Digger/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Characters from Digger include:

Digger-of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels Of Clan Quartzclaw (Digger)

"What in the name of the dirt under the claws of the mother of all wombats."

The title character, a wombat who got lost, well, digging one day and finds herself in a strange world.

Tropes associated with Digger:

Ed: Ed is hoping Digger-mousie knows what is doing!
Digger: Why start now?

Ed

"It was told to die, leave no name, no memory, no bones where real people might eat them. But It did not die. It has no name. But It will paint. After It is bones. After all real people are bones, after all names are eaten, someone will find pictures, maybe will not matter then that It doesn't have a name. Someone will remember pictures."

A male hyena that Digger happens across one night who promptly tries to eat her. They become friends. One of the comic's more tragic figures.

Tropes associated with Ed:

"It has no name. Its name was eaten."

  • Heroic Sacrifice
  • Love Makes You Dumb: "Skin-painter is fool."
  • No Name Given: His name is gone so Digger decides to call him "Ed."
  • The Philosopher: Manages this even while invoking You No Take Candle.
  • Phrase Catcher: A meta version, in that it's the fans who say it: "Oh, Ed." It is said precisely once in the comic proper, right after Ed's death.
  • Sacrificial Hyena
  • Proper Gentleman: Due to the gender-inverted roles, Ed fits into this trope. He was born lucky, a respectful and talented painter, devoted to his family even though his wife was mentally unstable and abused him, and managed to kill his wife after she began to abuse their daughter. Even after seventeen years of exile in which his social skills degrade, he remains kind and loving. Although he is devastated when Grim Eyes rejects him, he's never bitter.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: NAME-- IS-- ED!
  • The Smart Guy
  • Spot of Tea: Or whatever it is he serves.
  • Strange Syntax Speaker: Since Ed had been exiled, he hadn't talked to anyone before Digger came along (presumably because no one but the hyenas would know where to find him, and they consider him to be unclean since his name was eaten when he was exiled). After seventeen years of silence, he simply forgot how to speak, and the syntax he uses is his best guess at how it works.
  • The Dog Bites Back: After long years of abuse, when he finally decides to act, it's... decisive.
  • You No Take Candle: We initially think he's eloquent in his own language. He's not, as it is mostly caused by how he hasn't talked to anyone in seventeen years.

Shadowchild

"But what is an evil? Is it like water or like a hedgehog or night or lumpy? What does it look like? How do I know?"

A young, curious little shadow demon who hatched from the body of a dead bird. It eats shadows and has latched onto Digger for moral support.

Tropes associated with Shadowchild:

The Statue of Ganesh

Digger: You're a lifesaver.
Statue: On occasion, yes.

A statue of the Hindu god Ganesh. Digger pops out of a hole in his temple. The Veiled worship him and other gods.

Tropes associated with the Statue of Ganesh:

Murai

"I looked upon the face of a goddess. And it broke me. And now some things take me back there. Children screaming, or the darkness shining, or the smell--I really can't describe the smell."

A former member of the Veiled and a worshiper of Ganesh. Has occasional bouts of insanity. So, of course, she fits right in.

Tropes associated with Murai:

Boneclaw Mother

"Go on. They won't eat you unless you do something stupid."

Senior female member of the hyena tribe that adopted Digger.

Tropes associated with Boneclaw Mother:

Grim Eyes

"A friend might put a spear in your heart, but only an enemy will tell you it's for your own good."

A young, female hyena from Ed's tribe. Digger meets her when Grim Eyes is trying to capture and eat her. They also eventually become comrades. And since Boneclaw Mother technically adopted Digger, they're now relatives.

Tropes associated with Grim Eyes:

Bloodtail
"Bloodtail always was a vain little child, worried that people were watching her and terrified that maybe they weren't. She grew into a nasty, vain adult."
—Boneclaw Mother

Not much is known of her, but what is known makes her rather disagreeable.

Tropes associated with Blood Tail:

  • If I Can't Have You: She encouraged spousal abuse by her sister because she was envious after Ed chose the sister over herself, with an added Take That implying that he was still better off with the madwoman who beat him than he ever would have been with her.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Blood Tail was infatuated with her sister's mate. So she goaded her sister into madness, then campaigned to have her former crush exiled for putting her down.
    • Boneclaw Mother opines that it wasn't love that made her evil, and that she was so poisonous by nature that a madwoman with violent tendencies still made a better mate by comparison.

Blood Eyes

Former mate of Ed.

Tropes associated with Blood Eyes:

Captain Jhalm

Jhalm: If you attempt to harm one of my Veiled, it will go badly for you.
 The Cold Ones: [...] A--soldier--of--too many--gods. We--do not--fear--you.
Jhalm: I need no gods to deal with you.

Leader of the Veiled.

Tropes associated with Captain Jhalm:

The Oracular Slug

"One minute we're oozing along, not a care in the world, and the next, every time you cross a leaf, it's telling you the future. It's hard when you've got a brain the size of a pin head, believe me."

An oracle who is a slug. Pretty much the only creature who can keep a tab on Digger's future.

Tropes associated with the Oracular Slug:

The Hag

"Ha! Was that a threat? What are you gonna do, beat up a healer in the middle of her village? I can think of a half-dozen gods who'd be very interested to hear about that."

A young woman who acts as the healer for the village Rath. Digger finds herself holed up in her house more often than they'd both like.

Tropes associated with the Hag:

Surka

"You know any reason why an 'onest shrew can't be a bloody great troll on the side?"

A professional troll who guards a rope bridge. She is actually a shrew.

Tropes associated with Surka:

SPOILER WARNING

He-Is

An Only Mostly Dead hyena god.

Tropes associated with He-Is:

Sweetgrass Voice

"Kill me? Not even a god could kill me, dirt rat. Twelve thousand years I've been down here with him, and he's never found a way to destroy me. Twelve thousand years, dirt rat! And when his sanity began to fail and I finally drove him blundering up to the surface, what did he do but find dwarves and men and one of your filthy-clawed kind to bind him! Do you have any idea how long twelve thousand years is?"

A powerful, elder demon who manipulated He-Is into fighting She-Is, and was therefore the cause of the whole mess and its aftermath. It's still alive, possessing He-Is' remains.

Tropes associated with Sweetgrass Voice:


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