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Characters / 6 Gun Mage

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Character Page for 6 Gun Mage, the webcomic. Warning, unavoidable spoilers ahead.

Main Characters

Kylie

The lead character of the story, much of what happens is seen through her point of view. Formerly an orphan recruited young to become a gun-mage, she does not do well in class until she's shipped off to Geofry, her mentor. After successfully testing a prototype gun-mage repeater weapon, her life goes to hell, as now, The Circle, shadowy magic council that rules the world setting, is after her.

  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: She's attracted to Zeits.
  • Animal Motif: A shaman identifies her totem as an eagle.
    "You were once an eagle. You flew high above the land and looked down upon it; hunted those that dwelled there. What use has an eagle for a name?"
  • Apologetic Attacker: She does this to the rookie guard she shoots while escaping from Renault.
  • Audience Surrogate: She often plays this role as she has to have most everything about the world setting explained to her.
  • Big Damn Heroes: She gets to pull this off on Zeits twice. The first time, she does, she provides just enough of a distraction to allow Zeits to get the drop on a gun-mage who was harassing him. (She thought the gun-mage was after her at first.) The second, she unwittingly blew Renault to hell, dropping a rather large portion of a building on him, when she blew her way through the wall behind him with a cannon. Looks like she took Zeit's advice to work on her entrance to heart!
  • Big "NO!": Right before her Traumatic Superpower Awakening.
  • Blatant Lies: Comes up with the excuse that she "sleeps naked and rushed to investigate a strange sound" in the December 21 update. Zeits doesn't buy it, but lets it go so she can save face.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Her mentor, Geofry specifically lampshades this. She also lampshades it herself at several points in the story. Yes, she happily admits she's lazy, but damn is she clever, and good at rolling with the punches of unexpected situations. Don't expect her to hold the Distress Ball for very long. To be precise, if she gets hit with the Distress Ball, she's likely to analyze it, weaponize it and then use it to kill the people who put her in distress in the first place.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: She's an orphan. She doesn't know who her parents are, and presumes they're dead. The orphanage that was supposed to take care of her drove her out, and every time they did, the police would arrest her and take her back, and both the orphanage and the police would get more and more belligerent every time. The only thing stopping this vicious cycle was a gun-mage recruiter that promised her freedom in exchange for being tested and enrolling in the gun-mage program. To the surprise of no one, she accepted. Unfortunately, all her instructors apparently had the same mindset as the orphanage attendants, and they just kept shifting her around until she came to Geofry.
  • Chekhov's Skill: She's introduced bragging about pranking her fellow cadets. Guess what she does to the rookie soldier assigned by Renault to guard her? To lethal consequences for the guard.
  • The Determinator: Once she accepts a job or decides a course of action, she will see it through to the end. Defeat by Modesty is not even a consideration. She once chased Zeits from one end of town to the other, and fought him to a standstill the whole time, with guns because her employer Gwen wanted her to get something from him that he wasn't willing to give up.
  • Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: She's on the receiving end of this. Apparently, centuries of body hopping has made the Circle mages senile. She's facing one who has forgotten that the criteria for a new vessel, is a person that has a very large mana reserve, and he's just gone and pissed her off.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: A circle mage managed to get her really pissed off.
  • Homing Projectile: Her "guide" gunmage ability does this.
  • How Do I Shot Web?: She tries to recreate the ability she used to take down a Circle Mage in a calm, and rational manner the moment she, and the rest of the crew, have a chance to catch their breaths. She fails to figure it out. Sierra, of all people, tells her not to worry about it.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Hers is justified by magic.
  • Incompletely Trained: The reason she only knows three gunmage abilities is that she never got a chance to complete her training. She'd be absolutely terrifying if she had the complete set.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: She settles into this role as the story proceeds.
  • Little Miss Snarker: She's really good at this, especially to Nessa.
  • Living MacGuffin: She is this to The Circle.
  • More Dakka: Her "split" gunmage skill allows her to double the number of bullets she fires, mid-flight.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Twice. The first, stopping a train robbery/rape/murder earns her the fear and distrust of most of the passengers, especially the little boy whose life she saved, and rescuing Zeits from a murderous gun-mage, and his Shield who were violating the law gets her captured by a Manhunter, Renault.
  • Only One Name: She has no surname, as revealed in Chapter 3.
  • Orphan's Ordeal: Her childhood was especially harsh because of this. See the Dark and Troubled Past entry. She wasn't just driven out by her fellow children bullying her, the orphanage attendants threw her out on sight, even if she was there because the police brought her in.
  • Power of Love: What Kylie thinks powers her mage killer ability.
  • Rescue Reversal: Subverted. She pulled this on Zeits and Gwyneth, but she could never have broken loose if they hadn't taken Renault's and Claire's attention off her so she'd be left with a rookie guard who would fall for her "prank."
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Her "detonate" gunmage skill does this. Usually, she prefers to use her special gun for that as she can pump more mana in, and do more damage that way, although she can do this with any gunmage armament.
  • Traumatic Superpower Awakening: A circle mage thought it would be a good idea to taunt her by threatening to magically rip off Zeit's head and "present it to her for all the trouble she's caused." Instead, she figures out a way to channel pure mana through her gun, without using bullets as normal gun-mages do.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: She's only been shown using, and knowing two gun-mage techniques (three after the August 7 update), "Bullet Split," "Guide," (and "Detonate") but she can use the prototype gun-mage repeater, without difficulty, which should kill a gun-mage that even tries! She even survived being shot with a bullet supposedly lethal to gun-mages for an extended period of time with nothing more than a migraine. The moment the bullet was removed, she actually became stronger!

Gwyneth Morgan Starling

She used to run a saloon that served as a front for mercenary business, until The Circle sent a rather despicable Manhunter, Renault, after her most talented and promising employee, Kylie. When Gwenneth retaliated, the entire garrison of local gun-mages went after and destroyed her establishment when Kylie's senior employees (who should have known better) went to ground there.

  • Affectionate Nickname: She allows those who are close to her to call her "Gwen."
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: She and Zeits had a past together.
  • A Motherto Her Men: She treats her employees, her girls, like family, with her as the strict disciplinarian mother.
  • An Entrepreneur Is You: She started the saloon and mercenary business herself.
  • Animal Motif: Averted. When offered the chance to learn her totem, she declined.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Implied. She's scared that she's going to suffer this fate because of the compound fracture in her leg. Zeits assures her that the odds of that are low, provided she get immediate medical assistance, though delay in treatment slowly, but surely, increases the chances that she will lose her leg.
  • Bathtub Bonding: Invokes this on her employees. When she was running the Penny Gun, she would hold important meetings in her saloon's basement sauna, while the employees, and herself were all bathing together. Leads to some Fanservice.
  • Berserk Button: Don't point out her ears. She won't take it well. If you're a paying client, she might overlook it though. Especially if you're polite.
    "Tell me again about the 'knife eared bitch.'" (Said to the corpse of a Dirty Cop whose head she just blew off)
  • Benevolent Boss=/=Mean Boss: She's a mix of the two. Do your job well, she'll praise you and reward you handsomely. Do your job poorly, and she will come down on you like a ton of bricks.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: She may be a friendly barkeep under normal circumstances, but she's a crack shot, and a sniper. She can blow your head off without you even seeing it coming, and think nothing of it afterwards.
  • The Blacksmith: She used to be one as a child, and very good at gun crafting. She has fallen out of practice, however.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Faced quite a bit of Fantastic Racism growing up. She left her rather affluent family and set up shop far away as a result.
  • Expressive Ears: They tend to wiggle when she senses profit in an endeavor.
  • Fantasy-Forbidding Father: She had one. He wanted her to hide her ears at all times.
  • Friendly Sniper: She's very amiable, but she can, and will, take out a sniper rifle to blow the head off anyone who dares threaten her or her loved ones.
  • The Gunslinger: With two weapons, a sniper rifle and a derringer with rifle ammunition. Both are equally deadly.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: She's got elven blood somewhere in her family tree.
  • He Is Not My Boyfriend: To Zeits. While it's certainly true now, there was a time where it was not, and lingering affection does remain.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: She can fire a sniper rifle from horseback while the horse is moving, and hit her target with enough accuracy that she can avoid hitting the hostage right next to him, on a carriage that's also moving.
  • Made of Iron: She can handle the recoil of a derringer with rifle ammunition shooting a plate armored opponent at point blank range, and it only stings her hand. She's even fine having that gun in the same hand the very next scene.
  • Mama Bear: Do not threaten her employees. She won't pull her punches if you do.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: As long as you do your job well and stay out of trouble, you've got your room and board taken care of. Slack off, and be prepared to pay for it.
  • Self-Made Woman: Strives to be this. She wants her own fortune not her family's.
  • Trickster Mentor: While she doesn't subject new employees to Training from Hell, they are lucky to survive their first missions.
    Gwyneth: "Of COURSE, I knew. I'm also training you, remember?"

Wyst

One of Kylie's senior employees at Gwynetht's "Penny Gun" bar and gun-for-hire establishment.

  • Deadpan Snarker: The few lines she says all fall into this.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Her last line in the series is taunting Xanthe.
    "Buzz, Buzz."
  • Heroic Sacrifice: When The White Witch stabs her in the gut from behind, she holds on to the blade to allow the others to escape and then have the strategically placed explosives bury them both.
  • Lady Looks Like a Dude: She's essentially a gender-bent Zeits.
  • One Head Taller: She's especially tall for a woman, even in the world setting.
  • Perpetual Frowner: Frowning is her default facial expression, which is probably a good thing.
  • Put on a Bus: Leaves the storyline, and Gwyneth's employment after Kylie's rescue from Renault.
  • Smoking Is Cool: She's rarely seen without a cigarette in her mouth.
  • Sure, Let's Go with That: Subverted. Wyst orders Nessa and Kylie not to go too near a carriage during a shootout. Nessa logically replies that a hit to the boiler would make the carriage a bomb. Wyst responds that she was really worried about the fact that the carriage was a rental, but concedes that the boiler/bomb thing was a good point.
  • The Unsmile: Her smiles are creepy.

Nessa:

The other one of Kylie's senior workers.

  • Badass Adorable: She's very cute, but she can kill you over thirty feet away with her throwing knives.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander: Her thought process can get a bit weird at times.
  • The Cloud Cuckoolander Was Right: Her practical advice tends to be right on the mark.
  • Flechette Storm: For ranged combat, she uses throwing knives.
  • Genki Girl: She's always bubbly and energetic regardless of the situation.
  • Hair Antennae: An unusual variant. Hers are on the side of her head, and could be mistaken for ears at first glance.
  • Put on a Bus: After Kylie was rescued from Renault, she leaves Gwyneth's employment.

Zeits Dullahan Cas

A non-magical gunslinger who is introduced as being a former acquaintance of Gwyneth. He's a bit on the shady side.

  • Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: A circle mage uses telekinetic-type magic to make him bend nearly ninety degrees backwards before threatening to tear his head off and throw it at Kylie. Kylie is not amused.
  • Animal Motif: Averted with extreme prejudice. When the same shaman who identified Kylie's totem analyzed him, the shaman specifically told him that his totem was stolen, and only a gaping wound remained, possessed by something that reeks of death.
    "I see nothing in you. It isn't natural. You disturb the natural order of things. You has [sic] no past, no totem or guiding spirit. There is only a gaping wound. Somewhere along your path, you lost your spirit and something took it's [sic] place; something that reeks of death."
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: Sure, a magic coin that allows you to compel a person to perform one task? Sounds legit. A shaman who can read your totem and determine your animal spirit guide? Total bull. Although his body language indicates he is actually faking this.
  • Blood Knight: He has to struggle to avoid wanting to spill enough gun-mage and soldier blood to make a river out of. This struggle is especially hard when a manhunter like Renault comes along.
  • The Call Knows Where You Live: Zeits wanted to be a simple farmer, like his father. A manhunter and a squad of gun-mages changed all that.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: His entire family was murdered, by hanging, by a Manhunter and a squad of gun-mages for the crime of selling two chickens to his neighbor who coincidentally happened to be a member of "The Right Arm" which his family had no way of knowing. Furthermore, the manhunter tried to hang him too, but lacking rope, used barbed wire from a nearby fence. He lived, and spent nearly a decade tracking the manhunter down, for vengeance, and paid it back with interest. A rather steep rate of interest, in fact.
    • Made even worse by the fact his father was only selling the chickens because Child Zeits didn't want to eat chicken because he'd raised them, and couldn't bring himself to kill them.
  • Did Not Think This Through: True, killing the "fairy" with a bullet may have solved the short-term threat to Gwen, Kylie, and the "miracle child" but doing so enraged the rather large swarm of fairies nearby who are now literally hungry for everybody's blood.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: in this comic Xanthe seems to think that the Elven God of Death has blessed him, which would explain, pretty much everything, actually
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Started life as a simple farmer's son. Grew up to become The Dreaded.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Sneaking into his bedroom, and waking him can have this happen.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Yes, he can shoot around corners, he's just that good.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Brutish, rude and crass. Still, when the chips are down, he tends to do the right thing, especially for those he cares about. Best be careful around him if you're a gun-mage or manhunter though.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Is the victim of this, twice. First, he's the lone survivor of his family being murdered by a manhunter, and then it's implied that a manhunter, Renault, caused the catastrophic crash of a blimp filled with civilians to try to get at him.
  • The Nicknamer: He gives a rather embarrassing one to Kylie after he tried, and failed Defeat by Modesty on her by forcing her to remove her pants at gunpoint. It only gave her an opening to shoot at him.
  • Nominal Hero: He really doesn't have much in the way of morality. What little he has just happens to be on the hero's side.
  • One-Man Army: He is on record having killed an entire legion of gun-mages near single-handed. Shows just how talented Kylie is, by the fact that she fought him to a draw in a running battle across an entire town. Note: Kylie when introduced was wearing a cadet uniform.
  • Rebellious Spirit: In a sense. Disobeying direct orders saved his life because he missed his flight for an infamous blimp crash.
  • Scars Are Forever: There's a reason he's always wearing a scarf.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Upon Xanthe storming Renault's hide-out. Which is perfectly understandable.
  • Slasher Smile: He really sports a nasty one when he ponders killing manhunters.
  • Split-Personality Takeover=/=Superpowered Evil Side: If you do not want to face "Dullahan Cas," leave the scar on his throat alone.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Child: Played as straight as they come.
  • Wake Up Fighting: Be very careful if you need to wake him up.

Sierra Cavanaugh

One of a long family of people whose bloodline was enchanted specifically for the purpose of carrying rather massive pieces of furniture, the Thresian Armoire, and is in the employ of the Starling household.

  • Animal Motif: She dared a shaman to tell her what her totem was (so she could mock him for it). He replies "an ass." Considering her attitude and ability, it's not only fitting, but accurate.
  • Badass Boast: To a circle mage, no less.
    "You will not kill Ravena's sister!"
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Because Ravena sees her as "more than a servant" and became her lover, Ravena is the only one who has her Undying Loyalty.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Several times, but the most prominent is when she stops a circle mage's fireball from hitting a battered and bloody Gwen, using the Threcian Armoire to swat it away like a ping pong paddle, and delivering the Badass Boast above.
  • Blessed with Suck: She has the ability to lift a several ton piece of furniture, and its contents, as easily as most people lift a pillow, however, this only works on the Thresian Armoire, and the moment she breaks contact, it immediately returns to its normal weight. So she has to remain in constant contact with the armoire during transport.
  • Brutal Honesty: She doesn't mince words when she finds a fault in something. It's just easier to be a jerk that way.
  • Butch Lesbian: While the setting forces her to wear a dress, she's otherwise very masculine, and she's a lesbian.
  • For the Lulz: She really doesn't seem to have a reason for being a jerk except that she likes it.
  • Girlish Pigtails: She wears her hair this way, but noticeably lacks the innocence or joyful nature that goes with it.
  • I Gave My Word: She always keeps her promises, always. She doesn't take it kindly when someone makes her fail in doing so.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Using a sub-machine gun, she takes on a swarm of fairies, each the size, speed, and agility of a humming bird, and does not miss even once.
  • Improbable Weapon User: In her hands, the armoire weighs almost nothing. If surprised, she can use this to great effect in close combat.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: If she's ever doing something nice for someone, it's because she's being a jerk to someone else.
  • Lipstick Lesbian: By her own admission, she's not a fan of "man's dangly bits."
  • Ms. Exposition: She is the one explaining the situation in Paradise Point.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: Although she's very "willfully abrasive," she is still quite loyal to the Starling company and its guns, and will happily promote Starling guns over any other form of firearm even if she's never seen the other gun in action.
  • Rage Breaking Point: Just shy of hair trigger temper. She quickly grows tired of the Unresolved Sexual Tension between Zeits and Kylie, Zeits and Gwen, possibly even Gwen and Kylie, and flat out yells that two of them just go and have sex already, and she doesn't care which two. Of course, she ignores the possibility of a three-or even foursome.
  • Shameless Fanservice Girl: She has absolutely no issue showing off her body.
  • Slave Race: Her bloodline used to be this under elf rule. Now Cavanaugh are very well paid for their ability to use the Threcian Armoire.
  • Super-Senses: She has more situational awareness than Zeits, as she heard "The Right Arm" approach while no one else did, not even Zeits.
  • Tempting Fate: At a non-lethal level, her challenge to the Shaman could be seen as this.
    Sierra: "Anyone can make up a story about some glorious re-incarnated past to sell a narrative. Even if it were true, what would it have to do with a person today? Go ahead. What was I? A great cat? A bear? A wolf?"
    Shaman: "An ass."
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: When a Dirty Cop tried to force his way into the hospital where Gwen received treatment for her leg, Sierra goes into the armoire brings out a rocket launcher, and was distressed that Gwen took out the threat first with a powerful sniper rifle.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Ravena.
  • Walking Armory: Quite literally. She's got enough guns and ammunition in her armoire to outfit an army.

Antagonists

Simon

The first target Kylie has to go against.

  • Jerkass Has a Point: Having your business partner not only near bankrupt your company but sign over half of it to a dog is not only really stupid, but highly insulting as well.
  • Pet Heir: Inverted. He's highly irate at his former business partner because the latter actually does this.
  • Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Lavish home, locked doors, but leaves a ground floor window open and chooses to protect himself with a $15,000 shotgun which he promptly empties towards the ceiling the moment he gets hit with a throwing knife to the arm, not to mention his choice of business partners.

Zeke, Clem, and "Ma."

Three desperados looking to take down a whorehouse run by a woman named "Gretzky." Kylie, Wyst and Nessa act as bait to draw them out and catch them for a bounty.

Aleric

A rather arrogant gunmage who was sent after Zeits in Boiling Springs. On his introduction, he shoves his way into a bar, a bar full of patrons hostile to the gunmages (for self-evident reasons as the story unfolds), and basically shoots them all dead, except for one man who wisely hid under a table for cover. Unfortunately, all that did was make him the target of Aleric's "interrogation."

  • Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Is way too confident in his gun-mage skills.
  • Boom, Headshot!: How he ultimately dies.
  • Blood Knight: He loves fighting skilled and strong foes.
    Aleric: "I like my prey skilled. It alleviates the tedium of being a gifted man in a mundane world."
  • The Bully: Is this to pretty much everyone he comes across.
  • Dirty Cop: And how. He's chasing Zeits for destroying the blackmail material held by a known crime boss.

Manhunter, Colonel Renault:

This guy is one nasty piece of work. Having once been "forced to retire" after a blimp filled with civilians "crashed," he is forcefully brought back into service to hunt down Kylie and bring her back alive, along with Geofry's prototype gun. This does not please him considering the massive logistical, tactical, and strategic problems involved.

  • A God I Am Not: He does not think he's a god, but he does think he's the pinnacle of human evolution.
  • A Million Is a Statistic: Doesn't give one whit about all the massive collateral damage he's caused.
  • Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: He, not Gwenneth, blows up the explosives to bury the White Witch.
  • Enemy Mine: Takes down the White Witch, temporarily, by burying her alive, and then promises to aid the protagonists, but only because he can't stand The Circle's corruption any more than the protagonists do.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: When he read the morning newspaper, he was clearly not pleased to see confirmation of Zeit's claims concerning what the Circle had planned for "the Miracle Child."
  • Faux Affably Evil: He speaks in polite tones, but he's hardly civil. Just about every other word is an implied threat.
  • Guns Akimbo: He fights Zeits alone, one gun in each hand, at melee, and neither of them manage to kill the other.
  • He's Back!: And just as Faux Affably Evil as ever.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Aside from guns, he's quite proficient at using any random object as a melee weapon when he's out of ammo.
  • I Was Never Here: On the few occasions where he takes the scene and actually leaves someone relatively unmolested, he says this. If he doesn't, it means you're being conscripted, "arrested," used as a hostage (or someone near and dear to you is), or he's generally going to have you experience a really bad day.
  • Lack of Empathy: To him, other people are either only useful tools or obstacles, and he "removes" obstacles.
  • Mandatory Unretirement: The Circle forces him back into his Manhunter job because he's just so damn good at it.
  • My Country, Right or Wrong: By his own admission, he's a patriot, and is fervently loyal to the system of government. This does not translate into direct loyalty to The Circle. When he finds out The Circle is corrupting and abusing the government he's sworn to protect, he turns on them, but he's no ally of the protagonists either.
    • After the circle is dealt with, he immediately sets himself up as an interim dictator to ensure the Right Arm doesn't usurp what's left of his government - ignoring the Right Arm's demilitarization and the civil war he's caused.
  • Off Hand Back Hand: Manages to pull this off with a antique pistol on Kylie.
  • Oh, Crap!: Has a truly expressive one when he finds out that not only did he fail to kill Dullahan Cas, but he's actually facing him in a gun battle. He sports another, combined with extreme surprise when the wall behind him explodes, and most of a building, or at least the facade falls on his head.
    • He basically recoils in horror when a child is made the next leader of the circle, just after being told a rumor that the Circle performs Body Surfing to stay immortal and in charge.
  • Never Found the Body: He disappeared from the fortress despite having a rather large portion of a building's front facade land on him.
  • Not Quite Dead: Dropping a building on him wasn't enough, obviously.
  • Retired Badass: Is introduced as this in chapter 3.
  • Scars Are Forever: His face looks like someone mistook it for a soccer ball, and that's before Kylie dropped a building on him. The escape from Boiling Springs only made it worse.
  • Tempting Fate: Quite literally. Rather than killing Zeits outright when Zeits is on the ground (thanks to a well used two by four) stands around taunting Zeits with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, ending it by saying "let's leave it to chance." Guess how that turned out.
    "As much as I'd like to know how you didn't die in that crash, I think I'll just let chance end this whole thing right now."
  • Too Dumb to Live: Sees Zeits terrified, and give the order to run, and not from himself? Turns and shoots what Zeits is running from, completely unconcerned.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Remember that young boy Kylie rescued in Chapter one? Renault made a point of threatening his life to his mother, until Kylie, on an unrelated shopping trip, accidentally stumbled upon them.

Claire:

Introduced as a "Shield" ie, a bodyguard for a fully decorated gun-mage, Aleric, who was, in turn, sent after Zeits because Zeits raided a local, well known crime lord under mercenary business. The same crime lord that Kylie was ordered to go after, on behalf of a Gadgeteer Genius inventor whose "Florange" was held hostage.

  • Bodyguard Crush: She was quite smitten with the gun-mage she was guarding. Too bad that particular gun-mage thought Talking Is a Free Action when going up against Zeits.
  • Boxed Crook: She becomes this after her encounter with Zeits went poorly.
  • Dumb Muscle: She's not the brightest character in the series, not even close.
  • Mighty Glacier: She's not very fast, but she's exceptionally strong.
  • Moral Myopia: Thinks nothing of her, and her partner mowing down an entire bar full of patrons, but someone shoots back at her partner, in self-defense, and it's an unforgivable crime.
  • More Dakka: She is introduced wielding a powerful, but very heavy machine gun. A P-90 by all accounts.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Claire should have been more careful when giving Kylie her medicine, at Renault's orders.
  • Oh, Crap!: Pulls of this reaction when she realizes Gwen's derringer is not the harmless toy she thought it was.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Goes after Gwen to get back at Zeits, for killing her partner in self-defense!
  • Too Dumb to Live: Decides to taunt and torment Gwyneth, instead of just killing her, while Renault and the garrison she's in is under attack, after breaking Gwyneth's sniper rifle. She then goes and mocks Gwyneth's backup weapon, the derringer, shoved right into her plate. Turns out that derringer had rifle ammo. Oops!

Xanthe

A mysterious assassin originally imprisoned by The Circle. (S)he has been freed and given leave to hunt down Kylie.

  • Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Like a scene out of The Exorcist she spins her head around 180 degrees with a sickening snap, and disturbing slasher smile on her face.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Her swords go through human heads and limbs like hot knives through butter.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Is robbing a clothing store, gets shot by the clerk, kills him and takes a significant portion of the wardrobe before tearing the entire town apart.
  • Artificial Human: An elf version, she's a construct built entirely out of "elven wood metal."
  • Axe-Crazy:
  • Bond One-Liner: combined with Bad Ass Boast
    "I am the villain of your fairy tales."
  • Boxed Crook:
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Ooh boy. Starts with losing her left arm in battle and after a rather vicious Cycle of Revenge on both sides with escalating levels of Disproportionate Retribution from her (losing an arm for her means wiping out entire populations) ended in pure Nightmare Fuel.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: To the extreme. Responds to losing her arm in battle by wiping out entire populations of humans.
  • The Dreaded:
  • Eye Scream: Wyst shoves a shotgun in her face, and blows off half her head, including one eye.
  • Fantastic Racism: Sees humans as lower life-forms, and half-elves as "mongrels."
  • General Ripper: She was apparently this during the Human-Elf war, and apparently still is.
    Gwen: "From that point on it was total war. Victory at all costs. She massacred populations."
  • Giggling Villain: She giggles happily as she's running around killing people.
  • Humans Are Insects: She specifically calls Nessa "an insect" while fighting her.
    Xanthe: "An insect shouldn't bite the spider!"
    Wyst: (Puts a shotgun to her face) "Some insects sting!"
  • I'll Kill You!: To The Circle.
  • Immortal Immaturity: If Gwen can be believed, then Syrus can not die. No matter how many times her reckless and spiteful behavior gets her shot and buried.
  • It's Personal: She took the revolt against the Elf Emperor "a little bit" personally.
  • I Was Quite the Looker: If Gwen's imagine spot can be believed, Syrus used to be very beautiful indeed.
  • Logical Weakness: She is held together entirely by her hatred of humans; if she loses sight of that hatred for even a few seconds, she dies. When she's commanded by the Elf Emperor's coin to give up her hatred and sleep, her centuries of "life" catches up to her, and the little bit of her that's left decays to dust.
  • Ludicrous Gibs: What happens to her after getting hit by Kylie's "Guide and Detonate."
  • Made of Iron: Hit in the chest by a shotgun, with plenty of penetration, and not only lives, but happily filets the man who shot her.
  • Made of Indestructium: Her body is made of "elven wood metal" a magical alloy that heals itself.
  • Moral Myopia: To truly horrific levels. When the humans who were being treated as slaves, rebel, she takes it as a personal insult. When she loses an arm, she obliterates entire populations. When the friends and family of her victim rip her apart to make her stop killing, she nails her face to a golem so she can keep going. When her people refused to surrender and the humans resorted to a genocidal magical bio-weapon, it didn't kill her because she was no longer "elf" enough to be affected.
  • Not So Extinct: Revealed to be some kind of elf, at first. Defied as the story goes on.
  • The Power of Hate: She is literally held together by this. Not even dying stops her, to the point that she claws her way out of the afterlife (by duping a necromancer) and even rescues her emperor.
  • Red Baron: Is known as "The White Witch."
  • Restraining Bolt: As part of her temporary freedom, she is under a geas to not kill The Circle "and one other." She's free to kill anyone, and everyone, else she meets, however.
  • Revenant Zombie: She is effectively a golem version of this; an erratic killing machine magically powered by sheer hatred. The only way to stop her for good is by using a Geas to order her to let go of her hatred and take a short rest, which causes her to fall apart and shatter permanently.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: That never ends.
  • Sanity Slippage: Apparently went through this during the Human-Elf war.
  • Self-Made Woman: Went from the lowest caste to the Elf Emperor's concubine, to his top confidant, commander and general.
  • This Cannot Be!: Upon seeing Gwen, she, momentarily, lost confidence that she's the Last of Her Kind.
  • Villain Teleportation: She disappeared in a puff of smoke after sparing Gwen. (Because of seeing Gwen's Elven Ears.)
  • Weaksauce Weakness: For some reason she can't cross large bodies of water, even though she can teleport.

The Circle.

The true rulers of the world setting. They are fixated on capturing Kylie and making her demonstrate Geofry's prototype weapon, regardless of the cost.
  • Bed Trick: As if The Circle wasn't horrific enough in their villainy already, Lord Cromwell asks his Master of Illusion to "get [Kylie and Zeits] to fuck" with a perverted look on his face. An attack from The Right Arm lures him away, but said underling still goes through with it, by tricking Zeits into thinking he's with Gwen, and tricking Kylie into believing Zeits is fully willing, via an all-senses holistic illusion. There's some implied serious heartbreak incoming...
  • Big Bad: The main antagonists of the first book.
  • Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: One of them actually manages to come face to face with Kylie. Rather than rendering her unconscious, and prepare her for the Body Surf, he decides to taunt her and threaten the lives of those she cares about.
  • Dwindling Party: There used to be twelve Circle Mages, body hopping for centuries, but due to going through vessels faster than they could propagate, their numbers have been steadily dwindling. Kylie blasting Lord Cyrus has sped up the process.
  • Enemy Civil War: Although an ancient enchantment prevents them from directly striking at one another, the members of The Circle continuously plot and scheme against each other for supremacy.
  • Grand Theft Me: If the Overseer is to be believed, this is how they've existed for centuries, transferring their essence into a new body when the old one no longer works. Quite literally; the previous hosts are still alive, but in permanent comas and on expensive life-support.
  • Gonk: None of them are pleasant to look at.
  • Hollywood Cyborg: Each and every one of them has at least one artificial part or limb.
  • Ignored Epiphany: Lord Cromwell, after possessing "The Miracle Child," voices concern that the lack of proper vessels is either directly or indirectly due to the Circle's actions. He is immediately talked out of it. Proves subverted in the next update as he certainly does not ignore his epiphany and instead orders the creation of a Paid Harem, for obvious reasons.
  • Omniscient Council of Vagueness:
  • Our Liches Are Different: They have phylacteries that house their souls, but need to possess the bodies of mages with a very high amount of mana to live.
    • And by phylacteries, we mean they have all their previous hosts in comas on life-support.
  • Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: When a Circle Mage is beaten in battle, expect this to happen, with a nice slice of Fantastic Nuke on the side.
  • This Cannot Be!: The Circle Mage that was taunting Kylie is absolutely incapable of believing that a "simple vessel" has put a huge smoking, bleeding, and on fire hole in his chest.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: This is how they justify their existence and behavior to themselves. Nobody dares call them out on it... Except for The Right Arm.
  • Villain Ball: As each Circle member dies, the surviving members start acting arrogant or reckless against the very assassins who are capable of killing them. Possibly justified, as the Circle members have grown to hate the restrictiveness of depending on each other and enjoy the subsequent power boost from their rivals' deaths.
    • Also, Kylie ran away from the circle in the first place because they reacted to Geofry's 'discovery' of a multi-shot magic gun (which was actually proof of Kylie's large mana pool) by hunting them both down like animals. Had they used their usual political 'charm' to convince Geoffrey that his work had succeeded, they could have tricked him and Kylie into injecting herself with Anti-Magic, and the story would have ended before it even began.

The Emperor

Xanthe's beloved and the last ruler of the old elven empire, who was responsible for driving it into the ground. He was mostly a historical character until a necromancer brought him and Xanthe back from the dead.

  • Bullet Catch: In his first appearance, he catches two bullets after snapping his necromancer's neck.
  • Humans Are Insects: Shares Xanthe's low view of humanity.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: He's the one who enabled Xanthe's genocides and oppressed his human slaves to the point of a full-blown rebellion.
  • The Power of Hate: Even worse than Xanthe, since he was trapped in the collective unconscious for centuries and didn't succumb to complete madness, and managed to stay coherent the entire time by concentrating on his dream of exterminating humanity and returning the pure-blooded elves to glory.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: Thinks nothing of snapping the neck of the 'insect' who resurrected him.

Quintus

An old researcher Kylie and crew seek out for help dealing with the coming fairy menace. The reason he's recommended is because translating eldritch lore has given him a rare form of amnesia where he forgets everything, except his own name, every five minutes. Unfortunately, once he finishes his research on the lore concerning fairies, he turns on Kylie and crew steals one of Kylie's babies as she's in labor and then offers it up as a Human Sacrifice, to broker a long term deal with the fairies for unknown reasons.
  • Ambiguous Situation: Did the eldritch lore he was translating (which has been known to drive people mad) force him to seek out the fairies? Or was his amnesia faked and he was evil from the beginning? There's no way to know now...
  • Amnesiac Loop: Thanks to working on translating eldritch runes, when he met Kylie and co., he couldn't remember anything more distant than the most recent five minutes. In order to remember anything, he has to rely on a journal full of pain-staking notes. After his Face–Heel Turn, he remembers everything just fine.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Once his research on fairies for Kylie is complete, he turns on Kylie and crew.
  • A God Am I: He constantly proclaims that he "created" Demona, by offering Kylie's daughter to a demon. Demona eventually gets sick of it and slices his throat, killing him.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: He winds killed by the demon possessing Kylie's daughter, which happened as a direct result of his actions.
  • Mark of the Supernatural: His two eyes are clearly different colors, and it's speculated researching the eldritch runes on behalf of the history society made it this way.
  • Nothing Personal: As he's turning on Kylie and crew, starting by hurling a bottle with some kind of volatile sedative, he states "I have no grudge against you, but deals must be struck. I'm warning you, don't follow me."
  • Smug Snake: He is nowhere as powerful, competent, or intelligent as he preens. The fairies and Demona let him believe he is until they don't need him anymore then Demona kills him faster than he can blink just to flex.
  • Stupid Evil: Which the fairies call him out on. Only a complete fool would summon something he knows sees him as a tasty snack, without protection of any kind. He agrees, but then goes right back to trying to negotiate a Deal with the Devil anyway.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Seeing as he'd offer up a newborn to be Eaten Alive, he certainly would.

Other Characters:

Geofry

Kylie's mentor. The only one she liked, actually. Why? He actually made her studies FUN instead of simply trying to boss her around.

Overseer Sabin Anton General Arcadi Mesculine:

The "mayor" of Boiling Springs, the town where the story truly begins.

Gordon Rolf

One of Penny Gun's first clients.

Doctor Jasper Calloway.

The client for Kylie's first official, independent job under Gwyneth's employ. His prototype steam engine, the "Florange" has to be recovered from a loan shark by the name of Wilkes.

  • Artistic License – Law: Patent offices don't normally need a working prototype, just the blueprints more than suffice, and that could take weeks of review. However, Jasper needs to bring an actual prototype before them, and the very next day after submitting his proposal.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Of gunslingers, especially attractive female ones.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: This character's introduction proves important later, after Gwyneth and her girls have to flee Boiling Springs. As a reward for Kylie's unqualified success, they get a brand new, prototype Florange powered stage coach that they use to quietly leave town.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: He not only designed blueprints, but built a working prototype before looking to get a business loan.
  • Improbable Age: Regardless of specialty, he's a bit young to be a "doctor" of anything.
  • Jumped at the Call: When The Right Arm told him they needed an inventor, he joyfully accepted.
  • Keet: He's easily excitable.
  • Mad Scientist: He doesn't want to build the same thing over and over again. He wants constantly make and improve stuff. The Right Arm gives him that chance, and he jumps at it.
  • Skilled, but Naive: In business, not combat. He submits his unpatented prototype to a loan shark as collateral for a business loan.
  • Sleep Cute: He passes out from worry, waiting on his Florange, and Kylie, in Gwen's "office."

Ravena Starling

Gwyneth's estranged sister.

High Priest Aremet.

The overseer at the fortress where one of The Circle, Lord Cyrus, ultimately met his end.

  • Blind Obedience: He worships The Circle mages like they're gods.
  • Character Death: To the surprise of no-one, he gets killed off by The Circle.
  • Ignored Epiphany: Even when his own charge, "The Miracle Child," who has the ability to see the future, has no reason to lie, and who he's raised from birth, tells him what the Circle intends to do, he refuses to believe it. What's more, even when he sees The Circle's "dark secrets" with his own eyes, like the White Witch, or Lord Cyrus boasting of "taking a second vessel", he's still convinced they're "the good guys."
  • Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: To hide the Body Surf activities of the Circle, he gets killed and his body is conveniently "found" in some rubble.
  • Make It Look Like an Accident: He's officially the victim of an "unexplained explosion," with his body found in some rubble.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He was not happy to be working with the main characters, at all, and happily ditches them the very first chance he gets.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Literally. Despite being told, in no uncertain terms, and repeatedly, what the Circle intends to do with his charge, not to mention narrowly surviving an encounter with "The White Witch," he takes the young boy straight to The Circle, and then tells one of the Circle mages, to her face, that he would immediately see through any attempt to hijack the child's body.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: He barely lasts all of one chapter before he goes and gets himself killed by a terminal case of stupidity.

The Right Arm.

The primary faction of people rebelling against The Circle and the "benevolent" dictatorship that they run. Even though they're on the losing end of the propaganda war, they're not going to go quietly into the night.

  • The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: They have done some rather nasty things, but their actions, on-screen, are far more tolerant than The Circle, or the gun-mages, in general, especially the manhunters. Of special note, while gun-mages and man-hunters have been shown to have a complete disregard of civilian lives, The Right Arm has only attacked military assets, installations, and armed soldiers, or armed criminals, even going so far as being reluctant to kill factory workers until those workers started to attack them, under orders from The Circle.
  • The Scapegoat: The Circle constantly blames them for everything that goes wrong. A district tries to secede, and is brutally put down by manhunters? The Right Arm attacked and killed women and children.

Jericho

The leader of a branch of The Right Arm that meets with Zeits in chapter 21.

  • Arbitrary Skepticism: Should have had just a little more faith in those "fairy tales" regarding The White Witch.
  • Attack Hello: First thing he does upon seeing Zeits is punch the latter in the jaw.
  • Cry into Chest: The second thing he does upon seeing Zeits is reach out and hug him, shedding Manly Tears in the process.
  • Good Is Not Dumb:
  • Good Is Not Nice:
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has one that rakes across the right side of his face, starting at the forehead and crossing through the eyebrow along the cheek and just under his ear.
  • The Leader: Type II with a bit of Type III regarding Zeits.
  • Manly Tears: He weeps at being reunited with Zeits whom he thought was dead for years.
  • Token Minority: He's the first character of color in the series.

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