Characters from the Russian fantasy series. For the Discworld novel, see Characters.Discworld.
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The Night Watch
The forces of not-quite good Light in the series. An organization of Light Others who oversees that (mostly, but Light Others belongs here too) Dark Ones are to follow the Treaty.
Anton Gorodetsky (Konstantin Khabensky)
The protagonist (and most of the time) narrator of the series.
- Badass Bookworm: Well-read and actually joined Night Watch as a programmer before being transferred to field work. He also gets stronger and more experienced very quickly.
- Battle Couple: With Svetlana.
- Brought Down to Normal: Becomes a human in the end of Sixth Watch.
- Cynicism Catalyst: While he's an unambiously good guy, he's become really cynical since he learnt that his boss, Geser, is just as manipulative as Zabulon, his semi-evil counterpart, if not more.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Good Is Not Nice: Anton can be a real jerk and he has become very cynical in his views on his work and world itself.
- Happily Married: To Svetlana.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: Often listens to Suspiciously Apropos Music on them. Because of his Other powers, he doesn't really need his ears.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Offers himself as a sacrifice to the Two-in-One. He survives, but is Brought Down to Normal.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Gets really cynical in his internal narration.
- Papa Wolf: To his daughter in later books.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Olga.
- Take a Level in Badass: His power level grows enormously throughout the series, to the point that he becomes a Beyond Classification level mage. Until he is turned into a human in Sixth Watch.
- Tranquil Fury: When he kicks Edgar into groin after the latter reveals that nuclear missile that Last Watch launched upon Moscow, has already detonated, he feels no emotion. Fortunately, Arina prevented nuclear strike.
- Unwitting Pawn: Often to Geser and/or Zabulon. Or Arina.
- Vodka Drunkenski: Anton and a lot of the other Others likes a drink, and he's actually The Alcoholic in the movies.
Semyon
Anton's main friend in the Night Watch. First-level Light mage.
- Combat Pragmatist: One of the few agents to learn martial arts on top of his magical skills to give himself an edge in combat.
- Drives Like Crazy: Especially in the movies.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Keeps up the appearance of being nothing more than a simple working class man from some village. The key word here is appearance.
- Old Master: As a level one magician, he's one of the more powerful and experienced agents of the Night Watch.
- Old Soldier: Fought in multiple wars in his lifetime.
- Weak, but Skilled: When compared to Greater Others, what he lacks in raw power, he makes up for with more than a century of experience.
Boris Ignatyevich/ Gesar
The head of the Night Watch and the mentor to Anton.
- Amicable Exes: Implied to be with Arina in Sixth Watch.
- Anti-Hero: Type III. He is definetely a good Other, but frequently manipulates everyone for the good of Light and humans.
- Benevolent Boss: For the most part, although he's willing to sacrifice people and his subordinates for the greater good.
- Big Good: Sort of. He is a head of Night Watch, but is very manipulative and isn't above manipulting people to achieve his goals.
- TheChessmaster: One of the best in the series, if not the best. His subordinates doesn't like this trait in him and Svetlana even leaves the Watch.
- Dirty Business: At times it's shown that all these manipulations weigh really heavy on his conscience, especially when he manipulates Anton.
- Friendly Enemy: To Zabulon.
- Everyone Has Standards / My Greatest Failure: Even though he is extremely pragmatic and does sacrifice innocents and his subordinates if that is necessary, he really hates to remember the event when he with his then-friend and equal Rustam defeated an army of Dark Others by subjecting them to a Fate Worse than Death (unknowingly).
- Guile Hero: Extremely skillful manipulator and planner.
- Hidden Depths: He likes balley, news, figure skating, and other pleasures. Partying on work is a big no-no, though.
- Old Soldier: Is known to have defeated three powerful Dark Others in his past; is an equal of Zabulon and is a very powerful, intelligent and skilled mage.
- Pragmatic Hero: Is mentioned by Anton as a man who "will throw a child to the zoo to animals if necessary, but before will do everything to avert it".
- Shoot the Dog: He was the Light Other who convinced Arina to disrupt the experiment, as it would have led to the existence of Others known to humans and a Bad Future for everyone...
- Really 700 Years Old: He was a Grand Light Mage even 2000 years ago!
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Played with. Though he did manipulated the events that Nadya, Absolute Great Light Other and Anton's daughter to be born to have a weapon against Twilight, he was against the experiment on people of USSR to create a better future.
Olga
A powerful light sorceress and Boris Ignatyevich's lover.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Was forced into the body of a stuffed owl, had most of her powers confiscated and was only allowed to become human again for half an hour each day during times of war.
- Depowered: For some time after she was partially absolved from her punishment.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Has this effect on a class of male students while her body was occupied by Anton.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Anton.
Svetlana Gorodetskaya (nee Nazarova)
A seemingly human woman who is revealed to be a Light Other of immense power.
- Apocalypse Maiden: In the first part of Night Watch.
- Happily Married: To Anton.
- Mama Bear: Do not threaten her daughter. She's absolutely unstoppable when it comes to protecting Nadya.
- Meaningful Name: The Light Other with most potential since Jesus wore diapers is named "Light". Didn't see that one coming...
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Sort of. They were manipulated to fall in love by both Gesar and Zabulon. She and Anton are happily married nonetheless.
Tiger Cub
- Animorphism
- Collector of the Strange: Has a collection of ancient swords.
- Healing Hands: Gave up this ability to focus on her combat magic.
- Killed Off for Real: In Day Watch, by Victor Rogoza
- Painful Transformation: Tells Anton that changing back from her tiger form is very painful.
- Platonic Life-Partners/ Battle Couple: Has an undefined relationship with Bear, who she always partners up with on duty.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Assumes the form of a large tiger.
Bear
- Animorphism
- Heel–Face Turn: Rumoured to be a former Dark One who turned to the Light side.
- Platonic Life-Partners/ Battle Couple: Has an undefined relationship with Tiger Cub, who he always partners up with on duty.
- The Quiet One
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: A rare example In-Universe; can assume the form of many different bear species.
Ignat
A handsome and charming Night Watch operative.- Ambiguously Gay / Ambiguously Bi: Is all but stated outright to be gay in the first story of the original book, but later has a drunk threesome with two women
- Collector of the Strange: Apparently has a butterfly collection that takes up two entire rooms of his house.
- Honey Trap: His main role in the Night Watch.
- The Charmer
Las
A rock musician who befriends Anton in the third book. Gets turned into a weak Light Other by Kostya
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Not too extreme, but has shades of this.
- Early-Bird Cameo: First appears in The Face of Dark Palmira, then gets a bigger role in Twilight Watch and becomes a recurring character from then on.
- Fun Personified
- Took a Level in Badass: Became a Light Other thanks to Fuaran.
The Day Watch
The forces of not-quite-evil Darkness. An organization of Dark Others who oversees that Light Ones are to follow the Treaty.
Zabulon
The head of the Day Watch, Grand Dark mage.
- Affably Evil: He's remorseless evil bastard, but is good at putting on a facade of being a sensitive, charming guy.
- Benevolent Boss: Is stated to respect his subordinates rights and freedoms, but he is also a Bad Boss.
- Bad Boss: He ruthlessly sacrifices his followers once they've outlived their usefulness and if he needs that, and he is fond of seducing female followers. Just ask Alisa Donnikova.
- Big Bad: Sort of - he's the leader of the forces of Darkness in Russia, but he's actually rarely the main antagonist, and will often cooperate with the Light Others when something bad happens that doesn't suit his goals.
- Definitely serves as this in the films, where the plot is driven by his scheme to make the cold war between Dark and Light hot again.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Likes to play this part sometimes.
- TheChessmaster: Only slightly worse than Gesar. In Day Watch he managed to outwit him.
- Enemy Mine: Does this freguently, when something bad appears. Later shown to be...
- Friendly Enemy: Despite being the leader of Day Watch, he is shown to enjoy his fight with Gesar, who reciprocates. See also his Affably Evil.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Is revealed to be Anton's grandfather at the end of the last book.
- Old Master: Is heavily implied to be as old as Gesar, and definetely just as poweful and experienced.
- Pragmatic Villainy: When he's first introduced, Anton suspects him of casting the Moscow-threatening curse on Svetlana. Zabulon's answer is "We don't need this. Only a savage kills an elephant to get a small steak for his breakfast."
- In fact, it seems to be his modus operandi. Moscow Day Watch is known for hiring humans for various kinds of help, and usually quite helpful for them (like curing, longvity or money). He also has no qualms about sacrificing or using his subordinates for achieving his plans.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Heavily dislikes Ukranians and Lithuanians, according to Arina. It seems to be true, as Vycheslav Rogoza and Edgar's fates show.
- Spell My Name With An S: Also translated as Zavulon.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting:
- While he appears to be a sensitive glasses-wearing intellectual, his Twilight form (his "true form") is a snake demon with a tail and spiked penis.
- His other true form, seen briefly in Night Watch looks more like some sort of a giant insect.
- Worthy Opponent: To Gesar, who feels the same.
Konstantin (Kostya) Saushkin
A young, idealistic vampire whom Anton befriended before joining the Nightwatch.- Anti-Villain: Well-Intentioned Extremist. After his resurrection, Noble Demon, as he seems to be cordial to Anton while hating him for indirectly killing him.
- Big Bad: In the last story of Twilight Watch".
- Back from the Dead: In ''Sixth Watch, by Twilight itself, to create Sixth Watch.
- Evil Former Friend: What Anton thinks him to be. It's more We Used to Be Friends, as he's still quite cordial to Anton.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Because vampires are treated by derision by many Others, and he hates his undead nature.
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Completely averted. They both love each other and his mother.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: in Twilight Watch, when he plots to turn humanity into Others. Unfortunately, it can lead to really bad consequences.
- Took A Levelin Badass: After using Fuaran, he becomes an Absolute Other.
Alisa Donnikova
A witch of the Day Watch and Zabulon's lover.- Drives Like Crazy
- Hot Witch
- Sacrificial Lion: In Day Watch
- Villain Protagonist: In Day Watch.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness
Arina
The Grand Dark witch, who first appears in Twilight Watch.
- Amicable Exes: Implied to be with Gesar in Sixth Watch.
- Affably Evil: To the point of turning into Light Other.
- And I Must Scream: New Watch ends with her getting trapped in the inescapable Sarcophagus of Times for all eternity. Tiger frees her in Sixth Watch to help Anton with Two-in-One.
- Anti-Villain: It's even arguable how evil she really is. At worst he's type I-III with Pragmatic Villainy.
- Big Bad: [[spoiler: In Last Watch and in New Watch.
- Despair Event Horizon: When she learnt that she probably screwed Russia with her intefering. She seems to get better in Sixth Watch.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: She has no respect to Zabulon whatsoever, and isn't afraid to show it. Justified, as she's equal to him in power.
- Friendly Enemy: Despite her deeds, she is polite and cordial to Anton and his family.
- Graceful Loser: After Anton outgambits her at the end of New Watch and make her stay for all eternity in Sarcophagus of Times, she takes it rather well, and when Anton returns in Sixth Watch and asks for help, she gladly does it.
- Heel–Face Turn: She becomes a Light Witch in Last Watch, although it doesn't change her personality nor her intentions. She's more of...
- Heel–Face Revolving Door.
- Knight Templar: While crossing Despair Event Horizon in New Watch, she started planning a destruction of Twilight by Nadya in order to stop it from interfering and causing catastrophes.
- Light Is Not Good: She becomes more villainous when becoming a Light Other.
- Manipulative Bastard: She did a good job of manipulating Anton in New Watch.
- Shoot the Dog: She disrupted the experiment of Watches and Inquisition because of the Bad Future, which Gesar convinced her to avert.
- Unrequited Love: Turns out to have this to Anton.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Twilight Watch reveals she had sabotaged an experiment, conducted by the Inquisition with the purpose of giving Russian people communist ideas. It worked much sooner than it was supposed to, resulting in countless deaths and leaving Russia in its current unfortunate economic condition. The reason? Had she not, humans would have discovered the existence of the Others among them, leading to a world-wide witch hunt. And then Gesar reveals that the experiment was doomed to fail anyway, causing numerous nuclear wars across the world.
- In New Watch, Arina seeks to destroy Twilight itself in order to stop the prophecy which foretells Russia's destruction.
- Wicked Witch: Zig-Zagged. More like semi-amoral witch.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Played with. She did threaten to kill Nadya and even trapped her with a grenade inside a magic barrier once, but she warned Anton just in time so he could disassemble it and save his daughter. Later, Gesar assures Anton he is acquainted with her well enough that he knows she'd never hurt a little kid.
The Inquisition
The organization, which leads and controls both Watches and ensues Balance Between Good and Evil.
Maxim
A Light Other introduced early in the novel Night Watch who is initially unaware of The Masquerade and as a result, kills Dark Others who he wrongly believes to be pure evil.
- Broken Ace: He initially appears to be a Born Lucky and near perfect guy, but outside of his legitimate excuse of having Missed the Call, he's still a deeply troubled man who has no understanding of love or goodness (he only understands smiting evil)
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Never heard from in the later books (except for a cameo appearance in School Supervision).
- Knight Templar: Prior to joining the Inquisition.
- Light Is Not Good
Vítězslav Hrubín
A Higher vampire and Dark Other. Seems to be one of the highest ranked Inquisitors.- Affably Evil: Supports Dark creed, but is reasonable and fair as an Inquisitor.
- Retired Monster: He became a Higher Vampire though killing several young girls and feels no remorse, but has sort of "mellowed" to the extent that he left the Day Watch to become an Inquisitor.
- Worf Effect: He is defeated by Kostya after he gets Fuaran, though being - possibly- equal to Geser and Zabulon. Justified, as the Kostya became an Absolute Other.
Edgar
A Dark Other Mage who started out on the Day Watch (in the eponymous novel), but later joined the Inquisition.
- Affably Evil: Noble Demon, though, he gets way darker in New Watch.
- Defector from Decadence: He's not at all a good guy, but did leave the Day Watch and become less Dark in reaction to all of Zabulon's bastardy (specifically trying to screw him over).
- Friendly Enemy: Toward Anton.
- Love Makes You Evil: Becomes this due to his wife's death in The Last Watch.
- Old Soldier: He is Anton's equal in power, and is about two centuries old. He is also stated to have grandchildren, who are already old.
- Ooh Me Accent's Slipping: A few times when he loses his composure he reverts to his natural Estonian accent.
Dmitry Dreher
A low-level Light Other who teacher literature at the boarding school run by the Inqusition. The character appears only in School Supervision.
- Took a Level in Badass: Goes from seventh (lowest) level to fourth level (his cap) thanks to a ritual conducted by his two best friends. However, an experienced Inquisitor then asks what he plans to do with the rest of his very long life, as he will no longer grow in power. Later on, he's "upgraded" thanks to the use of the recreated Fuaran text.
Konstantin Strigal
An experienced first-level Inquisitor, who was originally the senior Overseer at the boarding school for Light and Dark children. The characters appears only in School Supervision.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Isn't shy about employing interrogation spells against children, claiming that the Inquisition doesn't distinguish Others by age.
Alexander Filippov
A second-level Inquisitor at the Saint Petersburg branch. Acts as curator to any visiting groups, giving them a tour of the city. The character appears only in School Supervision.
- The Man Behind the Man: He turns out to be none other than Alexander the Great (son of Philip II of Macedon), in charge of the European Bureau of the Inquisition. He's also a Higher one despite starting out low, managing to gradually raise his level over the millennia.
- Sailor's Ponytail: Always keeps his long hair in a ponytail tied with a simple rubberband.
Neutral Characters
Humans and characters not affiliated with the organizations above.
The Tiger
An entity created by the Twilight to prevent certain prophecies from being heard.- Heroic Sacrifice: Performs this in Sixth Watch, to help heroes to gain more time to deal with Two-in-One.
- Humanoid Abomination: In New Watch, he was an avatar of Twilight, whom people see as their reflection; his power is equal to this of Absolute Light Other Nadya. As time passes, he becomes more and more humanoid.
- Took a Level in Kindness: In Sixth Watch, he helps Anton stop Two-in-One, breaking rules of Twilight, and even performs a Heroic Sacrifice later.
