Shahrazad
Princess who saves her people by marrying a mad sultan and
charming him with her stories.
- Determinator: She tells her husband stories for almost three years, in which time she gives birth to three children. Consider that she has to make up these stories on the fly, even on the nights she's gone through hours of labor. And she still did it.
- Guile Hero: She converts a tyrant into a benevolent ruler without resorting to violence (although it does take 1,001 nights, but he's still prevented from tyrannical behavior in the interim).
- Happily Married: After the 1,001 nights are over, she becomes this to the formerly mad sultan, because after her stories he's genuinely in love with her. Apparently the mad sultan can be quite a good husband when he's not threatening to execute every newlywed for fear of her potentially cheating on him. It may also have helped that he's a friggin' sultan, so she gets quite a bit of power and wealth at the "small price" of preventing her own execution for over three years first.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Though unlike most examples of this trope, not a lethal one. The "sacrifice" isn't her life; it's her marrying a sultan she knows is a crazy tyrant, thus sacrificing her freedom and peace of mind… because once she marries him and pulls off her gambit to keep herself from being executed, she can keep him from executing any more newlyweds.
- Holding the Floor: Probably the Ur-Example; all 1,001 stories were made up by her, all to stall the sultan from carrying out her execution.
- Gentleman and a Scholar: She was as well read as any scholar.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Intentionally invoked, so she can charm and entrance the sultan into not having anybody else executed.
- Nerves of Steel: You'd need this to come up earnestly come up with and tell stories to a sultan for a thousand (and one) nights that you're pretty sure will have your head cut off the moment he finds your storytelling inadequate.
- Silk Hiding Steel: She seemed like a servile woman that just let herself get put at risk to the sultan, but she holds fast in her nearly-three-year long plan.
Shahryar
The sultan of the world of the framing device. A ruthless, crazed man who has put up the tradition of wedding a young bride and then executing her following their wedding night.
- The Bluebeard: A classic example. Every day he marries another woman, every night he sleeps with her, and the following day she's killed. The pattern went on for years until Shahrazad came into the picture.
- Karma Houdini: It's good for the rest of the kingdom that he's pacified, but slaying hundreds of innocent women for the injustices one did to him is something he never gets reprimanded for. However, considering the kind of man he was, it's a wonder who would even try to directly call him out.
Harun Al-Rashid
Commander of the Faithful in
Ye Goode Olde Days. Appears in many adventures.
- High Priest: Sort of. Muslims have teachers not priests. But he is Caliph which was the highest religious position and so sort of like being both High Priest and The Emperor.
Sindbad
Merchant who made incredible amounts of money on various voyages and invites a beggar to his feast to tell him about his adventures.
- The Jinx: All of his companions have an uncomfortable habit of dying. You wonder why anyone ever sails with him.
- Mr. Vice Guy: Sinbad is a lot like Scrooge McDuck, ambitious (but not evil,
Values Dissonance not withstanding) and out to make a buck. In fact, by the end he's one of the richest men in Baghdad.
