Characters / The Guild of Specialists

This is a list of characters who appear in the Guild of Specialists trilogy.

MacKenzie Family

Becca MacKenzie

Rebecca MacKenzie

Becca

The 15-year-old daughter of Hamish and Elena MacKenzie and elder sister of Doug.

• Action Girl: Highly trained in swordsmanship.
• Force and Finesse: Between her and Doug, she's the Finesse, preferring using a rapier.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The withdrawn, studious Blue Oni to Doug's Red.
• Royal Rapier: Her favored weapon is a rapier.

Doug MacKenzie

Douglas MacKenzie

Doug

Becca's younger brother, 13 years old.

• Badass Driver: Winds up at the helm of the Expedient in the Captain's sea duel with Sheng-Fat and acquits himself well despite working with damaged steering.
• Force and Finesse: He's the Force, preferring a broadsword or saber instead of a rapier.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The outgoing Red to Becca's Blue.
• Sherlock Scan: Identifies that Russian soldiers raided the Western Chapter's temple from a shell casing left behind.

Captain Fitzroy MacKenzie

Captain Fitzroy MacKenzie

Becca and Doug's uncle and captain of the Expedient.

• Handicapped Badass: Having a game leg does nothing to impede him in battle.
• Outliving One's Offspring: It's mentioned in Operation Typhoon Shore that he and his deceased wife had a stillborn child.
• Sword Cane: Has been known to carry one on occasion, most notably in Operation Typhoon Shore.

Hamish and Elena MacKenzie

Hamish and Elena MacKenzie

Fitzroy's brother and sister-in-law and parents of Becca and Doug. Went missing on an expedition to the Sinkiang desert.

• Living MacGuffin: Their disappearance is the reason why Becca and Doug got caught up in the Guild of Specialists and the secrets of zoridium.

Crew of the Expedient

Ives

Erasmus Ives

Coxswain of the Expedient. Married to the ship's cook Mrs. Ives.

• Character Tics: Whenever danger approaches, his nose tends to twitch.
• Number Two: As coxswain, he serves as second-in-command to Captain MacKenzie.
• Token Minority: The only black man on the crew.

Charlie

Charles Pembleton-Crozier

Posh Charlie

A crewman with a speech impediment.

• Angrish: Inverted since his stutter disappears in times of anger.
• Cain and Abel: With Julius Pembleton-Crozier, with Charlie as the Abel. Charlie vowed to protect the Tembla's secrets, while Julius wishes to exploit them for profit.
• Given Name Reveal: In a roster of the crew of the Expedient in the appendices for the first book, Posh Charlie is not listed with a last name, simply as Charles. In the second book it's revealed that his surname is Pembleton-Crozier, making him Julius Pembleton-Crozier's brother.
• Heroic Sacrifice: To atone for his work being used to find more zoridium, Charlie goes to the core of the Cotiere's gravitational machine to free the others from its pull. He survives, but is badly injured from the increased pressure.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He assisted Mrs. MacKenzie in her translations of Tembla text, allowing the Cotiere of St. Petersburg to find the zoridium mines.
• Put on a Bus: He doesn't appear in Operation Storm City because he's still recovering from the gravitational injuries received in Operation Typhoon Shore.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Charlie's experiences at the Somme severely colored his view of humans being able to use technology wisely.
• Speech Impediment: Charlie primarily speaks with a stutter.

Schmidt

Wolfgang Schmidt

The Chief

The chief engineer onboard the Expedient.

• The Engineer: The chief engineer on the Expedient, and the one person Captain MacKenzie insists on having onboard if he needs to pick a limited crew.
• Germanic Efficiency: He's a German man who keeps the Expedient's engines in tip-top shape.
• Put on a Bus: Doesn't appear in the third volume since the Expedient is destroyed.

Sparky

Stephen Watts

Sparky

The wireless telegraph operator onboard the Expedient.

• Communications Officer: Operates the telegraph system for the Expedient.
• Disney Death: Initially believed dead when the wireless office is bombed during the battle at Wenzi Island, but shows up alive for the sea duel between Captain MacKenzie and Sheng-Fat.

Chambois

Luc Chambois

A young French inventor who was rescued by Captain MacKenzie and winds up as an unofficial science officer aboard the Expedient.

• Bungling Inventor: Chambois' inventions are a bit hit-and-miss. The molecule invigorator and fog generator work fine, but sometimes the former works when it doesn't need to, which nearly got the divers killed twice while trying to retrieve the torpedo fragments (first by flying torpedo fragments and later by the bends when the submersible is drawn towards the water surface). Worse still, he's relied upon to guide the Sujing Quantou and the Expedient's crew through the tunnels of Sheng-Fat's fortress, and winds up getting the party captured because he gets lost in the tunnels and walks the crew straight into a trap without realizing it.
• Distressed Dude: During Operation Red Jericho, he is chained to the hull of the Expedient where Sheng-Fat tries to use him for target practice.
• Fingore: Lost the pinky finger of his right hand to Sheng-Fat.
• Frame-Up: He was framed for the death of Professor Zorid, presumably by Pugachev, the man who had Zorid kidnapped.
• Guile Hero: His escape from Sheng-Fat was conceived via sabotaging the guidance system of a torpedo so that it would loop around and destroy the vessel which fired it.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Chambois was apparently unaware of the Dragon's Teeth, the spikes used to trap ships in the bay.

Allies

Liberty DaVine

Liberty DaVine

The daughter of oil baron Theodore DaVine who gets caught up in the Guild's exploits.

• Ace Pilot: A very good pilot and often called on to fly.
• Affectionate Nickname: Calls the MacKenzie siblings "Cuz" because they pretended to be her cousins when they first met.
• Fingore: When Liberty is first seen, Sheng Fat has just severed her right pinky finger. Not that it impedes her much.
• I Call It "Vera": Nicknames her blunderbuss equipped with zoridium-laced gunpowder the "Liberator".

The Sujing Quantou

An ancient order of warriors dating back to the days of Alexander the Great who have sworn to protect the secrets of zoridium.

In General

• Ancient Order of Protectors: All the branches date from 326 B.C.E., when Alexander the Great reached India, and have vowed to protect the secrets of zoridium.
• Army Scout: All four branches are descended from the best reconnaissance troops in the armies of Alexander the Great.
• Battle Cry: The Eastern Chapter often shout "Sujing Cha!" before entering combat, which is translated to "This is a very dangerous enterprise!"
• Born in the Saddle: The Western Chapter are well known for their skill as horsemen.
• Culture Chop Suey: Justified; the Sujing Quantou orders spent centuries traveling and picked up aspects of various cultures along the way before settling down. Furthermore the Eastern Chapter settled in a major trading hub like Shanghai.
• Dead All Along: The lost Southern Chapter; their ship ran aground and was buried in a mudslide shortly after scattering with their gyrolabe and portion of the 99 Elements.
• Deadly Disc: The Eastern Chapter use discuses as their main ranged weapons.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: All but two are killed throughout Operation: Storm City, leaving only the twins Xi and Xu.
• The Exile:
  • Alexander declared them exiled after they took the gyrolabes and 99 Elements. Captain MacKenzie says to Doug that theoretically they could return to Greece, but choose not to because home is where the heart is.
  • The Northern Chapter are considered Persona Non Grata after a failed attempt to take over the whole older 200 years before the books started.
• Katanas Are Just Better: The Eastern Chapter use a pair of katanas as their main melee weapons.
• Killed Offscreen: The entire Western Chapter by the time of Operation Storm City; their temple was raided by Pugachev's forces, and the rest were killed on the MacKenzie's expedition to the Sinkiang.
• Mundane Utility: The Eastern Chapter creates spectacular fireworks as a byproduct of their research into zoridium.
• Party Scattering: Invoked, with each branch taking a gyrolabe and a quarter of the 99 Elements and taking them as far as they could in a cardinal direction.
• Private Military Contractors: The Kalaxx served as elite paid troops in the Russian army for 140 years before splitting off from them to work as miners and mercenaries for hire.
• Sword and Gun: The Northern Chapter uses swords and flintlock pistols as their weapons.
• These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: The entire reason why their order was founded, as Alexander's generals believed the information in the 99 Elements too dangerous to use, particularly in war. The generals then had the artifacts split up and taken in various directions.
• Trick Arrow: The Western Chapter of the Sujing Quantou use arrows as their ranged weapons, from arrows tipped with zoridium explosives to standard explosive arrows to regular arrows.

Master Aa

Master Aa

The head of the Eastern Chapter of the Sujing Quantou.

• Bald of Authority: The bald, Large and in Charge head of the Eastern Chapter.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Wields a pair of katanas in combat.
• Large and in Charge: Master Aa, the head of the Eastern Chapter, towers over his hulking bodyguard.

Antagonists

Julius Pembleton-Crozier

Julius Pembleton-Crozier

A former member of the Guild of Specialists, now interested in profiting from zoridium.

• Big Bad: For Operation Typhoon Shore, as the man directing the zoridium excavation project. He was originally The Man Behind the Man to Sheng-Fat in the first book.
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to Posh Charlie's Abel.
• Enemy Mine: Teams up with Becca, Doug, and Liberty to stop Pugachev from destroying the world for the third act of Operation Storm City.
• In-Series Nickname: Referred to as "Linen Suit" for part of the first book before his name is revealed.
• Unholy Matrimony: His wife Lucrezia is just as devoted to the cause of the Coterie.
• Villain in a White Suit: Known for wearing a white linen suit for most of his appearances.

Sheng-Fat

Sheng-Fat

A ruthless pirate operating in the South China Seas.

• Big Bad: Of Operation Red Jericho; it's his acquisition of zoridium torpedoes that the Guild of Specialists and the Sujing Quantou are trying to stop, since the secrets of zoridium are too dangerous to know.
• Creepy Souvenir: Keeps the pinky fingers of his captives on a necklace. Chambois' is one of these and Sheng-Fat is introduced just having cut off Liberty's.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He is very angry about the death of his youngest brother Li-Fat and attempts to avenge his death by blowing up Chambois with a zoridium torpedo.
• He Knows Too Much: Murdered by Julius Pembleton-Crozier to keep him from divulging his plans.
• Scary Teeth: He's filed his teeth to sharp points to add to his ferocious appearance.
• Siblings in Crime: His younger brothers Chung-Fat and Li-Fat are among his lieutenants.
• Would Hit a Girl: When Sheng-Fat is introduced, he's just finished cutting off Liberty's finger to add to his collection. There's also a choir of old women who were kidnapped for whatever reason and also have their little fingers missing.
• Would Hurt a Child: Tries to take Becca's finger before being interrupted by the Expedient's attack.