The Echoes of Fallen Stars — Characters

Bellwound Throvar

Throvars & Helvugs · Half-divine

Also known as Bellwound, the epistle-keeper, the god-killer, ruler of the Silver, the in-between, little dove

• I · 1Narrator. Turns eighteen on the fiftieth day of autumn, 1328, his Blood-date; born on the fiftieth day of autumn, 1310.
• I · 1Acorn-brown hair and golden eyes like his mother’s; a scar over his left eyebrow from the day Arnon pushed him into the lake and he struck a rock.
• I · 1Sides of his head shaved and the sacred braid woven at Lake Vur. Presses his thumbnail into his fingertips to check he isn’t dreaming.
• I · 2Queer; Meorn was his first kiss “and my first everything else.” Has long reined in his feelings for Arnon.
• I · 2Skeptical of the Faith, he prefers dragon-rider legends and secretly admires Lucifer for taking a chance.
• I · 4The Mezar was buried under his family’s floor. His Blood-date led the Fallen Stars to it and set Lucifer’s spirit free.
• I · 8Atholeeon says he “bears sacred blood.” Only he can see the ghost Ely.
• I · 10Realizes he loves Arnon at the moment Borger stabs Arnon through the heart.
• I · 11Refuses Hanell’s offer of death to rejoin Arnon and demands divinity instead; drinks Hanell’s scarlet tear. “I trust in me. Bellwound Throvar. No one else.”
• I · 12,13The Mistrid blessing lets him enter minds and see the last memories of the dead. He survives a fifty-foot fall and runs at Nephilin speed.
• I · 13Vows to kill Hanell and “kill the gods and protect mortals.”
• I · 16Destroys Shadows by shattering their last memories, a power that dies whenever Kymer is near. Meets the dead Arnon in a Dark Beyond swamp; their first kiss.
• I · 17Named “god-killer” by the Sindal and swears the pact “For crowns and stars.”
• I · 20Shares a hot-spring encounter with Kymer, which both call “pretending”; tells him he still loves Arnon.
• I · 22Lucifer reveals the rose-and-dove birthmark on his left forearm: Lucifer is his father. Bellwound calls him “Father,” then drives the Sacredice into his own chest.
• II · 1Wakes in Ta-ghleeman, feeling no pain, with the Sacredice wound and a Shadow bite on his neck. Death names him “the god-killer, ruler of the Silver.”
• II · 2His skin story glows scarlet and Werxm’s fire cannot burn him.
• II · 3Can deal eternal death to gods because he is “half god and half Cheledrin.” Romiria cannot kill him.
• II · 6,7His body lies uncorrupted behind Lucifer’s throne in Vragner. His Mezar carries Lucifer’s heart.
• II · 10His touch shatters the Shield of Abysis when Werxm hurls him against it.
• II · 12Confesses his love to Arnon and they make love; his skin story burns the whole time.
• II · 14,15A scarlet Mezar snake enters him through his mouth, then bursts from his thigh as a pair of red, scale-patterned wings he steers by thought.
• II · 15Commands the Silver (“Attack”) and enters Lucifer’s memories of the Peritas arena.
• II · 17,18Returns to his body in a cross-shaped casket beneath Vragner. Spares Oriah and Loghleen, which enrages Kymer. “I was not the same boy who left Heedeon in autumn.”
• I · 1Dresses for his Blood-date in a black linen shirt and pants with a bear-pelt shoulder cape.
• I · 2For the feast he wears blue robes from Oree: a laced shirt with golden patterns on hem and sleeves, pants tucked into black boots.
• I · 8Cannot grow a beard, unlike Arnon; his hair grows fast on the shaved sides of his head.
• I · 8Stands a couple of inches taller than Arnon.
• I · 8Dresses for the Fiery Glory in a smooth white shirt and a knee-length dark brown coat with gold-sewn vines forming wings on the back.
• I · 10Wakes in Sandrovar dressed by Helstrid in a black waistcoat, black leather vest, gray overcoat and boots.
• I · 10In a Mezar vision he appears with a shaved head bearing thin gold skin stories, bare feet and white garments embroidered with gold feathers.
• I · 11In Hanell's darkness he sees himself naked in a mirror, wearing a pendant shaped like the Mezar's winged crown.
• IRace: Half-divine.

Stenan Throvar

Throvars & Helvugs · Mortal

Also known as Da, Uncle Stenan, the man who raised Bellwound

• I · 1Bellwound’s father in every way that matters. Hazel eyes and a nose ring; on the Blood-date he wears black and the sacred braid.
• I · 1Never celebrated his own Blood-date and refuses to talk about the past. “Innocence is more valuable than truth.” “Every story has a hint of truth, my boy.”
• I · 1Once lived on the other side of the River Pentan. Rides the white stallion Oraxes.
• I · 2Gives Bellwound the dragonfang dagger, bought in Oree. Sings an old song with Pyeus about a curse and a figure “cast out into flame.”
• I · 6Was recruited from Metra to the Council in Heelyan, hid his love for Seaahra and left with her, taking the Mezar.
• I · 3Vanishes the night after the Blood-date, leaving a broken bed and a trail of blood.
• I · 15With Seaahra, helped Oriah and Loghleen get accepted into the Council’s castle.
• I · 21His tortured body (two fingers cut off, teeth missing) falls from the sky near Aleeon; Elistran turns him into a Shadow.
• I · 22Lucifer calls him “the man that raised you as his own.”
• II · 14Elistran’s vision shows him dead in bed. Bellwound never saw a grave.
• IRace: Mortal.

Seaahra Throvar

Throvars & Helvugs · Mortal

Also known as Ma, Aunt Seaahra

• I · 1Bellwound’s mother. Acorn-brown hair and golden eyes. Braids his hair on the Blood-date as if saying goodbye.
• I · 1“Mortals count years, Bellwound. Immortals count ages.” Prefers the oath “By the feather.”
• I · 1Tells Bellwound, “One day you’ll marry a wonderful man.”
• I · 6A former Council member recruited from Metra who broke the rule of solitude for Stenan.
• I · 22Kept Lucifer’s paternity secret even from the man who raised Bellwound.
• II · 1,4Sang Bellwound the lullaby “Flee, little boy,” which Hanell also plays on his lyre.
• II · 9Taught Oriah the lullaby during his Council days.
• II · 14Elistran’s vision shows her dead in bed, with a red snake swallowing her head.
• I · 11Hanell claims she and Stenan are alive in the Dark Beyond.
• I · 1Wears a long-sleeved dress belted at the waist with leather, and usually keeps her hair tied back, sometimes in a bun.
• IRace: Mortal.

Arnon Helvug

Throvars & Helvugs · Mortal

Also known as Arnon, the seed of darkness, Arnon’s shell

• I · 2Bellwound’s lifelong best friend. Gray eyes, dimples and a black braid; had a full beard at sixteen. Son of Pyeus and Helga.
• I · 1Pushed Bellwound into the lake as a child, which left the scar.
• I · 3The night his parents vanish, he dreams of falling toward a light that becomes a six-winged man.
• I · 3,5Crocell: “The seed is inside him.” “The seed of darkness found him a long time ago.”
• I · 8At the Fiery Glory he dances with Bellwound and tells him, “You can look at me.”
• I · 10Killed in Sandrovar by Borger with Bellwound’s dragonfang dagger after Helstrid pours the weeping statue’s blood into his mouth.
• I · 12His body rises with scarlet eyes, inhabited by the Fallen Star Reemon.
• I · 14His favorite song was “The Merry Tidings of Swords and Kings.”
• I · 16In a Dark Beyond swamp, marked with thin gray lines: “I am dead, Bellwound.” He kisses Bellwound and whispers “Peritas.”
• I · 22Helstrid tortured his parents “until they offered their little baby to the darkness.”
• II · 3Romiria saw him offered as host to Reemon “thousands of years ago.”
• II · 10,11Rises out of Ka-alon’s pool in black god-linen, lash-scarred, wearing the Cramendat.
• II · 11,13Tortured and used by a crowned woman in the Black Wasteland whose name he cannot say, yet she helped him reach Ta-ghleeman.
• II · 12Realized he loved Bellwound the day he thought the lake had killed him. “We’ll either spend the rest of our lives beside one another or we’ll be buried together.”
• II · 15Saw Lucifer and Hanell forge the Mezars. His gray lines rise into a white six-winged crown.
• II · 17Reclaims his own body when Reemon is expelled; the gray lines vanish.
• II · 18Pleads for Loghleen’s unborn child: “The baby is innocent.”
• I · 5Has slept with his hands folded over his chest since childhood.
• I · 6Habitually runs a finger over Bellwound’s scar.
• I · 8Wears a brown suede jerkin at the Fiery Glory; his fingers are cracked and his knuckles creased.
• I · 10As a child he had thick black hair cut like a bowl and wore a red cloth belt he thought made him look brave.
• I · 16Up close, his steel-gray eyes show hints of white silver.
• IRace: Mortal.

Pyeus Helvug

Throvars & Helvugs · Mortal

Also known as Uncle Pyeus, Mr. Helvug, Arnon’s father

• I · 2Arnon’s father and Helga’s husband. Taught both boys to read and add, and read to them from the Faith’s books.
• I · 2“And to think that years ago… It was just the four of us.” A master singer with Stenan.
• I · 6A former Council member recruited from Metra.
• I · 14Taught Bellwound about Vragner.
• II · 13Read the boys stories, including “White Locks and Black Claws.”
• I · 3Vanishes the same night as the Throvars.
• IRace: Mortal.

Helga Helvug

Throvars & Helvugs · Mortal

Also known as Aunt Helga, Mrs. Helvug, Arnon’s mother

• I · 2Arnon’s mother; sewed Bellwound’s torn clothes and taught Arnon to braid.
• I · 6A former Council member. Her room in Heelyan is all white, with windows on the forest.
• I · 3Vanishes the night after the Blood-date.
• I · 22Tortured by Helstrid with Pyeus until they offered Arnon to the darkness.
• IRace: Mortal.

Mr. Octern

Heedeon folk · Mortal

Also known as Octern

• I · 1Heedeon drunk who cheated on all four of his wives. Stands on a pub table to warn that the dead are rising in the north.
• I · 14Runs the pub where Arnon always requested “The Merry Tidings of Swords and Kings.”
• IRace: Mortal.

Meorn

Heedeon folk · Mortal

• I · 2Lived a few houses down. Bellwound’s first kiss “and my first everything else.”
• IRace: Mortal.

Suella

Heedeon folk · Mortal

Also known as the butcher’s daughter

• I · 2The butcher’s daughter; Arnon’s first.
• IRace: Mortal.

Tonelly

Heedeon folk · Mortal

• I · 6Kissed Arnon one night at the pub.
• IRace: Mortal.

Bart

Heedeon folk · Mortal

• I · 6The boy Bellwound ended that same night with. “Of all the boys in Heedeon.”
• IRace: Mortal.

Oriah

Nephilins of Tharozar · Nephilin

Also known as the diamond-eyed rider, Nephilin king

• I · 3,4A Nephilin with diamond-blue eyes and golden hair in a bun. He arrives on the white mare Crystal and fights Crocell in midair.
• I · 4Rips up the Throvar floor bare-handed and finds the Mezar. Promised the four parents he would protect their boys.
• I · 5Born of the first and only generation of Nephilins, about 2,000 years ago. From Sandrovar in the west; left his kind after questioning them. “I may be damned, but I can still make choices.”
• I · 7Narrates. Has loved Loghleen for thousands of years; they have hidden in Heelyan for eighteen years.
• I · 8Opens the passage to Peritas with a chant: “Fire, doom, desire. Take us deeper…”
• I · 10Helstrid “taught him all he knows.”
• I · 15Narrates. “I don’t want to be a pawn in the game of the gods.”
• I · 18Narrates. Doesn’t know which of his parents was the Star; both were turned to Shadows. Stabs Helstrid’s desert dragon.
• I · 21Poses as a blind man in Aleeon, though he can see through the blindfold.
• II · 5Narrates. Imprisoned with a dagger in his thigh. With Loghleen for 3,000 years; they have buried ten children (four boys, six girls).
• II · 6His mother was a Cheledrin woman who read him histories; Fallen Stars killed her. Lucifer promises him the crown of the Nephilins.
• II · 7Shaved into a Metranian cut. Names the unborn child Kurinath Thelion, “Curse Breaker.”
• II · 8Crowned with one of Lucifer’s feathers.
• II · 9On Lucifer’s order, stabs Kymer and Serrida with the Sacredice and spills their blood on the Mezars. “I had been a traitor for staying with my kind… and now I was a traitor for choosing them.”
• II · 18Arrives in Vragner crowned, robed and horned as a Nephilin lord. He has no wings.
• II · 19Narrates. Delivers Loghleen’s daughter, sees Lucifer’s skin story on her neck and gives mother and child to Death: “Do as you wish.”
• I · 4Wears a dark blue gambeson with a high collar, its fabric sewn with the Nephilin symbol in gold thread.
• IRace: Nephilin.

Loghleen

Nephilins of Tharozar · Nephilin

Also known as Nephilin queen

• I · 7Nephilin; Oriah’s lover. Golden hair and clear “ocean” eyes. Studies Valleynerian law.
• I · 8Exposes the poisoned Lion’s Fang. Atholeeon throws it in her face and chains her for “the Nephilin queen.”
• I · 9Ely frees her from a bronze lion.
• I · 13Recognizes Bellwound’s power as the Mistrid blessing.
• I · 17Adds “And part in free will if needed” to the pact.
• I · 18Sings “Night star in the sky,” then leaves willingly with Helstrid and Reemon on a desert dragon, mouthing “I love you.”
• II · 5Pregnant “a little over two weeks” by a ritual the Dove conducted, which promises their eleventh child will survive the Nephilin curse.
• II · 6“We are gods bound by promise and flame.”
• II · 8Crowned queen of the Nephilins with one of Lucifer’s feathers.
• II · 19Gives birth to Lucifer’s daughter: “This was my rebellion… Mine was returning and changing my narrative.” “Love cannot always mend what’s broken.”
• II · 19Taken by Death with her baby. Her last cry: “Oriah, I do love you!”
• I · 7Wears a rose-scarlet dress with gray-flecked white pelts over her shoulder.
• I · 8Wears her golden hair piled atop her head and braided down over one shoulder; pink cheeks and cherry lips.
• I · 8At the Fiery Glory she wears a thin tiara with a small red rose, a knee-length red pelt coat, a jeweled blouse and heeled boots.
• IRace: Nephilin.

Loghleen’s daughter

Nephilins of Tharozar · Half-divine

Also known as the newborn, daughter of doves and gods and Nephilins, Bellwound’s half-sister

• II · 19Born in a forest clearing outside Vragner. Lucifer’s dark hair, hazel eyes and the rose-and-dove skin story on her neck, the same as Bellwound’s.
• II · 19Lucifer’s daughter, which makes her Bellwound’s half-sister. Serene; she doesn’t cry.
• II · 19Death calls her “a daug’ter of doves and gods and Nephilins” and carries her off, perhaps toward Romiria in the Dark Beyond.
• IIRace: Half-divine.

Kurinath Thelion

Nephilins of Tharozar · Nephilin

Also known as Curse Breaker

• II · 7The name Oriah gives the child he believes is his. Valleynerian for “Curse Breaker.”
• II · 8In Reemon’s vision, a Nephilin boy with long hair in a bun and a wooden toy horse calls Loghleen “Mom.”
• II · 19The child is born a girl, and Lucifer’s.
• IIRace: Nephilin.

Oriah and Loghleen’s lost children

Nephilins of Tharozar · Nephilin

Also known as the ten children

• II · 5Ten children (four boys, six girls) lost to the Nephilin curse.
• II · 7The first, a girl with heart-shaped lips and blue eyes, died in Oriah’s arms after her first cry. She is buried by the Waterfalls of Tears in Tharozar.
• IIRace: Nephilin.

Helstrid

Lucifer’s court · Nephilin

• I · 5First named by Crocell: “Helstrid won’t be pleased.”
• I · 10Nephilin leader in Sandrovar. Blond hair in thin braids, ivory skin, diamond-blue eyes; golden breastplate with the Nephilin symbol.
• I · 10Makes the six-winged statue weep blood, pours it into Arnon and kisses his corpse: “He promised you would come back to me.”
• I · 12Lies with Reemon in Arnon’s body before the watching Nephilins. Collapses screaming when Bellwound enters her mind.
• I · 15,17With Reemon, taught the Nephilins that their only purpose was to serve Lucifer.
• I · 18Rides a desert dragon back from Vragner. Her unseen power fails on Kymer and Oriah.
• I · 22Tortures Bellwound and boasts of torturing Arnon’s parents.
• II · 8Lucifer gives her the Sacredice; she grips the blade until she bleeds.
• II · 17Her pain power fails against Kymer again.
• II · 18Escapes with Reemon on her desert dragon.
• I · 10Wears a scarlet coat with white feathers rising from its cuffs.
• I · 18Wears a long black cloak and dark armor over her breasts, shoulders and arms, bearing the Nephilin symbol on the chest.
• IRace: Nephilin.

Borger

Lucifer’s court · Nephilin

Also known as Borg

• I · 10Nephilin enforcer: olive skin, diamond-blue eyes, pierced ears, a rattling fang necklace. Picks at his thumb.
• I · 10Stabs Arnon through the heart with Bellwound’s dragonfang dagger and keeps it.
• I · 13The dead boy’s last memory shows Borger grinning with a bow.
• II · 14,17Called “Borg”; twirled the dagger after killing Arnon.
• I · 10His brown hair is woven in parts and falls a little below his ears.
• IRace: Nephilin.

Crocell

Lucifer’s court · Fallen Star

Also known as the first Fallen Star

• I · 3“The first Fallen Star to find its host in this new age. The Age of the Fallen.” Fair hair, red eyes, a raspy voice; rides a spiked black horse.
• I · 3Can’t enter a house without an invitation; kills the Throvars’ horses.
• I · 4Can’t die “yet,” but can be wounded through his human host.
• I · 5Leads a Shadow army. Grows dark-feathered wings. Calls Oriah “our child.”
• II · 8Brings the Threeun and a slain Sindal warrior’s head. Clasps the bracelet on Lucifer’s wrist. Keeper of Elistran.
• II · 17Reemon’s brother. “I was the first Fallen Star to leave the Black Wasteland.” Carries the dragonfang dagger.
• II · 18The dove from Lucifer’s casket lands on his shoulder. Flees the battle.
• I · 3Wears non-human armor with three tall spikes jutting from each spaulder, and fights with an ash-gray sword with chipped edges.
• I · 3His black horse wears spike-shaped armor around eyes that glimmer with light.
• I · 5Not much taller than Bellwound.
• IRace: Fallen Star.

Reemon

Lucifer’s court · Fallen Star

Also known as my feathered beauty

• I · 12The Fallen Star who rises in Arnon’s body. His true form: brown skin, silver skin stories, a nose ring, honey eyes, gray wings.
• I · 12Helstrid’s lover; calls her “my treasure.”
• I · 18“His memories are mine. The more I become a part of his body… the more they fade.”
• II · 3Romiria saw him plant his seed in Arnon thousands of years ago.
• II · 8Led the second rebellion against Thestlen while Lucifer slumbered; punished for it twice. Speaks to a “her” among the southern Nephilins “through the well.”
• II · 17Expelled from Arnon as smoke into a grotesque true form. Crocell’s brother.
• II · 18Restored to beauty: white wings, chestnut waves, yellow full-moon eyes, white god-linen. Escapes with Helstrid through solid rock.
• I · 12In Arnon's body his voice keeps Arnon's cadence but is deeper, like someone who has been tortured.
• I · 18Wears armor and a horned helmet. His gravelly voice still sounds somewhat like Arnon’s; he arches his right eyebrow when he smirks.
• I · 22Arnon’s head is now shaved at the sides, with a braid of thick sections laced with thinner braids.
• IRace: Fallen Star.

Elistran

Lucifer’s court · Shadow

Also known as the Shadow boy, Shadow captain

• I · 21A Shadow boy, no more than nine, with golden eyes, a gash across his head and a mind that is only void. He turns Da into a Shadow.
• I · 22Helstrid names him “our Shadow captain,” attended by the invisible wrexing.
• II · 8Prefers Sindal flesh. “He hasn’t been tamed for hundreds of years.” Bites Lucifer’s wrist to the bone so the Threeun can fuse.
• II · 14Climbs out of Ka-alon’s pool whistling Ma’s lullaby; a red snake follows him.
• II · 19Stabs Oriah with the dragonfang, steals his crown and sings about monsters and Heedeon.
• I · 21Has scraggly lips, climbs trees and stands unbothered amid flames.
• IRace: Shadow.

Ferestin

Gods & makers · Regent

Also known as the Lonely Architect, the lonely architect

• II · 1Created the three Regent in Ta-ghleeman, the Womb, “millions of sunrises ago,” when that land still had a sun.
• II · 3“Born out of chaos. So chaos became his source of inspiration.” Designed Ka-alon; its floor is painted with his plans for Valleyner. Made the Horda.
• II · 8Forged the Threeun after the Regent were made, “the Lonely Architect’s secret.”
• II · 15,16Arnon says a darkness destroyed him. Death asks, “Ferestin was defeated, wasn’t he?”
• IIRace: Regent.

Abysis

Gods & makers · Regent

Also known as Regent Abysis

• II · 1One of the three Regent. Raised the Shield of Abysis that imprisons Ta-ghleeman. Book Two’s opening part is titled “Abysis.”
• II · 4Tall and slender, gender unclear (“they”), purple eyes, a horned crown, a silver coat with turquoise thread. Voice like a child’s that can deepen into thunder.
• II · 4Orders Hanell to make a more dependent race of humans because the Horda grow too independent. “Titles do not make a god, conquered challenges do.”
• II · 4Sentences Lucifer to face the beasts and, if he survives, to sleep in the Black Wasteland.
• II · 4Secretly fathered Romiria with a Hordanian woman. Falls silent when Hanell asks, “Did you love her?”
• IIRace: Regent.

Horma

Gods & makers · Regent

• II · 1One of the three Regent made by Ferestin.
• IIRace: Regent.

Densus

Gods & makers · Regent

• II · 1One of the three Regent made by Ferestin.
• IIRace: Regent.

Hanell

Gods & makers · Divine

Also known as the Pale Lion, the Lion, the Creator, Lion God, a Lowly God

• I · 1The Creator of Thestlenian faith, pictured as a lion. “Thank the Pale Lion.” In the tale, he cast out the six-winged Lucifer.
• I · 10In visions: wheat-gold hair bound with a golden vine and a winged-dragon skin story on his face. He becomes a lion and swallows the dove.
• I · 11Golden eyes, a gold winged crown, a silver kilt. Has been in pain for 5,000 years. Waited eighteen years for the seed in Arnon to “break ground.”
• I · 11Made Lucifer from a thornless white rose whose withering petals became golden wings. “I made a mistake. Love was one of them.”
• I · 11Gives Bellwound divinity through a scarlet tear. Warns he will destroy him if Bellwound is “prophecy incarnate.” “Blood speaks louder than power.”
• I · 16With Lucifer, planned to defy the Regent, his parents. Has a sister: “She’s my concern.”
• II · 3Married Lucifer in secret at Ka-alon and gave him an immortal crown that made him a god. Romiria’s half-brother.
• II · 4Punished by Abysis’ lyre and almost sentenced to eternal death. “Never abandon your crown when sorrow takes over your heart.”
• II · 11Declared innocent on the day of reckoning while his Stars dragged Romiria’s lover from her bed.
• II · 15Forged the Mezars with Lucifer, then secretly bound their strength to five humans not yet born. Stood with the Regent at Lucifer’s trial and gave him wine.
• I · 10In the vision he is bearded and broader than Lucifer, with a toned build.
• I · 11Has a soothing voice. Wing-shaped spaulders rise to his ears, and diamond-like cloth covers his chest above a knee-length garment.
• I · 11His golden eyes can turn black.
• I · 11Appears as a six-winged lion with a white snout, a mane and scarlet eyes, speaking with a voice as low as thunder.
• I · 16His muscular body is covered in skin stories of horses, dragons and winged beings, like a sculpture.
• IRace: Divine.

Hanell’s brother

Gods & makers · Divine

• II · 4Hanell starts, “My brother—” and Abysis cuts him off: he “has other responsibilities.”
• IIRace: Divine.

Lucifer

Gods & makers · Divine

Also known as the Dove, our Dove, the traitor, Father, my broken Dove

• I · 1In the Faith’s tale, the six-winged rebel cast out of Valleyner by the Pale Lion. Prophecy says he will return for blood.
• I · 4Wrote the epistle in the Mezar. Bellwound’s Blood-date set his spirit free.
• I · 11Hanell made him from a white rose. He was “a lowly god” like Hanell.
• I · 16Appears as a featureless shadow. “Humans are his paintings, and I am the black ink.” Fashioned the Mezar and grows stronger the longer Bellwound lives.
• I · 22In the flesh: brown eyes, six wings of light, a winged ring with a red stone, a rose-and-dove skin story on his face. Reveals he is Bellwound’s father.
• II · 3Married Hanell in secret and received Romiria’s immortal crown.
• II · 4,15Sentenced to face three horned crow-bear beasts in the Peritas arena, naked and wingless, then to sleep in the Black Wasteland.
• II · 6On a golden throne of tangled snakes in Vragner, withering. Plans for humans to become Shadows, the Faith to host Fallen Stars and the Cheledrin to cease to exist.
• II · 8Takes the Threeun: it lets him kill gods and makes him open to eternal death in the god realm. Makes the Nephilin crowns from two of his primary feathers.
• II · 11,13The Cramendat is his crown. “The Mezars are his body, but this is his ruling.”
• II · 15Speaks through the crowned woman, then shows himself as flame-skinned decay with six featherless wing stems. “It’s always nice to see family. Even if they’re traitors.”
• II · 16“Blood is currency in the game of belief.” Werxm burns him and Death banishes him to Vragner.
• II · 17When his casket opens, only a dove flies out: “our Dove remains in slumber.”
• II · 19Father of Loghleen’s daughter.
• I · 10In the vision he is taller than Hanell, with brown hair like cornelia bark and white garments tinged green.
• I · 22Wears black robes covered in thin circular patterns and gold-threaded stars. His voice sounds like a sultry song.
• IRace: Divine.

Romiria

Gods & makers · Divine

Also known as Romiria the Secret, the Crown Weaver, Hanell’s half-sister

• II · 2Rides the white feathered dragon Werxm. Dark skin and darker eyes, intricate braids, a crown of branches beaded with green jewels.
• II · 2Her fingertips are red and swollen from weaving crowns. She wove Lucifer’s immortal crown and recognizes Bellwound’s skin story: “It wasn’t in vain.”
• II · 3Hanell’s half-sister, a crown-weaver exiled to the Black Wasteland and then to Ta-ghleeman. Dreams of vengeance on both Lion and Dove.
• II · 3Her pool lets her watch the world but never leave: “a curse placed upon me in the form of a blessing.”
• II · 4Abysis’ secret daughter by a Hordanian woman. “We never sleep nor hunger. We suffer pain, but we never die.”
• II · 11On the day of reckoning, Hanell’s Stars dragged her lover from her bed in Valleyner. She wants to give Lucifer eternal death.
• II · 15She wove the Cramendat.
• II · 19Death says she “still is” in the Dark Beyond, and is carrying Loghleen and the baby toward her.
• IIRace: Divine.
• IIRace: Hordanian.

The crowned woman

Gods & makers · Unknown

Also known as her, that woman, Romiria’s lover, Arnon’s torturer

• II · 11Lives in the Black Wasteland. Romiria’s lover, taken from her bed on the day of reckoning. She helped Arnon reach Ta-ghleeman and tortured him.
• II · 11Wrote the poem “With a kiss you parted. Yet in dreams you stay…”
• II · 13In a vision: black garments, a crown twisted from thorny vines, a three-thonged black whip.
• II · 14Appears in white skin with white eyes, winged and armored, taller than Romiria, wearing her wooden crown.
• II · 15Lucifer speaks through her: “She was no god, was she?… She paid for her mistakes along with her companion.”

The crowned woman’s companion

Gods & makers · Unknown

Also known as that man

• II · 12Arnon did “despicable things” with “that woman and… that man.”
• II · 15Lucifer: “She paid for her mistakes along with her companion.”

Hordanian woman

Gods & makers · Unknown

Also known as Romiria’s mother

• II · 4A woman of the Horda, Abysis’ secret lover and Romiria’s mother.
• IIRace: Hordanian.

Death

Gods & makers · Other

Also known as Friend, the creature

• I · 9Shriveled skin, golden eyes, jewel-like teeth, a striped snake’s tail instead of legs. Torments Ely in Peritas.
• I · 9Shows only Bellwound the wasteland where souls sleep so their bodies can be Shadows. “Many” are doing it.
• II · 1“Death be a bridge now, but eternal death is the end for all dat breathe.” Moves between realms through “tiny, tiny cracks.” Sings the prophecy of the mortal west.
• II · 2Gives allegiance to Bellwound, the first time since Thestlen was born. No one else in Ta-ghleeman can see it.
• II · 16“For in Ferestin’s chaos, I was. In the end, I shall still be.” Banishes Bellwound, Arnon and Lucifer from Ta-ghleeman.
• II · 19Drawn by Oriah’s dark thoughts. Takes Loghleen and the newborn: “Death owes no explanation of business.”
• I · 9Its arms and hands are too long for its body; it speaks in a shrill voice and breathes raggedly.

Atholeeon

The Heelyan Council · Mortal

Also known as Head of the Council

• I · 6Head of the Council in Heelyan, “brought hea’ from Metra.” Graying wavy hair, a scarlet cloak and a heavy accent (“de,” “t’ing”).
• I · 8Leads the Fiery Glory, then tries to poison the boys with the Lion’s Fang and has the Obsynth murder the other seven Council members.
• I · 8Plans to “tell the gods w’at to do” with the Mezar, its bearer and the seed. Burned alive by a breomer: “Fuck you, Hanell. And you, Lucifer.”
• I · 9Built a Shadow army in Peritas and murdered Ely.
• I · 6Wears a black tunic under his scarlet cloak; his hair is parted in the middle and falls just below his ears.
• IRace: Mortal.
• IRace: Metranian.

Ely

The Heelyan Council · Mortal

Also known as the dragon-skull ghost

• I · 8A ghost in gray rags wearing a horned dragon’s skull as a helmet. Only Bellwound can see him.
• I · 9A Council spy who reported Crocell in Heedeon; Atholeeon murdered him and cursed him to haunt Peritas.
• I · 9Frees Loghleen and calls Bellwound “Lord.” Tells Arnon, “Without you, Arnon, Bellwound can never be.” Death shatters him.
• I · 9“There’s a time for all things… a time to avenge the truth, and a time to die for it.”
• I · 8Blood trickles from beneath his dragon-skull helmet; his dark skin is marked with cuts and bruises. The skull's horns are thin and scraggly like roots.
• I · 9Unmasked, he has round eyes, full lips and a gash across his skull. His lower body is a thin veil one can see through.
• I · 9His voice has the same cadence as the echoes of the dead.
• IRace: Mortal.

The Council members

The Heelyan Council · Mortal

Also known as the holy Council

• I · 6Twelve until the four parents left; eight remained.
• I · 8Seven of them, in red and black, are killed by Obsynth blade-arms at the Fiery Glory.
• IRace: Mortal.

Gromian

The Heelyan Council · Mortal

• II · 9Sculpted Kelida the Meek’s statue at Coranian. Has no family name, as is the habit of Faith members who join the Council.
• IIRace: Mortal.

Kymer Strum

Epistle-bearers · Mortal

Also known as Kymer, the new epistle-keeper

• I · 15Brown skin, yellow eyes, black curly hair. From Dragonhall; turned eighteen a few weeks earlier.
• I · 15His uncle Trun was found dead and he took a box like the Mezar. A gold-eyed man told him to look for “the diamond eyes.”
• I · 16“I don’t believe in coincidences.” Once had a dragon, which went back to the wild when he left. His presence cancels Bellwound’s powers.
• I · 18Helstrid’s power fails on him: “Maybe your worst nightmare.”
• I · 20Says he has never loved anyone except “my dragon back home.” Rebraids Bellwound’s hair in the hot spring.
• II · 9Chained in the Temple of the Lion. Oriah stabs him; he curses Loghleen’s unborn child. His Mezar becomes a red snake that enters his mouth.
• II · 17Rises from a casket beneath Vragner: “Does anyone have a slingshot?”
• II · 18Furious at Bellwound’s mercy; a Sindal carries him off.
• I · 15Arrives in tattered clothes with a worn-out leather satchel; sits on a chair turned backward, legs spread wide.
• I · 20Broad-shouldered, with a round birthmark just above his bellybutton.
• IRace: Mortal.

Serrida

Epistle-bearers · Mortal

• I · 21A girl held in Abhel’s shack, bound for Winghorn, where she claims to have family. One gray eye and one green, like Myrr’s.
• II · 9Chained beside Kymer. Oriah stabs her and her Mezar becomes a red snake that enters her.
• II · 17Rises from a casket: “Is that what we are?”
• II · 18Says Oriah and Loghleen “owe me their lives.” Takes a Sindal dagger to kill Oriah; a Sindal carries her off still protesting.
• I · 21Wears tattered, dirty clothes, a scarf, and ragged gray fingerless gloves; carries a two-strap leather bag.
• IRace: Mortal.

Trun

Epistle-bearers · Mortal

Also known as Uncle Trun

• I · 15Kymer’s uncle, found dead in his wrecked house the morning after Kymer’s eighteenth birthday. He held a Mezar.
• I · 19A scribe at the Temple of the Wise in his youth. He copied “The Man in Gray” for a masked man (Quivern). “He was an honorable man.”
• IRace: Mortal.

Myrr

The Sindal · Sindal

• I · 17Sindal warrior, one gray eye and one green, hair brown like bitterlie bark. A former Star who chose mortality. Salutes fist to heart.
• I · 17“May our minds remain free as we join under a common cause.” Heals Bellwound’s Shadow bite with elemeanor.
• II · 19Lets two Sindal fly Oriah and laboring Loghleen out of Vragner. “You’re a flame of hope reduced to a spark.”
• I · 17A black strip crosses her eyes and reaches behind both ears.
• IRace: Sindal.

Quivern

The Sindal · Sindal

• I · 17Bald, gravel-voiced Sindal, his face lined with old scars (one above the left eyebrow, like Bellwound’s) and skin stories up his neck.
• I · 17“Our war isn’t against crowns, but against minds blindly following them.” Coins the oath “For crowns and stars.”
• I · 19Was the masked man who had Trun copy “The Man in Gray” after the Sindal stole it from the Regent’s vault. Sends the group to the Temple of the Wise.
• IRace: Sindal.

Sindal warrior (Threeun guard)

The Sindal · Sindal

• II · 8Guarded the Threeun. Crocell killed him and brought his head to Lucifer, and Elistran ate it.
• IIRace: Sindal.

Kunkard

Along the road · Mortal

Also known as Lord Overseer

• I · 14Drunken overseer of Erchmon: red robes, gold pauldrons, a beard like woven vines. “By a serpent’s eye!”
• I · 14A Metranian turned Vragnerian veteran; Vragner summoned his son and daughter to war.
• I · 15Recites Nephilin lore: killed only by a specific blade, ageless, frozen at thirty-three.
• I · 14His gold pauldrons are linked by a chain across his chest. Flushed and old, he drinks from a golden cup on a wooden chair.
• I · 15Speaks in a heavy accent that turns “th” into “t’” (“T’ey’re probably dead”).
• IRace: Mortal.
• IRace: Metranian.
• IRace: Vragnerian.

Kunkard’s son and daughter

Along the road · Mortal

• I · 14,15Summoned to fight for Vragner. Kunkard believes they’re probably dead.
• IRace: Mortal.

Abhel

Along the road · Mortal

Also known as Abel

• I · 21Aleeon guard in bear pelts and a dirty red cape; his sigil is a sword cutting through a book. “Blessed be the Lion.”
• I · 21The twenty Winghornian soldiers he sent to Vragner washed up dead. “I never doubted the return of the Dove.”
• I · 21Eaten by a desert dragon in his shack.
• IRace: Mortal.

Dead boy of Sandrovar

Along the road · Mortal

• I · 13About five, freckled and curly-haired, killed by Borger’s arrow. Carried a wooden horse inscribed “With love. Da.” His last memory is the first Bellwound ever reads.
• IRace: Mortal.

Sandrovar survivor

Along the road · Mortal

• I · 15A boy no older than ten who reached Erchmon telling of an army of the dead and ice-blue eyes.
• IRace: Mortal.

King Wern

History & legend · Mortal

• I · 1Led a rebellion in 1148. Metra’s soldiers wore the sacred braid during it.
• II · 7The source of the Metranian cut and braid Oriah receives.
• IRace: Mortal.

Kelida the Meek

History & legend · Unknown

• II · 9Her statue at Coranian: an armored woman on a feathered dragon, her sword’s pommel shaped like a wing around a red rose.
• II · 9Led the Twelve Amazons in the great war that sent the Fallen Stars back to the Dark Beyond.

Werxm

Beasts & mounts · Beast

Also known as Wexrm, the white feathered dragon, the pale dragon

• II · 2Romiria’s dragon: white feathers instead of scales, purple jewel-like eyes, spikes beneath the feathers. Breathes fire. Male.
• II · 3Smells of dew and pine; strangely affectionate toward Bellwound.
• II · 10Catches a yellow fish in the Tramnuin Sea, flies Bellwound to the sky and hurls him against the Shield of Abysis.
• II · 16Burns Lucifer to charred bone; reverent before Death.

Oraxes

Beasts & mounts · Beast

• I · 1Stenan’s white stallion, his mane always braided, with scarlet eyes that grew scarier every year.
• I · 3Torn apart in the stable.

Midnight

Beasts & mounts · Beast

• I · 1Bellwound’s dark mare with ash-gray eyes.
• I · 3Torn apart in the stable.

Crystal

Beasts & mounts · Beast

• I · 3Oriah’s white mare with an ashen mane. “Crystal has gotten me through many things.”
• I · 5Killed by a Shadow at the River Yund.