History Characters / CodexAlera

* MedievalStasis: For the most part among the Alerans, technology is static and has actually ''regressed'' from the original Roman settlers' because of the universal access to ElementalPowers. {{Magitek}} is so universal that despite the low tech levels, the actual quality of life is roughly equivalent to the mid-twentieth century, and the use of magic ''has'' been evolving. There is also an institutionalized traditionalism within Aleran society, thanks to the fact that they've spent a millennium simply fighting to survive against the DeathWorld that is Carna, which resulted in an emphasis on following set, traditional methods. This is ultimately a serious problem that the Alerans have, as they have no reference point to deal with enemies using advanced engineering like the Canim, let alone a completely new OutsideContextProblem like [[HordeOfAlienLocusts the Vord.]] Furthermore, Aleran furycrafting is almost entirely hereditary (at least until Tavi has Alera alter the system to make it merit-based in the series' epilogue), helping reinforce a static and unchanging power structure in society that makes it increasingly difficult for clever minds like Tavi to have their ideas spread and take root without sufficient outside assistance. However, Bernard and Tavi's re-invention of the ''catapault'' in the final novel along with numerous other achievements kickstarted by Tavi (such as the practice of "mounted infantry" units in the First Aleran and the "ski-ships" able to easily travel along the Shieldwall) seem to be the hints where the other Alerans (most notably Amara) finally get that their Medieval Stasis is breaking.

* ThePlan: Has nothing on her husband, though.

* TheOphelia: Years as a slave broke her mind. She spends a lot of time giggling while drowning people,

* PsychoForHire: So very much. Navaris is nowhere near sane.

* ChromeChampion: Does this for the final showdown.

* MyGreatestSecondChance: Views Tavi (Septimus' son) and Isana (Septimus' lover/wife) as these.
* NotSoStoic: It took one ''hell'' of a lot of effort, though.

* CuteLittleFangs: Part of being a neolithic wood elf.

* ProudWarriorRaceGirl: Like her father.

* {{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.

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The long-standing Aleran practice of slavery is frequently shown to be easily their most abhorrent and inexcusable quality. Even the Marat (who practice ''[[ImAHumanitarian cannibalism]]'') are shown to be horrified by slavery and are portrayed as morally superior in terms of lacking that disturbing custom, and all Aleran characters who are supporters of slavery are portrayed as either being loathsome {{Hate Sink}}s (i.e., Kord and Kalarus) or go through sufficient CharacterDevelopment that they become righteous fighters against the practice (i.e., Isana, Tavi, Amara, and Bernard).

* HappilyMarried: To Bernard.

* {{Irony}}: Her selflessness in terms of performing a HeroicSacrifice in ''Academ's Fury'' so as to ensure the death of the Calderon Vord Queen [[EvilCannotComprehendGood confuses the Queen so much]] that it actually helps make it so that Amara survives her "Hail Mary" attack. In essence, Amara's willingness in terms of sacrificing her life actually ''ensured'' that she would survive.

* BadassBookworm: [[invoked]] One of the smartest characters in the series, which is saying something given the amount of {{Magnificent Bastard}}s in the series.

* DeadpanSnarker: [[invoked]] 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."

* AwfulWeddedLife: How he and Invidia see their marriage. Though they put up a {{Happy Marriage Charade}} in public, the reality is their marriage is loveless and they can't stand each other. Once they end up on opposite sides of the Vord War, they have no reservations about taking up arms against each other.

* 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 moments gloating to both Amara and Bernard, whom had been fighting her alongside him. Invidia reveals she ''did'' survive by launching herself from beneath where Attis stood and dealt a slow-killing blow to the man, and even points this out.
* {{Irony}}: The woman he marries is the same woman who was behind getting Rhodes and Kalarus's attack on Septimus, which was the driving cause for Attis to usurp Gaius.

* AwfulWeddedLife: How she and Attis see their marriage. Though they put up a {{Happy Marriage Charade}} in public, the reality is their marriage is loveless and they can't stand each other. Once they end up on opposite sides of the Vord War, they have no reservations about taking up arms against each other.

* MeaningfulName: "Invidia" means "{{envy}}".

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* ConfrontingYourImposter: Aldrick ex Gladius's favorite boast is to announce that the only person who's ever beaten him was Araris Valerian, "and you're not Araris." When Aldrick realizes that the scarred, apparently feeble-minded and harmless slave he's just delivered this boast to really ''is'' Araris, he all but collapses.

* SecondLove: For Isana.

* SiblingYinYang: He and Crassus. Max is a fun-loving {{Boisterous Bruiser}}. Crassus is quieter and more thoughtful. They become an effective team over the course of the series.

* SiblingYinYang: He and Max. Max is a fun-loving {{Boisterous Bruiser}}. Crassus is quieter and more thoughtful. They become an effective team over the course of the series.

* TechnicolorEyes: Marat children, called by the gender-neutral term whelps, have multi-colored eyes until the time of their bonding. When they bond with their ''chala'', their totem, their {{eye color change}}s permanently to the eye color of their ''chala''.

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* {{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" (''[[WorthyOpponent gadara]]'' is the only term we learn among them).

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* {{Irony}}: The Icemen give their aid to Tavi in ''First Lord's Fury'' after he leases them the Shieldwall. In short, the Icemen now have control over the very construct they've been trying to destroy for the better part of three centuries.
-->'''Tavi:''' ''(to Marcus)'' Since [the Shieldwall] is now their own property, generating revenue, I think they might be considerably less likely to attempt to demolish it on a weekly basis.

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

* SpotTheThread: Averted. Max is aware of this concept and when he is disguised as Gaius, needs to keep his conversation with Caria short and flusters her to avoid this fact.

* 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 majority of the would-be assassins.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Aquitaine's colors are black and red.

* CombatMedic: Before her collaring, she could be this. Averted, however, the orders of Sarl make it so she cannot harm another person, so fighting, even justified fighting, is impossible for her.

** Averted with her biological son, Crassus.

* CainAndAbel: Averted. He loves his brother so much, he lamed him to stop him from fighting Aldrick in ''juris macto'' and being killed.

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

* 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, improving 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=]''.

* 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 Calderon Queen fought using a devastating series of ambushes before moving in to crush her weakened enemies.

* IHaveYourWife: To draw Tavi to her quickly and not have him plot some long term revenge, the Awakened Queen 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.

* BadassArmy: The Aleran Legions, to the point where they were the primary tool from which the ancient Alerans were able to carve out their empire while being surrounded by numerous hostile forces like the Malorandim, Children of the Sun, Avar, Yrani, and Dekh. Zigzagged in the modern day, though, as while there are still several examples (most notably the Antillan and Phrygian Legions along with the First and Free Aleran), most Legions have been able to go ''decades'' (particularly in the southern cities) without seeing any action, making them very conservative and inexperienced. This unfortunately means that when the Vord finally attack, most of Alera's available forces are completely unprepared and get their asses royally handed to them multiple times before they're eventually able to wise up and effectively fight.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: As they're descended from a LostRomanLegion, the Alerans frequently show an incredibly xenophobic (bordering on ''genocidal'') and imperialist attitude towards their non-human neighbors, and are also highly misogynistic and sexist (represented in how Alera is a NoWomansLand). Additionally, the practice of slavery is incredibly common and widespread, albeit getting increasingly controversial and unpopular as time goes on (to the point where it only seems to be several of the southernmost cities, such as Kalare, that are keeping the abominable practice running). Additionally, Alera also inherits from Rome a highly classist social sturcture whose nobility operates on a rigid MightMakesRight ethos. On a more positive note, though, modern racial politics (i.e., inter-human racism) are non-existent since the Alerans "left" Earth long before modern concepts around race were invented

* EveryoneIsASuper: All Alerans are naturally born with the ability to mentally access and control furies. Even Tavi, who is initially thought to be a "furyless freak," eventually turns out to be "only" a late bloomer when he finally gains access to his furycrafting when he was twenty years old.

* NoWomansLand: Though Alera's women do enjoy plenty of rights as freemen, the number of female Citizens is limited; up until Gaius promoted Isana to the Citizenry at the end of ''Furies of Calderon'', no woman had ever gained Citizenship without either serving in the military [[note]]Difficult, as women could not normally be ''legionares'', so this requires them to serve as either healers or Knights, both of which require strong furycrafting, or the woman had to disguise herself as a man until such a point that her deeds on the battlefield proved her worthy of being a Citizen if she revealed her gender[[/note]], winning a Citizenship bout (requiring strong furycrafting), or marriage into the Citizenry (strong furycrafting being nearly required as well). In short, women without Knight-level furycrafting are generally out of luck in Alera, at least until Gaius promoted Isana. This becomes an important plot point as the series progresses, as Isana's promotion is taken as an official statement by the First Lord regarding parity of genders and a sign of his power, making Isana a target for those trying to undermine Gaius' authority. It also resulted in an increase in sale prices for female slaves and caused chaos and pressure in the slave trade in general. Since Kalarus is one of the two High Lords with eyes on the First Lord's crown, and the province of Kalare is heavily dependent on slave labor, this seriously hampers his economy and pushes him into launching the brewing civil war earlier than he planned.

* ShroudedInMyth: The ancient Romans who would become the ancestors of the modern Alerans first arrived in Carna two millennia ago. Eventually, after a millennia of strife and war (both against their inhuman neighbors and then against ''themselves'' when they "ran out of foes" to practice their skills on), the original Gaius Primus conquered and united the disparate groups of Alerans all under his banner and founded the modern Realm of Alera. This time period is very poorly understood by the modern Alerans, to the point that despite numerous Roman ruins scattered across the land many Aleran scholars have shown incredibly biased and provably false attitudes towards the Romans, such as claiming that they had access to furycrafting since most Alerans think furycrafting is a vital component needed for any "civilized" species to found a long-lasting civilization with. In fact, this period of constant conflict was so long ago that many of the foes the ancient Alerans fought during that time (i.e., the Children of the Sun) have been reduced to half-remembered anecdotes in history class for most modern Alerans.

* SuperStrength: [[LogicalWeakness As long as an earthcrafter is touching the ground]], they can show incredible strength and can put incredible amounts of brute force behind their attacks. During the Battle of the Elinarch, one Knights Terra of the First Aleran is described as not only being able to easily carry [[{{BFS}} an incredibly oversized greatsword]], but also [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe casually splitting one Canim raider entirely in half]] [[SingleStrokeBattle with one stroke]]. Only the Canim and Icemen have been shown to surpass a skilled earthcrafter calling upon their strength in power.

* ConsummateLiar: He was raised by one of the greatest [[LivingLieDetector Living Lie Detectors]] alive. He needed to develop this skill in order to get away with ''anything'' as Isana is a very good truth-seeker.
* CrazyEnoughToWork: The majority of Tavi's plans are this. So much so that Kitai can correctly surmise where Tavi chose to have the FinalBattle by thinking of the one place only a lunatic would go willingly. It's pretty much his motto. One of his plans gives an ally ''heart palpitations.''
** [[invoked]] 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 [[SuccessThroughInsanity completely insane]].

** And, say, ''every other thing he does'', leading to hilarious moments that go something like "Oh God, he's doing something crazy... Meh. It's Tavi, go with it." Which overlaps nicely with his {{Crazy Awesome}}ness, and the entry for CrazyEnoughToWork above.

** [[invoked]] 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]].

** [[MakingASplash Watercrafting]]: Manipulating water (including ice), TheEmpath empathy, underwater breathing, the ability to change their appearance, long-range water-based communication, and, most importantly, healing. Without some metalcrafting, though, they tend to be {{Unhappy Medium}}s, since AMindIsATerribleThingToRead.

* FantasticCasteSystem: The social classes of Alera roughly go: Slaves, Freemen, Citizens, and Lords/Ladies, with several different ranks of nobility somewhere at the level of Citizens and higher. There is a strong but not perfect correlation between strength in furycrafting and social rank, and strength in furycrafting is at least partially heritable ([[spoiler: until Tavi is implied to alter it at the end so it can be earned based on merit and effort]]), so while many characters have moved their way up in rank over their lives, the caste one is born into is still very determinative.

* MadeOfIron: Balest bolts bounce off the Awakened Queen's skin. Balest bolts can, for reference, go all the way through two heavily armored ''legionares''. [[spoiler:It ultimately takes the raging furystorm of '''two''' Great Furies - Garados and Thana - to wear her down to the point where Tavi can kill her]].

* OlderThanTheyLook: Sufficiently skilled watercrafters seem to age at a slightly slower rate than other humans, to the point where Gaius Sextus (who is in his mid-to-late eighties) by the time of ''Princeps' Fury'' is described as looking like someone in their late forties or fifties aside from his [[LockedIntoStrangeness snowy white hair]].

** Earthcrafters can draw up bedrock and minerals from the earth (making both construction and mining a breeze) along with using their SuperStrength to make manual labor far more expedient. Additionally, some skilled earthcrafters have been known to use their ability to incite lust to act as strippers & prostitutes, being able to through an entire crowd of already horny folks into a tizzy. If Bernard is to go by, earthcrafters' ability to incite calm also makes them very useful in terms of training beasts of burden and utilizing domesticated animals such as gargants, sheep, goats, and horses. Additionally, earthcrafters can bring up nutrients for farming plants to help bring in larger yields of crops, though this is usually an emergency measure and is mentioned as making the soil unusable for farming after a few seasons' worth of growth.

Leader of the Narashan Canim's Hunters (basically the Canim equivalent to Cursors), having come over to . Has UndyingLoyalty towards both Varg and Nasaug, but also recognizes the weaknesses behind the Canim's ProudWarriorRace code of honor and works with Fidelias behind the scenes to help account for this as the Alerans and Canim form an EnemyMine against the Vord.

[[folder:Tavi]]
!Tavi of Calderon, a.k.a. Rufus Scipio, a.k.a.[[UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} Gaius Octavian ]], [[AwesomeMcCoolName a.k.a. Gaius Tavarus Magnus]]

Tavi, raised by his Aunt Isana and Uncle Bernard in the Calderon Valley, is apparently the only Aleran in the world to not possess the power of Furycraft. While this is often a major disadvantage, in order to compensate he's learned to rely on something else – his brain. After the events of the first book, he begins studying at Alera Imperia to join the imperial spy network known as the Cursors, and joins the newly-formed First Aleran Legion under the name Rufus Scipio.\\
\\
Tavi is really Gaius Octavian, son of the slain Princeps Septimus. Isana, actually his mother, accidentally suppressed his Furycraft when trying to make him look younger so he wouldn't be obviously the right age to be a son of Septimus and therefore a target for assassins. Eventually he does develop some Crafting, though to a lesser extent than most Lords. In the final book, the [[PersonOfMassDestruction full potential of his powers emerges]].

!!Tropes that apply to all Marat

* 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).

* NotSoDifferent: Though the Canim often remark on the strangeness and complexity of Aleran culture, Canim culture itself has numerous ''faux pas'' and convoluted loopholes to navigate, which is acknowledged as the books progress.

Leader of the Narashan Canim's Hunters (basically the Canim equivalent to Cursors). Has UndyingLoyalty towards both Varg and Nasaug, but also recognizes the weaknesses behind the Canim's ProudWarriorRace code of honor and works with Fidelias behind the scenes to help account for this as the Alerans and Canim form an EnemyMine against the Vord.

* DidntSeeThatComing: He looks over at Tavi in visible shock after he [[NiceGuy sincerely thanks him and his fellow Hunters for saving his life]] in the Canea Vord Queen's hive. Keep in mind how most Canim regard Alerans as murder-happy "[[HumansAreTheRealMonsters demons]]" who enslave innocent people ForTheEvulz.

!!Tropes that apply to all Marat

* NotSoDifferent: To the Alerans. Both appear to be barbaric animals to the other but are far less villainous than they initially appear, and have fought each other for so long that most have long-since given up any sense of hope for a lasting peace being achieved between the two peoples.
* OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious: Basically an entire race of telepathic Yetis.

* TheMentor: Her TrainingFromHell is all that gets Tavi anywhere near normal skill levels at crafting.

* FamousLastWords: The Awakened Vord Queen has this surprisingly poignant statement - "I know how a Vord Queen dies. [[FaceDeathWithDignity I am ready]]."

* 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 [[CripplingOverspecialization 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.

* ADayInTheLimelight: Isana's subplot in ''Princeps' Fury'' finally shines a light on the Icemen as she tries to arrange a lasting peace between Alerans and Icemen so that the Shield Legions can be sent south to help defend the Realm from the Vord.

* InTheBlood: Averted. Fidelias observes that he has inherited the best parts of the Kalarus bloodline (patience, intelligence, long-term planning), but not their infamous [[TheCaligula mental instability]].

* ThatManIsDead: After being collared, she says that High Lady Antillus Dorotea no longer exists and she is simply Dorotea now. She also asks Tavi to tell Crassus that she's dead.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Defied; while it's darkly ironic that Dorotea -- the sister of a High Lord who's notorious for his monopoly on the slave trade -- should end up a collared slave herself, Tavi doesn't believe for an instant she deserved such a fate, regardless of how awful she was, and is sickened at the thought of what she must have endured from the formerly enslaved people freed by the Canim.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Defied; while it's darkly ironic that Dorotea -- the sister of a High Lord who's notorious for his monopoloy on the slave trade -- should end up a collared slave herself, Tavi doesn't believe she deserved such a fate regardless of how awful she was, and is horried at the thought of what she must have endured.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: She always did love her son Crassus.

* ThatManIsDead: After being collared, she says that High Lady Antillus Dorotea no longer exists and she is simply Dorotea now.

* {{Cuckold}}: In his introductory scene in ''Academ's Fury'', it is seen Max has slept with his arranged fiancé (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.

Called the "Gadrim-ha" by the Marat, the Icemen are a race of "savage" and mysterious Bigfoot-esque humanoids organized into a series of wandering tribes. They live in the lands of the frozen north far beyond the rest of the Realm of Alera, but regularly travel south and attack the Alerans. As such, the Alerans have built the massive defensive construct known as the "Shieldwall" to protect the rest of the Realm from their raids, and have had the two Shield Cities of Antillus and Phrygia warring with the Icemen for as long as recorded history.

* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: The descriptions given of the Icemen in first Furies of Calderon and later Princeps’ Fury shows that they strongly resemble the archetypal Bigfoot.

* TheNicknamer: Given that none of then speak Aleran as their native language, they have a wide variety of terms they use to describe certain characters or locations. Most poignantly, High Lord Antillus Raucus is called "Fire Sword".

* NotSoDifferent: To the Alerans. Both appear to be barbaric animals to the other but are far less villainous than they initially appear, and have fought each other for so long that most have long-since given up any sense of hope for a lasting peace being achieved between the two.

* QuantityVsQuality: A weird case where the Icemen follow ''both''. Individually, the Icemen rely on the latter since they cannot hope to match the united might of an Aleran Legion except when in sufficient numbers. However, individually the Icemen fall into thhe former by far, being that any single Iceman can easily kill any single ''legionare'' without much effort thanks to their AnIcePerson powers, SuperStrength, {{Telepathy}}, and stamina.

* {{Telepathy}}: In a sense. The Icemen are such master watercrafters that they can easily project and recieve their emotions to each other, to the point where they only seem to speak when talking to someone who can't access their "mental network". Below is a good example of how it is shown to work when Isana and her cotiere are meeting with the Icemen to arrange a peace treaty after their "war-chief" Red Waters cuts Isana's cheek with his spear and the "peace-chief" Sunset gets angry at him:

* QualityVersusQuantity: A weird case where the Icemen follow ''both''. Individually, the Icemen rely on the latter since they cannot hope to match the united might of an Aleran Legion except when in sufficient numbers. However, individually the Icemen fall into thhe former by far, being that any single Iceman can easily kill any single ''legionare'' without much effort thanks to their AnIcePerson powers, SuperStrength, {{Telepathy}}, and stamina.
* TheQuietOne: The Icemen very rarely communicate verbally with others, since their immense empath powers basically makes verbal communication moot.

!!The Vord

[[folder:The Vord as a whole]]

A HordeOfAlienLocusts accidentally awakened from the Wax Forest at the beginning of the series.

* SmugSnake: Convinced he is 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. As it turns out, he is actually more competent than he appears, he's just hamstrung by his prejudices.

* KillerRabbit: Their young cubs look like [[PreciousPuppies adorable puppies]] with opposable thumbs. They can also tear someone's hand off with their fangs at just a few weeks old.

* TheStoic: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in that due to them have a very different facial structure from Alerans, it can be very difficult for Alerans to tell the emotional state of a Cane in comparison to, say, a Marat or even one of the Icemen.

%%* BastardBastard: It's mentioned that he's a ChildBornOfRape from a [[EvilSorcerer corrupt Ritualist]] and a young female Cane who was barely beyond the age of being considered a pup. He's also a complete and utter asshole.

* DidntSeeThatComing: He looks over at Tavi (who is an Aleran, and Alerans are regarded as little more than "[[HumansAreTheRealMonsters demons]]" by the vast majority of Canim) in visible shock after he [[NiceGuy sincerely thanks him and his fellow Hunters for saving his life]] in the Canea Vord Queen's hive.

* OldMaster: [[invoked]] WordOfGod has implied that he will be helping train a new generation of Hunters and Cursors alongside Ehren and Fidelias at the new Academy.

* DidntSeeThatOneComing: He looks over at Tavi (who is an Aleran, and Alerans are regarded as little more than "[[HumansAreTheRealMonsters demons]]" by the vast majority of Canim) in visible shock after he [[NiceGuy sincerely thanks him and his fellow Hunters for saving his life]] in the Canea Vord Queen's hive.

!!Lords and other Nobles

!High Lord Kalarus Brencis

!!Soldiers

!Ambassador Varg

* BruiserWithASoftCenter: Seeing Varg drop the Warmaster act and be "grandpa" to his grandchildren is cute beyond belief.
* TheChessmaster: And teaches some to Tavi.

* EverybodyKnewAlready: Apparently, Canim have a sense of smell strong enough to identify family relations. This means that he doesn't need to be told who Tavi's mother and grandfather are. In fact, [[YouDidntAsk Varg knew two books before Tavi did]]. This also creates some {{Fridge Brilliance}} when one thinks about the scene where they met – Tavi was bluffing only from his own perspective and not Varg's, pretending to be what he ''actually was''.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: He helps teach Tavi to play ''ludus''.

[[folder:Sarl]]
!Sarl

A Canim ritualist, who is Varg's political rival. Undermines Varg by seeking alliances behind his back including with the Vord.

!!Tropes that apply to Sarl:
* BigBadDuumvirate: Forms one with the Vord Queens (both the Awakened and Calderon specimens) for ''Academ's Fury'', and one with Kalarus in both ''Academ's Fury'' and ''Cursor's Fury''.
* BigBadWannabe: He wanted to be the BigBad [[HeroOfAnotherStory Of Another Story]] for the Canim. His plan was the Ritualists to take over the Canim lands and overthrow the Warrior caste. A solid EvilPlan overall... and then he just had to accept help from the Vord Queen, who got him what he wanted and then quickly turned on him, driving him out of the Canim continent. By the time he becomes the main story's BigBad in ''Cursor's Fury'', he's desperately fleeing from her with what amounts to a refugee fleet. He's also no match for the Warrior Canim leader Nasuag ''or'' Tavi, and dies after getting OutGambitted.
* BloodMagic: Like all ritualists. And like more corrupted ones, he uses the blood of sacrificed people and not his own stock.
* BurningTheShips: The first thing he does upon landing in Alera is burn the ships they arrived in. This way, Nasaug's forces would be commited to the fight, and would have no means of retreat or escape.
* DirtyCoward: Tavi knows it, and uses it to make him look like an idiot.
* EvilSorcerer: An evil SmugSnake who uses BloodMagic.
* IHaveYourWife: Sarl manages to force Nasaug and the warrior caste into following him over to Alera by kidnapping several families and holding them hostage.
* GeneralFailure: A downplayed example, but still evident. Strategically, Sarl is relatively solid. His overall plan to defeat the First Aleran in ''Cursor's Fury'' failed solely because one of his agents got pickpocketed by pure happenstance for reasons totally unrelated to suspicion or being discovered, and even then he almost totally crippled the army's chain of leadership in a single attack. Tactically, he's a complete mess. Misunderstanding his own race's basic advantages in combat and holding back a brilliant planner like Nasaug are just two examples.
* 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 re-cultivate their power. The Vord helped him take over- and then started [[HordeOfAlienLocusts doing what the Vord do]].
* TheNoseKnows: Like all Cane, Sarl has an exceptional sense of smell. He was even capable of recalling the scent of a messenger boy he only met once two years prior, now standing before him in the guise of someone else. It almost gets Tavi killed, had he not lucked into the one item that could've possibly saved him from Sarl's magic.
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Subverted. Sarl's a Cane and therefore you'd ''expect'' him to be one of these, but he's really a coward who only fights after Tavi goads him into it because not going after Tavi when called a coward would make him lose major support.
* SmugSnake: Treats the Makers like trash, insults Nasaug and Tavi and generally believes himself to be far more powerful and intelligent than he really is.
* TheStarscream: To Varg.
* TreacherousAdvisor: Though Varg saw through him pretty well except for that bit with the Vord.
* 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 so as to make himself look more intimidating that he really is.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Thanks to his idiocy, the WarRefugees of the Shuaran and Narashan Canim are literally all that remains of their entire ''species'' after the Vord obliterated the entire continent of Canea.
* UnwittingPawn: The Vord played him for a fool, using him to get into a position where they could easily conquer the continent of Canea after initially appearing to be his ally. He also had his death easily arranged for him by Nasaug.
* VillainTeamup: Him and High Lord Kalarus. Together, their combined power and ingenuity almost brought Alera itself to its knees. High Lord Kalarus stationed his armies at key positions scattered around the country, and arranged for them to strike multiple fronts at the exact same time. Their signal? Sarl using his ritual magic to turn the entire country's skies red, filling them with acidic tentacle monsters to stop aerial communication, transport, and preventing Gaius from observing anything that happens in the realm. On Sarl's end, Kalarus' sister is stationed within the one Legion standing between him and the country. He calls a lightning strike down upon all the officers of the Legion while they're having a meeting, planning to leave the sister alive using a gem given to her that makes her immune to his magics. She would take command of the Legion as the sole surviving officer and retreat from the area, allowing Sarl's forces a solid defensible foothold in Alera. Presumably, Kalarus would then take most of Alera for himself while leaving Sarl to have his colony in the Amaranth Vale. The scope of this teamup takes the entire cast by surprise.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Nasaug]]
!Nasaug

Leader of the Canim warriors who arrive in Alera with Sarl, Nasaug is honorable yet ruthless and above all a highly competent military commander. He is one of Tavi's primary antagonists (albeit a [[WorthyOpponent respected one]]) throughout the middle part of the series.
----

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Oh, yes. During the nightime attack on the First Aleran in ''Cursor's Fury'', he's described as [[CurbStompBattle killing four legionaries in under a minute]].

[[folder:Morak]]
!Master Morak

One of the few decent Canim ritualists, who believes in the following the Old Way of using one's own blood for magic instead of another being's.

* 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. He doesn't even bother to ''turn around''.
* BadassBoast: "Clouds of acid are for amateurs!"
** 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 ''{{Eldritch Abomination}}s''.
* BloodMagic: Like all Canim Ritualists. Morak, however, only uses his own blood.
* DeadpanSnarker: Has his moments of dry wit, such as below when he's using an acid spell to help give the Free Aleran and First Aleran Legions time to strengthen their defenses.
-->'''Fidelias:''' (mildly) [[CallBack I thought you said 'clouds of acid were for amateurs'?]]\\
'''Marok:''' That was not a cloud. It was a ''wall''. (closes his eyes in irritation) [[UngratefulBastard Whining demon]]. You are ''welcome.''
* GoodOldWays: He uses his own blood to fuel his spells, not the blood of others like Sarl does. This is the original way the Bloodspeakers worked, before they discovered that they could use others' blood.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: His arms are covered with self-inflicted scars. For him (and other ritualists) his are a ''good'' thing, as it shows that they use their own blood instead of others' for their magic.
* GrumpyOldMan: Gives off this vibe. Most notably, his reaction to having to deal with an upstart adversarial Ritualist is not one of fear or surprise, but resigned annoyance and impatience.
* KlingonPromotion: A variation. He didn't kill Khral, the leader of the Ritualists just left on a sacred pilgrimage before Tavi's trial[[note]]In truth, Sha and Fidelias killed him and hid his remains, making it look like he just went off on the journey[[/note]]. As none of of his lieutenants wanted to step up in fear of Khral's return and displeasure at them taking his spot, the job fell to Morak.
* SelfHarm: Believes in harming only himself for his magic and incidentally carries around a lot of bandages as a consequence of that.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Was willing to listen to Tavi's side of the story involving the deaths of the makers and his solution to the problem and killed the Canim trying to use their deaths as an excuse to attack the Alerans.
* WeakButSkilled: He only uses his own blood for his casting, so he has a very low pool of energy. However, he's very efficient at using what he has compared to, say, Sarl, who just throws around power wildly. At one point, he's capable of causing another Cane to puke up his guts using only a couple drops of blood.
* WeHaveReserves: A variation. He is more than willing to give the Alerans some aide as it puts their forces more on the front line while protecting his fellow Canim. To his Aleran allies, this is considered a good thing.
* WorthyOpponent: To Varg. They are each other's ''gadara''.

!!The Vord

[[folder:The Vord as a whole]]

A HordeOfAlienLocusts accidentally awakened from the Wax Forest at the beginning of the series.

* 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 so as to make .