True Companions / Literature

Luna sure does know how to be the heart of her friends.

Examples of True Companions in Literature.

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• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo claims (and the few interactions Aronnax had with the Nautilus crew never shows us any different) that this is the relationship between the crew:
  .."The Nautilus suffered a collision that cracked one of the engine levers, and it struck this man. My chief officer was standing beside him. This man leaped forward to intercept the blow. A brother lays down his life for his brother, a friend for his friend, what could be simpler? That's the law for everyone on board the Nautilus.
• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi: Having relied on each other for years as seafaring adventurers (and pirates), Amina, Dalila, Tinbu, and Majed have absolute faith in each other. Amina unhesitatingly derails her urgent plans when Tinbu needs help, even though she hasn't seen him in ten years, and the others show equal dedication to her.
• In Nnedi Okorafor's Akata Witch, the four main kids come together to form an Oha coven which is said to bear the responsibility of the world on its shoulder at a specific moment of time.
• The Animorphs started out like this. Jake and Marco, and Cassie and Rachel, were best friends before all the crazy stuff went down (Jake and Rachel were cousins, but not close). Eventually, thanks to Character Development and saving each others skins' from danger, they become as close as family and Jake even comments so.
  • Since one of the most common recurring themes in the series is that war eventually ruins everything, these relationships get a lot darker and more twisted as the series go on, but they still remain fiercely loyal to one another.
  • The Animorphs series also gives us the Andalite term "shorm" — meaning "tail blade" in the Andalite language, it is used to refer to a friend you trust enough to let them hold their tail blade against your throat (a situation where the least twitch would be enough to decapitate you). Ax and Tobias are like this even before Tobias is revealed to be Elfangor's son — and thus Ax's nephew.
  • It is most obviously shown at the end of the series, when the kids see rescuing Ax from The One as a moral obligation.
  Marco: "He told me the whole story. And every word was another nail in my coffin, because what was I going to do, refuse to save Ax? How many times had I been down for the count and only that lightning blue tail had brought me out alive?"
• In the Apprentice Adept series, this is made manifest by the concept of "Oath Friends". When two or more people in Phaze swear an oath of friendship and loyalty to each other, they are forever magical bound to each other as friends. In the first trilogy, protagonist Adept Stile becomes Oath Friends with Neysa the Unicorn. Thanks to his level of sincerity and his magical power, he makes that oath extend to the Unicorn herd Neysa was an outcast from AND their rival Werewolf pack (to clarify: they're all Oath Friends with Neysa, not him). in the second trilogy, Stile grandson, Flach, forms this bond with three werewolf cubs of a pack he sought sanctuary with.
• The Baby-Sitters Club: No matter what happens, the girls are there for each other.
• Older Than Feudalism: The Bible has many examples of true companions scattered throughout (Bash Brothers David and Jonathan get the most screen time, in 1 Samuel). The more-recent New Testament refers to Jesus as a "Friend that sticks closer than a brother" which, given that in those days relatives were true companions by default, is pretty darn close indeed.
  • Ruth 1:16 "For where you go I will go".
• Blowing Up the Movies: Discussed in the essay on The Mission (1999).
• Women of A Brother's Price have the most power when they are formed into families, bands of sisters. Women of lower classes who weren't born to families, or were disowned or left, can band together and legally be considered sisters even if they are completely unrelated. They have to have a clear sense of who leads, though, and not have conflicting interests. The Whistler family started with one such band.
• The patrons of Callahan's Crosstime Saloon and all of it's successors would qualify, as would the artists of Lady Sally's house.
• Kurt Vonnegut's word for it (in Cat's Cradle) was karass, which carries an important additional connotation that they are together for some fated purpose. A karass is the group of people whose actions shape each other's destinies or who share destiny-shapers, with no regard for whether you've met them or are even aware of their existence. So, for example, if an airline pilot becomes suicidal and decides to take his passengers down with him, the man whose rejection of his advances led to that despair is part of their karass.
• The members of The Raven in James Barclay's Chronicles of the Raven and Legends of the Raven novels. They never actually swear anything beyond their normal Badass Creed, but they consider the Raven to be more than family, in some cases abandoning their real families. And, together, if they're on their game, however many of them there are, no matter the odds, they will win, or make a very good attempt.
• In Child of the Hive by Jessica Meats, Will, Alex and Ben fit with this trope. It's particularly evident when Ben promises to stand by Will even before Will tells them what's going on.
• Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain: Taran and his companions — Prince Gwydion, Fflewddur, Gurgi, Doli, and Princess Eilonwy. They are even referred to in the narrative as "the companions."
• The four protagonists of Circle of Magic and its sequels eventually begin to refer to themselves as siblings. What can we say; living together, training together, fighting off all manner of dangers (from earth-quake to plague) and having your very minds linked together tends to do this.
• And if Harry Dresden is the king of this trope, Tavi Calderon of Codex Alera is its patron saint. He gathers true companions like we mortals breathe. He turned hostile barbarians with a mutual grudge into close allies, their angry princess into his fierce and loving wife, an army of telepathic yetis with a millennial grudge into neighbors, conquering wolf-warriors into the closest of frenemies, political enemies into vassals, traitors into lieutenants, and even tried it with the Vord Queen. In fact, the only parts of his plans that are remotely foreseeable are this trope and him being in the craziest possible place for him to be.
• The brothers of dorm 1987, in Coiling Dragon, bond immediately upon moving in together. The eat together, drink together, and always have another's back. When a girl dumps Linley for another boy, Yale uses his family's mercantile power to impoverish the other boy's family's financial base. When the cowardly younger brother of the O'Brien Emperor apparently causes Reynolds' death, Linley finds him and kills him.
• The five core characters of the Col Sec Trilogy. By the end of the second book, Bren Lathan is well on his way to becoming a sixth true companion.
• In the Daughter, Servant, and Mistress of the Empire books by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts, the society is supposed to be much like feudal Japan. One nation divided by Noble "Houses". When you become a member of a house, you swear on the House natami (a rock) as a member. From that point on, your life is your oath and the House will protect you (even if that means rescuing you from an enemy to execute you themselves for your crime). The worst thing that can happen to someone is to be without a House.
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld series:
  • Monstrous Regiment: The members of the regiment come together to protect each other and their identities until they have to reveal themselves to Sgt Jackram in order to complete their individual quests. Even after capture, they refuse to leave a comrade behind.
  • The Ankh-Morpork Watch. At first, Colon and Nobby are all the family that Vimes has. By the end of Guards! Guards! Carrot is adopted as one of them. As the Watch expands, there is heavy emphasis on new recruits realizing the importance of relying on and protecting fellow officers.
  Vimes: We're just one big family and, when you've been to a few domestic disputes, Littlebottom, I can assure you that you'll see the resemblance.
  • Going Postal: When Moist von Lipwig arrives at the Post Office it already houses a mini-crew in the shape of Groat, Stanley and Mr. Tiddles. He and Mr. Pump join this little family.
  • Arguably, the wizards of the Unseen University: They may not like each other, especially at meal times when they're fighting for the last goose, but ever since Ridcully put a stop to the old way of doing things, they've made it very clear that only wizards are allowed to disrespect wizards.
  • Similar to the above, the witches, especially Nanny, Granny, and Magrat/Tiffany/Agnes. Getting witches together is like trying to herd cats, but they visit each other regularly to make sure they're all sane, and will band together if the threat is great enough.
• Doc Savage and his five aides are consistently described as being "closer than brothers".
• Dracula: Jonathan and Mina Harker, Van Helsing, Dr. Seward, Lord Godalming, and Quincey Morris form one when they vow to slay the vampire that killed Lucy. Later, after Mina gets an evil scar following her own encounter with the Count, as Jonathan embraces her in her anguish, their friends silently join them:
  "Then without a word we all knelt down together, and all holding hands, swore to be true to each other."
• In Dragon Bones, Ward adopts Oreg as third sibling, explicitly stating that he loves him like a brother. His real brother Tosten is a bit jealous when he sees how much Ward cares about Oreg. Oreg is magically forced to be loyal to Ward, but really likes him, too — and adopted Ward's sister Ciarra as his protecteé long before Ward even knew about him.
• Following on from the other D&D-based examples, the Heroes of the Lance in Dragonlance.
• The Dresden Files:
  • Harry has a talent of sorts for this; not only has he forged bonds with Murphy, Thomas and several other wizards, he's been true companion to (at least) three Knights of the Cross, the Archive, and a broad selection of pixies and other lesser Fay (who granted him the title of 'Za Lord'), complete with a loyal (and adorable) guard. Plus Mouse.
  "I don't care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching — they are your family."
  • When a Black Court Vampire threatened one of Harry's friends, he told her that he'd destroy the world just to unmake her if she tried. When he calls for help, gods answer. Forces of Nature rally to his call. He has a personal nickname for Uriel. His friends have followed him to the heart of Arctis Tor, home of Mab, to the heart of Chichen Itza, home of the Red Court, to the lair of a Wizard-level Black Court Vampire, to the home of the White Court, into a war amongst the Fae, into a necromantic battlefield, and more. It's hinted that he's going to surpass this in the future, routing the Outsiders at the forefront of some reasonable fraction of humanity.
  Jim: I think in the series, one of the things that I hadn't actually planned out which has come forward is that the main facet of Dresden's character is not that he's personally tough, or personally a good wise ass, but that he is able to empower the people around him to become something more than they were. And as he does that suddenly he finds himself standing with these allies who are very, very capable. In part because he's shown them how to be so.
• The Clan in Earth's Children.
• Elfslayer: Felix runs up on an exploding, magic powered submarine to pull off Gotrek, not even knowing if he's alive and in the midst of a desperate escapes sees he is breathing and thinks "Well, that's all right then."
• The group from Ljuder Parish in "The Emigrants". In Unto a Good Land the text outright states that they have set aside their past differences and become one household and one family.
• A funny example of this in Ender's Game and its sequels, specifically the Ender's Shadow books. Ender's "jeesh" become much closer to each other than they are with the families they hardly remember, united under Ender's leadership. The only exception being ironically Ender himself who is cut off from the others, emotionally at first and later physically.
• Soraya and her half-brother Jiaan in the Farsala Trilogy, eventually. They start out strongly disliking each other, but eventually put aside their differences. It helps that Soraya realizes Jiaan is the closest thing to family she has left.
• Subverted in the World War Two memoir The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer. Sajer served in the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. He thought that he and his fellow soldiers were True Companions, but one day he found out that the others didn't think he was a proper German (Sajer was from the disputed province of Alsace, and spoke French as his first language). Meanwhile, the North Germans looked down on the Bavarians as a bunch of "Italian opera singers." They still fought together efficiently after that, but Sajer felt that things were never quite the same. After the war Sajer was integrated into French society, Alsace having changed hands again, and he made no effort to get back in touch with his former comrades in arms, nor they with him.
• Gaunt's Ghosts: Gaunt and those who went on the Gereon mission with him.
  Gaunt: "I still take a pause to think that Rawne's a friend of mine now. My best friend, to be honest. Time was, we'd have happily killed one another. I still hate him and he still hates me, but the necessity of Geron bound us tight. Feygor too. Not a model soldier, but after Gereon, I'd have sold my soul for him and vice versa."
• The Animal Workers in The Goose Girl — all are very poor children of people living in the Forest, trying to make money to keep their families alive, and they are all very clearly a family — playing jokes on each other, coming to each other's aid, telling stories and just helping each other out. Ani, the main character who has never had a strong support system and has just been terribly betrayed, is welcomed into the fold in her goose-girl guise, and even when it is revealed that she has lied to them about her status, identity, and even her name, they accept and love her — and are prepared to all go into battle to get her name back and stop a war. When Ani asks why they would risk death for her, they simply say "You're our Goose Girl."
• Definitely applies to the direct associates of Gotrek & Felix (as well as the title pair themselves) in the Slayer series. The pair have gained and lost more than a few members of their ever-changing crew due to the grim, dangerous nature of the Warhammer world, but their enemies pay dearly for every one. Very dearly. Both of the eponymous characters have gone into unstoppable killing rages because of a lost friend, slayer or no. Though originally brought together by a binding oath to record Gotrek's mighty doom in battle to redeem himself of a past shame(The goal of all members of the Slayer cult,) It becomes obvious that Felix sticks around for more than just the Oath.
• Great Alta Saga: Jenna's band. Though it eventually develops into an army, for most of the book Jenna has few enough followers that she can afford to be very loyal to all of them. In general, all of the Hames were designed to be this way.
• Harry Potter:
  • Harry seems to think like this about most people who aren't Death Eaters, especially in the later books; although it could be argued that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are a sort of inner true-companion group within the bigger group.
  • Luna's mural of her friends is another example: Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville, and Ginny. Given that Luna practically lives on a different planet, she doesn't even notice the minimal added difficulty of inter-House rivalry. As far as the inter-House rivalry goes, outside of Quidditch matches, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff seem to get along all right.
  • Ginny, Neville and Luna rally together a group of their own during the seventh book.
  • The Order of the Phoenix
  • The Marauders are definitely true companions. This is probably best shown in the case of Sirius, who is taken in by James's parents after leaving home. Peter Pettigrew crosses the Moral Event Horizon by betraying James (and Lily) to Voldemort.
    • However, it's implied that the Marauders began to fall apart prior to Peter's actions. When reunited in the third book, Sirius and Lupin discuss that Sirius believed Lupin was a traitor before he was imprisoned, and that Lupin truly believed Sirius was guilty of the Potters' murders. That combined with Peter's choices suggest some serious discord between the lot of them, though what caused the relationship's deterioration is never explored.
    • One possibility is that it goes all the way back to their fifth year when Sirius tricked Snape into seeing Lupin when he was transformed, which evidently caused a good amount of tension between the two of them as seen in memory scenes.
    • It may also be that James Potter was the glue that held the group together and that the other three were never especially close, which would have made their relationships difficult to maintain once James and Lily were forced to go into hiding.
    • Another possibility is that it was a result of the atmosphere of mistrust Voldemort was intentionally sowing, with no one knowing who you could trust or how far. Given that each of the Marauders was likely doing work for the Order independently, knowing if someone had become compromised would have been difficult and they would have had a much harder time knowing and trusting each other as well as they did while spending every day together at school.
• Help I Am Being Held Prisoner: The prisoners actually have this vibe by the end even forgiving Harry when they find out the truth.
• The Heraldic Circle in the Heralds of Valdemar series. While individual Heralds may have issues with other Heralds, as a whole they are all close and stick together through thick and thin.
• In The Heroes of Olympus it takes the Seven a while to grow into this, but by the end of The House of Hades even the most reluctant of them are incredibly close and protective of each other.
• The six psychic boys in Hidden Talents, as well as in its sequel, True Talents. The boys make a blood pact to never tell anyone about their powers, and they all brave their lives and freedom to rescue each other in True Talents.
• Katniss, Haymitch and Peeta in The Hunger Games trilogy. This goes for all the victors really, since it is shown that the group has some very close knit friendships between them. The other victors hold the distinction of being just about the only people Haymitch considers his friends, which considering the kind of guy Haymitch is, is quite an accomplishment. And Katniss and Peeta, over the course of the books, form close friendships with fellow victors Johanna Mason, Finnick Odair, and Annie Cresta, among others. This is quite understandable, as when people go through (as adolescents) something as incredibly traumatic as the games, it's only natural that they would become very attached to the around forty strong group of people who have gone through the same thing, not to mention that the victors are just about the closest thing Panem has to celebrities. The victors are not friends because most people don't understand, they're friends because nobody else understands.
• InCryptid: When Antimony goes on the run from the Covenant, she ends up staying with her friends Fern (an old Roller Derby pal) and Megan (the daughter of her brother's assistant, though it's unclear if they'd ever met before she moved in) in Florida. Soon, they're joined by Antimony's maybe-boyfriend Sam (who quickly drops the "maybe") and another roller derby friend, Cylia. It helps that all of them except Antimony are cryptids, and Antimony is from the most prominent family of cryptozoologists on the continent, known as friends to the cryptid community. At the end of the book, Megan parts ways from the group, but in the next book the four of them are joined by James, a young sorcerer who Antimony adopts as a brother at the end. Oh, and Antimony's ghost aunt shows up now and then.
• Eve Dallas of the In Death books occasionally expresses confusion at her slowly-growing circle of "people who matter," given that for most of her life she was severely emotionally isolated save for her mentor and father-figure Captain Feeney and her best friend Mavis. Over the course of the series this expands to include her husband Roarke and his surrogate father turned butler Summerset, police psychiatrist and profiler Dr. Mira, Intrepid Reporter Nadine Furst, Eve's aide-turned-partner Peabody, and more.
• Stephen King created his own word for this: ka-tet, which in the High Speech of The Dark Tower means a group bound together by fate (subverted, since they are temporary). The perhaps "truest" depiction of true companions in King's world, and also the most tragic, has got to be the Losers Club from IT.
• Knaves on Waves gives us Trigger and Sheridan, a Captain and First Mate who are utterly devoted to each other, to the point where Sheridan will readily choose Trigger over the rest of the crew.
• Legacy of the Dragokin: The comradery between the evil Kthonian Knights is their only redeeming trait. This is die-then-come-back-to-life loyalty.
• Les Amis d'ABC in Les Misérables: Enjolras, Grantaire, Joly, Bossuet, Marius, Courfeyrac, Combeferre, Jehan, Bahorel, and Feuilly (ignoring the varying amounts of Ho Yay between Joly/Bossuet, and, more popularly, Enjolras/Grantaire).
• Guy Gavriel Kay's The Lions of Al-Rassan deals with an unlikely crew made up of two Crystal Dragon Christians, two Crystal Dragon Muslims, and two Crystal Dragon Jews. They repeatedly do things like ride hundreds of miles to protect the family of other true companions, or fight off members of their own ethnic group to protect their crew.

• The Lordsof Discipline by Pat Conroy has an unusual (read "tenuous") example of this. It's used as a plot point when the main character attempts to use it as a [semi] legal defense of his friend .
• The Rampion Crew in The Lunar Chronicles. Comprised of Cinder, Kai, Thorne, Scarlet, Wolf, Cress, Iko, Jacin, and Winter.
• From Malevil, the survivors in the eponymous castle. There is a saying in their region: "Each will strengthen each", which they take to heart and truly live for each other, from the members of Emmanuel's childhood "Club" to the newcomers from La Roque and L'Étang. Surviving the Apocalypse is merely survival, surviving the Apocalypse with their large extended family is actual living.
• The crew of the Hermes in The Martian qualifies. After leaving Mark Watney behind on Mars, when they are given the opportunity to save him at the risk of the entire crew dying as well as the cost of staying in space for an additional year, they all wholeheartedly agree. They also show just how effective an entire crew can be when operating together, as opposed to the single astronaut left on Mars.
  • Watney too, as he repeatedly stresses that Commander Lewis was right to leave him given the circumstances. When he's finally able to talk to her on the Hermes directly he says basically "You didn't leave one person, you saved five people. That's what's important."
• The Flock in Maximum Ride is composed of six avian-human hybrids who are completely unrelated (except for Angel and the Gasman, who are brother and sister) but have formed their own sort of "family" because they have been living together practically since birth. However, it's revealed in Saving The World and Other Extreme Sports who Max's mother and father are, but she leaves them behind (with promises to visit frequently) because she and her Flock have to go save the world. However, this makes Max and Fang's relationship more than a little awkward. Max also states more than once in the books that the Flock are the only five people on the planet whom she trusts implicitly, and Fang seems to have his own even higher level of trustworthiness within that circle.
• The Electroclan in Michael Vey are definitely this. They can be immature and selfish at times (since they're all teenagers), but they obviously all care for each other and don't even consider leaving each other behind.
• The crew from Mistborn form a close group, initially around Kelisier's leadership, later around Vin and Elend's.
• At the beginning of The Mortal Instruments, Alec, Isabelle, and Jace are this. Over the course of the series, the group expands to include Clary, Simon, and Magnus. By City of Heavenly Fire, all six would go (quite literally) to hell and back for one another and, with the former three each falling in love with one of the latter, form a sort of family.
• Kate, Reynie, Sticky, and Constance in The Mysterious Benedict Society trilogy. They all come from rather Friendless Backgrounds but become close quickly. In The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey they found it unbareable to be apart for only six months.
• Benjamin, Rasmus and their friends in Don't Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves. They outright call each other family. Or in the words of Paul, "Christmas should always be spent with family. You just have to define family."
• Andre Norton:
  • In Catseye, Troy's ability to communicate with the enhanced animals leads to a true companions group of which he is the only human member.
  • In the Solar Queen series, Free Traders collectively regard themselves as true companions with respect to the larger trading corporations (although they freely and very roughly compete with one another). The crew of the titular ship forms a very tight bond amongst themselves throughout the stories.
• On the Jellicoe Road: There are two, tied by blood. The first is Narnie, Tate, Fitz, Webb and Jude, also known as Hannah, Taylor's mom, the Hermit, Taylor's dad and the Brigadier. The second one is Taylor, Jonah, Raffy and Chaz.
  Chaz: What are you so sad about? We're going to know him for the rest of our lives.
• The main group of Greasers in The Outsiders.
• Simona Ahrnstedt does this in her debut novel Överenskommelser, where Beatrice has Sofia and Vivienne, and Seth has Johan and Jacques. The two beta couples Sofia/Johan and Vivienne/Jacques hardly interact though, except for in the epilogue, that only has been printed in the paperback version of the novel.
  • Magdalena and Gabriel in "De skandalösa" also seem to have a similar relationship with their beta couples, Beata/Ossian and Venus/Nora.
• Will, Halt, Horace, Gilan, Evanlyn, and Alyss from Ranger's Apprentice. Oh, and their horses.
• In the David Drake RCN series, Daniel Leary realizes that Adele Mundy, Hogg, and Tovera and himself have become an odd little family.
• Republic Commando: The key concept in Karen Traviss's take on the Mandalorians in her novels. This is lampshaded in the fact the Mandalorian language doesn't have separate words for "friend" and "family member," and has a proverb that translates to "Family is more than blood." At least two Knights Of The Old Republic fanfics have Canderous "adopting" Revan and the rest of the crew.
  Carth: From what I do know of Mandalorians, ones without a clan have no place in their society, but they can offer themselves to another clan in hopes of being... well, of being adopted.
  Mission: So did we just adopt Canderous, or did he just adopt us?
  Carth: I think the answer is "yes," Mission.
• Serge Storms: Serge's grandfather's old crew of con artists are among the most closely-knit characters in the series, sticking together for decades even as several of their members begin dying of natural causes, with their various kids and grandkids also being part of their circle, which is most prominently depicted in Electric Barracuda.
• Garth Nix's The Seventh Tower: This describes the relationship between Tal and Milla pretty nicely. For most of the series, they do not like each other. At all. In fact, Milla's reaction to another character admitting he had attempted to kill Tal was "You should practice harder." Even at the end of the series the two couldn't really be called friends. But they trust each other, and know they can depend on each other in a crisis.
• There are several the Shadowleague books by Maggie Furey, but the main one is between Elion, Kazairl, Toulac, Zavahl, and Veldan.
• Sisterhood Series by Fern Michaels: At the beginning, we have Nikki Quinn, Kathryn Lucas, Julia Webster, Myra Rutledge, Charles Martin, Alexis Thorne, and Yoko Akia. Then Julia dies, and Countess Anne "Annie" Ryland de Silva takes her place. Lizzie Fox and Maggie Spritzer become part of it. Then a group consisting of Jack Emery, Harry Wong, Bert Navarro, Ted Robinson, and Joe Espinosa eventually gets formed. Yes, it gets a little complicated after awhile.
• In the Skulduggery Pleasant series, there are the Dead Men, a group of combat-mages known for coming back from suicide missions and having a strong bond to each other, originally consisting of Skulduggery Pleasant, Ghastly Bespoke, Anton Shudder, Saracen Rue, Erskine Ravel, Dexter Vex, and Hopeless. Corrival Deuce was a honorary member of them, and also one of the few people they took orders from. They fought during the War against Mevolent, which lasted for a few hundred years until sometimes in the late 1860´s. Larrikin replaced Ravel while he was lost, and became permanent member after Hopeless died. After the war, they disbanded, but stayed friends. Skulduggery continued to work for the Sanktuary, as a detective now, not a soldier. Ghastly opened a tailor shop, and helped Skulduggery out when his fists were needed. Anton Shudder started a hotel for outlaws, renegades, and outcasts. Erskine Ravel became Corrival Deuce´s loyal assistant and political companion. Dexter Vex adventured around the world. It isn´t known what Saracen Rue did, and Larrikin died.
  • In the early books, Skulduggery Pleasant, Valkyrie Cain, Ghastly Bespoke, Tanith Low and Fletcher Renn can be said to be this.
  • In the penultimate book, Last Stand of Dead Men, the Dead Men form again to fight in the War between the Sanctuaries. Valkyrie Cain takes Larrikin´s place.
  • The Monster Hunters, consisting of Donegan Bane, Gracious O´Callahan, and, later, Fletcher Renn. They fight monsters and write books about it.
• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is all about the close friendship between Lily and Snow Flower in Ancient China, and their exchange of messages via the secret fan after they are separated.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow gives us this example in The Song of Hiawatha:
  Two good friends had Hiawatha,
  Singled out from all the others,
  Bound to him in closest union
  And to whom he gave the right hand
  Of his heart, in joy and sorrow;
  Chibiabos, the musician,
  And the very strong man, Kwasind.
• Space Glass: Though they are the villains, Bagok Grinch, Reeva Savaltenhein, the Marauder, and Marvelous Dagon are as close as family.
• A large part of Kaladin's story arc in the first book of The Stormlight Archive is turning around the circumstances he was thrown into, being assigned to a crew hauling a manual-labor-carried military bridge by hand, and expected to eventually die there like everyone else assigned to that duty, and turning his bridge crew into True Companions. It certainly pays off.
  • He seems to have something of a talent for doing this with whatever group he find himself a part of, as others around him notice. In Oathbringer several characters are infiltrating a besieged city and while preparing to storm the palace he gets most of the city guard he joined to come help out.
  Adolin: Of course. He's probably their leader now or something. Storming Bridgeboy.
• In Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, the main character (who was raised on Mars) thinks sharing water with someone means forming an eternal bond of love and trust. Because he's very special, the first half dozen or so people he "shares water" with really do feel connected through him, so they quickly end up forming a close-knit group. After that, more and more people get invited to share water with the group, eventually forming the beginnings of a worldwide cult.
• The Crew in Stuck are this already when Tre meets them all in the mall, but the events of Episode One eventually lead to them letting him in, and soon enough they become truly like a family rather than just being friends.
• Tea Shop Mysteries: Theodosia and Drayton are intensely loyal to one another and will protect each other whenever danger strikes. They often take tours and trips together as well.
• Robert Lohkamp, Otto Koesler and Gotfried Lenz from Erich Maria Remarque's The Three Comrades.
• The Three Musketeers: Although D'Artagnan meets Athos, Portos, and Aramis by challenging them each to a duel, they quickly become fast friends and inseparable companions. This is why it is so tragic when later events divide them.
• Tolkien's Legendarium: This trope constantly shows up in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien:
  • The Lord of the Rings:
    • The Fellowship of the Ring, including Gandalf, Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn, the Hobbits and Boromir. Their bond is such that Legolas and Gimli are able to overcome their Fantastic Racism, and after Boromir betrays the Fellowship, they forgive him and give him a warrior's funeral. They also find the strength to go on after Gandalf's Heroic Sacrifice due to The Power of Friendship. To the point where many of them are actually upset that they don't get to follow Frodo into Mordor, because they don't want to leave their friend.
    • Merry and the royals of Rohan. Théoden appears to see him as a surrogate for his dead son ("As a father you shall be to me"), he forms a bond with Éowyn strong enough that he takes on the Witch King of Angmar to help her ("She should not die, so fair, so desperate. At least she should not die alone, unaided."), and Éomer knights him before the end.
  • Beren and Lúthien: When the nearly whole population of Nargothrond turned on Finrod, ten elves refused to abandon him. They accompanied him and Beren in the Quest of Silmaril, even though it was a suicidal mission. Eventually they got captured, jailed and tortured by Sauron but they would not turn on Finrod. When Sauron threatened each one of them with being fed to a wolf, all of them chose becoming wolf's morsel rather betraying their king.
• Tamora Pierce's Tortall Universe books almost always feature a protagonist with some kind of super-power — broadly defined. Mostly this is magical. But Keladry of Mindelan's superpower is actually the ability to create true-companions relationships among the people around her.
• Trixie Belden: The Bob-Whites.
• The three girls in Uprising about the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. After Bella's cousin vanishes and she learns her landlords have been stealing the money she's sending to her family in Italy and Jane runs away from home after learning her father hires strikebreakers, both end up living with Yetta, and they become a family of sorts. They cement it when Bella brings up an Italian tradition where men pledge to be 'more than family', and refer to themselves as the Comari d'Triangle. both Yetta and Jane give their lives to help save Bella from the fire, and Bella remembers them after as her sisters, naming her two daughters after them.
• The early Christian Marines vigilantes in Victoria, before they grow into a mass organization: two dozen idealistic veterans together against the world — or at least against the organized crime gangs and their corrupt political backers.
• Villains by Necessity: By the end of the book, the main characters have become this, learning they can depend on and trust each other through any hardships.
• The rabbits in Watership Down, by way of all they had been through together, make one of the most endearing true-companion groups ever seen.
• The Wheel of Time has several examples. The Aes Sedai, the Aiel clans (particularly the Maidens Of The Spear), the first main group from the first book. Etc, etc, etc.
• Onyesonwu, Luyu, Diti, and Binta become True Companions in Who Fears Death thanks to all undergoing the Eleventh Year Rite together. Later on, they, along with Mwita and Diti's husband Fanasi decide to accompany Onyesonwu on her quest West.
• The Windwater Pack: Zephyr and Ashtree are extremely close, to the point they refer to each other as "spirit sister/brother", though Zephyr is the one to start this.
• Wonder Woman: Warbringer: Diana, Alia, Nim, Theo and Jason stick with each other through thick and thin. At least until Jason reveals himself to be a traitor. The others stay the best of friends, though.
• In his alternate history novel The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson uses the device of the karmic jati, or a group of individuals who are reincarnated in close proximity to each other throughout successive lives, to maintain a link between his characters over the seven centuries of narrative. The same half-dozen souls reincarnate into each stage of the story, maintaining their individual personalities even as their names, genders, ethnic origins, social standings and species change.

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