The Blacktongue Thief

As the protagonist and first-person narrator, Kinch Na Shannack is a quintessential trickster whose cynical, witty voice lays out the specifics a brutal world. As a product of the Takers Guild, he is a highly skilled thief whose Guild-funded education has left him with a ruinously high debt to the shadowy organization, and this constant pressure dictates his lawless early actions when he suffers the company of inept highwaymen. Kinch is a dynamic and round character, and his development is defined by a gradual, reluctant shift from pure self-preservation to genuine loyalty. His training in the “Rare Arts” (31) makes him a pragmatic survivalist, and although he is not inherently cruel, he is nonetheless willing to use violence and deception to stay alive and appease the Guild. The harsh realities of his life force him to navigate complex moral situations, and his inner dilemmas often embody The Necessity of Moral Compromise in a Brutal World. His name, “kinch,” which in his native Galtish tongue means a “knot” or a “tangle” (44), reflects his role as an unexpected problem for his enemies and foreshadows his entanglement in events that are far larger than his own debts.