Characters / The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

The Twins of Legend

The main characters of the series. Twins Josh and Sophie Newman find themselves caught up in a battle between the Flamels and the dark Elders to save humanity.

• Brother–Sister Team: Most of the time, when they're on the same side.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Isis and Osiris want the twins to call them Mom and Dad. The twins do not agree.
• The Chosen One: Both of them are in the prophecy: one of them is supposed to save the world, the other will destroy it. Sophie is the former, and saves the present world of humanity. Josh is the latter, who becomes Marethyu and destroys Danu Talis so that humanity's world can exist today.
• Expies: Of Ken and Allie from Michael Scott's earlier Windlord trilogy.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: While Josh isn't exactly "foolish," Sophie is the smarter, more responsible and level-headed twin - at least until Character Development kicks in.
• Happily Adopted: Unknowingly, and before The Reveal.
• Interspecies Adoption: It turns out Sophie and Josh were born several thousand years earlier than they thought they were, but adopted and brought to the present by time-travelling Earthlords .
• Polar Opposite Twins: Sophie got the thinking genes while Josh got the doing genes.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Josh is red, Sophie is blue.
• Self-Made Orphan: In their defence, their Big Bad parents wanted to destroy the human world and make their race slaves to the Elders for all eternity.
  • Not to mention Sarah and Richard Newman weren't even their real parents to begin with- at the time the book takes place, their parents have been dead for hundreds of years.
• Sibling Seniority Squabble: Sophie is thirty-two seconds older. Or so it was thought, until The Reveal.
• Thicker Than Water: At the end of it all, they are there for each other.
• Twin Banter: It can get intense sometimes.

Josh Newman

• A God Is You: He uses the Four Swords of Power to become Marethyu and destroy Danu Talis.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Josh becomes Marethyu at the end.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: To Sophie. Sibling Seniority Squabble allows him to be both this and the trope below.
• Beginner's Luck: Before he takes on skill, the secret of his success. See how to kill Nidhogg.
• Big Brother Instinct: Very protective of Sophie.
• Big Little Brother: Josh is a football player. Sophie is much smaller, despite being thirty-two seconds older.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu??: Kills two Earthlords with the swords of power. Also, Nidhogg.
• Driven by Envy: His jealousy of Sophie causes his Face–Heel Turn.
• Face–Heel Turn: He joins Dee and Virginia Dare at the end of book four.
  • Heel–Face Revolving Door: He has a Heel–Face Turn by The Enchantress.
• Cannot Tell a Lie: Is completely unable to do anything but stutter and fluster through a falsehood, especially to Sophie. Becomes a Running Gag, except when it's Played for Drama.
• Conflicting Loyalty
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Before the series begins. Sophie has always known what she wanted to be. Josh, on the other hand, has a different idea of his "true passion" every week. He's a bit of a wandering soul, until it turns out that he's meant to be the immortal personification of Death, whose ultimate goal is to save the universe.
• Fighting from the Inside: When he is taken over by Mars Ultor. Of course, he has Sophie's help.
• Friendly Enemy: With Machiavelli, until ( and again after) his Face–Heel Turn.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: He is the golden twin and ends up becoming stronger than Sophie as Marethyu. Then again, the transformation also turned his aura black, so it's a bit complicated.
• I Just Want to Be Special: At the beginning of the series.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: His intense protectiveness of Sophie causes him to do some pretty stupid things to some pretty powerful people (or creatures), and eventually leads to his Face–Heel Turn.
• Playing with Fire: His element of choice in combat, once he's Awakened by Mars. He also uses Clarent, the Sword of Fire, quite often.
• The So-Called Coward: Even Sophie assumes he isn't brave... until he charges Nidhogg armed with only a sword he doesn't actually know how to use.
• The Strategist: Became this after becoming Awakened thanks to Mars.
• This Is Unforgivable!!: Develops a deep hatred and mistrust of Flamel thanks to Flamel's repeatedly putting Sophie in danger in order to save his wife. This eventually has tragic consequences, leading to his Face–Heel Turn.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: When his aura is active. Justified in that it is the color of said aura.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He absolutely hates snakes, and he even says the trope name in The Magician.

Sophie Newman

• Action Girl: Defeats the Disir by herself.
• Beware the Nice Ones: A Nice Girl, more so than anyone else in the books, but don't dare mess with her loved ones or she will cut you down.
• Big Brother Instinct: Do not mess with Josh.
• Blow You Away: Often uses wind magic to supplement her water magic.
• Encyclopaedic Knowledge: The Witch of Endor gave her all her memories, which gives Sophie knowledge about magic most elders don't have.
• Ghost Memory: She obtains the Witch of Endor's memories in book 1, although the Witch does not die in the process.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Almost happens to her after she is awakened and again when given the Witch of Endor's memories.
• Home Sweet Home: Goes along with I Just Want to Be Normal, below.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: In direct contrast to her brother.
• Making a Splash: Her element of choice, directly opposite to her brother.

The Flamels

Nicholas Flamel

• Absent-Minded Professor: Not exactly a professor, but loves books and buys/starts a bookshop (under an alias, of course) whenever possible... and really needs to comb his hair.
• Adults Are Useless: Not usually an example of this trope, but he is the one to first bring up (and repeatedly use) the "gas leak" excuse, the lameness of which becomes a Running Gag. "Adults always come up with the lamest excuses."
• Alchemy Is Magic: His bread and butter.
• Awesome by Analysis: Not very powerful or a good fighter, but mess with him and he will transmute the floor out from underneath you.
• Badass Bookworm: Was the owner of a bookstore at the beginning of the series and is dedicated to protecting the Codex. In fact, he states that owning a bookshop is his favorite profession out of all the ones he's had, and even met his wife in a bookshop he owned.
• Battle Couple: With Perenelle.
• Crazy-Prepared: While it's not quite to the level of Dee, after running for his life for hundreds of years, this old man has a few tricks up his sleeve...
• Does Not Drive: Nicholas, despite being over 600 years old, never learned to drive. He claims to have spent his time learning other useful skills, like riding a lizard-nathair.
• Eccentric Mentor: To the twins. Although sometimes a dangerous mentor, as well...
• Elderly Immortal: In the later books, do to using his magic too much.
• Eternal Love: With Perenelle.
• Feeling Their Age: Played for Drama. As the series goes on, more and more often he will say something along the lines of "I'm not as young as I used to be" after an action scene.
• Good Is Not Nice: His ultimate goal is the survival of the human race, and he really cares about other people. But he needs twins to do that, and twins he will get, and twins he will Awaken... even if they Go Mad from the Revelation.
• Guile Hero: Centuries of hiding the Codex from the nearly all-powerful Dark Elders have turned him into one.
• Guilt Complex: Although he (transparently) brushes it aside with I Did What I Had to Do, clearly has one about what happened to the other twins.
• Happily Married: With Perenelle.
• Historical Domain Character: See here.
• I Will Find You: At the beginning of the first book, Perenelle is kidnapped and held prisoner in Alcatraz by Dee. Until she is rescued, saving her becomes Flamel's main motivation - revealing his Knight Templar tendencies to Josh long before his trust has been gained.
• Knight Templar: On his worse days.
• Really 700 Years Old
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Like so many other characters in this series.

Perenelle Flamel

• Battle Couple: With Nicholas.
• Eternal Love: With Nicholas.
• Happily Married: With Nicholas.
• Historical Domain Character: See here.
• I See Dead People: A perk of being the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter.
• Magical Seventh Daughter: Being the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter allows her to speak to ghosts.
• Really 700 Years Old
• The Dreaded: To anything that seems too ancient, too horrible, or too divine to be afraid of anything, she is their worst nightmare.
• The Unfettered: After her husband dies, she almost kills Sophie in order to bring him back to life.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Like so many other characters in this series.

Villains

Dr. John Dee

• Ambition Is Evil: Dee's insatiable thirst for knowledge is what drove him to join the Dark Elders. Flamel calls it his "greatest strength, and greatest flaw."
• Beard of Evil: Has a goatee - the most evil beard of them all!
• Black Magic: It's a series about magic, and he's a villain. Curiously, though, Dee is the only character to explicitly and often use black or "forbidden" magic - the others seem to prefer to use illusions or just plain force.
• Boomerang Bigot: Sees humans as inferior. He's human. But then, some immortals - especially the evil ones - seem to view immortality itself as making them something other than human. Doesn't stop the Elders from brutally revoking his immortality at the end.
• Break the Haughty: The events of The Enchantress serve to leave him suffering a slow, agonizing death, and taking the time to finally think about his regrets and do one good thing before it's too late.
• The Chessmaster: Goes along with being Crazy-Prepared.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Often uses his company, Enoch Enterprises, for his evil plans.
• Crazy-Prepared: Dee apparently takes full advantage of his immortality to, at every opportunity, set up a failsafe, trap or Evil Plan ages, sometimes centuries in advance.
• Evil Brit: He's British, and evil. Made especially interesting because the author originally intended Dee to have Flamel's role, but he got demoted to villain.
• Evil Versus Evil: After he is declared utlaga, ends up facing off against Billy the Kid and Machiavelli.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: When Dee was a teenager, his father turned him out, calling him "a flawed tool." He has worked for centuries to prove him wrong, and being called the exact same words by an Elder nearly sends him into hysterics.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Is humming "regrets, I've had a few" as he dies. Takes this opportunity to save the heroes in the only way he can as he dies.
• Never Be Hurt Again: See Inferiority Superiority Complex.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections! / Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Over hundreds of years, Dee has built up a corporate empire. Any time he's in a pinch - such as when he is declared utlaga - he inevitably falls back on Enoch Enterprises.
• The Social Darwinist: Believes that humans - or "humani," as he refers to them - are by nature inferior. Uses this to justify his actions.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Shows Josh an incredible vision of an abundantly fertile, fruitful, peaceful Earth where humans are treated gently as the innocent animals they are and the Elder masters rule benevolently over the world, aided by loyal, justic-serving immortals such as himself. Apparently he really believes in this. The Elders do not.

Niccolo Machiavelli

• Affably Evil: He is quite kind to Josh, eventually becoming an Eccentric Mentor to him after Josh's Face–Heel Turn. This is hinted at in the beginning when he uses the word "humans" rather than the derogatory term "humani."
• Anti-Villain: The most honorable of the villains, and has a Heel–Face Turn.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason Josh trusts him, even though they're on different sides, and part of the reason for his Face–Heel Turn, is that he was the only one to give Josh "a straight answer" to anything.
• The Chessmaster: A notable aversion. Considering it's Machiavelli, you'd expect him to be behind all the Evil Plans, but apparently that's more Dee's area.
• Corrupt Politician: He's Machiavelli. In the present day, he heads the French Secret Service.
• Deadpan Snarker: A dedicated one, considering the inherent danger in snarking to an Dark Elder's face. Also tends to snark privately to Josh at the other villains' expense.
• Drives Like Crazy: After a getaway during which Machiavelli had to drive, Dee jokingly (and shakily) asks him how many wheels the car he learned to drive on had. Machiavelli answers with complete seriousness: "Three."
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Still remembers his long-ago wife, whose memory spurs him on to a Heel–Face Turn.
• Evil Mentor: To Josh.
• Evil Versus Evil: Is sent to "deal with" the renegade Dee. Unfortunately for the Dark Elders, he ends up having a Heel–Face Turn in the middle of the mission.
• Friendly Enemy: With Josh, until ( and again after) his Face–Heel Turn.
• I Gave My Word: He promised his dead wife he would never love anyone but her. Five hundred years later, and he hasn't broken that promise once.
• Gentleman Snarker
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: His perspective and justification for the despicable things he does.
• Lawman Gone Bad: As well as running the Secret Service, he's also chief of police in Paris.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Not only aristocratic, smooth and well-dressed, but an art collector. In his very first scene, he's buying a pair of ancient and beautiful Kabuki masks, which apparently he's had his eye on for several centuries.
• The Oath-Breaker: The Warlock of the fifth book is an epithet for him. Warlock, or waerloga, literally translates (from Old English) as "oath-breaker."
• Snakes Are Sinister: Much to Josh's horror, his aura scent is the smell of snakes.
• Villainous Friendship: With Billy.
• Vow of Celibacy: To his wife, five hundred years ago.

Billy The Kid

• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Not only is the first of the villains to complete a Heel–Face Turn, but convinces several others to join him in the fight against the Elders.
• Does Not Like Magic: Unusually and surprisingly for an immortal minion of the Dark Elders, Billy, cannot control his aura, and mistrusts the power. He prefers to shoot his way out.
• Drives Like Crazy: Has a 1960s red Thunderbird convertible which he prizes. It's amazing it's still in one piece.
• Grin of Audacity: Gets many of these.
• Hot-Blooded: Repeatedly threatening Physical Gods and Eldritch Abominations with various makeshift weapons, driving recklessly into battle, etc., etc.... yep, he qualifies.
• Motor Mouth: "Shut up, Billy!"
• Professional Killer: Since he's not much use for executing complicated EvilPlans, Billy tends to fall into this category for the Elders.
• Trekkie: Makes references repeatedly through the story. Eventually Played for Drama when he convinces Machiavelli to take a Heel–Face Turn by pointing out that to the Dark Elders, they're Red Shirts, and therefore expendable.
• Villainous Friendship: With Machiavelli.

Virginia Dare

• Aloof Ally: To Dee.
• Berserk Button: As evil as she can be, she hates abuse of authority. What she does to a couple of soldiers tormenting civilians is sickening.
• Cool People Rebel Against Authority: A badass anarchist.
• Creepy Good: To her allies.
• Dark Action Girl: She is badass. Unfortunately, some of the badass things she does can make even the hardened reader wince a little.
• Grin of Audacity: When Dee offers her the world.
• Ice Queen: Treats most everybody with disdain.
• Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Don't get her wrong: she can be a Jerkass. She can be brutal. But all she wants is peace and harmony in anarchy, and no, she really didn't murder her Elder master.
• Mysterious Past: Dare's past as the only living survivor of the Lost Colony is hinted at a grand total of once, when Abraham the Mage sends her a message written in a language only she can understand, and which she only deigns to read because of the enormous, heartwrenching (for her) word heading the message; CROATOAN. Of course, her backstory can't be revealed, because it's rooted in an unsolved historical mystery.
• Professional Killer: Since her Elder master mysteriously disappeared, she has become this, on a freelance basis.
• The Starscream: In the past. It's implied she killed her own Elder master.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Is truly passionate about anarchy in its most pacifist extreme - the "and each shall sit under their own vine, and no one shall frighten them" kind, with no government or rulers at all. When Dee offers her the world in exchange for helping him capture Josh, assuming she wants to rule it, she accepts, but later reveals that she only wanted to create a world of pure peace.

Dagon

• Battle Butler: As well as being his driver, Dagon is also Machiavelli's bodyguard.
• The Driver: Machiavelli's ancient fish-man chauffeur.
• Fish People: Dagon himself used to be a Mesopotamian fish god.
• No Badass to His Valet: Machiavelli may be known as one of the most dangerous immortals out there, but Dagon is not impressed.
• Old Retainer: Is deeply loyal to Machiavelli, who in turn cares just as deeply.
• Servile Snarker: Goes along with No Badass to His Valet, above.

Major Allies

Scathatch the Shadow (Scatty)

• Action Girl
• Berserk Button: A downplayed one - Blind Obedience.
• Blind Obedience: Warns the twins about this is epic fashion. "Trust no one." Not their allies, not their enemies, not anyone who claims to be on their side, not their friends, not their parents - not even Scathatch herself. Only each other.
• Cool Big Sis: To Sophie.
• Denying the Dead Parent's Sins: When she finally gets to Danu Talis, the first thing she wants to do is find her father, just to know if he's really as evil as she was told he was. When she finally sees him, he is in the process of brutally quelling a human rebellion by murdering his own brother. She promptly leads another revolution against him.
• Divine Assistance: Her main role in the series.
• Emotion Eater: See below.
• Expecting Someone Taller: People tend to say this word-for-word right before she kicks their ass. It's not her fault she's short, dammit!
• Fiery Redhead
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Joan of Arc - literally. She saved her from the flames.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: With Aoife. An unusual case in that they're twins.
• Lesbian Vampire: Implied. Her girl group (made up of entirely vampires, by the way) was hinted to have had some fun times.
• Never Accepted in His Hometown: She may be the Warrior Maid, the Shadow, the Kingmaker, but to her Elder family, she's just that annoying little girl who still plays with humans.
• Our Vampires Are Different: She and her clan drink emotion instead of blood.
• Really 700 Years Old
• Western Samurai: She fights in many martial arts styles, including with Eastern weapons like nunchaku, but she's been around for long enough that she may have invented some of them herself.

The Comte de Saint-Germain

• Battle Couple: With Joan of Arc.
• Eternal Love: With Joan of Arc.
• Happily Married: With Joan of Arc.
• Historical Domain Character: See here.
• Large Ham: Well, he is a rockstar...
• Playing with Fire: The person who teaches Sophie Fire Magic.
• Really 700 Years Old

Joan Of Arc

• Action Girl
• Battle Couple: With the Comte de Saint-Germain.
• Cool Big Sis: To Sophie.
• Emergency Transformation: A seriously wounded Joan got an emergency blood transfusion from the vampire Scathach. It doesn't turn her into a vampire, but it does make her immortal, which explains what she's doing in a series that takes place in the twenty-first century.
• Eternal Love: With the Comte de Saint-Germain.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Scatty - literally.
• Happily Married: With the Comte de Saint-Germain.
• Historical Domain Character: See here.
• Jeanne d'Archétype: Obviously.
• Really 700 Years Old
• Superhuman Transfusion: Scathach's vampire blood didn't turn her into one, but it did make her immortal.

Palamedes the Saracen Knight

• Embarrassing Nickname: Scathatch likes to call him 'Pally'.
• Scary Black Man: If you make him angry, he can be quite intimidating.
• Really 700 Years Old

Niten

See also Miyamoto Musashi

• Badass in Distress: He obtained immortality when the Great Elder Benzaiten rescued him when he was about to be killed by oni.
• Battle Couple: With Aoife.
• Cultured Warrior: One scene features him sitting crosslegged in the middle of what he knows will soon become a battlefield, patiently waiting for his enemies while quoting the Bible and Gandhi to himself.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He is the only humani who has defeated Scatty in single combat.

Prometheus

• Cool Uncle: To Scatty.
• Playing with Fire: He has fire-based magic, which he used to give life to humanity.

Others

Marethyu a.k.a. The Hook-Handed Man a.k.a. Future Josh

• The Chessmaster: Along with Abraham the Mage, he seems to be this seeing as he manipulated everyone's lives in order to make sure that he bring the characters back in time to Danu Talis.
• Deity of Human Origin: He used to be Josh.
• The Faceless: Until book 5.
• The Grim Reaper: What he becomes at the end of the series.
• Hook Hand: Hence the nickname.
• The Omniscient: He gains omniscience when he combines the Elemental Swords into his hook.
• Really 700 Years Old: After he destroys Dani Talis, he time travels to bring Scatty and the others to Dani Talis.
• Walking Spoiler: Obviously.

Gilgamesh

• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Being several millennia old will have an effect on your sanity.
• The Fog of Ages: He is cursed to remember nothing.
• The Older Immortal: He and Tsagaglalal were the very first humans created by Prometheus.

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