Crown of Midnight characters

Also known as Lillian Gordaina, the King's Champion

Appears from the start

Adarlan's most notorious assassin, eighteen years old, who survived a year in the Endovier salt mines and then won a royal competition to become the King's Champion. She now lives in comfortable rooms in the glass castle at Rifthold under an assumed name, sent out to kill whoever the king of Adarlan names, with a contract of four years' service before her freedom is granted. She is vain about her clothes and her library, fiercely loyal to the few people she loves, and privately sickened by the work she has agreed to do. She carries grief for a young man killed before the mines and a past she will not discuss with anyone, and she has begun quietly working against the king she serves.

Appears from the start

Captain of the Royal Guard of Adarlan, in his early twenties, responsible for the king's safety and for keeping Celaena in line. He is disciplined, literal-minded, and increasingly torn between the oath he swore to the crown and what he has come to believe about the man who wears it. He gave up an inheritance in the mountain city of Anielle to take the post. His friendship with Prince Dorian and his feelings for Celaena pull him in directions his duty does not allow.

Appears from the start

Crown Prince of Adarlan, heir to a conquering empire he did not build and does not admire. Charming, well read, and popular at court, he has withdrawn from both Celaena and Chaol since the competition ended, partly out of hurt and partly to protect them from his father's attention. He has begun to notice things happening around him, and to him, that he cannot explain and dares not mention.

Appears from the start

The ruler of Adarlan, who conquered most of the continent roughly a decade earlier and whose armies still occupy it. Magic vanished from his lands at the moment of his conquest, and nobody at court will say why. He is a heavy, watchful man who speaks little and misses nothing, and he keeps Celaena on a short leash by holding her freedom, and the safety of everyone she cares about, over her.

First appears in chapter 2

Princess of Eyllwe, a conquered southern kingdom, living in the glass castle as a guest who is in practice a hostage for her people's good behaviour. She is Celaena's closest friend, formidably intelligent, and openly angry about what Adarlan has done to her country. She reads and writes the old Wyrdmarks, a script of power that predates the kingdoms, and she is far more deeply involved in what is happening in Rifthold than she admits.

First appears in chapter 3

The king's most powerful duke and his closest adviser, a broad, red-haired man who commands forces in the south of the empire and rarely leaves the king's side for long. He takes a proprietary interest in the young noblewomen of the court and in projects at his southern holdings that he does not discuss.

First appears in chapter 5

A court lady of good family and small fortune who spent the previous year trying to make herself Crown Princess and failed. Ambitious, brittle, and increasingly unwell, she has attached herself to Duke Perrington, who supplies her with the opium she depends on and with attentions she cannot easily refuse.

First appears in chapter 5

Dorian's cousin, newly arrived at court from the south and given a council seat. He is handsome, glib, and openly on the make, and he attaches himself quickly to Duke Perrington's circle.

First appears in chapter 5

Rifthold's most celebrated male courtesan, once a fellow trainee of Celaena's in the assassins' keep and now a wealthy, charming fixture of the capital. Celaena is ordered to kill him. When she confronts him he pleads for time and tells her he is part of a movement working to put the lost heir of Terrasen back on a throne, and offers to trade names for his life.

First appears in chapter 12

The first Queen of Adarlan, dead a thousand years, who fought and defeated a great evil alongside her husband Gavin. Her tomb lies in a forgotten chamber beneath the castle, and she has appeared to Celaena before to demand things of her. She speaks in riddles, gives orders rather than explanations, and is plainly working toward an end she will not describe.

First appears in chapter 12

The bronze skull-shaped knocker on the door of Elena's tomb, animate, ancient, and extremely rude. He answers questions about the Wyrdmarks and the old powers only when he judges the asker has earned it, and he enjoys withholding far more than he tells.

First appears in chapter 2

A wolfhound puppy given to Celaena after the competition, who sleeps in her bed, eats from her plate, and follows her everywhere she will allow.

First appears in chapter 28

An ancient Ironteeth witch travelling with a carnival that stops outside Rifthold, billed as a fortune-teller. Behind the pantomime she is a former Matron of her clan, centuries old, with iron teeth and iron nails and a long memory of the wars that ended before the kingdoms of men existed. She knows what the Wyrdkeys are and what became of them.

First appears in chapter 30

A young man from Terrasen, scarred across the face, working with a small resistance cell in Rifthold that shelters refugees and hunts for the lost heir of his kingdom. He is hard, suspicious, and has been hunted long enough to trust almost no one.

First appears in chapter 31

Ren's grandfather, an elderly Terrasen lord who has spent a decade in hiding under a false name, keeping his grandson alive and the rebellion's contacts intact. He is patient and shrewd where Ren is angry.

First appears in chapter 38

A brutal, low-grade assassin for hire in Rifthold, known for taking work that no one with standards would touch and for talking too much when he is frightened.