The Slayers light novel series features a cast of characters created by Hajime Kanzaka and illustrated by Rui Araizumi. It follows the adventures of teenage sorceress Lina Inverse and her companions as they journey through their world. Using powerful magic and swordsmanship, they battle difficult overreaching wizards, demons seeking to destroy the world, dark lords, and the occasional hapless gang of bandits. Slayers has been adapted into several manga series, five televised anime series, two three-episode original video animations, and five anime films where events and characters differ significantly from the original novels.
Major characters
Lina Inverse
is the main protagonist and central figure of the Slayers franchise. Although still a teenager, she is a powerful and well-known sorceress with nicknames such as the "Bandit Killer" and "Black Witch". Born to a merchant family, she has a great love of money, treasure, and food. After meeting in the first novel, Gourry becomes Lina's constant companion and never leaves her for very long. Although the two appear to be in love with each other, there is no romance between them.
Lina specializes in black magic, specifically attack magic that calls upon the power of demons. Her signature spell, Dragon Slave, comes from the power of the Dark Lord Shabranigdu, while Ragna Blade and her most powerful spell Giga Slave call upon the Lord of Nightmares. She is also a skilled swordsman, though not on the level of Gourry or Zelgadis, as she lacks physical strength. During the series, Lina and company face down and defeat many powerful demons, including a fragment of Shabranigdu, Hellmaster Fibrizo, and Dark Star.
Gourry Gabriev
is a wandering swordsman who meets Lina at the beginning of the series and accompanies her from then on as a self-appointed bodyguard. Although chivalrous and a loyal friend, he is rather dumb and appears to have memory deficiencies. However, his skills as a swordsman are unmatched, especially when armed with his family's magic blade, the Sword of Light, also known as Gorun Nova. When Gourry is captured by Hellmaster Fibrizo in the eighth novel, the demon sends the Sword of Light back to its creator, Dark Star. Gourry also has a high magic capacity and the potential to cast spells that rival Lina's power, but because of his faulty memory and disinterest, he cannot remember spells well enough to ever use them.
Gourry eventually falls in love with Lina, which he expresses through his promise that he will guard her for the rest of his life. He is not as shy about his feelings as Lina is, and unlike her he will not violently deny it when asked. He does not act on them, though, and he seems content with merely watching out for Lina's well-being.
Zelgadis Graywords
is a sorcerer who Lina and Gourry meet in the first novel. As a retainer for his relative Rezo the Red Priest, Zelgadis and his colleagues fight Lina for the philosopher's stone. However, he is actually seeking the stone to make himself powerful enough to kill Rezo as revenge for turning him into a chimera. Although he asked Rezo to make him stronger, he did not know he would do so by fusing him with a rock golem and brow daemon. Zelgadis teams up with Lina and Gourry to destroy Rezo, and again two months later to defeat Rezo's copy when bounties are issued for the three. Sometime later, he runs into and works with them, plus Amelia, while attempting to acquire the manuscript of the Claire Bible in possession of the demon-worshiping cult, with the hope it will help him turn back into human. Searching for a way to regain his humanity, Zelgadis continues to travel with Lina and company out of convenience, not friendship. After the defeat of Hellmaster Fibrizo in the eighth novel, Zelgadis leaves Lina's group and continues his quest.
Zelgadis specializes in Shamanistic magic, which includes both elemental and astral magic, the latter of which deals with the astral, or spiritual, plane. Since he is part brow daemon, he is unable to cast black magic, as doing so would require him to call upon the power of another demonic being——which, in the Slayers universe, is akin to willing oneself out of existence. Though he is not as learned in the art as Lina, Zelgadis' even combination of physical force and magical finesse render him among the most fearsome warriors. Due to his chimeric appearance, Zelgadis usually covers his head and face and often avoids human contact.