Character from Bastion by Phil Tucker
A talking toad who became an Emperor Wraith Toad — the comic relief who quietly proves that fiends can be more than monsters, one sardonic comment at a time.
Nox exists at the intersection of comic relief and thematic argument. He's funny — a talking toad with opinions about everything and the delivery of a stand-up comedian who has seen too much. But his presence in Scorio's group makes a quiet case that the Great Souls' binary view of fiends (enemies, resources, threats) is incomplete. Nox demonstrates complexity. He has preferences, loyalties, humor, and something that looks very much like affection. He's not good in the way humans mean it — he's a Hell-native creature with Hell-native values — but he's not the mindless monster that Bastion's ideology requires fiends to be. Every scene where Scorio treats Nox as a companion rather than a tool chips away at the philosophical foundations of the city's war. His evolution to Emperor Wraith Toad is played for both comedy and genuine power — he becomes a serious combatant while remaining fundamentally ridiculous, which is harder to write than it looks.
A toad. A very large, very opinionated, very magical toad who evolved into an Emperor Wraith Toad by Book 2. His physical transformation mirrors his narrative evolution from joke to genuine companion. His wraith-enhanced form carries the unsettling grandeur of something that shouldn't be dignified but absolutely is.
Also known as: Emperor Wraith Toad, The Toad