Line #20 Characters/TheEmperorsSoul


1	The CharacterSheet for ''Literature/TheEmperorsSoul'', a novella by Creator/BrandonSanderson. For other characters on the world of Sel, see [[Characters/{{Elantris}} here]]. For characters who are important throughout TheVerse in which the stories take place (including "Hoid", the Imperial Fool), see [[Characters/TheCosmere here]].
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3	'''WARNING!''' All spoilers on this page are '''unmarked!'''
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5	[[foldercontrol]]
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7	[[folder:Shai]]
8	!Wan [=ShaiLu=], a.k.a. "Shai"
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10	The protagonist of the novella, "Shai" is the greatest Forger known to the Rose Empire, [[BoxedCrook "employed"]] to Forge the soul of [[TheEmperor Emperor Ashravan]] over the course of three months.
11	----
12	* ActionGirl: Her "Shaizan" personality, who was a version of her that spent her life being trained in martial arts.
13	* BadassLongcoat: She takes Zu's cloak for her own eventually.
14	* BoxedCrook: The basis of the plot is that she's a magic-using criminal captured by the government so she can Forge a new soul for the Emperor.
15	* TheCharmer: Shai is very good at understanding and befriending those around her.
16	* TheChessmaster: She is playing absolutely everyone in order to fulfill her final escape.
17	* [[ConMan Con Woman]]: Her job as a Forger.
18	* DeadpanSnarker: Not to the extent of some of Sanderson's characters, but she'll take snarky digs at her captors.
19	* DimensionalTraveller: As of [[spoiler: ''Literature/TheLostMetal'' she's made her way to Scadrial as part of the Ghostbloods]].
20	* DrivenToSuicide: Her fifth Essence Mark. The other four simply grant new skills and some physical changes, but let her remember who and what she is. But the fifth, if ever used, would totally erase her old life. As far as she would then know, the simple farm-girl life that Mark gives her would be the only life she'd ever had. She has no plans to use it, but just the fact that she made the thing (Essence Marks take years of dedicated labor to make) is a bit disturbing. On the other hand soul forging cannot last more than 24 hours, she has embedded her new personality with a reason to stamp herself everyday but should she ever be unable to do so for some reason then her original personality/memories will simply return.
21	* GildedCage: She blows off steam by performing minor Forgings to improve the room in which she's kept. By the end, she has the nicest room in the palace, better even than the Emperor's wing - except for where she Forged the floor under her bed to be almost completely rotted through as part of her escape plan.
22	* {{Guile Hero}}ine: Her survival in the custody of the Rose Empire hinges on her abilities as TheSocialExpert, while her plan to escape is predicated upon figuring out all of her enemies and pre-planning moves and Forgeries to neutralize them.
23	* HeroProtagonist: She's a decent person (albeit a thief), and the main character of the novella.
24	* HonorBeforeReason: As she nears the end of her work, she realizes that she's taking a risk with every day she stays but she sees the Emperor's soul as her magnum opus and finds she can't leave until it's finished. [[spoiler:When she's escaping the palace, she takes a great risk in breaking into the Emperor's chambers to stamp him, because she simply has to know if her stamp worked.]]
25	* KnightInSourArmor: Before her CharacterDevelopment.
26	* ManipulativeBastard: What the Rose Empire thinks she is. They technically aren't wrong about anything but the "unnatural" nature of Forging.
27	* NonActionGuy: Shai is not much of a fighter, preferring to talk or bluff her way through dangerous situations. However using one of her pre-prepared essence marks she can become 'Shaizan', a version of herself if she'd been adopted by a harsh warrior culture and lived among them for well over a decade.
28	* {{Retconjuration}}: Her power as a Forger. She can rewrite the history of any object, provided the new history is at least somewhat plausible. For example, she can make her battered desk "actually" have been lovingly maintained and kept in pristine condition.
29	** In [[spoiler:''The Lost Metal'' she reveals she has a stamp that rewrites her past as if her parents had been from Arelon, allowing her to undergo the Shaod and become an Elantrian.]]
30	* TheSocialExpert: Being a skilled Forger requires her to be very good at making accurate deductions based on comparatively little evidence, about people as well as inanimate objects.
31	* SplitPersonality: Shai's Essence Marks are this for herself.
32	* SquishyWizard: See NonActionGuy. Forging is a very powerful magic system, but requires hours of research about the object you wish to forge and precise carving of the stamp. Shai is still able to use it in combat to set traps ahead of time and by creating a stamp to create an alternate personality she calls [[ProudWarriorRaceGirl Shaizan]], who has had extensive combat training.
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34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Gaotona]]
37	!Arbiter Gaotona
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39	A reasonable arbiter who learns the ways of Forgery from Shai.
40	----
41	* CoolOldGuy: An intelligent, reasonable, and quite moral older man.
42	* {{Deuteragonist}}:He's the second most important character after Shai, and their interaction and contrasting characterization drives many of the scenes.
43	* GoodIsNotDumb: Shai notes that an honest and clever man is the most difficult to manipulate of all. She had to remain completely genuine in her dealings with him to get her on her side, as he would have seen through any ruse.
44	* JustThinkOfThePotential: He tends to think this about people, mostly the Emperor and Shai.
45	* LikeASonToMe: He cared for Ashravan like his own son. Tellingly, while everyone else sees no difference between the original Ashravan and the copy, Gaotona can tell the difference [[ParentsKnowTheirChildren just by looking into his eyes]].
46	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He's the most level headed, honest and willing to see the potential in others out of the Arbiters.
47	* ShootTheDog: From his perspective at least. He allows Shai to test her soulstamps on him, even though he himself despises Forgery and there's a great risk that she'll use her magic to manipulate him. It's this sacrifice that makes Shai realize that he isn't yet another CorruptPolitician.
48	* TheWatson: About Forgery. Despite his Empire's (and his own) taboo against it, he is both very invested in making sure Shai doesn't hurt Ashravan and intrigued by her work. [[spoiler:In the end, he realizes that her Forgery is in fact art, and burns the evidence of her work so that no one will ever find out how she made the emperor's soul.]]
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50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Frava]]
53	!Arbiter Frava
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55	A cynical, anti-Shai arbiter who believes what she does is, no matter what, evil.
56	----
57	* CorruptBureaucrat: An example of what is implied to be the norm in the Rose Empire, in contrast to Gaotona.
58	* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Perceives Shai as someone who does illegal things for gain, rather than an artist who happens to work in an illegal medium. As such, she tries to bribe Shai with something the forger has no interest in, and sets herself up to spend years looking for hidden backdoors in Ashravan's Essence Mark that don't exist, as she can't conceive of a criminal with the opportunity to take control of the Empire ''not'' trying to do so.
59	* {{Hypocrite}}: She despises Shai's Forgery, but makes use of Forgers (though she calls them "Rememberers") for the Heritage Faction. She is also dead-set on discovering the backdoors that she’s certain Shay has secretly installed in Emperor Ashravan’s Essence Mark (which don’t actually exist), but only so she can use them herself to control him.
60	* {{Jerkass}}: Especially to Shai, though also to Gaotona.
61	* ManipulativeBastard: She wants to have a way to control the emperor after he's rejuvenated.
62	* SmugSnake: One tends to get the impression that Frava's not nearly the genius she thinks she is. At the end of the story, she truly believes that she gave Shai the idea to place a way to control the emperor into her stamp, and wonders if she somehow figured out that she wasn’t ''actually'' making copies of her notes. Shai recognized both ruses the moment Frava tried them.
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64	[[/folder]]
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66	[[folder:Ashravan]]
67	!Emperor Ashravan
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69	The brain-dead emperor of the Rose Empire who Shai is to rejuvenate through Forgery.
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71	* BecomingTheMask: Shai speculates that keeping him continuously stamped with the Essence Mark containing his new soul may eventually cause that soul to permanently imprint itself on him, removing the need for restamping.
72	* CameBackWrong: Close enough, though, as it was impossible to be perfect. And close enough that even his closest friends and advisers can't tell the difference. A subversion in the end: While Ashravan will basically be afflicted with permanent ResurrectionSickness - he'll have to carry a SoulJar at all times and re-stamp his soul daily - Shai actually made him BetterThanNew when it came to the actual content. It's what the best forgers do, after all.
73	* DrunkWithPower: Why he strayed from his original ideals.
74	* TheEmperor: Of the Rose Empire.
75	* HeelRealization: Shai tweaked his memories so that his assassination and recovery would provoke one.
76	* HiddenDepths: The entire book is about figuring out his personality and why it is the way it is.
77	* HiddenHeartOfGold: The cynical, self-interested Emperor actually took the throne hoping to reform the empire, before he gradually lost sight of that fact. Shai helped him find it again.
78	* IdleRich: He started out a good man who wanted to make the world a better place, but became complacent during his reign, caring more about pleasure than ruling.
79	* PosthumousCharacter: Of a sort, as most of what is learned about him is while he is braindead.
80	* SoullessShell: The resealers were able to repair his brain just fine. In fact, it's as good as new -- [[BlankSlate that's exactly the problem.]]
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82	[[/folder]]
83
84	[[folder:The Bloodsealer]]
85	!The Bloodsealer
86
87	A nameless Bloodsealer of Dzhamar, a sub-state of the Rose Empire, who aims to have Shai's bones added to his pets should she try to leave.
88	----
89	* AntiVillain: He just wants money to help a woman he loves.
90	* BlackCloak: His usual attire is a rather sinister hooded black robe.
91	* BloodMagic: If he has a sample of someone's blood, he can make a seal to let his skeletals track them.
92	* DrowningHisSorrows: This seems to be the case whenever he doesn't get a letter.
93	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He's in love with a woman back in his homeland and wants to use the money he makes serving the Empire to help her.
94	* InTheHood: Has a notable hood as part of his outfit.
95	* {{Necromancer}}: He can reanimate the dead as skeletal minions via BloodMagic.
96	* NoNameGiven: He's only ever referred to as "the Bloodsealer".
97	* RedEyesTakeWarning: He has red eyes, and while he may be an AntiVillain, the nature of his powers and his role in the story makes him one of the more sinister characters.
98	* {{Synchronization}}: Judging from how he seems very weak and almost completely unresponsive when Shai destroys all of his skeletals in quick succession, this seems to be the case with the skeletals he animates.
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100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Zu]]
103	!Captain Zu
104	An angry Striker captain who wants to kill Shai for having gotten by him in the first place and having not captured her himself.
105	----
106	* FlatCharacter: He's pretty much solely defined by hating Shai.
107	* IllKillYou: He's characterized more or less solely by this relationship toward Shai. Shai figures out near instantly that no matter what his masters tell him he'll try to kill her, and [[spoiler:makes this part of her escape plan.]]
108	* {{Jerkass}}: He's arrogant, ruthless, hateful, and all-around unpleasant.
109	* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:While Shai anticipated him trying to kill her, she didn't anticipate him actually nicking her, which lets the Bloodsealer sic his skeletals on her and forces her to use her back-up plan.]]
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111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Han]]
114	!Han [=ShuXen=]
115
116	The artist of a painting that Shai tried to steal.
117	----
118	* TheGhost: He indirectly sets off the plot, but never actually appears in person.
119	* LastRequest: He's old, nearly blind, and bedridden. So he asks his former student for one final service: to destroy his greatest masterpiece so that it cannot be used to glorify a nation he hates.
120	* OldMaster: The artistry mentor of Shai.
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122	[[/folder]]
123
124	[[folder:Kurshina]]
125	!Kurshina
126
127	The dead wife of the Emperor.
128	----
129	* PosthumousCharacter: She's killed in the same assassination attempt that left the Emperor brain dead.
130	* RedheadsAreRavishing: She's redheaded and accordingly beautiful. He even liked her because of a story giving him a preference for red hair.
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Context Characters / TheEmperorsSoul