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Republic of Haven
The Republic of Haven in General
- Badass Army: There are two reasons Haven has been able to very nearly keep pace with Manticore and Grayson for two decades, despite inferior technology. One is Shannon Foraker. The other is that, despite the best efforts of the Legislaturalists and later State Sec, it is badass. And its badassitude increases exponentially after Thomas Theisman restores the old Republic.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Both the original Republic of Haven and its restored form are a fantasy counterpart to the USA with a bit of Republican France thrown in there for good measure. Its People's Republic incarnation runs closer to the early Soviet Union, plus "Reign of Terror"-era France under the Committee for Public Safety.
- Heel–Face Turn: Over the series they go from being The Empire to outright protagonist status, particularly after Tom Theisman's coup.
- Mighty Glacier: Their navy is numerically massive, but they can't project force as well as the Manticorans, which makes them rather sluggish strategically.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Both strategically (they have massive reserves but relatively poor training and technology) and in their warship design: Havenite designs emphasize sheer volume of firepower to make up for their shortcomings in other areas.
- We Have Reserves: Thomas Theisman realises that this strategy is necessary for victory, but is far more circumspect in his deployments nevertheless; he sends enough to make sure the job gets done, but refuses to throw lives away where there's no chance of victory.
Major Victor Cachat, Foreign Intelligence Service
A character introduced when Eric Flint became co-author of the series with David Weber and not too incidentally is said to be Flint's author avatar. Frequently accused of being a God-Mode Sue by the fandom, he still does manage to be a fairly balanced character. In the books he is described as being very young and very cute on more then one occasion. He is widely known as being the Republic's best operative and is something of an idealist despite his capacity for unrestrained ruthlessness.
- Anti-Hero: Although you'd never guess it if you meet him out of action.
- Beware the Nice Ones: When he isn't in 'ruthless killer' mode he's nice, fairly shy and in fact downright adorable. He is also one of the deadliest people in a series full of badass characters.
- Bishōnen: The nanotech disguise he gets early in Cauldron of Ghosts qualifies. At one point it's described as having the abstract beauty of a model ... which Cachat realizes gives anyone who sees him in action no way to describe him, because he simply doesn't have "distinguishing features". He's described as "plain" or even "square-faced" in stories set before that novel, so clearly doesn't qualify on his own.
- Comically Missing the Point: His reaction to a reference to the Night of Long Knives
starts with pointing out that long knives are completely unnecessary, after all you can cut somebody's throat just fine with a seven-centimeter note blade... - Cultured Warrior: the result of an apprenticeship under Kevin Usher. Kevin taught him not only the trade, but gave a Nouveau Paris' slumboy a good taste — after all, Usher's one of the few people that still remember Casablanca two thousand years from now.
- Determinator: The sheer amount of guts Cachat happened to have shouldn't be able to fit into his frame.
- Dissonant Serenity: He literally has no emotions when "on", which makes him even more horrific to many.
- Enemy Mine: His major strong point. He's able to coopt just about everybody to his case, and he has a particularly good working relationship with Anton Zilwicki, a one-time Manticoran intelligence agent.
- Guile Hero: Not exactly a slouch in the physical department, but it is definitely his brain that makes him truly dangerous.
- Indy Ploy: Quick thinking saved his operations (and his hide) more than once, though not without annoying his partners at the time about changing the plan without advance notice.
- Majorly Awesome: His last official rank under the old State Sec was Major.
- Manipulative Bastard: Uses manipulation to destroy the State Sec garrison of a sector he is assigned to from within.
- The Nondescript: Described as having an average build, ordinary hair, etc. His most recognizable features are his Nouveau Paris accent and capacity for violence. In Cauldron of Ghosts, his disguise has the bland beauty of a supermodel. Sure, he's handsome — but it's hard to remember the details past that.
- Odd Couple: One part of the Spook Duo, with Anton Zilwicki. They're pretty close to physical opposites, and are agents of star nations that are opposed to one another for much of the series.
- The Unfettered: There's simply nothing to stop him if you happened to provoke his anger. Ever.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Somehow able to remain one despite everything said above. Jeremy X describes him as Galahad, if Galahad were a torturer.
Fleet Admiral Thomas Edward Dreams of Peace Theisman, Secretary of War, Chief of Naval Operations
The Republic's Secretary of War and Chief of Naval Operations. When first introduced The Honor of the Queen he was a Peep destroyer skipper, but even then he scared Honor because of his tactical and strategic abilities, willingness to make sacrifices, loyalty to the Republic and the fact that missiles from his warship killed Honor's mentor. Due to his competence and seemingly apolitical stance, he quickly rose through the ranks of the People's Navy, only to eventually overthrow the current regime and restore the original democratic form of government — not the pseudo-democratic one at the start of the novels, but an actual federal republic that hasn't existed in over two hundred years. It sticks.
- A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: While Eloise Pritchart, Javier Giscard, Lester Tourville, Denis LePic, and a handful of others all played critical roles in the revolution, it was Tom Theisman who rose from the ashes of the Committee's reign of terror and catalyzed the resistance movement into something that could actually succeed. It's later noted that the Republic cannot fail as long as Theisman lives, because Theisman stands behind his government and his President, and the entire Navy stands behind him.
- Ascended Extra: He started out as the lowly lieutenant commander in charge of a single PRN destroyer who was part of a minor plotline in The Honor of the Queen, but takes on much more prominent positions and roles as the series progresses.
- Birds of a Feather: He has quite a lot in common with Honor Harrington, and they become close friends after the formation of the Grand Alliance.
- The Captain: Later became The Strategist.
- The Chessmaster: Ends up decisively outplaying several wannabe Chessmasters by biding his time and launching a coup that nobody outside of his inner circle saw coming.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He shows up in the second book, Honor Of The Queen, as a destroyer skipper detached to the Masadan Navy as an adviser during their brief war with Grayson, and in a two-scene role in The Short Victorious War as flag captain of a commerce raiding squadron. By Honor Among Enemies, he's a major viewpoint character... and by War of Honor, he's restored the true Republic.
- Cincinnatus: Played with. He did not retire after the revolution, but he's perfectly content to stick just to the military side of things. He handed the Presidency to Eloise Pritchart, who is occasionally tempted to shoot him for it.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Being orphaned, with no link to his parents' lives, kept their potential murder or imprisonment (as per PRH policy, both under the Legislaturalists and the Committee for Public Safety) from being held over him.
- Drowning My Sorrows: When he realizes that he's going to have to hand over Honor Harrington to Cordelia Ransom. This would have destroyed him when Ransom dropped by his office if he didn't have some kind of stimulant/purging inhaler handy.
- First-Name Basis:
- The point where he becomes "Tom" to Honor Harrington and a good chunk of the Manticoran government is also the point where Mesa and the Solarian League should start running really really fast. They might even get a decent head start before they're run to ground and utterly annihilated.
- He is one of a very few people who still calls President Pritchart 'Eloise' after she becomes President.
- Foreshadowing:
- Was described in In Enemy Hands as a Brutus. In Roman history, there are two particularly famous men from the Brutus family - one who overthrew the last of Rome's kings and established the Republic, and one who turned against his friend Julius Caesar when the latter was close to overthrowing the Republic and becoming a dictator.
- In Flag in Exile, he thinks that, "The universe... was not precisely overrunning with fairness, but it did seem that what went around came around. A point the Committee of Public Safety might want to bear in mind." Some four and a half books later, he puts a permanent and awesome end to the Committee via a pulser dart to Saint-Just's head.
- Genre Savvy: After several books of the Manticorans being blind to the possibility that Mesan sleeper-agents have been responsible for various recent assassinations around the galaxy, he is the one to lay fresh eyes on the situation and deduce that this was the most likely cause for the Solarian 11th Fleet's seeming I Surrender, Suckers, leading directly to 11th Fleet's destruction at the hands of the Grand Fleet, and hundreds of thousands of deaths.
- Hero Antagonist: He is undoubtedly the hero of Haven's own story, but he's an antagonist (and Worthy Opponent) in Honor's story. Once the Grand Alliance takes shape, though, he and his compatriots become outright protagonists.
- Humble Hero: Thomas Theisman may well be the closest thing his Republic has to a guardian angel, but good luck convincing him of that.
- Knight in Sour Armor: However bad a beating his idealism has taken, it never surrenders. This is, after all, a man who swore an oath to a Republic that had lain in ashes for a hundred and fifty years before he was born, and who, when given the chance, resurrected that Republic not out of pragmatism, but because he could not bear to watch the nation he loved commit a form of suicide. Now that is a man who loves his country.
- The Lancer: Appears to be playing this role to Honor Harrington as of A Rising Thunder.
- Magnetic Hero: Theisman not only had McQueen's charismatic ability to inspire loyalty in others, but also the determination to do right which she lacked. The result was a complete overthrow of the Committee and the first bona fide democracy to rule the Republic of Haven in over two centuries.
- Married to the Job: There is absolutely no indication that he engages in sex or romance of any kind throughout the entire series; there's the quiet suggestion that his true love will always be the Republic itself, and he honestly doesn't seem interested in pursuing anything with anyone. The closest we get is him noting to himself that Eloise Pritchart is beautiful, and anyone with functioning eyes notices that.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: No matter how bad things got with the Committee, no matter how much worse the war went, Theisman never considered defecting to the Manties as some of his fellow officers had. Of course, once the opportunity presented itself, he took the "if wrong, to be set right" portion of the quote very seriously by overthrowing the Committee and reinstating the Constitution, culminating in one of the most immortal lines in science fiction:Theisman: Goodbye, Citizen Chairman.
- Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom: While all treecat names are incredibly accurate and usually eloquent, "Dreams of Peace" has to be one of the most poetic seen in the series, rivalled perhaps only by Honor Harrington's "Dances on Clouds". In fact, it is Nimitz's revelation of Theisman's treecat name that convinces Honor he — and Eloise Pritchart, aka "Truth Seeker" — really can be trusted.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- In the process of trying desperately to argue in favor of obeying The Laws and Customs of War to Cordelia Ransom, he accidentally gave her an idea for how to organize a system to centrally process and disappear "inconvenient" POWs without letting the Navy have any chance to keep them out of State Sec's hands. Cue Vomit Discretion Shot.
- He also accidentally encourages her to read the Accords and find out a way to legally strip them of all their protections.
- The Nondescript: Theisman is specifically noted to be very ordinary-looking, a bit stocky, and not particularly tall, with plain brown hair. This is actually noted in-series to be in complete contrast to his charisma, leadership skills, and ability to inspire loyalty in his subordinates. After all, this ordinary-looking man was able to rally an entire star nation and pull off a revolution thanks to his ability to inspire his fellow countrymen.
- The Not-Love Interest: To Eloise Pritchart in the wake of Giscard's death, as she turns to him as her closest confidant and emotional support. This is largely thanks to the rapport they developed while working side-by-side to rebuild the Republic. They would, in fact, fit the Ruling Couple trope perfectly, except that they're not romantically involved.
- Officer and a Gentleman: The moment when he first appeared as a major character was a sign of a significant shift in the portrayal of the Peeps.
- Parental Abandonment: He grew up in an orphanage, being a result of accidental teenage pregnancy. It actually had an impact on the plot — his resultant detachedness from other people made him be seen as apolitical, which is why he was able to pull off the coup that restored the true Republic.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Eloise Pritchart. Theisman, Kevin Usher, Denis LePic, and later Leslie Montreau form her 'inner circle' of advisers and trusted friends, but she is clearly closest with Theisman, who has been her rock since Javier's death and her most fervent supporternote since she became President.
- Quit Your Whining: Delivers one of these to Honor after she begins lamenting her unavoidable role in the wholesale slaughter of the Solarian League's Eleventh Fleet. Amazingly, she shuts up and listens. It's even more awesome than it sounds.
- Reverse Psychology: How he typically convinced his People's Commissioner to sign off on his continuous aversions of Honor Before Reason: By convincing him that he fully intended to valiantly sacrifice himself (and his men, and his People's Commissioner) against superior Manticoran forces in the name of the Revolution. Every time, his Peoples' Commissioner manages to convince him otherwise. The commissioner gradually becomes Genre Savvy about it and just rolls with it before being recruited by the Admiral outright.
- The Rival: The closest thing Honor ever had. Now that they're on the same side, well...
- Rivals Team Up: He was originally supposed to be in command of the Havenite Second Fleet at Second Manticore, but decided he would send a far more pointed message if he spent the battle on Honor Harrington's flag deck instead (thus hammering home the point that yes, Haven and Manticore were allies now, and yes, the Solarian League should be very afraid). So his trusted compatriot Lester Tourville got command of Second Fleet instead, and Theisman induced one of the biggest Oh, Crap! reactions in the series simply by walking into view of a camera. He and Honor go on to mastermind almost equally impressive feats after that, not to mention becoming genuinely good friends.
- The Strategist: As of the end of Ashes of Victory. He acquired too much seniority and too many achievements to be The Captain, ultimately taking the position of the Chief of Naval Operations and Secretary of War for the renewed Republic of Haven's navy. He only (skin)suits up again for Second Manticore, when he and Honor both get out from behind their desks and team up to kick some serious Solarian arse.
- Suddenly Sober: Forced to do this when Cordelia Ransom comes calling after he had been drowning his sorrows over Honor's capture and seeming execution. The results are... unpleasant.
- Worthy Opponent: See his treecat name, Dreams of Peace.
Vice Admiral Shannon Foraker
An expert tactical officer and considered by some to be one of the scariest characters in the whole universe. When introduced, she was serving under Warner Caslet and was gaining a reputation as a "tac witch" for her technological and tactical prowess. She also refused to regard the technological disparity between the People's Republic and Manticore with the same 'depressed' attitude that many of the People's Navy did. Instead she saw it as more of a challenge of her and her navy's skills, and appeared to love the 'thrill' of it. She saved Honor's treecat Nimitz from being killed by State Security and noticed scanner evidence of small craft leaving the vicinity of Ransom's exploded battlecruiser. With the connivance of Tourville, the scan evidence was erased. During Thomas Theisman's coup, she caused the destruction of two State Security naval battle groups ordered to arrest Admirals Tourville and Giscard and their senior officers; her reaction at the time was merely "Oops". After the fall of the People's Republic, she was rapidly promoted to Vice Admiral, and was assigned to direct research and development at the 'black' development yard (codenamed Project Bolthole) of the Republic of Haven, where upon the formation of the Grand Alliance she teamed up with her Manticoran counterpart Sonja Hemphill to further improve the Alliance's technological base (and therefore its capability to reduce the Mesan Alignmment to subatomic particles).
- Ascended Extra: She started out as the lowly lieutenant in charge of tactial on a single PN light cruiser who was part of a plotline in Flag In Exile, and gets captured and returned to the PRH in Honor Among Enemies, but takes on much more prominent positions and roles as the series progresses (for a few books, she gets a promotion per book, before jumping from Commander to Vice Admiral under the restored RHN), and as she gets promoted, ending up at Bolthole.
- Badass Adorable: Do not mistake her cheerful and absent-minded disposition for weakness. You won't even know who blew you out of space. State Sec made that mistake. Oops.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She may just be the single nicest character in the whole 'verse, but when StateSec made the mistake of badly mistreating Honor and her people in 1911, Shannon went into a cold fury that only ended when she (in 1915, after quite a bit of Havenite chaos) sent out a few innocent lines of computer code that wiped out two squadrons of StateSec capital ships in an instant as their fusion bottles failed, vaporizing every single ship like they were in the heart of a newborn star. Her reaction? "Oops."
- Birds of a Feather: She becomes instant best friends with a Manticoran admiral in a similar position to her own, Sonja Hemphill.
- Blood Knight: Shannon Foraker loves her job and loves outthinking the Manticorans. The fact that her adversaries are far more technologically advanced than her forces just makes it a good challenge.
- Break the Cutie: After the events at Cerberus, the Genius Ditz personality went into deep freeze until the People's Republic went down, since she'd started viewing the political situation as a tactical one. This worried Tourville.note
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Genius Ditz. Techno nerd. And let's not forget, Haven's premier Strategist. She also had a tendency to refer to her superiors as "Sir" instead of "Citizen <insert-rank-here>", which would normally be considered a grave violation of regulations in the Peoples' Navy after the Committee took power. The Political Officer assigned to her ship always managed to find himself distracted by something else when she did it, so she was never reprimanded.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Being a little weird (like Forgets to Eat, and a complete lack of Layman's Terms), she needs a Cloudcuckoolander's Minder. She has them, in the form of her staff, who adore her.
- First-Name Basis: Is calling Admiral Hemphill "Sonja" by the end of their first meeting, and vice versa.
- Forgets to Eat: Shannon is so prone to forgetting unimportant things like 'food' in the name of science that it's become something of a running joke between her and Sonja Hemphill, as seen in To End in Fire.
- Gadgeteer Genius: She more than deserves her "tac witch" moniker. The fact that she can keep within shouting distance of Sonja Hemphill, despite the wide technological disparity between the two star nations, is truly a mark of genius.
- Genius Ditz: She manages to lose her wristcom twice a week when out at Bolthole.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Sonja Hemphill. The Baroness of Low Delhi belongs to Hamish Alexander's generation, while Shannon is significantly younger. This does not stop them from becoming fast friends.
- Layman's Terms: Suffers from a complete inability to do this. In A Rising Thunder, Eloise Pritchart reflects humorously on how, when required to testify before Congress, she needed an interpreter (Linda Trenis, who is in charge of Haven's version of Bu Plan) for her geek talk so that the people she was testifying to could understand what she was testifying about.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Her behaviour changes so much with State Sec monitoring her ship that Tourville admits to others that he is keeping her in the dark about what he knows because he's become afraid of what she might do. He's right to be, since at that moment she's already put a plan in place to assassinate two full State Sec squadrons.
- Overranked Soldier: She was a Commander during Theisman's coup (and in a few earlier books, starting with the one where she was introduced in, was gaining a promotion per book, always off-screen). Five years later, during a period of truce (not a You Are in Command Now promotion), she was appointed a Vice Admiral. Pritchart and Theisman needed someone with her abilities to run Bolthole, so they likely chucked the seniority rules out the airlock in her case.
- Rivals Team Up: She and Sonja Hemphill spend most of their time post-Ashes of Victory attempting to outdo one another as the technological geniuses behind their respective navies. After the formation of the Grand Alliance, Sonja and her staff get packed off to Bolthole to combine forces with Foraker and her team, with truly incredible results. Honor promptly nicknames them the "Demonic Duo", and with good reason.
- The Smart Girl: Acknowledged by pretty much anybody around her as generally being the most intelligent person present. Her only competition is her erstwhile rival and current partner-in-crime, Sonja Hemphill.
- The Strategist: From the moment she was introduced, her tactical abilities have been affectionately compared to witchcraft.
- Wham Line: "Oops."
- Wrench Wench: On a large scale!
Admiral Lester Tourville
Perhaps even more of a Harrington counterpart than Theisman. While Honor and Theisman only went directly up against each other relatively early in their careers, and both times Theisman was subordinate to someone else, Tourville and Harrington have gone toe to toe several times, and they alternate who wins. After being forced to surrender at the Battle of Manticore, he spent a year as a prisoner-of-war on the planet, and during that time learned rudimentary treecat sign. Following the formation of the Grand Alliance, he was released and took command of the Havenite component of Grand Fleet.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Everard Honeker, his Political Officer, is supposed to be his superior but mentally compares himself to someone "towed bodily along by the cheerful, clumsy eagerness of the Great Dane or Saint Bernard he was supposedly walking." He also wonders, "why [does] he feel like a harassed scout master besieged by an entire troop of ten-year-olds? It wasn't supposed to be like this."
- Birds of a Feather: He gets along famously with Michelle Henke right from the moment they meet, with it being noted in-text that this is due to their shared "cowboy" mentality.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: As part of his affected Military Maverick persona. He smokes cigars constantly. He also isn't timid, despite the Manties have better tech.
- The Cavalry:
- Just as Manticore is being stretched to the breaking point by the Alignment-engineered uprisings in the Verge, none other than Citizen Cowboy Tourville shows up with a Havenite fleet to relieve Manticore and allow them to answer the calls for help from the revolutionaries when they come in — and to help launch a Roaring Rampage of Revenge on Mesa itself for the Alignment's role in corrupting the Republic. Michelle Henke, the commander of Tenth Fleet, is exceptionally glad to see him.
- Earlier in the story, he serves as this for Manticore in general — with the Royal Navy heavily depleted by the effects of Oyster Bay, it's Tourville and the Havenite forces under his command that play a crucial role in defeating Admiral Filareta and the Solarian Eleventh Fleet at Second Manticore. note
- Cigar Chomper: Invoked as a part of his Military Maverick persona, despite an initial distaste. By mid-series he admits to himself that he really doesn't hate 'em anymore, as he's become addicted. His treecat bodyguard, Lurks in Branches, expresses his disapproval by sealing his skinsuit helmet whenever Tourville whips one out.
- Expy: Named for 17th-century French Admiral Anne Hilarion de Costentin, comte de Tourville.
- In-Series Nickname: Saint-Just calls him Citizen Admiral Cowboy.
- Manly Facial Hair: He is unquestionably a badass, and has a truly magnificent mustache.
- Military Maverick: He deliberately cultivated a flamboyant reputation early in his career (as much as such a thing was possible in the People's Republic). He came to regret it somewhat, when he got stuck having to keep up with some of his affected mannerisms (such as smoking cigars).note Honeker thinks he belongs "on a holystoned wooden quarter-deck with a cutlass and a brace of flintlock pistols in his belt, bellowing orders over the roar of a cannon." Michelle Henke, when she's dragged to dinner with him, post-Solon, thinks remarkably similar things.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: For years he deliberately cultivated a reputation of being just competent enough to keep his rank of Captain, and later Rear Admiral, without being competent enough to be seen as a threat by his superiors, or being promoted to a rank where he wouldn't be able to avoid being shot by State Sec. However, he couldn't avoid promotion forever, and despite being a Military Maverick, and trying to pass the credit off, he gets promoted following Adler.
- Worthy Opponent: Honor has always respected him for his brilliant tactical mind and for the honorable way he treated her and her people when she was forced to surrender to him in In Enemy Hands. She has even more reason to be kindly disposed to him than she knows; he and Shannon Foraker were the only two Havenites to notice the pinnace that escaped from Cordelia Ransom's exploded ship, and they quietly erased any incriminating footage, thus ensuring that State Sec believed she had been killed.
- It says something about Honor's estimation of Lester's skills that during Operation Raging Justice he was the one commander in the Grand Alliance entrusted with the most sensitive part of the defense of Manticore- lying in hyper to spring the ambush on the hundreds of Solarian superdreadnoughts.
Admiral Javier Giscard
The third of Haven's three heavyweight fleet commanders, alongside Theisman and Tourville. Also like Theisman and Tourville, his loyalty was not to the Committee or the Legislaturalists, but to the ancient, long-ignored Constitution of the Republic. After the Committee's rise to power, he was assigned a Political Officer, as per PRN custom. His turned out to be Eloise Pritchart, with whom he began a love affair which blazed for the rest of his life and which the two miraculously kept hidden throughout the duration of State Sec's brutality. He and Pritchart later joined forces with Thomas Theisman and a select handful of others to overthrow the Committee, thereafter restoring the true Republic of Haven, for which Giscard became Fleet Admiral. He was killed at the Battle of Lovat, during Admiral Harrington's raid on the system. Even long after his death, Eloise still grieved him intensely.
- Affectionate Nickname: He gives Eloise the affectionate nickname of "Ellie".
- Battle Couple: With Eloise.Tourville: Live or die, [Pritchart] and Giscard would fight to the last ditch together.
- Dating Catwoman: Falling in love with his People's Commissioner was not exactly the most politically sound maneuver. That commissioner doing likewise only complicated matters, but they wouldn't give each other up for anything, and so they got very, very good at lying.
- Four-Star Badass: Was one of the three best fleet commanders to serve the Republic of Haven during the 20th century PD.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: His last word was Eloise's name. He never finished it.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Though bitterly disillusioned over the excesses of the Committee, he never gave up believing in the true Republic, and was instrumental in restoring it.
- Loved I Not Honor More: Both he and Eloise unflinchingly accept that their duty to cause and country must come first, which only serves to make the moments where they can be together all the more poignant.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: Giscard never considered defecting as Caslet and Yu had done, but he was determined to restore the true Republic.
- Officer and a Gentleman: A shining example from the Havenite side.
- Official Couple: With Eloise Pritchart.
- Secret Relationship: With Eloise, during State Sec's Reign of Terror, as the discovery of their relationship would have meant certain death at best.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Eloise Pritchart. Just when it looks like they might have a chance at a happy ever after that doesn't include hiding from State Sec and/or fighting a war they don't want to fight, he is killed in the battle of Lovat. She never fully recovers.
- Worthy Opponent: Harrington bitterly regretted his death, particularly after she came to know Eloise Pritchart well, and virtually all of the Manticoran admiralty respected him greatly.
President Eloise Truth Seeker Pritchart
First elected President of the Republic of Haven following the Committee of Public Safety's regime. She was originally an Aprilist, one of the many rebel groups opposing the Legislaturists, after losing her sister to street violence. When the Committee of Public Safety came into power, she became one of State Sec's People's Commissioners, playing watchdog to Javier Giscard. The two appeared highly antagonistic to each other in public, but unbeknownst to State Sec, they had in fact fallen in love and become romantically involved. When Thomas Theisman overthrew the last remnants of the Committee, Pritchart became the Republic's acting head of state, and her formal election to the Presidency eighteen months later represented the ultimate triumph of the Aprilist movement. She has worked tirelessly to find a way to end the conflict between her nation and Manticore; though she prefers to do so peacefully, if peace isn't an option she won't hesitate to use force. Very much a counterpart to Queen Elizabeth.
- A Day in the Limelight: She's the protagonist of the short story "Our Sacred Honor"note , which is about the loss of her sister and how she came to join the April Tribunal.
- Affectionate Nickname: To her friends, she's Eloise. To the man who loves her, she's simply "Ellie".
- Battle Couple: With Giscard.Tourville: Live or die, she and Giscard would fight to the last ditch together.
- Beneath the Mask: Becomes an expert at keeping her true feelings secret out of necessity.
- Birds of a Feather: In A Rising Thunder, she becomes very close with Queen Elizabeth III of Manticore.
- Character Tic: Lampshaded by Tom Theisman in Mission of Honor. She folds her hands together behind her back when she's nervous — and only when she's nervous — because she doesn't know what to do with them otherwise.
- Consummate Liar: She is such an accomplished liar that she actually managed to convince the Committee of Public Safety that she had truly renounced the Aprilist movement and was loyal only to them. In fact, she was truly loyal to the Constitution that had lain in ashes for two centuries, and used her position as a People's Commissioner to become absolutely instrumental in the Theisman coup that ended up restoring that Constitution.
- Cynicism Catalyst: The death of her sister Estelle triggered her crusade against the Legislaturists, and so she joined the Aprilist movement, beginning a crusade that would end with her as the President of the true Republic of Haven.
- Dating Catwoman: With Giscard, when she was his Political Officer.
- Eyes Never Lie: She is one of the few exceptions to this trope in the series and is able to keep up her facade as a cold, fanatical agent of State Sec without anyone ever suspecting it.
- Feed the Mole: As the head of State Sec's spies on a vessel, she's in a perfect place to do this, though she's well aware that there's always the possibility of spies she doesn't know about.
- Friends with Benefits: Back in their Aprilist days, her close friendship with Kevin Usher sometimes included sex, but never romance.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: When she's manipulated into resuming hostilities with Manticore. She's usually very reasonable, but she can be pushed too far.
- Good Is Not Soft: She is, without question, on the side of the angels — but if you do something that hurts her star nation, you will wish State Sec had got to you first.
- Guile Hero: Though she's more than capable of dealing in physical violence, she operates mostly in the political arena, especially as President. Given that the restored Republic's government is a Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering (and Manticore's is the same), she has to do a lot of political game-playing and manipulation in order to get things done, and won't hesitate to do so if it's in the best interest of her star nation and its people.
- Heartbroken Badass: Losing Javier breaks her heart, but it doesn't break her. And much to the dismay of the Mesan Alignment, the Solarian League, and the (pre-Grand Alliance) Manticoran Alliance, grief doesn't make her any less fiendishly clever a political leader.
- Her Heart Will Go On: For Javier Giscard. She never stops grieving him, but she refuses to allow her grief to break her.
- Hero Antagonist: Like Theisman, while she's one of the great heroes of Haven's story, she's an antagonist in Manticore's. Also like Theisman and a number of her compatriots, she becomes an outright protagonist after the Grand Alliance.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: How she hides her true loyalties and, later, romantic relationship with Giscard under the Committee of Public Safety's regime. She puts on a facade of being a cruel, committed, and utterly ruthless trusted agent of the Committee, when in fact she is working against them and doing her best to restore the Republic. Until the Theisman Coup, nobody but Javier Giscard and her lifelong friend Kevin Usher ever know who she truly is or where her real loyalties lie.
- Hero-Worshipper: She idolizes Michèle PéricardNote , and has since she was a child.
- Honor Before Reason: Notable for her constant aversion of this. Oh, she's all for "honor" — but "reason" has to come first. For example, in War of Honor, she mentally notes about her time in the Committee of Public Safety:Standing up defiantly for her principles would have been noble and gallant... and unforgivably stupid. It had been her responsibility to stay alive to fight for those principles, however clandestinely, and that was precisely what she and Giscard had done.
- Indifferent Beauty: Thomas Theisman even calls her the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. While she is aware that she's extraordinarily beautiful, she doesn't particularly seem to care.
- Ironic Name: Her treecat name, "Truth Seeker." It's certainly apt, but it's still amusing for the most accomplished liar in the series to get a name like that.
- Iron Lady: As the President of the Republic, she cannot show her vulnerabilities because to her people, she is the Republic, and she has to stand strong for them. Her own grief and worry are for behind closed doors and the people she trusts.
- Jeanne d'Archétype: She certainly ticks enough of the boxes here.
- She's not exceptionally young, but she is from a humble background (her family were Dolists) and, through grit, determination, and undying loyalty to the Old Republic and its Constitution, served in La Résistance, was a key part of the Theisman Coup that overthrew the Committee of Public Safety and restored said Constitution, and ultimately became the first genuinely elected President of her nation in over two centuries in a bona fide landslide election. And she was first tapped to run for the job (and head the interim government beforehand) because she was so popular with the public, who remembered her as an iconic revolutionary figure.
- While she doesn't get martyred, the love of her life (who is also her longtime lover, and was beside her all throughout that revolution) is killed in battle defending the nation their relationship was so crucial to restoring. She is heartbroken, but carries on for his sake and for her country's.
- She is said to have an unbreakable resolve and "inherent presence" that makes everyone around her somehow seem smaller than life, even if she's just been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night.
- Just to cap it off, her star nation is a direct fictional analogue of Joan's own nation of France.
- Knight in Sour Armor: "Our Sacred Honor" makes it clear that despite everything she had been through, her faith in Péricard's Republic has been with her all her life, and passages in War of Honor show that when she becomes President, it's still there.
- La Résistance: Her time with the April Tribunal qualifies for this. She belonged to the one cell of the CRU that was truly focused on getting justice, not power, and refused to hurt innocents.
- Long-Distance Relationship: With Javier after the Theisman Coup, as he's busy running around fighting a civil war (and then an interstellar war) lightyears from where her government is based in Nouveau Paris. It doesn't strain their relationship at all, except to make them miss each other desperately.
- Loved I Not Honor More: Both she and Giscard unflinchingly accept that their duty to cause and country must come first, which only serves to make the moments where they can be together all the more poignant. This is also implied to be what keeps Eloise from giving in to grief after he is killed; she has a star nation to live for, and she will do her duty not only for that star nation, but for the man who died in its service.
- Magnetic Hero: Despite her small stature, her bodyguard, Sheila Theissen, notes that she makes everyone else around her somehow seem "smaller than life" and has an ability to inspire the best in people. This is crucial to her Presidency, because she gives people faith and trust in their nation after centuries of misrule.
- The Mourning After: She hasn't shown so much as a flicker of romantic interest in anyone else since she lost Javier, turning her energies entirely to her country and later the Grand Alliance.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: Oh, she's loyal to Haven all right — the Haven that has a functioning Constitution, a representative government, and a truly elected President, that is. And oh boy, does she ever help set her star nation right.
- The Not-Love Interest: To Thomas Theisman, in the wake of Javier's death, as he becomes her closest friend, ally, and confidant — as she is to him.
- Official Couple: Her romance with Javier Giscard is one of only a handful of long-lasting, stable, and prominent romances in the entire series. Even after he dies, she doesn't show a flicker of interest in anyone else, and it's heavily implied that he is the one true love of her life.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: At 160cm (5'2") and maybe 50 kilos (110 pounds) soaking wet, she's absolutely tiny. But she's also one of the most feared assassins in the April Tribunal, and absolutely lethal in a fight, as seen in "Recruiting Exercise" and "Our Sacred Honor".
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Thomas Theisman, who has been her rock since Javier's death and her most fervent supporter — aside from Javier — since she became President, not to mention her closest confidante and right hand throughout the rebuilding of the Republic.
- The Political Officer: To Giscard, and she would very much like the Committee to go on thinking that's all she is to him.
- Pragmatic Hero: Eloise would very much like to always do the most moral thing, but she rarely does, for the simple reason that she is Haven's head of state and is thereby bound to act in its best interests no matter what.
- Promotion to Parent: She is essentially the only parent her sister Estelle ever knew, as their mother was killed when Estelle was only four. Eloise, then in her twenties, raised her sister from then on.
- Red Baron: Known as Brigade Commander Delta in her terrorist days. She was one of the most feared agents the April Tribunal had, and with good reason.
- Refuge in Audacity: She is sufficiently annoyed by Mesan scheming to turn up unannounced in Manticoran space at midnight and propose an impromptu summit conference with Queen Elizabeth, saying simply, "I think we need to talk." She ends that summit conference by proposing not just a peace settlement but a military alliance against the Solarian League and Mesa. And it worked.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: The reason she got to the position she did, both under the CPS and the Republic, was because she and her Aprilists adhered to this religiously and never threatened civilian lives. The CPS co-opted her to keep her from becoming a rival; then Tom Theisman made her President because she actually believed in the Republican ideals he fought for.
- Secret Relationship: With Javier Giscard. At first they had to keep it a secret from the Committee; later it's implied they kept it quiet after she became President so it couldn't be used against her, especially as he was still a serving naval officer engaged in active combat. Only the "inner circle" of government and the Navy knew about it. By Mission of Honor, however, it seems to have become relatively public, as Honor Harrington, Michelle Henke, and Queen Elizabeth are all said to know of it.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She falls in love with Giscard precisely because he is, to use her own words, "an outstanding man." They are both unconditionally dedicated to the true Republic of Haven, and their relationship is absolutely crucial to restoring it.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Javier Giscard. Just when it looks like they might have a chance at a happy ever after that doesn't include hiding from State Sec and/or fighting a war they don't want to fight, he is killed in the battle of Lovat. She never quite recovers.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: In public, she's cool, controlled, and sometimes even emotionless. Behind closed doors with people she actually likes, she's much warmer, and with Javier, she can be downright gooey.
- Technicolor Eyes: "Topaz" eyes.
According to Weber, they're the orange-amber of Imperial topaz.◊ - Tranquil Fury: Giancola misreads her apparent calm very badly. It doesn't end well for him — or for anyone else, including Haven.
- Unkempt Beauty: Mission of Honor explicitly points out that, even dragged out of bed after midnight in a bathrobe and nightgown, with bedhead and absolutely no makeup on, Eloise Pritchart is still the most beautiful person in any given room, and probably the city. If not the continent. Even if everyone else in said room (or city, or continent) is dressed up to the nines.
- Unstoppable Rage: She, uh... she doesn't take the death of her sister well. At all. As in, she slaughters every single member of the gang responsible. Then — because the only thing holding her back from joining the revolutionaries was fear of what might happen to her sister as a result — she tells her friend Kevin Usher (whom she knows is part of a revolutionary group) that she wants in, now. For Eloise, freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose — and with Estelle gone, she doesn't have anything to lose anymore. Kevin agrees to let her in, but only after he's sure she understands that as angry as she might be, "unstoppable rage" is not how the April Tribunal works.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: Her topaz eyes are made much of in the narration.
- When She Smiles: Giscard feels this way about her.
- Worthy Opponent: To Queen Elizabeth III, even if Her Majesty will only grudgingly admit it at first. Later, when Eloise comes to Manticore to propose the Grand Alliance, they become true friends, eventually surprising even themselves with how close their friendship becomes.
- Would Not Shoot a Civilian: The iconic trait of her April Tribunal is that they stuck to fighting the Legislaturalists and completely refused to take civilian lives.
- Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: She has "topaz" eyes, and is definitely not to be trusted — certainly not by her superiors in the Committee of Public Safety, at any rate. She's very trustworthy once the Republic is restored, but still fiendishly clever as a politician.
Secretary of State Arnold Giancola
Ruthless politician and political rival to Eloise Pritchart, though nowhere near her league either as a politician or as a human being. A former apparatchik in the People's Republic, he ran against Pritchart and came a distant second in the Presidential poll – in an attempt to build a broader coalition for her new regime she offered him the post of Secretary of State, but this didn’t stop him from plotting against her. It didn't end well for him, though the bad ending was a genuine accident.
- Idiot Ball: In War of Honor, he's utterly convinced that he can outplay everyone in manipulating the correspondence between Haven and Manticore. He's wrong.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Averted. His death really was an accident, but the previous regime's use of this trope means President Pritchart and her allies doubt anyone will believe them.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If he hadn't tried to cut a deal with the Andermani behind Pritchart's back, the Empire probably wouldn't have ended up allying with Manticore against Haven. As it was, said backroom deal combined with evidence of Pritchart's Operation Thunderbolt convinced the Andermani that Haven couldn't be trusted and that backing Manticore was still the better option.
- Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: His MO when it comes to his treasonous actions.
- Not Me This Time: When the true scope of the Mesan Alignment's manipulations are exposed, and it becomes obvious that Giancola's co-conspirator Yves Grosclaude was assassinated using the Mesan viral nanotech, everyone naturally assumes that Giancola was an Alignment mole who masterminded the whole crisis with the forged diplomatic notes to get Haven and Manticore shooting at each other again. In actuality Giancola did that out of his own ambition (and didn't intend to actually start an active war), and Mesa only stepped in after the fact to clear up some lose ends.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Practices this (or at least, obfuscating forgetfulness) to deter suspicion. It doesn't work, as they suspect him anyway.
Commander Warner Caslet
A recurring Havenite officer. In Honor Among Enemies he comes to the assistance of a beleaguered merchantman only to find that it's Honor's Q-ship and gets taken prisoner, though he eventually gets set free after they cooperate to defeat a dangerous pirate band. Eventually he gets caught up in Honor's escape from Hades and defects to Grayson, where he becomes a commanding officer in the Protector's Own.
- Bothering by the Book: In order to convince his Political Officer to go along with the plan in Honor Before Reason, he points out that their orders are very specific about the need to capture Manty merchants and that since the pirates are going to gut the Manty, the only way to follow their orders is to kill the pirates and then capture the ship themselves. The commissioner lets him.
- Enemy Mine: Twice. Once to defeat Warnecke's pirates, and a second time to survive Cordelia Ransom and Hades. The latter becomes permanent.
- The Fettered: His strong sense of honor and right and wrong are a pretty big liability to him in the People's Navy.
- Gone Horribly Right: The aforementioned events of Honor Among Enemies.
- Heel–Face Turn: Cordelia Ransom's treatment of Honor Harrington drives him over the edge, though he was never properly a heel in the first place.
- Honor Before Reason: Caslet sends his single ship into a 3:1 battle against pirates to save a Manty merchant ship, even though he's supposed to be capturing said ship and even though it's a Heroic Sacrifice at best. He knows this is unreasonable, but he, his whole crew, and even his Political Officer are proud to get the chance to do something right.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: Despite how terrible the Committee for Public Safety is, he seems himself as a son of Haven first and foremost. It takes speaking with Admiral Parnell to finally turn him.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Goes against his orders to launches what is basically a Heroic Sacrifice to save a merchant ship from pirates... and ends up being captured when it turns out that the merchantman is a Manticoran Q-Ship commanded by Honor. Even the Manticorans apologize for the unfairness of it — and then, to a man, declare that they had been squawking an Andermani code at the time, therefore ensuring that Caslet won't get in trouble.
Admiral Alfredo Yu
Originally a captain under the Legislaturists, Alfredo Yu led Operation Jericho to conquer Grayson. Following the disastrous outcome of that operation, he requested asylum in Manticore. He eventually became a Grayson citizen, joining the Grayson Space Navy and eventually becoming the commander-in-chief of the Protector's Own.
- A Father to His Men: Inspired great loyalty amongst his subordinates, even after his defection to Grayson, and did his best to get them out alive when their ship is taken over.
- Officer and a Gentleman: He does everything he can to ensure that prisoners are taken alive. After he discovers their treatment, he does what he can to (ineffectually) protect them from the Masadans' wrath.
- The Mentor: To Thomas Theisman, who still thinks of him fondly even decades later.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After Jericho falls apart due to the Masadans' incompetence and cowardice, he and Ambassador Lacey plan to salvage the operation by going around the Masadans' backs, protecting Masada from Manticoran retaliation in the process. He ends up losing his ship to a Masadan mutiny for it.
Kevin Usher
Originally one of the April Tribunal, he had a key role in the overthrow of the Legislaturalists. He then joined the People's Marines and took a posting on Old Earth ... but as a cover for his actual loyalty to the old Havenite constitution. After Saint-Just's execution and the restoration of the Republic of Haven, Pritchart named him head of the Federal Investigative Agency because she had to have someone loyal in that role.
- The Alcoholic: Pretended to be this during his time on Old Earth. He does drink, but nowhere near as much as anyone thinks.
- Boisterous Bruiser: If he likes you.
- Friends with Benefits: During their Aprilist days, occasionally had sex with Eloise Pritchart. These days, it's just plain friends.
- Genius Bruiser: It's a tossup whether he taught Victor Cachat more about spying or about culture.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Much larger than his wife Virginia.
- Obfuscating Stupidity:
- Under the CPS, pretends to be a drunkard to stay off State Sec's radar.
- After the restoration of the Republic, he's worried about Virginia's safety should another coup happen. So, he arranges for Victor and Virginia to carry on a totally fake affair and pretends to be clueless about it — should Kevin find himself up against a wall, the firing squad probably wouldn't bother with putting either Victor or Virginia next to him.
- Secret Relationship: Married Virginia on Old Earth, but kept the relationship secret to protect her.
Virginia "Ginny" Usher
"Born" in a Mesan slave breeding vat as C-17a/65-4/5, she escaped slavery at some point and hid in the poorer neighborhoods of Old Chicago. Virginia eventually met Kevin Usher there, the two fell in love and married. After their marriage, Kevin taught Ginny spycraft.
- Can't Hold Her Liquor: And freely admits it. Four undescribed cocktails at the Stein funeral leave her unable to do anything but projectile-barf on a group of Solarian diplomats.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Much smaller than her husband Kevin.
- Like Brother and Sister: With Victor Cachat.
- Rape as Backstory: Present but downplayed. The "training" of a Mesan pleasure slave consists of a constant series of rapes starting when the slave is nine years old. Ginny comments during Crown of Slaves that she doesn't actually sleep around on Kevin despite the pretense both of them maintain, due to her experiences during that time.
- Secret Relationship: Her marriage to Kevin is kept secret until the fall of the Committee of Public Safety.
- Sex Slave: What Mesa created her to be.
- Shipper on Deck: Ships Victor with Thandi Palane during Crown of Thorns.
- Undercover as Lovers: A side benefit of the "cheating on Kevin" cover story is that Victor and Virginia can be sent on missions just about anywhere with the cover story of "off to get laid".
Vice Admiral Jennifer Bellefeuille
Introduced in 'At All Costs', she managed to reduce the effectiveness of Honor's Cutworm raid on the system she was assigned to protect. She is later deployed with Admiral Tourville's fleet and becomes one of his most senior task force commanders after the Grand Alliance.
- Action Mom: During her first appearance, her family is visiting her to celebrate her youngest kid's birthday. Her family even survives the book!
- Happily Married: Has a happy and stable marriage with her husband.
- The Smart Girl: Compared to Shannon Foraker herself by Alice Truman regarding her extremely clever and creative strategic thinking.
- The Strategist: She developed an ops plan called Smoke and Mirrors. It had a bunch of units make the Manties see what they wanted to see, and she had more units in stealth. It was helped by Vice Admiral Shannon Foraker's tech developments at Bolthole. She didn't end up winning at Chantilly, but she did earn herself a reputation as one of the most respected commanders on the Havenite side from the Manticorans.
- Worthy Opponent: After Chantilly, Michelle Henke warns Honor that they had better keep an eye on Bellefeuille as she is such a formidable commander.
People's Republic of Haven & Committee of Public Safety
The People's Republic in General
- Badass Army: There are two reasons Haven has been able to very nearly keep pace with Manticore and Grayson for two decades, despite inferior technology. One is Shannon Foraker. The other is that, despite the best efforts of the Legislaturalists and later State Sec, it is badass.
- Bread and Circuses: The Legislaturalist People's Republic uses this approach to keep the masses complacent.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The People's Republic of Haven period is Revolutionary/Napoleonic France with a touch of Dirty Communists.
- Genghis Gambit: Their usual MO when popularity starts running low, and the core plot of A Short Victorious War.
- Mighty Glacier: Their navy is numerically massive, but they can't project force as well as the Manticorans, which makes them rather sluggish strategically.
- People's Republic of Tyranny: A textbook example, particularly under the Committee of Public Safety.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Both strategically (they have massive reserves but relatively poor training and technology) and in their warship design: Havenite designs emphasize sheer volume of firepower to make up for their shortcomings in other areas.
- We Have Reserves: Eventually the Peep leadership realizes that they can afford to lose entire task forces to take out a few Manticoran targets.
Rob S. Pierre
Robert Stanton Pierre used to be a Dolist manager — a politician capable of delivering the votes of millions of franchised Dolists to whatever candidate he chooses — in the People's Republic. Eventually he came to view the Republic as heading on the road to destruction unless massive reforms were made. Seeking to change the system he allied himself with the terrorist group called the Citizens' Rights Union and a senior Internal Security bureaucrat by the name of Oscar Saint-Just. Together they staged a coup and Pierre appointed himself Chairman of a Committee of Public Safety, thereby making him the de facto ruler of Haven. Faced with a costly war with Manticore, the resentment of a military that he had purged during said coup and a violent and unruly populace spurred by Cordelia Ransom's propaganda, he ended up doing nothing but implementing some long-term fiscal reforms. He was eventually killed during Admiral Esther McQueen's attempted coup.
- Big Bad (of the second set of books)
- Expy: Apart from his namesake, Pierre is the very picture of Joseph Stalin, although without the latter's paranoid streak.
- Expy Coexistence: Well, several thousand years apart, but Torch of Freedom confirms that the original Maximilien Robespierre did exist in this universe and is sufficiently well-known in the PRH that one of State Sec's (later, the People's Navy in Exile's) battlecruisers was named after him. Nobody in-universe seems to notice the similarities between them.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Arguably he meant well, but didn't see any other way in the circumstances.
- Knight Templar: Like Saint-Just, a Totalitarian Utilitarian, willing to accept evil means to bring about good goals.
- Meaningful Name: It's Horatio Hornblower in space and he's Maximilien Robespierre.
- Morality Pet: About the only thing keeping Saint-Just from coming off as a completely dispassionate sociopath is his genuine friendship with and respect for Pierre.
- Papa Wolf: Only plans a Coup after his Son is killed in one of the opening skirmishes of the Haven-Manticorian War.
- Only Sane Man: Compared to Ransom's mad-dog zealotry and Saint-Just's homicidal, self-fulfilling paranoia, he's the biggest voice of restraint on the committee and the one most likely to rule against purging another character.
- Spanner in the Works: His Coup overthrows the secret Mesan Alpha lines running the old PRH and utterly throws off all long term plans by Mesa.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: He is usually referred to as Rob S. Pierre, a none too coincidental resemblance to Maximilien Robespierre.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He actually fixed the Haven economy with his reforms and playing to the patriotism of the people during the war. Later Haven leaders acknowledge this, despite all the blood and death he caused.
Cordelia Ransom
Cordelia Ransom was originally a leading member of the terrorist group called the Citizens' Rights Union. Later she joined forces with Rob S. Pierre and Oscar Saint-Just and proceeded to overthrow Haven's Legislaturalist government. Afterwards, Pierre made her the Secretary for Public Information. This gave Ransom control of the People's Republic media and censorship apparatus. Though a skilled propagandist and an expert on managing the people's emotions, both Pierre and Saint-Just distrusted her because of her extremely radical opinions about politics and economics. Her rhetoric had a definite resemblance to hard-core Communist propaganda, and, as Admiral Thomas Theisman noted, she believed her own propaganda. She was killed onboard her personal battlecruiser during Honor Harrington's escape from Havenite custody.
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: Cordelia planned to kill Nimitz just to hurt Honor (and provoke her companions).
- Ax-Crazy: This becomes evident a few paragraphs after she is introduced.
- Believing Their Own Lies: One would assume that the person who runs the Propaganda Machine also knows that it is propaganda. Not Ransom. It takes only one private conversation for Theisman to realize, to his horror, that Ransom herself has been Drinking the Kool-Aid.
- Blood Knight: It is pretty obvious that Cordelia Ransom enjoys her job, which often includes destroying people, way too much.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: After spending the good part of In Enemy Hands generally becoming more and more of a blood thirsty bitch, she's killed 'off screen' along with the crew of PNS Tepes without any kind of vilifying last scene of panic stricken/rage driven horror during the Manticorian escape attempt.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Theisman thinks she literally could not understand Tourville's attempt to do the decent thing for Honor's people as anything other than a disloyal bid for power against the State.
- This is also what ends up getting her killed in In Enemy Hands: she believes Harkness' talk about wanting to defect well enough that she never considered that he was actually planning to break his friends and companions out - a process that ended up causing the destruction of PNS Tepes with her inside.
- Evil Is Hammy: Her love of public theater is why she handles propaganda for the Peeps.
- Expecting Someone Taller: Theisman thinks this of her when they first meet. Because, as propaganda minister, she orders the camera people to always shoot her so that she appears taller than she is.
- Expy: She bears a remarkable resemblance-in opinions and actions if not in gender-to Jean-Paul Marat, an important figure in the French Revolution. Or to Leon Trotsky, whom she resembles even more, and if Chief Harkness hadn't seen to it earlier, would inevitably face the same end, as both Pierre and Saint-Just were starting to find her dangerous.
- For the Evulz: Even her allies notice that she enjoys the act of tearing things down far more than building something to replace them.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: She started as a Dolist, became a terrorist, and then the most monstrous and scary member of a three-headed dictatorship.
- Hypocrite: Ransom uses an obscure clause of the Deneb Accords to strip Harrington of her protections as a military prisoner by virtue of the fact that she had been sentenced to death in absentia years ago for destroying Sirius at Basilisk. The thing is, Ransom never wanted to conform to the Deneb Accords because it was signed by the decadent Legislaturists of the old regime. She had to be convinced on the basis of practicality. But Honor was also tried by the Legislaturists, in what was very clearly an ass-covering move to avoid admitting that they were caught committing an act of war, yet Ransom has no issues at all using that heretical document when it lets her contrive an excuse to execute Harrington.
- Icy Blue Eyes: When she's not filed with fanatical fervor, her eyes are consistently this.
- Karmic Death: Ransom is ignominiously killed with the rest of PNS Tepes's crew by the very prisoners they abused.
- Knight Templar: Of The Fundamentalist, Principles Zealot variety.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Not only is "Ransom" a pretty bad name, but her personal transport is the PNS Tepes, named after the infamously brutal Romanian Prince and inspiration for Dracula and crewed entirely by State Sec goons, with extra brig space and extra space for landing assault troopers.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Her 'cat-kicking behavior in In Enemy Hands is the last straw for half a dozen major Havenite naval officers and their political watchdogs, who begin conspiring to take down the CPS. They succeed.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Oscar Saint-Just's blue.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Unlike Pritchart's Aprilists, Ransom's faction of the CRU eagerly hit civilian targets, and she became the major force behind inciting the bloodlust of the Mob after the CPS took power. (And was responsible for purging most of the other Aprilists for insufficient revolutionary ardor.)
Oscar Saint-Just
A senior bureaucrat in the pre-Revolution Legislaturalists' Government Internal Security department, Saint-Just sided with Pierre and Ransom in their coup that overthrew it, and later seen to the amalgamation of all Haven's security services into one unified organization, State Security, which gave us the name for the State Sec trope. Competent and responsible, but ruthless to the point of viciousness, and, as the events progressed, increasingly paranoid, Saint-Just was arguably the most dangerous among the trio of the Committee of Public Safety's senior members. When Ransom and Pierre's deaths left him in charge of Haven, he instituted increasingly broad and brutal purges, until overthrown and personally shot by Thomas Theisman, whom he personally deemed harmless and non-ambitious before. This again proved him to be a lousy judge of character, as one of his genuinely (if unwittingly) good deeds was the promotion of Victor Cachat (Saint-Just was personally fond of young Cachat, whom he had seen as his perfect tool), who, ironically, was one of the major players in the plot that overthrew the Committee.
- Big Bad: Almost rose to the post, but didn't quite reach it.
- Blue Oni, Red Oni: Blue to Cordelia Ransom's Red. On the issue of McQueen, red to Rob S. Pierre's blue.
- The Chessmaster: The best one among the three, as evidenced by having the longest lifespan.
- Chessmaster Sidekick: He's the technician who implements Pierre's decisions. He's really better in that position; when he gets the big chair for himself, things go straight to hell.
- Expecting Someone Taller: Complete with callback to the last time Theisman thought it."Funny. I was surprised Ransom was so much shorter than her HD imagery, and her Saint-Just is, almost as short as she was. Is there some sort of overcompensation for small size going on here?"
- Expy: Is the namesake of Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, a historical figure from the French Revolution and close confidante of Rob S. Pierre's namesake, Maximilien Robespierre.
- Also closely resembles some depictions of Lavrenti Beria, Stalin's security chief, and his dynamics with Pierre closely matched respective Stalin-Beria relationship, although in this case it was the Saint-Just who was the paranoid one. Another difference was that Beria stopped the purges that were getting out of hand, not started them as Saint-Just did.
- Manipulative Bastard: See The Chessmaster above.
- Oh, Crap!: His reaction when the fecal matter collided with the rotary air displacer due to Admiral Theisman's involvement.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: a quick look at any history book will provide you with the name of Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just, known more commonly as Saint-Just (a misnomer if there ever was one). An ally of Robespierre, he served with him on the Committee of Public Safety, becoming heavily involved in the Reign of Terror.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He acted for exactly the same reasons Pierre did, and he really had every reason to purge the military after the attempted coup.
- Knight Templar: A Totalitarian Utilitarian with flawed means.
Citizen Admiral Esther McQueen
A Havenite commander who rises to prominence using a 'whiff of grapeshot' to put down a revolt even more destructive than the Committee of Public Safety. Nicknamed Citizen Admiral Cluster Bomb.
- The Chessmaster: Manages to set up three independent, cell-structured conspiracies in preparation of a coup. The one she tapped to stop the Levellers, the one she tried for real with, and the one Theisman later tapped to finish the job.
- Doorstopper: Most of her subplot was cut out of Ashes of Victory to stop it from turning into one of these (not that it helped much). It later saw light as a standalone novella, titled "Nightfall" and published in the Changer of Worlds anthology.
- Expy: It's Horatio Hornblower IN SPACE!, so you obviously need a Napoleon Expy. For an added twist, she failed.
- Godzilla Threshold: During the Leveller revolt, she was the only officer to take action to save the committee after the rebels took out State Sec and used nukes within Noveau Paris. Her response? Orbital kinetic strikes and cluster bombing a mob, resulting in millions of casualties — for which she's largely seen as a hero by the people, despite her new nickname.
- Magnetic Hero: She's definitely not a hero, but Pierre and Saint-Just could only marvel at her ability to inspire people to follow her. This is why her conspiracy very nearly worked — and, in fact, what remained of it after her death is what enabled Tom Theisman to finish the job.
- Nom de Guerre: "Admiral Clusterbomb", after her method of stopping the Levelers from overthrowing the committee.
- Off the Rails: Her death is a sign the plot just stopped being Horatio Hornblower IN SPACE!.
- Properly Paranoid: McQueen's Political Officer, Erasmus Fontein, was specifically picked because he was good at the Obfuscating Stupidity needed to lower her guard. It works to the extent that she's fooled into thinking he's an idiot, but she still manages to treat him seriously enough to sneak conspiracies completely under his nose.
- Red Herring: Up until her death, people thought they knew where the plot was going...
- The Starscream: McQueen is well-known for her ambition. Ironically, she gets put in a position to do something with it because she didn't take an earlier opportunity during the Leveller revolt to finish what the rebels started.
