Character from The First Law by Joe Abercrombie
A crippled torturer who was once the Union's most dashing swordsman — broken by two years in Gurkish prisons, now extracting confessions with the same precision he once used to win fencing tournaments, and hating every second of it.
Glokta's internal monologue is the sharpest, funniest, most self-lacerating voice in fantasy literature. He narrates his own degradation with acid wit — cataloguing every stab of pain in his legs, every humiliation of his body, every moral compromise with the precise, bitter humor of a man who has nothing left to lose and knows it. He tortures people. He's very good at it. He learned how in the Gurkish prisons where he spent two years being taken apart, and now he does it for the Inquisition because it's the only career path left for a crippled ex-hero. He hates it. He does it anyway. The gap between his disgust and his efficiency is where the character lives. What makes Glokta extraordinary is that despite everything — the cruelty, the cynicism, the daily choices to hurt people — he retains a moral core he can't quite kill. He protects Ardee. He loves his daughter Savine (though she doesn't know he's her father). He makes the right choice at the worst possible moments, not because he believes in right and wrong, but because he can't stop himself. By the Age of Madness, he's the most powerful man in the Union as Arch Lector — the crippled torturer who became the secret king, pulling strings from the shadows while pretending to be retired. The irony would be delicious if it weren't so bitter.
A ruin of a man. Once handsome, now gaunt and twisted — missing most of his teeth, his body crooked and bent from Gurkish torture that destroyed his legs, his back, and his looks. Walks with a cane, grimacing with every step. His smile is a horror show of gaps and ruined gums. Dresses as well as his ruined frame allows, a remnant of the vanity he refuses to abandon.
Also known as: Glokta, Sand dan Glokta, The Cripple, Arch Lector Glokta