Characters / Sword of Truth

Main Characters

Richard Cypher

The Seeker of Truth. Originally a woods guide from the mostly pastoral nation of Westland, Richard was drawn into the struggle against Darken Rahl when he met Kahlan and Zedd named him the Seeker to oppose the Prince of Lies.

• Accidental Athlete: He ends up conscripted into the Imperial Order's Ja'La team after a failed attempt to escape, just because Karg was impressed by his combat skills.
• Accidental Marriage: Twice. Neither one was really more than a formality that Richard mostly ignored from that point on, but they caused some trouble in the long term by making it possible for Kahlan, as Richard's third wife, to summon the Chimes.
• Agent Mulder: Particularly in Soul of the Fire and Chainfire.
• Arrow Catch: Done using his magic to help.
• Badass Boast: He gets a few of them, occasionally calling himself the Bringer of Death, and once with, "I am the weapon."
• Batman Gambit: His attempt to break the Maternity Spell on Kahlan by invoking Love Redeems on Nicci, which turns out to be unnecessary.
• Bed Trick: Gets hit with this in Temple of the Winds, but given the circumstances, it was probably for the best.
• Berserk Button: Anyone following beliefs that Richard doesn't agree with.
• Black Magic: He is one of the first in 3000 years to be born with Subtractive Magic.
• Brought Down to Normal: During Phantom when he is hit by Six and Violet's Power Nullifier.
• Bullet Time: Bringer of Death.
• Cain and Abel: He's Abel... several times over.
• Character Filibuster: He makes some very long speeches. Very, very long speeches. Especially in Naked Empire, where he manages to become the first character to keep talking for more than a whole chapter.
• Character Tics: Running his hand through his hair.
• Child by Rape: The product of Darken Rahl raping Zedd's daughter.
• The Chosen One: The Seeker of Truth, the first War Wizard in three thousand years, the foretold leader of the Baka Ban Mana, a central figure in prophecy, and plenty more.
• Combat Pragmatist: "Dead is dead," is a common philosophy among Sword of Truth characters, but Richard takes it to a whole new level with his Dance with Death.
• Determinator: No manner how many times he's hit with events that nearly break him, he keeps going, until he literally goes to the underworld more than once without his resolve faltering one bit.
• Deus ex Machina: His unreliable magic suddenly working and allowing him to blast every problem out of his way, most notably in the eighth book where he recreates an antidote by apparently letting his gift guide him.
• Does Not Like Magic: After Kahlan tells him what the Confessors do to their male children, he comes to the conclusion that he despises magic and wants nothing to do with it. His encounter with Denna strengthened his belief that Magic Is Evil.
• Dragon Rider: His alliance with Scarlet against Darken Rahl leads to him being the first person she allows to ride her willingly, rather than through coercion as Darken Rahl did.
• Either/Or Prophecy: With both options being bad. He manages to pick the one that's less bad and fulfill it in a manner that doesn't involve his death, however.
• Heroic Bastard: From an unbroken line of bastard sons, along with the rest of Darken Rahl's children.
• Heroic BSoD: During the Chainfire Trilogy, while Kahlan is missing and no one will believe him. Also during ''Faith of the Fallen," when he seems to realize how pointless it is to struggle against the dystopian Imperial Order, but he soon snaps out of it.
• Hot-Blooded: His main tool, the Sword of Truth, works through anger. This is sort of to be expected.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Most of the time, he can't even use his magic. However, when he needs to, it snaps into working order and he becomes pretty much unstoppable.
• Iconic Outfit: The War Wizard uniform he acquires in Temple of the Winds, consisting of simple black pants and shirt, a gold vest, silver engraved wristbands, and a metallic golden cape. It is suggested that such uniforms were the standard wizard outfit in the ancient days when War Wizards were more common, rather than the simple robes nowadays worn by Zedd and Nathan.
• Icy Grey Eyes: His piercing, "raptor" gray eyes are one of his most frequently commented-upon features.
• I Just Knew: A lot of magical solutions seem to come to him out of nowhere, and he often responds with this. His magic on the whole seems to work very frequently through instinct.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: He never wanted his magic, and denied he had the Gift until it was undeniable.
• Instant Expert: The Dance with Death, using the Sword of Truth, lets him tap into the fencing knowledge of everyone who had used the sword.
• It's All About Me: Becomes this as the story progresses while wearing a set of irony blinders.
• Kick The Bitch: He kicks a 10 year old girl as hard as he can, shattering her jaw, knocking out her teeth, and severing her tongue. However, given what said girl was like, and the fact she was actively torturing him at the time, it's hard to blame him.
• Knight Templar: Becomes this despite warnings not to.
• Last of His Kind: The last true Seeker, and the last war wizard.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: "Bringer of Death." In other words, Richard is done playing around and about to slaughter everyone in his way.
• Lie to the Beholder: While under the enemy web.
• Magic Knight: He qualifies in later books; though he never quite gets a handle on just how to use his magic, he's still able to use it to devastating effect, and he's an almost unbeatable swordsman, partially thanks to magic.
• Merlin and Nimue: He's the younger pupil.
• Mister Big: Taller than most men, but can look small next to his enormous bodyguards.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Bringer of Death.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Everything from breaking ancient seals, destroying entire buildings, unleashing lightning that selectively targets his enemies, to reverse engineering antidotes can be listed among his powers, but only for the exact moments that he needs them.
• Neuro-Vault: The plot of the first book is mostly driven by Darken Rahl trying to gain the knowledge that Richard got from the Book of Counted Shadows before he destroyed it.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Let's take a tally, shall we? Killed Darken Rahl in the wrong way and ripped the veil to the underworld, ripped the veil even farther and freed Darken's ghost by calling a gathering at the wrong time, destroyed the barriers that were keeping the Imperial Order at bay, etc. Every book's resolution leads directly into the next book's conflict.
• Out-of-Clothes Experience: Going into the underworld. That said, he expected it. He didn't like it, but it's apparently what you have to do.
• Person of Mass Destruction: When he manages to get his magic working.
• The Philosopher: If he espoused his beliefs any more frequently, he wouldn't have any time left to ever talk to anyone.
• Physical God: When he uses the boxes of Orden. However, he gives the power up shortly after.
• The Power of Love: Turns out to be the solution to several magical problems, including the White Magic of the Sword of Truth and getting around his and Kahlan's Can't Have Sex, Ever problem.
• Refused the Call: Initially, he didn't want to be Seeker, or the Lord Rahl. In the latter case, he eventually becomes Resigned to the Call
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The Sword of Truth protects him from the effects of the Chainfire spell.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Too many to count, but most of them involve Kahlan being somehow in danger.
• The Scottish Trope: Defied. He openly mocks and disagrees with the anathema to using the Keeper's name.
• Screw Destiny: He hates prophecy and goes out of his way to avoid it, though he often ends up accomplishing what prophecy predicted in an entirely different way.
• Self-Made Orphan: Though he doesn't find out until well after it's happened.
• Sorcerous Overlord: As the Lord Rahl of D'Hara.
• Take a Third Option: “I don't like your rules. I choose neither.”
• Tautological Templar: In a case of a stunning lack of self-awareness he makes a speech that boils down "They think their cause is noble, so they're justified in doing whatever bad things they like. But they're wrong! We're noble. So we're justified in doing bad things."
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: common from Richard throughout the series.
• To the Pain: How he convinces the Bantak not to go to war with the Mud People; if they do, he'll use magic to bring ruin to them.
• Unnamed Parent: His mother.
• Unstoppable Rage: Given that it's the whole point of the magic of the Sword of Truth, it's to be expected.
• Victory-Guided Amnesia: He's forced to give up the knowledge he gained in the Temple of the Winds after he leaves.
• Workplace-Acquired Abilities: His skills as a woods guide come to be invaluable in his larger quest.
• You Are What You Hate: He desperately denies that he has the gift, because he can't stand the thought of being a part of the magic that he hates so much.
• You Will Know What to Do: Subverted in the first two books, played more straight in the later ones. Pretty much the basis for how his War Wizard powers work.

Kahlan Amnell

The Mother Confessor, leader of the Confessors and final authority in the Midlands. After escaping the genocide of the Confessors at the hands of Darken Rahl, she fled to Westland, where she met Richard and Zedd and recruited them to help save the lands of magic from Rahl's grasp. She is Richard's love interest and one of the main characters, second only to Richard in importance.

• Action Girl: Especially after Richard teaches her to Dance with Death.
• Attempted Rape: Many, many times, by many different people, including, quadsmen, Demmin Nass, a red-haired man from Westland, Prindin, several D'Haran and Imperial Order commanders, Darken Rahl, Drefan Rahl, Oba Rahl, Emperor Jagang, and Samuel. No one actually manages to succeed, though, unless you count the time when Nicci linked herself to Kahlan and then hired a thug to brutalize her, forcing Kahlan to feel every sensation as if she were the one getting it.
• Bad Powers, Good People: Her power is the ability to forever enslave a person to her will.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Consistently averted, as she gets injured and dirty repeatedly.
• Bed Trick: Cara performed a switch to prevent Richard and Kahlan from having to sleep with other people before accessing the Temple of the Winds. Kahlan was just as surprised by it as everyone else.
• Bullet Time: "Time was hers", usually used to describe when she uses her Confessor powers. Time does not actually slow down in this case, except in her own perception. Since all she needs is to touch an enemy for a split second to release her power, maneuvering herself to do so is usually child's play.
• Can't Have Sex, Ever: Or the man she sleeps with will be Confessed. Sorry, Richard, none for you. Until he finds a way around that pesky problem, that is.
• Child by Rape: Her father was confessed by her mother and kept as basically a Sex Slave.
• Combat Pragmatist: Her approach to combat and war. She advises others to take this approach as well, on the logic that an enemy is just as dead if you kill him in his sleep as if you kill him in battle.
• Compelling Voice: Her Confessior's touch. And it lasts.
• Cover-Blowing Superpower: Using Confession, before Richard knew what she was.
• Cunning Linguist: Being that she, like other Confessors, are diplomats and are expected to travel the Midlands to settle disputes, she can speak almost every language in the Midlands, including Nicobarese, Mud Person, Bantak, the common language also spoken in Westland and D'Hara, etc. The only language she hasn't been able to understand and translate so far is High D'Haran, likely because it's been out of common use for centuries.
• Convenient Miscarriage: At the end of the fifth book, after being attacked by thugs in Anderith.
• Cute Bruiser: She is so strong that she can snap a metal sword in half over her knee, and possesses nearly superhuman stamina that is sufficient to keep up a traveler's pace for three days without food or rest, and still set a hard pace, use her power (which exhausts her more when she does), and hold a conversation.
• Deuteragonist: In the first five books and in the eighth.
• Dress Code: She wears a white dress and keeps her hair long as a symbol of her rank.
• Emotionless Girl: Her Confessor's face, which serves as her public image. Averted in her actual personality and interactions with Richard.
• Full-Frontal Assault: She leads an attack on an army of Imperial troops completely in the nude, partly on the basis that a beautiful naked woman on a horse is, at the very least, going to be a bit of a distraction for the enemy.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: She does, but doesn't avoid the Convenient Miscarriage.
• Groin Attack: What she does to Demmin Nass... isn't pretty.
• Heroic BSoD: When Shota prophecizes that Kahlan will use her power against Richard, she becomes severely depressed and repeatedly tries to kill herself. It takes a lot of time and effort on Richard's part to bring her out of it.
• Iconic Outfit: Her silk white Confessor's dress, in a color and style unique to the Mother Confessor and worn by no one else on the continent.
• I Am What I Am: "We can all only be what we are, no more, no less."
• I Just Want to Be Normal: There are times she really doesn't like having her Confessor magic. Particularly since they get in the way of her being with Richard.
• Lady of War: A ruler, a diplomat, an arbitrator, and an absolutely ruthless general trained since childhood.
• Last of His Kind: The last Confessor, after Darken Rahl's quads wipe out the rest.
• Line in the Sand: Everyone loyal to her goes on one side. The ones who question her authority go on the other. Later, the ones on the first side have to kill all the ones on the other side, on Kahlan's order, based on the (eventually proven correct) assumption that the dissenters were going to sell them out.
• Living Lie Detector: The purpose behind the Confessors' magic.
• Magic Knight: She's a capable combatant and uses physical combat in addition to her magical abilities.
• Mugging the Monster: Messing with a woman who turns out to be a Confessor is a bad idea, as anyone who's attacked Kahlan at some point can attest to.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She often beats herself up about it, too.
• No Periods, Period: Averted once, as a plot point.
• Plucky Girl: She varies between this, and a female Determinator. Her willingness to die for Richard, or for her cause, is a little extreme to say the least.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Remove. Your. Hands."
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: She uses the Con Dar to this effect against Darken Rahl in the first book, when she believes Richard is dead.
• Show Some Leg: Part of the aforementioned Full-Frontal Assault. She also has to do this, to a squicky extent, to escape a cell full of convicted murderers and rapists planning on having their way with her.
• Silk Hiding Steel: She developed this reputation after becoming the Mother Confessor. Queen Cyrilla even comments on it in the second book.
• Sorcerous Overlord: A more benevolent example than most, but still.
• Statuesque Stunner: Her beauty and her height are remarked upon by Richard, the narrative, and several minor characters along the way.
• The Power of Love: The only way that a Confessor can have a relationship without destroying her lover's mind.
• The Scottish Trope: She really shouldn't have spoken the names of the Chimes out loud...
• Traumatic Haircut: When Neville Ranson cuts her hair.
• Unnamed Parent: Her mother, who even appears in spirit form during the fourth book, but whose name is never mentioned.
• Unstoppable Rage: The Con Dar. According to Zedd, it even renders the Confessor fundamentally unreasonable and gives her a tendency to kill anyone who gets in her way.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She hates snakes, a problem that Shota is all too happy to exploit.
• Would Hurt a Child: In the first book, she says that she would kill an innocent child with her bare hands if she thought it would somehow stop Darken Rahl. She feels guilty about saying this later, though, and falters in her conviction when Shota reveals that Kahlan will have a son who will be one of the Always Chaotic Evil male Confessors, and asks Kahlan if she would be capable of killing him, or asking Richard to do it, if she had to.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: As stated by Richard in the first book. Though Kahlan herself seems to think that it's Nicci who is this.
• You Know I'm Black, Right?: In the second book, she interrupts Richard's spiel about how much he hates magic by reminding him that she is herself a creature of magic.

Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander

The former First Wizard of the Midlands, who led the battle against Darken Rahl's father Panis when he tried to invade the Midlands years ago, earning himself the nickname, "The Wind of Death." After the war, he became furious with the Midlands council for their actions, and decided to go into hiding, erasing everyone's memories of his name and posing as a harmless but eccentric old man in Westland. When Kahlan comes to Westland seeking the aid of the great wizard of legend, he returns from retirement to help in the struggle against Darken Rahl.

• The Archmage: As the First Wizard, he's the most powerful magic user in the Midlands and one of the strongest Additive wizards alive. However, his powers are later surpassed when users of Additive and Subtractive magic, such as Darken Rahl, Richard, and Nicci start to show up.
• Agony Beam: Wizard's Pain.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Especially when they're Imperial Order troops.
• Big Eater: Kahlan comments rather snarkily that Richard has to be good at finding food, or he'd starve with Zedd around.
• Blood Magic: Some magic requires blood, which as the First Wizard, he is familiar with.
• Bullying a Dragon: Zedd points out to a an angry mob attacking them that they must be extremely brave to attack a person they believe commands vast magical power.
• Burn the Witch!: An angry mob figures he has magic and tries to do this. They fail, obviously.
• The Casanova: Old age hasn't dimmed his enthusiasm for several casual relationships in the midst of saving the world.
• Cool Old Guy: Especially according to Richard.
• Eccentric Mentor: Doubly so before Richard knows he's a wizard. He assumes that Zedd's enjoyment of standing naked on a rock is just what "cloud readers" do.
• Empathic Healer: He's a skilled healer, and the process he uses requires him to take on the pain of whatever injury he's trying to heal.
• Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die: Used intentionally on an angry mob bent on killing him.
• Hellfire: Wizard's fire, his favorite spell.
• Insistent Terminology: He's a wizard, not a witch(they're girls), and not a warlock(which is a male witch). However, warlock is preferable to witch.
• Kill It with Fire: Wizard's fire is one of his favorite spells.
• Knight Templar: Like all the main characters, he gains traits of this as the series goes on.
• Magi Babble: Zedd can drone on about everything from prophetic bifurcations to how to properly invert a duplex spell.
• Mundane Utility: Magic comes in handy for cooking.
• My Greatest Failure: His young apprentice, who turned out to be The Mole and defected to Panis Rahl during the war.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Wind of Death.
• Naked People Are Funny: He prefers to use his wizard's rock naked, because clothes interfere with the experience.
• Nuclear Option: He finds a colossal light spell in the Wizard's Keep, while the Imperial Order army is nearby.
• Old Master: While his exact age is never given, he's undeniably very old.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Would you believe that this skinny old man earned the title, "The Wind of Death" and was feared even by his own side during a previous war? Or that he is almost singlehandedly responsible for the death of several hundred thousand Imperial Order troops?
• Pity the Kidnapper: Exploits this in order to get a tribe in the wilds to not make a Human Sacrifice out of him, and later on another to release him from indentured servitude.
• Playing with Fire: In addition to Wizard's fire, he can manipulate heat and fire in several different ways.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He mentions this in his backstory after his wife was killed.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the Midlands council began mishandling the boxes and naming Seekers on their own, Zedd went off to Westland and left them to "suffer the consequences of their own actions."
• Something Only They Would Say: “True as toasted toads, my boy!”
• The Smart Guy: The most knowledgeable and magic-savvy main character, at least early on.
• The Trickster: Definitely has the personality for it, and enough magic for quite a few tricks.
• Unusual Euphemism: "Bags."
• Wizard Beard: Averted, and then later parodied when Richard brings him to task for daring to be a wizard without having a proper beard.

Cara

A Mord-Sith, former servant of Darken Rahl, who pledged her loyalty to Richard starting in the second book. She now serves as Richard's bodyguard.

• Action Girl: While her fighting style is unusual, she's more than capable of killing if it comes to it.
• Agony Beam: The Agiel, her primary weapon.
• Anti-Magic: She can capture and control any magic used directly against her.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Well, it makes you a Mord-Sith. In Cara's case, she was at least redeemable.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She was apparently one of the nice ones when she was young. Her training was an extended effort to invoke this trope.
• The Big Guy: The most physically-oriented and fond of violence of any of Richard's companions.
• Body Guard Crush: On Richard. Kind of. She openly admits to being in love with him, though not in a sexual way.
• Broken Bird: Part of the standard procedure of becoming a Mord-Sith.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: It's her area of expertise. She also volunteers to do this to an Imperial Order assassin who knifed one of their wizards. They hear his screams all night long.
• Combat Pragmatist: Even more so than Richard, often advocating for more directly brutal and effective measures.
• Combat Sadomasochist: She retains traits of this, even though she's no longer a full-time torturer.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Given that she's a Mord-Sith, that goes without question.
• Deadpan Snarker: Especially as the series goes on.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She gradually becomes less stoic and serious and begins expressing her emotions more openly.
• Does Not Like Magic: She shares Richard's discomfort and distrust of magic in general, even though she's constantly serving and working with people who wield it.
• Good is Not Nice: She hasn't lost her appetite for the more violent side of her profession, even when on Richard's side.
• Happiness in Slavery: She decided to stay in Richard's service, even though he had publicly disbanded the Mord-Sith, because she thought he was a leader worth serving.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Red leather, specifically. A lot of red leather.
• Hero Secret Service: To Richard, along with the rest of the Mord-Sith who join him, replacing their previous role under Darken Rahl.
• I Am What I Am: Though she defrosts, she is a Mord-Sith.
• Intimate Healing: She gets some from Richard, of the body warmth variety with magic, in the final trilogy.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: A frequent advocate of this, and occasionally is allowed to actually do it.
• Kiss of Life: It's a technique taught to all Mord-Sith, initially for the prospect of preventing a torture victim from dying in the middle of it.
• Love at First Punch: With Benjamin Meiffert. Their first meeting was when she ambushed him on his way to deliver a message to Richard and "tickled" his ribs with her Agiel. Shortly afterwards, Richard made a joke about offering Meiffert Cara's hand in marriage.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She insists she didn't know what it was going to do until after she touched it, though.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: She usually advocates killing as a solution first, particularly in Temple of the Winds.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Drifts in this direction in the later books.
• Plucky Girl: She starts to have lighter moments as the series goes on, but if anyone threatens Richard, she morphs into a Determinator.
• Self-Made Orphan: She was forced to kill her father, as part of her training to be a Mord-Sith.
• Shipper on Deck: In the Chainfire Trilogy, when Kahlan is missing, she starts supporting Richard/Nicci.
• Shoot Your Mate: Again, part of her training. And she did.
• Taking the Bullet: In Temple of the Winds, she throws herself in front of an attack directed at Richard. This worked out to her favor due to her immunity to magic.
• Too Kinky to Torture: Unless the process involves rats, of course.
• Torture Technician: Like all Mord-Sith, who have this as their literal job description.
• Training from Hell: Mord-Sith training, which involves becoming immune to pain through surviving extreme torture.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Only the nicest girls are selected to be Mord-Sith, so this can be presumed.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Due to bad experiences with them while she was being trained, rats are one of the few things that give her trouble.

Nicci

A Sister of the Dark who served as one of Richard's instructors while he was at the Palace of the Prophets in the Old World. Nicci was the daughter of one of the members of the Fellowship of Order, and thus was indoctrinated from an early age in their ways, and experienced a very unpleasant early life. She has served the Fellowship of Order, the Sisters of the Light, the Keeper, and the Imperial Order at different points in her life. She eventually took Richard prisoner by casting a maternity spell on Kahlan, in an attempt to learn from him.

• Abusive Parents: Her mother.
• Affably Evil: How she appears at first. Even when she's working on behalf of the Imperial Order, rending Mooks with violent magic, casting dangerous spells on Kahlan, and taking Richard prisoner, she maintains a calm and polite presence, never raises her voice, and in general acts like she's dealing with old friends. Richard finds her friendly and respectful exterior to be much more disturbing than the arrogant, sneering ones of the villains he's faced in the past.
• Anti-Villain: Her POV in Faith of the Fallen cements her as this, but only until the end of the book.
• Ascended Extra: She was originally a minor character in Stone of Tears, a secondary antagonist, but when Faith of the Fallen came around...
• The Atoner: After the end of the sixth book, where she joins Richard partly to make up for all the atrocities she committed under the Imperial Order.
• Badass Boast: Several, to Richard, in Faith of the Fallen, driving home the point that she is not like any enemy he's faced before and is not going to be outsmarted easily.

  My dear boy, I was born into this wretched world one hundred and eighty-one years past. You know that. Do you suppose I have not learned a great deal of patience, in all that time? Though our bodies may look about the same age, and in many ways I am no older than you, I have lived near to seven of your lifetimes. Do you honestly believe that you would have patience to exceed mine? Do you think me some young foolish girl for you to outwit or outwait?

• Badass Bookworm: She was a Sister of the Light for well over a hundred years before she appeared in the series, and it shows.
• The Baroness: The most dangerous and independent woman in the Imperial Order, an accomplished seductress, and with the tendency to either distract or terrify any man she meets.
• Berserk Button: Nicci is somewhat...touchy regarding matters of sex. On one hand, men "assuming they had a right to her body" really, REALLY pisses her off. (Though following an ideology that requires her to sacrifice herself for others often leaves her in a bad situation.) On the other hand, she also explodes in anger when she makes an advance on a male character and he refuses her.
  • Also lice. She hates lice, to the point where upon seeing a peasant girl with lice on the side of the road, she had to stop and scrub the little monsters off of her.
  • Pink, Nicci's least favorite color. Just seeing it usually provokes mutters of "I hate pink" at the least. On one occasion, being put in a pink nightgown annoyed her so much that she used Subtractive Magic just to get rid of the color.
• Black Magic: She is one of the few who actually wields Subtractive Magic.
• Character Filibuster: Aside from Richard, there is no one in the series who can go on a filibuster like Nicci can. Her particularly specialty is deconstructing the Imperial Order inside and out.
• Combat Sadomasochist: She takes a particular enjoyment about any pain inflicted on her, and is no stranger to dealing it out, either.
• Cunning Linguist: She can speak multiple languages, including High D'Haran. Not surprising, since in the Chainfire Trilogy, she's pretty much replaced Kahlan in every way that matters.
• Dark Action Girl – Action Girl: Her magic, used offensively, can tear through entire platoons of soldiers.
• Dark and Troubled Past: A really, really big understatement.
• Deadpan Snarker: No one seems to find it funny, though.
• Deal with the Devil: She joined the Sisters of the Dark, but not out of a desire for power, or immortality, or rewards. She hated herself so greatly that she actually wanted to be damned for all eternity, and didn't think she deserved anything more. This turned out to work to her advantage, as she renounced the Keeper, getting out of that "eternal torment in the underworld" bit, while still getting to keep the Subtractive Magic that she got as part of the bargain.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: After her Heel–Face Turn, she begins to defrost, though she always has the composure of an ice queen to her.
• Deuteragonist: In Faith of the Fallen and the Chainfire Trilogy, though it can be argued that she is actually the protagonist of Faith of the Fallen and the tritagonist during the Chainfire Trilogy.
• Distracted by the Sexy: When she locks her eyes with Richard, he has difficulty remembering how to breathe. Imperial Order troops have the same problem when Nicci uses a slightly more...obvious invocation of this trope.
• The Dreaded: As Death's Mistress, she's more feared than Emperor Jagang himself. An entire town of hundreds of people committed mass suicide at the news of her approach, the children taking poison first, then the adults. Even after her Heel–Face Turn, her reputation still frightens many of the people who are now on her side.
• Emotionless Girl: She's emotionally numb from her dark life, and doesn't tend to express the emotions she does have, anyway.
• Expansion Pack Past: Nope, she wasn't just some Sister of the Light who Richard met. Turns out she is a lot more conflicted and has a lot more backstory than the previous books would indicate.
• Extreme Doormat: Her mother forced her to act like this as part of her ideology of total selflessness, and as she's still serving the Imperial Order, she still follows it. She gets better.
• For the Evulz, For the Lulz: Subverted. She tends to deflect questions about her motives as "It amuses me," and Annalina gives "because she is evil!" as an explanation for why she would kidnap Richard. The truth is quite a bit more complicated.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: From good, to the evil in an Evil Versus Oblivion scenario, to the oblivion, back to the evil, and then back to good again.
• Heel–Face Turn: Her defecting from the Imperial Order is practically the climax of the sixth book.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: When Annalina tries to encourage her to replace Kahlan in Richard's affections after the Chainfire event, Nicci insists that she won't, saying that she could never betray the heart of the person she loves.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: She doesn't seem to see any problem with continuing to use torture now that she's against the Imperial Order, rather than serving it.
• Knight Templar: Unlike the other main characters, she's meant to come across this way, at least at first. Switching sides hardly changes it, except the ideology that she's serving.
• Lady of Black Magic: Pretty much the only person against the Imperial Order and the Keeper who can use Subtractive Magic, and she's good at it.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When Nicci refers to herself as Death's Mistress, it's a sure sign that she isn't playing around.
• Little Black Dress: Her preferred outfit.
• Love at First Sight: For Richard. She only had to look into his eyes once.
• Love Redeems: Defied and doubly subverted. Even though she is in love with Richard from almost the moment she first sees him, she doesn't let her feelings get in the way of her mission and goals, and keeps in mind that she will still likely have to kill him eventually. However, in the end, she decides on her own to switch sides when his actions help her figure out what was missing in her life, and her love for him becomes the driving force of her loyalty for the rest of the series.
• Lust: Subverted. According to Richard (right after meeting her for the first time), Nicci is "the embodiment of pure, unadulterated lust." However, Nicci herself is not a particularly lustful person at all. She has little in the way of personal ambitions and desires, and doesn't even particularly like sex.
• Magi Babble: Like Zedd, she can go quite in-depth on the esoteric workings of magic.
• Merlin and Nimue: She plays the role of the older mage.
• Mommy Issues: Her mother was abusive and a fanatical supporter of the Fellowship of Order, and ended up shaping a lot of Nicci's beliefs through most of her life.
• Mundane Utility: Subtractive Magic is not just useful for combat, but also for getting that nasty pink color she hates so much out of the nightdress they put her in.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Death's Mistress.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She worries that she is responsible for Richard's, “delusions.”
• Not Afraid to Die: She already believes the world is doomed and she'll be damned for all eternity regardless of how long she lives, so death doesn't frighten her. After Richard changes her mind, she is surprised at the new sensation of not wanting to die, because she finally cares about her own life.
• Number Two: She has a habit of playing Number Two on whatever she she is currently on.
• Pink Is for Sissies: She hates the color, partially because it isn't really her color, partially because her mother forced her to wear pink when she was young, and partially because one of the Mord-Sith keeps putting a pink dress on her when she's knocked unconscious.
• Plucky Girl: Drifts in this direction after Faith of the Fallen. Before that, she was a straight up female Determinator.
• Put on a Bus: For the seventh and eighth books, where she's mentioned but hardly appears.
• Razor Wind: And so skilled with it that she can decapitate multiple armed soldiers without a sound.
• Really Gets Around: She doesn't seem to enjoy it, though.
• Really 700 Years Old: 181 years old.
• Redemption Demotion: Completely averted, as leaving the Keeper's service doesn't take away her powers of Subtractive Magic, which come in handy too many times to count.
• Shock and Awe: Lightning, both Additive and Subtractive, is one of her most frequent attack spells.
• Show Some Leg: Or just go topless.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Probably the most polite and elegantly feminine character in the whole cast - and also one of the most ruthless when it comes to it.
• Slut-Shaming: Her mother laid it on good and thick, which turned out to be counterproductive; Nicci stopped caring who she had sex with in what situations because she was convinced that she was already irredeemably evil.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: "My mother used to tell me that being beautiful was only useful to whores. Perhaps she was right."
• Stalker with a Crush: Towards Richard, even tracking him down in Westland to capture him, though he doesn't realize the "crush" part until quite a bit later, as Nicci considers it secondary to her loyalty to the Imperial Order.
• The Stoic: All in all an extremely composed character, and she doesn't talk about her emotions even when she has them.
• Synchronization: The maternity spell.
• Too Kinky to Torture: She likes being in pain, being punished, and feeling agony, because she's so emotionless and depressed most of the time that being in pain is the only way she can feel anything at all.
  Jagang: Well? Cry! Yell! Scream! Beg! Argue or make excuses! Don't just stand there!
  Nicci: Please be specific, Excellency, as to which one you would prefer, how long I should carry on, and if I should end it of my own accord, or wait for you to beat me into unconsciousness.
• Undying Loyalty: To Richard, after her redemption. Zedd notes that Nicci would go to the underworld itself to rescue Richard if she had to.
• The Unfettered: She is like this in operation, willing to do just about anything to accomplish her goals.
• Unnamed Parent: Her mother.
• Unstoppable Rage: When Richard refuses to sleep with her, and again when she thinks that he's "profiteering."
• Villainesses Want Heroes: Does she ever.
• Villain Protagonist: In Faith of the Fallen she is given a comparable number of her own chapters as Richard and Kahlan, and her personal development is about one half of the story of that book, the other half being the continuation of the war against the Order. At this point, she is still very much a villain.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Her blue eyes are often remarked upon.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Her entire motivation behind kidnapping Richard in Faith of the Fallen. All her life she had been influenced by the Fellowship of Order and taught to believe that her own life had no value except for what she could give to others. Even joining the Sisters of the Light, and later the Sisters of the Dark, was just another form of providing selfless service to others in the hope of receiving some posthumous reward. She sees in Richard some indefinable quality that goes against these teachings, and kidnaps him to bring him to the Imperial Order's capital city to teach him the Order's values, while also almost subconsciously wanting to learn what is this quality he possesses.
• When She Smiles: Richard notes how "singularly expressive" her face is, and how her smiles make her even more impossibly beautiful than she already is.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She has an intense hatred of lice due to often being infected with them as a child, and any slum infected with them is bound to elicit this reaction from her.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She believes that existence and torment are inseparable, and her bad experiences led her to become first a Sister of the Dark and then Jagang's most feared operative.
• Workplace-Acquired Abilities: She attributes her skill with creating magical locks to having to spend so much time teaching young wizards how to behave at the Palace of the Prophets.
• World Half Empty: How she views the world. Until Richard changes her mind.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: She is described as absolutely, completely, 100% physically perfect, and even Kahlan seems awed. Towards the end of the series, there seems to be some dispute over whether she or Kahlan is more beautiful.

Secondary Characters

Dell "Chase" Brandstone

The leader of the boundary wardens in Westland, and an old friend of Richard Cypher and his father. He is the husband of Emma Brandstone, and the father of several children. Chase and his men serve the Westland government publicly, but their true loyalty is only to the true Seeker.

• Badass Normal: Probably the deadliest non-magical person in the entire series.
• The Big Guy: As he's a combat expert, he fulfills this purpose whenever he's around.
• Friend to All Children: Has a particular soft spot for children, probably as a result of him being a Papa Wolf.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: "I've twisted a few fingers. Twisted hard."
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Gets trapped in one with Rachel in the second book.
• Made of Iron: Boundary wardens are tougher than they have a right to be.
• Papa Wolf: Very protective of his children, adopted or otherwise.
• Put on a Bus: From the end of the second book all the way to the eighth, when he returns to business.
• Walking Armory: So much so that he needs to dress ''down' to infiltrate an enemy army.
• With My Hands Tied: Kills a quadsman, someone who would give most characters trouble at their best, while beat up and tied.

Rachel

An orphan in the Midlands who was taken by the government to be Princess Violet's "playmate", which pretty much meant she was a punching bag to be bossed around and abused. By a combination of guile and help from the wizard Giller, Rachel escaped her position, delivered the third Box of Orden to Richard and Kahlan, and became Chase's adopted daughter.

• Badass Normal: No magic, no powers, no antimagic, no magic weapons, and still a major piece in the overall plot.
• Geometric Magic: She had no magical training or upbringing, but managed to learn how to use the written magic of Tamarang by listening to Six and Violet talk about it.
• Guile Hero: She's no fighter, so she has to trick and manipulate her way past her enemies.
• Hair of Gold: Probably the youngest and most thoroughly good character out of all the main characters. Her blond hair isn't mentioned until Naked Empire, however.
• Little Miss Badass: Considering that she was adopted by Chase, it's no surprise.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Becomes trapped in one with Chase in the second book.
• Put on a Bus: She disappears after the second book, but eventually comes back in the eighth.
• She Is All Grown Up: Well, not all the way, but it's invoked, in a non-romantic way. When Zedd is captured, he sees a girl who looks like her, only a little older. He chalks this up to his mind playing tricks on him... until he spots the "guard" with her, recognizes him as Chase, and realizes it is Rachel a couple years older, since he hasn't seen her in that long. She starts the series at around ten years old, with a close cropped butchered haircut, and comes back in the later books in her early teens with hair past her shoulders, the beginnings of a figure, and better knife skills than most soldiers.
• Unnamed Parent: Her mother.

Brophy

A trader with a soft spot for children, who was framed for murder by Demmin Nass, Darken Rahl's right-hand man. He submitted to a Confessor, Kahlan, to prove his innocence, and after it was done, was turned into an animal by Giller to give him back some measure of free will. He choose to live his life out as a wolf.

• Berserk Button: If anyone thinks they can cheat a trader, they had better stay away from Brophy. Also, just the thought of Demmin Nass.
• Forced Transformation: Giller turned him into a wolf by magic but he choose to be a wolf.
• Friend to All Children: A fact that he hides, as it conflicts with his reputation.
• Happiness in Slavery: To Kahlan, after being Confessed.
• Honest John's Dealership: According to Kahlan, he was once a trader who dealt with things at the gray edges of law.
• Noble Demon: He cultivated a tough-guy image before being Confessed, and hated the idea of any softness being attached to his image, but was squarely a good person who donated money to orphanages.
• Noble Wolf: Before and after he became a wolf he was a good guy at heart.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: He's a man, permanently changed into a wolf to weaken the Confession binding him.
• Papa Wolf: Both literally and figuratively.
• Unstoppable Rage: He was a big man before he was transformed into a wolf, with a temper as big as his muscles.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: He took being falsely accused of the murder of a child particularly hard, as it's something he'd never do.

Adie

A sorceress from the Midlands who know lives at the mouth of the pass of the Narrows, right on the boundary. She is blind as a result of being tortured by the Blood of the Fold when she was young, but still manages to see but use of her gift.

• Blind Seer: Her torture left her blind, but didn't diminish her magical abilities.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: A standard procedure for someone interrogated by the Blood.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Which she explains to Zedd at great length in the second book.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: She had to hack off her own leg after an underworld beast clamped unto it in the pass.
• Living Lie Detector: She can tell truth from lie with perfect accuracy.
• Mutilation Interrogation: Has had it done to her, and also did it to someone else herself.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: She has this in her backstory as well.
• Super-Senses: Though missing her eyesight, she's learned to compensate using her other senses, including some magical ones.

Chandalen

One of the most skilled hunters and warriors of the Mud People, who later becomes the acting "general" of his people and an honorary elder. He initially dislikes Richard and Kahlan, blaming them for the trouble brought to the Mud People, but eventually relents in this policy after journeying with Kahlan for a time.

• Back for the Finale: He appears briefly in Confessor.
• Combat Pragmatist: An attitude that the Mud People picked up after using assassination techniques to defeat a much larger rival tribe.
• Heel–Face Turn: Though he was never an outright enemy, he strongly disliked Richard and Kahlan and blamed them for most of the bad things that happened to his people, such as Darken Rahl and Shota showing up. This eventually changed after he traveled with Kahlan for a time.
• I'm a Humanitarian: He will occasionally participate in ceremonial Mud People rituals, which often involve eating a small amount of human flesh.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He considers Richard and Kahlan's archery to be this, because they can use their gift to enhance their accuracy.
• In Love with Your Carnage: While he doesn't desire Kahlan in a sexual sense, he becomes a lot more positively disposed to her after seeing how violent she can be and hearing her philosophy on warfare.
• Poisoned Weapons: He puts ten-step poison on his arrows, and also carries around the cure for said poison.
• Put on a Bus: After the second book, he returns to his people, having only a cameo in the next two books, and no appearance after that until the very end.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Jokingly accuses Kahlan of this after their relationship improves. He grows to appreciate Richard, as since Kahlan has taken him as her mate, that means that Chandalen is safe, as without Richard around Kahlan would surely have chosen him instead.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He repeatedly calls Richard and Kahlan out on what happens.

Berdine

Another Mord-Sith, and Richard's bodyguard along with Cara. She was one of Darken Rahl's advisors, and knows some High D'Haran, so she serves as a translator for Richard when they find old records. Of the Mord-Sith, she is by far the cheeriest and most amiable.

• Cunning Linguist: She can read High D'Haran, and thus ends up working more closely with Richard than the other Mord-Sith while he's around.
• The Glomp: On seeing Richard return toward the end of Blood of the Fold, she's described as divetackling him like an excited squirrel.
• Plucky Girl: Despite being as much of a Torture Technician as her Sisters of the Agiel, she's by far the most cheerful.

Jennsen Rahl

Also known as Lindie, Jennsen is the illegimate, pristinely ungifted daughter of Darken Rahl. Due to Darken's policy of eliminating all ungifted offspring of the House of Rahl, Jennsen has spent her life running and hiding from quadsman. As a pristinely ungifted one and Pillar of Creation, Jennsen cannot be harmed by magic. She is convinced by the Imperial Order that Richard is out to kill her as well, and thus plans against him. After meeting Richard in the flesh, she realizes she has been deceived, and becomes his ally.

• Action Girl: After running her whole life, she's picked up quite an attitude for self-defense.
• Anti-Magic: As a Pillar of Creation, she cannot be affected by Additive Magic. According to Word of God, Subtractive Magic still works fine, though.
• Back for the Finale: Appears briefly in the last book, after being absent since the eighth.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Her whole life was spent running from Darken Rahl's quads.
• Deal with the Devil: Without realizing quite what she was doing. Fortunately, she delayed it long enough to still be able to back out.
• Enemy to All Living Things: Temporarily. Her unwittingly alliance with the Keeper caused animals to be repulsed from her.
• Fake-Out Make-Out: With Sebastian, to keep the D'Harans from getting suspicious.
• Fiery Redhead: Has both red hair and is a decidedly Hot-Blooded Plucky Girl.
• Heel–Face Turn: Immediately, once she realizes that Jagang and the Keeper have been tricking her.
• Heroic Bastard: Like the rest of Darken Rahl's children who don't fall into the other kind of bastardry.
• Heroic BSoD: When her mother is killed.
• Immune to Fate: Her actions can't be predicted through prophecy.
• The Load: In Naked Empire, where she does almost nothing of importance and in fact causes trouble for Richard when she freaks out when moving through a cavern.
• Properly Paranoid: While she's suspicious of everyone, it's only because Darken Rahl has been going to extreme lengths to get her killed.
• Put on a Bus: Disappears after the eighth book, until the eleventh.
• Took a Level in Badass: Throughout The Pillars of Creation. Unfortunately, it's quickly reversed in Naked Empire.
• Unnamed Parent: Her mother. In her brief appearance at the beginning of the seventh book, she's referred to only as Jennsen's mother.
• Unwitting Pawn: Of Emperor Jagang's plan. She manages to escape his plan for her at the last moment, though.
• Walking the Earth: She and her mother have been traveling all their lives, and she continues to do it with Sebastian after her mother is killed.

Annalina Aldurran

The Prelate, leader of the Sisters of the Light. Ann is a major political player who carefully watches and enforces prophecy to ensure events turn out the way she wants them to.

• Be a Whore to Get Your Man: She advises Nicci to seduce Richard.
• Because Destiny Says So: Her philosophy. She is not shy about enforcing it.
• The Chessmaster: She's been manipulating the events centuries before they happened.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Is swiftly killed off by the Sisters of the Dark in the last book.
• Flanderization: She becomes more and more fanatical as the books progress, until she mostly just shouts, "Prophecy demands it!" and "There is no way you could know such things!" at random intervals.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Kahlan calls her out on this, saying that she probably caused many of the horrible events she's ostensibly been trying to prevent through Prophetic Fallacy.
• Pity the Kidnapper: She goes along with Zedd's plan to escape the Wilds with this technique.
• Really 700 Years Old: Nearly a thousand, due to the effect of the Palace of the Prophets.
• Shipper on Deck: For Richard and Nicci. She seems to be firmly of the opinion that Kahlan is lost to them, and Nicci should fill the void.
• Omniscient Morality License: Her belief in and knowledge of prophecy excuses everything she does in her view, up to and including kidnapping and imprisoning children.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Kahlan eventually brings her to task for what she's been doing, and actually manages to dent her conviction a little.
• Would Hurt a Child: Including an unborn child, just because the mother happened to be in the way and could "possibly" have been a Sister of the Dark.

Nathan Rahl

The prophet held prisoner by the Prelate Annalina and the Sisters of the Light, delivering prophecies to them. He is also a descendant of the Rahl family, and a distant relative of Richard's.

• Because Destiny Says So: He's a prophet with a direct link to prophecy, so that's no surprise.
• The Casanova: After so long an imprisonment with only the occasional prostitute for company, he quickly goes straight to having a woman on each arm.
• The Chessmaster: Because he can see events, he's also exceptionally good at influencing them. On one occasion, he simultaneously started one war and prevented an even bigger one while imprisoned by whispering something to a consort.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Given his usual cheerful, bright demeanor, it's easy to forget that he's a wizard and just as capable of throwing fire and lightning around as any of them.
• Genius Bruiser: Intensely knowledgeable, able to alter the course of history with a whispered word, a powerful wizard, and training with a sword to boot.
• Gilded Cage: The Sisters of the Light have him in one.
• Magic Knight: He wears a sword through much of the series. Many of his friends ask him why he needs a sword when he's a hilariously-powerful wizard.
• Manchild: At times. When he first buys a sword, Annalina mentions in a Journeybook entry that he is busy fighting imaginary monsters, calling him a thousand-year-old child.
• Mask of Sanity: He is incredibly wise, knowledgeable, and intelligent, but in some ways not all the cutlery is in the drawer. Being locked in the same rooms for most of your centuries long life will do that to you.
• Obfuscating Insanity: A lot of people believe that he's dangerously insane and doesn't know what he's doing. He's happy to let that interpretation stand if it helps him get his way.
• Old Master: Undoubtedly the oldest of Richard's mentors.
• Omniscient Morality License: Like Annalina, he has no problem using his knowledge of prophecy for some morally dubious actions, such as starting a war to prevent the rise of an even worse warmonger.
• Playing with Fire: He can use Wizard's fire every bit as skillfully as Zedd.
• Really 700 Years Old: He's nearly a thousand.

Shota

A powerful witch in the Midlands, greatly feared by everyone who has heard of her. She has prophetic visions, and often works to enforce or prevent them. She is both a powerful ally and a dangerous enemy, and can be either at the drop of a hat.

• Because Destiny Says So: A firm believer in this, particularly in her own visions.
• Charm Person: Explained as something that witch women just do naturally, without even trying to.
• Enemy Mine: Why she helps Richard.
• Fantasy Contraception: She creates an amulet that fulfills this purpose for Richard and Kahlan.
• Flaying Alive: What she does to a wizard who briefly drove her out of her home.
• Master of Illusion: Illusions are a type of magic that witches are particularly good at, and Shota's particular favorite is turning into an image of people's mother.
• Mind Rape: She gives Richard an extremely vivid and extremely nasty image of what it's like to be in a land conquered by the Imperial Order.
• Shock and Awe: A power she demonstrates on an illusion of Zedd.
• Unnamed Parent: Her mother too.

Villains

Darken Rahl

The Master of D'Hara, heir to the throne of the House of Rahl, Prince of Lies, and the Player for the power of Orden. Darken Rahl seeks to rule the world, and intends to use the Boxes of Orden to this end. He appears as a benevolent man promising peace and security between all the nations. In secret, however, Darken Rahl is a rapist, a sadist, a cannibal, a child-killer, a tyrant and a demon worshipper. He secretly serves the Keeper.

• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Surrounds himself with "pure-blooded" D'Harans distinguished by blond hair and blue eyes, speaks the Germanic-sounding High D'Haran language, and is currently in the middle of a campaign to conquer the known world.
• Animal Wrongs Group: This is the man who protests that he doesn't approve of slaughtering helpless animals and consuming their flesh, but will also kill a horse and drown a soldier in its guts for daring to eat meat in the People's Palce, or ritually consume the organs of a sacrificial victim.
• Ax-Crazy: When his veneer drops, he's as bloodthirsty and violent as they come.
• Bastard Bastard: Since the Rahl rulers tend not to bother with marriage, he's one of these in a position of power.
• Big Bad: Wizard's First Rule is driven by the efforts of everyone to take him down before he conquers the world.
• Black Magic: He managed to acquire limited use of Subtractive Magic.
• Blood Magic: An expert of anthropomancy. That would be getting answers by slicing open living people.
• The Casanova: A very dark version of this trope. He takes numerous women to his bed, and the ones who bear ungifted offspring or laugh at his scars are killed.
• Character Tics: Licking his fingers and rubbing his eyebrows, as a result of being horribly burned as a child.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: He maintains an entire order for this purpose, and often steps in to do some of it himself.
• Deal with the Devil: How he got that Subtractive Magic.
• Dystopian Edict: Fire is bad. Fire was used against Darken Rahl's father. Fire is a sign of disrespect to the house of Rahl. Fire is outlawed. Except, oddly, for the candles in his father's tomb, which have to be kept lit or else.
• Ephebophile: His appetites have been known to include teenaged girls as well as adult women. Jennsen's mother, for example, was fifteen when her daughter by him was born.
• Eunuchs Are Evil: Not quite a eunuch, but Darken Rahl is implied to have a seriously scarred penis. However, judging from The Casanova part, it is largely cosmetic damage.
• Evil Overlord: Strong magic powers, no mercy, hell-bent on world domination, and the ruler of a powerful nation to boot.
• False Flag Operation: His soldiers dress up as Westlanders, committ horrific atrocities against his own people, and Darken Rahl gets to make himself look like the savior.
• Faux Affably Evil: He can act nice when he wants to, but it doesn't take much for him to go from smiles and complements to screaming rage.
• Finger-Lickin' Evil: One of his tics is licking his fingertips and running them over his lips and eyebrows, stemming from his being burned by Wizard's Fire when he was a boy and wanting to do that to the burns. He does that to the scars from these burns as well, when they are not covered by clothing.
• Gone Horribly Right: He spent a lot of time and effort trying to get a gifted, male heir. He does. It's Richard, so things don't quite work out how he'd wanted.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He could be quite affable and personable at times, then Ax-Crazy at others.
• Heir Club for Men: He has had quite a bit of trouble getting just the right gifted heir, and he has plenty of bastard children as a testament to his efforts.
• I'm a Humanitarian: He's normally a vegetarian, and he considers eating meat distasteful, but when the ritual calls for it, he'll still devour the organs of a child.
• Lie to the Beholder: He can cause this effect by casting “enemy webs” on others.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Though in this case, he's the one who's surprised to be told that he's Richard's father.
• Manipulative Bastard: Though for someone called the Prince of Lies right on the back cover of the first book, it's pretty much a given.
• Mind Rape: He can give women images of being raped with a touch.
• More than Mind Control: His control of the Mord-Sith revolves around this principle.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Darken Rahl is hardly a good-guy name.
• Offing the Offspring: He won't tolerate any ungifted offspring remaining alive.
• Plot Armour: Thanks to the magic of Orden, Rahl cannot be killed until he opens a box, or the first day of winter arrives.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Both a Straw Misogynist and a firm believer in the superiority of pure-blooded D'Harans.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He may be evil, but he's not entirely unreasonable. To one Mord-Sith's surprise, he doesn't have her executed after her pet breaks free, because he realizes that the failure was not her fault, as the task was, in hindsight, impossible, and it would be pointless to get rid of his best Mord-Sith because of it.
• Red Right Hand: His body is scarred in embarrassing places.
• Sorcerous Overlord: He follows the D'Haran tradition as an absolute ruler who is also The Archmage of D'Hara.
• Straw Misogynist: From his point of view, women are just the dirt that a man's seed grows in, unworthy of higher recognition. Those that don't bear gifted heirs are barren soil, and done away with.
• Take Over the World: Why he wants the Boxes of Orden.
• Unnamed Parent: His mother. Of course, to the house of Rahl, women aren't considered important anyway.
• Would Hit a Girl: Yup. In fact, he would rip one apart with his bare hands as well, if she has the nerve to laugh at his equipment during sex.
• Would Hurt a Child: His ability to traverse the underworld comes from offering children to the Keeper as sacrifices.

Demmin Nass

The commander of the quads, right hand of Darken Rahl, the lightning of the Master's dark thoughts. His loyalty and devotion to the house of Rahl is matched only by his dedication to cruelty and sexual sadism. He has a weakness for young boys, and definitely not in the good way.

• Abusive Parents: It is not-so-subtly implied that he was sexually abused by his father as a boy.
• Arch-Enemy: To Brophy, every since he framed him for a crime that Demmin had committed.
• Armored Closet Gay: He cultivates the image as the biggest, meanest, nastiest man in D'Hara. Insulting his manhood is a definite Berserk Button.
• Attempted Rape: Even though he isn't attracted to women, he decides to make an exception for Kahlan, because he hates her that much. Needless to say, it doesn't go very well for him.
• The Brute: Darken Rahl's most vicious and physically-oriented enforcer.
• Depraved Homosexual: He mockingly tells Kahlan that she isn't his type. His preference seems to be for young boys. He claims to have molested and killed somewhere between 80 and 120 boys in his life, but can't remember the exact number. The dead ones, according to him, are the minority.
• The Dragon: He gives orders to all but Darken Rahl himself.
• Dumb Muscle: He isn't very smart, particularly in matters of magic, so Darken Rahl keeps him around mainly for their twisted friendship and this purpose.
• Evil Gloating: "Problem, old man?"
• Freudian Excuse: Apparently, he was molested as a child himself. However, it is nowhere NEAR enough to even begin to justify half of his actions.
• Giant Mook: Like his quadsman, only a lot bigger and meaner.
• Groin Attack: Ouch...Kahlan shows no mercy.
• Hard Gay: Combining Depraved Homosexual with The Brute, Dumb Muscle, and Murder, Inc..
• Just Add Bitch: His dialogue when talking to women contains generous helpings of the word.
• Karmic Death: He is confessed by Kahlan, leaving him utterly consumed with devotion to a woman. Kahlan than castrates him and makes him eat it, then bashes his head in with a mace.
• Large and in Charge: One of the biggest men in D'Hara, and the highest ranked servant of the house of Rahl, giving orders to all but Darken Rahl himself.
• Murder, Inc.: He's the leader of the quads, D'Hara's professional hitmen and anti-Confessor units.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Darken Rahl put webs around him that block all magic and attack, making him immune to Additive Magic and Confession. But not to the Con Dar.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He and his men attempted to do this to Kahlan, but she turns the whole "horrific violence and sexual mutilation" part around on them halfway through.
• Unstoppable Rage: Kahlan's taunting drives him to the point where his own men have to stop him from killing her, as Darken Rahl wanted her alive.
• Would Hit a Girl: "Shut up, bitch."
• Would Hurt a Child: Oh, yeah, about a hundred of them or so. Fatally. More than that non-fatally.

Denna

Darken Rahl's favored Mord-Sith and one of the most skilled and relentless Torture Technicians in D'Hara. She is charged by the Lord Rahl to trap Richard and torture him into insanity so that he will reveal the secrets of orden to Rahl. She does.

• Agony Beam: Her agiel.
• Anti-Magic: As Richard discovered when he tried to attack her with the Sword of Truth for the first time.
• The Baroness: She takes the "domineering" and "sexual" parts of this trope to a whole new level.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Part of the reason she ends up redeemed. Richard, though he's brainwashed and tortured into submission, is the first person in her whole life since becoming Mord-Sith who is selflessly nice to her.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: She reveals to Richard that this is how all Mord-Sith are turned into such sadistic torturers.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She was an exceptionally kindhearted girl, which made it all the harder to break her in the beginning, and resulting in an even crueler Mord-Sith at the end.
• Broken Bird: Comes with being a Mord-Sith.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Pain, killing, near-death experiences... "It can have a pleasure all its own."
• Dark Action Girl: A dangerous fighter and Anti-Magic torturer under Darken Rahl's command.
• Dark and Troubled Past: One of the darkest and most troubled in the series. When she reveals some of it to Richard, he simultaneously feels sympathy, and an increased sense of hopelessness as he realizes just how profoundly messed up a madwoman he is dealing with.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Denna's physical and sexual abuse of Richard is shown negatively, but he ends up falling in love with her anyway.
• Dying as Yourself: Right before Richard kills her, she strips herself naked. She explains then, that all of her clothing and possessions are those of a Mord-Sith, and she wishes to die the way she was born, simply as Denna, not a Mord-Sith.
• Freudian Excuse: She was abducted as a young girl and forced to become a Mord-Sith, repeatedly broken, forced to watch her mother die and kill her own father, and eventually became the twisted Torture Technician that she is today.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Red leather, like other Mord-Sith. She briefly puts on white leather to show that she has such power over Richard that she doesn't need to make him bleed. Shortly after, she stains the entire outfit with his blood.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Constance, another Mord-Sith. The "heterosexual" might only be on Denna's half of the relationship, however, as Constance hates men and generally acts like a Psycho Lesbian.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: She was torturing Richard worse than anyone, hoping he'll be the one to kill her.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: She does not show Richard any mercy, regardless of whether he is standing up, lying down, or passed out at her feet and unable to move.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: What she does to Queen Milena, who quite thoroughly deserved it.
• Kiss of Life: She uses to technique to make sure her pets don't die during training.
• Last Request: She asks Richard to take her last breath before she dies.
• Love Redeems: Her increasing feelings for Richard are what eventually lead to her Dying as Yourself moment.
• Mutilation Interrogation: Her attempts to get Richard good and ready to answer Darken Rahl's questions involve slowly breaking his ribs one by one, dragging her Agiel across his flesh to raise blood-filled welts, an implied Groin Attack, sticking the Agiel inside his ear, and a lot of other things, all described in excruciating detail.
• No Holds Barred Beat Down: A beat-down on Richard that lasts for several chapters and is bloody as all hell.
• Pet the Dog: During his torture by and virtual slavery to her, Richard still seems to care for her and want to keep her from being in pain. Denna is extremely confused by this for awhile, but afterwards Pets The Richard several times.
• The Power of Love: Richard, while his magic is held by her, finds out he can still use the magic through love. He later uses it to kill her, using his own sympathy and forgiveness for her as the fuel.
• Redemption Equals Death: Though Richard manages to invoke Love Redeems on Denna, she won't change sides, and outright tells him that the only way he'll escape is by killing her, which he does.
• Self-Made Orphan: The final phase of a Mord-Sith's training.
• Shoot Your Mate: Ditto.
• Spirit Advisor: She appears for this purpose in Temple of the Winds and Confessor, being actively summoned by Richard the second time.
• Torture Always Works: Subverted. Despite her intense efforts, Richard manages to keep his mind intact throughout the Cold-Blooded Torture that she subjects him to, despite some brief Sanity Slippage.
• Torture Technician: What every Mord-Sith does.
• Training from Hell: She got it, now she gives it. And when we say training from hell, we really mean it.
• Undying Loyalty: To Richard. Three times. All three are after she dies.
• Unstoppable Rage: Exaggerated when Richard hits her Berserk Button mentioned above.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: One of the qualifications to be selected as a Mord-Sith.

Emperor Jagang

The leader of the Imperial Order, and the first Dreamwalker born in 3000 years. His goal is to enforce the doctrine of the Imperial Order by conquering the world with his massive armies and placing himself as the leader of it.

• Bald of Evil: No one can imagine him with hair on his head. It would only make him look less menacing.
• Big Bad: For the last 8 books of the series.
• Black Eyes of Evil: The mark of a Dreamwalker.
• Blood Sport: Ja'la is his favorite sport, and he likes the bloody aspects of it.
• The Casanova: Either the darkest version of this imaginable, or a horrible subversion. As the emperor, Jagang has a whole army of women who would be all too happy to be with him, but instead of sleeping with any of them, he deliberately chooses women who are slaves or unwilling captives, because being a serial rapist is more fun.
• The Chessmaster: It turns out being able to read the minds of most of the planet really helps in this regard.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: He uses plenty of it on any prisoner he can get his hands on, unless he wants to make them watch it instead.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Darken Rahl. Rahl was suave and manipulative and relied on his mastery of magic and propaganda to achieve his ends. Jagang, while not stupid, is a brutal warlord whose approach to any obstacle is to send a massive army against it (and if that fails, to send an even bigger army). He also despises magic, though he'l pragmatically make use of it for his ends, and his only personal power is an inborn ability to turn people into People Puppets, again emphasising his brute force approach.
• Dirty Communists: The Imperial Order is basically Terry Goodkind's representation of Communism, and Jagang is both the leader of it and one of its strongest adherents.
• Dream Weaver: He has this power as a result of being a Dreamwalker, and he uses it to great effect.
• Evil Overlord: The only thing that could make him more of this trope is if he had a suit of spikey black armor.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: He opposes the Keeper and the Sisters of the Dark, who want to destroy the world, making him the evil against their oblivion.
• Forced to Watch: He's rather fond of his tactic for people he knows won't break from being tortured themselves. Once, in an attempt to get Zedd to divulge important information, he brought in a group of children captured from the Midlands, and made him listen while his best torturers went to work on them. He also used a similar tactic as a threat on Kahlan, to keep her in line; since she more or less does stay in line, he never has to go through with it.
• Genius Bruiser: He appears heavily muscled, with arms thicker than some people's waists, and an enormous bull neck. However, he's a scholar and a tactician as well as a warrior and a leader, and as Kahlan admits, he is far from being just some stupid brute. "He was a very smart brute."
• Green-Eyed Monster: Towards Nicci. The first thing he said after reencountering her in Confessor was, “So, do you love him?” referring to Richard.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Like most of the other villains, he's prone to murderous rages at the drop of a hat, but can also be calm and polite and even forgiving at other times.
• Hypocrite: When Richard sends his armies to ravage the Old World and deprive Jagang of supplies, Jagang rants in anger and talks about Richard as if he's a monster for doing this, despite that this is exactly what Jagang has been doing to the New World since the early books of the series.
• Knight Templar: According to several characters, he honestly believes he's doing the right thing.
• Last of His Kind: The last Dreamwalker in the world, the only one in 3000 years.
• Mind Rape: His specialty. He regularly practices the physical kind, as well.
• Mister Big: He's not that tall, so when surrounding himself with gigantic brutes, this is inevitable.
• Monochromatic Eyes: His eyes turn black once he's fully mastered his powers as a Dreamwalker.
• More than Mind Control: Even when the Chimes deprive him of his ability to control the captured Sisters of the Light, they still don't rebel out of fear.
• Names to Trust Immediately: Jagang the Just, taken on Nicci's suggestion because it made him sound more heroic and less evil.
• The Napoleon: Of average height, small compared to most of the characters in the series, but plenty mean.
• Obviously Evil: He still thinks he's on the side of good, though.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He makes no effort to hide the fact that he's a misogynistic Social Darwinist rapist slaver.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He's willing to listen to others, particularly when they know more about magic than he does, rather than just asserting his opinion.
• Psychic Powers: As a Dreamwalker, all of his abilities pertain minds and the control of them.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Pretty much the Imperial Order's MO.
• Red Right Hand: His eyes, which mark his status as a Dreamwalker.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: By virtue of piggybacking on the Sisters of the Dark when they invoke the Chainfire spell.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Sealed from entering the New World until the barriers are brought down.
• Stalker with a Crush: Towards Nicci, whom he keeps trying to capture after she defects. Or Stalker with Lust, anyway.
• Straw Misogynist: Not to the same extent as Darken Rahl, but still.
• Strawman Political: He and the rest of the Imperial Order are straw communists.
• Take Over the World: As the Emperor of the Imperial Order, he's one of the most driven villains for this objective.
• Unstoppable Rage: When he sees Brother Narev's head.
• Villainous Breakdown: Ditto.
• We Have Reserves: Millions of soldiers, and he expects to lose a lot of them. That being said, he is still severely pissed when he loses hundreds of thousands.
• Would Hit a Girl: Demonstrated too many times to count.
• Would Hurt a Child: Would torture them as well.
• Xanatos Gambit: Invoking a certain Either/Or Prophecy left Richard pretty much screwed whatever he did.

Drefan Rahl

A bastard son of Darken Rahl, though not pristinely ungifted, who works as a healer for the Raug'Moss order. He, like his father, is a sexual sadist and servant of the Keeper.

• Badass Normal: He doesn't have any magical abilities, but he doesn't let that stop him.
• Bastard Bastard: Doubly so. Even Darken Rahl wanted to get rid of him, as he was an ungifted offspring.
• Cain and Abel: He's Cain to Richard's Abel. One of them, anyway.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: He enjoys doing it in his spare time.
• Combat Medic: What he seems to be at first.
• Deadly Doctor: After his evil side is revealed.
• Deal with the Devil: It seems to run in the family.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He throws knives into a wall. They all hit within an inch of each other. Oh, and the wall was behind him.
• Jack the Ripoff: With a preference for taking his time which drives the trope up to eleven.
• The Medic: As a member of the Raug'Moss, he's an extremely skilled healer.
• Nightmare Fetishist: His POV exists mainly to show how he finds grotesque and horrifying things to be beautiful and almost poetic.
• Pet the Dog: He seems to genuinely care about stopping the plague, and shows concern for those afflicted. His concern for children also seems quite genuine.
• Smug Snake: Despite being one of the Keeper's pawns and having no real claim on the throne of D'Hara, he's as arrogant and self-assured as any villain.
• Son of a Whore: His mother was a prostitute who was unfortunate enough to bear one of Darken Rahl's ungifted offspring.
• Straw Misogynist: Given that he's a villain in a Sword of Truth novel, that's almost mandatory.
• Unnamed Parent: His mother.
• Would Hit a Girl: To put it mildly.

Oba Rahl

Another bastard son of Darken Rahl, pristinely ungifted, who serves the Keeper in exchange for "invincibility" or so he believes.

• Abusive Parents: His mother would beat him, lock him in an animal pen, insult and mock him at every opportunity, make him drink "cures" that seemed to have no purpose other than burn his insides and make him sick, all as punishment for being a bastard. This serves as something of his Freudian Excuse.
• Anti-Magic: Because magic doesn't affect him, he takes this as a sign that he is invincible.
• Attempted Rape: Of Nyda, along with some more successful attempts on women he meets along the way.
• Bastard Bastard: Another one of Darken Rahl's illegitimate gets, and exceptionally evil even by their admittedly high standards.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Hilariously discussed by Oba himself. He thinks about how hot Jennsen is and is implied to be getting turned on, but then reminds himself that they have the same father. "Oba was too principled to consider her as a lover. Despite her ravishing looks and the way thinking of her made his groin wake, his integrity wouldn't allow such a breach of decency. He was Oba Rahl, not some rutting animal."
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to Richard's Abel.
• Deal with the Devil: "Surrender, Oba, and you will be invincible."
• Dumb Muscle: He's powerfully built and strong, but doesn't have much in the way of intelligence.
• Enemy to All Living Things: As a result of his alliance with the Keeper, animals flee him.
• Evil Counterpart: To Jennsen. They are both pristinely ungifted bastard children of Darken Rahl, and are the two main characters of The Pillars of Creation, and are repeatedly contrasted. Jennsen's mother was seduced by Darken Rahl when she was fifteen, while Oba's mother intentionally seduced Darken Rahl as a plan to increase her status.(It didn't work.) Jennsen is horrified and shocked when her mother is murdered by quadsman, while Oba kills his mother personally and shows no remorse. They both visit Lathea and Althea, Jennsen getting information and help from them while Oba tries to kill them. However, it is Jennsen, not Oba, that the Keeper chooses to play the pivotal role in his master plan.
• Extreme Doormat: He does everything his mother tells him at first, until he finally snaps.
• Faux Affably Evil: His Extreme Doormat politeness turns into this after taking the Keeper's offer.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: He was originally fairly well-behaved, if obviously weird and with traits of the potential sociopath, before he began dealing with the Keeper.
• Laughably Evil: He doesn't have a single redeeming trait compared to his numerous Kick the Dog moments, but his self-righteous and blatantly disturbed way of thinking still makes him incredibly amusing.
• Self-Made Orphan: He kills his abusive mother after joining the Keeper, with a shovel.
• Shovel Strike: An Improvised Weapon that he uses against his mother, once she figured out what he did to Lathea.
• Smug Snake: He likes to think of himself as a cunning Warrior Poet with a healthy curiosity who likes to learn things, and thinks he's got the whole cast wrapped around his finger and will become the ruler of D'Hara in time. In reality, he's a blundering, sociopathic idiot who's being manipulated by the Keeper.
• Straw Misogynist: His favorite thing about women? Raping and torturing them to death.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He is very similar to Drefan and goes a similar path, and he isn't introduced until Drefan is already dead.
• Unnamed Parent: Yes, his mother.
• Would Hit a Girl: Noticing a pattern, yet?

Sebastian

Emperor Jagang's strategist, a very high ranking man in the Imperial Order, and Jennsen's companion throughout The Pillars of Creation.

• Affably Evil: While most villains in the series only pretend to be polite and friendly, Sebastian seems to really be like that. At least to anyone who doesn't oppose the Imperial Order.
• Anti-Villain: He's well-intentioned, Affably Evil, seemed to genuinely be in love with Jennsen, and is still utterly devoted to the Imperial Order and willing to commit any number of atrocities in its name.
• Badass Normal: He's merely a highly skilled and powerful warrior, but he still works on the downfall of the most powerful wizard in the world.
• Big Damn Heroes: He appears and kills the last men of a quad and saves Jennsen from them, though not in time to save her mother. It turns out, they weren't a quad, but Sebastian's own men, disguised so that he could eliminate Jennsen's mother, make himself look like a hero to her, and turn her against Richard.
• Driven to Suicide: Jennsen rejecting and condemning him proves to be more than he can take.
• Evil Genius: He's one of Jagang's primary advisors and tacticians, and the strategist for the Imperial Order as a whole.
• Evil Will Fail: The conflict between his love for Jennsen and his loyalty to the Imperial Order's beliefs is one of the primary factors that leads to him killing himself.
• Face–Heel Turn: He helps Jennsen all throughout The Pillars of Creation, up until she realizes just what he and the Imperial Order are really about.
• Manipulative Bastard: Half of the plot of The Pillars of Creation is ultimately about Sebastian setting up an elaborate scheme to get Jennsen to kill Richard.
• The Unfettered: He isn't as sadistic as most other villains, but he is still very much on the Imperial Order's side and has little compunction to "sacrificing" numerous innocent people in the name of winning the war.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: He believes that the Imperial Order will eventually create a peaceful society where people won't even need to carry weapons, and he'll kill anyone to bring that about.
• We Have Reserves: He's Jagang's chief strategist, and the strategies of the Imperial Order make use of this tactic with gusto.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: He consumes a certain plant in a dangerous quantity to give himself a fever, so that Jennsen will be encouraged to offer him shelter for the night.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He doesn't seem to have a problem with causing the deaths of his own men along the way, once they do their part.

Princess Violet

The Princess of Tamarang. Though only a child, she already orders beheadings, keeps a "playmate" who she regularly slaps and punishes for no reason other than her own enjoyment, enjoys torturing prisoners, and makes plans to have women she does not like gang-raped by the castle guard.

• Cold-Blooded Torture: She starts young and doesn't stop.
• Enfant Terrible: Young age doesn't come with innocence in Violet's case.
• For the Evulz: Many of her horrific deeds are done just because she was feeling spiteful or because she thought it was fun.
• Geometric Magic: Although it takes so long to teach her, that Rachel gets the hang of it just from listening.
• It's All About Me: Extreme selfishness is perhaps Violet's most defining feature.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: The kickee in this case. In any other book, the hero knocking the teeth out of a 10 year old girl's mouth would be a horrible thing to do. But in any other book, said 10 year old girl probably wouldn't have been torturing him at the time while threatening to have his love interest gang-raped and executed.
• Off with His Head!: Gives this order at every opportunity. Beheadings seem to give her a particular sort of pleasure.
• Royal Brat: She has all the entitlement of the most arrogant of royalty and then some.
• Royally Screwed Up: So intensely cruel and politically incompetent that it's a wonder anyone ever did what she said once her mother wasn't around.
• She Is All Grown Up: Used in a very negative way.
• Smug Snake: Violet's biggest weakness, besides generally being Stupid Evil, is she believes that anyone will do what she says if she just screams at them long enough. It comes back to bite her when she tries to punish Six, probably the only person who was genuinely loyal to her for any length of time.
• Unstoppable Rage: The smallest things set her off, and once she's angry, she doesn't stop until she's tortured or beheaded whoever infuriated her.
• Villainous Demotivator: She really should have treated Six better.
• Villainous Princess: She is only ten years old, but anyone she takes a disliking to is prone to end up being tortured and/or beheaded on her orders, sometimes for no reason except her own amusement.

Michael Cypher

The adopted brother of Richard Cypher, son of George Cypher. Michael plans to unite the three kingdoms...by any means necessary.

• Cain and Abel: He's the Cain to Richard's Abel.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: His habit of calling his father George is one of the first things foreshadowing him being the villain.
• Dystopian Edict: To prepare the Westlanders for when Darken Rahl takes over, he makes a speech about the dangers of fire. To his credit, though, he never says outright that fire should be banned, only that mishandling of fire is a very real trouble that needs to be corrected somehow.
• Face–Heel Turn: Richard genuinely thought that Michael was going to help him, up until he realizes that he was a disciple of Darken Rahl.
• The Mole: He's planning to help Darken Rahl conquer the world, and is already preparing the Westland for when he takes over.
• Smug Snake: Even when he's lost everything, he bitterly rages at Richard for ruining his plans and absolutely refuses to salute him.
• Visionary Villain: He genuinely believes that uniting the three lands is the best thing to do, and he makes quite a speech about it at the beginning of the first book.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He's perfectly willing to allow his brother to be kidnapped and tortured, if that's what it takes to unite the three lands.

Dalton Campbell

The Minister's Aide, and later Minister of Culture, in Anderith. He serves Bertrand Chanboor and plots to make him the ruler of Anderith.

• Anti-Villain: While he works for Bertrand and the Imperial Order, he isn't nearly as evil as most villains in the series.
• The Atoner: He shows regret for his actions and returns the Sword of Truth to Richard at the end of Soul Of The Fire. Unfortunately, Redemption Equals Death.
• Driven to Suicide: After he realizes that his beloved wife is cheating on him.
• Evil Genius: While Bertrand might wield the power, it's Dalton's schemes that get him to his position of power.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Pet the Dog: Besides his love for his wife, he gave a large sum of money to his hired thugs Fitch and Morley so they could escape Anderith and live comfortably, even after he used them as scapegoats.
• Taking You with Me: Before he dies, his last act of revenge is to intentionally contract a fatal STD, then give it to his wife and Bertrand's wife Hildemara, so that all of them will die.
• Unstoppable Rage: When Stein tells Dalton about how he had sex with Dalton's wife and mocks him about it, Dalton eviscerates him. Literally.

Tobias Brogan

The Lord General of the genocidal Blood of the Fold.

• A God Am I: "I am the Creator, now!"
• Brother–Sister Incest: Never happens on screen, but a remark by his sister implies she sometimes used her true appearance to help him relieve stress.
• Church Militant: Believes he's doing the Creator's work.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: A devout preacher of the need to destroy banelings. As soon as he starts to act overwhelmed with his newfound power in front of his sister, it turns out she took his lessons to heart.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: He hunts wizards and sorceresses, not realizing that he's one himself.
• Hypocrite: He claims that his own use of magic isn't actually evil, like the magic of all the people he tortures and murders, because he believes that it's really "divine power."
• Insane Troll Logic: He believes magic is created by the Keeper. Then he comes to realize it was made by the Creator. Conclusion? God serves the Devil.
• Knight Templar: The leader of his world's equivalent of a full-on Inquisition.
• Mage Killer: Believes that magic is inherently evil, and needs to be purged.
• Manipulative Bastard: Instead of attacking Richard directly, he uses schemes, a magically-turned mole, and a secretive alliance with the Mriswith.
• Mutilation Interrogation: His preferred method of making "banelings" confess is through this method.
• Rage Against the Heavens: He thinks he will, but given that the Creator is entirely off screen, he doesn't get a chance.
• Smug Snake: Quite possibly the most delusionally overconfident villain in the series. While even those like Oba or Drefan merely want to seize control of D'Hara, Brogan is assured that he's nothing less than a god, about to rain destruction on all of the sinners of the world.
• The Starscream: In the second book, it was mentioned his organization is supported and paid by the state. At some point before he appears in the third book, the king fell victim to Burn the Witch!
• Unwitting Pawn: Jagang manipulates him by appearing in his dreams and posing as the Creator.
• Villainous Breakdown: When he comes to believe that the Creator "has gone insane".
• Would Hit a Girl: Orders one of his troops to torture an old woman and her granddaughter without so much as the blink of an eye.
• Would Hurt a Child: The aforementioned granddaughter, who thankfully gets away.
• You Are What You Hate: He turns out to have the gift.

Nicholas The Slide

A Slide, a creation of Emperor Jagang and the Sisters of the Dark. He was once a wizard, but was transformed into a Slide through horrific magical experiments. He now serves Jagang, and secretly plots to rule as Emperor himself.

• Character Tics: Running his fingers through his oiled hair.
• The Dragon: After Nicci left, Nicholas is Jagang's most dangerous lieutenant.
• Fate Worse than Death: Becoming a Slide in the first place.
• Last of His Kind: By virtue of being the only one created since the Great War.
• Sixth Ranger: A villainous example. He joined the Imperial Order much later than most others, after he was turned into a Slide by the experiments of the Sisters of the Dark.
• Smug Snake: Refers to himself as "Emperor Nicholas," and thinks he'll have no problem either destroying Richard or overthrowing Jagang.
• Soul Power: His power is the ability to steal the souls of his victims.
• The Starscream: He's already making plans to use his powers to assassinate Jagang, and therefore seize control of the Imperial Order himself.
• Super-Strength: Becoming a Slide endowed him with much greater strength than he had before.

The Chimes of Death

A soulless, demonic force that destroys magic, beginning The End of the World as We Know It. They take different forms and kill their victims through either wind, water, or fire. One of those forms happens to be a chicken that is not a chicken.

• Animalistic Abomination: A demon who appears in the form of a chicken.
• Anti-Magic: While they're in the world of the living, Magic just stops working.
• Even Evil Has Standards: They aren't hurting the people who summoned them.
• Feathered Fiend: "This was no chicken. This was evil manifest."
• Kill It with Fire: Fire is one of their preferred ways of killing.
• Kill It with Water: When they appear, their victims will sometimes deliberately drown themselves, controlled by the Chimes' powers.
• Playing with Fire: One of the Chimes is the Soul of the Fire - able to manipulate fire as the soul controls the body.
• Speak of the Devil: Don't say their names out loud; that's how you summon them.
• Would Hurt a Child: They target children as well as adults in their random killings.

The Keeper of the Underworld

The ultimate evil force of the universe, the antithesis to the Creator, imprisoned in the underworld. The Keeper of the Underworld torments the dead who do not earn their place with the good spirits, and wishes to exterminate all life.

• Black Magic: Subtractive Magic is the only kind he can use.
• Deal with the Devil: He often makes pacts and agreements with his mortal servants.
• Devil, but No God: The Keeper takes an activate role in trying to exterminate the living. Aside from sealing him away in the first place, the Creator doesn't seem to do much at all.
• The Dreaded: The Keeper was this for a young Kahlan when she heard a poem about him. "The Screelings are loose and the Keeper may win, his assassins have come to rip off your skin!"
• Evil Versus Oblivion: The oblivion, opposite Emperor Jagang's evil.
• For the Evulz: He hates that you live. Your life is the crime.
• God of Evil: The ruler of the underworld and the source of all evil in the world.
• The Man Behind the Man: Because he can't enter the physical world directly, the Keeper works through pawns.
• The Scottish Trope: Turns out to be just superstition, though.

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