Canfyre (Darth Wiki)/Characters

All the characters from The Evil Oboist's fantasy novels, Canfyre.

Amy Canfyre, rider of Goldenclaw
Amy Canfyre was brought up in exile, just like every other member of her clan for the past three hundred years. Her parents died  when she was five years old, so she was raised by her cousin Adianna and her husband James, who could not have children of their own. She starts the story as a naive but spirited 14-year-old who wants to be a part of the "glory" of war, gradually descends into depression and addiction once she is exposed to reality, and makes her way back up to be a strong and willful young woman. She is very stubborn and doesn't react to Authority very well. She also likes to think that she doesn't need people, when in reality she does, and part of the story revolves around her learning to let people in. Although he will never admit it, Amy is Alex's favorite. The two of them certainly have a lot in common.

Amy provides examples of:
 * Action Girl
 * Ax Crazy when in berserker mode
 * Badass
 * The Berserker
 * Book Dumb
 * Break the Cutie: She is orphaned at five. Ten years later, her father comes back and wrecks her entire concept of her family. Then she finds out that she's a killing machine, and can't do anything about it, and accidentally kills an ally. Then her adoptive parents die. Then she gets hooked on laudanum. Then her sister gets raped. The very end sees her desperately tearing her way through the countryside to get to the one person who can keep her family together, hoping beyond hope that he's not a zombie. Damn.
 * Broken Bird
 * Chaotic Good: Usually, or Chaotic Neutral when she's addicted to laudanum. She's also True Neutral when she's berserk.
 * Cunning Linguist: She can pick up any language to which she is exposed very quickly.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Like everyone, she has her moments.
 * Determinator
 * Dragon Rider
 * Green Eyes
 * Loners Are Freaks: Most normal people see her as this. She's just not very outgoing.
 * Made of Iron
 * Not Good with People
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning when in berserker mode
 * Redheaded Hero
 * She Cleans Up Nicely: In the second book, she realizes how hot she can be when she tries.
 * SisterBear
 * Wangst: I'm trying to keep this to a minimum. It's not easy, but I think I've done okay so far.
 * Woobie: Look at all the stuff that happens to her, and try to tell me you don't want to give her a big hug.

Goldenclaw provides examples of:
 * Audience Surrogate
 * Cute Monster Girl: She doesn't look remotely human, but she's "cute" as opposed to the other dragons, who are often "majestic" or "imposing."
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Genki Girl: When she's not snarking or calling Amy out.
 * Non-Indicative Name
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: All of the dragons are like this, except maybe Darksea.
 * You Gotta Have Green Hair

Alex Canfyre, rider of Heimdall
Alex is an interesting study. A low-key sort of genius, he led the famous First Revolution about ten years before the story begins. However, the First Revolution failed and Alex's wife Catherine was killed. Wracked with guilt, he left quietly and let everyone (including the Empire) believe he was dead to keep them from attacking what was left of his family: Amy, Sam, and Azalea. He comes back at the beginning of the story, completely unrecognizable in both appearance and personality. Alex is quiet and hard to read. It takes a lot to get him to show anger, but when he does, you are screwed. He is fiercely protective of those he loves and will stop at nothing to make sure no one harms his children. Arianne puts a lot of trust in him, since he is the head of the Imperial military, and takes on the role of a de facto king in the second book. He doesn't give up, even when things seem hopeless, which is probably how he was able to keep the Empire from getting overrun by zombies.

Alex provides examples of:
 * The Alcoholic: But he got better.
 * Anti-Hero
 * Badass
 * The Berserker
 * Chaotic Good: Very, very Chaotic. Note his torture of Kael. Also True Neutral when berserk.
 * Determinator
 * Disappeared Dad
 * Dragon Rider
 * Mr. Fanservice: He seems to be one of these in-universe. Must be my own preferences making their way onto the pages.
 * Forgets to Eat
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a morally ambiguous scar on the left side of his face.
 * Hot Dad
 * Iron Woobie
 * Papa Wolf
 * Purple Eyes, or Red Eyes, Take Warning when berserk.
 * Redheaded Hero: Although these days it's more of an auburn color. With gray around the temples.
 * Supporting Leader
 * The Southpaw: This is important, as most people in this 'verse are trained to be right-handed.
 * The Stoic
 * Widower Hero

Heimdall provides examples of:
 * Cultured Badass: He likes to read.
 * Dark Is Not Evil
 * Meaningful Name: After the Viking god of war.
 * Shipper: Is definitely a fan of the Alex/Arianne OTP.
 * Warrior Poet
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Arianne Ei Namoia
Arianne started life as one of the dying Kaiyasoshi people. Her marriage was arranged to Durand Fa Korem when she was a child, at which time her name was changed from her traditional name to what it is now. Several years later, they were married. She became the Lady of Zatami, Durand's lands, and they became the leaders of the Second Revolution. After the Second Revolution, she became Queen. Durand was assassinated not long after, so it became her job to stabilize the fragile Empire and unite everyone, all while suffering the grief of Durand's death. She is therefore extremely awesome. She has a steely will, something her male peers tend to underestimate, but is also very kind. She likes to personally see to her people's well-being and is therefore popular in spite of her unorthodox lifestyle choices. Since she is an unmarried queen, in the second book the palace gets overrun by a multitude of suitors, most of which are arrgant jerks. She only has eyes for Alex, the only one forbidden to her. She is not a Dragonrider.

Arianne provides examples of:
 * Chaotic Good
 * The Chessmaster
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Defrosting Ice Queen
 * Happily Married: So you can guess how that turns out...
 * The High Queen
 * Hot Mom
 * Lady of War: She has a certain grace to her that regular Action Girls like Amy don't have.
 * Marry for Love: Unfortunately, it is legally impossible for her to marry the person she loves, as he is neither a Xionocri noble nor a foreign noble.
 * Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
 * Pregnant Badass: It takes skill to lead a country from your bed between bouts of vomiting. During a war with zombies. While pretending it's just the stomach flu.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something
 * The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask
 * The Woobie: Briefly.

Sam Canfyre, rider of Darksea
Sam is Amy's older brother and a bit of a Canfyre black sheep. He starts off the story just following the status quo, fulfilling his clan's expectations that he will grow up to be a warrior and that's that. But with the revolution came a change in his own thoughts--"if we're fighting to change our lives, why can't I change my own?" So he became an artist, just like he always wanted to. The clan wasn't happy about this, but he basically said "Eff You" and severed contact with most of them. Not that you'd know this by looking at him. He's very unassuming, rather quiet, and sensitive. When he stands up to people, though, he's a brick wall.

Sam provides examples of:
 * Badass Bookworm: Despite not being a warrior, he was brought up fighting and can hold his own in a fight. Not for very long, though.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Yeah, he's a Non-Action Guy. But mess with Azalea, and you will experience his true fury.
 * Black Sheep
 * Cool Big Bro: Amy and Azalea certainly think so.
 * Dragon Rider
 * Neutral Good, bordering on Chaotic Good since he stood up to the Canfyre clan
 * Non-Action Guy
 * Reclusive Artist: He tries to avoid Society as much as possible, even though both his and Celesterra's backgrounds necessitate going to balls and things.
 * Redheaded Hero
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Secretly wants one of these from Alex. He won't get one.

Darksea provides examples of:
 * Captain Obvious: Gee, he's BLUE!
 * My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Given dragons and riders usually share a lot of personality traits, Darksea is also opposed to the hack-and-slash lifestyle that most of his fellows enjoy. Which is weird because he's a dragon.
 * Deathbringer the Adorable
 * Gentle Giant

Azalea Canfyre, rider of Twilight
The youngest Canfyre kid, Azalea is probably a child prodigy. She started studying to be a doctor during the revolution, when she was twelve, and went to the 'verse's premier medical school at fourteen. She is not as physically strong as her sister, but is much, much smarter. This can be annoying at times, since she likes to show off how much she knows, but she's gotten better in that respect as she has gotten older (like most people). She is also not a warrior, but that's okay according to the Canfyres, because she's a doctor instead. She tends to invoke a strong Big Brother Instinct in both Amy and Sam, and Alex too. She has absolutely no qualms about being in medical environments, seeing/touching wounds, or blood/other bodily fluids. She is quite cheerful and energetic and makes friends easily. She is probably the most well-adjusted Canfyre due to her elastic personality.

Azalea provides examples of:
 * Annoying Younger Sibling: At times.
 * Badass Bookworm: She can't fight. But she will own you with the sheer force of her intellect.
 * Bi the Way: She comes out to Amy and Amy alone. Amy is a bit weirded-out, but since she is open-minded compared to most of the Xionocri nobles, she supports her in whoever she chooses to love. However, Amy also warns her not to tell anyone outside of their immediate family, since at that point Azalea had already suffered enough.
 * Break the Cutie: Her rape.
 * Child Prodigy and then Teen Genius
 * Dragon Rider
 * Genki Girl
 * Improbable Age: She's a medical student at 14. Most of her fellow students are in their early twenties or so.
 * Insufferable Genius: Occasionally.
 * The Medic
 * Neutral Good
 * Nightmare Fetishist
 * Redheaded Hero
 * She Is All Grown Up
 * Too Much Information: Amy has this reaction whenever Azalea starts talking about something she recently learned.
 * The Smart Guy

Twilight provides examples of:
 * Skin Of Gold
 * Lady of War
 * Non-Indicative Name: Has nothing to do with the time of day, sparkly vampires, or any other Twilight-related piece of pop culture.
 * Shiny Midnight Black: Has hair like this.
 * Proper Lady

Matteo Fiore, rider of Hotfang
Matteo is a member of the Fiore clan, a clan as big as the Canfyres but not quite as high-profile. He too was brought up in exile and participated in the revolution. He is a bit like Amy, but less mood-swingy and unstable: he doesn't have many close friends and has a hard time letting people in, but he is extremely loyal to those he does care about. In the second book, he kills the first berserker zombie and Faust... while he has a broken arm, saving his unit in the process. This gets him decorated by Arianne and lauded throughout the Empire, but further isolates him, leaving Amy to break through his shell.

Matteo provides examples of:
 * Break the Cutie: His encounter with the berserker zombie was this.
 * Butt Monkey
 * Dragon Rider
 * Good Looking Privates
 * Heartbroken Badass: He tells Amy that she broke his heart when she started using laudanum, leading him to distance himself from her. This is what patches up their relationship.
 * He Is All Grown Up: In the second book, Amy notices that he is extremely good-looking, whereas before he was a kid and just a friend.
 * Heroes Want Redheads
 * Lonely At the Top: He was kind of a loner to begin with, but after he becomes a decorated war hero, he's even lonelier.
 * Luminescent Blush
 * Moe
 * Neutral Good
 * Nice Guy
 * Single-Target Sexuality: Matteo is Amysexual.
 * Took a Level In Badass
 * Unwanted Harem: After his decoration, all the girls want him. He only has eyes for the one who isn't pursuing him.
 * Victorious Childhood Friend

Hotfang provides examples of:
 * Blood Brothers: He and Matteo sometimes call each other "Brother."
 * Butt Monkey
 * Curtains Match the Window: Rare for dragons, who usually have different hair/skin/eye colors. Hotfang's are all brown.
 * Gentle Giant

Durand Fa Korem
Durand is the figurehead of the Revolution, the guy who all the other guys follow. He is extremely charismatic and popular with just about everyone, except the old Empire and its loyalists. He and Arianne planned everything together, but during the Revolution, Arianne was more than happy to let him take the lead, since she thought no one would be able to take her seriously. Unfortunately, Durand gets himself shot right after ascending the throne. He lingers for a while and dies of pneumonia, leaving Arianne to rule the Empire by herself. He is also not a Dragonrider.

Durand provides examples of:
 * Chaotic Good
 * Hair of Gold
 * Happily Married: Kiss of death!
 * Large and In Charge: He's taller than most of the other main characters.
 * Nice Guy
 * Sacrificial Lion
 * Supporting Leader

Landra Mi Hekeyeth
Landra is a noblewoman with something of a checkered past. When she was eighteen, her marriage was arranged to a lord who turned out to be a womanizer and basically an all-around jerk. Landra shocked the Empire's somewhat conservative sensibilities by demanding a divorce from her husband--this took a long time to finalize, and she spent the next couple of years trying to forget about all the indignities she had suffered as his wife. This "forgetting" included lots of absinthe, lavish purchases, and promiscuous sex... and then she realized she was a total whore and went home to be by herself for a while. When the Revolution came around, she was one of the rebels' most powerful aristocratic backers. She eventually becomes Alex's girlfriend. Landra is cool and sophisticated at first glance, but further inspection reveals her to be tricky, manipulative, and cunning.

Landra provides examples of:
 * Anti-Hero: Rather than being a dark and angsty hero, Landra is a hero that lacks heroic traits.
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: To some extent.
 * Brainy Brunette
 * Chaotic Good, sometimes Chaotic Neutral
 * Christmas Cake: At 30, she doesn't have many opportunities to marry anyone of her social status. This has made her increasingly desperate...
 * Clingy Jealous Girl
 * Even the Girls Want Her
 * Hello, Nurse!
 * Hot Consort: Alex may not be a king, but he's certainly a powerful man. And Landra is certainly hot.
 * Lady in Red
 * Lady of War: She defends her lands from zombies.
 * Manipulative Bitch: She ultimately destroys her relationship with Alex by
 * Ms. Fanservice: It's only fitting, then, that she should be paired with the resident EBB. Too bad it doesn't work.
 * Pair the Spares: I decided that both Landra and Rikart were too cool to kill or leave single...
 * Really Gets Around: her backstory.
 * Rich Bitch

Kael Ro Orlin
Kael is a hedonistic Xionocri nobleman and one of Arianne's more cunning suitors. Whereas a lot of the suitors think themselves to be in love with the smart, beautiful queen, Kael only wants the power that would come with such a marriage. In short, he wants to be king. He does everything he can to turn the other nobles against her and force her to choose a husband from the available men, but thankfully she's able to hold him off until he's no longer a threat. Kael also has a big problem with Alex, whom he sees as a too-powerful upstart with no rank, money, or family ties... not to mention he's jealous of Alex's friendship with Arianne and spreads the rumor that Alex has an inappropriate amount of power over her. For Kael, this turns into an obsession that leads him to utterly destroy himself.

Kael provides examples of:
 * Aristocrats Are Evil: This one sure is, despite being the exception to the rule in this story.
 * Bad Guys Play Billiards
 * Chaotic Neutral -> Moral Event Horizon -> Neutral Evil
 * Complete Monster
 * Evil Prince: He'll stop at nothing to ascend the throne, even though he isn't in the line of succession. He'll have to marry into it.
 * Family-Unfriendly Death:
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has an evil scar on his chin. The story of how he got it never makes it into the story, but here it is: one time he was trying to mess with a maid working at his estate. This maid was a bit more spirited than most--she broke a wineglass and slashed his face with it. She managed to get away.
 * The Hedonist
 * Karma Houdini: Subverted. At first it seems like the court is just going to saddle him with an inconvenient fine, since Azalea is not his legal equal, but then Arianne gets involved. He gets castrated.
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Moral Event Horizon
 * Not So Different: Brown-haired nobleman with a facial scar, has a thing for the queen, quite handsome, a good leader, and hurts people no matter how much they beg for mercy. Sounds a bit like Alex, doesn't he?
 * Royal Brat: He was raised poorly and now believes that he's entitled to whatever he wants.
 * Straw Misogynist
 * Too Dumb to Live: So, let's say you want to rape someone. Of course you pick the one who has a very protective, badass father who knows how to torture people, a very protective, badass sister who can be a bit crazy at times, a very protective brother who is built like a brick wall, and a very protective, badass stepmother who is the queen.

Ramira Cesar, rider of Scatha
The Big Bad of the story, Ramira starts off working for the Empire. She is the head of the Wind Legion, the Empire's most Badass body of Dragonriders, which is used to crush rebellions and to keep everyone in a constant state of obedient fear. She quelled the First Rebellion, which was led by Alex--hence, he has sworn revenge on her and will not stop until he gets it. After the first book, when the rebels successfully take control of the Empire, Ramira is left with only a third of her Legionnaires, but has other ways to get her control back... she is a powerful mage, and well-versed in the magic arts that, if anyone caught her, would mean certain death. She is cool, cunning, and ruthless. She will stop at nothing to make sure she is in power, and will sacrifice and pay dearly to achieve her goals.

Ramira provides examples of:
 * Affably Evil: She is polite to people who toe the line and sometimes even seems to genuinely care. When they don't, however...
 * Bad Powers, Bad People
 * Badass Spaniard
 * Big Bad
 * Brainy Brunette
 * Complete Monster: Burns entire towns and slaughters every inhabitant. Seizes a town's harvest as tribute, leaving them to nearly starve. Digs up dead bodies and reanimates them, creating an army of zombies. Kidnaps, tortures, kills, and reanimates berserkers, creating undead monsters the likes of which cause PTSD in people who merely see them. And, through all this, seems to lack any sort of emotional response to what she is doing.
 * Dark Action Girl
 * Dark and Troubled Past: We're not sure what it is, but it's definitely there.
 * Deliver Us From Evil: Averted. She has a kid and loves him as much as any mother, but she's still evil.
 * Dragon Rider
 * Evil Is Sexy
 * Lady of War
 * Lawful Evil -> Villainous Breakdown -> Chaotic Evil
 * Light Is Not Good: The Legion's uniforms are white. Ramira designed them.
 * The Woman Behind The Man: At the very beginning, the King was the bad guy. Really, Ramira was controlling him with magic.
 * Necromancer
 * Not So Different: A charismatic, dark-haired Lady of War with loyal followers. Important in Alex's life. Huh, sounds a bit like Arianne.
 * Alternately, she's a Dragon Rider with misunderstood powers, darkness in her past and present, and powerful devotion to those close to her. It's Amy!
 * Pet the Dog: She genuinely loves her son Raul and cares about her Legionnaires... at least before she loses it.
 * Taking You with Me: Wide-scale necromancy, especially of berserkers, takes an enormous toll on her health. By the end, it seems she's just trying to do as much damage as she can before she ultimately expires.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Subverted! You'd think that gathering up thirty-odd berserkers is a Very Bad Idea, but Ramira thought this through. If she could successfully turn all of them into zombies, she would win the war. That's what she was gambling on--a dangerous gamble, but she knew the risks. She just wasn't expecting Amy and Matteo to storm the compound and free the berserkers...
 * Villain with Good Publicity: At first.
 * Villain with Good Publicity: At first.

Scatha provides examples of:
 * Dark Action Girl
 * Dark Is Evil
 * The Dragon: Quite literally! Well, I guess Faust fits this trope better, but Ramira probably asks Scatha for advice more than Faust.
 * Eyes of Gold
 * Genius Bonus: She shares her name with a Celtic war goddess. Also counts as a Meaningful Name. Also counts as Irony, since it's the Canfyres, Ramira's sworn enemies, who have a Celtic theme going on.

Adianna Canfyre, rider of Vengeance
Adianna is Amy, Sam, and Azalea's adoptive mother and Alex's first cousin. One of the clan's leaders, she constantly struggles with some of the clan members' isolationist opinions while trying to advance the cause of the Revolution. She is also something of a black sheep, as she detests violence and the warrior lifestyle but understands that it is necessary for her current situation. She and her husband cannot have children of their own due to extensive injuries she sustained when she was a teenager, so she took Amy and her siblings in after the disastrous First Revolution. She can be a bit severe and humorless at times, but she wasn't always that way--she changed once the Revolution came knocking. She loves the kids very much, and they love her in return, but she is not their mother and forbids them from referring to her as such. She dies at the beginning of the second book, triggering Amy's downward spiral.

Adianna provides examples of:
 * Action Mom* Badass Bookworm
 * Black Sheep
 * Break the Cutie: Her backstory. When she was an idealistic sixteen-year-old, Canfyre-hunting fanatics found her and a couple of cousins tending sheep in the hills. They ultimately managed to fight the hunters off, but at a price: one cousin was dead, and Adianna was hurt so badly that she would never be able to have children.
 * Hot Amazon
 * Heroic Sacrifice: She died by saving Amy from zombies.
 * Iron Lady
 * Lady of War
 * Mama Bear: See: her saving Amy from zombies. Also, she gets very protective when Alex returns, because over the previous ten years she started to think of herself as the kids' mother.
 * Only Sane Man: The rest of the clan elders are idiots.
 * Parental Substitute
 * Redheaded Hero
 * Sacrificial Lion
 * Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome
 * Supporting Leader: Sort of. She's one of the clan elders, and therefore makes decisions pertaining to the Canfyres before the Revolution, but defers to Durand and Arianne a lot of the time after.

Vengeance provides examples of:
 * The Big Guy
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Gentle Giant: A lot of the older dragons are like this, once they grow out of their youthful aggression.
 * My Species Doth Protest Too Much: He's not a big fan of mindless slaughter.
 * Non-Indicative Name
 * Papa Wolf: he takes on this role as regards the kids, since Adianna's husband was never very fatherly towards them.

Erica Brewer, rider of Thunderwing
Erica is a reformed ex-Legionnaire. She was once Ramira's right-hand-woman and had a major role in crushing the First Revolution, during which time she killed Alex's wife, Catherine (he never found out that it was her who did it). She keeps her past a secret. No one knows why she changed her ways, how she managed to avoid Ramira's wrath this whole time, or even where she originally comes from. Her leadership and fighting styles are efficient and sometimes brutal, but she is popular with her soldiers due to being real, accessible, and more than willing to share war stories over a pint. She dies near the end of the second book of zombie-bite induced gangrene.

Erica provides examples of:
 * Action Girl
 * Anchored Ship: With Alex. The interest was mutual, but Erica knew that any kind of relationship between them would end badly, so she invoked an Incompatible Orientation.
 * Supporting Leader
 * The Atoner
 * Badass
 * Birth-Death Juxtaposition: She dies at about the same time as Iris is born.
 * Dating Catwoman: Before her Heel Face Turn, she was with Faust.
 * Dark and Troubled Past
 * Dangerous Deserter: To Ramira. Erica knows all her secrets, her battle philosophies, her weaknesses, everything. Not to mention she's a fightin' Badass in her own right.
 * Good Scars, Evil Scars: She has a scar on her cheek, acquired in the battle that crushed the First Rebellion once and for all.
 * Go Out with a Smile
 * Heel Face Turn: Before the story starts.
 * Hot Amazon
 * The Ladette
 * Redemption Equals Death: She admits her past deeds to Alex, which is the final step in her path of redemption. Then she dies.
 * Sorry, I'm Gay: Lies! Lies!
 * You See, I'm Dying: Not of a Soap Opera Disease as usual, but of gangrene. And she bites it a lot quicker than most examples of this trope.

Thunderwing provides examples of:
 * Badass
 * The Big Guy
 * Peaceful in Death: He dies with Erica.