This subsection of the Heralds of Valdemar Character Sheet covers the original Heralds of Valdemar trilogy (commonly known as the "Arrows" trilogy), as well as the stand-alone novels Take a Thief and By the Sword.
Herald Skif and Companion Cymry
- Action Mom: In Arrow's Fall (after a tryst with Rolan in Arrow's Flight) Cymry gives birth to a colt who travels with the royal procession to the Hardorn border. He's never mentioned again, but Cymry goes on to be instrumental in some great deeds, including killing Mornelithe Falconsbane.
- Amazon Chaser: He's said to idolize Kerowyn. While outside Valdemar, Elspeth tries to emulate Kero and thinks that that's what catches Skif's interest, when he'd been like her brother before.
- Bodyguard Crush: In Mage Winds he catches feelings for Elspeth while traveling with her outside of Valdemar. She very much doesn't reciprocate and on top of that resents what she sees as his overprotectiveness. He only eases up after meeting Nyara and having his attentions... diverted.
- Call to Agriculture: Skif confesses in Winds of Change that violence and adventure have lost a lot of their appeal for him. What he would like, given a choice, is to settle down in the country and have a home and family much like the one that took him in while he was helping refugees from Hardorn. This is quite a contrast from Take a Thief, where Skif's first experience of the countryside rather horrifies him, but he's got at least ten years of experience between the books.
- Dog Walks You: A variant — he was Chosen when he attempted to steal a riderless white 'horse'. Cymry waited until he got on her back and then took off with him.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Now and then early in Take A Thief, Skif dreams of helping Talia in Arrows of the Queen, and of looking into a Companion's eyes.
- Drowning My Sorrows: After Baize's death a quasi-sympathetic fence gives Skif a room and a supply of liquor that he urges Skif to drink, saying it won't help the pain but it will numb things. Skif spends about a week drinking every time his head starts to clear, until the fence tells him that the fire that killed Baize was almost certainly set, at which point Skif becomes consumed by thoughts of Revenge.
- The Dulcinea Effect: He falls for Nyara pretty much instantly and is immediately more on her side than any other character save for Need. (Likewise, at the end of Winds of Fate Falconsbane hurting Skif is what prompts Nyara to openly rather than covertly defy him.) Skif's plotline in Winds of Change is trying to find her, and his purpose in Winds of Fury is to protect and support her.
- Fights Like a Normal: Notable in the series for being a Herald whose main skillset is the one he picked up on the streets. He does have a few Gifts, but his Mindspeech only lets him talk to his Companion and his ForeSight is pretty much only good for giving him deja vu now and then; functionally he pretty much gets by without powers.
- Five-Finger Discount: Skilled in the "lifting lay", or picking pockets. He turns this into a game at the Collegium, enjoying the attention and admiration while hiding that his real specialty is breaking and entering.
- Freaky Is Cool: Hailing from Valdemar, he's had little to do with the Pelagirs and its tendency to cause mutations, and even less to do with mages who might physically alter themselves and others. Therefore, Skif isn't revolted as many other characters are upon meeting Nyara, and in fact finds her quite attractive. Later, when the Avatars make Nyara more human again, she's upset thinking he won't love her now that she's not 'exotic'. He persuades her otherwise.
- Good Feels Good: Realizes this after becoming a Herald.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: It's not portrayed as funny in most cases, but as a Herald-Trainee Skif enjoys telling his new peers about his extreme hardships and terrible situation, milking them for sympathy, only to end the story by handing over something he'd pickpocketed off of his listeners and cheerfully saying "So I became a thief!"
- Honor Among Thieves: He was taken in at a young age by Baize, who insisted on various rules and had a great sense of personal loyalty and care for Skif and the other boys working for him.
- Interspecies Romance: With Nyara, sort of. (She's actually human, but extensively modified.)
- Just Like Robin Hood: Skif briefly takes up a vendetta against Haven's richest citizens and breaks into a mansion to cause expensive inconveniences like putting little holes in the roof. When he leaves it's with as many valuables as he can carry, which he scatters on the streets for commoners to find, though his motive there is really just to discomfit their owners.
- Justified Criminal: After his mother died Skif was left in the care of his uncle, a truly vile person who only saw value in the boy's ability to work and who mistreated and neglected him, leaving him to the care of an abusive cousin. Skif dawdled at his mandatory education instead of graduating in order to keep getting free breakfasts, and then started finding ways to swipe food from highborn while disguised as a page, because otherwise he had only rancid slop to eat. While he had a few chances at minor legitimate work, it wasn't often or well paying enough to keep him fed. Being taken in and trained by Baize as a thief gave him the first safety and stability he knew in his life, not to mention a dazzling three meals a day.
- Karmic Thief: Skif preferentially targets wealthy people who have and abuse power over others.
- Like Brother and Sister: Talia again, though not for lack of trying. Because of their closeness and various failed attempts to tryst, the Collegium assumes there was more between them. Ultimately also with Elspeth, though he has a period of unrequited longing for her.
- Lovable Rogue: In the Arrows books and Take a Thief. Skif is a thief but chooses targets who won't starve if he takes something, won't steal from shops, and in the normal course of events won't hurt a mark. After being Chosen he starts to feel some level of guilt over even that. He's largely grown out of rougery by Mage Winds.
- Love at First Sight: He's very taken with Nyara from the moment he sees her, finding her exotic and beautiful, and contrasting Nyara's soft-spoken drive to please with Elspeth's utter disinterest in his one-sided affection. They go off together and have sex almost immediately. At the end of the book Nyara runs away with Need, not wanting to be beholden to anyone, and Skif spends most of his time in the next book searching for her.
- Love Interest: Mage Winds Skif, despite being present most of the time, is less prominent than he was in Arrows and most of what he does involves pining for and supporting first Elspeth, then Nyara, who are both more active in the plot. Even his thief skills go unused!
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In Winds of Change Skif relates some experiences he had trying to help refugees flee Hardorn. He grew close to a family of helpful countryfolk running a safehouse and came to regard them as family of his own, realizing the appeal of living far from the city as he did. Then Skif connected with a refugee who'd had a similar background to his and took him to that safehouse. The unnamed man charmed the family only to kill them basically as soon as Skif was out. Against orders Skif went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and doesn't regret killing the man, but reflecting on it later with his new friend Wintermoon he's disturbed by the depths he sunk to.
- Parental Substitute: He never knew his father and his mother died young. Skif's uncle and cousin were abusive and neglectful guardians. Baize took Skif in to his tiny gang and filled that role for him instead.
- Pet the Dog: In Take a Thief Skif starts as a nearly-homeless unwanted child who, with no one looking after him, has to dedicate most of his energy to taking care of himself. By necessity he's selfish. The first sign that he's Herald material is that when he goes to school, which he only attends for the free breakfasts, he likes to warm the hands of a little girl and protects her from bullies, even walking her home with no thought of reward.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Skif gets a certain amount of teasing from the other male Trainees over his chore assignments of laundry and mending (both of which he learned during his thief days; clean, neatly-stitched fabric is more valuable after all.) They stop teasing him when he points out he's the only male in a room full of women.
- Recruiting the Criminal: He was Chosen - and Take A Thief takes pains to say that in the entire history of Valdemar numerous murderers and a conwoman were Chosen but no thieves - because Valdemar has uses for someone with his skillset, the fact that he's hardened by his terrible upbringing and hard to shock, and willingness to work around the laws.
- Reformed Criminal: Overlapping with the above trope. Once he became a Heraldic Trainee safety, food, a stipend, and a sense of community were all ensured, and Skif no longer needed to steal to survive. He sometimes got itchy fingers and so turned his old skills to harmless pranks and games... and, with Alberich's help, sometimes to more clandestine and noble purposes as well. Heralds have to be able to choose to be good over being lawful, after all.
- Safety Worst: As Elspeth's escort out of Valdemar he becomes less her friend and more controlling and critical of her choices, to a degree that, on top of him hitting on her and not taking the hint or even the bald statement that she's not interested, she finds rather insulting.
- Satisfied Street Rat: He can play this role cheerfully, though his love for Baize was real and his heartbreak at his mentor's murder means he tends to skip over that part of his life when teasingly recounting his Hilariously Abusive Childhood.
- Street Urchin: Like many of Haven's underclass, he had little to no security as a child and had to resort to theft to survive. He was never quite an urchin technically, always managing to have a place to sleep and store his things, but he was always pretty close to the street that it was a prospect.
- Sworn Brothers: He and Talia pledge this, instantly bringing out a knife when their attempt at romance fails.
- Trauma Button: Heights and falling, after an incident during his internship. Talia takes the worst of it off, but the feeling of falling can still make him panic.
Queen's Own Herald Talia and Grove-born Companion Rolan
- Agony of the Feet: Her feet are crushed at the apex of Ancar's Cold-Blooded Torture session. In By the Sword, she still walks with a limp.
- Bad Powers, Good People: She can force anyone to experience any emotion, at any level, and she could potentially do it so subtly that her victims would never know their minds had been altered. If she weren't a Herald and under extreme self control, she would be terrifying.
- Better as Friends: With Kris, though admittedly friends with benefits. Played with between her and Skif; they're so much better as friends that they don't even manage to get a romance off the ground to start with — they fall asleep at every attempt. Afterward, Skif winds up with a reputation as a ladykiller, and Talia never lets on that they never once managed to do the deed.
- Beware the Mind Reader: The question of psychic ethics is asked in Arrow's Flight, and Talia is quite dismayed when Kris conveys that there are people who don't trust her, as an Empath, and think she's been either directly manipulating their emotions or else monitoring and acting on what she finds to manipulate them. The second claim, she realizes unhappily, isn't exactly untrue as she can't not know how people feel.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Being an empath means she can heal your angst and trauma, as she does for her friends and people in need. It also means that she can destroy your mind, and if she thinks she should do it, she will.
- Bookworm: One thing that puts her at odds with her family is the fact that she's always skipping chores to read books. She also snuck into her father's library on full moon nights to read. At one point she was afraid that she'd been found out for it, only to be told by her father's wives that she was now thirteen and ready for marriage.
- The Confidant: Officially to Selenay as the Queen's Own Herald, but many, many others come to her for advice or at least a sympathetic ear.
- Dirty Mind-Reading: Her Empathy lets her know when her neighbors are entertaining. She also 'shares' her Companion Rolan's escapades to the point of being able to identify individual Companions and their personalities. She would really rather not experience his sex life, but she can't shield him out, and she doesn't want to ruin his fun by telling him how much she can 'overhear', but she does complain about this in his hearing in Arrow's Flight. He seems amused.
- Does Not Like Men: Due to her upbringing, she arrives at the Collegium with a fear of adult men. When she comes into her own, she grows out of it, though she briefly (and understandably) regresses after being sexually assaulted in Arrow's Fall.
- Emotion Bomb: Her Empathy, when she chooses to use it offensively. She first does it involuntarily in Arrow's Flight when her gift goes rogue, but after some training she can do it consciously and under control.
- The Empath: Her Gift. She can perceive emotions and act as a Living Lie Detector, but she can also project, forcing an emotional state on others or allowing them to feel her emotions directly.
- Fake Memories: Rolan changes her memories a couple of times, most notably to hide the fact that Gwena is a Grove-born Companion. In Arrow's Fall, the two of them work together to plant memories in the heads of two of Ancar's servants, making them (temporarily?) into decoy doubles for herself and Kris.
- Farm Boy: She starts out as an inexperienced girl from the insular world of the Holderkin. She serves the usual purpose of The Everyman, being an unschooled view into the world of Valdemar. In addition, she was Chosen as the Queen's Own not only for her latent and immense empathic abilities (though they certainly help and are common to the Monarch's Own Heralds), but because she knew how to deal with spoiled little girls.
- Fish out of Water: Since her people are kind of a Wacky Wayside Tribe to Valdemar as a whole, she's totally out of her depth when she gets to the Collegium.
- Friends with Benefits: Kris is her mentor when she's a new Herald going out on her first circuit, and they wind up sleeping together regularly and with great enthusiasm. Their friendship even beyond that is quite strong and passionate - enough so that Dirk assumes they're in love - but their physical relationship largely ends after her internship (not least because Kris realizes Talia loves Dirk). It starts back up again on their mission into Hardorn, as they lean on each other and work off some of their stress.
- Got Over Rape Instantly: Averted. She seems to, but it takes therapy and a lot of time for her to recover from being assaulted, and in the meantime Dirk is sent off on a mission to give her space.
- The Heart: To pretty much all of the Heraldic Circle: when she's not saving the world, she spends her time consoling the bereaved, introducing future-best-friends to each other, matchmaking, and just generally making everybody's lives a little bit happier. When it's announced she's getting married, people come from across the country just to celebrate her day of joy.
- Heal the Cutie: Narratively, her trauma emphasizes how caring and noble most of Valdemar is.
- Heroic BSoD: In the third book, after undergoing prolonged physical and emotional torture.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: She catches a bit of this in Arrow's Flight — between her own necessary actions as Herald and an Evil Chancellor spreading rumors about her at home, the townspeople start to fear her and think she's influencing their minds with her Empathy. By the same token, she can feel everyone's distrust, making it all the harder for her to look confident, approachable, and trustworthy.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Her partner Dirk is at least One Head Taller and built far more substantially.
- Honest Advisor: Her official role as Queen's Own Herald. Part of her strategy to reform Princess Elspeth is to use Brutal Honesty as necessary — which works wonders after years of manipulation from Hulda.
- How Do I Shot Web?: For the most part her Empathy powers are intuitive for her, but because the Heralds trained her as if she had a completely different Gift and thought that the Healers had it covered, Training the Gift of Magic in Arrows of the Queen didn't really stick. While holed up together in a terrible winter storm, Kris had to train her starting with the very basics, "grounding" and "centering", in order for her to learn control after her self-esteem shattered and gave her severe Power Incontinence.
- Informed Attribute: Talia is said to be unusually close to Rolan, and certainly she can share his senses, but in a bit of Early-Installment Weirdness, Rolan is actually quite aloof when compared to later-written Companions. He doesn't reassure her in her moments of crisis, not even nonverbally, the way, say, Cymry talks to and reassures Skif.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Inflicted by Rolan on Talia twice. The first time, it was a temporary measure to get Talia to Haven without a mental breakdown. The second time, it was because Talia saw a spirit manifesting as a new Grove-Born Companion, and Gwena and Rolan would prefer she thought of Gwena as just like any other Companion.
- Like Brother and Sister: With both Skif and (eventually) Kris.
- Meaningful Name: Talia means "dew of God" in Hebrew. Her arrival at the Collegium is a definite relief for the Heraldic Circle, and the "from God" part becomes even more appropriate once we learn the true nature of Grove-Born Companions. Especially so since she also becomes an honorary Priestess of Karse.
- Mindlink Mates: She is Lifebonded with Dirk.
- Mind over Manners: At the beginning of Arrow's Flight, Talia helps a traumatized Skif by slowly whittling down his fear while he tells her what happened. He's too relieved to notice that she didn't ask his consent before doing it, but she does spend much of the rest of the book considering the ethics of her Gift. It's noted that a telepath can't plant thoughts in someone else's head, but an Empath can.
- Rolan is a bit cavalier about this and repeatedly gives Talia Laser-Guided Amnesia.
- Mind Rape: In an unusual heroic example, Talia can and will inflict Mind Rape on a few select people who deserve it.
- Mundane Utility: Her empathy comes with almost as many perks as setbacks, especially after she finishes her training.
- She is really good at knowing which people will 'click'. In Storm Warning, she correctly assesses that An'desha and Karal will be good friends after a brief conversation with the latter.
- She can not only experience her partner's emotions but make him directly feel hers. Needless to say, once she and Dirk finally pair up, the sex is amazing.
- She knows she should be wary of Orthallen, even though his façade is perfect.
- She is such a telepathic beacon that anyone with magic can communicate with her, even if she's drowning or in a coma. This has saved her life twice.
- When someone is too traumatized or bull-headed to listen to explanations (*cough* Dirk), she can use her Gift to simply show them the truth.
- Never Accepted in His Hometown: She was completely disowned by her Holding for "running away" and getting Chosen as a Herald. Before she was Chosen she had a friend who was married off; as a Herald she tried to reconnect, and her friend had gone as cold as any of the other Holderkin.
- Noodle Incident: The details of her diplomatic mission to Karse, where she befriended Solaris and was named an honorary Sun Priest, are only briefly mentioned in the main series. To learn what actually happened, you need to read the title story in the Sun in Glory anthology.
- Older Than They Look: Between her short stature and her heart-shaped face, she looks like a teenager well into her adulthood. This makes it harder to fulfill her political role as the Queen's chief advisor, especially when Lord Orthallen repeatedly reminds everyone how young she is.
- Older and Wiser: In the Mage Winds and Mage Storms trilogies.
- Parental Substitute: Talia is more of a mother to Elspeth than Selenay. She was the one raising her and disciplining her out of her Royal Brat stage.
- Power Incontinence: Her Empathy has no real 'off' switch; she always knows what the people around her are feeling, and it takes deliberate psychic effort to keep their emotional state from influencing her. This is still better than her untrained early career when she had control mostly by instinct; in Arrow's Flight, self doubt erodes her confidence until her Gift goes entirely rogue.
- Rape as Drama: In Arrow's Fall, she's captured by Prince Ancar and raped by several of his men. Later Ancar and Hulda personally torture her and both take sadistic sexual pleasure in doing so, and she describes being forced to feel the pleasure they derive from her pain to be far worse than the physical rape.
- Runaway Fiancé: Preemptively: she flees the Holderkin in a panic at the thought of getting married and then is carried to Haven by Rolan before they can find her.
- Scars Are Forever: Hulda presses a hand to Talia's collarbone and leaves a livid hand-shaped brand mark, presumably using magic, that Talia later says she'll carry unhealed for the rest of her life.
- Sex by Proxy: Unavoidably, due to her empathy and the fact that Rolan is, ahem, quite a mare's stallion. She's not happy about this but can't prevent feeling what he feels during sex, and even can tell which Companion he's with. It interrupts her sleep and gets her... excited, which she finds very aggravating when she doesn't have a partner.
- Shipper on Deck: She plays matchmaker — largely non-romantically — for several people that she instinctively knows will click.
- Shrinking Violet: Initially. She grows out of it with time and Character Development.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Once mature, she is still kind and gentle, but she will not be turned from what she has to do.
- Sworn Brothers: With Skif, after a very brief and completely failed try at a teenage romance.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Or Took a Level in Jerkass, depending on how you look. Rolan is somewhat on the aloof side with Talia. She goes into a panic when he takes her through Haven for the first time and he doesn't so much as nuzzle her when they part, for example. In earlier-set books written later, Rolan appears partnered to several different Heralds and seems more compassionate - Rolan is quite kind to Lavan in Brightly Burning, and Lavan's not even his Chosen. It's likely Early-Installment Weirdness.
- The Voiceless: Rolan. He can Mindspeak anyone he chooses and he does talk to Lavan, but for whatever reason he only speaks to Talia once, when he Chooses her.
- What the Hell, Hero?: While Rolan is bringing a new-Chosen Talia back to Haven he stops at Waystations along the way and Talia eats the oats she finds in them for several days. When they finally stop in a village, a Guardswoman promptly scolds Rolan for making Talia eat Companion food. He does indeed take her to get human food in villages for the rest of the journey.
- When She Smiles: Her smile — and the joy behind it — is said to transfigure her face.
- White Stallion: All Companions are white, but Rolan as the Monarch's Own Companion has particular qualities, being striking even compared to them. His Choosing Talia confers the special position of the Queen's Own Herald to her, and when she talks to Selenay he can confer wisdom through her.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Border children don't get much of a childhood; she had adult responsibilities before she was thirteen, and going into Heraldic training was more of the same. Also, while she's advising Selenay, even as a thirteen-year-old with absolute ignorance of the issues Selenay is addressing, Rolan guides her and lends her his wisdom and experience.
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: A good chunk of the plot in Arrow's Flight is her inner struggle to decide when and how to use her Empathy.
- Worth It: She considers being Chosen for a life of hard work and combat a small price to pay for finding a place where she belongs and people who actually respect her.
Herald Kris and Companion Tantris
- Better as Friends: With Talia. Friends with Benefits, admittedly.
- Big Brother Instinct: For Dirk, after his early heartbreak. "I helped him get over his broken heart, and I will kill anyone who tries to hurt him like that again."
- Confirmed Bachelor: Not that he's chaste — quite the opposite, really — but he doesn't want a permanent partner who won't understand how much Duty means to him.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Being snowed in and teaching Talia control of her powers involves being pretty harsh to her sometimes, and she says she would hate him for it if she didn't understand why he was being so hard on her.
- Deuteragonist: He plays this role in Arrow's Flight.
- Fights Like a Normal: Despite being one of the few characters with FarSight, his main role in the story is mentor, spy, and would-be diplomat. Borders on Forgot About His Powers: there are times when viewing a situation remotely would clearly be safer than going in personally (e.g. when he and Talia see a strangely-quiet village on her internship in Arrow's Flight), but he never even thinks of it.
- Friends with Benefits: He and Talia become friends so close that Dirk assumes they're in love. They also sleep with each other quite regularly.
- Hero of Another Story: When Kris tells Talia a bit of his and Dirk's history as partners, it sounds like some of what they got up to would make good Spy Fiction.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Dirk is his closest friend and most trusted partner.
- Hidden Depths: Dirk and Kris often went on cloak-and-dagger secret missions among other things. For emphasis, both of them are named for knives.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the sweetest, most platonic way — he ships Talia with Dirk because he wants to see the people he loves most find happiness with each other.
- Mentor Archetype: He's a teacher at the Collegium when not on patrol, and the experience helps him get Talia trained properly when her Gift goes rogue. He wanted to be Kyril's successor as Dean, but circumstances didn't work out that way.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: The incident with the chicken, on his first shift in the kitchens as a Trainee.
- The Promise: Kris tells Talia that he will get her a bouquet of her favorite flower when she gets married to Dirk. At the end of Arrow's Fall — from beyond the grave — he does.
- Reincarnation: After Storm Warning, Mercedes Lackey confirmed offscreen that Tantris is the reincarnation of Vanyel's friend Tantras.
- Sacrificial Lion: Both Kris and Tantris in Arrow's Fall.
- Secret Legacy: Very likely to be a descendant of Vanyel, since he is related to the royal family and certainly has the good looks. He may even have had MageGift, since in the post-magic setting of Valdemar this was usually misidentified and trained as FarSight.
- Shipper on Deck: He fully supports Talia's relationship with Dirk, telling her nothing would make him happier than to see his two best friends get together.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Repeatedly! In Arrow's Flight, he tells Talia about the rumors that she unconsciously influences others with her Empathy, which shakes her confidence so badly that she loses control of her powers. As she says in the next book it would have happened eventually, but yikes. In Arrow's Fall he flat-out tells Dirk that he and Talia were lovers. Dirk promptly tries to pull an I Want My Beloved to Be Happy, complicating Talia and Kris' efforts to get Dirk and Talia together. He even managed this pre-series: when he rejected Lady Naril, it never occurred to him that she'd manipulate Dirk into falling in love with her as a means of revenge on Kris, nor that leaving her alone with him once she'd been found out might get Dirk (verbally) flayed alive.
- Unwitting Pawn: His uncle used him in multiple plots to get the throne. Orthallan tried to get Kris named heir pro tem before Elspeth was Chosen and manipulated him a few different ways to undermine Talia.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Kris and Tantris love to playfully insult each other.
Herald Dirk and Companion Ahrodie
- Cannot Spit It Out: He falls in Love at First Sight with Talia but refuses to admit it because he thinks she's in love with his handsome best friend.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Pride makes him refuse any and all offers of help when he is caught in an Imaginary Love Triangle with Talia and Kris. When that is finally resolved, he is reluctant to accept a permanent position at the Collegium and accepts only when everyone assures him that it's because he's the best Herald for the job.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Does this in Arrow's Fall when he thinks Talia and Kris are in love.
- The First Cut Is the Deepest: He was badly emotionally burned by a beautiful but vicious noblewoman who was only dating him to get close to Kris. When she was found out, she called him an idiot (among other insults) for thinking a woman like her would want a homely man like him. Kris thinks Dirk would have been Driven to Suicide without his Companion.
- Friend to All Children: He's described as the sort of person that children and animals trust immediately.
- Hero of Another Story: When Kris tells Talia of his and Dirk's history as partners, it's implied that a lot of their previous missions would make good Spy Fiction. Even when he's reassigned to the Collegium after his marriage to Talia, Kyril tells them outright that Dirk will still be expected to go on the sort of 'special missions' he used to pull off with Kris.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Kris is his working partner and closest friend.
- Hidden Depths: Kris suggests to Talia that he and Dirk have been frequently used for under-the-table intelligence missions. When Kerowyn meets him in By the Sword, she observes that he looks like a farmboy and moves like an assassin.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He's at least One Head Taller'' than Talia... probably two or three heads taller.
- Informed Attribute: He barely appears in the first two books, but Kris talks about him extensively in the second, hyping him up as selfless and kind and very like Talia. In most of the third book, where he appears more and has some POV segments, he is lost in self pity. At one point, after being asked to stay with a badly-injured Talia in case she needs emergency attention, he hears her confess how deeply she grieves Kris. Instead of considering their shared grief, he still believes she's in love with his best friend and nearly walks out and leaves her alone after giving a quietly-Anguished Declaration of Love. She has to use Rolan's strength to boost her Empathy enough to get through his self absorption.
- It's All My Fault: One of his Fetching Trainees dies on her Internship; he taught her a Fetching technique that enabled her to save several children from burning to death, but 'never found the time' to mention the Dangerous Forbidden Technique he discovered in the Archives that she might have used to save herself. This does nothing to help him when his psyche is already under assault from a Lifebond he hasn't acknowledged.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When he thinks Kris and Talia are in love he is twisted between this and violent jealousy and avoids both of them. It ends poorly.
- Love at First Sight: He and Talia, as with all Lifebonded couples, but neither of them realize it until much later due to them spending almost no time together and Talia only being thirteen when they met. If they had known, it would have saved Dirk from the heartbreak detailed in The First Cut Is the Deepest and the tragic, near-disaster of the cycle of miscommunication between Dirk, Kris, and Talia in Arrow's Fall that turned out to be orchestrated by Lord Orthallen in order to destabilize Talia and potentially break up one of the Heraldic Circle's best working partnerships.
- Mentor Archetype: Like his frequent work-partner, Kris, Dirk teaches at the Collegium whenever he's not on assignment elsewhere. His teaching of FireStarter Griffon is considered an essential part of one of Valdemar's early victories in the war against Ancar. After his marriage to Talia, he's permanently assigned to the Collegium as the Orientation Counsellor.
- Mindlink Mates: He and Talia form a lifebond very early in the series but don't confirm it until much later.
- Mind over Matter: He's probably the most explored character with the Fetching Gift, which will bring any object he "sees" directly to his hand. He even knows how to Fetch living things without harming them, which is critical at the end of Arrow's Fall.
- Nice Guy: He's the weaker but stabler partner of the lifebond, providing the anchor so Talia doesn't get overwhelmed.
Lord Orthallen
- Ambition Is Evil: Orthallen, as senior Council member and Selenay and Sendar's confidant, is already one of the most powerful people in Valdemar. The fact that he's still not satisfied and wants to be king shows how blindly greedy and ambitious he is.
- Big Bad: Of Take a Thief, the Exile's Duology and the Arrows trilogy. Orthallen is constantly in the middle of plots against the throne.
- Big Bad Friend: To Sendar, Selenay, and Elspeth. Being their close friend doesn't stop Orthallen from plotting their deaths (and in Sendar's case succeeding), or corruption (he orchestrated Selenay's disastrous first marriage to an emotionally abusive ManChild who tried to have her assassinated; he also orchestrated Elspeth's Royal Brat status via Hulda, and almost had her seduced and disgraced much in the same way as Selenay's marriage).
- The Confidant: Confidant, close personal friend, and high-ranking adviser to Queen Selenay, her father King Sendar, and her grandfather King Roald (and heading towards it with Princess Elspeth). A powerful adviser dedicated to furthering Valdemar's interests (or so everyone believes).
- The Chessmaster
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Orthallen is a master of taking advantage of existing opportunities and schemes to further his own agenda and removing traces of his involvement when the plans go south. Not even the Companions can come up with anything more concrete than 'he gives me the creeps'.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Frets about Kris on the way to the Hardornen border, complaining that he had no input in envoy selection and hadn't known Kris had been picked until he was already beyond recall. Implicitly he would have intervened and sent someone else into the trap if he'd known. Even Selenay, after finding out about his treachery, admits his grief over finding out Kris wasn't captured alive was probably real.
- Evil Chancellor: Close personal friend and high-ranking adviser to three generations of the Royal family... while plotting against them all along.
- Evil Uncle: To Kris. He shows more genuine-seeming concern for his nephew than for anyone else but still goes against absolutely everything Kris stands for.
- Foregone Conclusion: The reader knows that Orthallen's plots will be foiled (as Selenay is still Queen when Talia is Chosen) but that conversely he will be undiscovered until Talia reveals his plots and Elspeth kills him.
- Karma Houdini: Of the prequel books. Orthallen's fate is a Foregone Conclusion, and Alberich has seen something to make him convinced that he's truly evil, but that means that readers know that he will escape from his plots scot free until his Karma Houdini Warranty eventually runs out.
- Man Behind the Man: Was shooting for this, knowing he couldn't be king in his own right.
- Royal Favorite: A personal friend of the royal family who never uses his connections for personal gain. This rouses Alberich's suspicions, since any other non-Herald servant of the state would have at least one finger in the pie.
Herald Keren and Companion Dantris
- Big Sister Mentor: Partly this and partly Parental Substitute for Talia.
- Born in the Saddle: Keren is acknowledged by all the Heraldic Circle to be far and away the best equestrian among them. This makes her ideal for the job of equitation teacher.
- Flowery Elizabethan English: In a particularly intimate moment in Arrow's Fall she uses her home dialect of Valdemaran, which Lackey represents with 'thee' and 'thou,' among other older language constructions.
- Gayngst: In Arrows of the Queen, Keren is reluctant to disclose that she's lesbian, since even other Heralds are sometimes leery of same-sex attraction. Later books have a much more accepting Collegium, but then Arrows was written in 1987.
- Half-Identical Twins: She and her brother Teren have a strong family resemblance.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Talia.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Keren's mental and emotional stability rests on a very fragile tripod: her bonds with her twin Teren, her Companion Dantris, and her Lifebonded Ylsa. Ylsa actually has her job as Special Courier rather than riding a regular circuit partly because of this (it's considered to be much less dangerous). When Ylsa dies, Keren has a nervous breakdown that rapidly approaches a catatonic state, and nearly takes Dantris and Teren with her; it's only Talia figuring out her nascent lifebond with Sherrill that saves her.
- May–December Romance: Keren was about 20-25 years younger than Ylsa, and about 20-25 years older than Sherrill note
- Meaningful Name: 'Keren' is a Hebrew name which means "ray of light". It also rhymes with 'Teren' - the name of the Orientation Instructor - who is revealed to be her twin.
- Mindlink Mates: With Herald Ylsa, then Herald Sherrill after Ylsa's death. It's suggested that they could have become a permanent threesome if Sherrill had made a move earlier.
- Parental Substitute: Combines this and Big Sister Mentor for Talia.
- Psychologist Teacher: It's Keren who breaks through Talia's walls, and she remains Talia's main counselor and confidant throughout the Arrows trilogy.
- Twin Telepathy: With Herald Teren, to the point that they can Mindspeak each other's Companions as well as they can their own.
- Twin Theme Naming: Keren and her brother Teren.
Herald Jadus and Companion Fortunea
- Companion Cube: Implied with his harp My Lady, as befits a former Bardic Trainee.
- Disabled Badass: Despite missing a leg, he's on bodyguard duty for Talia after the assassination attempt at the river - Keren mentions that his cane has a sword in it.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Talia when she first comes to the Collegium, bordering Happily Adopted. He even bequeaths her his treasured harp, My Lady, when he dies.
- Magic Music: Jadus came to the Collegium as a Bardic Trainee, and is implied to also have the Bardic Gift.
- Retired Badass: Formerly a field Herald and one of the King's bodyguards during the Tedrel Wars. While it's fairly rare for a Herald to live long enough to retire (mentioned as 50% in Talia's orientation, but that went way downhill during the Tedrel Wars), the enforced idleness makes him feel useless.
Herald-Captain Kerowyn and Companion Sayvil
- Action Girl: To the point where she stands out even in a series filled with Action Girls.
- Better as Friends: With Daren. They become lovers during their training with Tarma, but Kero is well aware that there's no room for her to live the kind of life she wants as the consort of a prince of Rethwellan. A decade and change later when she's leading the Skybolts and he's Rethwellan's Lord Martial, they like and respect one another but feel no interest in rekindling a romance.
- Blue Blood: She's technically a minor noble, but she wants to make her own way, not just take what someone else gives her. Her background does give her some help when she needs to negotiate a social situation, though.
- Braids of Action: Whenever her hairstyle is mentioned, it's always a simple braid down her back.
- The Chains of Commanding: As Captain of the Skybolts, she finds herself without anyone to be her real friend and confidant. This makes her more open to Talking in Your Dreams with Eldan.
- Canon Welding: She links the Valdemar stories to Lackey's older Tarma and Kethry adventures (she is Kethry's granddaughter and Tarma was her mentor).
- Character’s Most Hated Song: "Kerowyn's Ride", the ballad written about her rescue of her brother's fiancée. A lot of people try to flatter Kerowyn by performing it for her, not knowing that she hates the song.
- Combat Pragmatist: Like all good fighters. Her lessons to Elspeth and Karal emphasize getting into the habit of looking at everything as a potential weapon.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Even her old friends joked that when the 'ice queen' fell, she'd fall hard. Kero duly lampshades this once she realizes her feelings for Eldan.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: She takes over from Alberich as Weaponsmaster and while Kero's a bit more personable she is just as relentless about pushing her pupils when they'd like to stop.
- Drowning My Sorrows: When she keeps having dreams about Herald Eldan, she assumes it's loneliness and starts hitting the wine to prevent them. Naturally, when Eldan appears in her dream that night, he scolds her for drinking.
- Embarrassing Rescue: Her story begins when she rescues her brother's fiancée. Dierna is certainly grateful to be rescued, but the aftermath proves highly uncomfortable for everyone.
- Famed In-Story: Her early adventures were turned into a ballad which dogs her throughout the rest of her career, to her distinct chagrin. It doesn't help that she has perfect pitch and not all of the people who perform that song in her honor are good at singing.
- Fights Like a Normal: Is a Mindspeaker, but until she is Chosen she rarely uses the ability, feeling it would make others distrust her. Also wields Need, but does her best not to rely on Need's abilities.
- Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Her relationship with Herald Eldan begins with an After-Action Patch-Up. Kero lampshades the trope in the process, acknowledging that she's felt the impulse plenty of times before, this is just the first time it's happened in the vicinity of someone she wouldn't mind waking up with.
- Good Is Not Nice: She's plain-spoken to the point of rudeness most of the time, though she can be diplomatic if the situation calls for it.
- Good Is Not Soft: She's ruthlessly pragmatic for a Herald, able to suggest assassination without blinking an eye, but she'll only do it after considering every other option and deciding that one will cost the fewest lives.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Suggested but kept in check by self discipline. Several times in her story she nearly bites someone's head off before stopping herself, usually with a mental reminder that they didn't mean to offend her.
- Horse Archer: All Skybolts are trained as skirmishers — do a quick pass, fire a volley, and gallop out of range — so she is proficient at this even before being Chosen.
- Insignia Ripoff Ritual: She performs the self-inflicted "I quit" version halfway through By The Sword.
- Mage Killer: Kero herself and the Skybolts. When they arrive in Valdemar, which regards enemy mages as The Dreaded, they surprise the population with their attitude of "mages are human and they die as easily as anyone else."
- Mindlink Mates: She and Eldan can speak mind-to-mind, and can open their minds to each other while making love, but they are not permanently connected to each other like a Lifebonded couple.
- Mind over Manners: She scrupulously avoids using Mindspeech whenever possible, thinking her fellow mercenaries will distrust her if they know she can read their minds. She also refuses to learn how to use her mind powers offensively, out of a sense that it isn't fair, which marks her out as Herald potential very early in the story.
- A Mother to Her Men: As Captain of the Skybolts, she is fiercely protective of her people and will not let an employer play games with their lives. She won't send non-volunteers into risky situations, and when she's Chosen — an event that is joyful for most people — she agonizes over how to reconcile her new duties to Valdemar with her commitment to the Skybolts.
- Not Staying for Breakfast: When she leaves Herald Eldan, she deliberately wears him out with a night of lovemaking and slips out while he is still asleep, fearing that he might convince her to change her mind.
- Obliviously Beautiful: Kero doesn't consider it at all, but in Mage Winds and Mage Storms other characters think she's strikingly gorgeous. Elspeth wishes she resembled Kero more. Poor Karal, training with her not to fight but to not die if attacked, is turned on quite against his will by being touched and shoved around by her.
- Older and Wiser: In and after the Mage Winds trilogy.
- Poor Communication Kills: Nearly. In a non-romantic example, her fellow Skybolts were trying to tell her they'd deposed the abusive former Captain and promoted her. She assumed they were agents of said Captain out to arrest her and fled accordingly. They get things figured out eventually, though.
- Reincarnation: Sayvil is Herald-Mage Savil, reborn with her knowledge of magic (and her tart attitude) intact.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: 'Everyone knows' Companions never talk to humans aside from their Chosen. In actual fact, they often do, usually in a desperate situation or when outside of Valdemar. Sayvil does it routinely, giving lectures on magic to anyone in earshot. Lots of people are unhappy about this, but she is a Companion herself after all.
- Secret Legacy: She didn't know about her Shin'a'in connections until she was almost an adult (her mother was the one daughter of Kethry's who didn't take to that life, and her father disliked mages).
- Talking in Your Dreams: With Eldan, for over ten years. She doesn't realize until they meet again that they were actually speaking to one another.
Prince Darenthalis (Daren) and Companion Jasan
- Babies Ever After: He and Selenay become the parents of twins exactly nine months after their wedding.
- Better as Friends: With Kerowyn. He tries to convince her to come back to Rethwellan with him and marry him, but she's not having it, and they both come to agree that a relationship between them would be a disaster.
- Evil Prince: Averted, but rumors take root remarkably quickly that he has had Elspeth killed so that his own children will take the throne. Elspeth protests that no one who knows him would believe that, but she still makes a Big Entrance into Haven just to demonstrate that the rumors are false.
- Hot-Blooded: As a young man.
- In Love with Love: He asks Kerowyn, his first serious lover, to marry him. She wisely refuses, knowing he needs more time to grow up.
- Ladykiller in Love: He happily played the field during his time as Rethwellan's Lord-Martial. Once he meets Selenay, however, he has no interest in anyone else.
- Love at First Sight: With Selenay.
- Mindlink Mates: With Selenay.
- Overly Long Name: Apparently a tradition in the Rethwellan royal line. His two brothers have multisyllabic names too, and it's mentioned in passing that their sisters have ridiculous names "full of historical significance and as unpronounceable as kyrii howls."
- Reincarnation: It hasn't been confirmed but given the naming convention for Companions and the Heralds they used to be, Jasan may have been Jaysen, a contemporary friend of Savil's.
- Royal Brat: At first. He grows out of it.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: When he initially shows up in By the Sword; Tarma and Kerowyn between them take care of that.
- Spare to the Throne: He wasn't the heir and he wasn't a charmer like Thanel, so he starts out without much of a future. Tarma gets him ready for a career in the military, and he eventually finds his place in Valdemar.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: He has the Earth-sense — a mostly-unconscious ability to read the land which tends to run in noble families. It features heavily in the climax of By the Sword but seldom gets mentioned otherwise.
- His Earth-sense does serve as a Chekhov's Gun for the climax of the Mage Storm trilogy where Tremane gains Earth-sense, it's revealed that at least one of the rulers of each country has it and the ability becomes crucial for protecting the nodes during the Final Storm.
- Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born: Their twins, Lyra and Kris.
- The Wise Prince: Eventually, after Tarma and Kerowyn beat some sense into him. It's a contrast to his brother Thanel, who never learned to respect women and saw Selenay as a means to the throne.
Herald Eldan and Companion Ratha
- Animal Eye Spy: A skill of Eldan's, made possible by a special form of telepathy.
- Carnivore Confusion: Downplayed. He won't kill for food because of his connection to animals, but he has no problem eating meat that others have killed.
- The Determinator: Like all Heralds. It also shows through in his relationship with Kerowyn; Eldan does everything within his power to maintain some kind of contact with Kero. He legally requires her to meet him in person in order to collect his ransom, and when she finds a way around that, he manages to connect with her in her dreams, and he keeps this extremely long-range relationship up for nearly a decade.
- Distressed Dude: He was spying in Karse and discovered by a Karsite priestess, who had him bound up and was about to torture him. Cue the lost mercenary woman on a warsteed, with a lot of arrows and a magic sword...
- Early-Bird Cameo: A man with his skunk-stripe hair appears in Arrow's Flight, sitting beside Selenay at a Heralds' revel. Not confirmed, but he does tell Kero that he and Selenay were close when they were students
- I Will Wait for You: A subtle example; he never took up with anyone else after Kerowyn, and ten years later still hopes to reunite with her.
- Reincarnation: Ratha has the same name as a Tayledras species of cat and reacts with surprised respect when Kero speaks Shin'a'in, suggesting he was one of the Kale'da'in peoples in a former life, but this is never explored.
- Secret Legacy: Possibly, given Lackey's predilection for Canon Welding and hidden legacies in the Valdemar series. Aside from Eldan, the only Herald we see who has Animal Mindspeech is Mags' wife and King's Own Herald Amily; their eldest child Perry also has it, meaning Eldan might be a descendant.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: In addition to standard MindSpeech, Eldan possesses a rarer form which allows him to sense and communicate with the minds of animals.
- Talking in Your Dreams: With Kerowyn, for over ten years. She isn't too pleased to find out they weren't just dreams.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ratha confronts Kero as she's trying to make a More Hero than Thou Sneaky Departure, forcing her to explain everything. Once she explains her reasons, however - including her belief that Need is serving as a beacon to somehow draw Karsite priestesses to their location - he concedes and wishes her well.
Characters described in other pages:
- Queen Selenay and Companion Caryo: Exile Duology
- Weaponsmaster Alberich and Companion Kantor: Exile Duology
- Princess Elspeth and Companion Gwena: Mage Winds And Mage Storms
- King Ancar: Mage Winds And Mage Storms
- Hulda: Mage Winds And Mage Storms
