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Thomas Ward

  • Heroes Prefer Swords: He becomes the owner of the Sword of Destiny after his encounter with Chuchulain in Book 8.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Tends to happen to him quite often, though he almost alwas has a justification:
    • In Book 1, he gives Mother Malkin the cakes that give her the strenght to escape; in his defense, he was tricked by Alice and Lizzie.
    • In Book 2, he actually averts the Trope by refusing to free the Bane, only to have Alice doing it instead of him.
    • In Book 4, Mab and the Moudheels were actually refusing to help the other Witch Clans to summon the Devil, until Tom double-crossed Mab and rejected her. Once again, in his defense, she had threatened his family a few minutes ago.
    • in Book 6, he agrees to make a Deal with the Devil that breaks the protection his mother put on his soul; justified because the Devil made sure he had no choice but to accept.
  • Time Master: He got it from his mother. Though he can only stop time at best, and he only learns to use right it starting with Book 8.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In the initial books, he would often end up as a Distressed Dude and survive only thanks to running away, cunning, luck or help from an Alice and Gregory. By the end of Book 8, he almost fully masters his Time Stands Still ability and learnt how to use the Sword of Destiny from Grimalkin. In Book 10, he actually manages to easily defeat a Strigoi in a straight fight. Twice.
  • Undying Loyalty: In spite of all the times he disobeyed to Gregory, Tom is devoted to him and would never betray him.

John Gregory/The Spook

  • Badass Decay: Invoked and justified; John Gregory already is old at the beginning of the series, and gets older each books.
  • Boy Meets Ghoul: His relationship with the Lamia witch Meg in his youth.
  • Genre Savvy: Given what his job consists into, this is kind of required to survive.
  • Heroic BSoD: When his house and his library in Chipenden are destroyed.
  • Screw Destiny: Gregory doesn't believe in prophecies, and will always refuse to give them any credit, even when they are good.

Alice Dean

  • Abusive Parents: Bony Lizzie deliberately terrifies Alice into doing what she wants, cuts her to get blood for her spells and generally doesn't treat Alice particularly well.
  • And I Must Scream: What the Devil does to her in Book eight when she gets dragged in his domain; we don't get to see what she inflicted, but it's quite obviously horrible.
  • Anti-Hero: She is well-intentioned, but she is quite much an adept of using the Dark's own methods against it.
  • Burn the Witch!: In book two she is captured by the Inquisitor who plans to do this to her after drowning her aunt to 'prove' that she was a witch. Her aunt sank but the wind blew out several torches as she did so he uses this is an excuse to take Alice anyway. Alice escapes but is clearly effected by the experience and seeks revenge on the Inquisitor by making a deal with the Bane.
  • Evil Counterpart: Apparently, Lizzie intended her to be this to Tom. Needless to say, it didn't really went as planned.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Apparently happens in book 13, when she claims to have given in to darkness and rather cruelly abandons Tom for her "dark soul mate" Lukrasta.
  • Guile Hero: Though she does have some moment where she kicks ass, she is far more effective in manipulations and tricks.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: She actually is the daughter of Bony Lizzie and the Devil
  • Heel–Face Turn: Starts out as a minor antagonist and Bony Lizzie's apprentice; she quickly helps Tom and becomes his allie
  • Love Interest: It's not specifically stated until Book eight, but it's quite obvious from the beginning.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil:
    • Even Gregory couldn't blame her for using the Bane to kill the Inquisitor.
    • Also, her murder of Scarabeck at the end of Book 8. As gruesome as it was, the witch deserved it.

    Supporting Cast 

Tom's Mother/Lamia/Zenobia

  • Action Mom: Played with; she doesn't actively keeps fighting or anything, and actually lives a fairly normal life for a mother. However, she fight the Dark her own way.
    • She does take part in the fight against the Ordeen and proves she can still play this trope straight as well.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Even after dying, she merely became a non-physical identity who the other Lamias can still get instructions from.
  • The Atoner: She is clearly trying to make up for the horrors she did back when she was on the side of the Dark.
  • Becoming the Mask: Though she genuinely wanted to turn good from the beginning, and did feel grateful to John Ward for saving her, she initially had no feeling for him and only chose to become his wife so she could give birth to the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. After marrying him, though, she gradually learnt to love him for real over the years.
  • Chained to a Rock: Tom's father found her that way.
  • The Chessmaster: A lot of what happens concerning Tom turns out to have been planned by her.
  • Creepy Good: Even Tom is creeped out by her true form.
  • Dark Secret: She is actually Lamia, the original Lamia Witch.
  • I Am a Humanitarian: According to her backstory, she used to do this, seducing males with her beautiful human upper half before devouring them; she has stopped by the time the story starts.
  • Mama Bear Don't mess with her boy.
  • Mother of a Thousand Young: She is the mother of Lamia witches as a whole.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Averted; She used to be evil, but she no longer is by the point the story start. So far, all the Lamia witches we met are morally ambiguous, but on the side of good.
  • Rescue Romance: Subverted. She met and married Tom's father after he found her chained to a rock and freed her but she only agreed to marry him because he was a seventh son.
  • Scaled Up: Does a heroic, less horrifying version of this against the Ordeen at the end of Book 6.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She was this before becoming The Atoner.

The Boggart/Kratch

A friendly Boggart Gregory allows to stay in his house, functioning both as a guardian, cook and housekeeper.

  • Attention Whore: Sort of; it doesn't exactly tries to get people attention, but it sure enjoys it. Gregory quickly teaches Tom to regularly thank and compliment it for the meals it prepares in order to get on its good side.
  • Bargain with Heaven: Gregory made a deal with it, allowing it to stay at his house and consider it its territory. In exchange, it has to take care of the house for him, prepare food and protect the house from potential intruders.
    • It makes a new one with Tom in Book 10, which uses the same terms, plus one addition: whenever Tom is in danger, he can summon it by calling it name thrice, causing it to arrive, kill all his enemies and feed on their blood.
  • Battle Butler: To Gregory. An invisible and supernatural one, sure, but he pretty much assumes the same role.
  • Cats Are Magic: The Boggart doesn't really have a tangible form, being more of a spirit than an actual living being, but whenever it manifests itself, it usually appears as a red-furred cat. It also typically express itself with cat noises.
  • Good Is Not Nice: Aside from its occasional angers, it's generally portrayed as helpful and benevolent. However, it despises intruders, especially evil ones, and any unwanted person who dares step on the house is dead meat as a result.
  • Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": For most of the book, it's only known as "the Boggart". It reveals its name to Tom as part of their new bargain.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: While not particularly dangerous to his allies, he is still pretty irritable and easy to offusk. Tom once got him mad by awakening too early when the meal wasn't ready. Fortunately, it's just as easy to appease it with compliment and courtesy.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: Played with; it has not proper tangible form and usually is invisible, but on occasion, it will manifest itself as as a red-furred cat.
  • The Speechless: It apparently cannot speak, and only communicate through noises and signs. It does know how to write however, as it uses it to communicate with Tom in Book 10.

Bill Arkwright

One of Gregory's former apprentices who completed his formation and became a Spook of his own. Bill Arkwright specializes in dealing with Water Witches.

  • Anti-Hero: his methods are much more pragmatic and violent than Gregory's but he is still firmly on the side of good.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: Presumably the reason he is not considered a completely worthy heir to Gregory: he is a pretty good Spook, but he specializes in dealing with Water Witches mainly, and isn't as good as Gregory for other kinds of threat.
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: His training of Tom is much more violent than Gregory's, borderline cruelty at some points; justified in that he is suffering acoholism due to the fate of his family. As the story goes on, he gets better.
  • Fatal Flaw: His alcoholism; subverted in that he still survives despite it eventually.
  • Sink or Swim Mentor: Towards Tom. His approach of teaching Tom how to swim involves throwing him in the lake until he learns how to swim on his own.

Grimalkin

  • Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: She did have a child with the Devil as a part of her plan to make sure he would never be able to hurt her (the Devil can never approach a mother of one of his children unless she wants it). This backfired as her child turned out to be normal, causing the Devil to kill him. Since then, Grimalkin pretty much wants the Devil's skin.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: She actually succeeded in doing this before she became the assassin master she is now.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: She has a very strict moral code of not using treachery and never killing pointlessly. She also absolutely loathes the Fiend, even before he killed their child.
  • Heel–Face Turn: She is first introduced as an antagonist when the Malkin Clan sends her to kill Tom. In all her following appearances, however, she is his ally.
  • Living Legend: And God did she earn it.
  • Noble Demon: As sadistic and violent as she can be, she has a strict code of honor and makes a rule of never use treachery against her enemies. Not like she needs it anyway.
    • She also dislikes gratuitous murder, ironically precisely because she is an assassin: since she takes life as her job, she can see how pointless murdering someone for no reason can be. In I Am Grimalkin, she decides to spare some random man she just forced to transport her, seeing how he doesn't present a threat to her.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Almost every character she kills could qualify, but her torture, humiliation and mutilation of the Fiend especially stands out.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: In her first appearance only: she had no specific grudge against Tom, she was just chasing him because her clan ordered her to do so. After that, she sides with the good guys in all of her appearances.
  • Shear Menace: She is famous for owning a pair of large scissors capable of cutting through stone. However, she seems to mostly use it to cut off her enemies' fingers for her magic. When actually fighting, she usually goes for Dual Wielding.
  • Slasher Smile: And an especially creepy one, given she has filed pointed teeth.
  • Sociopathic Hero: In later books; She is just as violent as any bad witch, her methods to deal with enemies are gruesome and she clearly enjoys violence, but she is fighting on the protagonists' side.
  • You Kill It, You Bought It: This is how she inherited her position as her Clan's Assassin.

    Witches 

Tropes Applying to all witches:

  • Axe-Crazy: There are some exceptions, but for the most part, they are all psychotic, sadistic and cruel.
  • Back from the Dead: Whenever a witch is killed, she can resurrect either through reincarnation (which usually takes a long time to happen) or as an undead corpse that will gradually decay over time. There are only three ways to prevent this from happening: not killing the witch and keep her sealed alive in a pit; burn her body; or have her heart be eaten.
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: There are a lot of different kind of witches, but their morality typically range from Ambiguously Evil to batshit insane, with some very rare good witches.
  • Black Magic: Which is divided mostly in three big cathegory:
    • Bad with the Bone, which consist in collecting the bones of their victim and using them as a power source.
    • Blood Magic, which consist in drinking blood to get their strenght.
    • Familiar, which consist in chosing an animal, taking some of its blood and then using the animal as both a power source and ally.
  • Enemy Civil War: While there are a lot of witches, they usually don't represent a real threat because they are too divided and busy with quarrels between their clans.
  • Seers: The Moudheel Clan specializes in this.
  • Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Justified with the Bones Magic-oriented witches, who use bones as a power source.
  • Wicked Witch: Older witches tend to become this. They still manage to be creepy.

Mother Malkin

  • Back from the Dead: Not that it lasts.
  • Blood Magic: Her signature magic. This is also plot-relevant in how she escapes her pit: Bony Lizzie tricks Tom into providing her cakes with Alice's blood inside it, allowing her to regain enough strength to get out.
  • Demonic Possession: After her first death, she comes back as a dead witch with the ability to enter inside people's bodies in order to control them.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: At the beginning of the book, she is one of the many witches trapt inside a pit in Gregory's garden.
  • Starter Villain: The very first antagonist met by Tom.
  • Wicked Witch: Takes the Trope and runs with it up to eleven. She actually succeeds in making it Nightmare Fuel.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Not that she is the only villain to do it in this universe, but her case stands out as especially horrific; She used to collect the Blood for her Magic by killing pregnant women she was pretending to help.

Bony Lizzie

  • Abusive Mom: She is Alice's mother. Though that doesn't prevent her from being quite awful and abusive towards her.
  • Avenging the Villain: Tries to kill Tom for the murder of Mother Malkin. Thanks to both the Spook and Alice's Heel–Face Turn, it fails.
  • Bad with the Bone: Sort of. As suggested by her nickname, she uses Bone Magic, but it mostly consist in using bones from her victim to increase her powers rather than using them as weapons.
  • Disney Villain Death: How she meets her demise in book seven.
  • Enemy Mine: Shortly in Book seven, before she takes over as the main villain.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Mam; she did with Alice what Lamia did with Tom.
  • Evil Mentor: Towards Alice.
  • Hijacked by Ganon: She kills the Big Bad of book seven and takes over the role.
  • Kick the Dog: Several of them, but one of the most well-known is using her own daughter's blood to give strength to Mother Malkin.
  • Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Her murder of the Shaman.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: When she first shows up, she isn't exactly harmless, but still few more than a minor villain intending to bring back Mother Malkin, and is quickly dealt with by Gregory when she confronts him. When she comes back in book seven, she kills the book's main villain and takes over, and proves to have grown strong enough to defeat Gregory by her mere will.

Mistress Wurmalde

  • Revenge: Claims to be motivated by this toward Tom's mom, describing herself as a rival of hers.

Mab Moudheel

  • Creepy Child: She and her sisters definitely fit the trope.
  • Enemy Mine: She is part of the numerous witches who team up with the heroes to defeat the Ordeen in Book 6.
  • Genre Savvy: she is perfectly aware that Evil Is Not a Toy and that summoning the Fiend in the real world is a bad idea. She still ends up helping the other witches to do it after Tom betrayed her.
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: Attempted this on Alice several times, directly or indirectly.
  • Seers: All the witches in her clan are specifically trained to be this, but she is the best of them.
  • Woman Scorned: Once Tom double-crossed and rejected her, she gets mad enough to agree helping the other witches to summon the Fiend against him. Doesn't prevent her from flirting with him again later when they are in an Enemy Mine situation.
  • Villainesses Want Heroes: She sure does want Tom.
  • Yandere: More than willing to get rid of Alice in order to have him.

Morwene Blood-Eye

  • Achilles' Heel: Her red eye can only hyponotize one person at the time, so she can be defeated by multiple opponent. This is how Tom and Grimalkin get her in the end.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: She is a daughter of the Fiend.
  • Hypnotic Eyes: Her red eye has the ability to hypnotize people, leaving them immobilized long enough for her to kill them.
  • Red Right Hand: Her trademark.

    Spirits, Old Gods and similar entities 

The Fiend

  • Abusive Dad: If his children aren't monsters or future witches, he kills them right after their birth. And if they are the former, he uses them for his own schemes.
  • Affably Evil: Starts out as this toward Tom, but eventually falls into Faux Affably Evil.
  • Affectionate Nickname: The witches who worship him like to refer to him as "Old Nick".
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: He initially appears to Tom as one of the men he assassinated in attempt to seem more friendly. After the Deal with the Devil, though, he has no problem showing up in his true form.
  • Bad Boss: In I Am Grimalkin, Grimalkin teases his servants by torturing and mutilating his head right in front of them. His reaction is to curse his servants for failing to save him from that and swear he will torture them after their death.
  • Batman Gambit: His Deal with the Devil with Tom was offered in a context that made it impossible for Tom to refuse.
  • Big Bad: To the series as a whole; notably, he is also the first villain to actually last more than one book (except if you count Bony Lizzie).
  • Offing the Offspring: What he does to his children if they are not monsters or witches.
  • Off with His Head!: How Tom, Gregory and Grimalkin are eventually able to temporary neutralize him and seal him.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: He kept his word to free Bill Arkwright's family in his bet with Tom, even though he could have easily played on Exact Words to not keep his part of the bargain. The only reason he did it was because it was part of a Batman Gambit to have Bill Arkwright indebted in Tom and convincing Gregory to let Alice go.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: His situation at the end of Book 8.
  • Time Master: Much like Tom, he can cause time to run faster, slower, or even stand still according to his wish. He has a much better mastery of it, though.
  • Villainous Breakdown: After Alice saved Tom from his deal with him, the Devil is so mad he gives up trying to convert them to his side and only show concern with killing them.
  • We Can Rule Together: Justified; according to the Ward Tom's mother put on him, it'll be much more profitable for him if Tom is corrupted.

The Bane

  • Cruel and Unusual Death: He inflicts this to his victim through his trademark abilitie to crush them by augmenting his weight. The result is downright disgusting.
  • Deal with the Devil: Offers this to his victims; in exchange for them letting him drink a small portion of her blood, he grants them three wishes. He is forced to always keep his part of the bargain regardless of the consequences, but each time a wish is granted, he gets more control over the person.
  • Immortals Fear Death: Since he is not human, there is nothing after death for him. As a result, he is absolutely terrified by the perspective of dying.
  • Out-Gambitted: Twice; once in the past, which led to his original imprisonment; and the second time by Alice.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: While the Bane is scared of women, he makes it quite clear he has a low opinion of them, indicating at some point that he believes their wishes are much easier than men (basically, he thinks a woman will typically wish for new clothes or other similar things). This bites him hard in the arse when he underestimates Alice because of this.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: And tricked into sealing himself, no less.

Golgoth

The Old God of Winter.

The Ordeen

  • Humanoid Abomination: Initially introduced to Tom in human form.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Justified; when the book starts, she is still sleeping and about to awake. The whole point of the heroes coming to her fortress is to prevent her from awakening.
  • Scaled Up: Her true form is a salamander-like creature.

The Morrigan

Pan

  • And I Must Scream: This is how he feels when forced to assume his Animalistic Abomination state.
  • Animalistic Abomination: His cultists summon him to possess a goat, creating one of those. Though as we later find out, he is not happy about it.
  • Bargain with Heaven: Makes one with Tom to avoid his forced possession of a goat, saving Tom's life in the process.
  • Benevolent Genie: During his bargain with Tom, Tom asks him to save Alice from the Fiend. Pan answers he can't do this at this point, since even he can't go safely in the Fiend's realm. Later in the book, the Devil is binded, leaving his realm easier to access, and Pan seizes the opportunity to free Alice for Tom, even though at this point nothing forced him to keep this part of the bargain.
  • Good All Along: He initially is introduced as yet another evil god worshipped and summoned by sorcerers in the form of an Animalistic Abomination. Around the middle of the book, we learn he actually dislikes what the cultists do with him, and has no control over his action when he is summoned. He then makes a bargain with Tom to not avoid said summoning.
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much: He is the only Old God featured so far to not be evil.

    Human Antagonists 

The Inquisitor

  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Tom makes it clear when describing him that the Inquisitor is an aristocrat, and that's not seen as a good thing.
  • Asshole Victim: This guy was such as monster that it's hard to not cheer when he finally gets killed by the Bane. Even Gregory admits the man only got what he deserved.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Initially seems to be part of the Big Bad Ensemble, but it quickly becomes clear he just doesn't measure up to the Bane.
  • Burn the Witch!: His favourite activity; though he couldn't care less about the witches being actual witches or not.
  • Jerkass: To say he was unlikable would be putting it midly.
  • Knight Templar: Subverted; it's strongly implied he doesn't care if his victims are witches or not and just takes a sadistic pleasure into torturing and burning them.

Morgan

  • Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Try to do this by summoning the Ancient God of Winter Golgoth in order to ask him for power. He fails miserably, thanks to Gregory's seeing it coming
  • Evil Counterpart: Tries to be this to Gregory, but he does a rather poor job at it.
  • Evil Mentor: Tried to be this to Tom. It fails.
  • Foil: He is pretty much the antithesis of Tom as one of Gregory's former apprentice..
  • I Have Your Wife: Se uses an interesting variant by taking Tom's already dead father's soul hostage to force him into doing his bidding.
  • Kill It with Ice: How he meets his demise.
  • Luke, You Are My Father: Subverted; he pretended to be Gregory's son to Tom, playing on the fact his mother used to be Gregory's first mistress. In truth, her relationship with Gregory was short-lived, and she ended up marrying another man who was also the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son but not a Spook. It is strongly implied however that Morgan has come to believe his own lie.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Towards Tom, who he tries to use into doing his bidding by taking his father's soul hostage.
  • Necromancer: After being cast out by John Gregory, he began practicing this, allowing him to summon the deads' souls and making a profit out of it.
  • Out-Gambitted: Gregory expected him to summon Golgoth and took advantage on his limited knowledge of ancient language by slightly changing a word in his spellbook, causing Golgoth to appear outside the restricting pentacle.
  • Smug Snake: He believes himself superior to any of Gregory's other apprentices due to being the Seventh Son of the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son rather than just the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. In practice, what we saw of him suggest he was a rather mediocre apprentice at best.
  • Would Hurt a Child: He punches Tom in the same spot twice, knocks the breath out of him by punching him in the ribs and threatens to do so again to intimidate Tom into climbing into the barrow entrance. He also ties Tom up as a human sacrifice to Golgoth.

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