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People of Weld
Residents of Weld on the island of Dorne.
Rye
Rye had lived his entire life in the walled city of Weld, safe from all harm. Eight years before the beginning of the Three Doors, mysterious creatures called Skimmers begin flying over the wall to attack the people. Eventually, the Warden, leader of Weld, calls the young people of Weld to stand against the enemy. When both his brothers fail to return from this quest, Rye sets out to find them.
- Been There, Shaped History: He and Sonia overthrow Olt, changing the future. His actions in the present also apply.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: With his brothers. Rye (redhead), Dirk (blonde) and Sholto (brunette)
- Disappeared Dad: His father was killed by monsters one night when he was late getting home.
- Flight: The power granted by the red feather
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: Downplayed. During The Third Door, Rye gets jealous after assuming that Sonia and Sholto have feelings for each other but still can't seem to admit to himself the way he feels about Sonia.
- Identity Amnesia: He lost all of his memory after being attacked by a beast in Fell End. He is given the name Keelin during this time.
- Imaginary Love Triangle: Rye has feelings for Sonia but falsely believes that Sonia and Sholto like each other. Not realises that Sonia returns his feeling.
- Invisibility Cloak: Has a silk hood that renders him invisible.
- Older Than They Look:
- Plot Coupon: Has a bag containing nine magic items which invariably help him on his quest and only he can use.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Despite having changed the future seen on the other side of the Silver Door, Rye still remembers his adventure there which took place during The Silver Door.
- Red-Headed Hero: Is the hero of the story and has red hair.
- Starting a New Life: First, in The Golden Door, when he and his mother are forced to go to the Keep of Weld to live after both of Rye's brothers are presumed dead. Then, at the very end of the series, Rye, Sonia, Dirk, Faene, Sholto, Annocki and Lisbeth all go through the Wooden Door to live in a new home outside of Weld.
- Super-Speed: Granted by the Fleet Ring.
- Super-Toughness: The power granted by the snail shell.
- Youngest Child Wins: Rye is the youngest brother, and accomplishes the most out of all of them.
Sonia
A mysterious girl who lives in the Keep of Weld. She has tried to persuade each of the Heroes of Weld to let her come with them to save the city. She blackmails Rye into letting her come, and seems to know more about the situations at hand than she's willing to let on.
- Action Girl: She is possibly the most proactive character in her party.
- Bait-and-Switch: She and her maid Annocki swap places while she tries to find a way out of Weld.
- Been There, Shaped History: She and Rye defeated Olt in the past, changing the future.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She was terribly neglected as a child by her father, who despises her. Her mother died when she was very young, so the only friend she had before meeting Rye was Annocki.
- Family of Choice: She has no familial connection whatsoever to her father and her mother died when she was very young. She instead grows to become a part of Rye's family.
- Fire-Forged Friends: With Rye, Dirk and Sholto.
- Green-Eyed Redhead: She has red hair and bright green eyes. They're a sign of her Fellan heritage.
- Hidden Depths: She appears at first to be an ordinary girl of the Keep of Weld. However, she is really the Warden's daughter and part-Fellan.
- Missing Mom: Her mom died when she was very young.
- Parental Abandonment: She's seen her dad the Warden only four or five times in her life.
- Parental Neglect: She had seen her father face to face only four or five times in her whole life.
- Starting a New Life: At the very end of the series, Rye, Sonia, Dirk, Faene, Sholto, Annocki and Lisbeth all go through the Wooden Door to live in a new home outside of Weld.
Dirk
Rye's elder brother and one of the first to set off to save Weld. He found himself joining a rebellion and fighting against the tyranny of the sorcerer Olt. He is the eldest and strongest of the three brothers, and sees himself as responsible for everyone else. He cannot stand inaction or poor leadership.
- Big Brother Instinct: Despite the many differences between him and his two brothers, he is fiercely loyal to both of them and will listen to what they have to say even if he ends up disagreeing.
- The Big Guy: He is the eldest and most physically imposing of the three brothers.
- Brains And Big Guy: Is the Big Guy to Sholto's Brains
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: With his brothers. Rye (redhead), Dirk (blonde) and Sholto (brunette)
- Disappeared Dad: His father was killed during a skimmer attack some years before the series begins.
- Fire-Forged Friends: He and his brothers grew even closer over the course of their journey, as well as adding Sonia to the mix.
- Nerves of Steel: Dirk never panics when in a dangerous situation, and as such is always a reliable companion.
- Official Couple: With Faene.
- Promoted to Parent: After his father dies, he becomes the main breadwinner of the household.
- Rebellious Spirit: He is less than complacent in his view of the Warden's Leadership.
- Starting a New Life: At the very end of the series, Rye, Sonia, Dirk, Faene, Sholto, Annocki and Lisbeth all go through the Wooden Door to live in a new home outside of Weld.
Sholto
The second of the three brothers, Sholto is a calm and collected young man who believes that magic is a myth. The healer's apprentice, when Dirk didn't return he set out to find the source of the Skimmers and put an end to them. He prefers thinking over doing, and is always coming up with a plan.
- Always Someone Better: Rye suspects that Sholto might feel unappreciated next to Dirk.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: With his brothers. Rye (redhead), Dirk (blonde) and Sholto (brunette)
- Brains And Big Guy: The Brains to Dirk's Big Guy.
- Disappeared Dad: His father was killed in a Skimmer attack some years before the series begins.
- Fire-Forged Friends: He and his brothers grew even closer over the course of their journey, as well as adding Sonia to the mix.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: He goes through a mysterious portal, spends a year of isolation in a forest which seems to turn into a desert overnight, and then spends a few days working in a Shadow Lord facility and is then met with his younger brother who has gained supernatural powers such as invisibility, and still insists that all apparent magic has a trick to it and that there is a logical explanation.
- Nerves of Steel: Never panics when he is in a dangerous situation.
- Official Couple: With Annocki
- Promoted to Parent: He takes up most of the responsibilities at home after his father dies and Dirk leaves.
- Romantic False Lead: To Sonia during The Third Door.
- Shadow Archetype: Reversed with the Shadow Lord. Both are the second of three brothers, grew up as social outcasts, and have a deep thirst for knowledge. The difference is that Sholto wishes to learn so that he may use his knowledge to help others.
- Starting a New Life: At the very end of the series, Rye, Sonia, Dirk, Faene, Sholto, Annocki and Lisbeth all go through the Wooden Door to live in a new home outside of Weld.
- The Stoic: He rarely expresses himself in ways that people other than his brothers are able to pick up on.
- Why Did It Have to Be Heights: He is not fond of high places and goes green at the thought of flying.
Lisbeth
Mother to Dirk, Sholto and Rye, she is widowed when her husband is killed during a skimmer attack eight years before the beginning of the trilogy. She is very warm and motherly, and keeps a beehive and goat farm.- Happily Married: To Kaz, before his death.
- Starting a New Life: At the very end of the series, Rye, Sonia, Dirk, Faene, Sholto, Annocki and Lisbeth all go through the Wooden Door to live in a new home outside of Weld.
The Warden
Leader of Weld. He is reluctant to take any action that involves change.- Skewed Priorities: He is more concerned with the appearance of his city than he is with the lives of the people in it.
Annocki
Sonia's maid in the Keep of Weld, and her close and only friend. She later becomes lover to Sholto.- Bait-and-Switch: Changes places with her mistress and friend Sonia so that Sonia can find a way out of Weld.
- Official Couple: With Sholto.
- Starting a New Life: At the very end of the series, Rye, Sonia, Dirk, Faene, Sholto, Annocki and Lisbeth all go through the Wooden Door to live in a new home outside of Weld.
Tallus
A healer who lives in the same part of Weld as Rye and his brothers. He takes Sholto on as an apprentice and the two become close friends.- Intergenerational Friendship: With Sholto.
- The Medic: He is the resident healer of Southwall.
Crell
A friend of Dirk's. He chooses not to accept the Warden's challenge, and is ridiculed because of it by other Volunteers. He chooses to start a newspaper instead which circulates around the Keep during the trilogy.- Intrepid Reporter: Once he begins writing and printing The Lantern.
Joliffe
A friend of Dirk's. He is killed in the Fell Zone on the other side of the Golden Door.- We Hardly Knew Ye: He doesn't get much time to do anything other than mock Sholto.
Jett
A Volunteer from Weld who travels through the Wooden Door.- Axe-Crazy: By the time Rye and is companions run into him, he had been living amongst people he believed to be his enemies for two years and had grown extremely paranoid. That, coupled with what was likely a sudden shift in the people's behaviour after Rye changes the past, drove him to be fixated on the idea that Chieftain Farr was the enemy of Weld and had to die. When Rye and the others try to get in his way, he quickly becomes violent towards them.
- Easily Forgiven: After he breaks out of his frenzy, Rye quickly enlists his help in breaking open the Wall and flooding the skimmer nest. In the epilogue, he is the current favourite for being elected the new leader of Weld.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: The main feature of his general description is his scarred face. How or when he got it is a mystery.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: He resists the urge to go through the Golden Door and chooses the Wooden Door instead, because in old tales, humble choices are often the right ones. He was half right. What he was looking for was beyond the Wooden Door, but he was the wrong kind of hero for the job and would have faired much better trusting his instincts and going through the Golden Door.
Beyond the Golden Door
FitzFee
A stout man who trades in goat dairy.Nanion of Fleet
Leader of the people of Fleet.Faene D'Or
Daughter of the former leaders of Fleet. Her parents were killed after speaking against Olt. The city of D'Or was named in her family's honour.- Official Couple: With Dirk.
- Starting a New Life: Chooses to return with Dirk to present-day Weld as they love one another and her people have fled Dorne to seek a safer place to live, leaving her by herself. At the very end of the series, Rye, Sonia, Dirk, Faene, Sholto, Annocki and Lisbeth all go through the Wooden Door to live in a new home outside of Weld.
- Time Traveller: She is the only character to finish the story living in a time other than their own
Hass
A fisherman living in Oltan. Beyond the Silver Door
Bones
A strange decrepit man who lives in the Den. He is the only man who can survive in the Saltings without the protection of magic.- : Cloudcuckoolander: He has been driven absolutely insane by the events of his life.
Four-Eyes
A trader who travels the wastelands in a steam powered vehicle.- Eyes Do Not Belong There: He gets his name from the extra pair of eyes on the back of his head.
Bird
A stout woman from Nanny's Pride farm.Kyte
A Slave Hunter who lives in the Harbour.Brand
Head of operations in the Harbour.The Supervisor
The lead scientist in charge of breeding more deadly Skimmers. Beyond the Wooden Door
Chieftain Farr
The Chieftain of the people beyond the Wooden Door.- Babies Ever After: Has a son by Janna, named Zak.
- Berserk Button: Never harm Janna or Zak, or Farr will be very, very angry. Janna and Zak's poisoning is the thing which finally convinces him to go to war with the Fellan once and for all, because he is so furious that they (or so he assumes) would try to harm those whom he cares deeply about.
- Happily Married: To Janna.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Is this to the people of Nerra. Though he is an antagonist in The Third Door, and irrational in his hatred of the Fellan whom he believes have tried to kill his loved ones, he is generally a good, fair leader and well-respected.
Janna
Chieftain Farr's wife. She came to Dorne from Deltora some time before the series begins, and is a descendant of the people of Fleet, who fled to Deltora to found D'Or during Olt's time.- Babies Ever After: Farr and Janna have one son, a young boy named Zak.
- Happily Married: To Farr.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Though she appears to be soft and weak, she ends up being determined, brave and strong, and ready to fight for what she believes in. In The Third Door, she goes with Petronelle to Farr's ship, where Farr and his men are preparing to annihilate the Fellan forever, and tries to convince the men to stop what they are doing, not caring about the danger to herself.
Petronelle
A Half-Fellan maid who looked after Janna in her youth. She now looks after Janna and Farr's son Zak.Carryl
The former Chieftain. After her term, she became head of the New Nerra museum.- Character Death: She is killed by an enemy of Dorne in The Third Door.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Is considered to be this by many of Farr's advisors, as she keeps trying to convince Farr to honour a treaty which Farr and the other traders think is a legend and made-up. Most think she is going senile because of her old age and don't take her seriously. Farr at least seems like he may be willing to listen, as he does respect Carryl as a former Chieftan of Nerra, but he doesn't believe in the treaty any more than his advisors do.
The Fellan
The native people of Dorne. They are born with powerful magic, but are weakened by both metal and sea water. As such, they stay well away from the sea and civilisation, and keep to the inland ring of forest known as the Fell Zone.
