open/close all folders
Charmed Life
Eric "Cat" Chant
A young boy who goes with his sister to live with Chrestomanci in Chrestomanci Castle after their parents died in a boat accident. A very timid boy who is mostly clueless to the events going on around him.- Achilles' Heel: Cannot do magic with his right hand.
- Cats Have Nine Lives: The reason Gwendolen gave Cat his nickname; He takes it as a joke for a while, but she meant it literally.
- Locked Out of the Loop: No one tells Cat anything in Charmed Life because they're afraid of what he might do.
- Skilled, but Naive: He's an enchanter likely more powerful than Chrestomanci, but because he trusts his sister he just lets her do whatever she wants. Which, as it turns out, happens to include stealing all his magic ability to the point where he thinks he can't use it at all.
Gwendolen Chant
Cat's bossy, egotistical, and cruel magic-using older sister.- Cain and Abel: Gwendolen is Cain.
- Cute and Psycho: a pretty girl, but completely fine with killing people.
- Karma Houdini: She escapes into a world where she gets to be Queen before anyone can apprehend her. Fortunately, it's a position that has no actual authority and all her retainers are just humoring her.
- Kick the Morality Pet: Her soft spot for Cat proves to be nothing but a front, as she's cheerfully plotting to sacrifice him on an altar just to get back at Chrestomanci.
- Killing Your Alternate Self: What Gwendolen starts proposing to do to Janet, prompting Chrestomanci to start distracting them.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Her world hopping switches every duplicate version of herself one spot over. While this is upsetting for Janet, it makes every other version of Gwendolyn far happier than they were in their own worlds. For example, she becomes a queen and displaces a girl who hated being royalty while a lonely orphan gets to move into Janet's spot in her world and is desperate to keep Janet's parents from finding out because she's so happy here and is scared she'll get caught.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: She really is a talented witch, but a witch is all she is. More powerful magic users would be offended to be called a witch since witches are basically the weakest magic users around. Anything she does that is above the expected ability level of a witch is her stealing Cat's magic, which she has been doing for so long he doesn't even realize she's doing it.
- Sibling Murder: a few times, but luckily Cat has nine lives.
- Too Proud for Lowly Work: Gwendolen is outraged when she is forced to do ordinary schoolwork, as she believes a witch as talented as her should be above it.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She was still a child when she stole Cat's lives, frightening her parents enough to write to Chrestomanci.
Janet Chant
Gwendolen's double from another world without magic, where she lived happily with her parents.- Alternate Self: She is one of Gwendolen's alternate selves.
- All Girls Like Ponies: A phase she gets over quickly upon encountering an actual horse.
- Evil Twin: Inverted. Janet is a nicer, more grounded version of Gwendolen.
Chrestomanci / Christopher Chant
A nine-lifed enchanter and current Chrestomanci in Charmed Life, Witch Week, The Magicians of Caprona, and The Pinhoe Egg. The Lives of Christopher Chant and Conrad's Fate depict him as a child/adolescent.
- Achilles' Heel: Each Chrestomanci has one. His is silver.
- Birds of a Feather: Christopher and the Goddess.The Goddess: Thank you for telling me about yourself. I think you've had a rotten life, even worse than mine. People only want either of us for what use we are to them — you for your nine lives and me for my Goddess attributes. And both of us are caught and stuck and trapped in a life with a future all planned out by someone else — like a long, long tunnel with no way out!
- The Dandy: Owns an absurd amount of luxurious dressing gowns.
- Former Teen Rebel: Compare Charmed Life to Conrad's Fate.
- Gentleman Snarker
- Gentleman Wizard
- Innocently Insensitive: When he was young he was used to everyone he met liking him without him needing to put the least bit of effort into behaving decently. When he got a bit older and became the heir to Chrestomanci he hated it and started being incredibly rude to all the adults around him. For the most part, they were kind and caring people who were just doing their jobs and trying to help him adjust. It's not until one of the very nicest of them snaps at him that he realizes how selfish he's being and tries to make up for it.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He used to be an entitled, self centered ass as a child until he realized how he looked to other people. At that point he began trying to hold in his rather nasty tongue. He messes up sometimes but he's still putting in the effort to be a helpful and considerate person, just really prone to being sarcastic.
- Morality Pet: As a child, he was this to Tacroy.
- Pajama-Clad Hero: Christopher spends a lot of time as an adult wearing extremely fancy dressing gowns because he can be summoned anywhere and at any time. In which case, he might as well be wearing something nice even if it was the middle of the night.
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Cannot identify vegetables while attempting to work in a kitchen.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Remarked upon by many.
- The Many Deaths of You: In The Lives of Christopher Chant, a young Christopher loses seven of his lives, many of them to his own foolishness.
Julia Chant
Chrestomanci and Millie's daughter.Roger Chant
Chrestomanci and Millie's son.Millie Chant / The Goddess / The Living Asheth
A powerful enchantress. Chrestomanci's wife. As a child, she was raised as the living aspect of the Goddess Asheth in Series Ten.- Hidden Depths: In Charmed Life, she's introduced as the plain and plump wife of Chrestomanci. Later in the book it's revealed that she's a powerful enchantress in her own right. The Lives of Christopher Chant reveals that she was a Goddess's avatar and originally from Series 10. She fled her homeworld to avoid being murdered to make way for a new Living Asheth.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: As the Living Asheth, she's only allowed to leave her temple one day of the year, when she's dressed up and taken through the city in a cart to be battered by worshippers. She longs for the life described in the books Christopher brings her.The Goddess: I want to go to school, like Millie in the Millie books. I want to do Prep and eat stodge and learn French and play hockey and write lines [...] I want to go to school and be bad, do you hear!
- Plain Jane: She is most often described as "ordinary."
- Underestimating Badassery: Cat has no idea that Millie is a powerful enchantress until Janet points it out.
The Lives of Christopher Chant
Christopher Chant
See Charmed Life.The Goddess
See Charmed Life.Tacroy
- Ambiguously Brown: He is described as having very curly light brown hair and light brown skin. He is later revealed to come from a different world, and may not even really be human.
- Astral Projection: How he's able to meet Christopher in The Place Between.
- Big Brother Mentor: To Christopher.
- Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: As Tacroy, he works for Chris's uncle Ralph. But in Chrestomanci's castle, he's known as Mordecai Roberts, and it turns out Tacroy is only the name of his soul, meaning Ralph probably wouldn't know it either. His actual allegiance, though forced, is towards the Dright until Chris manages to trick the Dright into turning it over.
- The Soulless: His soul was detached at birth, as is typical for natives of Series Eleven, by the Dright, a known Soul Eater. Christopher gets it back for him.
Uncle Ralph Argent
- Cunning Like a Fox: Uncle Ralph has a cunning, sharp wit, and is compared to a fox in his introduction.
- Evil Uncle
Gabriel de Witt
The Chrestomanci before Christopher. He takes Christopher as a ward after discovering his nine lives.The Last Governess
The last governess Christopher has before he is sent to boarding school. She is secretly working for Uncle Ralph and his smuggling ring.- Beautiful All Along - Christopher notes the Last Governess looks pretty when she smiles around Uncle Ralph.
Throgmorten
An Asheth Temple Cat Christopher brings back to Series Twelve.Cosimo Chant
Christopher's father.- Astrologer: Specializes in divination and fortune telling.
- Parental Neglect: Christopher doesn't know what his father looks like for most of his childhood.
Miranda Chant (née Argent)
Christopher's mother.- Parental Neglect: Leaves Christopher to be raised by nursery maids and governesses.
- Proper Lady
Conrad's Fate
Conrad Tesdinic
- Accidental Murder: Subverted. He only thought he had.
- Born Unlucky: Or so he's told.
- Spooky Photographs: His photos of a Stairwell Chase show things that weren't there, because he's photographing multiple worlds at the same time.
Uncle Alfred
Mr. Amos
Anthea Tesdinic
Count Robert
The Pinhoe Egg
Marianne Pinhoe
Joe Pinhoe
Klartch
Irene
Jason
Gammer
Gaffer Farleigh
The Magicians of Caprona
Antonio "Tonino" Montana
Angelica Petrochi
Paulo Montana
Renata Petrochi
Rosa Montana
Marco Petrochi
Benvenuto
The Duke
The Duchess / The White Devil
Witch Week
Charles Morgon
Dulcinea "Nan" Pilgrim
Nirupam Singh
Brian Wentworth
Estelle Green
Simon Silverson
Theresa Mullet
Mr. Wentworth
Mr. Crossley
Ms. Cadwallader
- Evil Orphanage Lady: though not obvious at first
Mixed Magics
