Characters / The Heroes

The First Law Characters
The Union
The Royal Family & Closed Council | Union Military | His Majesty's Inquisition | Nobility & Citizenry of the Union
The North
Northern Royalty | Logen's Band | Northern Protectorate | The North
Other Characters
The Magi | Gurkish Empire | Styria | Near & Far Countries | Adua | The First Law trilogy | Best Served Cold | The Heroes | Red Country

Characters introduced or appearing prominently in Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes, a standalone sequel to The First Law trilogy.

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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."

• Old Soldier: He's getting old and the years are catching up to him, but he's still a good fighter.
• Sadistic Choice: Faced with one when his old friend and former chief's son Calder attempts to turn him against his new chief.
• Undying Loyalty: Famed for stellar loyalty.

Prince Calder

Bethod's younger son, a charmer and schemer among the straightforward warriors of the North. Introduced in The First Law.

• 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.
• Blue Oni, Red Oni: With Scale. Calder's blue.
• The Casanova: His love for his wife is enough to make him swear off other women. Well, almost enough.
• The Chessmaster: By the end of The Heroes.
• Curb-Stomp Battle Dow doesn't even break a sweat against him.
• Dirty Coward: By his own admission.
• Guile Hero: A rare example among the Northmen, although "Hero" is a pretty generous term for anyone given the setting. Calder's well known for trying to think or talk his way out of a problem rather than fight his way out.
  Black Dow: I got no shortage of men can kick a door down. I can use a couple who’ll think to try the handle once in a while.
• Hot Guy, Ugly Wife: Not ugly per se, but Sef's most mentioned physical trait is her pig nose.
• 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.
• Non-Action Guy: He's completely useless in a fight.
• Rage Breaking Point: After Scale's apparent death, Calder's response is uncharacteristically hot-headed.
• 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: 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. Introduced in The First Law.

• Ascended Extra: Had a minor role in the original trilogy before being promoted to a main character in The Heroes.
• The Atoner: Tries to redeem himself in battle after failing to protect his king in Best Served Cold.
• Blood Knight: After his fall from grace, fighting is the only thing that makes him feel alive.
• The Big Guy: His role in the Union's army.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Has been in love with Finree for years. When he finally does tell her, it goes disastrously.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Bremer is a bit of a laughing stock due to his piping voice and his disgraceful exit from the King's service, but he's very intelligent and the best warrior the Union has. He silently rages about the lack of respect and appreciation he gets.
• The Eeyore: While his sour attitude initially seems like a natural reaction to the miserable state of both his life and the war, near the end he receives the royal forgiveness and reinstating into his previous position as royal bodyguard that he's spent the whole novel yearning for and working towards, and is happy for all of five minutes - after which he promptly finds new reasons to pity himself.
• Green-Eyed Monster: His unrequited love for Finree has turned him into this, to the point where he attempts to murder the already wounded Harod dan Brock.
• Lightning Bruiser: Bremer is a hulk of a man and able to fight with amazing speed as well.
• Master Swordsman: Bremer is the best fighter the Union has, not that he gets much respect for it.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Subverted, he's got nothing but contempt for Jezal. Ironically, Jezal is deeply loyal to Bremer.
• Never My Fault: Insists that he was wrongfully blamed for the disaster at Cardotti's House of Leisure in Best Served Cold. In fact, he was drunk out of his mind and whoring around when Jezal needed him, and Finree's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to him reveals that it wasn't the first time. However, in the short story Wrong Place, Wrong Time from the collection Sharp Ends, it's revealed that, rather than being passed out drunk and whoring, Gorst was sobbing on a prostitute's lap as she soothed him, showing that Gorst had been dealing with depression for quite some time before The Heroes. Once he heard the chaos break out, he immediately rushed to find the king, barreling into Shivers who promptly headbutts him, sending Gorst sprawling down the stairs.
• Vocal Dissonance: His high, child-like voice notably clashes with his brutish appearance, to his eternal shame.

Finree dan Brock

A Union noblewoman with ambitious plans.

• Damsel out of Distress: She negotiates her own release and that of a number of other prisoners from Black Dow.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's opinionated and has a sharp tongue, but she's a good, charitable person at heart.
• Manipulative Bitch
• Surrounded by Idiots: Having been raised by a talented military officer, she's quick to notice all the failings of the officers around her.
• 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.

• Cowardly Lion: Subverted. He's suicidally brave when his adrenaline's going, and spends the battle trying to repress it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He acts cynical towards the rookies under his care and charges them for anything he can, but he also does his best to keep them alive.
• Old Soldier: While not that old, he's a long-time veteran and is much older than his immediate underlings.
• Redshirt Army: He's in one.
• The Scrounger: His specialty is finding things and selling them to his subordinates, keeping them reliant on him for everything.

Beck

A Northern lad of seventeen, whose father was a famous champion.

• Dirty Coward: Deconstructed. Beck abandons his comrades and hides during a battle, but it's part of the deconstruction of warfare. Who would want to participate in such an atrocious waste of human life?
• Dramatic Irony: Beck becomes a Named Man, doing so by hiding in a pile of corpses and getting covered in blood, so that his comrades believe he'd fought through hell to survive.
• Jerkass: Well, he is seventeen.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Of course, throughout the novel there are obvious signs that Beck cares, and that much of his jerkish behaviour is overcompensating. And while a good part of his aversion to war is (arguably sensible) cowardice, much more of it has to do with the fact that he's just not a killer, and after his first taste of battle, he doesn't want to be.
• Momma's Boy: He was raised by his mother, but abandons her and his siblings to become a man. When the realities of being a warrior dawn on him, he starts thinking a lot about his mother. He returns to her in the end.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Kills a comrade after spending most of a battle hiding. When the northman veterans give him a name, he tries to correct them, but he's too exhausted and traumatized to do so. At the end of the novel, he confesses this to Craw hoping to be punished, and when Craw simply says he's seen and heard stories like that dozens of times, he only feels worse.
• 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.
• Took a Level in Kindness: One of the very few in the First Law Universe. He goes from being a selfish, vain, jerkass of a teenager who dreams of being a butcher on the battlefield to a humble, caring man content to live the rest of his life on a farm and forget about the war.

Northmen

Wonderful

Craw's second-in-command.

• Action Girl: Something of a rarity among Northerners, who lean more towards Stay in the Kitchen.
• Combat Pragmatist
• Deadpan Snarker
• Happily Married: Has a husband and kids back at home, whom she visits between jobs. They were either killed or 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 a valley in the far north of the North, and a member of Craw's dozen.

• BFS: The Father of Swords, an impossibly large two-hander.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: People put up with his gonzo personality because he's such a good fighter.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He's usually chipper, even during war, partly because he knows when and how he'll die.
• Character Development: In "The Fool Jobs," a story concerning Craw's crew several years before The Heroes, Whirrun is new to the band, so he's detached from his comrades and rather reticent. By the time of The Heroes, he's an old hand with the group won't shut up about whatever is on his mind.
• 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.
• Foreseeing My Death: He has no fear because the witch Shoglig told him to the day and manner of his death. He often gloats that today is not the day of his prophesied death, so he is sure to overcome his enemies. Subverted when he's mortally wounded by a random spear. As he lay dying, he's not too happy to realize that Shoglig had no idea what she'd been talking about all along.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Whirrun can somehow use the impractically large Father of Swords to deadly effect. Bremer dan Gorst has never seen such swordsmanship.
• Master Swordsman: His swordsmanship skills are legendary. Gorst, a Master Swordsman himself, regards him as a Worthy Opponent when they meet on the battlefield.
• Non-Indicative Name: He's never even been to Bligh. That's just the northernmost place that anyone locally has ever heard of, so he's assumed to be from around there.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Has less clothes on every time he fights. This ultimately gets him killed.

Scale

Bethod's older son and one of Black Dow's five War Chiefs. Introduced in The First Law.

• Awesome, but Impractical: he wears a horned helmet into battle. in their fight, Gorst grabs a hold of one of the horns and hammers its impracticality into Scale's head.Literally.
• Big Brother Instinct: In spite of having nothing in common with his witty, wimpy half-brother Calder, he loves him and protects him from his own sharp tongue.
• 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 Brute: Not a bad guy, really, but only understands solving things through violence.
• 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, with Calder directing his every move.
• 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.

• Gonk: Brodd Tenways, "ugly as incest."
• 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 Dreaded: One of the most feared men in the North these days.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: After he captures Finree dan Brock, he makes it perfectly clear he intends to rape and impregnate her, being impressed with her boldness and wanting to have "civilized" children. Luckily, Finree gets to go free. Unluckily, her friend doesn't.
• Killed Offscreen: He died in the Circle against Stour Nightfall before the events of A Little Hatred.
• Large and in Charge: He's a veritable giant and is chieftain of the region beyond the Cinna.
• The Mole: He's revealed to be working for Bayaz at the end of The Heroes.
• You Have Failed Me: He kills one of his men for trying to defile Finree, but only because he wants her for himself.