotrek's axe but his appearance in The End Times reveals he survived.
Main Villains
The Skaven leaders
The Skaven leaders from several different clans who are trying to destroy the city of Nuln in Skavenslayer. They are Grey Seer Thanquol, Izak Grottle, Heskit One Eye and Vilebroth Null.
- A House Divided: Each of the leaders represents one of the Great Clans that rule Skavenblight and each is willing to claim the lion's share of the glory of conquering Nuln. If it requires the undermining of their "comrades", then all the better.
- The Beastmaster: Izak Grottle oversees the breeding and care of Clan Moulder's Rat Ogres and Giant Rats.
- The Big Bad: Grey Seer Thanquol is chosen by the Council of Thirteen to oversee the invasion of Nuln.
- Breakout Villain: Thanquol would become the pair's most persistent nemesis, and one of the most prominent Skaven characters in the setting.
- The Brute: Izak Grottle prides himself on the simplicity of his plans, dismissing the overcomplicated schemes of his peers. His plan to conquer Nuln is to simply send a stolen Imperial barge full of hungry rats into the city to eat every scrap of food there and starve the people out.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: This is the norm for Skaven. Their plans fail because the villains kept sabotaging each other.
- Dirty Coward: Anytime any of them is put in any kind of danger, they'll usually be the first to retreat.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Izak Grottle's voice is described as being this.
- Fat Bastard: Izak Grottle is frequently described as a great, waddling, gluttonous mass.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Heskit One Eye; his plan is to steal the schematics and framework of a Steam Tank, improve it with Skaven weaponry, mass produce it and send them to battle.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Council of Thirteen, to whom the leaders ultimately answer.
- Plague Master: Vilebroth Null, even priding himself on concocting a new plague to decimate the citizens of Nuln.
- The Starscream: As with all Skaven, the leaders are constantly plotting against each and seize any chance they can to sabotage one another's efforts and enshrined themselves as the sole leaders and beneficiaries of their scheme.
The Bloodthirster
A Greater Daemon of Khorne who leads the army attacking the surviving Dwarfs in Daemonslayer.
- And Show It to You: He has long promised to ripe the Dwarf king's heart out of his chest and eat it in front of him in revenge for wounding and defeating it earlier. In the climax, he does precisely that.
- The Dreaded: Everyone in the room is terrified of it, except Gotrek. Felix nearly soils himself twice; when he sees it for the first time and when it first speaks.
- Holy Is Not Safe: The Bloodthirster is defeated by being hit in the face with a holy hammer and getting a holy axe through the heart from behind. They are holy weapons and it is a daemon.
- It's Personal: It was badly wounded by Gotrek's axe and tracked them to their refuge through sensing its magic.
- Large and in Charge: "Twice the height of a tall man", the Bloodthirster towers over both the Dwarfs and its own army.
- Legions of Hell: It arrives at the lead of lots and lots of Beastmen, and of a few Chaos Warriors.
- Made of Iron: It completely ignores volleys of crossbow bolts, several bursts from a repeater rifle, and Snorri's axe-and-hammer assault. Dwarfen rune weapons can harm it, but it fights on regardless — only the impact of the Hammer of Fate staggers it momentarily.
- It's Personal: The daemon has been waiting twenty years to get revenge on the dwarf king that wounded it. It also swears vengeance on Gotrek and Felix when they "kill" it, as daemons can only be banished back to the Warp rather than permanently killed.
Skjalandir
An ancient dragon that attacks the party and has terrorized the surrounding area for hundreds of years in Dragonslayer.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Felix manages to kill it. Subverted as he still needed the help of a sword enchanted to kill dragons.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The Warpstone in his flesh and the manipulations of two sorcerers implied to be Kelmain and Lhoigor make him go from violently amoral to evil.
- Berserk Button: Intruding on his territory.
- Dragon Hoard: And the Dwarfs are especially chagrined at having to leave it behind.
- The Dreaded: It has been known and feared in the region for hundreds of years.
- For the Evulz: Draws out destroying the Spirit of Grungni for this reason. It ends up turning into a Villain Ball moment because Skjalandir drawing it out gives Razek the chance to seriously injure the dragon.
- Eye Scream: Ulrika shoots it in the eye with an arrow.
- Kill It with Fire: Being a dragon it uses this often. If not for magical shields, the heroes would have been killed.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: After Razek crashes into Skjalandir with a bomb-laden gyrocoptor, it gets a huge wound in its chest.
- Worf Had the Flu: The wound Razek gave it became infected and weakened it enough that they could kill it.
Kelmain Blackstaff and Lhoigor Goldenrod
- The Chessmaster
- Also literally, see Smart People Play Chess.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: They're very similar, unless they identify themselves or the story identifies them, they're distinguished by one wearing black and the other wearing gold.
- Cassandra Truth: Their warnings to Arek Daemonclaw fall on deaf ears. They warned him against besieging Praag during the beginning of winter, and insisted that the best time to begin their daemon summoning rituals for the final assault was when the stars were aligned. Arek ignoring their warnings results in a disastrous siege along with his death.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Implied; it's said their mother mated with a daemon to sire them.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When it is clear that the siege of Praag will fail and Arek Daemonclaw will meet his end, the twins teleport away.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: In Giantslayer, Kelmain gets literally chopped to pieces by Gotrek while he and Lhoigor are in the middle of a magic duel with Teclis, then Teclis vaporises Lhoigor with a wave of molten magic.
- Villainous Breakdown: Lhoigor undergoes one when Kelmain is killed, allowing Teclis to destroy him.
Arek Daemonclaw
The Chaos Lord of Tzeentch leading the attack on Praag.
- Achilles' Heel: Arek was said to be invulnerable to any weapon forged by man or daemon. No mention was made of god forged weapons, however, which is why Gotrek's axe was able to take his head.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: One of Tzeentch's gifts to him, allowing him to drive his axe exactly where it needs to be to do the most damage with each careful swing, resulting in a string of him delivering One Hit Kills in combat.
- Facial Horror: In his backstory, his facial features melt and run as he treks through the Chaos Wastes.
- Four-Star Badass: The leader of a vast war host, comprising of followers of other Gods.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Another gift from his patron, allowing him to walk through battlefields without any concern for his own safety.
- Off with His Head!: How Gotrek kills Arek.
- Smart People Play Chess: Walks in on Kelmain and Lhoigor's game and, to get their attention, moves all the pieces through the sequence of moves that result in a victory.
- Taking You with Me: Buries his sword in Bjorni's face even as Gotrek swings for his head.
Adolphus Kreiger
A vampire (originally a Von Carstein, retconned into a Lahmia) who wants to control the undead with a powerful artifact.
- Affably Evil: He is polite, even to mortal enemies.
- Artifact of Doom: Seeks a talisman of Nagash to give him control over all vampires in the world.
- Exact Words: He uses this to escape promises when they don't suit him and still keep his word.
- I Gave My Word: He always keeps his word. However, he likes to use Exact Words.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Snorri kills him by impaling him the heart with the pointed bottom of a chandelier while Gotrek destroys his magical talisman.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: He murders a gang of racist Kislevite noblemen who try to harass him because their ringleader sees Adolphus and his girl make eye contact and assumes the worst.
- One-Winged Angel: Transforms into a monstrous vampire bat during the final battle.
- The Pornomancer: Subverted. His vampiric charm allows him to sway women so they desire him, but he doesn't take sexual advantage of it, saying he no longer feels the desire for physical gratification. He only uses it twice in the story; once to get a victim so he can feed, and the second time to control Ulrika. The other time he mentions it is in regards to using it on a woman so his right hand man, Roche, can have a child who'll be Adolphus' assistant when Roche dies.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: It's mentioned he slept through the entireity of Arek Daemonclaw's siege of Praag and only found out about it after it was all over.
The Giant of Albion
- Brainwashed and Crazy: By Kelmain Blackstaff and Lhoigor Goldenrod.
- Death by a Thousand Cuts: Gotrek rips out one of the giant's eyes then, while hanging from its optic nerve, cuts it repeatedly many times. He also hamstrings the giant and slits its throat until it eventually bleeds to death.
- You Shall Not Pass!: A roundabout villainous variant. The Giant is convinced that it is protecting the temple from those who would defile it. It is mixed up due to brainwashing. The "intruders" are other guardians of the temple and its "masters" are evil and seek to destroy everything the temple was built to accomplish.
Countess Nitocris
A vampire working for Neferata who seeks to gain dominion over the Tomb Kings of Nehekhara.
- Decadent Court: The court of the first vampire, no less.
- The Vamp: Coming from a bloodline that specialises in seducing others for their own gains.
The Sleeper
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Appears to be a strange, gigantic insectoid... thing.
- Body Horror: As Gotrek and Felix approach it, they encounter a weird, translucent slime that fills the corridors and extends pseudopods. Felix realizes the stuff is the Sleeper's abdomen.
- Boom, Headshot!: Gotrek buries his axe in the centre of the Sleeper's head, right between its eyes.
- Deal with the Devil: It's heavily implied the Sleeper made some kind of deal with the Chaos Gods in exchange for its extended lifespan and psychic powers.
- Elaborate Underground Base: Found beneath an Underground City, no less.
- Hive Queen: One which uses Orcs and Goblins as its drones and warriors, no less.
- Insect Queen: Described as resembling a giant, immobile praying mantis.
- Last of Its Kind: A brief connection Felix has into its mind as it's dying implies that the rest of the Sleeper's race were exterminated by the High Elves when they conquered the lands that became the Old World.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: The enslaved orcs are seen putting its eggs inside crates to take over other dwarf holds.
- Outside-Context Problem: Its species has very rarely, if ever, been seen in the Warhammer universe.
- Puppeteer Parasite: How it controlled the Orcs and used them to conquer Karak Hirn. It later does this to the Dwarfs of Clan Diamondsmith and to Prince Hamnir.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The novel implies the High Elves, after exterminating the rest of its kind, imprisoned the Sleeper in the ruins of its former temple.
- Shout-Out: Has several traits in common with Cthulhu.
- Time Abyss: It's implied to have existed long before the presence of Elves and Dwarves in the Old World, part of an empire that used Neanderthals as slave labor.
- We Can Rule Together: It makes this offer to Gotrek, and to the Dwarfs in general.
Magus Lichtmann
- Affably Evil: Before his reveal as the main villain, he's quite friendly and polite, as well as engaging in lengthy debate with Malakai how magical fire might be used to aid the creation of new and better metal alloys.
- Didn't Think This Through: When he's revealed as the Cult's leader, he tries to take Malakai hostage, threatening to kill him unless Felix and Gotrek stand down. Malakai retorts that as a Slayer, he's not afraid of death, then punches Lichtmann in the crotch to get free.
- Failed a Spot Check: Claims to have found no evidence of magical sabotage in an Imperial Gunnery school cannon that violently self-destructed. When it turns out the cannons were contaminated with warpstone during their forging, Felix realises that Lichtmann deliberately hid the flaw to avert further investigation by the authorities.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: After his reveal as the main villain.
- Man Behind the Man: He's the one directing the cultists of the Cleansing Flame.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Pretends to be a friendly, if slightly eccentric mage and metallurgist, when in truth, he's the ringleader of a band of Tzeentch cultists trying to sabotage the Empire's war effort from within.
- Playing with Fire: As a Bright Wizard, he uses Fire Magic.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Works for a cause he despises because it's his only chance of staying alive.
- Red Right Hand: His right arm is a chaotically mutated limb that glows as if on fire, with long, fiery talons. In public, he binds it up so he only appears to have a stump, claiming to have lost the limb in a house fire as a boy.
- Trailers Always Spoil: If you've seen the cover for the original Manslayer book you'll know that Lichtmann is a villain.
- Tragic Villain: He himself relates that his arm began to mutate, despite Lichtmann doing nothing to cause it. Since the only mercy the Empire gives mutants is that of a quick death to save their souls, and not wanting his intelligent mind to go to waste, Lichtmann joined a Chaos cult, despite despising the northern barbarians, because he knew their victory was his only hope for survival.
- Villains Want Mercy: Begs for his life after being beaten and losing his mutated arm to Gotrek's axe. He doesn't get it.Lichtmann: Mercy, please. Mercy. I don't want to die.
Gotrek: Ask your masters for mercy.
High Sorceress Heshor
- Deal with the Devil: Summons a Keeper of Secrets in a bid to try and force it to help her activate the Harp of Ruin. Unsurprisingly, the Slaaneshi Greater Daemon turns on her and tries to kill Heshor and her acolytes.
- The Dragon: She's under orders to implement the plan from the Witch King Malekith himself.
- Earthquake Machine: She plans to use the Harp of Ruin to sink Ulthuan and raise Nagarythe, but not before testing it by causing an earthquake that would both cut off sea trade for the Empire and create a tsunami that would decimate it.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
- Evil Sorcerer: Arguably the most powerful individual magic user encountered in the story, with only Teclis or the Slann spirits surpassing her (Kelmain and Lhoigor did their magical feats together or with a coven). She maintains a whirlpool the size of a small city, holds her own in a magical duel with a Greater Daemon and later a magic duel against Max, Claudia and Thanqoul single-handedly. Her abilities inspired a moment of self-doubt in Grey Seer Thanquol; GREY SEER THANQUOL, briefly conceded that a non-Skaven sorcerer could be better than him.
- The Hedonist: Presides over an orgy between the sorceresses under her command and their warrior bodyguards to summon a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh.
- An Ice Person: Uses ice spells to kill and cripple her enemies.
- Never Found the Body: Heshor is last seen jumping off the edge of the Skaven submarine into the ocean when Gotrek destroys the Harp of Ruin shortly before it explodes. Being a powerful Sorceress who hadn't suffered anything that prevented her from using her magic, it's possible she could have escaped the explosion.
- Though if she was killed in the explosion, Never Found the Body would be justified.
- Villainous Breakdown: On losing the Harp of Ruin and losing control of the Keeper of Secrets.
Urslak Cripplehorn and Gargorath the God-Touched
Leaders of a swelling Beastherd rampaging through the Drakwald Forest bearing a giant, mysterious stone. They are the main villains of Shamanslayer.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Either that, or Gargorath is Urslak's Dragon.
- Brains and Brawn: Urslak is the Bray Shaman who sets the plot in motion, while Gargorath is the Beastherd's war-leader.
- Forced Transformation: Urslak can use the stone to transform people into Beastmen. His plan is to conduct a ritual to transform the vast majority of the Empire into more Beastmen.
- Life Drain: Gargorath's weapon of choice is a brutal battle axe that drains the life force of those it kills and uses it to heal its wielder's injuries.
- Luke Nounverber: Urslak Cripplehorn.
- The Magnificent: Gargorath the God-Touched.
- You Will Be Assimilated: The Beastmen transformed by Urslak's magic fall under his control.
Secondary Villains
Lurk
A lesser clanleader under Thanquol's command. Appeared in Skavenslayer, Daemonslayer, Dragonslayer and Beastslayer.
- Butt-Monkey: Is singled out by Thanquol, subjected to the tender mercies of Heskit One-Eye, Vilebroth Null and Izak Grottle, forced to expose the plans of all four leaders on separate occasions, sent to the Chaos Wastes in an airship occupied by Dwarfs and exposed to warp dust.
- The Dragon: He is chosen to serve as Thanquol's personal henchman, against his will.
- The Magnificent: Abandons his previous agnomen of Snitchtongue and assumes this name instead.
- Took a Level in Badass: Exposure to chaos energies during Deamonslayer mutates him into a pseudo-rat-ogre, to the point that even Thanquol fears him.
- Unwitting Pawn: To Kelmain and Lhoigor.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Puns aside, he disappears from the narrative while trying to raise a rebellion within Hell Pit, the stronghold of clan Moulder.
Fritz von Halstadt
The chief of Nuln's secret police, and unbeknownst to all, a spy and informant for the Skaven. Appeared in Skavenslayer.
- Abusive Parents: His father is implied to be abusive, having severely beaten Fritz as a child (though Fritz's warped mind came to interpret the abuse as toughening him up).
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: About the only reason Thanquol doesn't blast him into bits for demanding an apology when Thanquol mildly insults him is because Halstadt is a valuable informant. Later, when Gotrek and Felix sneak into his house with the intent to kill him, Thanquol seriously considers leaving him to his fate before invoking this trope, though Felix kills Halstadt anyway.
- Disappeared Dad: His abusive father got killed in a peasant's revolt some years earlier.
- Enemy Mine: He believe his relationship with the Skaven is this, that they're working together against the mutant threat. In truth, they're exploiting him without his knowledge.
- Fantastic Racism: He despises mutants.
- He Knows Too Much: After a close encounter with Gotrek and Felix, Halstadt sends Skaven assassins after them and their friends, since they could potentially identify him.
- Thanks to his Villain with Good Publicity status, anyone who knows about his death assumes the Skaven had him killed for this reason.
- Gutted Like a Fish: How Felix kills him.
- It's All About Me: Assumes there's a massive mutant conspiracy in the city against him and that everyone but the Countess is in on it.
- Secret Police: He's the head of it in Nuln.
- Stalker with a Crush: He's obsessed with the Countess Emmanuelle, ruler of Nuln, and of proving his worth to her. The Skaven take advantage of this by feeding him false information that her lovers and favourites are either mutants or Chaos cultists. Halstadt never quite picks up on that.
- Too Dumb to Live: Halstadt believes the Skaven are a benevolent race who just want to be left to their own devices. Anyone who knows anything about the ratmen knows their end goal is to Take Over the World.
- Demanding an apology from Grey Seer Thanquol, a Skaven who's more than happy to blast underlings to Ludicrous Gibs for far less offences.
- Torture Technician: His specialty. He insists it's Necessarily Evil.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: What the Skaven's endgame for him would have been; they planned to supply him with information that the Countess's new lover (and the Emperor's younger brother) was a Chaos cultist/mutant. Naturally Karl Franz would not take kindly to his brother being arrested and tortured on false charges and the Skaven planned to take advantage of the ensuing civil war between Nuln and Altdorf. Fortunately for the Empire, Felix killing von Halstadt put an end to that.
- Villain with Good Publicity: His anti-mutant crusade has gotten him the backing of the Temple of Ulric, to the point White Wolf Templars guard his house.
Roche
Adolphus Kreiger's servant and bodyguard in Vampireslayer.
- Badass Normal: Does not hesitate to join his master in facing down a pack of Goblin wolf riders.
- Battle Butler: Described as being lined, with iron-grey hair. Is also described as having a hulking physique and massive strangler's hands.
- The Dragon: To Adolphus Krieger.
- Generation Xerox: His father and grandfather have also faithfully served Kreiger.
- Off with His Head!: The vampire countess Gabriela tears his head off with her bare hands. It happens so quickly that Roche has time to realise the brain can temporarily survive decapitation.
- Oh, Crap!: His reaction to realising the heroes have a vampire fighting on their side. He also has another one after realising that his severed head is on the ground, looking up at his decapitated body.
Captain Wissen
The commander of the City Watch of Nuln. Appears in Manslayer
- Body Horror: He's a Chaos-tainted mutant with mantis arms growing out of his chest.
- Da Chief: He's the head of Nuln's City Watch.
- Hate at First Sight: Felix and Gotrek despise him from the word 'go' for his smug, superior attitude. The feeling is more than mutual.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Even Felix and Gotrek reluctantly consider that Wissen has a point when he angrily rages that their hamfisted efforts to go after the Cult of the Cleansing Flame by themselves not only stopped him and his men from catching the lot of them and putting the thumbscrews on their leaders to get more information, but caused a massive fire that gutted the lower-class slums of Nuln and left countless people dead.
- Lean and Mean: Is described as extremely trim and fit and is a nasty piece of work.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Wissen does everything in his power to interfere with Gotrek and Felix's investigation into the cult of the Cleansing Flame. It makes a lot of sense when it's revealed he's the cult's second in command.
- Police Are Useless: The common people of Nuln consider him and his men useless, since they're persecuting the lower class of Nuln for information on the Cleansing Flame, when its ringleaders are all members of the elite.
- Police Brutality: He frequently alludes to getting confessions out of people via torture, and it's one of the reasons why he's so hated in Nuln by the common people. After he's revealed to be a Tzeentchian cultist, Felix realises Wissen was deliberately brutalising the common people so his cultist brethren would have more fuel to convince the people to rise up against the establishment.
- Rasputinian Death: Gets nearly drowned in the Nuln sewers, beaten and stabbed by Felix and Ulrika, and finally near cut in half by Gotrek's axe.
- Small Name, Big Ego
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He bears more than a few similarities to Fritz von Halstadt: both are the heads of law enforcement branches in Nuln, both have a reputation for being hard and brutal that makes them hated by the common people but respected by the nobility, and both are secretly working for one of the Empire's enemies. The main difference is that von Halstadt was the Skaven's unwitting pawn, while Wissen is a willing enforcer for the Brotherhood of the Cleansing Flame.
- Taking You with Me: He and his followers are quite prepared to die detonating a warpstone-laced bomb to destroy Nuln if it takes Gotrek, Felix and their allies with them.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The nobility of Nuln consider him a hard but just man who's all but singlehandedly keeping the rule of law in Nuln. Gotrek and Felix promptly have to run when a group of nobles refuse to believe their accusations against Wissen and order them arrested for his murder.
- Villainous Breakdown: Wissen completely loses his shit when the cult's plan to detonate a massive bomb under the city of Nuln are thwarted by Gotrek flooding the chamber where the explosives are planted with the contents of the local sewer.Wissen: You ruined everything! Our glorious future, drowned in a tide of shit! I'll kill you! In Tzeentch's name, I'll kill you!
Captain Landryol
A Dark Elf Corsair captain who captures Gotrek, Felix and Aethneir in Elfslayer.
- Asshole Victim: Even among Dark Elf fans, there wasn't any sympathy for him when Gotrek killed him nor did he deserve any.
- Fantastic Racism: He has a low opinion of any non Dark Elf, as evidenced when he compares Gotrek, Felix and Aethneir to fish.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Gotrek and Felix find him nude in his room and he never puts on any clothes.
- Hate Sink: A smug, racist, pedophile Dark Elf.
- Go-Go Enslavement: An even more horrific case as they are children.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Gotrek buries his axe in the guy's chest while he's in the middle of attempting a Badass Boast.Gotrek: I swore you would be the first to die when I recovered my axe.Landryol: You may try, dwarf, but I am reckoned amongst the finest- ( Gotrek hits him full in the chest)
- Pædo Hunt: He's revealed to keep several human children as personal sex slaves.
- Smug Snake: Even when nude and confronted by two armed men he assumes that he'll beat them in a fight.
- Would Hurt a Child: And worse, see above.
Commander Talkhir
The commander of the Dark Elf Black Ark that captures Gotrek and Felix.
- Bling of War: Goes into battle in a magnificent suit of plate armour.
- The Dragon: To High Sorceress Heshor, since she both technically outranks him in druchii society and is following the Witch King's orders.
- Dragon Rider: He and his entourage ride on the backs of sea dragons.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Talkhir is the subject of one of these; Felix, Gotrek and Aethenir overhear two slavers complaining about his obeying Heshor's orders to go back to the Empire's coastline, running the risk of the Black Ark being unable to return to Naggaroth until spring when the Sea of Chill freezes, costing the slavers a great deal of their winter business...and realise he's done so Heshor can test out the Harp of Ruin.
- This Is Unforgivable!: His reaction to Gotrek causing the Black Ark's destruction.Talkhir: You sank our city. Honour demands that we bury yours.
