Characters introduced or appearing prominently in Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes, a standalone sequel to The First Law trilogy.
open/close all folders
Point of View Characters
Curnden Craw
Leader of a crew of Named Men, known to all as a real straight edge.- Catchphrase: "Those are the times."
- A Father to His Men
- Sadistic Choice: Faced with one when his old friend and former chief's son Calder attempts to turn him against his new chief.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: How he views his choice.
- Undying Loyalty: Famed for it.
Prince Calder
Bethod's younger son, a charmer and schemer among the straightforward warriors of the North.- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: With his wife Sef, and occasionally comes through in interactions with his older brother Scale. In the end, played straight as he gives Scale rulership of the North.
- The Casanova: His love for his wife is enough to make him swear off other women. Well, almost enough.
- Dirty Coward: By his own admission.
- Hot Guy, Ugly Wife: Not ugly per se, but Sef's most mentioned physical trait is her pig nose.
- The Man Behind the Man: Ends up as this to Scale.
- Manipulative Bastard: Dead set on reclaiming his father's throne from Black Dow.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Doesn't start with one, since he's never earned it. Then after he defeats Black Dow in the circle (with a little help), people start calling him Black Calder.
- Rage Breaking Point: After Scale's apparent death, Calder's response is uncharacteristically hot-headed.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: With Scale. Calder's blue.
- Shut Up, Hannibal! / Shut Up, Kirk!: Depending on your perspective, delivers a pretty awesome one to Black Dow, so much so that many of the people there to watch Dow butcher him start laughing.
- Smug Smiler: Wears his smirk like armor.
- Smug Snake: Actually somewhat averted. Calder has many of the traits, but he's aware of his own overconfidence and tries to curb it. He's also pretty likable when he tries.
- Zig-zagged throughout The Heroes. He repeatedly schemes himself into a corner and wriggles out in unexpected ways, until Bayaz finally traps him. And then he escapes that through brotherly love.
Bremer dan Gorst
King Jezal's disgraced former bodyguard, now a special observer on the war from the Closed Council of the Union.- The Brute
- Cannot Spit It Out: In love with Finree for years. When he finally does tell her, it goes disastrously.
- Master Swordsman: Screwed out of a championship by Bayaz, and now possibly the best fighter on either side.
-
Stoic Woobie: Tremendously depressed over his disgrace, but mostly just stands around silently until it's time to put on his armor and kill dozens of people. Subverted; almost everything wrong in his life is his own fault.
Finree dan Brock
A Union noblewoman with ambitious plans.- Damsel out of Distress: Doesn't do any actual fighting, but negotiates her own release and that of a number of other prisoners. From Black Dow.
- Gold Digger: Averted. She married her husband after his father's disgrace, and seeks success for both of them.
- Manipulative Bitch
- Surrounded by Idiots
- You Just Had to Say It: Despite her intelligence and charm, Finree can't stop herself from sassing some people when it's not socially appropriate.
Corporal Tunny
Standard-bearer of the First, a veteran Union soldier.- Dirty Coward: Subverted. He's suicidally brave when his adrenaline's going, and spends the battle trying to repress it.
- Glory Seeker: Averted. All Tunny wants to do is live through the next battle and make a profit reselling loot. Even after he gets his blood up and does crazy things, he doesn't like hearing about them.
- Good-Looking Privates: averted to hell and back.
- Old Soldier: Not that old, but definitely has this attitude.
- Red Shirt Army: He's in one.
Beck
A Northern lad of seventeen, whose father was a famous champion.- Jerkass: Well, he is seventeen.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At the end of the battle, having seen enough of his father's lifestyle.
- Small Name, Big Ego: His father was Shama Heartless
Northmen
Wonderful
Craw's second-in-command.- Action Girl
- Combat Pragmatist
- Deadpan Snarker
- Happily Married: Has a husband and kids back at home, who she visits between jobs.
- They packed up and left years ago, and she couldn't bear to tell anyone.
- The Lad-ette
- The Lancer: To Craw. Later to Dow, when she takes command of his Carls.
Whirrun of Bligh
A hero from the High Places, and a member of Craw's dozen.- BFS: The Father of Swords, an impossibly large two-hander.
- Character Development: In "The Fool Jobs," a story concerning Craw's crew several years before The Heroes, Whirrun is new to the band and is a humorless, self-important, stoic hero. By the time of The Heroes, he's lightened up a great deal.
- The Chosen One: The witch Shoglig told him to seek his destiny on the battlefield, and told him the day and manner of his death.
- Subverted: he's killed by a random spear, and admits as he's dying that Shoglig had no idea what she was talking about.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Acts like a weird goofball most of the time.
- Famed In-Story: Other Northmen spend the time between battles talking about his ridiculous list of accomplishments.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: Due to the nature of the Father of Swords.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Has less clothes on every time he fights.
Scale
Bethod's older son and one of Black Dow's five War Chiefs.- Big Brother Mentor: Tries to be this to Calder, but Calder's twice as smart as he is. His presence does dissuade people from just killing Calder, though.
- The Big Guy / The Brute
- Dual Wielding: Sword and mace combo.
- Dumb Muscle: Played so very straight.
- Not Quite Dead: Loses his hand and is captured by the Union, but Bayaz returns him to Calder at the end.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Calder's blue.
- Puppet King: Implied to end up as this.
- You Shall Not Pass!: does this at the old bridge. It doesn't work.
The War Chiefs
Black Dow's five generals, all leaders in their own right with a claim to the North. Consists of Scale (see above), Glama Golden, Cairm Ironhead, Caul Reachey, and Brodd Tenways.- Main/Gonk: Brodd Tenways, "ugly as incest."
- Heroic Build: Glama Golden, who plays it up.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: For Dow.
- The Rival: Golden & Ironhead.
Stranger-Come-Knocking
A towering savage who brings his Northmen to Dow's cause.- Blood Knight: Specifically joins Dow's army because he wants a good fight. He repeatedly asks about fighting his own allies, like Whirrun or Dow himself.
- The Mole: One of Bayaz's pawns.
