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Mateo and Company
Mateo Mandelson
A schoolboy who gets put on the path to fight against Nocturne and the Sigil Holders of the world after the former destroys his school. His sigil is the Red Star, which allows him to create and shoot explosive orbs of energy from his palms.
- Anti-Hero: He gradually becomes this as the stakes get higher and he's forced to kill some of his own childhood friends and family members.
- Bad Powers, Good People: The Red Star is a very deadly sigil, essentially granting its holder the power to create bombs of any size. Thankfully, Mateo's as good-natured as you can get, so he manages to be heroic and merciful despite how easily corruptible his powers could make him, with Casssius being an example of what he'd become if he allowed his powers to get to his head.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Mateo's the nicest guy you'll ever meet... but is very vicious in combat and has no qualms using his powers to their fullest extent on those who dare to harm innocents.
- Boxing Lessons for Superman: He underwent physical conditioning to develop his strength and endurance, and even learned martial arts under the wing of his Uncle Percy, so he wouldn't have to rely only on his powers.
- Combat Pragmatist: Gradually becomes this as time goes on and he realizes he's got to be craftier (and dirtier) than his opponents if he wants to have a chance at defeating them.
- Character Tics: His continual use of the Red Star's powers eventually gives him the habit of flashing manic grins, just like Cassius.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Deconstructed. His habit of wanting to help people and being the good guy in every situation often keeps him from being an effective combatant. While he's got no problems being ruthless if he needs to, half the time he holds himself back due to how destructive his powers can be, and as a result foes often escape from his grasp.
- Creepy Good: Gradually turns into this due to his use of the Red Star corrupting him little by little.
- Decoy Protagonist: He's only the protagonist during the first twenty chapters, where he's facing off against Nocturne. Once Cassius finally gets the other half of the Red Star from him, though, Cassius is the main protagonist, as the narrative shifts from Mateo wanting to avenge his school and his friends to delving into Cassius's history with the Mandelsons, Spectrum, and where the sigils originated from.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Mateo goes from a scared little schoolboy with no control over his incredible powers, to a master Sigil Holder capable of going toe to toe with holders who've had their sigils for decades.
- Good Is Not Soft: Arguably the kindest Sigil Holder out of the lot, but is incredibly ruthless and will kill whomever he has to in order to achieve his goals and stop innocents from getting hurt.
- I Miss Mom: Mateo's mother disappeared suddenly when he was younger, and he's missed her ever since. When he finally meets her again once he enters the Collective's realm and sees her, he's overjoyed. But when he learned about the things the Collective did to her, and how and why she's in their realm in the first place, he completely loses it.
- Missing Mom: Melissa Mandelson, who disappeared when Mateo was only nine-years-old. And the reasons why are so vast and horrifying that it nearly drives Mateo insane just hearing about them.
- Required Secondary Powers: Downplayed. Since he's only got one half of the Red Star, Mateo doesn't have all the secondary powers required to use his primary powers in a safe and efficient way. There are times where the energy bombs he conjured outright scorch his body, and he's forced to quickly escape whatever area he conjures a huge bomb in, as he isn't immune to his own explosions and would otherwise die.
- Unskilled, but Strong: There isn't really much to Mateo's fighting style besides using his sigil powers to overwhelm his opponents, and (later on) occasionally ripping out someone's throat or eyeball to make a quick kill on a weak enemy or disorient an enemy that could somehow survive it. That said, his Red Star is an incredibly strong sigil, and he's trained enough to be physically strong to a point where a simple punch from him can and will hurt.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Nocturne's bomb only destroyed the school, but it still did a number on Mateo's hometown. Uncle Percy and Mateo are forced to move not only out of the town, but out of the country, for Nocturne would've just bombed the place again, which would've killed even more people.
Percival Mandelson (Perseus the Great)
Mateo's uncle and guardian, who serves as Mateo's primary source of intel on Sigil Holders.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Inverted. Percy was originally just a regular salaryman and Cassius' best friend and co-worker. But the moment Cassius unearthed that mural and brought Percy to it, their lives changed. But unlike Cassius, Percy chose to use his powers for good, and as a result became a hero known all-around the world.
- Gathering Steam: His old age has caused the White Eye to be much less effective than it used to be. When he was younger, he could fire a laser so fast that you wouldn't even be able to see it. Now, he actually has to charge a laser before firing it out his finger like one would a ray gun, which leaves him open to attack.
- Old Superhero: He's been using his sigil to fight crime and enemy Sigil Holders for over twenty years. In the story proper, he's in his sixties and suffering from the overuse of his powers.
Killian McCormick
Mateo's best friend, who survived the destruction of their school, and eventually crosses paths with Mateo and joins up with him. His sigil, the Blue Gear, allows him to conjure gears of any size.
- Ambiguous Situation: Killian spends most of the story having no idea how he survived his school's destruction. All he remembers in the giant red bomb falling from the sky, and then he woke up in the middle of a field with a blue marking on his palm. It's eventually revealed it was the work of Marcus, who saved Killian to make the boy his herald.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Mateo's Blue, being the more abrasive of the two. This comes off as ironic since Killian's sigil's the Blue Gear, while Mateo's is the Red Star.
Molly Mandelson
Mateo's sister, who Mateo believed for a while died in the bombing of their school, but somehow ended up in the middle of a field and was forced to spend months fending for herself. She doesn't have a sigil, but makes up for it with her razor-sharp teeth, with which she can tear through almost anything.
- Expy: Of Sunny Baudelaire, being a young, giddy girl who likes cooking and sports a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.
Nocturne
In General
- Deconstruction: Of Nebulous Evil Organisations. Though a threat in their own right, Nocturne is ultimately a group of stupid, old, immature people who work for Cassius because they've nothing else going for them. And in the end, the organzation is just a front for Cassius to get Mateo's half of the Red Star, so Cassius can proceed with his real plan to gather his old cohorts' sigils. And as a result, Spectrum decimates Nocturne, replacing them as the real Nebulous Evil Organisation for Mateo to fight.
- Evil Versus Evil: Nocturne and Spectrum are not on good terms. After Cassius abandons Nocturne, Spectrum ransacks Nocturne's headquarters, kills off the bulk of its named operatives, and the criminal organization is ultimately forgotten.
- Gonk: Most of its members are described as being quite hideous, with Joaquin being the only one to be described in an appealing way, which is likely due to him being the group's Only Sane Man.
- The Worf Effect: After Cassius leave them behind, Spectrum shows up and kills off most of the group's named operatives and destroys their headquarters.
Cassius and his Inner Circle
Cassius
The founder and leader of Nocturne, a hammy, but dangerous man who wants Mateo in his grasp for reasons unknown.
- Always Second Best: He feels he's this to both Perseus and Longinus due to them both having the full versions of their sigils.
- Arch-Enemy: To Mateo. He's also this many other characters due to his actions in the past, but he either doesn't notice or doesn't care.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: A sharply-dressed man that has deep pockets and is as evil as they come.
- Ax-Crazy: He had his problems in the past, but he was still a fairly adjusted salaryman. In the story proper, however, he's a superpowered murderer with a Hair-Trigger Temper.
- Bad Boss: He treats the members of his organization very terribly, belittling and physically abusing them every chance he gets, and ultimately leaves them to die to Spectrum after he successfully obtains the full version of the Red Star.
- Bad Santa: According to
Word of God, this is his primary Motif, as he's a portly man who wears red and has a white beard and mustache. His henchman are are his elves, his headquarters is his workshop, and the weapons his organization creates are the presents he gives to the world. - Beware the Silly Ones: He's quite the Large Ham, but he's still a very dangerous man and a major threat for the entirety of the story.
- Color Motifs: Red. He wears red clothing, has the Red Star for his sigil, and is a very angry individual.
- The Dreaded: Subverted. Though a threat in his own right to the everyday civilian, those who know him well aren't intimidated by him. Especially since they've all got powers that're far more terrifying than his.
- Evil Counterpart: Cassius is essentially the "fun house mirror" version of Mateo, with most of the former's flaws being exaggerated versions of the latter's. They're both black males that dress in red and wield the same sigil, the Red Star (which gradually turns them into bloodthirsty madmen), and, while their primary goals are vastly different, they ultimately boil down to one thing: They want to find Melissa. However, Mateo comes to realize how much of a blight on humanity sigils are, which fuels his final goal to vanquish Andromeda and rid the world of sigils forever, while Cassius sees the sigils as a Necessary Evil that humanity needs in order for it to be kept in check, which fuels his final goal of taking Andromeda's place as the new Conduit, with Melissa by his side.
- Evil Genius: Subverted. While a fairly smart man, he doesn't hold a candle to the likes of Oliver and Longinus.
- Evil Is Sterile: The main reason he's Unskilled, but Strong compared to Sigil Holders that've had their sigils just as long as him. Though the Red Star is a highly destructive sigil, Cassius' lack of creativity and ability to strategize limits him to little more than making giant bombs over and over. This makes him pale in comparison other Sigil Holders with simple powers; the reason they're so formidable is because they have the imagination to use their powers in creative ways. With Cassius? Once you realize all he does is just fire the same big orbs endlessly, taking him down is pathetically easy.
- Evil Versus Evil: He's deeply angered by Longinus having the same desire as him to enter the Collective's realm (though not for the same reasons, yet Cassius thinks it is) and makes gaining the power necessary to kill Longinus before Longinus can do so first his number one priority.
- Sanity Has Advantages: His various mental problems cause him to take incredibly reckless actions and make increasingly foolish decisions, and allow more stable characters like Corey, Oliver, and Longinus to play him like a fiddle.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Future Molly uses her sigil to send he and Perseus back in time, to the moment where they discovered Andromeda's original mural and statue, to prevent her from ever being unleashed on the world. Cassius takes the chance and destroys the mural and statue, thus preventing Andromeda from ever being unleashed and the sigils from ever existing.
- The Unfettered: Obsessed with reuniting with Melissa, and will stop at nothing to make that happen.
- Would Hit a Girl: If you're a woman standing in Cassius's way that isn't [[spolier:Melissa Mandelson]], expect to be dealt with in a very gruesome manner. He's beaten Sally up to the point where she loses an eyeball, broken Nancy's nose, ripped Larka's left ear off, etc.
Joaquin
Cassius's second-in-command and the very first person he recruited into Nocturne.
- Badass Normal: Unlike Cassius, who's a Sigil Holder, and his fellow operatives, who all use the transformations their enhancements give them as crutches, Joaquin is just a guy with a flail. That said, he's strong enough to be the second-in-command of Nocturne and able to go toe to toe with even Perseus.
- Breaking Old Trends: The only Nocturne operative who never undergoes any sort of transformation to fight somebody. But considering how strong he is with his flail alone, it's not like he needs to.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: One of very, very few people who can genuinely keep Cassius in check.
- Only Sane Man: The only normal guy in a criminal organization full of oddballs.
Dr. Peabody
The Mad Scientist of Nocturne and the inventor of the Changers, the mechanisms the organization's operatives use to transform into monsters.
Guido
A giddy dwarf and Nocturne's newest recruit.
Significant Operatives
Roger
A potbellied Evil Redhead and the first Nocturne operative Mateo encounters and fights.
- Back for the Dead: He's one of the very few to escape Spectrum's onslaught... only to get his intestines ripped out and his head crushed by an angry V.
- Body Horror: When he transforms, the fat in his belly is shifted into his upper body, leaving his lower half emaciated and his upper half grossly bloated. That, and his horns are actually just parts of his own skeleton, which jut out of his skin.
- Killed Off for Real: Let's just say V doesn't take being called a freak lightly.
- Starter Villain: In every sense of the trope. His transformation is impractical and came from a prototype Changer (so it wasn't even powered by Cassius' sigil), thus he spends most of his fight with Mateo just swinging wildly and roaring. One good blast from Mateo is all is takes to knock him out.
Wilkins
A very strange boy whose exact position in Nocturne is unclear.
- Nothing Is Scarier: As much of a harmless oddball as he is, there's quite a lot of questions surrounding him: Nobody knows where he came from, how old he is, how he ended up working for Nocturne, or what he even does for Nocturne. He's just... there.
- The Load: By far Cassius's least useful underling, which makes you wonder what it is about him that Cassius finds interesting enough to keep him around.
- What, Exactly, Is His Job?: How he contributes to the furthering of Nocturne's goals is anyone's guess.
Spectrum
A sextet of Sigil Holders who were once beloved heroes. Now criminals, they lead a vast organization all the world's Sigil Holders work for. Cassius worked for them but defected due to Longinus's mistreatment of him. He would then go to form Nocturne, and the rest is history.
In General
- Eviler than Thou: With or without Cassius, Nocturne didn't stand a chance against them.
Ophelia
The sole female member of the original six and Aurelius's partner. She and Cassius go way back, and finding and killing him is one of her major goals. Her sigil is the Pink Flower, which grants her the ability to manipulate plants.
- Ax-Crazy: She does the best she can to hide it, but it's obvious from her mannerisms and dialogue that she's long since cracked under the pressure of her position.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Ophelia spends most of her time in her own little world,
- Unskilled, but Strong: She doesn't really use her head in conjunction with her sigil, preferring to overwhelm her opponents by lobbing giant vines and razor-sharp petals at them.
Aurelius
Cassius's friend from before they were branded with their sigils, they've long since had a falling out and have been at each other's throats for years. His sigil is the Orange Chain, which grants him the ability to conjure chains of any size.
Thaddeus
The portly brother of Gustavus, who, despite his ridiculous frame and odd habits, is very dangerous. His sigil is the Yellow Bolt, which grants him the ability to control lightning.
- Beware the Silly Ones: He's even goofier than Cassius but is still a powerful Sigil Holder who can be absolutely nightmarish if he wants to.
Gustavus
The towering brother of Thaddeus, who's soft-spoken for the most part, but is by all accounts Spectrum's most horrific member. His sigil is the Green Wall, which grants him the ability to harden his body.
Marcus
The CEO of a Heph Industries, a fairly successful tech company. His sigil is the Blue Gear, which grants him the ability to conjure gears of any size.
- Aloof Ally: Barely in the story and isn't really involved in the machinations of Spectrum.
- Death Seeker: Likely one of the reasons he doesn't do anything anymore and allows Killian to kill him: Years of being a shell of what he once was just took their toll on him and he saw the kid as a way out from it all.
- Flat Character: Giving Killian the Blue Gear is all he really does in the story proper, and he never gets into a fight, causing Killian to be the only way readers can read about the Blue Gear in action.
- Generic Guy: To the point where his name, compared to those of his comrades, is actually a common name an everyday person would have.
- Hidden Depths: It can be argued he did nothing to stop Killian from killing him because he got tired of being a shell of his former self and wanted someone to just do him in. Considering he tells Killian "well done" and dies with a smile on his face, this may actually be the case.
- Killed Off for Real: Killian's first act with the Blue Gear is conjuring a gear and slicing Marcus's neck open with it. Considering Marcus laughs about it and dies with a smile on his face, it's likely what he wanted.
Longinus
The founder and leader of Spectrum, Cassius' archenemy, and Perseus' brother. His sigil is the Purple Earth, which grants him the ability to create massive shockwaves that can travel through anything, even the air.
- Affably Evil: Far more courteous and soft-spoken than Cassius.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: The leader of Spectrum and bar none its most powerful member.
- Bad Boss: Averted. In direct contrast to how Cassius didn't give a damn about his employees, Longinus treats his fellow Sigil Holders quite well, and sees the Four Fractures as his family members.
- Bash Brothers: Was apparently this with his brother, Perseus, for a short time, before he went to form a group of his own to fight crime. When they meet up in the basement of the remains of Nocturne HQ, Longinus reminisces on how he and Perseus used to work so well together.
- Disc-One Final Boss: With all that's revealed about him and all the characters he's connected to, it seems like he'll be the last enemy the protagonist have to face once all of the other members of Spectrum are down. But Cassius takes his sigil and the story continues as Cassius opens a portal into the Collective's realm.
- Greater-Scope Villain: He represents one in comparison to Cassius, who's revealed to be a former member of Spectrum who was belittled by Longinus, causing him to defect and form Nocturne. Cassius' obsession with proving Longinus wrong is one of the biggest reasons why he wanted Mateo's half of the Red Star so badly, which prompted him to blow up Mateo's school, thus setting the story in general in motion. Despite this, Longinus isn't the Big Bad of the story, for there are people and powers far greater than him.
- The Stoic: In contrast to the overtly loud and mentally unstable man that is Cassius, Longinus is soft-spoken and crystal clear in terms of his mental state, knowing exactly what he wants and what he needs to do to get it. Though he despises the Collective and wants nothing but revenge on them, he never gets mad when they're brought up in his midst, and often speaks fondly of them.
Modeston Labs
A pharmaceutical company founded and headed by Oliver Modeston, which turns out to be (surprise, surprise) yet another once-noble organization of people that's been corrupted by the sigils. Except in Modeston Labs' case, the corruption happened due to its members being refused sigils from the countless statues and murals they've discovered. Instead, they use artificial sigils, patches imbedded in their skin that imbue them with powers far more complex and dangerous than those gained from regular sigils.
In General
Oliver and his Inner Circle
Oliver Modeston
The president and CEO of Modeston Labs, a brilliant teenager that started out as a mere high schooler that was bullied day in and day out. He discovered a goddess statue one day, knowing beforehand about its properties due to stories about them he heard in school. However, despite having the statue in his possession for weeks, he was never branded with a sigil.
This drove him to give himself powers of his own, and he eventually did so by developing the Artificial Sigil. Using himself as his own test subject, Oliver tests his sigil out by marching to his high school... and killing those who bullied him.
Gathering his friends up, they created Modeston Labs, where they made the creation of Artificial Sigils into a business, and intend to give those all over the world who were once like them a "fighting chance" (a.k.a. giving them dangerous and unstable powers to kill those who bully them with).
The ability his Artificial Sigil grants him is called Penetration, which makes him strong enough to pierce through almost anything with his hands.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: From a gifted, but weak high school boy to the superpowered president and CEO of a company that means to sell his superpower-granting invention to kids who were just like him, so they can get revenge on their bullies.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: What his Artificial Sigil allows him to do. He prefers stabbing his opponents right through the heart for a quick kill, but will occasionally pierce them in the side to weaken or torture them.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Taking him down is treated kind of like an optional side mission in a videogame; while Mateo recognizes Oliver as a genuine threat, Mateo sees Spectrum as the bigger issue and thus doesn't pay much attention to him. Mateo also never fights Oliver, only his employees, and only when they get in his way. That, and Oliver's the only Arc Villain whose goals have nothing to do with Andromeda, and the race to enter the Collective's realm to find Melissa and confront Cetus and Andromeda would've more or less gone the same were he not in the story.
- School Bullying Is Harmless: His primary motivation. He knows firsthand that this isn't true, and intends to give those who were bullied like him a chance at revenge.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Needless to say, he had a lot of fun when he was hunting down those who'd bully him in school and killing them one by one.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Driving his fists into people is all he does. That said, he can do it very fast and has no qualms going straight for his opponent's hearts to kill them instantly.
Protégés
Children under the tutelages of adult sigil holders, either because the adult wishes to pass their sigil down to the child, or the child's already been branded with a sigil and the adult wishes to help the child reach their full potential.
L0ve (Dieta Jones)
A highschooler and classmate of Oliver and Titus's who witnessed North Bespoke Middle School's destruction, she got branded with a sigil a day before the attack when she found a goddess statue buried in her backyard. She becomes the protégé of Ophelia, who teaches her how to use her sigil to its fullest extent. Said sigil is the Hot Pink Heart, which grants L0ve the ability to conjure hearts that make anyone they touch fall madly in love with her and do her bidding.
- Alpha Bitch: She's generally a horrid girl and used to call Oliver a "dickweed" and Titus "chronically bitchless" back when they went to school together. They couldn't do anything about it back then... but they definitely can now, which she finds out the hard way when she picks on Titus, who now is a superpowered and incredibly muscular man who hates her so much that he's actually immune to her hearts...
- Bad Boss: She treats her "servants" very badly, using them as meat shields and "disciplining" them by cutting their limbs off with her chainsaw.
- Bait-and-Switch: How Oliver handles her death. When Titus informs Oliver that L0ve got raped and killed by Gustavus, Oliver flies into a rage... but not because he's angry about it, but because he wanted to be the one to rape and kill her.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She may look and act like a common teenager, but beneath the surface of all that is a sadistic, unfeeling girl.
- Chainsaw Good: Wields one to discipline her "servants" with and/or use as a last resort. She ends up using it as her primary weapon after Aldrich takes her sigil away. Unfortunately, it couldn't stop Gustavus...
- Commissar Cap: One that corresponds to her sigil's color, no less.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When she recognizes Titus, she starts taunting him and laughing at him. Unfortunately for her, Titus was no longer the meek little kid she used to pick on in school, and Titus loses his shit, pounces on her, and beats her unconscious with his bare hands, with Perseus's intervention being the only thing that stops him from outright killing her.
- Cyberbullying: She used to do this when she was still going to school "for fun", with Titus being her main target, which explains why he'd always be silent around her despite being a Large Ham most of the time.
- Fate Worse than Death: As No Ontological Inertia doesn't come into play when her sigil is taken, those who become her "servants" are doomed to spend the rest of their lives mindlessly infatuated with her. Perseus, realizing this, chooses to put said "servants" out of their misery by using his powers to give them quick, painless deaths.
- Flat Character: L0ve is an Alpha Bitch with superpowers, nothing more.
- Jerkass: She always was. Her sigil just made her a genuine threat to the world.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: From a high school bully to an Alpha Bitch capable of turning anyone and everyone into her mindless slaves.
- Killed Off for Real: Once he realizes she doesn't have the Hot Pink Heart anymore, Gustavus rapes L0ve so badly she starts bleeding from all her orifices, and eventually dies from the blood loss.
- Killed Off for Real: Raped to death by Gustavus.
- All those she bewitched with her hearts are ultimately hunted down and killed by Perseus after he realizes there's nothing he or anyone can do to free them.
- Lack of Empathy: L0ve has no love for anyone. She was even secretly planning to kill Ophelia, the woman who saved her from dying and took her in when the other members of Spectrum wouldn't.
- Logical Weakness: Her powers won't work on people who already hate her guts. Titus takes one of her hearts straight to, well... his heart. It doesn't work because his hatred for her is just that strong.
- Meaningful Name: Her alias, L0ve, as her sigil grants her the power to make people fall madly in love with her. The way it's spelled (a "0" for an "o") also invokes social media handles, as she used to cyberbully people when she was still a highschooler. That, and the "0" stands for how she has no real love for anybody (except herself, of course).
- No Ontological Inertia: Subverted. Neither her getting her sigil taken away and neutralized nor her dying reverses the effects of her powers. As a result, the only way to free those who've been bewitched by her is to outright kill them, which Perseus reluctantly spends the next five chapters doing to every last person she ever bewitched.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: She has no plot relevance despite being a protégé of a member of Spectrum and having a genuinely formidable sigil. The only real significance she has is being the first Sigil Holder that Aldrich takes the sigil of in the story proper. After that, she spends a couple chapters hacking at people trying to rob and kill her with her chainsaw, and is ultimately cornered by Gustavus, who rapes her to death.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Once Gustavus realizes L0ve doesn't have her sigil anymore, he brutally rapes her to death.
- Story-Breaker Power: Anyone who's touched by her hearts will become mindlessly infatuated with her forever. Get touched by one in any way and you'll spend the rest of your life madly in love with her, even long after she's dead and gone. Hence, her getting her sigil taken away and destroyed and ultimately dying absolutely had to be done, as she could've theoretically turned all the world's populace into her mindless slaves.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: She used to cyberbully Titus and laugh in his face all the time when they were still only kids going to school together. However, when she tries doing the same thing to him in the story proper, it ends pretty badly for her, especially once it's revealed he's completely immune to her powers. Now Titus is a full-grown, superpowered man and she doesn't have a computer screen to hide behind, Titus unleashes all the hatred he's got for her in a Curb-Stomp Battle that would've resulted in her death if Perseus hadn't stopped him.
- That, and after Aldrich takes her Hot Pink Heart away, L0ve is reduced to nothing more than a scared little girl with a chainsaw. And while she does manage to fight off a couple people attempting to rob and kill her, once Gustavus—another full-grown, superpowered man—corners her and he realizes she doesn't have her sigil anymore, he effortlessly snatches her chainsaw out of her hands, breaks it, then proceeds to rape the defenseless high school girl to death.
- Too Powerful to Live: The reason she's ultimately Killed Off for Real, for her sigil is so broken that she could theoretically Take Over the World with it.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Subverted. After being told of her demise, Mateo asks Oliver if he thinks it was the Hot Pink Heart or Ophelia that screwed L0ve up. Oliver tells Mateo that it was neither and that she was always a terrible person, and that Mateo's wasting his time trying to find a deeper meaning behind her actions.
Sonii (Elizabeth McCrae)
A headstrong diva who was Longinus's protégé when she was aligned with Spectrum but defected from the group after getting horribly mistreated.
Her sigil is the Lavender Microphone, which grants her the ability to amplify her voice to the point where she can create ground-shattering soundwaves.
- Berserk Button: For some reason, being called "hot and bothered". It may have something to do with her treatment back when she was in Spectrum, but it's enough for her to fly into a rage and outright get murderous.
- Hoist By Her Own Petard: A Sigil Holder that kills people by blowing their heads up with her supersonic screams ultimately dies by blowing her own head up with her own supersonic scream.
- Killed Off for Real: She attempts to shout point-blank in Molly's face to make Molly's head explode, but right before Sonii lets out a scream, Molly covers Sonii's mouth up with duct tape, causing Sonii's scream to come out of her own ears, (which destroys her eardrums), her own nostrils (which shatters her nose bone), her own eyes (which makes her eyes burst), and finally the top of her own head (which makes her brain explode). The narrative describes her head after all this as a "pretty pile of mush".
- Make Me Wanna Shout: The power her sigil, the Lavender Microphone, grants her. She primarily uses it, however, to give her singing a little more echo whenever she's on stage.
- Meaningful Name: Sonii has supersonic screams. It's also a Shout-Out to Super Sonico, which fits since Sonii makes a living as both a diva and as a musician.
- Past Experience Nightmare: She has nightmares of how terrible she was treated when she was a member of Spectrum, and often wakes up screaming. Unfortunately, due to the nature of her sigil, she always ends up shattering something since her screams are so loud.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Making people's heads explode with her supersonic shouts is all she does in fights, but it's a One-Hit Kill in every sense of the trope and a very painful and messy way to go.
- Your Head A-Splode: What she usually goes for whenever she gets into a fight. As her sigil allows her to amplify her voice, she likes finishing fights quickly by simply shouting at her opponents heads so loudly that it makes their heads blow up.
- This ends up happening to her, and in the worst way possible; she ends up blowing her own head up when Molly seals her mouth shut with duct tape, right before she was about to scream in Molly's face. The scream ends up coming out of every other orifice, destroying her ears, nose, and eyes, and ultimately causing her brain to explode, reducing her head to, as the narrative describes it, a "pretty pile of mush".
Thornton
A biker who came across an Andromeda statue when on the run from police for robbing a gas station. His sigil is the Navy-Blue Thorn, which grants him the ability to fire thorns of any size from his body.
Independents
Nadine Harrison
A mailroom clerk with a massive chip on her shoulder. Her sigil, the Vanilla Folder, grants her the power to physically fold anything like paper.
- Alpha Bitch: She is not a pleasant person.
- Anime Hair: Her dreadlocks are described as being "thin as streamers".
- Body Horror: What her sigil, the Vanilla Folder, allows her to do to people. In her Establishing Character Moment, she grabs her co-worker—who's been racist towards her a whole year before she got her sigil—by the arm, folds him into a cube, and throws the bloody cube into the co-worker's own desk drawer. She then does this to pretty much everyone else in the building.
- Freudian Excuse: She's the way she is due to the racism she had to deal with at work.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: She had to deal with this as work, which is the main reason why she's as angry as she is, and why her Establishing Character Moment is her killing her own co-workers.
- Killed Off for Real: Aurelius strangles her to death with her own dreadlocks, then rips her chest open and eats her heart and lungs.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Downplayed. She's nowhere near as formidable as Longinus or Aldrich, but she's still far more dangerous as a Sigil Holder than she was as a powerless mailroom clerk.
- Pun: The name of her sigil, the Vanilla Folder, is a play on words of "manilla folder", referencing her job as a mailroom clerk.
- Unskilled, but Strong: She's got a pretty poor grasp on the sigil's powers, but once she starts folding you up, prepare for a very agonizing death.
Rocardo Rocavich
The president and CEO of Roca Industries, a mining company that's actually a front for his real business: Gaia, a criminal organization specializing in weapons manufacturing, which is failing due to other criminal organizations oversaturating the market. He's embittered because of this and has decided to even the odds by hunting down and killing off his competitors. His Sigil, the Brown Rock, grants him the power to control rocks and turn his body into rock.
- Abnormal Ammo: He likes using jagged rocks in favor of bullets for his guns because they're cheaper. And yet, he wonders why Gaia is failing...
- Accidental Murder: Very reckless with his sigil's powers and kills his own employees off with them constantly. He's never bothered by this, however, as he's got a surprisingly large amount of people in his employ despite the fact both his businesses are failing.
- All for Nothing: His obsession with becoming rich and powerful ultimately results in him losing both Roca Industries and Gaia, the Brown Rock, and his life.
- Bad Boss: Why anyone would want to work for this reckless, bloodthirsty Jerkass is anyone's guess.
- Berserk Button: Cassius. Rocardo hates him to pieces and spends the story proper doing nothing but hunting him down.
- Beware the Silly Ones: He may be a hammy idiot, but he's still an unhinged man with superpowers who's hellbent on killing anyone and everyone he believes is in the way of his businesses being successful.
- Big Bad Wannabe: At his best, he's an infamous Sigil Holder with his own criminal organization made up of loyal grunts, but he's nothing compared to some Sigil Holders who have no organization or followers, but still manage to be very dangerous.
- Bullying a Dragon: Cassius may be crazy, and Perseus may be washed-up, but they're both still very powerful Sigil Holders, and Rocardo thought he could fight them both at the same time. Dumbass...
- The Caligula: He's a terrible crime boss whose one-sided war against Nocturne ends up destroying his own syndicate.
- Calling Your Attacks: He tends to announce whenever he's about to attack, which of course gives his opponents a chance to either dodge or counter him.
- Color Motif: Brown. He wears a brown suit, his sigil's the Brown Rock, and the guns his company manufactures are brown. He's also a huge piece of shit, and brown is the color of... you know.
- Conflict Killer: He's this for Cassius and Perseus for a brief time, as they both find him so annoying that they decide to fight together just to get rid of him. Naturally, Rocardo doesn't a chance against their combined might, and their battle ends with Rocardo reduced to a mangled mess.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: He can at least put up a fight against "lesser" Sigil Holders, but he gets his ass handed to him once he faces off against Cassius and Perseus. His battle with them ends with him reduced to a mangled pile flesh, which Cassius ultimately crushes flat with a boulder.
- Cutting the Knot: Being the brainless bastard he is, Rocardo relies on nothing more than his sigil and employees to brute force his way through any and every obstacle in his path.
- Flat Character: He's a Jerkass to all and kills anyone he perceives as a threat to his livelihood.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Downplayed. Though he is a superpowered madman who's killed countless people, he's nothing in the grand scheme of things, and his various atrocities are child's play compared to the utter horrors the likes of Longinus and Aldrich are capable of.
- Glass Cannon: His One-Winged Angel form. Incredibly strong, but it doesn't take long for Perseus and Cassius to literally reduce him to rubble.
- Irony: The man with the power to control rock ultimately meets his end by getting crushed by a boulder.
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Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: His treat level is far lesser than that of the likes of Cassius and Longinus, but he's a much, much bigger Hate Sink than both of them combined. Cassius and Longinus at least have their respective backstories that give them reasons for their demeanors and actions, and deep down are good people. There's nothing good about Rocardo whatsoever, and he has no reason to be the way he is beyond being mad his businesses are failing. - Killed Off for Real: Cassius and Perseus simply assault him till he dies. Cassius crushes his corpse with a boulder for good measure.
- One-Winged Angel: Transforms into a towering rock monster to fight against Perseus and Cassius.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: He has no real role to play in the story proper, serving as a very minor inconvenience to Cassius and Perseus, who dispose of him pretty quickly.
- Lone Wolf Boss: The only Sigil Holder to never meet Mateo, have no affiliation with Spectrum, or have no obsession with Andromeda.
- Stupid Evil: He makes increasingly foolish decisions, with his decision to fight both Cassius and Perseus at the same time being so incredibly dumb that in ultimately results in his death.
- The Unfettered: He wants to sell weapons and kill Cassius and nothing else matters.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Rocardo doesn't have any skill at using the Brown Rock beyond whaling on his foes with huge rock fists, causing landslides, and using sharpened rocks as ammunition for his guns. That said, his body count is huge and he kills a lot of people in the story proper, even if most of them are his own employees.
Aldrich (Murdoch Mandelson)
A mysterious man in a black gas mask who appears only once in the first third of the story, being the last thing Mateo saw before he was knocked unconscious by the explosion that destroyed North Bespoke Middle School. He starts appearing more frequently in the second third of the story, where he stalks and ambushes Mateo constantly, and occasionally trades blows with Sigil Holders. Whenever he's asked who he is, he states his name is "Aldrich" and nothing else.
It's eventually revealed that his real name is Murdoch Mandelson, and he's the husband of Melissa Mandelson, the father of Mateo Mandelson, and the third member of the group Perseus and Cassius formed when they first got their sigils. Murdoch is a vengeful man who's hellbent on ridding the world of sigils, for his years of dealing with Sigil Holders who've gone mad with their powers coupled with losing Melissa to the Collective's made him believe sigils are a bane on humanity. To achieve this, he uses his own sigil:
The Black Hole, which grants him the power to decay anything he touches at will. He uses this power to "neutralize" sigils, rendering them permanently useless to their holders.
- Blessed with Suck: Averted. The only thing stopping Aldrich from having a perpetual Touch of Death is that he can willingly turn the Black Hole on or off. Andromeda may be cruel, but she isn't that cruel.
- Fallen Hero: Though not as bad as Cassius, as what Murdoch does in the story proper is at least understandable due to the horrific effects sigils have on people.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: From a meek salaryman to a superpowered Diabolical Mastermind.
The Collective
The Mother and the Father
Mother Andromeda
The originator of sigils on Earth—as a result of her reverse engineering the elements of Earth with her psychic abilities—the Letters's mother, and Cetus's wife. She's the story's ultimate antagonist, being the one practically every Sigil Holder—both heroic and villainous—worships, fights, and kills for. Finding a way to enter her realm and meet her is Cassius's ultimate goal.
- Angelic Abomination: She takes traditional angelic traits and twists them in a rather horrifying manner, as evidenced by how her appearance is usually described by the narrative.
- Arch-Enemy: Aldrich. She considers giving him the Black Hole her one and only "error in judgement".
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: She ends up being the one to kill Cetus, as Cetus had Complete Immortality. Since she was the one who gave him that power in the first place, all she does is take his sigil away, and all his injuries over the decades finally catch up with him and he explodes.
- Big Bad: She's the ultimate villain of The Marvelous Mateo Mandelson, being the one responsible for all the story's conflict through her sigils. However, she's sleeping in her own realm for a good deal of the story, leaving Cassius, Longinus, and Murdoch to drive the plot in her place. She's only able to be directly involved in the last fifteen chapters, after she's purged from Melissa's body and forced to face Mateo and company in her true form.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With her "husband", Cetus. Andromeda turns out to be worse than Cetus, however, and once the former kills the latter by depowering him, Andromeda becomes the last (and most powerful) obstacle.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The only reason she doesn't immediately kill Mateo or any other Sigil Holder. Since the sigils are fractions of her own power, she has to take the sigils back from the Sigil Holder in question before taking their lives. If the holder dies, the sigil dies with them, and that fraction of her power will be lost forever. However, it seems she values some Sigil Holders more than others. On one hand, she's cautious when it comes to Mateo and Longinus, both of which have versatile and destructive powers. On the other hand, she had no qualms slaughtering Thornton and Victor, both of which had powers that're more situational and useless in certain aspects.
- The Corruption: Her influence manifests as the sigils that give those who're branded with them incredible power at the cost of their sanity. According to Aldrich, Andromeda uses the statues and murals strewn about the world as a way to tempt those who find them (through Hearing Voices when they look at the murals and touch the statues).
- Deader than Dead: Mateo, Molly, Murdoch, and Melissa team up to kill her in the present, while Cassius and Perseus snap her original statue in half in the past, destroying her only chance to be brought back to life and ridding the world of her before anyone could ever be corrupted by her.
- Diabolus ex Nihilo: Her only purpose in the story proper is to take out Cetus because he became so strong that nobody else but her could. Other than that, she's nothing more than a "true final boss" for Mateo, Killian, and Molly to fight against and end the story off with a bang.
- The Dreaded: It's telling that, out of all the Sigil Holders, the one who's the most batshit insane (a.k.a. Cassius) is the only one who actually worships Andromeda and sees her in a positive light. Everyone else, however, speaks of her with a mix of fear and revulsion, and see the powers they've been given as curses they'd do anything to get rid of.
- Final Boss: The ultimate enemy of the story and the most dangerous of them all, being the very thing that caused all the others to exist in the first place.
- Flat Character: She's a force of nature in every sense of the term, serving, from a narrative standpoint, as little more than a source of the power that has corrupted practically every character in the setting for Mateo to destroy and liberate everyone from.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: Where she came from and what her life was like before the story proper is never discussed, and whatever motivation she has for branding people with sigils is never revealed, though it's hinted it's because she wished to sate her curiosity. Regardless, it's clear Cetus is the true Big Bad of the story, while Andromeda is just there so the sigils have a source for Mateo to eliminate.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The true power behind every villainous Sigil Holder in the setting.
- Light Is Not Good: She's a being of pure white with a distinctly angelic appearance... and she's the sole cause of everything wrong in this story.
- Ontological Inertia: Her death in the present doesn't cause the countless people around the world who've been branded with her sigils to be free of the magical markings. This is what prompts Future Molly to use the last of the Vermillion Clock to send Cassius and Perseus back to time, to the day where they originally discovered Andromeda's mural and statue, to prevent the hell they unleashed on the world from ever happening.
Father Cetus
The president and CEO of Ceto Industries—the company Cassius and Perseus worked at when they were just salarymen—the first human Andromeda ever came into contact with, and the greatest of the Sigil Holders. He is the "husband" of Andromeda, the "father" of her twenty-six Letters, The Man Behind the Man for Nocturne, and the one who decides for Andromeda who should be branded with what sigil.
His sigil is the Clear Conscience, which makes him a Reality Warper with Complete Immortality.
- Abusive Parents: As the Letters are technically his children and he treats all of them terribly, he's absolutely this.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Though he's narratively the Big Bad due to his connections to Cassius and Sigil Holders in general, since Cetus is still just another Sigil Holder, his actions are completely subservient to Andromeda. As a result, the final fight with him is less stopping the one responsible for the madness that's consumed the world and more taking out yet another insane man with a dangerous power. And in the end, Andromeda, the one who gave Cetus his power in the first place, is the one who takes it away from him.
- Eviler than Thou: Not even Longinus can hold a candle to him.
- Killed Off for Real: Andromeda strips him of the Clear Conscience, causing him to lose both his Reality Warper powers and his Complete Immortality in an instant. All his injuries over the years catch up with him in an instant, causing him to explode, and be reduced to a puddle of blood and guts.
- This happens to him once more when Cassius and Perseus finally destroy Andromeda's original mural and statue. Cetus ends up losing the Clear Conscience, and eventually dies of old age before he could ever become a villain.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: The reason he was able to get away with his crimes for so long. Unlike how loud every other Sigil Holder dresses, Cetus has the sense to style himself as an unassuming old man. It also helps that his sigil is clear-colored, meaning, unlike everyone else's sigils, his is completely invisible and undetectable.
The Letters
A
Andromeda's first son and the leader of the letters, who takes over the role as Big Bad after killing Longinus. An incredibly powerful, but intelligent and stoic being that only wishes to enforce his mother's will upon the world via "reining in" Sigil Holders.
Z (Spoilers Unmarked!)
Gorgophone
The twenty-sixth Letter and the only child of Andromeda to actually be her child, whom Andromeda created (from ripping out her own left eye) to continue her work long after she's dead and gone. Cassius and Perseus meet her at the excavation site, where Andromeda's original mural and statue reside, after Future Molly reverts time back to the point where they were just salarymen.She possesses what Andromeda considered to be "the ultimate sigil": The Rainbow Soul, which grants Gorgophone literally every sigil power in existence.
- All Your Powers Combined: She takes this to its logical extreme by having a sigil that gives her literally every sigil power we've seen in the story.
- Always a Bigger Fish: Andromeda's successor, who's been branded with a sigil that gives her literally every sigil power in existence.
- The Cutie: Is incredibly beautiful and wishes to use her sigil to help people around the world.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: She reveals to Cassius and Perseus when they meet her that she's been trapped in an endless loop of meeting Cassius and Perseus and imploring them to destroy Andromeda's original statue and mural, only for them to not listen to her and inadvertently unleash Andromeda on the world and starting the events of the story again. This loop is broken once Cassius and Perseus finally destroy Andromeda's statue and mural.
- Minor Major Character: Andromeda's actual daughter and the one who was originally meant to revive her, who only appears for three pages.
- Last Episode, New Character: The last character to be introduced in the story proper.
- Post-Climax Confrontation: She appears in the story for the first time after Andromeda is vanquished and Future Molly sends Cassius and Perseus back in time, to the cave where they discovered Andromeda's original mural and statue. However, while she's presented as the last enemy for them to defeat, she reveals she doesn't want to continue her mother's work, and that Cassius's decision to let Andromeda brand him has caused a "Groundhog Day" Loop that'll always lead him and Perseus back to the cave. Fortunately for her, Cassius finally rejects Andromeda and destroys her mural and statue, freeing them all from her influence and the "Groundhog Day" Loop.
- True Final Boss: It's obvious this is what she's meant to be, what with her being the last Letter, far stronger than Andromeda, and encountered long after Andromeda's dealt with. She's ultimately The Unfought, however, as she doesn't wish to be what her mother turned into and wishes to choose her own destiny.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She sees herself as the one who caused the events of the story to happen by giving her mother the idea to give sigils to humans when she asked her if it were possible to separate the various powers of the Rainbow Soul by assigning each power to a distinct marking. This is the reason she allows Cassius and Perseus to destroy her mother's original mural and statue, for she believes it's the only way to stop her mother from wreaking havoc.
- Villainous Legacy: The sole reason Andromeda created Gorgophone was so there'd still be someone to continue her work if she were ever vanquished, with the Rainbow Sigil being Gorgophone's way to repeat what her mother did by divvying the sigil's powers up and giving them to people. Fortunately for everyone, Gorgophone cares much more about just exploring the world, meeting people, and using those powers to help others.
