The Lies of Locke Lamora

Jean Tannen is the Gentlemen Bastards’ second-in-command, and Locke’s closest friend and ally. Jean is introduced while he’s sitting in a boat on the way to the Salvara game:

The forward gunwale of the flat-bottomed barge was a choice spot for relaxation in the watered-wine light of early morning, allowing all sixteen stone of Jean’s frame to sprawl comfortably—keg belly, heavy arms, bandy legs, and all [...] Jean’s voice was soft and even and wildly incongruous. He spoke like a teacher of music or a copier of scrolls (43).

This introduction, which contrasts John’s formidable physicality with his soft voice, hints at his mastery of fighting and academics. Indeed, Jean is a skilled and violent fighter, but he also has significant scholarly abilities, likely because of his wealthy merchant parents.

After Jean’s parents died in a fire when he was about 10, Father Chains took him to the Temple of Perelandro. He is Locke’s opposite in many ways: broad where Locke is small, good at fighting and academics, where Locke is good at concocting criminal schemes. Jean and Locke become best friends, and Locke eventually learns to accept Jean as his equal. Jean and Locke, who demonstrate a closer bond than the rest of the Bastards, are the only two who survive the Gray King.

Jean is a relative latecomer to the Gentlemen Bastards, and the story of how he arrives is relayed late in the narrative. Locke trusts and cares for Jean before the narrative shows why that’s true or how their relationship developed. Their bond is hard for them to explain, but it doesn’t need explaining because it’s so natural.

Calo and Galdo Sanza are twin brothers who are crucial members of the Gentleman Bastards. They are virtually indistinguishable; they look the same and have the same broad skillset. Father Chains says, “Calo and Galdo are silver at all trades and gold at none” (347). They often provide comedic relief through their love of gambling and visiting Camorri brothels. Their deaths, along with Bug’s, catalyze Locke and Jean’s quest for revenge.

Father Chains is the leader and adoptive father of the Gentleman Bastards. He masquerades as a blind priest of Perelandro, a god of mercy and the unprotected, but is really a sighted priest of the Thirteenth God, the Crooked Warden, the god of thieves. He’s a former farmer and soldier, with many connections both within Camorr’s nobility and Camorr’s criminal life. He acts tough demanding but becomes a truly loving father figure to the Bastards. His memory influences Locke throughout the course of the novel, as his lessons are referenced in almost every interlude.

Father Chains’s insights keep Locke and the Gentlemen Bastards alive and allow them to manipulate the Camorri people for their own survival. Without Father Chains’s leadership, the gang would neither exist nor flourish in times of conflict as they have.

At age 12, Bug is the youngest member of the Gentlemen Bastards. He is eager and enterprising, and he vacillates between being the voice of reason and the person who enables Locke most. Bug represents a lost innocence that is far removed from the older members of the Gentlemen Bastards, and his presence serves to give humanity to the band of thieves. Their sibling-like relationship with Bug provides moments of vulnerability that contrast the harsh reality in which the gang operates daily. His death (along with the deaths of Calo and Galdo Sanza) drives Locke to a desperate, passionate revenge.

Capa Vencarlo Barsavi is the kingpin of Camorr’s Right People, the criminals of the city. He was a scholar before coming to Camorr and a friend of Father Chains. In the present timeline, Barsavi is facing the menace of the Gray King, the first true threat to his reign. He loses a great deal of his control and sanity, and the Gray King eventually kills him. Capa Barsavi serves as a catalyst for the plot and creates conflict as he is tricked by the Gray King’s use of Locke to represent himself.

Nazca Barsavi is the only daughter of Capa Vencarlo Barsavi. She is savvy, compassionate, and wise. She and Locke met as young children and have grown to be good friends. She dies at the hands of the Gray King, who puts her corpse in a barrel of horse urine and sends it to the Capa. Nazca’s death represents how Camorri people exact revenge, as her father retaliates with equal brutality. Her death also increases the suspenseful in the narrative.

Luciano Anatolius is first introduced as the notorious rogue criminal the Gray King, who preys on fellow criminals within the Camorri underworld. He is a foil to Locke in that they both grew from similar circumstances of loss, through which Locke found family while the Gray King lost his. The Gray King was born in Camorr and had five younger siblings. His parents and his three youngest siblings were killed by Capa Barsavi, after which the Gray King fled and swore revenge. After plotting and planning for over 20 years, he returns to Camorr as the Gray King, kills Barsavi, and briefly becomes Capa Raza. Locke murders him due to sheer luck.

Locke and the Gray King’s familial ties motivate both of their actions, but the Gray King’s loss demonstrates how the Camorri way of revenge has its own code of conduct. His vengeance is aimed at anyone though his target is Capa Barsavi—a callous method that even the criminals of Camorr disapprove. The Gray King is an image of what Locke could be without the growth of his character over the course of the novel. While Locke adapts and changes based on his experiences, the Gray King remains static, consumed by a singular motivation of vengeance and destruction.

The Bondsmage acts as a hireling of Capa Raza and is an influential motivator for the Gray King’s will to be enacted. He is responsible for making good on Capa Raza’s threats, as his magical abilities are vast and terrifying. He moves objects from afar and control people’s minds, especially if he knows their true name. Killing a Bondsmage of Karthain is worse than death because all the other Magi of Karthain have sworn to murder the killer of any Magi and their entire family. Locke and Jean torture him, kill his hawk familiar, and cut out his tongue. They stop short of killing the Bondsmage, demonstrating the code by which they live within Camorr and their own need for self-preservation.

The Berangias Sisters are expert shark gladiators and Capa Barsavi’s personal bodyguards. Later in the novel, they are revealed to be Capa Raza’s younger siblings. The Berangias Sisters introduce further world-building elements of the novel’s narrative as they participate in teeth shows, a practice in which contrarequiallas, or shark gladiators, battle a live shark. The sisters also demonstrate Camorr’s gender construct, as only females are trained to be contrarequiallas.

Don Lorenzo and Doña Sofia Salvara are the Gentlemen Bastards’ marks. Lorenzo is gallant and impulsive. Doña Salvara is more cautious and an accomplished alchemist. Doña Salvara’s suspicions contribute significantly to the novel’s rising action as she shares her suspicions with Doña Vorchenza. While the Salvaras are pawns in the Gentlemen Bastards’ schemes, they demonstrate how the gang underestimates their targets and the levels of power the nobility of Camorr has in the face of threats against them. The Salvaras’ own cunning and inability to be tricked highlights the criminal underworld over which they reside, as they’re quickly aware of how Locke attempts to swindle them. The Spider names them both as her successors.