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     Basilard Bladi 
Basilard Bladi is a Squad Five senior and the chief of the Bladi Clan. He is also both Eric's apprentice mentor and immediate superior in Team 4.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: He is The Leader of Team Four and as such he is more powerful in every aspect than all of his novices put together.
  • Blood Magic: Members of the Bladi clan have a unique branch of magic that uses their blood as its catalyst.
  • Cannot Talk to Women: He has a history flubbing his attempts at charming women, which is especially distressing for him considering that his personal dream is for his first born child to inherit his Ancestral Weapon. In Looming Shadow, he needed his teenaged novice to explain how he upset his latest ladylove.
  • Dope Slap: A quick smack to the back of the head is how Basilard Bladi shows his disaproval of whatever his novice mercenaries have just done.
  • Fetish: His novices wring a lot of amusement over the fact that "pink hair makes you hot".
  • Full-Name Ultimatum: He uses the full names of his novices when they are being especially obstinate. For instance, when Eric is letting his hatred of Dengel get out of control, Basilard bellows "Novice Eric Watley!"
  • The Leader: Both the sergenant and mentor for Dragon's Lair Team Four. He stays calm even when a pack of Xethras are attacking.
  • Master of Illusion: Downplayed because of his speciality. Despite being a top-tier mage and knowing several illusion spells his skill with them is poor because they're not his speciality. This is why he usually forgoes them in favor of straight up combat.
  • Mentor Archetype: His job is to teach Eric, Tiza, and Nolien how to be proper mercenaries and develop their respective skills.
  • Mercy Kill: He is willing to Shoot the Dog if it has rabies.
    • When Zettai was dying from Bladi Poisoning, he was going to cure her and then let her die. Tasio twists his arm into truly saving her.
    • When Eric mana mutated, he was explicitly going to "put him down". Kallen intervened and said she could reverse his mutation.
  • My Greatest Failure: The death of his first three students has haunted him for years and defined him as a person ever since.
  • My Greatest Second Chance: His second team of novices are a chance for him to move past his first team. He is extremely protective of them.
  • Pals with Jesus: Basilard is a drinking buddy to Death, as in, the Anthropomorphic Personification thereof.
  • Papa Wolf: He looks after his novices as surrogate kids. Threatening his blood daughter, Zettai, makes him get scary.
  • Parents as People: Basilard tries to be a good father for Zettai but the fact that he became her father because a tricksterGod Taiso twisted his arm into committing sacrilege to his clan's religion makes it difficult for him to accept her.
  • Red Mage: He is skilled in many forms of magic from standard Black Magic to White Magic to his clan's unique Blood Magic, but his illusion magic is as bad as a novice mage. He's about twenty years older than his students, so he's had time to study, and it's all basically Rule Magic anyways.
  • Scars are Forever:
    • His hands are covered in tiny beak scars from a typical novice mission; scoop poop out of a bird monster's nest.
    • His right palm has a long scar from grabbing BloodDrinker by the blade, before it was his own sword.
  • To Be Lawful or Good: "....Bladi Conversion was a forbidden art and now he had to choose between a lawful killing and a benevolent rescue."
  • That Thing Is Not My Child!: He's technically Zettai's biological father because a blood transfusion was the only way to save her from Mr.15's experiment; his Bladi blood replaced her human blood. Despite this, he insists that he is her "legal guardian", not her "father" and refers to her as an abomination because Bladi Conversion is a forbidden art. This lasts until Transcending Limitations, where he says that she is definitely his daughter.
  • The Kid with the Leash: The adult in this case and the leash is on BloodDrinker. The only thing stopping this Evil Weapon from eating everyone in sight is Basilard's will.
  • Truly Single Parent: Bladi Conversion is a downplayed trope. While the person-to-be-converted is conceived and born in the standard fashion, the Bladi who converts them does so by replacing their parent's genetic information with their own. Biologically speaking, the convertor becomes their only parent. Basilard becomes Zettai's third biological father in this fashion, after expelling the blood of his Evil Uncle, who had expelled the blood of Zettai's original father, in his turn. This leads to a lot of expectations neither is prepared for.

     Blood Drinker 
A family heirloom of the Bladi Clan, BloodDrinker is both a sword and symbol of office. Its wielder is Basilard Bladi.
  • Evil Weapon: It wants to kill and eat everyone it can, even the family and friends of its wielder.
  • Intelligible Unintelligible: It speaks in humming and flashes of light that Basilard can interpert as words.
  • I Want Grand Kids: It convinced Basilard to accept Zettai as his daughter because otherwise the guy will never give them grandchildren.
  • Hungry Weapon: It literally drinks blood. Basilard can stab someone with it and turn them into a withered and dry husk. Its favorite meals are elves and members of the Bladi clan.
  • Living Weapon: This sword is technically the oldest living member of the Bladi Clan. It can communicate its feelings and desires to its wielder, as well as act on its own. It also eats just the same as the other Bladi.
  • Mind Hive: During Looming Shadow, Basilard looks into its surface and sees countless Bladi chiefs staring back at him; the souls of the sword's previous wielders.
  • Named Weapons: The sword used by Basilard Bladi is called "BloodDrinker" because it is a special sword that marks the leader of the Bladi Clan. It's also a Living Weapon, and so it has a proper name like everyone else.

     Eric Watley 
Born and raised on Threa, Eric is known as an "otherworlder". After Tasio drops him on Tariatla, he joins the Dragon's Lair as a battle mage and is assigned to the new Team 4.
  • Always Second Best: After his Rage Against the Mentor, Eric consistently tries to prove himself to be better than Dengel in some way: a better mage, a better mercenary, a better chaosist, etc. but falls short each time until the end of book 3 where he performs a spell that killed Dengel. Then Kallen says that he couldn't have done it without her.
  • The Apprentice: Eric is Basilard's apprentice until he proves that he can handle himself in a fight. He's technically a novice for the rest of the book but he's still learning magic from Basilard (and Dengel).
  • Badass Bookworm: He was selected for the Mage Squad because he was scrawny but had the capacity to learn magic.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Eric thinks of his teammates and Kasile as his younger siblings and is thusly protective of them. This is especially the case with Kasile because she is a queen and a target for Evil Princes. You don't want to get between an angry grendel and his siblings.
  • Bookworm: After arriving in Roalt, Eric spent nine days in the public library. Because of its cafe, he didn't have to leave once in that time.
  • Casting a Shadow: While Eric can use all the elements for spells, he finds in himself an affinity for darkness. This is because he's favored by Dakol, the Avatar of Darkness.
  • Classical Antihero: He freezes whether confronting monsters or his crush. When things go wrong, he blames himself. Tasio thinks it's tons of fun to guide him into a mercenary guild. Over the course of the first book, he shifts into a Pragmatic Antihero.
  • Combat Pragmatist: He will take every advantage given to him, no matter how sneaky or underhanded. If you call him a "cheater" he will respond with "mercenary".
  • The Confidant: Eric is the only person with whom Kasile feels comfortable venting about The Chains of Command. Part of this is because she can't hide anything from him anyway (due to being Mind Link Mates) and part is because he has absolutely no interest in her queenly title or her court and is thus impartial, and except for their friendship, unconnected.
  • David Versus Goliath: Eric often phrases his battles in terms of himself being small and his foe being large. For instance, when he triumphs over a certain orc his victory thought is "And the wasp defeats the lion!" This also happens when fighting mages with greater experience, raw power, or knowledge (which is most of them).
  • Declaration of Protection: Eric vowed to protect his love interest, Annala, and while she initially needed it, he maintains this vow even after she becomes an Action Girl archer and develops offensive holy magic. It comes in handy as an Intrinsic Vow.
  • Enemy Within: After mana mutating into a monster, he hears the monster's voice in his head, urging him to kill and eat every human he sees. He talks about its madness influencing his behavior to the point where he acts without thinking. Eventually, he realizes that the mutation itself did not create a "monster side". All it did was loosen his natural inhibitions. He himself created the "monster side" subconsciously to distance himself from the event and deny the changes.
  • Enlightenment Superpower: A vision quest inside Dengel's Cehian Lair grants him great wisdom and understanding about the immediate underlayer of reality and the true nature of magic.
  • Flight, Strength, Heart: The Enlightenment Superpower that Eric acquires in Ceiha grants him increased spiritual power, vast stores of magical knowledge, and effortless fluency in a dead language. He uses the last one for "outrageously unfair translation fees".
  • Heroic Host: Around midway through A Mage's Power, Eric is given the spirit of Dengel, a legendary mage. He has access to all of Dengel's knowledge which then gives him a leg up on older mages. However, he does not have Dengel's spiritual might and so he has to make up the difference with guile.
  • Heroes Fight Barehanded: He zigzags this trope depending on whether or not he is in grendel form. In the first form, he will fight with his Magic Staff. In his second, he will fight with his fists because they are bigger, stronger, and coated in a metallic hide. The others on his team always use hand-held weapons.
  • Intangibility: Eric gains selective intangibility as an Enlightenment Superpower. By understanding how all of reality is fundamentally mana, he can revert selective areas of matter temporarily or permanently back into mana. This enables him to walk through walls (because they are thin and transparent mana), walk on air (because he is mana) and either avoid or absorb magical attacks (because all magic, by definition, uses mana). The limitations are anything with a soul or anything connected to someone's soul, because that soul instinctively resists. This ability comes packaged with the Required Secondary Powers because it requires more than simply acknowledging the fact that all of reality is mana, so it avoids the problems mentioned in the trope's description.
  • Invisible Jerkass: Invisibility spells make Eric more comfortable with expressing his inner trickster. Even if someone realized an invisible person was present, they would instead blame Tasio.
  • Magic Eye: His Evil Eye technique manifests as intense fear and hatred. Starting with Looming Shadow, it has a darkness side effect.
  • Magicians Are Wizards: He picked up sleight-of-hand tricks before he learned Functional Magic. Afterwards, he added the two together to create new tricks.
  • Magic Staff: His first hand-held weapon is a bo staff enchanted to boost and focus his magical abilities. Starting with Looming Shadow, it becomes a Magic Spear.
  • Make Them Rot: During Looming Shadow, Eric steals Reno Grade's Senescence necra podesta and thereby gains the power to decay physical objects.
  • Naïve Newcomer:
    • In A Mage's Power, Eric is new to the world of the Tariatla and to the Dragon's Lair Mercenary Company. The first couple chapters are about him learning about both of them, training for his new position as a battle mage, and spending nine days in a library. Then it's out into the wilderness to fight monsters....
    • In Looming Shadow he rejoices over the fact that he is no longer the "new kid".
  • NayTheist: He fully acknowledges the existence of gods since Tasio, the king of the trickster gods, literally hovers over him. This is why he doesn't like Tasio or his divine siblings. Their hovering often causes trouble for him.
  • Nice Guy: Eric acts nice to everyone because he doesn't want to provoke conflict. In the first book it's because he's a doormat, and afterward because it's a hassle.
  • "No More Holding Back" Speech: For all of A Mage's Power, Eric lacked confidence in his own abilities and leaned heavily on the spirit of Dengel as a Heroic Host. When they have a falling out, Eric musters the courage to confront him, and once he is victorious, he announces that he doesn't need Dengel anymore. He will face the future on his own strength alone.
  • Occult Blue Eyes: In the first book of the series, Tasio the Trickster expresses interest in changing Eric's eyes from the Innocent variety to one of these. Sure enough, Eric has developed the "Evil Eye" technique and made great strides in learning magecraft.
  • Older Than He Looks: Mentally, he's a man in his twenties but the journey through the veins of Noitearc deaged him so he looks closer to fifteen.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Dengel literally wrote the book on magecraft and so modern mages like Eric find it hard to stand out in comparison. Eric's character arc in Looming Shadow has him grappling with this and trying to prove himself better.
  • Pals with Jesus: In this case, "bestest friends with Tasio", a chaotic deity.
  • Pick a Card: Card-picking is one of the magician tricks Eric learned on Threa. The people of Tariatla find it impressive because he convinces them he's using telepathy, which is much rarer than Functional Magic.
  • Pragmatic Antihero: By the start of Looming Shadow he is fully willing to use any means at his disposal to win a battle. He'd also rather avoid battles unless there's profit involved or It's Personal.
  • Secular Hero: His only interest in the many religions of the world he inhabits is academic.
  • Shrinking Violet: Eric is a quiet and timid soul. He moves through an office without anyone noticing him and has difficulty making friends even when they share interests.
  • Summon Everyman Hero: Eric was not summoned to the magical world of Tariatla to be a hero. Tasio regularly pulls people from other worlds and drops them there because it amuses him. Eric becomes a novice battle mage for a mercenary company during peace time.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Compare Eric at the start the series, where he freezes in front of monsters, to Eric at the middle of A Mage's Power, where he kills one by himself. This is all before he's tutored by Dengel, which accelerates his magical education.
  • The Watson: Eric starts off as this trope, asking questions to inform the reader because he's new to the world of Tariatla. Then he spends nine days in a library and doesn't have to after that. At that point, he will recall stuff he'd learned at times where he would otherwise ask.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Despite working with (and for), Action Girls, Eric has trouble attacking one during the New Scepter Competition's tournament. He overcomes this inhibition when she throws a lightning spell at him.

     Tiza Sprial 
Tiza joined the Dragon's Lair by happencestance; she tried to pick the pocket of a guild lieutenant. While treating her unrelated injuries, he convinced her to make an honest living in the guild. She is the fighter of Team Four.
  • Action Girl: She is a mercenary, and moreover, she is the tank of Team Four.
  • Acquired Poison Immunity: Tiza states that her apprentice training included small dosses of different poisons to develop an immunity. She refuses to say which ones because it is a secret but one of them comes in handy when a trio of zombies try to kidnap her using chloroform.
  • All Women Love Shoes: Tiza owns many more pairs of shoes than she truly needs. She insists they all have practical, mercenary, purposes. Kasile turns her from hostile to friendly by complimenting her shoes.
  • Amnesiac Hero: She has no knowledge of her past or her name. She just started picking pockets to feed herself. At the start of the story, she joins the same mercenary team as Eric Watley where her unusual Third Eye skill comes in handy.
  • The Apprentice: She studied under Sathel Aranid to be a fighter and continues to do so even after Basilard becomes her sergeant.
  • The Big Girl: As the team's fighter, her role is to tank the enemies. She wears the heaviest armor to absorb damage in place of the mages and fights up front with sword and shield. Her teammates support her with healing, buffs, and coverfire.
  • Blood Knight: She looks forward to fighting monsters on missions.
    A mercenary's life for me!
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Videlic Mens greatly amplifies the might of warriors and mages but overuse of it can kill them or drive them insane. This is why Tiza has to obey a number of rules set by her mentor when using it. They boil down to "Don't use it unless you've passed the Godzilla Threshold".
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Like the general shonen archetype she's based on, Tiza has befriended those she defeated in a duel. During Mana Mutation Menace she gets into a tousle with Hailey Heleti over Nolien's mana mutation. Afterward they are inseparable and switch from blaming each other to consoling each other note .
  • Draw Aggro: this tactic is part of the Triple Orbit Layers strategy used by adventurers. When confronting a large fire monster, Tiza screams at it, waves her water-attribute weapon and inflicts minor damage to keep the monster's attention.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Tiza's apprentice mentor, Sathel, calls her "cocoon" because she is not a full fledged mercenary. This never fails to provoke a blush and a protest from her.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: By the start of Looming Shadow she's learned the Third Eye technique, which is a form of Aura Vision. She's also learned to invoke Videlic Mens at will. She's still the only non-mage of the team, but she has a couple supernatural abilities of her own.
  • Glory Seeker: She's working towards a reputation and lifestyle focused on the fame she will receive for defeating dreaded monsters and escorting V.I.P.s. Thus, she can't stand the grunt work novices typically get.
  • Girliness Upgrade: Tiza begins the story as a rough, crass and prickly tomboy. By the second story, she's grown her hair out to her shoulders and wears ear rings (she insists both are practical to her mercenary job). In the third story, Kallen suggests that she has become a Proper Lady due to spending a couple weeks with the Noble Heleti Family. Eric thinks that's impossible. Thus, she wagers ten Ataidar gold coins that Tiza will wear a dress to the second Mana Mutation Summit. She arrives in a skirt over pants. Kallen's response? "A small dress is still a dress; five gold".
  • Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: When Tiza spots a resident of Ceiha's special administrative district (a mutated and colorful centaur), she laughs while rudely pointing at him. Her team dope slaps her and apologizes to the centaur, saying that she wasn't hired for her politeness.
  • Hates Being Called Cute: Nolien quickly learns that if he wants to compliment Tiza, he must focus on her combat abilities, because calling her "lovely" or "pretty" etc. makes her angry instead. During a mission in Najica, this trope caused an incident that never of them wants to talk about.
  • Hates Wearing Dresses: Tiza makes a fuss whenever her team is hired as sewing dummies, ostensibly because they are mercenaries but also because she's a tomboy. It's actually rooted in a traumatic brainwashing incident in her backstory.
  • Horseback Heroism: After Nolien mana mutates into a unicorn, Tiza rides into battle like a mounted knight.
  • Hot-Blooded: Tiza runs gunho towards monsters. The greater the danger, the more excited she is.
  • Insult of Endearment: Tiza gives nicknames to everyone but she's unfriendly to everyone the first time they met. For example, she calls her teammates Eric and Nolien "Dimwit" and "Tenderfoot", respectively, because she considers them stupid and squemish. After they become Fire-Forged Friends, the nicknames become endearing.
  • Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Due to circumstances in Looming Shadow, she has to march into a Chaotic Zone and rescue her teammate while wearing a silk dress and its accessories.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Tiza would have been this if Sathel hadn't drilled it out of her. She loves rushing into danger and sometimes forgets that she's part of a team. Thanks to her apprentice mentor, she always has some rudimentary plan and will drag at least one of her teammates by the hair into trouble.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Tiza carries a shield as part of her role as Team Four's tank. It helps her soak up damage while remaining in good health. Technically, she uses a targe, which is worn on the arm and can move to protect the head down to the legs. Monsters break her first one.
  • Nice Girl: Ax Arsenal calls Tiza a "Nice girl whose a little rough around the edges". Then a teenager in his workroom chimes up and says "and everywhere else".
  • The Nicknamer: She gives everyone nicknames. Eric is "Dimwit", Nolien is "Tenderfoot", Basilard is "Bloody Daylra", Sathel is "Spider Daylra", Retina is "Daylra's Dear", Kasile is "Queen Tent Burner", Annala is "Big Mouth", Anuzat is "Cranky Client", Motsuc is "Stuff Maker", Haburt is "Professor Pathetic", Neuro is "Ivory", Dengel is "Old Fossil", Zettai is "Fangirl Damsel", Renograde is "Rent-A-Spade", and Dosh is "Brat Brother".
  • "No More Holding Back" Speech: Tiza has suffered amensia for years before the series began. It causes her confusion about her past and identity. Then she meets Haburt, who she's subconsciously terrified of but she refuses to admit to it. When he makes his move and recreates a crucial momment from her past, she admits to this fear and steps forward confidently to overcome it. Then he sheds light on her past and tells her the identity of her parents.
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Tiza and Nolien contrast each other in this way. Tiza is a high energy Glory Seeker that loves jumping into danger, and the more the better! Nolien is cautious and more rational and gets metaphorically or literally dragged into Tiza's danger while snarking at her.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: When she bothers to look after her appearance, she makes a pretty girl. The first instance was in A Mage's Power where she had to wear special clothes for a formal duel and the second was when she found a dress in Dengel's Cehian Lair. Nolien would remark on her beauty on these occasions but knows she doesn't appreciate such compliments.
  • Slipped the Ropes: Rope escape is part of her Squad Four cross-training. It comes in handy in Mana Mutation Menace when Dosh Heleti tries to kidnap her. She escapes the handcuffs he uses, magic eyes him into paralysis and then uses the cuffs on him instead.
  • Trauma Button: Tiza responds badly to anything that reminds her of the incident where she was kidnapped from her parents and lost her memory. These include someone trying to make her drink a potion, someone casting a certain spell or a specific way of phrasing a demand. The reactions can be anything from paralyzing fear to violent anger to panic.
  • Tsundere: Tiza has become this by the time of Looming Shadow. While generally a prickly sourpuss she's softer around her love interest, Nolien. She also calls him "Tenderfoot" as an Insult of Endearment and punches his arm when he makes her worry.
  • Tomboy: Tiza has crude manners, loves fighting, and detests domestic jobs. She can't stand being called a lady. Eric believes she's invoking this trope because it's so exaggerated.
  • Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Despite her tomboy nature, she likes wearing jewelry, so long as it was made from a monster that she killed herself.
  • Underestimating Badassery: Lots of enemies think she's an easy target because she's not a mage. They typically end up Bound and Gagged and humiliated.
  • Unwillingly Girly Tomboy: Tiza much prefers wearing pants to "tents" and would rather attend a monster hunt then a formal ball, and has a severe reaction to being forced to do the latter. In the first book, she grumpily tries on dresses for seamstresses and does housework for other clients. It becomes more of a problem in later books because her not-boyfriend comes from a Blue Blood family.
  • Violently Protective Girlfriend: Several people comment on how quick Tiza is to jump to Nolien's defense, be it combat or a more social situation. Her response is always something like, "I don't like him! I'm just doing my job!" until she officially becomes his girlfriend.
  • You Go, Girl!: Tiza thinks she has something to prove because she's in a mercenary guild. To this end she makes everything into a competition and doesn't like Nolien taking a leadership role among the three novices. This confuses her teammates because they don't think she has to prove anything. Two of the five guild captains are female, the other three captains have female lieutenants and the overall guildhead is female as well.

     Nolien Heleti 
Nolien is a boy from the Heleti District who insists that he is not part of the Noble Heleti family. He claims that he joined the Dragon's Lair to be able to help more people than he could at the Heleti General Hospital. He is the healer of Team Four.
  • The Apprentice: His studies as a mercenary mage were under Tsilaer but his original healer skills were learned...somewhere he refuses to name. note 
  • Blatant Lies: Everyime he says, "I'm not part of the Heleti family" he's wearing the medalion that is given to the heir of the Heleti family.
  • Badass Bookworm: He is a mercenary mage who spends most of his time studying and playing chess.
  • Blue Blood: As the heir to the Noble Heleti family, one of the Four Pillars of Ataidar, his blood is very blue indeed. He turns up his nose at the bad table manners in the guild mess hall and is the only one following a chivalric code instead of one more grungy and mercenary.
  • Butt-Monkey: During A Mage's Power, a bird will poop on him in every chapter he appears in, and this is only one of the humorous indignities that he suffers.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: When Tiza admires Neuro, the Church Militant, Nolien becomes uncharacteristically rude and suspicious. Tiza tries to nip this in the bud by pecking Nolien's check but his envy continues to grow as Neuro continues to upstage him.
  • Has a Type: Dosh says that both his older brother and his father have a "weakness for tsundere". Nolien is kinda-sorta in a relationship with Tiza so he can't argue the point.
  • The Idealist: Nolien states that he joined the Dragon's Lair to help people, and Basilard calls him this in response.
  • I Have Brothers: Nolien explains that his ability to give fashionable haircuts comes from his younger sister. She found it more convenient to burst into his room than make an appointment at a salon.
  • The Medic: His job description is basically "keep everyone alive". To accomplish this, he has White Magic.
  • Nice Guy: He does his best to be a gentleman, but he's also kinda snobby.
  • Old-School Chivalry: His manners and value system are classic gentleman and because of this he fits in better with traditional nobles than the modern mercenaries he works with. Tiza, the usual target of his courtesy, finds it stiffling.
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Tiza and Nolien contrast each other in this way. Tiza is a high energy Glory Seeker that loves jumping into danger, and the more the better! Nolien is cautious and more rational and gets metaphorically or literally dragged into Tiza's danger while snarking at her.
  • The Smart Guy: He is the brains of the Team Four novices because he is The Medic in a verse where Healing Magic Is the Hardest and also their tactian when Basilard isn't around.
  • Unicorn: Unicorns are revered by medical mages like Nolien because they are natural healers. Their horns, for instance, could purify tainted water. In Mana Mutation Menace, he mutates into a brand new breed of unicorn. It is one that has bird-like talons in addition to hooves, a single useless wing, and patches of scales. Given that he becomes a monster unicorn, he is not gentle, unless he is around Tiza.
  • Wouldn't Hit a Girl: He was raised in a chivarlic fashion that demands he treat every girl he meets as if she were a noble lady. Both Tsilaer and Basilard struggle to remove this tendency.

     Mia Bladi 
Mia is the receptionist for the Dragon's Lair and can always be found in the guild's lobby. She is Basilard's niece and Raki's younger sister.

  • Almighty Janitor: Mia's position within the Dragon's Lair is "Receptionist" and all the guild's requests are made to her personally. Thus, she's the one who gives the mercenaries their missions. Not only can she make their lives unpleasant but she also effectively has a lock on their income.
  • Blood Magic: Members of the Bladi clan have a unique branch of magic that uses their blood as its catalyst.
  • Cuddle Bug: If Mia thinks you need a hug, she will jump over her desk and hug you.
  • The Cutie: A pretty and sunny girl who likes giving hugs. She's chiper first thing in the morning, when Eric and Nolien are groggy.
  • Don't Make Me Destroy You: When royal guards came to arrest her on false charge of sedition, she warned them not to make her leave the guild lobby. Her hammerspace ate them.
  • Girlish Pigtails: Mia wears her hair in two long tails for the cuteness.
  • Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She sleeps with a teddy bear.
  • Hammerspace: She has an explict ability to store things in a pocket dimension that she can access from thin air. One of her hobbies is finding inventive ways to play around with it.
  • Minored in Ass-Kicking: Unlike others in the guild, her job is purely clerical but she can still subdue thugs with ease.
  • Power Incontinence: The magic involved with her hammerspace is too great for her to control and so she needs the guild lobby to serve as her power limiter.
  • Power Limiter: The entire guild lobby was outfitted with runes that suppress her hammerspace ability so she can control it.
  • Valley Girl: Parodied by Mia when Tiza calls her a "smiling pink haired ditz". She affects the accent while threatening to give Tiza a mission that she knows Tiza will hate. Tiza immediately recants.

     Raki Bladi 
Raki is a regular in Squad One. She is Basilard's niece and Mia's older siser.

  • Fiery Red Head: A rude and aggressive dual wielder with hair the color of blood.
  • Dual Wielding: Raki dual wields short swords. She regularly duels with Aegis who dual wields buckler shields.

     Old Man Aaloon 
Aaloon is the guild's archivist and the one who assigns new members into one of the five squads.
  • Grumpy Old Man: Old Man Aaloon is a three thousand year old man who lives in the Dragon's Lair headquarters. He considers his fellows in the guild to be "strays" and "thieves" that need to stay away from his home (the guild's archives) and keep their hands off his scrolls. When Eric wanders in, Aaloon beats him with his Magic Staff until he runs out.
  • The Older Immortal: There are a number of immortals living on Tariatla, but he's older than all of them (save maybe a handful of elves). He's even older than the physical gods that run the planet (by a good thousand years).
  • Old Master: He is over three thousand years old and he "beat manners" into the Number Two mercenary of the Dragon's Lair.
  • Miniature Senior Citizen: As a three thousand year old mage, he's shrunk enough to pogo on his Magic Staff.
  • Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: He has no qualms being a mean cuss to anyone and everyone younger than him (i.e. everyone in the world).

     Culmus Stratos 
Culmus is a regular in Squad One.
  • BFS: Culmus carries around a metal sword that's as tall as he is, and just as wide. It was designed to kill orcs, who have infamously tough skin and thick muscles. He also insists that carrying it is weight training and that its great length allows him to add more magic enchancement runes than a smaller sword would allow.
  • Compensating for Something: Because he carries around a BFS, he is subject to many of these jokes.

     Laharg and Malize 
An orc and a fairy that work together; they are Squad One and Squad Three Seniors, respectively.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Laharg the orc is taller and broader than any human. His mercenary partner, Malize, is a fairy and so she's small enough to ride on his head.

     Ginger Hasina 
The Captain of Squad Four, Hasina is both a brilliant healer and a nutty one.
  • For Science!: She wants to cut Eric open, because he's an otherworlder and she wants to study him. She finds comparing otherworlder humans and local humans to be a fascinating area of study. Her other experiments are more about solving a puzzle (i.e. curing a disease) and giving the solution to everyone.
  • Honorary Aunt: Annala calls her "Auntie H" because Hasina and her mother have worked closely together for longer than she's been alive. This means Hasina goes Mama Bear for the girl whenever her actual mother (and her best friend) is not present.
  • Mad Scientist: Perpetually experimenting on people to test homemade cures, and when she learns Eric is an otherworlder, she becomes obbessed with cutting him open For Science! Because these cures have innocuous side effects, and her Morality Chain prevents her from dissecting Eric, she's played for Comedic Sociopathy.
  • Professor Guinea Pig: One of her experimental remedies was an anthrax vaccine that she tried on herself. When Eric enters her office late at night, she thinks auditory and visual hallucinations are side effects.

     Aegis 
Lieutnent of Squad One.
  • Dual Wielding: Aegis who dual wields buckler shields and regularly duels with Raki who dual wields short swords.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: It's implied he uses them to disable and disarm his opponents; when Eric first met him, his sparing partner's sword went flying towards the exit and almost impaled him. The one on his right arm is enchanted to not only defend him against magic but to return them to their castor.

     Aio Ricse 
A boy who joins the Dragon's Lair at the same time as Eric.
  • Character Death: He dies in the Yacian Caverns due to injuries. While he's technically Tasio the whole time, Eric considers the Aio he knew to be dead.
  • Faking the Dead: Aio is one of many guises worn by Tasio. He made this big show about fatal injury and Famous Last Words when it came time for his "death". It was necessary in order to galvanize Eric into action.
  • Genki Guy: He acts like he's on a perpetual sugar high. Pudding is his favorite food.
  • The Prankster: A high energy boy that loves messing with people, especially Eric. One time, he snuck up behind Eric while he was reading and shut the book on his head.
  • They Killed Kenny Again: Aio is apparently Tasio's go-to identity when he needs to have someone die. In Looming Shadow, Eric wonders just how many times Aio has "died".

     Dengel Tymh 
An elf scholar and mage who is legendary for codifying magic into "magecraft". He was also a founding member of the Dragon's Lair as the first Squad Three Captain. By the start of the series he is a disembodied spirit that joins with Eric and mentors him.

  • Badass Bookworm: Most of his time was spent in study and research and this is why he is a fantastic mage.
  • Base-Breaking Character: invoked Elves think of him as a despicable villain because he backstapped everyone he worked with, revealed the location of elven villages, stole elven technology to give to humans and practiced chaotic heresy. Humans think of him as an admirable hero because of his contributions to the study of mana, codified magic as a practical and scientific craft, played a leading role in classical human society and did all of this with a disability known as "Low Mana Inhibition".
  • Broken Pedestal: Eric idolized Dengel ever since he read the ancient mage's book, "The Spirit and It's Power". After he becomes a Heroic Host for Dengel, he exclaims that he keeps that book on his bed side table. Then he pulls a Grand Theft Me and Eric realizes that he's a treacherous and power hungry opportunist.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He is known for switching sides when advantageous. In his own words, " Unlike my brethren, I know when to make deals.” This is why the Big Bad knew that his We Can Rule Together attempt would succeed in the climax.
  • Country Matters: Shadow Dengel almost says this in regards to the Mother Dragon but Eric cuts him off with a spear. Note that Shadow Dengel also called her a "shame" and a "slut" but Eric was able to ignore those.
  • I Know What You Fear: Dengel protected his final lair with a "Fear Field", an array of magic runes that encompass anyone who approaches with an illussion of their worst fear. During Looming Shadow, all the members of Team Four are subjected to it as they climb Mt. Daci. Basilard sees his students dying and joining his previous students in blaming him for their death while his Evil Uncle kills him with his own sword. Nolien sees his younger brother become an Evil Overlord as First Duke of Heleti, abandon their parents, and abuse Tiza. Tiza sees herself back in the place that caused her amensia, her friends and mentors dead, and Nolien brainwashed into hating her. Guest star party member Zettai sees her abusive parents come back from the dead and kill her new friends. Eric sees Nulso take over Ataidar and turn Annala into a Sex Slave.
  • Inspirationally Disadvantaged: One of the reasons Dengel is looked upon so favorably by humans is that he became a powerful mage despite possessing a magical disorder called Low Mana Inhibition, which makes controlling mana substantially harder. Eric, who knows him to be an arrogant jerkass, is not at all inspired.
  • Magicians Are Wizards: Dengel is a famous researcher and codifier of magic in 21st century Tariatla, but in his own time he was closer to a court jester performing parlor tricks for his clients. That is, when he wasn't helping lay siege to fortresses.
  • Morality Pet: Eric argues with Grey Dengel about whether or not Asuna was one of these to the real Dengel. Eric's argument is that being sweet on one person doesn't mean he wasn't an overall awful person. Grey Dengel's counterargument is that, by the same token, it means he wasn't completely heartless and evil.
  • One-Man Army: Such is his spiritual and magical power that he can swat any number of soldiers like flies with a single gesture.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: What convinces Eric that Dengel was legitimately a Parental Substitute for Asuna? His private documents refer to her by name and many of them are exclusively about her, such as her wedding day. For someone whose ego is said to be the size of a mountain, better proof would be hard to come by.
  • Our Founder: He has a statue in the courtyard of the Dragon's Lair because he is the original Squad Three Captain.
  • Papa Wolf: According to his surrogate daughter, Asuna, he once fought an army to save her life.
  • Parental Substitute: He became so fond of one of his students (Asuna) that he fills chapters in his journals about her accomplishments, instead of his own, and stands in for her father at her wedding.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: At the close of Dengel and Eric's duel at the climax, Dengel says "I would advise you to remember that for your next life but you are not going to have one."
  • Spirit Advisor: Dengel serves as this to Eric in the first two books (A Mage's Power and Looming Shadow), first in a Heroic Host fashion and second in a more classic fashion (Only Eric can see him, gives advice etc.) but the second time is technically "Grey Dengel" which is not the real Dengel.
  • Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Before him, magic was thought to be a mystical art. After him, it was known to be a rational science.

     Sathel Aranid 
A squad four senior and Tiza's apprentice mentor in addition to her legal guardian. She's also Retina's wife.
  • Battle Couple: Her husband, Retina, is her mercenary partner.
  • Crazy-Prepared:
    • She hides her intelligent field medic spiders on Nolien, without telling him, because a situation where Tiza is injuried and needs their help is likely to be an occasion that incapicates the spiders she hid on her as well.
    • She makes sure that Tiza has everything she could possibly need when going on a mission to Ceiha and then checks to make sure she has everything four times on the way to the guild lobby.
  • Hero of Another Story: During the course of A Mage's Power she bodyguarded Abbott Tolis from Our Lady of Perpetual Mischief abbey and thwarted several attempts on his life. Between that book and Looming Shadow she hunted soulcrafters in Najica with her husband, Retina.
  • Let Her Grow Up, Dear: She is much more open to the idea of Tiza dating Nolien than her husband. For comparison, she will try to maneuverer Nolien into complimenting Tiza while her husband gives him a death glare that can be felt through a blindfold.
  • Mama Bear: When she caught her daughter's kidnapper, the only reason she didn't kill him then and there was because he was about to turn himself in to a Justice Station. Instead, she subjected him to years of poison-induced illness, nightmarish hallucinations, and horrible itching.
  • My Beloved Smother: She has a tendency to become an "overbearing, overworrying obstruction" when Tiza goes on especially dangerous missions. When Haburt tells Tiza that Sathel is not just her legal guardian but her birth mother, Tiza reflects that this trope was a dead giveaway.
  • Spiders Are Scary: Team Four has to fight an knee jerk reaction when Sathel's spiders crawl over them. They're intelligent field medic spiders but they still give the kids the creeps.

     Giji Mesh 
The captain of Squad One.
  • The Alcoholic: A regular at "The Full Mug" and inevitably becomes rowdy after drinking herself into a stupor. At that point, her lieutenant takes her home.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: She is the leader of the Dragon's Lair fighters because she is the best out of the fighters.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Giji Mesh has four arms and is a squad captain in the Dragon's Lair Mercenary company. She uses them to juggle swords.

     Retina Corison 
A senior in Squad One and Sathel's husband. He assists her in training Tiza.

  • Aura Vision: Though he can no longer see with his physical eyes, he can still see with his spiritual Third Eye. Instead of light going into his eyes, his vision is created by every strand of supernatural energy going into his barrier.
  • Blindfolded Vision: He's already blind and seeing through Aura Vision but he still wears a blindfold over his eyes.
  • Death Glare: He is said to have a glare potent enough that it can be sensed through his blindfold. When his wife tells him that Nolien is the one "taking care of our Tiza", the glare makes Nolien shiver.
  • Dual Wielding: His standard weapon is a pair of scimitars.
  • Handicapped Badass: He's totally and completely blind in both eyes but he can still be a high ranking member in the fighter portion of the guild. He has a Disability Superpower to compensate.

     Retis 
The second-in-command of the Dragon's Lair and responsible for maintaining its cohesion.
  • Appeal to Force: He is not adverse to "beating manners" into subordinate guild members so they know their place.
  • Big Brother Mentor: Eric thinks of him as a "Cool big brother" figure, and one of his duties is guiding novices.
  • Make Me Wanna Shout: Eric describes his voice as a physical thing that can knock people over.
  • Number Two: He is Ridley Mar's apprentice and the thus the second in command for the guild. He wears a three talon dragon claw necklace as a sign of this.
  • Suddenly Shouting: One moment he's soft-spoken and polite, and then the next "OPEN THE DOOR YOU OLD MUMMY!"

     Ridley Mar 
This is the dragon in the Dragon's Lair; the leader of the guild and successor of the Mother Dragon.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: One of the qualifications to be Dragoness is to be the best at all five talents practiced by the guild; better than the five captains.
  • Animal Motif: Dragons; they're in her title and her armor.
  • Group Hug: When she meets a new novice team, the first thing she does is hug them all at once.
  • Legacy Character: She is the latest in a long line of Dragon's Lair guildheads and inherited the title of "Dragoness" from her predecessor.
  • The Magnificent: Her title of "Dragoness" comes her from position as the head of the guild.
  • They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Basilard's first lesson to Eric in A Mage's Power is her proper form of address: "Ma'am", "Dragoness", "Leader" etc.

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