Guardians
- Parental Abandonment: A heroic variant as it's not a case of true abandonment so much as it is that it's generally believed that his parents are presumed to have died protecting him from Pitch.
The "Guardian of Wonder", Nicolas St. North is a reformed bandit king and master swordsman. He became Ombric’s apprentice after giving up a chance at fabulous wealth to aid the children of Santoff Claussen.
- Defector from Decadence: He left the Cossack bandit group who raised him because they were too ruthless for his tastes and went on to form a less violent band of thieves under his leadership.
- Empathic Weapon: His Golden Age sword has this property. Among other things, it can jump into his hand when he’s attacked, sense the difference between enemies and allies and avoid accidentally injuring the latter, and boost his strength and speed in combat. North is initially creeped out by having a sword with a mind of its own but learns to trust it over time.
- Former Teen Rebel: He used to be an outlaw before becoming a good guy.
- Master Swordsman: Supposedly, he once defeated an entire regiment of cavalry with a bent steak knife. While he was eating.
- Raised by Wolves: Well, by a bear. Then he got picked up by the Cossacks.
Referred to as the Guardian of Hope, E. Aster Bunnymund is the last of the Pookas, a wandering group of powerful space hare monks that helped shape the development of planets with life, that settled on Earth. With his massive digging abilities, he created various landmasses and continents (Australia being his favorite work) in an effort to reshape the planet from its original egg-shape into something that would have a stable orbit. He created some of Earth's plant-life and spring and gave man the gifts of chocolate and martial arts.
- Hair-Raising Hare: Subverted in that he's a good guy, but he's one hell of a force to be reckoned with.
- Ineffectual Loner: The book in his name shows that before joining the Guardians, Bunnymund preferred to keep to himself.
The first of the Guardians recruited by the Man in the Moon, the Sandman is the Guardian of Dreams. After his sandy comet ship crashed into the oceans of Earth after a battle with Pitch, the Man in the Moon found him and assigned him to watch over the dreams of children.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The smallest of the Guardians, probably the most powerful.
Toothiana is the "Guardian of Memories". The daughter of a former slave named Haroom and an immortal "Sister of Flight" named Rashmi, she lost her parents shortly after her powers emerged when losing her last baby tooth. The teeth she collects contain childhood memories that she safeguards and returns later.
- Our Fairies Are Different: She (more so in the film) is based on the Kinnari
of Buddhist mythology. - Parental Abandonment: Her parents had been killed because of the Monkey King.
- Self-Duplication: Her fairies are extensions of herself allowing her to do her job, with the count of fairies being proportional to the demand of teeth needing collection.
A young girl from Santoff Claussen and Ombric’s foster daughter. Grows up to be Mother Goose and possibly the "Guardian of Stories."
- All-Loving Hero: She never meant harm to anyone, to the point that she prevents others Guardians to kill Pitch because she thinks he can be redeemed. Unfortunately he doesn't.
- Happily Adopted: A foundling child raised by Ombric. Mostly gets swept up in the Guardians' adventures because she's his ward. And as of recently the Bandit King Nicholas St. North has taken her under his wing.
- Implied Love Interest: It's implied that Nightlight and Katherine have begun to develop romantic feeling towards one another as Book 4 mentions that Katherine and Nightlight share a distinct happiness that only the closest of friendships have after going through a "great change". It's been clearly established by
Word of God that they are best friends and they share a deep connection with one another, and Nightlight is heavily implied to be in love with Katherine, and she seems to reciprocate this, but a romantic relationship hasn't been officially confirmed.- Prior to that in the books mention that Nightlight was drawn to Katherine.
- They have a deeply close bond, one of a connected heart and mind.
- Nightlight refers to Katherine as "My Katherine" when talking to the Man In The Moon.
- It's described that they can understand each other without even needing to talk, “A friend who understands everything without being told is the rarest and best kind of friend”.
- Pitch also tries to threaten Katherine as a way to terrify Nightlight, something Nightlight immediately recognizes.
- Katherine is described as being worried when she can't sense Nightlight, his friendship or anything from him at all.
- Nightlight is afraid of the thought of Katherine growing up and leaving him behind because he is unsure as to if he has the ability to grow up himself.
- There's also the fact that Nightlight willingly gave up being a "Nightlight" by kissing Katherine so she could wake up, resulting in him being able to grow older and thus allowing him to grow into his role as Jack Frost.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Katherine is so sweet and innocent that Pitch decides to try and turn her into his Darkling Princess. He fails. But Katherine never meant harm to anyone, to the point that she prevents others Guardians to kill Pitch because she thinks he can be redeemed. Unfortunately as she later learns the hard way, he can't.
- Intergenerational Friendship: She has a couple friends who are at least one generation older than her and her best friend Nightlight is a good couple millennia older than her.
- Parental Abandonment: Her parents died in mysterious conditions. However, she has a Parental Substitute in Ombric, her foster father and in North. However, her conditions of orphan are the reason why Pitch is interested in her, and even proposed her to be her father because he lost his daughter.
A enigmatic immortal boy that was once the Man in the Moon's bodyguard until he helped seal Pitch away the first time. Since his and Pitch's reawakening, he's mostly enjoyed wandering the earth in addition to bringing his own abilities to the fight. Becomes Katherine's closest friend and eventually Jack Frost.
- Badass Boast:
- "We fear you none!"
- "Be writing what just happened on your pages, Mr. Q. That today Nightlight, the boy Guardian, had the knowing of a Tall One."
- Beware the Nice Ones: Nightlight is hands-down one of the nicest characters in the series, but do not assume that harming, or attempting to harm, his friends won't end badly for you. Keep in mind that this is the same person who outright stabbed Pitch in the heart and imprisoned him prior to the events of the book series.
- In book 3 the only thing that stopped him from killing Pitch was Katherine, who had deliberately gotten into Nightlight's way because she thought that Pitch didn't deserve to die and could be redeemed. Unfortunately as she later learns the hard way, he can't.
- Decomposite Character: The mortal Jack from the movie version of Frost's backstory is turned into a new character named Jacklovich that inspired Jack to take the name and serves as the protective big brother to Ana. Jack Frost's fall in the ice is now the result of him protecting the both of them from Pitch's forces.
- Famed In-Story: By the Lunar Lamas who greet him like royalty (Turns out Nightlight doesn't mind the treatment)
- As Jack Frost, he drifts through high society, befriends people like Winston Churchill, J.M. Barrie and Rudyard Kipling, and has inspired many fictional characters in his wake such as Peter Pan, Jekyll and Hyde, and Dorian Gray. According to Word of God, he's known as "the King of Wild Things."
- As Jack Frost, he drifts through high society, befriends people like Winston Churchill, J.M. Barrie and Rudyard Kipling, and has inspired many fictional characters in his wake such as Peter Pan, Jekyll and Hyde, and Dorian Gray. According to
- Implied Love Interest: It's implied that Nightlight and Katherine have begun to develop romantic feeling towards one another as Book 4 mentions that Katherine and Nightlight share a distinct happiness that only the closest of friendships have after going through a "great change". It's been clearly established by Word of God that they are best friends and they share a deep connection with one another, and Nightlight is heavily implied to be in love with Katherine, and she seems to reciprocate this, but a romantic relationship hasn't been officially confirmed.
- Prior to that in the books mention that Nightlight was drawn to Katherine.
- They have a deeply close bond, one of a connected heart and mind.
- Nightlight refers to Katherine as "My Katherine" when talking to the Man In The Moon.
- It's described that they can understand each other without even needing to talk, “A friend who understands everything without being told is the rarest and best kind of friend”.
- Pitch also tries to threaten Katherine as a way to terrify Nightlight, something Nightlight immediately recognizes.
- Katherine is described as being worried when she can't sense Nightlight, his friendship or anything from him at all.
- Nightlight is afraid of the thought of Katherine growing up and leaving him behind because he is unsure as to if he has the ability to grow up himself.
- There's also the fact that Nightlight willingly gave up being a "Nightlight" by kissing Katherine so she could wake up, resulting in him being able to grow older and thus allowing him to grow into his role as Jack Frost.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Played straight with Nightlight. Prior to the end of the fourth book it was outright confirmed that Nightlight has never been kissed, at least until he realised that a kiss was possibly the only thing that could free Katherine from sleep. In fact Nightlight is so pure that when Pitch tried to turn him into a fearling, the power backfired and the hand Pitch had used to touch Nightlight had been restored to it's original human form.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Everyone he happens to be friends with is at least a good couple millenniums younger than him.
- Invisible to Adults: Played with, Nightlight is invisible to humans who lack the power of belief but he can make himself invisible to everyone if he needs to.
- The ability to go invisible is implied by the fact that Nightlight spent months watching over Santoff Claussen without being detected, though it's possible that he may have been shapeshifted form during this; and later was able to follow Sandy to find Katherine.
- He's also mentioned to be able to make others invisible by the fact that he was able to rescue Katherine (who had Nicholas and Ombric's doll forms in her arms) before disappearing into 'lighted mist'.
- Katherine also mentions in the second book that she can't see him when he's hiding in the trees, but senses him instead.
- Kid Hero: Nightlight happens to be an immortal 14 year old who once single-handedly defeated Pitch.
- Not Growing Up Sucks: Shades of this in the third novel where he wonders if he'll be left behind as Katherine grows older.
- Never Grew Up: Begins to fear this after Katherine loses her last baby tooth.
- In the fourth book, Nightlight gives Katherine a “Kiss of Goodnight” on the lips which awakens her from her spell as well as him become a real adolescent boy who will finally age like everyone else.
- Never Grew Up: Begins to fear this after Katherine loses her last baby tooth.
- Official Couple: Implied to be this with Katherine at the end of Book 4.
- Really 700 Years Old: Nightlight usually appears as a young teen and, as Jack Frost, can age himself up or down at will, but he predates the Moon's entry into Earth's orbit. It was actually tradition for the Lunanoffs to create a Nightlight for their heir to protect them during childhood, and this Nightlight was the last, created to protect the future Man in the Moon. This makes Nightlight and the Man in the Moon around the same age.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Had to seal himself in order to seal away Pitch.
- Silent Bob: Subverted in that when he does speak (in the second novel, but only one line) it is treated as a big deal. His voice is described by a moonbeam as "like faraway memories and echoes of long ago."
- Telepathy: Nightlight is outright mentioned by Moonbeam to use "think speak" to communicate.
- Vague Age: Word of God is that he's 14 years old, at least in terms of appearance. But Word of God also mentions that as Jack Frost, Nightlight has the ability to physically age himself (up to a point) or become younger at will.
The founder of the village of Santoff Clausen, Ombric is the last remaining citizen of Atlantis. A talented sorcerer, he eventually serves as a mentor to North. Becomes Father Time in the last two books.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: As Father Time, he has become incorporeal as a result of existing between time, but can still interact with his fellow Guardians, slowing time to allow them to better do their jobs.
- Disney Death: He's eaten by a bear in the first book, but gets better through the power of belief.
Villains
Ruler of the Fearlings and would-be conqueror of the universe. Pitch brought the Golden Age to a violent end centuries ago, but was trapped and forced into dormancy on Earth during his final battle with the Lunanoffs. He was accidentally freed at the beginning of the first book and schemes to plunge Earth into fear and darkness before spreading his influence throughout the rest of the universe.
Formerly known as Kozmotis Pitchiner, commander of the Lunanoffs’ military during their campaign to rid the Golden Age of Fearlings. Pitchiner stood guard over the prison planet where the Fearlings were incarcerated; they eventually tricked him into freeing them and transformed him into Pitch.
- Badass Boast: “I’ve scuttled entire planets, burglar [referring to North]. You’re just another inconvenience!”
- Demonic Possession: He has the ability to possess others, and is a victim of it himself given his origins.
- Dream Stealer: He converts innocuous dreams into nightmares as a means of spreading fear. In The Guardians of Childhood universe, dreams are a powerful source of magical energy and inspiration, so this is a more dire threat than it sounds like.
- Empty Nest: In every book so far he has attempted or expressed the desire to turn a child into Daddy's Little Villain
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In the second book it's revealed that General Pitchiner had a daughter before he became Pitch. In the third book, it's revealed his daughter became Mother Nature.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He clearly despises the Monkey king for what he'd become.
- Fighting from the Inside: His reaction to seeing General Pitchiner’s locket in the second book suggests that some trace of Pitchiner remains within him.
- Papa Wolf: As General Pitchiner, he was tricked into hearing his daughter's voice in the prison he was guarding. Thinking she was trapped inside, he immediately opened it...only to be consumed by the Fearlings, becoming Pitch the Nightmare King.
- Replacement Goldfish: He wants Katherine as his Fearling princess because Kozmotis missed his daughter, and because Katherine is said to have some similarities with Emily Jane
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Before the start of the books, he was trapped and forced into dormancy on Earth after his final battle with the Lunanoffs.
- Space Pirates: During his youth Pitch was the Captain of the Nightmare Galleon and sought to extinguish any and all shooting stars, including one Sanderman Mansnoozie.
- Weakened by the Light: His battle with the Moon Clipper and subsequent imprisonment weakened him to the point that he cannot withstand Earth’s sunlight. He gets around this with various types of magical armor.
- Weaksauce Weakness: He cannot withstand Earth’s sunlight.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The “woobie” aspect initially arises from the idea of General Pitchiner being turned into him, but there are hints that Pitch suffers from his condition even after having been the King of Nightmares for centuries.
- Would Hurt a Child: Children are his preferred targets for Fearling transformation because their fear is more potent and pleasing to him than that of adults.
Demonic entities that feed on fear.
- Heavily Armored Mook: In the second book, they acquire lead armor that protects them from the usual light-based weapons.
- Space Pirates: They served under Pitch on the Nightmare Galleon during the Golden Age, chasing and destroy any and all shooting stars.
- Was Once a Man: Many of them were once ordinary children from the Golden Age worlds who were captured and transformed during the second outbreak of war.
Toothiana's nemesis, the Monkey King was once a vain and prideful maharajah and hunter. When he had his slave Haroom help him track the rarest of prey: A Flying Elephant in the jungles surrounding the home of the Sisters of Flight, Haroom refused to let him harm one of the flying women that came to save the elephant. They forced the Maharajah to leave what he brought in behind, which ended up including his humanity, transforming him. He vowed revenge and when Toothiana came of age, lead a group of hunters seeking to capture and exploit her as a freak show and killed her parents in the process. He now works for Pitch, hoping he will restore his human form, though his failures end up punished with lower forms. By 1933, he has become an eight-legged freak and works alongside an oversized maggot known as Blandim.
- Cycle of Revenge: Locked in one with Toothiana.
- Evil Former Friend: Despite their status Marajah did think of Haroom as a dear friend, until his transformation at least.
- Forced Transformation: He was once human, but was transformed into his current form when he tried to hunt a Flying Elephant.
Residents of the Golden Age
With the power to control storms and gravity itself, Mother Nature is a force nearly as ancient as Pitch. She is a neutral party in the Guardian's war against The Nightmare King, and only chooses to act when it it is for her own selfish purposes. She is also Pitch Black's daughter.
- Above Good and Evil: She declares herself neutral and will neither help nor hinder her father or the guardians.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: A familial variant. She tells Pitch that if he tries to "replace" her with Katherine as his daughter she will destroy him because, whether either likes it or not, SHE is his only daughter.
- Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Indeed he thought that his daughter had been killed by Dreams Pirates. Unfortunately Mother Nature never knew this.
- Daddy's Girl: Once. However, after she thought that her father abandoned her she became bitter and resentful to him. Now she refuses to help her father and makes it clear that she no longer cares for him anymore.
- Elemental Embodiment: Although she appears human enough, Mother Nature's hair and clothes appear to be made up of the clouds surrounding her. Additionally, several characters have caught glimpses of her face in the clouds at some point.
- Ice Queen: As Bunnymund puts it "She's not always a benevolent soul, and she is very unpredictable."
- It Amused Me: She tells Pitch that she only reason she saved him was out of "curiosity".
- Like Father, Like Son: She has her father's temper.
- Morality Pet: During one time, she was this to Pitch. It ended when Mother nature told him she would stay neutral and doesn't care for him anymore.
- Not Quite Flight: Mother Nature controls air currents that allows her to travel from one place to another.
- Parental Abandonment: The best trope of the story. Her mother sacrificed herself to prevent the Dream Pirates from killing her, and her father never returned from his mission, and thought she was dead like his wife. She had a foster father in Typhan, but that was temporary.
- Pet the Dog: She is far from being nice, but she isn't evil. That is shown when she helps the Sandman.
- Ungraetful Bastard: She never truly saw Typhan as a father-figure despite taking her in after her mother died and her father was corrupted.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: She was sweet (albeit somewhat disobedient and mischievous) as a child. Then she dream-pirates killed her mother and her father became the Nightmare king, leaving her all alone. This made her bitter and resentful to the point of trying to destroy a sailing ship just to vent out her anger, leading to her banishment to earth. As Mother Earth, she has mellowed out somewhat into a neutral deity, who still hates her father (even after he's explained himself) but still refuses to help or hinder him.
- You Are Not My Father: Averted with Pitch, despite her animosity towards him she proclaims that he is still her father and she is still his daughter, "for good or ill". Played straight with her adoptive father.
Typhan is a Titan, meaning he embodies an entire constellation of moons and stars. Once a great ally to the Golden Age, able to summon powerful winds that would scatter fleets of the Dream Pirates ships. Eventually, the Dream Pirates succeeded in extinguishing the stars that had once been his eyes, leaving Typhan unable to detect them as they destroyed more of his stars, a shadow of his former self.
When Emily Jane drifts into his constellation, after escaping Dream Pirates, and now separated form her father, Typhan raises her alone for ten years, making her a Sister of the Heavens, and teaching her how to control the wind.
- Blow You Away: Is the bringer of storms, and taught Mother Nature how to control air currents.
- Like a Son to Me: He annotated Emily Jane as his daughter, and even made her a Sister of the Heavens.
- Morality Pet: To Emily Jane. Unfortunately Emily Jane turned it into a Kick the Morality Pet later after her "You're Not My Father" moment.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: Typhan is a titan who is literally an entire constellation.
Residents of Santoff Claussen
In the forested hinterlands of Eastern Siberia lies the village of Santoff Claussen, where the impossible is made possible through belief. A haven first created by Ombric when a meteor landed in the area and a small sapling grew into a large tree inside of which Ombric and his library could reside, called Big Root. A haven to scientists, engineers, inventors, artist and dreamers, Ombric has taught the village the ways of magic, speaking insect languages and many other wonders not known to the outside world.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": While never actually said out loud, the sons of Old William are called "Tall William", "William the Almost-Youngest" and "William the Absolute Youngest". Yeah, it's Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Sacha built a pair of rocket boots and gloves for climbing trees and upgraded her warrior egg with a pair of wings.
- One-Steve Limit: Absolutely subverted with Old William's many Williams.
- And Zoidberg: When the entire residents of Santoff Claussen are turned to stone, Ombric goes about turning everyone and every creature back to normal, yet the adults are on the bottom of the list right after the ants of all things.
- My Beloved Smother: Justified, just to get the children to go to sleep at night the parents have resorted to coming up with various traps to capture them. Unfortunately, the children have become wise to this game and have found new ways of avoiding going to bed.
A glowworm that dresses like a scholar with a long beard and glasses perched on the end of his nose. Mr. Qwerty resides in Big Root where he is in charge of the expansive Santoff Clausen library and able to speak human language, a rare feat for an insect. He is a brilliant scholar and trusted comrade, also starved for knowledge, normally seen taking care and cleaning the books. When Pitch attacks Santoff Clausen to gain access to Ombric's library, Mr Qwerty eats every book and tome to protect the knowledge and spells from Pitch's grasp. Mr Qwerty then wraps himself in a cocoon, eventually emerging as a hybrid between a butterfly and a book. Having absorbed all the knowledge from the library, Mr Qwerty can call upon any information and display them on his wings to be read from. He only lets Katherine write in him though.
- Ingesting Knowledge: Ombric always knew Mr Qwerty hungered for knowledge, but he didn't think it was quite so literal.
- Number Two: In charge during Ombric's absence.
- Do-Anything Robot: to an extent. Dijinni will do anything you ask of it but only within it's capabilities, for example not being alive it can't perform magic.
