∇
troperville

The Character Sheet for The Emperors Soul, a novella by Brandon Sanderson. For other characters on the world of Sel, see Characters.Elantris. For characters who are important throughout The Verse in which the stories take place (including "Hoid", the Imperial Fool), see Characters.The Cosmere.

Wan ShaiLu, a.k.a. "Shai"

The Protagonist of the novella, "Shai" is the greatest Forger known to the Rose Empire, "employed" to Forge the soul of Emperor Ashravan over the course of three months.

Action Girl: Her "Shaizan" personality, who Does Not Like Shoes.
- Badass Longcoat: When she takes Zu's cloak.
Boxed Crook
The Charmer: Shai is very good at understanding and befriending those around her.
Con Woman: Her job as a Forger.
Deadpan Snarker
Five-Man Band: Using her Split Personality Essence Marks, Shai is a one woman version of this trope.
- The Hero: Shai's main personality.
- The Lancer: The scout/woodsman. Also possibly the beggar.
- The Big Guy: Shaizan.
- The Smart Guy: The scholar personality.
- The Chick: Shai's cook escape plan if she wants to abandon Forging entirely.
Genre Savvy: She knows full well what the implications of her guards' words are, and is set on leaving before she outlives her usefulness for knowing too much.
Guile Heroine: Her survival in the custody of the Rose Empire hinges on her abilities as The Social Expert.
Hero Protagonist
Knight in Sour Armor: Before her Character Development.
Manipulative Bastard: What the Rose Empire thinks she is. They technically aren't wrong about anything but the "unnatural" nature of Forging.
Non-Action Girl: Shai is not much of a fighter, preferring to talk or bluff her way through dangerous situations. However using one of her pre-prepared essence marks she can become 'Shaizan', a version of herself if she'd been adopted by a harsh warrior culture and lived among them for well over a decade.
The Social Expert
Split Personality: Shai's Essence Marks are this for herself. See Five-Man Band.
Squishy Wizard: See Non-Action Guy. Forging is a very powerful magic system, but the process of doing it is involved enough that it's not that hot in physical combat compared to say, allomancy... well, at least until Shaizan comes out to play.

Arbiter Gaotona

A reasonable arbiter who learns the ways of Forgery from Shai.

Cool Old Guy
Deuteragonist
Just Think of the Potential: He tends to think this about people, mostly the Emperor and Shai.
Reasonable Authority Figure
The Watson: About Forgery.

Arbiter Frava

A cynical, anti-Shai arbiter who believes what she does is, no matter what, evil.

Corrupt Bureaucrat: An example of what is implied to be the norm in the Rose Empire, in contrast to Gaotona.
Hypocrite: She despises Shai's Forgery, but makes use of Forgers (though she calls them "Rememberers") for the Heritage Faction.
Jerkass: Especially to Shai, though also to Gaotona.
Manipulative Bastard: She wants to have a way to control the emperor after he's rejuvenated.
Smug Snake

Emperor Ashravan

The brain-dead emperor of the Rose Empire who Shai is to rejuvenate through Forgery.

Came Back Wrong: Close enough, though, as it was impossible to be perfect.
- A subversion in the end: While Ashravan will basically be afflicted with permanent Resurrection Sickness - he'll have to carry a Soul Jar at all times and re-stamp his soul daily - Shai actually made him Better Than New when it came to the actual content. It's what the best forgers do, after all.
Drunk with Power: Why he strayed from his original ideals.
The Emperor
Heel Realization: Shai tweaked his memories so that his assassination and recovery would provoke one.
Hidden Depths: The entire book is about figuring out his personality and why it is the way it is.
The Idle Rich
Jerkass Fa�ade
Posthumous Character: Of a sort, as most of what is learned about him is while he is braindead.
Soulless Shell: The resealers were able to repair his brain just fine. In fact, it's as good as new — that's exactly the problem.

The Bloodsealer

A nameless Bloodsealer of Dzhamar, a sub-state of the Rose Empire, who aims to have Shai's bones added to his pets should she try to leave.

Anti-Villain: He just wants money to help a woman he loves.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones
Black Cloak
- In the Hood
Drowning His Sorrows: This seems to be the case whenever he doesn't get a letter.
Evil Albino
The Necromancer
- Blood Magic
No Name Given
Red Eyes, Take Warning
Synchronization: Judging from how he seems very weak and almost completely unresponsive when Shai destroys all of his skeletals in quick succession, this seems to be the case with the skeletals he animates.

Captain Zu

An angry Striker captain who wants to kill Shai for having gotten by him in the first place and having not captured her himself.

Flat Character
I'll Kill You!: He's characterized more or less solely by this relationship toward Shai.
Jerkass

Han ShuXen

The artist of a painting that Shai tried to steal. Actually, she burned it and made two copies to cover her tracks... on his orders.

The Ghost
Old Master: The artistry mentor of Shai.

Kurshina

The dead wife of the Emperor.

Heroes Prefer Redheads: Or Emperors do, anyway. He even liked her because of a story giving him a preference for red hair.
The Lost Lenore
Posthumous Character

Elantris

Characters/The Cosmere

Mistborn

Elantris

Characters/Literature

Mistborn