Chalion/Characters

Organized by the novel they appear in.

Lupe dy Cazaril

 * Badass Bookworm
 * Broken Bird: He gets better.
 * Combat Pragmatist
 * Determinator
 * Older Than They Look: Even without the demonic cancer thing, his greying beard makes him seem rather older than his mid thirties.

Iselle

 * The Ingenue: Though with Cazaril's help she quickly sheds her maidenly ignorance to becomes very sophisticated, clever and bordering on wily.
 * The High Royina: She's heading there toward the end of the book, with her native intelligence, carefully schooled demeanor, heroic husband and clever advisors. She's got great PR.
 * Rebellious Royesse

Betriz

 * The Ingenue
 * The Lancer: To Iselle

Royse Bergeon

 * Reasonable Authority Figure
 * Warrior Prince. Almost the Wise Prince but without the associated melancholy

Ista

 * Blessed with Suck: Sainthood ain't all it's cracked up to be...
 * Broken Bird: ...as a matter of fact, it drove her mad the first time around.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Adultery, betrayal, treason, murder, madness...she's got it all.
 * I Was Quite a Looker: It's how she feels now that she's reached middle age, though Illvin seems to think she's still got it.
 * May-December Romance: She was eighteen when she married the thirty-something Ias.
 * Rebellious Dowager Royina: Perhaps it runs in the family....
 * The Snark Knight

Liss

 * Action Girl: In typical LMB manner, realistically. She doesn't wield any weapons, but as a courier, Liss is an expert rider, lightweight with access to the fastest horses. She uses her skills to materially affect the outcome of events in the book.
 * Tomboy: She's far more comfortable in her riding gear than dresses. She wears a skirt tucked up around her waist while she rides, and only unrolls when forced to pay lip-service to conventional attire.
 * Pony Express Rider: Medieval Fantasy Edition!

Ferda dy Gura

 * Ascended Extra: The dy Gura brothers had a cameo in The Curse of Chalion.
 * Cultured Warrior: Though he's not the avid reader Foix is, he's very much a gentleman.

Foix dy Gura

 * Ascended Extra: With Ferda
 * An Axe to Grind: Though he also carries a sword, he uses a battle axe on occasion.
 * Badass Bookworm: He's built like a brick, er...house, but is an avid reader and has a mind like a steel trap.
 * Cultured Warrior: When Ista finds him in Ahrys' library, she's surprised to find him reading a book of poetry.
 * Genius Bruiser: At first glance Foix looks like little more than his brother's faithful shadow; in truth he is, but Ferda relies heavily on Foix's intelligence and analytical ability.
 * Hidden Depths: The point of his characterization, if you weren't getting that by now.

Lord Ahrys

 * The Ace: He's good at everything.
 * Chick Magnet
 * Disappeared Dad: Ahrys and his mother were well provided for but completely ignored by Lord dy Lutez.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Illvin confides to Ista that Ahrys believed as a boy that if only he was good enough, his father would call him to court.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Illvin confides to Ista that Ahrys believed as a boy that if only he was good enough, his father would call him to court.

Lord Illvin

 * Always Second Best: But not The Resenter. He loves his brother and pities his fatherless upbringing.
 * The Lancer: to Ahrys
 * The Smart Guy: He's a medieval version of an intelligence analyst and field agent.

Ingrey kin Wolfcliff

 * The Berserker: When his spirit-wolf takes over, he becomes insatiably blood-thirsty.
 * Cursed with Awesome: Ingrey's "defilement" gives him superhuman strength, a Compelling Voice and a dangerous, angsty air.
 * The Fettered: In more ways than two. Ingrey is constrained by his honor code and his oath of service, which in the course of the novel begins to conflict with his equally ironclad sense of chivalry. His wolf adds yet a third dimension--he must keep its wild tendencies "bound" by a vaguely spiritual mental discipline.
 * Knight in Sour Armor
 * Troubled but Cute: At least Ijada thinks so.

Ijada kin Badgerbank

 * Cursed with Awesome: Ijada's spirit animal.
 * Hot Amazon: At least Ingrey thinks so.
 * The Ingenue: Though she's highly intelligent and practical-minded, Ijada had lived a sheltered, provincial life.
 * Proper Lady: Despite bashing a man's head in right at the beginning of the novel, she's not really an Action Girl, and is quite traditionally feminine.

Wencel kin Horseriver

 * Blessed with Suck: Congrats! You can bespell people around you, control animals, and have powers to thwart the gods themselves...what could go wrong? Well, the way you did it was to.
 * Blue Blood: Ijada and Ingrey are nobility, but Wencel outranks them quite a bit, as an Earl.

Prince Boleso

 * Zero-Percent Approval Rating: Even Ingrey's silver-tongued employer can't come up with anything nice to say at his funeral, having to settle for something vague about "young lives cut short."
 * Dead Guy on Display: For various reasons, but mainly as a member of the royal family, his death must be universally confirmed because of its effect on the order of succession.

Jokol Skullsplitter

 * Blue Blood: A barbarian prince is still a prince. Jokol's casual interaction with Ingrey belies his rank, but is underscored when he meets Prince Biast for the first time and they greet each other as equals.
 * Cultured Warrior: He's a either a barbarian prince or possibly a Pirate--no one's quite sure--yet poetry drips from his lips like kisses from the Goddess of Spring.
 * Heroic Build: He's big.
 * Meaningful Name: Though not what you'd think, and Bujold gets a good bit of mileage out of the joke.
 * Redheaded Hero: In a long barbarian braid.