This is a list of characters associated with the continents of Lether and Kolanse from Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. Please beware of spoilers. If you haven't finished the series you're probably best off not reading past the character descriptions.
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Letheras
Tehol Beddict
"What do you think? Should I get out of bed today, Bugg?"
The middle Beddict brother. When the Beddict family came dangerously close to becoming Indebted, Tehol took it on himself to keep the family afloat, something he did in secret while attending his instructors. Tehol is an economic savant, and was able to amass one of the largest fortunes in Letheras — a "peak", or one million "thirds", roughly one eighth of the city's combined currency - before going bankrupt literally overnight, nearly crashing the economy of the Empire. What happened to the money is unknown, and Tehol is now a largely forgotten figure living in poverty with his manservant Bugg.
- Author Avatar: It is quite likely that Tehol's thoughts on the Letherii economic system mirror Erikson's own.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He may be the smartest person in the entire setting, but, as seen in the quote above (his Establishing Character Moment), he really prefers not to do anything unless it's strictly necessary. Part of the reason he keeps up the appearance of living in poverty is to escape attention and keep his life simpler, and when he becomes emperor he comments that he will probably never get around to enacting many of the the reforms he wants to.
- Character Filibuster: Is prone to these. It is rare for him to be interrupted, though because a lot of these are directed at Bugg, who only hangs around Tehol because he finds him interesting, there's likely a reason for this.
- The Chessmaster: He is quite possibly the single most intelligent character of the series, which is saying something. He's capable of single-handedly manipulating the entire Letherii economy if it suits his purposes. Which it eventually does. The general populace eventually thanks him for this, as it ends a brutally oppressive economic system, and he ends up ruling the entire empire at the end of Reaper's Gale by popular demand, making him perhaps the setting's first democratically elected leader.
- Chivalrous Pervert: He hits on almost every woman he meets, and several of them do climb into bed with him, including Shurq, Rucket, and Janath, the last of whom eventually marries him. However, he remains every bit as flirtatious as ever, which Janath simply finds amusing.
- Defector from Decadence: He is very, very good at playing Lether's economic game. And he hates it so much he nearly brought the whole thing down. In Midnight Tides, he gets asked to do this a second time. In Reaper's Gale, he does so.
- Guile Hero: Of the Beddict brothers, Tehol is the only one without combat skills of any sort.
- King Bob the Nth: Parodied with Tehol, who according to one of the chapter prefaces becomes known as King Tehol the Only of Lether, who turned out so competent at ruling that the people grew unhappy with how great life had become and chased him out the gates, just so they could go back to being miserable again.
- Pals with Jesus: Tehol Beddict lives with his manservant, Bugg. Bugg is really Mael, the Elder God of the Sea. He hangs out with Tehol because he hasn't had that much fun in millennia. Tehol doesn't know this at first, but when he finds out, both are happy to continue the relationship they have.
- Rags to Riches: Tehol Beddict came from a very prominent but impoverished family and worked his way up to become one of the richest men in the country due to his business genius. He then gave up his fortune because he was disgusted with the debt-slavery system the country runs on, but not without causing an economic crash that saw many money lenders kill themselves. He then does it again during the course of Midnight Tides and Reaper's Gale, becoming insanely rich through fake companies while living in a hovel, then letting the economy crash to undermine Lether's new, even more oppressive, regime. This time around, though, this leads to him being hailed as a hero by the common people, who make him king.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: King Tehol Beddict the Only fits this trope starting with Dust of Dreams although not in the usual way. He's an economic genius and may look like he's doing squat all, but chances are he's working on ways to improve the lot of the poor and dispossessed, as he actively despises those who build their fortunes on the backs of others. Before becoming king he managed to bring down the economy of Lether, which is based on debt, twice and caused many a money lender to commit suicide. However, him being a comedic character means it's also Played for Laughs, as after reigning for an unknown amount of years, he gets shown the way out by the common people for being too caring and too just and leaving them nothing to gripe about.
- Teeny Weenie: According to himself he is "small-membered" which is why he has little sympathy for women treating Ublala Pung as a Lust Object for his huge member, as he believes Ublala is living a man's dream.
Bugg
Tehol Beddict: You've no talent to speak of, in much of anything, come to think of it. Probably why I love you so dearly, Bugg.
Bugg is Tehol's mysterious manservant of many talents.
- Almighty Janitor: Bugg is the manservant of Tehol Beddict, an Impoverished Patrician fallen so far he can't even pay his one servant. Though Bugg doesn't care all that much because he is also Mael, the Elder God of the Seas, feared and respected by even the other gods, who only remains with Tehol because he's not had this much fun in a long, long time.
- Battle Butler: Bugg is the understated yet absolutely loyal manservant to Impoverished Patrician Tehol Beddict. Though unassuming, it becomes quickly obvious that the criminal underbelly of Letheras doesn't want the attention of this friendly old man and he is not afraid to face ancient, long buried and forgotten gods. As it turns out, in addition to being a suitably quirky sidekick to Tehol, Bugg is Mael, the Elder God of the Seas, in disguise.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He is actually the Elder God Mael, god of the sea. Hangs around with Tehol because he's interesting.
- God Was My Co-Pilot: He is actually Mael, the Elder God of the Sea, explaining how he's such a capable assistant. Tehol, when he finds out, is not very surprised.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: He's just Tehol manservant, but is at times much more competent than he is.
- It Amused Me: He's a bored Elder God of the Seas, and follows around Tehol because he finds him interesting.
Brys Beddict
The youngest of the three Beddict brothers. A Finadd (captain) of the Letherii army, he was recently raised to the position of King's Champion, the King's personal bodyguard for his superlative skills as a swordsman. Though he would like nothing more than to be left to do his duty, the intrigues of the Letherii court have a way of enveloping even the most tangential of players.
- Accidental Suicide: After defeating Rhulad he takes a triumphant drink of wine... only for the wine to make him keel over, because it was poisoned. The Errant was responsible for orchestrating that unfortunate turn of events.
- Back from the Dead: In Reaper's Gale thanks to Bruthen Trana's efforts.
- Big Damn Heroes: He shows up to effortlessly disembowel Karos Invictad and save Tehol after his resurrection.
- The Champion: To King Ezgara Diskanar.
- Master Swordsman: Brys Beddict is considered the best swordsman in the Kingdom of Lether and has, by the time he is introduced in Midnight Tides, just recently been raised to the position of the King's Champion and personal bodyguard based on his skill and despite his unfortunate family connections. At the end of the book, he duels Rhulad Sengar and wins despite his opponent's Artifact of Doom sword which enhances his abilities. Not only does Brys win, he — while fighting — devises a plan on how to prevent Rhulad from dying and being resurrected by surgically targeting his opponent's tendons with his sword.
Shurq Elalle
A burglar who got caught. Deciding to try her luck in the Drownings, she got tangled in detritus in the canals and drowned, only to discover that one of her victims had cursed her with undeath. Much to her frustration, her dead nerves prevent her from enjoying the pleasures of the living, most notably sex. She gives up stealing, not caring about much any longer, until Tehol Beddict contacts her for her services — and offers a way to enjoy carnal pleasures again.
- Attractive Zombie: She used to be a great beauty, but it was ruined when she drowned, due to her body being filled with filthy muddy water, and her overall depression making her stop taking care of herself. But after Selush gives her The Makeover, she regains her old beauty and starts to wholeheartedly cherish her undead state, since now she cannot age and thus will never lose her good looks, and she repeatedly refuses the possibility of resurrection.
- Boy Meets Ghoul: Inverted — she's a walking dead woman who enjoys sex with the living.
- Can't Have Sex, Ever: When she first turned into an undead, she was unable to feel any physical pleasure, which left her very frustrated. Bugg even finds her longing below the window of brothel, just so she can hear the sounds of pleasure she can't feel. Her deal with Tehol actually mostly involved regaining her ability to feel, with Selush "installing" a sea creature in her body that allows her to feel sexual pleasure again.
- Classy Cat-Burglar: She's a legendary thief, known for her skill in infiltration, feats in agility and dislike of unnecessary violence.
- Cool Big Sis: After becoming undead, she started looking after a fellow undead orphan girl named Kettle, becoming practically a maternal figure to her. She's even actively trying to help her undo her curse and find out who stole her memories.
- Cursed with Awesome: It takes awhile, but she ultimately appears to come to see being undead as this, after first viewing it as being Blessed with Suck.
- Friendly Zombie: In spite of being a thief, a pirate, and a zombie, she is quite kind-hearted.
- Good Bad Girl: She is one of the most promiscuous characters in the series (which is saying a lot), and also (despite being a thief and later a pirate) one of the least ethically flawed.
- Head-Turning Beauty: She's extremely attractive, and after provokes reactions on people just by meeting them, though the fact she's an Attractive Zombie also disturbs a few.
- Keeping the Handicap: She repeatedly refuses the opportunity to become a living human again, since she would grow old and ugly then, while as a zombie, she can remain beautiful forever.
- The Makeover: A fantastical example. Due to drowning, her undead body is filled with filthy, and combined with her overall apathy after turning undead, she's hardly pleasing to the eye. But Tehol arranges for her to meet an undead embalmer named Selush that can "dress up undead". Shurq's body is drained of all the muddy water, her body is bleached, scraped, disinfected, and has preserving oils rubbed all over her skin. She soon regains her old beauty and becomes an Attractive Zombie.
- Mate or Die: Maybe. After she's given an ootooloo (a strange aquatic life form that enhances sexual pleasure), she can once again enjoy sex despite being undead. The byproduct is that she also has an extremely strong sex drive as a result, and it's stated that if she doesn't satiate it on a daily basis, something will happen to her, and it's implied not to be pleasant. It's not made clear what this is, and in any case, "death" isn't likely to be the outcome, since she's already undead. Strangely, this doesn't seem to bother her at all, because not being able to enjoy sex had made her utterly apathetic about everything, and she seems to regard her new state as an improvement. Eventually she does seem to get more control over this.
- One of the Boys: She says she doesn't often get along with women and prefers to be around men. When she meets Janath, they do indeed start fighting almost immediately.
- Pirate Girl: Eventually decides she wants to be a pirate. No particular reason, it just sounds like a fun thing to do.
- Really Gets Around: She spends quite a bit of time in a brothel at one point due to her newly awakened carnal appetites, which require daily satiation. We don't see first-hand what she's been up to, but since the madam mentions that the brothel's other occupants resent her for stealing all their clients, we can assume this trope was involved. She does eventually get involved in multiple monogamous relationships though (or at least as monogamous as one can be when one needs to have sex every day - see Mate or Die above).
- Sex Goddess: She's implied to have already been a skilled lover before, but her undead stamina and the Extreme Libido of the ootooloo, she's become an insatiable one. This is Played for Laughs when Tehol and Bugg seek her out in a fancy brothel, and the madam is only too eager to get rid of Shurq because she's so insatiable and so good in bed that she was hogging away all the clients.
- Technical Pacifist: As a master thief, she doesn't like relying on violence and has a distaste for killing, but she'll do it if she has to, or if she has reason to. She had no problem killing the person who cursed her.
- The Undead: Unbeknownst to her, one of the people she stole from cursed her to never know dead, so when she drowned she was in for quite a shock. After spending a few months stuck in a net on the bottom of the canals, she re-emerged, completely filthy and apathetic. Although rare, the ritual used on her is not unique.
- Undeathly Pallor: When she become the The Undead, her flesh did not decay, nor were any of her physical capabilities diminished, but her skin did gain an unmistakeable unhealthy pallor that makes it obvious she's undead. This becomes much less obvious after Selush's The Makeover that turned her into an Attractive Zombie, though the attentive can still tell she's more pale than a normal woman.
- Undignified Death: She dies in an unclimatic and undignified manner for a thief of her caliber. First, she was only caught because she happened to accidentally kill her landlord, and because it was self-defense and she's a woman the fine was rather low... but because her landlord had stolen her money she couldn't even afford the fine. Even then her sentence for the Drownings at the canal wasn't steep and her being a fit swimmer she was confident she could make it... exceptthat a lupe-fish accidentally got entangled in the ropes tying her to the weights and she ended up sinking and drowning.
Kettle
- Creepy Child: The series is full of unnerving Oracular Urchin types, with the Undead Child Kettle taking the cake. From the constant hints that she's Not Quite Human, to the way she nonchalantly tells of how she kills people and asks Shurq Elalle to point her to more people that need to die, to her matter-of-fact revelations of things "the dead told her". Then she starts coming back to life seemingly out of nowhere. She manages to anger The Stoic Fear Sengar and to unnerve dragon-shapeshifter Silchas Ruin.
- Enfante Terrible: Played with. She's a creepy, Undead Child with a penchant towards murder, but she's also one of the few things standing between a dying Azath's denizens and the rest of Lether. She's also a genuinely nice person and only kills to prevent several Sealed Evils in a Can from escaping a dying Azath House.
- Kill the Cutie: She carries the seed of an Azath House within her. This means that her death was required to allow a new Azath House to grow, holding the soul of Scabandari Bloodeye and saving the Refugium and the now-mortal Imass who inhabit it. Udinaas, who has developed a strong friendship with her, is not at all happy about this, but appears to recognise that allowing the soul of Bloodeye to fall into the wrong hands, or for the mortal Imass to die, would be even worse.
- Oracular Urchin: Kettle is an undead girl who lives in the Azath cemetery in Letheras and nonchalantly kills people she thinks are bad between providing everyone who would listen with matter-of-fact revelations of things "the dead told her", which generally relate to current events she should have no means to know about. Part of her uncanny insights come from her being connected to the Azath Tower and serving it by feeding it the corpses of those she kills. Silchas Ruin claims that Kettle has two souls inside of her, one of which is Forkrul Assail, though he never specifies if the other is native to her once-mortal body or another one stuffed in there after she died. Kettle vaguely remembers being both a mortal child and a Nameless One child of the Eres who was wrapped up in prophecies. When the Azath Tower dies, Kettle starts coming back to life, but she never stops with her mysterious revelations. At the end of Reaper's Gale, Silchas Ruin kills her, and a new Azath House sprouts from her body.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: She tries to kill only evil people to feed the Azath.
- Rape as Drama: Due to the Crapsack World nature of the setting, this happens to her at the start of Reaper's Gale. She is surprisingly stoic about it, but then again, it's also implied that she is Really 700 Years Old, so despite appearing to be a child, she most likely is not one.
- Really 700 Years Old: While she has the appearance of a nine-year-old human child, she is actually a daughter of the goddess the Eres'al and apparently has the soul of a Forkrul Assail, and it's implied that she has been guarding the Azath House for a long, long time. She still behaves like a child in many ways, but is quite a lot more perceptive and resilient than a child would realistically be expected to be.
- The Stoic: Despite the long string of horrible things that happen to her, she remains surprisingly resilient. It may become slightly less surprising when one considers how old she likely really is, or the fact that she is the daughter of a goddess.
- Undead Child: At first. Towards the end of Midnight Tides, she is returned to the living when the Azath House plants its seed in her. Also, she's probably not actually a child, but has the appearance of one.
- Vigilante Man: A truly bizarre example. She targets criminals, spies, etc.
Harlest Eberict
"I want to be scary. It's important that I be scary. I've been practising hissing and snarling."
- Catchphrase: "Fangs and claws".
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Harlest comes off as rather goofy, with all his talk of "fangs and claws" and his desire to scare people. Then he actually uses said claws in an attack on five Toblakai Ascendents.
Rucket
The Chief Investigator of the Rat Catchers' Guild, which, despite its name, does a lot more than catch rats, including assassinations, thievery, and smuggling out refugees. She appears to have significant magical powers, although what they are is not specified.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Although she isn't one, she takes on the appearance of one as a disguise. Tehol appears to be smitten.
- Glamour: It's implied that nearly all the supposed Rat Catchers are actually visions conjured up by either her or by Bubyrd. She, Ormly, and Bubyrd are the only members we ever meet who are suggested to be real. It's not actually clear how they perform all their functions with just three members. She's also capable of changing her appearance.
Janath Anar
A political prisoner of the Patriotists, the Letherii secret police. Prior to her imprisonment she was a highly perceptive academic.
- Babies Ever After: In Dust of Dreams, she is pregnant with Tehol's child and Bugg assures her the child will be healthy.
- Badass Bookworm: The bookworm part is presumably self-evident. She earns the badass part with how she kills Tanal.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: A particularly extreme case. She ends up empress after two lengthy imprisonments in each of which she was subjected to repeated sexual assault, the latter of which she put an end to by killing his assaulter. After her first imprisonment, Bugg did something to ease her psychological trauma, and it's likely that he did so the second time as well. She also writes a history of Tehol's reign as emperor.
- Obfuscating Insanity: She kills Tanal Yathvanar after convincing him she's developed Stockholm Syndrome for him, which she uses to lower his defences and strike at a particularly opportune moment. Her interior monologue indicates that she may actually have been driven mad at some point, but she was certainly faking the Stockholm Syndrome.
- Rape and Revenge: Subjected repeatedly to rape by Tanal Yathvanar. She eventually gets her revenge by convincing him she has Stockholm Syndrome and, having learnt his behaviour patterns, killing him when his defences are furthest down. To add further to the nature of his Karmic Death, she kills him while he is in the midst of sexually assaulting her.
Karos Invictad
'I hold to but one certainty. Power shapes the face of the world. In itself, it is neither benign nor malicious, it is simply the tool by which its wielder reshapes all that is around him or herself, reshapes it to suit his or her own ... comforts. Of course, to express power is to enact tyranny, which can be most subtle and soft, or cruel and hard. Implicit in power – political, familial, as you like – is the threat of coercion. Against all who choose to resist. And know this: if coercion is available, it will be used.'
Invigilator of the Patriotists, the secret police of the Edur Empire of Lether. He serves as one of the main antagonists of Reaper's Gale.- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: An extreme case. He is shocked when the populace rebels in Reaper's Gale, because he is convinced his techniques of terror will infallibly subdue a populace. In all likelihood, these techniques actually made the rebellion worse.
- Smug Snake: In the midst of the events of Reaper's Gale, he thinks he is both the smartest and the richest person in Letheras. He is outclassed in both regards by Tehol, which ultimately leads to his demise.
- Wicked Cultured: A truly despicable man with a fondness for fine clothing and puzzles.
Tanal Yathvanar
Personal assistant to Karos Invictad.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Despite his repeated sexual assault of Janath, he also genuinely believes himself to be in love with her, and she is very easily able to convince him that she is in love with him. This almost immediately leads to his death at her hands.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: While this trope isn't always played straight in this series (in particular, see Rhulad, who is too insane to qualify as truly evil), in Tanal's case it's one of the earliest signs we have of how truly despicable he is.
- Smug Snake: Like his boss, he's an extreme one, not least due to his underestimation of Janath.
- Too Dumb to Live: Quite literally, as a direct consequence of his underestimation of one of the most intelligent academics in the city.
- Torture Technician: A truly disturbing one, since his tortures frequently include sexual assaults of prisoners.
Triban Gnol
The chancellor to King Ezgara Disaknar. He is allied with the Queen, collaborating with her to instigate a war against the Edur.
- Bastard Bastard: He's actually the illegitimate son of Turudal Brizad, the Queen's consort.
- Boom, Headshot!: Blink and you'll miss it, but Tarr kills him with a well-aimed crossbow while the marines storm the Eternal Domicile.
- Corrupt Politician: Not that it is unusual in Lether, but he is blatant about exploiting the powers of his office for the purpose of personal enrichment.
- Depraved Bisexual: On top of his role in administering an oppressive regime that forces much of its population into debt slavery, he also has a disturbing taste for raping young children.
- Evil Chancellor: His service to King Ezgara is little more than nominal, and he conspires with the Queen against him to start a war with the Edur with eyes on acquiring wealth from their land's natural resources. He embodies this trope even more strongly under Rhulad, whom he systematically isolates from the other Edur, allowing him to feed the Emperor carefully curated reports that ensure the supposed ruler of Lether will make choices that align with Gnol's interests.
- Evil Old Folks: Corrupt Politician, orchestrator of ethnic cleansing and rapist, all in his senior years.
- Half-Human Hybrid: He is the son of the Errant, an Azathanai. Interestingly, this status doesn't seem to grant him any unique features, and Gnol himself even seems to be unaware his father is a masquerading Elder God.
- Parental Incest: He has had a long-running relationship with his own father, who he even considers to be an ideal lover.
- Patricide: He killed his father with his own hands. Or rather, he killed the man who raised him as his son. His biological father is the Errant after all.
- The Quisling: A subversion. When the Edur conquer Letheras, he swiftly swears fealty to Rhulad. However, it quickly becomes clear he has no intention of letting the Edur control Letheras. By isolating Rhulad from the other Edur, he manages to effectively lock them out of administering the country, and by reducing Rhulad to a Puppet King allows the old Letherii aristocracy to control the country much as they did before, with the Edur even adopting Letherii's culture and political system rather than the other way around.
Ceda Kuru Qan
The elderly Ceda, the Letherii equivalent of the Malazan Empire's High Mage.
- Batman Gambit: He manages to trap Hannan Mosag's enslaved god by luring it into Settle Lake by falsely signaling that there is a source of great power within and then having Mael and a Jaghut imprison it in ice.
- Court Mage: For Letheras and King Ezgara.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He seems like an eccentric scholarly mage suffering from a Sanity Slippage as a result of his studies, spending much of Midnight Tides obsessed with a random tile in the Eternal Domicile, but come the finale he channels the power of the Holds in a devastating spell that would have wiped out the Tiste Edur had it not been for Trull's well-aimed spear.
- Heroic Sacrifice: His spirit surrenders itself to Chaos to help create a portal that allows Karsa to follow Rhulad's soul to the Crippled God's warren and put him down for good.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: Described as a "small, ancient man."
- Nerd Glasses: He invented thick, primitive glasses for himself so he could continue his research after his vision was stolen by studying the Empty Hold.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Reaper's Gale reveals that he foresaw his own death at Trull's hands, but also was unable to prevent it from occurring.
Ublala Pung
A half-blood Tarthenal hired by Tehol.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: His giant manhood leaves many women to lust after him, to the point Shand, Rissarh, and Hejun mostly want to use him as a sex toy. Shurq later also takes him as her lover, and he's apparently "enough" to keep the ootooloo satisfied for quite some time.
- Dumb Muscle: He's very strong and big, but also quite dumb and naive, and easily manipulated by just about everyone.
- Gentle Giant: Despite being a towering due to his Tarthenal blood, he's quite a sensitive person and hates that Shand, Rissarh, and Hejun only see him as a Lust Object.
- Ham and Deadpan Duo: Becomes one with Draconus in Dust of Dreams, with him being a giant man-child. while Draconus is a millennia-old Elder God. While they wander the prairie, Ublala is being his usual cheerfully boisterous self and Draconus remains the reserved Deadpan Snarker.Ublala: I've met gods before. They collect chickens.
Draconus: We possess mysterious ways indeed. - Gag Penis: His large member is a constant source of jokes, and Tehol's constantly annoyed by how often women get entranced by his manhood.
- The Klutz: Because of his sheer size, he's often breaking things without meaning to.
- A Man Is Always Eager: Defied. He can't get over the fact that all the women just want what's in his pants and don't treasure him for being a person with wants and needs. He basically falls in love with Shurq when she gives him the bare minimum of affection.
The Shake
Yan Tovis
Yan Tovis, whose name means Twilight, is a Letherii Atri-Preda. Secretly, she has a far more important role as a princess of the Shake, whose destiny involves the intersection of Light and Dark.
- Arranged Marriage: A marriage is arranged for her with Brullyg, a Shake criminal, but she refuses to accept it and avoids the marriage entirely.
- Puppet King: Defied. Twilight makes a conscious effort to avoid becoming one, asserting her independence by taking actions such as refusing to accept her Arranged Marriage with Brullyg.
- Royal Blood: She is secretly a princess of the Shake, and becomes queen following the death of her mother.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: She participates in the defense of the First Shore alongside her followers.
Yedan Derryg
The prince of the Shake, and half-sister of Twilight. Known as the Watch, he is, without doubt, one of the most stone-cold badasses in the series.
- Aloof Big Brother: A half-sibling version of this to Twilight. Before Reaper's Gale they hadn't even seen each other since they were children.
- Decapitation Presentation: He performs one, throwing the head of a Hound of Light through Lightfall to show to the Liosan's armies.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: He has a sharp jawline.
- Master Swordsman: He's skilled enough to take on a Forkrul Assail and multiple Liosan warriors on his lonesome. Once he picks up a Hust Sword, he becomes an unstoppable killing machine.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: He kills all but two of the Shake witches and warlocks (Skwish and Pully) to put an end to their scheming. Twilight is horrified with him and banishes him for it, but he points out that they had been plotting against her.
- Mutual Kill: He and Aparal Forge kill each other on the field of battle.
- One-Man Army: He starts out badass enough, but once he obtains a Hust Sword, he becomes one of the most formidable fighters in the entire series, killing all four of the remaining Hounds of Light and multiple Soletaken Eleint during the defense of the First Shore.
- The Quiet One: He's not very talkative.'He might well possess a hundred thousand words in his head...but that did not mean he laboured under the need to give them voice.'
Northern Lands
Udinaas
"You will discover that the notion of debt is not so easily denied."
A Letherii slave among the Tiste Edur. He is Indebted, and the debt is owned, by extension, by Tehol Beddict. Udinaas is extremely intelligent and Genre Savvy.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Is hopelessly in love with Feather Witch, who initially doesn't have the time of day for him. When she finally realises she is in love with him, he has already moved on and wants nothing to do with her.
- Attempted Rape: In Reaper's Gale, Feather Witch apparently decides that throwing herself naked at Udinaas is a good way to win his alliance, since he used to love her. This uncomfortably harkens back to when Menandore raped him in Midnight Tides, especially since Menandore herself has just left the scene. Udinaas tells Feather Witch in no uncertain terms where she can stick her attempts at seduction.
- Beneath the Mask: Tries for Obfuscating Stupidity on the outside by playing the obedient slave, though nobody who bothers to look even remotely past the facade is buying it; and even then he still manages to say one thing and think another, usually something along the lines of 'That's why I said it, so you can go on enjoying your blessed ignorance.'
- Conversational Troping: Most notable in Reaper's Gale when he launches into a lengthy rant about Dungeon Crawling, but subtler instances occur:
- Cosmic Plaything: Udinaas is introduced in Midnight Tides and starts out quite content with life. It could be worse, anyway. Needless to say, it doesn't last. He gets caught up in one plan gone horribly wrong after another, with gods and those that fancy themselves as such poking around in his brain and life like it's cheese.
- Dream Walker: Played with in the dreams of Udinaas. He does not himself walk in other people's dreams, but others, especially gods and those seeking power, are drawn to his dreams like moths to a flame, sharing information with him, trying to seduce him to join their side or trying to spy on him. Udinaas eventually learns to banish anyone he doesn't want inside his dreams but just the fact that he has to guard against them means many a sleepless night for him.
- Genre Savvy: At least when it comes to heroic tales, which he spends a significant amount of time taunting Fear Sengar with in Reaper's Gale, as well as what his master & slave relationship to Rhulad is supposed to entail, which he deconstructs by laying out the actual mechanics of to the reader.
- Happiness in Slavery: Initially. Being a slave among the Tiste Edur means he has food, shelter, mostly fair treatment and also the company of other people from his home country among the other slaves. Being free would mean having none of these things, as due to his home country's system of hereditary debt he's in so far he'd have to sell himself into slavery with far worse conditions just to pay off a sliver of his father's or grandfather's debt, probably on a trader galley, too, again, and he hates the sea with a passion.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Described as 'ravaged eyes, a bleakness like defiant ice in this world of fire' in Reaper's Gale. He is always quick with a cold grin and a sharp-tongued comment, but Rud also notes how Udinaas is capable of 'ethereal ease' when he allows his harsh emotions to pass.
- Meta Guy: Udinaas spends most of his time in Reaper's Gale making observations about the storyline he's involved in, the people he travels with and their intentions, all the while commenting on the absurdity of it all.
- Morality Pet: Udinaas serves as this to Rhulad Sengar, the Emperor of a Thousand Deaths, during the conquest of Lether in Midnight Tides. He is fully aware of it and even lampshades it after a battle in which many of the enemy soldiers had been slaughtered by chaos magic: Udinaas comments on how Rhulad had been furious about the outcome, but only because he had wanted to fight and die — the other sentiments, like anger about the senseless slaughter, had been borrowed from Udinaas. He later mentions how the role he served should have been occupied by someone from Rhulad's family, but they had all been too busy feeling sorry for themselves.
- The Nondescript: Goes largely unnoticed wherever he is, and Seren Pedac even calls him 'nondescript' at one point.
- Open-Minded Parent: To Ryadd, when they finally get around to get to know each other.
- Precision F-Strike:"You understand too much", Clip said in that lilting, offhand tone of his. "Did you hear me, Udinaas?"
"Go fuck yourself", the slave muttered. - Rape as Drama: Is raped by Menandore shortly after his introduction. It's not played for titillation or comedy; it's completely horrifying.
- Smarter Than You Look: In-Universe. After listening to Udinaas for a while, Fear Sengar has to reevaluate his opinion of the former slave as just capable of menial work. When he tells Udinaas he should've been a king and not a slave based on his intelligence and vision, Udinaas just curses him for his trouble.
- Spirit Advisor: Deconstructed. Wither, a wraith, tries to play the spirit advisor towards Udinaas, a slave. Wither hides in Udinaas' shadow to escape capture, and offers Udinaas secret knowledge and advice in exchange. Unfortunately, Wither is a Jerkass with delusions of grandeur, while Udinaas knows that knowing too much is bad for your health. When he eventually escapes slavery, Wither keeps hounding him and whispering pseudo-arcane revelations until Udinaas calls him out on how anyone with a working brain could come to the same conclusions. The now ex-slave points out that Wither feels cheated after he's put so much time and effort into it and now wants Udinaas to have been worth all that attention, which Udinaas isn't as he isn't willing to play along. Wither repays the insight by trying to kill Udinaas in the finale of Reaper's Gale.
- Stepford Snarker: Eventually, he starts to dish out 'The Reasons All of You Suck, Myself Included'-speeches and snide remarks left, right and centre in an attempt to hide how he truly feels.
- Stopped Caring: Udinaas starts off as rather emotionally uninvolved but builds a growing wall between himself and everyone else the further the story goes. Remarkably, he never loses his capacity for feeling compassion and occasionally acts on it, but he does not get particularly involved with any one person unless he can help it, to prevent himself from being burdened with their problems.
- That Thing Is Not My Child!: His initial reaction after meeting Rud Elalle for the first time. He mellows out quite quickly and comes to love Rud/Ryadd.
- Too Clever by Half: Udinaas discusses the downsides of being too smart in Reaper's Gale. When Fear Sengar points out that the former slave, by the measure of his intelligence and vision, should have been a king and not a slave, Udinaas acidly counters that he's too smart and driven and would be unable to stop once he'd started to openly question the system. Too many people like him on the loose and any governmental system would eventually collapse in bloody rebellion. Thus he deems it safer for society at large and himself in particular to spend his days scraping fish.
Feather Witch
A Letherii slave among the Tiste Edur. She was born into slavery and possesses a talent for casting the tiles.
- All Love Is Unrequited: She doesn't have the day for Udinaas, who is initially hopelessly in love with her. By the time she realises she has feelings for him, he has moved on and wants nothing to do with her.
- Jerkass: To an extent, her treatment of Udinaas qualifies her for this, although she does eventually have some Pet the Dog moments towards him. It's subtly hinted towards the end of Midnight Tides that she may actually return his feelings for her, but is afraid to acknowledge them and behaves horribly to him as a result. However, her internal monologue in Reaper's Gale is initially still quite dismissive of him, so if this is the case, even she isn't aware of it. It's also implied that part of the reason she treats him horribly is as her way of coping with the abuse she herself is suffering at the hands of Mayen, which would make her a Jerkass Woobie. (For that matter, so is Mayen herself.)
- A Love to Dismember: Feather Witch is revealed to have kept one of Brys Beddict's severed fingers, and the narration is not shy about what she does with it.
- Outdated Name: Feather Witch was named thus due to her talent in casting the tiles. Seren Pedac wonders who named her because the name is so old, she hasn't heard it in a long time, and even then only in connection to histories. It's no longer in use among the Letherii but seems to have been kept somewhat alive among the Letherii slaves living among the Tiste Edur.
- Sanity Slippage: Her internal monologue and actions eventually reveal that she has essentially gone insane, quite possibly as a result of all the horrible things that happened to her when she was a slave. Her thoughts may also qualify her for Blue-and-Orange Morality.
Seren Pedac
"Destiny is a lie. Destiny is justification for atrocity. It is the means by which murderers armour themselves against reprimand. It is a word intended to stand in place of ethics, denying all moral context."
One of the seven Acquitors — guides for Letherii merchants engaging in business with peoples outside the borders of the kingdom — sanctioned by a treaty between Lether and the Tiste Edur.
- Amicable Exes: Well, amicable is a stretch, but the bitterness doesn't come from their relationship. By the time she and Hull Beddict meet in Midnight Tides after years of separation, there is no romantic connection whatsoever left between them.
- Drowning My Sorrows: She drinks herself to the point of passing out in Trate after Baruk's suicide and as the Tiste Edur are about to invade, creating the circumstances for her rape.
- Guilt Complex: During her years on the frontier as an Acquitor, she has become quite familiar with the atrocities the Letherii visit upon the peoples unfortunate enough to be in the way of their expansion. As a consequence, she clearly abhors her people and has a fair bit of guilt over being involved with them in any way. However, it goes further; several times, she also heaps blame on herself for things she did in her various love affairs.
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: During their journey from Trate to Letheras (soon after her rape), she and the Crimson Guardsmen come across a group of deserters from the Letherii military who've been raiding nearby farms and villages. Iron Bars makes sure to kill all of them so she can't act out her anger on torturing one of them, because she might grow to like the feeling. After a brief conversation, she agrees.
- Interspecies Romance: With Trull Sengar.
- Love at First Sight: Kind of, although it takes them some time to admit it, with Trull. They first meet for a longer time during the Great Meeting, when Rhulad takes over from Hannan Mosag, and silently bond over the two of them being the only ones who understand on an instinctive level the disaster that is about to happen.
- Mind Rape: In Reaper's Gale, she subjects Udinaas to a version of this.
- Someone to Remember Him By: In the epilogue to Reaper's Gale, we find out that she conceived the one time she and Trull slept together before his death.
- Survivor Guilt: Over Baruk's suicide after his declaration of love.
- Took a Level in Badass: During her run-in with Iron Bars and his Crimson Guardsmen, Corlo discovers that she's been using Mockra unknowingly all her life, and teaches her how to control it. She becomes more decisive after that.
The Awl
Redmask
A mysterious individual named for the red mask he wears, Redmask fights to protect the Awl people from the encroaching colonial aspirations of the Letherii, with the aid of two K'Chain Che'Malle.
- An Arm and a Leg: Overlapping with Half the Man He Used to Be, his legs are cut off above the knees by the K'Chain Che'Malle. For good measure, one of his arms is cut off too.
- Malevolent Masked Man: He is a mysterious and deadly warrior who always wears his trademark mask, quite literally never taking it off within sight of others because it would reveal that he is Letherii.
- Raised by Natives: He's actually a Letherii who was raised among the Awl after being kidnapped as a child.
- Weapon Specialization: One of his trademark weapons is a whip.note
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: When the Awl are massacred by the Letherii, his K'Chain Che'Malle companions swiftly turn on him.
- Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: To the Letherii, he's a dangerous savage, but to the Awl he's a valiant fighter for their freedom.
Torrent
A teenage Awl warrior who becomes a devoted follower of Redmask.
- Blind Obedience: He has unwavering faith in Redmask, even as the situation against the Letherii becomes more and more desparate.
- Friend to All Children: He leads the Awl children to safety during the battle at Q'uson Tapi and, come The Crippled God is the only member of his traveling party who refuses to accept a gift from Olar Ethil in exchange for surrendering Tool's children. He ultimately sacrifices himself to kill the first Bonecaster and allow them to escape.
- Last of His Kind: Following the events of Reaper's Gale, he's not quite the only Awl left alive, as many children also survived the battle, but since the children are going to be raised by the Barghast and will no doubt swiftly integrate, he is the last individual who will retain full knowledge of the Awl's culture. By the end of Dust of Dreams, he is the last surviving Awl, period.
- Punishment Detail: Redmask forces him to work with Toc training the children as punishment for his attitude problems.
- Tribal Face Paint: He tries to don warpaint inspired by Redmask's trademark mask, but it unfortunately gives him a rash.
Others
Queen Abrastal
"Oh, eat my shit. If you could pull off the perfect disguise of a Khundryl to get a knife in my back, there'd be four of 'em riding up to our parley, not three. Go play with your brother, and tell me nothing about what you get up to with him. I'd like to keep my food down for a change."
Abrastal is the Queen of the Bolkando Kingdom and, although her husband King Tarkulf is technically the King, she is the one who rules in truth. She has at least fourteen daughters and an unnamed number of sons but has remained an Amazonian Beauty with a no-nonsense personality and a deadly temper. She is notable in-universe for her long, fiery red hair which prompts Warchief Spax to nickname her Firehair, whether she likes it or not.
- Action Mom: She's had at least fourteen daughters and an unnamed number of sons, but she still rides into battle when needed.
- Amazonian Beauty: Abrastal is described as very attractive — at the very least in the eyes of Amazon Chaser Spax — with long, fiery hair, deep brown eyes, wide hips and a build to rival that of Krughava, who is the leader of the Grey Helms through Asskicking Leads to Leadership but in contrast to Abrastal decidedly not beautiful.
- Bling of War: Played With. When Abrastal is introduced in Dust of Dreams, her royal armour of black-scaled iron with golden filigree, the royal crest and serpent ornaments, as well as the accompanying lacquered scabbard of exquisite workmanship, are described in loving detail. She then points out the helm, sword-belt and the gauntlets and curses everything else as being unwearable.
- Important Haircut: Shortly before the final battle in The Crippled God, Queen Abrastal shaves her signature red tresses. This is Played for Laughs because not only does Spax have some words to say about her killing his lust for her, but in the middle of the procedure an important message arrives and Abrastal has to meet a royal emissary from Lether with a half-shorn head. She finishes the job before the battle, though.
- In-Series Nickname: She is nicknamed Firehair by Spax on account of her long, fiery hair and equally fiery temper.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Queen Abrastal of the Bolkando Kingdom is of the opinion that the basic purpose of rule is to enforce civility, which is what she strives to do, going so far as send her favourite daughter on a dangerous mission. Abrastal is the one who actively rules the kingdom behind the scenes while her husband King Tarkulf is distracted by the pleasures of the court. She is also a Lady of War and while she is by law not allowed to command all of the kingdom's armies, she does have her own troops, known as the Evertine Legion, and she does personally lead them into war.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Abrastal swears a lot even in comparison to Barghast Warchief Spax, who by his very station is requiered to be crude. What sets Abrastal apart from the gerenal swearing of the cast is that she's a queen, her swearing is hands-on rather than using Unusual Euphemisms native to the series and the swearing gets worse in the presence of her chilren. She tells her daughter Hethry to "eat my shit" as a way to express that she's not buying her concern.
Princess Felash
Shurq Elalle: Abyss below! I can't say I'm looking forward to transporting that puffed-up pastry-mauler all the way to the Akrynnai Range.
Princess Felash is the fourteen-year-old fourteenth daughter of King Tarkulf and Queen Abrastal of the Bolkando Kingdom and Abrastal's favourite. She is first introduced as a Royal Brat politicking in Letheras in Dust of Dreams. She has a garish sense of fashion, a huge appetite for pastries and an addiction to smoking rustleaf, by which she competently distracts everyone from her quick wits. As it turns out, Felash is also a capable sorceress who can access the Elder Warren of Omtose Phellack.
- Age-Inappropriate Dress: Felash is fourteen, yet when she is introduced she just drips gaudy jewellry and wears skin-tight clothing that reveals her plump figure and, as far as the top is concerned, reveals as much of her skin as it hides with thin strips of tight fabric. The outfit is accompanied by high-heeled shoes and make-up and hair more appropriate for the stage. Shurq suspects it's supposed to make her look older than she is but thinks it makes her look more like an uncanny doll than anything else.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Felash spends most of her time she is in the story in her quarters smoking rustleaf, eating sweets and behaving like a Royal Brat, but when she decides it'S time to act it turns out she's a sorceress of considerable talent, able to use the Elder Warren of Omtose Phellack.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: She's very well endowed and often makes use of her breasts to distract men, though she herself often finds them a bother. Shurq is also envious of her figure, especially due to the fact Felash doesn't care about it.
- Character Tics: Shurq notices how Felash has a habit of hovering one hand at an artful distance to her head and wriggling her fingers, which seems to her a silly affectation. As it turns out, that's similar to the gestures Felash employs to work magic.
- D-Cup Distress: Felash complains about her big breasts at one point because it's uncomfortable to have them appropriately presented all the time but not binding them up some makes them too heavy, but when Shurq points out that there are herbs to change that, Felash regretfully admits that she needs "those damned things" to keep men distracted. Shurq has little sympathy for Felash's plight and thinks she doesn't deserve them, then.
- Functional Addict: Felash is addicted to smoking rustleaf, which she started at the age of six due to the stress of being a royal princess at the court of Bolkando. She is so used to it, she functions normally despite constantly smoking, and thanks to her handmaid she's always got enough rustleaf and a pipe ready.
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Felash's handmaiden is revealed to be a serious badass when she is sent into the Hold of Omtose Phellack. She has to fight for her life every step of the way, because everything there is trying to kill her. She makes it out alive, though, and brought a ship with her to top it off. It's later revealed that she's a renegade Seguleh.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Felash calls her breasts her "first gifts of diplomacy", and though she privately has some small degree of D-Cup Distress, she readily admits that having big breasts is better than not having them, since they keep men's eyes distracted from her clever politicking.
- Ninja Maid: Felash's nameless handmaid is first presented as a regular bodyguard, but turns out to be a deadly, highly badasss assassin for the Princess. The Crippled God reveals her to be from an island warrior society, the Seguleh.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Downplayed because all signs indicate that Felash is a Royal Brat, it's just that she clearly is exaggerating this trait in order to seem more harmless and annoying, since no one would expect a capable diplomat and sorceress who can handle a knife as well behind her act.
- Politically-Active Princess: Felash is first seen visiting Letheras for political reasons. Beyond her prissy persona, she is actually competent. This is played for laughs when Shurq Elalle wonders what Felash is actually doing in Letheras and Queen Janath claims she's annihilating rival spy networks — the ones which Bugg had left hanging out of indifference, that is.
- Royal Brat: Downplayed. Felash is introduced as a indulgent, haughty and pampered brat with an air of entitlement, but she is never shown to treat other people badly, just condescending like calling Shurq Elalle 'dear'. She does expect her every wish to be catered to but her only handmaiden doesn't seem too unhappy about it and it becomes increasingly obvious that she is very smart and knows how to manipulate people into doing what she wants them to, which includes political matters, so that part of her behaviour is an act.
- Younger Than They Look: Felash is fourteen years old, but several characters put her at a couple years older and Shurq strongly suspects that Felash's outrageous attire is supposed to make her look older. Her make-up better suits the stage and reminds Shurq of a creepy porcelain doll, while the fact that Felash acts at least a decade older than she really is make her seem condescending.
