Elantris characters

Also known as Spirit

Appears from the start

Crown prince of Arelon, in his mid-twenties, well liked and stubbornly optimistic. On the morning the story opens he wakes to find the Shaod has taken him: his skin has turned grey and blotched, his hair has fallen out, and his heart no longer beats. Arelish custom treats the transformed as dead, so his father announces his death and has him carried through the gates of the ruined city of Elantris. Inside, he refuses to despair, gives his name as Spirit to keep his identity hidden, and starts looking for a way to make survival there bearable. He is also a scholar of the Aons, the drawn characters that once carried Elantrian magic.

Appears from the start

A broad, dry-humoured Dula farmer who has been inside Elantris long enough to know how it works. He explains to Raoden what being an Elantrian means: injuries never heal and their pain never fades, hunger never eases, and anyone who accumulates enough of both eventually stops responding to the world at all. Pessimistic on principle and loyal in practice, he becomes Raoden's first friend and constant companion.

First appears in chapter 2

Princess of Teod, tall, blunt and better educated than the Arelish court expects, a competent fencer and a much better politician than she is given credit for. Betrothed to Raoden by treaty, she arrives in Arelon to be told he is already dead, and her marriage contract makes her his widow and a princess of Arelon regardless. Grieving a man she never met, she decides to stay and involve herself in the country's politics rather than go home.

First appears in chapter 2

Sarene's seon: a floating ball of light with a glowing character at its centre, able to carry speech instantly between others of its kind. Formal, patient and considerably older than his manner suggests, he serves as her messenger, her scout and the one person in Arelon she can speak to freely.

First appears in chapter 2

King of Arelon and Raoden's father: a merchant who took the throne after the fall of Elantris and rebuilt the country on trade. He ranks his nobility purely by wealth and reassesses their titles every year, which keeps the aristocracy competing rather than conspiring. Hard, superstitious and openly contemptuous of his son.

First appears in chapter 3

A gyorn, a high priest of the Fjordell empire's religion, sent to Arelon with three months to convert the country. If he fails, his empire's armies will come and the kingdom will be destroyed, so he regards conversion as the merciful option. Cold, disciplined and organised, he thinks of himself as an administrator rather than a preacher and takes quiet pride in having converted a neighbouring nation without bloodshed. His office is marked by bright red armour worn as a vestment.

First appears in chapter 5

The seon who served Raoden before the Shaod took him. Seons are bound to the people they serve, and when that person is taken by the Shaod the seon loses its mind; Ien drifts through Elantris repeating fragments and no longer answers properly to anything Raoden says to him.

First appears in chapter 5

Sarene's uncle: an enormous scarred man with a ruined voice who cooks for his own household rather than employ a kitchen, keeps deliberately clear of court politics, and gives Sarene a place to stay and a family to belong to in Kae. He knows far more about Arelon and Teod than a retired merchant should.

First appears in chapter 6

An Arelish arteth, a junior priest assigned to assist Hrathen in Kae. Slight, intense and tireless, he preaches with a fervour Hrathen cannot match, and his hatred of Elantris and its inhabitants is clearly personal rather than doctrinal. Hrathen finds him useful and unsettling in equal measure.

First appears in chapter 8

The oldest and wealthiest of Arelon's nobles, and under Iadon's system the highest-ranked. Shrewd, unhurried and genuinely fond of the reform-minded circle Raoden had gathered before his death, he becomes the natural leader of the group Sarene attaches herself to.

First appears in chapter 8

A soldier raised to the nobility, old-fashioned about honour and duty and slightly out of place among merchants. He maintains a private legion, which makes him the only member of the reform circle with real force at his disposal.

First appears in chapter 10

One of the three figures who divide Elantris between them, holding the ruined palace with a disciplined band. Unlike the other two she uses her position to protect the children who are thrown into the city, and she is the only gang leader Raoden finds capable of being reasoned with.

First appears in chapter 12

The self-declared baron who rules the university quarter of Elantris and its library, styling his followers as a court and feeding them on boiled book bindings. His claim to a title is as thin as everything else about his kingdom.

First appears in chapter 14

The leader of the wildest of Elantris's three factions. Her followers have given up on speech and reason entirely and attack anyone who comes near the food thrown through the city gates, which makes her territory the one part of Elantris nobody can negotiate with.

First appears in chapter 15

An extravagant and vain Arelish duke with a taste for display and ambitions well beyond his rank. Under Iadon's rules, rank follows money, which makes Telrii's finances a matter of national politics.