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Protagonists
Pan
Pandora Leverett
An apprentice mechanic who helped Princess Tara escape Viridian five years back.- Big Damn Heroes: She shows up on a speeder just as Cass and Bee need help escaping Kate.
- Chekhov's Skill: As a mechanic, her knowledge of machinery helps her tell Cass about a vulnerability in Jaws' armor.
- She later converts the mech bay into a workshop for building and tweaking tech.
- Crush Blush: First happens when she thinks about Tara in her ceremonial dress. Happens more and more with various women as the story goes on.
- Gadgeteer Genius: She sets up shop in the mech bay to start tinkering with the cosmoknight suits and starts building things of her own.
- When she builds her own weapons she's advanced enough to make a Laser Blade and an energy shield.
- It Was a Gift: Tara gives Pan her medallion on the night of her escape. What Pan doesn't know is it's a royal favor, and has network connection and emergency messaging features.
- Jumped at the Call: More like snuck onto the call's spaceship. While she's primarily just trying to get off Viridian, the fact that Cass and Bee are freeing princesses helps make her choice.
- Knightly Sword and Shield: When she eventually gets into combat she uses a sword and shield. Even though both are made of energy she even constructs them in the shape of a knightly arming sword and heater shield respectively.
- Laser Blade: She builds herself a sword hilt that projects an energy blade.
- Naïve Newcomer: While her friendship with Tara and subsequent arrest means she has no illusions about the monarchy, she's never been off Viridian before and spends a few seconds in her first proper city looking around in awe.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Helping her best friend escape an arranged marriage gets her arrested. Five years later, the aftermath of the escape has led to her being widely despised on Viridian.
- Refused by the Call: Cass and Bee try to get her to go back to Viridian when they find her on their ship, both because of her inexperience and because they don't want to be accused of kidnapping.
- When Pan shows up on a speeder to rescue them from a pursuer they have a change of heart.
Cass
Cassar Gail
A cosmoknight fighting under the name of Bull. Bee's wife. Also a runaway princess.- Boisterous Bruiser: Particularly during jousts. Her persona of Bull is jovial and specializes in luring in other knights and smacking them around.
- Butch Lesbian: Moreso than anyone else in the cast, and to the point that she routinely passes as a man during jousts and is sometimes referred to with traditionally masculine adjectives even out of combat.
- The author has specified that Cass is a butch lesbian who goes by any pronouns.
- Dislikes the New Guy: Cass doesn't much like Kate or the Princess, and while she admits to liking Pan, she tells Bee she preferred when it was just the two of them moving from game to game.
- Flashback Echo: Her backstory is told through flashbacks during the Caslon games and has overt visual and narrative parallels to the current situation.
- Given Name Reveal: Kate calls Bee by her given first name and Cass by her full given name and title. This is less of a reveal of her name as it is a reveal that Kate knows that her family is royalty.
- Goofy Print Boxers: Wears a pair of boxers with little frogs printed all over.
- Honor Before Reason: She pursues her rivalry with Jaws to the point of endangering herself, even when Jaws brings backup for himself.
- Notably, she when she manages to defeat him it's with the help of Pan and by exploiting a weakness in his suit.
- Jousting Lance: Her weapon of choice.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Her armor invokes this heavily, being bright with light red accents.
- Rebellious Princess: She used to be a princess. During the joust for her marriage she put on her armor and won the match for herself.
- Samus Is a Girl: Out-of-universe, she's referred to with masculine pronouns by the joust announcers. She first appears as a woman when Bee takes her to Pan's doorstep for medical treatment.
- Played straight in-universe before the start of the story. She won the Slone games dressed in her family's cosmoknight armor. They knew it was her, but the crowd didn't until she dramatically pulled the helmet off.
Bee
Brigitte
A former courier and a cosmoknight fighting under the name of Harrier. Captain of the Valkyrie. Cass' wife.- Courier: Her job before she and Cass ran off. She still maintains her contacts. Other context would indicate that 'courier' in this case more means 'smuggler'.
- Getaway Driver: She helped Cass escape after winning her own joust with her ship parked nearby.
- Given Name Reveal: Along with Cass' name and title, Kate uses Bee's full first name.
- Happy Flashback: In Book 2 she gets a flashback to her time as a courier before Cass' getaway, contrasting her life then to the significantly more complicated situation she's in now.
- The Leader: In general she's capable of wrangling the others into doing what needs to be done in an emergency. On top of that she owns the ship and is officially captain.
- Mix-and-Match Weapon: Harrier's weapon initially looks like a scoped rifle with blades above and below the barrel. She can activate a secondary mode where the blades completely cover the barrel, turning the gun into a very broad sword.
- Reason Before Honor: She'd rather Bull play it safe rather than fight Jaws to the bitter end.
- She's also aware that their freeing princesses one-by-one doesn't really change much on a grand scale, and more readily considers Kate's offer to upend the system itself.
- The Reliable One: She's better at keeping a low profile than Cass and tries not to encourage Pan's more reckless behavior. Her contacts also give her resources she can call on, she can hack electronic locks on the fly, and she's a better shot than Cass. It's likely a combination of her history, Pan's inexperience, and Cass having been raised as a princess.
- This causes problems for her as her levelheadedness places her as the mediator between her more obstinate shipmates.
Bee: Everyone on this ship wants something different! I can't fix this, Pan. I don't know what we're gonna do. - Venturous Smuggler: Refers to herself as one along with an anecdote about fighting off Space Pirates. It certainly explains why a courier's contacts let her use the back doors of restaurant kitchens.
Kate
Katarina Rose
A mysterious woman following Cass and Bee. Actually an anarchist angling to recruit them.- Artificial Limbs: Her right hand is partially cybernetic and her left leg is artificial from the knee down.
- Combat Stilettos: So far all of her outfits have included high heels, and she's capable of chasing down Cass and Bee while wearing them.
- To the point that her artificial left leg includes a hardlight hologram stiletto heel with an adjustable height for different shoes.
- Conspicuous Trenchcoat: When she first appears she wears a black overcoat and wide-brimmed hat with long pink hair. Given her actual goal she might have been trying to get noticed.
- Distinguishing Mark: Her different outfits vary her appearance wildly, but she's recognizable to the readers through her tattoos and prosthetics.
- She has rose tattoos all over her back, 'GET EVEN' tattooed across her (non-cybernetic) knuckles, a heart below one eye, and a 'Trans Teen Beauty Queen' tattoo on her left arm, as well as a few more that aren't as visible.
- Knuckle Tattoos: With one of her pinkies a prosthetic, she has 'GET EVEN' tattooed across the rest of her knuckles.
- La Résistance: While she admires Cass and Bee's efforts, she's more interested in overthrowing the system entirely, pointing out that their one-princess-at-a-time approach doesn't really change anything for most people.
- Oh, Crap!: Kate reveals the Cosmopol knights are actually robots on a live broadcast from Ironvein arena. The feed cuts out right as they all wake up and attack her.
- Just a bit later she gets a second one when the EMP device she uses to get away also messes up her leg... and the thrusters keeping the arena in the air.
- Techno Wizard: She's a very talented programmer and hacker.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She's sent to the cargo hold to hide the Princess when the Space Pirates show up. And then again when they come back. Kate being an anarchist with a particular disdain for royalty, she's not particularly happy about it.
- Even after throwing one of the pirates out the airlock to protect Scottie she reiterates that they're not friends.
Kate: Back off, princess. I didn't do it for you. - Took a Shortcut: When Cass and Bee are running from Kate they take a shortcut to a building across town... only to find her lounging on a couch with a drink on the other side.
Scottie
Princess Scottie
A princess won in the Caslon games. Not exactly thrilled to be rescued and spends her time locked in her room on the ship. Eventually tells Pan her name is Scottie. Has a miniature space tiger named Percy.- Big Damn Heroes: Riding Percy, Scottie catches Kate as she's falling from Ironvein's arena and lands them all back in the Valk. Ends with The Big Damn Kiss to boot.
- Distress Call: She manages to steal back her favor and send out a call to the authorities. Unfortunately for her, the only people around to intercept it were space pirates.
- Horse of a Different Color: When Percy changes size Scottie can actually ride him.
- Internal Reformist: Played with. She has no illusions about somehow reforming the monarchy itself, but she believes that through her position as royalty she could at least improve people's lives.Scottie: I know I'm a pawn but I played my part because at least if it was me on that throne, I could do something to help. Rescuing me doesn't do anything for the people struggling on my planet.
- Loyal Animal Companion: Percy, who hisses and scratches Cass when she tries to get too close. He can also grow into a significantly larger space tiger when signaled.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: After (mostly) accidentally summoning the Space Pirates she's sent to hide in the cargo hold with Kate, the ship's resident anarchist. Twice. She seems less annoyed about it than Kate, though.
- Unwanted Rescue: She has to be tranquilized to get her on the ship and she spends her time there moping in her room and trying to contact the authorities.
- She later explains to Pan that being married off in the games would have given her a kind of authority as well as allowing for business deals from her family that could have benefited their subjects, and rescuing her does nothing for them.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Well, unwitting of what kind of doom. When trying to summon wardens to come rescue her she steals back her favor and pings her location... in the middle of pirate territory.
Antagonists:
Jaws
A cosmoknight and direct rival to Bull.
- Achilles' Heel: His suit is powered with Bronco Batteries which violently combust when heated. He uses this as a weapon in the second match, but Bull then does this to the batteries inside his suit.
- Animal Motifs: He has a general shark theme in the ring, and it actually increases when he's not fighting; he's covered in shark tattoos (and wears tank tops to show them off) and his ship has a large mounted shark decoration in the control room.
- Arc Villain: Most of the focus is on introducing the setting and the character relationships so he works as more or less the villain of Book 1 despite only showing up a few times.
- Black Knight: Jaws contrasts Bull's Knight in Shining Armor vibe with his much darker armor. Even the accents are complementary, with Bull's being red and Jaws' being green.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite his pragmatism in the arena he doesn't take kindly to non-Cosmoknights messing with the games.
- Evil Counterpart: Everything about his visual presentation contrasts and mirrors with Bull. He's a big guy with dark armor and green accents and wields a stabbing polearm.
- Goofy Print Underwear: In line with his shark theming he wears a pair of boxers covered in little fish.
- Jerkass: He clearly enjoys injuring Bull and after the match he shows off by bench-pressing the princess' chamber.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Contrasting with Bull's Honor Before Reason approach to their rivalry, Jaws has no problem with underhanded tactics so long as it gets him the win.
- Punch-Clock Villain: He's much less unpleasant outside the arena.
- After Bull takes him down a notch at Caslon he gets a lot friendlier.
- The Rival: He and Bull do not like each other. This is played up for the cameras, though there's still some hostility between the two before the Caslon games.
The Space Pirates
A group of Space Pirates who start hounding the protagonists after receiving Scottie's distress call.
- Color-Coded Characters: Outside the captain they all wear the same basic outfit, but they have glowing designs on their helmets in different colors.
- Improbable Weapon User: Most of them have homemade blades of varying size, but two stand out as pretty odd.
- The dark blue pirate has a flail with what looks like a metal canine skull at the end. What's more, it seems to be able to track and bite targets.
- The red pirate has throwing knives... and a raven. In space. Cass and Pan have no trouble breathing, so it can be assumed that's not an issue here, but it's still an interesting choice.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: It's not as clear as their being pirates but the jet boots they use to get around are shaped an awful lot like inline skates; they're roller derby space pirates.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad: Despite not being named upon introduction and all wearing the same outfit, the squad that attacks the ship is given a lot of characterization from person-to-person by their body language and varied weapons.
- Space Pirates: They're outlaws who use their ship to go after other ships. They embrace the pirate theme to the point that their captain wears a large overcoat complete with epaulets.
Other:
Tara
Former Viridian princess and Pan's childhood friend. Escaped her family five years ago and hasn't been seen since. Currently the captain of a band of Space Pirates.
- Ambiguous Situation: Her escape from Viridian is apparently successful and no one knows where she's gone. Complicated once Pan finds a message on Tara's favor that has her begging for help and dated just after her escape.
- Eventually resolved when she resurfaces with her crew of space pirates.
- Cool Mask: She sometimes wears a mask that covers her eyes and nose, coming to a beak-like point. The whole thing is blacked out except for her cybernetic left eye, which glows through as a red dot.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Had shades of this with Pan, although it never went anywhere before her escape. Pan had a crush on her, at any rate.
- Cass picks up on this somewhat, pointing out the significance of her giving Pan her favor. Favors are typically won along with the princess' hand in marriage.
- Coat Cape: As a pirate captain she wears a large overcoat complete with epaulets. The sleeves have been cut open and into strips, making it seem like a voluminous cloak with large, fringed shoulders.
- Distress Call: She sends one to Pan shortly after escaping Viridian. Unfortunately, between getting arrested and not knowing how to operate the favor, Pan doesn't hear it for five years.
- Hover Board: As a pirate she has a glowing red hardlight hoverboard that can collapse its emitters into a portable size.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Her status as royalty didn't get her many (or any) friends.
- Her friendship with Pan started specifically because she looked so lonely. Tara refers to her as her only connection to the outside world.
- Mistaken from Behind: Pan thinks she sees Tara in the crowd lining up for a cosmoknight joust. When she catches up she discovers it's just someone who looks similar from behind.
- Parents as People: Initially, Tara's parents aren't characterized at all, and come off as traditionally stoic and impersonal royalty. A later flashback reveals that they're warm and loving as a private family but present a certain image to maintain their place among the other royals; this strains their relationship with Tara.Tara: It's like... when we're around other families we have to pretend to be different people.
- Rebellious Princess: The upcoming games cause her to flee Viridian to avoid being married off.
- Her rebellious tendencies seem to have increased to the point that she's now a pirate captain.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: By the time she resurfaces she's sporting a red cybernetic left eye. To drive home the visual only her red eye is visible when she wears her mask.
- The Reveal: In the present, she's first shown during the pirate attack with her face either turned away or mostly out of frame. After the attack her identity is revealed to the audience in a scene on her own ship.
- Space Pirates: She turns out to be the captain of the band of space pirates who intercept Scottie's distress call.
- Walking Spoiler: Due to her reappearance as a pirate captain after five years of complete absence an awful lot of her entry's going to be spoilers.
