Late-Arrival Spoiler warning for the series. In particular, the events and several major reveals in first two books are unmarked spoilers below. Due to the nature of certain tropes and reveals, even events as far as The Burning White are spoiled simply by the listing of Tropes below, even when information about them is spoiler tagged..
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The Guile Family
The Guiles in General
The Guiles are a wealthy and influential family, tracing their heritage far back in the history of the Seven Satrapies. At the beginning of the series, Andross Guile is the current Red of the Spectrum and Gavin Guile is the current Prism after the False Prism's war. The family later includes Kip, leader of the Mighty and eventually the Blood Forest, as well as his wife Tisis as well as Karris, after her marriage to Dazen.
- The Ace: Guiles are all capable and dangerous in numerous ways. Multiple members of the family are Polychromes and everyone in the family is a capable drafter and very intelligent in their own right, not to mention a few with Blackguard training.
- Guile Hero: Although the Guiles are quite dangerous in a fight they all excel at extensive planning and figuring out how to Take a Third Option (although they're aren't all always acting heroic).
- Meaningful Name: As mentioned in Guile hero, they tend to live up to their last name.
- Photographic Memory: The Guiles all famously have excellent, if not perfect memories. The fact that Dazen forgets a good deal of relevant information ends up being an important plot point.
- Large and in Charge: The Guile men are all fairly large with characteristc broad shoulders.
Dazen Guile
Dazen Guile, the current Prism, pretending to be his brother Gavin after the Events of the False Prisms War.
- The Ace: As many characters point out, Dazen starts the series on top of the world, literally and figuratively. He is recognized by all as gorgeous, supremely talented, intelligent, and possessed of a luck to rival anyone.
- Amazon Chaser: Romantically interested in Karis, a Blackguard who can certainly kick his ass.
- The Atoner: Dazen spends a lot of time hunting Wights because his younger brother was killed by a Blue Wight and he feels responsible. The Burning White goes into more detail, including Dazen realizing that his guilt is largely misplaced. First, Sevastian wasn't killed by a Wight, and even if he had been, Dazen at only 10 years old couldn't have actually done anything about it. It turns out he was actually hunting Wights to trap Djinn, but he used Black Luxin to cause himself to forget.
- All Your Powers Combined: Naturally as the Prism. He's a Polychrome, plus a lightsplitter, plus he doesn't ever break the Halo.
- Becoming the Mask: Sometimes subverted, sometimes not. Dazen spends a lot of time working this out throughout the series. He does his best to lean into being Gavin as he can't afford a break at any time. However after a enough time of him being Gavin, it's hard to say if he's really acting like Gavin anymore or just acting as himself, which is how everyone expects Gavin to act. In The Burning White he finally accepts that he is actually Dazen resumes referring to himself as such.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He gives a speech about this to Kip early in The Black Prism, and his (partially accidental) burning down of the White Oak mansion backs it up. Of course it turns out it wasn't an accident at all. Dazen is incredibly brutal throughout the series, although he does spend a lot of his time saving innocents whenever he can.
- Broken Ace: Starting at the end of The Black Prism, when he loses Blue. By the end of the fourth book, he cannot see color whatsoever and is blind in one eye.
- Combat Pragmatist: His immense drafting ability means he can simply throw far more luxin at any problem than anyone else, and he's more than happy to take advantage of it. He also gives Liv's class a lecture that goes into loving detail about how to use superviolet and yellow luxin in invisible tripwires and flash bombs, and he shows no hesitation when it comes to cheap shots, tricks and generally killing enemies however possible. He even invents a bomb that can be attached to enemy ships to allow a few drafters on a high-speed skimmer to take out enormous capital ships. Early on he has no compunctions using superviolet luxin to jam Gunner's rifle at a distance.
- Dual Wielding: His custom-made Illyrican pistols. Justified in that Pistols (and guns in general) are still somewhat unreliable in the Flintlock Fantasy world. Firing two pistols makes it more likely that at least one goes off.
- Front Line General: His title during the False Prism's War, Promachos, is actually a Greek term that means "He who leads from the front." He lives up to it. Later on the Blackguard even give him the Blackguard name "Promachos" as a sign of respect. Particularly notable when so many Blackguard names are at least somewhat mocking, his is said with nothing but respect.
- The Hero: Certainly sees it as his duty as Prism. He generally is quite good at it as well. Of course it falls apart a bit in the middle of the series, only to come back together at the very end,
- Hidden Depths: Dazen is a mess of this. Basically the entire series covers what has happened to Dazen, who he actually is as a person and the conflicts with how he views himself.
- Living Legend: Exactly what it sounds like.
- One-Man Army: Part of the job description of being the Prism. Being able to draft unlimited amounts without fear means that he is used to throwing around more Luxin in a battle than many drafter use over the course of years.
- The Social Expert: He excels at winning people over and manipulating events to go in his favor. He does make his share of enemies in the process, but the end of The Burning White shows the people love him for his selflessness and general heroics, as an armada of supports arrives to save the Jaspers.
- Trauma Conga Line: His story for a large section of the series is just worse and worse things happening to him.
Gavin Guile
Dazen's older brother, who he is now impersonating after the False Prisim's war.
- The Ace: Before the False Prism's War, Gavin was this to everyone, including Dazen.
- Ambiguous Situation: Andross claims Gavin was never in the prisons and Dazen was simply going insane for the past decade, but the sheer amount of
Fridge Logic this reveal causes and it being entirely in-character for Andross Guile to lie to Dazen to push him over the edge, whether Gavin was truly in the color prisons is up for some debate. - Broken Ace: He is this after 16 years in the prison Dazen made for him. If he was ever in it.
- In The Burning White goes into detail about he became this after killing Sevastian, then finding out that Dazen naturally had the powers he was forced to kill his youngest brother for. Gavin being understandable distraught about this and no one telling Dazen what had happened eventually lead to a rift between the two and the False Prisms War.
- Front Line General: A trait he shared with his brother.
Andross Guile
Dazen and Gavins Father, Kip's Grandfather. The Red on the Spectrum and Promachos, and a Magnificent Bastard an all around terrible guy through and through. Andross serves as a major antagonist in the series for Kip, Karris and Gavin, despite being on the same side as them the entire time.
- Abusive Parents: Andross is awful to literally everyone not named Felia Guile, including (and sometimes particularly) his children. Both of his older sons grow to hate him for good reasons, his Grandson Kip hates him as well, and his youngest son Sevastian doesn't only because he died so young. Taken up to eleven when The Burning White reveals that he's personally responsible for having Gavin kill Sevastian.
- Archnemesis Dad: To Gavin. Also to Kip, although he's actually Kips grandfather. Probably.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Although he's not the only example, Andross is a pretty obvious one. He's inclined to see everyone as pawns to be used an manipulated and his only concern when other people die is that he may be losing a valuable tool.
- The Chessmaster: Even the people who hate him (which is most people) will readily admit that Andross is incredibly brilliant. This is more or less how he acts, particularly in the early part of the series where he's confined to his apartments.
- Emergency Authority: Andross petitions to be made Promachos in The Broken Eye and spends the rest of the series in the position.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He appears to be an abrasive, heartless old bastard. Dig a little deeper, and you'll find he's a power-mad, abrasive, heartless old bastard. At one point he apologizes and notes that it's been over 20 years since he apologized last. The final book does redeem him the tiniest bit, as a large part of this is that he believed he literally had to push his way into a position of enough power to save the world. He also plans on using his new position post final battle for good, repairing the Satrapies and setting them up for future success to the best of his abilities. While he was a jerk to anyone and everyone, he does genuinely seem to be doing his best for the Satrapies.
- Karma Houdini: Andross is technically on the side of good, but you couldn't really be blamed for forgetting that based on how he acts, particularly in the first few books where he is Kip's primary antagonist. He's spent most of his life bribing, murdering, or manipulating his way to more and more power, and is directly responsible for several deaths and a great deal of suffering for all the main characters. However at the end of the book he's turned into the Prism and named the Lightbringer, despite the fact that by his own admission he did very little to earn the latter title. He does lose two of his sons in the backstory and wife Felia during the series, but the series ends without any further consequences.
- Magnificent Bastard: The title that probably applies best to Andross in the entire series.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Andross breaks basically with impunity, openly or secretly, depending on what he feels serves his purposes better. He's extremely wealthy, powerful and well connected so he's consistently able to get away with it.
- The Social Expert: Everyone thinks Andross is an asshole unless they're outright terrified of him, but he's still consistently able to manipulating anyone and everyone into doing what he wants. The fact that he has a tendency to basically bludgeon people into doing what he wants, forcing the other party to do what he wants by making it their only option is a big part of why people tend not to like him.
Kip Guile
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Andross enjoys forcing Kip into these. They play Nine Kings (a Magic: The Gathering Expy) for enormous stakes numerous times throughout the series.
- Abusive Parents: One of Kip worst memories is his Mother locking him in a closet for three days.
- Back from the Dead: Kip is killed on Orholam's glare only to be revived a few chapters later, although he does lose his Drafting in the process.
- The Chains of Commanding: Being as young as he is in charge of as much as he is, Kip struggles with this a great deal. All told, he does a fantastic job, but he's constantly worried about the fact that his decisions that are impacting thousands of people.
- The Chosen One: Kips friends (and sometimes he himself) all genuinely believe he is the Lightbringer, although it's unclear if they're right for most of the series. In the end Andross is officially considered the Lightbringer. Andross himself points out that Dazen and Kip did a larger part of the work, and Andross doesn't feel he really deserve the title, but who, if anyone, is actually the Lightbringer is left intentionally unclear. The immortals DO make it clear that there isn't one Lightbringer, but rather a number of people who COULD become the Lightbringer, based on their actions.
- Heroic Bastard: Whoever Kip's father is, he obviously wasn't married to his mother. He does a pretty good job being the hero once he gets some practice.
- The Hero: Although not at first, Kip certainly grows into the title when given the chance. In fact, it happens right around the time Dazen starts being unable to be the hero anymore. The Mighty even believe that he's the chosen one, as noted above.
- Loophole Abuse: Kip does this a bunch. When he is assigned a math problem to figure out exactly how much luxin is needed to replace a broken counterweight, Kip skips the problem entirely by using luxin to repair the broken weight instead. This is also how he and Teia get through a large part of their Blackguard training.
- Rape as Backstory: Maybe. There are a number of different stories told at a number of different times. Part of the problem is that of the main two candidates for his father, Gavin and Andross, one is dead and the other isn't exactly forthcoming. The end conclusion seems to be that Gavin is Kips father, based on what Andross says. It's unclear if it was consensual or not, or even how reliable this information is.
- Stout Strength: Kip starts of the series fat and clumsy, but after going through Blackguard training and growing up, he's large and remarkably strong. He's still a bit slow by Blackguard standards, but he is very tough.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Kip and the rest of the Mighty, although they're typically a little more respectful of Kip than one another.
The Blackguard
The Guard in General
- Action Girl: Applies to any woman in the Guard.
- Combat Pragmatist: Kip's story arc in The Blinding Knife goes into depth on this. While official rules during training are strongly enforced, the guard values trickery and deception as much as brute force. Since their primary function is as bodyguards, they value recruits who come up with clever ways to either win fights before they begin, or avoid them entirely. Ironfist sums the approach up with, "Blackguards don't cheat; they win!"
- Loophole Abuse: As in Combat Pragmatist, this is actively encouraged by the Blackguards during testing. Basically all the recruits will become capable fighters as a result of their training, so finding clever recruits who can also come up with ways to avoid danger and keep themselves alive (while completing the mission) is a high priority.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Guards often get nicknames based on a trait or accomplishment early in their career, sometimes somewhat mocking. While their real names aren't a secret, many are referred to only by their Blackguard name.
- Scary Black Man: Darker skin gives drafters a particular advantage in that it is harder to tell what color someone is drafting. Early iterations of the Guard were exclusively dark skinned, but these days anyone with sufficient skill and dedication can get in, although lighter skin tones are still the minority. Of course considering their combat training and conditioning, Blackguards are scary by default.
Commander Ironfist
- The Big Guy: Very big, even by Blackguard standards. Particularly when he's The Lancer to Gavin's leader.
- Scary Black Man: Ironfist is one of the largest and most personally dangerous people in the series and, like most Blackguard, he is dark skinned.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: His birth-name, Harrdun, isn't a secret, but is only used a few times. He is almost exclusively referred to as Commander Ironfist.
Antagonists
The Color Prince
Referred to as Lord Omnichrome in the first book, and The Color Prince or White King in later books. His real identity is Koios White Oak, Karris' brother who believed to be killed before the events of the first book. He is a Black drafter, as well as a full spectrum Wight.
- The Big Bad Shuffle: He starts the first book as The Dragon to King Garadul, but after the Kings death, he spends the majority of the series as the Big Bad himself.
- However the middle few books focus more on the Order of the Broken eye and the Old Man of the desert as the Color Prince is more of a distant threat.
- Then in The Blinding White he is more or less ignored, as the focus shifts to Zyuum and the Order as threats closer to home and dealing with the Immortals. While his invasion is the climax of the book, he barely appears personally, dying unceremoniously over the course of a couple of pages.
- Dark Messiah: Leader of color wights and a revolution that intends to end the Seven Satrapies, supposedly for the good of it's people. Ironically he's actually quite light, physically speaking, since he has so much luxin on him at all times.
- Evil Counterpart: To Gavin. A full spectrum drafter who goes full Wight. Taken even further when it is revealed both are actually Black drafters.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: Undeniably, between horrific burns and replacing large parts of his body with Luxin. Although to some extent it's the opposite, as the events that left him horribly burned indirectly lead to who he becomes later.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: In the course of about a year and a half, the Color Prince goes from the second-in-command of a ragtag rebellion in the poorest of the Seven Satrapies to an existential threat to the Chromeria.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: While the Color Prince is obviously the bad guy throughout, even those fighting him frequently acknowledge that he isn't totally wrong. Everyone agrees The Chomeria is corrupt and deeply flawed, they just believe it should be fixed, not completely destroyed, as it is far better then the alternative he is suggesting.
- Not Quite Dead: The Color Prince is Karris's brother Koios, whom everyone believes died during False Prism's War.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: To some extent. He tells his followers in general that he's liberating the Seven Satrapies from the tyranny of a corrupt Chromeria, but privately admits he's motivated by power as well, although how much of each is tough to say. It's explicitly and repeatedly pointed out that while his alternative is worse, he's right about the Chromeria's flaws and corruption.
