A list of the major characters that appear in the Daevabad trilogy (City of Brass, Kingdom of Copper, Empire of Gold) and its short stories River of Silver.
Protagonists
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Nahri e-Nahid
An Egyptian street doctor and con-woman living in 18th-century Cairo shortly after its occupation by the French (succeeding occupation by the Ottomans). While conducting what she thinks is a fraudulent zar ritual to "exorcise" a mentally-disabled child from a wealthy family, she accidentally summons a real djinn warrior who forces her to flee with him to Daevabad, the hidden city of the djinn.
- Achievements in Ignorance: To lend credibility to her zar, Nahri holds it in an eerie part of Cairo and does an incantation in her birth language (figuring that since only she speaks it, it will sound authentically mystical.) This ends up actually resurrecting a "warrior djinn" in the form of Darayavahoush and getting the attention of some nasty ifrit into the bargain.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Nahri doesn't fit in anywhere she lives. In Cairo, she was thrown out of every orphanage and didn't find anything similar to a home until she met Yaqub. In Daevabad, she's mistrusted by the royal family and has to go through an extensive cosmetic routine every day to make her look more like a djinni because her features are entirely human. She really identifies more with the outcast and disparaged shafit, but they don't like her because she's the scion of a dynasty that brutalized them for generations.
- Back-Alley Doctor: Narhi does provide legitimate, competent medical services for her equally-poor neighbors and has uncanny medical abilities. She also has no qualms using her mysterious healing senses to provide quack services to the gullible, hypochondriac, desperate, and most importantly, rich.
- Being Good Sucks: When Ali gives her a speech about their responsibility to their people and Daevabad in The Empire of Gold, Nahri's response is to storm out, stomp around the streets of Cairo for a while, and then come back and admit he's right—but she still hates it.
- Blessed with Suck: As a child growing up in the streets, Nahri was ejected by several orphanages for her uncanny sense of others' illnesses. As an adult, she's learned to keep her perception to herself, but she still finds it uncomfortable when she sees "shadows" in another's body that belie a nascent cancer, or a heart condition, or some other ailment that can't be treated in 18th-century occupied Cairo.
- Bodyguard Crush: She develops a mutual attraction to Dara, the last of the family that historically protected her dynasty, when they journey from Cairo to Daevabad.
- Chekhov's Skill: Her ability to read marks, pick locks, and perform small sleight-of-hand acts do a lot to help her survive in the cutthroat world she's thrust into. Particularly when she palms Suleiman's seal and leaves Manizheh with a fake.
- Con Man: Nahri begins the story as a talented con artist in Cairo. She does have legitimate skill in healing and medicine (part from her natural abilities allowing her to perceive maladies, part from actual mentorship under a doctor) but she uses it to fleece rich people who are hypochondriacs or desperate. Her ability to lie convincingly and read potential marks serves her very well when she's brought into Ghassan al-Qahtani's court.
- Healing Factor: Even when she breaks bones they heal fast. Ghassan tests her authenticity by arranging a bathroom fall that would have killed a normal girl, but Nahri's skull knitted before it killed her. (This doesn't make her invulnerable, however; she can still be threatened at the point of a sword or arrow.)
- Healing Hands: She has natural healing abilities that she has managed to train, but before she's trained they're very limited. She actively avoids people whose illnesses she can perceive but not help.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Her status as the last Nahid means that lots of people make plans about her without seeing the need to actually include her in them. Dara plotted with another Daeva to smuggle her out of the city and only told her when he turned up at her apartment with a knife, much to her consternation. When Manizheh returns, she decides to keep the big plan—as well as her continued existence—a secret from Nahri to prevent interference (against Dara's advice, knowing that Nahri will interfere if she knows nothing). And Nahri's whole existence involves her real mother making a pact with Sobek to hide Nahri in Cairo as a human, with no idea about her heritage at all.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She's horrified when her "fake" zar results in Baseema, a young girl with an untreatable mental illness and a loving family, becoming possessed by an ifrit and then killed.
- Never Learned to Read: A fact she always regretted. She and Ali first begin to bond when he offers to teach her so she can start to study medical texts independently.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Near the end of the first book, she tries to plea for Dara's life by saying she wishes for him to live. That choice of words results in a whole lot of blood being spilled immediately.
- Obliviously Superpowered: Nahri was thrown out of every orphanage as a young girl for innocently revealing people's ailments, not knowing that it's unusual to be able to sense the state of people's bodies. As an adult, she learns that she's a half-djinn with rare healing magic.
- Parental Abandonment: She had no idea who her parents were, only that they're dead. When it becomes possible that she had loving parents and not negligent bastards who abandoned her, she has to catch up on delayed grief.
- The Pigpen: Not because she wants to be, but the women who ran the local bathhouse in Cairo were afraid of her and wouldn't let her in. She's delighted to have easy access to baths in Daevabad.
- Rags to Royalty: Nahri starts out as a thief & con-artist, then learns she's actually djinn royalty.
- Safety in Indifference: Nahri has a very difficult time allowing herself to get close to people. In Cairo her only friend was Yaqub (con artist life did not encourage confidantes). Life in Daevabad makes this worse as she comes to believe that anyone or anything she comes to care about will be painfully destroyed... a belief that is continuously reinforced.
- Sarcastic Confession: She suggests to Yaqub where she really was over the past five years when she returns to his apothecary in The Empire of Gold, but when he says that not even she could sell that story, she plays it off as a joke.
- Spanner in the Works: Dara warns Manizheh (apparently having learned from his own attempt to "rescue" Nahri at the end of the first book) that they should include Nahri in their plans for her if they don't want her to disrupt them out of spite. Manizheh dismisses him. Nahri not only goes out of her way to save Geziris from her mother's fog weapon, she makes off with Suleiman's seal, completely hamstringing Manizheh's attempt to subjugate Daevabad.
- Strong Family Resemblance: She looks so much like her mother Manizheh that Ghassan thinks she is her at first. Even though Manizeh is really her aunt.
Alizaydi Al-Qahtani
The younger son of Daevabad's King, Ghassan, Ali is a devout and idealistic young man. He is torn between his love for his family and his desire to make life in the city more just for all its citizens, especially the part-human shafit who are treated as an underclass.
- Affectionate Nickname: His family call him Zaydi.
- Broken Pedestal:
- He reveres his namesake ancestor, so it's a blow when he learns that Zaydi was involved in Dara's enslavement.
- His exile to Am Gezira leaves him much more clear-eyed about his father's flaws as a ruler in Kingdom of Copper.
- Celibate Hero: As the king's second son, he's expected to not marry and stay celibate so the line of succession is clear. He follows the "not marrying" part, but what Mutandhir laughs at is that he takes the celibacy seriously too.
- Condescending Compassion: Sometimes veers into this with shafit. Both his mother (who shares his views but has more temperance) and the pirate shafit Fiza call him on thinking he knows what the best thing for them is without actually respecting their wishes. Ali eventually realizes that the best way to be helpful is to provide resources and then get out of the way, as he did when sponsoring shafit doctors and builders at the hospital.
- Establishing Character Moment: His first scene in City of Brass establishes that he wants to help the shafit underclass so much that he's secretly working with them, but he's also so naive that losing his temper during a clandestine deal results in their leader dying.
- Fish out of Water: Ali was raised mostly in the Citadel and gets along well with the warriors there. He's completely out of his depth when Ghassan brings him to the palace to start carrying out the duties of the Qaid.
- Good with Numbers: He might be naive to political intrigue, but he is a huge economics nerd and immediately begins listing off all the financial and logistical complications that will be involved if Nahri really wants to resurrect the Nahid hospital.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: It takes Ali almost two full books to figure out what side he's on, not from any desire for power but because he genuinely wants to do the right thing in a city of Black-and-Grey Morality. He's torn between a family that he loves very much, and the atrocities that they allow (and encourage) towards those of mixed blood.
- Intrigued by Humanity: Ali is fascinated by all things human and has a million questions for Nahri when he learns that a human-raised Nahid is in the palace. When they're transported to Cairo, he takes advantage of his ability to pass unseen to learn everything he can... although his fascination with humans didn't lead him to an investigation of how to haggle.
- Named After Somebody Famous: His namesake is Zaydi al Qahtani, who lead an uprising against the oppressive Nahid dynasty in defense of the shafit. At one point, Ghassan ironically reflects that he was asking for trouble by naming his son after a revolutionary.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: One of Ali's major struggles is that his good intentions have all sorts of unintended consequences for the people he's trying to help. The first two books have him struggle a lot with passionate but reckless displays of idealism and then going too far in the other direction and becoming complicit with wrongdoing. He laments in the second book that 100% of his experience trying to help people results in them being worse off.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Ali is sent into exile in Am Gezira at the end of the first book with the full expectation that someone will assassinate him.
- Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Everyone around him accuses him of deceit, manipulation, and running his own sinister agenda. At one point Nahri decides that he's the most devious Qahtani of them all because he's the only one who pulled the wool over her eyes. Ali's only agenda is genuinely to be a responsible member of the ruling dynasty and a good member of the family. Whenever he does lie or hide the truth, it's only ever to try and help others.
- To Be Lawful or Good: Ali wants to follow the tenets of justice and equality that Islam espouses, but he also wants to be a good second son and Qaid-in-waiting for his royal family, and his inability to balance these two desires without getting anyone hurt in the process lasts for most of the first two books. By the end of the second book, he is definitively pushed to "good" when Ghassan orders a purge on the shafit. Ali responds by calling on his Citadel comrades to lead an uprising.
- What the Hell, Hero?: After Ali is nearly murdered by Hanno, a shafit seeking revenge for Ali's betrayal, Ali asks Jamshid to dispose of the body in the lake to avoid the brutal reprisals that would follow a shafit attacking a prince. Afterwards, Muntadhir expresses his horror that Ali was still devious enough to think about how to secretly dispose of a body while coughing up blood.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: This is usually how he feels whenever Ghassan has reason to praise him in Kingdom of Copper.
Darayavahoush e-Afshin
A legendary daeva warrior who fought on the Nahids' side in the Qahtani uprising 1400 years ago. Dara was killed and spent the following centuries as an enslaved "djinni in a bottle" type of spirit—the tattoos on his arm speak to the number of masters he was forced to serve (and whom he eventually killed).
- Achilles' Heel: He's a fire spirit, which means he can't swim. And having been drowned by the ifrit who enslaved him didn't make his bad feelings towards water any less.
- Broken Pedestal: Dara was raised to serve the Nahids and revere them as gods. His loyalty persists even after they use him to commit atrocities on their behalf. It takes Manizheh's mass executions of Daeva nobles and re-enslavement of him for him to finally turn against her, and even then he can't bring himself to kill her until Nahri is in mortal danger.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Dara was sent to Qui-Zi by the Nahid Council to send a message that breaking their laws would be dealt with harshly. They chose him specifically because he was young and obedient. After he returned, the Council pinned the atrocity entirely on him and exiled him as punishment. As a result, Dara was not in Daevabad when it fell to Zaydi al-Qahtani and his family was massacred. He organized and led a rebellion against al-Qahtani that came very close to succeeding. Just as he was preparing to retake Daevabad, al-Qahtani made a deal with the ifrit, who killed Dara and enslaved him. He remained enslaved for over a thousand years, forced to do horrible things for a succession of human masters. It's also implied that some of those masters used him as a sex slave. Unsurprisingly, he's not willing to talk about his past.
- The Dreaded: Darayavahoush e-Afshin, a.k.a. Dara. Even centuries after the war he fought against the Geziri tribe and their allies he's regarded as a fierce warrior of legend, known throughout the magical world as The Scourge of Qui-zi. We find out why near the end of the first book, and the first time we see it in action is terrifying.
- Just Following Orders: Dara justifies his actions at Qui-Zi by claiming that he was just following orders. He did follow the Nahids' orders almost exactly, only disobeying their command to leave no survivors.
- Last of Their Kind: His family was wiped out in Zaydi's rebellion, leaving him as the last Afshin and the last of his own personal family. He realizes in hindsight that the Nahids themselves send his father out to be Cannon Fodder when he refused to carry out an ethnic cleansing on their orders.
- Literal Genie: Enslaved djinn traditionally kill their own masters through careful interpretation of their commands and Dara has had many masters. Nahri witnesses one memory where he grants a wish for the "finest drink of the ancients" while reflecting that his master should have chosen his words a little more carefully. It was hemlock.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- He's horrified when he comes out of his wish-induced trance at the end of City of Brass and sees the carnage he unleashed on Ghassan's soldiers.
- His bloody rescue of his warrior from the Nahid hospital in The Empire of Gold provokes a similar epiphany.
- These Hands Have Killed: Dara grows increasingly troubled by the fact that his entire life has been defined by violence and death, and his apparent inability to stop being anything but a brutal warrior. He eventually comes to detest his status as a weapon so much that he tries to turn against Manizheh, not realizing she's re-enslaved him.
- They Died Because of You: Dara's sister Tamima was brutally murdered in revenge for his actions at Qui-Zi. This is a major source of guilt for him.
The Qahtanis
Ghassan Al-Qahtani
Reigning king of Daevabad. Ghassan is as ruthless as he is intelligent, and he is fiercely intelligent. He maintains control over his city—and his family—with manipulation and force, threaded through with affection that he refuses to let himself act upon.
- Archnemesis Dad: Ali spends the first book realizing that his own personal morals are incompatible with keeping a good relationship with the father he loves and respects. By the second book, Ali understands how much of a monster his father and finally launches an outright coup after one act of tyranny too many.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: His first appearance gives him the markers of a good, if pragmatic king. He personally sees petitioners and settles their disputes patiently, he's amused rather than angered by Ali's lack of formal dress, and he shows genuine affection for his two sons. It's not until he scolds Ali for not fabricating unrest so there's an excuse to round up and execute shafit that his evil is firmly established.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Even when he decides that Ali has to die, Ghassan simply orders him into exile in the expectation that someone else will do the assassinating—he can't make himself do it.
- The Lost Lenore: He wanted to marry Manizheh himself, not just to unify the Gezeris and Nahids but because he loved her.
- Manipulative Bastard: Ghassan knows practically everything about everyone in the palace and can pull any of their levers any time he wants to make them comply. Nahri quickly identifies himself as a con artist leagues ahead of her in experience and ruthlessness.
- Papa Wolf: When Ali was born, some assassins offered to "help" him remove the kind of problems that second sons cause, Ghassan kills them. Even if Ali underestimates his father's willingness to use his children, he does know that they are loved enough that he needs to hide the evidence of a shafit attacking him if he doesn't want Ghassan to purge all of them in revenge.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: But only in public. Privately, Ghassan fully acknowledges that the shafit are intellectual and often magical equals to the djinn, but because the bigotry against them is so strong he believes it too risky to oppose it. He also warns Nahri that he's got no problems using the typical gender Double Standard against her.
- Power Nullifier: He possesses Suleiman's Seal, a ring that allows him to cancel all magic in his vicinity. This includes the magic poison of zulqifar and the Healing Factor of the Nahids.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: During an argument, Hastet expresses regret that the Ghassan she once knew allowed the pressure of ruling to twist him into the manipulative monster he is now.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Every atrocity he commits is out of his desire to maintain the peace in his populous and multiethnic city. Unfortunately, he's decided that the best method is to make every faction hate each other more than they hate the throne, which (as Ali tries to point out) is not the same thing as stability. Even after stopping the war in the third book, Ali and Nahri discuss the fact that Ghassan was one of the smartest leaders of Daevabad and even he couldn't fix it.
Muntadhir Al-Qahtani
Ghassan's elder son and heir to the throne and half-brother to his two younger siblings. Muntadhir has a reputation as a partying, spendthrift pleasure-seeker, but he has a canny mind beneath that surface.
- Affectionate Nickname: "Dhiru" to his siblings.
- Big Brother Instinct: Over both of his siblings. He does his best to keep Ali from getting himself righteously killed in the first book. He's also very protective of Zaynab and tries to warn Ali to keep out of her life in Kingdom of Copper. Zaynab doesn't appreciate the interference.
- Cain and Abel: Declares that he's through protecting Ali at the end of City of Brass. He spends most of Kingdom of Copper looking for reasons to get angry at his younger brother and working to oppose, undercut, and/or humiliate him in various ways. He has a change of heart during the disaster of Navasatem and takes a deadly blow for him.
- Drowning My Sorrows: His enjoyment of wine kicks up a notch in the second book when he's forced into a political marriage with Nahri and then his brother comes back to keep talking about political agitation. When he reveals the mechanics of Suleiman's Seal, it's easy to see his alcoholism as a coping mechanism for knowing that he will be confined to the city for the rest of his life once he inherits the throne.
- Evil Me Scares Me: He does not want to become like his father and yet has a hard time imagining another way to rule. Chalk up another reason that he drinks.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Subverted. He seems like a profligate fool and Ali sees him as such (although with affection) but Muntadhir is far more politically astute—and that serves him better than Ali's idealism and martial skills.
- Flying Under the Gaydar: He's in love with Jamshid. Whenever rumors about their closeness begin hitting too close, Muntadhir makes sure to engage in more debauchery than usual to allay them. (It doesn't work on everyone, but it certainly worked on Ali enough to shock him when he's finally told in the third book.)
- Hidden Depths: His image as an irresponsible hedonist is carefully constructed. This is not to say that he doesn't enjoy the hedonism, but he is just as sharp as his father and knows a lot more than his brother gives him credit for.
- Secret-Keeper: He's the only one besides Ghassan who knows how Suleiman's seal works, and once he reveals it, his attitude suddenly makes a lot more sense. Bearing it binds the holder to Daevabad, but more than that, it lives in their heart. Which means that there is no way to rise against Ghassan that will not involve his death.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: By the denouement of The Empire of Gold, Muntadhir has seen multiple loved ones either almost die or outright die and he spends weeks shackled among rotting corpses in the palace dungeons after his desperate attempt at a coup fails, covered in festering wounds with one eye cut out. He confesses that he's unwilling to ever set foot in the palace again after everything he experienced there.
- Taking the Bullet: In spite of his anger at Ali throughout the second book, Muntadhir ends up taking a zulqifar strike for him at the end because he doesn't want to see his brother die again. Fortunately, its magical poison is canceled when Suleiman's Seal is whisked out of the city.
- Unwanted Spouse: He has no interest in marrying Nahri; it's all arranged by his father to unite the tribes and keep both of them under control. They have to make the best of it (and do occasionally sleep together) during their five-year marriage, but he's happy when they're finally in a position to divorce by mutual agreement.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Ghassan makes his disapproval of Muntadhir's profligacy very clear. A story in The River of Silver from their youth has Muntadhir jealous of Ghassan speaking of Ali with open pride and affection, something he rarely receives himself.
Zaynab Al-Qahtani
Ghassan's daughter. Zaynab, like Ali, is the daughter of the Ayaanle tribe.
- Alpha Bitch: Initially. The first thing she does when meeting Nahri is attempt to humiliate her, but Nisreen gets her away before it can get too bad. Although Zaynab has more depth to her than that, it does mean that Nahri makes a point of avoiding her for a long time.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: Suffers from this more than Ali did in her childhood because she can't speak Geziri as well and the Ayaanle are condescending towards her.
- Hero of Another Story: She helps lead the underground when Manizheh takes over the city.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Aqisa, Ali's friend from Bir Nabat, teaches her how to fight with weapons.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She gives a piece of her mind to Ali for always treating her as a careless gossip without trying to see that she is living just as hard of a life as a child of two tribes.
- Women Are Wiser: Zaynab goes to a lot of trouble in the second book to try and keep her two brothers from killing each other. She also proves to be a valuable ally to Nahri when it comes to navigating tricky political waters once they move past their mutual mistrust.
Hastet
Ghassan's queen and mother to Ali and Zaynab. She returns to the city after a long absence in The Kingdom of Copper.
- Good Is Not Nice: Hastet is a woman of strong morals, supports the shafit, and despises her husband for the monster he's become. She also plays the game of politics extremely well and doesn't hesitate to hold Jamshid prisoner against Manizheh.
- Mama Bear: She detests her children being in danger and exercises all of her will and power to try and keep them safe (or at least, safer).
- Shipper on Deck: She's open about her desire for Nahri and Ali to marry, in part because she wants Ali to be safe at home, but also because she thinks he would be happy with her.
- Women Are Wiser: After Ali's attempt to help a shafit father and daughter is undone by Ghassan, Hastet tracks them down, frees them again, and gives them both employment in the palace where they'll be well-paid and safe. Then she lights into Ali for not even learning their names before making a grand gesture to rescue them that was easily undone.
Other residents of Daevabad
Nisreen e-Kinshur
A Daeva woman who served Manizheh twenty years ago. She becomes Nahri's mentor when she comes to Daevabad.
- I Owe You My Life: Manizheh and Rustam healed Nisreen in her youth when her village was destroyed.
- His Name Is...: She's shot with an iron bullet during the Navasatem procession and dies trying to tell Nahri about Manizheh.
- Parental Substitute: Nahri quickly comes to consider her a maternal figure.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Nahri yells at her for pushing her into a risky procedure before she was ready, Nisreen fires back to lay out all the ways she is failing as the Banu Nahida and how hurtful it is to see her not care about everything the Daevas have endured since the Qahtanis came into power. This fails to deescalate the argument.
- Secret-Keeper: She knows that Manizheh is still alive that Jamshid is a Nahid, and that Manizheh will stage a coup on Navasatem.
Kaveh e-Pramukh
Ghassan's grand wazir and a powerful figure in the Daeva tribe.
- Evil Chancellor: He is a more complex version than others but he's certainly not a fan of the family he serves and everyone knows him for being hard to trust. Kaveh is the one to unleash the copper mist that kills Ghassan and dozens of other Geziris.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: We get a secondhand report from Dara that a mob "tore him to pieces" in Empire of Gold, and it's implied that this is not a metaphor.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He was under the impression that the copper fog would remain in one room, not that it would continue to grow and spread with each victim. He's horrified when it wipes out an entire camp of travelers on their way to Navasatem, although it doesn't prompt a Heel–Face Turn.
- Papa Wolf: He despises Muntadhir not for his profligacy but because Muntadhir is always breaking his son's heart. As for Jamshid being attracted to men, Kaveh doesn't care and would be happy to use his influence to protect him.
- Out-Gambitted: Ghassan always knew that Kaveh had an affair with Manizheh because the Seal let him see that Jamshid was a Nahid.
Jamshid e-Pramukh
Kaveh's son. He is not only the captain of Muntadhir's personal guard, he is the emir's closest friend.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Jamshid is a kind young man who was once in training for the priesthood... which means he was able to decipher Manizheh's old notes and slip poison into Ali's tamarind juice when Ali returns to Daevabad and upsets Muntadhir.
- Big Brother Instinct: Jamshid is nothing less than overjoyed when he learns he's a Nahid and immediately begins treating Nahri like family. And he quietly confesses to Ali that he was behind the silver poison and that he'll do it again if Ali hurts her in any way.
- Broken Pedestal: Dara is a legendary hero of the Daevas and Jamshid is overjoyed to be taken under his wing. It gets him six arrows in the back when Dara goes on his rampage at the end of the first book.
- Determinator: After his Game-Breaking Injury, Jamshid spends the next five years undergoing excruciating magical and physical therapy with Nahri because he's unusually resistant to her healing magic.
- Fantastic Racism: Like most Daevas, Jamshid believes the shafit to be inferior. Nahri avoids telling him for a long time because she fears his reaction.
- Game-Breaking Injury: Not only did Dara's arrows hit his spine, Ghassan denied him healing for days to blackmail Kaveh. It left Jamshid disabled and unable to continue being a warrior for years.
- Power Limiter: His "traditional" brand is really a secret art from Manizheh that blocks his Nahid abilities, an effort to conceal his heritage. When severe burns from Rumi fire destroy it, he gains the family healing factor and recovers from all his injuries at once.
- Secret Relationship: He and Muntadhir are lovers. Neither of them can openly acknowledge it due to the stigma and the fact that Muntadhir is destined for a political marriage.
Others
Manizheh e-Nahid
Nahri's mother. Although she was thought by everyone to be dead, the end of the first book reveals her to be alive and making her own plans for Nahri and Daevabad.
- Archnemesis Dad: It doesn't take long for Nahri to decide that she is not on her mother's side. Jamshid, too, is heartbroken to see that the mother he thought he'd never meet is a mass-murderering zealot.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Dara maneuvers her into ordering him to "save Daevabad." He immediately gives her a swift death.
- Good Powers, Bad People: She's augmented her powerful natural abilities with a lot of research an invention... into shaping those abilities into horrific weapons.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Dara begs her to take more time on refining her weapon because unleashing it in its current form would result in the death of many innocents, making her no better than Ghassan. She replies that she doesn't care.
- Start of Darkness: Her life under the Qahtani's collective thumb turned her bitter and hateful towards them for having taken the city that she considers her birthright. In more detail, it was after she tried killing Ghassan and he tortured her brother in retribution. After that, she decided that even Rustam was a weakness.
- Tragic Villain: Manizheh is the way she is because she was born into captivity and cruelty, which she eventually turned to herself as a way to survive and escape. Nahri mourns the relationship they might have had if they had lived in a better world. Dara is able to kill her by asking if she wishes him to give her "peace," and giving her a swift end is a sincere interpretation of that desire.
- Would Hurt a Child: Her weapon does not discriminate by age. She also wanted to kill the infant Nahri for being a shafit.
