Locke Lamora
An orphan bought from the Thiefmaker and shaped by Father Chains into a master confidence artist, he leads the Gentlemen Bastards and is secretly the legendary swindler known as the Thorn of Camorr. After the Gray King destroys his gang, he exposes the Wraithstone plot against the nobility, stabs his enemy aboard the Floating Grave, and leaves Camorr by ship, whispering his true name to Jean at last.
Jean Tannen
Locke’s closest friend and the gang’s fighter, deadly with the matched hatchets he calls the Wicked Sisters. He kills both Berangias sisters despite grave wounds, breaks free of the Falconer’s control, and carries the dying Locke to safety after the final confrontation.
Father Chains
The supposedly blind priest of Perelandro, who in truth serves the nameless god of thieves. He buys young Locke, founds the Gentlemen Bastards, and spends years teaching the boys the languages, manners, and religions they need to impersonate anyone.
The Gray King
The hidden enemy whose murders terrify Capa Barsavi. He blackmails Locke into impersonating him, engineers Barsavi’s death at a staged shark fight, seizes the underworld as Capa Raza, and plans to use Wraithstone concealed in four statues to destroy the minds of Camorr’s assembled nobles before Locke kills him.
The Falconer
A Bondsmage of Karthain in the Gray King’s service, whose scorpion hawk spies on the Bastards. He can seize control of a person through their true name, a power that fails against Locke; the surviving Bastards kill his hawk, sever his fingers and tongue, and send him back to Karthain mutilated.
Capa Barsavi
The ruler of Camorr’s underworld, architect of the Secret Peace and master of the Right People. Terrified and obsessed by the Gray King’s killings, he orders Locke to marry his daughter Nazca, beats the disguised Locke savagely at the Echo Hole, and is torn apart by a shark when the Berangias sisters betray him.
Calo and Galdo Sanza
Twin brothers among the Gentlemen Bastards who support every stage of the Salvara game, Calo even posing as one of the Duke’s Midnighters alongside Locke. They are found murdered at the temple, and their deaths fuel Locke’s oath of revenge.
Bug
The gang’s young apprentice, who helps pull Locke out of the funeral cask. An assassin’s shot to the neck kills him, but not before Locke acknowledges him as a full Gentleman Bastard.
Nazca
Capa Barsavi’s daughter, who warns Locke about her father’s deteriorating state and wants their arranged marriage no more than he does. The Gray King has her murdered, and her body is returned to her father in a barrel of horse urine.
Doña Vorchenza
An elderly noblewoman who is secretly the Spider, Camorr’s true spymaster. She lures Locke into a trap at the Day of Changes feast and poisons him, then accepts his warning about Raza’s plot, helps empty Raven’s Reach, and chooses the Salvaras to eventually succeed her.
Don Lorenzo Salvara
The Camorri nobleman targeted by the Don Salvara game, baited into financing a fictitious brandy-smuggling venture for Locke’s invented merchant Lukas Fehrwight. Convinced of the real danger at the Day of Changes, he is later selected, together with his wife, as a future holder of the Spider’s office.
Doña Sofia
Don Lorenzo’s wife and partner in the brandy investment, whose account of the false Midnighters sets Doña Vorchenza on the Thorn’s trail. She shares in the couple’s selection as Vorchenza’s eventual successors.
The Berangias sisters
The Gray King’s siblings, planted in Barsavi’s service until they turn on him during the staged shark fight and cut down his sons. They later ambush Jean at the docks, where he kills them both with the Wicked Sisters.
Ibelius
An unlicensed physician whose brother died in Raza’s coup. He nurses the battered Locke back to strength, shelters the surviving Bastards during their counterattack, and departs Camorr with Locke and Jean at the end.