Cast

Lysander

Age as of beginning of story: 19

Race: Human, Roman (+ &frac14 Nzima dwarf, but it’s not noticeable until he forgets to shave)

Full name: Damius Lysander Burr

Gender: Male

Youngest son of Duke Aemelius Beniaminus III and current heir to the throne. After the death of the true heir Beniaminus IV during a campaign against Cohatlan, the title fell to him. Neither he nor his father are terribly enthusiastic about this. His refusal to adopt certain Roman customs and a tendency to make up his own orders when unsatisfactory orders are given have made him suspect in the Duke’s eyes.

Rumors of his mother Gaia Lavinia Leto being half-dwarf have not as of yet been confirmed by the Roman court, but he’s known for his entire life. Knows that if anyone ever found out both he and his mother could be executed. (Although she did send him to Nzima to study under the dwarf king at a very young age. This has not helped matters between him and his father.)

Fun Fact: Can punch the lights out of a full grown minotaur bare-knuckled.

Alexey

Age as of beginning of story: 76

Race: Human, Europian/Reltian mix (but is Europian passing due to his blond hair, blue eyes, and light skin.)

Full name: Alexey Brian Gillespie

Gender: Male

Professor of Arcane Sciences at Amphipolis University on the sub-continent nation of Pelleponese. Although magic on Ecadia is not hereditary, he seems to have inherited a natural ability from his mother, a prodigy from Atnae. Unfortunately she did not stick around long enough to teach him and his father has a strong distaste for wizards, so he had to make things up as he went along.

While still an undergrad at Amphipolis University he was drafted into the Galactic Core, despite his best efforts to flee for the Mainland, to fight in the most unpopular war in Federated Trading House history. After the war he went back to school, eventually getting his doctorate in Arcane Sciences at the University of Atnae before moving back to his hometown to tend to his aging father. Just came here to have a good time and is honestly feeling so attacked right now.

Fun Fact: Yes, his coffee mug does indeed say #1 Gramma on it. Don’t ask.

Sancho

Age as of beginning of story: 40? ish? (halflings aren’t good at counting)

Race: Halfling, Tamlinese/Edenean mix

Full name: Sancho Padfoot

Gender: Male

Ashamed to be the son of a farmer, but even more ashamed to be the great-grandson of a hero. Named after his mother’s grandfather, Sancho Ortega (Saint of Urtecca), who lead a near-successful revolt against the Roman throne. But Ortega’s defeat on the Fields of Corroba lead to harsh consequences for the halfling people, previously thought to be mostly harmless, such as outlawing weapons and metal of any kind.

Although Fergus and Olivia had six children, Sancho was the only one to survive through infancy, though he wishes like hell he hadn’t. He’s done a lot of things he’s not proud of, and a lot of things he’s incapable of forgetting, no matter how much he drinks. Just how exactly he acquired a donkey he doesn’t quite understand (he blames the morphine), but she tells him he saved her, and since she was a baby and he could talk to her, she decided he must be her new mother. It’s common knowledge that animals can understand humans, but just how he’s able to understand animals in return he doesn’t know. He just can.

Fun Fact: Once dated a witch, who marked him with a protective sigil (the tattoo on his chest). He is now immune to harmful magic.

Beatrix

Age as of beginning of story: About 6 Wen (1 Wen = approx. 1000 years)

Race: High-elf (Nildar), Lolan/ Kokir mix

Full name: Baeatri’sha Halethra Rinlo Caelebra cal-Vanya

Gender: Female

Beatrix is part of the Vanya family, who have ruled Lolan Gorge since The Beginning, and are the second most powerful family in Amoth. Their influence is only matched by the Shalhal (Imperial) family. Beatrix is a shape-shifter, assassin, widow, and rather a large black spot on her family’s otherwise tarnish-free reputation. Most notably her refusal to conform to elven societal norms and her purported insanity. People have also accused her of killing her husband (their extreme distaste for each other was no secret), though her family claims she was on a mission to the Mainland at the time and could not have been involved.

She learned shape-shifting from a witch living in the woods when she was a child, and later went on to study at the the Imperial Assassins’ Academy. Now she is one of Emperor Kael Kori gil-Shalhal’s favorite assassins. As of the beginning of this story she had been living alone in the woods because she got tired of people, which has not helped her social skills in the least.

Fun Fact: Unique among her kind, Bea has a propensity for new technology. She’s quick to learn and accept new concepts, and if allowed to tinker with something for long enough, she can usually figure out how it works. Unless it has to do with food.

Bradley

Age as of beginning of story: 18

Race: Human, Europian

Full name: Bradley Lyn Stedwick (he dropped the second “n” from his middle name when he leagally changed his first)

Gender: Trans masc

An undergraduate in the Arcane Sciences program at the Amphipolis University. A highly toxic mother and a father who hasn’t spoken his mind in decades haven’t exactly left him with healthy coping mechanisms. Transitioned in his first year of college. His parents don’t know.

He switched his major from accounting to wizardry partly because he has a natural talent for magic, but mostly because his mother had decided her “daughter” was going to be an accountant. Was dragged along on this quest by his mentor, claiming it would count as “field research” (an integral part of getting your degree in theoretical thaumaturgy). Hated every moment of it up until he met Niki.

Fun Fact: He worked his ass off to get into college a year-and-a-half early just so he could get away from his parents. So, a not-so-fun fact really.

Niki

Age as of beginning of story: 18

Race: Centaur

Full name: Nikoleta Anemous

Gender: Female

Currently, Niki is an apprentice healer under Hipponus, the head cleric of Ati camp. She’s the daughter of a bard and a brigand, but never knew her father. Humble and modest (for a centaur, that is), she is happier spending her nights in the infirmary or in study than drinking and carousing like the rest of her tribe. She looks for brains in a man more than brawn, and an ability to think in a straight line that doesn’t end up at the nearest jug of wine or bit of tail.

She has a lot of ambition and will see to it she makes something of herself. Secretly wants to move to Romani and open her own clinic, despite the fact that women can’t be physicians (except in ‘womanly matters’) and centaurs aren’t eligible for citizenship and therefore have no rights to own property. She sees this not so much as a wall but as a speed bump that can be overcome by going slowly and patiently. Unique to her kind, she has a lot of patience.

Fun Fact: She’s not as modest as she seems. She’s just very selective about who she chooses to flirt with.

Uba

Age as of beginning of story: 18

Race: Human???, Kasi

Full name: Just Uba. Kasi just have the one name. It means “Mother Wolf”

Gender: Female

Uba belongs to the Three Moons clan of a people living on the lower steppe regions of Uksheemy, called the Kasi (“of the desert”). Kasi are classified as human by FTH, though no evidence as to their galactic origin has been found.

Uba is the oldest child of the shaman of the tribe, Ufta (Cunning Asp). Kasi lore states that the shaman’s first-born will always possess shamanic power; that is, power over the six elements of earth, air, fire, water, life, and death. However, it also states all first-borns will be male, and only men may become shaman. What this means for Uba’s prospects of becoming shaman are unknown, but it doesn’t look good, as her father has refused to teach her. But all of the shamanic powers are still there, untrained and undisciplined, often resulting in spells being much more powerful, and much less cost-effective, than they need to be.

Has trust issues. Especially with Romans. She was taken in the same slaving raid that had killed Rigo’s wife and son, and has spent the last three years as a slave in the Roman province of Sinoria, until she mysteriously escaped a fire that claimed her owners and their home. A totally normal, not-at-all-suspicious fire.

Fun Fact: Fire is her favorite element with which to work.

The Oracle

Age as of beginning of story: 284

Race: Human????, Perdwatan, maybe???

Full name: Eram Praveeta Habibi Dhanani, but she’s forgotten it by now.

Gender: Fluid

The Oracle is one of the few surviving members of a powerful group of magi. They are also the oldest human alive. They have achieved this by putting their soul into a specially-made receptacle moments before death and having it put into a fresh body (preferably a living one. Dead ones don’t last very long, and the smell gets into everything). In their original form they were a Saddarhtan woman of high-class birth. Their form at the beginning of the story is that of an eight-year-old girl (though they have in the past inhabited the bodies of human men and even a small monkey when no other body could be found).

Generally considered to be one of the “good” guys, but that doesn’t mean much. The line between good and evil on Ecadia is a very thin one, and open to negotiation. While the Rajah is regarded as the ruler of all Perdwat, Saddarhta thinks of themselves more as an independent city-state, with The Oracle at their head. And as long as he doesn’t meddle too much in their affairs and sends them hunky slaves when they come of age, they’re happy to let him keep his job.

Fun Fact: The Oracle is a lush. And she’s the first to admit it.

Ma’mele

Age as of beginning of story: 3.5 Wen

Race: Sea-elf (Ilanidar)

Full name: Ma’mele Ihilukameka’aiala

Gender: Female

A sea-elf of Kuelani and the daughter of the Kahuanu’aa (high priest). A gifted elementalist, she was sent to the Seven Falls Women’s Academy for Magicks in Amoth where she was hosted by the Vanya family of Lolan Gorge. While living there she became friends with Beatrix, and later on her romantic partner. She was shy at first, and unsure of what she wanted out of life, and while Bea envied her her beauty, Ma’mele envied her high-elf girlfriend her confidence. She knew what she wanted, and she would step on as many toes as it took to get it.

She graduated from the academy at the top of her class, and was pulled away from Amoth sometime just after her Beatrix’s wedding to study under The Oracle. Here she learned to use that confidence she’d learned from Beatrix. She quickly became her best apprentice and rose to the position of Prime Confidant of The Oracle, overseeing the selection of bodies for the transition and the puppeteering of new rajahs. She’s gone through quite a few now, and is now well versed in controlling a small empire from behind the scenes.

Fun Fact: Still in love with Beatrix (who considered their relationship a dalliance), but will never, ever tell her.

Rigo

Age as of beginning of story: 42

Race: Centaur, Zev

Full name: Rigo Damu-Kwato (Bloodhoof)

Gender: Male

Leader of the centaur Ati tribe, despite not being Ati. Rigo is a Zev, a now very rare race of centaur that used to inhabit the savanahs of southern Uksheemy. After escaping a slaving raid on Zev/Kasi land by Romani, ended up nearly-dead on the outskirts of Ati centaur territory. Fell in love with and married the previous cheiftain’s daughter Miranda, who made him leader because she hated it and he seemed to be good at it. While the Atis politely listen to everything he says, they still look to Miranda for permission to listen. Then they decide for themselves what they’re going to do, which usually ends up with stealing, fighting, and drinking somehow.

Back in Uksheemy he had a wife and a teenage son, both of whom he lost in the raid. The son was supposed to marry a Kasi princess, but the deal was never finalised before the attack. This princess was taken, and he considers it his duty to find her again. He just needs to summon up the support and resources he needs to go into Romani and take her back.

Fun Fact: He is one broody mother-trucker.

Lady Shard

Age as of beginning of story: 262

Race: Human, Roman

Full name: Flavia Gemina Sharadus

Gender: Female

The second oldest human alive, and former apprentice to The Oracle. But whereas The Oracle gets her long life from putting her soul into a host body, Shard has kept her original body, and her youth, by consuming the life-force of others.

Born into a very poor plebian family in the Gomeria province in Eastern Romani. Her father worked in the mines bordering Keer and Azhgah land (goblin and dwarf territories, respectively) while her mother worked in a make-shift fuller’s in the mining camp. The youngest of four girls, with no dowery and no brothers to carry on the family name, her three older sisters were sold into slavery. Gemina would have faced the same fate had her mother not taken her to a Jovian nunnery to escape her father’s fits of rage.

There one of the Holy Mothers saw she possessed a gift for magic. Although traditionally seen as a sin in the Jovian church and a sign of one possessed by devils, the Mother took her to a priest instead of sentencing her to death. This priest, Father Gaeus Gustavius Lusario, was also skilled in magic. He was a member of a secret society of highly-skilled magi that spanned the globe, and had been a student of The Oracle in his youth. He sent Shard to his former master for training.

Under the careful tutelage of The Oracle, Gemina Sharadus soon became one of the most powerful sorceresses the world had ever seen. In trying to unlock her true potential, The Oracle taught Gemina things wasn’t mature enough to understand. She took the lessons the wrong way, and started to dabble in necromancy, thinking she could change the state of the world and make things better. Fearing what she might become, The Oracle stripped Gemina of her power and imprisoned her in a dungeon in the Impassable Mountains. In her prison, Gemina Sharadus regained her former power, began amassing minions, and swore vengeance against The Oracle, becoming Lady Sard.

Fun Fact: She loves big, fluffy spiders, and keeps several of them as pets. She feeds them minions who have angered her.