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This page lists tropes associated with the Gods and Cosmic Entities in Child of the Storm.

Unless otherwise stated, tropes that apply in the Marvel Cinematic Universe up the events of The Avengers apply here as well.

Beware: Spoilers for Child of the Storm are unmarked.


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Asgard

The most active pantheon in the story, and arguably the closest to Earth, both metaphysically and attitude wise. A bunch of Proud Warrior Gods, they like humanity's style, by and large. Furthermore, it's suggested that they see a certain potential in humanity that they are nurturing. As a result, they regard Midgard (Earth) as part of their Protectorate and do not tolerate interference with it.

     In General 

  • A God I Am Not: While they accept that they are gods, they are peculiarly reluctant (when sane) to be worshipped as such - something that separates them from the other pantheons. This is possibly due to knowledge that they weren't always gods.
  • Ancient Astronauts: They've been meddling with Earth, and more recently, humanity, for over a million years. However, it's mostly been fairly restrained meddling — the one time it wasn't, the result was Atlantis, which was great... right up until it nearly ended the universe.
  • Anti-Hero: While they're pretty friendly, and very fond of humanity, humanity tends to see their best face. By most human moral standards, they're capable of being astonishingly ruthless, even savage, when provoked - the effective genocide of the Dheronians (after the Dheronians committed genocide against Krypton) being a prime example. It's also hinted from time to time, usually when referring to Bor, that at various points in their history, they've been considerably more violent and less conventionally heroic. In recent times (and by "recent" we mean the last six millennia), from Bor's reign onwards, this isn't entirely their fault - Malekith tried to use the Reality Stone to corrupt their entire civilisation into the psycho barbarians he imagined/needed them to be, and in Bor's case, it took. As for Asgard as a whole, it set them back by hundreds of millennia, despite attempts at mitigation.
  • Badass Army: Pretty much their entire civilisation qualifies, one way or another — they take on threats to the entire universe and have, recurrently, won.
    • Even back when their ancestors were mortals, in alliance with the other races that would make up the Nine Realms, they took on Surtur, the original Dark Phoenix — and while they were ultimately losing, the fact that they didn't get wiped out instantly is one hell of an achievement. Additionally, they lasted long enough to devise Yggdrasil as the ultimate prison, and Word of God has compared them to Time War-era Gallifrey.
  • Blood Knight: Asgardians really, really like a good fight. However, they get wary about the whole berserk rage thing - controlling your temper is a big thing in Asgard.
  • The Corrupter: They were on the receiving end from Malekith, via the Reality Stone during Bor's reign, and while the worst of it was mitigated, according to Buri, it set them back by hundreds of millennia.
  • Cultured Badass: Extraordinarily advanced in pretty much every discipline, specialising in a kind of magic based technology - something they mastered long before they became gods. Also, they enjoy watching a good bit of Snark-to-Snark Combat as much as they do a good sparring match - when Tony and Harry Dresden get into a snark-off, the Asgardians around them start taking bets.
    • Even Sirius Black, not exactly a connoisseur of art, is impressed by their architecture.
  • Deity of Mortal Origin: Hinted throughout Child of the Storm, as part of the idea that Asgard is the odd one out as far as the collected pantheons of Earth go. It is then confirmed in Ghosts of the Past — over a million years ago, before the formation of Yggdrasil, they were 'merely' an extremely advanced mortal race that had nailed Magitek millennia ago, and had what is implied to be a vast empire. They lost most of that empire and ascended to godhood as a direct result of creating Yggdrasil, itself done as part of fighting Surtur, the original Dark Phoenix.
  • Death World: Asgard, in that it's full of powerful monsters, though they don't seriously threaten Asgardian kind as a whole. Asgardians in general see this as a bonus.
  • The Dreaded: To most supernatural power-brokers with half a clue on Earth, and most intergalactic powers with half a clue off it, all regarding them with mingled fear and respect. Judging by what they did to the Dheronians, who destroyed Krypton at Thanos' behest, this reputation is not in the least bit unwarranted.
  • Fantastic Racism: Towards Frost Giants, and formerly, it is suggested, towards humans thanks to the whole Puny Earthlings thing (now they still see humans as puny, if growing up rapidly, but like their style).
  • Genius Bruiser: Their civilisation as a whole, even if they tend to put more emphasis on the 'bruiser' part.
  • Had to Be Sharp: It's mentioned that part of the reasons Asgardians evolved to be war machines is simply to survive the Death World they live in.
  • Healing Factor: Even ordinary Asgardians have an impressive one - Uhtred, a teenage Asgardian, gets a bunch of broken ribs and is good as new in a couple of hours, and with medical aid, is capable of healing a destroyed eye.
  • Immortal Procreation Clause: It's been stated that they are not as fertile as humanity is, due to being far longer-lived and harder to kill than said humans.
  • Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: For a society built on magic, they tend to dismiss it a bit. They didn't always, however, and it's explained that Malekith's partially successful corruption of Asgard into psycho barbarians is at least somewhat to blame.
  • Knight Errant: A popular activity among them.
  • Magitek: They mastered this before they became gods, to the extent that Word of God has explicitly compared them to Time War-era Gallifrey.
  • Not So Invincible After All: They're the most powerful pantheon and space-faring civilisation that we know of, but hints strewn across the backstory show that they're more vulnerable than they seem. Particularly during the tumultuous period of Bor's reign and Cul's brief rule, thanks to the very long hangover of Malekith's use of the Reality Stone, they repeatedly came close to being wiped out or self-destructing. Odin's entire reign has basically been gluing the Nine Realms back together and wrenching Asgardian society back onto a saner track.
  • Proud Warrior Race: It used to be a bit more complicated, but now, they practically codify the trope - there's nothing they enjoy quite so much as a good fight. However, they do try to pick righteous ones.
  • Puny Earthlings: They're hinted to have previously held this attitude, albeit in an affably condescending 'you're puny, but you've got guts, so we like you', an attitude changed by encountering the Avengers. By now, Asgard's response to humanity is starting to shade into genuine respect.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Asgardians individually have a life expectancy of 5,000 years plus, and that's implied to be their equivalent of humanity's 'three score and ten' - it can go several thousand years beyond that.
  • Secret Art: Strange hints that once upon a time, they had spells and Magitek specifically designed to handle Phoenix fire, something Sunniva's internal monologue confirms. While they haven't become any less advanced since (quite the opposite), it's implied that it fell by the wayside because it was no longer needed.
  • Shining City: Asgard's citadel and capital is a textbook example.
  • Smug Super: A little bit. They're certainly aware of the status and power they hold, and will be entirely happy to remind people of it if they feel it's necessary.
  • Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: Technically speaking, they were originally this, before ascending to godhood.
  • Superior Species: They're pretty much the biggest and baddest species that routinely interacts with the mortal universe, and they won't hesitate to come down and give the bad guys a good kicking... but only if they feel it's necessary.
  • Super-Strength: Even ordinary Asgardians can comfortably chuck tanks around. The likes of Thor can comfortably throw mountains around.
  • Super-Toughness: Even ordinary Asgardians can shrug off bullets. Royal Asgardians are considerably tougher.
  • Tangled Family Tree: Considerably less prone to this than most gods, but with the fact that the Royal Family are technically cousins of the Olympians, this does apply.
  • Time Abyss: As a civilisation/pantheon, they've been gods for over a million years, making them (as a whole) older than pretty much any pantheon but the Elder Gods. And even before that, they were an incredibly advanced Magitek based mortal civilisation, with a vast cosmic empire, and were by implication millions of years old before their ascension. In other words, the only things so far seen that are older than them are the Elder Gods, the Endless, the Celestials, and Galactus.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Primarily during Bor's reign, thanks to Malekith's corruption. While they weren't perfect beforehand, it's strongly indicated that they were somewhat Lighter and Softer and soft-pedalled the Proud Warrior Race Guy thing a bit more. After, they were caught up in a self-destructive spiral of conflict, with Odin's reign spent undoing this. As a whole, they seem to be getting better.
  • We Are As May Flies: Played with. On the one hand, they're very conscious of how brief human lives are, but on the other, that tends to make them admire humanity all the more - considering how brief their lifespans are, it's impressive all the passion and fire they fit in.
  • World of Badass: They are all badass. All of them.
  • World of Ham: Most Asgardians are very, very loud. This is indicated to have been one of the things that made Loki very uncomfortable growing up.

     Odin 

King Odin Borson

While your uncle and grandmother wanted to do something that was undoubtedly right, I am a King. My every action has consequences that echo throughout the Nine Realms and beyond. So I must act rationally, even coldly at times.

King and Allfather of Asgard, father of Thor and Loki and grandfather of Harry. Possessor of the Omniscient Morality License and The Chains of Commanding, and isn't particularly fond of the latter.



  • Abusive Parents: He had one in Bor. Odin tried to be better to Thor and Loki, and undoubtedly succeeded. How much better is up for debate, with Harry citing the Generational Trauma in Book III.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: As Allfather of Asgard, he wields unimaginably vast power.
  • Action Dad: It is easy to see where Thor and Loki get their warrior aspects from.
    • His two battles with Chthon are clashes stretching into cosmic concept that normally would obliterate the entire solar system as a side-effect.
    • In Ghosts of the Past, it is repeatedly and explicitly stated that thanks to the Odinforce, he is the most powerful of Earth's Skyfathers, with only a full fledged Elder God being able to beat him - and the only probable one of those in the active pantheons, the White God (a.k.a. the Abrahamic God), isn't the type to get involved. It's notable that all the Council Elite save for the chronically Hot-Blooded Zeus step lightly around him, and spend ages trying to persuade him to back down, because none of them want to fight him.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: Compared to his MCU counterpart, he's quite reasonable and even kind, though he can be very hard and cold if he feels that it's necessary.
  • Badass Family: The patriarch of one of the most badass families in the cosmos.
  • Been There, Shaped History: He's played a considerable part in Earth's history.
  • Benevolent Mage Ruler: With his wife, Frigga, taking quite heavily after his grandfather, Buri in this regard.
  • Birds of a Feather: Thor notes that Odin sees much of himself in Steve, with both of them being old soldiers.
  • Borrowed Catchphrase: Borrows his eldest son's during his fight with Chthon during the Final Battle, punctuated by a simplified facebuster.
  • Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Well. He tried.
  • The Chains of Commanding: He must act as a King, first and foremost. However, this does not mean that he won't pull an epic Papa Wolf moment if he feels the need.
  • Deadpan Snarker: While he doesn't do it often, you can see where his sons got it from.
  • Dynamic Entry: In chapter 77, after Chthon manifests through Gravemoss, he Bifrosts onto the scene, in full battle armour, flanked by Huginn and Muninn in human form, and proceeds to duel the Elder God of Chaos and Black Magic to a standstill.
  • Eternal Love: While he and Frigga aren't exactly mushy and romantic, their at first somewhat awkward relationship turned into a Perfectly Arranged Marriage, and they do care for one another deeply.
  • Friendly Address Privileges: Essentially, all of Midgard (Earth) has these: as Odin notes in the first book, Midgardians', particularly Tony's, custom of dropping the decorum around authority figures does not translate into a lack of respect on their part (rather the opposite), and by now he knows this because the Avengers taught it to him.
  • Genius Bruiser: He was a bruiser on par with Thor in his younger days, and he's only got tougher, like old oak. He's also a Manipulative Bastard that even Loki takes his hat off to, a brilliant mage, and one of the few people who tends to have some idea of what Doctor Strange is actually up to.
  • God's Hands Are Tied: Given the amount of both personal and political power that he wields, as the folder quote indicates, there are many limitations on what he is allowed to do.
  • The Good King: He is firm, but fair, and very, very competent. Indeed, after a number of hints, The Phoenix and the Serpent all but confirms that he effectively dragged Asgard from the brink of self-destruction after the disastrous reigns of his savage father and downright evil older brother and the civil war required to depose the latter, as well as a catalogue of other disasters and conflicts that nearly wiped Asgard out. On the other hand, this sometimes comes at the cost of him being a good father.
  • Handicapped Badass: Has only one eye. Still a top-level Manipulative Bastard and Genius Bruiser.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Is prepared for the possibility that he may have to make one to save Harry in Ghosts of the Past, when facing down the Council Elite after they decide Harry's a threat because of his time as the Dark Phoenix.
  • Hidden Depths: You wouldn't expect a strict, stern, and apparently fairly conservative King to be a dedicated social reformer, would you? Over time, it becomes obvious that he is, in quiet sort of way. Of course, from his point of view, he's wrenching Asgard's trajectory back to where it would be if Malekith hadn't messed things up.
  • Human Outside, Alien Inside: Demonstrates this from a psychological point of view.
  • It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Hinted to be one reason he left Harry with the Dursleys: As heir to the throne of Asgard, he has a lot of beings who would have harmed him if they knew about him.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Even better at this than Loki, who observes that not only did he inherit this particular talent from Odin, Odin managed to manipulate him into doing exactly what he wanted with three words.
  • Mister Exposition: At times. The only people who explicitly know more than he does are the Endless (who know almost everything) and Doctor Strange (ditto).
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In addition to moving Krypton across space and back again, when Cul and his army ravaged Earth, Odin, his brothers Vili and Ve, and Kal-El I sealed him off in another dimension. He also, while still a Prince, clashed with Varnae, first King of the Grey Court, with his grandson remarking that it was fairly close.
    • As ruler of Asgard, he often has to step in to stop potential interstellar wars.
  • Omniscient Morality License: While not strictly omniscient, he sees a much bigger picture than others do. And as he explains to Harry, while he looks human, he is very definitely not - to him, the decade that Harry spent at the Dursleys was equivalent to a month, if that. That said, he does apologise.
  • Papa Wolf: While he's often a bit gruff, he is very protective of his progeny, as repeatedly demonstrated.
    • He makes it very clear to Strange that if his sons or grandson are hurt by Strange's schemes, he will take it out on the man's hide. Considering what Strange is capable of and how little he tolerates interference (or threats, come to that), this is not something one does lightly.
    • He also looks like he's itching for a chance to get even with Thanos (while Thanos did not torture Loki into submission, he was most certainly not kind to him).
    • Most aptly demonstrated when he slams Chthon, who's threatening his family, face first into the ground at the Battle of London.
    • And demonstrated again in Ghosts of the Past when he and Frigga respond to the Red Room kidnapping Harry and transforming him into the Red Son by bringing Russia to its knees.
    • When the rest of the Council Elite decide that Harry is a threat following his time as Dark Phoenix, Odin makes it clear that if they come after his grandson, he will take them all on. At once.
    • Both Harrys independently note that if Voldemort tried to use the Word of Kemmler to become a Greater God, he'd just be making himself a target for Odin, who wouldn't so much step in his plans as step on him. Like a bug.
  • Reality Warper: While he has limits, he is immensely powerful. As in, at the end of Child of the Storm it is stated that his battle with Chthon would have, under normal circumstances, possibly destroyed the entire Milky Way as a side effect.
  • Smart People Play Chess: Very smart and very good at chess. Doctor Strange, however, is better.
  • Time Abyss: He's comfortably a thousand years older than Stonehenge, and because of this, he has a rather different perspective on time than his teenage grandson.
  • War God: It's hinted at more than shown, but the fact that the entire Council Elite (save Zeus) is wary of challenging him speaks volumes, to say nothing of his duel with Chthon at the end of Book 1.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Was this to his father, Bor, who was an epic bag of dicks. This explains a great deal about Odin himself.
  • Wrestler in All of Us: At the Battle of London he takes down Chthon with a simplified Facebuster.

     Frigga 

Queen Frigga

So, yeah. Harry's grandma is kind of terrifying.

The Queen Consort of Asgard, wife of Odin, mother of Thor and Loki, and grandmother of Harry. Being the Goddess of Motherhood and Healing, she's pretty much the archetypal lovely grandmother... but she also used to be a warrior maiden of exceptional skill, she taught Loki much of what he knows about magic, and she is also the archetypal Mama Bear. Cross her at your peril.



  • Almighty Mom: As Coulson notes, any woman who can raise Thor and Loki at their most rambunctious is going to be every bit as formidable as they are, and considerably more besides. She can also ensure that Odin spends the next half a century sleeping on the floor.
    • Odin himself notes that she is a more skillful mage than he himself is, at least in some areas.
    • She also demonstrates repeatedly in Ghosts that she's one of a very select number of people who can control Harry and make sure that he does as he is told, even if it is very grudgingly.
  • Authority Equals Ass Kicking: She was a highly skilled arsekicker before her marriage, but if anything, she's even more dangerous now, when she wants to be.
  • Benevolent Mage Ruler: She rules jointly with Odin, so she qualifies.
  • Happily Married: To Odin, for all that it was originally arranged.
  • The High Queen: A magical variant. She's older and grandmotherly now, but she still ticks every single box of this trope.
  • Lady of War: As Uhtred notes, she was a warrior maiden of note in her younger days, and Frigga herself mentions going into battle alongside at least one of the earlier 'Sons of Bastet', the Black Panther, a few thousand years ago.
  • Mama Bear: You really don't want to hurt one of her boys. In Ghosts, Asgard's response, which she spearheaded, to Harry being kidnapped and transformed into the Red Son was to cripple the responsible nation's mineral and food resources, as well as any they intended to import, along with those in its satellite states, and stated that she intended to ramp it up to vaporising water next. As Carol remarks, "So, yeah, Harry's grandma is terrifying. Who knew?"
  • May–December Romance: Downplayed, but it's implied that Odin is at least 1500 years older than she is in Chapter 50 of Ghosts of the Past.
  • Medical Monarch: She's the Goddess of Healing, and she deploys that expertise when modifying Harry's diet to help him make up for lost time in the growth department.
  • Nice Girl: She's one of the outright nicest people you're likely to meet (unless, that is, you're stupid enough to mess with her family).
  • Perfectly Arranged Marriage: What her and Odin's marriage grew into, over time.
  • Shipper on Deck: When Carol gives her a baleful look when it seems as if Frigga is going to disturb them (her and a traumatised Harry, specifically the latter) as they're snuggling, a completely unfazed Frigga just adds it to the "List of Reasons My Grandson Is Going to Marry A Midgardian."
    • Though she wasn't at first this to Thor and Jane (understandable, given human lifespans and what happened after Lily died), she becomes this when she sees how much they truly care for each other.
    • She also is implied to be one towards Jean-Paul and Uhtred.
  • Silk Hiding Steel: Nowadays she operates more like this, though she used to be a straight-up warrior maiden.
  • Time Abyss: Not as much as Odin, but she can casually reference things that happened three thousand years ago.
  • Tranquil Fury: In Ghosts of the Past when Harry is kidnapped and turned into the Red Son.

     Sif 

Lady Sif

There is a reason no one fucks with the Lady Sif. That reason is because she is a stone cold badass.

Asgard's Goddess of War, a certified badass and Team Mom/Only Sane Man to the Warriors Three. Also had over a millennium's worth of UST with Loki, thankfully resolved in the climax of Child of the Storm.



  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: After a fashion. When Loki, who is Reformed, but Not Tamed and with whom she has considerable UST, somewhat feebly states that he's not safe, Tony retorts that she's the Goddess of War - she can handle herself and she most likely does not want safe.
  • Amicable Exes: Her and Thor, with the latter being a Shipper on Deck for her and Loki.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Fenris bit off her hand, then ate her alive. She reclaimed her hand and cut her way out from the inside, before getting it reattached. This is implied to have been before she became Asgard's War God.
  • And Show It to You: Is on the receiving end of this from Gravemoss. Thankfully, Doctor Strange is on hand to regenerate her heart once Dresden blasts Gravemoss halfway into orbit - and heal Dresden too.
  • Badass Teacher: Uhtred's her protégé. She also gives some instruction to Diana and Harry.
  • Birds of a Feather: With Clint, strangely enough. They don't necessarily like or dislike each other, but he's her least favourite of the Avengers because he reminds her of herself. As the narration points out, you don't always like what you see in the mirror.
  • Blood Knight: Regards an onrushing undead sea serpent as a welcome relief from boredom and is mildly disappointed that Dresden and Ward seem to have finished up with the veidrdraugar under Paris before she arrived.
  • Combo Platter Powers: Potentially, as the God of War. She doesn't really use them, however.
  • Commuting on a Bus: Along with the Warriors Three, she all but disappears from the action after the first book, receiving a few mentions only, before reappearing a few times near the end of the second book, with it being revealed that she's been helping Loki track down the Great Captains.
  • Dual Wielding: Her sword-staff arrangement can be split into two swords. This is why she ends up training Harry in the basics.
  • Godzilla Threshold: The full extent of her powers as the Goddess of War.
  • Instant Expert: Implied in Ghosts - Asgardian muscle memory is phenomenal, to the point where it only takes a couple of passes to get something to stick, but hers ability to master weapons (as a side-benefit of being Goddess of War) is on another level.
  • Like Brother and Sister: Team Mom act aside, she's like this with the Warriors Three, particularly Fandral, who she treats like a faintly ridiculous younger brother who she is nevertheless fond of and respects.
  • Master Swordswoman: She was taught by the Lady Knight alongside Fandral, the latter being her only peer, and it's stated that she could beat any two out of the Warriors Three at once, and could take on all three and come out honours fairly even.
  • Old Flame: She and Thor are Amicable Exes.
  • One-Man Army: She didn't get to be Asgardian Goddess of War by collecting bottle caps.
  • Only Sane Man: To the Warriors Three, as she's usually the one to rerail them after their odder behaviour.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: She and Thor evolved into this.
  • Rags to Riches: Her family's hinted not to be particularly high up the social scale, with it later being confirmed that she had to be taught formal social graces (and didn't take very well to them), yet she earned the position of Goddess of War.
  • Super-Strength: As is standard for Asgardians. If she draws on her full powers of the Goddess of War, she'd be capable of challenging Thor.
  • Team Mom: To the Warriors Three. It gets to the point where she can tell Fandral to stop doing something without even looking around to see what it is.
  • Undying Loyalty: To the royal family.
  • Use Your Head: Knocks Fandral out cold with a headbutt from a seated position when he was in the midst of relating an embarrassing (and explicit) story about her and Thor. By Ghosts of the Past, she's taught Harry this trick.
  • UST: Between her and Loki. Finally resolved in chapter 78 of the first book.
  • War Goddess: Was made this by Odin (having earned the position), and it comes with a few abilities: instant intuitive expertise in any weapon she picks up, and potentially, full on Super-Speed and Super-Strength matching Thor's. She doesn't use either of the latter two abilities, considering it unsporting, and it is hinted that they come with downsides. However, she notes that should she require those powers to defend Asgard and its throne, she will use them to their fullest extent.

     The Warriors Three 

The Warriors Three

Volstagg the Voluminous, Fandral the Dashing and Hogun the Grim are three of Asgard's greatest warriors. They are also a ripe source of comedy. That said, when matters get serious, so do they.


  • Battle Couple: Fandral forms one with Betsy.
  • Beware the Quiet Ones: Hogun rarely speaks more than absolutely necessary, and almost never smiles. That being said, he's one of the most dangerous warriors in Asgard, if not all of the Nine Realms, and is highly intelligent to boot. After all, it's difficult to learn anything while talking.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: They're downright strange and frequently serve as the comic relief. They are also three of Asgard's deadliest warriors and they will not hesitate to demonstrate it if necessary. Additionally, they are surprisingly effective spies when given assignments tailored to their talents by Loki.
  • Big Eater: Volstagg, to legendary extents.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: There's no denying that they're weird and occasionally completely ridiculous, but they are very, very good at fighting. And surprisingly good at spying - Fandral in particular has a knack for political intrigue, giving a dispassionate and practical assessment of the prevailing opinions among Asgard's upper classes surrounding Harry.
  • The Casanova: Fandral, who was doing this a thousand years before the Trope Namer.
    "Please, ladies. There is more than enough of Fandral the Dashing to go around."
  • Comic Trio: When they turn up and things aren't already very serious, events tend to take a turn for the ridiculous.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Hogun, and to a lesser extent the other two.
  • Handsome Lech: Fandral, overlapping with Chivalrous Pervert.
  • Hidden Depths: Volstagg has a great deal of insight into Harry's difficulties early on, being a father himself, and while Fandral may seem like nothing but a flirtatious dandy, he's one of the most dangerous Asgardians outside the Royal Family with an expert's understanding of political intrigue in the Higher Realms. Hogun, meanwhile, may seem like Dumb Muscle due to how quiet he is, but he is a very dangerous and insightful warrior and, like the others, much brighter than he appears.
  • Hold the Line: They held the line with Loki and Sif against an onrushing army of undead monsters from every mythology imaginable, including a number of colossal sea serpents.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Their numerous eccentricities are discarded as soon as matters get serious.
  • Like Brother and Sister: The Warriors Three have enormous respect for Sif's abilities as a commander and warrior, but also can be very protective of her. Thor and Loki were also incredibly close to them all, and have been for a long time.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Fandral is noted as the second swiftest of the Asgardians, short only Asgard's resident speedster, Hermod. When he really gets moving, he moves in a barely visible blur and like all Asgardians, has the Super-Strength to back it up.
  • Master Swordsman: Fandral. His only peer in the entire Nine Realms is Sif, and both of them were taught by the fearsome Lady Knight. In the sequel, he ends up tutoring Harry, who becomes a talented swordsman in his own right.
  • Not So Above It All: Hogun joins in Volstagg and Fandral's stranger exploits, including their clog dancing to Mambo Number Five.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: All three of them, to one extent or another.
  • One-Man Army: Each can take on an army alone.
  • Only Sane Man: Hogun.
  • Papa Wolf: Volstagg.
  • Really Gets Around: Fandral, infamously—he's described by Loki as playing The Casanova a thousand years before the Trope Namer.
  • Shipper on Deck: Fandral ships Sif/Loki, enthusiastically. Eventually, he gets bored of them dancing around each other and forces them to kiss. The fact that they were in shock was probably all that saved him from a painful death.
  • Shoo Out the Clowns: They don't appear at all between chapter 50 and chapter 74, when the fic, lighter moments aside, begins to take a notably darker turn. Their reappearance in chapters 75 and 76 coincides with the upturn in the heroes' fortunes. They also vanish during the Forever Red arc of Ghosts of the Past, which is arguably the series' darkest yet.
  • The Stoic: Hogun, who rarely shows emotion of any kind.
  • Stout Strength: Volstagg is the strongest Asgardian outside of the Royal Family and Heimdall.
  • Straight Man: Hogun serves as this, usually being the voice of reason.
  • The Team: Thor, Loki, Sif, Fandral, Volstagg, and Hogun have spent more than a thousand years working and fighting (and snarking) together, and it shows.
  • True Companions: To Thor, Sif and Loki. They've fought together for well over a millennium, and know one another's styles and personalities inside out.
  • Upper-Class Twit: Fandral pretends to be one, but he's actually much, much smarter than he lets on, using the perception to maximum effect.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Fandral of all people proves surprisingly good at this when playing Shipper on Deck to Sif and Loki. It serves as Foreshadowing of his surprising skills at political intrigue (after all, you don't get to be the best swordsman in the Nine Realms just by being good at hitting people).

     Heimdall 

Heimdall

The God of the Watch, and gatekeeper of Asgard, Heimdall is extremely capable of his duty and constantly on it.



  • Badass Bystander: His job is to watch things, after all, and make sure that nobody's getting away with something under Asgard's nose, to transmit people through the Bifrost, and act as Asgard's first line of defence - and fighting people would split his attention, hence why he's not directly involved. Even when Cthton was manifested in the universe, he didn't head to Earth with Odin, Frigga, and Asgard's military to help head him off.
  • Barrier Maiden: Functions as this. As Carol notes, he's Asgard's one man security system, which carries the attendant implications that he could singlehandedly take on entire armies.
  • Bit Character: Only appears a few times, being mentioned a handful more. Justified, as he spends most if not all of his time at the Bifrost gate.
  • Deus Exit Machina: Dracula is one of the few powerful enough to cloud his Sight, which is why he can't help out with an evac during Bloody Hell.
  • Mr. Exposition: Due to his powers, he is this at times.
  • Paranoia Fuel: In-Universe, his powers are this to many, many people who are afraid of Asgard, it appears - he could be watching you, taking note of everything you do to report it to his people so they can come in and crush you, and unless you have one of very few ways available to cloud his Sight, there is nothing that you can do about it except hope that he does not notice you.
  • The Omniscient: He's not exactly omniscient, but he comes closer than any of the rest of the cast (with the possible exception of Doctor Strange and the most powerful divine characters).
  • One-Man Army: Carol notes that this is implied by his position as Asgard's one man security system.
  • Physical God: He's stated to be on par with Thor and Loki, who are both capable of planetary-scale damage.
  • The Quiet One: Doesn't waste words, which is understandable given that watching the universe all day is not exactly a social job.
  • Seers: Primarily a Seer of the Present, related to his True Sight.
  • True Sight: Has this, and, according to Frigga, it's a far more advanced form even than other magic users, allowing him to perceive just about everything.

     Algrim 

Algrim

Asgard's Chancellor and essentially Odin and Frigga's right-hand man and chief adviser. A Light Elf from Alfheim, he's softly spoken and doesn't need to carry a big stick - while he's not the power behind the throne, he is a being of great influence. He also played a significant role in raising Loki and Thor, and teaching them about the responsibilities of royalty.



  • Adaptational Heroism: This version closely resembles the counterpart from Thor: Tales of Asgard, but unlike that counterpart, is entirely loyal to the House of Odin.
  • Adaptational Wimp: Canonically, Algrim the Strong became the being known as Kurse. Here, his classic nickname is a mocking appellation. However, those with eyes to see (such as Tony and Bruce) quickly figure out that he's not someone to be crossed - this, after all, is the man who played a significant role in raising Thor and Loki and came out the other side in one fundamentally unruffled and perfectly polite piece.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: As in canon, he's got purple skin, something attributed to a genetic mutation.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: As noted above, he's not to be crossed.
  • The Consigliere: To the House of Odin.
  • Crazy-Prepared: The day Thor was born, he started setting aside a large part of the palace budget for 'Repairs, Miscellaneous', to Odin's puzzlement. Algrim's sole and entirely accurate response was that it never hurt to be prepared.
  • Deadpan Snarker: In a very mild, softly spoken sort of way that usually isn't noticed until after the fact. Sometimes, he's a little more overt.
    Ah. Lord Stark. I thought I heard the sounds of destruction past, present and yet to come emanating from here.
  • The Good Chancellor: Utterly loyal to the House of Odin, and extremely competent, with a mark of Thor's Character Development being that he now listens very carefully to Algrim's advice.
  • Good Counterpart: Like Gravemoss, he's a Light Elf with magical talent, white hair, unusual features, and a softly spoken manner. Unlike Gravemoss, he's neither a Sadist nor an Omnicidal Maniac.
  • Hero of Another Story: In a political rather than martial sense.
  • Honest Advisor: In a quiet sense, to Odin and Frigga, and latterly, Thor and Loki (who've now grown up sufficiently to actually listen to him).
  • I Have Many Names: He's called 'the Strong' by those who wish to mock him, 'the Clever' by those who don't (and recognise that mocking him would be a very bad idea), and others still call him 'Odin's Good Eye'. And yes, he is basically the Asgardian equivalent of Phil Coulson.
  • Improbably Predictable: A lesser variant on this is used for Rule of Funny purposes - in the same way that animals can sense earthquakes, Algrim can sense an upcoming royal family argument and the likely severity of it, leading him to select which desk to take refuge under at the other end of the palace. When Harry is about to go off on Odin, he selects a particularly heavy desk.
    • Similarly, he's worked out a precise routine when he's left a room that Loki/Bruce and Tony are experimenting in, having figured out exactly when to duck into an alcove.
  • Mystical White Hair: He's got pure white hair and at least some talent with magic.
  • The Quiet One: He doesn't say much, and when he does speak, it's usually in a soft voice. However, he doesn't really need to raise his voice either. He is also supposed to be a very good storyteller.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: He doesn't appear much, but he's the one who helps keep the House of Odin on a somewhat even keel, and he had a large part in raising Thor and Loki.
  • The Stoic: He's unfazed by anything and everything, with his main response to Bruce and Tony's explosive experiments is to alter a routine he developed in response to Loki's experiments, which is to count to eight on leaving the room, duck into a convenient alcove, stick his fingers in his ears, and wait for the inevitable bang.
  • Underestimating Badassery: This often happens, since he doesn't cut the most intimidating figure. But consider: this is the guy who helped raise Thor and Loki and survived the experience unscathed. That takes some doing.
  • With Great Power: Endeavoured to teach Thor and Loki this lesson as children. Needless to say, it took a while for it to stick.

     Huginn and Muninn 

Huginn and Muninn a.k.a. Bran and Bard

Say it with eyeballs. Or marshmallows. We aren't choosy.

Odin's ravens, who serve as his eyes and ears throughout the Nine Realms, as well as his messengers. Despite their usually ridiculous behaviour and incongruous Brooklyn accents, they are much more dangerous than they pretend to be.



  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: Implied by chapter 75, when Jean, having used Cerebro to reach Yggdrasil, sees them in a variety of forms simultaneously.
  • Alien Arts Are Appreciated: According to Heimdall, they watch too much television. And they picked up Brooklyn accents because, for whatever reason, they decided that they liked the sound.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Remarked upon in the text - just because they usually act ridiculous, it shouldn't be forgotten that they're the Eyes of the Allfather. They're very powerful, capable of getting from place to place without appearing to pass through the intervening space and, more to the point, getting very nasty when provoked. As Thor warns Snape, who they're menacing, when he's about to draw his wand, they tend to react... creatively when attacked. They're certainly capable of being a lot more intimidating than you would expect, when they want to be.
  • Big Eater: Both of them, which is why Harry's habit of bribing them with marshmallows puts him very solidly in their good books, Muninn in particular.
    • They suggest that Jean thank them with eyeballs or marshmallows.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Their default setting is Sarcasm Mode.
  • Ditzy Genius: Muninn in particular, though both of them to an extent. They're the most trusted advisers of Odin himself, the de facto security system of Asgard along with Heimdall, exceptionally powerful and surprisingly insightful. One of them will also fall headfirst into a bowl of boiled eggs whilst attempting to claim them as an eyeball substitute.
  • Expy: They owe a fair bit of their characterisation to Quoth from the Discworld books.
  • Extreme Omnisexual: A throwaway line by Odin in the first book implies that they're responsible for the existence of winged horses. This gets a Call-Back in the sequel when Harry encounters Beauxbatons' elephant-sized Abraxan horses, remembers this, and inwardly decides that Huginn and Muninn have a lot to answer for.
  • Eye Scream: They eat eyeballs and have implied that they're not entirely bothered if the owner of those eyes is still alive...
  • The Fair Folk: They can borderline this on occasion, and it's heavily implied that they used to be much closer to this trope, with Jean seeing 'a merry fire' in the eyes of one of their humanoid forms in chapter 75. It helps that they're originally from Avalon, which of all the pantheons is explicitly the closest to Faerie.
  • Genius Ditz: Both of them have ditzy elements, though it's mostly Muninn. They're also very smart and very dangerous.
  • Groin Attack: When they have a little 'chat' with Snape, Muninn is noted as staring fixedly at Snape's groin.
  • Hidden Depths: They're much smarter and more dangerous than they generally let on.
  • If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Give a speech along these lines to Snape about Harry.
  • I Have Many Names: Others include Bran and Bard, and Lugh and Owain, with epithets 'the All-Seers, the Storm-Crows, the Raven-Lords of Avalon' and more usually, 'the Eyes of the All-Father'.
  • Like an Old Married Couple: How they usually act.
  • Noodle Incident: 'The Eyeball Incident', for anyone not familiar with Norse Mythology.
    • How they ended up in Asgard, serving Odin, is another puzzler, though suspected to be related to the fallout of the Asgard-Avalon Wars.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: For Muninn in particular, 'the Eyeball Incident'.
  • Pet the Dog: They're implied not to like many people, but they definitely take to Harry, behave when he asks/tells them to and go out of their way to help him out on more than one occasion. The steady supply of marshmallows helps. They aren't above teasing him, however.
  • Pop-Cultured Badass: They enjoy human television, and Huginn quotes Star Wars in the first book.
  • Psychic Powers: They can read minds, much to Harry's embarrassment, and see astral forms.
  • Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Thor. He and they really do not get on - they used to crap in his hair and he used to use them for target practice. Somewhat resolved thanks to Harry.
  • Spider-Sense: As they note in chapter 75, they can sense someone coming through the World Tree and will then investigate, something that Doctor Strange was counting on, so they could guide Jean to where she needed to be.
  • Stealth Expert: They are Odin's eyes, after all, and it's noted to be very difficult to catch them if they don't want to be found. The fact that they get spotted and tagged by whoever - or whatever - has taken up residence in Svartalfheim is treated as extremely worrying.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: When they want to, they can get from place to place apparently without passing through the intervening space. Chapter 75 reveals that they can teleport themselves and others (or their astral forms, at least).
  • Straight Man and Wise Guy: Huginn is usually the smarter and more sensible, while Muninn is more impulsive and prone to silly behaviour - such as diving head first into a bowl of boiled eggs, believing that they're eyeballs.
  • Talking Animal: Two of them. Helped by the fact that they're basically gods (specifically Avalonian Gods) in animal form.
  • Tastes Like Friendship: Harry and his marshmallows.
  • Telepathy: They can casually read the minds of pretty much anyone, up to and including Omega Class psychics.
  • Teleportation: Noted as being able to get from place to place without passing through the intervening space and in chapter 76, shown teleporting Jean's astral form from Yggdrasil to Asgard.
  • Time Abyss: They're implied to be older than Odin.
  • Trademark Favourite Food: Eyeballs. Also marshmallows, which is how Harry wins their undying affection.
    • Apparently, after Odin's nine days on the World Tree, which involved the sacrifice of his eye, Muninn got kind of hungry. This has been referred to ever since as 'the Eyeball Incident' and thousands of years later, they still bicker about it.
  • Undying Loyalty: Despite their joking around, they are both immensely loyal to Odin, and go with him to the Council Elite even when he knows he might not be coming back.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Though it isn't really seen (until chapter 77), they do seem to be capable of this.

     Freki and Geri 

The Wolves of Odin, who tend to act like gigantic puppies right up until the person that they're guarding is threatened. While they can't speak, they are much, much smarter than they pretend to be. Odin designates them as Harry's bodyguards after the Easter holidays.



  • Action Dad: By Ghosts of the Past, both of them had a romantic interlude with some of the royal hunting hounds. The resultant puppies are adorable and distributed amongst various associates of the Royal Family... and one's given to Jack O'Neill. Who names it Bucky. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Amplified Animal Aptitude: They're considerably smarter than you'd expect.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Despite begging for table scraps, scratches and playing fetch, they weren't dispatched by Odin to be his grandson's companions for their kind natures.
  • Canis Major: They are absolutely enormous and they can bite through titanium with very little effort. They will also beg for table scraps, scratches and play fetch with small trees.
  • Demoted to Extra: Almost completely disappear after Book 1, with the position of Harry's bodyguard going to Bucky.
  • Dire Beasts: Each is roughly the size of a large pony and large enough for two teenagers to comfortably use as a de facto sofa. As a result of their size, only one is allowed in a classroom at a time.
  • Evil-Detecting Dog: Their shtick.
  • Noble Wolf: Unambiguously the good guys, being more than willing to act like little more than oversized labradors to cheer up those around them, and protect Harry. For example, at one point they noticed that Harry was getting melancholy, so distracted him by bumping him and begging to play fetch. However, as HYDRA find out when they attack Hogwarts in chapter 70, underestimating them is a horrible - and likely fatal - mistake.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: They pretend to be little more than oversized pet dogs (wolves), but are, at the very least, operating on human intelligence levels.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: How they get up the ladder into the Divination classroom. Specifically, no one has any idea how they do it, but one moment, one of them is at the bottom of the ladder, the next they're at the top of it.
  • Papa Wolf: They're very protective of Harry - and in the sequel, they both become fathers, to a number of puppies, one of which is later named 'Bucky' by Jack O'Neill. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Savage Wolf: While they're normally perfectly friendly, as HYDRA find out the hard way, they have absolutely no tolerance for evil.
  • Super-Strength: One of them can barge straight through the gargoyle in front of Dumbledore's office without much effort.
  • Super-Speed: At one point they're noted as being capable of moving at speeds that put a Formula One car to shame.

     Hela 

Hela Lokisdottir

Death became her and she became death.

Ruler of Helheim (formerly Nifflheim), Goddess of Death, and firstborn child of Loki by Sigyn of Vanaheim, when both of them were very young. As a result of that youth, Loki was terrified of his father's reaction to Sigyn being pregnant out of wedlock, and fled with her. The stress caused Sigyn to give birth prematurely, and she died in childbirth, the baby, Hela, dying with her. Loki, however, wasn't inclined to give up and attempted to bring them back with Necromancy. Sigyn's spirit resisted, but Hela's was too young, so he succeeded. The unfortunate result was that Hela wasn't quite alive or dead, and tended to drain the life of everything around her, something that grew out of control as she got older. As a result, Odin, Thor, and Loki essentially carved out a kingdom for her in Nifflheim, later renamed 'Helheim'. As yet unseen, what happened to her nevertheless exerts a great deal of influence over her father.



  • Creepy Child: Her skin was as cold and pale as that of a corpse, and wherever she went, small creatures died and plants wilted. None of this was her fault, but it didn't really help.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Her mother died in childbirth, as did she, and her young father desperately tried to bring her back, and only mostly succeeded, leaving her a half-dead Humanoid Abomination.
  • Dimension Lord: Of Helheim, after the rest of the family and the Valkyries of Helheim cleared out most of the monsters.
  • The Ghost: Puns aside, she has yet to make an onscreen appearance.
  • Humanoid Abomination: What her father accidentally turned her into. As the folder quote has it, "Death became her, and she became death."
  • Necromancy: How Loki brought her back... mostly.
  • Odd Friendship: A downplayed example, but you wouldn't think that someone whose life had been so ruined by necromancy would be on speaking terms with the likes of Gravemoss, who lives and breathes necromancy, but she was, sufficient to confirm her backstory to him.
  • Parental Abandonment: She apparently feels that Loki abandoned her in Helheim, whereas, quixotically, he arranged to carve her out a kingdom as the Goddess of Death precisely because he refused to abandon her.
    • Word of God has it that she eventually forgave him, more or less, but is still somewhat bitter.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: She hasn't actually appeared, but what happened to her triggered Loki's monomaniacal hatred for necromancy (which in turn led to him banishing Gravemoss from Aflheim), the formation of Sif and the Warriors Three, and Thor, for all his recklessness, ensuring that he was enchanted with magical contraceptives from then on (naturally, those went wrong, resulting in Torunn - mentioned below - who's now one of Hela's Valkyries).
  • Undead Child: What her father unwittingly brought her back as. Sort of.
  • Vampiric Draining: Involuntary, but required to keep her alive on one of the living planes.
  • Walking Wasteland: Being a half-dead goddess who drains life from the surrounding area simply to hold on to the living realm, has this effect. She doesn't have any choice in it.

     Vidar 

Vidar Odinson/Donar Vaderrung/Santa Claus

One of Odin's other children, Vidar is the oldest known child of Odin, and is a demigod like Harry, who inherited the Asgardian lifespan of his father. The former God of Thunder and Lightning before Thor was born, and the last long-term wielder of Mjolnir, he gave up his claim to the throne of Asgard when Odin married Frigga (with some relief, apparently), and a chunk of his godly power when the Celestials placed a ban on the pantheons going to Earth (or at least, interfering in human development), in order to remain there.



  • Badass Santa: Odin passed on the "Mantle" of Santa Claus to him, corresponding to the version from The Dresden Files, and he was no slouch beforehand, being the God of Thunder and Lightning before Thor.
  • Brought Down to Badass: He sacrificed a lot of his power to remain on Earth past when the Gods retreated by Celestial order, but he's still a real force.
  • Composite Character: He used to be the God of Thunder and Lightning before Thor. Also, being a Mjolnir-wielding, practically forgotten eldest child of Odin gives him shades of the MCU Hela - though without the latter's homicidal inclinations or interest in the throne (which he gave up claim to at the first opportunity). In-universe, he's also both an Asgardian prince and Santa Claus, who is a composite character of his own.
  • Decomposite Character: Donar Vaderrung in The Dresden Files was actually that world's version of Odin, not his son. His Dresden Files counterpart was also known as Beowulf, whereas here that title belongs to the Eternal Gilgamesh - though Word of God has hinted there's been more than one person by that name.
  • The Ghost: He hasn't appeared in-universe yet, but he's been mentioned a couple of times.
  • I Have Many Names: He hasn't even appeared yet and he already has the three listed above, and, of course, Kris Kringle.
  • Legacy Character: See the above facts.
  • Rejecting the Inheritance: According to Frigga, he abdicated his claim to Asgard's throne with a great deal of relief when his father finally decided to marry, apparently being much happier being Santa Claus (albeit the more hardcore version from The Dresden Files). More generally, he rejected his Asgardian inheritance in favour of Earth.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: In the fine tradition of the House of Odin, though he ultimately gave up his claim to the throne when Odin married Frigga (with what was apparently considerable relief) on the grounds that Odin could now produce a new heir.
  • The Spymaster: Given Frigga's hints about his role, and his job in The Dresden Files, this seems highly likely.
  • Super-Strength: Mentioned in Child of the Storm to be the strongest Asgardian outside of Odin, Thor, and possibly Skurge.

     Torunn 

Torunn Thorsdottir

Thor's only other child besides Harry, Torunn was born from a one-night stand on Earth over a thousand years ago, becoming a travelling shield-maiden and monster-hunter. However, she didn't inherit her father's lifespan, and lived and died while he was away from Earth. After her death, she became one of the Valkyries of Helheim, responsible for keeping the monsters within from leaving, and preventing things from Outside using it as a way into the Nine Realms. Beyond that, not much is known about her.



  • Action Girl: As Thor's daughter, this is a given, and her existence came to Thor's attention through her exploits as a shield-maiden and monster-hunter.
  • Alliterative Name: Torunn T(h)orsdottir.
  • Bittersweet Ending: While her story continues and she lived what was by all indications a reasonably long and very full life, she didn't know her father (which, going by the emphasis she's indicated to have put on being his daughter, was important to her), who never knew she existed. However, she's apparently happy as a Valkyrie and she's met Thor post-mortem, because Thor is one of the few people crazy enough to enter Helheim while he's still alive.
  • Disappeared Dad: For good reason: Thor didn't know she existed (and genuinely believed that his magical contraceptives were still working) when he left Earth after the one night stand in which she was conceived, and didn't return until after she'd died. Frigga indicates that this is why he reacted so badly when he got his memories of Harry back - his main regret in both cases is that he missed so much time with them.
  • The Ghost: Pretty much literally, albeit confined to Helheim.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Although she didn't inherit Thor's Asgardian lifespan, she did get some measure of his strength and skill with weapons.
  • In the Blood: She hasn't even appeared yet, and what we know about her implies that she's just as much of an adventurer as Thor is. As Harry observes when informed of her current job (hunting and slaying monsters in Helheim), he's not surprised that she's meant to be enjoying it: it's the sort of thing that their family does for fun.
  • Posthumous Character: She's been dead for over a millennium, but is mentioned in the second book.

     Kal 

Kal-El I

The first Kal-El, he was fostered in Asgard alongside Odin and his brothers, raised as one of them. He is also a distant ancestor of Clark Kent and, owing to the extended lifespan of Kryptonians under a yellow sun, probably still alive. His current whereabouts, however, are unknown, with Frigga sadly speculating that he flew away to some distant corner of the universe to mourn his people.



  • Arranged Marriage: Helped Frigga through the difficult early parts of what would become a Perfectly Arranged Marriage with Odin, and campaigned to have them banned.
  • Badass Bookworm: He was a Flying Brick with Physical God levels of raw power, as well as apparently being an accomplished explorer, and is said to have studied how and why Kryptonian powers developed under a yellow sun.
  • Cool Uncle: To Thor and Loki, doting on them when they were children, and shrugging off Odin's complaints that he was spoiling them.
  • Flying Brick: He has all the same powers as standard Superman but amplified to god-like levels.
  • The Ghost: Hasn't made an appearance yet, and may not even be alive.
  • Happily Adopted: While his thoughts on Bor are unknown (but unlikely to be positive), he and Odin were very close, and he was a Cool Uncle to Odin's children.
  • Last of His Kind: If he is still alive, he believes this (not knowing about Clark), and is speculated by Frigga to have flown off to some dark corner of the universe to grieve for his lost people.
  • Nice Guy: He doted on Thor and Loki, and was a good friend to Frigga, his sister-in-law, taking her under his wing when she first came to Asgard to marry Odin.
  • Really 700 Years Old: He's around five thousand years old - Odin's age - and he might still be alive.
  • Stronger with Age: As a 'high blood' Kryptonian who spent millennia under a yellow sun, he is/was extremely powerful.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: No one's entirely sure what happened to him, not even Strange. It's speculated by Frigga that he flew off to grieve. Whether he's still alive is unknown.

     Cul 

Cul Borson a.k.a. the Serpent a.k.a. the God of Fear

Eldest brother of Odin, he was, relatively briefly, the King of Asgard after Bor, and the God of Fear. According to Odin, he turned Earth into such a hellscape that Odin sealed him and his armies off in a separate timeline, scoured the Earth, and had to enlist the help of the other pantheons to repair it.



  • Emotion Eater: Feeds on fear.
  • Evil Sorcerer: And an exceptionally powerful one.
  • The Ghost: Has never appeared, and was seldom even mentioned. Justified, considering what he did - no one really wants to talk about him.
  • God of Evil: Of Fear, technically, but he was close enough. It took the combined efforts of Odin, his brothers Vili and Ve, and their foster brother, Kal-El I to beat him and lock him away.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: He was, and presumably still is, locked in another timeline.

     Bor 

Bor Burison

Odin's father and predecessor as King of Asgard. A mighty warrior, but also a textbook example of a divine dickhead, he is referred to as a 'throwback' to an older, darker period in Asgard's history. He also has a bad enough reputation that those who knew him aren't even remotely surprised by the possibility that he might have killed his own father, Buri, for the throne. He is not missed. At all. By anyone.



  • Abusive Parents: It's hinted that he's the reason that Odin's so gruff, uptight and emotionally constipated. Harry is absolutely certain of it, noting it to Buri with some displeasure.
  • Action Dad: Though none of his children seem to have liked him - and the one who really followed his example was pure evil.
  • Adaptational Heroism: A relatively minor case. Unlike Marvel canon, he didn't create the Disir, an honour that instead goes to Malekith. That being said, they had ample reason to hate him anyway.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He was an unrepentant bag of dicks, but he was a total badass, taking on the Disir - who were capable of mowing through entire Asgardian armies - in single combat and successfully banishing them, as well as successfully defeating Malekith and the Dark Elves when the former was armed with an Infinity Stone. Chapter 51 of Ghosts shows the tail-end of his duel with Malekith, and as even Harry (who's heard nothing good of him) grudgingly admits, he is one tough bastard.
  • Beyond the Impossible: On his Vision Quest, Harry sees him somehow tear apart a miniature black hole created by Malekith with his bare hands, something which Harry explicitly notes should be impossible.
  • Boring, but Practical: Harry's observation of his tactics in his vision of Malekith and Bor's battle - he's not letting Malekith draw him into a magical/semi-magical duel, he's just using the Odinforce (Borforce) to keep himself intact under Malekith's onslaught, boost his physical abilities, fire energy blasts, and keep Malekith from using Teleport Spam to attack/get away from him. As Harry notes, it plays to his strengths.
  • The Corruptible: His cruelty and tyranny were the result of Malekith using the Reality Stone to enhance his already existent negative traits. Buri tried to help him undo it, but Bor found he liked it that way.
  • Determinator: As Harry notes in his vision of the past, he just doesn't give up, no matter what Malekith throws at him, not even when his body is partly dissolving, his armour is melted into his flesh, and he's spitting glass.
  • Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal: It's hinted that he subscribed to this attitude and encouraged it, something Odin firmly stamped out after he took the throne.
  • The Evil Prince: He wasn't always this way, until Malekith used the Reality Stone on him, but later on he might have killed, or tried to kill, his dad for his throne. While he probably didn't/failed, no one who knew him is remotely surprised by the idea that he might have tried (and if he didn't, it was because his father was an incredibly powerful God of Time). The truth is that he did try and kill his father, but not for the throne, as such.
  • Eye Beams: Is mentioned as having used them to destroy enemies, roast citadels, and open jars.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: Nobody likes him. Nobody misses him. Not even his son.
  • Good is Not Nice: He was on the side of good, at least nominally.
  • He-Man Woman Hater: He was widely considered to be a misogynistic dickhead.
  • Hidden Depths: Possibly. Despite being a brutish bruiser, he apparently respected the science focused Kryptonians enough to foster Kal-El I with his sons. On the other hand, it's quite possible that he didn't object to it when it was arranged because he didn't care.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Pulls this on Malekith, to purge him of the Aether/the Reality Stone and kill him. It definitely succeeded at the former, though it's implied that it failed at the latter.
  • Interspecies Romance: His wife was Theia, a Titaness, and sister of Rhea - mother of Zeus etc.
  • Jerkass: He is universally regarded as this. Granted, it wasn't entirely his fault - Malekith had a lot to do with it, but he decided he liked it that way.
  • Jerkass Gods: Generally considered to have been a textbook example.
  • Mundane Utility: Apparently used his Eye Beams to open jars.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Went up against Varnae, first King of the Grey Court, while still a Prince of Asgard himself, and drew more or less evenly with him.
  • Old Soldier: He fell into this category towards the end of his life - he was a terrible person, but as his duel with Malekith demonstrates, a total badass.
  • Patricide: A going theory is that he killed his father for the throne of Asgard. The general consensus is that he probably didn't (since his father, Buri, was the incredibly powerful God of Time as well as the Allfather), but it would have been entirely in-character for him to have tried. In fact, he did try, technically after he became King and when Buri tried to help him with the corruption Malekith caused. He did not want to be helped. Buri has the scar to show for it.
  • Pride: This is explicitly namechecked as the reason he defended Earth and got stroppy over the Kree's Terrigenesis project. While Earth was an Insignificant Little Blue Planet, it was his Insignificant Little Blue Planet, and the Kree meddling with it offended his pride.
  • Straw Misogynist: Depicted as a misogynistic dickhead and explicitly described as a throwback to a darker period in Asgard's past.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: He's not described as having a lot of skill in magical combat during his fight with Malekith (though he's capable enough with conventional weapons), but as Harry notes, with the raw power available to him, he managed fine without it. Indeed, considering Malekith's already far superior magical abilities prior to their enhancement by the Reality Stone, his Boring, but Practical strategy was probably the best option.
    • It's noted that, when banishing the Disir, Bor didn't bother with some kind of mystical binding—he just kicked them straight out of reality and into the dark spaces between.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: While always arrogant, and with greater Warrior's Madness than most members of the family, he's stated to have still been a fairly good person in his youth and is compared to a young Thor by his father. He only became the cruel tyrant he's known as after Malekith corrupted him with the Reality Stone.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Odin, at least, was this to him... which explains a great deal about Odin. Harry cites it as an example of generational trauma.

     Buri 

Buri

Former King of Asgard, grandfather of Odin, and God of Time. May or may not be dead - it's not entirely clear what happened to him. The Phoenix and the Serpent reveals that he's been living on Sakaar, outside of the normal universe.



  • The Archmage: Said to be a God of Magic and Time, and thus very difficult to defeat.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: It's noted that while it's entirely plausible that Bor, a badass in his own right, would have killed him for his throne, it's also noted that he was powerful enough that Bor probably wouldn't have stood a chance.
  • Benevolent Mage Ruler: He was the most magic focused of Asgard's Kings in generations and reportedly a good king. Pity about his son.
  • Cool Old Guy: While Bor is the clear source of much of the Asgardian Royal Family's trauma, Buri is clearly where a lot of the more positive traits, like a dry wit, gentleness mixed with sterness, and a sense of humor come from.
  • Interspecies Friendship: Frigga reports that he was close to the Kryptonian House of El, and it's later confirmed that he's an ally, if not exactly of a friend, of Doctor Strange.
  • Odd Friendship: Has one with the Lady Knight, of all people. Both of them work together with Strange to protect the timeline, and he works as the bartender at her club on Sakaar.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Before becoming King, he duelled Varnae, the first King of the Grey Court, on moderately even footing.
    • The third book reveals that he left linear time to help mitigate the effects of Malekith's attack on Asgard and its people, with some help from the Lady Knight and Doctor Strange.
  • So Proud of You: A side benefit of being God of Time is that he can see what his descendants are like, and with the exception of his son and Cul, he is very proud of them.
  • Time Abyss: If he's still alive, he'd be around 11,000 years old.
  • Time Master: Explicitly stated to be the God of Time.
  • Uncertain Doom: Even in-universe, nobody seems to know how or even if he died. In The Phoenix and the Serpent, he's revealed to still be alive and has been on Sakaar the whole time.

     Sunniva 

Sunniva Vésdottir a.k.a. Fire-Of-The-Stars-In-Her-Heart

A Princess of Asgard some 40,000 years ago, she was the Goddess of Life and Fire. First mentioned in passing in Child of the Storm, her history is expanded upon in Ghosts of the Past: she was a host of the Phoenix, empowered by the Phoenix to take on a sentient parasite dimension. Yes, sentient parasite dimension. She also became the mother of the Trimurti by an Elder God called Ishvara. Appears in her own right in The Phoenix and the Serpent as a (relatively) young Phoenix host on the trail of Harry after Doctor Strange sent him into the deep past at the end of Ghosts of the Past.



  • Big Sister Instinct: Crossed with Mama Bear, pre-emptively towards Harry; first when she realises that he's wound up in K'un Lun and has to restrain herself from piling in to potentially protect him from an irritated/unnerved Shou-Lao (turns out he was expected). Then, when finds out how young he is and, lacking a lot of context, assumes that he's been abandoned because of what he is on a barbarian world with only the skills to defend himself, as well as having the Phoenix dumped on him. She is not pleased.
  • Character Development: During The Phoenix and the Serpent when she's following the trail that Harry left while Walking the Earth, which forces her to confront and adjust many of her assumptions.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: She took on an entire sentient parasite dimension, implied to be the Negative Zone (its forces were led by Annihilus) and won. Phoenix or no Phoenix, that's impressive as hell.
    • For further context, a vision that Harry has of the past has Annihilus invading through the Fault, with a vast armada behind him. Canonically, he did the same in Annihilation, and it took multiple cosmic empires to stop him from successfully destroying the universe. Sunniva stopped him singlehandedly. And The Phoenix and the Serpent reveals that she did that while teaching Harry how to be a cosmic-scale Phoenix - actually, it was part of the lesson, and she kept up a running psychic dialogue while hunting down Annihilus and taking him head on.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Anyone who can keep up with Harry in Snark-to-Snark Combat is definitely this.
  • Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal: Averted, hard. When inwardly speculating on Harry's origins, and wondering why on Earth any Asgardian would be interested in Puny Earthlings despite their physical similarities (prior to her attitude adjustment), she worries that it might have been a result of an Asgardian abusing their power and is revolted by the very idea.
  • Fantastic Angst: She's briefly but badly rattled when Patience gently points out that her hosting of the Phoenix, both possessing it and wielding it, has changed her in ways that even her fellow gods won't be able to share or understand. She calms down with help, the realisation that the 'kinsman' she's been following is well-placed to understand exactly what she's feeling, plus the acknowledgement that while her fellow Asgardians won't share all her feelings/experiences/changes, they will share some, and be able to see the shape of the rest.
  • Fiery Redhead: Literally and figuratively, though she's usually got a pretty good leash on her temper - and for good reason. When she does get angry, it tends to be chilly and ominous - she's threatened Galactus into good manners, and belted Lobo into orbit with his own bike.
  • Figure It Out Yourself: She helps Harry and guides him down the path of understanding how to use the Phoenix on a cosmic scale, but pushes him to figure out how to use it beyond just more of the same but bigger. Given that the Phoenix is used somewhat differently by each host, and adapts itself to each one, she kind of has to.
  • Fish out of Water: Profoundly so on Earth, which leads to a lot of stumbling and confusion, but also enlightenment.
  • God Couple: With Ishvara, resulting in the Trimurti.
  • Immortal Immaturity: When she first appears, she's older than Thor and Loki, but she acts far younger than mortals a fraction of her age. Justified by the fact that she's a Fish out of Water and both were forced to grow up by their circumstances and involvement with Earth, while Sunniva is implicitly much more sheltered - and even though she's older than them, she's still barely 25 by Asgardian standards. She notes it herself and is uneasy about it.
  • Is This a Joke?: She's utterly shocked when she finds out that Harry is, by the highest estimate, about 15. It's worth noting that even though Immortality Begins at Twenty, for Asgardians, 15 equals baby, or near enough.
  • Lighter and Softer: As Phoenix hosts go in general, she's a tough cookie, but she's also a gentle person from a lighter and more peaceful era of Asgard (as opposed to Harry's Asgard, which is only just coming off about 5000 years plus of war, thanks to Odin's best efforts).
  • Mama Bear: See Big Sister Instinct. She is understandably aghast at Harry being made a Phoenix host despite only being 15, and is willing to go piling in to fight Shou-Lao if he takes badly to Harry's presence (then realises that if he had been likely to react like that, he'd have already done it).
  • The Mentor: She serves as this to Harry, encouraging him to embrace his powers as the Phoenix and stop getting out of his own way - though the nature of the Phoenix means that a lot of it is a bit vague of the Figure It Out Yourself variety.
  • Mona Lisa Smile: Her statue, Harry notices, has a strangely knowing expression.
  • Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom: The Forest People have names like these, though they don't mind diminutives. They call her, 'Fire Of The Stars In Her Heart' (or just 'Fire-Star').
  • Nice Girl: Once the snobbishness vanishes, which it does pretty quickly.
  • Noble Bigot: Initially. When she's introduced in The Phoenix and the Serpent, she's rather dismissive towards humanity, holding to the Asgardian Puny Earthlings orthodoxy (in fairness, it is the deep Stone Age), but she's polite, respectful enough to take the trouble to telepathically learn the local language rather than just relying on the All-Speak, abhors those who seek out worship, believes that protecting humanity is a moral responsibility, and is revolted by the possibility that an Asgardian might have raped a human (when wondering how a demigod might be conceived). When she is abruptly confronted with evidence to the contrary, she rapidly readjusts and is mortified by the ignorance of her prior assumptions.
  • Noodle Incident: Harry isn't the first person she's taught. She's also encountered a few other Phoenix Hosts, though she doesn't give any details on who they are.
  • No Social Skills: To a limited degree. She is perfectly polite etcetera, but she's a little stilted and clearly more comfortable doing her job as a Phoenix than stopping and interacting with people unless they can get her to drop her guard.
  • Older and Wiser: Than Harry, and the contrast is clear to see. Though she's a bit naive about people, she's had millennia more experience than he does in wielding the Phoenix and dealing with dangerous situations, and it shows.
  • Parental Substitute: She becomes to be this to Harry during his being stranded in the distant past in the Following Yonder Star arc - see also the Mama Bear and Big Sister Instinct entries - he is, after all, her nephew (if somewhat distantly).
  • The Phoenix: A legendary former host, she took on Annihilus and the Negative Zone itself singlehandedly, and won. Even as a relatively young Host, she comfortably maintains control for weeks and months on end.
  • Physical God: Standard as an Asgardian royal, even without the Phoenix and notable - her inner monologue notes when she meets the Thing that it's sweet that he's careful to not squash her hand when shaking it, but entirely unnecessary, as if anything, even without the Phoenix she'd have to worry about the reverse.
  • Playing with Fire: On a cosmic scale as a Host of the Phoenix. Unsurprisingly, she was the Asgardian Goddess of Fire.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: She's a Princess, if not in direct line to the throne, and a Phoenix host, which involves clearing up a lot of major cosmic problems.
  • Skilled, but Naive: When she first appears as a young woman, she's immensely powerful, assured in her power, and implicitly experienced when it comes to wielding the Phoenix, something repeatedly demonstrated in the rest of the arc. When it comes to dealing with actual mortals, however, she is deeply inexperienced, and comes off as a bit ignorant and much less worldly than her distant nephew (despite being over 100 times his age). In fairness, she tries to change the 'ignorant' part rapidly, and is not all that immature for the average Asgardian.
  • Socially Awkward Hero: She's an extremely competent Phoenix host, an immensely powerful goddess who's absolutely confident when on the job, completing her objectives with precision and efficiency. When she's off it and socialising with people, she's usually a bit awkward and stilted.
  • Spoiled Sweet: She's pretty sheltered and detached from the mortal universe, but a few Noble Bigot tendencies aside (which evaporate when confronted with reality) she is a genuinely sweet and kind person with a strong sense of right and wrong.
  • Statuesque Stunner: Harry notes that she was tall and pretty (though not astoundingly so) - ironically, while looking at her actual statue.
  • Tranquil Fury: When she gets angry, it tends to be well controlled enough to pass for this, though it's made clear that there's always the risk of Unstoppable Rage thanks to the Warrior's Madness of the Royal Bloodline and, well, the Phoenix.
  • Walking the Earth: Said to have travelled the Nine Realms a fair amount, and the universe at large. Some of this is shown in her first direct appearance, when she's following Harry's trail.
  • Willing Channeler: Like Harry, her distant descendant, she hosted the Phoenix and worked with Her to repair damage to the universe and defeat an Eldritch Abomination (in her case, Annihilus).
  • World-Healing Wave: Uses this on worlds infected by the Negative Zone that aren't too far gone to save, and seals up the Fault, the crack in reality that Annihilus broke through.

     Frey 

Frey

The First King. Specifically, he was the first King of Asgard as it is now, the first Asgardian to truly ascend to godhood, by being chosen by Yggdrasil as its champion against Surtur and by the sword Ván as its wielder, becoming the first Skyfather and wielder of what would become known as the Odinforce. Originally, however, he was a brave and well-regarded young warrior who wound up in a Rescue Romance with the Princess of Asgard at the time. They married in secret, and her father promoted him to the Royal Bodyguard, as this looked a bit better than having his daughter married to a common soldier. He died after luring Surtur back to Muspelheim and keeping him occupied until the Alliance of Realms could seal Muspelheim away at the bottom of the World Tree.



  • Birth-Death Juxtaposition: His child was born around the time of his death.
  • Bittersweet Ending: He died, likely horribly, but his wife, child, and people all survived and thrived, Surtur was imprisoned, and his heirs rule Asgard to this day.
  • Chest Insignia: His statue has an abstract depiction of Yggdrasil and seven stars above it, one for each of the Alliance of Realms (Muspelheim didn't count, for obvious reasons, and neither did Nifflheim/Helheim), likely intentionally invoking Aragorn.
  • A Child Shall Lead Them: He wasn't a child, but his statue looks notably younger than most, and Strange laments that he was so young when he died.
  • Cool Sword: Though it doesn't look it, Ván, forged of uru and vibranium, and which is explicitly described as made and enchanted with the very best that the Alliance of Realms could come up with. In particular, it was designed to No-Sell Phoenix fire.
  • Cosmic Entity: Briefly, when empowered by Yggdrasil. It just about let him compete/keep up with Surtur.
  • Deity of Human Origin: He was a mortal Asgardian before he drew Ván.
  • Elites Are More Glamorous: Elevated to the royal bodyguard, who went where the fighting was toughest. While the elevation was mostly a political move (it looked better for the Princess to marry a royal bodyguard than an ordinary soldier), by all accounts he acquitted himself well.
  • Empathic Weapon: Strange suggests that most magical weapons develop a mind of sorts, and that Ván did it very quickly, lodging itself in the representation of Yggdrasil on purpose.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: Went from "skilled fighter" to "skilled fighter with the power of an Allfather" once he picked up Van.
  • Excalibur in the Rust: Ván is possibly the most practically designed magic weapon imaginable. Going by the inscription, there's no fancy scrollwork or anything on it, with the only adornment being a brief inscription of its name that's only visible when it catches the light. This is implied by Word of God to be a large part of why no one's been able to find the damn thing.
  • Expy: He resembles a mix between King Arthur and Aragorn, though unlike either, he wasn't actually of Royal Blood. It's implied that, given the status of Tolkien's Legendarium as in-universe fiction based on reality, Aragorn is actually an Expy of him, making this a recursive example.
  • Face Death with Dignity: It's stated that he (and everyone else) knew that, even with Van and the power of Yggdrasil backing him, he was going to die facing Surtur, and Strange admitted that despite his best efforts to find another way, there was no way for Frey to leave the fight alive that didn't end with Surtur breaking free, and Frey knew it before he went to said fight.
    Strange: "He put his affairs in order, kissed his wife goodbye, and with his head held high, he went to his death. [...] There were only two courses for history to follow: either Surtur would be bound, or he would break free again, the final gambit would fail, and everything would burn. And you know what? He knew. He knew, he thanked me for trying, and he then asked me if I would walk with him when he went to Muspelheim."
  • Foil: To Surtur. Both were (at least originally) good and humble men, and both desperately wanted to save their people, but where Surtur desperately desired power, if originally for good purposes, Frey was reluctant to claim it. Where Surtur stole power that was not rightfully his, Frey was granted his power. Equally, where Surtur sacrificed his people for the good of himself, Frey sacrificed himself for the good of his people without protest.
  • Founder of the Kingdom: He is generally referred to as 'the First King', as he was the First King of divine Asgard.
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Wielded the Sword of Hope, Ván, against Surtur.
  • Heroic Lineage: The source of it, rather than the result of it. It's also noted that while he and Harry don't necessarily look much alike, there's something about the expression that's rather familiar. Both are also reluctant heroes of the 'greatness thrust upon them' variety (Harry's technically destined to be great, but practically speaking, he was fairly ordinary until it was shoved on him/Voldemort targeted him), both favour swords, and both have issues with a Dark Phoenix. However, there are differences, and Strange specifically says that Harry's story isn't a retread of either Surtur's or Frey's.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Luring Surtur to Muspelheim and stalling him there until the Alliance of Realms could seal them both away.
  • Honour Before Reason: As Strange observes, he was 'a man of conscience and duty', doing what he felt was his duty even if he was scared stiff by the prospect.
  • It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: It's pretty obvious that he really didn't want to try and wield Ván, for the obvious reason that whoever succeeded in doing so would face Surtur, and was therefore going to die so that everyone else could live. This was not so much because of cowardice, but because he had everything to live for. However, he nerved himself up to do it and never tried to pass the buck once he succeeded in drawing the sword, in both cases feeling that it was his duty.
  • Lost Lenore: To Strange, somewhat, who bitterly regrets being unable to come up with a way to both trap Surtur and get Frey out at the last moment.
  • Magic Knight: His family tended towards this, though he only really became this trope when invested with the power of Yggdrasil.
  • Named Weapons: Ván, or 'Hope'.
  • Nice Guy: According to Strange, he was a nice young man. When Strange explained that he couldn't save him, no matter how hard he tried, Frey simply thanked him for trying, and asked if Strange would walk with him as he went to his death. Strange agreed, and then quietly disposed of those who would have tried to dispose of Frey's wife and son.
  • Odd Friendship: He's described as an honest, decent, morally upright sort of person, yet Doctor Strange was apparently his best friend. Certainly, the feeling was mutual, and Strange is bitter enough about his death that It's Personal between him and Surtur.
  • Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Several. Strange mentions, in passing, his drawing of Surtur's eye by singlehandedly flattening two of Surtur's Great Captains, each of which was in the Physical God category or above, and sending another two running for their unlives, in between obliterating an army of Fire-Giants, each on par with an average divine Asgardian at least.
    • He also notes that his final fight with Surtur was this in a very literal sense, since no one could see what was going on.
  • Only the Chosen May Wield: Ván, which is very picky about who wields it, which is important, since it was also the key to the power of Yggdrasil (a.k.a. what is now known as the Odinforce).
  • Our Founder: He is generally referred to as 'the First King'.
  • Posthumous Character: Due to his Heroic Sacrifice. Also the fact that he lived a million years ago, and even Royal Asgardians tend not to top six thousand.
  • The Quiet One: Strange notes that he was quite quiet (unlike many of his descendants), but when he did speak, people listened.
  • Reluctant Hero: He only tried to draw Ván after nearly everyone else had tried and he felt that he would be remiss in his duty if he did not at least try.
  • Rescue Romance: With the Princess, who would become his wife.
  • Sealed Evil in a Duel: With Ván and the power of Yggdrasil, he was just about strong enough to keep Surtur occupied until the rest of the Alliance of Realms could ensure that Surtur wound up as Sealed Evil in a Can.
  • Self-Made Man: Was originally a common soldier, albeit one with a reputation for courage, bravery and skill, from a line of competent but not particularly special warriors with a tendency towards magic. Then he saved the Princess, the two fell in love, got Happily Married, and he became part of the Royal Bodyguard (who were also the elite, going where the fighting was most brutal), and by Strange's account acquitted himself well. Then, he became the wielder of Ván and the power of Yggdrasil, becoming the first divine King of Asgard. Cue the Heroic Sacrifice.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: He could have let himself drift under the radar and avoid trying to draw Ván, something no one would really have blamed him for - he was young, Happily Married with his wife pregnant with their first child, and had a great reputation as a warrior. And once he'd drawn it, he could have also have tried to pass it off, because it was common knowledge that the wielder of Ván would be going on a suicide mission and while he was a brave and skilled warrior, there were better and more experienced out there, and as Strange notes, he was hardly a master mage, and few would have blamed him. But once he had that power, he felt that he had the responsibility to use it for what it was meant for.

     'Nathan' 

'Nathan' a.k.a. Harry Thorson

I'm a version of you, after all: I cheated.

An alternate version of Harry, he's from a parallel reality where Wanda adopted him after his First Year at Hogwarts. Parallel timelines don't move at the same speed, however, so he's older than Harry is - quite a bit, in fact. He uses the name 'Nathan' for convenience, to prevent confusion (and because 'Other Harry' was already taken). He appears during the First Task when Harry's powers interact with a spell to briefly shift him outside of space and time, and takes some amusement in winding up his younger counterpart, before making a reappearance in a vision Harry has of the future, then returning to tutor Maddie and Jean about the Phoenix.



  • Ambiguous Situation: Given how cryptic he is, there's a lot left unknown about his life — for instance, he deliberately leaves it unclear whether he's together with a version of Carol (after bringing her up in conversation), remarking when Harry asks if they're together that perhaps they are... or perhaps he just has over a millennium of psychic experience on Harry, and Carol's floating around the top of his mind.
  • Badass Teacher: An incredibly powerful Physical God, he has the Badass part down, and he both teaches Harry, and is later enlisted by Doctor Strange to tutor Maddie and Harry about the Phoenix.
  • Cryptic Conversation: Since he refuses to spoon-feed Harry he's rather cryptic, only elaborating once Harry's on the right track. This is partly because he isn't entirely sure how much of his own future applies to Harry, partly because he feels that Harry should work it out for himself, and partly because he enjoys the way it annoys Harry.
  • Deadpan Snarker: This is another version of Harry we're dealing with, and one with more than a millennium of practise. Snark-to-Snark Combat was inevitable.
  • Expy: He looks like a mixture of the 'Brother Nathan' version of Cable and a younger Gandalf, right down to the grey robes, cryptic and frequently sardonic remarks, and white wooden Magic Staff.
    • His casually self-aware and understated immodesty (referring to his and Harry's shared capacity to be "just a bit brilliant"), fondness of his younger self, and tendency towards time travel/alternate reality related Magi Babble all recall the Doctor, particularly his 10th incarnation.
    • Wry remarks, cryptic nature, preference for guiding rather than spoon-feeding, and casual immodesty also betray a certain Dumbledore-ish influence, one which is clearly deliberate, going by how he adopts Dumbledore's line from canon ("this is, after all, your party").
  • Figure It Out Yourself: He refuses to spoon-feed his younger counterpart, giving him - at most - a hint or two to make sure he's along the right lines, but otherwise letting him work it out alone.
  • The Gadfly: He really enjoys winding up his younger counterpart.
  • Levitating Lotus Position: A vision into his past shows him doing this under Wanda's supervision when he was around Harry's age. He also notes that when he was accidentally drawn into Harry's little space outside of reality, he was meditating just the same way.
  • Loved I Not Honor More: When discussing the difference between the Phoenix and the Dark Phoenix, he pins this down as the difference between the two. The Phoenix is selfless, because love, true love, is selfless. The Dark Phoenix is selfish, having a bad case of It's All About Me, because ultimately it's about what they want, what they desire.
  • Magi Babble: Comes out with this at several points, quickly analysing the situation, and deducing very quickly that Harry's reality was damaged (and repaired) by chaos magic, and that there's a temporal disturbance to come in Harry's timeline.
  • Magic Staff: Wields one made of simple ivory wood, which looks very much like the one that Gandalf uses after his return.
  • Noodle Incident: Hints that he went through a similar experience to the one Harry's going through - getting an outsider's view of the multiverse - at some point when he was younger.
  • Older and Wiser: Specifically, older and wiser than Harry, due to having had over a millennium of life experience compared to Harry's decade and a half, and consequently being both much more knowledgeable than his younger counterpart. In general, he comes across as a more thoughtful and patient version of Harry, which makes his/their intelligence much more apparent. He's also rather more philosophical, expounding on the difference between the Phoenix and the Dark Phoenix (essentially, selflessness versus selfishness - while the Power of Love and the Power Of Hate respectively come into it, as Harry points out and he agrees, he argues that true love is selfless, putting the needs of another above your own, while with the Dark Phoenix, It's All About Me).
  • Older Than They Look: Despite the fact that he looks about 30, at most, he's at least a thousand years old, if not 1500, as he sometimes implies.
  • Physical God: And an extremely powerful one - as a version of Harry who's the same age as Thor, he's grown into his full physical strength (75% that of Superman, per Word of God), and has vast magical gifts and Psychic Powers (which he's learned to merge under Wanda's tutelage).
  • Pop-Cultured Badass: Like his alternate counterpart, he's fond of The Lord of the Rings, lampshading his own resemblance to Gandalf.
  • Psychic Powers: His are a good deal stronger than Harry's, and more controlled, which is one of the things that clues Harry in to his true age. They're so strong, in fact, that aside from Gorakhnath and Surtur, he's the only one to register Harry's observation during Harry's Vision Quest with the Norns in chapter 51 - and with Surtur, is the only to do so from the future.
  • Really 700 Years Old: He's at least a thousand years old, if not closer to Thor's age (1500 years old).
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: With his younger alternate self, who he greatly enjoys winding up.
  • Time Master: To an unknown extent - the folder quote refers to how he got a look at the multiverse far earlier than should have been possible, he very quickly picks up on the fact that there's a serious temporal disruption coming Harry's timeline, and he casually punts Harry back into his specific time and specific reality. In chapter 51, in his cameo he demonstrates that he's aware that Harry's catching a glimpse of him as part of his Vision Quest with the Norns.
  • Unexpected Character: His appearance was a surprise by itself, but his return was even more so, given that it didn't look like there would be any way for him to return.
  • Vagueness Is Coming: He does a fair amount of this, partially in a desire to preserve the timeline and partially because even he doesn't necessarily know everything that will happen to this version of Harry, since their lives diverged before the story even started.
  • Wizard Classic: He doesn't have a beard, and he looks a bit younger than the usual for this trope (though he's over a thousand years old), but otherwise, with robe, staff, long hair, and cryptic remarks, he fits the bill very neatly.

     The Norns 

The Norns a.k.a. the Three

The Norse Fates, they're not just a trio divided into the traditional trio of Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Rather, they're the leaders and most powerful members of an ancient Asgardian order of seers known as the Norns, one that has historically drawn members from across the Nine Realms, and taught others with related gifts (Odin among them). When conducting major visions, the gifts of the entire order are focused through them. Consequently, they are usually known as the Norns. They live in - or more accurately, under - Nornheim, a powerful sub-kingdom within the realm of Asgard, which was specifically set up to protect them. They provide advice for the royal family, and an admittedly imperfect screening service, to make sure that prospective heirs to the throne aren't crazy. However, their only true allegiance is to Yggdrasil itself.



  • All-Powerful Bystander: As Frigga notes, the sheer depths of their knowledge makes them potentially extremely powerful, in ways that Doctor Strange has demonstrated at length, but they don't directly intervene. However, Frigga alludes to the fact that they did once meddle the way their mythological counterparts (who ordered the fates of men), but stopped for some unknown reason - though considering Strange's predilection for doing the same and that he really doesn't like having his plans interfered with, it's quite likely that he was involved.
  • Blood Magic: They use this as part of starting Harry's Vision Quest, mixing a few drops of his blood in their Magic Mirror with water from the springs of Yggdrasil to get visions appropriate for him.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: They really don't seem to care about anything beyond maintaining Yggdrasil and ensuring that Surtur remains imprisoned - they don't care if a prospective King or Queen of Asgard (or even someone else who took over as ruler of the Nine Realms) is good or evil, so long as they keep it intact.
  • Creepy Good: Good might be stretching it a little, but they're broadly aligned with goodness
  • Deadpan Snarker: Arguably the most deadpan in the entire series, enough to leave Harry flat-footed, both of which take some doing.
  • Foreshadowing: They're oracles, it's kind of what they do.
  • Finishing Each Other's Sentences: An unusual variant, in that they spread the dialogue of one character across three people, until - every now and then - they decide to Speak in Unison.
  • The Hecate Sisters: Structured along these lines, explicitly being referred to as Maiden, Mother, and Crone. This also corresponds to their respective areas of seeing: the Maiden sees the Past, the Mother sees the Present, and the Crone sees the Future.
  • Heroic Neutral: Heroic might be a touch generous, but it's generally the bad guys who threaten the integrity of Yggdrasil, which they protect above all.
  • In the Hood: They wear dark, hooded robes, from which only their gleaming eyes are visible. It's more than a little creepy... though Harry's unfazed and mainly annoyed by the fact that he has to wear one of those robes as well, because his clothes have been unexpectedly magically removed.
  • Lawful Neutral: The closest they come to a conventional moral alignment - they have a duty, they stick to it, no matter the moral consequences to anyone else.
  • Legacy Character: The Norns in general have included members from pretty much every species of the Nine Realms, including humans, excepting only Muspelheim, which is sealed off, and Niflheim/Helheim, which is the realm of the dead.
  • Magic Mirror: They use one filled with water from the intensely magical and occasionally physics defying springs of Yggdrasil and mixed with a little bit of Blood Magic to take Harry on a Vision Quest.
  • Mysterious Past: A lot is left unanswered about just when they were founded and why - though the implication is that, going by the decor and how far under the already somewhat archaic Nornkeep their cavern is, they go back a very long way. Likewise, their dedication to protecting Yggdrasil suggests that that was why, to foresee escape attempts by Surtur.
  • Seers: Respectively, they're seers of the Past, the Present, and the Future.
  • Speak in Unison: They vary between doing this and, as Harry notes, spreading the dialogue of one person across three mouths.
  • Spell My Name with a "The": They're known as the Norns, despite all members of the order (of which there are hundreds, if not thousands), being known as Norns.

Olympus

The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus. Cousins of the Asgardian Royal family through Odin's mother, Theia, who happened to be the sister of Rhea, mother of Zeus and most of the other Olympians. One of the more powerful pantheons, and one of the least liked, for their squicktastic habit of incest, petty infighting, and divine Superdickery.

     In General 

  • Badass Family: Personality wise, they aren't much to write home about, but they kick serious arse.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: They are very much this, on a cosmic scale (as per the myths, they're prone to lots of incest, bickering, and screwing around with mortals—in every sense of the phrase).
  • Brother–Sister Incest: They're prone to marrying their siblings. In Asgard, at least, this is considered to be profoundly weird and is apparently brought up at all the family arguments.
  • Dysfunctional Family: They're technically cousins to the House of Odin (Odin's mother was Theia, sister of Rhea, who was the mother of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, and the like), and seem to be regarded as the branch that is more put up with than liked.
  • Jerkass Gods: The general view of pretty much every other pantheon (who're mostly Jerkass Gods in their own right) is that, with honourable exceptions, they're a bunch of unrepentant dicks, prone to Superdickery of the highest order.
  • Living Legend: Most people on Earth have heard of them, even if the stories aren't exactly accurate.

     Zeus 

Zeus Panhellenios

King of the Olympian Pantheon, cousin of Odin, major-league power-house and epic dickhead.



  • Abusive Parents: Considering that he's generally apathetic to Hera's antics, and she usually tries to kill his illegitimate children and/or grandchildren, he qualifies.
  • Brother–Sister Incest: With Hera. Again, the other pantheons (especially Asgard) think it's icky.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Angering the millennia-old, half-mad Sorcerer Supreme, on his own ground, wielding an Infinity Stone...not exactly Zeus' best idea ever.
  • Butt-Monkey: Odin verbally embarrasses him in front of the rest of the Council Elite and, after he makes the mistake of condescending to Strange, the latter uses him to make a point (which is mostly 'don't piss off the madman with the Infinity Stone') by temporarily sealing him in a crystal tomb.
  • Good is Not Nice: He's one of the good guys... he's just not nice, or likeable.
  • Hot-Blooded: Where the rest of the Skyfathers are trying to be more conciliatory when talking to Odin, mostly because the alternative is fighting him, and save those who're actually Elder Gods, he's the strongest of the lot (and the Elders aren't keen on getting involved) and battle hardened to boot, Zeus is up for picking a fight.
    • He also tries to talk down to Doctor Strange. While the latter was a) half-mad, b) holding the Tesseract. This was agreed by everyone else there to be a very stupid idea.
  • Immortal Immaturity: He's about the same age as/a peer of Odin, though he looks a great deal younger. This is reflected in their respective behaviours.
  • It's Personal: He's pissed at Odin because from the rather skewed account he got, Thor and Loki threatened his wife without cause and Harry set the Phoenix on her. Odin deconstructs this, stating what she really did, pointing out how it fit her character, and noting that if Harry really had set the Phoenix on her, she wouldn't have lived long enough to complain about it.
  • Old Soldier: A literal example. He's Diana's grandfather, a senior member of the Council Elite, and when he's angry, the narration notes that the kind of power gathered around him usually prefaces phrases like 'let there be light'. It also notes that his lack of scars is either a mark of vanity... or a sign that he's too badass for anyone to have even got close.
  • Physical God: Obviously, and on the upper end of the scale too.
  • Really Gets Around: Infamously cheats on Hera with anything that catches his fancy.
  • "Reason You Suck" Speech: Odin delivers one to him that's mainly about Hera, but reflects badly on him too.
  • Smug Snake: Carries shades of this, as despite his power, he's generally trounced either verbally by Odin, or physically by Strange - though Strange used the Tesseract to do it.
  • Taken for Granite: Temporarily, courtesy of an irritated Doctor Strange armed with the Tesseract.

     Hera 

Hera Argeia

Where you go, Lady Hera, demigods disappear under mysterious circumstances.

Queen of the Olympian Pantheon, hater of demigods, and gigantic bitch extraordinaire.



  • Brother–Sister Incest: With Zeus. A lot of the other pantheons (by inference, Asgard in particular) think that it's weird and bring it up whenever they're feeling snippy.
  • Character Development: And not of the good kind - originally, she just hated the demigod bastard children of her husband, Zeus. It has since evolved into a general hatred for demigods.
  • Dirty Coward: Cuts back on her oblique threats to Harry as soon as Thor basically tells her to back off or risk incineration by surgically precise lightning bolt.
  • Evil Is Petty: Perhaps not strictly on the side of evil, but she's petty as hell, with Odin characterising her attitude as one of 'sheer spite'.
  • Evil Matriarch: Of the Olympians.
  • Exact Words: Odin notes her skill for using deniable language.
  • God Save Us from the Queen!: A textbook example.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: No matter how powerful she is, she's still no match for Harry's mom as the Phoenix.
  • Psychological Projection: Projects her hatred of her husband's Really Gets Around behavior on his children...and on every other demigod too.
  • "Reason You Suck" Speech: On the receiving end of a downright vicious one from Lily, through Harry.
    • In Ghosts of the Past, Odin aims a rather harsh one at her via her husband, Zeus.
  • Self-Serving Memory: Going by Ghosts of the Past, she either has a severe case of this, or she outright lied to her husband.
  • Shame If Something Happened: Specialises in structuring discussions along these lines.
  • Troll: She seems to enjoy needling Thor - then backs off as soon as she realises that he's not going to take her obliquely threatening his son lying down.
  • Wicked Step Mother: The original.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Tried to have Diana killed as a child because she was Hercules' daughter by Hippolyta, one of her chosen people, and is perfectly happy to obliquely threaten Harry.

     Hercules 

Hercules

Iolaus mostly handled directions. I just hit things.

Son of Zeus. Lion of Olympus. Prince of Power. One of the greatest heroes of all time, whose name is often preceded by 'the Incredible' and for good reason. Probably the Nice Guy of the Olympian Pantheon. A bona fide badass and second cousin of Thor, he might not be the brightest star in the heavens, but he's definitely one you want on your side.



  • Action Dad: to Diana.
  • All Amazons Want Hercules: Hippolyta did, anyway. The result was Diana.
  • Bash Brothers: Thor and he enjoy kicking butt together, and have done it for a long time.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: He loves nothing better than a good fight. He's a lot like a pre-humility Thor in that respect.
  • Blood Knight: Diana says that she gets it from him. He'll always pick a fight, and while he usually picks the right ones, he doesn't always.
  • The Cameo: Fights by Thor's side in the Battle of London, which is his only appearance so far, though he's mentioned several times.
  • Dumb Muscle: He's not exactly the world's brightest hero and remarks that Iolaus handled directions and he just hit things.
  • Dynamic Entry: He makes his entry with a Shockwave Clap that vaporises a number of demons.
  • Good Is Dumb: He's a nice guy, a hero, and a total badass, but it's clear that Diana got her brains from her mother - he's really not all that bright.
  • Good Parents: He clearly loves his daughter, who remembers him as always being 'full of stories and laughter', and is ludicrously proud of her. He also had the sense to arrange for her protection from Hera when she was a baby by seeking Loki and Athena's advice, after recognising that this was a situation he couldn't just punch his way out of.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: A little - he says that other people handle the thinking, he just hits things.
  • Hidden Depths: He's smarter than he first appears (not that this is hard) and at least somewhat self-aware.
  • Idiot Hero: Appears to be this at first, but like his canon counterpart, he's smarter than he first seems (not that this is difficult).
  • Mini Dress Of Power: His usual outfit, being described at one point as usually wearing 'a belt, a mini-dress and a smile, lion skin optional'.
  • Shockwave Clap: Uses this on a bunch of demons.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: His largest role in the plot is as Diana's father, and the reason she was fostered in Olympus.
  • Super-Strength: One of the most archetypal examples, potentially being even stronger than Thor. He ain't called the Prince of Power as a pet name, folks.
  • Token Good Teammate: Like Athena and his daughter, he's the only pleasant Olympian we've seen so far.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: He rarely bothers with a shirt. No one seems to mind.
  • Wrestler in All of Us: He invented Pankration.

     Athena 

Daughter of Zeus, elder half-sister of Hercules, and de facto guardian of Diana, she appears from time to time, occasionally dispensing advice in her capacity as Goddess of Wisdom.



  • Animal Motifs: Owls. Which she can talk to.
  • Badass Teacher: Though she's not overt about it, she helped train Hercules, among others, and has plenty of game.
  • Cool Aunt: To Diana and, to an extent, to Harry (technically speaking, she's his second cousin once removed).
  • Cryptic Conversation: Shares one with Loki. Harry is left profoundly confused.
  • Distaff Counterpart: To Loki, being the smart, pragmatic, logical support/mentor to a more rambunctious and physical classically heroic brother.
  • Foil: Explains that she is this to Ares, the other Olympian War God, who's more of a Leeroy Jenkins, while she is The Strategist.
  • Genius Bruiser: The Goddess of Wisdom and War, natch.
  • The Mentor: Formerly to Hercules, currently to Diana, his daughter. Also dabbles in this where Harry is concerned, both in Child of the Storm and later, by implication, in Ghosts of the Past when Jesus mentions her as one of the gods with faith in his ability to control the Phoenix.
  • Noodle Incident: At some point, she gave Hedwig the ability to pass through Yggdrasil.
  • Smart Girl: As Goddess of Wisdom, to the Olympian pantheon. Loki treats her as a peer, something that speaks volumes.
  • Speaks Fluent Animal: Where Hedwig is concerned, at least.
  • Stealth Mentor: She's not always obvious about her mentoring, and tends to prefer those she does advise to seek out advice rather than simply be handed it on a platter, as she does with Harry.
  • Straight Man and Wise Guy: Plays the dry-witted straight woman to Diana's relative wise guy.
  • Token Good Teammate: Alongside Hercules and Diana, she seems to be this for the Olympians in general (at least, those we've seen so far).
  • War God: Among her other positions, she's one of two for the Olympians.

     Hades 

The brother of Zeus, Hera, and the rest. He has yet to make an appearance, but it is mentioned that like his niece Athena he was one of the gods who were not in favor of outright banishing or destroying Harry after the Dark Phoenix incident. All canon tropes from The Dresden Files apply.



  • The Ghost: Hasn't appeared so far. Justified since his realm isn't one the characters are particularly interested in visiting and, as his Dresden Files counterpart notes, he's not exactly a social person.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Is mentioned to be one of the gods who believe Harry should be supported rather than bound or killed.
  • Stern Old Judge: This sums him up all over. He's fair, but firm, and his job is to judge the dead.
  • Token Good Teammate: Implied to be this for the elder generation of Greek gods.

     Diana 

The Fae

Not quite gods, but powerful enough to match some of them, the Fae are The Fair Folk, and originate from The Dresden Files. Of the given supernatural factions that aren't wanded or wandless wizards, they are arguably the closest to humanity. This would be because they were originally humans, or a human relatives, that found their way into the Nevernever several hundred thousand years ago and were altered by its magical energies.

Unless stated otherwise, tropes from The Dresden Files, up to Proven Guilty, apply here.

     General 

  • Authority Equals Asskicking: The higher-ranked a Fae is, the more powerful they are.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Summer Fae as a whole are this trope-they appear to be all sweetness and light, but they are just as powerful and dangerous as any Winter Fae.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Especially with the older Fae, and/or those who have never been human at all. They have a sense of morality which is somewhat skewed compared to that of humans.
  • Equivalent Exchange: Fundamental to their nature, as Loki states in Chapter 33. They must give something in exchange for something else, and vice-versa - even if they want to give it freely, they can’t.
  • Exact Words: The Fae are happy to make deals with mortals, but the mortals often end up being less than happy with the results, because of this trope.
  • Was Once a Man: While this applies only to certain individuals in The Dresden Files, here it is stated that all of the Fae are descended from prehistoric humans/human relatives who moved into the Nevernever and gradually became more and more magical. Many of the Fae shown in-universe were also once changelings, human/fae hybrids who chose or were forced to become fully Fae.
  • The Worf Effect: Not combat-related, but it says a lot about Constantine that even the Fae are wary about making deals with him.

     Mab 

Queen Mab

The Queen of the Winter Court a.k.a. She Who Must Be Obeyed, Mab is one of the foremost defenders of reality, and is eternally charged with keeping it safe from the beings known as Outsiders. She will do anything to see that goal through. No matter what the cost is. She's more or less on the side of good - but Good is Not Nice very much is the case here. All canon tropes from The Dresden Files apply.



  • Barrier Maiden: Essentially, the reason she exists—Mab and her Court are dedicated to protecting the mortal world from Outsiders. No matter the cost.
  • Connected All Along: Downplayed. She is - potentially - this to Doctor Strange, AKA Taliesin. In Book 16 of the Dresden Files, it's revealed that Mab knew Merlin (and possibly is Nimue herself, as in Merlin and Nimue). While Nimue is established as a separate character in the series in Unfinished Business, it's possible that she still knew Merlin, meaning she and Taliesin may have known each other before they respectively became Mab and Doctor Strange. Whatever the scenario, it's implied that she knows him pretty well.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: She's the Queen of the Winter Court, ruler of some of the scariest beings in the Nevernever, and she became that by being The Dreaded, becoming incredibly ruthless, and ensuring that nobody would ever dare cross her except the very brave, very stupid, and completely insane (and Doctor Strange, who's definitely the first, probably the last, and even scarier than she is). However, her job is to protect the universe from the Outsiders, such as Chthon, and she was responsible for setting up the Unseelie Accords in order to keep humanity more or less safe after the various pantheons were ordered to leave Earth by the Celestials.
  • The Dreaded: Even Loki has a certain amount of wary regard for her, and it's noted that the reason the Unseelie Accords work is because breaking them guarantees her personal displeasure, and nobody wants that.
  • Everyone Has Standards: She wasn’t pleased when Harry was kidnapped by the Red Room - not due to her morals, mind, but because him being kidnapped on ground that bordered both the Summer and Winter Courts made it seem like they were aiding and abetting said kidnapping.
  • Good is Not Nice: She and the Winter Court exist to protect the world from Outsiders. The Summer Court exist to protect the world from them.
  • Graceful Loser: After Pepper points out that Harry Dresden doesn’t have to become her Knight to be sent along on the mission to go after the Red Room, and Dresden points out that she seems to be intent on having him go along, she has an initial moment of anger due to him coming close to taunting her, but mostly seems pleased at his daring.
    • Possibly also after Doctor Strange makes a deal with her to purge Nemesis from the Leanansidhe (her Number Two), his condition is that she consider Harry Dresden's last favour to her paid, reasoning that as the next in line to be Sorcerer Supreme, he will be fighting the Outsiders even without being her Knight (a position Dresden has made it clear he wasn't interested in). She hasn't been seen onscreen since, but Strange states that she conceded his point. However, it's not clear whether this acceptance was especially graceful, or just pragmatic.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Although she is respected, if not outright feared, by the entire supernatural/supernaturally informed community (including by Thor and Loki, who she matches for power at her weakest), she still doesn't come close to Strange's level of clout, something which the latter makes very clear when discussing how he'd essentially pinched a prize asset (Dresden) she'd been looking forward to recruiting as her Winter Knight. Of course, it could be said that nobody does.
  • Physical Goddess: Her power levels fluctuate depending on what time of the year it is, and it’s stated by both Word of God and Harry Dresden that she’s around the level of Thor and Loki at her weakest.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: She's only appeared in one scene so far, but that was to help Dresden rescue Harry's mind from the Red Room, a mission that also led to Maddie and Jono's rescue, the capture of Sinister and Strange hacking the psychic network to begin a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against all of his clones, and indirectly the brief emergence of the Dark Phoenix. She also spends most of her time protecting reality from Outsiders.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
    • Although she and Wanda work together to guard the borders of reality, and treat each other with what Dresden describes as "a certain familiarity and mutual professional respect," there is certainly some friction, especially when Mab attempts to manipulate Dresden into becoming the Winter Knight.
    • Likewise with Strange, who cures her Number Two from an Outsider related affliction that would have infected her daughter in exchange for Dresden's obligations to her, effectively poaching her favoured candidate for the position of Winter Knight via what was technically blackmail. He then casually remarks that she won't interfere further, as she "knows much better than to get in [his] way."
  • Worthy Opponent: Sort of has this relationship with Dumbledore and Wanda, who she seems to respect (unlike Harry Dresden, who notes that she seems to see him “the way a cat views a favourite mouse.”) With Wanda, the relationship is a little more complex, as they have complementary jobs (Wanda deals with the Outsiders who are either too big or too sneaky for Mab to fight).

     Maeve 

Lady Maeve

The Winter Lady, next in line to be Winter Queen, and one of Mab's two children. Unlike her mother, who takes her duties very seriously, Maeve is far less focused on her work. All canon tropes from The Dresden Files apply unless otherwise noted.



  • Brainwashed and Crazy: She was this, thanks to Nemesis. Strange cures her as part of his deal with Mab.
  • The Caligula: Downplayed, but it's noted in Ghosts by Loki that the day she becomes Winter Queen is a day every living being on Earth should dread.
  • God Save Us from the Queen!: By Loki's account.
  • The Ghost: Besides a few passing mentions in Chapters 32 and 33 of the first book, and a few times in Ghosts, she has yet to appear in-story directly.

     Lily 

Lady Lily

A former changeling who was unexpectedly elevated to the rank of Summer Lady due to her predecessor Aurora's death, and being in the right place at the right time (or wrong time, considering Lily never wanted to be a Fae). Lily is the youngest and least experienced of the Fae Queens, but is also the closest to human of them as a result of this. All canon tropes from The Dresden Files apply.



     Fix 

Sir Fix

The Summer Knight, the Summer Court's mortal agent in the human world, Fix was chosen by Lily herself, as a last connection to her former life after she became the Summer Lady. While he may not look that impressive, and was a mechanic before he became the Knight, he's still plenty dangerous and more than willing to get his hands dirty. All canon tropes from The Dresden Files apply.



Heaven

The angels, demons, and triune god of the abrahamitic faiths - who appear to take cues from The Dresden Files and Good Omens. Mentioned a few times In-Universe, but rarely make a direct appearance or interfere directly in mortal affairs (indirectly is a different story entirely).

     Joshua 

Joshua a.k.a. Jesus of Nazareth


I do not, and will never, have anything better to do than talking to and helping a young person in pain.

Yes, that one, the Son of Man, the Messiah... and generally the Nice Guy of the collected pantheons. Apparently Thor and Loki were a bad influence on him. Tends to keep himself to himself and, like his Father, work through agents. Makes a direct appearance in Ghosts of the Past after the Forever Red arc, and briefly appears again after the Bloody Hell arc. Following the former, because of the Dark Phoenix incident, he seems to have taken to functioning as something to Harry that the latter describes as a combination of "parole officer and social worker."

  • All-Loving Hero: What do you freaking expect? His primary response to Harry's Dark Phoenix manifestation is a direct contrast to most (though not all) of the other pantheons - they see a threat to be destroyed, he sees a kid (a cousin, even) in need of help. When he unveils his psychic presence to reveal who he is, Harry's somewhat overwhelmed by the warmth and compassion... and reacts hilariously.
    Harry: Jesus fucking Christ!
  • Badass Pacifist: Specifically takes the peaceful option... and casually shrugged off a reflexive psychic blast from Harry that would have either lobotomised a full capacity Wembley or blown it up (Wembley Stadium holds 90,000 people), being mildly surprised that he even felt it. He also easily concealed his presence from Harry; so effectively that Harry couldn't even sense anyone there, let alone him.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally. Whether it was Thor and Loki's influence - or conversely they got it from him - is a Running Gag in the series.
    Also, I come in peace... I'd rather you didn't try to make me leave in pieces.
  • Downplayed Trope: Almost all of them, when it comes to him. He's completely unassuming in every way - at first glance. Pretty much anything about him in the narration or descriptions is either implied, hinted at, downplayed, maybe magic maybe mundane, rewatch bonus, or offscreen. That he's notoriously elusive and tends to keep himself to himself just adds to this. He also tells Harry, when the latter asks who he is, to call him Joshua - not even bothering with any of the more well-known of the forty-seven or so names he has, let alone all of them. Although:
  • Exact Words: When he tells Harry to call him Joshua, he's neatly avoiding a name Harry recognises - after all, it is the most common English translation of his actual name, Yeshua.
  • Good Samaritan: Unsurprisingly, takes this role to Harry after Forever Red, even though Harry is considered by most of the Council Elite - and himself to an extent - to be a ticking time-bomb.
  • Good Shepherd: Again, duh. Technically, he isn't a priest or a rabbi, but being who he is...
  • Hand Rubbing: One of the few people who can do this when starting a job without looking like a villain.
  • Humans Are Flawed: Fond of humans for all their quirks, in spite of, and because of, their flaws.
  • Humanity Is Infectious: Notes this tendency in passing.
  • Interfaith Smoothie: A little - according to Gorakhnath, he's also a Bodhisattva - someone enlightened who, out of compassion, instead of "moving on" to Nirvana choses to help others let go of fear, anger, and other negative emotions to also attain enlightenment. He certainly seems to subscribe to the notion that gods and cosmic entities are overall much in the same boat as humans, and mentions this to Harry.
  • Jesus Was Way Cool: While not as much as the trope usually suggests, this version is a Nice Guy who turns up in battered workman's jeans and a t-shirt (after all, he was a carpenter...) and just asks his distant cousin to hear him out.
  • Light Is Good: He's definitely light themed, and, well, he's one of the nicest gods you're likely to meet. Nicest people in general, actually.
  • Long-Lost Relative: Notes to Harry that like Maddie, he's a cousin (though more distantly and on the other side of the family).
  • Looks Like Jesus: Subverted. Unlike most depictions of Jesus, which have him as tall, bearded, often blue eyed and with straight (sometimes blond) hair, he actually looks more or less what you might expect for a Middle-Eastern carpenter in Roman Palestine: a short guy with curly black hair and brown eyes. The latter is always noted first off by the naration - as in a setting where nearly everyone else has strikingly significant and/or flamboyant eye colors, a warm brown is very unusual by sheer contrast.
    Joshua drily lampshades the trope:
    [T]he works of the Italian masters [...] while superb pieces of art, seem to be of the firm belief that I was about six feet tall [and had] enviably manageable hair. Not so much.
  • Loophole Abuse:
    • There's no rule saying that examining someone in the role of judge of the living and the dead can't be dual purposed as therapeutic counseling if he's checking their soul over anyway, is there?
    • It's hinted that he interprets his role of watching Harry for the Council Elite (as a threat) as watching out for them (as someone to looked after).
    • Implied to have also nagged Wanda into pulling herself out of a bottle and reconciling with her daughter indirectly by sending Michael to her for help with his daughter.
  • The Medic: His specialty, and said to be extremely good at it.
  • The Mentor: Gives Harry advice, talks to him about his problems, and gently points out flaws in his reasoning.
  • Nice Guy:
    • He talks to Harry, lending him a sympathetic ear to listen to his problems after Forever Red, and doing so not because of Harry's Apocalypse Maiden nature, but because... well. See the folder quote. He also pops up in Bloody Hell, and though his purpose was more to give Harry a warning, he first sincerely congratulates Harry on resisting the extremely strong temptation to Cut The Knot and save Carol by going Dark Phoenix, doing what is right rather than what is easy. Both times he appears, he provides gentle but serious advice. On the latter occasion, he also takes Gambit, who's suffering from Clone Angst, aside and has a little chat with him, while also offering the same to the others present. He's pretty much the nicest member of the collected pantheons that we've seen, with the possible exception of Diana. Granted, this is not especially hard.
    • However, impressively, he's also in the running for nicest all round character in the entire series.
  • Nice Jewish Boy: The archetypal example. He's very nice, and he is very definitely Jewish.
  • Non-Action Guy: Downplayed - it's stated that he's got more power than Thor or Loki, has had more time to refine it, and when he surprised Harry and got hit with a psychic blast strong enough to lobotomise a city, he's surprised that he actually felt it. However, he's not a fighter by nature, instead focusing on being a healer, both physical and mental.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • Apparently he, Thor and Loki hung out a very long time ago. They were supposedly a bad influence on him, though it's occasionally hinted that it might have been the other way around.
    • He's also implied to have met Wanda prior to the events of Ghosts.
  • Odd Friendship:
    • He name-drops Adam, the Anti-Anti-Christ of Good Omens, when he's talking to Harry after the Dark Phoenix incident. Apparently he knows him well enough to think he and Harry would get along.
    • As stated above, he also hung out with Thor and Loki in the past, and while he's not shown interacting with Loki and has only met Thor once in the story, they seem to be on good terms.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Two scenes, actually; but those cameos are generally considered by the audience to be well written.
  • The Paragon: His preferred method of doing good - both times he talks to Harry, he shows a steadfast faith in Harry's better nature and capacity to make the right choice. He doesn't seem to see his job necessarily as overtly doing things, more helping others find their way.
  • Physical God:
    • He shrugs off a powerful psychic blast from Harry like it's a love tap. When patching Harry up, he works around the edges of an overzealous protection that usually stops even Doctor Strange. And he offhandedly and nonchalantly overhears what's going on in Harry's mind as if Harry's excellent mental defenses just didn't exist - in the second scene he appears in it's implied this is even the case at a distance (specifically, it must have happened all through the Bloody Hell arc).
    • It's implied that 'the White God', of whom he is believed to be technically an aspect, may be an Elder God - though not even the other Skyfathers are all that sure what he is.
  • Precision F-Strike: Elicits two from Harry, the latter when he reveals who he is (though it is quite obvious).
    Harry: Jesus fucking Christ!
    • Jesus is mildly amused - but does tease Harry about it when they next meet and Harry points out to Carol how he's getting more comfortable around divine/mythological relatives. Just a bit, though - you do get a discreet Shipper on Deck vibe for Harry/Carol.
  • The Reveal: Shortly after he first appears. While it isn't very hard to figure out who he is, he's not expected to make an appearance, because the story seemed to adhere to the Jesus Taboo. However, Word of God did suggest that he'd make a cameo.
  • Scars Are Forever: He presumably keeps his out of choice, but the ones on his hands from the nails on the cross are clearly visible.
  • Semi-Divine: Notes that, like Harry, he is a demigod.
    It's a bit complicated. [...] according to at least two dictionary definitions [...] a demigod, you might say.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: When he shows up a few feet away from Harry in a very foggy place, he cloaks his telepathic presence and calls out to Harry before he can be really seen in an effort to keep Harry from getting jumpy and lashing out. Invariably when there's someone approaching and Harry's telepathy draws a blank, a jumpy Harry does exactly that - and points out how bad an idea this was. Joshua agrees that it wasn't exactly one of his best.
  • The Dead Have Names: He uses this as a teaching tool in one scene. When Harry makes it clear that he is quite willing to use the Phoenix to threaten the Council Elite into resurrecting Carol if it had come to it, Joshua takes them to London's battle memorial stone, pointing to the names of the fallen caught up in a battle of the gods. Harry visibly takes this onboard.
"Those who suffered the most in the Battle of London were the same as those who always suffer the most in any conflict of powers, mundane or otherwise, who are always caught in the middle: the powerless, the mortal, and the innocent", [Joshua] said, tone quiet and without rancour. "These are the victims - or at least, some of them. These are those poor souls who died because of [...] ambition, [...] hubris, [...] insanity, and [...] evil. But there are many more. Those who survived in body, but who instead had horrors imprinted on their souls. Those who saw their homes and the work of lifetimes crumble before their eyes. Ans above all, those who lost loved ones." His expression took on a faintly bitter twist. "All as side-effects of the conflict of powers, of gods, raging above them..."

     Uriel 

Archangel Uriel a.k.a. 'Mr Sunshine'

Not a god himself, but every bit as dangerous as many of them, Archangel Uriel is from The Dresden Files, and serves as the guardian of free will. All canon tropes from The Dresden Files apply.



  • Beware the Quiet Ones: He's Heaven's black ops agent - in other words, he could be seen as an Older and Wiser counterpart to Loki.
  • The Ghost: Mentioned a few times by Word of God, and was confirmed to have given Harry Dresden Soulfire, and so far that's all he's done (directly).
  • Our Angels Are Different: Unlike Thor and Loki, he doesn't really have a physical body - in The Dresden Files, he's stated by Bob to essentially be just a soul, and that his body (if he ever appears physically) is essentially something he briefly "constructed" with Soulfire to inhabit.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: He has yet to make a true appearance, but he was responsible for giving Harry Dresden Soulfire (like he did in canon), only several years early this time - in this case, for his willing sacrifice against Gravemoss. So far, Dresden's used it to severely injure Gravemoss and Voldemort.

    Adam Young 

Adam Young a.k.a. The Antichrist.

The Antichrist of Good Omens: "the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness". As anyone who has read Good Omens knows, Adam himself had other plans about starting the apocalypse he was born to bring on. Technically he's a demigod (or equivalent), but easily as powerful as most "full" deities. All canon tropes from Good Omens apply.



  • Anti Anti Christ: Was expected to destroy the world, and didn't. Adam was born to start Armageddon, the Last Battle between Heaven and Hell, and made it very clear that he wasn't interested.
  • The Ghost: Has yet to make an appearance, but seems to be taking cues from Good Omens - going by what other characters say about him and the fact that Newt and Anathema's kid is attending Hogwarts. Adam's mentioned by Joshua as "knowing a little about being expected to destroy the world", and by Coulson as "not really being that interested in getting involved".
  • Godzilla Threshold: Wanda's reaction to Constantine's intentions to get him involved in the finale of Child of the Storm implies this - though given his disposition, it's probably because he just really doesn't want to get involved (and, like everyone else, probably doesn't like Constantine very much).
  • Hero of Another Story: It's implied that he quietly got involvednote  in the finale of Child of the Storm.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: It's stated that Harry and Adam would "get on" like a house on fire if they met. Given their willingness to flip off both the divine and the demonic and preference for the human path, this seems quite likely.
  • Odd Friendship: With his opposite number Joshua, believe it or not, who name-drops him in Ghosts, and remarks that he and Harry would get on.
  • Reality Warper: Adam was capable of this in Good Omens, and while he's only ever appeared indirectly in the story, he's had plenty of time to practice.
  • Team Switzerland: The only time anyone considers calling him for help is when Constantine mentions Lower Tadfield while Chthon is fighting Odin, and the Hell Dimensions are invading Earth in the finale of Child of the Storm.

Other Gods

Members of the other pantheons mentioned and featured in the story. Until relatively recently, they grudgingly followed the Celestials' injunction to stay away from Earth and humanity, to let them grow on their own. That, however, has shown signs of changing.

     In General 

  • Authority Equals Asskicking: True of all gods, but especially the Skyfathers - each of them is a Physical God and (to a varying extent) Reality Warper. The more worship and recognition they have, the more they can exercise their power on Earth.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: A lot of them don't exactly cleave to human morality, let alone modern human morality.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The Council Elite. They bicker, a lot, and they're stood off by Odin and cowed into submission by Strange. However, Odin goes to face them in full expectation that he'll probably die protecting his grandson, and Strange's job is fighting Skyfather plus level beings (and he had armed himself with the Tesseract). As Thor and Joshua warn Harry, they are not to be underestimated. They're in the same order of power as Odin, who Harry himself noted could squash him without trying should it ever come to that (Phoenix related interventions excepted), and they a) live more or less forever, b) hold grudges, c) specialise in Disproportionate Retribution.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: A divine speciality, which Thor and Joshua remind Harry of. They hold grudges. And as the latter adds, it can get subtle - in other words, it's not necessarily going to be big and obvious - and gods live a long time. They can be patient.
  • Everyone Has Standards: By and large, they all look down on the Olympians.
  • God's Hands Are Tied: As Jesus states when he's talking with Harry and Thor, the gods as a whole were ordered by the Celestials to cease interfering directly with Earth roughly 1000 years before the main story started so humanity could grow on their own, and that ban has only ended within the last few years. And for the more benevolent gods, such as the Asgardians, the Hindu Pantheon, and the Abrahamic God and the angels, they try not to interfere directly on Earth at full power because battles between gods tend to cause massive damage to pretty much everything and everyone nearby.
  • Gods Need Prayer Badly: Played With. While gods are not reliant on worship here to survive, how many people know about them in the human world/believe they exist affects how much power they can use there (and sufficient prayer/belief can make them a little stronger, too). Thor's power level in The Avengers (2012) was the result of not many people believing that he really existed - contrasted to his current power level, the difference is very clear.
  • Good is Not Nice: How much they care for mortals is rather dubious (Ghosts of the Past implies that, for the most part, they don't really), but they're opposed to the major league monsters, like Chthon, if only out of self-interest.
  • Hypocrite: Huginn and Muninn call out the Council Elite as such, pointing out that each one of them is arguably more of a threat to the mortal world than Harry as the Dark Phoenix. The latter takes a little time to get warmed up. Any one of them, on the other hand, can wipe out the planet with a snap of their fingers.
  • Jerkass Gods: There are several honourable exceptions, but the majority of them tend to be either this or just apathetic. They all think the Olympians are just the worst, however.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: On the one hand, their going after Harry because he's potentially the Dark Phoenix is harsh at best... but considering that the alternative is risking global, even universal, annihilation, they kind of have a point.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": When they hear that Thanos is coming.
  • Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: The Council Elite of Skyfathers. It's mostly an opportunity for the pantheon heads to gather... and argue.
  • Physical God: By definition, the most powerful of them edging towards Cosmic Entity, though they aren't always able to use that power on the mortal plane.

     Vishnu 

The God of Protection, he is part of the Trimurti, the leaders of the Hindu Pantheon who function as a sort of tri-partite Skyfather. Is one of the more powerful and respected Skyfathers, a rough peer to Odin and Zeus. One of the more sensible gods, as these things go, and technically a blood relative of the House of Odin through his mother, a dozen or so generations back.



  • Big Good: Of the Hindu Pantheon. He was also one of the gods who is stated to have faith in Harry's ability to control the Phoenix within him. It's also stated that the Hindu Pantheon was one of the only ones to keep watching over Earth after the Celestials ordered the pantheons to cease direct interference with it.
  • Ignored Expert: Expert might be pushing it (it's not exactly something that happens often), but he at least has the common sense not to push a clearly half-mad Doctor Strange whilst he's wielding the Tesseract and advises Zeus to do the same. Zeus ignores him and pays the price. Vishnu just lets out a long sigh. You get the feeling that he might Face Palm in another setting.
  • Interspecies Romance: The product of one - his mother was Princess Sunniva of Asgard (and a Phoenix host), and his father was Ishvara, an Elder God.
  • Physical God: One of the stronger ones - considering his heritage (his mother was a royal Asgardian Phoenix host and his father was an Elder God), this is unsurprising.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Seems to feel this way, especially where Zeus is concerned. It's hard to blame him.
  • Time Abyss: He's somewhere over 35,000 years old.

     Quetzalcoatl 

Head of the Aztec Pantheon, God of the Winds (among many other things), usually manifests as a gigantic feathery serpent. Even around his fellow Skyfathers. No one's entirely sure why.



  • Blow You Away: God of the Winds, among other things, hence why Odin dubs him 'Wind-Lord'.
  • Giant Flyer: A giant flying serpent, large enough to swallow a dragon whole, most of the time.
  • God in Human Form: Oddly enough, subverted. He's the odd one out in this regard, and the narration speculates that he's making a point... though what that point is, however, is unclear.
  • Physical God: Obviously.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: He's one of the more reasonable Skyfathers, noting that Both Sides Have a Point.
  • Scaled Up: Usually. The other gods suspect he's making a point, though nobody is entirely sure what it is.

     Ra 

Head of the Heliopolitan (Egyptian) pantheon. God of the Sun, has a falcon for a head for whatever reason, and is powerful enough that he has the total respect of the other pantheon heads - or at least, they shut up when he speaks.



  • Non-Human Head: He has a falcon's head, for whatever reason.
  • Only Sane Man: Re-rails the conversation, which had devolved into an argument between Odin and Zeus over the conduct of their sons/wife respectively.
  • Physical God: He's another Skyfather, and thus immensely powerful.
  • The Quiet One: He doesn't say much, but he doesn't really need to say much, as he's one of the few Skyfathers that the others are guaranteed to at least listen to.
  • Straight Man: Sober, serious, and apparently not with much of a sense of humour, he's completely bemused by Huginn and Muninn's defence of Harry in nigh-incomprehensible Brooklyn slang.
    I think I understood about half of that.
  • Top God: The ancient head of the Egyptian pantheon, and extremely powerful with it. This status at least partially carries over to the Council Elite, since the others are guaranteed to at least listen to him.

     Anansi 

A spider-shaped West African god of stories.



  • The Ghost: Has yet to make a direct appearance, but is implied to be on friendly terms with Harry. Anansi sends Harry a birthday present (a shambles, which Harry promptly tangles himself up in); and is one of the faction of the Council Elite who support Harry.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: After the Dark Phoenix Incident, he shows that he has faith in Harry.

The Endless

The Seven most powerful beings in the Universe, those to whom even the Gods must bow and treat with respect. Each and every one is a Cosmic Entity in their own right. They get involved with mortal affairs to varying degrees for varying reasons. Only those members that appear will be listed.

Beware: due to their natures and their habit of only appearing during matters of great significance, here be spoilers.

     In General 

The Endless are a family, if an exceedingly dysfunctional one, and therefore have a few things in common.



  • Anthropomorphic Personification: All of them are this, with Luna and Death explaining that they're basically what happens when you give cosmic concepts human faces (to human perception, at least), being a step beyond even gods in their removal from mortals.
  • Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: All of them look different to different people.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Even the nicer ones do things for reasons that can be quite alien to humans, largely because of their responsibilities and their drastically different perceptions of the universe. They also have to follow Rules, ones that are unclear (but apparently very clear on the subject of offspring).
  • Cosmic Entity: They are by far the most powerful examples of this trope, with the possible exception of Eternity - and even then, Death might be more powerful than him.
  • Domain Holder: Each has their own domain, where they are sovereign. Dream's, while he mainly inhabits a relatively small section, is implied to technically include the entire Nevernever, itself a vast realm of which Faerie is but a small part.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Prior to merging with Lily and when not taking a host, Destruction a.k.a. the Phoenix is usually manifest as a vast firebird capable of devouring (or healing) planets.
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: They look different to pretty much every species or kind of being out there, simultaneously.
  • God's Hands Are Tied: As with all beings on this page, the more power one has, the more limited one is in exercising it. This is, for example, why Lily and the others need to act through agents when rescuing Harry from the Red Room.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Usually, though they aren't beholden to human form.
  • I Have Many Names: All of them, some of which Lucien winds up reciting when introducing Maddie and Jono to Dream, Destruction, Delirium and Death, though Dream is a particular example.
  • Reality Warper: All of them, to one extent or another, though Dream and Delirium are particularly prone to it.
  • Rule of Seven: There are seven of them. It's hinted that this is the reason that seven is a magical number, rather than the other way around.
  • Theme Initials: D, though it only really applies in English, with them having many other names in many other languages.
  • Tangled Family Tree: Become this with the addition of Lily as the avatar of Destruction, and later even more complicated with the addition of the new Delirium.
  • Time Abyss: They're all billions of years old - or at least, the posts, powers, and memories are, though the dominant aspect might be a more recent addition, as with Destruction and the second Delirium. Death might even be older than the universe itself.

     Death 

Be seeing you.

The anthropomorphic personification of Death, and an absolutely lovely person. Sometimes goes by Didi. All canon tropes from The Sandman (1989) apply.



  • Big Sister Instinct: She plainly loved her little sister Delirium, who apparently 'wandered off one day'. She seems very happy to act as big sister to the recently deceased Luna Lovegood when she fills the vacancy.
  • Cosmic Entity: She's one of the strongest, if not the strongest.
  • Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?:
    • Because she's really quite a nice person (for a somewhat loose value of "person"), most encounters with her fall into this. Dumbledore and Carol both have pleasant conversations with her at different points, and she's welcoming and polite to Maddie, Jono, Sir Fix, and Dresden.
    • When Darcy was teleported to Death's realm by Jane's malfunctioning machinery, they did shots together.
  • Don't Fear the Reaper: As noted below, she is "the friend we shall all one day meet," and a genuinely Nice Girl.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She has the look, but is too cheerful to fit the standard attitude.
  • I Have Many Names: She's been called the Grim Reaper (not that she's grim or, technically, a reaper), Teleute, Didi and, of course, Death.
  • The Leader: It's subtle, but all of the other Endless defer to her, even if she's in one of their realms. This strikes a contrast to Destruction a.k.a. the Phoenix, who at least puts on the form of deferring to Dream in his palace.
  • Loophole Abuse: She's limited in how she can intervene, since her kind are bound by Rules. However, she helps out where she can.
    • The finale of Book I is the most blatant example - not only does she explain to Carol how she's Not Quite Dead (she's wearing the Green Lantern Ring, thanks to Doctor Strange, which has decided to make its full abilities apparent), she buses in the late Alan Scott, former owner of said ring, to give her a crash course in how to use it.
    • In Ghosts, she, Destruction, Dream and Delirium all bend the rules as far as they can to help Harry, arranging for a guide for the rescue party, a briefing, and purging Maddie's programming.
  • Nice Girl: Frigga describes her as 'the friend we shall all one day meet'. Pretty much every single time she appears, she's being nice to someone, helping them out one way or another.
  • Noodle Incident: At one point, Darcy was warped to her domain by Jane's malfunctioning machinery. They did shots together.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: To Dream, and by extension, to Harry, being technically an adopted aunt of his.

     Destruction 

Destruction a.k.a. The Phoenix a.k.a. Lily Evans-Potter

I love you, Harry. I love you so much. And a part of me will always be with you.

Somewhat different from the canon incarnation of Destruction, as might be imagined. One of the most powerful entities in the universe with a proclivity for pyromania on a cosmic scale and a fondness for humanity, Harry in particular. By far the most mercurial of the Endless, while she isn't strictly the most powerful (that would be Death), she's the next best thing, and by far the most dangerous. Having merged with Lily Potter has stabilised her somewhat, but given her motivations a much more... human dimension, for better or worse. All canon tropes applying to Lily Potter apply here.



  • Action Mom: To Harry - while she can't often directly intervene, when she does, she can cow Elder Gods.
  • Adaptational Badass: She's not strictly more powerful than the Phoenix (though more powerful than is usually demonstrated), but She is much smarter. Needless to say, She's also several orders of magnitude more powerful than Lily, her other canon persona.
  • All-Loving Heroine: Was this to an extent in life and much more so as the White Phoenix of the Crown, shipping Thor/Jane.
  • Almighty Mom: Suggested to have been this in life. A much more literal example than most in death.
  • Always with You: To Harry. Again, more literally than most.
  • Amicable Exes: With Thor, giving her tacit blessing to him and Jane.
  • Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: The story repeatedly implies this of her, before it is finally revealed that she merged with the Phoenix Force to become the White Phoenix of the Crown.
  • Best Friend: In life, was this with Wanda and Nick Fury. Her loss was a large part of the latter's Cynicism Catalyst.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Prior to merging with Lily, the Phoenix is particularly prone to this, even by the standards of the Endless, being repeatedly described as being incredibly volatile, which is why She needs to act through hosts, who are specifically picked for their clarity of thought, compassion, and level-headedness to make a fair and reasonable judgement. After merging with Lily, however, there's still an element of it.
  • Bring My Brown Pants: The instant reaction to anyone realising She is involved with, well, anything.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard: According to a somewhat zonked out Sirius, Lily had 'fantastic breasts'. Considering that she's related to Jean Grey and Maddie, both of whom she resembles in several other respects (being a Significant Green-Eyed Redhead with a dangerous temper, for starters), this is not entirely surprising.
  • Commuting on a Bus: After her appearance in the finale of the first book, since the Rules circumscribe her involvement, especially with Harry, and the Phoenix tends to burn up reality - which is particularly fragile after the first book - when staying in one place for too long. However, she tends to be quite good at Loophole Abuse, usually helping Harry by helping someone else. She can also project herself through Harry's Phoenix fragment to a limited extent, an ability which is apparently discarded entirely after the first book following The Reveal... then reappears in chapter 65 of Ghosts when she has a psychic chat with Hermione, who's at that point in Harry's head for safekeeping.
  • Composite Character: An unusual three-way example, of Destruction of the Endless, the Phoenix Force, and Lily; Destruction's canon persona is explained as a former Host - or a former something-more-than-a-host, as Loki suggests.
  • Cosmic Entity: One of the strongest of them all. Word of God has it that while She's not the most powerful of the Endless (that would be either Destiny or Death), She is the most dangerous.
  • Creepy Good: Lily is sweet, kind, and generally friendly. However, since she's the Phoenix, she is also pants-browningly terrifying, meaning that a lot of people are rather nervous about being around her - especially Hermione, who understandably finds the very literal experience of having psychic tea with a fundamental aspect of the universe who also happens to be her friend's mother to be just a tad disconcerting. Thankfully, Lily doesn't take it personally.
  • Cryptic Conversation: She can be rather sparing on the details of what she shares, particularly in her conversation with Hermione, who sourly thinks that Harry came by his secretive tendencies honestly.
  • Deadpan Snarker: A little bit, suggested to be Lily's influence. For one thing, She responds to a "You!" Exclamation by Gravemoss with a smirking "me."
  • Destructive Saviour: Minimising collateral damage is not exactly Her top priority. Considering who She's a Composite Character of, this isn't surprising.
  • Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: In Ghosts, she projects herself through Harry's Phoenix fragment into his head to invite Hermione - who was there for safekeeping (It Makes Sense in Context) - for a psychic cup of tea. Hermione is understandably disconcerted.
  • The Dreaded: Good guys and bad guys alike are absolutely terrified of the Phoenix. There are a lot of very good reasons for this.
    • Frigga very bluntly informs Harry (who was looking like he was planning on trying to get Her involved) that She is not one who takes being summoned well. Dumbledore's account of what happened to the Clan Akkaba after they tried that trick only underlines this point. Granted, She probably wouldn't have minded in his case, but that wasn't known at the time (even if Odin did suspect it).
    • When Harry snaps and becomes the Dark Phoenix, this reaction is shown to be very much justified.
    • Likewise with the accounts of Surtur, the first Dark Phoenix. Dude ate a galaxy.
  • Determinator: From everything we hear, Lily didn't know the meaning of "give in."
  • Fiery Redhead: Harry apparently gets his temper from her (though Loki observes that it could just as easily have come from his Hot-Blooded father) and according to Sirius, she had one hell of a right hook.
  • First Love: To James/Thor.
  • Gender Flip: Sort of. The canonical Destruction was male - and is hinted to be a former host or, like Lily, the former dominant aspect.
  • The Ghost: In Child of the Storm, appearing on-screen several times... probably. It's quite hard to separate her from her protection on Harry and the shade of Lily Potter - especially since, unhelpfully, all three mix fairly freely. After The Reveal, and in Ghosts of the Past, she appears more explicitly.
  • God Job: To one extent or another, the Phoenix is whoever does the Phoenix's job, as the entity in question takes hosts to provide a guiding moral compass to do what needs to be done on the mortal plane. Likewise, the position of White Phoenix of the Crown is implied to have been held by at least one person prior to Lily.
  • Gold and White Are Divine: As the White Phoenix of the Crown.
  • Good is Not Nice: While Lily is a pretty sweet person (though she can be almost obnoxiously cryptic sometimes, like her son), she is the dominant aspect - no the only one. Destruction as a whole is, after all, Destruction, and has no problem with destroying whole planets if She decides that they're past salvation/need to be destroyed for a greater purpose, and one of her aspects is freaking Galactus.
  • The Gwen Stacy: To Thor and, non-romantically, to Nick Fury and Wanda Maximoff. Wanda has dealt with this better than Fury has.
  • The Hecate Sisters: On her reappearance in Ghosts of the Past, she appears as the Mother with Luna as Delirum taking the role of Maiden and Death taking the role of the Crone, or, in Pratchettian twist, 'the Other One'.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: As per canon, Lily died for her son. The results have literally brought him back from the dead. Hell, they've outright saved the entire universe.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Wanda Maximoff, naming her godmother to Harry and being the only one Wanda confided in about her pregnancy and then helping facilitate Hermione's adoption by the Grangers.
  • Heroic Host: Turns out to be this for the Phoenix, having merged with Her to become the White Phoenix of the Crown.
  • Hot-Blooded: A temper runs in the family. As Destruction, Loki notes that she's essentially the dictionary definition of "volatile."
  • In the Blood: Lily, pre-Phoenix, was kind-hearted, resourceful, pyrotechnically inclined, Hot-Blooded, intensely loyal to her friends, remarkably insightful, and exceptionally good at keeping secrets (sometimes, being secretive to a fault). Almost all of these traits stand out in her son, with Hermione noting the latter in explicit comparison to him. Her first cousin once removed, Jean, also has most of them.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: As noted elsewhere, she's fine with Thor having moved on from her, gently quoting the "'til death do us part" line of her wedding vows and encouraging his relationship with Jane.
  • Kill It with Fire: As Lily, she had a talent for this, one noted by Lucius Malfoy. As Destruction, She extends this to everything from Dementors to planets to galaxies.
  • Kryptonite Factor: To Dementors and dark things in general. And, frankly, anything that's even potentially flammable (which is basically everything).
  • Like Brother and Sister: She had this dynamic with Nick Fury, who Took a Level in Cynic after she died and a lot of Death Eaters got away with it.
  • The Lost Lenore: To Thor, though he seems to have moved on. As has she, when she tacitly gives Thor and Jane her blessing by gently but firmly saying, "'til death do us part", before pointing out that she died.
    • To a lesser extent with Nick Fury, who was like a big brother to her, and her death - plus that of her parents, his mentors, and the limited punishment of many known Death Eaters in the aftermath of the War - was his main Cynicism Catalyst.
    • Also to Wanda - the two were extremely close, at least as much as Sirius and James, and while her death didn't quite break Wanda, it pushed her close. Certainly, Wanda's caught between sobbing and babbling apologies when she reappears.
  • Mama Bear: Hurt her son, and she will reduce you to floating ashes. While her intervention is circumscribed both by the Rules of the Endless and the circumstances of Books II and III ( excess Phoenix fire in the Nine Realms damages the Seal of Muspelheim, risking freeing Surtur, the original Dark Phoenix), she's no slouch.
    • She died for her son and the protection she managed to grant him tends to react violently to threats; incinerating Quirrell, allowing her to tell Hera to back the hell off via a "Reason You Suck" Speech, breaking Harry free when he, Cassidy, Ron and Hermione were trapped in his mind, and resurrecting Harry and going on a violent rampage. Then, in the finale of Book I she appears on the mortal plane courtesy of Doctor Strange and helps Harry win a Battle in the Center of the Mind and resist The Final Temptation.
    • And in Ghosts, she helps Maddie, Jono, Dresden, and Fix save Harry as much as she's allowed, purging the implanted psychic suggestions and trigger words from Maddie's mind. Really, being technically dead doesn't seem to have slowed her down all that much.
  • Nice Girl: Lily, usually, both in life and afterlife - though even more so than her cousin Jean, even the gods cannot help you if you make her angry.
  • Noodle Incident: While at Hogwarts, she and the Marauders met Eldest Gruff at one point. He took a liking to her, and informed her that she "had a touch of summer about her."
  • The One That Got Away: As Lily, she was this to Snape, which Harry figures out and uses against him after Snape pushes him at exactly the wrong moment.
  • The Phoenix: As Lily, she fit this trope neatly even before she died and was resurrected to become The Phoenix.
  • Posthumous Character: By the time of the story, she's been dead for twelve years. Of course, since she's Not Quite Dead as the White Phoenix of the Crown, this calls into question the 'posthumous' part.
  • Pregnant Badass: Fought while she was pregnant with Harry (and, apparently, was pregnant with another child shortly after).
  • Psychic Powers: Possessed the genetic potential for these, potential which blossomed in her son. As Destruction, Her powers are immeasurably greater.
  • Randomly Gifted: Played With. She was a muggleborn witch, and the first known magic user in the family. On the other hand, the Grey branch of her family was infamous for periodically producing psychics of varying degrees of power.
  • Reality Warper: Like all the Endless. As Dumbledore remarks, She displays 'absolute command over the powers of life and death' and when She resurrects and possesses Harry, She doesn't get him to stand up or telekinetically lift him up, she rearranges reality around him so that he's standing up, in a fashion eerily similar to what Chthon does several chapters later.
  • Secret-Keeper: For Wanda, keeping her pregnancy and the resultant baby a secret and helping to have said child adopted. She also doesn't spill the secret of Hermione's parentage even when they meet in Book II.
  • Significant Green Eyed Red Head: Like in canon and like her first cousins once removed, Jean Grey and Maddie/Rachel Grey.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: When James became a good man, that's ultimately when she fell for him - and why she fell for him.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: As Lily, She has this to Jean and Maddie.
  • Super Powerful Genetics: Her mother's maiden name was Grey, and she bequeaths the Psychic Powers associated with that name on her son. Chapter 38 of Ghosts explains this as the Grey family descending from an Askani family who seemingly ended up the psychic equivalent of squibs about 1500 years ago, leading to them being 'pruned', though the psychic genes resurfaced to a limited extent through the centuries, until re-emerging spectacularly in Jean, Maddie, and Harry.
  • Team Mom: Of the Endless, which is perhaps unsurprising, given that she's the only one known to be a mother.
  • Teen Pregnancy: Lily was 19 and a half when she got pregnant with Harry.
  • Tranquil Fury: In life, Lily apparently had a pretty steady control on her temper. In death, she's capable of being incredibly calm, no matter the horrors her son is being put through... but occasional hints creep through of just how much anger she's keeping locked away. Given who and what she is now, this is a very good thing.
  • Walking Spoiler: Even revealing Her identity provides a significant clue to much of the plot of the first book.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Even with her post-mortem appearances, there is a lot that we don't know about her, in contrast to her ex-husband's constant presence. However, we do at least have one of her friends present, unlike canon, in Wanda Maximoff.

     Dream 

Dream a.k.a. Morpheus

The incarnation of Dream, known for being very strict in his adherence to duty and management of his responsibilities. Capable of being spectacularly vindictive, he also increasingly has a functional, if erratic, sense of compassion. All canon tropes from The Sandman (1989) apply.



  • Aloof Big Brother: To the younger Endless.
  • Badass Long Robe: His usual form of dress in the Dreaming - it's black, but edged with what look like flames at the bottom.
  • Character Development: As in his original series, he's described as having a developing sense of compassion.
  • The Comically Serious: By far the most sober and serious of the Endless, he's often the straight man to the rest of them.
  • Creepy Good: He unnerves both Maddie and Jono.
  • Deus ex Machina: Steps in to, with his sisters Death, Destruction, and Delirium, help Maddie and Jono reach the Red Room base deep in the more unstable parts of the Nevernever and provide both an escort and a guide.
  • Dimension Lord: Of the Dreaming... which is implied to include the entire Nevernever and maybe, the Astral Plane too.
  • Dream Weaver: Sometimes referred to as such, and it's his main job.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: With emphasis on the eerie part.
  • The Fettered: He is compulsively responsible.
  • Honor Before Reason: He takes his perceived duties very, very seriously, and if he thinks that he has acted improperly, he will immediately pull out all the stops to rectify it.
    • He also approves more generally of honourable behaviour and formal manners.
  • I Have Many Names: Seriously, so very, very many.
  • Painting the Medium: His dialogue is rendered in bold lettering.
  • Pet the Dog: After the Forever Red arc, he ensures that Harry doesn't have nightmares, having gone through something similar.
  • Reality Warper: And a terrifyingly powerful one. He effortlessly diverts a powerful portal into the Nevernever - which is implied to be part of the Dreaming, and a small one at that - to his doorstep. Delirium, meanwhile, states almost absently that the Dreaming, his kingdom, is where all gods (or to be specific, their godhood) are born.
  • Sacred Hospitality: Takes this very seriously, with Loki noting that Dream would consider himself honour-bound to assist and protect Harry if the latter wound up in the Dreaming, when they're speculating where Harry's mind might have fled to.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: Has only appeared once, but he's responsible for helping the heroes recover Harry's mind, and plays a role in his later recovery.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: The narration notes that with his messy dark hair, his pale skin, height and lean build, he looks very much like he could be Harry's uncle — which, technically, he is, albeit by adoption. He and Death are also unmistakably siblings.
  • The Stoic: He plays this role, particularly in contrast to his siblings. While the others are very expressive (Loki states that Destruction in particular "has no middle gears"), Dream rarely shows much emotion

     Delirium 

Delirium II a.k.a. Luna Lovegood

The new incarnation of Delirium, formerly known as Delight. According to Death, the original just wandered off one day. In chapter 72 of Child of the Storm, she was replaced by Luna Lovegood. Most tropes here are about the Second Delirium.



  • Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Luna does this post-mortem by becoming the new Delirium.
  • Badass Adorable: Luna Lovegood, adorable to begin with, is now one of the seven most powerful beings in the universe.
  • Barefoot Loon: Most people thought she was mad even before she became Delirium, and she tended not to wear shoes (if only because they were pinched).
  • Brutal Honesty: A key character trait prior to her ascension.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: The old one was definitely this, in a potentially dangerous and deeply tragic sort of way. The new one is sweeter and more harmless, though still prone to being bullied as a result. Harry takes this very personally, and attempts to rectify this, though he ultimately does more harm than good.
  • Creepy Good: The first had a serious case of Blue-and-Orange Morality. The second is definitely good, but she's a bit... off.
  • Demoted to Extra: For fairly obvious reasons, after chapter 70 of Child of the Storm.
  • Hyper-Awareness: Luna, even before she became the Second Delirium.
  • The Gwen Stacy: To Harry, since he doesn't know that she's now Delirium.
  • Loners Are Freaks: Luna was the inverse, though she did have a couple of friends: Ginny and Harry.
  • Loon with a Heart of Gold: As per canon, Luna is this, if occasionally very direct, and it sticks even after she comes to personify weirdness.
  • Loophole Abuse: Bends the Rules as far as she's able to help Harry, dropping a couple of very unsubtle hints to help out.
  • Morality Chain: When alive, the Second Delirium functioned as this to Harry, indirectly encouraging him to curb his Bully Hunter tendencies and recognise that they were more about his anger than anything else via a case of Brutal Honesty. It is notable that immediately after she dies, Harry snaps first into Tranquil Fury, then Unstoppable Rage.
  • Nice Girl: Fits this like a glove.
  • Noodle Incident: It's unclear what happened to her predecessor, other than that she "wandered off."
  • The Polly Anna: Luna isn't as divorced from reality as she sometimes appears.
  • Theme Naming: It is rather appropriate that someone called Luna would become Delirium.
  • Unexpected Character: Luna taking up the mantle was most definitely unexpected - though also rather fitting.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: Luna, even prior to her ascension.

Other Cosmic Entities

Beyond the Endless there are a plethora of other Cosmic Entities which play a role in keeping the balance of the universe.

     Eternity 

The embodiment of the universe, he plays a very minor role in the series.



  • Abstract Apotheosis: Eternity is the embodiment of the universe.
  • The Cameo: Appears once, briefly, when Harry is traveling on the Bifrost (or, from another point of view, is the most present character in the series).
  • Eldritch Abomination: By the description made when Harry Sees him when travelling for the first time by the Bifrost. However, he's far less monstrous than most versions of this trope.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: He doesn't really do much of anything...on the other hand, he is everything.

     Celestials 

Nigh-omnipotent race of beings, sometimes described as space gods, who command a far greater authority than even the gods.



  • Ancient Astronauts: They are described as space gods, and their MO is intervening in/experimenting on the development of life on planets, Earth included.
  • God's Hands Are Tied: They are the reason why they're tied. The Celestials forbade the gods from intervening on Earth a thousand years before the story begins.
  • Respected by the Respected: These are beings who can tell Skyfathers and Earthmothers what to do.
  • The Unsolved Mystery: Their exact origins are unknown. Heimdall postulates that they could be a creation of Eternity, or that they may come from another reality.

     Galactus 

Galactus

I CONSUME LIFE THAT HAS RUN ITS COURSE. I PROCESS IT. I TRANSFORM IT. AND I GIVE IT NEW PURPOSE.

Mentioned in Child of the Storm, Galactus is a being that devours worlds to feed himself, in order to keep beings far worse than himself sealed away and to recycle life energy. He finally appears in The Phoenix and the Serpent.



  • Affably Evil: He's not exactly evil, more an indifferent force of nature that happens to kill a lot of people, but he's quite polite - even when Harry's threatening him. He's also accepting of the idea that he might have his Herald replaced (eventually), and is willing to experiment with the whole 'allowing feelings' thing, even sincerely warning the Surfer that he might well be worse off for it.
  • Big Eater: On a cosmic scale.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Apparently, approximating the Above Good and Evil approach - he serves a cosmic purpose, no more, no less. Sunniva still loathes him on the grounds of his indifference to what he does and which worlds he targets.
  • Connected All Along: As it turns out, he's an agent/aspect of the Phoenix in Her role as Destruction.
  • The Dreaded: Nobody wants to mess with him—even Krypton's response at the height of its power was to just put up its shield and have Odin teleport it away.
  • Evil Is Bigger: For a given value of evil. Either way, he's about the size of a small star, his spaceship is the size of a solar system, and he has eyes the size of moons.
  • Mind Rape: Habitually removes or at least severely dulls the empathic capacity of his Heralds. He says that this is to prevent them from going mad, but when the Silver Surfer appeals to him to retain it after Sakaar, he accepts, with the proviso that they'll revert if the Surfer can't cope.
  • No Indoor Voice: He usually speaks in a full Caps Lock to convey this via Painting the Medium, though he can tone it down a bit.
  • Sizeshifter: He can shrink from his usual form to one approximately human-sized.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: He was apparently nearly responsible for destroying Krypton in the past. He also sends Sunniva and Harry to Sakaar, and is summoned by the former to perform the coup de grace on the Grandmaster, devouring him.
  • Worthy Opponent: Averted. Sunniva absolutely loathes him (although she acknowledges the necessity of his existence), all the more so after she sees how utterly broken the Surfer is. In turn, he's surprisingly polite to Harry and Sunniva, if disconcerted at first that he's being threatened by a kid.

     The Silver Surfer 

Norrin Radd a.k.a. the Silver Surfer

The Herald of Galactus. The Angel of Death and the Harbinger of the End-Times for countless worlds, when finally free to think a bit more clearly, he is thoroughly sick of his existence.



  • Broken Ace: Immensely powerful, entrancing beautiful, with knowledge beyond telling... and, at best, borderline suicidal.
  • Chrome Champion: As per canon, he's covered in silvery metal, and he's immensely powerful. Not only that, but he functions as this for Galactus, as his Herald, and very unwillingly, as the Champion of Sakaar.
  • Death Seeker: On Sakaar, he makes it very plain that whatever scheme Sunniva has in mind doesn't need to account for his life, because he has absolutely no desire to survive what follows. When he's forced to attack the heroes, he begs them to give no quarter as he will not be able to, and is positively ecstatic with relief when he hears that this will be so. After, he's a little more optimistic, but Julie raises the possibility that he may still want to die when he can.
  • Fighting from the Inside: The Grandmaster can control his actions, but either can't control his voice or doesn't bother, so he's entirely capable of begging for death before he's forced to hurt someone.
  • Forced into Evil: While he made the pact with Galactus to preserve his world, his empathy was dulled to be a more effective Herald/not go insane, and then explicitly by the Grandmaster, who runs him like a puppet at times. No wonder he wants to die.
  • Nice Guy: He's quite friendly, genuinely kind when he can be, and expresses gratitude for intercession on his behalf even when he's asking people to stop.
  • Physical God: He's the longstanding Champion of Sakaar and can fight evenly with a former King of Asgard, even when he really doesn't want to.
  • Time Abyss: There's no clear statement on how old the Surfer is, but his first substantive appearance is 40,000 years before the main story, he's implied to have already been doing his job for a long time, and thanks to his Early-Bird Cameo in Book I, he's guaranteed to be doing it for 40 millennia more. He seems fairly at peace with the concept, since it means freedom eventually, and he can do it on his terms.

     Gorakhnath 

Gorakhnath

Because [Taliesin] was your name when we first met. And in part because it is a reminder, old friend: for that was when you were at your best.

One of those strange entities who's a bit hard to classify, being an exceptionally powerful tulpa (psychic entity) who was created an unknown number of millennia ago by Vishnu to defeat a psychic demon called Logos. After that, he went travelling the universe in search of knowledge, meeting the Phoenix in the process. Now, he's a yogi and teacher in his own right, with one of his former students being none other than Stephen Strange himself. The two disagree philosophically, but Strange comes to him in Ghosts, asking specifically for his different perspective when teaching Harry.


  • The Anticipator: Impressively, he pulls this on Strange - though it is probable that Strange could have stayed hidden if he was really trying. Later, he does this to Nagraj Shah as well. Godlike Psychic Powers probably help with this.
  • The Anti-Nihilist: Is aware that all things will, eventually, end (perhaps to be reborn) and is perfectly fine with the idea, preferring to wonder in the cosmos while it's around. Certainly, it's telling that he considers Thanos, who seeks to destroy everything as a lover's gift to Death, to be "the universe's greatest fool."
  • Barefoot Sage: Though considering that his body is a mere creation of his will, it's somewhat superfluous.
  • Brutal Honesty: He's kindly enough, but he's certainly not shy about giving his opinion if he feels a student of his is lacking something - in Harry's case, understanding of the theory behind his powers. He also refers to Harry's Astral Projection through Carol in Bloody Hell as impressive... and like watching a child juggle hand-grenades. Live hand-grenades.
  • Closer to Earth: He prefers a much simpler existence, studying, teaching, and contemplating in a small valley in the Himalayas.
  • Deadpan Snarker: It's very mild, but it's there, as Harry finds out.
  • Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Subverted. After he completed his purpose (defeating Logos), he found a new purpose pretty quickly.
  • Disappointed in You: Specifically, in Strange. It's mildly expressed and mostly manifests in his pointedly calling Strange by his original name (Taliesin), which he had when Strange was his student, and when - Gorakhnath's opinion - he was at his best.
  • Fallen Hero: Regards Strange as this, to a degree, pointedly referring to him as Taliesin - his original name, which he had when he was Gorakhnath's student, as a reminder of what he used to be. Strange accepts it with good grace, having sadly observed that he'd arguably become He Who Fights Monsters and viewing his work as Necessarily Evil.
  • Hermit Guru: More or less, though he originally went out into the universe to seek knowledge, and now just prefers the quiet life. It's also noted that while he's willing to teach, his patience for those people, local or foreign, who just want to meet him to bolster their 'spiritual' credentials is limited.
  • Magical Asian: Played With. He looks Indian, he lives in India, but since he's a psychic entity, he isn't even human - or, for that matter, magical.
  • Master of One Magic: Zig-zagged, in that he's actually a master of two abilities. It's noted that Gorakhnath's knowledge of both Psychic Powers and using the powers of the Phoenix are even greater than that of Doctor Strange, one part of why Strange comes to him for help teaching Harry.
  • The Mentor: He played this role to Doctor Strange, a long time ago, more recently for Nagraj Shah, and ends up as a teacher for Harry as well.
  • Nice Guy: Despite his disagreements with Strange, and occasional bluntness, he still speaks politely with him, and is shown greeting Harry in a vision with a kind smile.
  • Noodle Incident: He's been around quite a bit. Gorakhnath is at least somewhat familiar with both Thanos and Joshua and their respective modus operandi, as well as having corresponded with Dumbledore.
  • Not So Above It All: As the narration observes, even the most enlightened of souls is not immune to the temptation to give irritating tourists (local or foreign) a thick ear.
  • Old Master: He taught Doctor Strange, something which qualifies him as both ancient, and impressive. While he taught him back when he was still Taliesin; young, idealistic, and Walking the Earth to gain knowledge, and before the Time Stone altered him into The Ageless Time Master and master manipulator that he would become, Strange still regards him with definite respect. Indeed, he explicitly notes that Gorakhnath's knowledge of the Phoenix is even greater than his own.
  • Opposed Mentors: Actually invoked by Strange, who's worried about Harry imbibing too much of his philosophy and picking up too many of his traits - he sees his own actions and, indeed, nature, as Necessarily Evil.
  • Parental Substitute: Implied to be one for Nagraj Shah.
  • Psychic Powers: On a titanic scale. He's at least as strong as Maddie or Jean, the strongest human psychics ever born, and exponentially more sophisticated and skilled than them, enough to detect Strange's presence, and Harry watching him as part of a Vision Quest with the Norns in Asgard (and he promptly tells him that he's early, before sending him on), a feat that only Surtur - the original freaking Dark Phoenix - and 'Nathan', a millennia old alternate reality version of Harry, manage to equal.
  • Strong and Skilled: His psychic powers are titanic in scale, and he's had millennia to master them. Indeed, his knowledge of psychic matters may even be greater than Doctor Strange's, which says all that needs to be said.
  • Time Abyss: He's not as old as Strange, thanks to the latter's time travelling, but his age is minimally counted in millennia, if not tens of millennia.
  • Tulpa: Created by Vishnu, he's a very old and very powerful one, being at least as strong as Maddie or Jean, with an exponentially more sophisticated grasp of his power and how it works.

     The Infinity Stones 

The (in)famous Stones which Thanos is searching for. Individually, they are monstrously powerful and incredibly dangerous both to their wielder and those around them. United, they grant a sufficiently powerful wielder total omnipotence. And as becomes increasingly apparent, at least one of them has a mind of its own...


  • Artifact of Doom: The stones themselves qualify (they're not explicitly evil, but they have two notable downsides):
    • First, they attract all kinds of of tyrants and monsters, seeking to harness the stones for their own ends. And when they do, the results tend not to be remotely pretty - as the campaigns of HYDRA during WWII, the Battle of New York and its prelude, and Ronan's attempted destruction of Xandar, all demonstrate. Even when one 'merely' altered someone, the result was Doctor Strange, arguably the most dangerous individual in history.
    • Second, they exact a price for wielding their power, as the Red Skull, Malekith, and Doctor Strange all found out. And that's if you survive wielding it to begin with.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: The Reality Stone is potentially the most powerful of the lot, but as Malekith found, it's completely unstable, meaning that its power levels fluctuate and stutter without warning. However, it's still powerful enough that Malekith could take on all the other Realms in a fight to the death and push them to the limit.
  • Bargain with Heaven/Deal with the Devil: It depends heavily on how you interpret it, but broadly speaking, Doctor Strange's bargain with the Time Stone comes off as this, as the ultimate aim is benevolent... even if the means may not be.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: It's not clear what moral system they follow, if they do at all. However, like in the films, the Tesseract eventually lashed out at the Red Skull (though unlike the films, it's not made clear whether he just burned up from holding it or not). Additionally, the Time Stone is implied to have a very definite problem with what Thanos is planning, resulting in it turning Taliesin into Doctor Strange.
  • Bright Is Not Good: They're all shiny and at the very least, they're incredibly dangerous, while at least one has its own morally ambiguous agenda.
  • The Chessmaster: The Time Stone is implied to be planning a way to stop Thanos, setting events in motion by granting Strange his immortality and enhancing his powers as a Time Master and Seer.
  • Earth-Shattering Kaboom: This is the very least a Stone is capable of.
  • Empathic Weapon: The Time Stone is definitely one, being able to communicate with Doctor Strange sufficient to make a bargain with him, and potentially plan a way to stop Thanos - certainly, it has its own agenda. It's unclear whether the others qualify - the Tesseract might, but so far, the Time Stone is the only one confirmed to act on its own.
  • Enigmatic Empowering Entity: The Time Stone is the only one of the Stones known for certain to act on its own (the Tesseract's situation is more ambiguous), and is revealed in chapter 20 of Ghosts to have granted Doctor Strange immortality and greatly enhanced his abilities as a Time Master and Seer. Why it did this isn't totally clear, though Word of God hints that it's because the Stone is aware of what Thanos is planning and is Not Pleased.
  • Gotta Catch 'Em All: Thanos' goal is to collect all Six.
  • In Name Only: Like in the films, the Reality Stone a.k.a. the Aether, tends to change shape at any given moment.
  • It Can Think: It comes as a great surprise to the cast (and readers) when it's revealed that the Time Stone can think. It's unclear if the others can, but Time is the only one known to act on its own.
  • Jack of All Stats: The Tesseract is probably the most reliable and, practically, flexible of the Stones. By contrast, the Reality Stone is this in theory, but is noted as being completely unstable and therefore next to impossible to use to its full potential.
  • Physical God: A single Stone wielder can quite easily become this. The Reality Stone turned Malekith into someone capable of going toe to toe with Bor, a Skyfather and a Reality Warper in his own right, and fight an extended war with Asgard, Alfheim, Vanaheim, Jotunheim, and Nidavaellir. And that is despite the fact that Malekith couldn't use it to its full potential, due to its instability.
  • Power at a Price: As mentioned above, even indirect empowerment by a Stone exacts a price, as several characters find out the hard way. Even the most benevolent empowerment, by the Time Stone, takes a massive toll on Doctor Strange the person it empowered - there is such a thing as being cursed with knowledge, after all.
  • Reality Warper: The primary power of the Reality Stone (which is notably unstable), and of all six Stones combined - though in truth, they all have some aspect of this.
  • Shrouded in Myth: All of the Stones, to an extent. No one knows exactly where they come from, no one knows all of what they can do, and no one - potentially not even Strange, who's encountered at least three - knows where all of them are; the Reality Stone is currently missing in action (no one's totally sure where Bor put it after he extracted it from Malekith), the Soul Stone has only been mentioned in passing, and no one knows when the Time Stone is, let alone where.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: Of the two seen onscreen, neither has appeared for more than a cameo. However, the Reality Stone made Malekith into a Nine Realms-wide threat, Strange used the Tesseract to help convince the Council Elite to leave Harry alone, not to mention the role it played in bringing the Avengers together in the first place. Additionally, the Time Stone, through empowering Strange, is therefore indirectly responsible for pretty much everything in the story.
  • Super-Empowering: The Time Stone did this of its own volition to Doctor Strange, granting him immortality and enhancing his abilities as a Time Master and a Seer.
    • The Tesseract did the same thing, possibly unintentionally, to Monica.
  • Thinking Up Portals: This is the very least the Tesseract can do.
  • Time Is Dangerous: The Time Stone is generally agreed to be the most dangerous of the lot - partly because of its powers, partly because it can think. Since it's responsible for giving Taliesin the powers and vision that turned him into Doctor Strange, calling it "dangerous" is considerably underselling it.
  • Time Master: The Time Stone, primarily, though Word of God has suggested that the Tesseract and the Reality Stone can both affect time to a lesser degree, due to the connection between Time and Space.

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