Characters that appear in Tress of the Emerald Sea.
For tropes about Hoid, see the main Cosmere character page.
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Diggen's Point
Tress
Glorf "Tress" of the Emerald Sea
A practical, thoughtful, and non-ambitious girl who likes to collect cups.
- Action Survivor: Tress is not an Action Girl by any measure — she gets in exactly one close-quarters fight over the course of the book, which ends almost immediately with her as the loser — but she is clever, brave, quick on her feet, and completely determined in her quest to rescue Charlie, magic and monsters be damned.
- Collector of the Strange: Cups, as they let her imagine life in other places. When she gets to see those other places, she starts to lose interest, except for a few especially significant pieces.
- Expy: She was devised as "if Princess Buttercup was more proactive."
- Extreme Doormat: Tress does not like causing trouble for people. She was a major target for bullies simply because she thought telling them to stop might be rude. She gets more assertive over the course of the story.
- Green Thumb: After discovering that sprouting verdant spores react to their grower's mental intent, she becomes able to manipulate the resulting vines to a degree, culminating in growing a massive tree beneath the Crow's Song to lift it out of the path of a lethal crimson spore growth.
- Like a Duck Takes to Water: She's a very good scientist in general, and when she begins applying herself to spores she makes extraordinary progress as a Sprouter and engineer with very little to work on. It causes Hoid to muse on all the talented musicians who died without knowing it because they never could afford to touch an instrument.
- Messy Hair: She has long hair that's incredibly good at tangling itself. After spending most of the book unable to brush it properly, it reaches such a state that it's practically the first thing the Sorceress comments on.
- The Minion Master: Begins to learn this in a small way, experimenting with Midnight Essence and even learning to seize control of the constructs from others. Unfortunately for her, Riina is much better.
- Nice Girl: Tress is kind, polite, and non-confrontational. Notably, she refuses to abandon the crew of the Crow's Song, who are a bunch of criminals who she's known for a day at that point, simply because she couldn't live with herself if she did so.
- Not Like Other Girls: Twisted around for laughs. All the other girls say that they're "not like other girls," leading Tress to realize that she must be the "other girls" that they are not like. She is, technically speaking, the stereotype that the trope is normally about railing against (a boring homebody with no desire to stand out), but the story focuses on her being kind and reliable.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: With a name like Glorf, it's understandable. Funnily enough, it's implied that the reason isn't that she finds the name embarrassing, but rather she has so many relatives named Glorf that she had to take a nickname just for the sake of convenience.
- Parting-Words Regret: Played with. Their last words before Charlie leaves is a sweet exchange about gloves and a promise that he would drive off all his royal suitors for her. But she still greatly regrets never actually saying 'I love you' in plain words.
- Plucky Girl: Tress may not have any combat skills or particular experience with the outside world, but she is kind, resourceful, and absolutely determined to get Charlie back.
- Red Is Heroic: Steals the harbor inspector's distinctive red overcoat as part of her plan to escape the Rock, and continues to wear it throughout the novel.
- Support Your Parents: A portion of Tress' meager earnings from washing windows goes towards supporting her parents and her younger brother, as her father was injured in a mining accident and her mother is barely able to turn a profit with her knitting business.
- Supreme Chef: She's a very good cook, and more importantly is used to making do with low quality ingredients because of her family's poverty.
Charlie
Charles "Charlie"
The duke's gardener, who is not secretly the duke's son.
- Abusive Parents: His father conspires to have him killed largely because he's boring and not useful for a marriage alliance due to being in love with a peasant. His mother seems to like him more, but isn't able to stop her husband from sending him to his possible death.
- The Bore: Many people — Tress not among them — can't stand his tendency to ramble on about his interests. He exaggerates this to absurd degrees to repel fiancées with the power of tedium.
- Distressed Dude: The plot kicks off when he is sent to negotiate with the Sorceress, who immediately kidnaps him and demands a ransom.
- I Lied: In his "Huck" identity, he repeatedly lies to Tress, partially to protect her and partially because the curse makes telling the truth virtually impossible.
- Implausible Deniability: To the point of being a running gag between him and Tress. The Duke's son could, of course, never spend time with a lowly window washer, let alone be close friends with them. Fortunately he's a gardener.
- Inadequate Inheritor: The Duke writes him off as an unsuitable heir and replaces him with a statuesque idiot of a nephew.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: He comes up with the same glove metaphor about love that Tress does.
The Crow's Song
Crow
Captain Crow
The captain of the newly-minted pirate ship Crow's Song. Her crew are utterly terrified of her.- Achilles' Heel: The verdant spores that infest her body will react instantly to any attempt to harm her, even while unconscious, but she can still be restrained as the spores don't register this is an "attack". Tress designs her spore flare-gun to take advantage of this, and when that plan falls through Xisis is able to achieve the same result by binding her with awakened strips of cloth.
- All for Nothing: She spends nearly the entire book endeavoring to track down Xisis and trade the dragon a slave so that he'll cure her of her spore-eater disease. After she reaches him, Xisis casually reveals that while he can heal the disease, it will return in full within a few years and leave Crow right where she began. In a way, becoming a slave in Xisis' domain was the only path she had to surviving long-term in the first place.
- Big Bad Wannabe: While she is the primary cause for much of Tress' misfortune during their voyage, she's a tiny fish in a huge pond compared to both Xisis and the Sorceress. The former easily overpowers Crow and captures her in his domain, and the latter goes on to be the Final Boss of the novel.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Crow is on both ends of this. On one hand, she can't kill Tress because she needs to sell her into slavery, and on the flip side, the parasite inside her keeps her alive so it can have more time to drain the water out of her body.
- Dark Action Girl: She's an extremely skilled marksman and brawler even before you take into account the spore-infection that makes her Nigh-Invulnerable, and a vicious pirate captain who offs one of her own men before pressing Tress into service in his place.
- The Dreaded: It's implied that she started as this, and then she became a spore-eater, which made everything so much worse.
- Explosive Leash: Xisis claims that his cure for the aether parasite is only temporary, and that if she runs away Crow will eventually relapse. Tress notes internally that she isn't certain she believes that, but she's hardly going to voice her skepticism.
- Healing Factor: Her condition—being a living host for spores—makes her almost impossible to kill, both through healing and blocking attacks.
- The Heavy: Her machinations and her control of the ship are the most direct threat to Tress for most of the book.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: She can snipe people off a distant ship with an unreliable old-fashioned musket, a feat that leaves even Hoid grudgingly impressed. It bears mention that this is not a part of her true supernatural powers, at least not explicitly.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: After learning that she is terminally ill, Tress starts to feel sorry for her... only to later realize that Crow is exactly as awful as she presents herself as being.
- Living on Borrowed Time: She is going to die within weeks, at the outside, from her spore parasite. She's putting it off by drinking water almost constantly.
- Made a Slave: Crow ends up being enslaved by Xisis, the dragon who she intended to sell Tress to. On the plus side, this does mean she'll be able to survive her disease.
- Power at a Price: She is Immune to Bullets because of a strange parasite in her. The parasite uses vines to keep her alive in the short term, but it drains her water at an exponential rate meaning she's doomed to death by dehydration eventually.
- Quick Nip: Played with. She's constantly drinking from a flask, but it turns out to be water.
- Sadist: Not only does she use the threat of pain and violence to keep control of her crew, she hurts people for sheer pleasure. In her Establishing Character Moment, she leaves Tress clinging for dear life to the side of the ship for 15 minutes, gives her a Hope Spot, and then tries to throw her back overboard.
Laggart
Laggart
The first mate and cannonmaster on the Crow's Song.- The Dragon: He's Crow's only real ally on the ship, but he's only slightly less dangerous than she is, so between the two of them they have the entire ship cowed.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: As Hoid informs us, Laggart grew up never experiencing any real kindness whatsoever, and so believes that all people are secretly as ruthless and selfish as him and Crow. He genuinely can't wrap his head around the idea that Tress' kindness is genuine and not an act. When he does, he's so freaked out by the realization that he flees in terror.
- Jerkass: He's not as deliberately vicious as Crow, but more or less the only way he knows how to function in society is to suck up and punch down. He goes into absolute panic when he realizes that Tress isn't faking being kind, because it upends his entire worldview.
- Pet the Dog: When Crow is out of the picture, he helps out in a crisis by spotting Ann as she fires the cannon.
- Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: He's convinced that Tress is going to kill him once he lets down his guard, so he begs her to just get it over with.
Salay
Salay
The helmswoman on the Crow's Song. She is searching the Twelve Seas for her father, who was sold to cover his debts years ago.
- Badass Driver: Badass Helmswoman. She doesn't get to show off her true skill often, but consistently displays Improbable Piloting Skills whenever the ship hits an especially rough patch, first by narrowly avoiding a lethal raintrail on the Crimson Sea and later on guiding the ship around the Sorceress' island's rocky defenses like they aren't even there.
- I Will Find You: Since her father was press-ganged, she's been searching every port to find him and free him. Tress helps her succeed with information from Xisis.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: She considers it the helmswoman's job to make sure the captain doesn't do anything stupid. Unfortunately Crow doesn't listen to her advice. Tress is a bit better about that.
Fort
Fort
The ship cook on the Crow's Song who loves trading with others. He's deaf, and communicates using a Nalthian board.
- Do You Want to Haggle?: He absolutely loves to bargain for anything and has a great time when Tress haggles well. It turns out to be his life calling: he's "hunting" the best trade.
- Gentle Giant: Relatively — he's a huge, powerful man, but he looks after everyone and takes care that Tress gets fed when she's new to the ship.
- Lethal Chef: He's in charge of the mess hall, but is a terrible cook. When he admits that the job fell to him after the last cook's death, Tress starts teaching him to cook, moving him to tears of joy.
Ann
Ann
The carpenter and assistant cannonmaster on the Crow's Song.
- A-Team Firing: She apparently once shot someone behind her on accident. Whenever she tries to shoot, half the crew piles on her to stop her. Xisis determines that she has a bad case of undiagnosed micropsia, and gives Tress some prescription goggles to help.
- Blind Without 'Em: Her terrible aim turns out to not be the result of some magical curse, but a simple case of micropsia
. A pair of prescription goggles from Xisis goes a ways towards improving her ability to actually hit things. - Gun Nut: Despite her terrible aim, she's fascinated by cannons, knows a lot about them, and desperately wishes she were better at her job.
- Trigger-Happy: Very eager when it comes to cannons and firearms, much to the terror of the rest of the crew. During the final confrontation with the Sorceress she somehow manages to pull out three guns with only two hands.
Ulaam
Dr. Ulaam
The surgeon on the Crow's Song.
- Blob Monster: His true form as a kandra is a mass of metamorphic, translucent flesh, but the people of Lumar don't get to witness this side of him.
- Creepy Good: The doctor looks like a zombie and is constantly offering to buy and sell people's body parts, but is still a kind-hearted and wise person.
- Early-Bird Cameo: He was briefly mentioned by MeLaan in The Lost Metal, a few months before his more prominent role in Tress.
- Innocently Insensitive: He underestimates human qualms about discussing their own mortality. After his flippant jokes in a life-or-death crisis make Tress cry, he apologizes and reins it in.
- Mad Doctor: A kind and effective one. But what else do you call constantly trying to buy people's organs (posthumously) and adding random ears to things?
- Team Switzerland: He limits himself to his role as ship surgeon, doesn't get involved in the crew's conflict with Crow, and refuses to intervene on Hoid's behalf. Downplayed as he softens enough to give Tress some valuable hints.
- Undeathly Pallor: He has ashy skin because he avoids needing a heart and vivid red eyes out of personal preference. Some people on the ship call him undead, either in error or as an Insult of Endearment.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Like all kandra he can take almost any shape if he has the right set of bones. However he doesn't use this ability in the story.
Others
Huck
Huck
A talking rat who Tress meets early on her journey.
- Familiar: He claims to be one when asked about sorcerers having familiars, but is vague about the details. He's lying.
- Forced Transformation: Huck the talking rat is actually Charlie himself after being cursed by the sorceress.
- Talking Animal: He's a talking rat. But not really.
- Tongue-Tied: Like all of the Sorceress's victims, his Curse prevents him from talking about the details to anyone who doesn't already know.
The Sorceress (major spoilers)
Riina
An Elantrian who has set up shop on Tress' world, she is known for cursing anyone who dares get close, and setting monsters on the rest.
- The Archmage: Her power is so great that she's functionally a nation unto herself. She turns out to be incredibly skilled at AonDor; not only did she adapt it to work away from the Dor, but she can improvise extremely complex spells and copy the effects of other Invested Arts. By Elantrian standards she's exceptional; on Lumar she's a legend.
- Big Bad: Of Tress of the Emerald Sea. She's the cause of both Tress's and Hoid's predicaments, and is finally confronted in the climax of the book.
- The Bus Came Back: After a seven-year real-world absence, Riina finally returns after her brief appearance in Mistborn: Secret History.
- The Dreaded: The entire planet is terrified of her, since not only does she command an entire sea of monsters, but she has access to strange magic that no one else understands. Even the ancient dragon who was a contemporary of the original Shardholders calls her the only person on the planet he's afraid of.
- Immortals Fear Death: Despite all her power and resources, she abandons the planet entirely rather than get into a fight she might lose.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: The secret to her survival. She probably could win against the heroes, but if you keep taking fights you can only probably win you won't live forever.
- Light Is Not Good: She glows brightly, lives in a shining tower and casts spells through glowing runes in the air. She's also a Sadist who harbors ambitions to rule the planet someday.
- Magic from Technology / Magitek: Her wizard's tower is actually a spaceship, and her metal minions are literally robots, but she uses Awakening for AI and generally blurs together magic and technology to the point they are indistinguishable.
- The Minion Master: The Midnight Sea is full of Midnight Essence monsters that she animated and keeps loose control over. On top of that, her island is guarded by an army of constructs.
- The Paranoiac: She specifically set up shop here because there was no one with the might to challenge her, and even knowing there was a dragon on the same planet had her on edge.
- Really 700 Years Old: She's, at minimum, over 600 years old during the events of the story, and it's likely she's even older. But she only looks like she's in her fifties.
- Sadist: She designs her curses to inflict maximum pain and suffering for her own amusement.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Upon being confronted by the crew of the Crow's Song and a newly-Elantrian Hoid, Riina decides to leave Lumar entirely.
- Sorcerous Overlord: She claims dominion over the Midnight Sea, though most of its inhabitants are constructs of various types, and is more than a match for the other nations of Lumar.
- Spell Book: An obscure one Hidden in Plain Sight. The elaborate map of Lumar on the floor of her chamber isn't decoration, it's reference material for adapting the Dor to this planet.
- Walking Spoiler: It's hard to discuss her without mentioning that she's an Elantrian.
- Wrong Context Magic: Her curses, metal soldiers, and other magical feats are unique on the planet, since they're a form of Elantrian AonDor that she's adapted to work away from Sel.
The Dragon
Xisisrefliel / "Xisis"
A true Yolish dragon, on Tress' world to run undisclosed experiments at the bottom of the Crimson Sea. He is known for accepting slaves in exchange for boons.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Is capable of awakening, and makes use of said skill to restrain and overpower Crow with mobile wraps of cloth during their confrontation.
- Dark Is Evil: Downplayed. He has black scales and lives in a cave with pillars covered in black cloth at the bottom of a sea of red spores. He's not the most evil Cosmere character, even in this book, but isn't really good either.
- Healing Hands: He's said to have the power to heal any disease. He really can cure the Spore Eater parasite, though he claims his cure will only last a few years before it returns.
- Noble Demon: He has a system of honor in that he'll always offer a fair trade for slaves and leaves humans outside his sea in peace, but he's still a slaver. Xisis refers to the servants as his "property" and gloats that no one has ever escaped making it clear he knows what he's doing is evil by most human standards.
- Spikes of Villainy: Not Xisis himself, but he lives in the Crimson which tends to explode into a forest of lethal spikes at a moment's notice.
- Time Abyss: He knew Hoid back when he went by "Cephandrius".
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Like all Yolish dragons, he can shapeshift.
