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Songbreeze Swifteye

  • Daddy's Girl: Unlike Dannflor and Rusvul, Songbreeze and Janglur get along very well.
  • The Heart: She's the backbone of the group, giving Dann a pep talk when he needs it and encouraging the nobler paths of action.
  • Meaningful Name: Is a fantastic singer.
  • Odd Friendship: She befriends the Mighty Megraw, a warlike osprey.
  • The Smurfette Principle: She's the sole girl among the main trio, and its most moral member.

Dannflower Reguba

  • The Berserker: As Raventail finds out the hard way.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Dannflor is normally a kind and gentle soul but that doesn't mean he's not a warrior.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Notably when he takes on Raventail single-pawed and quite nearly kills him. From that point on, he becomes the warrior his father always wanted him to be.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: It doesn't help when his dad calls him a coward.

Dippler

  • The Lancer: He's more aloof and pragmatic than Dann or Song, having no trouble with killing.
  • Klingon Promotion: Zig-zagged. Fenno never became Log-a-Log, but he murdered the old Log-a-Log. By Guosim tradition, a new Log-a-Log can't be chosen until the Guosim traitor who murdered the old one is slain. Dippler, by virtue of avenging the old Log-a-Log, takes his place.
  • Martial Arts Headband: Part of the usual ensemble for Guosim shrews.
  • Pintsized Powerhouse: Shrews are typically shorter than most. It doesn't slow Dippler down much.
  • You Killed My Father: His reason for chasing after Fenno.

Burble

  • Motor Mouth: Lampshaded in his introduction.
  • The Smart Guy: He's not a warrior like the other three, but has more knowledge about their surroundings.
  • Verbal Tic: "Yiss yiss."

Janglur Swifteye

  • Big Fun: He's got a bit of a belly, and is a jovial person to be around.
  • Good Parents: He's a really good dad to Song.
  • Stout Strength: His weight doesn't hamper his fighting ability one bit.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: He's not above calling out Rusvul after the latter tears into his son for his supposed cowardice.

Rusvul Reguba

  • Heel Realization: When Dannflor takes off to retrieve the tapestry of Martin the Warrior, Rusvul realizes that he was much too harsh on his son for failing to guard it earlier, and expresses his regret when talking to Janglur later on.
  • Parents as People: Martin knows he tries to be a nice guy, but he's a fighter at heart and doesn't realize he's being unreasonably harsh.
  • So Proud of You: He finally has the chance to say as much at the end of the story, passing the title of Reguba along to Dann.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: He's the recipient of this, as part of Dann's motivation is to finally prove himself in his father's eyes.

Fenno

  • The Bully: Is this to Dippler, constantly belittling him for his mistakes.
  • Cornered Rattlesnake: Bully and coward though he might be, Fenno turns out to be a challenging foe for Dippler when finally cornered.
  • Dirty Coward: He kills Log-a-Log by spearing him In the Back with a thrown rapier, and initially tries to murder Dippler while the latter's defenseless before being forced into a fair fight.
  • Humiliation Conga: His life after murdering the Log-a-Log and deserting the Guosim becomes this in short order, courtesy of being captured by Mokkan and his band. Not that he didn't have it coming.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Aside from the abovementioned Humiliation Conga, he's ultimately done in when he decides to try and kill Dippler after stumbling across the heroes.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Killed by Dippler in a Duel to the Death in revenge for the murdered Log-a-Log. Dippler notes to the dying Fenno that if he were doing this trope properly, he should have fatally stabbed Fenno in the back.
  • Right Behind Me: While a captive of Mokkan's, when the fox goes off scouting, Fenno tries to encourage the rats holding him captive to mutiny and mocks them for their superstitious fear of the Marlfox brood, disparaging the foxes in the process. Then Mokkan, having snuck up behind Fenno without being seen, makes a wise crack at the shrew's expense before pummelling Fenno for amusement.

Gawjo Swifteye

Mighty Megraw

  • It's Personal: The Marlfox brood's pet magpies ambushed him while he was sleeping, resulting in his injured wing. He'd gladly leap at the chance to get revenge, though his inability to fly puts a damper on that. Once his wing is fixed, he makes good on his vow.
  • Broken Angel: His wing is dislocated when we first meet him, and he can't fly. This doesn't seem to deter him greatly, and his wing gets fixed anyway.

Sollertree / Skyspike

  • The Big Guy: He's remarkably huge.
  • Gentle Giant: He's also remarkably nice.
  • Meaningful Rename: His real name is Skyspike, but he renamed himself after he started living alone. It's country talk for Solitary, if you couldn't tell.
  • Monster Façade: When confronted with vermin, his tactic is to rear up to his impressive full height and start roaring the most bloodthirsty threats at them, which sends them running... and leaves him sprawled on the ground and gasping for breath.

The Marlfox Brood

As a whole:

  • And There Was Much Rejoicing: Once the last Marlfox is dead, the water rats under their command happily celebrate their newfound freedom, throw their weapons into the lake, and settle down to become farmers.
  • Badass Cape: They all wear cloaks with mottled patterns that help them blend in with their surroundings.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: They have no problems with backstabbing each other in their bid to rule Castle Marl.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: As they themselves note, treachery runs in the Marlfox brood. Even before the book began, Silth and her unnamed mate backstabbed and wiped out the regular foxes that helped them conquer what is now Marlfox Island, and Silth then turned on her mate over a leadership dispute. Over the course of the book, their plotting against each other does about as much damage to themselves as the Redwallers do to them.
  • Mauve Shirt: As the largest group to collectively serve as the main antagonist of their book, most of the Marlfoxes get a moderate amount of characterization before they start dropping like flies.
  • Meaningful Name: "Marl" is an earthy material rich in clays, silt, and calcium carbonate, giving it a grey color similar to how the Marlfoxes' fur is described.
  • The Nondescript: Invoked, as they have patchy fur colors that make them hard to see.
  • Rule of Seven: Seven siblings and their mother, Silth.
  • Weapon Specialization: All Marlfoxes that fight use an axe, presumably passed down in the family.

Mokkan

  • Ambition Is Evil: He's dead-set on becoming king. He does, for a while.
  • Bad Boss: He executes a rat for being afraid of the deep water.
  • The Chessmaster: He's generally good at manipulating and duping those around him for his own ends.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Ditches his siblings at Redwall, then almost all of his forces, and then he pushes his sister into a lake full of pike.
  • Cunning Like a Fox: Mokkan is the smartest of the Marlfoxes, and stays two steps ahead of the Redwallers, the Guosim, and even the other Marfoxes throughout the entire book.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Prone to making snide remarks.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Even for a Marlfox, Mokkan is eerily serene, throttling a rat sent to spy on him to death while speaking soothingly to the victim and murdering his sister Lantur without ever breaking out of a sweet facade.
  • Equal-Opportunity Evil: Shockingly for a Redwall villain, Mokkan's ascent to kingship is heralded by him promising the Marlfox's slaves that they can easily earn a position in his guard while also threatening the soldiers that screwups or laziness mean they'll be made slaves.
  • Expy: There's a striking resemblance between his story arc and that of Lord and Lady Macbeth, with all of the former's ambition, all of the latter's cruelty, and all the Sanity Slippage of both.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Is fully capable of affecting a charming facade, such as when he greets Lantur upon arriving back at Castle Marl with a smile while expressing "sorrow" at their mother's sudden passing...all while planning to murder her.
  • The Heavy: Mokkan is the leader of the Marlfoxes dispatched to Redwall, and the one who makes off with the tapestry, but he's still subservient to Queen Silth. Once both she and Lantur are out of the picture, and all his other siblings get themselves killed at the Abbey, it becomes abundantly clear that he's been the main villain the whole time.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: He pushes Lantur into the lake to be eaten by pike; he later gets knocked in and eaten by them himself.
  • Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Mokkan had no idea that Lantur had just finished putting her plan to murder their mother into action so she could be queen, but when he shows up back home, he wastes no time taking advantage of the finishing touches to derail the whole thing and kill his sister himself so he can be the king.
  • Manipulative Bastard: The biggest schemer in the whole book, outplaying the woodlanders and even his siblings in his bid for personal power.
  • Opportunistic Bastard: As intelligent as Mokkan is, the trait that most leads to his success is his ability to spot any part of a situation that will further his schemes or his survival and pounce on it like a cat.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the heroes raid his castle, and it becomes clear that the fight is lost, he sheds his embroidered finery of kingship and throws on his old Marlfox cloak, intending to make a run for it. It doesn't work out for him.
  • Wanting Is Better Than Having: As vast as his ambition is, becoming King brings a host of bad dreams, leaving him on the verge of madness even before the Redwallers come knocking at his door.
  • We Need a Distraction: In order to kill his sister Lantur, Mokkan makes a grand show of having his troops unveil the admittedly impressive tapestry of Martin the Warrior. While the soldiers are distracted, Mokkan pushes her into the water where she gets tangled up in the tattered remains of Silth's burial shroud and her screaming and struggling attracts the pikes. With the coerced testimony of Ullig and Wilce, he then convinces them all it was the White Ghost that did it.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: After he becomes king, Mokkan begins a descent into madness, which is partially fueled by sudden nightmares about vengeful woodlanders and his dead siblings.

Gelltor

  • Bait the Dog: He is initially more polite and curious, at least compared to his siblings, during his first meeting with the woodlanders, after they offer him and Predak some soup, but he quickly turns to threatening them after being ordered to leave and is highly aggressive in fighting them afterward.
  • The Berserker: Unlike most of his siblings, Gelltor has no reservations about charging headlong into the fight.
  • Blood Knight: Out of all of the Marlfoxes, he is the most eager to fight and go to war.
  • The Brute: He's mostly a fighter rather than a thinker.
  • Underestimating Badassery: After being captured by the Redwallers, Gelltor calls Janglur a coward that can't fight without an army at his back. Janglur proves Gelltor wrong by challenging him to single combat and soundly kicking his ass.

Ascrod

  • The Dragon: He often accompanies Vannan and is her most trusted advisor.
  • Only Sane Man: He implies he wants to let his other die of old age rather than plot against her like some of his siblings, has enough Pragmatic Villainy not to attack or finish off people he dislikes who haven't seriously provoked him, and, most significantly, he's the only Marlfox who thinks that it's a good idea to quit while they're ahead after successfully stealing the tapestry. Given that the others ignore him and they subsequently all end up dead, he probably had a point.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Cregga snipes him in the head with a longbow, aided by Ellayo. This being Cregga, the arrow pierces his head and keeps going.

Vannan

  • Agony of the Feet: One of the schemes she devised involved dropping a tree on the abbey wall, which might have worked had it not been home to both termites and bees. Vannan is noted to have been bitten so many times by termites that her footpaw became extremely swollen.
  • Cunning Like a Fox: Probably the second most clever of the Marlfoxes that assaulted Redwall, after Mokkan.
  • Evil Genius: After Mokkan ditches, Vannan is the one that comes up with most of the plans.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Gets a lethal dose of the Idiot Ball when she decides that it's a good idea to stand there and mock the Redwallers charging at her forces. She gets skewered by a thrown javelin before she even gets to finish for her troubles.

Ziral

  • Hot-Blooded: She doesn't hesitate to snap at her men, get impatient about taking things slow, or voice her contempt for Queen Silith and doesn't get along well with Mokkan, who she is paired with, even drawing an axe on him [[Do Unto Othera Before They Do Unto Us after he points out that the Marlfox siblings will likely all turn on each other sooner or later.
  • Off with His Head!: Beheaded with her own axe by Janglur.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: She exists just to get killed off and give the Marlfoxes a reason to war with (ironically, after having previously argued against going to war after the abbey-dwellers wounded Gelltor).

Predak

Lantur

  • Big Bad Wannabe: She manages to outplay her mother, kill her, and set herself up to be the next Queen...and then Mokkan shows up at the funeral to prove she's utterly outclassed.
  • Daddy's Girl: It's stated that she was her father's favorite.
  • The Dragon: To her mother, Queen Silth.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: Treachery runs in the family when it comes to the Marlfox brood.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: Falling into a lake filled with ravenous, flesh-eating fish is not a pleasant way to die.
  • I Know You Know I Know / Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo: How she offs Silth.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Murders her mother in order to claim rulership. Mokkan shows up before she's even finished with the funeral and proclaiming her new reign to kill her himself to claim rulership.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Kills her own mother to become ruler of Castle Marl...for all of ten seconds before Mokkan shows up.
  • The Starscream: Most of Lantur's story arc consists of her Gaslighting her mother and plotting to take over.
  • The Unfought: The only one of the siblings who never leaves the island. And by the time it's invaded, she's already been taken out of the picture by Mokkan.

High Queen Silth

  • Beauty Is Bad: Played with — while she herself is no beauty, she's had countless valuable and precious treasures stolen to fill her bedchamber, in her delusion that death cannot visit where there are things of beauty.
  • The Caligula: Ruthless, bad-tempered, and has little regard for the lives of her water rat subjects.
  • Death By Genre Savvy: She outthinks herself when Lantur suspiciously pours them some wine.
  • Evil Matriarch: She slew her mate over a leadership dispute, and fosters treachery amidst her children while ruling them with an iron paw.
  • God Save Us from the Queen!: With a hair-trigger temper, excessive vanity, and her concern for her own safety and comfort first and foremost, she rivals Tsarmina of Mossflower in this regard.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: The reason the Marlfoxes are even attacking Redwall is that they are looking for riches to grace her throne room.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: She's very easy to provoke, especially with regards to the White Ghost.
  • Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo: Her daughter Lantur poisons her this way.
  • Too Clever by Half: Silth outthinks herself ...just how she did it is very complicated to explain.
  • The Unfought: The heroes never confront her... in fact, they never even really hear of her; she's dead and forgotten by the time they reach Castle Marl.

Raventail and his Barbarians

  • Blood Knight: Unlike most vermin, they willingly and gleefully charge right into battle, especially Raventail.
  • Villain Team-Up: Raventail and his ferret tribe were first introduced as antagonists to Dann and co, but later teamed up with the Marlfoxes to take over Redwall.

Ullig

  • The Dog Bites Back: He's killed by the slaves he mistreated.
  • The Dreaded: He's feared and loathed by both the slaves and the rat soldiers under his command.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Mokkan forces him and Wilce to help him kill Lantur with the implicit threat they'll die otherwise, and afterwards he promptly strips Ullig of his position back down to a grunt soldier.

Wilce

  • Disproportionate Retribution: She once had a slave beaten for looking at her.
  • The Dog Bites Back: She's killed by the slaves she mistreated and looked down upon.
  • The Dragon: She acts as this to Lantur. Not that this loyalty meant anything when Mokkan shows up.
  • Kick the Dog: She cut the slaves' rations when it was too cold for them to work.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Mokkan forces her and Ullig to help him kill Lantur with the implicit threat they'll die otherwise, particularly noticeable for Wilce considering her apparent closeness to Lantur, and afterwards he promptly strips Wilce of her position back down to a mere servant.

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