Earl Cain - Characters

Characters

Yuki depicts her characters in Victorian, Gothic, and Gothic Lolita clothing, according to reviewer Sheena McNeil of Sequential Tart.

Cain C. Hargreaves (カイン・C・ハーグリーヴス, Kain Shĩ Hāgurīvuzu?)

The antihero of the series. He has golden green eyes as a result of being a child born of incest. Alexis physically and mentally abused him and killed his pets to cause him misery. His stepmother tried to kill him when she believed that he was getting in the way of the love Alexis never had for her, only to be poisoned by Alexis. The only people he trusts are his valet Riff and sister Mary. Riff is the first person Cain trusted and the only one he allows to see and touch his scars from Alexis' nightly abuse. He fears becoming like his father, because he fell in love with his half-sister, Suzette. Kaori Yuki, the author and illustrator for the series, felt that Cain looked older than his intended age of seventeen in The Cain Saga. She described him as a 'player', and commented: "Vulnerable girls seem to be his type." Yuki has stated that while there is no model for Cain, British actor Rupert Graves "left a strong impression" on her with his films. In the drama CD adaption, he is voiced by Hideo Ishikawa.

Riffael "Riff" Raffit (リフェール・ラフィット, Rifēru Rafitto?)

Cain's valet. Riff dresses Cain and ties his shoes for him, which Yuki considers "a form of communication between the two of them because they've been together so long that they're almost like father and child." During that time, they have discussions "unrelated to work." She wrote that "Riff is almost like Cain's mother" recently, commenting that Cain behaves somewhat childishly when with him; she explained that "the scent of Riff's crisp white shirt" brings him nostalgia for the time when he "used to cry on Riff." Secretly a high-ranking member of Delilah, he is placed with Cain so that Cain form a close bond with him and be further hurt when Riff reveals that he had always despised him. Riff had murdered his own family and died in the ensuing fire he intentionally set. Resurrected by Delilah and given an alternate, kinder personality, he is the longest surviving of all the dolls, occasionally brought to the organization's hideout and given blood transfusions to keep him alive. However, his will to rebel against Delilah grew stronger as the hypnosis faded, which allows him to kill his original, cruel personality.

Mary Weather Hargreaves (マリーウェザー･ハーグリーヴス, Marīwezā Hāgurīvuzu?)

Cain's ten-year-old half sister. After her mother commits suicide to protect her from her obsessive husband, Mary lives on the streets of London as a fortuneteller. Cain believes that she is his half-sister, and adopts her. Outgoing and strong-willed, she is often annoyed by Cain's relationships with women. She does not like how Cain shelters her, but accepts it because she believes that it eases his suffering. One of Cain's friends, Oscar Gabriel, becomes her self-proclaimed fiancé to win back his father's attention. As the series progresses, he risks his life to protect her, and she realizes that he genuinely cares for her. In the ending, she is married to him and pregnant with his child. Although she is actually not related to Cain, he loves her regardless.

Jizabel Disraeli (ジザベル・ディズレーリ, Jizaberu Dizurēri?)

Alexis' illegitimate son and Cain's half-brother. Jizabel is a sadistic doctor who works for Alexis' secret organization Delilah. As a child, he cared for the lives of animals, but was tricked into eating his pet sheep by Alexis. Alexis also murdered his older sisters so their healthy organs could be transplanted into Jizabel's sickly body. Upon learning of this, Jizabel felt that he was unworthy of love and became depressed. Like Cain, his back is scarred from Alexis' whippings; he sees the scars as "symbols of father's love". Unlike Cain, Jizabel has an almost obsessive love and devotion to their father, admitting once that Alexis owns him mind, body and soul, and he does not want to escape his horrific abuse. He despises the close bond Cain has with Riff because he believes that unconditional love does not exist, though he appears to form a very close bond to his assistant, Cassian. He was Yuki's favorite character to draw in the beginning.

Alexis Hargreaves (アレクシス・ハーグリーヴス, Arekushisu Hāgurīvuzu?)

Cain and Jizabel's father. Abusive, and a skillful manipulator Alexis blames Cain for Augusta's insanity and death, and resolves to make life impossible for him. As the leader of Delilah, he assigns members within the secret organization their ranks. The only person he ever loved was his sister, Augusta, despite his arranged marriage to a woman he later murders. While Cain believes that Alexis raped Augusta, she actually seduced him. After Augusta's death, he stole her head from her coffin before she was cremated on their father's orders. Using cells extracted from her head, Alexis makes several clones of her; all except for one perish. The remaining clone is soulless and he hopes to coax her spirit into it using a magic ritual. The research Alexis puts into creating a new body for his sister leads to the creation of the dolls. Alexis simultaneously despised and wanted happiness for his sons.

Augusta Hargreaves

Alexis's older sister and Cain's biological mother. She was an elegant lady of the Hargreaves family until she went insane after giving birth to Cain, and was put into an mental instituition. When she sees 12-year-old Cain, she mistakes him as Alexis and kills herself by throwing herself out a window. As a result, Alexis blames Cain for her death. Initially, Cain believes that Alexis raped Augusta, but he later finds out that she had seduced him. She in fact manipulated Alexis into abusing his sons and killed herself to drive him into reviving her for her own amusement. She justifies her actions because of her arranged marriage to a man she despised when her father discovered her and Alexis's true feelings.

Suzette (シュゼット, Shuzetto?)

Augusta's daughter and Cain's elder half-sister and first love. She planned to elope with her lover by faking her death, but he leaves her buried alive. Escaping from her premature grave, she then poisons him and herself. Later in the series, members of Delilah dig up her grave for her ring and ring finger to create Mikaila (ミケイラ?), a younger doll version with the ability to summon and control poisonous spiders—Yuki modeled them after the Painted Red Leg Tarantulas. Because of Alexis, Mikaila becomes obsessed with Cain and later undergoes an aging operation to resemble Suzette more and win Cain's love, but it damages her fragile body. Cain later brings her to one of his hideouts to gain information about Delilah, and she clashes with Mary, believing that she is in competition with her for his affection. Although she is given the option of killing her to rejoin Delilah and continue to live, Mikaila chooses to die while pondering the meaning of her artificially-created life.

Neil Hargreaves (ニール・ハーグリーヴス, Nīru Hāgurīvuzu?)

Cain's uncle and legal guardian. He tends to become upset with Cain's behavior and course of action. He and Cain are often at odds because Cain believes that Neil's strictness derives from caring more about his inheritance than him, when in fact Neil chose to take care of him because he felt that he seemed lonely even as an infant and was touched when he reached for his hand.

Cassian (カシアン, Kashian?)

Jizabel's assistant is a 35-year-old man who, due to a rare strain of dwarfism, stopped growing as a child, giving him a young appearance. Due to his illness, his family sold him to the circus where he became a knife performer. He joined Delilah in hopes of growing into an adult's body. Throughout the series, he begins to show concern for Jizabel and his involvement with Alexis and Delilah. Cassian later sacrifices himself to protect Jizabel from Lord Gladstone, a high-ranking member of Delilah who attempts to kill him and fatally wounds Cassian instead. Jizabel then gives him an adult body by transplanting Cassian's brain into Gladstone's body. As Cassian later departs, he vows to save him from Alexis.