Legend of the Seeker/Characters
Richard Cypher/Rahl
The Seeker of Truth. A former woodsman from Westland, he's pulled into the fight against Darken Rahl when he meets Kahlan, and turns out to be the key to defeating him.
- Accidental Marriage: Due to Shota's spell.
- Back from the Dead
- Badass
- Brought Down to Normal: Intentionally, by letting Nicci absorb his Han.
- Chosen One
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Stops to help pretty much anyone he comes across. Cara in particular gets snarky about this tendency in the second season, saying they'd have completed their quest months ago if he didn't stop to help everyone with their problems.
- Determinator
- Enemy Mine: Defied initially, and when he's forced to participate in one, he makes sure to keep the other party on a tight leash.
- Foe Yay: With Nicci.
- Growing the Beard: Both metaphorically AND literally in the second season. Especially noticeable is the disappearance of his tendency to grab the Idiot Ball and refuse to share.
- Guile Hero: Gains traits of this in Season 2.
- The Hero
- Heroic Bastard
- Hot-Blooded
- Knight Templar: He quickly goes down this route when using the magic of Orden, and again when he is leading the Minders. He snaps out of it both times, however.
- Lie to the Beholder: Shota uses magic to make him appear to be another man.
- Magic Knight
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: By defeating Darken Rahl, he unintentionally tears the veil and allows the Keeper to begin his war on the living. As Zedd says, the worst harm can come from the best intentions.
- Refused the Call: Until his father was killed. and again when he was told that he is the rightful Lord Rahl
- Screw Destiny: He doesn't believe in prophecy.
- Shock and Awe: When he actually uses his magic in Perdition.
- Temporary Blindness
- The Power of Love
- Refused the Call
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Kahlan; her Confessor powers mean that if they were to consummate their feelings, it would destroy who he is.
- Workplace-Acquired Abilities: His skills as a woodsman, which are even used against him at one point.
Kahlan Amnell
A Confessor, and now Mother Confessor. She was charged with finding the Great Wizard and bringing the Seeker of Truth to save the Midlands from Darken Rahl's tyranny.
- Action Girl
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: In the books, she wore white because she was already the Mother Confessor, and only the MC wears white. Here, she doesn't become the Mother Confessor until the episode Sacrifice, yet she still wears the white dress of the Mother Confessor before hand.
- Bad Powers, Good People
- Badass
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted.
- Blue Eyes: For perspective, in the original books, Kahlan's eyes are supposed to be green. However, Bridget Regan's eyes are so striking (as in, two of her biggest fansites were named after them) they decided to make Kahlan's eyes blue in the series.
- Can't Have Sex Ever
- Compelling Voice
- Dual-Wielding
- Hoist By Her Own Petard: In the Season 2 finale, Nicci uses Kahlan's own Han against her, causing Kahlan to be confessed.
- Hot Chick with a Sword
- Knife Nut: Always goes into battle with two knives.
- Lady of War
- The Lancer
- Last Of Her Kind: Goes back and forth. Unlike in the books, she starts as one of many Confessors; then later on, they're all wiped out, leaving her the last. Then her sister is brought Back from the Dead, so she's no longer the only one.
- Literal Split Personality
- Living Lie Detector
- Magic Knight: She mostly fights with her twin blades, but also uses her Confessor's touch when its needed.
- Mind Control
- My God, What Have I Done?: She mortally wounds Richard while being controlled by Nicci's powerful magic. When The Power of Love snaps her out of it, she responds with this.
- Plucky Girl
- Shiny Midnight Black: Her hair is epic.
- The Power of Love
- Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Richard; see above.
- Unstoppable Rage
- Woman in White
Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander
Wizard of the First Order. He fled the Midlands years before, bringing the infant Richard with him. He serves as Richard's mentor, and his mind is more than a match for his Wizard's Fire in getting the job done.
- The Archmage
- Badass Grandpa: Even when he can't use his magic, he can generally defend himself, at one point managing to beat a Mord-Sith with a walking stick, with a little help.
- Big Eater
- Casanova: Quickly drifts down this direction when he loses his memory, but he gets better.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: After demonstrating his powers as a wizard of the First Order and blasting a tree out of the way, all he gets is, "thanks for moving the tree, Zedd."
- Eccentric Mentor
- Everything's Better with Chickens: He's known in Westland as a crazy old man who talks to his chickens, which he can be seen doing while using his cloud rock. Let's hope none of them are Evil Manifest.
- Hellfire
- Kill It with Fire: Wizard's Fire is one of his most frequent tricks. Justified in the second season, as they're often fighting Banelings, who can only truly be stopped by burning their bodies.
- Last of His Kind
- Naked People Are Funny
- The Obi-Wan
- Old Master
- Playing with Fire
- The Smart Guy: As First Wizard, he has in-depth knowledge of most every bit of magic the group comes across.
- The Trickster: Utterly owns Darken Rahl in "Puppeteer" through his wits and tricks alone, without having to cast a single attack spell.
- The Worf Effect: In Perdition, Nicci easily deflects his magic, overpowers him, and knocks him down, demonstrating her status as the most powerful of all sorceresses. Though he does recover in time to help Richard defeat her.
Darken Rahl
Master of D'Hara. The Big Bad of the first season, he had heard of the prophecy of the Seeker, and sought to kill him when he was an infant. When he finds out Richard is alive, he stops at nothing to have him killed or pressed into his service.
- Adaptation Dye Job: Blond in the books, dark-haired here.
- Back from the Dead
- Big Bad: In Season 1
- Blood Magic: Because he needs it to power journey books.
- Brought Down to Normal: Once he comes Back from the Dead, he has no magic.
- Complete Monster
- Deal with the Devil
- The Dragon: To the Keeper in Season 2
- Evil Overlord
- Grand Theft Me: How he comes Back from the Dead.
- Hey, It's That Guy!: Wasn't Darken Rahl an elf once?
- Karma Houdini: He survives the season 2 finale.
- Kill The Kitten
- Knight Templar
- Magic Knight: Even without his magic, though, he's more than capable of holding his own in a fight, shown when he has a Back-to-Back Badasses moment with his brother in "Extinction".
- Manipulative Bastard
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast
- Offing the Offspring
- Off with His Head: He tries to do this to Zedd, but ends up decapitating a puppet.
- Self-Made Orphan
- What an Idiot!: Trying to seduce Nicci in Tears.
- You Have Failed Me...: Often says this to his underlings. And gets put on the receiving end of it for a change by the Keeper in the episode, "Creator."
Cara
A Mord-Sith. Formerly a loyal servant of Darken Rahl, a trip to the future with Richard showed her what would happen if Rahl should succeed. She turned on him, and now serves Richard.
- Action Girl: Formerly Dark Action Girl
- Agony Beam: The Agiel
- Anti-Hero: After her Heel Face Turn
- Anti-Magic
- Back from the Dead
- Badass
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted, once again. She gets beaten up pretty badly when the Mord-Sith turn on her in the season 2 opener, and is covered with cuts and nasty bruises when she's captured by Darken Rahl.
- The Big Guy
- Bi the Way: In addition to her time with Leo, it's shown that the Sisters of the Agiel are...really "close" friends.
- Broken Bird: By way of Mord-Sith training, which revolves around the principle of Being Tortured Makes You Evil.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Her feelings for Leo.
- Capulet Counterpart
- Character Exaggeration: While Legend of the Seeker is generally lighter than the books, her character is noticeably Darker and Edgier.
- Composite Character: She borrows traits and roles of Richard's three main Mord-Sith bodyguards from the books, Raina, Berdine, and Cara. Like Raina and Berdine, she seems to have had a same-sex relationship with a fellow Mord-Sith, she serves as an advisor for Richard like Berdine did, shares a Pet the Dog scene involving a chipmunk like Raina, and naturally enough shares Cara's name and her role as his longest lasting bodyguard.
- Dark and Troubled Past
- Deadpan Snarker
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Leo was trying to defrost her, and seemed to be making headway before he died.
- Determinator: Manages to keep fighting, and interrogate her enemy, even after he manages to cut her throat open. Though she does die less than a minute later.
- Face Heel Revolving Door
- Heel Face Turn
- Hell-Bent for Leather
- Kiss of Life: A magical version in the Breath of Life.
- Lethal Chef: According to Zedd.
- Love At First Punch: With Leo.
- The Medic: Odd, considering her former role, but her Kiss of Life has been used on numerous occasions to bring back to life the recently deceased.
- Self-Made Orphan
- Shoot Your Mate: The Mord-Sith deceived her into doing this of her own free will.
- The Spock
- The Stoic
- Tsundere
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid
- Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him
Leo
The new Seeker chosen when Richard is taken to the Old World to train as a wizard. A blacksmith, he shares Richard's courage and compassion, and was chosen by Zedd to wield the Sword of Truth.
- Back for the Finale
- Chosen One: Not to the same extent as Richard, but he is still a true Seeker who was named in a prophecy of his own.
- Back from the Dead: Only temporarily, though.
- Because Destiny Says So: According to Zedd, this is why he got together with Cara.
- Heroic Sacrifice
- Mauve Shirt
- Pet the Dog: Specifically, he's the dog Cara pets: He's the first guy who actually gets her to laugh.
- Shirtless Scene
- Taking the Bullet
Chase
A boundary warden from Hartland and a long-time friend of Richard's. He remains loyal to Richard even when Michael turns the rest of Hartland against him.
- Badass
- Badass Normal
- Papa Wolf
- Race Lift
- With My Hands Tied: Being unarmed, tied up, or having his wrists chained together are no inhibitions to winning fights, with his bare hands if need be.
Shota
The Witch Woman. Sometimes Ally of the Seeker and his friends, she has the gift of prophecy, and works to make sure the terrible result of her visions don't come true. This often puts her at odds with Richard and the others.
- Because Destiny Says So
- Fountain of Youth
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: In season 2, especially, when she is trying to stop Richard because of the prophecy that he'll end up handing the Stone of Tears over to the Keeper.
- Wild Card
Jennsen Rahl
Richard's sister. A Pristinely Ungifted woman, Magic has no effect on her, making her dangerous and valuable to those that use magic.
- Anti-Magic
- Badass Normal
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted by way of a gigantic black eye.
- Fiery Redhead
- Mythology Gag: The scene with her goat.
- The Woobie: Among the first things that happen to her are getting kidnapped and then watching her mother die. It tends to get worse from there, and in the first half of the Season Two finale, in an alternate timeline, she's kidnapped by Sisters of the Dark, who drain her blood and leave her to bleed slowly to death.
Denna
A Mord-Sith in service to Darken Rahl, changed with breaking the Seeker.
- Agony Beam
- Blondes Are Evil
- Broken Bird
- Character Exaggeration: Her evilness and scheming nature are more prominant, and her redeemable traits are downplayed.
- Combat Sadomasochist
- Dark Action Girl
- Deadly Change-of-Heart: She's shot with an arrow by Cara at the very moment when she seems to be considering becoming a better person.
- Light Is Not Good: In Season 2 her leathers and Agiel were white.
Nicholas Rahl
The son of Darken Rahl and Kahlan, in the timeline created when Richard travels into the future.
- Bald of Evil: As Lord Rahl
- Blond Guys Are Evil: As a child.
- Complete Monster
- Enfant Terrible
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Subverted. He did at first, but when Kahlan realized that he was corrupted and was going down the path of evil, she tried to kill him. She failed, and afterwards Nicholas killed her himself.
- Evil Overlord
- Kids Are Cruel: Confesses a playmate and has him cut off his own finger because he didn't want to play the same games as Nicholas.
- Mind Control
- Self-Made Orphan
- Turn Out Like His Father: Oh, yeah.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid
Nicci
A Sister of the Dark totally devoted to the Keeper and his cause to destroy all life. She is convinced that the Keeper cannot win while Kahlan is alive, and devotes her efforts to killing her. Later, Nicci renounces the Keeper as well as the Sisters of both the Light and the Dark and becomes a neutral party.
- Adaptation Dye Job: Played straight in "Dark", subverted in "Princess" when she possesses a new body, which is blond, like her book incarnation.
- Amoral Nihilist: She believes the world is "like a lame horse" and that trying to do good will only prolong the suffering of existence, and everything would be better off if the world was "put out of its misery." After her defection, she reconsiders a few things and becomes an Ubermensch determined to destroy humanity and remake it in her own image, creating a new world more suited to her desires.
- Back for the Finale
- Back from the Dead: Twice.
- Badass
- Because Destiny Says So: The Keeper can't win while Kahlan is alive. Therefore, Nicci is going to do her best to kill her.
- Black Magic
- Blondes Are Evil
- Character Exaggeration: In the books, Nicci noted two things in passing: that she considered the world to be a wretched, senseless existence that had no purpose except for torment, and that she hated it when men "assumed they had a right to her body." These two traits seem to have become the basis of her character, here.
- Cliff Hanger: At the end of the series, Nicci narrowly manages to come Back from the Dead for a second time, but is now at the mercy of Darken Rahl and his Mord'Sith, who are using a Rada'Han to suppress her powers.
- Composite Character: Her character and role is a combination of three distinct Sisters of the Dark from the books: Liliana, a power-hungry Han-stealing sorceress who pretended to be Richard's friend at the Palace of the Prophets and tried to take his magic; Ulicia, the most powerful of the Sisters of the Dark who served as their leader and primary schemer, and plotted to capture Kahlan; and most strongly, Nicci, a sympathetic Sister with a Dark and Troubled Past who used a Maternity Spell on Kahlan, and was eventually convinced by Richard to leave the side of evil.
- Dark Action Girl
- Dark and Troubled Past
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially in Bound.
- Evil Genius
- Foe Yay: With Richard.
- Grand Theft Me: She pulls this on another Sister of the Dark, albeit one willing to sacrifice herself, in order to come back.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: She's a lot more evil than the Nicci of the books, who was mainly a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
- Lampshade Hanging: Cara isn't the only one who notices Richard's tendency to try to help everyone. "Do you always stop along your quest to help people? No wonder you haven't found the Stone of Tears, yet."
- Magic Knight
- Manipulative Bitch
- Mega Manning
- Mythology Gag: Her criticizing Richard for wasting his time trying to help people becomes hilarious to someone who's read the books. It sounds almost like Nicci taking a shot at her book incarnation.
- Over Nine Thousand: The most powerful of all sorceresses (or wizards) in the entire series by a huge margin. The only one who might have been able to compare to her was Maia, the supposed Creator.
- Psychotic Smirk: When she meets up with Richard and the others in Bound.
- Rape as Backstory
- Shock and Awe
- Shoot the Messenger: Because He Knows Too Much
- Shut Up, Darken Rahl!
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
Sister Marianna.
A Sister of the Dark who becomes the Keeper's primary servant after Darken Rahl and Nicci defect.
- Anti-Magic
- Back from the Dead: Temporarily, though.
- Black Magic
- Black Shirt: She's been waiting for the chance to tear the veil all her life.
- Blood Magic: In an alternate timeline, she uses Jennsen's blood to protect herself from magic.
- The Dragon: After Darken Rahl returns to the world of the living, she seems to take his place as the Keeper's primary lieutenant.
- Evil Genius
- Mythology Gag
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She fills Nicci's old role and acts a lot like she had, after Nicci leaves the service of the Keeper.
- Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him: She wants to burn the scroll that the Seeker needs immediately when she gets it, and is puzzled when Darken Rahl forbids her to.
The Keeper of the Underworld.
A being that rules the dead, and wishes to extinguish all life.
- Big Bad
- Foe Yay: Former lover of the Creator. Part of the reason he wants to end all life is he's jealous of the affection she shows to them. And in "Creator", he desperately tries to have her avatar dragged into the Underworld to be with her again.
- God of Evil
- Omnicidal Maniac
- Satan
- You Have Failed Me...: to Darken Rahl when he fails to kill the Creator's avatar.