Characters / Alcatraz Series

House Smedry

General

• Absent-Minded Professor: A lot of the Smedrys are intelligent academics while at the same time being eccentric, absentminded, or just plain strange.
• Aerith and Bob: Most all of them have weird first names, while some of them have regular sounding names such as "Patty" or "Kaz", they're short for "Pattywagon" and "Kazan". The only Smendry with a somewhat normal name is Quentin Smedry.
• Badass Family: They fight Librarians and are active in Free Kingdoms politics.
• Blessed with Suck: Their "Talents" are hardly what one would consider useful, and yet, they're all shown to have great uses in certain situations.
• The Clan: There are quite a lot of them.
• The Conqueror (Inverted): Back in the days when there were a bunch of small kingdoms, most about the size of the city, they were all more of vulnerable to the Librarians. King Leavenworth Smedry the Sixth believed they should be combined ... so he abdicated, letting the small kingdom of Smedrious become part of Nalhalla.
• Family Theme Naming: They're all named after famous prisons.
• Lethal Joke Character: Exaggerated. All the Smedry Talents seem like a stupid and annoying hindrances at first, but turn into something useful and epic by taking it up a notch.
  Sing: There was Libby Smedry — she was quite the capable one. […] She could get impossible amounts of water on the floor when she did the dishes. She single-handedly ended the drought in Kalbeeze during the fourth-third century — and she did it while keeping all of the dishware sparkling clean!
• Named After Somebody Famous: They reuse names a lot, and name their kids after awesome ancestors of theirs.
  Sing: You were named after someone, Alcatraz. A famous Oculator from long ago. Among people from our world — and among our opponents — names is tend to get reused. We're traditional that way.
• Old Money: The Smedrys used to have their own kingdom, before the last king abdicated. They still have their noble status and wealth, though.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something (Zigzagged): If by "do something" you mean "ruling," then no: They abdicated generations back because (a) ruling is an absolute pain, and (b) it was better for everyone if the tiny kingdoms got consolidated into something bigger. Now they enjoy many of the perks and privileges of royalty without any of the work of ruling. So in that way, they're royals who do nothing. But if by "do something" you mean "do something that helps the people," then yes: Without ruling, they have time to fight the Librarians, which benefits everyone.

Alcatraz

Alcatraz Smedry

The Protagonist. A Smedry, whose Talent is that he can break things.

• Action Survivor: Alcatraz survived a library infiltration, the Library of Alexandria, the war in Mokia, and the Highbrary.
• Birthday Beginning: His 13th birthday kicks off the story because it's the day he gets his inheritance, as is the custom in the Free Kingdoms.
• Broken Ace: A powerful Oculator, a Smedry with a potent Talent, and a war hero. His father's death breaks him, turning him into the cynical author he eventually becomes.
• Changeling Fantasy: Played straight, though repeatedly lampshaded. Alcatraz is a poor orphan who is constantly thought to be worthless, only for it to turn out that he's from a famous family of aristocratic magic wielders.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's a First-Person Smartass, but he can also be snarky in-universe, albeit less frequently.
  Bastille: You did that on purpose.
  Alcatraz: Yes, Bastille. I keep trying to get killed because it's inconvenient for you.
• Determinator: If Alcatraz sets his mind on something, he will do it. No matter how bleak the odds.
• Does Not Like Spam: He absolutely HATES fish sticks.
• Failure Hero: Alcatraz considers himself to be this, because he chose his father to die in his place.
• First-Person Smartass (Exaggerated): He's the narrator, and incredibly sassy. He's also a Deadpan Snarker as a character within the story, but as a narrator he's even more so.
• Foster Kid: He spends the first 13 years of his life bouncing around from foster home to foster home because no of his foster parents could deal with his Talent for very long.
• Freakiness Shame: His social worker/mother often berated him for breaking things and he was ostracized for it throughout his childhood.
• Friendless Background: Alcatraz never mentions any friends, and it's implied he pushed away anyone that tried to get close to him out of fear of being abandoned.
• The Hero's Journey: The Call to Adventure is Grandpa Smedry. He Crosses the First Threshold when he enters the room behind the cooler full of oil cans at the gas station. The Road of Trials are everything that happens in the library. He wins a decisive victory when he defeats Blackburn. He returns to the "normal world" when he goes back to Joan and Roy's house with the intent of staying with them a while longer. He is a grown and changed person.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Hates his Talent and frequently wishes he had been born without it.
  • This leads to two Be Careful What You Wish For moments: the first in Book 3, when he's held down by the Inhibitor's Glass and cannot use his Talent. The second is in Book 5, when he is completely without his Talent and must rely only on his wits.
• It's All My Fault: Blames himself for his father's death.
• Lady and Knight: Alcatraz and Bastille, though Gender Inverted and much sassier than usual for this trope. But still: Lord Smedry and the Knight of Crystallia sworn to defend him.
• Living Legend: Revered by Free Kingdomers for his accomplishments, though he spends most of the books insisting that he's not as heroic as people make him out to be.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Has a moment of this whilst king in Tuki Tuki, when he realizes none of the runners he sends into the tunnels are going to come back.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If he'd simply left his father in the Library of Alexandria, the plot of the final book would not have come to pass.
• Not Afraid to Die: Tragically inverted.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Alcatraz's Talent is breaking things. This is a great and epic Talent, but he still does quite a bit of collateral damage in the process.
• The Remnant: The only remaining pure line Smedry at the end of Book 5.
• Single Line of Descent (Zigzagged): As the eldest (and only) child of Attica, who is the eldest child of Leavenworth, Alcatraz is the heir to the pure Smedry line. But he has a lot of cousins.
  Draulin: As the oldest child of Attica Smedry, you are the heir to the pure Smedry line. You outrank both your cousin and your uncle, which means you are in command of this vessel.
• The Social Expert: Surprisingly, his childhood of breaking people's treasured possessions leads Alcatraz to be very good at saying what people want to hear when they want to hear it.
• Spotting the Thread: Alcatraz is good at noticing the little things that don't add up. This leads to him piecing together mysteries by the climax of each book.
• Survivor Guilt: He does nothing but hate himself after the events of Book 5, when he allows his father to die in his place.
• Trademark Clothing: His green jacket, which stays with him until the end of Book 4.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Love mac and cheese.

• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: With Bastille. She insults him a lot (mostly for his lack of Free Kingdom knowledge, sometimes for his Smedry impulsiveness).

Grandpa Smedry

Leavenworth Smedry

A Nalhallan man. Smedry grandfather whose Talent is that he can arrive late to just about anything.

• Bold Explorer: Leavenworth loves to infiltrate libraries, places most sane people wouldn't dare go. Then again, most Smedrys aren't fully sane.

• Brutal Honesty: He doesn't mince words when it comes to telling family members they're nigglenuts.
• Cool Old Guy: Undeniably the coolest old guy in the series.
• Eccentric Mentor: Grandpa Smedry is about as eccentric as they get.
• Fearless Fool: His solution to getting rid of traps is to purposefully fall into them.
• Hidden Badass: Though he may not look like much, he's the expert on Hushlands infiltration, and a very powerful Oculator.
• Hidden Depths: There's a lot more to this wacky grandpa than meets the eye.
• Large Ham: Chews the scenery as much as possible.
• No One Could Survive That!: Able to survive injuries that would kill the ordinary person by arriving late to the wound a bit at a time. This comes to a head when he survives a point blank headshot.
• Not Quite Dead: Thanks to the timely return of his Talent, he survives a bullet to the head.
• Older Than They Look: He's been arriving late to his own death for quite some time now.
• Only Mostly Dead: True, he has a bullet in his brain, but he can arrive late to it for a while.
• Parental Substitute: He's more of a father to Alcatraz than Alcatraz's actual dad.
• The Patriarch: Father to Attica, Kaz, and Pattywagon, grandfather to Alcatraz, Quentin, and Folsom, and uncle to Sing, Australia, and Aydee. A powerful Oculator and head of the Smedry clan.
• Time-Delayed Death: The bullet in his head will eventually kill him, but he still has some time left.
• Trademark Clothing: A tuxedo. Alcatraz even asks for a matching one in Book 5.

Sing

Sing Sing Smedry

A large Mokian man, and a professor of anthropology. (His expertise is Hushlander cultures and weaponry.) A Smedry cousin, whose Talent is that he can trip and fall to the ground.

• Alliterative Name: Sing Sing Smedry.
• The Big Guy: A 6 foot 2, 350 pound Polynesian man.
• Friendly Sniper: Cheerful, kindhearted, and a gun expert.
• Gentle Giant:
  Alcatraz: Trying to curb Sing's love of the Hushlands was like ... well, like kicking a puppy. A six-foot-eight, three-hundred-fifty-pound Hawaiian puppy. Who liked to carry guns.
• Nice Guy: Sing is, as previously mentioned, a good person. He encourages Alcatraz throughout the first book, and provides a sharp contrast to Bastille's typical attitude.

Quentin

Quentin Smedry

A Nalhallan man, and a graduate student (a language specialist who focuses on Hushlander dialects). A Smedry cousin whose Talent is that he can say things that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. He's also really sneaky.

• Strong Family Resemblance: Looks a lot like his older brother, Folsom.
• Talkative Loon: His Talent. It makes him an excellent spy, since he can arrange to be literally unable to reveal information no matter the torture.

Kaz

Kazan Smedry

A short Nalhallan man, and a scholar of arcane studies. A Smedry, whose Talent is that he can get lost.

• Cool Uncle: To Alcatraz.
• Little People Are Surreal (Inverted): Despite this being a very strange story, Kaz is just a person who has dwarfism. That's it. When Alcatraz first sees Kaz, he thinks he's a leprechaun or something. He finds the fact that Kaz is just short rather stranger than any supernatural explanation would've been.
• No Sense of Direction: His Talent. He gets lost a lot.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Kaz is an intelligent scholar, and very knowledgeable about Smedry Talents and arcane theory. However, his older brother Attica's accomplishments are far more noteworthy and more celebrated by the Free Kingdomers. It doesn't seem to be a case of Successful Sibling Syndrome, though; Kaz freely acknowledges his brother's talents and doesn't appear to be all that bothered by Attica's acclaim.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: He tends to have a theme to his swearing every book he appears in, whether it's birds or shellfish.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Kaz tends to think quite a bit about himself.
• Thrill Seeker: Alcatraz can't tell if he genuinely has a death wish, or just likes to pretend he does.

Australia

Australia Smedry

A 16-year-old Mokian girl. A Smedry cousin, whose Talent is that she can wake up looking incredibly ugly.

• Ace Pilot: She's really good at flying silimatic airships, once managing to evade a much smaller and faster craft for several minutes.
• Book Dumb: Australia isn't exactly the brightest banana in the bunch, but she means well.
  Alcatraz: That's Australia. She's not dim-witted, she just has trouble remembering to be smart.
• Cheery Pink: Australia wears a lot of pink (even at one point binding a wound with a pink bandage), and is almost always cheerful.
• Hopeless with Tech: Despite her being an Oculator, she's not very good at her job.
• Master of Disguise: Her Talent allows her to wake up looking like pretty much anything.
• Stepford Smiler: Alcatraz suspects that she sometimes uses her perky demeanor to mask her negative emotions.

Attica

Attica Smedry

Alcatraz's father. A Smedry, whose Talent is that he can lose things.

• Action Dad: An accomplished Oculator who has seen his own fair share of action.
• Ambition Is Evil: He's driven by his desire for fame and attention to search for knowledge that could potentially destroy the world, and won't listen to anyone who tries to tell him it's a bad idea.
• Archnemesis Dad: Downplayed. He's not the Big Bad, but he is a major antagonist, and his plans could potentially bring about the end of the world.
• Create Your Own Villain: Attica wouldn't have been able to continue his research if Alcatraz hadn't rescued him from the Library of Alexandria, and thus wouldn't have made plans to give everyone Smedry Talents.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Sacrificed in a ceremony to create a blood-forged Lens.
• Dating Catwoman: Attica is the heir of the Smedry clan, a family of once-royalty with magical talents who lead the fight again the evil Librarians who now rule more than half of the world. Shasta is a Librarian, and not a very well-liked one at that. Attica and Shasta are married.
  • A rather more deconstructed version. By the time of the books, they've been separated for almost 13 years, although they're not actually divorced. It's clear why they don't work as a couple, but it's also clear that they still have some love for each other.
• Death Equals Redemption: The first and only fatherly thing he did towards Alcatraz was take his place on the chopping block.
• Defecting for Love: Grandpa Smedry suggests that Attica thought he could invoke this with Shasta. It didn't happen.
  Leavenworth: He fell in love with a Librarian, lad. Marrying her wasn’t the wisest decision he ever made. They thought they could make it work.
  Alcatraz: And they were wrong?
  Leavenworth: Apparently. Your father saw something in her — something that I’ve never been able to see. She isn’t exactly the most loyal of Librarians, and your father thought that would make her more lenient our side. But… I think she’s only interested in herself.
• Disappeared Dad: Vanished sometime before the story begins. Alcatraz later finds him in the Library of Alexandria.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Sacrificed in a ceremony to create a blood-forged Lens in front of his wife and son.
• Glory Hound: Attica seeks to be the most important Smedry by bringing fame to his name with discoveries such as new types of glass and giving Smedry Talents to everyone.
• Informed Attribute: Has the Talent of losing things and is stated to be very good at controlling it, but we never actually see him use it. It's far more important to the story in relation to his wife.
• It's All About Me: Attica is extremely self-centered and only thinks of how his work will benefit himself and his direct family.
• Parental Neglect: Doesn't really do ... anything to thank Alcatraz for saving him from the Library of Alexandria. As soon as he gets back to Nalhalla, he spends his time socializing at parties and working in his office.
• Seeker Archetype: Is insatiably curious, and would do pretty much anything in pursuit of knowledge. Case in point: gives up his soul to the Curators of Alexandria in order to gain access to their library.
• Slave to PR: Cares more about his reputation than his family.

Patty

Pattywagon Smedry

A Nalhallan woman, and a professor of silimatics. A Smedry whose Talent is that she can say inappropriate things at awkward moments.

• Action Mom: Has two kids and is just as active as any other Smedry in politics, academia, and battling Librarians.
• No Social Skills: Zigzagged. Her Talent can result in many a social faux pas, but she's quite friendly and outgoing despite this.
• Odd Name Out: Has the most normal sounding name out of all the other Smedrys, which is short for "Pattywagon" a kind of prisoner transport vehicle, rather than being named after an actual prison.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: She actually weaponizes it.

Folsom

Folsom Smedry

A Nalhallan man, and a critic for the newspaper. A Smedry whose Talent is that he can dance really poorly.

• Big Damn Kiss: Folsom and Himalaya get one near the end of The Knights of Crystallia. Himalaya has just used her new Smedry Talent for the first time—she saved the day in a Big Damn Hero moment, and Folsom is absolutely in awe. The way the kiss is described, you know it would look great if it was a movie. And not only is it their first kiss since being married, but it's their First Kiss ever—before, they were in an Everyone Can See It situation where they both assumed their feeling were unrequited.
• Innocently Insensitive: Tends to be quite blunt as a result of his career as a critic and shares his honest opinion with everyone whether they asked for it or not. He honestly doesn't mean to hurt people's feelings, though, and says that he only wants to help others improve.
• Insecure Love Interest: Is in love with Himalaya, but thinks he's too ordinary to be worth her notice. He's wrong.
• Kung-Fu Wizard: Folsom's Talent is dancing badly. This turns him into a One-Man Army, attacking everyone in sight with expert kung fu moves.
• Strong Family Resemblance: To his brother, Quentin. Alcatraz recognizes him this way.

Aydee

Aydee Ecks Smedry

A 8-year-old Mokian girl. A Smedry cousin, whose Talent is that she's really bad at math.

• Cheerful Child: Aydee is always perky, happy, and outgoing. She’s about 8 years old.
• Good with Numbers: Hilariously inverted.
• Hidden Depths: It seems at first like she's almost unaware of her Talent, but later in the book we learn that she's actually learned how to manipulate and/or take advantage of it—pretty impressive for someone her age.
• Punny Name: A play on "ADX". A federal prison located near Florance, Colorado.

Dif

Dif Smedry

Another Smedry cousin who joins the Smedrys on their infiltration of the Highbrary, with the Talent of memory loss. He's actually Biblioden, hiding in plain sight.

• Backhanded Compliment: A lot of his praise comes across as this. For example, he calls a gambit that almost failed dramatic, and points out how close they were to completely blowing it. They're deliberate insults. Whenever he calls something Smedry-like, he's pointing out how stupid it was.
• Flanderization: Of all the traits that make Smedrys, Smedrys. He's very over the top, often suggests zany schemes, and constantly makes messes that the others have to clean up after him. This is because he's purposely parodying what a Smedry is in order to fit in.
• Forgetful Jones: His power is to forget things. This is a lie, and a deliberately chosen one so that it would be unverifiable.
• Innocently Insensitive: Tends to accidentally insult his companions when he praises them for being Smedry-like. Alcatraz even wonders if that's his Smedry Talent. Subverted when it turns out that he's deliberately insulting them.
• The Mole: Not only a Librarian spy, but the Librarian to fear above all others.
• Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about Dif without spoiling how he's actually Biblioden in the flesh.

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Other Free Kingdomers

Bastille

Bastille Vianitelle Dartmoor the Ninth

A Knight of Crystallia assigned to guard Leavenworth.

• Action Girl: Bastille is a perfect example of this. She is a 13-year-old knight and an expert fighter. Specifically, she's of the Little Miss Badass variety.
• Big Damn Heroes: In book five. After Bastille is awoken by the antidote, she wreaks havoc and charges up to save Alcatraz and his parents. Unfortunately, she doesn't get there in time to stop Attica's sacrifice.
• Bodyguard Crush/Lady and Knight: Alcatraz and Bastille, though with a few deviations from the usual. It’s Gender Inverted. These tropes are often somewhat respectful ones, but Alcatraz and Bastille are ridiculously sassy. And because Alcatraz is a Smedry and an Oculator, there’s shades of Bodyguarding a Badass going on too—in terms of how often they save each other, they’re roughly even. But the trope is still there: Lord Smedry and a Knight of Crystallia sworn to protect him. And they’re Love Interests.
• Child Prodigy: The youngest Crystin knight, sworn in at thirteen. This is somewhat of a subversion, as she was deliberately promoted before she was ready so she'd fail her first assignment, but she brings this trope back by proving her worth.
• Combat Pragmatist: Bastille will do anything and everything to win a fight.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Over the course of the first book, she gradually warms up to Alcatraz.
• Determinator: Nothing, not even being in a coma for several weeks, will stop Bastille from kicking Librarian ass.
• Gratuitous Princess: She's the daughter of King Dartmoor.
  Alcatraz: [pointing an accusing finger at Bastille] You're a princess!
  Bastille: [grimacing] Yeah, kind of.
  Alcatraz: How can you "kind of" be a princess?
  Bastille: Well, I can't inherit the throne. I renounced claim on it when I joined the Knights of Crystallia. Vow of poverty and all that.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Bastille desperately wants to be an Oculator, but it’s a genetic ability, not something that can be learned. All the trying in the world can’t change her lineage.
  Bastille: I learned that studying can't change a person, Smedry. I've always wanted to be something I wasn't — and the thing is, everyone supported me. "You can be anything you want, if you try hard enough!" they said. Well you know what, Smedry? They lied. There are some things you just can't change.
• Little Miss Badass: She's thirteen, a fully-fledged Knight of Crystallia, and can kick your ass into next week.
• King Incognito: When Alcatraz finds out she's a princess, he remarks that "stories such as this one always have at least one hidden member of royalty among the core cast. It’s, like, some kind of union mandate or something."
• Made of Iron: Though the glassweave jackets she sports help, Bastille still takes hits that would put anyone else in the hospital. This is mostly due to her being a Knight of Crystallia.
• Major Injury Underreaction:
  Bastille:: It's not like I'm dying or anything. I just broke a few ribs and bit my tongue.
• No Social Skills: She admits that she's not great with people, unless it's hitting them really hard.
• Really Royalty Reveal: Something that takes Alcatraz by surprise, since Bastille doesn't act like a princess at all.
• Royal Blood: Technically, Bastille is a princess, since her father is the king. However, she took a vow of poverty and relinquished her right to the throne.
• Tomboy Princess: The daughter of a king, as well as a kickass knight who isn't afraid to rough it.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Alcatraz.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: She believes her mother is ashamed of her, and carries the pain of that close to her heart.
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: With Alcatraz. She insults him a lot (mostly for his lack of Free Kingdom knowledge, sometimes for his Smedry impulsiveness) and hits him sometimes.

Draulin

Draulin Dartmoor

A Knight of Crystallia. Bastille's mother.

• Lady and Knight (Gender Inverted): Draulin, a Knight of Crystallia, and her husband Brig, King of Nalhalla.
• Ice Queen: Draulin is as cold as you can get, to the point that she is the one that suggests the harshest consequences for her daughter.
• Iron Lady: She's one tough cookie.
• Odd Name Out: The only member of the main cast of Free Kingdomers who doesn't have a prison name.
• The Stoic: It's rumored that she may have laughed once. It could have been a sneeze.
  • Not So Stoic: Even she's embarrassed by Alcatraz's order for her to hop on one foot, but it really shows when she joins Alcatraz on his quest to get an antidote for her daughter.
• Reverse Arm-Fold: She adopts this stance when on guard duty.

King Dartmoor

King Brig Dartmoor

King of Nalhalla. Also Draulin's husband, and father of Rikers, Angola, and Bastille.

• The Good King: One of the most respected and popular kings in Nalhalla's history.
• Lady and Knight (Gender Inverted): Draulin, a Knight of Crystallia, and her husband Brig, King of Nalhalla.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite literally just being about to sign a peace treaty, Dartmoor is still willing to listen to whatever the Smedrys have to say, since he knows their input is invaluable.
• So Proud of You: Shows great pride in his daughter Bastille's abilities.

Rikers

Prince Rikers Dartmoor

The King of Nalhalla's heir. Draulin and Brig's son, and Bastille's elder brother.

• Hero-Worshipper: Of Alcatraz. He writes books about Alcatraz's "adventures" before he ever meets him—Real-Person Fic, effectively.
• Idle Rich: He's the crown prince of Nalhalla, but he mostly spends his time throwing parties and writing novels.

Angola

Angola Dartmoor

A Nalhallan princess by birth, and Queen of Mokia by marriage. Also, Bastille's elder sister.

• The High Queen:
  Alcatraz: Wow. Is she always so...
  Bastille: Nauseatingly regal? Yeah, even before she was married.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She has golden hair and is one of the purest, most genuine characters in the series.
• Informed Attractiveness: Alcatraz says she's incredibly beautiful, in a way akin to macaroni and cheese. For most people, this is a rather difficult simile to understand. However, considering Alcatraz's deep love of mac and cheese, one can only assume it's quite complementary.
• Proper Lady: Directly contrasts Bastille's tomboyish qualities.

Archedis

Sir Archedis

A knight of Crystallia.

• Large and in Charge: Described as being massive, and one of the most important knights of Crystallia.
• The Mole: Secretly a Librarian spy.
• Voice of Reason: Advises the least harsh punishment for Bastille during her trial. It's all an act, of course.

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Librarians

Biblioden

Biblioden/The Scrivener/Cousin Dif

The Librarian, whose teachings are enforced by all other Librarians.

• Big Bad: The overarching villain of the series, being the most important Librarian of them all.
• Never Found the Body: His body was never found because he never actually died.
• Villain Cred: The biggest and most infamous villain in the story.

Shasta

Shasta Smedry née Fletcher

Alcatraz's caseworker. A Librarian whose allegiance is... unclear, to say the least.

• Abusive Parents: She emotionally abused Alcatraz throughout his childhood. She's his mother too, although Alcatraz didn't know that then.
• Ambiguously Evil: Shasta's real motivations are fairly obscure for most of the series, but she generally acts antagonistic towards Alcatraz, using both him and the Librarians to her own ends. It's only at the end of book four that her true motivations are revealed, landing her squarely into the Anti-Villain category.
• Archnemesis Dad (Gender Inverted and Downplayed): Shasta isn't the Big Bad, but rather one of a few major antagonists.
• Control Freak: Like most Librarians. She likes order, lists, and things making sense. This is why she's so bad at using her Talent.
• Cruel to Be Kind: She claims she did this to Alcatraz to keep him from learning about his legacy and becoming a target for other Librarians. It's debatable how much this worked, but one thing it did accomplish was giving Alcatraz some major self-worth issues.
• Dating Catwoman: Attica is the heir of the Smedry clan, a family of once-royalty with magical talents who lead the fight again the evil Librarians who now rule more than half of the world. Shasta is a Librarian, and not a very well-liked one at that. Attica and Shasta are married.
  • A rather more deconstructed version. By the time of the books, they've been separated for almost 13 years, although they're not actually divorced. It's clear why they don't work as a couple, but it's also clear that they still have some love for each other.
  Shasta: I'm his wife!
  Alcatraz: You're his enemy.
• Gold Digger: Some people suspect she married Alcatraz's father to get control of his Talent.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Subverted. She has blond hair and turns out to have rather heroic motives, but isn't a particularly nice person.
• Hidden Depths: It's revealed that not only does she genuinely care about Alcatraz and his father, she's also working for the greater good of humanity, as her actions for most of the series have been to prevent Attica (or anyone else) from giving everyone a Smedry Talent.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: At the end of the first book, she is revealed to be Alcatraz's mother.
• Prim and Proper Bun: Always has her hair tied back in a severe bun. It's one of the immediate ways you can recognize her as a Librarian.
• Token Evil Teammate: In book five.
• Villain Has a Point: The Librarian's big shtick is power via controlling information. The climax of The Shattered Lens is when she makes Alcatraz realize that sometimes they're right. If everyone had a bomb, that would be really bad ... and it'd be the same if everyone had a Smedry Talent.
• Wild Card: In the end, Shasta is only on her own side. Not the Librarians', and not the Free Kingdoms'. She's willing to betray both sides to get what she wants.

Order of the Dark Oculators

Blackburn

Radrian Blackburn

• Eyepatch of Power (Invoked): He put out one of his eyes to make the remaining one twice as powerful.
  Bastille: He's a very powerful Oculator, Alcatraz — they say he put out his own eye to increase the power focused through his single remaining one.
• Eye Scream: Alcatraz breaks the way the Firebringer's Lens works so it shoots backwards into Blackburn's remaining good eye when he tries to use it.
• Handicapped Badass: Though he's missing an eye, this actually makes him more dangerous — at least, until Alcatraz blinds him in that eye too.

Order of the Scrivener's Bones

Kiliman

Kilimanjaro

A user of blood-forged Lenses that stalks Alcatraz and his friends through the Library of Alexandria.

• Fate Worse than Death: His soul is taken by the Library of Alexandria.
• Good Prosthetic, Evil Prosthetic: Very evil, in his case. Much of his body has been replaced by animated metal, the process of which requires losing some of your humanity.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: He manages to follow them through Kaz's Talent, which is getting lost.

Wardens of the Standard

She Who Cannot Be Named

Kangchenjunga Sarekgjåkkå

• Affably Evil: She Who Cannot Be Named actually makes great chocolate chip cookies when she's not plotting the downfall of her enemies.
  Grandpa Smedry: We shouldn't eat these.
  Alcatraz: Are they poisoned?
  Grandpa Smedry: No, they'll spoil our dinner.
• The Noun Who Verbed: Her epithet "She Who Cannot Be Named" is a loose example.
• Say My Name: Grandpa Smedry and Shasta are the only people who call her by her real name.
• The Scottish Trope/Speak of the Devil (Subverted): She's called "She Who Cannot Be Named" and so Alcatraz immediately thinks it's a Voldemort-type scenario. It's not.
  Alcatraz: She Who Cannot Be Named? Why can't we say her name? Because it might draw the attention of evil powers? Because we're afraid of her? Because her name is become a curse upon the world?
  Himalaya: Don't be silly. We don't say her name because nobody can pronounce it.
• The Unpronounceable: Her name, Kangchenjunga Sarekgjåkkå, is viewed as such.

Himalaya

Himalaya Smedry née Rockies

A defected Librarian from the Wardens of the Standard.

• Accent Interest: Has a Boston accent, something that immediately grabs Alcatraz's attention the first time he meets her.
• Ambiguously Brown: Described as having dark skin.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Folsom and Himalaya get one near the end of The Knights of Crystallia. Himalaya has just used her new Smedry Talent for the first time—she saved the day in a Big Damn Hero moment, and Folsom is absolutely in awe. The way the kiss is described, you know it would look great if it was a movie. And not only is it their first kiss since being married, but it's their First Kiss—before, they were in an Everyone Can See It situation where they both assumed their feeling were unrequited.
• Defecting for Love (Inverted): She falls in love with Folsom after she defects from the Librarians.
• I Am What I Am: After defecting from the Librarians, she has a lot of shame about her Librarian traits, such as her desire to sort things. When Alcatraz takes her to theRoyal Archives (Not a library!)and she has to sort through all the books there, she realizes that there's actually value in that, and she embraces her Librarian traits while still not being evil.
• Took a Level in Badass: Himalaya is pretty cool already in The Knights of Crystallia. But when she shows up again in The Dark Talent, she's leading a militia of reformed Librarians.

Order of the Shattered Lens

General

• Evil Luddite: A Librarian sect that hates all forms of glass.
• Mooks: We don't get to know any of them very well before Alcatraz defeats their entire army.