Reign of the Seven Spellblades Character Index
The Sword Roses | Kimberly Students (Upperclassmen) | Kimberly Faculty | Spoiler Characters
The Sword Roses | Kimberly Students (Upperclassmen) | Kimberly Faculty | Spoiler Characters
As such, this page includes a significant number of unmarked spoilers. Caveat lector.
Chronology Key
This key is based on the main protagonists' grade year progression through Kimberly Magic Academy. Grade years cited in characters' descriptions are based on their grade year at time of introduction.- Year 1 (1532 of the Great Calendar): Light Novel Volumes 1-3 | Manga Chapters 1-46 | Anime Season 1
- Year 2 (1533 GC): LN Volumes 4-6
- Year 3 (1534 GC): LN Volumes 7-10
- Year 4 (1535 GC): LN Volumes 11-13
- Year 5 (1536 GC): LN Volumes 14-TBD
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The Sherwood Clan
Chloe Halford
Chloe "Two-Blade" Halford, née Sherwood
Voiced by: Yuka Terasaki (Japanese), Alexis Tipton (English)
“Even the Gnostics have people they love. Just like I love you and Ed, Noll. They have family and friends they can’t bear to lose. All they want—when you get down to it—is a world where no one gets in their way.”
First Appearance: LN Volume 1 | Manga Chapter 15 | Anime 1x1 "Ceremony"
Oliver's mother, who is murdered in the prologue to volume 1, seven years before the rest of the series begins. One of the greatest Gnostic Hunters of all time, she hoped to change the world to end the Gnostic Wars permanently, and was betrayed and murdered by her own comrades for it.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: In the novels, her death scene is the prologue to volume 1. The manga instead starts with the Sword Roses' first day of school, reducing her death scene to a two-page spread in the epilogue of chapter 15. The anime keeps her in the first episode, but changes her first appearance to a flashback from Oliver's perspective where Nanao's appearance during the fountain scene reminds him of Chloe (without explaining who she is), and moves the flashback depicting her death to the second half of episode 6.
- Blithe Spirit: She has a reputation in life as having been a free-spirited, energetic, and upbeat woman who lived as she pleased and loved life, not to mention a serial heartbreaker in her time at Kimberly.Enrico Forghieri: Up against Gnostics, up against tír gods, even up against me on her last night—she was always herself. Laughing, crying, raging, or sympathizing as her emotions drove her, swinging her blades as an expression of that. Ruled by no logic, consumed by no spell, she lived on her terms, as Chloe Halford and no one else. Her sword was always free.
- Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: She went no-contact with her birth family and attended Kimberly under a pseudonym, raising her family separately so they wouldn't have to interact with her Gruesome Grandparents, and she and Edgar are shown in flashbacks to have been Doting Parents. Unfortunately, she had no choice but to send Edgar and Oliver to live with them for their own safety when she got wind that her former comrades were coming to kill her, causing Oliver to suffer a horrific Trauma Conga Line. She still succeeded: Oliver hoped to be as good a father to his Child by Rape with Shannon as she and Edgar had been to him, but the pregnancy ended in a stillbirth.
- But Not Too Bi: She eventually settled down with the male Edgar Groves, but mentions in one of her flashbacks that she didn't want Esmeralda, an underclassman of hers, to think she didn't have a chance of getting together with her just because they were both women (in fact she hoped that one day "Emmy" would become a big sister figure to Oliver).
- Died on Their Birthday: She was killed on "the eighth day of the fourth month". According to a tweet by the author
, 4/8 was also her birthday. - Disowned Parent: She was the family Black Sheep and left the Sherwood clan and attended Kimberly under the surname Halford out of distaste for their abusive practices, including a tradition of Villainous Incest to keep their progenitor demihuman ancestry alive in the family. She only sent Edgar and Oliver to live with them when she realized her Gnostic Hunter comrades planned to kill her.
- Dual Wielding: She's famed for wielding an athame in each hand, something few mages could ever do effectively, earning her nickname "Chloe Two-Blade".
- Expy: Downplayed. She fulfills the narrative role of Lily Potter, as the Missing Mom of the main protagonist who died trying to save his life. Also, just as Harry got Lily's eye color, Oliver resembles his father physically but got her eye color. That said, she also has some elements of James Potter, being reputedly much more The Ace (whereas her husband Edgar was a completely average mage), whereas little is known of Lily Potter's abilities as a witch in Potterverse canon. Her death also drives Oliver's Series Goal much more directly than Lily's did Harry: Harry fought Voldemort mostly in self-defense, whereas Oliver is actively trying to avenge Chloe.
- Gamer Chick: According to a side comment in volume 9, she used to kick both Ed and Oliver's butts at Magic Chess (an In-Universe Variant Chess game apparently hybridized with tabletop wargaming).
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's depicted as a golden blonde in the novel art and the anime (the manga has only shown her in black and white), and died for her belief that it might be possible to end the Gnostic Wars permanently if mages stopped oppressing Muggles and demihumans. Also, in direct contrast to the tendency of mage parents to be abusive to their children, she dearly and sincerely loved her family.
- Heel Realization: The genesis of her desire to change the mage world was the realization that mage supremacism towards demihumans and Muggles and the overall inequality of the world was a significant part of the reason Gnostic cults were able to gain toeholds: they offered an alternative to the inhumanity of the world's Fantastic Caste System. Or as she explained it to an infant Oliver, if people were a little nicer to each other, then the world itself would be better.
- The Lost Lenore: It's strongly suggested that Theodore McFarlane never really got over her, and went and found Nanao due to owing her some kind of debt.
- Moody Mount: She was the previous rider of Amatsukaze, the opinionated Flying Broomstick that Nanao befriends.
- Multiple-Choice Future: Weaponized: she's the earliest known wielder of the Fourth Spellblade, "Angustavia — the thread that crosses the abyss", in which the wielder sorts through possible near-term futures to select the one with the most desirable outcome. In her own words, the Fourth Spellblade reflects her categorical refusal to accept that the way things are need remain so.
- My Secret Pregnancy: Chloe kept her pregnancy secret from everybody but Edgar: neither her Gnostic Hunter comrades nor her birth family knew about her pregnancy (mainly to keep them from getting swept up in Sherwood clan power games, as Oliver and Edgar ultimately were after her death). Chela even met her once as a young child but hasn't connected the dots to Oliver, nor has her father Theodore, who dated Chloe at Kimberly.
- Nom de Guerre: She was nicknamed "Two-Blade" for her unusual habit of Dual Wielding athames in battle, something few mages could do effectively.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Her last moments alive are shown in the prologue of volume 1 and drive the series' entire Myth Arc.
- Posthumous Character: Having died in the first chapter of the story, she's only present in it afterwards through flashbacks and other characters' recollections, but her memory casts a long shadow.
- Rasputinian Death: Six of the best mages in the world came to kill her, and she fought them for most of the night and was badly wounded when Esmeralda lured her into a tunnel with the promise of a safehouse only to then stab her through the heart from behind. The conspirators healed her enough to not die immediately, then cast a succession of 128 excruciating pain spells on her, before Esmeralda returned and devoured her soul along with her blood. A remnant of her soul containing most of her memories made its way to Oliver and settled within him.
- Really Gets Around: She was reportedly quite promiscuous as a teenage Kimberly student (lightly indicated in the text but made more explicit in tweets by the author) and was the apex of a Bisexual Love Triangle between Edgar Groves, Theodore McFarlane, and Esmeralda, though she did eventually settle down as half of a Battle Couple with Ed.
- We Used to Be Friends: In life she was a comrade in battle of Esmeralda, Darius Grenville, Enrico Forghieri, Vanessa Aldiss, Frances Gilchrist, Demetrio Aristides, and Baldia Muwezicamili, all of whom conspired to torture and murder her.
- World's Best Warrior: She's described posthumously as a "once-in-a-millennium virtuoso" for whom magic and swordplay were as natural as breathing: Luther Garland is said to have barely scratched the surface of her personal style. Even on her last night, six of the best mages in the world came to kill her, and she still nearly got away but for Esmeralda stabbing her In the Back, both figuratively and literally.
Edgar Groves
“Working hard like this is tough, even for grown-ups. But—the harder you work, the more your strength feels like it belongs to you. Like a building erected on solid foundations, no matter how hard the wind blows, you won’t fall.”
First Appearance: LN Volume 5 (flashback)
The secret husband of Chloe Halford, with whom he fell in love while attending Kimberly Magic Academy, and the father of Oliver Horn.
- Battle Couple: He and Chloe served together on a Gnostic Hunter squad before Oliver was born, though they kept their relationship secret from both her family and their comrades.
- Crusading Widower: He was a determined but good-natured man when Chloe was alive. Her murder broke him and, with a push from the Sherwood elders, this led to him helping formulate the Training from Hell that Oliver went through as a tween in order to be able to perform the soul merge with his mother's Ghost Memory and gain access to the Fourth Spellblade.
- Expy: Downplayed. He's a bit of a mishmash of both James and Lily Potter: he's the Disappeared Dad of the main protagonist, and is heavily based on James physically, much like Oliver draws inspiration from Harry Potter himself. That said, Chloe died trying to cover his escape with Oliver rather than the other way around a la James's vain attempt to delay Voldemort so Lily and Harry could escape, and James Potter was reputedly very much The Ace whereas Edgar was a merely average mage. His personality is also nothing like what we see of James, a thorough Jerk Jock in the flashbacks we're given (albeit this comes from the subjective point-of-view of Snape), and Edgar survived his wife for several years.
- Glorified Sperm Donor: In the opinion of his in-laws: Chloe's grandfather dismisses him as a "stud horse" and only takes them in because Oliver is her son, and then only because he hopes to breed Oliver with Shannon.
- In the Blood: Oliver very much takes after him rather than Chloe: Edgar was a good-natured Jack of All Trades mage who managed to become a Gnostic Hunter by dint of rigorous training and study despite lacking any unique magical traits like his wife.
- Love Triangle: He was one of at least three suitors to Chloe when they were teenagers, and once fought a duel with Theodore McFarlane in order to feel that he had the right to be with her.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Much like Oliver, he was a knowledgeable but fairly ordinary Jack of All Trades. He was good enough to be a Gnostic Hunter through rigorous training and practice, but was completely outclassed by his Action Girlfriend Chloe and her relatives.
- Thanatos Gambit: He committed suicide to help cover up Oliver murdering his maternal great-grandparents, the patriarch and matriarch of the Sherwood clan, as payback for what they did to him and especially Shannon.
- Verbal Tic: Edgar habitually uses the French "non" rather than the English "no", a habit Oliver picked up from him and sometimes lets slip (notably while torturing Darius Grenville).
- Virtuous Character Copy: He's most closely based on James Potter, but everything we know about his days as a Kimberly student says he was a hardworking Nice Guy very similar to his son Oliver, rather than the Jerk Jock that the young James was portrayed as in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Other characters
Fau
“Ooh, a consolation concert? Can I make a request?”
First Appearance: LN Volume 8
The ghost of an ancient Parsu necromancer whose coffin has been kept by the Rivermoore family for generations. She was given to Cyrus to care for by his great-grandfather Douglas.
- A Death in the Limelight: She's introduced as a new character in volume 8, and resurrecting her so she can pass on her lost secrets of necromancy has been the entire Rivermoore family's goal for generations. She's killed Deader than Dead at the end of the same book.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: As a Last Request, Cyrus carries her in his arms to an artificial beach he created inside his Grand Aria, a thing she had never seen while she was alive and he hoped to show her. She breathes her last looking out at the sea in Cyrus's arms.
- Fling a Light into the Future: Her ghost was preserved in a sealed coffin to ensure that the secrets of Parsu necromancy could be recovered by future generations even after the collapse of the civilization in a Zombie Apocalypse.
- Haunted Fetter: Her ghost was sealed to her coffin in ancient times hide her existence from The Grim Reaper.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Once she's passed on her knowledge, Cyrus Mercy Kills her with an athame through the back to get the reapers to leave.
- Language Barrier: She only speaks the Parsu language. Cyrus is fluent, which allows the posse to understand her while viewing his memories via Shannon's psychometry; however, when they actually meet the resurrected Fau, Cyrus has to translate for her.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Despite being literally dead for most of the story, with The Grim Reaper waiting in the wings to kill her Deader than Dead if she ever leaves her coffin, she's a sweet and cheerful girl who loves to tease Cyrus, whom she wishes would lighten up and who comes off as Comically Serious in her presence.
- Older Than They Look: Implied. Her resurrected body looks about twelve, but, time spent dead notwithstanding, she's strongly indicated to be much older than that given how skilled of a mage she is.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Cyrus was given her coffin as a young boy and they've been constant companions ever since.
- Resurrected for a Job: Cyrus crafts her an Artificial Human body out of bones and etheric matter harvested from other students over several years (Godfrey's sternum being the last piece needed), and casts a Grand Aria to resurrect her ghost in it. This is necessary because her lost necromantic secrets are too complex to simply be explained: they have to be passed on by etheric means, which she can only do with a body of her own.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Gender-Inverted. The best way Fau has to pass on her lost knowledge to him before The Grim Reaper takes her is to craft an astral lifeform out of the ghosts of stillborn children and implant her knowledge into it. Cyrus promises to raise it as his own child before Mercy Killing her.
