Characters from The Doctrine of Labyrinths.
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Narrators
Felix Harrowgate
"I did not believe in redemption, or atonement; if anything existed beyond this frail and sordid life, I knew I was already damned. Knew, and did not care."
Felix Harrowgate, the most gifted wizard of the Mirador, the seat of power in the country of Marathat, still tortured by his past growing up as a prostitute in the Marathine capital of Mélusine and as a plaything for blood wizard Malkar Gennadion.
- Agent Peacock: He calls everyone "darling," wears "carnival-tent gaudy" clothes, and worries about humidity frizzing his hair... and also burns a guy to ashes with his mind.
- Attention Whore: It would be a gross understatement to say he loves attention, though it should be noted that Felix is far less comfortable with attention he earns without seeking it. As Mildmay observes, Felix doesn't like attention for his own achievements, just superficial things, like his looks.
- Badass in Distress: When he temporarily loses his magic.
- Big Damn Heroes: Along with Mildmay and Corbie, when they take on the machine under Summerdown in Corambis.
- Bondage Is Bad: For the other guy, when Felix experiences a rage blackout in The Mirador; and for Felix, when the members of a sex cult take advantage of his vulnerability to steal his magic in Corambis.
- Brains and Bondage: With Malkar, Shannon, paying clients, and random dudes.
- Brought Down to Badass: While you can't get rid of a wizard's magic (at least as far as we can tell), severe mental trauma or certain medicines can render a wizard incapable of accessing his power. Luckily for the people who need him, he'll power a spirit-channeling maze with his own blood if that's what it takes. Another example occurs when he has to face down a fantome and the a Clock Punk weapon of mass destruction while under the binding-by-forms.
- Camp Gay: Other than wimpiness, it's hard to think of a single gay stereotype he doesn't at some point play into.
- Club Kid: Gaudy clothes, "darling"s, sex clubs, the whole nine yards.
- Convicted by Public Opinion: Felix hasn't been tried for heresy and treason yet, but the public nearly stones him to death when Stephen forces him to walk through the Plaza del'Archimago.
- Depraved Homosexual: Veers into this territory when he beats a partner (initially willing, but not by this point) nearly to death in a dominance-submission game in The Mirador. In fairness to Felix, he was crazy enough that he didn't even remember doing it.
- Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: He returns to Malkar's bed about six years after partially breaking the obligation de sang. This is about as good an idea as you'd think.
- Dream Walker
- Duality Motif: Much is made of his "spooky skew eyes", one cloudy blue and one gold, which reflect his rather fragmented personality.
- Fake Aristocrat: He's revealed to be one of these during his very first chapter.
- First Gray Hair: When Felix comes to his senses in Troia, he looks in the mirror and realizes that he has a streak of white in his hair.
- Frameup: Felix is wrongfully jailed for treason in Mélusine, and for the murder of Gideon in The Mirador.
- Gentleman Snarker: When conversing with anyone who annoys him in any way. Which is to say, with any humans.
- Hates Being Touched: Largely due to his past trauma he can't stand people touching him - even casually - without his consent.
- Heroic Willpower: Demonstrated in his showdown with the fantome at the end of Corambis.
- I Gave My Word: Felix is incensed when Mildmay suggests that they break the conditions of Felix's commuted sentence by not going to Corambis.
- Interrupted Suicide: While trying to avoid being possessed by a fantome (Mélusine).
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Prior to his Traumatic Haircut in Mélusine. He grows his hair back out again after.
- Lover and Beloved: Beloved to Malkar, although the books thoroughly deconstruct this trope. Felix has no desire to pass on the tradition with an apprentice of his own.
- Luminescent Blush: Both he and Mildmay are prone to blushing due to their pale colouring, but Felix in particular is described turning scarlet whenever he's angry or embarrassed.
- Mind Control: Uses the obligation d'ame to force Mildmay to kill an enemy. Also a victim of it from Malkar.
- Mind Rape: Malkar's assault on him early in Mélusine drives the plot of the first two books. Later, Felix inflicts a similar fate on Vulpes.
- Mistaken for Prostitute: In Bernatha, due to his bright clothes, which are a sign of prostitution in the city. Later, he begins hooking for real again.
- My Greatest Failure: It's a tossup between forcing Mildmay to kill Vey Coruscant and enabling Gideon's death.
- Not a Morning Person: Possibly as a result of this, he's often late to court.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Due to Malkar's sadistic manipulations, Felix's powers nearly bring down a country, and burn much of a major city to the ground.
- Pretty Boy: Felix is described as "as beautiful as sunlight". Unfortunately for others, he also shamelessly uses his beauty to manipulate and control.
- Psychopomp: Acts as one for various spirits in The Virtu and The Mirador.
- Rape as Backstory: His Keeper sent him out as a street prostitute when he was a kid; he started working at a brothel at 11 and was living with Domestic Abuser Malkar at 14.
- Rape as Drama: In both Mélusine and Corambis.
- Really Gets Around: Gideon suggests that Felix doesn't know how many men he's slept with in the last month. He's right.
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Felix is mentioned by both Mildmay and Mehitabel as having absolutely no head for the worth of money. Mildmay, in fact, manages the household finances.
- Safe, Sane, and Consensual: How he likes sex with Shannon and Murtagh.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: When it comes to the Cabalines' rules against laying the dead.
- Sex God: Gideon didn't know it was possible to have sex as good as it is with Felix.
- Shameful Strip: Courtesy of Brother Orphelin, at St. Crellifer's.
- Sibling Incest: His attraction to Mildmay.
- Shamed by a Mob: When Stephen drags him through the Plaza del'Archimago in Mélusine.
- Squishy Wizard: Not as graceless as some of his colleagues, but he's still so physically inept that Mehitabel laughs when Vulpes asks if he was the one who beat Mildmay to a pulp in The Mirador.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: People are stunned by his golden left eye. And, guess what, wizard. Freakishly powerful wizard.
- Sympathetic Slave Owner: He casts the obligation d'ame on Mildmay in large part to keep him protected in the Mirador, as the contract makes them as one legally. But it still makes Mildmay his slave.
- Telepathy: Uses it to talk with Gideon and Thamuris.
- Tell Me About My Father: Felix just wants Diokletian to tell him who the man is. He can't tell him, because nobody knows.
- The Caretaker: Of Mildmay, who's fallen seriously ill, in Corambis. Felix takes this role very seriously, to the point of prostituting himself to pay a doctor.
- The Dog Bites Back He snaps down hard on Malkar in The Virtu. That's why Malkar isn't around for the third and fourth books.
- The Oathbreaker: As Mildmay says, "I don't know of anything you care enough about to swear by," possibly because of the many times Felix has sworn by his soul and broken the vow.
- The Ophelia: A definite gender inversion in Felix in Mélusine.
- The Unapologetic: He spends much of his time at the Mirador insulting and bullying his friends and enemies alike, and rarely shows remorse. Even when he is genuinely sorry he has a terrible time admitting it.
- Tongue-Tied: Due to layers of spells cast on him, Felix can't tell the Cabal the truth about Malkar in Mélusine.
- Unhappy Medium: When unable to control his ability through magic.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Felix, at least while in power. He has a coat for every occasion, as long as "carnival-tent gaudy" (Mildmay, The Virtu) fits the mood. And if it doesn't, he'll still go with that.
- Unscrupulous Hero: This is a guy who will risk his life to lay ghouls to rest... only to turn around and Mind Rape his own brother.
- We Used to Be Friends: With Thaddeus de Lalage.
Mildmay the Fox
"Since you ask, no, it ain't a nice way to live, but it beats the fuck out of dying."
A former teenaged assassin for a don in Mélusine's Lower City, Mildmay broke away from her influence and earns a living as a cat burglar. When he sees Felix's face and similar coloring, he realizes that they are actually half-brothers. After becoming Felix's esclavin in the obligation d'ame, he adopts the more respectable name "Mildmay Foxe".
- Badass Normal: His mundane badassery is sufficient to enable killing wizards.
- Big Brother Instinct: Mildmay is good with children and protective of them, even though his face tends to scare them. He also has a serious case of this towards Felix from the moment they first meet, despite being six years younger.
- Card Sharp: Mildmay was trained as a card sharp while he was a kept thief. He is such a good card player that he pays his and Felix's traveling expenses without even needing to cheat.
- The Caretaker: Mildmay is this to insane!Felix in Mélusine.
- Chivalrous Pervert: He may visit brothels staffed with dubiously willing women, but they seem to have a better-than-average time when he does.
- Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: To Felix, in Mélusine.
- Combat Pragmatist: He's gone below the belt several times in fights, once even kicking Felix... anyway, yeah, he's gone below the belt several times.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet
- The Dog Bites Back: On Kolkhis in The Mirador.
- Face of a Thug: Mildmay's face is mentioned to be incredibly frightening— to the point where he never smiles because he knows it would scare other people. However, most of the women he encounters (Mehitabel, Kolkhis, the Fawn daughters, Corbie, and random chambermaids), not to mention Felix, seem able to look past it.
- Friends with Benefits: With Mehitabel. Later with Corbie.
- Genius Bruiser: Quickly learns both Troian and Kekropian.
- Handicapped Badass: After his leg gets broken in Mélusine, it heals badly and he won't be running anyone down... but if they get within arm's reach, he can take on just about anyone.
- Hitman with a Heart
- Insecure Love Interest: He's insecure in general, but his romantic relationships tend to throw his terrible self-esteem and abandonment issues into particularly sharp focus.
- Mature Younger Sibling: Mildmay is several years younger than Felix but spends the bulk of the entire series trying to mitigate the damage Felix's recklessness and mental health issues cause, to the point of even having to manage Felix's money for the pair.
- Mind Control: Exerted on him by Felix, Astyanax, and Malkar, for various reasons.
- Muggle in Mage Custody: Felix casts the obligation d'ame on him in large part to keep him protected in the Mirador, as the contract makes them as one legally. But it still makes Mildmay his slave.
- Reluctant Warrior: Until the end of The Mirador, Mildmay is this, wanting to keep from killing but his lifestyle refusing to accommodate.
- Rape as Backstory: Kolkhis "could make me. She'd done it before."
- Roofhopping: Mildmay's preferred way of getting around on the job, until his leg gets hurt.
- Seen It All
- Sex God: According to Mehitabel, "'no one' was as good as Mildmay."
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: As exemplified by his catchphrases, "Fuck this for the emperor's snotrag" and "Fuck me sideways till I cry".
- The Stoic: His parental figure loved to try and get a rise out of him to embarrass him, and eventually Mildmay just figured out how to keep himself from reacting, to the point that he no longer remembers how to react to anything mundane.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: From what is known about Malkar, and from what Felix tells us about him, it's heavily implied that Mildmay suffered sexual, psychological, and physical torture at Malkar's hands. But even when Mildmay does remember, he refuses to talk or even think about it: Mildmay is a first-person narrator in every book, and by the fourth book remembers what happens, but we, the readers, never find out and it's still kept ambiguous.
- Tyke Bomb: He became a professional assassin at fourteen.
Mehitabel Parr
"Are you planning to execute me, too? I'd like to know before I make dinner plans."
Both an actress and a spy for the Bastion (a stronghold for the Kekropian military), who starts over in Mélusine as an actress at one of city's major theaters. She and Mildmay are Friends with Benefits in parts of The Virtu and The Mirador and she retains considerable fondness for both redheaded brothers.
- Bespectacled Cutie: Her big, childlike eyes and spectacles highlight her cuteness
- Brainy Brunette: Her street smarts get Mildmay and Felix through the southern duchies.
- Femme Fatale: After Vulpes coerces her into spying for the Bastion.
- Good Bad Girl: Likes sex and helping people.
- I Have Your Wife: Vulpes coerces back into spying by threatening her great love, Hallam Bellamy.
- Master of Disguise: When Mildmay still can't stand her, he notes that he'd rather eat hot coals than admit it, but "she knew all about disguises."
- The Mistress: To Lord Stephen, although she seems to do it mainly in hopes of ingratiating herself with Vulpes.
- Nerves of Steel: Felix says that she "would stand like iron when [lesser people]] mewled and ran."
- Rape as Backstory: While we don't know how far he went, she ran away from home at fifteen to get away from her pervy uncle, René.
- True Blue Femininity: Mildmay is struck by her beauty when he visits her as she prepares for a soiree while wearing "yards and yards of this gorgeous indigo crushed velvet."
- When She Smiles: While she is not conventionally pretty, Mildmay says her smile is "as bright as a handful of diamonds in the sun."
Kay Brightmore
"I fear my heart is more gears than flesh."
Appearing only in the final novel, Corambis, Kay is a margrave of southern Corambis who went to war against Usaran raiders at age fourteen. He supports Gerrard Hume, the son of Caloxa's dead king and Kay's secret love in an uprising against the Corambin conquerers. The rebellion ends leaving Kay blinded.
- Break the Haughty: The Brightmores are famously proud, making the indignities Kay endures over the course of Corambis even more painful for him.
- Effeminate Misogynistic Guy: He constantly derides himself for being "womanish" (crying, listening in on conversations, worrying about walking alone while blind), a term he considers quite an insult.
- Incompatible Orientation: With King Gerrard.
- Manly Gay: Well, he really wants to be manly.
- My Greatest Failure: Reawakening the machine under Summerdown.
- Pint-Size Powerhouse: Very short but quite strong.
- Shameful Strip: After his capture by Glimmering.
- Terse Talker: Tends to leave out unnecessary pronouns when he talks.
Other Characters
Malkar Gennadion
A monstrous blood wizard who found then-adolescent Felix in a brothel and groomed him to become a member of polite society while brutalizing him. He steals Felix's power to break the Virtu, burn much of the Mirador, and destroy its wards, and continues his abuse of Felix until his death.
- Big Bad: His evil is behind most of the sorry things that happen to Felix, several of the ones that happen to Mildmay, and the biggest to threaten Marathat, over the course of the books.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: What he inflicts on Mildmay while holding him captive in the Bastion.
- Consummate Liar: He lives in the Mirador for, give or take, nine or ten years (depending on which of account you're reading at the time), and in that time convinces everyone that a local whore is a foreign nobleman, establishes his own mini-court of fawning admirers, and even seduces the Lord Protector's Ice Queen sister.
- The Corrupter: Of Felix. It's hard to know how much of this is just for kicks, and how much of it is to gain access to Felix's magic.
- Depraved Bisexual: Fond of tricking people into loving him and then yanking the rug out from under him. For extra kicks, he sometimes rapes them, too.
- Domestic Abuser: Manipulative, cruel, and aggressive toward his partner.
- For the Evulz: His chief motivation for raping Felix,torturing various people, driving a young woman to suicide, and attempting to assist in the invasion of a country that more or less minds its own business? He enjoys it.
- Lover and Beloved: His relationship with Felix is a deconstruction.
- Manipulative Bastard: He excels at tricking people into doing what he wants.
- Mind Control: The obligation de sang allows him to use this on Felix. He also enacts a compulsion on Mildmay in The Virtu.
- More than Mind Control: He isn't averse to using this, either, as when he schemes to let Robert find out about Felix's humiliating past so that Felix will return to him.
- The Svengali: He trained Felix so he could one day use him to bring down the Mirador.
Shannon Teverius
Youngest-known son (at least legally) of Gareth Teverius by his second wife, Gloria Aestia, the fabled "Golden Bitch," from which fact he gained the unpleasant nickname of "Golden Whelp"; half-brother of Stephen and Victoria Teverius. Much to Stephen's disapproval, he has been in a relationship with Felix for nearly five years at the start of Mélusine. While he and Felix split acrimoniously, he later becomes a loyal friend to Mehitabel Parr.
- Bastard Bastard: Played with; people keep expecting the likely son of Gloria Aestia and Cotton Verlalius to do something terrible, but his offenses mostly consist of spreading rumors about and sniping with his ex.
- Camp Gay: Catty, a flamboyant dresser, and a huge devotee of theater.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: His much older brother Stephen is the head of the family and hates Felix more than just about anything else in the world. Guess who Shannon moved in with.
- Drama Queen: Especially in comparison to his more grounded and sensible siblings.
- Heel–Face Turn: In The Mirador, he grows into a reliable friend to Mehitabel and shows kindness to Felix after his fall from grace.
- Generation Xerox
- Malicious Slander: He spreads a rumor that Felix and Mildmay are sleeping together. They'd feel better about it if it weren't so close to the truth.
- Poke the Poodle: His attempts to lash out at Felix are too petty and ridiculous to land him in actual villain territory.
- Pretty Boy: Famous for it.
- Royal Brat: Shannon's behavior early in the series is a headache for his brother, his lover, and probably that poor guard lieutenant.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: He's the polar opposite of Stephen and Vicky, both of whom are dour, stoic, and sensible. This might be something to do with the fact that he's almost certainly not related to them by blood.
- Stalker with a Crush: Of Felix, when The Mirador starts.
- Yandere: In Mélusine, he seems to change his mind over whether he wants Felix or not on every few days that he sees him.
Mavortian von Heber
Norvenan wizard driven by revenge against a man named Beaumont Livy.
- Best Served Cold: He's spent much of his life in pursuit of Beaumont Livy. And he dies for it, too
- Brains and Brawn: How he seems to view his relationship with Bernard.
- Consummate Liar: According to Mildmay.
- Handicapped Badass: Although he can barely use his legs, he reveals the presence of the Hermione fantôme, metaphorically stands up to a captor who's got him drugged and locked in a room, and crosses probably most of a continent at least twice.
Kolkhis
Sometimes known as Kolkhis of Britomart, and to her followers as Keeper, Kolkhis is a don in Mélusine's Britomart district, running thieves, cardsharps, and assassins. Her favorite pupil was Mildmay, who she raised from the age of four, made her lover when he was thirteen, and turned into an assassin shortly thereafter. He broke away from her at around age seventeen, but she continues to want him back.
- Bitch Alert: When Felix meets her in The Virtu.
- Bad Boss: In charge of everything from cardsharping to assassination.
- The Don: She runs a crime syndicate in Britomart, with everything from petty theivery to political assassination under its aegis.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She has black hair, gray eyes, and pale skin with "those cold blue undertones that made her look some mornings like the world's most beautiful corpse" (Mildmay, The Mirador).
- Even Evil Has Standards: Pretty much the only thing she does for free is assist heretics.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: As Felix describes her in The Virtu.
- Lean and Mean: She has a "long snaky body" and gets her kicks from forcing herself on her subordinates and generally messing with their heads.
- Manipulative Bastard: The kind who'll send her fourteen-year-old lover out to kill a man in a hopeless bid to earn her love.
- Wife Husbandry: A gender inversion, as she raises at least two of the boys who become her lovers.
Robert of Hermione
Robert's is the brother of Stephen Teverius's late wife, Emily, and acts as a major antagonist to Felix, publicly exposing him as a former prostitute and tormenting him during his spell of insanity.
- Manipulative Bastard
- Mind Rape: He performs one on Felix at St. Crellifer's mental asylum.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He gets away with a lot of obnoxious and unethical behavior due to his relationship to Lord Stephen.
Khrysogonos
An acolyte in the Gardens of Nephele, assigned to tend Mildmay. He originally despises Mildmay as a thief and murderer, but comes to care for him and alerts Felix to Mildmay's dire situation.
- The Atoner: He feels so guilty about mistreating Mildmay that he thinks he deserves to be put back to scrubbing floors with the novices.
- Upper-Class Twit: He wears expensive jewelry and is, initially at least, very snide toward Mildmay.
Thaddeus Lalage
A former Eusebian turned fanatical Cabaline. He befriended Felix over their shared experiences with abusive wizards and rescues him from St. Crellifer's, but turns on him when Felix fails to quickly return to normalcy.
- Accuser of the Brethren: His relentless persecution of Gideon. Over a period of years, no less.
- Heteronormative Crusader: When fighting with Felix over Gideon's trustworthiness, he snaps, "You'll believe anything a man tells you when he's buried in your ass, won't you?"
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Thaddeus genuinely believes that all refugees who haven't yet taken the Mirador's oaths are spies. Which is a little weird, since he used to be such a refugee himself.
- We Used to Be Friends: At the beginning of Mélusine, he's perhaps Felix's most trusted friend. By the end of The Mirador, he's accusing him of treason and murder.
Elvenner Packer
Famous banker and mayor of Mélusine.
- Mayor Pain: Mildmay and Stephen may not agree on much, but they both despise Elvenner Packer, mayor of Mélusine.
- Morally Bankrupt Banker: Stephen would rather turn Marathat into a vassal of Tibernia than indebt the country to Elvenner Packer.
Victoria Teveria
Eldest known child of the late lord protector Gareth Teverius, she is sister to Stephen and half-sister to Shannon. Outside of an ill-fated affair with Malkar, she is very dour and strict. Mehitabel describes her as "[s]tern, regular, and uncompromising."
- Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: She has an affair with Malkar. In retrospect, Stephen finds this very unsettling.
- Ice Queen: Mildmay describes her as "cold as a dead fish" on Felix's return to the Mirador, but the description applies most of the time. Remarkably, Malkar managed to gain her love anyway— likely just so it would hurt more when he turned on the Cabalines.
Stephen Teverius
Lord Protector of Marathat, brother to Victoria, half-brother to Shannon. Stubborn and phlegmatic, he generally tends well to the country, at least by comparison to his recent predecessors.
- Heteronormative Crusader: He "is known especially to not like molls" (Mehitabel). Unfortunate, considering the fact that, as Mildmay notes, Stephen's brother Shannon "wasn't at no pains to hide [his homosexuality] and hadn't been since he'd reached his second septad."
- Modest Royalty: He hates pomp and circumstance.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Mind you, what he does isn't always good, but he takes it very seriously.
Gideon Thraxios
A recent Eusebian refugee from the Bastion, Gideon helps Felix to ameliorate the effects of the Mirador's spell on Mildmay and risks his life to cast a healing spell on Felix's broken fingers. After Felix, Midlmay, Mavortian, Bernard, and Gideon flee Hermione together, Mavortian forces him to accompany them across Kekropia, but Gideon, Mavortian, and Bernard all find themselves captured in Aiaia. By the time Mildmay and Mehitabel rescue them in The Virtu, prejudiced locals have badly starved him and cut out his tongue as punishment for joining the cult of the White-Eyed Lady. During the return journey, he and Felix become lovers, but they break up in The Mirador.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Mildmay notes that it's easy to feel so sorry for Gideon that you forget how dangerous he can be.
- Child Soldiers: He used to be one.
- Driven to Suicide: Almost; he settled for ritual fake suicides instead.
- Gayngst He feels a lot of this, possibly because his early sexual experiences were fraught with fear and pain, or at least not much pleasure.
- Felix: "Has no one ever bothered to make this good for you before?"Gideon: "Not like this."
- Malevolent Mutilation: The Aiaians cut of his tongue for his religious beliefs.
- Mystery Cult: He joined the White-Eyed Lady's banned religion in his teens.
- Telepathy: How he communicates with fellow wizards after the Aiaians cut out his tongue.
Thamuris
"Love and betrayal, the gorgon and the wheel. The dead tree will not shelter you, and the dead will not stay dead. Though you do not seek revenge, it will find you all the same."
A guest in the Gardens of Nephele, Thamuris is an powerful young wizard/scholar dying of consumption, related to his covenant's use of Pythian casting, in which the future follows a pattern set by the prophect, over which the caster has no control.
- Blood from the Mouth: Par for the course, given that he's dying of tuberculosis.
- Fainting Seer: The huphantike he casts for Mildmay - and Pythian casting in general - only serve to make him more ill than he was before. It's intimated that his prophecies will eventually kill him.
- Genius Cripple: Thamuris is a Celebrant Celestial, meaning he outranks nearly everyone in the Gardens of Nephele, although his illness prevents him from doing much anymore.
- Junkie Prophet: In a couple of ways. He takes lots of laudanum for pain, but Mildmay also describes him as a "junkie" with regard to prophesying itself.
- Talking in Your Dreams: With Felix in the Khloïdanikos.
Ginevra Thomson
A demimondaine, recently arrived in Mélusine from a provincial location named Wraith. She and Mildmay share a passionate affair.
- Country Mouse: She's clueless about how to survive in Mélusine.
- High-Class Call Girl: Although she's appalled to hear Mildmay suggest it.
- The Lost Lenore: For Mildmay
Vincent Demabrien
Briefly mentioned in Felix's narration for Mélusine, this Unhappy Medium is a long-lost (and long-suffering) friend from Felix's childhood. Sold to a pimp by his bankrupt mother when he was twelve, Vincent remained a Pharoahlight prostitute until bought by Domestic Abuser Ivo Polydorius, probably around fifteen years ago.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Resembles the coloring of a woman who looked like "the world's most beautiful corpse," and sees dead people on a regular basis.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: He desperately wants to help the trapped spirits he sees.
- The Ophelia: He plays with the trope— he's fragile looking and acts crazy, but the ghosts he sees are real, not hallucinations.
- Self-Deprecation: All the characters experience their moments of self-doubt, but Vincent is the master of self-mockery. He's also well aware of other people's faults, although he's rarely mean enough to mention them.
- Sex Slave: To Ivo, by the time The Mirador rolls around.
- Unhappy Medium: As Felix says, "[t]he ability brought him no joy that I could see, but that made the thing more credible rather than less."
Isaac Garamond
A supposed refugee from the Bastion; in reality, a spy.
- Asshole Victim: He did a lot of horrible things, but his ending is arguably worse.
- Driven to Suicide: By Felix
- Honey Trap: For Felix.
- Mind Rape: Louis Goliath performs sendings on him, a practice that drove Mehitabel's lover half-mad.
- Questionable Consent: Felix continues sleeping with Isaac even after Mehitabel informs him that he's a spy for the Bastion, which implies that his masters aren't giving him much choice.
- Smug Snake: Until he realizes his Frame-Up isn't working.
- Villainous BSoD: When he figures out the frameup is a bust.
Arsène L'Hiver
Junior envoy from Tibernia; a pompous, homophobic wizard who frequently quarrels with Felix.
- "Ass" in Ambassador: Even his boss seems to think so.
- Heteronormative Crusader: He despises Felix for his homosexuality.
Ivo Polydorius
Marathine nobleman and Vincent Demabrien's jealous, masochistic owner.
- Domestic Abuser: He's dangerously jealous of Vincent.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Mehitabel observes that "He, too, had his own kind of honor."
- Face Death with Dignity: He doesn't even flinch at the prospect of being burned at the stake.
- Taking You with Me: He's less concerned with saving his own skin than with making sure the co-conspirators who failed him get burned too.
Isobel Brightmore
(Also Isobel Carey)
Kay's stubborn, proud sister, whom he forced to marry the duke of Murtagh. The marriage lacked the desired political result due to her barrenness.
- Arranged Marriage: Kay forced her to marry Ferrand Carey.
- Heteronormative Crusader: She worries that Julian is "soppish" regarding Cyriack Thrale.
- Law of Inverse Fertility
Ferrand Carey
The duke of Murtagh, wife of Isobel, and brother-in-law of Kay. He rescues Kay from the duke of Glimmering and makes him Vanessa Pallister's fianceè and warden of Grimglass. A controlled sadist, he hires Felix for violent sex, for which he later feels considerable remorse (although Felix himself regards the experience as harmless). Frequently called "Murtagh."
- Arranged Marriage: To the unwilling Isobel Brightmore.
- Armored Closet Gay: He reacts very coolly to Kay's joke about his visit to his bedroom.
- Carpet of Virility: A Type 1.
- Manly Gay: A furry, beefy warrior with a big scar on his arm.
- Safe, Sane, and Consensual: Although pretty kinky, his encounter with Felix doesn't lead to any serious physical or emotional damage.
Gartrett Corbie
"I want to be a virtuer, and fuck the Women's College and what women should or shouldn't do and all the rest of it."
A young Bernathan prostitute whom Felix originally hires to share her knowledge of the city with him, and who later becomes both his apprentice and madam. She has grown accustomed to hiding her magical talent, both from her fear of enslaving "warlocks" and due to her culture's prejudice against female magicians.
- The Apprentice: To Felix.
- Birds of a Feather: Corbie's circumstances aren't unlike the challenges Felix faced as a teenager.
Word of God even says that Felix sees Corbie as a mirror of himself. - Book Dumb: Corbie is intelligent, and fortunate enough to be literate, but her grandmother pulled her out of school when she was eight. It is one of several factors that make her stand out at the Institution.
- Coming of Age Story: Corbie has a quiet one going on in the background. She starts out as a girl who is too insecure in her magic and her intelligence to even attempt witchlights, let alone get a third-grade magician-practitioners license. By the end of Corambis, she's decided she's going to become a virtuer. For a sense of scale, that's like saying that someone who doesn't think she's smart enough to get a GED decided to get a doctorate.
- Cool Big Sis: Corbie fills this roll for Julian after flirting with him doesn't go anywhere because Julian is an awkward puppy.
- Good Bad Girl: Even after she quits doing it for money, she has a lot of sex for fun.
- Disappeared Dad: She doesn't know anything about him beyond the fact that he was an Ygressine sailor who took shore leave in Bernatha.
- Embarrassing First Name: Corbie hates her first name, only revealing it reluctantly to Felix and threatening to hit those who use it. She kicked Felix to keep him from using it when introducing her.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Corbie is exceedingly popular with the boys at the Institution and seems to have them wrapped around her little finger before Felix or Mildmay even set foot on campus.
- Fish out of Water: At the Institution, due to being lower class, uneducated, and a girl.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The tiny girl to Felix's huge guy. Felix is explicitly stated as standing 6'2", taller than anyone in Corambis. Corbie, even in comparison to the slightly shorter (than Marathines) Corambins, is exceptionally small judging by Mildmay calling her a "little tiny gal.
- Master-Apprentice Chain: Corbie's will stretch back to Porphyria Levant. On another branch it goes back to one Rosindy Clark who taught Iosephinus Pompey. The former is what provides conflict and drama. The latter is what makes teaching her seem possible.
- Missing Mom: Likely. Logic would dictate that Corbie was raised by her maternal grandmother, but there is never any mention of her mother.
- Morality Pet: Corbie often plays this role for Felix since for some reason, unlike with Mildmay, he constantly reminds himself that she deserves better than his usual behavior. The post was previously held by Mehitabel.
- Plucky Girl: Despite poverty, misogyny, and a Dysfunctional Family, she remains optimistic and eager to lend a hand when Felix needs her.
- Raised by Grandparents: Might have worked out better if Gran hadn't been a Boomerang Bigot.
- Really Gets Around: Felix notes how familiar she is with the men at the university.
- Settle for Sibling: Mildmay thinks this is why she propositions him.
- Student/Teacher Romance: At least in Mildmay's opinion, she has a crush on Felix. Due to Incompatible Orientation as well as his own horrific experiences with Malkar, it goes nowhere.
- When She Smiles: Corbie is a pretty enough girl, but Felix says she's absolutely lovely when she smiles.
Gerrard Hume
The would-be king of Caloxa, and the man with whom Kay is in love.
- Genre Blind: Um, why did he think performing a blood ritual in an underground labyrinth to activate an ancient "engine of destruction" would turn out okay?
- Incompatible Orientation: With Kay.
- Mauve Shirt: Doesn't survive his first chapter.
- Too Dumb to Live: His genre blindness costs him (and most of his closest followers) their lives.
