Calamity characters

Appears from the start

The narrator, now leading what is left of the Reckoners in practice if not in title. He is committed to a position most of the organisation considers reckless: that Epics are driven to cruelty by fear rather than by the power itself, that facing that fear can undo it, and that the man who founded the Reckoners can therefore be recovered rather than killed. He still keeps notebooks, still produces terrible metaphors, and is increasingly interested in where Epic powers actually come from.

Appears from the start

An Epic who returns to life after being killed and who can briefly pull objects and people across from other versions of reality. She learned to use her abilities by confronting what frightens her instead of avoiding it, which makes her the living proof of David's argument and the model for everything he intends to try. She is with the Reckoners and with David, and she is far more realistic than he is about what the plan will cost.

Also known as Jonathan Phaedrus, Limelight

Appears from the start

The founder of the Reckoners: an Epic whose powers grant forcefields, healing and the transmutation of matter, and who lent them to his team through equipment for years rather than use them himself. He gave in to the corruption that comes with using Epic power and is now one of the most dangerous Epics alive, with a complete knowledge of every Reckoner method because he invented them. David refuses to treat him as beyond saving.

Appears from the start

The Reckoners' intelligence specialist and the person who has known Prof longest. She keeps the records, plans the operations, and has the hardest time of anyone on the team with what he has become.

Appears from the start

The team's sniper: a Tennessean with an unverifiable claim to Scottish ancestry, a limitless supply of tall stories, and complete steadiness when it matters.

Appears from the start

The team's weapons and demolitions specialist, calm and deliberate, and one of the Faithful, who have always expected an Epic to appear who protects people rather than ruling them. Recent events have made his position considerably less eccentric than it used to sound.

Appears from the start

The youngest Reckoner, recruited in Babilar: a demolitions specialist who talks constantly, adapts quickly and is still learning how much the work costs.

First appears in chapter 8

The maker who supplies the Reckoners' technology, working out of a fortified foundry. He is almost completely paralysed and speaks through a machine, he is not interested in helping anyone for free, and the devices he builds run on components harvested from the bodies of dead Epics.

First appears in chapter 12

A High Epic who takes other Epics' abilities for himself simply by being near them, which makes him effectively unassailable and enormously powerful. He nominally rules Ildithia and has no interest whatsoever in ruling it: he is sullen, idle and impossible to threaten or bargain with.

First appears in chapter 15

An Epic who accumulates heat, releases it in city-destroying quantities, and moves himself instantly from place to place. He survived Babilar and believes the destruction of humanity is a duty laid on him, which he pursues courteously and without any particular malice.

First appears in chapter 44

The red star that appeared in the sky on the night the first Epics gained their powers and has hung there ever since, and the source of every Epic ability in the world. It proves to be a being rather than an object.