History Characters / CodexAlera

* DeadpanSnarker: Tavi can ''really'' lay the snark on when he wants to. Special mentions should be given to him telling the Canim Ambassador to his ''face'' that he has bad breath when they're on the verge of a MutualKill.
* TheDreaded: He becomes this to the Canim. He earns the nickname "Tavar" (after a wolverine-like creature from the Canim's homeland, that is small, very vicious, and routinely takes down things bigger than itself,) and the repeated efforts of the ritualists to sabotage relations between Tavi and Varg suggest that, despite all their bluster about their superiority, they are a lot more scared of him than he is of them. In ''First Lord's Fury'', Varg reminds Nasaug of the time he "fed Sarl to the Tavar" (in ''Cursor's Fury'') and says it completely without irony, showing he was aware it wasn't even a fair fight.

* EmpoweredBadassNormal: For most of his life, Tavi had to learn how to get by without Furies in a world where everyone takes having them at their beck and call for granted, which has largely meant a life of constantly figuring out solutions to problems most of his peers don't have. The feats he's able to accomplish with that alone are impressive; once he does come into furycrafting skills of his own, applying that same sort of lateral thinking to their use has the same effect as giving Batman a Green Lantern Ring.

* CharacterDevelopment: She becomes remarkably manipulative and clever as she delves into Aleran politics at the Aquitaines' encouragment, to the point where she becomes the HopeBringer ''three times over''. Furthermore, she goes from someone who abhors violence and has always considered herself a [[NonActionGuy Non-Action Girl]] who wanted to hide Tavi away from the rest of the world for his protection to someone willing to sacrifice her own life in the name of permanently ending a bloody war and also making herself as public as possible in order to better garner support for the change that she knows should have already happened long before.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: He gets scalped by a group of angry Marat off-page after Odiana arranges it to look like he was responsible for desecrating the bodies of some of their fallen warriors.

* MentorOccupationalHazard: Death by HeroicSacrifice at the end of ''Princeps' Fury.''

* AntiVillain: His rebellion is because he wants to strengthen Alera, not out of personal greed or envy of Sextus' position. When he does temporarily become First Lord in ''First Lord's Fury'', he genuinely does his best for Alera, and continues leading even when he's dying from the wound Invidia gave him.

* BigBadDuumvirate: With his wife. Technically, most of her schemes are aimed at getting him the throne, but that's only because as a woman that's the closest she'll ever get to true power in the misogynistic culture of Alera. In many ways, Invidia was the BigBad more than he ever was, since she was more actively involved in the plot and unknown to him, was behind the murder of his best friend, Septimus. Attis is, in fact, motivated largely by vengeance on the men he holds responsible for that.

* 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, and points this out.

* MeaningfulName: Attis. In Phyrgian mythology, Attis is castrated by Cybele and dies. Invidia deals Attis a death blow by piercing him in the loins with a red hot sword. Cauterizing the wound prevents it from healing.

* DidntSeeThatComing: He's briefly taken aback when Isana - who he had previously assumed to be toadying on behalf of Gaius Sextus, who he personally despises - angrily snarls that she actually '''hates''' Sextus for having left her husband (Septimus) to die.

* 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'''.

* PlayingWithFire: Though Raucus is skilled in all 6 forms of crafting, he is especially skilled at firecrafting. Lady Placida speculates this is due to his passionate nature.
* ShellShockedVeteran: In the fifth book. He has been protecting Alera from constant Iceman attacks since he was ''fourteen'', and forty years of warfare has left deep scars on his psyche. This is why he is so unwilling to believe that it could be possible to make peace with the Icemen, he's seen too many of his soldiers and worse, his ''civilians'', dead at their paws.

The politician in charge of military spending, who dismisses any report of military threats that don't fit his preconceptions. Politically, not a supporter of the First Lord, but in a position too sensitive to ignore.

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Heartbreakingly and callously murdered by the Awakened 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 would feel for swatting a fly.

* MamaBear: She commits treason against the First Lord for the sake of her daughter.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: After she discovers the chains used for transporting slaves on ''The Slive'', she's atypically serious and visibly bitter/disgusted. Similarly, her realizing that she's pregnant in the final book causes her to become furious with Tavi for having been carrying on an informal relationship with her, as she doesn't want their child to have to deal with the major social stigmas that Alerans place on illegitimacy.

* CanNotSpitItOut: Not Doroga himself, but he's fond of mocking Alerans (primarily Amara and Bernard) about their inability to talk candidly about sexual topics.

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

Varg is the [[{{Wolfman}} Canim]] Ambassador to Alera. He's a lot smarter than most Alerans give him and his kind credit for, and recognizes Tavi's capabilities fairly quickly. After getting [[TheStarscream double-crossed by his advisor, he spends some time in Aleran prison until Tavi breaks him out to get his aid.]]

* TheNicknamer: Gives Tavi the [[MeaningfulName Meaningful Nickname]] Tavar.

** After he failed to stop Sarl's taking of his guards to become Taken by the Vord, he took responsibility for Sarl's actions and surrendered himself to Gaius's authority. He only left jail when it was adventageous to reclaiming power and reuniting swiftly with his people.

* EvilSorcerer: An evil, SmugSnake who uses BloodMagic.

* GoneHorriblyRight: He sought power to destroy Varg and the Alerans. He allied himself with the Vord and even helped the Queen escape to his lands in order to recultivate the power. The Vord helped him take over- and then started [[HordeOfAlienLocusts doing what Vord do]].

* SmugSnake: Treats the Makers like trash, insults Nasaug and Tavi and generally belies himself to be far more powerful than he really is.

* 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. While the attacks work (except for the fact that Tavi usually has a way of surviving the ones directed at ''him''), Morak gets similar results using much less power. Sarl tends to favor big flashy attacks that use a lot more power than is required.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Oh, yes.

* BigBad: Of the series as a whole, though they're only really that prominent in the second half of the series.

-->'''Invidia''': I'm willing to make sacrifices in pursuit of a greater goal. That's not the same as [[KickTheDog condoning the rape and murder of entire steadholts.]] [[ForTheEvulz There was no profit to those actions. No purpose.]] [[StupidEvil It's unprofessional. Idiotic.]] And I have difficulty tolerating idiots.

** 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.

-->'''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.

-->'''Invidia''': I believe I made a mistake in you, Arnos. I knew you were a [[SmugSnake pompous egotist with delusions of grandeur]], but I ''did'' believe you were at least competent.\\
'''Arnos''': We had a deal.\\
'''Invidia''': We had an understanding. But you've broken faith with me. You told me you hadn't aquired any of your troops as mercenaries. But your extremely well-supplied and well-armed and well-paid cavalry seem to have taken it upon themselves to loot and pillage every human habitation they come across.\\
'''Arnos''': Their Tribunes are acting independently of my orders.\\
'''Invidia''': You're the commander of these Legions, dear. You're responsible for what they do. That's rather why one is able to attain glory and respect after a victory. [[DeadpanSnarker Or don't they teach that at the Collegia?]]\\
'''Arnos''': How ''dare'' you lecture me on--\\
'''Invidia''': Don't make me raise my hand, Arnos. [[ImpliedDeathThreat When I slap someone, he doesn't scurry away after.]]\\
'''Arnos''': You were willing enough to spill Aleran blood six weeks ago.\\
'''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.\\
'''Arnos''': Then you should agree that this conversation is unprofitable, given the circumstances. We need to focus on the matter at hand.\\
'''Invidia''': Oh?\\
'''Arnos''': We're probably worried about nothing. Navaris is going to introduce our young captain to the crows, and that will solve the problems at hand.\\
'''Invidia''': Will it? I've made a decision about the problems at hand, Arnos.\\
'''Arnos''': What's that?\\
'''Invidia''': They're your problems. Solve them by yourself. If you manage to survive them, I may be willing to renegotiate our relationship. But until then, you're on your own.

* WomanScorned: See GreenEyedMonster. It's worth noting that Invidia didn't have Septimus killed for falling in love with Isana because ''she'' loved Septimus or anything like that - Rather, she had Septimus killed because [[EvilIsPetty she couldn't stand the fact that]] Septimus snubbed the "great Invidia" for "a glorified peasant" and wanted to punish him for that percieved slight to her ego.
* 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]].

* DeathSeeker: Has shades of this.

--->''Tavi paused, took a breath, and shook his head. "He'll know what to do."''

* FallenHero: He was once one of Septimus' closest allies, one of his bodyguards, but sleeping with Odiana, for whom Miles was smitten, to calm her down led to Miles challenging him to Juris Macto, which led to Araris taking up the spot after Miles' "accident" and his defeat. The juris macto led to the public reveal of the incident and Septimus couldn't allow him to be near him again. After that, he became a mercenary.

* BigBrotherInstinct: An age-inverted case. In part out of guilt for having previously been cruel to him in childhood when he didn't know any better, Crassus is ''very'' defensive of him, to the point where he point-blank '''obliterates''' the Canim charge on the First Aleran's position so as to make sure a critically injured Max can be sent back to the healers.

* AnimalMotifs: The Marat tribes are each based around a certain animal, and the animal's nature is typically reflected in the tribals' demeanor. The known tribal animals are [[CoolHorse horses]] (fast, deceptively dangerous, hard-working, and stoic), [[SavageWolves wolves]] (merciless, cold, savage, and honorable), [[FeatheredFiend herdbane]] (treacherous, quick-witted, flighty, impulsive, and stubborn), [[HonorableElephant gargants]] (honorable, wise, slow to act but absolutely devastating and near-impossible to counter), and [[PantheraAwesome lions]] (though the latter never appear in the series). There was formerly a [[FantasticFoxes Fox]] Tribe, but the Wolf and Herdbane Tribes wiped them out several years prior to the start of the series.

* NotSoDifferent: The Marat can be just as dishonorable, needlessly cruel, illogical, noble, heroic, and kind as any Aleran can. Both societies also contain very confusing and arcane rules that aren't immediately obvious, and have rather dark traditions that they refuse to give up on (the Aleran practice of slavery - at least until the epilogue of ''First Lord's Fury'', and the Marat practice of cannibalism).

* SuperStrength: Marat are significantly stronger than most Alerans, even when they don't have a bond with animals that further enhances that strength. Kitai is able to break apart a chair she is tied to with a couple of violent jerks, and Doroga can lift a massive boulder and throw it as a weapon.

* InterspeciesFriendship: Besides Tavi, sh develops several close relationships with several other Alerans. Outside of Max and Ehren, she is closest to Mistress, and later Tribune, Cymnea. Cymnea first ran the brothel and bathhouse among the camp followers and looked after Kitai when the later was in her "Gerta" disguise. She is also the one Kitai goes to to learn about Aleran Nobles' view on legitimate children and probably that she was pregnant with Tavi's child.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: After she discovers the chains used for transporting slaves on ''The Slive'', she's atypically serious and visibly bitter/disgusted. Similarly, her realizing that she's pregnant in the final book causes her to become angry with Tavi for having been carrying on an informal relationship with her, as she doesn't want their child to have to deal with the major social stigmas that Alerans place on illegitimacy.

** Makers, the 'civilian' caste, composed of anyone who's not a Warrior, Ritualist, or Hunter. In theory, the other Castes exist to serve them, but power corrupts with Canim as much as it does with humans.

--> "I AM STILL THIRSTY! WHO WILL DRINK WITH ME?"

* GrumpyOldMan: Gives off this vibe.

* AnimalisticAbomination: The Vord types that aren't designed to specifically resemble their foes (like the vordknights resembling the Knights Aeris of Alera and the Cane-forms resembling the Canim) will typically take forms that resemble a nightmarish parody of the local wildlife. To wit, Tavi spots huge frog-like Vord leaping at the fortifications of Shuar in ''Princeps' Fury'', while a plurality of Vord forces in Alera are described as resembling garim (basically Komodo Dragons), gorillas, and praying mantises.

* HostileTerraforming: The Vord spread the alien ''croach'' with them wherever they go. It chokes out and "digests" anything organic placed inside of it, and turns it into a nutrient-rich slurry that other Vord feed on between battles. As a result, it kills off all other life around it.

* KillAndReplace: Maestro Killian allows Rook to kill the real Gaella shortly after she was selected for Cursor training and [[VoluntaryShapeshifting use watercratfing to assume her appearance]]. Killian [[IDidWhatIHadToDo did this]] to [[DoubleAgent get into Kalare's spy network.]]

* 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 Cursors 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 that she isn't disobeying his commands.

* VillainousBreakdown: Tavi talks her into one.

* LargeHam: When given a reason, he can be quite the melodramatic guy.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: He taught Tavi to play ''ludus''.

* MonstrousCannibalism: When the Awakened Queen's store of ''croach'' in the ruins of Riva is destroyed by Tavi's forces, she suddenly finds her remaining forces in the Calderon Valley severely malnourished and at threat of starvation. Her solution? Have her surviving forces devour the weakest and most severely injured tenth of her remaining forces. Both Isana and even ''[[TheSociopath Invidia]]'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards are visibly disturbed by this dispaly of the Queen's sheer callousness towards her own kind]].

* CharacterDevelopment: While he still retains his cleverness and snark even into the latter novels, he significantly matures, going from a crafty youngster to a WisePrince. He also gains an increased sense of empathy for others - While Tavi was never an EmptyShell or outright {{Jerkass}}, he still understandably suffered from the FantasticRacism and DeliberateValuesDissonance from growing up in Alera that one would expect. As he becomes a young adule, he becomes significantly more outspoken against slavery and moves past his countrymen's prejudices regarding their non-human "neighbors". He even feels sympathy for the Awakened Vord Queen when she finally dies, promising to make her death as quick and painless as possible.

* TheBet: Marat are willing to wager high stakes, such as allainces and the life choices of their children on major trials. Kitai bets her father she will win against Tavi and thus be now considered an adult and free to choose her own path in life.

* BrutalHonesty: Since the Marat didn't even have a concept of telling falsehoods until Tavi explained the idea to Doroga, most Marat are incredibly blunt and matter-of-fact. Sometimes this is PlayedForDrama (like with Doroga's cold assessment about the "Field of Fools," a.k.a. the Battle of First Calderon, when he's talking to an angry Placidus Aria in ''Princeps' Fury''), but more often than not it's PlayedForLaughs (such as Doroga and Kitai always finding it hilarious to embarrass their Aleran friends/allies with the frankness with which they talk about sex, or Doroga mocking the ''juris macto'' he has been called upon to officiate).

* {{Polyamory}}: It's implied that at least some of the Marat practice this. Kitai mentions to Tavi at one point how her Doroga had bedded multiple women after her own mother's passing, and if the comments from Enna in the introduction to ''Captain's Fury'' are anything to go by, it's not seen as that unusual for Marat to "share" their lovers even among their family members.

!Atsurak

* DittoAliens: Subverted. The Narashan Canim are the only Canim to have diplomatic relations with the Alerans and look like seven-foot-tall [[{{Wolfman}} Wolfmen]] with midnight-black fur, leading to most Alerans assuming that all Canim look like them. Later on, however, Tavi and company are introduced to the Shuaran Canim, another Canim subspecies who have tawny golden fur and less stocky bodies than the Narashans do along with comparatively slender snouts.

* MundaneUtility: Downplayed. This is mostly averted on its face as, unlike furycrafting, Canim BloodMagic [[CripplingOverspecialization seems to be primarily designed for use in combat]]. However, according to Varg, it also has its uses elsewhere, such as blessing bloodlines, increasing fertility in Canim women, increasing the bounty of crops, and lessening the ravages of storms, droughts, and plagues. The last aspect in particular is implied to be the reason why, despite furies existing in Canea, no furystorms or wild furies are observed there by Tavi and other Alerans in ''[=Princeps' Fury=]''.

* BrutalHonesty: Since the Marat didn't even have a concept of telling falsehoods until Tavi explained the concept to Doroga, most Marat are incredibly blunt and matter-of-fact. Sometimes this is PlayedForDrama (like with Doroga's cold assessment about the "Field of Fools," a.k.a. the Battle of First Calderon, when he's talking to an angry Placidus Aria in ''Princeps' Fury''), but more often than not it's PlayedForLaughs (such as Doroga and Kitai always finding it hilarious to embarrass their Aleran friends/allies with the frankness with which they talk about sex).

** Doroga stops Atsurak's attack for a time on Garrison by challenging him to this, declaring the later's actions are an abomination to The One.

* TheBet: The Marat like to place bets on several things, including their duels to the death.

* SamusIsAGirl: Tavi takes an embarrassingly long time to figure out that Kitai's a girl when he first meets her. He does it ''again'' upon first encountering her "Black Hood" persona in ''Academ's Fury''.

* TallDarkAndHandsome: He's a bit of a late bloomer (what with Isana slowing his growth and all), but even in ''Furies of Calderon'' Amara notes that he's a good-looking boy. By ''Captain's Fury'', he's repeatedly mentioned to be quite tall and rather attractive, with Kitai's cousin Enna [[EatingTheEyeCandy openly leering at him]] when she interrupts Kitai and Tavi in an intimate moment. As evidenced by both his uncle Bernard and his father Septimus, it runs in the family.

* BestialityIsDepraved: Subverted. While a common stereotype of the Marat from the Alerans is that they "lay with their beasts," it quickly becomes pretty clear that this doesn't happen and the relationship between ''chala'' and Marat is far more complex than that.

* BestHerToBedHer: The Marat, as a culture, have this in terms of their courting rituals. The man must win over the woman he wants in some competition ''of her choosing''. So, if a male of the Wolf tribe seeks to court a lady of the Horse tribe, she can challenge him to a horse race, knowing full well she has the clear advantage and will likely easily win, thus ending his pursuit of her.

* LanguageEqualsThought: The Marat do not have a word for "lying", and the closest they can come is to say that somebody is making an 'intentional mistake'. In their culture, when one person accuses another of being mistaken the result is a DuelToTheDeath between parties to determine who is correct. Thus, they find the concept of somebody deliberately telling a falsehood confusing and pointless.
* {{Polyamory}}: It's implied that some of the Marat practice this. During the introduction of ''Captain's Fury'', when Tavi and Kitai are interrupted in the midst of

* ProudWarriorRace: They ''have'' to be to survive on [[DeathWorld Carna]], after all.

* OurElvesAreDifferent: Marat are basically neolithic Wood Elves, though the term is never explicitly used for them.

* MyGirlIsASlut: Kitai is ''very'' proud of her sexual prowess and seems to be almost always game for her and Tavi to ravish each other. For his part, Tavi is incredibly embarassed but ultimately just as enthusiastic as she is.

* SingleTargetSexuality: Aside from a joking comment concerning her appreciating the competence of High Lord Phyrigus' heir in ''First Lord's Fury'', she and Tavi only have eyes for each other.

** His realizing his just having sex with her and not properly courting her in either of their cultures, could be used against them politically and her personally, being called the Prince's Whore by Citizens (Tavi is genuinely horrified when he realises this, having been rather oblivious to what others were saying).

* {{Foil}}: [[invoked]] According to WordOfGod, Tavi was intentionally written to serve as the "polar opposite" of [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]]. Tavi isn't a PersonOfMassDestruction (at least until the last book) unlike Dresden, but is more deucedly clever and manipulative. Dresden often falls into PoorCommunicationKills and is unwilling to share valuable information with his allies, while Tavi is very open with his loved ones and allies, instead being more often than not the one ''to'' have information hidden from him. Dresden was an orphan raised by [[AbusiveParents an abusive guardian]] that forever tainted his soul with BlackMagic when he had to kill him in self-defense, while Tavi was raised by his birth family and grew up surrounded by love and support. And finally, Tavi is not gifted with power on a level above and beyond most people like Harry is as a wizard, but instead is ''below'' them by virtue of being the only known Aleran without furycrafting for the first three books.

** 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, he realizes that for the past few days, that pain has been gone and he has 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.
** [[invoked]] In ''First Lord's Fury'', the Great Fury Alera grimly warns him of the InferredHolocaust that will come over the Alerans once her form has finished "dissolving" back into the countryside. He first desperately tries to come up with a CrazyEnoughToWork plan to solve this issue... but he realizes that even ''he'' can't possibly solve an issue of that scale and breaks down crying out of both guilt and grief.

* TallDarkAndHandsome: He's a bit of a late bloomer (what with Isana slowing his growth and all), but even in ''Furies of Calderon'' Amara notes that he's a good-looking boy. By ''Captain's Fury'', he's repeatedly mentioned to be quite tall and rather attractive. It runs in the family.

* ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter: Sextus shows himself multiple times to be dangerously good at reading others or discerning who they really are as people. For instance, it's heavily implied that he recognises Fade [[spoiler: a.k.a. Araris Valerian]] for who he is at a glance despite the disfiguring brand on his face, and that he immediately deduces who Tavi is. Additionally, when he notes Amara and Bernard's relationship in ''Captain's Fury'', an annoyed Amara haughtily notes to him that she could've fallen out with Bernard years ago and have had "half a dozen lovers" since then for all he knew. Sextus then bursts into laughter, noting that she can ''claim'' that, but he knows her well enough that she would never actually do such a thing.

* The better side of this is that he tends not to take much personally (except the murder of his son, whereupon he spends the next two and a half decades methodically destroying the participants). He's sadly understanding when Amara silently resigns after he blow up Kalarus' volcano (after he manipulated her and Bernard into helping him to reach it), he's civil and willing to work with Fidelias even after his betrayal, and when Tavi is indignant at how Isana allied with the Aquitaines in ''Academ's Fury'', Gaius points out that he didn't help her. He was unconscious, but in his view, that didn't matter - he had an obligation, he failed to live up to it, so she turned to the next available help.

* {{Troll}}: It's shown several times that he loves to thoroughly embarass Tavi and Amara by lightheartedly teasing them about their romantic relationships, such as him "mildly" asking Tavi if he's "sleeping with the Marat Ambassador by any chance." When a blushing Tavi awkwardly stammers out that he and Kitai haven't done ''[[TechnicalVirgin that]]'', Sextus just snorts while trying to hide his laughter.

* InnocentFanserviceGirl: For the most part, adult Marat barely bother with clothes beyond a loincloth and a belt to hold weapons and tools in. When first brought to a Marat camp, the narration notes that Tavi sees a lot of things a young Aleran boy isn't supposed to see -- but really wants to. This causes some difficulty when Tavi recruits a bunch of female Marat riders as cavalry.

* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: After her and Tavi's struggle against the Wax Forest in ''Furies of Calderon'', she's shown to have gotten over the Wax Spiders' poison in ''Academ's Fury'' incredibly fast.

* WeirdWeather: Lots of their spells seem to revolve around clouds and the weather, being able to cause vicious storms and summon even a mighty gale-force wind to propel an entire armada of ships.

* AliensAreBastards: They're extraterrestrial in origin according to the author.

* CaptainErsatz: They are directly inspired by ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft}}'''s Zerg.

* EvilEvolves: The queens constantly breeds new forms to adapt to changing conditions and correct any weaknesses. Face them with Knights Aeris? You get flying vordknights. Face them with a legion shieldwall? You get mantis warriors that attack over the top of it. Need to take down 9 foot tall wolfmen? You get bigger and bulkier soldiers. Face them with defensive fortifications? You get giant vordbulks that can plow through them.
* EvilIsNotAToy: As the rebellious Canim ritualists learned to the detriment of their whole continent and nearly everyone on it, the Vord are single-mindedly focused on being the only living things alive. The queens are smart enough to play nice in order to establish a power base, but the instant they judge themselves capable of reliably taking you out, they ''will''.
* HiveMind: Vord are only intelligent around a Vord Queen. Otherwise, they are just like animals.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: A ''very'' downplayed case, but their AdaptiveAbility bites them in the rear in both ''Princeps' Fury'' and ''First Lord's Fury''. For the former, the fact that the Vord made themselves look like the Canim they were fighting made it so that the ''croach'' had to grow in a thicker variation to support their weight without breaking... [[RealityEnsues making it remarkably easy for the lighter Alerans to sneak across it]] when they go to assassinate one of the Canea Queens near the end of the novel. And for the latter, the Aleran Vord who have specialized themselves to fight against Aleran shieldwalls find themselves ''completely'' out of their depth and subjected to multiple {{Curb Stomp Battle}}s when they're forced to face Canim cavalry charges.
* HordeOfAlienLocusts: It's even implied that they came from space (unlike the other residents of Carna, who are "lost travellers" that came through wormholes by accident and were deposited here).
* 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 ''Academ's Fury'' 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).

* CreepyChild: The Awakened 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.

* DeathByIrony: 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).

* TheGhost: Both the Maratea Queen and the second Canea Queen are never seen.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: The Calderon Queen.
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: Both the Awakened and Canea Queens look like a green-skinned, black-eyed cross between Kitai and Tavi's aunt. Unsurprising since Kitai and Tavi's blood is what awoke the former. However, the attractiveness is lost due to their alien nature.

* InnocentFanserviceGirl: [[invoked]] 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.

-->'''Invidia''': On a scale of one to ten, ten being the most revolting and one being almost edible, I believe that rating this recipe would [[BrokeTheRatingScale require the use of exponents]].

* OffingTheOffspring: The Awakened Queen kills the Junior Queen. Of course, the Junior Queen attacked first.

** 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 woken up.
** Tavi plans on using the last Canea Queen as this to help bring together the good races of Alera into a better and stronger union.

* SealedEvilInACan: Who gets unsealed accidentally by Tavi towards the end of the first book, thus setting the stage for the rest of the series.

* SelfMadeOrphan: All of the junior Vord Queens will try to kill the original, their mother, because she isn't pure Vord.
* VillainBall: The Awakened Queen holds it briefly by not searching Araris carefully enough, 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 while stuck in the ''croach''.

* CharacterDevelopment: While she starts out with UndyingLoyalty towards both Alera and Sextus, she ends the series with only the former intact as she gains an uncomfortably intimate understanding of the DeadlyDecadentCourt that is Aleran politics. Furthermore, she also gradually becomes less insecure and learns to take more pride in her accomplishments, finding great relish in becoming a beloved Countess of the Calderon Valley after quitting her former job as a Cursor.

* CharacterDevelopment: She becomes remarkably manipulative and clever as she delves into Aleran politics at the Aquitaines' encouragment, to the point where she becomes the HopeBringer ''three times over''. Furthermore, she goes from someone who abhors violence and has always considered herself a NonActionGirl who wanted to hide Tavi away from the rest of the world for his protection to someone willing to sacrifice her own life in the name of permanently ending a bloody war and also making herself as public as possible in order to better garner support for the change that she knows should have already happened long before.

* ManipulativeBastard:

* BigBadDuumvirate: More or less with her husband--it was a marriage of political advantage for both of them, and they both know it. In fact Invidia is probably more of a BigBad than he ever was, since she is much more involved in the story and in actually manipulating people or dealing with their underlings--for instance, he was as annoyed with [[ObstructiveZealot Senator Arnos]] as anyone else in the military, but Invidia was actually pulling Arnos' strings the whole time.

* CompensatingForSomething: Lady Placida mentions he had a little problem bedding women back at the academy. Either he was impotent or he just was a bastard.

** His realizing his just having sex with her and not properly courting her in either of their cultures, could be used against them politically and her personally, being called the Prince's whore by Citizens.

Doroga is Kitai's father and one of the most important Marat chieftains. He is blunt and earthy, but anyone who speaks with him for long realizes that he is surprisingly intelligent and canny. Doroga is the first to recognize the menace the Vord pose to the world, remembering them from old Marat legends, and also sends Kitai to learn about the Alerans, bringing her into contact with Tavi again.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: As Kitai puts it, the problem with Doroga is that he does not ''seem'' wise.

* SuperStrength: As a result of his chala being a Gargant. Most clearly demonstrated in the first book, where he picks up a coffin-sized boulder and throws it. And even manages to hit his target.

* {{ConLang}}: "Canish," the Canim language. It is often described as sounding like something barely above a wolf's growl, to the point where Isana briefly thinks Tavi has lost his mind when talking to Varg at one point in ''Captain's Fury''. Admittedly, we don't see enough of it being used at once to see how it functions as an actual language, but from what can be inferred, body language plays a significantly more important role in it than it does with Aleran (English). Additionally, a good indicator of how much of a ProudWarriorRace the Canim are is that they have ''eleven'' different words to mean "enemy" (''gadara'' is the only term we learn among them).

* TheSpock: Varg loves combat and will engage in it easily but he, like many wiser Cane, can subvert his own violent tendencies with cold logical reasoning. He will take an insult or jibe from Tavi, his respected enemy, when Tavi has a point. This is best seen when Tavi deliberately kept from him the fact about 10,000 of his countrymen are being held by Shuaran Cane to be bled for the war against the Vord. Tavi needs Varg for the mission on hand to save Alerans, Shuran Cane and his own countrymen, not running off to help his people in the short-run. Despite this, Varg is able to work through his rage and understand Tavi's manipulations and reasons. However, it is pointed out to Tavi, had any of his people been hurt or failed to be saved because of this subterfuge, Varg would have embraced his violent tendencies and killed his Aleran ''gadara''.

* 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.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Shows the difference between a master ritualist and a novice when he beats a younger ritualist in a quick draw of spells and makes the Cane literally vomit up his guts.

* HordeOfAlienLocusts: It's even implied that they came from space (unlike the other residents of Carna, who are "lost travelers" that came through wormholes by accident and were deposited here).

* AlasPoorVillain: A variant. While they were never actually "villains," she expresses sorrow to Tavi for his ancestors having wiped out the other sapient races on the continent before the present day, referring to them as having been just "lost travelers" like the Romans/Alerans/humans, Marat, Canim, Icemen, and Vord all are.

* LackOfEmpathy: The combined 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.

* ChromeChampion: The first one to do it. It's part of his HeroicSacrifice.

* ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter: Sextus shows himself multiple times to be dangerously good at reading others or discerning who they really are as people. For instance, when he notes Amara and Bernard's relationship in ''Captain's Fury'', an annoyed Amara haughtily notes to him that she could've fallen out with Bernard years ago and have had "half a dozen lovers" since then for all he knew. Sextus then bursts into laughter, noting that she can ''claim'' that, but he knows her well enough that she would never actually do such a thing.

* FatalFlaw: His lack of charisma and inflexibility. While he's a brilliant schemer and manipulator, and a very good judge of human nature (unlike his son), he doesn't have the charm and creativity to balance it out that Octavian does.

** 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. Similarly, he destroys the mosaic at Alera Imperia that the Great Fury of Alera's personality is based around since he couldn't afford it possibly falling into the hands of the Vord.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: In ''Captain's Fury'', Araris mentions how he had a way of facing down his rivals without breaking their pride, and getting them to follow him, and brings up how Septimus and Raucus used to fight a lot when they were in the Academy.

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: Every good or neutral person thinks he'd have been an excellent First Lord. He was so well-loved that his death, particularly Gaius's failure to protect him, is the reason why Isana, Attis, Neddus, and Raucus all hate and[=/=]or distrust Gaius.

** 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 Septimus's side.

Mostly off-screen in the early books, Attis is one of the two high Lords in serious contention for the position of the next First Lord. Sleeping with the First Lord's wife may give him some advantage at this...

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Played with and discussed. ''Furies of Calderon'' introduces him as a [[ObfuscatingStupidity seemingly unsubtle drunkard who needs to be guided by his wife and more capable subordinates down the avenues to take the throne.]] Later books establish that he is a clever and insightful manipulator, skilled in both legion strategy and politics, and disinclined to pointless violence - not that he won't kill people if they get in his way, of course, but he's not cavalier about it. A letter from Attis to Raucus shows that in his youth, Aquitaine was a much nobler and kinder man, but had developed a burning hatred for the corruption and treachery among the Aleran nobility after Septimus died. This, coupled with his ambition to replace Gaius Sextus for what he felt were his manipulations and deceptions, gradually turned Attis into a ruthless, scheming traitor. Shades of his more noble side start to come back out as the Vord close in on Alera and he rises to help lead the Realm. Isana and Aria suspect that the death of Septimus pushed him into becoming what he hates the most.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Aquitane is first presented as a short-tempered hedonist being entertained by a dancing slave, but quickly shows himself to be [[ObfuscatingStupidity much cleverer than his first comments dictate]] by deconstructing an ''Argumentum AdHominem'' and then deferring to a low-born minion with more experience. The scene is also one for his wife Invidia; [[MoreDeadlyThanTheMale she was the dancing slave in disguise without him noticing.]]

* 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.

* OutGambitted: Shown in the last book. Gaius adopts him as Tavi's ''younger'' brother and leaves Ehren at his disposal. That way, Alera has a competent protector until the real heir gets back and one of Tavi's closest friends is close enough to Attis to arrange his death if and when he seems disinclined to get out of Tavi's way.

* UnsportsmanlikeGloating: He has a tendency to gloat after a victory. He ends up paying for it after making the mistake of gloating during his fight with Invidia rather than making sure he'd finished her off.

* {{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 simultaneously''). This gets a CerebusCallback when they are next seen together and the fiancé is in a powerful cage while Brencis is putting slave collars on Citizens to make them serve the Vord Queen.

* ShellShockedVeteran: In the fifth book. He has been protecting Alera from constant Iceman attacks since he was ''fourteen'', and fourty years of warfare has left deep scars on his psyche. This is why he is so unwilling to believe that it could be possible to make peace with the Icemen, he's seen too many of his soldiers and worse, his ''civilians'', dead at their paws.

* GoodFeelsGood: The collared Dorotea gives off a deep sense of fulfillment quite unlike the buried misery Isana senses in other collared slaves. Collar or no, Dorotea is finding healing people and experiencing their gratitude and liking very rewarding.

* SmugSnake: Convinced he his a brilliant tactician who uses the powers the Senate gave him to kill. Everyone else is convinced that he's an idiot who somehow managed to weasel his way into a high position, and that he's just going to make things difficult for everyone before he finally falls.

* BeingEvilSucks: He defects to the Aquiataine's side because he thinks they're the best hope for the country. He does a lot of horrible things for them, like inciting the Marat to invade Alera, betraying his student Amara, and giving Arnos advice on how best to oust Tavi, who's TheGoodCaptain. He feels utterly horrible about all of this, and it eventually makes it so that he ''cannot'' reveal his identity to Tavi after Tavi earned his loyalty, because to Tavi, Fidelias is the one who attempted to murder his family.

* BroughtDownToBadass: Isana's well-intentioned spell may have made him the butt of jokes everywhere, but we can't deny he was able to compensate.

** in ''Princeps' Fury'' he uses Demos' desire for wealth and repayment for destroying Demos' slave chains to stop Demos from ever being in the slave trade again by making him swear to use only these chains to bind a slave. The chains are solid gold. A lifetime of wealth and earns Tavi Demos' loyalty and opinion.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: In his rage and fury Tavi is absolutely merciless, as Fidelias almost found out.

** You want more examples, because you think just THAT won't work for you? Of course you do! Take, for instance, his role in the defense of the Elinarch. Due to a lot of things going wrong at once, he ends up in command of a single, inexperienced legion (about 7,000 soldiers) who have to [[YouShallNotPass hold a bridge]] against an army of more than 50,000 Canim: centuries-old, enormous, and incredibly dangerous [[{{Wolfman}} wolfmen]]. First, to stop them from crossing the river anywhere else, he has all the butchers in the camp and the towns at either end of the Elinarch throw buckets of blood into the river to attract [[ThreateningShark sharks]]. Any Canim trying to swim across quickly learns the error of their ways. He also goes out to try to negotiate with the leaders. By himself. He proceeds to use his knowledge of their culture to laugh in the face of an EvilSorcerer and exploit a division in their leadership. Then he sits for an hour and [[SmartPeoplePlayChess plays ludus]] with [[TheStrategist Nasaug]] during a truce to let them remove their dead from the field[[note]]Tavi wins[[/note]], in order to buy time for his men to set up his next tactic: sawdust and fire furies planted in every building on the Canim side of the bridge, which he then has his only [[PlayingWithFire Knight Ignus]] [[StuffBlowingUp blow up]] while the Canim are trying to move through them. He'd makes sure they are all ''in'' the buildings by having everyone in the legion hold tiny firecraftings over the main square so the stones are superheated and anyone trying to step on them would get fried. And the battle ends when he has his [[BlowYouAway Knights Aeris]] [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome bend the air to form a quarter-mile-wide magnifying glass, concentrating the sunlight into a]] DeathRay. The general consensus among the characters seems to be that Tavi is [[CrazyAwesome completely insane]].
--> '''Ehren:''' "This plan is insane... ''you'' are insane..." [[{{Beat}} *looks around*]] "I'm going to need some pants."

* AFatherToHisMen: Unlike Sextus, Tavi has personally led men into battle, risked his life to save them and cares about them personally. And for this, his men, even Fidelias, come to love him right back. Fidelias lampshades this by thinking if Tavi asked his men to march into a leviathan's mouth, they would do so willingly - because he figures they would end up going out of the other side and loaded with treasure.
* GuileHero: To make up for his lack of furycrafting, Tavi relies on his intelligence.

** His Canim nickname, "Tavar", is the name of a wolverine-like predator native to Canea, which even professional Canim warriors avoid because it fearlessly and ferociously fights to defeat its enemies and protect its territory despite its small size (relative to a Cane). Exactly like Tavi.

* 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 to the people who should be his mortal enemies.

* 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, he realizes that for the past few days, that pain has been gone and he has 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.
** [[invoked]] In ''First Lord's Fury'', the Great Fury Alera grimly warns him of the InferredHolocaust that will come over the Alerans once her form has finished "dissolving" back into the countryside. He first desperately tries to come up with a CrazyEnoughToWork plan to solve this issue... but he realizes that even ''he'' can't possibly solve that issue and breaks down into tears out of both guilt and grief.
* OlderThanTheyLook: In the first couple of books in particular; Amara assumes he's about 12 when she first sees him, to which he grouchily replies that he's fifteen. The reason he looks so young is that his mother intentionally stunted his growth when he was a child via watercrafting to make him seem younger than he was, in order to keep people from guessing that he might be the son of Gaius Septimus, who died 15 years before the first book.

*** Everything he does is awesome and/or inventive. Some of it fits this trope, some doesn't. In addition to how he handles the Icemen, though, another example quite clearly fits this trope: In ''Captain's Fury'', he breaks half a dozen laws, and in ways that clearly could not be covered up or ignored. How does he handle it? He suggests to the First Lord a general amnesty for Alerans who cooperated with the Canim in conquered territory, but phrased in such a way that covers Tavi himself as well.

* SingleTargetSexuality: Though he starts off with a childish crush on a steadholt girl, he falls ''hard'' for Kitai not long afterwards and stays that way for the rest of the series, much to [[HandsomeLech Max's]] frustration while trying to get him to loosen up.

* TranquilFury: When he discovers that Fidelias had been masquerading as Valiar Marcus. He's very calm even as he makes it clear that he's absolutely furious at Fidelias.

-->'''Doroga:''' If I ever invade Calderon again, it will be in summer.

* ScaryScorpions: His Earth Fury manifests as one.

Amara is a windcrafter and a Cursor, one of the First Lord's elite messengers, spies, and general agents. She comes to the Calderon Valley while trying to return to the capital and warn Sextus of Aquitaine's plotting, thereby setting off much of the books' action. She is married to Bernard, but sometimes angsts about her fears of infertility (Alerans place great value on having children who will inherit their powers, to the point that a man of Bernard's rank is ''legally obliged'' to have children).

** Fidelias' betrayal really cut her deeply, as the man wasn't just her pedestal but one for pretty much every Cursor.

* AscendedExtra: In a sense, with him getting first a brief portion of the introduction to ''Cursor's Fury'' narrated from his perspective before he's promoted to a regular viewpoint character in the last two books so that the readers can see more of how the Vord War is progressing in Alera.

* DisneyDeath: Briefly in order to deflect suspicion that he was behind the assassination of Aquitanius.

* OlderAndWiser: Revealed at Eastercon 2015, in a future class of cursors with Canim and Marat now joining in, this will be Ehren's role.

* FatalFlaw: His lack of charisma and inflexibility. While he's a brilliant schemer and manipulator, and a very good judge of human nature (unlike his son), he doesn't have the charm to balance it out that Octavian does.

* HeroicSacrifice: In ''Princeps Fury'', he sinks Alera Imperia and the surrounding countryside into a massive volcano, destroying the vast majority of the Vord army and slowing them down enough to let the Alerans regroup over the next several months.

** He receives this, in his own view, from Caria. He knew she was a naive child who didn't understand the political nature of the game he plays when they wed. He stays married to her for about ten years, and considers her poisoning him and taking that much from his life a fair trade. Heck, he doesn't have her punished for her actions.

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

* 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).

* RogueDrone: An interesting variant. Because Tavi and Kitai first "awoke" the Awakened Vord Queen in ''Furies of Calderon'', the non-Queen Vord treat the two of them as other members of TheHorde and ignore them unless they directly attack them. Additionally, the Awakened Queen becoming IntriguedWithHumanity causes her to be viewed as a Rogue Drone by her own Daughter Queens, all of whom try to kill her.

* 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 the Vord standard.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Part of what makes the Vord Queens so creepy is the chillingly clinical and LiteralMinded tone they use when talking to not-Vord, as if it's meant to serve as yet another reminder of what an OutsideGenreFoe they are. For instance, the Awakened Queen seems to be only able to refer to her nightly meals with Isana and Invidia as "the dinner ritual," she calls parents "progenitors," and love is "emotional non-material bonds."

* YourCheatingHeart: She's having an affair with Attis.

* YourCheatingHeart: Has an affair with Caria. Invidia also buys him dancing girls to keep him "amused."

* YourCheatingHeart: Has an affair with Fidelias. Attis knows about it, but doesn't care.

* WaterIsWomanly: A single-element Crafter of Water and one of the strongest water rafters in all of Alera. She's also selfless, kind empath and motherly figure for Tavi.

* WaterIsWomanly: A single-element Crafter of Water and one of the strongest water rafters in all of Alera. She's also selfless, kind empath and motherly figure to Tavi.

* OurElvesAreBetter: Marat are basically neolithic Wood Elves, though the term is never explicitly used for them.

* DeadpanSnarker: He has a dry wit about him. When he sees Invidia burned to a blackened crisp, but still alive, he only comments that he likes her new hair style. He also delivers her their ''divorce papers'' after she essentially disembowels him.

* LesCollaborateurs: Joins up with the Vord after the Awakened Vordd Queen gives her a form of biological life support.
* LivingOnBorrowedTime: If her Vord life support is damaged or removed, she has hours to live in complete and utter agony.

'''Invidia''': You're the commander of these Legions, dear. You're responsible for what they do. That's rather why one is able to attain glory and respect after a victory. Or don't they teach that at the Collegia.\\

* TilMurderDoUsPart: She and Attis plan to kill each other once they are on opposite sides of the Vord War. She succeeds.

* WomanScorned: See GreenEyedMonster.

Son of Lord Kalarus and classmate of Tavi's at the Academy – where he was a vicious bully. Hasn't improved since.

* {{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 simultaneously''). 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.
* DarkChick: Male variant, to the Vord. Completely selfish, he has no higher motives than having a good time.

* SmugSnake: He likes to rub his high born status in the face of his classmates.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: He is aware of this idea and resists giving the Vord Queen and Invidia knowledge of making truly broken and mindless collared slaves because once he does, it is only a matter of time before he would be killed.
* YuriFan: PlayedForHorror - After his father loses, he spends the rest of his time [[RapeByProxy forcing women wearing his]] {{Slave Collar}}s to have sex with one another for his amusement.

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

* UnholyMatrimony: {{Stoic}} mercenary + AxCrazy {{Cloudcuckoolander}} = Adorable couple.

* BrokenBird: They don't come more broken than her.
* CloudCuckoolander: If, again, a lot more violent than usual.

* OutOfFocus: Doesn't do much after the halfway point.

* UnhappyMedium: Hoo boy. Being brainwashed and raped just as your [[TheEmpath empath]] powers are coming in does [[AxCrazy nothing good for your sanity]].
* UnholyMatrimony: With Aldrick. {{Stoic}} mercenary + AxCrazy {{Cloudcuckoolander}} = Adorable couple.

* KillandReplace: Maestro Killian allows Rook to kill the real Gaella shortly after she was selected for Cursor training and [[VoluntaryShapeshifting use watercratfing to assume her appearance]]. Killian [[IDidWhatIHadToDo did this]] to [[DoubleAgent get into Kalare's spy network.]]

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: [[invoked]] ''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 Awakened Vord Queen even admits that they can't be angry at her for treachery because it's just what Invidia ''does''.