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* BookDumb: In his student days Cain only got high marks in classes involving physical exertion and combat, everything else he scraped by in. He also has a bad habit of not reading the briefing documents about whatever warzone he's heading into, leading to at least two occasions where he didn't even know what enemy he was supposed to be fighting until weeks into the campaign (granted those seemed to be in his early days with an artillery unit, which by definition spent most of their time shooting targets they couldn't see).
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!!Commissar Cadets
[[folder:Donal]]
One of Cain's cadets, who reminds him a bit too much of himself.
----
* DyingAsYourself: After being possessed by daemonic forces, he regains control while dying.
* HoldTheLine: Along with Governor Trevellyan. Unfortunately, he suffers the same fate.
* IndyPloy: Cain says that he has
--> ''...the rare ability to think his feet and take immediate advantage of any unexpected circumstances.''
* TheQuietOne: He observes more than he speaks in class.
* TooMuchAlike: Cain regularly notes that Donal reminds him a little too much of himself.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Kayla]]
One of Cain's cadets, who he views as the most promising of the group but lacking in self-confidence.
----
* NervesOfSteel: Cain describes her voice as "tightly controlled" on the verge of a battle.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: The only girl shown among Cain's class.
* TeachersPet: She's a decent student who answers question to Cains' satisfaction and puts a less intelligent Nelys in his place.
* TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: She wears her hair long and Cain states "her refusal to adopt the short crop of her fellow cadets was the one sign of feminity I'd so far seen her allow herself."
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Nelys]]
A Perlia cadet who annoys Cain with his rigidity.
----
* ByTheBookCop: A serious young man who lives by the protocol for things. Cain worries he'll suffer an UnfriendlyFire incident out in the field.
* DeadpanSnarker: He develops a tendency for this during the invasion as a result of his TookALevelInBadass. A prime example is Nelys defusing an argument between two Tech-Priests delaying the evacuation of HQ over which bit of tech or other should be saved by asking which of them is staying behind to make room for it on the last shuttle.
* EnhancedInterrogationTechniques: Cain assigns him to question some prisoners and he quickly gets results (albeit partially because one overconfident prisoner thought he could convert Nelys to Chaos just by showing him some pictures).
* HiddenDepths: It's hinted that he might have a girlfriend among the Battle Sisters Novitiates based on the way he smiles identically to Maklin when Julien and the Novitiates arrive in one scene. He's also shown to have quite a sarcastic sense of humour.
* IndyPloy: He quickly comes up with one to end a battle between Cain's team and attacking Tyranids: the Tyranids are coming out of a mine shaft, so Nelys stuffs a mine cart full of explosives, lights the fuse and shoves it down the shaft on the rails, collapsing the tunnel and killing the synapse creature controlling the Tyranid swarm.
* JabbaTableManners: Cain describes him as trying to stuff an entire salt grox bun into his mouth in one go.
* LeeroyJenkins: Dives out of cover to enact his IndyPloy and nearly gets blasted by Tyranid bio-weapons.
* TookALevelInBadass: Throughout the incursion he gets a bit smarter and tougher.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Cain compliments him when Nelys doubts his instincts in class, pointing out that following them worked on his IndyPloy.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Stebbins]]
A Perlia cadet.
----
* ATeamFiring: Cain describes him as the worst las-pistol shot he's ever met (and notes how distinctive that dubious honor is given all of the chaos cultists and such he's fought).
* AnArmAndALeg: Cain describes one of his hands as a "mangled ruin" after the battle.
* ToiletHumour: Cain observes him pissing on an overheating autocannon to cool it enough to get the weapon firing again, and notes any Tech-Priests who saw it would be mortified.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Heskin]]
One of the Perlia commissar cadets.
----
* HoldTheLine: When being swarmed by Tyranids, he and several local militia troopers manage to hold back the swarm (despite a few losses) [[HopeSpot until Cain and reinforcements arrive]] only for Heskin to die seconds later.
* LetsSplitUpGang: Defied, he knows that doing this near Tyranids is a bad idea.
* OffWithHisHead: One second, he's showing relief at Cain's arrival on his face, the next "all traces of expression vanishes, along with most of his head" due to a cloud of fleshborer beetles.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Maklin]]
A dim-witted Perlia Cadet.
----
* BattleCouple: He quickly seems to be talking and flirting with Monyka, one of Sister Julien's Battle Sister initiates, and both play a role in the remainder of the battle.
* CaptainObvious: To call Maklin's attempts at describing the ruinous powers obvious, generic, and uncomplicated (after he's called on in class) would be understating just how unprepared he sounds.
--> '''Cain:''' Maklin, what do you know about the ruinous powers?
--> '''Maklin:''' That they're really, really bad?
* DistractedByTheSexy: He's repeatedly noted as paying more attention to the Battle Sisters than to Cain.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Frister]]
One of the Perlia Commissar cadets.
----
* BigDamnHeroes: He helps save Cain's life near the end of the battle.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Cain notes him watching a pair of bouncy kitchen maids at one point.
* {{MacGyvering}}: He proposes, but ultimately doesn't use, a strategy involving grenades rigged to a gun barrel.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Briel]]
Another Perlia commissar cadet.
----
* CavalryBetrayal: He dies as a result of one when several guards arrive during a fight at the governor's mansion but turn out to have been corrupted by Varan.
* GotVolunteered: Cain takes him to the governor's mansion along with Kayla, Donal and Nelys "on the entirely reasonable grounds that he'd been the first of the remaining cadets to cross my path after selecting the other three."
* ShellshockedVeteran: He causes Cain some concern by becoming withdrawn after losing two friends in the first engagements.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Klarch]]
----
* NervesOfSteel: He's able to eat calmly during a dangerous sweeping exercise and upon realizing that he's surrounded by Tyranids and doomed, he simply yells into the radio for another cadet at the end of the tunnel to assume defensive positions for when they reach him.
--> '''Cain:'''' The lad would have made a good commissar, probably, still thinking of the bigger picture even as his own life hung by a thread, but he wasn't going to get the chance now.
* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: While searching for tyranids, Cain notes that Klarch is munching on a ration bar from an opened crate found during the search.
* SoundOnlyDeath: Cain hears him give what is described as "his last scream" over the radio right after he yells for Heskin to HoldTheLine.
* StuffBlowingUp: He warns his militia companions to be careful where they shoot due to a lot of explosive material being nearby.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dallory]]
----
* CrazyPrepared: He carries extra weapons due to Cain having said to have a backup plan.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Garvie]]
----
* BloodKnight: Cain thinks that he looks more resigned than anything when given a mission ''away'' from the front lines.
* BoringButPractical: He's assigned to direct crowd control during the final stages of the battle, pointing militia troops in the right direction to go.
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Samier]]
A Tallaran colonel who works with Cain in "Old Soldiers Never Die."
----
* TyphoidMary: He and his men stamp out a plague of unbelief outbreaks on one planet but fail to realize that they have been exposed to it themselves. Their own piety keeps them from losing faith in the Emperor, but the same can't be said for some of the people they inadvertently pass the plague to at their next posting.
[[/folder]]
----
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[[/folder]]
!! The Valhallan 597th
The Guard regiment Cain spends most of his career with, made up of survivors of the Valhallan 296th and 301st, which both suffered massive casualties in a campaign against the Tyranids on Corania. Natives of planet Valhalla, a vicious ice world[[note]]Also a Russian / Scandinavian counterpart culture[[/note]], are real Vikings in all but the name, providing steady reinforcements for the Imperial Guard. They love snow and tanna -- a Valhallan considers it balmy if there's just frost on the windows -- and they hate orks with a ferocious intensity. Most of Cain's commissarial career revolved around serving with Valhallans even though he isn't a native; consequently, he picked up quite a few of their habits (although he never did quite get around to being accustomed to cold showers).
In contrast to the stereotype sometimes shown in the main ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' universe, where Valhallans fight with human-wave tactics reminiscent of the Great Patriotic War at its bloodiest, the Valhallans of the Cain-version of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' are extraordinarily proficient and professional soldiers and almost unmatched in arctic environments.
[[folder:Colonel Regina Kasteen]]
[[quoteright:293:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/regina_kasteen.png]]
Former commander of 296th Valhallan Regiment, now commander of 597th Valhallan Regiment. During the Battle for Corania prior to Cain's arrival, both the all-female 296th and the all-male 301st were decimated in combat against the Tyranids. The two units ended up being amalgamated into a single combined regiment and immediately began going at one another's throats, creating a discipline problem that eventually required High Command to send a commissar. They were lucky to get Cain; any other commissar probably would have [[BadBoss decimated the regiment]] and redesignated the survivors [[CannonFodder a Penal Legion]].
As the 296th had been a rear-echelon regiment for most of its history, the newly-promoted Colonel Kasteen felt an immense need to prove herself to the more experienced veterans of the 301st, particularly her newfound subordinate Major Broklaw (particularly as she got the colonelcy by virtue of three days seniority). She acquitted herself admirably during the 597th's first battle as a unified whole at Gravalax and has since served with distinction.
----
* BraidsOfAction: On the back cover of ''Choose Your Enemies'' she wears her hair in a pair of braids down her back.
* ColonelBadass: She's more than capable of holding her own in a firefight.
* DeskJockey: Holds a bit of a grudge over how she can't kill enemies personally now. When given the chance to butcher heretics on Adumbria, she reacts like a kid in a candy store.
* HandCannon: Favors a bolt pistol as her sidearm.
* MsFanservice: Kasteen is regularly described as an uncommonly good looking woman and finds no shortage of characters who blatantly admire her looks[[note]]Everyone else is more subtle about it [[/note]]. As a native ice-worlder, she also has a habit of undoing the top few buttons of her uniform at any temperature warmer than 'chilly'. Furthermore, there are frequent references to Cain and others [[MaleGaze admiring her (evidently shapely) backside]].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Cain arrives to act as Commissar to the Valhallan regiments, he notes Kasteen is actually ''pleased'' to see him. Since the majority of the Guard regard Commissars with [[TheDreaded terror]], considering the appearance of one usually precipitates a round of executions, this is Cain's first clue he is going to have his work cut out for him with the regiment.
* RedOniBlueOni: With Broklaw; Kasteen is the more passionate and aggressive of the two, fitting the "red ''oni''" personality.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Major Ruput Broklaw]]
Former commander of 301st Valhallan Regiment, now second-in-command of the 597th Valhallan Regiment. During the Battle for Corania prior to Cain's arrival, both the all-male 301st and the all-female 296th were decimated in combat against the Tyranids. The two units ended up being amalgamated into a single combined regiment and immediately began going at one another's throats, creating a discipline problem that eventually required High Command to send a commissar. The 301st had been a frontline combat unit with decades of service and experience; as such, Broklaw initially resented being junior to a relatively green commander like Kasteen, especially since she got promoted to the colonelcy by virtue of three days seniority.
Through Cain's manipulations, however, the pair became FireForgedFriends over the course of the Gravalax Campaign. Broklaw and Kasteen have effectively become the command equivalent of a BattleCouple, functioning more like equals than as commander and subordinate and sharing the regiment's leadership burdens.
----
* FirstNameBasis: Lets a "Regina" slip through to his C.O. on occasion.
* HypercompetentSidekick: In his own mind just after the amalgamation, as he was a front-line soldier and the 296th had been a rear-echelon unit.
* IcyGrayEyes: One of the first indicators of his steely demeanor.
* MajorlyAwesome: Had frontline experience before the [=597th's=] formation as an amalgamated regiment, and puts it to good use in the firefights we see him in.
* PassedOverPromotion: At the time of the amalgamation, he and Kasteen were both Captains. Despite having far more combat experience than his female counterpart, she was chosen for the colonelcy because she had three days seniority in rank over him (which in context meant that it took his superiors three days longer to get eaten by Tyranids than hers did). He resents this for a sizable portion of the first book, but eventually gets over it.
* PercussiveMaintenance: Whenever the hololith malfunctions, he's usually the one to give it a whack if there are no techpriests around.
* RedOniBlueOni: With Kasteen. Broklaw is the colder and more calculating of the two, fitting the "blue ''oni''" personality. He's also brusque and doesn't care overmuch for fools.
* SnarkToSnarkCombat: Engages in this with Kasteen, Cain and on occassion Sulla; initially hostile, but as time goes on, it becomes more good-natured.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Jenit Sulla]]
A former quartermaster officer of Valhallan 296 all-female regiment, she initially hated the merging between 296th and 301st regiments and, by proxy Ciaphas Cain himself, but grew up to respect the new traditions and genuinely admire Cain, seeing him as somewhat a mentor figure. She basically is what Cain is believed to be, perhaps to the extreme. As her patriotic fervor and hastiness verge on LeeroyJenkins levels, all her colleagues view her as something of a liability and predict that she'll either be sidelined or get herself killed in an impetuous charge.
In fact no one guessed correctly, and Sulla's meteoric advance ended with her at the rank of Lady General[[note]]Female version of Lord General[[/note]], the ''highest rank'' in the Imperial military outside of the high command, and the '''only''' Lady General in history of the Imperium.[[note]]Which is contradicted by the existence of a female Lord General in the last ''Literature/SpaceWolf'' novel, but 40k has always had a rather loose approach to canon.[[/note]] She was even popular enough to publish successful memoirs, although Amberley describes them as a "one-woman assault on the Gothic language."
Amusingly, Sulla appears to have taken Cain's public persona at face value, and clearly considered him a mentor at the very least.
----
* AnimalMotifs: If Cain mentions Sulla, there is a better than 75% chance he'll compare her to a horse - both in terms of demeanor (incredibly enthusiastic, to the point of not actually thinking before doing something) and general appearance.
* BloodKnight: She's actually a very good officer, with solid tactics, a can-do attitude, and an inspirational and morale-boosting personality. Unfortunately, in the universe she inhabits, it leads to her and her squads charging blood-crazed genetically engineering killing machines (Orks, Tyranids, Chaos Space Marines...) with flak jackets and a laser gun with a knife on the end of it. [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight And winning.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer:
** Her personality is quirky at best, and she is a lousy writer, but she is an exceptional quartermaster, she is very responsible, and going from a simple enlisted soldier without connections to Lady General means her tactics must have eventually evolved way beyond screaming and charging.
** Her skills as a quartermaster really shine in ''The Last Ditch'', where she completely decimates the local planet's Administratum to gain access to some orbital shuttles that were 'overlooked'. Cain tagged along to try and add his weight to the discussion, but readily admits he ended up just watching Sulla bowl over the bureaucratic interference like [[HoldYourHippogriffs a Baneblade through a horde of Gretchin]].
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Shortly after Cain's arrival, [[spoiler: a riot breaks out between the 296th and 301st that leaves three people dead, fourteen in the infirmary and a multitude of troopers facing disciplinary charges up to and including murder. When Cain investigates what happened, he is somewhat incredulous to find Sulla ordered the evening's meal to be served on the 296th's regimental crockery on account of the fact it was the anniversary of the regiment's founding, clearly not taking into account, as Cain points out, the 301st would probably interpret it as an insult]].
* GiftedlyBad: Aforementioned memoirs contain [[PurpleProse insanely overcomplicated and frilly language]] to the point of being [[StylisticSuck utterly unreadable]], and [[RunningGag Amberly keeps apologizing about including it]].
** To describe how bad it is, it takes her 4 pages plus, to go over a routine patrol where nothing apparently interesting happened. And a single guard shift.
* {{Gonk}}: According to Cain, she looks like an excitable horse.
* IgnoredEnamoredUnderling: Downplayed in that it's only platonic, but it's clear from the excerpts from Sulla's memoirs that she has a major case of hero worship for Cain... while at the same time, it's clear from ''his'' accounts that he regards her as both a pain in the ass at times and a rash commander (though he does grow to appreciate her talents as the series unfolds).
** From his accounts you can see why she thinks so highly of him. Despite his private opinions what he actually ''says'' to her is all praise and encouragement, and he endorses her for promotion multiple times.
** In ''Choose Your Enemies'' Amberly outright wonders in a footnote if Sulla constantly gushing about Cain's "noble bearing" is indicative of a crush on him.
* AMotherToHerMen: Sulla's intense pride and faith in her soldiers shines through her horrifically purple prose, and probably explains her popularity with same. Cain notes that while her units tend to sustain slightly higher casualties than average,[[note]]for the 597th, which admittedly usually takes much ''lower'' casualties than Guard units often do[[/note]] they also have even higher morale.
* SarcasmBlind: With Cain, repeatedly, such as in the second book failing to pick up that him saying "Of course it was Sulla" when her squad locates him was not a compliment.
* {{Tsundere}}: Sulla initially disliked Cain rather strongly, but quickly shifted to inordinately gushing hero-worship verging on a crush.
* UpThroughTheRanks: {{Exaggerated|Trope}}. Started as an enlisted quartermaster, and makes it to first lieutenant, then captain and major on-screen. Off-screen, she became the only Lady General in the Imperium's history.
* VerbalTic: In her memoirs, she tends to refer to the "women and men" instead of the more traditional "men and women".
* WhatWouldXDo: Asks herself this about Cain.
-->'''Cain:''' And then did the opposite, I hope.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:"Jinxie" Penlan]]
A sergeant in the Valhallan 597th, Penlan is noted for being very accident-prone, leading to her nickname "Jinxie".
----
* CursedWithAwesome: She causes accidents through her clumsiness every time she's mentioned. They all work out in her favour though, so it's something to laugh about. Also, her squad have heightened morale, as they trust her to be the resident WeirdnessMagnet.
* CuteClumsyGirl: She's quite accident-prone, but the fact that it generally works to her squad's advantage has made her into something of a combination mascot / good luck charm.
* EatingTheEyeCandy: In ''The Traitor's Hand'' she was almost jealous of a picture of Slaaneshi artwork in a sexual position she thought impossible. Cain assured her it wasn't possible, and that even if it was [[AndThatsTerrible it would be against regulations]].
* {{Flanderization}}: An interesting example, combined with AscendedExtra. In the first book, she doesn't even get any lines, simply being the one trooper who got shot in a battle. A couple of books later, her natural weird luck is her ONLY trait.
* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: In ''The Last Ditch'' she hits a heavy weapon with the butt of her lasgun, causing said lasgun to discharge. Fortunately, it hit an Ork pilot... who then crashes, resulting in an utterly beneficial set of DisasterDominoes. She was ''sure'' she had the safety on...
* TheJinx: It's in her nickname. She's always either causing accidents or getting herself stuck in sticky situations. Fortunately, it generally works out for her and her squad.
* LethalKlutz: Although fortunately for her and her squadmates, she hasn't caused any friendly fire incidents this way -- the only things killed in such incidents tend to be things the Valhallans are trying to kill in the first place.
* SergeantRock: It's sometimes lost under the focus her reputation for being a klutz gets, but she's an effective leader in her own fashion.
* UnluckilyLucky:
** Her clumsiness always causes problems, but they always end up working in her and her companions' favor. This actually improves her squad's morale since they trust her to be resident WeirdnessMagnet.
--->'''Cain:''' She's not nearly as accident-prone as she's supposed to be. I'll grant you she fell down an ambull tunnel once, and there was that incident with the frag grenade and the latrine trench, but things tend to work out for her. The orks on Kastafore was as surprised as she was when the floor in the factory collapsed, and we'd have walked into right into that hrud ambush on Skweki if she hadn't triggered the mine by chucking an empty food tin away...
** It's about this point Cain shuts up, finally listening to [[NotHelpingYourCase the words coming out of his own mouth]].
** In her EstablishingCharacterMoment in "Caves of Ice"? She falls down an Ambull tunnel, thereby discovering the Ambull, and basically causing most of the entire novel's plot to happen.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lustig]]
A competent and professional sergeant in Sulla's platoon, and one that Cain often relies on when he needs someone for more delicate or dangerous missions.
----
* ConsummateProfessional: He's unflappable in battle and quick to follow orders, something Cain likes.
* FieldPromotion: Is bumped up to Lieutenant when Sulla is given a brevet Captaincy.
* {{Irony}}: Lustig was one of those "I work for a living" Guardsmen who disdained officers. His field promotion's irony was not lost on Cain.
* ThePerilsOfBeingTheBest: Cain, Kasteen and Broklaw note the irony that Lustig would be content to be a SergeantRock for the entirety of his career, and will probably have to be ''ordered'' to accept the officer's commission he is so manifestly fit for.
* TheReliableOne: In every regiment he joins, Cain builds a small unofficial collection of soldiers and non-coms who can be relied upon in tough situations - i.e., most likely to help him survive and least likely to [[UnfriendlyFire "accidentally" shoot him in the back]] - and makes a favorite of Lustig almost immediately.
* SergeantRock: For most of the series he's a battle-hardened non-com who looks out for his squad.
* UpThroughTheRanks: After many years as a non-com, Lustig gets an unexpected field promotion due to a sudden vacancy in the lieutenant rank above him, and his obvious leadership abilities.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Captain Shambas]]
A Sentinel Pilot and scout commander. He's a highly skilled Sentinel pilot and like most other pilots has an independent streak a mile wide.
----
* TheDriver: Sometimes ferries Cain and Jurgen in the middle of battle.
* MilitaryMaverick: Sentinel pilots are noted as being rather independently minded compared to most soldiers, and Shambas (and his subordinates) are no exception. It makes some sense however, as scouts and fast attack units, they have to be confident in themselves and their judgement, and ready to exercise it at a moment's notice.
* NiceGuy: Polite and appropriately grateful to Cain.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sergeant Welard]]
Leader of a stormtrooper squad Cain takes to try to close the Necron portal.
----
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: More specifically, he (and most of the rest of his unit for that matter) go mad from exposure to Necron Pariahs and their Blank-like aura of unnaturalness.
* JumpedAtTheCall: He volunteers when Cain asks for men to do what might be a suicide mission.
* OffWithHisHead: A Necron pariah beheads him.
* PunnyName: His name could be read with a pause in the middle, as in "Well 'ard" - something you'd expect a Stormtrooper Sergeant (and an Ork) to be. Shame it doesn't help against the Pariah's aura of terror.
* TrueCompanions: Subverted, as he and his Squad, who were raised as a unit in the Schola Progena, work well together but are indifferent to the deaths of any companions.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sergeant Tobias Kelp]]
A sergeant assigned to penal duty for his role in a fatal barfight.
----
* ExactWords: Kelp says he'll shoot Cain if he tries to make a move. [[spoiler:So Cain just orders Jurgen to shoot Kelp instead. As Jurgen uses the melta, this ends about exactly as you'd expect.]]
* {{Jerkass}}: Kelp resents the regiment's problem with being integrated, provoking a fight with Sgt. Trebek as a result, leading to the deaths of three people. He is also the only one of the five people sentenced to penal duty to turn on Cain rather than seek redemption. This doesn't end well for him.
* LudicrousGibs: Reduced to this [[spoiler: after taking a shot from a melta gun at point blank range]]. Trebek is later found scraping a piece of his vaporized body off her boot.
* TooDumbToLive: If Kelp had any sense in deserting, he would have shot Cain immediately and ended it on the spot, or simply made a run for it and never looked back. Instead, he gloats and postures once Amberly and the rest of the squad find him. And then he gapes when Jurgen obeys the order to shoot him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sergeant Bella Trebek]]
The non-com provoked into fighting with Kelp, who shares his punishment.
----
* ActionGirl: She's a competent, and dedicated fighter.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: She gets shot just as Cain is marveling at her performance and regretting his earlier concerns that she was untrustworthy.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Maxim Sorel]]
A sniper with the newly formed regiment who winds up stabbing one of the provosts fatally during the mess hall brawl.
----
* BoomHeadshot: He's a sniper, it's his job. [[spoiler:It's also the way he goes out, as he survives the expedition into the tunnels only to catch a bolter round from Governor Grice with his face moments before the final confrontation.]]
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: {{Discussed}}: of the group of ex-Guardsmen on the suicide mission, Cain assumes based on his behavior that Sorel is likely to be the one who turns on him. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}}: Kelp does that, whereas Sorel remains loyal until his sudden death.]]
* ColdSniper: A textbook example, but not completely emotionless; Cain goes out of his way to get Sorel's [[ICallItVera original weapon]] returned to him for the mission, knowing how Sorel would have carefully tweaked and customized it to suit his preferences, and Sorel clearly respects the gesture.
* SociopathicHero: In Cain's own words, Sorel had killed one of the provosts during the fight simply because he hadn't seen a reason ''not'' to. He's also the first to very casually suggest WhyDontYouJustShootHim to the others (and casually calls them all out for not at least being honest about it in the process), though he [[KnowWhenToFoldThem gracefully concedes to Amberley]] that very few people succeed in outrunning the Inquisition.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Tomas Holenbi]]
A medical orderly who kills a Naval provost during the fight Kelp and Trebek starts, and also gets penal legion/suicide mission duty instead of a death sentence.
----
* AccidentalMurder: Holenbi kills one of the provosts in the mess hall fight by slashing their throat with a shattered plate in the heat of the moment.
* AintTooProudToBeg: He's rattled and frightened during his trial and seems genuinely remorseful for having killed someone - especially given his career.
* BattleCouple: With Velade. They developed feelings for each other whilst incarcerated and fight back-to-back later on.
* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Cain shoots him in the head when he realises Holenbi was [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong infected by Genestealers]] when he and Velade got separated from the group]].
* CombatMedic: He treats wounds in the middle of battle and on the front lines.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Trooper Griselda Velade]]
The fifth and final trooper sent to the penal legions over the bar fight caused by Trebek and Kelp.
----
* AccidentalMurder: Killed another trooper by crushing their larynx; she claims it was only meant to be an incapacitating blow.
* BattleCouple: With Holenbi during the suicide mission after they get closer while confined in adjoining cells.
* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Like Holenbi, Cain shoots her in the head when he realises she's been [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong infected by Genestealers]] when they got separated]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Captain Detoi]]
A minor, recurring company commander featured throughout ''The Traitors Hand''. Notably saddled with being Sulla's superior, which puts something of a damper on Cain's appreciation for his competence.
----
* ConsummateProfessional: Cain describes him as crisp while other officers are cheery, although he is occasionally NotSoStoic.
* MrExposition: HE Briefs Cain about the conditions they're entering and some landmarks.
* NiceToTheWaiter: He is noted as being one of the few officers in the regiment who treats the smelly, low-ranking Jurgen with respect and also speaks of Sulla in a fond and amused tone.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Chaplain Tope]]
The Valhallans' chaplain, who appears in a few scenes of ''The Last Ditch.''
----
* BadassPreacher: Tope is the chaplain for a frontline combat unit and bravely charges forward to exorcise a dangerous daemon that has possessed one of the freighter's bridge-servitors.
* DueToTheDead: Cain sees Tope performing last rites for several dying soldiers after a spaceship crash.
* NoIndoorVoice: Cain describes him as having a loud voice capable of reaching the back of a chapel without the help of any audio equipment.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Captain Federer]]
The commander of the Valhallans' combat engineers.
----
* DemolitionsExpert: Federer is an explosives expert who, despite moments of smugness and pyromania, is fairly ingenious and reliable at his job.
* {{Pyromaniac}}: Federer is primarily called upon when Cain and Kasteen need something blown up and shows "unseemly enthusiasm" about his job.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Voss]]
A minor recurring platoon leader.
----
* PerpetualSmiler: His only notable trait is that he's always bright and cheerful, regardless of the circumstances.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Jek and Paola]]
Two Sentinel pilots who briefly appear in ''Traitors Hand.''
----
* NoodleIncident: Cain knows Paola's name because she has appeared before him on disciplinary matters, but the details aren't elaborated on.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Albrin]]
A corporal who briefly comes to Cain's attention during the Adumbria campaign.
----
* BadassBookworm: He is a quartermaster's clerk who nonetheless gets into fights on leave and successfully leads the defense of an area in battle through ambush and fortification tactics.
[[/folder]]
!!!Grifen's squad
The soldiers of Grifen's squad are a mixed squad of the Valhallan 597th. They include Sergeant Grifen, Corporal Mari Magot, Janny Drere, and Vorhees. Cain gained respect for them after the events of Simla Orichalcae: Grifen and Magot managed to survive where ''hardened stormtroopers'' did not.
[[folder:Sergeant Grifen]]
A squad leader in the 597th. Implied to be in a relationship with Magot.
----
* BattleCouple: Implied between Grifen and Magot.
* RedOniBlueOni: Grifen is blue.
* RankUp: She's made Lieutenant by the time of ''Choose Your Enemies'', opening up her former spot for Magot.
* SergeantRock: Thanks to her leadership, her squad is consistently one of the toughest and most successful in the regiment.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Cain. [[spoiler:In ''The Traitor's Hand'', she stares down another Commissar trying to arrest Cain on (fraudulent) charges of desertion, making it plain the other officer will have to go through her and her squad to get him, even when the Commissar lines up a headshot]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Corporal Mari Magot]]
A member of Grifen's squad, and implied girlfriend.
----
* BattleCouple: Implied with Sergeant Grifen.
* BerserkButton: Let's just say she has a few, but threatening Grifen is a big one. Sexism seems to be another big one: When a Tallarn squad refuses to participate in an athletic competition because the Valhallan 597th team has women on it, she tracks down the squad leader responsible and thrashes him. To quote Cain: "Knowing Magot, she undoubtedly threw the first punch. And probably the next couple too."
* BloodKnight: She relishes any chance she gets for a good fight.
* CampingACrapper: In ''Caves of Ice'', grabs the chance to kill an ork that's in the middle of a latrine stop.
* CurbStompBattle: In ''The Traitor's Hand'', while en route to their warzone, the Tallarn 229th, one of the regiments the 597th are travelling with, having a [[StayInTheKitchen somewhat conservative attitude to regiments including women]] refuse to take part in an inter-regimental competition in unarmed combat as the 597th included women in their team, considering it unseemly. In Cain's [[PassThePopcorn clearly amused]] words, the next time the 229th's regimental champion in hand-to-hand combat entered the transport ship's recreational area, Magot promptly pounced on him and subjected him to an "impromptu bout" in which she pounded him flat, despite the fact she only came up to the trooper's chin--which wasn't an issue, as it only took her a twelfth of a second to bring it down to the level of her knee.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Remarked as being the only other driver in the regiment that's comparable to Jurgen. Cain can recognize when she's behind the wheel, even when he's not inside the vehicle. The following exchange takes place after a Chimera roars into a crowd of refugees and [[CarFu runs over a Tyranid Lictor]], with Magot sounding vaguely puzzled.
--> '''Cain''': Nice driving, Magot.\\
'''Magot''': You're welcome, commissar. How did you know it was me?\\
'''Cain''': Lucky guess.
* FieryRedHead: She has bright red hair, and her... exuberant personality definitely lives up to the fiery aspect -- as does her kill count.
* NervesOfSteel: Although she briefly suffers a nervous breakdown in ''Caves of Ice'' [[spoiler:after being caught in a Necron tomb]], Cain notes in ''The Traitor's Hand'' that she's emerged from that ordeal more or less normal, and that makes her a rare soldier indeed.
* NoKillLikeOverkill: Cain notes that to Magot, the word "overkill" is inherently meaningless.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The typically fearless and confrontational Magot [[HeroicBSOD does not take her first encounter with Necrons and their brutality well]]. Luckily, Grifen and Cain are able to keep their senses better and are able to pull her out of her frenzy.
* PetTheDog: Cain gives her a bit of a pep talk to get her moving and provide some encouragement when Magot appears to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown [[spoiler: in the middle of a Necron tomb]].
* PsychoLesbian: A somewhat benevolent version, as most of her lethal instincts are channeled into fighting enemies of the Imperium.
* RankUp: With Grifen promoted to Lieutenant in ''Choose Your Enemies,'' Magot serves as her platoon sergeant.
* RedOniBlueOni: Very, very red with Grifen's blue.
* TheReliableOne: In every regiment he joins, Cain builds a small unofficial collection of soldiers and non-coms who can be relied upon in tough situations - i.e., most likely to help him survive and least likely to [[UnfriendlyFire "accidentally" shoot him in the back]]. He adds Magot to this collection after ''Caves of Ice'' in spite of her occasional disciplinary problems, because in his judgment, anyone who can pass through [[spoiler:a Necron tomb]] without being rendered permanently catatonic is a soldier the Guard should hang on to.
* SergeantRock: She's made sergeant in ''Choose Your Enemies'' and while we don't really get to see her in action, we can't imagine her ''possibly'' being any other kind.
* SociopathicSoldier: Cain describes Magot as "a cheerfully sociopathic young woman" who would probably have caused the civilian authorities plenty of trouble if the Imperial Guard hadn't channeled her energy towards the enemy.
* TradingBarsForStripes: Cain strongly suspects that this trope is how Magot got into the Guard in the first place.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Janny Drere]]
!! Janny Drere
A member of the squad injured by an ambull attack during ''Caves of Ice'', saved by Cain's decision to send some soldiers back with her. She was implanted with augmetic lungs due to her injuries. In a relationship with her squadmate Vorhees.
----
* BattleCouple: With Vorhees. The two are boyfriend and girlfriend and fight in the same squad, coming out alive together during some of Cain's more harrowing adventures.
* {{Cyborg}}: After needing an augmetic lung.
* VaderBreath: Her artificial lungs can be heard making a soft rhythmic clicking sound when she speaks.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Understandably nervous about the prospect of ambulls, given the injuries they inflicted on her.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Vorhees]]
!! Vorhees
Drere's boyfriend and fellow squad member, he is extremely loyal to Cain for saving his girlfriend's life.
----
* BattleCouple: With Drere. The two are boyfriend and girlfriend and fight in the same squad, coming out alive together during some of Cain's more harrowing adventures.
* BerserkButton: Don't threaten Janny when he's around.
* ScreamingWarrior: Cain mentions that there was angry roaring going on when Drere was injured but doesn't specify if it was Vorhees or the ambull. Amberly allows that "either or both" seemed reasonable.
%%* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He's just as nervous around ambulls as Janny is.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Simla]]
A member of the squad in ''Caves of Ice'' who ventures into the tunnels with Cain.
----
* BattleTrophy: He's seen trying to cut off a fallen Ork's head to take back home.
* BearerOfBadNews: Due to being on point a lot he repeatedly calls out unwelcome news of approaching orks or dead bodies encountered.
* MadeOfIron: He struggles to take aim at the orks and keep shooting even after being shot multiple times.
* MauveShirt: He's a decent presence for multiple chapters before being the last member of the squad to die in the book.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Hail]]
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Her darker skin tone causes Amberley to wonder if at least one of her ancestors immigrated to Valhalla from elsewhere.
* ConsummateProfessional: She's frequently noted as being nervous but professional and efficient.
* DoNotGoGentle: After being wounded in the arm, Hail charges forward, shooting one-handed, and manages to take out an Ork before being torn apart.
* StealthExpert: Her skin tone lets her blend in better against cavern walls and shadows, and she's a stealthy and effective rear guard.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lunt]]
----
* BigGuyFatalitySyndrome: He is probably the burliest member of his squad and easily pulls Cain up to the top of a rock formation after reaching down to grab his arm. [[spoiler:He is also the first named active-duty member of the regiment (not counting some who were court-martialled out and sent on a suicide mission) to die in the series]].
* DueToTheDead: Poignantly subverted when [[spoiler:Cain and the squad want to bring his body home for burial but have to reluctantly burn it so the Necrons won't know there are humans nearby.]]
* FireBreathingWeapon: Lunt is Grifen's flamethrower-operator.
* SecretMessageWink: After telling a Tech-Priest a story about his grandfather being attacked by an Ork frozen in a glacier after thawing it out, Lunt winks at Cain to show that he's just trying to silence their observer's unreasonable arguments.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Karta]]
* BringNewsBack: In ''Caves of Ice'' Cain assigns him to take two wounded troopers and some escorts back to base with the news that Orks are definitely in the tunnels.
* NumberTwo: Is Grifen's Assistant Squad Leader and commands the second team when the squad splits in two.
* SergeantRock: Is promoted to Sergeant just before ''The Traitor's Hand''.
[[/folder]]
!!Other Imperial Guard Personnel
Members of the Imperial Guard outside of the Valhallans, including some of Cain's fellow Commissars.
[[folder:Toren Divas]]
Lieutenant (later Major) of the Valhallan 12th Artillery Regiment, and the closest thing Cain has ever had to a best friend. Overly aggressive and rash, but reliable and decent despite that. A big drinker and rumormonger, providing Cain with useful gossip, but also... well, let's face it, he's not very bright.
----
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Cain thinks Toren is rather an idiot but acknowledges that he's an expert with his artillery.
* {{Foil}}: Divas is ''very'' enthusiastic about engaging the enemy personally and thus hates the artillery because it shoots everything from miles away... which is why Cain joined it at the first place.
* LeeroyJenkins: A big fan of charging the enemy head-on.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: He always finds some way to get Cain in trouble (accidentally getting him stuck on the wrong side of some doors or nearly getting him beaten to death by angry Tau sympathizers for example) without meaning to.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Cain's best friend he may be, but that doesn't mean the descriptions of him are too flattering.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Colonel Mostrue]]
Commanding officer of the Valhallan 12th Artillery Regiment, Mostrue is implied to have never fully bought into Cain's reputation as a hero, suspecting (quite rightly) that Cain's first act of 'heroism' with the regiment was really an attempt to desert and has reputedly tried to catch Cain out in similar circumstances.
----
* BadBoss: Cain notes Mostrue was always a little too eager to call in artillery strikes on his position when required.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: He never openly calls Cain out on what really happened on Desolatia, but makes his suspicions plain in his demeanor.
* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: A variation; Cain notes that in the years after Desolatia, Mostrue always made sure to volunteer Cain for suicide missions and the like, hoping Cain would balk at the prospect and show his true colours.
* ProperlyParanoid: In regard to Cain's fraudulent reputation, certainly.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: For all his distrust of Cain's reputation, Mostrue has no problem following Cain's military instinct.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lord General Zyvan]]
A Lord General of the Imperial Guard who oversaw operations in which the 597th served on Gravalax, Adumbria, and Periremunda, and also commanded the Guard on Quadravidia and Fecundia in ''The Greater Good''. He appreciated Cain's tactical insight and highly regarded him, to the point that Amberley often inserts footnotes pointing this out whenever Cain implies something to the contrary.
----
* BerserkButton: Zyvan ''really'' doesn't like being jerked around or not given vital information, whether it's by the Administratum, the Adeptus Mechanicus, or anyone else. Fortunately, in the cases where it could be really dire Cain is usually around to be the voice of reason.
* TheBrigadier: Commands an Imperial Guard task force that, for a time, includes the Valhallan [=597th=]. He often defers to Cain's judgment on important matters, and not merely because he's a Commissar; Zyvan seems to have a genuine appreciation for Cain's apparent talents - a rarity, given most Commissars are seen as a nuisance ''at best''.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: Cain often notes that he and Zyvan hit it off and became friends because Cain, being a commissar and thus not part of the normal Guard command structure, is the only person around whom Lord General can just be himself.
* AFatherToHisMen: Noted as having a genuine concern about the troops under his command.
* NoNameGiven: Zyvan's around for more than half the series but Ciaphas never does tell us what his first name is.
* NotSoStoic: Tries to be serious and professional, most of the time, but Cain occasionally manages to coax a little wry humour or TheGadfly esque moments out of Zyvan; in one instance Cain shamelessly compliments the cooking skills of Zyvan's chef and takes an opportunity to grab some more food when Zyvan offers, and in turn asks anyone else at the table if they'd like anything whilst he's up. Zyvan notably declines the offer, only to send one of his aides to go get him some coffee just after Cain has sat down again.
* PragmaticHero:
** In ''For the Emperor'', the Tau Empire has an entrenched diplomatic presence and security forces on Gravalax and is making inroads with the populace. You'd expect a Lord General Militant of the Imperial Guard to want them gone at whatever cost, but Zyvan states point-blank during a briefing that the planet isn't worth getting into a shooting war with the xenos.
** In ''The Traitor's Hand'', he chews out Tallarn 227th Colonel Asmar and Commissar Tomas Beije for excessive zeal, namely burning down a Slaaneshi cult site before it could be investigated for information about the cult's intentions.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: In contrast to the frequent portrayal of Imperial Guard flag officers as {{General Failure}}s, {{Insane Admiral}}s, and/or {{General Ripper}}s, Zyvan pays close attention to his subordinates' input and makes an effort not to risk their lives needlessly.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Subverted; despite his immense strategic skill, Cain always beats him in their Regicide games. Cain muses that Zyvan just can't properly shrink his focus to properly play such a simple game when he's used to dealing with the immense complexity of modern battlefields.
* SupremeChef: Well, his staff chef is, anyway; Cain is taken enough by the chef's skills to the point that he's loathe to do anything to sour his relationship with Zyvan simply because he'd lose access to said chef.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Tomas Beije]]
A fellow cadet at the Schola Progenium which Cain studied at. He is Commissar to the Tallarn 227th regiment. He and Cain are none too fond; Beije can't believe someone so flippant and blasé as Cain could do half the things he has, while Cain considers Beije a sanctimonious Emperor-bother and a monumental pain in the ass.
----
* CruelMercy: After he finds himself being investigated on charges of gross incompetence for interfering with Cain's mission, Cain mentions that he intends to pull some strings to get Beije off the hook... in part because he knows that Beije will find being in Cain's debt absolutely intolerable.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: [[spoiler:Deriding Kasteen as a "petticoat colonel" only to then realize he said that in front of a squad of ''extremely'' pissed off Valhallans from her regiment who are already looking for an excuse to shoot him]].
* FatBastard: Though it's not elaborated upon exactly, Beije is repeatedly described as "pudgy" as well as having great difficulty keeping up when everyone is double-timing, leading one to believe that he is essentially an evil, twisted version of [[Series/HogansHeroes Sergeant Schultz]].
* GreenEyedMonster: Towards Cain. Beije sees the honors and glory piled onto his old classmate, who seems to still be the irresponsible layabout he was in schola. Not only that, but Cain seems surrounded by an AmazonBrigade which is full of "special exceptions" to normal discipline, leading Beije to believe that his old rival is sleeping with them. Eventually, it becomes too much for the conservative jackass, and he accuses Cain of cowardice and desertion. This ends about as well as you'd expect...
* HumiliationConga: ''Dear God.'' First, he comes to arrest Cain for cowardice and desertion, only to find out Cain has his hands full trying to prevent a daemonic summoning. Then a (male) cultist kisses him as he tries to interrogate them. ''Then'' it turns out Cain was ''right'', and is perfectly willing to talk back to a Greater Daemon, which only serves to instill awe and reverence in the Tallarns with him. Then Cain defeats the daemon (Beije getting attacked in the process), earning the admiration and respect of the Emperor-botherers Beije had brought with him, undermining his authority further. Then, once Cain is put on trial, the jury not only clears Cain of all charges, but starts looking into charges of incompetence for Beije. And when they're out of the courtroom, Cain reminds Beije that they still have a duel to fight (Beije having referred to Kasteen as a "petticoat colonel"), so Beije is forced to hastily apologize to her. And finally (assuming he wasn't executed or transferred elsewhere), the Tallarns he was with have started a splinter cult ''worshiping'' Cain as the Emperor's will made manifest after the earlier encounter with the Greater Daemon.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Another amusing contrast to Cain. Whereas the latter can OneHitKill virtually anything with his laspistol, Beije couldn't hit a Titan if he were seated in the cockpit. This is best shown during the final fight with [[spoiler:Daemon Princess Emeli]] where, in spite of [[spoiler:her]] very large size (as in [[spoiler:she]] dwarfed a pair of Chaos Space Marines), he was only able to strike a glancing blow after firing a dozen or so shots.
* KnightTemplar: He's the model of the strict, uncompromising "ideal" Commissar. This leads to the LawfulStupid below.
* LaserGuidedKarma: His attempt to arrest Cain on charges of desertion and cowardice gets ''him'' charged with gross incompetence for interfering with Cain's mission by the Commissariat tribunal he called to charge Cain (with the quite high probability of facing a firing squad). Cain said he'd pull a few strings to help him out.
* LawfulStupid:
** Burned down a Chaos cult's ritual site before the Imperial Guard could investigate it and learn anything. Lord General Zyvan was ''not'' pleased.
** Also attempted to torture information out of a cultist. Someone who worships Slaanesh. The God of Pleasure. Whose followers take pleasure from doing literally ''anything,'' including having their own limbs chopped off. As is pointed out in the text, torturing masochists is [[TooKinkyToTorture at best counterproductive]].
* MyEyesAreUpHere: Cain mentions this regarding Beije and Kasteen's first meeting, when Cain gleefully asks if Beije forgot to how to read shoulder insignias, he notes that given Kasteen's uniform ''really'' emphasizes her figure, perhaps Beije didn't look that high.
* PetTheDog: He allows for extenuating circumstances when disciplining one of his men for getting into a fight with Magot (although that could just be to show his disfavor toward the Valhallans) and, judging by the way he addresses a pair of random Tallaran troopers by name in the climax, seems to make some effort to know the men he's assigned to.
* ReassignmentBackfire: Invoked; Cain notes that whoever in the Munitorum assigned Beije to the Tallarn 229th made a wise choice in dumping him with a bunch ''of Emperor botherers as pious and humorless as him' as opposed to another Guard regiment where his attitude would have made Beije a friendly-fire accident just waiting to happen.
* TheResenter: To Cain. And '''how'''. He's EXTREMELY jealous of Cain, because back at the Schola, Cain was... essentially, the same as he is now, but less restrained and probably still [[ReallyGetsAround really getting around]]. Cain became a '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM''', being in frequent contact with a Lord General Militant, having constant praises and honors heaped on him, while by contrast Beije was stuck on Tallarn, with nowhere near a fraction of Cain's glory.
* TheRival: To Cain.
* ShoutOut: His name may be a reference to Tom Brown, the protagonist of the ''Literature/TomBrownsSchooldays'' series, where Flashman originally appeared.
* StayInTheKitchen: Like the regiment he serves with, Beije has somewhat conservative views about Guard regiments that include women. He practically blows up when he learns Kasteen is the 597th's CO.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Colonel Asmar]]
The Commander of the Tallarn 227th. He's very uptight.
----
* KnightTemplar: The Tallarn are a notoriously devout regiment, and Asmar is no exception.
* LawfulStupid: Just like Beije he's too much of a rule stickler and zealot.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Even stoic Asmar is genuinely horrified by what his men find in the agricultural center's lab. [[spoiler:Slaanesh will do that to you.]]
* SeriousBusiness: Everything he does. Notably, this extends towards those parts of his job that demand his interaction with Cain, so he doesn't dismiss Cain out of hand like Beije does. He just dislikes Cain, he doesn't disrespect him.
* StayInTheKitchen: His attitude toward women is not very open, which is part of his problem with the Valhallan 597th.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Commissar Forres]]
The regimental Commissar assigned to the newly founded Nusquan 1st Regiment of the Imperial Guard and, being fresh out of the schola, Forres is everything Cain isn't: gung-ho, by the book, and indifferent to extensive casualties. Cain finds his second tour on Nusquam Fundumentibus divided between saving the planet from alien invasion and trying to stop Forres and her troopers from getting themselves killed.
----
* ActionGirl: She leads from the front like a "proper" Commissar and manages to hold her own against 'Nids.
* AttackAttackAttack: Her initial view of how an Imperial Guard regiment should operate. Exposure to Cain and the 597th rapidly cures her of it.
* CharacterDevelopment: Unlike Beije, who mainly comes away from his encounter with Cain with [[BreakTheHaughty a collection of humiliations and traumas]], Forres starts her book as the Commissar equivalent of NewMeat but learns from Cain's example that there's a lot more to fighting for the Emperor than charging the enemy and shooting the slowest man into the fray, coming away from the experience a better officer for it.
* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: [[spoiler: Lambasts the Valhallans for electrocuting the floor of the room she and her regiment were in, even though it wiped out the Tyranids trying to eat them. Magot's reaction is essentially this]].
-->'''Magot''': [[spoiler: No "thanks for saving us from being 'nid bait", then. Snotty fem-hound]].
* DidntThinkThisThrough: After the above example, [[spoiler: Forres cuts the power to the electricity by blasting the circuit box with her bolt pistol... killing ''all'' power in the room]].
** When it turns out [[spoiler: there are Tyranids on Nusquam Fundumentibus, Forres suggests trying to put the 'nids against the Orks they are already dealing with to make the Imperials' job easier. Kasteen, Broklaw and Cain all shoot down that idea immediately]].
* DefrostingIceQueen: Seems blunt and tactless at first but becomes more friendly and tactically savvy as the book goes on.
* {{Deconstruction}}: of the stereotypical "The first one to retreat gets a bolt to the head" type of Commissar so often seen in the Imperium. Her forces only start doing better when they use techniques that aren't massed infantry charges and other suitably Hollywood-esque tactics the Imperium seems to love, and Cain openly shows disdain for the Bolt Pistol she uses- widely popular with the Commissariat for its power and intimidation, but in a battlefield, the humble laspistol is more rugged, lighter, carries more ammo, and is more likely to help you survive.
* HandCannon: Favours a bolt pistol, like many Commissars for its intimidation factor.
* HeroWorship: Of Cain, as to be expected. She even outright says that the tutors at her schola held Cain up as the ideal to aspire to. Interestingly, she resents this, saying that she disapproved of it, and she ignores Cain's advice right up until it nearly gets her killed. She calms down a bit after that.
* KnowWhenToFoldThem: When Jurgen mentions that the last time another Commissar called Kasteen's competence into question, Cain challenged them to a duel, Forres takes one look at his well-used chainsword and withdraws her remark.
* LeeroyJenkins: To be expected from a commissar fresh out of the schola. Cain gets the worst of it out of her by the end of the novel.
* NoSocialSkills: Forres does not do a good job of endearing herself to the 597th. Judging by the reactions of her own regiment's officers whenever Kasteen, Broklaw or Cain takes her down a peg, Cain notes she's probably not very popular there.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Initially between Forres and the 597th, particularly with Kasteen.
* WeHaveReserves: Her idea on how to beat Orks is to charge them in close combat. It takes Cain and Kasteen pointing out that her regiment's casualty figures are ''three'' times higher than the 597th's to convince her to try something new (i.e., actual tactics)
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Erhlsen]]
A Gunner in Mostrue's unit. He's convinced that saving the Commissar's life during the first encounter is keeping him from suffering any more severe punishments, and Cain seems disinclined to disabuse him of this utterly false idea.
----
* AndroclesLion: He saves Cain's life in the first short story soon after Cain giving him a mild punishment in his first disciplinary hearing.
* BloodKnight: Erhlsen is repeatedly described as being happy and nonchalant amidst intense battles.
* DeadpanSnarker: Cain wonders if Erhlsen intends to make latrine duty his full-time job. The Gunner simply fires off a platitude about serving the Emperor as their talents direct.
* MildlyMilitary: He's constantly being disciplined for drinking and such and takes being demoted and reprimanded in stride.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sautine]]
A Perlian Leman Russ commander who ends up joining the convoy shortly after the refugees leave an old arms depot in ''Death or Glory''.
----
* ActionGirl: Sautine is a skilled tank commander, a good Laspistol shot, and a great asset to Cain's convoy.
* NoseArt: On her ''tank'', specifically, a badge of a red fox wearing Guard flak armour. Apparently, her (all-female) tank unit was called the 'Vixens'.
* TheStoic: Described as sounding "infuriatingly calm" and matter-of-fact in combat. Staying cool is important as a tank commander, after all.
* TankGoodness: Commands a tank which joins Cain's forces.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Nordstorm]]
A hell-raiser in Mostrue's unit.
----
* ManchurianAgent: He turns out to have been taken over by the broodmind.
* WhatDidIDoLastNight: He's introduced seemingly hung over and incoherent. Anyone with half a brain can easily figure out that he was implanted by the broodmind at the brothel, though.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Milsen]]
A trouble-making trooper who serves with Cain on Keffia.
----
* KleptomaniacHero: Milsen has been repeatedly disciplined for looting and theft but seems to take his duties seriously.
* SuicideAttack: An infected Milsen ties several grenades to his chest and blows them up to open a door for the Genestealers.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Jarvik]]
A friend of Erhlsen, Milsen and Nordstrom.
----
* ProperlyParanoid: He's absolutely right to be wary of the local brothel, [[RightForTheWrongReasons even if he thinks that it's just a dive where soldiers get drugged and robbed]] and [[WrongGenreSavvy not a genestealer front]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mulenz and Grear]]
Two forward observers in Mostrue's artillery unit who accompany Cain during an encounter with Slaanesh cultists, which sadly ends in disaster for them. This is also Cain's first encounter with the long-term antagonist Emeli.
----
* CaptainObvious: Mulenz announces their pathway is blocked by a wall when this is painfully obvious to Cain; the Commissar makes a remark to the effect of "no wonder they made him an Observer, nothing gets past this guy."
* ThoseTwoGuys: They're introduced together and not too distinct.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: They don't survive their encounter with the Slaanesh cultists. [[spoiler:One is sacrificed in a ritual, whilst the other gets possessed by the daemon that ritual summoned.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dravin]]
A Guards Commissar assigned to a tank unit during the Battle of Adumbria. He ends up being one of the judges selected when Tomas Beije brings Cain before a tribunal on several trumped-up charges.
----
* OldSoldier: His service record is twice the length of either of his fellow judges.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Dravin is quick to acquit Cain of the unsupported charges filed against him and then proceeds to discipline Cain's accuser for nearly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory with his LawfulStupid antics.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Malden]]
A Psyker for Zyvan. One of the calmer and more stable psykers you'll ever meet.
----
* DissonantSerenity: He generally sounds either flat or casual while discussing torture of daemon invasions during his scenes in the third book.
* MindRape: He does this as a form of interrogation, with it being mentioned that a noble falsely suspected of being a Chaos worshipper will take a long time to regain his faculties after Malden probed his brain.
* TheNondescript: Cain mentions that he meets Malden multiple times through the course of his career, but can never quite remember what he looks like enough to describe him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Alem Mahat]]
A Tallarn sergeant serving under Beije.
----
* SergeantRock: Mahat is a capable and caring leader to his squad and comes out of some very intense fighting unscathed. While initially sent to help arrest Cain, he quickly becomes an ally of his upon realizing Beije is risking the lives of his men and possibly the entire planet.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lanks]]
A soldier in the unit Forres is assigned to.
----
* RankUp: Lanks starts as a sergeant but is promoted to lieutenant due to his unit's heavy losses and his bravery in the face of the Tyranids.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Colonel Greydon]]
The head of a regiment whose commissar is murdered in the short story "Three Questions".
* GetOut: Upon learning that the murderer of his commissar is legally untouchable, he makes it clear how unhappy he is with this in spite of the commissar's AssholeVictim status and the killer's sympathetic motives, telling the killer to petition her superiors for reassignment and "stay out of my way" in the meantime.
* NervousWreck: He is weary from dealing with a real martinet of a commissar and his stress level goes up when the man is murdered and the entire regiment become suspects.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dr. Wersun]]
A medical officer who assists in the investigation into the death of another commissar in "Three Questions".
* BeleagueredBureaucrat: Cain describes him as a man whose words and actions are meant to "minimize the amount of paperwork in his immediate future", but who won't slack off in the face of truly serious matters.
* TheCoroner: He examines a dead body and is annoyed at being ordered to make his examination more thorough. However, once he finds evidence of foul play, he explores them further and quickly reports his findings.
* PetTheDog: Despite being sarcastic, insubordinate, and frustrated with responsibilities at times, he does make some career suggestions to the SympatheticMurderer of Comissiar Fossick after she's dismissed from her unit and feels unsure where to go next.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:General Torven]]
The Guard commander of the Serendipita System.
----
* TheBrigadier: He is a commanding and sensible headquarters soldier who wields a lot of influence but has a RuggedScar and still dresses like the field combatant he likely was as a youth.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Like many generals, he is unaware of how alarming he can sound when he talks about about having Cain attach himself to a dangerous operation as an overseer.
* InterServiceRivalry: He dislikes how single-minded Tech-Priests can be and doesn't hesitate to complain about how many of them are willing to take big risks for new tech when others will be the ones paying the price if they fail.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Colonel Rorkins]]
The stormtrooper training officer at Perlia.
----
* CardGames: Often gambles with his fellow instructors, notably Cain and Visiter.
* ColonelBadass: A decorated, forward-thinking colonel who fights at the front, and fights quite well.
* ProperlyParanoid: He has his trainees conduct operations which could be adapted to a potential invasion. He also has the foresight to move the main command operations to the Schola, which proves to be a sound decision when [[spoiler:Varan shows up and flattens the Perlian PDF High Command base with an orbital strike.]]
!! The Valhallan 597th
The Guard regiment Cain spends most of his career with, made up of survivors of the Valhallan 296th and 301st, which both suffered massive casualties in a campaign against the Tyranids on Corania. Natives of planet Valhalla, a vicious ice world[[note]]Also a Russian / Scandinavian counterpart culture[[/note]], are real Vikings in all but the name, providing steady reinforcements for the Imperial Guard. They love snow and tanna -- a Valhallan considers it balmy if there's just frost on the windows -- and they hate orks with a ferocious intensity. Most of Cain's commissarial career revolved around serving with Valhallans even though he isn't a native; consequently, he picked up quite a few of their habits (although he never did quite get around to being accustomed to cold showers).
In contrast to the stereotype sometimes shown in the main ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' universe, where Valhallans fight with human-wave tactics reminiscent of the Great Patriotic War at its bloodiest, the Valhallans of the Cain-version of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' are extraordinarily proficient and professional soldiers and almost unmatched in arctic environments.
[[folder:Colonel Regina Kasteen]]
[[quoteright:293:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/regina_kasteen.png]]
Former commander of 296th Valhallan Regiment, now commander of 597th Valhallan Regiment. During the Battle for Corania prior to Cain's arrival, both the all-female 296th and the all-male 301st were decimated in combat against the Tyranids. The two units ended up being amalgamated into a single combined regiment and immediately began going at one another's throats, creating a discipline problem that eventually required High Command to send a commissar. They were lucky to get Cain; any other commissar probably would have [[BadBoss decimated the regiment]] and redesignated the survivors [[CannonFodder a Penal Legion]].
As the 296th had been a rear-echelon regiment for most of its history, the newly-promoted Colonel Kasteen felt an immense need to prove herself to the more experienced veterans of the 301st, particularly her newfound subordinate Major Broklaw (particularly as she got the colonelcy by virtue of three days seniority). She acquitted herself admirably during the 597th's first battle as a unified whole at Gravalax and has since served with distinction.
----
* BraidsOfAction: On the back cover of ''Choose Your Enemies'' she wears her hair in a pair of braids down her back.
* ColonelBadass: She's more than capable of holding her own in a firefight.
* DeskJockey: Holds a bit of a grudge over how she can't kill enemies personally now. When given the chance to butcher heretics on Adumbria, she reacts like a kid in a candy store.
* HandCannon: Favors a bolt pistol as her sidearm.
* MsFanservice: Kasteen is regularly described as an uncommonly good looking woman and finds no shortage of characters who blatantly admire her looks[[note]]Everyone else is more subtle about it [[/note]]. As a native ice-worlder, she also has a habit of undoing the top few buttons of her uniform at any temperature warmer than 'chilly'. Furthermore, there are frequent references to Cain and others [[MaleGaze admiring her (evidently shapely) backside]].
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Cain arrives to act as Commissar to the Valhallan regiments, he notes Kasteen is actually ''pleased'' to see him. Since the majority of the Guard regard Commissars with [[TheDreaded terror]], considering the appearance of one usually precipitates a round of executions, this is Cain's first clue he is going to have his work cut out for him with the regiment.
* RedOniBlueOni: With Broklaw; Kasteen is the more passionate and aggressive of the two, fitting the "red ''oni''" personality.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Major Ruput Broklaw]]
Former commander of 301st Valhallan Regiment, now second-in-command of the 597th Valhallan Regiment. During the Battle for Corania prior to Cain's arrival, both the all-male 301st and the all-female 296th were decimated in combat against the Tyranids. The two units ended up being amalgamated into a single combined regiment and immediately began going at one another's throats, creating a discipline problem that eventually required High Command to send a commissar. The 301st had been a frontline combat unit with decades of service and experience; as such, Broklaw initially resented being junior to a relatively green commander like Kasteen, especially since she got promoted to the colonelcy by virtue of three days seniority.
Through Cain's manipulations, however, the pair became FireForgedFriends over the course of the Gravalax Campaign. Broklaw and Kasteen have effectively become the command equivalent of a BattleCouple, functioning more like equals than as commander and subordinate and sharing the regiment's leadership burdens.
----
* FirstNameBasis: Lets a "Regina" slip through to his C.O. on occasion.
* HypercompetentSidekick: In his own mind just after the amalgamation, as he was a front-line soldier and the 296th had been a rear-echelon unit.
* IcyGrayEyes: One of the first indicators of his steely demeanor.
* MajorlyAwesome: Had frontline experience before the [=597th's=] formation as an amalgamated regiment, and puts it to good use in the firefights we see him in.
* PassedOverPromotion: At the time of the amalgamation, he and Kasteen were both Captains. Despite having far more combat experience than his female counterpart, she was chosen for the colonelcy because she had three days seniority in rank over him (which in context meant that it took his superiors three days longer to get eaten by Tyranids than hers did). He resents this for a sizable portion of the first book, but eventually gets over it.
* PercussiveMaintenance: Whenever the hololith malfunctions, he's usually the one to give it a whack if there are no techpriests around.
* RedOniBlueOni: With Kasteen. Broklaw is the colder and more calculating of the two, fitting the "blue ''oni''" personality. He's also brusque and doesn't care overmuch for fools.
* SnarkToSnarkCombat: Engages in this with Kasteen, Cain and on occassion Sulla; initially hostile, but as time goes on, it becomes more good-natured.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Jenit Sulla]]
A former quartermaster officer of Valhallan 296 all-female regiment, she initially hated the merging between 296th and 301st regiments and, by proxy Ciaphas Cain himself, but grew up to respect the new traditions and genuinely admire Cain, seeing him as somewhat a mentor figure. She basically is what Cain is believed to be, perhaps to the extreme. As her patriotic fervor and hastiness verge on LeeroyJenkins levels, all her colleagues view her as something of a liability and predict that she'll either be sidelined or get herself killed in an impetuous charge.
In fact no one guessed correctly, and Sulla's meteoric advance ended with her at the rank of Lady General[[note]]Female version of Lord General[[/note]], the ''highest rank'' in the Imperial military outside of the high command, and the '''only''' Lady General in history of the Imperium.[[note]]Which is contradicted by the existence of a female Lord General in the last ''Literature/SpaceWolf'' novel, but 40k has always had a rather loose approach to canon.[[/note]] She was even popular enough to publish successful memoirs, although Amberley describes them as a "one-woman assault on the Gothic language."
Amusingly, Sulla appears to have taken Cain's public persona at face value, and clearly considered him a mentor at the very least.
----
* AnimalMotifs: If Cain mentions Sulla, there is a better than 75% chance he'll compare her to a horse - both in terms of demeanor (incredibly enthusiastic, to the point of not actually thinking before doing something) and general appearance.
* BloodKnight: She's actually a very good officer, with solid tactics, a can-do attitude, and an inspirational and morale-boosting personality. Unfortunately, in the universe she inhabits, it leads to her and her squads charging blood-crazed genetically engineering killing machines (Orks, Tyranids, Chaos Space Marines...) with flak jackets and a laser gun with a knife on the end of it. [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight And winning.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer:
** Her personality is quirky at best, and she is a lousy writer, but she is an exceptional quartermaster, she is very responsible, and going from a simple enlisted soldier without connections to Lady General means her tactics must have eventually evolved way beyond screaming and charging.
** Her skills as a quartermaster really shine in ''The Last Ditch'', where she completely decimates the local planet's Administratum to gain access to some orbital shuttles that were 'overlooked'. Cain tagged along to try and add his weight to the discussion, but readily admits he ended up just watching Sulla bowl over the bureaucratic interference like [[HoldYourHippogriffs a Baneblade through a horde of Gretchin]].
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Shortly after Cain's arrival, [[spoiler: a riot breaks out between the 296th and 301st that leaves three people dead, fourteen in the infirmary and a multitude of troopers facing disciplinary charges up to and including murder. When Cain investigates what happened, he is somewhat incredulous to find Sulla ordered the evening's meal to be served on the 296th's regimental crockery on account of the fact it was the anniversary of the regiment's founding, clearly not taking into account, as Cain points out, the 301st would probably interpret it as an insult]].
* GiftedlyBad: Aforementioned memoirs contain [[PurpleProse insanely overcomplicated and frilly language]] to the point of being [[StylisticSuck utterly unreadable]], and [[RunningGag Amberly keeps apologizing about including it]].
** To describe how bad it is, it takes her 4 pages plus, to go over a routine patrol where nothing apparently interesting happened. And a single guard shift.
* {{Gonk}}: According to Cain, she looks like an excitable horse.
* IgnoredEnamoredUnderling: Downplayed in that it's only platonic, but it's clear from the excerpts from Sulla's memoirs that she has a major case of hero worship for Cain... while at the same time, it's clear from ''his'' accounts that he regards her as both a pain in the ass at times and a rash commander (though he does grow to appreciate her talents as the series unfolds).
** From his accounts you can see why she thinks so highly of him. Despite his private opinions what he actually ''says'' to her is all praise and encouragement, and he endorses her for promotion multiple times.
** In ''Choose Your Enemies'' Amberly outright wonders in a footnote if Sulla constantly gushing about Cain's "noble bearing" is indicative of a crush on him.
* AMotherToHerMen: Sulla's intense pride and faith in her soldiers shines through her horrifically purple prose, and probably explains her popularity with same. Cain notes that while her units tend to sustain slightly higher casualties than average,[[note]]for the 597th, which admittedly usually takes much ''lower'' casualties than Guard units often do[[/note]] they also have even higher morale.
* SarcasmBlind: With Cain, repeatedly, such as in the second book failing to pick up that him saying "Of course it was Sulla" when her squad locates him was not a compliment.
* {{Tsundere}}: Sulla initially disliked Cain rather strongly, but quickly shifted to inordinately gushing hero-worship verging on a crush.
* UpThroughTheRanks: {{Exaggerated|Trope}}. Started as an enlisted quartermaster, and makes it to first lieutenant, then captain and major on-screen. Off-screen, she became the only Lady General in the Imperium's history.
* VerbalTic: In her memoirs, she tends to refer to the "women and men" instead of the more traditional "men and women".
* WhatWouldXDo: Asks herself this about Cain.
-->'''Cain:''' And then did the opposite, I hope.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:"Jinxie" Penlan]]
A sergeant in the Valhallan 597th, Penlan is noted for being very accident-prone, leading to her nickname "Jinxie".
----
* CursedWithAwesome: She causes accidents through her clumsiness every time she's mentioned. They all work out in her favour though, so it's something to laugh about. Also, her squad have heightened morale, as they trust her to be the resident WeirdnessMagnet.
* CuteClumsyGirl: She's quite accident-prone, but the fact that it generally works to her squad's advantage has made her into something of a combination mascot / good luck charm.
* EatingTheEyeCandy: In ''The Traitor's Hand'' she was almost jealous of a picture of Slaaneshi artwork in a sexual position she thought impossible. Cain assured her it wasn't possible, and that even if it was [[AndThatsTerrible it would be against regulations]].
* {{Flanderization}}: An interesting example, combined with AscendedExtra. In the first book, she doesn't even get any lines, simply being the one trooper who got shot in a battle. A couple of books later, her natural weird luck is her ONLY trait.
* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: In ''The Last Ditch'' she hits a heavy weapon with the butt of her lasgun, causing said lasgun to discharge. Fortunately, it hit an Ork pilot... who then crashes, resulting in an utterly beneficial set of DisasterDominoes. She was ''sure'' she had the safety on...
* TheJinx: It's in her nickname. She's always either causing accidents or getting herself stuck in sticky situations. Fortunately, it generally works out for her and her squad.
* LethalKlutz: Although fortunately for her and her squadmates, she hasn't caused any friendly fire incidents this way -- the only things killed in such incidents tend to be things the Valhallans are trying to kill in the first place.
* SergeantRock: It's sometimes lost under the focus her reputation for being a klutz gets, but she's an effective leader in her own fashion.
* UnluckilyLucky:
** Her clumsiness always causes problems, but they always end up working in her and her companions' favor. This actually improves her squad's morale since they trust her to be resident WeirdnessMagnet.
--->'''Cain:''' She's not nearly as accident-prone as she's supposed to be. I'll grant you she fell down an ambull tunnel once, and there was that incident with the frag grenade and the latrine trench, but things tend to work out for her. The orks on Kastafore was as surprised as she was when the floor in the factory collapsed, and we'd have walked into right into that hrud ambush on Skweki if she hadn't triggered the mine by chucking an empty food tin away...
** It's about this point Cain shuts up, finally listening to [[NotHelpingYourCase the words coming out of his own mouth]].
** In her EstablishingCharacterMoment in "Caves of Ice"? She falls down an Ambull tunnel, thereby discovering the Ambull, and basically causing most of the entire novel's plot to happen.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lustig]]
A competent and professional sergeant in Sulla's platoon, and one that Cain often relies on when he needs someone for more delicate or dangerous missions.
----
* ConsummateProfessional: He's unflappable in battle and quick to follow orders, something Cain likes.
* FieldPromotion: Is bumped up to Lieutenant when Sulla is given a brevet Captaincy.
* {{Irony}}: Lustig was one of those "I work for a living" Guardsmen who disdained officers. His field promotion's irony was not lost on Cain.
* ThePerilsOfBeingTheBest: Cain, Kasteen and Broklaw note the irony that Lustig would be content to be a SergeantRock for the entirety of his career, and will probably have to be ''ordered'' to accept the officer's commission he is so manifestly fit for.
* TheReliableOne: In every regiment he joins, Cain builds a small unofficial collection of soldiers and non-coms who can be relied upon in tough situations - i.e., most likely to help him survive and least likely to [[UnfriendlyFire "accidentally" shoot him in the back]] - and makes a favorite of Lustig almost immediately.
* SergeantRock: For most of the series he's a battle-hardened non-com who looks out for his squad.
* UpThroughTheRanks: After many years as a non-com, Lustig gets an unexpected field promotion due to a sudden vacancy in the lieutenant rank above him, and his obvious leadership abilities.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Captain Shambas]]
A Sentinel Pilot and scout commander. He's a highly skilled Sentinel pilot and like most other pilots has an independent streak a mile wide.
----
* TheDriver: Sometimes ferries Cain and Jurgen in the middle of battle.
* MilitaryMaverick: Sentinel pilots are noted as being rather independently minded compared to most soldiers, and Shambas (and his subordinates) are no exception. It makes some sense however, as scouts and fast attack units, they have to be confident in themselves and their judgement, and ready to exercise it at a moment's notice.
* NiceGuy: Polite and appropriately grateful to Cain.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sergeant Welard]]
Leader of a stormtrooper squad Cain takes to try to close the Necron portal.
----
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: More specifically, he (and most of the rest of his unit for that matter) go mad from exposure to Necron Pariahs and their Blank-like aura of unnaturalness.
* JumpedAtTheCall: He volunteers when Cain asks for men to do what might be a suicide mission.
* OffWithHisHead: A Necron pariah beheads him.
* PunnyName: His name could be read with a pause in the middle, as in "Well 'ard" - something you'd expect a Stormtrooper Sergeant (and an Ork) to be. Shame it doesn't help against the Pariah's aura of terror.
* TrueCompanions: Subverted, as he and his Squad, who were raised as a unit in the Schola Progena, work well together but are indifferent to the deaths of any companions.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sergeant Tobias Kelp]]
A sergeant assigned to penal duty for his role in a fatal barfight.
----
* ExactWords: Kelp says he'll shoot Cain if he tries to make a move. [[spoiler:So Cain just orders Jurgen to shoot Kelp instead. As Jurgen uses the melta, this ends about exactly as you'd expect.]]
* {{Jerkass}}: Kelp resents the regiment's problem with being integrated, provoking a fight with Sgt. Trebek as a result, leading to the deaths of three people. He is also the only one of the five people sentenced to penal duty to turn on Cain rather than seek redemption. This doesn't end well for him.
* LudicrousGibs: Reduced to this [[spoiler: after taking a shot from a melta gun at point blank range]]. Trebek is later found scraping a piece of his vaporized body off her boot.
* TooDumbToLive: If Kelp had any sense in deserting, he would have shot Cain immediately and ended it on the spot, or simply made a run for it and never looked back. Instead, he gloats and postures once Amberly and the rest of the squad find him. And then he gapes when Jurgen obeys the order to shoot him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sergeant Bella Trebek]]
The non-com provoked into fighting with Kelp, who shares his punishment.
----
* ActionGirl: She's a competent, and dedicated fighter.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: She gets shot just as Cain is marveling at her performance and regretting his earlier concerns that she was untrustworthy.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Maxim Sorel]]
A sniper with the newly formed regiment who winds up stabbing one of the provosts fatally during the mess hall brawl.
----
* BoomHeadshot: He's a sniper, it's his job. [[spoiler:It's also the way he goes out, as he survives the expedition into the tunnels only to catch a bolter round from Governor Grice with his face moments before the final confrontation.]]
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: {{Discussed}}: of the group of ex-Guardsmen on the suicide mission, Cain assumes based on his behavior that Sorel is likely to be the one who turns on him. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}}: Kelp does that, whereas Sorel remains loyal until his sudden death.]]
* ColdSniper: A textbook example, but not completely emotionless; Cain goes out of his way to get Sorel's [[ICallItVera original weapon]] returned to him for the mission, knowing how Sorel would have carefully tweaked and customized it to suit his preferences, and Sorel clearly respects the gesture.
* SociopathicHero: In Cain's own words, Sorel had killed one of the provosts during the fight simply because he hadn't seen a reason ''not'' to. He's also the first to very casually suggest WhyDontYouJustShootHim to the others (and casually calls them all out for not at least being honest about it in the process), though he [[KnowWhenToFoldThem gracefully concedes to Amberley]] that very few people succeed in outrunning the Inquisition.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Tomas Holenbi]]
A medical orderly who kills a Naval provost during the fight Kelp and Trebek starts, and also gets penal legion/suicide mission duty instead of a death sentence.
----
* AccidentalMurder: Holenbi kills one of the provosts in the mess hall fight by slashing their throat with a shattered plate in the heat of the moment.
* AintTooProudToBeg: He's rattled and frightened during his trial and seems genuinely remorseful for having killed someone - especially given his career.
* BattleCouple: With Velade. They developed feelings for each other whilst incarcerated and fight back-to-back later on.
* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Cain shoots him in the head when he realises Holenbi was [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong infected by Genestealers]] when he and Velade got separated from the group]].
* CombatMedic: He treats wounds in the middle of battle and on the front lines.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Trooper Griselda Velade]]
The fifth and final trooper sent to the penal legions over the bar fight caused by Trebek and Kelp.
----
* AccidentalMurder: Killed another trooper by crushing their larynx; she claims it was only meant to be an incapacitating blow.
* BattleCouple: With Holenbi during the suicide mission after they get closer while confined in adjoining cells.
* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Like Holenbi, Cain shoots her in the head when he realises she's been [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong infected by Genestealers]] when they got separated]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Captain Detoi]]
A minor, recurring company commander featured throughout ''The Traitors Hand''. Notably saddled with being Sulla's superior, which puts something of a damper on Cain's appreciation for his competence.
----
* ConsummateProfessional: Cain describes him as crisp while other officers are cheery, although he is occasionally NotSoStoic.
* MrExposition: HE Briefs Cain about the conditions they're entering and some landmarks.
* NiceToTheWaiter: He is noted as being one of the few officers in the regiment who treats the smelly, low-ranking Jurgen with respect and also speaks of Sulla in a fond and amused tone.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Chaplain Tope]]
The Valhallans' chaplain, who appears in a few scenes of ''The Last Ditch.''
----
* BadassPreacher: Tope is the chaplain for a frontline combat unit and bravely charges forward to exorcise a dangerous daemon that has possessed one of the freighter's bridge-servitors.
* DueToTheDead: Cain sees Tope performing last rites for several dying soldiers after a spaceship crash.
* NoIndoorVoice: Cain describes him as having a loud voice capable of reaching the back of a chapel without the help of any audio equipment.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Captain Federer]]
The commander of the Valhallans' combat engineers.
----
* DemolitionsExpert: Federer is an explosives expert who, despite moments of smugness and pyromania, is fairly ingenious and reliable at his job.
* {{Pyromaniac}}: Federer is primarily called upon when Cain and Kasteen need something blown up and shows "unseemly enthusiasm" about his job.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Voss]]
A minor recurring platoon leader.
----
* PerpetualSmiler: His only notable trait is that he's always bright and cheerful, regardless of the circumstances.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Jek and Paola]]
Two Sentinel pilots who briefly appear in ''Traitors Hand.''
----
* NoodleIncident: Cain knows Paola's name because she has appeared before him on disciplinary matters, but the details aren't elaborated on.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Albrin]]
A corporal who briefly comes to Cain's attention during the Adumbria campaign.
----
* BadassBookworm: He is a quartermaster's clerk who nonetheless gets into fights on leave and successfully leads the defense of an area in battle through ambush and fortification tactics.
[[/folder]]
!!!Grifen's squad
The soldiers of Grifen's squad are a mixed squad of the Valhallan 597th. They include Sergeant Grifen, Corporal Mari Magot, Janny Drere, and Vorhees. Cain gained respect for them after the events of Simla Orichalcae: Grifen and Magot managed to survive where ''hardened stormtroopers'' did not.
[[folder:Sergeant Grifen]]
A squad leader in the 597th. Implied to be in a relationship with Magot.
----
* BattleCouple: Implied between Grifen and Magot.
* RedOniBlueOni: Grifen is blue.
* RankUp: She's made Lieutenant by the time of ''Choose Your Enemies'', opening up her former spot for Magot.
* SergeantRock: Thanks to her leadership, her squad is consistently one of the toughest and most successful in the regiment.
* UndyingLoyalty: To Cain. [[spoiler:In ''The Traitor's Hand'', she stares down another Commissar trying to arrest Cain on (fraudulent) charges of desertion, making it plain the other officer will have to go through her and her squad to get him, even when the Commissar lines up a headshot]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Corporal Mari Magot]]
A member of Grifen's squad, and implied girlfriend.
----
* BattleCouple: Implied with Sergeant Grifen.
* BerserkButton: Let's just say she has a few, but threatening Grifen is a big one. Sexism seems to be another big one: When a Tallarn squad refuses to participate in an athletic competition because the Valhallan 597th team has women on it, she tracks down the squad leader responsible and thrashes him. To quote Cain: "Knowing Magot, she undoubtedly threw the first punch. And probably the next couple too."
* BloodKnight: She relishes any chance she gets for a good fight.
* CampingACrapper: In ''Caves of Ice'', grabs the chance to kill an ork that's in the middle of a latrine stop.
* CurbStompBattle: In ''The Traitor's Hand'', while en route to their warzone, the Tallarn 229th, one of the regiments the 597th are travelling with, having a [[StayInTheKitchen somewhat conservative attitude to regiments including women]] refuse to take part in an inter-regimental competition in unarmed combat as the 597th included women in their team, considering it unseemly. In Cain's [[PassThePopcorn clearly amused]] words, the next time the 229th's regimental champion in hand-to-hand combat entered the transport ship's recreational area, Magot promptly pounced on him and subjected him to an "impromptu bout" in which she pounded him flat, despite the fact she only came up to the trooper's chin--which wasn't an issue, as it only took her a twelfth of a second to bring it down to the level of her knee.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Remarked as being the only other driver in the regiment that's comparable to Jurgen. Cain can recognize when she's behind the wheel, even when he's not inside the vehicle. The following exchange takes place after a Chimera roars into a crowd of refugees and [[CarFu runs over a Tyranid Lictor]], with Magot sounding vaguely puzzled.
--> '''Cain''': Nice driving, Magot.\\
'''Magot''': You're welcome, commissar. How did you know it was me?\\
'''Cain''': Lucky guess.
* FieryRedHead: She has bright red hair, and her... exuberant personality definitely lives up to the fiery aspect -- as does her kill count.
* NervesOfSteel: Although she briefly suffers a nervous breakdown in ''Caves of Ice'' [[spoiler:after being caught in a Necron tomb]], Cain notes in ''The Traitor's Hand'' that she's emerged from that ordeal more or less normal, and that makes her a rare soldier indeed.
* NoKillLikeOverkill: Cain notes that to Magot, the word "overkill" is inherently meaningless.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The typically fearless and confrontational Magot [[HeroicBSOD does not take her first encounter with Necrons and their brutality well]]. Luckily, Grifen and Cain are able to keep their senses better and are able to pull her out of her frenzy.
* PetTheDog: Cain gives her a bit of a pep talk to get her moving and provide some encouragement when Magot appears to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown [[spoiler: in the middle of a Necron tomb]].
* PsychoLesbian: A somewhat benevolent version, as most of her lethal instincts are channeled into fighting enemies of the Imperium.
* RankUp: With Grifen promoted to Lieutenant in ''Choose Your Enemies,'' Magot serves as her platoon sergeant.
* RedOniBlueOni: Very, very red with Grifen's blue.
* TheReliableOne: In every regiment he joins, Cain builds a small unofficial collection of soldiers and non-coms who can be relied upon in tough situations - i.e., most likely to help him survive and least likely to [[UnfriendlyFire "accidentally" shoot him in the back]]. He adds Magot to this collection after ''Caves of Ice'' in spite of her occasional disciplinary problems, because in his judgment, anyone who can pass through [[spoiler:a Necron tomb]] without being rendered permanently catatonic is a soldier the Guard should hang on to.
* SergeantRock: She's made sergeant in ''Choose Your Enemies'' and while we don't really get to see her in action, we can't imagine her ''possibly'' being any other kind.
* SociopathicSoldier: Cain describes Magot as "a cheerfully sociopathic young woman" who would probably have caused the civilian authorities plenty of trouble if the Imperial Guard hadn't channeled her energy towards the enemy.
* TradingBarsForStripes: Cain strongly suspects that this trope is how Magot got into the Guard in the first place.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Janny Drere]]
!! Janny Drere
A member of the squad injured by an ambull attack during ''Caves of Ice'', saved by Cain's decision to send some soldiers back with her. She was implanted with augmetic lungs due to her injuries. In a relationship with her squadmate Vorhees.
----
* BattleCouple: With Vorhees. The two are boyfriend and girlfriend and fight in the same squad, coming out alive together during some of Cain's more harrowing adventures.
* {{Cyborg}}: After needing an augmetic lung.
* VaderBreath: Her artificial lungs can be heard making a soft rhythmic clicking sound when she speaks.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Understandably nervous about the prospect of ambulls, given the injuries they inflicted on her.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Vorhees]]
!! Vorhees
Drere's boyfriend and fellow squad member, he is extremely loyal to Cain for saving his girlfriend's life.
----
* BattleCouple: With Drere. The two are boyfriend and girlfriend and fight in the same squad, coming out alive together during some of Cain's more harrowing adventures.
* BerserkButton: Don't threaten Janny when he's around.
* ScreamingWarrior: Cain mentions that there was angry roaring going on when Drere was injured but doesn't specify if it was Vorhees or the ambull. Amberly allows that "either or both" seemed reasonable.
%%* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He's just as nervous around ambulls as Janny is.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Simla]]
A member of the squad in ''Caves of Ice'' who ventures into the tunnels with Cain.
----
* BattleTrophy: He's seen trying to cut off a fallen Ork's head to take back home.
* BearerOfBadNews: Due to being on point a lot he repeatedly calls out unwelcome news of approaching orks or dead bodies encountered.
* MadeOfIron: He struggles to take aim at the orks and keep shooting even after being shot multiple times.
* MauveShirt: He's a decent presence for multiple chapters before being the last member of the squad to die in the book.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Hail]]
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Her darker skin tone causes Amberley to wonder if at least one of her ancestors immigrated to Valhalla from elsewhere.
* ConsummateProfessional: She's frequently noted as being nervous but professional and efficient.
* DoNotGoGentle: After being wounded in the arm, Hail charges forward, shooting one-handed, and manages to take out an Ork before being torn apart.
* StealthExpert: Her skin tone lets her blend in better against cavern walls and shadows, and she's a stealthy and effective rear guard.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lunt]]
----
* BigGuyFatalitySyndrome: He is probably the burliest member of his squad and easily pulls Cain up to the top of a rock formation after reaching down to grab his arm. [[spoiler:He is also the first named active-duty member of the regiment (not counting some who were court-martialled out and sent on a suicide mission) to die in the series]].
* DueToTheDead: Poignantly subverted when [[spoiler:Cain and the squad want to bring his body home for burial but have to reluctantly burn it so the Necrons won't know there are humans nearby.]]
* FireBreathingWeapon: Lunt is Grifen's flamethrower-operator.
* SecretMessageWink: After telling a Tech-Priest a story about his grandfather being attacked by an Ork frozen in a glacier after thawing it out, Lunt winks at Cain to show that he's just trying to silence their observer's unreasonable arguments.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Karta]]
* BringNewsBack: In ''Caves of Ice'' Cain assigns him to take two wounded troopers and some escorts back to base with the news that Orks are definitely in the tunnels.
* NumberTwo: Is Grifen's Assistant Squad Leader and commands the second team when the squad splits in two.
* SergeantRock: Is promoted to Sergeant just before ''The Traitor's Hand''.
[[/folder]]
!!Other Imperial Guard Personnel
Members of the Imperial Guard outside of the Valhallans, including some of Cain's fellow Commissars.
[[folder:Toren Divas]]
Lieutenant (later Major) of the Valhallan 12th Artillery Regiment, and the closest thing Cain has ever had to a best friend. Overly aggressive and rash, but reliable and decent despite that. A big drinker and rumormonger, providing Cain with useful gossip, but also... well, let's face it, he's not very bright.
----
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Cain thinks Toren is rather an idiot but acknowledges that he's an expert with his artillery.
* {{Foil}}: Divas is ''very'' enthusiastic about engaging the enemy personally and thus hates the artillery because it shoots everything from miles away... which is why Cain joined it at the first place.
* LeeroyJenkins: A big fan of charging the enemy head-on.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: He always finds some way to get Cain in trouble (accidentally getting him stuck on the wrong side of some doors or nearly getting him beaten to death by angry Tau sympathizers for example) without meaning to.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Cain's best friend he may be, but that doesn't mean the descriptions of him are too flattering.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Colonel Mostrue]]
Commanding officer of the Valhallan 12th Artillery Regiment, Mostrue is implied to have never fully bought into Cain's reputation as a hero, suspecting (quite rightly) that Cain's first act of 'heroism' with the regiment was really an attempt to desert and has reputedly tried to catch Cain out in similar circumstances.
----
* BadBoss: Cain notes Mostrue was always a little too eager to call in artillery strikes on his position when required.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: He never openly calls Cain out on what really happened on Desolatia, but makes his suspicions plain in his demeanor.
* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: A variation; Cain notes that in the years after Desolatia, Mostrue always made sure to volunteer Cain for suicide missions and the like, hoping Cain would balk at the prospect and show his true colours.
* ProperlyParanoid: In regard to Cain's fraudulent reputation, certainly.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: For all his distrust of Cain's reputation, Mostrue has no problem following Cain's military instinct.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lord General Zyvan]]
A Lord General of the Imperial Guard who oversaw operations in which the 597th served on Gravalax, Adumbria, and Periremunda, and also commanded the Guard on Quadravidia and Fecundia in ''The Greater Good''. He appreciated Cain's tactical insight and highly regarded him, to the point that Amberley often inserts footnotes pointing this out whenever Cain implies something to the contrary.
----
* BerserkButton: Zyvan ''really'' doesn't like being jerked around or not given vital information, whether it's by the Administratum, the Adeptus Mechanicus, or anyone else. Fortunately, in the cases where it could be really dire Cain is usually around to be the voice of reason.
* TheBrigadier: Commands an Imperial Guard task force that, for a time, includes the Valhallan [=597th=]. He often defers to Cain's judgment on important matters, and not merely because he's a Commissar; Zyvan seems to have a genuine appreciation for Cain's apparent talents - a rarity, given most Commissars are seen as a nuisance ''at best''.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: Cain often notes that he and Zyvan hit it off and became friends because Cain, being a commissar and thus not part of the normal Guard command structure, is the only person around whom Lord General can just be himself.
* AFatherToHisMen: Noted as having a genuine concern about the troops under his command.
* NoNameGiven: Zyvan's around for more than half the series but Ciaphas never does tell us what his first name is.
* NotSoStoic: Tries to be serious and professional, most of the time, but Cain occasionally manages to coax a little wry humour or TheGadfly esque moments out of Zyvan; in one instance Cain shamelessly compliments the cooking skills of Zyvan's chef and takes an opportunity to grab some more food when Zyvan offers, and in turn asks anyone else at the table if they'd like anything whilst he's up. Zyvan notably declines the offer, only to send one of his aides to go get him some coffee just after Cain has sat down again.
* PragmaticHero:
** In ''For the Emperor'', the Tau Empire has an entrenched diplomatic presence and security forces on Gravalax and is making inroads with the populace. You'd expect a Lord General Militant of the Imperial Guard to want them gone at whatever cost, but Zyvan states point-blank during a briefing that the planet isn't worth getting into a shooting war with the xenos.
** In ''The Traitor's Hand'', he chews out Tallarn 227th Colonel Asmar and Commissar Tomas Beije for excessive zeal, namely burning down a Slaaneshi cult site before it could be investigated for information about the cult's intentions.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: In contrast to the frequent portrayal of Imperial Guard flag officers as {{General Failure}}s, {{Insane Admiral}}s, and/or {{General Ripper}}s, Zyvan pays close attention to his subordinates' input and makes an effort not to risk their lives needlessly.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Subverted; despite his immense strategic skill, Cain always beats him in their Regicide games. Cain muses that Zyvan just can't properly shrink his focus to properly play such a simple game when he's used to dealing with the immense complexity of modern battlefields.
* SupremeChef: Well, his staff chef is, anyway; Cain is taken enough by the chef's skills to the point that he's loathe to do anything to sour his relationship with Zyvan simply because he'd lose access to said chef.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Tomas Beije]]
A fellow cadet at the Schola Progenium which Cain studied at. He is Commissar to the Tallarn 227th regiment. He and Cain are none too fond; Beije can't believe someone so flippant and blasé as Cain could do half the things he has, while Cain considers Beije a sanctimonious Emperor-bother and a monumental pain in the ass.
----
* CruelMercy: After he finds himself being investigated on charges of gross incompetence for interfering with Cain's mission, Cain mentions that he intends to pull some strings to get Beije off the hook... in part because he knows that Beije will find being in Cain's debt absolutely intolerable.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: [[spoiler:Deriding Kasteen as a "petticoat colonel" only to then realize he said that in front of a squad of ''extremely'' pissed off Valhallans from her regiment who are already looking for an excuse to shoot him]].
* FatBastard: Though it's not elaborated upon exactly, Beije is repeatedly described as "pudgy" as well as having great difficulty keeping up when everyone is double-timing, leading one to believe that he is essentially an evil, twisted version of [[Series/HogansHeroes Sergeant Schultz]].
* GreenEyedMonster: Towards Cain. Beije sees the honors and glory piled onto his old classmate, who seems to still be the irresponsible layabout he was in schola. Not only that, but Cain seems surrounded by an AmazonBrigade which is full of "special exceptions" to normal discipline, leading Beije to believe that his old rival is sleeping with them. Eventually, it becomes too much for the conservative jackass, and he accuses Cain of cowardice and desertion. This ends about as well as you'd expect...
* HumiliationConga: ''Dear God.'' First, he comes to arrest Cain for cowardice and desertion, only to find out Cain has his hands full trying to prevent a daemonic summoning. Then a (male) cultist kisses him as he tries to interrogate them. ''Then'' it turns out Cain was ''right'', and is perfectly willing to talk back to a Greater Daemon, which only serves to instill awe and reverence in the Tallarns with him. Then Cain defeats the daemon (Beije getting attacked in the process), earning the admiration and respect of the Emperor-botherers Beije had brought with him, undermining his authority further. Then, once Cain is put on trial, the jury not only clears Cain of all charges, but starts looking into charges of incompetence for Beije. And when they're out of the courtroom, Cain reminds Beije that they still have a duel to fight (Beije having referred to Kasteen as a "petticoat colonel"), so Beije is forced to hastily apologize to her. And finally (assuming he wasn't executed or transferred elsewhere), the Tallarns he was with have started a splinter cult ''worshiping'' Cain as the Emperor's will made manifest after the earlier encounter with the Greater Daemon.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Another amusing contrast to Cain. Whereas the latter can OneHitKill virtually anything with his laspistol, Beije couldn't hit a Titan if he were seated in the cockpit. This is best shown during the final fight with [[spoiler:Daemon Princess Emeli]] where, in spite of [[spoiler:her]] very large size (as in [[spoiler:she]] dwarfed a pair of Chaos Space Marines), he was only able to strike a glancing blow after firing a dozen or so shots.
* KnightTemplar: He's the model of the strict, uncompromising "ideal" Commissar. This leads to the LawfulStupid below.
* LaserGuidedKarma: His attempt to arrest Cain on charges of desertion and cowardice gets ''him'' charged with gross incompetence for interfering with Cain's mission by the Commissariat tribunal he called to charge Cain (with the quite high probability of facing a firing squad). Cain said he'd pull a few strings to help him out.
* LawfulStupid:
** Burned down a Chaos cult's ritual site before the Imperial Guard could investigate it and learn anything. Lord General Zyvan was ''not'' pleased.
** Also attempted to torture information out of a cultist. Someone who worships Slaanesh. The God of Pleasure. Whose followers take pleasure from doing literally ''anything,'' including having their own limbs chopped off. As is pointed out in the text, torturing masochists is [[TooKinkyToTorture at best counterproductive]].
* MyEyesAreUpHere: Cain mentions this regarding Beije and Kasteen's first meeting, when Cain gleefully asks if Beije forgot to how to read shoulder insignias, he notes that given Kasteen's uniform ''really'' emphasizes her figure, perhaps Beije didn't look that high.
* PetTheDog: He allows for extenuating circumstances when disciplining one of his men for getting into a fight with Magot (although that could just be to show his disfavor toward the Valhallans) and, judging by the way he addresses a pair of random Tallaran troopers by name in the climax, seems to make some effort to know the men he's assigned to.
* ReassignmentBackfire: Invoked; Cain notes that whoever in the Munitorum assigned Beije to the Tallarn 229th made a wise choice in dumping him with a bunch ''of Emperor botherers as pious and humorless as him' as opposed to another Guard regiment where his attitude would have made Beije a friendly-fire accident just waiting to happen.
* TheResenter: To Cain. And '''how'''. He's EXTREMELY jealous of Cain, because back at the Schola, Cain was... essentially, the same as he is now, but less restrained and probably still [[ReallyGetsAround really getting around]]. Cain became a '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM''', being in frequent contact with a Lord General Militant, having constant praises and honors heaped on him, while by contrast Beije was stuck on Tallarn, with nowhere near a fraction of Cain's glory.
* TheRival: To Cain.
* ShoutOut: His name may be a reference to Tom Brown, the protagonist of the ''Literature/TomBrownsSchooldays'' series, where Flashman originally appeared.
* StayInTheKitchen: Like the regiment he serves with, Beije has somewhat conservative views about Guard regiments that include women. He practically blows up when he learns Kasteen is the 597th's CO.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Colonel Asmar]]
The Commander of the Tallarn 227th. He's very uptight.
----
* KnightTemplar: The Tallarn are a notoriously devout regiment, and Asmar is no exception.
* LawfulStupid: Just like Beije he's too much of a rule stickler and zealot.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Even stoic Asmar is genuinely horrified by what his men find in the agricultural center's lab. [[spoiler:Slaanesh will do that to you.]]
* SeriousBusiness: Everything he does. Notably, this extends towards those parts of his job that demand his interaction with Cain, so he doesn't dismiss Cain out of hand like Beije does. He just dislikes Cain, he doesn't disrespect him.
* StayInTheKitchen: His attitude toward women is not very open, which is part of his problem with the Valhallan 597th.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Commissar Forres]]
The regimental Commissar assigned to the newly founded Nusquan 1st Regiment of the Imperial Guard and, being fresh out of the schola, Forres is everything Cain isn't: gung-ho, by the book, and indifferent to extensive casualties. Cain finds his second tour on Nusquam Fundumentibus divided between saving the planet from alien invasion and trying to stop Forres and her troopers from getting themselves killed.
----
* ActionGirl: She leads from the front like a "proper" Commissar and manages to hold her own against 'Nids.
* AttackAttackAttack: Her initial view of how an Imperial Guard regiment should operate. Exposure to Cain and the 597th rapidly cures her of it.
* CharacterDevelopment: Unlike Beije, who mainly comes away from his encounter with Cain with [[BreakTheHaughty a collection of humiliations and traumas]], Forres starts her book as the Commissar equivalent of NewMeat but learns from Cain's example that there's a lot more to fighting for the Emperor than charging the enemy and shooting the slowest man into the fray, coming away from the experience a better officer for it.
* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: [[spoiler: Lambasts the Valhallans for electrocuting the floor of the room she and her regiment were in, even though it wiped out the Tyranids trying to eat them. Magot's reaction is essentially this]].
-->'''Magot''': [[spoiler: No "thanks for saving us from being 'nid bait", then. Snotty fem-hound]].
* DidntThinkThisThrough: After the above example, [[spoiler: Forres cuts the power to the electricity by blasting the circuit box with her bolt pistol... killing ''all'' power in the room]].
** When it turns out [[spoiler: there are Tyranids on Nusquam Fundumentibus, Forres suggests trying to put the 'nids against the Orks they are already dealing with to make the Imperials' job easier. Kasteen, Broklaw and Cain all shoot down that idea immediately]].
* DefrostingIceQueen: Seems blunt and tactless at first but becomes more friendly and tactically savvy as the book goes on.
* {{Deconstruction}}: of the stereotypical "The first one to retreat gets a bolt to the head" type of Commissar so often seen in the Imperium. Her forces only start doing better when they use techniques that aren't massed infantry charges and other suitably Hollywood-esque tactics the Imperium seems to love, and Cain openly shows disdain for the Bolt Pistol she uses- widely popular with the Commissariat for its power and intimidation, but in a battlefield, the humble laspistol is more rugged, lighter, carries more ammo, and is more likely to help you survive.
* HandCannon: Favours a bolt pistol, like many Commissars for its intimidation factor.
* HeroWorship: Of Cain, as to be expected. She even outright says that the tutors at her schola held Cain up as the ideal to aspire to. Interestingly, she resents this, saying that she disapproved of it, and she ignores Cain's advice right up until it nearly gets her killed. She calms down a bit after that.
* KnowWhenToFoldThem: When Jurgen mentions that the last time another Commissar called Kasteen's competence into question, Cain challenged them to a duel, Forres takes one look at his well-used chainsword and withdraws her remark.
* LeeroyJenkins: To be expected from a commissar fresh out of the schola. Cain gets the worst of it out of her by the end of the novel.
* NoSocialSkills: Forres does not do a good job of endearing herself to the 597th. Judging by the reactions of her own regiment's officers whenever Kasteen, Broklaw or Cain takes her down a peg, Cain notes she's probably not very popular there.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Initially between Forres and the 597th, particularly with Kasteen.
* WeHaveReserves: Her idea on how to beat Orks is to charge them in close combat. It takes Cain and Kasteen pointing out that her regiment's casualty figures are ''three'' times higher than the 597th's to convince her to try something new (i.e., actual tactics)
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Erhlsen]]
A Gunner in Mostrue's unit. He's convinced that saving the Commissar's life during the first encounter is keeping him from suffering any more severe punishments, and Cain seems disinclined to disabuse him of this utterly false idea.
----
* AndroclesLion: He saves Cain's life in the first short story soon after Cain giving him a mild punishment in his first disciplinary hearing.
* BloodKnight: Erhlsen is repeatedly described as being happy and nonchalant amidst intense battles.
* DeadpanSnarker: Cain wonders if Erhlsen intends to make latrine duty his full-time job. The Gunner simply fires off a platitude about serving the Emperor as their talents direct.
* MildlyMilitary: He's constantly being disciplined for drinking and such and takes being demoted and reprimanded in stride.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Sautine]]
A Perlian Leman Russ commander who ends up joining the convoy shortly after the refugees leave an old arms depot in ''Death or Glory''.
----
* ActionGirl: Sautine is a skilled tank commander, a good Laspistol shot, and a great asset to Cain's convoy.
* NoseArt: On her ''tank'', specifically, a badge of a red fox wearing Guard flak armour. Apparently, her (all-female) tank unit was called the 'Vixens'.
* TheStoic: Described as sounding "infuriatingly calm" and matter-of-fact in combat. Staying cool is important as a tank commander, after all.
* TankGoodness: Commands a tank which joins Cain's forces.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Nordstorm]]
A hell-raiser in Mostrue's unit.
----
* ManchurianAgent: He turns out to have been taken over by the broodmind.
* WhatDidIDoLastNight: He's introduced seemingly hung over and incoherent. Anyone with half a brain can easily figure out that he was implanted by the broodmind at the brothel, though.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Milsen]]
A trouble-making trooper who serves with Cain on Keffia.
----
* KleptomaniacHero: Milsen has been repeatedly disciplined for looting and theft but seems to take his duties seriously.
* SuicideAttack: An infected Milsen ties several grenades to his chest and blows them up to open a door for the Genestealers.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Jarvik]]
A friend of Erhlsen, Milsen and Nordstrom.
----
* ProperlyParanoid: He's absolutely right to be wary of the local brothel, [[RightForTheWrongReasons even if he thinks that it's just a dive where soldiers get drugged and robbed]] and [[WrongGenreSavvy not a genestealer front]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mulenz and Grear]]
Two forward observers in Mostrue's artillery unit who accompany Cain during an encounter with Slaanesh cultists, which sadly ends in disaster for them. This is also Cain's first encounter with the long-term antagonist Emeli.
----
* CaptainObvious: Mulenz announces their pathway is blocked by a wall when this is painfully obvious to Cain; the Commissar makes a remark to the effect of "no wonder they made him an Observer, nothing gets past this guy."
* ThoseTwoGuys: They're introduced together and not too distinct.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: They don't survive their encounter with the Slaanesh cultists. [[spoiler:One is sacrificed in a ritual, whilst the other gets possessed by the daemon that ritual summoned.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dravin]]
A Guards Commissar assigned to a tank unit during the Battle of Adumbria. He ends up being one of the judges selected when Tomas Beije brings Cain before a tribunal on several trumped-up charges.
----
* OldSoldier: His service record is twice the length of either of his fellow judges.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Dravin is quick to acquit Cain of the unsupported charges filed against him and then proceeds to discipline Cain's accuser for nearly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory with his LawfulStupid antics.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Malden]]
A Psyker for Zyvan. One of the calmer and more stable psykers you'll ever meet.
----
* DissonantSerenity: He generally sounds either flat or casual while discussing torture of daemon invasions during his scenes in the third book.
* MindRape: He does this as a form of interrogation, with it being mentioned that a noble falsely suspected of being a Chaos worshipper will take a long time to regain his faculties after Malden probed his brain.
* TheNondescript: Cain mentions that he meets Malden multiple times through the course of his career, but can never quite remember what he looks like enough to describe him.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Alem Mahat]]
A Tallarn sergeant serving under Beije.
----
* SergeantRock: Mahat is a capable and caring leader to his squad and comes out of some very intense fighting unscathed. While initially sent to help arrest Cain, he quickly becomes an ally of his upon realizing Beije is risking the lives of his men and possibly the entire planet.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Lanks]]
A soldier in the unit Forres is assigned to.
----
* RankUp: Lanks starts as a sergeant but is promoted to lieutenant due to his unit's heavy losses and his bravery in the face of the Tyranids.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Colonel Greydon]]
The head of a regiment whose commissar is murdered in the short story "Three Questions".
* GetOut: Upon learning that the murderer of his commissar is legally untouchable, he makes it clear how unhappy he is with this in spite of the commissar's AssholeVictim status and the killer's sympathetic motives, telling the killer to petition her superiors for reassignment and "stay out of my way" in the meantime.
* NervousWreck: He is weary from dealing with a real martinet of a commissar and his stress level goes up when the man is murdered and the entire regiment become suspects.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Dr. Wersun]]
A medical officer who assists in the investigation into the death of another commissar in "Three Questions".
* BeleagueredBureaucrat: Cain describes him as a man whose words and actions are meant to "minimize the amount of paperwork in his immediate future", but who won't slack off in the face of truly serious matters.
* TheCoroner: He examines a dead body and is annoyed at being ordered to make his examination more thorough. However, once he finds evidence of foul play, he explores them further and quickly reports his findings.
* PetTheDog: Despite being sarcastic, insubordinate, and frustrated with responsibilities at times, he does make some career suggestions to the SympatheticMurderer of Comissiar Fossick after she's dismissed from her unit and feels unsure where to go next.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:General Torven]]
The Guard commander of the Serendipita System.
----
* TheBrigadier: He is a commanding and sensible headquarters soldier who wields a lot of influence but has a RuggedScar and still dresses like the field combatant he likely was as a youth.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: Like many generals, he is unaware of how alarming he can sound when he talks about about having Cain attach himself to a dangerous operation as an overseer.
* InterServiceRivalry: He dislikes how single-minded Tech-Priests can be and doesn't hesitate to complain about how many of them are willing to take big risks for new tech when others will be the ones paying the price if they fail.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Colonel Rorkins]]
The stormtrooper training officer at Perlia.
----
* CardGames: Often gambles with his fellow instructors, notably Cain and Visiter.
* ColonelBadass: A decorated, forward-thinking colonel who fights at the front, and fights quite well.
* ProperlyParanoid: He has his trainees conduct operations which could be adapted to a potential invasion. He also has the foresight to move the main command operations to the Schola, which proves to be a sound decision when [[spoiler:Varan shows up and flattens the Perlian PDF High Command base with an orbital strike.]]
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[[/folder]]
[[folder:Gunner Ferik Jurgen]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ferik_jurgen.png]]
Ferik Jurgen is Cain's personal aide. He has the following notable qualities: his foul smell and general disregard of any sort of personal hygiene; his complete devotion to Cain and strong faith in the Emperor; his overwhelming heroism and courage; and, finally, the fact that he is a blank -- capable of completely shutting down any sorcery or psychic effects within certain radius. Cain's closest friend, consistently accompanying him throughout his adventures; the two are both inseparable and deadly together.
Understandably but unfortunately, Jurgen is almost universally left out of every story and tall tale about Cain except for his own -- all his many achievements are usually credited to Cain, when in reality the two of them tend to work in tandem. Even Jenit Sulla, who obviously enjoyed the esteem and respect of her soldiers, barely noticed Jurgen throughout her career. As Amberley puts it, with the best will in the galaxy, he's hardly the sort of person you want cluttering up a heroic legend.
----
* AchievementsInIgnorance: Cain frequently wonders if Jurgen's life-saving feats are part of a calculated well-hidden genius or if he operates on gut instinct, being unaware that his actions are extremely improbable. Both Cain and Amberly have also mentioned that they aren't sure if he's the bravest man they've ever met, or just doesn't fully understand how dangerous his many adventures with Cain actually are. The short stories from his perspective do nothing to clear it up; he doesn't perceive the enemies he faces there as a serious threat, but then he beats them so handily that they clearly aren't. Cain has also speculated on whether Jurgen's tendency to casually drop bombshells in conversation that make Cain look even more the HumbleHero (like casually asking if he needs to act as a second again when someone insults the Colonel) are out of ignorance or just an understated flair for drama.
* AlmightyJanitor: Justified. Being able to boss admirals and generals around when they bother Cain is a surprising ability to someone whose rank is the lowest possible in the Imperial Guard, but he's technically assigned to the Commissariat as Cain's personal aide and, since the Commissariat is outside the Guard's rank structure, he claims that his position places him outside it as well. Unless there's something to be gained by claiming to still be inside the Guard's structure, in which case he does that instead.
** Cain himself sort of jokingly lampshades this by referring to him as "Gunner-''First Class''" (a rank he made up himself) rather than a mere "Gunner."
* AntiMagic: Part of being a blank is that he is immune to psychic attacks.
* ArchEnemy: Being a Valhallan, Jurgen absolutely hates Orks. Knowledge of Orks is passed down extensively among Valhallans, which proves to be extremely helpful during ''Death or Glory'', when a younger Cain's knowledge of the myriad Orkish species is academic.
* BadassDriver: [[DrivesLikeCrazy Driving like crazy]] isn't a bad thing when there are plenty of enemies to run over.
* BattleButler: Though he reaches it from the opposite end of the spectrum than most other examples of this trope.
* BeneathNotice:
** Most people dismiss Jurgen after their initial reaction to his repulsiveness and body odor. This often lets Jurgen get the drop on his foes or otherwise act without being bothered. Certainly no one suspects he's a blank, and pretty much every official account of Cain's exploits leaves him out, which suits Amberly just fine. Cain less so, though; towards the end of their careers, the Commissar is apparently at least a little miffed that Jurgen never appears in narratives about him.
** In ''Vainglorious'', Cain encounters the Space Marine chapter he met decades ago. They immediately greet Jurgen by name, to the shock of the Adeptus Mechanicus onlookers, and praise him for continuing to serve the Emperor.
--->'''Jurgen:''' ''[confused]'' [[HumbleHero What else would I do?]]\\
'''Space Marine Captain:''' What, indeed.
* BerserkButton: Rather fittingly, given his UndyingLoyalty to Cain and unwavering faith in the Emperor, he's not too fond of treachery or harming a member of the Ecclesiarchy. Unfortunately, his going berserk actually makes him ''less'' effective as a soldier.
** He also ''really'' doesn't like it when other bureaucrats or servants try to do his job. This leads to some downright farcical arrangements once he rejoins Cain whilst they're with the Reclaimers, where the chapter serf will bring meals to the ''door'' of Cain's quarters at which point Jurgen brings them to the Commissar. Said serf later ends up assigned to Mira [=DuPanya=] and the two of them still manage to get in each other's way.
* {{BFG}}: Jurgen acquires a melta, a short-ranged anti-tank gun, in ''For the Emperor'' and uses it in every book set afterwards, killing everything from a traitorous guardsman to a World Eaters Chaos Space Marine to a daemon.
* BlindObedience: Jurgen operates by the uncomplicated worldview that "the Commissar is always right". When it comes to surviving everything that's been going on, Cain generally gets it right all the time whenever Jurgen's around.
* BodyguardingABadass: Cain trusts Jurgen to watch his back because of his unwavering loyalty. He's also a crack shot (both with a lasgun ''and'' with a melta, the latter being an [[{{BFG}} anti-armor weapon]] designed for short-range use, to boot) and capable of neutralizing Warp powers, both of which come in handy when the two of them are in a pinch.
* BookDumb: The more charitable interpretation of Jurgen, who shows both insight and practical wisdom even despite his ignorance and supposed lack of intelligence. He is, however, clearly socially stunted, probably because of the unfortunate side effects of being a blank. Emphasized in "The Smallest Detail": despite his lack of education, he spots a crooked quartermaster almost immediately [[AwesomenessByAnalysis due to his long experience in the Guard]]. [[spoiler:It's because the quartermaster's records are meticulously accurate and flawless, which is never the case for ''actual'' Guard quartermasters.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: At first glance, Jurgen's a terribly ugly and unsanitary soldier that was assigned to Cain's aide as a punishment to him because Colonel Mostrue didn't believe that Cain really intended to save the day and was just trying to flee. As it so turns out, Jurgen's said image alone makes him an excellent secretary because no one will go bother Cain unless it's ''really'' important if they have to go through Jurgen first, his [[BlindObedience single-mindedness]] toward Cain's orders causes him to fulfill all of them to the best of his ability, he's legitimately quite capable in combat, and he has [[CrazyPrepared a sense of preparedness]] (not to mention [[AntiMagic the blank abilities]] and [[{{BFG}} meltagun]]) that has saved the duo often.
* ChekhovsBoomerang: Jurgen's melta gun and blank abilities save the day at least several times each ''per novel''.
* CovertPervert: On the one hand, his "nests" often involve [[PornStash several porno slates]]. On the other, he never mentions this, and [[LonersAreFreaks certainly never acts on it.]]
* CrazyPrepared: Cain describes him as being constantly clad in assault webbing with numerous bags and pouches attached in which he holds everything he thinks he might need. On a couple of occasions, he is seen as pulling out something he thought might be useful, such as an extra pair of snow goggles for Cain, or some sandwiches he brought on the chance that Cain might be hungry. Of course, one of those sandwiches got mislaid in the tangle and forgotten until much later, as mentioned in a different book.
* CursedWithAwesome: Being a blank makes him a social pariah and incapable of making real bonds with people (besides Cain)... but the ability to frazzle Warp-based powers has saved his and Cain's bacon ''many'' times.
* ADayInTheLimelight: The ShortStory "The Smallest Detail" is told from his point of view, and Cain doesn't appear.
* DisneyDeath: In ''For the Emperor'' he's shot in the head with a bolter. Miraculously, his helmet took the brunt of the blow.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: But with extraordinary proficiency -- despite regularly making his passengers fear for their lives, Jurgen has never crashed into something unintentionally. Best exemplified in one novel where Cain instructs him to drive a ''tank'' through an enemy force and into an evac shuttle. Jurgen guns the engine and plows the tank full tilt through the enemy and up the ramp at full speed, before stopping the tank ''on a dime.'' It's characteristic of him, really: Jurgen is bullheaded, LiteralMinded, and very StreetSmart, he's just socially awkward.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: He doesn't usually notice the more subtle jabs at him and doesn't really go out of his way to get recognition for his work, but he tends to react ''very'' poorly when people fail to respect his position as Cain's aide. He even gets grumpy if ''Cain'' does things Jurgen thinks are below his respect as Commissar.
* DumbIsGood: Jurgen seems to be this at first glance, but he's remarkably insightful, has an amazing knack for scrounging, and is extremely diligent and thorough. What intelligence he may lack is made up for by unyielding faith in the Emperor's will and a pragmatic outlook along the lines of "The Commissar is always right."
** ''Caves of Ice'' even has a scene where he thinks so far ahead that he actually saved Cain's life by bringing along an extra pair of snow goggles, reasoning that Cain would forget them himself.
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: Already an enormously competent soldier, the discovery that he was a blank was the icing on the cake.
* {{Hammerspace}}: Downplayed. Jurgen carries so much useful stuff in pouches/pockets/belts/bandoleers that Cain wonders how he manages to lug his weapons around and still have enough room for ammo.
* HardHead: He survives a ''bolter shot'' to the head. True, he's wearing a helmet, but bolters are described as punching straight through body armour and bursting human torsos on a regular basis, and it had just killed another soldier. Presumably the shell hit his helmet at an oblique angle and deflected so that the projectile's impact fuse didn't go off.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: The author has stated that Jurgen has a good claim to being the real hero of the stories, "if anyone ever noticed him."
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Cain, as is more and more obvious over the course of the books. Although Cain makes fun of Jurgen frequently in his narration, the two of them are very close -- Cain describes Jurgen as the only man he ever really trusted, is crushed when he thinks Jurgen's dead, and is probably Jurgen's only friend even though Jurgen's blank status effectively makes him ''supernaturally unlikable'' (never mind his personal hygiene issues). Jurgen, for his part, serves Cain with unfailing loyalty and fellowship, is always ready to assist Cain in any capacity, and repeatedly dares almost certain death purely for the sake of companionship.
* HiddenDepths: To most who meet him he's just the disheveled smelly soldier that brings the Commissar's tea. In reality he's one of the most skilled infantrymen in the Guard: a crack shot who is utterly fearless in battle, an expert at battlefield stealth and operating behind enemy lines, possessing significant tactical insight and a keen understanding of how best to engage most of Humanity's enemies won on the battlefield. He's also a skilled scrounger, an excellent (if terrifying) driver, an expert at the Imperial Military's labyrinthine paperwork and official protocol, and loyal to a fault.
* HypercompetentSidekick:
** He was initially introduced as a BumblingSidekick, but rapidly became an elite (if still immensely dirty) soldier who sticks with Cain for practically his entire, insanely dangerous, career. Although Cain is actually a fantastic warrior and leader, Jurgen saves his life as many times (if not more) than Cain saves his and Cain is under no illusions that Jurgen (as a blank) is more valuable to Amberley than he is.
** During the events of ''Death or Glory'', which takes place well before Cain's first meeting with Amberley, Jurgen is still extremely useful because he's a Valhallan. Because of the antipathy Valhallans have toward Orks, Jurgen has extensive ancestral knowledge of greenskin behavior, weaknesses, and psychology, which saves everyone's lives multiple times. Oh, and he also figures out how to drive an Ork War Buggy really quickly.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: In ''The Emperor's Finest'' Cain has Jurgen take a shot at a fuel tank too far for him to hit with his own laspistol. Jurgen has to try a few times, but then it's revealed he was actually aiming for ''the release valve'', assuming that was what Cain meant.
* IOweYouMyLife: It's never explicitly mentioned, but this may be one reason why Jurgen sticks so close to Cain. See the [[Fridge/CiaphasCain Fridge Brilliance]] section for details.
* JabbaTableManners: Jurgen's eating habits are not for the faint of heart, and he's often left to eat privately because he tends to make awful noises while consuming his meals and spraying crumbs everywhere. Cain can easily tell where Jurgen has been camped out because he'll leave half-eaten food and dirty plates lying around. In fact, whenever Cain sees a tyranid horde engaged in a feeding frenzy, he's usually reminded of Jurgen going at a buffet or dealing with a plate of shellfish.
* KillItWithFire: Jurgen's Meltagun has saved him and Cain a number of times. He's also exceptionally fond of burning Orks whether alive or dead (as are all Valhallans) but given their means of reproduction this is entirely reasonable.
* LimitedAdvancementOpportunities: Cain has Jurgen as his sidekick for roughly a century, but Jurgen never once gets a promotion. In fact, he spends his entire career with the grade of gunner, the artillery regiment version of an infantry private, although Cain has occasionally introduced him with the fictitious rank "gunner first class". Potentially Amberley's doing to prevent him from getting more widely known, jeopardizing his usefulness as Cain's (and her) ace in the hole due to being a blank (and as an aide to a commissar Jurgen has authority well beyond his titular rank anyway).
* LiteralMinded: He occasionally has trouble with parsing metaphors, leading to a few amusing incidents.
* LonersAreFreaks: In Jurgen's case, though, it's the freakishness which causes the social isolation. Most other people find blanks to be subtly unsettling and thus look down on them with contempt. The fact that Cain still treats Jurgen like a human being is yet another sign that some readers use to claim that Cain has [[HiddenDepths hidden strength of character]].
* MageKiller: Cain expects Vail to make him one of those, although she decides not to, as having a covert ops blank is indispensable. Indeed, several times Jurgen's blank powers have completely blindsided psychic opponents precisely because they had no idea he was one, and Cain even uses it to trick a radical Inquisitor into picking up a lethal psychic artifact. He also functions as one whenever Cain encounters an enemy with Warp powers.
* NoHeroToHisValet: For all of Cain's posturing in an attempt to keep Jurgen sufficiently impressed by him, Jurgen is under no illusion that Cain is invincible or infallible often revealing to his companion's relief precautions he himself has taken in lieu of the latter's carelessness and vulnerabilities. However, unlike most examples of this trope, he nonetheless regards Cain as worthy of his loyalty and respect.
* ObliviouslySuperpowered: Jurgen is a [[PowerNullifier Blank]], and basically has a psychic hole in the Warp where his soul should be; consequently, Warp-based magic is greatly weakened or even nullified around him. It's a one-in-a-trillion gift, but although an Inquisitor tried to explain it to Jurgen, he apparently didn't get it: all he knows is that he's never found daemons and psykers to be as big a threat as they were made out to be.
* OldSoldier: During ''Cain's Last Stand'' he has become old in service to the Imperium. Juvenat treatments are one perk of being friends with an Inquisitor.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: There has been only ''one'' time in Cain and Jurgen's entire combined career that Cain has given Jurgen an order and Jurgen has declined to follow it: during Cain's DuelToTheDeath with [[spoiler:Ork Warboss Korbul]], Cain frantically shouts for Jurgen to "shoot the frakker!". Jurgen refuses, [[BookDumb quickly explaining that if he intervenes in the battle]] (which [[spoiler:Korbul]] made a 1v1 by challenging Cain himself), the other [[spoiler:lesser warbosses]] serving under [[spoiler:Korbul]] will decide it's fair for them to pile in and kill all of them. Cain knows that if he repeats the order Jurgen will obey despite his misgivings but decides it's better to trust Jurgen's judgement in this case.
* ThePigpen:
** Exaggerated. Jurgen's body odor and grime is mentioned constantly. He is exempt from standard Guard cleaning regulations due to his variety of skin conditions. It's suggested that this is supernatural in origin -- as a blank, Jurgen doesn't connect spiritually to other people like normal humans do, as interpersonal interactions have an underlying psychic component, and thus his perpetual grime might be how some people perceive him as a blank. At one point, the next day after bathing even longer than Cain, Jurgen is described as looking almost as dirty as he was beforehand already. In fact, it's often suggested that Jurgen's body odor is directly connected to the radius of his blank abilities -- Cain smelling Jurgen and the anti-psyker effects manifesting are always linked.
** Cain often mentions that he quickly turns any quarters assigned to him into a complete mess, and his presence in an area can often be identified by him leaving random messes around. As a blank, he may simply have stopped caring about hygiene and etiquette when he realized that nothing he did would make most people like him. In addition, [[JabbaTableManners he has absolutely awful eating habits,]] frequently making disgusting noises and leaving crumbs everywhere when he chows down.
* PowerNullifier: As a [[AntiMagic blank]], Jurgen often serves Cain by shutting down Pyskers. He also seems to erratically affect other psychic entities like Tyranids, and can even apparently shield people from detection by certain Necrons.
* QuickDraw: When Cain and Jurgen are ambushed, Jurgen can have his shouldered Lasgun pointed at the enemy and empty a power pack before Cain gets his pistol out.
* TheReliableOne: Jurgen never fails to be a constant help to Cain in his endlessly dangerous life, sticking with him through everything, saving his life repeatedly and [[CrazyPrepared thinking to lug around various things he'd imagine could have been useful]].
* RulesLawyer: As a Gunner, Jurgen is a member of the Guard. As Cain's aide, he is technically seconded to the Commissariat. He tends to ignore the legal snarls about his precise status unless he absolutely has to, at which point he chooses whichever side brings him advantage at the moment.
* TheScrounger: Another indication that Jurgen's smarter than he lets on, though the proxy use of Cain's commissarial authority helps. Cain finds this talent to be quite useful and admits that he doesn't ask questions about Jurgen's methods to [[PlausibleDeniability avoid knowing anything incriminating]].
** This turns into the focus of the Jurgen-focused short story "The Smallest Detail". He goes through a Quartermaster's depot so thoroughly the guy panics and thinks he's being audited. Jurgen actually [[CorruptQuartermaster did find evidence he was selling stuff on the side]] (the records were suspiciously meticulous), but it's so expected it didn't even occur to him to report it until the man tried to have him silenced. When the bad guys are defeated and their truck full of stolen goods is spilled out on the road, Jurgen ''loots the pile'' right in front of the MP officer he was working with.
* ShoutOut: His "interesting skin diseases" harks back to Jailor Ploppy in ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' II.
* {{Sidekick}}: Even if every history about Cain's adventures but his own leaves him out entirely. A fact which Cain reputedly hated, as evidenced by his disdain for the [[ShoutOut holodrama]] ''[[Series/HogansHeroes Cain's Heroes]]'', about his adventures in ''Death Or Glory'', which left Jurgen and several other vital characters out completely.
* SidekickExMachina: The "Jurgen ex machina" is notorious among fans of ''Literature/CiaphasCain''. He's almost always what allows Ciaphas to execute the killing blow. When he doesn't simply pull his [[{{BFG}} melta]] and [[HypercompetentSidekick do it himself]].
* SpannerInTheWorks: Nobody ''ever'' expects Jurgen, and it tends to be the downfall of anything even remotely psychic.
* StatingTheSimpleSolution: In one instance in ''For the Emperor'', Cain and company are trying to work out how to get the Tau ambassadors they're escorting through a hostile mob. Jurgen's solution is to get the ambassadors to ask the crowd to let them through, as the crowd is made up of Tau sympathizers. It works.
* TheStoic: Cain frequently describes his general attitude as "phlegmatic." There's remarkably little that fazes or flusters him (and having traveled alongside Cain as his aide, he's seen almost everything the universe could throw at an Imperial Guardsman and lived to tell the tale).
** NotSoStoic: When it comes to orks (like all Valhallans, he ''despises'' orks) or, more amusingly, other helpstaff. In the latter case, Jurgen turns outright ''snarky''.
* {{Understatement}}: Espouses a lot of these though it's debatable if they're further indication of his simplicity or [[HiddenDepths the subtle hinting of snark]].
* UndyingLoyalty: To Cain. With all of the terrifying situations Cain gets into, it's also just as surprising that Jurgen doesn't shirk being beside him in them either. This is probably Jurgen's most defining trait (apart from his smell).
* TheWatson: If it doesn't have anything to do with Orks, combat or his duties as an aide, Jurgen's quite fine with taking things at face value which only provokes Cain into even higher bouts of paranoid (and eventually justified) analysis.
[[folder:Gunner Ferik Jurgen]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ferik_jurgen.png]]
Ferik Jurgen is Cain's personal aide. He has the following notable qualities: his foul smell and general disregard of any sort of personal hygiene; his complete devotion to Cain and strong faith in the Emperor; his overwhelming heroism and courage; and, finally, the fact that he is a blank -- capable of completely shutting down any sorcery or psychic effects within certain radius. Cain's closest friend, consistently accompanying him throughout his adventures; the two are both inseparable and deadly together.
Understandably but unfortunately, Jurgen is almost universally left out of every story and tall tale about Cain except for his own -- all his many achievements are usually credited to Cain, when in reality the two of them tend to work in tandem. Even Jenit Sulla, who obviously enjoyed the esteem and respect of her soldiers, barely noticed Jurgen throughout her career. As Amberley puts it, with the best will in the galaxy, he's hardly the sort of person you want cluttering up a heroic legend.
----
* AchievementsInIgnorance: Cain frequently wonders if Jurgen's life-saving feats are part of a calculated well-hidden genius or if he operates on gut instinct, being unaware that his actions are extremely improbable. Both Cain and Amberly have also mentioned that they aren't sure if he's the bravest man they've ever met, or just doesn't fully understand how dangerous his many adventures with Cain actually are. The short stories from his perspective do nothing to clear it up; he doesn't perceive the enemies he faces there as a serious threat, but then he beats them so handily that they clearly aren't. Cain has also speculated on whether Jurgen's tendency to casually drop bombshells in conversation that make Cain look even more the HumbleHero (like casually asking if he needs to act as a second again when someone insults the Colonel) are out of ignorance or just an understated flair for drama.
* AlmightyJanitor: Justified. Being able to boss admirals and generals around when they bother Cain is a surprising ability to someone whose rank is the lowest possible in the Imperial Guard, but he's technically assigned to the Commissariat as Cain's personal aide and, since the Commissariat is outside the Guard's rank structure, he claims that his position places him outside it as well. Unless there's something to be gained by claiming to still be inside the Guard's structure, in which case he does that instead.
** Cain himself sort of jokingly lampshades this by referring to him as "Gunner-''First Class''" (a rank he made up himself) rather than a mere "Gunner."
* AntiMagic: Part of being a blank is that he is immune to psychic attacks.
* ArchEnemy: Being a Valhallan, Jurgen absolutely hates Orks. Knowledge of Orks is passed down extensively among Valhallans, which proves to be extremely helpful during ''Death or Glory'', when a younger Cain's knowledge of the myriad Orkish species is academic.
* BadassDriver: [[DrivesLikeCrazy Driving like crazy]] isn't a bad thing when there are plenty of enemies to run over.
* BattleButler: Though he reaches it from the opposite end of the spectrum than most other examples of this trope.
* BeneathNotice:
** Most people dismiss Jurgen after their initial reaction to his repulsiveness and body odor. This often lets Jurgen get the drop on his foes or otherwise act without being bothered. Certainly no one suspects he's a blank, and pretty much every official account of Cain's exploits leaves him out, which suits Amberly just fine. Cain less so, though; towards the end of their careers, the Commissar is apparently at least a little miffed that Jurgen never appears in narratives about him.
** In ''Vainglorious'', Cain encounters the Space Marine chapter he met decades ago. They immediately greet Jurgen by name, to the shock of the Adeptus Mechanicus onlookers, and praise him for continuing to serve the Emperor.
--->'''Jurgen:''' ''[confused]'' [[HumbleHero What else would I do?]]\\
'''Space Marine Captain:''' What, indeed.
* BerserkButton: Rather fittingly, given his UndyingLoyalty to Cain and unwavering faith in the Emperor, he's not too fond of treachery or harming a member of the Ecclesiarchy. Unfortunately, his going berserk actually makes him ''less'' effective as a soldier.
** He also ''really'' doesn't like it when other bureaucrats or servants try to do his job. This leads to some downright farcical arrangements once he rejoins Cain whilst they're with the Reclaimers, where the chapter serf will bring meals to the ''door'' of Cain's quarters at which point Jurgen brings them to the Commissar. Said serf later ends up assigned to Mira [=DuPanya=] and the two of them still manage to get in each other's way.
* {{BFG}}: Jurgen acquires a melta, a short-ranged anti-tank gun, in ''For the Emperor'' and uses it in every book set afterwards, killing everything from a traitorous guardsman to a World Eaters Chaos Space Marine to a daemon.
* BlindObedience: Jurgen operates by the uncomplicated worldview that "the Commissar is always right". When it comes to surviving everything that's been going on, Cain generally gets it right all the time whenever Jurgen's around.
* BodyguardingABadass: Cain trusts Jurgen to watch his back because of his unwavering loyalty. He's also a crack shot (both with a lasgun ''and'' with a melta, the latter being an [[{{BFG}} anti-armor weapon]] designed for short-range use, to boot) and capable of neutralizing Warp powers, both of which come in handy when the two of them are in a pinch.
* BookDumb: The more charitable interpretation of Jurgen, who shows both insight and practical wisdom even despite his ignorance and supposed lack of intelligence. He is, however, clearly socially stunted, probably because of the unfortunate side effects of being a blank. Emphasized in "The Smallest Detail": despite his lack of education, he spots a crooked quartermaster almost immediately [[AwesomenessByAnalysis due to his long experience in the Guard]]. [[spoiler:It's because the quartermaster's records are meticulously accurate and flawless, which is never the case for ''actual'' Guard quartermasters.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: At first glance, Jurgen's a terribly ugly and unsanitary soldier that was assigned to Cain's aide as a punishment to him because Colonel Mostrue didn't believe that Cain really intended to save the day and was just trying to flee. As it so turns out, Jurgen's said image alone makes him an excellent secretary because no one will go bother Cain unless it's ''really'' important if they have to go through Jurgen first, his [[BlindObedience single-mindedness]] toward Cain's orders causes him to fulfill all of them to the best of his ability, he's legitimately quite capable in combat, and he has [[CrazyPrepared a sense of preparedness]] (not to mention [[AntiMagic the blank abilities]] and [[{{BFG}} meltagun]]) that has saved the duo often.
* ChekhovsBoomerang: Jurgen's melta gun and blank abilities save the day at least several times each ''per novel''.
* CovertPervert: On the one hand, his "nests" often involve [[PornStash several porno slates]]. On the other, he never mentions this, and [[LonersAreFreaks certainly never acts on it.]]
* CrazyPrepared: Cain describes him as being constantly clad in assault webbing with numerous bags and pouches attached in which he holds everything he thinks he might need. On a couple of occasions, he is seen as pulling out something he thought might be useful, such as an extra pair of snow goggles for Cain, or some sandwiches he brought on the chance that Cain might be hungry. Of course, one of those sandwiches got mislaid in the tangle and forgotten until much later, as mentioned in a different book.
* CursedWithAwesome: Being a blank makes him a social pariah and incapable of making real bonds with people (besides Cain)... but the ability to frazzle Warp-based powers has saved his and Cain's bacon ''many'' times.
* ADayInTheLimelight: The ShortStory "The Smallest Detail" is told from his point of view, and Cain doesn't appear.
* DisneyDeath: In ''For the Emperor'' he's shot in the head with a bolter. Miraculously, his helmet took the brunt of the blow.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: But with extraordinary proficiency -- despite regularly making his passengers fear for their lives, Jurgen has never crashed into something unintentionally. Best exemplified in one novel where Cain instructs him to drive a ''tank'' through an enemy force and into an evac shuttle. Jurgen guns the engine and plows the tank full tilt through the enemy and up the ramp at full speed, before stopping the tank ''on a dime.'' It's characteristic of him, really: Jurgen is bullheaded, LiteralMinded, and very StreetSmart, he's just socially awkward.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: He doesn't usually notice the more subtle jabs at him and doesn't really go out of his way to get recognition for his work, but he tends to react ''very'' poorly when people fail to respect his position as Cain's aide. He even gets grumpy if ''Cain'' does things Jurgen thinks are below his respect as Commissar.
* DumbIsGood: Jurgen seems to be this at first glance, but he's remarkably insightful, has an amazing knack for scrounging, and is extremely diligent and thorough. What intelligence he may lack is made up for by unyielding faith in the Emperor's will and a pragmatic outlook along the lines of "The Commissar is always right."
** ''Caves of Ice'' even has a scene where he thinks so far ahead that he actually saved Cain's life by bringing along an extra pair of snow goggles, reasoning that Cain would forget them himself.
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: Already an enormously competent soldier, the discovery that he was a blank was the icing on the cake.
* {{Hammerspace}}: Downplayed. Jurgen carries so much useful stuff in pouches/pockets/belts/bandoleers that Cain wonders how he manages to lug his weapons around and still have enough room for ammo.
* HardHead: He survives a ''bolter shot'' to the head. True, he's wearing a helmet, but bolters are described as punching straight through body armour and bursting human torsos on a regular basis, and it had just killed another soldier. Presumably the shell hit his helmet at an oblique angle and deflected so that the projectile's impact fuse didn't go off.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: The author has stated that Jurgen has a good claim to being the real hero of the stories, "if anyone ever noticed him."
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Cain, as is more and more obvious over the course of the books. Although Cain makes fun of Jurgen frequently in his narration, the two of them are very close -- Cain describes Jurgen as the only man he ever really trusted, is crushed when he thinks Jurgen's dead, and is probably Jurgen's only friend even though Jurgen's blank status effectively makes him ''supernaturally unlikable'' (never mind his personal hygiene issues). Jurgen, for his part, serves Cain with unfailing loyalty and fellowship, is always ready to assist Cain in any capacity, and repeatedly dares almost certain death purely for the sake of companionship.
* HiddenDepths: To most who meet him he's just the disheveled smelly soldier that brings the Commissar's tea. In reality he's one of the most skilled infantrymen in the Guard: a crack shot who is utterly fearless in battle, an expert at battlefield stealth and operating behind enemy lines, possessing significant tactical insight and a keen understanding of how best to engage most of Humanity's enemies won on the battlefield. He's also a skilled scrounger, an excellent (if terrifying) driver, an expert at the Imperial Military's labyrinthine paperwork and official protocol, and loyal to a fault.
* HypercompetentSidekick:
** He was initially introduced as a BumblingSidekick, but rapidly became an elite (if still immensely dirty) soldier who sticks with Cain for practically his entire, insanely dangerous, career. Although Cain is actually a fantastic warrior and leader, Jurgen saves his life as many times (if not more) than Cain saves his and Cain is under no illusions that Jurgen (as a blank) is more valuable to Amberley than he is.
** During the events of ''Death or Glory'', which takes place well before Cain's first meeting with Amberley, Jurgen is still extremely useful because he's a Valhallan. Because of the antipathy Valhallans have toward Orks, Jurgen has extensive ancestral knowledge of greenskin behavior, weaknesses, and psychology, which saves everyone's lives multiple times. Oh, and he also figures out how to drive an Ork War Buggy really quickly.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: In ''The Emperor's Finest'' Cain has Jurgen take a shot at a fuel tank too far for him to hit with his own laspistol. Jurgen has to try a few times, but then it's revealed he was actually aiming for ''the release valve'', assuming that was what Cain meant.
* IOweYouMyLife: It's never explicitly mentioned, but this may be one reason why Jurgen sticks so close to Cain. See the [[Fridge/CiaphasCain Fridge Brilliance]] section for details.
* JabbaTableManners: Jurgen's eating habits are not for the faint of heart, and he's often left to eat privately because he tends to make awful noises while consuming his meals and spraying crumbs everywhere. Cain can easily tell where Jurgen has been camped out because he'll leave half-eaten food and dirty plates lying around. In fact, whenever Cain sees a tyranid horde engaged in a feeding frenzy, he's usually reminded of Jurgen going at a buffet or dealing with a plate of shellfish.
* KillItWithFire: Jurgen's Meltagun has saved him and Cain a number of times. He's also exceptionally fond of burning Orks whether alive or dead (as are all Valhallans) but given their means of reproduction this is entirely reasonable.
* LimitedAdvancementOpportunities: Cain has Jurgen as his sidekick for roughly a century, but Jurgen never once gets a promotion. In fact, he spends his entire career with the grade of gunner, the artillery regiment version of an infantry private, although Cain has occasionally introduced him with the fictitious rank "gunner first class". Potentially Amberley's doing to prevent him from getting more widely known, jeopardizing his usefulness as Cain's (and her) ace in the hole due to being a blank (and as an aide to a commissar Jurgen has authority well beyond his titular rank anyway).
* LiteralMinded: He occasionally has trouble with parsing metaphors, leading to a few amusing incidents.
* LonersAreFreaks: In Jurgen's case, though, it's the freakishness which causes the social isolation. Most other people find blanks to be subtly unsettling and thus look down on them with contempt. The fact that Cain still treats Jurgen like a human being is yet another sign that some readers use to claim that Cain has [[HiddenDepths hidden strength of character]].
* MageKiller: Cain expects Vail to make him one of those, although she decides not to, as having a covert ops blank is indispensable. Indeed, several times Jurgen's blank powers have completely blindsided psychic opponents precisely because they had no idea he was one, and Cain even uses it to trick a radical Inquisitor into picking up a lethal psychic artifact. He also functions as one whenever Cain encounters an enemy with Warp powers.
* NoHeroToHisValet: For all of Cain's posturing in an attempt to keep Jurgen sufficiently impressed by him, Jurgen is under no illusion that Cain is invincible or infallible often revealing to his companion's relief precautions he himself has taken in lieu of the latter's carelessness and vulnerabilities. However, unlike most examples of this trope, he nonetheless regards Cain as worthy of his loyalty and respect.
* ObliviouslySuperpowered: Jurgen is a [[PowerNullifier Blank]], and basically has a psychic hole in the Warp where his soul should be; consequently, Warp-based magic is greatly weakened or even nullified around him. It's a one-in-a-trillion gift, but although an Inquisitor tried to explain it to Jurgen, he apparently didn't get it: all he knows is that he's never found daemons and psykers to be as big a threat as they were made out to be.
* OldSoldier: During ''Cain's Last Stand'' he has become old in service to the Imperium. Juvenat treatments are one perk of being friends with an Inquisitor.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: There has been only ''one'' time in Cain and Jurgen's entire combined career that Cain has given Jurgen an order and Jurgen has declined to follow it: during Cain's DuelToTheDeath with [[spoiler:Ork Warboss Korbul]], Cain frantically shouts for Jurgen to "shoot the frakker!". Jurgen refuses, [[BookDumb quickly explaining that if he intervenes in the battle]] (which [[spoiler:Korbul]] made a 1v1 by challenging Cain himself), the other [[spoiler:lesser warbosses]] serving under [[spoiler:Korbul]] will decide it's fair for them to pile in and kill all of them. Cain knows that if he repeats the order Jurgen will obey despite his misgivings but decides it's better to trust Jurgen's judgement in this case.
* ThePigpen:
** Exaggerated. Jurgen's body odor and grime is mentioned constantly. He is exempt from standard Guard cleaning regulations due to his variety of skin conditions. It's suggested that this is supernatural in origin -- as a blank, Jurgen doesn't connect spiritually to other people like normal humans do, as interpersonal interactions have an underlying psychic component, and thus his perpetual grime might be how some people perceive him as a blank. At one point, the next day after bathing even longer than Cain, Jurgen is described as looking almost as dirty as he was beforehand already. In fact, it's often suggested that Jurgen's body odor is directly connected to the radius of his blank abilities -- Cain smelling Jurgen and the anti-psyker effects manifesting are always linked.
** Cain often mentions that he quickly turns any quarters assigned to him into a complete mess, and his presence in an area can often be identified by him leaving random messes around. As a blank, he may simply have stopped caring about hygiene and etiquette when he realized that nothing he did would make most people like him. In addition, [[JabbaTableManners he has absolutely awful eating habits,]] frequently making disgusting noises and leaving crumbs everywhere when he chows down.
* PowerNullifier: As a [[AntiMagic blank]], Jurgen often serves Cain by shutting down Pyskers. He also seems to erratically affect other psychic entities like Tyranids, and can even apparently shield people from detection by certain Necrons.
* QuickDraw: When Cain and Jurgen are ambushed, Jurgen can have his shouldered Lasgun pointed at the enemy and empty a power pack before Cain gets his pistol out.
* TheReliableOne: Jurgen never fails to be a constant help to Cain in his endlessly dangerous life, sticking with him through everything, saving his life repeatedly and [[CrazyPrepared thinking to lug around various things he'd imagine could have been useful]].
* RulesLawyer: As a Gunner, Jurgen is a member of the Guard. As Cain's aide, he is technically seconded to the Commissariat. He tends to ignore the legal snarls about his precise status unless he absolutely has to, at which point he chooses whichever side brings him advantage at the moment.
* TheScrounger: Another indication that Jurgen's smarter than he lets on, though the proxy use of Cain's commissarial authority helps. Cain finds this talent to be quite useful and admits that he doesn't ask questions about Jurgen's methods to [[PlausibleDeniability avoid knowing anything incriminating]].
** This turns into the focus of the Jurgen-focused short story "The Smallest Detail". He goes through a Quartermaster's depot so thoroughly the guy panics and thinks he's being audited. Jurgen actually [[CorruptQuartermaster did find evidence he was selling stuff on the side]] (the records were suspiciously meticulous), but it's so expected it didn't even occur to him to report it until the man tried to have him silenced. When the bad guys are defeated and their truck full of stolen goods is spilled out on the road, Jurgen ''loots the pile'' right in front of the MP officer he was working with.
* ShoutOut: His "interesting skin diseases" harks back to Jailor Ploppy in ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'' II.
* {{Sidekick}}: Even if every history about Cain's adventures but his own leaves him out entirely. A fact which Cain reputedly hated, as evidenced by his disdain for the [[ShoutOut holodrama]] ''[[Series/HogansHeroes Cain's Heroes]]'', about his adventures in ''Death Or Glory'', which left Jurgen and several other vital characters out completely.
* SidekickExMachina: The "Jurgen ex machina" is notorious among fans of ''Literature/CiaphasCain''. He's almost always what allows Ciaphas to execute the killing blow. When he doesn't simply pull his [[{{BFG}} melta]] and [[HypercompetentSidekick do it himself]].
* SpannerInTheWorks: Nobody ''ever'' expects Jurgen, and it tends to be the downfall of anything even remotely psychic.
* StatingTheSimpleSolution: In one instance in ''For the Emperor'', Cain and company are trying to work out how to get the Tau ambassadors they're escorting through a hostile mob. Jurgen's solution is to get the ambassadors to ask the crowd to let them through, as the crowd is made up of Tau sympathizers. It works.
* TheStoic: Cain frequently describes his general attitude as "phlegmatic." There's remarkably little that fazes or flusters him (and having traveled alongside Cain as his aide, he's seen almost everything the universe could throw at an Imperial Guardsman and lived to tell the tale).
** NotSoStoic: When it comes to orks (like all Valhallans, he ''despises'' orks) or, more amusingly, other helpstaff. In the latter case, Jurgen turns outright ''snarky''.
* {{Understatement}}: Espouses a lot of these though it's debatable if they're further indication of his simplicity or [[HiddenDepths the subtle hinting of snark]].
* UndyingLoyalty: To Cain. With all of the terrifying situations Cain gets into, it's also just as surprising that Jurgen doesn't shirk being beside him in them either. This is probably Jurgen's most defining trait (apart from his smell).
* TheWatson: If it doesn't have anything to do with Orks, combat or his duties as an aide, Jurgen's quite fine with taking things at face value which only provokes Cain into even higher bouts of paranoid (and eventually justified) analysis.
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[[folder:Commissar Ciaphas Cain, '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM''']]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ciaphas_cain.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The luckiest and unluckiest man in the galaxy.]]
Ciaphas Cain is a man of questionable origin -- he is commonly believed to be a Hiveworlder, yet no one knows where exactly his birthplace is, maybe not even himself -- tall, imposing stature, handsome, charming, and a pathological liar. He was enrolled in the Schola Progenium, where he acquired his commissarial sash despite middling-low performance in academics, excelling only in sports, combat training and discipline [[note]]A word which here means "not getting caught"[[/note]]. Shortly thereafter he was assigned to the Valhallan 12th Field Artillery unit, the beginning of a positively ludicrous series of heroic exploits. There's no doubt that his actions on the battlefield were decisive, and they usually directly led to glorious victories of various degrees.
However, the reasoning behind them is in the eye of the beholder. According to those he had risked his life to save, he's Cain the Liberator, Cain the Hero, slayer of daemons and leader of men whose biographies verge on canonization. (In fact, one obscure Tallarn cult views him as a living embodiment of the God-Emperor's will.) According to his own secret memoirs, he is a poor, pathetic coward concerned solely with his well-being and escaping responsibility, his every heroic, selfless, or even considerate action taken solely to manipulate others into aiding him.
----
* AccidentalHero: Lots and lots of times. He invariably tries to put himself out of harm's way only to inadvertently wind up in an even bigger mess than the one he was trying to avoid, and ends up having to solve the plot to save his own neck.
* AlliterativeName: Commissar Ciaphas Cain.[[note]]Three hard 'C's in case you're wondering, and a long "i" sound in "Ciaphas". Also, '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM.'''[[/note]]
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Skillfully invoked. If you examine what Cain actually ''does'' without his inevitable 5-page pooh-pooh explanation, he's the biggest damn hero in the entire universe, just one with a perverse sense of humility. On the other hand, accepting his explanation that he's "just lucky/unlucky" and that somehow ''every single'' allegedly self-serving and cowardly act he does accidentally results in him saving people's lives and looking good at it would make him even more of an aberration in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe. [[ShrugOfGod Even the author isn't sure which interpretation is true.]]
** In ''Caves of Ice'', there's a passage where he muses sadly about all the brave men and women he's seen die, and thinks he's probably the last man alive who even remembers them. Then, in ''Cain's Last Stand'', he feels a pang to realize he can't recall the face of a man who died in ''Death or Glory'' some seventy years before.
** He shows tremendous courage despite his insistence that he's a self-serving coward. In situations of extreme danger and terror, he somewhat calmly analyzes his chances and opts for reasonable courses of action. It is fueled by his wish for survival, but he still shows admirable nerve. Though in at least one situation, Cain admits he has no idea why he did something incontrovertibly, dangerously heroic -- and halfway admits he did it simply because Amberley's life was in danger.
** Cain's disgust for what he calls "Emperor-botherers" might be the closest thing to an atheist he can be in a theocratic empire. Or it might be that he's the most pious commissar in the history of the Imperium, if he genuinely believes that the Emperor has much better things to do than keep an eye on him, so he does everything he can to ensure his own survival so that the Emperor can focus His attention elsewhere, where it's needed.
** A relatively common Alternate Character Interpretation of Cain is that he actually was a DirtyCoward at the beginning of the series, but by sometime in the middle of the series, he became genuinely brave and heroic while still thinking of himself as a Dirty Coward. It's very doubtful that if he was [[TheSoCalledCoward as big a coward as he claims]], he could undertake actions as awesome as assembling a RagtagBunchOfMisfits to take back Perlia or [[spoiler: shoot a daemoness in the face with a [[{{BFG}} Meltagun]], duel [[TheLegionsOfHell two Chaos Space Marines]] with his chainsword, or kick a Chaos Warmaster off a roof.]]
** It's worth mentioning that a lot of his pooh-pooh explanations actually make perfect sense in that the seemingly suicidal course of action really is his best shot at continued survival and comfort, often because he simply can't trust anyone else to follow his TakingAThirdOption tactics and attempting escape wouldn't save him in any case, forcing him to take all the risks himself.
** Then there is the Sector Thirteen short story. When he sees Genestealer PDF troops running away from him, he's not relieved. He slips into Commissar mode and screams at them for being cowards. The law enforcement officer he's with snaps him back. Keep in mind that this is only a handful of years into his career.
** In a spectacular case of LeaningOnTheFourthWall, Amberley Vail notes in the foreword to ''The Emperor's Finest'' that the above debate also occurs InUniverse among her readers in the Inquisition.
--->'''Amberley:''' ... A reputation, which, true to form, he continues to insist throughout the current extract is completely undeserved. Many of my readers have taken this claim at face value, and many others have construed it as a rather engaging blindness to his own virtues. Having known him personally, I tend to the view that [[ShrugOfGod the truth is a little more complicated than either postulation]].
** ''The Last Ditch'' features a truly ridiculous example of the disparity between Cain's narration and his actions. Between him and his objective (primarily a power station he intends to explode, but also some members of the Guard, including the rookie commissar he's taken under his wing, who need rescuing) is an impenetrable wall of Tyranids. Everybody present and in command is of the opinion that it will simply not be possible for him and Jurgen to get through. In narration, Cain crows that at last he has a perfect, bulletproof excuse to not dive headfirst into danger, and that so long as he is appropriately solemn in the aftermath, he can retreat safely, reputation intact. What he ''actually does'' is to take command of the forces present and order them to focus their efforts in such a way as to cause maximum disruption to the swarm and the hive mind, and he's somehow ''surprised'' that this results in the way being made clear for him. He claims directly afterwards that he'd only done as he had to facilitate a fighting retreat, but he only mentions this after the fact, and seems to forget that the troops were already doing exactly that when he arrived. There's not even an attempt to brush it off as Cain wanting to be seen making an effort that just went too well.
* AntiHero: While unambiguously an AntiHero, what exact subtrope he falls into is intentionally left to the reader. The "he thinks he's worse than he actually is" theory believes he is somewhere between KnightInSourArmour and PragmaticHero. The "Character development theory" believes he eventually unambiguously becomes the former.
* ArtificialLimbs: Cain has two augmetic fingers, replacing those lost to a glancing hit from a Necron Gauss Flayer.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Despite his disdain for "Emperor-botherers", Cain has a fondness for a particular text called ''The Precepts of Saint Emilia'' and occasionally quotes from it. In ''Duty Calls'' he's infuriated when Inquisitor Ernst Killian misquotes a verse from it as justification for his crimes.
* AwesomeByAnalysis: His ingenuity and cunning tend to save his life and end those of his enemies.
* BadassBureaucrat: As a commissar, this is literally part of Cain's job description. Cain tries to avoid the more onerous aspects of the "bureaucrat" part, foisting most of the day-to-day trivialities and paperwork on Jurgen. In a pinch, however, he can and will use his commissarial privileges, the weight of his reputation, and outright LoopholeAbuse to cut through mountains of red tape.
* BadassNormal: Despite being an essentially unmodified human with basic Guard-issue weapons, Cain has managed to defeat or at least hold his own against [[SuperSoldier Space Marines]], Daemons, a horribly mutated Chaos Warlord, a Broodlord, and a gigantic Ork Warboss. ''The Last Ditch'' adds a MAWLOC to his one on one records. Plus a Tervigon, of all things, with merely an over-strength squad and a lone Valkyrie VTOL jet as backup!
* BadassUnintentional: You could make a [[DrinkingGame/CiaphasCain Drinking Game]] of Cain assigning himself a mission safely away from what he thinks is the worst fighting, only to end up in an even worse scrape than the one he just escaped and having to save everybody's bacon. It's so consistent that Jurgen thinks he does it on purpose.
* BadBoss: Averted and deconstructed. Cain makes plenty of threats, but he's a reasonable man and the only times he's ever executed troopers on-screen were practically MercyKill justified cases (or in one case, for trying to kill him). He'd rather earn his soldiers' trust so they're more inclined to protect him in battle and avoid UnfriendlyFire, as tends to happen with unpopular commissars. He and Amberley remind the reader frequently that a commissar's responsibility is maintaining morale, and summary execution is an extreme means of doing so best reserved for desperate cases. (Plus, executions mean more paperwork all around, and Cain's nothing if not averse to that.)
** Both Cain's notable assignments were also situations where the more stereotypical commissar would be unnecessary and counterproductive. The 12th Valhallan was an artillery unit that had few discipline problems and largely fired on distant targets with other Guard units in support. The 597th Valhallan had high morale, high resistance to Chaotic or alien taint, and exceptional supplies. However, the 597th only had high morale as a direct result of Cain's intervention, and in particular due to his reluctance to simply execute a tenth of the regiment to show the rest what happens when you step out of line.
** However, ''The Greater Good'' gives us the line "In the Guard people were executed for less [than incompetence]. And some of them by me." Which means that he can be a BadBoss, should the situation be severe enough. Justified in that he is talking about incompetence that got people killed.
* BattleCouple: [[HeterosexualLifePartners Platonically]] with [[HypercompetentSidekick Jurgen]], [[LoveInterest romantically]] with Inquisitor Amberley Vail.
* BecomingTheMask: If Cain shows any CharacterDevelopment over his career, this is likely the cause. The "mask" he wears is one of a [[ThinkNothingOfIt humble hero]], always eager to put himself InHarmsWay. Underneath that mask, he is primarily interested in [[ItsAllAboutMe self-preservation, having a good time, and avoiding work]]. However, as he is cast into ever more dire and important situations, his heroic ''actions'' become increasingly genuine, even if his ''thoughts'' remain selfish. His increasing confidence in his own abilities allows him to consider even relatively dangerous situations "safe" in ways he would not have as a younger man, and his view of self-interest becomes more long-term the more experienced he gets. In his own words:
-->I'd spent so long hiding behind masks I was no longer sure there was a genuine Ciaphas underneath them any more.
* BeneathTheMask: The novels' keystone premise is that Cain is a very different person from how he is portrayed by Imperial propaganda.
* BondOneLiner: He gets in a few here and there, but one stands out before he kills (for the first time) the Slanneshi seductress Emily Boudouir.
--> "Sorry, I prefer blondes".
* BoringButPractical: He could easily get his hands on a powerful bolt-pistol (such as the ones he's always portrayed with in the artwork), but he'd never forgo his handy laspistol. As unassuming as it is, it's got far higher ammo count and accuracy than the other weapons (especially since Cain mastered the art of firing one from the hip) and both have saved his life in many fights. He also consistently forgoes replacing his Laspistol with a more powerful Hellpistol, initially justifying it by saying that the weight might throw off his reflexes as he has no time to practice with it at the time, even though he could switch over during a longer downtime such as a long warp transit and accustom himself to the difference whilst he has time to practice.
* BornInTheWrongCentury: In Cain's time, leaders are taught to angle for a glorious death because [[CrapsackWorld they're probably gonna die soon anyway, so you might as well make it count]]. But Cain has the insight to try acting more like a present-day military leader: fight to preserve your mens' lives, lead by example when it's really important, and be aggressive if defense isn't feasible. Running away isn't cowardly if it frees you to fight again later. [[DeliberateValuesDissonance But by the standards of the 40k Imperium]], he's a wuss who won't sacrifice his men for the cause, his thought-out strategies are a refusal to AttackAttackAttack and he shames the Imperium by not purposefully choosing suicide missions. This gets {{lampshaded}} in ''The Last Ditch'', when a novice commissar complains that the 597th are shirking their duty, and Col. Kasteen, whom Cain helped mold as an officer, notes that the Valhallans are inflicting far more casualties than the commissar's own Nusquan 1st Regiment while taking far fewer.
* BornLucky: While he doesn't see it that way, Cain has extreme good luck. To everyone else, all reputation boosts seem to be a good thing, but Cain knows that [[BlessedWithSuck every boost to his reputation eventually leads to him being put into even more dangerous situations]].
* BrokenAce: On the outside, he's a charming, charismatic leader of soldiers who is capable of going toe-to-toe with some of humanity's worst enemies. On the inside, he's a psychological wreck plagued with feelings of inadequacy and an inability to recognize his own selflessness. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Or just]] a ManipulativeBastard, exactly as he claims. Then again, BrokenAce and ManipulativeBastard are not mutually exclusive although somewhat contradictory.
* CaptainObvious: During his time with the Reclaimers as whatever illuminating conclusions he'd draw from a situation when around the Space Marines were recognized by them much quicker, though they chose not to vocalize them unless Cain did.
* CaptainOblivious: When Mira sets her sights on Cain, the degree to which he apparently completely misses the point of her advances is nothing short of absolutely stunning, to the point of convincing himself that she was looking to marry a ''Space Marine''. Of course he may have been playing this up for dramatic effect, given the benefit of writing with hindsight.
* TheCasanova: He mentions several "non-regulation" relationships he has with a number of women who are invariably quite attractive, and a few more had been implied. His relationships with women were wide rather than deep, at least until he met Amberley.
* CharacterDevelopment: [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation One interpretation:]] The young Cain is concerned only with saving his own life; he performs heroic deeds just to keep up appearances and avoid UnfriendlyFire. However, as he survives ever more dangerous situations and matures, his actions become increasingly selfless and genuinely heroic, most obviously in his defense of Perlia during the Second Siege. Cain himself does not seem to realize that this has happened, and still considers himself to be the selfish DirtyCoward of his youth.
* TheCharmer: According to Vail's footnotes, Cain is one of these. She notes that a certain kind of woman would be easily drawn to his charms, and one who was not too bright to begin with could find herself soon broken hearted. Cain's offhand references to finding himself spending pleasant time in the company of the young daughters of noble families after attending various official functions seem to back this up. Cain seems completely unaware of this, and assumes that these affairs are as casual to the women as they are to him; when one of the women he's seeing starts talking about making plans for their future it catches him ''completely'' off-guard.
* ChivalrousPervert: Despite his amorous adventures (prior to meeting Amberley at least), he never seems to have gotten in trouble for them; the one time he describes meeting an old flame, she certainly shows no sign of heartbreak. The one woman who's hacked off at him for dumping her (by way of a laspistol shot to the chest; ItMakesSenseInContext) [[spoiler:gives him nightmares for years, and eventually becomes a daemon princess]].
* CommissarCap: He ''is'' a commissar, after all.
-->"It isn't the scarlet sash and the fancy hat that makes you a commissar, it's the way you wear them."
* ConsummateLiar: Even before he knew about Jurgen, and afterward when he's not around, Cain was confident in his ability to fool ''mind readers'' -- mostly by controlling stray thoughts. It is implied that he couldn't have defended himself from an actual investigation and is lucky that his memory has never been scanned before. Inquisitor Amberley Vail is the first human being in his life whom he cannot fool no matter how hard he tried, and she's not even a psyker.
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Standard for Commissars since they are recruited from the Schola Progenium, orphanages for the children of Imperial servants who died in the line of duty.
* CoolTeacher: Cain appears to have become one prior to the events of Cain's Last Stand (or at least he claims to be more relaxed, to the irritation of his colleagues).
* CorneredRattlesnake: Cain will run when he can get away with it. When he knows he ''can't'' run (such as when he knows that failure to defeat a threat here and now will mean the destruction of the entire planet), he'll fight with all the strength and determination of any more typical ''40k'' hero, charging unhesitatingly into battle against opponents who could tear him to ribbons, such as [[spoiler:an ork Warboss in mega-armour, a Tyranid Hive Tyrant, or a fully-manifested Slaaneshi daemon princess]].
* CosmicPlaything: Cain repeatedly comments that if the Emperor is actually watching him, He has a sick sense of humor.
* CourtMartialed: ''The Traitor's Hand'' wraps up with Cain facing a Commissariat tribunal, basically a court-martial by a different name. [[spoiler: The charges of cowardice, which were brought by his old rival Tomas Beije on faulty information, are dismissed pretty quickly; the trial ends with Beije being charged for interfering with Cain's effort to save the day. While Beije was gleeful in bringing up the charges because of an old grudge, Cain decided he could forgive Beije for doing his job and pulled some strings to get him let off, after letting him stew on it for a few days of course. He decided that Beije could hopefully learn his lesson, and if not, it would be fun to watch him squirm, knowing that he owed Cain his life.]]
* CoversAlwaysLie:
** Invariably depicted with a bolter or bolt pistol despite using a laspistol in text. They also tend to portray him using somewhat ornate or well-decorated chainswords when he's specifically noted to prefer the rugged models made for heavy-duty military use.
** ''The Greater Good'' mentions that the iconic bolt pistol which he is seen with in all of the covers is something Cain only received well after he left service with the 597th, and was in fact a weapon that was taken from a genestealer-infected techpriest which he then passed on to Amberley.
* CowardlyLion: Cain is a guy with little courage that nonetheless achieves feats of great daring do. This is thus the attitude of the person editing his memoirs -- Cain may be a DirtyCoward in his own mind, but he still acts in spite of how completely and utterly terrified he is at all moments, which makes him genuinely heroic.
* {{Cyborg}}: Cain has two augmetic fingers, and in ''Caves of Ice'' he mentions that they're the only parts of his body that don't feel cold when he's out in the freezing arctic wind.
* DeadpanSnarker: Best exemplified in ''The Traitor's Hand'', where he never once lets a "'''[[LargeHam BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!]]'''" pass un-mocked.
* DesignatedHero: It's a case of PlayingWithATrope. Cain considers ''himself'' to be one, InUniverse. He doesn't think he's TheHero of this story, he doesn't even think he's ''a'' hero. He's just a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time who coincidentally saves the day while trying to save his own skin and nothing else. Yet he has this reputation as '''THE HERO OF THE IMPERIUM,''' and the official records of him describe him as such. The actual narrative, the one we real life readers see, does not portray him as a hero because it's a first person narrative.
* DestructiveSaviour: Cain has favored this approach on at least five distinct separate occasions. Granted, all of them crossed the GodzillaThreshold. In his own words, no machinery can cost as much as a life of a single soldier (especially if the soldier in question is him).
** In ''Caves of Ice'', he blows up the very promethium refinery his regiment was sent to defend [[spoiler:in order to destroy the Necron tomb and active Warp portal located beneath it]].
** In the short story "The Beguiling," he calls down artillery fire on his own position [[spoiler:in order to destroy a Chaos coven and the daemonhost it was in the process of summoning]].
** In ''Death or Glory'' he blows up a major hydroelectric dam [[spoiler:to drown an approaching Ork army that would otherwise have slaughtered his band of refugees]].
** In ''Cain's Last Stand'' he tries to blow up another dam [[spoiler:(well, technically it's the same one...) to prevent the Necrons from getting their hands on a potent Warp artifact. Unfortunately, they jam the detonation signal and escape]].
** In ''The Last Ditch'' he blows up a geothermal power plant (and the city it's in) [[spoiler:in order to destroy a crash-landed Tyranid Bio-Ship buried underneath it.]]
* DirtyBusiness: There are numerous clues that Cain feels the sacrifices he makes more keenly than he lets on.
** In the short story "Sector 13" he discovers a genestealer cult. At the end of the story, amid general celebration, he's trying (unsuccessfully) to avoid thinking about all the Imperial subjects and guardsmen who're being executed because, despite being loyal, they '''are''' infected and there's no way to save them.
** In the first novel, ''For the Emperor'', Cain and the Valhallans accompanying him are forced to gun down a squad of loyal PDF at a checkpoint in order to complete their own mission (escorting Tau diplomats back to their enclave). Cain finds himself disgusted by it, and has difficulty working out what to say to his troopers. He finally tells the sergeant to tell them that he appreciated what they did. The sergeant says he will, with obvious sympathy, and Cain realizes it was the right line. Cain also notes that he still sees the face of the lieutenant in command of the PDF unit (who Cain personally killed in the ensuing shootout) and regrets what happened, knowing the lieutenant wasn't evil, just overeager and unwilling to back down.
* DirtyCoward: Played with. Cain sees himself as this, and a lot of his comments do give that impression, but Cain's increasingly heroic actions throughout the books (as Amberley notes frequently) suggest that [[HeroicSelfDeprecation he is cowardly only in his own mind]].
* DrinkBasedCharacterization: Just about any time Cain mentions drinking something, it's credits to carrots that it's either (alcoholic) amasec or (non-alcoholic) tanna tea or recaff if there is no tanna around. He's a honorary Valhallan, after all, and no Valhallan could imagine a life without tea. This reaches borderline obsessive levels in ''Death or Glory'' where the lack of tanna, and Cain asking hopefully, "I don't suppose you've got any," becomes something of a RunningGag. Considering that these novels are British in origin, the 40k setting is British in origin, the Schola Progenium where he was educated is depicted by Cain as being akin to a [[BoardingSchool British Public school]], the Valhallans are heavily based [[FantasyCounterpartCulture on Russians]], and Britain and Russia are noted for being [[BritsLoveTea tea-drinking countries]], this shouldn't come as a surprise.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: His facing down the rioting 296th and 301st troopers summarizes Cain's character neatly. He's only even near the riot because he's seen by some Navy provosts and goes with them because he can't be seen avoiding danger. He tries to stay out of it until the cries of one provost draw everyone's eyes to him. Cain then makes the snap assessment that if he shows any fear, he'll be jumped and killed in seconds. So instead he confidently strides forward pretending he has just stumbled onto the scene and in a commanding voice orders the tropers to start cleaning the place up. As he hoped, the troopers are effectively shocked back to sense by him asserting his authority and riot defuses. It shows his self-interest and desire to avoid danger, being forced into danger to maintain appearances, handling that danger with remarkable composure and cleverness, and effectively reading people and social situations.
* ExactWords: Often invokes this to tell a technical truth while sounding like something else. Regarding the necessity of blowing up the promethium refinery in ''Caves of Ice'', he states that "As far as I'm concerned, it's not worth the life of a single soldier". The soldier he is referring to, of course, is himself.
* {{Expy}}: Cain's characterization draws heavily from the namesake character of the infamous ''Flashman'' series. Though unlike Harry Flashman, Cain at least has some genuinely honorable traits to balance out his self-described cowardice, nor is he a raging bigot or unapologetic colonialist - at least, not exceptionally so by [[TheEmpire Imperial]] [[FantasticRacism standards]].
* FakeUltimateHero: [[RunningGag of the IMPERIUM!]] But really, he's actually a {{downplayed}} example. He's a self-admitted coward more interested in self-preservation than committing heroics in service to the Imperium or the Commissariat's [[YouHaveFailedMe emphatic morale and discipline enforcement]]. The practical reality is, while he ''may'' have started out the way he describes himself, he's much more a PragmaticHero who becomes more heroic as his career goes on. He actually performed all of the heroic deeds he's known for, whether he wanted to do something so dangerous or not.
* AFatherToHisMen: Cain invokes this trope wherever possible, because appearing to care for soldiers under his command means those same soldiers will go the extra mile to protect ''him'' from harm. It is perhaps telling, however, that there are numerous occasions where Cain could have sacrificed his Guardsmen's lives to keep himself out of harm's way but chose not to.
* FirstPersonSmartass: Even when he's "in-character", he's prone to making a few offhand wisecracks.
* TheFool: Cain himself, although not as nice or lighthearted as most examples. He goes into situations with minimal knowledge of what is going on and only his quick thinking and a healthy helping of luck see him through each conflict intact.
* GenerationXerox: Comes up once he's a CoolTeacher, in the form of Donal (who's just too much like Cain himself at that age). The kid even makes Commissar [[spoiler: (as an ItHasBeenAnHonor Battlefield Promotion]], which kinda spoils it).
* GenreBlind: Every single time he makes up a seemingly important task to keep him out of the fighting it ends up being actually important and more dangerous than whatever he's avoiding. He never spots the pattern. Amusingly enough Jurgen actually does notice that this happens to them every adventure (as mentioned in ''A Mug of Recaff''), but it's so consistent that he thinks Cain's doing it on purpose.
* GentleGiant: Despite the [[CoversAlwaysLie covers frequently deliberately lying]] about much else, they get one thing right: Cain is described as quite tall and broad, and can handle himself well enough to fight Orks and Space Marines hand-to-hand with a fair chance of victory. However, he doesn't generally throw his weight around (figuratively or literally) unless he absolutely has to, preferring to be perceived as a NiceGuy.
* GoingNative: Whilst living with the Valhallans for an astounding amount of time Cain took some of their customs, such as slang words, usual room temperature to adjust to (even if he still finds it chilling when it's warm for them), and a taste for tanna, a kind of tea which most non-Valhallans find disgusting.
* GoodIsNotDumb: The best explanation for Cain's behavior. His reputation means that his soldiers want to fight harder and trust him more and give their best at every point. They're serving alongside a legend, so they've got to perform at his level. But if he were to slack off, that desire would diminish, and while he wouldn't be hated, he'd no longer be leading the most dedicated regiment in the Imperium, and his chances of living would go down to just a regular Imperial soldier's (so, not long). By insisting on excellence all the time from himself in front of them, he's actually ensuring that he's surrounded by the most loyal soldiers in existence. And that is why he lives to old age and dies in bed where so many Imperial officers don't.
* GoodIsNotSoft: While he is a comparatively benevolent example of a commissar, Cain favors bombing worlds that have been occupied by the Ta'u and assimilated their culture and will still not hesitate to execute Imperial soldiers and citizens when the alternatives are worse. For example, in ''For The Emperor'' he immediately executes two Guardsmen who survived a battle with Genestealers, on suspicion that [[ZombieInfectee they were infected and allowed to escape.]] A quick inspection of their bodies [[ProperlyParanoid proved him right.]]
* GuileHero: Far more than any super futuristic Imperium weapon, it is his quick wits and creative thinking that doom the Imperium's enemies, although he'd rather they be more successful at getting him out of dangerous assignments.
* HandCannon: Averted. The popular perception of Commissars (in and out of universe) is that they all carry bolt pistols - large and intimidating, armor-piercing rocket launching pistols typically used by ''Space Marines'' - Cain, however, prefers the humble, and more reliable, laspistol instead.
* HeroicBuild: Going by the cover illustrations, though they are definitely intended to be overblown and not entirely truthful, he is an inspiring model of human physical potential. However, his combat ability and years of practice would make a fit build of some kind to be fairly logical and he's definitely also said to be rather tall in the stories themselves.
* HeroicSelfDeprecation: In spades. To give some perspective: If there is a heroic aspect that Cain [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation may or may not have]], he has probably belittled it, claimed that it doesn't exist, or given a selfish reason for it. For example, there's his reason for why he does not fit the stereotypical trigger-happy taskmaster, which boils down to: "Soldiers who hate and fear me will be more likely to aim at me! I will be nice to them, therefore I won't get killed by my own troops!" while conveniently ignoring (or invoking) that this is, you know, a genuinely moral thing to do. He has also downplayed numerous accomplishments that are apparently astounding, such as when he casually mentions that he, the Commissar, is close to the commanding officers and present at the briefings. Note that Amberley claims that this is an extremely rare occurrence, with commissars often being seen as an annoying third wheel in briefings. It's best summed up in this quote, when getting an after-action report from Jenit Sulla she mentions that she thought, "What would Cain do?"
-->'''Cain:''' And then did the opposite, I hope.
* HeroicWillpower: Even without Jurgen's assistance, Cain has proven to be remarkably resilient to the mind-warping influences of Chaos. During ''The Beguiling'', he was able to resist and escape the hedonistic sorceries of a secretive Slaanesh cult long enough to recognize the threat and kill the witch responsible.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With his [[HypercompetentSidekick inseparable aide]], [[AlmightyJanitor Jurgen]]. See his entry below.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: He's a rare nonlethal example. No matter how clever Cain is, any effort he makes to get out of dodge or avoid danger will inevitably end up thrusting him into even ''greater'' danger, much to his chagrin.
* HumbleHero: Part of his reputation, much cultivated. Also he frequently fits the part without even noticing it.
* HypocriticalHumor:
** Rather an inversion of the usual sort. In ''Duty Calls'', Cain is part of a meeting that gets some '''very''' scary news. While most of those around him panic, Cain controls his own terror and plans with Colonel Kasteen the actions they'll have to take to deal with the danger. Then he raises his voice to ask a question of the briefer, and notes that his "fraudulent reputation for remaining calm and decisive in a crisis" probably helps settle everyone else down.
** "I only did [heroic thing x] to support my fraudulent reputation for [x]" is practically a catchphrase.
* ImpliedDeathThreat: Not above using the threat of his commissarial authority to execute people to make a point. First seen when meeting with the officers of the 296th and 301st. After Sulla belligerently speaks out of turn, Cain sighs, nonchalantly draws his laspistol, places it on the desk in front of him, and tells her not to interrupt. She, and the others, get the message.
* IndyPloy: Cain always has a plan... which promptly goes out the window as soon as an unexpected threat shows up. Once this happens, he usually has to think on his feet and come up with a crazy plan to get him (and his soldiers incidentally) out of the situation. The fact that this always seems to work out in his favor has led to Cain being MistakenForBadass, and it's one of the sources of his HeroicSelfDeprecation.
* InformedFlaw: It becomes increasingly hard to believe Cain's really a coward, since we never see him do anything a sensible hero wouldn't do. He says he needs to maintain his reputation so that his allies would make good {{Human Shield}}s... every time he has to choose between using them as such and risking his own life for theirs. Despite going out of his way to earn the loyalty and respect of the soldiers around him, the simple fact is that he almost never ''cashes in'' on it, even when doing so would unquestionably be the safer thing to do.
* InHarmsWay: Inverted. Cain has to maintain the appearance of this trope to keep his reputation intact.
* InvincibleIncompetent: A dark and dramatic take on a protagonist who attempts to run away from the action yet always ends up winning. According to Cain he's a middling shot and passable swordsman who gets by thanks to constant practice and hard-won experience; according to Amberley he's incredibly gifted with both, and she expresses confusion that he somehow remained unaware of that fact no matter how many victories against superhuman foes stacked up.
* LanternJawOfJustice: Depicted with one rivaling [[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Marcus Fenix's]] jaw, which his entry on the character sheet has described as "About a third of his face."
* TheLeader: His men see him as a bold and charismatic man of action who cares about each and every one of them. Cain himself would say he's the opposite but invokes this so they will protect him.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Whenever he gets involved with Amberley's group or diplomats he has this problem thanks to him not knowing any more about Xenos cultures than the average Guardsman. Amberley mentions in a footnote that she never realized the extent of it until she read his memoirs; for instance, he never realized that the Eldar and Dark Eldar are separate factions.
* LovableCoward: Whether or not he's truly a coward, he's definitely lovable. At least, his soldiers and Amberley think so.
* LoveAtFirstSight: Cain has never believed in this; though he can remember every detail of the first time he ever saw Amberley. [[SceneryPorn And proceeds to describe it for us.]]
* TheMagnificent: Cain is known as "the Liberator" on Perlia for saving the planet from Ork domination. And of course, [[AC: HERO OF THE IMPERIUM]].
* MaleGaze: Cain is apparently a fan of ladies' rears:
** In ''Duty Calls'', he checks out both Amberley's and Kasteen's butts. The second time it actually saves his life -- turning his head to enjoy the view a little longer means he sees the assassin drones before they attack.
** In ''Sector Thirteen'', even with a horde of 'stealer hybrids in hot pursuit, he's able to appreciate the view while following Sergeant Phu upstairs.
* MasterSwordsman: Cain is incredibly skilled with his chainsword, and Amberley posits that he's one of the best wielders of this weapon in the sector. Regardless of which sector he's in. In one particular instance he fights a World Eaters Chaos Space Marine to a standstill long enough for Jurgen to get a clean shot with his melta (having trained with Techmarine Drumon of the Reclaimers during the events of ''The Emperor's Finest'' probably helped).
* MeaningfulName: Mixed in with a bit of FridgeBrilliance. His first name was that of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caiaphas the rabbi who condemned Jesus]], referring to Cain being his own greatest critic, despite how much of a genuine hero he eventually becomes. Not to mention the biblical Caiaphas is condemned in ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' as a ''hypocrite'' (which is more or less what Cain considers himself). [[Creator/SandyMitchell The author]] even mentions that his name was a biblical reference, but without saying what to.
* MistakenForBadass: Ciaphas is firmly of the opinion that he isn't genuinely responsible for any his major exploits -- rather, he feels that what actually happens is that he simply tries to get through crisis situations without dying and afterwards people mistake his scrambling for survival for actual heroism.
* MotivationalLie: As a commissar these are often necessary. Cain himself is a master of these, showing in his internal narration that he can read people very well and quickly choose the appropriate tone and words that would gain him favor or convince them to do what he needs.
* MultipleChoicePast: All that can be determined for certain before Cain was accepted into the Schola Progenium was that he spent his early youth on the lower to mid-levels of a hive city. The name of the hive city and the world on which it was located remain unknown, as does Cain's parentage. The fact that he was in the Schola means that he was orphaned, and tends to suggest that his parents were loyal Imperial servants, (In contrast, Cain described them as cowards on par with him.) but Vail has revealed no records that say for certain. Cain seems to use this when meeting new people, adjusting the backstory he tells them to his advantage. As a result, Vail [[LampshadeHanging advises the readers]] to take anything Cain says about his past [[UnreliableNarrator with a grain of salt]].
* MustHaveCaffeine: He once fought half-way around an Ork occupied planet to get to the nearest tanna. Okay, he claims this was a joke in the narration, but damned if he didn't check with every person and munitions dump he found on the way. Jurgen never left home without a thermos of tanna for him again.
* MyGreatestFailure: It's subtle, but over the course of the books it becomes clear that, while he's okay with putting up with all the fame and glory he unintentionally gets, he does feel bad that Jurgen, to whom much of his success can be credited to, gets absolutely no acknowledgment whatsoever.
-->''Cain himself disliked the [Holodrama based on ''Death or Glory''] intensely, not least because of a wholly invented subplot in which one of the militia recruits has a clandestine love affair with him, and because, almost inevitably, Jurgen fails to appear at all.''
* NayTheist: {{Downplayed}}. He's disdainful of organized religion ("Emperor-botherers") and doesn't pray much, reasoning that the God-Emperor of Mankind has better things to do than worry about him personally, but he does know the works of some Imperial saints well enough to spot a QuoteMine in one book.
* NervesOfSteel: While he always expresses fear, he almost never outright panics and can measure his best options for survival in situations that reduce trained, battle hardened soldiers to terror-stricken hysteria.
* NiceToTheWaiter: He's deferential to even lower-ranked Administratum drones and other menials, where most Imperial officers would brush them off and insist on getting things done through rigid chains of command. In his usual way, he dismisses this by observing that he only does so because they're the ones who often know the job he needs the best, but the fact that he can think that way at all is itself a step up from the way Guard officers and commissars ''usually'' think in this setting.
* ObliviousToLove: This is the case for Cain, but [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] interestingly in that he is oblivious to ''all'' positive feelings toward him including friendship and admiration, not just romantic ones. He never lets his guard down with anyone, and while he does spend mutually enjoyable time in others' company he sees it as just an entertaining diversion or keeping up appearances rather than a moment of bonding. FridgeBrilliance comes in when one realizes that keeping other people's spirits up is his job, and he never seems to allow himself to break from it. As a result, if anyone goes out of their way to do Cain a favor or support him, he attributes their motivation to his "[[FakeUltimateHero undeserved reputation]]" or his authority as a Commissar and never considers that they might actually ''like'' him. In fact, he often tends to mention himself getting along well with the officers of the [=597th=], and taking part in their tactical and strategic decisionmaking, which is something that a lot of Guard regiments try to avoid with other commissars precisely because they're considered a nuisance.
* OpportunisticBastard: Cain rarely goes into a situation with a concrete plan for how to tackle it (or even, at times, a complete picture of what he's actually getting into), but he has a remarkable tendency to find and exploit any advantage that could possibly give him an edge when he's in the thick of things. Interestingly, he's one of the rare few examples of this trope who's self-aware enough of just how shallow his motives run and who has enough of a conscience to actually beat himself up over it in quieter moments (that is, if we take his own account at face value).
* OvershadowedByAwesome: During the seventh book in both a physical and metaphorical sense as Cain is usually one of the tallest and most skilled combatants in a group with a keen analytical mind that allows him to notice things that may escape the attentions of those around him. The Space Marines dwarf him in stature and fighting ability and are just as perceptive as he is if not more so. This is due to Cain being in a relatively early (if eventful) part of his career and the fact that the Reclaimers are, well, The Emperor's Finest.
* PapaWolf: Shows shades of this as a CoolTeacher, not even trying to justify with cowardice just how much he cares for his little class of Commissar cadets. A RunningGag throughout the series is his attempts to teach them how not to fall victim to Friendly Fire, and he uses all of his experience to [[PassingTheTorch make them as effective as possible.]] Bonus points for actually referring to them as "pups" and featuring Donal as a GenerationXerox (before Cain has to spectacularly [[spoiler: avenge him]], [[CharacterDevelopment fully reaching this trope)]].
* ParentalAbandonment: Prerequisite for becoming a commissar. Vail does wonder how true his story is, though, as Cain is a (self-admitted) nearly pathological liar prone to manipulating others.
* ProperlyParanoid: He always thinks that situation is going to become much worse than it looks like. As he lives in [[CrapsackWorld Warhammer 40000 universe]], ''he's always correct'', and that's one of the main reasons he survives.
* RacialFaceBlindness: Cannot tell the difference between Craftworld and Dark Eldar. He just mentally files both as "pointy-eared xenos who keep trying to kill me". On the other hand he can recognise a specific T'au after several decades, even though this would normally be much more difficult.
* ReallyGetsAround: Has had enough sexual relations across the Imperium that it is probably littered with his bastard children.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Cain plays with this up and down the scale. He's gained a reputation for being a relatively fair-minded commissar by being willing to listen to other people's concerns, but it's mostly in the interest of saving his own skin. However, when he ''does'' investigate the lead everyone else is ignoring, he inevitably ends up uncovering (and defeating) something far more sinister than the original threat. He also mentions repeatedly (and demonstrates it in ''Cain's Last Stand'') that he's trying to instill this approach in the commissar cadets he teaches in ''[=40K=]'s'' present day.
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Cain has been reported as "Killed in Action" only to turn up alive and well so many times that eventually the Munitorum left standing orders for him to be kept on roster and payroll perpetually -- orders which are apparently still in force even after his ''confirmed'' death (and burial with full honors).
* RetiredBadass: Cain in ''Cain's Last Stand'', along with all the other schola instructors. Let that sink in: he's so badass, he's managed what is a nigh-impossible feat in the EverythingIsTryingToKillYou CrapsackWorld that is the ''Warhammer 40K'' universe: he '''REACHED RETIREMENT.'''
* RightPlaceRightTimeWrongReason: He owes his entire career to this trope. The Emperor appears to have it in for him because almost every act of intended cowardice, self-preservation/gratification or caution on his part ends up being turned on its head and landing him smack dab in the middle of another life-threatening situation. Then again, he always manages to survive it with flying colors, so the Emperor might just be doing it because he knows he can take it.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Cain has tried to pull this on numerous occasions to try and save his own ass. Most of the time it hasn't worked because he blunders smack into a much bigger problem than the one he tried to escape.
** In his first appearance, his attempts to escape [[spoiler: a gargoyle attack on his regiment's position on Desolatia end up with him running smack bang into the main Tyranid attack coming from the flank. Fortunately, he is able to both get back to the regiment and raise the alarm, and manages to cover up his attempt to desert by claiming he suspected what was coming and went to scout the area]].
** In ''Caves of Ice'', upon discovering [[spoiler: [[SealedEvilInACan a dormant Necron tomb]] on Simia Orichalcae, Cain wastes no time in ordering a complete Imperial evacuation from the planet. While he admits (privately, of course) his primary motivation is to save his own skin, Cain does correctly point out that the Necrons in the tomb likely outnumber the Imperials by a factor of several hundreds to one, and if they do wake up, the Imperials will find themselves caught between the Necrons and the Orks already invading the planet, so the best thing to do in the circumstances is get off planet, alert the Inquisition to what they've found and then call in an Imperial Navy flotilla to [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure obliterate the tomb from orbit]].]]
** At the climax of ''Cain's Last Stand'', with [[spoiler: their position about to be overrun by Varan's vengeful Chaos horde, matters swiftly go from bad to worse when a force of Necrons teleports in behind the Chaos forces and begin annihilating the heretics. Realising the Necrons fully intend to fight their way through the Chaos lines to the Imperial position, and aware they're in no shape to fight such an enemy, Cain wastes no time in ordering a full evacuation and orders the Mechanicus adepts on site to detonate the facility's self-destruct mechanism. The Imperials succeed in escaping, but the Necrons sabotage the self-destruct mechanism and escape with a powerful artefact the site was housing]].
* SelectiveObliviousness: Cain is often a very sharp man, picking up on clues and making connections no one else seems to. However, at other times he can be incredibly dense, missing things which are obvious to the reader. Amberley is quick to point out such times in footnotes, [[LampshadeHanging Lampshading]] when Cain really ought to have seen something coming.
** Usually his [[CharacterTics itching palms]] will clue him into direct physical danger, but when the danger is [[ObliviousToLove more subtle]] they tend not to trigger. It just goes to show how much Cain depends on his instincts to see him through.
** Cain's own SelfDeprecation gets in the way of him realizing his own importance in a situation. Amberley points out how ignorant he seems of his own positive effect on the morale of guardsmen in the present theater, always worried about failing to live up to that reputation.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Cain has numerous nightmares over barely surviving his first experience against Necrons. Amberley also states he is plagued by nightmares for other less specific reasons, doubtlessly reasons tending toward this trope.
* ShootTheDog: Part of his job. He winds up having to [[spoiler:gun down two "survivors"]] near the end of his first book because they had been [[spoiler:infected by Genestealers]].
* ShroudedInMyth: Cain is one of these in the ''Warhammer 40K'' world; whenever he downplays his accomplishments, most people think that it's out of modesty. One religious sect has even proclaimed him to be ''a physical manifestation of the God-Emperor's Divine Will''. Vail playfully points out that Cain would be absolutely ''horrified'' if he ever learned about said religious sect.
** The people of Perlia have elevated Cain so high on the hero scale that they actually built a gigantic (and hideous) mechanical clock in the planetary capital that tells time by having a commissar appear and lop off the heads of a number of orks equal to the hour. When the capital is bombarded, Cain asks hopefully if the clock has been destroyed.
** Despite frequent mention of his childhood being spent in a Hiveworld, no one actually knows where Cain was born or anything significant about his past prior to becoming a Commissar. He claims at one point that Kroot killed his parents, but Vail points out inconsistencies in his statement and then points out he is, by his own admission, a pathological liar.
* SlaveToPR: Heroic example. No matter what he manages to accomplish, the main reason he doesn't run like hell from the opposite direction of danger at first chance is because it would destroy his indispensably useful heroic image. He keeps digging a deeper hole for himself as his deeds cause his reputation to grow, which in turns increases people's expectations of him, which requires that he keeps charging forward into increasingly worse situations, then when he actually accomplishes more impressive deeds...
* TheSoCalledCoward: Maybe. Before this goes in YMMV, though, remember the massive entry for AlternateCharacterInterpretation up above? It could go either way.
* TheSocialExpert: One skill that Cain unambiguously owns up to is his ability to read a room. He can schmooze like no one else, and shows remarkable understanding in what people think and want to believe.
* SoldiersAtTheRear: What he was hoping for when he pulled some cleverly-attained strings to get assigned to a Vahallan artillery division. [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive Everyone knows how well THAT worked out.]]
* StepfordSmiler: In one book, he reflects on how he's spent so long hiding under masks and constructed heroic personas that he's no longer sure if there's an actual genuine personality left beneath them all.
-->"You could just try being yourself, you know."\\
The thought was terrifying. I'd spent so long hiding behind masks I was no longer sure there was a genuine Ciaphas underneath them any more, just a quivering little bundle of self-interest.
* StiffUpperLip: Cain manages to successfully convince others he has this in regard to facing danger and battle casualties.
* SurvivorGuilt: Despite his insistence that he's a dirty coward that cares for no one but himself, Cain often comments mournfully about the many imperial soldiers and citizens that were killed fighting alongside him, particularly in books set later in his life.
* SwordAndGun: Laspistol in one hand, chainsword in the other -- see the section picture. Cain is demonstrably proficient with both his chainsword and his laspistol, and he takes out an Ork Warboss in ''Death or Glory'' especially due to his choice of weapons; the warboss is concentrating on the chainsword and gives Cain a chance to shove the laspistol barrel [[EyeScream in the ork's eye]] and pull the trigger.
* TakingYouWithMe: When apparently completely and totally overwhelmed by enemies with zero chance of escape or survival Cain will default to this sentiment and attempt to kill as many of his foes as possible before his death.
* TooCleverByHalf: Once in a while his smooth-talking and rhetoric will come around to bite him in the ass, such as when he realizes that his explanations for his current course of action leads to him talking himself into a corner (the corner being effectively volunteering himself for a suicide mission).
* TrialByFriendlyFire: Cain has called in artillery fire or airstrikes on his own position on at least 3 occasions:
** In the short story ''The Beguiling'' he calls in artillery fire on the isolated chateau he's investigating, once he realizes it's actually home to a Slaaneshi cult.
** In the audio drama ''Dead in the Water'' he tells an incoming squadron of Valkyrie attack planes to unload "everything you've got" on the signal generated by his own comm bead, then drops the bead and sprints for the shoreline of the Nurgle-controlled island as fast as his legs will take him.
** In the audio drama ''The Devil You Know'', he discovers a warp portal leading to Dark Eldar territory and leads the Tyranid hive mind to it. Once he sees that they have committed to invading Dark Eldar space he pulls the comm bead trick again (this time with Jurgen's bead) and again just barely sprints to safety before the local Imperial air forces obliterate the area while the 'Nids and Dark Eldar are occupied.
* UnreliableNarrator: Cain tends to leave out anything that doesn't directly affect him, so Vail has to use other sources, including (much to her annoyance) the memoirs of Jenit Sulla. Many readers, both real and in-universe, seem to think he overstates his own cowardice. Cain also makes several minor errors of fact which are pointed out and corrected by Vail's [[FootnoteFever notes]]. He's also a confessed master manipulator and liar who favors playing HumbleHero to cement his reputation. Unless we accept the idea that nobody was ever supposed to read this account, everything in it is suspect.
* UnluckilyLucky: Every dangerous situation he gets into is a result of him trying to avoid one that sounds more dangerous on paper, only making it out through luck and foiling an enemy plot in the process. For example, instead of joining the frontline against an ork horde, he attaches himself to a search party investigating tunnels the orks might be able to use, and finds Necrons instead, and only escapes due to Jurgen's AntiMagic properties. In another, he goes away from the main battle with Chaos forces to an out-of-the-way dredger where there might be a demon summoning taking place. As he'd fervently hoped against, there was a summoning, and he was just a few seconds too late to stop the ritual. Oh, and after Cain and his party land on the dredger, Tomas Beije and a squad of Tallarn guardsmen arrive to arrest Cain for desertion, only to wind up reinforcing Cain's mission to stop the demon summoning once the Tallarn men understand exactly what dangers are on the dredger.
* WalkingDisasterArea: On a few occasions, Cain has actually managed to avoid getting assigned to the more harrowing warzones and found himself in a fairly laid-back posting. Inevitably, ''something'' manages to show up and ruin the party. Particularly notable instances include his first field posting to the Valhallan 12th Artillery and his retirement to the schola on Perlia.
* WeakButSkilled: While he's certainly no slouch by comparison to other humans, Cain is still only a bog-standard human himself (aside from a couple of augmetic fingers). Nevertheless, he has a preternatural ability to manipulate the situation to his advantage when he needs to. He's also one of the best chainswordsman in the galaxy, able to match and occasionally best Space Marine commanders... in an honorable duel, that is; in a life-or-death fight they would just stomp on him. That said, he's able to hold his own against an Ork warboss ''and'' a World Eaters Chaos Space Marine at separate times. Though technically he actually ''killed'' the Ork by getting close enough to [[EyeScream shoot the Ork right through an eye]], and just held the World Eater in one place long enough for Jurgen to kill him with his meltagun.
* WeDoTheImpossible: Cain's specialty, and the point of the series. His life is an endless cycle of being sent to a new assignment, finding some way to get out of that assignment while still looking like he's doing something meaningful, accidentally stumbling onto the ''real'' problem because everyone else was too focused on what was in front of their eyes to investigate, and then throwing every resource at his disposal at that problem because any other option will get him killed. This inevitably inflates his reputation as a resilient, perceptive hero who Gets Things Done, which in turn gets him sent on more of these assignments...
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Cain is absolutely ''terrified'' of the [[KillerRobot Necrons]]. This is due to his first encounter with them, which resulted in the entire squad he was with being killed, [[SoleSurvivor save him]], plus two of his fingers being shot off. The experience was so traumatizing for him that even over eighty years later in ''Cain's Last Stand'' he admits that he still has nightmares about that mission and spends most of the book ignoring the clues pointing to their presence because he ''doesn't want them to be real.''
* WorthyOpponent: The Tau see him as one, taking his reputation at face value after their representatives witness several acts of heroism on his part. His dedication to the greater good of the Imperium impresses them greatly.
[[/folder]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ciaphas_cain.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The luckiest and unluckiest man in the galaxy.]]
Ciaphas Cain is a man of questionable origin -- he is commonly believed to be a Hiveworlder, yet no one knows where exactly his birthplace is, maybe not even himself -- tall, imposing stature, handsome, charming, and a pathological liar. He was enrolled in the Schola Progenium, where he acquired his commissarial sash despite middling-low performance in academics, excelling only in sports, combat training and discipline [[note]]A word which here means "not getting caught"[[/note]]. Shortly thereafter he was assigned to the Valhallan 12th Field Artillery unit, the beginning of a positively ludicrous series of heroic exploits. There's no doubt that his actions on the battlefield were decisive, and they usually directly led to glorious victories of various degrees.
However, the reasoning behind them is in the eye of the beholder. According to those he had risked his life to save, he's Cain the Liberator, Cain the Hero, slayer of daemons and leader of men whose biographies verge on canonization. (In fact, one obscure Tallarn cult views him as a living embodiment of the God-Emperor's will.) According to his own secret memoirs, he is a poor, pathetic coward concerned solely with his well-being and escaping responsibility, his every heroic, selfless, or even considerate action taken solely to manipulate others into aiding him.
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* AccidentalHero: Lots and lots of times. He invariably tries to put himself out of harm's way only to inadvertently wind up in an even bigger mess than the one he was trying to avoid, and ends up having to solve the plot to save his own neck.
* AlliterativeName: Commissar Ciaphas Cain.[[note]]Three hard 'C's in case you're wondering, and a long "i" sound in "Ciaphas". Also, '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM.'''[[/note]]
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Skillfully invoked. If you examine what Cain actually ''does'' without his inevitable 5-page pooh-pooh explanation, he's the biggest damn hero in the entire universe, just one with a perverse sense of humility. On the other hand, accepting his explanation that he's "just lucky/unlucky" and that somehow ''every single'' allegedly self-serving and cowardly act he does accidentally results in him saving people's lives and looking good at it would make him even more of an aberration in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe. [[ShrugOfGod Even the author isn't sure which interpretation is true.]]
** In ''Caves of Ice'', there's a passage where he muses sadly about all the brave men and women he's seen die, and thinks he's probably the last man alive who even remembers them. Then, in ''Cain's Last Stand'', he feels a pang to realize he can't recall the face of a man who died in ''Death or Glory'' some seventy years before.
** He shows tremendous courage despite his insistence that he's a self-serving coward. In situations of extreme danger and terror, he somewhat calmly analyzes his chances and opts for reasonable courses of action. It is fueled by his wish for survival, but he still shows admirable nerve. Though in at least one situation, Cain admits he has no idea why he did something incontrovertibly, dangerously heroic -- and halfway admits he did it simply because Amberley's life was in danger.
** Cain's disgust for what he calls "Emperor-botherers" might be the closest thing to an atheist he can be in a theocratic empire. Or it might be that he's the most pious commissar in the history of the Imperium, if he genuinely believes that the Emperor has much better things to do than keep an eye on him, so he does everything he can to ensure his own survival so that the Emperor can focus His attention elsewhere, where it's needed.
** A relatively common Alternate Character Interpretation of Cain is that he actually was a DirtyCoward at the beginning of the series, but by sometime in the middle of the series, he became genuinely brave and heroic while still thinking of himself as a Dirty Coward. It's very doubtful that if he was [[TheSoCalledCoward as big a coward as he claims]], he could undertake actions as awesome as assembling a RagtagBunchOfMisfits to take back Perlia or [[spoiler: shoot a daemoness in the face with a [[{{BFG}} Meltagun]], duel [[TheLegionsOfHell two Chaos Space Marines]] with his chainsword, or kick a Chaos Warmaster off a roof.]]
** It's worth mentioning that a lot of his pooh-pooh explanations actually make perfect sense in that the seemingly suicidal course of action really is his best shot at continued survival and comfort, often because he simply can't trust anyone else to follow his TakingAThirdOption tactics and attempting escape wouldn't save him in any case, forcing him to take all the risks himself.
** Then there is the Sector Thirteen short story. When he sees Genestealer PDF troops running away from him, he's not relieved. He slips into Commissar mode and screams at them for being cowards. The law enforcement officer he's with snaps him back. Keep in mind that this is only a handful of years into his career.
** In a spectacular case of LeaningOnTheFourthWall, Amberley Vail notes in the foreword to ''The Emperor's Finest'' that the above debate also occurs InUniverse among her readers in the Inquisition.
--->'''Amberley:''' ... A reputation, which, true to form, he continues to insist throughout the current extract is completely undeserved. Many of my readers have taken this claim at face value, and many others have construed it as a rather engaging blindness to his own virtues. Having known him personally, I tend to the view that [[ShrugOfGod the truth is a little more complicated than either postulation]].
** ''The Last Ditch'' features a truly ridiculous example of the disparity between Cain's narration and his actions. Between him and his objective (primarily a power station he intends to explode, but also some members of the Guard, including the rookie commissar he's taken under his wing, who need rescuing) is an impenetrable wall of Tyranids. Everybody present and in command is of the opinion that it will simply not be possible for him and Jurgen to get through. In narration, Cain crows that at last he has a perfect, bulletproof excuse to not dive headfirst into danger, and that so long as he is appropriately solemn in the aftermath, he can retreat safely, reputation intact. What he ''actually does'' is to take command of the forces present and order them to focus their efforts in such a way as to cause maximum disruption to the swarm and the hive mind, and he's somehow ''surprised'' that this results in the way being made clear for him. He claims directly afterwards that he'd only done as he had to facilitate a fighting retreat, but he only mentions this after the fact, and seems to forget that the troops were already doing exactly that when he arrived. There's not even an attempt to brush it off as Cain wanting to be seen making an effort that just went too well.
* AntiHero: While unambiguously an AntiHero, what exact subtrope he falls into is intentionally left to the reader. The "he thinks he's worse than he actually is" theory believes he is somewhere between KnightInSourArmour and PragmaticHero. The "Character development theory" believes he eventually unambiguously becomes the former.
* ArtificialLimbs: Cain has two augmetic fingers, replacing those lost to a glancing hit from a Necron Gauss Flayer.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Despite his disdain for "Emperor-botherers", Cain has a fondness for a particular text called ''The Precepts of Saint Emilia'' and occasionally quotes from it. In ''Duty Calls'' he's infuriated when Inquisitor Ernst Killian misquotes a verse from it as justification for his crimes.
* AwesomeByAnalysis: His ingenuity and cunning tend to save his life and end those of his enemies.
* BadassBureaucrat: As a commissar, this is literally part of Cain's job description. Cain tries to avoid the more onerous aspects of the "bureaucrat" part, foisting most of the day-to-day trivialities and paperwork on Jurgen. In a pinch, however, he can and will use his commissarial privileges, the weight of his reputation, and outright LoopholeAbuse to cut through mountains of red tape.
* BadassNormal: Despite being an essentially unmodified human with basic Guard-issue weapons, Cain has managed to defeat or at least hold his own against [[SuperSoldier Space Marines]], Daemons, a horribly mutated Chaos Warlord, a Broodlord, and a gigantic Ork Warboss. ''The Last Ditch'' adds a MAWLOC to his one on one records. Plus a Tervigon, of all things, with merely an over-strength squad and a lone Valkyrie VTOL jet as backup!
* BadassUnintentional: You could make a [[DrinkingGame/CiaphasCain Drinking Game]] of Cain assigning himself a mission safely away from what he thinks is the worst fighting, only to end up in an even worse scrape than the one he just escaped and having to save everybody's bacon. It's so consistent that Jurgen thinks he does it on purpose.
* BadBoss: Averted and deconstructed. Cain makes plenty of threats, but he's a reasonable man and the only times he's ever executed troopers on-screen were practically MercyKill justified cases (or in one case, for trying to kill him). He'd rather earn his soldiers' trust so they're more inclined to protect him in battle and avoid UnfriendlyFire, as tends to happen with unpopular commissars. He and Amberley remind the reader frequently that a commissar's responsibility is maintaining morale, and summary execution is an extreme means of doing so best reserved for desperate cases. (Plus, executions mean more paperwork all around, and Cain's nothing if not averse to that.)
** Both Cain's notable assignments were also situations where the more stereotypical commissar would be unnecessary and counterproductive. The 12th Valhallan was an artillery unit that had few discipline problems and largely fired on distant targets with other Guard units in support. The 597th Valhallan had high morale, high resistance to Chaotic or alien taint, and exceptional supplies. However, the 597th only had high morale as a direct result of Cain's intervention, and in particular due to his reluctance to simply execute a tenth of the regiment to show the rest what happens when you step out of line.
** However, ''The Greater Good'' gives us the line "In the Guard people were executed for less [than incompetence]. And some of them by me." Which means that he can be a BadBoss, should the situation be severe enough. Justified in that he is talking about incompetence that got people killed.
* BattleCouple: [[HeterosexualLifePartners Platonically]] with [[HypercompetentSidekick Jurgen]], [[LoveInterest romantically]] with Inquisitor Amberley Vail.
* BecomingTheMask: If Cain shows any CharacterDevelopment over his career, this is likely the cause. The "mask" he wears is one of a [[ThinkNothingOfIt humble hero]], always eager to put himself InHarmsWay. Underneath that mask, he is primarily interested in [[ItsAllAboutMe self-preservation, having a good time, and avoiding work]]. However, as he is cast into ever more dire and important situations, his heroic ''actions'' become increasingly genuine, even if his ''thoughts'' remain selfish. His increasing confidence in his own abilities allows him to consider even relatively dangerous situations "safe" in ways he would not have as a younger man, and his view of self-interest becomes more long-term the more experienced he gets. In his own words:
-->I'd spent so long hiding behind masks I was no longer sure there was a genuine Ciaphas underneath them any more.
* BeneathTheMask: The novels' keystone premise is that Cain is a very different person from how he is portrayed by Imperial propaganda.
* BondOneLiner: He gets in a few here and there, but one stands out before he kills (for the first time) the Slanneshi seductress Emily Boudouir.
--> "Sorry, I prefer blondes".
* BoringButPractical: He could easily get his hands on a powerful bolt-pistol (such as the ones he's always portrayed with in the artwork), but he'd never forgo his handy laspistol. As unassuming as it is, it's got far higher ammo count and accuracy than the other weapons (especially since Cain mastered the art of firing one from the hip) and both have saved his life in many fights. He also consistently forgoes replacing his Laspistol with a more powerful Hellpistol, initially justifying it by saying that the weight might throw off his reflexes as he has no time to practice with it at the time, even though he could switch over during a longer downtime such as a long warp transit and accustom himself to the difference whilst he has time to practice.
* BornInTheWrongCentury: In Cain's time, leaders are taught to angle for a glorious death because [[CrapsackWorld they're probably gonna die soon anyway, so you might as well make it count]]. But Cain has the insight to try acting more like a present-day military leader: fight to preserve your mens' lives, lead by example when it's really important, and be aggressive if defense isn't feasible. Running away isn't cowardly if it frees you to fight again later. [[DeliberateValuesDissonance But by the standards of the 40k Imperium]], he's a wuss who won't sacrifice his men for the cause, his thought-out strategies are a refusal to AttackAttackAttack and he shames the Imperium by not purposefully choosing suicide missions. This gets {{lampshaded}} in ''The Last Ditch'', when a novice commissar complains that the 597th are shirking their duty, and Col. Kasteen, whom Cain helped mold as an officer, notes that the Valhallans are inflicting far more casualties than the commissar's own Nusquan 1st Regiment while taking far fewer.
* BornLucky: While he doesn't see it that way, Cain has extreme good luck. To everyone else, all reputation boosts seem to be a good thing, but Cain knows that [[BlessedWithSuck every boost to his reputation eventually leads to him being put into even more dangerous situations]].
* BrokenAce: On the outside, he's a charming, charismatic leader of soldiers who is capable of going toe-to-toe with some of humanity's worst enemies. On the inside, he's a psychological wreck plagued with feelings of inadequacy and an inability to recognize his own selflessness. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Or just]] a ManipulativeBastard, exactly as he claims. Then again, BrokenAce and ManipulativeBastard are not mutually exclusive although somewhat contradictory.
* CaptainObvious: During his time with the Reclaimers as whatever illuminating conclusions he'd draw from a situation when around the Space Marines were recognized by them much quicker, though they chose not to vocalize them unless Cain did.
* CaptainOblivious: When Mira sets her sights on Cain, the degree to which he apparently completely misses the point of her advances is nothing short of absolutely stunning, to the point of convincing himself that she was looking to marry a ''Space Marine''. Of course he may have been playing this up for dramatic effect, given the benefit of writing with hindsight.
* TheCasanova: He mentions several "non-regulation" relationships he has with a number of women who are invariably quite attractive, and a few more had been implied. His relationships with women were wide rather than deep, at least until he met Amberley.
* CharacterDevelopment: [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation One interpretation:]] The young Cain is concerned only with saving his own life; he performs heroic deeds just to keep up appearances and avoid UnfriendlyFire. However, as he survives ever more dangerous situations and matures, his actions become increasingly selfless and genuinely heroic, most obviously in his defense of Perlia during the Second Siege. Cain himself does not seem to realize that this has happened, and still considers himself to be the selfish DirtyCoward of his youth.
* TheCharmer: According to Vail's footnotes, Cain is one of these. She notes that a certain kind of woman would be easily drawn to his charms, and one who was not too bright to begin with could find herself soon broken hearted. Cain's offhand references to finding himself spending pleasant time in the company of the young daughters of noble families after attending various official functions seem to back this up. Cain seems completely unaware of this, and assumes that these affairs are as casual to the women as they are to him; when one of the women he's seeing starts talking about making plans for their future it catches him ''completely'' off-guard.
* ChivalrousPervert: Despite his amorous adventures (prior to meeting Amberley at least), he never seems to have gotten in trouble for them; the one time he describes meeting an old flame, she certainly shows no sign of heartbreak. The one woman who's hacked off at him for dumping her (by way of a laspistol shot to the chest; ItMakesSenseInContext) [[spoiler:gives him nightmares for years, and eventually becomes a daemon princess]].
* CommissarCap: He ''is'' a commissar, after all.
-->"It isn't the scarlet sash and the fancy hat that makes you a commissar, it's the way you wear them."
* ConsummateLiar: Even before he knew about Jurgen, and afterward when he's not around, Cain was confident in his ability to fool ''mind readers'' -- mostly by controlling stray thoughts. It is implied that he couldn't have defended himself from an actual investigation and is lucky that his memory has never been scanned before. Inquisitor Amberley Vail is the first human being in his life whom he cannot fool no matter how hard he tried, and she's not even a psyker.
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Standard for Commissars since they are recruited from the Schola Progenium, orphanages for the children of Imperial servants who died in the line of duty.
* CoolTeacher: Cain appears to have become one prior to the events of Cain's Last Stand (or at least he claims to be more relaxed, to the irritation of his colleagues).
* CorneredRattlesnake: Cain will run when he can get away with it. When he knows he ''can't'' run (such as when he knows that failure to defeat a threat here and now will mean the destruction of the entire planet), he'll fight with all the strength and determination of any more typical ''40k'' hero, charging unhesitatingly into battle against opponents who could tear him to ribbons, such as [[spoiler:an ork Warboss in mega-armour, a Tyranid Hive Tyrant, or a fully-manifested Slaaneshi daemon princess]].
* CosmicPlaything: Cain repeatedly comments that if the Emperor is actually watching him, He has a sick sense of humor.
* CourtMartialed: ''The Traitor's Hand'' wraps up with Cain facing a Commissariat tribunal, basically a court-martial by a different name. [[spoiler: The charges of cowardice, which were brought by his old rival Tomas Beije on faulty information, are dismissed pretty quickly; the trial ends with Beije being charged for interfering with Cain's effort to save the day. While Beije was gleeful in bringing up the charges because of an old grudge, Cain decided he could forgive Beije for doing his job and pulled some strings to get him let off, after letting him stew on it for a few days of course. He decided that Beije could hopefully learn his lesson, and if not, it would be fun to watch him squirm, knowing that he owed Cain his life.]]
* CoversAlwaysLie:
** Invariably depicted with a bolter or bolt pistol despite using a laspistol in text. They also tend to portray him using somewhat ornate or well-decorated chainswords when he's specifically noted to prefer the rugged models made for heavy-duty military use.
** ''The Greater Good'' mentions that the iconic bolt pistol which he is seen with in all of the covers is something Cain only received well after he left service with the 597th, and was in fact a weapon that was taken from a genestealer-infected techpriest which he then passed on to Amberley.
* CowardlyLion: Cain is a guy with little courage that nonetheless achieves feats of great daring do. This is thus the attitude of the person editing his memoirs -- Cain may be a DirtyCoward in his own mind, but he still acts in spite of how completely and utterly terrified he is at all moments, which makes him genuinely heroic.
* {{Cyborg}}: Cain has two augmetic fingers, and in ''Caves of Ice'' he mentions that they're the only parts of his body that don't feel cold when he's out in the freezing arctic wind.
* DeadpanSnarker: Best exemplified in ''The Traitor's Hand'', where he never once lets a "'''[[LargeHam BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!]]'''" pass un-mocked.
* DesignatedHero: It's a case of PlayingWithATrope. Cain considers ''himself'' to be one, InUniverse. He doesn't think he's TheHero of this story, he doesn't even think he's ''a'' hero. He's just a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time who coincidentally saves the day while trying to save his own skin and nothing else. Yet he has this reputation as '''THE HERO OF THE IMPERIUM,''' and the official records of him describe him as such. The actual narrative, the one we real life readers see, does not portray him as a hero because it's a first person narrative.
* DestructiveSaviour: Cain has favored this approach on at least five distinct separate occasions. Granted, all of them crossed the GodzillaThreshold. In his own words, no machinery can cost as much as a life of a single soldier (especially if the soldier in question is him).
** In ''Caves of Ice'', he blows up the very promethium refinery his regiment was sent to defend [[spoiler:in order to destroy the Necron tomb and active Warp portal located beneath it]].
** In the short story "The Beguiling," he calls down artillery fire on his own position [[spoiler:in order to destroy a Chaos coven and the daemonhost it was in the process of summoning]].
** In ''Death or Glory'' he blows up a major hydroelectric dam [[spoiler:to drown an approaching Ork army that would otherwise have slaughtered his band of refugees]].
** In ''Cain's Last Stand'' he tries to blow up another dam [[spoiler:(well, technically it's the same one...) to prevent the Necrons from getting their hands on a potent Warp artifact. Unfortunately, they jam the detonation signal and escape]].
** In ''The Last Ditch'' he blows up a geothermal power plant (and the city it's in) [[spoiler:in order to destroy a crash-landed Tyranid Bio-Ship buried underneath it.]]
* DirtyBusiness: There are numerous clues that Cain feels the sacrifices he makes more keenly than he lets on.
** In the short story "Sector 13" he discovers a genestealer cult. At the end of the story, amid general celebration, he's trying (unsuccessfully) to avoid thinking about all the Imperial subjects and guardsmen who're being executed because, despite being loyal, they '''are''' infected and there's no way to save them.
** In the first novel, ''For the Emperor'', Cain and the Valhallans accompanying him are forced to gun down a squad of loyal PDF at a checkpoint in order to complete their own mission (escorting Tau diplomats back to their enclave). Cain finds himself disgusted by it, and has difficulty working out what to say to his troopers. He finally tells the sergeant to tell them that he appreciated what they did. The sergeant says he will, with obvious sympathy, and Cain realizes it was the right line. Cain also notes that he still sees the face of the lieutenant in command of the PDF unit (who Cain personally killed in the ensuing shootout) and regrets what happened, knowing the lieutenant wasn't evil, just overeager and unwilling to back down.
* DirtyCoward: Played with. Cain sees himself as this, and a lot of his comments do give that impression, but Cain's increasingly heroic actions throughout the books (as Amberley notes frequently) suggest that [[HeroicSelfDeprecation he is cowardly only in his own mind]].
* DrinkBasedCharacterization: Just about any time Cain mentions drinking something, it's credits to carrots that it's either (alcoholic) amasec or (non-alcoholic) tanna tea or recaff if there is no tanna around. He's a honorary Valhallan, after all, and no Valhallan could imagine a life without tea. This reaches borderline obsessive levels in ''Death or Glory'' where the lack of tanna, and Cain asking hopefully, "I don't suppose you've got any," becomes something of a RunningGag. Considering that these novels are British in origin, the 40k setting is British in origin, the Schola Progenium where he was educated is depicted by Cain as being akin to a [[BoardingSchool British Public school]], the Valhallans are heavily based [[FantasyCounterpartCulture on Russians]], and Britain and Russia are noted for being [[BritsLoveTea tea-drinking countries]], this shouldn't come as a surprise.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: His facing down the rioting 296th and 301st troopers summarizes Cain's character neatly. He's only even near the riot because he's seen by some Navy provosts and goes with them because he can't be seen avoiding danger. He tries to stay out of it until the cries of one provost draw everyone's eyes to him. Cain then makes the snap assessment that if he shows any fear, he'll be jumped and killed in seconds. So instead he confidently strides forward pretending he has just stumbled onto the scene and in a commanding voice orders the tropers to start cleaning the place up. As he hoped, the troopers are effectively shocked back to sense by him asserting his authority and riot defuses. It shows his self-interest and desire to avoid danger, being forced into danger to maintain appearances, handling that danger with remarkable composure and cleverness, and effectively reading people and social situations.
* ExactWords: Often invokes this to tell a technical truth while sounding like something else. Regarding the necessity of blowing up the promethium refinery in ''Caves of Ice'', he states that "As far as I'm concerned, it's not worth the life of a single soldier". The soldier he is referring to, of course, is himself.
* {{Expy}}: Cain's characterization draws heavily from the namesake character of the infamous ''Flashman'' series. Though unlike Harry Flashman, Cain at least has some genuinely honorable traits to balance out his self-described cowardice, nor is he a raging bigot or unapologetic colonialist - at least, not exceptionally so by [[TheEmpire Imperial]] [[FantasticRacism standards]].
* FakeUltimateHero: [[RunningGag of the IMPERIUM!]] But really, he's actually a {{downplayed}} example. He's a self-admitted coward more interested in self-preservation than committing heroics in service to the Imperium or the Commissariat's [[YouHaveFailedMe emphatic morale and discipline enforcement]]. The practical reality is, while he ''may'' have started out the way he describes himself, he's much more a PragmaticHero who becomes more heroic as his career goes on. He actually performed all of the heroic deeds he's known for, whether he wanted to do something so dangerous or not.
* AFatherToHisMen: Cain invokes this trope wherever possible, because appearing to care for soldiers under his command means those same soldiers will go the extra mile to protect ''him'' from harm. It is perhaps telling, however, that there are numerous occasions where Cain could have sacrificed his Guardsmen's lives to keep himself out of harm's way but chose not to.
* FirstPersonSmartass: Even when he's "in-character", he's prone to making a few offhand wisecracks.
* TheFool: Cain himself, although not as nice or lighthearted as most examples. He goes into situations with minimal knowledge of what is going on and only his quick thinking and a healthy helping of luck see him through each conflict intact.
* GenerationXerox: Comes up once he's a CoolTeacher, in the form of Donal (who's just too much like Cain himself at that age). The kid even makes Commissar [[spoiler: (as an ItHasBeenAnHonor Battlefield Promotion]], which kinda spoils it).
* GenreBlind: Every single time he makes up a seemingly important task to keep him out of the fighting it ends up being actually important and more dangerous than whatever he's avoiding. He never spots the pattern. Amusingly enough Jurgen actually does notice that this happens to them every adventure (as mentioned in ''A Mug of Recaff''), but it's so consistent that he thinks Cain's doing it on purpose.
* GentleGiant: Despite the [[CoversAlwaysLie covers frequently deliberately lying]] about much else, they get one thing right: Cain is described as quite tall and broad, and can handle himself well enough to fight Orks and Space Marines hand-to-hand with a fair chance of victory. However, he doesn't generally throw his weight around (figuratively or literally) unless he absolutely has to, preferring to be perceived as a NiceGuy.
* GoingNative: Whilst living with the Valhallans for an astounding amount of time Cain took some of their customs, such as slang words, usual room temperature to adjust to (even if he still finds it chilling when it's warm for them), and a taste for tanna, a kind of tea which most non-Valhallans find disgusting.
* GoodIsNotDumb: The best explanation for Cain's behavior. His reputation means that his soldiers want to fight harder and trust him more and give their best at every point. They're serving alongside a legend, so they've got to perform at his level. But if he were to slack off, that desire would diminish, and while he wouldn't be hated, he'd no longer be leading the most dedicated regiment in the Imperium, and his chances of living would go down to just a regular Imperial soldier's (so, not long). By insisting on excellence all the time from himself in front of them, he's actually ensuring that he's surrounded by the most loyal soldiers in existence. And that is why he lives to old age and dies in bed where so many Imperial officers don't.
* GoodIsNotSoft: While he is a comparatively benevolent example of a commissar, Cain favors bombing worlds that have been occupied by the Ta'u and assimilated their culture and will still not hesitate to execute Imperial soldiers and citizens when the alternatives are worse. For example, in ''For The Emperor'' he immediately executes two Guardsmen who survived a battle with Genestealers, on suspicion that [[ZombieInfectee they were infected and allowed to escape.]] A quick inspection of their bodies [[ProperlyParanoid proved him right.]]
* GuileHero: Far more than any super futuristic Imperium weapon, it is his quick wits and creative thinking that doom the Imperium's enemies, although he'd rather they be more successful at getting him out of dangerous assignments.
* HandCannon: Averted. The popular perception of Commissars (in and out of universe) is that they all carry bolt pistols - large and intimidating, armor-piercing rocket launching pistols typically used by ''Space Marines'' - Cain, however, prefers the humble, and more reliable, laspistol instead.
* HeroicBuild: Going by the cover illustrations, though they are definitely intended to be overblown and not entirely truthful, he is an inspiring model of human physical potential. However, his combat ability and years of practice would make a fit build of some kind to be fairly logical and he's definitely also said to be rather tall in the stories themselves.
* HeroicSelfDeprecation: In spades. To give some perspective: If there is a heroic aspect that Cain [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation may or may not have]], he has probably belittled it, claimed that it doesn't exist, or given a selfish reason for it. For example, there's his reason for why he does not fit the stereotypical trigger-happy taskmaster, which boils down to: "Soldiers who hate and fear me will be more likely to aim at me! I will be nice to them, therefore I won't get killed by my own troops!" while conveniently ignoring (or invoking) that this is, you know, a genuinely moral thing to do. He has also downplayed numerous accomplishments that are apparently astounding, such as when he casually mentions that he, the Commissar, is close to the commanding officers and present at the briefings. Note that Amberley claims that this is an extremely rare occurrence, with commissars often being seen as an annoying third wheel in briefings. It's best summed up in this quote, when getting an after-action report from Jenit Sulla she mentions that she thought, "What would Cain do?"
-->'''Cain:''' And then did the opposite, I hope.
* HeroicWillpower: Even without Jurgen's assistance, Cain has proven to be remarkably resilient to the mind-warping influences of Chaos. During ''The Beguiling'', he was able to resist and escape the hedonistic sorceries of a secretive Slaanesh cult long enough to recognize the threat and kill the witch responsible.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With his [[HypercompetentSidekick inseparable aide]], [[AlmightyJanitor Jurgen]]. See his entry below.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: He's a rare nonlethal example. No matter how clever Cain is, any effort he makes to get out of dodge or avoid danger will inevitably end up thrusting him into even ''greater'' danger, much to his chagrin.
* HumbleHero: Part of his reputation, much cultivated. Also he frequently fits the part without even noticing it.
* HypocriticalHumor:
** Rather an inversion of the usual sort. In ''Duty Calls'', Cain is part of a meeting that gets some '''very''' scary news. While most of those around him panic, Cain controls his own terror and plans with Colonel Kasteen the actions they'll have to take to deal with the danger. Then he raises his voice to ask a question of the briefer, and notes that his "fraudulent reputation for remaining calm and decisive in a crisis" probably helps settle everyone else down.
** "I only did [heroic thing x] to support my fraudulent reputation for [x]" is practically a catchphrase.
* ImpliedDeathThreat: Not above using the threat of his commissarial authority to execute people to make a point. First seen when meeting with the officers of the 296th and 301st. After Sulla belligerently speaks out of turn, Cain sighs, nonchalantly draws his laspistol, places it on the desk in front of him, and tells her not to interrupt. She, and the others, get the message.
* IndyPloy: Cain always has a plan... which promptly goes out the window as soon as an unexpected threat shows up. Once this happens, he usually has to think on his feet and come up with a crazy plan to get him (and his soldiers incidentally) out of the situation. The fact that this always seems to work out in his favor has led to Cain being MistakenForBadass, and it's one of the sources of his HeroicSelfDeprecation.
* InformedFlaw: It becomes increasingly hard to believe Cain's really a coward, since we never see him do anything a sensible hero wouldn't do. He says he needs to maintain his reputation so that his allies would make good {{Human Shield}}s... every time he has to choose between using them as such and risking his own life for theirs. Despite going out of his way to earn the loyalty and respect of the soldiers around him, the simple fact is that he almost never ''cashes in'' on it, even when doing so would unquestionably be the safer thing to do.
* InHarmsWay: Inverted. Cain has to maintain the appearance of this trope to keep his reputation intact.
* InvincibleIncompetent: A dark and dramatic take on a protagonist who attempts to run away from the action yet always ends up winning. According to Cain he's a middling shot and passable swordsman who gets by thanks to constant practice and hard-won experience; according to Amberley he's incredibly gifted with both, and she expresses confusion that he somehow remained unaware of that fact no matter how many victories against superhuman foes stacked up.
* LanternJawOfJustice: Depicted with one rivaling [[VideoGame/GearsOfWar Marcus Fenix's]] jaw, which his entry on the character sheet has described as "About a third of his face."
* TheLeader: His men see him as a bold and charismatic man of action who cares about each and every one of them. Cain himself would say he's the opposite but invokes this so they will protect him.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Whenever he gets involved with Amberley's group or diplomats he has this problem thanks to him not knowing any more about Xenos cultures than the average Guardsman. Amberley mentions in a footnote that she never realized the extent of it until she read his memoirs; for instance, he never realized that the Eldar and Dark Eldar are separate factions.
* LovableCoward: Whether or not he's truly a coward, he's definitely lovable. At least, his soldiers and Amberley think so.
* LoveAtFirstSight: Cain has never believed in this; though he can remember every detail of the first time he ever saw Amberley. [[SceneryPorn And proceeds to describe it for us.]]
* TheMagnificent: Cain is known as "the Liberator" on Perlia for saving the planet from Ork domination. And of course, [[AC: HERO OF THE IMPERIUM]].
* MaleGaze: Cain is apparently a fan of ladies' rears:
** In ''Duty Calls'', he checks out both Amberley's and Kasteen's butts. The second time it actually saves his life -- turning his head to enjoy the view a little longer means he sees the assassin drones before they attack.
** In ''Sector Thirteen'', even with a horde of 'stealer hybrids in hot pursuit, he's able to appreciate the view while following Sergeant Phu upstairs.
* MasterSwordsman: Cain is incredibly skilled with his chainsword, and Amberley posits that he's one of the best wielders of this weapon in the sector. Regardless of which sector he's in. In one particular instance he fights a World Eaters Chaos Space Marine to a standstill long enough for Jurgen to get a clean shot with his melta (having trained with Techmarine Drumon of the Reclaimers during the events of ''The Emperor's Finest'' probably helped).
* MeaningfulName: Mixed in with a bit of FridgeBrilliance. His first name was that of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caiaphas the rabbi who condemned Jesus]], referring to Cain being his own greatest critic, despite how much of a genuine hero he eventually becomes. Not to mention the biblical Caiaphas is condemned in ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' as a ''hypocrite'' (which is more or less what Cain considers himself). [[Creator/SandyMitchell The author]] even mentions that his name was a biblical reference, but without saying what to.
* MistakenForBadass: Ciaphas is firmly of the opinion that he isn't genuinely responsible for any his major exploits -- rather, he feels that what actually happens is that he simply tries to get through crisis situations without dying and afterwards people mistake his scrambling for survival for actual heroism.
* MotivationalLie: As a commissar these are often necessary. Cain himself is a master of these, showing in his internal narration that he can read people very well and quickly choose the appropriate tone and words that would gain him favor or convince them to do what he needs.
* MultipleChoicePast: All that can be determined for certain before Cain was accepted into the Schola Progenium was that he spent his early youth on the lower to mid-levels of a hive city. The name of the hive city and the world on which it was located remain unknown, as does Cain's parentage. The fact that he was in the Schola means that he was orphaned, and tends to suggest that his parents were loyal Imperial servants, (In contrast, Cain described them as cowards on par with him.) but Vail has revealed no records that say for certain. Cain seems to use this when meeting new people, adjusting the backstory he tells them to his advantage. As a result, Vail [[LampshadeHanging advises the readers]] to take anything Cain says about his past [[UnreliableNarrator with a grain of salt]].
* MustHaveCaffeine: He once fought half-way around an Ork occupied planet to get to the nearest tanna. Okay, he claims this was a joke in the narration, but damned if he didn't check with every person and munitions dump he found on the way. Jurgen never left home without a thermos of tanna for him again.
* MyGreatestFailure: It's subtle, but over the course of the books it becomes clear that, while he's okay with putting up with all the fame and glory he unintentionally gets, he does feel bad that Jurgen, to whom much of his success can be credited to, gets absolutely no acknowledgment whatsoever.
-->''Cain himself disliked the [Holodrama based on ''Death or Glory''] intensely, not least because of a wholly invented subplot in which one of the militia recruits has a clandestine love affair with him, and because, almost inevitably, Jurgen fails to appear at all.''
* NayTheist: {{Downplayed}}. He's disdainful of organized religion ("Emperor-botherers") and doesn't pray much, reasoning that the God-Emperor of Mankind has better things to do than worry about him personally, but he does know the works of some Imperial saints well enough to spot a QuoteMine in one book.
* NervesOfSteel: While he always expresses fear, he almost never outright panics and can measure his best options for survival in situations that reduce trained, battle hardened soldiers to terror-stricken hysteria.
* NiceToTheWaiter: He's deferential to even lower-ranked Administratum drones and other menials, where most Imperial officers would brush them off and insist on getting things done through rigid chains of command. In his usual way, he dismisses this by observing that he only does so because they're the ones who often know the job he needs the best, but the fact that he can think that way at all is itself a step up from the way Guard officers and commissars ''usually'' think in this setting.
* ObliviousToLove: This is the case for Cain, but [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] interestingly in that he is oblivious to ''all'' positive feelings toward him including friendship and admiration, not just romantic ones. He never lets his guard down with anyone, and while he does spend mutually enjoyable time in others' company he sees it as just an entertaining diversion or keeping up appearances rather than a moment of bonding. FridgeBrilliance comes in when one realizes that keeping other people's spirits up is his job, and he never seems to allow himself to break from it. As a result, if anyone goes out of their way to do Cain a favor or support him, he attributes their motivation to his "[[FakeUltimateHero undeserved reputation]]" or his authority as a Commissar and never considers that they might actually ''like'' him. In fact, he often tends to mention himself getting along well with the officers of the [=597th=], and taking part in their tactical and strategic decisionmaking, which is something that a lot of Guard regiments try to avoid with other commissars precisely because they're considered a nuisance.
* OpportunisticBastard: Cain rarely goes into a situation with a concrete plan for how to tackle it (or even, at times, a complete picture of what he's actually getting into), but he has a remarkable tendency to find and exploit any advantage that could possibly give him an edge when he's in the thick of things. Interestingly, he's one of the rare few examples of this trope who's self-aware enough of just how shallow his motives run and who has enough of a conscience to actually beat himself up over it in quieter moments (that is, if we take his own account at face value).
* OvershadowedByAwesome: During the seventh book in both a physical and metaphorical sense as Cain is usually one of the tallest and most skilled combatants in a group with a keen analytical mind that allows him to notice things that may escape the attentions of those around him. The Space Marines dwarf him in stature and fighting ability and are just as perceptive as he is if not more so. This is due to Cain being in a relatively early (if eventful) part of his career and the fact that the Reclaimers are, well, The Emperor's Finest.
* PapaWolf: Shows shades of this as a CoolTeacher, not even trying to justify with cowardice just how much he cares for his little class of Commissar cadets. A RunningGag throughout the series is his attempts to teach them how not to fall victim to Friendly Fire, and he uses all of his experience to [[PassingTheTorch make them as effective as possible.]] Bonus points for actually referring to them as "pups" and featuring Donal as a GenerationXerox (before Cain has to spectacularly [[spoiler: avenge him]], [[CharacterDevelopment fully reaching this trope)]].
* ParentalAbandonment: Prerequisite for becoming a commissar. Vail does wonder how true his story is, though, as Cain is a (self-admitted) nearly pathological liar prone to manipulating others.
* ProperlyParanoid: He always thinks that situation is going to become much worse than it looks like. As he lives in [[CrapsackWorld Warhammer 40000 universe]], ''he's always correct'', and that's one of the main reasons he survives.
* RacialFaceBlindness: Cannot tell the difference between Craftworld and Dark Eldar. He just mentally files both as "pointy-eared xenos who keep trying to kill me". On the other hand he can recognise a specific T'au after several decades, even though this would normally be much more difficult.
* ReallyGetsAround: Has had enough sexual relations across the Imperium that it is probably littered with his bastard children.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Cain plays with this up and down the scale. He's gained a reputation for being a relatively fair-minded commissar by being willing to listen to other people's concerns, but it's mostly in the interest of saving his own skin. However, when he ''does'' investigate the lead everyone else is ignoring, he inevitably ends up uncovering (and defeating) something far more sinister than the original threat. He also mentions repeatedly (and demonstrates it in ''Cain's Last Stand'') that he's trying to instill this approach in the commissar cadets he teaches in ''[=40K=]'s'' present day.
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Cain has been reported as "Killed in Action" only to turn up alive and well so many times that eventually the Munitorum left standing orders for him to be kept on roster and payroll perpetually -- orders which are apparently still in force even after his ''confirmed'' death (and burial with full honors).
* RetiredBadass: Cain in ''Cain's Last Stand'', along with all the other schola instructors. Let that sink in: he's so badass, he's managed what is a nigh-impossible feat in the EverythingIsTryingToKillYou CrapsackWorld that is the ''Warhammer 40K'' universe: he '''REACHED RETIREMENT.'''
* RightPlaceRightTimeWrongReason: He owes his entire career to this trope. The Emperor appears to have it in for him because almost every act of intended cowardice, self-preservation/gratification or caution on his part ends up being turned on its head and landing him smack dab in the middle of another life-threatening situation. Then again, he always manages to survive it with flying colors, so the Emperor might just be doing it because he knows he can take it.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Cain has tried to pull this on numerous occasions to try and save his own ass. Most of the time it hasn't worked because he blunders smack into a much bigger problem than the one he tried to escape.
** In his first appearance, his attempts to escape [[spoiler: a gargoyle attack on his regiment's position on Desolatia end up with him running smack bang into the main Tyranid attack coming from the flank. Fortunately, he is able to both get back to the regiment and raise the alarm, and manages to cover up his attempt to desert by claiming he suspected what was coming and went to scout the area]].
** In ''Caves of Ice'', upon discovering [[spoiler: [[SealedEvilInACan a dormant Necron tomb]] on Simia Orichalcae, Cain wastes no time in ordering a complete Imperial evacuation from the planet. While he admits (privately, of course) his primary motivation is to save his own skin, Cain does correctly point out that the Necrons in the tomb likely outnumber the Imperials by a factor of several hundreds to one, and if they do wake up, the Imperials will find themselves caught between the Necrons and the Orks already invading the planet, so the best thing to do in the circumstances is get off planet, alert the Inquisition to what they've found and then call in an Imperial Navy flotilla to [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure obliterate the tomb from orbit]].]]
** At the climax of ''Cain's Last Stand'', with [[spoiler: their position about to be overrun by Varan's vengeful Chaos horde, matters swiftly go from bad to worse when a force of Necrons teleports in behind the Chaos forces and begin annihilating the heretics. Realising the Necrons fully intend to fight their way through the Chaos lines to the Imperial position, and aware they're in no shape to fight such an enemy, Cain wastes no time in ordering a full evacuation and orders the Mechanicus adepts on site to detonate the facility's self-destruct mechanism. The Imperials succeed in escaping, but the Necrons sabotage the self-destruct mechanism and escape with a powerful artefact the site was housing]].
* SelectiveObliviousness: Cain is often a very sharp man, picking up on clues and making connections no one else seems to. However, at other times he can be incredibly dense, missing things which are obvious to the reader. Amberley is quick to point out such times in footnotes, [[LampshadeHanging Lampshading]] when Cain really ought to have seen something coming.
** Usually his [[CharacterTics itching palms]] will clue him into direct physical danger, but when the danger is [[ObliviousToLove more subtle]] they tend not to trigger. It just goes to show how much Cain depends on his instincts to see him through.
** Cain's own SelfDeprecation gets in the way of him realizing his own importance in a situation. Amberley points out how ignorant he seems of his own positive effect on the morale of guardsmen in the present theater, always worried about failing to live up to that reputation.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Cain has numerous nightmares over barely surviving his first experience against Necrons. Amberley also states he is plagued by nightmares for other less specific reasons, doubtlessly reasons tending toward this trope.
* ShootTheDog: Part of his job. He winds up having to [[spoiler:gun down two "survivors"]] near the end of his first book because they had been [[spoiler:infected by Genestealers]].
* ShroudedInMyth: Cain is one of these in the ''Warhammer 40K'' world; whenever he downplays his accomplishments, most people think that it's out of modesty. One religious sect has even proclaimed him to be ''a physical manifestation of the God-Emperor's Divine Will''. Vail playfully points out that Cain would be absolutely ''horrified'' if he ever learned about said religious sect.
** The people of Perlia have elevated Cain so high on the hero scale that they actually built a gigantic (and hideous) mechanical clock in the planetary capital that tells time by having a commissar appear and lop off the heads of a number of orks equal to the hour. When the capital is bombarded, Cain asks hopefully if the clock has been destroyed.
** Despite frequent mention of his childhood being spent in a Hiveworld, no one actually knows where Cain was born or anything significant about his past prior to becoming a Commissar. He claims at one point that Kroot killed his parents, but Vail points out inconsistencies in his statement and then points out he is, by his own admission, a pathological liar.
* SlaveToPR: Heroic example. No matter what he manages to accomplish, the main reason he doesn't run like hell from the opposite direction of danger at first chance is because it would destroy his indispensably useful heroic image. He keeps digging a deeper hole for himself as his deeds cause his reputation to grow, which in turns increases people's expectations of him, which requires that he keeps charging forward into increasingly worse situations, then when he actually accomplishes more impressive deeds...
* TheSoCalledCoward: Maybe. Before this goes in YMMV, though, remember the massive entry for AlternateCharacterInterpretation up above? It could go either way.
* TheSocialExpert: One skill that Cain unambiguously owns up to is his ability to read a room. He can schmooze like no one else, and shows remarkable understanding in what people think and want to believe.
* SoldiersAtTheRear: What he was hoping for when he pulled some cleverly-attained strings to get assigned to a Vahallan artillery division. [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive Everyone knows how well THAT worked out.]]
* StepfordSmiler: In one book, he reflects on how he's spent so long hiding under masks and constructed heroic personas that he's no longer sure if there's an actual genuine personality left beneath them all.
-->"You could just try being yourself, you know."\\
The thought was terrifying. I'd spent so long hiding behind masks I was no longer sure there was a genuine Ciaphas underneath them any more, just a quivering little bundle of self-interest.
* StiffUpperLip: Cain manages to successfully convince others he has this in regard to facing danger and battle casualties.
* SurvivorGuilt: Despite his insistence that he's a dirty coward that cares for no one but himself, Cain often comments mournfully about the many imperial soldiers and citizens that were killed fighting alongside him, particularly in books set later in his life.
* SwordAndGun: Laspistol in one hand, chainsword in the other -- see the section picture. Cain is demonstrably proficient with both his chainsword and his laspistol, and he takes out an Ork Warboss in ''Death or Glory'' especially due to his choice of weapons; the warboss is concentrating on the chainsword and gives Cain a chance to shove the laspistol barrel [[EyeScream in the ork's eye]] and pull the trigger.
* TakingYouWithMe: When apparently completely and totally overwhelmed by enemies with zero chance of escape or survival Cain will default to this sentiment and attempt to kill as many of his foes as possible before his death.
* TooCleverByHalf: Once in a while his smooth-talking and rhetoric will come around to bite him in the ass, such as when he realizes that his explanations for his current course of action leads to him talking himself into a corner (the corner being effectively volunteering himself for a suicide mission).
* TrialByFriendlyFire: Cain has called in artillery fire or airstrikes on his own position on at least 3 occasions:
** In the short story ''The Beguiling'' he calls in artillery fire on the isolated chateau he's investigating, once he realizes it's actually home to a Slaaneshi cult.
** In the audio drama ''Dead in the Water'' he tells an incoming squadron of Valkyrie attack planes to unload "everything you've got" on the signal generated by his own comm bead, then drops the bead and sprints for the shoreline of the Nurgle-controlled island as fast as his legs will take him.
** In the audio drama ''The Devil You Know'', he discovers a warp portal leading to Dark Eldar territory and leads the Tyranid hive mind to it. Once he sees that they have committed to invading Dark Eldar space he pulls the comm bead trick again (this time with Jurgen's bead) and again just barely sprints to safety before the local Imperial air forces obliterate the area while the 'Nids and Dark Eldar are occupied.
* UnreliableNarrator: Cain tends to leave out anything that doesn't directly affect him, so Vail has to use other sources, including (much to her annoyance) the memoirs of Jenit Sulla. Many readers, both real and in-universe, seem to think he overstates his own cowardice. Cain also makes several minor errors of fact which are pointed out and corrected by Vail's [[FootnoteFever notes]]. He's also a confessed master manipulator and liar who favors playing HumbleHero to cement his reputation. Unless we accept the idea that nobody was ever supposed to read this account, everything in it is suspect.
* UnluckilyLucky: Every dangerous situation he gets into is a result of him trying to avoid one that sounds more dangerous on paper, only making it out through luck and foiling an enemy plot in the process. For example, instead of joining the frontline against an ork horde, he attaches himself to a search party investigating tunnels the orks might be able to use, and finds Necrons instead, and only escapes due to Jurgen's AntiMagic properties. In another, he goes away from the main battle with Chaos forces to an out-of-the-way dredger where there might be a demon summoning taking place. As he'd fervently hoped against, there was a summoning, and he was just a few seconds too late to stop the ritual. Oh, and after Cain and his party land on the dredger, Tomas Beije and a squad of Tallarn guardsmen arrive to arrest Cain for desertion, only to wind up reinforcing Cain's mission to stop the demon summoning once the Tallarn men understand exactly what dangers are on the dredger.
* WalkingDisasterArea: On a few occasions, Cain has actually managed to avoid getting assigned to the more harrowing warzones and found himself in a fairly laid-back posting. Inevitably, ''something'' manages to show up and ruin the party. Particularly notable instances include his first field posting to the Valhallan 12th Artillery and his retirement to the schola on Perlia.
* WeakButSkilled: While he's certainly no slouch by comparison to other humans, Cain is still only a bog-standard human himself (aside from a couple of augmetic fingers). Nevertheless, he has a preternatural ability to manipulate the situation to his advantage when he needs to. He's also one of the best chainswordsman in the galaxy, able to match and occasionally best Space Marine commanders... in an honorable duel, that is; in a life-or-death fight they would just stomp on him. That said, he's able to hold his own against an Ork warboss ''and'' a World Eaters Chaos Space Marine at separate times. Though technically he actually ''killed'' the Ork by getting close enough to [[EyeScream shoot the Ork right through an eye]], and just held the World Eater in one place long enough for Jurgen to kill him with his meltagun.
* WeDoTheImpossible: Cain's specialty, and the point of the series. His life is an endless cycle of being sent to a new assignment, finding some way to get out of that assignment while still looking like he's doing something meaningful, accidentally stumbling onto the ''real'' problem because everyone else was too focused on what was in front of their eyes to investigate, and then throwing every resource at his disposal at that problem because any other option will get him killed. This inevitably inflates his reputation as a resilient, perceptive hero who Gets Things Done, which in turn gets him sent on more of these assignments...
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Cain is absolutely ''terrified'' of the [[KillerRobot Necrons]]. This is due to his first encounter with them, which resulted in the entire squad he was with being killed, [[SoleSurvivor save him]], plus two of his fingers being shot off. The experience was so traumatizing for him that even over eighty years later in ''Cain's Last Stand'' he admits that he still has nightmares about that mission and spends most of the book ignoring the clues pointing to their presence because he ''doesn't want them to be real.''
* WorthyOpponent: The Tau see him as one, taking his reputation at face value after their representatives witness several acts of heroism on his part. His dedication to the greater good of the Imperium impresses them greatly.
[[/folder]]
