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.