It's Minias, and he's totally boring. Newt is by far better, because she's absolutely insane. Even Al is more interesting, because Rachel keeps kicking his ass and outsmarting him.

But definitely, no one beats Ceri in terms of generalized awesomeness. Like Yuki said, she has that high bearing of royalty (which she is), but is not afraid of doing what she has to. She's muscle around anyone but Al, and I really love when she snaps at Rachel for being such a big baby about all these things.

A decent amount of your questions are answered in Outlaw Demon Wails, but there's no way I'd ever say which ones...

...and there will be a lot more to add to that.