Death Bringer characters

Also known as Stephanie Edgley

Appears from the start

Sixteen, and carrying more than she admits to anyone. She is one of the most capable young sorcerers in the country, fluent with air and fire and dangerous with shadows, and she is still the Necromancers' favourite candidate for a prophecy she wants nothing to do with. Since the Remnant outbreak she has been sleeping badly, lying more often, and letting her mirror duplicate live an increasing share of her ordinary life. Her mother is expecting a baby, her boyfriend knows almost nothing about what she does, and her true name has been sealed away where she hopes it will stay.

Appears from the start

The skeleton detective: Elemental, insufferable, and the best investigator the Irish Sanctuary has, whether or not it wants him. He has been Valkyrie's partner for four years and has never told her the whole of what he did in the war against Mevolent, and he deflects every attempt to ask.

First appears in chapter 2

The Teleporter, and Valkyrie's boyfriend, who can step anywhere he can picture and cannot follow her into most of her life. He is loyal, funny, and increasingly aware that he is being managed.

First appears in chapter 3

The scarred tailor who can turn his skin to stone, now an Elder of the Irish Sanctuary and a reluctant politician. He is one of the few people who will tell both Skulduggery and Valkyrie the truth about themselves.

First appears in chapter 3

The Grand Mage of the Irish Sanctuary, one of the Dead Men and an old comrade of Skulduggery's from the war, holding a difficult office with charm and a good deal of quiet calculation.

First appears in chapter 5

The veiled Elder of the Sanctuary, who speaks for the Children of the Spider and treats every question as an intrusion.

First appears in chapter 7

The keeper of Dublin's great private library, still trading information and still declining to talk about her own past with the people who worship the Faceless Ones. That past has become harder to leave alone.

First appears in chapter 11

Valkyrie's closest friend, taken by a Remnant at the end of the last case and now walking around wearing her own face with none of her own loyalties. She is as good with a sword as she ever was, in an excellent mood about it, and entirely on the other side.

First appears in chapter 11

The Texan killer with hollows where his eyes should be, who travels through solid ground and works for whoever is paying. He has been keeping unusual company lately.

First appears in chapter 6

The Necromancer who taught Valkyrie the magic of shadow and death. He has spent years believing she is the Death Bringer his order has been waiting for, and he is running out of time to be proved right within his own Temple.

First appears in chapter 17

A young Necromancer of the Irish Temple, sullen, resentful and dismissive of the attention that has always gone to the outsider Valkyrie Cain instead of to her. She is more ambitious than her rank allows and has attracted the interest of people willing to use that.

First appears in chapter 17

A cleric of the Necromancer Temple: fussy, obsequious and much cleverer than he lets people see. He has his own reading of the Death Bringer prophecy and his own plans for who should fulfil it.

First appears in chapter 12

The High Priest of the Irish Necromancer Temple, an old man presiding over an order that has waited generations for its prophecy and is losing patience with waiting.

First appears in chapter 4

The vampire who has kept himself apart from the packs and close to Valkyrie. His interest in her has not faded, his self-control is less reliable than he claims, and what began as protectiveness has stopped looking like it.

First appears in chapter 14

A striking, ambitious sorcerer working to rebuild the Church of the Faceless as a respectable institution, with money, patience and a long memory. She and China Sorrows knew each other a very long time ago and neither of them enjoys being reminded of it.

First appears in chapter 20

The Necromancer general who fought for Mevolent in black armour, vanished before the war ended and began killing again a year ago. Nobody has ever seen what is inside the armour, and everyone who has tried to corner him has failed.

First appears in chapter 35

Valkyrie's baby sister, born to Desmond and Melissa Edgley: an entirely ordinary infant in a family with one member who is not, and a new reason for Valkyrie to keep her two lives from ever meeting.