The Death Gate Cycle/Characters

The Death Gate Cycle has Loads and Loads of Characters, partially because all seven worlds are visited and re-visited over the course of the seven-book series. This is a list of some of the prominent ones.

The Patryn
Haplo

A "Runner" whose goal was to escape the Labyrinth (as opposed to "Squatters" who camp and continue the species), Haplo is one of the few to actually succeed. He is introduced as a Villain Protagonist doing reconaissance for Lord Xar, with the express mission of spreading chaos and discord throughout the four worlds so that Lord Xar can arrive as a savior later. Of course, then Character Development happens, and Haplo begins to mature from The Dragon of the Big Bad of a Sealed Evil in A Can organization into The Hero (well, an Anti-Hero at least) and force for peace. Haplo is quiet, unassuming and The Nondescript, aside from his Power Tattoos and his ever-present Canine Companion.

Haplo appears in all seven books.


 * Canine Companion: the dog
 * Dogs Are Dumb (completely averted, as the dog is shown to be clever, perceptive and, essentially, the manifestation of Haplo's conscience)
 * Evil-Detecting Dog
 * No Name Given (referred to always as "the dog" or "Dog!")
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * The Dragon
 * In Another Man's Shoes (due to some weird phlebotinum with Death's Gate, Alfred and Haplo have to experience the worst moment in each other's lives. This is the beginning of Haplo's Character Development, as he can no longer hate Alfred, or indeed any of the Sartan.)
 * Meaningful Name ("Haplo", from haploid, meaning "half" or "single")
 * Morality Pet (In a rather literal sense.)
 * Rebel Relaxation
 * Villain Protagonist (at least in the beginning; evolves up to Anti-Hero)
 * I Work Alone (Haplo rarely refers to important people by name: Alfred is "You, Sartan!", Marit is "the woman", and his dog is "the dog". Alfred calls him on this at one point.)
 * Villain Protagonist (at least in the beginning; evolves up to Anti-Hero)
 * I Work Alone (Haplo rarely refers to important people by name: Alfred is "You, Sartan!", Marit is "the woman", and his dog is "the dog". Alfred calls him on this at one point.)

Lord Xar

The leader of the Patryn, the first of them to escape the Labyrinth... and the only one of them with the testicular fortutide to voluntarily re-enter it. Which he does, on a daily basis, to help more of his people escape. Oh, and he's also an Evil Overlord who plans to Take Over the World (or rather, all seven worlds).

Xar appears in some form in all seven books.


 * Anti-Villain
 * Asskicking Equals Authority
 * Badass Grandpa (big time. He may look the part of the elderly wizard, but he's every bit as much of a Magic Knight as any of his followers)
 * The Chessmaster
 * Evil Overlord (at least half averted; he may be an Overlord but he is hardly evil )
 * Well, it's all in the perspective. He cares deeply for his own people (until the spoilered events, anyway), but barely spares a thought for the wellbeing of the Mensch. At one point he seriously considers a mass genocide simply because their stupidity gets on his nerves.
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope
 * Meaningful Name (Xar is speculated to have derived from the Russian "czar", which of course is itself derivative of "Caesar".)
 * Meaningful Rename
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist

Marit

A Patryn woman whom Haplo loved. They were happy together in the Labyrinth for a short time, but then she left him. Haplo speculates that she was pregnant.

Marit appears in Elven Star (flashback only), Serpent Mage (flashback only), Into the Labyrinth and The Seventh Gate.


 * Action Girl (all Patryn women are Action Girls to a certain extent, because the Labyrinth kills everyone else, but it's Marit we spend the most time with)
 * The Chick
 * The One That Got Away
 * New Old Flame
 * The Reveal: that she is Haplo's former lover. Or that Haplo's former lover escaped the Labyrinth. Both characters are introduced separately and later revealed to be the same person.
 * The Reveal: that she is Haplo's former lover. Or that Haplo's former lover escaped the Labyrinth. Both characters are introduced separately and later revealed to be the same person.
 * The Reveal: that she is Haplo's former lover. Or that Haplo's former lover escaped the Labyrinth. Both characters are introduced separately and later revealed to be the same person.

The Sartan
Alfred

Alfred was but a young man when the Sartan on Arianus put themselves into stasis. He was an old man when he woke up. As the Last of His Kind on Arianus, he went undercover, posing as a human and engaging in all sorts of shenanigans rather than use his enormous power: for instance, he faints when confronted with danger. He is also The Klutz writ large. But then he meets Haplo and discovers that the Patryns, formerly Sealed Evil in A Can, have escaped. Then Character Development, Teeth Clenched Teamwork (on Haplo's part) and Friendly Enemies (on Alfred's part) set in, and Alfred begins to come into his own as the other main character of the series... a clumsy, balding Sartan whose Level in Badass is not because of his own cowardice, but despite it.

Alfred appears in Dragon Wing, Fire Sea, Serpent Mage, The Hand of Chaos (flashback only), Into the Labyrinth, and The Seventh Gate.


 * Comes Great Responsibility (Alfred is keenly aware of his station, the enormity of his powers, and the potential for a well-meaning Nice Job Breaking It, Hero. So he develops a defense in the form of...)
 * Obfuscating Stupidity (instead of using magic, he just passes out in the face of danger. This happened so often that it reached the point of...)
 * Becoming the Mask (he practically lost the ability to do magic at all. More pertinently, he lost all confidence in himself.)
 * Cover-Blowing Superpower
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
 * In Another Man's Shoes (Haplo relives the moment when Alfred woke up and discovered that he was the Last of His Kind. Alfred relives the moment where Haplo's parents were killed saving him.)
 * The Klutz (a rare male example)
 * Meaningful Name (his real name,, which can mean either " or "". For those who are wondering, "Alfred" means "wise counsel" and/or "elf advisor".)
 * Power Levels (Sartan had a heirarchy of animal names to denote strength. Alfred rates the title "Serpent Mage", which was way up near the top.)
 * Squishy Wizard (all Sartan are like this, but it's Alfred we spend the most time with. And he's extra-squishy, even by Sartan standards.)
 * Squishy Wizard (all Sartan are like this, but it's Alfred we spend the most time with. And he's extra-squishy, even by Sartan standards.)

Samah

Samah is the leader of the Council of Seven. It was his idea to sunder the world. He is also charismatic, idealistic and just sympathetic enough to make you wonder.

Samah appears in Serpent Mage, The Hand of Chaos, Into the Labyrinth, and The Seventh Gate (flashback only).


 * Anti-Villain
 * Asskicking Equals Authority
 * Jerkass: Maybe he was supposed to be a wise and charismatic leader, but my god is he arrogant, unyielding and willfully blind!
 * Pet the Dog: Alfred notes that Samah has a genuine regard for knowledge and the truth- he may restrict access to it but will not destroy it, even if it might incriminate him.
 * Utopia Justifies the Means
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist

Arianus, the World of Air
Hugh The Hand

A member of the Brotherhood of the Hand, Professional Killers to the core, Hugh is hired to assassinate the crown prince of the Volkaran Isles, Prince Bane. He is hired to do so by... his father, the King of the Volkaran Isles, King Stephen. Hilarity Ensues, especially since Prince Bane's manservant, a butler named Alfred Montbank, chooses to tag along for the ride...

Hugh appears in Dragon Wing, The Hand of Chaos, Into the Labyrinth, and The Seventh Gate.


 * Anti-Hero (he and Haplo get along just fine)
 * Badass Normal
 * Decoy Protagonist: Reading the series for the first time, you'd think Hugh is the hero of at least the first book, and technically he actually is.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse
 * Professional Killers
 * Professional Killers
 * Professional Killers
 * Professional Killers
 * Professional Killers
 * Professional Killers
 * Professional Killers

Prince Bane

The adopted child of King Stephen and Queen Anne... If by "adopted" we mean "My extremely powerful wizard father stole their actual child and put me in his place instead, and I'm here to help him Take Over the World, and everyone knows it, and I don't even have to hide it because he gave me an Orphan's Plot Trinket that lets me talk to him and also casts Charm Person on anyone who sees me. Oh, and, I'm an Enfant Terrible and a Bastard Understudy."

Bane appears in Dragon Wing, Fire Sea (flashback only), and The Hand of Chaos.


 * Abusive Parents (his real dad, Sinistrad, uses him in his Evil Plan the day after he was born.)
 * Bastard Understudy
 * Changeling Fantasy
 * Deliberately Cute Child
 * Enfant Terrible
 * Offing the Offspring (King Stephen explains that Queen Anne is pregnant, so now that there's a real heir to the throne they can do away with the Creepy Child they got left with)
 * Switched At Birth
 * Switched At Birth

Limbeck Bolttightener

A member of the "Gegs," dwarves who live on the continent of Drevlin and spend their entire lives in service of 1) an Eternal Engine called the Kicksey-Winsey, and 2) the Welves, their gods. Limbeck is a Cloudcuckoolander in that he is always asking "Why," and is convinced that these "Welves" are actually elves from the Tribus Kingdom. This is why the High Froman ("foreman", not anybody else) decides to execute him by throwing him off the edge. Limbeck falls to a low island where he comes across a man with glowing Power Tattoos and a dog...

Limbeck appears in Dragon Wing, The Hand of Chaos, Into the Labyrinth, and The Seventh Gate.


 * Agent Mulder
 * The Unmasked World (gets to see all the Mid and High Realms for himself)
 * Break the Cutie
 * Beware the Nice Ones
 * Rule of Symbolism (during his second appearance, he now has a pair of glasses that cause abominable headaches but allow him to see clearly. His wife Jarre comments that she liked the blind and idealistic version of him better.)
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism (embodied in a single character! He starts off massively idealistic, becomes completely cynical, and later )

Sinistrad

Bane's father. A completely Evil Sorcerer and proud of it, he concocts a plan to rule Arianus purely for his own gain, though he pitches himself to his fellow mysteriarchs (powerful human wizards) as a Well-Intentioned Extremist trying to preserve their culture and prominence among the human kingdoms. Very clever, though not quite the Magnificent Bastard he thinks he is, largely because of a need to see his enemies squirm and a complete disregard for all life that isn't him. .

Sinistrad appears in Dragon Wing.


 * Bald of Evil
 * Card-Carrying Villain
 * Complete Monster: Has not a single redeeming feature at all.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: In-universe to Iridal when they were both young. She's largely wisened up by now, but he can still invoke it when he needs to control her.
 * Evil Sorcerer
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Meaningful Name
 * Meaningful Rename: Deliberately changed his name to fit the persona he was crafting for himself- we never learn his real name.
 * Pet the Dog: Subverted. He seems at first to genuinely care about Bane, but even that's just part of the plan. Iridal is not happy when she finds out...
 * Will Not Tell a Lie: Ask him up front and he'll freely admit what he's doing and why. This is not because of any sense of honesty on his part but because he loves it when his enemies know what he's planning, but are helpless to stop it. He will lie though if there's no other way to advance a scheme.

Lady Iridal

Sinistrad's wife and Bane's mother. Though a powerful mysteriarch in her own right, Sinistrad has used a combination of charisma and fear to keep her under control for years, and she is less a willing participant in his plots than just another pawn.

Iridal appears in Dragon Wing, The Hand of Chaos, and Into the Labyrinth.


 * Broken Bird
 * Kaleidoscope Eyes
 * Mama Bear
 * Tear Jerker:.
 * The Dog Bites Back: To Sinistrad.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Being out from under Sinistrad's shadow did wonders for her- she comes off as far more formidable in Hand of Chaos than in Dragon Wing.
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl

Pryan
Paithan Quindiniar

An elf trader, son of a Cloudcuckoolander who wants to fly to the stars in a rocket, Paithan begins the story by trying to sell some elven weapons to the dwarves through human intermediaries. Then one of those humans tries to seduce him. Then the dwarf buyer informs them that his entire tribe has been wiped out by walking death giants called tytans. Then those tytans knock on the Quindiniar household's front door...

Paithan appears in Elven Star and Into the Labyrinth.


 * Book Dumb (he's not stupid by any stretch- he just has a phenomenal lack of interest in organized scholarship)
 * Handsome Lech
 * Interspecies Romance (with Rega)
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold

Roland and Rega Redleaf

The human intermediaries, Roland and Rega are brother and sister, but pretend to be married so that Rega can pretend to fall in love with Paithan so that Roland can pretend to be offended and the two of them can get a bigger share of the profit. A Simple Plan. What Could Possibly Go Wrong??

Roland and Rega appear in Elven Star and Into the Labyrinth.


 * Action Girl (Rega)
 * Faux Action Girl (Rega is supposed to be very tough, but we don't get too many chances to see it. Probably justified, though, by the fact that she never winds up pitted against someone in her weight class- not much even the best human warrior can do against a tytan...)
 * Brother-Sister Team
 * The Con
 * Interspecies Romance (Rega with Paithan, Roland with Aleatha)
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold (both of them qualify, though Roland has more "jerk" and Rega has more "heart of gold".)

Drugar

A prince of the dwarven tribe, who is attempting to buy elven weapons to defend his people against the tytans. Last of His Kind, now that his tribe's been wiped out.

Drugar appears in Elven Star and Into the Labyrinth.


 * Ax Crazy (for about half of Elven Star, due to grief and rage over the death of his people. He gets better before he kills anyone, though)
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something (he's a prince of his people, but dwarved royalty are expected to earn their keep and not put on airs)
 * The Quiet One
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds (see Ax Crazy above)

Zifnab

An eccentric old man who claims to be a wizard. And James Bond. And/or Dorothy Gale. His pet dragon constantly has to keep him straightened out. He's probably insane. Or maybe it's just Obfuscating Stupidity... No, he's just insane. (No, seriously, he is. But when you find out why he's insane, you totally don't blame him.)

Zifnab appears in Elven Star, The Hand of Chaos, Into the Labyrinth, and The Seventh Gate.


 * Back From the Dead (another one of his eccentricities. He does a Heroic Sacrifice twice, to save the same characters each time. [The second one is revealed quite directly to be a sham.])
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall/No Fourth Wall: Constantly.
 * Eccentric Mentor
 * Small Name, Big Ego
 * A God Am I? ("Sure, Why Not?")
 * The Slow Path: The Sundering was twelve (Sartan) generations ago. The Sartans of Chelestra (and Alfred, a generation or so later) spent most of that time in hibernation. Zifnab didn't.
 * A God Am I? ("Sure, Why Not?")
 * The Slow Path: The Sundering was twelve (Sartan) generations ago. The Sartans of Chelestra (and Alfred, a generation or so later) spent most of that time in hibernation. Zifnab didn't.

Zifnab's Dragon

Zifnab's constant companion, a highly intelligent but bloodthirsty being kept in check only by a powerful spell that makes him think he's a butler. Or is he...

The dragon appears in Elven Star, The Hand of Chaos, Into the Labyrinth, and The Seventh Gate.


 * Arch Enemy (he and Sang-Drax appear to have a history, though it's not elaborated on)
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall/No Fourth Wall (though not quite as much as Zifnab)
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Servile Snarker (in his "butler" persona)
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick (from his and Zifnab's interactions, it's clear who's the brains of the operation, especially in later books)
 * No Name Given
 * Obfuscating Stupidity
 * Only Sane Man Only Sane Dragon
 * Our Dragons Are Different
 * Our Dragons Are Different

Abarrach
Jera

A minor noblewoman of the Sartan capitol city of Necropolis, and a necromancer in charge of maintaining the city's support staff of cadavers. She and her husband Jonathan are Happily Married. When Haplo is kidnapped by the Sartan king, Dynast Kleitus, the two of them volunteer to help Alfred rescue him. This is where things go Off the Rails: Jera is killed by a guard, and Jonathan, distraught, brings her back to life. But because he didn't wait the required three days for her soul to depart, she Came Back Wrong: now she is a "lazar," eternally doomed to neither life nor death, and Axe Crazy with hatred for both...

Jera appears in Fire Sea.


 * Axe Crazy (now that she's a lazar)
 * Came Back Wrong (pretty much the poster girl in this series)
 * Happily Married (with Jonathan)
 * Necromancer
 * The Smart Guy (while alive)
 * Token Evil Teammate (briefly after her transformation. She turns on the heroes as soon as she gets a good oppurtunity, though)
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds (like all the lazar except for Jonathan and Kleitus)
 * What Happened to The Mouse? It's specifically mentioned she remained a lazar at the end of book 3 however we never see her again.

Jonathan

A minor nobleman in the Sartan capitol city of Necropolis, and a necromancer in charge of maintaining the city's support staff of cadavers. He is Happily Married to Jera. After her messy resurrection, he joins Haplo and Alfred in their flight, eventually entering a room fraught with Abarrachi history, the "Chamber of the Damned." Strangely, though, entering the chamber brings on a feeling of peace and contentment to the three. Jonathan is eventually turned into a lazar as well, but his adventures are not over...

Jonathan appears in Fire Sea, Into the Labyrinth, and The Seventh Gate.


 * The Atoner (for what he did to Jera)
 * Genius Ditz (in life- he's a very skilled necromancer, but is otherwise rather naive and absent minded. This changes following his religious experience)
 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness (the only lazar to be at peace with himself, andâ€”more pertinentlyâ€”the only being, living or otherwise, who can undo a lazar and separate soul from corpse.)
 * The Messiah
 * Necromancer

Dynast Kleitus

The ruler of Necropolis, the last surviving city on Abarrach. As a ruler, he is Affably Evil, offering his enemies drinks and polite gaming sessions, while on the side poisoning Haplo so that he can study the runes on the Patryn's body (keep in mind that the Sartan of Abarrach have lost much of their knowledge of magic, having had more important things to occupy themselves with; to them, Haplo and the power he brings might be the difference between life and extinction). When he gets turned into a lazar, though, he goes all Evil Overlord and manages to keep his rulership of Abarrach despite the lazar being Always Chaotic Evil in general. This tells you something about just how Axe Crazy Kleitus is.

Kleitus appears in Fire Sea, Into the Labyrinth, and The Seventh Gate.


 * Affably Evil (at least, while alive...)
 * Dragon With an Agenda (slips into this role for Xar after Xar defeats but can't destroy him. Xar is Genre Savvy enough to be aware of this, and knows better than to allow Kleitus out of his sight for long)
 * Evil Overlord
 * Evil Sorcerer (really the only Sartan or Patryn who fits this trope)
 * Evil Versus Evil (he and the serpents despise each other, as their goals are mutually exclusive- they want to corrupt all life, while Kleitus just wants to kill it so he can rule an empire of the dead)
 * Implacable Man
 * Necromancer
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome (his first encounter with Xar- it's remarked on as having been a spectacular, albeit brief, battle, but it only gets referenced in passing and we never see it)
 * Omnicidal Maniac

Balthazar

The chancellor to a small tribe of Abarrach natives who, under the leadership of Prince Edmund, travel to Necropolis seeking sanctuary. A fair amount of the third book is narrated from his point of view. While he serves mostly as a viewpoint character in Fire Sea, the narrative returns to Abarrach in Book Seven, where he comes into more prominence as the desperate-but-strong-willed, and very canny, leader of the remaining Abarrach population.

Balthazar appears in Fire Sea and The Seventh Gate.


 * Action Survivor
 * Anti-Villain (in Fire Sea he takes a somewhat antagonistic role despite having good motivations. He becomes a more purely heroic character in Seventh Gate)
 * Evil Chancellor (subverted. He fits almost all the stereotypes, but is a good man who only wants the best for his people and his prince)
 * Mediator (again, too smart to see anything but the truth. This comes in handy late in the series: )
 * Necromancer

Chelestra
Grundle

A dwarf woman (yes, you heard that right) who is the princess of her tribe. Her two best friends are Alake, the princess of the human population, and Sabia, the princess of the elven tribe. All three races have worked together on a set of submarines called the Sun-Chasers, which are set to do just that: the seasun of Chelestra is migrating, and the mensch must follow it or freeze to death. But then the subs are destroyed by horrendous slimy serpents, who demand that the three princesses be sacrificed to them...

Grundle appears in Serpent Mage.


 * Action Girl (all dwarven women on Chelestra are expected to be proficient in such activities as axe-throwing)
 * Determinator (any time she makes up her mind to do something, it's next to impossible to get her to stop)
 * Everything's Better With Princesses (though her personality is about as far from Princess Classic as you can get...)
 * Plucky Girl (keeps her head remarkably well, considering she's facing villains that are Made of Evil and makes every Spider Sense for miles start tingling)

Devon

A young elf prince who is betrothed to Sabia. He deliberately restrains her and goes to sacrifice himself in her place. Of course, the sub runs over Haplo as they travel, so things go Off the Rails from there, with the "dragon-snakes" swearing allegiance to Haplo. Haplo returns the trio of kids to their families, and helps the mensch plan the next leg in their migration: there is only one landmass in Chelestra that will remain unfrozen no matter where the sea-sun goes, but it is already populated by the Sartan...

Devon appears in Serpent Mage.


 * Cross Dresser (his Paper-Thin Disguise)
 * Non-Action Guy (the elves of Chelestra know the basics of how to use weapons, but since it's been generations since they actually went to war, this isn't good for much besides entertainment at parties and they know it)
 * Perfectly Arranged Marriage (he and Sabia were an arranged couple who were very much in love )
 * Perfectly Arranged Marriage (he and Sabia were an arranged couple who were very much in love )

The Serpents

Called varyingly serpents (by the Sartan) and dragon-snakes (by the mensch), these creatures are literally evil incarnate, created by the hate and fear of the mortal soul and given physical form by the Sundering. Their power is absolute, matched within the series only by their cousins and opposites, the dragons of Pryan, but they are very cunning as well, using their shape-changing to appear in whatever form suits their current purposes. They're immortal themselves, but have a real fondness for the painful deaths of others, whether inflicted by themselves or a third part. Though only introduced in Serpent Mage, they are the ultimate antagonists of the series.

The serpents appear in Serpent Mage, The Hand of Chaos, Into the Labyrinth and The Seventh Gate.


 * Always Chaotic Evil (for obvious reasons...)
 * As Long As There Is Evil
 * Big Bad
 * Cold-Blooded Torture (one of their favorite hobbies, alongisde emotional manipulation)
 * Complete Monster (though some of them with enough personality graduate to Evilly Affable, such as Sang-drax below)
 * Emotion Bomb (they can create artificial terror-auras, though they seem to prefer natural fear when they can cause it)
 * Fighting a Shadow (they can be killed, but it won't stick- and the reborn serpent will be twice as powerful as before)
 * Hive Mind (to an extent. They are united in purpose, but as avatars of chaos they will quarrel among themselves anyway, especially if a particularly powerful leader who was holding the others together is killed)
 * One-Winged Angel (they tend to revert to their true forms in a fight)
 * Scaled Up
 * Reality Warper (their magic is powerful enough to qualify as this- what limitations it has are largely unknown)
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent (and they're Genre Savvy about it. This trope is the reason their default form is giant snakes)
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting

Sang-Drax

A dragon-snake who begins working undercover in Arianus. While he is not the leader of the dragon-snakes in Serpent Mage, he grows into that position in The Hand of Chaos, and serves as The Rival and a Recurring Boss to Haplo.

Sang-drax appears in Serpent Mage (unnamed), The Hand of Chaos, Into the Labyrinth, and The Seventh Gate.


 * Big Bad / The Dragon (Sang-drax is shown to be the chief enforcer of the dragon-snakes' rarely seen Royal One, but it's heavily implied that in some sense the dragon-snakes are all part of the same being.)
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder Four or five times in as many minutes.
 * The Corrupter
 * Evilly Affable
 * Fighting a Shadow (Haplo kills him at the climax of the sixth book. He's back and good as new in the seventh)
 * Made of Evil (like all dragon-snakes)
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Meaningful Name ("Sang-drax" being "snake-dragon" in Elvish)
 * Red Eyes Take Warning
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting