Saliman
Saliman of Turbansk is a member of the First Circle of Turbansk and one of the most important Bards in the southern realm of the Suderain, the most powerful of the Seven Kingdoms. He is charismatic and brilliant, a popular and amusing companion. He and Cadvan have been friends since they were young men, and Nelac of Lirigon, Cadvan’s former teacher, was also one of his mentors. Saliman is a gifted healer, but in his youth decided to study the Art of Reading under Nelac and is better known in his birth city as a fearless warrior and captain.

Irc
Irc is a white – not albino – crow, whom Hem rescues as a fledgling as he is being pecked to death by his fellows. Ostracized by his kind because of the color of his feathers, Irc is cared for by Hem who, being a Bard, is able to speak to him. He grows into a highly intelligent bird and is Hem’s loyal companion. Irc is vain and boastful, and compulsively steals shiny objects. He is also very endearing and, when called upon, shows remarkable courage.

Silvia
Silvia of Innail is a member of the First Circle of Innail School and a powerful healer and herb master. She becomes Maerad’s substitute mother when Maerad finds refuge in Innail after escaping her slavery. Silvia is gentle, generous, and wise, but very strong; unsurprisingly, she is also a warrior. Like all the inhabitants of Innail, she is also a very good cook.

Zelika
Zelika of the House of Il Aran is a girl of Hem’s age, a refugee from the city of Baladh, an ancient city of the South that is destroyed by the Black Army. When Hem finds her in Turbansk, she is bent on revenge, having seen her entire family killed in the war. Zelika is from an aristocratic and warlike family, and is fiery, proud, unpredictable, and totally fearless, which leads to conflict. She is also vulnerable and deeply hurt. She and Hem become close friends.

Enkir
Enkir of Norloch is the First Bard of Norloch and also of Annar, the most senior Bard in the hierarchy. He is from an aristocratic background and disapproves of women and of Bards of poor background. He is widely respected in Annar as a powerful Bard, but also considered cold, proud, ambitious, and ruthless. He considers Nelac of Lirigon, the teacher of Cadvan and Saliman, one of the greatest threats to his power.

Nelac
Nelac of Lirigon is considered by many to be the greatest Bard in Annar. Justly famed as a healer, he is best known for his skills in the Arts of Reading, the High Lore and magery of Annar, and attracts many students to the School of Norloch. He is very old, nearing three centuries. He has no desire for power, having refused the position of First Bard of Annar when it was offered him. Those who have studied with him are fiercely loyal, thus creating the perception of a faction of Bards who follow Nelac. Foremost among these are Cadvan of Lirigon, Saliman of Turbansk, and Dernhil of Gent.

Milana
Milana of Pellinor is the mother of Hem and Maerad. She was First Bard of Pellinor before it was sacked and destroyed by the Dark. She was the only daughter of the renowned Bards Ista of Desor and Derida of Gent, and on the Pellinor side she is the descendent of an aristocratic Barding family, the House of Karn.

Dorn
Dorn à Triberi is the father of Maerad and Hem, and was killed in the sack of Pellinor when they were both young children. He is a Pilanel Bard from Murask who moved to Annar to study Barding when he was a young man. The Triberi family produced many Dhillarearën (people with the Gift), and his sister, Sirkana à Triberi, also a Dhillarearën, is the chief headwoman of Murask.

Dernhil
With Saliman of Turbansk, Dernhil of Gent is one of Cadvan’s closest and oldest friends. The three studied under Nelac of Lirigon as young men, but while Saliman and Cadvan found themselves involved in action against the Dark from their early years, Dernhil preferred to extend his studies of Annaren Lore and writing. He is a famed poet throughout Annar.

Arkan
Arkan, also known as the Ice Witch or the Winterking, is one of the most powerful of the Elidhu, one of the immortal Elemental beings who inhabit Edil-Amarandh. Like Ardina, he is unusual because he has had dealings with human beings. In the ancient days of Afinil, he was a frequent visitor to the Dhyllin, and it is believed that it was then that the Treesong was revealed to the Bard Nelsor. Arkan is a mountain Elidhu, associated with the range in the north where he has his stronghold Arkan-Da. He is passionate, cruel, charismatic, and by human standards, amoral.

Ardina
Ardina’s name derives from the Speech, Ardin Ilya Na, meaning Daughter of the Moon, and she is strongly associated with the moon. She is, like Arkan, an Elidhu who has had dealings with human beings, but unlike Arkan is not associated with a particular place. She often communicates in dreams and can take a variety of forms. She is regarded as the most powerful of the Elidhu and is a strong and important figure to Maerad as she struggles with her own powers.

The Nameless One (Sharma)
Sharma is called the Nameless One because in the spell of binding with which he made himself immortal, he cast away his secret Bard Name. His use-name, Sharma, by which he is usually referred to in the Suderain, is from Den Raven, where he ruled as a petty king. A precociously talented Bard, he traveled in Afinil in his youth to study. In this time he found the secret enchantment, which allowed him to make himself immortal, and consequently conquered all of Annar, destroying the civilization of the Bards and instituting a tyranny that lasted for a thousand years known as the Great Silence. He and his Bard followers, who are called Hulls, are the forces known to Bards as the Dark. They desire not wealth, which does not matter to them except for its usefulness, but power, and particularly power over death.

The Hulls
The Hulls are the Bards who have sworn allegiance to Sharma, the Nameless One, in return for endless life, for which they must foreswear their Bardic Names. However, unlike the Nameless One, they can be killed, although the only means is magery. They are cruel, often sadistic, and utterly ruthless, but strangely ascetic. For instance, they are uninterested in wealth, which they tend to scorn except for its usefulness. What interests them most of all is power.

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