Tales of MU / Characters

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Mackenzie Blaise

The protagonist and first-person narrator, Mackenzie is a nerdy half demon girl raised in part by her ex-paladin grandmother. She starts the story as a repressed Extreme Doormat that hates herself, but Character Development ensues. She is majoring in Applied Enchantment, and commonly uses magic as a Mundane Utility whenever she gets the opportunity.

Berserk Button: Threatening Two in any fashion is a good way to make Mackenzie see red.
"Here's the thing, Kai-Kai," Steff said. "There's a very simple rule about threatening Two: don't. The rule is enforced by penalties up to and including horrible burning death, and since we don't want our friend burning down the dorm when there are camera crews lurking around, we're going to have to ask you to leave."
Blessed with Suck: As a half-demon she can only be harmed by magic...in a setting where magic items are more common than concluded plot threads. She's also very vulnerable to divine energy, especially if it's Khersis-based. By which we mean, any lay worshiper can make the Arms of Khersis, a simple hand sign, and floor her. ^note
Brainwashed: To a degree, as a result of what happened between her and Embries in Y1-488. He uses his draconic power to force her to be unable to tell anyone about his killing (and more probably, eating) Iona, even through telepathy, other "subtle" means, or even story narrative, so we don't get to see it either. No telling when, or even if, this will be undone.
Cursed with Awesome: Being a half-demon includes a number of handy powers, such as being invulnerable to non-magical injury and fire conjuring. However, she has endured prejudice all her life because of what she is, and she has to consume virgin blood on a monthly basis or her demonic side starts taking over, turning her into a vicious psychopath.
Cute Clumsy Girl: At one point she even acknowledges that she hasn't had her "daily pratfall" and worries when it will happen.
Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Played with; as a fire-aligned half-demon, Mack is weak to ice and cold, but instead of being hurt more by ice attacks, this manifests as a complete intolerance for temperatures below 60 degrees or so, and having to read the fine print on any medical Magitek that might use cold.
Epiphany Therapy: Mackenzie goes from being very socially distant and sexually hung up to obnoxious and promiscuous in the course of three to four weeks.
Extreme Doormat: Her shyness, lack of social skills, and other repressed issues led her to be something of a pushover in the early chapters.
Erotic Eating: Mackenzie's first taste of honey.
Fantastic Racism: Going both ways — she's had to deal with this all her life since she's a half-demon, and her upbringing led her to be rather racist herself, at least at the start. She also has to deal with the assumption that nonhumans at MU prefer to be called solely by their first name and the appropriate honorific (with female nonhumans generally referred to with "Miss" rather than the typical "Ms."), rather than their last name and honorific. This is despite whether or not the nonhuman actually has a surname (supposedly this is done to respect the fact that some races don't use surnames). When Mack tried to politely request that one of her professors refer to her as "Ms. Blaise" as opposed to "Miss Mackenzie", a fellow student's reaction was essentially to question her sanity.
Genre Savvy:
- Mack is smart enough to realize that "we have to solve this by ourselves" isn't by far the smartest thing to say when dealing with a powerful demonic artifact.
- During Mack's fight with Belinda, she comments how well the half-ogre girl fits a number of high school jock clichés.
Half-Human Hybrid: Mackenzie is a half-demon. When she introduces herself to the rest of her floor she refers to herself as "half human" - technically true, though not what they wanted to know.
Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: She did this a lot in the early chapters when she was trying to sort out her sexuality.
Idiot Ball: Mack seizes it and runs for the end zone by risking slavery to finance some magic jewelry. Intense emotional context to it or not, everyone calls her on the incredible stupidity of that, even Amaranth.
I Do Not Drink Wine: Mackenzie points out repeatedly that she doesn't need to eat food, and at first is so out of the habit that it makes her ill.
I Just Want to Be Normal: For a significant portion of the first volume.
I'm a Humanitarian: While she hates to think about it, this is true of any demonblood. Though it's taken to a greater extreme if she loses control.
The Immodest Orgasm: Every once in a while.
Innate Night Vision: Another of the perks of being a man-eating monster.
The Klutz: Mackenzie tends to trip when startled. She's very easily startled.
Knight Templar Parent: It's debatable whether Mackenzie's grandmother is this, was simply doing what was necessary to keep her granddaughter from growing up to be a rampaging demon, or a little of both.
Kryptonite Factor: Anything blessed, holy, or symbolic of Khersis.
Polyamory: Mackenzie is dating, or at least sleeping with, as many five people, all of whom are aware and are totally (or in Ian's case mostly) okay with this.
Property of Love: Mackenzie is deeply submissive, and gives herself to Amaranth in this way as a Type A.
Punny Name: Mack's name is a double pun—she's a fire-emitting half-demon with the last name of Blaise, and depending on the translation, "Mackenzie" can mean either "born of fire" or "child of the fair one", or rather, "child of the hottie". Mack's brother Aidan's name also means "fire" or "fiery".
Safeword: It's "basement."
Super-Senses: During the second year, Mack learns that she can use her innate magical ability to boost her senses.
Took a Level in Badass: She literally takes a class in badass (two of them!), such that by the end of her third semester she is actually a competent fighter...not that she doesn't have plenty more to learn.
Unreliable Narrator: As our narrator, it's clear at times that she might not report details quite right, and she clearly injects significant personal bias. Though there are numerous points where she blatantly lies, only to reveal the truth a few lines later.
Villainous Lineage: Mack is convinced that she's irredeemably evil, despite several people close to her firmly disagreeing. It doesn't help that all of the previous half-demon students at the university have come to bad ends, and in the setting, half-demons are usually institutionalized. There's also her extreme vulnerability to divine energy; even someone invoking Khersis near her can harm her. Her grandmother really doesn't help things when she tells Mack in Y1-420 that because of her demon blood, Mack is (probably) inescapably damned, and the best she can do is to live as long as she can suppressing her infernal nature as much as possible.

Mackenzie's Friends

Amaranth

A kind-hearted nymph with an excessive need to see the good in everyone. Despite this sometimes dangerous blind spot, she becomes an extraordinarily good influence on Mack after they start a relationship.

Actual Pacifist: All nymphs are supposed to be this.
Anthropomorphic Personification: She is the personification of a field of...amaranth.
Buxom Beauty Standard: Nymphs get their appearance based on what the men who fertilize their field see as most attractive. For Amaranth, this includes the fantasies of a young boy who sees models and comic book characters as a standard for beauty. As a result she possesses very large and unnaturally well-supported breasts.
Ethical Slut: Amaranth personifies this trope. Nymphs are naturally extremely promiscuous, but she also spends a lot of time strengthening her girlfriends' polyamorous relationships and encouraging safe sexual exploration among her friends. She's naturally opposed to the concept of "sexual shaming" and believes that the world would be a much better place if people allowed themselves to admit and (consensually) explore their sexual desires.
Extreme Omnisexual: She'll sleep with any willing sapient being. And she's trying to prove that animals are sapient.
Friend to All Living Things (With Benefits): As a nymph she is both a loving and nurturing companion, especially to those she knows personally (or, at least, what she tries to be) and extremely promiscuous.
Hammerspace: All nymphs have this. Amaranth puts it to rather interesting use as a way to disrobe sexual partners, and to store away unwanted dorm furniture.
Horrible Judge of Character: Amaranth is often too optimistic and too eager to see the good in people, which is partly due to the tampering with her creation.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: A deconstruction. She's nude practically 24x7, and functions as a fanservice character, but in-story she has legitimate social and spiritual reasons for doing so. As a nymph, her body is considered a gift, and thus covering it is the taboo — an inverse of the standard nudity taboo.
Mama Bear: Kinky relationship and hippie pacifism notwithstanding, Amaranth is very protective of Mack, which becomes very clear several times.
Nightmare Fetishist: Amaranth casually discusses bestiality and the Power Perversion Potential of Good Thing You Can Heal on a semi-regular basis.
Our Nudity Is Different: A nymph's divine beauty is meant to be seen, and the act of wearing clothes in public, denying others the pleasure of seeing (and holding) such beauty, is indecent by nymph standards. Mack learns about this upon walking in on Amaranth trying on a bathrobe in her own room.
Polyamory: Perhaps more accurately stated as omniamory, Amaranth loves everyone, and will sleep with anyone who asks (if she has time).
Really 700 Years Old: Subverted; she is an ageless, immortal divine being... and 17.
Squick: In universe, people who know her cringe whenever she starts discussing animal cognition research. She's forbidden from "working" with unintelligent animals.
The Unpronounceable: "Amaranth" is really just the kind of grain in her field, but she used it as her name when applying for school. Her real name is an empathic impression, which is impossible to say or write down.

Steff Johnson

A transgender half-elf necromancy student with a gleeful "evil" bent. She dates a half-ogre prince polyamorously (being also involved with Amaranth and Mack) and plans on becoming his Torture Technician after college. Steff's characterization uses a number of villain tropes in a way that's hard to quantify.

Aesop Amnesia: After stabbing herself with a knife she knew nothing about until it tore out half her soul, she spent several days resting and scared everyone close to her and almost died. Immediately after, she was handed another magic item by Dee. She was told not to use it without lots of physical and mental preparation, and only then carefully. Her decision? Chug the whole thing the moment she's alone.
Black Magic: She is majoring in necromancy.
Double Entendre: She makes them whenever she can.
Evil Is Cool: Steff is very fond of this idea. When put to the test, she doesn't react remotely how she expects.
Half-Human Hybrid: Her father is an elf, her mother is fully human.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: One of the more charitable interpretations of Steff, especially in regards to her relationship with Mack. She never stops being creepy, but it's very clear that she cares a lot about Mack and is glad to have her as a friend and source of emotional support.
Nightmare Fetishist: Steff gets horny at the thought of most things that are horrific to others.
Polyamory: She explicitly states that this is the kind of relationship she has with Victor.
Torture Technician: Steff plans on becoming this for Victor after they graduate and Victor takes the throne.
Trans Tribulations: Steff is MtF. Played with in that, while Steff can "pass" just fine in human society, she looks like a Drag Queen among elves or those who've spent a lot of time with elves. This is made all the more tragic by the Culture Clash between the two culture's views on gender: human culture is dangerously transphobic, elvish culture not so much, but Steff has no hope of passing among elves, and they have little patience for her efforts anyway.

Two

"My name is Two. I am a golem. I am majoring in domestic arts. There is nothing interesting about me."

A golem. She was designed to want to do what she's told, then set free when her creator's wife was creeped out. She initially has to be given specific instructions on how to act like a normal person, but has slowly become more self-sufficient and independent. She replaces Puddy (see below) as Mack's roommate for a time.

Artificial Human: Two is flesh and blood; you'd have to see her runes to know that she's a golem.
Extreme Doormat: Two was set free with an order to do what she wants, but she was created with only one desire: to do as she's told, which resulted in some horrible abuses that are only briefly shown. Her growth began when she learned to have other desires, starting with eating sweets.
Golem: Two is a golem, created from clay transmuted into flesh. She appears in every way to be a human girl, save for the three runes of power on her forehead.
Happiness in Slavery: Has to be protected from this by her friends.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: Despite being asexual, Two's pajamas are fairly immodest. She thinks they are "pretty".
Serious Business: Early on Two often treats mundane matters this way. For instance, in chapter 94 she is holding a small dinner party, and becomes a bit over-concerned when she realizes they have eight guests but only six chairs, which Mack lampshades.
Spock Speak: Two speaks with a variation of this: as a freed golem, she speaks fairly formally, and especially does not wish to voice any opinion or preference. In the early chapters, she had serious problems saying that she wanted anything. This can be seen in the "Two's Diary" Bonus stories, where she crosses out any line that expresses any emotion or desire. She's gotten better as the story has gone on, however.
Thinking Tic: Two has a slight one with her eyes whenever she's giving something serious thought, which Mack notes in Y2-296.
You Are Number 6: At first her name appears to be this, however it turns out this is just the name she gave herself because her runes look like the letters "TWO". Her creator did not give her a name.

Ian Mason

The most prominent and sympathetic plain-old-human in the story. He acts as the representative of normalcy, although he has his own demons, most involving his relationship with his father.

Domestic Abuse:
- His father is abusive and controlling.
- Some of his encounters with Mack, despite her loving every minute of it, strike him as uncomfortably close.
Polyamory: He isn't really comfortable with this at first, but eventually accepts that Mackenzie has other lovers (this doesn't stop him from objecting to her getting new ones). Amaranth has referred to him as "our" (her and Mackenzie) boyfriend.
Straight Man: While he has his fair share of issues, they pale in comparison to everyone else's and he spends a lot of time reacting to them.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Ian wants to learn to use fire magic, not because he has any personal interest in it, but because his father is a big fire wizard.
Wouldn't Hit a Girl: He values this as an ideal, but with a hot temper and a girlfriend that gets off on it, he does it anyway.

Delia Daella d'Wyr

"I am Delia Daella d'Wyr, daughter of Daella Degra d'Wyr, daughter of Degra Daura d'Wyr…"

Just "Dee" to her friends. A dark elf, although her people call themselves simply "elves" and call the other kind of elves faint elves. She is a good friend of Two's and has gradually become a good friend of Mack's, but veers between friendship and irritation with Steff, with whom she has serious disagreements on pretty much everything. She is a priestess of Arakhis, the dark elf goddess, and is studying to be a Subtle Arts (telepathy) major. She is usually the most serious-minded and level-headed of the central characters, and has a rather dry wit.

Berserk Button: Matronyms are very important in her culture. Using her given name (rather than her nickname) without it will seriously offend her.
Cultural Posturing: Dee gives the others a glowing picture of her subterranean elven culture as a "structured meritocracy" where everyone has a place and all contribute to the common good. Side stories that show what's happening while she's on the surface indicate that she has a very one-sided view of her culture.
Deadpan Snarker: Dee's stoic nature makes pretty much any jibe of hers run in this direction.
Amaranth: One of [Steff's] friends is a virgin! What are the odds?
Dee: I would say abysmal. But apparently they were high enough.
I Am X, Son of Y: When she introduces herself to the floor, she rattles off an impressively long chain of lineage.
Only Sane Man: She is much older, and more educated, than the rest of the cast. Thus she tends to be the voice of reason when others are losing their shit. Not that she doesn't have her own set of issues.
Spock Speak: Dee's dialogue is very precise and formal, in keeping with her upbringing.
Some Call Me "Tim": While her name is incredibly important, her friends may simply call her "Dee".
"I am Delia Daella d'Wyr, daughter of Daella Degra d'Wyr, daughter of Degra Daura d'Wyr..." and on, through a whole score of generations of matriarchs. She concluded with, "Those who style themselves as my friends call me Dee."
What the Hell, Hero?: Dee's pretty good at this when necessary, but has also been on the receiving end.
Wicked Stepmother: Dee's stepmother plays this trope fairly straight, accounting for the peculiarities of dark elven culture.

Glory

One of the elvin "queens" in Treehome, Glory has had an interest in Mackenzie for a long time. Eventually she hires Mackenzie as her "agent" as she makes plans to move her court out of Treehome. Eventually they begin to date, much to the chagrin of Ian.

Grace

Grace is Glory's younger sister; they look almost identical. It is her interest in Nicki that eventually brings Mackenzie's group of friends together with Glory's court.

No Sense of Personal Space: Grace, as a result of her youth and lack of experience with human interaction, which she admits to Mack after groping her to see if she's pierced.
Mack:I’ve had very bad experiences with people who didn’t respect my boundaries.
Grace: Eep! [...] Sorry, I’m...okay, I’m not a kid anymore, and you’re not elves, but elven children are a lot more hands-on with each other, and I...I haven’t fully adjusted to not-childhood yet.

Nicki

A human design student that Mackenzie meets in her design class. Nicki somewhat idolises Mackenzie for her actions the previous year. While Nicki is more extroverted than Mackenzie, she is just as shy and similarly socially awkward, and it takes significant convincing for her to really join the group.

Pala

A full-blooded but under-sized storm giant, Pala is an extraplanar student that stays at the Inn of The Black Door. She is an incredibly strong fighter, but not very bright. She regularly misunderstands figurative language (especially from Steff). If she loses emotional control everyone will know—"storm giant" is a literal description.

Nae

A tiny Kobold in Mackenzie's Fighting to Disable class and also Caron's girlfriend; she is a vicious fighter that likes to use her teeth as much as her knives. She becomes good friends with Pala.

Fifth Floor Girls

Puddy

"Dwarfo-dracono-giganto-nympho hybrid with a little bit of human blood"

Psycho Lesbian and, at first appearance, Manipulative Bastard. Although still a recurring character, her reign as a serious antagonist comes to an end pretty quickly; Word of God is that the author didn't feel the original situation was sustainable. She all but disappeared from the story for a long while, but reappeared in the gladiatorial ring, and her success there is one of the series' mysteries. She's only had a handful of appearances since then, and has not appeared in the second year's material to date.

The Bully: To just about everyone, but especially Mack and Mariel.
Domestic Abuse: She physically and sexually abused Mack when they were together, and has moved on to Mariel in Mack's absence.
Erotic Eating: The first book has Puddy grabbing a donut specifically for the lesbian version.
The Friend Nobody Likes: Her behavior and personality offend everyone, but her violent streak and temper have them too cowed to stand up to her.
Hair-Trigger Temper: It takes very little for Puddy to explosively snap; even the mildest of criticisms will have her fighting mad.
Heinz Hybrid: Claims to have dwarf, giant, dragon, sidhe, and nymph blood.
Jerkass: Puddy is loud, foul-mouthed, and seems to revel in being as obnoxious as she can be, and that's before considering her being verbally, physically, and/or sexually abusive.
Psycho Lesbian: Puddy has a Hair-Trigger Temper and really doesn't like it when people take issue with how she acts, no matter how nicely they do it. Y1-42 is a fairly scary example of this.

Sooni

Fox-girl from the series' Fantasy Counterpart Culture for Japan. Her characterization follows a similar path to Puddy: she starts out as the Alpha Bitch, but her actual social skills turn out to be quite limited, and her entourage of nekoyokai "friends" is actually composed of slaves. (This is kept secret, as legally slaves wouldn't be allowed to attend college.) When she last had a prominent role in the story, her characterization veered from comic to terrifying, as she tyrannizes her "friends," especially the sympathetically-portrayed Kai.

Alpha Bitch: Sooni has elements of this (the haughtiness, the harem of loyal followers) but also subverts it by her followers actually being her slaves, and her self-important, self-absorbed attitude being a symptom of serious delusions.
Could Say It, But...: Sooni assures the Harlowe residents that she isn't going to use Mack's demonic heritage against her in their floor's election for school Senate. Just a few seconds earlier, she had implied that Mack wanted to eat their relatives.
Deconstruction: Sooni is a living deconstruction of Magical Girl anime. She seems to think she's a shoujo protagonist in real life—in a world where magic is real—and actually treats people around her the way that anime characters do, including the physical abuse that's usually Played for Laughs in shows. It comes across as rather horrific, especially because she literally does not seem to understand the difference between TV and reality.
Defeat Means Friendship: Subverted with Sooni's relationship to Mack...except when it isn't.
Foe Romance Subtext: Parodied (or possibly played straight in a Crosses the Line Twice fashion) as Mackenzie can barely think of Sooni without having a long fetish fantasy about her. This came to a bit of a climax when they actually got into a fight.
Sooni: Quit enjoying this! [...] Stop! Having! Orgasms! When! I'm! Defeating! You!

: It's eventually subverted when it turns out that Sooni has pretty much no emotional development, and lives her entire life as if she was a character in a manga or anime, and she only wants a "relationship" with Mack because that's how the story is supposed to go. She doesn't really understand the implications, or, in fact, the operation.
Sooni: I really don't know what happens next [...] All of my manga stops here, and picks up again the next day.

Girl Posse: Sooni got her nekoyokai version the old fashioned way: daddy bought them for her.
If It's You, It's Okay: In regards to Mack. It's a literal quote, even.
Insane Troll Logic: Sooni's mind runs on this because of her delusions about her life being something out of her mangas.
Little Bit Beastly: Human body and face but with prominent fox ears and a tail.
Mood-Swinger: Someone needs to get that girl on some mood-stabilizers, stat.
My Beloved Smother: Sooni's cosplay with Kai is all over this...until she nearly kills Kai.
Tap on the Head: Subverted, Sooni acts like a classic Tsundere, but later discovers that repeatedly hitting Kai in the head with a wooden sandal will cause damage. In this case, hemorrhaging in the brain.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Turns out this is part of why Sooni's so screwed up. Her father wanted a boy, and ended up ignoring her almost completely during her childhood, so now she wants to make him proud of her, even though the readers can tell she never will...
Wrong Genre Savvy: Sooni is convinced that she's the protagonist of a Shojo manga. She is very, very badly mistaken about what sort of story she is in and her role in it.

Leda

"I am called Leda. I am a swan maiden. I major in glamour and design. My mother is heiress to kingdom of Mariinsky Lake. She send me here for improve my human speech."

Feejee

"My name is Feejee, and I'm a mermaid. I'm a music major, and when I graduate I want to travel around the world."

Oru

Goblin armoury major.

Shiel

Kobold, undeclared.

Mariel

"a super-fun person who always has something positive to say about everybody."

A sylph, Puddy's girlfriend.

Trina

"I'm, uh, Trina. Well, my father was a cyclops, so..." She pointed up at her extra eye. "There you go. I'm majoring in music, with a minor in the subtle arts, and an interesting thing about me is that I can read a book and watch TV at the same time."

Hazel

Burrow gnome, majority in domestic arts. Two's friend.

Honey

Hazels cousin.

Celia

Nagakin, majoring in illusion.

Hissy

Lizard folk skirmisher, her real name is impossible to pronounce for most mammals. She is a strong subtle artist, used to coordinate on the skirmish field.

Extreme Doormat: The Lizard Folk use communal decision making, so Hissy holds no strong opinions of her own. Human missionaries decided she should go to school, the school decided she should join the skirmish team. Her response to all of it is simply that she has no objection. As a background character, her Extreme Doormat status wasn't even apparent until she got some Character Development.

Belinda

Half-ogre skirmish player.

Barley

A nymph from the same valley as Amaranth. Majoring in agronomy.

Green-Eyed Monster: She's deeply envious of Amaranth]], because of both her popularity in their hometown and that she only went to college because Barley did, but ended up being more popular than Barley. This jealousy has been the driving force behind all of her objectionable actions, but the second-year side story involving her indicates that she's making strides toward dealing with it.

Twyla

She has horns on her head, and is studying divination in hopes that she can figure out who and what her parents are.

Sara and Tara Leighton

Twin daughters of a wizard who specialized in transportation, the two were fused together when their fathers experimental teleport device couldn't tell the difference between their identical bodies. Now they share one body, with two heads. Technically human.

The Bully: Tara Leighton, especially before being fused with her twin.

Suzi, Maliko, and Kai

Sooni's "friends" (slaves), they are all nekoyokai (cat people).

Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Kai hates how Sooni treats her, but she doesn't take efforts by Mack and friends to assist her very well. A side story reveals that Kai comes from an extremely impoverished background and always dreamed of getting an education, and although Sooni as good as kidnapped her (with an implied reward to her family), Kai is willing to accept anything as long as it means she can continue going to university.
Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Suzi, when speaking in her native Yokano.
I do not see why we are forced to converse in the barbarous idiom of the coarse westerners even among ourselves. Why must we suffer the indignity of mangling our mouths with their disharmonious syllables simply because they have never taken the time to learn a proper language?
Funny Animal: Maliko, Suzi, and Kai are anthropomorphized cats, unlike Sooni.
You No Take Candle: A Running Gag in the series is that Suzi is only marginally fluent in Pax, and usually ends up speaking in LOLcat phrases. When she speaks her own language...she's a self-centered bitch who considers anyone unable or unwilling to speak her own language to be barbarians. Of course.

Raquel

"I'm... well, I'm actually fully human. I'm majoring in martial combat. An interesting fact about me? You know how oil of stoneskin has a warning label that says it's not a contraceptive? My parents are the reason."

Kiersta

"My name is Kiersta, and I'm a full-blooded human, and I'm majoring in communication."

The resident advisor for the fifth floor Harlow girls.

Other Student

Andreas

Andreas is a dwarf, boyfriend of Hazel, who calls him “Andy”.

Iona

A mermaid from a coastal region. Unlike her friend Feejee her true form has feathers. She's significantly more predatory as well, and plots to kill Mackenzie with Feejee. While she fails in that, she did kill Leda and possibly other students. Killed Off for Real by Embries.

Micah

A human member of Acantha's enchantment group.

Keri La Belle

One of the students in Mackenzie's history class, extremely annoying.

The Ditz: While Keri does have the occasional insightful or worthwhile question, most of the time she's a complete moron. Problem is, her (well-deserved) reputation for ditziness gets a bit Flanderized in the mind of the teacher that she and Mackenzie have together, to the point where he's verbally abusive to her even on the rare occasions when she actually says something worthwhile in class.

Wisdom

An elfen member of Acantha's enchantment group, and later a member of Glory's court.

MU Faculty and Staff

Acantha

An elvin entrepreneur and enchanter, Acantha was a last minute replacement for the instructor of Mackenzie's Spellbinding For Enchanters class. After recognizing Mackenzie's potential she invites her to a small group of enchanters she is forming. However her business philosophy conflicts with Mackenzie's morals. Whether her influence is ultimately for good or for ill remains to be seen.

Coach Jillian Callahan

Coach Jillian Callahan is the youthful-looking, sadistic, and deicidal instructor of mixed melee and arena fighting at Magisterius University. She either really likes elves, or really hates them. It’s hard to tell.

Badass Normal: Callahan is an dwarf/elf/ogre/orc mongrel, which probably gives her an edge relative to humans, but she's still normal relative to the dragons and demons in the world, and we never see her using magic. But, among other feats of badassery, she once killed a god. This makes her a good foil for Mack, who as a half-demon has a host of racial advantages (strength, partial invulnerability, flamethrowing) but is a woefully incompetent fighter.
Combat Pragmatist: This is the essence of Callahan's teaching style, and also how she defines her own methods. She reveals to Mack Daddy (and the reader) in the side story "Splish, Splash" that she keeps her thumbnails much longer and sharper than the others for gouging purposes, and then she dissuades Mack Daddy from trying to attack her by pointing out that she is wearing magic press-on nails so she doesn't have to use a separate weapon against him.
Drill Sergeant Nasty: Callahan as a teacher. It's either because she was traumatized by the sight of an untrained mage caught by ogres during the last big war or because she likes being able to legally inflict pain and injuries on college kids. Possibly both.
Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Callahan appears to belong in this category. You start to like her once she shows genuine interest in helping Mack learn to fight, but if Mack Daddy is to be believed, she's also writing weekly letters to the administration asking permission to kill Mack. Also, her commitment to teaching is arguably ego-driven: "If I can make this wimp a good fighter, how awesome would that make me?" And then "Splish, Splash" reveals that Callahan's half of her deal with Mack Daddy was training Mack to fight, in return for answers to three questions.

Eloise

A human secular druid capable or taking the form of various animals. Eloise works as a ranger, which mainly involves tracking down students that get lost in the woods. She is the TA in Mackenzie's Local Hazards class in which she shows off her research project: a scale model of the entire MU campus, which shows the lay lines as they interact with the various buildings.

Professor Aaron Hart

A history professors.

Professor Bohd

Professor of elementalism, she instructs Mackenzie's Elemental Invocation class. She is very pragmatic, concerned only with students' abilities in class. It turns out she is not fully human—she has djinn and a tiny amount of demon blood.

Professor Stone

A dwaven professor of design, he teaches Mackenzie's Aesthetics of Product Design class. His approach to enchantment and design finally gets Mackenzie to care about form as well as function. He acts as a mentor somewhat opposite to Acantha.

Teddi Lundgard

One of MUs mental healers, Teddi has become the de facto healer for non human students because her colleagues think she has "more experience" dealing with them - something of a self fulfilling prophesy as the more patients the pawn off on her the truer it becomes. She is the healer for Dee, Mackenzie, Steff, the Leighton twins, Hissy, Barley, and a few other non-human students. She could probably write a book on the insanity going on in Harlowe, if only that didn't break confidentiality.

More MU

Jamie Bowman

The first person narrator of the More Tales of MU side story, Jamie is one-eighth elf. He tries to hide this at first by living in a human dorm, but the secret is out almost immediately. He keeps the secret of his attraction to men a bit longer, until he becomes involved with Iason.

Iason

Almost a full blooded elf, he will live for centuries or millennia if he is careful - but his technical mortality causes him to act a bit...extreme. He becomes Jamie's boyfriend, and gives him a bracelet that turns him into a stag, Jamie isn't very happy about this "gift" as it is enchanted to be impossible to remove.

Big Bads

The Man

Often refered to by fans as "Mack Daddy", The Man is the full-blooded demon father of Mackenzie and Dan Harris. Appearing infrequently, he's been seen in bonus flashback stories with Mack's mother, and has appeared to Mack in her dreams several times. Immediately after the first dream, all Mack's toiletries were spiked with a potion to make people express their innermost feelings—presumably to bring out her evil side, though it didn't quite work out that way. His exact motivations are unknown, and he's a quintessential Manipulative Bastard so it's impossible to be certain if/when he's ever being truthful, but the one thing that's clear is that he's keenly interested in being a part of Mack's life.

Devil in Disguise: As with any demon, he looks like a normal human, but is anything but.
Ephebophile: Played with in the side story "As I Went Down to the River", which is about Laurel Ann and The Man's relationship. The "playing with" revolves around it never being clear if The Man was genuinely attracted to Laurel Ann or was just out to corrupt her, especially with her being the daughter of a paladin. He's even cagey about this in the Q&A.
Question: Did you seduce Laurel because of who her mother was?
Mack Daddy: Oh, now let me see...who was her mother, again, exactly? I don’t know. Maybe I just liked her smile.
I'm a Humanitarian: He eats the blood of a virgin's heart roughly every 13 months. In Mack's second dream where he shows up, he even references the trope name.
Jedi Mind Trick: The OT story about the events that led to the razing of MU decades prior to the main story reveal that he can subtly influence people's thoughts. He does this to Jennifer and Eugene to try to maneuver Samuel into a trap. Professor Ariadne Einhorn may also have been under his influence, and might still be to the story's present day
Manipulative Bastard: The Man takes this even further than normal, as he'll manipulate both your emotions and your logic to try to get what he wants.
Man of Wealth and Taste: When he first showed up in flashback stories in his pinstriped suit and natty hat, the lyric was quoted by a reader in the chapter comments. That said, in "Splish, Splash", Callahan notes that his suit isn't all that good, at least in that moment.
He was wearing a suit, which she knew to be on the cheap side of good. Tailored, but not bespoke. It was the kind of suit that impressed people who couldn't afford to wear suits, but in the world above that it would mark him as a hustler and a pretender.
No Name Given: To the extent that he is actively keeping it a secret, even when Callahan tries to trick him into revealing it.
Wicked Cultured: He is smooth-talking, genteel, and a great conversationalist, but it's readily apparent that he can't be trusted.

Mur-Si

Spelled "Mercy" in Mackenzie's narration, she is owner of "Tender Mercy's", a shop that specializes in preparing people-meat for consumption. She is of indeterminate race and claims to be half dark elf and half faint elf, but Steff and Dee both claim this is too disgusting a possibility to be true. She's obscenely wealthy, keeps half-demons as pets, and wants to increase her collection...

Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Mercy certainly doesn't sound like a very merciful name.

Other

Some Sort Of Ridiculous Owl-Turtle Thing

Often referred to by fans simply as the "ROTT" it was something that Two dreamed up after being told that dreams contain a lot of things that are sort of muddled and part one thing and part another. She took it literally and dreamed up a creature that looks like a ridiculous cross between an owl and a turtle. At first it was mostly comic relief, but it escaped Two's mind and then started showing up in other people's dreams as well.

The Scrappy: Invoked. As a construct of Two's mind, her dislike of the creature gave it the intrinsic property of "unlikability", and now nobody that interacts with it can help but dislike it. Mackenzie and Dee are Genre Savvy enough to see past this in their interactions, but they still suffer a strange form of enforced Fantastic Racism.

Caron

Caron is a dwarf raised by humans. She runs a shop beneath Enwich selling body jewelry and fetishy clothing.

Lee Jenkins

Mackenzie's lawyer, he is handling her case against the school after she was trapped in the labyrinth.

Characters / Tales of MU

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