History Characters / DoctrineOfLabyrinths

* BastardBastard: Played with; people keep the likely son of Gloria Aestia and Cotton Verlalius to do something terrible, but his offenses mostly consist of spreading rumors about and sniping with his ex.

* ManlyGay: Well, he really ''wants'' to be this.

Much-feared spymaster of the Bastion. Via Isaac Garamond, he coerces Mehitabel into spying for Kekropia. At some point he had a sexual relationship with Gideon Thraxios.

* RoyalBrat: In ''Mélusine'', we see shades of this. In ''The Virtu'', it pretty much consumes him.

* YourCheatingHeart: Takes a mistress while searching for a wife, with the express purpose that they will undercut one another's power base.

* BadassGay

* BroughtDownToBadass: While you can't get rid of a wizard's magic (at least as far as we can tell), severe mental trauma or certain medicines can render a wizard incapable of accessing his power. Luckily for the people who need him, he'll [[CastFromHitPoints power a spirit-channeling maze with his own blood]] if that's what it takes.
* CampGay: It's hard to think of a single gay stereotype he doesn't at some point play into.
* ClubKid: Gaudy clothes, "darling"s, sex clubs, the whole nine yards.

* BrainsAndBondage
* DepravedHomosexual: Veers into this territory when he beats a partner nearly to death in a dominance-submission game in ''The Mirador''.

* DreamingOfThingsToCome/DreamingOfTimesGoneBy: Gideon calls it "true-dreaming."
* GentlemanSnarker:
* MindControl: Uses the obligation d'ame to force Mildmay to kill an enemy.

* ReallyGetsAround

* SafeSaneAndConsensual: How he likes sex with Shannon and Murtagh.

* UnscrupulousHero: This is a guy who will risk his life to lay ghouls to rest... only to turn around and [[MindRape]] his own brother.

* GeniusBruiser: Learns to understand Troian and Kekropian just by listening to people speak it.

* Meganekko: With her big, childlike eyes and spectacles.
* TheMistress: To Lord Stephen, although she seems to do it mainly in hopes of ingratiating herself with Vulpes.

* MindControl: The obligation de sang allows him to use this on Felix.

* HeteronormativeCrusader: He "is known especially to not like molls" (Mehitabel). Unfortunate, considering the fact that, as Mildmay notes, Stephen's brother Shannon "wasn't at no pains to hid [his homosexuality] and hadn't been since he'd reached his second septad."

* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette
* FaintingSeer: He needs Felix's support to walk after sharing a vision. Even on an ordinary occasion, Mehitabel says, "I'd never seen a man who looked so tired."

Kolkhis's latest assassin and lover. He and Mildmay come to realize that they're NotSoDifferent. He loves Gordeny Fisher, who rejects him.

* StudentTeacherRomance: At least in Mildmay's opinion, she has a [[IncompatibleOrientation crush]] on Felix.

A young Bernathan [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold prostitute]] whom Felix originally [[PlatonicProstitution hires to share her knowledge of the city]] with him, and who later becomes both his apprentice and madam. She has grown accustomed to hiding her magical talent, both from her fear of enslaving "warlocks" and due to her culture's prejudice against female magicians. After moving to Esmer with Felix and Mildmay, she seduces the latter in what Mildmay believes is a case of SettleForSibling. She opts to remain in Esmer, with hopes of becoming a Virtuer, when the brothers depart for Grimglass. For reasons unknown, she dislikes her first name so intensely that hse doesn't want to share it. Her appearance is Ygressine rather than traditionally Corambin, making her worry about looking "like a half-breed jezebel.
---> "I want to be a virtuer, and fuck the Women's College and what women should or shouldn't do and all the rest of it."

* SirSwearsALot: As exemplified by his catchphrase, "Fuck this for the emperor's snotrag."

A [[CompleteMonster psychopathic]] blood wizard who found then-adolescent Felix in a brothel, then groomed him to become a member of polite society, while also brutalizing him and casting the obligation de sang on him. He steals Felix's power to break the Virtu, burn much of the Mirador, and destroy its wards in ''Melusine''. Felix kills him to save Mildmay in ''The Virtu''. [[spoiler: As it turns out, "Malkar Gennadion" is an alias for Brinvillier Strych. Whether Strych had faked his own death a century ago, or come back from the dead, remains unknown.]]

* MindRape: Malkar's assault on him early in ''Mélusine'' drives the plot of the first two books. Later, Felix inflicts a similar fate on [[Isaac Garamond]].

---> "Am a clockwork monster."

* Manly Gay

* IceQueen: Mildmay describes her as "cold as a dead fish" on Felix's return to the Mirador, but the description applies most of the time. Remarkably, [[ManipulativeBastard Malkar]] managed to gain her love anyway-- likely just so it would hurt more when he turned on the Cabalines.

! Gartrett, Corbie
A young Bernathan [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold prostitute]] whom Felix originally [[PlatonicProstitution hires to share her knowledge of the city]] with him, and who later becomes both his apprentice and madam. She has grown accustomed to hiding her magical talent, both from her fear of enslaving "warlocks" and due to her culture's prejudice against female magicians. After moving to Esmer with Felix and Mildmay, she seduces the latter in what Mildmay believes is a case of SettleForSibling. She opts to remain in Esmer, with hopes of becoming a Virtuer, when the brothers depart for Grimglass. For reasons unknown, she dislikes her first name so intensely that hse doesn't want to share it. Her appearance is Ygressine rather than traditionally Corambin, making her worry about looking "like a half-breed jezebel."

* HeteronormativeCrusader: When fighting over Gideon's trustworthiness with Felix, he snaps, "You'll believe anything a man tells you when he's buried in your ass, won't you?"

---> Felix: "Has no one ever bothered to make this good for you before?"
---> Gideon: "[[SexGod not like this.]]"

Gossipy, hard-living, but good-natured actress who works alongside Mehitabel at the Empyrean. Mehitabel thinks she was likely once a prostitute and "ha[s] no idea where Corinna had learned to read."

* {{Asexuality}}: Suggested during a conversation with Mehitabel in ''The Mirador'''s final chapter.

* MyGreatestFailure: Forcing Mildmay to kill [[spoiler: Vey Coruscant]].

* DisabledBadass: After his leg gets broken in ''Mélusine'', it heals badly and he won't be running anyone down... but if they get within arm's reach, he can take on just about anyone.

* BrainyBrunette: Her street smarts probably get Mildmay and Felix through the southern duchies.

* GracefulLadiesWearPurple: As Felix describes her in ''The Virtu''.

* CampGay: Catty, a flamboyant dresser, and a huge devotee of theater.

! Polydorius, Manfred
Ivo Polydorius's son, probably not smart or motivated enough to be a participant in Ivo's treason.

Dean of the magician's college in Esmer. He casts the binding-by-obedience on Felix, but refuses to recast it when Felix's temporary possession by the fantôme lifts it, and arranges for Felix, again disgraced by the revelation that he sold sex for money, to have a position as Virtuer (ess
! Beckett, Edwin
Obsessed Corambin who intends to awaken the [[SealedEvilInACan Clock of the Eclipses]] with [[DeusSexMachina sex magic]]. To this end, he hires Felix, now working as an S&M prostitute again, for an orgy and [[RapeAsDrama forces him]] past the limits of their arrangement.

! Brightmore, Kay
Caloxan margrave and rebel against Corambin rule, in part due to his [[IncompatibleOrientation unrequited love]] for King Gerrard Hume. He endures a severe HumiliationConga over the course of the book: awakening the [[SealedEvilInACan machine]] under Summerdown kills most of his peers, including Hume, and blinds him; the duke of Glimmering captures him and has him publicly displayed chained to Hume's coffin; and Murtagh rescues him, only to pressure him into marrying Vanessa Pallister. He does appear to gain some peace when Murtagh delegates to him the responsibilities of warden of Grimglass.

! Dothaw
Usaran warlord. He convinces Kay to return to Summerdown and again offer himself to the machine.
! Druce, Patricia
Physician-practitioner who uses magic and herbs to treat Mildmay's lung infection. Since Marathat forbids healing magic as heresy, Felix finds her knowledge of the subject fascinating.
! Emily
Colleague of Gartrett Corbie. Apparently she hold some sway in Bernatha's red-light district, since she manages to chase away Sunny Pingree's gang.

Murtagh's secretary, who arranges his extramarital liaisons.

An anthropophagous, mermaid-like monster who lives in the Sim. Phoskis Terrapin believes he has her caged, but in reality she can readily escape her trap. She enlists Mildmay, Mavortian, and Bernard to cure her husband of a magical illness and becomes quite fond of "the foxlike one", tipping off Cardenio when it sees him boated away from the city by Malkar and even befriending Felix, whom she considers Mildmay's "littermate," while he true-dreaks.

A former [[TykeBomb teenaged assassin]] for a [[TheDon don]] in Mélusine's [[WretchedHive Lower City]], Mildmay broke away from her influence and, at the beginning of Mélusine, earns a living as a cat burglar. Despite telling himself that he "know[s] better," he falls for his demimondaine client Ginevra Thomson. Thrown into disarray by her [[TheLostLenore murder]], he becomes involved in Mavortian von Heber's schemes regarding Felix, then suffering from Malkar's assaults and the [[TheMageocracy Cabalines']] suspicion. When he sees Felix's face and similar coloring, he realizes that they are actually half-brothers. Given Mildmay's Lower City-bred hatred of the Mirador, it comes as quite a shock, but he feels beholden to Felix for the removal of a curse and escorts him to the far East in hopes of finding a cure for his insanity. Due to lingering traces of the curse, combined with the stress of the journey, he suffers a permanently crippled leg. His accent and [[FaceOfAThug badly scarred face]] lead many people to underestimate his intelligence and capacity for kindness After becoming Felix's esclavin in the obligation d'ame, he adopts the more respectable name "Mildmay Foxe".

Blood wizard, teacher of Vey Coruscant, who burned Jane Teveria to death in the Hall of the Chimeras. In ''Mélusine'', Vey Coruscant attempts to resurrect him, but can't, since his body is missing from the Boneprince. [[spoiler: as it turns out, he's alive and well, under the name of Malkar Gennadion]].

Felix Harrowgate, the most gifted wizard of the [[StarScraper Mirador]], the seat of power in the country of Marathat. Although he pretends to be the son of a noblewoman fleeing political unrest in the far-off country of Caloxa, a political enemy within TheMageocracy reveals near the beginning of ''Mélusine'' that Felix actually grew up as a prostitute in the Marathine capital of Mélusine. He still suffers from his past as a plaything for [[BloodMagic blood wizard]] Malkar Gennadion, who introduced him to the Mirador for his own purposes and who proceeds to [[MindRape mystically use]] to destroy the [[PowerCrystal Virtu]], an event that also renders Felix psychotic and unable to access his own powers. After he convinces Mavortian and Gideon to save his newfound half-brother Mildmay the Fox from the Mirador's curse, Mildmay returns the favor by escorting him to the distant Gardens of Nephele, where, according to Felix's dreams, healers exist who can repair his mind. Although brave, witty, and charismatic, Felix also [[UnscrupulousHero has a taste for cruelty]] which he attempts (with [[BondageIsBad mixed success]]) to channel into [[SafeSaneAndConsensual violent sex with willing men]]. Tall, pale, and redheaded, with one gold and one blue eye, he appears very exotic to most Marathines. After the midpoint of ''The Virtu'', he and Mildmay share a bond outside of brotherhood, as he casts the obligation d'ame on him, at Mildmay's request.

A young Bernathan [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold prostitute]] whom Felix originally [[PlatonicProstitution hires to share her knowledge of the city]] with him, and who later becomes both his apprentice and madam. She has grown accustomed to hiding her magical talent, both from her fear of enslaving "warlocks" and due to her culture's prejudice against female magicians. After moving to Esmer with Felix and Mildmay, she seduces the latter in what Mildmay believes is a case of SettleForSibling. She opts to remain in Esmer, with hopes of becoming a Virtuer, when the brothers depart for Grimglass.

The duke of Murtagh, wife of Isobel, and brother-in-law of Kay. He rescues Kay from the duke of Glimmering and makes him Vanessa Pallister's fianceè and warden of Grimglass. A controlled [[SafeSaneAndConsensual sadist]], he hires Felix for violent sex, for which he later feels considerable remorse (although Felix himself regards the experience as harmless).

Ferrand Carey's nephew; secretly an aethereal, or medium, for which fault the duke mistreats him. He loses his close friend Cyriack Thrale when he fails to hide his abilities. He and Kay forge something of a bond, as Kay convinces him to escort him back to Summerdown and Murtagh later sends Julian to live at Grimglass.

Caloxan margrave and rebel against Corambin rule, in part due to his [[IncompatibleOrientation unrequited love]] for King Gerrard Hume. He endures a severe HumiliationConga over the course of the book: awakening the machine under Summerdown kills most of his peers, including Hume, and blinds him; the duke of Glimmering captures him and has him publicly displayed chained to Hume's coffin; and Murtagh rescues him, only to pressure him into marrying Vanessa Pallister. He does appear to gain some peace when Murtagh delegates to him the responsibilities of warden of Grimglass.

Felix Harrowgate, the most gifted wizard of the [[StarScraper Mirador]], the seat of power in the country of Marathat. Although he pretends to be the son of a noblewoman fleeing political unrest in the far-off country of Caloxa, a political enemy within TheMageocracy reveals near the beginning of ''Mélusine'' that Felix actually grew up as a prostitute in the Marathine capital of Mélusine. He still suffers from his past as a plaything for [[BloodMagic blood wizard]] Malkar Gennadion, who introduced him to the Mirador for his own purposes and who proceeds to [[MindRape mystically use]] to destroy the [[PowerCrystal Virtu]], an event that also renders Felix psychotic and unable to access his own powers. After he convinces Mavortian and Gideon to save his newfound half-brother Mildmay the Fox from the Mirador's curse, Mildmay returns the favor by escorting him to the distant Gardens of Nephele, where, according to Felix's dreams, healers exist who can repair his mind. Although brave, witty, and charismatic, Felix also has a taste for cruelty which he attempts (with mixed success) to channel into [[SafeSaneAndConsensual violent sex with willing men]]. Tall, pale, and redheaded, with one gold and one blue eye, he appears very exotic to most Marathines. After the midpoint of ''The Virtu'', he and Mildmay share a bond outside of brotherhood, as he casts the obligation d'ame on him, at Mildmay's request.

Head of the Curia, and thus Marathat's highest-ranking wizard. He fails to immediately recognize the compulsions laid on Felix and has a terrible scowl. Nonetheless, Mildmay considers him "a fair man, about as fair as a hocus could be".

Lord Protector of Marathat, brother to Victoria, half-brother to Shannon. Stubborn and phlegmatic, he generally tends well to the country, at least by comparison to his recent predecessors, but he possesses considerable personal prejudices.
! Thamuris

Briefly mentioned in Felix's narration for ''Mélusine'', this UnhappyMedium is a long-lost (and [[TheWoobie long-suffering]]) friend from Felix's childhood. [[SexSlave Sold to a pimp]] by his bankrupt mother when he was twelve, Vincent remained a Pharoahlight prostitute until bought by [[BastardBoyfriend Ivo Polydorius, probably around fifteen years ago. He spent most of that time secluded at Arborstell, but returns to Mélusine when Ivo puts forward a daughter as a marriage candidate for Lord Stephen and with attempts to resume his friendship with Felix, who proceeds to manipulate Vincent's visions for his academic gain. After Ivo's downfall, Cornell Polydorius throws him out to starve, but Mehitabel takes him in and makes him her secretary.

! L'Hiver, Arsene
Junior envoy from Tibernia; a pompous, homophobic wizard who frequently quarrels with Felix.

! Lilliburn

! Teveria, Shannon
Youngest-known son {[[MamasBabyPapasMaybe at least legally]]) of Gareth Teverius, by his second wife, Gloria Aestia, the fabled "Golden Bitch," from which fact he gained the unpleasant nickname of "Golden Whelp"; half-brother of Stephen and Victoria Teverius. Much to Stephen's disapproval, he has been in a relationship with Felix for nearly five years at the start of ''Mélusine''. While he and Felix split acrimoniously, he later becomes a loyal friend to Mehitabel Parr. [[spoiler: Luther Littleman's ghost implies that Shannon is indeed not of "the blood of the Teverii."]]

! Elvire, madam of the Goosegirl's Palace and one of Mélusine's most reliable information brokers; reputed to have once been a mistress to Lord Gareth Teverius. She comes to despise Mildmay for aligning himself with a Cabaline, brother or not.

A [[AbsoluteMonster psychopathic]] blood wizard who found then-adolescent Felix in a brothel, then groomed him to become a member of polite society, while also brutalizing him and casting the obligation de sang on him. He steals Felix's power to break the Virtu, burn much of the Mirador, and destroy its wards in ''Melusine''. Felix kills him to save Mildmay in ''The Virtu''. [[spoiler: As it turns out, "Malkar Gennadion" is an alias for Brinvillier Strych. Whether Strych had faked his own death a century ago, or come back from the dead, remains unknown.]]
! Giancarlo of Novalucrezia
Head of the Curia, and thus Marathat's highest-ranking wizard. He fails to immediately recognize the compulsions laid on Felix and has a terrible scowl. Nonetheless, Mildmay considers him "a fair man, about as fair as a hocus could be".

Youngest-known son of Gareth Teverius, by his second wife, Gloria Aestia, the fabled "Golden Bitch," from which fact he gained the unpleasant nickname of "Golden Whelp"; half-brother of Stephen and Victoria Teverius. Much to Stephen's disapproval, he has been in a relationship with Felix for nearly five years at the start of ''Mélusine''. While he and Felix split acrimoniously, he later becomes a loyal friend to Mehitabel Parr.

! Thomson, Ginevra

[[/folder]]

[[folder Other Characters, First Encountered in ''Mélusine'']]

A listing of characters from the tetrology ''[[Literature/DoctrineOfLabyrinths The Doctrine of Labyrinths]]'', by Sarah Monette.