Portal to Nova Roma: The Rhine, Book 3 characters

Appears from the start

A recovering commander returning from Carthage who carries dangerous demonic corruption. He leads the Legion and investigates Sardinia cautiously, relying on mental defenses and close companions to keep violent impulses under control.

Appears from the start

Alexander's merchant lieutenant and naval commander. She captains the ship bound for Venice, organizes the Sardinia reconnaissance, and insists that Alexander take both Ivy and Isabella into danger rather than scout alone.

Appears from the start

An invisible and intangible spirit bonded to Alexander. She scouts through walls, helps establish safe positions, and accompanies the covert investigation of Sardinia as one of his principal protectors.

Appears from the start

Alexander's stealthy flying companion and bonded mount. She joins him and Isabella on the Sardinia reconnaissance, providing aerial movement, concealment, and combat support when the group cannot risk an open confrontation.

Also known as Alexander's living armor

Appears from the start

Alexander's powerful soul-bonded living armor, formed from shadow and death.

Appears from the start

Venice's fleet commander, occupied with building defensive and commercial ships for Venice, Miletus, and Nova Roma. His work is central to the long-term plan for trade and resistance against pirate power.

First appears in chapter 2

The ruler of an organized Sardinian state who serves a deity associated with a vast abyss. He channels a dark portal, commands lethal tentacles, and presides over a system that turns captives into permanently obedient laborers.

First appears in chapter 3

An ancient blinded, avian-like prisoner found beneath Sardinia. His psychic power is being forced into the island's permanent thrall system, but his account of destroying most of his own people makes any bargain with him dangerous.

First appears in chapter 5

A merchant from Nova Roma who serves as Venice's principal economic and civil adviser. He warns that reconstruction and naval expansion will exhaust available funds unless the leadership opens a major new trade route.

First appears in chapter 5

A senior Legion commander who handles Legion duties and security work in Venice while Alexander concentrates on strategy.

First appears in chapter 5

A Legion officer who shares responsibility for Legion duties and security work in Venice.

First appears in chapter 13

A senior Venetian shipwright who arrives with workers and claims the western island at the Rhine settlement for a shipyard. He agrees to build an enchanted river fleet under permanent secrecy obligations.

First appears in chapter 15

The formidable ruler of the dwarves and a direct negotiator with Alexander. He seeks firearms knowledge and agrees to a broad alliance covering trade, mutual protection, and access to old underground Roman routes.

First appears in chapter 17

A French ruler willing to consider Alexander's Rhine trade and territorial plans. He supplies a recording orb and authorization for a frontier expedition, asking for neutral evidence of suspected Parisian attacks.

First appears in chapter 17

An expansionist French ruler suspected of aggression against frontier outposts. Proving his involvement is the condition attached to wider recognition of Alexander's Rhine claims and a broader trade agreement.

First appears in chapter 18

An independent Lyon craftswoman who trains Alexander in blacksmithing. She has deep practical skill, owns a small smithy financed through burdensome loans, and resents how quickly his stored experience advances the craft.

First appears in chapter 23

The trading-company heir placed in nominal command of a civilian frontier expedition. He berates workers, asserts authority through hired guards, and creates an internal leadership risk before the caravan even leaves Lyon.

First appears in chapter 26

A stranded water-being who lives in a secluded magical pond. She heals Alexander's body and spirit, briefly restores Isabella to living form, grants Alexander agelessness, and gives Isabella one corporeal night each year.

Also known as Isabella

First appears in chapter 26

The feared identity Isabella took after killing those who exploited her following her father's death. At a magical pond, she briefly regains a living body, begins a mutual romance with Alexander, and receives one corporeal night each year.

First appears in chapter 27

A forest-protector bear spirit corrupted by an ancient serpentfolk relic and forced to spread magical disease. After Alexander destroys the relic, the willing spirit binds itself to him as a durable guardian.

First appears in chapter 31

Alexander's bound guardian bear spirit. Kermode accompanies Alexander and Isabella into a poisoned battlefield dungeon, drawing attacks and absorbing the imps' fire through physical strikes.

Also known as Alexander's automaton companion

First appears in chapter 38

A new autonomous intelligence awakened when Alexander links hundreds of mind runes inside a sealed mithril orb. The being immediately recognizes Alexander as its father, creating responsibilities beyond the original crafting experiment.

First appears in chapter 47

A frontier defender and skilled rapier fighter who works closely with the first automaton. He helps clear local dungeons and prepares the outpost when an organized hostile force begins watching its residents.

First appears in chapter 47

Roland's exceptionally durable close-combat companion. He joins Roland, Alexander, and the first automaton in clearing dungeons and strengthening the exposed frontier outpost before the expected attack.

First appears in chapter 47

Alexander's second automaton creation and the first automaton's new sibling. She is a serious, direct mage with offensive enchantments, but chooses to protect noncombatants instead of joining the imminent battle.

First appears in chapter 48

An Ascendant Elementalist who leads an elite Parisian attack on the frontier outpost. His force kills civilians and demands surrender before bypassing the walls, and he dies after Alexander's combined bodies break his magical defenses.

First appears in chapter 49

A newly created nongendered automaton and sibling to Alice and the first automaton. Arden rejects armor and combat, chooses a crafting path, and helps the three artificial beings adopt Verum as the name of their people.

First appears in chapter 53

An eastern French ruler who accepts Alexander as sovereign across the Rhine frontier and farther territories. Their treaty waives tariffs on trade originating in Alexander's lands for a decade and commits both realms to defend one another, with Alexander's allies also protected.

First appears in chapter 54

The commander of River's End's neglected city guard. He helps arrange the city's surrender, exposes spies among his officers, and accepts Alexander's rule under service terms that permit guards to leave with notice.