Fourth Wing characters

Appears from the start

A twenty-year-old woman raised among the scribes of Basgiath War College, taught by her late father to copy, catalogue and read the histories, and expecting to spend her life in the archives. Her mother, the general who commands the college, orders her into the Riders Quadrant instead. Her body is fragile in a place that forgives nothing: her joints slip out of place, her bones break easily, and she is smaller and slower than the cadets who have trained for this since childhood. She compensates with what she does have, which is knowledge, planning, poisons and an unusual tolerance for pain, and she is stubborn enough to keep going when quitting would be reasonable.

Appears from the start

Violet's mother, the general commanding Basgiath War College and one of the most celebrated riders in the kingdom of Navarre. She holds duty above everything, including her surviving children, and she refuses to let her daughter take the scribe's path her husband intended. Cold and exacting in public and in private, she gives Violet almost nothing beyond the order that puts her on the parapet.

Appears from the start

Violet's older sister, a serving dragon rider posted to the border, who comes home only long enough to prepare Violet for conscription. Practical and blunt, she supplies dragon-scale armor, weapons and hard advice, and makes no pretence that the odds are good.

Appears from the start

Violet's oldest friend, the son of a senior officer, now a second-year rider and a squad leader. He grew up alongside her in the shadow of the college and has spent years assuming she would be safely filed away with the scribes. Protective to the point of condescension and devoted to regulations, he spends much of his time trying to talk her into transferring out rather than helping her survive where she is.

First appears in chapter 4

The wingleader of the Fourth Wing, a third-year and the most feared rider in the quadrant. He is the son of the duke of Tyrrendor who led a failed separatist rebellion and was executed by Violet's mother; he and the other children of the rebellion's leaders were stripped of their inheritances, conscripted into the Riders Quadrant and marked with a rebellion relic across the skin. Guarded, controlled and openly hostile to Violet, he is the person she is warned about first, on the reasoning that the son of the man her mother killed has no reason to let her live.

First appears in chapter 4

A first-year cadet, large and vocal, who decides in front of witnesses that Violet is the weakest candidate in the quadrant and that killing her would be both easy and useful to his own standing. He returns to the idea repeatedly.

First appears in chapter 5

A first-year cadet in Violet's squad and the first person there to treat her as an asset rather than a liability. Steady, fair-minded and a natural organizer, she becomes Violet's closest friend among the cadets and rises quickly in the squad's hierarchy.

First appears in chapter 5

A first-year cadet in Violet's squad, quick with a joke even in the worst circumstances, which is how he manages a year in which classmates die every week. Loyal to the squad and dependable in a fight.

First appears in chapter 5

A cadet repeating his first year, older than the rest of the squad and quietly competent, with a good head for the college's routines and terrain. He is one of the few who takes Violet's chances seriously from the start.

First appears in chapter 10

A second-year rider from Tyrrendor, silver-haired and openly contemptuous of Violet on sight. She is one of the marked children of the rebellion and treats the daughter of the general who executed their parents as an enemy by default.

First appears in chapter 10

A third-year rider, physically imposing and one of the wingleader's closest friends, involved in running the quadrant's sparring and challenges. He is another of the marked riders from Tyrrendor.

First appears in chapter 15

A first-year cadet from Tyrrendor, one of the marked children of the rebellion, cheerful and disciplined where the rest of his group is guarded. He takes an interest in Violet's survival that is more consistent than friendliness alone would explain.

First appears in chapter 22

An enormous black morningstartail, among the oldest and most powerful dragons of the Vale, whose previous rider died. Ill-tempered, sarcastic and contemptuous of human weakness, he speaks bluntly into his rider's mind and does not pretend to be anyone's pet.

First appears in chapter 22

A small golden feathertail dragon, far too young by every custom to take a rider, curious and affectionate in a way older dragons are not. Feathertails are considered useless in combat, which is part of why her presence is a problem for everyone.

First appears in chapter 22

A blue daggertail, one of the fastest dragons in the wing and the mate of the black morningstartail. Because dragons will not be separated from their mates, her bond has consequences for the two riders involved that neither of them chose.

First appears in chapter 39

Violet's older brother, believed killed six years earlier when the rebellion's stronghold fell. He was a rider with a rare healing gift, and the family has mourned him ever since.