Elantris/Characters

Prince Raoden

• Battle Couple: With Sarene At the climax
• Defeat Means Friendship: He manages to convert both Karata and Aanden to his side by proving his philosophy about life in Elantris is superior to theirs. Subverted with Shaor.
• Guile Hero
• Love Before First Sight: With Sarene
• Meaningful Name: "Rao" means "Spirit" or "Soul" in Aonic.
• The Messiah
• Not Using the Zed Word: He's an Elantrian, which is basically the same as a zombie, but is never called that.
• Physical God
• Rebellious Prince: He and his father... didn't get along.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something
• White-Haired Pretty Boy
• The Wise Prince

Princess Sarene

• Action Girl
• Battle Couple: With Raoden at the climax
• Guile Heroine
• Hair of Gold
• Love Before First Sight: With Raoden.
• Meaningful Name: "Ene" means "Wit" or "Cleverness" in Aonic.
• Obfuscating Stupidity
• Politically-Active Princess: By age twenty-five, she's been serving for a long while as an (apparently highly-ranked) member of her father's diplomatic corps, and both she and others note her appreciation for (and skill at) political games.
• Real Women Never Wear Dresses: Played with. Sarene tries to be traditionally feminine sometimes- she's just not very good at it.
• Rebellious Princess: Subverted. She's got the personality, but her father approves of it.
• Worthy Opponent: To Hrathen.

Hrathen

• Anti-Villain
• Badass Preacher
• Blue Oni: He contrasts his logical support of Jheddath with Dilaf's fanaticism several times.
• Death by Irony: One of his first actions is to send a priest to Fjordell for training. Said priest is trained as an assassin, and Hrathen is his first kill.
• Destructive Savior: Sees himself as a saviour. Ends up causing a bloody revolution in another country, and is involved in the near-destruction of two others.
• Magnificent Bastard
• Noble Demon
• Redemption Equals Death
• Red Right Hand: His transformed arm.
• 24-Hour Armor: His vestments include armor, since he's a priest in a Church Militant. It's supposed to just be for show. It's not.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist
• Worthy Opponent: To Sarene

King Iadon

• Broken Pedestal: Raoden idolized him as a child. This view shattered after Iadon became king and power corrupted him.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive
• Driven to Suicide
• Moral Event Horizon: Sacrificing his servants as part of a dark ritual designed to kill Sarene
• Non-Indicative Name: "Iad" means "Trust" or "Reliable" in Aonic. Iadon is really paranoid (and was before becoming king)...and um.....see above Moral Event Horizon entry.
• Offing the Offspring: Sarene is convinced he killed Raoden. Actually subverted, since while Iadon might have wanted to kill Radoen, Raoden was turned into an Elantrian, not killed.
• Smug Snake

Dilaf

• Anti-Magic
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: He's a hardcore racist and his manner of public speaking is very reminiscent of Hitler's. And then you find out what he and Wyrn are actually planning...]
  • The names "Dilaf" and "Adolf" even use many of the same sounds.
• Ax Crazy
• Complete Monster
• The Dragon: to Hrathen but he's really The Dragon to Wyrn instead
  • Dragon with an Agenda: Subverted. He spends most of the novel acting as though he rode Hrathen's coattails to power so he could then use said power to incite people against Elantris but actually, he's acting on orders to do exactly that from his and Hrathen's mutual boss. Not that he didn't enjoy every minute, mind.
• The Fundamentalist
• Knight Templar: To better contrast Hrathens Well-Intentioned Extremist. Hrathen genuinely wants to save lives and souls, even if he resorts to ruthless and underhanded methods to do it; Dilaf just subscribes to the "murder the unbelievers and let Jaddeth sort them out" school of Shu-Dereth.
• Magic Knight
• Moral Event Horizon: What he planned for Elantris and all of Arelon and Teod, eventually
• Moral Sociopathy
  • Back when Hrathen was in his monastery, he sacrificed a monk's life to save a fifteen minute walk. That drove Hrathen to leave the monastery.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: It becomes obvious early on he's quite a bit smarter than he looks and acts.
• Older Than They Look: He looks about twenty. He's actually nearly a hundred.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child
• Red Oni: Hrathen's the blue.
• Warrior Monk
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He thinks he's one. Subverted in that no one agrees with him.