Assassin's Apprentice

Burrich is a secondary character in the novel, serving as Fitz’s mentor and reluctant father figure. The complex, tormented relationship between Burrich and Fitz forms one of the many tethers that keep Fitz grounded. Burrich is steady and patient but has exacting standards and intense self-hatred bound up in his loyalty to and love for Prince Chivalry. Burrich’s agonizing repression of his own abilities in the Wit causes him to project his own self-hatred and isolation onto Fitz, going as far as to separate Fitz from Nosy to keep him from developing the Wit. The Wit forms the center of Fitz and Burrich’s relationship from that point on, a point of both conflict and connection that, despite their love for each other, drives them apart until they are nearly killed at the end of the novel.

Burrich is a person who is more comfortable with animals than with other people. He puts Fitz with the dogs when he is given care of him, believing that the dogs will take better care of him than the soldiers at the encampment; while accurate, this immediately establishes Burrich’s unconventional sensibilities about the world and hints at his skills in the Wit. This also establishes that Burrich, like Fitz, is incredibly lonely. He loses Chivalry, hinted to be his only real friend and allegiance, and drives Fitz away due to fear and bias; even those who could be loyal to him, like the ill-fated and traitorous stableboy Cob, betray and even try to kill him. Burrich’s character is tragic; while his story does not end in this novel, it is heavily implied that his own accumulated self-hatred, which comes from years of living in a society that could kill him for his abilities, will continue to damage his relationships unless he finds a way to recover. Burrich’s example shows Fitz what could happen to him if he doesn’t find a way to accept himself and his gifts.

Chade is a secondary character in the novel who primarily serves as Fitz’s mentor figure. He can be kindly and benevolent, but Chade has sinister abilities and motives: He is an assassin and royalty born outside of marriage, like Fitz, and he serves King Shrewd’s purposes by killing anyone who gets in the way. Chade is cunning, ruthless, and sly, but he does genuinely care for Fitz; at the same time, he is not afraid to leave Fitz alone for months or put him in danger for the sake of the kingdom.

Chade’s appearance plays a significant role in his characterization. He is an old man with a pockmarked face, making him resemble the folkloric Pocked Man, a symbol of death and destruction in the kingdom. Chade’s life as an assassin makes this connection eerily accurate, although Chade himself sees the similarity as an accident. Additionally, Chade’s fluidity of identity and lack of real presence in the castle make him more like a ghost than a person. Chade is rarely acknowledged by others except as his alter ego, the foul noble Lady Thyme, and his presence is a secret to everyone except the royal family and the Fool. This helps characterize him as wise but mysterious and unreachable—isolating Fitz even further since he has no way of reaching out to one of the most important people in his life.

Verity is a secondary character within the work, serving as a heroic and dutiful prince to his people. He transforms over the course of the novel from a gruff and down-to-earth soldier into a loyal, powerful prince, capable of defending his people and winning the heart of Princess Kettricken through his immense abilities in the Skill. 

While Fitz refers to himself as a “king’s man” throughout, his real loyalty is to Verity, who cares for him openly despite his uncertain role in the palace. Verity’s kindness is one of his main character traits; he ensures that Fitz receives the royal acknowledgement he deserves while refusing to treat him as a tool for the King. In many ways, Verity is the only person capable of seeing Fitz as a person instead of as Chivalry’s son, making him extremely important to Fitz’s development. His role in Fitz’s life develops the theme of The Importance of Human Connection, and over the course of the novel, their connection continues to grow. However, Verity still has weaknesses; he takes Fitz’s energy to sustain himself twice within the novel, albeit with Fitz’s consent, and struggles to understand the diplomacy—and trickery—that his father and Prince Regal use in their positions to get what they want. Like his name, he is straightforward and intense, which makes him a good protector and a bad negotiator.

Verity’s flaws, however, pale in comparison to Regal, who is the youngest child of the royal family and the primary villain in the book. Regal is foppish, arrogant, and power hungry, willing to kill members of his own family to acquire the throne. He has little regard for human life; he allows four people to die in his grasp for the throne and would have let Verity, Burrich, and Fitz die to get his way. Even before his plot is revealed, Regal treats Fitz with disdain at best and hostility at worst, viewing him as a stain on their family history instead of as a child. Despite these flaws, Regal also continually escapes actual justice; he is rarely, if ever, held to task for his actions and even escapes punishment for his attempted coup at the end. If Verity represents the good qualities of a king, Regal represents the bad—a man with no actual love for his kingdom and far too much love for himself.

The Fool is a mysterious secondary character in the novel who serves as a foil to the straightforward but equally lonely and guarded Fitz. Because the Fool is the court jester, Fitz initially misbelieves him to have an intellectual disability. The Fool quickly reveals himself to be smart, sarcastic, and cunning, with a propensity—or ability—to prophesize, predictions that range from incomprehensible phrases to direct warnings. The Fool’s place in Fitz’s life and the narrative is complex; Fitz is drawn to him in ways he does not understand, and the Fool himself seems to wrestle with isolation and powerlessness despite his abilities and desperation to protect Fitz from danger.

The Fool’s appearance—and gender identity—are key to his characterization as a changeable, unpredictable individual. He is described as eerily pale with a childlike face; additionally, while he uses he/him pronouns, a passage in one of Fitz’s histories says that his gender is unknown. Later books in the series establish him to be genderfluid. These details quickly make him stand out around the castle; although he embraces these traits in himself, he is also depicted as incredibly lonely, speaking to few people and trusting nobody. In a dream sequence, he even denies caring for Fitz, insisting that he merely wants to keep him alive so that he can serve a purpose. Despite this, the Fool manages to be one of the characters whom Fitz is the most intimate with, if only because he is the only character whom Fitz can understand and feel a kinship with.

Galen, alongside Regal, is the primary antagonist in the work. He is a cruel, abusive man who earned the position of Skillmaster through favoritism and utilizes this position to harm others and further his own agenda. While Regal directly tries to murder Fitz, Galen’s influence on Fitz is far more psychological and sinister; he directly affects Fitz’s mind to fill him with self-hatred, self-doubt, and the belief that he cannot perform the Skill because of his birth outside of marriage. Galen deliberately drives Fitz to consider dying by suicide; although Smithy narrowly saves Fitz’s life, this alone establishes Galen as a character with no remorse or regard for the value of life. Galen’s fanatical love for Chivalry—born out of Chivalry’s manipulative use of the Skill when they were young—warps his perception of Fitz into that of an object to be discarded.

Galen, like Fitz and Chade, was also born outside of marriage, the child of the Queen and the half-brother of Regal. Beyond his role as a villain in the plot, Galen also serves as a foil to Chade, at least from Fitz’s perspective. While Chade is kind and understanding to Fitz, Galen abuses him. Despite their differences in character, Galen holds a public position of power, while Chade operates from the shadows. Galen’s character illustrates the corruption at the heart of the royal household; while his death at Verity’s hand at the novel’s end takes a step toward rooting this corruption out, it is implied to not be enough since Galen’s influence—through the coterie he created—remains.