Nicholas Lovof is an anti-expedition faction leader and close associate of the Lang Company. He actively opposes the Survey Corps' expeditions, seeking to suspend their funding and redirect resources to the Military Police for his associates' benefit. His motivations are primarily financial, prioritizing personal gain over humanity's broader survival.

Lovof appears as either a middle-aged man with slicked-back, receding dark hair, a prominent mustache, and perpetually sunken, stern eyes, or as an elderly man with shoulder-length hair and a neck-length beard. He typically wears formal but understated attire, such as a gray blazer over a white shirt with a red tie.

His personality is characterized by selfishness, greed, and manipulativeness. He employs blackmail and coercion, notably leveraging the health of Levi's associate Yan to force Levi, Furlan Church, and Isabel Magnolia into a mission. He offers them surface citizenship and money in exchange for assassinating Erwin Smith and retrieving documents evidencing his embezzlement of military funds. Lovof operates cautiously, ensuring contingency plans and eliminating loose ends, including authorizing Erwin's murder.

Lovof's scheme exploits the trio's underground origins and desire for surface life. After they join the Survey Corps under false pretenses, he monitors their progress in locating the documents. However, Erwin Smith anticipates the plot, securing the evidence by delivering the documents to Military Police Commander Dhalis Zachary before Levi retrieves them, leading to Lovof's exposure and punishment.