Characters / Spirit Wheel Chronicles

These characters are the remnants of the Dojang. Some of them have adapted to normal life, others...not so much. These also include extras encountered by the Dojinians in their personal backstories and elsewhere.

Tomoe Michi

"I have seen men ripped in two from artillery bombardments. Seen them crawling through the trenches coughing up their lungs in clots. Seen them trampled by horses, pierced by arrows, decapitated, disemboweled, burned alive. I've killed hundreds of people. Thousands. Never presume to know what I've seen and done."

One of the founding members of the original Dojang along with the likes of Azriel, Hayabusa and Aureilious, Tomoe Michi is a human/angel hybrid from Kamakura-era Japan.

Despite his inherently martial nature and vast knowledge and experience of weaponry, the military and strategy of war, he is a soft-spoken serene man with a stiff sense of honour, loyalty and a clear sense of morality. A long life has seen him travel the world throughout the centuries, leaving him somewhat jaded and retentive in the face of experience and multiple tragedies, such as the loss of his fiancee, countless wars and the deaths of his companions. Though he is still seen to be old-fashioned in action, appearance and speech, he is thoroughly capable of moving with the times, as adept with a sniper rifle and a variety of modern technology as his arsenal with samurai weaponry, though slightly less adept at expressing his feelings or understanding the feelings of others. Many have made the mistake of underestimating him due to his quiet disposition and his tendency to avoid being the centre of attention or in any real sense of command for many years, but they do so at their own peril.

As a character, Michi is an examination of a person hailing from a different time and culture and how such a person could move and adapt with the times, given immortality such as what he possesses. Although in Michi's early life he was very much the archetype of everything Japanese society expected of him, his travels around the world and the few relationships he has have helped him to adopt other beliefs and worldviews. He is also an examination of the 'living weapon' character, who is honed utterly for combat against many types of foes. It profoundly affects his mental processing so that he looks at many issues through the lens of battle.

In the current time line, he is one of the veteran members of the new generation of the Dojang who handles collaboration with the military, training the new guardians and general strategy in battle while dealing with Miedo taking up the leader's mantle, his deteriorated relationship with his old friend and fellow Dojang veteran Chang, and raising his daughter, Yuriko.

• The Ageless: He's ageless, but can be - and has been - killed.
• Blood Knight: Goes through this phase briefly in the 1600s after having some traumatising experiences in Renaissance Italy. It actually borders on Psycho for Hire; he explicitly picked outnumbered sides so he would have more people to kill (not fight) and vent his anger.
• Blow You Away: He doesn't really like to use Wind magic too much; it's mainly used to aid flight.
• Brought Down to Badass: During the events of Shared Destiny/Bushido, Michi is shot with rifle rounds that suppress magical and chi-based abilities. This also happened as some pre-World War II experimentation akin to Super Soldier Serum.
• Combat Pragmatist: One of his first fights saw him throwing a bowl of scalding miso soup into another samurai's face, kicking him in the knee, and cracking a bokken over his head. For all his honour, he understands that it's not dictated by how you fight, but why. Doesn't stop him from being able to fight in a stand-up duel.
• Death Seeker: These tendencies have stopped now that he has a family to look after.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Despite the manner of Yaori's conception, Michi never seems to bear any ill will. Though that might be because it was followed by the considerably worse act of being incinerated alive. Or the fact that despite how it happened, he loves his child unconditionally and is grateful to have her in his life. Or the fact that nothing bothers Michi ever.
• Fights Like a Normal: Although Michi is a Lightning/Wind mage AND part Nephilim with all sorts of angelic energy powers and whatnot even without the Water Essence, he relies much more on his prodigious martial arts training. Probably because that's what he had for the first century of his life.
• Flowery Elizabethan English: Not too prominent, but he'll occasionally forget himself and say stuff like 'prithee' and 'sirrah.'
• The Fog of Ages: He discusses this concept with his daughter when helping her with a history test. She operates on the flawed logic that his presence during a lot of the history she learns automatically makes his accounts more reliable than what was written.
• Half-Human Hybrids: He's 75% human, 25% angel.
• Heir to the Dojo: His mother is the headmistress of the Tomoe-ryu style of kenjutsu.
• Heroic BSoD: Several times, most recently when Chang nearly kills him and he's laid up in the hospital recuperating from second-degree burns all over his body.

• I Gave My Word: He's sworn to watch over the Isaacs bloodline.
• Immortality Begins at Twenty: The actual cause of his immortality isn't something he knows about. He has a couple of ideas though.
• Immortal Procreation Clause: Averted. Four known children, possibly other descendants.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: He's capable of cutting and deflecting arrows mid-flight. How much of this ability is due to his Lightning magic-enhanced reflexes and how much is pure sword skill is up for debate.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Though he has been known to use a longsword occasionally to make up for the structural weaknesses of the katana. That said, during his time first in Japan, he's one of the first to use the katana in battle.
  • Wooden Katanas Are Even Better
• Ki Manipulation: He uses this more in his angel form.
• The Lost Lenore: Yuriko. Unlike some instances of the trope, Michi comes to terms with the fact that regardless of Duratio's actions, she would have been long dead and allows himself to enter relationships and sleep with other women.
• Making a Splash: Water Guardian as of the end of Dust.
• Master of Your Domain: Part of his training included learning to augment and suppress certain bodily functions.
• Master Swordsman:
• Multi-Melee Master: He prefers the katana as a reminder of his roots, and it's the weapon he's most familiar with. No slouch with other weapons though.
• My Greatest Failure: He has several moments like this, depending on what era. In his early life, it would be freezing up when having to make his first kill. In modern times, pretty much anything to do with Chang.
• Nerves of Steel: Although Michi can slip into a haze of anger, it's a very rare thing that he completely loses control. He's able to keep his head in pretty much any situation, including in an intense firefight, much to Peter and Verity's confusion.
• One-Man Army: Zig-zagged. In his early years, he was considered something of an in-universe Memetic Badass due to his exploits in the Mongol invasions. Luck and a well-placed arrow helped him dispatch dozens of warriors, and he took the rest of them on in melee. Stories and propaganda being what they are, his feats were a wee bit exaggerated. In later conflicts, especially after receiving training from Darmageinka, he exemplifies a One-Man Army more conventionally.
• Our Angels Are Different: Michi's immediate angel ancestors are more toward the Winged Humanoid end of the scale from breeding with humans, but farther back, they become concentrated WTF.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Because of the time period in which he was growing and the tendency of Japanese people to be smaller, Michi stands at at whopping....5'6".
• Razor Wind: One of his favorite ranged attacks if he doesn't have a gun or bow. Ki Manipulation, after all, is pretty easy to see coming.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Against the dojo that framed his mother for treachery against the Hojo regency post-Mongol invasions.
• Really 700 Years Old: Born in 1265.

• Shock and Awe: Natural Lightning mage.
• Superpowered Evil Side: His angelic form(s) have had shades of this.
• There Are No Therapists: The concept didn't exist when he really needed them several centuries ago...
• The Strategist: His role in the reformed Dojang.
• To Hell and Back: Well, more like briefly dying and being resurrected during the events of The Beginning of the End.
• Training from Hell: Nearly fifty years of it, courtesy of Darmageinka. He was learning to control his chi and to fight with more than just a katana.
• Training the Peaceful Villagers: Michi sees it as his karmic burden (and one reason for his immortality) that he helps to teach the downtrodden feudal peasants he comes across how to fight against their better-armed overlords. Mind, he doesn't incite revolution, but is willing to train anyone who is willing to learn.
• Tranquil Fury: These days.
• Trial by Combat: In his days wandering Europe during the late Middle Ages, Michi frequently acted as a champion-for-hire for those he saw as worthy.
• Walking the Earth: Until he finally settled in Mossley. Even his time with the Dojang saw him taking quite a few missions abroad.
• Wall of Weapons: His house is filled with both melee weapons and firearms. In the peaceful timeline, Chang makes him isolate this to one room with a lock on the door.
• Wham Line: Delivered to him. It's how he starts cottoning on to his immortality.
  Diao Yu: "You don't look like you've aged a day."
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Michi often has problems dealing with things if he can't find a physical enemy to fight. This makes dealing with things like psychological issues difficult for him: see Dust.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: At first. He got over it though.
• Worthy Opponent: Kiori Hayabusa, at least when it comes to non-magical combat. Notably, they've never had a conclusive duel because something always interrupted.
• Would Not Hurt A Child: During his Roaring Rampage of Revenge (see above), he first encountered two seven-year-olds playing at swords in the antechamber of the dojo. He sent them away before the ensuing bloodbath.
  "If you have family, go to them now. Get as far away from here as you can, for your own sakes."

Tomoe Midori

Michi's mother, the granddaughter of onna-bushi Tomoe Gozen. She often finds herself torn between loyalties to what she perceives as bushido and the proprieties of being samurai.

"It's no easy thing, to be samurai. We're often caught between the decision of what's lawful and what's right. Too many of us choose the former."

• Face Death with Dignity
• Master Swordswoman: The third-generation headmaster of Tomoe-ryu kenjutsu.
• Samurai
• Seppuku: Her manner of death; Michi was forced to act as her second on the spot.
• Silk Hiding Steel

Ishikawa Yuriko

"The world is so much larger than our people ever thought. We should see it together."

The fiancee of Tomoe Michi. She and her father were expatriates/emissaries of Japan, living in the western part of China as a guest of Kublai Khan's court. Upon learning of the attempted invasions, Yuriko is taken back to Japan to see the country while it still exists. Whilst her father is in the capital treating with the Hojo court, Yuriko stays at an inn near Michi's dojo, and the two of them develop a friendship, then a romance. Her experiences in China, such as meeting members of Marco Polo's expedition, give her a far more worldly and inquisitive view of life, which she partially shares with Michi. She is the namesake of his daughter, Tomoe Yuriko.

• Deadpan Snarker: Her and Michi's first meeting involves her talking down a group of rowdy members of a rival dojo to Michi's, and preventing him from engaging them.
  "Four live swords against one practice one? Yes, I can see why they would be terrified."
• Silk Hiding Steel
• Teach Me How To Fight: She had Michi and Midori train her.
• Walking the Earth: She wants to do this with Michi. Sadly, their relationship doesn't last.

Chang Isaacs

"Sometimes when you're alone, you cling to anyone who you think cares about you."

The current Guardian of the Fire Stone. Initiated into the Dojang by Azriel at the age of twelve, Chang is one of the veteran survivors of the old regime. Originally an inexperienced and cheerful albeit damaged young girl brought to the organisation by Issyl Elemmes, she trained at the knee and direction of many Guardians and comrades in control of her fire magic, martial arts and acrobatics, strategy, combat and a plethora of weaponry. Despite her tender years, she rapidly acquitted herself in battle again and again, rising through the ranks, while also forging very close bonds with her brothers-in-arms. The parting of ways arguably hit her harder than anyone else, effectively being the loss of the closest thing to a family she had ever known. As a character, she is the deconstruction of the myth of the unaffected adolescent chirpy hero saving the world - her exposure to combat, death and torture, along with her consistently disappointing relationships (both platonic and otherwise) has left her irrevocably damaged and outright unable to deal with most conflict and interpersonal interaction.

In the current timeline, Chang is the self-declared demolition expert of the new generation of Guardians, capable of dealing out the most destruction and damage in battle. Having lost her enthusiastic easy-going nature that endeared her to so many as a child, she is seen as a deeply damaged and aggressive young woman, often left to her own devices and deflecting any attempts of familiarisation with her new comrades, despite often being at the forefront of each confrontation with many older warriors under her command. She is also the wild card in the deck, with uncertain loyalties to her current leader, deep resentments towards many of her old comrades and preoccupied with the traumas of the loss of her family, her descent into madness and her resulting incarceration in a mental institution for several years, along with her long-standing hatred of one particular man.

• Addictive Magic: Spirit magic, to the point where she was kept confined with all of her magic sealed while she detoxed and reacted as one would who is coming off heroin.
• All Therapists Are Muggles: During her time at Tameside Asylum, her ramblings about things that had actually happened were dismissed as delusions.
• American Accents: She actually was born and raised in California. After years of living with people with different accents though, she has a distinctly unplaceable polyglot accent.
• Aura Vision: Her ability to see people's emotions is sometimes represented as this.
  • Also her ability to sense temperature, though this is not so much a 'seeing' as a feeling.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Many times. It's not ended well.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Has this with Riko during Family Reunion. Mostly buried under the many many many layers of hatred and the bitter snarking between them.
• Berserk Button: Do not call her Red.
• Bifauxnen: She's always been lean, slim-hipped and angular, with a distinctly boyish physique, and lives in jeans and t-shirts/tank tops. When she wears her hair short, she's often mistaken for a boy.
• Break the Cutie: Where do we even start...?
• Breath Weapon: She can breathe fire, dragon-style. Though it's really just only her normal pyrogenesis, just directed out of her mouth, it's still awfully cool.
• Broken Bird: Has become this since her Despair Event Horizon at the end of her and Riko's adventures. After that, giving birth to her daughter, her incarceration and the events of Dust, she acts hard and badass to her fellow Guardians, while inside she's desperately lonely and broken.
• Brought Down to Normal: During the events of Family Reunion, Riko suppresses her magic when she's incarcerated in Yamin's fortress to stop them from killing her for the Fire Stone. Not only does it bring her down to normal, her body can't handle the sudden loss of all of the little details of being a fire mage, leaving her effectively half-blind and undergoing mild hypothermia.
• Burning with Anger: This reached a whole new level at the end of Dust.
• Child Soldier: Recruited in the Dojang at twelve when Issyl Elemmes found her and brought her back with him.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Chang and Yonten. It never quite got there and went horribly wrong ...
• Clothing Damage: Occasionally - while her body is fire-proof, clothing is not. Only occurs when she's wearing clothes that aren't treated with a fire-retardant that she uses on all her clothes. Happens most notably during the end of Dust (she was wearing clothes bought in a thrift shop on the run) and in Family Reunion when she's turned into a tree and burned. Her comrades act with indifference or embarrassment rather than titillation.
• Combat Pragmatist: A powerful fire mage who knows a thing or two about weaponry and hand to hand combat ... but this doesn't stop her from biting, going for the eyes, yanking hair or generally fighting dirty. Also definitely not above going for a Groin Attack, especially when she was younger.
• Death Seeker: Post-Dust, due to seeing herself as the last of her family and that she has nothing left to live for.
• Despair Event Horizon: One by one, everyone who she considered family and who claimed to love her abandoned her, over and over again. After the events of Shared Destiny, she came very close to this ... then she met Riko and he made it all better. Right? Wrong. He broke her down and poisoned her, making her completely amoral. She tries to murder all her friends for abandoning her and becomes Riko's partner-in-crime while they slowly go more insane and commit more unforgivable atrocities. Her horizon is the moment where she's turned sane again. The man she loved had abandoned her and the weight of all the crimes she has committed hit her all at once. She promptly goes mad and is incarcerated for two years.
  • She has another one between Dust and Family Reunion where she tries to overcome these events.
  Chang: How am I supposed to come back from this?

• Did They or Didn't They?: Chang and Riko. While never stated outright, their 'relationship' was confirmed by Riko himself in Dust, and to the worst person possible.
• Dissonant Laughter: Though while considerably more sane after Dust, she still laughs at inappropriate moments where no one else gets the joke.
• Dude Magnet: Mainly because there are very few women about in the SWC universe. The ratio of men to women in the Dojang was around 20:1.

• The Empath: When using her spirit magic, she can read and control other people's emotions. Her emotions also can bleed out and infect other people (they feel happy for no reason or feel her fear etc) if she's feeling a particularly strong emotion.
• Everybody Knew Already: A sad example - everyone has pretty much guessed that there was something going on between her and Riko before Dust, if not been told outright. Nobody talks about it. Not even the people who saw her slit his throat, which might mess up a girl a little bit.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Chang used to wear her hair very long when she was younger, wearing it up or plaited for battle or free and unfettered, along with very rarely getting it cut. She cuts all of it off shortly after losing her mind, and even post-Dust puts a lot of maintenance into keeping it nearly military-short, never letting it grow below her ears. She explains it away to Peter as for practicality's sake.
• Face–Heel Turn: Twice. Due to psycho serum, later due to Spirit magic. She turned back when she was clean.
• Female Misogynist: She doesn't handle female company very well and often finds them irritating or weak. It's most likely a cover for the fact that she's never had female friends and she doesn't know how to act around other women.

• Gender-Blender Name: The name 'Chang' while sounding reasonably gender neutral is, point-blank, a Chinese male-only name. Despite coming into contact with many people from across the globe, no one has ever commented on this.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: The realisation of all the terrible things that she and Riko had done made them both run away in opposite directions as far as they could go, and resulted in her stay in Tameside Asylum.
• Good Bad Girl: Unintentionally. Out of her long-standing circle of comrades (Yonten, Larry, Michi, Riko), she has had some form of romantic altercation with all of them over the years. However they're generally one-offs, a part of an evil plan or just plain hormones, with the exception of her relationships with Yonten and Riko. Starting to veer into unhealthy, as she's starting to use sex as a way of warding off loneliness and to get shallow human intimacy.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: She has quite a few scars from a variety of injuries over the past ten years from the neck down, through accidents and in the line of duty. They're all well-healed and clean-cut, but that doesn't stop her from being self-conscious about them.
• Black Eyesof Crazy: A general trait of Spirit mages is that their eyes are always a little off - the irises of her eyes look cracked. Well, they say that the eyes are the window to the soul.
• Hates Being Alone: Her history of repeated abandonment has left her with a deep-bitterness and mistrust of pretty much everyone, but she still hates nothing more than being alone, causing her to make bad decisions out of a craving for human contact and affection, leading to disappointment and self-loathing. Spends a lot of her time between the end of Detox and the start of Family Reunion picking up random guys in bars for this reason.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Shorter than most of the people she's been involved with and wavering between lean and downright emaciated, it's especially noticed with Yonten, who now stands nearly an entire foot taller than her (6'4" vs 5'5") and is pretty muscular to boot.

• Intergenerational Friendship: About 80% of her friendships are with people (mostly men) old enough to be her father or grandfather.
• Interspecies Romance: The Dojang being what it was, most of her boyfriends aren't human (Yonten a lycan/demon hybrid, Riko Angeli, etc.)
• Katanas Are Just Better: To be fair, her two main teachers when she was younger were a ninja and a samurai. It almost makes sense!
• Let's You and Him Fight: She pits Yonten and Michi against one another in Dust.
  • Also Larry versus Yonten. And Yonten versus Riko. Hell, she probably attempted this on everyone.
• Like Brother and Sister: Has this relationship with Michi at first.

• Loving a Shadow: Prone to this, as well as In Love with Love, mainly because she's emotionally damaged. She used to think of her romantic/sexual entanglements as being much more than they were, resulting in disillusion and heartbreak later.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Chang and Yonten have this dynamic. When they were children, she the angry wolf cub raised by an organisation of men and he the mild gentle pacifist, she always ran the show (she used to hit him or give him especially withering looks when he cried, for example.) Even when he grew up into a Gentle Giant, she still called the shots and could generally get him to do whatever she wanted. This has not ended well.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: A throwaway line from Parting of Ways suggests that the hellish ordeals Chang goes through post-Dojang could be attributed to Lea posthumously meddling from Hell For the Evulz.
• May–December Romance: Multiple examples, the most important being Michi (800 years+) in the alternate universe and Riko (millenia compared to Chang being seventeen at the time.) Verging into Mayfly–December Romance, but subverted now that Chang herself is immortal, though she doesn't know it yet.
• Mind Rape: Been the receiver and the giver of this so. many. times.
• Missing Mom: Thanks to Damien, again.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: After being abandoned repeatedly by people who she considered her family and who said that they loved her, along with all the horrors that she's been subjected to, she goes on a murderous rampage.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Immediately prior to her stay in Tameside.
• Never Learned to Read: She is functionally borderline illiterate - she can read maps and the like and it has impacted little on her high-action life, but the bottom line is that she can barely read or write. This is fixed later by the efforts of various comrades and when she learns to read and write along side her daughter.
• Not Herself: Result of over-exposure to Spirit magic.
• Older Than They Look: Despite being in her early twenties, her small stature and often nigh-emaciated appearance makes her look mid-to-late teens.
• Out with a Bang: An unfortunate unforeseen consequence of her fire magery. Due to the exhilaration and loss of inhibition involved in sex, she has to make sure to keep her fire magic in check during, otherwise ... well. Fortunately enough no one has fallen prey to this, though one or two people have been inadvertently burnt a little bit before she realised what was happening.
• Parental Incest: Courtesy of her father, Damien Isaacs. Yet another reason why she has serious issues when it comes to relationships.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Easily one of the Guardians with the largest capability for destruction. Due to her (surprising) amount of self-control, this rarely manifests itself - but when she gets loose in Dust, she flattened a city in a few hours and becomes the human equivalent of an atomic bomb during the climactic battle. Hell, she even scares the crap out of Riko when she flings everything that she has at him during their first showdown.
• Playing with Fire and Kill It with Fire: As Guardian of the Fire Stone, she is made of this trope. Everything, in her eyes, can be fixed by setting it on fire. And if not, repeat.
• Precision F-Strike: Oddly not as gutter-mouthed as you'd think, considering. So in Family Reunion it's a sign of how bad things are getting a while after she is rescued from the Citadel and reacts with seething incredulity once asked why she's acting on edge:
  "What's my problem? My problem is Riko FUCKING Inthirda, that's what my problem is."

• Pyromaniac: Actually averted. Despite being the Fire Guardian and a Fire mage from birth, Chang doesn't have the fascination with fire that you'd expect.
• Psycho Serum: Evil!Riko gives her a potion that causes her to be completely amoral, setting into motion her downward spiral and current circumstances.
• Raised by Wolves: Michi's thought when he first meets her.
• Rape as Drama
• Relationship Upgrade: Her and Michi become a romantic couple after spending time together raising their daughter in the (more) peaceful timeline.
• Required Secondary Powers: Along with being able to make and control fire, Chang is completely impervious to any kind of fire. Unfortunately, clothes that aren't treat with the convenient flame-retardant are not. Ability also overcome in Family Reunion when she did burn ... but only because the Forest Guardian had turned her into a tree.
• Retcon: Chang used to have a cat-tail. And a yin-yang tattoo. And stuff. The writer has since fazed this out and likes to pretend that it never happened. A lot of Chang's history has also been altered using retcon.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Happens after Shared Destiny. Tries to kill Yonten, burns Michi alive after getting herself pregnant by him and plans on killing the remainder of the Dojang.
• Shadow Archetype: In the form of Lea.
• Shed the Family Name: Her surname constantly changes depending on where she is, her mood and who she's travelling with (Crescent, Tomoe, Isaacs, amongst others.) As of Family Reunion, she goes by her first name only.
• She-Fu: Very acrobatic.
• Smitten Teenage Girl: When she was younger, especially when it came to Khirsah Tier and Kiori Hayabusa. Also with Riko before they started their relationship.
• Smoking Is Cool: Subverted. Starting smoking between the end of Dust and the start of Family Reunion, fellow Dojinnians and Guardians tolerate it while barely disguising that it's a disgusting habit. It would be rather stupid to say it openly, however, as she has been killing people since the age of twelve.
• Soul Power: Spirit magic. She's been known to manipulate emotions (see Michi and Yonten in Dust), read emotions or outright rip people's souls from them.
• Spiteful Spit: Does this to Riko at the climax of Dust.
• Stepford Smiler: Seems like a Genki Girl, but is seriously emotionally damaged. Loses the Genki part over time.
• Synchronization: To some extent with Yonten, though it seems that distance dampens its efficacy. Also with Lea back in the day.
• There Are No Therapists: Despite the fact that she's ran with a group of killers since early childhood, has had extensive issues romantically, serious abandonment issues, had a child at the age of nineteen and all the other nightmare fuel that she's been through, not once did anyone try to talk to her about how awful it must have been and expected her to keep being a Stepford Smiler. The only person who did was just using her and got inside her head to cause her Face–Heel Turn.
  • You'd think that this would have been averted during her stay in the asylum ... but if she'd spoken about the horrors she had gone through, it would have just confirmed to them that she was even crazier than they first thought.
  • One of the reasons for her friendship with Michi breaking down.
• Trauma Conga Line: Sometimes to the point of not even being funny anymore. Originally becoming a Type D, she progressed to Type E due to her firm grip on morality.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She killed her first man at the age of eleven. She doesn't reveal if this was on purpose or by accident, or if it was in self-defence. Even back when she was young, chirpy and childish, she was alarmingly efficient in combat, to the point of occasionally laughing delightedly in battle. She was also prone to being attracted to men who were much older than she was.
  • She lampshades this quite brutally when people try to lecture her about her smoking, drinking and relationships when she's older.
    • Peter's reaction lampshades this when she tells him some of the details of her younger years:
  Chang: I killed my first man when I was eleven. ... *notices his horrified expression* ... that's not normal, is it?

• Two Guys and a Girl: Larry, Yonten and Chang when they were in the Dojang together, being the best of friends. Then the romantic implications kicked in. At the same time as puberty. People DIED. Buildings were LEVELLED. This is what happens when a Love Triangle is between three teenagers with no emotional maturity and SUPERPOWERS.
• Villainous Breakdown: At the end of Storm of Vengeance before being committed to Tameside Asylum.
• Waif-Fu: Despite barely topping 100lb and 5ft 5, Chang often takes down people and monsters many many times her size. Granted, she mostly does this by avoiding attacks with acrobatics, fire magic and an arsenal of sharp weaponry, but it's still damn impressive.
• Walking the Earth: She and Michi do this together briefly after the disbanding of the Dojang. She does it again with Riko after Rebuilding the Past, and then on several solo ventures later.
• Was It All a Lie?: Still not over Riko despite it being two years since the end of Storm of Vengeance for this reason among others.
  • Ironically it was her who might have caused the lie, as she was a projecting empath for a large portion of the time they were together. Later she worries if their relationship was due to her emotions infecting him.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: After being a mercenary throughout her childhood, coming close to being killed countless times, and being abandoned by everyone she cared about, she cracks under the pressure of it all and loses her mind. She turns into a nuclear bomb of fire magic at the end of Dust to take everyone down with her when she escapes and many of her old companions come to subdue her. It doesn't take.
• Wreathed in Flames: On occasion.

Yuriko Tomoe

"I don't make mistakes. I don't make mistakes.

Michi and Chang's eldest daughter. She was conceived when they met in Shanghai, after Chang slipped date-rape drugs into Michi's drink. Yuriko was born whilst Chang was in the depths of her insanity and being held at Tameside. In the peaceful timeline, Michi raises her alone for the first few years of her life before Chang returns. In the current timeline, he takes her to live at the Academy, where she stays in the nursery most of the time while Michi's in the field or attending to his duties. As Yuriko grows up, she finds herself desperately trying to relive her parents' legacy, especially Michi.

• Action Girl
• Alliterative Family: All the Tomoe siblings - Yuriko & Yonten, Luke and Lucrecia.
• Badass Bookworm: When she's not training, she's reading.
• Blood Knight: Michi has tried to break her from this from time to time, with limited success.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: She takes it upon herself to learn as much about the physics of electromagnetism as she can. She entertains the idea of becoming a Reality Warper using this knowledge, given enough time (and since she shares Michi's immortality, it's not in short supply.)
• Brother–Sister Incest
• Catchphrase: "I don't make mistakes. I don't make mistakes," "...perish the thought," and "Son of a whore!"
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Sometimes.
• Geek
• Hot-Blooded
• Katanas Are Just Better
• Kid Samurai: The more competent variety. Not to Michi's calibre, but definitely able to hold her own.
• Master of Your Domain: Yuriko eventually works out that her magic allows her to manipulate her neural impulses.
• Mental Time Travel: Doubles with Wayback Trip when she goes to ancient Japan.
• Parasol of Pain
• Shock and Awe: She approaches her magic very scientifically, testing the levels of voltage and current she emits with a multimeter. In some ways, she's actually better than Michi at Lightning magic; he never went into detail learning the scientific principles behind it.
• Sophisticated as Hell: She's fond of dropping a Precision F-Strike and resorting to Country Matters in stressful or extremely irritating moments. The rest of the time she's as prim and proper as can be.
• Snark Knight
• Stepford Smiler: Forcing herself to maintain control of her magic, coupled with her insanely high self-expectations, drives her into depression. She covers it with false serenity.
• Super-Reflexes
• Super-Senses: Slight drawback of being a Lightning Mage.
• Walking Techbane: On bad days, her magic destroys any electronic device she touches or has near her.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: To people only familiar with anime, because of the "Yuri-" part of her name. For those who actually know Japanese, they would recognise the name as meaning 'child of the lily'.

Yonten Tomoe

"How do you cope with knowing you could kill anyone - anyone - in the blink of an eye?"

The eldest son of Michi and Chang. Rather than being bequeathed by choice or upon the death of the preceding Guardian, he inherits the Fire Stone from Chang during pregnancy, being the only known Guardian to date to take up the mantle this way. Most of his life is spent dealing with this and his less than conventional family, attempting to reconcile the mundane world he was born into with the history and responsibilities of that of his parents. Arguably Chang's favourite. Born in the peaceful timeline, his fate in the current timeline is yet to be seen.

• A God Am I: He develops a shade or two of this in his later teenage years whilst Yaori's away. Him being the Fire Guardian got to him a little.
• Big Eater: Necessary for Fire magic.
• Brother–Sister Incest: With Yuriko. She initiated it.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: His full name is Yonten Khirsah Kiori Tomoe. His entire name is a huge source of embarrassment for him, especially as a teenager, and is only in its full glory on official documents.
• Fiery Redhead: With spikes and a temper to match.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: A fire mage and a competitive swimmer to boot, he often resorts to drinking supplement shakes to give him the massive calorie intake he requires, since the equivalent amount of food would probably rupture his stomach.
• I Just Want to Be Normal
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Invoked on occasion, though not as often as one would think - he tends to pull this if the guy is being an arsehole. The rest of the time he just finds it funny.
• Person of Mass Destruction: As the next generation Fire Guardian from birth, he fears he'll become this. Not entirely unfounded. When he was young and playing at a neighbour's house, the Fire Essence activated, burning the house down and severely injuring them. Yonten emerged unscathed.
• Playing with Fire
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Emma. They have a relationship for a while, but grow apart and ultimately break up because of Yonten's insecurities about his powers and her frustration with him keeping things from her.

Luke Tomoe

"..."

Chang and Michi's second son. Luke has managed to skirt the existential angst that has afflicted his older siblings, taking the past and his own place in the world in his stride with his characteristic serenity and near apathy. Quiet almost to the point of mute, people often make the mistake that Luke doesn't take life or much of anything seriously, but more likely he's cannier and notices more than they give him credit for - it's only that he shares what he's thinking when he feels it's important. After several years of casual drug abuse, in his late teens he comes into his magic as a Spirit mage, somehow managing to dodge the inherent madness that the creed is afflicted with after the initial horrific adjusting period, though his long term prognosis is still unknown. Born in the peaceful timeline, his fate is also questionable in the present.

• Embarrassing Middle Name: Much less so than Yonten, but his full name is Luke Issyl Tomoe. He actually finds it quite spiffy. Chang also wanted to add Lexeus, Azriel and a few others, but at this point Michi put his foot down.
• Emo Teen: Well, he dresses in the style as a teenager, complete with dramatic sweep of black hair, but he's not wangsty or self-pitying and is actually generally quite content and unflappable. He's a hipster when he's older, but again without the attitude.
• The Empath
• Erudite Stoner: When he actually talks.
• Functional Addict: Luke is one of those obnoxious people who can start and stop most things whenever he likes. He just happens to like drugs, even after they trigger his spirit magic in a come down that ends with him screaming hysterically in the A+E department of a hospital. Unfortunately the staff assumed that he was just an idiot drugged up teenager on a violent come down.
• Hidden Depths: Luke seems like your average stoner at first, but his innate Spirit magic gives him psychological and emotional insights that most find surprising.
• I'm Having Soul Pains: Consequence of Spirit magic.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Almost a dead ringer for Michi.
• The Power of Rock: Luke is well known for his guitar skills, eventually forming a band. In his later years he becomes a music therapist, using his Spirit magic to amplify the healing effect it has on people.
• The Silent Bob
• The Stoic: People are drawn to him because he's a very pretty guy, and he is a genuinely nice guy. He has no lack of female attention in his life, but most of the time they end up leaving him because of his apparent lack of emotional reaction to pretty much everything. Sound familiar?

Lucrecia Tomoe

"C'mon, Luke, let's go!"

The youngest of Chang and Michi's children. Remarkable in her complete lack of remarkability, Lu is the only one of the family to not exhibit any magical ability of any sort whatsoever due to genetic roulette. Though nursing some resentment for this in her later teens, she eventually comes to terms with this and enjoys both sides of her family's life while being able to maintain a happy normal life when the shit hits the fan with the rest of them. The closest resemblance to Chang in appearance and her early personality, Lu is often high-spirited and mischievous, though she actually becomes one of the most level headed of the brood in their adult years, giving her siblings a place to escape to when they need to take time out. As with her brothers, Lu was born in the peaceful timeline, leaving her fate in question in the current storyline.

• Brother–Sister Team: In the non-action way, Lu and Luke. She tends to call the shots despite being younger than him because he's usually not fussed either way and she actually talks.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Fine when she and Luke were muggles together, but when Luke comes into his abilities as a Spirit mage, she becomes frustrated with being the odd one out in her family. She gets over it when she realises how stressful and/or ultimately useless her siblings find their magic when trying to live normal lives.
• Muggle Born of Mages: She has no magical abilities at all in a family of fire, lightning and spirit mages. She jokes that all the magic got used up on her siblings before she came along.

Arascion/Wolf X

• Green Thumb
• The Gunslinger
• Half-Human Hybrids: He's part demon.
• Nature-magic Druid Demon Cowboy
• Revolvers Are Just Better
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: Right in his name. It turns out that it is actually a title rather than a name - he's the tenth Wolf, a leader of an order of druids.

Yonten Taleheart

"I want you to be happy, Chang. But you're not letting yourself be."

A warrior of the Dojang during its golden age, Yonten was initiated at thirteen at the direction of his friend, guardian and fellow initiative, Wolf X. A meek and mild teenage boy, easily put down and flustered, he was raised as a monk and a pacifist in his native India, causing him to originally wrestle between his strict moral and religious code and what he came to view as what was right. Despite this background making him sound like the last person who would be wanted in a warzone, he was a member of the forces during the Musako war, the Dark Shug incident and other confrontations, acquitting himself well. Often underestimated due to his shy nature, it belied a violently vicious streak that was his birthright as a lycanthrope, coming out at times of great stress or rage.

Arguably (though no one would argue very loudly) his most poignant relationship is that with Chang. One of the few pubescent members at the time, Yonten was befriended by the fire mage a few days after his initiation. Often side by side in confrontations in battle, sparring together almost daily and in between playing constant pranks or causing trouble, they were best friends and inseparable. This friendship sparked a tentative romance that has been by turns painful, unrequited, joyful and short lived, spanning eight years, multiple encounters and disasters, and counting.

Not present during the Dojang's decimation (see Cataclysm) or resulting dissolution, Yonten emerged relatively unscathed in the immediate aftermath of this disaster, though indeed otherwise occupied by some of his own at the time. He crossed paths several times with Chang, Michi and Larry during this time period, often reigniting he and Chang's unresolved feelings towards one another and raising the possibility of a permanent relationship, though he would often vanish as abruptly as he had reappeared. He was likewise dragged into the events during and resulting from Chang's descent into madness, setting himself stubbornly by her side upon her reemergence and incarceration. This would come back to bite him when she used him to escape, thoroughly manipulating him towards her own agenda and as a shield against Riko and her other pursuers by any means necessary.

Yonten has not maintained contact with his old comrades as of Family Reunion, perhaps due to the events of Dust, and is assumed to still be based in India with his family. Recent reports have spotted him in the Middle East, but so far they are unverified.

• Berserk Button: It's a big nuclear red button deep in his brain with 'Chang' written on it in big angry letters. Larry is the best known for pushing it (see Shared Destiny and Dust), but others also have exploited this one.
• The Big Guy: At 6ft 4in tall, he's the tallest out of the entire Dojang posse, outside it only standing shorter than his father.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Happened to him when captured during T Bot E, thanks to Lea - due to the spotty contact that he's had with his former companions since then, this detail has fallen into the background over the years. It's implied that it's left a much more lasting impression upon him that they realised.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Actually averted. This is the reaction that Chang expects when he hears about her tom-catting around while he was out of the picture - only for him to laugh and point out that he loves her, and that he isn't going to lose it just because she kissed someone else while they weren't even together anyway. Wow.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Yonten is an Earth mage, though this aspect of his magic is rarely touched upon.
• Gentle Giant: Despite growing into a 6ft4 decently built man from that 5ft5 weakling he used to be and having shed a lot of his pacifism, he's still as prone to tears and immature as he was at the age of 13.
• Half-Human Hybrids: Yonten is part-demon, part Lycanthrope.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: As time goes on, this is pretty much all he wants for Chang.
• Little Bit Beastly: Lycanthrope of a sort ... but with tigers. The majority of the time, all that gives hints to his beastiness is the cat ears and the tail, which can be hidden anyway.
• Love Makes You Crazy: A sweet lovable pacifist most of the time ... but unfortunately his brain, heart and testicles seem to release utter batshit crazy chemicals whenever within fifty miles of a certain Fire Guardian.
• Single-Target Sexuality: For everyone's favourite Fire Mage - in the entire run, he's never even noticed another girl, or guy for that matter. To be fair, he's often only around in times of battle and conflict, and this isn't including what he might have gotten up to in his time off-screen. Chang has been ... rather less devoted.
• Synchronization: With Chang, in an attempt to stay close to her at all times and protect her. Unfortunately for him, it backfired spectacularly - her madness started to affect him after months of sharing head space, and she was able to use this to make him even more pliable than usual. She also uses this as a weapon against him after he realises that he can't help her and decides to help Larry to stop her.
  Larry: What are you doing to him?
  Chang: *dispassionately* He's going mad. Just like I did.

• To Hell and Back: After The Unraveling Time, Yonten fell into Hell to defeat Duratio.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: He's THE unlucky childhood friend.
• Wangst: He comes across as melodramatic during confrontations in SD and Dust (especially Dust). Justified in that he genuinely doesn't know how to handle how he's feeling or to put it into eloquent phrasing, so he ends up derailing and coming across as a stroppy emo teenager. Larry loves to tweak his nose about it.
  Larry: Yeah, can someone give me a hand with Jacob Black over here?

Sabre Morai-Taleheart

"You're getting soft, bro."

• Boisterous Bruiser: When compared with Yonten (Taleheart).
• Fiery Redhead
• Little Bit Beastly: Lycan, just like his brother. Because Sabre lives in the wild, he isn't as civilised.

Anocha Taleheart

Resha

Kenichi

"Talk to me, Hunter. What do we have?"

• Accidental Misnaming: Immediately after introductions are made, Yonten (Tomoe) starts calling him Cabbage, because Kenichi sounds like kimchi. He is not amused.
  • Overlaps with Yaori and Yonten's nicknames for one another: she's 'wonton' and he's 'eggroll.'
• Demon Slaying: He makes his way hunting demons in the timeline he meets his half-siblings Yaori and Yonten.
• Disappeared Dad: Looking for his father Yonten (Taleheart) and Michi.
• Playing with Fire: Mixed with gunplay.
• Surprise Incest: He flirts with Yaori when they first meet, not knowing that they're technically half-siblings. Yonten starts laughing uproariously at this

Riko Inthirda

• Becoming the Mask: He's spent so many years being the Chosen One and acting as people would expect one to act that he finds it incredibly difficult, if not nearly impossible, to act as his regular person self.
• Berserk Button: Two of Riko's main adversaries have, in the past, found out exactly how unwise it is to bring up how he killed his sister.
• Broken Ace: The Chosen One of his people, married into the royal family, an Angeli blessed with all four elements, a master of Xanatos Speed Chess, on top of being handsome, incredibly charismatic, having one hell of a lightning-fast wit, and has a certain success with the ladies (Angeli and at least two other women in the notoriously mostly male Dojang.) He's a leader in every sense of the word, serving successfully in the Angeli military and as one-time leader of the Dojang, and he easily runs rings around anything and anyone thrown at him, even if at first it seems that the odds are stacked against him. However, he's also friendless, crushed under the weight of his own reputation, other people's expectations and his pathological need to be constantly composed and in control. Everything he attempts to fix turns to ruin in the long run and all his power was useless when his people, family and loved ones were completely wiped out.
• Deadpan Snarker: Much to the frustration of the person on the receiving end.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Even playful taunting will get you stuck to a ceiling for a few hours if you take it too far. In more serious circumstances ... well, it's unwise to antagonise him.
• Eccentric Mentor: When he's not having to white-tower it up or faced with impending death or disaster, he's actually very playful, silly and charming. Most evident in his pre-Dust interactions with Chang and in his relationship with her children in the peaceful timeline.
• Flat "What": His reaction almost any time Chang shows him something new about modern human culture.
• Hearing Voices: Only while under the influence of a certain elixir.
• Immortality Begins At Thirty: Angeli normally live for eight centuries or so. Riko was thirty when Miedo hijacked his body and froze his aging for several thousand years. After escaping Miedo's control, Riko was almost immediately exposed to Time Magic, which has halted his aging entirely. Despite now being tens of thousands of years old, Riko still looks quite spritely.
  • Even without Miedo's interference, Angeli aging would have kept him looking late twenties/early thirties anyway, at least until he hit around the six century mark.
• Intangible Man: He can do this at will, using it in combat to phase through opponents and attacks. It's uncertain how long he can hold this for, as he's only needed to use this ability in flashes.
• Last of His Kind: At some still unknown point following his exile from Ijus, Riko's entire race vanished without a trace, leaving him as the sole survivor of the Angeli.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Of the rakish sort, and he knows it.
  • Lampshaded by Larry's opening battle gambit with Riko - “You picked the wrong night to piss on my battery, pal. I’m going to beat your face in so badly, legions of long-haired, yaoi-bait obsessed fangirls are going to feel a disturbance in the Force.”
• Magnificent Bastard: He always has a plan, he manipulates rings around everyone he's come across, turns the tables on a regular basis with ease, and will do anything for what he sees as the greater good regardless of how morally grey or outright horrifying it is. And don't ever try to win an argument with him - he'll come back with the verbal equivalent of a Curb-Stomp Battle every single time. And he'll do it all with one of his trademark smirks on his face. This guy is freakin' terrifying.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Mind over Matter: Telekinetic, using it in combat and for Mundane Utility. He's been seen to freeze multiple people in place and is capable of lifting and/or stopping a person/s in mid air. The extent of this ability is unknown, but theoretically this could be one of the most dangerous abilities he has in his arsenal.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After his daughter successfully reversed the effects of the morality-darkening elixir on both he and Chang, Riko almost immediately had one of these when he came back to his senses and realised that in the confrontation, he had mortally wounded his only child. She recovered, though Riko didn't find this out for some time.
• No Sense of Personal Space: One of his favourite ways of messing with his opponents. A scene in Dust implies that he learned this from Yamin before his defection.
• Power Perversion Potential: Chang inquires once in a roundabout way whether the Angeli (and he himself by extention) ever utilise the other uses of flight and telekinesis. Causing the closest thing to a spit-take Riko's probably ever done once he realises what she's getting at. Note - though he admonished her for having her mind in the gutter, he didn't say no.
• Power Tattoo: While not necessary for magic use (as far as we know), Angeli receive a tattoo representing the element they're blessed with when they come of age. Riko, who is capable of using all of them, has all four corresponding tattoos.
• Psychotic Smirk: Frequently, ranging between rakishly charming to smug to a warning to start running.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory
• Screw Destiny: A lot of Riko's character is based on all the expectations that have been heaped on him since birth. Eventually he gets tired of being the chosen one and tells everything to go fuck itself.
• Shout-Out: Yaori and Yonten call him the Doctor, specifically Tennant's version. Chang also playfully said that they were like Doctor and Companion during their travels.
  • Chang has also described him as 'the Chase to my Omi, Joker to my Harley, Slade to my Terra', referencing many partnerships that were corrupting, damaging and the significant age difference between them at the time of their travels.
    • The Deathstroke/Terra comparison is actually more apt than she realised, since the retcon of Teen Titans that revealed that Terra's insanity was helped along by a hefty dose of Psycho Serum.
• Superpowered Insane Side: A side effect of consuming Felix Dragmire's elixir, gradually developed over a number of weeks after consumption before fully manifesting.
• The Corrupter: Unintentionally.
• Time Abyss: How old is he again?
• Time Master: Duh.
• Tranquil Fury: The result of Chang's refusal to tell Riko where the Angeli grave was located. He was finally stopped by Miedo, who stripped him clean of all his powers, fearing that he may kill Chang otherwise. Then Chang tried to kill him in another not so tranquil fury.
• Troll: Loves to exploit his opponents' weak points, whether to win an argument, to throw them off balance or just for fun. Special mentions go to his interactions with Chang, nonchalantly throwing an impossible relic at a recently defeated Yamin, and getting a particularly vicious victory over Larry by dropping the fact that he had slept with Chang into a conversation because he had irritated him.
• Verbal Tic: "You know", stated with facts, observations and veiled insults as though the person he is speaking to is unaware of them.
• We Used to Be Friends: Riko used to share a close bond with Yamin. They served together in the Angeli military and both played an active role in several key victories against the Devi. Yamin's involvement in the Devi plot that ultimately resulted in the death of Riko's sister put something of a strain on their bond; even more so when Yamin manipulated events to get Riko exiled from Ijus.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Exiled from his homeworld for killing his sister. The exile was later rescinded, but Riko remained unaware of this until he discovered the true fate of his people.

Larry Linford

"No matter how dark things get, there's always a light for those willing to find it."

• Badass Longcoat: It's formed from his Shadow Magic to boot and fully under his control. Larry mostly uses this to ensure dramatic coat-flapping even if there's no wind.
• Bilingual Bonus: He's South African and fluent in both English and Afrikaans. He occasionally curses in the latter, and grouses in his first language during Dust after a Curb-Stomp Battle against Chang, which is a censor-dodging tirade of obscenities.
  • For funsies, here's the tirade in question: ”Eina, my donner … Blérrie spul kak as jy my vra … Ahh, moer!” '
• Calling Your Attacks: Much to Michi's amusement/frustration.
• Casting a Shadow: Dark mage.
• Chivalrous Pervert
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Not so much as when he was younger, but his unrequited crush on Chang has caused a lot of this. He hates and undermines Yonten (he tried to kill him when he thought that they were sleeping together), is generally cool with Michi, and when he found out that Chang and Riko had been in a relationship wanted to grab him by the hair and smash his face into some steps until his teeth splintered and his skull was caved in. He's generally not too nice to Chang when he's in one of these moods either, because of the perceived slight and her refusal to return his feelings despite her track record.
  • Since becoming an adult, he has mellowed-out considerably. While he still has feelings for Chang, his attitude towards Yonten has become a bit more easy-going.
• Combat Tentacles: He prefers calling them Shadow Tendrils - harder for people to make hentai jokes that way.
• Combat Pragmatist: Comes with being one of the few Dojinians to not possess one of the Stones or have the advantage of an angelic/demon/lycan background - Larry will fight hard and fight dirty. It helps that he's one of the few mages trained in and willing to use firearms.
• Deadpan Snarker: On a level equal to Chang. Putting the two of them in the same room will usually lead to a snark-off.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Doesn't matter if you're a Guardian, extra-dimensional entity or being of utter despair and darkness - you will be sassed, insulted and back-talked no matter what.
• Enemy Without: In the form of Lawrence.
• For Happiness: His sunny optimism in the face of all adversity (well, to a point) is both admirable and incredibly frustrating.
• Healing Hands: Larry can heal anything, short of death itself.
• Light 'em Up: And Light mage.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Unusual in that he had no traumatic past, came from a loving family and continued in school around living at the Dojang. The only one who's managed to hold down a normal life after The Parting of Ways - he completed his education and settled in Los Angeles working for the police force.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Often in any topic where multiple tortured Dojinnians get together.
• Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!
• Supernaturally Young Parent: Time travel is involved...
• Yin-Yang Bomb: He's a self-proclaimed 'Eclipse Knight' meaning he somehow has both Light and Dark magic at his disposal.

Alexis Isaacs

Damien Isaacs

• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Founder of Gen Tech, a biomedical/genetic research company. He's not above kidnapping, ordering assassinations, or other underhanded methods to get what he wants (or whom).
• Deal with the Devil: He makes a deal with Lawrence to save his life after Larry and Chang mortally wound him.
• Fiery Redhead: Chang gets her magic from him.

Liz Fairchild

• Only Sane Woman: She feels this way sometimes during the events of Dust.
• Put on a Bus: Never mentioned again after the end of Dust, despite her and Michi's mutual unresolved attraction. Still living in England during the events of Family Reunion.
• Those Two Guys: Mark and Robb. Liz was involved with Robb at one point before she met Michi.

Evelyn Driscol

• Combat Medic: Evelyn is not afraid to come to a battlefield and help the injured near the danger zones, despite being strictly non-combat.
• For Science!: She's been studying the effects of magic abilities on physiology for decades, though has deftly skirted Mad Scientist status by doing this through mostly non-invasive procedures and hypothesising and only working with volunteers. She's used this knowledge to help mages avoid conditions that their magic predisposes them to (such as calcium tablets and oestrogen supplements for fire mage women, because their low body weights make them prone to amenorrhoea and osteoporosis.) However, the usually controlled doctor becomes excitable and overenthusiastic about the research possibilities when she comes across people of different species - the first time she meets Riko, she immediately starts making notes and trying to take samples and measurements. He is not impressed.
• Smart People Wear Glasses

Miedo

• Combat Tentacles: Summoned using the Dark Stone.
• Heel–Face Turn: Brought on by days of unrelenting Mind Rape.
• Meaningful Name: 'Miedo' is the spanish word for 'fear' or 'dread'. Apt during his tenure as the Big Bad, became far less meaningful after the Heel–Face Turn.
• Not Quite Dead: After being rendered unable to heal himself by Chaos magic, the Dojang beat Miedo around soundly. In an attempt to get the last laugh, he sealed himself and as many Dojinians as he could inside a bubble which was flooded with deadly magic. Along with every Dojinian in the bubble, Miedo was thought to have perished as well. This turned out not to be the case, as his later appearance in When The Dust Finally Settles proved.
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Since the Heel–Face Turn, Miedo has had an unseen companion who often interjects as the voice of reason or logic when his emotions are starting to run high, as well as acting as a guide to Miedo where she can. Up to now, nobody else has been able to see her, though both she and Miedo suspect that Imamu may know something.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: After centuries of mercilessly and indiscriminately slaughtering countless civilisations, Miedo was finally bested by Errol, who sealed Miedo inside a labyrinthine magical prison.
• The Atoner: After his Heel–Face Turn, Miedo appears mid-way through When The Dust Finally Settles as a reformed but wholly untrusted man. As of Family Reunion he is the still untrusted but begrudgingly accepted leader of the Dojang, a role he accepted hoping that helping to fend off the latest threat would go at least some way to making up for his sins.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivered to Azriel during Miedo's confrontation with him; Miedo assaulted Azriel with insults and barbaed remarks not just about him, but about his entire organisation (that he had single-handedly toppled some four years prior) and their pitiful knowledge of magic and how to use it. He also reveled in telling the beaten war wizard that if he weren't so naive, he could have defeated Miedo from the start (since Azriel unknowingly had the means to control all other types of magic at his command).

Errol

"I always knew it would come to this."

• Attending Your Own Funeral: Via time travel, shortly after receiving the ability. He has since visited his empty grave on numerous occasions.
• God Guise: Errol's many interventions throughout history resulted in both him and his physical appearance being mistakenly attributed to various gods (most notably the Christian God). He later began using this to his advantage, allowing entire faiths to flourish as a means of making the population of the world forget about the true creators.
• The Chessmaster: Has been manipulating events behind the scenes for centuries, all as part of a plan to prevent a mad god from undoing creation. Even orchestrated the circumstances surrounding his own death to ensure things went as they were supposed to.

Duratio

• Artificial Limbs: After Michi chopped his right arm off, he got a spiffy metal claw-thing.
• Body Horror: His mouth does not stop at the corners of his mouth.
• Deal with the Devil: Was originally a human that turned into a demon. He did this when he found out that a friend who had been sent as an emissary to Japan had been decapitated, prompting him to lead the attempted invasion, where he clashes with Michi for the first time.
• Evil Overlord: Wants to play the part in The Unraveling Time. Lea mocks him mercilesly for it.
• Moral Event Horizon: Killing Yuriko Ishikawa.
• Power Degeneration: Because of his and Michi's opposite chi, Duratio's chi is basically burning him up from the inside.
• The Rival: To Michi.

Yami

• BFS: His no-dachi.
  • Also Rings of Death for his ring-blade.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies
• Squick: His origin. When Duratio slept with Yuriko Ishikawa, he left a hellspawn inside her corpse. It fed on her and ripped its way out of her body.
• Wild Hair

Lea

• Depraved Bisexual: Very much so.
• Enemy Without: To Chang.
• Mind Rape: Does it to Yonten, as well as giving him "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Playing with Fire: She has all of Chang's abilities.
• Royal Rapier: Well...'rapier', anyway.
• Servile Snarker: Snarks at Duratio any chance she gets.
• Slashed Throat: How she dies.
• Surrounded by Idiots: She thinks this of both Yami and Duratio.
• Torture Technician: She spends a lot of her down time tormenting and downright torturing Yonten during his imprisonment, not limited to beatings, burning up all the oxygen in his cell, cutting him and mentally breaking him down. Even worse, this isn't part of a bigger evil plan - she does it just for fun.

Yamin

• Big Bad: Currently.
• Hearing Voices: Frequently hears an insidious voice, which on occasion makes him visibly frightened. He refers to it as 'my lady'.
• The Dragon: To Kera.
• The Evil Prince: Yamin is the brother to the last Angeli King. During his people's war with the Devi, he betrayed the Angeli and sided with the opposition after their leader convinced him that the path to the next Angeli golden age lay with them.

Kyrii Inthirda

• Good Thing You Can Heal: As a member of the Second House, minor wounds Kyrii sustains will heal almost instantly, in a flash of flame. If she sustains a mortal wound she will still die, but her corpse will erupt in flames and resurrect a day later.
• The Nth Doctor: Kyrii's resurrection process results in her receiving a new body and personality, while maintaining her memories. Since becoming a member of the Second House, she has undergone three of these changes.

Peter Sullivan

• Berserk Button: Seeing Verity harmed.
  • Seeing anyone harmed.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Earth Guardian
• Naïve Newcomer: He's only been in the Dojang for six months as of the start of Family Reunion and is still naively in awe of this new way of life.
• Non-Action Guy: Comparatively.
• Taken for Granite: First used when Verity was at the mercy of a Devi lieutenant. Peter is not able to fully control the ability yet.

Verity Chambers

• Aerith and Bob: Compared to the other human Guardians: Michi (Japanese), Chang (Chinese-named), Imamu (African) and Peter.
• Blow You Away: Wind Guardian.
• Closer to Earth: She's very in tune with nature and the Earth.
• Damsel in Distress: This is how Chang sees her. It does not impress her.
• Elemental Shapeshifter: One of the first things Verity learned when her powers manifested was how to disperse into air, and reform.
• Power Incontinence: Her powers are starting to get to her, occasionally forming cracks on her skin.

Imamu

• Green Thumb: Forest Guardian in the time of Family Reunion.
• Kryptonite Proof Environment: Knowing full well of his tremendous weakness to Fire magic, Imamu floods any area he inhabits with magical spores that react to it. The spores will ignite in the presence of fire magic, often proving fatal to all but the most skilled users who inhale the spores.
• Plant Person
• Scary Black Man

Sarrien

• Mysterious Informant: During Family Reunion, Sarrien is the unidentified source of pretty much all of the Dojang's intel on Yamin's big plans. He eventually clues Miedo in on a way to break into Yamin's Citadel, in order to rescue Riko.
• The Dragon: To Yamin.
• Unwanted Revival: A legendary Angeli hero in life, Sarrien was resurrected as a Devi by Yamin, and forced into his service by the process. As he spent his entire adult life fighting the Devi, he is understandably unhappy about being turned into one.

Adaria

Lana Trevey

• Heel–Face Turn: Courtesy of Imamu's magic.
• My God, What Have I Done?