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Point of View Characters
Tané
I was too fortunate. All my life, the great Kwiriki was too good to me. Every day, I have waited for his favor to disappear. When the outsider came, I knew it was time.
- Achey Scars: The pain in her side gets progressively worse as the earthquakes increase. It's caused by a tumor that she's had since childhood. Except it's not a tumor. When Doctor Moyaka performs surgery to remove it, it turns out to be the Rising Jewel.
- The Atoner: Doesn’t try to defend her actions when they are exposed and willingly suffers the consequences.
- Badass Normal: Has no innate supernatural powers.note
- Badass Pacifist: Trained in various weapons for combat but abhors lethal force. Unless you harm a dragon.
- Broken Ace: Harbors a lot of insecurity despite being incredibly skilled in almost everything she does. As her entry quote demonstrates, she doesn't trust the good fortune she's had since her parents' death and is just waiting for something to go terribly wrong.
- The Chosen One: She discovers late in the book that she carries a key to the Nameless One's defeat in her own body.
- Despair Event Horizon: After losing her best friend and her dragon.
- Determinator: She'll keep fighting regardless of odds or injury.
- She willingly takes a painful blow to lure her opponent in during a fight.
- Part of training to be a dragon rider is being severely beaten by soldiers to ensure they can endure torture without giving up information.
- She defends herself against a wyvern attack when she is interrupted mid-surgery and still under partial anesthesia, then sews herself back up.
- Empowered Badass Normal: She's already a skilled warrior and had trained to be one for most of her life. Eating from the Orange Tree gives her magic as well, making her even more formidable.
- Heroic Lineage: She is directly descended from Neporo, one of the two people who sealed the Nameless One.
- Heroic Safe Mode: After losing her best friend and her dragon she goes willingly into exile on Feather Island (where she finds out her other friend died before she got there). She is prepared to live out her life as an emotionless scholar; Elder Vara even describes her as a ghost.
- I Did What I Had to Do: She's willing to break her Thou Shalt Not Kill policy in order to rescue Nayimathun.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Upon realizing her actions led to the capture of Nayimathun and the death of Susa.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Tané's attempt to keep the Water Trials from being canceled sets several disasters in motion. The man she finds turns out to be a naive young man who gets himself and Susa arrested and executed, along with Roos, and inadvertently leads to the Golden Empress getting her hands on Roos and a dragon.
- Platonic Life-Partners: It's unclear if Tané's feelings for Susa ever went beyond deep childhood friendship.
- The Stoic: Tané is not an expressive person. She responds to her rival's insults with polite indifference and refrains from socializing with the other cadets. It's only when she snaps at Onren that anyone else sees that there's a lot going on underneath.
- Survivor Guilt: She is constantly burdened by the thought that her people's god has been too good to her for allowing her to survive the earthquake that killed her family and be placed into training with the High Sea Guard.
- Tempting Fate: She allays her worries about Susa by reminding herself that Susa is good at landing on her feet no matter what trouble she's in. Tané is later forced to watch Susa's execution by decapitation.
Ead Duryan / Eadaz du Zāla-uq Nāra
A mage from a secret society posing as one of Queen Sabran’s chambermaids in order to protect her.
- The Ace: Smart, athletic, and a powerful mage.
- Amazonian Beauty: She's 5'10" (177.8 cm), strong, and attractive.
- Assassin Outclassin': Her magic makes it easier to thwart assassins sent for Sabran. And knights who come to arrest her. And Red Sisters who are sent after her...
- Bodyguard Crush: She develops feelings for Sabran, who she was sent by the Priory to protect.
- Butch Lesbian: For a given value of butch, but Ead is athletic, tough and detests wearing the petticoats and fancy clothes she's required to wear. And of course, the only person she ever shows romantic interest in is Sabran.
- Exact Words: She promises Sabran she will stay with her "as long as she is able". They both understand that this is not the same thing as "for the rest of our lives."
- The Gadfly: At the start of the book, she likes to tweak the other palace servants (who tend to look down or mistrust her for being foreign) by pointing out when they fall short of Inys' restrictive standards of propriety, always in the most mild-mannered and helpful way.
- Hates Wearing Dresses: Justified in that they are impractical for fighting.
- Honest Advisor: This causes tension between her and Sabran at first—she tells Sabran what she thinks she needs to hear, not what she wants to hear. Sabran grows to appreciate this, however, and promotes Ead to Lady of the Bedchamber.
- Informed Attribute: Margret says Ead is humble. Ead, who has access to a lot of knowledge the Inysh don't, is humble in public but considers most of the Inysh around her to be fools or ignorant.
- Lady and Knight: The knight to Sabran's Lady.
- Love Epiphany: It takes being kissed to realize her feelings for Sabran.
- Magic Knight: Equally skilled in swords and sorcery (since her magic will fade if she doesn't regularly eat the magical oranges, knowing how to use mundane weapons is an important backup).
- Missing Mom: Ead's mother was killed when she was a child, though she barely remembers her.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: One of her techniques is "candling," where she lights a tiny flame in a person's throat to temporarily rob them of oxygen and knock them out. She does this when possible, but it requires time to concentrate that she doesn't always have.
- Oblivious to Love: She doesn't understand why Sabran has taken a sudden interest in her. note
- Only Sane Man: How Ead feels in the Inysh court, which is full of complex and petty rivalries, time-consuming ceremony, and adherent to a religion with very dodgy roots.
- Parental Favoritism: Discouraged at the Priory, but also a clue that Chassar is Ead's father.
- Playing with Fire: She wields a fire-type magic that is gained by eating the fruit of a magical orange tree.
- Spanner in the Works: She spent a lot of time recently killing assassins against Sabran and is dismayed that they manage to get closer and closer each time—and then she works out that they're only succeeding in getting that close because someone on the inside is sending them to scare Sabran. Ead's efforts kept Sabran from even knowing they were there, forcing the mastermind to betray themselves as an insider by giving the latest assassin a key. She thinks that it was Combe trying to "encourage" Sabran to produce an heir, but later realizes it was Igrain Crest's plans she messed up.
- Super-Senses: A passive effect of siden magic granted by the Orange Tree.
- Unwillingly Girly Tomboy: Ead is not a fan of the restrictive Inyish styles."Oh, and Sabran, I will not be wearing court fashions any longer. I've had more than enough of trying to protect you in a petticoat."
Arteloth "Loth" Beck
Son of Lord Clarent and Lady Annes Beck of Leas and older brother of Meg. Loth is Sabran's closet friend.
- Ambiguously Gay: He has very close friendships with two women that are explicitly non-romantic, but he really comes off as ambiguously asexual and aromantic as well. There's no hint he may be attracted to men (nor any reason for him to be in denial) and more than once he considers that he's still waiting to feel the glow of romantic love for another, though he assumes it will happen eventually.
- Action Survivor: He hears many wry remarks (including his own self-deprecating ones) about how useless courtiers are, and his only real practical skill is horseback riding. Even his skill at hunting is only partly useful; royal sport hunting doesn't include actual butchery, and his first attempts in the Spindles leave him nauseous and shaking. He still plunges into many physically challenging situations nonetheless to help his friends and his country.
- Bad Liar: Loth has an honest face—enough that someone tells him that he'd make a terrible ruler after he's asked an awkward question and immediately looks pained.
- Big Brother Instinct: For Sabran and, more literally, for his sister Meg.
- Blue Blood: Heir apparent to the province of the Leas and the estate of Goldenbirch. It's a duty he doesn't look forward to very much as he was raised mostly in court. The denoument implies that he and Meg will officially switch places with regards to their expected family duties.
- Honor Before Reason: Given several opportunities to choose the safer path, Loth insists on doing the right thing no matter how dangerous. More than one person tried to warn him about the appearance his friendship with Sabran created, and he ignored them. He declines Harlowe's offer to join the Rose Eternal's crew and instead does what he can to investigate the death of the last ambassador to Yscalin. Having taken the Knight of Courage as his patron, he feels driven to do such things even when he would really rather not.
- Platonic Life-Partners:
- With Sabran. Their closeness is what gets him sent to Yscalin despite the fact that there is nothing romantic between them—even though they would never get married, Combe still thinks having an unattached man the Queen clearly likes hanging around all the time is putting suitors off.
- He also shares this kind of bond with Ead. She's a dear friend of his, but not romantic.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Sent to Yscalin by Combe so that he’s not in the way of Sabran's marriage prospects.
- Rousing Speech: When he and Ead return to Ascalon to drive out Igrain Crest, Loth rallies the Knights of the Body and Sabran's other loyal troops in the palace.
- The Straight Man: Loth is far more sober about being sent away than Kit, who chooses to see it as an adventure.
- Suicide Mission: His and Kit's appointment as "ambassadors" to Yscalin is one and they know it. Loth does his best to do the job for real in spite of it. Later, Loth willingly infects himself with the Draconic Plague in order to escape Yscalin, knowing there’s a high chance he will die before he can complete his mission.
Niclays Roos
Alchemist and Anatomist exiled by Sabran to a small trading post across the ocean.
- Abusive Dad: His father often took his belt to Niclays and his mother until he died of the drink. Niclays inherited the alcoholism, but not the physical cruelty. His relationship with his mother was also strained because she didn't approve of his profession.
- The Alcoholic: One of the first things we find out about him is that he's an alcoholic. Orisima's governor tries to restrict his access. Flashbacks to his life pre-exile indicate that it's been a problem for some time, since even with Jannart he suffered from delerium tremens if he didn't drink.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: His immediate reaction to the Golden Empress is to fall on his knees and beg for his life. She obliges, since she needs a new surgeon, but nicknames him after a type of jellyfish for his spinelessness.
- All for Nothing: Decides eventually that he'll dedicate his life to helping Truyde. He makes this resolve not knowing she's already been executed and is devastated when he finds out.
- Asshole Victim: Niclays doesn't always deserve the things that happen to him, but it can be hard to feel sorry for him considering how his selfish actions have made life harder for everyone else.
- Blackmail: Tries to extort Tané for a dragon scale and a vial of blood in exchange for not telling anyone that she forced him to hide Sulyard. She instead confesses the misdeed to her dragon.
- Butt-Monkey: Soldiers of Orisima, palanquin carriers, and the Golden Empress all take the opportunity to mock, kick, and humiliate Niclays.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": The occupation he gives out is "anatomist", aka a surgeon.
- Descent into Addiction: After Jannart's death, Niclays loses himself to gambling and alcohol. Unfortunately, this happened at the exact same time Sabran commissioned him for an elixir of immortality. Finding out that he used her funding for his addictions is why she exiled him.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The terms of his exile were that no one who called themselves Inys' friend could shelter him, forcing him to the other side of the world. When he finally gets to confront Sabran over it, he concedes that a year or two would have been fair, but not seven years cut off from his whole life. Sabran admits it was excessive.
- For Science!: Wants to create an elixir of immortality. He has no interest in taking it himself, he just wants to prove that he can do it. He's willing to do a lot of unethical things, too, since he doesn't have a lot left except that.
- Grumpy Old Man: Justified in that he has been banished to a tiny island across the world for eight years.
- Jerkass Has a Point: The demand he makes of Tané is outrageous, and he's betraying the trust of his two honest doctor friends in making it. But she did force him to commit a capital crime and left her best friend to take the fall. When Niclays says that he knows exactly the kind of person she is, she can't really refute it.
- The Lost Lenore: Jannart, Niclays' dead lover, who was betrothed at birth to a noblewoman. They carried on a secret affair but Jannart died before they could steal away together.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After the mess with Triam and Susa, Niclays spends a lot of effort trying to stuff his nagging conscience out of the way.
- Riches to Rags: He was from a well-to-do Mentish family, though not high-status enough to marry Jannart. At the start of the story he's eking out an existence as a local doctor on an island trading post.
- Trauma Conga Line: He's a broken old man exiled after his lover's death caused him to fail a queen and keeps finding, to his surprise, that he still has something to lose. His safety in exile is threatened when he's forced to shelter Sulyard. Then he makes a friend of the brutal pirate empress' translator, so both their lives are constantly under threat. His hand gets cut off. And finally, when he decides to selflessly dedicate himself to helping Truyde, he finds out that she's already dead. Of course, most of things that happen to him are a result of his own actions, but he is still pitiable when they crash down on his head.
- Villain Protagonist: He isn't evil, but he is bitter, angry, and his festering hatred of Sabran means that he's all too eager to do underhanded things if he thinks it might make things worse for her in some way (even if it means hampering people's efforts to stop the Nameless One).
Queendom of Inys
A small island nation located north of the western continent.- Ban on Magic: Especially fire magic which is heavily associated with wyrms.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: To England.
- Matriarchy: Inys’ monarchy is ruled by a matrilineal line of queens.
Sabran IX
The thirty-sixth queen of Inys.
For the first time, [Ead] saw Sabran Berethnet for who she was beneath the mask: a young and fragile woman who carried a thousand-year legacy on her shoulders. A queen whose power was absolute only so long as she could produce a daughter.
- Abdicate the Throne: It's mentioned that several previous Berethnets have abdicated to their daughters in their lifetimes. Crest tries to force Sabran to do this through imprisonment and psychological torture, but she resists until Ead leads the charge to free her. After the Nameless One's defeat, Sabran decides that she'll restructure the Inysh government into a republic and abdicate once it's stable.
- Altar Diplomacy: Arranges a marriage with Aubrecht II in order to secure a stronger alliance for Inys.
- Anxiety Dreams: Has recurring nightmares about a mysterious bower and the Nameless One eating her child.
- Assassination Attempt: The target of several. The ones in the start of the book are actually a set-up intended to terrify her into marriage and pregnancy, but she doesn't know about them because Ead foils them.
- Badass Boast: An epic one to Fýredel:"Leave this city and harm no soul, or I swear by the Saint whose blood I carry, you will face defeat beyond any the House of Berethnet has ever extracted on your kind. Before I leave this world, I will see your kind thrown down, sealed forever in the chasm of the mountain."
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted. After being locked in her room for weeks, she looks just as unkempt and emaciated as one might expect.
- Break the Haughty: Sabran starts out a self-righteous religious zealot and slowly has every piece of her worldview and identity called into question."Everything I am is a lie."
- The Chains of Commanding: She feels the weight of leading her country, with her decisions and her state of health affecting the lives of everyone in Inys—to say nothing of the fact that the existence of her house is what's supposed to prevent The End of the World as We Know It. She often laments her inability to form her own ambitions, much less pursue them.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: She starts off as proud and arrogant. After the confrontation with Fýredel, she begins to show a more human side to Ead, is more willing to listen to dissenting opinion, and becomes more flexible in her worldview.
- Despair Event Horizon: After the loss of her daughter, she briefly contemplates suicide. Ead snaps her out of it.
- Freudian Excuse: She has known since birth that what makes her important is her own ability to give birth, leading to a deep-rooted fear that no one will love her after she becomes a mother. She was also witness to the private coldness of her parents' marriage and lost her mother to assassination at 14. This all leads to her being frosty, emotionally closed, reluctant to hear opposition, and to drag her feet on marriage and motherhood.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Enjoys traditionally feminine activities as well as hunting.
- Heir Club for Men: A rare female example, as she's expected to birth a daughter instead of a son.
- Hidden Depths: She appears to be an arrogant, sheltered, and perhaps dangerously capricious ruler. Then Fýerdel appears outside her palace, and she walks out to challenge him without hesitation—because he threatened her people, and it's her job to defend them.
- Heroic Bastard: Unconfirmed. Her mother is rumored to have had an affair with Gian Harlowe but it is unclear if Sabran is his child or not. Her matrilineal descent is more important, both politically and to the plot.
- Honor Before Reason: Walks out to meet Fýredel without stopping to consider what her death would mean for her country. Almost a Too Dumb to Live moment had it not been for Ead's warding.
- Identical Granddaughter: Each generation of Berethnets looks nearly identical to the others. She herself is identical to the line's foundress, Kalyba.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Falls for Ead precisely because Ead doesn’t tell her what she wants to hear.
- Immortality Seeker: Fear of marriage and childbirth leads her to hire Niclays Roos to create an Elixir of Immortality.
- King Bob the Nth: Out of the thirty-six queens of Inys, there are only six names among themnote . This leads to high regnal numbers, such as Sabran IX.
- The Magnificent: Her royal epithet.
- Mandatory Motherhood: Her purpose as Queen of Inys is to secure the royal line by giving birth to a daughter.
- Parental Abandonment: Her mother was poisoned with basilisk venom when she was 14. Her father went missing as ambassador to Yscalin when the country turned to draconic worship. Alternatively, her father is Gian Harlowe, who never met her due to being a privateer.
- Please Wake Up: After losing her parents, her husband, her traitorous mentor, and her unborn daughter, Sabran begs and pleads with Ead to wake up after Ead is shot with a poisoned dart.Sabran: "Don't leave me here alone."
- Post-Victory Collapse: After surviving her encounter with Fýredel, she promptly faints.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Sabran has dark hair, green eyes, and pale skin.
- Royal "We": Uses this when speaking publicly as she speaks both for herself and her ancestor, the Saint.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Actively attends to matters of state and makes important diplomatic decisions.
- Statuesque Stunner: Word of God states Sabran is 6'1"(185.42cm) [1]
. - Tough Leader Façade: The sole ruler of Inys, Sabran is never anything less than composed in public. Only her Ladies-in-Waiting get so see the person beneath the crown.
- Trauma Conga Line: Dead mother, disappeared father, pressured into marriage, her husband is assassinated in her arms, Tragic Stillbirth, the list goes on.
- Unwanted Spouse: Doesn’t want a political marriage despite knowing she will eventually have to in order to produce an heir, since the unbroken line of Berethnet daughters is crucial to Inys.
Margret Beck
Daughter of Lord Clarent and Lady Annes Beck of Leas and younger sister of Loth.
- Courtly Love: With Lintley.
- Blue Blood: As the second child, it is expected that she will stay at court while her bother rules the province and estate. Loth sometimes remarks that she would be a better administrator than him.
- Silk Hiding Steel: She requests a dagger so that she can be useful in the raid to free Sabran from Igrain's control.
- Suddenly Suitable Suitor: Sabran raises Margret’s crush Tharian Lintley to the title of Viscount, making him of sufficient rank marry her.
- True Companions: She is Ead's other best friend in the Inysh court, as trustworthy as Loth.
Kitson Glade
Loth's best friend, a poet who was sent to exile alongside him.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He begs Harlowe for a place on the crew once the ship sights Yscalin. The effort is mostly a bid to get Loth a place on the ship too, but Loth refuses to take it and Kit goes with him.
- The Bard: His love for writing poetry puts him at odds with his father.
- Guilt by Association: Or rather, punishment by association. Kit is dragged into sharing Loth’s mission simply because the two are friends.
- Plucky Comic Relief: The optimistic sidekick to Loth’s Straight Man.
- Sacrificial Lamb: He dies when a tunnel collapses on him in an earthquake, abruptly snuffing out him and his optimism. His death marks the point where a lot of things start to go downhill for all the protagonists.
- Secret Admirer: He's been sending love poems under a pseudonym to a lady of Sabran's court. Later, it's noted that she's looking depressed because her letters have stopped.
Roslain Crest
- Heroic Lineage: Like her grandmother Igrain, Roslain is a direct descendant of the first Knight of Justice.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She is frosty and suspicious towards Ead, particularly after Ead deviates from the "official" version of Galian and Cleolind's meeting. However, her loyalty to Sabran is genuine, not an attempt at social-climbing.
- Parental Betrayal: She does not agree with Igrain's plan to make Sabran abdicate and name the Crests as her heirs. In fact, Roslain breaks her fingers rescuing Sabran from Igrain's attempt to smother her.
- Silk Hiding Steel: When Ead returns to the royal tower to free Sabran, she finds Roslain trying to guard the door alone.
- Undying Loyalty: Her response, when Ead suggests that Roslain resents being in Sabran's shadow, is that she is Sabran's shadow and it's a privilege.
- Yes-Man: She is one of those ladies who says what she thinks Sabran wants to hear, rather than the blunt truth.
The Cupbearer (spoilers)
Igrain Crest, the Duchess of Justice. She is the "Cupbearer" referred to as a conspirator against the Berethnets.
- Defiant to the End: Even when she's at the block she insists that it was her duty to commit all of her treasons.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Ead and Loth are confused by references to the "Cupbearer" because the position of royal cupbearer has long been vacant. The title is in reference to Igrain being the heir to the Knight of Justice, whose symbol is a pair of goblets—or cups—in which good and evil are weighed.
- Holier Than Thou: She clearly thinks she's the most virtuous person in Virtudom. After Roslain's affair, Igrain emotionally abused her and then conspired in her assassination. She also favors a seventy-year-old king over the younger and more open-minded Aubrecht because Aubrecht's country trades with the East.
- Knight Templar: Rosarian's adultery and Sabran's lost pregnancy convinces her that the Berethnets are no longer favored by the Saint, so Igrain moves to depose them in favor of her own family.
- My Beloved Smother: Her fostering of Sabran took this form; Sabran describes herself as feeling like glass to be molded by Igrain. When Sabran shows her independence of thought, Igrain turns against her.
- Off with His Head!: After having multiple people killed, Igrain ends by having her own head cut off.
- Parental Substitute: She raised Sabran after Rosarian's death.
- The Usurper: After she's stopped from murdering Sabran outright, Igrain imprisons her in the dark so that she'll sign a document turning over rule to the Crests. Sabran holds out until Ead returns.
- We Can Rule Together: She tries to get Roslain to join her by promising that Roslain will one day be queen. Roslain has none of it.
Kalyba
The Witch of the Woods, a figure of legend dating from the time before Inys was a unified country—but still very much alive and well.
- Depraved Bisexual: Gets romantically interested and, eventually, involved, with her adopted son, and also requests a roll in the hay with Ead in exchange for information (Ead refuses due to her love for Sabran), so clearly both depraved and interested in both genders.
- Despair Event Horizon: At some point, she decided that the only way to survive the Nameless One's inevitable return was to join him. Nothing dissuades her from this course.
- Dream Weaver: One of her powers. She's been sending Sabran dreams of her home, the Bower of Eternity.
- Even Evil Has Standards: She was banished for poisoning Ead's mother but disputes the charge by saying she would never stoop to poison. She's telling the truth. Mita Yedanya did it.
- Femme Fatale: Kalyba appears as a beautiful woman and is not above acting seductive to get what she wants. She offers to sleep with Ead in exchange for information when they first meet.
- Hot Witch: A practitioner of the dark arts and femme fatale to boot.
- I Gave My Word: She was born in a time when word alone was considered a binding oath and seeks to enforce this on others.
- Immortality Immorality: Of the three original users of siden, Kalyba is the only one who gained immortality. She is also the only one who eventually turned from the side of good.
- Insistent Terminology: Prefers enchantress to sorceress.
- Offing the Offspring: She tries to kill her descendant. She also purposely stabbed Sabran in the womb to end her pregnancy.
- Parental Incest: She basically raised Galian, then tried to make him her lover. She didn't take it well when he fell for Cleolind instead.
- Plagued by Nightmares: She suffers from a recurring nightmare where she is bleeding heavily in childbirth and giving birth into a dragon's maw, attempting to close her legs and force her child back into her womb to keep it from being devoured. The nightmare is sent by Kalyba as a sort of warning for what is to come.
- Really 700 Years Old: At least 1,000, having gained immortality from the hawthorn tree.
- Shapeshifter Default Form: Kalyba's true form is identical to Sabran IX.
- Shrouded in Myth: She is the subject of numerous myths in Inys and Lasia, most of which involve her being a wicked sorceress who abducts children.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: She is able to change her guise, first appearing to Ead as a little boy in the Bower of Eternity before changing to a beautiful woman. She is also the White Wyrm who attacked the palace and ended Sabran's pregnancy. Her ability to do this arises from sterren; before the arrival of the Long-Haired Star, she used hypnotism instead.
- Wife Husbandry: She raised Galian as her adoptive son and when he was grown, she fell in love with him. When everyone expresses disgust at this, she waves it off by saying "love is complicated."
Free State of Mentendon
Truyde utt Zeedeur
A seventeen-year-old Mentish noblewoman who serves as one of Sabran's chambermaids.
- Burn the Witch!: Threatens to do this to Ead.
- Cassandra Truth:
- Studying her grandfather's writings showed her that the Nameless One was going to return, Berethnets or no Berethnets. She sends her lover to try and convince the East, and tries to arrange matters in Inys to show Sabran the necessity. It doesn't work out well for anyone.
- She also saw Ead use magic to shield Sabran from dragonfire and tries to accuse her of witchcraft. Sabran dismisses it as slander because obviously she was shielded by the blood of her ancestors.
- Like a Daughter to Me: Niclays considers her the granddaughter he never had.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When real assassins infiltrate her hired group of actors and kill Prince Aubrecht along with several others, Truyde is horrified.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She and Triam put together a dangerous plan to bring East and West together against the Nameless One. Believing too strongly in the power of their good intentions to carry the day, implementing the plan results (directly or indirectly) in the overturning of several characters' lives in the East, the death of her own prince, and execution for both Triam and herself.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: She believes, not without reason, that being heir to the duchy of Zeedur will shield her because executing her would have major diplomatic consequences. Unfortunately, Igrain Crest decides that it's worth the risk.
- Secret Relationship: She got married in secret to Triam Sulyard, an Inysh squire who is about the same age, without consulting either her family or Sabran.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Genuinely believes that, in order to defeat the Nameless One, Virtudom must ally itself with the East. But to bring it about, she plans a secret mission to a country whose borders are sealed on pain of death (which her lover embarks on without her). Then she tries to engineer a False Flag Operation to make Sabran more amenable to taking her advice. Sulyard ends up executed for illegal entry, and her "fake" assassination plot is co-opted by Crest, resulting in the prince consort's death and Truyde's own eventual execution.
Aubrecht II Lievelyn
High Prince of the Free State of Mentendon and one of Sabran's suitors.
- Altar Diplomacy: His suitability for Sabran is founded on Mentendon's wealth and his own personal strength of faith.
- Nice Guy: He is reputed to be kind and gentle, and Sabran describes him as such when telling Ead about their first night in bed.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: The first part of the plot in Inys revolves around his suit and whether or not Sabran will accept it. When he appears, she does, and after a few months of marriage the next thing that happens is his death.
Draconic Kingdom of Yscalin
- Mordor: It becomes this after it's taken over by Fýredel and the Draconic Army, complete with lava flows.
- Religion of Evil: After Fyredel awakens and possesses King Sigoso, the nation abandons Virtudom to worship the Nameless One.
King Sigoso
"Flesh King" of Yscalin. He despises the Berethnets and delivered his country to the Nameless One's servants.
- Body Horror: Apparently being Flesh King also emaciates the body, turns one's eyes grey, causes red lines to appear on your hands, and feels like burning.
- Domestic Abuse: He mistreated his late wife and when she tried to flee Yscalin with their daughter, he had her killed. Although he claimed that she took her own life, Marosa doesn't believe her mother would leave her alone with Sigoso.
- If I Can't Have You…: He conspired with the Cupbearer to kill Rosarian IV because she rebuffed his marriage proposal.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: He is now known as Flesh King Sigoso, a title that does not inspire anything but dread.
- Meat Puppet: Fýredel uses him as one to make sure the Yscali are being good little draconic citizens. Marosa can escape his surveillance occasionally by sedating him, but she can only do it sparingly to avoid arousing suspicion.
- Your Days Are Numbered: He is suffering from a unique form of the draconic plague that leaves him alive and able to be used as a puppet, but the strain on his body will kill him eventually.
Donmata Marosa Vetalda
- Crown of Horns: She holds court in an iron helmet made to resemble the head of Fýredel.
- Girl in the Tower: The Palace of Salvation isn't a tower in structure, but it is functionally the same—Marosa can't leave its walls both because Fýredel forbids her and because she won't attempt to flee while her country is oppressed by him.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: A deadly serious version. In public, she is all that is wicked and loyal to the Nameless One, inflicting crude insults on Loth and Sabran. When she meets Loth in secret, she reveals that she must behave that way so she can do what she can to subvert Fýredel's control of her country, but she still keeps the Six Virtues in her heart.
- Trapped in Villainy: Throwing the country out of Virtudom and into draconic worship was her father's idea, not hers. She only remains in the country so she can try to mitigate the cruelties inflicted on the populace, and she knows that when her father dies, Fýredel will take control of her instead.
Seiiki
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: To Japan.
Empire of the Twelve Lakes
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: To China.
Other
The Golden Empress
- An Arm and a Leg: A long life as a pirate has left her with a wooden arm. It bears a notch for every person she's killed.
- Bad Boss: She has one of her own men stung by a deadly jellyfish just to test Niclays' skill as a surgeon.
- The Dreaded: She and her ruthless fleet are feared throughout the East.
- Immortality Seeker: She's looking for the mulberry tree that is rumored to bestow eternal life.
- Karma Houdini: She escapes the White Wyrm's raid on the mulberry island and ends the story still as much of a pirate admiral as ever.
- Pirate: A particularly merciless one who is queen over most every pirate ship in the East.
- Spanner in the Works: She has nothing to do with the various plots swirling around the impending return of the Nameless One and no allegiance to anyone but herself. She only enters the story because she happens to kidnap Tané's dragon and Roos along with her.
- You Have Failed Me: When they finally reach the fabled mulberry tree and it is long dead, the Empress turns her sword on Niclays to use him as a scapegoat. She doesn't kill him, but she does chop his hand off.
The Draconic Army
Called "wyrms" in the West. The Nameless One's army is comprised of Western Dragons and their hybrids such as wyverns and cockatrices.- Basilisk and Cockatrice: Some of the lesser species of western dragons.
Fýredel
- The Dragon: Literally and figuratively. Fýredel is second only to the Nameless One in power and authority and is often called "the right wing of the Nameless One."
- Dragon Their Feet: Outlives the Nameless One and is still at large when the story ends.
- I Shall Taunt You: He gets Sabran to come out by goading her as a coward and threatening her people. During the final showdown, he gives a lengthy speech (interspersed with attacking) about the horrific consequences that Virtudom and the East will suffer for daring to oppose the Nameless One, an effort to demoralize the armed force gathered on the Abyss.
- Karma Houdini: Is a major source of conflict and villainy throughout the story, but he escapes when the Nameless One is destroyed. Implied to have a Karma Houdini Warranty, as Ead swears to lead the Priory in an initiative to kill him and all remaining Draconic creatures.
The Nameless One
- Big Bad: Satan in the form of a giant red dragon.
- Final Boss: Set up as this from the get-go, and is the final opponent faced by the main characters after he awakens.
- The Dreaded: He's been gone for a thousand years and is still feared by reputation alone.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Being so evil that he has no name at all is intimidating in its own right.
- Playing with Fire: He was born from the fire at the core of the earth and emerged through a volcano.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: He was banished to the bottom of the ocean for a thousand years. Exactly one thousand years. The protagonists are able to cross-reference the historical records and nail down the calendar date of his return.
