This is listing of things relating to the Southern Wastes in the series Chronicles of the Kencyrath.
For the main character index, go here.
open/close all folders
Kothifir
Kothifir
- Fantastic Fighting Style: Kothifiran street fighting appears to be an analogue of Capoeira with its cartwheels and emphasis on foot strikes.
- Intrepid Merchant: Caravans from Kothifir go deep into the Wastes, and come back with amazing treasure.
- Land of One City: Kothifir is a city state
- Star Scraper: Kothifir is famous for it's painted towers, which poke up into the clouds.
- Under City: Undercliff
Royal family
Krothen
Krothen
God-King of Kothifir
- Adipose Rex: When Jame first meets him, she mistakes him for a mound of pillows. He's so fat that when he loses his god-king powers, the weight of his only body makes it so he can't move without his skin tearing.
- God-Emperor: The god-king of Kothifir
- King Incognito: As Kroaky
- Older Alter Ego (Inverted): Kroaky is Krothen's younger alter ego.
- Stomach of Holding/Swallowed Whole: Kroaky lives inside Krothen's stomach
- Two Aliases, One Character: Krothen and Kroaky
Amantine
Princess Amantine
Krothen's aunt, his late father King Kruin's sister- Crusading Widow: She declared war on Urakarn after her husband was killed
- Imperiled in Pregnancy: When she was pregnant with Ton, her brother Kruin was going to cut the baby out of her and kill it. With a hunting knife.
- Iron Lady
- Mother Makes You King: Not that Ton actually became king, but she gave it a shot.Ton: Mother…
Amantine: Face the truth, boy. Where would you be without me? Even if the white should truly come to you, you need my guidance. - Railing Kill (Subverted): Lady Cella tacked her and they both went over the railing. Cella died. Amantine broke a ton of bones, but survived.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Amantine is a minor character who we only see on one book, but she ordered the attack on Urakarn that so impacted Torisen, Harn, Rowan, Rose…
Ton
Prince Ton
Amantine's son, Krothen's cousin and de facto heir- Punny Name: He weights a ton
- The Usurper: He tries to be one, although it doesn't quite pan out
Kruin
Kruin
God-King of Kothifir
Krothen's father, and the previous god-king of Kothifir- Egomaniac Hunter: He's hunted rhi-sar, rathorn, wolvers, even an Arrin-ken…
- God-Emperor: He was god-king of Kothifir
- Offing the Offspring: In an attempt to Defy Child Supplants Parent, he has all his heirs killed.Torisen: When King Kruin was ill, he employed the Gnasher as an executioner and an assassin, to thin the herd of his own potential heirs.
Grimly: Thin? He was out to exterminate the lot of them. Kruin seemed to think that if no one was left to inherit, he would live forever.
Guild lords
Dani
Shandanielle
Lady Professionate
One of the three God-Emperor-like guild lords. She leads all the professions guilds—those who profit by their individual skill.- Made a Slave (Downplayed)Dani: My own parents sold me to the physician for whom I worked before I came into the white.
Jame: I didn't know that there were slaves in Kothifir.
Dani: Not as such, and only among certain old sects where females are considered chattel. The guilds call them apprentices, and not all are sold or ill-treated. You don't know what it was like, though, to be the least of servants, at everyone's command. - Older Than They Look: Because guild lords don't age while in office, she looks 13 but she's really like 43.
- Rape as BackstoryDani: You don't know what it was like, though, to be the least of servants, at everyone's command. My master took advantage of that. So did his chief assistant. [shudders] A gross man, that. His weight nearly crushed me.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!Dani: I keep telling you: I never ask a price for my services. People donate what they can.
Mercer
Mercer
Lord Merchandy
One of the three God-Emperor-like guild lords. He leads all the merchants guilds—those who sell things.- Parental Substitute: To Dani.Dani: Besides, all these years he has been so kind to me, as if I were the daughter that he lost as a baby, when his wife died. My own parents sold me to the physician for whom I worked before I came into the white.
Ruso
Ruso
Lord Artifice
One of the three God-Emperor-like guild lords. He leads all the crafts guilds—those who make things.- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil (Downplayed): Evil is a bit of stretch, but his relationship with Gaudaric certainly has shades of this.
- Engagement Challenge: Ruso was Gaudaric's apprentice and wanted to marry his daughter Evensong. Ruso thought something like this way going on, and he could marry her if he was a good enough apprentice. It wasn't—Evensong was always free to Marry for Love.Gaudaric: Yet you weren't so bad before that as my apprentice.
Ruso: But not good enough to marry your daughter.
Gaudaric: Easily that good, except that she had chosen Ean.
Ruso: She would have taken me if you had told her to.
Gaudaric: Now, would I do a thing like that against her wishes? - Robot Dog: He builds some
Gaudaric's family
Gaudaric
Gaudaric
- The Blacksmith: He has a Forging Scene where he makes Jame a suit of rhi-sar armor.
- Mr. Exposition: He tells Jame and the audience quite a bit about Kothifir.
Byrne
Byrne
- Cheerful Child
- Little Stowaway: He stowed away in the caravan to the Southern WastesEan: What am I going to do with you? Your mother must be frantic, and your grandfather too!
Byrne: I'm here, Papa. Now you have to take me with you.
the Karnids
Karnids
- Some gathered on street corners listening to men muffled in black robes and cheches—Karnids from Urakarn, Tori thought, preaching their obscure message of doom and rebirth.
- Black Cloak: They wear black robes and black cheches.
- Cargo Cult: They worshiped the Kencyr temple at Langadine (The Monolith) and after Langadine fell and the temple broke, they went and found another at Urakarn. The Kencyr temples definitely have some weird powers, but they seem to be basically inanimate.
- Chekhov's Volcano: Urakarn
- The Chosen One: Their prophet—something of a Messianic Archetype and Dark Messiah—founded their religion on worship of the Kencyr temples, and defeating death. After he died, his people kept waiting for him to come back.
- Easy Evangelism (Inverted): After Genjar lead the Host on Urakarn, the Kencyr who were captured they tried to convert by torture. It didn't work at all because their own Three-faced God gave the Kencyr no choice when it came to religion.
- Knocking on Heathens' Door (Inverted): Genjar lead the Kencyr Host to the Karnids' doorstep. Then the Karnids tried to convert them.
the Waster Horde
Waster Horde
- "I think it all began when one desert tribe drove another from its water hole. The displaced people moved into their neighbors' territory and uprooted them in turn. And so it went, one tribe dislodging another, until eventually scores of thousands of square miles had been set in motion. That was nearly three centuries ago, and it hasn't stopped since. Now there are some three million people down there caught up in it, circling, circling…"—Marc
Fang
Fang
- Parental Substitute: After Fang was orphaned, she adopted a gang of Street UrchinsKroaky: She lost her family at the Cataracts. The Horde tends to eat its orphans, so she wandered westward to Kothifir in search of a new clan.
Jame: And those are the Undercliff children?
Kroaky: Yes. Runaways and orphans, most of them. - Rags to Royalty (Implied): Not played straight, but Fang is an orphan from the Waster Horde, and becomes the girlfriend of the King Incognito. At the end of The Sea of Time, Kroaky talks about marrying her.Kroaky: What do you think? Will Fang marry me?
Jame: Queen Fang. I like it. - Scary Teeth: Her teeth are filed
Langadine
Langadine
Seekers
Lanielle
Lanielle
Langadine seeker
- Alliterative Name: Lanielle and Laurintine were Langadine seekers. Kalan is a Kothifiran seeker.
- The Hecate Sisters: The maiden (Lanielle), the mother (Kalan), and the crone (Laurintine)
- His Name Is... (Downplayed): Whatever she would've told Jame isn't treated like that big of a deal, but death does cut her off mid sentence.Lanielle: Tell… Tell my sisters…
- No Body Left Behind: She crumbles to dust, like everything else from the ancient city…
- Superhuman Trafficking: She is kidnapped because everyone wants a Langadine seeker
Kalan
Kalan
Kothifiran seeker
- Alliterative Name: Lanielle and Laurintine were Langadine seekers. Kalan is a Kothifiran seeker. Her Langadine-born sons are Lanek and Lathen.
- The Hecate Sisters: The maiden (Lanielle), the mother (Kalan), and the crone (Laurintine)
- Last of Her Kind: Kalan is the last Kothifiran seeker, and the last women of the seeker's line who's of childbearing age.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: She had one daughter, born in Kothifir. Kalan is the last of the seeker's line, and so the king really wants her to have a Langadine-born daughter. She has five sons before she reaches menopause, but no daughters.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Poor Kalan: Twice widowed, and of her six children, only one survives. She has a baby daughter, who she has to leave behind in Kothifir. In Langadine, she remarries and has several sons... but when Langadine is destroyed, four of her five sons are killed. Kalan eventually gets back to her daughter in Kothifir, but when the tower burns, she has to throw the baby out the window in a desperate attempt to save her. Kalan dies. Brier catches her daugher, but the baby still dies.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: With her second husband, who the king made her marry.Kalan: [T]he old king demanded that I stay, marry one of his cousins, and start a new line of Langadine seekers.
Jame: I’m sorry.
Kalan: You needn’t be. I loved my husband,
Laurintine
Laurintine
Langadine seeker
- Alliterative Name: Lanielle and Laurintine were Langadine seekers. Kalan is a Kothifiran seeker.
- The Hecate Sisters: The maiden (Lanielle), the mother (Kalan), and the crone (Laurintine)
- Last of Her Kind: After Lanielle's death, Laurintine is the very last Langadine seeker. The caravan she leads to Langadine is the last one.
