The Alloy of Law/Characters

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Protagonists

Lord Waxillium "Wax" Ladrian

• Badass
  • Badass Longcoat: His mistcoat.
  • Heartbroken Badass: For most of the story
• Guile Hero
• Guns Akimbo: In several scenes in the book. Including once with shotguns.
• Hero Protagonist: Helps people because he genuinely wants to do the right thing. Though he does mention that he got into the business because he needed the money.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Near the end, he has to shoot his own bullet mid-flight to change it's trajectory and hit an enemy hiding behind a hostage. He gets a headshot.
• Not Quite Flight
• One-Man Army: During the wedding, he kills 19 heavily armed mooks by himself without any innocent bystanders being harmed. In the climax, Miles states explicitly that he's wasted as anything but a killer, because he's just that good.
• Sherlock Scan: Though not quite as adept as the Trope Namer, he still comes up with some amazing conclusions with little evidence, although his skill is subverted when Marasi is invited into the lab: "You realize I spent all night coming to those conclusions? You just reached them in all of . . . what? Ten minutes?"
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Wayne.

Wayne

• The Atoner
• Bavarian Fire Drill: By using the right clothes and attitude he can manipulate nearly anyone into helping him.
• Chivalrous Pervert
• Does Not Like Guns: With good reason, according to his Backstory.
• Duel Boss: One of the two ways his Time Stands Still ability is used in combat.
• Flash Step: The other of the two ways.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Wayne suffers from lots of injuries throughout the book. Enough that he would have been dead several times over if not for his Bloodmaker powers.
• Healing Factor: He has to store up health for later, but it comes in quite handy.
• Heel Face Turn: Years and years before the story starts, he was a petty thief Wax saved from the hangman's noose.
• Insane Troll Logic: "I bought a ward against [logic] off a traveling fortune-teller. It lets me add two 'n' two and get a pickle."
• Master of Disguise
• Nice Hat: He certainly thinks so, he's not happy when it gets stolen.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Inverted. According to Wayne, the right accent is the most important part of a disguise.
• Reformed Criminal
• Sticky Fingers: seems to be a clinical kleptomaniac, generally leaves random objects as a "trade" for the things he steals.
• Time Stands Still: Can create a bubble around him where everything inside moves faster than what's outside. There are a lot of limitations to it, but he does pretty good given those limits. It's not quite stopping the outside, but it's close.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Waxillium.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: At one point, he impersonates an old woman.

Marasi Colms

• Action Girl: Zigzagged. She's a good shot with a rifle, but that doesn't make her a fighter.
• Awesome By Analysis: She frequently quotes crime statistics and uses the conclusions drawn to help with the situation.
• Badass Bookworm: She's in her university's gun club. The skills she learned there with a rifle are quite useful in the book.
• Heroic Bastard
• Time Stands Still: Inverted: She can make herself, and the room around her, move very slowly compared to the outside world. She (and her father), don't think it's a very useful ability.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Finds this driven home after seeing how Wayne makes such good use of his opposite power

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Supporting Characters

Ranette

• Chekhov's Gunman: Early in the story, Wax notes that his guns were made by Ranette, and that she's in town. Slightly later, Wayne tells Wax Ranette's exact address. It comes as no surprise that they pay her a visit before the story's end.
• Wrench Wench: She's a gunsmith.

Tillaume

• Trademark Favorite Food: Tea, in all of its varieties.
• The Butler Did It: If he had succeeded at his plan, this would have been true.
• The Mole
• Taking You with Me: After he's revealed as The Mole he attempts this.

Steris

• Alpha Bitch: What she initially appears to be.
• Defrosting the Ice Queen: She's very analytical and brusque with how she treats Wax, but she warms up to him after he rescues her from the Vanishers.
• Damsel in Distress: Her kidnapping kicks off the main plot.
• Fetish: When Wax rescues her and launches them both into the air with Allomancy he realises Steris is aroused by it.

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Antagonists

Miles Dagouter / Miles Hundredlives

• Dragon with an Agenda: To Mister Suit.
• Fallen Hero
  • He Who Fights Monsters
• Feel No Pain: He's survived so many wounds that would kill an ordinary person that nothing hurts him anymore.
• Genre Savvy: He knows that Wax is more dangerous than anyone else around, and takes appropriate measures to deal with him. It's not enough.
• Healing Factor: Due to his ability to Allomantically burn his Feruchemical stores of health, he has a Healing Factor that makes Wolverine's look downright sluggish. He doesn't need adamantium bones because they've already started healing before they've even finished breaking. He even shoot himself in the face to demonstrate his power to his men, using a shotgun.
• Honor Before Reason: Or so he claims. His actions don't quite match up with that.
• Implacable Man
• Jumped Off the Slippery Slope: Became a criminal because being a lawman didn't stop criminals from existing.
• Knight Templar: Back when he was a lawman, criminals he caught never ended up in jail, because they were too busy being dead.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: His nickname is Miles Hundredlives.
• Nigh Invulnerable: With his healing powers active he can shrug off gunshot wounds to the head and dynamite wounds almost immediately.
• Not So Different: Miles is a more brutal version of Kelsier. Wax even admits that Miles probably would have been considered a hero had he been born during the time of the Final Empire.
• Rasputinian Death
• Shadow Archetype: To Wax. Both of them are aware of it too.

Tarson

• Dumb Muscle: If only in comparison to those around him. He's smarter than the average Mook, but can't keep up with the gambits going on.
• Lightning Bruiser
• Nice Hat: Stolen from Wayne, who wants it back.
• Squick: From which ancestor did Tarson get his koloss-blooded nature, and how exactly did that relationship...work. Eurgh.
• Super Strength: He's got koloss-blood AND he's a pewterarm.

Push And Pull

• Elite Mooks: Basically what they boil down to.
• Meaningful Name: Push is a Coinshot, Pull is a Lurcher. Admittedly that's not their real names, but...
• No Name Given
• Those Two Bad Guys

Mister Suit / Edwarn Ladrian

• Evil Uncle
• Karma Houdini: Escapes this book unscathed. The Sequel Hook is basically set up to fix that.
• The Man Behind the Man: Though it's hinted that he's just a part of a larger conspiracy.
• The Reveal: Is actually Wax's uncle, alive and well.