This is a list of characters associated with the Crimson Guard from Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. Please beware of spoilers. If you haven't finished the series and Ian Esslemont's Novels of the Malazan Empire you're probably best off not reading past the character descriptions.
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The Guard as a whole
A mercenary company sworn to battle the Malazan Empire, the Crimson Guard is first introduced fighting alongside the forces of Caladan Brood and the Free Cities of Genabackis against the Malazan conquest. The Guard consists of four companies, with numerous mages and the formidable Avowed, immortal and abnormally strong warriors who swore the original Vow to fight the Malazan Empire until its destruction.
- Ape Shall Not Kill Ape: The Logros T'lan Imass loyal to Kellanved refused to engage the Guard on the field of battle, later revealed to be due to the Guard's connection to the Imass' own Ritual.
- Arch-Enemy: The Guard is this to the Malazan Empire ever since they were the first to deny the Malazans a new conquest during the expedition to Stratem.
- Blessed with Suck: The Vow actually incorporates the same magic as the Ritual of Tellann that granted the T'lan Imass their immortality, which means that the Avowed are doomed to the same fate until they can find their own version of Silverfox to release them.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Most of the Avowed are this, being hardened veterans who gained immortality, a Healing Factor, and Super-Strength by swearing the Vow.
- La Résistance: Against the Malazans.
- Press-Ganged: The Guard recruits new members via "inductions" which are little more than a glorified version of press gangs, often taking new troops from slave traders.
- Resurrective Immortality: In its variation of the Ritual of Tellann, the Vow allows those bound to it to return to life after being killed. Even those who accept their own deaths will eventually be able to return to the realm of the living.
- Spirit Advisor: The deceased Avowed of the Guard — known as the Brethren — serve as this to their living counterparts, communicating with them from beyond the grave. Many of the Brethren are actually Treacherous Advisors who deliberately prevent those who support K'azz from providing warning of Skinner's coup.
- Super-Soldier: Each of the Avowed is a One-Man Army, and they form the core of the Guard's strength. Six Avowed are able to stall a force of thousands of Itko Kanese troops at a choke point during The Battle of the Plains and an especially skilled Avowed is equal in capacity to one of the Seguleh's top thousand fighters.
The Avowed
K'azz D'Avore
A deposed prince from Quon Tali, K'azz D'Avore led 600 devoted companions in declaring the Vow that binds the Crimson Guard to fight the Malazan Empire with their newfound immortality. At the start of the series, he has been absent for years, the causes of his disappearance unknown.
- Ambiguously Human: The Novels of the Malazan Empire make it clear that there is something wrong with K'azz the more time is spent with him, providing descriptions of his appearances being unusually skeletal and having him survive a Letherii drowning trial that should have killed even an Avowed. It turns out that he is a T'lan Imass because of the Vow, like all those who took it alongside him.
- And I Must Scream: Imprisoned underground for years alongside a shard of the Crippled God. It's remarkable that he's even remotely sane after being rescued.
- Back from the Dead: It is revealed that he died after being sealed beneath the Dolmens of Tien by Skinner but took advantage of the Guard's Resurrective Immortality abilities.
- Dark Secret: He knows that the Vow was affected by the Warren of Tellann, which condemns the Avowed to the same eternal suffering as the Imass.
- Exact Words: When he uses the pseudonym "Jan" he does not, strictly speaking, lie about his identity, since that is part of his full name.
- Unseen No More: We see several members of the Crimson Guard in Gardens of the Moon, but K'azz himself is unseen, and he doesn't join the alliance against the Pannion Domin in Memories of Ice. It isn't until Return Of the Crimson Guard that he finally makes an on-screen appearance, and there it is revealed that the supposed K'azz D'Avore mentioned during the aforementioned books was actually a double.
Skinner
'Pretty damn scary.'
Return of the Crimson Guard
The leader of the Ninth Blade of the Crimson Guard, one of its most storied regiments.
- 24-Hour Armor: He is outfitted in his armor all the time, including while sleeping.
- Armor of Invincibility: The magical armour given to Skinner by Ardata renders him invulnerable in combat, allowing him to confront the far superior swordsman Dassem Ultor in combat without being immediately slain.
- The Dragon: To the Crippled God as the King of High House Chains after the death of Rhulad Sengar.
- Eaten Alive: After his contract with Ardata is terminated, his armour becomes a swarm of spiders that eats him alive down to his bones.
- Fetch Quest: During Blood and Bone he spends most of the book hunting the remains of the Crippled God as King of High House Chains, visiting the Sky Tower of Korel, a ruined Meckros City and the jungles of Himatan.
- Obviously Evil: He's unpleasant to be around, frightening his former comrades, wears a dark black armour 24/7 and is absolutely chomping at the bit to make himself leader of the Crimson Guard in K'azz's absence. Is it any surprise he's a villain?
- The Starscream: He was responsible for sealing K'azz underneath the Dolmens of Tien in order to take his place as leader of the the Guard.
Shimmer
The commander of the Second Company of the Crimson Guard
- Amazing Technicolor Population: She is ethnically Napan.
- Back from the Dead: In Assail, she dies from drowning but refuses to join the Brethren and instead returns to the realm of the living.
- Bodyguard Babes: She was once one of these to the Kanese king back when she was known as Iko.
- Dance Battler: Her Whip Sword weapon was traditionally used in elaborate dances in addition to combat, and she describes her battles with it as a dance even after over a century within the Guard.
- Murderous Thighs: A man who assaults her in a vulnerable position regrets it when she grasps his neck in her legs, and throws him off her in such a way that he breaks his neck.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She's short, but that doesn't stop her from being one of the Guard's most formidable warriors.
- Undying Loyalty: To K'azz D'Avore. She supports him when Skinner attempts to take over the Guard and later feels crushing guilt when she gives orders to the Guard during his absence, going to great lengths to find him and bring him along during her expedition to Assail.
- Whip Sword: Her weapon of choice. The weapon is similar to the Indian urumi, but with an enhanced lethality thanks to magic which allows the blade to be far more pliable than real-world metals allow.
Cowl
A sinister mage of the Crimson Guard's ranks and the leader of the Veils, its assassin corps. He is loyal to Skinner, but otherwise uncontrollable.
- Buried Alive: He willingly chooses being consumed by the grounds of Deadhouse on Malaz isle as an alternative to being killed by Topper.
- The Dragon: To Skinner.
- Evil Counterpart: To Topper. The two rivals are powerful mages notorious for leading the assassins of two opposing forces, Cowl's Veils within the the Guard and Topper's Claw for the Malazan Empire. However, Cowl is treacherous and collaborates with Skinner to overthrow K'azz while Topper remains steadfastly loyal to the Empire even when it means sacrificing his own position.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has a series of scars on his neck from a fight against Dancer back when they were both unknown.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: When he escapes from the Deadhouse, he returns to the Guard but his return seems to be motivated not by any genuine change of heart but instead by sadistic a desire to witness the Guard's reaction to the revelations about the Vow.
- Mysterious Protector: He briefly serves this role to Crokus, protecting the Coinbearer from the Tiste Andii assassins.
Iron Bars
The leader of the Second Blade of the Crimson Guard, sometimes known simply as Bars. He is stranded in Lether after a mission gone wrong, where he meets Seren Pedac.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: On the offering end rather than the receiving one. He slays Rhulad Sengar with ease without even knowing that his opponent is the Edur king and he later dispatches the leader of the Jheck with no more difficulty, astonishing the Errant.
- Heroic Willpower: He has this in spades and it's what allows him to survive his captivity at The Stormwall
- Living Battery: He is used as one by Ussü, a renegade Malazan mage. Ussü is able to circumvent the restrictions on magery in Korel by closing his hands around the hearts of human sacrifices, but they die before he can do much. This leads him to exploit Bars' Healing Factor to power his sorcery.
- Klingon Promotion: Like Anomander Rake, he inadvertently performs one when he fights and kills a Seguleh.
- Say My Name: SKINNERRRRRRR!!!!!!!
Other Guardsmen
Kyle
A Bael tribesman recruited into the Guard, Kyle stumbles into a conspiracy at the heart of the Avowed which forces him to fight for his life.
- Absurd Cutting Power: The Whiteblade sword he is given by Osserc lets him cleave a metal chain as though it were a taut rope.
- Aerith and Bob: His very name is a popular joke in the fandom, standing out as incredibly strange and modern among the fantastical names the other characters sport. Assail reveals that his full name is actually Kylarral-ten.
- Anti-Magic: Another benefit of the Whiteblade, which he uses to fight the Koreli sorcerers.
- Duel to the Death: He fights on against a native of Assail for the right to pursue the "Quest."
- Number Two: As Greymane's adjunct, he serves this role during the campaign in Korel.
- Tragic Keepsake: He keeps the amber stone worn by Ereko after the latter's death, an object which ends up being a major Chekhov's Gun which he presents to the Forkrul Assail who preside over the forging of the new peace between the races.
Greymane
A former Malazan commander cast out after a mysterious incident, he has joined the Crimson Guard while on the run from his former comrades. He possesses a mysterious sword empowered by Burn, said to have only one other equal.
- Anti-Magic: His D'riss-empowered sword negates earthen magical assaults attempted by the Lady within a certain radius around him.
- Due to the Dead: His corpse is deposited by the Stormriders within The Hole alongside his sword.
- Hammerspace: This appears to be how he summons his sword, which appears to his hands without him carrying it.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Destroying the Stormwall results in his own drowning in the waters he unleashes.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Using his sword, he brings down the Stormwall. With the sea water no longer held back, this triggers a massive flood which devastates all in its path and triggers tidal waves throughout Korel.
- Recruiting the Criminal: He is eventually accepted back into the Malazan ranks by Emperor Mallick Rel despite his outstanding arrest warrant because his knowledge of Korel makes him indispensable for the punitive campaign against the renegade 6th army.
- Sadistic Choice: With his sword, he has two choices: use it to destroy the Stormwall — killing a untold number of civilians while putting an end to the Lady's tyranny — or let the Stormwall stand, preventing the deaths in the flooding that the wall's destruction would cause but allowing the Lady's exploitation of Korel to continue unabated. During Stonewielder's finale, he finally settles for the former.
Corlo
A member of Bars' squad who is stranded with him on Lether.
- Master of Illusion: A Mockra mage.
- Really 700 Years Old: Like many mages, his lifespan is far beyond that of a normal human, which makes him one of the few non-Avowed Guardsmen to have fought in the ranks since its early days.
