open/close all folders
Characters featured in The Blending
Adepts
In The Blending there are five actually six types of Adepts.
Fire Adepts
- Playing with Fire: Capable of creating and manipulating fire.
Water Adepts
- An Ice Person: They can manipulate the temperature of existing water or simply generate and manipulate ice itself.
- Making a Splash: Capable of creating and manipulating water.
- Touch of Death: A particularly adept Water Magic User can draw 'all' of the moisture out of a person with such speed and finesse that all that's left is a pile of dust.
Earth Adepts
- Dishing Out Dirt: They can manipulate Earth, as well as animals with limited Mind Control.
- Healing Hands: Earth Magic gives an Adept the ability to 'feel' within a person's body, both for good will and ill. Healing wounds and mending bones is all within an Earth Adept's wheelhouse.
- During the sequel trilogy, with the aid of a Spirit Magic user, Earth Magic Users can even use their skills to bring about Restoration of Sanity. It takes sufficient skill to evade the effects of this skill.
- Living Lie Detector: In line with their healing abilities, their ability to manipulate the body allows them to tell truth from lie. While a Spirit Magic user can parse context, Earth Magic Users can identify a person's intent to lie. This lets them pinpoint fact from fiction with the right kind of questions.
- Sand Blaster: They can manipulate Earth in all its forms, including sand. During the Test used to identify Highs in Earth Magic, they have to manipulate a constant crush of sand entering the room that they're in. If they can't do it, they'll die.
Air Adepts
- Blow You Away: They can manipulate air, to the point where they can harden it and make it opaque, allowing them to create impenetrable defenses.
Spirit Adepts
- Mind Control: They can manipulate those around them through vocal commands. This is a skill that not many are aware of. If one's not careful about what they say while they're touching the power, every word is extremely dangerous.
- Emotion Control: They can soothe the emotions of those around them and this is considered the most acceptable use of their power. Really, there is far more to this ability than even most nobles know by the time the story begins.
- Soul Power: The bread and butter of a Spirit Adept.
Sight Adepts
- Seers: They can see the future, though it is not always clear.
Blending
A powerful technique which is illegal to use in Gandistra accept for the reining Blending, chosen during a competition every twenty-five years. Formed when a group of Talent users combine their magic and minds together through their Spirit Magic User, an entity is formed that can do more together than they can individually.- Hive Mind: What the respective Blendingmates feel after a certain number of uses.
- Elemental Powers: All five or, rather six, Talents are combined to form a Blending Entity, and it is able to use them simultaneously, creating effects that even a High Mage cannot. At least, until the full Blending process has been completed.
- Mind Control: An Entity excels at this, as it can more effectively combine the varying powers of its components. Particularly strong opponents can resist an order given, even if it was reinforced, but a powerful Blending can override even the strongest of minds eventually.
- True Companions: A must if you want to have a successful, fully formed Blending. The actual mechanics of the ritual are quite simple, and anybody can complete the process - as long as they don't truly loathe one another, or so they say. Gracley has a process by which each Blending has one High Talent and Four Middle Talents, and while the Blending is weaker than one comprised of all Highs, they have experience on their side.
Peasant Blending
A group of five later six Adepts who are thrown together during a twenty-fifth year in the Empire of Gandistra. They all have their own goals and angles, but the threat to their lives bands them together into a force to be reckoned with. While some of their members got off to a rocky start, they become a Family of Choice, not to mention the bane of the nobility's existence.
Tamrissa Domon
Tamrissa is, at first, shy and reserved, with occasional bursts of emotions when she is suitably pushed, though through the society that she was born and raised in, she never once actually used her powerful Fire Magic to incinerate her abusive husband. However, even she admits that had her marriage gone on just a bit longer, she would have gladly burned him to ash and enjoyed a quiet life before being euthanized just to get some peace. By the time the book begins, she is determined to never be under the thumb of anybody else and is extremely wary of the men around her.- Action Girl: She may not have burned her husband to a crisp due to her upbringing having turned her into a Broken Bird, but she certainly took several levels in badass over the course of the first three books alone.
- Beautiful Slave Girl: Lord Lanir the High in Fire Magic who is a Paper Tiger masquerading as a powerful magic user, tries to have Tamrissa brought in as his mistress to sire real Highs in Fire Magic. He thinks he can get away with this because the Nobles have an elixir that amounts to mind control, but Tamrissa and her friends had already learned about it and neutralized it. He didn't survive the encounter.
- The Hero: The chief narrator for the series of a series told through Switching P.O.V.. Each chapter is told as if it were from the character's POV, but it is made clear that it is through a recounting by Tamrissa. Her chapters, save a few late in the fifth book, all use first-person pronouns, while the others use third-person pronouns. Yet, for the Five-Man Band, if she's not playing the hero, then she's playing The Lancer to Lorand.
- The Ojou: Tamrissa may be the daughter of a merchant, but he is one of the wealthiest Merchants in Gandistra and viewed Tamrissa, and her sisters, as another product to be bought and sold. So he raised them to be well-brought-up young women capable of identifying the price range of gifts for the sole purpose of choosing the most expensive one without making it obvious.
- Playing with Fire: A High Talent Fire Adept.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Kind, polite, and compassionate, Tamrissa didn't survive two years in an abusive marriage and nineteen years under the keen, observant eye of a greedy merchant father without developing some skills to protect herself.
- DePower: Not herself, but she figured out how to burn out a person's talent long before they did it as a Blending. Unfortunately for Delin, it happened right when he realized he was poisoned with something that he could easily remove with his lost Earth Magic.
Lorand Coll
Lorand is the youngest son of a farming couple on the edge of the Gandistran empire. He has long since dreamed of exploring the world beyond his Small Town Boredom. He, and his best friend, Hattial Riven, have both been identified as potential High Talents and are set to travel to the capital city of Gan Garee to be tested. Lorand, as the far more logical and rational-minded of the two, hopes for the best but is completely prepared to use his magic to make his way in the world, even if he doesn't meet the bar for High Talent- Dishing Out Dirt: An Earth Adept, Lorand is capable of manipulating the earth around him - this includes natural animals through a limited form of Mind Control.
- Farm Boy: As the youngest son of a farming family, Lorand grew up helping out on his farm for little, if any, pay. This is partly why he resents his father and desires to break out on his own.
- The Farmer and the Viper: Try as he might, Hat is determined to beg, borrow, and steal his way to being declared a High Talent at anybody's expense, even his childhood best friend.
- The Hero: When he's not playing The Lancer to Tamrissa, Lorand is the nominal hero of the story, as the first of the five introduced. While he gets off on the wrong foot with Clarion initially, he forms strong bonds with each of the other main characters almost immediately. The others form quick friendships in pairs or trios, but all of them are friends with Lorand before the time to form a Blending actually comes up.
- My Girl Is Not a Slut: Lorand takes a long time to fully comprehend why Jovvi has no issues with her career as a courtesan or why she wouldn't want to give it up just to be married. By the time he does figure it out, it's a moot point on that front but critical on another.
Jovvi Hafford
A famous courtesan who grew up on the streets after escaping her mother, who sold her younger sibling just to have money to count. A Spirit Magic user, Jovvi has informally trained her gift in order to succeed in her career as a courtesan, especially as a means of self-defense against those who would be abusive in bed. Smart, pragmatic, and desperately in need of controlling her life and her future, Jovvi has no interest in taking the test to determine if she is a High Talent. Rather, she wants to open up her own Courtesan Residence in the capital and get on with her life.- Action Girl: The men of the Blending note to all comers that they (the men) are not the one's that people have to worry about. Jovvi and Tamrissa and later Naran have no issues holding their own in a fight, whether physical or verbal.
- Ethical Slut: A famous courtesan, she vehemently views Sex Is Good and is not afraid to espouse this to her love interest, Lorand, in an effort to help him past his small-town mentality.
- Everybody Loves Blondes: While descriptions vary, with the covers definitively making Tamrissa a redhead and Lorand a brunette, all of them are described as being blonde to some degree. Jovvi, however, is platinum blonde, and there are very few people in the series who don't like her. A lot. She is often The Face of the group, when a big, strong man isn't required to move things along more quickly.
- Psychic Powers: Jovvi can manipulate people through vocal commands, a skill she had no idea was even possible until she made a suggestion to her former employer and her two ruffians to not leave town after they attempted to kidnap her. While she had no intention of reporting the effort, the nobles trying to game the system and unbalance her emotionally certainly took advantage of the situation - even if they had no idea why the three didn't book it the first opportunity that they could.
- Soul Power: as a Spirit Adept, she has control over emotions and minds.
Lord Clarion 'Rion' Mardimil
A young nobleman who is unlike the rest of his class to the point of being ostracized from high society despite his mother's relations to three of the current Five on the Fivefold Throne of Gandistra. Despite his youthful naiveté, he is a quick learner, and is no slouch in the magic department. He is the Air Adept assigned to Tamrissa Domon's house, and finds himself as the only noble in the residence to his immense shock, confusion, embarrassment, and outrage. He spends a portion of the first novel seeking to rectify this mistake, only to find himself among True Companions for the first time, as well as out from under his controlling mother's shadow.- Blow You Away: His Aspect is Air Magic, and it is the only thing he is confident about when he is first introduced, despite his mother's efforts to curtail him 'playing' with his magic. It's clear that most Nobles don't even care about their magic, though this has more to do with their fanatical adherence to marriage politics diminishing their collective magical ability save for the most extreme of outliers.
- Blue Blood: The bluest of the bunch as the only noble in the residence. Most of the initial strain he has is coming to terms with his situation, yet he flowers as a result of his exposure to real, true people who are unafraid of his title of Lord. Late in the fifth book when he learns he isn't even 'half' a noble, he is overjoyed. By that point, though, he's well on his way to being The Good King in more than just name.
- My Beloved Smother: To say that his mother is overbearing would be an understatement. Hallina Mardimil seeks to control every aspect of her son's life, even going on carriage rides as a chaperone with him when he went on the, few, dates he had while growing up.
Vallant Ro
The captain of his own ship in his father's fleet of merchant ships, a position he earned through hard work and sheer determination, as his parents were not about to hand any of their children the world on a silver platter. He is proud of the fact that he has worked every job on a ship, though his true love for the ocean is the fact that - even in his captain's quarters - he is not closed into a small, enclosed space which makes his Claustrophobia completely unbearable. His connection to the sea has another point in his favor, as he is a Water Adept.- The Big Guy: While all of the men are big, muscular, and classically handsome, Vallant is introduced as the most imposing of the group, and often acts as the muscle when Tamrissa's not in the mood to scorch those around her. Especially if the reason Tamrissa is not around to do it is the person right in front of him.
- The Captain: First introduced as a captain of one of his father's merchant ships. All he wants is to get back to his ship and the ocean, but the nobles of Gandistra have other plans for him.
- An Ice Person: While he's more than willing to simply drown an opponent from the inside out, Vallant's most devastating attacks can come from a well-aimed icicle.
- Making a Splash: As a Water Adept, he can create and manipulate water in every form.
Naran Whist
A woman who is introduced moonlighting as a courtsen where she first meets Clarion Mardimil. She is the woman he shares his first time with, and he is head over heels in love from that moment on. Naran is constantly on the move, hiding from a wealthy client she once had, who seeks to own her body and soul. Ultimately, she ends up hiding out at Tamrissa's house, becoming The Sixth Ranger to the group in the process.- {Seers}}: Naran can see the future, though she views them as possibilities, this dramatically alters the world they all live in.
- The Sixth Ranger: She becomes one for the group in the third book, after the five have learned to Blend, and hide her away in Tamrissa's estate to protect her from a noble who is later revealed to be Tamrissa's father.
Noble Blending
Five members of Gandistran Nobility who, like their compatriots, are scheming to upend the Advisor's carefully designed plans to control another twenty-fifth year of competitions to place a Noble Pet Blending on the Fivefold Throne. Unlike the other three Noble Blendings who have been declared and actually are Highs, Delin Moord, Kambil Arstin, Selendi Vas, Homin Weil, and Bron Kallan have the power and, relatively speaking, ingenuity to pull it off. Alas, they suffer from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. Kambil and Delin clash with one another for control of the group, literally.
Lord Delin Moord
A young nobleman who is an Earth Adept. Deathly afraid of his father, Delin seeks to control his Blendingmates through subtle, clever manipulation. A {Sadist} through and through, he suffers from severe mental trauma from his father's constant abuse to the point where he suffers from Through the Eyes of Madness. Alongside his fellow Adepts, he plots against the Noble Advisors to usurp their pet Blending and take the Fivefold Throne for themselves.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Like all Earth Adepts, he can manipulate sand and rocks, but he has trouble exerting true finesse over his gifts. This is an issue that most of the noble competitors are implied to suffer from.
- Fighting from the Inside: Kambil makes quick work of Delin and all of his Blendingmates, but Delin tries his level best to escape it. In the end, he managed to trick them into thinking he was still brainwashed.
- Near-Villain Victory: Unfortunately for Delin and his group, they had far too many enemies to take advantage of the Fivefold throne they stole.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: Delin truly cannot tell daydreams from reality. It doesn't help that Kambil likes him this way as Delin is easily manipulated..
Lord Kambil Arstin
A Spirit Adept who, unlike his compatriots, was supposedly thrown into the group solely because another magic user of his power level couldn't be found in time to round out a fifth Noble Blending. As the Only Sane Man of the group, he struggles to guide the group to their desired goal of usurping the Pet Blending chosen by the Advisors. Except, he wears a Mask of Sanity courtesy of his grandmother. This makes him one of the most dangerous members of the group.- Only Sane Man: Subverted. He wears a Mask of Sanity, though he doesn't initially realize it's because his grandmother has him under intense Mind Control. He dishes out the same treatment, with his grandmother's help to Selendi, Homin, and Bron but uses other methods to control Delin - the most psychotic man in the group.
- Psychic Powers: As a Spirit Adept, he truly is a powerful magic user. He simply pales in comparison to Jovvi despite having knowledge of aspects of their talent that she is only just beginning to learn. What he spent years learning, she mastered in months. To devastating effects for him.
- During his fight with Vallant Ro, he tried to use Vallant's fear of enclosed spaces against him, but Jovvi had used her powers to help him and Lorand, who was afraid of burnout, to switch their fears and change the triggers. Kambil is left angrily confused as he tries to fight Vallant only to drown at his hands without landing a single attack.
- Sanity Slippage: By the time his group fights the main characters, he has been reduced to a mere Mask of Sanity, forced to manipulate his three Blendingmates minds at Delin's orders. Even with his plans still unfolding, all it takes for Vallant to break him is by explaining how all of his plans rely on him winning, but that Vallant and his group is far stronger.
Lady Selendi Vas
The only woman in the Noble Blending counterpart to the main characters. An Air Adept, she is considered by her compatriots to be vapid, vain, and utterly useless for anything outside of a bedroom. Like the rest of her Blendingmates, though, she has a Tragic Backstory, though just like them she allowed it to consume her and dictate the path that she took. She is often considered the weakest member of the Blending, yet she was the only one who came closest to actually killing her counterpart during their climactic final battle.- Abusive Parents: It's all but outright stated that her father was sexually abusing her as a child, and had done so with her sister, too. This severely damaged her psyche, and she uses sex with any man she can get her hands on to try and recapture that feeling she has mistaken for love.
- Blow You Away: As an Air Adept, she can use Air Magic, and is incredibly powerful. The Guildmembers who were able to Rank her magic mark her as only marginally weaker than Rion Mardimil. Her issue, though, is dedication and application.
- Dark Action Girl: While most of her fight scenes are as part of a Blending, Delin absolutely refuses to let them use their Blending to fight the peasant Blending. This leads to her Designated Girl Fight with Jovvi Hafford near the climax of Prophecy, where she manages to nearly kill Jovvi with her Air Magic. The others barely came close to inconveniencing them.
- Designated Girl Fight: As the only woman of the Noble Blending, she was annoyed when Jovvi showed up instead of Rion during the final battle. She still managed to nearly kill Jovvi by magically induced suffocation.
- Rich Bitch: All of the Nobles are crushingly wealthy, Selendi basks in her wealth and thinks herself so far above everybody else. Even her Blendingmates.
- The Smurfette Principle: Not for lack of trying, but the Noble's selective marriage practices have left them critically short of Highs in every talent. In an effort to disguise their efforts, they try to group similarly powered invidiuals together, just as long as they don't get along with one another.
Homin Weil
The Water Adept, who is shy and reserved because he is cowed by his dominatrix of a stepmother, a powerful woman in the upper echelons of Gandistra's nobility. He struggles to do any of the work required to be a member of the Noble Blendings because of her interference, to the point where he asks Delin for help. Unfortunately for them it all Goes Horribly Wrong.
- Butt-Monkey: Of the five, Homin is talked down to the most, mistreated, and even laughed at by most of noble society. In terms of the narrative, he's the only one who doesn't get a last POV before he dies - all of it is from Lorand's perspective.
- Making a Splash: A Water Adept through and through, but the few times we see him use his magic aren't all that impressive. Of the five, he doesn't even get the chance to attack during his final confrontation.
Bron Kallan
The Fire Adept for the Noble Blending who has chosen to usurp power from the Noble Advisors. Due to his parent's extreme Hands-Off Parenting, Bron became an indulgent, callous, lazy, and unambitious individual despite being a member of the upper nobility. He views himself as the unambiguous leader of his Blending, with Delin and Kambil happy to let him ''play'' the part until he proves just that incompetent to their longterm plans.- The Brute: His defining personality traits are that he's big, strong, lazy, and dumb. Despite the group clearly placating him, he believes himself the leader of the Blending he's in, but his pliability makes him the perfect cover for the more discerning members.
- The Gadfly: Despite being a member of the upper nobility, Bron is a boor to everybody around him and distractingly blunt in his stupidity. His statements, often obvious ones, are blunt because he lacks tact.
- Jerkass: When Nialla, a noblewoman he's currently bedding, points out that he and his group are essentially stage-dressing for Lady Adriari's group, he burns a critical piece of her piano out of spite.
- Playing with Fire: His one redeeming quality is his High level Fire Magic, but his lack of ambition, compared to the others, means he doesn't view it as important to train his talent. Delin and Kambil have to goad him into seeing his failure to train as a potential embarrassment - to his father, and the nobility at large - just to get him to put in any effort to train his magic. Even then, it doesn't do him much good when he trades blows with Rion late in the fifth book.
- Ridiculous Procrastinator: He can't even muster the energy to train his power because he thinks it is beneath him. If not for the threat of embarrassing his father, who indulged him to no end to disastrous effect, Bron might have been dropped from the competition altogether despite the Nobility choosing him and his cohorts for the 'honor' simply to let them die in the competition itself.
The Acquaintances of the Peasant Blending
Over the course of all eight books, there are several characters who are tied to one of the main characters. From family members to friends to enemies and everything in between, they round out the supporting cast and fill out most of the important subplots.
Storn Torgar
Tamrissa's father, who is a relatively successful merchant in the Gandistran Empire. He views his daughter as a tool to move himself upward in society, which causes him to make several mistakes in his business ventures.- Abusive Parents: Tries to sell Tamrissa to a beast of a man not once but twice. The second one, Odrin Hallaser, was expected to live far longer than her first husband, Gimmis, and be even more brutal.
- Briefcase Full of Money: Tries offering five thousand gold din to Lanir in order to get Tamrissa back, proving how desperate he, and his situation, was. Lanir turned him down, though Storn figured it out before he put on a clown costume and danced for their amusement.
Avrin Torgar
Tamrissa's mother is cold, calculating, and otherwise uncaring of those around her unless they can provide some benefit to her. Usually financially. Like her husband, she views her daughters as chess pieces for her to move around the board in order to increase her standing in life. Unfortunately for Storn, she views him the same way.- Ice Queen: Tamrissa notes that her mother was known to be one in her youth. Avrina doesn't disappoint.
Warla
Tamrissa's companion and lady's maid, she is a timid woman who was employed by Gimmis Domon, Tamrissa's recently deceased husband, in an effort to 'teach' Tamrissa in the ways of the bedroom. Plain-faced, Tamrissa is certain that this, in addition to her shy nature, made it so that Gimmis didn't try to force himself on her before his untimely demise.- Making a Splash: Warla's Talent is Water Magic, which makes her a good companion and lady's maid to Tamrissa. The description of her duties is one of the many ways of how magic impacts this world's society. With her magic, she can draw perfect baths, maintain the temperature of water, prepare ice on demand, and offer cool glasses of water.
- The Mole: For the Benevolent Conspiracy led by those with Sight Magic. By the time her position is revealed, she hadn't been seen for two whole books.
- Shrinking Violet: Her shyness is one of her defining character traits, which makes it a bit difficult at first for her to manage Tamrissa's estate when it is temporarily taken out of her ownership during the competitions. However, it's all an act that she puts on in order to play a mole for the Benevolent Conspiracy run by those with Sight Magic. Her duty was to watch over Tamrissa and play the shy, demure wallflower to keep Tamrissa from falling into that pitfall.
Mirra Agran
The daughter of a merchant who was engaged to Vallant Ro. In their introductory chapter, he ends the engagement when he realizes that she doesn't even view him as a man, only a toy that she could manipulate for her amusement. Her continued interference in his life proves all manner of chaos for his burgeoning relationship with Tamrissa.- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Having run off all of the servants who were willing to accept a wage to work for her family, she was put to work alongside her mother by her father, as it finally dawned on him that Vallant was right about her.
- Proud Beauty: Mirra is consistently described as beautiful in the books, though her personality ruins it. She believes that she can get by on her beauty and that it won't fail her. Once people see past it, though, there's not much else there.
- Spoiled Brat: To a T.
Hattial Riven
Lorand's childhood best friend who heads off to Gan Garee with him to test for High. Unlike Lorand, Hat was told in no uncertain terms that he was almost certainly just a Middle Talent. However, Hat is so lost a dream of being a High to listen to reason, no matter who it is that's trying to get through to him. Like Lorand, Hat is an Earth Adept and a farm boy who dreams of more, but he is far less scrupulous or honorable.- Dishing Out Dirt: To his chagrin, he's a Middle Talent in Earth Magic. He only uses his magic in the series twice but boy does he make up for it the second time.
- Dirty Coward: Next to his envy, this is his other defining character trait. If he can hide behind somebody and still get what he wants, he will.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Hat's primary vice is his envy, specifically of Lorand.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When Delin plans on squaring off with Lorand during the Final Battle, he has Hat brought in as a hostage to throw Lorand out of balance. Unfortunately for Delin and Hat, Tamrissa was the one directed down his corridor. Having watched Hat deteriorate over the course of the series, while trying to help Lorand not beat himself up for Hat being a bad friend, Tamrissa puts Hat in his place for the final time. In the end her words get through to him, and he interposes his magic with Delin's giving Tamrissa the time she needs to DePower Delin personally.
- It's All About Me: He would probably give Hallina a run for her money. He was so caught up in himself that he refused to listen to the guildsman who told him point blank that he was a Middle Talent at best and tried, and failed, to take the test for High. He spends the vast majority of his time on page blaming Lorand for his gambling debts, for 'stealing' his place in the competition, and for not helping him. This, despite the fact that Lorand was willing to give Hat most of the meager funds he had left, even at the expense of himself. Hat wanted it all or nothing.
Competitor Blendings
Pagin Holter
A stableman from Gan Garee who is a Water Adept, like Vallant Ro. He is one of only three competitors in Tamrissa's house during the initial competitions whose Aspect doubles another resident.
- Making a Splash: As a Water Adept, this was par for the course. Like Vallant, he is also exceptional at using Ice Magic.
- Shrinking Violet: He is nervous around new people, and he is practically thrown into a group of new people at the beginning of the second act when he joins Tamrissa's house when it is used as a residence for the competition. He breaks out of it, though.
- The Sixth Ranger: Despite being another Water Adept, it is clear to everybody that he has found a group of friends, if not family, in the group that remains at Tamrissa's residence. While Tamrissa and Vallant are in the midst of one of their many feuds, he point-blank askes her if she thought the group would be better off with Pagin than Vallant, despite Vallant describing himself as the stronger Water Mage. Tamrissa's response left him floored, but by that point, Pagin had already been distancing himself. He had already realized that they would fit better as a Blending than with him.
Beldara Lant
A woman with a harsh kind of beauty who grew up in a relatively small town where she was renowned for her ability to manipulate fire. Unfortunately for her, while she has magic for days, she lacks finesse and patience, which brings her into near-open hostilities with Tamrissa, the only other Fire Magic User in their residence. Haughty and delusional, Beldara is an antagonistic force that pushes Tamrissa to be the best of the best.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Although she can't bring herself to acknowledge it openly, she is envious of Tamrissa and Jovvi's softer, more natural beauty, and the money that they clearly have which gave them a different kind of life than the one she had as a child.
- Jovvi is startled when Tamrissa reveals that she is actually envious of Beldara's looks, because she felt that if she weren't the innocent beauty that she was, she might have escaped her father's designs and her husband's abuses.
- Playing with Fire: Like Tamrissa, she is a High in Fire Magic, but that is about all that she has going for her.
- Sore Loser: Beldara really cannot help but believe that she is the best there is in Fire Magic. This was her Fatal Flaw. One of the final times that she was mentioned was when she was put in as a prop for the farcical competitions for the Seat for High Magic in Fire.
Eskin Drowd
An academician from Regisard, which is colloquially known as University for its no less than five institutions of higher learning. At first, Eskin appears well adjusted, kind, albeit a bit stuffy. It quickly becomes clear that he needs to be the top dog, and he does that by targeting those whom he can make feel insignificant. Despite being an Earth Adept, his ultimate target becomes Rion - who is only just beginning to break out from the damaging control of his mother.
- Dishing Out Dirt: An Earth Adept who trails in the wake of Lorand. The only reason he manages to catch up with Lorand at all is because Lorand is deathly afraid of Burn Out.
- Nerdy Bully: He is cruel and thinks highly of himself, but also intelligent. He is, at times, inflexible on his opinions, which requires careful maneuvering in order to shatter his delusions of grandeur. Jovvi has him dancing in the palm of her hand after one conversation.
- Promoted to Scapegoat: Much is made of the final preliminary competitions which throw together competitors into prospective Blendings. The nobility pushes Eskin Drowd forth despite his failure because one of their prospects lost his mind and Burned Out during the preliminaries.
The Resistance
Alsin Meerk
A keen, observant man who is working on bringing the fight to the nobility, though he has no intention of killing the nobles in his efforts to bring about the revolution. An Earth Magic User of Middle Talent, he stumbles upon Hat and manages to make the hopeless fool lose all of his money to him after overhearing Hat complain about being cheated out of the Test for High. He uses Hat to get access to those who are actually involved in the competition, only to realize just how outclassed he is by somebody of Lorand's power. He spends the first three books pretending to be a dumb yokel in order to fly under the radar, but his abilities go far beyond simply being a Master Actor.- Dishing Out Dirt: A Middle Talent in Earth Magic. He is dismayed when he realizes just how much of a difference there is between his magic and Lorand's. When he tries to strongarm Lorand, he is easily brought to his knees without the barest hint of effort on Lorand's part.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Falls head over heels in love with Tamrissa and actively courts her throughout the fourth and fifth books. When Odrin Hallaser tries to incapacitate and kidnap Tamrissa, Alsin steps in and tries to protect her one last time after having lost a fight to Vallant earlier in the book. He manages to uses a spike of magic to alert the others to what is happening, but Odrin was a powerful High Magic that hand't been identified, and killed Alsin for his efforts.
- La Résistance: The leader of a resistance movement in Gandistra comprised of peasants. His stubborn need to not kill anybody is why the nobles have felt no need to even 'stop' their movement. Discovering this causes him to have a massive crisis of confidence.
- Romantic False Lead: What Alsin hoped he was, but Tamrissa never truly returned his affections in the way that he felt for her. After his fist fight with Vallant, despite Tamrissa storming off to shout at Vallant, Alsin realized that this meant she had chosen Vallant because he was the one she thought to talk to. Even if it was a confrontation. This led to Alsin breaking off from the main group by the time they headed back for Gan Garee to confront the falsely seated Five.
Other Characters
Odrin Hallaser
A merchant that Storn Torgar, Tamrissa's father, has promised to betroth her to in order to seal a business deal. Younger and more vital than Gimmis - Tamrissa's first husband - Odrin is expected to last a great deal longer than him. More beast than man, Tamrissa is utterly terrified of him, and knows that if she were to end up alone with him that it would not end well. Unfortunately for everybody involved, it's him who the main characters are worried about being hurt.- Black Eyes of Crazy: A brutish man with horrifying tastes that make Gimmis' seem like child's play. Tamrissa notes that his black eyes seem soulless.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Along with the former, they're a clear indication of his role as an antagonsit.
The Nobility
The Proud Elite of Gandistran society. They control every aspect of the Empire, from the levers of power to the economy, and they use it as their personal playground. While most Aristocrats Are Evil, the series takes its time to develop several characters among the nobility, proving that it's ones character rather than their station that determines whether they are a good person or not. Expect lots of Character Development in either direction.
Lady Eltrina Razas
A noblewoman who is the point person for Tamrissa, Jovvi, Lorand, Rion, and Vallant. While she presents a friendly demeanor, she is a shrewd, calculating noble who is not above instigating drama directly to the group's face despite the nobility's marked subtly in manipulating events from behind the scenes for centuries.- Ambition Is Evil: Eltrina takes this and runs with it. Unfortunately for her, the person she's trying to replace is the man that she plans on disposing of is disposed of by someone else before she can. Those investigating his death, and a rash of others, are able to tell that she had plans, she just never had the chance to act on them.
- Eltrina spends three books trying to move up in the nobility, backstabbing anybody who might get in her way. However, her superiors are aware of her ambition, and they might have done away with her themselves if she weren't also competent. Unfortunately for her, and everybody else, the people they were looking for were Right Under Their Noses the entire time.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Eltrina never met an ally she wasn't planning on betraying.
- Lord Ollon Kapmar was her immediate superior in the Testing Authority, and Eltrina managed to initiate an affair with him while proving herself his most capable subordinate. All of this was in an effort to kill him and take his place, along with the credit. Unfortunately for her, he's murdered by Delin, actually Kambil, after Delin ranted and raved about having killed Ollon's sister, before passing out before finishing the deed which leaves her with all of the work. And all of the blame.
- Edmin Ruhl: When the revolution begins Eltrina has managed to connect with Embisson and Edmin Ruhl in order to get her revenge on Kambil and Delin's Blending, as well as Tamrissa and Vallant. She seduces Edmin, unaware that he is a Spirit Magic User in order to help provide her with resources to realize her goals. As the situation begins to deteriorate at a rapid pace, Embisson and Edmin plan to escape and fight another day. Eltrina does not.
- Dishing Out Dirt: It's mentioned in passing late in the series, but Eltrin is a Low Talent in Earth Magic. The only point in which she even uses her magic during the series is when she is questioned as a suspect in a murder, proving just how little magic truly means to the nobility in favor of political power.
- During the scene, all she does is touch someone with her power at their request, simply to register the amount of power that she has access to.
- Hot Consort: What she tries to set herself up as with Edmin Ruhl, when she tries to use him and his father to get her revenge against Vallant and Tamrissa. If not for his Spirit Magic, and Edmin and Embisson's general distrust of her, she might have succeeded.
- Not Worth Killing: The last book reveals that Eltrina wasn't killed. Instead, she was sent to Astina like the rest of the nobles were. Her last scene is her bickering with Hallina Mardimil.
- Rich Bitch: One of the first things she does is casually correct Tamrissa when the girl refers to her as Dama Razas. She says the line so coolly and casually that Tamrissa is briefly caught off guard, having never personally dealt with a member of the nobility before.Eltrina: And it's Lady Eltrina, not Dama Razas.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: She poisons her husband Grall after he strung her up and had her used by any man who wanted to after she lost Vallant Ro during Tamrissa's prison break in the fourth book. His habit of using the same glass and drinking the same wine when he returned home each night sealed his fate. She wasn't even aware that he was part of a resistant group against Delin and Kambil's group - much in the same vein as her.
Lord Lanir Porvin
The Seated High in Fire Magic for the Empire of Gandistra. Nondescript, with brown hair and eyes, he, like his compatriots, was handed their positions rather than having to earn them. This is because, like most of the important positions intended to be held by High Talent users, Lanir is actually a Middle Talent - and only barely.- Paper Tiger: Because he was given his position rather than having earned it, he let the political power go to his head. By the time he came to blows with somebody who truly outclassed him, he made the deadly mistake of trying to match her.
- Playing with Fire: Tries to match Tamrissa Domon, who is so far above his weight class that he burns himself out and is left a drooling, messy lump of flesh without her having to do a single thing but have a light touch on the power.
High Lord Ollon Kapmar
The ultimate authority in the Testing Authority who is on his second twenty-fifth year overseeing the process. He is the brother of Elfini Weil, whose murder sends him off the deep end in the middle of the series.High Lord Embisson Ruhl
A notoriously powerful High Lord in Gandistra who was set to take over a critical government post after the successful conclusion of that year's competition to seat the Pet Noble Blending, until he came to blows with multiple forces, which led to his ultimate undoing.- Aristocrats Are Evil: His one true redeeming quality is his love of his children, Ophin and Edmin - the former's mysterious disappearance in the wake of Delin and Kambil's Blending ascending to the fivefold throne is one of a series of events that destabilize him throughout the latter half of the series.
Lord Edmin Ruhl
Lord Embisson's eldest son, and a Middle in Spirit Magic.- I Have No Son!: As Embisson and Edmin's relationship deteriorates over the course of the sequel series, Edmin comes to his senses about the world and his place in it. Embisson, still struggling from Mind Control, doesn't take it well. By the time Embisson comes out of it and realizes his mistake, he's attacked by their supposed allies hitman, and left for dead. Luckily, he survives, and they are able to somewhat reconcile, but Embisson still believes in the old way of life, and Edmin leaves brokenhearted.
- Replacement Goldfish: Introduced in the fourth book several chapters after his younger brother is last seen and plays much the same role as Ophin, albeit far more effectively. There's a reason he outlived them all.
Lady Hallina Mardimil
Clarion's doting mother, who is one of the most powerful, yet out-of-touch members of the nobility. Most of her political power comes from the fact that she is related to three of the current Five - the rulers of the Gandistran Empire. She sees Clarion as little more than a puppet who solely exists for her. When Clarion begins to exert the barest hint of individuality, she seeks to crush it quickly, mercilessly, and efficiently.- Bullying a Dragon: Hallina hasn't the slightest clue precisely who it is that she's dealing with when she meets Tamrissa Domon. By the time Tamrissa is done rescuing Rion from her after their betrayal at the hands of the nobility, she is deathly terrified.
- It's All About Me: Conceited to an insane degree, she makes literally everything about herself or her feelings and can't fathom the possibility that she could be wrong.
- Rich Bitch: As a member of the High Nobility, despite not having the style of High Lady, Hallina was considered to be at the zenith of political power because of her familial ties to the Five. However, by the time Delin and Kambil get to the throne she hasn't realized just how unimportant she truly was.
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: When the peasants all quit their jobs as a revolution is on the horizon Hallina finds that her slippers aren't warmed, no breakfast has been served, and her clothes have not been prepared. She's more concerned that the letter left for her referred to her as a bitch before it dawns on her that she doesn't know how to take care of even the most basic needs she has. Before the final fight Kambil, then Delin has her brought to the palace so that she doesn't accidentally kill herself before she can be used by them against Rion.
Lady Elfini Weil
A wealthy noblewoman, and the sister of Lord Ollon Kapmar, a high-ranking member of the Testing Authority. As the second wife to Lord Aston Weil, she is the stepmother of Homin Weil, the Water Adept who is a member of Kambil and Delin's Blending. As such, she is an obstacle to Delin's plans.- Dishing Out Dirt: Mentions that she has Earth Magic to Delin when he confronts her. It didn't help.
- Dominatrix: Through and through, though she is also a Sadist who gets off on inflicting pain and terror on everybody around her. She has no sexual interest in Homin, yet she torments him all the same because she can.
- Killed Off for Real: Her death, and who committed it, is a major plot point from the second book on. Unfortunately for everybody involved in the investigation Elfini had a long list of enemies, and the circumstances of her death, and how her body was left, leave the ultimate cause up for debate on who killed her, why, and how.
- Delin is the chief suspect, because of his strong Earth Magic, Kambil bluntly informs Delin that he's never killed anybody, and the state that he actually left Elfini in required the rest of them to act quickly. Bonus points for failing to follow through in killing her brother, Ollon Kapmar in the very next book.
- Stupid Evil: Despite being related to a high-ranking member of the Testing Authority, she interferes in Homin's ability to train and participate in the competition during a twenty-fifth year which is the most dangerous, complex operation that the nobility has to oversee. All because he didn't show deference to her in the way that she deemed necessary.
- Unfortunately for Elfini, she pushed her luck with Delin - and, by extension, Kambil, as Delin truly couldn't kill her despite trying his best. She would turn her ire on Homin's father, not clear on who did what, but blaming him because he was within her reach.
Gracely
The empire to the east of Gandistra, which is led by an Assembly of fifteen Highs, three for each of the five known talents, whose Blendingmates are comprised of strong middles. Whereas Gandistra holds a quarter-century, Gracely maintains quarterly competitions for each High Assemblymember and monthly competitions for each Middle Blendingmate. Despite having a firmer acceptance of Blending as a concept, the process is strictly controlled through factional coalitions. Minor and Major coalitions jockey for influence amongst themselves, though only a true handful of members actually move the needle in one direction or another, be it through intelligence, patience, or pure manipulation. They take center stage for the main plotline in The Blending Enthroned, with only passing mention to them in the original five books.
