Thara Celehar
Anora Chanavar
One of Thara Celehar's closest friends in Amalo, Anora is a half-goblin prelate of Ulis who runs the Ulvanensee, a large municipal cemetery. He is very supportive of Celehar and tends to worry about him.
- Nerd Glasses
- Token Good Teammate: Amalo's clergy of Ulis are a rather toxic bunch (not in a Religion of Evil way, just pettiness, ambition, and nasty office politics), but Anora is friendly and supportive.
- Ultimate Job Security: Nobody else wants Anora's position, which means he can be honest without fear of being fired and replaced.
Azhanharad
Sub-Praeceptor Azhanharad of the Amalo chapter of the Vigilant Brotherhood is Thara Celehar's usual contact among law enforcement.
- Friend on the Force: "Friend" is pushing it, but he frequently works with Celehar when Celehar needs law-enforcement backup or the Brotherhood needs a Witness for the Dead. Conversations with other members of the Brotherhood in Grief of Stones reveals that however curmudgeonly he might be with Celehar, his brethren are even less well disposed to Witnesses.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's grumpy and curt, but he does care about Celehar's wellbeing, and in his own gruff way gives him more respect than most of Celehar's fellow clergy do.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Whatever he might think of Celehar's spooky Witness powers, he's willing to listen and provide backup when needed.
Iäna Pel-Thenhior
Iäna Pel-Thenhior is the half-goblin principal director and composer for Amalo's Vermilion Opera, which made him Arvenean Shelsin's boss before her death.
- Always Camp: Even in the Elflands, opera directors are a flamboyant lot.
- Brutal Honesty: He's much more of a people person than Celehar, but has similar issues with tact.
- The Dandy: Pel-Thenhior's a flashy dresser.
- Dream-Crushing Handicap: Downplayed. Pel-Thenhior was a talented boy soprano with a Beautiful Singing Voice, who grew up to be an undistinguished baritone after his voice changed.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Zhelsu, with its combination of melodrama and gritty realism, its focus on the problems of ordinary people, its desperate tragic heroine who is Driven to Suicide, and its controversy, is highly reminiscent of Italian verismo opera and the works of Giacomo Puccini in particular.
- Opposites Attract: Celehar is small, somber, and introverted, Pel-Thenhior is tall, flashy, and outgoing.
- Speak Ill of the Dead: He is very blunt about what kind of person Min Shelsin was and how they got along (or didn't), despite her recent violent demise. Since Celehar is trying to investigate her murder, this is actually helpful.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Tall, black-haired and gray-skinned, dresses beautifully, and Celehar finds him quite appealing.
Arveneän Shelsin
Arveneän Shelsin was the victim of the main case in The Witness for the Dead. She was a beautiful, talented, ambitious opera singer with a taste for wealthy men and a rather unpleasant personality.
- Attention Whore: She was a diva in both the professional and colloquial senses.
- Beautiful Singing Voice: Beautiful enough to be a principal in an opera company.
- Gold Digger: She had many male admirers, and preferred the rich ones.
- Jerkass: In classic murder mystery fashion, she was not a nice person, thus providing plenty of potential suspects when she got killed.
- Ms. Red Ink: Despite a steady job and many wealthy admirers, she was terrible with money.
- Posthumous Character: She's already dead in her first appearance on-page.
- The Prima Donna: Both literally, as a principal female singer in an opera company, and in the sense of being entitled and demanding.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: She had a taste for beautiful clothes, which she supplemented generously with unauthorized borrowing from the Vermilion Opera's costume department.
