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    Kate Daniels 

Kate Daniels Lennart

The main character and narrator of the Kate Daniels series - she is a mercenary with dangerous secrets who gets drawn into the power struggles and politics of post-Shift Atlanta after the murder of her guardian.

  • Action Girl: Curran's Affectionate Nickname for her? Asskicker. Her earlier loner tendencies made her somewhat of a Dark Action Girl but she loses much of this by the end of Book 2.
  • Ambiguously Brown: Half Russian, half... Roland. Since his culture, which was somewhat Middle-Eastern/Babylonian, died out millennia ago, she's stuck with this.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: With Hugh d'Ambray in Magic Rises while fighting the ochokochi. Made all the more badass because they are enemies who were raised and trained by the same man.
  • Badass Boast: At the end of the fourth book:
    "Know this: if you come to remove me, come in force, because if you to separate me from him, I will kill every single one of you. My hand won't shake. My aim won't falter. My face will be the last thing you'll see before you die".
  • Battle Couple: With Curran.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Curran, for the first four books. Then they get together.
  • Blood Magic: Kate's most powerful abilities stem from her blood, so she must take careful pains to get rid of any blood she loses in order to keep Roland from finding her. This largely goes by the wayside after Hugh d'Ambray finds her at the Midnight Games. Once that happens, she only really does it to keep the extent of her true power hidden from representatives of the People, like Ghastek.
    • In Magic Slays Kate uses her blood in a ritual to purge Lyc-V from Julie.
  • Brought Down to Normal: At the end of the series, her attempted Heroic Sacrifice plus Curran's singular miracle severs her connection to Atlanta, which immediately tones down the shar and a lot of her more troublesome powers, leaving her just an unusually strong blood mage who's really good with a sword.
  • Character Development: She begins the series as a mouthy, immature loner. As time passes, she learns to bite her tongue and apologize for her words, stops putting her ego first, and acquires a few friendships that are very important to her.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: An interesting case, considering she has no problem killing people, but yeah, as several characters have noted, she just has to save everybody, everytime.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Of the Training from Hell variety. Imposed on her by her father figure practically from birth and up until his death, when she was a teenager. Also, the issue with her bloodline.
  • Dating What Daddy Hates: Played with. It's not the person that's the issue, but his position. Being Curran's mate makes Kate co-leader of what is essentially an army of killing machines—considering the track record of her siblings, she knows Roland will see this as a threat to his power. She's right. Roland tells her that she must stop being Consort or he'll kill her.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Approaches Harry Dresden levels of snark.
  • Determinator: Make her mad enough, and she’s an almost unstoppable swordswoman. Just ask the Fomorian army she devastated.
    • Somewhat her defining character trope, In situations where a powerful enemy is trying to kill her, Kate just tries to kill it back harder. Most notably the enemy in the first book. While dying from numerous wounds and unable to stand, Kate crawls her way to Bono so she can stab him in the heart with a bone knife
  • Empathic Weapon: Kate's saber, Slayer, responds to strong emotion. Given the situations Kate gets into, most of the time, those emotions are fear, anger, rage, and hate. Slayer congeals with mist that seems to feed on necromantic energies. Most of the time, Slayer is your average magic sword. When glowing, it cuts through dead and undead alike like a hot knife through butter.
  • Heroic BSoD: She suffers one in the fifth book when she learns that her mother used magic to force her adoptive father into helping her, and that said adoptive father did not care for her as much as for his revenge against her biological father.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Not her life, just her anonymity. She uses her own blood and two words of power to destroy an incredibly powerful magical weapon, knowing her father's Warlord is watching and will know exactly who she is, because if she doesn't the rakshasas will kill her friends with it.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Sort of. In Magic Strikes, she impales herself on Roland's sword, the unblockable, incredibly lethal Scarlet Star, to save her friends.
  • Interspecies Romance: With Curran.
  • Like Brother and Sister: By the end of the main series, she has a somewhat sibling-like relationship with Hugh d'Ambray, who is actually her cousin and to a lesser extent with Nick Feldman.
    • Somewhat sidestepped with Hugh as it turns out that he is Erra's biological son and therefore her cousin.
  • Master Swordswoman: She was trained practically from birth by a genius swordsman, and it shows. She's good enough to beat both Hugh d'Ambray and Erra.
  • Occult Detective: She isn't formally trained as one, but she's in a politically convenient enough place that she ends up getting a job working for the Order of Merciful Aid. When she gets quits, she becomes a P.I.
  • Parental Substitute: First Voron, then Greg. Kate's been through a lot.
    • Later Kate is one for Julie starting in Magic Burns.
      Kate: "I make a very bad mom. I'm not home enough and even when I am, I'm not the best person to take care of a kid. But I can pull off a crazy aunt."
  • Rank Scales with Asskicking: Kate is recognized as the Consort of the Beast Lord, technically his equal, because she was challenged by 22 shapeshifters in less than two weeks. Wounded, tired, and hurting from Curran's coma, she still managed to slay them all. With a six-inch knife.
  • Take a Third Option: Kate's spent her life with the knowledge that it's either kill Roland or be killed by him. Actually meeting him complicates this, as she finds she's unhappy about losing him even if he's an awful person who keeps kidnapping her friends, but she eventually finds a way to permanently imprison him, allowing them both to survive and build a new relationship (at least once he forgives her for shoving him in a pocket dimension).
  • Training from Hell: The reason she's such an expert swordswoman.
  • Tyke Bomb: Voron raised her for the sole purpose of watching Roland die by his daughter's hand after Roland killed Kalina, Kate's mother and Voron's lover/brainwasher.
  • Worthy Opponent: In sword fighting, she is this to Hugh d'Ambray. Justified since they were both trained by the same man.
  • You Killed My Mother: Kate's father, Roland, killed her.

    Curran Lennart 

Curran Lennart

  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Curran is the Beast Lord, the Alpha of Alphas, because he is strong, fast, and lethal enough to utterly destroy them. He won his position by single-handedly taking down a rampaging were-bear that weighed in over 2000 pounds and had killed several dozen people. At age 15.
  • Battle Couple: With Kate.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Kate, for the first four books. Then they get together.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: Definitely has tendencies this way. He doesn't like it when other guys get too close to Kate. In particular, he disapproves of her being around Saiman.
  • Dark and Troubled Past
  • Determinator: If something happens to Kate, there’s nothing he can’t or won’t do. He doesn’t stop until she’s safe and with him again.
    Kate: "One time I was dying in a cage inside a palace that was flying over a magic jungle. And some idiot went in there, chased the palace down, fought his way through hundreds of rakshasas, and rescued me."
  • Glowing Eyes: Doubles with Glowing Eyes of Doom when he's pissed. Otherwise, it means that he's just experiencing strong emotions. With Kate, it's a 50/50 split between lust and rage, depending on what she said to him last.
  • Interspecies Romance: With Kate.
  • Parental Substitute: Mahon is this to Curran, having raised him after finding him lost in the woods after Curran's family was killed by loups.
  • Take a Third Option: In Magic Breaks, Roland tells Kate that she must leave Curran or die. Curran decides to step down as Alpha, because Roland's whole issue with the relationship is that Kate is in a position of power. It works.

    Julie Olsen 

Julie Lennart-Olsen/ Aurelia Ryder

  • Abusive Parents: While her birth mother loved her very much, she was an alcoholic who wasn't good at taking care of Julie a lot of the time.
  • Cool Big Sis: To Conlan
  • Little Miss Badass: She grew up pretty rough, and Kate trains her in combat to keep her safe.
  • The Mole: When Roland starts attempting to groom her as a replacement Warlord, she knows immediately what he's doing...but lets him think it's working so she can feed Kate information.
  • Tagalong Kid: For Kate starting in Magic Burns
  • Took a Level in Badass: She becomes a highly competent fighter and magic-worker as an adult, after being trained by Kate and Erra. Also after her physical transformation after taking Moloch's eye.

    Derek Gaunt 

Derek Gaunt/ Darren Argent

  • Abusive Parents: A modified example, as his father was infected with Lyc-V and went loup, and then abused Derek and his sisters
  • Break the Cutie: His whole childhood, but especially in Magic Strikes...
  • Pretty Boy: Is this for the first few books. After Magic Strikes, not so much due to getting molten silver poured over his face.

    Andrea Nash 

Andrea Nash Medrano

  • Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Andrea initially wants to do this to Aunt B as Aunt B leads Clan Bouda and is increasingly overt in her attempts to get Andrea to join the fold. Andrea eventually agrees to be Aunt B's beta female so that she can eventually do this. She largely gets over it after seeing what Aunt B. goes through as the Alpha and it is forgotten completely when Aunt B dies giving the shapeshifters time to get away from Hugh d'Ambray and his Iron Dogs.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Andrea is a beast-kin, which means that one of her parents was an animal who could shift into a human. Among the shapeshifters of the Pack, at best she is an intolerable nuisance, at worst she is an abomination to be killed on sight. This eventually gets better, but for the first few of her appearances, she took great pains to hide this fact from everyone, including Kate. Eventually, she learns to be somewhat comfortable in her own skin, though she loathes her hybrid form at first.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Along with being so personable and charming it hurts, this is Andrea's claim to fame. Kate says she can shoot the dots off dominos at great distance.

Members of The Pack

    Jim Shrapshire 

Jim Shrapshire

  • Clipboard of Authority: During the Midnight Games, where Jim served as Stratego for the rest of the team.
  • Cloak and Dagger: Sometimes, literally.
  • The Handler: For Curran, when he began courting Kate.
  • Number Two: To Curran and the Pack
  • Scary Black Man: And sometimes a scary jaguar.
  • Stealth Expert: Most were-cats are this, but Jim takes it to another level, described as simply melting out from a shadow.
  • The Spymaster: Jim is nominally the Head of Security for the Pack, but employs people like Derek as covert agents and maintains trackers, renders, and cleaning crews.

    Raphael Medrano 

Raphael Medrano

    Aunt B 

Beatrice "Aunt B" Medrano

  • You Shall Not Pass!: Evokes this in Magic Rises to buy the group some time to get away from Hugh's forces.

    Doolittle 

Dr. Doolittle

  • Doctor's Orders: Doolittle takes a very dim view of many of the main characters' ability to take care of themselves, given their propensity for injury and how hard he has to work just keeping them alive. He insists that they stop and respect their bodies and their injuries and sighs wearily when he realizes that he will be patently ignored in the interest of The Greater Good.
  • Mercy Killing: As a member of The Pack and a doctor, he knows all too well the consequences of loupism. As a result, he tends to favor this in any situation where the alternative is, in his eyes, prolonged suffering.
  • Super Doc: Given how many times he's brought just Kate back from the brink of death, you'd be forgiven for thinking this of him. He jokes that the next conference he attends, he's bringing Kate with him as a living demonstration of his superior skills.
  • The Medic
  • Team Dad

    Barabas Gilliam 

Barabas Gilliam

  • Anime Hair: His flaming red hair sticks straight up.
  • Florence Nightingale Effect: He takes care of Christopher after they rescued him. However, deconstructed as this is actually a source of conflict for them: he's later afraid that since he was Christopher's main support while Christopher was vulnerable, that's an undue influence and it would be taking advantage to begin a relationship.

    Jezebel 

Jezebel

  • Becoming the Mask: She's a former sahanu, one of Roland's blood-cultist-warriors, who was pulled out of training and implanted in the Pack as a child. But she grew to truly love Julie when Kate charged her with protecting the kid, to the point that Roland has to threaten Julie to get her to follow his orders.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper

    Ascanio Ferara 

Ascanio Ferara

  • Determinator: During the fight with Leslie Wren, the renegade were-lynx render, Ascanio gets clawed to hell and has both legs broken. He still manages to get up, run, and carry a Lyc-V-infected Julie into the loup cage.
  • Pretty Boy: Described as having the beauty of a fallen angel. At fifteen.
  • Skilled, but Naive: Ordinarily, a shapeshifter has to work hard to even begin to develop a warrior form. It takes even more practice and skill to use it effectively, and being able to talk coherently in a warrior form is an art form. Ascanio can do all 3 at age 15. Naturally, his talent makes him feel like he is the biggest, baddest thing going. Derek shows him otherwise, giving his warrior form a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown while still human.

    Dali Harimau 

Dali Harimau Shrapshire

  • A-Cup Angst
  • Blind Without 'Em: Needs her glasses. She's legally blind and sometimes goes cross-eyed in her beast form.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Even Kate is scared of her driving. If she didn't have shapeshifter healing powers, she would almost certainly have died in one of her many crashes. It's not surprising she's so bad, though, seeing as her eyesight is terrible.
  • Vegetarian Carnivore: Despite being a were-tiger, she is a strict vegetarian.
  • Will They or Won't They?: With Jim. They get together in the middle of the main series, making her the female cat alpha. They later get married and have children.

    Mahon 
]

Mahon Delany

  • Bears Are Bad News: Mahon is a were-bear and is known as the "Kodiak of Atlanta". He's also the Pack's executioner.
  • Fantastic Racism: Inverted. Mahon maintains that even the lowliest shapeshifter is more of a match for Curran than Kate is. He was born before the first Shift and had more than his share of Humans Are the Real Monsters moments, which colors his judgement of ordinary humanity. Kate eventually causes him to come around by her toughness, her skill, and her dedication to the Pack's welfare.
    • He also believes werebears should only marry other werebears. He gets over it, though, after George chews him out for it.
  • Hidden Depths: He has a PhD in medieval history
  • Like a Son to Me: Found Curran in the woods after Curran's family was killed by loups. Mahon raised him like a son and instilled in Curran the strength and values that made him the leader that he is among the Pack.
    Mahon: "Besides, I have a son; I just wasn't his first father, is all."

    George 

Georgetta "George" Delany

  • Berserk Button: Don't call her by her first name, whatever you do.
  • Dating What Daddy Hates: Mahon does not approve of her dating Eduardo the werebuffalo. She essentially makes him approve by refusing to budge on the issue.
  • Handicapped Badass: Ends up with only one arm. Doesn't stop her from being a badass even when she isn't a gigantic bear.

    Jennifer 

Jennifer

Clan Wolf alpha until she's killed by Desandra.

  • Mama Bear: Well, technically a mama wolf. She knows she's not the best alpha, but she refuses to step down because she wants her daughter to grow up as the alpha's child.
  • Manipulative Bitch: Has some skill in convincing men with issues that they're her hero and getting them to do things for her.
  • The Mole: For Hugh d'Ambray. She also agreed to help him kidnap Kate, but backed out at the last minute.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: In her early appearances, she didn't like Kate, but she could at least contain herself and be professional. By Magic Breaks, however, she's deliberately trying to subvert Kate's authority, as well as flinging horrible insults at members of her Clan ("creature") and publicly chewing them out—which is doubly cruel and terrible leadership, as an alpha publicly chastising someone means the whole clan feels like being nice to that person is disobedient. So she essentially forced her pack to shun this person. Oh, and she's a traitor.
  • You Killed My Sister: Hates Kate because of this, even though her sister went loup and had to be put down. Part of the problem is that Jennifer, as her closest family member, should have done it—she resents Kate both for taking her little sister away and for making her look weak.

[[folder:Eduardo]]

Eduardo Ortega

  • The Big Guy: A massive werebuffalo
  • Distressed Dude: The plot of Magic Shifts revolves around rescuing him from a pissed-off ifrit.

    Desandra 

Desandra Kral

  • Abusive Parents: Her father. When she was twelve, he cut out her tongue, and that's not even the worst thing he did.
  • Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Plans to do this to Jennifer, but is biding her time and solidifying her power base, while giving her rival enough rope to hang herself with, so that everyone will be grateful when she finally does take over.
  • Mama Bear: [spoiler:In Magic Breaks she wants to replace Jennifer as Alpha of the Clan Wolf to protect her llamasu son.]]
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Plays the spoiled, shallow idiot to survive her abusive father.
  • Odd Couple: She is a shapeshifter as well as someone with very little filter, and she ends up with Nick Feldman, who's both a Knight of the Order and something of a control freak.
  • Pregnant Badass: Very briefly. She goes into labor immediately after killing her father.

Members of The People

    Ghastek 

Ghastek Stefanoff

  • Freudian Excuse: He's power-hungry because he came from a poor background and was bullied by the other kids at the school he went to on scholarship. He vowed he'd show them all.
  • Given Name Reveal: His real first name is Matthew.
  • Heel–Face Turn: He slowly becomes friends with Kate and chooses to become her Legatus.
  • Squishy Wizard: Give him a vampire to navigate, and he'll take you apart, but in person he's weak.

    Rowena 

Rowena

    Nataraja 

Nataraja

The leader of the People in Atlanta, until he is replaced by Ghastek

Villains

    Hugh d'Ambray 

Hugh d'Ambray, aka Lord Megobari of Abkhazia, Preceptor of the Order of Iron Dogs

  • A Father to His Men: The Iron Dogs are extremely loyal to him for this reason. To him. Not Roland. When Roland kicks Hugh out, he also sets Landon Nez on the Dogs for this reason.
  • Ascended Extra: Is now the main character of his own two-book spinoff series, the Iron Covenant.
  • Back-to-Back Badasses: With Kate in Magic Rises while fighting the ochokochi. Made all the more badass because they are enemies who were raised and trained by the same man.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: He views Roland (and to a greater extent viewed Voron) as his adoptive father. Turns out Roland is actually his uncle.
  • Blood Magic: Like Kate, Erra, and Roland, he is able to use blood magic since Roland shared his blood with him.
    • Hugh is still able to use blood magic even after Roland excised him and severed the blood bond between them. This is because he's actually Erra's biological son and Roland's nephew.
  • Cool Horse/White Stallion: Bucky the Spanish Norman horse, who he acquires at the start of Iron and Magic.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Before Roland took him in, he was a homeless orphan protected from being trafficked by a Fagin-like figure only by the fact exploiting his healing powers brought in more profit.
  • Evil Wears Black: He and his Iron Dogs wear black uniforms, although when Kate first meets him at the Midnight Games, he's wearing grey.
  • Erotic Dream: When Elara walks through his dreams, things get pretty explicit.
  • First-Episode Twist: It's impossible to get into Hugh's own series without being spoiled for the fact that Roland casts him aside, or basically anything else that happens in the second-to-last book in the main series.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: Hugh gets very badly injured several times, and would have probably died without his powerful healing abilities.
  • Happily Married: His Marriage of Convenience to Elara Harper eventually turns into a genuinely happy, loving relationship, and they go on to have several children together.
  • Heel–Face Turn: No, really. After Roland casting him aside and the events of the first book in his own trilogy, Hugh both rejects Roland's offer to rejoin him and decides to support Kate when things come to a head. Which he does.
  • Hidden Depths: He's an incredibly powerful and highly skilled healer, meaning he has essentially the magic equivalent of a medical degree. Because he spends most of his time slicing people up, though, it's easy for everyone else to forget this.
    • Hugh is also extremely intelligent and a talented strategist, but Roland mostly thinks of him as a blunt instrument.
  • Like Father, Like Son: Hugh is an unusually powerful healer, just like his father Asclepius (a demigod and Greek god of medicine). note .
  • Like Mother, Like Son: He's big, dark-haired, charismatic, a powerful blood magic worker, and a gifted general and strategist, just like his mother Erra .
  • Loyal Animal Companions: Bucky the war stallion and Cedric the hound, in Iron and Magic
  • Marriage of Convenience: He ends up needing to marry a powerful witch named Elara Harper at the start of Iron and Magic because each has resources the other urgently needs: Elara has a castle and the ability to feed and house his troops, and Hugh has soldiers who can protect her people and their town.
  • Master Swordsman: As Voron's protege, he's just as good as Kate. (Well, almost, anyway).
  • Older Than They Look/Immortality Begins at Twenty: He looks like he's in his late twenties, but Kate estimates that he's really close to fifty at the start of the main series. Roland's magic keeps him physically in his prime.
  • The Dragon: to Roland. He's Voron's replacement, trained by Voron himself. Also Voron's killer.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: He craves Roland's approval and wants to be accepted by him more than anything else.
  • Worthy Opponent: In sword fighting, he is this to Kate. Justified as they were both trained by the same man.

    Erra 

Erra (short for Eahrratim), aka the City Eater, aka the Rose of the Tigris

  • Amazonian Beauty: She's six feet tall and very striking
  • Axe-Crazy: Not that she started out that way. Or ends that way.
  • Back from the Dead: Ish. She's incorporeal and "lives" in a dagger made of her own bone, but she's still pretty strong.
    • Then for real at the end of the series, after getting sideswiped by a miracle.
  • Batman Gambit: In the last book she knows darn well her brother will do something stupid for his own ends, and Kate will probably pull a Heroic Sacrifice in response. So she plots with Curran to turn him into a minor god just strong enough to bring a person back from the dead, while still letting Kate take care of Roland.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: She is Kate's aunt and Hugh's mother.
  • Blood Magic: But of course. She's really good at the blood armor, and does it more than almost anyone else in her family.
  • Death Seeker: According to Roland, she was this. She didn't want to wake up, and hated the modern age.
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": After Kate summons her ghost, she says she actually doesn't like being called the City Eater.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: She may be the sort of brutal conqueror who inspires nicknames like "the City Eater", but she despises Roland for the fact he hasn't properly educated Kate on her magic. Sure, they might have to kill each other someday, but it's his duty as a father and a Prince of Shinar to teach his children and keep them from hurting themselves and the land.
  • Heel–Face Turn: After being summoned back from the dead, she is a much nicer person. To Kate, anyway.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The City Eater. Sounds like a charmer!
  • * Older Than They Look/Really 700 Years Old: She looks about 40, but she's thousands of years old.
  • Suicide by Cop: Roland tells Kate that they were raised to believe suicide was wrong, but that it was honorable to die at the hand of a family member. So she threw herself at Kate and let herself lose.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Before she was her brother's general, she was the Rose of the Tigris. She'd much rather have started a family, but their country needed a brutal warrior, so that's what she became.

    The Lighthouse Keepers 

The Lighthouse Keepers

A group of human fanatics who essential plan a genocide of all beings who are not purely human, including shapeshifters and magicallly-gifted humans

  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: One of the Lighthouse Keepers, Shane Andersen, a Knight of the Order of Merciful Aid, fancies himself more intelligent than he actually is. It is the pretentious phrasing of his words that tips off Kate and Andrea to the face that he is a in control of Adam Kamen's magic bomb.

    Roland 

Roland, aka The Builder of Towers

  • Above Good and Evil: He believes himself to be this.
  • Abusive Parents: When he's not mind-controlling his adoptive son (Hugh), he's playing deadly games with his biological daughter's loved ones and trying to decide whether he needs to kill her. (He does love both of them, but he's also a bit of a narcissistic control freak who does not respond well when people don't do as he says).
  • Affably Evil: He even bakes cookies for Kate and Curran when they go house hunting to explore their new post-Beast Lord and Consort lives. And seems tickled pink by the possibility of grandkids. Despite this, he remains an extremely frightening god-level control freak despot.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: And how. His mother murdered his father, his sister is Erra the City Eater, and his children have a nasty tendency to go mad with power and try to take his place. Which is why he had to kill most of them. He also used a blood bond to control his own nephew and get him to commit atrocities in his name.
  • Blood Magic: His and his family's calling card. He can make blood wards, blood blades, and blood armor, and that's the tame stuff.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Reliably unreliable.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He'll do a lot of things, but human sacrifice isn't one of them—not so much because killing people is wrong, but because it would attract attention from things, which he won't unleash on the world for any amount of power.
  • Evil Parents Want Good Kids: He really did want all of his children to grow up to be nice people. Unfortunately, being raised by a ruthless wizard-king isn't exactly good for a child's personality, even if he's trying really hard.
  • I Have Many Names: Roland, Nimrod, Nimr Rad, Sharrum, the Builder of Towers...
    • In the post-Shift world, he uses the name 'Roland', which he took from The Song of Roland, which gives you some sense of his ego.
  • Offing the Offspring: What he did to most if not all of his children, and what Kate fears he will do to her as well. Although he has a reason—Kate is the only relative of his who hasn't gone Ax-Crazy and tried to either destroy or rule the world. And he really has no reason to believe she won't do the same, given his reference pool.
  • The Ghost: He does not appear in any of earlier books in the series.
    • In Magic Breaks, he finally appears near the end.
  • Like a Son to Me: He finally tells Hugh that he loves and accepts him to try and bring him back into the fold after casting him out. It doesn't work, however. Arguably even more screwed-up given that he's actually Hugh's uncle.
  • Love Makes You Stupid: The reason he got Kalina pregnant. He knew full well how his children always turn out, but he just couldn't say no to her.
  • * Older Than They Look/Really 700 Years Old: He's a near-immortal wizard who looks to be around fifty in the main series; in Iron and Magic, Hugh cynially notes that aging to that level was a deliberate cosmetic choice on his part so he would look more fatherly for Kate, implying that otherwise, he'd look even younger.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: His ultimate fate is to be tricked into merging with a pocket dimension—that makes him literally part of it, which prevents him from leaving.
  • Walking Spoiler: Could you tell?
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: According to Erra, he and his family started out defending their homeland, liberating it from conquerors...and then just never stopped the war machine. These days he really does think his rule would be best for the world, and it doesn't matter what he does to get there, because once he does everything will perfect. As long as people obey.
  • Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: His attitude towards the entire world, basically. For example, he wouldn't have to have crucified all those unarmed civilians, if only the Iron Dogs had followed his orders and slaughtered them quickly. Such a tragedy, but you do what you have to, right? Kate calls him out on this, saying it was his choice to crucify anybody at all, but he seems actually incapable of getting the point.

Additional Characters

    Saiman 

Saiman

  • Divine Parentage: Saiman is part-human, part-Aesir (Norse god), and part-Jotun (Norse giant/demon). Possibly the grandson of Loki himself. When he's in pain or afraid, his Jotun heritage is dominant. During the magic flare, we see his Aesir form. Most of the time, Kate sees him as a human of fairly nondescript features.
  • Every Woman Has Her Price: Saiman and Kate get into a philosophical argument where he espouses the belief that, given time and the precisely the right form and/or incentive, he can sleep with anyone, Kate included. Kate tells him that sex is about more than just physical attraction and while Saiman would have no problem finding a form that she'd be attracted to instantly, the fact that he is emotionally distasteful to her will always prohibit her from giving into him. Doesn't discourage Saiman a bit.
  • Eyes Never Lie: Saiman can't understand how Kate always seems to know when he's approached her in a different form. Kate says that it's his eyes and, more importantly, the condescension and disdain he feels for others that shows in them that gives him away every time.
  • Insistent Terminology: He is a sexual deviant, not a pervert.
  • Squishy Wizard: While he is brilliant and a polymorph, not to mention part frost giant, he is terrified of physical pain and not particularly useful in combat

    Elara Harper 

Elara Harper d'Ambray, the White Warlock

  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Hugh all throughout Iron and Magic, after their Marriage of Convenience commences.
    • Culminates in a night of rough sex towards the end of the book.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: While her full past has not yet been revealed, becoming the White Lady (or Warlock, for those who hate her), was clearly very traumatic, and she was orphaned before that.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Whatever it is she's connected to, it's enough to give Roland pause.
  • Establishing Character Moment: When first the reader meets her, she devours the spark of magic inside a vampire at melee range, then gently extricates a spider that got caught in her hair and sets it free, showing that she is deadly and brutal in defense of her people, but does not do unnecessary harm.
  • The Ghost: She is mentioned several times in the main series but does not appear until Iron and Magic, and then also appears in Magic Triumphs
  • Happily Married: To Hugh d'Ambray...eventually
  • Horror Hunger: She eats magic, and is always hungry.
  • I Have Many Names: She is called the White Warlock, the White Lady, Abomination, and at one point, she just tells Landon Nez that her name is Mrs. d'Ambray.
  • Marriage of Convenience: She marries Hugh d'Ambray since she can provide a base, housing, and shelter for the Iron Dogs, and he and his soldiers can provide protection to her people. While their relationship starts off extremely contentiously, albeit full of sexual tension, they fall in love for real and end up happily married and have several children.
  • Mystical White Hair/Locked into Strangeness: Her hair is pure white (all the hair on her body is, in fact, as Hugh discovers) and won't take dye, although she draws darker eyebrows on. She used to be a brunette before whatever happened to her caused her to become whatever she is.
  • Stop Worshipping Me: Her people view her as almost a goddess, but she expressly forbids them to pray to her or worship her in any way. It's implied that this doesn't just make her unhappy, but is actively dangerous for some reason.

    Christopher 

Christopher Steed

A gentle, mysterious man Kate rescues from a cage in Magic Rises. His mind was broken by an unknown event, but he makes amazingly effective panacea (a potion which prevents loupism).

  • Amnesiac Dissonance: Christopher now is sweet, if almost completely out of it at all times, and wouldn't hurt a fly. Christopher pre-cage was Roland's Legatus, which is not a position you get by being a nice person, to put it lightly.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason he wants to stay with Kate (and also Barrabas, who he initially mistakes for an angel). They rescue him and treat him well. Also one of the reasons he's so willing to forgive Hugh (the other being that he used to be as bad as Hugh)—he points out he was remarkably healthy for someone who'd been stuck in a cage outdoors for a month, and it's because Hugh kept sneaking him food and healing him.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: The reason he was in the cage? Roland wanted to give him the powers of a god by implanting him with a minor, personality-less deity. Christopher said no...and woke up on the operation table with Deimos, the Greek god of terror, inside him anyway. He turned his new fear powers inward and broke his own mind so Roland couldn't use him.
  • Winged Humanoid: As it turns out yes, he really can fly, when he summons his wings.

    Greg Feldman 

Greg Feldman, Knight-Diviner of the Order of Merciful Aid

    Voron 

Voron

Roland's Warlord and father figure to Kate and to Hugh d'Ambray

  • Brainwashed and Crazy: He would never have betrayed Roland if Kalina hadn't fried his brain with a love spell.
  • The Dragon: He was Roland's warlord, called the Death's Raven.
  • Morton's Fork: Kate figures out that this was his plan by training her to fight Roland. If Kate won, Roland would be dead. If Kate lost, Roland would be heartbroken over having to kill yet another child of his, especially since she's Kalina's daughter. Either way, Voron would hurt him.
  • Parental Substitute: To Hugh and to Kate

    Nick 

Knight-Crusader Nickolas Feldman

  • Broken Ace: He was a very talented Knight-Crusader who went undercover with the Hugh d'Ambray and his Iron Dogs and was forced to do horrible things, including watching Hugh slaughter an entire chapter of the Order. This left him with some pretty serious issue.
  • Combat Tentacles: While undercover with the Iron Dogs, he developed the ability to produce tentacles to use in battle.
  • The Mole: He went underground as one of Hugh d'Ambray's lieutenants for the Order of Merciful Aid.

    Roman 

Roman Grigorievich Tihomirov

  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: His father is the Black Volhv, the high priest of the most evil Russian god. His mother is a Witch Oracle, who has her own thing going on. Odd Couple doesn't even BEGIN to describe them. His uncle is the White Volhv, the high priest of the most good Russian god. His cousins are also involved. It's no wonder Roman tends to shy away from anything that gets him in the middle of them all. For Roman's family, magic is just part of the Family Business.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: Yes, Roman is a volhv of Chernobog, the most evil Russian god. Yes, he has a beaked staff with a bad attitude, and yes, he can throw down powerful curses and spells with the darkest of lords... But that doesn't mean he's not a nice guy. Outside of the interests of his priesthood, Roman is gentle, funny, kind, helpful, and is seen by many of the main characters to be a genuinely good and dependable person. They tend not to pry too deep into his day job.
  • Ranger: Roman reveals an Army Ranger tattoo, along with an impressively muscular build for a priest, when putting on tactical gear at Andrea's request in Gunmetal Magic.
  • Southern Gentleman: Seen in Gunmetal Magic when he flirtatiously insists on accompanying Andrea home after helping her recover an item important to her investigation and finding that her ride has been jacked and put on blocks.

    Evdokia 

Evdokia of the Witch Oracle

  • Redheads Are Ravishing: Invoked. She dyed her hair red to make Voron notice her back when she was a young woman.
  • Seers: One of the three Witch Oracles.

    Bran 

Bran

    Grendel 

Grendel

  • Attack Animal: Grendel is Kate’s “attack poodle”. He also just so happens to turn into a hellhound.
    “My attack poodle turned into a huge black hound with glowing eyes and shaggy fur. Figures”.
  • Big Friendly Dog: Grendel is big, friendly, enthusiastic, and smelly.
  • Canine Companion: to Kate and later to Conlan

    Kalina 

Kalina

  • Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Stabbed Roland in the eyeball. Unfortunately, a puny knife doesn't do much to a guy like him... (Of course, actually hurting him wasn't the point. Giving him a very visible reason to kill her was the point, so he could make his show of strength that way, instead of immediately tracking down Voron and Kate).
  • Dark Mistress: She was married to the Builder of Towers.
  • Dying Declaration of Love: Interesting variation, in that she said it to the man who killed her.
  • Glamour: Kalina could make almost anyone do anything she wanted. In fact, she was so good at this that she magically overrode Voron's loyalty to Roland, when previously Voron practically worshipped him as a god.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: For Kate.
  • I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Kate speculates that Kalina was first attracted to Roland because her mind control abilities didn't work on him.
  • Mama Bear: She gave up everything so her daughter would live.
  • Meet Cute: She and Roland had this.
  • Posthumous Character: She was killed by Roland shortly after Kate was born.

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