open/close all folders
Characters in The Bone Season series:
Paige Mahoney
"One day they'll call this country by its name again."
- Appropriated Appellation: The new alias Paige chooses for herself, Black Moth, is a Meaningful Echo of the speech Gomeisa Sargas gave her about how humans are like moths. At the time, he was pointing out the weak, pitiful, self-destructive nature of humanity, but she appropriates it for the allusion to a short-lived life that ends in fire, matching her determination to bring down Scion even if it means sacrificing herself.
- Birds of a Feather: Paige and Warden are of different species and from vastly different worlds, yet they are both proud, emotionally guarded, and deeply loyal to their respective causes. They also share a love for twentieth-century music and a strong sense of responsibility to the people who depend on them.
- Highlighted in a particularly poignant passage from The Mime Order.
And I had the strange sense that I belonged. Not in the material sense, as I belonged to Jaxon, as I had once belonged to the Rephaim. This was belonging of a different sort, as things that are alike belong with one another. - Deadpan Snarker: When Warden tells her that Nashira suffers under the influence of her angels, Paige isn't sympathetic.Paige: I'm sure the angels are sorry.Warden: They despise her.Paige: You don't say.
- Defiant Captive: In The Bone Season, when she's made a slave in the penal colony, she refuses to lie down and take it. She talks back to her keeper, scuffles with the Overseer and the red-jackets, breaks into the House, brings the harlies food and supplies, and makes a break for it at the first opportunity. When that fails, she plots a mass jailbreak with the other prisoners, and they stage their revolt on the very day that the Sargas were supposed to celebrate the consolidation of their power.
- Determinator: Paige gets injured a fair amount in every book, yet no matter how exhausted she is or how much physical pain she's in, she always gets back up and keeps going.
- In The Bone Season, after getting beaten up by her own gang in Trafalgar Square, she manages to run all the way to the bridge before collapsing from Nick's gunshot.
- In The Mime Order, by the time her duel with Jaxon is drawing to a close, she has sustained a staggering number of painful injuries and jumped out of her body half a dozen times. She barely has the strength to keep fighting, but she knows that everything depends on her victory, so she throws everything she's got left at him: her spirit, her fists, a random chair from the audience, etc.
- Special mention goes to The Song Rising. After having been tortured for weeks in the Archon, Paige manages to escape her cell, sneak into Victoria Tower and face down both Hildred Vance and the Senshield poltergeist. Needless to say, the experience nearly kills her.
- Famed In-Story: Although Scion declares her a wanted fugitive in The Mime Order, she only achieves true infamy in The Song Rising after broadcasting Black Moth's call-to-arms to every clairvoyant within a fifty-mile radius of London. Scion even makes a ballet production about her to celebrate their takedown of the most dangerous unnatural since the Bloody King himself.
- Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!: Paige is fiercely independent and believes that all clairvoyants have the right to freedom; part of what drives her throughout the series is the resolve to destroy Scion's doctrine of tyranny or die trying. We see this aspect of her character as early as in the first book, when she refuses to be grateful for her relatively comfortable situation as a slave in the penal colony, risking her life again and again to escape.
- Hard Head: Paige spends a good two books jumping out of her body in spirit form while her body slumps to the ground, presumably hitting her head on whatever she was standing on at the moment — concrete, asphalt, cobblestones, etc. It's always brushed off as mildly painful, but by all rights, she should have returned to a concussed head by now.
- Informed Attribute: In the first book, Paige says that "head down, eyes open" is her motto for staying alive — which is funny, considering her borderline suicidal habit of provoking the red-jackets and being insolent with her keeper.
- Psychic Nosebleed: Paige tends to cause these in herself and the people around her when she's in distress, a result of her spirit exerting pressure on their dreamscapes.
- Psychic Radar: This seems to be Paige's primary function in the Seven Seals at the start of the series. She detaches her spirit from her body and floats around the district, ostensibly to keep an eye on anyone who might have moved in without Jaxon's permission.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: A defining aspect of her character. Both in Sheol I and in the syndicate, Paige is told to adhere to strict rules if she doesn't want to find herself trimmed at the neck, but she never listens. She would rather risk her life fighting for what she and her fellow voyants deserve than keep her head down and be grateful for what she's got.
- Took a Level in Badass: Paige gets better at using her gift with every installment. At the very beginning, the most she can do is passively float around in the æther in spirit form, but gradually she learns how to kill people with her spirit, knock them unconscious, and even possess them.
- She also gets more daring and proactive as the series goes on. In The Bone Season, she's mostly just reacting to her new environment and trying to get back home. In The Mime Order, she decides to go for Underqueen in order to take control of the syndicate and warn everyone about the Rephaim, in the spirit of "If you want something done, you've got to do it yourself." By the time The Song Rising rolls around, she's ready to break into Scion military compounds, bust death row inmates out of jail, and even suffer torture and execution if it will save her people from extinction.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: She tends to doubt herself on many levels, especially once she becomes Underqueen and has to deal with all the pressures and responsibilities that come with it. Throughout the series, it's Warden who reminds her that she's stronger and more capable than she believes herself to be — first regarding her clairvoyant abilities, and later her leadership skills and resolve in dismantling Scion.
Arcturus "Warden" Mesarthim
"This place has afflicted me with a terrible wanderlust. I long for your fire, for the sights that you have seen. Yet here I am, two hundred years after I arrived. Still a prisoner, though I masquerade as a king."
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Warden is a rare male example. After the Mothallath and their supporters lost the war against the Sargas, Nashira chose him for her prince-consort to prove that even Ranthen must conform to the new order. Without a choice in the matter, he spent the next two hundred years as her fiancée/war trophy.
- The Confidant: He becomes this for Paige in The Bone Season, when she allows him to see her most painful memory. From then on, he continues to be a source of moral support for her, giving her strength when she falters, counsel when she doubts herself, and solace when she's in grief.
- Conspicuous Gloves: All Rephaim wear gloves in the corporeal world, apparently out of disgust toward all matter that isn't as eternal as they are. Touching a human without gloves is especially taboo. Yet as the story progresses, Warden begins to wear them less and less around Paige, indicating both his desire to be intimate with her and his unusual tolerance toward the mortal world. It's come to the point where she stiffens if he puts them on in front of her, taking it for a sign that he's putting walls back up between them.
- Cultural Rebel: The Rephaim's derogatory attitude toward humans is so deeply ingrained that they label any Rephaite who consorts with one a "flesh-traitor," the penalty for which is death. Even the Ranthen, a slightly more pro-human faction of the Rephaim, are disgusted by the thought of an intimate human-Rephaite relationship. None of this seems to bother Warden, who shows no qualms at the prospect of starting such a relationship with Paige.
- Deadpan Snarker: Surprisingly, considering the fact that most Rephaim seem to have No Sense of Humor. His perpetual poker face just makes it funnier, as Paige is never actually sure if he's joking or not.
- In The Bone Season, when he shows her a vial of aster and explains that he uses it to help Michael:
Paige: Are you planning to give him aster now?Warden: No. I simply wished to organize my collection of requisitioned drugs.- In The Mime Order, when Paige remarks that he has stopped wearing gloves, usually a staple of prudish Rephaite attire:
Warden: I may as well embrace a life of sedition.- In The Song Rising, when they're exploring the Edinburgh vaults, Paige takes a wrong step and falls ass-over-teakettle down a steep incline. Nick calls out to her, worried that she might have broken something. All he hears back is a mouthful of swear words.
Paige: Bloody shitting fuck —Warden: It sounds as if she is alive.- The Dawn Chorus is chock-full of examples.
Warden: [about Paige catching fever] You are not going to die, Paige Mahoney.Paige: You said this could be fatal.Warden: I did not think it would depress you this deeply, since mortals are familiar with the concept of impending death. - Dream Weaver: The essence of Warden's clairvoyant gift. As an oneiromancer, he can make a person dream vividly of the past by manipulating the memories in their dreamscape.
- Eyes Never Lie: His eyes are about the only thing that ever give away what he might be thinking. They are often described with variations on fire and heat, particularly when looking at Paige, and they dim and brighten depending on his state of mind.
- Gentle Giant: He is, in Paige's words, "nearly seven feet tall and muscled to match," and yet we never see him succumb to violence or anger. He treats humans with respect and consideration, a rare quality in Rephaim, and spends most of the series as Paige's level-headed friend and confidant.
- Meaningful Name: Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation Boötes, the Herdsman of the Great Bear, Ursa Major; the name itself is derived from the Ancient Greek "Aρκτοῦρος" (Arktouros) and means "guardian of the bear."
Combined with Paige's surname, Mahoney, which means "descendant of the bear," this alludes to Warden's role first as her keeper, and then as her protector and confidant. - My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Warden is the only Rephaite that we know of who doesn't believe humans to be inherently beneath the Rephaim.
- Stealthy Colossus: We never see him try to sneak up on anyone, but he's quick and graceful enough to catch a butterfly in his hands, as well as maintain a few clandestine habits in the penal colony.For a giant, he could move like a shadow.
- The Stoic: Although the Rephaim are none of them very expressive, Warden is particularly gifted at keeping his composure, making him one of the most inscrutable and enigmatic characters in the whole series.
- Straw Hypocrite: In The Bone Season, Warden explicitly tells Paige that they are forbidden from making direct physical contact, even with gloves, a ruling apparently born of the Rephaim's contemptuous attitude toward humans. However, he clearly doesn't actually have a problem with it, as throughout the book he nonchalantly bridal-carries her through the training meadow, tends to her injuries, taps her cheek to wake her, removes the glove from her hand so she can "feel the cold," etc.
- Sympathetic Slave Owner: Warden treats the human slaves of the penal colony with kindness and respect, putting him in stark contrast with his kindred, who are negligent at best.
- He is courteous toward Paige, brings her food as often as he can, and refuses to raise a hand to her, at great risk to his position with the other Rephaim.
- He calls Ivy by her real name instead of her number.
- He treats Michael, the amaurotic boy "gifted" to him by Nashira, with care, even teaching him how to speak using sign language.
- He sacrifices his last dose of amaranth to bring Liss out of spirit shock.
- In the end, he helps Paige to stage a massive jailbreak.
Jaxon Hall
"I'm a mime-lord, O my lovely, not a mime-peasant."
- Bad Boss: Jaxon treats the Seven Seals like property and shows absolutely no concern for their mental well-being. He sometimes makes Eliza stay up for days at a time, skipping meals and showers to work on her paintings, and experiments on Zeke by making the others attack his unreadable dreamscape. He also has dangerous, erratic mood swings, to the point where everyone tiptoes around the den if they hear "Danse Macabre" playing upstairs.
- Benevolent Boss: What Jaxon believes himself to be, despite keeping the Seven Seals on a tight leash."I empathize with that burning desire for independence. But I am not a kidsman. I am a mime-lord, and I consider myself a generous one. You are allowed a little coin for your own uses. You are given a bed. All I ask is that you obey my orders, as any mime-lord asks of his or her employees."
- The Charmer: Jaxon is clearly blessed with a silver tongue, as he managed to persuade Zeke and Nadine to leave their lives in the U.S. for a life of crime in the London syndicate.Paige: [about Zeke and Nadine] You really think Jax convinced them to stay?Nick: You know what he's like. Jax could convince you to jump off a cliff if you listened to him long enough.
- Flowery Insults: Jaxon has quite the repertoire, as demonstrated in The Pale Dreamer, where he holds a civil conversation with Didion Waite over the telephone.Jaxon: Was it you who tried to bind Metyard?Didion: No. I, ah ... referred the task to someone else.Jaxon: That, Didion, is because you are a coward. A disgusting, quivering coward.Didion: I am most certainly not —Jaxon: A craven. A yellowbelly. A lily-livered curd of besmirched slime unfit for human civilization.
- Idle Rich: He's uncommonly wealthy for a mime-lord, and spends most of his time lounging around Seven Dials smoking cigars, drinking absinthe and indulging in various blacklisted entertainments.
- The Informant: In The Song Rising, it's revealed that Jaxon was the traitor who betrayed the rebellion of Bone Season XVIII.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Jaxon being a cold-hearted bastard is an Informed Attribute throughout The Bone Season, given that in Paige's memories, he's shown to be an ebullient, charismatic man who really cares about his gang. This illusion is broken when he slams Paige against the nearest available fence and threatens to kill her if she leaves his service. He shows the full extent of his jerkassery in The Mime Order by beating the snot out of her in the Rose Ring and joining the Sargas.
- Manipulative Bastard: Jaxon is a cunning Consummate Liar who plays mind games with his direct subordinates. He is heavily implied to have used false promises to get Zeke and Nadine to stay at Seven Dials. He keeps his gang financially and emotionally dependent on him. He blackmails Paige into keeping her silence in front of the Unnatural Assembly. In The Song Rising, he sows discord in the Mime Order by suggesting to Paige that Warden doesn't truly care for her and that she's become an instrument of Terebell's control, which cleverly plays on her existing fears.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Jaxon is among the richest mime-lords in London and possibly the snobbiest, too; he regularly complains about the other members of the Unnatural Assembly being amateurish, coarse, suburban, and generally an embarrassment to associate with.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Jaxon has a petty rivalry with Didion Waite that goes back several years. Their mutual dislike seems to manifest mostly as series of pamphlet wars, the syndicate equivalent of subtweeting, and exchanges of Flowery Insults over the phone.Didion despised Jaxon for being "the most discourteous sir I ever did meet;" Jaxon hated Didion for being a "useless, curly-haired fribble," and for having terrible teeth. It was hard to argue with either assessment.
- Smoking Is Glamorous: Jaxon smokes cigars, which helps his aura of carefully cultivated sophistication.
- Sugary Malice: He's capable of making his trademark endearments — darling, dearest, O my lovely — sound quite menacing when he wants to.
- Wicked Cultured: Jaxon is a debonair, waistcoat-wearing, Classy Cane-swinging London Gangster with an upper-class chip on his shoulder; a ruthless man with highbrow manners and airs of intellectualism. His every word and movement ooze panache, and while one might justly accuse him of not having a conscience, one could certainly never accuse him of not having any flair.
Nick Nygård
Soothsayers always said that about Nick when they saw him, that he was like snow.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Nick is pale blond and one of the kindest characters in the series, always putting the happiness of others above his own.
- Le Parkour: Nick, himself an accomplished traceur, taught Paige how to run and climb and cleverly avoid the authorities on the streets.Nick had been climbing buildings since before he could toddle; he found footholds where none seemed to exist.
The Seven Seals
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The Seven Seals are set up as a badass criminal gang, but they don't seem to do any actual crime aside from selling sketchy paintings.
- Themed Aliases: Four of the Seven Seals are named for the Horsemen of the Apocalypse: the White Binder (Conquest, the white rider); the Red Vision (War, the red rider); the Black Diamond (Famine, the black rider); and the Pale Dreamer (Death, the pale rider).
The Rephaim
- The Ageless: The Rephaim are not born the way humans are; instead they emerge fully-formed from the æther, and exist indefinitely without ever aging. Like the Netherworld, they are untouched by time and sometimes find it difficult to understand the concept. They cannot die of "natural causes." That being said, they are not indestructible, nor are they immune to certain types of sickness."Centuries are mere grains of sand in the infinite hourglass of our existence."
- A Scar to Remember: After the failed rebellion of Bone Season XVIII, the Ranthen were tortured and scarred as punishment for their transgressions. These scars are referenced throughout the series as a painful reminder of what they lost.
- The Atoner: Alsafi is implied to be this when he puts himself between Paige and a murderous Nashira."Tell Arcturus I hope this ... redeems me."
- Ascended Extra: Alsafi is a background character in the first two books, but in the third, his position as a Ranthen spy in the Archon becomes indispensable to the survival of the Mime Order: he brings power to the crisis facility where the syndicate goes into hiding and enables the transport of Paige's Senshield search party between citadels. Finally, he rescues Paige right from under Nashira's nose, forfeiting his own life in the process.
- Cold Ham: Gomeisa Sargas is fond of metaphors. Although he's implied to speak in a cold, impassive voice, like most Rephaim, that doesn't stop him from being dramatic.
- His little speech in the Guildhall compares the Rephaim to various forces of nature. "What have we to fear from death, when we are death? [...] What fire can scald the sun? Who can drown the ocean?"
- He outdoes himself in the Westminster Archon, telling Paige that she will fail in her endeavors."You will not stop what is coming. Not if you cleave your mountains and raze your cities. Not if you lay down your life in pursuit of our downfall. Our influence is buried deep in this mortal coil, rooting us like an anchor to this earth."
- Good is Not Nice: The Ranthen may have agreed to side with clairvoyant humans in the war against the Sargas, but they still treat Paige Mahoney and her associates with disdain.
- Great Offscreen War: There was one in the Netherworld between the Sargas and the Mothallath families, allegedly set off by some unnamed Rephaite "not keeping their distance" from humans and the subsequent invasion of the Emim. The Sargas won, the Mothallath and their allies were destroyed, and soon afterward a large party made the crossing to the corporeal world in 1859, catalyzing the government of Scion.
- Headbutt of Love: A component of Rephaite culture. According to the author, touching foreheads is considered an intimate gesture that speaks of equal partnership and the desire to know someone on a spiritual level. Thus Warden touching foreheads with Terebell, his oldest friend and former mate, and later with Paige.
- Humanoid Aliens: The extraterrestrial Rephaim are from a timeless dimension where nothing ever lives or dies. Although they resemble humans in their physical structure, they're made of different stuff, living on aura instead of food and water, and their culture is heavily based around not touching anything of the mortal world.
- I Do Not Drink Wine: Inverted, as the alien Rephaim never partake of any human food or drink except for wine. Particularly the Ranthen, who drink it to dull the pain of the scars inflicted on them after Bone Season XVIII.
- Immune to Bullets: Pump a Rephaite full of lead, and they'll still get up to give you a piece of that superhuman strength. You won't live long enough to be disappointed by their lack of being dead.
- Liminal Being: The Rephaim are something like the æther made flesh — more ethereal than corporeal — and they come from the Netherworld, which is itself a medial state between life and death.
- The Mole: Alsafi is a Ranthen spy in Nashira's inner circle from The Bone Season to The Song Rising.
- No Sense of Humor: The Rephaim aren't known for their love of comedy.Errai: Jokes are the declarations of fools.
- Renegade Splinter Faction: What the Ranthen are to the Sargas dynasty.
- Stellar Name: The Rephaim named themselves after stars when they established themselves in the corporeal world, probably because their true names are nigh-unpronounceable for the human tongue.
- Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation Boötes, the Herdsman.
- Terebellum is a star in the constellation Sagittarius, the Archer.
- Pleione is the seventh-brightest star in the Pleiades star cluster.
- Errai is a star in the constellation Cepheus, the King.
- Alsafi is a star in the constellation Draco, the Dragon.
- Gomeisa and Procyon are stars in Canis Minor, the Little Dog.
- Aludra and Adhara are stars in Canis Major, the Greater Dog.
- Nashira is a star in the constellation Capricorn, the Sea Goat.
- Suhail is a star in the constellation Vela, the Sails.
- Kraz is the second-brightest star in the constellation Corvus, the Crow.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Nashira never raises her voice, and yet has some pretty creepy habits, i.e. decorating her walls with the death masks of the voyants she's killed.
- Spock Speak: Used by all Rephaim, for whom English is a second language. They avoid contractions, adhere to proper grammar, choose their words with precision, and generally speak in a cool and dispassionate tone, making them sound conspicuously formal to the reader. This serves to highlight their distance from human society as well as the fact that they've had two hundred years to perfect their English skills.
- Starfish Language: Glossolalia, the Rephaite tongue, is the ancient language of the æther and the language of spirits. It's implied to be impossible to learn for humans, with the exception of julkers - a type of fourth-order clairvoyant.
- The Stoic: While humans constantly show their emotions through facial expressions and subtle vocal inflection, the Rephaim favour impassive stares and speak at a steady cadence, making them difficult to read. This seems to be partly cultural, as they place great value on their own dignity and self-possession, and partly just a natural difference between the two species."As you may have noticed, we Rephaim are not particularly generous with our passions."
