History Characters / Erfworld

* GeniusLoci: He's a living, sapient tower.

* NiceGuy: He's incredibly mellow, not even reacting too much when Stanley smashes one of his talking heads (though he does insist Stanley get someone to fix it).

* MeaningfulName: King Dickie is... well...
** Possibly taken UpToEleven when it's revealed that [[spoiler:he bears a striking resemblance in both appearance and personality to Richard M. Nixon.]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Wanda has ruined and destroyed countless lives in her ruthless quest to achieve her Fate. And even she sheds tears of horror when she sees [[spoiler:Charlie MindRape Lilith]].

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: He gradually becomes convinced Caesar is plotting against him, and sends the guy on numerous missions that should by all rights kill him, not to mention treating him like dirt anyhow, which is in fact causing Caesar's loyalty to plummet.
* SmugSnake: He's a skilled manipulator but he's also completely unaware that when caught between Parson and Charlie, he's out of his league. [[spoiler: Right at his moment of maximum smugness, he gets outmaneuvered by his own closest confidante.]]

* BluffTheEavesdropper: [[spoiler:He and Parson are taken prisoner by Transylvito. He communicates with Parson via ventriloquism and reading his throat, while simultaneously telling largely fictional stories depicting Jillian as a backstabber. Meanwhile, Don King and Bunny spy on them using telepathy on a bat. Don King doesn't buy it, but Caesar, who is already inclined to dislike her, takes it seriously, especially since Jack was once on the same side.]]

* HyperAwareness: A RequiredSecondaryPower of a MasterOfIllusion. He has to be able to perfectly observe all the details of a given situation for his illusions to be accurate.

* UnluckyChildhoodFriend: To Jillian. Jillian has long considered him one of her best friends, but she rejected his attempts to form a relationship.

* KnightTemplar: Reacts with frothing-at-the-mouth ''rage'' to any suggestion that royalty isn't better than everyone else. [[spoiler:Until his decryption. It's not clear if the process brainwashed him, or he's just a bit unhinged.]]

* LoveTriangle: Out of all the characters in Erfworld, she has had the largest number of love interests. Her love interests have come from [[BiTheWay both sexes]].
** Her first love interest was Marika Neagle, but their relationship was eventually strained and Marika croaked in battle due to a lover's tiff.
** Jack has long had an interest in her, but though she ''does'' consider him a good friend, [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend she has never had any romantic interest in him]] and rejected his attempt to form a relationship with her. Because LoveHurts, Jack has chosen to keep his distance and remain with Gobwin Knob for the sake of his sanity, even after being given two chances to join her.
** She developed an interest in Bart, but he croaked from poison shortly after they became involved.
** She and Wanda once shared a strong, [[TooKinkyToTorture kinky]], and [[DatingCatwoman occasionally adversarial]] relationship. But after Wanda attempted to use MindControl, Jillian started getting over her. She eventually snared Wanda and her army into a trap to get revenge. And while unwilling to croak Wanda herself, she does leave Wanda to die at Jetstone's hands. Wanda experiences a great deal of cognitive dissonance as a result.
** After being hired into the Royal Coalition, she developed a strong romantic interest in Ansom. Ansom looked down on her for being a barbarian, but he was also attracted to the fact that she was a {{Determinator}} Royal. They would have a RescueThePrincess relationship as Jillian continuously got herself captured by Gobwin Knob. She was devastated when he died, but after learning that he had been brought back in a fashion via Decryption, she spurned Wanda to capture him. But when Wanda orders him to croak Jillian so she can get back Jillian's love as a Decrypted, she decides that the Decrypted Ansom is nothing but Wanda's puppet.
** After Ansom's death, Jillian and Vinny developed a ComfortingTheWidow relationship over their mutual loss. But due to her remaining feelings for Ansom, Jillian's secret loyalties to Charlie, and Vinny's own loyalty to his side, their relationship is strained by all the conflicting interests and they frequently have to make up. Eventually, Vinny's loyalty to his side forces him to [[spoiler:betray her when Transylvito's new leadership decides that Jillian is too unreliable to remain allies with]].

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* ThinksLikeARomanceNovel: Well, more like a soap opera but it's the same principleal. She translates everything into very arch dramatic tropes, with Charlie cast as the dashing hero. When it first comes up she has to ask if he has a code against killing to get an idea of what kind of hero he is. This actually translates into a good deal of GenreSavvy (like cottoning on that Vanna is the 'mother' of Transylvito's unpopped heir the first time she hears her speak). Charlie (with his much more methodical approach) isn't quite sure how to deal with her.

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** She tends to think she knows a lot more than she thinks she does from knowledge of other disciplines to the workings of Fate to the general underlying nature of the world.

* DumbassHasAPoint: Her refusal to take the easy way when it comes to Fate can come across as rather foolish when it just makes things harder for her most of the time, but when you compare her to Wanda or Predictmancers it's clear who is actually ''happier'' with their life. Or at least more satisfied. And taking the hard way often does make things work out better than they otherwise would, such as with her refusal to croak Judy Gale allowing her to eventually escape and fulfilling the prophecy in another way.

* ScrewDestiny: When she was first popped, she refused to believe in Fate or that it could force her to do what it wants. But she ultimately learned the hard way that Fate is a very real SentientCosmicForce.

* RomanticismVersusEnlightenment: Solidly on the Romantic side, exaggerated to the point that she seems half convinced the underlying rules of Erfworld don't really exist. When Sizemore and Parson [[http://archives.erfworld.com/Book%203/285 ask her]] about things like the actual mechanisms Signamancy operates under (and more specifically what the source of the writing on Parson's happy meals were in book 1 which gave him crucial information he wouldn't have learned otherwise but with crucial info missing) she rather arrogantly states that it's only their materialistic viewpoints that make them think the question even means anything. How much of this real and how much is strategically withholding information is unclear.

* HopeSpot: When she finally meets Parson and he displays basic competence by asking her a intelligent question about Charlescomm, Bonnie feels hope for the first time since having been Decrypted. Sadly it's immediately interrupted by a stunning display of incompetence elsewhere on her new side.

* SarcasticDevotee: She is ''really'' unimpressed with Stanley the Tool, and talks down to him every chance she gets. She also doesn't understand why everyone thinks Parson is such a big deal, but then she hasn't met him yet.

* DeathSeeker: According to Roger of the Great Minds, she desperately wants to die, and her death wish actually generates a dark magical power that makes her all the more formidable.

* SmugSnake: He's a skilled manipulator but he's also completely unaware that when caught between PArson and Charlie, he's out of his league. [[spoiler: Right at his moment of maximum smugness, he gets outmaneuvered by his own closest confidante.]]

* SmugSnake: He's a skilled manipulator but he's also completely out of his league. [[spoiler: right at his moment of maximum smugness, he gets outmaneuvered by his own closest confidante.]]

* TheTrickster: Charlie is described as bizarre and following his own set of rules. He is very reluctant to release information without payment. And while friendly, he is very obviously not someone you can trust. [[spoiler:The revelation that he is a carnymancer causes this to make a whole lot more sense]].

A Fox Forcer and Charlie's highest ranking archon.

One of Charlie's highest-ranking archons, she was designated AAA and was in charge of important aspects of Operation: Big Game. She was croaked and decrypted soon after she was introduced.

* TheLeader: Not only is she one of the highest-level archons in existence at level 9, she also has one of the highest leadership specials, giving her a bonus of 4. However, she is annoyed to find that in a side with more warlords, her bonus isn't very impressive, and she is quickly supplanted first by Artemis, then Antium.

* MoralityChain: Shirley sees her little Charlie as the hero of a story. She would prefer to see him as a KnightInShiningArmor than an AntiHero, and nudges him into preserving Bill and Vanna instead of sacrificing them to cause Gobwin Knob major losses. And since he doesn't know the true nature of towers and is fully aware that she could squash him like a bug if she wanted, he would prefer to keep her happy.

* ThinksLikeARomanceNovel: Well, more like a soap opera but it's the same principal. She translates everything into very arch dramatic tropes, with Charlie cast as the dashing hero. When it first comes up she has to ask if he has a code against killing to get an idea of what kind of hero he is. This actually translates into a good deal of GenreSavvy (like cottoning on that Vanna is the 'mother' of Transylvito's unpopped heir the first time she hears her speak). Charlie (with his much more methodical approach) isn't quite sure how to deal with her.

* BatmanGambit: A master, and what his best illusions rely on. A fine example is a climactic scene in book three. [[spoiler: Parson has been forced to turn to Charlescomm, [[SharpDressedMan with an appropriate change to his Signamancy]], while on the other side Archons have been prepared to shoot him if he tries to come through to rescue Lilith. Parson is ordered by Charlie through the portal, [[PoorCommunicationKills but the Archons haven't gotten the message yet]]. So he makes Parson look like he's wearing his old Gobwin Knob clothes, causing the archons to open fire.]]

An archon formerly in Charlie's service. She was decrypted at the Battle for Gobwin Knob and later captured by Jetstone so that Charlie could learn more about Decryption.

* ConsummateProfessional: Charlie trains his archons to be these, and Lilith is no exception. [[spoiler:Even when a great deal of her mind has been picked to pieces, and she's surrounded in hostile territory, she remains utterly calm and professional in her report to Parson.]]

* DivingSave: [[spoiler:Charlie's archons prepare an ambush in their portal room in anticipation of Parson coming through it. When Lilith learns of this and sees him come through, she tackles him down and back through the portal.]]

* {{Expy}}: Of the Little Red-Haired Girl from ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', in that Charlie's love for his archons is no longer requited by her.
* IShallTauntYou: She tries to goad several of Charlie's archons into attacking her to trigger a treaty's penalties. When she starts going into Charlie's secrets by describing [[spoiler:what he looks like, it is enough to provoke Charlie into distracting her with psychic attacks]].
* MeaningfulName: She is named after UsefulNotes/{{Lilith}}, a mythological demon. Unlike even the other decrypted archons, she holds no lingering love for Charlie and she comes to pose a serious threat to him.

* TalkingToTheDead: While contemplating her next action on a difficult mission, she speaks with the corpse of the archon she has been carrying.

* CloningGambit: Used to survive an attack from an archon, with the help of Lloyd the Dittomancer. [[spoiler: Turns out, according to [[http://archives.erfworld.com/Book%202/175 this comic]], it is stated that it was the real Slately that was croaked.]]

* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:The real King Slately dies while fighting Gobwin Knob's archons, his body incinerated to ensure he isn't decrypted. The Ditto gets killed by Parson throwing him into a red dwagon's mouth.]]

* BrokenPedestal: To Lilith. His archons literally worship him, largely due to a psychic link that compels them to love him. When Lilith belonged to Charlescomm, she shared her sisters' whispered fantasies of feeling Charlie's touch. But when she was decrypted, her link to him was severed. When she finally meets him in person, she knows he has every intention of destroying her and she mentally scoffs at feeling his touch at last due to his having been reduced to a DarkLordOnLifeSupport.

* DarkLordOnLifeSupport: [[spoiler:His treacherous daughter, Olive Branch, tried to control him with Heroine Buds and tried to murder him with poison when that failed. In the present era, most of his body is completely limp and he is hooked up to machinery. He requires the aid of his closest archons to even move his hands.]]

** Even in the best of times, Charlie's archons are out to screw the client as much as possible without harming Charlie's reputation in order to create more business. As Charlie's fears about Parson become increasingly realized, Charlie's deals start to show visible malevolence.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: In quite a surprising turn, [[http://archives.erfworld.com/Book+3/144 a text update]] delving deeply into Charlie's thoughts revealed that he truly cares for his archons and mourns their loss. He even describes the Fox Force Three as "his dearest and only friends".
* EvenEvilHasStandards: One of his archons claims that unlike his daughter, he wouldn't get someone hooked on the FantasticDrug that are Heroine Buds to control them. He isn't above tempting someone who is already addicted to them though.

* {{Fiction 500}}: One of the reasons he has no speaking units besides archons is that casters and commanders have an innate sense of their Side's treasury, and he wants to keep his secret. Most Sides have an average of three hundred thousand Schmuckers, and three million is considered very rich. Bonnie estimates Charlie's treasury at thirty million. He actually has [[spoiler:over ''a hundred and sixty million'' Schmuckers in his treasury, in addition to over '''five hundred and thirty million''' in his gem hoard]].

* GagPenis: His archons like to speculate that his "tool of manliness" is so big that it occupies two whole floors of his tower.

* HiddenAgendaVillain: His end goal, or if he even has one, is completely unknown. What ''is'' known about his desires is that he wants "Money. More money, more reach, more security, more information". And he has been dedicating all of his resources to growing an ever expanding army of archons. [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed that Charlie used Carnymancy to survive an assassination attempt. As the comic goes on, it is increasingly implied that the terrible price he had to pay was to become an enemy of Fate thanks to EquivalentExchange. The bizarre strategy of his side is to prevent Fate from croaking him by ordinary means.]]

** Charlie does not trust any type of unit other than archons and golems, and refuses to retain any other kind of unit in Charlescomm, even casters whose disciplines are essential to running his enterprise. When he runs into problems that only such casters can solve, it's much more of an obstacle for him to overcome than if he'd simply let them stay on as permanent units.

* LimitedSocialCircle: The archons in Fox Force Five are his only friends in a [[GeniusLoci world]] that literally [[CosmicPlaything hates him]], and the only ones he trusts enough to see in person. They are the only ones he shows genuine signs of sympathy and affection for.

* ProperlyParanoid: Charlie is largely considered to be useful, but very strange. The only units he keeps on his side are archons and golems. He is absolutely obsessed with acquiring more money and security. He maintains as much secrecy as possible, to the point that almost no one even knows what he is or looks like. But there is in fact a good reason for this. [[spoiler:Erfworld is heavily implied to be a GeniusLoci. In his efforts to preserve his life, Charlie has cheated Fate for so long and so hard that he has thrown it completely out of balance. As a result, the world itself wants him dead]].

* ShroudedInMyth: Charlie maintains a tight grip on his secrets, and it is clear that he has many. Even his own archons know very little about him. Rumors about him range from him being the Arkendish itself to even a [[FallenAngel fallen Titan]].

* TearsOfFear: [[spoiler:In the aftermath of Operation: Big Game, he weeps, overwhelmed by just how much has gone wrong, how much closer his fate to die has come, and the implications of losing his beloved archons to the Arkenpliers's ability to make them ComeBackWrong.]]

** [[spoiler:After losing Tondelayo, his closest and most loyal archon, he collapses into "Gardening" on a FantasticDrug.]]

Powerful and dangerous natural caster units in service to Charlie. Only a handful of other sides can pop archons, and none of them as fast as Charlie. They are utterly devoted to Charlie and his ideals, engaging in the mercenary wheeling and dealing he so loves. In the first book and second books, they are allied with Jetstone and the Coalition, but play a more directly antagonistic role against Gobwin Knob in the third.

* BlindObedience: None of the archons under his service even consider the possibility of Charlie being wrong. Even (most of) the decrypted Archons have trouble thinking anything negative of him.

* SarcasticDevotee: Fox Force Five are the highest ranking archons in Charlie's employ and the only ones he trusts enough to see him in person. They are as utterly devoted to him as any of his archons are, but these ones also like to give him quite a bit of lip. He seems to appreciate this, treating them as [[HonestAdvisor rare honest advisers]].

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: In quite a surprising turn, [[http://archives.erfworld.com/Book+3/144 a text update]] delving deeply into Charlie's thoughts revealed that he truly cares for his Archons and mourns their loss. He even describes the Fox Force Three as "his dearest and only friends".
* EvenEvilHasStandards: One of his archons claims that unlike his daughter, he wouldn't get someone hooked on the FantasticDrug that are heroine buds to control them. He isn't above tempting someone who is already addicted to them though.

* ControlFreak: As we see when [[spoiler: Parson [[http://archives.erfworld.com/Book%203/285 reflects on]] his brief time as a Charlescom unit]] he micromanages his followers to a ludicrous degree.

* DefectorFromDecadence: She is willing to go against the wishes of the Great Minds if doing so means Parson can succeed. [[spoiler:Most recently, she may even be turning away from pure Thinkamancy, as her inner monologue indicates she no longer champions Thinkamancy as the highest discipline, and she is possibly on the way to becoming a Date-a-mancer as well.]]

* MeaningfulName: Large Banhammer. He regularly holds court discussions with himself as a moderator of debate. Anyone who doesn't subscribe to his rules of decorum or agree with his philosophical points of view (such as Jillian), will find themselves rapidly and forcefully ejected from the proceedings.

* WorthyOpponent: The way Jack talks about the arguments among casters in Faq makes it clear that his primary joy in them was to be found in destroying other peoples arguments like someone kicking down sand castles. Unlike the rest of the casters, this rarely worked on Marie, earning some of his respect.