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The Rune Queen
Monarch, Path of the Last Oath
One of the Monarchs that died during the Dread War.
- Hero of Another Story: Fought a decades-long campaign against the Black Dragons, culminating in a battle in their main fortress.
- My God, You Are Serious!: Ziel doesn't believe Lindon and Dross when they tell him that they plan to give him an array that controls time.
- Older Is Better: Her time manipulation array was based on knowledge left in the Labyrinth by the first Court of Seven, and after about a thousand years becomes the basis of an array made for Ziel.
- Time Master: A master of scripts that can control time.
The Sword Sage
Timaias Adama, Sage of the Endless Sword
Yerin's master, founder of the Path of the Endless Sword, and one of the most powerful people on the planet. He died shortly before Lindon met Yerin.
- All for Nothing: Not himself, but the Jades who murdered him were after his treasures. Even if Yerin hadn't gotten revenge, they would never have been able to steal anything because he kept everything in his personal Void space, created and maintained purely by his Icon. There wasn't even an artifact for them to steal to access it. If he had actually explained this to them, they might not have bothered trying to kill him.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- A group of Jade sacred artists poisoned him and attacked him in his sleep. They killed him, but only after he killed half of them. The more we learn about Sages, the less sense this makes. A Sage is the peak of Archlord, meaning he would have been six levels above Jade, his body strengthened by sacred beast meat and then reforged in soulfire. By all accounts, they couldn't have killed him if he had literally just sat there and let them. This makes exactly what happened very unclear. All we really know for sure is that he left behind a Remnant.
- Made less ambiguous after Wintersteel. Thanks to the massive seal formation encompassing the Valley, Adama's cultivation was lowered from Archlord to Jade. This was on top of the Heaven's Glory school leaders poisoning him every day, which he knew about but did not mind because he could heal himself. He was also stabbed with half-silver knives while asleep, and half-silver is known to disrupt any spiritual abilities. He died because he was too arrogant to believe that he could be brought down by "children" and underestimated the exhaustion constantly going into the Labyrinth was causing.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Besides being a swordsman and refiner, he was also known for being highly appreciative of fine art. He didn't even have a home to display them in, he just kept everything in his Void space and sometimes took out paintings to admire them.
- Master Swordsman: He was literally the greatest swordsman in the world. To put this in context, there were three Sages of sword paths at the time: The Winter Sage, The Sage of the Endless Sword, and The Sage of the Fallen Blades. Only Adama was ever just called The Sword Sage.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Nearly everyone refers to him as "the Sword Sage," except for Yerin, who calls him simply "my master." Funnily enough, Adama himself was rather flippant about his own titles, not even bothering to correct people when they got it wrong.
- Pet the Dog:
- Sages never takes disciples. He took Yerin under his wing simply because she tried to save him from the blood shadow (unnecessarily; it was no threat to him) and he was impressed with her fortitude.
- In Waybound, his Hunger echo doesn't mind that she stepped off the Path of the Endless Sword or that she used her blood shadow, only praising her for reaching Herald at such a young age.
- Pride Before a Fall: As revealed in Wintersteel, his death could have been trivially avoided if he had given the Heaven's Glory school even a drop of respect. He knew that they were traitors who were attempting to kill him, but refused to believe that a bunch of Jades could be an actual threat to him even with the suppression field sapping his own powers.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: As is common for sacred artists. To train her to sense sword aura he trapped Yerin in a ring of swords so close that she would be cut every time she breathed, and would make her fight wolves with nothing but a razor.
The Winter Sage
Min Shuei, Sage of the Frozen Blade school
"Why didn't you come back home?"
The Sage who leads the Frozen Blade school, one of the largest factions under Akura rule. Also the Sword Sage's widowed fiancé.- Dating What Daddy Hates:
- Downplayed. While she clearly isn't sure if Lindon is good enough for Yerin, she doesn't quite hate him. And Yerin doesn't actually care about her opinion on the matter one way or another.
- In Dreadgod, she finally thinks Lindon might be good enough after he saves her from the Silent King. Except it was actually Charity who saved her, Lindon just swooped in at the last second.She waved after Lindon. "Thank you!" Then she turned back to Charity, looking pleased. "Maybe I was wrong about him."
Charity stared at her.
- Drama Queen: She wears her emotions openly and loudly. Yerin says she once saw her cry at the sight of a storm that was just "too beautiful."
- Master Swordsman: She uses Sword and Cold madra. She's even indirectly referenced several books before she arrives, when Lindon mentions the Sword Sage, and Naru Gwei asks "which one?"
- Odd Friendship: She is by all appearances close friends with the Sage of the Silver Heart. Charity is known for perfect control of her emotions, while Min Shuei is known for having no control of her emotions.
- Parental Substitute: To Yerin's annoyance, she clearly sees Yerin as an estranged daughter, even referring to the Frozen Blade school as her home.
- Pet the Dog: Yerin claims the Winter Sage always hated her, but when she sees Yerin she just tearfully asks why Yerin didn't come back home.
Ruby (SPOILERS)
Bloodshadow of Yerin
"Woof."
The parasite that killed Yerin's entire family and then wrapped itself around her soul. The Sword Sage bound it to keep it contained until he could find a way to remove it safely, but with him gone it starts getting stronger—and smarter.- Big Eater: As a Hunger spirit, she naturally has a big apatite, and grows stronger by consuming copious amounts food and elixirs.
- Clingy MacGuffin: The Blood Shadow that eventually becomes Ruby initially takes the form of a red rope belt that automatically moves to the outer layer of her clothes.
- Clone Angst: She doesn't like being a clone to Yerin and wants to gain independence. This becomes more troubling for her because of her feelings for Lindon. When she tries to kiss him, he pushes her away, and says he can't because she's "not Yerin."
- Clones Are People, Too: Part of her Clone Angst arises from people seeing her either as a parasite, expendable, or something to be destroyed. Lindon being one of the only characters that doesn't treat her like this along with the emotions she inherited from Yerin is why she has a crush on him.
- Copied the Morals, Too: Once Yerin starts intentionally feeding it bits of her will, madra, and even her lifeline, it starts picking up her personality. It takes a while — and Ruby actively saving Yerin's life multiple times — before Yerin's willing to believe it, though.
- Cuteness Proximity: Inherited from Yerin. She breaks out of containment so she can cuddle with the baby Horned Snow Rabbit that The Winter Sage and Yerin got to hold earlier, and does her best to stay away from Little Blue so that her latent Hunger Madra doesn't hurt the spirit.
- Evil Twin: How Yerin initially perceived her and how The Winter Sage treats her.
- Fusion Dance: What Ruby and Yerin go through before the third match of the final round of the Uncrowned King Tournament. They believed that it was their only path to victory and the being that came out the other side, while still answering to Yerin, has physical and emotional aspects of both.
- Godzilla Threshold: It's assumed by a number of characters that if Ruby did consume Yerin completely and wear her body, she would be even stronger than Yerin.
- Literal Split Personality: Aspects of this. She appears to have inherited a lot of the emotions that Yerin keeps bottled up and is far more open with them.
- Moveset Clone: How she is in combat. She can use all of Yerin's combat abilities, though less refined and with the addition of Blood madra.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Specifically in regards to Lindon, the first thing she does when visiting Lindon in Wintersteel is to leap onto his chest and wrap her arms and legs around him. After that she sticks as close to him as possible, usually walking arm and arm with him.
