Mistress of the Empire characters

Appears from the start

Ruling Lady of the Acoma and Servant of the Empire, the most celebrated figure in Tsuranuanni and the one the traditionalist houses hold responsible for the end of the Warlord's office. She has spent her adult life beating the Game of the Council at its own rules while quietly ceasing to believe in them, and she now holds more land, more soldiers and more enemies than any ruler of her generation.

Appears from the start

Lord of the Shinzawai's heir and Mara's husband, a capable soldier and an unusually thoughtful Tsurani noble who married a woman more powerful and more famous than himself without resenting it. He is devoted to her and to both of her sons, and he carries the expectations of his own house as well as hers.

Appears from the start

Mara's elder son and heir to the Acoma, now a boy of about twelve, grandson of the late Lord of the Anasati through his father. Proud, high-spirited and conscious of his rank, he is growing into the young lord his mother has spent his whole life protecting.

Appears from the start

Mara's younger son, a small boy fathered by the barbarian Kevin of Zun and raised as Tsurani. He has his father's red hair, which nobody in the Empire can fail to notice, and Hokanu has raised him as his own without hesitation.

Appears from the start

Spy Master of the Acoma, whose network is the finest in the Empire and who has spent decades never being noticed. Precise, self-contained and long practised at feeling nothing he cannot use, he has begun to find that his profession has costs he did not price in.

Appears from the start

Force Commander of the Acoma armies, once a masterless grey warrior taken into service when custom said he had nothing left to offer. Wry, capable and entirely devoted to the house that gave him back a name.

Appears from the start

The Acoma's old Force Commander, now Adviser for War, aged and lamed by a lifetime of campaigns but still the soundest military judgement in the household. He has served three generations of the family.

First appears in chapter 2

First Adviser of the Acoma, a former officer and a cousin of Lujan's, raised to the post after Nacoya's death. He is quick, ironic and given to asking awkward questions, which is precisely why Mara chose him.

First appears in chapter 2

Formerly First Adviser of the Minwanabi, now serving the house that destroyed his own, a fate Tsurani custom makes both possible and humiliating. Thin, dry and extremely shrewd, he brings a lifetime of studying the Acoma from the other side of the board.

First appears in chapter 3

Lord of the Anasati, cold, scholarly and unforgiving, who has never stopped resenting Mara for choosing his brother over him and for what came of it. He leads the traditionalist houses who want the Warlord's office restored and the Emperor pushed back into his temple, and he is a far more patient enemy than the Minwanabi ever were.

First appears in chapter 3

First Adviser of the Anasati, a subtle and self-satisfied strategist who has run his house's intelligence for decades and considers the Acoma Spy Master the only opponent worth his attention. He enjoys the contest for its own sake.

First appears in chapter 5

The Emperor, the Light of Heaven, who broke centuries of precedent by abolishing the Warlord's office and ruling directly. He depends heavily on the support of Mara and the reformist houses, and his position is far less secure than the ceremony surrounding him suggests. He has daughters and no son.

First appears in chapter 8

A young courtesan of extraordinary beauty, sold as a child and trained for the trade, who has learned to give nothing of herself away. She is bitter, guarded, and entirely uninterested in being rescued.

First appears in chapter 14

Mara and Hokanu's daughter. Her existence raises a question neither parent can settle easily, since two great houses both need an heir and there is only one child between them.

First appears in chapter 16

The Emperor's eldest daughter, raised in the seclusion of the imperial palace. Tsurani precedent has no place for a female heir to the golden throne, which leaves her position both powerless and politically fraught.