The main character of the book. Wax was formally a lawkeeper in the Roughs, but after he accidentally killed his wife, he returned to the city. Due to his uncle's untimely death, he becomes the head of the Ladrian House. However, due to the crime wave Elendel, he takes up his guns again and prepares to fight crime.
Guns Akimbo: In several scenes in the book. Including once with shotguns.
Hero Protagonist: Helps people because he genuinely wants to do the right thing. Though he does mention that he got into the business because he needed the money.
Improbable Aiming Skills: Near the end, he has to shoot his own bullet mid-flight to change it's trajectory and hit an enemy hiding behind a hostage. He gets a headshot.
One-Man Army: During the wedding, he kills 19 heavily armed mooks by himself without any innocent bystanders being harmed. In the climax, Miles states explicitly that he's wasted as anything but a killer, because he's just that good.
Sherlock Scan: Though not quite as adept as the Trope Namer, he still comes up with some amazing conclusions with little evidence, although his skill is subverted when Marasi is invited into the lab: "You realize I spent all night coming to those conclusions? You just reached them in all of . . . what? Ten minutes?"
Waxillium's partner in crime. Okay, not really in crime since they're lawkeepers. After Wax heads to the city to take over House Ladrian, he follows him there. Once he arrives, he continues to provide Wax with staunch support.
Amazon Chaser: Wayne admits to Marasi that he prefers the kind of woman who can kick his ass, and he takes quite a liking to Ranette, precisely because she's apparently shot him repeatedly. She rebuffs his advances.
Good Thing You Can Heal: Wayne suffers from lots of injuries throughout the book. Enough that he would have been dead several times over if not for his Bloodmaker powers.
Healing Factor: He has to store up health for later, but it comes in quite handy.
Heel Face Turn: Years and years before the story starts, he was a petty thief Wax saved from the hangman's noose.
Insane Troll Logic: "I bought a ward against [logic] off a traveling fortune-teller. It lets me add two 'n' two and get a pickle."
Sticky Fingers: Seems to be a clinical kleptomaniac, generally leaves random objects as a "trade" for the things he steals.
Time Stands Still: Can create a bubble around him where everything inside moves faster than what's outside. There are a lot of limitations to it, but he does pretty good given those limits. It's not quite stopping the outside, but it's close.
The cousin of Steris Harms (actually her bastard sister), Marasi teams up with Wax when he saves her from a kidnapping attempt by the Vanishers. Her knowledge of criminals is a great help in figuring out the plans of their foes.
Time Stands Still: Inverted: She can make herself, and the room around her, move very slowly compared to the outside world. She (and her father), don't think it's a very useful ability.
Chekhov's Gunman: Early in the story, Wax notes that his guns were made by Ranette, and that she's in town. Slightly later, Wayne tells Wax Ranette's exact address. It comes as no surprise that they pay her a visit before the story's end.
Mundane Utility: She uses her Lurcher abilities to help her smith weapons by pulling tools off walls. She's even got levers set up in her house to open doors with Ironpulls so she can walk around with her hands full.
Word of Gay: Sanderson said prior to the book's release that there would be a lesbian character. afterwards fans guessed it was Ranette and Peter, Brandon's assistant confirmed it.
Hi, I'm Steris, and I'll have you know we do things in a certain way here on my character page. All my tropes will be in alphabetical order. Anyway, I was engaged to Waxillium Ladrian, who is much older than me. (Not that I'm complaining. It's a political marriage.) I got kidnapped by the Vanishers during a wedding. That's what we young ladies do. We get kidnapped. Waxillium Ladrian rescued me, and now we're proceeding with our engagement. No one rescues a lady and then turns her down, after all.
Knight Templar: Criminals he catches never end up in jail, because they're too busy being dead.
Lawman Gone Bad: Miles was once a good, if Knight Templar -ish, lawman but turned to evil when he decided that the political figures he worked for were the real criminals.
Feel No Pain: He's survived so many wounds that would kill an ordinary person that nothing hurts him anymore. This is because he's Miles Hundredlives, famous Gold Compunder.
Genre Savvy: He knows that Wax is more dangerous than anyone else around, and takes appropriate measures to deal with him. It's not enough.
Healing Factor: Due to his ability to Allomantically burn his Feruchemical stores of health, he has a Healing Factor that makes Wolverine's look downright sluggish. He doesn't need adamantium bones because they've already started healing before they've even finished breaking. He even shoot himself in the face to demonstrate his power to his men, using a shotgun.
The Heavy: He's the main villain of The Alloy of Law. Though Mr. Suit/Edwarn Ladrian is the ultimate string-puller, The Masked Man is the one the protagonists are most concerned about dealing with.
Honor Before Reason: Or so he claims. His actions don't quite match up with that.
Nigh Invulnerable: With his healing powers active he can shrug off gunshot wounds to the head and dynamite wounds almost immediately.
Not So Different: Miles is a more brutal version of Kelsier. Wax even admits that Miles probably would have been considered a hero had he been born during the time of the Final Empire.
Obfuscating Disablity: He fakes a gunshot wound so that Wax won't suspect him of being Miles, renowned Gold Compounder.
Rasputinian Death: Considering his nature, this is inevitable: the firing squad had to lay into him with five volleys before he finally died. But what makes it particularly impressive is that they stripped him of his goldminds first, meaning that he survived getting shot dozens of times at once, repeatedly, five times, without any gold to draw upon.
Shadow Archetype: To Waxillium. Both of them are aware of it too.
Tarson
Dumb Muscle: If only in comparison to those around him. He's smarter than the average mook, but can't keep up with the gambits going on.
