The Borribles/Characters

Below you'll find a list of most of the primary characters from the Borribles Trilogy.

In order to minimize repetition, note that the following tropes apply to all Borribles:


 * The Ageless
 * The Artful Dodger
 * Asexuality
 * Brats with Slingshots: The classic forked-stick-and-rubber-band slingshot (called a "catapult" in British parlance) is the traditional weapon of all Borribles, and they eagerly embrace its high-tech descendent the wrist rocket.  Borribles are deadshots will catapults; they can -- and do -- kill both Rumbles and adult humans with well-placed shots.
 * Chaotic Neutral/Chaotic Good: In general.  There are exceptions.
 * Deadpan Snarker: While not a universal constant among Borribles, their humor on a whole tends to lean this way.
 * Immortality Begins At Ten
 * Living Forever Is Awesome
 * Pointed Ears: The pointier, the cleverer the Borrible is.
 * Street Smart
 * Street Urchin

The Magnificent Eight, The Adventurers
The team of (formerly nameless) Borribles selected and trained to storm the Rumble High Command's bunker under Wimbledon Commons and assassinate the Rumble leaders. The Adventurers each have a Meaningful Name -- that of their target, which they were given provisionally, and which they had to earn by killing that target.

Napoleon Boot
A Wendle from Wandsworth

the suspicious and cynical Borrible;
 * A Worldwide Punomenon: The Rumble for which Nap is named is a parody of the Womble named "Wellington".  For wiki readers not from the U.K., Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, fought Napoleon at Waterloo; "Wellington" is also the term for a particular variety of boot popularized by him.

Chalotte
Of the Whitechapel Wallopers

the tough and brave girl Borrible;


 * Action Girl
 * Hair of Gold

Vulgarian (Vulge)
frail-looking, but "tough as nails";


 * Made of Iron

Bingo
always cheerful;

Sydney
A Stomper from Stepney , another female and an animal-lover;


 * Action Girl
 * Friend to All Living Things

Stonks
, strong and kind-hearted;


 * The Big Guy

Torreycanyon
, light-hearted with a knack for mechanics;


 * MacGyvering: Torreycanyon is on the very realistic end of this trope -- he can bodge together a working juryrig for mechanical and electrical devices, but don't ask him to build a hang glider with duct tape, plastic bags, and a couple brooms.

Orococco
, the jovial, black Borrible.


 * Token Black

Knocker
A Borrible from Battersea, it's his discovery of the Rumbles expanding out of their bunker under Wimbledon Commons and into Battersea that sets the entire trilogy in motion.

Adolf
A German Borrible who heard about the creation of the Great Rumble Hunt and wanted to join in on the glory. He stowed away on a ship to get to England, and intercepted the Adventurers on the road shortly after they began their mission.


 * All Germans Are Nazis: Thoroughly averted; German Borribles are just as cheerfully anarchic as British Borribles, and Adolf even more so.
 * Gratuitous German

Spiff
Arguably the ruler of Borrible Battersea insofar as Borribles can have a ruler, although no one would ever think of him that way. He was originally a Wendle, but left Wandsworth so long ago that only one living Borrible remembers that. Along with his brother, Flinthead, he Borribled "in the time of the old Queen". (Whether that means Elizabeth I or Victoria is unclear; the derivation of his name suggests Victoria, though.)


 * The Chessmaster
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: "Spiff the Spifflicator" ("to spifflicate" is Victorian slang meaning "to crush, destroy or kill").  However, we don't learn all of Spiff's name until late in the second book --.
 * Older and Wiser: Than just about any other Borrible.
 * Older Than They Look: Even for a Borrible.  See Really Seven Hundred Years Old, below.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: He and Flinthead are possibly -- probably -- the oldest living Borribles in London at the start of the trilogy.
 * Retired Badass: What Spiff seems to be when we initially encounter him in the first book.  For someone who doesn't look older than 12, he comes across rather grandfatherly, at least at first. He no longer adventures, limiting his activities to being The Guy With The Answers for younger Borribles and keeping a hand in with the very little politicking that occurs between the Borrible tribes of London.  The truth, though, is.

Flinthead
Spiff's younger brother. Ruler of the Wendles.


 * Evil Overlord: The absolute dictator over the Wendles of Wandsworth and the closest thing to a king a Borrible tribe has ever seen.
 * Older Than They Look: Even for a Borrible.  See Really Seven Hundred Years Old, below.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: He and Spiff are possibly the oldest living Borribles in London at the start of the trilogy.

Inspector Sussworth

 * Inspector Javert
 * Lawful Evil
 * Meaningful Name: "Sussworth" refers the the British "sus" laws.
 * Neat Freak
 * Terrified of Germs

Sergeant Hanks

 * Fat Slob/Fat Bastard/Fat Idiot: Has elements of all three.
 * Jabba Table Manners: More implied than seen -- his uniform is almost always described as food-stained, and it had to get that way somehow.