History Characters / CodexAlera

* BigBadWannabe: He tries very hard to be the BigBad, but ultimately he's just not quite up to snuff.

* EvilIsPetty: The entire Gaius subplot of ''Captain's Fury'' only exists to try and mitigate the damage caused by Kalarus' pettiness. For all intents and purposes he'd been defeated in the previous book. He no longer had a chance of actually becoming the First Lord. He was being beaten back by the forces of Alera and eventually his city would fall to a siege and he would be captured. Kalarus decides SCREW IT and slaves a volcano-dwelling fury to his very life. When the time finally came that armies would besiege his city (which itself would be packed to the brim with refugees), he would die and trigger a massive eruption with the intent of killing as many people as he could along the way. All to give one final middle-finger shaped farewell to Gaius after losing to him.

* IHaveYourWife: Kidnaps Lady Placida and another noble's daughter to prevent their armies from actively opposing him, and holds Rook's daughter hostage to ensure her continued good behavior. To add to his malevolence Rook's daughter is his granddaughter.

* KillItWithFire: His mastery of firecrafting is on par with Gaius. It is said he personally snuffed out a raging wildfire that threatened his precious hardwood forests he exported.
* TheLongGame: He and his ancestors have been planning a coup for years, heavily taxing the commoners into slavery, to build up enough money to support his secret legions.

* ShootTheDog: Forces Gaius to do this.

** The man had child slaves fitted with obedience collars so their wills would be broken and they would become his berserkers.

* YouKilledMyFather: Though it's never brought up by Tavi he ''is'' one of the two men who personally murdered Septimus (the other was Lord Rhodes)

* {{Cuckold}}: In his introductory scene in ''Academ's Fury'', it is seen Max has slept with his arranged fiance (and her identical twin sister ''the same night in the same room''). When they are next seen together, the fiance is in a powerful cage while Brencis is putting slave collars on Citizens to make them serve the Vord Queen.

* DespairEventHorizon: Seems to have passed it after Gaius obliterates Kalare, turning him into TheHedonist who doesn't care if the Vord win.

* YuriFan: After his father loses, he spends the rest of his time forcing women wearing his {{SlaveCollar}}s to have sex with one another for his ammusement.

* ParentalNeglect: Raucus is a largely absent father due to spending most of his time defending the Shieldwall. He never intervened to stop Dorotea's abuse of Max. Things got so bad that Max ran off to join the Legions at 14.

* DirtyCoward: He has no stomach for fighting. When Bernard challenges him to a duel, he squeals in fear.

** Amara and many cursors view him as this for his betrayal to the Crown.

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Started out on the side of the Big Bad, then switched to the First Aleran, then almost to the Big Bad's [[TheDragon Dragon, before finally sticking to Tavi.]]

* NonIndicativeName: "Fidelias" means "faithful". Which he... um, isn't. Except to the Realm itself.

* OldMaster: Revealed at Eastercon 2015 after the series, this will be his role among the next generation of Cursors, which would include Canim and Marat. Ehren will their "Obi-wan" them directly and Fidelias will be "Yodaing" in the shadows.

* OnlyAFleshWound: See the first entry under badass. Things like spears inside of him, or javelins scaled for nine-foot-tall Canim are only a mild inconvenience.

* SecretSecretKeeper: At the end of ''Cursor's Fury'' he has realized Rufus Scipio is Tavi, who is really the child of Septimus, heir to the House Gaius. He is a bit shocked but doesn't even dare hint that it is true when Lady Aquitaine asks.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: He betrays Gaius in favor of the Aquitaines because he thinks Gaius is a dying old fool who won't simply bow out gracefully, and the ''other'' options for First Lord are petty schemers (and minor characters) and Lord Kalerus, who's mentally unstable and vicious. He later implies he wouldn't have betrayed Gaius if he had known about Gaius Octavian, and pretty quickly switches his loyalty to Tavi once he sees that Tavi is both the legitimate heir and a better ruler than the Aquitaines would be.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Soon after he realizes Magnus is very close to discovering his true identity (which Tavi would execute him for if he'd known), the pair of them are attacked by three Vord while alone. Marcus realizes he could very easily MakeItLookLikeAnAccident (after all, who would blame him for only being able to kill two and a half Vord), but also that doing so is the kind of cold, self-serving action that he hated Alera's nobility for. He ends up saving Magnus.

* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: In ''Captain's Fury'', he gets this both coming and going. Lady Aquitaine is highly impressed by the plan he came up with to force Tavi to [[SadisticChoice either execute a town of innocent people or be imprisoned]], which he feels ''very guilty'' about, and [[ObliviousGuiltSlinging other officers of the First Aleran praise Valiar Marcus's loyalty]], when he's actually a spy.

** He helps the First Aleran and Tavi's allies in the final battle against the vord.

* OutOfFocus: Doesn't do much after the halfway point.
* PretenderDiss: His "you're not Araris" CatchPhrase, as mentioned above. When it turns out his opponent actually ''is'' Araris, he nearly wets himself.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Even when collared and supposedly under Brencis' control, she is able to act and stay loyal to the Crown and protect her daughter. She edges on one fellow slave to kill the Cursor's they found to prevent the Cursors from revealing more information and then kills the second slave because he realizes the truth. After this betrayal, she then goes back to her master and gives the truth in such a way, she isn't disobeying his commands.

* {{Flight}}: Explicitly stated to be something they cannot achieve with their magic (which sometimes trips them up when dealing with Alerans, for whom flight is a rather common power).

* ItIsDehumanizing: The narration and Alerans regularly refer to them as "It," as Alerans often view Canim as little more than beasts. It's not until the ending of ''Cursor's Fury'', when Tavi is among the first Alerans to see a ''female'' Canim that the narration starts using "he" and "she."

* BruiserWithASoftCenter: Seeing Varg drop the Warmaster and be "grandpa" to his grandkids is cute beyond belief.

* CuttingTheKnot: He knows Sarl is working with some unknown power to take down Gaius and the Alerans. He cannot abide by such underhanded and deceitful methods being done, especially since it isn't Sarl's place to act against code and ethics of their kind. So, he does the one thing he can do: Try to talk with Gaius about this matter, warning him of the attack. When Tavi gets in the way, so Varg won't see an incapacitated Gaius, Varg later just kidnaps Kitai to make Tavi follow him to the Vord's base.

** Averted with the Vord the Awakened Queen gives to the Alerans who surrendered to her and asked for amnesty. They and their lines are continuing to follow her commands to protect the holders even after her death.

[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The leader(s) of the Vord]]. There are a few distinct Queens. The Awakened Queen is the one woken up by Tavi and Kitai; she absorbed some of their blood, mutating her and making her a nonstandard Queen. The Calderon Queen tries to attack Calderon Valley in ''Academ's Fury''. The Canea Queens are the ones born in Canea. The Junior Queen was born in Alera during the events of ''First Lord's Fury''. Each of them are very scary.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: She is the leader of the Vord and the most powerful of them. The Awakened Queen is also far more powerful than the junior Queens.

* BigBad: Of the second half of the series.
* BishonenLine: When we first see the Awakened Queen, she's buggy and 'unfinished' looking. When we meet the Calderon Queen, she looks like an Aleran girl with fangs, chitinous skin, and glowing eyes. The Canea Queen looks like a green version of Kitai with some of Tavi's features. The final form of the Awakened Queen looks almost human- except for her BlackEyesOfEvil.

* CreepyChild: The first Queen has extremely creepy childlike aspects to her. As Invidia notes, she's only nine years old. Her 'Doll House' is a steadhold in Vord territory she created to [[EvilCannotComprehendGood try to comprehend good.]] It's just as scary as it sounds.

* HollywoodTactics: Averted. The Queens are ''smart'', and while they have the numbers to ZergRush, they use very intelligent tactics while doing so. In ''Academ's Fury'', before the number of Vord became completely ridiculous, the first queen fought using a devastating series of ambushes before moving in to crush her weakened enemies.
* HumanityIsInfectious[=/=]IntriguedByHumanity: The primary/Awakened Vord Queen. This makes her defective in the eyes of her daughters, who are genetically programmed to kill her for deviating from Vord standard.
* IHaveYourWife: To draw Tavi to her quickly and not have him plot some long term revenge, she captures his mother Isana. To keep her prisoner from committing suicide to avert this trope, the Queen took Araris, Isana's second love, hostage as a counterweight.

* LastOfHerKind: By the end of ''First Lord's Fury'', the only Vord Queen in Carna is the second Canea Queen. She's sterile, so there will never be any more.

** She or the threat of her was something brought up in most every book before her major assault on Alera. Her presence in the first book was as a larva creature Tavi just awoke up.

* VillainBall: The Awakened Queen holds it briefly by not searching Araris carefully, which led to him being able to ward off the numbing effect of her prison: because of his hidden dagger he could use metalcrafting and stay alert.
* WaifFu: The Awakened Queen is able to tear through nine-foot tall Canim warriors, shred a Legion shieldwall, and take on the mightiest crafters in Alera with casual ease.
* WeHaveReserves: The Queens will throw hundreds if not thousands of forces against a foe because they can create more so quickly. It is even weaponized in Canea when the horde constantly attacking the surviving Canim settlement for so long was a distraction while she had another group slowly dig a tunnel into the settlement.

* MrExposition: A variant, with her helping inform Tavi of some details related to the Romans who

* LanguageBarrier: An interesting example runs between them and the Alerans. Sure, they're capable of learning each others' ''verbal'' languages, but among Canim, body language speaks just as loudly, if not moreso. Most Alerans don't realize they have to ensure their posture and body language send the right messages when dealing with Canim. For instance, while to an Aleran a nod is a polite, civil greeting, to a Canim, lowering your chin means you're covering your throat and ready for a fight.

* NiceGuy: Tavi has more than once shown compassion and understanding to an incredible degree. To the point that he's sometimes considered to be a bit too nice

* XanatosGambit: While he is young and not always good at these, he was taught the art of them in his cursor training. His old master often told him that, "Every problem was an opportunity, from a certain point of view." Take the IdiotBall example, he was able to move things about to avoid summary execution, be in a spot to escape from jail, go on a mission to gain a key ally, and defeat Arnos summarily. None of which would have happened if Arnos hadn't arrested him.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: She's one of the nicest people in the world. Can fight a [[PersonOfMassDestruction High Lord]] in a DuelToTheDeath and make him admit defeat by [[WarriorTherapist psychoanalyzing him mid-fight]], absolutely ''destroys'' six monsters that could kill experienced soldiers with water and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulates]] what amounts as a PhysicalGod and her [[TheDragon Dragon]] to put them in a vulnerable position while they knew she was jerking them around.
* TheEmpath: A result of her powerful Watercrafting ability.

** She is this to the Ice Men when they sense she is truly honest about wanting peace, that peace might finally be achieved between their peoples.

* LivingLieDetector: She sees through ''[[MagnificentBastard Gaius Sextus]]'' at one point. To the point, High Lady Aria ''misses'' the same opening in Gaius' facade.

** Her above actions were present before the Ice Men, who are powerful empaths. As they felt her words and emotions, they knew that she truly was there to make peace for them and the Alerans, even at the cost of her own life. Her willingness to die pushed them to agree to a ceasefire with the Alerans so they could fight the vord and not fear of a surprise attack.

* BecomingTheMask: Originally, his archaelogical work was a cover, but he admits that it's really grown on him.

* DeadpanSnarker: He likes to point out when Tavi is acting a little ridiculous. One of these lines in ''Princeps' Fury'' provides a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}: "More mash, please, Your Highness."

Gaius is the ruler of Alera, the most powerful Crafter alive, and essentially [[Literature/HarryPotter Albus Dumbledore]] without the [[ObfuscatingStupidity facade of eccentric senility]]. While often [[MagnificentBastard ruthless]], he is both intelligent and wise and everything he does is for the greater good of Alera. All respect Gaius's abilities, but some (like Isana) think he's lost touch with the common people and is therefore dangerous. Others (like Aquitaine or Kalarus) want to take his throne themselves.

* AntiHero: Pragmatic type. He destroys High Lord Kalarus, the city of Kalare, the valley the city's in, and thousands of Kalarus's subjects... because it ends the war faster as well as saving lives in the long run.

* BigGood: Zigzagged. On the one hand, he's definitely much more benevolent and reasonable than half the other High Lords of the Realm. On the other hand, his cynical and manipulative nature is at least partially responsible for the sorry state of the Realm at the beginning of the story, and by the end of the story and his untimely demise almost none of the "good-aligned" characters are loyal to him any longer.

* DoNotGoGentle: Dying of old age, weak lungs, having walked several hundred miles in unpleasant environments, and having been poisoned secretly, Gaius Sextus does not run from the Vord but takes them on alone. He unleashes the long dormant volcano under his city and takes a huge number of Vord with him.

** Takes advantage of Amara's loyalty to help him [[ShootTheDog destroy Kalarus. She quits on the spot once she learns what he did. For his part, he is sad but accepts it aas the price of beating Kalarus.]]
** Later Amara loathes him even more when in the face of the Vord threat he told Rook he would personally place her daughter anywhere she chose to be safe from the vord, if she helped spy on them to learn how they are using furycrafting. If not, her current life may not be enough to save them both.

* MoralEventHorizon: In-universe example: Amara is unwilling to trust him ever again after he manipulates her into helping him get into position to turn one of the Great Furies against Kalarus, destroying the entire province with a volcanic eruption. However, it was that or let Kalarus [[TakingYouWithMe use it to destroy most of Alera's Legions when they finally killed him]].

* OldSoldier: By the start of the books, he is said to nearly be eighty (in ''Academ's Fury'', he states that he's 'nearly four-score years'). He still commands enough power that no one dares openly challenge him for the throne. When one High Lord does declare open civil war, Gaius makes a three-month journey on foot without the aid of his furies, suffering a broken leg and blistered feet, to get beyond the man's defenses and destroy the man with his own weapon.

* PersonOfMassDestruction: When he isn't about to collapse due to his age and overwork catching up to him. Witness ''Captain's Fury'', when he kills off two whole legions of Kalarus's SuperSoldiers, or ''Princeps' Fury'', where he takes down ''millions'' of the Vord military forces with him in a HeroicSacrifice, sinking Alera's '''capital city''' into lava and turning the whole region into a wasteland that the Vord can't use.

** Has no problem with either Bernard and Amara's relationship (which is illegal under Aleran Law) or Tavi and Kitai (which is an InterspeciesRomance), and in the latter case [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments just advises him to try not to get her pregnant.]]

** Better than the [[TakingYouWithMe alternative]] as the invading men would be killed by Kalarus' volcano. So he makes sure the volcano can only kill Kalarus' side.
** When his character is introduced, he takes a potshot: he admits he is willing to sacrifice a loyal retainer to test the fidelity of another one. He assumes the loyal one would lose the fight.

* DeathbedConfession: He openly confirms his role in manipulating Atsurak into attacking Calderon years ago after Doroga tells him when the Vord war was over, they would have words about his role in getting a good many Marat killed.

* IdiotBall: He holds it once and pays for it. He assumes his gambit to lure his traitorous wife out worked and he vanquished her with a powerful firecrafting that left nothing, not even ash or dust, where part of a building and, supposedly Invidia, had worked. He spends the next few minutes, gloating to Amara and Bernard, whom had been fighting her. Invidia reveals she did survive by launching herself from beneath where Attis stood and dealt a slow-killing blow to the man.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: ''Every'' character with significant dealings with her has attempted to take her [[RunningGag sudden but inevitable betrayal]] into account, with levels of success ranging from "filleted for their trouble" to "[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments left Invidia naked in the middle of the woods]]." The Vord Queen can't be angry at her for treachery because it's just what Invidia ''does''.

** On a larger scale, her assassination of Septimus (which set the whole plot in motion) is what put her into the position she's in at the end of the series- a broken woman living on time borrowed from the Vord.

* LadyMacbeth: She manipulates Attis into starting the war. She is also the one who lands the killing blow.

* MeaningfulRename: Isana names her Nihilus Invidia for her ChronicBackstabbingDisorder.

-->'''Invidia''': "I'm willing to make sacrifices in pursuit of a greater goal. That's not the same as condoning the rape and murder of entire steadholts. There was no profit to those actions. No purpose. It's unprofessional. Idiotic. And I have difficulty tolerating idiots."
* TheQuisling: She sides with the Vord queen in return for keeping her alive and letting her rule the Alerans who accepted the queen's deal.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives one to Arnos after he begs her to save him from the consequences of his actions throughout the book.

'''Invidia''': Don't make me raise my hand, Arnos. When I slap someone, he doesn't scurry away after.\\

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Averted. Her husband had no plans for killing her until she betrayed him and Alera to the vord. Then when she served the Vord Queen, the Queen never has any intention of killing Invidia after her betraying the Alerans. Even after she brought in a hit squad made up of High Lords and Ladies to kill the Queen, the Queen simply anticipated her possible betrayal and made plans, but still was willing to offer her another chance to stand by her side after the Queen dispatched the would-be assassins.

* VillainousFriendship: Develops into a type IV relationship with the Vord Queen, with the Queen being somewhat depressed by her sudden death and admitting they had formed something of a bond.

* XanatosGambit: The way she saw it, either outcome of Tavi's duel with Navaris is good for her- if he loses, then a big obstacle towards getting the throne is dead, and if he wins, then Arnos is pretty much toast, relieving Invidia of a retainer who was becoming too much of a liability. And after it's done, she has an agent with a Canim balest ready to shoot whoever wins, meaning no matter what the outcome is, she's removed two obstacles to her ambition. Of course, [[DidntSeeThatComing she didn't foresee Fidelias switching his loyalty to Tavi (who's saved his life, hasn't gotten him involved in anything horribly unethical, and would probably be a good First Lord) and shooting both Arnos and her]].

* HeelFaceBrainwashing: An understated case. Her personality is still her own, even after being collared, but it becomes ''much'' more benevolent afterward.

* SaveTheVillain: When he lays badly injured from a poisoned bolt in his chest, he thinks this is happening when Tavi calls for a healer. Tavi subverts his expectations by saying the healer is for the hostage he took not him.

* AntiVillain: Originally. He was the one who brought Sarl and the Vord Queen back to Canea. In his first appearance, he threatens a pawnshop owner with murder, and in his second appearance he nearly follows through--and then proceeds to kidnap all the women and children he can find on his way out of town. Sure, he's technically saving them from being murdered by a horde of Canim, but only so he can sell them into slavery. Yet he's somehow very likable, like a DarkerAndEdgier [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Captain Jack Sparrow]]. In the following book, Tavi notes that he doesn't have enough chains on his ship to be a full-time slaver; he probably never really sold them as slaves and really was just trying to save them. It's just that he's a pirate--he has a reputation.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Heartbreakingly callously murdered by the Vord Queen, because the Queen senses Rook's approval in Brencis Minoris' not yielding information in making the slave collars even more effective. The Queen sees this flicker of independence as counter to her goals, so she kills her with as much thought as a human killing a fly.

* MamaBear: She will make treason against the First Lord for her daughter.

* WhatTheHellHero: When he finds out that his mother is alive and Tavi never told him, he doesn't take it well and calls him out on it. By the epilogue, he still is refusing to speak to Tavi.

* {{Ambadassador}}: Becomes Marat ambassador to Alera after ''Academ's Fury.''

* CuteLittleFangs: Part of being a neolithic elf.

* FateWorseThanDeath: To her, losing Tavi but living herself would be this. For this reason, she wants to be with Tavi, in life or death.
* {{Foil}}: For Tavi. Both lost a parent when they were young because of another clan or noble attacking them. Both sought to be "normal" for their own culture, Tavi wants Furycrafting and Kitai wants a horse. She is basically a princess, as her father is headman of one tribe and representative of many others to the Alerans, and Tavi is, unknown to him, also a prince.

* GreaterNeedThanMine: A variation. After the attack by the Vord Queen to kill their medics, Kitai awakens enough to see a dead Foss, and both Tavi and Crassus dying. Dorotea is also down from her collar. Does she save Tavi first, with her limited energy? No. She uses it to save Dorotea, knowing the High Lady would have the power to save both Tavi and Crassus and others later in combat.

* TheLancer: Again, to Tavi. She will support his crazy plans, but also call him out on his stupidity and when his pride is blinding him.

* NonPOVProtagonist: She shows up in every book, usually fights side-by-side with Tavi, but we never see her thoughts.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: See the ObfuscatingDisability entry.

* ItWasAGift: He is regularly seen wearing the tunic Gaius gave him at the end of the first book. That said, the sleeves were too small for his arms, so had to remove them.

* StarterVillain: Introduced in the first book to show how skilled the Marat are in combat and how skilled Attis and Fidelias are at manipulating people.

A race of gigantic (seven feet tall is short for them) [[WolfMan humanoid wolves]]

* FriendlyEnemy: Combine it with WorthyOpponent and you get a ''gadara''. To the Canim, a ''gadara'' is more trustworthy than an ally, as while an ally can betray you, a ''gadara'' is still an enemy and thus one can expect violence from them. Generally, to be acknowledged as a ''gadara'', the two who declare themselves as such exchange swords in front of witnesses. Prior to the events of Captain's Fury, no Canim had ever had an Aleran ''gadara'', until Tavi became one of these with both Nasaug and Varg.

%%%* {{Ambadassador}}: Naturally.

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Always seen wearing his armor and he enjoys a good fight. He also hates backstabbing and the trickery Sarl used with the vord.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Topples the Vord plan to assassinate Gaius in ''Academ's Fury'' by CuttingTheKnot and physically dragging Tavi over to their nest. The Vord knew that he suspected them, but didn't think he'd be listened to because he was widely distrusted in the Capital.

* SmugSnake: Treats the Makers like trash, insults Nasaug and Tavi and generally belives himself to be powerful.

* DragonWithAnAgenda: To Sarl at first. Lampshaded later by Varg, who describes his actions at the beginning of the war as feeding Sarl to the Tavar. When it's put like that, you almost feel ''sorry'' for the poor bastard.

* TheStrategist: A very gifted one who matches Tavi for two years. His first gambit in ''Cursor's Fury'' not only aims to allow his warriors reclaim the fallen on the battlefield while playing ludus with Tavi, but show Tavi a means of defeating Sarl and delays the next engagement between the two sides long enough for night to come which would help his forces, who can see far better in low-light situations.

** To clarify for those not quite as familiar with the series, clouds of acid are a common Ritualist combat spell, which has seen ubiquitous use throughout the series. Morak, on the other hand, creates clouds of [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]].

A HordeOfAlienLocusts accidentally awakened at the beginning of the series.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: They are a very lawful evil, especially the current Queen who would honor deals struck with her. The others under her rule are also lawful, justified by being part of a HiveMind.

* CivilizationDestroyer: Basically the Vord's entire hat as a species. They destroyed the original Marat civilization prior to the series, reducing the survivors to a barbarian existence.

* HiveMind: Vord are only intelligent around a Vord queen. Otherwise, they are just animals.
* HordeOfAlienLocusts: It's even implied they came from space.
* KeystoneArmy: Get rid of the Queen and you get rid of their threat. This normally wouldn't be too much of a problem since the Queens can reproduce quickly, but of the three non-sterile Queens, the two Calderon Queens are dealt with in book 2 (along with their mini-queens) and the Awakened Queen can't produce children whenever she wishes because they inevitably try to kill her, and she eventually dies in the last book without any more heirs. Both Canea Queens are sterile, and one gets killed off in ''Princeps' Fury'', meaning that the Vord are now permanently this.

* MeatMoss: The Croach is the equivalent to the Zerg's creep. It serves as a security measure (if you break its surface the Vord come running), sustenance (digesting organic matter into a nutrient soup for the Vord to feed on), and reproduction (almost all new Vord are spawned from it).
* OutsideGenreFoe: The Vord would come straight out of science fiction -- almost literally, as the Wax Forest is an impact crater from the spaceship they crash-landed on Carna in, according to WordOfGod -- but find themselves overrunning the very high fantasy Alera.

** Once the queen dies, most of the horde simply starves to death in about six months.
** Averted with the vord the Awakened Queen gives to the Alerans who surrendered to her and asked for amnesty. They and their lines are continuing to follow her commands to protect the holders even after her death.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Big on this. It actually bites them in the rear with Brencis, since he keeps the secret of making powerful slave collars from the Vord because he knows that he's dead if he's not indispensable. Thus, when Amara kills him, the Vord are out a powerful asset that they can't replace.

* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: The Canea Queen looks like a green-skinned, black-eyed cross between Kitai and Tavi's aunt. Unsurprising since Kitai and Tavi's blood is what awoke her. However, the attractiveness is lost

* InnocentFanserviceGirl: Subverted - The fact that she and her Daughter Queens tend to go around totally nude except for a cloak just highlights how [[UncannyValley unsettling]] they are.

* IronicDeath: The Vord Queens believe that individuality is a weakness. The first Canea Queen is killed by a gambit that only works ''because'' of individuality (namely using Tavi as a stalking horse).

* JabbaTableManners: The Junior Queen. This is meant to emphasize how different the Awakened Queen is from standard Queens- while the Awakened Queen eats daintily, the Junior Queen just grabs portions of food and stuffs them in her mouth.

* MadeOfIron: Balest bolts bounce off the Awakened Queen's skin. Balest bolts can, for reference, go all the way through two heavily armored ''legionares''.

* TimeAbyss: She is '''billions''' of years old, although she's only existed as herself for as long as the mosaic in Gaius Sextus' meditation chamber has. She's also perhaps one of the foremost examples of this trope: "Entire species come and go, like the sparks rising from a campfire."

** The first Queen does care about Invidia, the junior queens, and her horde, even if the queens would kill her for having such affections.

* FanDisservice: The Vord Queens go naked except for cloaks, which just serves to make them seem even more alien.

* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: The Canea Queen looks like a green-skinned, black-eyed cross between Kitai and Tavi's aunt. Unsurpising since Kitai and Tavi's blood is what awoke her.

* HollywoodTactics: Averted. The queens are ''smart'', and while they have the numbers to ZergRush, they use very intelligent tactics while doing so. In ''Academ's Fury'', before the number of Vord became completely ridiculous, the first queen fought using a devastating series of ambushes before moving in to crush her weakened enemies.
* HumanityIsInfectious / IntriguedByHumanity: The primary Vord Queen. This makes her defective in the eyes of her daughters, who are genetically programmed to kill her for deviating from vord standard.
* IHaveYourWife: To draw Tavi to her quickly and not have him plot some long term revenge, she captures his mother Isana. To keep her prisoner from committing suicide to avert this trope, the Queen took Araris, Isana's second love hostage as a counterweight.
* InnocentFanserviceGirl: Subversion: the fact that she and her daughter queens tend to go around totally nude except for a cloak just highlights how [[UncannyValley unsettling]] they are.

* IronicDeath: The Vord Queens believe that individuality is bad. The first Canea Queen is killed by a gambit that only works because of individuality (namely using Tavi as a stalking horse).

Probably the greatest and most powerful fury in existence, and effectively the incarnation of the entire continent. She's taken a fondness to the house of Gaius, acting as a SpiritAdvisor to them and causing effects on a massive scale when they ask and it suits her. However, she will not directly aid one side over another; using her power effectively relies on setting up situations where some outside influence helps your side more than the other.

* AllPowerfulBystander: The most powerful fury to have ever existed, but she never gets directly involved or favors one side over the other in the many conflicts of her world. Though she does favor Gaius' house, she only helps them when they ask and doing so suits her.
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Technically all furies would be this, but Alera's the most human and comprehensible of them, having interacted with the house of Gaius for centuries.
* BishonenLine: Of the great furies we see, Kalare is a giant volcano, Garados is a hideous mountain beast, and Thana is a vast, gaunt shape composed of countless windmanes. Alera, on the other hand, is very humanlike until you get to her eyes.

* LackOfEmpathy: The combine factors of being an impossibly old PhysicalGod, and not even a human one at that, mean she does not process thoughts and emotions the same way others do. She understands them well enough, though.

-->"Until the Vord came, I and my kin had killed more Alerans than any foe your folk had ever faced."
* SpiritAdvisor: To the house Gaius. She usually limits herself to just the ruling First Lord, but because of Tavi's bond with Kitai and him telling Kitai before being told not to, she extends her advise to Kitai.
* TimeAbyss: She is ''billions'' of years old, although she's only existed as herself for as long as the moasaic in Gaius's meditation chamber. Perhaps one of the foremost examples: "Entire species come and go, like the sparks rising from a campfire."

* BadassBookworm: One of the smartest characters in the series, which is saying something given the amount of {{MagnificentBastard}}s in the series.

* WorthyOpponent: To Tavi, and the Alerans in general. The word is ''gadara''. The Canim actually prefer having Worthy Opponents to friends: they're people you can respect and even like, yet will always keep you on your toes. However, Tavi knows this only goes so far. If Varg senses he could get more out of withdrawing his support for Tavi, he will do it. Note that Nausag, Varg's son and protege, addresses him as ''gadara-sar'', meaning "Worthy Opponent-Father."

* MayDecemberRomance: Her marriage to Gaius, though there's no actual romance involved.

* YourCheatingHeart: Is having an affair with Attis.

* UnskilledButStrong: Using other people's blood for his casting means that he has access to a lot of power but he tends to be sloppy in his application.
** Arguable. Sarl never actually misses a single one of his attacks. Tavi just always had a method of surviving it.
*** Sloppy in terms of effects. While the attacks work, Morak gets similar results using much less power. Sarl tends to favor big flashy attacks that use a lot more power than is required.

* AntiVillain: Originally. He was the one who brought Sarl and the Vord Queen back to Canea. In his first appearance, he threatens a pawnshop owner with murder, and in his second appearance he nearly follows through--and then proceeds to kidnap all the women and children he can find on his way out of town. Sure, he's technically saving them from being murdered by a horde of Canim, but only so he can sell them into slavery. Yet he's somehow very likable, like a DarkerAndEdgier [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Captain Jack Sparrow]]. In the following book, Tavi notes that he doesn't have enough chains on his ship to be a full-time slaver; he probably never really sold them as slaves and really was just trying to save them. It's just that he's a pirate-–he has a reputation.

* SubmissiveBadass: To Varg, who notes that Nasaug is four hundred years old and a skilled Warmaster in his own right, but who nonetheless submits to the authority of his mentor and father.

Kitai is a girl of the humanoid Marat race, and Tavi's frequent partner, foil, and love interest. Tough and athletic, like Tavi she has learned to rely on her wits to beat powerful Crafters. Like all Marat, she has bonded telepathically with a being of another species, but is unique in that her ''[[BondCreatures chala]]'' is sentient (namely, Tavi). As a result, she often feels isolated from both cultures. As Tavi develops his Furycrafting, she becomes able to share it through their bond.

* MarryForLove: He married Isana, a commoner and non-Citizen, for love despite the controversy it would cause.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Again, he's good at this, in his Fade persona. He maintained it in view of anyone for over fifteen years. Even Bernard never caught on to the act.

* BadassGrandpa: By the start of the books, he is said to nearly be eighty (in ''Academ's Fury'', he states that he's 'nearly four-score years'). He still commands enough power that no one dares openly challenge him for the throne. When one High Lord does declare open civil war, Gaius makes a three-month journey on foot without the aid of his furies, suffering a broken leg and blistered feet, to get beyond the man's defenses, to destroy the man with his own weapon. And to top it all off, he ''really is'' Tavi's grandfather.

* MoralEventHorizon: In-universe example: Amara is unwilling to trust him ever again after he manipulates her into helping him get into position to turn one of the Great Furies against Kalarus, destroying the entire province with a volcanic eruption. However, it was that or let Kalarus [[TakingYouWithMe use it to destroy most of Alera's Legions when they finally killed him]], [[ShootTheDog so...]]

* {{Ambadassador}}: Naturally.
* BadassGrandpa: Literally and figuratively. He is several centuries old by the Aleran calendar and only a hundred by the Cane calendar, but is one of the strongest and deadliest fighters in the series. He even has grandchildren who survived with their mother (Varg's daughter-in-law).

** He realizes his best friend Araris is in love with his wife. Instead of being jealous, fearful, or smug, he warmly accepts this because Araris fell in love with the same qualities he himself did. He even uses this love to make sure Rari would stay with a heavily pregnant Isana and protect her instead of staying at the Sept's side.

* AndIMustScream: When she was ten, she was enslaved, had a discipline collar put on, and was gang-raped (this being as her TheEmpath talents were coming in, for extra horror). She was then used as a sex slave for years and regularly drugged. It's mentioned that after she was freed, she shivered and screamed a lot.

* AndIMustScream: The Awakened Queen's sanity is pushed hard because she can sense what her minions are doing. This is natural for any Queen, but with her watercrafting-empowered empathic senses she can ''sense through her minions''. As a result, she can sense the emotions of the very Alerans she is sending her forces to kill, including the last emotions they feel upon death or killing her minions.

* OutsideGenreFoe: The Vord would come straight out of science fiction, if it weren't for the fact that they're overrunning the very high fantasy Alera.

* LanguageBarrier: An interesting example runs between them and the Alerans. Sure, they're capable of learning each others' ''verbal'' languages, but among Canim, body language speaks just as loudly, if not moreso. Most Alerans don't realize they have to ensure their posture and body language send the right messages when dealing with Canim.

* ItWasAGift: The Marat believe that if given a gift from a friend, it would disrespect that friend if they don't use it. So, Tavi invokes this to the Marat cavalry that comes to help by personally giving each rider armor and clothes.

* IRejectYourReality: He's a great tactician and strategist... except he dismisses ''anything''' that doesn't fit his preconceptions. Reports of a new and extraordinarily dangerous enemy, which has already chewed up a Marat force and a Aleran force, and is possibly on the loose? Just lies. Marat can't be trusted, you know. Canim now have ranged weapons? The Canim are just dogs who couldn't possibly innovate that, and the Canim crossbow you captured isn't sufficient evidence to the contrary. The Canim want to build ships and leave? Nope, the Canim only exist to make Alerans miserable, and giving them any quarter towards achieving this goal will just result in sea-going Canim raiders.

* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: In the last book. It is part of a plan to fake his death for a time until Attis dies, after Ehren manipulated him to commit tactical suicide.

* BadassNormal: By this series' standards, Amara is fairly average. She only has one of the six crafting types but is capable of going toe-to-toe with or outwitting [[PersonOfMassDestruction High Lords]].

* BadassNormal: The in-universe equivalent, since Tavi is practically a HandicappedBadass by their standards. Ehren isn't particularly powerful compared to all the Citizens he hangs around, but he still manages to kick a decent amount of ass. It helps that some security measures are more designed to stop Knight-tier crafting and above. His weaker attacks bypass them easily.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In ''Cursor's Fury'' he has this revelation after a self-examination. He is missing Kitai deeply and their strong bond makes being apart for long distances painful. However, the past few days, that pain was gone and he stopped talking about her in a forlorn manner. It takes him little time to realize Kitai has moved into the Legion camp he is stationed at, under the guise of a blind beggar.

* LikeFatherLikeSon: ''Lots'' of comparisons are made to Septimus, though Tavi is smarter than his dad thanks to a good twenty years of {{Badass Normal}}ity. Both are courageous on the battlefield, a natural leader. Both think about the plight of those who are less fortunate. Both fell for a woman who was considered taboo and scandalous, Isana being a commoner and Kitai isn't even Aleran, and both women would stand up to their loves, challenging them and their choices when they felt they were wrong but never make an argument about it. They also both got sea sick really easily.