Characters / Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

A list of characters for Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn and The Last King of Osten Ard, subdivided by faction. There may be unmarked spoilers for readers who haven't finished either of the two series.

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Erkynlanders

King Seoman (Simon) Snowlock

A kitchen scullion in the Hayholt under the watchful gaze of Rachel the Dragon, Simon comes under the tutelage of Doctor Morgenes, who seems to plan great things for him, only to have his idyllic life shattered by the coming of evil to the castle in the form of the priest Pryrates. His subsequent journey leads him headlong into the conflict surrounding the Three Swords.

He finishes out the trilogy being crowned king, and this is still his role thirty-odd years later in The Witchwood Crown.

• The Ace: Though his education is cut short by his mentor's death, he's quite intelligent, able to calmly judge conditions even in the heat of battle and innovate. He's also noted, by the end of the trilogy, to be quite tall and strong, even beautiful (especially after getting Locked into Strangeness). On top of that, he's learned to be comfortable with a variety of cultures and situations, even the alien Sithi and their magic, which he understands well enough to help defeat the Big Bad. All of this leaves him with enough knowledge and understanding that he realizes independently that he's the descendant of Saint Eahlstan, former king, and the revelation leaves him solemn, rather than shocked. That's quite The Hero's Journey.
• Berserker Tears: After Amerasu's death, Simon goes into a berserker rage against Ingen Jegger, unknowingly crying the whole time.
• Conveniently an Orphan: His mother died giving birth to him. His father is unknown. Morgenes is the only one who knows the secret of his heritage.
• Crucified Hero Shot: After he confronts Inch, the latter binds him to his Wheel, arms and legs spread. Its constant rotation leaves him first posed like Jesus, then inverted, like the Christ-figure of the Erkynlander religion.
• Declaration of Protection: Frustrated by Miriamele's refusal to reciprocate his affections, Simon instead declares that he will be her knight-protector, and abandons his duties to Josua in order to accompany her on her journey back to the Hayholt.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Be it the "insolent sway" of Hepzibah’s hips or Aditu’s inclination to wear almost nothing - Simon’s anyway fickly attention span is easily disrupted by the female and beautiful.
• Fiery Redhead: Simon fits the hot-headed image, but his hair is also a clue to his parentage.
• The Good King: In The Witchwood Crown, he's beloved by his people and as nice and modest as royalty can be.
• The Hero's Journey: A deliberate and methodical use of this by Williams; it can be seen throughout the story.
• Heroic BSoD: After Amerasu's death in Jao-é-Tinukai'i, Simon first goes into a berserker rage and then falls into a stupor, fueled partly by grief and partly by shame at his savage behavior in front of the Sithi.
• Hitchhiker Heroes: Simon starts out alone, penniless, and starving in his journey across Osten Ard, but on the way acquires a host of friends and allies, some by chance and some by design.
• Identical Grandson: At the end of the trilogy, he comes face to face with a statue of Saint Eahlstan, and realizes he might as well be looking into a mirror.
• Little Hero, Big War: While the war comes into major focus at times, Simon's role in it and around it is given the most attention; he manages to miss all but one of the major battles.
• Living Legend: By the end of the trilogy, thanks to having been the hero of multiple impossible stories in the space of a few short years. He faced a dragon, befriended the Sithi, fell in love with a princess, won a battle, defeated a demon, saved the kingdom, and turned out to be the lost descendant of a sainted king. Isgrimnur notes that, given the rest of Simon's story, he would've made the last bit up even if it weren't true, just because it would fit the rest and help secure Simon on the throne.
• Locked into Strangeness: A lock of his hair is permanently turned white due to being splashed by a dragon's blood; it comes to be symbolic of his journey into otherworldliness. Jiriki tells him, "You have been marked, for good or ill."
• Moses in the Bulrushes: He is revealed to be the direct descendant of Saint Eahlstan Fiskerne, and therefore the rightful heir to the throne.
• "Not So Different" Remark: While fighting the battle at the Stone, Simon realizes that his opponent is terrified, that his opponent is alone on the field of battle against an armored foe that's more than six feet tall. This is when Simon starts to see himself as a man and not a boy.
  • This is how Simon beats the Big Bad. He realizes that Ineluki is what remains of a man who loved his people, who saw them suffering and dying, and wanted nothing more than to save them, just like Simon. That's what makes Simon realize he can't hate Ineluki, and instead forgives him, thus freeing him from Thorn's siren song.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: The ring given to him by Morgenes ends up being proof of his ancestry.
• Sand In My Eyes: Whenever Miriamele is around and emotions get too hard to handle.
• Rage Against the Heavens: He suffers a crisis of faith after seeing his friends die on the quest for Thorn, and cries out against God in his anguish. His traveling companions are shocked.
• Took a Level in Badass: He begins the series as a kitchen scullion, and becomes first a capable soldier, then a leader among the forces of good, and finally the king of Erkynland. Atypical of the traditional badass, his strength is reflected more in his mind and spirit than in his body (though he has that, too).
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: He's on the receiving end of this from Jeremias, though much of the speech from Jeremias is a reflection instead of the abuse he received from Inch.

Queen Miriamele

King Elias's daughter, she chafes under her father's heavy handed yet distant manner and secretly ventures out of the castle in the guise of a serving boy. When her father tries to marry her off to Earl Fengbald, she flees with her handmaiden Leleth, and is eventually rescued by Simon and Binabik. Simon falls in love with her but her self-doubts and rebellious nature keep them apart for most of the story.

After the war she marries Simon and together they rule Osten Ard. They still do when thirty years later in The Last King of Osten Ard, when a new threat arises in the north.

• Action Girl: She fights quite capably with the bow, first seen against Ingen Jegger's hunting dogs. While traveling to Erkynland with Simon, she hunts to supplement their supplies, and kills a Norn in the ruins of Asu'a.
• Love Interest: Her relationship with Simon is first foreshadowed when he sees her silhouetted in a window at the Hayholt.
• My Girl Is Not a Slut: Simon is quite upset when he finds out about her sexual encounter with Aspitis, despite the fact that she was coerced. She doesn't help, either, throwing it in his face as a way to keep them apart.
• Rebellious Princess: Ever since her mother died, her father Elias has been distant from her, keeping her at arms' length and treating her more like property than a person. Unable to find acceptance from him, she becomes increasingly independent, sneaking around the castle in disguise and learning to shoot.
• Runaway Fiancée: When she learns that her father has arranged her marriage to Earl Fengbald, a despicable and brutal man, she flees the Hayholt with her handmaiden, Leleth. The pair are rescued from a huntsman by Simon and Binabik.
• Samus Is a Girl: She initially introduces herself as "Malachias," a Hayholt servant, and Simon doesn't figure it out for quite some time.
• Self-Made Orphan: She's the one who delivers the killing blow to Elias, defeating the Storm King in the process.
• Sweet Polly Oliver / Princess Incognito: She goes undercover as a common boy named Malachias.

King Elias

Inheritor of the throne of Erkynland after Prester John's death, Elias distinguishes himself with his violent temper and his love of carousing. The tale takes a blacker turn as his reliance on the dark priest Pryrates grows deeper, until he is coerced into making a bargain with the Storm King. Once he takes possession of the evil blade Sorrow, he begins a descent into madness and damnation.

• Abusive Parents: As his sanity erodes more and more, so too does his concern for Miriamele's safety.
• Alas, Poor Villain: invoked Miriamele's primary motivation in the fourth book is to redeem her father, precisely because she believes he's doing evil not out of wickedness but rather grief. She's right.
• Cain and Abel: He and Josua bicker endlessly because Elias blames Josua for his wife's death. When the Storm King demands a blood sacrifice to seal their pact, Pryrates persuades Elias to use Josua.
• The Caligula: His own grief combined with the magical influences of the Storm King, Pryrates, and Sorrow, fuel Elias's descent into madness. His ensuing insanity results in his people suffering more and more under his rule, and his kingdom's power crumbling.
• Deal with the Devil: At Pryrates' urging, Elias bargains with the Storm King for possession of Sorrow.
• Dying as Yourself: He comes to his senses at the very last second, just before Miriamele kills him.
• Necromantic: Played for tragedy; his descent into madness begins with his love for his dead wife and his hope to be reunited with her spirit.
• Parental Favoritism: It was no secret that Elias was Prester John's favored child. Later on it's revealed that Elias was his only child, Josua being Camaris's son.
• Unwitting Pawn: Pryrates is the driving force behind Elias' madness, as he tricks the king into thinking that he's helping him achieve Immortality, when in fact he's getting him possessed by the Storm King.
• Villainous Friendship: Unlike the other members of his inner circle who just seem to stay by his side for power, he and Earl Guthwulf have a genuine friendship based on trust and care for each other.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He's willing to bring the Storm King back and destroy all mortals because he can't be reunited with his lost wife.

Prince Josua "Lackhand"

Elias' younger brother, called "Lackhand" for the loss of his right hand in a skirmish with Thrithings men that also claimed the life of Elias' wife. Known more for his love of lore than of fighting, he is secretly imprisoned by Pryrates for use in an evil ritual, but escapes with the aid of Simon and Doctor Morgenes. He is the tacit leader of the forces opposed to Elias' rule and reluctantly leads them in their struggle.

At the end of the Storm King War he fakes his own death and joins the League of the Scroll. In the timeline of The Last King of Osten Ard he's been missing for about twenty-six years with Pasevalles claiming that he murdered him.

• Abdicate the Throne: In effect by upholding the common belief that he died in Green Angel Tower.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Due to his bother Elias calling onto otherworldy forces Josua finally loses his stronghold Naglimund. Him and a crowd of few can flee while the 'monsters' kill everyone else inside, earning Josua the mocking nickname "Prince of Rubble" by one of the Norns.
• Alone in a Crowd: Explicitly says he feels like this.
  Josua: "When I see the world as it has been presented to me, I feel only a deep loneliness. (...) One can be lonely in the highest and best of company."
• Best Friend: Sir Deornoth to him. The knight’s death puts Josua into Excessive Mourning and he takes a long while for Moving Beyond Bereavement.
• Bond One-Liner: Has one after - against all odds - killing Utvart of the Thrithing-men, who kept mocking Josua throughout the fight by calling him a 'small man' that talks too much.
  Josua: "Tall man, it is you who talks too much."
• Cain and Abel: He plays The Wise Prince to his brother Elias' Hot-Blooded nature, and pays for it by getting picked for a blood sacrifice to the Storm King.
• The Chains of Commanding: He hates the burden of leadership and would much rather be studying old books.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: In The Last King of Osten Ard he has been missing for more than 20 years but there is a lot of talk about him and a hunt after him - and the story is not yet over.
• Dead All Along: If Pasevalles is telling the truth in The Last King of Osten Ard he killed Josua 26 years ago.
• Duel to the Death: He is forced by Fikolmij to a duel with the Thrithings-man Utvart for 'stealing' Vorzheva, Utvart’s unwilling intended. First blood is not an option.
• Faking the Dead: He's seemingly killed by Elias in the final book, and decides to keep the illusion going afterwards so he can be free to join the League of the Scroll.
• Gloomy Gray: A gloomy man dressed habitually in gray.
• Handicapped Badass: Having only one hand does not stop him from riding into battle with his army or from fighting and killing a couple of Norn-warriors when they attack Naglimund. He even beat and killed the Thrithing-man Utvart in a sword-fight, though Josua was smaller, older, starved and severely beaten up the day before; that said, Josua almost follows Utvart into death thanks to the injuries he receives during their duel.
• Has a Type: Might be a coincidence but both Vorzheva and Hylissa have raven-black hair and pale skin.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Josua excels in this sport. Deornoth's main talent is snapping him out of it.
• Let's Just Be Friends: He "friend-zones" Lady Faiera. She's not happy about it.
• Like Father, Like Son: It turns out Josua is a lot like his father Camaris, including his brooding and his unwillingness to rule or to fight or argue. This resemblance goes as far as both men falling in love with another man's wife - Camaris with his queen, Josua with his brother's wife - only that Josua never got intimate with Hylissa.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Turns out he isn't King Prester John's son; he's Camaris'.
• Meaningful Appearance: Josua’s appearance and demeanor are constantly compared to that of saints, marble statues or ancient philosophers. He also looks nothing like Prestor John.
• Modest Royalty: He never dresses in the pomp fitting his station and indeed has to be cajoled into even wearing his crown.
• Named After the Injury: He is is called 'Lackhand' for his missing right hand even to his face, though does not seem to mind.
• Named Weapons: His slim sword is named 'Naidel'.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When his small party of survivors just barely manages to escape the doom of Naglimund, he beholds the burning stronghold from a hill, raising a hand and exclaiming that he will take the crown from his brother Elias - though against all false allegations he was never interested in power and later only understands it as a means to end the threat posed by Elias'.
  Josua: "Now you are king no longer! I will take the crown from you. I will take it, I swear!"
• Post-Victory Collapse: After disposing of Utvart. Hell, just give the man some rest!
• Reluctant Warrior: While he's a capable fighter, he shows a dislike for killing and only enters combat as a last resort.
• Supporting Leader: He's aware that his fight with his brother, Elias, is merely a footnote to the larger battle against the Storm King, but he willingly leads his army in siege of the Hayholt in hopes of providing a crucial distraction.
• Survivor Guilt: He lost his hand trying to save his brother's wife Hylissa but would have preferred to have given his life.
• The Wise Prince: He'd far rather be studying than leading, and is among the most learned of all the noblemen in the story. In the end, he gives up his crown and joins the League of the Scroll.
• Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: Not a good eater in general. Even more so when his mind is occupied - like most times. Very much to the worry and annoyance of Vorzheva.
• Warrior Prince: Josua insists to join his men in battle and does so frequently, often enough bringing in The Cavalry for the rescue.
• Watching Troy Burn: From the mountain slope above the castle, he takes one last glance at Naglimund.

King Prester John

John came to the Hayholt as a wayward islander, but skyrocketed to fame when he emerged victorious from the catacombs beneath it, having slain the great dragon that claimed the life of the former king, Eahlstan Fiskerne. He went on to become the king of Erkynland and the foremost mortal warrior in Osten Ard, reveling in battle as he wielded the fearsome blade Bright-Nail. His only equal was the Nabbanai knight Camaris. At the opening of the story, his passing hands the throne to his son, Elias.

• A Father to His Men: John towards all and everyone of his subjects, yet not so much towards his sons.
• Badass Normal: A legendary king who slew a dragon, despite possessing no magical powers. Turns out he didn't. It was dead already.
• Blood Knight: To a certain extent.
• Cuckold: By Ebekah with Sir Camaris’, leading to Josua being Not Actually His Child.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: He was not actually the one who slew the dragon Shurakai.
• Living Legend: He carefully cultivated the stories around himself. The fact that he lived to ninety helped leave most of his story as... stories.
• Maintain the Lie: Turns out it wasn't him who slew the dragon his legend is built on.
• My Greatest Failure: Enforced by the spirits of the Sithi at Hayholt, he never got over the fact that Eahlstan killed the dragon and he's built his kingdom on a lie. It drove him to great accomplishments, but also to the persecution of the Sithi and a deep-seated insecurity and shame.
• Parental Neglect: Despite John loving his subjects and his kingdom of Osten Ard very much he was not really loving towards his sons. He was not bad, no. He just didn't care about them very much.
• Public Domain Character: Based on the medieval legend of Prester John.
• Shrouded in Myth: Falsely, as it turns out.

Towser

King Prester John's jester, and privy to his deepest secrets, Towser maintains a presence in Josua's party for a long time.

• The Alcoholic: Drunk all the time, by the end, thanks to his grief over John's passing.
• Big Secret: Privy to some rather delicate details of King John’s court, including Camaris’ Dark Secret.
• Court Jester: His role at court.
• The Dead Guy Did It: He steal Camaris’ horn "Cellian" the night before he dies.
• Guilt-Ridden Accomplice: He is so terrified of his friends’ reaction to him knowing of Camaris’ secret all along, that he steals the horn "Cellian" in order to keep Camaris from coming back from his Heroic BSoD. Even his death the following night probably was due to his shock and fear.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: He kept Camaris’ secret for forty years, but suffers from the discord created by it and sometimes slips cryptic hints as if he was hoping someone would suddenly discover the truth from them.
• Passed in Their Sleep: He dies from old age in his sleep.
• Secret-Keeper: Knows both John and Camaris' secrets, and faithfully keeps them both into death.

Doctor Morgenes

One of the founding members of the League of the Scroll along with Eahlstan Fiskerne, Morgenes devoted his life to the study of the Art and the history of Osten Ard, particularly the myths surrounding Prester John and the human conquest of the Hayholt. He also preserves in secret the legacy of Eahlstan's family. He takes Simon into his tutelage, but is unexpectedly spurred to action by the scullion's discovery of Pryrates' plotting. He sacrifices himself to allow Josua and Simon to escape the castle.

• Cool Old Guy: Simon admires and looks up to him. Also, just because he's probably the smartest person in the Hayholt doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy a good ale.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: In his confrontation with Pryrates.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: After serving as a good mentor and friend to Simon, he dies protecting him when Pryrates leads a group of of soldiers to his workshop to recapture Prince Josua.
• Mysterious Past: It's implied that he is very well-traveled. Unfortunately he never gets the chance to elaborate on any of his adventures as he dies very early in the story.
• Obi-Wan Moment: Saves Simon from Pryrates, but is killed in doing so.
• You Shall Not Pass!: He sacrifices his life holding back Pryrates to allow Simon to make an escape from the Hayholt.
• You Are Not Ready: When Simon pesters him about "magic", or "the Art" as Morgenes refers to it, Morgenes tells him he'd no sooner teach Simon of it now than he would hand a torch to a baby sitting in a pile of straw. His showdown with Pryrates reveals just how dangerous magic can be.

Rachel "The Dragon"

Mistress of the Hayholt's servants, Rachel rules the oft-wayward seamstresses, scullions, maids, and other staff members with an iron fist. When the Hayholt descends into madness, she remains, but is ultimately forced into hiding by an unexpected confrontation with Pryrates. Her Aedonite faith and charity serve her well in the trials that ensue.

• Apron Matron: Described as such.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: She is devastated when she thinks Simon dies and goes on a mission of revenge. When Simon returns, they're overjoyed to find each other alive and weep Tears of Joy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She genuinely cares about Simon, despite her harsh treatment of him. She also gets multiple Pet the Dog moments despite her abrasive attitude in general. Two notable ones are helping Jeremias escape Inch, and trying to aid Guthwulf after he's rendered blind and insane.
• Mama Bear: Seeks revenge against Pryrates, who she believes to be responsible for killing Simon.
• Parental Substitute: To Simon, whom she loves as if he were her own son.
• Team Mom: To all of the servants in the castle.

Sir Deornoth

Josua's right hand man, a knight in his late 20ties. He is deeply devoted to his prince, but secretly he also wishes that his lord would be a little bit firmer, and less worried and haunted.

• Abusive Parents: His father was a hard, cruel man.
• Ambiguously Gay: He is nearly thirty and unmarried, he never expresses any interest for women and most of his thinking is occupied with Prince Josua.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Being known as the "Prince's Right Hand" ends up playing a part in the prophecy that restores Camaris' memory.
• Implied Love Interest: Bordering Ho Yay. Some of the bodily reactions of Deornoth to things Josua does or says read a bit like those of Simon and Miriamele - who are in fact in love with each other...
  "There was a sudden power in the prince’s voice that sent a thrill up Deornoth’s back."
• Ironic Nickname: The Prince's Right Hand. Josua doesn't have a right hand.
• Killed Offscreen: His death while fighting at the Stone of Farewell isn't shown onscreen. Instead, his body is found afterwards.
• Mauve Shirt: He gets significant characterization before his death.
• Mutual Kill: He and a Thrithings mercenary leader mortally wound each other while fighting at the Stone of Farewell.
• Undying Loyalty: He's not just loyal to Josua for giving him his rank, he's deeply devoted to him. In fact many of his POV thoughts read like Platonic Declaration of Love towards Josua.
• Use Your Head: Fighting a Norn in the forest of Aldheorte - oh, the headache!
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Though he's a capable fighter, his value to the prince is his ability to consistently pull the man out of a funk and remind him that he's a good man who serves his people well.

Earl Guthwulf

Marshal of Elias' armies at the opening of the story, Guthwulf leads the assault on Naglimund only to be brushed aside by Elias' decision to consummate his bargain with the Norn Queen. He grows increasingly concerned by Elias' erratic behavior, but is driven nearly mad by contact with the sword Sorrow. Subsequently blinded in a confrontation with Pryrates, he eventually finds his way to the tunnels beneath the castle.

• The Brute: He is called "The Monster of Utanyeat" - a Blood Knight, who is despite his age of around 40 years, still capable to break the back of a man with a single stroke from his broadsword.
• Defector from Decadence: Becomes more and more concerned with the darkness in Elias and his court. Unfortunately, touching Sorrow breaks him before he can make a Heel–Face Turn.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While he may serve Elias faithfully at first, he grows more and more disturbed by his king's increasingly insane actions, Pryrates's rise in power, and the spread of Norn influence.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: He really shouldn't have taken Elias up on the latter's offer to learn Sorrow's secret.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He knew Pyrates was evil, and jumped at the opportunity to try and help Rachel kill him (though he didn't know about it beforehand). The result was that he was blinded and driven mad.
• Jerkass: Later becoming a Jerkass Woobie.
• Only Sane Man: Definitely counts as one in Elias court. Kind of a Jerk Jock, but not really actively evil.
• Redemption Equals Affliction: Try to kill an evil wizard, become a pitiable cripple and spend the end of your life as a madman wandering the haunted halls of an Eldritch Location.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: He eventually plans on deserting Elias, but being rendered blind while trying to help Rachel kill Pryrates put an end to that plan.
• Villainous Friendship: He truly cares about Elias as a friend and grows increasingly concerned about his descent into madness and dependence on Pryrates.

Earl Fengbald

Marshal of King Elias' mortal armies after Guthwulf's defection, Fengbald is known for his brutality and his taste for subservient women. Miriamele flees the Hayholt in large part because of Elias' promise of her hand in marriage to this man. He leads the assault on the Stone of Farewell.

• Arranged Marriage: Elias tries to marry him to Miriamele; she runs away instead.
• Bad Boss: He is brutal to anyone who fails him and mistreats his servants as well.
• Dirty Coward: He is a sadistic killer, but only when he has the advantage. When he finds himself having to Face Death with Dignity, he's revealed as pathetic.
• Even Evil Has Standards: After trying to get information from a child, one of Fengbald's men asks if he wants the kid dead, seemingly for no reason other than For the Evulz. Fengbald is insulted, asking if the man thinks he's a demon.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Those villagers he strikes a deal with at the Stone of Farewell? They're the people whose homes he burned earlier. They have good reason not to trust him.
• Jerkass: His Establishing Character Moment is the off-screen massacre of a town complaining about taxes.
• Karmic Death: The relatives of some of the people he murdered lure him into a trap and kill him via Heroic Sacrifice.
• Kick the Dog: His response to a group of citizens petitioning the King for redress is to burn them out.
• Mercury's Wings: His Falcon-winged helmet.
• Smug Snake: Yes, he's a bastard, but all he has going for him is his title. Beyond that, no one really cares about him and his death is really just a side story in a war that is itself nothing more than a distraction.
• The Starscream: He believes that he can parlay his marriage to Miriamele into usurping the throne. He never gets the chance.

Jeremias

A boyhood friend of Simon's from the Hayholt, he was a former chandler's apprentice until Inch took him as his own student. With Rachel's help, he manages to escape the Hayholt and eventually joins Josua's side in the war.

Later serves as King Simon's Lord Chamberlain.

• Ascended Extra: He starts off as a very minor character who appears briefly in the first two books. In the third book, he's still not a main character but he gets a much more prominent role.
• Big Brother Instinct: Has this towards Leleth, and he becomes one of the few people besides Gelöe that she shows visible attention to.
• Childhood Friends: He was Simon's best friend at the Hayholt. They eventually reunite in the third book and quickly resume their friendship.
• Formerly Fat: He used to be chubby, but he loses a lot of weight after working in the forge.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Inch is implied to have raped Jeremias, leaving him with some serious PTSD.
• The Squire: He volunteers to become this to Simon following Simon's knighthood. Though Simon leaves with Miriamele, leaving Jeremias behind before he can do any official squire duties.

Inch

The former assistant of Doctor Morgenes until he was replaced by Simon, something he did not take well. A simple-minded giant of a man with a penchant for cruelty, he betrayed Morgenes to his death by Pryrates and became the new foundry-master of the Hayholt.

• Bad Boss: As foundry-master, he beats and abuses his men, working them until they're crippled, mad or dead. These ones are lucky compared to the ones he hands over to Pryrates for his experiments.
• Dumb Muscle: Inch is described as a huge, strong man, but thinking is not his strong suit.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The giant wheel in his foundry and which he was using in an attempt to torture Simon to death, is what ends up killing him. He gets caught on it and is literally ground into chunks in the machinery.
• Insistent Terminology: He demands to be called "Doctor" Inch.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Doctor Morgenes might have lived longer had he not fired Inch.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Jeremias drops hints that Inch raped him.
• The Resenter: Towards Simon in particular for taking his job but Pryrates notes that Inch has managed to get rid of everyone smarter and better looking than him.

Eahlstan Fiskerne

Founder of the League of the Scroll and the last in the line of the kings of Erkynland before Prester John took up the throne. "Saint" Eahlstan, as he was known, was a famously beloved leader who saw portents of the return of the Storm King and did everything in his power to prepare Osten Ard for this eventuality. He died fighting a dragon beneath the Hayholt.

• Fling a Light into the Future: By way of founding the League of the Scroll.
• Genius Bruiser: Founded the League of the Scroll, was a member, fought a dragon.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: He killed the red dragon Shurakai but died in the process. He's the real hero to Prester John's Fake Ultimate Hero.
• Posthumous Character: Really posthumous. He died a century before the story even began.

Father Strangyeard

Aedonite brother and archivist at Naglimund, that gets with Binabik, Jarnauga and Geloë into discovering the secret of the three swords. Receives Jarnauga’s scrollbearer necklace before the former's sacrifice and joins the League of the Scroll.

• Absent-Minded Professor: Not a professor, but really absent-minded at times.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Not with shiny things but with all the knowledge swimming through his head and distracting him.
• Foreshadowing: He learns of Camaris’ Awful Truth and explicitly tells the others not to pry into the knight’s secret anymore because it will hurt the man … and others i.e. Josua, who is unknowingly Camaris’ son.
  "I know for certain that to force anything more from that man would be cruel beyond belief, not just to him."
• Birds of a Feather: Him and Tiamak. Both are shy, self-doubting and quiet - but actually very smart and team up perfectly.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Got drunk quickly.
• Confess in Confidence: Takes Camaris’ confession. The content is a huge shock to him.
• Endearingly Dorky: Shy, geeky and kind.
• Friendship Moment: He becomes close friends with Jarnauga and is heartbroken when he has to leave him behind to die in Naglimund.
• Friendship Trinket: The pendant of the League of the Scroll which Jarnauga gives to Strangyeard serves also as a reminder of their friendship.
• Non-Action Guy: Absolutely. And he knows it.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When in the final battle he marches up to Duke Isgrimnur who is in the thick of the fighting to warn him.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Getting drunk with Tiamak when the two of them decide that one of them must enter the tunnels beneath Asu'a with Camaris and the Sithi.
• Platonic Kissing: As they have to part, Strangyeard kisses Jarnauga on the cheek.
• The Quiet One: Afraid to speak in front of others but slowly getting better at this.
• Secret-Keeper: Invoked by Binabic, who notes the Aedonite tradition of confession to allow Camaris some peace. Not only does it not really help Camaris, it just gives Strangyeard something to struggle with.
• The Smart Guy: One of them.
• Standard Royal Court: As the archivist of Naglimund’s extensive library.

Sangfugol

Harpist in the retinue of Prince Josua, based in Naglimund. A young man with a good sense of humor and fine fashion. He survives the fall of the fortress, the flight to the Sesuad’ra, the war in Nabban and the siege of the Hayholt and comes into service at the court of King Simon and Queen Miriamele.

• Action Survivor: Without being a fighter, he manages to get himself out alive in the end.
• Ambiguously Bi: The sequel book Witchwood Crown hints at this.
• The Bard: Well, he is one, playing the harp and the lute. He sings and composes his own songs.
• Butt-Monkey: Averted. You think as The Bard he'd fulfill this purpose? He doesn't. Sangfugol is a smart, kind guy, trying to not be The Load and apart from some little teasing especially by Duke Isgrimnur those around him actually like him and his music.
• Crisis Catch And Carry: On their several-days-long flight from the Norns, Sangfugol is struck by an arrow. He can't walk for a lengthly time, so the others carry him. No One Gets Left Behind!
• Cowardly Lion: When forced to watch the unequal fight between Josua and Utvart, he helps Isorn and Deornoth in the attempt to save their Prince by attacking their captors.
• The Dead Guy Did It: Towser stole the horn "Cellian" - for reasons never found out - then he dies. Sangfugol finds it in their tent but does not know what it is. He figures out when everyone is searching for it and is so frightened to be punished for unbeknowingstly stealing the horn, that Simon has to pep-talk him into giving it back.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Played With. Prince Josua telling him that if he sang "Women from Nabban" one more time, he'd have Sangfugol’s head off.
• Genre Savvy: Probably as a bard who sings to both commoners and kings you have to be this to survive and thrive.
• The Load: Subverted. He is neither a fighter nor among the group of thinkers that slowly unravel the secrets of the Three Swords. However, he is Genre Savvy enough to know his place, not be in the way and help in any way he can.
• Mr. Exposition: Serves as this both for Simon and the reader more than once, especially concerning Naglimund and Prince Josua, who - despite being one of the main characters - is not a POV-character.
• Non-Action Guy: Sangfugol is not a fighter and he knows it. Thus he is horrified when his ally’s search for an in-battle-stand-in for Prince Josua temporarily muses about him doing the job.
• Sleep Deprivation: Doesn't sleep for several nights because he is so disproportionately frightened of the possible consequences of being the one person who knows where Camaris’ horn "Cellian" is. - Turns out he worried for nothing. Josua is a bit annoyed, that's it.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Likes to dress in fancy, expensive fashion - a stark contrast to his down-dressing Prince.
• Standard Royal Court: Good enough as a bard that he does not have to travel but has a fixed place at Prince Josua’s court at Naglimund, and later at Simon and Miriamele’s court at the Hayholt.
• Undying Loyalty: He carries Towser to the end, unwilling to leave the old man to suffer or die, putting up with his drunkenness and increasing age without complaint, because the man is like a father to him.

Prince Morgan

The seventeen-year-old son of John Josua and Idela. After his father's death, he's officially the heir to the throne of Erkynland. However, he doesn't much want to play the role expected of him, and prefers adventures in taverns instead.

• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: He even realizes that climbing Hjeldin’s Tower is probably not the best of ideas - he does it nonetheless.
• The Alcoholic: Very much so.
• Break the Haughty: By the end of Book One, after his mission to find the Sithi goes south and he witnesses his camp and Eolair getting attacked by brutal strangers, Morgan has pretty much hit rock bottom where his self-confidence is concerned.
• The Confidant: Eventually, becomes Nezeru's.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Morgan's way of coping with life.
• Going Cold Turkey: Involutarily when he gets lost in Aldheorte Forest.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's abrasive, haughty and arrogant towards most people, but his heart of gold comes out in his relationship with his little sister and later in his friendship with the young trolls.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Believes he can never live up to his grandparents, often remembering that his grandfather had already participated in a war and won a throne at his age.
• Royal Brat: In typical Williams fashion, this is a trope that gets deconstructed.
• Took a Level in Kindness: When he is forced to spend months in Aldheorte Forest, alone with a group of tiny, non-speaking Tinukeda'ya. After surviving this ordeal, the change in his personality can be seen in how he later deals with Nezeru.

Princess Lillia

The seven-year-old daugther of John Josua and Idela, and younger sister of Morgan.

• Royal Brat: She knows what she wants and she gets it ... usually.

Prince John Josua

The only child of Simon and Miriamele, he was Idela's husband and the father of Morgan and Lillia. He took after Josua (the great-uncle he was named after) in that he much preferred scholarly exploits to his royal duties.

• Posthumous Character: He died of a fever seven years before the start of The Witchwood Crown.

Princess Idela, the Widow

The wife of late Prince John Josua and mother of Morgan and Lillia. She lives in the Hayholt though her love for her in-laws and her two children is little. To keep her place at court - and perhaps strengthen her standing - she tries to ensnare Pasevalles - it proofs a fatal mistake.

• Make It Look Like an Accident: Pasevalles kills her by making it look like she fell down a flight of stairs.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Pasevalles kills her after she accidentally comes upon proof of his treason.
• Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: She finds an incriminating letter to Pasevalles. He kills her for it.

Brother Etan

An Aedonite monk and scholar. Discovers a Tome of Eldritch Lore.

Rimmersmen

Duke Isgrimnur

A close ally of Prester John, Isgrimnur takes up the leadership of the Rimmersmen in exile after the treacherous Skali betrays his countrymen to Elias. A skilled if elderly warrior, he joins forces with Josua and acts as a voice of reason when all else seems to be going to madness.

• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Played With There's some light-hearted bickering between him and Josua that usually revolves around how Duke Isgrimnur is still able to bend the other over his knee and give him a spanking like the "little pup" he is (even though Josua is forty years old at this point).
• The Big Guy: Basically a wall of a man. Stout of tum, but strong as an ox, despite being seventy years old.
• Happily Married: Is devoted to his wife Gutrun.
• Gallows Humor: His contemplative Welcome to Hell to Baron Seriddan.
  "Ah, Baron, soon you'll find yourself down in the pit with the rest of us. I could have wished you better."
• Honorary Uncle: He is being called 'uncle' by Elias, Josua and Miriamele, though they're not related by blood.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Unfortunately, Isgrimnur's eldest son, Isorn, does not survive the events of the original trilogy.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite his blustering, he is understood as this by most around him - other nobles alike.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Spends the story traveling the length and breadth of Osten Ard, serving his king and fighting his enemies personally.
• Supporting Leader: He's the Duke of the Northland, and basically acts as The Big Guy to Miri's Five-Man Band.

Isorn

Isgrimnur's son who spends much of his time acting as a message runner between the various groups allied with Josua.

• Emergency Impersonation: Disguises himself as Camaris when the latter goes into the tunnels beneath Asu'a.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He impersonates Camaris to boost the morale of their troops and to distract their enemies - and is lured into a trap together with others, that kills him.
• My Greatest Failure: Feels this way about losing Elvritshalla to Skali of Kaldskryke.
• The Big Guy: Very tall, therefore perfect to impersonate Camaris once need arises.

Sludig

One of Simon's traveling companions on his quest to Igjarjuk to retrieve Thorn, Sludig is a veteran soldier who teaches Simon swordsmanship and helps him overcome his adolescent angst.

• Abusive Parents: Implied. He is really not fond of talking about his father.
• Demoted to Extra: He's a major character in the second book but plays only a small role in the third; he lampshades this by complaining about being ignored.
• Dual Wield: Prefers two axes; he's given the epithet "Sludig Two-Axes" in the Interquel novel The Heart of What Was Lost. He explains to Simon that it's handy to have a backup when one gets stuck in a ribcage.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: When they deliver Memory to the Stone, he doesn't get the same honors as the others. Justified, since he's Isgrimnur's man and it wouldn't be appropriate to receive honors from Josua, like Simon does.
• The Eeyore: Deeply pessimistic and always complaining.
• Old Soldier: His personality, though he isn't actually that old. He's just seen more than his fair share of action.
• Real Men Love Jesus: He is seriously upset during Simon's Rage Against the Heavens.
  • Oddly though, he's still wary of bringing up the old Rimmersgard gods such as Udun One-Eye. When he's questioned about this, he says that just because he's an Aedonite doesn't mean that he thinks Udun isn't just as real as Usires Aedon, and he worries that the bawdy song about Udun that Grimmric sings at one point might draw his wrath.
• The Resenter: A mild version of this, he's a bit jealous of Simon being knighted before him, when Simon is younger and much less of an experienced warrior than himself. Things work out for him though as he becomes part of the landed nobility by the time of the sequel novel The Witchwood Crown.
• Age-Gap Romance: With his wife Lady Alva.

Jarnauga

A founding member of the League of the Scroll, Jarnauga lives most of his life in perpetual vigil over Stormspike, the black northern mountain that is the home of the Norns. He emerges from this vigil in an attempt to warn Josua's forces about the looming threat of the Storm King, but loses his life in the battle for Naglimund.

• Badass Bookworm: Picks up a pair of axes when the time comes to fight in Naglimund.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In Naglimund; he stops to defend a doorway against attacking Norns so Josua and the rest can escape.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Again, picking up axes.
• The Smart Guy: One of the last surviving members of the League.
• The Mentor: Acts in a small way as a mentor to Father Strangyeard and passes on his League pendant to the latter before his Heroic Sacrifice.

Einskaldir

A Rimmersman warrior and chieftain serving Duke Isgrimnur.

• Badass Normal: Lacking any supernatural speed or strength, he manages to kill several Norn warriors.
• Blood Knight: He's not a berserker per se, but is more than happy to kill anyone his Duke commands him to.
  "Fight and live, fight and die, God waits for all."
  "I have tasted faerie-blood tonight. I would not mind more."
• Born in the Wrong Century: At one point Deornoth muses that maybe Einskaldir would have preferred the old pagan Rimmersgard religion, with its warrior's heaven, instead of the (by comparison) more peaceable Aedonite faith.
• Draw Aggro: He helps Josua's party flee from the Norns by drawing their attention and is lethally wounded doing so.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He is mortally wounded while distracting the Norns so Josua's party can flee further into Aldheorte.
• Real Men Love Jesus: For all his bloodthirstiness, he is surprisingly pious.

Jarnulf Godtru, the White Hand

A former Norn slave who was trained by the sword-master Denabi sey-Xoxa - not because Denabi liked Jarnulf, but because he wanted to proof to himself that he was great enough a teacher that he could even teach a dog his skills. After fleeing Nakkiga, Jarnulf set out for revenge, killing Norns with Utuk'ku as his final goal. His true name is Gilhedur and to get back into Nakkiga, he murdered a Queen's Huntsname named Jarnulf.

• Bloody Handprint: Subverted He calls himself "the White Hand" and leaves a mark next to his victims by spraying blood on the snow around his hand, leaving a white print on a red surface.
• Dead Person Impersonation: His true name is Gilhedur.
• Disappeared Dad: After losing his family in Nakkiga, he was 'adopted' by a wandering priest, whose disappearance started Jarnulfs revenge against the Norns.
• Fakin' MacGuffin: For reasons yet unknown he owned a silver pendant that was a copy of the golden necklace the members of the League of the Scroll wore - and sent it to the Hayholt informing the other mortals about his plan to infiltrate the Norns.
• Hunter of Monsters: He is on a private crusade against the Norns.
• The Infiltration: He joins the Queen's talon around Makho to find out their purpose.
• Mission from God: He regards his self-imposed campaign against Utuk'ku as this.
• Real Men Love Jesus: Finds his strength in his Aedonite faith.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He is on a killing spree and would gladly rid the world of every single Norn.

Hernystiri

Cadrach

A monk and scholar who became a junior member of the League of the Scroll; Cadrach's hunger for knowledge met its match when he unearthed a copy of Du Svardenvyrd, the black tome of Nisses' lore that revealed the impending return of the Storm King. Upon reading the book, he fell into a black pit of despair that broke only when Pryrates discovered his secret and tortured the knowledge out of him. He falls in with Miriamel, who pries away at his veneer of self-loathing in the hopes of eventually reforming him.

• Ascended Extra: He was originally a one-off character that Williams liked enough to bring back, and turned out to have a significant role in the backstory and main story.
• Broken Ace: He was once the greatest of scholars, a good, kind, and wise man, groomed to be the Morgenes's successor as the leader of the League of the Scroll, but then he read Du Svardenvyrd.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Wants to die, but can't kill himself because of a gaes laid on him by Pyrates.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Experienced this at the hands of Pyrates, who was enraged to learn that Cadrach sold off the pages of Du Svardenvyrd one by one to pay for booze. Pyrates extracted every scrap of knowledge about the book he could before Cadrach managed to escape.
• Despair Event Horizon: He made the mistake of reading Du Svardenvyrd. He was strong enough not to go insane, but it still broke him.
• Dirty Coward: Cadrach will always mysteriously vanish when it comes to a fight or dangerous situation. This quality is quite possibly the reason he has survived so far.
• Drowning My Sorrows: From first to last, he loves his drink. He only quits at the very end, out of devotion to Miriamel.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: The only person to have read the whole of Du Svardenvyrd not to do so, but it still transformed him from a powerful mage into a broken, drunken thief.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He sacrifices himself to allow Miriamele to escape from the Storm King's Collapsing Lair at the end of To Green Angel Tower.
• Morality Pet: Miriamele is his. She inspires him to finally give up drinking and, to save her life, he summons the strength to keep Green Angel Tower from collapsing long enough for her and Simon to escape its collapse.
• Nun Too Holy: Though an ordained monk, Cadrach is prone to various sinful behaviors, including greed, dishonesty, and gluttony.
• Redemption Equals Death: See Heroic Sacrifice, above.

Princess Maegwin

Daughter of King Lluth of Hernystir, Maegwin is forced to watch as Skali's forces conquer her people and kill her father and brother. She chafes at the demands of leadership, burns with unrequited love for Count Eolair, and is eventually driven to madness in her desperation to save her people.

• All Love Is Unrequited: Spent years nurturing a hopeless crush on Eolair.
• Despair Event Horizon: Crosses it when she leads her group of exiles back to Hernysadharc and instead of the gods raining vengeance upon Skali Sharp-Nose and his men like she thought would happen, Skali takes her and the exiles prisoner.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: She pretty much loses it after spending a freezing night alone on top of a mountain, walking the Dream Road the while.
• Heroic Sacrifice: After being almost killed, she ends up in a coma. When she realizes, on the Dream Road, how horribly she's screwed everything up, she gives her life force to Simon so he can survive Inch's Wheel of Pain.
• Hopeless Suitor: To Eolair, driving her into despair.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Takes a much more active role in leading her people after Hernystir is conquered by Skali, in sharp contrast to her father's young widow Inahwen, who is borderline useless.
• Tsundere: Type B, she's mostly polite to everyone except Count Eolair, because she secretly harbors romantic feelings for him and doesn't know how to deal with them.

Count Eolair

A noble of Hernystir driven into exile after its conquest, Eolair spends much of the story abroad, seeking out allies to aid his people in their time of need. He has feelings for Maegwin but believes that she holds him in contempt, which keeps them emotionally separated. When the Sithi liberate Hernystir, he joins Jiriki's force in their assault on Naglimund.

• All Love Is Unrequited: Turns out Maegwin's crush wasn't quite so hopeless. He was very fond of her, and that fondness had been growing before she went insane and sent him away.
• Bittersweet Ending: He is now the ruler of a broken people, and Simon informing him about Maegwin's death wasn't entirely comforting, but...

Nabbanai

Pryrates

Nobody knows the origins of the black priest Pryrates, and he never reveals them. Introduced to the League of the Scroll around the same time as Cadrach, his love of dark knowledge had already begun to reveal itself. Displaying a visible disdain for such things as morality and restraint, he delved into the deepest secrets of the Art and of Unbeing and eventually made contact with the darkest being of all, the Storm King. He acts as the architect of all the evil that befalls the mortal lands of Osten Ard, gleefully sacrificing souls and even entire nations to feed his hunger for domination.

• Bald of Evil: No hair, no beard, no eyebrows, nothing - no explanation if he shaves them off or if this is for or due to some other reason.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Like a shark.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He takes a cackling delight in being evil for evil's sake at times.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: He learns these right from the source — Utuk'ku and Ineluki themselves. Specifically, the Words of Changing and the Words of Unmaking.
• The Dragon: The heroes believe that he is Elias' henchman. They are wrong; Elias is Pryrates' pawn. It then appears that he will be this for the Storm King, but he ends up being more of a Starscream, and the heroes are not the ones who kill him.
• Establishing Character Moment: He makes a brief appearance almost running over Simon with a carriage, and in his first real in-person scene he stomps a dog's skull in, just because he can.
• Evil Chancellor: He deliberately ingratiates himself with Elias in order to get promoted to "trusted advisor", intending all along to betray him.
• Evil Gloating: He gets most of a chapter dedicated to describing his Evil Plan in loving detail to a helpless audience. Then he tries it on the Storm King, preemptively, which doesn't go as well.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Yup, trying to backstab the ancient, angry undead sorcerer you just resurrected is a great idea.
• Evil Sorcerer: To a tee.
• For Science!: His goal is knowledge. All knowledge, all secrets, no matter how dark or forbidden. He seeks everything that can be known.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He started off as a newly ordained priest that came from a poor island family, delved into forbidden knowledge, and ended up as an Evil Sorcerer who nearly caused the end of the world.
• Kick the Dog: In his Establishing Character Moment, he crushes a puppy to death beneath his boot, just to creep out Simon.
• Karmic Death: His plan to betray the Storm King results in his annihilation by same.
• Made of Iron: Due to his magic, he shrugs off getting knifed by Rachel the Dragon, and survives an arrow through the throat from Miriamele.
• The Man Behind the Man: The audience knows this, but for a long time the heroes don't realize that he's the one driving Elias, not vice versa.
• Misanthrope Supreme: He cares nothing for people; they are instruments to him, to be discarded as easily as a pair of old shoes when they are no longer useful.
• Sinister Minister: Although Pryrates is notionally an ordained Aedonite priest, he does absolutely nothing that resembles the worship of that religion, and is even excommunicated by Lector Ranessin in The Stone of Farewell, not that it does any good.
• Squishy Wizard: Averted, it's shown that trying to get into a hand-to-hand fight with Pryrates is a very bad idea.
• The Starscream: He intended all along to betray his master. It doesn't work out well for him.
• The Unfettered: He states that he is "what a person who accepts no limits can become."
• Torture Technician: If his "laboratories" in Hjeldin's Tower are any indication.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He uses the Words of Changing to adopt a variety of terrifying shapes.

Camaris

Camaris was the greatest knight of the Benidrivine era, rivaled only by King Prester John. His presence on the battlefield was so immense that enemies would surrender rather than face him, not the least of which because he wielded the great blade Thorn which could mow men down like wheat before a scythe. Not long after the death of John's wife in childbirth, Camaris vanished and was presumed dead, only to be discovered twenty years later as a simpleminded servant in an inn in Kwanitupul. Once restored to his wits, he demonstrates bitter unhappiness and seems to have no will to live for himself, only fighting to save his beloved Osten Ard from destruction.

• The Atoner: Because he slept with Prester John's wife, who was fifty years younger than the king, resulting in the birth of Prince Josua.
• Badass Normal: No superpowers or anything, but still exceedingly strong despite his age. An unstoppable fighter with Thorn in hand.
• The Big Guy: Even bigger than Isgrimnur, probably something like 7 feet tall.
• The Chains of Commanding: Really, really dour. Basically, clinical depression.
• Cool Old Guy: Becomes a mentor to Simon, teaching him the tenets of knighthood.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: As a brainless servant, he still possesses enough skill to kick Aspitis's ass in a duel.
• Dark Secret: The shame weighing him down is rooted in him having been intimate with his best friend’s wife and queen, resulting in the birth of Josua. That Ebekah died giving birth only adds to the misery.
• Death Seeker: Following the death of Prester John's wife in childbirth. He gave away all his possessions and set out in a rowboat, disappearing in a storm.
• Driven to Suicide: Finding no other way to silence his guilt, he threw himself overboard into the bay of Firannos. He survives but suffers from Heroic BSoD for the next 40 years until set free by prophecy and Josua.
• Heroic BSoD: Whether the storm drove him witless or he did it himself is pretty much up to you.
• He's Back!: After coming out of his Heroic BSoD, he proceeds to sweep the countryside clean of Elias's armies, fighting as well as he had decades earlier.
• Knight in Shining Armor: He's the archetypal Arthurian knight: horse, sword, arcane code of honor.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: He's Josua's real father.
• Martial Pacifist: Camaris hates fighting, but when he has to, he does it thoroughly.
• Religious Bruiser: Grimly deconstructed. His guilt and self-loathing over his own transgressions provides enough negative energy to empower Ineluki through Thorn.
• Reluctant Warrior: "Camaris conducts war like a lady's maid cleaning spiders. She'll put it off as long as she can, but once she starts, she doesn't stop until the job is completely done." "Who is the greater warrior? The one of slightly lesser skill who loves it, or the one of greater skill who abhors it?"
• Shrouded in Myth: Ever since his disappearance. Arguably, after his second disappearance, too.

Duke Benigaris

The Duke of Nabban, Benigaris assumed the title at the Battle of Bullback Hill, where he betrayed Josua's forces and personally murdered his father, Leobardis.

• Aloof Big Brother: He doesn't care much for his little brother, nor does he think much of him.
• The Evil Prince: personally murdered his own father, Leobardis, to gain his title.
• Momma's Boy: Initially he seems to be one, but as he begins losing the war against Josua and Camaris, he eventually cuts ties with her, and doesn't even appear to feel bad when she commits suicide.
• My God, What Have I Done?: According to Aspitis, after he murdered his own father, Benigaris spent the night crying in remorse.
• Patricide: Personally murdered his father to gain his title. It says something that feeling remorse for it is one of his only redeeming moments.
• Suicide by Cop: After the war with Camaris and Josua arrives at his doorstep, and he realizes just how badly the world is screwed due to Elias's actions, he demands a Duel to the Death with Camaris for rule of Nabban. He knows he has very little chance of winning, but at least, in his mind, if anyone survives the end of the world, they'll remember him as the man who fought well against Camaris instead of as just a man who murdered his father for power.
• Villainous Breakdown: As the war against him begins to go badly, he displays his instability by murdering an astronomer who gave him a bad prediction and cutting all ties with his mother.

Count Aspitis

A Nabbanai nobleman who falls deep in the service of Pryrates, the devilishly handsome Aspitis briefly imprisons Princess Miriamele on his ship and coerces her into sleeping with him with the intent of forcing her into marriage.

• And Now You Must Marry Me: After taking her virginity, his plan is to force Miriamele into marriage so he can seize the throne after Elias.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: A count and one of the most flat out evil characters in the series. He's in good company serving Pryrates.
• Big Bad Wannabe: While he wants to be king after Elias by marrying Miriamele, the Storm King's forces endanger the entire world and are far more of a threat than he could ever hope to be.
• False Friend: Benigaris thinks of him as a close friend. In reality, Aspitis detests him and even mocks him behind his back about Benigaris crying the night he murdered his father.
• Faux Affably Evil: Even after he's been outed as a villain to Miriamele, he still speaks to her with a gentlemanly tone. Only now the content of what he says is frequently slimy, mocking and cruel.
• Handsome Lech: He is considered good-looking and likes to chase girls - including Miriamele, wooing them mockingly and sometimes cruelly (see "Faux Affably Evil" above).
• Humiliation Conga: He's betrayed by the niskie he employs, his ship is attacked by kilpa, he's disfigured by Miriamele during her escape, and he's soundly beaten in a sword fight against a seemingly simple old man in front of his men.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Though it's not violent, his seduction of Miriamele is extremely coercive and not really a pleasant read. This is what finally drives Gan Itai, his Niskie singer, to not merely carry notes between Miriamele and Cadrach, but even to sing the kelpie up, nearly destroying his ship and allowing the pair to escape.
• Smug Snake: His aspirations are almost as large as his ego, and he doesn't realize just how small of a fish he is in the grand scheme of things when compared with the Storm King and his plans.
• The Starscream: He wants to force Miriamele into marriage, thereby becoming heir to the throne.

Baron Seriddan

Lord of Metessa. Brother of Brindalles. Finds himself in the unlucky position of having his Duke’s and King’s enemy (Prince Josua) and army turn up on his doorstep. Instead of sticking with his unbeloved lord, Seriddan sides with Josua.

• Authority Equals Asskicking: While other Nabbanai lords prefer to watch from a safe distance as their men fight, you’ll better expect Seriddan to be in the thick of it.
• Didn't See That Coming: Camaris being alive... ok, no one did.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: Seriddan and his troops are the Rohirrim coming in for the aid in this case.
• Happy Ending Override: (As per the sequel series The Last King of Osten Ard) For Seriddan’s family the final victory proofs to be a bitter one. Brindalles is killed, Seriddan succumbs to his wounds days later, and the rest of the Metessan house quickly falls into ruin.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Understandably after everything that happens the day Prince Josua shows up.
• Is This a Joke??: Seriddan takes the whole "big evil swords and Camaris returning from the grave" business so badly that he has this reaction several times.
• Killed Offscreen: Sort of. Brindalles, Seriddan’s brother, is killed by the Norns offscreen. Seriddan is fatally wounded in the battle and dies from his wounds days later - also offscreen.
• Out-Gambitted: Seriddan confronts Josua in the midst of his court about his plans, trying to make Josua admit treason. He did not see coming what was about to hit him but owns up to it by fair play.
• Sibling Team: Him and Brindalles. As opposing in characters as Elias and Josua, these two Nabbanai men get along very well though. He's the Warrior Prince character contrasting his brother's Wise Prince demeanor.
• Supporting Leader: Secondary to Duke Isgrimnur, he leads the heroes’ armies into the final battle.

Brindalles

Younger brother of Baron Seriddan of Metessa, father of Pasevalles. A well-read, studious and quiet person.

• Emergency Impersonation: When Josua vanishes Brindalles comes in as a last minute stand in to make their enemies and troops believe that their Prince is still with them.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Brindalles is aware that he is not the best of fighters but when there is need for someone looking remotely like Josua and able to wield his sword with his left hand, he steps in - much to the dismay and worry of his brother. And it gets Brindalles killed.
• Killed Offscreen: Together with Isorn is killed by the Norns or Pryrates in Green Angel Tower.
• Wise Prince: A quiet, well-read and diffident man, in stark contrast to his brother's roguish Warrior Prince nature.

Pasevalles

Son of Brindalles of Metessa, nephew of Baron Seriddan. A child of around eight years in the time of the Storm King War. Later Lord Chancellor of the Hayholt under the reign of High King Simon and High Queen Miriamele.

• Boulder Bludgeon: If he is not lying to Simon, he killed Prince Josua that way.
• Divide and Conquer: He wants the Dragonbone Chair, thus he tries to weaken the rule of Simon and Miriamele.
• Establishing Character Moment: We already know that he is out for nothing good but then he throws Idela down the stairs to kill her.
• Evil Chancellor: Basically his job description in The Last King of Osten Ard.
• Evil Orphan: He wants to end the rule of Simon and Miriamele, but not by only killing them - that would be too gentle.
• Fate Worse than Death: He does not simply wish to kill Simon and Miriamele in his quest for revenge, but wants them to slowly lose everything they love to see them suffer again and again and again...
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Goes from a very minor character introduced in the last book of the original trilogy, to orchestrating what could be the downfall of the High Ward in the sequel trilogy.
• Gaining the Will to Kill: Happening upon Prince Josua by chance decides his further path into active revenge.
• Orphan's Ordeal: His life after the death of his father and uncle was not easy.
• The Unfettered: He has a goal which is revenge and he is utterly ruthless about it.

Sir Astrian of Poines

One of the drinking companions of Prince Morgan and as turns out paid by Pasevalles to keep an eye on the prince, keep him occupied and a drunk. Sent out with Duke Osric into the Thrithings, but not as a part of his campaign, but to find and free Count Eolair in a stealth operation.

• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Incoming temper tantrums.
• The Alcoholic: Probably never ever really sober.
• Deadpan Snarker: Bordering a Smug Snake.
• The Gadfly: To everyone around - including Count Eolair.
• Shameless Self-Promoter: As often as he finds a chance.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Said out loud.
  "My head reaches Olveris’ neck, and since there is nothing of much use above that point, he and I are as good as even."
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Olveris. To a lesser degree with Porto.

Sir Olveris

The second of the drinking companions of Prince Morgan, paid by Pasevalles to keep the prince drunk and occupied. Sent out with Duke Osric into the Thrithings, but not as a part of his campaign, but to find and free Count Eolair in a stealth operation.

• Deadpan Snarker: If for once he’s making the effort to speak.
• Precision F-Strike: The only character in almost 5k paperback pages of story to ever use the word "fuck".
• The Quiet One: So much that he startles people if for once he talks.
• The Stoic: With a single facial expession.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Astrian. To a lesser degree with Porto.

Duke Saluceris

The ruler of Nabban at the time of the reign of High King Simon and High Queen Miriamele., son of Varellan and brother of Drusis, husband of Duchess Canthia. His reign over Nabban is an unsteady one as there are more and more attacks on the Nabbanai borders by Thrithing-men and his own brother opposes his rule.

• Public Execution: When the rioters storm the Sancellan Mahistrevis, Saluceris is hanged from the statue of one of his ancestors.

Dallo Ingadaris

Lord of the Nabbanai House Ingadaris and uncle of Lady Turia. Leader of the opposition against the rule of Saluceris.

Lord Drusis

Saluceris' brother and at open odds with him. The opposition lead by Dallo Ingadaris wants Drusis to replace Saluceris as Duke of Nabban.

Lady Turia

A girl of twelve years and the niece of Dallo Ingadaris, she is married to Lord Drusis , who is murdered quickly after. She seeks revenge via the tradition of the Nabbanai people and when her uncle does not support her in this, she has him killed. Despite her age, she is slowly becoming the Powerhouse of Nabban, threatening even Miriamele.

• A Child Shall Lead Them: She leads an uprising against the Duke of Nabban.

Wrannamen

Tiamak

A Wranna scholar and student of one of the members of the League of the Scroll, it is Tiamak's ambition to someday be counted among their ranks. His questing for knowledge takes him out of the Wran, where he is widely regarded as a savage no better than the rest of his people. Quiet and unassuming, his wisdom ends up playing an invaluable role in the quest to save Osten Ard.

• Healing Herb: One of his primary goals in life is to publish Sovran Remedies of the Wranna Healers, a compendium of healing recipes and techniques passed down by his people. The prequel novel Brothers of the Wind reveals that the healers of the Wran are the real deal as, aside from Hakatri's mother Amerasu's use of the Art, the healer Hakatri and Pamon Kes discovered in the Wran was the only person who could give Hakatri any kind of actual relief from the burns caused by Hidohebhi's blood. Unfortunately, both Amerasu's magic and the Wranna herbs only work temporarily.
• Magical Native American: A fantasy equivalent.
• Non-Action Guy: He's a scholar, not a warrior, especially after his leg is crippled by a crocodile attack.
• Old Retainer: Has become this by the time of The Last King of Osten Ard, working for King Simon & Queen Miriamele as an advisor.
• The Smart Guy: Though due to prejudice he is not always recognized as such.

Jesa

A young Wranna girl, maid to Duchess Canthia of Nabban during the time of The Last King of Osten Ard.

• Determinator: Proves herself to be this during Into the Narrowdark. When fleeing Nabban after the rebellion kicks off, the Duchess' carriage is attacked and burned by Thrithings mercenaries out on the plains, and Jesa escapes with the Duchess' infant daughter Serasina. Jesa manages not only to survive herself, but keep Serasina alive, dispose of a treacherous noble, and rescue Miriamele from her imprisonment by a crazed hermit.

Thrithings

Vorzheva

A Thrithings woman who was Josua's mistress for some years. She became his wife and the mother of his twins Derra and Deornoth (not to be confused with Sir Deornoth). She's also the daughter of Fikolmij, the March-Thane of Clan Mehrdon and all the High Thrithings.

• Abusive Parents: Her father is a bastard who treats her like she's his property.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: She and Josua have a very heated relationship, not helped by the fact that Josua still has lingering feelings for his brother's dead wife. Despite their clashes, they still love each other enough to marry and have children.
• Culture Clash: Her Thrithings upbringing causes her to sometimes have trouble adjusting to Erkynlander culture.
• Does Not Like Men: With intensity increasing by the years, Vorzheva is very weary of men bordering on generally loathing each and all of them - which in the years after the Storm King War does not even spare her son or husband.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: She dreams of Josua coming back to her after the final battle telling her that now he had what he ever wanted: he is presumed dead and thus does not have to rule or lead anymore.
• Dub Name Change: For reasons unknown her name was changed to "Vara" in the German translations.
• Patricide: In The Witchwood Crown she finally gets her revenge on her father for a lifetime of abuse.
• The Exile: Self-imposed, to get away from her arranged marriage and her abusive father.
• Face–Heel Turn: By the time that The Last King of Osten Ard takes place, Vorzheva has become a bitter, vengeful woman who's determined to use her son and the movement surrounding him to invade Erkynland and kill all of her and Josua's former friends, who she blames for "abandoning" them.
• Hot-Blooded: She's a very passionate, and occasionally stubborn, person, which can put a strain on her relationship with Josua who has an opposite personality.
• Hot Consort: She starts off as Prince Josua’s mistress, which gives her the unfair reputation of a “Thrithings whore” among the noble women of Naglimund. Eventually she marries him and bears his children.
• If I Can't Have You…: Basically her attitude towards her lover/later husband Josua.
• Insecure Love Interest: Worries that Josua does not respect her.
• Made of Iron: Or at least Selective Squeamishness Suppression. While giving birth to her twins, she hardly made a sound.
• Missing Mom: Her mother is dead, and she claims that her father killed her.
• The Mistress: For a while to Josua, until they marry.
• Odd Friendship: She forms one with Aditu, who becomes very intrigued by Vorzheva's pregnancy.
• The Rival: In The Last King of Osten Ard between Lady Faiera and Vorzheva for Josua’s affection - which is firmly with the latter.
• Runaway Fiancé: Her father tried to force her into an Arranged Marriage. She decided she didn’t like that and fled from her people.
• Yandere: Hard to tell if she'd actually pull it off, but Vorzheva threatens Josua more than once that she will kill him (or any other woman he might love) and then herself.

Hotvig

A randwarder of Fikolmij's Clan Mehrdon, who joins Josua's cause.

• The Bet: At the Duel to the Death between Utvart and Prince Josua, he places one on the latter. Hotvig’s friends mock him for being stupid - they lose.
• The Cavalry: basically the function of Hotvig's men in Josua's army.
• Covered with Scars: If their frequent fighting does not give Thrithings-men their scars, then they cut themselves to look more fiercesome.
• Heel–Face Turn: Is one of Fikolmij's men but isn't too happy. Ultimately he leaves his clan altogether including his family and a large group of other Thrithings-people, who are just as sick of their Thane's tantrums.
• Horseback Heroism: He was practically Born in the Saddle, so that's where he's fighting from.

Fikolmij

Elected March-Thane of the High Thrithings and leader of Clan Mehrdon. Father of Vorzheva.

• Abusive Parents: He is one, including hints of sexual abuse towards his younger daughter Hyara and attempts of the sort towards his grand-daughter Derra.
• Archnemesis Dad: To Vorzheva - ultimately leading to her killing him in The Witchwood Crown.
• Berserk Button: The mere presence of Prince Josua tickles his.
• Breach of Promise of Marriage: He was to get 13 horses as a bride's price for Vorzheva, but he’s even more aggravated for feeling like Prince Josua »cut off his balls« by helping Vorzheva flee.
• Brutal Brawl: Hands one to a defenseless Josua.
• Gruesome Grandparent: To Derra and Deornoth.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: He gives a defenseless, half-starved Josua a severe beating then sends him into a Duel to the Death the very next morning.
• Large and in Charge: Despite his age, he is still a giant of a man and a pretty dangerous fighter.
• The Leader: Thane of Clan Mehrdon and elected March-Thane of all of the High Thrithings’ clans.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Being a Thrithings-man and a Clan-leader at that.
• The Quisling: He made a deal with High King Prester John against his own people.
• Sore Loser: Always has been, always will be.
• Til Murder Do Us Part: According to Vorzheva, Fikolmij killed her mother.

Utvart

A member of Clan Mehrdon, who had wanted to marry his March-Thane's daughter Vorzheva, but she fled from him.

• The Berserker: Subverted One would expect this of him from his demeanor and physics, but all in all he is very cautious about his fight with Josua.
• Breach of Promise of Marriage: He wanted to marry Vorzheva but she fled. He swore not to marry anyone else until he had revenge from the man she ran to.
• The Brute: By the textbook.
• Badass Boast: "Now Utvart kills you!"
• Covered with Scars: He 'decorated' his skin with scars.
• Duel to the Death: With Prince Josua.
• Dumb Muscle: Subverted He is not stupid and does not fly into rage like Fikolmij.
• Jerkass: A rapist, paedophile and murderer - don’t take his willingness for the Duel to the Death as a sign of honor - it’s just his chance to get his hands on Josua.
• Pædo Hunt: According to Vorzheva he is a Paedophile.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "Now Utvart kills you" - only to get his ass handed to him by Josua.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: One of his many red flags.
• Sadist: Additionally to all his other flaws, he'd rather have killed Josua slowly and without the ado of the duel.

Fremur

A young, somewhat open-minded clan leader and most faithful follower of Shan Unver. Unver's story is told through his POV.

• Number Two: Becomes this to Unver as he rises to become Shan of all the Thrithings clans.

Qanuc

All Qanuc

• Little People Are Surreal: Whenever someone meets a troll for the first time, expect them to be thoroughly weirded out by the sight.
• Magical Native American: The Qanuc, known as trolls to the Rimmersmen, have a culture very similar (except for riding sheep) to the Inuit.
• Moody Mount: Qanuc use sheep for riding, whose recalcitrant nature generally makes them this.
• Our Trolls Are Different: Though technically counted among humans and physically no different except for their height, Qanuc live in the mountainous far North seperate from the other human nations, many of whom have quite forgotten they exist, and are considered an oddity at best and a threat to be persecuted at worst.

Binabik

Apprentice to Ooquequk, one of the original members of the League of the Scroll, the diminutive troll Binibiquegabenik (Binabik for short) wanders the lands far more than most members of his isolationist race. Together with his wolf companion, Qantaqa, they make a formidable pair and form a fast friendship with Simon after Binabik rescues him from starvation in the wilderness.

• Badass Bookworm: In addition to being a skilled hunter, tracker, and combatant, he is a learned person among the trolls, and was apprenticed to Ooquequk, the tribe's singer (basically the resident smart guy) before the latter's death.
• Big Damn Heroes: He has a knack for saving Simon's life in this fashion.
• Canine Companion: He raised his wolf companion Qantaqa from a pup, and she subsequently accompanies him everywhere he goes.
• Eloquent In My Other Nonnative Tongue: Apparently his Sithi is perfectly grammatically correct.
• Hitchhiker Heroes: Subverted, as he was instructed to look for Simon.
• The Lancer: To Simon.
• Overly Long Name: Like all trolls, he uses a shortened version to interact with foreigners.
• Poisoned Weapons: His blowgun darts.
• Strange-Syntax Speaker: Among other idiosyncracies, his speech tends to be overusing the present progressive tense.
• Walking the Earth: He had traveled much of Osten Ard even prior to the events of the original trilogy.

Sisqi

Sisquinanamook is daughter of the King of the Qanuc and is Binabik's betrothed. Along with her parents, she becomes irate when he fails to return for the ceremonies that commemorate the onset of spring among her people, but loves him enough to aid in his rescue when he is condemned to execution for his "crimes". She proceeds to join him in his embassy to the "big folk" to keep a watch on her investment.

• Action Girl: Leads a troop of Qanuc in the battle of the Stone of Farewell.
• My Girl Back Home: To Binabik.
• Overly Long Name: Like all trolls.

Qina

Binabik and Sisqi's daughter.

Little Snenneq

The son of the hunter Snenneq from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, who is betrothed to Qina.

• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Shows rather impressive strength for his size by being a superb climber, and besting a random Rimmersman in armwrestling when he and Morgan are at tavern.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: To trolls he ranks as this, but to humans, they only see another troll.

Perdruinese

Sir Porto

An elderly knight from Perdruin in the service of the High King and Queen and their Chancellor Pasevalles, later of Duke Osric. As a soldier he fought in the Storm King war, then was part of the campaign against the Norns and Nakkiga, in which he was knighted by Duke Isgrimnur. Now a drinking companion of Prince Morgan.

• Hero of Another Story: Of The Heart Of What Was Lost, to be exact.

Count Streáwe

The ruler of Perdruin. A lover of schemes and secrets that happens to save Miriamele and ends up supporting Prince Josua and his allies against the Big Bad - even though Perdruin is fabled for its neutrality.

• Butt-Monkey: Often he is the target of Astrian’s and Olveris’ jests.
• The Chessmaster: He uses the turmoil of the Storm King War for his own and Perdruin’s best advantage.
• Good All Along: He's a really shady one and will not ever make a move without any personal gain, yet ultimately he is not a bad guy. He helps Miriamele and ends up supporting the Big Good in winning the war.
• Money Is Not Power: Streáwe prefers knowledge - it's the bargaining chip with which he is bought by Prince Josua.
• Playing Both Sides: For the benefit of tiny island Perdruin.
• Poisonous Captive: Benigaris thinks he's holding Streáwe captive in Nabban - while Streáwe is actually undermining Benigaris’ rule and snatching away his naval force.
• Weak, but Skilled: He'd have a problem swatting a fly, so he outsmarts his enemies instead.
• True Neutral: Perdruin is basically Switzerland, thus Streáwe keeps neutral as well - at least as long as he can.

Countess Yissola

Bastard daugther of Count Streáwe whom he choose as his heir dispite all his (bastard) sons. Now ruler of Perdruin in her own right.

Lady Faiera

As the daughter of a Baron, she inherited a lot of money and used it for her studies. After the Storm King's War she became a member of the League of the Scroll. She was very interested in divination and eventually purchased a dangerous toy to advance her research.

• Artifact of Doom: Her Sithi Mirror. She screwed herself up with it royally.
• Blue Screen Of Death: For several years until she slowly regains her memory.
• Bookworm: Books, her first love.
• Confirmed Bachelor: Or rather 'Bachelorette'. She did not want to marry as there was no one that fulfilled her expectations. Enter: Prince Josua.
• The Dark Arts: Divination - should carry a warning sign as to only study it in theory, never try it for real.
• Despair Event Horizon: Has hers when she realizes she can't have Josua, leading to her using the Sithi Mirror and then setting her own home ablaze.
• Encyclopaedic Knowledge: As all the other members of the League of the Scroll she's a walking compendium of wisdom.
• False Soulmate: Believes Josua is hers. He begs to differ.
• The Hermit: Retired to some small hut in the mountains to live out the end of her life in peace - and perhaps find some oblivion from her memories.
• The "I Love You" Stigma: She makes an Anguished Declaration of Love to Josua when they had an argument. He tells her gently but firmly that he is her friend and colleague. Nothing more.
• Let's Just Be Friends: Exactly what Prince Josua tells her, when she confesses her love to him.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Oh dear, and she was one of the truly wise and smart ones!
• Married to the Job: In her youth she was more into books than men, even though she had many suitors. But she did not want to marry to not lose her freedom to study at her own discretion.
• Retgone: Her house burned down, the plague raged through the city and she was believed dead. In fact she had lost her memory and only regained it years later. Then she decided to stay in hiding and was only found through the severe efforts of Brother Etan over twenty years later.
• The Rival: Her and Vorzheva for Prince Josua’ affection - which is firmly with the latter.
• Rules of Orphan Economics: The untimely death of her parents left her wealthy and ended their demands of her to marry and have a child to uphold the family name.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: Somewhat. She grew up with money and the freedom to live by her own standards and ideals.

Sithi

All Sithi

• The Ageless: They are hinted to have long ago discovered the secret of immortality, which secret they declined to share with their servants and allies. In fact, they don't live forever. Instead, they merely age very, very slowly.
• The Fair Folk: They're immortal, beautiful, graceful... it's not hard to understand why humans keep wanting them dead... or worshiping them.
  • When he joins Simon & co. in the search for Thorn in the latter part of the first book, Prince Jiriki spells out that he's not doing this because of any love for mortals, it's only because he's interested in their quest, and he still owes Simon for saving his life. At that point in the story, he doesn't even really care if Ineluki the Storm King wants to wipe out humanity: Ineluki wasn't the one who shattered his people's civilization and drove them into the wilderness. The others have no counter-argument for this.
• Hidden Elf Village: Most of them live in Jao e-Tinukai'i deep in the Aldheorte forest, which is their last remaining major settlement.
• Mystical White Hair: All Sithi have white hair, although most of them dye it a variety of colors.
• Old Shame: invoked Amerasu believes their treatment of the Tinukede'ya, the other race that traveled with them from the fabled Lost Garden, some of which became the Niskies and the Dwarrows (see The Ageless, above) was a crime for which the Sithi are still paying the price.
• Space Elves: There are hints that the Sithi may have come from another planet, as their trip to Osten Ard was across the "Dark Ocean", and the journey was long enough that it was implied to be generations (enough that the label of "ship-born" is used to distinguish those born on the journey).
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Being so long-lived, the Sithi and Norns acquire a lot of grudges and sorrow, and it's implied that all of them become afflicted by unbearable ennui as they get older. Amerasu secludes herself in her home rather than face a world that's not as beautiful as her memories, and Utuk'ku is so consumed by rage at the past and by disgust at her own very advanced aging that she wants to destroy everyone and everything.

Jiriki

One of the youngest Sithi, Jiriki nevertheless has a place of distinction as a descendant of Amerasu and is her secret envoy with the humans. On one such trip, he becomes trapped in a woodsman's net and is about to be killed when Simon stumbles onto the scene and rescues him. Fleeing, Jiriki fires his White Arrow toward Simon, which is symbolic of the life-debt he now owes the young human. Despite his relative youth, Jiriki plays a major role in the conflict, as his understanding of and rapport with mortals leads him to drive his people to abandon their isolation and go on the offensive against the Storm King's forces. He returns in the sequels to aid Simon - and the human forces - once again.

• A Friend in Need: In the sequels, Jiriki works to convince his people to once again come to the aid of their former mortal allies, even though most Sithi cannot see why they shouldn't just let their cousins the Norns destroy the hated humans. In Into The Narrowdark, he arrives just in time to save Simon when the Hayholt is attacked.
• Cultural Rebel: Was already shown to be open-minded about working with mortals in Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, and this is cemented by the time of The Last King of Osten Ard.
• I Owe You My Life: He gives the White Arrow to Simon to symbolize the life-debt he owes. This arrow becomes immensely important later.
• Mayfly–December Friendship: With Simon - with Simon being the mayfly, of course.
• The Power of Trust: More than any other character, Jiriki comes to symbolize the chance that mortals and Sithi may some day come to trust one another and cooperate.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Jiriki is among the most activist of all his people, leading hunting parties to defend their borders, pushing for greater intervention against the Norns, and generally refusing to go along with the Sithi's policy of of non-intervention.
• Warrior Prince: Jiriki's position in Zida'ya society is roughly equivalent to that of a prince, and he does not shy away from combat when it's necessary.

Aditu

Jiriki's younger sister, Aditu is less wise in the ways of mortals than he, but "adopts" Simon after she rescues him from the northern wilderness and brings him to Jao-é-Tinukai'i. She later acts as the Sithi emissary to Josua's forces. She returns in the sequels, where she becomes close with new character Tanahaya.

• Innocent Fanservice Girl: She doesn't understand human taboos about nudity, and frequently goes unclothed or nearly so around Simon, much to his confusion.
• Moment Killer: She interrupts Simon's would-be tryst atop the Stone of Farewell.
• Pregnant Badass: Is pregnant during the events of the sequels.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: While she would deny being "royalty", she is Jiriki's sister and, though she doesn't agree with all of his ideas, ventures out on her own regularly.
• Troll: Ironic, given she's an elf and the Qanuq are the trolls, but when she shows up on the Stone, she terrifies a girl by demanding to know "What are you doing with my husband!?", killing Simon's chances at a hookup.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: She makes fun of and sometimes toys cruelly with Simon's mortal feelings.

Amerasu "Ship-Born"

The eldest living Sitha and matriarch of the House of Year-Dancing, second in age only to Utuk'ku of the Norns, Amerasu is named "Ship-Born" because of her birth during the Sithi's voyage to Osten Ard from their lost homeland. As age confers wisdom and power, she is also second only to Utuk'ku in her mastery of the Art and of the Dream Road. She nearly manages to reveal the Evil Plan to the gathered folk of Jao-é-Tinukai'i, but is silenced by Utuk'ku and killed by her huntsman.

• His Name Is...: Gets killed by Utuk'ku's huntsman seconds before she can reveal their enemy's Evil Plan.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: She can be considered the mentor of her entire tribe of Sithi, since she teaches them the species' ancient knowledge and traditions. She also assumes that position for Simon for a brief time. She gets killed shortly after her introduction.
• Time Abyss: She is one of the oldest beings in Osten Ard, having been born aboard the vessels that brought the Sithi and Norn to the land. She is thousands of years old.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: To a lesser degree than Utuk'ku. She spends her time in her treehouse, living in the past.

Ineluki

See "The Forces of the Storm King"

Hakatri

Ineluki's older brother, dead for millenia. He has an important - if completely unwilling - part to play in Utuk'ku's plans in The Last King of Osten Ard. The prequel novel Brothers of the Wind provides more insight into his story.

• Back from the Dead: Is brought back from death by sorcery on Utuk'ku's order at the end of Empire of Grass in a ceremony at Naglimund. Considering the fact that the first thing he does upon his resurrection is unleash a terrible scream of anguish that knocks the surrounding host of Norns to their knees and kills a number of birds that were flying overhead, the implication is that he Came Back Wrong. This is confirmed with brief interludes from his point of view in Into the Narrowdark; he is not happy about being brought back from death to the unending pain that filled his final days.
• Cultural Rebel: Is actually concerned with the fate and well-being of mortals unlike the vast majority of Zida'ya and Hikede'ya. Choosing Pamon Kes, a Tinukede'ya, as his Armiger, also caused some eyebrows to be raised among his peers.
• Doomed by Canon: Readers who have followed the entirety of the Osten Ard novels know that Hakatri is going to die in Brothers of the Wind, but what the book reveals is the exact circumstances of his death and the aftermath, and more of what Hakatri was like as a person.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to Ineluki's Foolish. Hakatri is more dutiful and contemplative than the rash, passionate Ineluki.
• Nice Guy: What truly cements Hakatri as this trope is after their plan to slay the dragon Hidohebhi goes awry and Hakatri is horrifically injured in the process of killing the terrible Great Worm, he is able to briefly fight through the pain of the burns from the dragon blood and tell Ineluki to let go of his hatred of mortals, as "anger breeds anger".
• Nice to the Waiter: Hakatri is much more considerate than the average Zida'ya of the concerns of humans, and uniquely among Zida'ya nobles has chosen a Tinukede'ya (Pamon Kes, the viewpoint character of Brothers of the Wind) as his Armiger, a kind of manservant/squire.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Recognizes that the Great Worm Hidohebhi is a problem that concerns everyone in Osten Ard and not just mortals, and when he is unable to sway Ineluki from his vow to slay the beast, he goes with him personally to find a way to carry out the deed.
• The Undead: He is brought back to life at the end of Empire of Grass. In his chapters in Into the Narrowdark, Viyeki mentally refers to him as a revenant.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: Hakatri is horrifically burned in the process of killing Hidohebhi, when he is soaked with the dragon's blood. In addition to causing him near-constant pain, it also triggers haunting dreams, some of which are seemingly prophetic, which start to fray at his sanity. The healers at Asu'a aren't able to help him and even Amerasu's use of the Art only provides temporary relief. He and Pamon Kes end up journeying across Osten Ard from Nakkiga to the Wran to find something that will cure Hakatri, to no avail.

Khendraja'aro

Tanahaya

A young Sitha woman who has a calling as a scholar. She first appears in The Witchwood Crown, when she is sent as an envoy to the humans, but is shot down by a poisoned arrow before she can complete her mission. She later rescues Prince Morgan when he is lost in Aldheorte forest. Tanahaya is also Jiriki's romantic partner.

• Badass Bookworm: She really only wants to spend her time studying ancient history and knowledge, but she's also very capable of climbing and fighting her way out of a Norn-infested ruined city.

Other or unknown

Geloë

A mysterious personage of unknown race and history, Geloë is held in mingled fear and respect by those few who know of her. Living in the midst of the wilderness in a Baba Yaga-esque hut, she could easily be mistaken for a witch but is in reality more of a Druidic figure with mastery of all sorts of lore including the art of shapeshifting. She aids Simon, Binabik, and Miriamele when they stumble upon her abode, and later joins Josua's party.

• Ambiguously Human: She looks like an old woman, but everything about her seems to hint at her being something more without ever saying what. The character list in the sequel trilogy places her among the Tinukeda'ya characters.
• Dream Weaver: One of the most experienced travelers on the Dream Road.
• Dying Alone: By choice. After being mortally wounded by Utuk'ku's assassins, she leaves so no one will see her die, using her connection to Leleth to relay one last message to Josua and his supporters before passing on.
• The Fair Folk: With her long-livedness, reclusive nature, and mysterious magical powers, she plays on the trope. She specifically invokes certain elements of Baba Yaga (such as living in a hut in the forest described as having bird-like legs) though she is more benevolent than most versions.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: She's quite fond of turning into an owl, though she never does so on screen.

Pamon Kes

A Tinukeda'ya, Armiger to Hakatri of the House of Year-Dancing.

• Battle Butler: An Armiger is expected to wait on their master in everyday life and to protect them in battle. Kes is no slouch in combat, but since his master has the near-immortal vigor and agility of the Zida'ya, it results in Bodyguarding a Badass.
• Missing Mom: Kes' mother died of an illness when he was very young.
• Servant Race: Tinukeda'ya are this to the Sithi, at least to a certain extent. They are also known as "changelings" because they can change their bodies according to what is needed within a generation or two. Kes looks a lot like a Sitha himself because he works closely with them as an armiger. Many Sithi also purposefully keep the Tinukeda'ya uneducated. That his people in fact used to have their own history and culture is something Kes only learns eventually, when talking with other educated Tinukeda'ya.
• Undying Loyalty: To Hakatri, who, unlike nearly every other Sitha Kes has known, treats him like a person and not a servant only to be noticed when there is a task to be done.

Tzoja / Derra

The daugther of Prince Josua and Vorzheva. After her father disappeared and she was taken to her grandfather Fikolmij, she ran away, staying alive finding work here and there, then living with an order of women in the north for a while before she was made a slave of the Norns and taken to Nakkiga. There Viyeki fell in love with her and she had a half-blood daughter with him: Nezeru.

• Healing Herb: Learned herb-lore from the Astaline Sisters in Rimmersgard as a young woman, and is apparently good enough with it be allowed to treat the god-queen of the Norns herself, Utuk’ku Seyt-Hamakha.
• Insecure Love Interest: She feels inferior to her immortal lover Viyeki and wonders if he thinks of her as anything other than an amusing pet. She also feels inferior to other Norns, due to their beauty and long lives. She wonders if Viyeki and Nezeru will forget her after she dies. This starts to change in later books.
• Made a Slave: To the Norns.
• Rapeas Backstory: The victim of sexual assault following the fall of the Asteline community.
• The Runaway: Ran away from her abusive Grandfather, and from various abusive employers. At the end of The Witchwood Crown she runs away from Viyeki's estate to prevent Viyeki's wife Khimabu from killing her.
• Starcrossed Lovers: Her relationship with Viyeki has shades of this throughout Books One and Two.
• The Woobie

Unver / Deornoth

The son of Prince Josua and Vorzheva. After his father disappeared, him and his mother and sister were abducted by Thrithing-men and brought to Fikolmij, who sent his grandson away - threatening that he would kill him if he ever showed up again. Twenty years later he does return, nonetheless, now named Unver and quickly rises to be the master of all the Thithings.

• Dead Guy Junior: He is named after his father's best friend and Number Two who died in the Storm King's War, in the battle at the Stone of Farewell.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": He does not want to be called by his birthname.
• Genius Bruiser: And many of the clansmen have no idea how to deal with it.
• Usedto Bea Sweet Kid: Young Deornoth once hated confrontation and the sight of blood.
• The Paragon: His ultimate plan after becoming the Shan of all the Thrithings is to take all the clans and mold them from a bunch of disparate groups into a nation that the stone-dwellers of Nabban and the rest of the High Ward will see as equals to be taken seriously, rather than as primitive barbarian nomads and raiders.

Goh Gam Gar

A giant (Hunë), oldest of his kind. He is forced to join Makkho's Talon to get a living dragon to Queen Utuk'ku and becomes somewhat friendly with Jarnulf.

• The Big Guy: Well, he's a giant.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Not really a nice guy but just not as bad one would expect from a monster.
• Made a Slave: Captured by the Norns and compelled to work for them by means of a magic collar that can be triggered to cause him massive pain if he does anything they don't like.
• Stronger with Age: He is probably the biggest giant in the known world - and also the oldest.

The Red Thing

Some sort of entity or creature living in the ruins of old Asu'a, that likes to keep people away from its domain with traps and poison and is brought food and young women by Pasevalles.

• Eldritch Abomination: Even Pasevalles who is otherwise pretty unshakeable knows to be very cautious around this thing.
• Guardian Entity: Whether because it's in its domain or particularly because it's a Sithi Witness, the Red Thing guards the Mooncloud beneath Asu'a.
• Nightmare Fuel: Lurking in the dark, using traps, spindly legs, red clothes, long claws - what more do you need?
• Obviously Evil: Whatever it does to the young women who are brought to it, the fact that they are never seen again sounds ominous.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: It is all dressed in red rugs.

Father

A nameless, wandering priest that is Jarnulf's mentor for several years. He later disappears. Who he truly is remains unknown.

• Chekhov M.I.A.: Possibly, he is still alive.
• Identity Amnesia: Probably, given the little information Jarnulf had even after some years.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Jarnulf does not know what happened to Father but the man's disappearance sparks his killing spree against the Norns.
• Never Found the Body: Jarnulf searched for weeks but never found a trace of the man.
• Preacher Man: He was an Aedonite priest once and wanders around now preaching.
• Unknown Character: There is very little information about him but he was very important to Jarnulf.

The Forces of the Storm King

Ineluki/The Storm King

Ineluki was said to be the brightest flame that the Sithi had ever known, and had the depredations of humanity not come to Osten Ard, he might well have led them out of their exile to a new golden age. Unfortunately, his power and ambition turned to defending his people against the onslaught of the Black Rimmersmen, and he went down dark paths in search of forbidden knowledge, which eventually led him to forge in secret the dread sword Sorrow, devourer of light and hope. He sought to destroy the armies invading his home of Asu'a with a mighty spell, but instead cast himself and his servants into the realms beyond death, where his spirit burned for five centuries in search of a way back. He is the Devil of Osten Ard, a being of fire and ice who seeks nothing less than the total destruction of all mortals and the consumption of the world by Unbeing.

• Big Bad: The main antagonist of the first trilogy behind all the world's woes. His hatred and pain has turned him into a being whose existence threatens reality itself.
• Cain and Abel: An oblique example. The jealous and headstrong Ineluki swears a vow to kill a monstrous dragon, and his more dutiful, and more favored by most people, brother Hakatri feels compelled to help him carry out the oath as he realizes a dragon running loose is a major problem (and also because he fears for Ineluki's safety if Ineluki were to attempt the task alone), but he ultimately is killed for doing so. Also a less typical example as Ineluki is the young sibling of the pair.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The forging of Sorrow and the dark magics he wielded in the defense of Asu'a both count. He was warned against both but did so anyway.
• Eldritch Abomination: His mere existence is such a wrongness that simple exposure to it can drive mortal minds insane.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: Paralyzing cold is how he freezes Simon's will and forces him to obey the call of Bright-Nail.
• Expy: As Ineluki, he bears a striking resemblance to Fëanor of The Silmarillion. After becoming the Storm King, he's essentially a more sympathetic Sauron.
• I Gave My Word: When Prince Cormach of the Hernsmen (the ancestors of those who would become the Hernystiri by the time of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn) comes to Asu'a to beg assistance from the Zida'ya in dealing with the dragon Hidohebhi, Ineluki rashly vows to slay the beast himself. Multiple people try to sway him from this, and later he himself realizes he's made a terrible mistake, but can't bring himself to renounce his oath, which leads to tragedy.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: His backstory is a quintessential example of what happens when you go too far in pursuit of an idealistic vision of the world.
• Knight Templar: With respect to mortals. He has no sympathy for them and wishes them all utterly destroyed. Brothers of the Wind details the primary incident that led him to feel contempt for mortals: many of the Hernsmen assisting Ineluki and Hakatri with their plan to slay the Great Worm Hidohebhi panic and flee when they see the massive dragon charging over the hill as their prince, luring in the dragon, is thrown from the saddle and injured when the horse he's riding steps into a hole.
• Load-Bearing Boss: His destruction triggers the collapse of Green Angel Tower.
• Mood-Swinger: In Brothers of the Wind, Ineluki himself comments on his emotional troubles and the peculiarities of his personality that he doesn't know how to deal with. It sounds a lot like he suffers from a form of bipolar disorder.
• Never My Fault: Played with during Brothers of the Wind. Ineluki actually does admit and accept personal culpability for the Hidohebhi fiasco and getting his brother seriously injured. In his depression and despair, however, Ineluki nonethless ends up projecting some of that guilt onto the Hernsmen who fled the final battle (which will then fester and bloom into Ineluki's undying hatred of mortals).
• Omnicidal Maniac: This is where Ineluki ended up after going down the slope from a Messianic Archetype to Well-Intentioned Extremist to dead and hating all living beings.
• One-Winged Angel: He turns the possessed King Elias into a terrifying being of fire and shadow.
• The Resenter: Brothers of the Wind reveals that, while he loved his older brother Hakatri dearly, he chafed at how Hakatri was more popular and well-loved by everyone else generally.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: In this case, time is the can, which Pryrates' spell seeks to undo.
• Self-Made Orphan: After Ineluki made Sorrow, his father called it an abomination and ordered him to destroy it. This broke the last vestiges of his sanity and he murdered the king on the spot, taking his antlered crown.
• Start of Darkness: He already disliked humans before the start of Brothers of the Wind and believed that one day, they would push the Zida'ya out of Osten Ard, but seeing Prince Cormach's men flee after he falls and is knocked flying by the rampaging Great Worm, and his brother Hakatri's subsequent maiming, pushes Ineluki into full-blown hatred. He then spends a great deal of time with the sorcerous Norn healer Jikkyo, and Jikkyo's silent and creepy apprentice Ommu, with the implication that it is their influence that would put him into the mindset to use forbidden magics to craft Sorrow in a desperate attempt to turn back the invading Rimmersmen in the backstory to Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn.
• The Undead: He's never embodied except at the very end, but he is described variously as "undead" and "beyond death".
• Warrior Prince: Even among immortals, Ineluki was terrifyingly powerful. In his backstory, he slew a dragon, and almost single-handedly held off the army of humans invading Asu'a.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: His campaign to save his people from the Black Rimmersmen started out as this, before he went completely over the edge.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: His tragic backstory proves crucial to his defeat.

Utuk'ku

Queen of the Norns and the oldest thinking creature in Osten Ard, Utuk'ku rests in the dark mountain of Stormspike like a spider in her web, manipulating events with her indomitable will. She is Ineluki's closest ally and the author of his schemes, and it is her magics that bind the dark forces that allow him to attempt to reenter Osten Ard. She is the last of the Gardenborn, the only being left alive who remembers the lost home of the Sithi and Norns. She is a being of unknowable age, wisdom, and power.

• Angst Coma: She expended so much of her power and hope into Ineluki's victory that once he's vanquished, Utuk'ku falls into something called the keta-yi'indra, a kind of healing sleep almost as profound as death. It takes her thirty years to wake up from it.
• Big Bad: Of the sequel quadrilogy.
• The Chessmaster: Though she doesn't hold a candle to Ineluki, she's quite capable of devising centuries long schemes on her own.
• Cult of Personality: The Norns worship her like a god, believing that failing her or betraying her are the greatest crimes imaginable, and that their own pain and suffering is nothing compared to Utuk'ku's, whom they say has given everything for the sake of her people. Contrast this with the Zida'ya/Sithi leaders Shima'onari and Likimeya (and before them, Iyu'unigato and Amerasu), who hold hereditary positions of great authority and are revered for their wisdom, yet are not even truly monarchs in the human sense, and the nobles beneath them aren't necessarily obligated to do exactly as they say.
• The Dragon: Ineluki's sidekick and the one who actually carries out most of his evil plan.
• Evil Counterpart: To Amerasu. Both are the eldest and rulers of their people, both spend their time in seclusion living in their memories, mourning their dead children. But Utuk'ku also happens to want to kill everyone and die.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: She lives in the dark heart of a mountain in the frozen wastes.
• The Faceless: She wears a beautiful silver mask, an image of her own face. Because underneath it she looks like an old woman.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: The Queen of the Norns who wishes to exterminate humankind and has conditioned her subjects to be fanatically devoted to her.
• Malevolent Masked Women: She's a genocidal queen who always wears a beautiful silver mask to conceal her true face.
• Meaningful Name: In real life, the name utukku refers to a type of demonic spirit in Sumerian mythology.
• Omnicidal Maniac: She really wants to destroy the world.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Her son Drukhi went mad when his wife was accidentally killed by a human archer. He swore to kill all mortals and when his wife's clan confined him, Drukhi made himself die. The fallout from her son's death led to Utuk'ku's desire to wipe out all mortals and the split between the Norns and the Sithi.
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: Aditu theorizes that though she wants to die, she can't bear the idea that others will live on with her gone. So she wants to arrange the greatest cataclysm imaginable to take as many people with her as possible.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Turns out the Sithi/Norn gift of immortality really isn't all that great. She wants to die.
• Winter Royal Lady: Utuk'ku is the Queen of the Norns and is located in the snowy mountain of Stormspike. She's closely associated with snow and coldness.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She's played with a certain degree of sympathy; her desire to destroy the world comes from the dreadful ennui of eternal life coupled with a hatred of humanity stemming from the death of her son.

Ingen Jegger

A Black Rimmersman who serves Utuk'ku as her Huntsman. He hounds Simon and his friends in the first book and is defined by his loyalty to his mistress.

• The Beastmaster: He's the master of the monstrous Norn hounds and frequently employs them in his hunts.
• Boomerang Bigot: There is something to be said about the fact that he has Undying Loyalty to a non-human who wants to wipe out his entire species.
• Determinator: Say what you will about the man, but he will not give up. Best shown following the aftermath of the first book when he's nearly killed by a dragon, but still manages to drag himself off a mountain and back to his Queen.
• The Dragon: Serves as this to Utuk'ku in the first two books, being her primary agent.
• Go Out with a Smile: He dies smiling at Simon's hands, happy that he had succeeded in fulfilling his task of assassinating Amerasu.
• Psycho Supporter: He may be human, but he's completely devoted to the genocidal Norn Queen.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: He manages to track Simon and his friends all over the kingdom.
• Undying Loyalty: Despite being a human, his only desire is to serve the Norn Queen.
• You Have Failed Me: Inverted. Following his defeat in the first book, he actually begs Utuk'ku to kill him for failing her. Instead, she, painfully, peers into his memories and decides the failure wasn't his fault, restoring his status and giving him a new mission to redeem himself.

Norns

All Norns

• The Ageless: Same as their cousins the Sithi, they long ago discovered the secret of immortality, which has to do with witchwood. In fact, they don't live forever. Instead, they merely age very, very slowly.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Norn society is centered entirely around their queen, who is the Norns' political, cultural and religious leader and considered infallible. One's status and chances of advancement are completely dependent on one's favor with the queen and her family as well as one's compliance with the rules, which results in an abundance of spies (called "whisperers") and a constant risk to be deemed recalcitrant, which carries extremely harsh penalties. Essentially, life in Nakkiga is like a mixture of a religious cult and a highly authoritarian political system such as that of North Korea.
• Feuding Families: With the Sithi.
• Ice Queen: Not only their queen, the entire Norn species is like this. Considered the norm.
• Mystical White Hair: All Norns have white hair, which they usually wear long.
• The Proud Elite: What all Norns aspire to be.
• The Stoic: Stoic composure is a staple of Norn society.

Akhenabi

The chief of the Norn Singers and a highly regarded (and feared) advisor to Queen Utuk'ku.

• The Dreaded: Even among the Norns he's regarded with fear.
• Evil Sorceror: Singers are essentially magicians, and Akhenabi is their cruel and ruthless leader.
• One-Scene Wonder: In Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, where he leads the Norns occupying Naglimund and uses necromancy to reanimate a number of dead human soldiers.
• Time Abyss: One of the "Landborn", the first generation of Keida'ya born after their arrival in Osten Ard from the fabled Lost Garden.

Viyeki sey-Enduya

High Magister of the Order of Builders, father of Nezeru, husband of Khimabu and lover of Tzoja.

• Hidden Heart of Gold: Which he only shows to Tzoja.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Serves his Queen (who is prosecuting a war of genocide on mortals) with devotion, but has yet to do anything especially villainous himself.
• Starcrossed Lovers: His relationship with Tjoza has shades of this throughout Books One and Two.

Nezeru Seyt-Enduya

Daughter of Lord Viyeki and his mistress Tzoja, member of Makho’s Talon sent out by Queen Utuk'ku. She is the grand-daughter of Prince Josua.

• Defrosting Ice Queen: Begins to undergo this when Jarnulf asks her some hard questions about Norn society (which ends up softening her a little towards mortals), and is accelerated after spending time with Prince Morgan when she takes him prisoner in Da'ai Chikiza.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Her mother is the human slave Tzoja and her father is the Norn noble Viyeki. She is one of the results of the Norns' repopulation scheme.
• Interspecies Romance: Attempted with Jarnulf. Consumated with Morgan
• Loss of Identity: Admits to Morgan that she hasn't been sure of her role in the world since leaving her Talon.
• Patriotic Fervor: For the Hikeda'ya and their Queen, at least at first.
• Half-Breed Angst: Despises her mother's "mortal weakness".
• Not So Stoic: When she is hurt and at her wits end when she and Morgan are lost in Narrowdark Valley.
• Sexual Tension: Has this with both Jarnulf and Morgan
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: She spares the life of a child even though she knows the kid will alert its village to the approach of Nezeru and her comrades.

Khimabu

Wife of Viyeki.

• The Baroness: The wife to Viyeki and daughter of an old family, she's envious and not too reluctant to use force or scheme to achieve her goals.

Muyare sey-Iyora

High Magister of the Order of Sacrifice.

• Forced to Watch: As his granddaughter is sacrificed.

Jijibo the Dreamer

A relative of Utuk'ku, who is a seer and seems to have some designs of his own. Called "The Dreamer".

• Mad Oracle: Seems like this because of his odd ways and lack of "verbal filter".

Prince Templar Pratiki

A nephew of Utuk'ku, a well-regarded Norn noble.

• Reasonable Authority Figure: Some of his conversations with Viyeki seem to indicate that he isn't fully satisfied with how Hikede'ya society is run, and is worried about the future. He also values Viyeki's input even though the Order of Builders isn't afforded the same respect as the Order of Song (essentially mages) and the Order of Sacrifice (warriors).

Saomeji

A half-breed and member of the Order of Song, as well as a favorite of Akhenabi and member of Makho’s Talon that is sent out to capture a living dragon.

• Half-Human Hybrid: A half-breed between a Norn and a human, same as Nezeru.

Makho

• The Stoic: Mostly excepts for some fits of anger.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Does not show the slightest gratitude to Nezeru or Jarnulf.

Kemme

Friend of Makho and a member of his Talon sent out by Queen Utuk'ku.

• Number Two: To Makho.
• Old Soldier: Almost all Norns are ancient by human standards. Kemme in particular fulfills the troupe due to his service in the first failed War of Return and his involvement in the defense of Nagakia gate.
• Hot-Blooded: If he had his say, Nezeru would be dead, but his loyality to Makho stays his hand.

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