History Characters / Circleverse

* CarryABigStick: Daja is the most physically powerful of the group and has formal training in staffwork thanks to being a Trader. She carries her Trader staff wherever she goes.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: She designs a pair of fireproof gloves for a firefighter who has no magic of any sort to protect him. All well and good, except that he's actually an arsonist and she just handed him a tool that lets him kill dozens of people.]] She's ''horrified'' when she finds out.

* LivingLieDetector: Tris accurately describes him as "the finest truthsayer known", his ability to tell whether someone is lying is never once questioned or shown to be inaccurate, and just the mention of his name is enough for people to take him and his students seriously.

* LivingLieDetector: One of his powers is a near-infallible truth spell. He's never even been ''suggested'' as being close to wrong, and even circumstances like Keth's uncontrolled lightning magic don't faze him.

* EvilFeelsGood: [[spoiler:At first, he ensures that the buildings he targets are empty of people, even worrying when someone doesn't get out on her own. But one night he finds out a homeless person and one of his firefighters died fighting one of his fires. The realization that he has killed a person gives him such a thrill that he starts setting fire to populated buildings deliberately.]]

* SecretTestOfCharacter: She publicly refuses to take students, so the rare students she does train are [[TheDeterminator the ones who can put up with a heavy work schedule and refuse to take "no" for an answer]]. In addition, nothing in her personal storeroom is labeled, so cooking magic is required to fetch supplies from it.

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: It can be hard to remember that in the original ''Circle of Magic'' series, Briar was TEN YEARS OLD like the others. He was already a criminal with lots of fights under his belt, and he also knows exactly what happens during [[RapePillageAndBurn pirate/bandit raids.]]

* AmbiguouslyBrown: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since he's an orphan with only vague memories of his mother and none of his father. Briar is described as darker-skinned. From his description, he probably meant to be of Asian or Mediterranean descent.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: In the first three books, he wears shoes only when a teacher makes him. This seems to be both because he grew up in BarefootPoverty as a StreetUrchin and also because he is an EarthyBarefootCharacter with magic linked to plants. But by fourth book, which takes place in late winter, he has a second-favorite pair of boots.

* [[spoiler: ButchLesbian]]: As revealed in ''The Will of the Empress'', when she falls in love with Rizu, Namornese Empress Berenene's Mistress of the Imperial Wardrobe.

** UltimateBlacksmith: Daja is one of the few metal mages who have power over ''all'' metal. Frostpine is one of the only others, and had apparently been searching for a very long time for a student with the same abilities.

* {{Criminal|s}}: How Niko found him.

* StreetUrchin: Until Niko found him.

* ComboPlatterPowers: Her magic is over elemental energy that comes in waves or currents, so wind, lightning, tectonics, heat, lava flows, the tides and rain. It makes her one of the most powerful mages of her generation.