Entry tags:
Application for Consignment
PLAYER INFO.
✖ Handle: Kerry
✖ Contact: Plurk:halfbloodly
✖ Are You Over 16: Y
✖ Other Characters Played in Consignment: None; I am also applying for d'Artagnanmousquetaire in this app round.
CHARACTER INFO.
✖ Character Name: Lantsov, Nikolai (also uses the name 'Sturmhond' as an alias. With your permission that is what he'll call himself here!)
✖ Canon: The Grisha Trilogy. His canon point will be directly after his final appearance in Siege and Storm, when he and Alina have just separated and he's planning to evacuate his parents and Baghra from the palace on the Kingfisher.
✖ Character Appearance:Nikolai is tall, with dark golden blond hair and bright hazel eyes. His nose is slightly crooked and appears to have been broken at least once. He favours bright colours, as seen in the teal frock coat he wore while in his guise as Sturmhond. He will be coming directly from the aftermath of his birthday celebrations, so will be wearing Ravkan military dress uniform, complete with his various weaponry. His PB is Hayden Christensen, as shown here and here.
✖ Character Age: He's 22 - his canon point takes place on his birthday!
✖ Pick A Number: First choice: 22. Alternate: 844.
✖ Canon Setting:Nikolai is from a series of novels set in a fantasy world. His country is called Ravka, and it is in the midst of a long-term war with two other countries, called Fjerda and Shu-Han. Ravka's setting is based on, and has quite a few similarities to, Imperial Russia. The Ravkan King and Queen are called the Tsar and Tsaritsa, and many Ravkan words are close to the equivalent Russian words. The technology of this world is roughly equivalent to what would have been found in 18th century Russia - so no electricity, weapons such as swords and knives, and gunpowder-based firearms like pistols, shotguns, crossbows, rifles, and hand-held grenades (which the Ravkans call 'grenatki'). Advancements in weaponry are beginning to be made, notably by Nikolai himself; he is seen to pioneer a large artillery gun, mounted on his flying ships, with a gravity-fed loading system for ammunition. This is a form of automatic weapon, but it is new to Ravka, and is seen as a technological advancement that will improve the army's firepower considerably. Speaking of ships, Nikolai's airships are another innovation - they did not exist in Ravka before he invented them. Naval ships are of the masted variety, and land-based transport makes use of horses and carriages, carts, and wagons.
Animals and vegetation seem to be similar to what is found on Earth - reference is made to dogs, horses and fish, and even some sports are the same (such as tennis). However, Ravka has its own religious system, which in general seems to involve the worship of Saints. It is not implied that there are gods to follow, but Saints tend to have been people of great power who had a notable or glorious death. There are religious festivals to mark the martyrdom of a saint, and there is an organised system of churches which worships them. There are priests, including the Apparat, a church leader who serves as the Tsar's religious counsel. Canon has also revealed that there are at least three mythical animals of magical power - a stag, a dragon, and a firebird - and there have been hints that there may be more common, non-magical dragons in existence as well.
There is also a system of magic in this world, which has helped to shape the various social structures present. Certain individuals are born with special abilities. These people are known as the Grisha. They are divided into three major sects: Etheralki, Corporalki, and Materialki. These sects are further divided into various specialisms. Etheralki are also called summoners, and can manipulate one of three major elements: those who manipulate water are Tidemakers, those who manipulate air are Squallers, and those who manipualte fire are Inferni. Corporalki have the power to manipulate bodies, and are separated into Healers, who promote healing and restoration, and Heartrenders, who cause bodily harm and pain. Materialki are able to manipulate materials, and are separated into Durasts, who manipulate solid things like steel, glass, and cloth; and Alkemi, who manipulate components and deal in poisons, blasting powders and chemicals. Grisha abilities are in essence a system of magic, but calling them magic would be offensive to the Grisha. They consider their abilities to be scientific in nature, and actually refer to them as the 'Small Science'. They experience different treatment in different countries; for example, the Shu Han view them as lab rats, and often experiment on them. The Fjerdans see them as witches, and will burn them at the stake. In Ravka, they are particularly valued and are seen as a sort of elite class of society. Children are tested at a young age to see if they exhibit any kind of Grisha power, and if they do, they are taken to Ravka's capitol and housed in the 'Little Palace' - a facility which is connected to the Grand Palace, which houses the Royal Family. The Grisha are fiercely influential, and are led by the most powerful among their number. Traditionally this has been the Darkling - a Grisha with the remarkably rare ability to summon darkness. He appears regularly at court to advise the Tsar.
The Grisha are so valued that Ravka's military is effectively split in two. The First Army is comprised of ordinary soldiers and officers, while the Second Army is comprised entirely of Grisha and is led by the Darkling. In theory, both armies work together for Ravka's mutual good; however there is a separation between them. There is a perception that ordinary people are somewhat in awe of the Grisha, considering them to be witches or magicians. By contrast many Grisha seem to look down on those without Grisha power, and refer to them as otkazats'ya - the Abandoned. However, military campaigns tend to involve both armies, and Grisha power is employed to transport vast land ships filled with soldiers across dangerous terrain.
Aside from Ravka's war with its neighbours, there is an additional danger known as the Fold. This is an area of Ravkan territory which is bathed in complete, inescapable darkness, through which the ordinary light of the sun cannot penetrate. It is popularly believed to have been created by an ancestor of the Darkling, known as the Black Heretic, who lost control of his powers and blighted a large section of the land with pure darkness. Within that area, which has since become little more than a wasteland, there exists a large and dangerous predator known as the Volcra. Volcra have a shape reminiscent of humans, but they also have a reptilian quality; they have sharp teeth, wings, and they birth their young in nests. They will ferociously attack and kill any human in their midst, making the Fold a highly dangerous place. The Volcra can only exist in darkness and are repelled by light, so voyages across the Fold will generally be guarded by Grisha Inferi, whose fire is best suited to fighting the Volcra off. There is a great deal of popular fear about the Fold. This is why the emergence of Alina Starkov, a Grisha with a power opposite to the Darkling's - the ability to summon light - rises so quickly as a hope for change among the people. It is hoped that with her help, Ravka's armies might be able to push back the Fold, and gain an advantage in the longtime war against their enemies. By the time of Nikolai's canon point, the Darkling has turned traitor to the throne, and has mounted an attempted coup, intending to install himself as King. Due to Alina's ability to defeat him on the Fold, his coup was unsuccessful, but he has drawn many of the most powerful Grisha to his side and intends to take the throne by force. Alina now leads what remains of the Second Army.
Within this world, Nikolai is a Ravkan prince - the second son of the currently ruling Tsar. However, he has spent the last seven years away from Ravka's capital, concealing himself as a privateer named Sturmhond, so that he can take an active part in the war. As Sturmhond, he has been a very influential figure; he has built an uncompromising reputation for breaking enemy blockades and getting through their defenses where the main Ravkan force had been unable to do so. He has amassed a fleet of multiple ships, a crew made up of mercenaries, runaways and rogue Grisha, and he acts to further Ravka's war effort - for a good price, of course. This is the setting that Nikolai is comfortable in - a setting where he is useful and relies on his own strengths and abilities. During the course of his canon, he leaves this setting behind to reclaim his identity as a prince, but Sturmhond represents his personal history, and it is through his activities as Sturmhond that he has had the greatest influence on his world thus far.
✖ Character History:Nikolai is a character in the ‘Grisha’ trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. He does not appear in the first book of the series (Shadow and Bone), though he is mentioned by his childhood nickname Sobachka when Alina is brought to the court. A summary of the series and the events of the first book are here. As no comparable summary of the second book is yet available, I have summarised Nikolai’s involvement below.
Nikolai appears as a major supporting character in the second book of the series, Siege and Storm. He is first introduced as an infamous privateer known as Sturmhond, a young captain commanding his own personal arsenal of ships which he uses to aid the war effort of his native Ravka. He is well known for his exploits, but little is known about him as a person. When Alina encounters him she describes him as a tall boy, a few years older than her, who looks ‘too young to be the captain of anything’. He is also described as having red hair, muddy green eyes, and a badly broken nose, though Alina thinks that there is something strange about his face that she cannot place. He and his crew have been hired by Alina’s enemy, the Darkling. At his request, Sturmhond has ‘acquired’ a whaling vessel, upon which he transports the Darkling and a group of his Grisha through the icy seas in their hunt for a supposedly mythical dragon which the Darkling believes to be real. The Darkling has at this point captured Alina and her partner Mal, and they are held prisoner aboard Sturmhond’s ship. Sturmhond notably refuses to listen to Alina’s entreaty to help her against the Darkling, and implies to her that he is little more than a mercenary collecting his payment. He acts disinterested in Ravka’s affairs, uncaring that the Darkling had tried to claim the Ravkan throne, and claims that his military exploits are the result of him offering his services to the highest bidder and not from any form of patriotism. Despite this, he is openly and vocally opposed to the Darkling’s threatening and mistreatment of Alina. He and his crew step in to protect her on numerous occasions, firstly from the Darkling’s right hand man Ivan, and later from the Darkling himself.
When the supposedly mythical dragon, known as Rusalye, is finally located due to Mal’s tracking prowess, the Darkling prepared to capture it so that Alina may kill it. It, he claims, is like Alina’s collar – another of Morozova’s amplifiers. Although each Grisha is only supposed to be able to wear one amplifier, Morozova’s can be combined. Just as Rusalye has been harpooned, Sturmhond springs a surprise; his flagship, the Volkvolny, appears in the water ahead of them and he leads his crew in a revolt against the Darkling. He manages to rescue Alina and Mal, get them on board the Volkvolny, and shoot the Darkling in the process. Revealing that he has rogue Grisha of his own under his employ, he commands his Squallers to raise winds and conjure lightning – something that is forbidden for the Darkling’s Grisha. He frees Alina so that she can use her sun summoning powers against the Darkling’s forces, and they are able to escape. At this point, Sturmhond reveals that he had not been working for the Darkling and was instead working for a higher bidder. He claims now that he is no traitor to Ravka, and indeed the Volkvolny flies the Ravkan flag. He convinces Alina to come with him peacefully and listen to what his real client has to say, giving her his word that if she does not like it he will help her to escape. He also brings Rusalye on board and allows Alina to kill it, thereafter assigning one of his rogue Grisha to make a cuff out of its scales and attach it to Alina’s wrist. They discover that the Darkling had been telling the truth; that the cuff works in tandem with Alina’s collar to make her even more powerful. They also discover that there is a potential third amplifier which will complete the set; one which will make a cuff for Alina’s other wrist and would be formed from a third mystical creature – a firebird.
While Alina is on board his ship, Sturmhond becomes friendly with both her and Mal. He commands that they must sleep in separate rooms since those are the rules on his ship. Sturmhond is seen as a strong leader by his crew; he is able to retain their loyalty without resorting to the kind of threats and plays of power that Alina has seen the Darkling employ, and it is said that he ‘does things his own way’, implying that he abides by his own rules rather than convention. He is shown to be proficient with a number of weapons and is always seen to be bearing an assortment of weapons including a brace of pistols, several knives and a sword. He seems to have a particular fondness for the sword, even being willing to instruct Mal in the use of it. He tends to dress with a flamboyant style, usually wearing a bright teal frock coat that Alina thinks would be more at home in a ballroom than on a ship’s deck, and when Alina and Mal dine with him, he shows a preference for fine cooking – the ship’s crew includes a chef employed for this purpose. In conversation he is jovial and intentionally light-hearted, though when he is challenged he betrays a much harder edge. These are the only personal details that seem clear about him during this time; he is consistently secretive, never giving a straight answer to a personal question, and never being clear about who his elusive client is. He maintains a certain personal distance from his crew in general, to the extent that none of them think it strange that he does not talk about himself, where he is from or who he is. They accept his leadership because it’s successful, because they’re paid well, and because many of them seek a similar kind of anonymity.
When the ship finally nears land, Sturmhond takes Alina, Mal, and a small selection of sailors (including Tamar and Tolya, a set of twins with very strong Grisha Heartrending talents) aboard a new ship of his own design. It is shaped like a catamaran, with dual hulls connected by a small cockpit. Its sails are jointed and can be held upright, while on the water, or extended outwards like wings. He directs his Grisha Squallers to lift the ship out of the water by directing the wind beneath its sails, and the ship – called the Hummingbird - is able to fly, the first craft of its kind in Ravka. It is armed with gravity-fed repeating guns, also new to Ravka. Sturmhond surprises Mal and Alina by directing the craft into the Fold, relying on Alina to hold the darkness back with her sun powers. Though she is furious with him, she sees that she has no choice and obeys, allowing Sturmhond to test his weapons out by hunting Volcra, the predatory beasts which live in the Fold and make it so dangerous. This works well at first, but the Fold has a strange effect on Alina; it is implied that the Darkling had been able to infect her with his own darkness, by allowing one of his nichevo’ya to bite her before he captured her. She sees what she thinks is a vision of the Darkling and her power fails, allowing the Volcra to strike back and injure on of Sturmhond’s Squallers. This leaves the Hummingbird with only one Squaller to keep her aloft. Sturmhond is able to guide the ship out of the Fold, but it crashes into a lake and sinks. The group swim to shore, at which point it is revealed that Sturmhond’s face has changed. While they were flying he had been covered with a pair of goggles and a hat, but when these were removed, it was clear that his previously auburn hair had turned dark golden blond, his muddy green eyes were now a bright hazel, his broken nose was now only slightly crooked and the angles of his face become more smooth. Alina realises that the Heartrender Tolya had used Grisha power to disguise Sturmhond, similar to the way her old friend Genya used to ‘tailor’ the faces of the royal family.
The reason for this deception quickly becomes clear, as the group is found by members of the Ravkan First Army. Sturmhond takes off his coat to reveal he is wearing a military uniform beneath it, and he introduces himself – not as Sturmhond, but as Nikolai Lantsov, the second son of the Ravkan King and therefore a Prince. Having served in the infantry of the Ravkan First Army in his youth, Nikolai recognises the soldiers’ captain by name, and is immediately welcomed into their fold.
After a startled Alina punches him, Nikolai takes control of the situation and convinces the soldiers to bring her and Mal to their camp as guests rather than prisoners. Once there, he enters their tent and explains himself. As the Darkling lived at Court, he would have been familiar with Nikolai during his childhood. Although Nikolai had not been home since he was 14 years old, he couldn’t take the risk that the Darkling or one of his Grisha might recognise him, and so Tolya had tailored his face. He had grown up frustrated by life at Court, and describes himself as having difficulty with keeping still. Rather than do his military service as an officer, as was usual for the Royal family, he insisted on serving in the infantry as an ordinary Ravkan, and earned his final rank of Major on merit. When his service ended, he left Ravka in order to apprentice with a shipwright and a gunsmith, excelling in both professions. This led him to begin his life as Sturmhond, taking on that alias because he quickly realised that on the sea, a prince would be more valuable as a hostage than a captain. He therefore concealed his real identity from all but his most trusted crewmembers – Tolya, Tamar, and the other Grisha who had come with him on the Hummingbird. He found that as Sturmhond, he was able to amass resources and mount offences that were not possible for the Ravkan army, and that he had done more to support Ravka’s war effort as a privateer than he ever had as a soldier. However, leading this life had meant that he was at sea when the Darkling made his attempt on the throne, and now his father the King’s health is failing. Nikolai reveals his ambition to return home and become his father’s heir. He believes that his older brother, who is more concerned with horses and hunting than with politics, will step aside.
The identity of Sturmhond’s mysterious client is now clear; it is Nikolai himself who wants Alina’s help, and he asks her to return with him to Ravka and help him to defeat the Darkling. He also proposes marriage to her, suggesting that such an alliance would make both of them stronger, and allow them to unite the First Army and the Grisha against the Darkling. Alina and Mal both react furiously to this suggestion. Nikolai insists that he’s talking about a political alliance and not a love match, but Alina refuses, and Nikolai’s relationship with Mal sours from this moment on. Mal ever afterwards views Nikolai as a rival, something which Nikolai seems perfectly content to encourage. Alina is, however, far warmer to the idea of helping her country against the Darkling. She agrees to support Nikolai’s claim if he will support her in taking the Darkling’s place as leader of the Grisha. This surprises Nikolai, who notes that she has never held a command. Alina admits this is the case, but says that power matters more to the Grisha. Nikolai considers it, and finally agrees.
During the journey to the palace, Alina sees Nikolai transform from the assured, mysterious privateer into a Prince returning home. He displays a remarkable understanding of how he is perceived, and Alina notes that he always seems able to project the right image for every moment. Among soldiers he speaks as one of their number, remembering the names of those he served with in the First Army, and sharing stories and drinks. Among women he is the son returning from abroad, keen to talk to and encourage them and accept their warmest of welcomes. To Alina he is a companion and an advisor. He tells her how he earned the name of Sturmhond – by capturing a Fjerdan captain, and reacting to the man’s derision of his youth by cutting off all of his fingers and feeding them to his dog. Nikolai describes spending the night following this with his crew, drinking and laughing, before retreating to his cabin, throwing up his dinner and crying himself to sleep. Alina starts to see that he is constantly aware of the role he is playing, and recognises that beneath his joviality there is a clever mind with a hard and dangerous edge. She begins to compare him to the Darkling. Realising this, Nikolai tells her that if she ever confuses them, he will be the one who isn’t torturing her or trying to kill Mal.
Despite Alina’s misgivings and Mal’s growing resentment, they both seem impressed by Nikolai’s ability to appeal to the people around them and present them with the face that they want to see. During this time he shows himself to be socially intelligent, and willing to do whatever he can to manipulate public opinion into supporting him. This is important not only because Nikolai is the King’s second son, and therefore not the rightful heir, but because there are persistent and popular rumours that he is not the King’s son at all. It is rumoured that he is a bastard, born from an affair between the Queen and an unknown man, and if this were true he would have no legitimate claim to the throne at all. Nikolai is as aware of these claims as anyone else. He publicly gives no credence to them and denies them entirely. Privately, he tells Alina that he is ‘probably a bastard’, though he insists that it doesn’t change his ambition. He insists that what drives him is his father’s failing health, and a recognition that his father and his brother share a certain lethargy when it comes to leadership; neither of them are active, preferring to rule at a distance and leaving politics to their advisors. Nikolai recognises that this attitude is why they were weak to the Darkling’s attempted coup. He means to rule differently, with the same level of restless activity that he put into Sturmhond’s career. When Alina questions his motivations and why he wants this so badly, he hesitates, and eventually gives the most truthful answer that he can: he likes fixing things, and he wants to fix what’s wrong with his family’s rule.
The developing relationship between Alina and Nikolai becomes a theme as they arrive at Court. Their allegiance develops quickly, with Nikolai first revealing to his parents that he is Sturmhond, and then supporting Alina and Mal as they face the King. Alina is put in charge of the Grisha (the Second Army), just as she had wanted, and Mal is installed as her head guard. Tolya and Tamar, the twins from Sturmhond’s ship, make up the rest of her guard, and she takes over the Darkling’s old rooms while Nikolai sets himself up at Court.
Throughout the book, the Darkling represents an ongoing threat. None of the characters know exactly where he is, though they believe that following his defeat at sea he will have retreated and attempted to make allegiances with Ravka’s main enemies – Fjerda and Shu Han. Nikolai throws himself into political and tactical meetings, quickly establishing how useful his experience in both the First Army and as Sturmhond are in making strategic decisions. Meanwhile Alina takes charge of the Second Army and she and Nikolai coordinate their plans. Alina attends his meetings at court, and he starts to work with the Grisha Materialki – those whose talents are focused on metals, gases and chemicals and who provide the Grisha’s weaponry. Nikolai’s own skills in that area see him welcomed by the Materialki, and eventually the two sides of the court begin to work more in tandem. Defences are set up and plans are made to protect the palace. Despite this, Nikolai also begins to rebuild the Hummingbird. He names the new ship the Kingfisher, and tells Alina that he intends to retain it as an escape vessel, in the event that their defences are overcome. He asks her to keep it secret, since he understands that wider knowledge of this would impact on morale.
As soon as he arrives at Court, however, Nikolai comes into conflict with his older brother Vasily. The elder prince recognises his ambition to gain the throne and proves himself to be far less willing to give up his place as heir than Nikolai had thought. Alina and Nikolai present themselves as a united front, attending meetings together. Vasily attempts to disrupt this by starting to attend the meetings himself, and by proposing marriage to Alina just as his brother had done. She refuses any kind of familiarity with him, and as time goes on she starts to view Nikolai more kindly. Though she acknowledges that it can be hard to trust him since it’s not clear whether he is ever really being himself or simply wearing whatever mask he thinks she wants to see, she spends more and more time talking with him. For his part, Nikolai appears to become more vulnerable around her than around anyone else. Eventually, he even seems to become willing to talk about personal matters with her.
Most notably, he talks again about the rumours that he is a bastard, admitting to Alina that he has heard those rumours all his life and he is perhaps not so unaffected by it as he may seem. He makes reference to his childhood nickname, Sobachka, which means ‘puppy’, and says that his mother had refused to call him that because she thought it made him sound like a mongrel. Alina, who had been raised as an orphan, connects with him over this since she remembers being called many names herself. She begins to get angry when she hears people questioning his birth, even when they are strangers, to the extent that Mal furiously asks her why she’s so quick to defend Nikolai.
Nikolai also addresses the issue of his harder edge, which makes Alina uncomfortable every time she sees the hint of it. At one point she challenges him, saying that he would let her hang if the reward was the throne, and he cannot immediately deny this. Instead he looks genuinely upset for the first time, and tells her that he really doesn’t know if he would or not. Then, he says that although he’s ambitious, he hopes that he still knows the difference between right and wrong, and he repeats his promise that if Alina told him she wanted to leave, he would help her do it. His honesty seems to make Alina like him more. Months later, Nikolai, Vasily and Alina attend a meeting at court about the war effort, and Nikolai opposes Vasily’s suggestions to make conscription apply more widely and to younger men in order to swell the First Army’s dwindling ranks. Nikolai loses his cool and furiously rejects the idea, knowing it will lower morale and make matters worse. Afterwards, he berates himself for losing his temper since it would have weakened his position in the Court versus his brother. Alina tells him that she thinks it happened because he genuinely cares about the best interests of Ravka and its people, where Vasily does not, and for this reason she thinks he’ll make a good king. The juxtaposition of these two encounters shows how Nikolai has risen in Alina’s esteem. In this moment she seems to be not only his ally, but his friend. At the same time, Alina’s relationship with Mal – in theory still her romantic partner – has been deteriorating. Mal is shown to dislike the Little Palace and to have reservations over how powerful Alina is becoming and whether it is changing her. Alina, who has some doubts over this herself, feels a distance growing between her and Mal, and she is also suffering due to her continued ‘visions’ of the Darkling. She seems in general to be more at ease in Nikolai’s company. As his birthday approaches, he even comes close to kissing her, telling her that he wants to but will not until he’s sure she’s not just trying to forget Mal.
However, other issues are at stake. Alina and Mal’s relationship finally breaks down altogether when she sees him kissing one of the other Grisha. The next morning, she leaves the grounds of the palace and finds herself surrounded by a crowd of pilgrims who are worshipping her as the Sun Summoner and calling her a saint. She is rescued by Tolya and Tamwar, and in the aftermath a furious Nikolai tells her that she could have been killed. She responds by saying that she has finally realised where the third amplifier – the mythical firebird – could be. They plan to go after it, knowing that it will complete Morozova’s amplifiers and potentially make Alina strong enough to defeat the Darkling altogether. Mal volunteers to leave and search for it. An unhappy Alina agrees, knowing how Mal had hated the court, and when Nikolai is supportive of the idea she accuses him of trying to break her and Mal apart. He denies this, saying that if he really wanted to break them up, he would insist that Mal should stay and keep feeling unhappy. He implies that Mal does not belong at the palace, but that Alina does.
However, their plans are cut short during Nikolai’s birthday celebrations. Vasily arrives, seeming worryingly pleased with himself, and eventually reveals what he imagines to be a great victory over Nikolai – he has been negotiating with the Fjerdans, one of Ravka’s enemies. He has arranged a trade agreement, wherein some of the security stations along Ravka’s border roads will be relaxed to allow traders to move freely. Nikolai reacts with horror, saying that those security outposts had been serving as an early warning system. He says that Vasily has been played, and that the arrangement he has made will provide the Darkling with a direct route to the capital. Vasily scoffs at this, but Nikolai asks how long ago the agreement was reached. He realises that with all of his family gathered together for his birthday, they have provided the perfect opportunity for the Darkling to strike. He immediately wants to evacuate. His fears are proved true when, even as they are still arguing about this, the room is invaded by the Darkling’s nichevo’ya. All the plans that had been made to fight the Darkling and make a stand against him are brought to nought. Vasily is killed instantly, when one of the nichevo’ya tears off his arm and then rips into him. Nikolai the soldier takes over. He and Alina rush his parents out of the throne room. Nikolai goes straight for the Kingfisher, saying that he has to get his parents out, but Alina refuses to go with him. Her duty is to the Grisha, and although it’s clear that the Darkling’s forces are already overrunning them all, she goes back to the Little Palace. Before she leaves, she asks Nikolai to take Baghra – her old trainer, and the Darkling’s mother – with him, and he agrees. As Alina leaves, her last view of Nikolai is him standing there. She does not know whether or not he has managed to escape the palace or what his fate might be.
✖ Character Personality:Nikolai is a man who, above and beyond anything else, is highly aware of the impression he makes on others. Raised as a member of Ravka's Royal family, he is used to the idea that people will be looking at him and making judgements about him. The attitude he displays, the choices he makes and the actions that he takes must always be seen in the context of this central fact. He understands the importance of secrecy and he is rarely completely truthful about anything. He is careful to behave in such a way as to create the impression he wants to leave.
That we first meet Nikolai when he is disguised, and very literally wearing a face that is not his own, is highly instructive. He is a man for whom disguise, concealment and subversion come easily. While he wears Sturmhond’s face, he is playing one particular role – that of the cocky, confident privateer who is completely at home on the sea and has all the comforts and conveniences that he could want at his fingertips. He is secretive and avoidant of personal questions, but he is at ease in his own secrecy. Then the mask of Sturmhond comes off, and his true face is revealed – yet bound up in the truth of his identity as a Ravkan Prince is the secondary truth that a prince must wear many masks.
Nikolai slides between various roles with remarkable ease, displaying himself in one moment as a cold, untouchable regal figure, and in the next as an old soldier among many friends. It’s easy for him to show disdain for his own title, telling Alina to simply call him Nikolai and not moi tsar, while only a few moments earlier he had waited in stony silence for a scout troop to recognise his authority and literally bow before it. Though he indicates to Alina and Mal that he disapproves of his brother's love of horses, he is able to distract Vasily with talk of breeds and famous racers as soon as the need arises. He maintains enough of a knowledge about the subject to make use of it when he needs to, even though he considers it a waste of time. It is clearly important to Nikolai to feel that he is always in control of any given situation, that no matter who he is faced with or what might be discussed, he will have a ready answer and be able to ingratiate himself with the people involved. It is a task at which he rarely fails. He seems to have an innate understanding for when he should be charming, when he should appear boyish and friendly, and when he must be firm and uncompromising.
When alone with Alina, he gives her advice on leadership, telling her that she should view weakness as a guise – wearing it when people need to see she’s human, but never when she feels it. He tells her to meet insults with laughter but to answer challenges with strength, and to know the difference between them. He tells her that if she can get people to obey the little orders, they’ll obey the big ones. When she asks how she’s supposed to remember all of this, he tells her not to think about it but to do it. These comments are revelatory, showing that Nikolai never stops thinking about how he is perceived. He lives by his own advice. When he is insulted, when people try to upset him or get a rise out of him, he is able to maintain his calm and meet their remarks with a smile, a smirk, or with humour of his own. Yet when he is challenged, he shows a capacity for ruthlessness that is truly dangerous. He has been known to sacrifice ships, materials, and even people, in order to achieve his ends. This is a trait he shares with the Darkling, and while it frightens Alina, it also implies that Nikolai is capable of challenging the Darkling in a way that his father and brother are not. He became as strong and unflinching as he needed to be to live life as Sturmhond, and he would bring those same traits to bear were he on the throne: diplomacy, charm, intelligence, but with the ruthless edge that says he is not a man that anyone should be quick to cross.
The side of himself that Nikolai generally presents in casual situations is of a man who maintains a relaxed air, who wears bright colours and whistles out of tune, who tries to be amusing or entertaining more often than he tries to be serious, and who talks freely and easily without ever saying more than he means to. However when situations turn sour, when they become dangerous or he is in any way threatened, his relaxed manner will switch at once. He will be reflexively quick, his witty barbs will become warnings that he will not hesitate to follow up, and he will be just as comfortable in that guise as in the former. He is the man who will walk into a room with a conciliatory tone and hang up his sword, then pull a hidden knife from his sleeve the moment he is threatened. The ruthless and uncompromising side of his nature is always there, concealed among wit and flamboyance and friendliness like a hidden blade. Nikolai’s personality is exactly like his style – elegant, bright, attractive and flamboyant on the surface, but with steel and danger concealed inside. He makes a cheerful friend and a frightening enemy.
The real mystery about Nikolai, however, is not the fact that he’s a man of many faces. It is that it is never fully clear which of those faces is the ‘real’ Nikolai. It is entirely possible that none of the behaviour he displays represents his real personality – it could be that every aspect he reveals is little more than another mask. The reader’s understanding of Nikolai is based on Alina’s perception of him, since the story is from her point of view. We never see Nikolai’s own point of view. Alina perceives that he sometimes seems vulnerable, she perceives that he flirts with her, she (eventually) judges that his ambitions and intentions are good and that he will be a good king who cares genuinely for his people. She may very well be right, but it is also possible that he has successfully displayed to her the person that he wants her to see – just as she witnesses him doing with everyone else. There is therefore some ambiguity surrounding Nikolai’s real intentions towards and feelings for Alina, whether he truly views her as a friend or whether she’s just another person that he’s manipulating in order to achieve his goals.
What is clear is that Nikolai is a driven, ambitious and intelligent man, conscious always of how he appears to others and determined to present himself as relaxed, entertaining, clever, and yet authoritative when he needs to be. The harder edge of his nature will be seen rarely, emerging only when it needs to, and then it tends to stop other people short because the rest of the time it’s easy to forget his ruthless streak. That in turn makes his ruthlessness all the more effective when he reveals it. He is always careful to reveal only as much about himself as he needs to, and he is secretive to a fault – openly admitting that while he’s capable of telling the truth, it doesn’t come all that easily to him. He is a born politician, taking easily to diplomacy because it’s natural to him to look for what it is that people want from him and then to find a way of giving it to them.
This is Nikolai as he is seen by others, the carefully crafted face that he displays to the world. Internally, he has a busy and active mind. He notes more than once that he finds it difficult to sit still. Nikolai always seems to want to be working on something – whether it’s planning a strategy, arranging troop movements, building weapons or designing ships, he wants to keep both his mind and his hands busy. His personal spaces are filled with blueprints and designs, and he shows an active and persistent interest in invention. He is more than capable as a gunsmith and a shipwright. Even when he is working at Court to make his case to inherit the throne, he persists with building the Kingfisher and designing weapons and defences for the palace. Though he consistently shows himself capable of behaving properly at Court, he admits to not enjoying the more social, political side of his Royal duties because he grows restless when his mind is not kept busy.
Despite his tendency to manipulate the people around him, Nikolai does betray a strong social conscience throughout the book. As Sturmhond, he makes it clear that men and women sleep separately on his ship, and Tamar notes that this is to try and protect the women aboard from potential unwanted advances from the other sailors. Nikolai is so strict with this rule that he does not relax it even for Alina and Mal, who are a couple when they are brought on board. He deliberately chose to spend his military service in the infantry, among ordinary people, rather than taking the easier Officers' route, and he saw as much action in war as any other soldier. He became known for not putting himself above his comrades, and when he meets them again as a returning Prince, he remembers details like their names and how they had fared. He reacts with an uncharacteristic loss of temper when Vasily suggests lowering the age of conscription, recognising that this will hurt the people more. He seems to have a genuine concern for Ravka's people and their wellbeing, and it is this side of his nature that eventually leads Alina to judge that he'll make a good King.
His relationship with those closer to him - particularly, with his family - is predictably more complicated. Prior to the events of the book, Nikolai had been away from the Court, and therefore from his family, for seven full years. He had not seen any of them since he was 14 years old, and as a returning son he is warmly welcomed. Little emphasis is placed on Nikolai’s interaction with the King. There is no real implication that the King treats him as anything other than a son, though he has a far warmer relationship with his mother who is openly affectionate with him. His first interactions with his brother Vasily seem amicable, though there is an undercurrent of hostility since Nikolai’s unspoken ambition for the throne sits heavily between them. Their relationship becomes more strained as the brothers become more open about their rivalry, and directly before Vasily’s death they are openly hostile to each other. It is perhaps notable that Nikolai shows very little reaction when Vasily dies except to restrain his parents and herd them outside. He seems unaffected, and certainly there is no hint that he is in shock or upset. However, this may have less to do with him not caring about his brother’s death, and more to do with him reacting with a soldier’s instincts to the battle which had exploded all around him. His concern for his parents seems clear and genuine, since getting them to safety is his prime focus. He does not give any sign of wanting to take the throne away from his father - all the strain arising from his ambition is between him and his brother. Indeed, he tells Alina that he had been at sea when he heard of the Darkling's attempted coup and his father's illness, and he admits that he feels he should have been there to help. He claims that his return home, and resulting ambition to one day rule, is motivated by guilt that he had not been there when he was needed. As with everything Nikolai says, it must always be borne in mind that he may not be being honest about his own motivations. However, his care for his parents (if not his brother) never seems to wane and there is nothing to indicate that, in this admission, he is not being truthful.
On top of this, Nikolai displays a strong, patriotic loyalty to Ravka itself. While in the employ of the Darkling he had pretended to be nothing but a mercenary. Once he is able to bring Mal and Alina to his own ship, it becomes clear that this is not Nikolai’s focus at all. Rather, his role as a privateer is a means to an end by which he can serve his country on his own terms, unhampered by the bureaucracy of the First Army or the politics of the Court. It is Nikolai’s natural restlessness, his need to be doing something meaningful and to keep himself occupied, which first draws him to the life of Sturmhond. He does not grow tired of that life, and indeed when he leaves it behind he seems regretful. However, his overall loyalty to his country takes precedence over his desires. When he admits to feeling guilty over not being at home during the Darkling's coup, he clearly feels that had he been there he could have made a difference. Nikolai is arrogant enough when it comes to himself that he is unreserved in terms of what he thinks he can achieve. He believes entirely in his own claim to the throne; he thinks he’s the right man for the job even though he is at best a second son, and at worst a bastard without a real claim. However many obstacles he can perceive between himself and his ambition, he believes that he can overcome them, and he admits to being fond of taking risks. This is a spirit that Alina recognises in him very early on, even before she knows who he is; she compares him to the Ravkan children’s story called the ‘Too-Clever Fox’, in which a fox is able to escape from one trap after another, only to push his luck one too many times and be caught in the end. Nikolai’s attitude to life seems very similar to this. He believes always in his ability to come out on top. Whether his luck will always hold is a question that, at present, remains unanswered, since his fate following the end of the book is still unknown.
However, his determination to beat the odds and achieve what others cannot is always clear. In the end he is a patriot with a privateer’s spirit. Even when he is Nikolai, vying for the throne, he remains Sturmhond, the man who breaks through boundaries that others cannot. Alina’s fear is that Nikolai wears so many masks that she can never see his true face. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the true Nikolai can be found in all of his masks. He is always a privateer, yet always a prince. He always seeks humour and entertainment ahead of seriousness, yet he’s as ruthless as he needs to be. He is the commander who can lead an army, and the son who has been too long away from home. He is all of these elements at once, and his true gift is in knowing which of those attributes to display at any one time.
✖ Character Powers:Nikolai is an ordinary human – known as an Otkazats’ya in the Ravkan language, meaning that he cannot use Grisha powers. However, he has a form of restless intelligence that has pushed him into a life of continual practical learning and activity.
He is an experienced soldier and strategist, having served first in Ravka’s military and risen to the rank of Major. His exploits as Sturmhond have given him considerable naval prowess. He is able to lead troops and regiments, captain and operate ships of various kinds, plot and navigate courses and direct battle on both land and sea.
On top of his strategic prowess he is an excellent hand to hand combatant, and is comfortable in the use of guns, knives and swords. The sword is his favoured weapon and he’s particularly proficient in its use. His reputation among Ravka’s soldiers denotes him as a fierce and ruthless fighter. He is shown to have quick reflexes and a habit of keeping weapons on his person all the time.
He has also apprenticed as both a gunsmith and a shipwright, which has led to him inventing, developing and building his own advances in weaponry. He has taken his shipbuilding prowess further than what would be considered standard by developing his own gliders, which he is also able to pilot.
CHARACTER SAMPLES.
✖ First Person POV: Nikolai at the test drive meme.
✖ Third Person POV:There was darkness all around. Darkness in a very literal sense, darkness turned sentient and monstrous by the occult magic of a would-be tyrant. A will-be tyrant, at this stage.
Nikolai had always had hope that they would win. But he had always known there was a chance he'd have to flee the Palace. He had prepared for that, had built the Kingfisher for exactly that purpose. Yet now that the moment was upon him, he couldn't believe it had happened so suddenly. He couldn't believe his fool of a brother had been so blindingly stupid. A surge of fury lanced through him, and he battled it down. He couldn't afford to panic now. He couldn't afford to let his emotions rule him. Now, more than ever, he needed the mask of control that he was so good at wearing. He needed not to think about how much they had just lost, how many soldiers, allies, and even children were lying dead around him. He needed not to think about how he had just seen that same fool of a brother ripped apart by the Darkling's Nichevo'ya. After so many months of trying to solidify his claim for the throne, he found that he was a second son no longer. He was the heir in truth, no matter how many people claimed he was a bastard.
This wasn't how he'd wanted to reach that position. He closed his eyes and saw his brother's death happening again, and again, and again, and he wanted to do nothing but kill the creature that had done this to them.
But he couldn't. It wasn't a fight he could win today, and if he didn't get himself and his parents away from the Grand Palace now, they would all join Vasily in the grave.
He watched Alina walk away. Watched her go towards the Little Palace. He could still feel the graze of her cheek on his fingertips. He'd promised to come back for her. That depended both on him escaping once, and her surviving long enough for him to find her - neither of which were guaranteed. To hope for both together seemed impossible. When people say impossible, they usually mean improbable. Nikolai remembered saying that to her once. Nikolai said a lot of things, usually with enough conviction that even he could believe it. He needed to believe it now. He had to believe there was still a way to win.
"Get on board. Hurry," he snapped, while he ushered his parents into the Kingfisher. His father obeyed with little protest. He probably hadn't the strength for much else. But his mother, her cheeks still wet with tears, clutched at his arm. He couldn't hear her protests, couldn't afford to listen to them. He took hold of her wrists and met her eyes with steely resolve. "Mother, I don't have time to argue. Do it! He's gone, and I will not let you go with him. Do it now!"
He ushered her on board, and then tore his hands from her. He couldn't look at the tears on her face, couldn't let himself get drawn in by that. He had to get Baghra, fulfilling the promise Alina had extracted from him, and his time was almost up. He turned, every muscle in his body tense and strained, his expression a study in steel.
And suddenly, before him, the world seemed to shift. What had been a mass of moving shadows, a crazed and confused battlefield, seemed to freeze in place. As though someone had flipped a switch, and stopped everyone where they stood. Nikolai's eyes flicked around, and for the barest fraction of a second, he wondered if somehow, that control he'd needed so much had finally failed him. Then his eyes settled on her, on the young Grisha stood before him. She wasn't frozen in place. She was standing with her hands clasped in front of her, and despite what was happening, she was entirely clean - her face unbloodied, her kefta untarnished by the fight. Even her hair lay neatly in place, as if she hadn't just been running for her life. Dimly, he registered that her kefta was blue, with red around the cuffs - one of the Inferni, a Summoner who could control fire. Nikolai blinked and shook his head.
"What are you doing?" he said. "Go with Alina, protect her!"
"That's not why I'm here, Nikolai," the girl said, which made his eyes snap up to her face. He didn't even recognise her. She should know him as your highness, not Nikolai. She wasn't one of his crew. In fact he didn't even recognise her, which from his point of view was strange. He had a good memory for faces. Something was odd about this girl. She didn't belong. She was still talking. "This battle is already lost. There's another one waiting for you. I need your help."
Nikolai suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, and moved away from her. Still, the world around him seemed static. All around him he could see Nichevo'ya, frozen in place, no longer attacking but appearing frozen in attack. He turned to the girl, his hazel eyes sharp and confused. No Inferni could have done this, but she was the only other person moving. What was happening here?
"What have you done? Tell me quickly. You may have noticed I'm on something of a schedule here." The words were bitten out of his mouth, a hint of his frustration showing through. After everything that had happened, he couldn't stand more confusion. He couldn't stand more unexpected turbulence.
"Your schedule doesn't matter to us," the girl said, making his eyebrows shoot up. "You're needed, Nikolai. I'm not one of the Grisha, but you know that already, don't you? I'm not here to fight. I'm here for you."
This was insane. This was absolutely insane. Perhaps he'd hit his head, or perhaps the pressure had finally gotten to him. A wry smile flicked over his lips.
"Well, pardon me, lovely, but you've caught me at something of an awkward moment. Perhaps we could have this conversation later, when I'm not running for my life! Would that suit you?"
The girl didn't smile back, or really react at all. Her dark eyes followed him as he moved, but she seemed unperturbed. Meanwhile he moved back to his parents, trying to get his mother's attention and finding her just as frozen as everything else. Her wide, crying eyes were unseeing.
"Time is not an issue for us," the stranger said, with the most infuriating sort of calm. He turned to look at her again, a muscle in his jaw twitching as he took her in. She moved finally, gesturing to the frozen battlefield around them. "As you can see. Look at this, Nikolai. Look at your home, look at what's happening. The Darkling will be sitting on your throne tonight. Your brother is dead. Your father is dying, your army is broken. The Sun Summoner is being spirited away as we speak."
Suddenly Nikolai's sword was in his hand. He strode forward, leveling it at the stranger's throat.
"Who are you?" he said, any hint of humour having melted from his face. "What have you one with her? Explain yourself, or I will kill you. Now is not the moment to rely on my mercy."
The girl raised her hands in a sign of surrender, but otherwise didn't look moved. She lifted her eyebrows at him, as if daring him to take his frustration out on her. Control, he reminded himself.
"I'm not the enemy," she said. "I haven't done anything to her. She's where you left her, but she won't escape with you, Nikolai. She'll have to find her own way. I'm not here because of her. All I'm doing is telling you where you stand. This is not a battle you can win, not today, but you know that. That's why you're running, isn't it? So you can come back and fight again?"
He didn't answer, but it seemed that the twist to his mouth was answer enough. The girl smiled.
"You see? I do understand. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to tell you there's another way. Help me, Nikolai. My company needs your help, and if you agree, we will do all we can to help you in return. We can give you weapons. Power. Anything you need, to come back and win. Isn't that what you want?"
He hesitated, staring her down. After a moment he stepped back, sheathing his sword again, and rubbing his hand across his face. He didn't know what she was saying, what she was getting at, but she wasn't wrong. The tables had been turned on him entirely. All the strength he had built up at the Palace, all the defences he'd put in place, the soldiers he'd trained, the alliances he'd made, all of that was for nothing now. He'd have to start again, he'd have to try and retake the Palace from the outside. Nikolai wouldn't shy from that. He'd beaten seemingly impossible odds before, so many times.
But that was because he took hold of advantages where he could seize them. He was the man who'd won so many victories as Sturmhond, the privateer. To break someone else's defences almost suited him better than holding his own. But to do it, he'd need resources. He'd need an army to combat the Darkling's, and that was what had been taken from him. His thoughts were everywhere, his mind racing through the possibilities. His hazel eyes fixed on the stranger, and when he spoke again, some of his calm had returned.
"Who are you? What is it you want from me, what do your company want? You have my attention, lovely. Please don't make me regret it."
She took a breath, and managed to smile at him now. She'd obviously been afraid he'd say no. Nikolai wasn't the type to reject an offer out of hand, especially not one like this. This woman - or her company, he wasn't sure which - had paused this entire battle just to talk to him. If they were as powerful as that, they were worth listening to.
"I'm an agent of the CDC," the girl said, taking a step forward. "The Cosmic Demolition Crew. I've been sent here to recruit you. We're a clean-up team, Nikolai. We need your help to rid the universe of those places that no longer belong. Help us to do our work, and we will help you to do yours. We'll give you the power you need to take on the Darkling. We'll bring you back here and you'll get the chance to win your war. All you have to do is help our efforts, first."
Nikolai's eyes narrowed.
"Well, that all sounds very easy," he said, thinning his lips at her. "And perfectly reasonable. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Simple, clean. Effective." Now he stood the way she had, in the beginning - his hands folded in front of him, his expression calm, despite the horror all around. "Now why don't you start again, and this time tell me the truth. What do you want? Do try to be clear. If I end up with more questions than answers, you're doing it wrong."
"No," the girl said, looking at him squarely. "If you end up with more questions than answers, then you aren't listening closely enough. Our offer is simple. Help us to clean up our universe. Help us in our work - help us to destroy those worlds that no longer belong."
"Destroy worlds?" Nikolai interrupted, punctuating his words with a laugh. "You can't be serious. The only world I care about is this one. I have neither the time nor the inclination to-"
"You have all the time you need," the girl said, cutting across him again. She held up her hand. "Please, listen. All you have to do is come with me. Ours is work that will be done anyway. This world will be taken care of, if you come. No one will threaten it, it will be safe from our attention for as long as you're with us."
Nikolai's gaze hardened.
"I've heard a lot of threats in my time," he told her. "You can spread as much honey over your tone as you wish, but I know it when I hear it."
The girl sighed.
"I don't want to threaten you. None of us do. I don't want to tell you that if you say no, we'll turn our gaze here, instead. I'd far rather tell you that if you come, if you help us, then we'll pay you in kind. We'll give you what you need, and not pile more problems on your head." She paused, and then smiled. "But both positions are true. You wanted full disclosure. You have it. Now will you come, Nikolai? You have to make the choice. Take what we're offering, please. We could help to make you King...or we could wipe it all away. Look around you. Do you really doubt the power we have?"
She fell silent. Her face was beatific, calm and sweet. Nikolai was very aware of his breathing, of his heart thudding in his chest. His hazel eyes flicked around over the frozen battlefield. He saw the Darkling's forces halted in their tracks, saw bullets paused in their flight. Yet at the same time he saw the bodies of the fallen - saw Grisha with blank and staring eyes, paused in the midst of their death throes. He saw all the strength he'd put together crumbling around him. The only world he cared about was this one. That was what he'd said, and he knew that truth of that. Finally, his gaze fell on his mother's face. On the tears that had been halted halfway to falling, on the grief that was written all over her. Grief that was mirrored in his own heart, but which he kept off his face in a way that she never could.
What wouldn't he do, to make this right? What wouldn't he risk, if it meant he'd have the strength to make the Darkling pay for this? The girl was right. If her employers could stop time itself, they could do more. They could give him the resources he needed to win - or, they could make it so that he had nothing to fight for at all.
In the end, what could he truly say? He had always been the man to take the impossible risk, to steal whatever advantage he could get. As always, he would do whatever he had to do, if it meant he had the chance to win.
And she knew that. He looked up at her face, at her expression, and he knew he'd be giving her the answer she expected. She'd picked her man well.
"All right," he said, and moved for her. He cast a final glance at his mother, and then looked back at the girl. "You have a deal. Give me what I need to win this war, and I'll do what you ask. I'll help you. Tell your employers we have an accord."
The girl's smile blossomed, and she held out her hand to clasp his. "That's what I wanted to hear, Nikolai. We'll discuss the terms along the way."
With a grimace, he took her hand, and shook on it. He didn't know what was in store, but at the end of the day, if it ended with the Darkling's death, it would be worth it. He'd do what he had to. He would win.
CHARACTER ITEMS.
✖ Pick a Team: Blue
✖ Mission Freebie: A fresh army of Grisha soldiers, with whom he can mount an assault on the Darkling's forces and try to retake his family's throne.
✖ Personal Item or Weapon: The teal frock coat that he wears as Sturmhond.
✖ Character Inventory:♛ Ravkan military dress uniform, with royal insignias
♛ Riding boots
♛ Underwear
♛ Belt
SUBSTRATA FREEBIE REQUEST - POWER
It will have the following affects on his body:
■ Reduction to cellular senescence, which will slow down his aging process and lengthen his lifespan;
■ Damage to his body will repair itself at an accelerated rate;
■ Recovery from minor blood loss will be accelerated.
This power will have the following limitations:
■ His level of immunity to diseases and toxins will be unaltered;
■ Critical damage (e.g. lost limbs, damaged nerves, missing organs) cannot be regenerated – the wounds will just close up faster;
■ Fatally damaged cells (e.g. from severe burns) cannot be regenerated, and the affected area would be permanently scarred;
■ Recovery from severe blood loss will require medical attention;
■ Mortal wounds cannot be regenerated;
■ Obstructions must be physically/surgically removed before wounds can heal and broken bones must be physically set to prevent them healing wrongly;
■ He still needs to eat, sleep, drink and breathe; if there’s water in his lungs, it will have to come out before he starts to heal.
Because this is a passive ability, it cannot improve with training. Any improvement to these abilities would have to be by way of future mission freebies.