Characters from the Cassandra Palmer and Dorina Basarab series. Since this is a long-running series, spoilers from earlier books may be unmarked. This character page remains a work in progress.
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Main/POV Characters
Cassandra "Cassie" Palmer
Cassandra Palmer
A 24 year-old clairvoyant and Pythia to the supernatural world.
- Action Girl: Averted somewhat. Cassie usually gets involved in major incidents despite a lack of training. Pritkin devotes a great deal of time and energy trying to transform her into this with mixed results.
- Auto Erotica: In Hunt the Moon, Cassie has oral sex with Pritkin in the backseat of a flying car in order to save his life after he was mortally wounded with dragon's blood.
- Battle Ballgown: Augustine makes one of these for Cassie
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: with Mircea. And later with Pritkin.
- Book Dumb: Cassie was never trained in the use of magic, making her come across as ignorant or helpless in some instances. This was deliberate, as Tony didn't want her to become a threat to him.
- Claimed by the Supernatural: While under the influence of a geis, Mircea bites Cassie in a way that binds them together, in what amounts to a marriage in vampire culture
- Determinator: Cassie never gives up, even in the most challenging of circumstances.
- Divine Parentage: Cassie's mother was actually the goddess Artemis, making her a demigod.
- Dumb Blonde: Inverted - Cassie is intelligent and has an excellent grasp of vampire politics, but is often underestimated due to her looks and lack of magical training, which was a deliberate choice by Tony (and Mircea) to try and control her power.
- Erotic Dream: At one point, Cassie has a very explicit dream about Pritkin's younger self, which is interrupted by Mircea.
- Full-Frontal Assault: While she starts off wearing a towel, Cassie winds up fighting a Spartoi while completely nude and succeeds in defeating him, at the cost of almost dying. This all occurs in full view of all of the vampire Senates and a great many supernatural dignitaries. Also broadcast live to the greater magical community. During what was supposed to be her coronation.
- In Shatter the Earth, she upgrades to fighting a battle in a bathrobe.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Cassie spends a day in Pritkin's body (and he spends a day in hers) in Curse the Dawn.
- Geas: A geis was placed on Cassie on Mircea's orders. It eventually gets removed, but not before causing a lot of havoc.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Cassie ruins a lot of clothing due to the hazards of the job and sometimes goes around looking like a mess. It's not that she doesn't care about fashion, but that her job gets in the way. At one point, she is described as looking like "a cross between Paris Hilton and a homeless person"
- She favors jean shorts, slogan tees, and sparkly nail polish, and is often winds up filthy and with torn clothing.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: At one point, Pritkin notes that she looks most innocent when she's up to something.
- Intimate Healing: At several points, she helps save John Pritkin's life by donating energy that he needs to heal via sex.
- In Ignite the Fire: Incendiary, her life is saved, in turn, by way of a ménage à trois with Pritkin and Mircea, which generates enough power to fight off Zeus and save her from being burned alive by his power.
- Meaningful Name: She is a seer named Cassandra, and the daughter of a goddess.
- Necromancer: In addition to being a powerful clairvoyant, she is a necromancer with the ability to speak to ghosts rather than the more "traditional" power over flesh, so she cannot create or control zombies.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Cassie's friend/sidekick/partner Billy Joe is a ghost linked to the necklace she wears. He serves as a spy for her in exchange for regular donations of energy.
- Seer: She is a powerful clairvoyant with some touch clairvoyance in addition to being able to see glimpses of the future. Her visions mostly stop when she becomes Pythia as the Pythian power uses up a lot of her clairvoyant bandwidth, so to speak.
- Quirky Curls: Her strawberry blonde curls are often disheveled and sometimes dirty due to her frequent time-travel, which rarely involves clean or well-maintained places.
- Second Love: John Pritkin.
- While she remains fond of Mircea, she ends their sexual relationship once she learns he befriended and protected her as a child, and later entered into a relationship with her as an adult in order to persuade her to go back in time to save his wife from a gruesome death.
- Sex as Rite-of-Passage: To become Pythia, Cassie has to lose her virginity. This winds up happening with Tomas in Faerie in Claimed by Shadow.
- Sweet Tooth: Cassie loves jelly donuts and sweets in general.
- Take This Job and Shove It: Zig-zagged - Cassie initially does not want to be Pythia and is relectant to complete the power transfer ritual, although she later accepts it and embraces her role.
- Time Police: Part of Cassie's job as Pythia is to protect the timeline.
- Will They or Won't They?: With Mircea and later with Pritkin. By the end of Ride the Storm, Cassie has slept with both of them, albeit at different points over the course of the books...until Ignite the Fire: Incendiary, that is. note As of Brave the Tempest, Cassie has ended things with Mircea, and she and Pritkin are in a committed relationship.
John Pritkin
Mage John Pritkin/Myrddin/Emrys
A Welsh half-incubus war mage and Prince of the Incubinote who becomes Cassie's bodyguard/trainer/partner/eventual love interest. As of Brave The Tempest, he is Cassie's lover.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Pritkin is treated with suspicion by many people due to being a half-demon. This includes his fellow mages, nearly all of the Fey, and most demons, who don't understand his desire to live a normal life on Earth.
- Because of his demon blood, he was also never accepted as a member of the Silver Circle.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Pritkin and his father have spent centuries in opposition, and generally don't get along. Pritkin (rightly) blames his father for the death of his wife, although he blames himself more.
- In the novella Shadowland, Pritkin even seriously contemplates killing Rosier after he thought Rosier was responsible for Cassie's death; she didn't die, but was instead stuck in a time loop.
- Pritkin also spent most of his life believing that he was the result of his father raping his mother, although Cassie (and presumably Pritkin) later learned that their relationship was consensual and that Morgaine knew of Rosier's desire for a child. His father either never realized this or never bothered to correct his belief.
- As of Ignite the Fire: Incendiary, they are no longer actively trying to harm or kill each other, and Cassie describes their relationship as "grudging tolerance."
- Badass Bookworm: In addition to being a skilled martial artist and mage, he is a genius spell-creator, potion-brewer, and magical scholar who speaks around a dozen languages.
- Can't Have Sex, Ever: He was exiled to Earth and forbidden to engage in any and all forms of sex by the demon high council after attempting to kill his father, who he blamed for the death of his wife. He can only have sex to save his own life. This forced celibacy is considered a fair punishment since he is an incubus who can feed and gain strength via sex. As a result, he remains celibate for over a hundred years.
- Dark and Troubled Past
- Disappeared Dad: Pritkin's father was missing for most of his childhood, until he appeared to take Pritkin to the demon realms to train him as his heir.
- Pritkin also believes that he was the result of an experiment by his father to see if having (presumably powerful) offspring was even possible. Rosier even admits that he would have completely abandoned Myrddin/Emrys/Pritkin had he not shown evidence of powerful magical abilities.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Due to a magical mishap in Curse the Dawn, Cassie and Pritkin spend more than 24 hours in each others' bodies.
- Full-Frontal Assault: At one point he helps Cassie fight off a possession while in the nude, as he was getting ready for bed and she shifted to him for help. He gets thrown through a wall stark naked for his trouble, although he does help her ultimately stop the possession.
- Glowing Eyes: When Pritkin is feeding or has just fed, his eyes glow. His eyes also glow when his cursed soul is reunited with his body.
- Gun Nut: He is something of a firearms enthusiast, and even uses shotguns that were specially modified to fire small canisters of potions. Cassie notes that he sometimes looks like Rambo.
- Half-Human Hybrid: His mother was human with some fey blood, and his father is an incubus. It is revealed later that his great-great grandfather was a god, making him more a Heinz Hybrid, although he prefers to be seen as half-human. His incubus half allows him to heal quickly, and gives him acute hearing and eyesight, and makes him stronger and faster than a normal human. He also has the ability to feed/absorb energy via sex, and to amplify sexual and magical energy. His incubus blood also presumably makes him immortal.
- Healing Factor/Intimate Healing: He can heal very quickly, almost as quickly as a vampire. When he is mortally wounded, he needs to feed on sexual energy to heal himself, however. He does this with Cassie several times.
- He is later able to help heal Cassie via a three-way with her and Mircea in Ignite the Fire: Inferno.
- Heinz Hybrid: He is one-sixteenth god, one-sixteenth fey, three-eights human and half-incubus. The incubus comes from his father, while the god and fey come via his great-grandmother Nimue, who had one fey parent and one parent who was a god. It appears that all his ancestors on mother's side not descended from Nimue are human.
- Heroic BSoD: After accidentally causing the death of his wife on their wedding night. Again, after performing oral sex on/feeding from Cassie in order to heal in Hunt the Moon.
- Hot-Blooded
- If It Tastes Bad, It Must Be Good for You: Pritkin is a health food nut and tries to force Cassie to eat healthy most of the time as well.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: He is a terrible dresser and often looks messy. This is due to both practicality and a lack of vanity.
- Level-Up at Intimacy 5: Pritkin majorly gains in power after having sex with Cassie at the end of Ride the Storm after more than a century of forced abstinence.
- Like Father, Like Son: Pritkin and his father look so similar that they almost appear to be identical twins. The first time Cassie meets Rosier, she thinks he's Pritkin, who has somehow learned to dress better and is acting oddly.
- The Lost Lenore: His wife Ruth, who died sometime in the late 1800s.
- Meaningful Name: His mother named him Emrys, which means immortal.
- Missing Mom: Pritkin was told that his mother died in childbirth. Morgaine actually lived until Pritkin/Emrys/Myrddin is in his twenties, spending most of that time in Faerie/imprisoned by her grandmother Nimue. She dies during the events of Ride the Storm note .
- Mistaken Nationality: He's Welsh, not English, and get annoyed when people assume he's from England.
- Muggle Foster Parents: He was raised by an ordinary human couple who were not particularly loving and were wary of him, but were not outright cruel.
- Must Have Caffeine: He is a major caffeine junkie and will drink many shots of espresso in one sitting. This appears partially due to his extremely high metabolism, and partially due to him just being a caffeine addict.
- Older Than They Look: While he looks like he's in his mid-thirties, he is hundreds of years old. He does look slightly older than his father since he does not feed on sexual energy the way Rosier does, however.
- One True Love: Cassie Palmer.
- Power Perversion Potential: A young Pritkin uses his skill at illusion to suggest some rather explicit things to Cassie in Ride the Storm.
- Power Tattoo: Early in the series, he gets a magical tattoo of a sword that enables him to manifest a sword whenever he needs one, eliminating the need to carry a physical sword.
- Really 700 Years Old: Since he is actually Merlin, he was born in the 6th century and knew King Arthur (who was his uncle, although it's unclear if he realized they were related). While he spent a long time in the demon realms where time passed differently, he is hundreds of years old.
- Recovered Addict: He developed something of a drug and alcohol problem after the death of his wife, but then he got better.
- Rescued from the Underworld: Cassie succeeds in rescuing Pritkin from eternal imprisonment in the demon realms, but at the cost of his soul. As of the end of Brave the Tempest, Cassie also succeeds in reuniting Pritkin's soul with his body and saving him.
- Secret Identity: He is, in fact, Merlin.
- Sex God: Comes with being an incubus, Cassie always ends up having The Immodest Orgasm when sleeping with him. Cassie actually describes sex as being so pleasurable that it causes her sensory overload. It's implied that the fact that he's very well-endowed is more of a bonus than anything else.
- Succubi and Incubi: He is half-incubus on his father's side.
- Take This Job and Shove It: Towards the end of Shatter the Earth, Pritkin quits the War Mage Corps after an argument with Jonas Marsden, during which he came to the realization that Jonas was at least somewhat willing to let Cassie die if it won the war against the gods. He later admits it had been building for a while, but given his temper and the fact that Jonas was being callous about Cassie's safety, he quits on the spot, stating that his sworn loyalty is to her above all.
- Turn Out Like His Father: Averted - Pritkin is terrified of embracing his incubus nature and potentially becoming an amoral being who only seeks out sex and power like his father. His father, on the other hand, wants him to do just that and rule at his side.
- Understanding Boyfriend/Totally Trusting Love Interest: He is a loving and supportive partner to Cassie after they start dating, despite being a bit paranoid about her safety.
- Young Future Famous Person: Cassie meets Pritkin as a young man due to time travel when he's using the name Myrddin, aka Merlin and starting to do the things that will make him legendary in the future.
Mircea Basarab
Senator Mircea Basarab
Master vampire and chief diplomat of the North American Senate, father of Dory, and brother of Radu (and Vlad). He is Cassie's lover and protector until Brave the Tempest, when she ends their romantic relationship, although he remains an ally.
- Accidental Marriage: Mircea bites and therefore marries Cassie under vampire law/tradition while under the influence of the geis that he placed on her.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: While he mostly comes across as a suave diplomat and ladies' man who dresses almost exclusively in Armani, he is a former knight and an utterly ruthless fighter, skilled in mental as well as physical combat.
- Casual Kink: Mircea likes feet. A lot. Even if he's not that willing to admit it most of the time/ever.
- The Charmer: He's handsome, charismatic, and has been a diplomat for hundreds of years, so he's had lots of practice
- Manipulative Bastard: In addition to the general scheming and strategizing that he does as a diplomat, he placed had a geis placed on Cassie when she was a child to protect her/keep her under his control and regularly attempts to manipulate Dory in order to help her.
- Marry for Love: Mircea married Dory and Dorina's mother Elena, a peasant woman, because he loved her and not for any political or financial gain.
- Papa Wolf: Mircea loves Dory and will do anything to protect her, even though they have a contentious relationship with centuries' worth of misunderstandings on both sides and induced memory loss on Dory's end.
- Older Than They Look/Really 700 Years Old: He looks about thirty despite having been born in the 1400s.
- Psychic Powers/Mind Manipulation: Mircea is a gifted mentalist with some healing ability as well.
- Secret Relationship: He married Dory and Dorina's mother Elena in secret when they were very young, as he was the heir to the throne of Wallachia and she was a peasant. Mircea kept their relationship a secret to keep her safe and away from the political pressures at court.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's 6' (1.82 meters) tall, and described as being handsome and charming, with long dark hair
- The Lost Lenore: Mircea was devastated by his wife's death, which occurred while he was away from her navigating being a newborn vampire and trying to protect her. He is also obsessed with saving her, to the point where he tried to bribe, seduce, or otherwise convince every past Pythia to go back in time and save her from death at his brother Vlad's hands. He protects Cassie as a child and has a geis put on her to control her, in an attempt to get her to agree to rescue his wife out of a sense of obligation or affection. This backfires somewhat. Ultimately, he blackmails Cassie to try and get her to rescue his wife by threatening to reveal John Pritkin's true identity.
- Thicker Than Water: Family is Mircea's #1 priority.
Dorina "Dory" Basarab
Senator Dorina Basarab
The dhampir daughter of Mircea who works as a mercenary/bounty hunter/revenant vampire hunter and later becomes a senator. She marries Louis-Cesare at the end of Shadow's Bane.
- Action Girl: Dory is a capable fighter, able to take down all but the most powerful first-level master vampires.
- All of the Other Reindeer: she is feared and hated due to her dhampir nature, and her function as vampires' only real predator.Kit Marlowe (to Mircea): Why would you care if I killed a filthy, misbegotten, sordid half-...? note
- Big Eater: As a dhampir, Dory has an incredibly high metabolism and needs to eat frequently to keep her energy levels up. An entire passage in Queen's Gambit is devoted to describing the massive amount of Egyptian food she happily consumes at a party.
- Combat Pragmatist: While she is an incredibly skilled and ruthless fighter, she also uses magic, magical weapons, and her dhampir abilities to win fights and get herself out of trouble.
- Dhampir: Dory is a dhampir, born when her father, who was cursed rather than bitten, was partially but not fully transformed into a vampire, impregnated her mother.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She is half-vampire, and also closely resembles her father.
- Fake-Out Make-Out: At one point, Kit Marlowe kisses Dory in the middle of a job to convince a guard that they are there on a date rather than breaking into a secure location. Neither of them are attracted to each other in the least and it's quite awkward.
- Happily Married: to Louis-Cesare, as of the end of Shadow's Bane.
- Older Than They Look/Really 700 Years Old: Dory appears to be in her twenties, but is actually more than 500 years old, having been born in the late 1400s. This is notable since dhampirs do not tend to live long (they tend to go crazy with a decade or two).
- Psychic Powers: Dorina's master power is a psychic scream that stuns people around her for a brief period of time. She also has the ability to leave her body in spirit form to follow people, spy, and so on. The latter ability appeared when she was a child living in Venice. Technically this psychic power is Dorina's, not Dory's, however.
- Like her father, Dorina is also a powerful mentalist.
- Split-Personality Team: Dory and Dorina are essentially two separate people sharing a single body. For most of their existence, Dorina only took control when Dory was asleep, in mortal danger, or in extreme pain or distress. As of Shadow's Bane, they become able to communicate and to work together somewhat.
Spoiler Character: Dorina Basarab
Dorina Basarab
Dorina is the more vampiric side of Dory, and, essentially, her identical twin sister. Unlike most dhampirs, Dory and Dorina's minds were separated when they were very young, so they grew up as two separate consciousnesses sharing one body. As such, Dorina is a completely separate person from Dory, not merely part of her subconscious or a split personality.- Action Girl: Dorina is a deadly fighter, able to take down most vampires and many kinds of Fey.
- Body Surf: Dorina has the ability to share body space with other beings while in spirit form.
- Older Than They Look/Really 700 Years Old: Like her sister, Dorina looks like she's in her twenties, but is actually close to 600 years old, having been born in the fifteenth century.
- Psychic Powers: Dorina's master power is a psychic scream that stuns people around her for a brief period of time. She also has the ability to leave her body in spirit form and to call on animals for help. The latter ability appeared when she was a child living in Venice.
- Like her father, Dorina is also a powerful mentalist.
- Split-Personality Team: Dory and Dorina are actually two separate people - Dory describes Dorina as her twin once she realizes that - sharing a single body. For most of their existence, Dorina only took control when Dory was asleep, in mortal danger, or in extreme pain or distress. As of Queen's Gambit, they are split into separate bodies by a fey weapon.
Friends, Allies, and Significant Others
Louis-Cesare de Bourbon
Senator Louis-Cesare de Bourbon
Vampire senator and champion duelist, and Radu's only Child. He becomes Dory's lover and eventually her husband. Previously a member of the European vampire Senate, he is currently a member of the North American Senate.
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: Despite many attempts to track him down over the years, Radu pushes Louis-Cesare away, refuses to engage with him, and claims it will mess up the timeline, barely acknowledging him until the modern era. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Louis-Cesare has trouble believing this explanation and feels abandoned.
- Because he was born out of wedlock, his mother left him to be raised in the country and never visited him.
-
Awesome Ego: He is incredibly arrogant, which is somewhat justified given that he is a near-unbeatable duelist and potentially powerful enough to be a consul. - Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: Averted - the fact that he was gang-raped while a prisoner, and the trauma it caused, is treated seriously by Dory and in the story in general.
- Fiery Redhead: He has auburn hair and a quick temper
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Louis-Cesare is looked down upon by a great deal of the vampire community for being in a relationship with and later marrying a dhampir. Some of them see it as him having a sort of danger kink, even though that's not at all the case.
- Master Swordsman: The undisputed dueling champion of the European Senate. Anthony, the leader of the European Senate, kept him on as a duelist to avoid any challenges from potential senators - no one wanted to face Anthony's designated champion, Louis-Cesare.
Caleb Carter
Mage Caleb Carter
A senior war mage and one of John Pritkin's closest friends. He is one of the only war mages who knows Pritkin's actual identity.
- Bald Mystic: Caleb is a powerful senior war mage and usually keeps his head shaved.
- The Big Guy: Caleb is 6'5" and heavily muscular, and towers over both the 5'8" John Pritkin and most other people.
- Emotional Bruiser: He is incredibly secure in his masculinity.
- Scary Black Man: He's tall, muscular, and imposing, as well as being a powerful war mage and generally an unflappable person.
Rhea Silvanus
Rhea Silvanus
A powerful coven-trained witch, one of Cassie's acolytes, and also her heir
- Child of Forbidden Love: Rhea is the result of a 30-year affair between Jonas Marsden and Agnes.
- Disappeared Dad: She was raised in secret by the covens and came to the Pythian court under a different name, since her mother feared her biological father Jonas Marsden would exploit the fact that she was his daughter to influence the court even more.
- The Ingenue: She gives off the impression of being shy and demure, but that's mostly a result of years at the very buttoned-up Pythian court. Her real personality, which is much more fiery, starts to appear after she joins Cassie's court.
- Luke, You Are My Father: She reveals to Jonas Marsden that she is his daughter at the end of Reap the Wind.
- Magic Wand: As a coven-trained witch, Rhea prefers to use a wand to perform magic.
- Silk Hiding Steel
Radu Basarab
Lord Radu Basarab
A second-level master vampire, Louis-Cesare's Sire, brother of Mircea and Vlad, and Dory's uncle. He works for the North American Senate as a sort of researcher/mad scientist.
- Affectionate Nickname: Dory calls him 'Du, which he does not particularly like.
- At one point she (essentially lovingly) describes him as a 'poncy lunatic' and no one disagrees with her.
- Casual Kink: A villain once mentions finding Radu's lover Gunther already tied up when they went to subdue him during a break-in. Radu comments that it was his turn.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Despite having been born in medieval Romania, he prefers to dress in the style of the French court under Louis XIV. His outfits are often made in eye-watering colors as well.
- Mad Scientist: His job for the North American Senate.
Kit Marlowe
Senator Christopher "Kit" Marlowe
A first-level master vampire and member of the North American vampire Senate, he serves as its spymaster, and is fiercely loyal to the Consul, his Sire. While he appears in both the Cassie Palmer and Dorina Basarab series, he is more prominent in the Dory books.- Black-Tie Infiltration: Something he's forced to do with Dory multiple time.
- Experimented in College: While a scholarship student at Cambridge, he slept with many of the young sons of aristocrats who were also studying there. He is bisexual, as he also has female lovers - in Time's Fool, Kit becomes the lover of the witch Gillian Urswick.
- Historical Domain Character: In-universe, he wrote all of Shakespeare's plays in addition to the ones he published under his own name.
- In the modern era, he is a spy rather than a playwright.
- The Paranoiac: One of his defining characteristics, to the point where even his friends and allies are careful in his offices in case he's booby-trapped something. Somewhat justified as he's the North American Senate's spymaster.
- Undercover as Lovers: He infiltrates a party with Dory this way. Neither of them particularly enjoys the experience, as they can't stand each other.
Claire Lachesis
Lady Claire Lachesis
A half-dragon null witch, Dory's best friend, Heidar's fiancee (and later his wife), and Aiden's mother. She appears only in the Dorina Basarab books with the exception of a brief appearance in Siren's Song.
- Fiery Redhead: Claire is six feet tall, with frizzy red hair and a nasty temper.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Claire's father is a dragon (who can take human form) while her mother was a human with some Brownie blood.
- Mama Bear: Claire will do anything to protect her son, up to and including kill and eat a queen of the Fey.
- Our Dragons Are Different
- Voluntary Shapeshifter: Due to being half-dragon on her father's side, she can shift between human and dragon forms. In Fortune's Blade, Dory learns that her dragon name is Lýsa.
Jonas Marsden
Lord Protector Jonas Marsden
The head of the Silver Circle after a coup in Curse the Dawn and leader of the War Mage Corps. He is also John Pritkin's friend and mentor, and the father of Rhea.
- Absent-Minded Professor: Cassie speculates that he cultivates this impression so people will underestimate him. Jonas is actually extremely sharp and perceptive even if looks and acts a bit batty.
- Disappeared Dad: He is Rhea's father but did not know about her existence until she was nineteen. Agnes gave birth to her in secret and kept her hidden from him for fear that he would try to use her to influence the Pythian court.
- Einstein Hair: He has distinctive crazy silver hair
- Older Than They Look: While he looks like an older man, he is something close to two hundred years old.
- He describes himself as "damned old"
- Secret Relationship: He was Agnes' secret lover for thirty years. They kept this hidden to avoid the political fallout, but a fair amount of people knew.
- 10MinuteRetirement: He was essentially forced to retire from leading the Silver Circle around the start of the series but quickly engineers what amounts to a coup to take back over after it is revealed that his successor is corrupt and selling magic to the Black Circle as well as imprisoning detractors, among other things.
Other Characters
Rosier
Lord Rosier
Lord of the Incubi and John Pritkin/Emrys' father, with whom he has a tense and contentious relationship.
- Archnemesis Dad: Rosier spends some time trying to kill Cassie and does not succeed. Eventually he agress to not make any more attempts on her life. Cassie and Rosier even team up in Ride the Storm to rescue Pritkin's soul.
- Pritkin and his father have been at odds for centuries, and Rosier's attempts on Cassie's life infuriate his son, to the point where he once contemplates killing his father after thinking he was responsible for Cassie's apparent death.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Pritkin calls his father 'Rosier'.
- Disappeared Dad: Rosier was not present for most of Pritkin's childhood, leaving him to be raised by a farmer's family and only swooped in later once he started to show signs of powerful magical abilities to take him to the demon realms. This is somewhat justified, as the court of the incubi would be incredibly unsafe for a part-human child who didn't know how to defend himself, and Rosier knew that if his son didn't wind up having powerful magic, he would have more of a chance of fitting in on Earth.
- Rosier is also still bitter over the death of his own father at the hands of Cassie's mother Artemis.
- Like Father, Like Son: Rosier and his son look almost exactly alike, to the point where they can pass for siblings or even identical twins.
- After learning that Rosier used the name Myrddin himself before his son was born, Cassie realizes that that was likely the origin of the legend that Merlin aged in reverse.
- Pimping the Offspring: Something he planned to do with his son, to gain power and allies and help secure his grip on his throne. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Pritkin refused anything to do with it.
- Succubi and Incubi: Lord of the Incubi, in fact.
Ray
Raymond Lu
A half-Dutch, half-Indonesian vampire and ex-smuggler, formerly belonging to Lord Cheung, who becomes Dory's friend/sidekick and later her Second. In Fortune's Blade he becomes Dorina's lover.
- Butt-Monkey: At various points, Ray gets decapitated (although this doesn't kill him, since he's a master vampire), scorched by the sun, and has various other indignities inflicted on him.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
- Decapitation Presentation: Side-stepped. Dory decapitates Ray at one point so she can bring him in to be interrogated by Mircea and Marlowe. Since he is a master vampire, albeit a low-level one, this does't kill him, and he remains able to talk (and complain). His head later gets reattached to his body.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Ray mostly dresses like a Chinese gangster, as he used to own a nightclub and work for Lord Cheung, a Hong Kong gangster.
- Weakened by the Light: Since he is a low-level master vampire, sunlight burns him badly.
Marco
Marco Carales
Cassie's bodyguard and a master vampire
- Big Brother Instinct: Takes on a sort of big-brotherly role to Cassie
- Death of a Child: He remains deeply affected by the death of his daughter during ancient Roman times, when he was a soldier and away fighting
- Taking on a fatherly role to the girls of Cassie's court helps heal that wound
- It's Cuban: He likes to smoke expensive Cuban cigars
- Large and in Charge: He is a largest of Cassie's bodyguards as well as their leader
- In the vampire world, size does not determine power in the slightest, but Marco is still both enormous and intimidating, as well as a second-level master
- Older Than They Look: He is around two thousand years old, having been a Roman soldier and later a gladiator before he became a vampire
Caedmon
King Caedmon of the Blarestri
The king of the Blue Fey, father of Heidar, father-in-law of Claire, and grandfather to Aidan; in the distant past (at least 1,500 years ago), he was married to Nimue, although by King Arthur's time, they are divorced and don't particularly get along
- Bling of War: He wears a set of elaborate golden armor decorated with gryphons when he visits the Consul
- Divine Parentage: He is a demigod with one Fey parent and one godly parent, implied to be Zeus
- Large and in Charge: He is about 7 feet (2,13m) tall
- In general, the Light Fey are a lot taller than most humans, but Caedmon is much taller than the rest of the main characters
- Older Than They Look/Really 700 Years Old: He's thousands of years old
- Our Elves Are Different
Antagonists
Aeslinn
King Aeslinn of the Svarestri
King of the Svarestri, husband of Efridís, and father of Æsubrand
- Ax-Crazy: Especially in Cassie's time (the modern era).
- Big Bad: One of several.
- Demigod: Rumored to be one, at any rate.
- Final Solution: In Ride the Storm, he tells Nimue that he will march into Avalon, her capitol city, and kill all the half-blood fey that he finds.
- Manipulative Bastard
Jonathan
Jonathan Waldron/Jonathan VanLeke
An insane necromancer working with the Black Circle and with the gods, who has a particular obsession with Louis-Cesare
- Addictive Magic: He is addicted to magic, specifically life energy. He is so old and so dependent on it that he would die without it.
- Ax-Crazy: He's an unstable, murderous dark mage and necromancer
- Big Bad: Often a villain in the Dorina Basarab series
- It Must Be Mine!: He is obsessed with trapping Louis-Cesare and keeping him so he can continue to drain him of power.
- He also wants Louis-Cesare's body (not in a sexual way), but to take over, as his current one is dead/dying.
- Necromancer: A particularly powerful and unstable one
- Older Than They Look/Really 700 Years Old: He was born sometime in the Middle Ages
The Gods
Ares, Apollo, Zeus, and Athena, as well as Artemis
The old gods
- Energy Beings
- Greater-Scope Villain: Several of the gods serve this purpose at various times
- Killed Off for Real: Both Ares and Apollo are killed off in Ride the Storm using the energy generated by Cassie and Pritkin and directed at them by Arthur.
- Athena, who only appears in one scene, is killed off in Fortune's Blade
- Our Gods Are Different: They are energy beings from another dimension who feed on life energy gained from demons
Tony
Antonio Gallina
Cassie's old guardian and Mircea's first Child, also a third-level master vampire- Abusive Parents/Parental Neglect: He treated Cassie terribly when she was a child
- External Combustion: He orders one of his assassins to kill Roger and Elizabeth Palmer a.k.a. Artemis using a car bomb about twenty years before the events of the main series.
- Fat Bastard: He is 5'5" and weighs around 300lbs (135kg)
- Hair-Trigger Temper
- Our Vampires Are Different
- The Paranoiac: He is notorious for being both very violent and very paranoid.
