Heralds of Valdemar/Characters/Mage Winds and Mage Storms

This subsection of the Heralds of Valdemar Character Sheet covers the Mage Winds and Mage Storms trilogies.

Princess Elspeth and Grove-born Companion Gwena
""Falling dead, with a knife bearing the crest of Valdemar on the pommel-nut," he said dryly. "Very subtle, Elspeth. Couldn't you have sent a more direct message to the Emperor? Like, perhaps, 'Your father won the Horse Faire. Your mother tracks rabbits by scent. Love and kisses, Elspeth of Valdemar.""
 * Abdicate the Throne
 * Action Girl
 * Knife Nut: Skif taught Elspeth how to throw knives. She demonstrates on  in Arrow's Fall, and continues to carry hidden knives on her person in subsequent books, to the point that Kerowyn tells her (at the beginning of Winds of Fate) that she shouldn't rely on them too much because everyone knows she has them.
 * This led to a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moment when she killed an emissary of the Eastern Empire at the end of Mage Winds — just as he was about to teleport back to the Empire. Skif pointed out that her knives are marked with Valdemar's coat of arms, so this could count as a rather insulting declaration of war.


 * Magic Knight
 * Phrase Catcher: In Winds of Fury, she is repeatedly greeted with "We thought you were dead," to the point that her traveling companions start calling it "the standard greeting".
 * Royal Brat: Until Talia civilizes her
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something
 * Secret Legacy: Is a descendant of
 * Tsundere
 * The Unfavorite: Starts off as this, because she strongly resembles her father

Darkwind k'Sheyna
A Tayledras Scout for k'Sheyna vale, which he calls his home. He is bitter and cynical, mostly because of his father.
 * Bond Creatures: His bondbird, Vree.
 * Magic Knight
 * Meaningful Rename: Was originally Songwind, but changed his name when the Heartstone was sabotaged and he gave up magic.

Firesong k'Treva
A proud and arrogant young Tayledras Healing-Adept, initially called in from k'Treva Vale to k'Sheyna to assist with the Heartstone there. He becomes involved in Elspeth's training as a mage, and with the fate of Valdemar.
 * The Ace: He's just that awesome.
 * The Archmage: He's pretty much the best mage in the world at the moment. Mess with him at your own risk.
 * Bishounen: Extremely.
 * Bond Creatures: Aya, his Firebird.
 * Camp Gay: He is shaych and proud of it.
 * Cool Mask: starts wearing masks, each one cooler than the last, when he gets his scars at the end of Storm Breaking.
 * Crazy Jealous Guy: For An'desha when the . To put it into perspective, he once considered killing Karal, An'desha's Heterosexual Life Partner, because he thought they were having an affair behind his back, even when there was ample evidence that Karal liked Natoli and neither he nor An'desha liked each other that way.
 * Even the Guys Want Him: And he's happy with that.
 * The Fashionista: He loves fashion, and always has to make a statement.
 * Happily Married: Practically married to Silverfox, and very contented with his life.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: When he was young he could be a bit of an arrogant prick, but he always had good intentions and as he got older, he got better.
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Came very close to turning into another Ma'ar, but stopped before he took the final plunge.
 * Older and Wiser: In Darian's Tale and even in Storm Breaking. Silverfox had a lot to do with the change.
 * Power Levels: He's an Adept. A Healing-Adept to be specific.
 * Yaoi Guys: With An'desha for a time, and later with Silverfox. Darkwind and him sometimes joke about something being between them.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: All Tayledras have white hair, but Firesong is especially pretty.
 * Yaoi Guys: With An'desha for a time, and later with Silverfox. Darkwind and him sometimes joke about something being between them.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: All Tayledras have white hair, but Firesong is especially pretty.

Treyvan And Hydona
Two gryphons who live outside of k'Sheyna vale. They are surrogate parents to Darkwind k'Sheyna.
 * Mama Bear and Papa Wolf: Although Hydona is a bit more protective of her offspring than Treyvan, they are still willing to do anything for the sake of their gryphlets.
 * Snake Talk: Because of the gryphon vocal anatomy.
 * Trrrilling Rrrs: Because of the gryphon vocal anatomy.

Starblade k'Sheyna
Darkwind k'Sheyna's father, an extremely distant man who alienates his sons
 * Bond Creatures: Hyllar, a crested hawk-eagle of bondbird breeding.
 * Manchurian Agent: Brainwashed by Falconsbane.
 * Mind Rape: How Falconsbane brainwashed him.

Herald Skif and Companion Cymry
See entry on the Arrows Trilogy and Related Books page.

Need
A sword that has been around since before  she is a bitter, sarcastic old sword. She helps women in need as her name implies.
 * Anti-Magic: In the hands of a non-mage, defends them against magic.
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome: Forces it on her bearers.
 * Clingy MacGuffin
 * Cool Sword
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Empathic Weapon
 * Healing Shiv
 * Instant Expert: Can make you one in swordplay.
 * Talking Weapon
 * Instant Expert: Can make you one in swordplay.
 * Talking Weapon

Nyara

 * Catgirl
 * Interspecies Romance: With Skif, in a way.
 * Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter
 * Parental Incest: In her backstory
 * Rape as Backstory: Particularly horrible because instead of raping her by physical force, he Mind Raped her to desire him. She knew it was vile, she was sickened by it, but the control he'd set in her mind meant she more-or-less went into heat whenever he indicated he wanted her again.

Mornelithe Falconsbane, aka

 * Big Bad: Of most of the stories up to Mage Winds.
 * Emperor Scientist
 * Eviler Than Thou: To Ancar and Hulda
 * Grand Theft Me
 * Mad Scientist: This universe's equivalent.
 * Mind Rape
 * My Death Is Just the Beginning
 * Parental Incest
 * Person of Mass Destruction
 * Sorcerous Overlord
 * Villain Decay: In-universe example. The method he uses to  causes his mind to deteriorate, making him increasingly less competent from one incarnation to the next. And then Falconsbane receives a case of brain damage on top of that.

King Ancar

 * The Evil Prince
 * Knight of Cerebus
 * The Oathbreaker
 * Rage Against the Mentor: against Hulda
 * Royal Brat: Quite possibly the worst one in literature until the advent of Joffrey Baratheon.
 * Tyke Bomb

An'desha
The half Shin'a'in, half outblood descendant of Ma'ar. .
 * Animal Eyes
 * Bad Powers, Good People: He still has access to all of Ma'ar's magic. He uses this knowledge to fight the Final Storm and prevent a second Cataclysm.
 * Character Development: Probably undergoes the most character development of anyone in all the books save maybe Elspeth. He goes from being a complete coward, whiny and pathetic who is co-dependent upon Firesong and becomes confident in himself and a powerful mage who will backtalk Firesong to his face, and that takes balls.
 * Demonic Possession: His body is taken over by Ma'ar, which Karal equates with Demonic Possession.
 * Fighting From the Inside: An'desha in Winds of Fury as he helps destroy Ma'ar while trapped in his own mind.
 * Green Thumb: Shows a particular affinity and liking for growing plants.
 * Halfbreed: Half Shin'a'in, half outblood.
 * Hellish Pupils: Even after the Star-Eyed returns his body to how it was (mostly) before Falconsbane transformed it, he still has slitted eyes like a cats.
 * Heroic BSOD: After returning to his previous form and being freed from Falconsbane, he is constantly afraid he will turn back into him somehow, basically wallowing in his own patheticness and depression.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With Karal, they are best friends with no sexual attraction between them.
 * Pals with Jesus: He is basically best friends with his Goddess's Avatars.
 * Power Levels: He's an Adept. A Sorcerer-Adept, which presumedly means he can create life or something.
 * Shrinking Violet: Before meeting Karal and his character development sets in.
 * Two Guys and a Girl: With Karal and Natoli.

Avatars Dawnfire And Tre'valen
Two victims of Falconsbane who the Star-Eyed allowed to live on as her Avatars, able to appear on the Moonpaths and to take the shape of fiery vorcel-hawks. Dawnfire used to be a Tayledras scout and Tre'valen was a shaman of the Shin'a'in who fell in love with Dawnfire after she was trapped within the body of her bondbird.
 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Becoming Avatars.
 * Avatar: It's what they are.
 * The Confidant: To An'desha. They consider him to be their personal friend.
 * Divine Delegation: They do what Kal'enel tells them to, but they still have personalities of their own.
 * Red String of Fate: they are a life-bonded pair.

Son Of The Sun Solaris

 * Meaningful Name: "Solaris" is Latin for "Of the sun"
 * Modest Royalty: Is this in private, would be this in public if not for the episcopal pomp required by her position.
 * She Is the King: Is the High Priest and Son of the Sun, not High Priestess or Daughter of the Sun

Karal
The hero of the Mage Storm series, Karal is a young Karsite priest who was assigned to be the assistant and secretary of to the Karsite Ambassador, his mentor Sun-Priest Ulrich. He is a Channel, meaning he can act as a siphon for magical power but can't use magic himself.
 * Badass Bookworm: Very much so.
 * Badass Preacher: He's a priest, he saved the world. Tell me that doesn't make him a Badass Priest.
 * Bond Creature: With Altra, his Firecat. They aren't bonded like companions are, but were more or less assigned ot each other by Vkandis none the less.
 * Brown Eyes
 * Puppy Dog Eyes: Referred to in story as "Karal's Lost Puppy Eyes", and used on Florian at least once.
 * The Confidant: To An'desha
 * Good Shepherd: He is a very good, kind priest who walks-the-walk, talks-the-talk and actually helps people, unlike most Valdemarans' views of Sunpriests.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: With An'desha who is his best friend, and you could say Altra as well.
 * Mediator: tries to be this, and it's not for lack of trying his part when he fails.
 * Nice Guy: He is ridiculously nice, partly because he's a priest, partly because it's just how he is.
 * Non-Action Guy: He's in the thick of everything, but he's not exactly about to whip out a sword and start slashing people, quite the opposite actually.
 * Two Guys and a Girl: With Natoli and An'desha.

Altra
A Firecat and hence the Karsite equivalent of a Companion, Altra was a Son of the Sun during his life and, at the order of Vkandis, was assigned to protect and guide Karal.
 * Bond Creature: With Karal. After Karal, he uses his mindlink with Altra to see.
 * Cats Are Magic: Is a Master level mage, so is one step beneath Adept in power.
 * Cats Are Superior: Though in this case, since Altra was previously a Son of the Sun, he does technically outrank Karal by quite a margin.
 * Intellectual Animal
 * Noodle Incident: Upon learning Altra's name, Karal thinks "Wasn't that the name of the Son of the Sun who--?" It is never revealed what Son of the Sun Altra did that was so signficant.

Companion Florian

 * Cool Horse
 * Intellectual Animal

Ulrich
The first Karsite ambassador and a (formerly) black-robed Sun-Priest, and The Obi-Wan to Karal.
 * The Obi-Wan

Natoli

 * Genki Girl
 * Two Guys and a Girl: With Karal and An'desha.

Grand Duke Tremaine

 * Anti-Villain
 * Can Not Tell a Lie: Inflicted by Solaris
 * Fisher King: In order to take Hardorn's crown
 * Offered the Crown of Hardorn