The characters from The Smirvlak Trilogy, which includes Smirvlak's Stone, Smirvlak's Followers, and Smirvlak's Wrath.
Some spoilers are unmarked.
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Main Characters
Nickolas "Nick" Corveel
- "YEAH! WE'RE GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!"
The younger of the two goblin Corveel brothers.
- Ambiguous Disorder: Nick mentioned that he's been called a "retard" multiple times growing up. While Nick does act like a Manchild or a Cloudcuckoolander and is very clingy to Gnek, he's actually a lot smarter than he appears to be and knows the definition of words most goblins don't know.
- The Anti-Nihilist: Nick knows that life can end at any moment for anybody. It's because of this that he chooses to act foolish and carefree, since he figured he may as well spend his life being happy.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Played for Drama. Nick soils himself after he discovers Stilyk's body and has a mental breakdown.
- Combat Pragmatist: Stilyk teaches Nick not to fight, but to survive. And the first he teaches him is to fight dirty, such as using a Groin Attack against foes.
- Decoy Protagonist: He gets the most screentime in Smirvlak's Stone and the story makes him out to be one of the central characters in the whole trilogy. He's killed at the end of the first novel, right before two more protagonists are introduced.
- Despair Event Horizon: After Nick finds out Gnek killed their parents, he becomes so distraught that he sees no purpose in life anymore.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Nick is much less mature compared to Gnek, and he frequently acts like an oblivious child.
- Gasshole: He's very flatulent, and has a habit of intentionally farting around others to annoy them for his own amusement.
- Get It Over With: After Gnek explains that he murdered their parents and is trying to destroy all life on earth, Gnek tells him to go ahead and kill him because he has nothing left to live for.
- Kill the Cutie: One of the kindest, albeit naive, characters in the Legatum series is murdered by the end of Smirvlak's Stone.
- Potty Failure: He violently shits himself in chapter 1 of Smirvlak's Stone while he's throwing up and suffering from a hangover.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: His last words are him calmly and coldly chewing out his brother on how he's just a pessimistic, cowardly sadist.Nick: "I hate you. You are a coward, and a hypocrite, and a manipulative cunt. You whine about how people fabricate history, yet you won't acknowledge that you yourself have done the same thing when it comes to who truly killed our parents. You think that I'm an idiot, yet you were the one who wasted so much time trying to force me to conform to your beliefs, thinking I'd be stupid enough to bow down and submit to your will. You say life is meaningless, but let's face it: you're just a cold-hearted sadistic twat who is using his pessimism as an excuse to justify his actions. I was raped only one night ago, and I would rather experience that pain ten times over than die knowing that the only person I loved betrayed me. I hope you can't eat after tonight. I hope I haunt you while you sleep and you wake up every morning finding out that you pissed yourself with fright. I hope that you're so tormented by this that you end up killing yourself. And when I see your soul burning in Hell for all eternity, and you see mine, and you ask for forgiveness? I’m gonna look the other way. Because there's not a fucking thing you can do to stop me from hating you."
- Sacrificial Lion: His death, alongside Stilyk's, hammered in that Anyone Can Die in the trilogy—especially given that Nick was implied to be the main protagonist.
- Slashed Throat: How Gnek kills him.
- Stress Vomit: When he's caught in the middle of a Yellow Fang raid, he starts throwing up profusely after witnessing several grisly murders.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: He nevers wears a shirt at any point in Smirvlak's Stone.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Deconstructed. Nick knows that there are horrible things in the world, but due to his obliviousness, his dependence of his brother, and his Ambiguous Disorder, he's incapable of actually seeing and comprehending it, only choosing to see the good in society. So when Nick is raped, discovers that his brother is part of a cult trying to destroy the world, and realizes that Gnek murdered their parents, he sees no point in living anymore and tells Gnek to kill him.
- You Need a Breath Mint: Similar to Gnek, he's got foul breath—something his brother and a few other characters comment on.
Gnekvizz "Gnek" Corveel
- "Life is just...a pointless series of events happening that people will inevitably forget about. It's generation upon generation of races and species coming and going, ultimately becoming extinct, because people aren't capable of giving up their self-destructive, violent tendencies."
The older of the two goblin Corveel brothers.
- Big Bad: Gnekvizz is the true villain of the trilogy.
- Big Brother Instinct: Subverted. Gnek's relationship with his brother is estranged, and he constantly keeps leaving him for Tallak to take care of him. Fully inverted by the end of Smirvlak's Stone, where he reveals that he hates Nick and ends up killing him when he refuses to join his cult.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He acts friendly, but he's really a nihilistic sociopath who doesn't care about anyone and is solely concerned on destroying the world.
- Combat Pragmatist: Like Nick and Stilyk, he isn't a good fighter even though he knows how to use magic. And just like them, he fights dirty when he has to.
- Evil All Along: Not including the actions of the Yellow Fang triibe, Gnek was behind everything in Smirvlak's Stone. He manipulated Nick and Stilyk into escorting him to Erelorn after he found out Stilyk had the eponymous stone. Once he delivered it to the Sect, he killed Stilyk and Nick.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Gnek is much more responsible and mature compared to his younger, naive brother Nick.
- Self-Made Orphan: He murdered his own parents after they caught him having sex in their home at night and chastised him for his homosexual tendencies.
- Straight Gay: Gnek is openly homosexual, although he doesn't look or sound like he is. Hardly anyone even assumes this unless he starts flirting with male characters.
- Straw Nihilist: He sees no purpose in life, and thinks that once he dies, everyone will forget about him and fabricate what truly happened in his life. This is largely the reason why he wants to destroy the world by resurrecting Smirvlak, to show everyone just how meaningless life can be.
- Walking Spoiler: With the exception that he's Nick's older brother, saying anything else about Gnek spoils his entire character.
- You Need a Breath Mint: Just like Nick, Gnek has bad breath, and both he and other characters openly tell him this.
Stilyk Cruun
- "Mind explaining to me why I'm suddenly traveling with two toad-faced mongrels?"
A wandering stilio who teams up with the Corveels after he tries selling the eponymous stone in Tallak's shop.
- Combat Pragmatist: Stilyk admits to Nick that he doesn't know how to fight. The only reason why he's still alive is because he knows how subdue his foes using dirty tactics. He even tells Nick this when he teaches him how to survive.Stilyk: "There is no such thing as fighting 'dirty.' This world is full of criminals, rapists, thieves, all that evil nonsense. None of them fight fair. At all. Don't you dare let someone tell you that you fight without honor or you fought 'dirty' just because you won a fight using unorthodox methods. That just makes you smart. You wanna bring a bow and arrow to a sword fight, you go right on ahead and do that."
- Dark and Troubled Past: When he was younger, his surrogate family was killed after his village was burned down by a dragon, and he spent the rest of his life wandering around and living on his own, steadily growing pessimistic as he grew older.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: He's abruptly killed in chapter 14 of Smirvlak's Stone, and his death is glossed over shortly after his body is found.
- Killed Offscreen: Gnek kills him off-screen, and Nick finds his body shortly after he's murdered.
- Lizard Folk: He's a stilio, an anthropomorphic lizard creature.
- Mirror Character: Stilyk finds out after revealing his past to Nick that he also had a similar upbringing. Both of them are orphans. Both of them are outcasts. And both of them seemingly had to grow up on their own.Stilyk: "You've any idea what it feels like to have your own kind hate you just because you're different from them?"Nick: "Yes."
- Perpetual Frowner: He's usually bitter and constantly seen scowling. It isn't until he opens up to Nick about his past that he becomes nicer.
- Sacrificial Lion: He's killed towards the end of Smirvlak's Stone, and his death hammered in for Nick that anyone, regardless of how likable or smart they are, can die at any time.
- Slashed Throat: How Gnek kills him.
Yellow Fang Tribe
In General
- Heinous Hyena: Everyone within the tribe is a gnoll, a bipedal, humanoid, hyena-like beast.
- The Pig-Pen: Most of the gnolls don't seem to bathe much. Some characters comment on how much they stink, and the narration mentions flies hovering around some of them.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: All the gnolls are bloodthirsty beasts who thrive off raping and killing innocent people.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: A good chunk of the tribe, including Nessla, decide to cut and run after they realize their leader is incompenent and going to get most, if not all of them killed—or kill them all himself. Given what happens at the end of Smirvlak's Stone, they were right to abandon the tribe.
Lorko Maeliss
- "I won't kill you. I'll be sure to make you my personal slave! I'll even wrap a collar around your neck, just to let everyone know that you're my prized pet!"
The leader of the Yellow Fang tribe.
- Bad Boss: Deconstructed. Lorko frequently kills his own minions for failure, or for petty reasons. He also gets several members of his tribe killed and never owns up to any of his mistakes, instead using his failures as a reason to blame his tribe. After doing this one too many times, Nessla and several gnolls in the tribe decide to leave while he's unconscious, and what's left of the Yellow Fang no longer respects him.
- Combat Pragmatist: He never fights fair. Whenever Lorko chooses, he relies on dirty tactics, his minions, and his skills in dark magic to defeat his enemies.
- Depraved Homosexual: Lorko is never seen having sexual attraction towards females, and he only rapes males. Even when he raided Nessla's village, he ignored Nessla, and instead raped her brother.
- Disc-One Final Boss: He's killed near the end of Smirvlak's Stone, just two chapters before it's revealed that Gnekvizz is the true villain of the trilogy.
- Excrement Statement: After he kills the strongest goblin within Nick and Gnek's village, he "honors" him by peeing on his corpse.
- It's All About Me: Lorko cares about no one but himself. He constantly reminds his minions that he runs the Yellow Fang tribe whenever any of them try to say that it's "our tribe."
- Never My Fault: Exaggerated. Lorko never admits to his mistakes or his various failures throughout the story, even when his own minions call him out on it. He even goes as far as blaming them, even though they did nothing wrong but follow his orders.
- Patricide: He murdered his father when he was only a pup.
- The Sociopath: He treats the Yellow Fang tribe as if it were his own prize possession that he can freely abuse as he wants, not caring that the members of said tribe are living, breathing individuals. It's also clear he doesn't care about anyone, considering how often he murders his minions and how he killed his own father and sold his mother to be a sex slave.
- Smug Snake: A colossal one. Lorko acts like he knows what he's doing, but he frequently makes decisions that get his gnolls killed. Not only does he never take responsibilty for his screw-ups, he blames and sometimes kills members of his tribe whenever they call him out on it.
- Stress Vomit: He throws up after he's wounded and overexerted from fighting several orcs.
- Undignified Death: His penis is bitten off while he's orally raping a goblin, and then he's stabbed to death while screaming hysterically. To rub further salt in the wound, it was Nick who killed him.
- The Unfettered: The only thing Lorko cares about is retrieving his stone once again. He doesn't care who he has to kill in order to require the stone again, even if it means slaughtering his own minions for failure or willingly leading them to their deaths.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: He only wears a red bandanna and reddish-brown trousers.
- You Need a Breath Mint: Several characters have told Lorko to his face that his breath stinks. Tallak even tried to give him a makeshift concoction of mouthwash.
Nessla
- "We-we are not as worthy as you; please, allow us to retrieve this stone as means of atonement."
Lorko's personal advisor who was forced into the Yellow Fang tribe.
- Anti-Villain: Nessla isn't part of the Yellow Fang by choice. The only reason why she's working alongside them is because Lorko's tribe killed her family and raped her into submission. Eventually she gets fed up with Lorko's antics and leaves him.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Nessla originally wasn't a violent gnoll—and still isn't. Lorko's gnolls raided her village and killed her family. Then Lorko had several of his gnolls rape her, and she was forced into working alongside him.
- The Dragon: She's Lorko's primary aid and advisor, and he always reports to her whenever he needs advice.
- Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: Averted. While not onscreen, Lorko isn't shy about reminding Nessla about how he allowed the females in his tribe rape Nessla. It's evident that she's still humiliated by the incident, and he used said incident to cull her into working for him.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The second Nessla sees an opportunity to leave Lorko after he got half his tribe killed, she takes it, and brings other reluctant gnolls with her.
Wervin & Loxx
- Loxx: "Where first, Great One? Where first?"Wervin: "Yes, Fierce Leader! Shall we pick the little goblins' bones clean until one talks?"
Two prominent gnolls within the Yellow Fang tribe.
- Ambiguously Gay: Wervin and Loxx may have been lovers. After Wervin dies, Loxx breaks down crying hysterically and begs Lorko to try and resurrect him, saying he "needs him." Lorko also refers to Wervin as Loxx's "friend" with emphasis.
- Berserker Tears: Loxx sheds them after Wervin dies.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Wervin is impaled in the abdomen by an orc's spear.
- Verbal Tic: Loxx tends to repeat some of the phrases he said in one sentence to form a new, shorter one.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Neither of them wears a shirt throughout Smirvlak's Stone.
- You Need a Breath Mint: When Mellis insults Wervin and says he's part of the "Bad Breath tribe," Loxx agrees. Wervin punches him in the muzzle with annoyance.
Karlnok
- "Who the fuck are you, Lorko? Some fierce leader? Some 'Mighty One'? Some almighty being? Uh-uh...nah. You the same as all of us: just another dirty-ass gnoll."
A rebellious member within the Yellow Fang tribe.
- Autocannibalism: Lorko becomes so frustrated over Karlnok's attitude that he hypnotizes him into eating himself until he dies.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Lorko uses dark magic to brainwash Karlnok into eating his own eyeballs and testicles. He presumably eats the rest of his flesh.
- Eye Scream: Lorko either carves out his eye and makes Karlnok eat them, or he brainwashed Karlnok into doing it.
- Hypocrite: Karlnok frequently criticizes Lorko on being overconfident, never acknowledging that he himself gets overconfident when he keeps insulting Lorko over and over again.
- Killed Offscreen: Karlnok is last seen still alive, but horribly mutilated. It's obvious he either bled to death, or he continued feasting on his own flesh until the shock killed him.
- Smug Snake: Karlnok repeatedly lectures Lorko on how incompetent he is, despite knowing he's dangerous and longing to kill him. He spends most of his time insulting Lorko without contributing to the tribe and pushing his buttons. Lorko eventually gets fed up with it and kills him.
Naviz
- "Sleep...tired. I-I was tired, Mighty One."
The gnoll who unintentionally lost the eponymous stone in Smirvlak's Stone.
- Eye Scream: Lorko gouged out his right eye offscreen as punishment for failure.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The only reason why Lorko started chasing after the Corveel brothers and Stilyk was because Naviz fell asleep when he was supposed to be looking after the stone. As a result, Stilyk was able to steal it while Naviz was sleeping.
- You Have Failed Me: Even after Lorko brutally tortures him and Naviz begs for forgiveness, Lorko kills him anyway.
Klorrvik
- "It’s time for someone else to rule this tribe!"
A member of the tribe who challenges Lorko to a fight to the death.
- Duel to the Death: Defied. Klorrvik challenges Lorko to one of these fights. Lorko promptly stabs him in the throat before Klorrvik can even pull his weapon.
- Too Dumb to Live: Klorrvik should've known better than to challenge Lorko, a shameless Combat Pragmatist, to a fair fight, especially given how Lorko killed Gulvaxx the Great.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He challenges Lorko to a fight, claiming that he'll be the reason behind the tribe's downfall. After that, he's killed.
Other Characters
Mulvernt
- See the Recurring Characters page.
Mellis
- "Errybody lookit Mellis, see how gross he is! But I ain’t care! Shit’s a shield, me goblin brethren! Best believe it!"
A goblin Nick encounters in a village who scoops up dung in the streets.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He's a very odd goblin who seems convinced that fecal matter and "embracing its stench" is the key to survival.
- Eye Scream: Mellis has only one eye, and doesn't even wear an eyepatch to cover up his visibly eye socket.
- Off with His Head!: He's decapitated by Wervin.
- The Pig-Pen: He's visible filthy and isn't keen on hygiene, and it's implied that the "brown blotches" he's covered in is excrement.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: All that's revealed about Mellis before he dies is that he has a bizarre fixation on excrement.
Dyls'lyk
- "Couple drinks don't give ya busted eyes, Gnek!"
One of the goblins who lives in the same village as the Corveel brothers.
- Jerkass: His only bit of screentime is spent lecturing Gnekvizz for going to a tavern and telling him he should've stayed at home.
- Killed Offscreen: He and the other goblins in the village are slaughtered offscreen by the Yellow Fang tribe.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He only has a few lines after his debut, and is killed in chapter 3 of Smirvlak's Stone.
Gulvaxx the Great
- "Put 'em swords up. Let's see if'n ya can 'andle Gulvaxx the Great!"
A goblin warrior who lives in the same village as the Corveel brothers.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: He's killed very anticlimactically before he even has the chance to fight Lorko.
- Dual Wielding: He fights with two scimitars.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: All we know about him is that he's the village's best warrior. Given how easily he died, this may have been an exaggeration.
- World's Best Warrior: Subverted. He's the best fighter within the village. Shame he went up against a Combat Pragmatist.
Tallak
- "Explain yerself, Gnekvizz Corveel!"
The goblin merchant who lives in the same village as the Corveel brothers. He's also frequently allows them to reside in his shop.
- Defiant to the End: Subverted. Tallak initially refuses to give up information to Lorko regarding the stone and the Corveel brothers, not caring that he'll die. But after Lorko sodomizes him, he breaks down and tells him all he knows.
- Killed Offscreen: Just before Lorko rapes him, the story cuts to the scene afterwards. The narration mentions that after Lorko got a confession from Tallak, he killed him.
- Off with His Head!: Lorko cuts off his head shortly after interrogating and raping him.
- Sacrificial Lamb: He has the most screentime and lines out of all the goblins in the village and seemed like he'd be a recurring character in the trilogy. He's killed early on in Smirvlak's Stone to show that Lorko will be a prominent threat throughout the story.
Swolotch Bollon
- "What's a filthy mutt like you doin' in my territory?!"
The leader of a fiscian tribe, and a member of the Bollon Empire.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: He's abruptly stabbed in the throat while ranting about his past atrocities.
- Fat Bastard: He's visibly obese compared to everyone else in his tribe, and he's a narcissistic, borderline sociopath who willingly lets his tribe starve.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Lorko stabs him in the throat while he's in the midst of ranting about how great he is.
- Mirror Character: Swolotch is exactly the same as Lorko Maeliss. Both of them are sociopaths. Both of them only care about themselves. Neither of them care about how much their tribe suffers. Both of them claim to be great leaders who accomplished many goals, but are shown to be incompetent Smug Snakes. And both of them are killed ignominiously.
- Narcissist: He spends most of his time gloating about how great he is and how his villagers adore him.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He's a narcissist who, allegedly, took over a couple kingdoms, killed an empress, and tamed a tribe. Shortly afterwards, Lorko kills him.
Aldar Mon'lyk
- "I am...I'm only thinking ahead, Great One. In case we run into trouble."
A member of Swolotch Bollon's tribe.
- Anti-Villain: Aldar isn't malicious by choice. The only reason why he joins the Yellow Fang tribe is because Lorko freed him and the other fiscians by killing Swolotch, and because he promised them food they desperately needed.
- The Dragon: To Swolotch Bollon. Later on he joins this position alongside Nessla to Lorko Maeliss.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: It's mentioned in the narration that he got his head cut in half while fighting a group of orcs.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Like the other fiscians in his tribe, he's a cannibal, and he wastes no time eating Swolotch's corpse along with the other fiscians. Justified, given how everyone in the tribe was starving and malnourished.
- Mirror Character: He's very similar to Nessla. Both of them are generally affable people who were forced into following a homicidal, sociopathic tribe leader. Both of them were culled by their leaders. Both of them are much smarter than their leaders and know their leaders will ultimately lead to their downfall. The only major difference between them is that Nessla decided to cut and run before it was too late, while Aldar blindly followed Lorko and ended up getting killed, along with the rest of the tribe.
- Mook Promotion: Aldar was just another fiscian following Swolotch who happened to have a name. He's promoted to being Lorko's second advisor, and the new leader of the fiscian tribe, after Lorko murders Swolotch.
