Burk

"TAKE ME TO YOUR TOILET!"

The first protagonist of the comic to be introduced. A mysterious, shirtless man who (literally) falls from the sky in the first chapter.

• Anti-Magic: Magical abilities all seem to fail against him. Not just Goldman's spirit attacks, but also Evyle's Magically Binding Contract have no effect on him. It's implied that Burk is an esper of some sort.
• Badass Cape: He wore one (and used it as a parachute) when he first appeared, but it apparently became a "casualty of war" while he went to the loo.
• Badass Normal: Burk appears to completely lack any form of magic, be it pandemonium magic, spirit magic, or free magic.
  Injured Guard: Your strength is . . . remarkable. What are you? A magic user?
  Burk: Nope, I'm 100% Burk!
• Catchphrase: Saying "Nope." as he dodges attacks.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: When he hears the town has a bandit problem he immediately decides to help.
• Cloudcuckoolander: What else could you call a man who can lose random items of clothing while going to the toilet or fleeing from an angry boar?
• The Drifter: In the first chapter he shows up, defeats the bandits menacing a town, convinces the town's assigned hero to do his job better and moves on without any further comment.
• Eyes Out of Sight: Usually hidden in the shadow cast by his hair. Unless he's hanging upside-down. And they're fully visible when the situation requires wearing his headband.
• Genius Ditz: Burk isn't the brightest bulb in the box and his logic and common sense are warped, but Burk is a masterclass fighter, unmatched by any single combatant he's fought against.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Played with, as occasionally two mini-Burks (one red, one blue) will appear, but they don't argue like most examples, instead complimenting Burk. The Heroland arc reveals that this pair are actual spirits that follow Burk around. Apparently they used to mess with humans like Vonesperda had, but Burk "set [them] straight," so instead they follow him around and offer advice (they would also grant him powers, but Burk has refused). They do seem to take some joy in the chaos Burk brings and give off a Nightmare Face when talking about offering him advice, so their morality is somewhat debatable.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: When he meets a group of bandits, he's able to hit five of them in the face with one punch.
• Goofy Print Underwear: Polka-dot boxers of various colors.
• Idiot Hero: For all his bravery, he doesn't come across as very bright.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When Burk starts fighting seriously (shown by him wearing a headband), he goes from casually (or not) dodging attacks to practically Flash Stepping.
• Lightning Bruiser: Fast enough to dodge most attacks effortlessly, and strong enough to knock out monster boars.
• Logical Weakness: While Burk is fast and nimble enough to dodge most direct attacks, and has some ability to No-Sell magical attacks, there's not much he can do against a massive AOE attack that isn't magical in nature and is too fast to escape from, such as the massive sonic attack Vonesperda unleashed here, which actually caused him to bleed.
• No-Sell: Goldman's abilities all seem to fizzle against Burk, even when he doesn't dodge, with his Golden Bullet that previously took out a Shader failing to do anything, presumably due to Burk's complete lack of magic.
• Not Quite Flight: While he's fighting seriously, Burk moves and jumps so quickly he appears to be flying.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Burk has on several occassions been right in things like what lead to follow for little discernable reason, such as focusing on the talking cats in Eddstadt over the more overt conspiracies. It turns out they are a key piece of the puzzle, but not for the reasons Burk seems to think. It happens enough that other characters sometimes speculate that he knows more than he lets on and is just engaging in Obfuscating Stupidity.
• Taught by Experience: He claims not to have any formal training in combat. Just wrestling with his brother and "defeating things".
• Twinkle in the Eye: Whenever he gets excited.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: On arriving at the town, he wears three things above his waist, one is the aforementioned cape and the other two are his gloves. After dealing with the bandits, his new outfit includes an open waistcoat (which, as his large sprite shows, still exposes impressive abs).
• Wrong Genre Savvy: His attempts to invoke Defeat Means Friendship with one of the bandits' mounts.

Noah

"...? Do I know you people?"

The second protagonist. A snarky young man who lives in the city of Gloria, in the country ofJustopea. He's in Class F at Great Justice High, slightly aloof...and has magic powers in a society where they're strictly controlled with the threat of execution for any magic users.

• Action Survivor: Develops into one over the course of the Chernyl's Nightmare arc. He goes from The Load who's only useful for his Spirit Sight and being physically unable to even climb across a rope to escape certain danger, to someone who actively uses his other Spirit powers to protect himself and his allies. And he's ultimately the one who is able to defeat the Hallowman with his Pandemonium power.
• Asian and Nerdy: Explicitly described as Asian, and prefers to read books rather than interact socially.
• Astral Projection: An extension of his Spirit Sight allows him to send his Spirit senses out of his body, in a cute chibi form.
• Aura Vision: One of the magical abilities that Noah actually works on, and indeed excels at, is Spirit Sight, which lets him see the spirit in his surroundings, including the spirit emanating from other magic users. After some lessons from Ciel, he's shown to something of a prodigy in that aspect, with some of the Royal Guard giving Noah the nickname "Radar" after he aids in a mission.
• Beneath Notice:
  • Detlef is friendly to Noah in his mindscape because he barely paid attention to him before wrapping in his vines,
  • The Hallowman doesn't even address Noah when the group to save Chernyl invaded his inner sanctum, and after being trapped he's baffled how a "worthless nobody" defeated his plans.
• Benevolent Genie: The wishes he makes using his wishing power are granted fairly if not straightforwardly, but it's been noted by Ciel that the mindscape that's used to initialize the wish shapes how it's granted.
• Blood from the Mouth: When Noah starts over-using his Spirit magic, he starts vomiting blood. He has to overuse his other Spirit abilities a lot to stay alive while facing down Chernyl's nightmares, so he's near constantly spitting up blood during that arc.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He's intelligent enough that a kid who gets higher grades than him wants to sit nearby to catch his "Smart beams", but doesn't study.
  • This also applies to his magic powers, he generally applies the lowest amount of effort into the training given by the Empire, and is only motivated by Veda's threat that the children who don't score well enough will be executed instead of going to the magic school. This leads to him being the only one getting a perfect score in the Spirit Mask/Sight test with help from Ciel.
• Child Soldiers: Being in high school, he is one after his induction into the Veda Program, and very unwillingly. Veda plans to use him in a much more subtle area than open combat, that being espionage.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Noah is anti-social, awkward, has almost no fighting skills, frequently cowardly and chronically unmotivated to make more than a token effort, all make Noah an unlikely hero.
• Cursed with Awesome: Noah is naturally talented with Spirit magic, and has a powerful Pandemonium power, but having magical powers in the Empire is a crime punished by execution and his own mother disowns him when she learns the news. As well, he's forced into a Child Soldier program for magic users where he has to go on dangerous missions, with the only other option being death.
• Deadpan Snarker: His very second line is a quip aimed at the radio.
  Radio: AND ALWAYS REMEMBER, PEOPLE; THE EMPIRE LOVES YOU, AS LONG AS YOU SHOW LOVE FOR THE EMPIRE!
  Noah: [switches radio off] I'll remember that just fine, thank you.
• Deal with the Devil: The Grey Child forces him to make a deal to save his life from the Dentist. The Grey Child gets to dictate two of Noah's wishes, and Noah gets 15 minutes of the Dentist being frozen in time, unable to operate on him, giving Noel and Gazz time to rescue him, and a hint to a future danger.
• Deliberate Under-Performance: In his group lessons with Garth he puts in as little effort as he can, in an attempt to draw attention away from himself. Until he learns from Veda that the points they're scoring are a measure of their worth to the Empire, and underperformers will be kicked out of the program and therefore executed.
• Diving Save: Uses his Spirit to catapult himself towards Noel to save him from Legs' attack, pushing him out of the way.
• Draco in Leather Pants: He's one to his classmates In-Universe. His snarkyness and the fact he barely even recognises people in the same class makes him more attractive to them.
• The Drag-Along: Noah would prefer to read a nice book alone in his room, and not be forced onto dangerous missions. His high proficiency in Spirit Sight means that Veda and the Empire force him to do onto dangerous missions.
• Faustian Rebellion: He immediately realizes that granting the Grey Child's wish of having "full and alienable control of Chernyl's power" is a terrible idea and Noah takes a measured gamble that the Grey Child doesn't have a way to enforce Noah's end of the deal and that the threat the Grey Child made was toothless.
• Foil:
  • To Gazz. While Gazz has many traits of a Stock Shōnen Hero, being hot blooded, friendly, having a strong sense of justice, and who has to train to increase his abilities, Noah fits the mold of a Stock Light-Novel Hero, being introverted, unfriendly, unmotivated, and has an ability that allows him to acquire new abilities more quickly.
  • To Chernyl. While Chernyl is Blessed with Suck with a powerful Pandemonium power that ruins her life because she can't control it, Noah is Cursed with Awesome with a powerful Pandemonium power he can control, but which also ruined his life.
• The Gift: When Noah is pushed, he's shown to have a great deal of talent when it comes to Spirit magic. His Spirit Mask and Spirit Sight are highly developed, he can reinforce his Spirit creations to protect himself even while unconscious (or at least Ciel can), and he learns the basics of Spirit Encase after being shown it once by Noel despite barely having used its less advanced predecessor Spirit Cover. Similarly to Spirit Encase, he manages to utilize Featherweight after being shown it once by Noel, and then combines it with his other skills to have limited flight.
• Glasgow Grin: After waking up in the hospital in the aftermath of the Haven city nightmare outbreak, thanks to The Dentist's horrific jaw contraption Noah sports stitches extending past the corners of his lips.
• Hates Being Touched: Noah prefers for his personal space to not be invaded by anybody. He doesn't have a freak out when it gets invaded, but is deeply uncomfortable and he's quick to ask the offending party to remove themselves. Ciel being so intimately linked to his mind is part of why he's uncomfortable with her.
• Heroic Host: As a Pandemonium magic user, Noah is unknowingly bonded with a spirit of Pandemonium, which grants him the special power to magically create a representation of another creature's current state of mind and then physically enter it. Successfully navigating this mental landscape by traveling to a place where the person hasn't been to, grants him a wish.
• Heroic Neutral: Noah has no wish to be part of the Empire's magic special forces, he'd rather just go to school and read books alone in his room, but unfortunately for Noah the Empire knows where he lives, and he is given the ultimatum to either join and be useful, or be executed for being a magic user.
• Innocently Insensitive: While Noah can be purposefully rude, he often expresses surprise when one of his statements or actions unintentionally causes offense to the other party.
• In-Series Nickname
  • His first nickname "Windows" comes from his first magic teacher Garth because he first met Noah when it looked like he was talking to himself in a window.
  • His second nickname "Radar" comes from the Royal Guards and how his use of Spirit Sight allowed them to easily find and capture a handful of Malhart's orphans and later his role in the Chernyl disaster.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Noah is rude, dismissive and unfriendly at his best, but he can be surprisingly nice when he wants to.
  • He tells Felix about the 50 point cut-off and the danger it represents to those magic-users who don't meet it, even at the cost of incurring Veda's wrath if she finds out he told.
  • When talking with Chernyl inside her mindscape, he expresses sympathy for the unlucky hand she got dealt in life, and is willing to risk exposure of his wishing power to help her, even though doing so would likely drag him even further away from having a normal life.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: One half of his power is essentially this; the ability to disappear into a person's Mental World.
• The Klutz: Noah is very physically un-coordinated, excused from his weapon training classes prior to the series because he was a danger to himself and his classmates. He's also shown tripping and falling on his face several times throughout the story. This is enforced by the author themselves because Neorice made sprites for Noah tripping and fell in love with them.
• The Load: Noah is physically unfit in many areas, has no combat training like others his age, and is unmotivated at best even when stuck in the middle of a combat situation. His high proficiency in Spirit Sight is the one qualifying factor in why he's taken along in group missions.
• Loners Are Freaks: He plays into this to get others to leave him alone, the other members of the Veda Project see him as an anti-social weirdo who talks to himself.
• Make a Wish: One half of his power is to enter the Mental World of somebody nearby, and the other half is to grant a wish he has before he entered their Mental World.
• Mental World: His own mental world takes the form of an underground subway station where two of his shadows on the wall talk to him. He's perplexed on exactly why it's a subway station.
• Minor Living Alone: A highschooler living in a dorm. Which looks more like an apartment complex.
• Nerves of Steel: Downplayed in that he often looks surprised when something catches him off-guard, but is usually back to being The Stoic in the next panel. He otherwise reacts quite calmly to (for example) finding himself in a dark place with his own shadow talking to him.
• Non-Action Guy: He was given an exception to the mandatory weapons training proved to students, meaning that he's more-or-less one of the few students who can't use a weapon of some sort. To elaborate: his teachers found that a weapon in his hands is equally dangerous to himself and anybody near.
  • Whenever in a combat situation, Noah's first instinct is to perform no aggressive actions and provide only passive support using his magic sensing abilities.
• Not a Morning Person: The first thing he does in Chapter 2 is complain about being woken up by the radio.
• Oh, Crap!: He loses all traces of calmness when he's arrested at the end of his first chapter.
• Parental Abandonment: His parents never married and father lived separately. Later his mother disowns him after he's arrested for being a magic user. Ironically, his father comes back to try to patch things up, and after a rough start, Noah accepts his father's offer to be there when he needs it.
• Power Stereotype Flip: Noah's power to invade somebody's mind is a very invasive and personal thing and as well having Ciel share his mind contrasts Noah valuing his privacy and how he hates getting close to others, socially or physically.
• Pretty Boy: Outright called this by Natasha, one of Malhart's orphans.
• Spanner in the Works: His presence at the location where the Hallowman is holding Chernyl foils the Hallowman's entire plan because he had no clue that Noah could enter Chernyl's mind.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: And it makes him quite attractive to his classmates.

Tobi

The third protagonist. A dark skinned, pointy eared young lady who lives in the desert town of Raul (and wears blue lipstick, for some reason).

• Action Girl: She raids dungeons for a living.
• Action Survivor: Who's been surviving all her life. Lorg Blood Sports are easy compared to everyday Dungeon Crawling of Rauel.
• Adventure Archaeologist: She's first seen being assigned to an exploration party in a new dungeon that's just appeared in the desert.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Her black eye has a habit of flipping sides with her facing.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: She's apparently cleared dungeons of up to level 5, but can't be bothered to remember.
• Clarke's Third Law: Tobi's skills with technology, including repairing technology nobody else can, may as well be magic to the people of Lorg. At some point, she decides that it's easier and safer to explain her techno-vision and skills as magic than try to actually explain it, even though she doesn't actually believe in magic (and searches for a more mundane explanation to the abilities possessed by magic users) or even know what it is.
• Gadgeteer Genius: She's introduced "inventing", or so she claims. She also has supernatural understanding of mechanisms and electronics.
• Kid with the Leash: Tobi is the only one who can "command" Three, and for this reason Shahlia and the Global Order are very interested in her, as they couldn't control him themselves.
• Meaningful Name: Her full name is Tobi King and ghouls tend to see her as some sort of leader or at least figure of respect/importance and even address her as "My king".
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Of group one in the Smile Foundation Games (herself, Fox, and Levin), she's the nice. At no point in any game so far has she backstabbed anyone, including being the only one who definitely didn't try to dump a competitor into a pit in the first area. Illustrated in the vote to kill or spare Jay-Jay, where she immediately votes to spare her despite not knowing her and even though doing so would add another competitor to the games.
• Pointy Ears/Little Bit Beastly: Also claws in place of nails. Along with the rest of Rauel. They're not humans by standards of The Empire. Or the rest of the world.
• Survivor Guilt: After the events of her first chapter, she becomes quite upset at the injuries Sari and Joni suffered.
• Throw Down The Bomblette: Her preferred class is Bombardier.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Her weapon of choice is some sort of glaive, as befitting her practical nature.

Held Purpermane/van Draeckynburg

The fourth (and most recent) protagonist introduced. A young girl born with magical abilities in a kingdom during a period where all magic users were purged, she was left with her uncle (an accomplished magic user himself) to keep her safe.

• Blue Blood: The daughter of a Vallance Crownholder duke.
• Child Prodigy: Being born with magic is already uncommon, but what sets Held apart is that she was able to use spirit techniques ever since she was an infant, though her body wasn't quite as ready to use them yet, frequently resulting in her coughing up blood after using Spirit.
• Daddy's Girl: As her father was the only one to raise her, she has a close relationship with him and tries her best to make him proud of her.
• Fragile Speedster: Is able to move extremely fast, to the point that it resembles teleportation to the untrained eye. However, not only is she still very young and vulnerable, her body isn't yet able to handle the strain of using magic, frequently resulting magic backlash.
• Mark of the Supernatural: Held was born with vivid pink hair, which is what tipped her parents off that she could be a magic user. This was unfortunate for them, as not only were they living in a kingdom and period where magic users were distrusted to the point of slaughtering them, but her father was in charge of carrying out said purges. He left her with her uncle as a way to not have to kill his daughter.
• Precocious Crush: Has one of these for Valiant, an older student of Zelmeyer, who helped stopped the older students from bullying her. Valiant, for his part, doesn't quite return the affection due to the age difference (Held was around 9 at the time, and he seems to be his late teens), but doesn't crush Held's dreams by dismissing her affections outright, instead saying he has to focus on being accepted into Vallance.
• The Promise: Makes one of these with Valiant, a fellow student of Zelmeyer whom she had a Precocious Crush on, that they would both do their best to make it into Valliance, a meritocratic country that welcomes magic users. This becomes even more significant to Held when Valiant disappears (possibly even dies) after stopping an invasion from a hostile spirit.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Held can be a surprising threat in a fight, even before she was 10 years old, as she can combine her notably fast reflexes with magically enhanced speed to land lethal blows. However, beyond some swordfighting lessons from her father, she has little to no training in using her magic, and despite managing to greviously wound a Lerolander that was seeking to assassinate her and her father with quick thinking, she has little experience in real fights. Her father sends her away to study under a magic teacher named Zelmeyer to correct this weakness, in particular hoping that it could reduce the amount of magic backlash Held seems to experience.

Pablo C. Deralde

A royal diplomat from the nation of Livarall. Burk rescues him shortly after leaving Resthill, when he ends up in a town controlled by outlaws. He's been sent out to warn people of a dangerous criminal who escaped from his home country.

• Action Survivor: Pablo has little combat skill, but his Diplomatic Arsenal allows him to survive many scrapes.
• Calling Your Attacks: In his case, his numbered "diplomatic weapons".
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: He starts serving as this to Burk, since they're headed to the same place anyway.
• Crazy-Prepared/Guile Hero: He can defend himself with his "Diplomatic Arsenal", which consists of various trick items (and money).
• Real Men Wear Pink: He wears flowing pink/purple robes and doesn't seem the least bit embarrassed about it.
• The Team Benefactor: As a diplomat, he can go places most people wouldn't be allowed, and he can also provide Diplomatic Weapon #1.

Bandit Gang

• Defeat Means Friendship: When Burk punches out five of them in one go, they consider the possibility that he might be able to help them.
• Heel–Face Turn: The moment they realise Burk could deal with the real bandits, they immediately turn against their "leaders".
• Lawman Gone Bad: Were apparently members of the guard, before the real bandits and the "hero" showed up.
• Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: Friendly might be stretching it, but they certainly have some loyalty to the town.
• Mooks: Burk was able to defeat five of them with one punch.

Daryll

"Do not speak positively of that 'hero', ever. If it was not for that man we wouldn't be reduced to petty criminals."

The leader of the bandits and former Captain of the town guard.

• Berserk Button: He really doesn't like Logan.
• He's Back!: Averted In-Universe; when he puts on his old uniform and doesn't do this, they realise something's wrong.

Norman

"Do you guys remember that guy who punched all of us at once? I asked him to help us defeat the bandits!"

A member of the bandit gang. He lives in the town with his younger sister and brother.

• Defeat Means Friendship: When he gets punched in the face by Burk, he invites him into his house (and lets him use his outhouse) and asks him to help with the bandit problem.
• Don't Tell Mama: He doesn't want his siblings to know he's a bandit.
• Mr. Exposition: Explains the exact situation with the bandits to Burk.
• Promotion to Parent: Implied, since he and his siblings appear to live on their own.

Resthill Town Guard

Injured Guard

"If you want to fight them, I can't stop you. Just be warned it cost those stupid enough to try an arm and a leg."

One of two men guarding the entrance to the town. He's missing two limbs.

• Bald of Authority: He seems to be the mentor/superior of the other guard at the gate.
• Deadpan Snarker: "That's right, we're fighting back today."
• Retired Badass/Handicapped Badass: He's missing a limb (apparently from trying to fight off the bandits).

Nervous Guard

"I uh...can't say I've been trained for a situation like this."

The second guard on the gate. His brother's apparently the leader of the gang.

• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: He has this relationship with Daryl, who apparently became a bandit thanks to an unspecified grudge with the town's hero.
• New Meat: He appears to still be being trained (the first thing we see him do is get coached by the injured guard on how to deal with...Burk wearing a cape over his head).

Other Resthill residents

Melany and Grandpa

Melany: Look, can you just ignore my Grandpa and tell us what you want?

Grandpa: YEAH!

A young woman and her grandfather.

• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Melany's grandfather isn't quite all there.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Grandpa believes that the fashion police are after him.
• Curtains Match the Window: Melany has blue hair and eyes.
• Recurring Extras: Aside from introducing the bandits in the first few strips, they mostly serve to serve as bystanders.

The Aristocrat

"It's quite obvious I'm your only hope."

An unnamed man of obvious means. He's following an amulet which is pointing at something he hopes will make him the most powerful hero of all time.

• Berserk Button: Having his clothes damaged.
  • And not being the center of attention.
• The Dandy: He cares a great deal about his clothes and appearance.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: Tries to set himself up as one after defeating one of the bandits. He's called out almost immediately.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Like Burk, he's pretty confident in the power of his punches.
• It's All About Me: And his clothes.
• Kick the Dog: While looking for Burk, he punches Daryll's brother in the face and steals his shoes, then dangles the injured guard upside down by his one remaining ankle.
• Punched Across the Room: For all his arrogance, his "Destiny Punch" is more than enough to defeat a heavily armored bandit.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: The Aristocrat has incredibly little common sense and is immensely wealthy.

The Real Bandits

• Chain Pain: One of the bandits fights with a chain.
• Dirty Coward: Both try to run away when it becomes apparent that Burk's a realistic threat to them.
• Full-Boar Action/Cool Horse: They ride giant acid spewing pigs. They apparently aren't that dangerous without them.
• I Gave My Word: They've agreed not to harm any of the townsfolk (although outsiders are fair game). Of course this is more out of fear of the hero who made them promise not to than any sincerity on their part. One also agrees not to use magic if he's defeated by mundane means (although it's left ambiguous if he'll keep to it).
• Playing with Fire: The stronger of the two fights by flinging around fireballs.
• Tin Tyrant: They both wear heavy armour with face concealing helms.
• Variable-Length Chain: The aforementioned chain the first bandit to be defeated uses seems to expand from his sleeves.

Heroland

Logan Alexander/"Sky Cleaver"

The "Professional Hero" assigned to Resthill. A mysterious figure who was content to let the bandits harass the town, as long as they only killed outsiders. Has a feud with Daryl which he considers "petty".

• Amazing Technicolor Population: He has grey skin, which is unusual enough for Daryl to taunt him over.

• Badass Bookworm: He's introduced calmly reading a book shirtless, showing off his muscles, despite apparently being in the middle of a duel with Daryl.
• Badass Cape: His armour includes an elaborate blue one, with a clasp on one shoulder.
• Blow You Away: He has the power to project a tornado from his hand.
• Covered in Scars: He has a truly impressive collection when he first appears (outside of a flashback).
• Famed in Story: In 2 villages, 12 cities and 2 nations, apparently.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: He wears a large metal gauntlet on one hand and his cape has a clasp on one side, amongst other things.
• Flight: He's capable of self propelled, wingless flight.
• Gag Nose: His nose is long and pointed, in keeping with his aloof personality.
• Honour Before Reason: The reason he allowed the Bandits to keep harassing the town as long as they only killed outsiders, as well as agreeing to start being more proactive when Burk defeats him in a duel.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When Burk pulls his own version, he decides to start fighting with his weapon it doesn't do him much good and Burk defeats him on the next panel.
• Not So Stoic: He seems quite unflappable until Burk manages to annoy him.
• Shirtless Scene: His first appearance outside of flashbacks. (Word of God is it was because reading a book without a shirt looks cool.)

Secretary Wu-Cha

Logan Alexander's "secretary". Some sort of automaton who screens visitors to his house.

• Electronic Eyes: Pale grey eyes which are capable of glowing different (mismatched) colours when she's doing something...robot-y?
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her arms are mismatched green and blue. Her eyes have the same colour scheme when they light up, but reversed (although they can also turn red and orange).
• Robot Girl: Her appearance is closer to a Fembot, but she was clearly designed to resemble (and acts like) a female secretary. Lampshaded when one of the guards asks about this and she thinks he's hitting on her.
  Guard: W-what's up with her? Is she some sort of human doll?
  Wucha: !!! ...you made me blush!
• Robot Hair: A blonde Sci-Fi Bob Haircut (although the artstyle doesn't make it clear whether it's stiff or not). Justified, as she's meant to superficially resemble a human.
• Stat-O-Vision: She is able to scan people to confirm whether they're a guard or registered hero before letting them through. Burk only gives her a partial match, but is still allowed through.

Goldman

• Stat-O-Vision: Goldman's power is to detect his odds of winning against any opponent. Or at least any non-esper opponent.

Mastermind

Evyle de Villette

• Anti-Magic: Going against her contracts tends to result in a loss of any and all magical powers.
• Card-Carrying Villain: The name of her company is "Megamind", its logo is a laughing devil, and it is not even remotely the most up-front villainous thing about her. She hangs a lampshade on it when she reveals, to the surprise of absolutely no-one, that "Evyle de Villette" isn't her birthname: it's what she's legally changed her name into.
• Evil Is Petty: Extremely. This page reveals just how she's willing to go spite someone by burning down her own business in order to take down the spirit that had been using it for its own ends. Her Motive Rant also explains that instead of feeling loss from that act, it actually felt euphoric to her.
• Handicapped Badass: She only has one arm, which doesn't remotely slow her down from being one of the most dangerous people in Eddstadt.
• Hates Their Parent: Evyle does not like her father, at one point referring to him as "that murderous bastard who happened to conceive me." It's likely one of the reasons why she legally changed her name, to distance herself from him.
• In Love with Your Carnage: A platonic version, she loves how Burk ignores common sense and causes chaos in pursuit of his goals of being a hero.
• Invisible Writing: Her contracts often contain clauses written in invisible ink, which is just as magically-binding as what she writes in normal, visible ink.
• Magically Binding Contract: Her spirit manipulation manifests as the ability to write magical contracts. Heroland uses her services to keep any of their reformed (or "reformed") criminals in-line, and even their more conventional heroes.
• Meaningful Name: She legally renamed herself "Evil" which tells you everything you need to know about her.
• Motive Rant: Page 3796 onwards is basically explaining to Vonesperda that while she was initially happy enough to quietly work for the corrupt executives in exchange for money and the opportunity to still insult them, the actions of Vonesperda have made that impossible. However, after meeting Burk and seeing how freely he lives his life, she realizes that she finds it much more fun to spite her enemies regardless of the cost, saying that even burning her business to the ground was utterly worth it just to get back at someone.
• Pet the Dog: Releases her loyal minion Corkscrew from his contract when she's about to burn down Mastermind, letting him escape.
• Red Herring: After being set up as one of the major antagonists of the the Eddstadt arc, it turns out that while she's not a pleasant or morally upstanding person, she had no idea about the larger conspiracy, as her assistant had actually been colluding with a parasitic spirit to alter her magical contracts behind her back to gain the powers of any heroes who break them without her knowing, framing Evyle in the process. Once she learns what's going on from Pablo, she even agrees to an alliance to take down the true villains, albeit moreso out of a desire for payback.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: Her name sounds like "Evil Devil/Villain", and she is by all accounts far from the most morally upstanding character. It turns out that she picked this herself, with her original name being Mixette... which she hated.
• Token Evil Teammate: Joins up with Burk's crew after the Heroland arc, and is mostly in it for the chaos she'll cause.
• Villain Respect: Instantly develops this towards Burk, of all people, once she meets him in person. Realizing that he's chosen to be a hero just for the heck of it, while she's decided to be a villain for similarly immature reasons, makes her instantly understanding of him. Rather than attempting to uncover some Hidden Depths underneath some supposed facade of his, like Nightshade did, she takes Burk, in all his pantsless ridiculousness, at face value and strikes up an allegiance with him to get back at the Eddstadt Executives.
• True Sight: Like all espers, she can see the spiritual world.

Illuani the Hatter

• Badass Boast: "I am no mere criminal. I am calamity. I am a paragon of death, suffering, and destruction. Do you not understand who you are up against? You are merely delaying the inevitable."
• Big "WHAT?!": Illuani loudly shouts "W-WHAT!?" after Guy reveals "exactly who he is".
• Calling Your Attacks: Announces his attacks and tricks as "Illegal Weapon" just as surely as Pablo calls his with "Diplomatic Weapon".
• Card-Carrying Villain: As seen in Badass Boast, he revels in his villainy.
• He Knows Too Much: His primary job is "cleaning up" witnesses to Heroland and Mastermind's less savory acts.
• Incendiary Exponent: One of his "Illegal Weapons" is non-lethal Self-Immolation. He uses it to escape Pablo's beeswax trap (and also to look all the more badass as he gives his Badass Boast).
• Signature Headgear: As his nickname suggests, he has a quite nice Livarian hat. It's full of various Livarian gadgets and he boasts of his hat's greater size compared to Pablo's as an advantage in their fight.
• Underestimating Badassery: Even after Guy kicks his swarm of Livarian Death Wasps to death, Illuani dismisses Guy as a nobody. Guy informs him that he'll soon understand how wrong he his.

Clovercoast and Mage Baron's Castle

Lacey

• Honour Before Reason: Don't say his king is dead where he can hear you.
• Meaningful Name: He's a master of traps out of thin strings.
• Undying Loyalty: Is utterly faithful to King Ramien, and will not stand for any perceived insult to him (even if it's saying that Ramien was killed, which multiple eye witnesses say he was though Ramien did in fact survive the attack on him).

Ariara

• Arc Villain: Ariara is the main antagonist of the Mage Castle arc of Burk's story.
• Artificial Limbs: She has a metal right arm, which is the primary means through which she takes control of other metal objects.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Ariara possesses an incredibly powerful metal manipulation power that allows her to control any metal she touches, any metal that touches any metal that she controls, or any within about ten paces of any metal she controls and uses as an "antenna".
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Despite being a hardened criminal, she doesn't actually swear, saying "effing" where others might say "fucking" and Hero oh Hero isn't a webcomic with a strict "no swearing" policy.
• Made of Iron: Puns about her powers aside, Ariara proves able to take a truly staggering amount of punishment over her various fights. She even survives taking a giant magical laser to the face, as shown in the bonus comics.
• Samus Is a Girl: Most of the world assumes the Pirate of the Storm is a man as few people have seen her and lived to to tell about it.
• Taken for Granite: A magic user with the power to turn people to gold does just that to her. Due to her incredible magical power, it only sticks for a few minutes.

Ciel

A mysterious (but cheerful) spirit Noah meets after finding himself in an unknown location after being attacked by an elf. She denies being an elf, and she's clearly not human, but claims to be an extension of Noah formed from his wish for a guide. After she appears in Noah's Mental World subway station, the pair of talking shadows that previously talked to him disappeared.

• Ambiguously Evil: Her exact moral compass isn't clear. While she does attempt to help Noah, there's a lot about her that Noah finds either annoying or offsetting, including how she's referred to Noah jumping into a person's mind as meals for herself. This isn't helped by her urging Noah to do so with various powerful magic users in spite of the risk it poses.
• Cannot Tell a Lie: Ciel cannot willingly tell Noah a known falsehood.
• Dissonant Serenity: Ciel never shows much emotion, even in the face of imminent danger to Noah.
• Fairy Companion: A small, floating humanoid with wings who accompanies Noah wherever he goes.
• Fairy Godmother: Inverted. She doesn't grant Noah wishes, and is the result of a wish he made using his power and is changed by the wishes he himself makes. She's very helpful and loyal to Noah, but Noah is wary of relying on her too much.
• Horned Humanoid: One of the less subtle signs she's not human.
• Spirit Advisor: She claims she was created from Noah's wishing power to fulfill his wish for a "manual." She's very helpful in aiding Noah, but she's limited to the information that Noah has perceived or learned. However, she can perceive everything Noah can and come to conclusions independently of Noah, even if he doesn't consciously realize it, letting her bring his attention to things that he otherwise would miss.
• The Symbiote: A mutualistic symbiote. Her usefulness to linked directly to Noah's use of his mind travel/wishing powers and the magical potency of whose mindscape they're in. His first wish in his own mindscape made her come into being, his second wish let her communicate with him outside of his dreams but also weakened her because it came from a cow, and his third seemed to briefly transform her into a much more eldritch form before her next appearance showed her with with only bigger horns. In turn, she helps Noah by providing and sorting information, and helps protect him.
• Trickster Mentor: She's the one who explains (or rather gives Noah the puzzle pieces to figure out) he has magic powers, as well as some of their applications (such as Spirit Sight).

The Shadows

• Cryptic Conversation: The conversation they have with Noah when he falls asleep in class tells him almost nothing, save that he is "sick" and "he is home."

Great Justice High

Jean

A schoolboy seen with the Blonde Girl, also from class C.

• Deadpan Snarker: He apparently can't resist the opportunity to slip in a quip.
  "Hey, what did you expect me to say?"
• Dirty Coward: Runs away the moment Sam says he's only going to attack his classmate.
• With Friends Like These...: Even before abandoning her, he was making jokes at his friend's expense.

Jash

"Personally I think you're a weirdo, but you'd do wonders for my reputation."

One of Noah's classmates who leads a Girl Posse.

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: She asks Noah out because of this trope.
• Alpha Bitch: She's rude, accompanied by a Girl Posse and asked out Noah simply because he was popular (sort of).
• Blush Sticker: She has the "one on each cheek" variant. It contrasts with her frown.
• Perpetual Frowner: She's drawn with he eyebrows constantly pointed down.

July

A member of Jash's Girl Posse who she's constantly telling to shut up.

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Unlike Jash, she appears to be legitimately attracted to Noah.
• Deadpan Snarker: She's not opposed to making fun of her "friend".
• Smug Smiler: In contrast to Jash's frown.
• Stalker with a Crush: Towards Noah, although it might just be to taunt Jash. Jash even calls her out on it.
  • After Noah gets arrested and outed for being a magic user, she angrily demands he stays away from her and calls him an "unnatural weirdo", implying she is over her crush.

Al

Another student in Class F. He seems to be on friendly terms with Noah (or as friendly as he gets).

• Ditzy Genius: His grades are good, but he's first seen panicking about a test and looking for someone clever to sit near and pick up "smart beams" from and insists on calling the subway the "Super Awesome Subway".
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: He frequently states the obvious as if he's had some sort of insight.
  "It'd make sense to hide it if she uses her magic for illegal purposes."
• Nerd Glasses: He gets good grades and wears round, wide framed glasses.
• Skewed Priorities: His response to the school swarming with guards who'll only say that all will be explained in class?
  "Does this mean we won't have a test today?"

Mr. Chang

• Mr. Exposition: Neorice even points out that "he only speaks the truth" in The Rant, although he quickly defers to a visiting royal guard.

Criminals

Shark Face Sam

• Badass Longcoat: He wears a long raincoat and he's certainly badass enough to be a fear criminal.
• The Dreaded: He's notorious enough that Jean recognises him immediately.
• Gonk: His deformed face is apparently the source of his nickname. The Rant for comic #224 implies that it was the result of an attack of some sort.
  "Someone carved Sharkface Sam's face in once. He wishes to return the favor to the world."

Switchblade Mickey

"'ey, pay your respects to Switchblade Mickey as well, kid!"

Sam's accomplice. He's armed as his nickname suggests.

• Meaningful Name: As Neorice says in The Rant;
  "Unlike Sharkface Sam, Switchblade Micky's nickname can be taken to be literal."
• And Zoidberg: He's quite annoyed when Jean only notices Sam.

The Empire of Justopea

Guy Juliet

A famous police detective who visits Noah in the hospital to grill him about his encounter with the elves. Recently promoted to a desk job he isn't too thrilled about. He later appears in Burk's arc and joins his party.

• Cigar Chomper: Right down to gesturing by removing it from his mouth.
• Cowboy Cop: It's hard to say if he always acted like one, or if he's putting it on to get demoted, but...
• Kicked Upstairs: He isn't too pleased with his promotion, even going as far to try and get Noah to report him and get him demoted.
• Put on a Bus: See Reassigned to Antarctica. Subverted: he moves to Burk's plotline.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Guy kicks over a dozen "Livarian Death Wasps" out of the air in only a few seconds, causing Illuani to lament how expensive Death Wasps are to breed.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He suspects Noah's a magic user, but thinks there are more important things to investigate. He more or less tells Noah he can deny everything and get off scott free. Which turns out not to be entirely true, but there we go.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Has to leave Justopea after finding that Veda brutally murdered a radical, who attacked her. Supposedly, revealing this to public would threaten Project Veda. Before leaving, Guy warns Noah not to tell anyone what he saw that day.

Emperor Justin

"GREETINGS, MY LOYAL CITIZENS!"

The ruler of the Empire.

• Anime Hair: Not to the extend of APtGG, but he still sports impressively tall locks.

The Royal Guard

A group said to number a dozen of mysterious men and women who wear gold trimmed blue uniforms with intricate masks. A combination of assassins, spies and the Emperor's bodyguards.Tropes which apply to them include:

• Badass Normal: They're wholly human, but display incredible physical feats.
• Elite Mook: In terms of physical prowess they're far above normal humans and can easily subdue or kill weak and inexperienced mages, but against powerful magic users like Catz or Malhart they're incapacitated easily.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In the opening, they decide to let the Blonde Girl beat up Shark Faced Sam and his gang before they arrest her for it on the grounds he has it coming.
• Large Ham: The guard who talks to Class F can't seem to go more than three sentences...without a dramatic pause, or even...SHOUTING!
• Mage Killer: One of their purposes is to hunt mages, and the reason they wear gold trim is to dampen the effect of magic on them. Against untrained or weak mages they're very effective, but Catz and his horde of constructs, and later Malhart, are shown to defeat them easily.
• Malevolent Masked Men: They haven't done anything outright evil (aside from arrest the blonde girl on trumped up/exaggerated charges), but they're certainly sinister and they work for The Empire.
• Praetorian Guard: Their main purpose is to protect the Emperor.
• Secret Police: They operate openly, but people are in awe of them and they seem to hunt down magic users.
• Tyke-Bomb: They're said to be trained from birth.

Eloy Delian

• The Alcoholic: Almost never seen without a bottle of alcohol in his hand, even while performing his official duties.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: For all of his rampant alcoholism, he's not shown to be reprimanded in any way, likely because including him there's only around a dozen Royal Guards in the Empire, and he still has the skills even when drunk.

Admiral Jones

The woman in charge of the Empire's Navy.

• Action Girl: She's introduced swearing at an elf, before subsequently shooting him in the head.
• The Gunslinger: She's able to shoot an elf from across a dark room.

Admiral Dare

The man in charge of the Empire's Navy.

Constable Bradley

The man in charge of the Empire's police force.

• Anime Hair: Even more so than the Emperor; he sports red, spiky hair with black roots.

The Elves

A group of magic using humans who're called elves as an insult within The Empire, which they're at war with.

• Fantastic Slur: They're called elves as an insult because of their resemblance to mythical elves.
• Green Thumb: Their magic mainly revolves around the ability to control plants.
• Lured into a Trap: Their assassination plot was co-opted in some way by the Empire as a trap, they outright call it suspicious that so many untrained kids conveniently had magic and were able to harm and kill the elves despite having more experience as magic users.
• Our Elves Are Different: On two levels; the HOH universe has at least one magic using race of humans called elves...apparently as an insult because they resembled elves that already "existed" in the Empire's mythologies.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The elves commit terrorist actions to try to free, or at least free part of, land that the Empire took from their people. Detlef's memory has him see it as a violent, unprovoked and unannounced attack.

Detlef

An elf who was waiting to ambush some soldiers. He's quite affable (when he isn't trying to kill someone) and enjoys a good drink or two.

• The Alcoholic: He's introduced drinking, his speech is slurred and he gets angry when his beer is spilled.
• Ear Ache: Aude bites his ear off.
• Selective Magnetism: He's able to create a point which pulls Nails sword towards it without attracting any other metal objects in range including Nail's spare sword.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The younger Detlef encountered inside his Mental World is a lot kinder than his current alcoholic self, casually saving Noah from a dinosaur and being friendly.
• Verbal Tic: Calls other people "Bro", and apparently likes other people to address him the same way.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: He shows reluctance (or at least disappointment at having to) to attack Noah, Aude and Nail and was going to let them go until Aude threw her mace at him and made him drop his beer.

Assassin Elf

An unnamed elf who tries to assassinate the Emperor while he's giving a speech.

• Killed Mid-Sentence: Via a shot to the head from Admiral Jones.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He demonstrated the ability to magically disguise himself as a guard.

Project Veda / Barnrose Project

Professor Null

One of the Empire's new consultants on magic.

• Smart People Wear Glasses: He's a professor, and his eyes are hidden by a pair of spectacles.
• White Hair, Black Heart: He's a Mad Scientist working for an oppressive Empire, so naturally he sports shoulder length white hair.

Ms. Lina Veda

One of the Empire's new consultants on magic.

• Accent Slip-Up: She has some troubles with Justopean orthography — understandable for a foreigner. She once referred to human height as "length" — which raises some questions.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Veda tends to start with politeness, but often resorts to threats and rudeness if a conversation isn't going her way.
• Citywide Evacuation: She requests one when she goes to confront Malhart Knowing that doing so would unleash Chernyl's nightmare powers. The army was only able to provide a single block evacuation.
• Eye Scream: Is revealed to be alive but held captive by the Hallowman during the Nightmare arc. Apparently not able to land any lethal hits on Veda due to some mysterious protection she has, the Hallowman exploits the loophole of non-lethal wounds... by ripping out her eye. He does this more so to torment Nail so that he would give information that the Hallowman wanted.
• Ms. Fanservice: She's tall and wears a variety of revealing dresses, to the delight of Noah's classmates.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Most notable in her dialogue with Malhart: Veda is rude and arrogant, to Malhart's more polite and genial attitude.
• Porky Pig Pronunciation: While infrequent, she does sometimes fail to pronounce a word a few times before substituting another due to her stutter, and possibly compounded by her imperfect grasp of Justopean language. As an example, when referring to an infamous vandal's choice of meeting place, she says she "expected something m-more grandiose from this ena-enag-g-^note enigmatic eh, mysterious painter".
• Speech Impediment: Veda has a fairly severe stutter, which she doesn't let get in the way of reminding everyone around her of her importance or intellect.
• Statuesque Stunner: Noted by many to be beautiful and she's noticeably taller than normal humans.
• Too Clever by Half: Her plan to acquire Chernyl, and by extension her power over nightmares, by disabling Malhart ends up facilitating the Hallowman's own plans and getting herself kidnapped and tortured.
• Underestimating Badassery: Veda grossly underestimated the rate at which Chernyl's powers would grow and how dangerous the beings spawned by her power could be.

Nail

A mysterious and loyal assistant of Lina Veda. May be mistaken for a student because of his height. Has his face covered by a surgical mask and hood, which he refuses to remove under any circumstances.

• The Blank: Hides his face under sunglasses, mask and hood shadow.
• Dull Surprise: He doesn't show a lot of concern when he sees Veda get grabbed by a giant hand from underneath the street and dragged away. Because he was confident that she wouldn't be able to be killed.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: The official story from the Haven incident is that Nail was able to stop Chernyl by applying his black crystal knife to her and nullifying her powers, and thus was given the most credit in the mission.
• Implacable Man: Nail has been shown to suffer damage that would kill or severely incapacitate other people, and be at least visually none the worse for wear afterwards. Nightmares in large enough groups slow him down, but he'll eventually butcher his way through. Getting swallowed by a nightmare in the shape of a giant baby has him carve his way out of its stomach. The only thing that is able stop him is when the Hallowman impales his limbs and lifts him off the floor, leaving him incapable of freeing himself.
• Mage Killer: Nail specializes in fighting magic-users and their constructs, as he is in some way resistant or immune to magical detection and wields a black crystal knife.
• Ninja Golem Zombie Robot: He may be an undead, or a robot, or something like pod soldiers and Three, or something else entirely. As of page 2000 we only know he does not bleed when stabbed and does not have the spirit signature living humans do. The latter is beneficial for assassinating magicians.
• Nothing Up My Sleeve: He carries at least one hidden blade.
• Sunglasses at Night: Sunglasses stay on even in unlit corridors and at night.
• Undying Loyalty: While little is still known about him, what's clear is that he's very loyal to Veda. The Hallowman attempts to exploit this by torturing Veda in front of Nail to get him to surrender any information he may know.

Garth

• The Nicknamer: Nicknames each of his students.
• Scary Black Man: Garth has quite a temper and is prone to belittling his students if they make dumb mistakes or disrespect him.
• Stern Teacher: Garth's teaching methods are harsh and somewhat arbitrary, and he has a low tolerance for fools like Felix.

Project Members

• Child Soldiers: With the exception of Mister Kimberly, all of the recruits are teenagers who are explicitly being molded into soldiers for the military.

Alex, AKA the blond girl from class C

A schoolgirl seen in the opening of the first Noah chapter. She's sickly looking and apparently has magic powers (with the two possibly being connected), which she is subsequently arrested for having. She is in Class C, so he doesn't know her personally. Later appears as one of more successful participants in Veda project.

• Black Magician Girl: The exact nature of her powers hasn't been revealed, but she certainly has the personality (and at least some them are offensive in nature).
• Defence Mechanism Superpower: Her powers don't appear to activate until she's threatened.
• Famed in Story: After she was arrested for illegal magic use, everyone (even students from other schools) has heard of her.
• Mighty Glacier: As a Free Magic user she's most versatile. But constructing spells on the fly is too tiring, and she is too slow at picking spells from her spellbook.
• Robo Sexual: Mistakes Noah for one and confesses.
• Uncertain Doom: She's separated from Noah, Gaston and Jamel before they're attacked and partially captured by Malhart's group, and goes MIA afterwards. It's later revealed that she was attacked as well, but fending off her attackers exhausted her and she collapsed in the streets, before being taken in by a hospital which assumed she was a drug addict in withdrawal, and kept her in a psych ward for a spell of time unable to contact the others.

Aude

A red and black haired girl with a short temper.

• The Bully: She's been suspended repeatedly for being violent towards other students.
• Establishing Character Moment: She's first seen in the background getting angry with a guard. When she appears proper, it's reveal she actually attacked him. In a Police State.
• Fiery Red Head: Technically only her fringe is red, but it's the most prominent part of her hairstyle and makes it resemble actual flames. She has a short temper, to say the least.
• Girl with Psycho Weapon: When she's asked to pick a weapon, she chooses a massive spiked ball and chain. She assures the soldier handing them out that she knows how to use it.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: All of her conversations seem to end with her swearing and storming off.
• Healing Factor: After the elves attacked, she was left on life support, but almost immediately healed enough to storm out.
• Man Bites Man: Aude's response to getting punched in the face by Detlef is jump on him and bite his ear off.

Mable

A student from another school who Noah and his classmates meet on the subway.

• Nice Girl: At the speech, she notices that Noah's not with his friends and decides to see if he's OK.
• Power Floats: Part of her power. She can be fast as lightning too.
• Ride the Lightning: One of more creative uses of her power allows her to carry people.
• Shock and Awe: Part of her power.

Felix

• Keet: Felix's most noteworthy trait is his loud, bombastic personality, and upbeat nature.
• In-Series Nickname: Given "Hothead" by Garth.

Gazz

• Disproportionate Retribution: Gazz immediately starts using lethal force, or at least not bothering to moderate his strength against Malhart's orphans, after Leroy pulls Jamal and Noah into the pavement, when they hadn't used anything lethal themselves against him or his friends.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: His Spirit attacks are all based around swords.
• Hot-Blooded: Gazz's temper means that he often fights without thinking and can go overboard when using his magic. He also dedicates himself to learning all 8 of the basic Spirit magic skills despite Garth only wanting to have his students learn 5 to get a reward.
• In-Series Nickname: Given "Overeager" by Garth.
• Knight Templar: Gazz is fully willing to kill Chernyl to stop the nightmares that have spawned from her, and is unwilling to budge on it despite Noel's arguments. Not only because of the danger she poses to Haven, but because he knows the Empire will use her as a weapon of war to inflict countless atrocities.
• Look What I Can Do Now!: After meeting up with Noah in the hospital, Gazz reveals he's been training his powers everyday while on bed rest, allowing him to use his Spirit much more freely and with greater strength.
• Power-Strain Blackout: After super-charging his powers to fight Malhart's orphans, he passes out in the street.
• Psychic Nosebleed: Gazz not only pukes up blood when he overuses his Spirit powers, he is also shown to bleed from his eyes.
• Psychoactive Powers: His Spirit powers get a big boost after he gets enraged when Malhart's orphans kidnap Noah and Jamal in front of him.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: His Hot-Blooded nature, his sense of justice, his spiky hair.

Jamal

• Nice Guy: Agrees to keep the existence of Ciel a secret, and empathasizes with Noah over why he doesn't want to reveal it to the higher-ups of the Veda Project.

Haven

Malhart Piccarto

• Anomalous Art: His paint disrupts other magic powers, such as Noah's spirit sense. It also suppresses Chernyl's powers.
• Barrier Maiden: His paintings are the only thing keeping Chernyl D'Aryl's terrifying powers in check. With him dead, or at least de-powered, the paintings are all co-opted by the Hallowman and her power quickly engulfs the city.
• Friend to All Children: Malhart has taken in a great many children with magical powers and shielded them from the Empire, which until very recently, has punished magic users with summary execution. Veda intends to conscript all of these children into her magic soldier program. It's also why he went rogue and spared Chernyl rather than disposing of her as the Empire would have preferred.
• Hero Antagonist: A genuinely nice old man who uses his powers to help, shelter and teach orphans and runaways who would be otherwise executed by the Empire of Justopea for their magic. The only reason he's an antagonist is that he operates in a magic-hating authoritarian country. Noah even muses on the train to Haven that they're being used to break up a family.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The paintings that he spread all over Haven to suppress Chernyl's power are hijacked by the Hallowman after his incapacitation to spread an permanent "night" over Haven and worsen the outbreak of Chernyl's nightmares.
• Internal Retcon: While official records claim that he appeared in Justopea 80 years ago, Veda deduces that was a lie concocted by the government, in reality he appeared roughly 15 years ago and was secretly contracted by the government to kill Chernyl as a child.
• Mad Artist: According to Justopean propaganda, he's an insatiable vandal who has defaced the city of Haven for decades and harbors several illegal magic users. However, he's actually a quite nice old man who has been keeping the city from being consumed by a horde of literal nightmares, as well as protecting children with spiritual powers from the Justopean state, which until recently saw magic users as nothing but a threat to be eliminated, and is now eying them as super-soldiers to keep up in the global military arms race.
• Nice Guy: Decided to protect and shelter a young Chernyl instead of killing her like he was hired to do by the Empire, adopted orphans like Noel in the aftermath of Chernyl's first incident and took in other magical children fleeing the persecution of the Empire, and was kind and polite even in the face of Veda's arrogant and demeaning attitude.
• Old Master: An elderly man who can casually defeat eight Royal Guards at once and single handedly held back Chernyl's nightmares with his magic paintings, and who personally trained the orphans under his care.

Noel

• Always Save the Girl: The bloody nightmare in the hospital depths says this of him, he'll keep Chernyl alive even if the Empire controls her and uses her as a weapon, even if they use her to slaughter millions, he'll stand by her to protect her.
• Anti-Magic: As part of his esper abilities, he can disrupt Spirit magic he can see. He's limited by his own understanding of the magic, and unfamiliar or sufficiently chaotic magic makes this part of his abilities less useful. This one of the major reasons why he was picked by Malhart, because he's very familiar with Chernyl's magic and if he gets close enough he can disable her abilities. Which the Hallowman planned for, as Noel's ability can only stop new nightmares from being spawned while disrupting her and can't stop unsummon the nightmares already present.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: He's always calm in the face of the horrors and terrors, due to an absolute horrific childhood stemming partly from his time spent with Daddy, a nightmare who ate his parents in front of him.
• Dark and Troubled Past: At some point in his childhood, he was captured by Daddy and forced to watch his parents get eaten in front of him. He also had to watch other children who couldn't keep up the act of a perfect child in the face of having to eat things like human hearts, get eaten by him as well.
• I See Them, Too: His first appearance in the school has Ciel realize that he can see and hear her, which she didn't think was possible for another magic user to do.
• Supernatural Sensitivity: He has a power that functions similarly to Spirit Sight tied to his eyes, but shown to be better in many ways. The most obvious advantage being that he can detect and hear Ciel, when she communicates with Noah in the real world.
• Traumatic Superpower Awakening: His special sight was specifically awakened after he watched his parents get eaten in front of him.

Catz

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Incorporates cat theming into all of his spells, constructs and speech, but is one of strongest among Malhart's orphans.
• One-Man Army: Swiftly assaults and defeats dozens of soldiers, and a handful of Royal Guards when he assaults the military base to rescue his friends.

Captain Halmer

• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Unceremoniously decapitated by Legs, without any real meaning to his death.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Legs moves so fast when it attacks that he doesn't even get to finish his speech.
• Noble Bigot: Due to his upbringing in the Empire, Halmer is distrusting of magic users, even ones sanctioned by the Empire itself. This doesn't stop him from showing kindness and consideration to Noah and Noel when he works with them to stop Chernyl's power.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Though he doesn't like working with magic users like Noah and Noel, in the dire times Haven finds itself in he gladly accepts their help. And eagerly accepts the help of Theodore the Rat, a wanted smuggler, and promises him that he'll beg for a pardon if he manages to truly aid them.

#1, #2 and #3

• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": They never give their real names and only ever refer to each by their code names.
• Knight Templar: Devoted to keeping order in Justopea and they hate magic users from many decades of anti-magic doctrine, which they enforce zealously with constant threats of execution to any who speak against them.
• Number Two: #2 naturally fills this role to #1, being his stoic enforcer, who loyally follows orders to a "T."
• Skewed Priorities: #3's first reaction upon learning that his superiors #1 and #2 are dead is to celebrate because that means he's the new #1.
• Too Dumb to Live
  • #1's attitude throughout his journey with the group is constantly rife with threatening people with execution who are necessary to the mission, being stubborn about taking advice from the magic users, and using loud firearms when they attract the nightmares they're trying to avoid. It's the second part that eventually does him in.
  • #3 is an inverted example, it's because of his stupidity that his superior #1 didn't leave him the code to detonate the Red Mushroom bombs planted around Haven that would kill everything in it, including himself. And because he's so dumb, he's easily tricked by Halmer into inputting the wrong codes and locking himself out of the detonator.

Theodore the Rat

• Combat Pragmatist: After Noah points out the flaws in Timmy's story, Theodore just shoots Timmy in the chest without a warning.
• Monster Munch: Shortly after his team-up with Noah, he gets killed by Timmy.

Grey Child

• Leonine Contract: In exchange for two favors from himself, stopping the Dentist in time for 15 minutes, and some ambiguous boon plus advice for Noah about an immediate future hazard, he gets two wishes from Noah's Pandemonium power, one he spells out to Noah regarding when he enters Chernyl's mind and the other left for him to decide on in the future. While having two uses of Noah's wish power is a lot more valuable than the two favors, Noah isn't really in a place to argue, as if he doesn't take the deal the Dentist will kill him.
• Seers: He accurately predicts the party that ends up facing the Hallowman, and foresees what happens after Noel and Gaston rescue Noah.
• Time Master: Freezes the Dentist in time for 15 minutes. Notable because as noted in the Dentist's No-Sell entry, nothing else was able to impede the Dentist in any way.

Nightmares

Tropes that apply to all nightmares:

• Always Chaotic Evil: At their core, all of Chernyl's monstrous nightmares want to kill and torture any humans they come across.
• It Can Think: Simpler nightmares are physical threats that can be planned around and follow patterns. The more complex nightmares like Daddy, the Scleramancer, the Hallowman, the Dentist or the horse riding nightmare in the depths of the hospital can all make long term plans beyond immediate killing.

Legs

• Hero Killer: It kills Halmer and Sezah in short succession, and would have done the same to Noel had Noah not intervened.
• Lightning Bruiser: So ridiculously fast that nobody present when it attacks can even react to it attacking, Nail claims its body feels like he's stabbing solid steel, and strong enough to remove Palmer's head from his neck with a single kick from its foot.

Shadows

• Gory Discretion Shot: How they kill Number 1 isn't shown, but the walls near his body are splattered in his blood.

Timmy

• Asshole Victim: Noel control and smashes his true body into the floor and ceiling of the sewers in rapid succession, reducing him to a fine paste, and given his sadistic nature and rampant killing, he deserved it.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A nightmare who disguises himself as an ordinary human, and who acts genial until it's time for him to strike.
• Spotting the Thread: Ciel points out to Noah that Timmy shouldn't know Noah's name because his name never came up in the refugee shelter.

Daddy

• Affably Evil: Daddy has a strange sense of politeness, having no qualms with eating people and serving their body parts to guests, but considers himself a poor host for failing to accommodate Noah's vegetarianism.
• Beware the Mind Reader: He has the power to read minds, or at least is able to discern if you're telling the truth. If you lie, he kills you and feeds you to his other guests.
• Eldritch Abomination: Daddy is some sort of terrifiying, almost indescribable fleshy abomination.
• Embarrassing First Name/Embarrassing Nickname: Though it's more embarrassing for Noel than himself and leads to Noel trying to pre-emptively explain himself before giving the incantation to summon Daddy's house.
  "Daddy, Daddy, please make my day!"
  "Daddy, Daddy, come out and play!"
  "Daddy, Daddy, come and stay!!!"
  "Daddy, Daddy, take me far, far away!"
• Evil Versus Oblivion: Daddy is clearly horrifying and evil, but relents to help Noah and Noel reach Chernyl once he's convinced that the two may be able to reach her and that if she isn't stopped, Daddy won't have any more children to eat.
• Godzilla Threshold: It isn't until Noel is totally out of options for survival that he summons Daddy.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Daddy doesn't just eat infants and children, but also eats their parents in front of them
• Lethal Chef: Daddy's cooking is incredibly unpleasant and usually made of unfathomably gross things. The pair of human hearts he serves Noah and Noel are considered by Noel to be among the less horrifying "foods" he's prepared.
• Parental Favoritism: Daddy openly states that Noel is his favorite "child", even if just on the grounds that he's the only one who didn't cry when he ate their "fake" (read: actual) parents.
• Speak of the Devil: Calling out to Daddy repeatedly summons him.

The Dentist

• Depraved Dentist: His clothes are styled after that of a dentist, and every single one of his patients has died.
• Never My Fault: Blames his patients for not being able to survive his dental operations, and not himself.
• No-Sell: Nothing Noel or Gaston do can hurt or stop him, physical attacks don't work and his nature is too chaotic for Noel for disrupt with his esper abilities. Noel mentions that even Malhart couldn't affect him like he could the other nightmares.
• I See Them, Too: He can see Ciel, which comes as a surprise to her.

Horse Riding Nightmare

• It Can Think: It doesn't try to directly attack Noel or Gaston, but instead tries to sow discord between them. It also understands long term planning, as it explicitly allows Noel to pass to try to save Chernyl, explaining the Empire will use her against its enemies and allow her nightmares to slaughter millions instead of just the ultimately limited population of Haven, and that Noel will keep her alive and protect her.

The Scleramancer

• Eldritch Abomination: A giant tree-man who branches end in eyeballs.

The Hallowman

• Big Bad: The final threat that Noah and company have to face to save Chernyl, he's also directly responsible for the outbreak of Chernyl's powers being so horrific through his machinations.
• The Chessmaster: After Malhart is shot, he uses his powers to hijack Malhart's paintings to cloak the city of Haven in darkness, anywhere that Malhart had covered in his Spirit-infused paint, which allows nightmares to spawn at all times of day instead of just at night. He also disguises himself as Malhart to trick Chernyl into a Forced Sleep that she can't be physically woken from, as her powers are strongest when she's asleep. He also goes immediately to capture Veda and slow down the response that comes from the Empire. And by keeping Chernyl safe in his own pocket dimension, he ensures that even the three Red Mushroom bombs planted in Haven can't kill her.
  • Almost very single member of Noah's crew that makes it to his sanctum and Chernyl he accounts for; Nail's black crystal knife is useless against the Hallowman's manifested body, he distracts Nail by taking advantage of Nail's loyalty to Veda and Nail is eventually physically overpowered and restrained, Noel's esper powers can't actually stop Chernyl's in a meaningful way, Catz's meowdroid is dispelled by Nail's stolen black crystal knife and even if she wasn't separated from her main body Persephone couldn't defeat him earlier even at her full strength. He also wanted Noel to make his way to him, as he wants Noel's special eyes for his own purposes. The only one who he fails to account for is Noah, who he totally ignores and whose power to enter mindscapes he had no clue existed.
• Combo Platter Powers: The Hallowman has super strength, super toughness, a way to access knowledge he should have no way of knowing, can see through the eyes on the buildings in Haven, he can shapeshift his body into at least into Malhart's shape and can change the size and length of his limbs for great distances, can make a pocket dimension, heal injuries like a torn off arm, and he can even make portals through space. He implies that he was able to manipulate Chernyl to give him more powers after he was created.
• Evil Gloating: His scenes after Noah and company encounter him in his sanctum is a long session of gloating about how nothing they do can stop him because he accounted for all of them.
• Genius Bruiser: The Hallowman is intelligent and devious, made even more so by having access to some part of Malhart's knowledge and that he manipulated Chernyl into making him even stronger after his creation, which lets him preempt all of the powers arraigned against him by Malhart's children and allies. As a physical threat he ignores Nail's slashes and deep stabs from the black crystal knife, and is strong enough to just throw him across the platform they're on. His limbs and body can freely move around through portals, allowing him to strike at whatever height or angle he desires, even in mid-air, and his first appearance has one of his enlarged arm punching through the street from underground to kidnap Veda and drag her away.
• Leaking Can of Evil: The Hallowman while imprisoned in Noah's mind is able to give him nightmares while he sleeps.
• Near-Villain Victory: If it wasn't for the Hallowman totally ignoring Noah in the final confrontation and ignorantly allowing Noah to get close enough to Chernyl to use his mindscape power, then his plans would have gone off without a hitch.
• Ominous Adversarial Amusement: Realizes something is very wrong, when Noel, the man who the Hallowman has just utterly defeated, ripped the arm off of, and crushed all the hope of, busts out laughing and the Hallowman doesn't know why he's laughing.
• Out-Gambitted: The Grey Child neatly defeats his near perfect plan by ensuring Noah survives the clutches of the Dentist and is able to use his power to enter Chernyl's mind past the coma the Hallowman put her into.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Noah's wish when he enters Chernyl's mind results in the Hallowman being imprisoned in Noah's mind.
• Supervillain Lair: His inner sanctum is an island surrounded by spiky spires of rock where he keeps Cherynl and Veda captive, and the rain doesn't stop for a single panel.
• Thinking Up Portals: Can summon portals to move and attack through.
• This Cannot Be!: He doesn't take his defeat well.
  "HOW DID SUCH A WORTHLESS NOBODY BEAT THE GREAT HALLOWMAN!?"
• The Walls Have Eyes: The buildings around Haven after Malhart's paintings fade have eyes everywhere, and are linked in some way to the Hallowman.
• Your Magic's No Good Here: Being trapped in Noah's mind robbed the Hallowman of a great deal of his power, as he's only able to give Noah nightmares while he sleeps.

Chernyl D'Aryl

• Apocalypse Maiden: She's the ultimate source of problems in the Chernyl's Nightmare arc of Noah's story. When Malhart is taken out, she swiftly turns the entire city into a waking nightmare. Her powers, and her lack of control over them that are the biggest threats; Chernyl herself otherwise appears to be a decent person that is utterly terrified of her abilities and was unaware of just how bad things had gotten, due to a trick by the Hallowman that convinced her that her powers were being contained, until Noah informed her of the truth.
• Blessed with Suck: Cheryl was born with an amazing Pandemonium power, but her lack of control over it means that she requires outside aid to mitigate its effects and her unintentional creations are all murderous and cruel.
• Eye Motifs: Malhart's defeat reveals that her power has covered nearly every building in Haven in eyes, through which either she or some other intelligence guiding her nightmares seems to be able to actually see.
• Foil: To Noah. Both are strong Pandemonium magic users, where their powers negatively affect their lives. Chernyl's power is Blessed with Suck, being uncontrollable and dangerous to everyone around her, where Noah is Cursed with Awesome, his power being much more controllable and rivalling hers in potential power, but upending the normal life he once had.
• Gas Leak Cover-Up: The thousands upon thousands of deaths she caused as a small child were passed off to the country as a plague.
• Godzilla Threshold: She's one at least thrice over.
  • Her first rampage caused the fiercely anti-mage Empire of Justopea to contract magic users like Malhart to stop her.
  • Her powers being unleashed prompt the army and Royal Guard to get the Secret Police involved in hopes of further aid, even knowing what a pain in the ass they are and that they can have anyone killed at any time for any reason.
  • The Secret Police knew about her and have a contingency plan for if her powers are ever let loose: Destroy all of Haven with Red Mushroom bombs. It's only the promise of a non-city-leveling option and their own potential political posturing, plus the communications blackout the nightmare has imposed, that prompts them to consider Nail's plan. And as the JSP established, if they ever feel Nail's plan won't work, they will immediately fall back on their initial plan.
• It Can Think: Her nightmares are not as initially assumed, purely unthinking beasts, but are capable of more sophisticated reasoning, such as targeting Ms Veda as the leader of the forces seeking to to stop them first.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is a reference to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and how almost everybody that doesn't want to kill her instead wants to use her as a weapon of mass destruction, much like a nuclear weapon.
• No-Sell: Since her power creates actual flesh-and-blood entities, rather than spiritual projections, abilities like Noah's spirit sense, Fuuka's spirit cutter, and Jamal's spiritual time stop are useless against them and they aren't shut down by black crystal. The only uses magic is able to present against the nightmares are that they can be sensed in the moment they manifest in reality, and in its use to cause direct bodily harm to them. It does however turn out that nightmares that simply cannot sustain themselves by any logical means like a body-snatching floating head and spine, or use unnatural powers like looking at you to kill you, are dependent on spirit to function and are thus highly vulnerable to powers like Noel's spirit manipulation.
• Power Incontinence: Chernyl is not known to have any control over her power and has been manifesting her nightmares since she was a small child.
• Reality Warper: Her power manifests any and all nightmares she's ever had as completely real. Not as spiritual projections, but as actually real flesh-and-blood creatures.
• Reality Warping Is Not a Toy: Her reality warping seems to be limited strictly into making her nightmares real. Left unchecked, she'd easily destroy all of Justopea without even trying.
• Squishy Wizard: Noels claims that Chernyl is highly vulnerable to conventional means of attack, because her Pandemonium power put her off training her Spirit abilities.
• Walking Spoiler: The true nature of her powers is vital to the plot of the Haven arc, even moreso than Malhart's.

Rauel

Jake

A friend of Tobi's who pilots an airship. He's a less experienced dungoeneer than Tobi, but not a complete beginner.

• Ace Pilot: He claims (in a roundabout way) to be able to pilot his airship in his sleep. His preferred class when dungeoneering is "Driver", which gives him more options when piloting vehicles.
• The One Guy: The only guy in Tobi's party.
• Significant White Hair, Dark Skin: His hair and goatee are quite fair, presumably because he spends all day in the sun. Either that, or normal rules don't apply to Rauel.

"King" Baku

Tobi's Grandfather, who helped make the land inhabitable. He spends his time running the local museum.

• Insistent Terminology: Apparently Jake's the only one who calls him "King".
• Mr. Exposition: The third chapter opens with him giving a history lesson at the museum.
• Obsolete Mentor: He becomes very insecure when Delhara points out that people think of him as as much of a relic as anything else in the museum.

Delhara

An old grey haired woman with a prosthetic eye, who appears to be one of the town's rulers.

• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: She seems to keep the old men of Rauel in check.
• Eyepatch of Power: Her left eye is some sort of steampunk prosthetic.
• Forced Tutorial: She gives one to every party before they set off into the RPG-esque dungeons, although it's apparently less than perfect.

Sari

A friend of Tobi's who's assigned to an exploration team with her.

• Constantly Curious: She's treated as this In-Universe for asking where dungeons come from.
• Enemy Scan: She's able to do this thanks to her choosing the scout class.
• In the Hood: She gains a hooded cloak when she switches to the scout class.
• New Meat: In Tobi's team; she apparently hasn't raided a dungeon higher than level 1 (the second lowest of the group being level 3).
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Her dress (with pink hearts) and shorter stature mark her out as the girly girl to Tobi and Joni's Tomboy.
• The Watson: She fulfils this role, being the least experienced of the group, but also serves as her own Ms. Exposition by looking the information up.

Joni

The most experienced dungeon crawler (being one level above Tobi) and the de facto leader of Tobi's raiding party. She and Jake have some sort of gripe.

• Aloof Ally: She's rather dismissive of his team members. Even skiving off the tutorial to get her axe.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Enough of one to scoff at Tobi for observing enemies instead of charging at them.
• Tomboyish Name: Her name is pronounced "Johnny", although the spelling follows the same -i pattern as other Rauelian girls' names.
• Weapon-Based Characterization: Her preferred weapon is a two handed axe almost as big as she is tall.

Lorg

Three

• The Blank: Three's face is utterly featureless.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: Rips off his own arm as part of his plan to win the Trading Game and (presumably) fakes the extent to which the injury disabled him to throw his own team off from the deception.
• Healing Factor: Whatever damage gets through his tough body, is immediately healed over. He simply casually reattachs the arm he himself severed without losing any function.
• Helping Hands: Three is able to win the Trading Game due to his arms being able to function separate from his body. Despite his mostly mechanical nature, it does however seem to avert Easily Detachable Robot Parts given the rather bloody severance of said limb.
• Humanoid Abomination: Three is some sort of faceless human-shaped biomechanical anti-magic weapon with unsettling flesh transforming weapons and extending limbs.
• Multi-Armed Multitasking: Grows fractal fingers to disassemble broken devices in no time.
• Robot Hair: Some kind of wire spirals, Word of God describes them as "fleshy".
• Smarter Than You Look: Most of the time nobody can tell if he understands what's going on around him, but Three is shown to be merely unable to communicate verbally, and can independently come up with plans like giving Tobi all the money in his starting room or bloodily detaching his arm and controlling it to sneakily give his team a win in the apples/oranges trading game.
• Super Prototype: Shared a storeroom with Global Order "pod soldiers". Looks similar, but closer to a normal human. Three has defeated the pod soldiers every time. It may be unique, given that the Global Order is after it. Still, very little is known about it.
• Super-Toughness: Participated in a Deadly Game filled with death traps. Got hit by everything. Looks no worse for wear afterwards.
• Undying Loyalty: Follows Tobi around like a loyal dog, following her plans and protecting her.
• The Unintelligible: His speech balloons are TV static. This is (partly) averted when the story follows their point of view, as the static is replaced with an image in each balloon.
• The Un-Reveal: Tobi got several chances to discuss his nature with people who knew more, but had more pressing matters every time. She did get answers, but only some.
• Wolverine Claws: Turns fingers to blades to fight pod soldiers.
• You Are Number Six: Introduced himself by showing 3 fingers and answers to the name "Three".

Klaassen

• Ax-Crazy: By the amount of blood after his "oopsie".
• Colonel Kilgore: Enjoys his work too much. Seems to be high-ranked enough to push paladins around, yet arrests people personally.
• Consummate Professional
• Evil Laugh
• The Sociopath: Lack of Empathy, Manipulative Bastard, enjoys Sadist Shows, rather prideful.

Smile Foundation

Employees

Doctor Lemonade

• Affably Evil: Dr. Lemonade is nothing but polite and friendly to Tobi, even as she prepares to send her into a highly illegal and unethical experiment disguised as a death game.
• Asshole Victim: Posthumously found torn apart in the maze by Xzalclock, and given what she helped perpetrate, deserved it.
• Ms. Exposition: Explains the basics of the Smile Foundation's game to Tobi.

Participants

Levin

• Badass Normal: Levin has no known magical powers, but is capable of incredible feats of acrobatics and was deemed one of the game's "cleaners", participants who are in some way capable enough that other participants will need their help to make it through and without whom, the games may become unwinnable. Other "cleaners" include Tobi, who has incredible dungeon-crawling experience and unique insight into technology, and Fox, who is a beastman with super-human strength.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Even compared to the other contestants, who are familiar with the general nastiness of Lorg, he stands out as untrustworthy.
  • In the very first round, he attempts to kill his fellow "cleaners" by dropping them in a pit and leaving them to die when the bomb set in their starting area went off.
  • Tricks Jay-Jay and Shalhia into a room with a blue floor, so that he can try to murder them freely with explosives.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Downplayed - While Levin may distrust Fox for being a beastman, he holds no animosity towards her (or seemingly anyone else) for being trans or otherwise LGBTQ+ and seems proud of how Lorg allows people to express their sexuality however they deem fit, regardless of what the rest of the world thinks.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Even Levin thinks it's bullshit when he learns Smiley's special rule as "the Dummy", which is that he gets the same monetary reward as the first place winner, but cannot share any personal or identifying information whatsoever, including his rule, or he loses (and thus dies), which means that being subject to a vote, wherein lying in response to any question is also punished with instant death, is an absolute death sentence - no matter whether Smiley answered truthfully, lied, or didn't answer at all, he'd die. As Levin puts it, even the most twisted of Lorg's death games should be decided by proper skill and cunning (and ruthlessness), not by having the sheer misfortune of being assigned such an impossible Catch-22 Dilemma as a role.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He seems entirely incapable of realizing that other people aren't as much of selfish, backstabbing jerkasses as he is and that behavior to the contrary is merely cover so they can backstab him (or others) later.
• Famed in Story: Levin is a popular and successful participant in the Lorg death games community, Foxy recognizes him despite him withholding his name.
• Fantastic Racism: Levin seems to hold a particular degree of fear and/or animosity towards beastmen and expects them to fly into a berserker rage at a moment's notice.
• Jerkass: In addition to his backstabbing, he's just generally an all-around ass prone to all manner of foul play. As a result of this, when Tobi assigns each participant a hand signal for Three to use to refer to them, Levin's signal is Flipping the Bird. Maria also takes advantage of Levin's known reputation as a jerkass (and that he embraces that reputation) to let everyone assume that cheating in the Apples and Oranges game was his idea rather than hers.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Of group one (himself, Fox, and Tobi), he's the mean. He's the first to betray the others and leave them for dead, he's constantly a jerkass to everyone, and is constantly out solely for his own enrichment. Illustrated in the vote to kill or spare Jay-Jay, where he quickly votes to kill her.
• Skewed Priorities: Even after being shown and told that the Smile death game isn't what it seems to be, he's still focused on winning and settling grudges, instead of prioritizing escape.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: As soon as he hears Infinite is dead, Levin laughs his ass off and walks over to call him a "blue bearded fuckface" to his corpse.

"Fox" / Indu Malak

• The Big Girl: Physically the strongest among the competitors of the Smile death game.
• Colorblind Confusion: Fox is at least red-green colorblind if not totally colorblind, which comes up in the mines section of the Smile Foundation games as she is unable to identify red and green orbs. And Lord Infinite's cloak. Early on, in the first elimination, she voted "abstain" to try to hide her colorblindness, as the kill and spare buttons were red and green.
• Cute Monster Girl: Her normal appearance is that of a girl with fox traits, including one fox ear.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: An Informed Attribute courtesy of Levin, who seems to believe all beastmen will fly off the handle in a murderous rage at the slightest provocation. For her part, Fox seems somewhat irritable, but not exceptionally so among the Smile Foundation Game group, and the only person to actually provoke her enough to display such rage was Levin himself, who tried to kill her. The only other thing that's seemed to try her patience was Shalhia alluding to the "Curse of the Beast" on page 2480 (the curse itself first being mentioned on page 635 as a universal Berserk Button for beastmen - specifically asking about how they became beastmen in the first place is mentioned to send beastmen into an uncontrollable rage).
• Hulking Out: When enraged, she can assume a much more bestial form. Levin suggests that it takes very little to provoke her into this, but so far he's the only one to provoke her enough to do it, and he left her and Tobi for dead.
• Magic Hair: While it may not strictly be "magic" by the setting's rules, Fox demonstrates the ability to shapeshift her hair and form powerful appendages out of it.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Of group one (herself, Tobi, and Levin), she's the in-between to Tobi's nice and Levin's mean. While she also betrays Tobi early on, she shows signs of realizing at least pragmatically that doing so wasn't a good idea and later helps Tobi escape after they defuse the bomb. Illustrated in the vote to kill or spare Jay-Jay, where she votes to abstain while Levin votes to kill and Tobi to spare.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Fox probably isn't her real name and since she hasn't shared said real name, everyone just calls her Fox or Foxy. She eventually reveals to Three that her name is Indu Malak, so that someone she considers a friend can remember it in case the worst happens to her after the game has gone completely off the rails.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When Shalhia alludes to the matter of how she became a beastman, her eyes briefly turn all-red except for her pupils (which turn white) as she snarls "... DON'T SPEAK... OF... THAT." (with the speach bubble in a much rougher font than normal talking), indicating that talking about this at all is treading on very thin ice.
• Super-Strength: Fox is incredibly strong and demonstrates this multiple times, such as when she comes bursting through a metal barrier after escaping the group one starting area.
• Trans Tribulations: Fox is a trans woman and lives outside the Beast Kingdom due to the beast king's regressive policies towards "non-productives" (people who are not cisgender and heterosexual).

Paladin Shalhia

• Anti-Magic: Like all Global Order paladins, she is an esper and is trained to counter magic users and implanted with special cells that enable her to essentially act as a living anti-magic weapon.
• Can't Live Without You: Shalhia is linked with Jay-Jay as the "blue player". If either dies or is eliminated, so will the other. They also share rules, personal rooms, and rewards. It is implied that the blue role was originally intended for only Jay-Jay, but when Shalhia joined, the position was retooled. Such arrangements are common in Lorg death games to force players to work together, as a certain degree of co-operation is needed to make the betrayals and backstabs more shocking and enjoyable to audiences.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Shalhia refers to Three as "it" and "the weapon", at least initially. However, as the game goes on and she interacts with Tobi more, she does tend to start calling Three "him" and "Three".
• OOC Is Serious Business: Not that Shalhia doesn't mean business all of the time anyway, but in the third game, the mines they're placed in prompt her to take a much more pro-active attitude towards resolving that game as quickly as possible. Because they're Black Crystal mines, not dissimilar from what she toiled in as a child. When Lord Infinite returns as a Ghoul, she gets even more OOC and offers to abandon her original mission to arrest Tobi in exchange for full cooperation in getting out of the game ASAP.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill Muggles: Her abilities are only to be used to harm magic users. Of course, nothing is said about restraining non-magic users or artificial lifeforms. Or killing non-magic through more mundane means, based on her death threats towards Maria.
• True Sight: Part of being an esper is being able to see spirits. Unlike Tobi, she can't turn it off and it seems more limited than Tobi's ability to do things like see the contents of chests.

Officer Harris Housten

• Appeal to Force: In the third game, he interrogates Green to find his motivations using his pistol and the revelation that he's the participant who is allowed to kill other players even off the rainbow checkered floor.
• Came Back Wrong: At some point during the final stages of the game, he's seemingly killed and is reborn as a Phantasm, one with incredible power but without any restraint towards killing those he views as either a threat to Vallance or who have already harmed it in some way. He also has Sdrawkcab Speech now for some reason.
• Corrupt Cop: Subverted - Shalhia initially suspects he's one of many local officers who couldn't resist the corruption and violence of Lorg, but it turns out he's in the game for much the same reason as she is - in pursuit of an ongoing investigation.
• Expy: He's an international spy who has a license to kill (in the death game.)
• The Mole: He isn't actually a Global Order police officer, but an undercover Crownland agent from Vallance searching for an anti-royal fugitive.

"Yellow" / Jay

• Cruel and Unusual Death: Is killed by the Heustan Phantasm, who telekinetically rips his flesh from his bones, leaving his front and back halves hovering in the air with his skeleton floating in the middle.

"Green" / Ezra Glint

• Blackmail:
  • His stated reason for joining the game is that someone threatened to reveal his whistleblowing unless he participated.
  • He is again subjected to this by someone in order to help the Oranges team win the Apples and Oranges game. That someone turns out to be Maria.
• The Stool Pigeon: He is Ezra Glint, a brilliant scientist and the whistleblower who outed the first president of the Global Order's crimes.

Lord Infinite-san

• Accidental Misnaming: Bordering on Malicious Misnaming. He can't seem to be bothered to remember his minion's name, Bindy, and invariably calls her pretty much anything else starting with a B and ending in a Y.
• Back from the Dead: Within hours of his death, Lord Infinite, or his body being possessed by a spirit, returns as a ghoul. Shalhia indicates that turning into a ghoul after death isn't unheard of, but becoming one so quickly is highly unusual - the process normally takes decades for a magic user to turn ghoul if it happens at all.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Bindy is sobbing at his death, and he and his girlfriend had a good relationship.
• Gratuitous Japanese: His full title is "Lord Infinite-san."
• Me's a Crowd: His ability is to make countless spiritual duplicates of himself.
• One-Man Army: Thanks to being able to produce mass amounts of Spirit clones, he was able to take on rival gangs single-handedly.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Infinite is the leader of his gang thanks to his Pandemonium power.
• Third-Person Person: He insists on referring to himself as Lord Infinite, rather than using the pronoun "I".
• Who Murdered the Asshole?: He's the first contestant killed in the Smile Foundation Games, and it's hard to say anyone mourns his passing, save his loyal minion Bindy.
• You Remind Me of X: The reason he spares Jay-Jay in the voting game is because she reminds him of his girlfriend after she tells him off and refuses to beg for her life.

Bindy

• Blind Obedience: She faithfully follows his every order throughout the games and is the only one to mourn his death, even though he can't be bothered to so much as remember her name.
• Extreme Doormat: Bindy doesn't shown much of a resistance to anything, meekly going along with whoever commands her.
• Made of Iron: Survives a similar blow from Xzalclock's mace that outright killed Maria.
• Minion with an F in Evil: Bindy has a meek and unassuming personality, and joined Infinite's gang because of the protection he gave, not only to her, but her younger siblings.

"Smiley"

• Catch-22 Dilemma: Smiley's special rule is that he's "the Dummy", which means he collects the same monetary reward as whoever comes in first but cannot share any personal or identifying information, or the terms of his own rule, or else he will be killed instantly. When he's put up for an elimination vote, which allows other contestants to ask questions that must be answered truthfully or he will be killed, his only solution is to try to bribe the other players to not ask their questions. When one proves more interested in information than money, he's stuck in an unwinnable situation and is ultimately killed for violating his rule.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: His punishment for violating his rule is carried out before he can finish his sentence and give his daughter's name.
• Mouth of Sauron: The Smile Foundation can and does take over the voice modulator in his mask and uses it to make announcements when monitors are unavailable.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: He never gives his name, so everyone calls him Smiley. That he doesn't share his name turns out to be not simple unwillingness to share information, but a condition of his special rule.
• Your Head A-Splode: When he's forced to either violate his special rule or lie while subject to an elimination vote, both of which are punishable by instant death, his head explodes violently before he can finish his sentence.

Maria

• Asshole Victim: Her death at the hands of Xzalclock is well deserved, as a member of the Smile Foundation and a participant in the death game, she's both indirectly and directly responsible for the horrors that happen within.
• Jerkass: As Tobi quickly notes after finding herself on the same team as her, Maria is nearly as much of an ass as Levin and lacks the skills that make Levin at least somewhat useful. Furthermore, Fox reveals that blackmailing Mr Green in the Apple and Orange game was Maria's idea.
• The Load: Maria shows no particular survival skills or special knowledge and is constantly looking for an angle to not just enrich herself, but do so at the expense of others, even if doing so endangers the group as a whole. Shalhia outright calls continuing to let her live a liability for herself, Fox, and Tobi and seems to only let her live out of a continuation of her principles of trying to get everyone out of the game alive.
• The Mole: Maria is actually the "host" of the game, one of the employees of the Smile Foundation inserted into the game itself.

Jay-Jay

• The Beastmaster: She can summon a spirit to act autonomously and give it orders.
• Can't Live Without You: Jay-Jay is linked with Shalhia as the "blue player". If either dies or is eliminated, so will the other. They also share rules, personal rooms, and rewards. It is implied that the blue role was originally intended for only Jay-Jay, but when Shalhia joined, the position was retooled. Such arrangements are common in Lorg death games to force players to work together, as a certain degree of co-operation is needed to make the betrayals and backstabs more shocking and enjoyable to audiences. When she dies thanks to Levin, It turns out that Jay-Jay was wrong, they're not linked together.
• Not Enough to Bury: After she gets killed by Levin with explosives, the only thing left of her is a pool of blood.
• Voted Off the Island: Inverted - Jay-Jay was introduced as the subject of the first elimination vote, but she wasn't previously a player, and was thus being voted onto "the island" (though a successful vote against her would still have led to her death).

Xzalclock

• Implacable Man: Even without taking into account a ghoul's natural regeneration and resurrection, he's given "Rebirth" by the "powers the be" which allows him to respawn nearby the destruction of his body, making him even more of a ever-present danger than most ghouls already are.
• Me's a Crowd: Seems to have gained Lord Infinite's ability to duplicate himself, though he has thus far not demonstrated it to the same extreme as Infinite has. Mind you, with the strength Xzalclock already has, he doesn't need that many copies to be able to kill all the other participants.
• Offhand Backhand: He casually kills Maria with a swipe of his mace without even turning to look at her.

Theobold Purpermane

• Action Dad: Theobold is a very capable combatant, taking on two Pandemonium mages without knowing their powers prior with just his physical skills and Magic Potential.
• Berserk Button: Hurting or threatening Held results in him becoming much more dangerous.
• Good Parents: Theobold wants best for Held, and loves his daughter dearly, and Held returns his loves.
• Magic Knight: As the Kragmorian soldiers learn to their detriment, Purpermane specifically trained his physical and weapon skills so that even if he can't use his magic, he's just as dangerous without it.
• Papa Wolf: A surefire way to get Theobold angry is to threaten Held.
• Red Baron: In the modern day, he's refered to as the "Purple Knight"