Keys to the Kingdom/Characters

These are some of the characters from Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series and tropes that are associated with them.

This page is currently under construction. Any contributions are appreciated.

Main Characters

Arthur Penhaligon

• Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence: At the end of Lord Sunday, Arthur becomes the New Architect.
• The Chosen One: Possibly deconstructed since he was chosen as he was about to die and Monday expected he would get the Key back.
• Cool Shades: As the New Architect.
• The Corruption: The more he uses the keys, the closer he gets to becoming a Denzien.
• Expecting Someone Taller
• Kid Hero
• I Just Want to Be Normal
• New Transfer Student
• The Power of Friendship: Arthur has a habit of making friends wherever he is.
• Shrouded in Myth
• Try to Fit That on A Business Card: His title.
• Weapon of Choice: The Keys
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: The First and Fourth Keys.
  • Prongs of Poseidon: The Third Key.
  • Power Fist: The Second Key
  • Royal Rapier: The Fourth Key in its combat form

Suzy Turquoise Blue

• Genki Girl
• Innocent Fanservice Girl
• Kid Hero
• Plucky Girl
• Really 700 Years Old: Like most of the Piper's Children.

Leaf

• Kid Hero
• I See Dead People / I See Them, Too: She can see things from the House that are supposed to be Invisible to Normals, due apparently to the spiritual sense she gets from her grandmother.
• Who Names Their Kid "Leaf"?

Fred Initial Numbers Gold

• Black Best Friend: To Arthur in Sir Thursday

The Will

• Seven Heavenly Virtues: Each part of The Will represents one of the seven virtues.
• Too Dumb to Live: Most of the individual pieces. Dame Primus is generally much better about this.
• Will: Obviously.

Dame Primus/ The Architect

• Big Bad: All the events of the series are down to her, due to her plan to destroy the universe.
• Big Good: Not quite.
• The Chessmaster
• Obstructive Bureaucrat
• Have You Seen My God?
• Manipulative Bitch
• Supporting Leader
• Who Wants to Live Forever?
• Winged Humanoid: Initially, but as more parts were added to her, they soon faded away.

Part 1 (Fortitude)

• Frogs and Toads

Part 2 (Prudence)

• Everything's Worse with Bears
• Lazy Bum / Lawful Stupid / Obstructive Bureaucrat: Refuses to acknowledge Arthur as the Rightful Heir without proper documentation. As such, they're forced to carry it around, while it does nothing but sleep.

Part 3 (Faith)

• Legendary Carp

Part 4 (Justice)

• Knight Templar
• Too Dumb to Live: Good job attacking The Piper in negotiations, Part 4.

Part 5 (Temperance)

• Mix-and-Match Critters
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Perhaps the most reasonable of the Will's pieces.
• Sizeshifter

Part 6 (Charity)

• Ravens and Crows

Part 7 (Hope)

• How Do You Like Them Apples?

The Trustees

• Day Of Power: The Trustees can only visit the Secondary Realms on the day they are named after. Their Dawn, Noon and Dusk are restricted to their time of day.
• Day of the Week Name
• Evil Overlord: All of them (except Wednesday)
• Seven Deadly Sins: Each of them represents one of the seven sins, having been corrupted by the Will.

Mister Monday

• Brilliant but Lazy
• Heal The Villain
• Lazy Bum
• Scaled Up

Grim Tuesday

• Creative Sterility
• The Collector
• Greed
• Lean and Mean

Drowned Wednesday

• Baleful Polymorph: Her Leviathan form
• Big Eater
• Prongs of Poseidon: Her key.

Sir Thursday

• Bad Boss: He spends a fair bit of his page time beating up his subordinates. And then there's his killing of the controlled Piper's Children
• BFS: His key, while it's in his possession.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: A particularly nasty one.
• Hair-Trigger Temper
• Unstoppable Rage

Lady Friday

• Lust
• Magic Mirror: Her key.

Superior Saturday

• Big Bad
• Can't Catch Up: To Lord Sunday. He even mocks her for it by giving her glimpses of the Incomparable Gardens.
• Envy
• Evil Sorcerer
• The Starscream

Lord Sunday

• Dimension Lord
• Genre Savvy
• Pride
• Satan: Almost certainly intended to bring this to mind given his sin and position.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting

Other Characters

The Old One

• Chained To A Clock
• Eye Scream
• Mismatched Eyes
• Shout-Out: To Prometheus

The Mariner

• Cool Old Guy
• Empathic Weapon: The Harpoon seems to be of this ilk.
• Shout-Out: To the Ancient Mariner.

The Piper

• Cool Mask
• Magical Flutist
• Magic Music
• Shout-Out: To The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
• The Starscream