Characters / The Witches of Thistle Grove

The Harlow Family

Owners of the bookstore Tomes & Omens. Founded by Elias Harlow.

In General

• Animal Motif: Owls.

• The Smart Guy: Among the families, they are known for the record-keeping and artifact knowledge.

Emmaline "Emmy" Harlow

Current scion of the Harlow household. One of the protagonists of Payback's a Witch.

• Affectionate Nickname: Her father calls her "Scoot".
• Big Eater: Several times in the series it's pointed out how much Emmy loves food and could eat anyone under the table.

• Book Smart: She has a comparative literature degree with a minor in business and as Talia reveals, she was valedictorian back in high school. By her own admission, Emmy loves to learn.

• Deadpan Snarker: Both her narration and conversation drip with this and enough lampshade hangings to fill a house.
• The Nicknamer: Much like Talia, she gives out fitting nicknames to everyone or at least fitting to how she feels about them. For example, she repeatedly calls Gareth "Gareth Blackmoore, Prince of Bastards" in her narration.

Cecily Fletcher-Harlow

Emmy's mother.

• Muggle–Mage Romance: She wasn't born a Harlow, but rather married into the Harlow family and became a mage that way.

James Harlow

Emmy's father.

• Intrepid Merchant

Delilah Harlow

Emmy's cousin. One of the protagonists of In Charm's Way.

• Fangirl: Is stated to be one of the Harlow lineage. It's further evidenced by her decked-out and very on-theme Harlow outfit at one of the tournament's gatherings.

Caro Harlow

Emmy's grandmother.

• The Nth Doctor: She was the Arbiter of the sixth Gauntlet, the previous tournament.

Jasper

Emmy's pet schnauzer.

Elias Harlow

Emmy's ancestor.

• Badass Bookworm: He single-handedly discovered Thistle Grove's magic and, with the help of 3 others, founded the magical town. He is also the reason that the modern generations of Thistle Grove have any kind of historical record in the first place and is also the reason for the spells that keeps Thistle Grove's magical nature secret. He is also the reason that anyone else can use magic since he created the system in the first place.
• Founder of the Kingdom: While he had help from his three contemporaries in founding the town, Elias Harlow discovered the location and created the Grimoire that has been used as a magical manual for all four houses for at least 300 years. We later find out he created the magic system that allows everyone to use magic.
• Posthumous Character: Since he helped found the town some 300 years ago, he's long dead by the time of the first book.

The Blackmoore Family

The town's wealthiest family, owners of the Camelot (an indoor-outdoor Renaissance Festival estate), and producers of strongest magic-users. Founded by Caelia Blackmoore.

In General

• 0% Approval Rating: There's not many people in the town who have anything remotely nice to say about the Blackmoores.
• Alpha Bitch: Most of the characters we meet with the Blackmoore name tend to come off as stereotypical examples of this. At first.
• Always Chaotic Evil: In the first book, they seem to be made up entirely of self-entitled jerks with a Superior Species mentality towards non-magic users and even towards the other houses. Most of them do, in fact, everything in their power to show why they've earned the ire of the other families.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: They pretty much cover this trope in the setting.

• Born Lucky: The Blackmoores are effectively town royalty but they also have the magic prowess to back it up. We come to find out though that the winner of the tournament gets a bump in power and luck for the next 3 generations and it stockpiles, which would make sense why they're the most powerful mages in Thistle Grove since they've won every tournament since the beginning.

• Delinquents: An introductory scene serves as an Establishing Character Moment for both Gareth and a little bit for the whole Blackmoore family in Payback's A Witch. Gareth, Gawain, and two other Blackmoore cousins drunkenly stumble into a bar, demanding service, and abusing their use of magic in front of the non-magic Morty.
• Expy: You don't have to look too hard to see the common traits between the Blackmoores and Slytherin House.
• Famous Ancestor: They are rumored to be related to fictional Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend, hence their names are derived from that.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The other 3 families very much dislike them.

• The Rich Want to Be Richer: One of the main motivations for Emmy, Talia, and Linden to come up with the plan to stick it to Gareth is that his family is encroaching on the Thorn and Avmarov businesses in the name of expanding their business regardless of how it affects the rest of the town.
• Theme Naming: They tend to have Arthurian names which is lampshaded by Emmy in Payback's a Witch.

Gareth Blackmoore

Current scion of the Blackmoore household.

• Chick Magnet: He has dated and attracted the three main heroines of "Payback's a Witch" at one point or another.
• Establishing Character Moment: Gareth, his sibling, and cousins drunkenly stumble into a bar, demanding service, and abusing their use of magic in front of the non-magic Morty, showing exactly how much of a Spoiled Brat he is.
  • However, it is noted by Emmy that the rest of the family would never be dumb enough to cast magic in front of a non-magic user.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While repugnant to say the least, Gareth by Emmy's note and his own actions is not a bully, at least not while sober.

• Privileged Rival: To Emmy, Talia, and Linden, but especially to Emmy.
• Royal Brat / Spoiled Brat

Nineve "Nina" Blackmoore

Gareth's sister. One of the protagonists of Back in a Spell.

• Ascended Extra: She was just a name mentioned in Chapter 2 of Payback's a Witch. Two books later, she's a lead character.
• The Empath: Nina develops this ability when her romance with Morty and their powers grow stronger.
• Runaway Fiancé: Her betrothed abandoned her at the altar before the start of the third book.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: She doesn't have a positive opinion of her family just like the rest of the town.
• White Sheep: Of the Blackmoore clan, she's the most down-to-earth in comparison, but still has some haughty tendencies.

Gawain Blackmoore

Gareth's little brother

Igraine Blackmoore

Gareth's grandmother

• 0% Approval Rating: More than anyone else in the Blackmoore family. Talia describes her at one point as a "soul dead harpy".

• Younger Than They Look: Invoked. Because her family has won the town tournament every time except once, they have been granted rewards for it, one of them being longevity. Talia, in her late 20s, comments that Igraine is pushing 80 but comments on her looks much to Linden and Emmy's discomfort.

Evrain Blackmoore

A Blackmoore ancestor who lost the 1921 Thistle Grove tournament.

• The Alcholic: Emmy labels him as a "roaring drunk", implying he had a habit of drinking frequently.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: He lit both himself and unnamed Avmarov opponent on fire while transforming a pond into a fountain of flaming spiced rum.

Caelia Blackmoore

• Posthumous Character: Since she helped found the town some 300 years ago, she's long dead by the time of the first book.
• Shock and Awe: To consecrate the founding of the town, she conjured a lightning storm.

The Thorn Family

Owners of the Honeycake Orchards and prominent healing, plant, and animal magic users. Founded by Alastair Thorn.

In General

• Color Motif: Greens, with a little yellow thrown in.
• Druid: They can trace their lineage all the way back to the druids of Ireland.

• Healing Hands: They're well-known for their healing magic as well.

• Ironic Name: The family who is known for plant magic is named Thorn.
• Plant Person: They're known for their plant magic and orchards.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: The Thorns seem to have this relationship with the Avmarovs and vice versa.

Linden Sharee Thorn

Emmy's Best Friend and Rowan's twin sister.

• Affectionate Nickname: Emmy calls her "Lin".
• Granola Girl: Not entirely, but she can give this vibe off.
• Healing Hands: She heals Emmy's hangover in Chapter 4.

• Nice Girl: Despite Gareth cheating on her, she made a point that any revenge he received not be physically harmful to him.
• Out of Focus: In From Bad to Cursed, she doesn't even get a scene when her twin brother is one of the main characters.
• Serial Romeo: Linden is described as an energetic dater and believes dating is a numbers game.

Rowan Thorn

Current scion of the Thorn household and Linden's older-by-six-minutes twin brother. One of the protagonists of From Bad to Cursed.

• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Has it with Issa Avmarov.
• By-the-Book Cop: As an investigator and as a mage, Rowan believes in the nobility of following the rules.
• Character Alignment: Rowan is stated to be Lawful Good as such in the second book's summary.
• Friend to All Living Things: Emmy remembers in high school he used to doctor sparrow fledglings take care of stray kittens.
• Healing Hands: Linden admits that he's better at this than she is.
• Rules Lawyer: Even though he is contributing to a scheme that is essentially undermining another tournament participant, Rowan is very much about following the rules, citing that the only reason he is even up for this scheme is because of how much he loathes the Blackmoores and because Gareth broke his sister's heart.

Lark Thorn

Linden and Rowan's little sister. She made Linden's feather-shaped silver earrings and was known for designing jewelry before Emmy left Thistle Grove (10 years ago).

Gabrielle Thorn

Linden, Rowan, and Lark's mother.

• Muggle–Mage Romance: She wasn't born a Thorn, but rather married into the Harlow family and became a mage that way. Ironically, she's stated to be better at it than her husband, the actual blood relative.

Alastair Thorn

• Friend to All Living Things: To consecrate the founding of the town, he called down birds from the sky.
• Posthumous Character: Since he helped found the town some 300 years ago, he's long dead by the time of the first book.

The Avramov Family

Owners of The Bitters, a "Victorian warren of a mansion", and the Arcane Emporium, an occult megastore with an adjoining haunted house. They specialize in demon and spirit summoning. Founded by Margarita Avmarov.

In General

• The Beautiful Elite: Stated more so than the Blackmoores.
  Emmy: "The entire Avmarov clan was aggressively attractive, all soaring cheekbones and distinctive eyes and jawlines that could carve glass."

• Dark Is Not Evil: The very nature of the magic they specialize in and their obsession with gothic decor and styles have given them a very "evil mage" vibe, but they're still considered the more heroic characters in comparison to the elitist Blackmoores.
• Famous Ancestor: They are rumored to be related to fictional Baba Yaga, a witch from Slavic folklore.
• Gratuitous Russian: Both in their house and outside of it, the Avmarovs practice both the Russian language and Americanized versions of the culture.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: The Avmarovs seem to have this relationship with the Thorns and vice versa.

Natalia "Talia" Avmarov

Current scion of the Avmarov household. One of the protagonists of Payback's a Witch.

• Affectionate Nickname: Morty calls her "lovebug". Emmy privately calls her in her narration "Sexy Tundra Wolf".
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl

• Chick Magnet: Female version.

• Glamour: She uses a glamour spell to hide from the Blackmoores in the Shamrock Cauldron.
• Hidden Depths: She took a few years of finance classes at a university to help with running the Arcane Emporium.
• Ladykiller in Love: female version.

• Sweet Tooth: She loves sweet alcoholic drinks.
• The Vamp: Has shades of this. According to Emmy, getting your heart broken by Talia was "a Thistle High queer girl rite of passage".

Isidora "Issa" Avmarov

Talia's little sister. One of the protagonists of From Bad to Cursed.

• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Has it with Rowan Thorn.
• Big Brother Instinct: Well, little sister, but Issa almost cast a spell to have spider hatch out of Gareth's ears when she discovered he had been two-timing her sister Talia. Talia managed to talk her down.
• Eccentric Fashion Designer: A mild example in comparison, but Issa is a very adventurous person who designs costumes for the Arcane Emporium's haunted house, hoping one day to leave her family's witchy business to become an independent fashion designer.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Played with. It's more like Rival Romance Subtext, but Issa starts off introduced as loathing Rowan, but it's obvious to everyone it's Belligerent Sexual Tension.

• Silver Spoon Troublemaker: She's not as privileged as the Blackmoores, but she does come from a founding family and is known as a troublemaker.
• Spanner in the Works: She saw Linden and Gareth on a date and told Talia about it. This would give Talia the idea of revenge and kick off the whole plot of Payback's a Witch.

Elena Avmarov

Talia and Issa's mother and the Avmarov matriarch.

• New Media Are Evil: She is described as someone who wouldn't dare "taint" her shop with apps such as PayPal.

Margarita Avmarov

• Posthumous Character: Since she helped found the town some 300 years ago, she's long dead by the time of the first book.
• Summon Magic: To consecrate the founding of the town, she summoned spirits to serve as witnesses.

Other Thistle Grove residents

Those who are not part of the main four families and those who are not aware of the town's secret.

Morty Gutierrez

The Bartender and co-owner of the Shamrock Cauldron. One of the protagonists of Back in a Spell.

• Affectionate Nickname: Talia call them "sweet pea".
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: Morty, and the summary of the book itself, identifies as non-binary, but they state that they go by he/him/they/them pronouns at work and sometimes at home. Not helping, Nina and the book itself seems to refer to them mostly in he/him pronouns.
• Ascended Extra: Morty only had a few appearances in the first two books, but in Back in a Spell, they are one of the two main protagonists.
• The Bartender: Of the town's kitch hole-in-the-wall.
• Beyond the Impossible: Morty begins developing magical powers despite not being in a committed romantic relationship with anyone.
• Nice Guy: Morty is one of the nicest characters in the setting befitting his job as a bartender. The only time we really see him display any type of dislike of someone is if their last name is Blackmoore.

Catriona Quinn

A monster hunter. One of the protagonists of In Charm's Way.

• Half-Human Hybrid: She is half-human, half-fae.